What I've Been Reading: Late Summer/Early Fall Edition

The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman

Lev Grossman concludes his Magicians trilogy (preceded by The Magicians and The Magician King) with this highly satisfying novel.  Series protagonist Quentin Coldwater is down and out and is looking for a new purpose with a mysterious heist mission, while his friends in the faraway land of Fillory find themselves locked in another dilemma of cataclysmic proportions.  True to its roots as a mix of Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Girls and Scott Pilgrim, The Magician’s Land reads like a novel about how young creators need to leave the proverbial sandboxes of past creators and make their own.  With a possible show on Syfy in the works, now’s a great time to get acquainted with the world Grossman’s created.

History of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Ten Songs by Greil Marcus

Although it got a little pretentious at times and there are traces of snobbery against modern music, the latest from Greil Marcus is a unique take on the countless books written about the history of rock.  It isn’t about the 10 definitive rock songs, but rather 10 songs whose stories serve as microcosm for larger trends in the musical community.  Some are well known classics like “In the Still of the Nite” and “Money (That’s What I Want)”, others are more obscure.  For readers who don’t want to read another piece about “Like a Rolling Stone” or any other picked apart classic, this is a worthwhile alternative history to one of the greatest cultural movements of the 20^th century.

Ex Machina written by Brian K. Vaughan, Artwork by many more

Another one from acclaimed writer Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man), this one can be summed up as The West Wing with superheroes (I know I’m not the first person to say that).  The series, which ran from 2004 through 2010, follows Mitchell Hundred as he governs a post-9/11 New York City.  Before he was mayor, Hundred gained the ability to speak to machines and used that ability to become a vigilante crime fighter and a hero on 9/11.  Like The West Wing at its best, the politics in Ex Machina are treated smartly.  A variety of hot button issues are discussed throughout the run and there’s never a sense of straw manning whatever side Vaughan disagrees with.  The reveal of why Hundred got his powers comes a little too late and rushes what could’ve been a satisfying payoff (I suspect it may have something to do with the publisher closing), but the run is still a refreshing spin on the superhero genre.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

For those of us eagerly awaiting the return of Game of Thrones (the show, the next book or both), The Name of the Wind will help pass the time very well.  The first in Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicle, The Name of the Wind focuses on a legendary wizard who has gone into hiding named Kvothe (like “Quothe”).  Upon being discovered by a scribe known as Chronicler, Kvothe allows Chronicler to transcribe his autobiography.  The first book largely focuses on Kvothe’s life from young circus performer to struggling orphan to student at the most prestigious University in the world.  Rothfuss has a great talent at world building, with Kvothe’s Walter White-esque logic of thinking everything out helping us understand how the cultures, the history and the magic system work.  Throughout the book there are hints at trouble down the road, which creates some great ominous foreshadowing.  Like Game of Thrones, this saga is also incomplete, but is another great step for those who’ve been to Westeros and want to see more from the fantasy genre.

Guardians of the Galaxy Review

By this point, Marvel Studios is practically unstoppable.  They’re cranking out two movies a year that kill at the box office and generally get good to great reviews.  Even without its two biggest properties (X-Men and Spider-Man), Marvel’s done very well with taking the second string heroes and kicking them up to the A-list.  At this point they could be content just putting out more Iron Man and Captain America films until they stop making money.  Instead they’re expanding beyond the mostly earthbound Avengers with even deeper cut characters like in the new Guardians of the Galaxy.  Directed by cult favorite James Gunn, Guardians is a true blast; a refreshing change of pace from the bleakness clogging up modern blockbusters.

Guardians focuses on Peter Quill (Parks and Recreation’s Chris Pratt, whose performance here may be his breakthrough), an earthling abducted as a kid and raised by mercenaries.  He’s sent to pick up the MacGuffin in the film, a MacGuffin that can produce devastating effects.  Through his ordeal trying to sell it he comes across Thanos’ adopted daughter & trained assassin named Gamora (Zoe Saldana), a warrior with a Spock-like mindset named Drax the Destroyer (David Bautista), an anthropomorphic tree with a three word vocabulary named Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and a wisecracking raccoon/science experiment named Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper).  As Quill finds himself targeted by villain Ronan (Lee Pace), he gathers his gang of antisocial misfits to become the title group.

Director Gunn, who also co-scripted, has created easily the funniest of the Marvel films.  The film plays like an irreverent Star Wars, as if all of the heroes were Han Solo.  There is some fun with language and tropes of actions movies that’s reminiscent of the dialogue in Airplane!  Also part of the genius of the MCU films: this film rewards fans of the series and the comics, but is just as enjoyable for new viewers.  Even people who have never seen a second of any of the MCU films will get a kick out of it.  While this film also has the most world building of any Marvel film since the Thor series, it never becomes burdensome or too hard to follow.

