The BoxTrolls teaser trailer

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Huh, I didn’t even know Laika was making a film called The BoxTrolls set for release in 2014, but the teaser was recently released.  Aside from the rather blatant celebration of the modern non-procreative-sexual-indulgence-and-its-consequences-on-family-units-are-great mindset that Hollywood loves trying to get everyone to feel good about, the animation and character design look fantastic.  Still, after the films Coraline and ParaNorman, both of which also had great trailers and wonderful animation but not so impressive storylines, I’m not sure I’ll see this one in theaters.  Here’s the teaser trailer:

Wild Strawberries (1957)

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wildstrawberries

Link: Wild Strawberries

Summary: On his way to accepting an honorary degree at an award ceremony, an aging doctor is plagued with nightmares that remind him of his impending death and flashbacks of painful memories that change his opinion of himself.

Thoughts: The story reminded me a bit of Scrooge and A Christmas Carol in that flashbacks give an old man a different perspective on his life.  However, in Wild Strawberries, the main character is rarely present in his flashbacks.  Instead, he witnesses things that happened to other people that change his perspective of them, and in turn himself by their perspective of him.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, the story didn’t quite work for me because we never get to see the main character’s perspective in his own flashbacks.  We get other characters saying he’s cold and judgmental and selfish, but we never see how he actually acts that made them feel this way.  Perhaps these other people are simply interpreting his words wrongly.  For example, I sometimes raise my voice in passionate arguments, and people mistake it for anger.  It’s not; it’s just excitement.  I enjoy a good debate.  Or if you ever mention you’ll pray for someone, a person can take it as some horrible condescending judgmental proclamation.  But prayer is the opposite of condemnation.  So how can we judge whether or not the accusations these characters voice against the doctor are at all fair if we never get to see his actual behavior?

Anyway, that’s really the only thing that didn’t work for me, but it really annoyed me.  The nightmare sequences were great, very eerie, though certainly not horrific.  The film is full of director Ingmar Bergman’s typical fear-of-death theme.  Really, the characters in his film just need to go to confession and they’d be fine, but they’d rather linger on whether or not God and guilt are real, and then they quiver in fear in the terrible shadow of death and what awaits beyond, lest they can get their minds on something else, like issues of love.

Despite the elements that annoyed me, I still enjoyed the film.  I enjoy Bergman’s imagination, even if it blossoms best when his characters are fearing the darkness of death.  Of the small portion of Bergman films I’ve seen, I’d say The Magician is still my favorite, followed by Fanny and Alexander.

Mama (2013)

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Link: Mama

Summary: After their father dies, two young girls spend months living by themselves in an abandoned cabin in the woods.  When they are found, their uncle and his girl friend try to make a new life for them.  But it won’t be so easy, because a ghostly deranged dangerous dead woman wants to keep the children for herself.

Thoughts: Some of the horror elements comes across as silly and ridiculous, such as the girls crawling around on all fours like feral children.  The visuals of the ghostly Mama were certainly creepy, yet there was something Ghostbuster-ishly funny about them too, as if her character really wasn’t very sinister, just stupid and crazy.  I found myself laughing more than being scared.  The ending was a bit of a disappointment; it just didn’t seem to fit the rest of the story.  Overall, though, it was a fun movie; the story was engaging enough.  I’d be interested to see what the director does next.  Also, the film featured a fantastic music score.  I’d love to get my hands on the soundtrack at some point.  Soothing yet haunting melodies, a bit like the music of Pan’s Labyrinth.  Very beautiful.  Lastly, don’t go in the closet!  The closet!  The closet!  The closet!  CLOSET!!

The Monk (2011)

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themonk

Link: The Monk

Summary: A monk who grew up in a monastery has his faith put to the test as he is tempted by a devilish seductress.  Based on the famous Gothic novel from the late 1700’s.

Thoughts: I’ve never read the Gothic novel on which this film is based, and certainly have no plans to any time soon.  (I find it hard to read a lot of old fiction; the style is just too impersonal for me.)  Still, I somehow expected this film to be darker, both in tone and in plot.  The spiritual torment of the main character doesn’t come across for me very well, such as his anguish in choosing what he knows to be wrong, and his guilt after choosing it.  He seems to face his sins rather stoically.  Then again, when a main character is choosing what he knows to be wrong, it’s rather hard to have much empathy for him.  But it might’ve been a bit easier if he had made some noticeable sign of regretting it.  Anyway, interesting film.

