Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox is the latest film from Wes Anderson. It’s an animated film in the stop motion style that fans of Wallace and Gromit will find familiar, although Mr. Anderson brings his own tone and feel to the style that make this film unique.

I’ll summarize the plot by simply saying that Mr. Fox has a conflict with some local farmers. But what makes this film so enjoyable, and it is enjoyable, are the characters. Like all of Wes Anderson’s characters these are flawed, eccentric, and wonderful. They come to life through their eccentricities and you can’t help but be fascinated by their variety. Their happiness and sadness and anger and confusion are all palpable elements of their existence and they recognize all of these things as part of themselves. They aren’t one dimensional in the least.

The look of the film is, as I’ve described, a style of stop motion animation. It’s a little clunky in places, although that brings with it its own pleasures in a world where computer graphics are so hyper sophisticated that they often hide inferior storytelling. But, clunkiness aside, there are places in the film that are quite beautiful and others that are really energetic and compelling.

George Clooney is the perfect voice for Mr. Fox and Meryl Streep fits right in as Mrs. Fox. I believe my favorite character was Ash, the Foxes son, as voiced by Jason Schwartzman, one of Mr. Anderson’s go to actors. I found myself laughing and smiling nearly every moment he was onscreen.

I think this movie is an example of a movie that adults will love, and kids will enjoy as well, certainly more than Where the Wild Things Are, which seemed more approachable for adults with fond memories of childhood than for kids themselves.

I don’t expect this to become a huge blockbuster, but I think it deserves some attention, and I hope it does well at the box office. I think those who go to see it will enjoy themselves and I’d like to see more movies like this made; where as much time is spent on character and story as is on flash and special effects.

Drag Me to Hell

We just got home from seeing Drag Me to Hell at the movies. This is Sam Raimi’s return to the horror genre, and I thought it was a lot of fun.

Marcella and I don’t see too many horror movies, but since this was Raimi we thought we’d give it a go. It might surprise you to hear that it is rated PG-13 and not something harder. There isn’t any nudity in it, the violence is exaggerated and at some points even ridiculous, and the gore is gross-out gore, not bloody grim realistic gore. That’s not to say there aren’t a few splashes of blood thrown around for good measure. Still, it is almost a good-old-fashioned horror movie.

The premise is that a young loan officer named Christine, played by Alison Lohman, makes the unfortunate decision to turn down a loan request for an old gypsy woman, who then curses her with a curse that will result in her being dragged to hell in three days if she can’t find a way to reverse it. In the meantime the terror and frights increase in severity with each day as Christine struggles and despairs of finding a way free of the curse before being taken to hell.

The action—terror—attack sequences are shot with the usual frenzied-ness that is expected from a Sam Raimi film. There are plenty of places in the film where you know something is about to happen and you tense in anticipation, and there are the usual feints and surprises where he lets you off the hook for a moment and then turns the tables on you and makes you jump in your seat a few beats later.

He uses sound, in particular, to build and enhance the sense of dread and fright. I will say that I felt that the theater we watched it in may have cranked the sound a notch too loud. There were a couple of moments where I wasn’t just startled, but maybe annoyed by the sudden horrendous clamoring in the auditorium. Still, it gave the movie a fun thrill-ride kind of feel.

Without spoiling anything I will say that the “heroine” of the movie isn’t always above reproach. Her ambition gets her into the fix she finds herself in, and her fear and desperation lead her to take some less than noble actions that make you wonder at points whether she doesn’t deserve the curse she’s found herself stuck with. But then the film surprises you and addresses that too.

I recommend it. The film has no pretensions of being anything other than what it is, which is a straight-forward make you jump in your seat horror movie. You will laugh a little, and cheer a little, and gag a little, and you will definitely twitch a muscle or two no matter how hard you try not to. Give it a go if you are into this sort of thing.

The Nonexistent Knight and the Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino

The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Calvino just has magic. This book really consists of two long stories or novellas. The first one, The Nonexistent Knight is the somewhat amusing story of a suit of armor without a body inside that is serving in Charlemagne’s army and of a girl in love with the knight she imagines inside.

But it is in the second story, The Cloven Viscount, that Calvino really lets loose. This is the story of a man cut in half by a canon ball whose two halves return home, one evil and the other good, and the adventures they have; one rampaging across the countryside on his black horse, killing plants and animals and people too, while the other good half travels about trying to cure all ills and heal all wounds.

The Cloven Viscount is a rich and humorous and visceral story that grabbed my fascination almost immediately and was hard to put down. The author’s sense of humor really shone and there are passages that are simultaneously ghastly and hysterical. I definitely encourage anyone to read this one.
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Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I probably have a slightly inordinate fondness for this book because of the many hours I spent in Junior High School listening over and over again to the “Let’s Get Small” and “A Wild and Crazy Guy” comedy albums of Steve Martin.

The book itself is a straight-forward and honest accounting of how fame, that seems to strike all at once, is actually the result of years of hard work and craft and an idea. It’s really a simple autobiographical accounting of where and how he grew up, how he learned magic and comedy and performing, and how over the years he developed a routine that suddenly became the hottest thing around in the late seventies and early eighties, and then how he walked away from being a stand-up comic when fame ruined the gig.

I found the brief passages recounting jokes and gags that he used to do onstage reminded me fondly of hearing these same routines on his albums. I was too young, really, to have attended any of his comedy concerts, but the albums were very important to me in my understanding of humor.

The book reads very quickly, I finished it in two afternoons, and found it to be well worth while.

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SlumDog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is the latest film by director Danny Boyle with whom I am becoming more and more impressed. In this movie we are first introduced to a young man who is on the verge of becoming rich on the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”? Over the course of the film we are then shown sequences from his earlier childhood with his brother and another young friend that explain how he knows the answers to the questions he is being asked on the game show.

I found the most fascinating aspect of this film to be the portrayal of lives in poverty in India. As children these kids have an energy and a joy that they can’t help but let shine through, and yet you the viewer become so aware of just what a razor’s edge they walk as they are always on the brink of hunger or illness or violence.

The children are played by different actors and actresses at different ages, but all of them give terrific performances. As the movie alternates between the present and the past, the faces of the young actors at different ages become a seamless tapestry of three lives intertwined over time and wholly believable.

Things to note: there is violence perpetrated against children and adults in this film. These kids have it hard and they don’t always make it through without a scratch, and sometimes they are the perpetrators of violence against others.

Ultimately though the film seems to be about hope and determination and love…and I was inspired. This is a great movie. Check it out if you get the chance.