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Satoshi Kon – A Tribute

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Some time in 2006, almost half a decade ago, I started talking to a couple of guys from Australia who would quickly become two of my best friends in the world. They were just beginning a burgeoning interest into world cinema (which has now become a full-blown obsession) and they recommended me two films to watch – Lukas Moodysson’s Fucking Amal, and Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue. I downloaded and watched both of these, and that was it. I was headed down a road that’s shown me so many different viewpoints from so many different people in so many different countries, and gave me a love for film that I now wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. When I think of Satoshi Kon, I think of those dear friends, who I still speak to every day (and indeed, started a film criticism website with), and when I found out he had unexpectedly died of pancreatic cancer at the unthinkable age of 46, they were the first things to pop into my head.

I watched Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers for the first time in preparation for this article, and was moved by its warmth. The film has very little of the surrealism and reality-bending that Kon is known for, instead focusing on three vagrants who discover an abandoned child on Christmas Eve. Like some of the greatest movies, the characters in Tokyo Godfathers capture many different facets of humanity, and it deals with themes of guilt, despair, and the goodness inside all people. The works of Kon cannot fit into one genre – Perfect Blue is a psychological thriller, Millennium Actress is an epic love story, and Tokyo Godfathers is an intimate drama – yet all of them have a common theme: people, and who they are. He frequently blurs the lines between reality and fantasy, between the waking world and dreams, yet the truth is always discovered in the end. His stories always have a human core – his television series Paranoia Agent, a series about a ghost child on skates attacking people, ends up being about guilt and the loss of innocence that occurs when a girl enters womanhood – and his characters can find it in them to laugh even in the darkest moments.

Even working in anime, a style that allows one to do anything they wish, Kon’s ideas and style stood head and shoulders above most. He was brave, imaginative, and a true original. We can only hope that as he lived his final moments, perhaps preparing to fly into the unknown somewhere in his mind, Satoshi Kon was excited to continue the chase he loved. Goodbye, sir, and thank you.

“With feelings of gratitude for all that is good in this world, I put down my pen.

Well, I’ll be leaving now.”

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Life During Wartime

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Minor spoilers.

Todd Solondz’s films have always have this certain inimitable style – one I like to call “Solondzian”, but that nobody else in the world does. Not including the one I can’t remember the name of but that Liam will probably tell me once he reads this, his films have been famous for their sympathetic brand of dark comedy, and going further with it than most folks, especially Americans – what other American film asked you to feel sympathy for a pedophile (and an ACTIVE one at that) before Happiness, and how many have since? Being a big fan of Solondz, I sat down to watch his newest feature, a sequel to Happiness, with great anticipation. After it had finished, I was satisfied, but a little confused. It felt almost like Solondz, who had presented such a natural (if horrifying) style with his last four films, had become almost too self-aware.

It’s not there all the time, and it’s subtle, but I noticed it. With his earlier films, aside from maybe a brighter colour scheme than most, the visual style and cinematography didn’t seem to hint at anything out of the ordinary; a direct contrast to the disturbing events. There are a few times in Life During Wartime where Solondz almost seems to be saying “hey, this is a bit weird, huh?” One example is the opening scene, where Joy (the eldest sister from Happiness) and Allen (the guy who came on the wall in Happiness and was originally obsessed with Helen but is now married to Joy despite finding love with someone else at the end of Happiness I dunno) are eating at a restaurant. While the scene is very similar to the opening of the film’s predecessor, it feels very claustrophobic and closed-in, which stuck out to me straight away as being a little too…obvious, I suppose. There are moments like this throughout the rest of the film, and it’s so odd to see Solondz stylising his work in such a cliched manner.

The plot again revolves around the lives of the three sisters from Happiness and their families. Trish raises her children and finds a new boyfriend while her pedophile ex-husband Bill gets released from prison. Joy visits Trish to take a break from Allen, and is haunted by visions of a previous suitor who committed suicide. Helen is only in one scene but is as whiny as before; most of the film is about Trish and her young son, Timmy, as he deals with the news that his father isn’t dead, as he was told, and was locked up for abusing boys Timmy’s age. All the roles are recast from Happiness, but some work better than others – Alison Janney as Trish is great, but Ciaran Hinds as Bill isn’t suitable at all, unless you tell yourself that prison has made him think of himself as a monster or something. The oddest one is definitely Philip Seymour Hoffman being replaced by Michael K. Williams (aka Omar in The Wire) as Allen. Solondz said in interviews the movie was more “politically overt” than his previous films, but that seems to simply consist of a few characters talking about Iraq occasionally, and doesn’t really add anything to the proceedings.

