Movie Update 29

Well, here we are again.

The Castle of Cagliostro


Hayao Miyazaki's first film as a director, before Studio Ghibli was a thing, is based on the Lupin III television series he worked on, which was based on a manga created by Monkey Punch, which was inspired by the Arsène Lupin character created by Maurice LeBlanc. The film's plot is also based on one of the original Lupin stories. So yeah, there's a lot of adapting going on here. Cagliostro is a lighthearted action adventure about Lupin and his buddies stumbling on the world's biggest counterfeit currency operation in one of its smallest countries, and trying to both thwart their plans and rescue a princess at the same time. I've only seen a bit of the show, but it doesn't take much of that to get familiar with the principal characters, and they all show up here and have fun little parts to play. It's a simple movie, but there's a nice energy to it, a reasonable amount of excitement in the twists and turns, and like all works by Miyazaki there's a nice feeling to the animation, which isn't the most fluid ever but does what's required to set the right tone. It's kind of a standard adventure movie, but it's a well executed one.

Killer's Kiss


Not Stanley Kubrick's first feature film, but the first that's readily available for public consumption. It's also his weakest that I've seen. There's nothing very bad about the movie, but there's just not much to it. A boxer meets up with a dancing girl, and they try to leave the city and start a life somewhere, but her crook of a boss isn't a fan of the idea. It's a pretty bare-bones noir story, with the only thing that really makes it work being Kubrick's great photography. There's lots of great little shots that stick out as distinct for the era, including use of reflections, some stuff with shadows that I haven't really seen before, and a memorable conclusion in an unusual setting. There's not much to the characters though, and the tacked-on ending doesn't really work. Its only real use is to show the potential Kubrick had for his work later on.

The Killing


The very next year Kubrick made this, his first really good movie. It actually feels a bit less distinctly his than Kiss, but it's certainly a lot more fun to watch, and might actually be the most purely enjoyable movie he ever made. In one of the few instances I can think of of him using an actor more than once, he has Sterling Hayden as the main character, a criminal trying to pull off one last job, robbing the take at a horse track, with a complicated scheme that involves multiple people both inside and outside the place. It's a pretty good plan, though there's also a lot of moving parts, and of course things get screwed up and the situation eventually gets pretty hairy. There's a lot of build up, and the pay off when it all starts falling into place is pretty great. Stylistically, there's not much in the movie that wouldn't be in another noir movie from the period. But it's also just a really good example of the genre, and sometimes that's all you need to be successful.

The Tree of Life

This is a film about life, and growing up, and pretty much everything that entails. I said before that I imagine a film by Terrence Malick entirely in his reflective/observing-nature's-beauty mode might get tedious, and that's somewhat true here, but the film is so beautiful and poignant that it's hard to be really bothered by the slow bits. The film isn't exactly in chronological order, but what it's basically about is Sean Penn remembering his youth growing up with his parents and two brothers, and also experiencing some sort of vision of the birth of the universe and what possibly lies beyond it. It's a staggeringly gorgeous movie at times, especially in the scenes showing the early moments of existence, with visuals that avoid computer animation in favor of more natural means. The more normal stuff looks great too, though it's mostly just people walking through houses or the woods. Brad Pitt plays his father, and does a really great job making him into a terrible dad that should really be feared and despised without being over the top about it. Just the way he touches his sons on the neck is enough to establish that loving parenting doesn't come naturally to him. I don't think the movie needed a name like Penn to play the adult version of the main character though - he doesn't really do much acting besides walking around and looking at things. The Tree of Life is a bit ponderous and in love with itself at times, but what it does right is memorable and unique enough to make the film worth watching, especially if you're a fan of film as a visually artistic medium.

Movie Update 18

Does this even need an introduction?

Brazil


Terry Gilliam has a long history of misfortune trying to get his movies made, but if nothing else I think he can look back on this as one film that he got to do completely on his terms. Unless he actually didn't, but it sure seems that way. Brazil is a combination of satire, violence, slapstick, and oppression that I don't think I've ever seen in a story before. Maybe something Kurt Vonnegut would write, I guess. It's set in an odd dystopian future where a gigantic bureaucracy seems to control everything. Johnathan Pryce is part of the system, but he gets caught up in something bigger involving a terrorist played by Robert De Niro and a beautiful girl he's been seeing in his dreams. It's both very funny and extremely dark at points, featuring some really great imagery and a killer ending. Unique and worth checking out.

Halloween


Despite really marking the beginning of the slasher movie craze, Halloween has a remarkably low death count and lack of a focus on gore. It's almost like a Hitchcock movie in its focus on suspense over shocking the audience. Like all older horror movies, it doesn't register quite as terrifyingly as it probably did in the past, but it's still a pretty effective little film. I definitely think I like John Carpenter's work in the horror genre a little more than action. Some teenagers do things Michael Myers doesn't like, he stalks them and kills them brutally, and he repeatedly fails to die. A lot of tropes, but it's a tight, tense movie.

