Monsters University (2013)

Disney owes a lot to Pixar. The use of computers has completely and permanently changed how animated films look and feel, and has allowed a visual complexity which was impossible with traditional animation methods. As well as this, Pixar has completely changed what we expect from a film plot these days. Retold fairy tails or children’s books like Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, or The Jungle Book just don’t cut it anymore, and targeting a film at children is now no excuse for overly simple story-lines  As Rauld Dahl knew, children like to be scared, and they like to laugh, and soppy doe-eyed women being rescued by princes doesn't really manage that. Take Up! as an example – the hero is a grumpy old man and I know some adults reduced to tears by the opening montage. That would never have happened twenty years ago.

Because as old as it makes me feel, it is almost twenty years since Toy Story was released. I loved it, I still do and very surprisingly I loved the sequel, the uninspiringly named Toy Story 2. Even more amazingly, Toy Story 3, released much later, was also pretty damn good, although nowhere near the brilliance of the other two. Other Pixar enthusiasts and I have often disagreed over the best Pixar/Disney film to date, and I know many people rate Finding Nemo above any of the Toy Storys. Hopefully they’ll be pleased with Finding Dory, due for release at the end of the year. With any other production company I’d wonder how they could remake the fish looking for a fish story without overt and tedious repetition but, while there will be many a reference to Finding Nemo I’m sure, I have no doubt that it will stand alone as a solid film.

The same can be said for Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University. Again, a completely new story and one which I don’t think many people saw coming. The idea that the monster lurking under the bed, or in the wardrobe, has a life outside scaring kids and is doing it for a purpose other than just to be mean is fantastic. It’s also something that kids can relate to, just as they can to the idea of their toys coming alive when they’re not in the room or the secret exciting lives of insects in A Bug’s Life (although for my part I did prefer Antz).

Monsters University sees Monsters, Inc.’s heroes Sully and Mike during their training to be scarers. Naturally nothing goes to plan and the two find themselves in a scaring competition to secure their places in the programme. Many of the favourite characters from Monsters, Inc. are present, along with some great new ones. Helen Mirren voices the fantastically intimidating Dean Hardscrabble and I loved ‘Squishy’, a fellow student who is ridiculous and adorable. While I won’t say that it’s flawless this film made me so happy. There’s so much you can do with animation and the Monsters platform really lets the animators have fun. The visual complexity mentioned earlier is also present and most apparent with Sully’s fur – there’s so much detail there – it’s a beautiful thing. 

Dreamworks Animation needs to sort itself out and come up with something new and exciting. There’s only so much they can flog the Shrek franchise, as good as the original film was. I hear Puss in Boots 2 is due for release later this year – that’ll make at least 6 in the series. Then there’s Madagascar 1, 2 and 3 (plus ‘The Penguins of Madagascar and potentially a Madagascar 4 on the way); Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2; and How to Train Your Dragon 1 and the soon to be released 2 and 3. Enough with the sequels!

Go Pixar!

Mirror Mirror (2012)

2012 was apparently the year for Snow White. Four different versions were released in various forms including Snow White and the Huntsman with the ridiculous Kristen Stewart. I was shocked to see that it was nominated for two Oscars when so many fantastic films seem to have been overlooked, but apparently they’re for costume and visual effects so that’s ok.

Mirror Mirror’s cast is not quite as star-studded as Snow White and the Huntsman’s, but still features some pretty high profile names. Julia Roberts is the evil Queen and Sean Bean the King. Armie Hammer (The Social Network) plays the prince and is horribly saccharine throughout, and the Queen’s aid is Nathan Lane who, for all his many film at TV appearances is still probably best known as the voice of Timon from The Lion King. As far as I’m concerned anyway. Lily Collins, who plays Snow White, has been in absolutely nothing of note except The Blind Side (The Priest and Abduction don’t really count as films of note as far as I’m concerned). She is ridiculously annoying although pretty enough in exactly the right fairy-tale way so she’s reasonably suited for the role. Especially in such an annoying film.

