I Liked the Movie Better

Lots of movies began as other things, whether they're being retold, interpreted, or followed up on. And sometimes those movies suck, but once in a great while, the movie - We kind of have to stop using "film" for these, don't we? There really won't be film recorded on, but for niche pretension or effects, soon enough. Anyway... - the movie is the superior artifact.

Some movies I like better than their source material:


Adolescence Apocalypse - Either a sequel or retelling of the television show, Revolutionary Girl Utena, but pretty much the same folks, this boils down thirty-nine half hour episodes to a ninety minute morality play as it is played on a skipping record player with the speakers turned away from you and a mouse or a monkey dancing on the vinyl as it turns. Witty avoidance, sharp metaphoric demonstrations of teenage life and everything that can come after it, there are parts that just break my heart and others that remind me why I have one.

Angel Heart - Fucking brutal. It's excellently acted, insanely well paced, beautifully scripted, and exceptionally directed, too, but the brutality, the amazing cruelty and the underlying kindness and depth of empathy push it beyond.

Fire Walk With Me - The sequel, prequel, and follow up to television's Twin Peaks. I saw this before I ever watched more than ten minutes of the show, mainly because I didn't have broadcast television in the house when it aired, and really, I like the show, but the movie means more to me. It might work better without the show's elaborations and lightening. (Lightening, despite the show having a downer/tragic ending and the film, well..!) Brutal, uncomfortable stuff, and the last film from David Lynch I feel the word "unflinching" can be put to until Inland Empire came about.

The Godfather - Hey, I like the novel, but the film owns the characters, the stories, the pervasive tonal storm of deepseated convictions of business, respect, pecking orders, crime, debt, and family.

MASH - The books go one way (boy, do they!) and the TV show veers stronger and steadier in another, and you know, there is some good stuff in both, but what a movie! The inability to isolate conversations, moments, or in any way navigate except by fording the whole bubbling babbling thing is quite remarkable, and the hand of Altman shines over it all.

Psycho - I could prepare a whole slew of reasons, from the musical stings to the cinematography, the sexy palpable atmosphere of the hotel scene, the real concern in Janet Leigh's face, the killer pacing, but... Tony Perkins trumps everything. This, children, is the lesson of life: Tony Perkins trumps everything. This is probably why there are sequels. ^_^

Rambo - I like that he lives. I like the hyperbolic strain the movie works into the narrative of the novel. That simple.

Re-Animator - Take all the desolation out of an HP Lovecraft adaptation and come out with something brilliant? That, alone, takes remarkable talent. Atop that, there's some crack acting, surges of genuine revulsion, comedy, surprise, and anticipation, and everything feels perfectly natural as it progresses, then it's over like a shot from the shadows parting your hair.

The Trial - Remember the Tony Perkins rule? Right, then. Add Orson Welles. Bearing in mind that Welles and Perkins are overdubbing almost the entire cast, take this bastard beast, brew in deeply constrictive sets, marinate through a perverse focus on Tony Perkins trapped in terror, in his trial, in tight trousers, even, and kick the whole thing until it can't stop crying when it thinks of shoes. Then raise the thing in Imelda Marcos' closet.

Special mention to many of the films made from Clive Barker's Books of Blood collection(s), and both adaptations of "The Thing", for different reasons.

Top Shelf, But Not On The Shelf

There are many reasons to keep things out of print and off the shelves, some of which still have validity in an increasingly digital-happy world. Maybe, the work was immature or crafted during a bad moment, outside influences may have overridden the quality impulses with dreck, who knows. But, a lot of the time, it comes dpwn to whether significant money can be made, and well, fair enough.

Without speculation into why these aren't available commercially to me, you, and the English-speaking population as a whole, here are some things I wish were readily available, new, in a format I can enjoy, through markets where I know the people responsible (artists, writers, directors, et al) would be receiving a cut:

The Enigma by Peter Milligan, Duncan Fegredo, and Sherlyn van Valkenburgh. This needs to be in print. Not only is it perhaps the finest thing any of the creators have been involved with, it may be the greatest comics ever done. The story of families, how the mess us up, and the presumptuous instincts that make us sort the world as if it fundamentally exists to sustain and entertain, to test and torment us. Full of tactile and brilliant sensuality, witty and elegant segues, an exceptional range of techniques, emotions, and identity politics, it's just a beautiful work.

Kachou No Koi is a Flash animated series about a company president so deeply in the closet, he can't see that the collection of gay skinmags he keeps at the office, or the lifesized mechanical big brother he uses for a chair, alarm clock, and bathtoy, might be outing him to everyone else. Fastpaced, hilarious, cocky and peppered with moments encouraging empathetic embarrassment, there is no commercially available English-subbed edition, just fansubs online and HK bootlegs that appear to've been translated by drunk pandas.

Will Shetterly's Cats Have No Lord has been out of print way too long, and could use a more indicative cover, anyway. A bold, carefree fantasy work, it has a good time with itself and only looks back, in the sense that Shetterly knows the genre's history and contemporary scene well enough to use the novel as counterbalance to other works and some general tropes.

Rutger Hauer vs The Devi... I mean, Split Second, directed by Tony Maylam (and company?), shouldn't be as good as it is. But, oh yes, it is. Drastically revised from a deadend standard cop chases killer piece set in contemporary Los Angeles by a few hands, Hauer and costar Kim Cattrall among them, into a madcap cop on the edge versus the Devil as a PredAlien cannibal fingerpainting clawbeast in the future, it forgoes plot logic and clues for psychic impulses and oneliners and really big guns. Hauer's character is said to survive on coffee, chocolate, and anxiety, but when this lifestyle looks like the sane option if you want to thrive in this flooded, oily future, then we're getting somewhere special!

Status Updates

Future Earth Volume Four is very near release, but being an issue for tributes is a two-handed engine of Janus proportions, and we need the face smiling out at both readers and contributors. The previous three issues, including the extra-long third volume are still available free from the site and various other torrent and direct-download sources.

The Summer Edition of Florida Review features brand new Travis Hedge Coke type fiction. "Alien in Nature" is a They walk among us! tale, featuring a retiree who realizes his wife is not his wife, everyone is in danger, but what can you do when everyone else is oblivious without seeming nuts or just very petty?

The September issue of Sequential Daze opens with an article they solicited from me, called "How to Make it Work", where I tell you Frank Miller was right, everyone makes mistakes, and other controversial assertions. Mostly, it's concerned with the resuscitation of racist characters in corporate-owned comics, though, and what responsibility the artists, writers, editors and such might have in perpetuating those trademarks.

Oberon's Children may still be coming out from Pazzaria Productions, someday. It will still be a multimedia YA story featuring prose, illustrations, music and other exciting illuminating elements. It will probably cost something after a few tasters set out to entice you. The toymaker will still be designing weapons for a greedy king, the kids will still break every rule they can, an their god is still a micromanaging bogeyman. If you ever wondered what Robin Hood would be like if Robin was played by Grace Jones as a college dropout, this will give you some idea.

And, when I told you Hello, I told you all I know. If it isn't specified here, I'm the wrong person to ask. When I know more, I'll pass it on.

Thanks for the support, everyone.