Adventureland (Mottola, 2009) – 5
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Lynch, 1992) – 8
Sugar (Fleck/Boden, 2009) – 8
Extract (Judge, 2009) – 7

Hancock (Berg, 2008) – 3
The Kingdom (Berg, 2007) – 5
The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008) – 7.5
Burn After Reading (Coen, 2008) – 8
Snow Angels (Green, 2008) – 8
The Visitor (McCarthy, 2008) – 8
Starting Out In the Evening (Wagner, 2007) – 6
Gone Baby Gone (Affleck, 2007) – 7.5
Funny Games (Haneke, 2008) – 8
Persepolis (Paronnaud/Satrapi, 2007) – 9

When Brendan Met Trudy

Directed by: Kieron J. Walsh
Year: 2000

When Brendan Met Trudy is the tale of a young man who has gradually realized that life has been slowly drained of all its wonder and enchantment. He has become very specific and organized in his habits and interests, but the rituals have become perfunctory and soulless, primarily due to such having been enjoyed alone. He is awkward and afraid of the unknown, and yet is longing for a taste of something deeper, something human.

Everything changes, of course, when he meets Trudy. It’s not a case as simple as opposites attracting each other. It’s that she’s alive in ways he’s never allowed himself to be. Vulgar, gregarious, impulsive.  She opens up a joy for life in him. He becomes more outspoken, passionate, and adventurous. However, there are some moral wrinkles which interrupt his bliss, threatening to send him back to that place of isolation and mundane misery.

What makes this film distinctive is the fact that although our ordinary hero undergoes a transformation of character, he remains who he is. Brendan doesn’t drink a magical potion that suddenly changes himself into everything he ever wanted to be. That eliminates the joy in discovery, both positive and negative, after all.

Another intriguing aspect of Brendan’s character, and the film’s construction, is that he is a lover of films. He initially finds the reality of films more appealing, and easy, than forging his own reality. He uses films to inform how he responds to real life, as a means to connect. The film’s stance on his obsessions is compassionately neutral, neither dismissive nor adulatory. His moments with Trudy are a cornucopia of scenes from his own personal film.

While other films are used to inform the events in Brendan’s life, the film not only toys with our expectations based on other moviewatching experiences, it openly, lovingly mocks them. It questions the idea that we can chronicle real life in a method similar to bulletin points in a film summary. Real life can’t be contained or categorized in that manner. That’s part of what makes it worth living. When Brendan Met Trudy is joyously, ardently pro-life.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Directed by: Russ Meyer
Year: 1970

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls occurs when a young rock band, with stars in their eyes, head out to LA, and mingle with the freaky people. Ronnie ‘Z-Man’ Barzell, the ‘teen tycoon’ of rock-and-roll, personally sees to their ascent in success and popularity, as well as their introduction into a fantastically unhinged, rapacious lifestyle. Oh yes, the glamor, the adoration, the sex and drugs are there… but at what personal cost?

The musical performances, the editing and visual tricks, the acting, if you will, are kinetic, electric, vivacious. Particularly enjoyable are Kelly Mac Namara’s exercises of power. It’s like a child gloating about a newfound quarter. Z-Man is a self-aware constructions in that he is fun to watch, but is actually rather creepy, when you think about it. The danger inherent in having the freedom to do absolutely anything you want is that the total lack of self-restraint can result in vacuous hedonism, or a detachment from reality. The film makes the latter point very very clear.

What’s underneath the grandeur and bombast is how differently characters use sex (and there’s a lot of it). Sex as a simple pleasure, as an expression of love, as a weapon, as a commodity, as a means of identity, or to escape from one. In most cases, it’s a primary means of predation. Also underneath is how easily values change, or are easily lost, when money comes with the music.
While it may be part of the point, the film had somewhat established boundaries of ridiculousness that are toppled right over in the final act. It may be self-aware, and yes, it does have something to say regarding the value of character, but yes, excess was possible, and is achieved. It seems like getting laid, and she leaves a religious tract under your pillow in the morning. It’s quizzical, and its grotesque cartoonishness is apt, but it chokes on its own tongue. Nevertheless, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is prurient fun, memorable for the music, the flesh, and all that crazy dialogue.