Thanks to the inheritance from my dead, rich uncle – I didn’t have to go to work last year. The situation was perfect because it allowed me to watch twelve, two-hour movies per day instead of waking up at ten in the morning just to stagger to a job like some kind of sucker. A lot has changed in a year. I learned that people who work need to wake up much earlier than ten in the morning. I also learned the value of a fortune and how easily it could turn into a few ironic props from the film, “Brewster’s Millions” and a lot of regret. This year I managed to find only a little bit of spare time in between the couch cushions and I used it wisely to see the absolute BEST that the Toronto International Film Festival had to offer.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Werner Herzog is a wild documentarian. He loves to get in the dirt, get sweaty and shoot some REAL footage. This film is one of the best examples of that process. The Chauvet cave was found in the early nineties by three explorers who were astonished to discover beautiful, ancient cave paintings. The explorers notified the French government, who sent in geologists, historians and other specialists to study the paintings. Together, they discovered that some of the paintings dated back approximately 34,000 years. This is twice as far back as any previously discovered cave paintings. The cultural relevance of a find like this is monumental and to have Herzog showcase these paintings in 3D was nothing less than magical.







Herzog felt so strongly about this subject matter that he made “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” for the French government for free in exchange for just being allowed to enter the caves. The film plays out like an exhibition of the artwork. Since it is shot in 3D we are able to see how the long forgotten artists used the curvatures of the cave to enhance the effectiveness of their work. This film could not be shot without the invention of 3D technology. Werner Herzog is a genius. Amen.




The Game of Death







In the nineteen-sixties, a sociological experiment was launched that tested how obedient human beings had become. They tested it by putting two people in a room and telling them that one would be a questioner and the other person would be responsible for answering. Anytime the person who was responsible for answering, got the question wrong, they would be punished by receiving an electric shock that increased in volts per question answered incorrectly. The person that asked the questions was also responsible for flipping the switch and administering the punishment. Of course, the person answering the questions was an actor and no real punishment was being administered, but the person asking the questions was completely oblivious to the reality of it and was more than willing to dish out some pain.







The filmmakers teamed-up with various scientists and sociologists to recreate the experiment in 2009, but instead of telling the subjects that it was an experiment, they made it seem like a reality competition. The results were enough to make anyone sick to their stomach. I found the film’s subject to be interesting and the filmmakers executed it very well. This French documentary wastes only a minimal amount of time sharing its views with us, making sure that the lion’s share of time was dedicated to showing us the results of the experiment and asking questions to the participants. “The Game of Death” gives us an idea of the dark road that reality television is heading down and I’m not just talking about “Dancing with the Stars”. This shit is about to get real.




Griff The Invisible







“Griff the Invisible” is another do-it-yourself, budget superhero movie. The hero doesn’t have powers mostly because the filmmakers can’t afford it. It’s very similar to “Defendor” and my personal favourite, “Super” (which I reviewed on episode 5×01 of the Digital Kontent Audio Podcast). The biggest difference between “Griff the Invisible” and its subgenre cohorts is that “Griff the Invisible” misses the point completely. For the most part, it tries too hard to be an ACTUAL super-hero movie. Sure, there’s a big twist at the end of the film that no mainstream superhero film would dare pull, but it doesn’t save this film from the depths of banality. Most of the time “Griff the Invisible” is just boring and some of the time it will actually make you actively dislike it. I would have a hard time recommending this film to anyone.




13 Assassins







Takeshi Miike seems like he’s just getting better and better. He’s one of the only filmmakers that actually improves over time, instead of deteriorating like so many others (Fincher, Allen, Stone). Miike’s newest film is about a rag-tag group of misfit samurai that live in a time of peace, which happens to be the worst of times for a samurai. Now that most of the samurai are retired and have given up hope of ever seeing battle, they run across the most EVIL antagonist of all time. A psychotic, bloodthirsty sadist, who abuses the power bestowed upon him as brother of the ‘Shogun’. The villain uses tied-up children as targets for longbow practice and cuts off a woman’s arms and legs before handing her out as a ‘pet’. This enrages the samurai and brings them together for one big score.







The first half of the movie builds anticipation by showing us how evil the villain is. Miike parallels the atrocities of the maniac with a character-building comic relief section as we follow the 13 Assassins on their one-way journey to beat-down-ville. The second half of the movie is simply a screen drenched in gore and violence. A thirty minute fight scene that will not leave you bored for a second. I think that anyone who is into well-built action films, samurai’s or Mr. Miike’s work is going to LOVE this movie. Everyone else can GTFO.




Thanks for reading! Part 2 coming soon!




- Milo

The break is over and Digital Kontent is back with an all new kick ass season! This episode begins where the girls left off, talking about the picks of the season and what you can do to prevent forest fires.

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Episode

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The Digital Kontent Audio Podcast by Team Chicken Shirt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License.
Based on a work at www.digitalkontent.com.
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Iby jump kicks us into our topic of videogames by way of “Mugen”. Milo discusses some of his favourites “River City Ransom” and “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out”.

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108 – Emulation Station

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The Digital Kontent Audio Podcast by Team Chicken Shirt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License.
Based on a work at www.digitalkontent.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.digitalkontent.com.