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Too Old To Be A Kid, Too Young To Be A Man (A Monster Calls review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Why is the stories from our youth always seem to have the most impact on us as adults? They leave a legacy all their own and one which compounds over and over again, creating ripples in the lives of those around us.

 

A Monster Calls (2016)

Cast: Lewis MacDougall, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, Liam Neeson, James Melville
Director: J.A. Bayona
released on blu-ray March 28, 2017
********* 9/10

IMDB: 8.0
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%, Audience Score 88%
The Guardian: ****/*****

Juan Antonio García Bayona, better known as J. A. Bayona, is a Spanish film director. He is the guy responsible for The Orphanage, The Impossible, and now A Monster Calls. Which should probably have been called The Monster. Just saying. Anyway, he is now set to direct the fifth instalment of the Jurassic Park film series, Jurassic World II.

Bayona is now going three for three, so I’d say it’s a safe bet that this is a heartfelt and glowing review. Just look at the plot, if you don’t believe me. Taken from Wikipedia…

Young Conor O’Malley (Lewis MacDougall) must face his mother’s (Felicity Jones) terminal cancer, his strict grandmother (Sigourney Weaver), his estranged father (Toby Kebbell), and his school bully, Harry (James Melville). One night at 12:07 a.m., Conor encounters the tree-like Monster (Liam Neeson), who tells Conor it has come to relate three true stories, after which Conor will tell the Monster his own story, the truth behind his nightmare. They continue to meet at 12:07 to tell the stories.

First story

An old king who has lost his entire family, save a young grandson, remarries a beautiful young woman. He dies before the prince comes of age, and many believe the queen poisoned the king. Not wanting to hand the kingdom over to the prince in a year, she plots to marry the prince and remain queen. The prince runs away with a farm girl he loves. They stop and sleep under a yew tree (the Monster), but in the morning he finds the young woman murdered. The prince tells the villagers that the queen, a witch, must have done it, and they rally to overthrow her. The monster awakes and joins the mob. Before the commoners can reach the queen, the Monster carries her away to a far-off land where she lives out the rest of her life in peace. Though she was indeed a witch, she did not kill the young woman or the king. The prince had murdered the young woman in order to inspire his people to back him into overthrowing the queen.

Second story

An apothecary follows old traditions and beliefs, using herbs and brews to cure ailments. His business becomes less popular as a local parson tells his congregation not to accept the apothecary’s old ways. When the parson’s two daughters become sick, the parson asks the apothecary to save their lives after all other resources are exhausted. When the apothecary asks why he should help a man who has turned people away from his skills and denied him the yew tree, his best source of healing ingredients, the parson promises to give him the tree and deliver the parishioners to him as customers. Yet the apothecary says that he cannot help, and the girls die. The Monster awakens from the yew tree to destroy the parson’s house and raze it to the ground as punishment.

While the apothecary was a greedy man, he was a healer and would have saved lives, including the girls’, if the parson had allowed him his way of life. The parson was a man of belief, but was willing to discard his beliefs when they were in the way. The healing traditions followed by the apothecary require belief in order to work; without the parson’s, the apothecary was unable to treat the two girls. Belief is half the cure.

Third story

A man was invisible because no one ever saw him. Tired of this, he summoned the Monster to ensure people would take notice.

Fourth story

Conor must confront his nightmare to tell the fourth story. His mother has been pulled to the edge of a cliff by a sudden collapse of the ground, and Conor must hold her hand to save her from falling. Eventually, his grip fails and his mother falls. The Monster forces Conor to confess the truth: Conor loosened his grip on purpose. While he could have held on longer, he let go in order to stop the pain of having to hold on. Conor ultimately understands the complexities of human beings, and that though he doesn’t want his mother to die, he understands it is inevitable and something he must accept, and that he wants the experience to be over.

After this, Connor returns, with the Monster by his side, to comfort his mother one last time, and she dies at 12:07. He returns home with his grandmother, who becomes caring towards him and gives Conor a room of his own, a room that used to be his mother’s. In the room he finds his mother’s old art book, which depicts the characters of the stories that have been told by the Monster, and a drawing of his mother as a child with the Monster.

