by Dean | Jan 14, 2013 | General
Kathy is a child raised in the English boardingschool, Hailsham, before becoming a young woman played by Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go (2010)—and Kathy is a clone. So are the other children at Hailsham, among them Kathy’s friend Ruth and the boy she has a crush on, Tommy. Because she doesn’t want to end up alone, Ruth woos Tommy away from Kathy and later provides a mea culpa for it, since she is finally separated from her lover, anyway, by a coercive society. This is because it is determined that Ruth and the other clones will have their vital organs removed that they may benefit those who are sick and injured. They are human beings created by a society that will sacrifice them.
As does the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, this adaptation directed by Mark Romanek recreates past decades as a fantasy world, though one which is recognizably ours. We are told that most major diseases were wiped out by 1952 and that by 1967, human life expectancy was 100. We can figure out for ourselves, however, that moral progress did not match medical progress, in what were in fact post-Hitler, post-Stalin years. It is during the 1990s that Kathy and the others must donate their organs. We are induced to ask: How is moral sanity reached? How is dehumanization in the past prevented from becoming dehumanization in the present? Why is this a world of both English boardingschools (which are generally not for clones) and evil?
“Never let me go” means never let the human individual, even if he or she is a copy, go—into death. But the human individual must go in a strange England which fails to see its postwar spiritual emptiness, its placid acceptance of horrors. It’s an acceptance slowly rising in today’s Western civilization.
Romanek’s film is superlative. It understands the importance of Ishiguro’s themes but is not too cerebral. It is never pretentious. Its tone is sure and its scene composition fine. . .
by Dean | Jan 3, 2013 | General
I like Kevin James, but I don’t like Here Comes the Boom (2012).
It’s an inspirational comedy starring and co-written by James, and, although the comedy is reasonably funny, the inspirational content is spurious and ridiculous. Sometimes I thought the movie was simply an excuse for showing a man getting pummeled in a mixed martial arts ring. That goes on before we’re pummeled by inspiration.
*
Now for a year-end list. The best films I saw in 2012 are, in no particular order: Bernie, Lincoln, Moonrise Kingdom, Damsels in Distress, Chronicle, and probably Silver Linings Playbook. Honorable mention: Atlas Shrugged Part 2 and The Avengers.
by Dean | Jan 2, 2013 | General, Movies
David O. Russell’s first film, Spanking the Monkey (1994), is not a crowd pleaser. Mediocre as it is, it’s tougher than that. His new picture, Silver Linings Playbook (2012) is a crowd pleaser—and it isn’t mediocre. It’s a seriocomic piece that manages to be a lot of fun. Nimble with his camera, Russell adapts a novel unknown to me for what seems like a good adaptation to the silver screen (i.e. the movie stands on its own).
The story is that of a man (Bradley Cooper) just out of a mental hospital and his hopes of restoring his subverted marriage. Presently he befriends a chilly, emotionally disturbed young widow (Jennifer Lawrence) who affects his life in curious ways. The value of marriage, despite the imperfections of marriages, is a theme in Playbook. So is the understandable fight, undertaken by some individuals, to turn away from darkness, from “negativity” (oh, that word!), and concentrate on light—as well as possible.
Funny and buoyant, what we have here is a contemporary Preston Sturges movie, only more touching. Granted, it can be corny too, but I had no trouble seeing a silver overlay in Silver Linings Playbook, however un-tough it may be.
by Dean | Dec 26, 2012 | General
Clifton Adams’s The Last Days of Wolf Garnett, published in 1970, is a fine Western. It’s mostly well written, though Adams does incorrectly use “disinterested” (which means “impartial”, not “uninterested”), and it eschews becoming formulaic. Up to a point I like the Western formulas, but non-formulas are even better so long as the book is sane and entertaining.
Here, the driven Frank Gault does not believe the barbarous man who murdered Gault’s wife is dead, even though he is supposed to be buried in New Boston’s cemetery. Gault intends to avenge himself on the brute, Wolf Garnett by name, by and by encountering a terrible and dangerous conspiracy. It’s a mystery story as well as an action novel. Some startling material is here, in fact, in this a gritty portrait of obsession and the worst possible corruption.
by Dean | Dec 21, 2012 | General
Something needs to be done with Andy’s charming toys now that Andy is 17 years old and bound for college in the outstanding Toy Story 3 (2010). Almost all of them are supposed to go in the attic (which is good—it’s still the owner’s house) but they’re somehow transported to Sunnyside Daycare instead (which is bad). A pink toy bear there has grown malevolent and becomes the enemy of Woody the cowboy, Buzz Lightyear, et al. He is unfortunately aided by Ken, who falls in love with Barbie, another toy at Andy’s house; she belonged to Andy’s preteen sister, Molly. The adventure proceeds apace. Led by Woody, the band of good-guy toys must fight for freedom and survival, thwarting the will of the bear-despot.
Yes, Lee Unkrich’s animated film is funny, but it is not as funny as it is entertaining in its drama. And moving. It more or less sheds tears over the harshness of reality. When the pink bear, a big baby doll, and a toy clown discover they have been unintentionally left behind after a family vacation, they are shown in all their sad vulnerability. Later, all the toys of Andy find they must resign themselves, for a while, to dying in a terrifying inferno. Toy Story 3 has no politics, albeit it does have victimization—and a penal colony for toys in Sunnyside Daycare.
Still, this is a powerful comedy, wildly fun. Risque humor in a family film was never more hilarious. The funniest joke is when Mr. Potato Head finds he must transfer his parts to a tortilla. The flick is every bit as good as The Incredibles—nay, better.
Sheriff Woody (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
