Archive (2020)

13 Wednesday Apr 2022

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(For Day 12 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt reversed yesterday’s bigness with the suggestion of writing about something small, like the tiny but powerful microchip, for example.)

Within a microchip,
Entire minds abide
In quiet ownership
Of knowledge petrified.

Its tiny, patient essence
Is preordained to serve
Till fated obsolescence
At long last strikes a nerve.
_________________________

MPA rating:  TV-MA (language but otherwise could be PG-13)

Archive is one of those small but heady sci-fi movies that adventurous moviegoers happen across years later, wondering why they’ve never heard of it before. In this case, it was one of the many films whose release schedules were upturned by the COVID pandemic, causing it to be released to video-on-demand and almost immediate obscurity. Theo James stars as George Almore, a man working at a secluded robotics workshop in Japan where only he and two prototypes named J1 and J2 reside. J2 is more advanced and human-like than J1, and George is working on a new, even more human-like prototype called J3 modeled after his wife Jules, who died in a car accident but whose consciousness endures through a death-defying but temporary technology called the Archive.

While the post-death possibilities of the Archive seem like the focus based on the title, the film spends more time on the (in my opinion) more interesting theme of robot perceptions. If a piece of machinery had a human-like personality and sentience like J2 does (at the level of a teenager according to George in the film), how would they grapple with their own obsolescence and the inevitability of being replaced by a newer model? Jealousy, anger, despair? Would such emotions be “real” enough to matter? It’s a fascinating study of the potential “feelings” of robots that have reached that gray area between being objects and individuals.

Like The One I Love or Infinity Chamber, this falls in that underseen niche of twisty stories that might have ended up as a Twilight Zone episode in years past but was able to get the feature film treatment. Despite a slow pace and a scene that blatantly borrows from Ghost in the Shell, the film is buoyed by the excellent James as the tortured protagonist, a snowy and atmospheric setting, and the seamless effects that bring his android “wife” to life. While the final twist has symbolic implications that metaphor lovers can dig into, it also somewhat undercuts the purpose of everything that preceded, so I suppose its effectiveness will depend on the viewer. Still, it’s a shame Archive didn’t get more attention.

Best line: (J3) “I’ve been dreaming a lot. Last night I… Well, I don’t know if I’m dreaming or remembering. Dreams do that, don’t they?”

Rank:  List Runner-Up

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764 Followers and Counting

Greyhound (2020)

11 Monday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was a seemingly basic theme, a poem about something large, so the massive ocean made perfect sense.)

The ocean was a barrier mere centuries ago,
Immovable, impassable, impossible to overthrow.
It mocked our human efforts with indifferent distances,
Its furthest reaches only myths that man could never hope to know.

But even once we “conquered” it and put its edge to page,
It hardly made a dent upon its unpremeditated rage.
We may know where to sail and hark to what the compass says,
But none can quite predict this beast of overwhelming size and age.

The ships that are our power and our glory navally
Can do their best against the test that dwarfs the land’s reality.
They ply the waves that murder without hate or prejudice,
A tiny line of ants that crawl across the quicksand of the sea.
________________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

Like Finch, Greyhound was the other Apple TV+ film with Tom Hanks to convince me to subscribe to yet another streaming service. Based on C.S. Forester’s 1955 novel The Good Shepherd, the film is an intense journey across the Atlantic Ocean at the height of World War II, when German U-boats terrorized the ships trying to bring troops and supplies from the United States to beleaguered Europe. Hanks plays Captain Ernest Krause of the USS Keeling (a.k.a. Greyhound) and its supply convoy, and but for a brief flashback with his assumed wife (Elisabeth Shue), the whole action of the film takes place upon the storm-tossed seas with the constant threat of enemy torpedoes.

While the film earns high marks for realism with its authentic naval terminology, the weak script and characterization are rather thin. It’s a good thing then that Hanks is so committed to the role, forgoing the pirates of Captain Phillips in favor of Nazi wolf packs who taunt him over the radio as they pick off the ships he’s been tasked with protecting. Every loss is reflected in his weary but determined eyes, and the captain’s commitment is reflected in how he refuses to rest while the danger persists or celebrate death too much.

