There once was a couple steadfast
Who danced on the floor unsurpassed,
Till, thrilled by the groove,
The man busted a move,
And every last judge was aghast.
They groaned and bemoaned the upstart.
They claimed he disgraced their whole art.
Yet those like the pair
Who were willing to dare
Realized they didn’t care
About outlawing flair
And let them keep dancing their heart.
________________
MPAA rating: PG
Have you ever started watching a movie and knew from the first ten minutes that you didn’t care for it, and then, by unexpected degrees, warmed up to it until you realized that you did actually like it? I can’t think of another time when that was the case, but that was my experience with Strictly Ballroom, the first film from Australian director Baz Luhrmann. I’ve only seen his rather forgettable version of The Great Gatsby (the second half of which was better than the first), but Strictly Ballroom is his most critically acclaimed film, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 95%.
Centered on Australian competitive ballroom dancing long before Dancing with the Stars, the movie starts out as a garish mockumentary, detailing the unconventional style of dancing favorite Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio) and trying to paint his haughty mother and the judges as unbearably pretentious. The gaudy close-ups and quirky editing were probably meant to be comedic and cater to Luhrmann’s penchant for flashiness, but it just comes off as bad acting and direction.
I was about ready to write it off as not for me, but I stayed with it. I watched as Scott was approached by the ugly duckling of the dance academy Fran (Tara Morice). I watched as their unlikely partnership bloomed into romance and Fran’s Spanish family showed their dancing chops. (There are Spanish people in Australia. Who knew?) I watched as Scott was torn between winning a competition for his sheepish father’s sake or dancing for himself and Fran. The whole movie just kept improving until I was left pleased and cheered by the finished product. The choreography was excellent, and certain scenes with Scott and Fran seemed to have a memorable quality, as if they should be much more famous and iconic.
Why did it have to start so poorly? I’ve read that the film plays with stereotypes, but the beginning employed a stylistic choice that fell flat, in my opinion, and persisted in the insufferable authority figures who refused to allow Scott’s personal dance choices. While they were consistently grating, I did appreciate how his foe’s stance was explained as both uncertainty at what would be acceptable or able to win and cutthroat greed to protect a “sport” that had become an industry.
Either way, I wouldn’t watch Strictly Ballroom for the antagonists. Scott and Fran and their dancing are the core of the film and an endearing cinematic example of the whole “follow your heart” cliché. My ranking it as List Runner-Up rather than List-Worthy lies mainly in the beginning’s shortcomings and the fact that it wasn’t very funny for a comedy, but another viewing could easily raise my opinion. Strictly Ballroom is a prime example of why you should finish what you start; it just might surprise you.
Best line: (Fran, with a quote that seems like it should be more famous too) “A life lived in fear is a life half lived.”
Loneliness can end in death
And one forlorn and final breath,
If a person in despair
Is not aware that others care.
A lonely man can yield to fears
That he’s alone among the spheres,
And many have assessed such thoughts,
From wealthy men to astronauts.
It’s true that lonely men can fret,
But loneliness can also set
A man’s commitment to restore
His life and courage from before.
__________________
MPAA rating: PG-13 (mainly for language)
I’m so very glad I finally saw this movie. Based on the same-titled book by Andy Weir, who published it serially on a blog before a big publishing deal arrived, The Martian is a combination of Cast Away and Apollo 13, borrowing and in some cases heightening their strengths.
When a storm hits NASA’s Mars base and the six astronauts are forced to evacuate, Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is left behind and forced to survive and wait for rescue. I was surprised that most of that synopsis happened in the first ten minutes, with the rest of the film dedicated to the survival. There was no real establishing of characters, least of all Mark, not even the cursory introduction of Gravity’s opening scene, before the action and disaster kicked in. Actually, the rest of the film isn’t much different in its absence of backstory, yet the central plot and struggle compensate for the fact that such potential shallowness would normally earn criticism. Weir in writing the story and Ridley Scott in directing it have fashioned a film full of characters, wordless activity, calculations, and halfway understandable science that is still somehow riveting, entertaining, and never boring. That’s no mean feat.
