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Director Profile: The Rise and Fall of M. Night Shyamalan

10/13/2014

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Written by Anthony Watkins
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In cinema, it is well-known that the director is ultimately the person responsible for the final look of the film. He/she is the highest in authority on the project and makes all the final decisions for the film. Because the director is the one responsible for the finished product, there is a good amount of weight that falls on them to create a commercially and critically successful film that resonates with as many people as possible. After doing multiple films, a reputation (good or bad) for a director can be developed. If he or she releases a very successful and popular film, audiences expect that level of performance to carry over into their next project. Some directors such as Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese have a very good track record. Others have not done so well. Sometimes there is a slight mix. In particular, one that has made a name for himself (for bad and for worse) is Manoj Shyamalan, or M. Night Shyamalan by which he is usually referred.

Shyamalan was born on August 6, 1970 in Mahe, Pondicherry, India. While he was still a boy, his family moved from India to the United States, settling in the suburbs of Philadelphia (Biography Channel). A son of two doctors, Shyamalan developed a strong interest in filmmaking at only 8 years old when he was given a Super-8 camera. By the time he was fifteen years old, he had made about 45 short films.

Despite being raised a Hindu, Shyamalan went to a private Catholic school in his early education years, and then to Philadelphia’s Episcopal Academy. After high school, he studied film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. By the time he graduated from NYU in 1993, he had already completed his first feature-length film, Praying With Anger. The film, which he wrote, directed, and starred in, was a semi-autobiographical story of an Indian-American who travels back to India to attend college. Unfortunately, the film didn’t gain the attention of many audiences or critics, partly because of its low-budget and independent nature.

After the failed project Labor of Love , Shyamalan was able to sell the screenplay for Wide Awake (1998) to the independent studio Miramax for about $250,000, given the conditions that he direct and the film be shot in Philadelphia. The film received decent reviews from critics, but failed to gain the attention of audiences (Biography Channel).

It was finally in 1999, on his third directorial effort, that M. Night Shyamalan’s big break came in The Sixth Sense. The supernatural thriller, which was also written by Shyamalan, starred Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment. The film focused on a disturbed young boy (Osment) possessing a “sixth sense” to see dead people. The film received mass critical acclaim and was a box office hit. Bringing in over $26 million in its opening weekend, The Sixth Sense went on to garner over $600 million worldwide by 2000 (IMDB and Biography Channel). It was nominated for 6 Oscars (including Best Picture) and gave Shyamalan two Oscar nominations (Best Director and Best Writing). The film’s ending remains widely regarded as one of the biggest twist endings in the history of film. 
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The Sixth Sense is without question M. Night Shyamalan's best film, a chilling story boosted by an Oscar-worthy performance from young Haley Joel Osment and an unforgettable twist ending.
After The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan achieved more success with Unbreakable (2000), a Science-Fiction film reuniting Shyamalan with Bruce Willis. His next project was Signs (2002), another Science-Fiction film that follows strange occurences at a small family’s farm. The film became Shyamalan’s second-biggest hit, grossing over $400 million worldwide (Biography Channel).
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Although clearly not up to par aesthetically with The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan's Science-Fiction film Signs received generally favorable reviews from critics and audiences.
Unfortunately, it was after Signs that Shyamalan’s career began to fall. He tried to build on the success of Signs with The Village (2004)—a film that tracks a village being surrounded by strange creatures. The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics, mostly due to its ending, and it didn’t perform well commercially. Two years later, Shyamalan’s career hit rock bottom with Lady in the Water (2006). The fantasy film was heavily attacked by critics, especially criticizing Shyamalan’s terrible acting in the film, for which he went on to receive a Razzie Award for “Worst Supporting Actor”. After another disappointing film, The Happening (2008), Shyamalan’s next project was The Last Airbender (2010), a film based on the popular children’s animated TV series. The film turned out to be a complete flop, panned by critics and audiences alike, with renowned critic Roger Ebert describing the film as an “agonizing experience” (Biography Channel).

Following the disappointment of The Last Airbender, Shyamalan returned to the Science-Fiction genre with After Earth, a film starring Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith as a father and son who crash land on a future, apocalyptic Earth where all living things have evolved to kill humans. Once again Shyamalan’s film was negatively received by critics and audiences, mostly due to its poor pacing and predictability.

In conclusion, M. Night Shyamalan’s career has fallen as much as it had risen. He achieved global acclaim for The Sixth Sense and had moderate successes with Unbreakable and Signs. Since then, however, his career has been in a seemingly unending tailspin. What began as a once very bright and promising career has deteriorated and faded into blackness. But, at only 44 years old, there is certainly time for the once famed director to bounce back. The only remaining question is, “When?”

