Death is something we are all confronted with throughout our lives; it's one of the few things that can freeze time around you, halt your ambitions and plunge you into a state of deep remorse. We see many deaths up on the screen, but the vast majority of them carry no weight, no impact. The hundreds of faceless goons who die in our action films have lives, ambitions, dreams. Sadly, fiction never takes the time to explore the nature of death because it is a somber subject, and it is not a topic too many people are eager to seek out. Cinema, after all, is escapism, and being reminded of our mortality isn't really the escapism we seek.
But Manchester by the Sea handles loss beautifully, and is a stark character study in what remorse and grief can do to a person. Opening on a boat where Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is playing with his young nephew Patrick (Ben O'Brien as a lad, Lucas Hedges as a teen), the film starts with a rather light tone. Suddenly we cut to Lee as a janitor, moving from tenant to tenant dealing with different plumbing issues and the like, we see a man who seems a shell of his former self, empty and lost, willing to throw a punch at a random guy at a bar simply for looking at him wrong.
Events are set in motion when Lee's brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler), passes away; while not an unexpected event (Joe is later revealed to have been diagnosed with a degenerative heart disease), it still halts Lee's life, forcing him to travel from a Boston suburb to Manchester, where his brother and nephew reside. There, he discovers that his brother has named him the guardian of Patrick, but Lee isn't necessarily ready to take on this responsibility. Much of the rest of the film details the process of dealing with the death, Patrick's way of coping (surrounding himself with friends and juggling two girlfriends who are unaware of each other is one way to keep your mind of your father's death), and the sadness of another tragedy that is revealed around halfway through the film.
Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan, whose past credits include You Can Count on Me and Margaret, is an incredibly skilled storyteller. Flashbacks are organically woven into the story that help illustrate the characters and explain their pain. We see Lee in various flashbacks when he was happily married to Randi (Michelle Williams), as well as Patrick's alcoholic mother Elise (Gretchen Mol). Nothing is ever stated obviously, and you are always aware of what the characters are feeling or thinking.
The film's tone is another strong point; although somber, it does contain flares of comedy layered into the sadness. Little moments like exchanges between Patrick and Lee, to sadly comic moments like the formality of signing paperwork for one's deceased relative. In one of the saddest moments of the movie, a gurney is having trouble collapsing fully to put a distraught person into an ambulance. This moment is the absolute nadir of this persons' life, yet life does not stop to forgive. And yet the drama comes through strongly, never feeling melodramatic. It would be so easy to for this film to feel like a Hallmark movie, yet it feels real.
The character of Lee is a rather unlikable person; you understand him by the film's end, but that doesn't make him forgivable. Even in flashbacks where he is a more animated person, he is no more likable. And where the film really excels is it doesn't offer up any redemption for him. This may be getting into minor spoilers, but one might expect a film like this to let Lee reconcile with his nephew and redeem himself. Yet there's a soul crushing line late in the film that let's you know that some things are irreparable. Some people can never come back.
Manchester by the Sea must be seen, if at least once. It's not really a good time; in fact, it will probably devastate most audience members. But its skill as a drama, its characters, everything about this movie is fantastic. It trusts the audience to know what is happening without holding their hands. That's a rare quality for a film in this day and age.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first in what is set to be a series of spin-off films in the ever-expanding universe that is Star Wars. Since Disney bought Lucasfilm over four years ago, we have been promised a new Star Wars feature every year. Kicking off with Episode VII last year, we now have at least two more episodes and a Han Solo spinoff to look forward too. No telling how many more of these films Disney is cooking up but rest assured, there will be no shortage of Star Wars for the foreseeable future.
Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Star Wars, after all, is a galaxy-wide universe, so the amount of characters and stories that inhabit it are infinite. The storytelling possibilities are limitless, unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe where everything must eventually satisfy the overall plan at hand.
Rogue One details the events that lead to the acquisition of the Death Star plans that are central to A New Hope, the first of the Star Wars series. There's Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), a rebellious young woman whose father (Mads Mikkelsen) has been recruited back into the empire after he tried to escape. As a young girl, she witnesses her mother gunned down by Imperial Troops and her father whisked away by the evil Orson Krennic (a good but underused Ben Mendelsohn). The rest of the crew includes the rebel soldier Cassian (Diego Luna), the sarcastic robot K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), an imperial pilot (Riz Ahmed), and two random characters that somehow became involved, Chirrut (Donnie Yen, awesome as ever) and Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang).