I don’t mind Matt Damon, but my VC actively dislikes him. In fact, the only role she’s liked of his (aside from Spirit since that was just his voice) was in Interstellar because he got blown out an air lock. Against all odds, she too enjoyed The Martian. She might have enjoyed it more with a different actor, but at least she was rooting for Damon not to get blown out an air lock. Damon’s performance isn’t quite on the level of Tom Hanks in Cast Away, but he deftly carries his alone time on Mars with humor and resolve while occasionally letting his inner distress peek through. At least he didn’t have to deal with aliens, right? The rest of the ensemble trying to rescue Mark fill their roles well, with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jessica Chastain standing out. Jeff Daniels as the Director of NASA comes off at first as a soulless administrator, but his steely commitment to making hard choices covers some genuine concern for his astronauts that isn’t obvious.
What makes The Martian special spans both the minute details and the big picture. Aside from the amazing special effects and expansive Martian vistas (and the characters floating through the rotating Hermes shuttle was pretty darn cool), there is much to enjoy. The ’70s disco soundtrack is supposed to get on Mark’s nerves, but it heightens the overall enjoyment for us, with self-referential choices like Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way” and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” David Bowie’s “Starman” especially complements its montage and got stuck in my head afterward. Other little geeky moments include Sean Bean’s explanation of the Council of Elrond, as well as Sebastian Stan (The Winter Soldier) and Michael Peña (Ant-Man) as shipmates and cheering for “Iron Man.” I can’t wait to see if Bucky and Luis meet in the MCU. “Hey, weren’t you in The Martian?”
In addition to the little personal touches, the entire film serves as an encouraging repudiation of the famous declaration of logic from Spock (and Dickens): “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” While NASA’s director holds to that theory, far more people see Mark’s rescue as a duty to his individual value. Putting “no man left behind” over the more utilitarian view, many people sacrifice their time, their safety, and their personal interests to bring him home.
The Martian definitely vies with True Grit for my favorite of Matt Damon’s films, and it’s a shame it didn’t win any Oscars due to stiff competition. I suppose that’s why it was made into a “musical or comedy” to get some traction at the Golden Globes, but it’s much more dramatic than comedic. It’s a satisfying testament to the danger and unifying potential of space travel, the power of duct tape, and the worth of even one life.
Best line: (Mark Watney) “I don’t want to come off as arrogant here, but I’m the greatest botanist on this planet.”
Be sure to vote for your favorite action hero (superheroes excluded) in Round 5 of Opinion Battles. Good picks abound, but I picked the one and only Indiana Jones!
To celebrate the release of London Has Fallen and the good old school action movie, we are going to look at our favourite action heroes in film, we have excluded superhero as we want to have a human hero. We have had years of action movies which have all offered some of the wildest sequences in movie history, out fought the odds to save the day and often the world.
If you want to take part in the next round of Opinion Battles we are asking Favourite Young Adult Film, email moviereviews101@yahoo.co.ukwith your choices by Sunday 20th March 2016.
Movie Reviews 101
Ethan Hunt – Mission Impossible Franchise
Ethan Hunt is the agent that has saved the world five times so far, he has the everyday normal look about him. He uses his brains and his skills to…
Some have their goals and their futures all mapped, People who know where their aptitudes lie, but Endless potential is often untapped, Loath to step out and wholeheartedly try, but Longing one day to catch somebody’s eye.
You may have dreams that remain in your head Only to wither away over time. Useless are hopes overlooked and unsaid, and Rare is the victor unwilling to climb.
Hear not the people who doubt every rung, Echoing doubts they themselves have received. Attend to the words of the more fruitful tongue, Ready and willing, no thoughts preconceived, To trust and to see what great deeds are achieved.