Sad, thoughtful, and penetrating, A Monster Calls tells a story that we can all relate to, or at the very least, one which means something for the kid in all of us. I don’t know about you, but films which feature the loss of a parent always get me tearing up, but whether that is true for you or not, I can say with damn near perfect timing that Lewis MacDougall has the acting chops necessary to get you to feel the pain of bereavement. It simply is worthwhile.

Pros: The message is accessible, ushering away the monsters of youth with wonderment and fateful stories. Even the darkest moments of the film are made brighter by the authenticity of it’s narrative. Lewis MacDougall shines.

Cons: It can be a struggle to see Sigourney Weaver as a grandmother, and the bullies of the film feel more like pieces to be moved then real characterizations.

Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes

Points of Interest: Liam Neeson appears as Conor’s grandfather in the photo of Conor’s mother as a little girl being carried by her father. The sixth time that Liam Neeson has voiced a CGI character –  three times as Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia franchise, Phango in Khumba, and Good Cop/Bad Cop in The Lego Movie.

Too old to be a kid, too young to be a man. That’s how this films opens on the story of Conor, who is watching is mother die of a terminal illness. Where the fantasy intersects with reality is the beauty of this story, and it reminds me of the widely underrated film, Bridge to Terabithia, which also took advantage of childhood fantasy as a device for growing up amidst personal tragedy.

theories Summarized

The stories the Monster tells are really and truly for Conor’s sake, to aid him in his healing. It’s all beautiful and symbolic given that the Monster is a yew tree (known for it’s healing properties), while the Monster and the stories he tells are in fact derivative of Conor’s mothers own childhood drawings.

Most of all there is something moving in knowing that Conor doesn’t understand everything yet, and that might not ever, and the theory that monsters aren’t always what they seem.

Tim!

In The Deep (The Shallows review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Jaws did an excellent job in 1975 of creating a movie monster out of the great white shark. You see dear readers, for a long time people believed that sharks had never attacked a human being. And it wasn’t until the early 21st century that some attacks happened which inspired Jaws.

This lead to sport fishing of sharks over a few decades and a sever decline in several shark populations. But that was before scientists worked to prove that sharks were not vengeful man-eaters and as well, our medical ability to respond to bites has dropped the fatality rate down considerably.

But some myths are slow to die, and as such directors have to come up with inventive ways to tell a story…

da nuh

da nuh da nuh da nuh da nuh
da nuh na nuh na nuh na nuh na nuh na nuh na nuh na nuh na nuh na nuh na nuh

da nuh

 

 

 

The Shallows (2016)

Cast: Blake Lively, Oscar Jaenada, Brett Cullen, Sedona Legge
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
released on blu-ray September 27, 2016
******* 7/10

the-shallows-poster

IMDB: 6.4
Rotten Tomatoes: 77%, Audience Score 61%
The Guardian: ***/*****

Jaume Collet-Serra is a Spanish film director and producer. Known for such films as House of Wax, Orphan, Unknown, Non-Stop, and Run All Night. Collet-Serra will also direct his fourth collaboration with Liam Neeson in the 2017 action-thriller The Commuter.

The Shallows is definitely his best film to-date, in a very lean thriller that makes good use of Blake Lively as both a comedic and dramatic actress. With that said, let’s go over the plot, shall we?

The film introduces us to it’s lead Nancy (Blake Lively) pretty much right away, with her on a trip to visit a secluded beach in Mexico, one which her mother visited while pregnant with Nancy. Seeing as how Nancy’s mother recently passed away, the daughter thinks it apt to surf the beach and think upon whether she ought to continue medical school.

Meeting up with two other young guys, she surfs the waves for several hours before the locals decide to head in. Nancy is not content with this and decides to ride one more wave. As she is preparing to surf, she notices a dead whale, and is then attacked by a great white shark.

Using her wits, some costume jewelry in the form of a stitch job, and befriending a seagull she names Steven, Nancy is able to bandage her leg wound with parts of her wetsuit, and perch herself upon a rock for the night. Unfortunately she is about 200 yards away from the shoreline, and while she eventually sees both a drunken thief eaten by the shark, as well as the two young men from the previous day attacked, Nancy still cannot get back to the shore. One of the guys was wearing a GoPro, so Nancy records a message to her dad and sister, and makes an attempt for a buoy.