How these people all come together to steal the plans is somewhat confusing and really not worth breaking down here. What matters is that everyone turns in a fine performance in their respected roles, and while no one delivers the end-all-be-all performance, they are better than, say, the prequels and, dare I say, many members of the original trilogy.
Where the film will get real mileage from fans is the return of many familiar characters. Darth Vader (James Earl Jones again supplying the voice) returns for a brief cameo, and the actor Peter Cushing, who passed away in 1994, has been digitally resurrected to play the role of Grand Moff Tarkin, a role he played in A New Hope. It really is a feat of CGI that this character looked very convincing, and I admired how well they had recast the role until I learned after that it was all CGI.
The film itself is competently directed by Gareth Edwards, from a script by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy. It sets a dark tone that fans will probably love, and stays true to the spirit of hopelessness for the rebellion, who haven't acquired Luke Skywalker yet. While the Force does enter the proceedings, lightsabers are for the most part absent as the art of the Jedi is extinct. The film even addresses, rather brilliantly, a plot-hole from A New Hope, now tied up and given extra weight and meaning.
One thing that does irk me is the peddling in heavy nostalgia these movies employ. Say what you will about the quality of the prequels, but for the most part they tried and offered up something new. We got pod racers, the federation ships, the federation robots, the Naboo fighters, and several other fresh designs. At least George Lucas was always thinking about how he could make the universe bigger.
The nostalgia factor isn't a hindrance here; in fact it makes perfect sense, given the movie's setting. But coming off the heels of The Force Awakens, which also featured heavy callbacks, I'm starting to worry these will revel in nostalgia too much.
Another shortcoming of the film is that, despite the actor's best efforts, the characters just aren't very interesting. Sure Jyn gets a backstory, but otherwise everyone is fairly underwritten and unmemorable. In a Star Wars movie, you should know the names of all the characters after a first viewing. The Force Awakens established it's three leads well (even Poe Dameron, who doesn't do much, is more interesting than anyone in this movie). Chalk it up to the more dour tone, but in the end I had no idea who most of the characters really were beyond the main heroine and villain.
It's a decent flick, and if you're a Star Wars fan, you'll love it. Casual fans will probably enjoy it too, but they will miss the references that will tickle the more devoted. What I fear, though, is that getting one of these every year is going to dilute the impact these films have. Once every two or three years and they become something truly special, but I worry that soon enough we won't care to see them because, well, it's just another Star Wars movie.
I guess that means the pressure is on Lucasfilm to give us a reason to keep coming back. I'm all for the Star Wars universe; it's a fun, exciting place with a rich mythology with many great stories to be told. But the nostalgia factor, at some point soon, is going to have to go. I want a Star Wars movie that isn't tied to the central conflict of the Empire vs. the Rebellion, or the Skywalkers. I want something that has nothing to do with that. Eventually, nostalgia is going to have to give for some original stories.
Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Star Wars, after all, is a galaxy-wide universe, so the amount of characters and stories that inhabit it are infinite. The storytelling possibilities are limitless, unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe where everything must eventually satisfy the overall plan at hand.
Rogue One details the events that lead to the acquisition of the Death Star plans that are central to A New Hope, the first of the Star Wars series. There's Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), a rebellious young woman whose father (Mads Mikkelsen) has been recruited back into the empire after he tried to escape. As a young girl, she witnesses her mother gunned down by Imperial Troops and her father whisked away by the evil Orson Krennic (a good but underused Ben Mendelsohn). The rest of the crew includes the rebel soldier Cassian (Diego Luna), the sarcastic robot K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), an imperial pilot (Riz Ahmed), and two random characters that somehow became involved, Chirrut (Donnie Yen, awesome as ever) and Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang).
How these people all come together to steal the plans is somewhat confusing and really not worth breaking down here. What matters is that everyone turns in a fine performance in their respected roles, and while no one delivers the end-all-be-all performance, they are better than, say, the prequels and, dare I say, many members of the original trilogy.
