directed by Peter Sohn
written by Meg LeFauve, Peter Sohn, Erik Benson, Kelsey Mann and Bob Peterson
When Pixar started marketing its new film The Good Dinosaur a few months ago, the trailer called a lot of attention to the "what if" premise of the extinction of dinosaurs never actually taking place, paving the way for a world where humans and dinosaurs could co-exist. Unfortunately, apparently the only thing Pixar really wanted to do with that heady premise was turn dinosaurs into cowboys and humans into dogs. No, really.
As unlikely as this may sound, The Good Dinosaur while being a coming-of-age film about a young apatosaur, actually plays out, in terms of atmosphere, script and even music, like a Western.
It is the story of Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa), the smallest of three dinosaur siblings born to a loving couple of dinosaur farmers (Jeffrey Wright and Frances McDormand). As Arlo and his siblings Buck (Marcus Scribner) and Libby (Maleah Padilla) grow, the two of them prove very capable around the farm, while he struggles with his chore of feeding the chickens largely because he is afraid of them. Both Buck and Libby are able to "make their mark" on the family's grain silo or put their footprints in mud alongside the marks of their parents, but Arlo, at the beginning of the film, has apparently not yet earned the right to do so.
Wanting to help his son, the father dinosaur comes up with a task for him: kill the creature that has been stealing grain from the silo. The task goes awry, and tragedy ensues as a rainstorm and flash flood hit. Arlo finds himself separated from his family and far from home. What follows is a journey of discovery, peril, courage and unexpected friendship.
Following their finest original film in years, Inside Out, perhaps there was some inevitability that their next film would disappoint, but even careful management of expectations could not dispel the distinct impression that Pixar made The Good Dinosaur more as a way of sharpening their technical skills than as the celebration of the art of storytelling that their very best movies are.
On a technical level, this film is utterly beyond reproach and I could swear that, time and time again, I was sure I was looking at an actual, filmed environment rather than an animated one.
In terms of story and character development, though, the film comes conspicuously short of the kind of excellence viewers have come to expect from Pixar, especially after their last, pitch-perfect movie. It leans on one narrative cliche after another, and while it effectively turns the premise of anthropomorphism on its head, there's nothing else about it that's particularly remarkable.
It really is a technical marvel, even though I wasn't particularly fond of the cartoony design of the dinosaurs. I realize that a more realistic look for them could have alienated children, who were quite clearly the target audience here, but the hyper-realistic environments, which even included meticulously rendered storm clouds and flood waters, seemed distinctly incongruous with the stylized characters. Pixar has done this before, of course; its characters have inhabited meticulously-rendered worlds like the retro-futuristic environs of The Incredibles or even the fantastic, Monte Carlo-inspired, European coastal city depicted in the narrative disaster Cars 2. The thing about this movie, though is that it takes realistic animated environments to the next level, and yet is content to tell a very ordinary story using some truly extraordinary techniques. Another technical achievement worth mentioning is Mychael and Jeff Danna's striking music score which, while reminiscent of some pretty conventional "western" themes, still manages to be emotionally resonant.
The movie trots out so many story tropes in succession that it gets rather tedious after awhile, though I'll readily admit I got a good laugh out of the "drug trip" scene in which the two main characters hallucinate after eating rotten fruit.
The "cowboy dinosaur" element was pretty novel, though, especially the scene where three tyrannosaurus rexes, who are this world's cowboys to the apatosaurus' farmers, ran; they basically galloped and it was pretty amusing to watch. Sam Elliott is always a treat, even when he's just lending his vocals, and he was quite well cast here as the patriarch of a family of t-rex cowboys.
This film takes the visual aspect of animated storytelling to another level, but unfortunately, this time at least, the more important elements of storytelling were left by the wayside, which is odd, considering how much doctoring the script underwent.
For my part, I hope that in Pixar's future movies featuring their patented brilliant storytelling, the environs are given this much detail. The viewing experience is much richer for it.
Incidentally, the short film that opened for this film, Sanjay's Super Team, which featured Indian deities as superheroes, was a lot more interesting than the main feature, and considering its distinctly Asian storytelling flavor it makes me wonder if Pixar isn't ready to take a significant step in a new creative direction. It was also given a sublime music score by Mychael Danna (sans brother Jeff) which hearkened back to his Academy-Award winning work on Life of Pi.
6.5/10
9/10 for Sanjay's Super Team
Monday, November 30, 2015
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Turning Back the Clock: A Review of Spectre
directed by Sam Mendes
written by John Logan, Robert Wade, Neil Purvis and Jez Butterworth
After three movies in which Daniel Craig channeled Jason Bourne when playing cinematic superspy James Bond, in Spectre, the latest (reportedly Craig's last) outing, he trades in the brass-knuckle brutality of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and even Skyfall for a decidedly more traditional take on the character.
Following the events of Skyfall, Bond tracks down an Italian assassin to Mexico City, where he prevents a mass murder but causes an international incident in the process. This, however, is only the beginning, as the assassin, as Bond soon discovers after observing his funeral and meeting his widow (Monica Bellucci), is part of a much larger and more sinister organization than Bond could have ever imagined, one that has direct links to the villains he has faced since the very beginning of his career. As Bond investigates, he eavesdrops on a meeting presided over by Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), a man with direct ties to Bond's past. In the meantime, MI6, which was physically destroyed in Skyfall, now faces complete annihilation with the arrival of C (Andrew Scott), a bureaucrat determined to replace the 00 program with electronic surveillance and drones, much to the irritation of M (Ralph Fiennes). These threats converge quite swiftly, and Bond soon learns from an old adversary of his, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) the foe he faces is bigger than he could imagine, especially after they sic a larger-than-life henchman, Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista) on him. It will take all of Bond's skill, with a helping hand from M, Q (Ben Winshaw) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and even Mr. White's daughter, Dr.Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), to defeat Spectre, but will it be enough?
There are a couple of things clear from this particular film, probably the foremost being director Sam Mendes' fondness for the franchise and in particular the kitsch that characterized the earliest films. I suppose one could say he's earned the right to take the franchise in whatever direction he sees fit; whether or not one loved or hated Skyfall (and I happened to like it quite a bit) it was, hands down, the most globally successful James Bond movie ever. Also, the gritty approach doesn't always work out for the best, as the creative misstep Quantum of Solace showed. The thing is, I'm not sure "retro" was the way to go, especially since this appears to be Craig's swansong to the franchise.
The old Bond touches abound, like the tricked out Omega watch, the Aston Martin with an ejector seat and the indestructible henchman, to name a few. I was a little disappointed with the much-hyped Aston Martin vs. Jaguar duel; it lacked the intensity that a really good car chase should have. The thing is, considering that there was quite a bit of humor involved in the sequence I get the impression that it wasn't really played so much for thrills as it was for laughs. Maybe they had a deal with Aston Martin to show Bond's car drifting in slow motion so that audiences (and potential AM buyers) could get a good look at the product, even though the DB10 depicted here will never be sold in stores.
