2007

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May 7, 2009

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 2007, action, adventure, entertainment, fantasy, movies, trailers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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The third and final picture in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy is 2007’s At World’s End. After the success of 2003’s The Curse of the Black Pearl, the cast and crew signed on to create two sequels back-to-back. Obviously Dead Man’s Chest was up first, with At World’s End utilized as the wrapping point on Gore Verbinski’s saga. Featuring 750 effects shots from ILM and another 300 from Digital Domain, the third Pirates movie is one of the most expensive films ever produced.

Like the rest of the films in Disney’s tailor-made series, At World’s End rumbles with what audiences pay to see in a blockbuster. Unfortunately, the whole ordeal is ultimately unsatisfying and somewhat cheap. As with the other two movies, effects sequences are far from seamless and most of the CGI looks sloppy and rushed. Even the final battle sequence is a giant letdown, with the presentation of countless ships aligned for war given up in favour of focusing on just two of them.

At World’s End is even more muddled and even more perplexing than the first two films combined, which is no small feat. The entire process feels created on the fly, with storyline additions and concessions creating much confusion. The “rules of engagement” by which the creatures and characters operate are flimsy, especially in the case of Davy Jones’ curse and what it really means to be the captain of the Flying Dutchman.

Johnny Depp is back as Captain Jack Sparrow and continues to remain the most interesting aspect of the series. In the third instalment, he’s often hilarious as he does battle with numerous other Jack Sparrows embedded in his consciousness. Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) now possesses the heart of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and, coincidentally, the chest it came in despite Dead Man’s Chest concluding with Jones staring into an open, heartless chest. Nevermind the details, though, this here’s a blockbuster!

Anywho, there’s a meeting convened of the nine pirate lords at Brethren Court at Shipwreck Cove. Sparrow must attend, but he’s captive in Davy Jones’ locker. It’s up to Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), and Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) to go get him. First, though, they’ll need a map. Captain Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) just so happens to be in possession of it, so the gang heads off to Singapore to get it. A battle erupts in Feng’s bathhouse and Will strikes a deal with Feng to trade the Black Pearl for Sparrow. Feng wants to deliver Sparrow to Beckett. And so on.

With Sparrow finally retrieved from Davy Jones’ locker, Will wants to rescue his father (Stellan Skarsgård) from the Flying Dutchman and the nine pirate lords decide eventually to go to war with Beckett’s monstrous trading company. Much trickery and twists abound, with major characters frequently switching sides to do what suits them. It is interesting to note how willing the characters become to serve themselves or other interests, although it scarcely seems the result of character development and rather the result of rushed plot structures.

As mentioned, At World’s End plays host to an awfully convoluted and confusing storyline. There are so many rules, counter-rules, and counters to the counter-rules that it becomes difficult to keep track as to what’s going on. When Elizabeth finds her father (Jonathan Pryce) deceased, for instance, he tells her that he tried to stab Davy Jones’ heart. In the mythology, this would have made him the captain of the Flying Dutchman but instead he simply dies. Then, later, we’re told that it was Beckett who did the deed. And then we’re told something else. As you might imagine, keeping track of the details in a film as terribly elaborate as this is a bit tricky even for the most veteran of moviegoers.

Of course, we’re supposed to be into the effects and the action, aren’t we? At World’s End boasts plenty of that, but it all looks rather flimsy and rushed. There are no interesting sea battles; instead, we’re granted a prolonged and conventional clash between two ships and all of the main characters. They even sneak a wedding into the battle and close it off with one of the worst kisses in movie history. Yes, it’s that bad.

I liked Dead Man’s Chest, surprisingly, and after watching all three of Disney’s Pirates films in short succession I can honestly say that the middle portion of the trilogy is the best. This drawn-out, pugnacious jumble of a picture is absolutely the worst. At World’s End is a scary case of a blockbuster run off the rails. It is an unreasonable, bland, ridiculous, overly long piece of showy rubbish.

