Plane Films 1: Big Eyes
After finishing off 'The Disaster Artist', which only
got more hilarious, I decided to watch a slightly older movie, Tim Burton's
'Big Eyes'. I don't actually remember ever seeing the work of Margaret Keane
before the publicity for the movie began. Maybe very vaguely.
This movie was one I absolutely wanted to see when it
came out, but never got around to. So it was a pleasure to see. Not only is
this a portrait of a peculiar outsider artist who gained popularity despite
being completely outside the mainstream ideas of good taste (and has a very
cartoon-like aesthetic I find quite appealing), but a fascinating story of agency
stolen by a conman.
The way the film portrays the situation unfolding is
very convincing and dramatically compelling. At first it's a misunderstanding,
and then expedience. Then there's a critical moment where there's a clear
chance for the truth to come out, or at the very least for him to make the very
reasonable assertion that the couple have been painting together - but takes a
choice that only leads to lie upon lie and ever more darkness.
There's so often this kind of partnerships in the art
world - the actual artist, who is introverted and finds it difficult to live
alone, and the extroverted salesperson who can't convince anyone with their art
but shamelessly promote and commercialise the art. This is even more a perfect
storm, with the salesman actually taking the success for himself.
Burton does a great job of the storytelling here,
peeling the layers off and letting Walter crumble in his dishonesty. It's done
deftly, like when Walter misidentifies acrylic for oil, which prefigures a
later revelation. And it's a great examination of an abusive relationship as
well. Even with a very ambiguous accent, Christoph Waltz is perhaps the finest
actor I can think of that can pull off a conman - so charming, so intelligent
and so quickly able to flip to controlling, manipulating and devious. It's
completely believable, and Amy Adams puts in a wonderfully believable portrait
of the artist taken advantage of.
Some scenes don't work so well, like a confrontation
with a critic that gets massively overwrought at a point of the movie where it
should be focused inwards towards the relationship as Margaret is getting
emboldened and the promise of the payoff of the focus on how stifling and
traumatic 1950s patriarchy could be.
Perhaps the saddest element of the story is that it's
very probable that without her husband-manager-abuser-captor, Keane's weird
big-eyed paintings likely never would have become famous.
While perhaps there's a temptation to yell and scream
at Keane to escape her torment and come clean sooner, it makes perfect sense
given her background and the expectations of the time.
2: Blade Runner 2049
After being put off by the sheer length of the film
during other flights - as I think many audiences were - I decided that it would
be good to watch it this time, split between two flights.
And I'm glad I did. While it's flawed, especially when
it comes to length, it was well worth seeing.
I wasn't keen on the sequel happening at all, to be
honest. There didn't seem to me to be a need for a follow-up. The film stood
well on its own. There was also no Philip K Dick source material to work from,
even if the original had departed from 'Do Androids...' in a big way. And
Harrison Ford reappearing in follow-ups to his other big action roles hasn't
exactly gone so well.
Indeed, probably the most expendable part of this
bloated film, the part that could have been cut but for the draw of a star
name, was Deckard's part. He got a somewhat cool but unnecessary fist-fight,
introduced a confused and rushed final-act moral question, flops about as a
damsel in distress and then while he was able to give the film a somewhat
satisfying conclusion, everything from the point of his introduction - well
past the half-way point - seemed inferior, with coincidental plotting,
unspectacular locations and odd pacing. I strongly suspect the film was written
without Deckard appearing, and hastily redrafted when Harrison Ford agreed to
take part.
Beyond his part, though, there was a rich and
interesting film. The Blade Runner future has gotten yet more gritty, with a
lot of wastelands and toxic areas. Ryan Gosling's replicant, Joe, is good at
hunting down the older, more human replicants. But when he sees there may be
something beyond what he's always known, he begins to change. The parallel of
his love story with his AI companion helps this grow, and I do like the debate
over whether this film is simply mysogynist and objectifies for the male gaze,
is simply projecting and thus criticising a highly commercialised future where
women are further commodified, or actually sending a strong feminist message
with certain key female characters and the central quest for the power to give
birth - though I suppose to be right-on in today's world of identity politics,
we shouldn't say that giving birth is just a female trait any more.
What the film does well is evoking the style of the
original film. That doesn't just mean instrumentation recalling Vangelis and
fun cameos from original cast members - including a remarkable CG-enhanced
lookalike scene. It's more about the way pace is controlled to build and
release tension, give a sense of wonder and refer back to noir detective
filmmaking. That's what works here, when they get it right - and is most
glaringly lacking when it isn't quite right.
But for its faults, this is a film of great ideas,
great performances (especially in very minor roles) and great visuals. I loved
the way Vegas ended up, and I loved how I thought I'd figured out the twist
very early only for that twist to be perfectly undone and undercut. There are
many good things to say about this film, but I don't think I'd ever sit through
it again - and I'm still not sure it really added much to the original.
