Cinematic Distractions

[dulcedemon]

Reservation Dogs (2021-2023):
We finally saw all of Rez Dogs! It was late last year when we began. We got through the first season, and the second season minus three episodes, then it was moved to a higher tier. We didn't feel like paying Disney more money. If we had upgraded, this series would have been on the movie list that I had slated for March before my cat Tita died. The show became available again a few weeks before everyone decided to boycott Disney over Jimmy Kimmel. We unsubscribed as soon as we finished it.

My original plan back at the beginning of the year was to pair Reservation Dogs with a Canadian television series from the 1980s, Spirit Bay, which was about life on an Ojibwe reservation from a youth perspective. It's lauded as the first truly Indigenous production. There is also a bit of crossover with the casts. Actual cousins, Gary Farmer and Graham Greene appeared on both shows. I thought it would lend nuance to seeing them as elders in Reservation Dogs.

As for details of the episodes of Spirit Bay, I remember very little. I know I watched it on Nickelodeon, even though its Wikipedia page says it was on the Disney channel. I adored the theme music. I vaguely recall Gary Farmer as Uncle Cheemo. There was an episode in which Rabbit (Tre Smith) and a friend/cousin break into a liquor cabinet and get drunk. It could have been Uncle Cheemo's liquor cabinet for all I know. It had an after school special, dangers of underage drinking vibe. I don't recall what the consequences were, but presumably, the little scamps learned an important lesson. The character Rabbit was kind of like the Bear (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) of the show.

We tried watching the handful of episodes available on YouTube and at the Internet Archive, but the quality was rather poor, and I couldn't find the underage drinking episode. How unfortunate it would be to lose Spirit Bay, when it was the forerunner of so many others, including Reservation Dogs. It's a shame that neither series has been made available on home video or DVD.

Reservation Dogs tells the story of a group of teens living on a reservation in Oklahoma. When the story begins, they are trying to come up with money for a trip to California while grieving the loss of a friend. It's about their hopes and dreams, disappointments and setbacks, future plans, and shared heartbreak. It's also about family, both blood and chosen.

Bear and his mother, Elora and her grandmother, Willy Jack and her parents, Cheese and his uncle, plus a large hyper-extended family of aunties, uncles and cousins willing to step in and help. Not just as a family, but as a community, and everyone is glad to do their part, even when they don't necessarily like each other or get along well. Even the way they handle petty crime like theft, when the need arises for intervention and discipline, there is no rush to involve law enforcement, except maybe Big (Zahn McClarnon). That closeness and willingness to help one another in that way was very heartwarming. It's a refreshing change from the everyone for themselves society that is so pervasive (white).

For the most part, the show is lighthearted and fun, though there are some emotionally intense episodes. There are many funny moments, lots of goofing around, and heavy cannabis consumption, particularly when it comes to Uncle Brownie. I liked the way they use humor when tackling challenging subjects. I appreciated the gender inclusivity, and everyone being so cool and casual about it like it's not even a concern. I'm glad it didn't turn out to be a teen romance show. When I was their age, Beverly Hills 90210 was the show aimed at that demographic. It was horrible stuff.

The spirits were a little perplexing at times. I get that Bear has a spirit guide (Dallas Goldtooth) that only he can see, and that spirit tends to pop up at the worst or most awkward times and places. That same spirit later appears to Uncle Brownie (Gary Farmer). I have no problem with that, but Deer Lady (Kaniehtiio Horn) is another matter. Like I understand her function but not necessarily her form. Is she a spirit or a shapeshifter? I mean, she has a body. Everyone can see her. She can interact with anyone. She even drives! If she is a person inhabited by a deer spirit, does that make her immortal? I don't want to piss off Deer Lady, but I have questions.

I enjoyed every episode, but these really stood out to me:

Season One:
Come and Get Your Love: Big tells Cheese (Lane Factor) the story of why he became a rez cop. Bodhi Okuma Linton was a good casting choice for Young Big. I'm from a generation that automatically recognizes the song after which this episode was named, but I was born a year too late to catch Redbone on The Midnight Special.

