ADAM (1992)

ADAM
Directed by Peter Lord.


“Adam” is a short film produced by Aardman Animations, which is the group responsible for some of my favorite short films, the Wallace and Gromit series. This film was nominated for Outstanding Animated Short in 1992, and by this time, Aardman Animations had made a definite mark on the world of animation. It would still be several years until their first full length film, Chicken Run, but they had several shorts under their belt by this time, including Wallace and Gromit's first adventure, “A Grand Day Out” and the Oscar-winning “Creature Comforts”.

“Adam” is about the first man on a lonely and very small planet and his relationship with his creator. The film could easily be interpreted as a parable about man's relationship with God. When left to his own devices, Adam runs the gamut of unhelpful emotions, from instinctual defense to sloth. Every now and then the hand of the creator reaches in to point Adam in the right direction. Once he does this quite literally, giving Adam a pack on a stick and sending him forth to explore his small world. The world proves to be quite small, and Adam finds that he's explored it all in a matter of seconds. Eventually Adam appeals to his creator for a companion, and the creator complies, though not in the way one might expect.

“Adam” is very well animated, and it has some very cute moments, but it fails to live up to the standard of other Aardman films. It is neither funny enough, nor poignant enough to warrant much special attention, and I can't help but feel that is was all made as an excuse for the final joke, which left me feeling a little flat anyway. It's only about five minutes long, so it's not a waste of any one's time, and it could provide a pleasant alternative to any number of stupid videos on the Internet. How many times can you watch people drop Mentos into Diet Coke anyway? “Adam” is readily available for viewing on youtube, and it's most likely also available on a number of other video posting sites.

“Adam” lost the Oscar to “Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase”. Also nominated were “Reci, Reci, Reci (Words, Words, Words)”, “The Sandman”, and “Screen Play”.



This review was written on May 19, 2008

NETWORK (1976)

NETWORK
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Starring William Holden, Peter Finch, and Faye Dunaway.


Today is the day that Uwe Boll's new film “Postal” comes out. I'm not bringing this up to promote his movie. In fact, I think that people had the choice of getting herpes or seeing it, they should give strong consideration to the former choice. No, I bring up “Postal” because my boss and I had a mini-argument today about movies much like it. Every now and then a movie is released that is such a horrible idea that it's amazing it ever got green lit. A lot of the time these movies are nothing more than the same tired stories we've seen hundreds of times before about high schoolers (Who usually look to be about 35) who are from the wrong part of town overcoming huge obstacles to prove themselves to other classmates. Often times this involves some kind of sport or martial art or dance. Uwe Boll's films rarely involve dance, but they're always so horrible that they fall into this category of horrible ways to spend a couple hours.

The thing about my boss is that he's always interested in seeing these movies. He told me today that he believes there's nothing wrong with tuning out with a popcorn movie that doesn't make you think too much. Now we have taken the scenic route to the topic of this review—Sidney Lumet's 1976 masterpiece “Network”. It concerns the news division of the failing UBS television network. Through a series of manipulations, the control of the news division is taken out of the hands of veteran newsman Max Schumacher (William Holden) and put under the care of entertainment programming head Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway). In order to boost ratings and turn a $9 million deficit into a moneymaker, Christensen sensationalizes the news, doing anything to attract an audience, including having a host (Who was once removed for repeated swearing live onscreen) act as a “modern-day prophet” ranting about hypocrisies in the world.

The gamble pays off. Soon the evening news is the 4th most watched program on television. It's devoid of any actual, in depth, serious news coverage, but host Howard Beale (Peter Finch) has the masses at his feet, commanding them, in one of the most thrilling scenes in any movie anywhere, to stand up, march to their windows, stick their heads out and yell “I'm as mad as hell! And I'm not going to take it anymore!”

Here's the irony. Back in 1976, this kind of newscast was so extreme that it was comically-grotesque. Now, in an era of talking heads, punditry, and “No-Spin Zones” the info-tainment presented in this movie doesn't seem too far fetched. We are in an era where news programs DO perform publicity stunts to gain audiences. It's an era where the lead story on the Today Show is about the episode of American Idol from the night before. The cable news networks hire talking heads and pundits to chew up the news and spit it back out to us. We are all baby birds who eagerly accept the regurgitated stories they feed us.

Returning to my argument with my boss: The motion picture industry is just the same. We see the same stories told over and over again with only slight variations, as if some giant machine was writing, directing, and producing. The days of movie makers having something meaningful to say has ended. No one can even tell an original story anymore. Sure, there are the occasional bright spots on the dismal Hollywood landscape, and there are still very good storytellers working in the industry, but it seems that the majority of movies made now are re-tellings of re-tellings of stories that weren't all that great to begin with.

“Network” discusses these topics brilliantly. It is an indictment of both current news and current Hollywood! There is nothing in this movie that is less than stunning. It is thrilling, thought-provoking, romantic, cautionary, funny, and illuminating all at once. It's one of the most perfect movies ever made. All of the performances are top-notch. The directing is spot-on. The dialogue snaps with freshness.

“Network” was nominated for 10 Oscars. It won four. Peter Finch won Best Actor for his amazing performance as Howard Beale. His decent into madness is captivating. William Holden was also nominated for Best Actor for his performance as news chief Max Schumacher. Also nominated were Giancarlo Giannini in “Seven Beauties”, Sylvester Stallone in “Rocky”, and Robert DeNiro in “Taxi Driver”.

Faye Dunaway won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as Diana Christensen. She beat Liv Ullman in “Face to Face”, Sissy Spacek in “Carrie”, Marie-Christine Barrault in “Cousin, Cousine”, and Talia Shire in “Rocky”.

