Blog Archives

Ford V. Ferrari Review

11/29/2019

Even if you don’t have an affinity for race car driving, James Mangold’s Ford V Ferrari (2019) will be one of the most captivating films you’ll catch in theatres this fall. Utilizing engaging lead performances from Matt Damon and Christian Bale, a beautiful aesthetic, and a story about getting a job done right in the face of a business that consistently interferes.

Ford v Ferrari, tells the story of former racecar driver Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and driver/mechanic Ken Miles (Christain Bale), as they are hired to build the Ford car company a racecar that can win the 24 hour lamont race, which Ferrari has won consistently. But the biggest obstacle isn’t Ferrari, but the Ford Company itself as they demand things of Shelby and Miles that would inhibit the success of their car.

This dynamic between Shelby, Ken, and the Ford executives is the primary source of conflict and is the thematic meat of the film. The struggle to maintain the proper vision necessary when executives look from a distance and demand changes to that vision for the sake of bureaucratic gain and company appearance recalls the process of filmmaking itself. It isn’t just the challenges of refining and executing a single product, but also dealing with the people who provide the means to make your product. The Ford company acts as a metaphor for a major Hollywood conglomerate, such as Disney.

Shelby stands in for the director, having to field the practical work of filmmaking (or car engineering) with the corporate (executives and producers). This idea is exemplified in a small sequence where a piece of paperwork is carried from one desk in the Ford reception area another desk on the other side of the room and then to the hands of Henry Ford II (Tracey Letts). The paper went through multiple hands needlessly before landing where it needed to go, which is the last thing Shelby wants (Ford).

The racing scenes are captivating and full of energy.

The performances from Matt Damon and Christian Bale are nothing short of excellent. Matt Damon works as a man caught in the middle, knowing what needs to be done but is forced to deal with people who don’t understand the process and meddle with it. While his character isn’t as big a personality as Bale’s Ken Miles, he is the grounding force of the film, offering a sureness and warmth, but can get prickly when needed.

Bale, plays the spitfire personality of Ken Miles with the proper dry wit it requires. His sense of humor and confidence in how he drives and in accessing the cars he drives, allows for consistent scene stealing and wonderful interactions from everyone he encounters. His performance allows us to better empathize with Shelby as most of the conflicts he has with the executives is over Ken Miles and how his personality doesn’t match with Ford’s image it wishes to portray for itself. Ken may be prickly, but he’s a necessary part of the process, even if he isn’t the traditional man for the job that Ford demands

Left to Right: Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (Christian Bale).

The film’s racing scenes are excellently shot and the overall ambiance and car design are so appealing that it can make someone who isn’t a car enthusiast nostalgic for early 60s car designs. One particularly effective motif the film employed was cutting to Ken Miles as he races, commenting on his own driving as well as other drivers. While the film has a runtime of two and a half hours, it's always engaging and effectively telling the story with all the tools filmmaking has to offer.

Ford v Ferrari is a classic case of a good story being told by a master class filmmakers. The performances draw you in along with an interesting meta narrative of challenging a system that’s both necessary and superfluous, while also engaging audiences not privy to this understanding of Hollywood filmmaking,

Works Cited

“Ford v Ferrari.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 13 Nov. 2019, www.imdb.com/title/tt1950186/.

Zombieland Double Tap: Review

11/25/2019

By Joseph Naguski

Ten years after the original film, in Zombieland: Double Tap (Fleischer, 2019) audiences are returned to the zombie-plagued dystopian universe that Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) have become accustomed to. Now living in the White House, the gang seems to have conquered the Zombie world enough that they begin to have mundane human issues unrelated to the zombie apocalypse that now encompasses the world. With new allies, threats, and ambitions amongst the characters, this sequel attempts to capture the same spirit of the original, to a somewhat successful degree.

Zombieland: Double Tap introduces quite a few new characters for the main cast to interact with, a ditzy blonde named Madison (Zoey Deutch), a stoner pacifist named Berkeley (Avan Jogia), and a middle-aged, Elvis-loving, hard-boiled hotel owner named Nevada (Rosario Dawson). The implementation of these characters along with others helps try (somewhat successfully) to give the world an aspect of freshness. Along with this, a new zombie threat has developed, though the relevance of this threat is not really touched upon much after its introduction into the plot.

