1992 faux religious propaganda film
Rating: 15/20
Plot: A recruitment film for the Church of the Subgenius.
This is a rich slab of culture jamming, a fastidiously assembled assault on the senses that isn't like much else that I've seen. If anything, it resembles something from the Everything Is Terrible folks. It's just as provocative but probably a little more focused. This takes us through the origin story of J.R. Bob Dobbs, the pipe-smoking founder of this religion, the Scientology-esque particulars, the main beliefs of this religion/cult's followers, and the ways to obtain "slack." None of it makes a great deal of sense, but it's all so earnest that you have to go along with it. There are seemingly thousands of sampled clips from various things, some of them probably a little too familiar, and there are a few songs.
I preferred the parts of this that consisted of narration over the collage stuff. The longer this went on, the more they showed lengthy clips of some sort of gatherings where a crowd was being preached to. Those bits, some which reminded me of a Residents concert for some reason, got a little dorky or jokey. The sheer insanity of the whole thing makes this a psychedelic trip worth diving into.
Mark Mothersbaugh, the Devo guy, is in this a few times.
No comments:
Post a Comment