3.1/10

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April 23, 2009

The 11th Hour

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 2007, documentaries, entertainment, movies, trailers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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At the core of the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced doc The 11th Hour is the principle that global warming/climate change, damage to the air and oceans, and other ecological problems are not the problems but rather the symptoms of a larger cultural problem. Punctuated by greed, selfishness, and ignorance, we humans have a tendency to ignore and reject the messages our planet sends. We tend to squabble about details or hide behind denial when real change and real answers are required.

The 11th Hour, directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, is akin to all documentaries regarding environmental issues in that it faces the innate uphill climb of a sceptical society. The comparisons to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth are obvious, but there are differences in the overall message of this film. For starters, The 11th Hour is much more compelling, concise, and urgent in contrast to Gore’s picture.

The collection of experts and scientists amassed for The 11th Hour is deeply impressive. Professor Stephen Hawking, David Suzuki, Interface Inc. chairman Ray Anderson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Thom Hartmann, Wangari Maathai, William McDonough, and others all factor heavily in the conclusions reached in the documentary. It is awe-inspiring to listen to Hawking describe the planet he loves so much and how its decline plays out.

The presentation is clear and the experts make sense without pandering to the audience. There is no condescension and no guilt-mongering here, just cold and difficult facts. The planet will not just up and die; we won’t kill it. Throughout the course of life on earth, over 99% of all species have become extinct. Amazingly, life goes on and more life is created. While human beings are at the top of the food chain for now, we may not stay there if we continue to render our environment unliveable. But as a bold voice expresses towards the end of the film, the lakes, trees, rivers, and land on Earth will replenish without us.

The 11th Hour succeeds because it presents us with the idea of global warming as a symptom. This is not a movie about global warming; it is a movie about the human condition and how our very existence, as it is now, leads to these various symptoms. Our consumption, our consumerism, and other aspects of our humanity are seemingly incompatible with our environment. We cannot simply dump our waste into the air, water, or ground and not expect some sort of reaction from our living planet. It’s just not logical.

The film presses the notion that the Industrial Revolution offered us the idea of consumption on a massive scale and told lies about the endlessness of natural resources. We know now that we don’t have an infinite amount of natural resources and we know now that we must adapt to the planet rather than forcing the planet to adapt to us. While Al Gore’s Truth makes much out of rising graphs and Power Point, The 11th Hour goes a step further and presents these ideas in tangible form.

It would be easy to discard The 11th Hour as a blathering collection of talking heads, especially if one considers the message redundant. But the philosophy here is anything but redundant. It is unpopular, bold, and audacious. The risk is our very extinction, not the planet’s, and the notion of changing our ways to adapt to a tide that threatens to bowl us over can be a tough pill to take. It is the truth, however, and we must acknowledge it as a species and act.

8.7/10

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February 12, 2009

Persepolis

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 2007, animated, biography, drama, entertainment, foreign, historical, trailers, war | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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To say Marjane Satrapi led an interesting life is an understatement. Born in Iran in 1969, the graphic novelist and filmmaker witnessed the fall of the Shah and the stripping away of civil liberties in her homeland. Marjane’s experiences went into a graphic novel called Persepolis and that graphic novel was made into a 2007 animated feature directed by Satrapi and French comic artist Vincent Paronnaud.

In many ways, Persepolis is merely a coming-of-age story set to the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The film, which won the 2007 Jury Prize at Cannes, follows Marjane through her life using elegant animation in both black and white and colour. We begin with Marjane in the airport smoking. She begins to think back to her life in Iran in 1979 and we follow her thoughts back to where she was born. As a young girl, Marji had dreams of becoming a prophet. She loved Bruce Lee. As an adult, her idealism has drained out.