3: The Commuter
After Blade Runner, I wanted to watch something a bit
lighter. This thriller on a train seemed to fit the bill. I'd seen the trailer
and it looked bland but entertaining. And that's what it was.
Falling into typecast territory, Liam Neeson as an
ex-cop gets a phone call instructing him to find someone on his train or people
close to him might meet a bad end. And it builds from there as you might
expect. The standoff at the end of the film gets a little more cerebral and
some decent crime writing comes through, but the premise just isn't unique
enough for this to make much of a big stir.
Nonetheless, this was a well-made, well-acted Hollywood
movie that provides good entertainment and has fewer plot holes than usual
despite the extremely convoluted plan the baddies have come up with. Worth a
watch even if I'm not sure how much of it I'll remember in 5 years.
4. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
One of several successful films about hotels from
recent years, this one had a truly stellar cast. Just seeing Judi Dench and
Maggie Smith together is a pretty special thing, even if their interactions are
minimal and it looks pretty conspicuously like the two of them were never
actually on set together, but with performances by Bill Nighy, Tom Hiddleston,
Dev Patel and Penelope Wilton - that's star power. So many of England's
senior actors.
These aren't their most challenging roles of all time,
but they certainly get moments to shine. At first I thought that the Indian
characters were written in a bit of a daft, overtly soap opera way, but the
just have fronts they're expected to show and as the film progresses we see the
deeper levels.
Of course there are feel-good moments and there are
some very funny parts too. One interesting part is that there are two
xenophobic older ladies, and it's interesting how different the way they come
over is. One is so overtly hateful that somehow it's sweet and silly, and she
eventually gets won over by the local people. The other has a pleasant facade
but makes lots of disparaging comments and never actually learns to adapt even
if she has a redemption moment where she accepts the problems with her
marriage.
I can't say this made me want to chase the joie de
vivre of India. But it was certainly fun to watch!
5: The Founder
This is an interesting take on the business origin
stories that have been popular for a while now. Not the story of the McDonald's
Brothers, though they of course feature prominently, but of Ray Kroc, who took
a great idea and franchised it across the country.
Michael Keaton, who I still picture in his Birdman
role, does a great job transitioning from struggling salesman to egotistical
entrepreneur.
There's some common ground here with Big Eyes, especially
when Kroc starts taking the credit as founder, though things of course get much
less out of hand.
There's something about 50s America that also makes me
feel nostalgic, even if obviously I wasn't there. It's like they universal
Western culture touch point for nostalgia. And it's a lot of fun to watch
anything set in the period. Except maybe Grease.
A Wrinkle in Time
I wanted to sleep through the last leg of my flight but
was too uncomfortable after walking up once, so decided to watch something
light. This seemed to fit the bill.
I don't know anything about A Wrinkle in Time outside
the movie. I think it was a novel first, and I vaguely remember one of those
stupid debates about whether Diversity is our Strength or whether casting a
white or unspecified book character as another race is white genocide. For my
part, I have no problem with the casting of this film, and if there's a racial
question here it's about why so many characters lack agency.
When a brilliant scientist disappears, leaving his
family behind, his daughter Meg gets kid movie issues. She's sad and
argumentative and gets bullied at school.
Luckily for her, her six-year-old brother has done all
the legwork, to the extent that this would probably have been more interesting
as his story. Except that he doesn't have a growth arc and is just the
precocious but adorable little boy archetype (not one of Jung's but common
enough). He has contacted intradimensional beings broadly based on question
words to help on a quest to find their papa.
They are joined by Calvin, a boy from Meg's class who
is gorgeous in a Disney musical sort of way and incredibly bland in a Disney musical
sort of way. His entire personality development is covered in a 2-second vision
of his father shouting at him.
Then there are the Misses. A young white woman who's
supposed to be mischievous but is mostly obnoxious, a South Asian lady who gets
no personality so has to communicate entirely in quotes, and giant Oprah Winfrey in full fabulous drag queen regalia - and you can't go wrong with giant
Oprah.
There's very little tension to be found in the kids'
quest, mostly hallucinogenic and lacking any goals, direction or direct
opposition until the last half hour or so. So it's difficult to care about a
story like that.
Looking it up now I’m off the flight and able to go
online, I see not only was it a bigger controversy than I thought (I can kind
of understand objecting to the removal of Christian themes, but disliking it
based on the casting seems dumb to me, there’s nothing about this that should
even be remarkable, though I guess I might feel different were I a fan of the
book) but it was a huge flop. It’s listed on Wikipedia as perhaps the biggest (even
inflation-adjusted) flop of all time if the loss ends up at the upper end of
the estimate. Yowch.
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