Author: Benjamin Dunn

I can’t remember when I first heard about Banksy, the often satirical, mostly subversive, constantly controversial street artist and director of the new film Exit Through The Gift Shop. It might have been when he took a trip to the West Bank and did a series of graffiti depicting beach scenes through broken pieces of the famous wall. It might have been when he took it upon himself to “improve” the sales of Paris Hilton’s debut album by sneaking into record stores across London and replace her CDs with his own versions. I know it was definitely when he held an art show in LA and invited everyone in Hollywood to take a look at the elephant in the room.

Banksy has always been a man of mystery. More so than any of his other street artists. No one has really been able to identify the man. The most we know is that he is British with a penchant for apes. So, when I heard that he had allowed a documentary to be made about him, I was shocked. And of course, very very interested. What I got when seeing the movie, though, was a thoroughly Banksy-style “bait and switch”.

Exit Through The Gift Shop is not a documentary about Banksy… It is a documentary about the man who tried to make a documentary about Banksy. The man in question is Thierry Guetta (pronounced Terry). Thierry is a native Frenchman who relocated to LA in the 80’s and ran a pretty successful vintage clothing shop. He also had a love of filming EVERYTHING. After visiting his cousin in France, who as it turns out, is pretty well known street artist named Invader, his filming takes on a focus: street art.

For those of us that don’t know what street art is, it’s what lots of people consider graffiti, but it’s not… but it is… While graffiti is mostly known as the paintspray scrawl on an overpass or billboard, street art takes it to the next level. When you see a beautiful piece of artistic work made on the side of a building, or a sticker placed in various places with seemingly no meaning, or a shadow of a bench painted on the ground… that is street art. The movement came from the fact that most people consider art something that lasts forever, hanging in museums. Street art shows that this doesn’t have to be the case. Art can be as fleeting as the moment.

But I digress. Thierry falls in love with the art and starts filming the artists themselves. At first he just follows his cousin around, then he is introduced to the likes of Shepard Fairey (creator of the prolific OBEY campaign and later the Obama posters), Zeus and Borf. He continues to film these heavy-weights for years, but always wants to get the holy grail, Banksy.

When his opportunity finally arrives, he wastes no time and fully embeds himself with the enigmatic Banksy. Finally, Banksy feels it is time that word get out about the street art movement and asks Guetta to put together his masterpiece from the years and years of footage that he has. Thierry does this and what we get is a “Life Remote Control”. I won’t bother describing it, but let’s just say it is less than “good”, in Banksy’s opinion. After seeing his movie Banksy asks Thierry for all of his tapes and sends him back to LA with one goal: make his own art and report back.

This is where the movie turns into an almost real life version of “Trading Places”. Once back in LA, Theirry starts going at his task in a HUGE way. He takes all that he has learned from his years of tagging along within the world and creates his own art. (Sort of.) He fashions himself an artist, making his own stickers, placing his own posters, even creating his own persona: Mr. BrainWash. Of course, being Theirry, he goes way overboard and instead of only making a few works and having a tiny art show, he creates a behemoth. He sells his store and puts a second mortgage on his house so that he can rent out an old network studio building and hire lots of paid, gallery artists to make his work for him. Essentially he creates his own museum and fills it with his “art”. (Though I question whether I should be putting the quotes around “his” too, but hey, Warhol did it.) The goal that Banksy had sent him to do is completed… and well beyond what Banksy himself thought possible.

The questions that this last section bring up for the audience member is what I think really sold me on the whole movie. It asks, what is art? Is art something that comes from one’s experiences and one’s own attitude? Or can anything be considered art as long as it is marketed as “art”? 

It’s a movie about street art, that feels in itself, like a piece of street art. The spiral from point A to point B back to point A via B is insane and very satisfying. There is a lot of humor in it, mainly coming off of how very strange the film’s subject, Thierry Guetta, is. There are points where I found myself kind of sad for the man as it is pretty obvious that there is some underlying psychological issues at play, but never enough to make it a drama.

I would have to say that if you have the opportunity to see this movie, you should definitely treat yourself to it. Whether this the first time you have heard about Banksy and street art, or if you are a long time fan, it really delivers a great experience. It is in a limited run in theatres right now, but is expanding to more cities every week. Check out the website for more details.

