17 years go by, and Earl’s business has been stolen by the Internet, causing his house to get evicted. Living out of his truck, Earl visits his granddaughter, who is holding her bridal shower. One of her friends there approaches Earl, and gives him a business card. He states that he knows someone who is hiring drivers for good money. Earl, being naive and innocent looking, seems to be unaware that this is related to drug smuggling. ​

It should be said that this film is based off of the true story of Leo Sharp, who was a real WWII veteran, and engaged in similar actions. People have been critical of this film due to the large amount of racism that Earl exerts on everyone. He constantly makes derogatory remarks towards almost every race other than his own. Some have associated that with Eastwood himself, given his political stances in reality, but it is most likely irrelevant. ​

Family is the central theme of this film. Eastwood plays a veteran who becomes a drug mule to make some extra money. This is in an attempt to restore his reputation with his community, and more importantly, his family. There is clear tension between him and his family, especially his ex-wife. This could potentially be correlated to real life as well, giving off the impression that the film could be an apology to his kids for working too much, and not spending enough quality time with them. He actually invited all of his children to the premiere of the film. ​

It’s interesting to see just how disrespectful people are to Earl simply based off of the fact that he is elderly. Eastwood’s character is also critical of technology, specifically smartphones throughout the film, which is ironic because Eastwood himself holds that same belief in reality. ​

Written By: Joseph Naguski

Unnerving music accompanies the haunting black fluid that oozes onto the screen twists and turns into terrifying images that are sure to be nightmare fuel. This is just the beginning of the stunning visuals which plague the disturbing yet gorgeous title sequence for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In my last analysis for Enter the Void there was a heavy focus on the typography of the sequence. This week we will take a look into how amazing visuals can create a compelling narrative through title sequences.    

The title sequence begins with an evocative rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” by Karen O with Trent Reznor and Atticus Rose. As the score plays black oozing fluid begins to run down the screen, images flash before the viewer until the title The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo reveals itself. The title is flooded by the black fluid until the audience is quickly taken to a horrifying image of someone being tied up and gagged. This lasts only for a second before it cuts to the ooze drooping down a keyboard. Different images start to appear, a lighter and HDMI cables are abstractly displayed as they come together to show someone being burned alive. Viewers then encounter a flaming bird, flowers, someone drowning, a back with a dragon tattoo, climaxing with a dragon emerging from the liquid. The images then shift to wasps and faces being punched. The scene of the sequence switches again and eerie spectacles of flowers are intertwined with images of a girl, peaking with hands pulling back the girl’s face which morphs into a flower in bloom. At the conclusion of the sequence all the different images start to become more chaotically intertwined as the music fills listeners with tremendous anxiety before entering the mouth of someone screaming as they arise from the fluid. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s title sequence gives audiences a sense of the motifs and the brutality that embodies this film and its nonexistent sequels which were intended to follow. Based on the novel by Steig Larsson, this psychological crime thriller from David Fincher follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist and unhinged computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. Mikael had just suffered legal and professional ruin after a being sued for libel by a billionaire conman named Hans-Erik Wennerström. He is given a chance to redeem himself by another wealthy businessman Henrik Vanger. Vanger offers a great amount of money and information that could destroy Wennerström. The job Vanger presents to Mikael is to try and solve the 40-year mystery of the disappearance and assumed murder of his grandniece Harriet. The only solid clue is that it must have been a member of his family who lives on their private island. As Mikael begins to research this we are shown the life of Lisbeth, who is deemed mentally unstable by the government and must be placed with a guardian. After her original guardian suffers from a stroke, she is placed with an atrocious man who forces her into sexual acts for money and ultimately rapes her. She captured the rape on a hidden camera and through her own twisted acts was able to escape his control over her. As Mikael continues to investigate he finds that needs an assistant and after learning of Lisbeth’s skills he convinces her to join him. The two discover that the situation at hand is much bigger than they first thought. They uncover a series of murders leading to the realization that a serial killer is in their midst and is still at large.

The terrifying cyberpunk imagery in this title sequence was designed as a representation of the main heroine Lisbeth Salander. The director David Fincher “wanted it to be like a fever dream, with a lot of abstract imagery.” (Tim Miller, artofthetitle) Some of these images we can trace back to information from the film. The black liquid that connects the whole sequence together symbolizes the motif of liquid aesthetic present throughout the film. (The drowning, the river separating the island from the rest of the world.) The keyboard represents Lisbeth’s exceptional hacking abilities. This aspect of technological privacy in the film is interesting as Fincher also directed The Social Network which released just a year prior. The image of the person being burned alive is call to her trying to burn her father alive which was mentioned briefly in the film. Flowers were an illustrative nod to the flowers Henrik Vanger was given every year on his birthday by Harriet and then her supposed killer. As I stated earlier, this film was based off a novel and intended to be a trilogy. Some of the images were supposed to represent events weren’t going to take place until second and third movies (like the wasps), so we are unable to analyze them.

