RKS Literature: Chez Robert Declines after Ketchup Riot (William S. Burroughs)

“Imperceptibly the quality of the food declines until he is serving literal garbage, the clients being intimidated by the reputation of Chez Robert to protest.

    SAMPLE MENU

The Clear Camel Piss Soup with boiled Earth Worms

The Filet of Sun-Ripened Sting Ray basted with Eau de Cologne and garnished with Nettles

The After-Birth Suprême de Boeuf cooked in drained crank case oil,served with a piquant sauce of rotten egg yolks and crushed bed bugs

The Limburger Cheese sugar coated in diabetic urine doused in Canned Heat Flamboyant”

William S. Burroughs, “Naked Lunch”, 1959

RKS Literature: Ketchup on Haute Cuisine Causes a Riot! (William S. Burroughs)

“(Alternative: A.J. whips out a bottle of ketchup and douses the haute cuisine.)

Thirty gourmets stop chewing at once. You could have heard a soufflé drop. As for Robert, he lets out a bellow of rage like a wounded elephant, runs to the kitchen and arms himself with a meat cleaver….The sommelier snarls hideously, his face turning a strange iridescent purple….He breaks off a bottle of Brut Champagne….’ 26..Pierre, the head waiter, snatches up a boning knife. All three chase A.J. through the restaurant with mangled inhuman screams of rage…Tables overturn, vintage wines and matchless food crash to the floor…Cries of “Lynch him!” ring through the air. An elderly gourmet with insane bloodshot eyes of a mandrill is fashioning a hangman’s knot with a velvet curtain cord…”

William S. Burroughs, “Naked Lunch”, 1959

RKS Literature: Americans Dying of Shame (William S. Burroughs)

“A.J.’s cover story? An international playboy and harmless practical joker. It was A.J. who put the piranha fish in Lady Sutton Smith’s swimming pool and dosed the punch with a mixture of yagé, hashish and yohimbine during a Fourth of July reception at the U.S. Embassy, precipitating an orgy. Ten prominent citizens-American, of course-subsequently died of shame. Dying of shame is an accomplishment peculiar to Kwakiutl Indians and Americans-others simply say “Zut alors” or “Son cosas de la vida or “Allah fucked me, the all Powerful.”

William S. Burroughs, “Naked Lunch”, 1959

RKS 2024 Wine: A Montepulciano Lost in Letters and Numbers at a Bunga Bunga Party Frequented by Punters

Although Montepulciano is almost always an easy drinking wine in this case it is lost, or perhaps I am, in too many letters and numbers. The wine was bottled by ICQRF/4495/IT on behalf of TG SRL 72015. If we dig further are there Cayman and Bulgarian offshore accounts involved further complicating the matter. Wanna bet this was the house wine for a Berlusconi Bunga Bunga Party. And if numbers and letters are getting a bit fishy a Luca Maroni 95 rating casts a further cloud of suspicion over this wine! OMG are punters involved here?

Aroma: A good measure of black cherry, blueberry, blackberry and roadside diner chocolate cream pie.

Palate: Easy going and smooth reminding me of that 2 Euro Montepulciano you filled up in 1.5 litre water bottles back in 2002 in Tuscany and no insult intended as it was very quaffable! Mostly blackberry and blueberry with a hint of milk chocolate. Acidity is hiding under a rock.

Personality: I am not sophisticated, just straightforward and delicious. Quite quaffable in the summer heat provided chilled down.

Food Match: Being the fancy, sophisticated know it all wine writer I am blowing my cover by suggesting pair with a COSTCO Vegan Mushroom Stew recipe or whatever they are serving at your next Bunga Bunga party if your eyes are wide shut.

Cellarbility: Keep it around until the end of 2025 but it will not improve.

Price: $17 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 89/100. Luca Maroni 95. Silvio Berlusconi 106.

(Ferrovieri 2022 Montepulciano DOP, TG SRL 72015, Fasano, Italy, 14%, 750 mL).

RKS 2024 Film: “Queendom”: Tough Going for Performance Artist in Nouveau Tsarist Russia

Gennadiy, known in costume as Jenna, is a performance artist in Russia who managed to escape to France obtaining asylum there fortunate enough not to have “fallen out of a window”, gunned down or to have consumed that FSB special plutonium tea.

You see Jenna is a queer that loves to parade about the streets of wherever she may be in outrageous costumes beautifully designed but scorned by Russian rednecks, security guards in supermarkets and those in the official Tsarist camp.

Jenna is from Magadan a dismal city of 137,000 known as a transit centre for political prisoners and forced labour in gold mines in the Stalinist era. He lives with his grandmother and grandfather who have difficulties understanding their grandson urging him to drop all the nonsense of his performance art and to get a good job by focusing on his education. Jenna endures a litany of criticism from his grandparents refusing to buckle in.