In the end you know that Banksy has done his job when one of the people I went to see the movie with said, “The movie was great, but I really want to see the movie that Banksy did on the guy who made this documentary on him.” To which I had to explain that she already had, it’s called Exit Through The Gift Shop.

Hey Everybody!

BenDunn here. It’s not often that I am allowed to review movies that don’t have anything to do with things I am not all the fluent in. Watchmen. Easy! Star Trek. Piece of cake! Monsters Vs. Aliens. Are you kidding me?! So imagine my surprise when I was asked to review a romance. Not a romantic comedy. Not a romantic dramedy. Not EVEN a Rom-Com-Zom, but a full on romance movie. But I love a challenge so I decided to tackle the unknown and watch and review The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Before I did though I thought to myself, you know what? Even the bravest explorers bring along guides and interpreters on their death-defying expaditions… why don’t I? So I got Celeste, my girlfriend, to come along for support! (Though as you will see, I didn’t really need much help.)

After watching the movie Celeste and I decided what would be better then just Ben’s review on the movie? How about Ben AND Celeste’s review? (Besides, the site needs a little bit more estrogen in the mix anyway!) And in the interest of saving people having to read what would no doubt be a horrible transliteration of the event, why not treat our audience to a visual and audio extraviganza?!

So without further ado, I present:

GEEKSCAPE VIDEO REVIEW: TIME TRAVELERS WIFE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I want to start off this review by going over my history with this book. Like all comic fans, I was told that this was a must read, that this is the holy bible of all published comic book work. I was told that my life would be changed forever once my eyes graced the pages of this Magna Carta of funny books. So, of course, I read it. Sadly, I was not that impressed. It could be that it had been built up to unreachable standards. It could be that I am just too dumb to get the heavy meaning laid down by the dark genius, Alan Moore. It could be that people are just wrong in their high esteem for the book. Whatever it was, I just couldn’t get that into it.

 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I absolutely believe that there is a lot merit in this book, and that there is something to the mass hysteria that surrounds it. My favorite argument when discussing the book with the Watchmen fan boys (that seem to be multiplying every day) is when it is compared to the film classic, Citizen Kane.

Citizen Kane is often called one of the best movies ever made. It’s on inumerable top ten lists across the world and is the stuff of film snobs’ wet dreams. Once again, I have watched this movie, and truth be told, was bored out of my effing skull. Oh, I get why it’s important. Technically, this movie is amazing as they used camera techniques that were never even thought of before. Things like cranes, trenches, forced perspective… things that are still used to this day were pioneered in this movie. That is what makes it a classic in my opinion. Same thing goes with Watchmen. While I was kind of bored by parts of the story and the art work is nowhere near revolutionary, the story that was told within the work itself was something completely revolutionary. Here you had superheroes that were not all about truth, justice and all that. You had flawed heroes. These people cheated, raped and murdered. As a study of the human condition taken to extremes, Watchmen is wonderful.

So, when it was announced that a movie was finally (successfully) in the works and, more importantly, was actually going to come out, there was a simulatinious cry of joy and disdain throughout the comic book reading community. People were excited that it was happening and, more so, people were appaled that it was going to be a movie (and not a mini-series, therefore  “it wasn’t going to get the justice it deserved”). All the arguments, all the legal issues, all the apprhension aside, this movie is finally finished and coming out in a few weeks. And let me tell you. It’s something else!

First, lets talk direction. Lots of people were worried that Zach Snyder wasn’t going to be able to pull off the nuances of the characters since he is mainly known for the frat-guy boner fest called 300; a film that was a good retelling of the story itself, but that seemed to forget the term “subtlety”. In my opinion, while I do agree that there really wasn’t much acting going on in 300, it was a graphic novel on celluloid. Snyder knew what he was doing — exactly what he wanted to. He wanted to make an action movie. When I found out he was directing Watchmen, I felt it was actually an adequate choice of director. After actually seeing the finished product, I can safely say that I was right. While there are some things that I have issue with in his direction (fast/slow/fast fighting and some acting choices) for the most part, this movie is flawless. The coloring, the shots, and the pacing are all great.

