Take Shelter from Melancholia by Surviving Progress

I suppose it’s appropriate that with today’s economic and environmental disasters looming large, we are seeing a number of films predicting the end of mankind in ways from which we cannot protect ourselves. 

Three new films that I saw recently in close proximity, all spelled out our doom in very different ways, with little or no hope of survival. Perhaps the current global economic crisis has people wondering what we’ve gotten ourselves into and how the end will come, instead of how it can be prevented. It’s as if we know that we cannot save ourselves from our own destructive nature, and we expect the Earth to retaliate for our blatant abuses and tell us that our time is up. Will the end of our planet be our own undoing, or will it come through some natural, unstoppable disaster?  

These three films all explore the inevitable global end and extinction of mankind on Earth. Two of them by natural phenomena from which there is no protection; Melancholia and Take Shelter, and if that doesn’t humble you, there is a documentary that very clearly illustrates how we will be the architects of our own demise; Surviving Progress

Melancholia and Take Shelter are both about individuals looking up at the sky and, through instinct or visions or dreams, somehow sense a coming global disaster, but are unable to express this to others except by what appears to be very unusual and disturbing behavior to the people around them. Both movies center on this person and their strange behavior and the effect it has on their family or community. When the disaster eventually strikes, they seem to be the ones, at least mentally, to be most prepared for it, if not physically. 

Visually both these films are appropriately ominous and eerily photographed with dreamlike, nightmare images and minimal visual effects. As these films are dramas that focus on intimate human relations rather than the physical destruction of the planet, as with Roland Emmerich’s 2012 (2009), they are slow and pensive films that can be depressing and boring for some.

Surviving Progress is a documentary about our capacity to kill the planet and ourselves along with it. It argues that, while we as a society have progressed in our technology and our culture has changed as a result, we, as people, still have all the same primitive instincts of our hunting and gathering ancestors, and that, what we call progress, is actually becoming detrimental to our survival.

Our ability to question ‘why?’ has made us successful in the past but we are now too successful to the point that we are destroying ourselves and the planet. The same abilities that helped us survive in our early history are destroying our planet today. To illustrate this, the movie uses an example from our past, when, as cavemen, we hunted Mammoths to sustain us with food and tools, and we became good at killing them. But eventually we became too good when someone figured out that we could kill many Mammoths at once by herding them over a cliff. Mammoths quickly became extinct, depriving us of an important renewable resource that would have sustained future generations indefinitely. We still have the same mentality today. Consumerism is destroying us and our planet, whether we are stuffing our bodies with food or stuffing our houses with stuff, we are literally consuming ourselves to death.

The film now turns to Wall Street, which is seen as an oligarchy of affluent people with political power to effect change to benefit their cause, which is to make more money and become more affluent. Corporations and economists, says David Suzuki, are totally out to lunch with their economic model of growth, which is completely unrealistic for our world. Corporations and the affluent would rather see 90% of the planet’s people starve and die, and see all the planet’s forests and resources destroyed before ever giving up their desire for more wealth.

We have gone from destroying Mammoths to plundering the last of our natural global resources with no thought for the future. It’s a grim tale of human greed and ignorance that will make Melancholia and Take Shelter seem like the justice we deserve. But as a character from Melancholia says ‘Don’t grieve for the Earth, the Earth is evil.’ And an expert in Surviving Progress characterizes humans as behaving like a virus, killing everything in its path. 

JP

My favourite films of 2011

So here is my list of favorite films that I saw during the 2011 film year so far. I have obviously not seen every film that was released this year and I will probably see more films from 2011 in the future that I might want to add to this list, but of the 75 films that I did see in 2011, these were the ones that I enjoyed watching most and would watch again. Films that I saw that didn’t make this list may also have been good, but I would probably not consider watching them more than once.  

My criteria for this list are naturally subjective as everyone has their own taste but for me a film must have the following: visually it should be unique, bold and stimulating, in other words, the world that has been created must be immersive and authentic with a consistent visual style. The story concept should be interesting, suspenseful and character driven. Performances should be logical and realistic given the situation, character and style of the film, and it should be an emotionally engaging experience overall. (Not too much to ask, is it?)