After all the waiting and worrying, it’s a cheer-worthy moment when the ships are able to land a blow on the submarines stalking them, and the film certainly highlights how the journey across the Atlantic was just as dangerous as what awaited soldiers on the other side. A taut and streamlined historical thriller, Greyhound owes much to Hanks, whose mixture of grit and religiosity in the role once more proves why we love him so.

Best line: (Cole, the executive officer, to Captain Krause) “What you did yesterday got us to today.”

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
764 Followers and Counting

Love and Monsters (2020)

10 Sunday Apr 2022

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(Day 10 of NaPoWriMo provided a straightforward prompt asking for a love poem. With this film in mind, I couldn’t help a little tongue in cheek regarding the boasts made by the lovestruck.)

Dear love, I know we’ve been apart too many days to count,
But I can still remember every contour of your face.
If it meant seeing you again, I’d climb the highest mount
Or cross the deepest river or such similar clichés.

But mounts and rivers had their day; new dangers have emerged,
And I would brave them all as well to be back by your side.
I’d vanquish vicious Spuzzards by the dozens if you urged,
And butcher every Chumbler that attempts humanicide.

Sand gobblers are nothing, whether colony or queen,
For I could take on hundreds with the thought of where you are.
One day I’ll make the trek and brave these threats that stand between;
Till then, within my bunker, I will love you from afar.
______________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13

A good film doesn’t always have to revolutionize its genre or blow away expectations; sometimes it’s enough to just be entertaining and live up to its name, which Love and Monsters certainly does. Set in a near future where an attempt to destroy an asteroid (perhaps some alternate plot for Don’t Look Up) resulted in all coldblooded creatures mutating into giant monsters, the film follows Joel Dawson (Dylan O’Brien) on his journey to reunite with his girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick). After seven years living in separate survivor colonies, connecting only via radio conversations, Joel decides to brave the 85-mile, monster-ridden hike to his love, despite his clear lack of survival experience.

Love and Monsters fits snugly beside other post-apocalyptic survival films while keeping the horrific monster-vs-human action at bay with a largely fun tone and (thankfully) PG-13-level violence. While the monsters are obvious, thanks to Oscar-nominated visual effects, O’Brien provides the love in the title, his memories of Aimee fueling his drive to reunite. His relatable voiceover makes him a likable guide to this dangerous new world, joined at times by a dog named Boy and some other survivors like the pair of Michael Rooker and Ariana Greenblatt, who give him a crash course on how to get by in a world where nearly everything wants to eat you.

The film does somewhat step out of its expected mold by the end, subverting Joel’s expectations about love and found family. Despite its familiar elements, it’s nice to see an original adventure film that delivers exactly what it means to and that managed to win over critics and audiences despite the pandemic forcing it from theaters to a digital on-demand release. No matter how hard life might have gotten in the last few years, this film proves it could be much, much worse, and even that can be survived.

Best line:  (Joel, addressing other survivors) “If I can survive out here, anybody can. It’s like a good friend once told me:  Good instincts are earned by making mistakes. If you’re lucky enough to survive a few mistakes, you’re gonna do all right out here.”

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
764 Followers and Counting

Don’t Look Up (2021)

09 Saturday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a nonet, a nine-line poem where the first line has nine syllables and then each subsequent line has one syllable less. That reminded me of a countdown, so this film immediately came to mind.)

There’s nothing to worry about here,
No reason to panic and fear.
Don’t stress out any longer.
Don’t be a fearmonger.
Your warnings are lies
That jump through hoops,
While I’ll be
Proven…
Oops…
________________________________

MPA rating:  R (for frequent profanity, plus nudity at the very end)

There was a flurry of unexpected opinions around Adam McKay’s latest socio-political satire Don’t Look Up, with many critics describing its climate-change doomsday metaphor as “smug,” “unfunny,” and “cynical.” They granted it a 55% Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is very rare for a modern Best Picture nominee. So I had to check it out for myself to see just how insufferable the environmentalist finger-wagging would be, and it turned out to be everything I’d heard but also a bit more.

