BRIEF THOUGHTS ON: TANGERINE, MAD MAX, DODES’KA-DEN

Hello there. It’s been a long time since I last posted here, and in that last post, I said that this would be “weekly or bi-weekly”. Well, guess what. I lied. Right through my teeth. So from this point onward, consider these posts to be whenever I can be bothered. Ideally monthly, but setting myself an actual schedule seems optimistic. Also I’m no longer publishing my thoughts on every movie I see, because sometimes what I write is really bad. If you’d like to see my thoughts on every movie I’ve seen recently for some reason, presented in the form of an arbitrary star rating, feel free to check to check out my letterboxd account here: https://letterboxd.com/itstune/

Anyway, here are some rambles for you. Enjoy.

Mad Max (1979)

Lindsay Ellis at one point described this film as “an extended first act”, which I am going to co-opt here because I think it’s true. The style is very much the substance here, with the script itself being a pretty standard revenge flick. All the performances are campy as shit, and it’s rather hard to tell how seriously the film is to be taken, but despite that it’s generally pretty entertaining, though the preamble to the event that triggers Max going mad goes on waaaaaaay to long. Still, I have a lot of respect for it. It’s an ingenious bit of low budget film making, with the justly celebrated action scenes being the highlight of the generally pretty amazing style. Looking forward to checking out the sequels, which sound much more up my alley.

Tangerine (2015)

The ultra-low-budget-shot-on-some-iPhones-comedy-drama-hyphenate-heavy-romp through the seediest parts of LA. It’s decent. Mostly it revolves around two transgender women, one of whom has discovered that her boyfriend may have cheated on her while she was in prison, and thus, wreaks havoc. It’s not the most original concept for a movie, but it does work fairly well. Not all the jokes hit home, and though I admire how much the filmmakers managed to do with a couple of Iphones, I personally find the heavily colour corrected, hyperactive visual style to be rather unpleasant to look at (though maybe that’s the point). But despite those issues with it I still found the film rather interesting. All the performances are good, and it’s cast highlights a lot of different demographics that don’t get nearly enough media representation, as well as the trials and tribulations that they face. And, most admirably, it squeezes a not insubstantial amount of depth and complexity into all the major players into it’s rather short run-time. While I confess that it’s not really my thing, I’m glad it exists and I’m glad I saw it.

Dodes’ka-den (1970)

Kurosawa’s first in colour is perplexing to say the least. It’s the collected stories of the inhabitants of a desolate slum. The movie is all over the place, in terms of tone, thematics, pacing, and quality. Some scenes in the film are legitimately great, such as the scene when the salaryman has his
colleagues over for drinks, or when an old man convinces someone to find meaning in their life, another moment between the Father and his children, and several scenes involving two drunks who have a tendency to swap wives from time to time. I even like the scenes with Roku-chan and his ‘trolley’, though I find it very hard to discern whether I’m supposed to find it tragic, funny, uplifting or all three. Other subplots are well executed, such as the one involving the abused niece or the ‘house-builders’, but devolve into such misery that it’s hard to say that I actually ‘enjoyed’ them. And some could have just been cut altogether; the one involving the estranged couple springs to mind. The only real uniting factor for the whole thing is that it’s absolutely gorgeous to look at. I’m pretty sure only Kurosawa could make a literal garbage heap look so interesting. Though he would achieve greater things with colour in Ran, this is still an incredibly impressive and utterly beautiful film just to look at. I especially love the stylized painted sky that we see in some of the night scenes. All the performances are good, and even when the whole thing devolves into misery porn, it’s hard to say that it leaves you unaffected. It’s by no means a masterpiece or even particuarly essential viewing, but if you are one who enjoys sprawling disjointed narratives full of beautiful colours, occasional heart warming humanism and a not insignificant amount of soul crushing bleakness, seek this one out. 

Sorry this has been so long folks. Been rather busy. Not sure how regular these are going to be with me actually trying to be a half decent student and trying actually having a sleep schedule, but I’ll try to get them up weekly or biweekly, depending. Apologies for any typos and shitty analysis. Enjoy.

Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy (1998)

A kind of proto-youtube poop of the old Andy Hardy teen comedies. It’s… weird. Comparing it to YTP is sort of underselling it, (I don’t think YTP ever could reach this level of disturbing), but still, it is just a remix of previously existing clips. And with those previously existing clips it creates a tale of implied incest, unintentional orgasm sounds, and daddy issues. You know, good solid family entertainment. Like I said, it’s weird. At times funny, but very weird. And also, really freaky. Most of the film is just these clips repeating over and over again, with these horrifying sounds and strange jerky movements, combined with edits that almost act like jump scares, all of which dig so deep into the uncanny valley that the movie starts to get under my skin, in a Lynchian sort of way. Still, it’s always fun to watch something so innocent turned so very…not. Give it a look.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)

Godard’s psyche circa 1967… THE MOVIE! Yes, this film is basically everything that Godard had on his mind at that point in time, told through weird whispery voice over and various people talking directly into the camera, most often, Mariana Vlady, playing ostensibly the main character, though it’s hard to really call her a “character” in the tradiotional sense, in the smae way that it’s hard to say that the film has a plot. The DVD descriptions would give you the impression that this is a film about a housewife/prostitute living her life or whatever, and I suppose if you took random 3 second clips of the film you might get that impression. But no, you have been mislead, this is not a film about plot, it is a film about raising philosophical, moral, and social issues and questions to the viewer through the most obtuse language possible, giving you about 5 seconds to think about it, and then it hurtles on to the next thing, and the cycle repeats itself. So, you may be wondering, what are those issues/questions?

