September 2013

#7 The Shining

Top 10’s – FAVORITE FILMS

#7 – The Shining – STANLEY KUBRICK, 1980

Despite its massive popularity, The Shining is one of the most challenging cinematic works of all time. Kubrick masterfully controls and manipulates space and time to create an endless maze of possible meanings that defies interpretation, and yet most people think that there is nothing to interpret. Kubrick’s masterpiece completely transcends the horror genre in a bloody collision of past and present that is rife with immense psychological, historical and architectural complexity. It is impossible for me to comprehend someone watching the entire film and coming out of the experience thinking that it is just a “perfectly straightforward horror movie”. That truly depresses me. James Healey stated in his review that you “could write a whole essay on the subtext and symbolism on The Shining”, but I’m certain that not even a hundred essays would do the complexity of Kubrick’s film justice.

Based on Stephen King’s 1977 “ best selling masterpiece of modern horror”, The Shining follows the adventures of the Torrance family as the father, Jack Torrance agrees to be the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. But, as America’s bloody history reigns down upon them, Jack who is under the influence of the ghostly elite, descends into madness and attempts to kill his wife and son in an orgasmic finale of pure terror. Although initially critically panned and nominated for two Razzie awards, The Shining has grown in stature since its release and is now regarded as one of the greatest horror movies ever made. Going even further, I’d say that it is unquestionably one of the great pinnacles of cinema. Filled with extreme attention to detail and heavy symbolism in every frame, and demanding the utmost patience and concentration from the viewer, The Shining is Kubrick at his all time greatest and most intricate and complex. His complete command of every single aspect of the production is supreme, making this film highly important for aspiring filmmakers such as myself, and it boasts tremendous performances from its cast and what is arguably the greatest and most overwhelming soundtrack ever assembled for a movie. It has been criticized for severely departing from King’s novel, but books and films are two different mediums, and each have their own unique ways of telling a story, so they cannot be compared. Kubrick only used the basic foundations of the books he adapted into films, and this movie is no different.

I’m not sure if there has ever been a film in the history of cinema more endlessly analyzed and debated than The Shining. Theories range from the film being a commentary on the genocide of the Native Americans (as Bill Blakemore theorized in his essay “The Family of Man”), which I believe is the truth, to an exposure of the supposedly fake Apollo 11 Moon Landings, which is something I cannot wrap my head around, but knowing of Kubrick I can’t rule it out completely. The deceptively simple plot of madness and isolation has startling undercurrents of sexual abuse, racism, and male aggression, plus there are numerous ambiguities such as whether or not the ghosts are real and the final photograph of Jack at a 1921 ball. Ultimately, I think The Shining, at it’s most basic level, is a tale of how humanity is doomed to it’s primitive nature, with the photograph representing the cyclical nature of history and the unstoppable evil unleashed by man upon one another. But, there are even sinister meanings under the surface.

The film’s most important line, which was removed in the two hour European cut, is spoken by Philip Ullman, the manager of the Overlook, as he and the Torrances tour the Colorado Lounge. He says, “This place has had an illustrious past. In it’s heyday it was one of the stopping places for the jet sets, even before anyone knew what a jet set was. We had four presidents who stayed here. Lots of movie stars.” Wendy asks, “Royalty?”, and Ullman replies, “All the best people.” According to wikipedia, the jet sets were “an international social group of wealthy people who traveled the world to participate in social activities unavailable to ordinary people.” Sound familiar? You could argue that The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut constitute a trilogy of films that reveal Kubrick’s disdain for the elite and their corruptive effects on and brainwashing of the individual, which Jack’s plunge into madness and murder illustrates. He once said to his wife, “Never, ever go near power. Don’t become friends with anyone who has real power. It’s dangerous.” I could go on and on about the pyramid and eye symbolism that appear throughout the film, and most of Kubrick’s work in general, but then this review would be even more overlong than it already is. Whether or not you agree that Kubrick was in fact exposing and condemning the Illuminati or the Freemasons or whoever the he conceptualized had power, you would do yourself a major disservice to think this film didn’t have underlining meanings and intentions.

What I am sure of is that The Shining is arguably the best directed movie of all time. Everything, from the symmetry, color, tone, framing, pacing and more are absolutely perfect, and I love the way Kubrick disorients us with Garret Brown’s revolutionary Steadicam work, a strong use of mirrors and reflections, beautiful and impossible set design and subtle moving furniture. He also manages to get career best performances out of Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. Nicholson is simultaneously drop dead funny and ferociously mad, and Duvall conveys real fear and weakness, probably because Kubrick made life on the set a living nightmare for her. I also think it is the best photographed film of all time. Barry Lyndon looks prettier, but The Shining is much more technically impressive, and watching the Blu-ray for the first time is a revelation. The Overlook Hotel is a labyrinth of evil, and the terrifying, almost psychedelic, imagery really brings the horror and malevolence of Kubrick’s vision to life. The Room 237 and maze chase sequences in particular are jaw dropping.

The Shining has a slow measured pace, but always stays interesting and entertaining. It’s a consistent slow burn. I really don’t know how Kubrick does it. He creates a movie that is relatively slow by today’s standards, yet the movie doesn’t feel like an old film with a plodding pace. It’s constantly interesting and continuously revealing tidbits of info, and so compelling in the performances, that we are sitting on the edge of our seat the entire time, wanting to know what’s going to happen next. Personally, The Shining had me at a young age. I wish I couldn’t type that, but it’s true. Ever since that first viewing I was hooked, and possibly a little messed up. But mostly hooked. I’ve gone through stages of being scared senseless, to just enjoying the perfect camera work to trying to decipher the hidden meanings. But in all those stages, one thing remains. The mark of true horror. I’m merely not talking about horror like in films, but horror in our daily lives. Kubrick has a way of really making me not feel safe when watch this movie, weather I am young, a teen or now in my later 20’s. But in the end, what is horror? Horror is facing the illogical nature of madness and being trapped in it. Our dreams are the most illogical experiences that we encounter on a regular basis, so it makes sense that Kubrick would tap into that collective experience for this film. I can’t think of a film that better expresses what it feels like to be in a nightmare.

Movies

#8 Signs

Top 10’s – FAVORITE FILMS

#8 – SIGNS – M. Night Shyamalan, 2002

There’s nothing new about alien invasion. Our society fairly obsessed with the extra-solar, the paranormal, and all things out of this world. But, just as he did in his two previous efforts, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, director/writer M. Night Shyamalan takes this usual Hollywood subject matter and finds a way to once again make it extraordinary.

M. Night’s Signs, stars Mel Gibson as Graham, a former Reverend questioning his faith and beliefs after the recent death of his wife in a fatal accident. With him, is his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) who has come to stay while Graham learns to cope with the realities of raising two small children on his own. But Signs doesn’t waste a moment on setup, jumping right into the meat of the thing, preferring instead to interweave character development into the fabric of the story itself, rather than taking some artificial “get to know the preacher” break. Graham’s crops have been damaged, trampled down to construct perfect geometric shapes which only take form when seen from the sky. Crop signs, which as everyone knows are a hoax. Dismissing them as such, Graham moves on, but things only get worse, leaving him questioning his beliefs still further and eventually fighting for his family’s life.

Signs is a deeply personal and intentionally “small” film. Which is why it is near and dear to my heart. There is something about small film “feel.” Call it intimacy if you like. Set in a small town, in a small farmhouse, wherein lives a small, slightly damaged family, Director M. Night clears out distractions of momentous world events; choosing instead to focus on how those gigantic events outside effect this tiny, faith challenged family within this movie’s small world. We’ve seen massive alien invasions before, M. Night doesn’t go there. We’re watching how one family, alone in the universe, copes when the entire world is falling apart. When danger is on their doorstep, when Armageddon is just around the corner, what will one small family do? How did they cope, the night the aliens came and all the world outside was going mad?

Questions of faith, belief, and hope are all raised and explored in Signs. The beauty of Signs, and indeed everything M. Night does, is his abject determination to make his stories about MORE than just some cliche Hollywood plot device. Yes, Signs is about aliens, and yes it’s intense, scary, and all the other great things you’d expect to get only from a true master director like Alfred Hitchcock. But it’s also about faith. It’s about family. It’s about personal connections with people and how those ties allow us to cope with loss. It’s about finding meaning and hope in life whatever we might face. Because of that ability to entwine deep rooted meaning right in along with the action, terror, and excitement of his films. In my opinion with Signs, M. Night Shyamalan has created one of the great masterpieces of modern suspense-thrillers… again.

Signs is War of the Worlds for real. It’s your world if the unthinkable, unbelievable, Hollywood stories you’ve watched on TV for so many years actually happened. What would you do? Where would you go? What what it take for you to believe and how would it ultimately affect the way you personally see the world? Reality is M. Night’s gift, and he brings it tied up with a mind blowing, sci-fi/thriller bow.

