IN FABRIC

Gorgeous track, from a film like no other... 

SFF '18: UPGRADE

UPGRADE may not be the new sci-fi masterpiece that you're looking for, but it is a fun and violent cyberpunk gem well worth your time. The film's shoestring budget is plainly evident in its cheap looking sets and some less than impressive CG, but that micro-budget aesthetic works well in its favour.

This is a film that genuinely feels like the kind of awesome low-budget genre pic that was a staple of video store shelves throughout the '80s and '90s. Where a lot of filmmakers blow it by trying too hard to ape that aesthetic, SAW's Leigh Whannell has nailed the vibe (whether intentional or not) by simple virtue of working hard to get every cent of his sub-6 million budget up on the screen, as slickly and with the highest production values that his meager funds will allow. As demonstrated by almost every movie to follow in the footsteps of Tarantino and Rodriguez's faux-grindhouse trend, it's not about faking it, but trying as hard as you can to make it that does the trick.

UPGRADE's premise is simple: during a brutal attack that leaves him a quadriplegic, Grey Trace's wife is murdered in front of him. Some month's later a reclusive tech genius rescues him from the brink of suicide by offering to give him the use of his body back via the implantation of a revolutionary bioware chip. This sets in motion a spree of mayhem and carnage as Grey uses his new body - and its unexpected "improvements" - to seek out his wife's killers and avenge her death.

Despite its hackneyed storyline, this little splatter actioner that could joins the ranks of noteworthy cyberpunk by virtue of a philosophical question that lingers in the mind after the credits roll. It really makes you ponder the separation  between mind and body, and how our bodies are little more than robotic automatons that allow our minds to engage with the physical world. An alien jellyfish that resides in our cranium and drives our bodies, like a pilot operating a mech suit. UPGRADE asks: to what degree is your body truly yours, and what happens when the mind/body connection is severed and a new operating system is installed? The truth seems to be that your mind is what makes you "you", but your body is just borrowed, disposable hardware that can be replaced, repaired and reused.   

The film is anchored by three terrific performances. Logan Marshall-Green's physical performance as Trace is excellent. He really sells the idea that he is simply a puppet being driven by a separate internal force. The disembodied AI that drives him - STEM - is also brilliantly realised by Simon Maiden. In a performance that recall's Scarlett Johansson's in HER, his AI is by turns very funny and disturbingly sinister. Finally, and coolest of all, Benedict Hardie's super enhanced military cyborg is an action villain for the sci-fi annals. He's an absolute badass, and steals the show the whole way.

But philosophical questions and good performances aren't the real reason to buy a ticket to UPGRADE: if we're being honest, we're all here for the cyberpunk tech and the damage that it inflicts on inferior, fragile human tissue, and in that Whannell's little future-gore flick truly excels. Bodies are broken, sliced, ventilated and pulverised by lethal nano-tech, Cronenbergian body-guns and general machine strength, all lovingly realised with (mostly) practical fx. It's good meaty stuff.

Add to this a killer droning synth score by Jed Palmer, and a very original and clever title treatment that starts things off on a high, and you've got yourself a very nice little package indeed. Along with the likes of BLADE RUNNER 2049, DREDD, SPLICE, GHOST IN THE SHELL and ALTERED CARBON, the last decade has been a good one to be a fan of tough-as-nails, violent cyberpunk.

Finally, Whannell (who surprised everyone by showing up at Friday's screening, coming across as a very modest and likable dude during his brief but funny intro), is insistent and very proud of the fact that, despite US financial backing, UPGRADE is an overwhelmingly  Australian production, shot in Melbourne with a mostly Aussie cast and crew. I'm proud of it too, another feather in the cap of our increasingly diverse and awesome genre cinema canon.

TENEBRAPHOBIA

Finally unleashed today, this five song EP is a project that Bowie (my incredibly multi-talented partner) and I have been working on for many months. At times, its creation has been a process as frustrating as it's been fun, but we're both really stoked with the end result.

TENEBRAPHOBIA is a tribute to the throbbing synth scores that are the defining signature of so many '70s and '80s Italian and North American horror films. Scores by the likes of Goblin, John Carpenter and Fabio Frizzi.

Bowie's take on the genre is gnarly. Horror synth as filtered through a punk attitude. These tunes rock.

All tracks/recording/mixing by Ms. Raffan. Concept/titles, logo/design, and grumpy muse: your's truly.

Enjoy, share, but whatever you do, turn it the fuck UP!

SENZA VOLTO

Morricone Youth: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

Last night I pushed through a haze of post-work fatigue to attend a screening of Romero's NOTLD (first time on the big screen for me!), with live accompaniment by New York's Morricone Youth. The band are here in Sydney to perform their re-score of the Pittsburgh lensed zombie classic, as well as Miller's MAD MAX. Having done zero research on the band beforehand, I went into the screening unsure of what to expect. Rock? Synth? Chamber orchestra? Taking my seat, third row from front, it became immediately obvious from the setup (bass, guitar, drums, two keyboard/synth rigs, vocals) that my secret hopes were to be rewarded: I was in for some proggy goodness, ala Goblin.