Man of Steel (2013)

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Link: Man of Steel

Summary: When the evil villain wants to turn Earth into a new Krypton, killing the planet’s population in the process, Superman must save the day.

Thoughts: This is the first Superman film I’ve ever seen.  I am completely unfamiliar with the lore.  Superman has never seemed like that intriguing of a super hero to me.  And this film doesn’t help with that.  The backstory was interesting and worked well, I thought.  I enjoyed seeing Russell Crowe as Superman’s real father, and I enjoyed the flashbacks of Clark Kent growing up, learning to use his powers and arguing with his father about their appropriate use and his relationship with the rest of the world.  The dialog writing was atrocious, but I can appreciate what they were going for.

Unfortunately, the adult Superman is a super-bland character.  He wants nothing concrete, and hardly seems to care that much about other people, saving a few of them here and there only because it’s the superhero thing to do.  There’s hardly any humor, and what little there is comes off as awkward and not very funny; overall, this film took itself way too seriously.  I also completely don’t understand the Christ connection.  The film rather blatantly portrays Superman as a Christ figure, as they are both, in a sense, persecuted saviors.  (Granted, so are countless story heroes.  And maybe the Christ connection is part of Superman lore, so maybe it works for other viewers better than it did for me.)  But the reasons they are persecuted and the ways in which they save people are far too different for the comparison to be at all valid, as far as I can tell.  Christ is about saving us from our own sins, saving us spiritually by teaching us about love and forgiveness, inspiring us to love as he loves.  Superman is only a physical savior, and there’s no chance you’re ever going to get his strength, because he’s not even human.  We persecuted Christ our of fear of our own condemnation, persuaded by the lure of our selfish desires.  We persecute Superman because . . . what, he’s too strong?  “Ah!  A strong man!  That’s just not fair!  Kill him!  Also, he can see under my clothes!”  Am I missing something?  Finally, what’s with all the destruction?  Yay, the world is saved!  And we have $5 billion plus in damages!  It’s as if the director said, “Look, I don’t really know how to do a good fight scene, but I reckon if things are exploding and crumbling and crashing and smashing all the time, that’s basically the same thing.”

Overall, very bland story, very bland characters.

The LEGO Movie teaser trailer

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The trailer for the upcoming animated LEGO movie has arrived.  It’s just a teaser and story-wise, there’s nothing much of interest here.  But the animation looks fantastic, and I love how they make CGI look like it’s stop-motion.  It’s also interesting to see how the toy company behind LEGO uses other franchises to advertise their own; it reminds of how Disney did so with Toy Story and Wreck-It Ralph.  Anyway, I’ll definitely be interested to see this movie.  As of now, it’s set to be released February 2014.  Here’s the trailer:

Annie Hall (1977)

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anniehall

Link: Annie Hall

Summary: A man spends time with a woman.

Thoughts: I enjoyed the non-linear storytelling and some of the filmmaking gags (subtitles to show what characters are really thinking, stepping aside to talk directly to the audience, going into flashbacks and trying to interact with flashback characters).  It made an otherwise bland and empty story rather engaging.  That said, I don’t find Woody Allen’s character to be all that very clever or witty.  I’m surprised that Annie Hall enjoyed his company; he does nothing but make wisecracks all the time.

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

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silverliningsplaybook

Link: Silver Linings Playbook

Summary: After being released from a mental health facility, a man tries to get his life back in order.  And what better way to do it than to promise to join a dance competition with a woman who has a lot of her own issues?

Thoughts: I didn’t think this film made any sense.  The characters are supposed to have mental health issues, but they’re all really fine, they just get way too angry over little things and then fight about it.  As if that’s all that mental health comes down to, control of temper.  Very poorly written film.  The “let’s join a dance competition!” plot made no sense, as it has nothing to do with anything; it doesn’t challenge the characters in any dramatically interesting way.  Also, it bugged me that the main character is married, yet basically spends the entire film falling in love with another woman.  This would be dramatically fine if a love triangle was one of the film conflicts.  Instead, this film seems to support the idea that marriage is overall meaningless, just an occasional promise to only sleep with one person at a time for monetary benefits, not a lifelong commitment to someone else no matter what.  Did not much care for this film.

