Scott Hicks’ Shine is a brilliant film about the damage that can be done by a traumatic experience during childhood – whether a single devastating event or a prolonged poisonous relationship. The film tells the true story of David Helfgott and his struggle to celebrate his love of music despite the stifling instruction of his father Peter Helfgott, a Holocaust survivor intent on preserving the integrity of his family by all means possible. And as the desires of father and son square off, the result alternates between tragic and overwhelmingly uplifting.
Jennifer Kent’s “The Babadook” Offers Smart, Thematic Terror
I cannot recommend watching first-time director Jennifer Kent’s Australian horror film The Babadook at night if you genuinely want to finish it. The terrifying atmosphere feels oppressive, to the point that the film almost encourages a viewer to throw in the towel and re-visit the film in the light of day (if ever). Minor tics from the characters manifest into horrible payoffs, but there are also just supremely creepy sequences that rival the most chilling moments in any horror film. In addition, the narrative contains legitimate pathos, as we find ourselves caring about the characters’ respective arcs and struggles when we manage to peer through our fingers and actually see the screen.
The First Official Trailer for Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book” Keeps a Familiar Story Mysterious
One of the biggest surprises of Disney’s D23 convention was the trailer for Jon Favreau’s live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book. Finally, we get to see the official trailer for this film, which is essentially what everyone at D23 already saw (though the trailer shown there was slightly different, based on descriptions from people who saw it at D23). Pay close attention to the tone of this trailer, and especially the multiple fades to black, as it makes the film look far darker than the familiar animated feature from the late ‘60s:
“Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter” Discovers the Joy of Living
The Zeller Brothers (David and Nathan) have clearly drawn a great deal of professional and artistic inspiration from the Coen Brothers in the creation of the pleasantly melancholic Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter. In response to the modern world surrounding her, Kumiko (Rinko Kikuchi of Babel and Pacific Rim fame) seeks something more rewarding than the doldrums of her everyday life. She finds her solace in her pet rabbit Bunzo and an old beaten up VHS copy of the Coen Bros. magnificent film Fargo, and believes that the film actually is based on a true story, as the title card to Fargo suggests. To unearth the treasure, Kumiko embarks on a quixotic adventure to escape from the greyness and isolation of her everyday life.
“It Follows” and the Strength of Uncompromising Visual Style
Everything the audience needs to know about It Follows is established in the opening sequence of this masterful horror film from writer/director David Robert Mitchell. A haunting score establishes an uneasy tone to the film while the camera rotates 270 degrees to reveal a perfectly normal suburban street. A young women emerges from a house and starts running, looking behind her. No one seems to understand why she is running, but she informs her father that everything is okay. After a quick cut to later that evening, though, we find this same girl seated in a field, sobbing through a phone call to her father in which she expresses her resignation. Another quick cut, and she lay dead with misshapen, broken limbs.
State of the Blog – September 2015
August is in the books over here at Plot and Theme (and everywhere else, I guess, but it’s hard to be excited about that) and the month was a great success. I saw the most unique site views, the most visitors, and posted a health number of times despite refraining from run-of-the-mill news items. Further, the Classic Review Friday series is quickly becoming one of my favorite posts to write, and I am having a great time thinking up films to put in that space. Finally, my Disney series was a huge success, and has inspired me to write more posts of that nature. But we’ll get into that later.
Classic Review Friday – Miloš Forman’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975)
Very few films are capable of eliciting the full spectrum of human emotions, but one of them is Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. At times, we celebrate the joy of defiance as Randall P. McMurphy triumphs over Nurse Ratched. Other times, we feel frustration at the stifling institutional control. We even seethe with absolute anger. And ultimately, we weep at the tragedy inherent with the tethering of an individualist soul to an uncomprehending authority.
The Newest Comedy-Horror Masterpiece: “What We Do in the Shadows”
Monster-mash together a Christopher Guest-style mockumentary on vampires and the comedic sensibilities of the Flight of the Concords crew and you get something like What We Do in the Shadows. Starring, written, and directed by Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi, this film is capable of transitioning from deadpan hilarity to a genuinely creepy found-footage horror – and then back to ridiculous slapstick. So many films fail to establish a single tone, and somehow What We Do in the Shadows manages to nail them all.
Classic Review Friday – Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” (2003)
A sensual ennui permeates Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, imploring spectators from young adulthood through old age to respond to the budding relationship between Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) as the two navigate a foreign language, city, and feelings. At its heart, this is a film about confronting your insecurities and reveling in the warm feeling of a new romance and friendship. The hustling, neon beehive of Tokyo acts as the perfect setting for such a story, as the hyperactive assault on the senses that we see on the surface belies the quiet torture of that directionless feeling.
If “The VVitch” is Half as Scary as Its Trailer, We’re in for Quite the Fright
Earlier this year, the Sundance Film Festival was abuzz with The VVitch (I am totally typing it that way the whole time, so get used to it). The indie horror film sent the critics’ skin crawling throughout the festival, eventually culminating in a Directing Award in the US Dramatic category for Robert Eggers. Since then, the production studio A24 has acquired the film for distribution, and released a trailer earlier this week. It is unnerving and creepy; have a look: