December 2010

True Grit (2010)

Joel and Ethan Coen remake a beloved John Wayne western with Jeff Bridges in the star role. It sounds like literally nothing could go wrong with this, and you are right. This movie is a delight. Brilliant performances from all the actors, excellent writing and direction, a mixture of humor and seriousness that just works.

It's a rare film in the sense that I can recommend it to literally everyone who is reading this blog. I cannot think of a single person in this universe who couldn't find something to like about it. Unless maybe you just detest westerns? But if that's the case, what are you doing here? We're not friends.

Soonish:

• The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
• The King's Speech (2010)
• The Illusionist (2010) (if it comes here)
• Rabbit Hole (2010)
• Blue Valentine (2010)

I don't usually pay attention to MPAA movie ratings anymore--they lose all meaning when you become an adult--but recently, the local cineplex has instituted a new policy with regards to admitting people to R-rated movies. Their policy is to card "anyone who looks under thirty." You know, just like liquor stores and bars do.

Except establishments selling alcohol have a strong incentive to make sure buyers are of legal age: alcohol is a controlled substance, potentially fatal when too much is imbibed, and--reasonable or not--there are heavy legal penalties in place to discourage sales to minors. When you could lose your liquor license over a twenty-year-old buying beer from you, demanding verification of age, even from those who look like adults, is completely reasonable. But there is no law out there to penalize movie theaters for letting a fifteen-year-old see an R-rated movie, and for good reason: seeing a movie is unlikely to hurt anyone, even if the (completely arbitrary) MPAA rating says it's not appropriate for them.

The MPAA rating system is screwed up anyway, though. More and more I think we should scrap the one we have and come up with a new one based on a more holistic view of the movies being rated, instead of counting the swear words or pelvic thrusts. I've actually thought about this a lot, to the point where I've investigated the systems used in other countries and come up with one of my own based on what I think makes the most sense in these.

Here's my idea:

• General Audience: All ages. Encompassing what is currently labeled as G and PG, and maybe some of the lower levels of PG-13. The common swears, innuendo, mild nudity depending on context, mild violence, etc. would all be okay. The average parent does not care much about these things. They would not keep their kid from watching Short Circuit, for instance, despite the fact that people say the word "shit" in it.


• 12+: Young teens and up. This would include the bulk of what is now labeled PG-13, also throwing in some things that got rated R solely for nudity, drug use or swearing. Like the 1970s and '80s version of PG (think Jaws or Monty Python movies).


• 15+: Older teens and adults. What is currently called "soft R": movies rated R mostly for reasons like a lot of bad language, nudity, or non-violent sex scenes. Depending on the context, violence that is not extremely graphic but is nasty or frequent could end up as 15+.


• Adults Only: Movies including a lot of graphic violence, blood and gore, or the mixture of sex and violence. Very explicit non-violent sex scenes could push things into this category, too, depending. This would be the only rating that requires ID to enter. Not sure what the cutoff age would be--I'd be tempted to suggest sixteen instead of eighteen.

The vast majority of movies would end up classified as General or 12+. Relatively few movies would be Adults Only--mostly action, horror, and some satires and dramas. Part of the idea here is to make it a little harder for kids to see violence and a little easier for them to see nudity, naughty language or non-violent sexual content, which is demonized in the current rating system despite being pretty inoffensive on the grand scale of things.

Admission to the levels above "General" would be at the theater's discretion. Kid looks like they might be too young to go to a 15+? Don't sell them a ticket (unless their parent is with them or comes by and says it's okay for their kid to see this movie). I like the idea of allowing older teens into an "Adults only" film, maybe only with an adult accompanying them, but forbidding younger children from coming in at all.

Basically, I'm asking for a common-sense rating system based on how parents actually decide whether material is appropriate for a child to watch, and common-sense enforcement of that rating. Movies are relatively low on the "things that might hurt your child" scale, and kids are more resilient than adults give them credit for. The existence of an "adults only" category in my scheme is more for the benefit of adults who want to see a movie in peace than for the benefit of the kids.

Black Swan (2010)

If Black Swan is playing near you, go and see it right now. It is a genuinely great movie.

I don't think ballet is very accessible to most people nowadays, as an art form. It's an archaic and highly abstract form of storytelling. Likewise Black Swan is a highly abstract film, phrasing a completely internal conflict in the language of psychological and body horror.

The essential story is about Nina, a ballerina and "good girl" whose struggle for perfection becomes all-consuming when she's picked for the lead role in Swan Lake. Nina is the perfect White Swan, but historically and in the film, the same ballerina plays both the White Swan and the Black Swan. It's implied that Nina wasn't quite all right to begin with, but the pressure to perform well as the dangerous and passionate Black Swan (a polar opposite of her outward personality and natural performance style) doesn't help. The story of her transformation hangs on a rival in the company, Lily, whom Nina views as a near-literal embodiment of the Black Swan, a diabolical double.

Like all of Darren Aronofsky's work, this film is emotionally intense. It's frequently unsettling, and at times, it is actually terrifying. It takes that self-destructive urge many people experience under pressure to perform--not just on stage, mind--and turns it into a visceral thing. And for the Black Swan, perfection is in self-destruction.

I feel like there's more I want to say here, but I don't want to be Spoilerville, USA. Go see this movie.