A slight note on the typography of the sequence: the type is very simple yet demands the viewer’s attention as parts of the letters stretch out on the screen or begin to warp together before quick cuts are thrown to another image. The typographic design of the title itself was created by Neil Kellerhouse, as well as the design for the film’s posters.

The implementation of “Immigrant Song” as the score for the sequence was a major decision to Fincher and Blur Studio. “Huge, to have that in place right at the beginning, because the music really drives the editorial process in such a huge way. If you don't have that giant piece of the puzzle in place, everything can shift around a lot more.” (Tim Miller, gizmodo) The use of a Led Zepplin cover was chosen to be implemented by Fincher after listening to a big collection of Led Zepplin music. "It’s a little bit crazy, but it might be just the right kind of crazy." (Fincher, artofthetitle) The use of a strikingly eerie rock cover meshes well with the heavy metal theme of the sequence that displays Lisbeth's personality. The song's themes also are faithful to the setting and plot of the film, which is set in Scandinavia. It additionally is most likely a callback to the James Bond series which this sequence shares many similarities with, not to mention Daniel Craig's roles in the franchise. Fincher also stated that there was an intentionality to switching genders in the song because of the gender roles in the film. “Mikael is the damsel in distress in this.” (Fincher, gizmodo)

The title sequence is created by Blur Studio, a distinguished company which focuses on visual effects, animation, and design. Recent ventures of theirs include the opening sequence for Deadpool, the daunting opening credits for the Netflix series Mindhunter, and most recently Tim Miller has collaborated with Fincher for the animated Netflix series Love, Death, and Robots. For The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Blur Studio used RealFlow with the help of other CGI companies to create the CGI fluid. The viscosity and density of the fluid was created through a lot of simulations to get the perfect look. The studio also used 3ds Max, Softimage, and RayFire for effects and edited the sequence in Sony Vegas along with Digital Fusion and After Effects. (artofthetitle) For the people in the sequence they used digital scans of the actors portraying Mikael and Lisbeth (Daniel Crag and Rooney Mara) as well as other scans of people used to portray Harriet, a young Lisbeth, and her parents.

The visual effects in this title sequence help bring alive a narrative more sinister than even the film's content itself. The amazing black design which encompasses the piece coupled with “Immigrant Song” blaring into the audience’s ears really drives Lisbeth’s character through this technological night terror.

Work Cited
http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo/
https://io9.gizmodo.com/an-exclusive-look-at-the-making-of-dragon-tattoos-stunn-5873372
https://io9.gizmodo.com/david-fincher-explains-why-his-dragon-tattoo-heroine-is-5870887
https://www.wired.com/2012/01/dragon-tattoo-opening-titles/

By Bill Friedell

From a directorial and visual level, Captain Marvel is one of the weaker films of the MCU. A lot of the scenes in space seem underlit and makes the image harder to see, but not in a stylized way. This is especially disappointing considering the other MCU films that take place primarily in space happen to be some of the best looking, such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 (James Gunn, 2017) and Thor Ragnarok (Taika Waititi, 2017), using vibrant colors and Jack Kirby inspired design. While the style of humor isn’t typical, appearing more genuine and from the characters as opposed to the Guardians, Avengers, or Iron Man’s self-deprecating humor, Captain Marvel contains probably among the least laughs of any MCU film. However, the film doesn’t seem to be reaching as much for jokes so that it doesn’t become the whole appeal of the film, letting the characters and plot take center stage.
 
Overall, Captain Marvel meets the standards of most MCU films before it, introducing and reexamining characters and ideas with a few twists to it. While it may not have the most distinctive style and visuals, Captain Marvel introduces another character to enjoy for years to come. And based on the film’s worldwide gross of $812,251,537, audiences are making it clear that they desire to see wider representation on the big screen. Audiences want more perspectives to view the world and the success of this film  alongside smash hits like Black Panther (Ryan Coogler, 2018) Wonder Woman, Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017), and Crazy Rich Asians (Jon M. Chu, 2018), audiences are getting good stories and characters that better reflect the world around us and the challenges they face.


“Captain Marvel (2019).” Box Office Mojo, www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=marvel2018a.htm

Written by: Joseph Naguski

The ending to the final installment of the animated film trilogy How to Train Your Dragon will leave audiences on the edge of their seats until the credits roll.

