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?

Old School

This weekend, Ensley and I kept a date we'd had for a long time and went to Durham to attend the NC ComicCon. It was Ensley's first "big" con and I had great fun playing sidekick. Along with the cosplay and acres of merchandise which ranged from back issues to steampunk-inspired clothing and one-of-a-kind collectibles, you get a chance to mix with dozens of fandoms, all of whom are as into their as you are into yours. Cons are a great time, provided they're well run. More and more of them have official harassment policies, a necessary addition as more females attend in costume and a small fraction of fanboys think a costume is a license to touch.

At NC ComicCon, the con included a film festival and our tickets entitled us to two showings. After looking at the program for panels, signing times and other events, we decided to see Hayao Miyazaki's first film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Brad Bird's first film The Iron Giant (1999). Both films are different in style, yet similar in theme and really - these are both really worth seeking out.

Nausicaa is from the early period of Miyazaki career. We saw the original version, in Japanese with English subtitles. The film was heavily re-written for American release (as Warriors of the Wind) and Miyazaki demanded that any later licensor for his films be contractually bound to do no edits to the film aside from a straight translation and language dubbing.  The Mouse bought the rights to all Miyazaki films from Nausicaa onward and has honored that agreement. Just to make sure the idea got across, Miyazaki sent a samarai sword to the executive at Disney with a two word note that simply read: "No cuts."

Nausicaa contains many themes that will be seen throughout Miyazaki's works - flight, war on a massive scale impacting ordinary people, the actions of one brave person turning the tide, and supernatural/magical elements affecting daily life. ("Nausicaa" is also the name of a character in Homer's The Odyssey - she's an example of unrequited love and without her assistance, Odysseus may well have wandered even longer than he did.) It's a lovely, magical, otherworldly movie about life, climate change, and finding harmony within a changing world. Go see it.

The Iron Giant should have been as big as Bird's The Incredibles a few years later, but Warner Bros. didn't know what to do with it and didn't seem to care that much, so the movie came and went, but slowly developed a cult following, not least of all for its voice talent, which includes Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick, Jr., and Vin Diesel. It's a lovely movie, all about a time that really never was in the deep, snowy woods of Maine where a lonely boy could hide a new and highly improbable friend. Best line? Easy - "I am not a gun." It's a move that will choke you up a bit and make you dig out your old favorite toys, the ones that used to give you such comfort on the days when you were very small, the world was very large, and no one seemed to tell you much. There will probably never be a sequel to this movie, although jibber-jabber raises hopes from time to time. Maybe that's so - but go see this one. Seek it out if necessary - it's worth the effort.

Villains, Scoundrels, & Spirits

I've gotten a bit behind in my new movie posts, so this is Part 1 of a two-parter post.  Sorry for getting so far behind, but summer is the time when movies come out fast and thick.  Here, I'm going to discuss three July movies - Despicable Me 2, The Lone Ranger, and The Conjuring - then in the second part, I'll talk about Red 2 and R.I.P.D. (the Mary-Louise Parker double feature).

Despicable Me 2 is, as the title would indicate, the follow up to 2010's Despicable Me.  Steve Carell is back as Gru, the now-retired villain whose soft side was activated by three adorable moppets named Margo, Edith, and Agnes.  It's a fun movie and it comes in at a tidy 98 minutes, making it kid-length.  The minions nearly steal the show, which centers around Gru using his villainous thinking to smoke out a villain who is definitely not reformed.  There's enough here to keep the attention of kids and adults alike although, as is true of most sequels, the second time around, things don't feel quite as fresh and shiny-new.  Still, it was a fun romp and I now want a wide-brimmed hat that doubles as an edible guacamole tray.

Going to see The Lone Ranger was tricky.  While I try hard to stay review-free, word of mouth on this one was nearly devastating.  Listening to the chatter, you'd be convinced that this was the Movie That Would Kill Hollywood.  There was incredulity that Johnny Depp had been tapped to play Tonto and there was much disdain aimed at the stereotypical "ugh, me go now" dialogue.  I'd heard about the framing device of Depp's Tonto being an exhibit in a 1930s Wild West show, which seemed to me to be the height of insensitivity.  So it's safe to say I didn't go into this one with a light and joyful heart.

