What We Do In The Shadows (2015)

What We Do In The Shadows (R)

"BAT FIGHT!"

Four Vampire roommates in New Zealand allow a camera crew into their den, a flat in Wellington that is soaked in blood and laughter in the new mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows.

Ridiculous and raucous, the flatmates interpersonal relationships drive the film as we discover the weird and zany lives of bloodsuckers.  Co-written, starring and co-directed by Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement (of HBOs Flight of the Conchords), the film offers a peek into the underbelly world of the undead as they deal with finding victims, taunting (s)werewolves and doing the (literally) bloody dishes.  Flatmates include Viago as a vampiric neat freak with a hole in his dead heart, Vladislav the Prodder has serious issues with his Ex leading to a lack of self confidence, Deacon is the brash newcomer at only 183 years old, and their terrifying master 8000 year old vampire Petyr sleeps in a sarcophagus in a basement covered with gore and bones.  When Petyr converts a new kid named Nick to his brood, tensions arise in the house as rules are broken and fashion is stolen, leading to brushes with vampire hunters and irritable lycanthropes, culminating at the annual Undead masquerade ball where a human friend and the camera crew itself is in mortal danger from the attendees.

The film is often hilarious, the premise of mixing vampire jokes with bad roommate jokes is fantastic and rife with humor.  The NZ cast is funny, the mockumentary angle, while trite, is effective, and it hits all the right veins of humor and horror.  The camera work and editing can be a bit rough at times, but the special effects work in its favor and the characters will win over your black heart as they charm your neck out of hemoglobin and laughter.  Perhaps a bit of a trifle, and it's low budget nature does rear it's shaggy head now and again, but in general you will be too distracted by the humor and good intentions of the filmmakers to mind being hypnotized into liking this silly goof-off

8 Vampires Vacuuming Vehemently out of 10 (GREAT)

Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010)

Exit Through The Gift Shop (R)

"Art for sale"

Very interesting "documentary" about street artists. About as post-modern as you can get in all ways, it was very entertaining and had alot to say about the nature of art itself.  I am glad there are people out there bucking the system like this (and profiting at the same time I suppose).

 7 Stencils out of 10 (GOOD)

Trash Humpers (2009)

Trash Humpers (NR) - Review

"Yes, they do."

Never has the title of a movie been so accurate.  Harmony Korine, strange filmologist extraordinaire, brings us this mockumentary about strange elderly creatures who patrol the night looking for Trash to, yes... hump.  Depravity amidst shaky handheld homevideo is the motif and it will go beyond your appetite for bizarre buffet.  It is presented and intended to be like a found VHS tape you discovered in the gutter of a thrift store.  You gather your friends, pop it in dad's VCR and experience the unknown.  Only for the interested and the experienced, Trash Humpers has too few of the expected genuinely odd Korine moments that might lead to a recommendation, the film is made to outtrash Jack Ass (boy does it ever) and is as memorable as a stumbled upon crime scene.  Sometimes its ok to look away.

3.5 Rubber Masks out of 10 (BAD)

F For Fake (1973)

F For Fake (NR)

"O for Overrated"

Legendary Director Orson Welle's (Citizen Kane) last completed film is a strange commentary on trickery, fakery and the arts.  Cut together from various sources, this semi-documentary zips back and forth between the stories of famed art-forger Elmyr, his hoax ridden biographer Clifford Irving, the supposed voice of tycoon and recluse Howard Hughes, Welle's young vivacious girlfriend and the man himself speaking about his past of treachery vis a vie his infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast.

Spliced together in a very nontraditional style that skews close to French New Wave collage, the film was met with hostility upon release.  However if the construction proves distracting, the film's content and real life characters are fascinating with hindsight.  Filmed when these men were just being outed as con-men, and with Welle's own personal touch of conspiratorial confession to boot, F for Fake is a strange yet effective rumination on the dual nature of art and forgery, magicians and scam artists, fact and fiction.  The editing jumps off the cogs often, sometimes revealing the men filming the scenes themselves, breaking the then taboo 4th wall and taking all suspension of disbelief with it, evoking a kind of "alakazam" of a twist ending that was probably half the reason Welle's and his lady dreamed up this experiment.  Perhaps not a full fledged film, but shouldn't be viewed as such, F For Fake was an easy forrunner of Banksy's Exit Through The Gift Shop, two sides of a coin, a coin that pays for art is also that which ruins art.

5.5 70s "Look at my hot European Girlfriend in my film" Sexism out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)