VHS Tracking Newsletter #23
Mannequin at Luna Leederville, Cemetery of Splendour at Goolugatup gallery, and more!
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Trash Classics: Mannequin (1987)
Friday 27 March 9:00pm, Luna Leederville
This month’s Trash Classic is a rom-com fantasy that could’ve only been made in the 1980s! I am also working on the theory that it’s the Most Eighties Movie Ever Made. And that’s Mannequin (1987), a high concept comedy about an artist (played by Andrew McCarthy) who begins to have strong feelings for a department store mannequin he’s created. Thankfully the mannequin is real (played by Kim Cattrall) who comes to life to his surprise (she is Egyptian royalty that has lived for centuries - yeah, some aspects are pretty dated!).
Before Barbie, here was another movie that combined consumerism (it’s set in a boutique department store) and romance (Cattrall’s mannequin is only alive when she and McCarthy are alone). Mannequin is appealing to the mainstream with its family friendly comedy hijinks, and yet is also kind of kinky, working towards a mix of the silly and the sexy. There’s also a supporting cast that includes Estelle Getty from The Golden Girls, G.W. Bailey who plays an authoritarian villain like he did in Police Academy, and James Spader in a role unlike any other, where he plays a snivelling corporate weasel (possibly channelling John Lithgow). And how can we forget the scene-stealing character of Hollywood played by Meshach Taylor who sports the best outfits!
Before the film, I’ll be showing some vintage 1980s movie trailers to set the tone, and provide an introduction about Mannequin along with a raffle draw where one attendee can win a prize pack including a blu-ray copy of Lars and the Real Girl (2007). Thank you so much to Umbrella Entertainment for sponsoring Trash Classics Program 10.
Tickets selling fast - get yours now!
VHS Tracking Presents: Cemetery of Splendour (2015)
Wednesday 8 April 6:30pm, Goolugatup Heathcote gallery
Our first screening of the new VHS Tracking Presents program at Goolugatup gallery, Serenity programmed and introduced by DJ Sliding Doors, was a lot of fun. This is a free film club held monthly at the gallery with free popcorn available, a cash bar, and plenty of opportunity to BYO your own snacks.
Now for something very different, moving from a bizarre neo-noir head-scratcher to a masterful example of slow cinema. Artist Reece Cahill has selected the Apichatapong Weerasethakul film, Cemetery of Splendour (2015), a Thai film that follows a volunteer nurse who helps out at a hospital where a group of soldiers have all fallen asleep and remain sleeping under observation. Weerasethakul is the celebrated director of films like Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Memoria, and blends documentary observation with fantasy elements, aiming for a cinematic experience that feels like a dream and are often about dreams (alongside its perspectives on Thailand socio-political history).
It’s a great opportunity to see one of Weerasethakul’s films in a screening setting and experience a different approach and tone to cinematic storytelling. Register your attendance through the following link.
Film Review: Kaithi (2019)
Hearing that the Indian Tamil-language flick Kaithi (2019) was a cross between Assault On Precinct 13 and The Wages Of Fear was enough to hook me into searching it out. What I found was something that is reminiscent of both those films, but was also pitched between a Johnnie To/Milky Way film (strong premise, tense build-up, impactful action) and Jerry Bruckheimer’s production of Con Air (ex-con wants to see his daughter, over-the-top theatrics, crunchy rock score).
The opening stretch sets up a lot of pieces between a successful drug-bust kept secret, a vengeful gangster and his missing brother, a police celebration and alcohol that’s been secretly tainted with tranquillisers. Eventually this results in a banged-up detective needing to transport a truck filled with incapacitated cops to a hospital for medical relief while hordes of gangsters have been sent with a hit-list of the five officers responsible for the bust. And then there’s the chained-up prisoner arrested for loitering, Dilli (Karthi), who is the only one that can drive that truck. He’s got a reason to make it through One Long Night – his daughter at a foster home – and he’s also got the skills to see it through – turns out his quiet dignified persona is a front for a brawler.
I was having a whale of time throughout Kaithi, which is thanks not only to Karthi’s grounded performance as the religious, weepy, salt of the earth prisoner (who also has the capacity to put a WWE smackdown on an opponent), but also the array of characters running around, some working together to fight back against the encroaching villains. There’s the comic relief in the catering business who owns the truck, and joins the ride as the only one who can direct them through the off-road route. Or the diminutive country cop who falls asleep at a police station that becomes abandoned by the officers once they know gangsters are on the way to retrieve the confiscated drugs.
Structurally the film shifts between the stop-start journey of the truck as they keep getting ambushed by thugs, and the empty police station barricading themselves from an incoming siege. Directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, and finding amber-tinted lighting for the fight sequences outside, and effective reversals to the twists and turns our beleaguered heroes find themselves in. Available to stream on Amazon Prime.
Other Recommendations
Glen or Glenda at The Moon: Sunday 29 March presented by Black Maria Film Collective. Tickets.
Razeh-del at The Naval Store: Wednesday 1 April presented by Vessel x Cinema Politica. A great chance to see Iranian director Maryam Tafakory’s experimental film on the big screen. Tickets.
Demolition Man at The Revival House: Thursday 16 April presented in 35mm film. Tickets.
Afternoons Of Solititude at Luna Leederville: Sunday 19 April, one screening with a post-film interview with director Albert Serra. Warning: film does contain graphic scenes of bullfighting. Tickets.
Please remember, you can pick up a copy of the latest VHS Tracking zine - The Fantasy Issue here, and there’s always a new episode of the Movie Squad podcast to enjoy each week at RTRFM.
See you at the movies!
Sincerely,
Tristan Fidler
Trash Classics | VHS Tracking