Eccentric Flower:199912/Columbines Film Festival

So - to continue our Film Retrospective from the previous entry:

Princess Mononoke is one of those movies where I look at the typical audience in attendance and I shudder. (The last one was Dick, which was marketed as a teen film but is really only funny for people who remember Watergate.) I've seen a whole lot of children going to Princess Mononoke, and I'm sorry to see that. No, it's not the violence; this film is actually very gentle and humane in its treatment of bloodshed. It's not the scariness; although some sequences are outright creepy, the kidlets have probably seen much worse.

It's that they'll be bored to tears. This is a movie about nothing less than technological revolution, about industrialization and how it affects the environment, about the dawn of the Age of Muskets and how it changed the face of battle and the role of the foot soldier - in the same way that the Age of Rifles would change it again centuries later. The fact that it also has wood spirits and giant wolves and boars and mystic traditions and so forth adds richness, but does not necessarily make the subject matter more fascinating to the tykes. I was a brainy kid, and I'm not sure I would have been fascinated by this film at, say, age eight.

Needless to say, though, I was certainly fascinated by it at age thirty-one. This is the kind of film that Disney will never make - not because their animation isn't good enough (Disney's animation is still the best in the world; sorry, anime fans), but because they won't make movies adult enough. They won't make movies intelligent enough.

Disney does not believe that animated films can be deep and complex. Disney is wrong.

My only complaint about the film is that I will need to see it with subtitles at some point. I believe I've noted that Kiki's Delivery Service with dubbing and with subtitles are both excellent films, but they are also very different, which is why I have both versions on tape.

The voice casting in this, in fact, was not as good as for Kiki - proof that Big Names aren't always the way to go. None of the voices really jarred me except one: I couldn't listen to Mama Wolf without hearing Dana Scully, and that Just Didn't Work.

I saw Dogma twice, and I'm glad I did. Sometimes you have to see a film twice to realize that parts of it aren't as good as you thought they were. Most of us are pretty easy to sell; we go to films and we get in that gleeful-child state that is prepared to be entertained by even a second-rate film. But when you see a film a second time, the holes become apparent. (Critics, if they're good, can see the holes on the first run, which is why they're critics - but also why they seem crabbier and pickier than normal humans.)

Dogma is still a pretty good film, mind you, and this is coming from someone who refuses to watch Kevin Smith's other films, on the grounds that they're just a bunch of people talking about nothing and kvetching and moaning for two hours. This film is actually engrossing - but it's telling that its biggest fault is that it's too talky. Smith has some good and legitimate points to make, and he makes them well, but he makes them over and over again in some cases and you want to say, "We get it, already! Cut away! Cut!"

Linda Fiorentino and Alan Rickman have never done a less-than-sublime acting job in their lives. As Bethany, a reluctant saver-of-the-world, and Metatron, the angel who serves as the voice of God and has to inform her of her role, these two keep the film moving. Damon and Affleck would keep it moving, but they're in the film less than you think they are (reportedly the producers weren't happy about that).

Chris Rock as Rufus is more bearable than usual; ditto Jason Mewes (I hope I spelled that right), whose disgusting Jay character would normally be hellish to take at this length, except that Bethany and Rufus keep verbally slapping him (fulfilling my unspoken desire to do so). Salma Hayek is at least given more of a part than she had in Wild Wild West. Various cameos are all perfectly cast (each time I went, the audience burst out laughing when the Cardinal appeared).

The interesting thing about this film, given the controversy - if you can believe this - is how religious it is. Sure, it questions just about every tenet of the Catholic faith, but it does so in a way that is affirming to faith, oddly enough. It's as if the film is saying, "Let's cut through some of this silliness that has grown around religion so we can get back to what's important - believing in something." At no time does the film question the existence of God, or the importance of God. Bethany - as the film's representative of humanity - ends the film with her faith reaffirmed.

It makes you wish that some of the Catholics who have been protesting this film would sit down and actually see the movie. Of course, I critique movies I haven't seen, on occasion, so I guess I can't cast stones.

Sleepy Hollow is, um, a hollow film. It's eye candy. The leads are beautiful and thoroughly bloodless; since I know Depp and Ricci can both actually act, I can only assume Tim Burton wanted it that way. All the interesting parts are played (and in many cases overplayed) by the supporting cast. Miranda Richardson is thoroughly wasted - and wasting a Richardson sister should be a felony offense.

It's a lot of fun to watch, and it's genuinely creepy in places, but it can't decide whether it wants to be a whodunit or a ghost story or a horror movie or a historical piece, so it grinds its gears a lot.

This film is that rare one where I can tell in advance that it won't be as much fun to see the second time.

Toy Story 2 - has everyone finished raving about this film yet? Are you all done?

Good. It's my turn.

This is the kind of film that makes you want to stand up and cheer. It's well-written, well-acted, well-rendered, and does all this while managing to be suitable for all ages and tastes. (Well, not all tastes. If you only watch Bergman films or Hiroshima, Mon Amour, this is probably not for you, but then, if you're one of those people, you probably jumped off a cliff from the utter despair of it all already, didn't you?)

This is a fine film. See it again and again. Bring the whole family.

Oh, and they unearthed Luxo Jr. for the occasion too. I'm really glad, because I got tired of explaining why I burst out laughing as soon as the Pixar logo appears. (I love watching him stomp on the I.) As the title card says, "This is why we have a desk lamp in our logo."

And thus endeth the Film Commentary.