ParaNorman

Ghosts, ghouls and zombies in 3D, what more could an eleven year old ask for? But what’s really scary about ParaNorman is not the dead, it’s the living. This fun, eye popping and colorful ghost story touches on serious themes, such as people’s fear of the strange or unknown, being different, bullying, revenge and the mob mentality.

Have you ever been made fun of for being different? Well, Norman certainly has and he’s definitely not normal. He’s a boy who sees and talks to ghosts. These ghosts are mostly friendly people who lived long ago and still have some issues. Norman is constantly ostracized and picked on by his school mates for being crazy. His weird paranormal conversations with the dead don’t sit well with his parents either, who think his overactive imagination is creating this strange fantasy life to get more attention.

As it turns out, the town Norman lives in has a dark past and the movie attempts to draw a parallel between actual witch-hunts in the town’s history and the bullying of kids in schools today. The analogy is not without merit and the movie does an excellent job of linking the present with our past; Norman being the link between the two, which only he can see and communicate with.

Norman matter-of-factly acknowledges the ghost he sees and wonders why it’s so difficult for everyone else to believe they exist when they were once beloved people, friends and family from our past. The only person who befriends him, who is not a ghost, is a boy from school who just wants to talk to his recently deceased dog. Some of the funniest parts in the film are when the living folks freak out and become a hysterical mob when they see the dead coming to haunt them.

When he fails to stop an ancient curse from waking the dead, all hell breaks loose, literally, and Norman reluctantly becomes the negotiator between tormented loose-jawed zombies, and the town’s fearful rioting mob. While trying to communicate with the cursed dead folk, he learns about a tragic event from the town’s past that still resonates in Norman’s world today. To save the town from a legacy of fear that haunts them from the past, he eventually finds a way to get through to people’s (dead and living) better natures, resulting in an emotionally touching climax.

Visually there are virtually no straight lines in this film; everything is a little askew including the camera angles, which is in keeping with its creaky creepy tone. This movie would have been better suited for an October release date coinciding with Halloween as the spooky characters are more on the cutesy cartoony side.  The stop-motion puppet animation by LAIKA, who also produced Coraline (2009), is wonderfully detailed and richly textured with organic touches that give a feeling of hand crafted art. The visual style is appropriate for children but the story has enough weight to give adults something to think about.

ParaNorman has a great voice cast that includes John Goodman recently from The Artist (2011) and Happy Feet Two (2011), Anna Kendrick from Up in the Air (2009) and 50/50 (2011), Casey Affleck from Gone Baby Gone (2007), The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) and Tower Heist (2011) and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Norman, recently from Let Me In (2010) and The Road (2009).

JP

Unstoppable: Trains, planes and automobiles

While Hollywood is reeling from the untimely passing of visionary action director Tony Scott, I fondly recall watching some of his most memorable films like Top Gun (1986), Crimson Tide (1995), Spy Game (2001), The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) and his most recent film, Unstoppable (2010). 

With recent films like The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) and Unstoppable, Tony Scott was finding new ways to thrill his audiences by enhancing and pushing the boundaries of camera movements and quick editing. Mixing Omni-directional camera movements with rapid editing and multiple angle shots of blurring, streaking action sequences accompanied by Rock n Roll soundtracks, he gave his films a sense of wild kinetic sensations, and involved the audience in an immersive feeling of being everywhere at once while cramming in as many visual details as possible.  

Using state-of-the-art cinematic visual techniques and filming in real locations rather than sets, whether it’s an aircraft carrier in Top Gun, the New York subway system in Pelham 123 or Pennsylvania railways in Unstoppable, he made those places come alive and gave you the sense that they were characters in themselves. His visual style was clearly influenced by the time-lapse speed of the Qatsi trilogy.

In Unstoppable a rookie train conductor who has a restraining order keeping him from seeing his wife and children is partnered up with a veteran train engineer who is being forced into early retirement by the company after 28 years of service. They grudgingly become acquainted and get to know each other while confined to the cab on the engine car of a freight train. 

