Movie Review: Leap! (Ballerina)

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B-

Maybe not a new animated classic but a thoroughly enjoyable movie.

The animation here is absolutely top notch. This is of course very important for an animated movie that centers around dancing. Each movement when these characters dance is extremely precise and done with the upmost care. Yet it always flows naturally and never feels forced. As well as the dancing animation the animated acting is also excellent, letting these characters truly come to life through that animation. Our main character is very likable and relatable. At every moment in this film you believe her love for dancing, because her passion feels completely real. The story of this movie is very clichéd and there is no getting around that. At almost every moment you know what is going to happen next. However because of the believability of our main character and moments where you can feel the filmmakers passion the story is actually pretty effective. While this movie has a clear message that we have heard a million times, the filmmakers understand that the audience is intelligent enough to get what the film is trying to say and because of this it never hammers the message in but it seems instead to just come naturally from the story.

This movie certainly has problems. I have mentioned above that it is clichéd and no where is that worse than with the villain. In fact there is no need for this movie to have a villain and having one alone feels forced. The villain herself is extremely bland and pretty much just wastes screen time. While the other clichés are still handled pretty well, this one is handled horribly and it is definitely the worst part of the film. The humor in this movie is another big problem. It is never funny and there is a lot of it. However the good in this movie outshines the bad and it is definitely well worth a watch even if it probably won't become a classic.

Movie Review: Ingrid Goes West

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A+


Ok, I'm calling this, this is the best movie of the year. True it is only August, but I simply don't see how any upcoming movie is going to top it. This is a very intelligent, fascinating, funny and thought provoking movie, that will keep your eyes glued to the screen from beginning to end.

What really makes this movie work so well is the main character, Ingrid. Never for a second is this character not absolutely fascinating. We are allowed to view her as a comedic figure, a scary person, a very tragic case and most importantly a human being. Though through all this we never get to know fully who the real her is, because to be honest she doesn't know either. We get bits and pieces, but there is always something missing. Like Michel from Breathless is a character we are not certain could exist as he is without movies, we are not sure Ingrid could exist if not for social media. Her life is dominated by social media and she too often views it as real life. Because of this what we see of her through a lot of the film we are not sure whether it is real or a façade. However with this we still relate so fully to this character. Sadly this may be because there is more of us in her than we care to fully admit, and what we see of ourselves in her may not be something we are always comfortable with while watching. As you might guess this is not an easy character to play, however it would be impossible to find a better actress for the part than Aubrey Plaza. She plays this role to absolute perfection and hugely because of this performance the character feels so completely real to us.  

While this movie is hugely a comedy, there is little that is light about this movie. While some of the Batman jokes (many of which are very funny) wouldn't seem out of place in a typical light comedy, the majority of this film's humor is extremely dark. Often I laughed at a joke, but felt a little like I shouldn't be laughing, because of the sad or frightening nature of these jokes. However this does not diminish that the humor in this movie is really good and often laugh out loud hilarious.

This is the feature film debut for director and co-writer Matt Spicer and what a debut it is. I am very much looking forward to what this guy will do in the future as he has brought us a true work of cinematic art here.

This movie probably won't receive the mainstream popularity it completely deserves, but make sure you dear reader do not pass by this brilliant movie. I am sure there is much of this film that will stay imprinted in your mind like it will be forever imprinted in mine. This is certainly a movie you will never forget.

Movie Review: Logan Lucky

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A

Often times the films that stand above the rest are the ones that take the most chances and are the most original. With Logan Lucky that is not quite the case. This movie stands above so many other movies coming out of Hollywood today, not because of being original but because it does what other mainstream Hollywood movies do even better.

