The Joys Of A Good Movie Trailer

I had been thinking about writing a post about movie trailers for a week or so, when I saw this post on NPR‘s pop culture blog, Monkey See. Let me just say that Monkey See is a great blog. If you’re every feeling frustrated that I never seem to post new things here, check out that blog and see how the professionals do it.

Some movie trailers are bad. Some movie trailers compile all the good bits of a movie into 90 seconds to lure you to the theater to be disappointed for 90 minutes (or more). But some movie trailers are good. Some movie trailers are great.

The Social Network: Good use of dialogue

One of my favorite movie trailers of recent years has to be The Social Network. Sure, when I first saw this trailer, I was skeptical. But that was more because I didn’t know yet that Aaron Sorkin had written the script. First off, this movie is great. It’s beautifully shot and the dialogue is smart and snappy. But what makes the trailer great is that a) there’s no obnoxious voiceover, b) the pacing builds up speed and thus tension as you go through the trailer, c) the music – the music starts out being the main thing you’re focusing on. You’re listening to the lyrics and they provide an interesting commentary on the Facebook phenomenon. And then after we stop just looking at close ups of people’s profiles we start focusing on the dialogue and the action. It gets to the point where you’re not even noticing the music anymore, but actually it’s building just like the pacing. It all supports itself so well. And it was this trailer that made me think I might want to see this movie, despite me being skeptical about the premise of a Facebook movie.

Hanna: An excellent action example

Another example of a trailer that uses good music (by the way) is the trailer for Hanna. This is a great action trailer. It makes you feel bad ass just watching it. And it applies similar tactics of using the music to reinforce the pacing as The Social Network trailer.

Where The Wild Things Are: Good use of no dialogue

And sometimes, sometimes trailers eclipse the actual movies in terms of greatness. My favorite example – Where The Wild Things Are. Where The Wild Things Are was an interesting movie. But it faced a difficult challenge of stretching a 20-page kids book into a feature-length film, and it didn’t really pull it off perfectly. But the trailer. The trailer is the perfect encapsulation of the book. It’s exciting. It’s sad. It makes you think about the magic of childhood. Sometimes when I need a small boost of inspiration, I watch this trailer. The music is perfect. The text is perfect. The lack of dialogue makes the images more powerful. If you need an example of how they could have done this trailer wrong, check out the second trailer. Too much dialogue and explaining a trailer can definitely kill the magic.

And unrelatedly…

Music videos. Sometimes music videos can add a whole new layer to a song that does more than just add a visual element. This music video for “Somebody I Used To Know” by Gotye emphasizes certain emotional undertones at specific moments beautifully. The music video itself is a clean concept – not cluttered with multiple locations and outfits. It’s a complicated concept that is impressive in terms of what it took to pull off. When I listen to this song, I picture this music video. Somehow this seems like a sort of related concept to me. Music plus visuals equals a happy awesome 2 to 3 minutes.

Definitely share any favorite trailers of yours. I love trailers. If I get to a movie before it starts but I miss the trailers, I think about going home and trying to make it to a later showing. I’m almost serious.

Hanna (2011)

I write these posts with little thought to spoilers. Beware.

Hanna (Saorise Ronan) is always on the alert. And she has good reason to be as she's chased across two (plus?) continents in this strange, exciting and funny action flick.

Synopsis: A teen girl goes through some tough transitions to adulthood as she learns about independence and the fallibility of her father. Also she kills a lot of military goons.

I knew from the moment I saw a preview for Hanna that I was going to like this movie. To quote Dark Angel, “Girls kick ass. Says so on the t-shirt.” Hanna kicks ass. And Hanna whether knowingly or not is very Dark Angel-inspired.

