CWRU Film Society Sci-Fi Marathon liveblog compilation

[erinptah]

Spent this past weekend at the 49th CWRU Sci-Fi Marathon, and as usual, I was live-microblogging (on Mastodon) as it went. Here’s a recap of the movie reactions, sleep deprivation, and real-time tracking of How Far Behind Schedule We Are.

For reference, the extremely accurate film list:

 

Jan 19, 2024, 8:35 PM

Opener: a couple of Marathon alumns made “LaborLine” for the 48 Hour Film Fest. Little slice of capitalist techno-dystopia.

Followed by the on-theme Bugs Bunny vs Turtles.

Jan 19, 10:26 PM

Turtles were fun! Would not have watched the movie on my own, but the scribbly 3D pseudo-paint art style was fun to watch.

…I recognized so many of the pop culture references. Are some things just popular with teens for 20 years straight, or what?

Have the vaguest memories of the turtles cartoon on TV as a kid. Should go back and see how their characterization/”teenage”-ness compares.

(Even the update is a Bechdel fail, not surprising.)

Jan 20, 12:26 AM

Alphaville was…not as intellectual as it wanted to think. I don’t know if it seemed more clever and profound when it was produced, or if the “But what do words MEAN, really??” stuff never worked.

Bechdel fail. Depressing amount of gratuitous half-dressed women for a film that was otherwise not real sexy.

Surprise 1 was supposed to start at 12:05…

Fair note: the movie did some neat directorial things, like long walk-and-talk tracking shots, and lots of big mirrors carefully arranged not to reflect the camera crew.

I opened Wikipedia afterward to see if it would explain some of the worldbuilding, but no luck. The film kept emphasizing when characters went between North and South, and I was trying to figure out if they had a City And The City type of separation…? Still have no idea.

(The cartoon upfront was Porky in Wackyland. Not sure how much it relates.)

Jan 20, 12:44

Surprise 1, kicking off 30 minutes behind schedule, is The Spy Who Shagged Me! I’ll stay awake for that.

With the relevant Chicken Boo short as the lead-in.

Jan 20, 02:21

Making allowances for a certain brand of ’90s humor, that held up pretty well.

I hadn’t realized Sam Seaborn was one of the evil henchmen! Fun.

Bechdel fail, which it manages in spite of having a canon endgame f/f couple. Now that’s talent.

Cube was scheduled to start at 1:55. I’ve seen it, it’s very skippable. Points for the choice of preview trailers: Triangle, Sphere, and Cube (parody? video game).

Jan 20, 02:25

CUBE
 

Watch on YouTube

 

 

(these 2 minutes are more entertaining than the movie)

Jan 20, 03:58

Internet says Cube is a Bechdel pass, which sounds right. The main topic of conversation is all the weird mystery puzzle nonsense, two of the women must’ve talked about *some* of it before they got killed off.

Zardoz (a guaranteed sleeper) was scheduled to start at 3:40. We’re making a little time back up?

Jan 20, 04:10

Pre-movie cartoon: the first Wizard of Oz adaptation? Highly, uh, adapted. At least it’s cute to see basically the original Denslow (?) Scarecrow and Tin Woodman in motion.

 

Jan 20, 06:04

Successfully slept through Zardoz! (Not in the Bechdel Test database, but I would be surprised if yes.)

Getting treated to some peppy Oz soundtrack remixes on the speakers.

Silent 1941 adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde was supposed to start at 5:40. We’ve held steady at about half an hour behind for a while now. I’m expecting to watch the first 10-15 minutes and then crash again.

Jan 20, 06:18

Opening cartoon: Tom accidentally Hyde-ifies Jerry. And then shrinks himself. Oops.

(Slipped back to more like 40 minutes behind, looks like.)

Jan 20, 08:31

Heard some technical issues during Jekyll, but we made it through! Both the movie and the nap.

I need to look up if this is one of the versions that inspired The Glass Scientists. Jekyll’s expressions and mannerisms reminded me of the comic sometimes. [ETA from The Future: no, the author cited the 1920s silent film version.]

Feels safe to bet it was a Bechdel failure.

Invaders from Mars was scheduled for 8:05, and we had basically no downtime before rolling on our opening cartoon (Martian through Georgia).

Kinda interested in this one, but more interested in the upcoming Stooges, so.

Jan 20, 10:04

All right, favorite thing about that one was the colors. A lot of B&W movies get cheap recolor jobs that just look gimmicky, but this one was art.

Watched until the panicking kid who knew about the danger found some adults who believed him, and started helping and supporting him instead of brushing him off. I hope they sorted out the whole invasion thing too.