Zombieland: Double Tap brings not only a plethora of new characters, but also gives audiences a number of different callbacks making fun of the first film. This can be seen in things such as Columbus’s rules along with the rehashing of Columbus and Tallahassee’s personalities in the short-lived characters Albuquerque and Flagstaff. The comedy in the film is reminiscent of that in the first film, giving audiences a wide variety of jokes along with the outlandish jam-packed action full of zombie guts at every turn. Needing to find new ways to kill the zombies, the methods used by the characters to destroy them are unique and comical, such as smashing them with a giant monster truck.

As mentioned earlier, the overall plot of the film is much less focused on the zombie-survival aspect and brings more attention to the relationship between the different characters the audience has become attached with. This is somewhat entertaining but leaves out some of the sense of adventure that came from the first film. The way the story progresses and some events that occur in the film are bewildering and seem to be redundant in the bigger picture. This itself gives the film a sense of enjoyment in having no idea what could come next. In this sequel characters do not have the same amount of plot armor that they did in the first film, whether they are old or new. There is also a multitude of new environments the characters find themselves in, with the audience never quite sure exactly where they’ll end up.

Overall Zombieland: Double Tap does a pretty good job of capturing the elements of the first film, but the nonsensicality of the objectives of the plot itself make it lose some of the entertainment that the original had. The original was a much more straight-forward storyline and solid cast of characters which didn’t overwhelm the audience like the sequel does. The comical components of the sequel are similar to that of the first film, so if you found that film funny this one will be too. Did this film really need a sequel? Probably not, but it is watchable if you just want to turn your mind off and laugh at the ridiculousness of it.

Work Cited
Zombieland: Double Tap. Directed by Ruben Fleischer, Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media 2 Oct. 2019.

Quentin Tarantino and History Revisionism: Tracking the Authorship of Tarantino's Career

11/18/2019

By Mason Leaver

Warning: This article features spoilers for Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino is one of the most well recognized names in film today. In his nearly 30 year long career, he has managed to consistently deliver unique and interesting films. His early work, Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994), both focus on stories of crime, and they are both heavily stylized in the classic Tarantino approach. The films in the middle of his career, like Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill (2003, 2004), and Death Proof (2007) similarly focus on stories of crime and revenge. By 2007, it appeared that Tarantino had a very particular style (over the top violence, extremely stylized cinematography, some nonlinear storytelling, and a very specific Tarantino aesthetic), and that his films would always revolve around the same stories of crime. Indeed, reviews of Death Proof reflect this fatigue with Tarantino’s work. Phillip French, film critic at The Observer commented that Death Proof chronicled “Tarantino's slide into one-dimensional caricature”. So it came as a surprise to many in 2009 when the floundering crime director released a World War 2 thriller, Inglourious Basterds. Inglourious Basterds’ entire premise revolves around an idea called historical revisionism. Historical revisionism is the process of looking at history from a different perspective or, as is the case of Tarantino’s film, presenting an alternate, idealized version of history. This trend of historical revisionism has continued throughout Tarantino’s career. By examining the works of Tarantino from Inglourious Basterds up to his most recent work Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood (2019), we can see that Tarantino’s career has transformed from crime stories to a heavy focus on historical revisionism.

Tarantino directing Brad Pitt in "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

The first film in Tarantino’s revisionist career is Inglourious Basterds. The film is one of the best in the director’s career, and marks a significant deviation in how Tarantino approached film making and story structure. Rather than being a small scale crime film, Inglourious Basterds focuses on two parallel stories set in Nazi occupied France. The first is the story of Shoshana, a Jewish woman who has hatched a plan to kill all of the high ranking members of the Nazi party, by burning down her theater. The other half of the story is about the titular “Inglorious Bastards”, a group of Jewish-American guerrilla fighters working their way through France. When the Bastards hear that the upper echelon of the Nazi party will be attending a screening in a certain theater in France, they plan on attacking the screening; a plan quite separate from Shoshana’s. Both of their plans work together to bring the end to the Nazi party. And it is here that we see the first instance of historical revisionism in Tarantino’s work. Obviously, Hitler and the entire Nazi command were not killed in a theater in one fell swoop, but this is the version of history that Tarantino presents us with. The ending of the film has a poetic justice to it; the Nazis are burnt alive by a Jewish woman and her African-French husband and brutalized by the bullets of Jewish-American soldiers. The spectral floating head of Shoshanna, projected onto the smoke of the theater like a ghost, fills the hearts of the Nazis with terror. It is a complete wish fulfillment fantasy of World War 2. Tarantino presents what we might wish had happened to the Nazis, an ending so much more just than the escape Hitler got.

