Stranger Than A Strange Land

I made the mistake of going to one of the NY Film Festival shorts programs.

All of the shorts programs were listed under the "Avant Garde" events, which should have served as a warning. This particular program, "Stranger Than a Strange Land", looked to be more science fiction and less self-indulgent crap, so I gave it a go.

Warm Objects : Thermal Imagery. Fun to watch, but really this just amounts to playing with a new toy. Artistic content: zero.

Notes From a Bastard Child : Not sure what this one was about. It looked like it was stitched together from all of the film reels at the director's (and I use that term quite loosely) exposure, undoubtedly in an attempt to come up with something to turn in as a senior project when weekend is up. Some particularly grainy footage is spliced in, perhaps in an attempt to make it feel authentic (an authentic what exactly?) or vintage or something.

The Mongrel Sister : Not sure they showed this one; I can't even remember it. I think they mistakenly showed the first seven minutes of the next film instead.

Victory Over the Sun : Yes, yet another film student has discovered the dilapidated extravagance of former World's Fair sites. I find it a mark of maturity to visit these strangely compelling sites and not make a film about it. Oh, and it ends with an orchestral version of November Rain; apparently the filmmaker has discovered not only Flushing Meadows, but Guns'n'Roses as well.

Stranger Comes to Town : This started out quite annoying but soon turned entertaining -- a good thing, since it is the second-longest film in the set. It kicks off with a narrator bemoaning the indignities of entering the US with a Middle Eastern passport ("you have to wait! and it is all so impersonal! they might even verify your fingerprint!"). I was mostly shocked by how banal the complaints were; the narrators all sounded like very naive, very spoiled kids who are experiencing life without servants for the first time. The use of some video game engine or another to re-enact the INS experiences provided some entertainment, not the least of which was watching the semi-sentient breasts of the avatars flexing as their chests heave with each breath. That may not have been intended by the filmmaker, but it got a few laughs.

Light is Waiting : More from the "Hey, look what technique I just learned about!" school of film. Not sure what the technical term for the technique is (mirrored double exposure?) , but it grew tedious after seconds and certainly did not add anything to the film (which appears to be some family's vacation footage).

SpaceDisco-One : The longest piece in the set, and the most entertaining. This film presents itself as the sequel to Logan's Run and 1984, as well as a crossover with Battlestar Galactica circa 1980. The two female descendants of the Logan's Run leads are leading an armed (with ping-pong ball guns, or something similar) rescue party to free Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) from a stint on the reality show Big Brother. Apparently he was really on it at some point, and the clips are hilarious. Oh and poor Winston goes through Room 101 again, then somehow warps through time to encounter the two women and relate to them that they are all fictional characters on the starship SpaceDisco One, a giant rollerdisco in space. Or something like that. Largely nonsensical, occasionally incoherent, and reliably amateurish, this was quite an enjoyable film (especially after the others).


* * * R A T I N G * * *

Stranger Than A Strange Land (NYFF)

Wince : [****_]
Flinch : [_____]
Retch : [_____]
Gape : [**___]

Beerequisite : [*****]
Pornability : [_____]
Obscurity : [****_]
Explicability : [*____]


Memories I want to erase: Todos!

What I would do different: Gone to see Finishing the Game instead.