There’s certainly no denying the star power on display. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play a pair of astronomers who discover both a new comet and the horrifying fact that it will collide with the earth within six months. As they try to publicize this oncoming extinction event, they are met with unexpected apathy from a slew of Oscar darlings, like Meryl Streep as the self-serving U.S. President Orlean, Jonah Hill as her arrogant son/Chief of Staff, Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry as the hosts of a frivolous morning show, and Mark Rylance as a Jobs-like CEO of a tech giant. Where the scientists had hoped the world would unite against humanity’s common threat, they become increasingly exasperated that no one seems to take the danger seriously, eventually devolving into a slogan war between “Just Look Up” and “Don’t Look Up.”

The weirdest thing about Don’t Look Up to me is that its central conceit just doesn’t work that well as an analogy for climate change. The six-month deadline, the mathematical provability of space dynamics, the potentially straightforward solution to destroy the comet, the moment when the comet becomes clearly visible in the night sky – all of these serve to heighten the stubborn foolishness of the apocalypse deniers in a way that just doesn’t align with climate change warnings. Oddly, since it was conceived before the pandemic even began, the film’s theme of wide-scale denial rings truer in regards to COVID, partisan myopia, and the spin on both sides of the aisle, perhaps in ways that were not even intended by the left-leaning people behind it.

Despite its clear intentions, Don’t Look Up has so many targets to roast that some of its jabs can’t help but land, whether it be the feel-good distraction of daytime talk shows, the fickle immaturity of social media frenzies, the allure of short-term fame, or the single-minded confidence of elites who refuse to let others point out where they’re wrong. To be honest, it’s not particularly funny for a “comedy,” and while a few running gags earned a chuckle, it was somewhat uncomfortable sitting through two hours of blithe apathy and even sabotage, despite the impassioned rants given by both Lawrence and DiCaprio. It’s an experience that can be appreciated as the filmmakers’ intent but is more frustrating than enjoyable.

Yet in its final downbeat moments, which made me wonder if McKay had been inspired by the Nicolas Cage film Knowing, the frantic lampooning slows down with a surprisingly sincere prayer given by Timothée Chalamet’s hipster character Yule, and the few sympathetic characters all share in what really matters in the face of the apocalypse. It was a poignant coda that some may not appreciate, but I did. Don’t Look Up is a worthwhile parody of society despite its smug excesses and the fact that its ensemble alone probably earned it a Best Picture nomination that should have gone to Tick, Tick …Boom! But I won’t harp on that point; it’s not the end of the world.

Best line: (Yule, praying) “Dearest Father and Almighty Creator, we ask for Your grace tonight, despite our pride. Your forgiveness, despite our doubt. Most of all, Lord, we ask for Your love to soothe us through these dark times. May we face whatever is to come in Your divine will with courage and open hearts of acceptance. Amen.”

Rank:  Honorable Mention

© 2022 S.G. Liput
764 Followers and Counting

Daredevil (2003)

09 Saturday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem detailing an alter ego, so a superhero seemed like a prime subject.)

My alter ego you may know;
His fame surpasses mine,
And yet for all our differences,
Our points of view align.
Where I avoid hostility,
My shadow boasts a spine.

Where I will yield at pressure’s grip,
He clings to his ideals.
The fear that dogs me in the day,
The night for him conceals.
And those who propagate that fear,
He follows on their heels.

The scars that scare the rest away,
My counterpart will earn.
And what he does for you and me
It’s best that we don’t learn.
Since bad for bad is good for good,
A blind eye I will turn.
_________________________

MPA rating:  PG-13 (though R for the director’s cut I saw)

I went into Daredevil fully expecting it to be bad since it has gained a reputation as one of the several lame Marvel adaptations that floundered before the MCU found its stride. I wasn’t aware that the director’s cut had a better reputation than the original, so it was just luck that I opted to see the more complete version of the story, before thirty minutes were unwisely cut for theaters. And I was pleasantly surprised by a comic book tale that may be imperfect but not nearly as dismal as I’d heard.

