More Cellulloid Anticipation

Haven't done one of these for awhile...

Quite simply, there are some movies not out yet to which I am hugely looking forward.  Consider this a cinematic rorshach test if you will about what really goes on inside my soul.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  Muhahahah...

One of  these is Black Swan.  I'll admit that what got my attention at first was the much-bally-hooed sex scene between stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis.  But the idea of an intense psychological drama/thriller set in the world of ballet was intriguing in and of its own right.  Then, earlier this week, I saw the trailer and was blown away.  Click on the title above to see said trailer.  Like the poster to the right, it was disturbing in an exciting way.  From what I can gather, the lead character seems to be going mad.  Or perhaps is already mad.  Or (perhaps most intriguingly) is straying outside what is normal, safe and mundane--an artist who glimpses a world that exists in shadows and behind our backs.  How that is different from insanity is another question, and I'm not sure an answer is particularly necessary.

Anyone who knows me very well realizes just how much I'm looking forward to Let Me In, based on the Swedish novel that already produced on the best vampire films ever (again, click on the title to see the red band trailer--not real sure why it is restricted, though).  Chloe Moretz plays a little girl vampire who befriends a lonely, tortured boy played by Kodi Smit-McPhee.  In an interview the latter put one aspect very well.  She gives him, he says, "something to look forward to."  Novel and first film created a strange, nightmarish and yet innocent, even sweet love story.  More than one reviewer called this the anti-Twilight and while I don't share their (presumed) hatred of Myers' series, the logic is clear.  No pulling of punches.  No dreamy love interest who is a romance novelist's stereotypical ideal.  For one thing, these are children, on the verge of sexuality but not there yet (and one will likely never be), yet still sensual.  The vampire is not a "vegetarian."  She cannot be.

The director (Matt Reeves of Cloverfield) stated in various forums that he wanted to make the setting of his film clearly American, in keeping with the themes of the novel.  From the trailer and other hints, he seems to have done precisely that.  Good!  I don't want a carbon copy of the first film.  What would be the point?

Another vampire movie I'm looking forward to--Suck, which after showing at film festival after film festival has finally gotten a DVD/Blueray release later this year.  Over the past year or sot there've actually been a lot of trailers for this but I included my favorite (click the title).  Vampire comedies are tricky, at least in my humble (HAH!) opinion.  Most simply don't work.  My own theory is that its a question of tone.  Pure camp or silliness has its place (I say this as a huge fan of Red Dwarf and Monty Python as well as the late, lamented The State on MTV) but to my mind the best comedies explore the humor of these weird creatures called human beings.  This seems to go double or even triple for comedies about no-longer-human creatures like vampires.  My two favorite vampire comedies have plenty of jokes, but remained focused on the characters first and foremost (Love at First Bite and Sundown if you're interested).  Having watched five or six different trailers for this movie I think it likely this one succeeds where so many others have failed.  Just watch the trailer and you'll see what I mean.

Let The Right One In

Spoilers ahoy!

In several months time, an English language adaptation of the Swedish novel Let the Right One In will open in theaters. Written and directed by Matt Reeves of Cloverfield fame, the film has a slightly different title--Let Me In--and stars Chloe Grace Moretz of Kick-Ass and Kodi Smit-McPhee of The Road.

They have a lot to live up to. Last year a Swedish adaptation of the same novel won the devotion of many fans, including yours truly. I easily placed it on my list of "Ten Best Vampire Films Ever Made" and will probably remain there.

Forgive me while I gush.

In the early 1980s, a lonely twelve-year-old boy endures the attention of bullies. Oskar is precisely the kind of child who attracts such predators -- sensitive, intelligent, with a morbid imagination. He dreams of revenge, of lashing out against his tormentors. One night, a man and his daughter move into the apartment next door. Soon after, Oskar meets the daughter, Eli. Unwashed and strange, she stands in the snow without shoes and doesn't seem to notice the cold. Strange murders soon have the town buzzing, but at first no one connects them to the stranger and his "daughter." No one but Oskar. He figures out that his one true friend, the girl he has come to love, is a vampire.

A film simultaneously similar yet totally different from Twilight would be difficult to imagine. We have a romance between a human and a vampire--but instead of teens, they are children. Oskar isn't this shy, secretive figure everyone finds attractive. He's a weirdo, trapped in a situation (divorced parents, neither of them really understanding him, no friends) pretty much guaranteed to twist him into an unhappy, violent adult. Yet enter Eli--a reluctant but ruthless monster, who sees in Oskar perhaps an echo of herself. Her other half? A soulmate? That is what their relationship more-or-less becomes. Other, crueller vampires? No. The other monsters in this film are not undead, but very much alive. Anyone who ever had the dubious honor of tasting a bully's attention, at precisely the time in life when one is most vulnerable, least able to cope, should be able to sympathize. More, there is another monster. Eli's father/keeper, Hakkan--his precise relationship to her remains ambiguous. But he will certainly kill for her, does do so. And more. My own impression at the time was that here was a pedophile who'd fallen in love.