This film has a lot going for it. Great acting on the part of everyone involved. Beautiful cinematography. Excellent timing. And this bizarre, off-kilter feel that leaves you with the sense you’ve just seen something completely original. All of the adults in Hanna do excellent jobs with their performances. And Saorise Ronan is fantastic as a bemused and lethal wild child. But the proverbial show is stolen by Jessica Barden who plays Sophie, a girl Hanna meets and be-friends as she tries to escape capture by the government or worse. Sophie delivers so many side-splitting one-liners in such rapid succession, you’re just left kind of in awe of her pure teen insanity. She’s a delight and she adds to the laughs that make Hanna more than just bad ass.

The movie portrays violence quite graphically without ever being gruesome. It's a fine line to walk, but I appreciate the end result.

The film sets up some beautiful contrasts between the locations Hanna visits and the life she leads isolated somewhere in the Arctic north compared to her life on the run from Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett). The cinematography, by the same man that did Sunshine, is breath-taking.

Funny, weird, mysterious, smash ’em crash’em. This movie has it all. If I had to pick one thing it’s lacking, I would say that it could have done more with the idea of taking a girl who was raised hunting deer in the frozen wilderness and transplanting her into mainstream culture. We get some delightful moments of culture shock in the film and Hanna herself could best be described as quirky. But there is definite potential to dig deeper into what fundamental differences Hanna would possess with her singular upbringing.

That being said, the film is a delight. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. And if you have, check it out and watch it again.

Takeaway quote: (Hanna, regarding her date, whom she has just tackled to the floor) Should I let him go? (Sophie) As opposed to what, you lunatic? Of course you should let him go?

Super 8 (2011)

I write these posts with little thought to spoilers. Beware.

Joe (Joel Courtney) and his friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) realize they're going to have to put their coming-of-age storyline on hold. They're in a sci fi/suspense movie too.

Synopsis: The Goonies have a close encounter with E.T. who turns out to be a little bit more like the shark from Jaws… or maybe the velociraptors from Jurassic Park.

I finally went and saw Super 8 last Thursday and I liked it. The beginning was an amazing movie, and the end was good. This unfortunately made it feel like a bit of a letdown. But when I went and saw it again last Friday, I liked the whole film even better. I’m not going to tell you how many times I saw it over the weekend, but the trend has continued. The more I see this movie, the more I like it as its own movie.

This is made a little difficult because the movie is pretty derivative. This is a movie-lovers’ movie. It’s got E.T., The Goonies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Alien, Jurassic Park and more all rolled into one movie that is not only nostalgic for the 1970s (the movie’s setting) but also for the type of movie you loved as a kid. Part of this movie strikes me as an auto-biography of director/screenwriter J.J. Abrams. And it is delightful.

The biggest flaw in this movie is the thing that has been let loose on the small Ohio town. Rather than being a character, it is a plot device. And so in the end it’s a little hard to care about what happens to it. E.T. was a movie about Elliot and E.T. This is a movie about Joe.

Joe's friends are all a treat, and the actors all do a fantastic job. Elle Fanning as Alice Dainard is especially fantastic.

And the movie about Joe is great. Joe, who has just lost his mother in an accident at the steel mill, is helping his misfit friends make a zombie movie for a local film festival. The kids are incredibly believable – inhabiting the space between childlike innocence and self-possessed maturity that is the end of middle school. Super 8 hits some great emotional notes, making me laugh out loud, jump with surprise and even tear up (Elle Fanning gives a heart-breaking performance of trying so hard not to cry that it becomes hard to breathe).

The last third of the movie errs on the side of gratuity. Rather than spending time on giving us a connection with the mystery menace, we set fire to the majority of town. J.J. Abrams, much like Joe’s pyromaniac friend Cary, can’t seem to stop blowing things up. But while this ending is a bit of a come down after the delightfully nostalgic earlier acts, it’s a perfectly adequate end. This movie is so close to perfect, I wish it had been a first draft.

Takeaway quote: Would you hate me if I started our relationship by asking a favor?

Blog Mitosis

I submitted on a Friday afternoon. So now all weekend I get to look at the phrase "ready for review." Joy...

