#David Noonan

[thinkingimages]

David Noonan | Aura, 2023

[fragrantblossoms]

David Noonan. From Pageant (exhibition catalog), 2007.

[las-microfisuras]

David Noonan

[sesiondemadrugada]

David Noonan.

[disease]

DAVID NOONAN / “UNTITLED” / 2011 [screenprint on linen collage | 213.5 x 228.5 x 5.8 cm.]

[striborr]

David Noonan, ​Untitled, 2010 (detail) screenprint on linen (154 x 114 x 6 cm)

[mariocki]

Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives, 1986)

"Darren, we'd better turn around."

"Why?"

"Because I've seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly."

[blackramhall]

No. I know that I'm not smarter than you.

Then how did you catch me?

You had disadvantages.

What disadvantages?

You're insane.

Manhunter - Michael Mann (1986)

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/17/2022: WOLFEN

WOLFEN is a fascinating thriller that is unflaggingly compelling in spite of its somewhat clunky social commentary. Its broad indictments of manifest destiny, and of the scourge of capitalism, are easily grasped in comparison with the collection of details and red herrings one has to chew through to get to the heart of this murder mystery about a series of apparent animal attacks plaguing New York City. Political aspirations aside, though, the visually stunning film is as much about the nature of perception as it is about anything else.

Adapted from a Whitley Strieber novel by director Michael Wadleigh (best known for the Oscar-winning documentary WOODSTOCK) and David M. Eyre, Jr., WOLFEN begins with the bizarre murder of an elite business mogul. The police have identified a revolutionary terrorist group as the guilty party, but the unusual killings continue with other, more innocent, less fortunate victims. Captain Dewey Wilson (Albert Finney) realizes that there is more to the story when he discovers that these specific acts of violence could only have been perpetuated by wolves—and further evidence ties these slayings to Eddie Holt (Edward James Olmos), a Native American who claims he can shape-shift into an animal form.

Wilson may be an enforcer for white, capitalist civilization, but he himself is only half-domesticated. He has been retrieved from an early retirement to work this case following an unspecified personal implosion, and his cagey demeanor suggests that whatever traumatized him then isn't done with him yet. When his reluctant partner, criminal psychologist Rebecca Neff (Diane Venora), asks why he became a cop, he replies, "I like to kill. It's a habit I picked up, and it's hard to shake." When she presses him, he first claims that he simply wounded a fellow officer while cleaning his gun; when she asks again if he's really killed before, he replies, "Why don't you ask how many?" We never find out exactly what is haunting Captain Wilson, but the film makes a sharp distinction between the importance of what we are told, versus what we perceive.

Coroner Whittington (Gregory Hines) introduces Wilson and Neff to a zoologist named Ferguson (Tom Noonan), who puts the team onto the idea that the murders most resemble wolf attacks. Ferguson is a classic wolf nerd, which is a whole Type in my personal experience: a usually-male fan of the species who jealously lauds Canis lupus's advanced form of society and perceived nobility, along with their hunting prowess. And, like many wolf nerds, Ferguson has a fetishistic attitude toward Native Americans, onto whom he transposes many of the qualities he so admires in his favorite animal. He seems to accept the notion of shape-shifters, too, as he excitedly declares, "The body is just a physical expression of the soul…reality is just a state of mind!"

In WOLFEN, reality is linked less to accumulated legal evidence, and more to the senses, which are extended in various ways. One of its more fantastical elements is the state of police surveillance, which involves a high tech command center that looks like something out of GHOST IN THE SHELL. In addition to the ability to monitor parts of the city, they are able to monitor the inside of a person, as Neff rakes various terrorist suspects over the coals in a chamber that is alive with finely tuned sensors. "The whole room is a lie detector!" its operator remarks, as he reviews thermographic readouts and voice analyses, looking for signs of stress and deception. These borderline sci-fi touches are unusual in the werewolf genre, which is usually rather earthy. However, the somewhat trippy aesthetic of these scenes is mirrored by the innovative, infrared-like photography (later used in PREDATOR) that represents the roving wolves' first-person point of view.

WOLFEN'S innovative ways of depicting sensory perception are complimented by the vision it offers of New York City, which is rarely accessible for most people. The wolves' hunting ground is the South Bronx, which in 1981 resembled the Berlin of 1945, utterly devastated and abandoned by all but the most desperate survivors. Even if you are aware of the state of such places and how they got that way, Gerry Fisher's extensive photography of this location from above and below is deeply shocking. In contrast, Fisher also gives us a stunning view of prosperous lower Manhattan from the very peak of the Brooklyn Bridge, from which Eddie Holt and other Native construction workers can see how the other half lives.

Late in the film, a battered and beleaguered Wilson wanders into the Wigwam Bar, a dive populated by Eddie's community. There, he hears about the Wolfen, semi-divine shapeshifters that the police cannot hope to defeat. "You've seen them, haven't you?" Eddie says, observing Wilson's fascinated acceptance of this story. The spell is suddenly broken by another man, who remarks dryly, "This is all just Indian jive. We've been watching too many cowboy movies!" Eddie sneers ironically at Wilson as he chimes in, "Don't even think about believing any of this shit. It's the 20th century. We got it all figured out." In this scene, the key point is about what Wilson has seen. His direct, sensory experience is elevated in importance above data, documentation, circumstantial evidence, and cultural prejudices about the nature of reality. Those other, indirect items that make up our perceptions, but that do not belong to us, are a part of how larger forces control the narrative of what happened to the Native population of America, and what still happens to places like the South Bronx.

[thinkingimages]

David Noonan

[milliondollarbaby87]

Manhunter (1986) Review

Will Graham was a former FBI Agent who had recently retired to Florida, he was profiler and drafted back in to help pursue a deranged serial killer known as “the Tooth Fairy” by the media. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Continue reading Untitled

[thedoctorwhocompanion]

Reviewed: Big Finish’s Doctor Who, Once and Future – The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50

Reviewed: Big Finish’s #DoctorWho, Once and Future – The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50

Entering the latter half of Big Finish’s Doctor Who 60th anniversary event, the fifth chapter of Once and Future sees the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) encounter some fan favourites, Missy (Michelle Gomez) and the Paternoster Gang – Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh), Jenny Flint (Catrin Stewart) and Strax (Dan Starkey). Oh yes! Before I resume, I would like to share a personal anecdote. On 28th July,…

[duranduratulsa]

Up next on my Friday The 13th movie 🎬 🎞 🎥 🎦 📽 marathon...Friday The 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) on glorious vintage VHS 📼! #movie #movies #horror #fridaythe13th #fridaythe13thpart6 #fridaythe13thpartvijasonlives #seanscunningham #jason #jasonvoorhees #thommatthews #JenniferCooke #tomfridley #cjgraham #davidkagen #reneejones #DarcyDemoss #kerrynoonan #nancymclaughlin #ronpalillo #BobLarkin #thomasnowell #justinnowell #courtneyvickery #matthewfaison #wallacemerck #terriepstein #annryerson #vincentguastaferro #michaelswan #whitneyrydbeck #tonygoldwyn #vintage #VHS #80s

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have Beast from Haunted Cave 1959 and Ski Troop Attack 1960

[adamwatchesmovies]

Last Action Hero (1993)

Last Action Hero didn't find its audience in 1993 and critics didn’t respond particularly well to it either. Following its perceived failure, director John McTiernan has gone to say the final product wasn’t what he originally envisioned. I say stand by your movie. I’ll be right there next to you. This is great stuff! Ahead of its time, clever, funny and filled with memorable moments, Last Action Hero deserves a second look.

Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien) loves Jack Slater, a action movie character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s seen the first three movies and his friend Nick (Robert Prosky), the projectionist at the run-down local movie theater, offers to let him watch the fourth one early. As the first scene begins, Danny is sucked into the screen. While trying to explain to Jack that he’s a fictional character, the movie’s villain, Benedict (Charles Dance) begins to suspect the boy can be useful to him.

It’s a pitch-perfect parody of action films of the time. You see a nameless thug impaled by a runaway ice cream cone - a deadly frozen treat blown into the back of his skull by an abnormally large explosion of dubious origin. Slater smirks “Iced that guy - to cone a phrase”. Wow. If that isn’t simultaneously the best and the worst post-kill one-liner I’ve ever heard, I don’t know what is. The screenplay by Shane Black and David Arnott is full of tongue-in-cheek moments to satisfy fans of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s over-the-top portfolio, and those who recognize why the trend needed a slap in the face. It piles on the jokes and just keeps getting funnier as it gets along. Type casting, the choice of soundtracks, the phony “555” phone numbers, the roles a comedic sidekick plays in an action movie, spin-off characters, movie logic, pretty much every aspect of blockbuster filmmaking gets a turn through the ringer. There are so many jokes there's no way you'll catch them all on a first viewing.

If there’s a deserved criticism for this endlessly quotable, memorable, imaginative and clever movie, it’s the length. It lasts 131 minutes, which would be a long time for a regular movie, never mind one that’s constantly breaking the fourth wall. The picture earns that time thanks to a wild turn maybe 2/3 of the way in but I understand why some audiences might be getting antsy in their seats at that point. The thing is, this Last Action Hero is smart. It’s so smart people at the time didn’t get it and many still don’t. In an alternate universe, Benedict escapes to the real world and Danny and Jack follow him right before the credits begin, setting up a sequel to a smash-hit. In our world, this movie WASN’T successful. Had it not gone on for the length that it is, we would’ve never seen this world explored as thoroughly as it is here. The movie may be wild with the funeral Jack needs to crash, the gimmicky bad guy who swaps out his glass eye depending on his mood, the insane stunts and nonchalant attitude towards massive body counts but you haven't seen anything yet. The film takes a wholly different, grim tone that asks us to consider what differentiates the reality and fiction.

More than anything, Last Action Hero is fun. When else will you see Schwarzenegger in an action-packed rendition of Hamlet, or a police station whose officers include dominatrix models? It’s a criminally underrated film in Schwarzenegger’s filmography. I’ll take it one step further. I think it’s one of his best films. (On DVD, June 14, 2019)