Garden State

Uncategorized December 1st, 2004

I feel like I’ve seen a run of bad films lately. Going to the cinema has become a recipe for disappointment. Garden State is not a bad film — in fact, it’s damn good. But if I’m over-enthusiastic it’s probably because I’ve come from watching Hero and Bridget Jones 2, and was desperate for something interesting.

Garden State‘s strength is in its intriguing characters, which immediately separates it from the two films I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Andrew Largeman has been on Lithium since he was ten years old, and has finally come to the decision that there might not actually be anything wrong with him — sadly, he’s not seen his family for nine years, and this decision comes too late to share with his mother, who dies at the start of the film. Largeman returns from Los Angeles to attend the funeral, and finds contact with both old and new friends begins to reawaken him.

I’ve always wanted to like Natalie Portman, but over the last few years her turns in Star Wars I and II have made this a bit difficult. This film makes it easier again. Portman plays a quirky girl called Sam, who Andrew meets at the neurologist. I’m always a bit leery of American attempts at ‘quirky’ characters, as they so often end up simply stupid.[ftn] There are one or two moments where Sam looks in danger of falling into this trap, but some excellent dialogue and Portman’s acting save her from this.

Largeman’s grave digging/robbing friend Mark is perhaps a shade more interesting, via Peter Sarsgaard’s dangerous performance. There’s an underlying menace to a lot of his scenes, and yet there’s also a strong friendship shown between him and Andrew. I’m not quite sure how he managed this combination, but it goes a long way to making this film intriguing as well as funny. The other strong performance is Ian Holm’s quiet, understated Gideon Largeman. Holm pulls off an impressive American Jewish accent, and manages some dry humour and honest sadness — making a potentially unsympathetic role much more deep.

The film is written by, directed by, and stars Zach Braff of TV’s Scrubs, and he brings a lot of the crazy atmosphere of his show to this film. Of particular note is the near-perfect scene when Sam accompanies Largeman to a friend’s house after they meet. The first half of the film is packed with excellent, quirky jokes that are played with slow but perfect timing. As an actor, Zach does a good job of slowly emerging from his stupor, and achieves an endearing performance despite the strong alienation at the start. He even manages to make a few speeches that should have sounded awful play alright, due to his natural and compelling delivery.

There’s enough good things in the first half of the film to make you fall in love with it — which is lucky for the film, as the last half is occasionally quite painful. Garden State avoids most micro cliches, but runs headlong into a bunch of larger ones. I suppose you can see it coming from the premise, but Andrew’s journey out of his bland existence, and relationship with Sam, start to point you inevitably to two conclusions; either everything’s going to end up really happy, or someone’s going to die.[ftn] And while you’re desperately hoping something more interesting might happen, you lose a bit of faith every time one of the characters makes a long speech about life and death and what have you. Andrew’s first monologue, in the pool, is alright, but from there it’s down, down, down, and you’re almost expecting Aunt May to pop in and explain to everyone why we need heroes.

Ultimately this film is a shade disappointing, but I found it charming enough in the beginning to forgive its later sins. While there’s no denying Natalie Portman cries better than almost any other actor I’ve ever seen, I could have done with less of this — and Ian Holm deserved a more dynamic final scene than the passive one that he ends up with. Garden State may be corny, but it’s also interesting and funny. If you can stand a bit of cheese, you’ll like this movie — and if you don’t, just leave when it starts raining.

Footnotes

1. Dharma, for instance. Or any number of comic relief sidekicks in hollywood movies.
2. The Jackson Rule of try-hard cinema, so named after its discoverer.

Posted by Tom Charman to | 3 Comments »

Focus

Uncategorized November 30th, 2004

An Xbox stole my concentration. Playing through Halo (the original) on heroic is taking up too much of my time. But I’ve got two reviews that just need proofreading, and then they’ll be up. And one from Shannon that I’d better get up before she returns from her holiday (though it seems she’s on the internet wherever she is anyhow).

But now the Xbox is taking over my brain. There’s a fly in my room, and so I’m looking down the bottom left of my vision to see if it’s showing up on my motion sensor. It’s very disturbing and also not very useful.

Damn this heat. And it’ll only get worse. Give me a white Christmas any day.

Posted by Tom Charman to | 6 Comments »

news, some good, some not so good

Uncategorized November 25th, 2004

It’s a bad news, good news day over here. The good news is that I’ll be able to go to the Tasmanian Circus Festival in February. The bad news is I can go because they won’t let me in to stinky NICA. The good news is that I couldn’t afford $3500 per year tution fees anyway. The bad news is that I’ll have to think of something else to do next year. More good news is Stargate Atlantis keeps being shown in the US. Bad news is there’s no SG-1 for some reason. Good news: I have my own time zone.