Personal Life

Currently, M. Night Shyamalan is in post-production on a horror/comedy film titled, Sundowning. He resides with his wife (whom he married at the dawn of his career in 1993) and 3 children in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Director Trademarks

M. Night Shyamalan typically uses his childhood home of Philadelphia as the backdrop to his films. This is present in Wide Awake, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village. He has also cast several actors multiple times in his films, including Bruce Willis, Joaquin Phoenix, and Bryce Dallas Howard. Formally speaking, he likes writing and directing on the supernatural, as he masterfully did in The Sixth Sense. Interestingly, he also tends to use water as a sign of death or weakness, as he does in The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village, and Unbreakable. Shyamalan’s films typically feature a twist ending, as most famously executed in The Sixth Sense but also present in The Village. Technically speaking, his films typically feature long, static shots of 2 individuals talking, partly reflective of the French New Wave. He also likes filming character’s reflections in various objects. Finally, Shyamalan typically works with James Newton Howard for composing his film score (IMDB).

Works Cited

IMDB. 2014. 25 Sep. 2014. <http://www.imdb.com>.

“M. Night Shyamalan.” The Biography Channel. 2014. 25 Sep. 2014. <http://www.biography.com/people/m-night-shyamalan-9542296#personal-life>.

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Forever:  Rich Primetime Supernatural Drama? Or Tried and True Daytime Romantic Mystery?

10/12/2014

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by
Billy Martel
 


               


Television certainly has come a long way, hasn’t it?  From being seen as a threat to the film world when it was introduced in the 30’s television has evolved into a unique media that is home to many different forms of storytelling, the most popular today being the serialized story format.  Dramas like Breaking Bad (2008 - 2013, Gilligan) and Sons of Anarchy (2008 - 2014, Sutter) are created with the idea that the story will end.  Each episode will advance the over-arching plot of the series and lead inexorably to the finale where a (hopefully) satisfying resolution to the story will be offered.  Dramas, Police Procedurals, and even sitcoms have begun to take on this format of storytelling. 


In the face of this, Forever (2014, Miller) seems to be several years too late, a series from a bygone era where all you needed for a show to be successful was a quirky bunch of entertaining characters with decent chemistry solving mysteries with an extra twist thrown in to make it stand out from the other shows with the same formula.  After all it worked for Magnum PI, Quantum Leap, Dukes of Hazzard, and many others, why not here?  And that’s the thing.  It does work.  It works well.  I’m not sure what I was expecting tuning into this program, but I was surprised at just how charming and, I hate to say it, quaint it was. 

Of course what I just said also describes some other very popular shows of more recent years such as Psych (2006 - 2014, Franks), Monk (2002 - 2009, Breckman), or Criminal Minds (2005 - present).  But those shows set themselves apart in ways other than relying on the charisma of the leads and the quirkiness of the premise.  They took risks, they pushed the envelope, they got messy.  Psych pushed boundaries with its fourth wall breaking humor.  Monk combined humor and pathos by introducing us to a truly disturbed main character.  Criminal Minds has kept audiences hooked with a combination of fascinating psychological profiles of serial killers, and Intriguing story arcs on par with more serialized shows.  From what I've seen, Forever plays its premise very safe.


A brief, the plot is that Dr. Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd) is immortal.  He has been alive for 200 years, appearing to be exactly the same in physical appearance as the night he was first killed.  Every time he dies from a mortal wound or disease, he wakes up in water, naked and alive.  Since his last death, he has been working as a medical examiner for the local police department, surrounded by a kooky supporting cast and armed with his keen deductive skills.  Now up until that last sentence my summary conveys a lot of intrigue, almost like Life on Mars (2006 - 2007, Graham, Jordan, and Pharoah) or Once Upon a Time (2011 - present, Kitsis, and Horowitz).  There is a mystery to solve.  A supernatural or science fiction element is introduced.  Elements of Steampunk, shades of Tuck Everlasting (1975, Babbitt), and potential for great story arcs and themes in the future.  But then the last sentence gives the show a much safer, much more "tried and true" feel. 

Too be honest, I really enjoyed the show.  This is a show where you don’t have to feel intimidated coming into the series on a random episode.  No extensive backstory is needed when the protagonist is a likable, handsome guy, who gets through the day by just being charming and being able to run faster than the crook.  It is fun, interesting and really non-threatening to children, parents, and most importantly the network, which would be fine, if this was the 80’s.  Unfortunately these days most people don't watch TV casually anymore.  most obsess over our favorite shows, binge watching them to catch up on storylines before a newest episode.  TV shows are no longer savored, they are devoured like a banquet set before a starving man.  Even the advertisers know it.  The commercials for Sean Bean’s new show Legends (2014, Gordon, Nachmanoff, and Bomback) claimed outright that the show would become “your new obsession.”  In an atmosphere like this, I find it hard to believe that a show that seems, like its protagonist, to be out of its own time will survive. 