It was a particularly good year for Sci-fi/fantasy and Feel Good/Comedy/Romances, and there were also some high points in Animation and Foreign films. Below is my list organized by Genres and then in chronological order of release date. (Click on the highlighted films to read my reviews)

Sci-fi/fantasy:                                                                   Director
The Adjustment Bureau                                                      George Nolfi    
Battle: Los Angeles                                                            Jonathan Liebesman
Source Code                                                                      Duncan Jones
X-Men: First Class                                                              Matthew Vaughn
Super 8                                                                              J.J. Abrams                 
Green Lantern                                                                    Martin Campbell
Attack the Block                                                                 Joe Cornish                 
Cowboys & Aliens                                                              Jon Favreau
Rise of the Planet of the Apes                                            Rupert Wyatt     

Action Adventure/Suspense thriller:
The Eagle                                                                            Kevin Mcdonald           
The Devil’s Double                                                              Lee Tamahori                           
Colombiana                                                                        Olivier Megaton
Drive                                                                                 Nicolas Winding Refn   
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows                                  Guy Ritchie

War:
Essential Killing                                                                   Jerzy Skolimowski
Winter in Wartime                                                              Martin Koolhoven

Drama:
Incendies (Scorched)                                                           Denis Villeneuve                       
Alamar                                                                               Pedro González-Rubio              
Contagion                                                                           Steven Soderbergh
Circumstance                                                                     Maryam Keshavarz                    

Comedy/Feel Good/Romance
Win Win                                                                             Thomas McCarthy
Super                                                                                 James Gunn
Midnight in Paris                                                                 Woody Allen
Submarine                                                                          Richard Ayoade
The Names of Love                                                              Michel Leclerc                          
The Women on the 6th Floor                                                Philippe Le Guay
Hugo                                                                                  Martin Scorsese
My Week with Marilyn                                                         Simon Curtis
The Artist                                                                            Michel Hazanavicius
 
Animation:
Rango                                                                                 Gore Verbinski             
Rio                                                                                     Carlos Saldanha
Kung Fu Panda 2                                                                  Jennifer Yuh                 
Cars 2                                                                                John Lasseter, Brad Lewis
Puss in Boots                                                                       Chris Miller       
Happy Feet 2                                                                       George Miller
The Adventures of Tintin                                                     Steven Spielberg

Documentaries:
Circo                                                                                   Aaron Schock  
Armadillo                                                                            Janus Metz      
Bill Cunningham New York                                                     Richard Press  
Exporting Raymond                                                              Philip Rosenthal
Life in a Day                                                                        Kevin Macdonald
SENNA                                                                                 Asif Kapadia     

JP

Hugo

I look to movies to transport me into an immersive experience of fantastic and whimsical worlds, so after having been disappointed by several overrated Oscar hopefuls recently, Hugo finally restored my faith in the magic of movies. You know when a movie is really good when it not only lives up to your expectations but exceeds them, and that is what Martin Scorsese’s latest movie has done. He has given us so much more in this film than you would expect from a children’s adventure story. It is a romantic love letter to the wonder of early cinema that’s both entertaining and educational, and can be fully enjoyed by all ages.

The story is an Oliver Twist tale about the son of a clockmaker and fixer who ends up living in a bustling Paris train station as a thieving orphan, and is set against multiple stories of love-at-first-sight and romance between, not only couples but also between people and the newly invented curiosity of the moving image. It starts out with a mystery provided by a mechanical puppet and eventually goes on to reveal the inspirational and amazing achievements of a French magician who created the first special effects fantasy movies, when movies were still just a novelty.  

Like The Artist (2011) and films like Good Morning, Babylon (1988), it reveals the lost story of a pioneering artist who fell in love with the new medium of movies and went on to make his mark in the history of our now most beloved technology, and then as the world changed, quickly descended into obscurity. It’s actually two movies in one; a children’s adventure story blended with an adult story of redemption that’s rooted in real film history.

Visually, Hugo is a clockwork of moving gears and mechanisms with swooping, flying camera shots that take us through the misty maze of Parisian streets and the steamy Paris central train station of the 1920s, where most of the action takes place. Style wise, Hugo is more reminiscent of the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet or Tim Burton, with their romanticized, child’s-eye-view of the world. If you liked the imaginative, detailed worlds of Amélie (2001), Big Fish (2003), or MicMacs (2010), you will love this film.

