Capsules

CAPSULE: ALICE (2009)

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DIRECTED BY: Nick Willing

FEATURING: Caterina Scorsone, Andrew Lee Potts, Kathy Bates, , Colm Meaney, Philip Winchester, Eugene Lipinski, Tim Curry, Harry Dean Stanton

PLOT: Karate-instructor Alice finds herself in Wonderland, 150 years after her predecessor of the same name; things have changed drastically, as the Red Queen now rules a totalitarian society with an economy that depends on a fresh supply of people from our world to keep the natives pacified.

Still from Alice (2009 miniseries)

WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: Alice is an imaginative, solid fantasy/adventure/comedy/romance, but it has only a few shadings of weird to it.  A SyFy channel production, it passes as “surreal” by basic cable standards, but this is the big time, guys.

COMMENTS: Tonally, Alice is only distantly related to Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland,” but at least the movie has a decent explanation for that: 150 years have passed since Alice first fell down the rabbit hole, in which time technological advances and two world wars changed our world’s landscape and psyche forever.  An equal length of time passed in Wonderland, and things there have changed for the worse, as well. They’ve developed automatic weapons, for one thing; for another, the anthropomorphic animals have evolved into full-fledged humans, with complex motivations and back stories. Most importantly, thanks to the Queen of Hearts’ tyrannical rule, the halcyon days of whiling away the time with wordplay, nonsense verse and tea parties have been replaced by a deadly power struggle between the Queen, who controls the populace through narcotizing potions of curious manufacture, and various underground resistance movements.

That synopsis makes Alice sound a bit darker than it actually is; in fact, there’s plenty of comedy and whimsy running about in this postmodern Wonderland. Much of the silly fun is provided by Kathy Bates’ arrogant Queen (always a plum role in Alice adaptations), who reminds Alice that she’s “the most powerful woman in the history of literature.”  The most memorable comic performance; however, goes to Matt Frewer’s White Knight, a bumbling, mumbling relic with delusions of grandeur.

As we might hope in an Alice movie, the costumes and set design are a plus. Instead of a castle, the Wonderland monarchy has set up shop inside a 1960’s mod casino that might have come out of an Austin Powers movie. Weird notes are struck by an assassin with a Brooklyn accent and a porcelain rabbit’s head, and Alice’s hypnotic interrogation in “The Truth Room” by the Naziesque Drs. Dee and Dum. All of the major characters from Carroll’s books are referenced, often in clever ways, and part of the fun of the movie is in catching the cameos and tributes to minor characters (the unexpected appearance of the Borogoves is a particular favorite). Downsides to the production are cheap CGI (a disappointing Jabberwock), action sequences that often fall flat (karate instructor or not, it’s difficult to credit the sylphlike Alice repeatedly knocking grown men about like cardboard cutouts), and a grand finale that swiftly gallops from merely contrived to the utterly cornball. The cameos by cult icons Curry (as Dodo) and Stanton (as Caterpillar) are short and disappointing.  Still, Alice‘s strengths overcome it’s weaknesses, and the movie delivers solid entertainment. The adventure and romance threads are balanced with narrative skill, the comic relief generally works, and its three hour running time allows it to invest Wonderland and its characters with an impressive amount of detail without ever seriously dragging.

British director Willing specializes in the underutilized miniseries format. He made a star-studded, straightforward adaptation of Alice and Wonderland for NBC in 1999, featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Kingsley, Martin Short, and Miranda Richardson, and others. He also helmed Tin Man, a 2007 “re-imaging” that did for Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz what Alice did for Carroll’s books.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“What ultimately sinks ‘Alice’ is that it is too normal. Carroll’s nonsense, anarchy and druggy weirdness always turned the tale into a fevered dream. Here, Alice disappears instead into a tired missing-father subplot.”–Randee Dawn, The Hollywood Reporter (TV broadcast)

Alice [DVD]

Alice [DVD]
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Miscellanea

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE

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Look for a mini-Wonderland theme next week, as we weigh in on Tim Burton’s current version of Alice in Wonderland, and compare and contrast the ScyFy miniseries Alice.  We’ll also look at a non-Alice related feature from out of our queue: Vincent Price’s The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

The masses continue to stumble onto the site by accident while looking for porn.  We thought the weirdest search term used to locate the site this week was “Strange Things tissue free porn movies.”  Why “tissue free”?

