Directed
by Tim Grabham & Jasper Sharp. (2014, 81 min).
The
Creeping Garden is a documentary about slime molds, something my
high school biology teacher used to collect in Petri dishes and share
with the same enthusiasm we generally reserved for achieving the
highest Donkey Kong score. I don't know if he's still around, but I'm
sure he would have appreciated a movie like this.
Slime
molds hardly seem like compelling movie fodder. Directors Tim Grabham
& Jasper Sharp must have thought so, too, which is perhaps why The
Creeping Garden pays meticulous aesthetic homage to such quirky
cult classics as Phase IV and The Hellstrom Chronicle.
Indeed, listening to various experts discuss their research of slime
molds (personifying these critters with the same enthusiasm as my
biology teacher) would be an effective insomnia cure, if not for the
rather stunning time-lapse photography, weird-ass synthesizer score
(by former Sonic Youth member, Jim O'Roarke) and transitional title
cards that would have looked right at home in a 70's sci-fi/horror film.
 |
| One of The Creeping Garden's intense action scenes. |
Content-wise,
we learn what slime molds eat, how they grow & move, where they
proliferate and, believe it or not, their ability to create music
given the right electronic stimulation (something I certainly can't
do). Some of it is interesting, other times it's like being back in
biology class. Ironically, the most interesting information has
nothing to do with slime molds at all: a segment which chronicles the
history and evolution of 'moving pictures' and the time-lapse
process.
Strictly from an entertainment standpoint, one can't help but wonder how much more
fun The Creeping Garden would
have been if it went "full Hellstrom," employing a
hysteric "expert" to dish-out ominous and dire commentary,
presenting slime molds as an unseen menace that could one-day inherit
the Earth. After all, the other pieces are in place. Why not go the
distance?
Still, the film is visually captivating enough to check out at least once. At the very least, it presents things living in your backyard in a way you've never seen before. I suppose that-alone qualifies The Creeping Garden as the Citizen Kane of fungus movies.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
FEATURETTES:
"Biocomputer
Music" - Researchers develop a system which uses
electronically-stimulated slime molds to 'compose' music;
"Return
to the Fungarium" - More fungi at Kew Gardens;
"Feeding
Habits of Physarum" - What some slime molds like and don't like
to eat (you'll probably want to use the subtitle option for this
one);
CINEMA
ILOOBIA SHORT FILMS - "Milk"; "Rotten";
"Paramusical Ensemble" (the first two shorts use similar
film techniques as The Creeping Garden; the third focuses on using
technology that allows severely impared people to create music).
"ANGELA
MELE'S ANIMATED SLIME MOULDS" - The animation used in the end
credits, sans text.
GALLERY
US
THEATRICAL TRAILER
AUDIO
COMMENTARY BY DIRECTORS TIM GRABHAM & JASPER SHARP
DVD
COPY
CD
OF THE FILM SCORE (only two tracks, but they're reeeaallly long).
KITTY CONSENSUS:
NOT BAD...LIKE CAT CHOW
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