DAILY FILM DOSE: A Daily Film Appreciation and Review Blog: Christopher Nolan
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Showing posts with label Christopher Nolan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christopher Nolan. Show all posts

Sunday, 22 July 2012

The Dark Knight Rises

Like the 30 lbs of muscle Tom Hardy apparently gained on top of an already ripped body to play the brutish Bane character, Christopher Nolan applies this mentality to every aspect of filmmaking for 'The Dark Knight Rises'. The result is a gargantuan monster of a film, a breathless and sometimes exhaustive experience.


The Dark Knight Rises (2012) dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman

By Alan Bacchus

Both the good and the bad of this series has been spiked. The sense of the mythological pathos from Batman Begins is firmly planted back into the series, the emotional weight of everyone’s backstories (characters past and present) come to a head in grandiose fashion and the stakes are even more dangerous than some psychedelic gas or a couple of boats wired with explosives. It’s now nuclear annihilation. Unfortunately, there's also so much going on, from the nihilistic revolution that occurs throughout all of Gotham to the reconciliation of a dozen character threads, the narrative of this film can barely be contained. But Nolan's assault of cinema admirably dulls us to these deficiencies.

Every actor listed above gets his or her moment (perhaps with the exception of Mr. Freeman), usually complemented with multiple flashbacks to make sure we get the point. This results in the running time elongated to 2 hours and 45 minutes (the first two timed in at 2:20 and 2:30, respectively). But the history of the series has shown that Nolan is dissatisfied treating any character as ‘stock’. While there's perhaps one or two flashbacks too many, we have to admire his consistency of leaving no stones unturned.

Hans Zimmer’s music has been spiked as well, pulsating orchestral compositions wall to wall, which include hypnotizing bass drums, choral tenor chants and forceful string sections. Think Verdi’s Requiem and it comes close (google “Verdi Requiem Dies Arie” if you’re unaware). As an aside... can we now start talking about Hans Zimmer with the likes of John Williams, Max Steiner or Bernard Herrmann as one of the great film composers? From the elegance of The Thin Red Line to the rousing anthems of Pirates of the Caribbean, and now the Nolan films, Zimmer has reigned supreme for 15 years.

This mindset of uniform cinematic enhancement will certainly be grating for some, even me. I questioned the need for a Batplane, but everything must be topped, as these are the requirements of a sequel. And Nolan’s adherence to these genre rules is commendable.

Even when the cause-and-effect action or individual character motivations get muddied through the bloated story, the remarkable assault-like momentum of the film easily carries us over these minor bumps in the road. The last half of the picture maintains such a heightened feeling of tension and action, it’s a rush of monumental proportions.

But the reason this film works is how Nolan leaves us in the end, his chaos cleaned up as neat and tidy as possible without the agonizingly drawn out finale of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

***½
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Monday, 9 April 2012

Insomnia

Insomnia (2002) dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan, Nicky Katt

***1/2

By Alan Bacchus

After the success of Memento, choosing to direct this film based on the 1997 Erik Skjoldbjærg Swedish thriller was a smart career decision for Christopher Nolan. For several reasons; 1) he didn’t have to write the film, and thus exercised his muscles at adapting someone else’s work; 2) he could shoot it back-to-back with Memento, and even before the previous film had come out; 3) he was working with a more conventional story with the rules of the procedural/serial killer genre as a safety net.

The result is a resounding though modest success, not a mindblowingly ambitious production in the vain of the Batman pictures, Inception or even The Prestige, but an unpretentious yet beguiling little one-off nonetheless.

Will Dormer (Pacino) and Hap Eckhart (Donovan) are a pair of big city LA cops who have come to a cosy little northern Alaskan town to investigate a grisly murder of a young teenaged girl. Dormer in particular is carrying the baggage of an internal affairs investigation involving tampered evidence in an earlier case. The stress of this case combined with the ever-present sun, which because of their high latitude provides perpetual sunlight, puts Dormer in a perpetual haze. Despite this, Dormer is all business and picks apart the case with the precision of a surgeon, instantly taking command.

But on their first sting, Eckhart is accidently shot and killed by Dormer, and a split-second wrong choice by Dormer to cover it up results in a steady downward spiral in which his personal ethics become foggier and foggier. Dormer finds himself teaming up with the serial killer to cover up his partner's killing and save his own ass. He would be home free if it wasn't for a spry and ambitious brownnoser, Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank), who is close on Dormer’s trail.

