Far_Out_Pro
Finally got around to watching a film I've been excited to see since I discovered it's existence 2 months ago. "THE GHASTLY LOVE OF JOHNNY X" from director/writer, Paul Bunnell and starring Will Keenan, Creed Bratton, Reggie Bannister & the late, Kevin McCarthy. I loved it.It's a retro 50's period piece involving a gang of greasers from outer space called, The Ghastly Ones, "serving time" on Earth for their intergalactic shenanigans. A post-dead rock star, a straight edge hero, a slime ball concert promoter, manipulative heroines, and a Tor Johnson-esq thug....all brought together with fantastic musical numbers and perfect locations/sets....it's a pure, fun popcorn flick great for all ages and highly recommend checking this gem out!
Adam From-Columbotron Zoid
Now THIS is a FILM!! A REAL FILM, from top to bottom, inside and out. It was made for people who love film. If you have seen the trailer for this film and are wondering if the actual movie lives up to the trailer, well that trailer doesn't even scratch the surface. Even though the trailer too is awesome, this movie itself is a million times better than you think it will even be after watching the trailer. I'm sure you have read the synopsis, so I will spare you going over the plot points here and just tell you why you should see this film. From the very first frame to the vast last, even after the ending credits have rolled, The Ghastly Love of Johnny X is a true MASTERWORK of Art and Wizardry, through and through. Such fine care and attention went into every last detail and frame of this film, that I feel blessed to be able to sit back and witness the final vision and you should too. What I respect about it most is that it has such an extraordinarily strong sense of self identity, that it does not falter from it's unique and strange personality for even a second. This film lives in its own universe. It does not care to please the masses. It only cares to be itself...to live and breathe in the universe that it is.Both Quintin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez could learn more than just a thing or two from watching this film. This film reaches a point of greatness that those two have been TRYING to reach their whole careers but nearly always seem to just fall short of; here comes Paul Bunnell seemingly out of nowhere to show them how it's really done. The Johnny X film does not attempt greatness, it IS greatness! Everything from the directing, cinematography, slick camera work, lighting, editing, set designs, musical numbers, and the writing are all exceptionally on point. The whimsically rhythmical pacing of scenes and shots plus the purposeful overly theatrical acting also make this extremely fun to watch. Then there is the dialog... there is no shortage when it comes to ingeniously witty comedic dialog that will have you literally laughing out loud throughout the length of the film. The unbelievably brilliant wit and perfect comedic timing of the dialog makes this film absolutely HILARIOUS and worthy of multiple viewings! I've seen this movie twice now, and it's even better the 2nd time around. If this particular B&W Kodak Film Stock had to go out, then I'm glad it went down in a blaze of Johnny X glory. It's better than Sin City in every single way. Not since Road Racers has Rodriguez even come close to touching Johnny X.If you were able to take and combine Robert Rodriguez and Quintin Tarantino, bring them back to their glory days and make them way better at what they do and took away the extreme violence and mean spirited nature of their films and replaced it with superior quick wit and musical numbers, you would still only be looking at mere surface of The Ghastly Love of Johnny X. It's time put on your specks and watch this film for yourself and see what I'm talking about!! This movie is better than any hype I could give it. It is destined to become a cult classic.The Ghastly Love of Johnny X is a film that is more than deserving of the Criterion treatment. Not only does this film stand up tall along side the best movies ever made, it is also historically significant being the last feature to ever be shot on the B&W Kodak Plus-X film. I wouldn't be at all surprised if at some point soon we see a Johnny X blu-ray as part of The Criterion Collection.