Ponyo


As far as Hayao Miyazaki movies go, the plot in Ponyo is pretty slight. His films have always balanced family-friendly whimsy with deeper ideas, but I think this is easily his most child-focused movie, even more than My Neighbor Totoro. That doesn't make it bad though, of course. I still liked it a lot, from the undersea mythology it quickly builds to the gorgeous animation and painterly backgrounds. The environmental themes and dialogue (at least in the American dub) are a bit too obvious and expository, but they just flavor a fun little fairy tale. Not the best Miyazaki movie, but still a really good one.

Wings of Desire


This is a weird movie. I actually saw the American remake (and hated it) around when it came out in the 90s, without realizing it was based on this German film. The original is a lot better, but still really weird. It's based on the creepy idea that angels are always walking around outside our vision, watching over us and sometimes longing to be one of us. Bruno Ganz, also known as Hitler from Downfall and those funny youtube videos, plays an angel who falls in love with a human, and considers becoming a human to be with her. There's a lot of extended scenes with the angels just listening to the thoughts of humans, which can get repetitive, but they are really artfully shot, and the use of black and white and color is another effective touch. There's also a very strange subplot where Peter Falk plays Peter Falk. Yeah, it's a weird movie.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown


What do you call a dark comedy that you really like, but isn't really that funny or that dark? I'm not sure, but that sort of describes Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Carmen Maura stars as an actress whose affair with a costar has recently ended, and now finds herself caught trying to figure out what happened. At the same time, her friend recently slept with someone who turned out to be a terrorist, and she's considering subletting her apartment to an awkward, nerdy looking Antonio Banderas, who happens to be the son of her lover. Also, his wife is crazy and wants to kill her, or really anyone. It's a twisty, entertaining little movie, though it never reaches the crazy sort of climax or fevered pitch that the best movies of its ilk tend to. Still, a fun, well made movie.

Kiki's Delivery Service

It's always bittersweet when you get close to running out of unseen films by a favorite director. I don't know how many more stories Hayao Miyazaki has left in him, and now the only ones I haven't watched are his first, The Castle of Cagliostro, and his most recent, Ponyo. Luckily, Kiki's Delivery Service was one of the best, so the experience of seeing the work of possibly the best director of animation ever continued to be pleasant.

On the face of it, there's not much that sets Kiki and her story apart from most of Miyazaki's other work. The main character is a young girl on an exciting adventure. Unlike many fantasy heroes, she's allowed to have loving parents. The story is almost too warmhearted, but it never quite steps over that line. It's appropriately funny and charming in parts, but it gets serious when it needs to for the sake of a natural plot. In some ways it's basically boilerplate Miyazaki, not really separating itself from his other work, but the success is all in the execution. It's wonderfully animated, touching, gripping in its dramatic moments - there's really nothing it doesn't get right. Of all his work starring little girls, this one was my favorite.

This is one of the few Miyazaki films not based on his own idea, but it fits right into his style. The only difference might be that the main character herself is the source of the fantastic element in the plot, rather than a normal child wandering into a world of wonder. Kiki is a young witch, who at the age of 13 is ready to fly to a new town in order to hone her skills for a year. She runs into some trouble at first, but thanks to a kind baker, settles into a town by the sea. She doesn't really have any skills besides flying on her broom, so she quickly starts a business delivering things around the area while helping in the bakery. They find ways to make the deliveries difficult and perilous adventures despite some rather mundane circumstances, as simple things like an angry pack of crows or some rain can become major issues.

Kiki makes some friends in her new home, but before long some things start going poorly and she begins struggling with her identity, and the very nature of her being a witch. As can be expected though, she eventually perseveres and of course saves the day in the end, in one of the film's more thrilling flight sequences. In the end it's a pretty simple story, but again it succeeds because everything about it was just done with an exceptional amount of skill and grace. You don't need to get super fancy, the right amount of simple craftsmanship will take you a long way. I'm kind of glad it took so long to see this one, because it's one of the crown jewels in a brilliant man's body of work.

My Neighbor Totoro

Or as I like to call it, Children Running: The Movie. In the Miyazaki mold, this movie still counts as fantasy, but it's one of the more grounded ones he's made. It's about a man and his two daughters moving to a new house in the country while the mother is in the hospital. The main conflict in the movie is the kids worrying about their mom's condition, but it's not really the focus of the movie. The main appeal for a lot of it was the relationship between the two sisters. Originally they were written as a single character, but for dramatic purposes they were split into two, the younger of which follows the older everywhere and imitates a lot of her actions. It's good at reminding you of a time when you really looked up to someone.