I’m not going to tell you how the story ends, but I will say this. Yes you could compare it to Jaws, but in some ways it reminds me more of other survival stories like 127 Hours and Hitchcock’s The Birds.

Pros: It will get your heart pounding and engage your senses, while also making you feel like you’re there with Lively as she determines what to do at each twist of the plot.

Cons: The backstory of Nancy is somewhat tacked on, and there are moments where it was obvious she had been CGI’d right into the body of a competent surfer, making me wonder if an unknown but talented actress might have done a better job.

Runtime: 1 hour 26 minutes

Points of Interest: This is the second time Lively has led a movie, the first was The Age of Adaline. Jaume Collet-Serra was adamant that this movie be billed as one of survival as opposed to gore and that it was note a “creature movie.”

This summer was kinda bland. So it was nice to finally see a solid blockbuster thriller shot on a shoestring budget. The spirit of the film is definitely inside of this theme of survival, and while Blake Lively is not the most diverse choice on the planet, she does well in this particular role. If you have any interest in either survival films or movies that riff off of the common shark in the water homage, you’ll probably enjoy The Shallows.

 

 

 

I fully expected this movie to startle me and make me think on that classic tale of man vs shark, and the immortalized phrase… don’t go in the water. Well, if I’m being perfectly honest, I have no plans to go in the water for the next ten years at least. So good job to The Shallows, for giving me a deep fear.

Tim!

I Wanna Be Like You (The Jungle Book review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

In computing language, source code is meant to be instructions for computers, often in an executable format. But sometimes a programmer will include the source code so that other users and programmers might benefit from the information – to study it and hopefully modify the results.

Where technology intersects with human biology, that’s when it gets interesting. And conveniently, that’s what today’s film review is all about.

 

 

 

The Jungle Book (2016)

Cast: Neel Sethi, Ben Kingsley, Lupita Nyong’o, Idris Elba, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken, Giancarlo Esposito
Director: Jon Favreau
released on blu-ray August 30, 2016
********* 9/10

jungle_book_ver6_xlg

IMDB: 7.7
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%, Audience Score 88%
The Guardian: ****/*****

Jonathan (Jon) Kolia Favreau is an American actor, director and comedian. He’s acted in many of the films he has directed, with the exceptions of Zathura and Cowboys & Aliens. Favreau has also directed Chef, Elf, Iron Man 1 & 2, and most recently The Jungle Book remake – If you haven’t seen him acting in any of those movies you might also recognize him as Monica Geller’s boyfriend Pete from TV’s Friends. Favreau also produces movies under the banner Fairview Entertainment.

He’s been in the film industry since the early 1990s, but it wasn’t until his first financial success directing Elf that Favreau really became a big name. Which is why it’s not that surprising that he was able to land the directing role for Disney’s live-action/CGI reboot of The Jungle Book. Especially after having a hand in launching the MCU.

Filmed mostly with digital animation, and featuring a real-life Neel Sethi roaming around the jungle as Mowgli, this movie takes some cues from the book, but quite a number from the original animated adaptation from the 1960s.

I’m not going to spend a bunch of time hashing out the story as you’ve likely already seen the original movie. I mean who hasn’t? One of the major differences is that the animations are stronger and more tied into real depictions of animals – with the exception of King Louie who is much larger than life and definitely took me out of the story, even if Christopher Walken did an excellent job voicing him. On the positive side of things, the danger is made more real and the movements of Mowgli inside this world are so fluid, that you sometimes forget it’s all made up.

Pros: It manages to retain it’s humanity, while having almost no elements that exist in the real world. Exploring nature and the laws of the jungle haven’t seemed this fun in a long time.

Cons: There are some moments where the story feels mechanical, and I suspect that has something to do with the absence of ties to real environments, and when you see a 30ft ape, it’s a little disappointing.

Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes

Points of Interest: Kaa the snake is portrayed as a female, rather than a male, which is a first and intentional as Jon Favreau felt there were too many male characters in The Jungle Book. Reference shots of remote jungle locations in India were used to help construct the settings for the movie.

I went into this movie somewhat sceptical that it could recapture the entertainment value of the original film, and when I heard “The Bare Necessities”, “Trust In Me” and “I Wanna Be Like You” I was quickly comforted, though it could have easily been the opposite. These riffs off of the original Disney movie were important to take, because the nostalgia factor remained high throughout, evening knowing how the story was going to end. This is an example of a movie where the remake is both excellent and respectful, allowing us to revisit the original or perhaps even expose new viewers to the source.