Hunting: Fathers who hunt with their daughters are cool. This episode reminded me of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010). There is a lot of insight into Willy Jack (Paulina Alexis) in this one.

Satvrday: I'm not going to say how I know about the axe thing. It happened when I was a kid. The only important detail is the tornado missed our house.

Season Two:
Mabel: The whole community comes together to hold vigil at the bedside of a dying elder, grandmother, mother, sister, friend --Mabel (Geraldine Keams). I was in awe of the constant food and beverage preparation and consumption in this episode.

Wide Net: Bear's mother Rita (Sarah Podemski) and the aunties she works with at the IHS go wild at a business convention. The part where they make their entrance to Funnel of Love by Wanda Jackson...

This is Where the Plot Thickens: Big finds himself on an involuntary vision quest of sorts joined hilariously by Kenny Boy (Kirk Fox). It's a rare treat when a movie or tv show gets the psychedelic experience right.

Season Three:
House Made of Bongs: It's a flashback to when the elders were as young and wild as the Rez Dogs. I don't how long it took them to cast the actors for this episode, but they really nailed it, especially Nathan Alexis as Young Brownie.

Frankfurter Sandwich: The uncles coax Cheese into going on a camping trip. Wes Studi is very funny as Bucky. That's true of all the episodes with him. He just plays so well with Gary Farmer and Zahn McClarnon here. I imagine they had fun making this episode.

Dig: Once again, the community comes together at the passing of an elder. The funeral preparations are ritualized and gender segregated. The men attend the gravesite and do all the digging by hand. The women all crowd into the kitchen and cook up massive amounts of food. The gender roles are strict until one poignant moment, and I was so glad to see it.

I highly recommend this series. I'm not suggesting people pay money to Disney/Hulu. Watch it however you can, learn some new vocabulary, and don't be a shit ass.

North of North (2024):
This series set in a small Artic village is also authentically Native, but it leans more into romantic comedy. A young Inuk woman, Siaja (Anna Lambe), makes major changes to her life after she has a brush with death as a result of a boating accident. Her longing to be more than just a traditional wife and stay-at-home mom causes friction in her marriage.

Her husband, Ting (Kelly William), is well-liked and praised by everyone in the village for his hunting and athletic skills. Unfortunately, that popularity has gone to his head. Their very public split is big news and the subject of much gossip in the tiny village of Ice Cove.

Siaja's mother Neevee is played brilliantly by Maika Harper. Mother and daughter dynamics are the backbone of the show, Neevee with Siaja, and Siaja with Bun (Keira Cooper). North of North elevates single motherhood, while also showing how damn hard it can be.

The costume department made a special effort to recruit the services of traditional clothing makers local to the Nunavut area. The quality and care put into it really shows. The parkas are gorgeous!

Much of the comedy hinges on awkward or embarrassing moments for various characters but especially Siaja. Even the ocean spirit she sees in visions, Nuliajuk (Tanya Tagaq), busts her stones. The show has been renewed for a second season to which I'm looking forward.

My favorite episodes:

Joy to the Effing World - Siaja tries to spice up elders' night at the Ice Cove community center. It's beautiful the way elders are willing to calmly extend grace and give young people second, third, or however many chances it takes to get something right.

Walrus Dick Baseball - How can I not love walrus dick baseball. I got a kick out of the part where they explain the rules of the game.

Bad Influences - Generational trauma bubbles to the surface, leading to a heartfelt conversation between mother and daughter. Doreen Nutaaq Simmonds as Elisapee really shines in this episode as she steps up from being a supporting character to offer Neevee some words of wisdom and spiritual counsel.

The Catman of Paris (1946):
Republic Pictures really wanted this to be their The Wolf Man (1941), which was popular enough to spawn a few sequels, but despite borrowing much of the plot from Werewolf of London (1935), it was not the raging success they had hoped. There are number of silly reasons why I prefer The Catman of Paris to either of those wolfman movies. For one thing, I had seen stills of the catman in various horror movie documentaries over the years, often presented without reference to the film from which they came. Without that context, the make-up was such that he looked more like a shabby, half-assed werewolf than anything feline. It made me want to find the film.

