Beginners

Beginners - Dir. Mike Mills (2011)

Beginners is a semi-autobiographical film from writer/director Mike Mills and based on his experiences with his father, who came out as a gay man at the age of 75 before dying of cancer five years later.

Standing in for Mills is Ewan McGregor, who stars as Oliver Fields, a graphic designer still coming to grips with the death of his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer). Oliver's parents entered into a marriage of convenience in the 1950's with Hal as a closeted homosexual and his wife, Georgia (Mary Kay Keller), a Jew. Both maintained appearances in order to move about in high society. They stayed together for nearly fifty years until Georgia's death. Five months later, Hal reveals to his son that he is gay and finds a renewed zest for life. Hal embraces gay culture by going clubbing, starting letter campaigns in support of gay-friendly politicians, and hosting movie nights where they watch The Times of Harvey Milk.

Beginners is told through three points in time. We see flashbacks to Oliver's unique childhood with his free-spirited mother as well as his relationship with his father as he battles terminal cancer. In the present, a melancholy Oliver falls in love with a beautiful French actress named Anna (Mélanie Laurent). The two meet in the cutest of all meet cutes. Oliver dresses as Sigmund Freud for a Halloween party where he dispenses in-character advice to other party-goers. Anna, dressed as communist spy Julius Rosenberg, lays on the couch next and communicates entirely through a notepad due to a case of laryngitis.

On a surface level, Beginners has all the quirky trappings of hipster cinema. Oliver and Anna engage in French New Wave inspired dates that involve roller skating through the lobby of a ritzy hotel and creating graffiti art during the late hours of the night. When Oliver learns his dad has a tumor in his lungs the size of a quarter, Mills cuts to a quarter followed by twenty five cents worth of pennies, nickels, and dimes. Oliver also inherits Hal's dog, a scruffy little Jack Russell terrier named Arthur, who communicates through subtitles like "I can understand up to 150 words, but I can't talk." Mills pushes the boundaries into being self-consciously cool from time to time. However, Beginners has a genuine soul not found in its insufferably twee brethren. The films of Mills' wife, Miranda July, come to mind.

Beginners finds a delicate balance between sorrow and joy. While some scenes could only happen in a movie, the dialogue is sharp and never feels phony. The performances from the lead actors are wonderful with Ewan McGregor headlining the movie with an understated turn. Mélanie Laurent brings a graceful beauty and soulfulness to her character and never devolves into the archetype of manic pixie dream girl. Christopher Plummer will likely earn an Oscar nomination for his whimsical performance as Oliver's elderly father.

Rating: *** (*****)

Priest

Priest - Dir. Scott Stewart (2011)

Priest is supposed to be based on a Korean comic book series. Upon viewing the final product, it seems as if the filmmakers didn't even bother to read the books and chose to rip off better and more successful pictures. It's a sci-fi, action Western that's heavy on the religious imagery and light on plot and intelligence. Paul Bettany once again steps into the role of post-apocalyptic avenger with his Legion director Scott Stewart. Just as Legion was essentially Assault on Precinct 13 with angels and demons, Priest is The Searchers with vampires instead of Indians.

Priest begins promisingly enough with an animated prologue done by Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Lab, Samurai Jack). This opening details how the world was ravaged by a centuries-long war between humans and vampires, re-envisioned as feral, eye-less creatures. Eventually the Church employed priests, skilled warriors bred to hunt and kill vampires. The priests cut down the blood-sucking hordes and forced the remaining survivors onto closely guarded reservations. With the battle now over, the priests found it difficult to re-integrate into normal life. They are forced to work menial labor and considered pariahs to a frightened society ruled over by the Church.

Bettany, as the nameless Priest, lives in a walled off city filled with neo-Gothic skyscrapers adorned with video billboards that may remind sci-fi fans of Blade Runner. Orwellian speak placards (FAITH WORK SECURITY) are plastered throughout the theocratic metropolis. He receives word that the vampire menace has returned and attacked the family of his brother, Owen (Stephen Moyer), and kidnapped daughter Lucy (Lily Collins). The Church council headed by Monsignor Orelas (Christopher Plummer) refuses to acknowledge the growing danger lest it tarnish their image of infallibility. Priest defies their commands, teaming with Lucy's boyfriend, a young sheriff named Hicks (Cam Gigandet) to rescue her and defeat Black Hat (Karl Urban), a former Priest transformed into a human/vampire hybrid. The Church sends the lovely Maggie Q and a trio of other priests to apprehend their errant brother.

Leaving the dystopian city, the setting shifts to a post-apocalyptic wasteland that's equal parts Judge Dredd, Mad Max, and Star Wars. The characters zoom across the desolate horizons on high-tech motorcycles. Priest doesn't bother with trifling things like logic and character development, jumping into one action sequence to another. Not counting the end credits, the film runs a little over eighty minutes so, at least, it knows not to overstay its welcome. The action is completely silly with more slow motion shots than all of Zack Snyder's movies combined. Priest doesn't use guns to fight vampires because he's armed with crucifix-shaped throwing stars. When Priest visits his brother on his deathbed, you can't help but think Stephen Moyer looks in good shape despite being mauled by demonic creatures.

The acting is as wooden as the stakes you usually see being plunged into the heart of a vampire with Cam Gigandet faring the worst as the dull gunfighter. Christopher Plummer (perhaps his most embarrassing pic since Starcarsh) and Karl Urban are wasted in one-note roles as is the great Brad Dourif in a throwaway part as a snake oil salesman.

Following the 3D trend, Priest was converted in post-production, but I viewed it in old fashioned 2D. The majority of the film occurs at night or in dark underground settings. I had enough of a hard time trying to see what's happening and I can't imagine how much darker it was in 3D.

