VIDEODRONE

By only

Monday August 27, 2007

NEW MOVIE MONDAYS

Blades of Glory
It’s hard to label this movie as “disappointing,” even though it is. Sure they smell each other’s crotches at that one part, and that’s funny in an “afraid you might be gay” kind of way, but we’re just tired of the whole schtick. It’s 2007. No more 90s comedies allowed.


Offside
It’s really weird to think abut how our perspective about Iran is totally fucked up. For one, we in the west imagine that it is a tightly controlled regime where everyone lives in fear, creativity is denied and women’s rights are squashed. But every movie that comes out of Iran is amazing, and two of the country’s filmmakers, Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, are recognized as two of the world’s top contributors to modern cinema. In fact, both of Maklabaf’s daughters also make movies, and his own film Silence depicts a country filled with happy kids, dressed in colourful clothes and jeans and sneakers. So what’s up? Sure there are difficulties and not everything is as easy and open as that, but how are we so wrong about a country and a culture? And while there are differences and problems, it is obviously more complicated than we think. For instance how does a film by Jafar Panahi, about a group of female Iranian soccer fans prohibited from actually attending an international game because they are women, turn out to be a comedy?


Air Guitar Nation
Earlier this summer, the Lamplighter hosted the Lower Mainland regional Air Guitar competition, and after having seen this movie like thirty times and having written about it twice , we went to check it out. What went down there that night was one of the worst, most vagrant acts of favoritism and Russian judging we’ve ever had the misfortune of witnessing. Each contestent had one minute of a song to impress the judges with their moves and their “Airness”. Most were mildly capable, and some mockingly useless. But when one contestent known only as Mantits hit the stage, he tore it up. Kicks, strums, eye contact, and what can only be referred to as “the fever” swept the audience up into a near panic. Cheers and chants were followed by his score, placing him in second to last place, just ahead of the really drunk guy who quit half way through his attempt at that Rage Against the Machine song. Mantits never even made it past the first round, but his performace is legendary. Fuck those judges, trust the audience. So Mantits…if you’re reading, you may have lost, but you will never be forgotten. (Full disclosure: Mantits is our film editor).


Heroes: Season One
We watch Lost. Period.