My Week of Film – Week 6

So far this year I’ve spent a lot of my weekends sitting in the cinema, but it’s burned me out a bit – I need to keep the cinema as something I look forward to rather than something that I need to do. I’ve been ticking the boxes in terms of seeing all the high profile Oscar baiters, but it’s left me resenting those evenings and weekend’s I’ve spent in the darkened screening rooms. Plus, it’s pretty windy and rainy out there right now, so cycling 20 minutes and then sitting in wet jeans for the following two hours is a much less attractive prospect to sitting on the sofa with a DVD. So no new releases this week, but rather two very good video discs:

Margin Call

J C Chandor has been on film-journalists’ radars recently because of his film All Is Lost, or “the almost silent one with Redford in a boat” as it’s widely known. Chandor’s won plaudits for his innovative and dramatic writing and direction on the project, plaudits which have a remarkably familiar tone to those given for his work on his first film, Margin Call.

While All Is Lost focusses on the silent actions of a lone central character, Margin Call is a dialogue-heavy recreation of the birthing of the 2008 financial crisis from the perspective of a range of characters sitting on the various rungs of a stockbroking company ladder. A young Wall Street worker discovers the fragility of his company’s practise of selling the now infamous toxic assets and passes the news up the hierarchy. The writing offers an accessible window into the complex world of such financial dealings whilst refusing to baby the audience with heavy exposition. The characters are extremely well rounded, the interaction adroitly observed, the pacing expertly judged and the moral arguments of the financial crisis astutely delivered. Some of the monologues, especially one delivered by Paul Bettany in a sports car, really stuck a chord with me in an intellectual rather than emotional sense – something rare for a piece of fiction.

But my praise shouldn’t be limited to the writing and direction, the cast ply their trade with the skill that you would expect from actors with such pedigree. Led by a predictably strong performance from Spacey they all inhabit their well-written characters with real humanity, from the relatively inexperienced Quinto to seasoned Irons and Tucci.

I hadn’t expected to enjoy a dialogue-heavy film that charts the beginning of a stock-market crash, but this really surprised me. And makes me regret missing All Is Lost when it was in cinemas. If you have any interest in this area, or just a love of films with more to them than exploding helicopters, then you should check it out.

The also-watched:

The Iron Giant –

I love this film. I was bored last Saturday night and didn’t really want to schlep my way to the local world of cine, so I dug out my DVD of The Iron Giant. Based on the Ted Hughes book but transferred – as so many films are – to a US setting, this mixes the 50’s B-movies doomsday musings with an Amblin-esque boys-own adventure, all beautifully rendered in traditional style animation with a sterling voice cast. In terms of contemporary kid’s films, this belongs alongside Pixar’s finest – exhibiting as it does a timeless charm, not reliant on popular references but focussing on strong characters with easy charm. If you haven’t seen it yet, I will lend you my copy.

Monsters University – are Pixar losing their Mojo?

I like cartoons. It might not be a very grownup stance to take but recently I’ve decided to cast aside worries of what is ‘cool’ or ‘normal behaviour’ and just enjoy the things I like. So I read comic books (which some insist are called graphic novels but calling them that just feels like there’s something shameful about them, like buying Harry Potter with the adult covers, it’s apologetic and kinda pointless), I watch cartoons like the rebooted Thundercats and I go to see animated films in the cinema. Undisputed king of the [at least American – let’s not discuss anime and Ghibli] cartoons is Pixar studios, their latest – Monsters University is facing mixed reviews.

I went to see it the other day, down at my local world of cine, settled myself in amongst the young families with their Happy Meals, and enjoyed it from beginning to end. The new dynamic between the characters was interesting, perhaps not as fun as their double act in the first film but their arc seemed real and not forced. Billy Crystal especially shines, Mike Wazowski is still oddly and effortlessly charming, arguably staple attributes of Pixar films. And I laughed. A lot. At times I was the only person laughing but I think these were the grown-up jokes not aimed at the kids, plus the screen was quite empty. There was a bit of a lull toward the end but it really picks up again for a genuinely clever and moving finale. Not quite as moving as the final scene of Monsters Inc or the opening ten minutes of Up, but all the same pretty effective. So all in all, I liked it. It’s not in the Pixar top five but it’s definitely a film I’d happily watch again.

However this is not the prevailing reaction. Nor, I suspect, the general preconception of the film by the public at large. There seems to be a weary scepticism surrounding Monsters University, when I’ve discussed it with people, asked if they’ll go see it, I’ve got the ‘meh’ response. And I guess this was true for me too, I remember when Wall-E and Up came out I knew exactly when they were going to be released. And I know I wasn’t alone in this. Monsters University crept up on me though, and I had to toss a coin between seeing that or Wolverine (and I’m glad it came down ‘heads’). So why are people less excited by the next Pixar releases?

I see two possible explanations. Firstly there’s the issue with sequels, Pixar have made their name on original properties and their creativity and sheer intelligence in their invention is something that has historically drawn punters in. The breadth of their characters – despite most of their films being just odd-couple, buddy-comedies – is what brings the films to life, not the shiny animation. The writers and artists put time and thought into the comedy, shying away from relying on lazy pop-culture references and base slapstick that clog the Shreks or Over the Hedges. And if a film’s not working, they either dramatically rework it (as with Ratatouille) or just give up entirely (as with the ill-fated Newt). So the perception that Pixar are now resting on their laurels may be driving people away, that sequels should really be released on DVD and can’t be worth spending £10 on at the cinema. But that perception should surely be eroded by the brilliance of Toy Story 2 and 3, arguably each one better than the last. And conversely, it’s not as if the Pixar output has always been top notch, I have no great love for A Bug’s Life, think that Up loses it’s way and becomes a bit Looney Tunes, and Cars and it’s sequel are just self-indulgent misfires. So if punters were happy to forgive Pixar for Cars and trust in Wall-E and Brave, why are they not lining up for Monsters University?

So maybe it’s the second possibility, that Pixar have just put out so many films now that they are either slowly going off the boil or people just have such sky-high expectations that they assume they’re going to be disappointed. When I first came out of Brave I honestly thought that it wasn’t as good as Tangled – something I’m now willing to admit is madness. Monsters Uni is no where near as good as Monsters Inc and the next two films in the Pixar pipeline are Planes (a weird-looking off-shoot from Cars) and Finding Dory (no points for guessing it’s the sequel to Finding Nemo) so perhaps it’s understandable that the excitement has dimmed in recent years. Has the merger with Disney distracted the creative luminaries at the top of Pixar and allowed laziness and mediocrity to creep in? Even if this is so, maybe when the three new original films are fully marketed, the dinosaur film, the one that is meant to be set inside someone’s mind and the festival of the dead one, then public perceptions will change back.

Equally Pixar haven’t really done themselves many favours with the switch over to full Disney corporate mode. There’s been a bit of kick back from trying to register of the Dia de los Muertos name, turns out that it’s controversial to try to buy a major Mexican holiday, and all the self-congratulatory tours they’ve given of their HQ to journalists just makes them look less like the plucky underdogs, getting by on their wit and self-taught tech-savvy, and more like the big boys who use lawyers and money to crush the smaller competition. A bit like what’s happened with Apple and Google in the past few decades.

So, overall I would argue that they’ve maybe gone off the boil in the last few years but they haven’t yet completely lost their mojo. The next few years will be interesting, especially if they insist on indulging in the lacklustre world of Cars, however I have high hopes that they can come out the other end with a ground-breaking trilogy of truly original films.