The Hunger Games (2012)

Directed by:  Gary Ross
Starring:  Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson

The Hunger Games is a movie that’s based on a book that’s based on an idea that nerds have been arguing over the origin of for decades.  Katniss Everdeen volunteers as Tribute from one of the poorer districts of a dystopian country named Panem in place of her super adorable younger sister.  As Tribute, she is whisked away from her Amish slummy hunter-gatherer lifestyle into the upper echelons of a fabulously wealthy society where people consume shitloads of calories and have weird hair.  Here she prepares for the titular Hunger Games competition in which teenagers annually slaughter each other while the crowd screams for their blood.  The winner are declared when only one is left standing.

The movie is split into two parts.  Part one is what I like to call “The Exposition.”  It is here we get a good look at a totally crapsack world where poor people live in squalor and filth while the rich people live in utopias (a utopia?) far removed from those who suffer.  It gives a sense of why the Games exist and just how fucked the lower classes of Panem are, even though it looks like these lower classes do all the labor.  And then there’s part two: what I like to call “The Ol’ Ultra Violence.” In which The Hunger Games begins in earnest and a bunch of teenagers start to murder each other with sparkling medieval weaponry and unusual enthusiasm.

Overall, The Hunger Games is a film that works in both concept and execution.  Jennifer Lawrence lives as Katniss both in poise and personality.  As for the rest of the cast, I have no misgivings about any of them; they all do a fine job, though Ms. Lawrence clearly carries the majority of the runtime.  It has more grit than the typical young-adult film especially once the Games begin.  Allowing teenagers to be killed violently on screen was an important and interesting move.  I’m mostly sure other directors or editors would have liberally used jump cuts to communicate this necessary roughness down to a mere implication.  But amping the stakes this way made the hour long build-up to part two really matter.

One more thought: someone else mentioned that this film should have served as some kind of commentary about our society.  I don’t think it should be held to that standard.  If you ask me, this film doesn’t have that kind of responsibility.  Yes, there are some creepy visuals about some nuclear war or whatever but this is more of an underdog story than it is anything political.  The people have all accepted this bizarre reality in which they were bred.  It’s too early to rise against it right now.  Let’s have an adventure and push that particular melodrama onto the sequels.  That’s what sequels are for: for when the initial shock wears off and for when these impressionable young teenagers become boring old adults.

A

Extract (2009)

Directed by:  Mike Judge
Starring:  Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig

Something I’ve noticed about a lot of plots these days is that a lot of conflict stems from people not talking to each other.   Then the story kind of evolves organically as the consequences unfold.  I don’t think it’s a bad thing as this allows performers to play off each other in ways that might not be otherwise available.  Though predictable, it can still be joyful and satisfying to watch.  So when you use this construct to drive your comedy, it seems only appropriate to get your players into some scenes together to establish that yes they have an important relationship.

Extract shies away from this formula, opting instead for the multi-threaded plot approach anchored by the prospect of a successful buyout of Joel Reynolds’ extract business.  Hijinks ensue when a freak accident severs an employee’s testicle, leading to a potential lawsuit that would cripple the company’s bottom line if successful.  Meanwhile, Reynolds seeks help from hippy bartender Ben Affleck to resolve the sexlessness of his marriage via means of a total boob of a gigolo.  And Mila Kunis has an objective of getting a piece of that succulent lawsuit pie after seeing the teste accident in the papers.  And still no one seems to be talking to each other.  Well, not meaningfully at least.

All of these things serve to make a mostly average film that lacks focus in spite of some really good line reads (Jason Bateman screaming the word ‘motherfucker’ fills me with joy).  I get a sense that all of the operatives here are working completely independently of each other and they all just happen to be heading to the same place: the end of the movie.  This leads to some disjointed pacing and no real chance for any two people’s relationships to move to the next level.  All the important character development happens off screen, which a strange thing to say about a 90-minute film with some pretty clever jokes inside.  With a little more polish, Extract could’ve been more than just an afterthought.

