The Conveniences in Inception

It’s nigh blasphemous to run a TV/Film blog and not have a post about Inception.  At least it feels that way.  The cerebral blockbuster, which ended the year as the fifth-highest grossing film of 2010, made the leap from “big movie” to required viewing; you had to see it just to be in on the discussion.  And what a wide-ranging and ridiculous conversation it was (and, hopefully, continues to be, fingers crossed).  While everyone was talking, no one could quite agree on exactly what they had seen; conversations were led around corners and into dead ends like the puzzling sets and set-ups from the film.  But the fact that people were talking at all is a wondrous event on its own.

The Contradictions in Animal Crackers

Story.  Story.  Story.  It’s the one that thing was drilled in to my head from countless screenwriting classes.  Story was the most important element in any film.  It was the reason someone watched and, more importantly, the reason people kept watching.  Even if you have interesting characters that the audience cares about, unless they’re doing something, anything, then your story is not worth telling and your screenplay is not worth being made.  If your screenplay didn’t have characters that pushed the narrative forward or did not directly relate to the overall structure, then you had failed.  In the years since graduation, I’d taken the lesson to heart, both in criticism and in practice in making my own stories.  It was simple.  I was happy.  And then, you watch something like Animal Crackers, and it all gets shot to hell.

The Style of Chasing Amy

Kevin Smith has been attacked as a director almost as much as his films have been attacked for lacking morality.  The easiest attack levied at him was that he didn’t have much visual style as a director.  Writing is most certainly his forte and was the calling card for his breakthrough, the seminal 1994 Sundance darling Clerks.  That film was focused entirely on the banter between the two clerks and how they navigated the misanthropic paradise of a central Jersey convenience store.  The movie was almost exclusively a collection of static oners, with some shots lasting well into the five minute range with few cuts in between and little to no camera movement (which makes the choice to go hand-held during the roof hockey game feel like something out of Cloverfield).  Smith himself has taken this criticism to heart, and eventually latched on to the idea of having a “no style-style” as some sort of coping mechanism.  I believe he even copped to as much in the first “Evening With Kevin Smith,” with the notion that if you say it first, then the insult loses its power.  So everyone–including Smith himself–has come to the conclusion that he doesn’t have a visual style.

And to that, I call bullshit.

The Relationships in I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Working creatively is a tricky, fickle prospect.  Hell, I’ve already re-written this piece four times in the last 20 hours.  Creating that art, or music, or film in general is tough, let alone when it becomes a commodity.  The pressures to make something that you’re proud of gets exacerbated by reviewers, the press in general, your family’s well-being and financial stability, and the all-powerful corporation that, if you’re lucky, backs you.  The story of Wilco’s 2002 album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot holds a wide array of hope, joy, pain, misery, depression, and triumph, featuring many different facets and shades.  While Sam Jones’ documentary on the recording and release of that album, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart covers all of that, it’s main focus is on the changing of relationships and falling out of love.  The title of the film is not just a coy reference to the first track off of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but a threat, a promise, and a rallying cry.

The Allure of Almost Famous (Bootleg Cut)

Rock n’ Roll has been many things to many people.  It’s been the force that keeps people going and it’s also been the final, subtle nudge to push someone over the edge.  It has been hailed as one of the greatest popular art forms ever created and cited as the reason why millions of people are going directly to hell upon relinquishing of the soul.  It can be loud and abrasive, soft and full of feeling, played in giant stadiums to high school gyms and so many garages and basements along the way.  But one thing is certain, it’s power has had a hold over our society for the better part of 60 years.  Being a “rock star” isn’t a term to be tossed around lightly.  It’s the closest thing Americans have to a coronation.  The allure of this status and all the trappings that come along with it sit at the heart of Almost Famous (or, in my case, Untitled, the extended cut of the original film), the flame that attracts as well as burns.

Individuality in The Hurt Locker

War has always been waged in the terms of Us against Them.  Back in ye oldern days, the style of fighting was very upfront and, for lack of a better term, gentlemanly.  One group of men would stand in a long line against another line of men, stretched wide across a valley, shooting at each other until there was no one left to shoot back.  A victor was declared, camp was set up, and you’d await another line to step up on the other side of some sleep.  In time, war has changed, devolving rather than evolving.  Instead of a line of men, we’ve moved further and further into smaller, individualistic battles that constitute small parts of a larger, more complete “war.”  The way we wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan bares little resemblance to our common idea of how World War II was fought (even the title “Band Of Brothers” evokes a different time).  The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow’s best-picture winning film, shows that the war in Iraq is beyond unwinable for the US, its very nature is untenable for humanity.

Die Hard: The Best Christmas Movie Ever

The worst part about Christmas are the Christmas movies.  What an insufferable sub-genre of “tasteless crap” they are.  Some are too saccharine, littered with little kids learning lessons or using some stupid magic that makes them realize that the REAL gift is blah blah blah.  Others are just incredibly stupid and use the CUH-RAAAAAZINESSSSS of the holiday season as fodder for shots to the dick and dinner-making mishaps.  There are even some movies about Hanukkah, which totally misses the mark.  No one makes movies about what Christmas is truly about.  Jesus, born in a manger to a deserving and loving family, would eventually become the man who would one day sacrifice himself for the good of others.  His message is that love can conquer any obstacle.  And that is why Die Hard is the best Christmas movie ever made.

The Intelligence in Shadow of a Doubt

We have a rather definitive view of what an Alfred Hitchcock film should be:  tense, filled with intrigue, murder, and suspense, probably involving a train, possibly involving a case of mistaken identity, and the very rare battle over a national monument.  Enter Shadow of a Doubt, the 1943 film set in the Californian suburban sprawl.  It’s Hitchcock’s favorite film, which is funny since it contains few of the trappings of a typical “Hitchockian” movie.  Sure, there’s suspense and murder and great camera work and editing.  But he also mines sociology, striking on something that would not be explored in pop culture until Rebel Without A Cause.  Hitchcock gives America a peek into the most covert, intelligent, and dangerous creature roaming the country:  the common teenager.

The Importance of Appearances in The Incredibles

Super heroes deal more with their appearance about as much as they do with criminals.  Without glasses and a suit, Superman would never be able to take some time off.  If Bruce Wayne didn’t have the batsuit, he’d be a good-hearted schmuck with a fresh shotgun wound in the chest.  Walter Kovacs without a trench coat and spotted mask is just a kook walking around New York carrying a placard that announces “The End Is Near.”  Kick-Ass simply doesn’t want to look like a tool.  I would not call them vain, but I also wouldn’t want any of them to rough me up (fictional or not, I like to cover my ass).

The Reality of Knocked Up

Judd Apatow has risen to the top of the comedy writing/directing heap, and it’s not hard to see why.  Many directors of lesser films–and especially of lesser romantic comedies–unfairly stack the cards against a character, and, with it, directs the audience’s sympathy.  Oh, he’s an asshole because he just doesn’t understand how to connect since his father left him as a child!  Why can’t she realize that her job is holding her back from true happiness!?  This sort of “alack!” and “woe!” all around is fairly simple to rectify.  Do this or say that in the rain and you’ll be granted happiness and love and all that happy, sun-shiney bullshit.

Of course, none of this is real.  Actual relationships with actual problems also come with actual complications.  But I guess one doesn’t see When In Rome because you want to grapple with human frailty.  You go because you really like Kristen Bell and hope against hope that things will work out for her, which is great since you know already that she will; it’s written all over the poster.  Knocked Up goes against that idea by constantly  mucking up the black-and-white set-up of most romantic comedies by throwing a big bucket of gray paint at the screen and letting you sort your feelings out.