This is a film to simply let yourself get caught up in. Go in knowing nothing and let M. Night, Gibson, Pheonix, and the rest take you into their world right along with them. Nothing is wasted. Just look at the way each moment, each device is used. The way he uses the TV, the baby monitor, all of it to develop these organically real moments for this family, these PEOPLE. The sharp nervous laughter, the emotional edge this film is constructed on… all of it pulling you deeper to make you really identify with the the reality of an unreality. Just look at the way he directs this family, the way M. Night lets them interact… the way he gets so much out of child actors time and time again.

The magic behind this film is present and intact. The idea feels familiar, even the music is intentionally crafted to hearken back to memories of late nights at home watching “The Twighlight Zone.” But Night and crew use all of that to twist you and pull you and take you places you’ve never really been before.

When this film ended, and the credits rolled for the first time, I just sat. Sat and stared. Watched the names roll by and the audience file out. I just knew I witnessed something special and I needed to see it again. More than any other filmmaker at that time, M. Night Shyamalan connected with his audience and his characters in a totally unique way to transport us so effortlessly into the world of “what ifs. ” See it and believe. See it and question: What if you were there?

My life changed when I first watched Signs. I have no problem making that statement. It was and still is everything I could ever want in a film. Trailers and commercials expose this crop circled movie as a supernatural thriller, but M. Night Shyamalan himself is careful to note that the center of the movie is really on one’s faith rather than crop circles, aliens, or anything related to such. ‘Signs’ is a mixture of things: humor, emotion, frightening elements, and a factor found in some of the scariest of movies–silence. With pure intelligence, It is no way a stretch to call this movie Shyamalan’s Hitchcock film. The isolated location, the small cast, the tight script. This all points to where Shyamalan works best. I mentioned the word faith earlier and make no mistake about it, Signs is a film about faith, not aliens and not crops.

We all are aware of faith. Whether we acknowledge it or not has no regards on it’s existence. Mel Gibson’s character is dropped exactly in the thick of that situation. We are meant to ride the journey with him. We grow with him, we root for him and at some points, we despise him. But most importantly, we never lose him. Signs effectively evokes you to laugh, cry and be frightened. As does an exercise in faith, ask Graham Hess.

Movies

in defense of m. night shyamalan

The idea that M. Night Shyamalan is ‘box office poison’ isn’t confirmed by the facts of his fourteen years in the Hollywood limelight. In fact, through a mix of luck and random happenstance, the man has managed to all-but-avoid actual box office destruction.

For better or worse, the general public knows who M. Night Shyamalan is. His name on the marquee reflects that you’re not going to get a conventional genre film, that there may be something else up its sleeve. Maybe there is a twist; maybe there is just the occasionally off-kilter sensibilities that he brings to his mainstream fare. After Earth disappointed partially because it looked somewhat generic. Putting M. Night Shyamalan’s name in the credits alerts audiences that there will be at least something a little different about this would-be star vehicle. M. Night Shyamalan’s name in the credits would have signaled that this was not necessarily a conventional summer blockbuster.

For the general populace who don’t rigidly follow the industry, alerting them to the fact that the director of After Earth also directed The Sixth Sense and Signs won’t immediately bring to mind that he also directed The Last Airbender and Lady In the Water. When 20th Century Fox trumpeted that Planet of the Apes was ‘from the director of Batman and Sleepy Hollow‘, audiences didn’t immediately think, “Hey, it’s also the guy who directed that Ed Wood movie I didn’t see and that Mars Attacks! that I didn’t think was funny!” M. Night Shyamalan has taken his licks critically, but actual commercial disaster has mostly eluded him. To most general moviegoers he’s still that guy who directed The Sixth Sense, a movie that still holds up as far more than just its twist epilogue nearly fifteen years later, and Signs, that alien invasion Mel Gibson movie that scared the crap out of them in theaters eleven years ago.

His two out-and-out blockbusters are of course The Sixth Sense ($293 million domestic, or basically the top-grossing horror film/thriller of all time) and Signs ($232 million domestic, following a $60 million opening weekend). And the one in between, Unbreakable, was an $80 million superhero deconstruction, which ironically came right on the cusp of the modern comic book film fad. It received mixed-positive reviews and opened with $46 million over Thanksgiving 2000 and ended up with $248 million worldwide. Unbreakable, in my opinion his masterwork, wasn’t a box office world-beater, but a profitable venture for all involved and considered either his best or his second best film by most. Most prefer The Sixth Sense, but both are among the mainstream American best films of the last fifteen years.

