The Great Gatsby

Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of the classic American novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald bursts at the seams with a highly stylized and romanticized 3D vision of the roaring twenties. Hyper edited, and excessively designed, the visual splendor and extravagance on display could compete with the best of Bollywood’s dramatic spectacles.

Set in 1922 Manhattan, an aspiring writer, Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), is invited one day by a dashing young millionaire, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), living in a mansion next door to his rundown bungalow, to one of his lavish parties for the wealthy high society types.  

The movie jumps off the screen like explosive fireworks demanding to be awed at, while throwing everything it can at you. Visually it’s almost like watching a Fast and Furious film, with digitally animated sequences that gives the film a comic book look and style.

Before going off to the Great War, a young soldier falls in love with the daughter from a wealthy family. When he disappears after the war, she is married to a rich business man, but the boy never forgot the first love of his youth. Feeling financially inadequate and unworthy of her love, he obsessively sets out to make himself into a successful tycoon. 

There’s a wild energy to the film that’s beautifully represented in a musical Jazz sequence set against Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue depicting the decadent New York City night life in the 1920s that owes its inspiration to a similar musical sequence in Disney’s Fantasia 2000.

The story is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, the aspiring writer who despite the rumors about Gatsby’s past and current reputation, reserves any judgments while he becomes a close confidant to his eccentric neighbor. 

Known for being grandiose and epic, director Baz Luhrmann has given the story a modern feel with a contemporary soundtrack as he did with his other extravagant romantic musical Moulin Rouge (2001), and it seems to work beautifully to establish the liberal sexual ethics of the time.

When Gatsby finally feels the time is right to reveal himself to his love Daisy (Carey Mulligan), it’s a hilariously awkward moment but they eventually rekindle their past romance. However, this is a cautionary tale of how the wealthy establishment will not part easily with their possessions and their superficial way of life.

Again, the main complaint by critics seems to be that there's too much emphasis on style and not enough substance, but I found it to be a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable visual spectacle blended with a classic story. Aimed more at a young adult audience who will perhaps be studying the novel in school as part of their curriculum as I did when I read it in school; it’s designed to engage the modern sensibilities of a hip new audience. 

The Great Gatsby is a wonderful kinetic kaleidoscope of colorful images that will keep you mesmerized and may hopefully even inspire one to read the classic book on which it’s based.

JP

The Croods & Kon-Tiki: Looking back to discover our future

What could the latest from DreamWorks animation, The Croods (2013), possibly have in common with Kon-Tiki (2012), a Norwegian historical drama and a recent Oscar contender for best foreign film? 

Well, quite a lot actually. In both films someone asks the question, when faced with an insurmountable challenge, ‘What would Tiki do?’ or in the case of The Croods, ‘What would Guy do?’ Both questions are asked in the face of certain doom when radical strategies are called for to survive.

Both are exciting family films that pack an emotional punch and can be enjoyed by adults and children. One film looks forward to find the answers; The Croods is about ancient man evolving by reinventing themselves. The other looks backwards to find the answers; Kon-Tiki is about devolving to prove that ancient men were actually more advanced than we gave them credit for.

Our pre-historic past and the achievements of early man have always fascinated me. A world that was both brutal and mysterious in its unlimited potential for discovery, a natural untouched paradise of unknown vastness. Much like our Oceans, the world was mostly unexplored by humans but our predecessors were quickly breaking new barriers, testing new ideas and discovering new lands.

The Croods deals with the historical displacement of Neanderthal (Cave men) by Homo sapiens (modern humans) during pre-historic times.  A family of Neanderthals fights all manner of strange pre-historic beasts to survive using their superior strength and fear of the unknown. But when their world crumbles beneath their feet, they are forced to follow a strange young boy with some progressive ideas on a journey through the unknown.

The humor is quite clever and deals with the theme of living day to day while barely surviving, as opposed to living to dream of and invent a better way of life. It’s a look back at how we evolved from brute strength beings, to thinking reasoning inventors of new technologies that improved our daily lives and set us on a course to the future we live in today. 

Whereas Kon-Tiki is about modern humans recreating ancient methods used by primitive humans to navigate ocean currents and winds, while re-discovering the basic thought processes and ideas they may have had. 

The results are very similar in both films as we follow clans of barely clothed hominids on voyages through vast distances, isolated from other humans, and battling the elements using only their physical strength and ingenuity.

Kon-Tiki is about a band of young Norwegian adventurers who set out on a voyage drifting across the Pacific Ocean using only a balsa wood raft made of materials available to pre-Columbian Indians, to prove the theory that the Polynesian islands could have and were actually settled by ancient South Americans.

Isolated from the civilized world and using only basic primitive materials, the crew places their fates into the hands of nature and the ancient knowledge of our ancestors to float across the perilous unknown expanse of the open seas. 

Both these engaging films are inspired by the adventurous spirit of our early ancestors and pays homage to their courage and perseverance.

JP

Oblivion

The summer blockbuster season has officially kicked off with this smart thought-provoking Science fiction epic with big Hollywood A-list names attached to it. Not since Prometheus (2012) has there been an attempt made at such a slick and serious dystopian post-apocalyptic vision.