None of the actors are at the top of their game, but it’s still an impressive cast, including a pre-Batman Ben Affleck as “the man without fear” Matt Murdock, a pre-Happy Jon Favreau as his lawyer friend, and a pre-Penguin Colin Farrell as the ruthless assassin Bullseye. Jennifer Garner is decent as love interest and fellow fighter Elektra, while Michael Clarke Duncan steals every scene as the hulking Kingpin, putting his massive height and strength to good use as the imposing criminal mastermind. There are clear echoes of Daredevil’s comic book origins, such as the opening scene of the blind vigilante clinging to a church’s rooftop cross, and even though it plays itself straight with a dark and brooding tone to rival Batman (and minus the aversion to killing), there’s also definite cheesiness on display, with Farrell the worst offender, taking every opportunity to show how irredeemably evil he is.

With its obvious CGI moments and choppy fight editing, Daredevil doesn’t have the special effects polish we’ve come to expect of modern superhero films, so it’s a product of its time, when the first Spider-Man was the best template for a comic book film but was hard to replicate right. I was also surprised to hear the Grammy-winning “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence, which was part of the soundtrack before the song had even been released. There are genuinely good elements in the mix, from Murdock’s movingly tragic childhood to the Catholic subtext to the brutal face-off between Daredevil and Kingpin. So Daredevil may have been a misfire at the time, but it simply paved the way for other Marvel films to be better. (I really ought to see the Netflix series now that the character seems to be entering the MCU in earnest.)

Best line: (Father Everett, to Matt as Daredevil) “Look, a man without fear is a man without hope. May God have mercy on you for your sins and grant you Everlasting Life, Amen. …I’m not too crazy about the outfit, either.”

Rank:  Honorable Mention

© 2022 S.G. Liput
764 Followers and Counting

Werewolves Within (2021)

07 Thursday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a challenge or rebuttal to a famous saying, and “Nice guys finish last” is one that’s always annoyed me.)

“Nice guys finish last,” you say? I take offense at that.
For I take pride in being nice. It’s never fallen flat.
Good attitudes are rare enough to be of note these days,
To brighten someone else’s life, however brief the blaze.
The cruel may get ahead but likely not to paradise;
The hares can scoff and hasten off, but tortoises play nice.

I’ve never once lamented being nice to someone yet,
For what’s the opposite except immediate regret?
I’d rather be the person who can dry another’s tears
With just a smile or open door or pair of open ears.
The bad boys roll their eyes and think they’ll never pay a price.
Well, bless their hearts right off the charts, ‘cause dang it, I am nice!
_________________________________

MPA rating:  R (for language and violence)

While some like Ghostbusters are exceptions, horror comedy has never been a genre of interest to me since it so often relies on gore for comedic effect, finding humor in shock value, which isn’t my cup of tea. Yet the premise of Werewolves Within caught my attention, since I love the “one-of-us-does-not-belong” style of mystery, even if I’ve never played the video game on which the film is very loosely based. (On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s now the highest-rated film based on a video game.) Set in the notoriously quirky mountains of Vermont, the film features an array of colorful characters, including jovial new forest ranger Finn (Sam Richardson), likable mail carrier Cecily (Milana Vayntrub, a.k.a. Lily from the AT&T commercials), environmentalist Dr. Ellis (Rebecca Henderson), and many more, all snowed in together as a murderer seems to be picking them off one by one.

From the visiting oil man trying to lay a pipeline to the wealthy gay couple to the unstable woman obsessed with her lap dog, there is no shortage of suspects, some of which could have used more character development beyond their quirks, and no one can be entirely dismissed as the culprit when a dead body is discovered. Despite the title, there’s even lasting doubt about whether the werewolf is a possibility at all. Through it all, Sam Richardson’s Finn is especially a joy, displaying and advocating for a folksy niceness that even makes him reluctant to swear while the rest of the cast are in panic mode. He and Vayntrub are an endearing pair amid all the doubt and chaos, even though they remain suspects as well. Werewolves Within has the feel of an instant cult classic, sort of the werewolf counterpart to The Lost Boys, managing decently campy scares alongside endearingly eccentric humor. Despite some R-rated content, it was one horror comedy I enjoyed immensely.