The love here is not saccharine. No classical piano pieces composed during sleepless nights. Eli does spend at least one night in Oskar's room--but not watching him. He asks her to get under the covers with him, and they simply snuggle the way children do (in many ways Eli remains a child, no matter how long she lives).

Another point of comparison/contrast--both films end with the vampire rescuing their love from danger. But Eli doesn't kill another vampire in hand-to-hand combat. No, she takes out human bullies who haven't a chance against her--the fight isn't the important point of that scene but her motivations. No "I must leave you to protect you" nonsense, but rather "I am here to protect you, and I always will be."

Both films are beautiful to see. LTROI however has the tougher job. The forests of the Pacific northwest are inherently lovely to behold. Not so a barren, planned suburb of Stockholm during the winter--dingy, uniform, lacking history and showing it. Yet somehow those barren lines and stark shapes become beautiful. Just as (leading again to the heart of this story) the feelings between a murderous child and a nascent serial killer make for a startling love story.

Coming from a theatre background, the thought of another film version of such a great story bothers me not at all. Lots of actors get to portray Cyrano de Bergerac, Ophelia, Willy Loman, Emma, etc. Why not Eli and Oskar (renamed Abby and Owen for the American version--relocated to New Mexico during the Reagan years, a time when we looked always outward for darkness, rarely at ourselves--part of Owen's dilemma as explained by writer/director Reeve).

Go out and see the movie. Or read the book. Or both. And get ready for the new version, for which I have high hopes.

"Kick Ass" (Review)

A dear friend of mine won tickets to the premiere of the motion picture Kick Ass last Tuesday. Today, it opens nation-wide. This review will contain spoilers but only later. And I will warn you...

Some folks seem a tad confused about the premise, but here it is. This teenage guy with a lot of idealism and a lot of imagination decides to try and become a superhero. No, he has no powers (well, he ends up with an advantage, but well within the realm of the possible). As you can see from the trailers, he dons a costume and starts helping people. This is captured on video, ending up on YouTube where he becomes a massive "thing". Along the way he stumbles onto a much more serious variation of the same trope--a father and daughter team (Big Daddy and Hit Girl) out to take down a major crime lord. They are hardcore, and take a liking to the other nascent superhero.

As plots go, that sounds fine but let me assure you there's a lot more to this than a cool-sounding plot. For one thing, there are the characters. Nicholas Cage's Big Daddy comes across as a blend of two Batmans--that of Adam West and Christian Bale. Think about that for a moment. Now add a dash of Mr. Rogers. I'm not kidding. And it works. Brilliantly. Most folks I spoke with agree that Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl steals the flick, not only with incredible (and very, very violent) fight scenes but with the attitude that carries it off. Frankly, this role easily lends itself to gags but instead came across as a real person. The central character, however, remains Aaron Johnson's Kick Ass. Without him, the story just doesn't hold together at all. That it does is a fine testimony to his abilities as an actor as well as the quality of the script.

Kick Ass is also a comedy, one quite dark at times and more than a little violent. In this respect it more closely resembles Watchmen rather than The Dark Knight. If anything it has a sense of fun akin to the Iron Man or Spiderman movies. People die in this flick. Blood goes flying, sometimes spraying, and there are guts to be seen. Some are tortured. More, the whole flick manages a tricky balancing act between the complementary tones of fierce and inspiring humor.

Okay, the spoilers are now ahoy. You have been warned.

After watching (and if case you hadn't guessed, roundly enjoying) this film I looked up the comic book online--which was developed more-or-less at the same time. Interestingly, I found the one totally off-note in the whole thing was a change from the book--one of the relative few such. Quite simply, Dave (aka Kick Ass) has a bit of a crush on one of the popular girls at his NYC high school. Been there, done that. His first outing in his new crime-fighting outfit results in a trip to the hospital--which incidentally gives him metal plates on his bones and enough nerve damage to withstand more pain than usual. It also sparks a weird rumor at school--namely, that he is gay. Katie (played by Lyndsy Fonesca) turns out to have something of a "lost dog syndrome" and befriends him precisely because she believes the rumors. He understandably (being a teenager and stoopid that way as most of us were) goes along with this in hopes of spending time with her.

What strikes the vastly false note is that when he finally tells her the truth, she forgives his deceit in about seven seconds. Uh, no. I'll buy that she might have a change of heart later, but not so soon and frankly not without something serious to change the paradigm. Teenage girls are not as a rule much more mature than teenage boys, if at all. This feels like the equivalent of a brownie served atop your medium-rare steak. Ick.

It stands out even more when you consider how many chances this film takes!

When Kick Ass and Big Daddy are betrayed, with Hit Girl left for dead (except we know she survived because she's wearing kelvar), the Crimelord's goons stage a gruesome execution for the two heros. We know Hit Girl will rescue them. What shocked me was that she wasn't able to save her father. He dies from wounds suffered after being set on fire! A very effective scene, and not a little daring. Especially amid the copious humor amid the rest of the movie (but then, real tension and danger and suffering makes humor funnier if you do it right). Keep in mind the writer of the comic book is none other than Mark Miller, creator of Wanted.

All in all, I would give this movie a B+ and put it among the very best superhero films made so far. Kudos to the filmmakers!