The Small Picture
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Which genius gets drunk faster?
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John Carter (2012)
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(spoilers!)
John Carter is a decent, messy movie that throws too many things at the audience while offering too few really appealing aspects to make it worthwhile. It wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be but it certainly wasn’t really anything special either. The effects move from interesting to obvious, the acting is okay at best as no one really stands out, the plot is convoluted and the movie’s mood also alternates between pathos, comedy, action brawl and sci-fi standard. It is amazing yet again how a movie can be made for hundreds of millions of dollars, developed over decades and still leave such a little mark, not only in film history (besides being seen as a disastrous flop), but also for the audience. I can hardly imagine remembering much of this movie in a year or two.
Read MoreBehind These Castle Walls, Part III: Fantasia (1940)
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It’s been clearly too long since the last installment and I blame today’s movie for it. Fantasia is a difficult movie to approach because it has no larger story and is also not as well known today as all the other movies. Yet again, it is clearly a technological achievement with astonishing visuals and an unusual concept for its time, mixing animation, classical music and live action footage for what must have been really confusing to audiences in 1940. I had never seen it before but only the Fantasia 2000 sequel. I thought about talking about the original version that includes the racist scenes that have been removed since 1960 and while this is interesting, I decided not to because a) this problem is obvious and has been dealt with by Disney (with only a 20 year-delay) and b) I’m doing this to discuss the effects these movies still have today, so I might as well go with the current version. There are still enough issues to look at in this one and I can’t wait to move on to get to the next ones (of which there are still officially 53 left).
Read MoreDo You Want to Dress Up As a Unisex Snowman?
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It’s that time of the year again. That time where many people can’t wait to dress up and have fun, while others (including myself) want to escape and hide for a weekend until it’s all over. I wrote about it last year and not much has changed from that article. But this year it is harder for me to escape the claws of Fasching.
Read MoreA Series of Series: Jessica Jones, Episode 4-6
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Episodes 4 to 6 of Jessica Jones don’t disappoint and continue what the first three episodes started so excellently already. The themes are followed through but by showing more of Kilgrave, the show attempts a little of what Daredevil did with Wilson Fisk, although up to now, he has not really been humanized much more. But he’s not that mystery figure anymore. I also like how all the other characters, especially Malcolm and Will, become more layered and really develop, which is something, just like in Daredevil, these shows seem to do extremely well. I don’t know if Marvel gets enough credit for both shows, not just as good entertainment, like their movies, but really deep, well-made, thought-provoking shows that rarely fall into clichés or stereotypes. This is not just another comic book TV show (but then again, this is not based on just another comic). I’m going to focus on some highlights from the next three episodes (again, spoilers, obviously).
Read MoreInventing the Child - The Genetics of Pretty Things
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I somehow imagined I’d be writing these kinds of articles more often, but one little drop in interest in books by my older daughter stops a lot of the material for them. But now it’s time for more, as I’ve found a bunch of new examples of both the bad and the good in children’s books that try to sell ideas to kids.
Read MoreBehind These Castle Walls, Part I: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
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Ever since I read J. Zornado’s revolutionary important book Inventing the Child, in which he examines children’s fiction and its underlying messages, I looked at books and movies in a different way. Among all the brilliant things this book achieves, what spoke to me in a special way was how he dissected Disney movies, specifically The Young Mermaid and The Lion King. Uncovering their themes of parent authority, gender politics and identity manipulation was a big revelation to me. And ever since then I wanted to look at Disney movies, which are so beloved and popular until today, and see if I could figure out which ideas they sell to kids. So, today I’m starting a new series in which I’ll chronologically go through every major animated Disney movie and try to analyze it closely. I’m not the first one to do this, but I hope I have something new to say anyway. I have seen most of them already in the past, but I will watch them again with different eyes now.
Read MoreInventing the Child - Fishtails, Supermen and Pilates
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It’s finally time for another look at children’s books. I thought I had too many examples to use but because of having so many library books going through our home, I missed some opportunities of capturing some of the more interesting pages. But I still got enough as it is, so here we go.
Read MorePoster of a Girl - 1940 Edition: You May Kiss the Doll Now [1940 Week]
/![Poster of a Girl - 1940 Edition: You May Kiss the Doll Now [1940 Week]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54206d12e4b0e2c159748fd6/1426058902384-7JTYE8ZAGATT1K99B2AZ/image-asset.jpeg)
There’s no theme week without posters. Luckily, there aren’t so many posters to find from 1940 (at least not as easy as with more recent years), so the list is much shorter this time. Interestingly, the designs are much more sparse and simple than in later years. So, there is not quite as much to analyze as usual, but still enough, so here we go.
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Waterloo Bridge (1940) [1940 Week]
/![Waterloo Bridge (1940) [1940 Week]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54206d12e4b0e2c159748fd6/1425988346126-75M5SBE2L99FZDMXUJMW/image-asset.jpeg)
(spoilers ahead, but you don't care, right, it's a 1940 movie)
Waterloo Bridge is an odd film to judge. On the surface I liked it. The acting was quite good, the dialogue is well written and the direction by Mervyn LeRoy is good. It is an entertaining movie, apart from its plot development and moral, especially concerning women. I have rarely seen such a strange mixture of serviceable filmmaking and questionable ethics. Interestingly, for a movie made in 1940, it is set mostly during World War I but also includes Britain declaring war on Germany in World War II, clearly appealing to audience’s emotions at the time. Anyway, there are worse old movies you could watch and this one at least offers the opportunity for interesting post-watching discussions.
Read MoreDrive (2011)
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(spoilers when I say so)
Drive is a movie that really got to me. It is one of the intense and most surprising movies I’ve seen in a while and also one of the best. I had high expectations for the movie after having read so many good things, but they really paid off. It’s the first movie I gave a 10 since Looper in August. Director Nicolas Winding Refn creates an atmosphere that is as intense as anything I’ve ever experienced in a movie. This special mood is mostly created through silence, music and brilliantly framed shots (the two of them in the hallway, separated by the editing, but united in negative space is extremely brilliant). The use of unexpected and shocking violence adds to that in an unusual way. The movie captivates you so much that the violence really feels like a hit on the head. It makes the violence also more meaningful because it both has an effect on the viewer and real consequences for the characters. The acting is amazing throughout, especially Ryan Gosling carries the movie without saying much and with only the slightest facial expressions. The same goes for Carey Mulligan, but most of the actors defy character expectations with little gestures, especially Albert Brooks and Oscar Isaacs. Overall, a great movie that stays with you.
Read MoreFifty Shades of Pink
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The holidays seem to allow me less time to actually write something, but if I do, I thought it should be “seasonal.” A while ago I flipped through a store’s toy catalogue, just in time for Christmas and I was amazed and shocked by the strict gender policy. There is nothing new there, nothing you haven’t seen before, but all of it packed together, again and again, in every possible variation… it’s somewhat terrifying. Let’s take a look.
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Domino (2005)
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Domino has been called a mess by many critics and maybe it is. Perhaps the fact that director Tony Scott called it his favorite movie and hearing Richard Kelly talk about his screenwriting process (on Jeff Goldsmith’s Q&A about Tony Scott), made me more forgiving for this movie. It’s not great, but messy and exhausting. But it has its moments. I liked Mickey Rourke in it and most of the other performances are good too. Scott has some fun with his movie, experimenting the hell out of it and it certainly doesn’t look like any Hollywood action movie you’d imagine. But it’s also too long and nearly incomprehensible, although the plot doesn’t really seem to matter. What matters to Scott is his friend Domino Harvey and she’s the focus at all times. The rest is just fireworks to celebrate her.
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