Surveillance

Tonight I watched Surveillance, the latest release in what we'll call the ongoing experiment of DVD, On Demand and TV simultaneous releases. In order to bypass the fees, I DVR'd the film from Mark Cuban's HDNet. I'll be honest and say that I'm not all too interested in this stuff, so I'll save that discussion for the time when I become interested in it. I will say that I like it though. Options are better. Giving us more ways to watch movies makes more people watch movies, which is very important. Giving us different price points also helps a lot, especially when there is the option for those who follow the release dates to watch it for free. I honestly don't know anyone else who does that though, rather people wait to read the reviews and order it On Demand for seven dollars.



So this entry was the first film from Jennifer Lynch (spawn of David Lynch, the dude with major fear of fatherhood issues, i.e. Eraserhead) in fifteen years. Her last was Boxing Helena, yeah the one where the weirdo puts the girl in a box and then cuts off all her limbs for the ultimate form of possession. There was a twist in that film that really didn't affect the actual narrative at all, but rather just negated it completely. It spun it in a direction that was more of a cop out than anything else. The twist allowed Lynch to not have to explain or resolve the convoluted plot she got herself into.



She did it again in Surveillance. In this case it wasn't just to avoid answering all of the questions she posed by the end of Act Two. In this case, actually, she answered them. It was a cop out again though, and while not fulfilling, she did answer the questions. What was more upsetting about this "twist" was that it was hardly a twist at all. Can you call it a twist when the narrative poses literally zero possibility of any other resolution? No, it wasn't like they hinted at the twist to make it obvious. It was more of an Agatha Christie deduction.

Let me digress a bit. The Bone Collector. This is an old one and I don't really care about revealing the killer here but skip to next paragraph if you really don't want to know. Leland Orser is the killer in this film (note how they're not his eyes on the poster). This guy has three or four scenes in the entire movie. He's a random character, I think the doctor who comes to check on him every once in a while. You have no reason to suspect him, he has no character arc or even anything specific one can say about him. The only reason why one would guess him is because he's an actor a little too big for the nobody part. When this big mystery is revealed to be this dude, the whole movie falls apart.

I guess there's two ways to go with these kinds of whodunnits. You have a random killer that you never see, and only reveal when you reveal him or her as the killer. The other way is you have a series of characters that it might be but are portrayed as innocent, and then later reveal one of them as said killer. In order to make the latter justified and actually satisfy the audience, we need to know something about them. The best mysteries are the ones where you do not figure them out but then when they're revealed you see how "obvious" it was the entire time.

Seven does it somewhere between but in a way that works. They throw Kevin Spacey in there here and there, but never really show his face for too long. My Mom saw it and recognized his voice, but that didn't ruin anything because all she knew was that the killer was played by Spacey. We learn all about this guy as if he's in the movie throughout, so then when he is revealed we're immediately attached to him. This is a unique converging of the two where it's not totally random, but we do not feel bad that it was impossible to figure out before the big reveal. Again, this is the exception, not the rule.

Bone Collector fucked up. They tried to do the same thing. They literally cast a guy who resembled Spacey's attributes as an actor. They told us a lot about the killer with the investigation, so he was a character without a face. Then they sprinkled some Leland Orser (who was also featured in Seven by the way) scenes in there too. But those scenes had nothing to them, nor did the character. I felt no satisfaction when Orser was revealed as the killer, partly because it was absolutely impossible to have guessed him much less figure it out.

Give us a reason to watch. There was no point in us trying to figure anything out in Bone Collector because none of the investigation actually lead to even the detectives solving the case. It didn't make the big reveal dynamic at all. It was just a story of lets watch the detectives...watch the detectives some more...watch the really hot yet to blossom as a big star Angelina Jolie detective...nothing happens...then OH SHIT!!! THE FUCKING DOCTOR IS ATTACKING THE INVALID DENZEL!!! HOLY FUCK!!! GET BACK THERE ANGIE!!! Dead Leland Orser. Alive Denzel. Savior heroine Angie. Resolution. I don't give a shit.

