The Boxtrolls

The Boxtrolls – Dirs. Graham Annable & Anthony Stacchi (2014)

Nothing against computer animation, but it is a shame that it has supplanted hand-drawn and stop-motion as the predominant art form. What a strange sight it is to see CGI versions of Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Charlie Brown. Thank goodness there are still hard working animators dedicated to keeping traditional methods alive.

The Portland-based Laika continues to make strides in stop-motion animation with films like Coraline and ParaNorman, both of which were nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. The Boxtrolls continues that streak, but it's the slightest entry in their oeuvre and if I had my druthers I would have slotted The LEGO Movie in its stead.

The Boxtrolls is set in the Victorian-era village of Cheesebridge, a charming little burg built on top of a mountain. Cheesebridge does have one major drawback. They are plagued by subterranean creatures known as Boxtrolls, who earned their name for their penchant of wearing cardboard boxes like turtle shells. When parents want to scare their kids straight, they tell them the Boxtrolls will snatch them out of their beds and gobble them up.

However, none of those tales are true. Just ask Eggs (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), an orphaned boy who has been raised by the little critters and actually believes himself to be a Boxtroll. It seems these lies have been spread by one Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley), who has fashioned himself a premiere pest exterminator. Make no mistake, he has no altruistic bent. Snatcher wishes to use the Boxtrolls in a scheme to climb the social ladder and join the exclusive White Hats. Led by the Mayor of Cheesebridge, Lord Portley-Rind (Jared Harris), the White Hats gather together to taste some of the world's finest gourmet cheeses.

If I've discussed Snatcher more than I have the protagonists, it's because the villains are the most interesting characters in the film. With his stringy hair and hook nose, Snatcher takes obvious inspiration from the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He goes to such great lengths in demonizing the Boxtrolls that he dresses in drag and performs a stage show as Madame Frou-Frou. Snatcher has three henchmen under his employ, the first being Mr. Gristle (Tracy Morgan), a diminutive lunatic who simply repeats the last word he heard. There's also Mr. Trout (Nick Frost) and Mr. Pickles (Richard Ayoade), who try very hard to convince themselves that they are the good guys of the story.

The Boxtrolls themselves don't play much of a factor. The Boxtrolls opens with a terrific introduction to their underground lair filled with knick knacks that have been transformed into Rube Goldberg-ian gadgets. After that, they're simply creatures who must be rescued by their human friends. Eggs is a surprisingly bland hero while his companion Winnie (Elle Fanning), the daughter of Lord Portley-Rind, is defined only by her morbid fascination with assorted grotesqueries ("I was promised rivers of blood!").

That's not to say that The Boxtrolls isn't without its charms. The details in the production design are exquisite with elements of Gothic horror, German expressionism, and Roald Dahl. The animators' passion can be seen in Snatcher's ragged, red jacket and every cobblestone that paves the street of Cheesebridge.

Laika's track record proves they make pictures that appeal to audiences of all ages while never condescending to their youngest viewers. The studio hasn't shied away from giving the kids a good scare, from an otherworldly creature sewing buttons into your eyes or a town plagued by puritan zombies. It's all in good fun and never in a manner that would rack up therapist bills. The Boxtrolls follows suit with a plot drawing parallels to Nazi Germany with the title characters serving as scapegoats for a power hungry madman. The city's leaders are portrayed as ineffectual twits and the townspeople are a few pitchforks shy of becoming a rabid mob. Although Snatcher wants nothing more than a seat at the White Hat table, he is violently allergic to cheese and his face swells to gruesome extremes.

There's a mid-credits scene in which Trout and Pickles ponder the notion that an invisible puppetmaster is behind their every move. This shifts into a time-lapsed video of Laika CEO Travis Knight animating the henchmen's movements. It's a clever button to a movie that could have used that same inventiveness in the screenplay loosely based on the novel, Here Be Mosnters! by Alan Snow. The Boxtrolls doesn't measure up to Coraline or ParaNorman, but the animation and off-kilter sensibilities can still be admired.

Rating: ** (*****)

The Watch

The Watch - Dir. Akiva Schaffer (2012)

The Watch is a textbook case of bad timing. Originally titled Neighborhood Watch, Fox renamed the film following the killing of Trayvon Martin and changed the ad campaign to emphasize the sci-fi elements. However, The Watch was released a week after the shootings in Aurora and the country hardly seemed ready to laugh at a quartet of overzealous, gun-toting vigilantes. The shadow of the bat was also looming large. Those who weren't skittish preferred to see The Dark Knight Rises and The Watch pulled in a paltry $12.7 million opening weekend.

Just as he did in Tower Heist, Ben Stiller is the earnest straight man to a gaggle of wacky characters. He plays Evan Trautwig, the manager of a Costco located in the small town of Glenview, Ohio. Evan is an active member of the community, volunteering at the retirement home and founding numerous groups like the running club. His latest venture is a neighborhood watch, which is formed after the murder of the store's security guard. At the first meeting, Evan is joined by Bob (Vince Vaughn), Franklin (Jonah Hill), and Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade). Bob is searching for some male camaraderie. He's more interested in shooting pool and drinking beers than solving crimes. Franklin is the watch's hothead, perpetually angry and bitter that he was rejected by the local police force. Jamarcus is a laidback eccentric fantasizing about a salacious rendezvous with an Asian housewife. The newly formed quartet have more to worry about than skateboard riding punks when they uncover an alien invasion in their midst.