This is a movie filled with pure energy and even more important pure fun. There is never a scene in this movie that is boring. Every scene is filled with excitement and humor. The characters are fantastic. Again they are not the most original characters but they are handled with real sincerity and therefore feel more real to us than other similar characters from other similar movies. It doesn't hurt that the whole cast does a fantastic job. The movie has very clever script that ingeniously mixes a crime drama with a comedy and it does this perfectly. The movie works perfectly as both and neither the crime drama nor the comedy ever get in the way of each other. They in fact complement each other and make the other work all the better. The humor in this film ranges from very subtle to very broad and both are very funny. I simply laughed out loud a lot while watching this movie. The story contains a lot of movie clichés but they are handled with so much sincerity that they are completely believable. Steven Soderberg's direction is of the highest caliber. It moves the film along at a brisk pace that helps fill the movie with so much fun, but it never moves too fast to ever feel rushed.

This is a definite must see movie and just a lot of fun.

Movie Review: Atomic Blonde

 



Michael's Movie Grade: C+

A fun cold war thriller with a great visual style and lead character, but the story leaves a little to be desired.

Maybe the best thing about this movie is its great visual filmmaking. While there is little groundbreaking about this style does keep your attention and enjoyment even in the film's weakest moments. This visual style carries over to so much. Even the way certain hotel rooms and clubs look is absolutely beautiful. On top of that these set designs create a fantastic sense of atmosphere that can be seen throughout the whole movie. The cinematography is equally effective. It is great to look at but never shows off, but simply adds to the atmosphere. This is not like a Jean Luc Goddard film or a Alfred Hitchcock film, where the visual style astounds you and even expands the way you think of cinema, but it adds a lot of fun and enjoyment to this movie. Also important to this movie is that the main character is really interesting. She is a bit of a complex character, but what ever she does is fascinating and believable. Sadly she happens to be the only interesting character in this movie, as the rest are rather bland.

The story on the other hand seems like it could have used more time. Since we know the main character is going to survive in all the flashback scenes (which make up most of this movie), we need something else to gain suspense. Sadly this something else is kind of missing. The story isn't bad, per say, in fact it is kind of enjoyable. However we left with little to make suspenseful scenes work because our main source of suspense has been eliminated and replaced with very little.

This is a very violent movie. The fights are made realistic and bloody. This is also a movie often uses 1980's pop songs on the soundtrack. This kind of a thing worked for the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, because the action there is stylized. However with more realistic action the use of pop songs feels at odds with what we see on screen.

However big this movie's faults are I still enjoyed it because I really like the main character and the visual atmosphere. The movie also has a really good twist ending which I won't spoil here. It is very faulted but fun.

Movie Review: War For the Planet of the Apes

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

It is incredible how misleading this movie's previews were. They made it look like just another bland cliché action movie of the type I am honestly getting a bit tired of. However what we have here is quite different. This is instead an excellent and intense drama with some action scenes.

One of the things that makes this movie work so well is the main character. Cesar is a fascinating and very complex character. Not everything he does is always admirable, but it is always very well relatable and real. This is a character of many different sides and even though you don't always know what he is going to do next, you always believe him doing it. I respect that this movie is not afraid to be things drastically different from the average Hollywood blockbuster. This is shown heavily through the complexity of the Cesar, however that is not the only place it is shown. While there are explosions and big action scenes, there are also plenty of quiet scenes that add so much mood and atmosphere to the film in a way that most summer blockbusters would avoid (because "if they stop making noise for a second the audience will be bored out of their minds" says Hollywood filmmakers). There is also the fact that the movie asks the audience to do some work for themselves such as *gasp* reading subtitles. Adding to all this is how much effort was put into making this world. The world of the film feels so real while watching out, almost like you could reach out and touch it.

The film does have its faults too. Every attempt to add comedy into this movie falls flat, and most of the side characters don't have much in the way of personality (though the little girl is fantastic). One of the side characters (an ape from the zoo) is even kind of annoying. However these are a small price to pay for an excellent movie.

Movie Review: The Big Sick

 Michael's Movie Grade: A

It is no secret that many romantic comedies today simply feel rushed out with no real heart or effort. Even many of the best ones feel very formulaic. When you think about this context, The Big Sick is all the more amazing. While this film definitely dives into some of the clichés seen in almost every romantic comedy, there is such a feeling of believability and charm here that these clichés feel like they are naturally coming from the story and characters and not from a checklist.

