Let's do Naked Lunch

Although this a travel blag, I'm not just traveling. When I'm not taking advantage of the Patagonian landscape, I'm selfishly indulging my insatiable thirst for cinema. For the last couple of days, it's been extremely windy and overcast. Conditions unideal for marine mammal viewing. I'll take any excuse to watch a movie. Dinner and a movie: chinese take out and all three Indiana Jones movies. Not feeling well: Progresso and David Cronenberg (not the smartest combination). Can't find my shoes: stay inside all day and watch movies until my eyes hurt, my legs fall asleep and when I stand up too quickly I go temporarily blind with lightheadedness right before my ankles buckle and I drop like a rock. Then, with no feeling in my legs and no peripheral vision, I'd be daft not to continue watching movies...right? Anyhow, I'd like to introduce y'all to some of my favorite films from some of my favorite directors.
      My first love: Spielberg. Now just because he's an extremely successful and mainstream director doesn't mean he's not a fantastic film maker. Spielberg defined what it meant to make a hollywood, blockbuster movie. Jaws, E.T., and Jurassic Park, to name a few. Visually spectacular, feel-good movies that deliver with the perfect amount of profligacy. I love the pace and momentum of his movies - his grasp of the hero's journey, if you will. His scores are also second to none, and with John Williams at the composing helm, how can you lose? [This is directed to all those nay-sayer, flute playing, band-geeks who think all of Williams' scores sound the same and that Danny Elfman is better: come off it. Tim Burton's not that cool. You're just an emo loser with a Jack Skellington hoodie and a faltering grip on reality. Sorry, I've been holding that in for a while] Spielberg also tends to use very little dialogue in his movies. Instead he uses pictures to tell his stories. A great example of this is Spielberg's first commercial film, a made for TV movie called Duel. Made in 1971, the film stars Dennis Weaver and one extremely unique car chase. Aside from the movies already mentioned, some personal favorites include Hook, Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me if You Can.
      John Carpenter is a film-maker by every definition of the compound word. He directs, writes, produces, and even composes almost all of his films. Carpenter essentially began his career, and the slasher film genre with Halloween in 1978. Atypical from his other films, Halloween is an exploitative, crass, gory horror flick. The majority of his other works fall into the scifi genre and aren't dumb. My hands-down favorite is The Thing (1982), starring Carpenter's man-crush, Kurt Russel. It's gross, in terms of gore, budget, makeup, and overall epicness. Carpenter had a short yet sweet 10-year film-making run that churned out gems such as: Escape from New York, Christine, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China and They Live. After that, old-Johnny started getting rusty and the magic started to dwindle. But the handful of awesome films that he has made are simply delicious in their tongue-in-cheek ridiculousness and simultaneous embracement of the scifi/horror genre. You could say he makes B+ movies.
      Slightly more esoteric now...wait, did I say slightly? I meant to say David Cronenberg. Probably my favorite director these days. Cronenberg cooks a strange dish: always stylish, creative, inventive and usually exploring a strong motif. His films also often exude violence and sexuality in untraditional ways. More exciting and endearing is his affinity for campy, semi-realistic stop-motion animation and use of horror make-up that looks as though it came from the late 70's. He used it then and he uses it now. I think he just hates CGI and likes the look of it. If you watch his films in chronological order, it's fun to experience the distinct phases he's gone through. Although I should introduce you to his films with the notorious Video Drome (1983), I prefer the more focused and toned-down eXistenZ (1999). Both strongly motifed films. Other orthodox atrocities include: Shivers, Scanners, The Fly and Crash (the one about having a sexual fetish with car crashes, not the 'everyone is connected' one).
      Lastly, we have Darren Aronofsky, whose movies I don't even really like. He's newish and his films are extremely hard to watch, mostly beyond the point of being enjoyable. However, this crazy bastard gave us Requiem For a Dream (2000), which is incredibly hypnotizing. With every film Aronofsky puts under his belt, his grasp of cinematic pathos tightens, and oh does it tighten. Watch out everyone, this one has promise. With that said, I can't wait to see his next film, Black Swan, which looks as though it might be freaking awesome.
      Alright, that's enough haranguing for one post. While I enjoy a good, respectable film, I also enjoy vampire and zombie movies. So, if you excuse me, I have a date with Wesley Snipes.