It takes about half an hour, but eventually they do introduce Totoro, a giant furry creature that befriends the sisters. It does the whole "is this real?" thing for a bit, but it becomes clear that it's the sort of thing that only kids can see because they believe in it. Totoro helps them out with some things, eventually saving the day when a crisis arises. There's not really a huge driving force to the plot, but the movie works because of its very genuine nature and the simple truth with which it treats the subject matter. The animation's nice, the music is pleasant and it's a movie that's just hard to not like if you're not a teenager. Because of monetary concerns it was originally shown in theaters alongside Grave of the Fireflies, which is one of the most incongruous pairings I've ever heard of, but now it stands as one of the many beloved works in the Ghibli library.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Produced by Isao Takahata and directed by Hayao Miyazaki based off a manga he did, Nausicaa has a lot of talent behind it, and while I found it a bit ponderous in places, it's got a lot of great moments and ideas, and is definitely a must see for any fan of the best anime can offer. Although I realize that a few of the Miyazaki films I've missed so far are among his most mundane work in setting, what I think is his greatest strength is creating unique fantasy worlds that never feel unoriginal but are still distinctly his own, and that's definitely on display here. Of course, he had all the time he was making the manga to develop his ideas, but the vision he has is impressive and very interesting.

As can be predicted at this point, the setting and plot have a strong environmental message embedded in their DNA. It's basically a post-apocalyptic vision of Earth, where our own pollution has destroyed the planet and turned parts of it into what is called the Sea of Decay, where humans need gas masks just to survive. Various nations come to be at war, some wanting to awaken a terrible giant that helped lead to the old Earth's destruction in the first place, others wanting to find another way to restore the ecosystem. There's a mix of medieval swordplay with weapons like tanks and various flying machines, with some of the action being as strong as in any Miyazaki movie.

Nausicaa is the standard Miyazaki female protagonist, valuing life extremely highly as she ventures into the Sea of Decay to learn more about it and salvage what she can. She's the princess of the nation she belongs to, and before long she's at the center of the escalating conflict and must do anything she can to save the world. I can't say the plot is entirely unpredictable or creative, but it hits all the right notes and never stumbles too badly either. There's some pretty wild imagery and nice animation, although the 1984-quality soundtrack is a bit lacking in credibility. In the end, it's perhaps not quite a great film, but I definitely enjoyed it.

Howl's Moving Castle

I wrote this for a class, which explains why it's a bit more analytical/spoiler-filled.

Howl's Moving Castle is another Miyazaki film and thus at least partially nostalgic and environmentally conscious in its nature. This film is actually less concerned with how we treat nature than how we treat ourselves. It's an antiwar film, showing the horrors that can happen when people fight senseless battles. The conflict with Sophie vacillating between youth and old age depending on her feelings toward Howl is a visual metaphor for one's state of mind. In the end, when she looks young but still has the silvered hair of old age, it represents a coming together of energy and wisdom.

Like most modern Ghibli output, it mixes hand drawn and computer animation in a very subtle way, and has that distinct look and feel of wonderment that makes them very naturally enjoyable. The environment is a little blander than some of Miyazaki's other work but the Castle itself and some of the characters are imaginative as ever. Sophie is another in a long line of young female protagonists in Miyazaki films and Howl is another in the line of supporting male counterparts. Their relationship doesn't have the normal twists and turns you might expect, but that's part of what makes it interesting. The supporting cast is a little more broadly drawn but does well to serve the needs of the story and some comic relief. It wasn't the best thing he's done but still quite above average.

Princess Mononoke

I am more convinced than I was before than Miyazaki is easily among the best animation directors of all time. By today's standards, the art is a bit simple, but it's still well done, creative, and beautifully animated. The story is an interesting fantasy tale with fully developed characters and no hard and fast lines of good and evil. People oppose each other, but none of them are outright bad, they just have conflicting goals. The art and story combine in an extremely inventive film that is, from what I've seen, his masterpiece.

What makes me say this is that is I've never seen such a good combination of whimsy and badassery. I always knew Miyazaki was capable of the former, but not the latter. He still has the humor, scenery, and feel of a pleasant fantasy, but the main characters are capable of some truly awesome and brutal action scenes. The male protagonist is amazing in battle and he knows it, but he's not arrogant, he's just sure of himself. It's a really fun movie to watch.

I watched it on DVD, and it apparently didn't have the original Japanese audio track, which is unfortunate. On the bright side, the dub wasn't bad at all. I don't really care about fame of the actors in animation, but the popular actors used for all the roles generally fit their parts and don't get in the way. I've heard the dub is generally faithful to the original script, and the dialogue avoids clumsy-sounding lines to match the mouth movements as much as possible, so it didn't really detract from the experience. Whatever language you want to watch it in, Princess Mononoke is a great movie.