But the one after Signs, which by the way still works as a deliciously fun and thoughtful popcorn thriller? M. Night’s next film was The Village. Well, *that* one was a stinker, right? Well, no. While I’d argue it was not a thriller but a somber political metaphor, the false marketing, based entirely around M. Night Shyamalan’s marquee value (no big stars like Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson to help him out), was enough to scare up $50 million on opening weekend. Yes the film was rejected by audiences and flamed out with $115 million domestic, but the $60 million “period piece” still earned $256 million worldwide. Next came his only out-and-out flop, which was both a blessing and curse commercially speaking.

With no stars larger than Paul Giamatti and a marketing campaign that couldn’t really pretend it was a Signs-type thriller, the creepy bedtime story Lady In the Water remains M. Night’s only bomb. The $70 million picture, his first away from Disney, opened with just $18 million (pretty high for a Paul Giamatti vehicle, but very low for a Shyamalan film) and closed with $72 million worldwide. If you ask most people to rattle off M. Night Shyamalan movies, they probably wouldn’t even remember that one. So while M. Night takes the commercial hit, his artistic reputation is mostly intact since so few outside his fan base actually saw the thing.

But The Happening was a bomb, right? Sorry, nope. The $50 million 20th Century Fox thriller, starring Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel, was advertised not just on M. Night’s reputation as the helmer of The Sixth Sense and Signs, but also on the tease of this film being his first R-rated venture. In a time when the industry was terrified of the R-rating, it was genuinely hilarious to see Fox use it as a selling point. So the film, sold mostly on Shyamalan’s reputation, opened with $30 million over opening weekend. The film was a quick-kill hit, ending its domestic run with $64 million, but thanks to Fox’s overseas muscle, it earned $163 million worldwide, or about triple its budget. Like it or hate it, it was another hit for Shyamalan. Now we get to the film that arguably should have ended his career, the stunningly terrible The Last Airbender.

I can defend Paul Giamatti’s performance in Lady in the Water and I can defend some of the kookier visuals and quirkier dialogue in The Happening, but The Last Airbender is basically indefensible. But it was not a flop in any sense of the word. Released in summer 2010, the Paramount adaptation of an allegedly quite-good animated adventure series was ravaged by critics (myself included), but audiences still flocked to it. We can debate how much of that $69 million five-day opening weekend was due to Shyamalan versus the appeal of the Nickelodeon cartoon. And we can arguably say that a better received film would have started a new franchise, since $319 million worldwide on a $150 million budget is pretty much what got G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra an eventual sequel. But the film still had Shyamalan’s trademarked visual pizzazz and Shyamalan had his third-biggest box office smash of his career.

So now we get to After Earth, a film that is being discussed as a big flop as far as summer movies go. Well, the good news for M. Night Shyamalan is that he’s nowhere to be found on the advertising materials. Since opening weekend is less about quality and more about marketing, one cannot fault Shyamalan for the $27.5 million debut weekend since he wasn’t actually used to market the picture. Now looking at his past opening weekends, I still question Sony’s wisdom of hiding his name, since everything save Lady In the Water has opened at what would respectively be considered a healthy debut weekend.

Out of eight mainstream studio releases since 1999, seven of them have been solid hits, with two outright smashes and at least three qualifying as rock-solid financial winners. The Last Airbender is objectively a box office hit but arguably counts as a miss because its poor quality killed a promising franchise. But his only pure flop (Lady in the Water) was also his least commercial enterprise, and a film that pretty much all-but film nerds have forgotten about over the last seven years. So we have a director who by this point in time arguably *should* be considered box office poison but isn’t because his films keep making money in spite of themselves.

The Village and The Happening may have been considered ‘bad’, but to most general audiences they were merely a mediocre movie-going experience never to be mentioned again (save for mocking the whole Mark Wahlberg talks to plants thing). And they both opened above expectations purely on Shyamalan’s name. The Last Airbender is a terrible film, but A) it made money and B) the parents who took their kids to the PG-rated adventure only cared that their kids had a good time. His good films were hits and most of his bad films were mostly hits too. Artistic disappointment, sure. But box office poison he is not.