Shoshanna's projection laughs at the Nazi party as the theater burns around them

Tarantino’s next film was released in theaters three years later. Django Unchained (2012) is the story of Django, a freed slave turned bounty hunter who works to free his wife from a brutal plantation owner in the Antebellum South. This film, much like Inglourious Basterds, focuses on a reversal of power; a righting of historical wrongs. Django is a slave scarred from numerous whippings, and half way through the film he whips a white slave owner. As Django travels through the south, he murders white slave owners with bounties on their heads and begins to put himself in a place of power and respect. Much like Tarantino’s previous work, this is a story of revenge, but this time it is through a role reversal of oppressor and oppressed. In an interview with Fresh Air, Tarantino said that Django Unchained gave him a chance to “put a spin on it and actually take a slave character and give him a heroic journey, make him heroic, make him give his payback, and actually show this epic journey and give it the kind of folkloric tale that it deserves — the kind of grand-opera stage it deserves” (Fresh Air). Django Unchained is the second film in Tarantino’s career to focus on this historical revisionism, another wish-fulfillment, role reversal historical fantasy, delivering a version of history that we might wish had really happened.

Django whips a slave holder

Tarantino’s next release was 2015’s The Hateful Eight. The film is about a group of eight characters stuck together in a cabin during a snowstorm, set during the late 1800’s. The Hateful Eight is not as centrally focused on historical revisionism as the previous two, though it is still a historical fantasy. There is however, one scene which focuses centrally on Tarantino’s trend of role reversal. Major Marquis Warren, a freed slave turned Union Major, manages to convince General Smithers, an ex-Confederate General, to draw his pistol. When General Smithers draws his weapon, Major Warren easily shoots him first. Warren managed to get Smithers to do this by telling him a horrible story of how Warren forced Smithers’ son to perform a sexual act for him. In his anger, Smithers tries to kill Warren. In this scene we see another reversal of the traditional oppressor and oppressed narrative. Here, the ex-slave is in control of the situation. Despite the immorality of his actions, it is clear that Warren is doing this as a way of getting back at the white southerners who wronged him. Shooting and killing a racist Confederate general is another small example of Tarantino’s righting of wrong. However, the character of Major Warren is a much more nuanced approach to the topic than either Inglourious Basterds or Django Unchained presented.

Major Warren

Finally, Tarantino’s most recent work, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, continued the trend in the summer of 2019. Once Upon a Time focuses on actor Rick Dalton and stuntman Cliff Booth in the Hollywood of the 1960’s. The film’s nearly three hour run time focuses predominantly on the story of Dalton and Booth, but some time is spent exploring the real life story of Sharon Tate, and the Charles Manson cult. Until the last 15 minutes of the film, the stories of Tate and the main plot do not cross. Until the plot reaches that night in August, when the Tate family was murdered by several of Manson’s followers. Here, the film takes a turn away from history, and the Manson murderers enter the home of Rick Dalton instead. What follows is an extremely over the top, brutal, and almost satirical scene where the actors defend themselves and brutally kill the Manson intruders. Once again, Tarantino turns history on its head and presents what he wishes had happened that night. Here, the old-guard of Hollywood confront and defeat the evil which Tarantino sees as the turning point of Hollywood. Rather than the innocence of Hollywood slipping away, Tarantino presents us a happy ending where good people live and Hollywood is stable. It is an idealized fictionalization of history. When one looks back on Tarantino’s career, it is clear that he has been authoring a career about role reversal and historical fiction; about righting historical wrongs. It is no coincidence that both Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood use the medium of film as a central part of this correction. Tarantino is creating a meta narrative about his films; film is a medium that allows us to explore alternative versions of history and to bring to light the injustices of the past. We can likely expect Tarantino’s next project to similarly focus on a retelling of history.

