You’re greatest hero is only as good as your most awesome villain. This is true in movies as well as in life. Executive producer Jeffrey Eagle (pictured below with the beautiful Kristanna Lokan) put together one of the most thought provoking documentaries on villains in film, Unforgettably Evil. Written and directed by Sebastian Bauer and produced by Giant Interactive for the small screen to air on Starz as part of their Starz Inside Series.
“I’m an anti-social outcast character. I’m also an anti-family values guy and I was tired of all the kiddie cartoons,” says the legendary Spike of Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation. “My hero is Lenny Bruce and I’m put off by the hypocrisy of our society such as getting upset about nipples. Babies suck on those.”
The secret origin of Spike and his mini animation empire is not quite as dramatic as, say, being bitten by a radioactive Bugs Bunny, the beginnings of the fest grew out of boredom. “We put on the festival since there really wasn’t anything to do in Riverside,” Spike says. “The difference between yogurt and Riverside is that yogurt has an active culture. So we did these shows at the schools and it grew from there.”
“No one inspired me, I inspired myself.” This is the proud proclamation of one Tommy Wiseau, the writer, director and star, really the entire brains behind The Room. Maybe you’ve heard about this cult film and the crazy things people do when they see it. Maybe you’ve heard someone quote the movie casually saying, “Oh. Hi, Mark.” Or perhaps you remember the billboard of The Room featuring only Tommy’s pensive and pained expression looking down upon the traffic on Highland Avenue just south of Hollywood. It was in Los Angeles, that this phenomenon was born when midnight screenings of the movie erupted in chaos… much of it planned.
Death is the true final frontier… in reality, there is no way to avoid it. We’re all building up to our inevitable death scene at some point in the future. But in the world of movies, characters can not only skirt death and return after the funeral, they can have one of the coolest and most memorable deaths ever imagined. There is no better scene than a death scene and actors often will take on a role knowing that their character will die on screen. Sometimes a death scene is Oscar bait and sometimes it’s to get out of doing a sequel. Harrison Ford famously wanted Han Solo to die in the “final” film in the Star Wars series, but George Lucas refused. Too bad. A badass like Han Solo going down would have been memorable indeed.
The Best Five…
Here’s a round up of five of the most gut-wrenching, tear-jerking, awesometacular best movie death scenes…
There are very few films that I would be totally content to watch on mute. Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, Terri Gilliam’s Brazil and now, Stephen Frears’ Cheri. I wanted to dissolve into the celluloid and exist surrounded by those blues, greens and golds for eternity. The Art Nouveau luster of this film made the story seem like fluffy whip cream on top of the most spectacularly artful cake imagined.
Bruno is the host/queen of the hottest fashion show in Austria and life is good. But his world comes crashing down when he is banned from the fashion world after ruining a high-profile show with a dangerously sticky Velcro suit. All is lost until Bruno realizes that in order to find happiness he must come to America to become… famous. Bruno’s travels provide endless fodder for homolarious situations often involving anal sex, anal bleaching, anal lube or dildos or bicycles with dildo attachments or even a TV remote used as a dildo. Homolarity ensues.
Bruno is Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow up to his enormously successful feature Borat and plot-wise, it’s pretty much the same – the universal tale of a likable outcast traversing an unfamiliar world. As one would expect, Cohen’s brand of hijack comedy is also the same, except while Borat had a few Gay moments, Bruno is a lot more Gay. It’s actually much, much, much, much more Gay. In fact, it’s totally Gay! And it’s not just Gay, the situations in Bruno get downright pornographic (a previous cut was rated NC-17) with small black boxes sometimes covering up the flesh-piston-goings-on during several male-on-male action scenes and during a particularly graphic swinger party. Cohen is a master at coaxing a reaction out of everyone he encounters, and while this time around things seems a bit more staged, it actually gets more dangerous especially when Bruno briefly visits the middle east in order to negotiate a peace treaty. Of course, this is where he also confuses hummus with Hamas.
Borat shoved a mirror in America’s face and showed us how stupid we can be. Bruno greases up that same mirror, shoves it up America’s ass and shows us the extent to which homophobia continues to penetrate deep inside the U.S. What’s most shocking is that no matter where Bruno travels, from Los Angeles to Alabama, his Gaydar sees things that he previously thought to be manly and reveals them as, well, kinda… Gay. (ACHTUNG! Poschible schpoilers!)
