Heavy Metal
In the previous issue, I mentioned in my “Stray Observations” section that I saw the art house French film Titane and I mentioned how bewildering it was. Well, I watched it again and I feel like I have somewhat of a better grasp on it.
There are two official synopses provided for Julia Ducournau’s second feature film, Titane. The first being more descriptive, “Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for 10 years.” and the second being a bit oblique for a movie plot, “A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys.” The vagueness of these two descriptions emphasize the filmmaker’s desire for audiences to go into the film knowing as little about it as possible. I too highly recommend going in blind (although I should give the heads up that the film is very violent, gory, and unsettling). That being said, if you’ve seen it already or don’t care about being spoiled, here’s my take on the film. Otherwise, I’ll just give you this: Titane is a dazzling and Cronenbergian piece of avant garde body horror that has to be seen to be believed.
Spoilers for Titane are as follows:
Alexia is introduced to us as a child, loudly humming along in the back seat to the car’s engine. She annoys her father more and more until her antics cause a car accident. Doctors outfit the inside of her head a titanium plate. Instead of showing any affection to her family after her recovery, she gives it to the family car via a hug and a kiss.
Flash forward to the present where Alexia works as an erotic dancer. Titane shows her gyrate and slide on the hood of a sports car, elevating her affection to sexualization. At one point, Alexia even literally has sex with a sports car and it impregnates her. Alexia is also a serial killer. She lures men and women in with her sex appeal only to drive a titanium spike into their ears, killing them instantly. It isn’t always so simple and after one botched murder spree, Alexia burns down her home with her parents inside.
In order to hide from the police, Alexia disguises herself as Adrien, a boy who went missing ten years ago. She turns herself in as “Adrien” and Adrien’s father, Vincent, collects her, convinced that she is his missing son. Vincent is the captain of a team of fire fighters. He is distinctly masculine and practical in the station, but in the privacy of his home, with Adrien/Alexia, he sheds this mask to reveal a sensitive and vulnerable man.
As Alexia’s unnatural pregnancy develops (oil instead of blood, flesh tearing to reveal metal), she begins to transform from a homicidal maniac into the loving son that Vincent desperately wants. Her real father only showed annoyance to her (I mean, for good reason), but Vincent shows unconditional love and affection. It’s even implied in some scenes that Vincent knows that Alexia is an imposter, but so needs someone to give this love to.
Love seems to be the central theme in Titane. Alexia never received any love outside of people sexualizing her body. When her dance on the hot rod in the beginning of the film ends you see just as many people trying to talk to her as you see people ogling the car. The first murder of her’s you see in the film is while she’s kissing someone in her car. Right afterwards is when she has sex with a car. Until she became a man and met Vincent, she is never shown any real affection. There is a sort of homoerotic nature to the fire station (weirdly a lot of dance parties where the buff firefighters are shirtless), but in this world they focus on the personal and emotional connections with each other instead of the physical. When Alexia performs one of her erotic dances for the firefighters as Adrien, it brings the party to an awkward standstill. Not long after, when Alexia/Adrien tries to return her love to Vincent, she doesn’t know the language so she tries to make-out with him. Vincent rejects these advances, but stays with her because he cares about her. It is love that saves this serial killer and, in an interview with Letterboxd, Titane’s director Julia Ducournau seems to imply that was the point:
“I wanted to get to the essence of the person, no matter what their gender is, their sexuality, no matter if they’re from the same family or not. That was the challenge for me, to see if I could make you feel the love. If I could actually tackle the topic in the unconditional way that I see it. That’s why I decided to do Titane.”
Alexia reveals her true identity to Vincent just before she dies in childbirth, leaving Vincent with the half metal child. The last words of the film are him comforting the newborn with “I’m here”. Again, giving the comfort and the presence that says “I care about you and I love you.” A certain unconditional love that is highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys.
Titane is playing in theaters, for now.
Only Monsters in the Building
Last year saw the release of the horror tv series Sweet Home on Netflix, based on the South Korean Webtoon1 of the same name depicting the residents of an apartment building fighting to survive a viral outbreak that transforms people into monsters. The series caught my eye after seeing reviews praising the creature designs, so I figured this month would be the best time to watch it.
Sweet Home borrows plenty from zombie fiction, like how most zombie stories there is the thematic reveal that “the real monster is man”2. In these dire situations, more often the monsters aren’t as dangerous as the humans turning on each other and choosing to act selfishly instead of the good of the community.
Even though Sweet Home follows several different survivors, the dichotomy between selfish and selfless is the primary turmoil for Cha Hyun-Su (Song Kang), essentially the show’s protagonist. Hyun-Su is described as a Hikikomori, a Japanese term for someone who spends their days at home in solitude, often only using the internet, video games, and other nerdy pursuits to pass the time. He’s also acutely depressed and suicidal. There is a big moment early on in the show where he considers suicide, but spots a monster preying on some recently orphaned children. He opts for the selfless act and puts his life at risk to save the children. Decisions like this appear frequently in the show where acting selfishly or out of fear comes into conflict with the interest of the community. One character even directly asks another, “What is God’s will? I’m sure it isn’t to be selfish and ignore others” in a crucial moment. Every time this choice is made, it usually brings people together. The Hikikomori is no longer alone. It’s no coincidence that many of the monsters are freakish exaggerations of the infected people’s worst and most selfish traits (spoilers: the transformations are triggered by intense selfish desire too).
