The Lego Movie

Going to the movies with one's children is almost always a good idea.  Saturday, my wife and daughter had an outing with some friends, so I took my two sons to see this movie.  My boys (like so many others) love Legos, and this movie not only offered the draw of seeing moving Legos on screen, but also a fun gimmick.  There were times in the movie where I felt it was trying to be a little too smug and culturally relevant for its own good (sort of how I feel about some of Pixar's work), but it still was a smart, funny piece of work.  Further, the resolution of the movie showed that it had more going on than I originally thought, as a plot twist of sorts which broke down the fourth wall provided a fresh idea that more than made up for some of what I felt were dull pyrotechnics earlier in the movie.

Emmett is a normal Lego construction worker.  However, a Lego wizard (Morgan Freeman) has declared him to be special, and he will bring Lord Business (Will Ferrell) and his "Kragle" weapon down with a special "piece of resistance".  Lord Business ends up blinding the prophet/wizard, but his prophecy lives.  Years later, Emmett lives a dull but tranquil life as a construction worker.  As the time of Lord Business' use of the Kragle to destroy the world draws near, the wizard brings together a group of "master builders" together in an attempt to stop Lord Business.  Emmett's talent pales in comparison to the rest of the builders, and it becomes clear to him that he isn't that special.  From there, the story kicks into gear as Emmett discovers what he can bring to the team along side Batman, Wild Style, and a host of other familiar Lego characters.

The story rises above the norm by its ending, which I will not give away here.  One of the things that a lot of modern animated stories struggle with is how much they try to appeal to both adults and kids.  Simply good storytelling should appeal to any adult, but many of these movies tack on bells and whistles that, while definitely entertaining, make the movies less universal.  A good example is a hilarious Star Wars joke.  It certainly got the biggest laugh from the adults during the movie (and my boys also loved it), but how will that joke play in 30 years?  Only time will tell, since Star Wars has also become such a well known story that many people will get the joke.  In any case, this style of inside and allusion laden jokes is a point of difficulty for me.  The jokes are very funny and work (and I suppose that's all that should matter), but I find the story to be less engaging.  The best of the Pixar and Dreamworks movies are able to walk the line between gimmick and storytelling very well.  This movie doesn't walk it as well, but still does a great job of giving the crowd a great story in the end.  The story is not what we think it is, and only in the end do we see how good this story is.  It is a story that both children and adults can appreciate, because it speaks to both.

In the end, my critical thoughts can be overlooked.  This may not be prove to be the classic that some movies are, but does it need to be?  It has wonderful animation, lots of familiar voices, and a lot of great gags.  My boys loved it, and I loved going to see it with them.

Inside Llewyn Davis

Each movie that we watch is a little world unto itself.  Having said that, some movie makers do a particularly good job at creating worlds with every movie they make.  I can think of no other filmmakers who do this better than Joel and Ethan Coen.  They always choose distinct settings for their stories, and that lends itself to the creation of worlds.  However, they seem to inhabit each little world that they make so well that I always feel that I am being transported to that world.

The world in which "Inside Llewyn Davis" is set is Greenwich village in the early 1960's.  Specifically, the folk world of that era is depicted, and Greenwich village was so important to that scene that it is the most obvious place for this story's setting.  Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a struggling folk singer who has lost is partner to suicide and is having trouble selling his solo album.  He spends every night on the couch of friends, family or fans as he attempts to piece a life together.  His close friends and colleagues Jim and Jean Berkey (Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan) are beginning to meet with some success.  However, Jean is pregnant, and is not sure who the father is, since she had been involved with Llewyn.  This sets off a chain of events that lead to an almost Ecclesiastes type story.  For Llewyn, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The film is stylized but also quite real.  Having spent time in Greenwich village, some of the street were familiar to me.  I felt that I was a fly on the wall actually experiencing life as it was in the early 60's.  The film is shot with almost a slight sepia tone, so it ends up having a vintage-type look, even though it is a totally modern picture.  Since I am a casual fan of the Greenwich scene (I am a big Bob Dylan fan-a man who emerged from the scene in the Village), I was probably able to view the details of the movie with a less critical eye than others.  However, as I mentioned above, the distinctness of the setting is important to the movie, and the Coens realize the world very well.  The fact that the place wherein the movie is set is a real place with a real history only makes the world more engaging.  New York emerges as a major character in the film, and the camera loves the city.  The bleak winter is also a major character, and it acts as a catalyst to much of the action.