Open your notions of what you can do; Utter a cheer for still others like you, and Try, for indeed that is how dreams come true.
____________________
MPAA rating: PG
I’ve often enjoyed watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a contest that mainly serves as an outlet for everyone to marvel at how kids can do what so many adults can’t. While it’s heartbreaking to watch the loser’s hopes dashed with the ding of a bell after words like ptyalagogue and apparatchik, the winning moment is a well-deserved shot of feel-good triumph, for the winner and those watching. Such is the appeal of Akeelah and the Bee, a story of hard work rewarded.
Keke Palmer is excellent as Akeelah Anderson, a young black girl who tries to merely blend in at her inner-city school. What makes her different, though, is her uncommon interest in spelling, which is little more than a hobby, but when she is urged to take part in the school’s spelling bee, it becomes more than that. Suddenly, her principal (Curtis Armstrong) has high hopes for her and encourages her to train with Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne), who himself participated in the National Spelling Bee as a child. Though her own confidence is fragile, she commits to the effort of studying and preparing for the National Bee.
Akeelah and the Bee could easily have been a ho-hum inspirational tale, but its nuance and heart win the day. Akeelah is almost trapped by a system that expects the least of her, while others see her potential. Fishburne is especially admirable as her spelling coach, acting not unlike Sydney Poitier in To Sir, with Love, patient with his pupil’s progress but adamant that she not become complacent or “talk ghetto” when their focus is the English language. He enshrines a quote by Marianne Williamson as his cogent argument against self-doubt, and even as he feels himself getting more invested in Akeelah than he had planned, he provides an example for her and an implicit call for her to be a role model for others.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee itself is recreated perfectly, right down to the same moderator whose recognizably uninflected voice reads out those difficult terms that no one would really use in a sentence. The pressure on the contestants is also very real and not just for Akeelah. Her rival Dylan Chiu (Sean Michael Afable) is constantly pressured by his father to win, and some scenes made me question the merit of putting kids under so much strain for the sake of an unlikely win. Yet Akeelah also makes friends through her newfound ambition, and even wins the encouragement of her mother (Angela Bassett) and her entire community. One seemingly shady punk named Derrick briefly reveals a softer side that seems to have been quashed by his environment, and his backing of Akeelah’s goals is like a chance to lend the support he never gave his own.
Akeelah and the Bee occasionally drifts into predictable territory, but by the end, the plot and characters take the unexpected high road to a happy ending well-earned. It’s hard to find fault when a film’s message of self-confidence and accomplishment is so earnestly and realistically presented (for the most part), and Akeelah and the Bee is a perfect example of an inspirational story done right.
Best line: (Derrick) “Kick his butt, Akeelah! B-U-T-T, butt!”
Just another normal day,
Just keeping normal cares at bay,
But then to everyone’s dismay,
The ground begins to shake.
The rocks and hills begin to play,
The soundest structures start to sway,
Entire buildings fall away
Amid the sudden quake.
If you make it through the scare,
You wonder how your loved ones fare.
Do they live and how and where?
You worry more for them.
The worst disasters we must bear
At best encourage us to dare
To save the ones for whom we care,
Whom danger might condemn.
__________________
MPAA rating for Earthquake: PG
MPAA rating for San Andreas: PG-13
There’s something strangely entertaining about a disaster. Whether it be the dated survival tales of the 1970s or the modern effects-heavy world-wreckers, it seems clear that it’s not just the Joker who likes to watch the world burn. Of course, this doesn’t apply to real-life disasters. Films like The Impossible and World Trade Center are serious and painful reminders of tragedies, but others like San Andreas are enjoyed as popcorn fun simply because they’re not real. This seems like a puzzling dichotomy, but it’s no less true.