Because oh my God it was annoying! Notwithstanding a perfectly acceptable train-her-to-be-a-fighter montage in the middle (who doesn’t love a good montage?) the whole film is ridiculous. Not ridiculous in a good quality B-film kind of way – no, no – that was what I was hoping to find, but in a way that made me that close to giving up on it after about half an hour. Being mostly about The Queen rather than completely concentrating on Snow White, I imagine it was designed as some kind of final ego boost for Julia Roberts before everyone completely forgets about her and moves on.

Oh yeah, and Snow White starts singing some kind of Bollywood number at the end. That was unnecessary! Maybe kids will like it.

My lasting impression: Oh Sean Bean! What have you become?

God Bless America (2011)

I have a new hero. Joel Murray is not someone I’ve ever paid much attention to before, although looking back, he’s cropped up in a couple of things I’ve seen (Mad Men, Desperate Housewives) and he’s also in The Artist, which I have yet to bother to see. When Love Film finally gets around to sending it to me, I’ll look out for him – because he’s an impressive man. I’m reasonably sure his performance in this film borders on flawless and I was very pleasantly surprised to see such quality acting in a film that’s remained reasonably under the radar, for all its popularity.

In God Bless America Murray plays Frank – a tired, middle aged, divorced, recently fired, possibly terminally ill man with a growing hatred for the pile of celebrity gossip, prejudice, scare-mongering, and general crap that he believes America has become. Alone (again) one evening he retrieves his gun from a box on top of the bookshelf (why are they always in a box on top of a bookshelf?) and contemplates killing himself. Then he sees Chloe. Chloe is a rich, bratty, American teenager with her own reality TV show. With Frank, we see a quick flash of the programme – Chloe declaring boastfully that she rules her high school and screaming at her obnoxious parents for buying her the wrong car. After this, Frank rethinks his suicide plans. Why should he kill himself when there are so many better people to kill? Like Chloe for example.

Murray’s co-star in God Bless America, Tara Lynne Barr, is a new face for me. She’s been in a fair few things but usually single episodes of American TV series that I’ve never heard of. After a couple of shaky over-acted moments near the beginning, I really warmed to her in that comforting way of her reminding me of someone – but I can’t think who. She’s another person to keep an eye on in the future. Barr plays Roxy, a sixteen-year-old girl who meets Frank when he arrives at her school to kill the awful Chloe. Sympathising with his aims, she becomes his accomplis and they travel around America together imparting justice on those who ‘don’t deserve to live’.

There’s an extensive list of people in this category. I was doing well until they added ‘the givers and receivers of physical high-fives’. Well that’s me dead then.

For all their lack of care in their killings, they manage to get away with it for a ridiculously long time. You have to suspend your disbelief here for a while – I would like to think the police are a little more efficient than that at catching serial killers. It’s a detail I was quite happy to let go though for the sake of a better story.

While it doesn’t give you all that much to really think about or leave much of a lasting impression other than ‘well that was cool’, God Bless America might well end up on my list of classics – one of those that I’ll actually buy a physical copy of.

The Help (2011)

The Help first appeared on my radar largely because my mum has been nagging me for a while to read the book. I’m sure it’s wonderful, but I haven’t got around to it yet. It made me notice the film though when it was coming out and I would have seen it then, were it not for my general preference of wanting to read books before watching the film version. Then came the BAFTAs, and the Oscars and there was no escaping the praise given to this film; particularly to Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis, actresses who play two black maids working for rich white families.

The first thing I think is worth noting is that The Help is set in the 1960s. I am astounded at how ignorant about racism issues people could be as recently as this. Being born in the ‘80s and growing up in an overly politically correct society doesn’t prepare you for such attitudes and I feel really quite ashamed of my naivety.