The nation is currently divided over the issue of Gay marriage. As the battle over the rights of Gays who wish to forever proclaim their love and tie the knot rages on from state to state, those on each side of the argument find little to agree upon. In fact, the opposing sides really hate each other and plan to never, ever, ever, ever agree on anything! Go away! I hate you! (Hmm… you know, in a way, the arguers on each side are acting like a couple of drama queens.)
As someone who has attended a Gay wedding in the past, I cannot emphasize how much fun they are. From the drinking to the dancing to the twist on traditions, let’s legalize Gay marriage nationally if only to watch the one show that would be more entertaining than Bridezillas… Groomzillas! (So, now that you know where I stand, let’s both respect our respective opinions, so to speak.)
In any case, there is one thing I know that everyone, including those opposed to Gay marriage can all agree upon – that Gay-themed movies are the most entertaining in all of cinema. They may not all seem Gay on the surface, like C-3PO from Star Wars, but these movies are as Gay as the image of Elton John in a pink tank top and tight jeans taking a drink from a garden hose while surrounded by a legion of male dancers eating dripping cherry popsicles. (If that image offended some of you, I’m sorry. That image would be hilarious even if it only existed in your mind.)
So, no matter where you stand, here are a few fabulous Gay movies and some movies in need of outing to tide you over until the next Prop 8 protest.
Prepare to meet a new breed of filmmakers – artists who defy hype and cliché. These bold new voices are unleashing their movies to audiences who hunger for something beyond the fast-food films they’ve been served at the multiplex. These filmmakers not only make their own rules, they break them as well.
Jennifer Lynch would make great conversation if she just described what it’s like to watch her father cook. That’s because her dad is legendary filmmaker David Lynch. She speaks as fondly about her father as she does about her passion for film. Jennifer has a film career of her own having directed her first feature at the age of 22. Boxing Helena came out in 1993 clouded by a storm of controversy. The film not only caused a stir because of the disturbing story about a man who keeps a limbless woman in a box, but a lawsuit that dragged on for years and almost derailed her career.
The silent half of the post-alt-magic act of Penn and Teller narrates his very personal tale of survival in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. When we first meet Teller in & Teller, he is clearly distraught attempting to survive in a world taken over by… zombies! As boredom sets in, Teller tells the tale of how he got himself into this mundane post-apocalyptic life… how the first zombie he remembered seeing didn’t look much different than most Vegas tourists. He even tells us how his partner Penn Jillette eventually succumbed to his own zombie fate from the bite of a zombie fan. The sequel & Teller 2 finds a lonely Teller just wishing for some companionship of some kind. His wish is fulfilled in the form of a zombie Vegas showgirl. Teller passes the time being chased by the slow-moving zombie dancer. After awhile, he even develops something of an act with his undead beauty. Is this love? Both films are short, sweet, pee-your-pants funny and leave one begging for more. And even stranger than observing a celebrity deal with a world overrun by zombies is… hearing Teller’s voice for the very first time. Scary!
While Marvel’s Thor film based on their popular superhero comic book series is years away, the Norse God provides comic relief as part of an odd ensemble cast in Thor at the Bus Stop. The God of Thunder is oddly annoyed that his power to wield his might hammer is scoffed at by a persnickety little child who can perform feats such as spell the word “square.” I mean, Thor doesn’t just toss a basketball at a basket – his mighty hammer comes crashing into the backboard. This is just one of the stories in a film that attempts to explain the details behind those random people we see passing by us every day. You know, the ones you meet and wonder to yourself, “Hey, what’s that guy’s story?” We’ve all seen these people, a guy dressed like Thor, the dude with the Mohawk, the man named Lester who was struck by lightning and now has a road sign penetrating his torso yet he still is walking and talking as if the fatal injury does not affect him. Okay, Lester’s story is a bit ridiculous, but each character has a story to tell and somewhere along the way, they’ll get what’s coming to them. The most memorable exchange occurs between Lester and a woman who was so upset with her boyfriend that after he told him to stand up for himself and be more of an asshole, he left her. Shortly after that exchange, she figured it all out. (Be careful what you wish for… you know the rest.)
Like a series of shorts woven together into a random order with some, but not all of them connecting, the results are mixed. Thor is worth some giggles and Lester learns his lesson – but for a mixed bag of good and bad, more than a few smiles are cracked.
Words by Chris Gore