I thought I’d do a comparison of two similar films from different eras that exploit people’s fondness for destruction: 1974’s Earthquake and last year’s San Andreas. Both revolve around earthquakes blind-siding California and people’s struggles to survive. Both include experts who saw the quake coming but didn’t act fast enough, crumbling cityscapes, characters getting trapped in a parking garage, and a dam’s destruction and subsequent deluge (one at the beginning, one at the climax). While a few of the shaking scenes are even similar (both show a glimpse of a cook suffering at the hands of his stove), the two films are on entirely different levels. Earthquake was groundbreaking at the time and even won an uncontested Oscar for Best Visual Effects, but it seems quaint next to the comprehensive devastation of San Andreas, which is ironic since the quake in Earthquake is a 9.9 on the Richter scale while those in San Andreas only reach 9.6. (Yeah, only.)
I was curious to see Earthquake because of its tie-in to an episode of Quantum Leap, in which Sam leaps into a stuntman who features in a famous scene from this movie, complete with a clip showing Lorne Greene. It’s clear now as it surely was then that Earthquake is a gimmick film. Released at the height of the ‘70s disaster craze and the same year as The Towering Inferno, it seemed to be the result of producers saying to themselves, “Let’s see, we know of movies with a plane disaster, a ship disaster, a hurricane disaster, a fire disaster…What’s left? I know! An earthquake!” Plus, the film was accompanied by a new speaker system called Sensurround, which was meant to heighten the feeling of experiencing an earthquake and which was shorter-lived than the early 3-D craze. With so much effort put into accentuating the quake itself, everything else about the movie seems secondary, even though the actual shaking is relatively short.
Like other disaster films of the era, Earthquake is jam-packed with stars: Charlton Heston as a businessman unhappy with his marriage, Ava Gardner as his sullen wife, Genevieve Bujold as his lover, Lorne Greene as his boss, George Kennedy as a policeman, Richard Roundtree as a stuntman, Walter Matthau (under a pseudonym) as a drunk, and Marjoe Gortner as a psychopathic National Guardsman who uses the disaster for his own empowerment. And that’s not even half of the ensemble. It’s clear what the filmmakers were trying to do, focusing on a large swath of the population dealing with a huge disaster in different ways, yet only five or so characters really matter and even the film seems to forget about many secondaries by the end. Certain scenes are impressive for their time, and several are tense as characters try to escape the aftermath of the quake. I just wish that the cast and the narrative overall had been streamlined, perhaps with a less downbeat ending.
San Andreas, on the other hand, is everything a disaster movie should be, with all the unmitigated damage you could want. We see dams bursting, cars crashing, helicopters crashing, buildings toppled or chipped apart, and entire cities reduced to a flooded, smoking ruin, and it’s cool! Of course, it would be horrific if this actually happened (and I suppose it could), but it’s a feast for the eyes boasting an astronomical body count with no actual bodies. While I don’t really buy the causes for disasters like The Day after Tomorrowor 2012, an earthquake is more plausible and thus more alarming, though I was confused by the inclusion of a tsunami. (Seriously, wouldn’t a tsunami go out toward the sea and hit Hawaii instead of doubling back toward the source of the quake?)
Dwayne Johnson (whom everyone still calls the Rock) isn’t what most would consider a consummate actor, but he certainly knows how to play a tough, capable lead such as air rescue pilot Ray Gaines. Returning as his co-star from Race to Witch Mountain, Carla Gugino plays his soon-to-be ex-wife, whom Ray must save from certain death, along with their daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario of the Percy Jackson films). There’s also Paul Giamatti’s worried seismologist and Ioan Gruffudd’s architect/home-wrecker, whose character is tested by stress and easily written off as selfish. While there are still many minor players, Ray’s family is the focus, which proves to be far more entertaining than the scattered attention of Earthquake. Screenwriter Carlton Cuse gives just enough emotional baggage and stress-kindled romance to be relatable, while throwing in a few moments that seemed directly drawn from his experience with Lost.
