Spook du jour

I’d like to share a different sort of review today. It’s no secret that I am an avid AGFA supporter. AGFA’s upcoming release of THE FILMS OF SARAH JACOBSON may be their best release yet. While not horror or “genre”, I don’t remember the last time I spent time with a release that felt this important, that also entertained me on both a cerebral and primal level at the same time.

The release consists of the black & white short: I WAS A TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER, the only full-length feature by Sarah Jacobson: MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE, and a variety of other short recordings from the writer/director. Let’s start with the appetizer, shall we?

I WAS A TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER (1993)

You can learn a lot about someone in 27 minutes. During the 27 minute runtime of I WAS A TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER, I was exposed to punk rock laced feminism, and feminism laced wit to the extent that I would have been able to have a full and natural conversation with writer/director/DIY champion Sarah Jacobson immediately following my viewing.

Having been just a child in the early nineties, (and in Nebraska for that matter) I missed out on that grimy underground punk zine culture that began in the 70’s, and that was further perpetuated into the 1990’s by Gen X’ers to create the Riot Grrrl movement (of which Jacobson’s art would become so instrumental). As such, I missed out on IWATSK when it was unleashed on the world. Seeing it now for the first time was bittersweet because damn, it was lovely and damn, I wish I could have seen it 25 years ago so I could be a witness to its impact and be a part of the conversations that flowered from it.

The film seems to have been born from that dark part of Jacobson. That place deep down that wants to punish all men for being stupid, rude, and entitled, regardless of the budget allotted. The “protagonist” is a 19-year-old girl that has murdered as many men. If you catcall her, you’re murdered! If you mansplain to her, ya murda’d! DIY, handheld, black & white… IWATSK is raw, and it is angry, but its not without its humor. In one scene, a mansplainer vocalizes as Charlie Brown’s teacher wahwah style in the mind of the young lady. Unwanted lectures going through one ear, causing the eyes to roll, and coming out the other. It’s a crime on humanity that our serial killer deems worthy of a healthy serving of rat poison to the perpetrator.

Following all the death, the film ends with a poignant monologue on a curb in San Francisco, where she states:

And hell, if it’s good enough for Kim Gordon, it’s good enough for me.

Now for the main course.

MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE (1998)

More than anything else on this disc, MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE (hereafter referred to as MJNAVA) felt important. It could be that my teenage years felt very similar to those of the main character, Jane, and what I was experiencing was some sort of cosmic resonance. I’m no academic, but I think there is so much more to it than that.

The only thing that happens in MJNAVA apart from two sex scenes and a masturbation scene, is people having conversations. That’s it. But the earnestness of the characters (with the exception of the over-the-top Matt) creates a viewing experience that is overwhelmingly hypnotic. As a viewer I cared about the employees of this moviehouse. I cared about Jane and Ryan and Tom. About the pregnant one, the manager, and the bisexual. What would Jane learn about sex? About herself? And how would all of these relationships unfold and develop as Jane heads into graduation and beyond? I could have stayed glued to the screen for four or five hours, easy, if that is what the film required.

The release also has a bunch of additional “short films.” I use quotes because they aren’t short films in the way one would typically think. I’ll go over them briefly below.