The good news, though, is that there are still generous helpings of well-executed action elsewhere in the film, like the incredible opening action sequence in Mexico City which was ushered in by one of the most extraordinary single, uncut shots I've seen in recent years as well as some pretty intense fighting sequences in Austria and on-board a train trundling across Africa. While James Bond films, especially the more recent ones, are cultural events of a sort, Mendes remembers that this is still, first and foremost, an action film, and in that respect, Spectre delivers.
The thing that disappoints a bit, though is that Bond films have, since Craig came on board, tended to be smarter than this, and this film feels like a bit of a step back, though I did appreciate the elegant Monica Bellucci in her glorified cameo, and even Seydoux as the feisty, sexy Swann. Fiennes, Winshaw and Harris all play their supporting roles quite well, and get their own action sequence, something unheard of in the Connery days, but Scott disappoints as C, and even more shockingly, Waltz fails to bring Oberhauser to the level of Javier Bardem's batshit-crazy ex-spy Silva, due in no small part to some rather weak scripting.
For example, I loved Silva's opening soliloquy in the scene in which he was introduced in Skyfall, telling Bond an anecdote about rats eating coconut, and quite honestly, Oberhauser doesn't have anything like that; rather, he spouts some generic spiel about conquering the world through information technology, with parts of his shtick even lifted from Silva's technobabble from the last film. It was all right, but I honestly would have expected more from Waltz, whose work I have enjoyed, even when he was just lending his voice to a cartoon character in 2013's Epic.
This isn't the strongest of the Craig bonds, but if nothing else, at least it wasn't the hot narrative mess that Quantum of Solace fell into after that stellar pre-credits car chase. If this indeed proves to be Daniel Craig's last outing as James Bond, it isn't the worst way he could have gone, but in my opinion he could have gone out so much better.
6.5/10
written by John Logan, Robert Wade, Neil Purvis and Jez Butterworth
After three movies in which Daniel Craig channeled Jason Bourne when playing cinematic superspy James Bond, in Spectre, the latest (reportedly Craig's last) outing, he trades in the brass-knuckle brutality of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and even Skyfall for a decidedly more traditional take on the character.
Following the events of Skyfall, Bond tracks down an Italian assassin to Mexico City, where he prevents a mass murder but causes an international incident in the process. This, however, is only the beginning, as the assassin, as Bond soon discovers after observing his funeral and meeting his widow (Monica Bellucci), is part of a much larger and more sinister organization than Bond could have ever imagined, one that has direct links to the villains he has faced since the very beginning of his career. As Bond investigates, he eavesdrops on a meeting presided over by Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), a man with direct ties to Bond's past. In the meantime, MI6, which was physically destroyed in Skyfall, now faces complete annihilation with the arrival of C (Andrew Scott), a bureaucrat determined to replace the 00 program with electronic surveillance and drones, much to the irritation of M (Ralph Fiennes). These threats converge quite swiftly, and Bond soon learns from an old adversary of his, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) the foe he faces is bigger than he could imagine, especially after they sic a larger-than-life henchman, Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista) on him. It will take all of Bond's skill, with a helping hand from M, Q (Ben Winshaw) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and even Mr. White's daughter, Dr.Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), to defeat Spectre, but will it be enough?
There are a couple of things clear from this particular film, probably the foremost being director Sam Mendes' fondness for the franchise and in particular the kitsch that characterized the earliest films. I suppose one could say he's earned the right to take the franchise in whatever direction he sees fit; whether or not one loved or hated Skyfall (and I happened to like it quite a bit) it was, hands down, the most globally successful James Bond movie ever. Also, the gritty approach doesn't always work out for the best, as the creative misstep Quantum of Solace showed. The thing is, I'm not sure "retro" was the way to go, especially since this appears to be Craig's swansong to the franchise.
The old Bond touches abound, like the tricked out Omega watch, the Aston Martin with an ejector seat and the indestructible henchman, to name a few. I was a little disappointed with the much-hyped Aston Martin vs. Jaguar duel; it lacked the intensity that a really good car chase should have. The thing is, considering that there was quite a bit of humor involved in the sequence I get the impression that it wasn't really played so much for thrills as it was for laughs. Maybe they had a deal with Aston Martin to show Bond's car drifting in slow motion so that audiences (and potential AM buyers) could get a good look at the product, even though the DB10 depicted here will never be sold in stores.
The good news, though, is that there are still generous helpings of well-executed action elsewhere in the film, like the incredible opening action sequence in Mexico City which was ushered in by one of the most extraordinary single, uncut shots I've seen in recent years as well as some pretty intense fighting sequences in Austria and on-board a train trundling across Africa. While James Bond films, especially the more recent ones, are cultural events of a sort, Mendes remembers that this is still, first and foremost, an action film, and in that respect, Spectre delivers.
The thing that disappoints a bit, though is that Bond films have, since Craig came on board, tended to be smarter than this, and this film feels like a bit of a step back, though I did appreciate the elegant Monica Bellucci in her glorified cameo, and even Seydoux as the feisty, sexy Swann. Fiennes, Winshaw and Harris all play their supporting roles quite well, and get their own action sequence, something unheard of in the Connery days, but Scott disappoints as C, and even more shockingly, Waltz fails to bring Oberhauser to the level of Javier Bardem's batshit-crazy ex-spy Silva, due in no small part to some rather weak scripting.
For example, I loved Silva's opening soliloquy in the scene in which he was introduced in Skyfall, telling Bond an anecdote about rats eating coconut, and quite honestly, Oberhauser doesn't have anything like that; rather, he spouts some generic spiel about conquering the world through information technology, with parts of his shtick even lifted from Silva's technobabble from the last film. It was all right, but I honestly would have expected more from Waltz, whose work I have enjoyed, even when he was just lending his voice to a cartoon character in 2013's Epic.
This isn't the strongest of the Craig bonds, but if nothing else, at least it wasn't the hot narrative mess that Quantum of Solace fell into after that stellar pre-credits car chase. If this indeed proves to be Daniel Craig's last outing as James Bond, it isn't the worst way he could have gone, but in my opinion he could have gone out so much better.
6.5/10
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Jack Black in Glasses: A Review of Goosebumps
directed by Rob Letterman
written by Darren Lemke, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
I was never an avid follower of R.L. Stine's popular Goosebumps series of young adult horror books, so I had very little invested in this movie going in, apart from rather expensive ticket which promised unlimited popcorn (and, to be fair, delivered). The movie actually doesn't adapt any of his books but follows the unusual (but not unheard of) narrative strategy of being set in a world in which people have read the books, with the author himself (played by Black) being a character in the story.
