Beyond the Cult

Beyond Our Ken is a fascinating and, at times, horrifying documentary about the makings and the processes of a cult and the forces behind them. Directors Luke Walker and Melissa MacLean have expertly crafted a film of immense power and sadness as they peek inside the workings of the Kenja Communication cult, a cult that like so many others deals in false smiles and life affirmations. That they were allowed unprecedented access to the group - they don't like being called a cult, naturally - and the group's leader Ken Dyers gives it a quality that is reminiscent of Amy Berg's heartbreaking 2006 doco Deliver Us from Evil.

Interviewing past - and in one case, a current - members of the group, Beyond Our Ken thoroughly details the shocking actions of the cult and its leader, a man so delusional that he and his associates equates himself to the most powerful man on Earth. Much like Berg's film about clergy abuse, Walker and MacLean's film gleans a lot of its strength of the tales of horror that emerge from behind the ever-smiling energetic faces of the cult's members. A mother reading her son's suicide letter that was written just months after being disowned by Kenja. Another mother's tortured story of her son, NIDA graduate Richard Leape, as she tells of how her son, after being unceremoniously kicked out of the sect, descended into homelessness and has been on the Missing Persons List for the past 16 years.


The film's biggest strength - if you can call it that - however, is that of Ken Dyers himself, and his co-founder Jan Hamilton. The two quickly show themselves to be, for lack of a better term, deranged crazies. With their talk of energy conversions and attached spirits, it soon becomes obvious that while the film was perhaps originally attempting to be even-handed and fair, it's hard to do so when the subjects are making it so darn hard on themselves. Several moments through the film in which Dyers discusses the transference of sexual energy always followed by his creepy laugh are down right irksome to watch and whenever he and Hamilton share the screen he shows his egotistical side and clearly doesn't want her to steal his spotlight, routinely interrupting her and not letting her finish any of her sentences. It all culminates in a shocking final sequence in which Dyers, who has since committed suicide in the face of yet another abuse scandal, goes into an angry rage that would earn him an Oscar if it weren't for the fact that it is all real.

Beyond Our Ken is an illuminating documentary and acts as the purest form of the genre. It's hard not to be disgusted by the words being put forth by these people, and it's scary to think that there are people walking around out there who are under the spell of this cult - there really is no other word for it, despite what Dyers says. The film's tagline is "You Wouldn't Know a Cult If You Joined One" and, sadly, that is very much the case with this institution. One can only hope that enough people see this wonderful film to help prevent the further loss of rationale and seemingly intelligent people to it's evil clutches. B+

Beyond Our Ken is out now on DVD and has a limited engagement at CinemaNova in Carlton, Melbourne so do check it out. It has also been nominated for the Best Documentary prize at the upcoming AFI Awards. If you wish to hear more about it click here for a Q&A audio file that was recorded after the film's screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. Even more fascinating stuff!

Black + White Friday: The Net

I can't remember who it was (Ebert?), but I read a review of The Net once that pondered what the great Alfred Hitchcock would have made of the Internet. I'm sure he would have done something far more amazing with it than Irwin Winkler did in the early days of the product (is it a product as such?) that we now take for granted.

Having said that (oh you knew this was coming), I freakin' love The Net. Sure, it's not a great movie by a long shot, but I think it's a hoot and a half. I first saw it on good ol' VHS in my initial love affair with Sandra Bullock (right after Speed, natch) and for some odd reason I kept imagining myself in her shoes as a computer geek who takes her laptop to the beach. For whatever reason, I always suspected I'd be a hardcore computer geek. Thankfully it didn't turn out that way, although these days it feels like I'm on here enough to officially call myself one.

Nevertheless, I thought we'd take a look to see if The Net were filmed in black and white. Is it anything like Hitchcock?


In Hitchcock she'd be blonde. And perhaps would have an identical twin/evil deceased mother spirit/murderous husband. Sandra has none of those. Poor gal. :(


Remember when Jeremy Northam was actually sorta hot. Remember in old movies when they could occasionally allow their lead actor to take their shirt off and, unlike today, they didn't all have rippling muscles and manicured chests. Bless.


This actually looks like it's from an old movie. Except Sandy's hair is too messy. Not even socially inept geeks had messy hair in classic movies (unless you're Bette Davis in Now Voyager if I remember correctly).


Even in times of panic - such as when your identity has been stolen while on vacation in Mexico - a Hitchcock leading lady would never wear this. She'd still be dressed up in a nice hoop skirt frock or, if it was his later period, a tweed skirt suit number with a cute-slash-stern-school-teacher up 'do. Never a loose-fitting shirt and a miniskirt.


I just took this shot because it's hilarious! This was only 13 years ago, folks!


Hitchcock loved a good carnival fair, did he not?


I don't have anything to add about this shot, I just like it.


The Net's most outlandishly preposterous moment - and in a movie full of them, that's quite an achievement really - is when Bullock's character becomes a fugitive in a high speed chase on the freeway, which then leads into a foot chase across a rocky, muddy riverbed! Oh man, I couldn't make this shit up, I swear! This movie has everything, I tell ya! EVERYTHING! It really would be a fantastic "Cinema of the Absurd" entry, would it not?


Yay! My favourite scene in the movie. If this were Hitchcock then all those women would be paper-pushing secretaries who wouldn't know technology if it spoke to them on a daily basis while serving muffins. And the whole movie would be about shorthand.


