Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, C.G. "Eye" Tiger
SPOILERS BELOW
Life of Pi, adapted from Yann Martel's eponymous novel begins with the framing device of Pi, the film's protagonist, as an adult telling his life story to a Canadian journalist (Rafe Spall), early in the film Adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) tell Spall's character and by proxy the audience that his story will make them believe in God. This is a bold claim from the character, but an even bolder claim from director Ang Lee. It's such a brash proclamation that it that immediately heightened my contrarian instincts to the point that I wanted to not believe just to spite the director.
The bulk of the Khan's story is the harrowing tale of a shipwrecked Pi who must survive on a lifeboat with a tiger, hyena, zebra and orangutan. The CGI animals are beautifully designed and while I generally dislike anthropomorphic animals, these animals are dangerous and instinctual, but still have agency as characters in the story. Lee's real coup during these sequences is to generate real suspense when Pi is in peril even though the film's framing device tells that audience that Pi survives this wreck.
The film takes a while to get going and at times the first act feels like a generic Disney fable, but once Pi gets on the raft, the film is suspenseful, engaging and beautiful*. Occasionally I broke Lee's spell by asking myself stupid nitpicky questions like "Why doesn't Pi kill the man eating Tiger with his flare gun and live off tiger meat for weeks?" The film opens with a brash declaration, but what follows is an thrilling, earnest, spiritual film that didn't convince me to believe in God, but opened me up to believe the film's true message; a message about the power of storytelling and mythology and why it has been present in all of human society.
*While the CG work is magnificent, Life of Pi, a film shot largely on green screen, winning the best cinematography Oscar is bullshit.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
La Haine - 1995 - 3 Stars
Director: Mathieu Kassovits
Cast: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui
SPOILERS BELOW
La Haine follows an ethnically diverse group of three French youths in and around their public housing complex the day after a riot in their neighbourhood. It has a sharp, funny screenplay, despite subtitles often stepping on punchlines and features good naturalistic performances from the three leads. The actors are able to capture the bravado of youth and the film manages to walk the thinline of showing our heroes' persecution complex even as they are being persecuted. It's a low budget film, but its lo-fi digital aesethic mainly works, except when Kassovits overcompensates by using showy camera tricks Similarly the plot, which is mainly a small coming of age story about a day in the life of friends coping with their tough life, takes a sharp turn in the last 3 minutes that feels out of place and the work of a director who wanted to make sure his film ended with a bang. The youthful lack of discipline give the film's performances and dialogue it's spark, but unfortunately end up undermining the plotting and camerawork of an otherwise excellent film.
Cast: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui
SPOILERS BELOW
La Haine follows an ethnically diverse group of three French youths in and around their public housing complex the day after a riot in their neighbourhood. It has a sharp, funny screenplay, despite subtitles often stepping on punchlines and features good naturalistic performances from the three leads. The actors are able to capture the bravado of youth and the film manages to walk the thinline of showing our heroes' persecution complex even as they are being persecuted. It's a low budget film, but its lo-fi digital aesethic mainly works, except when Kassovits overcompensates by using showy camera tricks Similarly the plot, which is mainly a small coming of age story about a day in the life of friends coping with their tough life, takes a sharp turn in the last 3 minutes that feels out of place and the work of a director who wanted to make sure his film ended with a bang. The youthful lack of discipline give the film's performances and dialogue it's spark, but unfortunately end up undermining the plotting and camerawork of an otherwise excellent film.
Universal Solider: Regeneration - 2009 - 3.5 Stars
Director: John Hyams
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Andrei Arlovski, Dolph Lundgren
A sequel to a not particularly well loved 90's Roland Emmerich Sci-Fi film, I didn't even know that Universal Soldier: Regeneration existed until I saw it mentioned on twitter by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. In need of a testosterone fix, I threw it on yesterday and it met or surpassed all of my expectations. It is common, especially on the internet, to pine for macho 80's action films while complaining that current shoot em ups ain't what they used to be, however good action movies are still being made; they are just harder to find without the aid of survivorship bias. Hyams's second feature is a sincere throwback to the movies that turned Jean-Claude Van Damme into a superstar 25 years ago; it has a lot of practical effects, doesn't feature the tongue-in-cheek post-modernity of The Expendables and could be set during The Cold War. While all three of the leads have posses the screen presence required from them , the real star of the film is Hyams's direction and fight choreography, which is brutal, easy to follow and creative; one long take in the film's climactic action sequence is remarkable and a works as a companion to the winking opening of 2008's JCVD. If you have never liked a movie featuring Van-Damme or Lundgren, you will not like this film, but if you have liked anything featuring them this well-constructed, entertaining, brawny action flick is better than watching Cobra on TBS for the 18th time.