We spotlight the weirdest search term each week, but this week I thought we’d give a shout-out to the weirdest backlink of the week.  That honor goes to SuccuWiki, a Wiki site devoted to cataloging all things related to female sex demons, who cited us as a source for Satan Hates You.  Thanks!

The reader-suggested review queue is still growing.  We plan to knock out at least one of these a week, but at that rate we’re still losing ground.  Here it is, updated as of this very morning: The Abominable Dr. Phibes (next week); What? (Diary of Forbidden Dreams); Meatball Machine; Xtro; Basket Case; Suicide Club; O Lucky Man!; Trash Humpers (when/if released); Gozu; Tales of Ordinary Madness; The Wayward Cloud; Kwaidan; Six-String Samurai; Andy Warhol’s Trash; Altered States; Memento; Nightmare Before Christmas/Vincent/Frankenweenie; The Science of Sleep; The Attic Expeditions; After Last Season; Getting Any?; Performance; Being John Malkovich; The Apple; Southland Tales; Arizona Dream; Spider (2002); Songs From The Second Floor; Singapore Sling; Alice [Neco z Alenky]; Necromania (1971, Ed Wood); Hour of the Wolf; MirrorMask; Possession; Suspiria; Mary and Max; Wild Zero; 4; Nothing (2003); The Peanut Butter Solution; Ninja Scroll; Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; Danger: Diabolik; Faust; Sublime; Battle Royale; Pink Floyd: The Wall; Escanaba In Da Moonlight; Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter; Zardoz; The Films of Suzan Pitt; Toto the Hero [Toto le Héros]; Paprika; The Holy Mountain; Brazil; The Casserole Masters; Dark Crystal; Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets; The Nines; 964 Pinocchio; The Pillow Book; Final Flesh; Lunacy [Sílení]; Inmortel; Tetsuo; Dead Ringers; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Handshake; Dead Leaves; Frownland; The Seventh Seal; Taxidermia; Primer; Maniac (1934); Hausu; A Boy and His Dog; 200 Motels; Walkabout; Private Parts (1972); and Possession.

Saturday Short, Shorts

SATURDAY SHORT: ORGESTICULANISMUS (2008)

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Mathieu Labaye’s tribute to his father, who suffered from multiple sclerosis when he was 29 years old, was confined to a wheelchair at 40, and died of pneumonia at the age of 55.  Labaye has an indisputable talent for creating music and visual art that radiates a surplus of energy.  Warning: like our last Saturday Short, “Orgesticulanismus” also contains some brief artistic nudity.

Miscellanea

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 3/12/10

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A look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…

It’s a very weak week for weirdness. Nothing very unusual debuting in theaters, and the video pickings are slim, so we dug a bit deeper for some strange viewing suggestions.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Abelcain (2011):  We caught this title listed as “in development” when researching Santa Sangre: a new Alejandro Jodorowsky film!  For years, even before Santa Sangre, Jodorowsky has been looking for financing for a new project (often referred to as Sons of El Topo).  Parallel Media (Autopsy) is involved in the production, which means there is funding, at least.  Plot synopsis: “Upon the death of their mother, Abel and Cain embark on a journey to bury her holy body next to their father’s grave on a forbidden paradise island.  But the island’s treasures attract numerous kidnappers with different plans.”  Just because it’s in development doesn’t mean the film will ever be completed, but there is reason to hope.  Abelcain announcement at Parallel Media.

Heartsnatcher (2012): Per Quiet Earth (an excellent website focusing on post-apocalyptic movies that supplied us with a number of weird leads this week), Hungarian surrealist Pater Sparrow will be adapting the Boris Vian novel about an isolated island society with bizarre customs.  Read the scoop at Quiet Earth.

