The Belladonna of Sadness
Hey everyone…here’s another CRAP FILTER movie review column. My girlfriend Michele and I have been checking out a lot of revival screenings and film festivals, and we’ll be co-reviewing some of these films right here in this column…HE SAID, SHE SAID “SHUT UP”
ALEX: I don’t think Michele and I really knew what to expect going into the “Belladonna of Sadness”, other than that Belladonna wasn’t in it. Last weekend we attended the Museum of Sex exhibition Peeping, Probing & Porn: Four Centuries of Graphic Sex in Japan. It had some anime, but it was all big-eye hentai stuff.
Belladonna of Sadness is over 30 years old. Thursday’s screening at KBG Bar was the first time it was screened in the US. You can tell its age because its production style was closer to The Adventures of David the Gnome than Neon Genesis Evangelion.
MICHELE: Anime was still in its infancy stage at this period and it shows. The film is primarily still shots, occasionally panning across, to give the feeling of fluidity. Only during “important” scenes, such as all of the sex scenes, was the anime we know of today used.
Announcing Band Madness!
From the people who brought you Crap Filter and A Week of Kindness, it’s Band Madness!
BAND MADNESS puts 512 bands into a March Madness-style tournament bracket with the results determined by your votes. In each matchup, vote for WHICHEVER BAND YOU LIKE BETTER…
After a week, the results for Bracket A will be posted and voting will open for Bracket B, so remember to check back next week for the new matchups.
Now, you too can filter the crap! The voting for the first 64 matchups on Round 1 is open now. Head on over there and get voting. And tell ‘em Crap Filter sent ya!
Suge Knight is up to no money
The toughest dude in the world named Marion is bankrupt.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday to avoid losing control of his Death Row Records label in a $107 million civil court judgment, his lawyers said.
Knight, who co-founded Death Row in the early 1990s and helped launch the careers of such rap stars as Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur, has failed to make good on a March judgment to pay Lydia Harris, who claimed Knight cheated her out of a 50 percent stake in the music label.
…Two weeks ago, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge said he would appoint a court officer, called a receiver, to take control of Knight’s assets, including Death Row, and directed Knight to disclose his finances in a debtor’s exam set for April 1.
Is anybody even on Death Row anymore? I was pretty sure that everybody in rap was ready to pop a cap in Suge Knight. He should be begging Harris to take half of the label, and then maybe he could convince some half decent rappers that he’s not a total douchebag looking to screw them over.
Oh wait, I forgot I was talking about Suge Knight.
Eminem has new material; ditches his bitch
Shock! Less than three months after remarrying his on-again-off-again wife Kim, Eminem has filed for re-divorce.
Though the marital issues of most rappers wouldn’t make headlines, Eminem has used his tormented relationship with Kim, his high school sweetheart, as a source of his most popular and demented rhymes.
He’s killed her off in song and assailed her with his lyrics — but that was before they got back together.
The only safe assumption is that he was running low on material and needed a refill. This should get him through another album or too. Look for the singles “Bitch, you still suck” and “Bitch, you’re still a bitching bitch” soon on iTunes.
Hurley loses his mind
2.18. - Dave
Hurley-Centric
Why are the cute ones always so crazy?
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a Hurley episode, and it’s been longer still since we first found out he was in a mental institution. A lot of Hurley information was finally revealed in this episode, along with some new bits egarding “Henry” and the hatch. But first, review! Continues after the jump »
Apoclyapse, Horror and Revenge
This week’s Netflix haul includes Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf, and a double-dose of Asian horror - Ab-Normal Beauty and The Neighbor No. 13.
Time of the Wolf is French depreso-director Michael Haneke’s post-apolyaptic nightmare starring Isabelle Huppert (officially the oldest woman I’d still hook up with). It’s not a Sci-Fi or Action pic, despite its genre. We never see or learn what exactly caused the apoclyapse. Instead, we follow a mother and her two traumatized children as they search for shelter and safety in the French countryside. The three, along with Huppert’s husband, arrive at their country house at the start of the film. There, Huppert’s husband is immediately killed by a man whose family has taken over the house and doesn’t intend on giving it up.
Brick
Last Friday, my girlfriend Michele and I caught the opening of Rian Johnson’s teen detective film, Brick. Coleman- hook us up with a co-login! Yes, I am flooding this site. Some spoilers below…
MICHELE: When Brick premiered at Sundance in 2005, it was one of the sleeper hits of the festival. Little was known about the plot, aside from it being a murder mystery in a high school setting. And that it starred Joseph Gordon–Levitt, who has just had a brilliant performance in Mysterious Skin and Lukas Haas, who appears in movies occasionally.
