Monday, June 24, 2013
MIASMA
Today's film is the vexing and wonderful film by Shane Carruth
Carruth wrote, directed, edited, composed and stars in the film which is a combination horror/sci fi/alien melange and, if it is meant to move and scare and puzzle, it is quite effective.
Such a one man show is often clunky and begs the question of craft but this film is beautifully rendered with special effects which, seem to me, to be mostly natural and biological rather than fake.
There are time dislocations and, at first, these seem much wilder than they actually are.
It is not clear what is going on but then that is the problem of the two subjects here. Both with the experience of having their lives (and fortunes) sucked out of them without a clue of what is going on until they meet and begin to share more intimately.
There is a third man who they do not know or see until the very end. He seems to be the author of much of the weirdness, taking worms from plants, transplanting them to pigs, inserting them in human bodies. I am not telling you anything here that is a spoiler.
The principals, Mr. Carruth and Amy Seimetz are beautiful together. Much of the drama comes from their attempts to figure "it" out. The pig man is a kind of David Lynch guy and there is another man known as "the thief" who gets the worms somehow and uses them to "worm" out the money and lives of his victims. I am not clear if the two are connected. Hmmm.
Don't even try to knit this together.
But you should see the film because it somehow does knit it all together (there is knitting) but not in a conscious way. I found myself getting it and laughing with the discovery but I can't quite explain what the deal is.
But Carruth has done that so well, I don't have to.
This is probably a 5 out of Netflix5 just to watch the pieces float by again. At least a 4. And I would not mind watching Shane Carruth at all. Hot.
Labels: films