Black's Stine, though, is more of a supporting character in the story of Zach (Dylan Minette) a high school age youth who moves to a new town with his mother (Amy Ryan) following the death of his father. His only friends are Champ (Ryan Lee) and his mysterious neighbor Hannah (Odeya Rush), who turns out to be the daughter of the reclusive Stine. After seeing Stine shout at his daughter through their window on a number of occasions, Zach suspects domestic abuse is going on and calls the police. When Stine convinces the small town police that nothing is amiss, Zach takes matters into his own hands, tricks Stine into leaving, breaks into his house with Champ's help, and finds something he doesn't quite expect, and, without knowing it, unleashes something terrifying on the town from the very pages of Stine's books. He'll need the help of Hannah, Champ and Stine himself to stop the monstrous rampage that follows.
This film really doesn't have a whole lot going for it, from its Logan-Lerman-clone of a lead to its treasure trove of cliche characters to its bargain-basement, barely-better-than-TV-movie computer-generated imagery, but it does have something that I really got into: Jack Black acting completely against type. With a few tweaks and outright exceptions (like his family friendly turns in Dreamworks cartoons, and his Mexican wrestler in Nacho Libre), Jack Black has basically played the same guy since the year 2000, namely Barry from High Fidelity, so to see him change gears like this is a real treat. He doesn't play Stine with condescension or caricature but, surprisingly, gives him some genuine emotional resonance, even amidst the comedy that drives the film. It's nice to see Black star in a comedy without delivering the loudest performance. That distinction goes to Lee, though barring any star-making turns after this I don't really see him breaking out.
Also, the movie has a few worthwhile things to say about the importance of human relationships, though ironically enough it betrays it premise slightly as far as the obligatory love story is concerned.
I would not recommend for anyone to go out of their way to see this movie, but it is a decent enough time-killer.
6/10
written by Darren Lemke, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
I was never an avid follower of R.L. Stine's popular Goosebumps series of young adult horror books, so I had very little invested in this movie going in, apart from rather expensive ticket which promised unlimited popcorn (and, to be fair, delivered). The movie actually doesn't adapt any of his books but follows the unusual (but not unheard of) narrative strategy of being set in a world in which people have read the books, with the author himself (played by Black) being a character in the story.
Black's Stine, though, is more of a supporting character in the story of Zach (Dylan Minette) a high school age youth who moves to a new town with his mother (Amy Ryan) following the death of his father. His only friends are Champ (Ryan Lee) and his mysterious neighbor Hannah (Odeya Rush), who turns out to be the daughter of the reclusive Stine. After seeing Stine shout at his daughter through their window on a number of occasions, Zach suspects domestic abuse is going on and calls the police. When Stine convinces the small town police that nothing is amiss, Zach takes matters into his own hands, tricks Stine into leaving, breaks into his house with Champ's help, and finds something he doesn't quite expect, and, without knowing it, unleashes something terrifying on the town from the very pages of Stine's books. He'll need the help of Hannah, Champ and Stine himself to stop the monstrous rampage that follows.
This film really doesn't have a whole lot going for it, from its Logan-Lerman-clone of a lead to its treasure trove of cliche characters to its bargain-basement, barely-better-than-TV-movie computer-generated imagery, but it does have something that I really got into: Jack Black acting completely against type. With a few tweaks and outright exceptions (like his family friendly turns in Dreamworks cartoons, and his Mexican wrestler in Nacho Libre), Jack Black has basically played the same guy since the year 2000, namely Barry from High Fidelity, so to see him change gears like this is a real treat. He doesn't play Stine with condescension or caricature but, surprisingly, gives him some genuine emotional resonance, even amidst the comedy that drives the film. It's nice to see Black star in a comedy without delivering the loudest performance. That distinction goes to Lee, though barring any star-making turns after this I don't really see him breaking out.
Also, the movie has a few worthwhile things to say about the importance of human relationships, though ironically enough it betrays it premise slightly as far as the obligatory love story is concerned.
I would not recommend for anyone to go out of their way to see this movie, but it is a decent enough time-killer.
6/10
Monday, October 12, 2015
Top of His Game: A Review of The Martian (Mild Spoilers)
directed by Ridley Scott
written by Drew Goddard
While Ridley Scott has been a bit of a geek icon since 1979, when he rocked the world with Alien, I confessed I had not "discovered" him until I watched the multiple-Oscar-winning epic Gladiator, a film that basically blew me away. I enjoyed a couple of his movies after that, like 2001's gritty Black Hawk Down, and 2007's American Gangster, but by and large I did not really consider myself a fan, especially after I watched the underwhelming, yet much ballyhooed Prometheus.
With The Martian, however, he's pretty much won me over all over again.
Mark Watney (Matt Damon), a botanist, is part of Aries III, a manned mission to Mars led by Commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain). When a storm threatens the safety of their mission, the team which includes astronauts Beck (Sebastian Stan), Martinez (Michael Pena), Vogel (Askell Hennie) and Johannson retreat to their shuttle, but Watney is struck by flying equipment and lost in the storm, forcing Lewis and the rest of the team to leave him for dead. Watney does survive, and sets about the process of staying alive by maximizing his resources, particularly food and water at the Mars "Hab" or habitat, even growing his own food using existing potatoes and his own feces in order to buy him as much time as possible while he figures out his next move, the most sensible of which, of course, is to try and contact NASA. As it turns out, NASA, after a very public ceremony declaring Watney dead and burying him, is in the process of planning the next mission, when one of their technicians in mission control Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis), looks at satellite photos directly above the Hab, and calls her boss, mission director Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to have a look. Kapoor concludes that Watney is alive, and he and several other high-level NASA officers, including fellow mission director Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean), Jet Propulsion Labs director Bruce Ng (Benedict Wong), NASA spokesperson Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig) and NASA director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), who broke the erroneous news of Watney's death to the world, start putting their heads together as to what can be done to save him. Meanwhile, the crew of Aries III continue their forlorn trip home, unaware of their teammate's survival and unaware that they may yet be able to save his life. Watney's ingenuity and skills as a botanist count for quite a lot in helping keep him alive, but the clock is ticking.
This movie is the third astronauts-in-peril movie churned out by Hollywood in as many years, and while I missed last year's Interstellar, I can quite happily say that this film holds up quite well against the first film in this bunch, the very popular, award-winning Gravity. There isn't quite the sense of urgency about this film that characterized Gravity considering that Watney isn't plummeting to earth as Sandra Bullock's character was, but there is a genuine sense of the peril Watney faces, and because there he isn't plunging down to earth a large part of that is down to Scott's direction and his actors' ability to build tension. Compared to Gravity, a substantial portion of this film is basically a bunch of talking heads, or in the case of Watney, one guy talking to a camera, and it is therefore the actors' job to sell to the audience the notion that this man is in mortal peril, and to the full credit of Scott, his cast and his crew, they do a bang-up job, especially Damon.