For more on Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood, check out our review here: www.cinemablography.org/blog/older-and-wiser-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review

Works Cited

“Quentin Tarantino, 'Unchained' And Unruly.” NPR, NPR, 2 Jan. 2013, www.npr.org/2013/01/02/168200139/quentin-tarantino-unchained-and-unruly.

“Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 24 July 2019, www.imdb.com/title/tt7131622/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_2.

French, Philip. “Other Films: Death Proof | Evening | As You Like It and Others.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Sept. 2007, www.theguardian.com/film/2007/sep/23/shakespeare.

Dolemite is My Name Review

11/15/2019

By Bill Friedell

Based on a true story, Dolemite is My Name (Craig Brewer, 2019) tells the story of aspiring entertainer Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) as he breaks his way into standup comedy and attempts to make a movie based around his comedic alter ego, Dolemite. It brings to life the story of a figure in filmmaking that perseveres through a system that doesn’t believe in him, showcasing the rise of one of blaxploitation’s strangest stars.

Everyone in the cast gives wonderful performances. While Eddy Murphy doesn’t meticulously approximate Moore, he infuses his own essence with Moore’s to create a fun, earnest, and likeable character to root for while being true to the real life Rudy Ray Moore. Wesley Snipes also stands out as real life actor/director D'Urville Martin. His mix of frustration, ego, and begrudging respect for Moore is brought to life with Snipes specific energy and demeanor. Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Lady Reid also stands out, bringing warmth, humor, vulnerability and strength as she adopts Moore’s style of comedy and even makes it her own.

The real life Rudy Ray Moore in Dolemite (D'Urville Martin, 1975)

Eddie Murphy as Dolemite

Dolemite is My Name was written by Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander (the writers of Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1995). Ed Wood follows the story of real life cult film director Edward Wood Jr. as he begins his film career to making his most infamous film.The film feels distinct and not simply a retread of Ed Wood. Rudy Ray Moore has an entirely different trajectory and approach to his craft that allows for the story to feel like its own distinct work. Even the people surrounding Rudy Ray Moore are distinct from Ed Wood’s film crew. From white film students, friends with no film experience, a professional writer (Kegan Michael Key) and a Hollywood actor left directing a project he doesn’t even believe in, highlighting Moore’s perseverance as he figured out how to make a film along with everyone else. The focus on the struggle of making movies is very much on the mind of both Dolemite is My Name and Ed Wood. While Ed Wood was limited by his own capabilities, Moore’s content and general image was what held him back, with few people showing any faith in him, spurring Moore to work even harder to achieve stardom.

One of the film’s biggest strengths is the humor in the camaraderie between the cast. The combination of Eddie Murphy’s performance and the character of Rudy Ray Moore allows for playful personality clashes with the ensemble. Each relationship Moore has, whether it by Lady Reed, his manager (Titus Burgess), or with D’Urville Martin oozes with chemistry while also enforcing the idea of the struggle these people went through to make it in entertainment. Everyone bounces off one another really well, which allows the audience to invest and care about their success and struggle.

The overall style of the film complements this with a warm and inviting color palette alongside the set and costume design wonderfully painting the vision of the 1970s. While the film isn ‘t heavily stylized, neither were Rudy Ray Moore’s films. It’s efficient and to the point.

The overall color palette in this photo is emblematic of the whole film, giving a warm, 70s feel. From left to right Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy), Jerry (Keegan-Michael Key), D'Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes).

Dolemite is My Name is a fun romp that tells a story of perseverance in the midst of adversity. All the actors give their all, especially Eddie Murphy. Even if you know little to nothing about Rudy Ray Moore and the blaxploitation genre, it remains engaging, funny, and heartwarming. It’s absolutely worth checking out as it is available right now on Netflix.

