All Consuming : Ben Whitehouse

A story about "Midnight Movies"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Ben Whitehouse) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:42:40 GMT

by Stuart Samuels

Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream tells the hidden history of these landmark films, El Topo (1970), Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Harder They Come (1973), Pink Flamingos (1972), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), and Eraserhead (1977). The documentary includes in-depth interviews with the directors, producers, writers and actors who were part of these low-budget, yet monumental productions, the exhibitors and distributors who played them, and the audiences who viewed them.

Wonderful...

nobody@allconsuming.net (Ben Whitehouse) — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:31:52 GMT

Trembling Before G-D

by Sandi Simcha Dubowski

This film is wonderful. It’s a moving account of devout Jewish LGBT people. They tell their stories with honesty, humour and candour. The film is beautifully shot and the score becomes an integral part of the film (almost another character). This film has become a movement in itself bringing healing and discussion of this important issue within Jewish circles. (There needs to be a Christian version of this film! A dialogue about the question of how to reconcile LGBT Christians passionate love of their faith and the Divine with the drastic Biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality.)

Come play with the pod'sters. (rated 5 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (Ben Whitehouse) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:06:49 GMT

JPod

by Douglas Coupland

Coupland is back. And this time it’s personal.

I was pantwettingly excited about getting it through the post. And then very quickly consumed the book in two sittings. Yes, the book is bleaker in places but it’s also Coupland on top form. All the elements from novels you’ve loved: the computer geeks from Microserfs (but this time they’ve gone global), the existential questioning from Elenor Rigby (but this time the questions get more bizzare in places) and the dysfunctional families we all grow to love.

I particularly enjoyed the “Pick Me” letters to a certain multinational clown…

As for these characters being unsympathetic… I work in a basement based office with 6 people and we play the “quickest person to google” and “write an ad for yourself as if you were an ebay item” games. We kill time in much the same way the jpodders do. Unsympathetic? Oh dear… I better get some therapy.

Coupland making an appearence in his own novel. Isn’t that all a bit too po-mo? I still don’t know if Coupland loves the culture he writes about it or if he’s mocking them.

First one to find out the answer and email me wins this… stuffed toy camel from my desk.

Why I recommend "Psycho"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Ben Whitehouse) — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 19:27:30 GMT

Psycho

It’s an amazing remake. It has a lot to say about remakes and post modernity. Seeing the original is a must to be ‘in’ on the beauty of this.

Scene by scene, frame by frame remake, music cue by cue… it’s wonderful. Vaughn’s Bates plays as a homosexual whereas Perkins’ chilling Bates is somewhat different. It’s the same only creepily different.

A story about "Right at your door"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Ben Whitehouse) — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 09:59:35 GMT

Right at your door

by Chris Gorak

A dirty bomb goes off in Los Angeles, jamming freeways and spreading a toxic cloud.