A movie review and a stolen meme as I head for a rock to hide under.
Why do I never get work in the middle of a holiday or something? Yesterday I signed up to work for all the days that I don't have class - and then realised that I have a 30-minute presentation due in a week. This realisation hit particularly hard when, after class, Tim pulled me aside to discuss the presentation and all it would entail, including Freud, Derrida, and Victorian concepts of telepathy insofar as they relate to affect in such a mediated form as cinema. I DON'T EVEN KNOW. I'm going to catch a train at 8am tomorrow and spend all my time reading this book he gave me (on pain of returning it in pristine condition) whenever I'm not asking strangers to participate in a survey about toilet paper. Kill me now.
ANYWAY. I'm stealing this meme from musicforwolves, because if not I will not post for another fortnight or something, SO.
Day 01 - Favourite foreign-language film
Day 02 - A film that is underrated
Day 03 - A film that brings you unadulterated happiness
Day 04 - A film cliché that you love
Day 05 - Favorite love story in a film
Day 06 - Favorite actor/actress
Day 07 - The most surprising plot twist/ending
Day 08 - The best opening/closing credits
Day 09 - The best soundtrack/score to a film
Day 10 - Favorite classic film
Day 11 - Favorite black-and-white film
Day 12 - A film that permanently altered your point-of-view
Day 13 - A guilty pleasure...
Day 14 - A film that you used to love but now hate
Day 15 - Favorite film sequel
Day 16 - Favorite film character
Day 17 - Favorite film quote
Day 18 - The best overall cast in a film
Day 19 - The most hilarious film you've seen
Day 20 - A moving (emotional) scene
Day 21 - Favorite film from your favorite actor/actress
Day 22 - Favorite Academy Award acceptance speech
Day 23 - A character who you can relate to the most
Day 24 - The best page-to-screen film adaptation
Day 25 - Favorite film villain
Day 26 - Favorite film poster
Day 27 - A film that you wish you had seen in theaters
Day 28 - Favorite film from your favorite director
Day 29 - A piece of trivia from a favorite film
Day 1 - Favourite foreign-language film:
This should be a much harder question than it is. I mean, there are a ridiculous amount of foreign-language films out there that aren't just objectively good, but that I totally love: Metropolis, Zatoichi, The Downfall, Belleville Rendezvous, Les Visiteurs, Hero, anything by Hayao Miyazaki, The Crimson Rivers, The Orphanage, Let The Right One In, The Devil's Backbone... but yeah, I saw this topic and something pretty irrefutable sprung to mind. You can probably guess what it is. The director not only signed my DVD, he drew a little cartoon of himself too; I treasure it more than this laptop, which is to say a very lot. It is, of course, this:
There are so many reasons why this is one of my all-time favourite films. The cast is so perfect, even the bit-parts are heartbreaking and memorable: there are three main female characters (fuck yeah it passes the Bechdel test) - of them, Ofelia and Mercedes are two of my favourite female characters of all time, and Ofelia may be my absolute favourite child; the villain, Captain Vidal, may be the most chilling and despicable in cinema history. The concept of evil is thoroughly explored, and in the end, the creatures that mindlessly hunger are not nearly as nightmarish as the man who looks in the mirror every morning, hates the evil he sees, and carries on doing it anyway. The genre-blending of fairy tale, horror, and history is not only ambitious, it works on every level. The creature design is truly inspiring, and I love the means Del Toro used to realise those creatures: CGI where appropriate, but mostly a modern use of good old-fashioned makeup and acting, which makes creatures like the Faun and the Pale Man truly come to life - you just want to reach out and touch the Faun, stroke his tree-bark skin and curling horns, just because you know you really could. I could write a damn dissertation on all the reasons this movie is just wonderful, and devastating, and beautiful, but it wouldn't be nearly as convincing as just sitting down and watching the movie. I love it so.
~
Oh, and hey, before I forget: I saw Inception, and it was amazing.
A disclaimer first: if you haven't seen it, I recommend you go in with as little information as you can manage; it's better to just let the film unfold. Having said that, I wouldn't blame you for going all spoiler-hound if you're ambivalent about seeing it.
