The Outline Contains the Heart

Sorry - due to a number of converging deadlines, the poor blog has been left unattended for longer than it should have been. Rest assured that I've been writing posts in my head; they just haven't made it to the page!

I'm so far behind that I'm going to break this into two posts. Today, I'll touch on two films that I've seen recently that are well worth seeking out and in a day or two, I'll catch you up on some biopics/documentaries.

 Now that we understand the outline (see what I did there?), let's talk about Kubo and the Two Strings, which you are going to seek out immediately. Kubo comes from the fine folk at Laika, a studio dedicated to producing fine stop-motion animation. Since this particular form of animation is so incredibly time-consuming, Laika has produced only a handful of films in its ten-year existence - Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, and now Kubo. While all the films have had their high points, in Kubo, everything comes together. The animation is first-rate and the story - well. Kubo's tale begins, "If you must blink - do it now." It's a story about stories - those we tell others, those we tell ourselves, and those we create to explain things. Featuring Charlize Theron, Ralph Fiennes, and Matthew McConaughey, Kubo is an astonishing film and certainly the highlight of my summer.

Skip Suicide Squad, which can't figure out which of half a dozen stories it wants to tell, and seek out this absolute gem about family, loss, and the power of tales.

Tom Hanks is a movie star. There's no doubt about that - attaching his name to a project carries a certain cachet and his projects tend to be box office gold. A Hologram for the King is an anomaly, for it's a teensy independent film that you're going to have to dig a little to find (let me help with that - check your local library!) Hologram is worth seeking out just to see the outline of what could have been a fantastic film. Based on a Dave Eggers novel, Hologram tells the story of Alan Clay, a down-on-his-luck salesman who is barely a step above Arthur Miller's Willy Loman. Things aren't going well for Alan - his marriage is dissolving, his career is floundering, leading his daughter to take a semester off from college until her tuition can be worked out, and everything is riding on this sale of high-tech to the Saudi king, who is in no hurry at all to meet with him and his team, who are stuck in a drafty tent in the desert just waiting. And waiting. And waiting. This fish-out-of-water tale is not without its flaws, but it has a certain charm, as well. This is due in part to Hanks' own abilities as an actor, but also to those in smaller roles, such as Alexander Black as Yousef, a free-lance cab driver who shows Alan the topsy-turviness of Saudi society, which boasts lavish wealth along with a regime so repressive women are not allowed to drive and are subject to intense social backlash just for being in a room alone with a man. Outstanding in portraying the down-the-rabbit-hole situations that leads to is Sarita Choudhury as Zahra, a Saudi doctor who shares some of the sorrowful circumstances enveloping Alan. Neither of these are Saudi actors, which seems to be a shame. Then again - it is a repressive regime. This is a quiet film, which might explain its lack of box office appeal. American audiences often don't like "quiet" much. Give it a try, won't you?

It's a Girl's World!

Funny, but the last three movies I've seen have all prominently featured women and not a single one of the films has been a romantic comedy. The times, they truly are a-changin', my friends. Not everyone is happy about this (particularly a small, extremely vocal group of menfolk who find a female lead character in an action movie some sort of estrogen encroachment), but you just can't get through this world without offending some numbskull or another.

 So - the first (and admittedly weakest) of the three was the "buddy road movie" Hot Pursuit. Starring Reese Witherspoon as a by-the-book cop and the cantilevered Sofia Vergara as a mob moll on the run, this film is just fine. It's a silly, light popcorn movie that's heavy on jokes about the differences between the two women - both in appearance and in temperament. No great shakes, but worth a rental when the time rolls around.

Then there was the science fiction thriller Ex Machina. 2015 seems poised to be the year of the AI movie and Ex Machina is a fine addition to the genre. The title itself is a little bit of a play on words (I'll just leave it at that - go look it up and then ponder a moment) and the movie toys with your perceptions and your allegiances. At what point does a machine become intelligent? At that point, does the machine stop being an "it" and have rights and agency or is it just a fancy word processor? And who's being played? Ex Machina has a great deal of brilliance going on, but it's a quiet, thoughtful film which may cause it to be overlooked in the summer blockbuster season. That would be a shame as Ex Machina is the best artificial intelligence-themed film I've seen in ages.

On the entirely other end of the spectrum is the loud, in-your-face noisefest Mad Max: Fury Road. Directed by George Miller, who directed the first three Mad Max films, thereby giving the world both Mel Gibson and the Thunderdome, this film is a celebration of all things that go *boom*. The violence level means it's not for the kiddies, but if you like your entertainment apocalyptic and over-the-top nuts, this film's for you. Much of the fuss is directed at the role of women in the film, who (shockingly enough) are not portrayed as victims and/or sex kittens. Instead we get young, hard women willing to do hard things to survive, along with biker grandmas who just might save the world. Miller doesn't have to show us sexual violence to have it be an undercurrent of the film and we understand why these women are willing to chuck the security of their bank vault to live on something more like their own terms. Light on dialogue, but hey - you get a blind guitarist strapped to a bank of amps with a bungee cord and that's not CGI! Go and enjoy and seriously - it's a surprisingly balanced film in terms of gender roles.

And be sure to keep up with Meet Me at the Movies through the new streaming service! Click here for the latest! And if that link doesn't work for you, go to the Cleveland Community College website at clevelandcc.edu and click on the C19TV link at the top, then pick Meet Me at the Movies from the available options!

