Motifs in 2011 Cinema: Disillusionment.

Perhaps because it’s one of the youngest artistic forms, cinema is often assessed in much different manner that literature, or the visual arts. We discuss it in terms of genre, not in terms of thematic offering. Comparing, for example, Corpse Bride and Up because they’re both animated leads to some dubious discussion especially when – like any art form – thematic elements examined in cinema and the way different filmmaker address them make for some stimulating discussion. Motifs in Cinema is a discourse, across nine film blogs, assessing the way in which various thematic elements have been used in the 2011 cinematic landscape. How does a common theme vary in use from a comedy to a drama? Are filmmakers working from a similar canvas when they assess the issue of the artist or the family dynamic? Like everything else, a film begins with an idea - Motifs in Cinema assesses how the use of a single idea changes when utilised by varying artists.

- Andrew K.
Disillusionment.

One of my favorite songs says "disillusion takes what illusion gives" and this couldn't ring truer than it does while looking back at the cinema of 2011. The last decade was characterized because its up and downs were more extreme than anything else in the past. When things got bad, it meant war, terrorist attacks, pandemics, severe economic crises, social revolts, harsh weather changes and natural disasters etc. When things got good - if they ever did - it seemed like the world was closer to unity. Not so surprisingly, most of the good came in direct response to the bad, with entire countries uniting to help out a smaller nation in need, technological and scientific breakthroughs and perhaps naively in the promises made by a series of politicians who for a split second seemed like they would be able to change the world.
The movies of 2011, more than before, focused on how all of the good eventually let us down, how racism, intolerance, war and corruption just might've won the battle.

In Meek's Cutoff - perhaps the most aggressive political commentary of 2011 - Kelly Reichardt questions the Obama administration's lack of direction. Her story of wandering pioneers might not seem like a straightforward "movie" in the sense that it never worries about being entertaining and has no regard for plot. However embedded in its desolated landscapes lies the greatest story never told: how people abandon everything precious to them for an ideal that might never materialize. Realizing these people are lost isn't as heartbreaking as the delusional nature of the man leading them (played with astonishing charisma by Bruce Greenwood) who is more keen on preserving his public image than on acknowledging his flaws and how he let his people down. Meek's Cutoff cleverly uses history to make a point out of the cyclical nature of our universe.

This cyclical nature is repeated in Drive a film that takes place in a Los Angeles that seems to have never moved past the Reagan era. A labyrinth of decay surrounded by neon lights, Nicolas Winding Refn's tale questions what happens when society has lost all signs of latent humanity. L.A. here becomes the ultimate symbol of disillusionment, a city where people once came to dream (there is nary a sign of Hollywood glamour, we only see the menial tasks performed by stuntmen and strippers) but now are in deep search of a hero.
That the hero they get is a morally ambiguous macho figure speaks more about how the icons of valor are thought of as primitive creatures that predate the times we live in.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo then gives us a hero(ine) that fits more in our times. Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) might not be Homer's idea of a savior, but in these times when corporations deal with our private information, she gets the Julian Assange badge of honor for "criminal heroism". When and how exactly did telling the truth and trying to make things right by way of immorality became a sign of courage might be a task more adequate for sociologists, but we'll take our salvation in any way it comes, right?

Although salvation makes no sense when thinking that a single epidemic might invalidate all of our moral codes. In Contagion we saw how an illness not only destroyed lives but shook survivors as well. What is the point in trying to preserve any signs of humanity when we commit the greatest acts of inhumanity against ourselves?
Steven Soderbergh's masterpiece was a chilling reminder that globalization is making us stronger only by giving us a false sense of unity, when in fact countries seem to wish they could erect walls to contain their own troubles without ever recurring to "friendly neighbor" behavior. That we see so many people in the movie trying so hard to contain the pandemic and have them fail so miserably is both horrifying and somehow relieving. Does it make sense that the end of times is then becoming the hedonistic poison of choice to so many people?

The Tree of Life wasn't without loss of illusion, in fact the entire premise circles around having a son realizing he'll never satisfy his father. On a larger scale, the film is also an essay through which Terrence Malick tries to satisfy a supreme power (the ultimate father figure) by trying to find the very essence that created him. It would be facile to blame daddy issues for all that's wrong in the world (despite what Freud would prefer) but The Tree of Life pulled off the ultimate hat trick by offering us a second chance, perhaps those who have faith will find solace in an afterlife. The rest of us are stuck down here mesmerized by the way in which our hopes reach for the sky only to crash with irreverent violence.

Drive ****

You'll have to go to PopMatters and read my review though.

Sheet-y Saturday.

Where we take a look at posters for upcoming features.

Unlike the rest of the planet I don't want to have Ryan Gosling's babies but I'm loving the old-school masculinity he brings to this new poster for Drive.

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn who won the mise-en-scene prize at Cannes the film is a throwback to B movies and macho films so the poster embodies this effectively. Gotta love the unashamedly tacky pink font and Gosling's dirty look. I wasn't a fan of Refn's last film but this one seems quite promising.

Is this really the best they could come up with? They should've at least tried to do something like the cup and two faces psych trick. This is just so blah.

Kudos to whoever decided Keira Knightley's delicate frame looked so big it seems she can kick Viggo and Fassy's asses.

What's your take on these? Crazy to see Keira kick some Freudian ass?

I See Red.

