Movies: Cinematic Disappointments of 2013

(*Disappointments because I had higher expectations of these films due to their pedigrees.)

Elysium

After the highs of District 9, that this unrelated science-fiction follow-up by Neill Blomkamp is solidly constructed and executed, but bland and emotionally unengaging is a letdown. It has a lot of magic presented as science fiction in it which is odd (those healing machines, for example). However, it's when it goes "full-retard" at the climax for an anime inspired showdown (including inexplicably located cherry blossom trees on hand) that it completely lost me. I was half expecting an Ewoks victory dance during the epilogue. Sophomore slump? Here's hoping Chappie will be better.

Her

I like Spike Jonze's work. I like "low-fi" style science fiction (a la Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Never Let Me Go, etc.). Going in, I really wanted to like this. Sadly, I found myself looking at my watch frequently as the film progressed. Emo navel-gazing more often than not, this film was occasionally touching but mostly aggravating. On some level I was kind of annoyed that the "female lead" was contextually a product and a construct of the male lead (get out of your own head, Jonze). I did like Rooney Mara's character calling out Joaquim Phoenix's character on that very fact later in the film. Unfortunatley, for me the majority of the movie is mopey to the point of "who cares?" or better, "snap out of it!". The rose-and-orange production design and buttery cinematography started to wear thin after the first half hour, as well.

The two future video games shown were funny/nifty though.

Only God Forgives

Drive is one of my favourite films, so you'd think the reunion of director Nicolas Winding Refn and actor Ryan Gosling would be an instant-win for me. Instead it's the prettiest stupid movie I've seen. It seems Refn took all the wrong lessons from Drive and expanded on them. For instance, lingering on a take to see if the actor lets something through that is real and interesting is a known technique -- here it feels like Refn is hanging Gosling out to dry (a dinner scene in particular is a collection of too-long reaction takes resulting in unintentional comedy). The karaoke scenes were pretty funny though. Also, I do like to quote Gosling's character from time to time, this delivery and when it takes place at the end of a prolonged scene is outstanding:

"Wanna fight?"

Only God Forgives might work as a comedy if it weren't continually nonsensical and boring.

World War Z

I've written about this back when the trailer debuted. Seeing the movie, I was dumbfounded for the first half hour as I waited for anything from the book to appear in the movie. They share a title...and nothing else. Other than zombies. Sort of. Literally nothing in the movie happens in the book, and vice versa. It's a shame really because the book has so much cinematic stuff in it that would've been great to see realized on screen (Yonkers! The canine unit! Japanese apartments! Indian ports! ARGH! I could go on and on).

The weird thing is that as a zombie action picture it's quite effective. If it were released as "Zombie Apocalypse" or somesuch I would have no problems with it. As an adaptation of the Max Brooks novel, it's a complete failure. It makes me wish that Leonardo DiCaprio's production company had won the bidding war against Brad Pitt's production company for the film rights to the book. Oh well.

Movies: Drinking Buddies ('Best of 2013' List)

Written and directed by Joe Swanberg, Drinking Buddies tells the story of a couple of long-time friends that work in an independent brewery: Kate in marketing (played by Olivia Wilde), Luke on the production floor (played by Jake Johnson). At a work party we meet their respective boyfriend Chris/girlfriend Jill (played by Ron Livingston and Anna Kendrick), and later the foursome embarks on a weekend woods-cottage getaway.

As in life, vacations can be a litmus test as to the eventual success or failure of a romantic relationship. Initially it seems somewhat peculiar that Kate and Luke are spending so much time together (as are Jill and Chris), considering they're not each other's partners. Then you come to realize: the partnering that is occurring (mostly through emotional bonding, not physical) is the partnering that should be happening, and on some level they're all aware of it.

My initial thoughts were that the film was going to be a failed Mumblecore experiment, where nothing much of note occurs for a couple of hours, after which the film ends and you're left unsatisfied. A funny thing happened though: the characters kept growing on me, helped along by the strength of the performances and the specifics of the predicament. Pleasantly, I found myself at a point where I cared about these characters and their situation, and wanted to continue through to see where they ended up.

To later discover that the entire film, excluding the general plot structure, is improvised is astonishing to me. Kudos.

What's also great:

• Even though there is plenty of drinking in the film, it's actually not the source of the characters problems (if anything, it's a symptom). I liked the judgement-free presentation.
• Wilde and Johnson share a terrific on-screen chemistry.
• The dramatic arc of "moving day".
• Maybe it's just me, but endings of films these days are getting better and better.

Movies: Don Jon ('Best of 2013' List)

Don Jon, the writing-directing debut of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is the age old tale: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and mainly boy loses girl due to his unhealthy addiction to hardcore pornography. The boy is the titular Jon, a seemingly Jersey-Shore-esque meathead. The girl is Samantha, played in her best "marble columns" accent by Scarlett Johansson, who he meets on yet another Saturday night with his boys at the club trying to "pull tens". In Don's eyes, Samantha more than qualifies.

The film is partly about peoples expectations versus reality. In Don's case, his sexual experiences never match the specific features he lists that are unique to pornography, while Samantha has idealistic, unrealistic expectations of her own based in part on all the romantic comedies she's watched. He looks to lose himself in sex with the ladies, she thinks a man should lose himself in his devotion to his girlfriend.

The comedy in the film is all character driven, with frank talk about pornography and sex, along with related imagery (I wouldn't recommend it as a "first-date" movie, unless the two of you are fairly comfortable with one another). With the introduction of Julianne Moore's character Esther, and when the pricklier aspects of Don's relationship with Samantha come to the fore, the film makes a slow, organic shift to serious drama, and has more meaningful things to say about love and life. In the same way that Don's character moves from superficial to nuanced, so too does the film as a whole. That all the aforementioned actors are terrific in their roles certainly makes that transition work.

More great stuff:

• Joe's father, mother, and sister, played by Tony Danza (!), Glenne Headley and Brie Larson respectively. There's a sequence with Jon Sr. reacting a little too positively to his son's new girlfriend that is hilariously creepy.
• Couples-shopping that gradually throws up all kinds of red-flags about a character (I was impressed with the reality of the idiosyncrasy of the character in question and how effectively irritating that idiosyncratic behaviour was.)
• A character initially thought to be a bit of a throw-away ends up being a true friend.
• A scene where, due to a confluence of acting, direction, cinematography, and editing, Johansson manages to look both radiantly beautiful and batshit-crazy simultaneously.
• As usual, Moore knocks it out of the park.

Based on the strength of Don Jon, I look forward to seeing any future films that Gordon-Levitt cooks up. Dude is talented! (You know the orange text is always a link, right?)