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Andrei Arlovski, Dolph Lundgren
A sequel to a not particularly well loved 90's Roland Emmerich Sci-Fi film, I didn't even know that Universal Soldier: Regeneration existed until I saw it mentioned on twitter by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. In need of a testosterone fix, I threw it on yesterday and it met or surpassed all of my expectations. It is common, especially on the internet, to pine for macho 80's action films while complaining that current shoot em ups ain't what they used to be, however good action movies are still being made; they are just harder to find without the aid of survivorship bias. Hyams's second feature is a sincere throwback to the movies that turned Jean-Claude Van Damme into a superstar 25 years ago; it has a lot of practical effects, doesn't feature the tongue-in-cheek post-modernity of The Expendables and could be set during The Cold War. While all three of the leads have posses the screen presence required from them , the real star of the film is Hyams's direction and fight choreography, which is brutal, easy to follow and creative; one long take in the film's climactic action sequence is remarkable and a works as a companion to the winking opening of 2008's JCVD. If you have never liked a movie featuring Van-Damme or Lundgren, you will not like this film, but if you have liked anything featuring them this well-constructed, entertaining, brawny action flick is better than watching Cobra on TBS for the 18th time.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Top Ten of 2012
The Oscars are today and they have prompted me to make my compulsory top 10 of 2012 list. I have been grinding through 2012 movies the past week and there are still several movies that I'd like to see ( THE KID WITH A BIKE, BARBARA, ELENA, LIFE OF PI, HAYWIRE, etc.). All movies I've seen and had a non-festival release in 2012 are eligible for this very, very, very important list.
Honourable mentions and the top ten after the jump
Honourable mentions and the top ten after the jump
Thursday, November 1, 2012
A Liar's Autobiography - 2012 - 2.5 Stars
Directors: Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson, Ben Timlett
Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Carol Cleveland
Monty Python's Flying Circus is one of my formative comedic influences, I remember regularly watching The Holy Grail and Parrot Sketch Not Included, a best of compilation on VHS before I turned 12. I didn't understand half the jokes, but the performances, the jokes I did understand and the frequent nudity, which in retrospect my parents probably forgot about, made the the troupe a staple of my pre-adolescence. Over time my pre-adolescent enjoyment slowly morphed into a profound comedic and intellectual respect for what I still consider to be the greatest sketch troupe of all time. So even though I know most reunion projects merely tap into fans nostalgia so they will fork over money before inevitably being disappointed, I was very excited when I saw that A Liar's Autobiography would be premiering at TIFF 2012 and it was one my most anticipated movies of the festival.
A Liar's Autobiography uses previously unheard recordings of Graham Chapman's semi-fictionalized, satirical biography, that were recorded for an unreleased an audiobook and adds new voicework from the living Pythons (minus Eric Idle) while switching between close to a dozen different styles of animation throughout the film. The animation is for the most part excellent (though I would have loved to see a section directed by Terry Gilliam) and the use of several different animation styles lends the film a marginal amount of chaos and surreallism, but everything that surrounds the animation is conventional, but the film thinks otherwise. Chapman's book satirizes vapid celebrity autobiographies and he has an interesting story to tell, but the filmmakers perspective is vastly different from Chapman's. In the film Chapman's story is being told posthumously and the film undoes most of Chapman's satire of celebrity hagiography as the directors turn their film into the type fawning biography Chapman was mocking. Chapman poked fun at overwrought deterministic narrative's about fame, but the directors are such big Python fans that they can't stop themselves from deifying Chapman as a troubled comedy god who left us mere mortals too soon.