Morricone Youth delivered on that promise in spades, at points almost outplaying the Italian masters at their own game. What they've essentially done here is to give NIGHT a sister score to Goblin's iconic cues for DAWN OF THE DEAD. Mounting waves of pounding rock, throbbing synth and spooky glockenspiel, elevated to euphoric levels by some fantastic, operatic vocals (performed by a woman who I can't find a mention of anywhere, what gives?). Some research this morning reveals that they recently toured with Goblin in the States, and have previously re-scored a number of other cult films.

It's a shame that last night's haunting, powerful vocals are barely represented on the vinyl release of NOTLD, because their impact, live in front of the film, was immeasurable. The word transcendent comes to mind, making this my favourite viewing of Romero's seminal classic to date. The experience gave me a new and deeper appreciation of the film: the radicalism of its civil rights theme, its gorgeously lit black and white cinematography and wonderful editing, both courtesy of a young and hungry Romero. It throws into sharp focus just how talented and utterly electric the young Pittsburgh artist was. This film was dangerous, and exactly half a century later is still vitally important.

If you get a chance to see this show (especially with vocal accompaniment), don't sleep on it!

Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up.

BLADE RUNNER 2049

"A system of cells interlinked within / Cells interlinked within cells interlinked / Within one stem. And dreadfully distinct / Against the dark, a tall white fountain played."

- Vladimir Nabokov

I was right to dismiss the early hype, the claims that BLADE RUNNER 2049 surpasses the original. However, it does come so tantalisingly close to matching the perfection of Scott's film that, regardless of any shortcomings, it has to be considered a resounding success. Denis Villeneuve's film isn't just a worthy sequel to the 1982 classic, but a towering artistic achievement, and a science fiction masterpiece in its own right. I'm already calling it: this is the best film of 2017.

Long-asked questions are answered, others aren't, some new questions are posed, and in that way it retains the air of mystery and ambiguity that has helped make the original so enduring. Aside from its genuinely intriguing noirish plot, 2049's greatest achievement might be that it manages to expand on the original's observations about the nature of consciousness and identity in ways that are at once surprising and deeply moving.

With that in mind, the relationship between Ryan Gosling's Officer K and Joi, his holographic "love" A.I. (played by Ana de Armas), may seem like an aside to the central police procedural plot, but it is in fact the vital, beating heart of the film. It takes BLADE RUNNER's consciousness quandary to a new level by presenting 2049's society as a multi-layered caste system, based around the arbitrary values that are placed on different forms of consciousness. A society that is maintained completely by slavery and prejudice.

BLADE RUNNER depicted a system of state-sanctioned slavery, an expendable workforce banished to the far corners of the solar system to perform tasks considered too dangerous, or simply too unpleasant, for humans. In the sequel that system of exploitation has become so deeply ingrained that it is now the pillar upon which the entire status quo rests. A rigid hierarchy in which a newly subservient model of replicant has become an indespensible part of day-to-day life, humanity now co-existing with an ever-present underclass of servants.

These are the sex workers; the shit-workers; the cops burdened with hunting down and killing their own kind. As Robin Wright's Lieutenant Joshi says: "The world is built on a wall that separates kind", and in order for that wall not to crumble, the order of things must be strictly maintained. Every part of the machine must keep its place within that order, so each part must be granted just enough happiness to keep it in its alotted compartment. To that end, in this fragile multi-tiered hierarchy even the slaves are afforded slaves.

So, for all the tenderness they appear to feel for one another, K's relationship with Joi is ultimately just one of master and servant, and possibly completely artificial at that. An illusion of love and humanity, a service provided by the corporation that created them, and the state that shackles them. Or is it? Does Joi have a will and agency beyond what we can perceive? And if she is fully sentient, are her feelings for K real or just programmed? Is she, in her own way, as human as her flesh and blood masters? It brings us back to the same old point: if an artificial intelligence reaches a certain level of complexity, it will probably be impossible to tell the difference. K certainly struggles with his perception of her, simultaneously aware of her artificiality while also seemingly having genuine feelings for her. Is his gift to her of the Emanator (the device that allows her to leave his apartment) an attempt to alleviate the guilt he feels for using her as others use him?   

When pleasure model Mariette (with a disturbing resemblance to Daryl Hannah's Pris) says to Joi "I've been inside you, and there's not as much there as you think", the heartbroken look on Joi's face says it all. In this terrible world, where everyone is being used just to make the life of the person above them a bit more tolerable... she's at the bottom of the heap. For us, Joi's eventual fate, and its effect on K, proves to be as emotionally gutting as Roy's death in the original.