Where the film will get real mileage from fans is the return of many familiar characters. Darth Vader (James Earl Jones again supplying the voice) returns for a brief cameo, and the actor Peter Cushing, who passed away in 1994, has been digitally resurrected to play the role of Grand Moff Tarkin, a role he played in A New Hope. It really is a feat of CGI that this character looked very convincing, and I admired how well they had recast the role until I learned after that it was all CGI.
The film itself is competently directed by Gareth Edwards, from a script by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy. It sets a dark tone that fans will probably love, and stays true to the spirit of hopelessness for the rebellion, who haven't acquired Luke Skywalker yet. While the Force does enter the proceedings, lightsabers are for the most part absent as the art of the Jedi is extinct. The film even addresses, rather brilliantly, a plot-hole from A New Hope, now tied up and given extra weight and meaning.
One thing that does irk me is the peddling in heavy nostalgia these movies employ. Say what you will about the quality of the prequels, but for the most part they tried and offered up something new. We got pod racers, the federation ships, the federation robots, the Naboo fighters, and several other fresh designs. At least George Lucas was always thinking about how he could make the universe bigger.
The nostalgia factor isn't a hindrance here; in fact it makes perfect sense, given the movie's setting. But coming off the heels of The Force Awakens, which also featured heavy callbacks, I'm starting to worry these will revel in nostalgia too much.
Another shortcoming of the film is that, despite the actor's best efforts, the characters just aren't very interesting. Sure Jyn gets a backstory, but otherwise everyone is fairly underwritten and unmemorable. In a Star Wars movie, you should know the names of all the characters after a first viewing. The Force Awakens established it's three leads well (even Poe Dameron, who doesn't do much, is more interesting than anyone in this movie). Chalk it up to the more dour tone, but in the end I had no idea who most of the characters really were beyond the main heroine and villain.
It's a decent flick, and if you're a Star Wars fan, you'll love it. Casual fans will probably enjoy it too, but they will miss the references that will tickle the more devoted. What I fear, though, is that getting one of these every year is going to dilute the impact these films have. Once every two or three years and they become something truly special, but I worry that soon enough we won't care to see them because, well, it's just another Star Wars movie.
I guess that means the pressure is on Lucasfilm to give us a reason to keep coming back. I'm all for the Star Wars universe; it's a fun, exciting place with a rich mythology with many great stories to be told. But the nostalgia factor, at some point soon, is going to have to go. I want a Star Wars movie that isn't tied to the central conflict of the Empire vs. the Rebellion, or the Skywalkers. I want something that has nothing to do with that. Eventually, nostalgia is going to have to give for some original stories.
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Doctor Strange (2016)
At some point, Marvel's formula has got to give. The superhero genre is not one that seems open to much innovation, and origin stories, while essential when introducing a character such as Doctor Strange, unfamiliar to the masses and myself, are getting a little old. A roguish fiend, sometimes rich (see: Tony Stark), must learn to better himself and master a new power (the Iron Man suit, the Ant-Man suit, recovering the strength to lift a hammer), before becoming the hero he was always meant to be.
After a stunning opening in which buildings expand and unfold like fans, we move into the story of Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), an arrogant super surgeon (think an attitude a la Sherlock), who, in a horrific accident, receives excessive nerve damage to his hands. Seeking a cure where Western medicine has failed, he ventures to the Kathmandu where he is instructed by a Celtic Master (Tilda Swinton in a role originally for a Tibetan but rewritten to not offend the Chinese audience). There he masters ancient arts that allow him to summon weapons, leap from his body, and even control time.
Where the movie excels beyond every Marvel movie to date, is in its amazing visual effects that further the groundwork laid by Inception and one-ups it with even more city-defying visuals. Add to that an amazing sequence where Strange is sent through infinite multiverses, and you have some of the most beautiful and dazzling sequences of the year. I love when visual effects artists are allowed to stretch their chops, and Doctor Strange is one of the few cases where the visuals don't interfere or overpower the story.
But at this point, do we really need to see the same beats over and over again? Black Panther was refreshingly introduced in this past summer's Civil War with little explanation, and at this point we kind of accept that these people have crazy powers. But maybe Doctor Strange's world was a little too out there to just launch us into it; it's nice to learn the world along with Strange, being introduced to the rules of combat, what going astral means, and what a mirror universe is.
However, I really don't care for these arrogant rich assholes who learn to better themselves; it's hard to identify with them because they are already extraordinary to begin with, unlike me and my talentless life. The appeal of Peter Parker is that he is just like us, unsure of the world, and is gifted these powers. This is why so many of Hitchcock's films work, because an everyman is launched into extraordinary circumstances.