Now, Mark Watney isn't the Fed Ex guy that Tom Hanks played in Cast Away, and Damon smartly steers clear of a performance that could really spill into schmaltz, and it was really a pleasant surprise to see how much humor both Damon and screenwriter Drew Goddard (a bit of a burgeoning geek god himself) were able to inject into the role. Anyone who's seen Matt Damon on talk shows would know he's a pretty funny guy, so he's no stranger to humor onscreen, but for him to convince the audience of Watney's dire straits while at the same time elicit some genuine laughs is a considerable challenge,and kudos to Mr. Damon for hurdling it. Speaking of Goddard and his geek credentials, geeks should flip at one particular metafictional (I hope I'm using the term correctly) reference in the film. Also, the fact that Sebastian Stan and Michael Pena are veterans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe makes it particularly amusing when a Marvel character is explicitly mentioned.
The Martian certainly isn't the technical tour de force that Gravity was, but perhaps that's a good thing as the minimalist visual effects really give the performers the opportunity to shine here. I would also consider it high praise for the VFX technicians that the effects shots that do feature in the film are quite unobtrusive and propel the story forward rather than call any attention to themselves. That, after all, is what effects shots are supposed to do. On a technical level, this film was, for me, beyond reproach.
This movie is one of those life-affirming affairs that feels like such a rare thing in a pop-culture environment in which a seemingly increasing number of people insist that movies cannot be good unless they're "dark." It feels somewhat ironic that this movie was given to audiences by a man who kicked off his career with some unrelentingly dark films like Alien and Blade Runner, but I think it's a pretty welcome change of pace for Scott and I quite honestly wouldn't mind seeing more movies like this from him.
9/10
written by Drew Goddard
While Ridley Scott has been a bit of a geek icon since 1979, when he rocked the world with Alien, I confessed I had not "discovered" him until I watched the multiple-Oscar-winning epic Gladiator, a film that basically blew me away. I enjoyed a couple of his movies after that, like 2001's gritty Black Hawk Down, and 2007's American Gangster, but by and large I did not really consider myself a fan, especially after I watched the underwhelming, yet much ballyhooed Prometheus.
With The Martian, however, he's pretty much won me over all over again.
Mark Watney (Matt Damon), a botanist, is part of Aries III, a manned mission to Mars led by Commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain). When a storm threatens the safety of their mission, the team which includes astronauts Beck (Sebastian Stan), Martinez (Michael Pena), Vogel (Askell Hennie) and Johannson retreat to their shuttle, but Watney is struck by flying equipment and lost in the storm, forcing Lewis and the rest of the team to leave him for dead. Watney does survive, and sets about the process of staying alive by maximizing his resources, particularly food and water at the Mars "Hab" or habitat, even growing his own food using existing potatoes and his own feces in order to buy him as much time as possible while he figures out his next move, the most sensible of which, of course, is to try and contact NASA. As it turns out, NASA, after a very public ceremony declaring Watney dead and burying him, is in the process of planning the next mission, when one of their technicians in mission control Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis), looks at satellite photos directly above the Hab, and calls her boss, mission director Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to have a look. Kapoor concludes that Watney is alive, and he and several other high-level NASA officers, including fellow mission director Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean), Jet Propulsion Labs director Bruce Ng (Benedict Wong), NASA spokesperson Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig) and NASA director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), who broke the erroneous news of Watney's death to the world, start putting their heads together as to what can be done to save him. Meanwhile, the crew of Aries III continue their forlorn trip home, unaware of their teammate's survival and unaware that they may yet be able to save his life. Watney's ingenuity and skills as a botanist count for quite a lot in helping keep him alive, but the clock is ticking.
This movie is the third astronauts-in-peril movie churned out by Hollywood in as many years, and while I missed last year's Interstellar, I can quite happily say that this film holds up quite well against the first film in this bunch, the very popular, award-winning Gravity. There isn't quite the sense of urgency about this film that characterized Gravity considering that Watney isn't plummeting to earth as Sandra Bullock's character was, but there is a genuine sense of the peril Watney faces, and because there he isn't plunging down to earth a large part of that is down to Scott's direction and his actors' ability to build tension. Compared to Gravity, a substantial portion of this film is basically a bunch of talking heads, or in the case of Watney, one guy talking to a camera, and it is therefore the actors' job to sell to the audience the notion that this man is in mortal peril, and to the full credit of Scott, his cast and his crew, they do a bang-up job, especially Damon.
Now, Mark Watney isn't the Fed Ex guy that Tom Hanks played in Cast Away, and Damon smartly steers clear of a performance that could really spill into schmaltz, and it was really a pleasant surprise to see how much humor both Damon and screenwriter Drew Goddard (a bit of a burgeoning geek god himself) were able to inject into the role. Anyone who's seen Matt Damon on talk shows would know he's a pretty funny guy, so he's no stranger to humor onscreen, but for him to convince the audience of Watney's dire straits while at the same time elicit some genuine laughs is a considerable challenge,and kudos to Mr. Damon for hurdling it. Speaking of Goddard and his geek credentials, geeks should flip at one particular metafictional (I hope I'm using the term correctly) reference in the film. Also, the fact that Sebastian Stan and Michael Pena are veterans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe makes it particularly amusing when a Marvel character is explicitly mentioned.
The Martian certainly isn't the technical tour de force that Gravity was, but perhaps that's a good thing as the minimalist visual effects really give the performers the opportunity to shine here. I would also consider it high praise for the VFX technicians that the effects shots that do feature in the film are quite unobtrusive and propel the story forward rather than call any attention to themselves. That, after all, is what effects shots are supposed to do. On a technical level, this film was, for me, beyond reproach.
This movie is one of those life-affirming affairs that feels like such a rare thing in a pop-culture environment in which a seemingly increasing number of people insist that movies cannot be good unless they're "dark." It feels somewhat ironic that this movie was given to audiences by a man who kicked off his career with some unrelentingly dark films like Alien and Blade Runner, but I think it's a pretty welcome change of pace for Scott and I quite honestly wouldn't mind seeing more movies like this from him.
9/10
Saturday, October 10, 2015
Sandler Reinvented (Sort of): A Review of Hotel Transylvania 2
directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
written by Adam Sandler and Robert Smigel
While I would have loved to have spent last weekend watching the resurgent historical epic Heneral Luna, I found myself in a mall with three little girls too young to watch the R-13 rated movie and a lot of time to kill. In any event, I had been wanting to take my kids to see the film since the initial trailers, so this was as good an opportunity as any to go see it.
The Transylvania gang, including Dracula (Adam Sandler), Frankenstein (Kevin James), the Werewolf (Steve Buscemi), the Invisible Man (David Spade), and the Mummy (Keegan-Michael Key) are back, and Hotel Transylvania remains very much in business. Drac's daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and her boyfriend since the end of the last movie Johnny (Andy Samberg) finally get married and make Drac a grandfather. Drac's joy soon turns to anxiety, however, as it becomes unclear whether or not little Dennis (Asher Blinkoff) has actually inherited any of his mother's and grandfather's vampiric powers. It also becomes an object of concern when Mavis, worried about her "non-monster" son, begins to think that living in a monster-free California, where Johnny is from, might be better for Dennis than living in Transylvania. Thus begins Drac's quest to coax his grandson's vampirism out of him as Mavis and Johnny leave for the U.S. to visit Johnny's parents, leaving Dennis with Drac and his friends, who have their work cut out for them.