Posted by Andy Cocker to | 8 Comments »

Bowling

Uncategorized November 23rd, 2004

There’s been little activity around these parts just recently. I apologise. Many more and exciting reviews to come in the future. Honest. Today’s a public holiday anyhow. It isn’t? Well, it should be. 41 years should count for something.

Anyhow, I was busy last weekend taking part in the world famous Victorian Corporate Games. Neil, James, Jane Rudman and I made up the third and finest team from AMES. After varied performances in rehearsal, we were in fine form on the day, with the exception of James’s last game, when he hurt his hip.

Of course, there were some bowling gods hanging around who whumped us convincingly, but managing a personal best, team-wise, was quite satisfying. In competition you must alternate between the left and right hand lanes with the team in the same area as you, but as the ANZ something-or-others hadn’t showed up, we were over in half the time and couldn’t be bothered sticking around to find our exact placing.

A successful day indeed. Well, more successful than the dragon boat racing we tried two years back, anyhow.

Posted by Tom Charman to | 1 Comment »

TV TV TV TV

Uncategorized November 20th, 2004

Separate entries for separate moods. I’ve got a widescreen television! Woot! It’s not plasma or anything but it works rather well, especially with component video from the DVD, or digital TV.

Things seemed a bit dubious on the digital TV side of things until I found the menu that specifies what aspect ratio the set top box is sending to the telly. Suddenly it was filling the screen like a good little… box. You can even adjust the opacity and colours of the menus! Phwoar!

The major drawback to digital TV via a set top box: watching all your telly through AV1, and thus needing a different remote for changing channels and for turning the TV off. And not being able to use the “picture in place” option nicely. But it’s a small price to pay for widescreen TV. Did you know Bert Newton’s Good Morning Australia is transmitted in widescreen? It’s to keep his head in the picture I suspect.

[Extra! Extra!] And then, after thinking, “Hmm, this DVD looks a shade thinner than I’d expect,” we realised that the DVD player still thought we had a 4:3 screen and wanted the movie letterboxed. We informed it otherwise and it looks much cooler now. Congratulations to my father for working this out.

Posted by Tom Charman to | Comments Off on TV TV TV TV

Accidents Waiting To Happen

Uncategorized November 20th, 2004

Are trains really “accidents waiting to happen”?

This is a train track. Trains move on it. Lights flash and gates close when it’s about to come. This is the point where you stop.

Just as with the recent abortion “debate”, the real questions are ones concerning ignorance and education — not ones concerning digging underpasses and wasting more money on helping badly organised people to catch trains.

We are all accidents waiting to happen, as someone clever once said. It sickens me that when someone is killed by a train, we get continual dedications to their character and the prettiest picture we can find of them — and not a mention of the train driver who’s been scarred for life by their stupidity.

Posted by Tom Charman to | Comments Off on Accidents Waiting To Happen

Library

Uncategorized November 14th, 2004

Tommy did a bad bad thing. Well, not really bad, but reasonably naughty. He’s got two days remaining to study for his Atomic, Molecular and Solid State Physics exam, and some silly company releases the best damn Library software he’s ever seen. DVD, CD, Book and Game managing all rolled into one.

A sensible person would think “Oooh, that’d be a nice thing to get after exams,” or at the very least “Ah, $40 US is too much to pay for such an ultimately frivolous thing.”

I am neither of these people, as it turns out. Delicious Library is mine.

So far I have 75 DVDs (that includes box sets as only one a piece, and each Buffy season as 1), 79 books (but only a tiny proportion have been entered) and 6 CDs. OK, so I don’t have many CDs. The limitation is that the app uses amazon.com to get its information from, and of course there’s no amazon.com.au just yet. So I have to guess which country will have DVDs and books most like ours. But apart from that, it’s perfect. It even makes the books different sizes depending on what format they are (Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, Hardcover). I’m in nerd heaven.

Or rather I would be, if it weren’t for this pesky exam. I’d much rather a subject that was marked by assignments every second week or something. Exams were OK for high school, but there’s just too much complexity when you get to third year. Well, for my pitiful grey cells anyhow.

Posted by Tom Charman to | 8 Comments »

Halo 2 continued…

Uncategorized November 13th, 2004

How exciting. The two-minute ‘tutorial’ level which is ommited from the co-op campaign actually has a few very cool minutes of cut-scenes. So it turns out the intro I thought was the intro isn’t. It explains quite a bit of stuff. Never mind. I’ve seen it now.

X-box live is divine. It’s amazingly lag-free and all works quite seamlessly within the game. You can of course arrange to meet with friends, but I’ve just been auto-matching and kicking some arse. I haven’t been coming first because some people (as in all such games) manage to rack up kills at some amazing speed, but I do well enough to hold my head high. If being good at a computer game is something to be proud of.