There was no need to fuss with the original material, as Hillary Seitz's script is written with efficiency, a near carbon copy of Nikolaj Frobenius and Erik Skjoldbjærg’s screenplay. It’s an unflashy yet deceitful story that provides a number of unexpected turns - not twists in the sense of shocking moments of revelation, but choices made by the protagonist, which turn the vice of tension and stakes. These moments are spaced out throughout the 90 minutes of the film. First there’s the death of Eckhart and Dormer’s decision to cover it up. Then there’s the introduction of Robin Williams as the serial killer at the halfway point, a new active character in the film and the quiet partnership they form together. And lastly, there's the slight twist of betrayal of Dormer against Finch in the end.

Along the way Nolan finds time to draw just enough attention to a couple of smaller powerful moments of insight into Dormer’s character. The most important of which is when Dormer refuses to sign Ellie’s police report on Eckhart’s death. It comes towards the end when Dormer is at his most haggard. With the report closed off, the trail of Dormer’s cover-up would have been cut off too. But Nolan makes Dormer stop and pause, and without overt motivation he tells Ellie to double-check her report before filing it. It’s dramatized without much of a beat, but looking back it serves as Dormer’s unspoken confession and desire to give himself up and one of the most important moments in the film.

Insomnia is a mostly dour thriller, but what serial killer films aren't? It doesn't have the visceral impact of Seven or Silence of the Lambs. It's part of the simmering tension that underlies the story, but never really explodes with the force of those other two films. Nolan’s frequent musical collaborator other than Hans Zimmer is David Julyan, who composes a moody score not unlike his work on Memento and The Prestige, and perhaps influenced by the atmospheric scores of Howard Shore. It perfectly complements Nolan’s slow and steady pacing and the foggy mountain vistas and overcast sunlit visuals.

Despite the praise and mondo box office success, from these eyes Inception was more of a mess of ideas than anything else. It will be a while before we see if Nolan returns to the intimate close-off style of filmmaking of Insomnia or Memento. We’ll have to wait until after the third Batman movie to find out.

Insomnia is available on Blu-ray from Warner Home Video.
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Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Batman Begins

Batman Begins (2005) dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson

****

By Alan Bacchus

It's remarkable the feeling we get from watching this picture and the sequel The Dark Knight. Despite the fact that these films were made only a few years apart, Batman Begins feels like a completely different picture, and IMHO a better one. According to the special featurettes, Nolan's cited influence was Richard Donner’s original comic book film Superman the Movie. Donner's tone of adult-oriented dramatic realism and mythic literary grandeur is plugged directly into Nolan's film.

Nolan magnificently connects the events of Bruce Wayne's entire life into the emotions and motivations of the present using three time periods. Firstly, there is Wayne as a child and the trauma he experienced from seeing his parents killed, specifically his idolized and righteous philanthropic father. There's also his university-age youth where, fearing failure and feeling the pressure of living up to the standard set by his father, Wayne goes on a walkabout of sorts to discover the criminal mind. An attempt to be recruited into the 'League of Shadows' pits Wayne against his first mentor, the charming yet devious Henry Ducard (Neeson) and his leader Ras Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) - I mean, how awesome are those character names to start! And then comes the main through line, the present day, where Bruce Wayne assumes the form of his greatest fear, the bat, and becomes a symbol of justice that the regular police can't uphold.

Each character rings true with an arguably deeper sane of realism than The Dark Knight. Despite Heath Ledger's fine performance as the Joker in that film, the fact that he was insane and that his motivations weren't explained meant we ceased to identify him as a character. Although highly entertaining, he was simply a robotic antagonist no more complex than say The Terminator. Ducard, on the other hand, is wholly fascinating. Introduced first as a saviour and mentor to Bruce, Nolan and his writer David Goyer elegantly morph him into an antagonist closely tied to Wayne's goals.

To convey this sense of pathos, Nolan employs a complementary cinematic eye. Look at the colour palette for instance. While The Dark Knight utilized colder colours more in line with police procedurals, Batman Begins is distinctly golden brown, like a faded old photograph or newspaper. The look adds a level of aged texture and a resonance of the past.

The opening sequences in Tibet also add to the feeling of spirituality and existential enlightenment. The glaciers of Iceland, which double for the Himalayas, look fantastic. But the mere fact that we're in the middle of devout Buddhism adds a subtext of Zen-intellectualism.