Elsewhere on the same track a series of mishaps causes another freight train carrying toxic chemicals to run loose unattended at full speed heading toward a derailing in a populated area unless someone can somehow board the train while it’s travelling at 70 miles per hour and manually stop it. This movie was inspired by true events and as you might imagine from the title, the runaway train proves more difficult to stop than anyone ever imagined.

This movie is to railway trains what Top Gun was to fighter planes, Days of Thunder (1990) was to formula race cars, and The Taking of Pelham 123 was to New York subways. And in true Tony Scott style this movie goes all out, being orchestrated with big bold strokes, including the dramatic story of two working class men who go beyond the call of duty to redeem themselves in the eyes of their families from being as useless as society would have them believe.

Unstoppable is pulse pounding and exhilarating to watch because we are totally invested in the characters from the beginning with convincing performances by the Oscar winning actor Denzel Washington and new comer Chris Pine who is known for his role as the young captain Kirk in the new Star Trek films by J.J. Abrams.

Action cinema today has never been more exciting. Not only has cinema become more visceral, but never has there been as much imagery packed into a film as in today’s modern action films. This is not to say that these movies are necessarily better because of it. Technically, action films today far surpass those of previous generations but a good film still needs a good story. Without a good story the technical aspect can be fun to watch but not involving enough to capture an audience. What sets Tony Scott’s films apart is that he pays just as much attention to the human story as his action sequences and Unstoppable combines a compelling story with technical excellence resulting in an emotionally satisfying film. 

The British born younger brother to the legendary director Ridley Scott, known for such iconic films as Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Gladiator (2000), Black Hawk Down (2001), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Robin Hood (2010) and Prometheus (2012), Tony Scott co-founded with his brother the production company Scott Free and was well liked and respected by Hollywood’s biggest names, having worked with actors Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Brad Pitt, Robert Redford and Robert De Niro to name a few.

Tony Scott (1944 – 2012) RIP.  

JP

Hope Springs

Hope Springs is being promoted as a romantic comedy and it starts out humorously enough but this heartfelt and poignant drama packs an emotional punch you won’t soon forget.

I wasn’t terribly excited about seeing this film but with a first rate cast like Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carell, I figured it couldn’t be that bad.  As it turned out my faith in the cast was well placed and the film was far better than I ever imagined.

A couple of empty nesters find themselves, as many do, in a bland and lifeless routine. Sexless and non-communicative, their marriage is gradually deteriorating when Kay, a housewife played by Meryl Streep, decides to spice things up with some much needed rejuvenation by attending a couples counseling retreat in the small town of Hope Springs, Maine. 

I was impressed by how this film did not shy away from some very delicate subject matter and treated it with sensitivity and honesty. We discover that the issues this couple faces, as difficult as they might be, are also more common than we might be willing to admit. It’s not uncommon for a long successful relationship to falter or end once children have moved out and the relationship has lost its focus. This movie pulls no punches and its tender portrayal of marital issues may hit close to home. 

  

Although this film has its funny and romantic moments and is ultimately a feel good film, I would recommend you bring lots of tissue paper as it’s also an emotional roller-coaster. At the screening I attended, the audience was so moved that no one left their seats for quite a while after the lights came up. I must say that I was similarly moved and stayed seated for a long moment after the credits rolled to recover from the impact of what I had just experienced.

One doesn’t normally associate Tommy Lee Jones, recently from Men in Black 3 (2012), with this kind of role but he is absolutely outstanding and completely believable as Arnold, a stern husband set in his ways who isn’t at all comfortable talking about intimate feelings. His grudging reaction to being coerced into coming along on this excursion is like a child who knows he's going to the dentist to have his teeth pulled.

Meryl Streep, recently from The Iron Lady (2011), is brilliant as usual, playing a devoted sexually repressed housewife trying bravely to do the right thing in the hopes of bringing back the youthful spirit her and her husband once had.

Steve Carell, recently from Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), plays it as straight as you will ever see him but still manages to pull off the funniest understated performance while basking in the light of the exceptional Oscar talent seated on his therapists couch.