The film uses Marjane’s memories and black and white animation to highlight the historical context behind the young girl’s experiences. We learn of the uprising against the Shah, the hopes of the Iranians for a more just society, the unity of family in tough times, and the crushing reality of war. Throughout it all, Marji has a more urgent task. She is precocious, listens to Iron Maiden, and later heads to school in Austria to “grow up.”

The animation style of Persepolis is similar to that of the graphic novels. The simple black and white shimmers with remarkable detail. The style attempts to fit Marjane’s massive story into a 98-minute frame and succeeds wonderfully. This is an animated film for adults, one that is dazzling to look at and loaded with context and information to ponder.

In many ways, Persepolis is an ultimately refreshing coming-of-age tale in a decade loaded with them. Here we have a young woman with purpose and with legitimate trials to overcome. And she does overcome, marvellously and elegantly in her own way. She offers hope when there is little and keeps her wits about her as long as she can. But the crush of things and the weight of life eventually wear Marjane down and Persepolis allows us to experience that, too. We break when she does.

For the sake of this review, I watched the English dubbed version of the movie. The vocal talents were tremendous, with Chiara Mastroianni voicing teenage and adult Marjane in both the French and English versions. Catherine Deneuve is Marji’s mother in both versions, while Sean Penn voices the father in the English version. The father in the French version is voiced by the one and only Simon Abkarian. Also featured in the English version is Iggy Pop as Uncle Anouche.

Persepolis is a special motion picture. Painstakingly animated and brimming with vibrancy, this film yearns to be seen. Show it to your children, if you have any, and explain it to them tolerantly. They (and you) will learn about life from another point of view and about growing up as a human being in a world that is often uncertain, upsetting, and unsafe. They’ll also learn that it’s okay to hope, laugh, play, and listen to Iron Maiden at full volume.

9.3/10

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February 1, 2009

Taxi to the Dark Side

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 2007, documentaries, entertainment, historical, movies, trailers, war | Tags: , , , , , |
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When filmmaker Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark Side won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar, he said the following: “This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver, and my father, a navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law. Let’s hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light.”

Indeed, it seems that the United States is comfortable operating on the “dark side.” The obvious use of torture in the fictional “War on Terror” has continually eroded the claims of moral superiority on the global stage. The symbol of Guantanamo Bay – now thankfully closing down c/o President Barack Obama – has served to recruit and impassion more terrorists than ever thought possible. And the continued abuses of power by the Bush Administration undermined every international law and statute pertaining to ethics in combat and war.

We all know by now that the Bush Administration may stand in history as one of the most horrific governments in American history. The damage to America’s reputation on the world stage seems, at times, irreparable. Yet, as Gibney stated in his Oscar acceptance speech, there is a sense of hope that the country can turn around and move towards the light. Perhaps Barack Obama is the answer to that.

Gibney’s documentary uses the tragic death of an Afghan cab driver named Dilawar to provide entry to what stands as a damning indictment of the Bush Administration’s policies towards torture and conduct during the concocted fight against terrorists. With an open license to join the “dark side” and use techniques against detainees that Darth Vader would find cringeworthy, the United States established themselves as the world’s foremost experts on the process of torture.

Taxi to the Dark Side examines the process as it trickles down from top military brass and White House occupants to reach the grunts on the bottom who are “just following orders.” Gibney interviews soldiers, many of whom have participated in torture, and casts light on the entire stinking process. He ruthlessly unearths data, news footage, and other footage to compile a damning case against the Bush Administration on the topic of torture. But, as we see, Bush and his cronies have left the backdoor open for themselves and knew which laws to manipulate and which buttons to push.

We also hear from administration officials and others who have resigned because of torture and the processes outlined by Donald Rumsfeld’s bloodthirsty policies. Rumsfeld, always the soulless joker when dealing with the media, is especially snappy and senseless as he tries to worm his way out of questions in front of the White House press corps.  