So basically, this is a heist film. It just happens to be an incredibly pretty, incredibly cool heist film based on a simple, if highly imaginitive science fiction premise: that with an intraveinous doohicky, some slick Jungian thinking, and an outside assistant to wake the dreamer up with a 'kick', a con-man can enter the dreams of anyone and steal corporate secrets right from the source. The film starts with Dom Cobb (that would be DiCaprio) and his sharp-dressed point man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) trying just this on Japanese mega-industrialist Saito (Ken Watanabe), only to fail because one of the party-guests (projections of the dreamer's mind, that will eventually turn on the invading dreamer like white blood cells on a foreign body, Psychonauts-style) turns out to be a ghost from Cobb's past - quite literally.
Saito, being a clever businessman, turns this situation to his advantage: he offers Cobb a ticket back to his kids in America if Cobb will do a job for him. Instead of taking something from the mind of his business rival, he wants them to implant something: an idea, the eponymous inception, said to be impossible. It means creating a dream withing a dream within a dream, increasing the risk (and the perceived time) with every level. Cobb assembles his crew: Arthur, Saito (who insists on coming along to protect his investment), Yusef (a pharmacist who has created a sedative that will stabilise the triple-level dreaming), Eames (a gun-loving English guy who can shapeshift in dreams and seems to spend the entire movie flirting with Arthur), and Ariadne (an architecture student, and our everyman's-eye-view). Ariadne has a threefold role: she asks the questions that we need to know the answers to, she builds the dream-labyrinths - cities, hotels, forests - that let our protagonists dodge hostile projections, and, true to her name, she guides Cobb through them so that he can confront his own personal minotaur. And personal monsters have never come lovelier than in the form of Marion Cotillard, I can tell you.
It's a spectacularly beautiful movie, I shouldn't have to tell you that. In the trailers and on the poster, Paris folds in half, and it's not even the most awe-inspiring thing to happen. One criticism I've seen aimed at the film is that there is little to no focus given to characterisation, and aside from Cobb, that isn't something I can argue with. It's true that it is far less character-driven than I usually like. However, the exploration of the central premise was more than enough to hold me enthralled for two and a half hours. The great cast and spectacular production design helped, and on a shallower note, so did all the immensely attractive men in sharp suits. In summary? I found it thrilling and quite original, and I'm totally going to see it again as soon as I can afford it.
ANYWAY. I'm stealing this meme from musicforwolves, because if not I will not post for another fortnight or something, SO.
Day 01 - Favourite foreign-language film
Day 02 - A film that is underrated
Day 03 - A film that brings you unadulterated happiness
Day 04 - A film cliché that you love
Day 05 - Favorite love story in a film
Day 06 - Favorite actor/actress
Day 07 - The most surprising plot twist/ending
Day 08 - The best opening/closing credits
Day 09 - The best soundtrack/score to a film
Day 10 - Favorite classic film
Day 11 - Favorite black-and-white film
Day 12 - A film that permanently altered your point-of-view
Day 13 - A guilty pleasure...
