After plowing through entire seasons of Community and The Boondocks, and indulging in films such as Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, I thought it was time to start using Netflix Canada the way I initially intended to when I signed up a month ago. This mainly meant catching up on films that I have wanted to see but have not for one reason or another.
One of those films was Christopher Nolan’s debut film, Following. The noir-style film centres around a young writer, Bill (Jeremy Theobald), who follows people on the street trying to imagine what their lives are like. One day the tables are turned on the writer when one of his subjects, Cobb (Alex Haw), confronts him about his following habit. Cobb, a local burglar, strikes up an unlikely friendship with Bill and decides to teach him the tricks of the burglary trade. Bill immediately becomes infatuated with the mysterious blond (Lucy Russell) whose London apartment they burglarize. Soon Bill finds himself in way over his head as his growing relationship with the secretive blond has him risking his life for a woman he hardly knows.
Christopher Nolan is a director who has made a career of mixing strong storytelling with big budget sensibilities. While his debut film, Following, may not have the large scale of his later works, its intelligence more than makes up for its lack of budget. The film plays out in non-chronological order which allows Nolan to play with the audiences assumptions of what is going on.
One of the subtle aspects of the film that works so well is how all the little details fall into place. There is nothing in this film that does not carry some significance. Even small moments, such as when Bill casually looks inside a piano bench, reveal themselves to be rather important. Following is all about embracing these subtle moments instead of grander thrills that are often found in higher profile productions.
Some will find the pacing of the film extremely slow, but the payoff is well worth the build-up. Following is a film that slowly draws the viewer in and provides more than enough intrigue to maintain their attention. Following is not only a strong directorial debut, but it rivals some of Nolan’s more well known films.
In the past year I have watched on screen piranhas devouring male genitals, robogeshias burning the flesh off of a man’s face with acid breast milk, and a man named Machete use an intestine like it was a bungee rope. Yet none of those moments evoked a reaction out of me the way a scant ten minute scene in 127 Hours did.
Directed by Danny Boyle, 127 Hours is based on the true life story of Aron Ralston (James Franco), a mountain climber who found himself trapped for 127 hours in a near life-ending predicament. Known for frequently going out canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah, Ralston would often take off in the great outdoors without telling anyone where he was going. One day, after spending time with two hikers he meets along the way, Kristi (Kate Mara), and Megan (Amber Tamblyn), Ralston’s solo journey takes a turn for the worst when his arm becomes trapped under a fallen boulder. Trapped for over five days, Ralston’s will to live is what keeps him going. Ralston is forced to use all of his survival instincts in order to get himself out of the canyon and find his way to safety.
If you have already heard the story of Aron Ralston, read his book, or reard any reviews of the film then you know the lengths he must go to in order to free himself from the boulder. While the scene is not that long in regards to the films overall running time; the intensity of the scene makes it feel like an eternity. While Danny Boyle never lets the film get as graphic as your mind makes the moment out to be, he by no means attempt to shy away from the details either. Boyle’s sharp camera angles and editing bring every severed nerve to life on screen. It has been a long time since I squirmed so much in my seat, in such a short span of time, during a film.
As Ralston, James Franco does a terrific job of selling the agony and pain his character is going through in that scene. Franco is given the tough job of making the audience care about Ralston completely in the span of time before the crucial moment occurs. Alternately, Aron Ralston could have been portrayed as an arrogant daredevil who was destined to have such an encounter. Yet Franco shows that Ralston is merely a kind hearted soul who loved the outdoors as much as he loved his family. Most importantly, Ralston loved life and was willing to do anything to continue living for as long as he can.
Along with Franco’s great performance, Danny Boyle really deserves praise for making 127 Hours work as well as it does. Unlike Cast Away, to which this film is frequently and unjustly compared, 127 Hours uses the simplest techniques to keep its man alone in nature story moving at a brisk pace. Whether it is the crane shots that emphasize the gravity of Ralston’s circumstance, the split screen sequences, or the way Boyle showcases Ralston’s bouts of delirium through flashbacks and visions, there is never a moment when the film feels long and/or plodding. Boyle manages to make a rather engrossing film out a situation where the majority of the film takes place in one small and confined setting. While he may not get the same level of love that the Coen Brothers, Christopher Nolan, or Darren Aronofsky do amongst the online community, Boyle continues to showcase why he is one of the best directors working today.
It is easy to dismiss 127 Hours as another Cast Away but that would be foolish. 127 Hours is a film that rises above its simple premise and offers up a film experience that is both fascinating and long lasting.