The truth is, Life During Wartime is a good movie, and it has a lot of effective scenes that fit with Solondz’s usual standard. Unfortunately, it also has quite a few shortcomings. Firstly, it’s something that no Solondz movie has ever been; predictable. I saw one character, thought “I bet he kills himself later”, and he did. It’s almost like he’s fulfilling what audiences expect of him. The second, and possibly the biggest, fault of the movie revolves around the fact that it’s pretty much all despair, all the time. What made a film like Happiness work wasn’t the shocking moments as much as it was the way they suddenly showed up and interrupted these characters idyllic existences; we, the audience, were almost anticipating the next thing. Life During Wartime is the opposite, and it almost feels as if Solondz was throwing everything he could at the wall and hoping something fits. There’s very little joy in this film, which makes the big scenes feel more like “oh, okay” than anything else.

Before I saw this film, I didn’t think Solondz was capable of making a less-than-great movie. I still don’t think he’s capable of making a bad one, but it’s possible he needs to look back and see what made his previous flicks so fantastic. This isn’t relatable like Welcome To The Dollhouse, isn’t quietly devastating like Happiness and Palindromes, and doesn’t make you think like Storytelling. It’s just there, being interesting, being funny, but not being much else.

Rating: ★★★½☆

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Dark City – a review I wrote for a magazine (that is better than Projectorheads)

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

(This review is based on the 2008 director’s cut of the film, which, among other things, doesn’t have a godamned stupid opening narration that ruins basically every twist. Way to go, New Line Cinema.)

Dark City is one of those rare movies that manages to fit two seemingly different genres together in a way that’s almost effortless; in this case, science fiction and film noir. It’s one of the more original movies in a genre that has infinite possibilities, and it’s disappointing that Proyas went from directing something with as much mood and tension as this to I, Robot, which is more like an advert for Converse and Audi that happens to have action and robo-racism and stuff.

The plot begins like a typical mystery; our protagonist, John Murdoch, awakes in a seedy hotel bathroom with no idea of who he is, or what’s up with the dead woman in the room. After being urged to flee by a mysterious phone call, he finds himself on the run from both the police and a group of men known only as The Strangers, as well as trying to figure out what the hell happens to the city every midnight.

Dark City is, for all intents and purposes, a Raymond Chandler story set in a sci-fi environment. It has all the typical archetypes of the noir style – the usual characters, from the detective to the nightclub singer, and vehicles and costumes that bring to mind The Big Sleep, among others. Yet at the same time, the shadowy style and noir elements blend seamlessly with the advanced look. The design of the city, while not particularly futuristic, still brings to mind classic science fiction films such as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and that was definitely a sci-fi. There was a robot. In fact, in many ways, Dark City is almost a modern cross between Metropolis and Fritz Lang’s noir classic M. The sci-fi elements are also evident with the design of The Strangers, and much of the plot leans this way too, particularly the emphasis on memory, which is a major part of science fiction films such as Solaris.

Science fiction, as with any other genre, is best when you give the characters room to breathe, rather than using them as a way to get through as many different situations as possible. The performances in Dark City are the sort where you don’t see them as particularly good at first, but it’s only because the actors become so immersed in the characters that it doesn’t even feel like they’re playing a part (Something I like to call Fargo syndrome). Rufus Sewell is great as Murdoch, not looking like a typical here and being all the more effective for it, and Jennifer Connelly puts in a fine performance as his wife Emma, but the man who steals the show is, perhaps surprisingly, Kiefer Sutherland. He has perhaps the most emotionally complex role as Dr Daniel Schreiber, who works for The Strangers but has wavering loyalties.

Despite having an incredibly short average shot length – every 1.8 seconds, one of the shortest of any modern film – Dark City manages not to feel too fast-paced, and is, in the simplest terms possible, a perfect blend of its genres. Everything feels honed to perfection, and in that way it is one of the best science fiction films, as well as one of the best noirs.

(Written for The Bridge, the Sci-Fi Society’s Magazine for the University of Lincoln)

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The Forgotten Movies of Tom Bown – Part One

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

I own a ton of DVDs, and when you own a ton of DVDs, there’s always a chance that some will remain unwatched for a long while. I went digging through my collection the other day and found 10 that were all bought many months beforehand, but that I never found the time to sit down and watch. As a fun special Projectorheads thingy, I thought I’d make a couple of updates where I watch and write short reviews for all these films.

(Ok, up there is the original plan. I managed to watch 3 out of 5 films I had planned for this update, but then ended up watching two different films instead. Seeing how I’m going on holiday in 3 hours and was operating under a deadline I decided to do the mini-reviews for them and have part 2 of this update be 7 films or something. Enjoy!)