Well:

• What is it to speak?/What is language?
• Objectification of women/people in general
• The Vietnam War
• Materialism
• What is it to “know” something?
• Social ills of Paris
• Malaise
• And about 500 other things that I didn’t get a chance to write down.

At one point during the film, I wrote in my notes “this movie is so dense I’m drowning”, which I think sums it up quite nicely. All of the topics on display here are really interesting, and the movie is hardly badly put together, nor does it poorly cover it’s topics, it’s just…. Exhausting! Every second you’re being hit with a new concept, communicated in weird metaphors and hard to follow language. Your head starts to spin, “OH GOD THERE IS SO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT, OH NO THE WORLD IS SO FULL OF SUFFERING AND HARDSHIP AND GODARD KEEPS WHISPERING IT AND I CAN’T HEAR AND THEY KEEP BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL AND OH GOD I FEEL DIZZY I’M GOING TO THROW UP”.

And so on for 83 minutes.

It’s not an easy movie to watch to be sure. However, it is very well constructed, with some gorgeous shots of Paris and it’s inhabitants. And though I did just sound like I was angry at Godard for making a film so dense, I’m not really. It’s frustrating to be sure, but, presuming you’re not repulsed by the pretension of it all, there’s a lot of things that are worth grappling with and thinking about. There’s a lot to be said for a film that gets you thinking, and when it’s done by someone with the same level of skill as Godard, it’s hard to say that it’s not worth at least one look.

14th of February

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Wes Anderson’s candy coloured comedic caper of saying the phrase “Oh hey look it’s [RECOGNISABLE ACTOR NAME]!”

Also it’s really good.

For one thing, all those recognisable actors that I just mentioned: Really good, every one of them. That same sentiment also goes for the not so famous actors. Pretty much every one is killing it, is what I’m trying to say. Ralph Fiennes and Tony Revolori in particular, as mains M. Gustave and Zero respectively, are not only excellent in their own right, but have great chemistry, working off each other extremely well, delivering most of the funniest scenes in what is a very funny movie, as well as pretty much all of the most poignant ones. 

And of course, like any Wes Anderson film, it’s immaculately made. I know his freakishly geometric style isn’t exactly everyone’s bag, but I personally really enjoy it. Everything feels hyper constructed and unreal, but that aesthetic just adds to the playfulness and the fun of the film.

Did I mention it’s fun? I should, because it it so much fun. It’s fun to look at, it’s fun to watch the increasingly nutso plot play itself out, it’s fun watching all these well known actors, who are all clearly having a blast, deliver the hilarious dialogue. All fun, all the time.

And yet, in spite of that, It’s also strangely melancholy. Mostly this is just a result of the use of several different time periods during the film, seem to serve one purpose, and one purpose alone, a purpose you’re made aware of from the first shot onward: Pretty much every character you’ll have any reason to care about is almost certainly long dead. This kind of casts a cloud over the whole movie, that other “period” (I hesitate to use that word with this film, but I can’t think of much else) pieces wouldn’t ever bother to make so specific. While you’re watching the film, most of you is going “oh yeah, this a blast”, but then the movie reminds you every so often that this movie takes place quite a long time ago and that the march of time has come for these characters, as it comes for all.

So, what purpose does that serve? Why bring the mood down with that small reminder that everybody’s gonna die and there’s nothing we can really do about. 

Well, I guess I’d say that it’s for pathos. For the reason of turning a film that should just be particularly delicious junk food into something that’ll actually move you, to some extent. To add a degree of emotional complexity that, at a glance, wouldn’t seem that emotionally complex at all. And it is all the better for it.

Or maybe I’m just a pretentious teenager who knows.

19th of February

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)

Umm… What to say about The Man Who Fell to Earth? It’s a confounding film really, the kind of forces you to do mental gymnastics if you want to figure out what, if anything it’s trying to say. Is it about consumerism? The depravity of humanity? Corruption of the soul? All of those things? None of them? I don’t know, maybe I’m reading too much into it. Maybe it’s just about tone, about feeling like you’re completely lost as to what is going, but you don’t really mind, following a stranger in a stranger land…

But I haven’t even really said anything actually concrete about the film at this point, have I? Well, The Man Who fell to Earth is a 1976 science fiction film directed by Nicolas Roeg, of Don’t Look Now and Walkabout fame. It also happens to star beloved musician and dead-for-a-year-but-it-still-feels-recently deceased celebrity David Bowie, in the role of Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien from a dying planet in search of the precious water that his race is in desperately short supply of. To paraphrase from just about every piece of writing about this film, this was the role Bowie was born to play. I mean, he doesn’t really do a lot of particularly difficult acting, but just from looking the way David Bowie did in 1976, and giving off the vibe that he did around that time, he really does make you think that he’s from another planet. All the other performances in the film are good too, with Rip Torn and Candy Clark being the standouts, basically on the merit of being the only two who get more than a couple of lines, but none leave quite as strong an impression as the main star (though that, to be fair, is difficult). I should also mention that it is gorgeous to look at, being shot primarily in New Mexico, with some lovely desolate locations.

