The Golden Boat
The Golden Boat is inspired by American police series, mixed with Mexican soaps operas, and immersed in the artistic context of the Underground Art scene of the early 90’s of New York. In the street, a young student of philosophy and criticism at Village Voice, Israel Williams, meets Austin, an old man hurt and desperately in love with a soap opera star. Although he was stabbed several times, Austin does not seem to be affected by his injuries and refuses to go to see a doctor. He asks Israel to help him find his alienated son. Things get complicated when Israel discovers that the old man turns out to be a murderer. Israel is soon losing itself in a strange world populated by international celebrities, Marxist employees, and postmodern literary critics.
Shortly summed up as an absurdist odyssey through downtown Manhattan with a sweet old serial killer, a student rock-music critic, and international bohemians. The film is centered around the curious student Israel and the knife-happy Austin. Criminals in the film are desensitized and/or numb, with themes centralized around death, confusion, craziness, cowardice and loneliness. There are certainly more questions raised than answers given and the narrative seems to unfold in a way that parallels the narrative that is life. The film is primarily shot in color during which the audio, or music, seems to undermine the visuals through a technique of cutting in and out quickly. Ruiz jumps back and forth quite a bit from color to black and white visuals, during which the music seems to play a different role, for during the black and white shots the music seems to add to the visuals in a hyper-melodramatic way.
absurd, psychedelic, comedy, satire, violence