 

 

 

This technology driven re-imagining of The Jungle Book is amazingly faithful and yet it is a distinct property which can be consumed and shared with all of it’s strengths intact. As a case study of where animation is come from and where it’s headed. Much like how life cycles through and changes with each new generation, never changing so much that it is unrecognisable, but that it is distinct and authentic. You should definitely watch this movie, it gives I Wanna Be Like You a new meaning.

Tim!

Toot Toot, Beep Beep (Midnight Special review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Science fiction is supposed to challenge and stimulate our thoughts about life. This is usually accomplished through escapism and “what if” situations.

But what is curious is how it does it.

You see, I have this theory that one of the best ways to share new ideas is through science fiction, because the medium inherently combines the creative with the analytical. And it cuts through all of the ego, to get to the root of humanity… and what makes us special.

 

 

 

Midnight Special (2016)

Cast: Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Jaeden Lieberher, Adam Driver
Director: Jeff Nichols
released on blu-ray June 21, 2016
********** 10/10

Midnight-Special-Poster

IMDB: 6.8
Rotten Tomatoes: 83%, Audience Score 72%
The Guardian: ****/*****

 

Jeff Nichols is an American film director known for making independant films with minimal budget. He has now directed four films total (Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, Mud, and Midnight Special) and is currently working on a fifth movie about prejudice against interracial marriage in the 1970s. That movie is called Loving.

All of these films are dramas, though Midnight Special is without a doubt the most interesting film he has made to date. And it should be noted Nichols has cast Michael Shannon as his lead three times now, with Matthew McConaughey as an alternate and correctly chosen for 2012’s Mud.

Which came out just a year before McConaughey got his Best Actor award at the Oscars for Dallas Buyers Club. So keep that in mind.

Set in the the southern United States, I believe somewhere in Texas, Roy (Michael Shannon) and his friend Lucas (Joel Edgerton) have seemingly kidnapped a young boy named Alton (Jaeden Lieberher) – who we later find out is Roy’s son.

Roy and Lucas are on a mission to return Alton to his mother Sarah (Kirsten Dunst) and eventually get Alton to an undisclosed location by a certain date. The movie reveals information to us in pieces. With each piece of information letting us in on the story a bit more.

It turns out that Alton and his parents were part of a religious cult, and because Alton possesses latent supernatural abilities, which are also slowly revealed to us, the FBI has become involved and sent Paul Sevier (Adam Driver) to investigate cult.

To reveal more of the plot would be a huge disservice to the story, but before I move on, I will mention this, this film is grounded the grittiness of dramas of the 1970s, very slowly giving ways to fantastic wonderment of early 1980s science fiction. And it is amazing to behold.

Pros: The story manages to avoid direct violence and rely on the imagination where necessary, but also use CGI in a way that the story becomes better, rather than extraneous. The relationships between family, friends, and believers are beautifully depicted.

Cons: At times the pacing felt too rushed, while other times it was oddly slow. And so the movie often feels strange, and the tension never raises to a point where leads are in imminent danger.

Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes

Points of Interest: Jeff Nichols wrote the film as an allusion to becoming a father himself, and it was shot over a period of 40 days.

Midnight Special is, to use a single word, special. It is an excellent example of GOOD modern storytelling in that it relies on both practical filmmaking camera work and CGI to tell its narrative. It’s cast is well chosen and the implications of the final reveal make it worthwhile on any science fiction fan shelf, but it holds a special place in the current political environment as well.

I still don’t really know why the movie is called Midnight Special, I think it has something to do with the song, but maybe that doesn’t matter. What matters is that the movie is accessible and addresses issues that we can all relate to. And so it qualifies as good science fiction.

But what do you think? See you tomorrow with some wisdom, dear readers.

Tim!

Walk It Off (The Walk Review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Passion Pit is one of those bands that a lot of people really like, and which I can see the value of, but just aren’t for me. I’ll try to out my finger on it dear readers, just for you.

Take for instance, the song Take A Walk. In the music video, the director wants us to feel the experience of a ball on it’s path through the city, country, and various places. They accomplish this to some effect, which is really cool. But the problem is that this couldn’t actually happen, so the band has managed to lie to us.