Works Cited

“Dolemite.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 26 Apr. 1975, www.imdb.com/title/tt0072895/?ref_=nv_sr_2%3Fref_.
“Dolemite Is My Name.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 11 Oct. 2019, www.imdb.com/title/tt8526872/?ref_=nv_sr_1%3Fref_.
“Ed Wood.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 7 Oct. 1994, www.imdb.com/title/tt0109707/?ref_=nv_sr_1%3Fref_.

Spider-Man: Far From Home: Adapting Mysterio's Illusions

11/11/2019

By Bill Friedell

Spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home ahead

One of the standout sequences of the summer of 2019 was found in Spider -Man: Far From Home (Jon Watts). The sequence in question is the Berlin Hallucination sequence. It both captivates with strong comic book inspired visuals and an alternative to an action sequence while also highlighting Peter’s internal struggles, taking Peter Parker (Tom Holland) to his lowest point, adding up one memorable scene.

To sum up the movie up to this sequence, after the events of Avengers: Endgame (Anthony and Joe Russo, 2019), Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man goes on a European vacation with his class as a way to get his mind off of Spider-Man and the recently deceased Tony Stark as well as profess his feelings toward MJ (Zendaya). However, avatars of nature called the Elementals begin to attack Europe, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) recruits Spider-Man along with Quentin Beck aka Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhal) to fight them off. However, it is revealed that the Elementals are an illusion created by Beck in order to con Spider-Man into giving him a pair of glasses that control a drone based defense grid that Tony trusted to Peter after his death. With the glasses, he can program the drones to create his illusions and become the world’s greatest superhero.

One of the first interesting touches to this scene is the use of visual callbacks. When Mysterio refers to Peter as a “kid”, it's in an abstraction of a high school hallway, referring to the setting of Spider-Man: Homecoming (Jon Watts, 2017) and the journey, recalling to mind Peter’s declaration earlier in the film when he asks a group of interviewers if they have any “friendly neighborhood questions” (Spider-Man: Far From Home) while being bombarded with questions of whether he is the next Iron Man. It highlights Peter’s journey so far and attacks his weak points. Where Beck built up Peter when initially manipulating him, Now he is breaking Peter down. The costume changes also highlight Peter’s journey as he regresses to the two costumes he wore during Homecoming. Another small callback is found when MJ is taken by Mysterio and thrown off the Eiffel Tower. This can be a callback to the infamous death of Gwen Stacy as seen in the comics and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Marc Webb, 2014). And even more subtly, it recalls Peter’s plan to confess his feelings to MJ at the Eiffel Tower, but wasn’t able to because of being Spider-Man.

The use of horror is also worth noting in this sequence. The way every location is draped in green mist, contains minimal set design and tons of black space allows for a haunting and tense atmosphere. It puts you in Spider-Man’s place, not sure of what will come next and at the mercy of Mysterio. It also allows for a tonal difference that Marvel Cinematic Universes. While the MCU can blend the superhero genre with other genres (sci fi, fantasy, spy thriller, etc), horror is an element not often explored in this series. The image of Iron Man rising from a grave feels iconic and quintessential horror imagery, calling to mind a zombie rising from the grave. Even the image of Spider-Man in front of a grave is a classic Spider-Man image due to his feelings of guilt and the continual loss he feels in his life, which makes the horror twist all the more effective.

The imagery calls to mind Mysterio and Spider-Man’s battles from the original comic pages. While none of it is a one for one adaptation of any of Mysterio’s illusions from the comics, they are in the spirit of the comics. The shot where Spider-Man is caught in a snow globe that turns out to be a giant Mysterio helmet looks like it should be a cover for The Amazing Spider-Man comic (Matter).

The mirror reflection seemed to be inspired by this scene in The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #67..

The snow globe imagery in Spider-Man: Far From Home recalls the cover of Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #311.

In terms of the action, it allows for an atypical dynamic of not knowing what is real. When Spider-Man shoots a web, it pulls a real construction vehicle towards himself, going through Mysterio completely. While there are skirmishes between the two, Spider-Man is on the defensive. He’s out of his element, just has he has been ever since Fury recruited him. This can also be personified in the multiple Spider-Man who overpower Peter. That is the biggest accomplishment of this sequence. It isn’t a sequence that is meant to kill time and be pretty. It conjures the doubts and anxieties of Peter Parker in a dynamic and epic way that highlights Peter’s anxiety, fears, and guilt. And it does this while tributing the source material in the visual language it employs.

