David Fincher has earned himself a considerable amount of praise (along with a rather rabid following amongst aspiring filmmakers) for his psychological thrillers. With films like Se7en, Fight Club and Zodiac under his belt, it’s safe to say that he knows what the hell he’s doing when he’s trying to mess with someone’s head (hopefully someone will get that Se7en allusion). When most directors find their niche, they tend to stick with it. Zack Snyder had some success with 300, now he’s helming Watchmen, and it’s safe to say that he won’t be making the next Hugh Grant-starring, bumbling British romantic comedy anytime soon. Apparently, for David Fincher, the old saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t apply.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is not a psychological thriller. It’s not even a run-of-the-mill thriller. The only real mystery of the film is what exactly is making this man age backwards, and that thread doesn’t even drive the narrative! Benjamin Button is, at its core, a love story, and a deeply powerful one at that. Fueled by an enormous performance from Brad Pitt, this movie not only represents a successful venture for David Fincher, but a huge step forward in terms of proving his versatility as an artist.
As a concept, a story of a man who ages backwards is naturally quite interesting, but there’s a major roadblock to overcome in order to ensure that a film like this avoids the “hokey” characterization. The methods for creating a believable rendering of an aged Brad Pitt’s head perched on a young boy’s body must look authentic. Most CG is blatantly obvious, and it’s my contention that obvious CG can ruin a film. Think of the digital gophers that pop up in the latest Indiana Jones flick. If you felt completely abused by those furry nuisances, like I did, then you know what I mean. That being said, the work done by the filmmakers to get the heavily made up Brad Pitt’s face onto the body of a 7 year-old is both remarkable and entirely realistic. This is one of the only times I’ve ever been able to say that the computer generated images in a film are almost indistinguishable from the tangible.
The film itself is truly a masterpiece. David Fincher certainly put all he had into this one, and it shows. Eric Roth’s screenplay is both satisfying and powerful, and Fincher pulls all the right emotional chords at exactly the right moment. The visuals are stunning, and the director’s got a real talent for camera motion and scene composition. He defines the term “fill the frame” without ever crowding it, and it’s hard not to be astonished by what you’re watching. Actually, you’ll be watching for over two and a half hours, but the story is so engaging that you’re rarely aware of it.
Benjamin Button has already generated quite a buzz for itself, and I’m here to tell you that it’s all certainly warranted. There’s hardly anything to critique, and it ranks right up there with Slumdog Millionaire as one of the best movies of not just this year but easily the last several. If for every Scary Movie sequel we were presented with a Slumdog or Button, maybe films like Transformers wouldn’t win Best Movie at the MTV movie awards.
Grade: A
12.07.2008
Slumdog's One In A Million
Consider the following statement: The best film of the year is about an Indian man who goes on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire because he knows the girl he loves will be watching. That shouldn't be right, but it is.
Director Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire easily takes the title of Film of the Year, and possibly the last few years, due in part to its surprisingly fascinating narrative. With a deeply moving story, slick direction, and a brilliant performance by relatively unknown actor Dev Patel, there's an experience felt in the theater that's unprecedented.
Based upon Q & A, a novel by Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup, Slumdog Millionaire has quite the multifaceted story. Jamal Malik (Patel) is a poor Indian man who is on the verge of winning 20 million rupees on India's incarnation of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Given that Jamal has come from nothing (a "slumdog"), he is suspected of cheating and is brought into the police precinct for questioning. He is then interrogated and forced to explain himself to the proper authorities, and account for each of the questions he got right the night before.
As Jamal ventures to explicate himself, the audience is shuttled back to certain instances in Jamal's life until we become enlightened as to where he acquired that specific nugget of information. As Jamal sheds some light on each answer, it becomes more and more apparent that the light is deeply ominous all the way up to the pumping third act. Without spoiling the ending, it's fair to say that you surely won't be disappointed.
The story is a dangerous one to tackle, and even though it's both powerful and expertly written, if handled incorrectly, Slumdog Millionaire could have become another cliche-ridden, message-heavy flick that's not worth the increasingly expensive ticket price. Enter Boyle. With the critical acclaim of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later preceding him, he somehow manages to outdo himself tenfold with Slumdog. The flashbacks to the Mumbai slums he uses exude a gritty yet genuine sentiment that borrows slightly from City of God in its near documentary feel. The actual Who Wants to Be a Millionaire sequences and the interrogation scenes provide a staggering contrast between the helter skelter streets of Mumbai by remaining much more static focused, which really drives home the lengths that Jamal has traversed.
Speaking of Jamal, Patel turns in an astounding performance as the film's protagonist, blending wit and sarcasm with the countenance of a survivor of great tragedy. Patel's genuine portrayal of Jamal is crucial to the film avoiding the "hokey" category, as his handling of the role makes him almost universally likeable.
Patel does not provide the only enjoyable performance, however. The entire cast from top to bottom is great (even the child actors playing the younger versions of the main characters), and it makes the incredibly powerful story seem oddly plausible.