Back to the blogging grind, thanks to all for the well wishes. It was a great trip, good food, good people, etc.
Inception
In 2005 Christopher Nolan attempted to change the way most people viewed both summer blockbusters and comic books with his film Batman Begins. Nolan used that film to remind us that not all summer blockbusters had to be mindless affairs. It is possible to have a summer movie that offered both brains and explosions. Since then Christopher Nolan has continued his trend of making summer blockbusters for all those who prefer substance with their sugary treats. The Prestige and The Dark Knight both offered up much to think about while entertaining immensely. Now with his latest film, Inception, Christopher Nolan has raised the stakes in regards to how much thought, and attention, a viewer is required to put into a summer flick.
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an expert at extracting information from people’s subconscious while they dream. Unfortunately Cobb is also a wanted man in the United States, so he is forced to take his extracting job on the road. After Cobb’s ex-wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) sabotages his latest mission, Cobb and his right hand man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are offered one final job by Saito (Ken Wantanabe), a powerful business man who has the ability to make Cobb’s problems in the United States disappear. The only catch is, instead of stealing information, Cobb and Arthur must place information in to the mind of Saito’s corporate rival Robert Fisher Jr. (Cillian Murphy). Cobb knows the art of inception is much more complex than removing secrets from a person’s mind, so he sets out to gather a team of experts to pull off this heist. In order for Cobb’s plan to work he will need the assistance of Ariadne (Ellen Page) the dream architect; Eames (Tom Hardy) the expert forger; and Yusuf (Dileep Rao) the chemist who can create a drug so potent that will keep them all in the dream state for 10 hours. If the team succeeds, it could be the perfect crime. Unfortunately none of them anticipate the deadly enemies that await them on the other side.
If Dark City and The Matrix were to ever have a love child, Inception would be that child. Inception offers up a fresh spin on the heist genre. Many elements standard to heist flicks are present: the ”one last job” motivation; each member of the team having a unique skill, etc. The major difference being that it is not about what is being stolen, but rather what is put in. Inception is an extremely smart film in which the audience does not need a PHD to decipher. Christopher Nolan spends the first half hour of the film establishing everything that we, the viewer, need to know about dreams and the subconscious. I loved how the film considers “the idea” to be the worst type of virus to inflict mankind. So, for example, if someone plants the notion in your head that you look fat in those jeans, that simple thought starts to eat away at you until you eventually discard those jeans. Even if you are unable to grasp all of the philosophical concepts talked about in the film, Nolan designs the narrative in a way that makes Inception accessible to all types of viewers.
The thing I really enjoyed about Inception is that the narrative plays by all the rules it sets up. Unlike other high concept films, such as Wanted, the film never states one thing and then proceeds to do another. Everything in Inception is plausible in relation to the world that this particular film establishes. The timelines in the three levels, four if you include limbo, of the dream world are clearly stated. Even though the van may be shown falling in slow motion we know that in reality it only takes ten seconds to hit the water in that level, which is twenty minutes in the next and so on.
Despite all of the jargon tossed around regarding dreams and the subconscious, Christopher Nolan never loses sight of the fact that Inception is an action-packed heist film. He ensures that every level of the dream world is filled with tense action sequences. The standout being the Arthur’s gravity defying fight with some henchmen in level two of the dream world. I really liked that Nolan opted to give the centerpiece action scene to Arthur instead of Cobb. Out of all the characters Arthur is the most straight laced. He clearly knows how to handle himself with a weapon but he is not as flashy as Eames. Yet when the balance of the mission is on the line, Arthur will do whatever it takes to keep himself and his team safe.
In many ways Arthur is the perfect contrast to Cobb. Arthur knows what the proper limits are for their particular line of work. Cobb, on the other hand, has gone so far past the limit that he continually puts his team in jeopardy for his own selfish needs. If 2010 has taught me anything it is that being married to Leonardo DiCaprio may not be as sweet as most women assume it would be. In both Inception and Shutter Island, DiCaprio’s characters are mentally damaged by events from a previous marriage. The character of Mal in Inceptions could have easily been played by Michelle Williams as they are almost identical in their construction. It is Cobb’s relationship with Mal that is at the core of everything in Inception, without it the film does not work at all. There will be those viewers that complain about the lack of character development for some of the supporting characters. Yet I honestly cannot see how the film could elaborate on them anymore without ruining the central Cobb arc.
For a summer that has been particularly dull in terms of the amount of movies that truly excite, Inception is truly a breath of fresh air. It is not only one for the best films of the summer but, in my opinion, it also one of the best films to come out this year.
