OME Presents: What Did We Just Watch

When I started this podcast, my inspiration was taken from my own experience with friends having Video Nights at least once a week for a few years at one of those friends’ houses. That friend is this episode’s guest, and it’s been a long time coming. But you ARE somewhat familiar with previous guest/co-host Jon Bjorling. Jon was among those that joined us for said Video Nights…but he’s the only one to join me from that motley bunch, until now. Enter Lorin Reed, he of ONE instagram post, and scant social media presence. He’s an artist, a producer/DJ, a hopeful game developer and is arguably the most resented among us for literally being too damn sexy. No joke. It was at Lorin’s house where we had these Video Nights and where I gained the reputation of having the “weird movies”, a role I gladly fell into. I wish I could have included more Video Night alumn, but life would not permit such. So here we have Lorin joining me to talk about Nothing, that is, Vincento Natali‘s Nothing.

As you’ll hear in the show, Nothing is about two misfit friends who wish away all their woes only to be left with Nothing. Well, they are left with only themselves, no city, no police, no surroundings but for their weird dilapidated house. They must contend with their own insecurities as well as learn what exactly happened to put them in their maddening situation.

Please, join Lorin and me for this, very final episode* of WDWJW?!? You can watch Nothing here:

*I’m tired and stretched among many projects, most of which is working on Grumpire.com, be it the artwork for the site or producing the Grumpire podcast, and frankly, it’s just time I lighten my load. To those of you who have stuck with me all these years, I am forever grateful. And to all who have guested on this show (Rob Godinez, Manny Montejano, Travis Trapp, Elbee, Jon Bjorling, George Dean, Monica Torres, Ken Reid, Eduard Cantu, Michael Cool, P.J. Finn, Justin Lore, Liam O’Donnell, Courtney Penley, Mitcha Ansara, Shaun Robare, Erich Hall, Adrianna Gober, The Mike, Dan Pullen, Stephanie Crawford, Tom Nix, Ron Nelson, Mike Delaney, Andrew Hawkins, Jay Alary, & Lorin Reed) you each believed in the show and helped make it work and for that too I am forever grateful. And who knows, perhaps one day I will revive this show. As for now, WDWJW?!?! is dead. LONG LIVE WDWJW?!?

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Finally, we get to talk about Motorama. This 1991 film was a solitary staple for me in my late high school years. I knew no one who had talked of seeing it. It had a good run on HBO or Cinemax (both since they are owned by the same folks swap movies all the time). And while we’ve dipped into ‘kid-centric weirdo flicks here, here, here, and here, we’ve never covered one that was a surreal road trip through an America that never truly existed.

Here with me on this journey is velvet-voiced Erich Hall, who is one year younger than me, but had never seen Motorama, even though he too watched cable in the early 90s when this film was released. Please seek out this film, watch it & enjoy this episode of WDWJW

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There’s really not much to preface this episode with as far as show notes goes. This movie title “I Bought A Vampire Motorcycle” is as good a summary of the film as ever, though you’ll hear Jon contest this as a demon bike rather than a vampire bike.

Anyway, it’s fun, sloppy, super low budget, and a film that i’ve watch twice in 10 years, whatever that means. Oh it also stars Anthony Daniels as an exorcist. So there’s that.

Do please have a listen and hopefully, Enjoy.

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Hot on the heels of our discussion about nutsoid sci-fi horror teen farce Detention, comes an episode about another teen film, but one that’s mostly forgotten, in spite of Criterion reissuing a super deluxe version on blu-ray: Frances Ford Coppola’s direction of S.E. Hinton’s Rumble Fish.

When we think of teen movies, we think of John Hughes & his imitators, a night in the life of horny teen boys, or teen girl’s magical adventures in procuring a date to the prom. But nary do we consider Rumble Fish a teen movie, though it most certainly is.

The story centers on Rusty James’ attempt to live up to the legend that is his brother The Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke), a once gang leader, now enlightened free wheeler who is trying to live down his violent past. Rusty James (Matt Dillon) desperately wants the respect and status that his brother once had, but is not equipped for the task. Rusty James’s plight takes him from wayward ne’er-do-well, to an all at once compassionate kid via a story line that pushes toward a ticking time bomb of a seemingly tragic conclusion…

Written while directing the Outsiders, and directed immediately after the Outsiders wrapped, Rumble Fish is an avant-garde approach to what could have been just another mundane teen tale. Shot in stark black and white and populated with deft themes, symbolism and surrealism, Rumble Fish shakes the teen flick trappings and becomes something all the more special.

And here to talk about Rumble Fish with me is Elbee who pretty much swoons at the sight of the Motorcycle Boy, as he is indeed dreamy. But worry not, we dig into the strangeness a bit and try to see what sets this apart from the rest of those 80s teen movies out there.

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Recently I’ve come to understand that I like some teen movies. Previous to this realization I claimed that I didn’t like teen movies much at all, but upon examination the opposite would be true. And while there are few titles that could be included on my show here (Bill & Ted, Weird Science, Better Off Dead, My Science Project) not many teen flicks could come close to being in this show, at least not from the 80s. A strange little film from 2011 called Detention is discussed, nay, defended by me on this episode.