The one big demerit is the villains.  Ronan, as well as his associates Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Korath (Djimon Hounsou), suffer from the trend in Marvel movies having lackluster villains (except for Loki).  They serve their function, but I was left wanting a little more out of them.  There are also certain character moments that seem underdeveloped, like they know they’ll use it in the sequel even if it probably would’ve made more sense to use in this film.

Despite that, Guardians of the Galaxy is a non-stop good time.  It’s the best space adventure since Serenity, and is up there with the original Iron Man and Avengers for the MCU films.  With blockbusters deciding “dark” and “gritty” are synonymous with quality, Guardians states loudly and clearly that that couldn’t be further from the truth.  The film is clever and hilarious with a memorable team of characters at the center of it.  There is something to say about enjoying the swagger of storytellers who are on a roll, and Marvel is on one right now.

Grade: A-

Miscellaneous Notes (SPOILERS):

-Of course I have to mention the music, which is perfectly curated for stuff that sounds straight out of Reservoir Dogs K Billy’s Super Sounds of the ‘70s.  It works so well for a film that refuses to take itself too seriously.

-Much like Black Widow and Captain America in The Winter Soldier, I’m glad they didn’t have Gamora and Quill automatically become a couple at the end.  They clearly have the chemistry, but it’s a good way to show she offers more than just being a potential love interest.

-Between Rocket Raccoon and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, this has been a great year for cinematic mammals handling weapons.

-Man, the bar just rose really high for JJ Abrams.

-At this point, part of me wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up rebooting Howard the Duck.  They are so confident now almost anything is possible.

-I am Groot!

Under the Skin Review

Here’s the thing: I don’t know how to describe my reaction to Under the Skin, the latest effort from Sexy Beast director Jonathan Glazer.  More accurately, I don’t think that I can describe my reaction to it in the liked it or not sense.  It is hard to say for sure what is going on most of the time because there’s very little dialogue or plot to give us insight into what is going on.  Not that that is really the point: it’s clear early on that this is going to be a challenging ride.  I also don’t want to dismiss it with an “I don’t get it” either because I don’t want to be the guy who dismisses stuff that goes outside of the traditional boundaries of narrative film.  Ultimately however much you enjoy or appreciate this film depends on how willing you are to embrace this film’s weirdness.  If you’re ready to turn it off by the time the title flashes on the screen, this film is not for you.

The film stars Scarlett Johansson as a mysterious woman who seduces random men on the streets of Scotland and kills them.  There is also a man on a motorcycle (professional motorcycle racer Jeremy McWilliams) who is trailing her.  The volume of ambiguity in the film makes writing a synopsis a fool’s errand, especially those who aren’t looking up the Wikipedia entry to try and get a purer response.  Johansson, who has done well in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has a good hot streak with smaller films like Her, deserves a lot of credit for taking on such a daring role.  Obviously she was cast in part because of her sex appeal, but she definitely has the chops.

With the lack of plot or character, the film makes up for it in technique.  It looks amazing.  The film’s use of light and dark imagery helps establish this bizarre, dreamlike world that runs parallel to our own.  Daniel Landin’s camera work could be enjoyed with the film on mute, but the sound is another vital piece.  With the lack of dialogue, the sound design and soundtrack steps up in a big way.  It’s hard not to think of the soundtrack to 2001 with some of the more droning pieces of music, especially in the opening sequence.  I have to imagine this film plays better on the big screen.

Under the Skin has been considered one of the best films of the year, but it is decidedly not for everyone.  There is minimal plot or story and nothing is spoon fed.  It is easy to see how it almost has as many 1/10 reviews as it does 10/10 reviews on IMDB and I definitely am looking forward to reading more of what other people thought about it.  While I often have a hard time with these types of films, top notch filmmaking and Johansson’s performance are what make it worth seeing.  For even true cinephiles, throwing in a challenge like this may seem like a chore, but I believe exercising your brain with a film like this can only benefit a viewer, even the ones who can’t make it to the end credits.

Grade: B?

