Shredder
gut-wrenching. This film made me feel honestly pretty sick, at times - that’s how you know it’s good.
(I watched the trimmed version, as opposed to the extended “rough” cut — may check that out, another time)
I’m obsessed with metamodern shit, so I apologise if I’m reading this wrong, but:
To me, Shredder reads almost like a story about how some people even get into film production; I find it very similar to a movie like Owen Kline’s ‘Funny Pages’ in some ways.
Travis’ desire and need to “shred”, as appose to just: play guitar, feels similar to a young film maker’s desire to find themselves the most polished Hollywood film role, over something small scale and honest.
The fact that the bratty kid he’s trying to learn from is someone he believes is a pedophile, for crying out loud. It’s exactly how so many filmmakers are okay with working with utter pieces of shit, for sake of what they think they need to do for their art.
I read Shredder as a modern Shakespearean tragedy, of sorts, as pathetic as everything is nowadays. It’s about any artist who feels the need to sacrifice their morals, and those they love, for the sake of superficial “success”.
Travis sacrifices so much and yet: doesn’t even face the camera, for his big performance. His songs about belly-button men and monkeys are goofy, it’s no high art, but it enthrals a small audience. His final ballad is played to no one - but maybe the poor girl he’s been stringing along, this whole time, through the walls.
Electric guitar is louder, bigger, it’s hip, but Travis just isn’t a shredder. He’s great at writing silly acoustic songs, but none of his personality comes through in his electric playing: it sucks. But that doesn’t matter, because he needs to have more, he needs to ask more of the girl who he knows has certain boundaries, and he needs “more” out of his music.
Way sadder than I was expecting, from Cody’s other work - and this one’s plot description - but my god is it great. I need to re-watch No Shark, but this might just be my favourite Cody Clarke film yet.
Thinking about how Eraserhead is my favourite Lynch film: I think black-and-white, self-reflective, emotionally taxing debut features are just my jam. What a movie, to start your filmmaking journey with