Ramin Bahrani’s 2014 film 99 homes is yet another spectacular film to come out involving a plot inspired by the financial crisis of the late 2000s. Instead of focusing on the macro-level of the crisis like Margin Call or The Big Short, 99 Homes is a more personal story favoring Main Street over Wall Street. Hence, the narrative follows the families that lost their homes to bank foreclosures following the collapse of the housing market. A key player in this story is a real estate agent named Rick Carver (Michael Shannon), who knows every angle and never saw a shady deal he didn’t like. Set against him is the protagonist of the story, Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), who is one of the “victims” of the foreclosures. But, ultimately this is a film about financial hardship and the lengths that an honest man will go to in order to provide for his family. It is about integrity in the face of hunger and failure, and the opportunism that emerges in the environment surrounding a profoundly rigged game.
Month: July 2016
“The Secret Life of Pets” and the “Trailer Problem”
The Secret Life of Pets, from Illumination Entertainment, occupies a strange space in the world of animated films. The movie is a cut above the slapstick-and-farts formula of the most childish entries (I am looking at you, Ice Age 5). It even avoids the over-reliance on pop culture reference to get chuckles out of the tag-a-long parents who are invariably forced into the seats in the theater. But, it is disappointing that the best part of the movie was entirely revealed in the trailer — the teaser trailer! That’s right, those 2+ minutes that introduced us to The Secret Life of Pets function as the cold open of the film, unchanged. And they are still probably the best part of the whole movie.
Plot and Theme’s Top 10 Films of the First Half of 2016 – Plus Complaining!
A semi / biannual tradition begins here at Plot and Theme as I decide it is time to rank movies again according to my very own standards. My opposition to lazy list-style articles notwithstanding, every now and then taking a glimpse of the best trees in the forest offers potentially interesting observations. That is certainly true in this case, as I will not only briefly summarize and recount my favorite ten movies that I’ve seen released in 2016, but also discuss the relatively poor output of the big blockbuster landscape for this year. I’ll also predict whether there are any saviors on the horizon, or if 2016 is doomed to be remembered as a year of flops, both critically and commercially.
“The Neon Demon” and the Violent Pursuit of Corporate Beauty
Nicholas Winding Refn’s latest film, The Neon Demon, is a parable about the allure and danger of beauty. The film examines the dog-eat-dog nature of the modeling industry and displays the depravity that the pursuit of beauty encourages. Using the standard “fresh face in the Big City” story as a jumping off point, Refn also invokes some interesting naiveté and maturation-based themes by focusing on the character 16-year old Jesse (Elle Fanning). Sexuality exists in this film, but is mostly depraved, violent, and feminine. The infamous and ethereal “It Factor” is touched upon as well, as well as the artifice of beauty, and how it is instantly noticeable. Though very much an “art house” film, Refn weaves a disturbing and edgy story in between his bizarre non-narrative light shows. I would not fault viewers who balk at this method of storytelling, but the film is sufficiently interesting from a cinematic standpoint to at least generate some great discussion.
“Independence Day: Resurgence” is a Mess of Callbacks, Confusion, and Ret-Cons
Like a burp that only vaguely reminds of the “flavor” of the Coors Light that you just shot-gunned, Independence Day: Resurgence is a hollow echo of its overly-popular progenitor. The plot of this sequel was seemingly generated by five screenwriters throwing darts at a board composed of better science fiction films and filling in the blanks with shoe-horned references to the original, at least when they aren’t ret-conning exposition into the original that was never there. Though not quite as offensive as last summer’s moronic ‘90s nostalgia capitalization called Terminator: Genisys, Independence Day: Resurgence is arguably more of a horrible mess and embarrassment.