High-waisted pants... really?!?

And thus it goes. I'm sure Hitchcock would be rolling in the isles!

Black + White Friday: Femme Fatale

Inspired by My New Plaid Pants' tribute to Brian De Palma, I thought I'd take a look at one of my absolute favourite De Palma flicks, the much-maligned Femme Fatale. What with it's bountiful hidden clues and amazing setpieces. So, basically like a lot of De Palma's critically lambasted flicks then. Femme Fatale is just pure crazy though. It has two title cards (one for a completely different movie) and it has so many "# Years Later" subtitles that you just have to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

In the title card up the top, it is only the opening credit sequence and Brian De Palma is already laying it on thick. Images upon images, layers upon layers, Romijn-Stamon upon Double Indemnity. While De Palma surely was having delusions of grandeur if he thought Femme Fatale was to be compared to that film noir classic, he gets props for being crazy and ballsy to not only allude to Double Indemnity, but to feature the film's ending in the opening sequence of his movie.


Somebody is always watching and taking photographs. Just one of the many aspects of the movie is that of privacy and how we don't have any left, but also how this very fact can be manipulated and turned to our advantage.


De Palma always does good opening scenes (even dud movies like Snake Eyes have thrilling opening passages) and I love how this heist sequence at the Cannes Film Festival (set to the music of "Bolero") even has this brief echo to Carrie with it's female hands seemingly lost in the steam (of course, it's just a frosted glass window and the girl is in the throes of a lesbian make-out session, so...)


I just really liked this shot.


For such a high profile director, Brian De Palma sure does wear his inspirations proudly. Not one to shy away from not only referencing, but outright stealing from the likes of Hitchcock. Nevertheless, it always feels fresh coming from De Palma yet if it were almost any other director it would come across as silly and unoriginal. Funny that.


Having watching this movie several times, it still tickles me pink to see De Palma being so obvious with his clues. Deja vu, indeed. Having said that, Antonio Bandares is definitely the weakest part of the film.


Camera lights always provide interesting images in this series due to the high contrast, but this one is especially interesting in that the two people that the light is reflecting off seem like otherworldly ghost figures jumping out the viewers. In fact, they remind me of these two characters from another noir-inspired flick.


Feels like a classically framed image, no?


Man, is there anything quite as beautiful as Paris in black and white? Absolutely gorgeous.


Well done to me on getting a screengrab from this sequence that doesn't show any of Romijn's naughty bits (and they are on full display). I almost expect her character to swim to the top of the water and start doing some Busby Berkeley choreographed dance/swim routine featuring a plethora of other swim dancers all wearing completely impractical outfits.


I reckon this moment looks like she's sitting peacefully in the middle of space and all these beautiful stars are raining down on her - didn't that happen in The Fountain at some stage, too?

Absolutely gorgeous.

Black + White Friday: Collateral

Despite being a very gorgeous-looking film (in the way that a sinister and grimy Los Angeles can look gorgeous to those who do not actually live there - and I've been there, I much preferred looking at it on celluloid) I've always thought that Michael Mann's crime-in-a-taxi-cab near-masterpiece Collateral had a very monochrome colour palate and one that would suit this Black+White Friday series in that it's all bright colours on dark backgrounds. The way the skies have such vivid colours and the fluorescent lights of the high rise buildings blares through the darkness all look so beautiful to me. As the movie is lensed by Dion Beebe - the finest cinematographer in "tha biz" right now if you ask me - that should come as no surprise. Let's take a look, shall we?


The very early scenes of Collateral are actually my favourite. Not only for the stunning photography of Los Angeles at dusk, but for the repertoire between Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith, an actress I like very much, but who rarely gets the chance to do much. Such an effortless, yet perfect, start to the movie.


I love the juxtaposition between the slum inner-suburbs of Los Angeles and the background of the city. I've mentioned before how I have a crush on movies set in these sorts of parts of LA, haven't I? :P


Doesn't this just feel like the sort of menacing shot of the villain that you would see in an old black and white movie?


This is actually kind of creepy. In the brief amount of time that I was in LA the roads were never this quiet.


Have I mentioned before that I actually really really like Jamie Foxx in this movie? It's a very rare moment when my dislike of him doesn't spill over into everything he does, but here I am watching this movie and thinking he "became" the character of Max far more than he "became" Ray Charles in Ray. And, yes, I think he should have been Oscar nominated for Collateral, but in the lead actor category instead of for Ray. How did anybody buy he was a supporting actor here? I mean, he's in the movie more than Tom Cruise and it starts and ends with him. He's the one with the arc. Ey ey ey.


My favourite shot in the whole movie - in a movie filled with amazing shots, obviously. I seem to have a thing for the sight of actors and palm trees. Don't ask me why.


This scene, when in colour, is a dark hue of blue and it's gorgeous. In black and white it looks scary and far more menacing. It gives me the chills.


If I didn't know better I would've said this was shot in daylight. Which is why the DV photography was so stunning. The colours just explode.


Another shot that looks like it's from an old horror flick. Run, Jada, Run!


I do love how the city is very much in every frame of the movie. It lurks in the background like a secondary villain to Tom Cruise. It's lights so bright yet unhelpful and cruel.