Works Cited
Matter, Brittany. “9 Times Mysterio Messed With Spider-Man.” Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Entertainment, 24 July 2019, www.marvel.com/articles/comics/9-times-mysterio-messed-with-spider-man.

The Lighthouse: A Review

11/8/2019

By Mason Leaver

The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers, 2019) is a film that defies comparison. It feels wholly original and unique; it can’t be summarized by comparison with another film. It’s a psychological-poetic-literary-nightmare-thriller, complete with a nostalgia for classical film and composition. The Lighthouse is a film that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats, while also allowing for discussion and multiple interpretations after a first, or fifth viewing.

The Lighthouse revolves around the story of two lighthouse keepers working on a small and secluded New England island in the late 1800’s. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe portray these two men, and both of their performances are equally spectacular. Dafoe takes on the role of the wicky; the lighthouse keeper. His character talks with a deep accent, and Dafoe leans heavily into the seafaring captain caricature, along the lines of Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab (bad leg and all). Pattinson plays the rookie keeper, who is forced to do most of the chores around the island while Dafoe hoards the light of the lighthouse to himself.

The film certainly takes it’s time. We do not even learn the names of the main characters until we’ve spent at least half an hour with them (and they’ve spent two weeks together in the story). Put simply, the story is a slow burn. But as the plot develops and unfolds we see the pair’s descent into madness and lunacy, and Pattinson and Dafoe’s performances are both beautiful and haunting.

Director Robert Eggers and Director of Photography Jarin Blaschke have also brought a great amount of skill to the film. The Lighthouse feels like a creepy love letter to classical cinema. The film is shot on 35mm black and white film, rather than using digital photography. It is also projected in a nearly square 1.19:1 aspect ratio. This older style of presentation helps to ground the film within its setting, grounding our experience of the film within the silent era of cinema, the same as the setting of the film. While the black and white style and aspect ratio feel very classical, the lighting and composition feels very contemporary; full of high contrast shots and stark shadows, and very symmetrical framing. The mixture of antiquated presentation and setting along with a contemporary execution makes for an experience that feels both classical and fresh at the same time.

An example of the monochromatic cinematography of "The Lighthouse" in a 1.19:1 aspect ratio

Another very impressive aspect of the film is its use of sound. Director of Music Mark Korven deserves a ton of praise here. Korven and Eggers use the fog horn of the lighthouse to create a constant feeling of sensory overload and dread. The score consistently creates tension and unease, sometimes through loud blaring of the foghorn and sometimes through chilling violin. The actual location also plays a large part in the sound design. Often the island is full of sounds that Korven and Eggers make so overpowering that silence becomes equally disturbing. While avoiding spoilers, the ending of the film features a scene with Pattinson that breaks the conventional rules of sound design, but does so in a way that is absolutely crushing and powerful. I would not at all be surprised to see an Oscar nomination for Korven.

In order to fully appreciate The Lighthouse on a first viewing, it may be worth doing some reading ahead of time. The Lighthouse packs in many references to literature that are important to understand in order to be able to interpret it. The Lighthouse obviously borrows from Moby Dick, but it borrows story, tone and themes from other works as well. One should probably familiarize themselves with "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", which the film’s plot references heavily. It is also important to familiarize yourself with the fable of Prometheus from Greek mythology, in order to understand the final shot of the film. The Lighthouse also borrows tonally from works of Gothic horror, from authors like Edgar Allan Poe and Lovecraft. The ending of the film feeling especially Lovecraftian, full of forces beyond human comprehension. Besides these references, be sure to pay attention for themes of sexual control and possession, isolation, and man versus nature.

