evolute

Following their lead roles in lesser known films All The Real Girls, Manic, and Sweet Jane, Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have, together as actors, again shown their ability to grapple with the emotions of complex love and human interaction. The film makes beautiful use of sunlight and shadow to emphasize tone; a fresh Alt-Indie soundtrack; and camera angles that really compliment the intimate emotional interaction of the characters. A number of inventive scene compositions bring us neatly into the minds of our leads. Teasing questions are successfully introduced about relationship attachment, and the constructs of our modern thinking and place in the world. While undoubtedly a sweet film, it's rare to see such an intelligent approach to romance viewed predominantly from a male perspective.

I was 7 when Turtle fever first gripped my world. It was grounded in a mixture of my fascination with creature special effects, animatronics, along with models and other fantasy beings, after seeing films or programs on TV such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Dinosaurs, Labyrinth, Willow, and a little later Time Bandits and The Thing. I claimed I'd become a model or creature maker for movies. I'm not, but that's not important. I'm young yet, and may still pursue that one of many dreams.

I remember knowing a great deal about the world of the turtles, with all their fighting capabilities etc. It was a major talking point among my male friends. Later I even had a latex turtle arm I begged a friend to give to me. It was a reject from his uncle who worked in the design studio. I wore it around my local Scottish neighbourhood. It was only 1 arm mind. Funny stuff.

Then it came time to see the first 2 movies in the cinema. I don't remember whether I saw them with my friend or my mother, or both. I was amazed by how they got the faces to move on the turtle characters and impressed by the actors moving so well in all that latex. I saw some fantastic documentaries on TV at the time about how it was all done. However, even at that age, I began to recognise how atrocious the acting was. In the second one it was even worse. I haven't seen the films since, so I can't have been influenced again.

It was a fun time in my life, and I thank the creators for influencing that, but ultimately it was myself and my friends who created the great memories and not the film.

I must have moved on to another interest when this third film was released, as I didn't even know of it's existence. I saw it on UK television many years later and to watch it for old times sake. It hadn't improved. The actors moved not so well in their suits, the voices were poorly chosen and vocalised, and there was little comedy. I did like the Japanese set design however, but then I realised that's not what the turtles are all about.

From perhaps the age of 5 much of my time was taken up creating fantasy worlds with all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures. Much of this stemmed from my fascination with creature special effects, animatronics, along with models and other fantasy beings, after seeing films or programs on TV such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Dinosaurs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Labyrinth, Willow, Time Bandits, and a little later The Thing. I claimed I'd become a model or creature maker for movies. I'm not, but that's not important. I'm young yet, and may still pursue that one of many dreams.

A few years later I discovered Fangoria magazine and would gleefully thumb the pages in a large Scottish department store. I got quite a fright once when a friend found me in my own little world of fake blood and gore.

At only 8 I visited New Zealand with my mother and happened to find myself in the capital's futurist Te Papa museum, at her suggestion. At that time was an exhibition dedicated to Peter Jackson's backyard ingenuity in making his early comedy horror films. It even had the documentary of the making of Bad Taste, including his mother talking about him using the oven to bake his latex alien masks. I was so enraptured by the arousing disgustingness around me. Amazingly my mother happily left me alone, along with many other kids, in the frankly shocking scenes of the exhibition, including many bloodied props from Braindead. I went on to chase them through a maze of mirrors. It's an obscure memory I hope to never lose, but one that tells a lot about children's acceptance of things.

It was over a decade until I saw the featured films. For Braindead I waited until I was able to see the original uncut version on Britain's glorious Channel 4. I eventually managed to download Bad Taste (sorry Peter Jackson) from eMule to share the greatest of New Zealand with my friends. I often brought them weird offering to watch together, matched with a smooth spliff and beers for the others.

Suffice to say I was not disappointed! I've only ever seen this film alone, but from discussions with numerous people it's clear that what we have here is Jackson's finest film and undoubtedly the greatest marriage of comedy and horror in the history of cinema. It's that likely ancient way of accepting the utter ugliness of much of existence, by humourising it. Perhaps even accepting these extremes are merely variants of the same great experience. The US had it's own classic series before with The Evil Dead, and I'm extremely proud of the UK's top billing Shaun Of The Dead. However because this film is truly Kiwi I love it beyond all others.

Looking back on both the museum exhibition and movies, it appears Kiwis are quite comfortable embracing these themes in daily life. Despite regularly being considered the most upstanding of the colonies, there is an often easy acceptance of the dirty aspects of existence here.

I knew it was only a matter of time until Peter Jackson would become a superstar. So far he's retained his integrity in my mind. Top class!