That’s a terrible title.
I went to two TIFF films this year. One was a dystopian French (France French, not Canadian French) Soylent Green remake called Carre Blanc1. Okay, it wasn’t actually a Soylent Green remake, but they did produce food from people, or at least the film overtly implied that.
The stark film was humorous, and depressing. Sad and beautiful. It’s a film about living in a harsh world, finding happiness, while being a drone in the workings of the world. It’s some eye-candy.
Two days later, I’m still digesting the film, and could use a second viewing… that’s a good sign.
The other was a lot less deep, Hard Core Logo 2. For those of you who were living under a rock in the 1990s, Hard Core Logo is a classic fake-documentary film about an ’80s Vancouver punk band called Hard Core Logo who reunite for a charity gig. After the gig, the frontman, Joe Dick, disappointed with his life and lack of celebrity convinces his bandmates to do a tour of Western Canada. In the last minutes of Hard Core Logo, Dick kills himself.
I previously wrote about another sequel to Hard Core Logo, while that was originally intended as a sequel, it was rewritten for a girl-band, Trigger. This one is actually billed as Hard Core Logo 2, and this time is not actually about a band, but instead about Bruce McDonald, or at least the fictional Bruce McDonald who “directed” the original documentary. He witnessed the death of Dick, and finds a chance to redeem himself by filming a documentary about Die Mannequin as they record their third album.
The odd thing about the film is that the visuals don’t tell the story. The story is told through voiceover by Bruce McDonald. It disconnects the audience from what’s happening on screen, as if it’s some ethereal past, but is very similar to another one of McDonald’s films which may or may not have been seen by me called Claire’s Hat. I don’t think I’m allowed to mention this film, but the narrative structure of the two are near-identical. Seeing as Claire’s Hat was never released, I’m probably the only one thinking this.
Overall a good film, but Hard Core Logo and Trigger are better films.
- Does that translate to Soylent White? [↩]