George A Romero's Diary of the Dead

I'm not a huge horror fan. Freddy, Jason, little Asian girls that have weird eyes or come out of walls, they do nothing for me. I do however enjoy the few really well done horror movies that I've seen. These includes Neil Marshall's 'The Descent,' and Danny Boyle's '28 Days Later' to name a few. But even if you don't particularly like the genre, who can resist a zombie movie from the grandfather, nay, the god and creator of the zombie genre itself? George Romero released the fifth chapter of his Dead series, 'Diary of the Dead,' last year. You certainly don't have to be familiar with the Romero zombie cannon to enjoy this.

Filmed on an extremely modest budget of approximately $2,000,000, the film ran the festival circuit with showings at Sundance, Toronto, Vienna, and several others. Critics seem to like it. Rottentomatoes gives it a 61% approval rating, and a top critics rating of 67%. Those reviews are here. Respected critics such as Peter Travers of Rollingstone claim 'Diary' is a 'leader in the scare pack.' My first viewing of this film was at the Sundance Film Festival in January of this year. It's now available on DVD so I rented it to enjoy a second time. This time I saw the movie in a different light.

There are several aspects of the film that are excellent. For one, it's filmed gonzo style, like 'The Blair Witch Project,' or 'Cloverfield.' It's extremely effective in adding realism. The plot follows a group of film students as the dead start to wake up and attack the living. All shots are filmed with hand cams giving it the feel of a documentary. The students take a road trip from Pittsburgh to Pennsylvania where the majority of the group comes from. Unlike most zombie movies, there's no back story. No one tries to explain how the undead are walking the streets, they are just trying to live through this horrifying experience they don't understand. The actors are unknowns, unrecognizable which helps the realism as the viewer can see himself in the story.

But as the movie goes on, it gets more and more self-indulgent and preachy. Romero condemns those that are obsessed with filming and/or watching the suffering of other people. Clips of real world events are thrown in (Darfur, the Iraq War) to hit the point home and the dialogue frequently turns to how disgusting it is that one student refuses to set his camera down, even to help his super bitchy girlfriend when she's shaken up because her 13 year old undead brother attacks her. Those unaffected by the the zombie disease tie up the zombies and torture them for fun, and we hear the narrator do a voice over, 'are we worth saving? You tell me.' WE GET IT. Yeah, we like to film stuff, to watch people suffer, that's why I have CNN, MSNBC, MSNBC Headline News, FOX News and TMZ. That's why I spend hours surfing Youtube. As one of the character reminds us, 'For you, if it's not caught on film, it didn't happen.'

What happened to the subtle metaphor? Why does Romero feel like he has to spell it out for us? Look! They're torturing innocent zombies. Since those people represent us...we must be guilty too! Thanks Romero! I get it now. Youtube is evil and I should spend more time raising money for Rwanda.

Despite the tired political and social commentary, the movie does have it's flashes of ghoulish inspiration. The opening news sequence is down right disturbing. The run in with the deaf Amish man Samuel, who enjoys blowing up the oncoming zombies with his homemade dynamite is pure entertainment. There's a reason great writers and directors like Quentin Tarantino and Stephen King recognize Romero as a master, but this film isn't one of those reasons.

Too Little Too Late

Sundance has been over for a week now. I went through this weird withdrawal/movie fatigue phase after it was all done. I was confused when I'd get up for the day, or after I'd get off work and there was no direction for me. I wasn't supposed to hop in my truck and drive to the mountains to see movies. I had nothing to do. Well that's how I felt anyway. I eventually found other things to do. I rediscovered 'Celebrity Rehab,' 'I Love New York' and various other VH1 productions. I did a little homework and I even started reading for pleasure.

I ended up seeing eight movies, all of varying degrees of quality. I think I've waited too long to write anything coherent about the films and I'm debating whether to even try.

