Catching Up: Mini-Reviews

The summer is flying by, and the movies keep on coming. I wanted to make sure these films got some ink before they get overshadowed by Inception, so it's time for another round of mini-reviews (and at this point, if Inception doesn't overshadow the rest of this summer's fare, this truly will be the worst summer for film ever...)


Predators

I should not have found this film to be as charming as I did. The original Predator is a film whose enjoyment level for me rarely rises above "loathe," so take this review with a grain of salt. I found that most of the performances worked very well, especially Topher Grace (perpetually underrated) and Walton Goggins (perhaps the best character actor working today). The film smartly takes the Jaws approach, hinting at what's out there without showing it for probably half the run time. It's ultimately little more than a violent, crass, silly action film, but it's one of the better films of its kind we've gotten in a while. The film does take itself a bit too seriously, and the running joke of not telling us Adrien Brody's character's name is misguided, as I couldn't name any of the other characters either. Still, this film is exactly what it sells itself as, and you can't really go wrong with it if you're looking for an above average creature feature.





Life During Wartime

What exactly constitutes a sequel? That's one of the many questions Todd Solondz grapples with in Life During Wartime. A sequel of sorts to his masterpiece Happiness, it recasts every character, often turning them into someone completely different from who they were originally. And yet, the film so explicitly continues all their stories from the first film, you'll be lost if you've never seen it. It's a fascinating, if ultimately hollow experiment. Few actors are able to achieve anything approaching what the original actors did, with only a few trying to make the characters completely their own (Paul Rubens and Ciaran Hinds making the biggest impacts). If you've never seen a Solondz movie, you really shouldn't start here. The things I love about his style are still on display here, though a bit more subdued. It's ironic that this might be his most mainstream film yet, but it's also the least accessible due to its constant callbacks to a film most people never saw from 12 years ago. I'd recommend you see Happiness instead, but it is probably too shocking for 99% of audiences out there.





The Kids Are All Right

Here's a film that tells a familiar story, with familiar themes, yet it works so well because of the actors on display. All five lead actors give career best performances, and while the adults might be getting all the awards talk (Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo), I found the two children to be far more interesting and nuanced. Mia Wasikowska, fresh off of Tim Burton's recent disaster, is infinitely charming here as the daughter. She gave such a wooden performance in Alice, so it comes as a bit of a shock to see her flourish in a real role. And Josh Hutcherson is an actor I've had my eye on since Bridge to Terabithia. Here he realizes his potential as the confused and lost son of two lesbians. His story is the one I wish had been explored more. His need to find out who his father is should have played a much bigger role in the film, but it often gets glossed over in favor of bickering between Bening and Moore. Had this movie put the kids front and center, it might have been a much more original and interesting film.





Cyrus

Jonah Hill makes it 3 for 3 this year with great films. Here he absolutely nails the role of Cyrus, a strange man-child who still lives with his mother. What really could have been a one note performance is given a lot more depth by Hill, who had to improvise most of his dialog, along with the rest of the cast. John C Reilly is just as good as the man wooing Cyrus' mother. I found the loose style of this film very refreshing. While it hits some familiar beats, it hits them with wit an charm. You can almost certainly guess where this film will end up, but how it gets there is pretty fun. The women in the film haven't got as much to do, but Marissa Tomei and Catherine Keener (two of my favorite women in film right now) both give it their best. Cyrus very well might be the best comedy of the summer, one one you should check out when it comes to your neck of the woods.

Alice in Wonderland

Normally I would review this movie like I would any other: the good, the bad, the ugly. But three years ago, in my review for Sweeney Todd, I declared Tim Burton to be my favorite filmmaker. I feel that statement needs to be further examined, and what better place to do so than in my review for his latest movie? Suffice it to say, I do not stand by that statement any longer, and it is not Alice in Wonderland that makes me reconsider. But it is Alice in Wonderland that so perfectly exemplifies why I can't stand by that statement any longer. Alice in Wonderland is a bad film, and it's a bad film because it is a Tim Burton film. It exemplifies what exactly is wrong with the career of my once favorite director.

There was a time when Tim Burton made original films - or at least films that weren't remakes/reimaginings. But ever since Sleepy Hollow, he has felt the need to remake everything that sounds vaguely like a Tim Burton movie (he is even reimagining one of his own next, the short film Frankenweenie). Perhaps no story sounds more tailor made to Tim Burton's sensibilities than that of Alice in Wonderland - and that's exactly the problem. When Burton gets his hands on these properties, he immediately goes into autopilot. There is no challenge in taking a story that sounds like a Tim Burton film, and then turning it into a Tim Burton film. One has only to look at the various elements of this film to see how much they mirror everything else he has ever done, and how little thought he had to put into it.

The most obvious autopilot choice Burton always makes is the casting. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are both fine actors, but his reliance on them repeatedly results in tamer and tamer performances on their parts. Depp especially seems lost here. After seven collaborations, I can't imagine that Tim Burton has a lot of new directorial ideas for Depp to try out. As such, we get a performance that never takes off, relying too much on silly makeup and bad character quirks. Carter fares better, taking her character to some really silly places, but all too often she seems to rely on quirkiness and not actual performing.

The score is exactly what you would expect. Where once a Danny Elfman score would jump out at you, now it seems to just serve as a placeholder. Nothing about the music is memorable because it hits the exact Elfman beats you would expect from a collaboration with Burton. While music shouldn't be a make or break element in the quality of a film, it is certainly a piece of the film, and in this case it serves to illustrate the lazy mentality that seems to go on when someone teams up with Burton for the umpteenth time.

But what Burton is most known for, of course, is his visual style. When someone says a story seems like a perfect fit for Burton, it is usually this element they are referring to. Here is no exception: Burton's love for German Expressionism is once again on display, but filtered through copious amounts of CGI. And it looks really bad. Perhaps this aspect of the film is the one I would have most easily given a pass, as his visual style still entertains me, but it is done so poorly here, I can't ignore it. Maybe it was the 3D, but this is one of the most visually repugnant movies I have seen in some time. One has to look no further than Johnny Depp's makeup design to see what I mean. It is harsh on the eyes, garish and without reason. It's weird simply for the sake of being weird. Why is the Red Queen's head so big? Because it looks weird. Why does Crispin Glover appear to be stretched out vertically? Because it looks weird. That seems to be the length of thought process Burton has been putting into his visuals, and the bad CGI here does him no favors.

The best films Tim Burton has done are among my all time favorites. But it has been a long time since the days of Ed Wood or Beetle Juice. It's strange to watch a man I once wholly respected so completely tarnish his image and credibility. Between the Frankenweenie remake and his stated desire to tackle the Sleeping Beauty story, there is no reason to think his decision making will improve. And when his movies make as much money as Alice in Wonderland has so far, why would he risk making something as uniquely personal as Edward Scissorhands again? As long as Burton continues to make the films people expect him to make, his creative decisions in each film will probably become more and more bankrupt of creativity. Tim Burton is a man in need of a comeback, but he'll need to step outside of his comfort zone again to achieve it.