There are very few negatives that can be said about this film. The overall story may be slightly predictable, but the ride that is experienced throughout makes it not only forgivable, but nearly unnoticeable. Slumdog Millionaire is so expertly executed throughout that even the credit sequence is more enjoyable than the entirety of You Don't Mess With the Zohan.
A cinematic triumph, Slumdog Millionaire is a must-see for anyone looking to get genuine enjoyment out of a film, because you certainly will. A strange sense of euphoria explodes from the theater as the credits roll, and it's something so rare in film that it would be a crime not to experience it.
Grade: A
Director Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire easily takes the title of Film of the Year, and possibly the last few years, due in part to its surprisingly fascinating narrative. With a deeply moving story, slick direction, and a brilliant performance by relatively unknown actor Dev Patel, there's an experience felt in the theater that's unprecedented.
Based upon Q & A, a novel by Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup, Slumdog Millionaire has quite the multifaceted story. Jamal Malik (Patel) is a poor Indian man who is on the verge of winning 20 million rupees on India's incarnation of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Given that Jamal has come from nothing (a "slumdog"), he is suspected of cheating and is brought into the police precinct for questioning. He is then interrogated and forced to explain himself to the proper authorities, and account for each of the questions he got right the night before.
As Jamal ventures to explicate himself, the audience is shuttled back to certain instances in Jamal's life until we become enlightened as to where he acquired that specific nugget of information. As Jamal sheds some light on each answer, it becomes more and more apparent that the light is deeply ominous all the way up to the pumping third act. Without spoiling the ending, it's fair to say that you surely won't be disappointed.
The story is a dangerous one to tackle, and even though it's both powerful and expertly written, if handled incorrectly, Slumdog Millionaire could have become another cliche-ridden, message-heavy flick that's not worth the increasingly expensive ticket price. Enter Boyle. With the critical acclaim of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later preceding him, he somehow manages to outdo himself tenfold with Slumdog. The flashbacks to the Mumbai slums he uses exude a gritty yet genuine sentiment that borrows slightly from City of God in its near documentary feel. The actual Who Wants to Be a Millionaire sequences and the interrogation scenes provide a staggering contrast between the helter skelter streets of Mumbai by remaining much more static focused, which really drives home the lengths that Jamal has traversed.
Speaking of Jamal, Patel turns in an astounding performance as the film's protagonist, blending wit and sarcasm with the countenance of a survivor of great tragedy. Patel's genuine portrayal of Jamal is crucial to the film avoiding the "hokey" category, as his handling of the role makes him almost universally likeable.
Patel does not provide the only enjoyable performance, however. The entire cast from top to bottom is great (even the child actors playing the younger versions of the main characters), and it makes the incredibly powerful story seem oddly plausible.
There are very few negatives that can be said about this film. The overall story may be slightly predictable, but the ride that is experienced throughout makes it not only forgivable, but nearly unnoticeable. Slumdog Millionaire is so expertly executed throughout that even the credit sequence is more enjoyable than the entirety of You Don't Mess With the Zohan.
A cinematic triumph, Slumdog Millionaire is a must-see for anyone looking to get genuine enjoyment out of a film, because you certainly will. A strange sense of euphoria explodes from the theater as the credits roll, and it's something so rare in film that it would be a crime not to experience it.
Grade: A
Going Against the Grain...
This may come as a shock to you, but Daniel Craig (Quantum of Solace, Casino Royale) is starring in a movie this winter in which he’s only shirtless once. That may or may not have blown your mind, but if it didn’t, Edward Zwick’s new film Defiance just might. Starring Craig and Liev Schreiber, Zwick paints a fascinating true story of three Jewish brothers who escape from Nazi-occupied Poland to the Belarusian forest. It’s a feat in itself to make Daniel Craig believable as a Polish Jew, but Zwick doesn’t stop there; the story is both well crafted and expertly translated to the screen. Some may criticize the director for being overly conventional, but why try to distract from a great story by trying to reinvent the wheel?
Defiance tells the true story of the Bielski brothers, who escaped the Nazi occupation of Poland and set up camp (literally) in the woods of Belarus. While in hiding, the brothers decide to enact revenge on those who have wronged them, and eldest brother Tuvia (Craig) takes the biggest step by seeking out the murder of his parents and killing him in cold blood. This turn out to be a major turning point for Tuvia, and he determines that the best way for the brothers to defy the Nazis isn’t to spill more blood, but rather to do the opposite and save as many lives as possible. This puts Tuvia at odds with his brother Zus (Schreiber), who still believes that an eye for an eye is what’s best. The brothers’ once small camp soon evolves into a haven for all exalted Jews, with Tuvia having real trouble denying any of his brethren some shelter. Zus decides he’s tired of this path, so he joins the Russian contingent, abandoning the camp and leaving Tuvia with youngest brother Asael and countless other mouths to feed and protect. The story moves forward to detail the struggles and battles (verbal and physical) that erupt in the brothers’ lives over the next several months.