Memorable Quotes

“I think when you lose your balls it kind of mellows you out.”
–J.K. Simmons

“You must be incredibly rich.”
“Eh, I got a 7 Series BMW and some clothes………”

“I hate landscaping, but I like getting laid.”

“Hot girls need jobs, too.”
“But do they really?”

B-

Æon Flux (2005)

Directed by: Karyn Kusama
Starring:  Charlize Theron; Marton Csokas

Æon Flux is a scifi dystopian action film starring Charlize Theron and a bunch of That Guys that is loosely based on the 90s MTV show of the same name.  It is set some 400 years in the future where mankind has been reduced to a husk of its former glory due to some badass virus hitting the reset button on human evolution.  Life is pretty swell for most of the inhabitants of this pastoral metropolis, some minor exceptions notwithstanding. People tend to disappear, suddenly die, or suffer from severely mysterious nightmares on the regular.  And all the local leadership cares about is consolidating its total power even though life is pretty good for everyone when you think about it.  Still, people are suffering or something.  Guess we should do something about that.  Hey, here’s Charlize Theron in a slinky slip.  You’re welcome.

This movie is nothing special, being the typical smorgasbord of mid-aughts kung fu neck chopping, gun-blazing extravaganza that it is.  I am intrigued by its use of color–Æon Flux has a wonderful palette and the cinematographers take full advantage of Charlize’s kung-fu-emo look in terms of scene composition and set design.  It is clearly *her* movie because of this; the attention to detail is immaculate and polished, like a modeling reel.

I also like the warm, accessible look of everything.  Usually when I think of post-apocalyptic post-human Earth I think of drab grays and gross clothes.  And yet beauty is all over Æon Flux.  The [very very minor] problem I find with all Charlize all the time is that her presence holds the other actors (and a script that doesn’t take any chances) to some pretty lofty standards.  She’s so hot it’s distracting; it’s also a hypothetical reason why the film isn’t very faithful to its subject matter.  This is not me saying that Æon Flux is a terrible movie.  It shows us how capable Ms. Theron can be as an Action Girl and I appreciate that.

B-

 

Backdraft (1991)

Directed By: Ron Howard
Written By: Gregory Widen
Studio: Imagine Entertainment

Backdraft is a film about firefighters fighting fires, specifically the jockular heroes of the Chicago Fire Department Engine 17, who risk their lives on a daily basis to save mannequins and occasionally children from certain doom.  Because saving mannequins isn’t very interesting, there’s also a subplot involving a serial arsonist who ignites a mystery for the jocks to solve.  It’s probably the most successful film about firefighting ever made; this means we are about due for another.

There isn’t anything really deep about this movie.  Kurt Russell and Co. put out fires while showing their pectoral muscles and possessing bizarre tough-guy alpha-male streaks apparently because only manly tough guys can coax raging house-fires into submission (to be fair, it’s 1991). There’s a little mystery element going on with the arson and ostensible murder that’s pretty fun to get into; Donald Sutherland chews some scenery as well, and there’s a little love-interest thing for the ladies to hang their hats on that uses Jennifer Jason Leigh to HEY! FUCK THIS REVIEW. THIS MOVIE IS ABOUT SEEING GODDAM EXPLOSIONS USING GODDAM EXPLOSIVE BARRELS AND EXPLODING FIREBALLS SON.  IF YOU CAN’T APPRECIATE THE MAJESTY OF SOME GUY GETTING BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS THEN YOU ARE NOT EXPLOSIVE ENOUGH TO SEE BACKDRAFT PLAIN AND SIMPLE.  THE EXPLOSIVE EFFECTS ARE WHAT MAKE THIS MOVIE THE MOST EXPLOSIVE FUCKING MOVIE IN THE GODDAM HISTORY OF THE WORLD. OPEN A DOOR? EXPLOSION. GET IN A CAR? EXPLOOSION. HAVE SEX ON TOP OF A FIRE TRUCK? EXPLOOOOOSION.

