“Tokyo Blood” (1993) is an anthology film consisting of four experimental shorts directed by Gakuryû Ishii (formerly known as Sogo Ishii) thematically connected by the theme of entrapment in Tokyo’s urban landscape and desire to escape. The opening film, “Street Noise” is an impressionistic audio/visual collage depicting an anonymous salaryman’s state of mind as he breaks down from sensory overload. The second vignette, “Bicycle” follows the journey of two young strangers bonded by alienation who aimlessly explore the city by bike after a chance encounter. The third chapter begins as a parody of structuralist film theory (not unlike early works by Peter Greenaway) but soon descends into the hyper-kinetic chaos reminiscent of films by fellow Japanese avant-garde director Shinya Tsukamoto (The Tetsuo Trilogy). The concluding film, “Heart of Stone” is seemingly a transmission from a post-human feature combining the styles of Chris Marker’s essay films and Craig Baldwin’s found-footage narratives.
“BrainDead” (2016) is a political/sci fi satire created by Robert and Michelle King. It originally aired last Summer (on CBS!) in the midst of the heated presidential campaign and the story takes place in the same time-frame following aspiring filmmaker Laurel Healy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as she gradually uncovers a plot hatched by a parasitic alien species to divide and conquer the country via covert takeover of DC. The necessary tonal shifts of the plot are handled surprisingly well, balancing horror, comedy, romance, and conspiracy thriller. Instead of traditional plot recaps, episodes feature a clever musical synopsis by Jonathan Coulton. While enjoyable and provocative (for network TV at least), the writers missed an opportunity to incorporate the bizarre presidential campaign directly into the plot (though the connection is implied). While the plot serves as a satisfying allegory it fails to explain brain dead behavior of politicians and pundits before and after the alien invasion. Unfortunately this won’t be addressed in future episodes since the series wasn’t renewed.
You can watch the first and only season of BrainDead here.
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“Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted” is a short theater production written and directed by David Lynch. It was originally performed at New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of the New Music America Festival on November 10, 1989 and was released for home video in 1990. Created between his film “Wild at Heart” and TV series “Twin Peaks”, the piece combines elements of those and other David Lynch projects. The introduction features the two protagonists from Wild at Heart, the set design evokes the dark post-apocalyptic imagery of his early paintings (and the more nightmarish aspects of his filmography) and the soundtrack features a cross-section of collaborations with Angelo Badalamenti and Julee Cruise, most of which were from Cruise’s album “Floating Into the Night” (a couple songs were also featured on the Wild at Heart and Twin Peaks soundtracks).
“Battle Royale 2: Requiem” (2003) is an under-appreciated yet boldly provocative sequel taking place three years after the events of the first Battle Royale. The protagonists of the previous film have joined other survivors of past Battle Royales to form a terror cell known as Wild 7. After a major bomb attack, a new class of high-schoolers kidnapped by the government are forced to raid Wild 7’s island hideout and assassinate the group within 72 hours. Battle Royale 2 was director Kinji Fukasaku’s final project, who died of cancer shortly after filming began. The majority of the the film was directed by his son Kenta Fukasaku who wrote the screenplays for both films.
Helio is a short, visceral film centered on a post apocalyptic underground society where miners work for light to survive. But when a dying rebel thrusts the unexpected onto an unassuming worker’s lap, all hell breaks loose. What begins as one man’s race to escape the hostile government quickly escalates into a city-wide uprising of the people.
“Election” (1999) is a sharp political satire in a high school setting directed by Alexander Paine and based on a novel by Tom Perrotta. Matthew Broderick stars as Mr. McAllister, a popular high school teacher who holds a personal grudge against insufferable over-achieving student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspooon). When Tracy runs for student council president initially unopposed, McAllister attempts to derail her political future by encouraging Paul Metzler, an injured football jock, to run against her. Meanwhile, Paul’s younger adopted sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell) is dumped by her girlfriend who immediately starts dating Paul. Tammy retaliates by joining the race for school president on an anarchist platform so successful it threatens the best-laid plans of Tracy Flick, Mr. McCallister and the high school administration.
Today we bring you one of the most influential films of all time: Fritz Lang’s 1927 fable of good and evil fighting it out in a futuristic urban dystopia, Metropolis.
The melodrama is set in the year 2026. Metropolis is a beautiful high-tech city, but beneath the dazzling surface toil masses of enslaved workers. To keep the machinery running efficiently, the workers have been forced to become virtual machines themselves. The city is ruled by a heartless mastermind named Johann Fredersen, whose idealistic son, Freder, discovers the cruel conditions imposed on the workers and rebels against his father.
Freder falls in love with Maria, a messianic figure preaching love and reconciliation, but his father hatches an evil plot to turn the workers against Maria. He hires the mad scientist Rotwang to make a robotic counterfeit of Maria to wreak havoc among the workers, discrediting her and discouraging rebellion. An epic struggle ensues.
Lang actually detested the story, which was written mostly by his wife Thea Von Harbou. He told Peter Bogdanovich that Metropolis was “silly and stupid.” But from a visual standpoint the film is one of the great works of 20th century art. Lang said he got the idea of making a movie about a futuristic city while visiting New York in 1924. Standing at night on the deck of his ship in New York Harbor, the filmmaker looked up and was amazed:
I saw a street lit as if in full daylight by neon lights and, topping them, oversized luminous advertisements moving, turning, flashing on and off, spiraling…something that was completely new and nearly fairy tale-like for a European in those days….The buildings seemed to be a vertical veil, shimmering, almost weightless, a luxurious cloth hung from the sky to dazzle, distract, and hypnotize. At night the city did not give the impression of being alive; it lived as illusions lived. I knew then that I had to make a film about all of these sensations.
The iconic poster image above is reproduced from an extremely rare program printed for the March 21, 1927 London premiere of Metropolis. You can look through the entire 32-page program at the Web site of bookseller Peter Harrington. The page will open in a new window, so you can look at the program and stay here and watch the film.
There’s also a 2010 restoration of the film, supervised by the F.W. Murnau Foundation, which incorporates footage from an early print discovered in Buenos Aires, bringing the film closer to Lang’s original vision.
Dust is set in a dystopian world where most of humanity lives in walled cities to protect themselves from a chaotic environment where evolution occurs at breakneck speed, creating organisms which can be a deadly plague or miraculous medicine. It’s the job of a tracker to document the changes and, with the help of a black-market merchant, find a cure to save the society which he rejected.
“Battle Royale 2: Requiem” (2003) is an under-appreciated yet boldly provocative sequel taking place three years after the events of the first 
After the Crash 