The Decade List: Bugcrush (2006)

Bugcrush – dir. Carter Smith

The eerie, disturbing short Bugcrush may have lead writer/director Carter Smith to bigger things by directing Scott B. Smith’s adaptation of The Ruins (they both fall under the category of “nature horror”), but the latter couldn’t begin to compare to the dread, mystery and alarm Smith mastered in Bugcrush. At once, a tale of high school cruelty and gay first crushes quickly turns into one of the most genuinely unsettling horror films I’ve seen in a long while.

Against the advice of his best friend Amber (Elénore Hendricks of The Pleasure of Being Robbed), nerdish teen Ben (Josh Caras) pursues his sexual attraction to the sketchy new boy in school Grant (Donald Cumming, lead singer of The Virgins, frequent model for Ryan McGinley) in the way any high school homo would, by acting “cooler” than he is and hoping to move a “friendship” into something a bit more exciting (not to mention spying on him in the locker room). When Grant, whom Ben sees hanging out with a pair of local “tweakers” (including Billy from Billy the Kid), appears to be more receptive to Ben’s transparent attempts than Amber would have guessed, things start to get creepy.

More than simply a “Your mother told you to stay away from the bad kids” lesson, Bugcrush throttles the viewer with an unshakeable, consternating atmosphere. The sort of mood-oriented tension Smith creates is the kind that’s woefully missing from most of the horror coming out of Hollywood, which makes the fact that his Hollywood follow-up was only passably good the more unfortunate. Available as part of Strand’s short collection Boys Life 6.

With: Josh Caras, Donald Cumming, Eléonore Hendricks, David Tennent, Alex Toumayan, Billy Price, Harlan Baker
Screenplay: Carter Smith, based on the short story by Scott Treleaven
Cinematography: Darren Lew
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Strand Releasing

Premiere: 20 January 2006 (Sundance)

Awards: Short Filmmaking Award (Sundance)

2009 Notebook: Vol 8

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the second film I've watched twice this year, and though I know I'm not alone in my love for it, I just can't seem to get enough of it. It made sense to watch it again to, sort of, get the best of both worlds, as Almodóvar and Allen have been my go-tos when nothing new looks remotely appealing. I'm still having problems with the labeling of the films (On the Bus, for example, should fall somewhere between "Good" and "Middle-of-the-Road"), but hopefully that'll work itself out. I'm going to try to do a fair amount of writing today, so check back.

The New Favorites

Les corps ouverts - dir. Sébastien Lifshitz - 1998 - France - N/A - with Yasmine Belmadi, Pierre-Loup Rajot, Margot Abascal, Mohamed Damraoui, Malik Zidi, Dora Dhouib, Sébastien Lifshitz

The Good

L'important c'est d'aimer [The Main Thing Is to Love] - dir. Andrzej Żuławski - 1975 - Mondo Vision - France/Italy/West Germany - with Romy Schneider, Fabio Testi, Jacques Dutronc, Claude Dauphin, Klaus Kinski, Roger Blin, Gabrielle Doulcet

Martyrs - dir. Pascal Laugier - 2008 - France - The Weinstein Company - with Morjana Alaoui, Mylène Jampanoï, Catherine Bégin, Robert Toupin, Patricia Tulasne, Isabelle Chasse, Juliette Gosselin, Xavier Dolan-Tadros

On the Bus - dir. Dustin Lance Black - 2001 - USA - 10% Productions

The Bad

Too Much Flesh - dir. Pascal Arnold, Jean-Marc Barr - 2000 - France - N/A - Jean-Marc Barr, Élodie Bouchez, Rosanna Arquette, Ian Brennan, Ian Vogt

Revisited: The Old Favorites

Bugcrush - dir. Carter Smith - 2006 - USA - Strand Releasing - with Josh Barclay Caras, Donald Eric Cumming, David Tennent, Eleonore Hendricks, Alex Toumayan, Billy Price

Old Joy - dir. Kelly Reichardt - 2006 - USA - Kino - with Daniel London, Will Oldham, Tanya Smith

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - dir. Woody Allen - Spain/USA - 2008 - MGM/Weinstein Company - with Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Kevin Dunn, Pablo Schreiber

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown [Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios] - dir. Pedro Almodóvar - 1988 - Spain - MGM/Sony Pictures - with Carmen Maura, Julieta Serrano, María Barranco, Antonio Banderas, Rossy de Palma, Kiti Manver, Fernando Guillén

Revisited: Les Autres

Party Girl - dir. Daisy von Scherler Mayer - 1995 - USA - First Look - with Parker Posey, Guillermo Díaz, Sasha von Scherler, Omar Townsend, Anthony DeSando, Donna Mitchell, Liev Schreiber

2008 Progress Report, Part 2

The next list contains the films that were above the level of "Yeah, it was fine," but not on the level of shorts-creaming. And as for Mother of Tears, I didn't feel comfortable putting it in either the best or worst category, so she's only there by default. Oh, and please excuse the horrible cropping... I was just lazy. I'll post the other 2 lists later on.

Les Autres!

The Bank Job – dir. Roger Donaldson – UK – Lionsgate – with Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows

Mother of Tears, The [La terza madre] – dir. Dario Argento – Italy/USA – Weinstein Company – with Asia Argento, Cristian Solimeno

My Blueberry Nights – dir. Wong Kar-wai – France/Hong Kong/China – Weinstein Company – with Norah Jones, Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, Chan Marshall

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead – dir. Lloyd Kaufman – USA – Troma – with Jason Yachanin, Kate Graham, Allyson Sereboff

The Ruins – dir. Carter Smith – USA – DreamWorks – with Jena Malone, Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey, Shawn Ashmore, Joe Anderson

Savage Grace – dir. Tom Kalin – USA/Spain/France – IFC Films – with Julianne Moore, Eddie Redmayne, Stephen Dillane, Hugh Dancy, Elena Anaya, Unax Uglade, Belén Rueda

Shotgun Stories – dir. Jeff Nichols – USA – Liberation Entertainment – with Michael Shannon

Signal, The – dir. David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry – USA – Magnet Releasing – with Anessa Ramsey, AJ Bowen, Justin Welborn, Cheri Christian

Son of Rambow – dir. Garth Jennings – UK – Paramount Vantage – with Bill Milner, Will Poulter, Ed Westwick, Jules Sitruk

Stuck – dir. Stuart Gordon – USA/Canada/UK – ThinkFilm – with Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea, Russell Hornsby

Water Lilies [Naissance des pieuvres] – dir. Céline Sciamma – France – Red Envelope Entertainment/Koch Lorber – with Pauline Acquart, Louise Blachère, Adele Haenel, Warren Jacquin

Ruined

Bugcrush - dir. Carter Smith - 2006 - USA

In preparation for seeing The Ruins this weekend (better known as the only hope for a decent horror film this half of the year), I visited Carter Smith's short film, Bugcrush, available through Strand's Boys Life 6 collection... and, yes, my anticipation is now high. Running just over a half hour, Bugcrush is thrice as moody as any horror film I've seen in a while, focusing on the unlikely crush of a young high school boy (Josh Caras) on a likely heterosexual bad boy (Donald Cumming). Things don't really move as you would expect them to and Smith drapes Bugcrush with a palpable sense of danger. Ultimately, it doesn't make a lick of sense, but by that point, it doesn't matter. As you probably know, films that stray from any sense of reality or proper dissection after establishing itself fantastically suit my fancy. I just hope The Ruins can restore my faith in the American horror. Sorry Carter Smith for laying such an unrealistic task on your shoulders. Also, keep an eye out for Billy Price, the subject of the documentary Billy the Kid, as one of the bad boy's friends.