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Remembering Lauren Bacall (1924-2014)

10/11/2014

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Written By Scott Orris
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On August 13th of this year the world of cinema lost one of its last great legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood; Lauren Bacall.  Known for her low husky voice and strong independent female roles in a career that spanned seven decades, Bacall continued to work until her death at age 89.  I have personally always admired Bacall’s resolve and determination which she has continued to display not only in her roles, but in her real life.  Bacall’s fierce determination to work was perhaps best described in her second autobiography Now, writing about her work ethic; “One thing I am convinced of is that the more you do, the more you can do.  So I don’t let up.  I won’t let up” (Bacall 11).  She has been seen most recently in The Forger (Roeck, 2012), and Wide Blue Yonder (Young 2010) she even lent her voice to a recent episode of Family Guy.  Never having won a competitive Oscar despite her amazing talent, she was nominated once in 1996 for The Mirror Has Two Faces (Streisand, 1996).  She would later receive a lifetime achievement Academy Award in 2009.  Bacall is best known for the films with her late husband, Humphrey Bogart. Dubbed “The Look” after her film debut with Bogart in To Have an Have Not (Hawkes, 1944), the pose was a nervous reaction Bacall explained; “I realized that one way to hold my trembling head still was to keep it down, chin low, almost to my chest, and eyes up at Bogart.  It worked and turned out to be the beginning of “The Look” (Bacall 102). 


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"The Look" in To Have and Have Not
These films such as The Big Sleep (Hawkes, 1946), Dark Passage, (Daves, 1947) and Key Largo (Huston 1948), have inspired my fascination with not only film noir, but classic movies in general.  I genuinely feel privileged to have the opportunity to watch Bacall match wits with Bogie (which was a nickname for Bogart), in what was one of the steamiest couples to ever grace a movie screen.


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Bogart and Bacall
But this incredible career was almost over before it began after the fall-out from her second film Confidential Agent (Shumlin, 1945).  The film was a war-time espionage thriller, which miscast Bacall as a daughter to a British Lord.  In her words; “At twenty, I was far removed from either character, but the wry, earthy girl of To Have and Have Not had humor, which was always a part of me-whereas the British broad was totally straight and dreary” (Bacall 158).  The film flopped but Bacall explained how she got through this rough period; “Lucky for me I threw myself so violently, so single-mindedly, into the big things in life.  “If I hadn’t been so consumed by Bogie, the thrusting of me onto the national scene with such a vengeance would had been uncopable with” (Bacall 162).  I think Bacall’s ability to keep this event in perspective, shows a lot about her inner strength and resiliency as a person.  This mindset would allow Bacall to continue her career into the fifties, where she split her time between raising her family, and her career.  With films such as How to Marry a Millionaire (Negulesco, 1953) Written on The Wind (Sirk, 1956), and Designing Women (Minnelli, 1957), Bacall proved she belonged alongside the top leading men of the day including William Powell, Rock Hudson, and Gregory Peck. 

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From left to right, Marilyn Monroe, Bacall, and Betty Grable in How to Marry a Millionaire
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with Gregory Peck in Designing Woman
It was also during this time, Bacall became extremely involved in speaking out against HUAC, known as the House of Un-American Activities Committee, in their Anti-Communist attack on Hollywood.  An outspoken woman for political causes throughout her life, Bacall, Bogart and other liberal minded members of the Hollywood Colony such as John Garfield, Gene Kelly, and Paul Henreid, would form the Committee for the First Amendment (Bacall 173, 175).  This is what makes her pairing with John Wayne who had opposing political beliefs, all the more interesting.  Bacall starred with Wayne in Blood Alley (Wellman and Wayne, 1955) and his final film The Shootist (Siegel, 1976) and suprisingly the two would actually became great friends.  In Bacall’s words; “Duke Wayne and I got along really well, considering that we didn’t agree about anything! (laughs) It was quite amazing. He was great to work with. He really liked me, and I really liked him. We had great chemistry together” (Simon "Lauren Bacall Walks the Walk").  She also proved she could emulate her idol Bette Davis, winning a Tony Award for the Broadway musical adaptation of All About Eve (Mankiewicz, 1950), titled Applause starring in her well known portrayal of Margo Channing.  She would also win a second Tony Award in the 1981 Broadway adaption of Woman of the Year which was originally a film starring her friends Katherine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy (Susman "Lauren Bacall Has Died at Age 89").

