Blackfish
Which concerns the instances of deaths and
injury caused by killer whales in captivity.
Lots of talking heads, a mixture of
ex-trainers and employees and scientists, what is amazing is the amount of
footage available. Whilst the incidents that took place and were captured on
camera by visitors are understandably available, there are numerous instances
of out-of-hours training sessions and the attacks that happened at those times,
and it’s quite hard to work out how the film makers got hold of this footage as
I would have assumed it would have been owned by SeaWorld.
The instances of orca interaction are
engaging, and the enthusiasm of the neurologist claiming that their emotions
are more advanced than ours, due to having parts of the brain that we don’t, build
up in such a way that when you see footage like the orca capturing for Sealand
in the 70s it is pretty upsetting.
By the end of the film there’s little doubt
that keeping these or any whales in captivity is wrong, not just for the
animals themselves but for the people working with them.
Argo
As it’s based on a true story, it’s hard to
know whether the more clichéd aspects actually happened, but some of Argo
certainly feels a bit too much like other thrillers. The 6 people at the heart
of the story, stuck in Iran during the revolution and in hiding, are only
sparsely sketched with just Scoot McNairy as Joe Stafford given some meat as
‘the cynical one’ who immediately dismisses the escape plan as doomed and
likely to get them killed. Surprise surprise, as Joe is ultimately the one to
make their cover work and succeeds in getting them that last step towards home.
Other elements equivalent to the bomb
countdown turn out to be fabricated - the last minute interrogation by
revolutionary forces was made up, as was the jeep and police chase on the
runway. However, these worked well to inflate the tension and kept your heart
pounding, despite knowing the outcome in much the same way that United 91
worked so well even though you know what happens in the end.
Affleck plays it pretty light for him, no
shouting or tub thumping or rousing monologues, quite often he seems dejected
and defeated even before things go wrong, so it’s pretty much Affleck doing
subtle. But it does help it feel more real, rather than the shooty-fighty
secret agent films we’re used to, and the supporting cast do a good job of
bringing their real-life characters to life, with the likes of Alan Arkin, John
Goodman and Bryan Cranston all putting in a good turn.
Despite the twisting of some elements of
the story, Affleck manages to avoid the vilifying of the Iranians without
making the revolutionaries’ actions seem reasonable.
Not as good as the Oscar would suggest, but
definitely worth a watch.
Summer Wars
Bravura Japanese anime film with a dizzying
plot that basically boils down to: an AI invades Oz, an all-pervasive ultra-advanced
social network which most of the world now depends on to function. The AI
messes up everything from water to traffic to satellite systems, leaving a
maths genius boy and an extended family that can trace their family tree back
centuries to save the virtual world.
A schoolgirl invites a nerdy boy, working
as a part-time Oz coder, to do a job for her in the country. The job is to
pretend to be her fiancé for her great-grandmother’s 90th birthday party, the
head of a large extended family living at a large house with roots going back
over 500 years. One night he gets an anonymous maths puzzle, which he stays
awake to solve. The next morning he finds that Oz has gone haywire with many
accounts cannibalised by an AI and infrastructure melting down, and he is being
touted as the scapegoat on TV.
Visually dense, Summer Wars has a huge
amount going on, both in the CGI visuals in the virtual world of Oz and those
of the more traditional setting of the Sanada Clan’s family home.
The huge cast of family members introduced
illustrates how director Mamoru Hosoda (of the acclaimed The Girl Who Leapt
Through Time) expects the audience to keep up, rather than kowtowing to them,
and ultimately it makes for a satisfying tale despite the inevitable real-world
consequences that are introduced to give the drama a little more immediacy
towards the finale.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Boonmee is ailing. He travels to the honey
farm that he owns, and is visited by his
family, including his dead wife and disappeared son in spirit monkey form.
The film feels very much like a tone poem
or something a bit ethereal like that. Lots of sitting for intermittent chat,
journeys through lush jungle, aspects of past lives such as the princess whose
beauty fades but finds comfort in the form of a water deity in the shape of a
fish who pleasures her in a jungle pond.
Glimpses of the red-eyed, thick haired
monkey spirits who Boonmee’s son has joined.
A moment in a hotel room where Boonmee’s sister
talks with her daughter, and her son arrives, trying to decide whether to
continue being a monk.
It’s hard to put a finger on what is going
on, besides Boonmee making peace and saying his goodbyes, but the world painted
in the film is evocative and a pleasure to be in if you’re in the right mood.
This Is 40
Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd return to the
roles they played in Knocked Up, as Debbie and Pete who are now struggling with
the onset of middle age whilst feeling far from grown up.
The theme of extended adolescence has been
around a long time now, particularly in the comedies director Apatow has been
involved with, but Rudd and Mann make for good company despite their
character’s whining, and Apatow’s daughters Maude and Iris again reprise their
roles as the couple’s daughters and both are charming.
Chris O’Dowd, Lena Dunham, Johnathan
Lithgow, Jason Segel and Megan Fox all crop up at some point to round out the
cast, and though the incidents in the plot are fairly predictable and generic
the players manage to keep you onside despite the over long running time.
Definitely an enjoyable film rather than a
triumph, This Is 40 has a relatively low belly-laugh ratio due to all the
griping and soul-searching, but to be honest I would watch Rudd in almost
anything.
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