Detention (Joseph Kahn, 2012)

[domino harvey]

Every generation thinks the next generation in line is the worst, and while 90s Kids bitching about Millenials probably have more cogent points than most, they're but the latest turn of the same wheel. Here, however, is a film treatment of the age gap unlike any I've ever seen and it is as strange, imaginative, and energetic as any film has ever been. Detention can't really be described in terms of plot or characters-- Characters are introduced and then skewed, mocked, undermined, redefined and/or eliminated at a level even Godard would find excessive, and the high school crisis plot could not even begin to fit a summation shorter than a three-to-five page essay-- but only in intent: this is a movie which is so stuffed with sensory overload and stylistic excesses that it quickly becomes hypnotic and dulls all senses other than forward drive.

Hyperbolic film-making of this skill would be joyful enough but it's all at service of insightful cultural commentary with such specific targets and voice that watching the film unfold (and then fold back in on itself a good half-dozen times) is among the greatest film-going pleasures I've had in recent memory. Detention will most likely amount to only so much noise and static to most viewers, but its esoteric bent grants it great rewards for those 90s kids and sympathizers who see the film for what it is: a vicious and cruelly funny denouncing of an entire generation via their own excessive stimuli, the very format of the film a brutal mockery of everyday existence for today's youths. That such a message is reached only via a visual internet browsing-as-cinema style which risks audience alienation on a grand scale is laudable if only for the audacity of its very existence. Detention has a built-in limited range of comprehension and tolerance, and its comic bolstering of the early 90s is as unfair and subjective as its vicious take-downs of the 2010s-- but goddammit if I wasn't utterly captivated from start to finish.

This is what indie cinema should look like-- not indulgent shots of people in fields and whimpering inner crises but a focus-group resistant singular vision elucidated for anyone adventurous enough to give it a shot. I had zero expectations going in other than that I'd heard it was kinda weird-- and it's that too. It's also one of the best films of last year.

[John Cope]

I was going to actually mention this in the Election thread as an example of a truly great high school comedy (but also a comedy of our times). Really terrific stuff and the kind of development I was hoping to see from Joseph Kahn after the great promise of Torque (and no I'm not kidding about that). Feels very much at times like an even more "torqued" Araki picture with some Richard Kelly spiking the mix for good measure. The trailer doesn't do it justice though. The whole film is a mad rush flurry of details, much of it very funny and even wildly inspired. Its great accomplishment would seem to me to be that it manages to often seem utterly unhinged and yet, with real understated ease, also weaves all those moments into a coherent whole--albeit one which you only partially recognize as it passes before you. Pretty damn impressive. Among the many comic moments that I found particularly hilarious is one in which a girl exclaims to her date while watching a generic slasher film, "Cinderhella is a moralist! This is probably the best movie since Volcano!" (also had a ROFLMAO moment when a 90's era geek says to his friend, "Oh, hey, are you coming out tonight? We're gonna watch Freejack on laser disc."). The montage of detentions through the years is dead on as well. Not everything works, of course, but how could it? This should have been huge. The fact that it wasn't I'll attribute to Dane Cook's presence.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Bilge Ebiri at Vulture wrote a nice appreciation for the film, but both of you have captured the appeals of the film much better. However, I wasn't prepared for how ridiculously entertaining this film is. Just the outlandish acting and the excellent use of music won me over. Kill Uncle as a punchline didn't hurt, either. One-off gags like that or even ridiculous back story montages for Nolan and Fink show a delightful inventiveness and attitude that worked more often than not. Even working in time travel and transmigration to make the nineties jokes and references (take a shot anytime Ione mentions one - or anytime there's a lens flare) even funnier show a wicked manipulation of the form to makes its targets and characters as ridiculous as possible. The time travel subplot as a means to increase the confusion and absurdity of the film was inspired. Cope is onto something comparing this with Araki. Easily, one of the best pop culture youth films that I've ever seen.

[rohming]

i think with both the meta and style on overdrive, i experienced a strong disconnect from the story/characters/everything. i could appreciate each thing that the film tried to do with such extravagant energy and flair, but i was completely uninvolved on any sort of emotional level and couldn't even really get any sort of an intellectual resonance out of the the experience, even as much of a deconstructive exercise as the film is. but it kind of felt like deconstruction for the sake of deconstruction and chuckles and nothing else. that said, i do appreciate the vibrant verve of the film that was present in virtually every facet of the production--from the writing to the direction to the performances to the design, etc.--i just think it was all a bit much for me, more numbing than liberating. nice soundtrack, though, and i will be interested to see what Kahn does next.

[knives]

The film really isn't asking you to become involved on an emotional level at all. It's an entirely intellectualized experience devoid of emotion (except for sneering I suppose). The characters are just types to express ideas that the film is pushing.

[rohming]

yeah, i get that, it's part of why it doesn't fully work for me. just not an experience i'm looking to come back to.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Cinema Scope interview with Joseph Kahn.

Detention and The Cabin in the Woods say very different things about movies. I think in The Cabin in the Woods we’re meant to be smarter than the characters in the movie. You walk in, you know the genre, you know the clichés, and it reaffirms how stupid the genre is and you get to watch other people being punished for that fact. The only surprise is at the end, and it’s not that great a surprise in my opinion—they justify why those things have to be clichés and then a big hand comes out of the ground. Detention works in the opposite way. It says, “You have no fucking idea how genres work.” Nobody in the movie can predict what’s coming next, and neither can you when you’re watching it. We believe that genre can be changed and that more can always be mined out of it. It’s two very different approaches to genre.