B

 

Joyeux Noël (2005)

Director: Christian Carion
Writer: Christian Carion
Distributor (US): Sony Pictures Classics

Traditionally, war is regarded as a major event in a nation or culture’s history that serves conveniently as a means to an end: a way to consolidate power and show the rest of the world that said nation or culture really means business. It is in this vein that empires across the world rise and fall and one likely to continue until the Earth’s Great Human Experiment finally reaches its conclusion. War, it seems, is a primal urge not unlike farming, hunting, or even sex. To list oneself along the same lines as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, or even Napoleon Bonaparte is almost too big a temptation to bear. Yet in the Modern Age, new messages have emerged that downplay the power and the glory wrought in inter-human suffering and brutality; they seem to conclude rather loudly that in spite of every other possible benefit that mutually murdering one another could have, war’s ultimate consequence is the collective waste of human potential.

Joyeux Noël is just one of many efforts to explore the consequences of war, but it has a unique twist. It is a film that tells the story of one of the most remarkable events in the history of any war to date: a Christmas truce on the embattered World War I frontlines, inspired by events that actually happened in the first year of the war when all sides laid down their arms and shells and came together to celebrate the penultimate Christian holiday.

Unlike most other war films, Joyeux Noël opts to focus on both sides of the front as the conflict progresses. It does everything it can to humanize every aspect of its players, the result being a bird’s eye view of everything that suggests an overwhelming grayness to the men serving on the ground. Notable players include an opera tenor on the German side, an artist on the French side, and a priest on the Scottish side. Most of the men believe that the war will be over by Christmas time, the Germans especially so. As a result, both camps maintain a grim optimism. Germany even chooses to have a large number of Christmas trees sent to the front so the troops might be able to celebrate the holiday away from their families.

As Christmas draws nearer and it becomes clearer that anyone not dead is probably in it for the long haul, the soldiers settle into their new lives and engage in a sort of cautious revelry with the eerie desolation of No Man’s Land quietly lying between them. It begins with the opera singer from the German side who had snuck his opera girlfriend into the trenches with the motivation to increase morale to the men there by singing Christmas songs. The Allies overhear them and, having acquired multiple sets of bagpipes with thanks to the Scots, play an accompanying refrain. It is at this moment that, in spite of or because of the harrowing violence and suffering that the front has collectively endured on both sides that the opponents realize they are one in the same. The officers do the unthinkable: they approach one another in the center of No Man’s Land amidst rotting corpses and shellshocked craters and decide to declare an unofficial ceasefire for the evening.

It is in this moment of rare camaraderie between enemies that the vastness and unquestionable truth concerning human potential lies, for it is not only the officers that decide to lay down their arms for the good of the holiday, but all soldiers on the nearby frontlines as well. They swap stories of home, speak candidly of their wives and families, trade spirits and chocolate and even swap addresses for future opportunities to visit one another. For one precious evening, the Western Front is truly quiet, even uncannily peaceful.

Seeing the fraternization unfolding among sworn foes of the hotly contested front lines is nothing short of remarkable. Men who were ostensibly born to kill one another come together in a fleeting moment of sanity and realize that in any other world they could be friends. It suggests perhaps that war may not be such a primal instinct after all, that World War I or any other war for that matter may not be as necessary as once thought by the masses. The very idea that this could even happen should be shocking enough, but the fact that it actually did speaks volumes about the human potential that inspired a drive for peace and the human potential that was wasted when peace never came.

