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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Good Movies  |  Dallas Film Festival Report: THE LAST CIRCUS, RAINBOWS END, THE OREGONIAN « previous next »
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Author Topic: Dallas Film Festival Report: THE LAST CIRCUS, RAINBOWS END, THE OREGONIAN  (Read 1495 times)
Rev. Powell
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« on: April 04, 2011, 01:17:29 PM »

THE LAST CIRCUS: Spain.  A sad clown and a happy clown fight for the love of a beautiful trapeze artist; they go insane and beat the facepaint off each other.  It's an allegory for the Spanish Civil War, but don't let that stop you.  It's very bloody and ends up as an action movie with b-movie violence.  The best scene is in the prologue, when the Republican army bursts in during a circus performance and conscripts all the performers; they give one clown a blade and say "A clown with a machete -- you'll scare the s**t out of them." My friend was disappointed, not because there wasn't enough clown-on-clown violence but because he was hoping for a greater variety of clown-on-clown violence.
3/5, but obvious Circus Circus alert.

RAINBOWS END:  Seven east Texas oddballs---the four members of Country Willie and the Cosmic Debris, a one-man band with a speech impediment, a baton twirler, and a cockfighter---take a trip from Nacogoches, Texas to California in a green bus.  They each follow a different dream: the band wants to meet their hero, the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, the twirler wants to take free Internet lessons at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance in L.A., the one-man-band wants to start a career, and the cockfighter wants to get his roosters into Hollywood productions. After watching this, I was convinced it was a mockumentary---a lot of the crazy monologues seemed too comic to be true, they seemed like they must have been scripted.  But the director came out after the film and was insistent that it was an actual documentary, and he convinced me these oddballs were all real people (though I still think some of the scenes may have been planned out beforehand, and some bits may even have been completely made up).  Either way, these crazy characters are fascinating and endearing and the movie is very funny, even though the road trip story ends up going nowhere.  (Side note: some straggly looking hippie guy came in late and sat directly behind me; he kept dropping his sunglasses on the floor.  They called him to the stage after the film and it was Country Willie himself.  I felt bad for laughing so loud at some of his crazier speeches). It's a celebration of eccentrics and the best movie I saw; I hope it gets distribution.  3.5/5.

THE OREGONIAN: A woman has an accident driving in the deserted woods and finds herself trapped in a world where nothing makes sense.  The director came out before the movie and warned that if you were expecting horror film, you were going to be disappointed; he called it a "surrealist, experimental film with splashes of horror."  He also said that there had been walkouts at other screenings, and we lost about 7 people from an audience of around 30 before the film was finished. Just as he had warned, it is a series of surrealist sketches with a horror sensibility; the best sequences involve a man who pees in rainbow colors, and a man sized green muppet-like creature.  There's also some necrophilia.  The sound design is very loud and intense full of anxiety: there's lots of static, piercing shrieks, and people murmuring softly out of nowhere.  Overall it reminded me of David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE (it even had the blond protagonist wandering through the nightmares), but of course not as good.  If you're goimng to make a non-narrative film like this, almost every individual scene needs to be a knockout, and this just had too many dull spots.  But it's still outstandingly weird, which makes it worth the watch in my book.  2/5.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2011, 01:48:32 PM by Rev. Powell » Logged

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« Reply #1 on: April 04, 2011, 01:45:21 PM »

THE LAST CIRCUS: Spain.  A sad clown and a happy clown fight for the love of a beautiful trapeze artist; they go insane and beat the facepaint off each other.  It's an allegory for the Spanish Civil War, but don't let that stop you.  It's very bloody and ends up as an action movie with b-movie violence.  The best scene is in the prologue, when the Republican army bursts in during a circus performance and conscripts all the performers; they give one clown a blade and say "A clown with a machete -- you'll scare the s**t out of them." My friend was disappointed, not because there wasn't enough clown-on-clown violence but because he was hoping for a greater variety of clown-on-clown violence.
3/5, but obvious Circus Circus alert.


Thanks Rev, for bringing this to my attention. It would've probably flown under my radar, so I think I will give it a go. The trailer actually makes it look like a damn good film.

Small | Large
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Rev. Powell
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« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2011, 01:52:14 PM »

THE LAST CIRCUS: Spain.  A sad clown and a happy clown fight for the love of a beautiful trapeze artist; they go insane and beat the facepaint off each other.  It's an allegory for the Spanish Civil War, but don't let that stop you.  It's very bloody and ends up as an action movie with b-movie violence.  The best scene is in the prologue, when the Republican army bursts in during a circus performance and conscripts all the performers; they give one clown a blade and say "A clown with a machete -- you'll scare the s**t out of them." My friend was disappointed, not because there wasn't enough clown-on-clown violence but because he was hoping for a greater variety of clown-on-clown violence.
3/5, but obvious Circus Circus alert.


Thanks Rev, for bringing this to my attention. It would've probably flown under my radar, so I think I will give it a go. The trailer actually makes it look like a damn good film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3W2GNuIpU4


Believe me, my first thought on watching this movies was "filmed on location inside Circus Circus' head."   Wink
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