Maybe it isn’t. Anyway I’m off to play again. I promise if I have something to say about Halo 2 next it will be insightful and you know… interesting. Otherwise I just won’t bring it up.

Posted by Jackson Kearney to | 3 Comments »

Spell

Uncategorized November 13th, 2004

Witches, flashbacks to the 17th century, magic, and huge intuitive leaps of logic that turn out to save the day. Why, it must be Buffy the Va…

Smallville? Well, alright then.[ftn]

Yes, magic is real in the Smallville universe. Which might save us in future from some lame attempts at technobabble, so I’m all for it. And it seems that magic functions very nicely alongside Kryptonian technology. I just love backwards compatibility. A powerful, Lana-like witch has managed to reincarnate herself through the use of the Kryptonian symbol for “transformation”, and has brought two of her friends back with her. Inside the bodies of Lana, Chloe and Lois.

This week’s story goes some way to explaining how Lana got her sexy tattoo in France. I do hope it doesn’t cease to be an important plot point any time soon, as every episode we get important close-ups on the small of Kristin Kreuk’s back. Imagine how much more interesting Angel would have been if “The Father Will Kill The Son” had been transcribed in small letters across Cordelia’s legs? This merging of plot points and blatant pandering to male fans can only be a good thing.

And while I’m on the subject of pandering to the male fans, I hope we all know what witch-posessing episodes really mean. The excuse to dress the three gorgeous female leads up in sexy black dresses is not overlooked. In fact, Lois’s witch is so happy with her new body’s breasts that she gives them a bit of a squeeze for good measure. I feel patronised. It’s because of shows like this one, and Charmed, that people look at me funny when I say I liked Buffy for the writing.[ftn] Of course, the men don’t have all the fun. Witch episodes also mean shirtless torture of male leads. Which the ladies enjoy. Or so I’ve heard.

What’s the Evil Countess’s plan? What makes you think she has a plan? OK, she does. TO RULE THE WORLD!!! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha! I bet you didn’t know Lana had such a brilliant maniacal cackle. Ruling the world entails getting hold of the three Kryptonian stones of power — like the one Clark locked in the cave at the start of the season. And after a wild night of magic-fuelled drunken debauchery,[ftn] Clark is coerced into telling them about it. Things look grim for our hero until ex-coach Jason informs him that destroying the only macguffin in the plot will probably save the day. Duh!

And so life goes back to normal — or rather, what passes for normal in Smallville. The show’s always had rather peculiar morality, but there’s an amusing pro-chastity message this week. On hearing that her alter-ego was “agressively sexy”, the surprisingly virginal[ftn] Lana concludes that she was a slut. Clearly, feminism has yet to reach Kansas.[ftn]

Footnotes

1. Though the episode is written by former Buffy and Angel scribe, Stephen S. DeKnight.
2. Not that I’m demanding this show cease and desist, mind you. Sometimes it’s all it has going for it.
3. Whether Clark’s virginity lasts the night is unclear.
4. Three months in Paris, the most romantic city on the planet, with Jensen Ackles, and Lana’s still a virgin.
5. It’s interesting to note, according to Wikipedia, that Smallville was first identified as being in Kansas in the movies. Previously it had been placed in Maryland in Amazing Worlds of DC Comics #14.

Posted by Tom Charman to | 9 Comments »

Hero

Uncategorized November 12th, 2004

I love heroes. A film with a good hero in it will always please me. And there are some good ones out there. Westley. Indiana Jones. Li Mu Bai. Luke Skywalker. Angel. The Doctor. These are the people that give the word ‘hero’ a good name. But there’s always folks out there ready to ruin it for the rest of them. I won’t bother listing these people, although generic hollywood action blockbusters are chock-full of them. Because of these sub-par heroes, the word has gained a corny, useless feel. Calling a movie Hero is therefore a bit dangerous. Right off the bat, the audience expects you to be rather cheesy. If you’re going to call a movie Hero, you’d better have a solid hero up your sleeve. Someone who’ll face adversity, who’ll make difficult decisions.

No. That’s not how it was. Well, it is a bit but it’s only part of the story. Here’s how it really happened.

I still remember seeing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the first time. It started off slowly, yet delicately. The characters were beautifully written and acted. Their sadness and longing had well and truly hooked you from the start. And then they started flying about and having awesome swordfights. I can hardly imagine a more perfect film. Having seen few Chinese films[ftn] before, I began to think — there’s a whole country of awesome films out there, waiting for me. And then I read about Hero in a design magazine. And a few months later, it turns up in cinemas. And all the time, people are mentioning Crouching Tiger. Some are even saying Hero is better.

