What's new on Videodrome's shelves this week View this email in your browser September 16th, 2014 NEW RELEASES GODZILLA — DVD/Blu-ray Deep beneath the waves of the Pacific, near Reboot Research Laboratory in Hollywood, California, a monster rested.



Undisturbed for millennia in the Hollywood calendar - 23 of our Earth years - the beast has remained dormant, until now.



Violently shaken by tremors resulting from Reboot Labs' "Franchise Fracking" method of drilling for box-office gold, the creature has once again risen — the lucrative, Godzilla.



The chilling teaser trailer built nervous anticipation in a lot of us. The destruction, bodies everywhere. Oppenheimer and Ligeti ringing in your ears. The glimpse of the beast, through the choking fog of toppled buildings. We thought Reboot Labs had a solid plan in dealing with the beast.



Then they brought some dude out named Ford Brody.



They also made the only people we meet in Japan white Americans (Walt's back - with a different family!). However, in a sly nod to the fact that non-Americans also live in places and do things, they threw in Ken Wantanabe in as an ecosci-samurai, who mutters Heavy Thoughts that are nodded at then ignored, because this is a military matter that only Chevy Brett and his bros can do so shut up. Don't worry though, Reboot Labs has carefully ensured that any endangered dogs will be able to get away in the nick of time.



To be fair, all the monster stuff was pretty satisfying. It was just all of the people that got in the way. BURT'S BUZZ — DVD Ah, Burt. Always with your nonplussed stare as I pop off the lid to some of your precious balm to rub on my cracked lip — provided that I haven't misplaced you and your tin somewhere.



You give off less of the raving street preacher vibe than your compatriot, the good Doctor Bronner — who we also have a documentary about. Forgive me for not knowing that you were an actual human named Burt — not just a bearded logo — until I saw the trailer for your movie.



You seem like a pretty chill guy, with a nice cabin and a good philosophy. A humble and conscientious beekeeper who unexpectedly found himself the face of a global brand. I would like to know more about you, right after I find my lip balm because dammit I know I put you in my bag yesterday Burt, and my lips hurt like hell. THE BATTERY— DVD This dispatch from the zombie apocalypse comes to us by way of Connecticut, where two friends (and former baseball players) are having very different reactions to the fall of man.



Shot on a micro-budget of six grand, this New England road trip through the zombieside (what the survivors will have renamed the countryside) has been getting some good buzz in horror circles.



Tune in to see if two guys can breathe new life into the undead genre, for the cost of producing 1.75 seconds of The Walking Dead. MORE NEW WALL STUFF WHAT WE'RE WATCHING MUSEUM HOURS Museum Hours opens with a simple shot — one that could be seen as an allegory for director Jem Cohen's own work as an artist. A middle-aged guard is calmly sitting in an art museum, while the muffled sounds of an unseen rock band echo in the distance. In his work as a documentarian, Cohen has crafted two superb portraits of musicians — Instrument, chronicling the band Fugazi, and Benjamin Smoke, a delicate portrait of Cabbagetown's own mournful rockers, the band Smoke.



As he's aged, Cohen has traded in smoky rock dives for the reverent confines of Austria's towering cathedral to the arts, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.



Museum Hours is a pleasant film, hushed and unhurried. It follows two people, the Viennese museum guard, and a Canadian wanderer who is in town to look after an ailing relative. Employing a mix of rigorous scripting and off-the-cuff improvisation, Museum Hours delights in small moments and honest expressions. The film goes to lengths to defang the notion that "fine art" is something to be reserved and enjoyed only by the upper crusts of society.



There aren't any life-shattering third-act pivots in Museum Hours. Our characters don't fall in love. They are simply two people finding comfort in each other's company while exploring the infinitude of the canvas, and the city at large. Even so, this is not a boring film, nor is it without plenty of emotional resonance.



It's a difficult film to sum up in a handful of words, but it's one I'd recommend if you want a film that ditches histrionics and instead draws you in with a thoughtful, inclusive gaze.

EATING RAOUL Paul Bartel's Eating Raoul is a neurotic sex & kitchen comedy with a forbidden culinary bent. Bartel's best known work as a director is probably the campy car-gore classic Death Race 2000, but Eating Raoul is another favorite. He's also appreciated for his many memorable performances as an actor. Here, Bartel costars with cult queen Mary Woronov as the Blands — a hyper-prudish married couple living uncomfortably in a scuzzy Los Angeles apartment building full of drugs and sleazy swingers (Ed Begley Jr. plays a great doomed hippie).



Paul and Mary dream of owning their own restaurant, but can't get ahead financially. When one of their swinger neighbors assaults Mary, he is caught and killed by Paul, who pinches his wallet for good measure. This begins a spiral of murder and depravity that just may fix their money woes. With the help of a resident dominatrix, the pair work their way into the L.A. sex underworld and lure more wealthy men back to be robbed and killed. They soon encounter Raoul, played by Robert Beltran (Voyager's Chakotay for the trekkies), a locksmith/burglar who cooks up a clever idea for disposing of the pile of bodies and earning even more cash.



It's a ridiculous movie, but it intends to be. Like much of Bartel's work, it still exudes a meaningful social commentary, amidst all the madness. Bartel and Woronov appeared together in many films and their presence usually signals some good times ahead (check out Chopping Mall to see them reprise their role as the Blands). There's plenty to say about this one, but see it for yourself if you're craving some weird video flesh. GO SEE A MOVIE CINEMA 16, May 1950 Amos Vogel (1921 - 2012) was one of the chief architects in building a culture of alternative cinema in the United States. His film society, Cinema 16, was the first in the US to screen films by Truffaut, Cassavetes, Polanski, Ozu, just to pluck at the list of luminaries. At its height, the Cinema 16 society boasted over 6,000 members, and regularly sold out 1,600 seat auditoriums.



Vogel used Cinema 16 to elevate the act of curation to an art form. Inspired by the radical montages of Eisenstein, Vogel would juxtapose wildly different films in a program to generate what he simply called, "film culture".



Experience a night of Cinema 16 this Friday at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, as Andy Ditzler's Film Love series screens a night of Vogel's selections. Six films will be shown, wildly varying in content and tone, and sure to leave an impression.

More information at Film Love's site.



Friday, September 19th, 7:00 pm

$8 General/$5 students and seniors/Free with ACAC membership Facebook VideodromeATL Videodrome_ATL Website