EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN, Vol. 19 - September 2020

‘Sup gang? Let’s start things off with some good news: The Spooky Season has begun! I don’t make the rules, y’all: Shudder has started their 61 Days of Halloween programming block and stores nationwide are rolling out their H’ween wares earlier than ever! Another bit of positivity: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 are getting a remastered double game re release on Sept. 4th! [Or check out the documentary Pretending I’m Superman about the game here. -ed.] If like me, you’ll be spending All Hallow’s Eve at home this year for safety, maybe the kinds of tricks you’ll be treating yourself to will be sick grinds (that’s one’s for you, Ashley Jane!) and general shredding of the gnar! (*)

(*) DISCLAIMER: I haven’t skateboarded in 20-ish years and even when I did, I didn’t speak it.

On that upbeat note: welcome to Everything Old is New Again! My now-monthly column covering the Remakes, Adaptations and Long-Gap Sequel concepts coming to screens in September. Basically, if it’s a movie or series based on a previous idea in any appreciable way, I will endeavor to find out about it, watch the trailer(s) and give you my opinion on what you can expect. That’s why I opened with the THPS news, it’s essentially a reboot.

Fantasia Festival Review - The "HENTAI KAMEN" Films

"Hentai Kamen: The Forbidden Hero" (2013)
"Hentai Kamen 2: The Abnormal Crisis" (2016)
Written and Directed by Yûichi Fukuda
Based on the manga by Keishû Andô
Starring Ryôhei Suzuki, Fumika Shimizu and Tsuyoshi Muro
Running times: 1 hour and 46 minutes (HK) and 1 hour and 59 minutes (HK2)
Unrated - contains Cartoon Violence, Repeated Instances of Teabagging, Panties as a Plot Device, Light Kinkshaming and Near-Constant Use of the Word Pervert As Both a Positive and a Negative

by Hunter Bush

I requested the screeners for both Hentai Kamen films completely accepting of the potential for there to be nothing about them worth writing about. And then the trailer for the new Batman dropped. Now gang, I’m not gonna crap all over the trailer for The Batman, though I am not wildly enthused by it for a variety of reasons because it isn’t The Batman’s fault - and in fact, what I have *heard* about the film is much more enticing than what I’ve now *seen* of it -  it’s almost all superhero films. Even the Marvel movies - inarguably more colorful, fun, and just plain lively than most of DC’s output - have a tendency to get high on their own supply to a degree that I started to get seriously fatigued leading up to that final Avengers. A fatigue that persists, but has grown to encompass most superhero films.

And then, from the rubble of my shattered enthusiasm emerged... Hentai Kamen: The Forbidden Hero. Based on a Japanese comedic manga called Kyukyoku!! Hentai Kamen (literally Ultimate!! Pervert Mask) created by Keishû Andô in 1992, it is the story of a young man who, during a hostage situation involving a schoolmate he has a crush on, uses a found pair of panties as a disguise, inadvertently awakening his dormant “pervert DNA” and giving him super powers. It’s silly, smutty and absolutely laugh-out-loud hilarious at times.

Fantasia Festival 2020 Review - "THE OAK ROOM" (2020)

The Oak Room (2020)
Written by Peter Genoway
Directed by Cody Calahan
Starring RJ Mitte, Peter Outerbridge and Ari Millen
Running time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Unrated-contains salty language, violence both explicit and implied and emotionally upsetting formative childhood recollections

by Hunter Bush

There’s a lot happening in the margins of Cody Calahan’s nested-narrative thriller The Oak Room. For a film with a story tucked inside a story inside a story, a lot goes unstated but while some details never quite coalesce, enough becomes clear for us to infer the shape of things. Adapted by Peter Genoway from his own stage play, on its face The Oak Room is the story of two men in a bar talking about two other men in a different bar, but what it’s really talking about is the power and nature of stories.

The film opens with Paul (Peter Outerbridge) *just about* to close up his bar, The Pool Room, for the night when, in out of the snowy blizzard comes Steve (RJ Mitte), the son of Paul’s best friend. Thing is, Steve hasn’t been home in three years, not even for his own father’s funeral, leaving Paul to pay for everything out of a sense of camaraderie, which means Steve has a debt to settle. Steve, who admits to just “drifting” since failing out of college doesn’t have anything like the money to pay off his debt, but he does have ...a story. A story he thinks may be of interest to Paul.

If you’ve read Moviejawn’s pre-Fantasia Fest 2020 round-up, you may recall I was quite excited for the small-town true-crime aspect of The Oak Room, but that its frequent use of the word “story” in the trailer meant I would be paying special attention to that thread and how that implied importance tied into the film’s themes. The bad news is: I don’t think there’s a real clear through-line regarding the importance of Story. The good news however, is: I still think the film is pretty solid.

A24 Meets d20

 A24 Meets d20: Playing A24’s GREEN KNIGHT Game

by Hunter Bush
With assistance from Allison Yakulis and Krystal T. L. Brackett

Earlier this year, which seems… SO long ago, A24 - production company behind such recent flicks as Uncut Gems, Midsommar, and The Lighthouse - dropped an impressive looking trailer for a new film from David Lowery, director of both well-respected indies - Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013) and A Ghost Story (2017) - and wider release adaptations - The Old Man and the Gun (2018) and the Pete’s Dragon remake (2016). This flick looked to combine Lowery’s independent leanings with his penchant for adaptations, and do so with a healthy dose of the kind of eye-catching visuals that have become synonymous with A24’s output. That film was The Green Knight.