Fans of experimental cinema may have a field day with this dizzying spin of found footage, technological history trivia, conspiracy theories, and droll comedy. Most of the film takes place in a blighted outpost in Nevada in the distant year of 2007 (California seems to have fallen off the American mainland and the Pacific Ocean laps against the deserts around Las Vegas). A renegade scientist named Yogi and his telepathic daughter Boo Boo pit their combined brainpower against the "New Electromagnetic Order"--for reasons that are never quite clear, but linear thought is not the object here. Rather, filmmaker Craig Baldwin has assembled a cinematic hodgepodge in which the future is predicted (usually with zero accuracy) in a veritable wealth of nutty educational films, fuzzy 1950s TV kinescopes, self-important industrial films, cheap Japanese sci-fi, breathless movie trailers, and snatches of vaguely recognized musical scores that have been sewn together to present a lopsided history of technology ranging from Alexander Graham Bell to Bill Gates. Baldwin pays particular interest to the doomed scientist Nikola Tesla, who is presented as a martyr to the industrial machine via clips from an obscure Yugoslavian drama on his life. Whatever Spectres of the Spectrum lacks in logic is more than made up for by the breathless energy and cheeky editing of the unusual and often hilarious footage. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a director's commentary, “making of” featurette, and a vintage TV clip. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a strange but compelling film.] (P. Hall)
Spectres of the Spectrum
Other Cinema, 90 min., not rated, DVD: $26.95 Volume 19, Issue 4
Spectres of the Spectrum
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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