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Bacall in Applause
Ms. Bacall has been among my favorite actresses, since I saw her with Bogart in the film Dark Passage (Daves, 1947).  In the film, Bogie’s character is a fugitive named “Vincent Perry”, who has been framed for the murder of his wife, and is on the run seeking revenge on the real killer.  Bacall plays a college student who aides Perry in his desperate efforts to elude the police and find whoever committed the murder.  In order to avoid being recognized by the law, he agrees to have his face surgically altered in order to avoid detection.



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Taking off Bogart's bandages in Dark Passage
What makes the film unique is for part of the film Bogart’s face is not present, instead Daves experimented with POV shots, similar to Robert Montgomery’s The Lady In the Lake (Montgomery, 1947).  There are some Bogie fans who might be disappointed by this, but I actually think it allows the audience to further identify with the character, and of course it means I was able to see more of the beautiful Ms. Bacall.  Lauren Bacall’s glamorous beauty and determined spirit defined an era which has long past, but will never be forgotten, goodbye Ms. Bacall.

Works Cited:

Bacall, Lauren. Lauren Bacall by Myself.: Lauren Bacall. New York: Knopf, 1979. 
Print.


"Lauren Bacall." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.

Bacall, Lauren. Now. New York: Knopf, 1994. Print.

Simon, Alex. "Lauren Bacall Walks The Walk." Interview.
Web log post. The Hollywood Interview. Blogspot, 29 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.

Susman, Gary. "Lauren Bacall Has Died at Age 89." Vanity Fair.
N.p., 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.



  





 
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German Expressionism and it's Influence on Hollywood

10/10/2014

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       Written by Brandon Gordon

     Since the invention of film there have been many different movements and styles that have come to shape how movies are made. One of the earliest of film movements was German Expressionism.  Many see the German Expressionist era as the first stylistic film movement in history, and there is good cause to believe this. Not only is this one of the first film movements but it is also one of the most influential in the modern era.

            German expressionism began in the early days of film, at the beginning of the twentieth century. During the First World War expressionism found its stride, and by the early twenties it had peaked. Two of the most recognizable expressionist films are Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922), and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene, 1920). By the end of the twenties, expressionism had started to fade out in Germany, and as the Nazi party gained power, many of the filmmakers involved in expressionist movies left for America.

            When watching one of these classics the first thing that the eye catches is the extensive set design and use of lighting.  There is heavy use of shadow that can often be compared to film noir of the forties and fifties. Like film noir, one can see the shadows as their own character, which plays an important part in the film. The creators of Dr. Caligari realized this and even went so far as to paint shadows onto the set in order to obtain the desired look. The shadowed lighting also emphasizes the obscure sets. These sets are very unique and were rarely seen before the creation of expressionist cinemas. In Nosferatu the shadow of Orlok is shown almost as much as the character himself is shown, which is a technique still seen in horror films today.

            Many contemporary film sets of towns and rural areas maintained realism, attempting to recreate how the area may have actually looked. Expressionist sets ignore this and go for complete creativity.  This can be seen in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which had an extensive use of unique sets and backdrops. There are several scenes from Caligari where abstract and uneven sets play an important role in the structure of the film.  For instance, several scenes set on city streets highlight the unusual buildings and help to intensify the unease that the film conveys.

            Nosferatu and Dr. Caligari, like most other expressionist films of the period, were horror films. This led the way for some of the classic Hollywood monsters of the thirties and forties. This wasn’t the only way that expressionist films helped to inspire Hollywood. There have been many other Hollywood productions that take example from German Expressionism. One of the most famous modern directors, Tim Burton, has made several movies that have many striking similarities to classic expressionist cinema. Burton’s film Sleepy Hollow (1999) is one of the most recognizable examples of modern expressionism that takes inspiration from German films of the twenties. In the film the use of abstract sets and lighting is crucial to the tone of the film, and while there is much heavier use of CGI and special effects, the concepts are still all there. Burton is widely known for his unique approach to filmmaking, and when you watch any film from the expressionist era, you can see where he gets his inspiration.



              Burton has had a tremendous effect on Hollywood over the past three decades, and many of his films are widely loved. Key to knowing his inspiration shows the artistic process of his films and knowing just what to expect from a Tim Burton movie. With the great success Burton saw with his films, he was granted more creative freedom and was able to help the neoexpressionist movement to grow. From this growth came another great modern expressionist film that goes outside the Hollywood system; the Spanish film El Labertino Del Fauno (2006) directed by Guillermo Del Toro. 