As Llewyn continues to encounter heartbreak and lack of success, there are some deeper lessons that he learns.  However, there is a restlessness to the character that seems to be part of the point.  He is an uncompromising artist, and that ends up costing him money and success.  And while some movies might glory in that, this movie simply shows an artist who has no success, but dwells almost in the shadow of people like Dylan and Peter Paul and Mary.  The movie gives us enough glimpses into Llewyn's life that we ache for some of the losses that he endures, but we also know that his loneliness is self imposed.  He is a sort of Vincent Van Gogh of Bleeker Street...the uncompromising, struggling artist who ends up with barely a livelihood.

The Coens have been creating worlds like this for so long that it can be easy to take it for granted.  This is a film whose world and details are every bit as real and poignant as those in the Twin Cities ("Fargo" and "Serious Man"), Arizona ("Raising Arizona"), Texas ("Blood Simple"), Mississippi ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?") or any other place the Coens happen to make a film about.  They are impressionists with a movie camera and a screenplay, and they capture hints of truth in every world that they depict.  They accomplish this through accuracy, humor, exaggeration, and a marvelous investment in the characters they create.  Some day they will stop building these little worlds in their sandbox, and we will all be the poorer for it.

Nebraska

I have become something of a fan of Alexander Payne, who directed this slightly eccentric slice of Midwestern life.  While there is at least one of this movies that I did not like ("Sideways", for those keeping score), even that film had a lot of great substance to it.  His last three films ("About Schmidt", "The Descendants", and "Nebraska") have all had significant things to say regarding parental relationships, particularly with fathers.  All three of them also dwell in the shadow of death.  In "About Schmidt" and "The Descendants", the principle character is a widower dealing with the death of his wife.  Here, death plays a more subtle role, but it is no less present as the main characters in the film are living their lives knowing that time is growing short.

Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is a Korean War Vet who has lived a blue collar life tainted by alcoholism.  The beginning of the film depicts scenes which make clear that he is beginning to lose his faculties.  Woody becomes convinced that he has won $1 million in a publisher's sweepstakes, and is continuing to try to make the trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, to claim his prize.  The problem is that Woody lives in Billings, Montana, which is hundreds of miles from Lincoln.  After many failed attempts at thwarting his dad, Woody's son David (Will Forte, who makes a nice transition here away from comedy) finally agrees to humor his old man and drive him to Lincoln.  On the way to Lincoln, they end up stopping for a visit in Hawthorne, Nebraska, the town where Woody grew up.  Much of Woody's family is still there, as well as old friends and business partners.  The residents of Hawthorne come to believe that Woody has actually won the money, and many of Woody's family and friends begin to scheme ways to get a piece of his supposed wealth.

The premise of the movie is a simple one.  The movie ends up being a study of its characters.  It is mostly a study of David, and his journey to not only discover more about his father, but also about the dynamics of his whole family.  For example, at first, Woody's wife comes across as nagging and abrasive.  While David's and our journey don't totally change her personality, her behavior begins to make more sense as we see not only Woody's alcoholism, but also how he has been treated by the people in his past.  In the end, it is clear that even though theirs isn't a marriage of bliss, the partnership does have deep loyalties and history that is only seen better as the complexities of Woody's life become more clear.  As David makes the journey with his father, he ends up having to come to grips with some of his own frustrations with his father, but he also learns to appreciate his father more.  There is a famous line from the book (and the movie) "To Kill a Mockingbird" wherein the protagonist, Atticus Finch, tells her daughter that no one can really judge anyone else until they get inside their skin and walk around in it.  As David looks at life more through his father's eyes, there only seems to be a sense of appreciation mixed with regret.  His father was distant and fallible, but David does seem to have some kind of appreciation for him.  As Woody's entire nuclear family (which becomes complete when David's news anchor brother Ross shows up in Hawthorne) comes together, the bond that is between them (however distant and different they are as people) is felt palpably by the viewer. 

