Posts by Dan Holland

Valley of Bones is one of the most interesting films I’ve seen recently, simply because it takes an old B-movie trope and transforms it into a decent drama. However, rather than unearthing some soon-to-be-live prehistoric beast in the desert (a la The Mole People, Tarantula, or The Black Scorpion), Valley of Bones keeps the excavation underground and the real danger way out of the control of the characters. Where the trope is to have the fault of having a monster on the loose lie with the excavation team, this film develops the danger and drama as an outside force imposing upon the excavation team. While this form of external conflict can be found in countless films, this is the first I’ve seen it as it applies to a family-run archeological dig.

Afterimage is the final film of Andrzej Wajda, prior to his death in late 2016. Though I am not familiar with the cinematic stylings of Wajda, I researched enough to know that he typically helms projects that are historical and biographical, and cover very controversial topics taking place in Poland. Specifically, the ways in which occupation affected Poland during WWII. If this film has done anything for me, it has given me a curiosity to seek out more films from Wajda’s oeuvre. Afterimage is very methodic in its narrative and its set designs. Which is necessary given the film’s source material.

Soul on a String is the latest from director Yang Zhang, a very methodical filmmaker from Beijing, China. Now, I say methodical for two reasons: he’s been making films since the late 90’s and has only released a total of nine, and the ones I have seen are very slow-paced, but absolutely deliberate when paying attention to narrative, editing, and cinematography. To be fair, I have only seen two of his films. My first exposure to his work was in graduate school, as one of my colleagues who came from China invited me to watch Zhang’s 2005 film, Sunflower. Where I had some solace in recognizing the lead actress, Joan Chen (from Twin Peaks, of course), I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed the intense and complex emotions that the narrative drew out of me.

The subgenre of horror film that entails a group of friends, coworkers, or even strangers, being trapped in an area that they must escape from might be a tired cliché, but it is a tremendous guilty pleasure of mine. Especially the films where the characters willingly or forcefully band together to discover why they have been placed there in the first place, or how they can use their combined strengths to find the exit. Whether their strengths or their histories are coincidental (as is the case with Cube, 1997) or if they are gathered for a very specific mission of revenge (9 Dead, 2010), these films play with narrative connections in such a way that is irresistible to me.

A Blast just might be one of the ‘smartest’ movies I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I am not the smartest person to watch it. Heavily soaked in allegories about Greece’s recent financial crisis, the film begs to be understood, but if you do not have any background knowledge about the crisis, you are lost from the start. The film feels it was made specifically for Greek viewers, as all of the allegorical elements feel poignant and intentional, but not knowing anything about contemporary Greek society leaves you with the feeling of “this means something; I just don’t know what it is.”

The blues has had a tremendous impact on our contemporary popular culture, as it is largely the foundation of what we have come to understand as “pop music.” Without the blues, cultural phenomena such as Rock N’ Roll, Beatlemania, the British Invasion, heavy metal, hip-hop, gangsta rap, grunge, and contemporary pop would have evolved much differently. Even as I look over that list, I can’t make an argument for any one of those cultural shifts to be as impactful or as lasting as the blues. Perhaps I am a little biased as a rock enthusiast and musician, but every good guitar player knows that most of their stylistic flair can be traced right back to the Deep South.

In the early 1870’s the residents of Labette County, Kansas, lived alongside a family of serial killers. Known later as “The Bloody Benders,” their modus operandi was to lure travelers into their grocery store, invite them to stay for dinner, crush their skull with a hammer, and slit their throat to ensure death. Afterward, they would bury the remains somewhere on their property. Just as soon as they had been discovered, they vanished without a trace, making it difficult to ascertain if all the details we know are factual or fictional. However, stories like these are the perfect playground for filmmakers, as they are able to take as many creative liberties as they would like, and in the end, they need only say its “inspired by true events.” That being said, Bender is one of many adaptations of these events, but it looks to be one of the only films that explicitly deals with the actual Bender family and their specific victims.

Having studied and enjoyed the works of Freud, Lacan, Kristeva, and other great psychoanalytical thinkers in school, the term “psychoanalysis” carries a significant weight for me. That being said, I had quite a few expectations when picking up this film. Expectations that were not met. Now to be fair, etymologically, “psychoanalysis” means ‘mental (psyche) loosening/break apart (analysis),’ and that is most certainly delivered. However, I believe that the only relationship that this film has to the writings and theories of psychoanalysis is that literal definition of the title. Otherwise, it is a tremendous mystery to me as to how this film received its name.