          
                The film, translated as Pan’s Labyrinth in English, was a massive success but also found a great balance in combining two very different yet complementary forms of filmmaking. Pan’s Labyrinth is at its core an expressionist fairy tale, but it is expressionism wrapped in realism. This is where Hollywood seems to be going with many of its future expressionist productions. Even films like Big Fish (Burton, 2003) and Life of Pi (Lee, 2012) are a great variation on fairy tale stories with a combination of expressionism and realism. The two styles are opposites but are complementary of each other and allow more depth to stories that both capture our imagination and bring us into a world we can feel familiar with.

            In order to examine modern cinema, it is necessary to know where the inspiration for many of these films came from. With the knowledge of the expressionist era, we can identify and relate to neoexpressionist films produced today. There are many directors that are still active members of the neoexpressionist movement. Tim Burton and Guillermo Del Toro are two of many filmmakers that create these stories. While both work heavily in the Hollywood system, they still, from time to time, break away and produce fantastic expressionist works outside of American cinema.



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Giving "The Giver" a Second Chance

10/8/2014

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Written by John Snyder

The recent film adaptation of The Giver
(Noyce, 2014) has received a lot of rough reviews, for a variety of reasons, but I would argue that this is a movie worth a second screening.  The movie begins with Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), the main character, narrating an opening sequence and introducing us to the colorless (black and white) and orderly world of “the community,” in which he lived, and where there were no differences to divide people.  We are introduced to his friends Fiona and Asher, who with him are going to graduate the next day from childhood into the roles given to them by the elders of the community.  While Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan), and all the other children are assigned “normal” jobs, Jonas is given the position as the next “Receiver of Memories,” which, he is told, is a high honor.

They begin working the next day, and Jonas goes to see the former Receiver in his house by “the edge” of the community, which is the physical edge of a cliff.  From there, the Giver (as the old Receiver of Memories calls himself, now that Jonas is replacing him), who is played by Jeff Bridges, begins Jonas’ training. The Giver explains that it is the Receiver’s job to hold all the memories of the past, so that he or she can advise the elders in making decisions. The Giver’s cynicism and scruffy manner is refreshing against the conformity and “sameness” of the rest of the community.  He knows the past as no one else does, and although he doesn’t come right out and say it, he knows that what the community does to erase difference is wrong. The Giver begins Jonas' training, having the young man come to his house daily to receive memories.

The way in which the memories are transmitted is, appropriately, through flashbacks. The first one is of snow falling, sledding, and a log cabin with smoke coming from the chimney. A low Christmas carol coming from the cabin. Despite my description, this is an evocative, visceral scene that exemplifies what it means to tell a story with pictures.  Jonas is amazed, and filled with a wide-eyed wonder that persists for much of his time with the Giver, as he is overjoyed to discover color, music, dance, and, most importantly, love.  As Jonas begins to see colors in the memories, different colors slowly enter the film, until by the end, it is in full color.  Many times, the memories come in beautiful and compelling montages that tell of so much emotion and feeling in such short clips.  He asks the Giver why anyone would want to get rid of those things.  Then the Giver shows him a memory of poachers killing an elephant for its ivory tusks.  He begins to understand greed, and death.  And then one day, he goes to the Giver’s house and, finding him on the floor, and he tries to wake him. When he does this, he is brought into a flashback of soldiers fighting in what is presumably the Vietnam war.  He learns from this memory fear, pain, sadness, and hatred.  He awakens from this and is distraught.  The Giver also shows him that the “release” of elders and defective babies is actually the institutionalized killing of them.  This hits Jonas very hard, because his father is a “nurturer” of babies, but is also one of the people who releases them.

This is a major turning point in which Jonas starts to take action.  He finds out from the Giver that if a receiver of memory passes through the “boundary of memory,” all the memories that the receivers had been holding on to would return to the communities (as would color, love, music, pain, confusion, etc.).  He takes Gabe, the baby who his father was about to release, and runs off over “the edge” through wilderness, desert, over mountains, through many perilous trials, and at the end, he succeeds in his mission.

This is a story about love, essentially, and living beyond existence. It has many ideas and themes that are very important to think about in an age when digital existence asks “what is real life?”  It is beautiful cinematographically, and it actually does establish the sense-of-world fairly well.  It’s a highly symbolic world, which is not without its logical gaps, but a complex world no less.  I would take the entire situation with a gracious sense of disbelief (nobody complained in the Lord of the Rings
(Jackson, 2003) when the One Ring was destroyed and Sauron exploded and the earth swallowed up the hordes of Mordor, and this is comparable).  An expanded edition, or perhaps a remastered edition would be nice to patch up a consistency issue or two, or elaborate on a certain plot point, but overall, The Giver is a movie worth seeing and pondering.  Watch, perhaps, in the manner that Jonas watched the memories he received from the Giver—as a child—with the spirit of discovery and wonder.

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Boxtrolls: Laika's Gift for "Beautiful Ugliness" Rises Again.