I like that it doesn't bother with magic curses or "Have you been bitten?" afflictions. I like that it stars Carl Esmond as Charles Regnier. The only other film I know him from is Fritz Lang's suspenseful tale of cake and Nazis, Ministry of Fear (1944). A native of Austria, Esmond was a matinée idol known all over Europe for playing romantic leads and bon vivant types. As the Nazi party began its rise to power, he moved to London, then eventually made his way to Hollywood, where he was frequently cast as a bad guy, including the kind he fled.

The cops in The Catman of Paris are hilarious. Monsieur Le Prefet (Fritz Feld) and Inspector Severen (Gerald Mohr) are quite a pair. The prefect of police gives the appearance of a distinguished, scholarly gentleman, but he is basically a Giorgio A. Tsoukalos meme. The inspector takes his job seriously, putting logic and facts above all else. He likes to construct elaborate models of the crime scenes he investigates. In this case, it's a street corner somewhere in Paris. The same model is used in the credits with a black cat for scale.

I do love cats, but this movie was much easier to watch before I had any. There are a lot of cat noises, and they are mostly the angry or frightened, jump scare-inducing kind. I often watch it with English subtitles, so I don't have to jockey the volume to avoid upsetting our cat.

A famous author of a controversial novel that angered the French government has his book tour interrupted, when he becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation. Poor Charles Regnier! He has just returned to Paris after a few years of being a global gadabout, and he is wanted for questioning by both the government and the police. The government has alleged that his latest novel couldn't have been written without access to classified information about a high profile court case. The author insists that his work is pure fiction and any similarities are coincidental.

When a courier transporting documents related to the case is murdered, the police focus on Regnier. They question him, but they lack evidence, and he has wealth, so they have no choice but to let him go gallivanting around Paris with his agent, his fiancé, and his publisher's daughter to whom he would prefer to be engaged. Lenore Aubert plays Marie Audet, who is essentially the other woman, but she is so sweet and wholesome that it doesn't feel that way. Adele Mara plays Regnier's absurdly wealthy, voluptuous, and ostentatiously attired fiancé Marguerite Duval. I wonder if it would have been better if these two women had swapped roles. Mara's performance has a certain exuberance. Maybe it's from her years as a singer and dancer with Xavier Cugat and his band.

The Catman of Paris was directed by Lesley Selander, whose claim to fame is directing one hundred seven B-grade Westerns, and fifty-four episodes of Lassie (1955-1959). It's cheesy. The catman doesn't look much like a cat. His monstrous transformation is inserted footage of stormy seas tossing a buoy illuminated by flashes of lightning. The romance is tepid, the action is minimal except for a pretty wild carriage chase, but Feld and Mohr are too unintentionally funny to miss.

This was not an easy movie to get. I had been renting Netflix's copy of an out of print DVD. It can be streamed online but the quality is poor. I had been periodically checking movie retailers for it, then in 2023, Imprint released it on Blu-ray.

The Blu-ray is rather pricey and aimed at collectors. I held off on buying it for over a year, during which the price did not go down. It comes in a nice movie poster art slip case. The interior case shows a different poster than the cover. There are a few extras. The best of which is a comprehensive documentary about Republic Pictures film studio, The Republic Pictures Story (1991), which was produced in association with American Movie Classics. There is an interesting though eyebrow-raising video essay by film historian Kat Ellinger titled Mark of the Beast: Myth Making and Masculinity in the Catman of Paris. I wish someone would pay me to read too much into things. Commentary is provided by film historians Kim Newman, and Stephen Jones.