Here are the reviews (Some slight spoilers, for Persona especially, but I tried to keep it to a minimum):

Dancer In The Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000)

So I start off on a light note. The final part of a “Golden Heart” trilogy must be uplifting, right? Oh wait this is probably the most godamned depressing movie I’ve ever seen. Just straight-up thrown in the deep end with awful depressing shit and it never ever ever lets up and even the fun singing bits are like oh god because you know it’s all in her head and in real life shit is fucked. Björk’s performance as Selma is absolutely stellar, perfectly epitomising all sides of the character – the optimism, the stubborn nature, the pain – and the music she composed is wonderful, making Selma’s daydreaming nature as beautiful as possible. Von Trier filmed most of the movie using a handheld dogme style, and, as usual, manages to use it to great effect to make the film much more personal and emotive. Ebert has described Dancer as being a return to an old style of cinema plotting, and that may or may not be true. All I can really think of right now is how much the title makes sense – despite everything that happens to her, Selma keeps on going. I don’t think any movie has ever fucked me up this much before.

Rating: ★★★★½

The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)

This movie makes me hate horror fans because they all just talk about how IT LOOKS REALLY FAKE AND ISN’T SCARY ANYMORE but who cares? Even if it isn’t shocking or whatever it’s still a great film. I admit, though, that it probably works more as a drama that happens to have demonic elements than a straight horror. Ellen Burstyn does a great job of portraying the distress of the mother, while Jason Miller manages to make Karras’ a mysterious, brooding figure. Linda Blair, though, is the thing. I can’t even imagine the level of dedication she must have put in, and especially at such a young age, to successfully portray Regan. The fact that such stresses eventually led to drug addictions tells us so much. Overall it’s a genuinely good movie and the reactions of all the Saw fans who are like YEAH IT’S BASICALLY A COMEDY are like aughhhhhh

Rating: ★★★★☆

Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

My first Bergman! And wow. I had a slight idea what to expect with Persona, but I wasn’t expecting it to be anywhere near this intense. Bergman calls this his most important film, and in some ways it’s easy to see why. The melding of Alma and Elisabeth (Both played to absolute perfection by Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann) can be seen – very overtly, at certain points – as running parallel to the idea of film blending with reality. The way Bergman fucks with our heads is strange – we start off thinking it’s about this ill actress and her nurse, then the nurse turns out to be the truly disturbed one, and then it brings in all the reality fuckery. The scene near the end where the camera swings and we see Bergman and the crew (Which I admit I didn’t notice at first, and had to go back and rewatch) is just brilliant. This movie quickly shot up my top films list, and may even have a space in my top 10. I can’t wait to watch more Bergman (Also Godard, the fucking bore, but that’s neither here nor there).

Rating: ★★★★★

The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001)

My second Haneke, and judging from what I’ve heard about his filmography, the first one to be more of his usual style. This was another one where I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and I was both pleasantly surprised and repulsed. Haneke’s reputation for making movies that show us the sick, twisted characters in Western society is well-deserved, as we view Erika and see how her mother’s domineering attitude causes her to take out her frustrations in cruel, fetishistic ways. What I found quite interesting is that

<spoiler alert>

the mother isn’t really that much of the problem. While she’s clearly domineering, Erika could escape her clutches if she wanted to, but it’s more her masochistic tendancies that are keeping her from truly being her own person, as she likes to feel like someone’s dominating her. The only time she truly rebels against her mother is when she thinks she has Walter to play that role for her.

<end of spoilers>

The movie is twisted, yes, but the most disturbing thing about it is that it could very easily be real. Which is cool, y’know. Definitely need to check out more Haneke.

Rating: ★★★★½

(500) Days Of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009)

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I went into the cinema to see this, but I ended up incredibly pleasantly surprised. It’s almost an anti-romcom – while they can be quite idealised, this is the most real depiction of a romance of its kind I’ve ever seen on screen. While much of the marketing makes it seem almost like Juno meets Elizabethtown or something – and it certainly starts off like that, with the sure-to-annoy-many Belle & Sebastian reference – it’s really not a date movie, although it certainly has its moments. Over the 500 days the movie flicks between at random, we see the relationship between boy and girl as one does remember something like that – the first time you notice them, the way you start getting closer, the great times that occur in the first few months, and everything after. If you want to class (500) Days Of Summer as a romantic comedy, then it’s most likely the best romantic comedy I’ve ever seen. However, I don’t think that’s how you can class it. It’s funny, and it’s sweet, but overall it’s just a little too real. Anyone coming out of the movie having ever looked back on a long-lasting relationship is gonna feel the sting of familiarity. Which, of course, just means the movie’s incredibly effective.

Rating: ★★★★½

Part two will be here in a few weeks.

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“My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done” – Trailer

Friday, September 4th, 2009

The first trailer for the next Werner Herzog film is finally here. Written and directed by Herzog, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done is also produced by David Lynch, and stars Willem Dafoe and Chloë Sevigny, as well as Michael Shannon, whose Oscar nomination last year for his supporting role in Revolutionary Road was very well-deserved. The trailer is surprisingly atypical of trailers for a Herzog/Lynch feature, but the movie still looks really great, and with such a stellar cast and crew I’m officially excited!

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