10/8/2014

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Written by Billy Martel



























Going into this film I was already extremely hyped.  I’m a huge fan of Laika productions and their work.  For those who don’t know, this was the company that did the Stop Motion for The Corpse Bride. (Burton and Johnson, 2005)  They also made such “in house” films as Coraline (Selick, 2004), and ParaNorman (Fell and Butler, 2012).  They are a fairly new animation company without a whole lot of work to their resume.  But nearly everything they have done so far has been fantastic.  To my mind these are some of the best, most talented, stop motion artists working in the industry today.  Not that that’s a huge deal considering how small that market is now. 
The Boxtrolls (Annable and Stacchi, 2014) did nothing to change my opinion of them in that regard.  

The animation in this movie took stop motion to a level beyond what I have seen in recent cinema.  Only 5 years ago we had Fantastic Mr. Fox (Anderson, 2009), a stop motion animated film in which smoke was represented with cotton balls and every time the characters moved so did their fur as a result of the animators touch.  But in Boxtrolls we had some of the most seamlessly beautiful movement I have ever seen in a stop motion film: the clothes rustled and moved in realistic ways as the characters moved. Minimal CGI took care of the fire and other such things that would have been difficult to do with stop motion. 

Not to mention this design team and their particular affinity for what I like to call "beautiful ugliness."  They know how to construct a world so intentionally badly that it circles around and becomes brilliant.  All of the angles are off, nothing is symmetrical, the people’s proportions are so odd that they become beautiful.  This is partially inspired by Tim Burton's use of German Expressionist designs in The Corpse Bride and The Nightmare Before Christmas (Selick 1993).  However over the course of Paranorman and this film it seems to be developing into its own style. 


The plot of the film is fairly simple and reminiscent of many other films including Laika’s own filmography.  The eponymous boxtrolls are skittish creatures that hide inside boxes to avoid confrontation.  They live underground and only come up to the surface at night to steal trinkets that they use to make machines.  The townspeople believe that they are evil man-eating creatures based mainly on the story of the “Trubbshaw Baby,” a baby who was stolen and seemingly eaten by the boxtrolls some years ago.  Little do they know that the baby was actually adopted by the boxtrolls and is now living among them.  When the boy (named "Eggs" and voiced by Isaac Hempstead Wright) comes of age, he decides to go to the surface world to rescue the boxtrolls who were long ago kidnapped by the town’s ambitious, cross-dressing 'Exterminator' and his crew of existentially confused henchmen. 

Actually said henchmen are two of my favorite characters.  Throughout the film they debate with each other about the nature of good and evil within the context of the narrative and where on that scale they personally fall.  Later in the film upon discovering that they are henchmen (minor spoilers) and they request one of the main characters to help them get redemption before the end of the movie.  As the credits role they discover that they are stop motion figures and start doing more complicated motions so as to give their animators a harder time of it. 

    The story in this film was not exactly what I would call strong.  The twists were telegraphed very far in advance, and the moral was so standard that the characters themselves commented on it. 
And that was the saving grace of the film for me.  It knew its plot was a little flimsy, and it didn’t care.  In fact I would argue they intentionally made it worse again going along with that idea of beautiful ugliness that I mentioned before.  And I don’t mean that the movie was “so bad it’s good” or even that it talked down to the audience.  I mean that the film seemed to set out to create a very simple story with a simple message, mixed it with some of the best stop motion animation I’ve ever seen, and then threw in some more intelligent jokes to help the adults not get bored.  In terms of balancing those elements and not making the film seem disjointed, I would say that this film did a very good job of it. 


If you’re looking for a unique visual experience combined with a great sense of humor and a fun story about believing in yourself and not letting your environment tell you who to be, this is a great movie to see.  I give it a 7 out of 10.


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Taking Care of the Promised Land

10/7/2014

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Written by John Snyder

On the surface, the movie Promised Land
(Van Sant, 2012) might seem like an anti-fracking film as it clearly portrays natural gas companies as manipulative and irresponsible.  But the real message of the film is not “fracking is bad;” rather that, as a society, we’ve lost the concept of how to “take care of something.”  This could mean the earth, but it also could mean a family, a town, friends, or even oneself. 

The protagonist, Steve Butler
(Matt Damon), is a representative for Global Crosspower Solutions, a leading natural gas company.  He is effective at convincing people to sell their property so that his company can erect gas drilling equipment on their family homesteads and farms.  He is good at doing what he does, he says, because he comes from a small “farming” town (Eldridge, Iowa) similar to each one that he “closes”—one in which the economy collapsed due to the flight of industrial employers to foreign shores.  Now, Steve tells the people, the only thing saving them from bankruptcy and poverty (in other words, going the route of his hometown) is the natural gas sitting beneath their diminishing fields. And he seems to believe it, because he works tirelessly and sometimes desperately to get the people to sell their land. When questions begin to come in as to the dangers of fracking, and the town supervisor decides to hold a vote, Steve’s mission becomes more urgent, and he faces the additional challenge of an environmentalist who seems equally determined to thwart Steve’s plans.