The Hidden World takes place a year after the events of the second film, with the island of Berk becoming comparable to a utopia to its human and dragon citizens. As the people of Berk continue to rescue and bring back more dragons, Hiccup faces his first real challenge being chief. The overpopulation of the island is becoming more evident and he must find a way solve it. He finds his resolution through multiple flashbacks of the late Chief Stoick informing a young Hiccup of a legendary dragon safe haven which he dubs “The Hidden World”. To the rejection of his mother and many others, Hiccup becomes determined to find this mythical world. He is hindered by Grimmel the Grisly, an infamous dragon slayer who is determined to capture toothless and uses a female “Light Fury” as bait to lure Toothless into his hands. The two dragons fall in love and Hiccup must find a way to save them and the rest of his friends while finding a new home for the dragons.

While the overall plot of this film does not quite stand up to its predecessors, the series' finale is still noteworthy. A major theme in this film is learning to “fly on your own”. What arose from this was a change in The Hidden World’s plot formula from the previous movies. While the first two films focused heavily on trying to outmatch unbelievably colossal dragons as enemies, there is a much more human battle between good and evil. Hiccup and the rest of the humans learn to become less reliant on their dragon companions while Toothless has his own little adventure with the female Light Fury. They do come together to try and defeat the antagonist but the way this happens is very much unique to this film. The antagonist himself is pretty mundane, but that is lost through the exhilarating moments of the characters’ journey.

Much like this film DreamWorks itself has grappled with the concept of flying on its own. DreamWorks continues to be a 3D-animation beast that can rival Pixar, but still struggles to be the superior animation studio. The How to Train Your Dragon series is certainty a standout trilogy that has elevated the success of DreamWorks. The film maintains themes of thrilling fantasy atmospheres that takes them past even the level of their previous pictures.  The Hidden World continues to bring stunning visuals to the franchise through the new technology that has been developed since the original’s release in 2010. In an interview with cartoonbrew.com, the series director Dean DeBlois noted some of these technological advances. He mentioned some simple things like displacement of clouds and characters walking through grass. Adding greater amounts of characters in the frame and increasingly complex camera movements have also developed over the duration of the series. These things may seem trivial to some but in the grand scheme they make for much more aesthetically pleasing and interactive film. As DeBlois says “Now that we have the technology, I wanted to make sure that we used it. Our environments are very alive.”

Overall, this movie is a fantastic ending filled with the adventure, friendship, romance, and ageless humor which makes the series so special. I would definitely recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of animated films and/or has watched the previous two films in the franchise.

Work Cited
https://www.cartoonbrew.com/interviews/how-to-train-your-dragon-series-director-dean-deblois-on-being-blown-away-by-the-advancement-of-animation-tech-169217.html

Searching is a 2018 mystery/thriller film about a father who goes through his missing teenage daughter’s laptop in search of her whereabouts. The unique aspect of this film is that the entire experience is presented from the perspective of a computer screen, whether it is that of the father’s computer, his daughter’s laptop, their smartphones, a television, or even security cameras. It takes a strictly digital approach to convey the story. If it had to be related to any existing genre, it could be considered a form of found footage. This analysis is going to contain spoilers, so if you have not seen the film, watch it before continuing.

​David Kim is a single father to Margot, his teenage daughter. Together, nothing really seems to be out of the ordinary, until she goes missing one night. She leaves behind one very important piece of evidence: her laptop. David hires a private investigator to look into the case but grows suspicious when she is not found after forty-eight hours. This is when something sinister becomes revealed. Due to a lack of progress, he investigates himself.

​Upon initially hearing the concept, it may seem as though an audience would lose interest fairly quickly while viewing a man interact with several computer windows for around two hours, but it surprisingly keeps you on the edge of your seat. Similar to the panic that the main character is going through while rummaging through a technological nightmare, we as the viewer get to witness this from the same point of view, which is something that audiences rarely get to experience.

​From a script writing perspective, this must have been a very complex undertaking to write considering the unusual medium of the film. While it can be restricting, it also opens doors for news ways to tell the story. The screenplay allows for some touching emotion and quite elaborate character development between the father and his daughter without the use of that much dialogue. Instead of silence, we get a more deliberate visual cue: text in the context of the devices that we all use on a daily basis. This is mostly surrounding the relationship they had with David’s deceased spouse. This in a sense connects the two of them, because you can notice an apparent absence in their lives.

