growing up watching latenight canadian television in the '90s (that's the nineteenhundrednineties to you kids) was literally the greatest thing in the world. yes, i was a burgeoning pansexual with a supernaturally high sex drive who wanted to see all the different kinds of nudity, but i was also a film nerd and writer and it was the best education imaginable on independent, foreign, cult, queer, alt, insane, subversive cinema, all on basic cable.
i left canada a long, long time ago, and while i want to believe it's still the same... i know it's not.
BOUND (1996)
when i saw BOUND on tv as a kid, i thought it was serious business. turns out it's incredibly fun. the dialogue, the performances, the score, and the cuts feel designed to leave you grinning in the flirtatious first half hour of the flick, before all that dirty mob business. it made me miss '90s indie cinema in a way i haven't felt in years -- that "look up if any guin turner movies are streaming" kind of way. once the dirty mob business begins, it's pure wachowski. they were on some david-fincher unhinged-PANIC-ROOM-style-shots trip, but all in camera without any of the cgi. the phone call traveling through wires, the "melodies of mob interrogation" heard through the plumbing... shots like these and the action sequences make it clear they knew THE MATRIX was next.
it was heartwarming to see jennifer tilly give an understatedly defiant defense of sex work to gina gershon, a welcome surprise along with the general real-ness of their flirtation, sex, and relationship. there was a small part of me that dreaded watching BOUND in case like most queer stories of the time it ended with death for one or both of the gays (the same fear i had in the cinema late last year watching BENEDETTA), and it was quickly apparent this wasn't going to be that kind of movie. thank you, queer gods.
i saw BOUND on late night canadian television before i saw the hbo prison drama OZ on late night canadian television, so imagine my present day delight at the absolutely bonkers early chris meloni performance.
the olive signature bluray edition of BOUND is a treasure, a throwback to the dvd special edition days of old, the overly illuminating gershon/tilly interview being one highlight and the only wachowski audio commentary ever (along with sex educator susie bright and comic relief joey pants) being another. worth the hunt for collectors.
* * * * / 4.0
CRASH (1996)
i've been on a non-chronological david cronenberg marathon throughout the entire pandemic, both with friends and alone. i only mention that because screening a cronenberg film alone, with one person, and with five people are all very different experiences and all worth having. i saved CRASH for last, knowing (and remembering) that it would be a beautifully strange and disturbing experience. it was. iykyk.
it was fun seeing balls-to-the-wall performances from both christopher meloni and elias koteas in rapid succession. has anyone else always thought koteas and meloni were canadian and american equivalents? no? just me? hello? eh?
what could i possibly say? see CRASH for yourself, discover what it contains and what it says about you. shoutout to the 401 and don valley parkway.
* * * .7 / 4.0
disclaimer: up to two extra decimal points may have been awarded to BOUND on the basis of this photo's existence.
2022.02.05