I found the first movie reasonably entertaining with its combination of fun, if not particularly innovative designs on classic movie monsters and to anyone who enjoyed the first movie I am pleased to report that this is pretty much more of the same unpretentious silliness. It's pretty much trademark Sandler, but with less rude jokes (though the word "boobies" actually makes it into the script) and with a broader canvas, considering the things that cartoons can do which real people cannot, even when abetted by computer graphics. Sandler used to play a man-child who refused to grow up, here he plays (through voice acting) an old man trying to relive his youth vicariously through his grandson. In any case, the broad humor connected with me. I also liked little touches in the film like the vampire summer camp and the extensive use of youtube, though I found it kind of idiotic that the filmmakers could not decide whether or not vampires could be captured on camera, as they were in some instances and were not in others.
The sequel does have a kind of by-the-numbers feel to it, as can be expected from most sequels, but most importantly, they kept the fun, even if the movie really dipped into the nonsensical time and again. I'd be a complete hypocrite if I didn't admit I had a good laugh time and again. It's some pretty decent, if altogether silly fun.
6.5/10
written by Adam Sandler and Robert Smigel
While I would have loved to have spent last weekend watching the resurgent historical epic Heneral Luna, I found myself in a mall with three little girls too young to watch the R-13 rated movie and a lot of time to kill. In any event, I had been wanting to take my kids to see the film since the initial trailers, so this was as good an opportunity as any to go see it.
The Transylvania gang, including Dracula (Adam Sandler), Frankenstein (Kevin James), the Werewolf (Steve Buscemi), the Invisible Man (David Spade), and the Mummy (Keegan-Michael Key) are back, and Hotel Transylvania remains very much in business. Drac's daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and her boyfriend since the end of the last movie Johnny (Andy Samberg) finally get married and make Drac a grandfather. Drac's joy soon turns to anxiety, however, as it becomes unclear whether or not little Dennis (Asher Blinkoff) has actually inherited any of his mother's and grandfather's vampiric powers. It also becomes an object of concern when Mavis, worried about her "non-monster" son, begins to think that living in a monster-free California, where Johnny is from, might be better for Dennis than living in Transylvania. Thus begins Drac's quest to coax his grandson's vampirism out of him as Mavis and Johnny leave for the U.S. to visit Johnny's parents, leaving Dennis with Drac and his friends, who have their work cut out for them.
I found the first movie reasonably entertaining with its combination of fun, if not particularly innovative designs on classic movie monsters and to anyone who enjoyed the first movie I am pleased to report that this is pretty much more of the same unpretentious silliness. It's pretty much trademark Sandler, but with less rude jokes (though the word "boobies" actually makes it into the script) and with a broader canvas, considering the things that cartoons can do which real people cannot, even when abetted by computer graphics. Sandler used to play a man-child who refused to grow up, here he plays (through voice acting) an old man trying to relive his youth vicariously through his grandson. In any case, the broad humor connected with me. I also liked little touches in the film like the vampire summer camp and the extensive use of youtube, though I found it kind of idiotic that the filmmakers could not decide whether or not vampires could be captured on camera, as they were in some instances and were not in others.
The sequel does have a kind of by-the-numbers feel to it, as can be expected from most sequels, but most importantly, they kept the fun, even if the movie really dipped into the nonsensical time and again. I'd be a complete hypocrite if I didn't admit I had a good laugh time and again. It's some pretty decent, if altogether silly fun.
6.5/10
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Heneral Luna: The Most Important Movie Any Filipino Could Possibly Watch This Year
directed by Jerrold Tarog
written by Henry Francia, E.A. Rocha, and Jerrold Tayog
As Jerrold Tarog begins this film, he gets something very important out of the way: he declares, in no uncertain terms, that his film is a work of fiction for which he has borrowed liberally from actual history, and that certain events may have been tweaked to serve the greater narrative. With one stroke he addresses the history nerds in the audience, telling them quite categorically: "Just shut up and enjoy the movie." This is important because rather than a by-the-numbers retelling of history, this film plays out very much like a parable, one that every Filipino needs to see and hear.
After Three Hundred Thirty-Three years, Spanish rule in the Philippines is coming to an end, and to escape the humiliation of having been overthrown by its erstwhile subjects, the Spanish government is having a closed-door meeting with the new burgeoning imperial power, the United States of America. As they meet inside the walled city, Intramuros, the revolutionary government, led by President Emilio Aguinaldo (Mon Confiado) have a meeting of their own and try to decide what to do next. Antonio Luna (played masterfully by John Arcilla), the highest ranking general of the army of the revolutionary republic of the Philippines, believes that they are only swapping one colonial ruler for another, and advocates an attack on the Americans while they are still marshaling their forces, but cabinet members Pedro Paterno (Leo Martinez) and Felipe Buencamino (Nonie Buencamino) believe that the Americans have good intentions and are looking forward to doing business with them. In the end, the politicians prevail and no attack is carried out. However, when the American soldiers shoot a passel of Filipino soldiers a few months into their occupation, a full-blown war breaks out, leaving General Luna no choice but to face the military might of the strongest nation in the world. Luna, however, is no slouch; he knows that to beat the Americans, who are superior in both numbers and technology, he will need tactics, and thanks to his fierce intelligence and extensive education in Europe he knows exactly what he needs to do, which does not involve beating Americans on the traditional battlefield but basically wearing them down by getting them to throw more and more money at their war effort until they realize that colonizing the Philippines is too expensive an endeavor. As he strives to professionalize the Filipino army, Luna soon realizes his biggest problem, though, isn't the Americans but his very own countrymen, including officers from his own army like the arrogant General Tomas Mascardo (Lorenz Martinez) and the useless, lazy Captain Pedro Janolino (Ketchup Eusebio), neither of whom will answer to or even cooperate with him but will only take orders from the President himself. As Luna finds himself fighting a war on two fronts, one against colonialism and the other against parochialism and self-interest, he realizes there are precious few people he can trust, such as his loyal officers Francisco Roman (Joem Bascon) and Eduardo Rusca (Archie Alemania). Time is not on his side, and neither, it seems, is the very republic he is fighting to save.
The film, based primarily on a 1972 book by Vivencio Jose is a masterclass of direction, acting, cinematography, editing, music scoring, art direction and costume design, among others. Quite remarkably, in making this film director Tarrog wore several other hats as well. He wrote the film's script and music score and also served as film editor. His shot selection is utterly brilliant. On a technical level, this film is virtually beyond reproach, but for the occasional continuity gaffe and some seams in the special effects, and perhaps more conspicuously, some rather mediocre acting from the actors Tarrog and his crew got to play the Americans, whose onscreen presence is mercifully short, though somewhat pivotal. The good news, though, is that the Filipino actors are, for the most part, at the top of their game.
