Joe Begos’ VFW

It is like Cheers, with attitude and veterans’ benefits. They aren’t getting any younger, but the patrons and staff can still fight as hard as they drink. Society is collapsing around this Veterans of Foreign Wars post, but the regulars still uphold standards of conduct. A pack of drug-crazed punks will learn that the hard way in Joe Begos’ VFW, which releases today on DVD (and is already available on VOD).

Nationwide, VFW posts are struggling because of the organization’s institutional difficulties recruiting veterans of Vietnam and later conflicts. However, Fred Paras and most of his cronies are ‘Nam vets. Doug McCarthy happens to be a Korean War veteran and Shawn Mason has freshly returned from the Middle East, choosing tonight of all nights to grab a beer at the VFW. He is a sharp-shooter—a talent that will come in handy.

The shots and salty talk are about to be interrupted by Lizard, a young street dweller, who stole a shipment of the designer drug “Hype” from Boz, the local gang-leader, to avenge her sister. Even though she rubs Paras and his comrades the wrong way, they still offer her shelter from Boz’s marauding “Hyper” hoards. Things will get bloody and tragic, but they still abide by a code of honor.

Although Assault on Precinct 13 is an obvious source of inspiration for this film, the attitude and razor-sharp dialogue is distinctively its own. This film respects veterans and demands the same of its audience. Of course, it is not exactly shy when it comes to gore either.

Joe Begos’s Bliss

Undie young and party forever—that is the hedonistic school of vampirism we know from Anne Rice, Bret Easton Ellis, and Tony Scott’s The Hunger, among others. Of course, you’d better look good, because people will be judging you for centuries. Dezzy Donahue is already indulging in sex and substances like she is undead, but she will soon undergo the full vampire experience in director-screenwriter Joe Begos’s Bliss, which is now available on VOD and screens tonight in Brooklyn.

Donahue is a borderline collectible artist, but she is blocked on an important commission and can’t pay her rent. Obviously, the solution is a massive drug bender. However, this time Bliss, her designer drug of choice, just doesn’t get her inspiration flowing like it used to. Fortunately, her pseudo-friends Courtenay and Ronnie are there to lead her further astray.

When she wakes up from an evening of excessive indulgence, she really can’t remember what happened, including the burst of work she did on her canvas. She feels sick and hungry, but is strangely unable to keep down conventional people food. Of course, we know what is going on, even before Courtenay explains it all to her.

In a way, Bliss is a bit like Dan Gilroy’s Velvet Buzzsaw, but it is exponentially bloodier and grungier. It definitely suggests there is a vampiric, exploitative dimension to artistic creation, but does not delve too deeply into any of the philosophical or psychological issues this might raise. Instead, Begos immerses us in the lurid, neon CBGB-bathroom-like world Donahue and her cohorts inhabit. Seriously, you might want a tetanus shot booster before watching this one.

Dora Madison definitely goes all in and then some as Donahue, the hot mess, Ab-Fab vampy vampire. Her commitment is impressive, but she still leaves us cold. Yet, most of the rest of the characters are essentially flimsy stock figures. That even includes George Wendt (from Cheers) appearing briefly as crusty old “Pops.”

The Mind’s Eye: Begos Gets Scannery

New England is a weird place. The same vaguely defined Northeastern region that is home to Lovecraft’s Miskatonic University is probably also served by UHF Channel 83, whose eyewitness news team regularly reports on the bloody aftermath of Joe Begos’s films. They should have enough carnage for a week of leads in Begos’s Cronenbergian nostalgia trip The Mind’s Eye (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Given its enduring cultural significance, it is strange Cronenberg’s Scanners has not been ripped off more. Begos will soon set that right. Zack Connors is a heck of a lot like a Scanner. He was born with potent telekinetic power that he has always struggled to control, especially when dumb cops pester him like he is Bruce Banner. Even though he has largely lived the life of a drifter, he still forged relationships with some of his own kind. Rachel Meadows is a particularly special case. To see her again, Connors reluctantly but willingly agrees to live within the rules and confines of Dr. Michael Slovak’s sketchy research institute. Unfortunately, the mad scientist keeps Connors and Meadows separated to maintain his control over them.

Slovak keeps his research subjects on experimental drugs to inhibit their powers, but Connors quickly starts to build a tolerance. He bides his time, hoping to find Meadows and make a break for it. However, his formidable powers will be exceeded by those of Dr. Slovak, who is siphoning off the mojo of prisoner-patients for his own enhancement. Heads will definitely ‘splode.

While Begos’s Almost Human just felt retro for retro’s sake, Mind’s Eye fully embraces the look, spirit, and conventions of Scanners and its knock-off sequels, as well as Brian De Palma’s The Fury and Carrie. It is gory, pulpy, and deeply skeptical of authority. It also has genre favorite Larry Fessenden appearing as Connors’ father, Mike (yes, that would make him Mike Connors). It is a relatively small but substantial role that even gives Fessenden an opportunity for some real acting.

Graham Skipper’s Connors is appropriately moody and intense. Just looking at him could give you a headache. Emerging genre star Lauren Ashley Carter (Darling, Jug Face) is also impressively twitchy and bedraggled. John Speredakos is just okay chewing the scenery as Dr. Slovak, but it nice to see regular genre repertory players Noah Segan and film editor Josh Ethier doing their thing as henchmen.

Everything about Mind’s Eye screams old school, but it still holds together as a cohesive narrative rather than just stringing together hat-tips to the 1980s masters. Gritty, grimy, and satisfying, The Mind’s Eye is highly recommended for horror fans when it opens this Friday (8/5) in New York, at the Village East.