It’s also edited in (what I am told) to be Roeg’s trademark style, with heaps of cross cutting, jump cuts, and several time skips that are not always entirely clear, which isn’t exactly helpful in trying to follow the already rather opaque plot, but it does add a lot of meaning to several scenes that would be rather bland without it.
Anyway suffice to say, overall I did quite enjoy it. While I’m not entirely sure exactly what it is trying to say, if anything, it does make for strangely compelling viewing, with it’s very strange take on what is, essentially, a rather familiar tale. Worth checking out, though do be prepared to be a bit perplexed.

Reviews/Rambles for the Week of 30th of January through to 5th of February

Same disclaimer as last week; very rambly, sorry for any typos. Enjoy.

Bande à Part (1964)
Oh Godard, you scoundrel. Apparently, this is his most accessible film, which I guess I agree with, though I refuse to call any Godard film entirely “accessible”. It’s probably the easiest to enjoy on just a surface level, as a crime caper that’s set in Paris with the ever wonderful Anna Karina and two suitors pining over her while simentaneously planning a robbery. Still, there’s probably a lot of stuff going on under the surface that I  didn’t pick up on. While I do love his films, a lot of Godard’s work is so dense that I wonder if I need to see the film three times back to back to fully appreciate the extent of the message that’s he’s trying to get across. And I haven’t even gotten to his later work. Still, like I said, it is fun, even if you can’t quite fully get into whatever point it may be trying to make (I should note this one does seem a little less dense then a lot of his other films). It’s wonderfully shot by Raoul Coutard, unsurprisingly, and Anna Karina is wonderful as ever. The famous dance scene is great, and all the fourth wall breaking is fun as shit. It’s a good 60s Godard movie, one that has been written about more eloquently and with more depth by better writers than myself. Check it out, if you haven’t already. 

Submarine (2011)

Richard Ayoade’s coming of age dramedy about the most idiotic, adolescent, disturbingly relatable teenage protagonist you can imagine. It’s… sweet. Often times cringe inducing (intentionally, I should add) but, yes, sweet. Still, there is no getting away from, the fact is that a lot of this film is watching our young Welsh protagonist, Oliver Tate, doing exceptionally stupid things, all the while thinking he is incredibly smart and cool and sophisticated, and if that sounds like your hell, this is probably not your movie. I’ve heard him compared to Adrian Mole, and, I don’t really think I can top that as a descriptor. Same obsession with sex, same pathetic lust, same delusions of being an intellectual, and same disturbing resemblance to the person who is writing this. You could accuse him of being a rip off, but Oliver  escapes that by being portrayed with a little more sympathy then Adrian, as well as the comforting implication that Oliver is going to grow up, and that he’s going to get better. This is in sharp contrast to Adrian, where half the joke is that he never really does change. It’s a portrait of an awkward, fumbling teenager trying to get his shit figured out, to put it bluntly, and it’s quite a good one. It’s also really well put together, which is a nice bonus. There’s more than a few compositions that have a Wes Anderson vibe to them, with their obsession with symmetry and complementary colours. It doesn’t hurt that it is shot in an absolutely gorgeous part of Wales either. Overall, it’s pretty good, especially for a first feature, and clearly has had a tonne of effort put into its construction, even if can occasionally get a little precious at times. Worth checking out at least once, if you enjoy screaming at fictional characters to “not do that you stupid f***ing idiot”. 

The Help (2011)

2011’s 60s race drama that is one of the more common films to be referred to as “problematic”. Now, ignoring that that is kind a stupid turn of phrase if you stop and think about it for a second or two, The Help is problematic. It can be argued that the film perpetuates a “white saviour” narrative, amongst other issues. However, I am a white dude, who has never been to uni or really studied race relations, and as such, don’t really feel equipped to cover them in any meaningful way. I invite you to google them. So instead, what I’m going to focus on is the one thing that makes it worth sitting through the 140 odd minutes of this film. And that is two people.

Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. 

These two give absolutely wonderful performances that pull this desperately simple, one sided morality tale thing to being heart breaking, funny and at times, genuinely gripping. They’re the most interesting characters in the movie, and they make the whole thing worthwhile. So, on that basis, I recommend the film. 

Now everything else: well, it’s a bit… mixed.

Most of the performances are fine, if not terribly great. Emma Stone is upsettingly forgettable, projecting none of the charm or enthusiasm that she’s done so well in other roles, though her material doesn’t really give her a lot to work with. Bryce Dallas Howard is very easy to hate, which is the point, so I guess that counts as a success. Everyone else is alright, like I said. None of it’s really their fault, it’s just that the script that they have is so 1 dimensional. The script never really examines what makes any of these characters tick, why they think the way they do,just kind of a “these are the bad guys, these are the good guys” mentality. The only depth comes from, as I previously stated, Spencer and Davis’s characters, who are in the fortunate position of being both incredibly talented performers and also the most sympathetic characters in the movie. 