Well folks, I have submitted the first part of my application to medical school. I’ve gone over my extracurricular descriptions and personal statement to the point that I think I might have them memorized. I’ve asked everyone who’s willing to read over and edit them. I tried to minimize the time I spent agonizing over whether to hit the submit button. I was moderately successful.

This is gonna be a loooong process. I have a lot more essays to write for each school’s individual secondary application. Then there’s waiting to hear if I get an interview, going to the interview and waiting to hear on acceptances. My goal for this whole process is to stay calm and to try not to check the status of my application too many times a day.

In logistical news: All cooking, baking, etc. posts have moved back to Cooking Between Classes. Sorry to keep moving everyone about, but I wanted to start narrowing the focus of my blog without losing any of my topics. So Kino will be for movie musings and my general steam-venting about applying to medical school. Cooking will be for what I’m making in the kitchen and what’s going on with food locally and nationally. Hope this isn’t too trying for my dear readers.

Thor (2011)

I write these posts with little thought to spoilers. Beware.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) talk about Thor's inability to improve his attitude the apparently teeny tiny amount his father wants him to in order for Thor to maybe ascend to the throne.

Synopsis: There’s some exposition, which is confusing, and then some funny stuff with me Thor and you Jane (Natalie Portman) and her band of nerdy misfits. And then some epilogue. I will be waiting with bated breath for The Avengers…

Let me start by apologizing for how very long it’s been since I last posted. After some family health problems and then the sudden, but inevitable end of the semester madness, I have returned…to rant about a movie I was expecting to enjoy and thoroughly did not.

Rotten Tomatoes, you led me astray with your 66% from top critics. 66% implies that a movie at least leaves you not feeling wholly unsatisfied at the end of the film. But despite some enjoyable and entirely quotable lines from the middle third of Thor, this movie was poorly written – both in terms of dialogue and plot. And I’m sorry, but I’m only willing to accept failure on one of those counts. It felt as though the three writers listed as the films screenwriters each took on a different section of the movie without referring to the rest of the film. Characters’ motivations were confusing and unclear. The bad guy was befuddling. The hero didn’t change very much. The romance was limited and then overplayed at the end. And Thor’s mom was one of the lamest characters to grace the screen in quite some time.

Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth are both pretty in this movie. And they get a few good lines (Natalie Portman in particular), but I'm not sure that justifies this film's budget.

And look movie, you’re the one making up these new-fangled sci fi rules – you’ve got to stick to them.

I was left with so many questions at the end of this movie. Most of them involving the words “why” and “Loki.” And let me just say that the man who directed a four hour (and quite good) production of Hamlet should not be making 3D comic book movies. It was doomed from the start folks.

If I had been a better mood and/or if my expectations had been lower I might have enjoyed this movie. But as it was, I was expecting a quality summer sci fi/comic book flick and I was let down. I have now paid Hollywood back for being pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Fast Five. Don’t mess me around on Super 8, Hollywood. Just don’t do it.

Takeaway quote: Next time you taser someone, make sure they’re already in the car.

Dare (2009)

I write these posts with little thought to spoilers. Beware.

Johnny (Zach Gilford) and Alexa (Emmy Rossum) are two or the three leads in this movie that is yet another standard high school coming of age story...for all of about thirty minutes

Synopsis: Three high school students rattle each other’s cages as they figure out who they’ll be after graduation. I know it sounds like you’ve seen this before, but this shit gets real folks.

Ok, first off, two things about this movie are super pretty – the cinematography and Zach Gilford. I’m not going to lie to you, I totally watched this movie because I recently developed an obsession with Friday Night Lights (thank you the ability to stream Netflix to my TV). Matt Saracen, the awkward, and carrying-the-world-on-his-shoulders quarterback is one of my favorite characters on the show. But if you’re looking for the same wholesome character here, prepare to be slightly shocked. I wouldn’t qualify Dare as super risque or over-sexed or anything…but it’s not pulling a whole lot of punches either.

