I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Somewhere just sideways of our world — like perhaps in the realm of Repo Man — perpetually wasted stoner chick Lou (Natasha Lyonne: The Intervention) wakes up one morning after a particularly weird night of partying and realizes that she’s pregnant. But not normal-pregnant: “I’m some kind of goddamn freak show,” she complains to her best friend and cheerful fellow wastrel Sadie (Chloë Sevigny: Zodiac), via what she declares “some weird immaculate conception shit.” (She hasn’t gotten laid in, like, forever, she swears.) And so this punk Canadian body-horror grossout comedy is off down a bizarre yellow-brick road of conspiracy theories about alien abductions, military experiments, seriously bad drugs, and a fetus that likes electric shocks and is growing way too damn fast. What the hell is Lou going to give birth to, and how soon? This first feature from video artist Danny Perez gives off a dementedly creepy vibe, and an audaciously original one, too: the chipper way in which Perez offers up Lou and Sadie for our half-horrified, half-amused entertainment is, no joke, a blow for cinematic gender equality in the depiction of abject losers, and Lyonne and Sevigny are simply having a ball playing such delightful reprobates. (Meg Tilly is a scream in a small role as a crazy lady who might have an explanation for Lou’s predicament.) But Perez’s vision — he wrote the film as well as directed — does feel a bit more like a man’s idea about pregnancy than a woman’s experience, and the whole shebang plays like a 30-minute short padded out to feature length. Still, Perez is clearly a filmmaker to watch.
Hmmmmmmm……
This might be a good candidate for the Fans Of Flick Filosopher Gang to have at a watching party.
I actually want to have a pre-election Watching Party. Possible films include:
Face in the Crowd
Idiocracy
The American President
The Spook by the Door
Bob Roberts
And maybe something written by Garry Trudeau.
Well, I’m not sure I could take that much. I’ve seen all of them once, probably only would be willing to watch The Spook Who Sat By The Door again. Maybe The Candidate (which wasn’t on the list). Bob Roberts is great and I recommend it to people a lot, but I remember having a knot in my stomach most of the time watching it when it was in theaters and don’t want to re-watch.
So, here, on this thread, I was just thinking about this film. Sounds like it might be too much for the expectations of a theater showing, but might be just right for a watching party.
Antibirth is probably less “dementedly creepy” than the election.
and don’t forget The Candidate,still a great object lesson on how power — or, at least, the *desire* for power — screws your life.
That poster is cheesy fun in it’self.