reviews

There are 84 posts filed in reviews (this is page 7 of 11).

I re-watched Avatar

Star Wars: The Force Awakens recently passed Avatar at the box office to become the number 1 domestic grossing film of all time. Upon hearing this news, a lot of people had the same reaction: “Avatar was the #1 grossing film of all time? Oh yeah…”

Listeners of the /Filmcast will know that we’ve been discussing Avatar for a few months already. Specifically: how could a film rapidly become the highest grossing film of all time and leave absolutely no cultural footprint? (Side note: hundreds of people have already sent me the link to Scott Mendelson’s piece on this topic. If I get it one more time, I fear I may have a Col. Miles Quaritch-esque freakout. That’s an Avatar reference, for those of you who have no idea what the characters’ names in Avatar are).

Awhile ago, a listener gifted me an Avatar Blu-Ray, and after all the Avatar conversation recently, I felt I should revisit the film. So yesterday I popped in the disc and tried to see it through fresh eyes. Here are a few of my reactions:

In my opinion, the CG still holds up – James Cameron pioneered some pretty amazing filmmaking techniques for this film, which allowed him to use/position a camera as he would in a conventional filmmaking environment but see a reasonable approximation of the final product on-the-fly. This allowed the film to “feel” like it was being shot with actual cameras on Pandora, with the weight movement that those cameras would bring to a real-world shoot. Moreover, while the world of Pandora is very clearly CG and a bit too shiny/clean to look totally photorealistic, the blend between the practical and the CG elements felt really seamless to me. And what never gets lost are the characters’ emotions. Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldana) is still this movie’s best special effect.

Everything is great except Na’vi Sigourney Weaver. She creeps me the hell out.

James Cameron still knows how to direct action like nobody else – The final hour of this film is a spectacular series of set pieces, with the destruction of Home Tree, the battle between the Na’vi and the marines, and then Quaritch’s final face-off with Jake Sully. Great sense of geography, pacing, and stakes throughout. Awesome action choreography.

 James Cameron is not subtle – The Na’vi’s connection with the forest is not just metaphorical. It’s LITERAL. As in, there’s actually a neural network IN THE ACTUAL PLANET. Oof.

The Avatar Blu-Ray is terrible – Remember when Blu-Rays used to force you to stream special features? Because they might get updated in the future? Yeah, me neither. Awful.

 The arc of the whole movie is just bizarre – It’s not too much of a stretch to assume that Avatar is an allegory about white people and Native Americans. The film invites us to relive the colonization of America, only this time, from the POV of the natives. And as Sully and the Na’vi brutally ruin and kill the appendages of the American military in the film’s final set piece, we as the audience are invited to cheer them on. It all just felt very…weird.

I was reminded of Annalee Newitz’s great piece about how Avatar and the fantasy within it is a distinctly “white” fantasy:

These are movies about white guilt. Our main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color – their cultures, their habitats, and their populations. The whites realize this when they begin to assimilate into the “alien” cultures and see things from a new perspective. To purge their overwhelming sense of guilt, they switch sides, become “race traitors,” and fight against their old comrades. But then they go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed. This is the essence of the white guilt fantasy, laid bare. It’s not just a wish to be absolved of the crimes whites have committed against people of color; it’s not just a wish to join the side of moral justice in battle. It’s a wish to lead people of color from the inside rather than from the (oppressive, white) outside.

I remember seeing The Last Samurai and how that was a movie about someone who not only adapted to the ways of the samurai; he mastered them. The same happens in Avatar. Jake Sully doesn’t just barely squeak in as a member of the tribe; he rides Toruk to victory, which is considered one of the greatest honors and almost an impossible feat within Na’vi culture.

What does it say about white culture that it seems to be the only culture producing these kinds of narratives about redemption via assimilation into and mastery of other cultures? The film made me wonder. (P.S. If there’s, say, an Asian film about a guy who not only becomes assimilated into white culture but a master within it, leading a bunch of whites into victory, please let me know).

James Horner’s score is still beautiful – Still love the work of this brilliant man. RIP.

Ten of My Favorite Moments from Max Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road is out in theaters this weekend, and if you haven’t yet, you should go see it. Walking out of Mad Max, I felt like I did when I’d first seen movies like Jurassic Park or Star Wars – a feeling like what I’d just seen was genre defining, and that all future films would be compared to this one.

This movie was satisfying in ways that the vast majority of summer blockbusters are not. While most films are happy to create entire worlds in shiny CG, George Miller apparently filmed hundreds of hours of vehicular action in Namibia, and did a lot of it practically. We feel the danger that these characters are in, and that’s probably because the actors and stunt doubles portraying them were also in danger too.

When it comes to visceral thrills, gorgeous composition, and spectacular action choreography, nothing will beat Mad Max: Fury Road this summer. Maybe for the next few summers. Probably also for the past 10-20 summers.

Anyway, here are a bunch of random moments from the film I really enjoyed. This is FAR from an exhaustive list – there were many dozens of moments that I thought were incredible. Spoilers ahead.