Murder by Television (1935):
Four years after the success of Dracula, Bela Lugosi starred as Dr. Arthur Perry, and Edwin Perry in this technobabble murder mystery with a cast largely composed of bit part players. An exception is George Meeker, who was famous for playing heel characters as he does here in the role of Richard Grayson (no affiliation with Batman). Meeker also starred with Lugosi in Night of Terror (1933). Other than those two, the only actor I recognized was Hattie McDaniel. She was just a few years into her acting career, when she played Isabella - the Cook.

There is a niche of the sci-fi genre devoted to taking creative liberties with existing but cutting-edge technology before it becomes widely available and well understood. The general formula is to start out with something plausible utilizing known capabilities, then baffle and bullshit the audience with convoluted technical explanations and scientific-sounding mumbo jumbo until they are sufficiently awed into buying the rest of the story. I happen to be quite fond of it.

The publications Radio World and Radio News shown at the start of the film were real. Radio News was created and published by Hugo Gernsback. Another one of his publications was the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. Gernsback's interests and career were all about the intersection of electronics and fiction.

A headline and sub-headline from Murder by Television:
Successful Television Programs Broadcast by Radio News Station WRNY
Images now being transmitted daily on the 326 and 30.91m band, for benefit of radio experimenters, television impulses are contained to 5000 cycle limit

Radio station WRNY was launched by Hugo Gernsback in 1925. Three years later, the New York City station began experimenting with television transmissions.
WRNY: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRNY_(New_York_City)

Although I failed to find any references that either confirm or deny it, I'm convinced that the character Professor James Houghland was inspired by Hugo Gernsback.
Professor Houghland:
"Experimental station zy3 located at White Plains, NY on a safe channel of three-quarter meters we are attempting to reach the entire United States direct without the use of relays."

The professor has come up with a marvelous new invention that he claims will revolutionize how and where television signals can be sent. That announcement immediately attracts the interest of television companies, and triggers a competitive rush of corporate executives desperate to buy the invention. When the professor makes it clear that it's not for sale at any price, skullduggery ensues. When a combination swank party and invention demonstration is held at Professor Houghland's mansion, those television executives are in attendance along with a bunch of other rich folk, socialites, the press, the chief of police, and a phrenology obsessed brain surgeon.

The brain surgeon, Dr. Scofield (Huntly Gordon), brings an electronic brainpan-measuring device of his own to the party. Basically, it's fancy calipers. Since it's the 1930s and they are into phrenology, of course there are racial and ethnic stereotypes! We have a pidgin-speaking, proverb-spouting Chinese butler (Allen Jung), a Black housekeeper hysterically afraid of ghosts "Oh Lordy! Lordy! Oh Lordy! Lordy!" (Hattie McDaniel), and an Irish night watchman (Billy Sullivan) who uses quaint expressions like "soup and fish getup" to describe a suspect's attire.

There are a lot of things wrong with this movie, yet I liked it enough to hunt it down and buy it. It helps that it's a "Jordan" movie. The quality of the transfer is worth every one of the eight dollars I paid for it.

I had hoped it would have been cleaned up and restored by now, but Murder by Television looks much the same as when I first saw it on television almost thirty years ago. There are a couple scenes that take place in a darkened room. The visual detail of which has been lost to the extent that the audience is just as much in the dark as the characters. The editing is outstandingly sloppy. There is a reaction shot of two party guests played by Sam Harris and Ruth Cherrington that is shown multiple times for different situations. A number of scenes are cut off prematurely while the actors are still speaking.

Apart from the science fiction elements, it's a pretty straightforward whodunit. There is one funny bit involving a repeat party crasher, who yells "I got business here!" each time he gets frog-marched out the door. When I mentioned that it's a "Jordan" movie, I meant that it has at least one character whose last name is Jordan or Jordon. Both spellings qualify. The character in this case is Donald M. Jordan (Charles K. French) the head of the Continental Tel-E-Vising Corporation.

A few New York City addresses are shown in this film. In looking up one of them, I came across this interesting vintage publication made by and for employees of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) - World Wide Wireless:
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/ARCHIVE-RCA/RCA-World-Wide-Wireless/RCA-World-Wide-Wireless-1921-08.pdf

That address turned out to be the Woolworth Building.