So this movie is pretty to watch. It’s drenched in color and sets up really interesting contrasts between warm and cool colors throughout the film. But the story, and particularly the narrative style through which it’s told make it the most interesting movie I’ve seen about high school students in a good long while. We spend about a third of the movie with each of our main characters, Alexa (the preview identifies her as “the good girl), Ben (“the best friend” played by Ashley Springer) and Johnny (“the bad boy”). And by the end of the movie you realize that all three of these characters are too self-involved (and this isn’t really a critique, I think it may be an inevitable part of being in high school) to see the very different perspectives of their two counterparts.

We start with Alexa and end with Johnny, and so initially I found myself “taking sides with” Johnny. But the more you think about it – and if you’re at all like me, this is a movie you’ll be thinking about – Johnny is misinterpreting and, in a way, trying to take advantage of Alexa and Ben just as much as they are doing the same to him.

This film is actually based on a short (of the same title) that is solely about Ben and Johnny. Which may be why I find Alexa the least interesting character of the three of them.

I appreciate a movie that doesn’t try to answer all of it’s questions. And I appreciate a movie that gives me more layers to characters as we go along, such that by the end of the movie, I feel compelled to re-watch the beginning to find new meaning in the interactions that had seemed so typical when the movie began. I found myself a little less satisfied with Alexa’s section of the movie by the end. It’s interesting for a standard high school flick, but we get so much more depth from Ben and then Johnny (and this is part of the way the narrative builds, so I can’t really think of a better way to handle it), that Alexa’s struggle to not be a good girl seems a little pat by the end.

Takeaway quote: (Johnny’s very young step mother offers him one of her unidentified prescription pills even though he tells her he’s not having a panic attack right now) It’s preventative. I might not be around later.

P.S. It was actually hard to find a takeaway quote from this movie. This isn’t to say it’s not good dialogue. It’s just, everything is in people’s faces more than their words.

The Perfect Genre – An Homage To The Heist

I went and visited Della this weekend and we had one of our classic movie marathons. This weekend’s theme: Heist films.

We wanted to include some we didn’t have time for or couldn’t get a hold of (Sneakers, Thomas Crown Affair, Sugar and Spice). And we ended up including some that should not have qualified (thanks a lot, internet). But all in all it was a resounding success. So here’s the breakdown:

The Classic Heist (Ocean’s Eleven (2001) and The Italian Job (2003))

Ocean's Eleven takes the classic heist to a new level by amping up the number of heisters

The classic heist film has a few key elements. We begin with a first job – or in the case of Ocean’s Eleven, the end result, our main character getting out of prison. An essential heist element is justification for heisting. Danny Ocean is a criminal, but we later learn he has a non-criminal justification. Charlie Croker, of The Italian Job, has to get back at a former fellow who betrayed his crew. Which brings us to another heist element, the crew. We have to have several key players, each with defined roles – examples include the computer expert, the getaway driver, the explosives expert. Ocean’s Eleven adds more than average, but it also plays up the con man element of the heist. Several of the Ocean’s characters serve the team by pretending to be a variety of characters to finesse and finagle there way into their con.

Heists have to show you something you've never seen before. Like minis in the underground.

What else can I say about the classic heist? The characters ooze class. They are cool as cucumbers. We have to have a planning montage at some point in the movie where the point man explains to another character what the plan is. They have to run into an unexpected complication and adapt the plan (preferably once things are already under way, but often before). And even though we had that planning montage folks, we still have to be surprised by the actual plan. You thought you knew what was happening, but you had no idea. You have been classically heisted.

The Politcal Heist? (Three Kings (1999))

Ok, so it's not a montage, but they are planning!

Della argues that Three Kings is not a heist film. But I say, we have some lovable rogues (one or two of whom are suave), a plan, a plan that has to change, and a crap ton of stolen gold. If this isn’t a heist film, it’s certainly a variation on a theme (with a whole bunch of other themes thrown in). Plus it is all around well-acted, written, and filmed. Watch it if you haven’t already. And if you have, watch it again.