You could not have asked for a better cast. The one expection being Malin Akerman who, while very lovely in her latex bodice, leaves one wondering if she knows how to “feel things”. That aside though, everyone of the actors is perfectly cast. Patrick Wilson makes a terrific sadsack as Dan Dreiberg aka Night Owl. Jeffery Dean Morgan as The Comedian is very convincing as a misogynistic alcoholic. I had my doubts about Mathew Goode as Adrian Veidt, thinking that he looked too young, but I was pleasantly surprised at what he does with the subtely of the character. The most talked about Watchman is, of course, Dr. Manhattan. I have to say that this was a sticking point with me when I heard there was a movie coming out. If they fucked this character’s arc up at all it would mean a fail in my book. Possibly an epic one. This being because it’s his story that truly brings out the big questions in the book. That and his look. This is a person that was literally ripped apart at an atomic level and put himself back together into an idealized structure of a man. I mean, he glows blue for christ’s sake! Also, he doesn’t wear pants. This is a little thing, but what it symbolizes is huge. It shows that he no longer considers himself bound by human standards. This is a big deal that the film makers could have easily changed to cowtow to the prissy MPAA… but THEY DIDNT! Yes. You will see blue man man-meat (take THAT, Vegas!) I have never been that exicited to see a dick that wasn’t my own!

I still have yet to touch on one character, and there is a reason for that. Rorschach is one of the pivitol pieces of the story. Within him you have so many twisting emotions that it rivals the ever-morphing blots of his mask. This is a man that has never experienced what a normal person can call a good life. The closest he got to that was when he was fighting crime as a Watchman. While an outsider himself, he tried to live within the rules of society — until he saw what society was. Yes, he is a psychopath. Yes, he is murderer. He would just as soon set you on fire as throw you in jail, but he does it all with a strict code of justice. All this said, I never realized any of it while reading the book. It took watching this movie and seeing what Jackie Earle Haley did with it to convince me. This guy is fantastic. He is by far the center piece of this movie. From his introduction, to his back story, to his prison experience, to his amazing end… Rorschach is truly one of the best written heroes ever. If you come away with anything from this review make it this: see this movie for no other reason then to watch this character!

You might have noticed that I have not talked about the plot at all. The main reason for this is that you are at a site called Geekscape on the interwebs, so I am assuming that you already know what’s up. This is also a question that is asked by critics and fans alike. Will this film do well even if it is not dumbed down to make it easier for the mainstream to grasp? The answer in my opinion is yes. Don’t get me wrong, there are some changes in the story to help keep people “out of the know” entertained. The opening sequence does a fantastic job at illustrating the world we are about to enter (to Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A Changin’). The other main change happens at the end, which I won’t talk about here. Let’s just say that they kept it as realistic as possible. Honestly, I think the plot points that were axed and the sequences and aspects that were tweaked ended up working fine in film, since Snyder was telling this story in the confines of a 2.5 hour long movie — not a book. in fact, one of my biggest problems with the book was how slow and plodding the story felt sometimes. I think that the trim the script perfectly eliminated that.

Finally, let’s talk about what sets this movie apart from the varitable sea of superhero movies that we are currently treading in. Mainly that thing is an R rating. Believe me when I say this, it’s a HARD R; meaning there is sex. There is blood. There are bones popping out of skin. It really does put an emphasis on the graphic. While I do have a problem with Synder’s love of the super fast-motion/super slow-motion style of shooting action, it does work in some cases. I will say that the foley artists (the people who make things sound like what they are supposed to sound like in film during post production) need to get kudos, as when people are hit in this movie it really sounds like they are getting hit hard! The fight choreography is gorgeous. I love that every single person in the world has a different fighting style. Really good detail there.

All in all, this movie did a great thing. It took this person, who was only a mild admirer of the book, and made him really like it. I would definitely recommend this to anyone (except parents that want to take their young kids to see it… DO NOT DO THAT!…unless you’re a very progressive parent). Will it please superfans? Who knows? Superfans are a scary breed that have expectations higher then Mt. Everest. Will it please comic fans? Absolutely! Will it please the mainstream? I think so. This really is one of the best told superhero movies ever made. Good job, Mr. Snyder.

                        

November 30th 1999.

