April 30, 2017

Theresa is Rad: Starcrash




Back when we were collecting trailers for the first Trailer Trash, we came across a trailer for a little gem called Starcrash. The trailer is a special blend of wonderful, but the movie itself is a unique illustration of how far you can push the ridiculous envelope in the scifi genre. So when we realized that Trash Film was screening the film the week following Trailer Trash,  we could not contain our excitement.


Everyone who was lucky enough to get into that Trash Film screening (it sold out in the days before) was treated to one of the most intensely convoluted, forced perspective action filled, hamfisted Star Wars rip-offs that was ever conceived, all thanks to Theresa's rad taste!


Second Clue: May's Mystery Movie

Clue 2#: This month's star reprised her role as the main character in 6 films following this one.


Maybe you've noticed the influx of "bad" cinema screenings in the Twin Cities lately? Well you have the tenacious groundwork of Theresa and her Trash Film Debaucherying to thank for that hotbed of questionable cinema screenings! Theresa has been building the terrible, wonderful, sometimes unbearable movie watching scene in the Twin Cities for longer than any game in town, so this month we're dedicating our theme to all the Debauchery Theresa has treated us to over the last thirteen years!! 



Tape Freaks Presents: May's Mystery Movie at the Trylon microcinema, Wednesday, May 3rd@ 7:00pm, only $5!

****Purchase advance ticket here****

>>>If you're not following Trash Film Debauchery on Facebook  you should be!<<<

April 26, 2017

First Clue: May's Mystery Movie

Clue #1: Theme for May's screening: Theresa is Rad. 

Maybe you've noticed the influx of "bad" cinema screenings in the Twin Cities lately? Well you have the tenacious groundwork of Theresa and her Trash Film Debaucherying to thank for that hotbed of questionable cinema screenings! Theresa has been building the terrible, wonderful, sometimes unbearable movie watching scene in the Twin Cities for longer than any game in town, so this month we're dedicating our theme to all the Debauchery Theresa has treated us to over the last thirteen years!! 



Tape Freaks Presents: May's Mystery Movie at the Trylon microcinema, Wednesday, May 3rd@ 7:00pm, only $5!

****Purchase advance ticket here****

>>>If you're not following Trash Film Debauchery on Facebook  you should be!<<<

April 5, 2017

Remakes: The Fly

We blew our friend's mind the other day by introducing her to The Fly remake staring Jeff Goldblum. She's a Goldblum fanatic but had absolutely no clue this movie existed, and that made the absolute best viewing experience! (If you have no concept of what The Fly is, and love horror/sci-fi movies, please don't read any further and just watch this movie.)



The plot unfolds something like this: Seth Brundle has successfully created a matter transporter! While celebrating his success with his new girlfriend, she abruptly leaves to tell her slimy ex to f-off. This upsets Brundle, so he drunkenly lashes out at the world by transporting himself. Unfortunately, he's not the only passenger on that ride. The presence of extra DNA triggers changes in Seth that take him from ripped-as-fuck scientist, to something new... something that's never existed before...


Watching this with a novice: At the start of the film our friend was making fun of Goldblum's hair and making cracks about us blowing the popularity of this movie out of proportion, normal stuff really until Goldblum's shirt came off. Then she was all "oh my!" and "look at him!" for a good long while. But it wasn't until just after Goldblum's gymnastic routine, when she said "I think I'm getting what's going on here", that we really understood how little she knew about this story. Seriously, she had no idea he was going to turn into a fly monster. NONE! When bits of him started falling off, she freaked out, and she still didn't know it was going to get nothing but worse! And the entire time, she was convinced that this was some kind of unheard of movie, something that we only knew about because we love horror.


The end: By the time we got to the final scene of the film, it was Tim and I that were in for the surprise. Our friend was about as upset about Brundle Fly's demise as she was about the puppy dying at the start of John Wick (which was also a surprise for her).

Don't get this twisted: Our friend is not a movie watching novice. She knows some shit about some shit, but apparently there's some stuff so far off her radar she thinks we've made it up! (And she loved this film, as everyone who loves horror/sci-fi should!)