Admittedly, Christopher Nolan still has some learning to do in terms of filming action scenes. His hand-to-hand combat scenes never seem to be cut right. Perhaps it's that darned Batsuit that makes it impossible for an actor or stuntman to be flexible. That said, he shoots a decent car chase and his roller tank sequence is pretty darn awesome and certifiably trumped in The Dark Knight. But the primo sequence that represents the 'epic' tone is Batman's rescue of Rachel Dawes. With Batman at the top of a staircase, his army of bats storm the building and provide the definitive image in the film. The bats that represent true fear, which Wayne has controlled and channelled, become his greatest asset – a physical manifestation of the overall theme of the film.

Batman Begins is available in a lovely SteelBook packaging on Blu-ray from Warner Home Entertainment.
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Friday, 10 December 2010

Inception

Inception (2010) dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo Di Caprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy

***

By Alan Bacchus

My first thoughts on Inception were mostly disapppointment, with a nod of admiration for the risky attempt to tell such a far-out complex and epic action film - not based on any previous material. The Matrix would be the best comparison of a similarly flawed film, but with enough gusto and cinematic awesomeness to hold my attention. But I just couldn't help being overly critical. Films like this with such attention around it, require extra scrutiny. On the second go 'round on Blu-Ray, it's a much easier film to watch, but only a little bit less frustrating.

So, I've added a half star to this silly arbitrary rating system and adjusted my first review only slightly.

In the body of work of Christopher Nolan, if we call the trio of Memento, The Prestige and now Inception, a ‘puzzle trilogy’ of sorts, Inception is the biggest and most ambitious of the bunch – a retooling of Philip K. Dick’s alternate reality stories (ie. The Matrix/Dark City/Total Recall) realm of virtual reality sci-fi. It’s a very big film, too big for it’s own good perhaps, a jenga tower of high concept ideas and sci-fi scenarios which miraculously manages to hold itself together but not without severe strain on its joints.

At times it’s audacious, thrilling and visually inventive and at many other times, tedious plot driven exercise in style which can barely keep up with its own inventions. It’s Nolan’s most ambitious but also his weakest film.

Leonardo Di Caprio plays Cobb the leader of a group of near future thieves of sorts who enters people’s dream to extract valuable information to use for nefarious purposes. After their latest job goes wrong Cobb finds himself working for the same Japanese businessman, Saito, he was stealing from in a new and more dangerous game of corporate espionage. Cobb’s mission, should he chose to accept it (oops wrong movie), is to enter the mind of the son of a corporate CEO to implant the idea of dissolving his company thus allowing Saito to take over the market. And.. breathe.

The first hour of Inception features the fine actors struggling to get through the dense informational dialogue establishing the rules of Nolan’s near future fantasy world. Virtually every word out of the actors' mouths explains either the rules of dream travel or the details of the intending heist. Long-winded pronunciations among the characters are read out with breathless pace in order to the keeping the running time down and to quicker get into the meat and potatoes of the film. And with so much information, there is absolutely no room for character or any relationships between the characters. On the second viewing this exposition was less bothersome, as I found myself oggling the visuals as opposed to comprehending the dialogue.

Cobb is the only one with any emotional through line, unfortunately Di Caprio is handed down yet another tortured soul character, a widower whose wife committed suicide, a death blamed on him and thus unable to return to his country and be with his kids, it’s dull depressing stuff - the latest in a decade long series of ultra heavy unhumourous roles for Di Caprio.

Despite the strenuous exposition, Nolan’s due diligence has a purpose and it’s all groundwork laid down so we can understand the last hour and a half. The plan of attack Cobb’s crack of team of dreamscapers come up with is rendered logical. Though with every new rule or concept we learn about dreamworld threatens to topple down Nolan’s precarious house of cards.

Though it’s not a traditional action film Nolan crafts a number of action sequences to keep the fire burning under the asses of us the audience and the characters. Unfortunately the chases and gunfire feel more a perfunctory humdrum exercises, action filmmaking 101 with little flare or ingenuity we expect from such an ambitious film. The opening sequence is strangely poorly shot and the final snow base sequence comes out of left field, it feels like we’re plopped into ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’, ‘Where Eagles Dare’, or ‘G.I. Joe’.

Where Inception succeeds best is in the execution of the last hour which plays out like a traditional movie heist movie. The choosing of the individual men and women of expertise, the forger, the chemist, the architect set up a triple decker dream within a dream sequence, which Nolan miraculously makes sense out of.

The main set piece action scene taking place in three spheres of reality all occurring at the same moment is truly heartpounding and the stuff of inspiration. The denouement is classic Nolan, the rhythm of editing, music and the obtuse open-ended question mark we’re left with has the same cinematic cadence as the endings of Memento and The Prestige. It doesn’t work as well as those other movies, because, well, it’s the third time round.