Beatrice Straight won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Louise Schumacher, the angry wife of William Holden's character. She beat Jane Alexander in “All the President's Men”, Piper Laurie in “Carrie”, Jodie Foster in “Taxi Driver”, and Lee Grant in “Voyage of the Damned”.

Paddy Chayefsky won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The other nominated films were “Cousin, Cousine”, “The Front”, “Seven Beauties”, and “Rocky”.

Ned Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Corporate CEO Arthur Jensen. He has one really good scene, and for that scene he absolutely owns the movie. He lost the Oscar to Jason Robards in “All the President's Men”. Also running were Laurence Olivier in “Marathon Man”, Burgess Meredith in “Rocky”, and Burt Young in “Rocky”.

Owen Roizman was nominated for Best Cinematography. He lost to the movie “Bound for Glory”. Also nominated were “King Kong”, “Logan's Run”, and “A Star is Born”.
Sidney Lumet was nominated for Best Director. He lost to John G. Avidsen, who directed “Rocky”. The other nominated films were “All the President's Men”, “Face to Face”, and “Seven Beauties”.

Alan Heim was nominated for Best Film Editing. He lost to the film “Rocky”. Also nominated were “All the President's Men”, “Bound for Glory”, and “Two-Minute Warning”.
“Network” was nominated for Best Picture. It lost to “Rocky”. Also nominated were “All the President's Men”, “Bound for Glory”, and “Taxi Driver”.



This review was written on May 23, 2008

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (2007)

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
Directed by Julie Taymor
Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, and Joe Anderson

“Across the Universe” is a very conflicting movie. Most of it I loved. Parts of it were extraneous or made no sense. It was directed by Julie Taymor, who is best known as the director of the live-action stage version of “The Lion King”. If you see that show, as well as some of her other stag works, and even some of her other movies (“Titus Andronicus” and “Frida”) you will see that she definitely has a signature style. Taymor spent some time in Bali, where she was introduced to Balinese puppet theatre. This style shows in all her work, and this is no exception. In this movie it is most noticeable in the first protest scene and the scene involving “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite”.

Though Taymor's style is obvious in this movie, I felt as though I was seeing something different from her stage shows and previous movies. Rather than be hampered and held back by the limitations of the style, the movie seemed to flow naturally out of it. I never felt like there were puppets for the sake of having puppets. There were also delightful film effects that would never be possible on the stage. I was very surprised that this film was not nominated for Art Direction. This movie is nothing short of visually amazing.

The sole nomination that this movie did get was for Albert Wolsky's costumes. Wolsky's Oscar history includes wins for “All That Jazz” and “Bugsy”. He was nominated for “Sophie's Choice”, “The Journey of Natty Gann”, and “Toys”. His costumes ranged from the glorious 1960's styles, to psychedelic carnival, to Balinese-inspired full body puppets. He lost this Oscar to Alexandra Byrne for her straight-from-the-rental-house Elizabethan standard work on “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, showing once again that the Academy doesn't know much about Costume Design. Also nominated in this category were the movies “Atonement”, “La Vie en Rose”, and “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”.

Back to the movie. It's about a young Liverpudlian named Jude (Jim Sturgess) who comes to America to meet his father, and he consequently befriends a soon-to-be college drop out named Max (Joe Anderson) and falls in love with his sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). They all wind up in Manhattan's East Village where they meet even more people, including Sadie, a Janis Joplin-esque singer played by Dana Fuchs, JoJo, A Jimi Hendrix-esque guitarist played by Martin Luther McCoy, and Prudence, an Asian Lesbian from Ohio played by T.V. Carpio. All of this is set in the 1960's and themes from the 60's overshadow the entire movie, including Vietnam, artistic expression, and personal freedom.

Did I mention that this movie is a musical set to the music of The Beatles? Well it is. I'll admit that I was a little nervous when I first heard about this film, seeing as how the three main characters are name Maxwell (as in “Silver Hammer”), Lucy (as in “in the Sky With Diamonds”), and Jude (as in “Hey”). My fears were completely unfounded. Yes, there were some times when the story seemed to take a left turn for the sake of adding another Beatles song (The character Prudence could have been removed completely without much trouble), but when the songs work they work brilliantly! “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “I Want You (She's So Heavy)”, and “Happiness is a Warm Gun” are favorites of mine. There are also great cameos by Bono, Joe Cocker, and Eddie Izzard singing “I Am the Walrus”, “Come Together”, and “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” respectively.

The choreography was spectacular. Daniel Ezralow, who also played the priest in “Happiness is a Warm Gun”, did an amazing job using dance to create the moods of high school fun, New York City madness, Army bureaucracy, LSD trips, underground dance clubs, and shell-shocked morphine madness. It's a special treat to see Salma Hayek as five sexy nurses pampering a stupored Max. It almost makes me want to get sick!

As I hinted at earlier, there were parts that didn't work as well. For example, I didn't know that Prudence was supposed to be from a different city than Lucy until I heard Julie Taymor say it in the director's commentary! There is also a scene early in the movie where Jude and Max first meet and they sing “With a Little Help From My Friends” while passing around an imaginary joint. According to Taymor's commentary, the joint was mimed because Princeton (Where the scene was shot) wouldn't allow them to use a prop joint and also because they didn't want to lost their PG-13 rating. It simply didn't work. Rather than enjoying a scene showing a budding friendship, I was thinking, “Why aren't they smoking a real joint? Surely one of those characters has one!” It would have worked much better if they'd just passed around a flask or a cigar or something.

Yes, the movie is flawed, but it's very easy to overlook the flaws and enjoy this movie for what it is: A slice of life from the 1960's told with such imagination and craftsmanship that it's impossible to be bored and impossible to not be touched by this love story.



This review was written on May 16, 2008.