When he is not parading the streets and subways with his delightfully outlandish outfits he is making Tik Tok videos of his performance art. He is not welcome within officialdom but in the midst of an anti-war demonstration a small crowd follows him hurling insults on fascist Putin and praising opposition figure Navalny before he was murdered by the FSB.

In Moscow he attends cosmetic college until he is expelled for participating in a demonstration critical of Tsar Putin. In footage of an anti-war demonstration, we watch police haul off demonstrators and smacking them with truncheons. These are times when the Tsar has enacted legislation making LGBTQ status more or less illegal as well as any criticism of the war effort which we hear Tsar Putin on television confidently state will shortly be won as Russia defeats Ukrainian genocide of Russians.

Motto of the story Russia, in true Tsarist White Russian tradition, has devolved in a backwards fashion crushing all political opposition and those like Jenna whose appearance, sexual orientation and attitudes don’t fit in the good and obedient Russian mould.

Nice to know Jenna is safe in Paris where he feels like a human being.

Directed by Agniia Galdanova.

The film will be playing in theatres 14June2024 and available on demand.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 87/100.

RKS 2024 Film: HOT DOCS 2024: “Qoryqpa” (Streets Loud with Echoes)

Being a part of the Soviet Empire when the Berlin Wall fell Kazakhstan declared itself an independent democracy but not having much of a history of democracy it quickly slipped back into the comfortable ways of totalitarianism.

It was the 19July2018 murder of Kazak 25-year-old figure skating Olympic bronze medalist (Sochi 2018 Olympics) Denis Ten in Almaty that lit the fuse to simmering dissent in Kazakhstan. Police were used to solidify totalitarian rule by tracking, spying, harassing and imprisoning anyone criticizing the regime. Ten’s murder sparked a backlash amongst political opponents of the regime and also amongst the non politically active citizenry outraged over the daylight murder of Ten by two assailants who were in the midst of stealing his car mirrors. Citizens were outraged over the lack of police response to emergency calls, the failure to press charges for petty crime, failure to apprehend criminals and bribery. Each of assailants received an 18-year prison sentence.

Filmmaker Katerina Suvorova captures the rise and fall of a movement called “Reform the Police” which transcended the issue of police reform into a wider form of political opposition. Suvorova’s camerawork and narration reveal the fragmented and tenuous nature of the leadership of Reform the Police and the omnipresent security services watching, filming, arresting, beating to the point on January 22, 2022 when 241 demonstrators were killed and thousands detained and many of those tortured. The presidential election results were part of the protest. One queries if the lack of democratic traditions fostered an inability to mount a coherent and unified political opposition. Fascinating to watch how a criminal event, being the murder of Denis Ten, sparked outrage against the police which steamrolled into a wider political protest.

A strong resemblance of Kazak and Belarus opposition to the left-over Soviet hack leaders.

Hot Docs screenings of “Qoryqpa” will be on 28April2024 and 1May2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 73/100.

RKS 2024 Film: “What are you supposed to do with your hands?”: Be Yourself or Be Controlled Like a Puppet?

Crazy8’s has been organizing 8-day filmmaking challenges since 1999. Those filmmakers selected after a successful pitch are given 8 days to produce a short. On 20April2024 all 6 selected finalists present their short in Vancouver followed by a gala evening.

In “What are supposed to do with your hands?” anxiety ridden and later in life diagnosed with autism Kendra (Megan Toner) wringing her hands for 55 seconds before entering the house of her friend Olivia (Princess Davis) for a Christmas party. Paralyzed by fear an imaginary harpy has Kendra controlled by puppet strings for what she should be doing to socially “fit in”. Kendra has a fixation with chicken fingers and the harpy force feeds her so she can eat “like an adult” and she violently reacts to coriander. In great psychological discomfort Kendra makes the choice to be comfortable with herself and returns home to stare at a lava lamp. If you find this sad perhaps you have missed the point of this short.

A sparkling performance from Princess Davis oozing with charm and vivacity. A short but dazzling appearance. Move over Zenyada. Time for a major role for Davis.

Directed and written by Larissa Thompson.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 89/100.

RKS 2024 Film: “Accidental Texan”: Zorba the Greek Meets Good Old American Values

“Accidental Texan” is one of those feel-good movies and we all require one of those every once in awhile. Erwin Vandemeer (Rudy Pankow) is an aspiring actor on his first substantial role filming in New Orleans but he destroys the opening scene and is promptly fired. His agent drops him. His acting career may be decimated. He heads to Texas and when his car breaks down he walks to the nearest town Buffalo Gap. It is a very small town. In a diner he meets Merle (Thomas Haden Church) an oil drilling roughneck with a good heart perhaps even a broken one.

An overnight stay becomes a month long one. As Merle and Erwin look for an oil strike needed in thirty days or nasty bankers foreclose on Merle’s oil drilling company. Big capitalists out to destroy the little guy but the little guy is going to give them a good fight.