I highly recommend you see this movie in 3D as Hugo takes excellent advantage of the 3D technology to fully immerse the audience in its captivating world. You really feel as if you are in the film. It’s the best 3D I’ve seen in any of the stereoscopic films so far and well worth the extra money.

This is an unlikely film for a director who is known mostly for his Gangster films and the seedy side of New York City life, like Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Color of Money (1986), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), Gangs of New York (2002), and The Departed (2006). But then again he has also been known to go totally off into new territory with movies like, The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Kundun (1997) and The Aviator (2004). I would definitely put Hugo among the latter departures from his usual type of film. Many of Scorsese’s films are about influential people in history and Hugo is one of these films, which is about an influential and innovative inventor that history has forgotten.

Based on the award-winning illustrated novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, the movie is told from the point of view of two children; the orphan boy and gadget fixer Hugo, and a book loving girl whose godfather sells toys in a train station booth where Hugo lives. The adult cast are played by Sacha Baron Cohen, previously from Madagascar 2 (2008), Borat (2006) and Brüno (2009), who plays a comic train station inspector. Ben Kingsley, from Gandhi (1982), and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), who plays the godfather toy booth owner. Christopher Lee, recently from The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), who plays a bookshop owner, and Jude Law, recently from the Sherlock Holmes (2009), Sherlock Homes: A Game of Shadows (2011), and Contagion (2011) who plays Hugo’s clockmaker father.

JP

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

British director Guy Ritchie, who previously directed Snatch (2000), RocknRolla (2008) and Sherlock Holmes (2009), really knows how to make a film look beautiful. Visually, the Sherlock Holmes sequel is a creative treat to watch. Here he has blended two of his favorite styles of influence; Steampunk and Gypsy culture. The set design, the art direction, the costumes, all have a Victorian era Steampunkish look, and the dark blue hued lighting gives a sense of ominous danger and mystery. 

The story is about two equally cunning and intelligent adversaries totally going at each other with their full capabilities. Testing their limits while matching wits and out smarting one another with each action set-piece, Holmes and Watson barely escape with their lives and that of their friends as they pursue the menacing Professor Moriarty across France, Germany and Switzerland. 

The movie pits two opposing philosophies and visual styles against each other. On the one hand there is the genius criminal Professor Moriarty and his henchmen represented by the shiny dials and gears of Steampunk style industrial technology, and Holmes and Watson on the other hand, represented by the organic, rough, earthy and spontaneous passion and loyalty of the gypsy culture. They in fact use gypsies to aid them in their battle against the enterprising but morally corrupt Moriarty as they embark on a new mission across Europe.

The music score by Hans Zimmer is an exciting and heart pounding mix of authentic gypsy dance music with violins and flutes, and a Steampunk clattering of percussion, resulting in a feeling that’s both fun-spirited but lethal.

If you liked the pre-visualization sequences from the first movie, where Holmes calculates all the possible moves of an adversary in his mind before it happens in slow motion, you will love this movie because Guy Ritchie has really stepped up the slow motion Holmes-o-vision device for this film to breathtaking effect.

This movie got mixed reviews from critics with many complaining about the over-the-top action and that this more physical version of Sherlock Holmes has no resemblance to the character of the Arthur Conan Doyle books. I think that if you are a fan of the traditional way in which Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed in British shows, you will find these new movies are a complete departure and re-imagining of the familiar pipe smoking, magnifying glass carrying detective of the past. But a newer younger audience will find these movies both exhilarating and also educational with lots of humor.

We are introduced to Sherlock’s brother, played by Stephen Fry, and we also gain a new leading lady in this film, who aids the hero and his partner, in the character of a very capable gypsy fortune teller, who’s pretty good in a fight, played convincingly by Noomi Rapace, from the original Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2010). But what really pushed this movie over the top is its blending of visual styles, humor and the charismatic, engaging performances and chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law as Dr. Watson.

Here’s a list of other great Steampunk movies:
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), Treasure Planet (2002), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Steamboy (2004), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), The Prestige (2006), The Golden Compass (2007), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), 9 (2009), Sherlock Holmes (2009), The Three Musketeers (2011)

Here’s a list of other great gypsy movies:
El Amor Brujo (1986), Time of the Gypsies (1990), Gadjo Dilo (1997), Exils (2005), Transylvania (2006)

JP