If you’ve seen and loved Duncan Jone’s low budget film Moon (2009), you will recognized the inspiration for this cerebral story about an ‘effective team’ couple whose mission is to oversee the repairs of drones protecting a terraforming project after a devastating attack by aliens has left the Earth a surreal moonscape of pock-marked ruins. You will also find familiar story elements from Logan’s Run (1976), Independence Day (1996), I Am Legend (2007) and WALL-E (2008).

‘Style over substance’ seems to be the main complaint by critics about Oblivion, Tom Cruise’s latest sci-fi action drama. But that’s what they said about Blade Runner when it was first released in 1982. Whether Oblivion will have the same impact and become the cult classic that Blade Runner is remains to be seen. But it’s certainly as enjoyable and provocative with a visual style that’s reminiscent of the best of classic sci-fi.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, we get a visual mix of Tron: Legacy (2010), which he also directed, and more than a few visual references to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Star Wars (1977). What’s not to like about that? Anyone who loves good Sci-fi will certainly enjoy this stylish mind-bender that’s part futuristic action and part psychological thriller with a touching love story thrown in.

As futuristic as it looks, filmed on the otherworldly landscapes of Iceland; it’s as if the earth has been covered by layers of volcanic ash, Oblivion also has a nostalgic retro bent to it as our hero, Jack Harper, collects all manner of vintage trinkets and memorabilia that he finds on his excursions while repairing drones. He also has recurring visions of a time before the apocalypse.

The music by M83 has a Vangelis type electronic ambient mood that fits well with the barren landscapes and gives the film a cutting edge feeling suggestive of the dehumanized worlds of Philip K. Dick’s novels like Blade Runner (1982), Minority Report (2002) and Total Recall (2012).  

Living literally as the last man and woman on earth, our lonely but effective couple is promised that they will join the rest of the remaining human colonists on Titan, a life sustaining moon orbiting Saturn, when their mission is completed. But when Jack investigates a crashed space vessel that lands nearby, a shocking mystery is revealed.

If you look at what defines a Tom Cruise movie, the one thing they all have in common is obsessively motivated characters with an abundance of confidence and determination to accomplish the job at hand. Much like his own personality his latest character fits perfectly into his legacy of 37 films playing charismatic action heroes from Risky Business (1983) and Top Gun (1986) to The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), Valkyrie (2008), Knight and Day (2010) and the Mission Impossible movies.

The movie’s theme of breaking barriers and seeing past the façade is an apt one for the beleaguered public image of Tom Cruise. People who may be turned off by his portrayal in the media will be deprived of a stunning visual experience and an entertaining film that pays homage to many of the best sci-fi action films.

JP

Trance

Danny Boyle’s hyper-charged new film Trance is a psychological thriller so hypnotic in its visual style and techno-synthesized soundtrack that it feels like watching a cross between the mind tripping films Memento (2000) and Fight Club (1999) with a little art history thrown in the mix. 

Set in the high stakes world of European fine art, a London art auctioneer and addicted gambler Simon, played by James McAvoy recently seen in X-Men: First Class (2011), decides to steal a valuable painting with the help of a group of his criminal accomplices to pay off his gambling debts. 

Trance has all the visual flair you would expect from a Danny Boyle film, who is known for pushing the genre envelope with films like Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and 127 Hours (2010), and is at the top of his game here, throwing every visual and story-telling technique he can at you to give us a unique cinematic experience.

The art theft is pulled off perfectly, except that the painting itself goes missing when Simon loses his memory after being hit on the head during the robbery and now can’t remember where he hid it.

Filmed simultaneously while producing the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics in England last year, Trance has a way of engaging its audience with an exciting mix of dynamic digital photography and hip Euro-trance club music that drives the story, giving it a heightened euphoric rush. Besides the trance like state our anti-hero finds himself floating in and out of, the title Trance also refers to a style of house music made popular in Germany that’s known for its fast upbeat, repetitive electronic dance rhythms.

With the help of a sexy female hypnotherapist, played by the stunning Rosario Dawson, who was also seen in Unstoppable (2010), Simon begins to reach into the recesses of his brain to put some of the missing pieces of his past together, but it seems to leaves him even more confused about his identity and what happened to him.

Just when you think you might have a handle on what’s happening, the movie does a Sixth Sense (1999), where you don’t know who did what and characters are not who you think they are. There are subtle clues throughout but the film is so entertaining that the audience won’t know what hit them until the very end.

When Simon becomes intimately involved with his therapist, the mystery finally begins to unravel while exposing the fragile nature of identity and the power of hypnosis. It’s an intriguing hallucinogenic exercise that messes with our minds, as we the audience are also kept guessing until the shocking end. 

Shot in locations that mix modern and classic architecture around London, England, this intense, stylish crime drama washes over you like a wave of rapid colorful rhythms that successfully integrate classic film noir images with state-of-the-art technology. 

Don’t miss this visually stunning treat for the eyes and ears as well as the mind. 