Via The Playlist come the truly mindblowing news that Nicolas Winding Refn not only is dying to make a feature film about the kick-ass Wonder Woman, but he wants the even more awesome, redhead extraordinaire, Christina Hendricks to play her!

"If I get to do it, she's going to be it" he says and my oh my I already feel like the following comic book scene...

I see red too...

Wouldn't Hendricks, fantastic rack and all, rock this character?

Short Takes: "Four Lions", "Valhalla Rising" and "Micmacs"

Micmacs **½
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

You can almost see the ACME label on every scene in this hyperactive, restless revenge comedy. Dany Boon plays a man who is almost killed during a shooting. He recovers, is adopted by a group of misfits (including Yolande Moreau and Jeunet favorite Dominique Pinon) and decides to take revenge not on the man who shot him but on the company who made the bullet. There is often too much going on in this movie and while Jeunet is a master of Tati-esque sequences and sepia toned acid comedy, this time his story gets lost behind the style. There are references to old Warner Brothers films (Max Steiner is even credited as a composer) but we never really understand what this has to do with anything, given this isn't an homage to classic films and Jeunet tries to discuss morals he can't handle while holding a stick of dynamite in his hand.
The film never decides if it wants to be Wile E. Coyote or Bogie and because of this it's unable to either catch or seduce us.
















Valhalla Rising **
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

If Conan the Barbarian had been directed by Stanley Kubrick from a screenplay by Ingmar Bergman, it would've looked something like this odd Viking tale set during the Crusades. Mads Mikkelsen plays a one-eyed mysterious warrior who goes by the name of what else but One-Eye? A man of few words, he doesn't utter a single word in the entire film (Mikkelsen's commitment is impressive!), he prefers to gut a man with his bare hands and use his power of prophecy to lead a group of Crusaders to their demise.
Because of its excessive infatuation with itself the film often forgets an audience is sitting in front and the film seems to quickly lose any interest in getting the audience involved in any of what's going on. The landscape cinematography is marvelous but what should feel primal and hauntingly adventurous mostly feels self indulgent and overdone.















Four Lions ***
Director: Chris Morris

A film that makes the phrase "I would kill you bro" sound funny and heartwarming (!) deserves an applause based only on the cojones of its screenplay. That said screenplay is a comedy about British Muslim terrorists, that not for a single moment results demeaning, offensive or reductive is nothing if not remarkable. The way a satire should be done, Four Lions relies on a magnificent ensemble (Kayvan Novak is a comedic revelation) to work effortlessly.
"Why shouldn't I be a bomber if you treat me like one?" asks one of the characters in one of the film's many moments of brutal poignancy. Written with bravado by Morris, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and handheld shot by the appropriately named cinematographer Lol Crawley the film resembles a BBC mockumentary series and suffers slightly because it's too episodic for its own good sometimes.
Four Lions is funny not because of how dim-witted and stupid its characters are but because it reminds us of the idiotic acts committed in the name of faith. Terrorism's greatest weapon aren't bombs but simple human stupidity.

Bronson ***

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast: Tom Hardy
Matt King, Edward Bennett-Coles, James Lance
Hugh Ross, Katy Barker

How would you feel if a movie about a sociopath didn't care in the least if we understood his behavior or not?If you would feel offended or cheated then "Bronson" is not the movie for you.
It's a perversely entertaining portrait of Britain's most violent prisoner: Michael Peterson, better known as Charles Bronson.
He took on the name of the famous action star in his bareknuckle boxing days on the advice of his agent. This also happened during one of his paroles; the man has been in prison on and off for thirty four years now and as the movie let's us know, there is no programmed date for his release.
Since redemption, at least in the terms of our society, is out of the question for Bronson, director Winding Refn approaches him not like a story to tell, but as a fascinating subject which you only watch, because you can't interpret it.
From the beginning Bronson let's us know he doesn't blame his parents for his violent nature and the movie never tries to dig deep into what might have gotten him started.
Some people perhaps never got rid of their animal instincts and their nature isn't comprehensible for the rest of us.
In that way Bronson's love for confrontations can only be compared to a wild animal and even those usually have self defense motives.
We are left then watching this man take off his clothes, grease himself up and provoke the prison guards-by kidnapping someone usually-to get into a fight with him.
Something makes him thrive violence and the results are compelling to say the least. Hardy's performance is a work of art in itself.
Considering he doesn't have a real plot to follow and the movie becomes a monologue most of the time, his performing abilities are stunning.
With his bald head, upside down mustache and imposing physique, he often recalls a cartoon villain and Hardy provides him with enough charm to make us feel guilty for rooting for a criminal.
Watching him it's impossible not to be reminded of Malcolm McDowell's iconic Alex from "A Clockwork Orange" (and the director makes no secret that he was highly influenced by Kubrick's work) but his grin makes for a slightly chillier effect because we remember he's playing someone that's actually alive out there.
He addresses the audience like the ablest of hosts and Hardy encompasses Bronson's wish of fame and stardom to such a degree that we begin to wonder if somehow deep inside Bronson hasn't already accomplished his mission by becoming so notorious?
The film's aesthetic wonders and spot on musical choices (when they play the Pet Shop Boys "It's a Sin" it's impossible not to let out a chuckle) also serve to remind us that we're living in a world where violence no longer takes much of our thoughts.
We have become so used to it that "Bronson" becomes a sort of voyeuristic guilty pleasure.
"You don't wanna be trapped inside with me sunshine" he says.
But we are and we like it.