Review: WALL-E

Disney and Pixar have an unbelievable hit on their hands with WALL-E. This fact is absolutely certain and was relatively easy to see even before the film had been released. However, after seeing it on opening day this past Friday, I can resolutely declare that it was one of the best films I’ve EVER had the pleasure of watching.

It wasn’t really particularly profound. I don’t think it really did anything groundbreaking as far as technical details were concerned. No major filmic accomplishments. WALL-E just told a simple story gloriously well – something that seems so rare these days. Case in point: its box office weekend competitor was Wanted which receives notoriety for looking amazing…and not a lot else. WALL-E set out with a basic directive to tell a lushly rendered story of robotic love in a consumer waste dystopia and do so humorously and intelligently.

And it excelled on all accounts. From impeccably executed geek jokes to rather dead-on science to a heart melting love story, the film was entirely ace.

If you haven’t yet been to see WALL-E in the theatre, go now. Don’t wait. And go again. And maybe again. Buy it on DVD. You’ll want to, I promise.

mini Review: Children of Men

During my visit to State College this weekend, I had the pleasure of helping Hannah & Jay set up their swanky new 7.1 surround sound home theatre system. Not content with just merely the sublime beauty of wires well connected, we completed the job with a screening of Children of Men midafternoon. The following is a short review:

Children of Men is set in what may have been the most bleak dystopian future I’ve seen in cinema to date. The year is 2027 and the world is an absolute disaster following a major collapse of the American empire and its dependent nations. To quote the movie, “Only Britain soldiers on.” We meet our primary character, Theo (Clive Owen) as he walks out of a crowd of coffee shop patrons mourning the death of the world’s youngest human and into the wreckage of London. Moments before a bomb rips through the café, no less.

From here, we are swept into the harsh reality of director Alfonso Cuarón’s imagining. Refugees from across the globe are openly herded into containment cages to be shuttled to ghetto cities turned concentration camps. Worse still, not a single child has been born for 18 years. With so little hope for the continuation of mankind, the last humans are left widening the gap between the ultra rich and the rest of society. A fascist government subscribes heavily to preemption – even against its own citizens. The populace is left to the Quietus home suicide kit and increasingly desperate spiritual and political organizations.

But, what happens when it becomes evident that the incurable infertility may perhaps not be all-encompassing? Can Theo help the only pregnant woman on Earth reach the safety of a mysterious hospital ship called “Tomorrow?”

This film left me with an incredible sense of dread: not for the Sci-Fi idea of global infertility so much as for the dead on depiction of a world more bent on the assurance of Homeland Security than on social justice. I have to say, there were several painful scenes that left me with a lump in my throat and even a tear in my eye. The consistency and believability of Cuarón’s 2027 coupled with a beautiful score and stellar performances was an emotional whirlwind to say the least.

Most definitely four stars.

Review: Volver

I’m really beginning to love Pedro Almodóvar. I was a bit shakey after watching A Bad Education but he’s completely redeemed himself with Volver. I think it’s that he captured – again – the complicated female world of All About My Mother which won him my affections to begin with. But on to the review…

Volver is nuts. “Loco,” if you will. The story twists and turns and falls into and out of itself in so many breathtaking ways. It’s one of those films where you know from the very beginning that there is no way you are going to be able to call the punchline anytime before the 3/4 mark. (I did, by the way, which was enough of an accomplishment to be brag-worthy.)

Basically, the entire premise of Volver is the notion that a departed loved one can come back to us. In this case, it’s Raimunda’s (Penélope Cruz) mother. What would you make right about your past if you had the chance to approach the task with the wisdom of time and loss? It wasn’t this simple, of course. There was the incestual relationship that produced Raimunda’s daughter, Paula. And the murder of Paula’s stepfather, Paco. Let’s not forget the seemingly crazy dying wish of Raimunda’s childhood friend, Augustina, to learn more about a family tragedy that only the dead could remember. And the list goes on.

The whole film takes place in between Madrid and Raimunda’s childhood village. It glitters with ornate Spanish tiles. It shocks the eyes with vibrant dresses and stark white stucco. And it positively glows with the radiant personalities of Almodóvar’s characters. As flawed as they all are, you want to be embraced into their world…and into their families. I mean, who hasn’t buried the husband their daughter has killed in a freezer stolen from the restaurant they’ve illegally taken over? It’s a universal story.

100% recommended. You should add it to your Netflix Queue (if you are so inclined) or pick up a copy from the local video store. I’d even venture to say it’s good enough to own. 4 stars, dear readers, 4 stars.

Review: Babel

Okay, so I have seriously done nothing but watch movies recently. How do the unemployed do it? Filling all of this time is really, really hard and probably more “work” than having a job! I guess I’m going to have to get the knitting bag out again. That’s neither here nor there so on to the review…

I’m not really sure where to begin with Babel because there is so much to cover. But a film set on three continents will kinda make it difficult for even the best reviewer to pin down. There are three stories happening with this movie: one in Morocco with American tourists, Richard and Susan (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett,) one in the U.S. and Mexico with a Mexican nanny, Amelia (Adrianna Barrazza) and the couple’s two kids, and one in Japan with Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi.) Alejandro González Iñárritu has a name with enough accents to tackle such a complex, international film and delivers relatively well.

The lives of Richard, Susan and Amelia are all very clearly intertwined from the beginning. Susan is shot while on holiday with Richard in Morocco and Amelia is in charge of the children stateside while all of this goes down. Fair enough. However, things get more complicated when we throw in Chieko, a deaf-mute Japanese school girl with a self-destructive streak. Why is she in this plot at all, you’ll ask? I mean, I’m okay with watching Rinko Kikuchi flitting about on screen and being a nympho, but it is a little confusing. It takes Iñárritu until 3/4 of the way through his work to get to an explanation, but it fits in very, very nicely (and you can figure it out with a detail revealed in Morocco at 1/2 way through, if you are paying attention.

Since I watch movies for the imagery before all else, I really enjoyed Babel‘s look. Things were very detailed and great attention was paid to the sets and consistency between shots. Additionally, the visual language made it immediately evident where we were in all scenes. Best of all, when Amelia’s nephew, Santiago (Gael García Bernal…yes, again. No, I didn’t know. He’s pretty, but I swear I didn’t pick it because he’s in it!) breaks through the U.S. border and leaves her in the desert, the existing connection between Morocco and the U.S. reaches a beautiful new level with only a change of scenery. Bravo, Iñárritu!

The part where I say negative things: okay, the twists that tie everyone together are really not all that astounding. In fact, they kinda feel fudged. I think that perhaps someone just wanted a reason to shoot on location in Tokyo. But that’s okay, because it was well worth it, since the scenes there were my favourites by far. Cate Blanchett was not on screen anywhere near enough and I really wanted to know more about her character. A lot of the dialogue between Susan and Richard could have used some explaining. And, by the end of 2 and a half hours, I was feeling as jet-lagged as if I had traveled from location to location in reality.

Definitely worth watching, especially if you don’t mind feeling a little bleak about the world when your movie viewing has ceased. Not really something you should watch if you want to be amazed by a really clever web of events (it’s no The Constant Gardener) but it definitely deserves points for being so ambitious. And for landing Cate Blanchett, because she’s a goddess.

I would rate it 3 stars. Maybe three and a half, but it was really too long (and I don’t know if Dusty made half stars or not for sure. I think he did. Help?)