Best line: (Finn Wheeler) “Well, we’re having a good old-fashioned sleepover.”
(Marcus) “With guns, though.”
(Finn) “With guns, yes.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting

Nightmare Alley (2021)

06 Wednesday Apr 2022

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(For Day 6 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was to write an acrostic poem, not spelling out something with the first letter of each line but using the first word of each line to form some phrase or quote, so I chose a classic line of Walter Scott poetry that sums up so many dark stories.)

Oh, I know
What you desire,
A listening ear to stem your fear,
Tangled up and dire.
Web of anger, web of grief – either one
We fall into –
Weave around us
When they’ve found us,
First a lie, then gravely true.
We wish to believe, and we
Practice that creed, if only
To try to
Deceive our own greed.
_____________________

MPA rating:  R (mainly for language and scattered but graphic violence)

Every few years, there comes along a Best Picture nominee that dwells on the sordid saga of someone’s lies taken to an extreme, prompting me to sum up the theme with the Walter Scott quote from my acrostic poem above. The last was Parasite, and while Nightmare Alley didn’t achieve the same awards love of that film, it’s still a chillingly effective and handsomely-made period piece. Based on a 1946 film by William Lindsay Gresham, which already had a film adaptation in 1947, Nightmare Alley follows Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) from an apparent murder scene to a Depression-era carnival, where he learns the ropes of mentalism and carny hokum from a pair of faux psychics (Toni Collette, David Strathairn). After wooing an assistant (Rooney Mara) and taking his own mentalist show on the road, he becomes entangled with aloof psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett) as they seek to pull off bigger and more dangerous cons.

I haven’t seen many of director Guillermo del Toro’s other films, but, comparing this one to Pan’s Labyrinth, Nightmare Alley is unique in its lack of supernatural elements but also shares some of his favorite excesses, like the dark and slick aesthetic and moments of bloody violence that could have been toned down. The noir production design is especially laudable, from the shadowy grotesquerie of the carnival to the art deco elegance of Dr. Ritter’s office, and it could have earned an Oscar or two if Dune hadn’t swept the technical categories.

I was dissatisfied at first with Cooper’s portrayal of Carlisle, who seemed rather wooden, like too much of a blank page, at the beginning. Yet as the film wore on through its overlong two and a half hours, I realized that was intentional, as Carlisle absorbed the carny wiles of his friends in the first half, gradually becoming more and more confident in himself and his powers of persuasion until his house of cards falls. And boy, does it fall hard! I was surprised that Cooper didn’t warrant a Best Actor nomination for the range of emotions his character undergoes, but all of the actors did an excellent job across the board.

Nightmare Alley is certainly a dark drama, with cold people doing cruel things as they weave that tangled web, but I found it surprisingly riveting (minus the violence). It’s hard to say whether a moral can be gleaned from the story beyond “trust no one,” but based on advice from Willem Dafoe’s seasoned carnival barker, one of the themes seems to be how people can know exactly the ruin where their path is leading and still fail to turn from it, first noticed in Carlisle’s growing alcoholism. I’m curious now to see how the original 1946 film compares, since I assume it’s largely the same story without the R rating. Ultimately, Nightmare Alley just couldn’t stand out enough in its crowded field, but it is an awards-caliber film nonetheless.

Best line: (Carlisle) “Sometimes you don’t see the line until you cross it.”

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting

Free Guy (2021)

05 Tuesday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to depict a mythical or fictional person/creature doing something unusual, so I took a cue from the watered-down depictions in video games.)

We are the fierce and mighty ones, the villains and the threats,
Who thrive on crime and murder with no sorrow or regrets.
We’ve kept you up at night and made our way into your dreams,
And broken laws with teeth and claws, with swords and laser beams.
We feed our greed and hunger as our few defining truths,
Our sanity is doubtful, and we haven’t any ruths.
We are the Terminator and the Alien and Joker
(The versions that are threatening and not the mediocre),
The Predator and Dracula and all the heroes’ foes,
Who’d burn the world to ashes if we’d no one to oppose.
Designed to be disturbing and created to be hated,
We nonetheless admit to being thoroughly frustrated.
What do we have in common, we the kings of scourge and glutton?
We’re forced to pose and dance around when gamers hit a button.
______________________________

MPA rating: PG-13

I’ll just start out by acknowledging that I am not a gamer in any way. I fell away from my Game Boy Advance over a decade ago, and while I wouldn’t mind playing games, I just can’t seem to find the time for it. So I am not exactly the target demographic for Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds’ good-natured riff on open-world games like Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto, complete with cameos from real Twitch streamers I barely recognize. Still, there’s great fun to be had in what is essentially a digital reimagining of The Truman Show.