David Frankel, who also directed the excellent The Devil Wears Prada (2006), working from a script by Venessa Taylor, does a wonderful job of bringing out the best from his cast and finding the humor in the reality of the situations. He is not afraid to deal with the most squeamish issues head on.

This movie is all about the remarkable performances of the three leads and I would not be surprised to find this film being nominated for awards next year for its extraordinary genuine portrayals of largely ignored issues of marriage and relationships.

JP

The Qatsi trilogy

Named using words from the Hopi Indian language that describes life and our relationship with nature, these films attempt to create a new visual vocabulary using only images and music to show us life on earth from its primordial beginnings and how humans have transformed the earth and ourselves into something unrecognizable and unnatural.

Filmed in locations around the world, this brilliant series gives us a new perspective on the human condition in purely visual and musical sensations. Using a variety of photographic techniques such as time-lapse, slow motion, fast motion, dissolves and with no story or narration, the awe-inspiring images take on a profound and heightened sense of wonder, while leaving the audience to make their own interpretations. 

Focusing on our destructive impact on the planet they could easily be seen as a promotion for Greenpeace.  If 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) was an optimistic vision of the future and man’s achievements, then The Qatsi Trilogy is its pessimistic counterpart that shows the difficult struggles and sacrifices it took to get there.

Part one, Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance (1982) takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth.

Part two, Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation (1988) focuses on third world locations around the world and shows how traditional ways of life are rapidly being transformed and eliminated by the ever growing industrial machine.

Part three, Naqoyqatsi: Life as War (2002) takes the message to a whole new level as it focuses on the digital age and shows how images and our minds are being digitally manipulated by media advertising.

Also see Anima Mundi (1992), a short Qatsi style companion piece by the makers of The Qatsi Trilogy focusing on the animal kingdom.

These poetic meditations on life have become cult classics within the documentary genre and are made by only a hand full of very dedicated, independent film makers. People you have probably never heard of but sound vaguely familiar, people who have, with their visions, influenced many mainstream filmmakers and television commercials. These people want to make you think about what you’re watching using unique methods of image editing and offer something new to discover with every viewing. These timeless films are even more relevant now than ever and have lost none of their power. 

People who enjoy these kaleidoscopic movies rarely see them only once. These mesmerizing films have a hypnotic effect on the viewer and are almost a religious experience with people who see them over and over again. There are people who have reportedly watched these films 50 or 60 times if not in the hundreds. I consider them must viewing at least once a year.

Directed and produced by Godfrey Reggio, music composed by Philip Glass, photographed by Ron Fricke, and edited by Alton Walpole, these are just some of the people involved in the production of these amazing films. Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson were also the creators of the stunningly gorgeous Qatsi style documentary Baraka (1993) and its sequel Samsara (2011) which will be release in cinemas August 24, 2012. 

            

If you love beautiful cinematography and exotic locations edited together in thought provoking ways using a broad array of eclectic, avant-garde music by a great modern composer, you will love this non-verbal, visual form of cinema, where sound and image is everything. Don’t miss the extraordinary experience of these inspiring films.

JP

Films worth celebrating: The class of 62, 72 and 82

Below is a list of memorable films that are celebrating their 30^th, 40^th and 50^th anniversaries this year. Some films have an impact on us and our lives due to the time and circumstances in which we saw them, and they somehow resonate with us due to the emotions we are experiencing at a certain time in our lives.

I was a teenager back in 1982 and in my final year of High School before going off to College. It was a year of big changes, of preparation and anticipation for a more mature independent life. As a senior at school, people suddenly treated me like a veteran about to graduate into the real world and I felt a pressure to think about life in a more serious way. It’s a time that many people remember with fondness but it also comes with mixed feelings of sadness as one leaves behind old friends and a way of life while preparing to start a new one in a different world of uncertainty.

Going to College for most people meant moving far away from home to a new city and a new culture of independence. It was my last chance to enjoy the life I would soon leave behind and never see again.  It’s a nostalgic time that was so aptly and beautifully portrayed in George Lucas’ American Graffiti (1973), which will have its 40^th anniversary next year.