The choice to shoot the film in black and white works on many levels.  The starkness of the landscape creates a reflective picture of the lives of the people in the story.  The Midwest is a part of the country that has a character and culture all its own, and the black and white photography bring out the feel of that classic American culture that is found in the Midwest.  Finally, the particular lives of the people in the film have stark realities that black and white help bring out.  Part of the reality of Woody's life is that his time is growing short, and there is a lot of regret not only to his own life, but his family clearly have regrets as well.  Payne's last three movies have all dealt with uncomfortable family dynamics, and that conflict is skillfully executed.  They remind us of our common humanity and common struggles, but also of some of the comforts we find in family.

New Wes Anderson Movie Today

A new movie opens in limited release from one of my favorite directors!  Here's a link to the website:

http://www.grandbudapesthotel.com/

Here's hoping it makes it the us peons in the middle of the country soon!

Saving Mr. Banks

It is a credit to this movie that even though it is totally Disney-fied (after all, Disney made it and it is about Disney), it still works pretty well, and even has something of an edge to it.  It follows two paths.  One path follows the young PL Travers (the author of the popular "Mary Poppins" books) as she grows up in Australia.  The second path follows PL Travers as an adult (played by Emma Thompson), as she negotiates terms with Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) to make a movie based on the Mary Poppins books.  One of the interesting things in reading the reviews of this movie was how varied the opinions were, not simply as to whether or not the film had quality, but what it was trying to say.  Some writers thought it worshiped at the feet of Disney, and that it showed the world of Travers being gutted by the Disney machine.  There was also plenty of banter regarding the "negative portrayal" of Travers.  Amazingly, even though the movie was indeed made by the Disney machine, with all of the accompanying bells and whistles, I actually thought it told a good story, and even made some moving statements about why we make art and how little we know about what is behind the art of others.

What makes the business of making "Mary Poppins" so difficult for Walt Disney is the author of the books upon which he wants to base his film.  PL Travers is only considering allowing this adaptation because she is hurting for money.  As she begins the meetings with the screenwriter and the song composers, she makes it very clear that what is to follow will be a battle.  She even goes so far as to insist that each of their meetings be taped in their entirety.  Upon her arrival in Southern California, Travers has no intention of being seduced by the Disney spell.  Her hotel room has been decorated with mountains of Disney memorabilia,which she promptly shoves into her closet.  She dislike the heat in Southern California.  She bristles at the familiar tone all of the Americans take with her.  As the work on the film begins, the film's director parallels that action with vignettes from Travers' childhood.  Her father (Colin Farrel) is a banker (sound familiar?), but he has trouble holding down a job due to is unreliability and his alcoholism.  Many of the details seen in Travers childhood come back to inform her eccentricities as an adult.  The poignancy of these scenes is palatable, but they are made even more so as we see the more modern day story play out.

Walt Disney eventually gets his movie made, after countless hours of haggling and complaining.  There are tremendous scenes as Travers watches the film, and some of the themes she sees on screen hit too close to home for her.  From historical anecdotes about the film's making, it is clear that Travers never liked the finished product.  What I found touching about the movie was how it gave the Travers character reasons for being the difficult person she was.  It would be easy to make a film and depict her as a stuck up prima donna.  Instead, this film shows the pain of her childhood, and how some of the details Disney wants to change in her story were informed by deep memories of her own father.  The depth of emotion that accompanies those details make tinkering with them very difficult for Travers.  This nuance is lost on Disney and his cohorts, and they are left frustrated.  The film also shows Disney as a playful showboat/conman, who is obsessed with creating his movies.  There was a dark side to this kind of creative imperialism, and that underbelly is not lost in this movie.  The performances are all great, and even when the story veers into the saccharine realms where only Disney can go, it still works pretty well.