Arcilla, a veteran of both screen and stage, owns this film. The truth of it is that, in the hands of a lesser actor, with stinging lines like "you're like virgins believing in the love of a prostitute" or the much more important "our very worst enemy is ourselves," the character could have descended into caricature, a live-action version of the splash-panel editorial cartoons that regular newspaper readers are used to seeing. Arcilla, however, takes this role, with its tricky lines and incredibly difficult duality, and gives us a character who is both fierce and tender, both brilliant and, in the end, somehow naive of the evils of which his compatriots are capable, a flaw that ultimately proves to be his undoing. It's really such an outstanding performance, the kind, I believe, that will define Arcilla as an actor, and in the best possible way.
It is to the credit of most of the supporting cast that Tarrog and his producers have assembled that they do not simply blend into the background. Ramon Confiado imbues his Aguinaldo, quite clearly one of the central villains of the piece, with just enough humanity and hesitancy to keep him from being completely beyond redemption. There's even a pretty vivid flashback to the butchering of Andres Bonifacio in which Confiado gets to manifest pangs of the first Filipino president's conscience. Confiado's performance is creditable for bringing out the conflict in this character. In contrast, Epy Quizon's take on Apolinario Mabini was a little too saintly for my liking, thanks largely as well to the script, but he essayed the role well. I will admit I had some problems with Leo Martinez's Pedro Paterno, the greasy politician that felt a bit like a retread of his old "Manhik Manaog" character from the Mongolian Barbecue movie that I'm sure nobody remembers anymore (but which was actually pretty good), but considering his relatively small role I can get why Tarrog and his co-writers Francia and Rocha did not flesh him out too much.
Nonie Buencamino was a bit more surprising as the identically-surnamed Felipe Buencamino; this character is basically Luna's arch-nemesis throughout the film, and yet at the end of it all, he comes across as surprisingly human, even though he's still someone the audience will truly love to hate. What is remarkable about Buencamino's performance is that he, unlike Martinez' Paterno, does not come across as a con-artist or snake-oil salesman, but as someone with genuine, however misplaced, conviction. Projecting that on the screen was to my mind, almost as challenging as portraying Luna himself.
I could go on forever about how I admired this movie as a work of art, but ultimately what matters more is this film's message, which is basically about unity and selflessness in the name of one's country. The film is hardly subtle about its advocacy; its core messages are explicitly stated in the dialogue. In a day and age where people are bickering about how everything is the government's fault and how this politician is better than that one, Tarrog and his crew have shown some serious balls by daring just about everyone who watches this film, when complaining about the ills of society, to basically just take a good, long look in the mirror. Also, there are very few message movies that go balls-out on production value the way this film did, only to end on a complete downer.
Heneral Luna is hardly the first "message movie" to come along, and I sincerely hope it's not the last. I really hope this movie gets a revolution going, and not the kind with guns and murder, but the kind that involves EVERYONE--from the people government to the motorists on Commonwealth avenue to the urban poor--changing the way they think, and learning to truly love their country.
10/10
written by Henry Francia, E.A. Rocha, and Jerrold Tayog
As Jerrold Tarog begins this film, he gets something very important out of the way: he declares, in no uncertain terms, that his film is a work of fiction for which he has borrowed liberally from actual history, and that certain events may have been tweaked to serve the greater narrative. With one stroke he addresses the history nerds in the audience, telling them quite categorically: "Just shut up and enjoy the movie." This is important because rather than a by-the-numbers retelling of history, this film plays out very much like a parable, one that every Filipino needs to see and hear.
After Three Hundred Thirty-Three years, Spanish rule in the Philippines is coming to an end, and to escape the humiliation of having been overthrown by its erstwhile subjects, the Spanish government is having a closed-door meeting with the new burgeoning imperial power, the United States of America. As they meet inside the walled city, Intramuros, the revolutionary government, led by President Emilio Aguinaldo (Mon Confiado) have a meeting of their own and try to decide what to do next. Antonio Luna (played masterfully by John Arcilla), the highest ranking general of the army of the revolutionary republic of the Philippines, believes that they are only swapping one colonial ruler for another, and advocates an attack on the Americans while they are still marshaling their forces, but cabinet members Pedro Paterno (Leo Martinez) and Felipe Buencamino (Nonie Buencamino) believe that the Americans have good intentions and are looking forward to doing business with them. In the end, the politicians prevail and no attack is carried out. However, when the American soldiers shoot a passel of Filipino soldiers a few months into their occupation, a full-blown war breaks out, leaving General Luna no choice but to face the military might of the strongest nation in the world. Luna, however, is no slouch; he knows that to beat the Americans, who are superior in both numbers and technology, he will need tactics, and thanks to his fierce intelligence and extensive education in Europe he knows exactly what he needs to do, which does not involve beating Americans on the traditional battlefield but basically wearing them down by getting them to throw more and more money at their war effort until they realize that colonizing the Philippines is too expensive an endeavor. As he strives to professionalize the Filipino army, Luna soon realizes his biggest problem, though, isn't the Americans but his very own countrymen, including officers from his own army like the arrogant General Tomas Mascardo (Lorenz Martinez) and the useless, lazy Captain Pedro Janolino (Ketchup Eusebio), neither of whom will answer to or even cooperate with him but will only take orders from the President himself. As Luna finds himself fighting a war on two fronts, one against colonialism and the other against parochialism and self-interest, he realizes there are precious few people he can trust, such as his loyal officers Francisco Roman (Joem Bascon) and Eduardo Rusca (Archie Alemania). Time is not on his side, and neither, it seems, is the very republic he is fighting to save.
The film, based primarily on a 1972 book by Vivencio Jose is a masterclass of direction, acting, cinematography, editing, music scoring, art direction and costume design, among others. Quite remarkably, in making this film director Tarrog wore several other hats as well. He wrote the film's script and music score and also served as film editor. His shot selection is utterly brilliant. On a technical level, this film is virtually beyond reproach, but for the occasional continuity gaffe and some seams in the special effects, and perhaps more conspicuously, some rather mediocre acting from the actors Tarrog and his crew got to play the Americans, whose onscreen presence is mercifully short, though somewhat pivotal. The good news, though, is that the Filipino actors are, for the most part, at the top of their game.
Arcilla, a veteran of both screen and stage, owns this film. The truth of it is that, in the hands of a lesser actor, with stinging lines like "you're like virgins believing in the love of a prostitute" or the much more important "our very worst enemy is ourselves," the character could have descended into caricature, a live-action version of the splash-panel editorial cartoons that regular newspaper readers are used to seeing. Arcilla, however, takes this role, with its tricky lines and incredibly difficult duality, and gives us a character who is both fierce and tender, both brilliant and, in the end, somehow naive of the evils of which his compatriots are capable, a flaw that ultimately proves to be his undoing. It's really such an outstanding performance, the kind, I believe, that will define Arcilla as an actor, and in the best possible way.
