Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings: 04/10/25

A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Julien Donkey-Boy (Harmony Korine, 1999)

Ewen Bremner in Julien Donkey-Boy

Cast: Ewen Bremner, Chloë Sevigny, Werner Herzog, Evan Neumann, Joyce Korine. Screenplay: Harmony Korine. Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle. Film editing: Valdis Óskarsdóttir.

Between a grim start and a bleak ending, Julien Donkey-Boy is an eye-straining and soul-bruising excursion into the lives of Julien (Ewen Bremner), a schizophrenic teenager, and his not very supportive family: an abusive father (Werner Herzog), a pregnant sister (Chloë Sevigny), a confused brother (Evan Neumann), and a remote grandmother (Joyce Korine). It's a kind of masterpiece of cringe.

Front Cover (Ray Yeung, 2015)

Jake Choi and James Chen in Front Cover

Cast: Jake Choi, James Chen, Elizabeth Sung, Jennie Page, Sonia Villani, Ming Lee, Li Jun Li, Benjamin Thys, Peter Hans Benson, Rachel Lu, Kristen Hung, Wayne Chang, Scott Chan, Ben Baur, Tom Ligon. Screenplay: Ray Yeung. Cinematography: Eunah Lee. Production design: Kate Rance. Film editing: Joseph Gutowski. Music: Darren Morze, Paul Turner.

A gay New York photo stylist (Jake Choi) meets a closeted Chinese movie star (James Chen) in this likable but rather too predictable romantic drama.