Last Night @ the Egyptian, Hollywood
I saw Mr. Glover's film last night in Hollywood along with the slide show covering his books and I found it to be an authentic, original cinematic and interactive experience (Q&A followed). Basically, the film could be distilled to an exercise in Brechtian aesthetics, wherein the goal is to achieve a kind of distancing effect ("Verfremdungseffekt"), whereby the director seeks to engage and confront, even repulse, the audience, which Mr. Glover achieves often throughout. He does this, among other ways, through a series of visual and aural juxtapositions, and by means of (in my opinion very poor) editing technique.
One way he achieves this is by the juxtaposing of National Socialist iconography, base pornographic interludes, and racist overtones or parodies, that which most people find disturbing or offensive, to that which most may find innocent, such as images and recordings of Shirley Temple, or those afflicted which Down Syndrome (who represent about 90+% of the cast). The result is a success--feelings of discomfort, alienation and distancing, or detachment rise up along with repulsion. Unfortunately, there are no real interludes of "attraction" (in the imagery, setting, character play, etc.) to create a dichotomy and thereby ground the viewer a little in some sort of reality, even if it's a cinematic one.
Re: "Reality Check" The challenge here is being very clear as to WHAT kind of effects the Auteur (if I may) is seeking to achieve, and HOW s/he plans on doing it. With ingenuity and creativity, the attempt may be a success without appearing to be that which it truly is--a contrivance. Unfortunately, Mr. Glover's film often reeks of pure contrivance, mainly because of the choice to incorporate a cast who clearly haven't the slightest idea, or frame of reference, as to what they are doing or saying other than that which is obviously (painfully so at times) being told or shown to them directly off screen. Admittedly, the cast does have a distancing effect on the viewer, but not due to any craft of the auteur, but rather by default--many from the cast were with severe D.S. and grotesque physical deformities. And the endless close-ups/use of macro lenses...!!
Re: Choices... Originally meant to be a short (25+ min or less, I guess), Mr. Glover should've perhaps stuck to his guns on this one. I say this because that which he achieves early on quickly loses impact due to regurgitation--i.e. the repeated snail screams (F. Balk...What the Hell?!), not to mention the repeated salting of them, the hitting-over-the- head violence in the graveyard (hi, anyone for The 3 Stooges...), the repeated "pornographic" segments, endless close-ups, all lose their initial and lasting effects (uncomfortable repulsion) and start to border on comic predictability. (I actually found myself at times laughing "in the faces of" some of the cast during moments only to stop and turn red as if hit by a spot light, embarrassed as my "trained conscience" stepped in).
Re: Homages/Influences... Obviously (and as many of us may already know), Mr. Glover continues to pay his respects to Werner Herzog and David Lynch, two men who have had a strong influence on him and his work, and whose influences are seen in this film. I did mention after the screening (to which Mr. Glover nodded) the clear influences of Harmony Korine's work in "Gummo" and "Julian Donkey-Boy", but what perplexed me was the answer I received during the Q&A when I mentioned the OBVIOUS influence of Kenneth Anger, especially on the setting, as seen in the films "Inauguration of the Pleasure Doom", and "Rabbit's Moon", but especially the first. He claimed that he knew of Anger only by name and wasn't too familiar with the work I mentioned. Yet Mr. Glover does have a certain naivete about him that eventually melted my skepticism and, reflecting later, I thought that perhaps he hasn't been exposed to some of these avant-garde filmmakers that many of us have (Anger, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage), as well as the above mentioned.
Perhaps we as viewers of this kind of cinema could benefit from brushing up on the works of B. Brecht ("On Theater", etc.) and the associated aesthetics, and other confrontational movements from the 50s onward, as well as N. Sarraute ("Tropisme", "The Age of Suspicion"), P. Lagerkvist ("The Sybil", "The Dwarf", "The Eternal Smile"), D. Barthelme ("Snow White"), Burroughs' "Cut-Up" novels, etc., as well as numerous collections on DVD--Kenneth Anger (Vol. 1), Maya Deren--Experimental Films, By Brakhage: An Anthology, Avant-Garde collections, and selected (often earlier) films by Lynch, Herzog, Greenaway, Caro et Jeunet, J. Cassavettes, H. Korine, not to mention the entire Monty Python legacy...
In closing...if you can see "What Is It?," especially with Mr. Glover's slide show, do so--FOR THE EXPERIENCE. I got to meet him, chat with him, and bought the (genius) movie poster of the film. What else is there... Anyone for escargot and some watermelon???