TOTAL RECALL (2012) movie review – OR – Emily Dickinson at the movies

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SPlatter’s movie review:

Wake up.

Ask what is real.
Fight IRobot Storm Troopers.
Rescue Biel.
Save the world.

It’s a fiery-paced action ride with trust issues. Watch it if your hungry for 100% action and a decent amount of facetime with Colin Farrell.

I’m not exactly sure where this next bit came from, but I imagined that a film like this would be quite a shock to the system of an ancient literary figure. So, I attempted to write a review from the mind of a favorite poet. Here are her potential thoughts on this film:

Emily Dickinson at the movies

by S. Platter

If I see a film and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that it is sci-fi.

In darkened room I waited

Eyes frozen, open wide,

For frame to frame unfettered

Moved time on glowing picture tide.

The characters, half-clothed,

Seemed so happily in love

That I thought I oughtn’t spy them there

In voyeuristic hove.

 

But they seemed yet undaunted

by my own presence there;

we were drawn in fast by sudden pace

and inoffensive gore.

The future in my present

Some men seemed made of steel,

And women swarmed and mannish moved

Demonstrating how I feel.

 

To fight for men, for causes yet

To sense the pressured pulse,

I was confused, but centered still,

Made stronger by the rush.

I know not when I’ll see again

Such glow of pace and force,

But God himself must meet us there

When future is past once more.

PEOPLE LIKE US (2012) movie review

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People like Chris Pine made this film look good. Timing is his strong suit.

People like Michelle Pfeiffer have obviously not aged with joy. And people like Olivia Wilde struggle to look dowdy enough to play the bit-part girlfriend.

People Like Us is not a comedy. It’s a tragedy. Lack of plot leaves characters fishing through raucous emotions to offer terrible advice to the next generation, setting him up to live a plotless life fishing through the same raucous emotions…in other words, nothing happens.

Tough to rely on even decent actors for an eventless film with only one honest scene (park bench at night) and a few cool looking Aronofsky-esqe shots.

Charlie Chaplin’s THE KID (1921) movie review

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In our era, we struggle to understand issues that people faced in bygone days. Charlie Chaplin understood and helped people emote to the harmonium’s repetitive tunes. He romanced the camera turning simplicity into hilarity and heartbreak.

2011’s best picture hit The Artist, gave modern audiences a sumptuous taste of film history. Oddly, it prepared me to watch this Chaplin film for the first time, and it was a lovely hour and a half spent.

 

I dare you to try it. Get to know the glorious black and white. Learn to read lips, facial expressions, and body language. Delight in young talent. Settle in for a short time at a safe distance from the chasm between poverty and prosperity that they knew too well in the 20’s. You may surprise yourself and fall for Chaplin’s flat feet, cane, and satche as I did.

 

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012) movie review

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A message of hope pervades Nolan‘s third in this Batman trilogy.

From chaos, order.

From death, life.

From a cave-like prison of darkness to freedom in the light.

The Bale… The Bat… The JGL… The Cat… Fast vehicles and witty chopped phrasing. This one didn’t leave me with a 2 hour migraine like the last one. It’s like Nolan found a way to use a little humor to break up the tension a bit.

I’ll admit that even in the small town theater that I saw this in, I was overly aware of the recent shooting in Aurora. I eyed the doorways and crowd members, and scenes with gunfire became brutal, constant reminders of the tragedy. The violence is inescapable.

Fear plays a persistent enemy in film and life, nagging and threatening our joy. Author John Knowles calls fear “the opposite face of uncontrollable joy.” I love that phrase, seeing joy as the conqueror of fear. Since I have often found such joy in the medium of film, I found the mingling two awkward and disconcerting. I had to let go the nagging protective voice in my head that might have wept or fled the theater.

Without knowing of the events that would surround his movie, Nolan inlaid an escape route from fear within the film. He gave Batman an innate hatred of killing. Hathaway’s throwback to the Adam West version of Catwoman enjoyed teasing Batman for his distaste for weaponry.

Nolan instilled a love of justice and a selfless care for human life in his two heroes: the masked Bale and unmasked Joseph Gordon Levitt. Both seemed to understand that a hero must sacrifice himself to save others and must never lose faith. Real enemies care only for their own interests and sacrifice all to achieve them.

