Movie of the Month: "Tulpan" (2008)

I liked “Borat” (there, I said it). Because of that, my expectations were probably tempered in a very strange way. “Tulpan” is decidedly a far-cry from the hirsute TV journalist, as comparatively unoriginal as it may seem.

What makes this Kazakh coming-of-age tale so great is the fact that it is the product of minds that refuse to recognize the pretenses of the romance, nostalgia and fantasy that is so typical of western cultural motifs.

It takes the tired-but-true dilemma of a young man named Asa (yearning for more than this provincial life), returning to the wind-swept plains of his forebears to live with his sister’s family, and invigorates it with a sense of grandeur and gritty nonchalance.

MOTM: "Solo Con Tu Pareja" or 'Only with your Partner' (1991)

While the feature-length debut of director Alfonso Cuaron could be seen merely as a showcase for the tenderly sultry Claudia Ramirez—known in Mexico largely for her early telenovela roles—“Love in the Time of Hysteria” (the English release title) revives the romantic melodrama in ways that haven’t been seen north of the Rio Grande for some time. 

Because at its heart, this movie is a dark comedy. More a spoof of love sickness than a glorification of it.

MOTM: "The American Astronaut" (2001)

Try to dissect the following phrase:

“He's a birthday boy. He kills without reason. If he has no reason to kill you, then he can kill you. But if he has a reason to kill you, then he's got a problem. Because if he kills you without resolving that problem, then you'd be dead, and the problem would live on forever, unresolved.”

It sounds odd but that’s the kind of person who is hunting Samuel Curtis, the so-called “American Astronaut”. And that is the world in which he lives. He’s an interplanetary trader carousing the dives and blue-collar corrals of deep space. And his most recent job? Deliver the “Boy Who Saw a Woman’s Breast” at the behest of his smuggler buddy, the Blueberry Pirate, to a planet of women in exchange for the body of the former monarch of Venus.

Thus is a descriptor of the only science-fiction western musical you will probably ever see. Sounds kind of like a deadpan version of “Spaceballs”, right?

MOTM: "Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary" (2002)

A good decade ahead of the curve, cult Canadian auteur Guy Maddin released this homage to Bram Stoker’s famed novel in 2002 as part of a CBC collaboration with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

It’s nothing terribly original with regard to the story. It’s pretty much the same old interpretation---Renfield goes nuts, the Brides run amok and by the end we feel worse for the Count than we do for Van Helsing and his cadre.

But it's nothing to scoff at. Thinking of it as just another ballet would be so totally beyond the scope of what Maddin tries to achieve. It’s not like one of those Metropolitan Opera commercials where they simply record what’s going on.

MOTM: "The War Game"

It’s understandable that Peter Watkins’ 50-minute made-for-TV ‘documentary’ about nuclear holocaust in the town of Rochester, Kent has languished in the shadow of Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove”, which had premiered only a year prior.

Where Kubrick’s version is witty, absurd and ultimately surreal, director Watkins’s take on the possibility of nuclear combat is unsparing, brutal and thoroughly convincing. Kubrick’s vision was a fable. This, though, is a nightmare. 

Beginning with a hypothetical Chinese invasion of South Vietnam, the outbreak of a “limited engagement” in West Berlin between the Soviets and NATO tenders the US authorization of surface-to-surface nuclear artillery on the battlefield following a rout.

MOTM: "Who Can Kill a Child?" (¿Quién puede matar a un niño?)

An eerie lullaby leads a savage parade of dark black-and-white images depicting kids ravaged by war, abuse and pestilence in the opening scenes of this icy Spanish thriller, the implication being that what is about to unfold in this movie is not entirely without karmic recourse.

Forget the corny international titles plaguing this film. “Isle of the Damned.” “Death is Child’s Play.” “The Killer’s Playground.” “Lucifer’s Curse.” Somehow, the production company American International thought the name “TRAPPED!” sounded good.