Cloak & Dagger (1984):
Davey Osborne (Henry Thomas) is a young boy with a vivid imagination and an obsession with RPGs and video games finds himself embroiled in a real-life spy game. The trouble is that no one believes him except his imaginary friend, fictional action-hero Jack Flack (Dabney Coleman). Davey's mother recently passed away, and both he and his dad (also Dabney Coleman) are having a hard time adjusting. While his dad throws himself into his already demanding military job, Davey spends his time playing games and retreating into his imaginary world. He doesn't have any friends, save for the little girl next door Kim Gardener (Christina Nigra), and Morris (Bill Forsythe) the big nerd who runs the game store at the local mall.

This is a good movie for fathers and sons, and a fun action-adventure movie for kids. I was nine when Cloak & Dagger came to cinemas in 1984. I don't specifically recall seeing it that way. That was a big year for going to the movies with my grandmother. Splash, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Police Academy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and The Muppets Take Manhattan all came out that year. I do recall being disappointed that I couldn't get the Cloak & Dagger video game for my Atari 2600.

The fascinating story of that game, a real video game that Atari had in development before the movie was in the works, can be found among the trove of extras on the Blu-ray edition, and also on Youtube. Vintage Arcade Gal discusses the history of the game, while performing a complete restoration/reconstruction of a playable Cloak & Dagger arcade machine:
Cloak & Dagger: The Atari Arcade Game by Vintage Arcade Gal of The Arcade Workshop Chronicles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prsi5XZFgYM

Another featurette that I really enjoyed was the then and now of the San Antonio filming locations. A number of key action scenes take place along the San Antonio River Walk, and in the Japanese Tea Garden:
Then & Now of Cloak & Dagger filming locations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_zpcyu6dF8

A closer look at the Cloak & Dagger video game itself can be found at the Internet Archive:
Internet Arcade: Cloak & Dagger: https://archive.org/details/arcade_cloak

Jamón Jamón (1992):
I was browsing streaming selections for something with subtitles to watch late at night, when I came across this title. I had heard nothing but negative things about director Bigas Luna, but I didn't want to pass judgement without actually viewing some of his work. He did not disappoint. Believe the hype. He is not for everyone. Something gross and/or sexual happens often with food and/or animals in multiple scenes, and in more than one movie. It's like his thing. Misogyny, humiliation, and degradation are also things he likes. Great cinematography though! Both Jamón Jamón and Golden Balls benefit from the visual stylings of cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, who was probably best known for Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) at the time this was made.

Ham Ham, that's ham as in meat, not as in radio, is the story of a pair of socioeconomically mismatched young lovers, Silvia (Penélope Cruz) and José Luis (Jordi Mollá). I wouldn't describe them as star-crossed, more like bull's testicles-crossed. Silvia works in an underwear factory owned by José Luis' parents. His domineering mother, Conchita (Stefania Sandrelli), pretty much runs the place. She also runs her household, her husband, and her son. Castrating bitch would not be an unfair description. No son of hers is going to marry a lowly seamstress. She contrives a scheme to sink their relationship.

Javier Bardem plays Raúl a meat delivery man, aspiring matador, and newly hired underwear model handpicked by Conchita herself. Raúl is poor like Silvia. Approached by Conchita with an offer of cash and a new motorbike, he readily agrees to play the part of lothario.

I appreciated the contrasting family dynamics. Silvia's family is tight-knit and well-adjusted despite their financial disadvantages. Silvia's alcoholic father is absent for the most part, but she and her mother take care of themselves and the rest of the family just fine without him. Her wishy-washy boyfriend's family is radically dysfunctional despite their privilege and wealth. They are deeply unhappy people. They are also frequently, inappropriately horny. Maybe it's a side effect of building an empire out of underwear.