JP

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The first installment in The Hobbit trilogy is a fun, thoroughly enjoyable romp through Middle-earth. It's the start of a new epic quest through the Misty Mountains to reclaim the legendary dwarf kingdom of Erebor, under the Lonely Mountain, which is filled with jeweled treasure and guarded by the great golden red, flying, fire-breathing dragon Smaug.

After nine years since the end of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson returns to Middle-earth with his expanded version of the classic Tolkien children’s tale that started it all. Using Tolkien’s appendices, backstories and revisions to further connect The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings stories with more contexts, Peter Jackson is able to make direct references to his earlier trilogy and allow for richer character development while giving voice to Tolkien’s unpublished work.

Due to some mischievous scheming by the wizard Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins of the Shire is visited one evening by a group of disgruntled but talented dwarves lead by Thorin Oakenshield, dwarf king-in-exile, under the false impression that Bilbo is a famous burglar who can help them break into the impenetrable dragon’s lair.

Filmed once again in breathtaking scenic locations around New Zealand, we get to revisit many of the well-known settings that were introduced in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The journey starts once more in the peaceful rolling hills of Hobbiton village in the Shire, where Bilbo has his unexpected encounter.  We are also welcomed back to the elven refuge of Rivendell, where we meet the half elven prince Elrond, played a new by Hugo Weaving and the angelic elven queen Galadriel, played by the returning Cate Blanchett.

Unimpressed and disappointed by the Hobbit’s lack of enthusiasm for adventure, the dwarves leave him behind in his Hobbit hole at dawn, convinced that he isn’t the cunning burglar they were lead to believe and definitely not up for the challenge of what will certainly be a long and very dangerous, life threatening journey. 

Using the same facial motion capture technique used in Avatar (2009), which they perfected for Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), the New Zealand effects company Weta Digital was able to make many of the new and familiar characters in Tolkien’s world look even better here.

After the initial relief of settling back into his quiet uneventful life, Bilbo’s curiosity and a strange craving for an exciting new adventure get the better of him. But Bilbo must now prove that he’s up to the task at hand, which won’t be easy for a Hobbit who has never set foot out of his comfort zone.

In addition to the merry band of courageous dwarves, we get to meet some interesting new characters; a new Wizard called Radagast the Brown, a lover of birds, and flora and fauna, who discovers a strange evil force brewing in Middle-earth. The Great Goblin, lord of the goblin hoards that capture our dwarf heroes and live in a deep network of caves where Bilbo first meets Gollum, who looks even more realistic here, and discovers the magical One Ring that is featured in the later adventures of Frodo and company. And a vengeful white Orc chieftain named Azog, who was long thought to be killed in the Battle of Azanulbizar by Thorin Oakenshield. 

As the journey continues, our Hobbit hero eventually proves to be quite resourceful when put in a tight spot during a run in with several large Stone-trolls and again when on the run from a slew of menacing Warg riding Orcs.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be followed by The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on Dec. 13, 2013, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again on July 18, 2014.

JP

Lost In Translation

Have you ever been stuck in a foreign country with nothing to do and unable to communicate with anyone? Well that’s just what happens to Charlotte, played by Scarlett Johansson, in this intimate and absorbing film by Sofia Coppola, of two strangers who meet in a Tokyo hotel and strike up a flirtatious friendship.

Lost in Translation (2003) is a whimsical but moving meditative journey of two lost souls isolated and lonely in a strange land, both dealing with relationship issues, who end up bonding while sharing some insights about their life struggles.

Directed by Sofia Coppola, this is only the second major film by this promising and talented daughter of the legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, director of Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Godfather (1975) movies.

Bored and unable to sleep in a Tokyo hotel room while her boyfriend works day and night as a photographer, Charlotte wanders aimlessly around the city and the hotel to take in the unusual Japanese culture. While in a bar having drinks she meets up with a declining American movie star, Bob Harris played by Bill Murray, who is there to film a Japanese whiskey commercial. They eventually become close friends as they pass the time talking and discovering Tokyo’s night life.

This is a humorous but very naturally acted, subtle character piece that seems almost improvised as we follow along like an unsuspecting tourist wandering the streets and taking in all manner of strange cultural sights and sounds. In one of the funniest and unusual scenes of the film, Bill Murray is invited to attend a popular Japanese game show where the host dares him to play along with some nutty stunts.

Bill Murray is great at just being himself and you get the sense that he is genuinely baffled by the Japanese culture and their funny pronunciation of English. While directing him on the set of a whiskey commercial for Japanese television, the photographer gives him instructions on how to pose. He gets some wonderful laughs from his attempt to make sense of the Japanese way of speaking. He patiently listens to the director as he gives a long passionate speech in Japanese, but when his translator relays the message it comes out as a short vague sentence. Murray’s expressions of bewilderment are priceless. Something was definitely lost in the translation.

Nothing is explained and the audience is as baffled as the American actors by the bizarre customs. Young Charlotte is willing to try anything and finds the curious traditions intriguing. Together they awkwardly manage to deal with the culture clash and eventually just have fun meeting new people and going along with the local scene.

Don’t miss this wonderful slice of life that appeals to the eternally youthful spirit in all of us and almost feels like a travelogue to a fascinating oriental destination sampling the people, food and entertainment of downtown Tokyo.