NEW ON DVD:

Evangelion: 1.11 You Are Not Alone (2007):  “Neon Genesis Evangelion” is a large anime franchise centering around teenagers piloting giant robots to fight off mysterious beings called Angels bent on destroying the world.  As far as we can make out, the original 26 episode television show spawned a feature film, Neon Genesis Evangelion. Then came the feature The End of Evangelion, which created an alternate ending to the TV series and is reportedly a film of interest to weird folk.   This movie, however, is part of a new “rebuild” series to consist of four films; to make things more confusing, this release is an update of the first film in that series (titled Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone) with new scenes and visual enhancements.  An upgrade to the rebuild?  As if that wasn’t bad enough, I’m gathering that this is the second “upgrade” of the first film (the first being version 1.01).  Surely, fans who are interested in this will know what’s going on with all the different versions and where this release fits in. Buy Evangelion: 1.11 You Are Not Alone.

Stingray Sam (2009): From Cory McAbee (The American Astronaut) comes this futuristic musical comedy about a lounge singer from Mars who teams up with the Quasar Kid to rescue a little kidnapped girl.  We just ran across this, but festival reviews were almost universally positive. Variety characterizes it as “‘The Searchers'” meets “‘Eraserhead'” and says it “leaves one begging for more.”  Still screening at festivals, but it’s also available for download or DVD purchase from McAbee’s site.  Stingray Sam official site .

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Evangelion: 1.11 You Are Not Alone (2007): See entry in DVD above. Buy Evangelion: 1.11 You Are Not Alone [Blu-ray].

What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that I have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.

Alfred Eaker's Fringe Cinema, Essays

THE WOLF MAN (1941) & THE WOLFMAN (2010)

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“Even a Man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night may become a wolf when the wolf-bane blooms and the autumn moon is bright”.

The best thing about the 1941 film is the tone-setting poem above, which was repeated at least one too many times in the original, yet it is absent from the 2010 remake except in the title. The Wolf Man seemed ripe for a remake since, of the original “horror classics,” it really wasn’t that good to begin with (the same goes for Creature from the Black Lagoon).

The 1941 film has several strikes against it, the first and foremost of which is writer Curt Siodmak, who, frankly, was a hack. The second is director George Waggner, who wasn’t really a hack but merely a competent, unimaginative commission director with no personal vision. Finally, there is “star” Lon  Chaney, Jr. The younger Chaney gets picked on a lot these days and always has. He deserves it. He was an idiotic, drunken bully who had an obsessive hang-up about outdoing his father. Since Lon Sr. probably ranks with Chaplin in the silent acting department, Lon Jr., the pale, watered-down copy, did not have a chance. It’s amazing that Jr. even thought he would be able to compete. That said, Lon Jr. did have a few good character roles in his career. Damn few out of literally hundreds of films. He was quite good as the arthritic sheriff in Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon, as Big Sam in Stanley Kramer’s The Defiant Ones, as Spurge in Raoul Walsh’s Lion is in the Streets and Bruno in Jack Hill’s cult classic Spider Baby. Like Bela Lugosi, he was only good when he was actually being “directed.” Unlike Lugosi, however, Jr.’s signature horror role is not one of his best. That honor goes to his immortal Lenny in Lewis Milestone’s Of Mice and Men.
Still from The Wolf Man (1941)
Even considering his success with Lenny, Larry Talbot is out of Lon’s range. Never once does Talbot’s amorous nature register. Evelyn Anker’s repeated flirtations with the hulking, rubbery Chaney only evoke numbing disbelief. If Jr. the romantic lead is ludicrous (that side seen at its mustached worst in the execrable Inner Sanctum series), then seeing Lon’s Talbot crying on the bed inspires cringe-inducing embarrassment.  Chaney’s performance as Talbot was marginally Continue reading THE WOLF MAN (1941) & THE WOLFMAN (2010) →

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