No, no, I’ve forgotten something. The story actually goes like this. Forget those last two bits. Here’s the truth.

In The Age, Jim Schembri gave Hero a poor review. He complained about the boring Chinese history bits, and some other things.[ftn] “You’re an idiot, Jim,” I ranted. “You’re useless and irritating. How can Chinese history be boring? History is always fascinating! You didn’t like X2! You’re a fool!” Jim said nothing, largely because he wasn’t there. I never agree with Jim. He’s the most reliable reviewer I know of, after a fashion.

Yes, I think that is how it happened. We may now continue.

The hero in Hero (a.k.a. Ying Xiong) does one or two vaguely heroic things, but in such a painfully constructed situation that you won’t care.

This film isn’t a quarter of the film Crouching Tiger was. It’s not an eighth. It’s not a sixteenth. To rival it, well, it would need characters and a compelling story.

I agree with Jim Schembri for the first time since the dawn of humanity, and it sickens me.

It’s hard to pick exactly what the worst thing about Hero is, so let me pick the best thing. This film is gorgeous to watch. Really, very pretty. The use of colours, while not particularly subtle, looked really cool. I presume we have digital grading[ftn] to thank for this, and yet again I am thankful for it. Unfortunately, prettiness without substance can get a bit boring. And this movie does end up like the film equivalent of Enya. If I’d been able to do something else while I watched it would have been alright. But this movie doesn’t command the attention.

Jet Li plays Nameless, the eponymous ‘hero’, quite straight. I can’t fault him — it’s clearly how the part was written. Nameless is a dedicated, disciplined warrior. Or, really boring, depending on how you like to phrase things. The supporting cast aren’t much better — and due to an unfortunate narrative decision for the movie, you’re guaranteed to be absolutely sick of them before any interesting character traits are revealed. I’m against detailing the plot in a film review, but let me just say that if you see someone do the same marginally interesting thing three times running, you might get a little sick of it. Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu Wai are clearly good actors, but their roles are so melodramatic that I was sick of them by the end. In a terrible tragedy, we see more of Jet Li’s naked body than we do Zhang Ziyi’s, though she’s still cute as ever, and one of the more interesting people in the film. Sometimes.[ftn]

This film has gotten a bit of hype for its philosophy. There’s a bit of a “killing is bad” motto in there, you see. It hardly warrants a paragraph, but I thought I’d better put one in. I didn’t miss it, folks. But I’ve seen a lot of films with that moral. I’m not saying the film is stupid, but it’s not exactly brimming with thought and insight either.

There’s a lot of the ol’ Chinese action in this film too. Those who didn’t get acclimatised to all the floating in Crouching Tiger might have a hard time adjusting. In Ang Lee’s film, the economy and frequency of the fights were nicely managed. When a fight started, you were really hanging out for it — and they were so clever and complex that you were sated afterwards, and willing to wait a while for the next one. In Hero, all the fights are much the same, with a bit of flying, and beautiful backgrounds, but not much actual interaction with the scenery. Amusingly — or depressingly — the already repetitive fight scenes are on occasion actually repeated. It’s enough to make one reach for one’s own sword.

The film has a bit to say about Chinese history. I said earlier that history was always fascinating. I stand by this. Hero presents us with kindergarten-level history. Once upon a time there was one Emperor-King-guy who wanted all of China — which wasn’t called China back then, you know — to be united, and he did this by an awful lot of conquering. In this case, children, the ends justified the means. That sometimes happens. Watch out for it. Give me strength. Having one historical figure, a ‘hero’, three assassins and a cartoonish army as the only characters really doesn’t help add the necessary verismilitude to the story, anyhow.

Let me finally talk about the narrative. People have compared the story to Rashomon. That’s an interesting comparison. I won’t harp on, but let me just say that the reason Rashomon and similar stories work so well is because the characters believe that what they’re saying is true. Then you learn things about the characters, and everything you see seems relevant. If people are just lying, or guessing, then — well, it’s not quite as interesting, sorry. Especially if all the stories are really similar. I’m not saying it couldn’t work, I’m just saying, you’d need something else.

Hero only has pretty colours to fall back on. If you enjoy colours, and felt ripped off by the Three Colours Trilogy because they turned out to be about France, then this is your film.

Footnotes

1. Well, two now.
2. Let no one say Grapefruit articles aren’t well researched. Look, I couldn’t find the paper, alright? I think Mum threw it out.
3. Ew! Sorry about that. Try this link instead.
4. Having taken the piss out of silly names like Iron Arm and Big Wang in Crouching Tiger, Zhang now recants, and gets to be called ‘Moon’. Jet Li cleverly dodges the whole business.

Posted by Tom Charman to | 13 Comments »