B+

ThomNote: This is an essay I had to write for a Literature of War class I’m currently taking, hence a slightly unconventional format. I haven’t abandoned you faithful readers, I’ve just been busy. Moar reviews are coming. I promise. 🙂

The Matrix (1999)

Image credit: themoviedb.org

The Matrix is a film about a guy who works for some software development agency who plays part time as a Red Hat hacker (could be Black Hat, but it’s not really touched upon). He spends his days doing whatever programmers like to do for their day jobs under the thumb of some asshole boss that’s big into punctuality. He spends his nights doing hacky things, particularly searching for an elusive hacker named Morpheus. Things get interesting when he follows a cryptic message to a night club where he begins to learn the truth about the REAL life, universe, and everything. Turns out that everyone lives in a giant computer program called The Matrix and the reality he knows isn’t so real after all, that he along with the rest of humanity is a slave to sentient machines that mine humans for raw energy. More simply put: HUMANITY IS FUCKED.

So The Matrix is one of those ‘capstone’ movies that kind of dawned a new era in filmmaking.  Its message was incredibly profound for the time, arguably the first time the high-level concept of being ‘trapped in a computer simulation’ extended beyond the Kingdom of Nerds and into the realm of popular consciousness.  It also ushered in a new age of visual razzamataz.  I don’t want to sit here and go on and on about its message; that’s probably been done to death already and book reviews are where I generally flex my thinking-hard brain muscles anyway.   My question is rather basic: is this movie still good?

Yep. Still good.  Look, we’ve all grown a little bit older and a little bit wiser since The Matrix arrived on the scene (especially after those, uh, interesting sequels that I will no doubt encounter sometime later). To say that we are all puppets to some kind of higher regime, while thought-provoking, is a pretty self-defeating way to live.  But if you look at this film for what it is: an explosive, action-packed, experimentally fun sci-fi romp with cool as hell special effects and a reasonably light-hearted yet serious tone, hopefully you will find a very thrilling movie that is quite fun to watch.  One riddled with little references, allusions, and nods to films of many many genres that came before.  My personal favorite nod was during the scene where  Neo and Agent Smith prepare to face off in the subway: some trash blows across the battlefield like a tumbleweed.  Little things like this add so much character to the movie to make it more than just a pretentious commentary about the system.  That’s why the film succeeds where perhaps others have failed.  You can connect with it in more than one way, and because of this The Matrix still holds up to this day.

A

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2011)

Beyond the Black Rainbow is an indie mystery sci-fi thriller about a guy running a mysterious sci-fi facility in the 80s who is crazy for some mysterious reason. The facility is staffed by approximately 3 people who watch over a mysterious girl day and night because of some mysterious connection the guy has with her. As the movie progresses, the purpose of the guy and the facility are revealed in addition to why the girl is there… but not much else.

This film is incredibly challenging. It holds its mystery cards very close to its proverbial movie vest and when it decides to reveal anything about what the fuck is going on or tell us why we should give two shits, it does so very begrudgingly. It reminds me of someone attempting to reconstruct themselves from sunburnt skin peelings, to be honest; and while “true” sci-fi fans might gravitate toward its abstract ideas of mind control through machinery and otherworldly perverse utopian symbolisms, casual viewers might be turned off by its incredibly dull pace and pretentiously bizarre art direction.

I cannot recommend Beyond the Black Rainbow. The biggest problem I have with this film is that while its tense psychological moments are really well done, these moments aren’t clearly connected to what is happening anywhere else in the film very intuitively. It is too protective with the secrets it holds, opting instead to dazzle the audience with bizarre camera tricks and angles to suggest that things aren’t what they seem, or even that its story has a purpose. Why is Elana in the facility? What is her connection to the facility and its researcher(s)? Why is she so frustratingly weak and powerless even during certain times where adrenaline would be coursing through her veins, helping her resolve her terrible situation? What does she have that crazy madman scientist guy wants? What’s the deal with the scrapbook full of pictures of penises and vaginas? Why is crazy madman scientist crazy? What is the point of this movie? All these questions are answered in there somewhere, with each answer being more abstract and confounding than the last.

Give it a try if you feel up to the challenge. Then, you can come back here and tell me what the fuck just happened.

