Now In Theaters - PROMETHEUS

I went into PROMETHEUS with high expectations, and what I found was something of a mixed bag. Director Ridley Scott had not ventured into the science fiction arena since 1979's ALIEN and  1982's BLADE RUNNER, both of which are now considered to be genre classics, so I was eager to see his latest contribution. But, after taking a day to consider and contemplate all that PROMETHEUS had to offer, I fear that Scott may have bitten off more than he chew here, with the most glaring flaws being traced back to a sloppy and choppy script that raises a number of philosophical questions but offers few answers. Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) is the central protagonist of PROMETHEUS, convincing billionaire industrialist Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) to fund an interstellar expedition to a distant planet that she and her colleague Dr. Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) believe to be the home of "the Engineers." The Engineers are an extraterrestrial race whose existence has been hinted at in crave drawings from various civilizations throughout history, leading Shaw to believe that they could be responsible for the creation of the human race. Two years of cryostasis aboard the vessel Prometheus and both Shaw and Holloway are eager to scour the planet in search of answers, albeit under the watchful eye of corporate rep Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron). But, as the tagline goes, what they find could, in fact, lead to the death of all mankind.

Not only do the secrets unearthed on this planet portend the extermination of the human race, but they also succeed in confounding and disorienting the audience. Who created us? What is our purpose? What happens after death? These are the questions that serve as the foundations of PROMETHEUS, but the events of the film suggest that maybe we shouldn't have even been asking them in the first place. This is an ambitious film that aspires to be much more than just popcorn entertainment, but it loses sight of that goal in a third act jam-packed with death, destruction, and mayhem. It wants to be an intelligent and thought-provoking science fiction film, but the elements of horror that take over at about the halfway point seem more appropriate for a slasher film, as some of the twists and turns don't seem to serve any purpose other than to add shock value. To make matters worse, these twists are the result of poor or inexplicable decisions from the main characters, who don't seem driven at all by their own motivations, but instead appear to be acting solely on behalf of the screenwriter trying to move the plot from set piece to set piece. And, because of this shift, the questions raised in the first act of the film are thrown to wind, left up to the audience to decipher and interpret. Some will criticize this as lazy writing and others will praise it for treating the audience as intelligent, but I tend to agree with the former.

But PROMETHEUS does have its merits, and I have to point to the performances of Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace as two of the highlights. I thought Fassbender came into his own last year with a show-stealing turn as the villainous Magneto in X-MEN - FIRST CLASS, and he doesn't disappoint here as David, the ship's android crew member who is highly intelligent and incapable of emotion, making it all the more difficult to determine if he is operating under a sinister agenda. Rapace, who wasn't given much to do in SHERLOCK HOLMES - A GAME OF SHADOWS, is handed the most difficult role in PROMETHEUS and more than holds her own, inviting comparisons to Sigourney Weaver's iconic turn as Ellen Ripley in ALIEN. There is one particular scene in the film (and you'll know it when you see it) where she is forced to take drastic action to save her own life, putting her acting chops on full display and keeping you on the edge of your seat the entire time. I also have to give special mention to Idris Elba, who seems to be enjoying himself quite a bit as Janek, the ship's captain and the closest thing PROMETHEUS has to an actual action hero. His presence keeps things from getting too grim, providing a few laughs in between the film's frequent outbursts of violence, and his scenes with Charlize Theron's icy corporate watchdog are some of the best. The look of PROMETHEUS is also something to behold, but I'm not surprised given that Ridley Scott has always had an eye for visual spectacle, BLADE RUNNER being a prime example.

Nevertheless, the performances, ambitious ideas, and the amazing visuals aren't enough to overcome a flawed script. I'm not someone who wants to have it all spelled out for me, as I appreciate it when a film asks me to do a little of the leg work, but there is a breaking point where I feel the writer is putting too much on the audience's shoulders, and PROMETHEUS felt like it crossed that line for me. I will no doubt be reading through the message boards for the next week or so trying to piece it all together, but even then, it will all be conjecture, because the movie refused to give us definitive answers. I just wish PROMETHEUS had spent more time focusing on the questions it raised than on how to best shock the audience with a gruesome death, because those were scenes in the film that came off as the most contrived, at least for me. It's a decent two hours of entertainment that asks some interesting questions and offers up a few memorable, stomach-churning scenes, but it's not the great sci-film film that we've come to expect from Ridley Scott.

