I was admittedly surprised with “Big Boobs…” because judging by the description I expected a glimpse in to making underground films, but surprisingly enough Alter Ego flaunts its most prominent director Shane Ryan with a compilation of his experimental and horror films. The films by Ryan featured are a mixed bag of weird, ridiculous, and very appealing. So, in turn I did get what I wanted, because the film enthusiastically boasts all of Ryan’s short films, while featuring making-of featurettes that many times last longer than the actual film. In one instance one of Ryan’s ten minute films is followed up by a twenty five minute making. It’s insane, but oddly watchable. “Big Boobs…” is never ashamed to admit it’s cheap and self-congratulatory, which adds to the fun experience of watching these films.
Tag Archives: Documentary
My Date with Drew (2004)
The creator of this odd film that wants to be considered a documentary (fat chance) is an idiot. Hey, I’m sure he’s a great guy, and I’m sure he’s a kind person, and a good friend, but I’ve known good people who are idiots, and director Herzlinger is an idiot. He’s poor, he doesn’t have a job, and he’s just recently won 1,100 dollars from a game show. Instead of turn that in to something of a worthy venture, or investment, he blows it. And he’s a struggling filmmaker. What a convenient turn of events. “My Date with Drew” is a movie that you’d probably see played on television back to back with “The Surreal Life” because every single aspect of it is staged, corny, and pathetic like a typical reality show that you’d see on network television.
Lipstick & Dynamite, Piss & Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling (2004)
In a world where feminism wasn’t yet discovered, these women basically were the precedent for such an ideal. And they didn’t even know it. All they wanted to do was compete, perform, and basically beat the crap out of each other, all to gain some fandom and fame, and they weren’t aware that they were basically the predecessors of feminism and female empowerment. Thankfully, the documentary doesn’t bog itself down in girl power junk, and instead focuses on the female wrestling industry, one of the more unknown facets in sports–like the WNBA. I kid them.
10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America
One of the more notable episodes coming up on the History Channel’s “10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America” event, is the exploration of “The Scopes Monkey Trial”. The upcoming series from the History Channel involves ten episodes exploring ten fateful days that changed the landscape of American culture and history, and they examine truly relevant events that changed our way of thinking from the gold rush, and the emergence of rock music in to conservative culture.
One of the events chronicled here in the great series is The Scopes Monkey Trial which would later inspire the great Arthur Miller to write one of his most amazing plays “Inherit The Wind”. As someone who has been immersed in the incredibly volatile debate brewing in our country about creationism vs. evolution, I decided to watch the Scopes episode first. “10 Days” is a series that is a mixture of a documentary, a chronicle, and filmed sequences by film directors from David Helbroner of “Southern Comfort”, to award-winning documentary director Bruce Sinofsky and it’s a major event for the History Channel.
Religion and science is an ongoing battle that may very well go all the way in to the end of human existence. Some people prefer to think we were born of logical origin, and some prefer to think were born in the image of a god, and what happened around this time was that people were so against the theory of evolution that they arrested John Scopes as a scapegoat to make an example of him. From this came William Jennings Brian who was a devout Christian, and Clarence Darrow an evolutionist and agnostic who came to his friend John’s defense. This material even without the help of Arthur Miller is engrossing plain and simple.
What’s so good about the series “10 Days” is their episodes are paralleled to issues that are important today, in some way or another. And the “Scopes” episode is representative of the ongoing debate of creationism and evolutionism today that has and continues splitting America. The series also explores both sides of the issues, scrutinizing both Darrow and Brian. Upcoming episodes for “10 Days” including “When America Was Rocked” concerning the rock influence on Conservative America, and “Gold Rush” about the California Gold Rush.
What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? (2004)
It’s funny how a film like this can really be deciphered as. Certainly, the religious will view this as a secularist documentary on quantum physics, and the others will simply view it as an examination in to the human mind. With films like “Waking Life”, so often do we ever see films that actually challenge us to re-think our surroundings and our current settings. “What the…” ultimately explores radical ideas of repressed memories, the immense power of our mind, and alternate universes. And it also questions god, the existence of god, and the existence of god who gave man the ability to think. If we can not question religion, why were we given the ability to reason and wonder, and examine? If a god exists and does not want us to discover the riddles of the universe, why were we given the tools to do so? And “What the…” does indeed humble us calling us “Observers”.
March of the Penguins (2005)
The title March of the Penguins really refers to the march of a large tribe of Emperor penguins focused on here that march to a nesting spot, attempt to breed, and then march back and forth finding food to feed the only babies that were able to survive the harsh cold. For those religious whom attempted to pin their ideologies upon this hit documentary, they never really take in to consideration much of what happens here. Regardless though, “March of the Penguins”, the second highest grossing documentary of all time, basically has one objective to show the true nature of the penguin’s journey to pro-create. We see penguins marching, penguins surviving, penguins mating, and penguins attempting to have babies. Obviously that’s not just one objective, but it really does boil down to the purpose of the documentary.
Betty Blowtorch (And Her Amazing True Life Adventures) (2003)
I’ve never heard of Betty Blowtorch before–and after hearing their music, I’m sad I haven’t. I should really start seeking out better bands than what the media hands me. Granted, I only listen to classic rock, but you get my point. “Betty Blowtorch” is quite possibly one of the best rock documentaries I’ve ever seen. It’s the classic tale of a rock band starting out, garnering a fan base, forming a friendship, their attempts at stardom, their inevitable grasp for it, and their imminent downfall thanks to outside sources. Most modern music documentaries prefer to profile bands that suck like They Might Be Giants, or All American Rejects, but this film profiles a band–who doesn’t suck like Paris Hilton in a porno–they’re called Betty Blowtorch, four hard rocking bitches that were a hybrid of KISS, The Runaways, and Motley Crue.