Cult Classic

For every Harry Potter and The Deathly hallows their are 20-30 film set to be abismal failures, destined to disappear into obscurity, doomed to have a 2 paragraph wikipedia page. The best these films can hope for is achieving 'cult' status, loved not only for being tremendous films in their own right but loved by fans for being a movie to call their own. The movie they can recommend in conversations, the movie they can quote to one or two friends and get that satisfying 'I get ya' nod. While a few pretentious eggs may fight to keep their favorite films obscure, generally the best features will develop a following dedicated enough to bring the film back from the depths of the bargain bin and into the televisions of a much wider audience. 


A notable example of this is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which opened to very modest returns, only beginning to gain notoriety after fans would re-see the film, calling out lines and singing along to musical numbers. The film is still shown in theatres regularly, it sells out midnight showings and has a plethora of successful stage musicals.

Seriously who doesn't know the words to Time Warp?

Rocky Horror Picture show is not the only film to transcend it's initial cult status. I want it on the record that Reservoir Dogs and Clerks are no longer cult classics. For one thing, Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith are both quite famous, but more importantly both films have been referenced on The Simpsons.

The Simpsons: The standard to which pop culture relevance is measured.

So while I'm not a fan of list articles, in the interest of spreading love for some very deserving movies these are a quick Top 5 of my favorite Cult Films that I recommend checking out. Minus The Evil Dead, because T-squat already touched on those masterpieces.

NUMBER 1:
Withnail & I (1987)

The buddy film is a classic staple of modern cinema. Two friends who have enough chemistry to get along but enough differences to cause drama; embark on a journey filled with strange characters, odd events and personal growth. From stoner comedies to every ironically partnered police force duo.These films resonate with the audience. I love these movies, critically and emotionally. We can all remember a time when we were over our heads with a friend, in a strange location, or in an awkward setting. We relate to the humour and the stress, that is what makes Buddy Films so great.
And Withnail & I is the best one.
The tale of two unemployed actors, dealing with poverty and the upcoming end of the 1960's. After deciding to go on holiday, Withnail and the eponymous 'I' (never named on screen) journey to the country side, drinking more than humanly possible and trying to survive in the cold without anything to eat but a live chicken. Approaching each problem they face with the head strong naivety of the ignorant, privileged youth, our heroes find themselves having to deal with the reality of life for the first time. Along the way the meet a series of delightfully eccentric characters, one of whom is basically exactly the same actor/character as the roady from Waynes World 2.



Immediately after beginning the film shatters the idealistic view of 1960's England, desaturated colours and stationary camera shots frame the scenes and mirror the characters apathy. Richard E. Grant's portrayal of Withnail is both over the top and earnest, unlike most comedies that stick to the standard Set Up>Punchline>[Silence for audience laughter] Withnail & I blends together hilarious quotes in seamless conversations, giving you the sense that none of these characters are aware of how truly strange they are. This is a character film in the purest form, though the locations change the story revolves entirely around the relationship of the two leads, the eventually conclusion of which is portrayed in a poignant Shakespearian monologue.


Withnail & I is one of the most quotable movies ever made, a black comedy in every sense, but fair warning, if you try to go drink for drink with the movie; you will die about halfway through.


NUMBER 2:
OLD BOY (2003)



The first time I watched this, I had to spend a hour sitting in silence contemplating everything I had just seen. In the spirit of preserving the experience of watching this film I'll keep this very short. Oh Desu is one day mysteriously kidnapped and locked in a hotel room. With no idea how long he will be imprisoned, he starts to train his body to fight as his mind begins to deteriorate. Finally after 15 years he is released, with a new suit, some cash and a cellphone. He receives a call and is told by the mysterious voice:

"I locked you in that room for 15 years, you have 5 days to find me... go."

The action scenes are visceral and amazingly choreographed. One particular scene is one continuous shot in a hallway, like a side scrolling video game Oh Desu stalks the corodoor beating down thugs with a hammer. Never cutting away, the anger and madness Oh Desu has developed is on full display, never flinching. That's not to say you wont be flinching, some scenes are disturbing to say the least, one scene involving a pair of scissors and a certain part of the human face will have you peeking through your hands.

This film is a hair pulling mind-fuck. Brilliant story telling keeps you guessing until the very end, and I can 100% promise you, you will never ever see this ending coming.

NUMBER 3:

They Live (1988)

'I'm here to kick ass and chew bubble gum... and I'm all out of gum.'

Duke Nukem stole all his one liners from two movies; Army of Darkness (Evil Dead 3) and They Live. This pulp science fiction film seems like just another B-Action film, but has deep themes about the media's control over society. Our nameless hero (played by WWE wrestler Roddy Piper) find's a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the hidden messages that have been placed in all the words media, telling us to conform. This allows for the film to explore ideas about society and information, all while wrapping it up with a story where a homeless man with a mullet beats up aliens (I forgot to mention he's homeless).