Reynolds plays the optimistic Guy, a bank teller in Free City whose status as a non-player character (NPC) ensures he obliviously enjoys day after day of violence as players wreak havoc around him. When he notices an avatar called Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer), he achieves unexpected sentience as he falls in love, unaware that she is controlled in the real world by a game designer named Millie (also Comer). Millie is searching Free City for evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the game studio’s CEO Antwan (Taika Waititi, acting oddly like a jerkier version of Tom Haverford from Parks and Recreation), and soon she and Guy must risk it all to save his digital world.

My VC has a hang-up with video game-themed films like this or Wreck-It Ralph, simply finding it hard to care at all about characters in a game. I can understand that view to a point, but Free Guy does well in balancing the stakes in both the real world and Guy’s computer-generated sphere. Guy himself questions his own meaning when he learns the truth of his existence, and his buddy… um, Buddy (Lil Rel Howery) provides an answer that puts their purpose on an individual level that is hard to argue with. Of course, Free Guy is full-on comedy action, but I liked little moments like that, as well as an underlying theme challenging the wanton violence in games like GTA in favor of decency.

Not every joke lands among Ryan Reynolds’ mountain of quips, but enough do to still make Free Guy a fun watch. I also liked seeing Joe Keery from Stranger Things as Millie’s programmer friend who works for Antwan, not to mention the loads of cameos, ranging from another Stranger Things alum to a Marvel nod that easily earned the biggest laugh. I especially loved a brief clip of the late great Alex Trebek giving a mock Jeopardy clue, which reflected how long Free Guy had been delayed by the pandemic. Buoyed by impressive effects and an infectious spirit of optimism, Free Guy may be a new skin on familiar ingredients, but it certainly knows how to entertain.

Best line: (Guy) “Life doesn’t have to be something that just happens to us.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting

Finch (2021)

04 Monday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a poem in the form of a poem prompt. Based on the examples given, I went beyond the limits of time and science fiction for this one.)

Where only his machines remain,
Go forward to the end of man.
Seek out the few who walk the plain,
Who rust and memory contain,
Who live beyond what humans can.

Inspect their logs or ask them straight
The last word they heard humans speak:
A dying breath, a parting hate,
Decision to “deactivate,”
The hopeful blending with the bleak.

Combine each word or final phrase
And let them marry in the mind.
Then add a touch of quiet praise
To those who still recall those days
And leave the poem for them to find.
______________________

Best line:  PG-13

I love Tom Hanks. Who doesn’t love Tom Hanks? Assuming he doesn’t do something wildly unexpected, like slap someone onstage, he has earned his place as one of America’s most beloved actors, and my VC and I would probably watch any new release if he’s in it. So it’s no surprise that a film placing him in a desolate future with only a robot and a dog promised the same kind of strong solo acting that Cast Away boasted. Finch doesn’t reinvent any wheels, but it’s one more proof that Hanks is an acting army unto himself.

A lone survivor on a future earth scorched by an intensified sun, Hank’s Finch Weinberg shelters in an abandoned lab in St. Louis and scavenges for supplies with a radiation suit. Knowing his death is inevitable, he uses his robotics expertise to build a humanoid bot named Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones) to care for his dog Goodyear after he is gone. When a deadly storm approaches, Finch has no choice but to pack up his solar-powered RV and set out on a road trip west, where they at least have a chance at survival, all the while teaching the child-like Jeff how to drive, play, and live.

There’s natural charm in the interactions of Finch, Jeff, and Goodyear, with Finch as the exasperated parent trying to train his wards how to survive in the wasteland. Hanks is more than up to the task and fills his character with stoic pathos, while Landry’s vocal work and the seamless special effects humanize Jeff as an overeager caretaker to join cinema’s great lovable robots. There may not be that much unique about the downbeat, lone-survivor dystopia, but Hanks and his non-human companions nail a range of emotions to make Finch well worth a watch.

