Also, there's the whole Evil Technology thing from shit like Kairo or Phone, and the former is evoked more times than enough by the shadowy spirit-type things drifting around the edges of the frame here and there.
And that framing, that framing is wonderful. Things are shot in such a way that characters or props are shoved to the furthest reaches of the screen, leaving a gulf in the middle that a fella can't help but scrutinise for hints of something that shouldn't be there. Like in Ju-On - The Curse, when your eyes trundle timidly around the frame, since the fella is no more than a tiny dot at the bottom, and surely it's framed like that for a motherfucking reason. Sure enough, just as it cuts, you spy a fucking woman looking out from the top bedroom.
It's like The Haunting, as in the Robert Wise masterpiece, and not the one about some pixels scare the shit outta Catherine Zeta Jones. Inanimate objects become terrifying, oppressive, looming large at the corners of the frame.
Still, for all these things White Noise does wonderfully, there's a few things that get on a fellas nerves. None of these have to do with Michael Keaton, who's a joy to behold, is what. If I was Michael Keaton I'd be feeling a tad pissed off at Quentin Tarantino right about now. "What the fuck, QT?", I'd be saying. "How come John Travolta appears in your flick and next thing anyone knows there's those John Woo pictures and fucking Battlefield Earth and all sortsa shit waiting once shooting stops? Wasn't I in Jackie Brown? What the hell do I get? A kick in the nuts and a shove towards Mutiplicity, most likely."
Hopefully what'll happen is White Noise'll initiate some sort of revival for this most underrated of actors. Didn't you see Pacific Heights? What the hells wrong with you people? He was Batman, for crying out loud, long before that American Psycho took to wearing the leather and the fancy belt.
White Noise also constitutes a stepping stone of sorts for Director Geoff Sax, or Geoffrey as the credits would have it. He's been flinging out excellent TV work over here in The United UK for a couple decades now, wrestling with subjects as varied as Shakespeare and Doctor Who. Far as I can tell, this is his first Hollywood feature, and what it appears to insinuate is that this fella knows how to point a camera or two.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
Duke,
I had to delouse the post and shorten it some but tried not to ruin the bitter flavo(u)r.
I posted this on Advance TV here
- temple
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
temple, thanks man. Hey, you're the editor, man, edit as you see fit. Thanks for taking the time.