Bittersweet semi-autobiographical swansong for Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away etc.) Somewhat controversial topic looking at the life of Jiro Horikoshi, who designed fighter planes, but in no way does the film glorify war or justify Japan’s actions. If anything, it celebrates creativity, dreams and the design process, and one can’t help but sense that Miyazaki is reminiscing the days of his youth (just as in the more sugary From Up On Poppy Hill (2011)) and mourning the passing of his own (more than) “ten years in the sun”. This year Frozen was the crowd pleasing, money spinning Academy Award winner, but The Wind Rises was the more deserving
Author Archives: Jokersmiley
The Wind Rises ‘Kaze Tachinu’ (2013, dir. Hayao Miyazaki): bittersweet, semi-autobiographical swansong
American Hustle (2013, dir. David O. Russell): a lot of fun!
David O Russell is in top form, rejoined by his Silver Linings Playbook principals (Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence), plus further “it” actors of the moment Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner (plus more uncredited cameos). The film dramatizes the ABSCAM FBI sting operation of the late 70s/early 80s which nabbed several corrupt politicians including Congressmen, told from the viewpoint of the small-time conman (a nearly unrecognizable Bale) who was hired to be its brains. Though not as crowd-pleasing as Silver Linings (the characters are not as likeable and more one-dimensional, dialog not quite as sharp, and plot not as simple as a rom com), the movie will surely be a contender for top gongs, and thoroughly deserves its 7 Golden Globe noms so far. A lot of fun!
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013, dir. Peter Jackson): PJ gets his mojo back, largely
Peter Jackson gets his mojo back (largely) for the 2nd Hobbit installment – skips all the long sequences of dwarves singing a cappella while doing the dishes, getting straight into the action and fantastic new locales, requiring craploads of both programmers and carpenters. Some cool action set pieces imaginatively leap off the book’s pages, like dwarves in barrels. Acteur du jour Benedict Cumberbatch snarls away as “the CGI bad guy” (Necromancer/Sauron and Smaug). Plus expert foreshadowing of the central conflicts which we can be sure Jackson will dramatize to the max in the 3rd movie (*spoiler alert* the moral showdown between Bilbo and Thorin and the Battle of the Five Armies).
To pad out the 300 page children’s novel into 9 hours of feature film, Jackson has to add in quite a bit of backstory (like Gandalf and Radagast’s adventures) and some new characters (such as Evangeline “Lost” Lilly’s evoking if-Katniss-Everdeen-were-an-elf), but one can overlook all that for the spectacle … after all, retconning a chaste Elven-Dwarven love triangle is a mostly harmless creative exercise vs. some of the more legendary Hollywood executive pronouncements that were apparently flung around the first trilogy (e.g. Weinstein: “You have to kill one of the hobbits. I don’t care which one.”)
Frozen (2013, dir. Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee): fun for both kids and parents
3 years after Tangled, Disney is back at it with another CGI musical adaptation of a classic fairy tale. This time, it’s Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” (1845), though there’s not much in common with the original story – there’s a Snow Queen, trolls (now cute instead of evil), a young girl, and it’s set somewhere in Scandinavia. Disney, being Disney, added in no less than two princesses :-(, but at least in keeping with the times they aren’t waiting around for a handsome prince to save them. John Lasseter’s Pixar formula is by now well-oiled and slickly executed – the humor, the intelligent animal, the sidekick (this time a talking snowman), etc. Fun for both kids and parents (thumbs up from Little Miss 4yo!)
Ender’s Game (2013, dir. Gavin Hood): solid yet flawed adaptation of the beloved sci-fi coming-of-age novel
Solid sci-fi action with deeper-than-typical thematic exploration of the protagonist’s psychology and whether the ends justify the means. Given controversial author Orson Scott Card wrote the book decades before the current crop of young adult coming-of-age-while-saving-the-world fantasy (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, etc.), it’s interesting to observe the debt the later writers owe on plot, characterization, etc. Asa Butterfield redeems his Hugo (2011) turn in the titular role (streets better than Jake ‘annoying Anakin’ Lloyd who was under consideration for the part), while Harrison Ford shows us what Han Solo might have become if the civil war never ended, and Ben Kingsley epic fails at a New Zealand accent.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013, dir. Francis Lawrence): a quality follow-up for fans of the first film
For fans of the first film, a quality follow-up, but doesn’t quite reach the hallowed circle of sequels that were better than episode 1 (Empire Strikes Back, Wrath of Khan, etc.) Somehow, the stakes felt a bit lower and less dramatic, and the plot is entirely predictable to anyone who’s read a lot of sci fi/ dystopian future lit – though Jennifer Lawrence does a creditable acting job (as ever). Entertaining, well-crafted, slightly-deeper-than-typical action fare, though still not good enough to make me want to read the books 🙂
Gravity (2013, dir. Alfonso Cuaron): 90-minute cinematic CGI thrill ride, tailor made for IMAX
See it in IMAX (3D is optional). Very simple movie where the premise is the plot – an accident happens in space and the novice astronaut needs to survive. A 90-minute cinematic CGI thrill ride, alongside Sandra Bullock, who based on her performance will be in the hunt for her 2nd best actress gong.
Prisoners (2013, dir. Denis Villeneuve): superior, harrowing thriller
Harrowing thriller sporting superior writing, acting and direction; has been compared favorably with Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated Mystic River (2003). I beg to differ; it’s better. Mashes a police procedural and a complex drama exploring the impact on two families when their two girls go missing – how far would you go to find them? Do the ends justify the means? Excellent career-high performances from Hugh Jackman (as one of the fathers) and Jake Gyllenhaal (the detective). Would be surprised if it’s not up there in awards season.
2013 Nobel Prize for Literature: Alice Munro
Congratulations to Alice Munro for her Nobel Prize! Back when we read Lives of Girls and Women in high school, I had wondered at the eclectic choice of a Canadian feminist author by the English faculty of a conservative and religious all-boys’ school, but in hindsight they were just attempting to teach us great literature … one of our other books that year was, naturally, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice 🙂
WetWareGames 
12 Years A Slave (2013, dir. Steve McQueen): showing us the closest thing to a living Hell on earth
Addendum: After it’s well-deserved Academy Award for Best Film, and further reflecting on the movie, I’d have to remark that being a non-white in the 19th century American South was the closest thing to a living hell on earth. In every way as horrifying, de-humanizing and fundamentally evil as the Holocaust.
Share this:
Posted by Jokersmiley on January 25, 2014 in Film Reviews, Passive Media, Social Commentary
Tags: 12 Years A Slave, Academy Award, Best Film, Brad Pitt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Oscars, Solomon Northup, Steve McQueen