MIFF Day 17
The last day of the festival, sniff...
SUMMER WARS
Wow, I had no idea what to expect with this one. It was anime, and that was enough. But I've seen enough bad anime to be ready for disappointment. This is a ripper story. Expertly blending teen romance, hacker fantasy, family drama, apocalyptic disaster and a generous heaping of comedy, Summer Wars is highly original both in storytelling and in visuals. The bare ingredients are nothing new, but the way they've been assembled makes for a very satisfying story, and an incredible visual experience. It's not perfect, there's a slight lag towards the end of the second act, but it picks up again quick enough not to matter too much. I believe it will be showing at the Nova in early September as part of the Reel Anime festival, go see it.
WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY
The strength and the failure of this doco is that it's an insider account of the period when Disney Animation went from being a joke headed for the scrapheap (The Black Cauldron) to a major force once again (The Lion King). 1984 to 1994 effectively. The level of access is great, as it's all the guys who worked there telling their own history, and rarely pulling punches in how they disliked their new management, how overworked they became, and how egos at the top ended up ruining everything. But because it's an insider story, there's a level of presumed knowledge that isn't going to be present in every audience member. It's not a brilliantly made doco, rather it's a collage of old footage dubbed with the reminiscences of some of the key players, either recorded from the time, or sometimes specially for the doco. The way the studio turned itself around isn't really explained or explored in any depth, it just happened with some new management apparently. Again, perhaps if you were there you wouldn't think that needed to be explained, but to the viewing public a bit more information would have helped. Interesting, but frustrating as it gives us just enough to want to know more, then pulls back.
CATERPILLAR
Early on, I thought this was going to turn into a horror film. The basic story is this, a Japanese soldier, injured in WWII, is returned home. He's lost all four of his limbs and is deaf and half-dumb. It turns out he used to be quite abusive to his wife, who is now tasked with caring for him. Apparently this involves a lot of moderately graphic amputee sex, and feeding him. Slowly, she becomes more abusive to him as he becomes more and more demanding. But this isn't the story, as the film only has these moments in fragments. The real story is that war is awful, making heroes of its victims to continue its cycle. And Caterpillar bludgeons you over the head with this fact repeatedly. So much so that what felt like the end of the film turns out to be the end of the second act. There's a whole (and totally pointless) third act to restate this over and over again. It doesn't amount to a whole lot in the end, diluting a potentially powerful story of two people, both victims of violence, struggling to cope with the effects. Instead, we get a fairly tepid anti-war propaganda piece. And it's really badly shot too, an ugly video to film transfer. Such a missed opportunity.
SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD
Oh hell yeah! Edgar Wright is a DJ, remixing the awesomeness that is the Scott Pilgrim comic series, blending in his own rhythms and beats and transforming it into something different yet familiar and still totally awesome. I'll be doing a full review for this on Cinephilia for its release this Thursday, but don't wait to read it, just go. It's great.
SUMMER WARS
Wow, I had no idea what to expect with this one. It was anime, and that was enough. But I've seen enough bad anime to be ready for disappointment. This is a ripper story. Expertly blending teen romance, hacker fantasy, family drama, apocalyptic disaster and a generous heaping of comedy, Summer Wars is highly original both in storytelling and in visuals. The bare ingredients are nothing new, but the way they've been assembled makes for a very satisfying story, and an incredible visual experience. It's not perfect, there's a slight lag towards the end of the second act, but it picks up again quick enough not to matter too much. I believe it will be showing at the Nova in early September as part of the Reel Anime festival, go see it.
WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY
The strength and the failure of this doco is that it's an insider account of the period when Disney Animation went from being a joke headed for the scrapheap (The Black Cauldron) to a major force once again (The Lion King). 1984 to 1994 effectively. The level of access is great, as it's all the guys who worked there telling their own history, and rarely pulling punches in how they disliked their new management, how overworked they became, and how egos at the top ended up ruining everything. But because it's an insider story, there's a level of presumed knowledge that isn't going to be present in every audience member. It's not a brilliantly made doco, rather it's a collage of old footage dubbed with the reminiscences of some of the key players, either recorded from the time, or sometimes specially for the doco. The way the studio turned itself around isn't really explained or explored in any depth, it just happened with some new management apparently. Again, perhaps if you were there you wouldn't think that needed to be explained, but to the viewing public a bit more information would have helped. Interesting, but frustrating as it gives us just enough to want to know more, then pulls back.
CATERPILLAR
Early on, I thought this was going to turn into a horror film. The basic story is this, a Japanese soldier, injured in WWII, is returned home. He's lost all four of his limbs and is deaf and half-dumb. It turns out he used to be quite abusive to his wife, who is now tasked with caring for him. Apparently this involves a lot of moderately graphic amputee sex, and feeding him. Slowly, she becomes more abusive to him as he becomes more and more demanding. But this isn't the story, as the film only has these moments in fragments. The real story is that war is awful, making heroes of its victims to continue its cycle. And Caterpillar bludgeons you over the head with this fact repeatedly. So much so that what felt like the end of the film turns out to be the end of the second act. There's a whole (and totally pointless) third act to restate this over and over again. It doesn't amount to a whole lot in the end, diluting a potentially powerful story of two people, both victims of violence, struggling to cope with the effects. Instead, we get a fairly tepid anti-war propaganda piece. And it's really badly shot too, an ugly video to film transfer. Such a missed opportunity.
SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD
Oh hell yeah! Edgar Wright is a DJ, remixing the awesomeness that is the Scott Pilgrim comic series, blending in his own rhythms and beats and transforming it into something different yet familiar and still totally awesome. I'll be doing a full review for this on Cinephilia for its release this Thursday, but don't wait to read it, just go. It's great.
posted by Andrew Lee at 10:52 PM
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