The Watch was directed by Akiva Schaffer, best known for helming Hot Rod and many of the SNL Digital Shorts. He and his Lonely Island cohorts, Jorma Toccone and Andy Samberg, have quick cameos. The script was written by Jared Stern, whose previous credits include Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, and Mr. Popper's Penguins, and intended as a PG picture. The story was rewritten by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, who took on a more decidedly R-rated approach. As such, The Watch simultaneously lampoons and celebrates regressive male behavior. Each of the main protagonists has been emasculated in their own way. Evan has been unable to impregnate his wife, Abby (Rosemarie DeWitt), while Bob is the father to a wild teenage daughter (Erin Moriarty). He is the classic stereotype of the controlling, overprotective dad. Bob hacks her Facebook account and his stalker behavior is validated when his suspicions about her jock boyfriend turn out to be true. Franklin is a junior league Travis Bickle, full of rage and similar to Rogen's character in Observe & Report. He's always armed with a butterfly knife and keeps a stockade of guns in his bedroom at his mom's house. Franklin becomes the unlikely savior of the movie as it climaxes into a two-fisted, John Woo slow-mo bullet ballet.

The humor is purely juvenile revolving around genitalia and homosexuality. The lead actors don't give performances we haven't seen in any of their other films. We do get a livelier Vince Vaughn than previously seen. Only Vaughn could milk so much humor over a Russian nesting doll. Also funny, Will Forte as an obtuse police officer and an uncredited Billy Crudup as Evan's creepy neighbor. The real revelation of The Watch is the least known face adorning the theatrical posters. Richard Ayoade might be known to fans of British television for his roles on The IT Crowd or Garth Marenghi's Darkplace or even his directorial work on Submarine. He's relatively unknown stateside and if there's any justice, he'll get bigger and better parts. Ayoade provides a unique deadpan sense of humor that elevates all of his scenes.

It is obvious The Watch desperately wants to fill the same position that Ghostbusters occupies in the pop culture pantheon. As an action-comedy, The Watch is too pedestrian on both fronts to be anything memorable. Check out Attack the Block instead.

Rating: ** (*****)

Submarine

Submarine - Dir. Richard Ayoade (2011)

As long as there have been teenagers, there have been stories about mopey, love struck adolescents. Submarine follows suit with a young protagonist who seemed to have been raised on a steady diet of J.D. Salinger and French New Wave cinema.

Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) is an iconoclastic boy growing up in Wales or more specifically, the suburbs of Swansea, birthplace of Dylan Thomas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. He's the type of kid who brings a briefcase to school with him. Oliver also wears a suit and tie as part of the dress uniform, but you get the feeling he'd probably still wear them if it weren't required. Oliver thinks of himself as a well-heeled and erudite individual. He listens to Serge Gainsbourg and enjoys the films of Jean-Pierre Melville, after all. Most importantly, Oliver believes he is much beloved by his peers. In the opening scene of Submarine, he stares off into the horizon and imagines what would happen to the school if he committed suicide. All the teachers and students would surely mourn his loss. The reality of the situation is that Oliver isn't particularly popular nor is he at the bottom of the food chain. Just like so many high schoolers before and after him, Oliver is simply filling a seat.

Oliver has become smitten with an equally unique classmate named Jordana Bevan (Yasmine Paige), who possesses a pageboy hairdo, a slight case of eczema, and a penchant for burning things. Oliver goes against his principals to bully an overweight girl in order to grab Jordana's attention. Though he feels remorse, the ploy works. However, the supposedly mature Oliver learns that love carries a heavy emotional weight that he is not equipped to handle. At the same time, he must try to save his parents' marriage. Oliver's father, Lloyd (Noah Taylor) is sleepwalking through life due to a crushing bout of depression. This has caused his wife, Jill (Sally Hawkins), to drift towards her ex-boyfriend, Graham Purvis (Paddie Considione), a ridiculous new age guru with a spiky mullet.

Based on a 2008 novel by Joe Dunthorne, Submarine marks the feature directorial debut of Richard Ayoade, a jack of all trades who fans of British comedy might recognize from series like The IT Crowd and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. He also helmed the "Critical Film Studies" episode of NBC's Community, which featured a fusion of Pulp Fiction and Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre. With the sure hand of a seasoned director, Ayoade has created a visually striking picture that might have come out of a time capsule. Submarine has a vintage look and a timeless feel to an era where kids passed around notes in class rather than texting on their smartphones. Ayoade also borrows liberally from the Wes Anderson playbook with his straight-on compositions, dry sense of humor, and blocky chapter titles.

Craig Roberts' most notable role to date was a brief appearance in Jane Eyre as the title character's abusive cousin. Here, Roberts shines in his first starring role in a performance that draws upon Jean-Pierre Leaud's Antoine Doinel, Jason Schwartzman's Max Fischer, and Bud Cort's Harold from Harold and Maude. Roberts' wide eyes and cherubic visage certainly bare a strong resemblance to the latter character. Neither Roberts nor Ayoade shy away from the highs and lows of teenage love. Kids can be cruel and selfish at times and Oliver Tate is no different. He tries to remake Jordana in his image by making her read Nietzsche and watch Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc. Oliver eventually learns the hard way that he lacks the emotional maturity he naively thought he had. Kids can also be big balls of contradictions. As Oliver maintains an image of wisdom beyond his years, he clings to childish ways when it comes to reconciling his parents crumbling marriage.

Sally Hawkins and Noah Taylor give understated, yet remarkably rich performances as Oliver's parents. The one character that sticks out like a sore thumb is Paddy Considine's psychic ninja, Graham Purvis. He's a cartoon character who would be fit in more at a Kajagoogoo reunion concert. His silliness could be written off as exaggeration by Oliver, whose narration can be heard throughout the film.

Submarine tends to be the overly precious and needlessly quirky cinema that arthouse hipsters eat up with a spoon. If you cannot stand the genre, then Submarine is one to avoid. However, if you are able to get past the showy flourishes, you might find a touching coming-of-age story highlighted by beautiful imagery and a dry sense of humor.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)