James Woods is tense and sweaty and confused as Cronenberg's semi-satirical take on Canadian TV pioneer Mose Znaimer, on the hunt in the early 1980's for the late-night soft-core pornography that pays the bills for his small TV station. In reality, these were City TV's Baby Blue Movies. In Videodrome, they become a gateway to another reality in which competing philosophies of New Humanity and its New Flesh are at war.
Woods definitely delivers the greatest acting performance ever by someone playing a guy with a vaginal VHS slot in his stomach. Jack Creley is a hoot as Dr. Brian O'Blivion, Cronenberg's nod to the University of Toronto's media guru Marshall McLuhan, a media commentator who only appears on TV. That the malignant Videodrome signal emanates from Pittsburgh seems like another nod, to the hometown of horror/zombie-movie pioneer and visionary George Romero. Highly recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.