Sofia Coppola’s films are always fun and insightful. Her latest film, The Bling Ring (2013) is coming out this summer and stars Emma Thompson, in a comedy about a group of stalking celebrity obsessed teens.

JP

Neighboring Sounds (O Som ao Redor)

Neighboring Sounds (2012) translates literally as ‘The Sound of the Surroundings’, or you might say the aura of a specific place. The atmosphere surrounding a middle class condo building in the coastal city of Recife, Brazil is definitely palpable in this enigmatic but fascinating new film.

The debut feature film by critic turned filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho takes place entirely in and around a tower block community of new condo buildings overlooking the beautiful ocean coastline of northern Brazil, and is a peek into the private lives and daily goings-on of a number of its residents. 

It’s a film where nothing really happens, but it kept me engaged with the eerie feeling that dangerous unsavory people are lurking just beyond the condo walls, and that people are living in fear of something that may be about to happen at any moment. Security seems to be foremost on everyone’s mind and with seemingly good reason. 

Most of recent Brazilian cinema has been preoccupied with the favelas and slums of Rio; City of God (2002), Lower City (2006), and Elite Squad (2008), but this movie is definitely a departure from those violent films. The violence we sense here is an unsettling feeling we get from the high walls, barbed wire fences and security cameras.

The neighborhood buildings are owned by a wealthy property owner, Seu Francisco, who has an old family estate house on land that was settled by some of the first Portuguese to arrive in the new world. He also lives in one of the condo buildings he owns in the city with his sons who rent units out to the residents. 

The fascinating aspect of this film is how the remnants of the old colonial times still survive today in the modern relationships between the poor and wealthy, the native population and European descendants in Brazil and South America. That sense of mistrust and co-dependence on both sides is an unspoken simmering tension.

A car is burgled one night on the street in front of the modern condo tower and the next day someone shows up soliciting their services as independent private security guards. It seems suspicious but the residents, feeling vulnerable, decide to go ahead and hire the guards in order to safeguard the street. 

The movie shows how the neighborhoods and the structures that we live in may have changed drastically over time, but people basically have not. We are still the same primitive beings with the same habits, prejudices, passions and fallacies as always, and no amount of security can protect us from that. 

The movie represents in many ways the colonial fear of being invaded, and how it still affects and influences us today. Throughout the film we are aware of how the modern high rise condo is infiltrated by outsiders due to the weaknesses of its residents. The suspicious events are like a pill that one resident plants in the meat that tranquilizes a guard dog. A drug dealer poses as a water delivery person, a maid bring her children to play in the safety of the apartment where she works, and as the newly hired street security guards gain access to the building, their true purpose is unknown but will be revealed in the final explosive moments of the film. 

This highly sophisticated and promising debut by a talented new film director makes some creative use of sound, and dream sequences that build additional layers of aura to the film. Kleber Mendonça Filho is one to keep an eye on in the future, and I will be watching out for his next film. This could be the beginning of a new era in Brazilian cinema.

JP

Babel

This visually sophisticated, thought provoking drama impresses with its striking photography, raw collision of cultures and seemingly unrelated events that captivate with their social relevance and universal human story.

Babel (2006) is named after the biblical tower of Babel from the book of Genesis, constructed by ambitious humans in an attempt to reach the heavens and thereby inhabit the realm of God. When God catches winds of this he decided to inflict on them a multitude of languages so that none could communicate or understand each other, thereby spreading mankind to all corners of the earth before they were able to complete the tower. 

The movie explores this same theme of people in places and situations that are completely foreign to them and how their inability to communicate results in tragic consequences. Made up of three separate stories that unfold in different parts of the world; Morocco, Mexico and Japan, it’s not immediately clear how they’re connected but eventually a thread begins to appear that seems to tie the people we’ve been following together. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle that we the audience must assemble in our mind.

The gifted Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, who also directed Amores Perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003) and Biutiful (2010), takes one incident and shows how the repercussions have a ripple effect that disturb three separate families from various distinct parts of the world. Each country has its own unique visual style that’s immediately recognizable from its authentic locations.

A hunting rifle is sold to a goat herder to protect his herd from jackals in a remote Moroccan village. A Mexican housekeeper working illegally in the US takes the two children she’s looking after to her home town in Mexico in order attend her son’s wedding, while their parents are on vacation. A deaf-mute Japanese teenage girl, who recently lost her mother, is desperately reaching out for affection and acceptance in a society that treats the disabled with indifferent and prejudice.

This is a unique film by a passionate director collaborating with an international crew using a mix of high caliber, big name actors and non-actors to achieve an unparalleled level of realism. As Brad Pitt once said about working with the non-professional cast, that they have an intuitive innate natural sense of what is real, and that he and Kate Blanchett had to work hard to match their performances. Other notable outstanding performances came from Rinko Kikuchi as the Japanese deaf teen and Adriana Barraza as the Mexican nanny. Both were nominated for Oscars. 