He also calls Tarantino "the Superman version" of Bogdanovich.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Steve Shaviro offers his take on the film.

[domino harvey]

I'm disappointed more board denizens haven't taken the plunge on Detention, as my appreciation for the achievement Kahn pulls off here only grows the more I think about it (and it looks like the cult status the film deserves is pretty much stalled elsewhere as well). I revisited it recently and was pleased to find it holds up to my effusive first impressions. Kahn pitches everything to such a bizarre and entertaining place that even knowing how it all ties up doesn't diminish its bold audacity (and hilarity-- pretty much everything out of Spencer Locke's mouth belongs on a t-shirt). It seems increasingly likely that when we cast ballots for the best of the '10s, Detention will be topping my own list, so out of self-interest and a desire to see more people here interact with this film: Watch this already! Even if you hate it-- as I said in my initial post, it's pitched to an extremely specific ear, so many people will

[mfunk9786]

Another teenage-centered tongue-in-cheek horror film, The Loved Ones, should definitely be on your radar, Dom. And I look forward to watching this when I get around to it, most likely when you spotlight it for the '10s list But hopefully much sooner. I have a similar level of affection for a '00s masterpiece that's woefully underseen, May, and can understand your fervor in wanting people to just plunk down and watch it.

[domino harvey]

Hey, I actually have the Loved Ones (and I already watched and enjoyed May on your rec)! Trade you viewings (the Blu-ray for Detention is currently very cheap on Amazon hint hint for everyone)

[mfunk9786]

I'm not exactly head over heels for The Loved Ones (though it is grisly fun!), but yeah, fine, I'll buy Detention.

[domino harvey]

[mfunk9786]

Dane Cook is in this?! Well now I'm really sold

[domino harvey]

The fact that he's actually good in the film is all the proof you need that this is some next level shit. Everyone is pitched to 11,000 so having a comedian of considerable bombast is a natural fit for the material and his character regardless of whether one finds him funny or not (I don't)

[knives]

This is also probably a good time to mention he's pretty good in Mr. Brooks.

[markymark]

If you enjoyed Detention, there's a pretty entertaining Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith podcast from 2012 with Joseph Kahn and others. He's nuts but I remember it being a fun interview.

(Also, I love this film...and The Loved Ones...and May...maybe I should start chiming in more with great horror that some of you Criterion folk may simply overlook

[Mark Palermo]

I just want to say there's some great insight into our movie Detention on this board. Thank you! I'm very proud of that script, so this level of critical acumen is much appreciated (all the way from Grizzly Lake to Planet Starclaw!).

Mark Palermo

[domino harvey]

Wow, how cool is that? It goes without saying but I'll say it anyways that a movie this ambitious and clever would never work without a strong script to anchor all of its wildly careening parts, so I congratulate you on giving voice to something as bold and wonderful as this film, Mr Palermo!

[Mark Palermo]

I appreciate your support. A lot of time was spent between Joseph and I just figuring out the puzzle box narrative before I sat down to write the first draft. But in retrospect, it seems like the whole script just came pouring out without much difficulty. We were both feeling very inspired. Here's an article I wrote about the creation of the film, if you're interested. http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/fast-tim ... id=3140121" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[domino harvey]

Kahn made an unofficial Mighy Morphin Power Rangers movie and put it on YouTube. Better watch it now before the lawyers for Saban make good on their legal threats

[mfunk9786]

Oh, it's this guy! Just an FYI, the one on YouTube is censored, the one that got taken down from Vimeo was the full cut. I had no idea this was someone who'd made a feature film before.

[Numero Trois]

Sssshhhhhhh
I'm not familiar with the original series at all. I guess not being familiar with the characters gets in the way of appreciating this to a large extent.

Kind of like with Detention itself- it's a decent film, but I do wonder if its appeal can transcend beyond moviegoers who didn't grow up in or reasonably near the late eighties/ early nineties where part of the film takes place.

[domino harvey]

Teaser for Kahn's Bodied, produced by Eminem

Interesting article on another of Bodied's producers, Adi Shankar

[domino harvey]

I'm not exactly surprised that I'm seemingly the only one on Earth beating the drum for Detention as one of the best films of the last decade, but I am disappointed that so few have engaged with it. While this never quite became the cult film I hoped it would be (it is perhaps too strange for even that!), I find myself revisiting this every so often and still greatly enjoying and respecting its utter anarchy and wildly careening forward momentum. We hear a lot of comparatively mild movies described as being Looney Tunes-esque, but this amps even that kind of cartoonish all hell breaks loose extremes to new limits. There will almost certainly never be another film as unrelentingly busy as this, as I don't think the limits of the medium could sustain being pushed any further than they are here. Because so much is thrown at the screen, not every joke or gag lands-- as much as I love the film, I can admit there's some real groaners here and there-- but the sheer volume of stimuli outweighs even the individual component parts. As we round the corner on yet another new generation, I still find this to be the most brilliant and vivid deconstruction of "my generation" vs "your generation" head-butting I've ever seen, and in a present era of increasing 90s nostalgia, the film has, if anything, only grown in prescience and insight.