Tusk

I could listen to Michael Parks tell stories of his life at sea for hours, but I think I'll pass on the tea.

This film is sad, because the sadness highlights the insanity.  Both Parks and Justin Long give solid, on target performances, just serious enough to be plausible.  Alas, the Johnny Depp character is too far over the line and breaks the immersion, unfortunate for the scenes that should be the serious break for the batshit crazy of the grotto.

Tusk

2014, 102 minutes, directed by Kevin Smith

Escape from Tomorrow

At this point, Escape from Tomorrow is better known for its surreptitious production than its story.  Filmed in secret at Walt Disney World in Florida, the film is billed as a parody of the make-believe story Disney wants its customers to see.

But then, there's the film itself.  Despite being fired that morning, Jim wants to have one good final day at the parks with his family.  Instead, he and his wife bicker and argue, and they take turns with their son and daughter separately, trying to keep either of them happy.  But then there's the two Parisian girls that Jim follows.  I don't think this was supposed to be an existential journey, so I keep trying to piece the parts together to make an arcing plot.  Exactly how are the scientists under the Spaceship Earth related to the aging witch with her mesmerizing necklace?  Was Jim selected as a child for this ultimate fate, and has his son now been selected to share the fate as well?

Escape from Tomorrow
2013, 90 minutes, directed by Randy Moore

Yellow

Yellow is a lost woman's spiral into depression, punctuated by the fantasies she constructs to cope.  Soaked with the hilarity of her hallucinations, the film has no real character development but leads from crazy to punchline.

Yellow
2012, 108 minutes, directed by Nick Cassavetes

Upstream Color

Kris is kidnapped. Brainwashed. Wiped out. Left with nothing but emptiness, and a subtle link she can't explain. Jeff has the same emptiness, but he's found her. And then there's the sound. Quinoa. The connection. The hypnotic telepathic worms. Told with minimal dialog, this surreal film explores the involuntary bonds these people share with each other and their counterparts. More than that, I can't explain.

Upstream Color
2013, 96 minutes, directed by Shane Carruth

Holy Motors

Is Monsieur Oscar a master of disguise?  The ultimate odd-jobs man? Or is he and the entire Paris population simply insane?  Prepare to have your head rattled with Holy Motors.  Warning: people going into this film expecting a plot tend to be disappointed.  Think of it more as a day-in-the-life of the Most Interesting Man in the World.

Holy Motors
2012, 115 minutes, directed by Leos Carax 

Tebana Sankichi: Snot Rockets

Japanese people are weird and repressed. I was very tired for this screening, and my legs ached, making it difficult to keep them still. I think both actually enhanced the film experience. ADHD sufferers will enjoy this.

Tebana Sankicki: Snot Rockets
2012, 79 minutes, directed by Yudai Yamaguchi

Keyhole

The director of this film describes it as "gangsters meet ghosts" turned into an autobiography of a house. Ulysses returns to his family home, determined to reach his wife Hyacinth on the top floor. To get there, though, he must navigate the other rooms of the house and their unearthly inhabitants.

Or at least that's how it's billed. I describe it more as surreal experimentation. Or a black & white cinematic study of how many actors (young and quite old) you can get full nude and acting like a crazy ghost on film.

It's not really for me.

Keyhole
2012, directed by Guy Maddin