It is to the credit of most of the supporting cast that Tarrog and his producers have assembled that they do not simply blend into the background. Ramon Confiado imbues his Aguinaldo, quite clearly one of the central villains of the piece, with just enough humanity and hesitancy to keep him from being completely beyond redemption. There's even a pretty vivid flashback to the butchering of Andres Bonifacio in which Confiado gets to manifest pangs of the first Filipino president's conscience. Confiado's performance is creditable for bringing out the conflict in this character. In contrast, Epy Quizon's take on Apolinario Mabini was a little too saintly for my liking, thanks largely as well to the script, but he essayed the role well. I will admit I had some problems with Leo Martinez's Pedro Paterno, the greasy politician that felt a bit like a retread of his old "Manhik Manaog" character from the Mongolian Barbecue movie that I'm sure nobody remembers anymore (but which was actually pretty good), but considering his relatively small role I can get why Tarrog and his co-writers Francia and Rocha did not flesh him out too much.
Nonie Buencamino was a bit more surprising as the identically-surnamed Felipe Buencamino; this character is basically Luna's arch-nemesis throughout the film, and yet at the end of it all, he comes across as surprisingly human, even though he's still someone the audience will truly love to hate. What is remarkable about Buencamino's performance is that he, unlike Martinez' Paterno, does not come across as a con-artist or snake-oil salesman, but as someone with genuine, however misplaced, conviction. Projecting that on the screen was to my mind, almost as challenging as portraying Luna himself.
I could go on forever about how I admired this movie as a work of art, but ultimately what matters more is this film's message, which is basically about unity and selflessness in the name of one's country. The film is hardly subtle about its advocacy; its core messages are explicitly stated in the dialogue. In a day and age where people are bickering about how everything is the government's fault and how this politician is better than that one, Tarrog and his crew have shown some serious balls by daring just about everyone who watches this film, when complaining about the ills of society, to basically just take a good, long look in the mirror. Also, there are very few message movies that go balls-out on production value the way this film did, only to end on a complete downer.
Heneral Luna is hardly the first "message movie" to come along, and I sincerely hope it's not the last. I really hope this movie gets a revolution going, and not the kind with guns and murder, but the kind that involves EVERYONE--from the people government to the motorists on Commonwealth avenue to the urban poor--changing the way they think, and learning to truly love their country.
10/10
Saturday, September 5, 2015
A Truly Beautiful Mind: A Review of Inside Out
directed by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen
written by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley and Ronnie del Carmen
In this day and age of rampant video piracy, film distributors have decided to make it a point to release their "tentpole" pictures in Asia and other territories ahead of their release in the United States. Because of this, we viewers in the Philippines get films like The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, and Minions at the same time as, if not weeks ahead of, our counterparts in America.
This is not the case, for some reason, for films which are made by Walt Disney Pictures' Pixar Studios, whose films are invariably released here as late as two months after their release not only in the United States but in other parts of the world as well.This was the case with Inside Out, which, by the time it came out here almost two weeks ago, had grossed over $600 million in other parts of the world.
Well, the good news is that it was completely worth the wait.
The film is about five colleagues, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Anger (Lewis Black) and Fear (Bill Hader), who have a very interesting job: they are the emotions of a little girl named Riley (Katlyn Dias). They live inside her mind and basically form her reactions to everything that ever happens to her in her life. Joy is the lead emotion in view of the fact that Riley lives a generally happy life in Minnesota. She loves her family, she has great friends, she's crazy about hockey, and life in general. Joy, for her part, loves her job, which mainly consists of pressing buttons on a console that causes Riley to react happily to situations in her life, and storing the memories of the events, depicted as glowing crystal orbs the size of bowling balls (to Joy and her colleagues), in the enormous landscape of Riley's mind. They transport these "bowling balls" via vacuum tubes. Each memory is the color of the emotion that triggered the reaction to the event, and most of them are yellow, the color of Joy. There are some exceptions, like the blue memories represented by Sadness' reactions, green memories triggered by reactions of Disgust, red memories triggered by Anger, and the purple memories triggered by Fear. Joy, however, is the dominant emotion, as she should be in a child's life. There are memories, and then there are core memories, which are necessary to making Riley...Riley. The core memories, in fact, power massive floating structures in Riley's mind that represent aspects of her personality. In the beginning of the film, all of the core memories are joyful ones.
Things change, however, when Riley's entire family moves from Minnesota, where she's lived all of her eleven years, to San Francisco.
Joy and her colleagues go about their business, but she notices that sadness has suddenly started touching yellow memories...and turning them blue. It's mildly irksome at first, but when sadness starts handling core memories, Joy intervenes, and the two of them, along with all the core memories, end up getting sucked into the vacuum tubes and sent out to where all of Riley's memories go, which is a massive city. They find themselves "miles" away from the control room, and they have to get there fast, or the floating islands that core memories power will fall into the chasm of Riley's forgotten memories, and Riley as everyone knows her will truly be lost. Time is not on their side as one by one the islands begin to collapse, but they may have an unexpected ally in Riley's one-time imaginary friend Bing Bong (Richard Kind) who has spent the last years wandering around the corridors of Riley's memories.
Meanwhile, back in central control, Disgust, Anger and Fear are basically running Riley's mind, and they're in a bit of a panic.
All of this, of course, is happening on the inside of Riley. On the outside, she is reacting to her friends moving on from her, to being the new kid at school, and to her dad being preoccupied with his business deals. The combination of Fear, Anger and Disgust dominating her mind is a dangerous mix, and looking back on her fond memories of Minnesota, Riley contemplates doing something drastic.
There is one word that sums of up what I think of this film: SUBLIME.
The notion of anthropomorphic representations of people's emotions isn't something Pixar came up with but I dare anyone to claim that anyone else has executed the concept with even a fraction of the inventiveness and meticulously-realized detail that Pixar have with this film.
I'll admit I wasn't particularly sold on the concept by the initial trailer, which was why this film truly blew me away; it took me quite by surprise. Pete Docter's and Ronnie del Carmen's vision of the inside of a person's mind, even that of a child, is utterly breathtaking, but Pixar being Pixar, they certainly weren't about to stop with a few stunning visuals. Sure, these emotions are all characters in a story, but each of them is a functional part of somebody's brain, and it became pretty clear that Pixar did their homework on how the brain works. Interviewing psychologists is one thing, though, but translating all of this information into story concepts that kids and their parents would embrace was quite another, and Pixar's triumph here was their visualization of the various concepts of the mind like abstract reasoning, subconsciousness, and a personal favorite of mine, dreams.