Neither film is what I’d call great cinema, but as a disaster movie, San Andreas is easily the better movie and one of the more exciting entries in the genre. I enjoyed watching it a second time even more because I got to watch my easily excitable dad jump out of his seat with two dozen “OMG” moments. Watching the two films side-by-side did emphasize one of the differences between the old wave and the new wave of disaster movies. While the likes of The Poseidon Adventure and Earthquake weren’t afraid to kill off main roles and leave the audience sharing some grief with the characters, more recent films are more concerned with keeping the protagonists together and finding a silver lining. It’s hard to say which is a better method, but one thing is for sure: movies like San Andreas and Earthquake are why I will never move to California!
Best line from Earthquake (which ties in to my elevator list): (dam caretaker, when told things seem fine after an elevator incident) “Right. People drown in elevators every damn day of the week!”
Best line from San Andreas: (young Ollie, after getting Blake’s phone number for his older brother) “I can’t wait to be twenty.”
I’m not the first guy to compile favorite elevator scenes, but I do believe that this particular ranking is my own. I was surprised by just how many significant elevator scenes there have been over the decades, from comedies to action movies. This doesn’t count just any film that happens to have a random elevator in it, but films with elevator scenes that are actually memorable with special props to those with more than one elevator scene. This does only refer to movies, but I’ll give a shout-out to notable elevators in TV as well, such as the Star Trek turbolifts, the anime Death Parade, and that infamous death scene in L.A. Law. I’m also well aware of violent elevator scenes in films like Drive, Cabin in the Woods, and The Departed, but since I haven’t seen those, they don’t count.
It’s time then to elevate my top twelve movie scenes involving elevators.
I’ve never been trapped in an elevator, but this is probably what it would be like. When Tom Hanks’ Joe Fox is stranded with his girlfriend and two others in an elevator, his character has a turning point.
As I said before, most elevators take you where you want to go, but some do the opposite. When aspiring rocketeer Homer Hickam must take his father’s place in the West Virginia coal mine he’s been dreading, it is an elevator that drags him from the starry beauty above to the oppressive darkness below.
When the girl you’re trying to rescue is many levels below the flight deck with your one chance of escaping an exploding planet, there’s bound to be an elevator involved. Both Ripley and the Alien Queen make good use of the rising cages, and the tension is palpable. The scene that really gets me, though, is when Ripley and Hicks are waiting for an elevator door to close and an alien leaps from the darkness. Why won’t those doors close faster?!
Don’t you just love elevator music? I didn’t think so, but the Blues Brothers make it hilarious as they stoically ascend the floors while all hell is breaking loose outside. SWAT teams yell “Hut, hut, hut” like those “mine” seagulls in Finding Nemo and overkill is an understatement, but all is well within the blissful ignorance of the elevator.
Inception has two great elevator scenes, the coolest being Arthur’s zero-gravity wake-up call. The first, though, bears enough suspicious similarity to the surreal anime film Paprika that I had to include these two together. Both movies are about dreams, and an elevator serves as a vertical means of navigating various levels of the subconscious.
Two Jedi walk onto an elevator full of droids…. Okay, there’s no punchline, but it is cool. Not only does this scene give Anakin a neat move in the elevator shaft, it confirmed that R2-D2 is the coolest droid. Let’s see BB-8 do that!
When Woody is kidnapped, of course he has to be taken to the top of a huge apartment building, and since toys can’t very well ride an elevator like people can, his friends hitch a ride on top. The first elevator scene is funny enough, but later when Zurg shows up, it’s comedy gold as the climax begins.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) / Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
Both of these scenes have something in common: the lone protagonist is crowded in an elevator by bad guys just waiting to ambush him. Cap and John McClane are too formidable to be taken by surprise and gain the upper hand against all odds. McClane’s method is more violent, but Cap also has to worry about getting out of the elevator as more enemies approach.
