EMPIRE MAGAZINE'S ICONIC MOVIE MOMENTS

Laurence Fishburne: Morpheus in THE MATRIX

Check out Empire magazine's tribute to the most iconic movie moments at http://www.empireonline.com/20/birthday-portfolio/
Seems more like greatest movie heroes to me. (This is just one shot.)
They have since published a book, so I hope the link still works.

Django Unchained *****

Why did I like Django Unchained so much? It engaged me, gave me dreams, had such a unique vision that I cannot forget it. The marks of genius, flawed or disturbed, were all over it. It had moments of perfection: the mythology, the filming, the music, the costumes, the acting: the purpose came together and it was perfect. I am not even sure how I judge which scenes were perfect. Christoph Waltz gently preparing Kerry Washington to see Django after she knew that he could not be alive, was simple, quiet, and made me cringe--so many ways for the reunion to be tragic. There was no fanfare, no one said: this is an important scene! watch carefully! it will move the film forward!  In fact, I wasn't sure that it would be a good thing for them to be reunited. At that point, all we had was Django's need to find her. We had no idea if she loved him at the same depth. And by that time in the film, it had been made clear that just as Django had become a killer on the strength of what had happened to him as a slave, Hildy could just as well have become an unfeeling comfort girl. How else would she survive, I found myself asking. Once the audience met Calvin Candie, all bets were off. I felt sick to my stomach after one scene with him. How would it feel to live in his house as a slave and by his rules? (still wondering why The Academy can't figure out Leo's genius). I am guessing for most girls, the faster you became numb the longer you would live. So, no feeling.

But of course, Kerry Washington does not go numb, she just gets more beautiful with each insult to her body and her psyche. And this is my complaint with Django Unchained: what a ridiculous premise! Slave rescued by German bounty hunter (there were so many of those traversing the Western landscape in the 19th c America), makes a living killing white folks and learns to read all in the noble pursuit of rescuing his wife from the clutches of the most ridiculously insane slaver ever portrayed on the screen. I think I feel equal parts of admiration for the craft AND anger at Tarantino's vision, that the solution to lingering shame over man's inhumanity to man is to ratchet up man's inhumanity to man into a bloodbath of revenge--not vengeance--so that I was left wanting to celebrate Django's triumph but also feeling sick to my stomach as he seemed to descend into the same sticky bloody bath as Calvin Candie. And juxtaposing hyperbolically written stock characters (Candie) with restrained dynamic characters ( Schultz) just confused even the most devoted audience (me). Which tone am I to register? I'm still not sure.

 I felt the same way at the end of Inglorious Basterds. How am I supposed to cheer for the destruction of all the Nazis in the movie theatre when it becomes obvious that the agent of their destruction has been driven mad by her desire for revenge? What is there to admire there? Nothing. But the fact remains, these last two films of Tarantino's are two of my favorite movies of all time. They achieve status as works of art, no doubt. But the talented white filmmaker taking on the ugly truth of human nature on behalf of those who cannot and then crossing the line--from justice to retribution--just smacks of the same aspects of humanity that got us into the mess in the first place. Maybe Tarantino got lost in the game of making the moving picture instead of wielding his considerable creative power to lift us all up. Someone always has to lose.

LO PAN STYLE trumps GANGNAM STYLE???

This parody of Psy's  gangnam style is as sly and subversive as the movie it pays homage to: BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. I have seen this  1980s-era John Carpenter movie at least 6 times and there is something new every time. It is a sharp send up of kung fu movies and American arrogance/innocence (how do we manage both simultaneously?) that is a big favorite with everyone in our house. Enjoy Lo Pan style, and then go rent BIG TROUBLE.

CLOUD ATLAS

I just saw the trailer for CLOUD ATLAS. It was  maybe three minutes long, and I had tears in my eyes when it was over. I have never had a trailer do that before. I have been reading the reviews of the movie, and they are mixed. But something about the idea we can expect emotion and experience to be  infinite, rather than the cliched hope that our bodies would last, gives me chills. It reminds me of the moment in 2005's Pride & Prejudice when Elizabeth admits to her father that she loved Mr. Darcy, that she had misjudged him, and her father, the always excellent Donald Sutherland,  just chuckles to himself at the joy of the love he senses in her. The feeling between Darcy and Elizabeth is palpable and it always gives me a chill. Same thing as what I felt watching this trailer, I guess.
 I will have to read Cloud Atlas  now.

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD ******

It has been two weeks since we saw Beasts of the Southern Wild.  After a long satisfying visit to The Visions of Arcadia show at the art museum showcasing master canvases by Matisse, Gaugin and Cezanne, we strolled through town to see the movie on a whim. It was almost too much to handle in one weekend. The giant canvases of the bathers representing heaven on earth juxtaposed with the primal life of Hushpuppy and her band of outcasts in the wilds of Louisiana threw me over. The movie is gorgeous, and the intense beauty of the Eden that the characters inhabit is almost hard to watch--when I am reading, I can take the intensity a small dose at a time, my choice. But with this movie, I found myself wanting to replay bits to savor the lush cinematography, to get a better look at Hushpuppy, her dad, her school, her trailer, the aurochs. At the same time, the harshness of the environment--socially, physically-is impossible to absorb from my upper middle class perch, and I spent half of the film wanting to look away. The power of the hurricane reminded me of Katrina, of course, but I also found myself remembering the terrible storm of Their Eyes Were Watching God that propels Janie's life into a new chapter in the most terrifying ways. We are each of us beasts, after all. Hushpuppy knows that instinctively.

Hushpuppy lives on an outlaw island-the "bathtub"- in the bayou outside the levee's protection with her sickly father and a ragtag band of independent souls. Their days are spent scavenging for what they need, jimmying with the garbage that surrounds them to accomplish simple everyday tasks. But there is a nobility and power in their lives, which sets the viewer up to believe that Hushpuppy lives to understand life the way all animals do--she searches for her momma and she unconsciously knows that her father is sick and might leave her. As a deadly hurricane approaches, her dreams become nightmares of ancient aurochs who threaten to destroy her fragile world. There is an epic journey, and a hero's pyre. Hushpuppy will triumph?

TOTAL RECALL *** stars

   Just saw the remake of TOTAL RECALL with Colin Farrell. I have been a big fan of the 1990 movie with Ah-nold for years, and I am a bigger fan of Philip K. Dick, the science fiction writer of the source material for both movies ("we can remember it for you wholesale"). This was a good action movie, and fans of Len Wiseman's effects obsession will not be disappointed-- it looks like a cross between Blade Runner, which came from another Dick story,  and the Underworld movies--Wiseman directed his wife Kate Beckinsale in 2 of those.  All the actors are pretty and the guns are big.
   Colin Farrell might be a better Doug Quaid than Ah-nold: he can act, and because of his wiry Irish frame, the fight scenes were tighter and more exciting. Oh, and he is handsome in a might-just-be-crazy kind of way. Always good for a double agent type, I think.  It was also fun to see Beckinsale (Sharon Stone role) and Jessica Biel (in the Rachel Ticotin role) let it all go in their fights. Their fight scene was filmed as if two strong fearless women were determined to do permanent damage to their opponent. That's how women would fight if really in that position. Most film fights between women seem choreographed to appeal to some 22-year-old guy's imagination of how women would fight before they prepare to jump into bed with said 22-year-old directly after--and love it. Yuck. (But if you really are a fan of women characters kicking butt the right way, nobody beats Gina Carano in 2011's Haywire. Check that one out too.)

   Back to Total Recall. As I said, the film's imagery is stylish and engaging. The look of the Colony is depressing enough to imply the inequality of the classes, a critical motif in both the short story and original movie. But then the film breaks the first rule of storytelling: instead of showing us the conflict and the characters, they tell us through news broadcasts and even a narrator, I think.  Even when we got specific details, they did not seem to add up to a coherent vision. Everyone in the Colony is vaguely Asian, though the map shows up Australia. And seriously, only two places left on earth to live and  they choose Great Britain and Australia? Really? That 's what you come up with in 2012??? Not the time to stick to Dick's vision.
And car chases in the future will NOT include big clunky metal cars, either, I am pretty sure. The audience groaned when we saw that even in the post apocalyptic world, we still HAVE TO GO THE BANK. The synthetic police officers look like Star Wars stormtroopers, but are way easier to kill. What I love about the 1990 movie was the concept: everyone poor or uneducated or deformed or not white went to the Mars ghettos, and fabulously cheesy ghettos they were. The revolutionary hero Kuato is a mutant, he deviates from the norm and creates a new kind of hero. And Mars itself has a secret: the solution to the problem of enough air to breathe and food to eat is hidden in the core of the planet. Quaid is only the catalyst for the new Martians to find the solution to their own future: that's what makes good science fiction.  Replacing Kuato with Matthias, played by Wiseman staple Bill Nighy, just does not work. Wiseman gives Nighy a game inspirational speech as Kuato has in the first movie, but it is incomprehensible because there is no clearly defined issue except poverty in this version. I know the story does not go to Mars, but it was a great METAPHOR.
   So if you like this kind of science fiction movie, watch Total Recall 1990,  Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, or Star Wars Episode 3. None of them ends with a gratuitous kiss.

N.B. regarding the conclusion of The Fifth Element, there is never anything gratuitous about Bruce Willis kissing anyone. He is middle aged, bald and short and he still acts as if he deserves Milla Jovovich. He earned that kiss. It meant that the world would go on, that we get back into the Garden of Eden.