Summer Review #1 -- Inception

Inception (2010) -- Having created brainteasers like Memento and The Prestige, as well as re-invented the Batman franchise in the classiest way possible, filmmaker Christopher Nolan returns with a phantasmagorical foray into the human mind, the gorgeously engaging riddle that is Inception.

**THIS REVIEW CONTAINS HUGE SPOILERS**

Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled extractor, entering dreams to obtain information that competitive corporations would kill for. After he and his team accidentally botch a job, their target (Ken Watanabe) gives them another chance -- instead of extracting, they are supposed to implant an idea into the mind of his rival's heir (Cillian Murphy). However, things start getting complicated as soon as Cobb and his colleagues enter the new terrain...

When it comes to truly innovative concepts, they can often prove overwhelming for filmmakers that are not yet well versed in the virtual poetry of cinema. To name an example, I wanted to love the 2007 anesthesia awareness tale Awake, but found it frustrating in its lack of logic and forceful with its often unnecessary twists. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Christopher Nolan is fully aware of his idea's potential, exploring its reaches and allowing it to flourish within its gradual evolution, while never letting the human players fade into the background of the visual landscape and never, ever using cheap techniques to buy the audience's emotions. Influences of iconic works such as Metropolis and Blade Runner are present throughout, echoes of their momentum moving like shadows among the chimeras and obsessions possessing our protagonists. The captivating special effects, uniquely beautiful in their anti-gravity choreography, complement the nuanced and original story without overshadowing the narrative or oversaturating the context for even a second.

One of the most interesting aspects of Inception are the principal characters' names, which happen to be just as important to the tale and its symbolism as the protagonists themselves. The usage of the name Dominic -- a variant of the name Dominick, which means "Lord" -- is rather ironic, considering Cobb's inability to create new realms in the only world where he can find solace. In ancient Greek mythology, Ariadne had a pivotal role in killing the evil Minotaur inside the Cretan Labyrinth, while Mal signifies "evil" in French; the genius dream architect that Cobb hires and his deceased wife act out their respective parts to perfection. What starts as predestined interplay among the trio threatens to turn into a dance of death or a dance to the death... we never know. The triangle is central to the film's conflict of soul versus reality and weaves into the rest of the story as such, what with Cobb's inner demons threatening to tear apart the fabric of the illusion that his team has entered and, in doing that, inadvertently destroy their lives.

The subtle performances match the soulful rhythm of the screenplay. DiCaprio delves into fragile mysteries as Cobb, a man without a country or seemingly any other earthly associations; still, it is Marion Cotillard, with expressive eyes and a voice that can barely contain Mal's starved pain, that carries through the main emotional undertones of the piece. Ellen Page shows paradoxically edgy ingenue colors as Ariadne; Murphy is thoroughly engaging as industrialist heir Robert Fischer, a man haunted by his father's demands; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy provide occasional cool comic relief as Cobb's team members.

Inception is a feast for the eyes and the brain. It is one of those rare films that never underestimate the audience, those films that rely on story exploration and intellectually charged aesthetics to convey the layered surprises and genuine emotion. Simply put, there is nothing like it. In its darkly eloquent elegance, Inception is the cinematic equivalent of a symphony, a masterpiece that weaves its magic into one's mind and does not let go, much like the idea it revolves around.

10/10

Weekly Review -- The beauty of transcendence

Remember Me (2010) -- There are not too many films that deal with the subject of life as a mere moment in the infinite universe. In a sea of recent blandly unsuccessful cinematic romances, this Allen Coulter-directed drama is a refreshing entry.

Young Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pattinson) is disconnected -- from his family, his friends, his own existence. Having lived through a family tragedy that has strained relations between him and his father (Pierce Brosnan), Tyler is unable to relate to anyone, until a random incident brings Ally Craig (Emilie de Ravin) into his life. Their relationship grows within their dreams and ambitions, amid their families' woes and misunderstandings, and in the midst of a world that is incapable of just stopping and smelling the roses...

The screenplay by Will Fetters is thoughtful and occasionally playful, with tinges of melancholy along the way. Reflecting the innocence and excitement of a first love exceptionally well, it also outlines in delicate sketch work the various emotional and physical connections that humans share. I would have been interested in seeing more interaction between Tyler and his mother (the always great Lena Olin) and Ally and her father, as well as seeing more depth to Olin's character and more of a context to Ally's father. The ambiance is uniquely inviting. Setting the film in New York City imbues the proceedings with a sense of nostalgia, a sense of rich and unrequited longing, which fits the themes perfectly.