We see how American tourists in Morocco find themselves dependent on the kindness and resourcefulness of the very people they fear. In Mexico two American children find themselves lost and abandoned in the desert after a misunderstanding and clash of cultures at the border. In Japan a frustrated and lonely deaf teenager is unable to communicate her feelings to anyone. And two Moroccan village boys find themselves on the run from ruthless government authorities after a foolish game of target practice causes a tragic accident.

Babel won the Golden Globe for best picture drama and was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, winning one for best score, but lost out to Martin Scorsese’s The Departed (2006). In my opinion Babel was the better picture at the Oscars that year and deserved to win every award it was nominated for. 

JP

Life of Pi

Life of Pi (2012) is a visually awe-inspiring, dazzling tale of profound beauty, winning 4 well-deserved Oscars, the most of any film this year, including for visual effects and cinematography.

Based on the 2001 Booker prize winning novel by Yann Martel, Life of Pi is a fable of faith and survival as told to a Canadian author by the adult protagonist from India, Pi Patel, now a professor living with his family in Toronto (in the book), Montreal (in the film).  

During a trip to India, the frustrated writer was told of an extraordinary tale that will make him believe in God. To hear this tale he must seek out Mr. Patel, played by Irrfan Khan, who was also seen in The Darjeeling Limited (2007) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and ask him about his fateful journey across the Pacific Ocean.

The movie is a breathtaking digital achievement and although some of the animal behavior may be questionable, I never questioned the reality of what I was seeing. Life of Pi has definitely raised the standard of what can be done in films with CG animals. Visually the film goes from a sepia postcard, jungle book image of Pondicherry in the 1950s, to a glittering aqua blue seascape in glowing 3D.

As a child growing up at a zoo in the Botanical Gardens of Pondicherry, India, Pi experiments with and learns about various religions. His father, who is the zoo keeper there, decides one day to move his family and all the zoo animals to Canada by boat. But the journey goes horribly wrong when a storm sinks the cargo ship taking everyone including all the zoo creatures with it except for Pi, and a few wounded animals. 

This story was thought to be unfilmable for many years due to the main characters being a Bengal tiger and a 16 year old boy drifting in a lifeboat on the open sea. Also in the lifeboat are a zebra, a hyena, and an orangutan. These animals will eventually succumb to their basic instincts until only the boy and the tiger are left. But the story is an allegory of human behavior, survival and faith. 

Much like Cast Away (2000), the film focuses on how one person survives while battling against the elements and to keep his own sanity. It’s a gripping story that’s difficult to believe if you weren’t seeing it with your own eyes. But no matter how unbelievable the situations that transpire, there is nothing in the film that looks fake or unconvincing, thanks to some of the most complex and stunning photography and special effects ever created. 

Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee, known for directing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), and Brokeback Mountain (2005), for which he won his first Oscar, is extremely faithful to the book and won his 2^nd Oscar for directing this movie. He has managed to create a visually stunning film that was mostly created with the aid of computers using a seamless blend of both real animals, and CG animation that gives the illusion of total reality. 

Among some of the more dreamlike and surreal visions of the ever weakening stranded boy on a lifeboat, constantly struggling to stay alive and keep from being eaten by his hungry companion, while also managing to keep it alive, are his encounters with flying fish, glowing jelly fish, majestic whales and an immense floating carnivorous mangrove island, inhabited by thousands of meerkats, where he briefly finds refuge from the punishing ocean. 

This extraordinary film can be enjoyed by all ages and will make you sit up and wonder at the spectacle of how it was accomplished. 

JP

The Host (Gwoemul)

The Host (2006), a delightful South Korean creature feature, is a bizarre often hilarious dysfunctional family drama of a passionate but clumsy clan of characters who become the Avengers when one of their own is kidnapped by a sea monster lurking in the Han River. An alien story with a big emphasis on family, it’s Little Miss Sunshine (2006) meets Super 8 (2011) in Korea. 

A lower middle class family with issues and few resources, living in a food stand on the banks of the Han River, becomes desperate when their young daughter is taken by an enormous genetically mutated sea monster that emerges from the murky water to feed on picnickers enjoying the hot summer days.

This movie is a fun romp that also happens to be incredibly well done using state of the art special effects that blend seamlessly with the live action.  For a movie that feels like a low budget send up of the Godzilla genre, it’s actually quite a dramatic and engaging film that’s beautifully and inventively photographed.

When little Hyun-seo comes home from school, she sits in front of the TV to watch her aunt compete in a professional target archery tournament. Meanwhile outside her grandfather’s food stand near the river, chaos is ensuing as a mutant sea creature emerges from the river and goes on a rampage in search of a meal. Disturbed by the commotion, she opens the door to find her father and everyone else in the park running for their lives.

This film reminded me in many ways of Attack the Block (2011), which was a low budget alien invasion film shown from the perspective of low income housing block kids that turned out to be much more fun and emotionally engaging than you would expect from an urban alien invasion fantasy for kids. Check out my alien creature film fest 2011 for more films in this genre.

Assuming little Hyun-seo is dead after being taken by the mutant creature, her devastated aunt and uncle reunite with the close knit family for the funeral. But while the military is quarantining the area and everyone who was exposed to the mutant creature, the family gets a call on their cell phone from Hyun-seo, who is still alive in a sewer somewhere under the city. 