Taxi to the Dark Side makes the case that torture does not work and that it does not provide accurate or even remotely useful information. We know this already if we have common sense on our side. Gibney works to debunk farcical notions supported by fictional television programs like 24 and right-wing blowhards like Bill O’Reilly that there is a professed “ticking time bomb” scenario that is actually realistic. Instead, the filmmaker argues that such a scenario is about as dubious as Sean Hannity having a sensible idea.

Taxi to the Dark Side is a must-see documentary. There are many who will argue the other side of this discussion, although I’m curious to know what those people tell themselves in order to sleep at night. The fact remains that the Bush Administration proceeded entirely and deliberately in the shadows in a sorry attempt to conduct a careless war on bare principles, leaving a population in the dark and a pile of top brass in the clear.

9.1/10

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January 26, 2009

Encounters at the End of the World

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Bleak, immense, and eternally mesmerizing, Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World is a brilliant piece of filmmaking. The documentary received an Academy Award nomination in 2008 and stands as a stark and dispassionate glimpse at life, humanity, and the decisiveness of our condition on this planet.

Herzog’s magic as a filmmaker is in his pursuit of legitimacy. He avoids conventions, staggeringly straying for common reliance on showpieces or exploitations in order to tell a story. In Grizzly Man, he does not expose us to “the tape” but rather his reactions to it. In his other films, his more fictional works, Herzog avoids violence and sexuality in the ostentatious sense of Hollywood blockbusters. His version of the world is free of special effects and manipulative elements, like music and camera angles. Indeed, Herzog is one of modern cinema’s foremost truth-tellers.

And nowhere is the truth more austere and more wounding than in his Encounters at the End of the World. In many ways, this motion picture feels like Herzog is returning from some far-off land with tales of the people and the sights there. With this film, the far-off land is Antarctica and the people are indeed compelling and interesting. His tale describes the people who live and work there, the land, the wildlife, the desolation, the inevitability of existence at the end of the world.

Herzog, along with cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger, head to McMurdo Station. McMurdo is an American research station located on the southern tip of Ross Island in Antarctica. It is also largest community in Antarctica, supporting a population of up to 1200 or so residents. As Herzog discovers, most of the people that come to McMurdo have decided to “fall off the map” and have come to the bottom of the planet.

Herzog’s discovery of the people of Antarctica is pure and engaging. His unflinching camera takes us to meet maintenance workers, iceberg geologists, zoologists, biologists, volcanologists, and a penguin scientist whose solitude makes him subdued company. These are the people of McMurdo; they are diverse, intelligent, aware, and ultimately pessimistic about our sustainability on this planet. Herzog joins the chorus in his barren German tones, narrating the film with rawness and an odd sense of boredom.

It’s not that dear Werner doesn’t care about his subject matter. It is, I believe, more that Herzog is buckling under the pressure of the desolation. It is hard to match up the line between truth and fiction in his pieces of art, but Encounters at the End of the World finds us with a filmmaker learning about how bleak things really are on this planet. Global warming or climate change, whatever one would like to call it for easier understanding, is real and it is having an impact on our world. But Herzog isn’t here to make a sequel to An Inconvenient Truth.

His truth is more lyrical.

Through the images and sounds of Encounters at the End of the World, we learn about our planet’s very soul. We learn about penguins getting lost and going the wrong direction, marching to their deaths far from where they ought to be. We learn about neutrinos, frozen trinkets and mementos, fumaroles, and the human psyche under the immense weight of natural responsibility.

With unforgettable imagery, strange sounds, and the bold crush of time’s ticking clock on this planet, Encounters at the End of the World might, for some, seem like a series of vacation slides from Hell. For others, such as myself, it will prove to be one of the most exciting and engrossing film experiences in recent memory. This is not a cuddly penguin movie, I assure you.

9.7/10

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January 1, 2009

Stardust

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Stardust, the best fantasy film of 2007, is a rollicking ride through the imagination of Neil Gaiman. Based on his novel of the same name, this Matthew Vaughn-directed fantasy assembles a stellar cast, features imaginative effects, and boasts a sense of humour most comedies of the year would be jealous of. It is uproarious at times, surprisingly stirring and poignant at others, and always entertaining from the opening credits to the final frame.

