The second Beth B and Scott B film (also a short) is more accomplished and more focused, but not quite as effective (I'm attaching a caveat here -- more in a minute) than its predecessor, 'G-Man.'
The story, such as it is, is much more linear. After some desultory canoodling with a just-awakened woman, a young man with absurdly flaxen hair heads out of an apartment building, is kidnapped by some black-clad toughs, and is then tortured, mainly at the hands of the lead tough, played by Lydia Lunch (who was apparently only 19 at the time of filming), until the end.
Ostensibly a meditation on privacy, 'enhanced' interrogation techniques, and brain-washing, the ideas are founded in late stage-Cold War, military-industrial complex conspiracy theories which, while having a certain undeniable merit in reality, feel sort of dated now. I know, I didn't see the film when it was made so my response is not 'of the time,' etc, etc, etc. Also, sitting at home on my couch, watching it on a friggin' Blu-ray for god's sake, is sort of diametrically opposed to the intent of the thing.
Which brings me to the aforementioned caveat: I can fully see how, standing in Max's Kansas City, on the border between the parts of Manhattan claimed by the artists & destitute and those occupied by the wealthy, in 1979, with god-knows how much wattage of utter skronk blasting out from the club speakers, accompanied by Lunch yelling 'Shut up and suffer!', this would be an utterly transcendent 20 minutes.
Just not so much in my living room.
So, despite not liking it as much as 'G-Man,' it gets the same score because I can imagine it being better....
The second Beth B and Scott B film (also a short) is more accomplished and more focused, but not quite as effective (I'm attaching a caveat here -- more in a minute) than its predecessor, 'G-Man.'
The story, such as it is, is much more linear. After some desultory canoodling with a just-awakened woman, a young man with absurdly flaxen hair heads out of an apartment building, is kidnapped by some black-clad toughs, and is then tortured, mainly at the hands of the lead tough, played by Lydia Lunch (who was apparently only 19 at the time of filming), until the end.
Ostensibly a meditation on privacy, 'enhanced' interrogation techniques, and brain-washing, the ideas are founded in late stage-Cold War, military-industrial complex conspiracy theories which, while having a certain undeniable merit in reality, feel sort of dated now. I know, I didn't see the film when it was made so my response is not 'of the time,' etc, etc, etc. Also, sitting at home on my couch, watching it on a friggin' Blu-ray for god's sake, is sort of diametrically opposed to the intent of the thing.
Which brings me to the aforementioned caveat: I can fully see how, standing in Max's Kansas City, on the border between the parts of Manhattan claimed by the artists & destitute and those occupied by the wealthy, in 1979, with god-knows how much wattage of utter skronk blasting out from the club speakers, accompanied by Lunch yelling 'Shut up and suffer!', this would be an utterly transcendent 20 minutes.
Just not so much in my living room.
So, despite not liking it as much as 'G-Man,' it gets the same score because I can imagine it being better....
