A great week of movies this week. Two really good brand new yet-to-be-released 2011 films (sure to be two of the years most talked about amongst some circles), and then one movie released more than 50 years ago just to spice things up. Two great new filmmakers, and one all time great.
The Future (Miranda July, 2011): About a couple months ago I reviewed Miranda July's first film, "Me and You and Everyone We Know." I ended up giving it an A grade (though I did hesitate at first). It surprised me then to find that once I left SIFF Cinema after watching July's second film, "The Future," I actually felt that it might be just as good as that one, and with time it may even be better (second viewings of both films will be needed to decide which is better). The story deals with two quirky people having a sort of mid-life crisis. That's a movie that sounds kind of boring and unoriginal to me on its own but Miranda July somehow infuses that idea with such originality and emotion that it transcends all ideas of how originality affects a film experience. I've always thought that no idea is cliche, what's cliche is how you convey that idea. The impending doom of death/mid-life crisis in this film is conveyed with such brilliance that it truly becomes memorable. What July does is take the quirkiness of filmmakers like Jason Reitman, Wes Anderson, and Noah Baumbach, and then combine that with the surreality of David Lynch. She takes real people and puts them in situations that sometimes make no sense. Many scenes in this movie are very surreal, for example a guy talking to a moon, a shirt crawling up a street, and most importantly a cat narrates the story. These scenes are so unreal and break the suspension of disbelief you had in the first half of the story (which is decidedly less surreal), but the brilliance lies in the fact that when it does go all weird on you in the second half it still somehow all works. You feel something emotionally, and it all makes you think on an intellectual level as well. The surreal metaphors work in a non-abstract way. They are abstract, but they're not abstract in a way that you have no idea what they mean until you watch it like 5 times.
The only other filmmaker I can compare this to is Charlie Kaufman, who is in my opinion the best screenwriter today (he's also a filmmaker since he has directed once). His (arguable) masterpiece "Synecdoche, New York" is maybe the only other film I can think of that is comparable to this. That film also deals with the impending doom of death in a brilliant, yet different way. Both Charlie Kaufman and Miranda July remarked in individual interviews that they saw their respective films as horror films about death. But both deal with dark material in a pretty light way for much of their movies. You could call "The Future" a dark comedy, though I see it more as a dramedy (drama comedy). I don't think this is a film that everyone will love. Her last film as well was a bit polarizing for its quirkiness, and this one I think will also be polarizing but I feel like it might be a bit more loved because the quirkiness is grounded and there's the additional surreal aspects that I'm sure many will understand and be affected by. Regardless of if the film community embraces July as a force to be reckoned with I personally will be greatly anticipating her future projects. Her first two films have shown a true knack for weird humanist qualities. I don't know if I can say she's one of the best up and coming filmmakers on the planet, because I'm pretty sure that for me with her first two films, she's already pretty up there.
Grade: A
Attack The Block (Joe Cornish, 2011): This is a yet-to-be-released British sci-fi action comedy directed by the feature debut of a collaborator of Edgar Wright ("Shaun of the Dead," "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World"). I saw this as an early screening the other day in Seattle, and it was a great experience. The film is loads of fun. It's a true genre movie that doesn't stick to just one genre. It's got science fiction, horror, action, and comedy. It all works great, especially the comedy, though much of it is great British humor and because I don't get to experience British humor as much as some I may have enjoyed it even more. Though the other way around can be said as well for some people who just don't get some British humor. The film is basically an alien invasion told on the small scale. It's all set on one block, and the kids on that block are the main characters. The kids are basically thugs, but somehow you are made to root for them. They are South London thugs who are poor, but strong kids.
The film examines these kids, and it examines their situation in terms of the setting. The kids are kids. They love fighting, doing stupids things, etc. That's why the prospect of an alien invasion is kind of fun-sounding to them. These are poor kids who have too much testosterone and this alien invasion provides the best kind of release. The film does get slightly unrealistic with this later on in the movie, the real emotion of certain situations does not come out because the film is sometimes to pre-occupied with showing how cool everything. But it gets serious when it delves into where they live and how they live. It's an urban slum basically. Crime and drugs are everywhere, and their skills that they learned on the streets do come in handy against the aliens. There are some lines in the movie, including a great one about a character who thinks the government put the aliens in their block to get rid of blacks/lower class, that really reveal how people in this type of neighborhood think. This examination of the lower urban class through an alien invasion is similar to "District 9," but I think it does it in a better way than that movie. That movie is much more obvious about its social commentary when it does it, this movie does more showing. It allows you to reach your own conclusions a bit easier than "District 9." One flaw both films show though is that sometimes they get too far into plot and action, and coming out of that to get back into the social and humanistic commentary is difficult for the films towards the end. But the very last shot of "Attack the Block" though is certainly a great shot that makes up for many of the misgivings in the end of the film. Even if you don't care for the serious side of this film, it's so easy to ignore it all and just enjoy the fun. This is a film that all film lovers can enjoy.
Grade: B+
Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa, 1949): Famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa is most known for his samurai epics set in feudal Japan, also known as jidaigeki films in Japan (that's where the word Jedi comes from). As of now, I've seen two films directed by him not set in feudal Japan, and instead set in modern day Japan (modern day for when they were made). Both of his modern day films I've seen, "Ikiru" and now "Stray Dog" are actually two of my favorite Kurosawa movies. He doesn't seem to get enough credit for these modern day films, those two are incredibly well crafted and feature some affecting universal themes. "Stray Dog" is a great film set in post-war Japan about a detective looking for his stolen gun. Through that very noir plot, the film goes into the lower depths of Japan right after their loss in World War II. This film is basically the Japanese equivalent to Vittoria De Sica's "Bicycle Thieves." Both post-war neorealist films, both revolving around a stolen item. The main difference being that this film is not as poetic as "Bicycle Thieves," instead it's much more of a genre film with scenes of suspense and plot.
At the same time though it has long passages about the people of Japan during this time, and how they're suffering. You also have the main character (played by Toshiro Mifune) who is certainly more well off than many of the peripheral characters, but still feels their pain as a result of his gun being stolen. He feels a sting after anyone gets shot by that gun, and his drive to hunt this person down gets stronger and stronger as the film goes on. I say this is a genre movie because it's very much a film noir, but it has such stunning scenes of post-war Japan that it successfully transcends the trappings of the film noir and becomes its own. As a bonus you also get to see Kurosawa at a stage of his career in which he has not perfected his directing style and craft, and so he is trying out things that will end up helping him later in his career. There are some things that don't work, there are some scenes that run much too long and get their point across much earlier than the movie cuts to a different scene. But most everything else works, including some great editing techniques. It's an absolute must-watch for Kurosawa fans. This film is a very underrated post-war neorealist film that isn't as talked about as its Italian counterparts, but it's one that certainly deserves attention.
Grade: A-
No comments:
Post a Comment