As far as the acting goes, the cast is suitably chosen. Pattinson proves that he is much more than Edward Cullen and Brosnan has an excellent turn as Tyler's detached father, while Chris Cooper gives another stellar performance and relative newcomer Ruby Jerins shines as Tyler's bullied little sister.

**HUGE SPOILERS (please highlight to read)**

As far as the ending goes, my feelings are quite ambiguous. In a way, I could not fully appreciate it, being that I had become so invested in the characters' lives and that the entire film seemed to be leading up to enlightenment in their relations; then again, the story was meant to represent a slice of life, a fragment of a temporal mosaic that we know can be extinguished as suddenly as it was created. Considering that the film dares not to tack on a prosaic happy ending, and that it re-visits an event like 9/11 within its framework of fleeting realities, it deserves kudos.

**END OF SPOILERS**

What I liked about Remember Me was its readiness to accept the highest highs and the lowest lows that each day may bring. The good comes with the bad, the sweet comes with the sour, and sometimes everything ends in sheer, often horrifying, unpredictability, but it is what we do and who we influence during our earthly sojourn that counts. This film was definitely not made to please everyone, its ending being the most debatable point it presents, and it is this independent spirit that turns out to be its main strength.

8/10

Weekly Review -- Amiable hostilities

The Bounty Hunter (2010) -- Have you ever found yourself willing to swear that somewhere out there existed a literal factory that kept concocting generic and ludicrously dull scripts, shaping them into makeshift movies and throwing in a couple of appealing actors into each piece for good measure, before putting them on the shelves for mass consumption? That is what I felt like after watching The Bounty Hunter, the most tedious and unromantic "romantic comedy" to hit cinemas in quite some time. Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler) is the titular character, currently in hot pursuit of his ex-wife, journalist Nicole Hurley (Jennifer Aniston). Apparently, Nicole had skipped on her bail hearing in order to investigate a story that involves a suicide, police corruption and a tattoo parlor. I kid you not. Plenty of predictability ensues, coupled with feeble attempts at slapstick and even more feeble attempts at laughs and romance. While it starts out innocuously enough, the screenplay stops making sense after about twenty minutes and, about another fifteen later, I doubt that the audience cares anymore, since the director and the writers are unable to decide which direction the movie is taking. The two protagonists are far from repulsive, but they are not exactly people we care about either, being that the movie never gives us a chance to invest in any of its characters. Both Aniston and Butler sleepwalk through their roles, probably all too aware that they have made better choices in the past. Aniston possesses a likeability that can be used in a much more interesting cinematic endeavour, while the same can be said for Butler, whose macho charm is wasted in the thankless role. Why not provide the pair with a fun, innovative screenplay that truly lets them shine? The only sparks here come from Jason Sudeikis as Nicole's obsessive co-worker and Christine Baranski as her diva mother, who make their scenes more fun than the writing allows. Unfortunately, even they are not able to save this film. The Bounty Hunter gets lost in a witless story and tiresome clichés, completely missing its mark in the process.

4/10

Weekly Review -- Relative madness

The Crazies (2010) -- When it comes to representations of insanity in the horror genre, the portrayals range from intensely disturbing to pure so-bad-it-is-good camp. The Crazies takes a solemn approach to the topic, injecting insanity into the heart of middle America and causing quite a commotion within the American dream... or is it a nightmare?

Ogden Marsh is a rural Iowa town where everybody knows everybody. When some inhabitants start exhibiting paranoid, repetitive, homicidal and all-around frightening tendencies, it is up to the sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) and his doctor wife (Radha Mitchell) to figure out why their neighbors are suddenly bug-eyed and bent on murder. They discover the shocking answer along the way, but is it too late to save their home?

While I am not familiar with the 1973 George Romero original, I really enjoyed this movie, partly due to the candid performances and partly due to the eerie, somber screenplay by Scott Kosar -- of The Machinist fame -- and Ray Wright. The 1973 version was a protest and commentary against the Vietnam war; the 2010 version also happens to be arriving during a period of great political and economic upheavals in the U.S. and the world, though maybe unintentionally so, and makes some great points about mass mentality and political machinations at the cost of human life. From the beginning, it is apparent that there is something truly atrocious happening in Ogden Marsh, a fact which the film enhances through the use of underhanded camerawork and shadowy silences. The once idyllic town quickly dissolves into chaos, the relations between residents crumbling and the entire palette of utopia coming apart. At the time of British Petroleum committing crimes against our planet, the economy still in the process of stabilizing and discrimination still blooming in various forms, the tale of a happy town being tainted by outside forces rings genuinely and disastrously honest.

