Children Of Men (2006) March 28, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , 1 comment so farDirected by: Alfonso Cuarón
Dystopian futures have been done before in plenty of ways, but there’s a distinct lack of futuristic elements to this war-torn, ravaged, urban portrayal of England. Set in 2027, the film opens on a future where humankind is on the brink of extinction. No human child has been born in eighteen years and scientists cannot figure out why. The world is plagued by paranoia and chaos, with its only chance for saviour coming from an unlikely source.
Theo (Clive Owen) used to be a political activist, but now resides as a businessman in London. When he is suddenly forced to meet his ex wife, Julian (Julianne Moore), he knows everything is not going to be all right. She charges him with delivering Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) to The Human Project; a group of humans looking to restart the civilized world. What Theo doesn’t realise is that Kee has in her possession the most important item on the planet: life. Against all the odds, she is pregnant.
Featuring a great central performance from Clive Owen who I still don’t think is ever that different but works well in a movie that plays to his strengths, namely the sly humour that his character displays with surprising regularity. Also providing strong turns are Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Pam Ferris and Michael Caine as an aging hippy activist who lives in a secluded area of the woods. His friendship with Theo provides some of the films most enjoyable moments.
The real star of the picture however, is the camera. Ducking, weaving, panning, following, there’s an unseen character in that lens and it puts you right in the action. Alfonso Cuarón has gone all-out to set-up some outstanding single-shot sequences, usually following Clive Owen around as he hides from the numerous people out to shoot him. Consequentially, it’s quite a visually arresting film and certainly not lacking in its fair share of violence either. But this is also the reason the story becomes such an engrossing watch, along with some awesome set design which helps to create the immersive world.
The script keeps the narrative driven scenes lively and, as mentioned, places quite a bit of wit into the otherwise desperate and downbeat situations. This is quite a risk and could easily have broken the atmosphere if over-emphasised. Luckily, the humour is fairly sly and bubbles just below the surface in a way that’s more than believable given the position of the two main characters.
Hailed as a triumph by many critics and deservedly so, although I think it’s more a triumph of execution than anything else. I can’t imagine the choreography that must have gone into some of the long takes, even if they did use some CG to put it together – there’s even a moment where the camera lens gets blood blown onto it during an explosion, but they just keep on rolling. A fascinating story with engaging cinematography let down slightly by being a tad predictable, especially in terms of the fate of anyone who tries to help the duo. A highly recommended watch even still, and an interesting take on a future we hope will never come.
TheMovieProject, Take Two March 26, 2007
Posted by gproject in : News , add a comment
Here it is - the long-overdue re-branding of TheMovieProject. Welcome to Slate Scrawl.
TMP was always a temporary name, such was my haste to set up a journal and start writing, I just picked a name that made the most sense and always thought I’d amend it in a week or so. Well here we are 6-months later and there has been little effort on my part in getting this thing properly titled.
Regular visitors might have noticed the layout change about a month ago, moving to a style that allowed for custom banners to be added in the header bar. And while that was all leading up to the re-titling, I have to admit that I’ve been pretty lazy.
So here it is, exactly the same as it was before but with a different appellation. I hope it doesn’t disappoint.
Thanks for reading,
Gp.
Good Bye Lenin! (2003) March 22, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , add a commentDirected by: Wolfgang Becker
I can’t pretend to be familiar with German cinema, the extent of my knowledge being Run, Lola, Run (Lola Rennt). But that didn’t stop this comic drama about a son (played by Daniel Brühl) faking the existence of East Germany, from piquing my interest. The story is deceptively simple: when Alex’s mother awakens from her eight-month coma, her beloved socialist nation has become heavily westernised following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Under strict instructions that she must suffer no more shocks, Alex and his close family go to any length to prevent their bed-bound mother from finding out about the change.
While the set-up would seem to be leading towards a dangerously one-joke storyline, this movie neatly dodges the bullet by evolving into a piece about family and the lengths you’ll go to for the ones you love. In fact, only short sections of the film deal with the central premise head on, although they are also some of the funniest scenes.
With great performances from the central cast, especially Daniel Brühl, who plays the lead character with charm and compassion. There’s also some nice cinematography on display from director and co-writer Wolfgang Becker, along with all the set (and apparently, computer graphics) work done to keep the movie ‘in period’. Rest assured that the final product presents itself in a way that looks and feels very real.
There are plenty of comedic moments to enjoy, which all help liven up the story as it leads towards its rather obvious, but no less heartfelt, conclusion. Possibly the two-hour running time is slightly over-long for telling this story, but the moments of emotive exchange between Alex and his mother keep you watching until the end. When I think about it, there were probably many more opportunities to exploit the difficulties in keeping Christiane unaware of what had happened to the world outside her window. It’s probably to the filmmakers credit that they didn’t overdo it in this respect.