So, in summary, it’s decent. It has many flaws, but based on those two wonderful performances, it’s worth seeing.

Film Reviews/Rambles For the Week 23rd to 29th of January, 2017

As promised, if not a tad late. More coming soon.  Apologies for any grammatical errors. Also in case the title did not clue you in these are rambly as hell. Enjoy.

Stroszek (1977)

Werner Herzog’s depressing and very good story of a group of essentially nice people who leave their terrible lives in Germany to go and live in America, under the false impression that life is better on the other side of the pond. Like I said, it’s very good. For one thing, all of the main cast is great. Bruno S. (whose own experiences serve as a basis for many parts of the script) gives a great performance as the title character, an honest but disadvantaged man who the world has done nothing but screw over. Eva Mattes is also really good, playing a prostitute, who after being abused by her pimp, leaves with Strozek for America. Clemen Shceitz is also quite good, as a slightly crazy but essentially good natured old man. While his character doesn’t really receive nearly as much screen time as the other members of trio, his performance is still interesting enough to leave a lasting impression. Like may of his other works, this film is fairly nihilistic. The general theme K got from it was his “bad things happen to good people” and “society always screws over the less fortunate”. Which are both really interesting themes, and they’re executed incredibly well here. The film contains some scenes of terrible cruelty, and it’s often greatly upsetting. Despite all that though, it’s incredibly compelling. It’s not hard to get invested in the characters, and if this kind of socially aware drama is your thing like it is mine, you’ll find yourself sucked right into this tragic tale.

Also, because I couldn’t fit these points into the main body:

• The music is really wonderful.
• Though it’s not revolutionary in the way it’s shot or anything, Herzog’s use of location shooting makes it very pretty to look at, in its own desolate sort of way.

Jackie (2016)

Biopic about Jackie Kennedy in the days after her husband’s assassination, here played by Natalie Portman, in what would seem to be a transparent attempt to get her an Oscar, but ends up being so much more when that. 

First, to get it out of the way: Portman is phenomenal. She perfectly embodies Kennedy’s loss, her grief and anger, her feelings of hopelessness, but also her strength and her determination in the face of terrible tragedy. About the shortest and highest praise that I can give her is that you never feel like you’re watching Natalie Portman playing Jackie Kennedy. You feel like you’re watching Jackie Kennedy. This rather incredible feat of acting is made more incredible by Portman not really looking all that much like her subject. 

The rest of the cast is also great. Peter Sarsgaard as Robert Kennedy is excellent, conveying his character’s grief and frustration excellently in a relatively limited amount of screen time, and John Hurt (RIP) playing a priest in whom Jackie confides is also excellent (but since when is John Hurt not?. Greta Gerwig and Billy Crudup, as Nancy Tuckerman and “The Journalist” respectively,  also both leave big (positive) impressions with fairly small parts.

Now, I’ve made this sound like just a particularly well acted biopic. That is a falsehood. Everything in this film is excellent. First up, the music. The score was composed by Mica Levi, who also did the score for Under the Skin, and based on what little I’ve heard of that soundtrack (obligatory “I’m getting to it!”), this is very similar in tone. At times, the score can make the mood feel almost horrific, with its ethereal strings making the already intense drama almost hard to watch as it pushes you right to the edge of your seat. Thankfully, the OST doesn’t always keep you in quite that much suspense, with some very nice piano compositions lending the particular scenes that they accompany a mournful, reflective mood.

Also brilliant: the structure! The structure of this film is what really made it for me. Moments of time crash and fall over each other in Jackie’s mind, replaying and fading into each other as she tries to make sense of her situation. Not only does it add to the film as the study of a broken mind, but it also means that the film keeps you on your toes, keeping you moving from one moment to the next and then back again before things start to get stale. 

It’s also wonderfully directed by Pablo Larrain, who shoots the whole thing on film, occasionally cutting in actual archive footage, seamlessly I might add, adding to the realism. Often, he frames the characters in close ups, adding a sense of intimacy that invests you further into what’s going on onscreen.

Frankly, the film is kind of miraculous. Pretty much nothing ever seems to go wrong, and everyone is working at top form, and as always, there’s a lot I haven’t touched on. This is one of the best of the year and well worth checking out. 

Duck Amuck (1953)

Classic Warner Bros. short with a surrealist bent. Pretty great honestly. Breaks down not only the fourth wall, but the world of the film itself. Daffy Duck screaming at his creator to animate him properly is not only absurd, but also really funny. One of the most celebrated of all the Warner shorts, and with good reason. 
I, Daniel Blake (2016)

Ken Loach’s latest, showcasing the trials and tribulations of good, working class people at the hands of the state. As I understand it, this is not exactly a new theme for him. But if he’s this good at it, I say keep going. This is an excellent film, but it’s also a pretty harrowing one. It kind of amounts to watching these lovely people being undermined by a hopeless bureaucracy that is supposedly there to help them. It’s filmed in a very barebones style, mostly unshowy mid shots, with some occasional wide and close-ups. This stripped back approach allows you to focus on the emotions of the film, which consist mostly of:

• Righteous anger
• Crushing sadness
• Occasional hope

And those very powerful feelings that are baked into the screenplay are heightened further still by the two leads, Daniel Johns and Hayley Squires, who are both incredibly sympathetic and very believable. Everyone else is great in the movie, including the child actors, but those two particularly stand out.