Soon:

• The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
• True Grit (2010)
• The Illusionist (2010) (if it comes here)
• Rabbit Hole (2010)
• Blue Valentine (2010)

The Maybe List:

• The Fighter (2010)
• TRON: Legacy (2010)

I'm a monster from Headless Productions on Vimeo.

Holy crap. This is gorgeous.

I'm just going to start posting every really awesome, exciting bit of animation I find.

Meet Buck from TeamCerf on Vimeo.

I don't know how many of my readers are gamers, and of those how many of you like indie puzzle-type games and donating to charity. As you may know, I like both of those things, so I can give my highest kudos to this year's Humble Indie Bundle. It's a super-cool idea--you set your price and give a portion of the purchase price to charity. You can even give all of it to charity if you want.

This year's pack includes Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos, and Revenge of the Titans. I can testify that Braid and Machinarium are worth your time (though I suspect you will enjoy Braid more if you try to ignore the text and focus on the puzzles, because hoo boy, there are some attitudes evident in that game that make me want to punch people's teeth out of their heads). I'm not familiar with the other titles, but if you buy the pack, let me know if they're any good!

Even if you don't want video games, you should donate to charity now anyway. Donating to charity is awesome.

On a somewhat related note, check out my friend Sardius's post about Braid's international box art. It includes a special surprise!

This is awesome.

Tangled (2010)

The latest Disney fairy tale feature, but a little more in the spirit of The Emperor's New Groove or Dreamworks' The Road to El Dorado than any of the 1990s Disney features. It's a solid film, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly worth the time and money to see. It is funny, and a lot of that humor is in the visuals (poses and motion) and the editing. That's an approach I'm glad to see Disney taking.

Its big flaw is the usual one in Disney films--the tone takes a hard turn toward maudlin at the end, and after not being all that serious throughout, it's a little hard to swallow. And though the generic homogenous Disney/Dreamworks/Pixar CG character design is pleasant to look at throughout the film, when we reach the end credits, we suddenly realize what we missed--why doesn't one of these animation studios do an entire film in the style of the end credits? Either hand-drawn, or transferring that style to CG characters, I don't care. Tangled is charming, but the Milt Gross-inspired end credits had more charm than the rest of the film's visuals put together.

Soon:

• The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
• The Fighter (2010)
• True Grit (2010)
• Black Swan (2010) (whenever it gets here)
• The Illusionist (2010) (if it comes here at all)

The Maybe List:

• Due Date (2010)
• The Tourist (2010)
• TRON: Legacy (2010)

For those of you wondering about the sudden influx of actual drawings with actual effort put into them, you can blame the Art House Co-op's Sketchbook Project. I signed up and got my book months ago, but by virtue of simple laziness I did not draw much in it. To my horror, the January 15 deadline is now fast approaching, so I'm working to fill it up.

This month, gentle reader, you will be getting a lot more half-baked drawings than you ever hoped to receive! I'm hoping to do some weird collages from pages of all those copies of National Geographic I have lying around, too. I might not manage to fill this thing up, but that's what I'm hoping for. After the deadline, the sketchbooks are assembled into an exhibit that will be going on tour to a few cities. If you're in or near Seattle, WA; San Francisco, CA; Austin, TX; Chicago, IL; Atlanta, GA; Winter Park, FL; Washington, DC; Brooklyn, NY; or Portland, ME--and I know some of you are--you can go flip through my little book in person.

The Sketchbook Project is closed for this year, but my writer/artist friends may be interested in the Fiction Project. It is a very similar concept, but with storytelling using writing and/or art. Like the Sketchbook Project, it goes on tour after the books are sent in, too.

The movie I'm really looking forward to is Black Swan, but it's not out here yet. I saw a really fantastic movie this weekend, though, one you should go see if it's on near you.

127 Hours (2010)

Remember back in 2003 when that guy was in the news for literally sawing his own arm off with a dull pocketknife after a rock fell on it, trapping him alone in a canyon for several days? That's what this movie is about. And it is a stunning movie. James Franco stars as the exuberant Aron Ralston, a guy who seems without a care in the world, and later, after being trapped, undergoes a transition. He basically comes to terms with death, and it's only after that when he can bring himself to break his own arm and go through the pain of amputation with a blade that can't cut skin without significant force.

There's a lot to love about this movie, but what I noticed most was the editing and cinematography. Almost all close-up footage of Aron is via hand-held camera, but it's interspersed with beautiful wide shots of the Utah desert. Aron is a big character--he's a strong guy, high-energy, very exuberant and upbeat--but against the massive empty wilderness that serves as his backdrop, he is microscopic. Insignificant. And then there's the split screen, which is a fascinating device when used well, as it was here.

James Franco is one of my favorite actors nowadays, and he carries the movie well as the only major character. There's something like 40 minutes of him completely alone, with only ants and hallucinations for company, and Franco never gets tiresome. Aron is well-rounded in a way few characters are--he starts out happy-go-lucky, but as he gets closer to death, we see his mistakes and regrets. It's a film based on a true story, certainly, but it's really a character study.

Hopefully soon:

• Tangled (2010)
• Black Swan (2010)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
• True Grit (2010)
• The Illusionist (2010)

The Maybe List:

• Megamind (2010)
• Secretariat (2010)
• Due Date (2010)