We are introduced to the tale by way of the narration of Ian McKellen, so the piece immediately gets off on the right foot. He tells us about a village in England called Wall (named so because of its proximity to, you guessed it, a wall) and how young Dunstan Thorn (Ben Barnes) snuck past the guard at the wall to explore what was on the other side in the mystical land of Stormhold. He meets the slave girl of a witch and one thing leads to another. Nine months later, a baby shows up on young Dunstan’s doorstep.

The baby grows up into our hero, Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox). He is in love with Victoria (Sienna Miller) and will do anything for her hand, including making an idiot of himself and chasing down a star to bring it back to her. As he heads off on his ludicrous quest to bring a newly fallen star to Victoria, Tristan finds out that it has crashed to earth and is in the form of Yvaine (Claire Danes). As such, more than just Tristan has use for Yvaine and he becomes her protector and more as they are pursued by the witch Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) and the sons of the King of Stormhold (Peter O’Toole).

It all is a bit complicated, but Vaughn keeps things moving quickly and draws thick lines around the characters. With lots of magic and compelling characters, including a hilarious Robert de Niro turn as a cross-dressing pirate and a brilliant Ricky Gervais cameo as a shady trader, Stardust is magical and delightful. Other films would have buckled under the pressure of such a complicated plot, but the side stories of the King’s sons striving for the throne and the witches striving for youth don’t get out of hand.

Much of the film is reminiscent of a Terry Gilliam project, as the humour, wit, and eccentric characters call up memories of Time Bandits and Jabberwocky. Interestingly, Gaiman originally discussed the idea of turning his novel into a film with Gilliam and Vaughn. The idea was shelved after Gilliam turned his attention to The Brothers Grimm, but it was looked at again after Vaughn dropped out of directing the last X-Men picture.

The cast is incredible from top to bottom, led by Cox in his first real leading role. He is terrifically fun to watch as Tristan and elegantly walks the line between bumbling and heroic. Danes is absolutely luminous as Yvaine, proving why she is one of Hollywood’s finest understated actresses. Pfeiffer is still hot as all hell playing the wicked witch whose magic ages her and De Niro’s turn as Captain Shakespeare is just…wow – you’ll have to see it to believe it.

Stardust looks good and sounds good, with the Ilan Eshkeri (Layer Cake, Hannibal Rising) score adding scope and depth to the piece. The scenery is lovely, featuring tremendous scenery from Iceland, the Scottish Highlands, and Elm Hill in Norwich. Vaughn directs the piece with passion and obvious admiration for the stars and the locations, giving us a beautiful-looking movie without pretentious style shots.

Stardust is great fun, representing a rare mix of fantasy and comedy without pushing too hard. It is surprisingly delicate, too, and endlessly charming. The characters are rich and inviting, and the performances that bring them to life are amazing. For a truly magical fantasy film experience, Stardust is well worth a look.

8.7/10

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November 27, 2008

The Golden Compass

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Released amid a haze of dumb-assed criticism from religious groups and lame fear-mongering, 2007’s The Golden Compass turned out to have less bite and drama than ever thought possible. Indeed, the Chris Weitz film adaptation of the Phillip Pullman book is convoluted, needlessly multifarious, visually featureless, and less than persuasive. There are a few bright spots to be sure, but the overall process is tiring and much too average to be notable.

The groundwork for The Golden Compass was laid with the success of the Lord of the Rings series of films. In February of 2002, New Line Cinema entered into the process of turning Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy into a movie series. Script troubles plagued production from the beginning and the final product would wind up being the most expensive New Line production ever and would lead to restructuring within the company.