And it bothers me!

But what if a director could evoke that same feeling of travel synthetically and get a positive response? I might just be into it then.

 

 

 

The Walk (2015)
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon,  Clément Sibony, César Domboy
Director: Robert Zemeckis
released on blu-ray January 5, 2016
******** 8/10

the-walk-poster

IMDB: 7.5
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%, Audience Score 81%
The Guardian: *****/*****

Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film maker and screenwriter. And he is something of an icon in the American cinema, having directed several blockbusters over the past few decades (Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Flight).

The Walk is his first move since the success of Flight in 2012, but does it get the same Zemeckis effects treatment, that is either lauded or loathed?

Let’s read about the story first.

 

Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is standing on the highest platform of the Statue of Liberty where he explains his fearless, love of wire walking, and what inspired him to hang wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and walk it.

We go back to Paris, France 1973 and see into his life. He is a street performer who performs illegally and always on the run. One day after biting a jawbreaker candy, Philippe visits the dentist. It is there that he reads a magazine article about the the unfinished Twin Towers. He is inspired to walk across them.

After a flashblack, we learn more about Philippe, his first experience with high-wire walkers at the circurs, his parents disapproval when he practiced everyday, and his eventual break-in to circus owner Rudy “Papa Rudy” Omankowsky’s show (Ben Kingsley). Philippe charms Rudy into teaching him the trade and he finally leaves home.

On a trip through town Philippe sees a young lady named Annie (Charlotte Le Bon), performing her music to a crowd. He sets up shop and steals her audience. Later she comes to rebuke him, but he apologizes while simultaneously defending himself. It begins to rain, and Annie leaves, but Philippe finds an umbrella and wins her affection. He has his first accomplice.

Annie convinces Philippe and her professors to let him practice at her school. This is where he becomes friends with his second accomplice Jean-Louis (Clement Sibony), a photographer. Philippe lands his first performance via Papa Rudy, held over a lake, while a fishing contest takes place. But the fishermen boo him, and he loses concentration, then falls in. After his embarassment, Philippe vows to walk Notre Dame to redeem himself. He prepares at night and performs as tourists arrive in the morning. He succeeds but is arrested.

Jean-Louis introduces to Philippe accomplice #3, Jean-Francois, aka: Jeff (Cesar Domboy), who is afraid of heights and can’t speak English. The team travels to New York City for the first time to inspect the towers. Initially Philippe panics at the scale of the buildings, but once he sneaks in and climbs to the observation deck, his passion returns.

Upon return home, Philippe organizes the “coup” for August 6th 1974, which is just ahead of winter and the tower completion.

Rudy wants Philippe to use a saftey harness, but Philippe refuses and explains it would defeat the purpose of the walk. Rudy changes his mind and he gives Philippe all of his lesson payment money back to allow him to complete the coup.

The team returns to New York, and go under cover to learn all of the technical information about the building. During this process Philippe accidentally steps on a nail which goes through his foot. This does not deter him though, and he continues on, without seeking medical treatment.

Let’s put on the plot brakes now. Otherwise the whole story is ruined, and you need to witness The Walk to experience the full effect of climax.

 

Pros: The suspense of whether this movie will culminate in what we were all hoping for. When we watch the walk and actually get the sense of dread and freedom expected it. The lead characters all manage to suspend our disbelief that they are in fact not French.

Cons: The New York characters feel a little stale, and as a consequence some of those scenes seem to drag on. Some of the dialogue feels a bit forced and the narration by Philippe is unnecessary in places.

Runtime: 123 minutes

Points of Interest: There have been reports by some film reviewers that the screening of this film in theaters actually caused people to throw up from vertigo. Robert Zemeckis said that while he didn’t believe it, the goal of the film was to evoke that feeling all the same.

 

 

 

As I mentioned earlier, Zemeckis has something of a track record for focusing on special effects, technological tricks, and visually impressing. Whether this has resulted in some bad movies on his part is somewhat subjective.

And the real reason why I take issue with Passion Pit is because I was supposed to see them live one year as part of the Sonic Boom festival in Edmonton and they decided to play a DJ set instead of performing their music! So sometimes seeing isn’t REALLY believing.

Either way I’d take The Walk!

Tim!