The film has a distinct noir feel. Long periods are without dialogue, dramatic tones build curious tention throughout. The perspective shots from behind the sunglasses are quite an experience, shot in black and white, the view is jarring and surprisingly effective despite the low budget effects. The first half of the movie and the 2nd half couldn't be more different, but I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you when the exact change happened, which is credit to the pacing of the film. John Carpenter takes as long as he feels necessary to explore aspects of the story and the film is much better for it.

They Live is the ultimate cult film, purely because it can be both enjoyed on an intellectual level and with a bunch of stoner friends at 3 a.m in the morning. It has a charm that cannot be replicated by current films, because in the 80's films were a lot less ironic with their weirdness.

NUMBER 4:
Enter The Void (2009)

I have a difficult relationship with Arthouse films, generally they can explore characters and themes you couldn't dare to touch on in mainstream cinema. Sometimes though, the directors desire to explore concepts gets in the way of narrative and the hollow feature becomes something that only the director themselves enjoys. Sometimes the director and a bunch of Hipsters.

If your friends say they get it, they're lying.

Enter the void balances perfectly on the line between experience and film. The majority of the film is shot in perspective, as the soul of a recently deceased drug addict floats over Japan, through buildings and into people, the camera moving in ways that no one has even attempted before. I found myself in awe, the hallucinations are so accurately capture, as are the drug fueled conversations. You will find yourself experience the strangest kind of deja vu in the first 20 minutes as your eyes become those of the protagonist, as you look in on his life and he looks in on yours.

To describe the storyline would be pointless, it is a existentialist project, not a movie. The vibrant colours and sounds need to be seen and heard to be understood, they cannot be articulated by words on a page.

NUMBER 5:

Battle Royal (2000)

I'm a HUGE nerd when it comes to Japanese media. I watch tremendous amounts of anime and no country capture horror quite like Japan. Their violence is more violent, their horror is more surreal, they definitely do not pull any punches when it comes to their movies. 

The concept of Battle Royal is familiar one, a group of people trapped in an isolated area, forced to kill or be killed. This time a class of students is chosen to participate in the barbaric game. You may expect from the title an all-out action film, with gore and violence from all angles. While there are moments of this dispersed throughout, where Battle Royal finds its strong point is exploring the psychology of the students, forced to kill their friends. Realistically many resort to suicide, others turn on their friends quickly, others form tenuous alliances. Every conceivable reaction to being placed in the game is shown, explored and then subverted, defying expectation, creating an engaging and often tragic tale. 

Gore is masterfully controlled by the director, never used to explicitly shock, it is used in conjunction with already disturbing scenes to force emotional reactions from the audience. Similarly, blood and sinew is often witheld to focus on the tragedy of death rather than the horror of the violence. Even the villains, the murderous students are shown sympathetically, a product of the environment rather than being classic disney evil (despite an exception.)

If you like violence, but like your action to have some depth to it rather than being mindless violence. I recommend highly you check out Battle Royal before it gets a terrible American remake.

Other Noteworthy Cult Films

-Man on Wire
-Black Dynamite
-Bad Boy Bubby

-American Movie

-The Story of Ricky
-Rushmore
-Dark City

Whatever Happened To The 80's (A Call To Filmmakers)

I was browsing through my movie collection, when I came across Brick; an amazing modern take on crime noir stories staring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer, Inception) and I started thinking about all these throw-back films. The works of Quentin Tarantino, or the hilarious 1970's Blaxploitation film 'Black Dynamite' made in 2009.
There are so many movies that don't just parody the cliches of the decades but embrace and celebrate them. Grindhouse was an attempt to push the violent exploitation films of the 60's and 70's back into culture. Kill Bill was a modern take on classic Kung-Fu movies, even going as far as to borrow characters from a few obscure titles.

But where is the 80's movie?

And where's my gay-looking hover-board?

The 80's was a robust centre of ridiculous story-lines and settings. A time where computers could literally do anything the writer wanted them to do, from taking over the world to turning a barbie doll into an all-powerful super-babe. A time when leading actors were homely and wore Bill Cosby sweaters and Robert Downy Jr. had to settle for the school bully.

The two in the middle are the heroes.

The 1980's was at a perfect moment in time where technology was really starting to evolve but no one really understood it's limitations yet. Back To The Future showed us that eventually we'd all have flying cars but would still use a fax machines. That advertisements would jump at you in holograms, cellular phones will fit in your pocket and everything will run on garbage. While in hindsight their vision of the world seems hilarious, truly it was a time of hope and wonder, when children would look at the single computer their school could afford and imagine the robots that were surely only years away.

'And they will look like Molly Ringwald...'

