Popular reviews

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  Review by Cinema_Strikes ★★★½ 6

  [Alamo Drafthouse’s Weird Wednesday]

  Holy shit, that was delightful. Who knew contemplative arthouse king Apichatpong Weerasethakul could be such a scamp? Iron Pussy (triple threat Michael Shaowanasai) is basically a cross-dressing cross between Batman, James Bond, and Divine in this piss take on secret agent action/dramas. And it’s a musical! My cup floweth over.

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  Review by Joe ★★★½

  Pure, goofy fun that doesn't pause for even a moment to indicate that there's a true artist behind the camera. I would have enjoyed more scenes in the 7-Eleven.

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  Review by Mike Kennedy ★★★★

  This was the final film in Melbourne Cinémathèque’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul season and I had been hanging out to see it ever since last year’s program was announced, then derailed by our COVID lockdowns.  The film had achieved almost mythic status amongst my Thai friends who had seen it and it has not been generally available even in Thailand.  

  What I loved about this film is that Apichatpong drives right up to the boundary between parody and homage and then hugs that line for the film’s 90 minute run time.  Apichatpong co-wrote the screenplay with Thai-American performance artist (and photographer, installation artist, and film and video-maker) Michael Shaowanasi who also stars as Iron Pussy and gets a co-director credit.  Apichatpong…

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  Review by Jack Russo ★★ 4

  Situated in that uncanny valley between camp embrace and mocking distance, an unfortunate result in how Shaowanasai (and supposedly Weerasethakul) genuinely adore the absurdity of cheap effects, impromptu musical numbers and deadpan cuts, to the point where the depiction feels insincere just by the virtue of being a recreation via modern interpretation (the same issue with that other Thai melogenre throwback in Tears of the Black Tiger). It’s defiantly gaudy in conception but weirdly muted to the eyes, picture something V-Cinema-adjacent in its contrast of low-craft / high-concept but with the digital compression upscaled in queer colour, but I could very well be mistaking the film with the no-fi file itself - which might have popped on my PSP in 2006, but looked remarkably less flash on a cinema screen.

  With all that said, the final musical number is truly phenomenal, even more so when weighted against all that had come before its final serenade.

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  Review by Marcissus ★★ 3

  ''I don't know what I expected''

  
  This is 2satirical4me. It's one of those, ''but it's supposed to be bad'' films and is utterly uncompromising in its attempt to hit every ball as it swings perpetually in 360 degree circles. Musical, comedy, romance, action, melodrama. It's an absolute mess, and yes, fun, but this isn't the Weerasethakul I fell in love with. Eccentricity is a cruel mistress.

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  Review by Morgan ★★★★★ 1

  Had the absolute treat of viewing this in a theater, which was somewhat undercut by a man exclaiming "WHAT?" every time something remotely creative or surreal occurred. At first it really pissed me off, but now it feels more akin to observing the behavior of a particularly strange insect. Is such reaction a muscle reflex? An indication of a lethally underdeveloped imagination? How did this creature who's likely never experienced filmed images and sounds find his way into a niche genre screening at 9:30 PM on a Wednesday? The mind boggles, and gives way to a sort of fascinated repulsion.

  Anyway, Iron Pussy is the best and probably only mega-enthusiastic camp musical cross-dressing spy-thriller soap opera '70s Thai pulp sendup you're like to see. Movies can be anything you want.

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  Review by Frances Arpaia ★★★★½

  Just cause a film is campy doesn't mean it's insincere and The Adventures of Iron Pussy is as earnest as they come. An absolute blast.

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  Review by NotASexyVamp ★★★½ 1

  This is not a good film, but it is an extremely entertaining one. Watching this in a cinema with a fairly game audience was a delight, even if the screening did attract some more frustrating people. Cinematheque screenings are often highbrow and attract a similar audience, one that sits quietly in the dark, revelling in the cinema experience together. It's highly unlikely to hear chatter and, if you do, it's usually dispelled with a quick and loud sshh. Something like a dedicated "bad" movie screenings (especially the Astor's Cats one or Mandy at the Comedy theatre during MIFF) expects a different level of audience participation. So having something like this screen at Cinematheque was a strange experience. I can go…

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  Review by Mathieu Li-Goyette ★★★ 5

  À la fois foncièrement cabochon et clé de voûte de l'oeuvre d'Apichatpong et de son rapport à l'histoire du cinéma thaïlandais.

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  Review by 𝕜𝕖𝕟ℙ𝕓𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕤 ★★★½

  7.5 /10

  
  I've long suspected that those Cannes-adored high-brow Directors who effortlessly create masterpieces which are deservedly described as being

  ".... an enigmatic assemblage of avant-garde form and popular iconography ..."

  have more than a little of the low-brow [see pic] Russ Meyer lurking deep within the darkest portion of their soul.

  
  And with his uber-pulp (but not trash) tribute to Modesty Blaise, Michelle Pfeiffer's 'Catwoman', Lady Divine, Joan Crawford & even Little Edie, Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has not only caught my attention with some distinctly fab Safari outfits, but more importantly, lowered himself to that particular level which gains my loudest applause.

  An interesting crowd @ Melbourne Cinémathèque for this late screening - I wondered if this was the Next Gen.

  From the 'Drifting States: The Films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul ' component of the 2021 Melbourne Cinémathèque program.

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  Review by Cole Wilder

  the Memoria sound is all the midi instruments in this movie playing their lowest note at the same time

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  Review by DungeonSkramz ★★

  52 Years in 52 Weeks
  37/52

  You could tell they had a lot of fun going for that kind of "so bad it's good" spy action satire with cheap MIDI music and nonsensical twists, but it could have been more exciting if not padded out with pointless musical numbers and shallow melodrama.

  On top of the inconsistent color grading and sound mix, it had such generic dialogue trying to give out vague moral lessons that sounded like those "words of wisdom" you see on motivational posters. I appreciated what they were going for, especially with the transvestite protagonist, but it ultimately came across as misguided.