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Movie roundup
Apr. 16th, 2007 08:45 pmThe Prestige, movie
To be honest, I can't think of a puzzle-movie that can surpass this in complexity, in the intricacy and emotional punch and satisfying conclusion of its layers and layers of mystery. It's much more complex than Fight Club, yet with far more emotional and thematic resonance than something like Memento, which may be the closest comparison. A movie like this is a balancing act- on the one hand is something like Memento, where the audience spends the entire moving figuring it out, so that all appreciation of plot and dialog and theme and atmosphere and sheer enjoyment goes out the window- on the other hand, make it not a complex enough puzzle and your movie has no point. The structure of it, with its layers of narration and misdirection and deception and obsession, is truly incredible. I have NEVER seen a puzzle-movie that holds up so well on a second viewing, after the big reveal. Every single detail points to the truth, every clue that should have been there is there, there is not one single moment that serves only as red herring or doesn't quite fit- absolutely everything snaps into clarity and focus with the final reveal, in a way that is absolutely perfect. It's a hard thing to do. I've never seen it done so well. I'm predisposed to like it, if only for the unreliable narration and the thematic elements of truth and fiction and deception- but damn that was good.
Children of Men, movie
Pretty half-decent dystopia, worth adding to the collection. More adventure movie than serious exploration of dystopia, but the basic concept of infertility works as a key and I think the exploration of what that would actually create is basically believable- the level of chaos and lawlessness when there quite literally is NO future for the human race. The little details made it work- taking shelter in the abandoned school, the strangely empty feel of some of the crowd scenes, the abundance of animals as stand-in children. The causes were completely unexplored, which can leave you feeling oddly unsatsfied, but it ranks as a perfectly fine example of the genre.
To be honest, I can't think of a puzzle-movie that can surpass this in complexity, in the intricacy and emotional punch and satisfying conclusion of its layers and layers of mystery. It's much more complex than Fight Club, yet with far more emotional and thematic resonance than something like Memento, which may be the closest comparison. A movie like this is a balancing act- on the one hand is something like Memento, where the audience spends the entire moving figuring it out, so that all appreciation of plot and dialog and theme and atmosphere and sheer enjoyment goes out the window- on the other hand, make it not a complex enough puzzle and your movie has no point. The structure of it, with its layers of narration and misdirection and deception and obsession, is truly incredible. I have NEVER seen a puzzle-movie that holds up so well on a second viewing, after the big reveal. Every single detail points to the truth, every clue that should have been there is there, there is not one single moment that serves only as red herring or doesn't quite fit- absolutely everything snaps into clarity and focus with the final reveal, in a way that is absolutely perfect. It's a hard thing to do. I've never seen it done so well. I'm predisposed to like it, if only for the unreliable narration and the thematic elements of truth and fiction and deception- but damn that was good.
Children of Men, movie
Pretty half-decent dystopia, worth adding to the collection. More adventure movie than serious exploration of dystopia, but the basic concept of infertility works as a key and I think the exploration of what that would actually create is basically believable- the level of chaos and lawlessness when there quite literally is NO future for the human race. The little details made it work- taking shelter in the abandoned school, the strangely empty feel of some of the crowd scenes, the abundance of animals as stand-in children. The causes were completely unexplored, which can leave you feeling oddly unsatsfied, but it ranks as a perfectly fine example of the genre.