MacHeads


Title: MacHeads
Rating: 3/5
Genre: Documentary
Director: Kobi Shely

“How has the Mac changed your life?”
“It kept me isolated, it kept me from having a wife, it kept me from having a life.”


Religion. Sexism. What is our purpose on Earth and how did we get here. These are all well known topics for debate, and all are pretty well covered, but this hour long documentary tackles a more modern debate; Macs vs PCs. Despite what I've often thought it's not a simple debate, and it seems it doesn't really have an answer, but yet there are fanatics for Apple products beyond what you probably thought. Repair shops half-jokingly nicknamed “triage” where caring users hug and caress their products in the waiting room before gently handing them over to the repairmen and 'mac parties' where the bearded men in slacks dance the night away. This is a journey from the companies origins and early development, the days where they nearly died out entirely and the early user-based communities all the way to the launch of the iPhone 30 years later.

It would be easy to spend all its time showing you pictures of fanatics doing ridiculous fanatical things – and it seems they had something of a hard time trying to show their devotion without making them look ridiculous – but this is no comedy. Written by a mac fan, it's clearly a piece intent on getting his word spread out and if not convert then comprehend his side, and in and amongst the erotic love – not limited to “We wanted to build a computer you wanted to sleep with” and more kisses planted on cases than I've seen all week – and outright unfaltering worship were some actual arguments being made. Yes, they were almost entirely insane but they were under no illusion that they were anything but part of a technological cult. What other company sees people camping out for the best part of a week just to get a new phone, or barging through double doors not nearly wide enough like closing city gates from a zombie flick for the chance to maybe hear about some new product.

The million dollar question, and I'm under no illusion that this was anything but a hard sell, is will you see me buying an apple product in the future? To put it bluntly, no. I'll wait for them to do their revolutionising then wait for another company to iron out the kinks and sell it at half the price. People loved their Mac products for the personal feel they had with it; the intimacy of the community and the conventions and gatherings, and this is argument is not lost on me. I have if nothing else a greater respect for their early days and innovations, but as this film can't help but point out, this no longer exists. The Cult of the Mac is a 40+ club without a purpose beyond reminiscing about how 'in their day things were different.' Say hello to the faceless organisation no different from Microsoft. Well, it is a little different; it's more expensive and gives less user control. Call me crazy but I think i'll pass.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Female Prisoner: Scorpion

Image
Title: Female Prisoner: Scorpion Rating: 4/5 Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime Starring: Meiko Kaji, Rie Yokoyama, Isao Natsuyagi Director: Shunya Ito Language: Japanese It was the 70s that saw the rise in Japanese grindhouse cinema (also known as ‘Pinky Violence); tired of the very ‘traditional’ style of many local films, and with the rise in success of Hollywood titles such as ‘Dirty Harry’ and ‘The Great Escape,’ a new wave of daring and experimental directors came to light. Armed with a low budget and all the influences of the early Western grindhouse cheap gore flicks, they combined it with traditional Japanese film-making sensibilities to create a style that somehow succeeded in being both artistic in style whilst retaining those cheap traditions such as gratuitous nudity and violence to result in something rather unique. And it was with this, the first instalment in the ‘Female Prisoner’ series, that would influence a wave known as ‘Women in Prison’ films; with a strong the
Read more

Slasher Hunter

Image
Title: Slasher Hunter (2011) Rating: 3/5 Genre: Horror, Comedy Starring: Chad Phillips, Derek Rothermund, Ryan Sullivan Director: Steve Rudzinski Duration: 35 mins Four pals are planning to have a great weekend of sex and brews in an old cabin in the woods. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “this is the exact set up to every slasher movie from ‘79 to ‘99; this can’t end well.” Well our group of campers have thought of that, that’s why they brought sci-fi nerd Lee along for the ride who carries within him the so-called “survivor gene.” This special gene helps prevent him from being the unfortunate victim of any slasher maniacs that may be lurking about. Unfortunately this gene is also highly coveted by a group of the most dastardly slashers around: Frank, Larry, Jay, Charles, Pleatherface, and Puzzle (I didn’t say their names were very dastardly, did I?). It’s up to a renegade, federally-employed Slasher Hunter to thwart the slashers’ plan and save Lee and his friends before it’
Read more

Chinese Erotic Ghost Story

Image
Title: Chinese Erotic Ghost Story Original Title: Yuk lui liu chai Genre: Comedy, Exploitation Rating: 2.5/5 Starring: Ben Ko Chu, Chun Chung, Siu Wan Hung Director: Kin-Nam Cho Language: Chinese It's always a little tricky to think how these sort of films should be rated; from the title it's apparent that they aren't perhaps the most creative when it comes to titles, though if nothing else it certainly is an accurate one, with perhaps some mention of how batshit insane the bizarre events of the actual film are being the only thing missing. It all kicks off rather normally; Chu is introduced as the debt collector working for an asshole of a King with a beautiful mistress, two beautiful daughters and an even prettier wife, whilst he's stuck with a woman who sleeps 20 hours a day and spends the remaining four awake eating. Caught in the embrace of one of the King's daughters he's punished with the task of entering Satan's Temple and stealing the statu
Read more