Asylum Seekers (2009)

  
I almost gave up on this and stopped watching at the 20 minute mark (and to put the gravity of that statement into perspective for you, out of the gazitrillion movies I watch this actually happens only purple times), but it's really awesome that I didn't because this film kinda evolves, and by the end of it you're all like whoa, Neo styles.

Even though the humour misses more often than it hits, it comes with so much vigour and so much charm that it really doesn't matter. This one out Terry Gilliams Terry Gilliam, and it does it on a measly 1.5mil budget. It's a damn shame the people behind it couldn't pull together some fatter stacks because seeing this one realized without those limitations would have turned out to be a special treat indeed.

So basically a bunch of crazy people come into an asylum, and it's like, the best asylum there ever was. But there's only one spot available, and so they must compete for admittance. Whatever you're thinking of right now, the movie is nothing like that.

And like, allegorical metaphors and shit! I really really wanna share my theories so you can appreciate how clever I am, unfortunately my jurnalistic integrity prohibits me from spoiling it. Suffice to say the film does a wonderful job of building up to a perfect catharsis. After sitting through so many up to interpretation open ended bananalities that this beloved genre of ours seems so ubiquitously fond of, it was a nice surprise to see this one get tied off so beautifully. Mmmm, delicious payoff cake. I tire of filmmakers expecting me to do their writing for them.

Another reason I ended up falling in love with Asylum Seekers is that it is completely unapologetically batshit far out there crazy. Like, so far out there that if you were to go out to meet it and look back, we'd be just a tiny dot. And it does all that without shame, without the need to justify itself or to cushion the blow, which is something I always really appreciate in a film. Crank. I think I'd like to rewatch Crank. Anyway.

The cool thing about these mental patients (besides the fact that they're performed wonderfully) is that they're so easy to identify with. The cyber lolita who is so infatuated with technology that she wants electricity to run through her veins was a particular favourite, not only because of the immediately obvious correlations between her and myself but also because I couldn't help but start thinking about transhumanism and I got so engrossed that I chainsmoked three cigarettes after having seen this film.
I liked her so much that I didn't even care when she made a quip about Quake III needing watercooling, and usually I am such a stickler for that kind of thing in my media. Oh, do go on, tell me how you're going to track that IP. Ugh. I do hope they write that shit intentionally. What was I saying? Oh yeah, likable characters. That's good.

And I don't even think think that film was at all about transhumanism, or maybe it was, what the fuck do I know.

Antichamber (2013) (Game)

  
A non-Euclidean, Escherish first person puzzler with a strong tendency to blow minds, preconceptions, short tempers and rules that have been (strangely) more or less completely unchallenged since the dawn of video gaming. This is Portal on cocaine, steroids and DMT.
Unmissable.

Wrong (2012)

  
This is Quentin Dupieux's follow up to Rubber. It is a bit good.

Not unlike Rubber, Wrong revels in subverting expectations and plays with tropes just as much as it does with its audience. Whether you can sit through that type of malarkey and enjoy yourself is pretty subjective which is why I'm hesitant to wholeheartedly recommend it, and unfortunately it also shares a lot of the pitfalls that I encountered with Rubber; there are a lot of moments of pure inspiration, it's just that these are sandwiched between sequences of relative mediocrity. I say relative, which is important, as Wrong is anything but - what I'm trying to get at is that Wrong has a lot of highs, and indeed they are quite brilliant, which draw a hell of a lot of attention to the plateaus.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't, I guess. One thing that this one has that Rubber didn't is a real human element to it. It's about some dude looking for his missing dog, and there are a lot of small touches in there that make you genuinely care about him. The film moves along at a brisk pace which I really appreciated - with works like these, especially where the writer/director also undertakes a lot of other roles it's easy for a film to screech to a halt in order to satisfy somebody's egotistic need for self indulgence. I'm feeling a rant coming on (I've seen a little too much pompous arthouse shit recently) so I'll try to digress. And no, the irony is not lost on me.

So anyway, this dude, looking for his dog, and you care. And it's funny! Partly from the skillful use of deadpan, partly from some exceptionally entertaining performances (Master Chang who is outrageous and subtle all at once, the gardener's ridiculous accent, the dude's neighbour's quiet desperation are just some of the highlights) and the pure, unashamed lack of common sense or logic bring Dupieux's strange scenarios to life with surprising comic force and a tangible dramatic undercurrent.

If the above sounds like something you might not hate, then by all means give this one a chance. I know that a lot of people will almost be immediately turned off by one element of this film or another, or they may not appreciate being made fun of or scoffed at so they will scoff at the film in return, but that'd be a real shame because rolling with the punches is part of the charm here, indeed, one of the attractions.

Things happen. Characters come in, do some stuff, and then go. The soundtrack drones on with foreboding or nonchalance and the alarm clock goes from 7:59 to 7:60. Why? No reason.
(・。・)