Suffice to say this is an incredibly raw film, and one that, even a couple of days after seeing it, is still in the process of breaking my heart. Well worth seeing, but be warned, you’re going to feel the feels. 

Where Have You Been? / The Future of This Blog Going Forward

Hello people! All… 5 of you. Long time no see, eh? How’s things? You can’t answer that question? Because this is not a conversation?

…

Well alright then…

Anyway, hi! If you forgot about this blog, you’re not the only one. So did the writer himself! For you see, for the-past-however-long-it’s-been-since-I-last-posted, I have been lost in a great variety of things, namely school, laziness, reading better film writers than myself (and by that plural “writers” I mean just Tim Brayton), and my pathetic attempt to complete my monstrously huge and ever growing IMDb watch-list. I haven’t really stopped writing, but I have stopped publishing. So you may ask, what have I been writing? Well, other than a few attempts at actual screenwriting (I forgot to mention, I’ve also developed vague delusions of wanting to work as a filmmaker), mostly I have been keeping a film diary, wherein I write my brief thoughts on a film, but without actually doing a proper plot-summary, or full on delving into the film. Rambles, basically.

That quality of rambling, mild-incoherence, is what has kept me from actually publishing them. However, since barely anyone reads this blog in the first place, I  have now decided I may as well put them up here. It would certainly be better than what currently lives on this blog..

*looks over to old anime reviews*

*shudders*

As well, as that, I might occasionally write some full on analysis type things on either broad topics or specific films/anime/whatever. Who knows, maybe if I’m feeling particularly courageous, I’ll actually talk about politics, rather than just retweeting smarter people than myself (shameless plug: twitter @danieltunetweet).

Anyhow, TL;DR

Where have you been?

Doing nerdy teenager stuff.

The future of this blog going forward?

Short writeups about what films I’ve been watching, and maybe some analysis type things if I have the time.

Also, here’s the first of of those short film not-quite-reviews, so you can see how things are going to work:

Paterson (2016)

Jim Jarmusch’s latest. Excellent. Like most of his filmography, its chill as all hell, with close-to-no plot. This one is particularly plotless, even among his other works, from what I can tell (I’m not nearly as caught up with his filmography as I should be). How plotless, you might ask? Virtually no drama for all but the last twenty minutes of the movie. That’s the level of plotlessness we’re on. It just calmly observes the life of this person, over the course of one week. There is virtually no real conflict to speak of, with all the characters of the film being essentially nice people, who very rarely do anything particularly objectionable, and on the rare occasion they do, the film is less intent on condemning them and more on understanding them. Like I said, the only real hints of drama come towards the end,and they’re all resolved fairly quickly. And that lack of any real plot or tension is why I loved it as much as I did. The film is far more concerned with the tiny details of a person’s life, the subtle changes that occur over the course of the week, and the things that stay the same. The film’s main character is a poet (though not a published one), and, fittingly enough, I’ve heard many people call the structure of the film itself poetic, with each day functioning like a stanza does (an observation that, obviously, I agree with). In some ways, it is a profoundly simple film, and in others it is an incredibly complex one. There’s so much I haven’t touched on, and there’s so much to love about it. Maybe after a couple more viewings I’ll actually write something about it that is more in depth than this brief diary entry. But I’m pretty sure the blu-ray is a long way off, so until that time comes, I’ll just say that I really loved it.

Stop Taking Film Critics So Seriously

 

Full Disclaimer: This was originally a piece of classwork that was to presented as a speech. However, since I haven’t posted here for months, I figured it was relevant enough to be reposted here. And I am aware how hypocritical this is. Do as I say, not as I do.

 

Good day fellow humans. Today, I would like to talk to you about a topic I feel plagues our modern film-going society.

 

And that thing is Rotten Tomatoes.

 

“But what’s so bad about Rotten Tomatoes?” I hear you say

 

Well fundamentally, there’s nothing wrong with Rotten Tomatoes. For those unaware, Rotten Tomatoes is a Review Aggregator. It collects reviews of a film from various different websites, works out how many of those reviews were favourable, and converts that figure to a percentage. The site works fine. It does what it says on the tin.

So why am I talking about it?

 

Well, in light of some fairly recent events surrounding the film known as Suicide Squad, I felt compelled to have a little chat about film criticism with you.

 

You see some rather disgruntled fans of that particular film, who were appalled by the rather negative critical reception of the film, decided to start a petition to shut down Rotten Tomatoes, as it told people that movie was “bad” when in fact, it was actually “good.” this petition received over 22,000 signatures. Over this one superhero movie. These people were genuinely upset that a movie they liked got bad reviews.

 

I think that is more than enough evidence to suggest that maybe people are taking these reviews a little too seriously. To the point of emotional distress. But why are they getting so worked up over this?

 

Well, it seems that people think that there is a “right” and “wrong” opinion on what they watch, and that if something they like isn’t well liked by critics, it somehow invalidates their opinion.

 

This is the main thing that really irritates me about people who do this. They seem to believe that there is an objective way of criticising a film, that a movie is inherently good or bad. However, if you were to actually stop and think about it for a few seconds, you would realise that criticism by its very nature actually is based entirely around opinion, which is almost the definition of subjectivity. So, trying to find an objectively “right” review is pointless!

 

IT MAKES NO SENSE!

 

They take the word of critics as those of some all knowing film Gods, instead of someone trying to point a consumer in a nice direction when they go to the cinema on a Saturday afternoon. So, when people find themselves disagreeing with these “Gods”, it tends to create what I would call an Existential crisis, leading them to having a breakdown and than doing some rather silly things, such as the prior mentioned petition and, most worryingly, sending death threats.

 

There is another part to this particular issue that I would also like to address. That being the use of Rotten Tomatoes as justification for an opinion. For example:

 

“I just watched Adam Sandler’s latest movie and I thought it was an artistic masterpiece”

 

“WHAT! You can’t like that movie. It has a 5% on Rotten Tomatoes! That means it has to suck!”

 

This is a rather limiting mindset, as it means you dictate every bit of media in your life based around the opinions of what are essentially random strangers. Sure, they may have seen more films than your average movie goer, but that doesn’t mean their opinion is more valid than anyone else’s. They are not absolute authorities. They are guides who try and help you find something interesting to watch.  

 

So, in summary, if you are the sort of person who takes reviews very seriously, I would implore you to reconsider. Because, in the end, the main thing about going to the movies is about being entertained*. And if some random on the internet giving it a low score out of ten ruins the movie for you, then maybe it wasn’t so great in the first place. Like what you like, and do not let anyone tell you otherwise, not me, not your friend, and certainly not a critic.

*Unless you’re really into artsy avant garde cinema, in which entertainment is not a given.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth Review

This is just a quick little review that I wrote on IMDb, but I figured I may as well publish it also, as I haven’t posted here for waaaaaaay to long. Not the most complex thing I’ve ever written, but still something to read. Enjoy!

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth is a 1997 film that acts as both a recap of the original series Neon Genesis Evangelion and a preview for the at-the-time upcoming film The End of Evangelion. The Death and Rebirth in the title refers to the two segments of the film; Death being the recap, and Rebirth being the first half an hour of EoE.

At the time of the film’s release, the film was supposed to act as an alternative to watching the original 26 episode series, most likely to draw in non-fans to come and see End of Evangelion. In my opinion however, the film isn’t a very good alternative to watching the original series. It’s organised out of chronological order and forgoes a lot of the plot to give brief outlines of the main character’s personalities, which could lead to a fair amount of confusion. Most of the animation in the “Death” segment is just reused footage from the series. The only parts of the film that are not reused are scenes where the three main leads practice classical music, which are more or less purposeless and really only serve as an excuse to listen to nice music. If you had not seen the original series before watching this, I would guess that you would be rather confused.

However if you are a fan of this franchise (like me), you’ll probably quite enjoy it. Though the recap is strangelyorganised, it’s still Evangelion, which is inherently pretty cool if you love the show. The organisation can be seen as an interesting new way to experience the show, and it can also act as a nice refresher on the events of the series. While The End of Evangelion segment is kind of pointless, it’s still the End of Evangelion, which, in my opinion, is one of the best animated films ever made, so watching a bit of it is hardly a bad thing.

Still, the film only really functions as a curiosity piece for super fans. If you are not super invested in the franchise already, you probably don’t even know it exists, and if you do, you probably don’t care.

You can go see my IMDb profile here: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur65995582/?ref_=nb_usr_prof_0

Twitter:@tuneishere

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Review

Review contains spoilers

So, I just saw the new big superhero movie that everyone hates annnnnnd…. I hated it too! Wow, what a shock. How could acclaimed film maker Zack Snyder, director of such classics as Teenage Boy Fantasy: Ancient Greece Edition and Teenage Boy Fantasy: Pretty Girls Edition, fuck up a movie so badly?

It’s not like he has a history with bad comic book adaptations or anything! He has always created quality cinema! How could such a terrible thing happen to a film this big!

 

WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN SUCH TRAGEDY!?

 

In case you couldn’t tell, the previous paragraph was all absolutely biting sarcasm. Zack Snyder has a history of making movies that divide people. While it is true that I have not seen either of the previously mentioned films in their entirety, I have seen enough to gauge that Mr Snyder is not exactly the greatest film maker of our generation. I don’t think he’s a particularly terrible director. I actually quite enjoy his visual style; I just think he tends to make films that are rather… low brow. Again, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does tend to mean that his works often contain a lot of similar elements. They are all heavy on action and SERIOUSNESS, and low on good writing and well-developed characters. Batman V Superman is no exception to this with its big set pieces and “epic” speeches. Unfortunately for it, it also has to deal with setting up the new DC universe so Warner Brothers can catch up to Marvel and make that superhero monaaaaaay.

 

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG????