Movie Update 1

I won't name all my posts like this, I'm just catching up right now.

Bringing Up Baby

I'm taking a film class this quarter and we watch a movie every week. The first was Casablanca, which I had previously seen, and is completely great. After that we saw a few silent movies, and then this, an example of the "screwball comedy" which has died out since it was released. Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn are both great actors and work well together to create a funny movie. It seems overly silly nowadays, but it works if you don't take it too seriously. It's full of sitcom situations and enjoyable fast-talking, and I guess it works if you want to see what people like to laugh at a long time ago.

The Gold Rush



One of two silent comedies we saw on the same day, Charlie Chaplin's film about recurring character "The Tramp" and his attempt to find love and riches in the cold north. I don't think he's as funny as Buster Keaton, at least in these two movies, but I think this may be a better film as far as emotional range and actual filmmaking go. It does have many funny moments, and is probably as good an example you're going to find of what silent movies were all about.

Inside Man

Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster have been two of the better actors in Hollywood for a while, and Clive Owen has only started to emerge in the last few years, but I've already grown to like him a lot. You put all three of them together in a movie with an interesting, twisty heist plot behind it and it's probably going to be pretty good. Everyone plays their part well (although what exactly Foster's character was supposed to be was a little vague), and it creates a nice tension where you aren't sure what you want to happen. Owen's bank robbery isn't quite what it appears to be, and the script is great, filled with smart dialogue and an interesting structure as scenes with the two cops interrogating the victims after the fact are spliced in to the normal narrative, leaving you guessing.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

I've got to see more movies with Robert Downey Jr. Between this and A Scanner Darkly, I've decided he's the best actor today when it comes to funny, quirky characters that you find yourself liking even if they aren't the best people. Val Kilmer is almost as funny and Michelle Monaghan is great as the girl who used to be a slut but is really just a clever, nice person at heart. All of the actors work together well in this hilarious take on a mystery movie which has some of the best narration I've ever heard. It continually tops itself with how crazy it gets, and is just extremely fun to watch.

Ocean's Twelve


Yet another movie completely stacked with big-name actors, almost to the point of absurdity. It's not as good as the remake it's a sequel of, but it still has its moments. It has a few too many music-focused montages and it doesn't really spend as much time on actual heisting as it should. It spends more time on the cat-and-mouse between the different characters and seems to be pretty far from the first.

It's got pretty enjoyable dialogue, although maybe the cast is just a little too big to give all the characters the screen-time they deserve. While they spend time fleshing out Brad Pitt's relationship with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bernie Mac is almost completely absent and Shaobo Qin seems like a utilitarian throwaway. The big "gotcha" twist at the end is okay at first, but it seems a bit lame to me in retrospect because you don't really get a chance to figure it out yourself and it renders a very large part of the movie a complete waste of time. I enjoyed watching it, but hopefully the upcoming sequel gets back to the best parts of the whole concept.

Sherlock Jr.

The other silent comedy, maybe not as well-formed as The Gold Rush but I found it to be more enjoyable. Buster Keaton is a master of both subtle and completely physical comedy, and Sherlock Jr. contains probably the best comedic chase scene I've ever seen. It also has a great, innovative sequence involving a character stepping inside a movie screen. It's oddly structured, as the main thread is partly abandoned in favor of the movie within the movie, but it's a really pleasant watch.

Spirited Away

I've only seen a few films by Hayao Miyazaki, but I can tell he's one of the best creative minds to ever do animation. Spirited Away is endlessly inventive with setting, character, and plot, and is realized with very good, naturalistic animation. Miyazaki is great at creating realistic protagonists that you genuinely like and root for. It's one of those movies that just has a soul, with a great atmosphere that can be both frightening and heart-warming. Seriously, the guy is a genius.

Unknown

I had never heard of this small movie before I saw it, which seemed weird to me because of its great cast. The concept is interesting and is brought to execution as well as can be expected, with good acting, betrayals, mystery, and twists abound. I've seen better thrillers, but this is certainly a good one. It's a little ambiguous about what exactly happens, but it's not too hard to follow and is definitely an interesting ride.

Way Down East

A silent film by famed film pioneer and racist D.W. Griffith. The cut we saw in class was quite long, and it seemed like it took forever, but I wasn't all that bored to be honest, so I guess it's an accomplishment. It's pretty damn primitive nowadays, but back then this was groundbreaking stuff. It has funny moments and a well-structured story that reflects the values Griffith wanted to convey. The ending sequence is pretty far out there and seems out of place, but it's not a bad movie at all.