D

Katy Perry: Part of Me (2012)

Katy Perry: A Part of Me is a documentary/biography/musicvideo about an uptown girl living in a whitebread world. The film follows the sultry pop-star as she embarks on a year-long world tour in 2011; it features testimonials from friends and family about how hard she works in addition to a brief synopsis of her career (which includes the requisite transformation from wholesome Christian to naughty nurse) and how long it took to be noticed by anyone important. It’s as superficial and self-serving as one might expect from a movie like this but I wouldn’t call it unpleasant. Actually, it’s nothing less than adequate.

C+

Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom (1984)

Indiana Jones & the Temple o’Doom is a brand new adventure of the world renowned adventurous badassiest archiest whippingest muscliest hattiest archaeologist, directed by Steven Spielberg. This time, Indy (or is it Indie?) finds himself stranded somewhere in India with a little Chinese sidekick and a gold-digging harpy. While trying to get back to civilization, he happens upon a little Indian village whose inhabitants are starving because thieves have stolen a magic rock and are using it to worship some blood god that likes human sacrifice. Indiana Jones decides that helping these poor helpless people would be a terrible idea and totally ignores them and rides a camel back to Delhi in probably the quirkiest plot twist ever.

I’m kidding; he does help them out and discovers the titular Temple o’Doom along the way. Wouldn’t it have been cool though if we just watched Indy ride on a plane the whole time? It would be like 12 Angry Men where all the action boils down to the human drama that occurs while riding in coach. Alas, what we get instead is a heaping dose of racism interspersed with gratuitously awesome violent spots that this series has become known for the world over. You just can’t get any more sophisticated than a flaming hot skewer through the gut or a guy ripping another guy’s heart out of his chest Tenochtitlanian style. Or how about the fat Indian dude eating the monkey brains for dessert or whatever, belching loudly like some terribly lazy fat oaf? Talk about offensive!

This movie is very dark and gruesome and violent and racist and dark. There is absolutely no way something like it could ever be made ever again–the world is a lot more advanced in terms of cultural understanding than it used to be. Sure, there are some bubba redneck types out there that probably think that people in the Far East are crude bloodthirsty savages but they don’t count. There isn’t a whole lot I can say in terms of making this review make any sense, actually. This is a movie you could like a lot or hate a lot; it all comes down to a matter of taste. And while I do like this movie quite a bit, I don’t think it lives up to the awesomeness of its predecessor.  As the saying goes, Your Mileage May Vary.

B

The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

The Girlfriend Experience is an indie movie about a girl and a guy who are in an open relationship and live together. She is an escort while he is a gym trainer. The film follows her around for five days and it is revealed that she is very upscale, pulling in amazing amounts of cash-money as she wheels and deals with some robust Manhattan elites. One of her clients piques her interest more than usual and she decides that she needs to see if there is some kind of magic there or something.

This movie is a piece of crap. Firstly, the decision to take prolific porn star Sasha Grey and make her an escort in a feature length film instead of a “normal” was a stupid one. Hey everyone! She has range! Check it out! We made her a hooker! Second, the editing is slipshod and sloppy; often I couldn’t decide where in time the characters were at any given moment and couldn’t connect with anything anyone was saying. I didn’t understand what the hell was going on for at least half the film; since I’m not the sharpest tool in the drawer already maybe someone can explain the flood of blurry close-ups and gratuitous overuse of flat angles to me?

Finally, and perhaps most damning, is the shitty acting. You know those Barely Legal porn movies that open with a girl saying “Dear Diary, today I was riding home from school thinking about how I’m still a virgin?” There are a lot of dispassionately similar monologues used here, perhaps to draw some cheap connection to Sasha’s roots for some reason. Completely unnecessary. Throw in some line-reads that lack any emotion or grit and a retarded ending that suggests everyone involved sort of gave up on the whole affair. In the end, we have a confused girlfriend experience that fails to connect even on the most visceral level and is a complete waste of time.  I’m sorry, Sasha.  Call me and we’ll talk about it.

D-