After Earth may be a flop, but it’s tough to argue that hiding the one unique element, a director who is a known entity to general audiences and whose films generally make money and open well, was a good idea. For most moviegoers, M. Night Shyamalan is still the guy who made The Sixth Sense and Signs. That’s not necessarily a good thing for him artistically, as we must take stock in the fact that he hasn’t made a great movie in eleven years, but it’s been his commercial shield for nearly a decade. And it’s why Sony made a mistake not using his marquee value as they promoted After Earth in America last weekend.

With all that said. #8 may have something to do with M Night….

Movies

#9 The Prestige

Top 10’s – FAVORITE FILMS

#9 – The Prestige – Christopher Nolan, 2006

More than magic, revenge, science, or romantic intrigue, Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige” is a film about duality. It is about the doubles, twins, copies, clones, role-players, brothers, rivals, and partners that lurk both externally in the world and internally within individuals’ souls and psyches. The film is about the two opposing sides of the coin and the obsessive wars raged between those opposing sides – both when the sides compete against one another on life’s multiple stages over career and fame, and when the sides compete most personally inside one’s self over regrets and decisions poorly made.

The narrative of “The Prestige” is nonlinear and provocative, pulling the audience along on the coiling journeys of the film’s two protagonists. Its secrets are revealed slowly, and its momentum builds at a measured pace. In concert with the film’s visuals, the story is hypnotic and completely engrossing. The cast here, the likes of which is a rarely witnessed, excitingly assembled and never-ending source of aligned-stars amazement, deftly carries the tale. Jackman, Bale, Caine, Serkis, Johansson, Bowie, and Hall are the ideal conduits for the story.

The results of all of this is breathtaking. Nolan’s film scores triumphantly across all technical and artistic levels, and “The Prestige” is as rewarding on the second, third, or tenth viewing as it is on its first. While some decry the film as offering cheap tricks and narrative illusions, it may be this segment of the audience that is simply not be watching closely.

Two passionate magicians, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, are having massive success with their brilliant illusions. But when one of their magic shows goes horribly wrong, the two turn against each other, plotting and out witting the other person. It becomes an obsession, and consequences occur.

The Prestige is simply thrilling. Fast paced, mesmerizing, and doesn’t feel even a bit long- despite the over 2 hour run time- The Prestige has you hooked from the very first shot. The plot is so intricate, weaving together 3 different times in the two magician’s lives. This is at first overwhelming, but the picture grows clearer and clearer, but it doesn’t make things any less unpredictable.

The tone of the film is dark, and indeed, there isn’t a true protagonist. There are main characters- in the form of the two magicians- but they both seem morally incorrect. In a way, this might suggest that one doesn’t connect to either one in sympathies or emotion, and yet, one feels for both. Both seem in the wrong- and deciding which one is more at fault may simply come down to a “he started it” conclusion- but at the same time, they are both characters we sort of root for. We never really choose one fully over the other, as their is still an emotional anchor for each (but to keep spoilers out of this review, I won’t discuss this element further).

Everything about this film is so smart, and so well done. The characters are flawlessly developed, and the story is original, unique, and gripping. I’ve already said plenty about the twists of course, and the intricacies with the interwoven stories. I’m shocked and appalled that this film did not receive so much as a nomination from the Academy for editing, as it is so skilled and precise. I’m not the kind that pays attention to the editing, but in a film like this, it’s crucial- far more so than most action films.

The Prestige is personally everything I ever need from a film. It follows its own rules. Has a original story and most importantly it demands attention. The Prestige is a roller-coaster of a ride with intriguingly intertwined subplots and masterful time switching, which makes it one of a kind and an ultimate masterpiece. The uncanny feat of Christopher Nolan to manifest a motion picture, which forays the realms of Mystery, Thrill, Sci-fi and Fantasy, is truly exemplary and makes the movie a contemporary classic. The movie is a tapestry of twists and turns, which evinces its overwhelming potential to bewitch the masses and gratify even the most obscure viewers. The questions that it continually asks of the viewers can only be answered after repetitive viewings, with each viewing seeking utmost attention of the viewer. The only question that I would ask of the viewer is: “Are you watching closely? ”

Masterfully deceptive, and deviously assembled. The Prestige succeeds as a mystery, a drama, a thriller, and a mind-bender, while placing heavy focus on the characters themselves. Just one bit of advice- a caution if you will: Don’t over think it, just absorb it all. Pay attention, and you will be greatly rewarded.