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State of the Blog – February 2016
Maybe I should rename these State of the Blog posts, “Broken Promises – [Month] Edition”. It feels like every time I say I am going to publish certain posts, and then invariably I can’t get to everything I say I am going to do. While January did see me post a few of the things I said that I would, I failed to re-boot the Classic Reviews Friday and also didn’t finish up the larger essays that I wanted to. The last couple of weeks were a little more busy in the lab, but my morale has not evaporated completely. So, once again, I am going to touch base with you fine folk who actually read this blog and tell you what I have in store for February.
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Is it Any Good? The Scourge of Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic
You may have noticed that here on Plot and Theme I never attach a grade to my reviews. Distilling an entire film into a single number or letter has always rubbed me the wrong way, as it inherently removes any critical nuance from the discourse. But, I am aware that most reviews do provide a grade in summation, and these can help gauge the overall quality of the film. More recently, with the rise of review aggregators like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, scores of these reviews are condensed down into a single number. The result is a peculiar derivative of a derivative – thoughts and words transformed into a number, then that number lost in a sea of others. The purpose of this piece is to explain that process in more detail, and ultimately determining if any of these procedures result in answering a simple question: Is <Insert Film > any good?
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“The Revenant” is both Style and Substance
The Revenant is a gorgeous slog. From the opening panorama to the final close-up, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s frontier survivalist epic confronts the viewer with this discord. This tension colors the film completely, elbowing out more nuanced analyses of character arcs or thematic material upon first glance. But to claim, as some critics have, that The Revenant is a pretty film devoid of meaning is an absurdity. The harrowing cinematic experience certainly offers visual splendor up front and is heavily fettered in a masochistic cloak, but underneath it all, the insights into the human condition are many and varied. Besides marveling at the strength of the human spirit or the futility of revenge, themes of spiritual rebirth, everlasting love, betrayal, racism, and even the importance of friendship and connection with another human being in this vast, cold world.
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2016 Oscar Nominees, My Picks, and Stray Observations
Earlier today, the nominees for the 88th annual Oscars were announced, and this is the first time Plot and Theme has existed during an Oscar season, so I am going spout my nonsense preferences and commentary for all who wish to read. Before we get started, it is important to understand that these are not the films that I think will win the award, but the films that I think deserve to win. It is a slight difference, and if anyone cares about predicting the actual winners, I may do that on the eve of the ceremony (or, I could even live Tweet as the Oscars are happening).
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With Tongue-In-Cheek, “The Big Short” Scathes Those Responsible for the Financial Crisis
Show of hands: who understands what happened to cause the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the subsequent global recession? Okay, now all the liars that have their hands up – do you think you could explain it to a standard movie audience, while still telling an engaging, cinematic story? Well, Adam McKay, famous for creating the Funny or Die website and directing comedies like Anchorman and Step Brothers, has succeeded in this endeavor. McKay’s ridiculous stylistic choices help portray the absurdity of the entire financial system, and instill a sense of incredulity in the audience. As a result, he has crafted a wonderful and funny film with full character arcs, rousing thematic statements, and eye-opening revelations about the world we live in.
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“The Hateful Eight” Toys with Truth and Race, but Ends Up Less than the Sum of Its Parts
The eighth film from Quentin Tarantino is not his best, but it might be his most political. The Hateful Eight was born from the TV Westerns of the 1960s where a group of outlaws would kidnap the main character in a sort of bottle episode. Well, Tarantino pondered, what if the audience didn’t know who was the “good guy” once we got to the bottle? As the back stories unfolds, various clues indicate that perhaps we shouldn’t be so trusting of what we are being told – by anyone. From there, Tarantino’s brand of pithy dialogue and penchant for violence takes over as percolating racial tensions begin to boil over.
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The Animation of Don Bluth, Part IV: A Last Hurrah and a Look Forward (1997-Present)
Previous Parts
The Seven Ages of Disney Animation
After an abysmal series of failures in the early 1990s, Bluth and Goldman were able to rebound from the terrible offerings and produce Anastasia (1997) and Titan A.E (2000) with Fox Animation Studios. These would be the last feature films to be produced by Bluth, as much of the time since then has been spent providing the animation for various videogames. However, there are plans from the team to continue producing animated features, but funding remains an issue to this day. Regardless, this period should be viewed not as a petered-out ending, but as a brief return-to-form for Bluth’s particular style of animation.
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Plot and Theme’s Top Ten Movies of 2015, Plus Stray Observations!
Now that all of the days of 2015 are safely in the past, it is an appropriate time for me to take my shot at one of those heralded “Top 10” lists. This list comprises only movies released in 2015, and only contains movies which I had the opportunity to see (alas, no The Revenant or Macbeth). I will provide links to the actual reviews I did of each of these films, as well as an interesting (well, I suppose that’s debatable) observation that relates to each film. Also, feel free to yell at me in the comments about the patently incorrect opinions that I hold, or to lobby for your favorites.
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“Spotlight” Illuminates Cover-Up of Clerical Abuse in the Best Film of the Year
Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight opens with a quick vignette at a Boston police station. Using subtle camera movements and specific acting choices, the subject of the scene becomes clear: a young boy has been molested by a local priest. A green policeman doesn’t seem to understand the protocols, but he watches as the strings get pulled and the wheels get greased, and the offending priest gets whisked away from the police station without consequence. This serves as a preamble to the harrowing story we are about to witness: the rampant sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, and its systemic cover-up by the Church.
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Saoirse Ronan Discovers Capacity for Joy in “Brooklyn”
Opportunity is pregnant with possibility, but that does not dissolve the hardship associated with exploring it. John Crowley’s period piece Brooklyn explores this conflict through the eyes of Eilis (Saoirse Ronan; pronounced Seer-sha) as she leaves her small Irish town to start a new life in 1950s Brooklyn. There, she deals with homesickness, depression, and the struggle of starting anew. And though her path towards flourishing in the New World is beset with obstacles, along the way she discovers a joy which is all her own.
Long-Form Film Criticism and Fiction Writing by Derek Jacobs