Opening chase scene, which ends with a spectacular car flip

Mad Max is led away in chains as Immortan Joe’s thugs drive towards the Citadel – the ultimate reduction of the titular character to rock bottom

 Dust storm juxtaposed with chase scene creates surreal beauty

Tornado absolutely rips apart many bad guys driving through it

SOME DUDE DOES THIS

Imperator Furiosa creates the most memorable tableau from the film as she recognizes the futility of her journey

Monster truck does spectacular jump in front of the War Rig, with people HANGING OFF THE SIDE

This quiet moment, representing the transition from the past to the future

This guy gets absolutely owned

My favorite shot from the film – the ultimate confluence of all elements in an action scene 

Observations on ‘Gone Girl’

I had a great time watching Gone Girl this afternoon at Seattle’s Sundance Theaters in the U-District. A few stray observations, in advance of the our /Filmcast review (which I’ll update this post with when it goes live in a few days):

  • Overall, I really enjoyed the film, but it’s definitely one that I’m still considering and turning over in my head. It is so perfect in its depiction of the media being gripped by missing white woman syndrome that it doesn’t even feel like satire (which might have been the intention). 
  • My friend/colleague Peter Sciretta points out (and I agree) that this film is primarily about media and public perception. Society is engineered to expect people to behave in certain ways when they are in the spotlight. Any deviation from that expectation is met with righteous, irrational anger. Why do we engage in these behaviors? For us, cable news has made real-life into a television show. We invest emotionally in these character arcs just like we would for The Sopranos, forgetting that actual lives are at stake and that these people will exist long after the spotlight has departed them. Gone Girl holds up a mirror to us and asks: Is this kind of thing productive? Is it fair? 
  • The film complicates the concept of modern marriage in America. Sure, marriage can be fun and meaningful, but if you think about it, it’s also kind of insane: you join in a bond and partnership that you will only break in the event of one of your death, no matter how much the other person changes, or no matter how horrible they become/behave. And you become so emotionally invested in this person that you are willing to do unthinkable things for them. You may be willing to kill for them. That is kind of nuts, and I like how Gone Girl explores that dynamic.
  • This movie twists and turns in ways that I did not expect. It’s not an exaggeration to say it becomes several different types of movies during its 150-minute runtime.
  • On that note, it was refreshing to me how Fincher chose to end the film. That’s all I can say without spoiling anything.
  • Fincher remains a master craftsman and his attention to detail is on full display here. I’m particularly impressed by the work of Set Decorator Douglas Mowat and Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, who are able to create some a pretty intense, effective juxtapositions of quaint suburban life and its seedy underbelly.
  • There are several sequences make great use of the close-up. Sometimes the close-ups come so fast and furious that you barely can register what is being shown before we’re off to the next thing. Love the details that the filmmakers are able to bring out of each scene and location. 
  • This film probably has the shortest opening credits sequences out of any David Fincher film, but the way it’s done feels very purposeful. Can’t say any more than that for now. 
  • This is far from my favorite Fincher film (that’s probably still Se7en), but there were definitely several moments in it when many elements of the film lock into place and create an exhilarating thrill of discovery. Nice work by Fincher and Editor Kirk Baxter in crafting these. 
  • Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross do scoring duties again and acquit themselves well. The score is really understated this time, but still quite effective. 
  • Tyler Perry is great in this movie. Great. Seriously. Probably my favorite character in the film.

Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, Live at the Paramount Theatre

As long as I can remember, one of my favorite shows on public radio has been “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me” (the NPR News Quiz). I recently attended one of their live shows at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Seattle and had a lovely time. But I also learned many things about what goes into making this wildly popular radio show. Some recollections from the evening:
– Our guests were Luke Burbank, Paula Poundstone, and Maz Jobrani. Each of them had some great moments throughout the evening.
– The regular show is edited into a tightly paced, 51-minute program, but the live show goes on for over 2 hours. That’s because Peter often riffs with the panelists for a long time on a single question, then take the best sections and edit the result down to what you hear in the final show. In fact, their riff off the very first question, “fill in the blank,” went on for about 10 minutes, when its final form will probably end up being about 1-2 minutes at most. The same goes for the “Not my job” interview, which is way longer in person than it is on the final show.
As a result, the show is much slower paced than I was used to. At times, it was actually kind of a slog. But what felt really amazing was at the end when we finally finished the last segment, it really felt like we’d all accomplished something together. We’d collectively made an episode of a program that would be listened to be millions of people (or at least, we’d made the raw materials for said program). That felt pretty awesome, and unlike most of the other live shows that I go to.
– The most fascinating part of the show for me was when they recorded a segment about Scottish Independence, and then went back and RE-recorded the same segment but with a different outcome. See, the show was recorded during the Scottish vote, and while all signs pointed to a “No to Independence” vote, they wanted to cover their bases, so they recorded a slightly modified segment in which Scotland actually voted “Yes.” Different news outcome, somewhat similar riffs. I suppose the NPR audience is unforgiving when it comes to uncertainty about something like this, especially since “Wait Wait” takes a few days to be released after it is recorded.
– In addition to the hosts and panelists, there was a team of producers(?) behind them, sitting in relative darkness. At the end of the show, Peter had to go back and re-record a bunch of different intros and outros that he had flubbed the first time. From my perspective, it looked like the producers were taking copious notes throughout the show and then beaming him text to his iPad that they wanted him to repeat. The whole process took only 3-4 minutes and as Peter explained, they have it pretty much down to a science at this point. It struck me as ruthlessly, and impressively, efficient.
– After the show, they brought up the house lights and did a Q&A. Super fun and very nice of them, although a lot of the questions asked by my audience were pretty silly, unfortunately.
Is this an experience I’d recommend? I’d say only if you’re a die-hard fan of the show, as I am. Plus, I’m a public radio junkie, so I love seeing the “behind-the-scenes” stuff like this. But it is a pricey ticket for someone who isn’t a huge fan to see how the show is made, and what you see is not at all like the snappy program that we hear each week on the radio. As long as your expectations are set correctly, you’ll enjoy it greatly.