Both adaptations of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book include the Great Glass Elevator. Gene Wilder’s version of the button-filled box serves as the film’s finale, while the Johnny Depp version utilizes the elevator a little more. I’d love to ride in both of them. I wonder how it would have turned out if Dahl’s sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator could have been filmed to make the elevator the star. Spoiler warning!
If disaster movies have taught us anything, it should be to NEVER get in an elevator during a disaster. Of course, when a glass high-rise is going up in flames, people panic and pay for it in the elevator. If that weren’t enough, the stakes are elevated higher (pun intended) when another elevator on the outside of the building dangles precariously. Its rescue is the highlight of the film.
James Cameron knew how to employ elevators. Instead of an Alien Queen, this time there’s a liquid metal cyborg on the loose, who’s not about to let an elevator door or roof stop him from completing his assassination mission. The effects and action are both scary and impressive.
No film captures the terror of an elevator’s worst case scenario like Speed. Before we even get to Sandra Bullock and the runaway bus, Keanu Reeves and his SWAT team must rescue an elevator’s passengers from a bomber (Dennis Hopper). When the elevator hangs from an unstable crane, the rescue keeps you literally on the edge of your seat, and the confrontation with the bomber just happens to take place on an elevator too. It’s a shame I couldn’t find a video for the scene, but trust me, not many elevator scenes can compare with this one.
Die Hard (1988) – “Now I have a machine gun. Ho, ho, ho.”
Earthquake (1974) – The first hint of a problem in this disaster flick involves a flooded elevator, and later more panickers prove why an elevator is a death trap in an earthquake.
Ghost (1990) – I like the little scene where Patrick Swayze and Tony Goldwin prank everyone in the crowded elevator.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) – When gremlins take control of your elevator, be afraid.
The Hunger Games(2012) and Catching Fire (2013) – The tributes are elevated into the arena as suspense builds. Plus, there’s that awkward stripping scene with Johanna in the elevator.
Kate and Leopold (2001) – Apparently if the inventor of the elevator never invented elevators, elevators would still exist but wouldn’t work? Yeah, time travel.
My Favorite Wife (1940) – A great little moment in this Cary Grant charmer takes place in an elevator when Grant sees his presumably dead wife alive again. (See the picture at the top.)
National Treasure (2004) – Not only does Nicholas Cage abscond with the Declaration of Independence in an elevator, but he uses an eighteenth-century equivalent to descend to the treasure.
Oh, God! (1977) – If you rise past the top floor, you may be on your way to talk to God.
Outland (1981) – Have you ever wondered what would happen if a spacesuit decompressed in an elevator? It ain’t pretty.
Panic Room (2002) – It’s more of a dumbwaiter, but Jodie Foster uses her mini-elevator to outsmart the home invaders.
Scrooged (1988) – Bill Murray’s reaction to the Ghost of Christmas Future is priceless.
The Shining (1980) – I didn’t even know that flood of blood was coming out of an elevator until I looked it up.
In honor of the Oscars, be sure to vote for your least favorite Best Picture winner! I went with one that shouldn’t have stood up to the competition, 1998’s Shakespeare in Love. There are some unexpected choices this round, so pick the one you found least deserving!
Round Four Least Favourite Oscar Winning Best Picture
We are about to hit Oscar season and what better than to pick our Least favourite Oscar Winning Best Picture because let’s face it we do love some more than others, this time it is the ones we have less love for.
If you want to take part in the next round which is Favourite Action Hero (non-Superhero/comic book) to celebrate the release of London is Fallen. if you want to take part end your pick to moviereviews101@yahoo.co.uk by Sunday the 6h March 2016.
Darren – Movie Reviews 101
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
I have decided to pick a film from the modern era because I really do struggle to enjoy or give the real credit to a lot of older work deserves. I am going to go with a pick that many people will…
Grab the wheel and rev the motor;
Shift the gear for overload;
Brace yourself and lock and load her;
Hit the gas and hit the road!
Don’t look back at what has been;
Drive for lives and don’t delay.