At Sundance, Brick was one of the hardest tickets to get. As a result, the Sundance Jury presented a special award to Director Rian Johnson- the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision. After seeing this movie, you understand why.
Brick is not intended to be your average high school teen drama. You get that immediately when the dialogue instantly starts up. Spoken in style coated in slang, the movie forces you to think, and think quickly to keep up with the info that is provided. While not everything is clear, as long as you follow along, you are able to figure out what is going on. But even in times when you can’t figure out what was just said, it doesn’t bother you. The lines are written & spoken in such fluidity that it is easy on the ear, almost reminding you of iambic pentameter.
K-Fed blinded T-Dolb with… S-cien?
I’m saddened to have to report that not only is Britney Spears’ husband a talentless hack and drain on her bank account, but he’s also apparently lacking in ethics. Shocking, yes, I know.
It turns out that Popo-Zao himself has blinded Thomas Dolby, not with science, but with THEFT! Quoth the Dolb-man:
“Britney Spears’ husband Kevin Federline, whom I’d never heard of until a few days ago, appears to have illegally sampled one of my compositions. On his MySpace site you can download an MP3 which uses a looped sample from Mobb Deep’s ‘Get It Twisted’, which in turn copped the string line from my own song ‘She Blinded Me With Science.’ Now, Mobb Deep did it the right way and had his label BMG come and ask for a license. They paid me a fee and a royalty on the sales of Mobb Deep’s record. However K-Fed, as his fans affectionately refer to him, did NOT ask permission, he just went ahead and did it. He is therefore blatantly violating the copyright law. And laws aside, he owed it to me as an artist to ask if I minded that he recorded a vitriolic rap over the top of my music.
All arguments about fair use aside, Thomas Dolby’s prime error here is that he refers to K-Fed as an artist. Also, he refers to K-Fed’s affectionate fans. I’m pretty sure that they’re not his fans, and they’re not calling him K-Fed in an affectionate manner. Kevin Federline is essentially the butt of a joke that everybody in the world except Kevin Federline is in on.
I’m going to have to assume that Thomas Dolby usually has better things to do with his time than reflect upon what a total drag on society K-Fed is. It’s the only logical explanation
The madness continues!
Round 1, Bracket A of Band Madness was a massive success that made the moon landing look like a bad student film with a boom mic in the frame.
We had some upsets and a few predicatable wins, which will make for some really hot matches in Round 2. Right now, however, it’s time to vote in Round 1, Bracket B.
Make it your mission to see that Dire Straits beats Paul McCartney’s solo work. It’ll mean a lot to a lot of people if the individual Beatles don’t dominate this tournament. Get voting and good luck to your bands!
We’re here to talk about your baby, Ms. Spears
This must be like pure deja vu from Britney’s backwoods childhood in Louisiana:
Child welfare officials and a sheriff’s deputy visited the home of Britney Spears but declined to say Tuesday whether they were investigating the pop princess.
Spears and her husband, Kevin Federline, are the parents of an infant son, Sean Preston.
The Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services and the Lost Hills sheriff’s station declined to give details of Saturday afternoon’s visit.
“It’s a very standard, routine patrol request,” Lt. Debra Glaskides said Tuesday. “We just roll out with them. We stood by, we took no action, no report or anything.”
You know how it was Luke Skywalker’s destiny to redeem his father so Anakin Skywalker could kill The Emperor and bring balance to the force? It is Sean Preston Spears-Federline’s destiny to be seized by the state, thusly restoring the balance to that was disturbed way back when people actually thought Britney might not be absolute trash.
UPDATE
From the pinnacle of Journalism, The Star:
On April 7, when Britney Spears and Kevin Federline realized that their baby, Sean Preston, had been sleeping more than usual, panic bells went off. Just six days earlier, the 7-month-old had taken a major fall from his high chair, a tumble that had his parents worried that he might have been critically injured.
They had every right to fret. After rushing Sean to a nearby hospital, they discovered he had a minor skull fracture (sometimes called a “scalp fracture” in babies), and a blood clot.
Wait a second. It took them “just” six days to go to the hospital after the kid fell on his head out of a high chair? When I think “fret” I don’t think “sit around waiting for the moonshine to ferment so you can drive to the hospital with a good buzz.” And after six days, “rushing” isn’t really the word for going to the hospital.
Looks like the prophecy will be fulfilled sooner than anyone could have anticipated.