Snowpiercer Review

Five years ago, roughly the same time Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was poorly received by just about everyone yet made a ton of money, a bit of sci-fi counterprogramming occurred with the release of Duncan Jones’ Moon.  While Moon never came close to transcending its cult status into mainstream success, its reputation has gone on as one of the better cult films of the late 00s.  Now we have an even worse received Transformers filling multiplexes and another small sci-fi film, Bong Joon-Ho’s Snowpiercer, based on the French comic book Le Transperceneige.  Cursed from a major release because Bong wouldn’t agree to the Weinsteins’ cut (I know, the Weinsteins cutting a film from an Asian filmmaker, huge shocker), Snowpiercer has been relegated to limited and VOD releases in the states.  Although it is a shame this great film isn’t available to a wider audience, that treatment may make Snowpiercer the next great cult classic.

Set in 2031, we find humanity has been decimated by a new ice age, the product of an experimental attempt to stop global warming.  It has been 17 years since and the remaining life on earth is stuck on the eponymous train, speeding around the globe in perpetuity.  The society that has emerged in that time is decidedly split between the direst of poor and the rich, the former rebelling against the latter often.  This time they’re lead by Curtis (Chris Evans), who has spent half of his life on the train and wants to speak to the mysterious leader Wilford.  They manage to break out train door builder Namgoong (Song Kang-ho), who helps them open the doors to get them to the front, where the rich and powerful hold court.  Like many dystopias, the idea of how man can survive this ordeal runs throughout, and this film posits the idea that maybe it shouldn’t.  A little less than 24 hours since I’ve seen it and I’m still wrestling with these ideas, and no doubt they’ll be on my mind when I see it again.

The film is quite amazing to look at (I have to imagine it looks even better on the big screen).  Aside from a few brief glimpses outside, cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo places his camera only from within the cars, creating a great claustrophobic effect of only being able to work on sets the width of a train car.  As the rebels make their way further up the train, we are treated to a variety of train cars that serve a variety of different uses from non-stop raves to a school that is a thinly veiled indoctrination center.  Although some of the mythology may be a little fuzzy, the art direction brings this world to life.

Snowpiercer’s cast is filled with some impressive talent: John Hurt co-stars as Gilliam, the amputee mentor of Curtis, Bong Joon-ho mainstay Song offers some color as the eccentric architect and addict Namgoong and the always reliable Tilda Swinton delivers as the jittery mouthpiece Mason.  However, it is star Evans that stands out.  He has to hide the Captain America muscle, but the world weariness is there.  There’s no flashy quirk here.  A monologue towards the end, where he outlines just how bad it can be back there, is some of the best work of his career.  I can only hope he changes his mind about retiring from acting when he finishes his work at Marvel.

For his first English language film, Bong Joon-ho has created a relentlessly grim version of the future.  Despite that, the film never drags and has enough thrills that it could be a decent sized hit if it got a release similar to other summer blockbusters—it’s right at home with other dark summer films like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Godzilla.  It’s done very well in Bong’s native South Korea, becoming the 10^th highest grossing film there domestically of all time.  Unfortunately, the Weinstein Co. isn’t giving it the push it deserves in the US.  However, maybe that’s OK.  Thinking about this predicament, it’s hard not to think about another dystopian film that flopped at the box office and dealt with similar studio meddling, Brazil (there’s even a character named Gilliam).  Like any great cult film, no matter how much interference gets in the way, it will find its audience.

Grade: A-

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Review

When reviewing movies, you always have to be aware of the idea of “spoilers”.  While the whole “spoiler” notion had gotten way out of hand, most of us would prefer to learn the major plot events the way the creators intended, through experiencing it first.  However, sometimes the “spoiler” is right there in the title, as has been the case with Rise of The Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, its new sequel.  Regardless of how one may end, ultimately the series is going to end with the humans losing big and the apes taking control.  So ultimately the answers we look for with these sequels isn’t “what” so much as “how” and as both ROTPOTA and DOTPOTA prove, it is all about the presentation that makes it an entertaining ride.

The film begins with a callback to the credit sequence from ROTPOTA, as red lines circle the globe, spreading what the film calls “Simian Flu” around the world.  It destroys the majority of humanity to the point where a decade after the first film the apes hadn’t had any contact with humans in two years.  The apes, led by Caesar (Andy Serkis) from the first film, have created their own society.  It is practically a utopia until they come across a human expedition.  This incident shatters the isolation of both communities, as the humans need to reach into ape territory to access a power plant in hopes of solving an energy crisis.  The apes agree but the uneasy agreement that, as you can expect, eventually crumbles.

The story is ultimately a tragedy, as the humans are afraid of these hyper intelligent apes while the apes, in particular former lab experiment Koba (Toby Kebbell), have some issues trusting the humans as well.  Ultimately it can only result in the world from the original series of films, but it is still compelling to see that process unfold.  It doesn’t get quite as dark as I wanted, but considering the box office this film is raking, we’ll be seeing increasingly grim chapters to come.

