Yeelen

1987 fantasy

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A magical father/son conflict.

Holy cow! The poster is a gigantic spoiler! Don't look at it!

For a fantasy with so much magic at the center of it, this sure is flat. I have a lot of trouble with the rhythm of African films, I guess. There is some visual magic in this, individual shots really inspired, but when there's dialogue in this, it really slows down. It's a case of too much telling instead of showing, but you have to assume a lot of that is because of budget constraints.

This is your classic son-fleeing-from-a-father-who-is-trying-to-kill-him narrative, but the movie is clearly about penises. Both father and son bring their own phallic symbols to a climactic fight, and at one point, the son even has the great line, "My penis betrayed me."

If I had a dollar for every time I've said "My penis betrayed me," I'd be making money in a really weird way. Apologies to Mitch Hedberg since that's totally his joke I just ripped off.

I got to learn about fetishes, see a guy in a hyena suit who apparently has never heard a hyena laugh, and enjoy a wild Komo meeting that featured a painted guy who showed off this stamina to just sit and do nothing that could rival my own.