bsullivan3
All great art comes from love. It also comes from taking chances. Sequels have strangled the movie industry in recent decades. Studios have shrunk from the risks of originality, and this absence of a creative spark has made the movies feel dry as a result. Movies too often center around repetitive gimmicks, rather than newness. Enter "Johnny X": a unique combination of musical, drama, comedy, sci-fi, horror and romance, all coexisting on the screen just as they can in real life. At last we have a vital, oxidizing, verdant offertory to the movie industry. Johnny X is highly original, takes chances and no matter how many gadgets are whirring away at any given time, there is always a warm undercurrent of a story about people. Johnny X is also shot in black and white, which creates a welcome aura of hominess, both by recalling the chiaroscuro beauty of this art form, and by redirecting our focus to the inner world - where meaningful human complexity truly exists.The film begins with our protagonist, Johnny X, played with slicked back, leather jacket coolness by Will Keenan, who wields enough big screen toughness to hold our attention; enough reserve to suggest that he is really a hero experiencing inner conflict; and enough subtle cuteness to suggest that there really is a good guy underneath. Johnny's story is one we all know, because we have either lived or seen it ourselves: he suffers from the emotional malnutrition of parental neglect, and his plight has had a negative effect upon his behavior. And, as if to rearrange his life with a hint of gangland social structure, he has replaced his missing family with a surrogate clan: a roving pack of similarly wounded rebels named "the Ghastly Ones," who channel pain in to renegade badness. In a touching and eloquent final performance given by screen legend Kevin McCarthy, we are introduced to the Ghastly Ones: a universally recognizable pack of disenfranchised youth. It is through their eyes, so blankly staring out through black jail house hoods, that our journey through their chases - and their issues - shall be guided.Johnny and his gang of misfits are exiled to earth as punishment for an endless string of petty crimes. The collective foibles of earth, unveiled so cleverly in montage in the film's opening scene, serve as a type of comic depth charge that forces us to view these aliens in light of our own earthly imperfections. Deftly, we the audience, become our own thematic setting for the film.Johnny's ingénue is the intergalactic temptress Bliss, whose predicament between a bad boy and a good boy initiates an examination of the issues that plague both. What Bliss learns, and how she resolves the issues between the two, forms the charm and lessons of Johnny X. And learning about ourselves through exiles from another planet is metaphorically OK, since all young people come from another planet anyways. Bliss is brought to life by De Anna Joy Brooks in a screen stopping performance. Firm on her heels as she sings and dances through the films many attractive original songs, Bliss is the centralizing force of a pack of Ghastly Girls who know how to tantalize male eyes, and paralyze male reason, with the mere hint of a tightly clothed body part. In "These Lips That Never Lie," one of the film's strongest of many memorable musical numbers, she wraps her arms – and legs – around the unsuspecting, wide-eyed Chip, played with boyish, naïve charm by Les Williams. Chip, domestic to a fault, becomes our quintessential good boy – noble, heroic, but too programmed by society's dogma to ever come to understand the world on his own terms. Bliss, trained through the school of hard knocks, senses Chip's naiveté, and as she masterfully manipulates the unsuspecting Chip, Brooks unfurls all the lusty magic of a golden age screen siren.Each of the Ghastly Ones is ushered into the world of goodness through pairings with other characters. Ironically, Johnny's guide appears in the form of a crazy, aging rock star and universal bad boy, the gargoylish Mickey O'Flynn. In one of the best of many strong performances, Creed Bratton walks us through the emotional travails of the soul bearing, ailing star, who must desperately maintain his bad boy image while making peace with the world through subtle goodness towards the younger generation. Bratton masterfully balances wicked machismo with subtle hints of compassion, as if invoking the presence of a secretly gentle satyr.Strong supporting performances abound. Kate Maberly carries the film's parallel romantic pursuit of good after ghastly with wide-eyed gawkiness. She wears polyester florals, struggles on her heels, and even coaxes the sympathies of the uber-jaded Mickey O'Flynn. And a talk show scene with veteran Paul Williams and newcomer Caroline Macey is so skillfully dripping with satire, that the unexpected and sensational appearance of the fleeing, quirky O'Flynn seems ideally arranged. The scene surges with the energy of a script filled with many skillful dramatic bridges and brilliantly conceived one-liners.Paul Bunnell's "Ghastly Love of Johnny X" triumphs with a multi-genre, universal exploration of youth, rebellion and how we choose everything from our lovers to our planets. It shows us that while girls sometimes prefer bad boys over good boys, that bad boys must still redeem their goodness in order to be worthy of their love. Rebellion must be subtle to be cool. Only then can earth become the fun planet of choice. Johnny X delivers all of this with a tremendous sense of style – an interplanetary tour de force. As for Bunnell, the inspired orchestrator of our musical, comical cosmos - exciting new directors don't come along every day, but when one does, it's refreshing to know that we can recognize him through a reminder of what once made the movies great in the first place.