April 4, 2017

Third Clue: April's Mystery Movie

Clue #3 This month's horror remake has a great look, thanks in large part to the director of photography, who was also the cinematographer on what could arguably be the best horror remake of all time.


Tape Freaks Presents: April's Mystery Movie at the Trylon microcinema, Wednesday, March 5th@ 7:00pm, only $5!

****Purchase advance ticket here****

Remakes: Black Caesar

While researching last month's theme, we learned that Larry Cohen's Black Caesar was a remake of a pre-code gangster film staring Edward G. Robinson called Little Caesar.


Why remake a fairly obscure gangster film from the 30s?: Cohen had been commissioned by Sammy Davis Jr. to write a film that would star Davis, and Cohen decided to base his script on a gangster film he'd obsessed over when he was young. Unfortunately, by the time the script was finished, Davis was unable to pay for it, leaving Cohen with a movie burning a hole in his pocket. Luckily it wasn't too long before he was approached by Samuel Z. Arkoff to direct something featuring a Black cast. Cohen showed him Black Caesar, and they signed a deal before their first meeting was through.

The plot unfolds something like this: A young Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson) crosses paths with a punch-happy, racist and on-the-take cop who sends Tommy to the hospital and juvie in short order. When Tommy gets out, he positions himself to be at the local (also racist) mob's disposal, dutifully doing their dirty work and lulling them into trusting him. He eventually uses this trust to take control of Harlem for himself. But his lust for power becomes entirely unquenchable and he quickly alienates everyone he cares about as his grabs for power become more bloody and impulsive. He's left with two choices: examine why he started down this path in the first place, or die trying to avoid the reality of who he's become.

The overt similarities: Both Black Caesar and Little Caesar are about the rise of a small-time criminal, and their subsequent undoings.











Different subtexts: The undoing of each of these characters is rooted in their limited understanding of themselves, but where Rico (Edward G. Robinson) in Little Caesar seems to be incapable of letting his "friend" (who is more probably his unrequited love interest) leave the life of crime Rico has built for the two of them; Williamson's Tommy can't seem to understand why his revenge fueled climb to the top has failed to make him (and everyone around him) happy.

Misogyny in place of homosexuality: There aren't homosexual undertones prevalent in Black Caesar, but there is a fair amount of misogyny. Tommy treats his love interest poorly from the moment she's introduced, to the point that we couldn't understand why she was drawn to him in the first place, never mind why she marries him (though she does leave him eventually, him raping her is what pushes her to make that decision). It seems that Cohen was aware of the homosexual themes of the original, but opted to replace them with misogynistic themes. But even with different subtexts, both of these films are an exploration of the problems that arise when men don't properly address their feelings.

And the soundtrack: Speaking of misogynists, this was James Brown's first soundtrack effort, and he unintentionally made life very difficult for the filmmakers. Every track he turned in was upwards of 30 seconds longer than it needed to be, making it impossible to use the songs for the scenes they were written for. As a result, the tracks are used in sometimes jarring and down right odd ways throughout the film. But on their own, they're fantastic James Brown songs. (And even though Brown made life harder for the production, when the time came for the sequel to be scored Cohen reached out to Brown again. This time Brown turned in something of a masterpiece. A masterpiece that American International Pictures passed on, and Brown ended up releasing himself as The Payback. That's right, one of James Brown very best albums, was a rejected soundtrack. Go figure.)

Our feelings on this film: This was one of our favorite blacksploitation films we watched while researching last month's theme (and if it hadn't been for that completely unnecessary and violent rape scene, we would have found a way to screen it). It's one of the few blacksploitation films that's considered a tragedy, but it's also one where racism is illustrated in many lights, where poverty and crime aren't shown through a two-dimensional lens, and the only one we watched where the female lead was portrayed as both strong and vulnerable. There's an impressive layering of nuance in this film from start to finish (which is unusual for a mob movie), and we highly recommend it.