The cast is well chosen and relatable. Olyphant is quietly authoritative as the sheriff, who does not allow himself to be overwhelmed by the situation, while Mitchell employs and explores nuances in her role as a woman with a lot to lose, and Joe Anderson's deputy sheriff gets a very nice character arc. I also have to mention the gorgeous cinematography by Maxime Alexandre, whose work in High Tension was the stuff of sinister genius. The darkly metallic blues, greens and grays highly complement the theme of ordinary, non-spectacular existence descending into cataclysmic desolation. The film is a joy to behold in terms of effectively outlining its message through both written and visual means, by viewing its characters as everyday people whose routine comes to a crashing halt and by exploring its subject of intrusion in an unflinching, uncompromising manner.

Despite its title, The Crazies is sane in more ways than one. It is a cautionary tale of excess and greed, humans going against their own kind and the everyman being stomped on by nothing less than the loss of all control. Come to think of it, this story sounds very familiar. Seen the news lately? That, my fellow horror fans, is the core of real insanity.

9/10

Weekly Review -- Sweet retribution

The Last House on the Left (2009) -- Ah, remakes. Like their first cousin, the sequel, these films can also be borne of that fine line between ingenuity and mediocrity. Horror remakes in particular have been gaining in popularity over the past decade. Some of them, like The Ring and Dawn of the Dead, were very popular, due to the successful transposition of their themes; on the other hand, reworkings like The Fog and When a Stranger Calls were majestic flops, due to having successfully shlocked out all the details that had made the originals ominous. Thankfully, director Dennis Iliadis creates a smart and suspenseful thriller in the latest version of the ultimate vengeance story, bringing the right elements together and transforming others to deepen the context further.

While on holiday with her parents (Monica Potter and Tony Goldwyn), Mari (Sara Paxton) meets up with old friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac). Through a set of carelessly random circumstances, the girls are abducted by a trio of hardcore criminals, led by the psychotic Krug (Garret Dillahunt). After viciously assaulting Mari and Paige, the thugs seek shelter at a nearby house, not realizing that it belongs to the aforementioned parents, who then proceed to exact merciless revenge upon the attackers...

Having never seen Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, itself based on a Swedish ballad, I can only draw comparisons to Wes Craven's controversial 1972 cult piece, which is considered to be a direct ascendant of the Iliadis film in terms of contemporary sensibilities. The 1970s version was frantically bizarre and relentless in its juxtaposition of audio and visual sensations, all of which combined to create a truly frightening, wrong-place-at-the-wrong time cinematic experience, one that treated its acts of savagery with gusto that was already evident in the exploitative tagline. Still, seeing it once was sensory overload. The brutalities that seemed to pop up one after another, as though they were being picked off an assembly line, made me never want to see the remake when I heard that it was being produced. I can now say that I am certainly glad I gave it a chance, because the film deserves it. It does everything right when it comes to tweaking some of the narrative's aspects, fleshing out reluctant heroes we cheer for and villains due for comeuppance, as well as letting viewers become emotionally invested in the situations unfolding. I have not seen a more articulate re-imagining in years.

The changes that Iliadis and screenwriters Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth have made are welcome instead of being, as is so often the case, gratuitous and/or unnecessary. Not making the most violent scenes any more graphic than they are is a wise decision, simply because rape and murder is torture enough. Some characters' fates and backgrounds also differ here, which makes for more satisfying viewing; for example, creating a deceased sibling for Mari serves the purpose of raising the stakes for the family and heightening the distance that Mari's parents will go to protect her. Never forgetting the protagonists' motives or the bloodcurdling nature of their predicament, Iliadis refines the tale without ever glossing it over, visually or thematically.

The performances are impressive. Paxton, who I had previously seen in light, teen-geared material, gives an intense, heartbreaking portrayal of a victim who refuses to be one, while Potter and Goldwyn are credible as the shell-shocked parents. Dillahunt is terrific and terrifying as the time bomb that is Krug, while Aaron Paul startles as Krug's sleazily deranged brother and Riki Lindhome finds a well of aggressive, sexed-up insecurities playing Krug's girlfriend Sadie. 

The newest incarnation of The Last House on the Left is a shrewdly effective entry into the horror/thriller pantheon. A remake should enhance the main themes of the original while giving it a fresh perspective, and this is exactly what the filmmakers manage to achieve. The film accomplishes its goals through the usage of contextual and stylistic elements, without watering down the terror or sacrificing the violence for the sake of a PG-13 rating. If you are looking for a great genre movie, you just found it where the lake ends.

9/10