"About Time" To Write Again

It has been a long time since I have written.  I have been off of Facebook, and, in general, have been amazed at how little that decision has changed my life.  If anything, it has made my day to day existence a little more peaceful.  At the same time, something inside of me still wants to write about movies and that same feeling wants to share my thoughts with as many people as possible.  One of the mediums that makes that possible is Facebook, so I guess I will reenter that world.

The movie that brings me back is "About Time."  This is a movie that was directed by Richard Curtis, who either wrote or directed some of the finest romantic comedies I can bring to mind ("Notting Hill", "Love Actually", "Four Weddings and A Funeral").  It does something I have never seen before in a romantic comedy.  It never presents a significant obstacle toward its principals getting together.  Instead, the story is more existential.  It wants to make greater points about the nature of life, in all of its joys and heartbreaks.

The movie follows a young man named Tim (Domhnall Gleeson).  As Tim turns 21, his father (Bill Nighy) informs him that the men in the family all have the ability to travel back in time to events in their own life.  Of course, Tim is doubtful at first, but quickly learns that he does indeed have this unusual ability.  He uses this talent to woo the woman of his dreams (Rachel McAdams), and settles into his life.  Only after that does he begin to become aware of how complicated life can be.  Crises emerge in his life, and he comes to realize, for various reasons, that his talent cannot fix much of anything.  Instead, he is left with a big question as to what he will do with this talent.

This is a great movie to watch as one returns from vacation.  I am returning to work today after being gone for 2 weeks.  One of the universally applicable messages of this movie is to embrace each day with all of its ups and downs.  This is a valuable message to people like me, who see work as something of a distraction from time with my family.  One valuable thing that Tim does in this movie is commit to live days twice.  In so doing, he is able to "redo" a day that was not a good one.  When he takes the time to redo his day, he sees many of the small joys of life that he had missed the first time around.  At the end of the day the second time, he is able to see what a great day he truly had, and how much he had missed that the first time around.

Richard Curtis has made some great movies with some great universal themes.  His characters clearly have different lives and different beliefs than I do, but his stories tap into some of the things that are true for all of us.  Each day does indeed have so much joy and glory to it.  I miss so much of that as I get bogged down in stress and the everyday grind.  True, there are some days none of us would ever want to live again (if we're sane), but most days have a lot to offer if we simply give them a chance.  I also love how this movie depicts the life together of two people who marry, have a family, and who truly love and like each other.  So many romantic comedies are either about the hunt for or the dissolution of relationships.  This story shows us a somewhat healthy relationship, and some of the true pleasure and joy that such a relationship can bring.

My wife Stephanie and I watched this movie on the plane back from LA, and we watched it again a couple of days later at home.  We both loved it, partly because we both feel that good romantic comedies are very hard to find.  As with other Curtis movies, there are wonderful, quirky minor characters, as well as a story that wears its heart on its sleeve.  He is able to balance cynicism and sentimentality quite well.  As I reenter the work force today, I would do well to let the lessons from this movie and (more importantly) the lessons from my faith go with me.

Movie Trivia Answers

Sorry this is late...the winner was my friend John from SoCal, who not only one, but got a perfect score of 25, answering every question correctly and guessing the connection.  Hats off to John!

Here are the quotes with the answers...the connection is that all of the quotes come from Steven Spielberg films...

1. "We're going to need a bigger boat" – Roy Scheider Jaws

2. "The list is life." Ben Kingsley Schindler’s List

3. "Give us free..." Djimon Honsou Amistad

4. "I'm keeping him..." Henry Thomas E.T.

5. "Bad form!!!' Dustin Hoffman Hook

6. "It's not the age, it's the mileage." Harrison Ford Raiders of the Lost Ark

7. "He better be worth it. He better go home and cure a disease, or invent a longer lasting light bulb."
Tom Hanks Saving Private Ryan

8. "You know why the Yankees always win? 'Cause the other teams can't stop looking at those damn pinstripes!" Christopher Walken Catch Me if You Can

9. "Your scientists we're so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should." Jeff Goldblum Jurassic Park

10. "This means something. This is important." Richard Dreyfuss Close Encounters of the Third Kind