High on pure adrenaline,
Floor it through a lovely day!
_____________
MPAA rating: R
After reading almost nothing but great things about this movie, I finally decided to check out Mad Max: Fury Road, and I can’t say that I was disappointed. I haven’t seen any of the original Mad Max trilogy, but since each one seems to be its own adventure with one constant character, what’s there to know? The world has been reduced by war to a barren wasteland, with mankind relying on jacked-up vehicles to survive amid ruthless gangs and dangers. While I consider this automotive dystopia entirely unbelievable, Fury Road is a movie meant to be experienced, not watched or analyzed or taken overly seriously, though you’re welcome to do that too once the adrenaline dies down. Directed by George Miller, the 70-year-old director who surprisingly also gave us Babe and Happy Feet, it’s an assault on the senses, and you’re just along for the ride.
I tried watching this with my very hesitant VC, who has seen some of the first three movies and considers them weird. “Weird” still applies. The costumes, makeup, characters, vehicles, and overall package are bizarre, superfluous, and often grotesque but certainly imaginative and oddly cool (seriously, a whole rig dedicated to a background guitar solo?). The central baddies are a fanatical cult led by Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, the first Mad Max’s villain), who rules the mountainous Citadel by controlling his War Boys’ religious fervor and the people’s access to the life-giving fluids of water, milk, gasoline, and blood. When one of his right hands, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), escapes for freedom with Joe’s scantily clad harem, his entire army takes off in hot pursuit. Oh, yeah, and there’s a guy named Max (Tom Hardy) along for the ride.
I was dubious about many critics considering Fury Road one of the greatest action movies ever, but it kind of is, if only because the entire story relies on action. Details like the War Boys’ method of suicide or Furiosa’s robotic forearm are never explained. They’re just presented while the thin plot and explosions roll along, letting action take the place of any in-depth characterization.
We don’t even get much in the way of character bonding or motivation until about two-thirds of the way through, but somehow it’s forgiven because we’ve already seen everyone in action, from Joe’s five wives with names like Toast and Capable to the dedicated War Boy Nux (Nicholas Hoult). My VC was a bit turned off by the frantic, sometimes sped-up editing, but it did make it hard to look away. The explosions are amazing, and all the more amazing for relying on practical effects and stunts, though one obviously CGI scene at the climax almost spoiled the effect. I also liked how it managed a happy ending that served as an inverse of the beginning, even if the final scene seemed needlessly set up for a sequel.
One aspect that I’ve seen mentioned over and over is how violent the film is, and while it’s certainly R-rated action, I wasn’t that bothered by it. I was fearing something really graphic, but the truth is that Fury Road is nowhere near as gory as things like The Walking Dead or the Deadpool trailer (both of which I’ve seen once and won’t again). There are shootings and stabbings and people being thrown off of fast-moving vehicles, but save for a couple of scenes, the R is really owed to the film’s overall intensity, and even the violent scenes are so brief in the kinetic editing that they didn’t detract for me. The bloodiest scene actually serves a latent purpose in punishing the very weird excesses I mentioned earlier, sort of like the cape critique in The Incredibles. You want to wear over-the-top costumes? Well, you may regret it. In addition, I was pleased that, for once, a gritty actioner was almost entirely free of foul language. Granted, there’s not a lot of dialogue in the first place, but think about it. Was it really missed?
Whether you watch for Hardy’s and Theron’s strong laconic leads or for the girl power thrill of women with guns or for the nonstop epic action, this is one nitro-fueled bandwagon I can’t help but jump aboard, despite its innate strangeness. While I agree on its awesome status among action films, when was the last pure action movie to be nominated for Best Picture? I rather wish Inside Out had been nominated instead. But that’s me. Brilliant at best and entertaining at worst, Mad Max: Fury Road is an unexpectedly great sequel that viewers didn’t know they wanted.