I also don't give a shit about Surveillance. That twist was obvious because there were only a certain amount of characters in this low budget indie. For a bit I thought the killers were going to come back or something, but then I realized that it would break the mold of the structure of this tale. This was a story about subjectivity, and when you're telling a story about subjectivity, it's self contained within the characters that are introduced in Act One. I would not give this Lynch enough credit to make a statement about subjectivity in a larger, slow building and evolving ensemble piece on subjectivity, so it was not hard to deduce what was going to happen.

Anyway, most of the enjoyment of the third act, or really the entire film, is based on digging this twist. I didn't therefore I didn't dig the film.

As they were in Boxing Helena, casting and performances were the strength of this film, being absolutely top notch. I really want to make out with Julia Ormond, slash have her be my mom, slash cast her in a film. Why doesn't she get roles anymore? She's being added to my list. If you don't know what my list is, see "Introduction." Bill Pullman was weird and interesting as usual, adding nuance to a part that really needed it. I actually think I dig the haircut even, because I think this guy would have that haircut. It did look really dumb though, so I credit Pullman for taking that ballsy step to do the film, and then looks like a dumbass the whole time. I think I have to say that beyond these two the rest of the cast kinda sucked though. French Stewart is an idiot. Just a fucking imbecile (see how he's clearly lonely in this picture, that's because he deserves to be lonely). Granted the writing for his and Kent Harper's characters was painful, but still, they were very annoying. A lot of this film was superfluous narrative, specifically those characters. Sucks that Kent Harper was a co-writer with Lynch, because he wrote some decent parts for other people, but not himself. Michael Ironside is badass as always. I'd have sex with him probably. He was an easy early entry on my list, been there for a while. See him 1. Looking like he's going to explode your fucking head. 2. Setting some assholes on fire. 3. Exploding some fucking heads. 4. Getting his own head exploded.


























I love seeing movies like this with 10 or so producers, David Lynch credited as one of the Exec Prods. I guess he put up some coin for his Elektra complex. Coming storming out of second unit on Brokeback and the acclaimed straight to DVD Hollow Man 2, Peter Wunstorf did a pretty ok job as DP. They went for the too oft used on indies shallow depth of field look, but he knew when to stop. There weren't any shots where the guys eyes were in focus but the nose was soft for no reason that are sadly typical of these entries. He knew when to hold back, and even though he didn't really use it to tell the story, he used the focus to give the otherwise boring settings an interesting look.

I never know who to credit with the sound, because it seems like every movie credits them differently, so just look it up if you're interested. Note to the world: When you don't put music in your film, that doesn't mean you should make every footstep, crinkling of paper, and brush of clothing sound like Michael Bay does bombs in Pearl Harbor. I think it's absurd. The sound design is very distracting. This is not the way life sounds. Yeah, it makes noise when I type on my keyboard, but it is not louder than the sound of my voice. If there's a reason for it, great, go for it. I can't think of a reason other than style. It's a style that's been very hip in the last few years and I do not like it. I also do not like popped collars, FYI. I'm talking to you Derek Gould (I would've put a picture of him with a popped collar, but this one was better).

(SPOILER ALERT) The most redeeming part of this film is when you think they're going to perform a gang rape for shock value and exploitation, they don't. That's wonderful. This is a rape free movie. There's no abortion either. Phew! I'll actually say that the scene in question is pretty cool. Seeing Julia Ormond like that was actually fun. I won't lie, her and Pell James wasn't the worst thing in the world. I thought they were going to take it further, and I wouldn't have minded at all, but they got in and out pretty fast, which is always the best way to go in telling that story. They made the point, move on, which they did.

Overall, it's not awful. It's a fun movie. Other reviews will talk about the gore, which is absurd. It's not gore that will make you squirm though. It's low budget indie gore, which means tons of blood with chunks of flesh in it being splattered everywhere and lots of close-ups and montages of brutal murders. The master shots are the ones that really kill you in those kinds of scenes, but that was neither in the taste, style nor budget of Surveillance. It's mediocre at best, but it's fun. Watch it for the performances alone, and maybe because there's not much to compete with it on TV.

Last thing. Mustaches aren't that funny. Yes. They are funny. They're just not that funny. Let's only make jokes about them when they're coupled with other jokes or relevant to the story being told. Notice my lack of a funny irrelevant mustache picture here.