The Filmcake

June 15th – June 21st

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead – The only bad thing I have to say about this Lloyd Kaufman directed film is that I’m angry that I missed the deadCENTER screening. The experience of seeing this one with a crowd (and with the legendary Kaufman in attendance, no less) is the only thing that could’ve possibly made it more enjoyable. At least I did get to see him at one of the deadCENTER panels. Maybe I’ll run into him sometime in the future…

As Sarah suggested, this would make a great double feature with Richard Linklater’s take on Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. FFN is a great book and really important to me. While I do appreciate Linklater’s film version, Poultrygeist was a truly brilliant interpretation of Schlosser’s book. The Troma people do a remarkable job of living up to what truly is gory subject matter. And the movie just also happens to be fun as hell.

I particularly liked the two leads, Jason Yachanin and Kate Graham. They brought a goofy boy and girl-next-door feel to the film that looked all the better once they were covered in all manners of horrific ooze. They brought a charisma to the movie that I honestly wasn’t expecting. I enjoyed the musical numbers quite a bit and would have welcomed a little more development on that front. And, of course, the low-budget special effects were absolutely wonderful.

Although now I do feel a strong desire to incorporate a penis monster, some manner of dismemberment and/or a car flipping & exploding into all future home movies. Those Troma touches, whether they’re knowing gestures or money-savers, really make the movie.

And while Poultrygeist is offensive, it’s certainly not mean. The distinction is an important one to be made. It’s why “clean” comedy doesn’t ultimately work (at least with a sophisticated adult audience). You kind of have to be offensive. It’s also why political conservatives aren’t funny. They don’t know how to be offensive without being mean.

I loved this one so much that I had to watch the Director’s Commentary the next day. While the commentary was both hilarious and insightful (and, at time, wonderfully bitchy), the thing that struck me the most was learning that Lloyd Kaufman’s wife, Pat Swinney Kaufman, was the executive director of the New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development. Wow. And besides the Troma gig, which he’s been at for 35 years, Lloyd also chairs IFTA (Independent Film and Television Alliance). They both obviously share a strong passion for this thing called film and they’re both very much doing something about it. They are truly an inspiration.

For more, check out recent podcast interviews with Lloyd Kaufman by Elvis Mitchell on The Treatment and Aaron Hillis at GreenCine Daily (which includes a shout-out to the deadCENTER gynos).

Colossus: The Forbin Project – Sentient computers are scary. Especially when said sentient computers join forces with Soviet sentient computers during the Cold War. They’re even scary when they promise to end all wars and ultimately save humanity.

This film, I think, has a lot to say about nationalism and the consequences of a globally connected world. Perhaps man is intent on destroying itself no matter the extent of technology. It seems to be our shared destiny.