 

Well, firstly, the plot can. The plot of this film is entertainingly stupid at its best and utterly undecipherable at its worst. As a consequence of being a setup for the next billion DC films the movie completely collapses under its own weight, with the various different characters and concepts that are introduced throughout the movie getting little to no explanation, and if it did, the film will probably end up contradicted that explanation at some point. For example, Lex Luthor. Why did he hate Superman so much? I don’t know! Why did Batman suddenly decide that he no longer hated Superman because Superman’s Mum was dying, even though Superman was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Metropolis, which is Batman’s MAIN REASON FOR FIGHTING SUPERMAN IN THE FIRST PLACE?

 

I DON’T KNOW.

 

I could try to describe the actual plot of the film to you, but as I could not understand what the living fuck was going on throughout most of the film, I am unable to provide a better plot synopsis than “Words are said and things explode.” And I am not a minority in this opinion. I saw this film with a group of friends and the amount of times that some variation on the phrase “what is going on?” was uttered throughout the film numbered somewhere in the hundreds. It might have been easier to understand had the film been two hours, rather than two and a half. But no, we have to force a fight with Doomsday, and we have to jam in introductions for a bunch of superheroes that won’t be relevant until another one these god forsaken movies come of, and than, at the very end of it all, we have to pretend like Superman is dead, only to bring him back at the literal last second.

That was all soooo necessary.

 

Thankfully, the movie was not without its positives. Namely, Ben Affleck as Batman. Despite the shitty material that he was given, Affleck pulled off a relatively convincing rendition of my favourite superhero. Even though his acting was often over the top, I really believed that he was The Caped Crusader. He was suitably angry and brooding, he looked the part, and he talked the part. I unfortunately cannot say the same for the other characters. Henry Cavill was perfectly bland as Superman, who continues to show that he could be a pretty good Superman if he was given a competent script. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor was atrocious. He was about as intimidating as a hyperactive child on sugar and about as interesting as a small twig with the word “INSANE” written on it. Again, this is not entirely the fault of Eisenberg, as he was also working with very bad material. At the very least he looks like he is enjoying himself, which is more than can be said for Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, who looks completely bored for the short period of time that she was shoehorned into the film. I could go on about the various failures of acting and writing in the movie, but then we may be here for several thousand words, so instead, let’s get onto the other positives of the film.

The music for the film was pretty great. It was composed by Hans Zimmer, who also did the Dark Knight movies, Interstellar, and Man of Steel. Like those soundtracks, it is made up of loud orchestral pieces that suit the tone of the film, which made it end up as the only part of the movie that I thought to be legitimately “epic”.

Like I said before, I quite enjoy Zack Snyder’s testosterone filled visual style, even if it is rather silly. The film is no visual masterpiece, but, excluding the final action scene, which is ruined by the bad CGI on Doomsday, the film looks pretty cool.

Now, with all the ranting I have done, do I think you should watch Batman V Superman?

YEAH!

The movie may be a total train wreck, but is a blast to watch with friends. It’s incredibly easy to make fun of, making it a great hate watch. I don’t know if you should actually support the movie, as it does really suck, but if you have some friends around and want to laugh at an overly serious piece of shit blockbuster, then this movie is sure to be on your favourite illegal download site in the very near future.

Unfortunately for the movie though, I am judging the film on what it was trying to do, not what it actually does, so I am forced to give Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, an overall grade of D, with a special “entertainingly bad” recommendation.

That concludes the rant ahem… “review”. Thank you for reading, and I shall see you in the next post.

TWITTER: @tuneishere

 

HOW I GOT OBSESSED WITH ANIME (OR HOW I LOST MY SOCIAL LIFE TO CARTOONS)

DISCLAIMER: This is actually school work, but as I haven’t had time to write anything much recently, I thought that I’d put this up there as it seems pretty relevant to this blog. Enjoy the hyperbole!

Not too long ago, I was a fairly regular person. I played video games, I watched Marvel Movies, and I found primary school boring. I wanted to have something new to talk about. Something different I had never seen the likes of before. Something new.

I decided to check out this ‘anime’ thing that people kept talking about. Apparently they were cartoons from Japan, but they were not for 5 year olds. THEY WERE FOR GROWNUPS. They had violence and death, demons and serial killers. This was interesting to my ‘TAKE ME SERIOUSLY I’M ELEVEN NOW’ self. I did some research on the web and found about one of these ‘anime’, a show called Sword Art Online. It had video games, death, pretty girls, and lots of things that I thought were “COOL”. I watched it. “Hmmmmmm”, I thought. “These anime shows seem pretty cool!” 

