Rubbish, With Occasional Music

I have no idea how well I’ll keep up with this, or how in depth I’ll get, but here goes.

Cat Dancers: A documentary chronicling the lives of dancers Ron & Joy Holiday and the creation of their performance act ‘Cat Dancers’, and their later partnership with Chuck Lizza. The editing of the film coupled with the use of Ron’s own archival footage of their old acts give the majority of the film a very dreamy nostalgic feel that worked really well with Ron’s narrative. Given the material to work with, I think Ron’s story was treated very earnestly and sensitively. Ron comes across as an open and sincere individual and very honestly recalls his experiences with Joy and Chuck throughout their career and relationships, which could have likely been twisted to make many easy jokes at his expense. Luckily there’s genuine humor in the film, which the majority of the audience picked up on despite a few snickers during Ron’s introduction, and even more when the nature of the Holiday’s relationship with Chuck became clear. Joy & Chuck’s absence in the beginning of the film hint at the tragedy to come and prepare the viewer, but I still found Ron’s somber description of the incidents paired with his and (I assume) the police photos of the scenes completely heartbreaking.

Scrambled Beer (Malta con Huevo): An absurd dark comedy with time travelling and a prophetic goth teenager. The title refers to a vile cocktail that plays a prominent roll in the film. The drink is concocted by blending an egg, some sugar, and a pint of beer. “It’s the champ’s breakfast!” After the first few minutes of the film, I didn’t think I was really going to get into it, particularly because of the ‘Odd Couple’ cliche that’s set up early between Vladimir and his new room-mate Jorge. Luckily, the film does not rely on that dynamic as a source of comedy for long and Vladimir shortly finds himself time travelling while his chaotic world is thrown into disarray. Without giving too much away, there’s a major perspective change part way through the film that really caught me off guard and completely endeared me to the film and really won me over. Scrambled Beer will be screening again Tuesday the 13th, 10PM at the Dobie.