Not a Heist Film At All (Point Break (1991))

I'm not sure what good I can say about this movie. Other than it made me want to watch Bill and Ted again.

This film popped up on a list of best heist films that Della found on the internet. And while I’m glad that I now get more of the references from Hot Fuzz, this was in no way a heist film. The rogues were not the main characters. There was no planning. And there was almost no time spent on actual heists. This my friends was a Rouge Cop film. And it was also an example of why we should all be glad the 90s are over.

The heist film folks. You can see it popping out throughout film history. Most recently it was given a new twist in Inception (which we totally would have watched this weekend if it weren’t for the fact that I need a little Inception break folks. A short one. Then I can return to the world of classy criminals who like to make their plans in montage form. And work together).

A Whole New Genre

I’m going to break out of my typical film post style to tell you about my new favorite genre of film – the sci fi romantic comedy. I’ve recently watched three movies that I thoroughly enjoyed and I realized one thing that was connecting them all was a very atypical frame for a typical story. So here they are, three sci fi rom coms totally worth checking out. If you can think of others, send them my way!

TiMER (2009)

I've finally been watching the later seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and though the show kind of wallows in some depressing/annoying story lines, I really enjoy Emma Caufield in just about every episode. By the way, the sci fi is that little stop watch thingee on her wrist.

Basically, when you boil down the plot of TiMER it’s a pretty straightforward rom com of the woman-having-a-mid-life-crisis-at-30 variety. As a woman I find this more entertaining than some. But even though the movie doesn’t answer most of the really interesting questions it poses, it certainly got me thinking about them. If you had a timer that told you the exact moment you met your “one” how would that change the way you treat human relationships before that?

Our main character, Oona (Emma Caufield), has a timer that’s blank, meaning her “one” hasn’t had his timer implanted (although I’m sure Oona is a little concerned that it actually means she’s going to die miserable and alone). In the end, her story arc is fairly predictable. What I loved about this movie though was the relationships she develops. Her friendship with her step-sister (who has her own timer-related issues) is what holds my attention through this flick. I might even have watched this if it were plain old rom com.

The Invention of Lying (2009)

Our main character Mark (Ricky Gervais) maintains his likability while being an outright liar, by being more peeved than intrigued by everyone else's complete faith in the veracity of his words

Do alternate realities count as sci fi? I think they do. In this alternate universe, no one has ever considered the notion of telling a lie. Everybody also seems pretty prone to saying everything on their mind too (which I’m not sure is a necessary side of effect of lying), which makes for a pretty comedic premise in and of itself. Again, this story basically ends up being a romantic comedy – the guy version. Under-doggy, every-man, Mark (Ricky Gervais) is in love with Anna (Jennifer Garner) who likes him, but isn’t attracted to him. Nothing new.

Except this premise is so radical, I actually found myself having a hard time sinking into it (not that this made the movie less enjoyable for me). I kept thinking to myself, “That’s so obviously not true, why does everyone believe what Mark is saying?” But in a world where people only say what is true, Mark must always be telling the truth, even when he isn’t. I found this movie surprisingly hilarious. And the extra thinking you get to do about a whole new premise makes the rom com feel all fresh and exciting (mostly).

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

This movie had the most fascinating depiction of memory I could have imagined! Don't worry, their roof doesn't have a leak, they're just transitioning to a different memory.

Ok, so I know I’m finding this movie really late, but I just watched it finally and I sort of fell in love with it. To be honest, this movie is what kicked off my new obsession with this new genre. And Eternal Sunshine is far and away the best quality film out of this trio. Because in the end it isn’t really a romantic comedy so much as it’s a movie that is funny but also gives a very honest depiction of a relationship, why it’s falling apart and what it will take to sustain it (the answer: science fiction). I don’t want to get to into the details of this one’s plot because I think everyone knows the premise by now. But all the thumbs up folks. Make some time for this new genre because it will rock your socks.