The movies I watched during this period somehow reflected that nostalgia and the new world of adulthood that I would soon be entering. I saw in these films with hope and optimism, but also a sense of loss and alienation. I remember The World According to Garp (1982) particularly as being a film that reflected those hopes and possibilities with a sense of loss. I somehow related to it and even read the book afterward. That was when I first discovered the writing of John Irving and I have enjoyed his books and the movies they spawned ever since.

Blade Runner was another film I remember with a sense of profound isolation and entering into a new alien world. I think that was the first time I read a book on which a movie was based before I actually saw the movie and discovered Philip Dick’s surreal and strange world that I imagined as foreshadowing the loneliness and isolation I would soon feel in my own life as I struggled with new realities.

Aguirre, The Wrath of God also made a deep impression on me when I first saw it maybe a year or so later when I first arrived in Toronto to attend College. This German movie was released in Germany at the very end of December of 1972 but did not arrive in the US until 1977, and I did not see it until much later at the now defunct second run theaters around 1984. It was about an expedition of Spanish explorers striking out into unknown territory and discovering their limitations while dealing with their darker natures, which is very much what I was going through in my own life.

Now, whenever I watch one of these films, I remember those nostalgic times of optimism and uncertainty. Which films do you remember resonating with your life?

50^th anniversary:

Lawrence of Arabia                            1962     David Lean

Lolita                                                1962     Stanley Kubrick

Dr. No                                                1962     Terence Young              UK

Hatari!                                              1962     Howard Hawks

Jules and Jim                                     1962     François Truffaut          France

My Life to Live                                   1962     Jean-Luc Godard          France

Knife in the Water                              1962     Roman Polanski            Poland

Ivan’s Childhood                                 1962     Andrei Tarkovsky          Russia

Sanjuro                                              1962     Akira Kurosawa            Japan

Harakiri                                             1962     Masaki Kobayashi         Japan

Gay Purr-ee                                        1962     Abe Levitow               

40^th anniversary:

Aguirre: The Wrath of God                  1972     Werner Herzog            Germany

Cabaret                                              1972     Bob Fosse

Deliverance                                        1972     John Boorman

Fellini’s Roma                                     1972     Federico Fellini            Italy

The Godfather                                    1972     Francis Ford Coppola

Last Tango in Paris                              1972     Bernardo Bertolucci      France/Italy

The Ruling Class                                  1972     Peter Medak                UK

Slaughterhouse-Five                            1972     George Roy Hill            

Solaris                                                1972     Andrei Tarkovsky         Russia

Fritz the Cat                                       1972     Ralph Bakshi                

30^th anniversary:

Blade Runner                                       1982     Ridley Scott
Conan the Barbarian                            1982     John Milius

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial                     1982     Steven Spielberg
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan            1982     Nicholas Meyer

Poltergeist                                           1982     Tobe Hooper

The Thing                                            1982     John Carpenter

Tron                                                    1982     Steven Lisberger

Quest for Fire                                     1982     Jean-Jacques Annaud     Cdn/France/US

Fitzcarraldo                                        1982     Werner Herzog               Germany

Burden of Dreams                                1982     Les Blank

48 Hrs                                                1982     Walter Hill

Das Boot (The Boat)                            1982     Wolfgang Petersen          Germany

Sophie’s Choice                                  1982     Alan J. Pakula

Gandhi                                               1982     Richard Attenborough     UK/India

The Verdict                                         1982     Sydney Lumet

An Officer and a Gentleman                 1982     Taylor Hackford

Diner                                                  1982     Barry Levinson

Porky’s                                                1982     Bob Clark

The World According to Garp                1982     George Roy Hill

Fast Times at Ridgemont High             1982     Amy Heckerling

Tootsie                                               1982     Sydney Pollack

Victor Victoria                                     1982     Blake Edwards

Koyaanisqatsi                                      1982     Godfrey Reggio

Pink Floyd The Wall                              1982     Alan Parker                    UK

The Plague Dogs                                  1982     Martin Rosen                 

The Secret of NIMH                              1982     Don Bluth

JP

Bernie

What happens when someone so caring, considerate and beloved by his community, who has helped so many people through rough periods in their lives, gets together with the least liked and hated person in the community? A shocking tragic comedy that leaves a community divided in more ways than one.

