- Last night I caught Rubber Johnny on the big screen at Lincoln Center, along with Police Beat, which were both presented by Film Comment.
To be totally honest, I knew virtually nothing about Police Beat going in; I only really wanted to see Rubber Johnny, and even though I’m always up for discovering some unknown piece of cinematic brilliance, the combination of not knowing a single thing about the movie, as well as it being a long day at work, made me a bit unenthusiastic and almost too tired towards it all (which actually points to a big problem I’m coming to grips with: I’m no longer the social butterfly that I used to be due to always being tired, and that’s cuz I’m getting old…). But I very happy I went because it ended up being easily one of the best movies I’ve seen all year.
The independent film which hails from my home-turf of Seattle and takes place there as well, follows a West African police officer, Z, who’s girlfriend all of a sudden jets out of town to go camping with her roommate. Over the course of the follow days, Z tries his best to get ahold of her but with very little success, and we see him slowly going through a slew of anxious, jealous emotions as he wonders what wrong with her, what’s wrong with him, and the such, all while still performing his duty as the officer of the law. As the days pass, the crimes and the people that are involved becoming increasingly bizarre, but Z becomes increasingly oblivious as well, as well as more and more isolated with the world that he’s chosen as his home.
Police Beat starts out fairly straight, but as things becomes weirder, things get dreamier as well. It’s a slow and steady build, with stranger and more oddball characters at every turn, hence why whole thing definitely has a real David Lynch vibe (especially when you think fo Twin Peaks) but without all the bleakness. And on a personal level, its just nice to see the Seattle that I know of, which again, is filled with its own brand of freaks, and which there is a ton of (I should know; I grew up a mile away from an insane asylum). In addition to the great story (all the incidents are based on real police reports) and the excellent pacing, there was the superb camera work, editing, and music.
The movie was produced via an arts foundation in the Pacific Northwest, and is currently without a distributor, hence why I was so lucky to catch. Hopefully it’ll be able to make the festival circuit and eventually find a DVD release of some sort.
Immediately afterwards was a screening of Rubber Johnny, and all I can say is that I don’t think I blinked once during the entire six minutes of the short film. It was nice to see it large and fucking loud; the folks next to me had to put their fingers in their ears.
- Earlier in the evening was a meeting with my collaborator on my newest game, along with a person whom I feel will do a fine job providing the art end of things. She did a fine job on Bull Run, so Spready Bear is now even more capable hands.
- Also, real quick like, chaz over at insert credit today passed along a link to an (unfortunately Japanese only) comic starring a sexy demon girl and demure angel girl who end up at the house of some hardcore classic game junkie that still swears by the Mega Drive and the PC Engine SuperGrafx. Once again, I really wish I could read Japanese cuz it looks awesome. The sad truth is… and as a cartoonist perhaps its bad to criticize so openly but… the vast majority of comics based on gaming here in the US are really, REALLY bad.
- Here’s another demo of a game that I wish I could play; its a golf game but with totally crazy wire-frame, flat polygonal graphics. I mean, have you ever seen a golf game look like this?
I also love how the game is called Golf? Plus the site is super spiffy.
- And here’s a blog from a supposedly hard core gaming granny. I think I’ll use this opportunity to re-post a favorite pic of mine:
- Time for Transformers talk: some new details about the upcoming movie has been floating about, such as how it’s now going to be a movies about “a boy and his car”, and how there will only be about ten Transformers in the entire film, and that Cybertron, and even all the origin stuff supposedly, won’t even be mentioned until the sequel. When I first hear that Shockwave was not going to be a huge purple gun but a car, I became pissed. But then I did a search and saw that a recent toy did the same thing, and have to admit that it doesn’t look too bad, though its still disappointing. And sorry, Soundwave not being a boombox is still bullshit. Hell, make him a fucking CD walkman or mp3 player, and not a fucking helicopter!!!
Anyway, its expected that the first real bits of info will finally be revealed this upcoming weekend at the Comic Con. And now I finally have a reason to be pissed for not being there; there’s going to be a full scale Optimus Prime on the show floor!
EDIT: Oh… it’s only the truck mode. Oh well.
Then there’s the report from an anonymous tipster working at a packaging company that this person saw mock packages for new items that feature the Star Wars logo on the top and the Transformers logo at the bottom. Hmmm… an transformable Millennium Falcon would be just too hot.