The characters are not listed by their names in the credits. Raúl, Javier Bardem's character, is billed as El chorizo. Jordi Mollá's character José Luis is El niñato. It's the same with Golden Balls. Character names are replaced with a word or phrase that describes either their nature or function within the story. This was certainly an interesting debut for Pen´lope Cruz. She was seventeen at the time of filming. Her character is listed in the credits as La hija de puta. I do not wish to continue exploring the works of Bigas Luna, but I wouldn't rule out watching this again.

The World's Greatest Sinner (1962):
Clarence Hilliard (Timothy Carey) has a good life with his wife and daughter. They live comfortably in a nice house. They even have a horse, and a gardener, yet Clarence is dissatisfied. He yearns to be somebody, but not just anybody; Clarence wants to be God. His methodology for achieving divinity begins with learning to play the guitar so he can put on rock and roll shows to influence and seduce the youth of America. He develops a cult-like following, and rebrands himself as God Hilliard, which naturally leads to a run for political office.

This is not a good movie. It might be one of the worst movies ever made, but as train wrecks go, it's a damn good one. It's worth it for the spectacle of Timothy Carey dressed head-to-toe in gold lamé, stomping, gyrating, and flopping all over and off the stage like a cross between Iggy Pop and a charismatic revival preacher. There are a number of salient parallels to the present political predicament of the United States. I'm sure it all seemed quite far-fetched back then. The World's Greatest Sinner was written, directed, and produced by Timothy Carey. Frank Zappa composed the score.

Demon Pond (Yashagaike - 1979):
I love how this eerie tale introduces the main character without narration or expository dialogue. The audience is simply presented with a man travelling alone on a train, then left to deduce from his outdoorsy attire, the field guides he carries, and the map he consults that he is a botanist on his way to a place known as Demon Pond.

Once off the train, he treks through forests and fields until he arrives at a seemingly deserted rural village. He has hiked a long way and is very thirsty, but he finds no water. The whole area is clearly affected by a severe drought, and the village well has gone dry. He pushes onward until he comes upon a ruined shrine at the foot of a mountain above the village. He encounters a ghostly pale young woman doing some washing in a stream near the shrine. The surrounding area does not appear to be suffering from lack of water.

Although reluctant at first, she offers him food and drink. She tells him that she and her husband are caretakers of the shrine, living in a storehouse on the property. The shrine is ruined, but its bell still stands, and it must be rung three times a day for the village below. Higher up the mountain is the lake the botanist seeks.

While the botanist enjoys refreshments, the villagers down below prepare for a visit from a government official. Appropriately, he is an arrogant windbag with nothing but the worst ideas for solving the village's water crisis. He gleefully plays upon the fears and mob mentality of the superstitious locals.

There are supernatural elements to the story. There is a legend about a dragon that supposedly lives in the lake. There is also a demon princess who prances about the woods surrounding the lake. The demon princess is in a long distance relationship with a demon prince who lives in a lake in another city, and she likes to read his love letters during her nightly stroll.

If there is a lesson here, it's be careful what you seek; you might find it.

Huevos de Oro (1993):
Golden Balls has much in common with The World's Greatest Sinner, except that none of the characters are the least bit likable, pitiable, or even amusing. That lack of emotional investment takes all the satisfaction out of the inevitable comeuppance.

Javier Bardem plays, Benito González, an architectural engineer full of self-aggrandizing, crotch-centric ambition. With little notoriety and even less money, he sets out to build the world's tallest skyscraper. After his first love is unfaithful to him (after he treats her like shit), he becomes a serial womanizer (as if he weren't one already), and indulges in all manner of excess. The women have names, but you wouldn't know it from the closing credits, where they are designated by weight. Benicio Del Toro has a small but very active role as Benito's gardener, and it was the only part of this downward spiral that I truly enjoyed.

Flunky, Work Hard! (Koshiben ganbare - 1931):
It's a short film about rival door-to-door insurance salesmen from Mikio Naruse the director of When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960), which is one of my all time favorite movies. A door-to-door insurance salesman has an awful and humiliating day at work, and when he finally makes a sale, it comes at great personal cost. I was drawn by the goofy title and director provenance, but I don't recommend this.