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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2014)
MOVIES BY RICK LEVIN DE TAIL F ROM A A RON SUL LIVA N’S TECTONIC JELLY THUR JULY 17 - WED JULY 23 BAD WORDS 3:50 + 7:25 MOONRISE KINGDOM 3:50 + 9:00 THE DOUBLE 5:30 UNDER THE SKIN 5:30 ENEMY 7:25 UNDER THE SKIN 9:00 NEW JELLYHEADS Tectonic Jelly’s surreal search for the world’s last live venue T wo dudes standing behind a service counter, slinging cheesecake for the masses and, during down times, brainstorming a tangle of ideas about music, movies and the end of the world: This is the genesis of Tectonic Jelly, a deliciously bizarre short film and companion comic book series that gets its first public airing Thursday, July 17, at Bijou Art Cinemas. The two dudes responsible for Tectonic Jelly are Aaron Sullivan and Dylan Keim, who at the time their project began taking shape were pulling shifts at Eugene’s legendary Sweet Life Patisserie. A budding filmmaker, Keim took Sullivan’s idea of a post-apocalyptic hero who, with sword and electric guitar in hand, goes on a surreal search for the world’s last live venue, and asked, “Why not make a movie?” The result is a no-budget fantasia that spools out like some bastard child of Sid and Marty Krofft’s Land of the Lost and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome — a trippy, sexy and hilarious adventure that borrows elements of ’60s psychadelia, ’80s glam and Armageddon punk, all held together by a spirit of DIY joy that is infectious. MONSTER MASH Bijou curates a summer horror film series F ans of scary monsters and super creeps will have a lot to feast on in coming days, as the Bijou Classic Series unleashes its “Monster Blockbuster” tribute, featuring screenings of a handful of legendary films moderated by local film buffs. Coordinated by Joshua Purvis, Bijou marketing director and founder of the Eugene Film Society, the series puts together a chilling variety of freaker classics — from Jaws to Invasion of the Body Snatchers — pairing each with a moderated Q&A and discussion that will tackle critical, historic and technical aspects of the film. Purvis says he’s hoping to inspire audiences to look anew at classic horror blockbusters, and to see both their value and their influence on movies as a whole. “These films are intelligent films that work well,” he says of such offerings as King Kong and Alien, noting that these movies signify a transition in cinematic history from films with more artistic or informative concerns to those that seek primarily to titillate and entertain while still retaining cinematic value. The idea, Purvis says, is to take a second look at monster blockbusters like Jaws and see them as more than escapist spectacles — to see where they have merit and influence, both good and bad, in the history of cinema. Of course, like all renegade art projects hatched and patched together on the fly, Tectonic Jelly morphed over its two-year gestation period. “So it originally was going to be a video that we wanted to show before these live footage DVDs of bands we were recording at my studio space,” Sullivan explains. “It turned into more than that, because we only got to film two more bands before the space shut down.” And so one door closes, and another opens: Sullivan and Keim decided to make Tectonic Jelly (the movie) its own unique entity, casting other Sweet Life employees in supporting roles and shooting digital footage around western Oregon. And all this time, Sullivan, who studied graphic arts at UO, was slowly putting together a series of comic books that expanded on the story told in the film. “The comic book came to be a companion to it,” Sullivan says. “I would think I was devising an idea at the time the movie was being made and filmed, and it got kind of merged in my mind with this idea I was working on at the time for a comic book.” As filming progressed, Sullivan, who plays the movie’s loin-clothed hero, found that he was building a sort of mythic universe in which the movie became a story within a story, mirroring two post-apocalyptic worlds. “It’s H.P. Lovecraft meets The NeverEnding Story,” Sullivan explains. “I really like narrative ideas getting squished together.” ■ ALL AGES BEFORE 7PM WANT TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? ADVERTISE WITH THE EUGENE WEEKLY CALL US TODAY 541-484-0519 Tectonic Jelly, the movie and the comic book, receive its Eugene (and world) premiere 6 pm Thursday, July 17, at Bijou Art Cinemas, with creator Aaron Sullivan in attendance and copies of the comics for sale; for more info, visit bijou-cinemas.com. Taking horror films seriously is a radical concept, given the ghetto that’s been created by an endless stream of slasher flicks and monster movies that forgo elements like plot and characterization in the rush to shock and disgust the audience with buckets of blood. But fear, like lust, is a primal emotion, and when a great director like John Carpenter (Halloween) taps into our deep creeps, the results are no less artistic for being totally scary. “We are a college town,” Purvis says. “We have the population that can be engaged with this type of programming. The conversation element, as opposed to having a lecture, is what gives voice to all the other components of the film culture, that sense of give and take.” That give-and-take kicks off with a bang at Bijou Metro on Saturday, July 19, with a screening of Jaws, followed by a discussion moderated by EW’s Alex Notman and including input from DIVA “Behind the Lens” host Tom Blank, LCC media arts prof Ian Coronado and film researcher Mary Erickson. Alien screens the following week, with the Q&A moderated by yours truly and featuring input from LCC’s Coronado and Kate Sullivan, as well as film critic Doug Hennesy. These screenings are followed by the original 1933 King Kong (July 30), Aliens (Aug. 1-3), Philip Kaufman’s 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Aug. 8-10), Jurassic Park (Aug. 15-17) and ending with John Carpenter’s excellent remake of The Thing Aug. 22-24. Bijou will also host a July 30 screening of the original King Kong (1933) at Kesey Square as part of Eugene’s “Summer in the City” series. ■ Bijou Metro’s Monster Blockbuster series runs July 18 though Aug. 24; times and titles at bijou-cinemas.com eugeneweekly.com • July 17, 2014 21
