User:TPoole/sandbox: Difference between revisions

Line 66:

a room and couldn’t get out for various vague reasons.” These guys, who are

“Maf Boys,” have already spent 21 days in that location when we meet them. One is Prince, played by Mailer. Another is Buzz Cameo, who shares his first name with Buzz Farber, the actor who portrayed him. The third is Mickey (aka, “20 Years”), who also bore the same first name as the man who assumed the role: Mickey Knox, the only one of the three who was a professional film actor.

The trio pass the time by talking, by arguing, by fighting. “If you ever find

yourself in shit, don’t sing,” Mickey tells them, giving sage advice to the room’s prisoners. But they are not always alone. An array of guests visit the apartment, ranging from Mickey’s wife to a “bunch of bulls” who speculate that at least one of the three wouldn’t survive if he left the room. Someone wants to kill him (or them), and it isn’t the police, at least not the officers in the scene.

We have no idea how long we are in the room with the trio. Ranging from the nickelodeon era to the present, onscreen titles in films have usually been

pedagogical. They teach us information we need to understand film narratives.

In ''Wild 90'', a repeated use of the same title cards tells us “Another Day”

and then “Another Night.” We see these six times, but their appearances are

spaced so randomly throughout the film it is difficult to trust them, or even—as a first-time view—to count them.

To a degree, time has lost its meaning. Like the characters, we the observers

become lost in the relentless monotony of living in a single location. ''Wild 90'' is boring, perhaps excruciatingly so, but in a manner that the Italian

neo-realists would likely have appreciated. We share the boredom of the

main characters. We experience the meaningless activities and trite conversation of criminals who, since they are not committing crimes, are in fact very dull, just like so much of everyday life.

Acting styles in the film vary from Hollywood norms (Knox) to the forced

and exaggerated (Mailer). Together, they draw constant attention to the fact that what we are seeing is fictional, but that realization collides with the film’s

aesthetics, which suggest that what we are seeing is genuine. Some of this is

due to the handheld camera; some of it due to the use of imperfect audio and

existing lighting. At one point, for example, we see a light bulb shadow on

Cameo’s head. It is distractingly authentic.

Paranoia reigns as Mickey repeatedly worries about the lights in an adjacent

building; he believes that they are being observed from afar. And indeed

they are, but not by rival gangsters or by the authorities. A film camera watches them. Prince acknowledges that fact at the film’s conclusion, when he looks directly into the lens and says, “Goodnight,” thus violating a longstanding Hollywood taboo. The observed has become the observer. It is in that moment that Mailer best captures the tension between fiction and nonfiction

filmmaking.

@@ Line 66: / Line 66: @@
 a room and couldn’t get out for various vague reasons.” These guys, who are
 “Maf Boys,” have already spent 21 days in that location when we meet them. One is Prince, played by Mailer. Another is Buzz Cameo, who shares his first name with Buzz Farber, the actor who portrayed him. The third is Mickey (aka, “20 Years”), who also bore the same first name as the man who assumed the role: Mickey Knox, the only one of the three who was a professional film actor.
+The trio pass the time by talking, by arguing, by fighting. “If you ever find
+yourself in shit, don’t sing,” Mickey tells them, giving sage advice to the room’s prisoners. But they are not always alone. An array of guests visit the apartment, ranging from Mickey’s wife to a “bunch of bulls” who speculate that at least one of the three wouldn’t survive if he left the room. Someone wants to kill him (or them), and it isn’t the police, at least not the officers in the scene.
+We have no idea how long we are in the room with the trio. Ranging from the nickelodeon era to the present, onscreen titles in films have usually been
+pedagogical. They teach us information we need to understand film narratives.
+In ''Wild 90'', a repeated use of the same title cards tells us “Another Day”
+and then “Another Night.” We see these six times, but their appearances are
+spaced so randomly throughout the film it is difficult to trust them, or even—as a first-time view—to count them.
+To a degree, time has lost its meaning. Like the characters, we the observers
+become lost in the relentless monotony of living in a single location. ''Wild 90'' is boring, perhaps excruciatingly so, but in a manner that the Italian
+neo-realists would likely have appreciated. We share the boredom of the
+main characters. We experience the meaningless activities and trite conversation of criminals who, since they are not committing crimes, are in fact very dull, just like so much of everyday life.
+Acting styles in the film vary from Hollywood norms (Knox) to the forced
+and exaggerated (Mailer). Together, they draw constant attention to the fact that what we are seeing is fictional, but that realization collides with the film’s
+aesthetics, which suggest that what we are seeing is genuine. Some of this is
+due to the handheld camera; some of it due to the use of imperfect audio and
+existing lighting. At one point, for example, we see a light bulb shadow on
+Cameo’s head. It is distractingly authentic.
+Paranoia reigns as Mickey repeatedly worries about the lights in an adjacent
+building; he believes that they are being observed from afar. And indeed
+they are, but not by rival gangsters or by the authorities. A film camera watches them. Prince acknowledges that fact at the film’s conclusion, when he looks directly into the lens and says, “Goodnight,” thus violating a longstanding Hollywood taboo. The observed has become the observer. It is in that moment that Mailer best captures the tension between fiction and nonfiction
+filmmaking.