A Bizarre BODY ODYSSEY

BODY ODYSSEY (DVD)

2023 / 103 min

From IndiePix Films

Review by Stinky the Destroyer🙀

In the real world, Jacqueline Fuchs is a world famous bodybuilder, so for the most part, playing one in a movie isn’t too much of a stretch. Like most athletes-turned-actors, she’s decent in scenes conducive to her profession, sometimes a bit wooden in those requiring anything more.

Still, her performance in Body Odyssey is nothing short of brave. Not because her chosen profession and appearance could be considered freakish to a lot of viewers. And it isn't because she frequently appears nude and engages in graphic sex scenes that are not only intentionally unerotic, they’re contextually disturbing. Fuchs seems perfectly comfortable being presented as an object of morbid fascination.

What’s brave about her performance is that it serves a bizarre, twisted film that at-no-point depicts the sport in a positive light, especially the alarmingly dangerous steps its participants take to achieve what they view as perfection (including steroid use). In fact, one competitor drops dead right in the middle of a competition. In a way, Fuch’s participation almost seems akin to a confessional.

On the surface, Body Odyssey is about Mona (a fictionalized version of Fuchs?) as she prepares for a world championship under the relentless supervision of her trainer, Kurt (Julian Sands, in one of his last performances). The defacto antagonist, Kurt appears even more obsessed with body perfection than Mona, controlling every aspect of her life and goading her into using illegally imported steroids (even though her own doctor insists she’s causing irreparable harm to herself).

Mona shows Kurt where she last saw her watch.

However, this is more of a surreal psychological/body horror film with an aesthetic similar to David Cronenberg's work. Mona’s internal conflict between her desire for perfection and needs as a woman (exacerbated by frequent trysts with a fetishistic young man) is often depicted through dreamlike sequences and imagery. Her own body develops a “voice” of its own, ominously spouting a lot of ambiguous gobbledegook whenever Mona attempts to assert own will.

For awhile, all this is kind of interesting. Mona’s sympathetic vulnerability nicely counters Kurt’s objectification of her (though we do get the impression he ultimately does care about her). Director Grazia Tricarico also keeps things aesthetically engaging (sometimes voyeuristically so), aided by moody cinematography and ethereal visual effects. But the film’s deliberate pace and increasing pretentiousness eventually grow a little tiresome (as does the camera’s unceasing exploration of Fuch’s body).

By the third act, the narrative dives headlong into bleak, baffling artiness and doesn’t resurface. That would be fine if the climax appeared to have anything resembling a resolution to Mona’s conflict (or maybe it does and I was just too dumb to catch it). Either way, Body Odyssey is one of those what-the-hell-did-I-just-watch movies that might be worth checking out for adventurous viewers (and perhaps late-career Cronenberg fans), but once is probably enough.

BLUE DESERT: Looks Aren't Everything

BLUE DESERT (DVD)

2013 / 92 min

FROM INDIEPIX

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Baffled😾

This Brazilian sci-fi film is visually striking, both naturally, with numerous scenes of red desert hills vividly contrasting a piercing blue sky, and through creative production design, depicting a future world of ethereal technology and aesthetic eye-candy.

However, looks aren’t everything.

Blue Desert is an utterly baffling film about a young man named Ele (Odilon Esteves), who’s tormented by his mundane daily existence and seeks to find transcendence. Also serving as the narrarator, Ele is repeatedly reminding us of his quest as he goes through life trying to empty his mind of societal clutter. He also has visions of an old man in the desert, whose goal is to paint it all blue. Hence the title, I guess, though the significance of these scenes are never clear…

…nor is anything else, really, including a lengthy and interminable sequence in a nightclub that we’re forced to endure twice. This is where he meets a mysterious woman, Alma (Maria Luisa Mendonça), who leads him through a perplexing conversation about love before making out with him. Then she disappears. Later, the same sequence is played again, only with their roles reversed. The entire time, an MC spouts pretentious gobbledegook about…well, your guess is as good as mine. Ele's best friend pops up now and again to verbally spare with him, but neither he nor Alma have any discernible relevance to the narrative.

Ele loses his beach ball.

I'm saying 'narrative' like I could actually follow it. I don’t have a problem with ambiguity, or even a filmmaker’s attempt to leave viewers completely perplexed. However, director Eder Santos should at least keep things interesting. Not only is Blue Desert confusing, it’s a colossal bore and moves at a snail’s pace. Characterization is almost non-existent and the only significant thing revealed about the main character is he likes to tinker with robots. It’s just a series of hallucinatory sequences strung together by indecipherable dialogue that sounds profound, but maybe someone smarter than me can explain what the hell any of it means. Speaking of which, some of that dialogue is apparently lifted directly from a book by Yoko Ono, which should tell you something. 

The film ends as it begins, in the barren desert beneath a blue sky. There’s no climax, no discernible resolution and absolutely no clarity. Ultimately, watching Blue Desert is like going on a date with someone who’s drop-dead gorgeous, but might be the dullest person you ever met.

TERROR FIRMA: Edible Insanity

TERROR FIRMA (Blu-ray)

2023 / 84 min

FROM DARK ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

Review by Josey, the Sudden Cat🙀

Strange film, this one…mostly in a good way. 

The feature length debut of director/co-writer Jake Macpherson, Terror Firma is a micro-budget horror film set in a dilapidated old house in Los Angeles. For reasons never explained, the entire city is in lockdown and people are forbidden from leaving their homes under penalty of arrest. 

Lola (Faye Tamasa) is a down-on-her-luck artist who manages to avoid authorities and arrive at the house, which is owned by her adoptive brother, Louis (Burt Thakur). Also living there is his weird roommate, Cage (Robert Brettenaugh), who immediately becomes unnervingly fixated on Lola. When a helicopter lowers food and supplies to them, Lola discovers an unlabeled seed package. 

She plants one in the yard, and the very next day, there’s a hole that produces brownish goo, which not only smells enticing, the three discover the taste is irresistible. Whatever it is, this stuff appears to induce madness while also opening black portals to…well, it’s never fully explained, though Louis ends up buried in his own yard, while Lola traverses inexplicable tunnels to try and save him. Meanwhile, Cage grows increasingly unhinged, his obsession with both the substance and Lola reaching perverse levels…

…and I gotta say, Cage is an extremely creepy and repulsive character, depicted by Brettenaugh in a performance that can accurately be described as brave. Considering the film’s budget, I can’t imagine his salary was anything to write home about, yet he goes all-in to an uncomfortable degree, making Cage the scariest part of the film.

Damn gophers.

Elsewhere, Terror Firma is often surreal and intentionally ambiguous. The origin of the goo & blood-red flowers (which begin to pop up everywhere) is never elaborated upon, nor are numerous other hallucinatory sequences. But since Macpherson is obviously more concerned with achieving a dark tone and growing sense of dread (which he accomplishes quite well), narrative clarity ain’t all that important. However, I’m still not sure how the citywide lockdown aspect is relevant to the story.

Terror Firma is also somewhat noteworthy for being the first release from Dark Arts Entertainment, a new label created by filmmakers Brian Yuzna and John Penney, no strangers to the horror genre. Overall, they’re off to a good start, because this is a moody, creepy and claustrophobic little film.

EXTRA KIBBLES

EXTENDED DIRECTOR’S CUT - This version runs 95 minutes, though the additional scenes don’t really impact the film too much.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director Jake MacPherson

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