PSYCHEDELIC DESERT MATRIARCHY NOW!
Watch out for drones.
A while back, I became aware of a tweet that deeply frustrated me more than any tweet probably should (note: this is why I do not actually use Twitter). The tweet in question said something like “PARASITE was good, but SHOPLIFTERS was better, so why are we so into PARASITE?” (I’m paraphrasing, obviously). First of all, just because the era of poptimism has ended doesn’t mean that we should revive the juvenile idea of “popular = not cool.” Second of all, those movies are from two different countries entirely, so is the point that only one Asian filmmaker can make a great capitalist critique per year? No thanks! There are like seventeen superhero movies all starring various men named Chris; I think we’ll be okay! Third of all, why would anyone be mad about PARASITE being popular? Remember the sheer joy that occurred when PARASITE won Best Picture at the Oscars? (that was five months ago, for the record). It was a great night!
Anyway. My point is that there should be MORE movies like PARASITE and SHOPLIFTERS (watch ‘em both!), and that they should be MORE popular. Movies: now more than ever! Which is why my new summer project is to convince everyone to watch BACURAU, one of my favourite movies of 2020 so far.
BACURAU is hard to describe, mostly because there’s a good twist partway through that I don’t want to fully spoil here. When it starts, you’ll think you’re watching a Brazilian arthouse film—oblique talk of political unrest, a shot of coffins lining a desert highway, unexplained drug use. The first part of the film is focused on exploring the fictional town of Bacurau and its inhabitants; only once we’re fully invested does the weird shit starts to happen: lost cell signals, UFO-like drones, suspicious tourists on motorcycles, etc. Then, suddenly, the movie tilts into a full-on grindhouse Western film. It is fascinating, and fun.
It’s also incredibly satisfying to see these genres reimagined. The town of Bacurau is a quilombo, a settlement founded by escaped African slaves, found in the sertão (backcountry) of Brazil. One of the film’s directors, Kleber Mendonça Filho, has described visiting a quilombo outside the majority-white city that they were planning to use as a location, and immediately envisioning Bacurau as a “remixed quilombo”: “a black community, a historical place of resistance, but with some white, indigenous, trans and other inhabitants.” It’s a place where sexual identity isn’t regulated, and barely even remarked upon. The three most important people are Carmelita, the matriarch, whose death coincides with the mysterious activity around Bacurau; Domingas, the town’s lesbian doctor; and Lunga, the revolutionary exile who looks like the coolest MAD MAX extra and is played by Silvero Pereira, an incredible drag artist:
BACURAU shows a tiny, strange microcosm of life affected by the true Big Bads—technology, capital, power—and the violence that arises from them. It’s an anti-colonialism Western that pays direct homage to John Carpenter, takes place “a few years from now,” and speaks to the current political struggles within Brazil (plus, the town crier is a video DJ). In another world, I think this could be a huge summer movie, and I recommend seeking it out (it’s on Youtube, pay a few bucks for it).
RECOMMENDATION FROM THE ARCHIVE:
I watch REALITY BITES at least once a year, so I’m ashamed to admit that it took me this long to watch THE WATERMELON WOMAN, a movie that is ALSO about a film-obsessed protagonist struggling with a personal project and navigating friendships and relationships in the mid-1990s. It has everything I like in a movie: deep nostalgia for Gen X (a generation to which I do not belong but feel strongly about), a great soundtrack, and a cameo by CAMILLE FREAKIN’ PAGLIA (why? who cares!!). It’s playing on Kanopy and the Criterion Channel now, go go go.
OTHER THINGS I’VE LIKED LATELY:
Weekly check-in: have you watched I MAY DESTROY YOU yet? I am going to mention it every single newsletter. If you haven’t, or if you have and just need more Michaela Coel, read this recent profile to convince yourself, and then watch her MacTaggart lecture from 2018 (I will never tire of the way she pronounces '“cocaine”):
Harry Dodge’s new book, My Meteorite, a brilliant memoir/philosophy treatise on parenthood, art, artificial intelligence, mortality, etc., will make your brain feel cracked open in confused in the best way possible. Read if it you liked The Argonauts, which just happens to be written by Dodge’s partner.
Drinking Palm Bay (ideally cherry-lime flavour) and cheap light beer together. Serve over ice. It’s called a Palm Beer, and it’s 1000% better than the sum of its parts. Also, running ice cold water over the underside of your wrists is a quick way to feel cool during a heat wave (the blood vessels there are close to the surface of your skin, which will make it easier to bring your body temp down).
If you like this, you can subscribe to hear more of my scattered thoughts, and please email me if you want more suggestions! Also, tip 30%+ if you are getting take-out or eating in at a restaurant, and wear a dang mask!