Category / Non-Fiction

by Jonathan M

Double Take (2009) – Fear and Loathing in Geosynchronous Orbit

Dig through the history of Horror and you will find, buried beneath the Vampires and the Werewolves, a more enduring monster.  A monster that fits uneasily on the cinema screen because his depiction requires no make-up or special effects.  A monster that looks exactly like you.  A monster which, in fact, is you.

From Poe’s “William Wilson” (1838) to Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound (1820) and Dostoyevsky’s The Double (1846) through to Kurosawa’s Doppelganger (2003), it is clear that one of the greatest fears humanity has is to wind up face-to-face with itself.  Terror is dealing someone who knows all of your secrets, who knows all of your bullshit, who knows what you are capable of… and who can do it too.  The doppelganger is a reminder that as much as humanity fears the Other, it fears the Self just as much.  Perhaps there is a reason for this.  Perhaps what we hate about the Other is what we hate about ourselves.  Perhaps all hatred and fear is externalised and projected self-loathing?  This idea has a nicely psychoanalytical feel to it.  You can imagine Uncle Sigmund whispering it in your ear as you cough up his fee and prepare for the long slouch back home.  Maybe it’s not them.  Maybe it’s you.  How far can we take this insight into our fears and terrors?

Johan Grimonprez’s documentary essay Double Take attempts to answer this question by using the doppelganger as a device for examining not only the politics of the Cold War but also the relationship between television and cinema.

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by Jonathan M

Exit Through The Gift Shop (2009) – Aaah… but is it art?

Walking around your town, prison yard or agricultural commune, you may have noticed strange stickers clinging to lampposts or the sides of buildings.  You may have noticed them in several places and then been surprised when you kept seeing them again.  These strange images  – like Shepard Fairey’s “Andre The Giant Has A Posse” sticker campaign and Invader’s Space Invader-inspired “Invader” mosaics – are examples of Street Art.  An underground art movement whose chief accomplishment seems to have been to prompt millions of bemused passers by to snort dismissively and ask ‘what’s the point of that then?’  But of course, this is an entirely legitimate question.

At a time when artists garner more critical attention by cutting up dead animals and sticking elephant dung to canvases, questions surrounding the purpose of art and the dividing line between the artistic and the non-artistic have never been more pressing : Is it supposed to be decorative?  Is it supposed to make us think?  Is it supposed to shock us?  Are traditional art forms more useful than these modern forms?  Is it supposed to make us ask questions like these?

The problem in part is that there is no clear frame of reference that allows us to begin answering these questions and even if there were, artists would go out of their way to deconstruct it : Art is decorative.  Art is inspiring.  Art is beautiful.  Art is meaningful :  Fail.  Fail.  Fail.  Fail.

Street Art’s reliance upon mass production and recycled imagery makes it particularly prone to these kinds of questions.  In fact, these kinds of questions seem to be the motivating force behind Banksy’s documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop (2009), but as we shall see it is not only stickers on walls that invite these kinds of questions as once you start asking them, it is difficult to stop.

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by Jonathan M

The September Issue (2009) – The Lair of the Clockwork God

Due to a lack of money, a lack of time, a lack of people to impress and a lack of a body that someone would want to make clothes for, I have little interest in what is fashionable.  I dress in pretty much the same way I did when I was 14 and I think I still have some of the same socks.  As a result, you might expect me to have little interest in R. J. Cutler’s documentary about the construction of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine.  Well, you might very well expect that, but you would be utterly wrong.  It is precisely because I have no interest in what is fashionable that I find the world of fashion so profoundly compelling. Films about the fashion industry are explorations of another culture completely different to my own.  A culture with a good deal of impact upon the world that we all inhabit.  Because of its power and the strangeness of its people and institutions, the fashion industry is a fascinating subject for a film.  Regardless of whether it is explored through mockery (as with Robert Altman’s 1994 Pret-a-Porter), hagiography (as with Rodolphe Marconi’s 1997 Lagerfeld Confidential) or thinly veiled contempt (as with David Frankel’s 2006 The Devil Wears Prada).

R.J. Cutler’s The September Issue approaches the subject with a mixture of awe and mockery but, despite some initial setbacks, the film provides some genuine insight into how it is that the world of fashion functions and why it is that it has so much power over our society.

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by Jonathan M

REVIEW – Lynch (One) (2007)

July’s VideoVista has my review of the David Lynch documentary Lynch (One).

As I mention it in the review, Here is a link to my old review of Marconi’s Lagerfeld Confidential (2007).  Both films are clearly shot around their subjects with their passive participation rather than their active participation.  What I mean by this is that both films were made with the consent of their subjects (as opposed to say Broomfield’s Kurt & Courtney (1998) – reviewed by me Here) but neither of them really press their subjects for answers or try to editorialise about their subjects.  Both have shape simply by virtue of hundreds of hours of footage being edited into a series of largely disconnected but occasionally memorable scenes.

by Jonathan M

Gang Leader for a Day

Based upon notes taken during his eight years of PhD field work in the Robert Taylor Homes, one of Chicago’s bleakest housing estates, Sudhir Venkatesh’s Gang Leader for a Day – A Rogue Sociologist Crosses the Line is far more than it appears to be if you judge the book purely by its title and cover.

Gang Leader for a Day’s cover makes a valiant attempt to portray the book’s author as some kind of fearless rebel; a sociological Dirty Harry who cares little for rules and procedures when it comes to getting to the truth.  The cover even features him in a leather jacket standing on a stairwell and gazing into the camera with the kind of thousand-yard stare that says “I’ve been in the shit”.  The title might even convince you that this is an icy examination of the Thug Life full of the tricks and techniques that drug dealers use to keep the product flowing.  However, the truth is that Gang Leader for a Day is a warm and human book about what it means to be poor and Black in America today.  Venkatesh paints a picture of a community abandoned by the state and left to the devices of highly-skilled and manipulative robber barons who mercilessly exploit their neighbours for private gain whilst hypocritically championing the values of community and togetherness.  Worthy of being spoken of in the same breath as not only The Wire but also Roberto Saviano’s Gomorrah (2007).

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