The Verdict (1982)

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Link: The Verdict

Summary: After losing a bunch of cases and on the verge of calling it quits, an tired alcoholic lawyer accepts one more case, a simple malpractice case that seems easy enough to settle out of court for some good money.  But when he comes to empathize with the case’s victim, he refuses to settle out of court, seeking true justice rather than easy money.  With the deep pockets and legal resources of his opponents, this won’t be an easy case to win.

Thoughts: Court case movies always seem to be difficult things to dramatize because you have to get the pacing right.  Unfortunately I think this film put too much backstory into the setup so that the court scenes themselves were rather dull.  (For good examples of dramatic balance between in-court and out-of-court scenes, I suggest A Few Good Men or My Cousin Vinny.)

Interestingly, according to the blu-ray’s bonus features, screenwriter David Mamet’s originally screenplay didn’t include the verdict.  While the producer interviewed on the bonus feature (the late Richard Zanuck) thought this was horrible, I think it might’ve been interesting.  A bit like the ending of Inception.  It might’ve worked because the final answer isn’t really important (especially when we know what it should be in the dramatic sense).  What matters is what’s important to the main character.  Win or lose, the character did the right thing here, and fought as hard as he could.  The verdict doesn’t matter.

Anyway, it was an OK movie, but I don’t think the tension was ever pushed as high as it could’ve been due to the pacing.  It was interesting to see such an anti-hero in such a role, an almost sleazy alcoholic who’s using this court case as a sort of . . . what’s the word? . . . redemption?  I also enjoyed the unconventional twists of the relationship B-story (that is, the sub-story that supports the main story; usually a friendship or a man-woman relationship).

Taxi Driver (1976)

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Link: Taxi Driver

Summary: After a crazy man is rejected by the woman he admires, he goes even more crazy in a self-created loneliness.

Thoughts: This film was a bit too meandering for me.  Although the character is fictional, this movie has the pacing and tone of director Scorsese’s biopics Raging Bull and The Aviator.  Although Goodfellas was also a biopic, it seemed more plot-driven, where as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Aviator seem much more “exploratory” to me.  I suppose the pacing is just too slow, or the character goals remain ambiguous for too long.  Or maybe I just can’t empathize with the main characters enough in general.

Upstream Color (2013)

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upstreamcolor

Link: Upstream Color

Summary: After a mysterious drug is used to make people highly suggestible in a scheme to wipe out their bank accounts, two recovering victims realize the drug also gave them strange psychic powers.  Together they try to cope with their strange new powers.

Thoughts: I highly enjoyed writer/director Shane Carruth’s previous film, Primer, which is what led me to check this film out.  I enjoyed the first half.  Though it’s rather mysterious what’s going on, it begins to make sense when the woman we’ve been watching realizes she’s a victim of a money-stealing scheme.  The rest of the film was boring.  Things about a sound man making recordings, psychic pigs, and passages of Walden (which I loathe).  There are people who may say, “You have to be smart and figure it out!” or “You don’t have to understand it all; it’s all about the feelings!  Art!”  I have no doubt Carruth had something specific in mind that he was trying to convey without condescending to the audience, but this isn’t the way to do it.  This is not being clever or artistic or coy; this is just storytelling laziness.  Could you at least try to help me understand?  Or do you think I’m too stupid?

Jack Reacher (2012)

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Link: Jack Reacher

Summary: After an ex-military sniper is framed for shooting five victims, the mysterious crime-fighting Jack Reacher sets out to uncover the truth of who really shot the victims and why.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this film; better than the standard crime thriller.  Firstly, no shaky cam!!  We get nice stable shots here!  Who’d a thought it was possible?  Finally!  Secondly, I enjoyed the use of brief flashbacks and flash-whatevers to show what characters are thinking.  I loved the opening, how there’s no dialog for the first several minutes, telling the story completely through visuals.  Werner Herzog makes a great mysterious James Bond-worthy villain; I wish he’d gotten more screen time.  The fight scenes were good, and the conspiracy uncovered, though realistically farfetched, was engaging enough for me to remaining interested until the end.  I would definitely watch more Jack Reacher films (there are plenty of novels, aren’t there?), though I doubt they’ll make any more.  Fun film for a crime thriller.