This film seemed to triumph beyond the shadows of July 20th. Even the title is given new meaning. As Proverbs 30, verse 5 says, “Sorrow may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

On the Cinema Massacre of July 20th, 2012 at the Dark Knight Rises premier

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My cousin, Denny has now served more than three years in Iraq. His perspective was possibly the most adamant that I have heard since the Aurora shooting at the Dark Knight Rises premier. “If you were planning to see it, then you HAVE to see it. If you don’t go to that movie now, terrorists win,” he said.

Fascinating. When it’s a hit from home, we rarely call it terrorism. But, the term derives from terror. The Joker, ala Heath Ledger (reverent R.I.P.), called himself an agent of chaos. He collected money to watch it burn. He inflicted pain to watch aftermath. Perverse, and too real now.

We cannot comprehend the chaos of that night any more than the horror and sorrow of the days that follow.

Facebook was littered with posts from people who have decided “never to go to the movies again.” And, so many “liked” the post promoting a visit from Christian Bale in Batman garb to the children’s hospital near Aurora. I’m pretty positive that Batman is perhaps the last association they’d like to see walking in. A man in a dark costume of any kind is a bad idea.

Certainly actors, directors, cinematographers, and theater managers also wept when they heard of this tragedy. Nolan released a statement calling the movie theater his “home.” Yes, he too felt this attack, as we all did.

Nolan wisely cancelled the Paris premier the next day, just as teams of movie theater employees gathered to brainstorm ways to make the theaters feel safe again. Surely, in step with airport security, protocols will increase.

This incident wounds the art and creativity in all of us, but we mustn’t let it. Truly in the chaos and echoing news stories, we feel fear. The team who made the film Dark Knight Rises, no doubt, felt that their efforts had been wasted.

Psalm 20 begins, “May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble,” and continues in verse 7, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.”

Stay tuned for my Dark Knight Rises review… coming soon.

THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN (2012) movie review

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Amazing? Yes, actually.

Spidey is human, unmasked and human.

I’ve hesitated in writing this review. Perhaps the product of simple summer joy, but maybe because I was shocked to really like this one. The old plot got a makeover. They covered up the old Maguireisms and moved Aunt Mae and Uncle Ben into the city.

Andrew Garfield makes the movie. He’s the real thing. He’s an actor. Heart on his sleeve, he stands out as the fresh, spirited, adolescent Peter Parker. He gives the character youthful zeal and uncommunicative tendencies, as well as a healthy bulletproof zeal.

Emma Stone is well cast as love interest Gwen Stacey. She’s sweet – a characteristic that only a fresh director can bring out in her.

Filmmakers are storytellers, fighting the age-old battle of structure vs character development. Fortunately for us, director Mark Webb believes in both. He carefully weaves moments of truth for each character while keeping the linear plot line clean.

The teacher at the end of the film preaches his singular question of character development with the line, “There is only one question, ‘Who am I?'”

Perhaps this is the only question a character needs to fuel a hero.

ROCK OF AGES (2012) movie review

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I’ll never listen to Journey the same way again.
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Call this film a cautionary tale.

Perhaps the message was: never move to L.A. You’ll end up a stripper, or a member of a boy band, or a filthy politician, or in love with a rock god, or worse…you’ll become the rock god and never find real love.

Cautions all. Here’s another one: Caution: don’t see this movie. Never before have I yelled mid-film,  “This is the worst movie I have ever seen!” And I’ve seen some bad’uns.
ImageFirst, it’s a musical. Hairspray and Mama Mia meet Spinal Tap minus Christopher Guest. Someone should have let this all star cast in on the inside joke before they took it too seriously.

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Some, like C.Z.Jones played it camp, like a native of the theater would. She was awful. I’m so embarrassed for her. Her redemption? Possibly only the presence of Bryan Cranston as her fidgety spouse.

Do not be fooled into seeing this for Alec Baldwin. He comes out in this film in more ways than one, and he proves to the world, much like Pierce Brosnan did in Mama Mia, that he should never sing. And Russell Brand shouldn’t act. Facts.
ImageFinally, expect less from Tom Cruise. He put on quite a performance. Certainly, I couldn’t be anything but impressed by his singing voice and on-stage performances. A clip of Cruise as Stacee Jaxx will no doubt add to the clips from his lifetime body of work when they show it at the Oscars in 30 years. His insanity will never be questioned again. This film slipped him right back onto Oprah’s couch. Like a method actor, he played the Rocker with intense realism. He was gag-ably sexual and far too naked. Nasty.