I think we can consider Nolan tapped out of this genre, at least for now. Otherwise the repetition would start to stink like Brian DePalma self-thievery. And so, despite much of the praise from audiences and critics, Inception is thrilling but highly flawed, sloppy, but ambitious enough to command my attention, two, three and likely many more times over.

'Inception' is available on Blu-Ray and DVD from Warner Home Entertainment
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Sunday, 18 July 2010

Inception

Inception (2010) dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo Di Caprio, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy

**1/2

By Alan Bacchus

In the body of work of Christopher Nolan, if we call the trio of Memento, The Prestige and now Inception, a ‘puzzle trilogy’ of sorts, Inception is the biggest and most ambitious of the bunch – a retooling of Philip K. Dick’s alternate reality stories (ie. The Matrix/Dark City/Total Recall) realm of virtual reality sci-fi. It’s a very big film, too big for it’s own good perhaps, a jenga tower of high concept ideas and sci-fi scenarios which miraculously manages to hold itself together but not without severe strain on its joints.

At times it’s audacious, thrilling and visually inventive and at many other times, tedious plot driven exercise in style which can barely keep up with its own inventions. Sadly it’s Nolan’s weakest film.

Leonardo Di Caprio plays Cobb the leader of a group of near future thieves of sorts who enters people’s dream to extract valuable information to use for nefarious purposes. After their latest job goes wrong Cobb finds himself working for the same Japanese businessman, Saito, he was stealing from in a new and more dangerous game of corporate espionage. Cobb’s mission, should he chose to accept it (oops wrong movie), is to enter the mind of the son of a corporate CEO to implant the idea of dissolving his company thus allowing Saito to take over the market. And.. breathe.

The first hour of Inception is mostly agonizing, watching the fine actors struggle to get through the dense informational dialogue establishing the rules of Nolan’s near future fantasy world. Virtually every word out of the actors' mouths explains either the rules of dream travel or the details of the intending heist. Long-winded pronunciations among the characters are read out with breathless pace in order to the keeping the running time down and to quicker get into the meat and potatoes of the film. And with so much information, there is absolutely no room for character or any relationships between the characters.

Cobb is the only one with any emotional through line, unfortunately Di Caprio is handed down yet another tortured soul character, a widower whose wife committed suicide, a death blamed on him and thus unable to return to his country and be with his kids, it’s dull depressing stuff - the latest in a decade long series of ultra heavy unhumourous roles for Di Caprio.

Despite the strenuous exposition, Nolan’s due diligence has a purpose and it’s all groundwork laid down so we can understand the last hour and a half. The plan of attack Cobb’s crack of team of dreamscapers come up with is rendered logical. Though with every new rule or concept we learn about dreamworld threatens to topple down Nolan’s precarious house of cards.

Though it’s not a traditional action film Nolan crafts a number of action sequences to keep the fire burning under the asses of us the audience and the characters. Unfortunately the chases and gunfire feel more a perfunctory humdrum exercises, action filmmaking 101 with little flare or ingenuity we expect from such an ambitious film. The opening sequence is so poorly shot we have no idea what is going on, and the final snow base sequence comes so out of left field, it feels like we’re plopped into ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’, ‘Where Eagles Dare’, or ‘G.I. Joe’.

Where Inception succeeds best is in the execution of the last hour which plays out like a traditional movie heist movie. The choosing of the individual men and women of expertise, the forger, the chemist, the architect set up a triple decker dream within a dream sequence, which Nolan miraculously makes sense out of.

The main set piece action scene taking place in three spheres of reality all occurring at the same moment is truly heartpounding and the stuff of inspiration. The denouement is classic Nolan, the rhythm of editing, music and the obtuse open-ended question mark we’re left with has the same cinematic cadence as the endings of Memento and The Prestige. It doesn’t work as well as those other movies, because, well, it’s the third time round.

I think we can consider Nolan tapped out of this genre, at least for now. Otherwise the repetition would start to stink like Brian DePalma self-thievery. And so, despite much of the praise from audiences and critics, Inception is thrilling but highly flawed, sloppy, but ambitious enough to command my attention, two, three and likely many more times over.
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Monday, 15 December 2008

THE DARK KNIGHT DVD


The Dark Knight DVD and Blu-Ray( 2008) dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal

The Movie: ****
The DVD: **

The timely DVD release 3 weeks before Christmas will likely ensure "The Dark Knight" to be one of the highest selling DVDs of all time. While the film (and especially the IMAX) version was arguably the movie event of the year, the DVD version doesn’t quite live up to quality of the film.