The Golden Compass concerns an alternate universe in which people live with their souls on the outside of their bodies in animal form. These souls are called dæmons in the Pullman universe and are representative of the person’s qualities. As we drop in on this alternate universe, we learn that Europe is controlled by the Magisterium, an organization with Church-like structure and statutes. It is interesting to note that the term “magisterium” refers to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. Pullman’s books carry central themes of questioning authority and notions of faith, which in turn brought out a great deal of controversy.

In Oxford, we meet a young girl named Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards). She is our heroine and her rambunctious spirit leads her to many adventurous situations. Lyra’s uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), visits her at the college and reveals evidence of particles of “Dust.” Asriel does this much to the chagrin of the Magisterium and a plot to kill him is overthrown by Lyra and her dæmon. As we learn, the Magisterium is very much interested in “Dust” after all and wants to control the spread of information.

Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) arrives at the college and takes Lyra off on what sounds like a marvellous adventure at first. Eventually, however, Coulter’s true nature is revealed and Lyra must fight for what’s right, resist authority, convert to atheism, start sacrificing babies, and locate her best friend. She is given an alethiometer to help guide her to the truth and ends up meeting a fighting bear with armour and Sam Elliot.

The film’s 113-minute runtime simply isn’t enough to cover all of this ground, for starters. Weitz crams an awful lot into the allotted time, for certain, and key moments aren’t given enough time to build or come to natural fruition. Instead, the project feels hurried and the source material loses much of its punch. In trying to make The Golden Compass appeal to a broader, principally American/Christian audience, Weitz was forced to pull out a lot of the red meat from Pullman’s saga.

As an effects driven fantasy, there just simply isn’t enough here. The animals or dæmons often look fake or stiff, taking away a sense of wonder and replacing it with cheesy designs. The armoured polar bears or panserbjørne also look silly. The showdown between two bears that formulates an action centrepiece lacks toughness and grit, instead coming across as a Coca-Cola Bears Gone Wild clip. The fact that the majority of the sequences take place on a dowdy grey-white-black backdrop doesn’t help the film gain any vividness or colour.

Tortuous and filled with mediocre effects, The Golden Compass is a disappointment. The meat of Pullman’s story is left on the sidelines and New Line’s attempts at making a “big” fantasy epic for families feels ineffective in comparison to the LOTR, Harry Potter, and Narnia flicks. While Richards does make for a spunky lead as Lyra and Kidman’s Coulter is suitably chilly, there is nothing noteworthy about any of the characters or the actors playing them. In the end, The Golden Compass doesn’t sit well and, unhappily, lacks direction.

2.9/10

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November 6, 2008

Ratatouille

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The idea of animation in America changed when Pixar stepped on the scene and combined with Disney to make 1995’s Toy Story. Computer animation had been done before, sure, but perhaps never to the colourful scope and brilliant scale of the John Lasseter-directed picture. Fast-forward to 2007 and Pixar unleashed its eighth film, the vivacious and heart-warming Ratatouille. Directed by the incomparable Brad Bird, who also brought us the oft-overlooked The Iron Giant in 1999, Ratatouille may well be the best film of 2007.

With Ratatouille, one cannot help but drink in the vibrancy, the colour, and the beautiful storytelling that Bird has elected to serve us. It is as gracious and energetic a meal as ever concocted, with spices and flavours piquing all of the right corners of any cinephile’s palette. The concept is bizarre: rats working in a kitchen in France, of all places. Yet it works and it works with such tenderness and such comedy that it may well go down as one of the richest comedic treats of the decade.

We meet Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) and find that he is a rat with aspirations and with a very special gift. He can smell and taste with such keenness that he is soon depended on by his family to sniff out rat poison. Remy lives in the attic of a French country home with his brother Emile (voiced by Peter Sohn) and his father Django (voiced by Brian Dennehy). Remy’s father wants the rats to stay in the colony in the French attic, but an incident which sprouts from Remy’s culinary curiosity soon forces the family apart.