Best line: (Finch, angry at Jeff) “I know you were born yesterday, but it’s time for you to grow up.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2022 S.G. Liput
763 Followers and Counting

Gattaca (1997)

03 Sunday Apr 2022

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(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was for a Spanish glosa, which is a form that takes a quatrain from an existing poem and answers or explains it, using each line in the quatrain as the final line in each of the new poem’s four stanzas. I ignored the form’s usual ten-line stanza in favor of imitating the original poem; in my case, I used the third stanza from “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson, which has a short tale of crushing expectation that went well with this film.)

We praised a man geneticists had blessed,
His silver spoon from birth still carrying.
His wealth was how he outshone all the rest,
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—

His skin was flawless, health beyond compare,
With only confidence upon his face.
He seemed at home and happy anywhere
And admirably schooled in every grace:

He had been bred to evermore excel,
In sport and science, art and book and string.
He barely seemed to try, and he did well;
In fine, we thought that he was everything.

But then the fateful day arrived to shock:
Our hero came in second in a race!
How had we fools allowed this laughingstock
To make us wish that we were in his place?
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MPA rating:  PG-13

Science fiction is so often associated with massive spaceships, alien invaders, time travelers, and robot dystopias that it can be easy to overlook the more understated entries in the genre. Gattaca, the debut feature of Andrew Niccol, is a prime example of speculative fiction, presenting a believable vision of a world that’s taken some societal vice or virtue to an extreme. In this case, the search for perfection has led to unbridled eugenics, allowing mankind to literally breed its flaws away, for the privileged anyway.

A young Ethan Hawke plays Vincent Freeman, the product of a natural birth or “In-Valid” whose projected probability of heart failure and mental problems immediately labeled him a failure from the delivery room. Dreaming of going to space despite never being able to physically qualify for such a high-value career, Vincent is connected with Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), a Valid whose near-perfect genetics do him little good since he’s in a wheelchair. Taking on Jerome’s identity via borrowed blood, urine, and DNA samples, Vincent fakes his way into the space program of Gattaca and seems poised to make his dream a reality until a murder on the premises results in his former identity becoming the prime suspect.

Niccol’s other work like The Truman Show and In Time (a film I enjoyed more than most) prove how skilled he is at setting determined protagonists against a system stacked against them, and Gattaca falls into that same mold. While it glosses over the rampant abortion necessary for this eugenics dystopia, there are a host of themes at play as Vincent rebels against his assigned potential:  the limitations of science in determining a person’s worth without regard for effort, the pressure on those who have every reason to excel and somehow still fall short, the risks of taking screening procedures and only-the-best scrutiny too far, the quiet desperation of those who don’t approve of a system but feel too powerless to change it.

All of these themes play out while also keeping the murder mystery intriguing as two detectives (Loren Dean, Alan Arkin) rely on advanced DNA testing to track down the killer. Vincent’s clever efforts to conceal his true identity add to the tension, and his camaraderie with the real Jerome grows deeper with time as Jerome adopts Vincent’s dream as his own to an extent, even encouraging him to keep going when continuing their shared fraud gets riskier. Uma Thurman as Vincent’s love interest doesn’t have much to do, but she illustrates her own burdens of self-consciousness.

Gattaca is one of those films that deserves the clichéd accolades about “the triumph of the human spirit.” Michael Nyman’s score is subtly majestic and lump-inducing at key moments, and Vincent’s journey becomes a well-earned inspiration by the end. Despite warm reviews, it’s one more sci-fi winner that failed at the box office and deserves so much more attention than it got. Still, the film has already made an impact on the public perception of the potential prejudices of genetic engineering. From the advent of technologies like CRISPR to the danger of “common-sense” biases, its themes continue to be relevant twenty-five years later.

Best line: (Vincent) “They have got you looking so hard for any flaw that after a while that’s all that you see.”

Rank:  List-Worthy

© 2022 S.G. Liput
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