It's a full ass, good ass weekend at the multiplex with the release of the franchise-best 28 Days Later: The Bone Temple horror sequel (my review) plus the awards season spreads of several films including Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice (my review) and The Testament of Ann Lee (which I have not had a chance to review but which rules, so go see it). But that's not all -- there are two more movies I want to quickly mention that are worth your time, even if your effort at this juncture in time might be for naught because you just might not be in the place to see them. The first is the Thai film A Useful Ghost which is opening, as far as I can tell, only here in NYC at the IFC Center. And the second is even more narrow a drop than that -- it's called Infirmary and it's screening tonight only at the Dances With Films Festival happening here in NYC. What's next -- I review a movie that you can only watch under the covers in my bedroom at 4am next Tuesday? (You wish!) Anyway I wanted to toss out a few words about both of these terrific and worthwhile movies so you can keep an eyes out for them in the future, and so now I shall do just that.
A Useful Ghost -- I know that someone will yell at me for calling this an Apichatpong Weerasethakul movie with a sense of humor -- I mean how dare I besmirch the name of one of the world's great (and gay!) auteurs by insinuating that it's not a laugh riot to watch Tilda Swinton move in slow motion beside a stream for fifteen straight minutes? And Weerasethakul is certainly capable of being funny, but A Useful Ghost has that same very specific Thai vibe of the afterlife mingling with present reality as oh let's say Uncle Boonmee did, but it does so at a far, far goofier register. It's probably more in line to compare it to Wes Anderson than Weerasethakul, save for that Thai-specificity of ghosts among us being not a big whoop. This movie is after all about a man's wife coming back from the dead in the guise of a vacuum cleaner. And yes, there is sex with a vacuum cleaner. Of course there is sex with a vacuum cleaner! What world do you live in where there wouldn't be sex with a vacuum cleaner? That said that's just the first of many silly tricks that first-time filmmaker Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke's got up his poofy sleeves, and A Useful Ghost had me falling off the sofa with a litany of guffaws. And, with that Wes Anderson comparison I made above, a fair share of awe as well -- visually this movie is a feast, existing in its own vacuum-sealed weirdo world of wonder. Basically you will exit this film desperate to see what Boonbunchachoke pulls outta those poofy sleeves next. (It's also got what will surely be one of the year's best posters, as seen up top.)
Infirmary -- If you're anywhere near as big a fan of Found Footage horror movies as I am then you know you've suffered through a lot of fool's gold just to find those infinitesimal bits of real gold out there left to scavenge; sometimes it feels like all the good tricks have been used up. In that sense Infirmary does't re-write the handbook -- it's not doing anything you haven't seen done before. But what it is doing is playing the handbook well, very well -- you know the routine, you've seen the greatest hits, but this one will feed you some of that sweet stuff you love. As usual so much of these movies hinge on location, and Infirmary's got a great one with its half-closed, run-down psychiatric hospital, where two security guards are on the night shift. And just as importantly these are characters you'll actually like -- there's the skittish new kid on the block Eddy (Paul Syre) and there's the "I'm too old for this shit" archetype of Lester (Mark Anthony Williams), who's been doing the job for ages and who spends most of the night just messing with Eddy, scaring him... until the scares start getting real. See? Basic as hell set-up. But first-time feature director Nicholas Perada hits his marks -- the scares are real! -- and in return I jumped and made all of the requisite "Hell no" noises that you hope to make while watching these movies, as the characters stumble deeper into the awful, awful dark. Solid spooky business!
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