Priest is the kind of mindless action movie that may satisfy those craving for junk food cinema. Anyone else will see it as a boring, derivative mess that will soon find its way into the Wal-Mart discount dump bin underneath unsold copies of Ultraviolet and Jonah Hex.

Rating: * (*****)

9

9 - Dir. Shane Acker (2009)


9 was originally produced as a short film by writer/director Shane Acker while he was a student at UCLA. Acker earned himself an Oscar nomination in 2005 for Best Animated Short Film, quite the accomplishment. I’ve seen my share of student films and none of them come close to earning any sort of award. I should know, I’ve unleashed a few abominations to the horror of the miniscule audiences who could be bothered to see them. Anyways, Acker developed 9 into a feature-length film along with co-writer Pamela Pettler (The Corpse Bride) and filmmakers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov attached as producers.

As with many sci-fi films, the machines have revolted and wiped mankind off the face of the Earth. The only life left in the world is a small group of dolls, mechanical parts wrapped in burlap. They have no names, just numbers. The movie opens with the awakening of 9 (Elijah Wood) who wanders into the wasteland and meets the eccentric inventor 2 (Martin Landau). From there, 9 stumbles from one plot contrivance after another. 2 is captured by a mechanical monstrosity called the Beast. 9 is rescued by 2’s protégé, 5 (John C. Reilly), and eventually meets 1 (Christopher Plummer) their narrow-minded leader who is always protected by the massive 8. There’s also 7 (Jennifer Connelly), the Smurfette of the group. You know, the only one that is inexplicably female. She has left the fold to hunt down the Beast on her own.

9, 5 and 7 set out to rescue 2. 9 gets 2 killed and unleashes something worse, the machine that began the war against humanity. It creates other machines from scavenged junkyard parts to hunt down the protagonists.

The animation is simply gorgeous and suitably dark for something with Tim Burton’s name on it. Acker doesn’t go for the usual Mad Max post-apocalyptic landscape, instead he paints the world in the fashion of a bombed-out WWII Europe, the government eerily reminiscent of the Third Reich. Visually, 9 packs a powerful punch, but the story fails to follow suit. The plot is just too derivative of films like The Matrix and any other sci-fi where machines rebel against humanity. It fails to connect on an emotional level the way Pixar routinely seems to do.

9 isn’t the run-of-the-mill CG animated film that Hollywood peddles to family audiences like junk food. Rated PG-13, it’s a dark and somber picture. The animation is worth seeing alone even, but the story doesn’t stack up in comparison to a film like Wall-E.

Rating: **

Up

Up - Dirs. Pete Docter & Bob Peterson (2009)

Pixar has come up with a novel approach to their films. They create characters that you actually care about. Every multi-million dollar CGI creature out there will never hold a candle to the odd assortment of protagonists that star in Pixar’s latest Up. Hell, the characters in the short cartoon before the feature film are more interesting than any of Michael Bay’s explosion pornos. Up was co-directed and co-written by Pete Docter (Monster’s Inc.) and Bob Peterson (a screenwriter on Finding Nemo) with Thomas McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor) also receiving story credit.

Up immediately tugs at your heart strings in its opening prologue. We meet Carl Fredericksen, a short, shy kid with huge glasses who is obsessed with adventurer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer). Carl meets and falls in love with Ellie, a neighbor girl who is his exact opposite. She’s wild-haired, boisterous, and energetic. What follows is a montage of their lives together as they get married and dream of moving to South America. Ellie eventually passes away, leaving Carl an old curmudgeon living (now voiced by Ed Asner and visually inspired by Spencer Tracy) alone in the house they built together. When his neighborhood is torn down for redevelopment, Carl saves his home by turning it into a makeshift airship, attaching a horde of helium balloons to it. He hopes to fly it to the mythical Paradise Falls which had been discovered by Muntz decades ago.

Carl doesn’t realize he has a stowaway in young Russell (Jordan Nagai), a Wilderness Explorer who can’t seem to stop talking. Carl meets up with more unwanted guests such as an exotic bird that Russell names Kevin and Dug (Peterson), a dog who can speak with aid from a special collar. The collar is an ingenious device to get around the usually hokey Disney staple of talking animal sidekicks. Dug is one of a pack of trained dogs that belong to Muntz who is still alive and gone all Captain Ahab in his obsessive search for the bird.

It should go without saying that Up is flawlessly animated and a gorgeous feast for the eyes. Nobody does computer animation better than Pixar. The story itself is delightful full of humor, adventure and drama. The script prides itself on being intelligently written and believable, despite the wacky situations. It doesn’t rely on the lazy pop culture references that dominate most CGI films in a pandering attempt to win over older audience members. There is actual emotional investment in the journey of the heroes. Docter and Peterson write their characters not as cartoons, but as real people. Carl is believable as an elderly widower while Russell behaves exactly like a kid his age. Even Dug speaks in the exact manner you expect a dog would.

I’m sure if I thought long and hard, I could find a few chinks in the armor of Up. But, right now, I can’t think of any and I honestly don’t want to. This is worthy follow-up to Wall-E and definitely one of the best of the Pixars. Up cements the fact that it may be nearly impossible for Pixar to make a terrible movie.

I’ve seen it twice so far, once in 2D and again in 3D. While the 3D looks great, it doesn’t offer that much more than the 2D version. I didn’t feel the world was opened up enough and, as Roger Ebert stated in his review, the 3D process does tend to mute the exceptional color palette of the film. 2D or 3D, just see the film.

Rating: ****