I was a student in my Sophmore year at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Life was pretty good. I had just gotten an apartment with a few friends in the Capitol Hill area where our college was based. I had a job at the Paramount Theater as an usher. All the world was my oyster. There had been mumblings amongst my hippie activist friends that this global conference was going to be happening that week. Something called the WTO (or World Trade Organization). My friends were going to take off class early so they could go downtown to support other activists in protest of this Global Threat – to listen to them talk you would think that Galactus himself had set up shop in the Conference Center. About 2pm we got a call from the head of the school saying that classes were cancelled for the day as what started off as peaceful protests had scaled into a full blown riot on Pine St. As we were going home you could see down the hill to downtown and see the clouds of tear gas and the distant pops of canisters and “non-leathal” rubber bullets and beanbag guns. The most haunting though was the sounds of yelling. It wasn’t just the screams of the scared and hurt. It was the chants that drowned even those out. A cerfew was enforced for downtown and the National Guard was called in. A state of emergency was put into place. The first one of a non-weather related kind in recent U.S. history. Did we care though? Not really. It meant a night of partying at our place since there was no school the next day.

December 1st 1999.

As we had the day off most of my friends spent time watching the protests or going to join the sit down at Westlake Center. I spent the day nursing a really bad hang over. Things were still really bad downtown. All the major stores on Pike and Pine (the two largest streets for shopping) were either closed or boarded up to protect from the Anarchists who had spent most of the night smashing windows and spray painting their feelings onto the sides of the buildings. That night was when it all caught up to me.

I was going to the grocery store at around 6pm (curfew started at 7pm) when I heard shouting coming from down the street toward the store. As I neared the store I saw that there was a large group gathered at the end of the intersection. When I got close enough I saw that on the other side was a group of riot police blocking off the road. Everyone has seen cops in riot gear on TV or in movies, but there is something completely different about seeing them face to face and knowing that you are on the WRONG side of their shield. Add to it that they were all wearing gasmasks and had their batons drawn. You could almost feel what was going to happen next before it occurred. There was a voice over a bullhorn telling the crowd to disperse and there was a cry from the crowd telling the cops to leave our neighborhood. My friend and I turned around at this point since we wanted nothing to do with this, but it was too late. We heard it before we smelled it, this sickening pop followed by at least a few more. Then the smoke started pouring over us. We had been teargased. There is no way to describe what I felt next. It’s like you’re breathing in acid and pepper, but you can’t move away from it because it is everywhere. You can’t see because you can’t open your eyes. You get completely disoriented. Luckily my friend had covered his face before it hit so he guided me off of Broadway and back to our building. We flushed our eyes and got out of our clothes; which we latered burned at a ceremony a few days later. We holed up in our apartment for the rest of the night listening to the pops and screams, the sound of the garbage cans hitting cop cars, at one point I swear I heard a baton crack open a skull. Our power was cut at around 11pm and was turned back on at 2am. I had thoughts that this was the end of the world. The night was later called The Battle for Capitol Hill by the news, but really it was just a pissed off neighborhood fighting back against a police force that was out of control.

The protests lasted a few more days, but we rode them out inside. We had heard that a few of our friends had been arrested along with 600 others. One of my good friends had joined up with the Anarchists from Eugene and were holed up in an abandoned building for the weekend, surrounded by the police and National Guard. He somehow made it out without even getting arrested.) It took a few weeks for the storefronts to all be fixed, but by Christmas everything was back to normal.

I write all this to give you an account of the WTO Riots (or the news dubbed “Battle In Seattle”) from someone who was there that was neither a protestor, anarchist, policeman or diplomat. Someone who was just living their life during this crazy time.

“Battle In Seattle” is the directorial and writing debut from actor Stewart Townsend (mostly known as the Not Tom Cruise Lastat from “Queen of the Damned”, and Dorian Grey from “League Of Extrodinary Gentlemen”). When I first heard about it, I was a bit leary, since I was pretty sure that they were going to make it way too Hollywood and demonize one set and glorify another. I have to say that I was pleasently surprised. Not only are all sides given a voice, protestors, police, government, WTO delegates and to a certain extent, the media, anarchists and civilians; but it is done very democratically. No one side is made to look like the wrong doers (except for the WTO as a group, but for good reason. If you don’t know the WTO, look them up. Shady shadow governments, but this isn’t the medium for that conversation.) and I think that is what’s key to this. Granted the main story is about the protests, so there is a great deal of focus on them. The main players in this group are Jay (Martin Henderson), Lou (Michelle Rodriguez), Sam (Jennifer Carpenter) and Django (Andre Benjamin). Jay is the leader of this section of peaceful protestors, who are only wanting to stop the procedings of the WTO through sit ins and marches. Jay has a past with protesting and is on his 2nd strike, one more arrest and he is going to prison for life. This doesn’t stop him though as he is devoted to this cause after a family tragedy strikes. Django is the animal rights protestor of the group. He is played with some much needed humor by Benjamin. This guy is really watchable and I don’t know why he isn’t in more things. Jennifer Carpenter plays Sam, who is new to the action but not to protesting. She is a lawyer who is assigned to help the group if things go bad. Rounding out the group is Lou. Lou is the same character that Rodriguez always plays and feels like her only purpose in the movie is to be the hardass with the heart of gold.