But it does little for my investment in a character when they have it all. Tony Stark was refreshing as he was at least the first of that brand of superhero (although he's still learning what it means to care for others 8 years into this franchise), but now that we've had Starlord and Ant-Man and Thor, the cocky, self-centered hero is just done at this point.
Quibbles aside, I rather enjoyed Doctor Strange quite a bit. Cumberbatch is fine and charismatic as Strange, Swinton is great as a mystical guru, Rachel McAdams becomes the latest female to have a thankless girlfriend role that she'll doubtful hang around for, Michael Stuhlbarg is wasted as a jealous fellow surgeon, and Mads Mikkelsen, though he can be villainous in his sleep, does not do much to help Marvel's villain problem. He leaves little impression on the story and is not given his full due.
It's a little disheartening that we've gotten 14 films into the MCU and there's not one I would hold up to Spider-Man 2 or The Dark Knight. The Avengers was revolutionary in the ambition and scope of the project, but the MCU at this point is too much of a corporate machine, a well-oiled engine designed to keep the cogs moving and establish the next film. I do enjoy these singular stories more, though, that don't really connect to the overall MCU beyond a reference or two. As far as superhero movies go, Doctor Strange is one of the better ones, especially for the eye popping visuals. Basic plotlines aside, that stuff is worth the price of admission.
After a stunning opening in which buildings expand and unfold like fans, we move into the story of Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), an arrogant super surgeon (think an attitude a la Sherlock), who, in a horrific accident, receives excessive nerve damage to his hands. Seeking a cure where Western medicine has failed, he ventures to the Kathmandu where he is instructed by a Celtic Master (Tilda Swinton in a role originally for a Tibetan but rewritten to not offend the Chinese audience). There he masters ancient arts that allow him to summon weapons, leap from his body, and even control time.
Where the movie excels beyond every Marvel movie to date, is in its amazing visual effects that further the groundwork laid by Inception and one-ups it with even more city-defying visuals. Add to that an amazing sequence where Strange is sent through infinite multiverses, and you have some of the most beautiful and dazzling sequences of the year. I love when visual effects artists are allowed to stretch their chops, and Doctor Strange is one of the few cases where the visuals don't interfere or overpower the story.
But at this point, do we really need to see the same beats over and over again? Black Panther was refreshingly introduced in this past summer's Civil War with little explanation, and at this point we kind of accept that these people have crazy powers. But maybe Doctor Strange's world was a little too out there to just launch us into it; it's nice to learn the world along with Strange, being introduced to the rules of combat, what going astral means, and what a mirror universe is.
However, I really don't care for these arrogant rich assholes who learn to better themselves; it's hard to identify with them because they are already extraordinary to begin with, unlike me and my talentless life. The appeal of Peter Parker is that he is just like us, unsure of the world, and is gifted these powers. This is why so many of Hitchcock's films work, because an everyman is launched into extraordinary circumstances.
But it does little for my investment in a character when they have it all. Tony Stark was refreshing as he was at least the first of that brand of superhero (although he's still learning what it means to care for others 8 years into this franchise), but now that we've had Starlord and Ant-Man and Thor, the cocky, self-centered hero is just done at this point.
Quibbles aside, I rather enjoyed Doctor Strange quite a bit. Cumberbatch is fine and charismatic as Strange, Swinton is great as a mystical guru, Rachel McAdams becomes the latest female to have a thankless girlfriend role that she'll doubtful hang around for, Michael Stuhlbarg is wasted as a jealous fellow surgeon, and Mads Mikkelsen, though he can be villainous in his sleep, does not do much to help Marvel's villain problem. He leaves little impression on the story and is not given his full due.
It's a little disheartening that we've gotten 14 films into the MCU and there's not one I would hold up to Spider-Man 2 or The Dark Knight. The Avengers was revolutionary in the ambition and scope of the project, but the MCU at this point is too much of a corporate machine, a well-oiled engine designed to keep the cogs moving and establish the next film. I do enjoy these singular stories more, though, that don't really connect to the overall MCU beyond a reference or two. As far as superhero movies go, Doctor Strange is one of the better ones, especially for the eye popping visuals. Basic plotlines aside, that stuff is worth the price of admission.