The film opens with a story from Chapman's book about a live performance of The Oscar Wilde Sketch. The directors recreate this sketch via animation and voiceover and while the dialogue doesn't change, the timing, the energy and the performances are all slightly off. The punchlines don't land like they should and somehow most of the humour is sucked out of a brilliant piece of comedy. The film ends with the footage of John Cleese's eulogy for Graham Chapman a transcendent eulogy and one of the highlights of the film, but something the directors did not create. These two moments bookend the film and make an compelling argument that the vivacious subversive wit that made Monty Python so special cannot be recreated and reinforce how bland much of this movie is. The film is not terrible, it's breezy and entertaining, but also slight and inessential, like a really well done YouTube animation. Recently I watched most of the original Flying Circus TV series. I didn't watch the final season, a shortened season, that didn't feature John Cleese. I was told it was largely inessential and didn't think much about it, however after watching A Liar's Autobiography, a facsimile of Python I wish I had spent my time watching that final season instead because at least it's the real thing.
Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Carol Cleveland
Monty Python's Flying Circus is one of my formative comedic influences, I remember regularly watching The Holy Grail and Parrot Sketch Not Included, a best of compilation on VHS before I turned 12. I didn't understand half the jokes, but the performances, the jokes I did understand and the frequent nudity, which in retrospect my parents probably forgot about, made the the troupe a staple of my pre-adolescence. Over time my pre-adolescent enjoyment slowly morphed into a profound comedic and intellectual respect for what I still consider to be the greatest sketch troupe of all time. So even though I know most reunion projects merely tap into fans nostalgia so they will fork over money before inevitably being disappointed, I was very excited when I saw that A Liar's Autobiography would be premiering at TIFF 2012 and it was one my most anticipated movies of the festival.
A Liar's Autobiography uses previously unheard recordings of Graham Chapman's semi-fictionalized, satirical biography, that were recorded for an unreleased an audiobook and adds new voicework from the living Pythons (minus Eric Idle) while switching between close to a dozen different styles of animation throughout the film. The animation is for the most part excellent (though I would have loved to see a section directed by Terry Gilliam) and the use of several different animation styles lends the film a marginal amount of chaos and surreallism, but everything that surrounds the animation is conventional, but the film thinks otherwise. Chapman's book satirizes vapid celebrity autobiographies and he has an interesting story to tell, but the filmmakers perspective is vastly different from Chapman's. In the film Chapman's story is being told posthumously and the film undoes most of Chapman's satire of celebrity hagiography as the directors turn their film into the type fawning biography Chapman was mocking. Chapman poked fun at overwrought deterministic narrative's about fame, but the directors are such big Python fans that they can't stop themselves from deifying Chapman as a troubled comedy god who left us mere mortals too soon.
The film opens with a story from Chapman's book about a live performance of The Oscar Wilde Sketch. The directors recreate this sketch via animation and voiceover and while the dialogue doesn't change, the timing, the energy and the performances are all slightly off. The punchlines don't land like they should and somehow most of the humour is sucked out of a brilliant piece of comedy. The film ends with the footage of John Cleese's eulogy for Graham Chapman a transcendent eulogy and one of the highlights of the film, but something the directors did not create. These two moments bookend the film and make an compelling argument that the vivacious subversive wit that made Monty Python so special cannot be recreated and reinforce how bland much of this movie is. The film is not terrible, it's breezy and entertaining, but also slight and inessential, like a really well done YouTube animation. Recently I watched most of the original Flying Circus TV series. I didn't watch the final season, a shortened season, that didn't feature John Cleese. I was told it was largely inessential and didn't think much about it, however after watching A Liar's Autobiography, a facsimile of Python I wish I had spent my time watching that final season instead because at least it's the real thing.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
9.79* - 2012 - 4 Stars
Director: Daniel Gordon
Subject: Ben Johnson's steroid scandal in the Seoul Olympics.
Canadians who consume a lot of American culture and media, like myself, very quickly develop an inferiority complex. I am irrationally excited when I see the Blue Jays, the Raptors or hockey being discussed on ESPN. It doesn't matter why we are being discussed, I am just happy that we are being talked about. To some this may seem like a case of social-media manufactured generational narcissism, but I see the same reaction from fellow Canucks of all ages; even if the discussion is just thirty seconds on PTI about Jeff Frye hitting for the cycle. So even though I was in utero when Ben Johnson set the 100m dash world record and had it taken away during the Seoul Olympics of 1988, I have a strong connection to that race; it is literally a nascent moment for my sports fandom.
