Rogge Report - September

Early September I had the beginnings of a story written called “Ikigai aka the Dream where the Combined Metaphysics of Everyone Who’s Ever Loved Me Holds Me”. It was a quite beautiful reflection of my feeling towards my standings in the world. As cheesy as it sounds it would be mostly about what I feel nervous about, trying to find where I’m going but not being certain, just the act of growing analyzed in present tense.

In an even more poignant look into my life, nothing came at all. I’ve been busy with school. I push schoolwork off because I know I can do it easily, I know I can show up without prepping and still crush. Procrastination is a detriment, but I have no fear of completing my academic duties successfully this time around. So I must finish some more work today, but I thought it was worth checking in.

I’ll be back through October, probably with that first story finished.

Earl Sweatshirt is one of my favorite artists. I’ve heard all of his albums and have fostered a strong love of his sound, his oozing lyrical wit, and the underground space he spearheaded. This new album feels like the keystone to an arch, an accumulation and an ageing of a form. The project feels like there’s something new in the atmosphere, a glimmer applied generously. This song “exhaust” may just be my most listened to song of the year, but I feel so hopeful for the future artistic output- that I can’t quite be certain.

MJ and it’s not close.

Space Jam: a New Legacy is an affront to art itself; not only as a nostalgia driven rehashing of the original concept, but as an amalgamation of IP. This glorified Warner Bros advertisement may very well be the first fusion Ready Player One/Emoji Movie type movie. A despicable film who’s merit lies within the barrage of culture references, but also utilities these references as advertisement

Space Jam original on the other hand has much more artistic merit, making use of more novel technology and bolstering an honest feel-good script.

To insinuate that Bron holds more artistic merit than MJ, is to revel within the status-quo, to end one’s life prematurely through ignorance, and to shudder at all I deem courageous and honorable.

Submit a Question

Cynthia Scott’s career is one of the great “what if-s” in cinema history. She was hired by The National Film Board of Canada in 1972. Over the course of her time there; she became talented at making short documentaries, particularly documentaries about dance. Her fifth short film, Flamenco at 5:15, would win the 56th Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. Her debut feature was bound to be special, but we couldn’t have known how special, and we couldn’t have known it would be her last.
The Company of Strangers was released in 1990, a deeply human docudrama that takes incredible experimental risks while staying impressively approachable and comforting to watch. The Company of Strangers does have a plot, eight elderly women are on a road trip when their bus breaks down in the woods; however, the plot works not as a driving factor, but more as a stage on which a performance art piece to takes place. The eight women are not actors but regular people, playing themselves, telling their own stories.
The meat of this movie is its emotional core. Each one of these people have something to say about how they lived, and more importantly, how they’re still living. The fictional narrative is somewhat of a trick designed to get the viewer in the mind space of listening of stories. Scenes range from catching frogs, to painting, to working on getting that bus back up running, yet they’re all really just vessels for improvised dialogue discussing how these women live.
Each lady gets their chance in spotlight, and each lady delivers tremendously. We learn so much about each of their wants and desires. We learn about their history, their ideals. It feels like a feat of character development. This movie is a demand for acknowledgment of a harsh truth, “everybody’s life is more-or-less interesting”.
What comes to mind as a more famous comparison is Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, in that the reaction it garners from its simplest content is telling of the surrounding industry. Jeanne making the meatloaf and the bus ladies taking pain medication, are things that happen every day. These things, despite being basics in day to day life, feel radical when put on film; because no man ever finds them important enough to film.
By filming these women and their lives, it shows us that they were important enough to film in the first place. It evokes a guttural fuzzy feeling. The movie blends seemingly between dialogue with beautiful sweeping landscapes, piercing greens and blues. We are treated to conversations about children growing up, falling in love, living up to standards, needing to be desired, finding a purpose, grappling with religion and coming to terms with death; all on this beautiful Canadian canvas. The cinematography does just perfect in illuminating the countryside.
Cynthia Scott would enter a winning battle with cancer after The Company of Strangers, promising another film on her return, but appears to have retired since. That leaves up with this, a film singular in the way its combination of documentary and drama becomes humanist. 35 years later, and it doesn’t feel an ounce overblown. The Company of Strangers is maybe the film most brimming with love. It’s not a film that makes you happy because it has a happy conclusion to well told narrative. The Company of Strangers seeps itself into reality as it stands, tying itself with these real beautiful stories, it becomes inseparable from the beauty of reality.

These four records are some of the finest music I have ever heard. When I listen to each of them, I am transported straight to where I heard them first. I present to you some of the most magical and lush feelings we can ever replicate:

Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges - Clube da esquina (MPB)

Gal Costa - Gal Costa (Tropicália)

Jorge Ben - A Tábua de Esmeralda (MPB)

Vauruvã - Mar da deriva (Atmospheric Black Metal)

Last October, alongside my friend Mathew, I partook on a the horror movie challenge Hooptober, and this year I’m doing it again! Hooptober is a challenge where you build up a list of and then watch 31 horror films in October. It’s hosted by an Austin based curator called Cinemonster, and has a bit over 3,000 participants each year over letterboxd. It is named in honor the late Tobe Hooper, who directed Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

This years categories are:

5 Zombie Films, 3 cult or conspiracy horror films, 1 film from a Black director with a Black lead, 1 film from a Mexican or Central American director, 1 Canadian film, 1 Russian or former Russian state film, The most popular film from the 1940s that you haven't seen and can access, 2 Post Apocalyptic horror films, 1 Film with dreams or a dream as part of the plot, 1 The animals are pissed at us film, 1 Silent film, 4 based on Novels, Any film from THIS list that you haven't seen, 1 Ernesto Gastaldi written film, 1 film from 1932, and 1 Tobe Hooper Film.

I’ve made my list, and I am prepared to start watching and reviewing. If you hear me rambling any extra this week, now you know why!

Thank you for reading! Have a good day!

Here is a Humble Bundle Steam code for whoever reads here first:

LPKJM-YW6DL-84J8P