The film follows Eugenia (Skeeter) Phelan - a young white woman returning from university and embarking on a new career as a journalist in her home town of Jackson, Mississippi. As a girl she was cared for by a black maid and is now eager to publish a book telling the stories of maids in the city where she grew up. This is apparently an illegal thing to do and at first the only two to maids brave enough to talk to her are Aibileen and Minny (Spencer, Davis). As it turns out, they have a plenty of material. Skeeter’s attitude towards ‘the help’ is in contrast to the rest of her peers who, through disdain, fear, or peer-pressure treat their maids really rather badly, while trying to maintain their own position in the city’s social scene.

For all its difficult themes of racism, domestic violence, and generally dated attitudes towards women, this is actually a feel-good film. Davis as Minny provides enough comedy to almost carry the film herself (no wonder she won many Best Supporting Actress awards) and the warmth shown by Aibileen to everybody is genuinely uplifting.

While I won’t claim it is artistic genius, I enjoyed this film enough to almost want to watch it again immediately, and I will definitely sit down to watch it again fairly soon. I am also going to keep my eye out for any future work from director Tate Taylor. After a while acting in some rather negligible roles, I think he may well have finally found his niche.

Carnage (2011)

I don’t even know where to begin with this film. It stars some pretty famous actors – Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, and that guy from Chicago (John C. Reilly, apparently). Also some other dude who’s mostly been in German films. It’s directed by Roman Polanski who, in his time, has directed some of my favourite films ever – The Pianist (starring Adrien Brody) and The Ninth Gate (with Johnny Depp). I didn’t really think much of his last offering – The Ghost (Ewan McGregor, Kim Cattrall and Pierce Brosnan) – but I was expecting a well directed film from Carnage, despite its seemingly rather vague and simple plot. Indeed, because of its simple plot, Carnage relies upon good direction to give it momentum and flow.

The film doesn’t last long – only about 70 minutes or so. Thank God. Half an hour would have sufficed. Half an hour of bickering and moaning during which we establish a thorough dislike for every one of the four characters in turn.

The premise is simple. After a violent incident between two boys, two sets of parents are brought together in a New York apartment to discuss their sons’ behaviour and to establish a plan for ensuring both boys understand the seriousness of the situation, and learn about appropriate conflict resolution. It’s all very civilised and grown-up - the parents of the boy who attacked the other take full responsibility for their son’s behaviour. At least at first. Perhaps inevitably, after a while the formal meeting degenerates into an alcohol-fuelled shouting match, with increasingly childish behaviour, name-calling, and general… carnage.

The film is presented to us in real time, give or take. It’s 24 but with fewer terrorists, guns, digital clocks, and exciting bits. OK it’s not 24 - you wouldn’t catch Jack Bauer getting tremendously drunk from a small glass of whisky in the space of 15 minutes. Apparently the characters in Carnage can manage it though – how ridiculous. The drunkenness of course loosens their tongues and lets them blurt out what they really think about each other. Gone are repressed, polite, thoroughly middle-class adults, being replaced by whiny, indignant messes.

All four parents have their individual quirks. The hosts are apparently rather a normal couple, a little bit arty, offer home-made puddings to their guests, and write books about conflicts in Africa. The other couple are richer, posher, and very formal. The husband talks constantly on his mobile to someone at his office and the wife does something boring that possibly has something to do with investments. Their various quirks become more of a feature as tempers flare and gradually we see all four become thoroughly objectionable people. The question I have though is this - how am I supposed to care about a fight that I don’t want anybody to win?

Carnage is based on a French play – God of Carnage, by Yazmena Reza, so I can’t really blame them for the story, although the play’s apparently done very well, including as a West-End production. I think though, that it must have been toned down for cinema. A quick Wikipedia of the play tells me that it contains heated debates touching on homophobia and racial issues which have definitely been left out of the film. This leaves us with only the banal and trivial topics and I don’t care about those. Nor can I understand why they would get so animated about them. It escalates quickly, too quickly. I just don’t believe it.

I’ll possibly watch the play at some point and see how I feel about that. If it proves to be good then I can file Carnage away in the increasingly large section in my brain entitled ‘Films that have ruined good plays’. It can sit next to Closer and several of the Shakespeares.