Of course, all of this was wrapped up in some generous helpings of humor, helped along by the sterling work of the voice cast headed by Poehler and Davis. Hader has long been a personal favorite of mine, and during the laugh-out-loud "dream" sequence he did not disappoint. I was also moved by Dias, the young actress who plays Riley, who was given the unenviable task of acting out all the emotions that had her mental avatars in a tizzy. Sure, this was just voice acting, and Pixar's CG did much of the heavy lifting, but Dias really went a long way towards helping me feel her character's inner turmoil. This movie was, for me particularly extraordinary because just about everything that happens outside of Riley's head is really rather mundane, and the fact that Pixar managed to depict almost everyday mental processes into some larger than life just really shows just how far ahead of the curve they are in terms of sheer creativity. Relative to their competitors, they really are operating on another level of storytelling.
Like the very best of Pixar's offerings, this movie has at its center a beating heart. For me it's right up there with Finding Nemo and the deeply moving three minute love story of Carl and Ellie in Up. Surprisingly, this isn't about fathers and sons or husbands and wives but about understanding one's self, and in a way learning selflessness. As strange as this may sound, this is actually a good movie to show at office team buildings or to teams before a big game; the egomaniacs in either of those groups will quite likely get the reference.
Sure, Illumination Studios may have raked in the big bucks with the broad humor and undeniable appeal of the Minions, but with this Pixar has just reasserted that it is STILL the absolute best in the animation business. At a time when studios are churning sequel after remake after reboot, it is utterly gratifying to know that something this fresh can still succeed in the marketplace.
10/10
written by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley and Ronnie del Carmen
In this day and age of rampant video piracy, film distributors have decided to make it a point to release their "tentpole" pictures in Asia and other territories ahead of their release in the United States. Because of this, we viewers in the Philippines get films like The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, and Minions at the same time as, if not weeks ahead of, our counterparts in America.
This is not the case, for some reason, for films which are made by Walt Disney Pictures' Pixar Studios, whose films are invariably released here as late as two months after their release not only in the United States but in other parts of the world as well.This was the case with Inside Out, which, by the time it came out here almost two weeks ago, had grossed over $600 million in other parts of the world.
Well, the good news is that it was completely worth the wait.
The film is about five colleagues, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Anger (Lewis Black) and Fear (Bill Hader), who have a very interesting job: they are the emotions of a little girl named Riley (Katlyn Dias). They live inside her mind and basically form her reactions to everything that ever happens to her in her life. Joy is the lead emotion in view of the fact that Riley lives a generally happy life in Minnesota. She loves her family, she has great friends, she's crazy about hockey, and life in general. Joy, for her part, loves her job, which mainly consists of pressing buttons on a console that causes Riley to react happily to situations in her life, and storing the memories of the events, depicted as glowing crystal orbs the size of bowling balls (to Joy and her colleagues), in the enormous landscape of Riley's mind. They transport these "bowling balls" via vacuum tubes. Each memory is the color of the emotion that triggered the reaction to the event, and most of them are yellow, the color of Joy. There are some exceptions, like the blue memories represented by Sadness' reactions, green memories triggered by reactions of Disgust, red memories triggered by Anger, and the purple memories triggered by Fear. Joy, however, is the dominant emotion, as she should be in a child's life. There are memories, and then there are core memories, which are necessary to making Riley...Riley. The core memories, in fact, power massive floating structures in Riley's mind that represent aspects of her personality. In the beginning of the film, all of the core memories are joyful ones.
Things change, however, when Riley's entire family moves from Minnesota, where she's lived all of her eleven years, to San Francisco.
Joy and her colleagues go about their business, but she notices that sadness has suddenly started touching yellow memories...and turning them blue. It's mildly irksome at first, but when sadness starts handling core memories, Joy intervenes, and the two of them, along with all the core memories, end up getting sucked into the vacuum tubes and sent out to where all of Riley's memories go, which is a massive city. They find themselves "miles" away from the control room, and they have to get there fast, or the floating islands that core memories power will fall into the chasm of Riley's forgotten memories, and Riley as everyone knows her will truly be lost. Time is not on their side as one by one the islands begin to collapse, but they may have an unexpected ally in Riley's one-time imaginary friend Bing Bong (Richard Kind) who has spent the last years wandering around the corridors of Riley's memories.
Meanwhile, back in central control, Disgust, Anger and Fear are basically running Riley's mind, and they're in a bit of a panic.
All of this, of course, is happening on the inside of Riley. On the outside, she is reacting to her friends moving on from her, to being the new kid at school, and to her dad being preoccupied with his business deals. The combination of Fear, Anger and Disgust dominating her mind is a dangerous mix, and looking back on her fond memories of Minnesota, Riley contemplates doing something drastic.
There is one word that sums of up what I think of this film: SUBLIME.
The notion of anthropomorphic representations of people's emotions isn't something Pixar came up with but I dare anyone to claim that anyone else has executed the concept with even a fraction of the inventiveness and meticulously-realized detail that Pixar have with this film.
I'll admit I wasn't particularly sold on the concept by the initial trailer, which was why this film truly blew me away; it took me quite by surprise. Pete Docter's and Ronnie del Carmen's vision of the inside of a person's mind, even that of a child, is utterly breathtaking, but Pixar being Pixar, they certainly weren't about to stop with a few stunning visuals. Sure, these emotions are all characters in a story, but each of them is a functional part of somebody's brain, and it became pretty clear that Pixar did their homework on how the brain works. Interviewing psychologists is one thing, though, but translating all of this information into story concepts that kids and their parents would embrace was quite another, and Pixar's triumph here was their visualization of the various concepts of the mind like abstract reasoning, subconsciousness, and a personal favorite of mine, dreams.
Of course, all of this was wrapped up in some generous helpings of humor, helped along by the sterling work of the voice cast headed by Poehler and Davis. Hader has long been a personal favorite of mine, and during the laugh-out-loud "dream" sequence he did not disappoint. I was also moved by Dias, the young actress who plays Riley, who was given the unenviable task of acting out all the emotions that had her mental avatars in a tizzy. Sure, this was just voice acting, and Pixar's CG did much of the heavy lifting, but Dias really went a long way towards helping me feel her character's inner turmoil. This movie was, for me particularly extraordinary because just about everything that happens outside of Riley's head is really rather mundane, and the fact that Pixar managed to depict almost everyday mental processes into some larger than life just really shows just how far ahead of the curve they are in terms of sheer creativity. Relative to their competitors, they really are operating on another level of storytelling.
Like the very best of Pixar's offerings, this movie has at its center a beating heart. For me it's right up there with Finding Nemo and the deeply moving three minute love story of Carl and Ellie in Up. Surprisingly, this isn't about fathers and sons or husbands and wives but about understanding one's self, and in a way learning selflessness. As strange as this may sound, this is actually a good movie to show at office team buildings or to teams before a big game; the egomaniacs in either of those groups will quite likely get the reference.
Sure, Illumination Studios may have raked in the big bucks with the broad humor and undeniable appeal of the Minions, but with this Pixar has just reasserted that it is STILL the absolute best in the animation business. At a time when studios are churning sequel after remake after reboot, it is utterly gratifying to know that something this fresh can still succeed in the marketplace.
10/10
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