Over the course of the movie, Steve gets to know several of the townsfolk, including a school teacher named Alice
(Rosemarie DeWitt).  As she is showing him the land she owns from her back porch (and as he is explaining how his company would use it), he notices the garden on her patio.  She tells him that sometimes she brings her class to come and help her tend it.  He asks her why she is teaching farm kids how to farm, and she replies that that’s not what she’s doing—she’s teaching them how to take care of something. 

This becomes a theme.  Another character, Jeff
(Scoot McNairy), asks Steve what kind of message it would send to his nephew, whom he takes care of, if he sold the family farm on which he has tirelessly worked, which was handed down from his grandfather, to his father and now to him.  Clearly, it would be a quick fix at a huge cost.  Adding further to the theme, the town vote itself is not as much a statement against fracking as much as it is about giving the people a choice—not just treating them like a cash cow.  It gave the townsfolk the power to decide how to take care of their land and community.

The removal of the community’s voice, particularly in the decisions about fracking, is the main concern of this movie.  The destruction of the environment by pollution is one thing; the destruction of towns, families and lives by greed and irresponsibility is another.  The latter is the deeper theme of Promised Land, and it is one that transcends the fracking issue, highlighting the tragic cultural trend towards seeking instant gratification over the long-lasting fruits of hard-work and patient endurance.

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My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks ~ The Unlikely Champion of Flash Animation

10/4/2014

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Picture
Written by Steven Collier
Adobe Flash has long been something of the black sheep amongst the animation world. Despite its unsurpassed versatility and production speed, its comparative lack of visual quality almost always precludes it from being implemented in theatrical releases, forever being relegated to direct-to-DVD fare. Yet, beyond the silver screen, Flash animation reigns as one of the preeminent mediums for creating animated commercials, children’s programming, and virtually every moving image you see online. While certainly not the best looking animation out there, its effective implementation still requires a remarkable degree of skill, and as such I have long held it in high regard. So, you might well imagine my elation last weekend when I learned that an actual Flash-Animated movie was being released nationally. I leapt at the chance to review such an overlooked medium. Unfortunately, the movie in question was My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks. (Thiessen, 2014)

Rainbow Rocks is a strange animal - a direct sequel to last Summer’s My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, (Thiessen, 2013), which was a spin-off of the ongoing animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Various, 2010-Present), which was itself a reboot of the 1980’s cartoon My Little Pony (Bacal, 1986-1987), which was created for the express purpose of promoting the eponymous toy line. As one might imagine, an origin this convoluted makes any succinct overview of this movie’s plot rather tricky. Nevertheless, I shall persevere. Rainbow Rocks follows the trials of “The Rainbooms” a musical girl group who all attend the same high school. The band members all share a mysterious enchantment that imbues them with magical abilities whenever they play their instruments together. However, when their actions attract the attention of a trio of evil sirens who hope to usurp the powers of “The Rainbooms” ensorcelled Teeny Pop ballads, our protagonists are left with no choice but to openly fight this new menace at their school’s first ever battle of the bands.

From a narrative perspective, it would be incredibly easy to dismiss this movie as nothing more than a glorified seventy-five minute long toy commercial. However, that would be an unforgivable disservice to the animators at DHX Media and their subsidiary, Studio B Productions, who have consistently pushed the technical boundaries of Flash animation to its limit. Rainbow Rocks is no exception and currently stands at the high-water mark of that particular medium.

By Flash animation standards, Rainbow Rocks looks amazing. Its models present a virtually unparalleled level of fluidity and articulation, which makes viewing them a joy, regardless of the context. Couple this with the fact that the entire film was the result of less than one year’s production time, its crew’s accomplishments become all the more impressive. The average Dreamworks animated feature can take five times that long to produce.[i]

