iHuman
4.15pm Thursday December 10th - Lunda Leederville & online from December 14th
Tonje Hessen Schei’s look into the immediate future - the startling progression of Artificial Intelligence, or, more specifically, A.G.I. (Artificial General Intelligence) - isn’t designed to be seen through rose-tinted glasses. This is a future reflected off chrome and silicon. It is a future that is simultaneously awe-inspiring and terrifying, and this documentary paints a glistening portrait that glowers with a coiled intent, like a snake protecting its eggs. Don’t put your hand too close to its mouth, it may just bite.
Tracing this rapid growing industry - so fast it’s threatening to put those who’ve invented it out of work - iHuman is very much right now, but it’s also like running across the sand barefoot, watching your footprints disappearing in the surf, as the challenges and impact merge and are swallowed. Will humankind make the right decisions about how A.I. is controlled? Will we be able to use it wisely enough to aid our progress and not end up desperadoes in some kind of Skynet apocalypse? Okay, maybe I’m being a bit overly dramatic …
In between some of the tech gurus - Michal Kosinski, Jurgen Shmidhuber, Ilya Sutskever, for example - waxing sombre about the state of the art and the state of the world, there are dark, but impressive computer animations, some generated from scratch like a kind of grotesque executive puzzle, others that manipulate urban travelogue imagery. Set to an intense and brooding score, courtesy of Olav Øyehaug, it’s hard not to feel a certain sense of apprehension. And so we should. It is a pivotal time, and a documentary like this is required and engrossing viewing.
You Don’t Nomi
2.10pm Thursday December 10th, 8pm Saturday December 12th (with Showgirls) - Luna Leederville, and 7.20pm Sunday December 13th - Luna on SX
I reviewed Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 movie Showgirls when it was first released. Like most critics at the time I roasted it like the turkey it appeared it be; “Arrogant, reprehensible filmmaking that showcases the worst kind of attitudes in Hollywood. It may be set in glitzy Las Vegas, but I don’t recommend the gamble.” Ha! And that was that. I had no interest in revisiting the trials and tribulations of Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) as she pouts and struts and pushes and shoves her way to the top of the heap as the new “Goddess”. Until I saw this documentary.
Okay, I’m not about to write off my original review and say I didn’t know what they hell I was talking about. Showgirls is still a terrible movie. But it is a terrible movie made by a great director from a pretentious screenwriter, and featuring some really solid performances. I learned that Verhoeven purposefully had Berkley deliver everything at a fever pitch, which didn’t serve her well in the movie’s critical aftermath. That sex scene in the pool is still one of the most ludicrous, period. It’s revealed that Kyle MacLachlan, in a recent interview, plainly stated that during the shoot they believed they were making a hard-hitting drama. So any claim by Joe Eszterhas or Verhoeven that it was a satire that audiences and critics failed to understand is bullshit.
Jeffey McHale’s superbly constructed retrospective look at how a movie so bad became a cult fave among the camp set and is now regarded by many as a “masterpiece of shit” is a surprisingly enthralling and affectionate study of how movies can be misconstrued and maligned, yet underneath their crass veneer they possess elements that seemingly transcend their notorious shortcomings. It’s a fascinating reshuffle of the cards. I especially loved how the filmmakers slyly incorporate Showgirls scenes into other Verhoeven movie clips. You don’t need to have seen the movie to enjoy this doco. But it helps. Go on. You know you want to.
He Dreams of Giants
Online from December 9th.
Some fifteen years after first documenting Terry Gilliam’s disastrous attempt at trying to bring his beloved pet project, “Don Quixote”, to the screen, Lost in La Mancha (2002), filmmakers Kevin Fulton and Louis Pepe return to the scene of the “crime” as Gilliam once again (the magical seventh attempt) tries to capture the elusive tale of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Can Gilliam get past the seventh day of shooting? Will his actors fall ill, will Mother Nature intervene, or will he simply run out of money? Sister Fate is a cruel mistress, but even crueller is the harsh treatment of Terry’s own psyche. He’s his own worst enemy. But he also has a survivalist’s sense of humour. I mean, he was one of the Monty Python team after all.
This is a fabulous portrait of the artist. Beautifully put together, and cleverly juxtaposing scenes of the younger Gilliam, the earlier attempts at filming the novel, behind the scenes and on location as Gilliam struggles, perseveres, resigns himself, and is, ultimately, rewarded. It’s a riches to rags to riches to rags to riches story, if only in terms of joy and sorrow, heartbreak and optimism. As the filmmaker re-iterates, making art is hard, and he has never chosen the easy route, for better or for worse.
He Dreams of Giants is an inspiring journey, chaos and tranquility entwined. Terry Gilliam has made some astonishing movies, and he’s made some turkeys too. I’ve not yet seen the completed movie, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, but it received a twenty-minute standing ovation when it premiered at Cannes. This delightful study of the creative process, with all its hurdles, is essential viewing for anyone remotely interested in how making art is not just about the big picture, it’s about keeping focus on all the small, beautiful elements that fill it. And keeping a sense of humour, no matter how dark it gets. The comedy as well as the drama.