Thankfully, Ford doesn't sleep walk through this, as he has through so many of his roles over the last 20 years. He's actually very good. This film belongs to Sylvia Hoeks though. Her Luv is a cyberpunk character for the ages. She's ultra cool, but in her own way this combat model replicant is a character as tragic as Joi. Whenever Hoeks is on screen, it burns.

Ultimately though, BLADE RUNNER 2049 belongs to D.O.P. Roger Deakins (and the production design and fx depts) for creating one of the most visually mindblowing sci-fi films ever committed to film. From the desolate vistas of California's endless bio-farms and solar arrays, to the terrifying expanses of rain-soaked L.A. and radiation-burnt Las Vegas, every second is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Deakins has got to win all the awards for this. I haven't even mentioned the eye-popping interiors of Niander Wallace's corporate H.Q., a series of spaces that are somehow ethereally beautiful and oppressively inhuman (as if they were designed to be inhabited by gods) at the same time.

What's more to say? I was anxious about the score, especially given the late-in-production firing of Villeneuve's regular composer, Jóhann Jóhannsson. So I'm delighted to say that I'm in love with Zimmer and Wallfisch's powerful music. It sits well with Vangelis' iconic score, but is also very much its own beast, a sonic blast that is very much in keeping with the images of monolithic dystopia that are unfolding on screen.

From an aesthetic point of view I did miss the urban throngs that jam the streets of the original, such a convincing cultural melting-pot, but a good reason is given for their absence: with at least nine successful colonies established throughout the solar system, everyone who can has moved Off-World. As far as they can get from a choking, diseased and dying Earth.*

So, that's it. After decades of waiting, Denis Villeneuve and co. have somehow pulled off the seemingly impossible. An almost perfect sequel to a perfect film. As in 1982, it would appear that BR 2049 is destined for financial failure. Too slow; too arty; perhaps too prescient a vision of our future for comfort. I for one have seen it three times, and I'm looking forward to future viewings on blu ray. I urge you not to miss this deeply affecting and visually stunning masterwork on the biggest, loudest screen you can find.

*Another criticism of 2049's design aesthetic that people are picking on, but which can be logically explained: L.A. 2049's streets and interiors appear to be less cluttered and filthy. To my mind, this is due to the fact that the city of 2019 was built on the retrofitted and crumbling infrastructure of 20th century L.A., as exemplified by the filthy interior of L.A.P.D. H.Q., and the dank and dilapidated state of the Bradbury building. The L.A. we see in the first film simply hasn't caught up to the challenges presented by the population explosion and ecological disaster that have beset it.

However, by 2049 we see some improvements brought about by the sheer necessity of living in such a hostile environment. The interiors of the new Police H.Q. are hermetically sealed against pollutants and weather, as is K's apartment. The streets, already less crowded due to the presumed Off-World diaspora, are kept cleaner by employing humanity's age-old solution: out of sight, out of mind. See the landscape of endless human waste that covers what was once San Diego, and the titanic barges that feed it.

Do you read Sutter Cane?

Holy shit, this new beefed-up reworking of the title track from IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is so good it gave me goosebumps. As usual, Carpenter's new band is simply laying waste to all in its path, and I'm dying to hear the rest of their upcoming Anthology LP (once again on the excellent Sacred Bones Records).

Sphinx Pinastri

While on the hunt for material for the Cronenberg post below this one, I stumbled on these striking unused posters for Peter Strickland's wonderful THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY. They are the work of Parisian graphic designer Vincent Petitjean, whose other film related designs you can see here.

As a bonus, feast your eyes on some behind the scenes shots, thanks to the perpetually enlightening and insightful Kino Images blog.

Poison Lips (DREDD)

I can't believe I've come this far without so much as a mention of one of my fave movies of the last 10 years: Pete Travis and Alex Garland's DREDD. A perfect blend of classic Carpenter and Verhoeven, efficiently packaged in an ultra-violent and meticulously designed hand grenade of sci-fi cool. It's a fantastic film, and I long ago lost count of how many times I've rewatched it.

Vitalic's "Poison Lips" - which plays over the top of the scene in which Judges Dredd and Anderson bust a Slo-Mo den with spectacularly violent results - has become an iconic track for DREDD's fans. These cold, druggy sounds really nail the hopelessness and nihilism of life on the streets and in the towering slums of Mega-City One.

RAW

I'm seeing Julia Ducournau's RAW at Monster Fest tonight. Lots of hype, so my expectations are running high for this one. From what I've heard, I'm feeling pretty confident that Ducournau's debut will satiate my art/horror cravings. I'm also in love with the main-title theme that Mondo dropped this week in support of their OST release. Classic Euro-horror sounds right here.