Willem Dafoe as Thomas Wake in "The Lighthouse"

The Lighthouse is a film that is undeniably masterfully made. It’s technical mastery, as well as the powerful performances from Pattinson and Dafoe, have made for my favorite movie experience of the year so far. This dream like journey with these two characters made for an entertaining hallucination. But it should be said that while I enjoyed the film, it may not be for everyone. The Lighthouse is full of disturbing and disgusting visuals, and it’s unusual pacing and plot may leave some moviegoers feeling disoriented. The Lighthouse is probably not for everyone, but a matter of personal taste. If you feel that you would enjoy the plot of The Lighthouse or seeing two actors give a tour de force on screen, it’s certainly worth a watch. If you do check it out, The Lighthouse will leave you with a cinematic experience that will keep you interpreting and discussing for a long time.

Works Cited
“The Lighthouse.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 18 Oct. 2019, www.imdb.com/title/tt7984734/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1.

The Art of Title Design: The Dynamic Typography of Zombieland

11/4/2019

By Joseph Naguski

"Oh America, I wish I could tell you that this was still America. But I've come to realize you can't have a country without people. And there are no people here." -Columbus. (Fleischer, Zombieland)

Audiences get thrown right into the outrageously gory Armageddon which encapsulates Zombieland as an eerie narration takes place and the screen is attacked ferociously by a hideous zombie. Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” blasts through the screen as dynamic typography flies throughout the screen. Designed by Ben Conrad, the outrageous antics of this title sequence really does set the tone for the hilariously scary ridiculousness of what's to come from the film.

After the savage introduction to Zombieland the audience is given a voice-over by one of the film’s main protagonists Columbus who gives a background of what is going on and then goes into a few of his rules of survival in the zombie-invested world he now lives in. Bloody typography saying “Rule #1: Cardio, Rule #2: Double Tap…” appears on screen as we are introduced to some of the absurd scenarios which occur. This sets the tone for the rest of the film which constantly reveals these rules as they come into play in the characters’ actions. A woman soars across the road in slow motion as she is flung out of her car window after crashing into a truck as she attempts to escape from a horde of little girl zombies. This introduces the audience to Rule #4: Always wear a seat-belt. From there the Metallica begins to play and the actual title sequence starts. A man jumps off of a flight of stairs to escape a zombie, knocking away the type for of the credits “Colombia Pictures”. This transitions to a close-up of a zombie with blood spraying from its mouth, the blood blowing away more letters of credits away. A milkshake flies in the air as a woman being chased by a zombie, money escapes from a briefcase as a business man attempts to make a run from the zombies, a zombie bride tries to eat her new husband and more scenes of chaos fill the screen. No one type of person is spared in these scenes, from little girls to rich business men to criminals the zombies have no preference. This gets the audience ready for the uniqueness of the characters which are to come. The title itself is introduced with the smashing of a crowbar against the screen imitating the shattering of glass, destroying the type of the title itself as the crowbar swings down against it. More ridiculous scenes play, with the sequence ending off on the director’s credits as a zombie flies into the screen, his blood spraying against it.

Zombieland is a film which takes the horror of the popular post-apocalyptic zombie genre and gives it a comedic twist in the absurdity of the events that occur. It revolves around four survivors named after place names – a geeky college kid named Columbus, a bad ass redneck called Tallahassee, and con-artist sisters named Wichita and Little Rock. These unlikely allies come together, each with having their own goal but ultimately work with one another to find a safe haven from the horrors of the zombie apocalypse.

One of the most unique characteristics of this title sequence is how the typography of the piece interacts with the mayhem which encapsulates the environment of Zombieland. As mentioned in the sequence description, one example of this is the title itself which is shattered with a crowbar with pieces sent flying at the screen towards viewers. Not only is typography heavily present in the title sequence, but it is shown throughout the film as Columbus’s rules pop up on the screen. Ben Conrad in an interview with artofthetitle.com stated “The interactive animation of the type first started with the rules and eventually made their way into the main title sequence. We wanted to seamlessly integrate the type into the scene, making the type become another character. We were inspired by the tension between beauty and horror that the slow-motion footage created. The goal for the type was to respond to that horrific grace, to react to the movement.” The sequence was created using the adobe creative suite and the 3D computer graphics application Maya.

