I watched this so you don't have to. (You're welcome)
Well…..
I had my girlfriend leave the room for this one, as I was expecting a movie that lived up to its offensively outdated premise. LA AIDS Jabber (yeah that’s really what it’s called) is exactly what it sounds like. A young man diagnosed with AIDS injects about 5 or 6 people with a needle containing his infected blood during a spiteful, post diagnosis, downward spiral. The movies itself has huge continuity errors, plot holes and barely even has any describable characters. (There are a couple of comparatively high minded transition shots of early 90’s LA that we’re kinda cool) Jabber has a measly 77 minute runtime and barely is able to eek out enough coherent story to fill that hour plus. In theory, it has the formula to be a beautiful relic of the short lived shot-on-video era, but LAJ is DOA. I was hoping to, at least, have some horrible anecdote to relay to the few people in my life who knew this was on my list this week, but I’ve got nothing. A true waste of time. I don’t typically like being so harsh on something so small, but I had been thinking about the possibilities of this movie for a couple days and I’m not mad, but I am disappointed.
On Visual Vengeance, I fully support their mission. Easily the best part of this release was the three trailers leading up to the main feature, the preview for a movie called Slaughter Day was particularly endearing. The archiving and redistribution of these lost independent movies of the pre-internet era is a noble cause. You can tell a lot of these people, both behind and in front of the camera, have a lot of love for the form. You hear a lot about directors in their teens, like Kevin Smith or The Safdie’s, basically shooting movies with no budget with their friends as the cast because they needed to make movies. Even Sean Baker on tour for Anora has been talking a lot about the need to create, regardless of the quality of film format available to you. There was something inside of them desperate to be assembled, shot and watched back. Most of the people creating stuff like this in the early 90’s, once video cameras became less expensive, and editing less tedious, would probably be the same people now making short films on YouTube, launching passion projects deep into the recesses of the internet. (Notably, this years summer horror phenomenon Talk to Me was made by a couple of YouTubers) The movies showcased by Visual Vengeance may look to be of variable quality, but that makes them no less precious. 🫡
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