Persepolis has been reviewed to death, because every time a decent animated film for adults comes out the critics have to go bat shit for it. It was clearly a great film, but a giant stir is caused every time because most people seem to forget the last time they went nuts for an animated film. Persepolis was an engaging and innovative film, so here are four other reasons to not blow off an animated film just because it’s a “cartoon.”
The Triplets of Belleville:
A brilliant animated film (also French) that was something of a precursor to this years WALL-E. Essentially a silent film, Triplets of Belleville is the story of an evil corporation that exploits and kidnaps people for personal gain, when they kidnap a young bicyclist the get more than they bargained for from his elderly mother.
Spirited Away:
Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is one of the more obvious examples of Miyazaki’s unique style of anime. This along with films like Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle are a great example of how anime can have an intelligent trajectory and be visually engaging.
Wallace and Grommit
No matter if you’re watching the shorts or the feature Wallace and Grommit are always interesting animation, and humorous, inventive stories. Nick Park’s ability to play with genre conventions, and his knowledge of film history make Wallace and Grommit a layered adventure that I have never not enjoyed.
And finally, I couldn’t really decide on a finale, so take your pick, you get the idea, this happens every year or two: South Park: the Movie, Team America, Beavis and Butthead do America, WALL-E, Shrek, and on and on…
Darkon is a fascinating documentary that I have not been able to shake for the three days since seeing it. It has stuck with me not because it was so brilliant, but because it is one of those unbiased studies of a subculture that gives you pause on the scope of human experience.The film explores a community of people who participate in the live action game called Darkon.
The participants form countries, dress in full armor, and do live battles with padded swords and arrows. (This is obviously something of a simplification; it’s game with complex rules and traditions that would necessitate a separate essay to define).
Darkon is the type of documentary that ultimately highlights some of the fundamental differences – experientially – between documentaries and narrative features. While the filmmakers have created some interesting battle sequences and have brief moments of incredibly, atypically, beautiful shots, the film ultimately fails on a technical level. It’s difficult to understand the exact regulations of the game, and how it functions, and they never delve into other questions any viewer who is unfamiliar with the game would have. Where did it come from? How did it start? Who is the governing body that runs the events across the country? How do I join?
Nonetheless, the film actually works, revealing how a documentary is fundamentally constructed in a different fashion. It’s interesting, despite the frustration that it causes, the subject matter is absolutely fascinating. The characters in the film are interesting, portrayed intelligently, and reveal an interesting subculture that most of the world will never be familiar with. Despite the somewhat thin documentary work, what is there is fantastic.
Prior to production there was a lot of excitement surrounding Francis Ford Coppola’s return to directing. Youth Without Youth certainly has more intrigue and internal beauty than much of Coppola’s work since the eighties, and there is a certain amount of risk he seems willing to take here, which is not his usual methodology.
Tim Roth gives a characteristically dynamic performance. Dominic (Roth) is an academic studying the origins of language. He was at work from his twenties through his seventies on a book covering the entire spectrum of the history of verbal language when he gets struck by lightning. He mysteriously seems to regress into his thirties. He becomes a man wanted by the Nazi’s.
Part love story, part science fiction and the bulk of the film takes place in the framework of World War II, needless to say it’s got a lot of layers and creates a lot of complex motifs that intertwine in an interesting fashion. Unfortunately the film doesn’t actually come together in practice quite the same as it would seem in theory. The film is a garbled mess. The script is a little stiff and the underexploited phenomena of the film don’t really serve as a point of intrigue but rather feel like a contrivance that becomes a distracting plight upon the actual story of this man’s journey and his loss. The film actually would have been more interesting if it wasn’t so fantastical. Even the beautiful cinematography and interesting editing couldn’t create a decent level of intrigue in the ridiculous plot arc.
The potential of figure of Coppola’s stature finding a route to more independently minded ventures is enormous. The film had great potential, but Coppola looks like a novice director who wants to “experiment” without reason. The film feels as though he is trying to experiment for the sake of an experiment.