Detention is a kinetic, hyper, perhaps over stylized teen comedy sci-fi horror film from music video auteur Joseph Khan. Khan had previously directed the much maligned action biker extravaganza Torque. It’s noted in this film, that Khan has a ‘good sport’ sense of humor regarding his previous failure as he worked in one zinger aimed at the bombastic debacle (Torque was a box office bomb after all). But here, as if ignoring the lesson presented by Torque, that restraint may benefit a film, Khan swings for the fences and throws everything at the wall…and most of it sticks.

Both starring and executive produced by Josh Hutcherson, the film is populated by young actors of whom you probably haven’t heard: Spencer Locke (Resident Evil: Extinction), Shanley Caswell (The Conjuring)…and one you may have heard of: Dane Cook. I mean, that’s weird enough right? But as you’ll soon hear. Detention is one nutty romp.

Join us as we discuss (read: argue about) the absurdity that is presented in this, possibly the greatest high school movie to feature a killer prom queen slasher, a jock with fly blood and a tv hand, time travel within a taxidermied alien bear and Canadian debate enthusiast aliens…Jon doesn’t think it’s the greatest, but I do.

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It’s a rare thing that I’ll accept this deviation from the norm here. Usually we cover strange films that feature mostly practical special effects, sometimes cg animation but never, until now, have we covered a fully animated feature. Belladonna of Sadness isn’t JUST an animated film, but it’s an anime from 1973!

And it’s not only an anime, but an extremely artful, fashionable, highly stylized telling of the tragic tale of a young newlywed pushed beyond her limits and the revenge she wrought upon her oppressors via that age old ‘deal with the devil’.

Joining me to discuss the erotic and psychedelic splendor of Belladonna of Sadness is Grumpire extraordinaire Elbee!

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Like Making Contact, our film for this episode, XTRO, desperately wants to be a Speilberg movie. It doesn’t succeed in being that, but it is presented in marketing as a sort of horror response to Close encounters of the Third Kind & even more so, E.T. the Extraterrestrial.

My guest on this show is writer Jay Alary , who just so happened to have a special edition copy of Xtro just laying around his flat, brand new and unwatched. So I put him to the task, and this episode is the result.

Please join us for our discussion as we dig into, not only the maddening “and then…” nature of this film, the disturbing horror, but accents too! Provided here, is a copy of the film for you to watch. Enjoy!

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I think I’ll keep this one pretty short. This is the final episode of the year. The film is Hudsucker Proxy and the guest is the old standby, Jon. This is, for both of us, a favorite film from the first time either of us first watched it.

It belongs on this show because it is a film of magical realism, steeped in German expressionism and Art Deco and rapid fire dialogue. It’s informed by earlier films like Singing in the Rain & A Matter of Life and Death & Sweet Smell of success. But even though it was made decades after the aformentioned films, it should be considered contemporary to them, as it isn’t a send-up of their sort; rather it’s a film that is as unique and artful as they, set in a similar time, though it remains timeless nonetheless. It’s also the subtlest Christmas movie…

This is one of my very favorite films and I very much want you to watch it before you listen to this episode. But whatever you chose to do, please enjoy our episode discussing The Hudsucker Proxy

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I often skimp on talking about the directors of the films we discuss. I suppose it’s because I’m more interested in the film itself than the behind the scenes trivia, and I don’t exactly like to flex my knowledge on such (whether I have the info or not, and I don’t often consult search engines while recording the show). So with this episode about the 2009 french science fiction survival adventure film Eden Log we don’t get too far into that information, and that’s kind of a shame.

I say “shame” because the director, Franck Vestiel, seems to have learned from some of the best in the genre. He’d previously worked as a 1st and/or 2nd assistant director on many films including The Nest, Renegade, House of Voices, Them & Dante 01, all of which I find incredibly well made. Some are straight action or thriller, others are ghost stories or esoteric science fiction, but they are all interesting to say the very least. So, it’s a shame I didn’t mention any of that on this episode, thus I mention it all here. (But who really reads these show notes anyway?) When Vestiel put to work that which he learned while on these projects, the end result is something unique and interesting, if not a little foreign (both because it’s French and because, something executed so well in this genre had yet to be seen on film).

And though we do mention the soundtrack , it is literally one of the rarest things, with only 4 tracks available to preview online anywhere. The group behind the music, Seppuku Paradigm is no more, but they had a good run for a few years, scoring films like neo-giallo Red Nights and the cult transgressive thriller Martyrs. (Thankfully the score for Martyrs is currently available on Spotify.)

I’m pleased to be joined again by Jon on this episode. We try and unravel the mystery of Eden Log. You can watch the film for free on Tubi TV, and should, and when you’re done, please join us?

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It’s that time again, kiddies. The Spookiest time of the year! It’s October and as such it’s time to feature a creepier than usual flick. So, I’ve chosen 1986’s SPOOKIES. Full disclosure, I have seen this one time before this viewing, and that was last year when I first learned of the film. Or should I say “films”?

You see, Spookies had a rocky production, and is apparently a cobbled together film of 2 separate picture or something like that. To learn more about that, look no further than HERE, where they really dig into all that behind the scenes stuff.

With me on this excursion in Andrew Hawkins of Freaky Fandoms Podcast (among a bunch of other stuff; the man wears a lot of hats). Join us as we dig through this movie that features a Werecat-boy, an Undead Overlord, a Ghost mom, 3 fiji-mirmen, A banshee, a demon possessed yuppie, a ton of zombies. a spider-lady, a phantasm jawa tween, a bunch of poop-dudes & a wind up toy robot. If you haven’t seen the film, do give it a view, I’ve provided the video below. Enjoy!

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