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Don't Breathe (2016)
Set in Detroit, Hollywood's favorite stage for a depressed, rundown city, the film follows 3 young adults (Jane Levy, Dylan Minette and Daniel Zovato) who break into people's houses, although they never take more than $10k to avoid grand larceny charges. However, faced with the opportunity to score at least six figures, they take on an old blind man (Steven Lang) who is sitting on a huge court settlement. Easy right? Well, of course the Blind Man is not what he seems.
Directed by Fede Alvarez, who helmed the Evil Dead remake a couple years ago, the film is extremely effective at laying out the confined space of the house and peril that the young characters find themselves in. The film also establishes a great moral conundrum for the audience; root for the robbers, who have noble if misguided goals (get out of their shitty situation), or the Blind Man, seemingly innocent and defenseless.
It's a great quandary, until about midway through the movie when a shift happens that I won't spoil that definitively places the Blind Man into the monster category. I suppose that's the price we must pay for such a tense film; you need to be rooting for someone, and the initial setup left who the actual heroes were too ambiguous.
Which is fine. These movies need some sort of definitive villain I guess. The movie lays out tense scenario after tense scenario, and just when you think it's over it keeps going. The Blind Man is a sometimes inconsistent monster, at one moment able to sense exactly where a character is in the room, at another oblivious to anyone's presence.
Don't Breathe is fairly schlocky, and it's the kind that goes to depraved places you will not be able to anticipate. Equal parts thriller and horror, it's an example of an effective genre film. I enjoyed the ride, but I'm not sure I'm ready to do it again anytime soon.
Monday, August 15, 2016
Sausage Party (2016)
Adult-aimed animated films are few and far between here in the states. In Japan, anime runs free, existing in any genre it pleases, satisfying both young and old on different levels. There is no need to dumb down and add fun things for kids in the anime world. In some ways I wish that existed here in the states; then maybe Sausage Party, the new Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg comedy, wouldn't feel compelled to litter the script with so much profanity and could instead focus on being a little more clever.
A Pixar parody, Sausage Party poses the question "what if food had feelings the same way the toys in Toy Story (1995) did?" The food in a supermarket dream of being taken by the "Gods" (a.k.a. humans) into the great beyond where they will enter nirvana. In one of the movie's funniest scenes, food quickly realizes that the great beyond is not so pleasant.
A feisty sausage named Frank (Seth Rogen) learns the truth through other means, and sets out on a quest along with his sweetheart Brenda (Kristen Wiig), a hot dog bun, and two foods named Lavash (David Krumholtz) and Sammy (Edward Norton), a bagel. They come across several other food items, and slowly Frank realizes he must try and spread the truth to the other foods.
The movie is often pretty funny, providing a surprising analogy to real world religion and atheism. Lavash and Sammy both clearly represent Palestinian and Israeli relations, and several other ethnic stereotypes are on display, including a taco voiced by Salma Hayek, and tubes of sauerkraut dressed like the SS that are determined to exterminate the "juice."
It also takes full advantage of it's R rating and goes places I didn't fully expect and was surprised and shocked by. There is a final montage near the end that I won't dare spoil that definitely pushes the bounds of taste and will leave your audience in stitches or in disbelief.
But, on some level, I wish the movie had been cleverer with it's R rating. The first word uttered is "Shit" and the opening number, written by Alan Menken (who has written his fair share of Disney songs), is surprisingly profanity laden. On one level, it is probably Rogen and company simply stating to any foolish parents who wandered in with their child "leave now, while you still can, because this movie is going places."
But, I dunno, to really do the religion parallel it would have been interesting to see the food actually have language befitting a Christian (at least at church), and then as the veil is lifted, their language is also corrupted. I don't really know how that would work, but it also gets a little numbing hearing a "hot dog" say fuck a lot, and less would be more.
It's also troubling to hear reports coming out about the animators on the film supposedly working tons of overtime for no pay, to keep the film coming in at an amazingly cheap $19 million (for comparison, June's Finding Dory cost an estimated $200 million). All the characters are well rendered, although the backgrounds and feel of the world leave something to be desired. It's understandable that adult animated movies are not a sure thing, but that doesn't excuse abuse of workers.
