X. T. C. (columbiatch)

A docudrama that follows the lives of three Native Americans living in LA during the span of one night to the next morning. Shot in stunning high contrast B&W and with a cast that basically play themselves, the director uses interviews with the cast as voiceovers. The problem with the narration was that the words were so poorly spoken and it was hard to make out what they were muttering. The dialogue was awkwardly dubbed as well. While the events in the film seem very authentic, the portrait of these people were inadequate to show them as much more than alcoholic hedonists who mistreat their women.

Okay, so before the show started they showed this decent/semi-forgettable short called Dust. After the light went back on I heard a voice behind and saw it was Chris Doyle (aka God) dashing up to the stage where he gave an introduction. Doyle was every bit his usual vulgar self as he cursed and joked about looking for a T-shirt with "fuck you" on it to wear it on stage. I was sitting in the 2nd row and when I tried to take a picture he covered his face. :( Before leaving he said that he'll be back after the movie with Wong himself. Liar!

As for the film itself, it was pretty good but I liked the original cut more. Some digital effects and shots of nature were added, and they changed the soundtrack in some scenes. The print looked a lot better than the shitty dvd but there's significant grain in many scenes. I noticed that they used some alternate takes as a result extended some shots while adding a few extra cuts and shots here and there, most of which I thought were not preferable to the original. The overall narrative was more structured and the extra cuts mostly was used to make the plot more clear, which is unnecessary because I didn't find the original hard to understand at all (the only twist with the narrative was its circularity which I loved), plus it made the plot too obvious/repetitive at times. The film is basically a prototype for 2046 but some of the individual episodes doesn't work as well as the latter film.