I had a great time watching this movie, which is probably one of the most unusual films I’ve seen. You think you’re watching a romantic comedy until you realize what you’ve actually been watching is …well, let’s just say, far more interesting.

A kindhearted stranger arrives in a small Texas town to work at the local funeral home and quickly ingratiates himself among its citizens, especially the widows of the town, with his unabashed positive and compassionate attitude. Bernie tries to be all things to all people and genuinely loves helping folks and makes no judgments even when confronted with the most cantankerous and reviled citizen of the town of Carthage.

This has got to be one of the most outrageous films I’ve ever seen. This movie is part documentary and part drama but you don’t realize that until the credits role. The less you know about this film the better you will enjoy it. So stop reading now if you don’t want to spoil the surprise. I knew this was based on a true story going into it, but it still amazed me to see that the actual people from the town had been such a big part of the film. 

Done partly in a reality show style, the town’s people tell us everything we know about the likeable Bernie Tiede, played by Jack Black, through interview footage, and in-between their commentary we watch as the drama unfolds.  It all seems a little too rosy and something in the back of your mind is telling you that Bernie is a little too generous for his own good.

Things slowly become more sinister and the story gets stranger as it goes along, until you just can’t stop laughing at the absurdity of it. And then when you think you’ve just seen a wonderful tragic comedy with one of the best performances by Jack Black, it’s revealed that we’ve been watching the real citizens of the town as they recount their own experiences. At that point the audience is just in shock and amazement and realize that the adage ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ was never more apt than in this hilarious film.

Texas born, Independent filmmaker Richard Linklater, who is known for his innovative techniques and pushing the boundaries of film by mixing genres as in Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006) and Fast Food Nation (2006), does a magnificent job of seamlessly integrating interview footage with dramatized footage, making the movie seem just like a comedy about typical gossiping small town characters, while revealing the darker side of human nature. 

It all pays off in the end with a surprisingly unusual twist and some poignant revelations about the American justice system and the darker nature of a quiet and friendly community.  

JP

Fish Tank

Fish Tank (2009) is not an easy film to watch but it’s very truthfully told and it will be difficult to find another film as mesmerizing and powerful as this one. 

This is a heart-wrenchingly honest portrayal of life in a low income housing estate in Essex, England, where a young single mother lives in a small apartment with her two children. While dating young men for sex and food, she neglects her two daughters who end up angry, resentful and mostly fend for themselves. 

This grim coming-of-age story is told from the point of view of the older troubled daughter Mia, played by Katie Jarvis, who is fifteen and loves dancing to hip hop music. When her mother’s new boyfriend, played by Michael Fassbender, who was recently seen in Inglourious Basterds (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011) and Prometheus (2012), shows up to stay with them, he has a stabilizing effect on this cruel all female family who are constantly bickering with each other.

Filmed documentary style, Fish Tank is a brutally heartbreaking depiction of the bitter reality in a dysfunctional family incapable of showing each other any love or compassion. It will leave you shaking your head in horror at the loss of innocence at such a tender age.

The mother, played by Kierston Wareing, seems to resent having to raise these kids by herself and, unable to cope with the responsibility, she takes out her frustrations on them. Drunk and partying most of the time, her only concern is for satisfying her own needs. There are no tender moments between the girls in this family but when a charming young adult male shows up, the girls are on their best behavior.  He seems to have a calming effect on the family and treats them each with respect and understanding, something that the daughters are not familiar with but they enjoy his company if only for the fact that their mother seems more civil when he’s around.

Award winning UK writer and director Andrea Arnold, using her own experiences, knows this harsh world inside out and grew up under similar circumstances shown in the film, with a single mother raising four children by herself in a housing block. She is passionate and non-judgmental while telling powerful stories of hardship that she has experienced first-hand. 