One of key innovations of the production was the extensive use of IMAX in key scenes  in the film. On the big IMAX screen the effect of these scenes produced a stunning adjunct to the film. The aspect of ratio change from 2.35:1 to almost square full screen frame was startling. Widescreen televisions will experience a similar, though not as grandiose shift during these scenes. The opening of the film begins with the title credit framed in standard anamorphic 2.35:1, but when the opening bank heist begins the letterbox bars disappear revealing a full 16:9 image. Of course, since the origination medium is IMAX, the difference in visual clarity is stunning. This difference is even more evident on Blu-Ray. Though the IMAX aspect ratio still requires a small crop on the top and bottom of the frame to fit into 16x9 director Christopher Nolan admits it’s a largely unimportant screenspace - an acceptable difference to the theatrical IMAX experience.

So the aspect ratio and resolution differences are acceptable, unfortunately the special features leave much be desired. Disc one features a number of small featurettes called “Creation of a Scene” which documents the production of a number of the key scenes in the film (most often the IMAX sequences). When viewed all together, these segments make for a reasonably insightful ‘making of’ documentary. Many will be disappointed with the lack of on-camera live footage of the key creatives discussing the process. The information is largely told to us using narrated voiceover, from Nolan and the bunch.

Disc 2 contains a number of surprisingly awful featurettes. “Batman Tech” feels like it was produced by Nickelodeon. A gruff voiceover man with no connection to the series whatsoever narrates this featurette like an episode of “Frontiers of Construction” or any other average Discovery Channel program. “Batman Unmasked” features a similar ‘television’ tone and style. In “Unmasked” various ‘psychological experts’ discuss the psyche of the superhero with blockheaded intellectualism. Rabbis, historians and other ‘smart people’ proceed to breakdown and explain the historical context of the character. My favourite is Robert Phillips. identified as a forensic services consultant, who explains to me the subtext of the film.

The extensive fake news footage featuring Anthony Michael Hall’s character which is used as background TV footage in the movie serves just to ‘pad’ the disc with more useless material. This is by no means a “special” feature.

Lastly, the stills galleries are put together without any creativity whatsoever, which reminded me of those old laserdisc galleries requiring the ‘step’ function to scroll through each picture. At the very least they could have added some of the great Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard music in the background.

This special edition DVD appears to have been hastily put together with already produced material, which clearly does not look like anything which the filmmakers would have ordinarily approved of. Don't be surprised if a more definitive edition appears once the producers have time to create something worthy instead of rushing to get something out for Christmas.

“The Dark Knight” is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Warner Bros Home Video.

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Monday, 4 August 2008

THE DARK KNIGHT AND THE PRECEDENT OF POPCORN FILMS AND OSCAR


In Roger Ebert’s “Movie Answer Man” column last week a reader asked Mr. Ebert about his thoughts on whether the critically acclaimed and box office giant “The Dark Knight” had a chance at Oscar. Roger Ebert replied, that he would be ‘astonished’ if it didn’t get nominated. I was surprised Mr. Ebert didn’t provide any other qualifications to that statement, because based on precedent “The Dark Knight” is far from a shoe-in. This question needs to be examined. In fact, it would be a major coup if a ‘comic book’ film were to get a Best Picture Nomination. What exactly is the precedent for a film like “The Dark Knight”? What is the history of Oscar and popcorn movies or genre films? And what kind of chance does it stand at Mr. Oscar?

Of course we all know it’s only the summer and traditionally most of the Oscar contenders are released in the Fall and Winter. We don’t know for sure what the crop of December Oscar releases will look like, which indie films will emerge out of the woodwork and take the awards season by storm, but considering the enormous success of the film, I believe serious discussion is warranted.

Contrary to popular opinion, Oscar is not averse to ‘genre’. In fact most films can be put into some kind of genre – beyond the simple ‘comedy vs. drama’ distinction. “The Departed” was a crime film and won the big award a couple years ago. “Chicago” was a musical, “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” was a fantasy film and “The Unforgiven” was a Western, those are certainly genres.

Here’s a convenient list some of the ‘traditional’ genre films since 1970 which were nominated for Best Picture:

The Departed (2006)
Lord of the Rings: (2001-2003)
Chicago (2002)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Fugitive (1992)
Unforgiven (1992)
The Silence of the Lambs (1992)
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Tootsie (1982)
Raiders of the Ark (1981)
Star Wars (1977)
Jaws (1975)
The Toweing Inferno (1974)
The Exorcist (1973)
The French Connection (1971)
Airport (1970)

But most of the above-mentioned films exist in well-established Hollywood genres, for which numerous great Oscar-winning films have come from. And most of these films elevated their storytelling to be more than just a ‘genre-film’. “The Dark Knight” has a tougher battle to overcome compared to these films because “The Dark Knight” arguably falls in the ‘comic book genre.’

