BY SARAH BATY

What an absolute shitshow of a semester. With all the craziness this remained not only my favorite class of the semester, but probably my favorite class ever. With that being said, let’s dive right on in to the last blog duh nuh NUHHHH!

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a masterpiece; however, was I confused 100% of the time? Yes. Not that the movie was hard to follow because it obviously wasn’t, I just literally know next to absolute nothing about the Mansion murders. I didn’t know that the movie was set around it until our discussion on Wednesday. I feel like I should have looked into what the movie was about before I started it and that way I would have had a better grasp on what was going on. After I watched it excuse me, after me and my quarantine pals watched it, we were all genuinely befuddled as to what happened. Once we had the discussion I had to go back and tell everyone what the movie was actually about. I want to watch it again so I can see it in a new light, as a new more knowledgeable me!

Our reading for this week is “The Kids of Today Should Defend Themselves Against the 70’s” Simulating Auras and Marketing Nostalgia in Robert Rodrigues and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse by Jay McRoy. McRoy discusses Rodriguez and Tarantino’s “endeavor to reproduce an increasingly obsolete viewing experience for contemporary cineplex audiences.” They aimed to replicate the specific “feel” of viewing exploitation films by taking out scenes to make it seem choppy, bad audio, or a weird dialogue. McRoy goes on to describe their gestures “toward reproducing the ‘grindhouse experience'” is suspect because as as A-list Hollywood directors with plenty of money at their disposal why would they want to be producing these films? The inspiration came from the love of their own grindhouse experiences and it is as simple as that! Cue in Walter Benjamin here to tear them down. Benjamin claims their attempt to simulate the “aura” of grindhouse cinema “is a futile project from the very start.” The money that they receive to make their movies “dwarfs those granted to the directors of the very exploitation films from which they draw their inspiration.” Here comes my favorite line from the whole reading. McRoy references another essay titled “Tarantino and the Vengeful Ghosts of the Cinema” by Maximilian Le Cain. Le Cain states, “Tarantino might freely use such expression as ‘grindhose’ in describing his work, but he does so from within the safety of the mainstream, never exposing himself to the real dangers and messy pleasures of the B-film.” BOOM ROASTED. READ IT AGAIN BABY MWUAHAHA!! “The real dangers and messy pleasures,” dude I can’t even. This is so fabulous. Tarantino out there trying to make movies recreating the aura while ballin’ out with money. The pressure and the budget are what made the films so great. Trying to recreate something like that within the confines of a big budget and amazing technology is like Benjamin said, a “futile project.”

I am STOKED that I was able to join this class. I know I missed the first couple of movies but no matter I have my opinions and here I go! My least favorite movie was honestly Sid and Nancy. I fully understand how this was a cult film. Shedding light on drug abuse and its consequences is some heavy stuff. I think what threw me off was its placement in the lineup. After watching Dazed and Confused and Detroit Rock City, which are two fantastic movies full of nostalgia and happiness and all that is good and fun in high school, then Sid and Nancy then Matinee it was just off putting. Maybe if it was placed earlier in the semester it wouldn’t have seemed so off putting! Also one that I didn’t like was Carnival of Souls. It was slow the entire time, nothing ever happened. Sometimes she saw the creepy dudes and screamed and that was it. I just thought it was dumb which I feel like is an unpopular opinion from within the class but its whatevaaa I said what I said. *shrugs*

Now onto my favorite films mwuahah. I adore Dazed and Confused because I have been watching that movie for a very long time it really is just a damn classic and same with Detroit Rock City! 100% my two favorites. Maybe its because I was slightly reckless in high school as well who knows!! Other movies that I liked that I hadn’t seen before was The Warriors. I’m pretty sure everyone loved it, it’s really hard not to. A movie that I did not expect to like so much was Suspiria. I don’t really like horror movies and I have been having the urge to watch them lately which is so ~weird~ but yea I loved the colors and the storyline was a little wonky but I comprehended it. The witchy aspect and crazy elaborate murders was just something else, I thought it was very cool. Lastly, I will pick one of the old old ones as my favorite…DETOUR. I LOVED IT. I can’t even explain why either I just found it to be so so so good. I like black and white movies, I liked the lead actress I thought she was a ~boss~ and Al was kind of annoying but I also liked him too and THAT’S ALL FOLKS