I did more research. I decided to watch a show called Death Note. It was even edgier then before! There was murder, psychological mind games, and a despicable protagonist. I watched it over the course of 3 months. I loved it. I started to invest myself in anime culture. I spent lots of time on the internet looking at reviews and news. I was in deep, but not yet lost.
Then I watched this show called Code Geass….
This was the tipping point. This is how I got where I am today. This show ran for 50 episodes. I watched it in two weeks. Any attempts to save me at this point were useless. I was gone. I ate this show up like it was potato chips at a really boring party. I ADORED Code Geass. It was my LIFE. Soon enough, I was trying my hand at writing my own reviews on my god awful blog. I created a MyAnimeList account to catalogue the various things I was watching and had watched. I couldn’t stop talking about anime. It drove my family crazy.
That was nearly a year ago. Things have gotten both better and worse. I don’t talk about anime to my uninterested friends and family nearly as much. I don’t plough through stuff at quite such an alarming rate anymore. I’ve improved my critical thinking skills due to how much I watch.
On the other hand I have lost over 13 days of my life to 53 different shows and movies, many of which have questionable artistic merit. I have become a pretentious overly critical hypocrite who hates some things for the same reason he loves other things. I’ve spent more money on DVDs then I care to remember.
So please.
Don’t make the same mistakes I did.
Don’t sit through terrible shows just to make fun of them on your blog.
Don’t legitimately consider buying 200 dollar statues of fictional characters.
Be safe.
Enjoy this great hobby casually.
And for the love of Haruhi.

Don’t watch Sword Art Online.

It sucks.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Anime Review

  

Ooooh boy. Neon Genesis Evangelion. If I had to sum up the general opinion on the show in one word it would be “devisive”. If you don’t love Evangelion, there’s a rather large chance you hate it. Today I’m going to be explaining which camp I’m in and try to tell you why. Let us begin.

Story

For a show that’s often called “completely insane”, Evangelion starts off relatively simple. 14 year old Shinji Ikari is called to NERV headquarters by his estranged father Gendo. Gendo, for whatever reason, needs his underage son to pilot a giant robot to defend humanity against “Angels”, monsters that are attacking and attempting to destroy the planet that can only be stopped by giant robots called “Evangelions”. This is more or less the premise of the first 16 episodes or so while introducing and developing its large cast of characters.

But then the show gets dark. The once somewhat-bleak-but-still-totally-fine-for-prime-time series begins its infamous descent into madness that culminates in the infamous original ending and then the alternative ending/expansion of the original ending (depending on who you ask) End of Evangelion, a film that is quite possibly the strangest thing I’ve ever borne witness to. I’m not going to write to much more about the plot as I would hate to spoil anymore for those who haven’t seen it, and I don’t want it bore those who already have.

To summarise, the plot of Evangelion is confusing, amazing, weird, and entertaining. It’s thought provoking but is never so insane to stop being interesting. And the main reason for this is the emotional core of the show. The characters.

Characters

The primary reason that I personally stayed invested in Evangelion was because of its characters. Sure, the show’s plot is interesting, but without this cast it may have become too inaccessible for me to keep caring. The characters give you something to latch on to and relate to. 

Not all the characters of Evangelion are likeable, some being down right detestable, but what makes them work is they all feel so incredibly real. Their problems are human problems. Isolation. Fear. Depression. Selfishness. The shitty things about people.

One of the sufferers of some of these problems is our main character Shinji Ikari, the emotional centre of Evangelion. Shinji is, like the rest of the show, divisive. Many complain that he’s too cowardly and unlikeable. Repulsive, even.

 I’m not really sure how this can be considered a criticism. People aren’t nessacarily inherently brave and strong. With the task that is placed in Shinji’s hands of literally saving the world from annihilation, I feel like many people would be just as terrified and weak as Shinji is. Combine that with his wide array of psychological disorders and problematic relationships and I feel it becomes quite easy to see why Shinji is the way he is. 

There are many other characters to talk about, most of whom are just as interesting as Shinji, but I’ll let you experience them yourself if/when you do decide to take on the task of watching the show.

Sound

The soundtrack for Evangelion is really good. It is highly varied and always compliments the scene in which it is playing perfectly. Not much else to say really other then that. It’s just really good. Amazing opening too.

In regards to English or Japanese, this is one is hands down Japanese. Unless you are unable to read subtitles or cannot stand listening to Japanese, I see no reason for you to listen to the dub. It’s not downright awful, but in comparison to the Japanese, the English just falls completely flat. 

Animation

The animation for Evangelion is pretty hit or miss. The show is well known for suffering from many budgetary problems. Various shots where absolutely nothing happens and a couple of infamous scenes toward the end PLUS the majority of the original finale make it apparent that animation studio GAINAX was rather short on funding for the show. However, I don’t really care. Partially because when the animation really needs to look good, it does. The battles against the Angels still look great 20 years after the show’s original run. And for the vast majority of scenes where nothing is happening animation-wise, the writing and direction is usually interesting enough to hold my attention.

Final Verdict

In case you somehow couldn’t tell by now, I adore Neon Genesis Evangelion. I love almost everything about it. From its excellent characters to its confusing narrative, it all works so well. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close to it. I would recommend it to almost anyone, especially if you consider yourself an anime fan, as it is very influential and regarded as a classic by many (including me). Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the review. Feel free to leave constructive criticism in the form of a comment here or on one of the profiles I’ve linked down below as I am still pretty bad at writing and would love to get better at it. 

Until the next post!

Final Score: A (Excellent)

MAL:http://myanimelist.net/profile/itstune

Twitter: @tuneishere

Neon Genesis Evangelion used to be available from Madman Entertainment in Australia, but has unfortunately gone out of print. It’s not available for legal streaming either. A remake series of films is available from Madman Entertainment, but I have not yet seen them so I’m unable to provide comment on them.