It’s by no means perfect, but Good Bye Lenin is a genuinely enjoyable film; and that’s high praise coming from someone who often struggles to watch European movies. I should probably forget what I think I know about foreign film, because all too often I’m proven wrong when I actually sit down and watch them. But if, like me, you’re looking for an easy introduction into European work, you could do much worse than to make this film the first stopping point.
A Scanner Darkly (2006) March 18, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , 1 comment so farDirected by: Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater likes a challenge, that much is clear. But to take a difficult Philip K. Dick novel, formulate a screenplay, then shoot the entire movie only to have every frame traced over and re-shaded during postproduction, is surely madness. Then again, he pulled off a PG-rated Jack Black movie, so maybe he really can do anything?
Dick’s novel of the same name provides the basis for the story, revolving around substance abusers in the very near future. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover cop, working to track down and arrest users of ‘substance D’, a new drug that’s addictive nature causes hallucinations and eventual brain damage. Unfortunately, Bob is also a user. His double life slowly starts to blur into one as the mounting pressure causes him to question the reality he lives in.
First of all, this movie has a wonderful aesthetic value which can be attributed to the process of rotoscoping, whereby an artist traces the frames of the film into a computer and then cell-shades them to give it that ‘unreal’ look. What you’re left with is visuals somewhere between traditional cell animation and a modern computer game, and while there seems to be some inconsistencies at times (foreground objects don’t quite stay together with the background during pans), the overall effect is stunningly real.
However, rotoscoping could be considered old news since this is actually Richard Linklater’s second feature to utilise the process (Waking Life was first in 2001). Its use here is purposeful though, giving the viewer a slightly ‘trippy’ experience just like most of the characters throughout the movie. The cast enjoy their eccentric personas, especially Robert Downey Jr. and Rory Cochrane who get vastly different, but equally bizarre parts. Even Reeves shows that if you put his acting style into the right context, it can work.
I really wanted to like this film, yet somehow it made that simple desire very difficult for me. I loved the style, but the slight meanderings in narrative got to me over the length of the flick. I think the characters are interesting, if slightly underdeveloped, and the sci-fi elements didn’t feel out of place in a movie which is more of an anti-drug piece than anything else. Of course, this is mostly down to the nature of the original novel than something the filmmakers have done.
If there’s one thing that this movie proves, it’s that rotoscoping is a workable and interesting cinematic technique, although undoubtedly time-consuming to do. I think that it’s a style best suited to these off-beat movies and I’m glad that this was one of the first because it sets a president that you should match style to content. We can only hope that all genres of film don’t try and jump on the bandwagon now – a rotoscoped comedy, we don’t need.
Garfield (2004) March 13, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , add a commentDirected by: Peter Hewitt
Everyone’s favourite lethargic feline makes the jump to the big screen in this perfectly harmless family adventure. The story centres on Garfield as his owner Jon (played by Breckin Meyer) comes into ownership of a new pet named Odie. Not only does Odie start to get all the attention but in Garfield’s eyes he’s even dumber than the average dog. All this changes however when Odie is kidnapped by an evil dog trainer, leaving it up to Garfield to embark on a mission beyond the safety of the cul-de-sac to save him.
Absolutely no risks are taken with the storyline which re-treads the Toy Story route almost exactly, coming to its logical conclusion in under 80-minutes. At least that means it’s never slow and except for the completely unnecessary musical number part way through, it keeps rolling along at a decent pace.
Bill Murray is the perfect choice to voice the lazy cat, injecting the right amount of helplessness and sarcasm into the character to make him come alive on-screen. And while most of the gags are aimed squarely at the kids, this movie does contain a few obligatory references for parents to catch too, although I doubt they’ll raise much more than a smile unless you’re in a particularly good mood.
As for the human actors, they get to play the whole thing as a living comic strip, giving main players Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Stephen Tobolowsky an easy ride. The cinematography and set design helps hold the comic book illusion too and, as you would expect, they make use of a bright colour palette in most scenes. Peter Hewitt’s direction offers nothing spectacular, but at least he keeps the film looking consistent.
Finally, you can’t write anything about this movie without mentioning the live-action / CG blend, which is actually pulled off fairly effectively throughout. There are some moments where the CG character looks out of place and a few awkward scenes where someone is required to hold Garfield, but besides this I thought they kept the interaction between what is real and what isn’t looking very fluid. Plus, using an actual trained feline was clearly not a choice in a movie where the cat’s expression is half the laughs.
There’s not a lot to recommend about this flick, but neither can I say that it completely fails in its intentions. The story is predictable and the running time appears extremely short even for a kid’s film (although having almost every shot be SFX-based must be hard work). Despite this, the vocal work by Bill Murray and the lively CG character model helps raise the film up out of disaster territory, into the passable category. And for everyone except young children, I imagine this is exactly where it’ll stay.