Coming Attractions - DJANGO UNCHAINED

Quentin Tarantino ranks right up there with Christopher Nolan and J.J. Abrams as one of the most influential filmmakers in Hollywood, at least for me, because his films are some of the best that I've ever seen and I have made sure to watch them all multiple times, hoping to glean something new about the art of filmmaking with each viewing. RESERVOIR DOGS is one of the most impressive debut films that I've ever seen from a first-time feature director and I consider both PULP FICTION and INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS to be his masterpieces, with honorable mention going to his throwback to blaxploitation films JACKIE BROWN and his two-part revenge epic KILL BILL. Tarantino is a self-admitted film buff who grew up working in a video rental store where he amassed an unrivaled knowledge of all things film, a knowledge he now puts to use in crafting films that pay homage to the movies (some more obscure than others) that he loves. I believe him to be more talented as a writer than a director, with a knack for writing skillful exchanges of dialogue that are fascinating and absorbing, vivid and memorable characters re-created from the recycled remains of old stock characters, and the ability to tell a story that feels both fresh and fondly familiar.

But, as is the case with a lot of great filmmakers, Tarantino likes to take his time between movies, the longest of which being the six-year gap separating 1997's JACKIE BROWN and 2003's KILL BILL: VOL. 1, and often talks about several different future projects to the press, making it unclear exactly what he intends to do next. So you can imagine my excitement when it was announced that DJANGO UNCHAINED, the latest film from the mind of Quentin Tarantino, was to be released on December 25th, 2012, a welcome Christmas present to fans of all things Tarantino. DJANGO UNCHAINED is set in the Deep South, where Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave desperate to be reunited with his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), who has fallen under the ownership of the sadistic slave owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Living in Mississippi, Candie owns and operates a plantation that he affectionately refers to as "Candyland," where female slaves are used for sex and male slaves are pitted against each other in death matches for sport. Django finds unexpected hope in the form of Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a former dentist turned bounty hunter, who frees Django from his captors and offers to help rescue Broomhilda from Candie in exchange for his help in tracking down the elusive Brittle Brothers (M.C. Gainey, Cooper Huckabee, and Doc Duhame), wanted men with rewards out for their capture that Schultz intends to collect.

Why am I so excited for DJANGO UNCHAINED? For starters, I'll flat out see anything that Quentin Tarantino writes and directs because he has yet to let me down, and nothing I've heard about DJANGO has convinced me that this latest work will be the exception. I'm also a huge fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, who has managed to shed the teen heartthrob image he earned with TITANIC and become one of the best leading men working in Hollywood today with acclaimed films like INCEPTION and THE DEPARTED under his belt. But I have a feeling that here in DJANGO UNCHAINED we'll be seeing DiCaprio like we've never seen him before as he steps into the villainous shoes of Calvin Candie, the antithesis of the protagonist roles that have become his bread and butter, and I can't wait to see what kind of performance he has in store for us. Christoph Waltz, since winning Best Supporting Actor for his turn as Colonel Hans Landa in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, has seen his talents in wasted in dull fare like THE GREEN HORNET and WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, so I'm looking forward to seeing him re-team with Tarantino, who wrote the part of Dr. King Schultz specifically with Waltz in mind for the role. Don't forget Jamie Foxx, and Tarantino has again assembled a top notch cast here, and I'm excited to see what he does with it.

I'm also excited for DJANGO UNCHAINED because Tarantino uses a lot of classic elements from Spaghetti Westerns in his films and the thought of him making an actual Western set in the Deep South is an enticing one, to say the least. What makes his films so good is that he himself loves movies and each of his own films, at their core, are love letters to the films of the past that have influenced him. He has credited three films in particular, DAY OF ANGER, THE GRAND DUEL, and DJANGO, as the driving forces behind DJANGO UNCHAINED, and I intend to see all three of them in the hope that I'll be able to recognize their DNA at work once I finally get to glimpse UNCHAINED. Some consider this proof that Tarantino is unoriginal, but I think it takes considerable talent to re-work something that has been done so many times before into something fresh and new, retrofitted with the trademark style that has become so recognizable to Tarantino fans everywhere.

