DCist: Out of Frame: My Winnipeg

Large in NorthEazy

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:01:43 -0500

I'll keep the positives up front: -Although the frontal nudity was not full (and that's good, if it was the front of who I think it was), it was the coolest metaphor in a movie that was miles long on metaphor. - He introduced me to a few legal facts, historical episodes and states of civil engineering re: Winnipeg that I found very interesting. Have some negatives: - It is hard to tell if any of the interesting things were true. I suspect they are total bullshit. - If you tend to find depictions of homoerotic situations cringe-tastic, this one has some championship wincers, and in no small number either. If you find depictions of homoerotic situations "stimulating" you will probably like this one as much as the guy several seats over from me with the mustache and the sandals, who's heavy breathing gave me more to wince at. - There was a lot of self-pity in this film. His sense of being trapped and persecuted by his mother is the central theme of this sad-ass movie. That was not a positive feature. If she sucks so bad, just stop calling her back. Try it. - I'm not sure if the intersticial sequences of sleeping people in train cars was intended to refer to amatuerish film-making techniques of the pre-war period, or if the high-school-drama-production type quality was the best he could pull off. Either way, it sucked and made the movie worse for making me sit through it. - His narration was way too often way too poetical. And the poetry was uniformly garbage. I dont care if he thought he was being ironic with it. It sucked. Conclusion: - I saw a Neil Young doc where he talked about growing up not far from Winnipeg, and starting his music career there. I sort of dont think that Neil Young and Guy Maddin lived in the same Winnipeg. I am grateful to now know better than to ever watch another Guy Maddin film. Boooooo.

DCificare

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:26:00 -0500

Smitty's right. drink coffee and get ready for a long murmured monologue, punctuated by all-too-short hallucinatory vignettes with dialogue. Pretty camerawork and scenery just dont counteract the anesthetic pacing, map-of-the-bush notwithstanding.

flapjack

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:24:39 -0500

I'm waiting patiently for the day when it's male full frontal nudity in a cartographic context. As a cartographer I'd be happy to assist with the making of the map. I'm particularly good at drawing Florida.

IMGoph

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:56:32 -0500

all i have to ask is this: why, god, has it taken you this long to release a movie with nudity in a cartographic context. it's like they're niche marketing things directly to me! i feel really special right now.

smittydc

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:14:15 -0500

I saw this at Silverdocs last week. Dull Dull Dull Dull Dull boring and dull. Which I can only hope is the feeling he was deliberately trying to convery about Winnipeg. Really, this is not a good movie. Yes, the historical contexting is interesting, and some of the cinematography is creative... but the repetitive meditations numb the brain rather than stimulate it. If you are a movie connoisseur who wants to try something different, then check it out. Otherwise, there are better choices out there.

Bethesdaist

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:17:29 -0500

Can anyone tell me if the frozen horseheads are real in this movie? They are seriously keeping me from eating ice cream or other frozen novelties, and every single review has had a picture of them. I loved Dracula and The Saddest Music in the World, but the frozen horseheadpocalypse is giving me the willies. The willies, I tell you!

Chris Klimek

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:13:17 -0500

"Ingenious and poetic." "Apeshit hilarious." " . . . you'll find your adventurous rewarded tenfold." Does it sound like I didn't like the movie? No star system here, MonkeyErotica. You gotta read. (I'm with the Goph. Nine compasses sounds about right.)

monkeyrotica

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:03:09 -0500

Yeah, but did you like the movie? Because from the review, I can't tell one way or the other. But if it's anything close to F for Fake, this sounds like something you're definitely either going to love or hate. It's one of my favorite Welles films, but damned if I can get anyone else to sit through it. And as for this: contains frontal female nudity in a cartographic context. I'm sure most people would have a hard time jerking off to this, but most people aren't IMGoph. I predict his highest rating ever: "Nine Compasses Up!"