Remy ends up in Paris and finds himself right at the foot of Gusteau’s restaurant. Gusteau, now deceased, was one of France’s finest chefs. His restaurant, now down to three stars thanks to critic Anton Ego (voiced by Peter O’Toole), has long been a dream locale for Remy. And in an act of providence, Remy finds himself amongst the chefs. He encounters a clumsy garbage boy, Alfredo Linguini (voiced by Lou Romano), and ends up hiding under his toque blanche to cook in Gusteau’s kitchen. The food becomes legendary and Linguini must try to keep up appearances while his popularity rises. It is Remy, of course, who does the actual cooking.

Bird’s film is incredibly animated. The details of each character are delightful, with the fur of the animals and the expressions on the faces of the characters among the best in animation history. It is a beautifully animated film, with food that looks so delicious that I wanted to pluck it right from the screen. Apparently the animators attended cooking classes in order to get a sense for presentation and how things should look.

The character of Remy is fascinating. Here is a rat, yet he is drawn and constructed with modesty, consideration, and thoughtfulness. Remy produces more sentiment from a raised hand or a look than many animated characters would construct out of a whole monologue. The character design is fascinating as well, with the human characters looking exaggerated but never ridiculous.

As we know, Bird’s picture won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It couldn’t have been more deserving and its success and beauty as a film really continues the idea that Pixar is doing some truly special work. With this year’s incredible WALL-E, the computer animation company is becoming a force to be reckoned with not merely in animation but in filmmaking period. Ratatouille is a classic. It is a wonderfully-textured, impeccably-drawn piece of ART that deserves time, attention, and many repeat servings.

9.6/10

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November 2, 2008

Vacancy

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Vacancy takes many of the common trappings of terror and articulates them well into a relatively small period of time. As such, it is a lean, efficient thriller that provides ample entertainment and chills within its 80 minute runtime. With notions of being lost in the middle of nowhere, of strange people, and of unspeakable horror as the core themes, this 2007 Nimród Antal movie wound up exceeding my expectations and providing a genuine experience.

Starting with an impressive opening credits sequence that calls to mind some of Hitchcock’s better credits sequences, Vacancy takes us on a ride in which the protagonists continue to make mistakes and the antagonists continue to come just a few steps short of accomplishing their grisly goals. It is a quickly-paced film and it looks slick, featuring two big name stars in Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale in roles that provide a sense of depth and realism.

Beckinsale is Amy and Wilson is David. They are a couple on the brink of divorce, barring interference from Dr. Phil of course, and they are out driving through the night in the middle of nowhere. The car breaks down, of course, and the couple decides to spend the night in a creepy motel after learning that there is no way the car can be fixed before morning. The owner of the motel (Frank Whaley) seems shifty and weird, but Amy and David take a room anyway and head off to retire for the evening.

It isn’t long before things start to get scary. David discovers a set of VHS tapes and plays them, discovering a series of snuff films that were made in the very room that he and Amy occupy. Hidden cameras are found in the wall vents and it isn’t long before masked goons, accompanied by the motel manager, are on their way into film yet another gruesome masterpiece. David and Amy must escape the terrible situation before the end credits roll.

Vacancy works because it doesn’t focus on the gore or the violence. Instead, Antal creates a mood and a sense of dread with his characters. He focuses on the possibilities, allowing the idea behind the excellently-shot snuff films on the VHS tapes to permeate the minds of the audience. It is an almost Hitchcockian manoeuvre, allowing the idea of suspense to provoke with greater enthusiasm than what is actually on screen.

But then things start to fall apart and the clichés begin to mount up like stacks of wet firewood. Wilson and Beckinsale enact all of the horror movie clichés by performing one dumb move after another. They prove to be among the more unthinking film characters in recent memory and, despite moderately good performances, end up too focused on repeating the same mistakes. As such, it becomes rather difficult to cheer for David and Amy and the sense of dread ends up wasted by the film’s conclusion.