On the opposing team (the police and government) you have cops Dale (Woody Harleson), Johnson (Channing Tatum) and Mayor Jim Tobin (Ray Leota). It was interesting to see the view of the events from the Mayor’s perspective. He is in a losing situation, he just wants what’s best for the city, but he also wants to keep freedom of speech. It’s really this conflict of interests that causes things to spiral out of control so fast. It’s the cops though that are some of the best parts of this movie. Like I expressed in the beginning of this piece, it’s hard to humanize these figures of force, but Townsend does a great job with it. You really get to see the transformation between these two characters. On a sidenote, it’s really interesting that Woody Harleson was cast as a riot cop against protestors, since he is a very outspoken protestor himself. That being said, he plays Dale with so much passion that you can’t help but side with him.

The rest of the ensemble is rounded out by a News Reporter (Connie Nielsen) who learns that there is more to news then just spouting disinformation (a fact that I wish was actually played out by real newspeople.); Dale’s wife (Charlize Theron) who represents the normal citizen caught up in a situation out of control; the Anarchist (Joshua Jackson); and the WTO Delegate (Rade Sherbedzija) who doesn’t want anything other then helping the Third World.

As stated earlier, I believe that the strength of this movie is the fact that it succeeds in telling the story from all the different angles. Townsend has mixed in images from the actual news reports and coverage of the riots to give the movie a more realistic feel, and it works. I also like the fact that it makes a point in showing that not all of the protestors were commiting violence (in fact it was a very small delegation of anarchists that were responsible for the majority of it), unlike what the media was spinning during that time. It is this blend of excellent storytelling and intense images that brings out the best in the film. There are some hiccups in the way though. At times it can be a little heavy handed, one scene in particular involving Charlize Theron is a major offender, and some of the content seems just thrown in there without any sort of backing. All said and done though I think that “Battle In Seattle” is definitely a movie worth checking out. It shows that just a few thousand people with the right spirit can set out to change the world.

For more information check out: www.battleinseattle.com

Sex Drive, the new movie from young director, Sean Anders, revolves around Ian (Josh Zuckerman), your average 18 year-old who is desperately seeking puss. He comes across it over the internet, where he meets a girl who’s totally into him. Well, she’s actually into the football playing, weight lifting, muscle car driving profile he has forged. She asks him to come vist her and so the movie begins.

At it’s heart Sex Drive is a road trip/teen sex comedy, and it does an okay job at it. You have your required characters: the hopeless loser in search of love, the cocksure friend (played in all his subdued glory by Clark Duke), the girl whose a friend who doesn’t know what she wants (Amanda Crew), the evil brother (James Marsden) and a slew of crazies that they come across along the way. Just add water, stir and bake for 90 minutes and there you have it.

Even though you may have seen hundreds of similar movies, Sex Drive offers up some stand out moments that managed to catch me by surprise. The first being James Marsden. If you think that this guy can only stand around brooding, this movie will prove you wrong. Who knew that under those ruby tinted glasses Cyclops had a sense of humor? Seriously, Marsden turns in possibly the greatest performance in the movie as the dick of a brother who is more interested in his car then his younger sibling. I was laughing out loud at almost every scene he was in. Also, there are some pretty great cameos here and there, from Seth Green as a less then straight-forward Amish to David Koechner as a surly hitchhiker.

In the end, if there were a high school where Teen Sex Comedies attended, Sex Drive would be the shy quiet guy sitting in the courtyard during lunch. Not as loud, obnoxious and cocky as the kids at the cool table like American Pie or Van Wilder. It’s not as cool and funny as the Seniors (Animal House or Fast Times at Ridgemont High). Yet, not nearly as annoying as the freshmen (Eurotrip, American Pie 4-87). Ultimately, Sex Drive is one of those types of movies that is funny at times, slightly annoying but not overly so, and in the long run will be remembered as that kid you sat next to in Algebra 2… you know, the one that was kind of nice but you can’t for the life of you remember his name.