The stylistic ambitions of the show are incredible, but often clearly exceed the show’s budget. The monster designs are inspired3, sets are lit with IV2K lighting4, and the camera/editing often resembles the kinetic work of Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) or Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo the Iron Man). Even tonally it evokes the playful crassness of Raimi’s Evil Dead films. So even though many of the digital effects look tremendously fake, the spirit behind them and the bold style make up for it. In a way, I suppose you could argue Sweet Home is sort of style over substance, but I love style so I don’t mind.
Sweet Home is available for streaming on Netflix.
Spooky Season: Part Two
This month of October, I thought it would be fun for me to share some autumnal media recommendations to celebrate the Halloween season. For this second part, I want to recommend works exist in a “Scary, but fun!” kind of realm. The kind of works that won’t keep you up at night, but might be too much for young kids.
From Beyond (1986)
One of my all-time favorite films ever and, in my opinion, one of the best movies to watch on Halloween is Stuart Gordon’s sophomore H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, From Beyond. Gordon’s previous adaptation of the prolific cosmic horror author, Re-Animator (1985), may be more popular, but From Beyond does it better for me. Using most of the same cast and crew from Re-Animator (including stars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton) and higher production values, From Beyond follows scientist Crawford Tillinghast (Combs), Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Crampton), and police officer Bubba Brownlee (Ken Foree) as they recreate the circumstances around the unexplained circumstances around Doctor Edward Pretorius. Tillinghast insists it has to do with the resonator that him and Pretorius built that resonates with the human pineal gland, allowing one to see beyond normal perceptible reality. The problem is, this machine lets what’s on the other side see us too. From Beyond has slimy monsters, campy dialogue, a mostly pink and purple color scheme, and strange sexual content. It gets gross and despite the tone being playful, the cast never winks at the camera, treating everything as if it were life or death (and in many cases, it ends up the latter for them). The fellas at Red Letter Media did a great video on From Beyond and Re-Animator a few years back suggesting, much like I am now, that it is a great horror movie for the Halloween season.
From Beyond is available for digital rental on Amazon.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Writer Diablo Cody and director Karyn Kusama’s supernatural teen horror has been steadily becoming a cult classic. Countless film critics have reappreciated or continued to appreciate this verbose schlock. I will admit, before I rewatched the film last year, I was skeptical, but this is a smart, violent, and funny film. It centers around the friendship between two high schooler: dweeby Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and popular Jennifer (Megan Fox). Their friendship seemingly ends when Jennifer dies at the hands of some Devil worshipping men. Emphasis on “seemingly” because Jennifer comes back, but with demonic gifts and a taste for blood. Needy doesn’t approve (“You’re killing people!” she says, to which Jennifer responds “I’m killing boys.”), so it’s up to Needy to figure out what to do. It’s genuinely fun with some great social commentary.
Jennifer’s Body is available for streaming on The Criterion Collection and Amazon Prime.
Stray Observations
While driving a friend home the other night, “Strutter” by KISS came on my Spotify and that has gotten me into a little bit of a rock phase. “Strutter”, “Holy Diver” by Dio, and “Dragula” by Rob Zombie are pretty much played daily during my commute. One song in this playlist has me rocking out more than any other and that’s “Home Sweet Home” by Mötley Crüe. Can’t articulate why it’s such a banger, so just listen to it yourself:
The Hulu Original Series Only Murders in the Building (which I wrote about a few issues back) is airing its season finale this coming Tuesday. Last few episodes since my writing on it have continued to deliver consistent laughs and twists. After the penultimate episode the other night, everything seems to be pointing to a certain conclusion, but I’m sure there’s more twists incoming.
I did some tarot reading for some friends last weekend and I can’t get a specific card from the last reading out of my head: The Tower. It traditionally depicts the Tower of Babel being struck down by a bolt from God, sending the world into chaos. Many people read it as a negative thing, that all that you built is turned to ruin. I have to think though, a lightning rod isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What are you building a tower to reach the sky for anyway? What’s your ambition? Once you reach your goal, you gotta start over and move on to the next one. Starting something new is chaotic, but eventually, if you keep at it, you’re gonna be at the top all over again. Doctor Frankenstein used lightning to create life, what can you use it for?
Thanks for reading! Appreciate everyone’s continued support. I hope you all like, comment, subscribe, share, and have a nice weekend. Ta-ta!
Webtoon is a publishing platform for webcomics, but also the name of a webcomic medium. Extremely popular for publishing manhwa (essentially Korean comics), most Webtoons take advantage of digital format by laying out their comics for scrolling. That means vertical frames that suit the shape of most smart phones. There has been a massive boom in webtoons in the past few years leading publishers and companies to produce stories for the site. Nevertheless, it is still a great platform for individuals to publish their comics.
Always loved Futurama’s take on this sort of moral by boiling it down to its most basic beats in this short segment:
There is one with a creepy design that is, unfortunately, rendered in such terrible CGI that it ends up looking like The Amazing Bulk.