One of the most obvious differences between Defiance and other films about this subject matter is the presence of humor. In an interview with The Heights, Edward Zwick points out that he intended to honor the Jewish humor that came out of that time period by emphasizing the manner in which these oppressed people managed to cope with their being hunted. The laughs aren’t uproarious or incredibly frequent, but there’s a certain sarcastic element to much of the dialog between the brothers that in many ways makes the characters seem much more grounded and thankfully keeps them from seeming like unrealistic heroes. Additionally, many will be surprised to find out that we won’t see very many Nazis in the course of the narrative, and according to the director, this was quite deliberate. He noted that he always imagined the Nazi regime as anonymous, and that he wanted the antagonist to be somewhat subjective, and it’s certainly refreshing to focus on the infighting and drama in response to the looming villain rather than having everyone unite and immediately fight the regime.
From a technical and aesthetic perspective, Defiance shines. There’s a great amount of imagery to experience in each shot, especially the contrast between the different seasons that we experience in the jungle. The lush and seemingly welcoming woods in the first several months slowly deteriorate and freeze over as winter inches closer, and we begin to see the relationships and general health of the Bielski’s camp start to decay much like the environment around them. All of this builds up to a climactic final gunfight that is one of the best-edited battle sequences in recent memory. The cuts happen in such a way that the scene never once feels like a montage of explosions, but instead like a completely fluid sequence. In many ways, Defiance is one of the most cinematic films of the year, even though the story itself mostly deals with the notion of nonviolence as a form of resistance.
As usual, the film isn’t without a few flaws, but they’re all rather minor. It’s over two hours long, and there are several times where the audience gets slightly lost, but for the most part the film is very comprehensible. It’s pretty clear that the director’s vision was intended to be slightly longer, but for one reason or another it was decided that something needed to be cut. Unfortunately, what was cut was most of the exposition from the first act, so we are left with the first 20 minutes being somewhat rushed and confusing. After that misstep however, the story redeems itself, so the critique is more or less negligible.
With a powerful story, slick editing and a host of imagery, Defiance is a worthwhile adventure for anyone interested in a different side of the Holocaust, or anyone who’s looking to discover that Daniel Craig is actually quite a talented actor.
Grade: A-
Defiance tells the true story of the Bielski brothers, who escaped the Nazi occupation of Poland and set up camp (literally) in the woods of Belarus. While in hiding, the brothers decide to enact revenge on those who have wronged them, and eldest brother Tuvia (Craig) takes the biggest step by seeking out the murder of his parents and killing him in cold blood. This turn out to be a major turning point for Tuvia, and he determines that the best way for the brothers to defy the Nazis isn’t to spill more blood, but rather to do the opposite and save as many lives as possible. This puts Tuvia at odds with his brother Zus (Schreiber), who still believes that an eye for an eye is what’s best. The brothers’ once small camp soon evolves into a haven for all exalted Jews, with Tuvia having real trouble denying any of his brethren some shelter. Zus decides he’s tired of this path, so he joins the Russian contingent, abandoning the camp and leaving Tuvia with youngest brother Asael and countless other mouths to feed and protect. The story moves forward to detail the struggles and battles (verbal and physical) that erupt in the brothers’ lives over the next several months.
One of the most obvious differences between Defiance and other films about this subject matter is the presence of humor. In an interview with The Heights, Edward Zwick points out that he intended to honor the Jewish humor that came out of that time period by emphasizing the manner in which these oppressed people managed to cope with their being hunted. The laughs aren’t uproarious or incredibly frequent, but there’s a certain sarcastic element to much of the dialog between the brothers that in many ways makes the characters seem much more grounded and thankfully keeps them from seeming like unrealistic heroes. Additionally, many will be surprised to find out that we won’t see very many Nazis in the course of the narrative, and according to the director, this was quite deliberate. He noted that he always imagined the Nazi regime as anonymous, and that he wanted the antagonist to be somewhat subjective, and it’s certainly refreshing to focus on the infighting and drama in response to the looming villain rather than having everyone unite and immediately fight the regime.
From a technical and aesthetic perspective, Defiance shines. There’s a great amount of imagery to experience in each shot, especially the contrast between the different seasons that we experience in the jungle. The lush and seemingly welcoming woods in the first several months slowly deteriorate and freeze over as winter inches closer, and we begin to see the relationships and general health of the Bielski’s camp start to decay much like the environment around them. All of this builds up to a climactic final gunfight that is one of the best-edited battle sequences in recent memory. The cuts happen in such a way that the scene never once feels like a montage of explosions, but instead like a completely fluid sequence. In many ways, Defiance is one of the most cinematic films of the year, even though the story itself mostly deals with the notion of nonviolence as a form of resistance.
As usual, the film isn’t without a few flaws, but they’re all rather minor. It’s over two hours long, and there are several times where the audience gets slightly lost, but for the most part the film is very comprehensible. It’s pretty clear that the director’s vision was intended to be slightly longer, but for one reason or another it was decided that something needed to be cut. Unfortunately, what was cut was most of the exposition from the first act, so we are left with the first 20 minutes being somewhat rushed and confusing. After that misstep however, the story redeems itself, so the critique is more or less negligible.
With a powerful story, slick editing and a host of imagery, Defiance is a worthwhile adventure for anyone interested in a different side of the Holocaust, or anyone who’s looking to discover that Daniel Craig is actually quite a talented actor.
Grade: A-
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