Thomas Haden Church is a Zorba the Greek character full of life and colourful with a drive to succeed. He certainly shines in this role and if at times the plot meanders a bit his performance is a delight to watch. What a great Texan character he brings to the screen. Is this because at one point in his life he lived in Dallas?

Carrie-Anne Moss also delivers a stellar performance as a waitress with eyes on Merle. Watching her and Thomas Haden Church is worth the price of admission.

Pankow is the perfect foil (as the British author was in Zorba) as the novice in life falling under the wing of Merle. He is a goody two shoes knowing little about life other than his failures he dwells on. He steals, forges, drinks all in good form and for a noble cause. And by the conclusion of the film he is a man.

Aside from Thomas Haden Church and Carrie-Anne Moss giving outstanding performances the movie is good fun however predictable it may be.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 76/100.

VOD/Digital release will be on 23April2024.

RKS 2024 Film: “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World”: A Wild Ride Through Bucharest and Romanian History! A New Cult Film?

Radu Jude’s “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” is a Romanian feature film replete with satire, a full panoply of Romanian music and implicit comparisons of modern Romania to Ceausescu’s communist Romania.

Angela (Ilinca Manoache) is a production assistant for a Romanian film production company in Bucharest specializing in “corporate films”. In this case an Austrian company producing a film on worker safety. Angela rushes around in a fury in her Renault (not a Dacia!) through Bucharest and its suburbs interviewing a handful of victims of industrial accidents to select the “perfect victim” for the corporate safety film. It is clear the life of a Romanian worker is cheap particularly when injured a guilty employer does everything to avoid a payout. In the cutting conclusion of the film the modern employee safety film is no different than the communist propaganda films often blaming the worker for his injuries as after all the state was the only employer. Poor worker Ovidiu injured in an industrial accident is selected and in numerous takes an honest recounting of his accident is neutered to a bland and simplistic message stripped of honesty and whatever the final message will be is in the hands of Vienna. Ovidiu, and for that matter, Romania has been reduced to a dupe.

Interposed in the film is a 1981 Romanian vintage film from Lucian Bratu’s “Angela Moves On” depicting the life of a female taxi driver in Ceausescu’s communist Romania. The clips from that film are in colour while the film is black and white in “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World”. 1981 Bucharest was much quieter and slow paced in comparison to the horribly congested Bucharest of today. Sexism and inequality certainly have survived the demise of Romanian communism. Angela’s existence and mission also clearly shout that the proletarian masses of Romania today are scarcely better off materially than those of Ceausescu’s Romania. While the corruption of communists Romania was largely within the communist party it is riddled throughout society in modern Romania. Moral corruption in modern Romania is highlighted by sexual deviant Bobiţă spewing misogynist drivel in a desperate attempt to obtain TikTok fame.

Perhaps one day I will recount my story of my trip with a Romanian truck driver delivering a truckload of eggs to Cairo. He helped himself to a few! Screw those who screw you.

The exploitation of Romania continues in the film this time from Austria. One is left contemplating what has truly changed in modern day Romania from the Ceausescu days? The taxi driver’s life in the 1981 film “Angela Moves On” is not that different from the modern-day Angela except the exploitation in the 1981 film is unspoken and not reflected in the story line and on film. It is staring you in face with what Angela must endure.

An exhausting film close to three hours in length. After roaring around with Angela working to point of exhaustion and self harm one can’t but reflect on the simpler and quieter days of communist Romania.

Who could ever play the role of Angela as Manoloche does here? Superb and immeasurably frantic and in the filth pits of degeneracy also playing Bobiţă discrediting the idiocy and shallowness of much of social media.

Opens in theatres in Canada on 19April2024.

You can see the trailer here  https://vimeo.com/913745105

RKS 2024 Film Rating 94/100.

RKS 2024 Film: “Toe Pick”: All Chelsea Wants to do is Skate!

Crazy8’s has been organizing 8-day filmmaking challenges since 1999. Those filmmakers selected after a successful pitch are given 8 days to produce a short. On 20April2024 all 6 selected finalists present their short in Vancouver followed by a gala evening.

Preteen Chelsea (Nylee Phinney) is somewhat hefty for the typical figure skater yet she is enrolled in the Golden Blade Skating Club coached by the less than compassionate Karoline (Gigi Neil).

At practice with the “regionals” in mind young ladies whirl and whizz about with prima donna Jill dazzling all and clumsy and bizarrely dressed Chelsea labouring with her moves and falling noted and commented with appropriate eye rolls of disgust by nasty Karoline. After lacing into Karoline, Chelsea leaves the ice and a massive collision with Jill sets a groggy Chelsea elegantly dancing to Tea Paty’s “Heaven Coming Down” and growing up awfully quickly. Her wonderful smile at the end of the short is worth the price of admission. I am sure she must have been singing Sinatra’s “My Way”.

Gigi Neil performs CRUELTY to the tee!

Directed by Teresa Alfeld.

You can watch the trailer here https://crazy8s.film/films/toe-pick/

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 87/100.