Controversy aside, the final product is overall a very fun, funny time. You'll probably know within five minutes of the movie if you are in or out. Rogen and Goldberg, along with co-writers Ariel Shaffir and Kyle Hunter, and directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon have delivered a raunchy sex-comedy about food that offends in the right ways and pushes the boundary of taste beyond what I thought was possible. It doesn't outdo South Park, but it comes close.
A Pixar parody, Sausage Party poses the question "what if food had feelings the same way the toys in Toy Story (1995) did?" The food in a supermarket dream of being taken by the "Gods" (a.k.a. humans) into the great beyond where they will enter nirvana. In one of the movie's funniest scenes, food quickly realizes that the great beyond is not so pleasant.
A feisty sausage named Frank (Seth Rogen) learns the truth through other means, and sets out on a quest along with his sweetheart Brenda (Kristen Wiig), a hot dog bun, and two foods named Lavash (David Krumholtz) and Sammy (Edward Norton), a bagel. They come across several other food items, and slowly Frank realizes he must try and spread the truth to the other foods.
The movie is often pretty funny, providing a surprising analogy to real world religion and atheism. Lavash and Sammy both clearly represent Palestinian and Israeli relations, and several other ethnic stereotypes are on display, including a taco voiced by Salma Hayek, and tubes of sauerkraut dressed like the SS that are determined to exterminate the "juice."
It also takes full advantage of it's R rating and goes places I didn't fully expect and was surprised and shocked by. There is a final montage near the end that I won't dare spoil that definitely pushes the bounds of taste and will leave your audience in stitches or in disbelief.
But, on some level, I wish the movie had been cleverer with it's R rating. The first word uttered is "Shit" and the opening number, written by Alan Menken (who has written his fair share of Disney songs), is surprisingly profanity laden. On one level, it is probably Rogen and company simply stating to any foolish parents who wandered in with their child "leave now, while you still can, because this movie is going places."
But, I dunno, to really do the religion parallel it would have been interesting to see the food actually have language befitting a Christian (at least at church), and then as the veil is lifted, their language is also corrupted. I don't really know how that would work, but it also gets a little numbing hearing a "hot dog" say fuck a lot, and less would be more.
It's also troubling to hear reports coming out about the animators on the film supposedly working tons of overtime for no pay, to keep the film coming in at an amazingly cheap $19 million (for comparison, June's Finding Dory cost an estimated $200 million). All the characters are well rendered, although the backgrounds and feel of the world leave something to be desired. It's understandable that adult animated movies are not a sure thing, but that doesn't excuse abuse of workers.
Controversy aside, the final product is overall a very fun, funny time. You'll probably know within five minutes of the movie if you are in or out. Rogen and Goldberg, along with co-writers Ariel Shaffir and Kyle Hunter, and directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon have delivered a raunchy sex-comedy about food that offends in the right ways and pushes the boundary of taste beyond what I thought was possible. It doesn't outdo South Park, but it comes close.
Friday, August 12, 2016
Swiss Army Man (2016)
It's been a pretty disappointing summer; there has really been no Mad Max: Fury Road or Inside Out to stand above the endless deluge of sequels and reboots that is Hollywood's stock-in-trade these days. Afraid to take a risk, studios try and feed us the same crap over and over again, and if box office receipts are any indication (currently $1 billion less than last summer), the general public is a little fatigued.
And while Swiss Army Man doesn't exactly live up to last summer's best, it certainly does something else; it's bold, exciting, interesting, and worth thinking about, if ultimately what it has to offer up isn't particularly deep.
Opening on a desolate island, a man named Hank (Paul Dano) is attempting to hang himself, until he sees a flatulent corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) washed up on the shore. Harnessing the power of his farts to propel him through the water, Hank uses the corpse as a jet ski to get him to the mainland. He drags the corpse along on his journey to civilization, and soon the corpse begins to talk.
Named Manny, the corpse possesses a childlike outlook on the world; reanimated, he has forgotten his current life and so questions everything Hank tells him, wondering why humans are isolated and lonely, and more importantly, why we are uncomfortable farting in front of each other.
These aren't exactly hard hitting questions; any freshman philosophy major has surely pondered questions far beyond these. But the way the movie presents these queries is unique enough that you forgive it for not diving a little bit deeper. Manny's wonderment and Hank's explanations lead to some truly beautiful passages in the film, and Hank recreates society out of garbage strewn through the woods they traverse.