All the performances are absolutely believable and you may feel uncomfortable as you are getting a look into a very private world of abuse and neglect where one wishes one could intervene but are helpless as the characters careen toward self-destruction. There is a somewhat hopeful note at the end but it comes with an emotionally devastating sadness. It took me a while to recover from this film but it will stay with me for a long time to come.

Andrea Arnold is a promising new talented director to watch out for. She has already won an Academy award for her third short film called Wasp (2005), which is also about a single mother raising four children while desperately trying to date men and survive on almost nothing, as well as two Jury prizes at the Cannes film festival for her first two feature films Red Road (2006) and Fish Tank. 

All her short films are included on the new Criterion Blu-ray edition of the film and are all worth seeing and just as strong and well performed as the feature. Don’t miss this amazing experience.

JP

The Darjeeling Limited

Family dysfunction and disconnection after the passing of a parent is at the forefront of this whimsical comedy about three brothers, played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman, who have recently lost their father and are brought together to bond while going on a spiritual journey via a train trip through India. 

Like a dream vacation, this movie is fun, relaxing and caters to your every need. One of the many pleasures of this film is the non-verbal expressions and body language used to communicate volumes between the characters. Much of what the characters feel is not expressed in words, and this film takes full advantage of the cast’s abilities of physical expression and deadpan humor.

The journey of self-discovery; people who travel to far away destinations to find new truths about themselves, is a powerful theme in many of our most memorable films, beginning with non-other than The Wizard of Oz (1939), and include such favorites as The Razor’s Edge (1984), Pleasantville (1998), Enlightenment Guaranteed (1999), Lost in Translation (2003), and the Wes Anderson film The Darjeeling Limited (2007), who also directed Fantastic Mr.Fox (2009) and Moonrise Kingdom (2012).

These soul searching films often take place in exotic other worldly locations like Japan, India or alternate reality worlds as in The Wizard of Oz and Pleasantville. Many people seeking spiritual enlightenment often end up in Japan or India as in The Razor’s Edge, Enlightenment Guaranteed, Lost in Translation and The Darjeeling Limited. But wherever the location, whether physical or psychological, the story follows a similar pattern; a crisis in one’s routine life leads to questioning of one’s existence and the hero leaves the familiar path, traveling into the unknown to seek out the truth. After many trials confronting inner demons, their understanding of the world and themselves is changed and expanded, resulting in a new beginning.

Soon after settling into their cabins on The Darjeeling Limited the animosity between the brothers quickly becomes apparent, manifesting itself as the selfish brothers, who are carrying a lot of emotional baggage, suffer from typical western vices like emotional immaturity, addiction to pharmaceutical drugs, materialism while fighting over their dead father’s belongings and mistrust of each other as they secretly plan to abandon the journey in case the situation becomes unbearable.

Visually, we get to see some beautiful Indian scenery along the rail tracks as the train slowly ambles onward past remote farming villages, representing the journey of life we must all travel. The interior of the train itself is spectacularly decorated to evoke a long lost era of colonial India. Not only being one of the most visually pleasing films to watch, it’s also a treat for the ears as we get to hear a surreal mix of traditional Indian music from the Merchant Ivory and Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s films with 60s pop songs by the British rock band The Kinks thrown in. 

As the family conflicts erupt between the brothers, they are thrown off the train and thus symbolically leave the path to start the journey toward enlightenment. While abandoned in the desert, a situation eventually presents itself during which the brothers come together to engage in their first unselfish act to save the lives of three village children, which allows them to finally connect with each other and let go of their past emotional baggage. Their itinerary abandoned, and emotional scars revealed, they finally learn to trust and respect each other as they grow into mature unselfish adults and the family unity is restored. 

I highly recommend you watch the director approved special edition Criterion version of this film on Blu-ray, as it contains a truly amazing and incredible behind-the-scenes documentary by Barry Braverman. This visually striking documentary about the making of the film is definitely worth seeing and should not be missed. I also recommend the motion picture soundtrack to this film, which contains some excellent music.

JP