One of the aspects that makes the film great is that structurally “The Dark Knight” falls into a crime-thriller as much as ‘comic book’ film, but for sake of argument and in Hollywood’s eyes it’s a comic book film. Unlike the crime saga, the musical, the western, the comedy, comic books are not yet seen as ‘serious’ entertainment. It’s a relatively new genre as well – arguably born in 1978 with Richard Donner’s “Superman: The Movie”. Comic book movies (and specifically superhero films) have always been filmed as summer blockbuster entertainment – the “popcorn films”.

So maybe we should look at the history of Oscar and “popcorn films”.

This is a considerably shorter list. Arguably, in the last 20 years, I could only name "LOTR: Return of the King" (2003) and “The Fugitive” (1992) as the only “popcorn films” to be nominated for Best Picture.



LOTR managed to overcome the stigma of fantasy films and garner an unprecedented three Best Picture nominations for its first film and its two sequels. LOTR was no ordinary fantasy film, the shear magnitude of it's filmmaking endeavour, and the fact Peter Jackson delivered the goods on the epic story made its nomination an easy choice.



Andrew Davis’ 1992 film was a near-perfect template for a thriller. It exists only for the sake of its action and cinematic thrills. Before it’s nomination, I don’t think anyone could have predicted this TV-remake and disposable thriller would ever be nominated for an Oscar, let alone a coveted spot on the “Best Picture List”. “Silence of the Lambs”, though too dark to be a “popcorn film”, was also a surprise nominee – a serial killer film released in February, the netherland of the Hollywood calendar.

Going back to the 1980’s, it’s even more difficult to find popcorn films on Oscar’s lists.



I can only reasonably cite “Raiders of the Ark” as a comparison film to the “The Dark Knight.” A pure action film, with little substance beyond that of entertainment and fun.



And before that, it’s “Star Wars” (1977), “Jaws” (1975) and ahem…”The Towering Inferno” (1974). That’s a short list and most of them great films - some of the greatest films of all time.

Although the comic book genre is relatively new, there have been some great ones. When discussing the greatest comic book (superhero) adaptations of all time, consistently “Superman the Movie” and “Spider-man 2” are at the top of the heap, same goes with Tim Burton’s “Batman” (1989) and even Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins”. Never have any of these films received any Oscar buzz. So what makes “The Dark Knight” so different? And why was Mr. Ebert so confident?

Certainly Heath Ledger’s untimely death combined with his great performance warrants Oscar talk. But Best Actor categories have never shied away from popcorn films (ie. Johnny Depp’s Oscar nom for “Pirates of the Caribbean” was expected). Its box office success helps the argument. It continues to break records, and with the crop of films scheduled to be released in August, there’s not much for it to compete against. It will likely continue to play in IMAX screens well beyond the traditional theatrical life of a film (three of the four Toronto IMAX screenings on this Saturday were sold out by midday). But “Spider-man 2” made almost the same amount of money as “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and was equally praised, but was never talked about as Oscar-worthy.

Simply put, “The Dark Knight” is no ordinary film and not just a genre-film. It combines traditional elements of popcorn entertainment with a number of serious dramatic layers which lingers well beyond the ride home. It’s now part of the cultural zeitgeist, which can’t be quantified. The kind of zeitgeist that helped make “The Exorcist”, “Jaws” “Star Wars”, and “Titanic” gigantic successes.

Perhaps its too early to be discussing the Academy Awards, but the more this topic is discussed the more the film will become acceptable as a nominee in the eyes of voters.

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Monday, 21 July 2008

THE DARK KNIGHT


The Dark Knight (2008) dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart

****

“The Dark Knight” is a different film to “Batman Begins”, with Bruce Wayne/Batman’s origins and motivations established, and the comic book mythology deconstructed Christopher Nolan is off and running with his full-tilt action sequel. It’s breakneck speed from start to finish with little time for catch-up. Viewers who stop to think about the plot or how characters go from A to B, and wind-up at C will be left behind.

When last we left Gotham City, Batman had defeated the League of Shadows, but not before the inmates of Arkham Asylum escaped into the streets. Now with the city’s mob boss, Carmine Falconi, dead it’s been a free-for-all of uncoordinated gangland activity. Chaos reigns on both sides of the law. The ‘bat-man’ has become a legend to mimic by other wannabe masked avengers masquerading about town attempting their own personal vigilantism.