Day 14 - A film that you used to love but now hate
Day 15 - Favorite film sequel
Day 16 - Favorite film character
Day 17 - Favorite film quote
Day 18 - The best overall cast in a film
Day 19 - The most hilarious film you've seen
Day 20 - A moving (emotional) scene
Day 21 - Favorite film from your favorite actor/actress
Day 22 - Favorite Academy Award acceptance speech
Day 23 - A character who you can relate to the most
Day 24 - The best page-to-screen film adaptation
Day 25 - Favorite film villain
Day 26 - Favorite film poster
Day 27 - A film that you wish you had seen in theaters
Day 28 - Favorite film from your favorite director
Day 29 - A piece of trivia from a favorite film
Day 1 - Favourite foreign-language film:
This should be a much harder question than it is. I mean, there are a ridiculous amount of foreign-language films out there that aren't just objectively good, but that I totally love: Metropolis, Zatoichi, The Downfall, Belleville Rendezvous, Les Visiteurs, Hero, anything by Hayao Miyazaki, The Crimson Rivers, The Orphanage, Let The Right One In, The Devil's Backbone... but yeah, I saw this topic and something pretty irrefutable sprung to mind. You can probably guess what it is. The director not only signed my DVD, he drew a little cartoon of himself too; I treasure it more than this laptop, which is to say a very lot. It is, of course, this:
There are so many reasons why this is one of my all-time favourite films. The cast is so perfect, even the bit-parts are heartbreaking and memorable: there are three main female characters (fuck yeah it passes the Bechdel test) - of them, Ofelia and Mercedes are two of my favourite female characters of all time, and Ofelia may be my absolute favourite child; the villain, Captain Vidal, may be the most chilling and despicable in cinema history. The concept of evil is thoroughly explored, and in the end, the creatures that mindlessly hunger are not nearly as nightmarish as the man who looks in the mirror every morning, hates the evil he sees, and carries on doing it anyway. The genre-blending of fairy tale, horror, and history is not only ambitious, it works on every level. The creature design is truly inspiring, and I love the means Del Toro used to realise those creatures: CGI where appropriate, but mostly a modern use of good old-fashioned makeup and acting, which makes creatures like the Faun and the Pale Man truly come to life - you just want to reach out and touch the Faun, stroke his tree-bark skin and curling horns, just because you know you really could. I could write a damn dissertation on all the reasons this movie is just wonderful, and devastating, and beautiful, but it wouldn't be nearly as convincing as just sitting down and watching the movie. I love it so.
~
Oh, and hey, before I forget: I saw Inception, and it was amazing.
A disclaimer first: if you haven't seen it, I recommend you go in with as little information as you can manage; it's better to just let the film unfold. Having said that, I wouldn't blame you for going all spoiler-hound if you're ambivalent about seeing it.
So basically, this is a heist film. It just happens to be an incredibly pretty, incredibly cool heist film based on a simple, if highly imaginitive science fiction premise: that with an intraveinous doohicky, some slick Jungian thinking, and an outside assistant to wake the dreamer up with a 'kick', a con-man can enter the dreams of anyone and steal corporate secrets right from the source. The film starts with Dom Cobb (that would be DiCaprio) and his sharp-dressed point man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) trying just this on Japanese mega-industrialist Saito (Ken Watanabe), only to fail because one of the party-guests (projections of the dreamer's mind, that will eventually turn on the invading dreamer like white blood cells on a foreign body, Psychonauts-style) turns out to be a ghost from Cobb's past - quite literally.
Saito, being a clever businessman, turns this situation to his advantage: he offers Cobb a ticket back to his kids in America if Cobb will do a job for him. Instead of taking something from the mind of his business rival, he wants them to implant something: an idea, the eponymous inception, said to be impossible. It means creating a dream withing a dream within a dream, increasing the risk (and the perceived time) with every level. Cobb assembles his crew: Arthur, Saito (who insists on coming along to protect his investment), Yusef (a pharmacist who has created a sedative that will stabilise the triple-level dreaming), Eames (a gun-loving English guy who can shapeshift in dreams and seems to spend the entire movie flirting with Arthur), and Ariadne (an architecture student, and our everyman's-eye-view). Ariadne has a threefold role: she asks the questions that we need to know the answers to, she builds the dream-labyrinths - cities, hotels, forests - that let our protagonists dodge hostile projections, and, true to her name, she guides Cobb through them so that he can confront his own personal minotaur. And personal monsters have never come lovelier than in the form of Marion Cotillard, I can tell you.
It's a spectacularly beautiful movie, I shouldn't have to tell you that. In the trailers and on the poster, Paris folds in half, and it's not even the most awe-inspiring thing to happen. One criticism I've seen aimed at the film is that there is little to no focus given to characterisation, and aside from Cobb, that isn't something I can argue with. It's true that it is far less character-driven than I usually like. However, the exploration of the central premise was more than enough to hold me enthralled for two and a half hours. The great cast and spectacular production design helped, and on a shallower note, so did all the immensely attractive men in sharp suits. In summary? I found it thrilling and quite original, and I'm totally going to see it again as soon as I can afford it.