This unparalleled speed of production is due entirely to the unique properties of Flash animation. Unlike other forms of 2D animation, Flash does not require its character models to be manually drawn in every frame to create an illusion of movement. Thanks to its entirely digital nature, most Flash character models are actually comprised of a series of interchangeable pieces that when layered on top of one another appear to create a seamless whole. Each of these pieces is mounted on an invisible point of articulation, which allows that specific component to be rotated a full three hundred and sixty degrees around that position. These articulation points are connected to one another, creating a sort of skeleton, or “rig,” that provides the entire structure for a Flash model. Think of it as being like a digitized Pantin mechanical paper doll.
Picture
Sheet of French "Jumping-Jack" Pantin Dolls circa 1860s
Albeit, one with a great many more pieces.
Picture
A partial selection of the Flash assets used to create a functional rig of a Pegasus. (DILeak, 2012)
Once a rig is constructed, it can be programmed to follow a default set of actions, which can be reused at any time, thus negating the need to ever design more than one movement cycle for any character. As such, if all the animation models are roughly the same shape, a single rig can be used to animate the entire cast of characters. Now, a Flash animator can always tweak any character’s rig to give it unique movements, stances, and quirks, but ultimately they will be limited to the confines of the basic movement range of any given rig.

By now, one might wonder why such an automated, sterile form of animation is even deserving of any attention. And to answer that, I need to go back about 15 years to the dawn of the internet. You see, Flash was originally designed as a program capable of efficiently streaming full-length cartoons over the internet, while still remaining well below the 1MB threshold which was about all early computers could manage.[ii] Flash largely achieved this by utilizing the same tricks it does today: recycling assets, swapping rig components in lieu of animating actual transitions, and reading files as a series of movements instead thousands of individual images.

The difference is that in the early aughts, Flash was still only capable of reliably streaming extremely basic, choppy animations, like Badgers. (
Picking, 2003)

Whereas today, well, we have Rainbow Rocks.
Like all forms of digital animation, the underlying programs that power Flash haven’t changed much. However, the capabilities of those programs continuously increase with every subsequent advancement in computer technology.

So, is Rainbow Rocks a good movie? I would argue that yes it is. Despite the fact that its overall premise makes viewing it unrelentingly prohibitive to anyone unfamiliar with its source material, Rainbow Rocks remains a competent, clever, film that creatively makes the absolute most of its resources. And regardless of medium, or context, I believe that is worthy of real praise.

[i] http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/insidedwa/productionprocess
[ii] https://www.adobe.com/macromedia/events/john_gay/page04.html

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Guardians of the Box Office

10/1/2014

2 Comments

 
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         Written by Brandon Gordon

            It’s no secret that the biggest movie of the summer was the superhero hit Guardians Of The Galaxy. The film, which opened in August, saved the summer box office from becoming a complete catastrophe.  Helmed by writer-director James Gunn, a relatively unknown director, whose previous films include Slither (2006) and Super(2010); Guardians showed us that it had the strength to contend with other hits from Marvel Studios.

            The film stars Chris Pratt as a space outlaw known as "Star Lord". When Star Lord receives a mysterious orb he is paired with an unlikely team of criminals to keep it from falling into the hands of the warlord Ronan, who wishes to use its power to control the universe. Co-staring with Pratt is Zoe Saldana as "Gamora", Dave Bautista as "Drax" and Bradley Cooper as "Rocket". The film also features Vin Diesel as "Groot", a tree creature who can only say “I am Groot.”

            The two elements Guardians is not short on are humor and heart. From the beginning to the end Guardians gives a satisfactory amount of character development and a great deal of jokes to go along with it. This mixture is blended wonderfully in a way that keeps you drawn in, devoted to the story and connected with our team of protagonists.

            No summer movie is complete without a great soundtrack, and this is where Guardians really steps up and delivers. The film uses a collection of hits from the sixties and seventies compiled on the cassette "Awesome Mix Vol. 1", which was given to Star Lord by his mother before he left Earth. "Awesome Mix" is exactly what it says it is, awesome. With hits like "Hooked on a Feeling" (Blue Swede) and "Escape(The Pina Colada Song)" (Rupert Holmes), the film's use of music helps to heighten the emotion in a way usually that one would expect from a director like Quentin Tarantino. The music acts like a character and gives forward momentum to the narrative as well as adding a bit of fun for the viewer. 

            What Guardians is: is fun. From start to finish the film is exactly what a summer movie should be, escapism in a grand sense. Not only is it fun but a pleasant surprise. Unlike the Avengers (2012), only the most seasoned comic book veterans have heard of the Guardians Of The Galaxy. Yet, Guardians still brings just as much action and excitement as Marvel's more noticeable heroes.

            Even though Guardians came out two months ago, it deserves its mention as the hero of the summer, saving Hollywood from what could have been the worst season in decades. Even with Guardians breaking the $300 million mark at the U.S. box office, the season still finished greatly under expectations as the worst summer of the 21st century.

            If you need a break from the onslaught of the standard issue Marvel superhero movies, yet still care to see a good rousing superhero film, Guardians may be the perfect fit for you. So quickly, before it's gone from theaters, get out and enjoy one of the best films of the summer. 

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