Inspired by tales of the Loch Ness Monster, director Bong Joon-ho has created a suspenseful adventure film that’s both funny and creepy. Much of the movie takes place in the massive network of sewers under the streets of Seoul, Korea and towering bridge structures that span the great River Han, making the movie visually reminiscent of Alien 3 (1992), with its subterranean rainy industrial decay.

Unable to get any help from the Korean authorities the family breaks out of quarantine and form a search party to find their young daughter. Meanwhile the creature continues to attack and carry off unsuspecting victims to its lair for later consumption. Now fugitives pursued by the police, the family must battle the creature on their own but first they must find it and hope that it hasn’t eaten Hyun-seo yet.

Korean cinema has been producing internationally acclaimed films that have crossed over to foreign markets since 2002, with such fascinating directors as Kim Ki-duk, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (2003) and Park Chan-wook, Vengeance trilogy (2002-2005), who has just come out with his first American film; Stoker (2013). 

Since The Host, Bong Joon-ho, has directed the highly acclaimed film, Mother (2009) and will be coming out with a new Sci-fi action drama called Snowpiercer (2013), coming to cinemas this year. Also look for a sequel to The Host, already in the works and scheduled for release next year.

JP

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes aimed for spring 2014 release

Due for release in May of 2014, the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will be directed by the very talented newcomer Matt Reeves who also directed Cloverfield (2008) and Let Me In (2010), which was a remake of the excellent Swedish teen vampire movie, Let the Right One In (2008).

Rise of the Planet of the Apes successfully rebooted the popular Planet of the Apes movies with an emotionally grounded story using the motion capture CG technology used in Avatar (2009), instead of people in costumes used in the original 1960s and 70s series. Director Rupert Wyatt was proud when he claimed that the filmmakers were dedicated to bringing a powerful and authentic emotional experience to the film.

With Matt Reeves now helming the new sequel, which is set fifteen years after the events of the previous film, it looks to be in good hands and anticipation is high for fans that are looking forward to another great Apes movie.

Even more encouraging is the news that Mark Bomback is rewriting the screenplay originally written by Scott Burns who also wrote Contagion (2011). Bomback is the screenwriter for such recent blockbuster films as Total Recall (2012), Unstoppable (2010) and Live Free or Die Hard (2007). He also wrote the upcoming X-Men film The Wolverine (2013).

Andy Serkis who has made a career out of playing CG characters such as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001 – 2003), King Kong in Peter Jackson’s remake King Kong (2005) and Captain Haddock in The Adventures of Tintin (2011), will again reprise the title role of the simian rebel leader Ceasar. Also just signed on to star in the film as a human character, is Australian actor Jason Clarke who was recently seen in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) as an interrogator. 

With such high caliber talent working on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, I’ll be looking forward to a very exciting summer next year. But with the film only in pre-production and scheduled to start shooting this spring, Matt Reeves is now under the gun and has only a little over one year to do what most directors would need two or three years to do. Some people, including the original director Rupert Wyatt, have already voiced concerns that the tight schedule is just not enough time to produce the same standard of quality, especially with the large amount of CG effects work that these films require. Rupert left the project due to creative differences with the studio. 

Is 20^th Century Fox rushing this film out because they don’t want to compete with the likes of Star Wars: Episode VII and Avatar 2, both scheduled for release in the summer of 2015? If so, there will be a lot of pressure to complete this new installment in the hugely popular Planet of the Apes franchise by next year. Is this new prequel series living up to the legacy of its predecessors, which maximized profits with each sequel by being made with less and less time and money, resulting in the deterioration of each subsequent film?

Changing directors during pre-production is never a good sign and rushing to get this film out in half the time needed could hurt the film. Steven Soderbergh, who recently retired from making big feature films, and other directors like George Lucas have complained for years about the corporate Hollywood studio’s arrogance, interference and lack of respect for the creative process of artists. That somehow the studios know better when it comes to what audiences want to see with focus groups and statistics, and that there’s no more room for the creative vision of the director. We might well be seeing the result of that here.

JP

Enlightenment Guaranteed

Enlightenment Guaranteed (2000) is a light hearted but touching comedy by German director Doris Dörrie, known for such illuminating films as Men… (1985) and Cherry Blossoms (2008), also set in Japan. It's about two affluent middle aged brothers, Uwe and Gustav, who are going through a midlife crisis and end up roaming the streets of Tokyo together. 

A German couple with three children, who seem to have everything, are finding that in their pursuit of success and providing for their family, they have somehow lost touch with the important things in life that can make a big difference in achieving happiness. This is the place where Petra, the wife of Uwe, finds herself one day, when she decides she’s had enough and leaves her husband, taking their kids with her and leaving the house empty.  

Doris Dörrie is known for dealing with controversial and spiritual issues, and the stresses of modern day living with a light humorous touch.  She explores and questions our society and why people have become so miserable while showing us how we have abandoned or lost touch with many of the simple pleasures that we take for granted in exchange for an unrealistic and unsustainable life style that is at odds with our natural environment and our health. 