Batman/Bruce Wayne has come to realize that by his actions, he’s on track to becoming judge, jury and executioner. Batman puts his stock in the courageous DA Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to be the real hero and uniting force which will bring Gotham back into peace. Amid the chaos a poisoned pill psychotic named “The Joker” (Heath Ledger) has emerged as the city’s biggest threat to order.

“The Dark Knight” is all about action. A blistering pace set early starting with the excellently staged bank robbery sequence, and a number of bravura gun fights, set piece chases, and narrow escapes. The film never ever lets up. Nolan’s skills as director, and his unique rhythm of editing (helped by a pulsating Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard’s co-score) make the picture a marvel blockbuster entertainment – like Paul Greengrass’s with his Bourne movies – a cinema of momentum.

The film is not without it’s flaws and minor quibbles either. The muscular action substitutes for deficiencies in character. Even at two and a half hours, there’s not enough time to adequately give attention to its multiple subplots. As a result, characters like Alfred, Lucius and arguably Bruce Wayne himself are not broadened from what we learned in the first film. Towards the end, after 150mins of non-stop action, the exposition and explanation contained in the lengthy wrap-up speeches unfortunately are detractions.

So why was I not bothered about these deficiencies? Because The Dark Knight is the second film of a trilogy – a chapter devoted not to Bruce, or the mythology, but Gotham City itself – a city like, Rome, threatened with destruction from within. The theme of “The Dark Knight” is written into a conversation between Dent and Wayne early on. When considering whether it would serve Gotham better for Batman to temporarily exercise absolute power, Dent recounts Roman history and the authority of Julius Caesar, “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

“The Dark Knight” broadens the accessibility of the comic book genre by rooting itself more in reality than any of the other comparable super hero films. In fact, the genre is more a crime thriller than comic book fantasy. The objectives of Batman’s adversaries are not arbitrary world domination - instead it’s the tangibility of money and power. But in the case of the Joker, his motivations are more difficult to read. We don’t learn too much about who the Joker is and what drives his need for chaos and destruction. For me, this was the most interesting question to be resolved – a discovery of his motivation beyond mere insanity.

Before “The Dark Knight” was even released, it was more than just a film. One cannot watch the film with pure objectivity knowing it was Heath Ledger’s last ‘completed’ film, playing a damaged character, which as some suspect may have mimicked Ledger’s real life personal demons. Ledger’s presence in the film is electric and the truth behind the fiction brings added context and attention to his character.

Admitted as I left the theatre, I couldn’t answer the question I wanted revealed – what was the Joker’s motivation? An explanation is given to us, but it was hasty and unsatisfactory and likely a red herring to keep us guessing. The Joker is a trickster who loves to play games. He continually challenges Batman, Dent, Gordon and the citizens of Gotham with questions of moral decency, honor and principal. Questions which, if answered properly, will put the city of Gotham on the right path of repair. As I recounted the progression of the story it then became so obviously clear – and several hours later I found myself nodding my head with admiration. Enjoy.

PS. As an aside…for those with access, “The Dark Knight” HAS to been seen in IMAX. With all this discussion of the impending death of cinema, and whether the new 3-D technology will be able to reinvent the theatre experience, Christopher Nolan has found the answer – and it’s been staring us in the face for over 25 years.

Many segments of the film were shot and presented in full IMAX glory. And for those who think it would be same as watching a blow-up version of Spider-man or Harry Potter in IMAX, there’s a big difference. Shooting a film in IMAX is different than blowing up a 35mm film to IMAX. The resolution of the full screen IMAX picture is remarkable – almost unbelievable actually. The film cuts in and out of IMAX and 35mm sequences frequently. Sometimes a scene is established with an IMAX shot and then goes back to standard 35mm for the rest of scene. But each and every time we see the film go 8 story-big it’s truly eye-popping. Christopher Nolan has not only raised the bar for all other top tier blockbuster directors to hit, he has resuscitated new life into that so-called dying art form of celluloid cinema.


The Dark Knight

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Wednesday, 28 March 2007

MEMENTO


Memento (2001) dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Guy Pearce, Carrie Ann-Moss, Joe Pantoliano

****

Director Christopher Nolan burst onto the Hollywood scene with one of the most ingenius and intelligent thrillers films ever made. The story is told backwards - from the point of view of a man with only his short term memory – we begin with the last scene in the film and work backwards to the beginning. I’ve seen it about 5 times and I still get confused.