Smoke, Not Fire

This is the problem with pre-screening hype - it gets expectations up.  Instead of just having a nice little movie, it has to be the BIGGEST THING EVER!!  Instead of showcasing stylish framing and camerawork, it has to SHOCK YOUR SENSES!!  And instead of adding a puzzle piece or two to an existing storyline, it has to ANSWER ALL THE BIG QUESTIONS!!

Prometheus does none of those things, although much is promised.  It's not a bad film; in fact, director Ridley Scott shows once again that he knows how to both capture breath-taking beauty through a camera lens and how to create memorable environments for his characters to cavort within.  But ultimately, Prometheus is a movie that didn't need to be made, much less hyped to within an inch of its life.

The chief problem here is Alien, which shot Scott to A list stardom some thirty years ago.  (His position there was cemented with Blade Runner a few years later, a two-fer that made him a science fiction darling, if not a downright wunderkind.)  Alien is so good and stands up so well after all these years that . . . well, let's put it this way.  Alien is the horror equivalent of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and Lee didn't write a sequel, prequel, or much of anything afterward.  It's not that Prometheus is bad; it's that it's not Alien, yet it tries to answer the questions Alien left unanswered.  Here's a tip, Hotshot.  There's no reason to answer them and trying to just feels forced.  There's a heavy patina of philosophy and theology coating Prometheus and it doesn't fit well.  It certainly can fit well in science fiction; in fact, I've said repeatedly that science fiction is a genre that is ideally suited to asking the Big Questions such as "What makes us human?" and "What really matters?"  But just because a film asks those questions doesn't make it a Good Film.


Alien is all about cramped spaces, shadowy things-that-want-to-kill-us, and figuring out how to survive as the crew are picked off, one by one.  (And a cat.)  Prometheus can't do that, because we already know what was a mystery in the first film.  We already know what the aliens are and how awful they are.  We already know the shape of the ship and the look of the bridge.  Wisely, Prometheus doesn't try to flat-out copy that.  We get a large cast of scientists who have followed cave paintings to a faraway moon in hopes of "meeting our maker."

The problems begin early.  The first scene, which is lovely and terrifying in turns, is not needed and removes any trace of mystery from the rest of the film.  The film further suffers from too large a cast - it never gels as an ensemble and there's not enough screen time to develop each character, so a few become throwaways.  The scientists aren't particularly curious about the alien civilization they've discovered, they are overly mercenary, and they make some deeply stupid decisions.  While Alien gave us Ellen Ripley,  Prometheus thinks simply passing the Bechdel Test automatically makes it a Worthy Film.  Charlize Theron's Vickers has daddy issues and Noomi Rapace's Shaw has way too much symbolism tied up in jewelry.  Alien gave us a treacherous android and a shadowy corporate agenda.  While Prometheus retains both, those elements have lost the power to shock us.  Oh, and sex is bad and pregnancy is a horror.


Prometheus is not without its moments, however.  Michael Fassbender as the android David is especially noteworthy and Idris Elba as the captain could be - I suspect there's a scene or two on the cutting room floor that should have been left in there on that score.  The scope and sweep of the cinematography is jaw-dropping and deliberately invokes David Lean (maybe a key to the android's name, now that I think about it), especially Lean's masterwork Lawrence of Arabia.

In short, Prometheus wants to be an Important Film and it tries mightily to be that.  Unfortunately, along the way, Scott substituted bombast for joy.

Evil Queens & Madonna

It's been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Of course, it's also been said that what goes around, comes around.  After watching Snow White and the Huntsman, I couldn't help but think that Madonna is probably doing a fair amount of deep sighing right about now.

I've always enjoyed Madonna's music and yes, I'm old enough to remember when she first broke onto the pop music scene, although I never imitated her style of dress.  (There is photographic evidence of any number of [shall we say] unfortunate clothing trends I took part in, but I wasn't a part of that one.)  When I first saw Fritz Lang's Metropolis, one of my reactions was, "Holy Giant Machine!  Madonna totally ripped off Lang with her "Express Yourself" video!"  And I'm right about that.

Madonna has often been an innovator, especially in the arena of music videos.  She has also freely borrowed from the past, from Fritz Lang to Marilyn Monroe.  Newer artists owe her a debt for blazing a trail - I'm looking at you, Gaga!  (In the interests of full disclosure, I should admit that I'm quite a fan of Lady Gaga, who I think can justly wear the Madonna mantle.  Or bustier.)

Look, I'm having this conversation to avoid talking much about Snow White, which honestly is thin on story and has some plot holes large enough to drive a battalion through.  (For instance, you're a cruel queen known for eating hearts.  You keep your chief rival locked up, but make sure she has sturdy footwear and leather pants under her bulky, Renaissance-style gown?  Seriously?)  I don't mind thin stories - this is a fairy tale, so a few things just have to be accepted, although there's some big-time sloppiness in setting up the world of the film.  And Charlize Theron is having a lovely time up there, chewing the scenery and showing us all how women dread aging.  (Thanks for nothing on that score, Theron!)

But if you're going to go light on story, at least go "whizzbangboom" on the effects.  Michael Bay taught me that.  Personally, I liked the effects - although I've had it with the hand-held camera work.  It's a big-budget major studio release - invest in a couple of Steadicams, please!  After Hunger Games, I've gotten very weary of the herky-jerky whip pans. My problem with the effects is that I've seen them before.  I loved Madonna's "Frozen" video when it first came out.  And it's a song all about hearts, so I guess it fits Snow White as an inspiration.  Compare the video to the film's trailer and you'll see what I mean.

First up is "Frozen" from 1998:

And the trailer from Snow White: