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Released by: Damon Packard
Released in: Summer 2007
Director: Damon Packard
Cast: Amanda Mullins, Simon Prescott, Robert Myers, Patrick Thomas, Amber Mullins, James Mathers
Year: 2006
The Movie:
Writing about Damon Packard's films is never an easy task as in many ways, they're best experienced cold with no prior knowledge as to what they're about or what happens in them ahead of time. Packard's latest effort, Spacedisco-One, continues that unusual tradition of 'hard to describe' filmmaking and the world is very definitely a better place for it, even if it makes this reviewer's job a tougher gig than normal.
Envisioned as a sequel to both Logan's Run and 1984 at the same time, Spacedisco-One brings together Winston Smith and the daughters of Logan 5 and Francis 7 in a sort of mish-mash sci-fi universe that has more in common with modern America than any futuristic setting. The girls are busy rollerskating and shooting lasers at each other when Winston figures out what's happening to them all - they're not real, they're simply characters from a film being made by a hack director (Packard playing John Bud Carlos) who really has no more original ideas left.
In between bouts with the two pretty rollerskating spacegirls, Winston flashes back to some interrogation sessions that take place at the Ministry of Truth (which is in reality the Universal Citywalk in Universal Studios, Hollywood). Outside the Ministry, every day citizens are seen praying to a giant video screen which basks them in rays from the perpetual broadcasts of dumb reality TV, Fox News, and backyard wrestling clips, while somewhere along the line people have to skate across a rollerrink that is actually a spaceship, in order to return to the Earth they all know.
With music lifted from popular disco records of the seventies and a blink and you'll miss it appearance from the Avenging Disco Godfather himself (Rudy Ray Moore also appears in Packard's Untitled Star Wars Mockumentary where he's credited as the inspiration for the Mace Windu character), Packard's talent for rearranging the familiar and making it completely foreign shines through. As he did in Reflections of Evil, he blends 'found' footage with new material he's shot on his own and created a wholly unique experience that is as baffling as it is rewarding. Both a love letter to disco roller skating and a scathing attack on those currently running the country and the film industry, Packard plays things a little more seriously here than he has in the past but that doesn't mean that any punches or pulled or that the film is anything less than completely bizarre. Things are certainly a little more focused than earlier efforts but the whole production definitely has that wonderfully chaotic vibe his earlier pictures have had working in their favor.
Ultimately, Spacedisco-One is a darkly humorous look at how fucked up America has become in the last decade and how the media has fed that bizarre hunger the nation seems to have for pain and suffering. Packard takes a very heavy topic like that and presents it as a sci-fi eulogy to seventies cinema and throws in all sorts of random explosions and crazy characters to make sure the ADD crowd pays attention but this is still definitely more than just surface level weirdness. The film has something to say, and those perceptive enough to look beneath the surface and really think about some of the imagery and commentary the film is full of should find a bizarre but wholly rewarding experience. This is definitely an angry film, but Packard's got a lot to be angry about - too bad so many of us don't realize that his points are valid and that there's every reason to be pissed off at the government, at Hollywood, and at our own bad selves.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Shot on digital video, the 1.33.1 fullframe image on this disc looks pretty solid. Optical effects are used heavily throughout the picture and so you can expect some odd color tweaks and intentional image blurs throughout but that's obviously been done on purpose. No problems with mpeg compression artifacts or heavy edge enhancement and for a microbudget DVD-R release, Spacedisco-One looks surprisingly crisp and solid throughout.
The English langauge Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track isn't particularly fancy but it gets the job done. Anyone familiar with Packard's previous films knows that sound manipulation plays a huge part in the effect they have on the viewer and so, like the video, you can expect some obvious aural manipulation. Again, it's supposed to sound like that so don't get your panties in a knot when things sound unconventional.
A static menu is all we get on this release, unfortunately.
The Final Word:
The very fact that Damon Packard continues to toil away in the trenches of low budget, underground filmmaking while simultaneously giving Hollywood the finger gives this reviewer just a little bit more faith in humanity. Spacedisco-One transcends genres and stands as a unique mindfuck of a film that will appeal to only a small crowd but which should in turn be worshipped by that elite group of movie geeks as the masterpiece that it is.