And if nothing that I've said up to this point has convinced you that DJANGO UNCHAINED is one of the must-see films of 2012, I leave you with the teaser trailer below, which was released earlier today. It's going to be a long wait until December 25th, so I encourage you to check out some of the other films that Quentin Tarantino has to offer, because the man hasn't made a bad film, plain and simple. Thanks for reading and enjoy the trailer --- I know I did!

Why Do People Go To The Movies?

There I was, sitting in the movie theater with a couple friends watching 21 JUMP STREET, when I came to the horrific realization that the spawns of Satan were seated right in front of me. There were four of them, two boys and two girls, and they couldn't have been older than 14, so if we're going to abide by the restrictions of the MPAA, they really shouldn't have even been there in the first place. Regardless, I was forced to suffer through an hour and a half of texting, giggling, whispering, grabbing, slapping, and all sorts of other obnoxious shenanigans. It was a disheartening and unpleasant experience, to say the least, and I can't help but lament the sad death of theater etiquette, though that is a topic deserving of a post all its own. What this nightmare scenario made me wonder is... "Why do people go to the movies?" I mean, for these kids, it was clear that they had confused the theater for a playground and were trying to cause as much human suffering as possible, but what about people who aren't on the payroll of Lucifer himself?

This past February, I released a list of the Top 10 Movies of 2011, based on my own opinions and preferences, and atop that list sat DRIVE, a film about a stunt car driver (Ryan Gosling) who falls in love with the girl next door (Carey Mulligan) and attempts to protect her when nefarious characters threaten their lives, forcing him to expose an inner dark side that is both powerful and frightening. I loved it, but I've noticed that there are three schools of thought in terms of how other people felt about DRIVE. In Group 1, we have the people who loved it, like myself, and recognized it as a beautifully tragic tale of a quiet sociopath who wants so badly to be the hero of the story but can't overcome the monster that lurks within him. In Group 2, we have those who appreciated it as a throwback to the slow-burn action films of old, complete with a no-frills plot and vivid re-creations of classic stock characters. And in Group 3, we have those who hated it for a number of different reasons, some of them being a slow and boring pace, a lack of dialogue, too few action sequences, gratuitous blood and violence, and an ending that felt pointless and anti-climactic. None of these groups are right or wrong in their ways of thinking, but these are the opinions that seemed to be most popular in my conversations with the other people who have seen DRIVE.

What does this have to do with why people go to the movies, you ask? Allow me to explain. I think we can all agree that most people go to the movie theater to watch a movie, although I have seen a few who seem to use it as a nice place for a nap, so the real question becomes... "What do people want from a movie?" For me, the answer to this question has changed over time, as I've come to appreciate all that you can accomplish through a single film. When I was a kid, I would go to movies like X-MEN and PLANET OF THE APES (Yes, I saw the remake in theaters... And I liked it, for the most part. Please don't yell at me.) because those movies brought my imagination to life and took me to these extraordinary places that didn't exist in the real world. There was something about going to the movie theater that was so awesome and exhilarating, I would always take a couple minutes to check out the posters of coming attractions and then look them up on IMDb.com when I got home to decide which ones I wanted to see. These days, I'm happy to say that my enthusiasm for moviegoing hasn't changed a bit and sometimes I'll even mark down a movie's release date over a year in advance, but my tastes in movies have matured somewhat. When I go see a movie, I want to watch a story unfold. I want to see actors lose themselves in their characters, clever dialogue that feels both real and meaningful, and a story that I'll be thinking about on the drive home from the theater. I want it to be worth the ridiculously inflated price of admission, not something I'll forget about as soon as I leave the parking lot. I don't go to the movie theater to escape, but rather to see a compelling story and all of the hard work that went into telling it.

But I'm one simple moviegoer and I know I don't speak for the rest of the world. Some people go to the movie theater to be challenged, to be entertained, to laugh, to cry, or sometimes even to sleep, as my dad would often do when I was a kid. But that's his prerogative, and I can't fault him for it. It's your experience and it is up to you to decide what you take from it, unless of course your enjoyment means disrupting and irritating those around you, in which case you should perhaps re-consider going to the movie theater and maybe stick with your own home theater.

So... Why do you go to the movies? Please, don't be shy! All comments are welcome.

