Toy Story 3
2010. Directed by Lee Unkrich
Am I the only one who found this terrifying? Sure, it’s a cute, nostalgic film with plenty of fun characters, goofy one-liners and exciting cliff-hangers, but the story, which at its core is about eternal existence plagued by constant abandonment, is pretty freaky. The toys are back, but some of them are missing! Woody mourns the loss of Bo-Peep, who has suffered an unnamed fate, and the few remaining toys from Toy Story 1 and 2 lie gathering dust in an old toy chest. Andy is going to college, and who can blame him for growing out of his toy obsession? (He did seem to love those toys a little more than was good for him.) He thinks about giving the toys away, but instead decides to put them in the attic, which is supposed to be a better fate? After a series of mix-ups, the toys find themselves donated to a preschool which turns out to be a prison camp run by bitter, abandoned toys. They face ultimate destruction and narrowly escape into the hands of a new owner. The end. Really? Is this a good resolution? All three of these films have dealt with the hard reality of being a living toy. Eternal life as an object of temporary diversion comes with consequences. The toy’s owners truly are their gods, but these gods abandon them every few years, and they are constantly facing the threat of non-existence found in being thrown away and melted down or being broken beyond repair. Not a happy or hopeful existence. That the toys can cope at all is truly remarkable. I know, I’m over thinking this, but Toy Story 3 deals the most harshly with this reality, and even though it has a “happy ending,” one can’t help but wonder what future horrors await our heroes. The animation, as always with Pixar, is top notch, but it does seem a little over-produced and less charming than the first two films. Also the characters seem less developed and the plot moves a bit too fast for my liking. It’s probably my least favorite of the three, but not a bad film. Apparently Pixar was forced against their will by Disney to make Toy Story 3, so in retrospect they did a good job. It will definitely sell toys, which is all Disney really wants.
Burn After Reading
2008. Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen
If there’s one thing the Coen brothers love, it’s mayhem. They outdid themselves this time, casting a mind-boggling web of small-time intrigue that hapless characters get caught in through a series of very bad choices and random events. There’s the disgruntled ex-CIA agent who just wants a little revenge in the form of a name-dropping bestseller, the air-headed blonde gym instructor who’s looking for love and wants a new body, the handsome body-guard who is a womanizer extraordinaire, and the health nut who enjoys exercising and dancing to his ipod way too much. It’s really funny to watch big-name actors like Clooney and Pitt play these goofy losers, and you can tell that they’re having a blast. As the film comes to its climax the chaos escalates, the nicest characters take the most damage while the worst get off scott-free, and one character asks “what did we learn here?” The answer is nothing. The film is only an exercise in madcap plotting that leads to gloriously funny, character-driven mayhem. If it all wasn’t executed in such a good-natured spirit, I’d probably be disgusted. That’s the Coens for you.
Rocky
1976. Directed by John G. Avildsen
All I’ve ever heard about this movie is that its cheesy and has a funny theme song, so I was not at all prepared for how good and artistically relevant it was. From the first fight scene in a smoky bar, through the dingy slums of Philadelphia and the final climactic fight in the crowded arena, I was hooked. I can believe that Stallone wrote the script. I can see him working out all his delivery in his head as he wrote. His performance embodies the character so well that you forget you’re watching an actor in a film and think it’s a documentary of a real-life person. The lighting and sound are incredibly naturalistic, as is the acting and the pace of the story. These characters could be real people. They have foibles and you’re not sure if they can be trusted. Even Rocky starts out working as the muscle for a loan shark, and his seemingly noble intentions towards the girl next door might not be as pure as they first appear. He harbors bitterness and a defeatist attitude, and must learn to overcome both. Rocky, like the rest of the characters, develops and matures throughout the story with a slow, steady pace that feels like real life, and not every problem is snugly solved at the end. The final fight is intense, but not too long, and the ending is very sweet. If you haven’t seen this, don’t believe the bad rap. See it.
Spirited Away
2001. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
The plot here is deceptively complex, but the film turns out to be more about visual experience than logical story development. A little girl and her parents are moving to a new town. On their way they wander into an old amusement park that turns out to be a portal to what seems to be some kind of spirit world. At sunset, ghost-like beings appear, and as these spirits cross a bridge to a massive bath house, they gain flesh and become a varied assortment of giant magical animals. The little girl’s parents eat the ghosts’ food and are turned into pigs as punishment, but she escapes by asking the evil witch for a job, an arrangement that the witch is magically bound to agree to. All this seems familiar and reminds me of ancient folklore I’ve studied. Apparently Miyazaki created much of this world from scratch, but it’s still chock full of universal folklore concepts. The little girl must labor to save her parents and dodge the evil witch’s tricks, the witch has a twin who may be her moral opposite, and a river manifests itself as a human being. The film is full of fantastic characters. There is a boy who can turn into a dragon, three disembodied heads that hop around and act like dogs, a giant baby that turns into a hamster, an angry swarm of killer paper dolls, and a toad-like spirit that wears a mask on its nose and devours everything in sight. By the end of the film there have been so many plot twists, so many changes of heart by the characters, and so many random magical events that the whole fabric of the film’s world seems to come undone, and you wonder what you just spent two hours watching. But it’s such a magical visual experience that you don’t really mind.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
1958. Directed by Nathan Juran
I watched this film with my brothers and we had a good laugh. Special effects have come a long way since 1858, but even though they’re primitive, Sinbad’s visuals, especially the stop motion animation, are very well done thanks to genius animator Ray Harryhausen. His creations really steal the show here, with the overacting b-grade actors taking backseat to the monsters. The horned and hoofed cyclops is the films uncredited star. He shines as a huge fantastic beast that is still very believable and somewhat sympathetic if terrifying. When the dragon takes him down, it’s kind of sad. Also, The skeleton sword fight has to be seen to be believed. C- for story and acting, A+ for visuals!