9.79* is an engaging, well researched, well shot documentary that also confirms every thought my reptilian sports brain has about this race, the use of PEDs in sports and Carl Lewis's assholery. Gordon biggest coup is interviewing all the participants in the gold medal heat and allowing them to paint a thorough picture of the track and field world in the 1980s. These men all provide a different perspective on the race: Desai Williams speaks about being Ben Johnson's teammate, Calvin Smith's effeminate drawl voices the strongest anti-PED sentiments and Robson De Silva's has a zen like view of the past as he hang glides over Rio De Janiero. The two stars of the race and the documentary are Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis and while Johnson's frankness is refreshing, Lewis's slipperiness makes him a much more intriguing character. Lewis's ambitions didn't stop at athletics and in interviews it is clear he is equal parts athlete, celebrity, politician and businessman. He is so interested in protecting himself and his brand that it seems like he is always hiding something. His Machiavellian nature makes him a charismatic heel for this documentary, especially when contrasted with Johnson's frankness, a frankness that is usually only present after someone has already been caught.
The results of the race in Seoul are common knowledge for most sports fans; Gordon recognizes this and doesn't bother hiding those results to construct dramatic tension. Instead he takes information that is public, but not common knowledge and parcels it out in such a way that he creates dramatic tension by obscuring his rhetorical point until the last act of the film when he drops the hammer in a satisfying way. Admittedly, his rhetorical point happens to defend someone who I still consider to be one of Canada's great athletes, vilifies a hated American athlete, plays into my general cynicism about how widespread PED use was and still is and vindicates all the beliefs I've held about Ben Johnson for my whole life. So while others may not share my belief that the final act of the film is brilliant payoff from the restraint shown earlier, Gordon's access and visual style, make the movie one of the most entertaining 30 for 30s and a must watch for fans of the series.
24 years later Ben Johnson's victory and scandal are both two of the biggest in Canadian sports history. It's one of the few stories in Canadian sports history that people around the world remember. Fans of dynastic teams have a wealth of experience to draw back on Yankees fans can root for the current team or be nostalgic about Bernie Williams, Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle, Joe Dimaggio and Babe Ruth. When you routinely root for mediocre non-public teams you must cherish the moments in the spotlight you get. In 1988 Ben Johnson had an iconic track and field performances and outperformed a legendary Olympic athlete from our biggest rival, then he tested positive for stanozolol. At least he was the lead story on ESPN for awhile.
Subject: Ben Johnson's steroid scandal in the Seoul Olympics.
Canadians who consume a lot of American culture and media, like myself, very quickly develop an inferiority complex. I am irrationally excited when I see the Blue Jays, the Raptors or hockey being discussed on ESPN. It doesn't matter why we are being discussed, I am just happy that we are being talked about. To some this may seem like a case of social-media manufactured generational narcissism, but I see the same reaction from fellow Canucks of all ages; even if the discussion is just thirty seconds on PTI about Jeff Frye hitting for the cycle. So even though I was in utero when Ben Johnson set the 100m dash world record and had it taken away during the Seoul Olympics of 1988, I have a strong connection to that race; it is literally a nascent moment for my sports fandom.
9.79* is an engaging, well researched, well shot documentary that also confirms every thought my reptilian sports brain has about this race, the use of PEDs in sports and Carl Lewis's assholery. Gordon biggest coup is interviewing all the participants in the gold medal heat and allowing them to paint a thorough picture of the track and field world in the 1980s. These men all provide a different perspective on the race: Desai Williams speaks about being Ben Johnson's teammate, Calvin Smith's effeminate drawl voices the strongest anti-PED sentiments and Robson De Silva's has a zen like view of the past as he hang glides over Rio De Janiero. The two stars of the race and the documentary are Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis and while Johnson's frankness is refreshing, Lewis's slipperiness makes him a much more intriguing character. Lewis's ambitions didn't stop at athletics and in interviews it is clear he is equal parts athlete, celebrity, politician and businessman. He is so interested in protecting himself and his brand that it seems like he is always hiding something. His Machiavellian nature makes him a charismatic heel for this documentary, especially when contrasted with Johnson's frankness, a frankness that is usually only present after someone has already been caught.