When Uwe arrives home to find an abandoned house and a note from his wife that she has left him, he is devastated and calls his older brother Gustav for support. Dissatisfied with his life, Gustav is preparing to go on a spiritual journey to a Zen monastery in Japan to get in touch with his inner spirit while coming to terms with his identity, when he gets the call from his distraught brother with the news of his wife’s departure. 

The movie is filmed in a home video style and sometimes recorded with Uwe’s video camera in reality show fashion, as both brothers talk into the camera to express their thoughts and feelings about each other and the strange experiences they encounter. The video footage fits well with the travel theme and shows another dimension to the characters.

When Uwe hears about his brother’s planned trip to Tokyo, he begs him not to leave during his time of need. His brother reluctantly relents and decides to take him along with him to get his mind off his misery and spend some time together. So starts a soul searching journey with two very different people who haven’t spent this much time together since childhood and must find a way to reconcile their differences and put up with each other’s criticisms while also navigating a foreign country. 

In the human maze that is Tokyo, Japan, lost in the tech gadget obsessed city, through a series of humorous mishaps, they soon lose their money, credit cards and hotel room, which are shown in a funny vignette that exposes their differing personality traits. After a night spent sleeping in a cemetery under cardboard boxes, they eventually find their way to the Buddhist temple where their journey of self-discovery begins.  

Life in an actual Japanese Buddhist monastery is shown in remarkable authentic detail through the daily rituals and chores that must be performed by all its residents. The monks all have specific duties and they help the two brothers, who don’t speak the language, to learn and adhere to the challenging spiritual routine. 

What’s fascinating about this film is the sense of contentment the two brothers and we the audience feel when they finally learn to accept their faults and enjoy life. Putting their differences aside, they learn to respect and help each other and forge a true bond of friendship while finding peace and acceptance. 

I found this film to be truly enlightening and full of surprises and humor.   

JP

The Pool

The Pool (2007) is an oasis of calm blue serenity, quietly reflecting the aspirations and yearnings of a young man in an otherwise harsh selfish world of grinding poverty. It’s a charming and sensitively observed, naturalistic, almost documentary like portrait of the coming of age experiences of a pair of young boys eking out a living on the streets of Goa, India. 

Directed and written by Chis Smith using a small American and Indian film crew on a shoestring budget, they went to Goa with a story outline and a couple of laptops. Inspired by the local environment and using actual street kids who they found working there, they improvised and created a sincere moral fable.

A curious observant young teen, Venkatesh from a nearby rural province, aimlessly dreams of making it big in the city, as he works cleaning rooms for a hotel in the capital of Goa, Panaji. When he’s not working, he admires the enticing tranquil sight of a clear blue glistening swimming pool, while sitting in a mango tree overlooking a summer home occupied by a wealthy man from Mumbai, and his young daughter. 

The dialogue is minimal but very organic, adding a level of documentary like realism. The movie slowly but steadily works its magic as we become drawn to and then mesmerized by the authentic characters, who we follow on their daily routine. Without realizing it, we’re subtly lured into their lives.

One day, Venkatesh follows the pool owner into town and offers his services to help prune the lush garden surrounding his pool. The man, Nana, played by the only well-known Bollywood actor in the film, Nana Patekar, having lost his son and wanting to impart his wisdom to someone, puts him to work in his garden.

The visuals are beautifully photographed with 35mm handheld cameras in the picturesque environments of this former Portuguese colonial beach city, adding to the realistic and immersive feel. We get to see the actual people who work and live in places as they really exist, making this film a fascinating glimpse into the Goan way of life. 

While working in the Garden, happy to finally be close to the pool he had admired from afar, Venkatesh meets the pool owner’s beautiful daughter and is immediately entranced by her impish nature. He slowly starts to engage her in conversation and introduces her to his best friend Jhangir, who also works in the city. The three of them eventually become friends while hanging out together and traveling to different parts of the city. 

The music score is another wonderful element in the film; an Indo-Portuguese melancholic mix of mandolins and violins. The Fado inspired music gives a feeling of longing and loss that fits perfectly with the classic story of people living with their past in an environment evocative of an ancient lost civilization. 

As Nana, the pool owner, mentors Venkatesh, he eventually offers to give him a real education if he will come to Mumbai with him. Venkatesh must now make a life changing decision. Will he leave his friends and family and his peaceful life in Goa, or will he stay and pass up a big opportunity to study in the exciting city of Bombay? 

Like a free spirit from an Arabian Nights fable, Venkatesh, by quietly observing life from the branches of his mango tree and because of his generous nature, makes some simple deductions that lead serendipitously to him making his modest dreams come true while helping those around him. Don’t miss this unexpected genuine gem of a film that deserves all the attention it can get.

JP

My annual review of 2012 film year

It’s that time of year again when critics give us their top ten film lists. Zero Dark Thirty, The Master, Moonrise Kingdom, Amour, Argo, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Holy Motors were some of 2012’s top rated films by North American film critics. 

My top rated films of 2012; the films that made me want to run out and read the book, the script or listen to the soundtrack album, the ones that surprised me with something new and unusual, were Prometheus, Kahaani, Mumbai’s King, Bernie, End of Watch, Moonrise Kingdom, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook, Samsara, Wreck-It Ralph and Comic-con: A Fan’s Hope.

