2004 elevator movieRating: 13/20
Plot: In a futuristic society where people get around via elevators, a Japanese school girl (I have to occasionally throw words like "Japanese school girl" together so that more people will find my blog when searching) gets in trouble not only for smoking but for accidentally blowing up a bunch of people. She enters an elevator which turns out to be the titular hellevator when a criminally-insane rapist and a criminally-insane terrorist who, for whatever reason, talks backward enter.
I was very intrigued during the first twenty minutes before stuff started happening. That first chunk of movie was a series of surreal vignettes, stylishly dopey with some cool sound effects and cheap effects that reminded me a little of Brazil or Tetsuo. There were zip-zipping businessmen and a robot dog brain, and instead of the weird horror movie I figured I was going to see when I popped this in, I was starting to wonder if this was a weird half-assed parody instead. The one-setting thing works while things remained odd and random. Once the criminals enter the story, things are still interesting, probably because one is just great at playing a violent twitching, screaming, and licking lunatic and the other talks backwards. Once a real story develops, it loses steam, and although it was still consistently entertaining, the never-changing setting began to feel a little claustrophobic. Several twists and grainy flashbacks later, I was more confused than interested in what was going on. I'm going to give director Hiroki Yamaguchi bonus points for doing an awful lot with not very much at all and for displaying some filthy creative spirit, but I wish the story and its characters were a little more interesting.
If I have a worst title pun of the year award, I don't see anything beating this. Hellevator? I'm not even sure why anybody would want to admit they saw a movie called Hellevator.
Stroszek... Is that the one where he starts out playing a glockenspiel, possibly in Poland, and ends up in a shooting gallery somewhere in Texas? And the last shot is a chicken standing on a record going round and round?
ReplyDeleteObviously I don't remember the particulars, but I remember it being one of the most desolate things I'd ever seen. In the best way possible, that is A friend of mine said it took him weeks to shake the feeling he was just a chicken on a record going round and round.
As for your friend who doesn't like Totoro, that's just awful. I'm starting to think liking weird movies is not a matter of taste but something you practice. I've shown the Holy Mountain to people who seem to lack the vocabulary to appreciate it and it upsets me when they blame the movie. Maybe its confusing if you're used to a particular type of narrative and suddenly a movie comes along and violates it, but I get so much meaning and gratification out of film it's hard to believe other people wouldn't look for it harder. Of course, one of the people who didn't get the Holy Mountain was a nurse, so I suppose it could be argued she has practiced the more useful skill.
Still! Rebecca and I just went to see the Artist, and we ran into a friend just outside the theatre who said she found it "boring." I wanted to kick her in the shins. It hadn't even occurred to me until she said it that was even possible.