​Without hearing any dialogue, much of the communication is done through text messaging and emails. While being quite literal in its presentation, it sheds light on the lack of emotion that exists between two people communicating digitally. We cannot necessarily interpret the distinction between happiness and sadness, or identify sarcasm as easily. Of course, emojis can be used to supplement basic text, but the principle generally applies. Knowing this about digital communication, and how difficult it must be to incorporate the essential emotion necessary to drive the characters, what are the advantages to using this approach to tell this story? Well, seeing the actual conversation take place from one side allows for the viewer to recognize the specific nuances of how the messages are typed, and what is deleted. We get a glimpse into the mind of the father while he is writing and get to see what is going through his mind as he revises his messages before sending them. This would not be possible in a traditional medium. 

​Besides focusing on the relationship between a father and daughter, this film also ends up revealing deceit and selfishness from certain characters whom we thought had good intentions. The story tends to be a bit of a roller coaster, containing many unexpected plot twists, further adding suspense and incentive to keep watching. To add structure and simultaneously incorporate the computer's user interface, the film uses the start up, login, logout, and shut down actions as a method to help keep the audience on track, and add structure to the beginning, middle, and end.

​Additional conflict is introduced when David becomes a suspect in his own daughter’s disappearance. As the audience, we find ourselves on David’s side, constantly searching for answers to this devastating problem. We witness extreme denial happening with David’s character, as he repeatedly claims that Margot is not dead. One can only imagine the mental trauma that comes from going through a situation like this. 

​Upon reaching the resolution of the story, when Margot is found barely alive in the bottom of a cliff, the satisfaction comes from realizing that if it were not for David’s perseverance and unconditional love for his daughter, he would not have found her in time to be alive. The film also ends on a very positive and heartwarming note, relating to the tension shown at the beginning between David and Margot, and how her mother would have been proud of her. It is also interesting to see that even though we suspected Margot’s supposed misbehavior resulted in her disappearance, we see that it was because she had good intentions for another person, and that the situation unfolded due to an irrelevant and unrelated pursuit. Creatively speaking, changing the desktop wallpaper to a photo of them in the hospital after she was rescued, and then shutting down the computer really ties everything together nicely. 

​It is interesting to consider the versatility of this format, and whether or not it will be obsolete in the future. Because technology is changing so rapidly, it seems impossible to predict the future of this method of filmmaking. However, it is a breath of fresh air to bring a different approach to the thriller genre and inspire other directors to possibly rethink their own ideas. It is by no means an easy task to tell a story this way, which is probably why we have not seen as many.
​
In general, the risk taken by the filmmakers to think outside of the box and utilize this method of storytelling really paid off for this film. It adds an additional dimension not only to the intensity of the genre, but also has the potential to be applicable to many other script formats. 

Written by: Dylan Delaney

By Lindsey Horner

Picture this: Tom Cruise and Nazis.
If that combo has got your history nerd side excited (because admit it, we all have one), then director Bryan Singer's Valkyrie ​(2008) is just the movie for you.

Inspired by true events, Valkyrie follows the story of Wehrmacht Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) as he joins, and then leads, a conspiracy to rid Germany of Nazi ruler Adolf Hitler through a well-organized and calculated assassination plot. The film depicts real-life events that transpired before, during, and after July 20, 1944, the day the conspirators led their coup on main leaders of the Reich. Their conspiracy involved using the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to shift powers and take control of the country.

After being badly injured during a Royal Air Force Raid in Tunisia and losing his right hand, two fingers on his left hand, and his left eye, the colonel is sent home to Nazi Germany. Now sporting an eye patch, survivor's guilt, and questioning the trajectory of the war, the German officer comes to the heavy realization that in order for Germany to truly survive, major changes must take place within the Motherland's inner structure, starting with the ruling authority.

Along for the ride are other German officers such as Henning von Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh), General Friedrich Olbricht (Bill Nighy), General Ludwig Beck (Terence Stamp), Dr. Carl Goerdeler (Kevin McNally), and Erwin von Witzleben (David Schofield) who agree that in order to save their country, they must destroy it from the inside first. 

One of the reasons why I was so pleased with this movie was Singer's extreme attention to historical detail. Actors were hired who closely resembled their roles, and Cruise especially poured over Stauffenberg's story, wanting to honor the man's true patriotism and sacrifice through this adaptation. Much of the filming took place in Germany on the same pieces of land where the events actually occurred decades earlier. All those involved with the making of the movie wanted it to be as historically accurate as possible, and the end result is gorgeous and thought-provoking; a movie that is stunningly real.

While Valkyrie isn't a well-known movie, it's still an important film to watch. It depicts a painful past while offering a glimmer of hope. Despite the movie ending with a firing squad, Stauffenberg's last words - "Long live sacred Germany!" - give the audience a sense of optimism even after his figure falls. Even in the midst of genocide and corruption, there will always be individuals who rise up to take action against oppression, no matter the personal cost. Claus von Stauffenberg was one of them, and his legacy now serves as an example for future generations.