First was Michael Haneke's remake 'Funny Games.' It was disturbing. Horrifying. The acting was brilliant. But I quickly remembered why the original had made such an impact on me: it's one giant slap in the face for seeking violence as entertainment. And as well made as it was, and as effective as it was as a social commentary, it's not a fun watch. The only disappointment I took with me as I left the theater is that the movie was a carbon copy of the Austrian version. The same shots, the same script, same soundtrack. I'm not sure what I was expecting. Maybe Haneke was completely satisified and felt no need to change. I guess I expected him to use the past ten years to some how build on his ideas or maybe I expected a change of opinion. Who knows? I've posted the trailer's at the end of this blog of both the Austrian and American versions. That terrifying, feral, howling song by John Zorn and Naked City that can be heard in the Austrian trailer is also heard in the American version. It's a shame they didn't use it in the trailer.

The truly disturbing element of the movie is how Haneke makes the viewer feel complicit with the 'bad guys' that terrorize the victim family. Although the majority of violence takes place off the screen, Haneke focuses the camera on the reactions of the nearby family members that are forced to watch which takes violences out of it's glamourous video game mode and turns on the humanity. What actually made me disgusted and angered in the film is this: at the points in the movie that are truly the most hopeless and sadistic, the parts that really make you feel deseperation, the audience surrounding me laughed. In one particular scene, immediately after the mother and father of the family watched their son murdered, the mom gets ready to go for help (the father was crippled by the villians). The father sobs uncontrollably and askes his wife to forgive him for not being able to protect 'his family. Heartbreaking, yeah? The other Sundancers thought this was hilarious. Haneke's point was that society has turned into this weird, soulless, entertainment whore that feeds off violence as entertainment and even worse, no one seems to feel that there's anything wrong with this. Towards the end of the film, the mother asked why the boys won't just kill them and end this, to which they answer: You mustn't forgot the importance of entertainment. In the Austrian version of the same scene, the boy answers, 'We haven't reached the length of a feature film yet!' Some may feel that this opinion is unjustified, but I was one hundred percent convinced that this is true as I saw people eating their Milk Duds and laughing at the torture and murder of an innocent family.

So, there are seven more, but I don't think I can invest the time, and I think it's probably boring to read about anyway. However, two other movies definitely deserve mention: Alan Ball's 'Towelhead,' and Clark Greg's 'Choke.' Both have been purchased, so I'm sure everyone will have the opportunities to see them. Be warned, they'll both probably have to have things cut out of them to keep an R rating.

Well, as bitchin' as this is, The Flavor of Love is on.

Oh, and New Kids on The Block are back together. They have a new album coming out.

Countdown to Sundance

There's only three days until Sundance 2008 officially opens it's doors. Well, 4 days for us schmucks who couldn't cough up the $4,000 for carte blanc packages that would actually allow the attendance of opening day events. But who cares! It's time to Sundance.

The previous few years have consistently delivered completely satisfying experiences that left me hungry for the next year of experimental art film.

I'll be seeing six film this year. Some I've awaited with great anticipation, some are risky choices based on plot summaries, directors and actors, and others were chosen on a whim as I waited in line to buy these tickets.

Of the six films I'll be attending, I'm most excited about two. First is Michael Haneke's remake of his own 1997 Austrian film, 'Funny Games.' An alarming film about the glorification of on-screen violence. The cast (starring Tim Roth, Naomi Watts and Michael Pitt) encourages one to hope for on-screen magic as a home invasion turns into something more sadistic and a family is forced to play 'funny games' throughout the night with the hope of surviving.

The second film is 'Choke.' Directed by Clark Gregg (his directorial debut) this adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel follows Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) as he schemes and cons to support his deranged mother in an expensive private mental hospital. As always, Palahniuk explores the darker side of life. Hopefully, the other works of Palahniuk translate to the big screen as well as 'Fight Club.'

The other screenings I'll be attending include Alan Ball's feature-length directorial debut of 'Towelhead,' starring Aaron Eckhart and Toni Collette, George A. Romero's 'Diary of the Dead,' (who can help but go see a zombie movie directed by the Romero?), Tom Kalin's Savage Grace (Julianne Moore and Stephen Dillane), and finally, 'Ballast,' directed by Lance Hammer.

Hopefully, this year's experience will outshine the last few years were I discovered 'The Descent,' 'Black Snake Moan,' and 'The Illusionist' among others.

Pictures and stories will follow.