Last year I coined the phrase “The Platinum Age of Psychotronic Films” in response to the incredible number of films in our genre that were released in 1999. Perhaps it would have been better to call it the Platinum Year. The jury is still out on this decade, but the burst of creativity that electrified theaters last year has by November of 2000 become the year of sequels, new franchises and an almost ponderous lack of excitement. If you look at our Psychotronic Award winners and nominees of 1999, the list of films which are already considered classics (The Matrix, The Blair Witch Project, The Mummy, and many more) staggers me to this day.
Still, psychotronic films remain year-round. Gone are the days when horror and science fiction films played only in summer and at Halloween. Television, too, has more fantasy, science fiction and horror than ever before. The franchises that survive the sequels will warm us for most of this decade. And the budgets -- well, there is more than one reason to call this the Platinum Age!
Most of the nation chose to watch Dark Angel, starring the astonishingly beautiful Jessica Alba, over the first Presidential debate. I watched the debate and taped Dark Angel for later viewing. People who opted for the latter were not missing anything. The first debate really sucked, and for most of its premiere episode Dark Angel was a pleasure. Alba portrays anger and bitterness very well, and has sexual energy that I don’t think she could play down. She also plays intelligent well enough to have me think that she may not be playing at all. By the end of the debut show, however, the guy in the wheelchair had become too much like the librarian on Buffy, and her friends at the messenger service -- well, like Buffy’s pals at school. Too bad. The writers should have referenced The X-Files instead. But Ms. Alba has nothing to fear; if the show loses its audience, she will be able to find film work. And even as things stand now, plenty are watching the show just to see her .
On the BBC America cable channel I watched Christopher Lee and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in Gormenghast (to be shown next year on PBS), a four-part miniseries that I can only describe as a story that takes place in a science fiction past. Despite a low budget, the acting, costumes and sets deliver the goods in this decadent tale of royalty and privilege gone mad. A must-see, must-tape event. You have been alerted.
Someone I missed this year was Frank Zappa. Do you think for one moment that Zappa would have chimed in with the hallelujah chorus in support of Tipper Gore taking over the White House? Do you think Zappa would have been quiet as Gore and Lieberman threatened government censorship of Hollywood and video games? Anytime you wonder if one person can make a difference, think of Frank Zappa. His absence on free speech issues was noted.
There were two funny moments on TV this year in regards to advertising. Was I the only person who saw the “Cat Wranglers” ad where hundreds of cats are herded over the plains? There is also an ad for a video game (Jet Flash?) which features the latest fashion trend in Japanese youth subculture, kids who dye their hair blonde and put on dark makeup -- sometimes until they are black! Yep. Japanese kids in blackface! They are called gan-goro and they are very evident in the ad, although I have a feeling the ad agency did not realize some of the kids are in blackface! They even walk the streets of Tokyo with this style, and I never thought they would end up in an ad on American TV!
Howard Stern Productions’ Son Of The Beach is goofy fun that constantly has me laughing out loud. It plays like a Mad magazine satire of Baywatch with touches of early Get Smart and Police Squad!
And my old standby, wrestling, has an undeniable true womens’ champion in the WWF’s Lita. I still gasp when she flips in midair.
So the shock of the new may have worn off by the year 2000, but we are still entrenched in pop culture and now part of its landscape, rather than its bastard stepchild.
And I was able to see Marshall McLuhan vindicated when he said “The medium is the message.” Man, if that doesn’t explain the Internet, what does? Now if we could just get people to read him again. . .
Happy 2001 to all of you. Enjoy your surfing through this site, check out the archives section if you’ve seen the rest -- cheers!
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