Wes Anderson (Final Thoughts)

Wes Anderson is not for everyone, and you're not stupid or uneducated if you don't like him or his films. I can't stand that reasoning, and not much irks me more than when someone attempts to defend the quality of a film by asserting that its dissenters simply didn't understand it. No movie is going to be loved by everyone, and the films of Wes Anderson are no different. Everyone has different tastes and opinions, and I happen to be one of those people who is more than willing to spend a couple hours with Anderson and his cast list of usual suspects.

When I think about what makes a Wes Anderson film good, I have to start with the subtle and deadpan humor, because I'm someone who prefers dry wit to slapstick comedy. As someone who grew up watching the buffoonish antics of Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey, I can't completely condemn the raunchy comedy that has become so popular with mainstream audiences, because I think, when done well, it can provide some of the most gut-busting laughs of your life. But, as you get older, you start to appreciate humor through dialogue and circumstance more and more, which is something that Anderson excels at, as evidenced by the sheer number of times I've heard people quote his films in casual conversation. Physical comedy can provide momentary laughs, but a single line of clever dialogue can stick with a person years after the end credits have rolled. Just a few quotes that I've heard re-used on more than a few occasions:

"Well, tell that stupid mick he just made my list of things to do today." - Max Fischer

"Oh, I'm kidding. Call me 'Pappy'." - Royal Tenenbaum

 "Don't point that gun at him! He's an unpaid intern." - Steve Zissou

Something else that I think Wes Anderson does better than most filmmakers is creating memorable and flawed characters who are often surrounded by dysfunctional family members who are equally as memorable. This is no more apparent than in THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, where Anderson manages to write not one but several different characters who all leave lasting impressions on the audience and allow for a broad spectrum of people to relate to them because they're so unique and real. It's incredibly difficult to come up with characters that are three-dimensional, whom the audience can connect with, but Anderson seems able to do so at will, with even some of his smallest supporting characters being among the most memorable. As a writer, you need to find some common ground with the audience, and there is no denominator more common than the concept of family, which is something Anderson has used throughout his career. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS is about a father trying to re-connect with his children after years of estrangement, THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU is about a man who comes to understand what it means to be a father, THE DARJEELING LIMITED is about the complicated relationship between brothers, and FANTASTIC MR. FOX is about a man learning to put his family before himself.

Wes Anderson understands the powerful emotions, sly humor, and touching poignancy that can come from family, and uses it to provide the heart of his films, with great success. His movies might not be as ambitious as those of Paul Thomas Anderson, but sometimes we tend to forget the fact that our most lasting feelings and memories are the ones we find closest to home, and that is what I find to be so timeless and endearing about Wes Anderson. I must also admit that part of the appeal of his movies is the consistent presence of Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston, and Luke Wilson, and seeing all of these movies in such a short time span has made watching them inhabit their different characters all the more fascinating for me as a viewer.

That about wraps it up for Wes Anderson. I'm not sure who I'll be focusing on next for Filmmaker of the Week, but I expect to be writing a couple opinion pieces before beginning that next venture. I really enjoy everything that Wes Anderson has done, and I encourage you to check out at least one of his films, because they're well worth your time. Until my next post, I leave you with this trailer for MOONRISE KINGDOM, the latest work of Wes Anderson now playing in select cities.

Wes Anderson (Part 3 of 3)

This is it. We've reached the end of the Wes Anderson segment for the Filmmaker of the Week and I will be spending Part 3 talking about both THE DARJEELING LIMITED and FANTASTIC MR. FOX. My hope is that, up to this point, you've noticed some recurring themes, ideas, and cast members that are popular with Wes Anderson, which will all be reinforced by the films that will be discussed below. You can check out Part 1 here, where BOTTLE ROCKET and RUSHMORE are on the docket, and Part 2 here, with THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS and THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU, if you happened to miss those. Now, let's take a look at two of his most recent films, shall we.

