This Week in Geek (25/02-2/03/08)

Buys

After flipping Pat Garrett last week, I realized I was all out of Sam Peckinpah films and I just couldn't bear it. So I bought four more: Cross of Iron, Straw Dogs (unfortunately a cheapie with no extras), Major Dundee and the gorgeously titled Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. I know the outright classics are behind me, but I'm interested in the man's entire oeuvre.

"Accomplishments"

Flipped a couple DVDs this week, including the 70s version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This thing scared me silly as a young boy and every time I've seen it since, and even looking at it more critically now, it still works. Stylistically, it's meant to unhinge you at every turn with incongruous visuals and photographic "errors". Director Philip Kaufman reveals some of his tricks on the commentary track (though other advertised extras are sadly absent). It's part of the reason why I like it better than the 50s original, the other being that it's more clearly about something that touches our lives today. It's an accepted fact that 50s paranoia movies were really about McCarthyism, but this Body Snatchers is about the urban experience. It's about isolation amid the multitude, something the director shows by simply shooting normal streets and people, which radiate creepiness and paranoia all by themselves.

From one paranoid movie taking place in San Francisco to another, I then (coincidentally, I assure you) flipped David Fincher's Zodiac. This true story of the investigation surrounding the Zodiac killer who terrorized San Fran with murders and a letter-writing campaign in the 60s and 70s is Fincher's most mature to date. You won't find the indulgent flourishes of Fight Club or the phantasmagoria of Se7en here. Instead, an almost absurd attention to detail and a simple storytelling style that is at once easy to follow and totally engrossing. The DVD also includes two excellent commentary tracks and documentaries on both the movie and the real events depicted, with lots of interviews with surviving investigators and victims. Just as engrossing. It's too bad this slipped in and out of theaters without notice, because it definitely deserved Oscar nominations this year.

Someone Else's Post of the Week
My favorite post of the week has to be fellow Atlantic Canadian Rachel Goguen's strip-down of the New Archies' visit to Canada. I do so love how my nation is portrayed by media across the border!