Of course you can’t mention this film without praising the work of Andy Serkis.  Serkis, who I believe gets top billing for the first time in his career, continues to shine as ape leader Caesar.  Serkis is best known for his work in motion capture acting, roles that don’t get him even the glory of a great character actor, but he deserves all the praise he’s gotten for Caesar.  His work here rivals that of his other best known work, Gollum in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit series.  Serkis conveys all of the confusion Caesar had as far as supporting his apes, but still caring about the humanity that raised him.  It is a shame his work isn’t considered Academy worthy.

The great acting is assisted in superb special effects.  From the first shot after the prologue, the level of detail of the apes is stunning.  Director Matt Reeves (Let Me In), coming in after ROTPOTA’s Rupert Wyatt, does a great job in blending the effects into real world.  He also handles the action well as the apes and humans have their inevitable showdown (a particular POV shot from a tank is a highlight).

Although it may be saving the darkest stuff for future films, DOTPOTA is an exciting, entertaining film.  Much like what made the initial reboot work, they were able to mine a human story (mutual distrust between factions with different agendas trying to co-exist but escalating into all-out war) and use state of the art special effects well in service of that story.  This series is heading towards the inevitable moment where the title is the truth rather than the promise.  Despite knowing that fact, it doesn’t hinder the enjoyment of this new series one bit.

Grade: B+

Notes (SPOILERS):

-It may be splitting hairs, but I think Rise would’ve been the more appropriate word for this film title.  The first film in the reboot showed the beginnings of apes becoming smarter (the dawn), now we see them form their society and begin setting the stage for the war (the rise)

-I probably should mention something about the human characters, who are also good, but really, we’re here for the apes riding horses with a machine gun in each hand.  Jason Clarke’s Malcolm and Gary Oldman’s Dreyfus serve as a parallel to Caesar and Koba, and those fundamental differences between the two eventually lead to the war that humanity will lose.

-In a way, Caesar and Koba’s struggles mirror another conflicting relationship from earlier this summer, the one between Charles Xavier and Magneto from X-Men. 

-How long do you think we’ll have to wait until the Statue of Liberty falls?  I figure the next one, and that’ll be the stinger for the trailer.

-The dream director for a future installment would be Herzog, whose oeuvre is filled with nature overpowering humanity, but that would likely be another “Edgar Wright directing Ant-Man” scenario.

-I was expecting maybe a grizzled James Franco to make a cameo.  It is interesting to have a franchise like this where none of the human characters from the first one are in the second.

-Caesar’s son gets his scars so we can tell him apart from the other apes, right?

-I think it is telling that Koba’s ultimate fall to his death (nice foreshadowing with the gesture of forgiveness resembling helping someone up) isn’t just a straight fall, but one punctuated by him getting caught on a wire and hitting some equipment, then falling.  Definitely a major sea change in the ape world.

The Raid 2 Review

Released stateside two years ago, Gareth Evans’ The Raid: Redemption was a surprise hit.  The Indonesian martial arts film was a shot of pure adrenaline for action movie fans.  Its concept was simple: a SWAT team is sent to take out a 30 story building filled with criminals and psychopaths.  Evans made a simple martial arts movie because he couldn’t get funding for the film he really wanted to make.  What he lacked in budget he made up for in some of the most dazzling fight choreography in years.  Rather than helm the English language remake, Evans decided to make the film he really wanted to do as the sequel.  The Raid 2 (sometimes subtitled Berandal) is a larger scale, more expensive follow up that still delivers the thrills of the original.

Before he can even recuperate from the events of the first film, SWAT Team rookie (and one of the few survivors of the first film) Rama (Iko Uwais) is recruited to infiltrate a powerful gang to expose the corruption of the police force.  As he befriends a major mob boss’ son (Afirin Putra), Rama finds himself spending years in prison building a cover while his wife and infant son go on without him.  Meanwhile, the Indonesian mob Rama infiltrates finds itself on unstable ground with the Japanese, while independent mobster Bejo (Alex Abbad) proves to be a wild card.

As that previous paragraph indicates, there is a lot more plot and character moments in this film than in The Raid.  It is almost 50 minutes longer, but with probably the same amount of time spent on the fights.  Unfortunately the plot isn’t that great and it could’ve been trimmed down or clarified.  Between the warring factions, the dirty cops and Bejo, it’s hard to keep track of what is happening and why whereas the original was rather straightforward.  That said, the shortcomings of the plot are more than forgiven in the fights, which are just as good if not better in some cases than the ones from the original.  Evans had a bigger budget and the money is there, with plenty of variety in daring set pieces.  They also seem to want to challenge themselves in the fights, with several fights taking place in confined spaces or using just about anything in the room to help out in a fight.