Yet that's how I left the theatre.  I suspect many folks missed several points here.  Lone Ranger was low-hanging fruit - this was going to be one that was easy to make fun of; we just don't like our heroes unconflicted these days and the white hat/black hat Western is a little too pat for our cynical time, which is a shame.  You know what?  I liked this movie and I feel a little defensive about that.  Yes, Tonto does have stereotypical elements to his character, but he's also the cleverest person in the movie.  (Silver the horse is his own special creation and is not a "person," so he's out of the equation.)  Also, Tonto is far from the only stereotype in the movie - you've got the Heartless Railroad Baron, the Naive Yet Honest-to-the-Core Lawman, the Protective Big Brother, the Plucky Wife, the Traitorous Ex-Friend, and yes, the Hooker-with-a-Heart-of-Gold.  This is a fun popcorn movie.  There's humor and love and honor and daring chase scenes that are deliciously over the top.  Honestly, I don't get the dismissive hate for this one.  I say check your realism hat at the door and just roll with it.

The Conjuring is a haunted-house movie.  Supposedly based on "actual events" (a phrase that really has no meaning after Hollywood gets done with those events), The Conjuring features a family down on their luck who buy a house at a bank auction - apparently sight unseen, judging from their surprise at locating the furnace - and move in with their five daughters.  Strange things begin happening immediately.  (Note:  When your dog doesn't want to cross the threshold of the house, begin asking questions.)  Spooky occurrences escalate and finally, the Warrens are called in.  The Warrens are an actual couple of 1970s ghost-hunters who would make their fame and fortune about a year after the events depicted in The Conjuring in the now-thoroughly-debunked Amityville Horror case.  Look, it's a fun movie, despite the fact that the people act like morons.  (Matches?  Really?)  It's also a strangely conservative, right-wing horror flick and one in which women do not come off that well.  All the trouble stems from weak women, although maternal love can be a force of great strength.  The Christian faith will save the day, even in a house occupied by unbaptized believers, who (of course) cannot save themselves.  (Just an aside - I really wanted Buffy to show up at the Warren house and question their habit of keeping a large room full of objects they consider cursed, possessed, and/or just flat-out creepy in a house with a young, impressionable daughter.  Deadbolts might be indicated.  Just saying.)

Honestly, the best part of The Conjuring (which contains no actual conjuring, by the way) was the audience.  I saw this one in a late-night viewing that was packed and every jump (it's a jump-scare movie, not a gore-scare movie) led to peals of laughter.  A popular theory about horror movies is that they allow us to confront and release our fears in a socially-acceptable way and that seemed to be on display that night, at least.

OK - that's it for Part One of this long post.  Next up - the Mary-Louise Parker Double Feature!

In Praise of Cartoons

I've recently seen a couple of movies that make this a fit subject for a blog post.  Cartoons.

To begin with, cartoons aren't just kid stuff.  In fact, the term "cartoon" derives from the fine art world where it refers to a full-sized, preliminary drawing for a work that is to be rendered as a fresco, a technique that doesn't allow much room for error.  The cartoon would then have its final lines pricked, then the perforated drawing would be affixed to the wall that was to be frescoed and a bag of soot would be patted (actually called "pounced," which is cooler) over the cartoon - tah-dah! Now the artist has an outline to follow during the fresco process.  Therefore, show some respect to Bugs Bunny, whose lineage can be directly traced back to da Vinci. (Sort of.)

Anyway - despite this lofty history, cartoons are generally seen as something for children to enjoy.  Oh, sure, there are some cartoons that are meant for grown-ups and it's generally accepted practice to fling a bone or two to the grown-ups in the audience, but cartoons are for kids.  

Even if you accept that, that doesn't mean cartoons shouldn't be of good quality.  Tolkien, among others, wrote quite a bit on the subject of children's literature being all too often shuffled off to the nursery as being too worn-out for adults, but "it'll do" for the kiddies.  He hated that attitude and good on him, I say.  However, many animated movies forget this and are content to just churn out do-nothing films that are instantly forgettable in terms of both story and art.

Thank heavens for the exceptions.

Recently, I sat down and watched a marvelous film by Japan's master animator Hayao Miyazaki.  The 2004 film Howl's Moving Castle features a strong, steampunk-and-magic story and some wonderful vocal talent (Lauren Bacall, Billy Crystal, and a then-not-much-known Christian Bale, among others).  Moreover, the visuals are both strikingly creative and totally free of CGI trickery.  I'm slowly working my way through Miyazaki's filmography and I encourage you to do the same.