The film is written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who collectively call themselves Daniels, best known as music video directors (their most well-known probably being the outrageous, shocking Turn Down For What video, in which people's body parts lose control to the beat of DJ Snake's rhythm). As visual artists, they are ones to be reckoned with, as the truly best parts of the film are those that come closest to being a music video. Accompanying a score by Andy Hull and Robert McDowell (both from the band Manchester Orchestra), there are some sequences here that people will refer back to as I guarantee this movie will attain a sort of cult status in the years to come. The production design by David Duarte is also spectacular, creating a tactile, alternate world out of the trash in the woods.
But, unfortunately, the movie can't sustain itself and falls apart in the end. Without giving too much away, the movie goes to a bold place that unfortunately doesn't work, and leaves you with a bit of a sour taste in your mouth. What had been, up until that point, a morbid but surprisingly touching meditation on life devolves into a stalker creep show. I give the movie props for trying, but it also tries to take the easy way out with it's final images, and the clash doesn't work.
Overall, though, the movie billed as the farting-corpse film surprisingly works very well. Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe are both stellar in the film, Radcliffe especially as the corpse. They achieve a touching relationship, and bizarre as that sounds that a man and a corpse bond, it's a least something refreshing that's worth talking about.
And while Swiss Army Man doesn't exactly live up to last summer's best, it certainly does something else; it's bold, exciting, interesting, and worth thinking about, if ultimately what it has to offer up isn't particularly deep.
Opening on a desolate island, a man named Hank (Paul Dano) is attempting to hang himself, until he sees a flatulent corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) washed up on the shore. Harnessing the power of his farts to propel him through the water, Hank uses the corpse as a jet ski to get him to the mainland. He drags the corpse along on his journey to civilization, and soon the corpse begins to talk.
Named Manny, the corpse possesses a childlike outlook on the world; reanimated, he has forgotten his current life and so questions everything Hank tells him, wondering why humans are isolated and lonely, and more importantly, why we are uncomfortable farting in front of each other.
These aren't exactly hard hitting questions; any freshman philosophy major has surely pondered questions far beyond these. But the way the movie presents these queries is unique enough that you forgive it for not diving a little bit deeper. Manny's wonderment and Hank's explanations lead to some truly beautiful passages in the film, and Hank recreates society out of garbage strewn through the woods they traverse.
The film is written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who collectively call themselves Daniels, best known as music video directors (their most well-known probably being the outrageous, shocking Turn Down For What video, in which people's body parts lose control to the beat of DJ Snake's rhythm). As visual artists, they are ones to be reckoned with, as the truly best parts of the film are those that come closest to being a music video. Accompanying a score by Andy Hull and Robert McDowell (both from the band Manchester Orchestra), there are some sequences here that people will refer back to as I guarantee this movie will attain a sort of cult status in the years to come. The production design by David Duarte is also spectacular, creating a tactile, alternate world out of the trash in the woods.
But, unfortunately, the movie can't sustain itself and falls apart in the end. Without giving too much away, the movie goes to a bold place that unfortunately doesn't work, and leaves you with a bit of a sour taste in your mouth. What had been, up until that point, a morbid but surprisingly touching meditation on life devolves into a stalker creep show. I give the movie props for trying, but it also tries to take the easy way out with it's final images, and the clash doesn't work.
Overall, though, the movie billed as the farting-corpse film surprisingly works very well. Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe are both stellar in the film, Radcliffe especially as the corpse. They achieve a touching relationship, and bizarre as that sounds that a man and a corpse bond, it's a least something refreshing that's worth talking about.
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
As far as the new series of Star Trek movies go, Star Trek Beyond is the most enjoyable, probably in part because it was co-written by Simon Pegg, who you can feel is a real fan of the series. Not to say that previous scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci weren't, or director J.J. Abrams, but there's something about this one that just feels more Star Trek than what we've gotten before.
Set 3 years into the 5 year deep-space mission of the USS Enterprise, we pick up on a Kirk (Chris Pine) bored with the journey and looking to make a career move, a Spock (Zachary Quinto) who learns of the death of his alternate universe self (the late Leonard Nimoy) and decides maybe he should do more to help his endangered race, and a crew that still more or less functions as a whole.
