MIFF 2014 - Day 15
The chorus of coughing is growing louder. We must be approaching the end of MIFF.
Patema Inverted
After scientists try to harness gravity and fail, gravity is reversed for some people and objects. They're lost to the sky, and back on earth a religious totalitarian state takes over, where looking up, or worse, attempting to fly, are mortal sins. But beneath the surface live the survivors of the catastrophe, and the two worlds collide. There's some truly wonderful imagery in this film, and the underlying theme of acceptance of difference is generally well handled. The villain is unfortunately one-dimensional, but it's not a major problem in a story that slowly opens out into a fairly grand piece of science fantasy. Highly enjoyable.
I Origins
The origin of this film lies in another, unmade film that director Mike Cahill was developing. To say what it was about would be to give away game, but it makes me sad that rather than the film he was intent on making, we got this disappointing "prequel" based on the backstory of his unmade film. The basic plot is that Ian is a scientist trying to document the evolutionary process of the eye, since that will shut up all the intelligent design nitwits. It's an admirable goal, but he's a bit of a dick. He meets Sofi, a model who believes in reincarnation and they end up living together for reasons that never make any sense beyond a chance to have debates about the nature of faith versus science. And really, that's all this ends up being. A strawman argument about faith and science, where neither gets a good showing. Mike Cahill made the interesting Another Earth, but he co-wrote it with Brit Marling. Here he's flying solo, though Marling stars as Ian's research partner Karen. There's some good character writing, and the labwork feels realistic, but there are too many lazy accidents of convenience and once the main plot is in train, it's obvious what's going on long before it's revealed. I didn't mind it, but I didn't think a whole lot of it either. Disappointing.
Patema Inverted
After scientists try to harness gravity and fail, gravity is reversed for some people and objects. They're lost to the sky, and back on earth a religious totalitarian state takes over, where looking up, or worse, attempting to fly, are mortal sins. But beneath the surface live the survivors of the catastrophe, and the two worlds collide. There's some truly wonderful imagery in this film, and the underlying theme of acceptance of difference is generally well handled. The villain is unfortunately one-dimensional, but it's not a major problem in a story that slowly opens out into a fairly grand piece of science fantasy. Highly enjoyable.
I Origins
The origin of this film lies in another, unmade film that director Mike Cahill was developing. To say what it was about would be to give away game, but it makes me sad that rather than the film he was intent on making, we got this disappointing "prequel" based on the backstory of his unmade film. The basic plot is that Ian is a scientist trying to document the evolutionary process of the eye, since that will shut up all the intelligent design nitwits. It's an admirable goal, but he's a bit of a dick. He meets Sofi, a model who believes in reincarnation and they end up living together for reasons that never make any sense beyond a chance to have debates about the nature of faith versus science. And really, that's all this ends up being. A strawman argument about faith and science, where neither gets a good showing. Mike Cahill made the interesting Another Earth, but he co-wrote it with Brit Marling. Here he's flying solo, though Marling stars as Ian's research partner Karen. There's some good character writing, and the labwork feels realistic, but there are too many lazy accidents of convenience and once the main plot is in train, it's obvious what's going on long before it's revealed. I didn't mind it, but I didn't think a whole lot of it either. Disappointing.
posted by Andrew Lee at 10:33 PM
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