Perhaps the first installment into this genre was Aliens (1986). I mean the romance/comedy between Ripley and Hicks is pretty much the heart of that movie…

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

I write these posts with little thought to spoilers. Beware.

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Cera happens to play his usual awkward self and an action hero at the same time

 

 

 

Synopsis: A jobless 22-year-old gets to put his video game skills to use when he falls in lesbians with the girl of his dreams and must fight her seven evil exes to the death.

When I first saw this movie, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I loved it. It’s funny, awkward, visually interesting and everyone does an amazing job with their part. But at the same time, it’s frankly pretty sexist. The whole premise that Scott Pilgrim has to fight all of Ramona Flowers exes to get her is bad in and of itself. And while I think this movie believes it overcomes sexism by Scott recognizing some of his own flaws towards the end, it doesn’t change the fact that when Scott has to fight Ramona’s female ex, Ramona does the fighting for him. I’m sorry, but I’m just getting a little tired of girl on girl fight scenes.

That being said, now that I’ve seen this movie three times, I’ve decided I don’t particularly care that it’s pretty darn sexist. I’ve always liked Michael Cera’s quiet awkward style. And while he doesn’t break too far from his standard character, watching him kickass is an interesting twist. And I love how the graphic novel style permeates this film!

Scott is a little bit a failure at life. But hopefully he'll be able to get things together now that he's the winner of his own real-life video game.

I’m absolutely with this film for its sense of humor. And you can sympathize with all of the characters…even when they’re not behaving entirely admirably. This movie is funny and visually stunning. And I call that a win.

Also. I apologize for being a terrible poster. This semester is finally starting to take its toll and I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to post on any kind of a regular schedule between now and Christmas. I’ll try to get in a few more posts between now and then though…expect something about Thanksgiving next week!

Takeaway quote: Being vegan just makes you better than most people.

Half Nelson (2006)

I write these posts with little thought to spoilers. Beware.

Ryan Gosling is both charming and tragic as he stumbles through his own life and the lives of his students

Synopsis: A Brooklyn teacher struggles with his own ambition to help his students, his own inability to respect school authority and his own loneliness. Oh, and a fair number of crack-induced hangovers.

Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is remarkably aware of the world, yet surprisingly lacking in self awareness. He’s instantly admirable in his history classroom, trying to teach his students to think about the subject in both a broader and deeper sense. He’s by far the coolest teacher in school, and I only wish I could have had him at some point.

But in his personal life, he trips from one misfortune or bad decision to the next. I’m usually not a fan of stories where people do things, and regardless whether they’re good or bad things, bad things happen. But Dan is so ignorant to how his actions are influencing his life, that it becomes easy to forgive him his sins (which are pretty substantial). In every moment he’s trying to do his best, but he has absolutely no sense of how to combat the loneliness he feels.

Dan (Gosling) forms an important friendship with one of his students (Shareeka Epps), which probably ends up saving him from his imminent breakdown

The movie is big on showing and not telling. Much of what we know about the characters’ backstories is learned through inference. What we’re left to infer about Dan is that he got a very thorough and mind-broadening liberal education in college. And now, with his critical and somewhat negative world view, he feels isolated from the people around him who don’t seem to care. He has essentially made himself a bottomless-pit of loneliness…getting lonelier as the movie progresses.

The movie deals with each of its issues gently – especially the story line of Drey, a thirteen year old girl figuring out what it means to grow up. And while many of the scenes are intense, few if any are ham-handed or melodramatic. The movie paints a bleak picture of mental isolation and of how easy it is to make poor choices. But it also speaks to the difficulties and the importance of forming real connections with people. Critics said this movie was bleak but inspiring. It’s no Miracle, but somehow in the face of depressing constancies, the movie does manage to leave us with hope for Dan – and for ourselves.

Takeaway quote: The sun goes up and then it comes down, but every time that happens, what do you get? You get a new day. – Dan Dunne to his middle school history class (and to himself)