Garri's Guff

Animation is something to admire and is a medium that I truly have come to love. Angel’s Egg is from this “golden era” of animation that came out of Japan.

Again, NOT the Brie Larson movie (which is also very good) this is the BAD The Room. For those who do not know or have only seen memes of this movie, it’s a fan participation show (does not have a shadow cast like Rocky Horror) but that means that everyone is quoting lines, throwing spoons, and omg just read what goes on here. Great, now you know or simply don’t care, back to the movie. This film, at its best, is a movie that tells a story.

This story is about two men who are “best friends” but one is sleeping with the other’s partner. Most of this film is sex scenes and people yelling at Denny, who appears to be going through a really bad acid trip which makes it even better. It’s about betrayal, passion, and one man’s charisma (young people call it rizz) that helped him get enough people to believe in this insane project. If you want to know how the movie was made and the man behind the film (who I think is fucking DB Cooper) you can watch The Disaster Artist which is exactly that story.

I’m not really reviewing this film because it’s more about the experience and the mysticism around the film. The lore, one would say. What I love about this film is that it’s a theater filled with strangers all having their minds melted by this insane film and laughing together. That’s what I miss and that’s what I love about theaters, its the community you experience. The emotions you all have at the same time. The Room is the best of us, as in the best of what film has to offer when it comes to convincing people that saving theaters is well worth it. Even if it’s screening a movie where people throw a whole bunch of plastic spoons (metal spoons were banned in the Geneva Convention because of this film). This film has heart, that’s all you need to know and all you need to care about.

What a film.

Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut is an uncomfortable, thoughtful, and deeply evocative film. You will immediately feel uncomfortable with this film as Stewart’s use of sound leaves the imagination to wander and only come to the worst conclusion but it isn’t the “worst”, it’s a reality that many face and you soon realize what kind of movie this is going to be within the first 5 minutes.

This film is adapted from a memoir of the same title, The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch, that came out in 2011. Imogen Poots plays Yuknavitch (the name is changed to Lidia in the film) and Poots is a face you will have to be comfortable with hating, loving, and losing faith in. Lidia and her father have a close relationship and it quickly dawns on the audience that this isn’t a father. This is a predator, a true monster. The film is just over 2 hours and it uses every second to explore Lidia’s journey through life as she tries to build a life away from her father and a mother who is all too numb to do anything about it except for one last act of redemption, she helps Lidia get into college both knowing this will be the only chance Lidia has at getting out from underneath her father’s abuse. Lidia’s sister could escape, why can’t she?

Imogen Poots then takes Lidia through a life of love, loss, tragedy, addiction, salvation, redemption, and ultimately family. Lidia is broken, young, and free for the first time which leads to her own self destruction through alcohol, drugs, and a love she can’t control. A love that she can’t wrap her mind around. She has only ever known one “love” which acts like a parasite, she sees herself as that parasite undeserving of these feelings.

Stewart and Poots have achieved something special here, something that will make you uncomfortable but it will also make you laugh because in a way, there’s karmic justice. Be emotionally prepared for this movie, it doesn’t ask you to do anything besides sit with the reality that Stewart and Poots have translated to the screen.

Released in 1997, Princess Mononoke would become the highest grossing film in Japanese film history and would find itself in a new market, the West. With a distribution deal with Walt Disney and Miramax, Princess Mononoke’s script was made for an English speaking audience by famous (infamous now) Neil Gaiman (who went uncredited until he spoke on it in a Twitter post several years ago). Hayao Miyazaki would also be known for rebuffing Harvey Weinstein’s demands to cut the film. So, not only is this film an incredible piece of media but the history behind it is so fascinating to me and shows the life of a film and how it can be destroyed or given a rebirth depending on whose hands are on it, a predator’s or a savior’s. 

What strikes me most about Princess Mononoke is not its sweeping landscapes, hand drawn animation, or its message on environmentalism; it’s San, the female protagonist. She is incredibly fierce, arrogant, and righteous which in a different person might lead to a disaster but for San, this is all she knows how to be, as she fights for survival for the only world that accepted her and raised her; the forest and its creatures. 

Women are at the center of this movie. They are treated as people with agency and how they use their agency to weave through the web of power propped up by a society heavily built on the idea of patriarchy. Matriarchs dominate this movie, a wolf mother and a mother wolf vie for power as one destroys the other’s home to protect her own. It is a tale as old as time, man vs. nature but Miyazaki focuses on the social contract between the forest and humans. When there is an equal exchange of goods between the two, they live in harmony. However, humans have crossed that barrier and have taken so much that the forest must fight back even if it means utter destruction and the forest’s anger is manifested in gungho boars who will fight to the last tusk, monkeys who have fallen out of the balance of nature (they have tasted human flesh), and the wolves who seem like the only creatures with any sense. Humanity in this film can be tender but also violent as Lady Eboshi rules Irontown with an… iron fist. She cares for lepers, sex workers, and the downtrodden and uses the forest to fan the flames of fire in her smelting works. Lady Eboshi tries to save her own people as she is simultaneously destroying their future as the trees fall, black smoke fills the air, and the forest gods become blinded by rage. We are dooming our own futures and what are we even doing to stop it? The self destructive nature of humanity and nature itself are constantly fighting each other for power, trying to dominate the other, but this domination has led us only to destruction. Are we not yet tired of tearing things down? Watching, jaded, as we diminish our futures with every tree that is felled, coral reefs bleached, and we forget the names of animals that we once knew… the beauty of this world is turned into a hellscape that nothing of value could survive in and we all play a role in this.

There isn’t a protagonist or antagonist, really. It’s people, animals, and nature all trying to find a way to survive as they all tear each other apart for the other’s resources. No one is right in this movie, nor are they supposed to be. It’s a reflection on man’s relationship with nature and with itself. This movie isn’t subtle, Miyazaki never is, but I think it requires people to think deeply on their own relationship with nature and how that can destroy you. Are you yourself willing to strike that balance? 

As a great mind once told me, “Life is a game of uppers and downers, it’s your job to find the balance” – Everett Schau.

“Lady Eboshi: What exactly are you here for?

Prince Ashitaka: To see with eyes unclouded by hate.”