Some time ago Leonard’s home was burgled and his wife murdered. The psychological shock caused Leonard to his lose ability to retain memories after the incident – this condition is called anterograde amnesia and is a real diagnosed condition. The Leonard of today is no longer a humble insurance adjustor, he’s a hardened vigilante in the midst of a complex and frustrating search for the killer of his wife. Without memories, the only way he can remember the facts is by tattooing notes to his body. These post-it notes to himself form the pieces of a puzzle for Leonard to find the murderer.

The device could have been just a gimmick, but in fact it’s a clever way to put an audience in the point of view of Leonard. It’s genius really. Like Leonard, with each new scene the audience is constantly in a guessing game as to where he is, what is going on and who the characters are. It’s disorienting but exhilarating and forces the audience to think and participate in the film.

Leonard is ruthless in his journey. The flashback scenes before the accident are very important to his character. The physical difference between Leonard the insurance man and Leonard the vigilante informs the audience of his transformation. Time is not a variable either, as there are no references to go by. We don’t how Leonard long has been searching for the killer, it could be weeks, it could be years.

Leonard’s last memory is the image of his dead wife’s lifeless eyes. This will continue to haunt Leonard for the rest of his life and so his journey, his tattoos and the other details of the search keeps him alive. When the puzzle is solved and the pieces fit together the film moves beyond a gimmicky suspense thriller into a piece of cynical nihilism. When he confronts the reality of his life, Leonard makes a choice to become the murderer – become the person he, himself, is looking for.

“Memento” is a great companion film to Nolan’s other masterpiece “The Prestige.” Leonard is much like Hugh Jackman’s Robert Angier, their obsessions become their demons and they both manage to destroy the moral sides of their existence. In fact, “Memento” is existentialism to the core. From the point of view of a broken man, Leonard is essentially in search for the purpose of life. Jean-Paul Sartre said that ‘values are subjective’ – meaning, there are no objective standards by which humans live their lives; it’s based on individual consciousness. Leonard’s new life cannot be judged or understood objectively by anyone but himself – but, as the audience, by working out the puzzle of his life backwards we become as close as possible to understanding the doomed man. Enjoy.
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Wednesday, 28 February 2007

THE PRESTIGE


The Prestige (2006) dir. Christopher Nolan
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale

****

“Are you watching closely..” is the opening voiceover of the “The Prestige”, which is a magician’s line often used to distract the audience from something else which might be going on. “The Prestige” is a puzzle from start to finish and an under-appreciated brain-teaser. Much of its thunder was stolen by the ‘other’ magic film, “The Illusionist,” released 2 months prior, but believe me “The Prestige” is the one to see.

Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play dueling magicians in turn-of-the-century London, one polished and upper-class, the other streetwise and ‘common’ - like David Copperfield vs. David Blaine? They are both equally determined to succeed in the art. They begin as partners until a fatal accident turns them into rivals. The rivalry escalates as they perform similar tricks, trying to one up each other with each new trick. They even infiltrate each other’s shows to discover their secrets and sabotage their performances.

When a new scientific technique is discovered by Nikolai Tesla (a real person, who once had a rivalry with Thomas Edison) which appears to perform “real magic”, both Jackman and Bale desperately want his secrets and will do anything to get it. But Tesla will only give the secret of his experiments to one man, and Christian is the first. Or is he? When Bale is imprisoned (for events I won’t reveal) Jackman steals Tesla’s secret and uses it in his show.

Is Tesla’s device real magic or not? “The film’s title refers to the final act of a magic trick where the disappearing object comes back. And what price do our magicians pay to keep the “prestige” of the trick secret. It’s a magnificent finale that keeps the viewer guessing up to the final shot – and what a doozy that final shot is.

Like Nolan’s other cryptogram, “Memento”, the film is told out of sequence, with a myriad of flashbacks. It isn’t until the final act that you start piecing the timeline together and learn the true motivations and actions of the characters. Nolan is a magician himself, hiding information and revealing them only at the right time.

The film has so much going on it’s a great exercise for the brain. Not only are we bombarded with a thick plot filled with lots of twists and turns, there’s a history lesson of the real-life Tesla/Edison feud, you can learn some behind-the-scenes trickery real magicians use, there’s a love triangle, as well as a cutthroat blood feuds of grand preportions.

The cast of Jackman, Bale, Michael Caine, Johansson, a cool-as-ever David Bowie, Rebecca Hall and Andy Serkis are a joy to watch. As expected the production design, cinematography and mood-inspiring music are top-notch.

With this film Christopher Nolan asserts himself as one today’s best filmmakers. Just released on DVD, this film is waiting for you to rent it. Enjoy.

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