Don't worry boys and girls, I'm not offing myself. The title of the article refers to a quirky little independent movie that popped up on my Netflix feed over Christmas vacation.
It was a very good movie. But instead of a traditional movie review, I don't want to give away any plot points, I want to delve into a number of observations that I had after the movie was over.
The Movie was rated TV-MA, but it was basically an R-rated film. Don't Netflix releases need to be rated by the Motion Picture Association of America? So I googled the MPAA site and was amused by this description of the MPAA by the MPAA itself: Preserving Free Speech. The MPAA was founded in 1922 to resist mounting calls for government censorship of American films. Today, we continue to promote and defend the First Amendment and artists' right to free expression. Yeah, not quite. (The MPAA protects certain types of speech and is prone to politics and caters to certain business realities.) After reading the MPAA's uh, generous, description, and having watched the movie This Film is Not Yet Rated, I couldn't in good conscience believe anything that the MPAA site had to say. So I went over to the Netflix Help section to see how the movie got a TV-MA, which is basically a TV show rating, for a movie. Netflix says Netflix gathers maturity ratings based on country and region. The ratings are set by local standards organizations that determine whether or not the material is appropriate for children. If a TV show, movie, or other piece of content has not been rated by a known standards organization, Netflix will use its reasonable judgment to determine a maturity level. Okay, that didn't answer my question at all.
I was really impressed with leading lady Melanie Lynskey. She carried the movie on her shoulders and you were really rooting for her throughout the film. But selecting Lynskey was daring, as was using Elijah Wood as the male lead. The casting was vital to the movie's success, but for this article, let's just use the wording 'non-traditional casting by Hollywood standards.'
The scenery was spot on. It seems like a lot of movie productions are too shiny and clean. Anymore had a grittiness and realism rarely found in movies made today. Between the casting, scenery, and original script, it had all the ingredients of an appreciable independent film.
I'm watching the movie and I said to myself "the antagonist looks like David Yow." Well, that's because one of the antagonists was David Yow. As the lead singer of the Jesus Lizard, Yow has found a second career on the big screen, picking up nearly a dozen acting credits in the past 5 years.
Anymore, to me, was genre-less. Not unlike the Jesus Lizard, it was hard to classify the movie I had just watched. It's better for me to leave you with this, you should watch Anymore and if you think it's great, you're welcome, you can thank me later. If you think it's not great, that's fine, send all your complaints to Ted.
Who am I kidding?
What I really wanted was just another reason to post David Yow singing Mouth Breather back in 1991. (Video from concert in Washington D.C.)