It is rare that type is such a prominent piece to a film, and Zombieland utilizes it in such a unique way as a means to punctuate the screen with Columbus’s sometimes helpful and sometimes mundane rules which are scattered throughout the film. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is an obvious musical choice that really captures the state of society in the film. The dynamism which surrounds Zombieland’s title sequence makes it an intriguing and engaging piece that really shows audiences the journey they are in store for.

Work Cited
Ulloa, Alexander. “Zombieland.” Art of the Title, 5 Apr. 2010, www.artofthetitle.com/title/zombieland/.
Zombieland. Directed by Ruben Fleischer, Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media 2 Oct. 2009.

Green Room: Review

11/1/2019

By Mason Leaver

The small-scale-thriller is a genre that has been thoroughly explored in the last twenty years. From psychological thrillers like Memento (Nolan, 2000) or Shutter Island (Scorsese, 2010), or closed room thrillers like Saw (Wan, 2004), or Buried (Cortés, 2010) audiences have seen many takes on the small-scale-thriller. It’s hard to have a new thriller come out without being able to simply compare it to a previous film. Jeremy Saulnier’s 2015 release Green Room attempts to bring something new to the genre, and does so successfully. Green Room is a gruesome locked room thriller, focusing on a punk-rock band that must fight of Neo-Nazi’s, offering an entirely original and entertaining take on a well explored genre.

Green Room focuses on an indie punk-rock band that is struggling to make ends meet. After taking an odd gig to try to scrape by, they quickly realize that the venue is run by Neo-Nazis. After the gang witnesses a terrible act of violence, and are locked in the venue’s green room, they quickly realize that they are the next ones to be killed. The rest of the film is a game of cat and mouse as the band attempts to escape, with plenty of twists and turns along the way.

Anton Yelchin and Imogen Poots in "Green Room"

Green Room is directed by Jeremy Saulnier, the director of Blue Ruin (2013), another small scale thriller. Saulnier takes the best elements of his last movie to inspire this one. The action is brutal and gruesome; Saulnier does not hold back, nor does he leave anything to the imagination. There were times when I felt the need to look away from the screen, but Saulnier keeps you engaged with the story because of how much we care for the characters. And just like Blue Ruin, the main characters of Green Room feel realistic, but they often make decisions which, as an outside spectator, can feel frustratingly stupid.

The performances in the film are all solid. Patrick Stewart portrays the main antagonist, the Neo-Nazi owner of this venue. He’s despicable, and you’ll love to hate him. The other stand out performance in the film comes from Anton Yelchin. Yelchin gives a convincing, desperate, and hard to watch performance as the protagonist, in one of his last roles before his tragic death. Yelchin portrays his character’s descent from an easygoing punk-rocker to a brutal survivalist well; we understand his pain and sorrow, and also his determination.

Patrick Stewart as Darcy in "Green Room"

Saulnier has a very detailed approach to storytelling, and he shows this both through the decisions of the characters as well as the shot execution. The protagonists consistently make detail oriented (though not always logical) decisions, which keeps their motivations and actions feeling realistic. The antagonists are even more detail oriented, almost obsessively so. And this attention to detail is reflected in the cinematography. Each cut feels extremely intentional, each one showing some new piece of information or communicating something new about the scene. What feels like a random shot early in the movie may come back later to explain another detail.

Perhaps the most impressive and interesting aspect of Green Room is its use of tone and pacing through cinematic language. The beginning of the film feels gentle, lighthearted and simple; a day in the life of a struggling indie band. This is reflected in the cinematography and pacing of the first scenes: sun shining through windows, band members sleeping soundly in their van, soft lighting on their faces as the camera’s focus fades in and out. Music is minimal and soft in the background. The film is taking its time. But as the plot progresses and the stakes are raised, the lighting takes on a sickening green, and the music becomes loud punk rock, sometimes so loud it muffles dialogue. We descend into madness with the band, from a happy and simple place into a gruesome, horrifying and stressful nightmare.

Green Room is a high energy and fun action film, though it can sometimes be very gruesome. Though it can be difficult to watch, the film keeps the audience engaged with its masterful use of tone and pacing, always keeping us on the edge of our seats. While it doesn’t ask much of its audience in terms of interpretation or subtext, Green Room is full of solid performances and a gripping plot.