After a stopover at a Federation port, the crew comes across a refugee from an alien attack in a nearby nebulae, and jump on the opportunity to investigate the misdeeds. It's not long until the Enterprise is under attack and crashes on a nearby planet, where the crew is separated and must journey to reunite with each other.
As directed by Justin Lin, best known for reviving the Fast and the Furious movies into a lucrative franchise, the film is chockfull of delightful, fun action sequences that vibrate with a unique pulse and entertain. He's helped by Pegg's script, co-written with Doug Jung, which makes Pine's Kirk bearable for the first time in the franchise, and unites the crew in a way we haven't really seen in this series.
Back again are Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Karl Urban as Bones, Pegg as Scotty, John Cho as Sulu, and the late Anton Yelchin as Chekov, all comfortable and making the roles their own, the pressures of living up to the original cast all but a distant memory. Joining the cast are Sofia Boutella as Jayla, an alien the crew stumbles across on the foreign planet, and Idris Elba as Krall, a rather boring bad guy whose motivations and twists are a little too confusing and muddied.
While the film is entertaining, there are large portions that jump incredible logic, and you kind of just accept it because it's sci-fi and that's what happens. But too many times the film does this and at some point it feels a little convenient for convenience sake.
But my quibbles are minor; this film is a great step-up from the dour tone of Into Darkness, which was more obsessed with being a mirror to The Wrath of Khan than being it's own unique piece. While the first in this series ingeniously set-up a new universe where new stories could be told, the second squandered this potential by paying too much homage to a classic. Beyond, hate or love it, at least tries to tell a new story, familiar as it may be to other Trek films.
And Lin, surprisingly, is a director I don't mind. This is the first of his films I've seen, and while I don't consider him a great auteur, he has an effortless, entertaining way of delivering his films that make them palatable. Sadly, this is something that many directors today can't do, and while we shouldn't praise serviceable entertainment for doing the bare minimum, it's somewhat needed to prop up films like this that, at the very least, go one step beyond.
Set 3 years into the 5 year deep-space mission of the USS Enterprise, we pick up on a Kirk (Chris Pine) bored with the journey and looking to make a career move, a Spock (Zachary Quinto) who learns of the death of his alternate universe self (the late Leonard Nimoy) and decides maybe he should do more to help his endangered race, and a crew that still more or less functions as a whole.
After a stopover at a Federation port, the crew comes across a refugee from an alien attack in a nearby nebulae, and jump on the opportunity to investigate the misdeeds. It's not long until the Enterprise is under attack and crashes on a nearby planet, where the crew is separated and must journey to reunite with each other.
As directed by Justin Lin, best known for reviving the Fast and the Furious movies into a lucrative franchise, the film is chockfull of delightful, fun action sequences that vibrate with a unique pulse and entertain. He's helped by Pegg's script, co-written with Doug Jung, which makes Pine's Kirk bearable for the first time in the franchise, and unites the crew in a way we haven't really seen in this series.
Back again are Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Karl Urban as Bones, Pegg as Scotty, John Cho as Sulu, and the late Anton Yelchin as Chekov, all comfortable and making the roles their own, the pressures of living up to the original cast all but a distant memory. Joining the cast are Sofia Boutella as Jayla, an alien the crew stumbles across on the foreign planet, and Idris Elba as Krall, a rather boring bad guy whose motivations and twists are a little too confusing and muddied.
While the film is entertaining, there are large portions that jump incredible logic, and you kind of just accept it because it's sci-fi and that's what happens. But too many times the film does this and at some point it feels a little convenient for convenience sake.
But my quibbles are minor; this film is a great step-up from the dour tone of Into Darkness, which was more obsessed with being a mirror to The Wrath of Khan than being it's own unique piece. While the first in this series ingeniously set-up a new universe where new stories could be told, the second squandered this potential by paying too much homage to a classic. Beyond, hate or love it, at least tries to tell a new story, familiar as it may be to other Trek films.
And Lin, surprisingly, is a director I don't mind. This is the first of his films I've seen, and while I don't consider him a great auteur, he has an effortless, entertaining way of delivering his films that make them palatable. Sadly, this is something that many directors today can't do, and while we shouldn't praise serviceable entertainment for doing the bare minimum, it's somewhat needed to prop up films like this that, at the very least, go one step beyond.
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