Battle Royale (2000)

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Link: Battle Royale: The Complete Collection

Summary: Students are forced onto a deserted island where they are given weapons and forced to kill each other in a sadistic game of survival.  The last student alive wins and gets to go home.

Thoughts: Yes, it’s like Hunger Games, though there are enough differences to prevent me from thinking that one is ripping off the other.  They each take a similar premise, school-age children forced to kill each other, but do very different things with it.  Of course, Battle Royale from Japan never became as popular here in the US.  I only heard of it when fans of this film protested against the Hunger Games franchise.  Anyway, though I think both stories have flaws, I enjoyed Battle Royale more than I enjoyed reading The Hunger Games.  Granted, The Hunger Games is more girl-oriented with its cheesy romantic sub-plot, while Battle Royale, though it had its hints of romance, stayed more focused on the action, the manipulation and deception between the characters, and the interplay between trust and suspicion.  There’s really too much that can be done with this kill-each-other premise; it’d be awesome to see a TV show based on Battle Royale.  I also enjoyed this film’s villain, who managed to be wickedly hate-able at times, yet rather pity-able as the story went on.  Though he’s still a creepy evil psychopath, he was a far more interesting character than the villains of The Hunger Games.

Overall, this was quite a fun film, but it felt rushed; there were so many subplots that could’ve been more developed had this been a TV show instead of a film.  Maybe I’ll read the book someday; I saw it at Barnes and Noble last week.

Also, I’m not sure why, but some of the English subtitles were awfully translated, full of improper grammar.  Almost as bad as “someone set up us the bomb”, at least near the end.  Fortunately it wasn’t so bad that I could figure out what they were going for, but it was still annoying.  I’m used the Criterion Collection’s nice subtitle work.

Lockout (2012)

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Link: Lockout

Summary: A wrongly accused convict is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president’s daughter from an outer space prison where she’s being hostage by psychopath inmates.

Thoughts: I wasn’t expecting much with this one due to its low ratings, but I actually enjoyed it very much.  I loved the look and feel of the film, from the cinematography to the set design.  I loved the look of the prison space ship, gritty and rugged and machine-ish, “sci-fi noir” as someone called it in the bonus features.  I love these sorts of space ships, not the overly-clean and overly-plain white and silver vast palace-like space ships that one often sees.  I love this dark saturated grayish-bluish-greenish industrial feel, with pipes and wires everywhere, ships that say “this machine is more complicated than you have the wits to understand.”

Some of the special effects were pretty bad; I would’ve gone for something more subtle than a futuristic road race when there’s no budget.  But I can forgive the bad CGI when I know the film makers didn’t have much money to play with.

The overall story was rather standard; I thought it would’ve worked better had more been at stake for the main characters, and/or if there were some more dilemma he had to deal with in terms of relating to the murderous inmates who’ve taken over the ship.  They hinted at moral dilemmas; it’s revealed that the prison had a dark side, that its staff members were doing some shady things.  It would’ve been interesting if that had been explored a bit deeper thematically.  But overall, it wasn’t bad.

What I especially enjoyed was the main character’s personality.  His dry sarcastic humor just worked perfectly for me.  Very Dr. House-like.  And, like House, he might’ve come across as an arrogant jerk to some, but I loved it.  A lesser writer might’ve tried to make the hero say noble serious things, which would’ve fallen flat.  I enjoy when the hero cracks jokes even when the tension is high.  It keeps the film from taking itself too seriously (which makes it more serious, in a sense, because audiences disengage when it feels too serious), and it gives the character personality.

Overall, surprisingly fun movie.  I quite enjoyed it.

For a Few Dollars More (1967)

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Link: For a Few Dollars More

Summary: Two bounty hunters team up to take down a murderous convict.  One bounty hunter, played by Clint Eastwood, plans to sabotage him by joining his crew of thugs.  But the bounty hunter secretly knows exactly who he is and uses the knowledge to his advantage, working to frame the new recruit for his own crimes.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this one more than Leone’s Yojimbo rip-off, A Fistful of Dollars.  The story was more intricate, full of some great twists and turns.  I love Leone’s use of close-ups, though his editing here was still rather bizarre at times with the quick cutting, and the *boing!* sound effect was just stupid.  What is this, some preschooler’s cartoon?  But you gotta love Leone’s stand-off climax scenes, especially with Morricone’s iconic scoring.