Best line: (Nux, in a line that could be even more iconic if it had been repeated; after all, it’s a lot better than “Witness me”) “Oh, what a day! What a lovely day!”
Out in the marsh where the sandpipers wade
And the reeds allow breezes to bend every blade,
Visions appear in the moonlight and fade
And leave witnesses with a curious scare.
Some think they’re nothing but eyes playing tricks,
And others fear ghosts have escaped from the Styx,
But some explore further with sorrows to fix
And find answers they didn’t know would be there.
___________________
MPAA rating: PG
Studio Ghibli has been crafting outstanding animations for the last three decades, and now that co-founder Hayao Miyazaki is officially retired (again), it looks as if its present hiatus may be permanent. Before the hiatus, though, the studio gave us one more Ghibli gift in When Marnie Was There. Is it among the best Ghibli has to offer? No, but it still has a magical and earnest quality that can hold fast with the likes of Porco Rosso and The Secret World of Arrietty (also directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi).
Based on Joan G. Robinson’s 1965 YA novel, which is one of Miyazaki’s favorites, When Marnie Was There is also one of Ghibli’s more mature works, not in a graphic sense like Princess Mononoke, but in an emotional sense. Anna (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld in the English dub) is a deeply troubled girl who keeps all of her griefs inside. As she says, she hates herself, for having asthma, for not fitting in at school, for not feeling at home with her foster parents. When she is sent to the countryside to live with friendly relatives, she remains uncomfortably stoic until she encounters a rundown mansion and the mysterious blonde girl Marnie (Kiernan Shipka) who only appears to her. When Anna crosses the tidal marsh to the mansion, she seems to step back in time, and their friendship grows, allowing Anna to regain her emotions and her self-confidence.
Many Ghibli films are leisurely paced, and this is no exception. The beginning takes time in establishing the characters: the nosy but nice would-be friend, the laconic neighborhood fisherman, the habitual painter fond of Marnie’s mansion. This community is merely a quaint backdrop for the central friendship and mystery between Anna and Marnie. The slowness of the mystery taxes the patience more than the film overall, but luckily there is a payoff, even if the line between dreams and reality becomes more ambiguous over time.
Some comments on the film have considered the girls’ bond in a romantic context with words like “infatuation,” and there were times that I was wondering where exactly their relationship was going. By today’s standards, when two twelve-year-olds meet secretly and dance in the moonlight and express their love, romance is assumed over friendship, while the opposite probably would have been true in the past. Perhaps modern sensibilities have colored people’s perceptions, like the humorous assumptions on Sherlock or the way some people mistake Sam and Frodo’s brotherly camaraderie in The Lord of the Rings for longing. Ultimately, the girls are meant to be only friends, yet the solving of the mystery reveals that their connection is indeed deeper than first thought. Actually, the revelation casts certain scenes in a much more tender and meaningful light, with subtle psychological details unseen in most Ghiblis. (Note the doll that Anna holds during a painful flashback.)
Though it’s not obvious at first, Anna’s greatest misery is being ignored or not wanted. Even the nicest people who seem to pay her attention are easily distracted, leaving her with nothing but personal distaste. Is Marnie merely the subconscious product of her desire for attention or a supernatural answer to it? By the end, it doesn’t really matter. Wishing to belong is nothing new in family films, but When Marnie Is There supplies a satisfying reply with more realistic resonances than most. With so much emotional depth, it’s unfortunate that the film’s visual style can’t quite match it. It has its fair share of memorable Ghibli-style scenes (a moonlit rowboat, wading through a rising tide), but its beauty just doesn’t compare with their best. Though Marnie has earned a nomination for Best Animated Feature, Inside Out is still a shoo-in. Despite this, When Marnie Is There is a bittersweet swan song for one of the great animation studios.
Best line: (Anna, watching her classmates) “In this world, there’s an invisible magic circle. There’s an inside, and an outside. Those people are inside the circle, and I’m outside.”
Rhyme and Reason 