We Respectfully Present Those Who Are Oft Titled 'The Wacky'
There's a reason I love this stuff...

I can imagine a crowd of people filing into some little indy theater because some arthouse movie got a spectacular write up in the paper. Then they would leave, sometimes before the film's end, and many would be muttering in reference to the reviewer, "Idiot." Some might ask for a refund, some'll start making fun of it, and most will just forget about it.

Personally, I don't necessarily agree that the critic was an idiot, but let's face it, you can't gush over stuff that the general populace just won't get.

Like all those people who went to Cronenberg's Crash. I watched them sit through an hour and a half of sex and car crashes, only to leave during the one homo-erotic scene that was fifteen minutes from the ending. Now watching James Spader and Elias Koteas get it on wasn't something I really needed or wanted to see, but compared to some of the other stuff it was pretty low key and tastefully done. If I HAD left it would've been during that scar massaging thing with Spader and the Arquette sister...whoa, nasty. But it got good reviews, it won some awards, but lordy, lordy, it wasn't for Joe Average's eyes and likely never will be.

Or the friend of mine who was working a theater when Taratino arrived on the screen. He worked at a small art house theater whose primary clientele was definitely of the senior citizen bracket. Well, they got Reservoir Dogs, it got good reviews, and the old folks shuffled into the darkened theater. Several days later the manager had to hang up one of those signs that reads like so: "Reservoir Dogs contains scenes of graphic violence. No refunds will be given."

Certainly Quentin has made his way closer to the mainstream, but his movies, that one in particular, is still not for many and certainly not past a certain age.

When I got to the end of last night's feature, I could only imagine patrons filing out of the double doors while the end credits song played. How many of them, young and old, would be mouthing something like, "Dude, what the f*ck?"

Monday (2000) d. Sabu (née Hiroyuki Tanaka)

Story: Working joe, Takagi, wakes up in a hotel room on a Monday morning having no idea what's happened to him, but slowly through little clues scattered about the room he pieces together the lost activities. He started at a funeral. He met up with his girlfriend. He went to a bar. He ran into some gangsters. He had a couple of drinks. Now he's got problems.

The Review: Back to the paragraph just before the one that started out "Story:". From the little synopsis above, you may not think there's anythign so strange about it. In fact, in the days post-Memento, it seems to be an almost banal plot line. Well, there's lost of stuff I had to leave out: 1) It's a synopsis, and 2) Some stuff you gotta see for yourself.

To prove my point, I'll elaborate. The first thing Takagi finds our some funerary purification salts. What starts as a somber occasion gets more and more surreal as the attendees began to prattle off strange memories of the deceased. Just before it's over, the deceased's sister receives a phone call telling her they can't cremate the body until his new pacemaker is turned off (or it'll explode). Deciding to take care of it then and there they nominate Takagi for the process. He opens the stitches and finds the wires near to the surface, but colorwise he can't tell one from the other. A wire is chosen and he cuts. Suddenly the crowd begins to back away, then the body explodes. It's surreal, disgusting, but FUNNY...but I don't see the average crowd laughing after the way it's presented.

So there's something in the tone that's already not quite gonna work for a lot of folks.

Keep in mind though, I was howling during this scene.

Then again, how many people here have seen a true Japanese gangster movie? And yes, Black Rain doesn't count. As in made in Japan by Japanese people. Well, part of what fascinates me about them is that like British gangster movies they are often intensely violent, and then funny for all the wrong reasons. As Richard Pryor once said, "All gangster stories are about the same thing...motherf*ckers that died funny." Well, American gangsters often miss out on this strange gallows humor, but not the Brits or the Japanese. We're talking center stage.

Of course the Japnese stuff is usually pretty ritualistic and often very graphically bloody.

If you don't like that sort of stuff, you aren't gonna make it through many of these movies. This one's pretty light on that sort of thing, but not completely without it.

A couple of reviews I came across for this title referred to the moving Falling Down with Michael Douglas. I can see the relevance, but this one's commentary is a little different. For one thing, Falling Down tapped into a deeply felt racism towards so many groups despite its weak attempts to save face (ie. Douglas's confrontation with Frederic Forrest's Army Surplus character). It had a social message, but Monday's is much clearer...very literally.

The reason I said this was a WTF inducing movie was really the ending not the comic violence.

Having a surreal atmosphere, and being a surreal movie are often two different things. This movie starts as the former and ends as the latter. It's a little jarring...and...

Here's where I think the movie critics go wrong. No matter how good you think certain flicks are, you still have to be able to see where any average audience is not gonna accept it. It's not that they're stupid, they just aren't going to like it. For me, this sudden and weird shift wasn't jarring, but I could already start crossing people I could share this one with off the list. Otherwise, assuming they finished it, I'd hear a lot of "Well, I liked it up until...."

I have to keep in mind that I've seen thousands of movies. I've seen a couple hundred Japanese flicks alone. There isn't as much that's gonna jar me.

But imagine you're watching a Tarantino movie. It's smart and fast-talking gangsters doing gangster sh!t. Most people can watch this, no sweat. Now imagine that two-thirds of the way into the movie David Lynch took over the director's job. Our gangsters are now having visions and fighting their way through what may or may not be alternate realities or plot possibilities. Assuming you follow me, how many people would make it to the end and how many wouldn't walk out saying "Dude, what the f*ck?"

Watching it through my eyes, naked demons and mass laugh-in hysteria don't seem all that strange a direction to go, but compared to what seems to be going on for the first hour...well, I don't know, you'd just have to see it and decide for yourself.

In the end, I enjoyed Monday. The premise alone was enough to sell me. Though it certainly had a few dark moments here and there, it was nowhere near as grim as Abel Ferrara's The Blackout which covered similar ground. In the end, it had a good build. The performance's were solid. The design and cinematography were sparse but effective. It managed to do something fun with its premise. I enjoyed it.

But I'm not saying you're going to. But I'd say give it a try. Nothing wrong with broadening it up some.

Cheers.