What really makes this movie work is simply the characters. Each one even the most minor ones feel completely real. They are extremely well fleshed out. Very quickly in this movie we grow to really care about these people. That makes every tearjerker moment feel so natural and real. Because of this unlike so many other romantic comedies we never feel we are being manipulated at all. Throughout this whole film the characters never stop feeling real to you. This is only helped by the great performances by the whole cast.

Also helping is that the humor is actually funny. Again so many of today's romantic comedies never make me laugh even once. Here however I laughed plenty of times. There were a few jokes that missed but they were few and far between. This humor is not only funny but always comes out of the characters themselves. In turn this humor again makes the characters feel all the more real.

Overall this is a fantastic movie and definitely one that shows great romantic comedies can still be made.

Silent Film of the Month: Poor Papa (1928)

Run Time: 5 minutes. Studios: Universal Studios, Winkler Productions Director: Walt Disney. Writer: Walt Disney. Producers: Charles Mintz, George Winkler. Animators: Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harmon, Les Clark, Friz Freleng, Ben Clopton, Norman Blackburn, Rollin "Ham" Hamilton.

Now probably anyone who reads my blog knows I am a huge fan of Walt Disney. I am not only in love with Walt's popular feature films, but also his obscure ones, his theatrical cartoon shorts, his TV programs, and of course Disneyland itself. Being a huge fan of Walt, it is only natural that I have a special fondness for his early work. This is not only because I get to watch him evolve as a filmmaker, but because I also get to see him work as an actual film director (something he would not do much in his later career). Now with all this it should come as no surprise, that I am one of the many devotees to the great character of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (it is so cool I can say one of the many now as I couldn't before Disney regained the rights to the characters).

Before making his first Oswald cartoon, Walt Disney was making a series of shorts known as the Alice Comedies. This series was a reversal of what the Fleshchier Brothers had done with their Out of the Inkwell cartoons. In the Out of the Inkwell shorts, the animated Koko the Clown would enter into the real (live action) world. In the Alice Comedies a live action Alice, would enter an animated world. Walt had felt this series had run its course and wanted to make a fully animated series. For this series he created a rabbit known as Oswald.

Poor Papa was the first Oswald cartoon made but the 21st released. This was because Walt's distributors at the time (Universal and Charles Mintz) did not care much for the film. In one letter Mintz laid out four reasons for not liking the film. The first was that he felt the animation was too jerky, the second was that too much action was repeated, the third was he didn't like the character of Oswald because as he put it, "he has no outstanding trait", and lastly that the film just centered around gags with not enough story. Walt responded in another letter. He disagreed with the first point stating that maybe Mintz had watched the film at the wrong speed. On the third point he stated that Oswald was never supposed to have a recognizable trait, but rather his personality was meant to be stressed through his whole manner of acting. On the fourth point Walt said that he couldn't in the amount of time given for a one reel short film, make much of a detailed story and still make the audience laugh. Walt continued by stating that all the gags did in fact revolve around the storyline.

In this cartoon Oswald deals with a massive problem. The storks are constantly bringing him babies (a big problem for rabbits as you know) until it just becomes too much for poor Ozzie to handle. Oswald then decides he needs to take action.

Despite Mintz's objections this is an excellent cartoon. The humor is fast paced and quite funny. There are some imaginative ideas in the comedy such as Oswald's way of cleaning the young rabbits. The character animation here is fantastic and the characters really come to life through it. Even the small rabbits have slightly different personalities all displayed expertly through great animation. Though Oswald here is a bit of a different character than he would later become (he is definitely older and less energetic), he is still a great character that is very relatable and full of personality.

Resources Used

Oswald The Lucky Rabbit The Search For The Lost Disney Cartoons by David A. Bossert.