64. Macbeth (2015) - March 5th
So I took a class on Shakespeare last semester. It was really good, I got to learn about a couple of critical frameworks and applied them to Shakespeare's work, which required a lot of comparisons between Shakespeare as we understand how it was in his time and how his works are interpreted by directors today. I had to write an essay discussing Cultural Materialism as it applies to Macbeth, and used this film as a discussion point several times. I am only sitting down to actually watch the film now.
It's a shame I waited, because the film is really good. It's a mostly faithful adaptation, so you can expect the writing to be solid, and the few significant changes the film does make to the overall story structure lend themselves to a film interpretation; time spent on the funeral of the Macbeth's child takes away a bit of the story's subjectivity, but it's an intriguing change that alters the characters slightly and is allowed for when changing between scenes is a cut as opposed to moving a set around. Likewise, time can be spent on the battlefield to emphasise how it affects Macbeth as a person; it's a change that makes Macbeth more understandable beyond simply being power hungry, without making him some hero in the story. It's all done with significant respect to the source material, but doesn't lose out on its own modern panache, striking a nice note somewhere towards the middle of the line between 1-to-1 reproduction and new interpretation (it's possible to argue with New Historicism or Cultural Materialism that any re-make can be it's own thing just by virtue of being produced by different people and in to a different world, but that's not the topic I want to cover here).
Aside form the writing, the whole film is very good in terms of acting and direction. Fassbender and Cotillard always give strong performances; here Fassbender maintains a sense of struggle integral to keeping Macbeth as interesting as he is disgusting, and Cotillard's descent in to madness is both chilling and saddening. They both speak Shakespeare's words with energy and gravitas sold by their considerable talent, and never falter in bringing their characters to life, with the style of the film reinforcing them and making it visually enthralling on top of that.
The film is all beautifully drab grey, brown and white vistas that turn bright red or orange as blood floods the sins of Macbeth. The way the film frames its characters with such varying colours looks really amazing while also usually helping to reinforce the emotions or purpose of the characters in some way. The final duel between Macbeth and Macduff that sees the sun scorch through dust that stains both fighters is a considerable master stroke, and for a few brief moments I forgot that Justin Kurzel directed Assassin's Creed. - 7.5/10
65. Red Sparrow (2018) - March 5th
This was decent, and I at least never disliked my time while watching the movie, save for a couple of lines of dialogue that were laughably bad. My full review can be found here. - 6/10
66. A Silent Voice (2016) - March 6th
A Silent Voice says a lot. Yes, that's the first thing that popped in to my head.
What the film gives us is a sweet and beautifully animated expression about bullying and depression, as well as the difficulties of living with disability. The film is a little all over the place, but it's largely because of its ambition; the film at once wants to take the time and care to properly redeem Shoya, but it also wants to make sure that Shouko is an actual character and not some deaf prop for Shoya to examine his life over. The pacing suffers a little as a result, with a lot of little rises and falls in tension that make the film feel like a serial, but the story and characters feel much richer for the trouble. - 7.5/10
67. The Illusionist (2006) - March 9th
It's a shame this came out around the same time as The Prestige; like Antz to A Bug's Life or Deep Impact to Armageddon, The Illusionist is the forgotten of two eerily similar movie concepts that are substantially different from one another upon closer inspection. It's good, with a couple of fundamental issues.