Following Howl's, I dipped back into Shinichiro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop.  Wow, does that one just keep getting better.  It's not for the kids (neither the TV show or the movie) - it's violent in its action and adult in its themes of loss, sorrow, and trying hard to pretend that you don't care about that stuff in order to just get through one more day - but in its own way, it's glorious.  It'll make you both think and sing - and that's not a bad thing.

Also, I've recently seen Monsters University, the latest Pixar-by-way-of-Disney film.  Fun stuff and again, some great vocal talent - Billy Crystal again, John Goodman (who can very nearly do no wrong), Helen ("I'm  a Dame, but not that kind") Mirren, and in a smarmy role that allows him some scenery-chewing, Nathan Fillion.  There's a nice nod to Carrie in here, and it's a good story of misfits forming a family, but really - there's nothing new here.  It's old, well-plowed ground, yet a fun ride.

I should be including a bit here about Despicable Me 2, but vacation beckons, so Gru will have to wait.  In the meantime, Rotten Tomatoes has a list of "best 100 animated movies" that you might quibble with, but it's an excellent place to begin searching out some old friends.

Stop & Click - Now Do It Again!

I've just come back from watching Laika's new 3D stop motion animation picture ParaNorman. Yes, I even saw it in 3D - more on that later. Laika's last effort was 2009's Coraline, based on the Neil Gaiman book of the same title.  I enjoyed Coraline tremendously - I've been a Gaiman fan since his uniquely creepy and literate take on the Vertigo comic Sandman and I thought the trailer for ParaNorman looked clever and fun.  Then again, trailers aren't the movie, are they?

Luckily, this is a movie well worth seeing.  ParaNorman is a twist on the "weird kid" movie.  In this case, Norman Babcock has a talent he never asked for - he can see and speak with the dead.  It doesn't seem to be much of a gift - he's considered a freak in his town of Blithe Hollow (nice name - a combo of Blithe Spirit, the Noel Coward comedy about the havoc the dead can wreak on the living and Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow from the Headless Horseman tale) and even his family doesn't understand him.  About the only person he can confide in is his grandmother, and she happens to be (you guessed it) dead.  Through a strange series of events - or maybe not so strange, considering the town's main celebrity is a 300-year-old witch - the town must deal with the fallout of a curse no one really believed existed and non-normal Norman is the one best suited to bring the town back from the brink.

There's a lot in here to like.  The story is interesting, the characters are fun to watch, and yes, there's even a lesson or two in here, especially about doing what's right even if you're scared and precisely how stupid scared people can be. I enjoyed the vocal talent (a lot of new voices here) and there’s a lovely, almost throwaway line that I wasn’t expecting from the jock character.  Be on the lookout there – stereotypes are broken. 

Giant stop motion scorpions!!  Ah, Harryhausen!

Now let’s talk technique.  Stop motion animation is the catchall term for that painstaking process of taking objects and moving them just a tiny bit, filming a single frame, then moving the objects a tiny bit more, filming another single frame and so on until you have an entire movie.  It takes forever.  You’ve seen this if you’ve ever seen the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials (Claymation is a specific type of stop motion using clay figures) such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or The Year Without a Santa Claus, but you’ve also seen it if you’ve seen The Empire Strikes Back – look at the AT-ATs invading Hoth, which was done with extremely detailed miniature models.  It’s a technique used in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies (see #5 on this list) and (sigh of contented reminiscence) Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad and Clash of the Titans flicks.  (Harryhausen is so instrumental to this school of animation that the Pixar movie Monsters Inc. has a tribute to him – Mike takes his girlfriend Celia to dinner at a restaurant called “Harryhausen’s.”  It’s a nice nod.)  

Here, stop motion is used in conjunction with 3D (Coraline was the first film to do this all the way through).  I thought the animation was wonderful – there’s some especially nice rendering of hair, for example – but if anything, ParaNorman confirmed my distaste of 3D.  While this film uses 3D more to create depth than have things come flying out toward my face, I still just don’t like it.  It doesn’t strengthen the story and I think it detracts from the telling of that story.  And seriously – it cost a hair over $20 for two of us to see a matinee? (And that’s pre-popcorn.)  Plus I can’t re-use the blasted glasses?  No, thanks.

So the long and the short of it – go see ParaNorman, but don’t bother with the 3D.  And dig out your old, grainy Evil Dead tape.