GUTS FIELD REPORT: NASHVILLE MIDNIGHT MOVIE at The Belcourt: THIS IS AMERICA PART 2

NASHVILLE FIELD REPORT BELCOURT THEATER: THIS IS AMERICA PART 2. Directed By Romano Vanderbes, starring Ron Jeremy (1980).

Here I am back at the only place in Trashville to see weird movies for sickos only.

I always arrive early enough to check out the pre-show which has stuff related to the film they're about to play. As I got in slightly late, I saw a part of the Dead Kennedys Target video (that I still own from high school) which had a segment from the local San Francisco news about Jello's run for mayor, followed by Drug Me. One part that cracked me up showed Richard Pryor walking into a gun store where all the weapons had their own voices and personalities (one of them was Robin Williams, R.I.P.), it was taken from Pryor's short lived TV series. I also saw a trailer for Human Highway, the Devo/ Neil Young movie which has been a total bitch to find until now. I first read about that one in Psychotronic and it's finally being re-released.

This gun is the tits, it's loaded with cocaine bullets!

Back in the days when video stores still existed, there were shit tons of repulsive dreck in the mondo section like Africa Blood & Guts, Mondo Magic, Shocking Asia and the most famous Faces of Death. I’ve always despised this genre as cheap Fox News style propaganda mixed with genuinely horrific nightmarish accident footage or staged attacks and executions. Fodder for death metal videos and stoners with a taste for twisted violence, not for me at all. So why did I venture out on the highway to check this flick out? First and foremost, I fucking love this theater and want to support them. Awhile ago after seeing the very depressing and grim Killing Of America by Leonard Schrader (Paul “Taxi Driver, Hardcore” Schrader’s) doc, I discovered Jabberwalk (aka This is America part 2) and thought I should revisit it. There is a part one, but it's pretty forgettable. What's really strange to me is how both of these films combined are not as gut wrenching, at least to me, as something like Fahrenheit 911 or Bowling for Columbine (I'm sure Moore was heavily influenced by the Schrader film)

Skunkape found this sequel for me at least 10 years ago, I switched it on for probably a few mins, saw Jello Biafra riding BART with his campaign posters and shut it off. Thought to myself “Next” and then watched something with more guts. Then in the present year 2016 A.D., I figured I'd give this very cheesy, non-prophetic and out dated “mondo” movie that relies too heavily on sex and buffoonery and goofiness a second chance. There’s not much here to shock any drooling slack jawed geek show veteran who's seen Faces of Death a trillion times or preteens of now, who have every depraved sex act known to humanity at the click of a mouse, so who is this movie for, I don’t really know!

I enjoyed it regardless but really wish I could say, “Sheesh, I’m glad society isn’t as fucked up as that movie painted it out to be!” Just think of the lyrics to California Uber Alles (which fears the threatening grip of a, shudder to think, Jerry Brown presidency)! Holy fucking shit, I wish that’s the way the tide turned, but no, current society is a billion times worse than this mondo flick paints it out to be! At this point in time, Idiocracy, one of the most accurate futuristic depictions of a society ruled by the completely moronic and sub intelligent might have to catch up with how retarded everyone is right now. Check to see if Mike Judge’s brain matter hasn’t ejected all over the inside of his office out of sheer disbelief.

Ahhh that's better, if only this really happened.

So what goes down in Romano Vanderbes’ movie celebrating the eccentricities of the wackiest people he could gather for this event? Well, I noticed Ron Jeremy is featured during a lot of segments, in the passenger side of a naked carwash. One lady looked like she had a 4 boobs in two, over the shoulder boulders indeed. During a topless boxing match at the end, we get Vanessa Del Rio and Veronica Hart punching each other’s lights out (they were billed as just drunk girls who wondered into the ring). Jeremy shows up later at a repulsive hot top orgy at Plato’s Retreat, I recommend reading the incredibly sleazy book Tales From Times Square by Josh Alan Friedman for further debauchery on this subject.

valet parking and buffet? Oh boy!

At one point, the film attempts to get dark and shows a community of homeless underground dwellers (a pre CHUD reference) feasting on rats, one bum looks suspiciously like Brian Johnson from AC/DC. Another disgusting moment (which we’ve seen worse on mainstream shows like Fear Factor has an entire family scarfing down worms (and making juice out of the wrigglers), read The Worm Eaters review for more Zimmern style shenanigans, BARF)!

Shake & bake that rat baybayby all fucking night looonnnngg

After a while my patience wore thin, adding to the fact that there was possibly 5 other people in the theater, no one was laughing accept me and some fat dude in front of me kept checking the time on his cellphone (I almost narced on him, but I don't dime). The staff at the Belcourt mentioned that I was possibly the only person who walked in, not employed by the movie theater who had any interest in watching this flick, I guess I’m a "for real" weirdo.

There was a phoned in little segment showing Manson, people with hideous wounds, random protesting and scuffles, Edmund Kemper (who really ate up the film stock in Killing of America) and an inmate who was fried a couple of times in the electric chair (sans eye socket duct tape by the way). I mean the footage in Faces of Death looked more realistic.

Whew, at last my sinuses feel great!

2 more segments that I enjoyed overall were the footage of Bo Diddley partying with Hells Angels (which was shot for a concert in an already finished short called Hells Angels Forever and reinserted here). The zaniest of all, was an all handicapped band miming to The Village People’s “Macho Man” led by a fictional rich mentally challenged mastermind of a weirdo cult from Berkeley (they showcase the college campus, which I’ve been to numerous times, my wife and I would go to Top Dog across the street and lounge on the lawn). No actual guy exists as far as I can tell, I think I would’ve heard something by now. One last thing I’ll mention is a disco where a dude shoots whip cream out of a keytar at naked girls wading in red jello—I ain’t no foodie so I was definitely not turned on by this segment. I highly recommend checking this place out if you ever visit Nashville and can't wait to return!