It was not a particularly favorable year for Sci-fi/Fantasy films as several high profile projects fell to disappointing reviews and box office. Among the casualties were; John Carter, Wrath of the Titans, Battleship, Snow White and the Huntsman, Total Recall and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Although, I found that some of these films did not deserve the misfortune they were handed. I quite enjoyed watching Wrath of the Titans, Snow White and the Huntsman, Total Recall and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I think these are all worthwhile films that deserve a second look. 

On the other hand, Sci-fi films that did well this year and were very well received are as follows: The Avengers, Men in Black 3, Prometheus, The Amazing Spider-man, The Dark Knight Rises, The Cabin in the Woods, and Looper. Although frankly, regardless of the critical acclaim, I personally did not care for The Dark Knight Rises or The Cabin in the Woods as much as other people did.

As far as the Action/Adventure/Thriller genre goes, I saw a few good films that included, The Raid: Redemption, The Bourne Legacy, Easy Money, and Django Unchained. Skyfall, the new Bond film, was a disappointment for me and didn’t impress me as much as it did the critics. But then I was never a big Bond fan anyways.

The Drama category had some excellent touching and heartfelt movies represented this year. Among my favorites were; A Separation, Miss Bala, Kahaani, The Intouchables, Mumbai’s King, End of Watch, Midnight’s Children, Life of Pi, and Zero Dark Thirty. Honorable mentions go to commendable films like Monsieur Lazhar, In Darkness, The Kid with a Bike, The Master, Argo and Lincoln.

It was an excellent year for the romantic comedy section, which had some particularly exemplary films released. The following are the ones I enjoyed most; The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Bernie, Moonrise Kingdom, To Rome with Love, Hope Springs, OMG: Oh My God!, and Silver Linings Playbook.

There were plenty of good animated films again in 2012. I enjoyed all of the following excellent films, Wreck-It Ralph, Brave, The Secret World of Arrietty, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, Ice Age: Continental Drift, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, and ParaNorman.

Some notable documentaries that I have seen so far, although I should stress that there were many great documentaries which I have not yet seen, include Comic-con: Episode IV – A Fan’s Hope, Chasing Ice, Bully, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, The Queen of Versailles, Samsara and The Imposter.

JP

Total Recall

Len Wiseman’s remake of the Paul Verhoeven film Total Recall (1990) with Colin Farrell replacing Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role of Doug Quaid, based on the Philip K. Dick short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (1966) is a worthy kinetic Sci-Fi Action Adventure film. 

A factory worker, Quaid, living in the underworld of a worker colony, commutes to work every day in the United Federation of Britain (UFB) on the other side of the planet by way of a global magnetic elevator transport vehicle that travels through the earth’s core. 

Beautifully designed by director Wiseman, known for the Underworld movies, with a blend of futuristic and classical architecture, it shows an over populated dreary world of multi-layered cities connected with industrial landing platforms and super highways used by an array of hovering and flying vehicles. 

Suffering from strange dreams of being a secret agent, he decides to go on a virtual vacation by way of a machine that implants artificial memories of being somewhere you’ve always wanted to go. As part of this mind altering vacation you also get to give yourself a new identity.  

The visual design of the film looks much more impressive than the original Paul Verhoeven film, which was a tongue-in-cheek humorous look at the future. This new film creates a more immersive and realistic mix of sleek futuristic technology, Victorian inspired architecture and grungy cube shaped slum dwellings with retro style neon lights. There is a definite visual homage to previous films based on Philip Dick’s books like Blade Runner (1982) and Minority Report (2002), and I got a similar feeling of a dark oppressive future world that you get from those films. 

What Quaid is not aware of, is that his mind has already been tampered with and that his dreams of being a secret agent are actually real memories left over from another life he lived as, Carl Hauser, a defected UFB spy. 

There is sort of a Logan’s Run (1976) feeling you get from the story of a special agent who has been tricked into taking a mission because of his unique talents making him the only one suited for the job.  He is partnered with a female insider who can help him navigate the underworld of the resistance as they travel through a maze of unique environments eventually leading the authoritarian forces to the secret hideout of the rebels.

There are quite a number of exciting, fun sequences that give the film its relentless drive and keeps the viewer engaged in the story. There’s a suspenseful chase in a labyrinth of elevators that move in multiple directions, a floating car chase through a multi-leveled cityscape that’s visually breath taking, a rooftop chase through the slums of a worker colony that looks like a future Hong Kong, and a climactic supersonic magnetic transport vehicle, called ‘The Fall’, that runs through the earth’s core from one end to the other in just 17 minutes.

If you’re a fan of Philip Dick’s mind altering, conspiracy fueled, surreal future world stories, then you won’t be disappointed with this film, which stays true to the spirit of Dick’s ideas. If however you were a fan of Paul Verhoeven’s lighter hearted take on the story, you may not enjoy this film as much. The whole trip to Mars element has been eliminated and although there are some fun nods to the original film, the humor is definitely lacking in this more serious but engaging updated remake. 

JP