Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees

This movie is so clearly a christmas classic that i can barely contain myself! Please, make this movie a part of your family's traditional holidayic behavior. Watch it while you wrap the presents, and for a truly quixotic effect, watch it backwards when you unwrap them.

I think that this movie has also taught my "dog" how to talk. I have showed him this movie (privately) over fourteen hundred thousand times and now he can speak. Of course, he doesn't vocalize his speech: he transmits it through the air-but i think that this is still somehow remarkable (I think).

He is telling me to write this: -------- I am so hungry please feed me. Please. I am starving. I need to eat. I am so skinny I that can barely move. Don't hit me anymore. It only hurts and makes me sleepy enough to fall into some reverie. --------

Well, better go feed the pup! (10 out of 10 stars.)

it's a weird movie but maybe a little bit less so if you think about it as having a kind-of antiwar message -- the guy gets so overwhelmed by guilt over the job he does that he basically loses his mind and imagines himself to be a missile that doesn't want to hit its target.

or, another way of thinking about it is, what would happen if weapons could be haunted by the people that they kill? in order to do that you have to make the weapons into living things, which is a big part of where the movie's weirdness comes from, but at the same time there's a real valid point to it, i think -- which is that it asks us to think about the way we wage war, which is shown on t.v. so that it seems not to have a cost in human lives, when in fact, of course, the toll in human life of wars like desert storm is extraordinary and tragic.

i think the movie DOES get a little overwrought with its technical events from time to time, but i think too that it DOES have a basic message that helps to understand it, and it'd be a shame if that message was missed because i think, whatever its flaws, it conveys and explores that message (about the human toll of "pushbutton" or antiseptic modern wars) brilliantly.

oh, and it made MY dog talk, too. how about that? i'm convinced anyone who sees this movie seven times can be deemed legally insane. having said all i said above, i have to admit that this is probably the absolute STRANGEST movie i've ever seen, and i've seen some strange ones. i liked it anyway, though.

Not unlike an acid trip, I don't think this film is meant to be clearly "understood" in its entirety. You have to pay attention and give it some thought, like modern symphonic music or abstract painting, but doing so might just reward you with a strong appreciation. It is (a bit dated) psychedelic eye candy and food for thought. It can be rather depressing, or if taken lightly, can be quite comical. I found myself dumbfounded, asking the screen "WHAT?!" several times, but it was a good kind of "what?" because it's so off the wall. If you discount anything mind-bending or mentally challenging as boring or stupid, if your idea of great film-making is "Signs" or "True Lies," don't bother with "Wax."

just wanted to add that i really like the video, and i think its no more weird than any television talk show or game show or news show or presidential election show: it mixes up a lot (in our heads i mean), but the confusion comes from the matter, not from the artist.

it's full of speculations and confusing plot points, as part of what it is about. in fact it was the only movie i ever saw, that was able to both analyze and illustrate the TV strategies of war reporting since operation desert storm (which it is exactly about) and the beginning new world order. that's maybe what seems technically overwrought?

seems to me, other artists like godard or kitano work the same way, merging so many images, synthezising so many parts of life, in the end you're overwhelmed. because we are not used to watch movies that way. because there is little chance to see stuff like this in cinemas.

thx for your attention. ;)

Full review on my blog max4movies: Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees can probably best be described as a philosophic journey through the paranoid consciousness of the narrator, which is presented in the form of a science fiction pseudo-documentary. Much like documentaries on conspiracy theories, the movie is cluttered with seemingly random information about beehives, ghosts, and weapon's testing - just to name a few central themes. These concepts are mostly interconnected but overall the narrative still lacks structure and coherence. The visual presentation is perplexing with distorted images and heavy use of computer-generated effects, but the abstract shapes and intercut shots of bees match the dreamlike and hypnotic atmosphere of the movie. Overall, the movie presents some great ideas (e.g., criticism of intelligent weapons), and the presentation is, although being a low-budget production, unique and fascinating to watch - even though some aspects don't come together all that well.