Hello, Dankness (2023)

The value of experimental filmmaking is in challenging you to consider what they are trying to say, to challenge your cinematic comfort zones.  What is great about the work of the filmmaking duo known as “Soda Jerk” is that they not only challenge you but also play off of the contemporary notions of pirating images to comprise a narrative about an issue floating in the air in America.

Let me get to the point.  Soda Jerk’s latest experiment is called Hello, Dankness and it comprises various clips from popular movies to combines them to paint a picture of the public’s reaction to the Trump presidency, from the inauguration to issues of immigration, Putin, sex scandals, racial discord, COVID and the environment, among others.  Tom Hanks in The ‘burbs, wakes up and looks out his window to see Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World playing street hockey while Annette Bening from American Beauty drives around trying to set houses up to sell.  All the while, grafted onto these combined images are posters for Hilary, Bernie and Trump – who, of course, is plastered onto the Klopek’s house from The ‘burbs.  Meanwhile, Jesse Eisenberg from The Social Network begins using drones and spy cameras to keep an eye on everyone.

And it goes on.  What follows is a colorful, but often bleak (given the subject matter) portrait of the disintegration of the American landscape as paranoid and confusion spread like wildfire between the years of 2016 to 2021.  Yet, it is all done in a spectrum that is meant to be very funny.  This IS a comedy, first and foremost, but a clever one.  The outbreak is portrayed as a zombie apocalypse and the isolation of the quarantine is perfectly captured by Kevin McAlister from Home Alone receiving a pizza at the door and then sitting down to watch Tiger King.

I was dismissive of the experiment at first because it seemed a bit over-the-top, but as I began to think about it, something else emerged.  By sewing together images from Men at Work, Napolean Dynamite, Poltergeist, This is the End, Independence Day, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and A Nightmare on Elm Street, Soda Jerk reveals that we have always had a negative perspective on our own culture even before Trump.  Our popular movies have always been a tapestry of how we see ourselves and how we feel about our culture.  What does it say about us and how we feel about ourselves?