But why has not one filmmaker tapped into this rich tapestry of not only ridiculous hijinks, but deep personal exploration? No era has captured the teen movie quite like the 80's. Television shows and movies aimed at Teenagers these days are all about sex and fantasy, they show life to be more exciting than it really is. Teenagers these days are looking for escape from the bland nature of their real life, so they cling to love triangles and drug overdoes. Tell their friends how much Skins is just their life on television, when in reality every single one of them would find the Breakfast Club more relatable.

I want a film to come out that revolves around a cocky lazy scoundrel, and his bland yet likable lackey. I want the girls to wear shoulder pads and kids to wear rollerblades. I don't want the teachers to be inspirational, teaching hard-learned lessons to troubled kids. I want the teachers to be buzz-kills, that represent 'The Man' and need to be outsmarted by our lovable scamp. I want my nerds to be cute, my cheerleaders to be gullible and for the Jocks to be complete assholes that get what's coming to them. I want everything that can go wrong to go wrong, and then I want everything to somehow get fixed at the last minute... and I want the parents to never be around for some reason.

I want an 80's movie.

Well that's just Super...

There a few things that get me as excited as a new superhero movie. The vibrant nostalgia tied with vicariously living my superpower fantasies are enough to regress me to my 12 year old self; to the days of saturday morning cartoons, action figures and Luke Skywalker playing The Joker.
Yet in the past decade, super hero movies have moved beyond the mindless violence and managed to actually create some ground breaking films. Tapping into the childlike glee of action and fantasy while also managing to adapt the scripts to accommodate their audiences growing mature sensibilities.

Pictured: Mature Sensibilities

But I can't help but feel an unease at the future of these little comic powered blockbusters. I'm not going to lie, the films aren't getting worse by any stretch of the imagination. The whole 'Marvel Universe' movies that have filled the past few summers (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America.... *cough* Hulk.) have been fantastic and in the cases of both Thor and Captain America I was astonished by how much I actually enjoyed them. They have managed to nail the atmosphere and tone require to suspend the audiences disbelief and it all looks like it is leading to something very special. The never before attempted mass cross over film, a risky maneuver that may well usher in a new generation of great super hero classics; or break the base entirely.

I'm talking Bat-Nipples level catastrophe.

I'm actually more terrified of it being good than I am of it being bad. Don't get me wrong. I would love to see Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark playing off Thor and the all american boy-scott. Plus Mark Ruffalo is replacing Edward Norton and I fucking love Mark Ruffalo for reasons that I can't really explain. What I'm afraid of is that this movie will be fantastic, it will be successful and Marvel will feel damn proud of themselves (as they should be) for pulling of such an experimental feat.

But then DC will want their share.

What I'm afraid of is the inevitable Justice League films that I predict will destroy the super hero genre for a very long time. A slew of rushed, poorly scripted, defective, heartless, CGI-riddled pieces of shit that could hardly be called 'movies'. If you think this is just hyperbole, then go and see The Green Lantern.

This image is a metaphor. 

And hey, I read comics, I watch super hero cartoons, and while I'm not spending each night in forums debating if the Hulk could beat Superman or how The Invisible Woman can see if light doesn't hit her eyes, my knowledge is extensive. So although this film would be considered unbearable to a regular viewer, I found this film to be a spit in the face to an entire community.

The Green Lantern was like the drum roll, leading our anticipation to the greatest team up of all time. You know that its coming, because otherwise they would never release a Green Lantern movie. Sure he's a popular comic character but he's hardly famous to the collective mainstream consciousness. But to me, this was a taste of the moment where Superman and Batman were finally going to be sharing a silver screen. Watching this movie was like being a child on christmas waiting to open the present you know is the action-figure you've been asking for all year, only for it to turn out to be one of those weird Mix-Mashed super hero packs you get at the Victoria Market.

No Mum, it's not the same.

I'm not going to go in depth to my hatred of this film. Mostly because thinking about the movie causes me actual, legitimate physical pain.

Instead I'll end with something aimed directly at the film industry.:

Dear Comic Book Movies,

Listen to your fans, they are the ones buying tickets, they are the ones who are reading the comics and they are the ones who will go online 2 seconds after the movie is over to bitch about ever single detail that was wrong. Honestly, there isn't enough space on the internet for all that could be said about your quote-un-quote Green Lantern movie.
I say this with love and respect for what you people do. But stop trying to take everything so seriously, Have fun with these movies, explore the characters for who they are, not what is successful. Not everyone who is charming has to be like Tony Stark, no everyone who has a dark past has to be like Batman.

So here's what you do:
-Cast Nathan Fillion in something, please.

That way, no matter how bad it is. At least you gave the nerds something.

Or, better yet. Bring back Firefly.

SIDE BAR: While we are on the topic of Nathan Fillion. Go check out Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Its a short film/musical about a super villain (Neil Patrick Harris) and the hero he's trying to defeat (Nathan Fillion, being hilariously camp). Also, its written and director by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, Toy Story, and ironically also wrote/directed the upcoming Avengers movie)

Full Circle.