Still, there’s a lot to like about Vacancy. The first two-thirds of the movie are pretty good, with lots of rising suspense and a significant build in the story. The performances are adequate and enough is demonstrated to provide a solid back-story with these characters. The motel is creepy and the cinematography, especially that of the snuff films, adds to the chilling sense of discovery and terror that the characters go through.

Vacancy is good entertainment for a Saturday night. It is a thriller that is not unlike a Hitchcock movie. Mood and tone is more important than gore and exploitation, making this one a rare breed in today’s modern genre pictures.

5.7/10

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October 31, 2008

Orphans

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 2007, drama, entertainment, movies, trailers | Tags: , , , |
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The ways tragedy impacts human relationships have been explored throughout the entire history of film. Artists and filmmakers have looked at grief, death, pain, and suffering as consistent themes of the human condition, all the while telling stories that we find consolation in.

Ry Russo-Young’s solemn and heart-rending Orphans does just that, offering us a story of two separated sisters coming to terms with what’s left of their family.

The winner of the Special Jury Award in narrative feature competition at the SXSW film festival, Orphans is a potent story from young director Russo-Young. She directs her characters with zeal and yet a sense of distance, allowing the performers to provide flexibility and sincerity for their relationship. Russo-Young utilizes the digital format here, filming the barren wintery settings with ingenuity and lining up her shots with care. It is a good-looking picture, working well off of a small budget.

James Katharine Flynn stars as Sonia, one of two sisters left orphaned after the death of their parents. As we are introduced to her, she is shooting baskets in a gym and is missing every shot she takes. She is wished a “Happy Birthday” by a class full of youngsters and heads off to an isolated farmhouse to spend some time with her sister, Rosie (Lily Wheelwright). Rosie is an artist trying to make ends meet and she is under the impression that she is going to visit her sister for a birthday party.

When Rosie reaches her sister, however, she learns that the party is comprised of the two of them and Sonia has lied about the other guests. Instead, the birthday celebration becomes about Sonia’s attempts at resolution, forming a family dynamic, and seeking company. She is lonesome and longs for a relationship with her distant sister, but the problems between the two of them and the heartache contained in their past threatens to take all that remains.

The performances lie at the core of Orphans. Essentially a two-person play, the film plays out with sequences of discussion, dispute, and passionate diatribes between Rosie and Sonia. Both have skeletons in their closets; Sonia drinks too much and Rosie pops pills. Their attempts at coming together are often stalled by unalterable tensions, perhaps born from the death of their parents or perhaps born before then. There are moments of stillness, too, and a beautifully shot sequence of the two characters dancing with one another that quickly becomes a physical altercation.

Wheelwright’s Rosie is enthralling for many reasons. In catastrophic circumstances, the young actress died at age 24 on March 22, 2008. The tragedy adds a certain undeclared poignancy to her performance, as her character struggles through her existence and through her grief in ways that she cannot understand. Along with Sonia, Rosie has fallen and has nobody to pick her up again. Sonia’s attempts at reconciling a family come laced with dishonesty and bad habits, leaving Rosie without a foundation.

And that’s really what Orphans is about. These two young women are living life without a net, without equilibrium. As we grow up, we often wonder what things would be like had we not been put into the families we were put into. Often we might even wish our parents had not existed, thereby leaving us the apparent autonomy to fend for ourselves. As we grow up, these feelings may even become stronger. With Russo-Young’s film, we are shown this dynamic and we are shown the remaining components of broken lives.

As such, Orphans is an immensely powerful film.

It is arresting in its beauty, stirring in its simplicity, and engaging in its capacity to provoke. The performances are graceful and sturdy, with both Wheelwright and Flynn creating splendid characters and providing a deep bond on screen. Russo-Young’s direction is faultless, too, resonating with straightforwardness and sophistication. She has composed a gorgeous, poetic, lingering film that is well worth a look.

8.2/10

 

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