There are no weak links in the fighters in this film.  Uwais has to be in the vanguard of the next generation of martial arts stars.  The things he and his co-stars do in this film boggle the mind.  There are prison fights, an elaborate car chase and a brother/sister assassin combo who are adept at baseball bats and hammers respectively.  The punches and kicks come so fast you’d think these guys weren’t human.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a bathtub filled with ice for Uwais (or just about anyone else) that he could lie down in during breaks in filming.  These fights look brutal and real to the point where one fighter towards the end has his entire face red from bruises.  Best of all, there isn’t a clunker among the fights to be found.

They’re all serviced by Evans’ direction.  For everyone sick of rapid cutting and incoherent action, The Raid films are for you.  Alongside the recent Fast and Furious films, The Raid 2 shows us the action and doesn’t jumble it up in excessive (and probably concealing) editing.  Even in the chaos of the rapid fire blows dished out, it’s not at all confusing.  When someone delivers a painful blow, you feel it too.  It’d be hard to see these guys dealing out this type of punishment without garnering a reaction.

Even with a subpar plot, The Raid 2 still shows Hollywood action movies (often made for much more than The Raid 2’s $4.5 million budget) how it’s done.  The original is a leaner production for sure, but this one takes advantage of having more money and a bigger canvas to use.  These films should be game changers for how action is seen in movies these days, or at least the perfect film to show a group of people looking to discover something many bigger productions have been missing: a series that blends both brutality and vitality equally.

Grade: B

22 Jump Street Review

I’m not the first to say this, but of the genres, it seems that comedies have the hardest time making a good sequel.  Sequels often get bogged down with the mindset of “do what you did in the first one, but more of it”.  This leads to comedies that tell basically the same jokes, just search and replaced to make it different enough.  We get the comfort of the familiar, but not the thrill of discovery (look no further than the difference between the cameo filled fight scenes in Anchorman and Anchorman 2).  This is at the forefront of the minds of Phil Lord & Chris Miller, the directors behind 22 Jump Street, as well as its predecessor 21 Jump Street and this year’s The Lego Movie.  These seem to be the guys you go to to make well received hits out of concepts that on paper look like surefire flops, and 22 Jump Street continues that trend.

22 Jump Street finds the undercover odd couple Schmidt (Jonah Hill) & Jenko (Channing Tatum) infiltrating a school (again) looking to stop a new street drug from spreading beyond the campus (again).  The film is so meta you’d think Abed from Community wrote the script.  Certainly the self-referential jokes, including the introductory spiel by their chief (Nick Offerman), are very funny, but in between those winks to the audience is a sharp lampooning of sequels and the mindset that goes into making them.  Throughout the film the characters will literally tell each other to do what they did the first time.  However, in a fun commentary on the diminishing returns of sequels going back the well, what worked the first time doesn’t always work again.

What does work again this time around is the chemistry between Hill and Tatum.  21 Jump Street showed Tatum’s surprising comedic chops which he continues to showcase here with Hill.  Their relationship ultimately drives the film.  This time Jenko finds himself attached to the frat/jock side of college, bonding with a possible lead (Wyatt Russell) who is hilariously similar to himself, while Schmidt bonds with an art student (Amber Stevens).  Schmidt and Jenko’s relationship works so much that it helps give the film something substantial on top of the jabs made at lazy sequels.  The rest of the cast is also solid.  Ice Cube’s no nonsense Captain Dickson is often a part of some of the biggest laughs, Peter Stormare is just one of those character actors I always enjoy and keep an eye out for a ton of cameos.

In a time when the summer movie season has found itself a victim of diminishing returns from overextended franchises a little more each year, 22 Jump Street is a welcome change.  While it is on the surface a sign of Hollywood’s creative bankruptcy, actually watching you see a film that is clever and fun.  Lord and Miller continue to take a questionable idea at best and make it fresh.  That they made a good comedy sequel is reason enough to celebrate.  If only there were more of these guys for some of the direst movies in production.

Grade: B

Random notes:

-I was disappointed that there was no mention of Schmidt’s love interest from the first film, Molly (Brie Larson).  Perhaps her rising star made her unavailable to be in this one, but it feels like a missed opportunity not to make a joke about that cliché of sweeping the love interest in the first film under the rug in the sequel.

-Definitely stick around for the credit sequence, although you’re fine skipping the post-credits scene.