marshottentot

First off, let me say that if you see 'Oscillations', you'll immediately say "Holy Crap! That's (BAT)MAN!" And you'd be right. It is the Knight of the Dark in his weirdest (unofficial) film outing yet. In this French film, 'The (Bat)Man' must solve the murder of his youthful ward (R)obin by 'The Psychopath'- a laughing, clown-faced ghoul - with an assist by his sometimes enemy 'The (Cat) Woman'. Be warned ahead of time - this is a strictly no kids, mature, 'R' rated film. There is weird violence and one of the most purposefully uncomfortable sex scenes ever filmed.

The(Bat)Man, as portrayed in 'Oscillations', does not much resemble the one we know from American comics and Hollywood films. This one is wears a dark three piece suit, an overcoat, and is unquestionably a very disturbed individual. At one point he enters Arkham Asylum. The nurse at the reception desk looks at him for a moment, then decides to admit him. He then smashes her head off of the table. Later, he denies The (Cat) Woman's sexual advances. Clearly, this Batman is insane... about justice!

For a low budget semi-professional fan-film, 'Oscillations' is technically very well done. Aside from a fleeting glimpse of a cheaply rendered CGI Batmobile, the effects are very, very good. The lighting and atmosphere is heavy with gloom and Arkham Asylum seems to reek with a real human madness you wouldn't expect from a super hero short.

The acting is really good. Jaume Fargas as The (Bat) Man excels at horse blinder determination and wild eyed insanity. The fact that both Fargas and Véronique Leclerc (The (Cat) Woman) get into the buff for a not-for-profit fan film shows the dedication of all involved.

So, in summary, if you can make your high and low brows meet somewhere in the middle, or wondered what a (Bat)man movie would look like as directed by a young David Lynch, then without question 'Oscillations' is worth your while - should you be able to track it down.

Like most of the posts here, I'm a bit biased as I'm involved in the soundtrack. BUT! I've never met Stuart, just some emails, so I feel like you can trust me! ToTT can be best summed up by my tag-line - "Why You Should Never Work With Your Heroes". It's clear that the Alex Cox that we all envision is not some kind of punk cinema touchstone of integrity, but a rather a jerk, just like the rest of us. Unfortunately, Stuart has his own set of issues and put together with Cox's and it's actually amazing the project got as far as it did.

The film in question is "Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday", the sequel to Cox's 1984 scifi / hardcore punk comedy masterpiece 'RepoMan'. 'A Tale of Texas Treason' contains plenty of raw 'Waldo' footage, and makes the film sting even more: it looks fantastic and hilarious.

I give props to Stuart Kincaid for allowing as honest a representation of the situation to be seen. Even though Cox declined participation in 'Treason', you can get a feel for why he may have got indignant. Stuart has a temper. No, we're not talking about a Hollywood life threatening temper, but one that can flare up out of nowhere and ruin your day for sure. For instance, the film tells it's story with dense commentary with the actors, crew and friends. At one point, apparently disgusted with a complaint by actor Ted West during one of these interviews, Stuart breaks with the set narrative style to scold West, his angry voice coming from somewhere off camera. It's one of my favorite scenes because it shows Stuarts warts: this is not a 100% 'up with Stuie' project. In fact, with the Katrina & Rita hurricanes being recent events at the time of the shooting, I was surprised by the overall view of the survivors by Stuart, like they're just bums or something. But Stuart is a real American, roll up your sleeves, DIY punk rocker - I should expect no quarter from this guy, right?

The actors and crew range from playing characters (Ted West & Marci Dacus go for campy & condescending respectively), to hilarious (Antonio Brazil), to extremely in touch with the situation (Ed Ivey practically narrates the film). The amount of talent here not being able to finish a project that was basically 5 minutes away from being done is ultimately a teeth grinding shame.

I'm glad that at least they made this cautionary tale, it should be seen by any budding filmmaker, and especially ones that work with some one else's material.

So, what did Alex Cox think of Kincaid's 'Waldo'? A bummer scene involving an oddly familiar comic book tells the tale. SHAME, Mr.Cox, SHAME!

'Fred & Barney Meet The Thing' was easily one of the most absurd cartoons to come out before the ultimate Saturday Morning Video Game Cartoon Massacre of '82. The Thing segments (I HATED the Flintstones so what their segment was about escapes me) had NOTHING to do with the Fantastic Four character other than his orange rocky hulk design. Instead, a goofy teenager has a pair of RINGS that he slams together and squeals "Thing Ring - DO YOUR THING" at which point a magical transformative implosion packs him in the exterior of the ever-lovin'-blue-eyed-Thing. And then he goes and fights crime! Actually... no. No, you see, the goofball is part of a motorcycle club (with your standard Hannah Barbara Scooby Doo / Captain Caveman / Jabberjaw / Speedbuggy analogs) and this is foggy, but I seem to remember that were in a cross country race. I'm not totally sure about that though. In any case, they are ruthlessly pursued by a scuzzy gang of leathered neer-do-wells, that for some reason, seem to like getting pulped by a giant crusty monster week after week.

My clearest memory is one of the bumper scenes where Fred & Barney ACTUALLY meet the Thing. They're on a dude ranch and Fred, Barney and The Thing do the 'Dosie Doe' dance. Amazing. Even at eight years old I was blown away by how stupid that was.

Yes, F&B.M.T.T. is bad, but not as bad as 'Rubick, the Amazing Cube', 'Q-Bert', 'Donkey Kong', or just about every video game / novelty toy commercial in disguise that KILLED Saturday Morning Cartoons in '82-'83.