Any hoooo I love love love your Thinc site, Taylor! I scour through your movie recommends and I’ve found some total gems. In a world where you are practically drowning in an ocean of mediocre movies, stupid dum dum plots and bad acting on the level of ‘high school play’ awful….YOU have been a light in the dark!
Thank you!

What I would love to know is what the situation with the little girl at the end? What is the deal with the way Grant is kicking the little zombie girl and then disappears for a second with a weird bit of sound effect and then it flips back and now both are kicking the little girl (this is why Zoya has me thinking – I mean, they are being merciless by kicking her 15 times each but maybe that is because they are already sick, as Zoya said and maybe that is why Mazzy’s last little speech is so disjointed – it actually does make sense though, what he is saying but if it is from his perspective, maybe it doesn’t make any sense at all). Anyway, I would love to know what people think about that damn scene where they are kicking the girl

According to the director, there are three stages to the illness:
“At Rue Morgue’s 2008 Festival of Fear expo, director Bruce McDonald stressed the victims of the virus detailed in the film were not zombies and called them “conversationalists”. He described the stages of the disease:

‘There are three stages to this virus. The first stage is you might begin to repeat a word. Something gets stuck. And usually it’s words that are terms of endearment like sweetheart or honey. The second stage is your language becomes scrambled and you can’t express yourself properly. The third stage you become so distraught at your condition that the only way out of the situation you feel, as an infected person, is to try and chew your way through the mouth of another person.'” (I had to get this quote from Wikipedia because the original article appears to be gone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontypool_(film) )

Think how many times Mazzy repeats words, Pontypool being just the first in the opening scenes. Think how disjointed his speech to teach people to “stop making sense” becomes. Was his “kiss” actually the last stage? Did “kiss” really = “kill”? What if we are seeing and “understanding” through the eyes and ears of the infected?

Pontypool is based on the book “Pontypool Changes Everything”, which is told from the perspective of the infected. The writing is difficult to follow…to say the least. https://www.amazon.com/Pontypool-Changes-Everything-Tony-Burgess/dp/1550228811/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2X0KZSK204HQ3&keywords=pontypool+changes+everything&qid=1565824455&s=gateway&sprefix=pontypool+changes%2Caps%2C228&sr=8-1

In one of the movie’s final scenes, as Mazzy delivers his speech to “save” everyone, we hear the French Canadian Military, on a loudspeaker tell Sydney (in French): “Sydney Briar! Stop the broadcast! The man speaking is sick!” Shortly after, the city is bombed. Maybe he really IS sick?

Lastly, remember when Mazzy talks to Nigel from the BBC? First, he goes silent…then, he seems unable to respond correctly, only repeating (rewording, yes but repeating) what Nigel already said? What if he spread the virus to Nigel, to the UK? What if that’s how the virus got overseas?

There are so many things in Pontypool that aren’t what they seem, from Ken Loney who isn’t in a Sky Chopper to the Lawrence of Arabia player who looks like Bin Laden to the “baby” in the dying football player’s mouth. I think that maybe the whole movie isn’t what it seems.

As for the final scene after the credits: “According to McDonald, the final scene of Grant and Sydney, now presented in a kicker, was originally placed before the credits. However, audiences in early screenings found the original ending to be too confusing, so the scene was moved behind the credits instead.[6]” (I also found this on Wikipedia. Yes, I’m being lazy.) If you can get this link to work, I recall it explains a lot http://twitchfilm.com/2009/03/from-pontypool-to-the-metaverse-in-90-minutes-a-conversation-with-bruce-mcd.html

Quote Director Bruce McDonald: (I added the all-capitals) “That used to be end of the movie, but before the credits. And people thought, what? What? Too much confusion. There is a tradition now where you have something at the end of the credits where you have an outtake, or hint of a sequel. The existence for it is sort of buried in there, well the title of the book sort of suggests it, Pontypool Changes Everything, and one of the things I’ve always love about the notion of this, is that the virus could effect something as abstract as the English language, IT CAN LEAP INTO REALITY ITSELF. CHANGE THE FABRIC OF HOW REALITY IS PERCEIVED.”

Thus it seems this scene was added as a way to “cure” or “inoculate” the audience, who just spent 90 minutes watching from the POV of the infected. After all, it would be terrible to have the story of a language virus start an actual language virus.

Pontypool. Pontypool. Poиtypool. poиtypool. poиTYPOol. Repeat as necessary. Or not.)))

wha?!?

All sets are staged exactly the way the director wants it. Books are never there accidentally. That is for sure. The movie creators (and maybe just the set designer) is telling us something when we come across a book. Gotta ask why.

Imagine having Jeff Bezos as a friend—author Neal Stephenson doesn’t have to hahah!

Words…can educate, can uplift and they can “kill” on so many levels. Everyone experiences a moment when someone’s words, whether positive or negative, greatly affect them. Depending on one’s psychological make-up, focus may exceed time allowed or too easily dismiss words which inspire or hurt. Words are like a two-bladed sword and cut through ignorance, darkness or forever wound.

It may seem like this thread goes off topic but Pontypool, authors Stephenson and Crowley present in the order mentioned, a zombie-kooky, cyberpunk-creative, lyrical-beauty relating to words and how language so deeply affects us all.

Taylor, looking forward to reading Infinite Jest. Thanks! Your wise advise to pay attention to a movie’s referencing of a book or other movie within the movie is a way to gain further depth of a film…kind of like like Poe’s musing, “All of life is but a dream within a dream” many films provide stories within stories.

When it comes to books – you CAN NOT utilize the phrase, before you die, before you leave earth, before you kick off… unless it’s like your #1 favorite book of all time. Either that or it’s hyperbole. 100%. Fact. Please, do not tell me this is your favorite book. I mean, it seems clever. And lyrical. But best worthy? (Now that I think about it, I probably should have searched my blog to see if I fall prey to that hyperbolistic trap myself!)

The only book I stand by like that, 100%? Infinite Jest. Wallace… no writer smarter. I challenge you to bring me a smarter writer. Can not do it. So yes, before you die, read Infinite Jest. Reading full tilt, 40-50 days. I’ve yet to crack a month and that’s upon rereads. I know what’s happening. I get the footnotes. I have a system for moving back and forth. Long read.

But yeah, I started reading some of Little Big today. I can see why you like it. The House aspects of it reminds me of house of leaves.

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/amazon-studios-lazarus-snow-crash-ringworld-1202576048/