The results of the race in Seoul are common knowledge for most sports fans; Gordon recognizes this and doesn't bother hiding those results to construct dramatic tension. Instead he takes information that is public, but not common knowledge and parcels it out in such a way that he creates dramatic tension by obscuring his rhetorical point until the last act of the film when he drops the hammer in a satisfying way. Admittedly, his rhetorical point happens to defend someone who I still consider to be one of Canada's great athletes, vilifies a hated American athlete, plays into my general cynicism about how widespread PED use was and still is and vindicates all the beliefs I've held about Ben Johnson for my whole life. So while others may not share my belief that the final act of the film is brilliant payoff from the restraint shown earlier, Gordon's access and visual style, make the movie one of the most entertaining 30 for 30s and a must watch for fans of the series.
24 years later Ben Johnson's victory and scandal are both two of the biggest in Canadian sports history. It's one of the few stories in Canadian sports history that people around the world remember. Fans of dynastic teams have a wealth of experience to draw back on Yankees fans can root for the current team or be nostalgic about Bernie Williams, Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle, Joe Dimaggio and Babe Ruth. When you routinely root for mediocre non-public teams you must cherish the moments in the spotlight you get. In 1988 Ben Johnson had an iconic track and field performances and outperformed a legendary Olympic athlete from our biggest rival, then he tested positive for stanozolol. At least he was the lead story on ESPN for awhile.
Everyday - 2012 - 2 1/2 Stars
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Cast: Shirley Henderson, John Simm, Johnny Lynch
Michael Winterbottom's new film Everyday was commissioned by BBC Channel 4, who wanted Winterbottom to make a story about the prison system. It is the story of a mother of four and her husband who is in prison for reasons we don't know and never discover. It's shot entirely in digital, has a documentary aesethic and I assume is heavily improvised. The film has one large extra-textual conceit, it was filmed over 5 years so the children in the film could age properly throughout shooting. Bad aging makeup and multiple child actors playing the same character is something that irks me, so while I intellectually appreciated Winterbottom's choice and the producers for humouring his obsession, ultimately the payoff for this decision is nothing more than a "hey, that's kind of cool" and it only enriches the films on the margins.
The film itself is a low-key naturalistic British drama about a middle class family and a determined mother struggling to make ends meet. The title Everyday is appropriate because it tends to focus on minor day to day events for a family who's patriarch is temporarily incarcerated . Winterbottom and co-screenwriter Laurence Coriat avoid the melodramatic climaxes one would expect from a movie about a single mother with an imprisoned husband and instead focus on how one accepts and adapts to this major change on a daily basis. As with the children's aging in the film, I enjoyed Winterbottom's intimate-micro perspective of a family on a cerebral level, but no others. Shirley Henderson gives a great performance as an overworked mother, but the low stakes throughout the movie make everything feel inconsequential; as if we were watching a collection of the well shot and edited home videos. I commend Winterbottom for trying an interesting experiment, I just wish the results were more dynamic.
Cast: Shirley Henderson, John Simm, Johnny Lynch
Michael Winterbottom's new film Everyday was commissioned by BBC Channel 4, who wanted Winterbottom to make a story about the prison system. It is the story of a mother of four and her husband who is in prison for reasons we don't know and never discover. It's shot entirely in digital, has a documentary aesethic and I assume is heavily improvised. The film has one large extra-textual conceit, it was filmed over 5 years so the children in the film could age properly throughout shooting. Bad aging makeup and multiple child actors playing the same character is something that irks me, so while I intellectually appreciated Winterbottom's choice and the producers for humouring his obsession, ultimately the payoff for this decision is nothing more than a "hey, that's kind of cool" and it only enriches the films on the margins.
The film itself is a low-key naturalistic British drama about a middle class family and a determined mother struggling to make ends meet. The title Everyday is appropriate because it tends to focus on minor day to day events for a family who's patriarch is temporarily incarcerated . Winterbottom and co-screenwriter Laurence Coriat avoid the melodramatic climaxes one would expect from a movie about a single mother with an imprisoned husband and instead focus on how one accepts and adapts to this major change on a daily basis. As with the children's aging in the film, I enjoyed Winterbottom's intimate-micro perspective of a family on a cerebral level, but no others. Shirley Henderson gives a great performance as an overworked mother, but the low stakes throughout the movie make everything feel inconsequential; as if we were watching a collection of the well shot and edited home videos. I commend Winterbottom for trying an interesting experiment, I just wish the results were more dynamic.
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