Francis Whitman (Owen Wilson), Peter Whitman (Adrien Brody), and Jack Whitman (Jason Schwartzman) are three brothers who haven't seen each other since attending their father's funeral a year ago, but decide to reunite for some good old-fashioned sibling bonding on a trip through India aboard a train called "The Darjeeling Limited." None of them seem to have much in common and all of them distrust each other, with Francis keen on preventing his brothers from finding out the true purpose of this little excursion, Peter unwilling to tell his brothers that his wife is now seven months pregnant with their first child, and Jack frequently slipping away from the company of his brothers in order to check the answering machine of his beloved ex-girlfriend. Taking advantage of each of the train's stops, Francis insists that he and his brothers visit various temples and markets in hopes of achieving some type of spiritual healing, but their attempts are half-hearted and it isn't long before they're at each other's throats, bickering and fighting like children. Once they're thrown off the train and Francis reveals his true intentions for the trip, the brothers are forced to get along as they trek across India in search of the one woman who connects them all --- their mother.

I had heard mixed responses to THE DARJEELING LIMITED and went in with low expectations, which made it all the more shocking when I ended up loving it. When I think about what made this movie work so well, I find myself smiling and laughing at the relationship between the three brothers, because it is so pitch perfect and believable that you buy into it from the beginning, even though the three actors look nothing alike. But I think the lack of resemblance between the siblings plays an important role in signifying how different they are from each other and the idea that these men would never have been in the same room together if not for the common blood that runs through their veins. It's obvious that Wes Anderson likes to play around with dysfunctional families and force them into situations that bring their flaws out into the open, and here he examines the concept of brotherhood and what it is that keeps these grown men together even in the face of constant friction, tension, and conflict between them. They scour India in search of an artificial or mystical answer for their problems in life, blind to the fact that what they need is to challenge each other and say what no one else will, rather than keeping each other at a distance.

THE DARJEELING LIMITED is about the complicated nature of brotherhood and how to find strength through your differences instead of letting them push you apart, and the three leads will keep you engaged until the end with their touching and often hilarious portrayals of three disconnected brothers who are lost both physically and emotionally in life.

Mr. Fox (George Clooney) is a former bandit forced to give up his thieving ways when his wife Felicity Fox (Meryl Streep) becomes pregnant with their son Ash Fox (Jason Schwartzman), prompting Mr. Fox to settle down as a newspaper columnist. But after twelve years of living in a hole with little excitement in his life, Mr. Fox decides to uproot his family to a more lavish home in a tree neighboring the farms of Walter Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Nathan Bunce (Hugo Guinness), and Franklin Bean (Michael Gambon). Recruiting the superintendent Kylie Sven Oposum (Wallace Wolodarsky) as his accomplice, Mr. Fox sets out to rob these three farmers during the night, stealing chickens from Boggis, duck and geese from Bunce, and turkey, apples, and apple cider from Bean, despite making a promise to Felicity that he would never resort to a life of crime again. It all comes crashing down, literally, when the three farmers decide to take action against him for stealing from them and attempt to hunt him down and kill him, destroying his home and forcing Mr. Fox and his family to burrow underground in a desperate attempt to escape certain death.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX is adapted from the children's novel of the same name from author Roald Dahl and was filmed using stop-motion animation, making this the first non-live action film from Wes Anderson. I haven't seen a lot of stop-motion animated films, largely because it is such a long and painstaking process that most filmmakers avoid it in favor of more modern techniques, but I have a hard time imagining anyone more suited for it than Anderson. As a director with a keen eye for detail, this type of animation is perfect for him because it allows him to construct everything from scratch, rather than having to build off of existing areas for some of the more impractical shots, and ensure every minute aspect is as he imagined it. I have nothing against the more mainstream techniques of animation, but there is something about stop-motion that makes it feel so much more three-dimensional and life-like, and in FANTASTIC MR. FOX it seamlessly transports you to this world where talking animals and three cutthroat old codgers can co-exist without it being questioned at all. As per usual, Anderson also assembles a winning cast, with George Clooney and Meryl Streep commanding the audience's undivided attention as a husband trying to re-claim the life he once had and a wife trying to get him to appreciate the one he has now, respectively.

FANTASTIC MR. FOX is the family film that Wes Anderson has been working towards for years now, in that it deals with all of the same themes you see running through THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS and his other films, but does so in a film truly tailored for an audience of families. This film is imaginative, quirky, hilarious, and heartwarming, and you'd be remiss not to give it your time.

NOTE: This should've been posted on Friday, but was not, due to a technical error on my part. I apologize for the mistake, and I hope to have my Final Thoughts on Wes Anderson posted either later today or on Sunday. Thanks for reading!