I should have walked out. I finally joined the people next to me in fist pumping and cell phone waving. We must have laughed for an hour after it was over. Sadly we were laughing at, and not with.

MOONRISE KINGDOM movie review 2012

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Wes Anderson gets it.

Whatever “it”is, you may say in that sarcastic tone. But I will keep believing, perhaps forever, that this acclaimed, genius director of detail simply…gets it. His complex and vivid characters speak with endearingly blunt honesty.

“I love you, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I love you too.”

I love this face:

One of my students claims that “Wes Anderson makes children’s books that come to life.” Agreed, Becca.   Anderson is indeed a visual storyteller whose medium is life-sized diorama. The doll houses, cut in half, swing open to reveal intricately placed treasures, and as the camera pans through we understand that pieces of the story are unfolding.

He is the king of moving panoramic shots, of directness in monotone line deliveries, of awkwardness from a swash of the explicit, of color schemes, of the quintessential slow motion sequence. His style is unmistakable once you are aware of it.

I love how his brain works – how he sees the world. I would dare call this director an archaeologist, for he uses found objects ritually and often symbolically. In this film, it’s the brooch, a record player, a pair of binoculars, a scout uniform, a tent, a map, a megaphone.

This film is a love story, but somehow sadness mingles with the sweet. Heartbreak. This film is for Anderson fans, young and old, to drink in, frame by frame, with delight. Just know that it’s totally Anderson, and that it wouldn’t be without that one scene. Moonrise Kingdom‘s one scene occurs in the place where the film gets its name and is so over-the-top verbally awkward and sexual that I’m surprised they didn’t earn a higher rating.

Through the eyes of Anderson, we become fellow anthropologists and sociologists. We study the fragments and artifacts of humanity. We listen to blunt, refracted statements that leave us heartbroken then bursting with the crowd in laughter. It’s all about relationships. A husband an wife who can only talk shop,  a sad officer who has to borrow family, a powerless leader, an angry boy and girl: very real pain, very felt love. Loneliness camps out on every island spot searching for belonging, for care, for home. It is rarely secure. Here, we join Anderson on the excavation and inevitably find life beneath the dirt. And, perhaps we find that we all belong and are … kindred spirits after all.

Thank you, SIFF, for a beautiful premier at the old, glorious Egyptian Theater in Seattle.

SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN (2012) movie review

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Emily Blunt requires no introduction. She is a stand alone class act, so set her next to a seasoned professional the likes of Ewan McGregor and you see the execution of story on-screen in believable complexity. Every glance on camera becomes a moment, every scene a dive into vast depths of character. 
These actors allowed a slow and disconnected script its chance to soar a bit before sinking again beneath the depths of forgettability.

Faith was a major theme in the film. People of both faith and science found kindred community in the love of fishing.
Tolerance a token rebuke, this film preached peace through faith and forgiveness. Important truths, lovely sentiment, but lacking directive for faith in something or someone specifically. The sheikh pronounced faith in God, but otherwise mentored the broken individuals with a curious concept not a concrete one. I did love his character, though. Certainly, we want to be questioned, not preached at. But this vague religion is too much intermingled with politics to present a proper question worth pondering.  Perhaps the sheikh meant faith in fish. This film had the bird watching pace of Big Year and the propaganda elements to near Happy Feet levels. Perhaps it could be construed as an anti-government piece …red tape and all that.  This British film push ideas without structure, and unfortunately feels too deliberate and disorganized to be truly thoughtful.

I loved the song in the closing credits: “Where you go” by the young Romans band.

IRON LADY (2012) movie review

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THE trumping triumphant fearless woman: Iron Lady sums it up. She pounces the pile of leaves without a thought, never considering the possibility of  hidden danger within the pile. Though sometimes bruised and pained, she was one who walked bravely into a man’s society to fight for causes and to do what she believed to be right despite the losses. Well-spoken and task-driven, she was one who stood her ground through war and tragedy and saw Britain through to better days.

 I struggled to see her humanity. She hurt for the bigger picture, for an entire country, but missed out on the lives at home. She was bold and almost boyish or robotic. I admire and pity her.
The genius of this film is that it recalls to life her husband, her point of deepest regret. We all have in common the fact of regret which stems in hindsight. The “if-onlys” can dry us up. Meryl Streep, once again, breathes character into a lost icon. We leave the theater saddened but somehow still encouraged.