Hercules and the Stooges due to start back at 9:40…

Jan 20, 11:56

Watched the Stooges get stooged from Ithaca to Ithaca. Fell asleep while they were fighting the Cyclops, but I assume they got back.

(Cartoon was Popeye vs Hercules, which had pretty much the same energy, just more spinach.)

The Bechdel Test database keeps not having these, but I’m not optimistic. Closest we got was when some Greek court ladies *thought* the Stooges were the “new slave girls”, and ordered them around a bit.

Jan 20, 12:08 PM

Lights were only up for like a minute before they launched into the pre-Interstellar bonuses. (Supposed to start at 11:25.)

I’ve seen it, wasn’t enthused enough to see it again, so I’m breaking for internet and pizza.

Popular enough to have a crowd of comments arguing “well it SHOULD pass the Bechdel test because the female characters were good and important.” Not what the test measures, people! (It passes because reportedly 2 of them talk about work for a couple minutes.)

Our cartoon was Steamboat Willie. Anything to do with the movie? Or they just wanted to throw it in somewhere for New Public Domain Year?

Jan 20, 12:26 PM

Minor snafu with Interstellar, they had a reel out-of-order and mislabeled. (It’s such a deliberately weird movie, I’m sort of impressed they noticed.)

Sounds like it’s back up now!

Jan 20, 3:03 PM

The inters have been stellared!

Surprise 2 was slated for 2:30…trailers are Tarzan, Zorro…and the Schoolhouse Rock song about the 3 branches of government?

Jan 20, 3:10 PM

The Marvel intro started playing, and I thought for SURE those previews added up to a Captain America! But it’s Shang-Chi.

(…Ohhh because it was a song about 3 rings. I get it now.)

Not mad. I’m down to watch Shang-Chi again.

Jan 20, 5:17 PM

Good movie, still good!

Solid Bechdel pass, even with a male hero + villain and a strong throughline about their relationship, by having a range of women in the supporting cast who got to talk about their feelings/backstories/careers with each other sometimes.

Give us a sequel, Marvel. Give us more Katy. Let her and Shang take all the Avengers out for karaoke. We deserve it.

Jan 20, 5:30 PM

Milk-related commercials + “The Sunshine Makers” cartoon leading in to Satellite Girl and Milk Cow (anime, scheduled to start at 5).

Will be watching for team-up potential with Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

Jan 20, 7:03 PM

A Girl And Her Cow lost me partway through. Their sidekick was a talking magical roll of toilet paper, that’s the level of kiddie/lol random humor we were on.

Cow was a boy, too, in spite of all the times they said “milk cow”, so I’m guessing we didn’t make Bechdel :(

A Boy And His Dog was scheduled for 6:45, and we’re doing critter-related commercials already.

Jan 20, 7:22 PM

…first we got a long talky pitch for a series called The Starlost, and now they’re playing us chunks of an episode? Think Four-era Who, that’s the level of the special effects.

Didn’t see enough to care, and it sounds like they never got to “the good stuff” anyway.

Jan 20, 8:53 PM

Welp, that was unpleasant. In a self-satisfied “look at how unpleasant we can make this, nyah” kind of way. (Bechdel fail, not surprising.)

It took place in the post-apocalyptic desert wastes of 2024, so I guess it was obligatory this year.

Jan 20, 9:03 PM

Surprise 3 was slated for 8:35.

Trailers for Circle, Pi, Cube 2…oh no, are they subjecting us to more of the Cube Cinematic Universe?

Jan 20, 11:19 PM

SPHERE

…the setup was promising, but the cast kept making bigger and bigger leaps of logic to deduce what the writers needed them to, and ended up with a moral that didn’t really follow from the setup.

Genuinely curious if a lot of it was filmed with a different/no conclusion in mind, and they had to scramble for the ending.

Pretty sure it’s a Bechdel fail? A couple of women techs on the sub might have talked to each other about procedure before they got killed off, but I wouldn’t swear to it.

Jan 20, 11:37

Asteroid City, our final feature, was slated for 11:05. We managed to stay only moderately behind!

Lead-in cartoon is the Jetsons. I’m listening from outside while charging my phone. Would be tempted to leave it charging through the film, but I just know I’d forget it.

Jan 21, 01:40 AM

And we’re out!

Asteroid City was very self-consciously weird. Knowing at least some of the actors got their start on theater stages, I wonder/hope they were having more of a fun time with all the meta-layers, even if the audience wasn’t.

Bechdel pass; big cast, several women, occasionally they talked about science, movies, and/or moms/daughters.

In Conclusion

CUBE