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Mary and
Max: "That Elliot could get a feature
length stop-motion film made in Australia is quite an achievement,
given there
aren’t many made anywhere. That he could make the film so moving is
even more
impressive. Elliot is dealing with characters that are bewildered by
life and socially
isolated, and there are tragic turns along the way. Yet he avoids the
film
becoming maudlin or sentimental, and at its conclusion it is
tear-jerking in
the best way."
Star Trek: "Abrams recognises that the sheer weight of all those movies and TV shows had made approaching the franchise almost a chore, and neatly rules a line under it all, rendering it irrelevant. Importantly, unlike many other recent reboots (such as the new Bond and Batman films), the new Star Trek doesn’t try to be darker or grittier. It just wants to be better." W. "A biopic such as this needs a simple structuring idea like this to impose narrative order on the chaotic events of a real life, and such approaches usually risk appearing too glib. Here, though, Stone benefits from the remarkable symmetry presented to him by real life." Australia: "Luhrmann has mixed up elements of the Australian western (The Man From Snow River), effects-laden war film (Pearl Harbour), epic love story / melodrama (Gone With the Wind), leftist social drama (Rabbit Proof Fence), and more old-fashioned attempts to negotiate Australia’s relationship with its indigenous inhabitants (Jedda), and filtered these disparate influences though the heightened style familiar from Luhrmann’s previous work. Try something like that without it being a little bit of a muddle and you’ve made a bona fide classic. As it is, you do feel the gears change, occasionally gratingly, but what’s surprising is how often it does come together." Frost / Nixon: "Ron Howard will never outlive the legacy of his populist filmography, child-star origins, and the sheer mediocrity of so many of his acting projects (notably most of the run of Happy Days), but he has become a very good director." Quantum of Solace: "The new Bond film, Quantum of Solace, is a strange beast indeed. It aggressively imitates the rival Jason Bourne spy franchise; and yet despite that derivativeness, it somehow manages to impart a sense of renewal and vigour to the Bond series. In that sense it continues the work started by Casino Royale admirably. And while it doesn’t always feel like a Bond film, it does feels like those at the helm are actually concentrating." Wall-E: "The science fiction aspects of the film push both plot and tone in directions we do not usually see from Hollywood films. In its first half, particularly, the film has a melancholy atmosphere and muted colour palette that is a long way from the ultra-colourful norm in Hollywood’s animated films. It is here that the film most recalls the feel of 60s and 70s science fiction." Tropic Thunder: "The character is evidence of the old maxim that the best comic performances are those that take the comic premise as a given and then perform it straight; Downey Jr has taken this absurd role – playing an Australian playing an African American playing a soldier – as a serious acting challenge, and he nails it." Persepolis: "You really feel for Marjane, who goes from a precocious and dangerously irrepressible child to a shattered, almost broken young adult. It’s quite a journey, and Satrapi manages to take you along it seamlessly, while weaving in plenty of humour and the story of the fluctuating fortunes of a troubled nation." Star Wars: The Clone Wars: "It’s not actually that bad, although I don’t want to over-praise it either (and the slightest hint of a positive adjective risks doing so)." Not Quite Hollywood: "The clips and behind the scenes anecdotes are good enough to make it essential viewing simply as entertainment, and as a straightforward catalogue of the main works it’s also valuable. Those hankering for a really serious documentary, rather than a simple tribute / celebration / highlight reel, might be left a little disappointed, though." Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired: "The latter portions of the film document the way the sentencing process ran out of control, due to outrageous mismanagement by the presiding judge. None of this exonerates Polanski, and the film lacks the power of a film such as The Thin Blue Line because at the end of the day Polanksi remains guilty and got off lightly even with the sentencing shenanigans." The Dark Knight: "Oddly, despite all the carnage that unfolds, The Dark Knight is much more fun than its predecessor. And it’s the nifty trick of making such a dark film so enjoyable that makes it something really worthwhile." Other recent additions: Kung Fu Panda, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Horton Hears a Who, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Cloverfield, The Darjeeling Limited, Enchanted, Rescue Dawn, Bee Movie, Eagle vs Shark. Or see the full list. |
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 Mary and Max Odds & Ends Based
on a True Story... "Frankly,
it would be nice if a big Hollywood blockbuster would feature some
imagery as insane as the shark eating the Golden Gate Bridge, or the
very last shot of this trailer."
You There - Have You Ever Kissed a Girl? "The internet, and the forum cut-and-thrust on sites like Ain't It Cool, seems to have bred geeks into a more argumentative, sarcastic breed (a la The Simpsons' Comic Book Guy) than the sheltered losers in this sketch." Round Up: "I've created a page for Cinephobia on Facebook. This will effectively just carry the existing RSS feed, and be an alternative way for people to be alerted of updates." Other recent posts: Exhibition
Review: Star Wars - Where Science Meets Imagination, Picking
the Classics, Exhibition
Review: Setting the Scene at ACMI, 3-D
or Not 3-D.
Or
see all the most recent. In DepthIs Film Theory
Bullshit? "...if we presented many
of
these arguments to the 'person on the street' I’m sure the verdict
would come
back pretty quickly: 'Bullshit!' The question is: are they right to
react this way? Does
this kind of instant reaction perhaps give a true indication of the
merit of
film theory? Have those who pursue academic theory constructed a giant
artifice
that simply isn’t sustainable?"
Beowulf vs Animation: "What is the point of an artform that aspires, through the application of highly advanced computer technology, to successfully duplicate the impact of the century-old technology of live-action film?" Kael: "Kael’s writing still wins me over whenever I return to it. Perhaps it’s that Kael is the rare critic who retained such enthusiasm, rather than being washed out into fatigue by the sheer averageness of most of what they have to review. Kael might have been too eager find extremes of quality, but that did at least mean she was alert to the truly exceptional things that she did see." For more in depth pieces click here. Books The Animated Man: "The first
book-length result of Barrier’s years
of work
was Hollywood Cartoons: American
Animation In Its Golden Age, which
quickly staked a serious
claim as the definitive book on the subject. Yet in many ways The
Animated
Man is the superior book."
Other book reviews: Blockbuster, Silent Echoes, The Jaws Log, Final Cut, Hollywood Cartoons, Bond Films. Or see the full list. EssaysLife Reproduced in
Drawings - Realism in
Animation:"Writing
on animation largely bypassed the realism debate. This is despite the
intriguing
differences between the ways in which live-action and animated cinema
relate to
the real. Animation, after all, is cinema that belies the founding
assumption
of realist theory: it is not based upon photographic reproduction of
the real
world."
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Published You can read my essay
"False L.A.: Blade Runner & The Nightmare
City" in Will Brooker's anthology The Blade Runner Experience. For more
information about my contribution to this book, click
here. Shop
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