The movie is very cool in its style; when its just being flashy the film can be pretty captivating, with clever sleight of hand and smooth camera tricks to elicit a soft but definite effect from each of its illusions. However, the drama is far too self-serious and drawn out, clashing with an unaware sense of melodrama against the movie's otherwise knowing excess. This may be due to how undeveloped Edward Norton's character is over the course of the film; when he's just trying to entertain it's easy to be shallowly invested, but when the film tries to make more out of our attachment to his character it becomes clear that there's not much there. Much more interesting a character is Paul Giamatti's Inspector Uhl; he's conflicted, a good man made cynical, beset by carrot and stick to try and ruin a thing that mystifies his childhood self. It's part of what makes his interactions with Norton's Eisenheim so compelling. The best scenes are those first few where we see them together, their relationship only seeing the beginnings of its complications, small enough that they are immediately offset by the simple pleasures of entertainment and curiosity. It helps that the two are both such talented actors; when the two talk, the tension builds in the smoothest of ways, an ever-growing divide as cordial behaviour hiding veiled threats and the pain of conflict is shared between them. Uhl's respect for Eisenheim's work is ever palpable, and it permeates each and every one of their interactions to allow the film to keep grabbing attention when it loses it on the more dramatic scenes. - 7/10
68. Destroy All Monsters (1968) - March 9th
The royal rumble of all Kaiju films, the scale of which hasn't been seen since. There's been at least one movie (Godzilla: Final Wars) that has more monsters total, but an eight-way Kaiju fight is still the most kaiju in one place in the Godzilla series history. Aside from that, Destroy All Monsters is still absurd camp, but more akin to Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and Invasion of the Astro-Monster than Ebirah, Horror of the Deep or Son of Godzilla; there's more energy in the insanity here, making sure to execute the silliness with a fervor that makes the human plot at least memorable if not particularly good. It also drags on way too long for a sub-90-minute film, losing the momentum of its insanity when it actually begins to try and solve the ridiculous problems set for itself in the most boring and straightforward way possible. However, once we're back to the monsters, it all comes together for the main event in the way Showa-era Godzilla knows best. - 5.5/10
69. Brick Mansions (2014) - March 10th
This was an almost 1-to-1 remake of District B13 with Paul Walker as the cop; it even David Belle playing Leito again (now Lino). It's not terrible, but it's not as good as the original and is so similar that its existence is almost pointless, it reminded me of the recent live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.
The plot differences are minor at first, but become stupidly unnecessary by the end. Leito's sister becomes Lino's girlfriend, and the only thing that changes is who she kisses at the end of the movie. She even goes off with Leito/Lino in both versions, further highlighting that she's more of a prop than a character, with interchangeable nouns. They don't kill off the main bad guy half way through the movie because he's played by RZA, which means that rather than his death sparking the rise of the comparably compassionate K2, which in turn leads to an alliance with Damien and Leito, we instead get RZA's character turning heel at the last minute after 'going soft', and later revealing that Walker's Damien's motivation for killing him is false. It's a microcosm of the odd attempts to give this film heart, in the process removing the original's sense of satire and humour. Brick Mansions isn't devoid of humour, but it's mostly incidental, which is made worse by the fact that every way the film tries to up the ante doesn't appear to have a real sense of self-awareness. RZA's character is, by the end of the film, running for Mayor to clean up the streets, despite spending the film dealing drugs and kidnapping and threatening people. It's such a ridiculous image that there needs to be some indication of satire, but the film is at that point playing heartwarming music and focusing on Damien and Lino continuing to 'fight the good fight.'
That all said, the film at least manages to keep up the quality of the original's action, and while some of it overuses slow motion and a few shots are notably poor, the overall speed and rhythm and style of the action is well done. I appreciate the way Damien and Lino differ in approach, which allows for more of Belle's crazy parkour as Lino but also lets Walker apply some palpable brute force as well. This isn't enough to make the movie good, but it keeps the film afloat; every painful line of dialogue or bad character turn is made up for by what the filmmakers clearly cared about the most and had the most skill to apply. - 5/10
70. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - March 11th
I'm not the most familiar with Wes Anderson's work, so with Isle of Dogs just around the corner I thought I'd brush up a bit on some of his earlier work. His signature style is all present, from the pastel colour palette to the square framing, to the quirky and unrealistic but assuredly entertaining characters. I'm not sure what to make of it all right now, but as a singular experience I appreciate Royal's character growth and the inoffensive comedy, the deliberate structure and the absurd nature of everything. It's been a tiring week, so that's about as much as I can say right now, but I liked the movie a lot. - 7.5/10
Published March 11th, 2018
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