The Blue Kite

Lan fengzheng; historical drama, China / Hong Kong, 1993, D: Tian Zhuangzhuang, S: Liping Lü, Xiaoman Chen, Cunxin Pu, Xiejian Li, Baochang Guo, Ping Zong, Quanzhong Chu

Beijing, 1 9 5 3. Librarian Lin Shaolong marries Shujuan. Their son Tietou is soon born, and dad gives him a blue kite as a present, but it gets stuck on a tree. Mao Zedong is the ruler of China, and introduces Communism to the country. During the Hundred Flowers Campaign, citizens are invited to freely express their opinions on the Party, but a man wrote a letter comparing Communists to man-eating tigers, and thus the Party initiates a punishment as an example to disobedient ones. Dad is selected to be sent via train to a labor camp, where he dies from a falling tree... Years later, dad’s friend Li marries Shujuan, but dies from malnutrition during the Great Leap Forward... In 1 9 6 6, Shujuan and the 12-year old Tietou move to the home of her third husband, but he too is accused of “anti-revolutionary” activity and taken away during the Cultural Revolution. When the Communists want to take Shujuan, too, Tietou hits one Communist with a brick on the head. Tietou is beaten up and left lying on the floor.  

Included in Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list, “The Blue Kite” is an uncompromising and remarkably subversive history lesson of Communist takeover of China. It is a pure, archetypal story seen numerous times: a political, ethnic or religious ideology takes control of a country, and presents itself as the best thing ever, the only dogma allowed in the lives of its citizens, until it becomes a form of fundamentalism, and anyone opposed to its rule (or even just seeking an improvement) will be persecuted. In one sequence in the kitchen, uncle Li questions the efficiency of the Great Leap Forward policy, pointing out how “communal kitchens waste untold amounts of food” and that backyard furnaces only produce “scrap metal”, receiving a knee-jerk reaction attack from a woman (“What are you saying? That is reactionary!”), but he just calmly explains: “Would I say it if I didn’t care deeply for this country?” Any criticism, even reasonable one, is a heresy. In one legendary sequence, dad goes to a toilet during a meeting, and when he returns finds out he has been "assigned" as an anti-revolutionary, to meet Mao's quota of traitors.

This is a political movie, but in a way it also isn’t, since most of the characters are just ordinary, apolitical civilians trying to live their lives, except that a political ideology is imposed on them and influences their lives one way or another, until it is impossible to separate their lives from the government. This is established already in the opening, when Shaolong and Shujuan plan to get married in early March 1 9 5 3, but just then the news is announced that Mao Zedong’s Communist ally Joseph Stalin died, as Tietou, the kid narrator explains: “Mum told me how because of Stalin's death she and dad had to postpone their wedding for ten days. And so my birthday came later as well”. The chronicle of Tietou watching as his mother loses three husbands to political purges and persecutions is at moments stale, but it is more often compelling, genuine, and an overall fascinating depiction of several rarely mentioned events, such as the Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Great Leap Forward. As unusual as it sounds, "The Blue Kite" could fit in a 'double bill' with "It's a Good Life", the allegorical "Twilight Zone" episode about petrified fear when faced with absolute totalitarian power of one person without any checks and balances. Ironically, it is indicative as much as it is telling that the same Communist Party of China in 1993 banned this movie depicting the policies of the Communist Party of China in the 50s and 60s, in effect condemning itself. The director Tian Zhuangzhuang keeps a level of ascetic authenticity throughout, but he also has lyrical symbolism in the form of the torn blue kite stuck on a tree, a motif of Tietou's childhood interrupted in a "suspended" life.

Grade:+++

Carnal Knowledge

Carnal Knowledge; drama / comedy, USA, 1971; D: Mike Nichols, S: Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, Candice Bergen, Rita Moreno, Carol Kane

College students Jonathan and Sandy are roommates. Sandy begins dating Susan, and loses his virginity with her. Secretly, Jonathan starts wooing Susan, and loses his virginity with her, too. However, she decides to stay with Sandy... A decade later, Sandy and Susan are married, while Jonathan refuses to get married, and only lives to have sex with attractive women. He finds his ideal woman, buxom Bobbie, and decides to try out living with her, uneasy about dumping such a beauty. However, after quitting her job, Bobbie spends entire days just sleeping in bed, while Jonathan works. She accuses him to cheating on her and demands they get married, but Jonathan refuses. Bobbie tries to commit suicide, but is saved by Sandy... A decade later, Sandy divorced Susan and is now with Jennifer. Jonathan, divorced from Bobbie, presents his short film about his ex girlfriends. The two men go out on the street.

Mike Nichols most aimless film, "Carnal Knowledge" is a collection of vignettes used as a justification to explore two male perspectives of sexuality: the idealistic marriage type aiming for love (Sandy) and the disillusioned bachelor aiming for casual sex (Jonathan). The movie can be described as a dignified failure, or as a weaker masterwork in the rich opus of the creative director. It has several good dialogues, solid performances, mostly led by Jack Nicholson and Ann-Margret playing a dysfunctional couple, but the episodic storyline never really knows where it is going or how to lead the viewers, which is why the ending feels incomplete and arbitrary. At the time of its premiere, it was somewhat controversial, yet today it feels just honest about relationships, simply depicting these types of people. The opening credits are funny, since the two protagonists are heard off screen contemplating about what would they prefer in a relationship ("You mean would I rather be the one who loves, or is loved?" - "Yeah." - "It's not that easy a question. But, I think I'd rather be in love."), and the writing displays sharpness and wit again when Sandy tries to starts a conversation with a girl he likes, Susan, which turns deliciously philosophical ("You mean, they're kidding themselves, because it's not really an act." - "Yes, it is an act, but they're the act. The act is them." - "But if it's them, then how can it be an act?" - "Because they're an act." - "But they're also real"). However, the writing falters in the second act, presenting a relationship crisis between Jonathan and Bobbie, yet the reason for their argument feels fake, as if they are arguing just for the sake of arguing, and thus their emotional turmoil is underserved and undeserved. Nicholson was a legend in the 70s, but this proves that not every one of his movies is a classic.

Grade:++

The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat; fantasy comedy, USA, 2003, D: Bo Welch, S: Mike Myers, Spencer Breslin, Dakota Fanning, Kelly Preston, Alec Baldwin, Amy Hill, Sean Hayes  

Conrad (12) and Sally (10) are left alone at home, while their mother forbids them to make any mess, since she plans a home party involving her co-workers and her extremely germophobic boss. A giant humanoid Cat with a hat shows up and plays games with the kids, but his two assistants Thing 1 and 2 cause a mess. The Cat and the kids chase after Larry, their mom’s arrogant suitor, who took their dog to the city to frame and discredit the kids. They get back home, but it practically falls apart because Conrad opened the Cat’s magic inter-dimensional crate. The Crate cleans up the house, and mom is able to hold the party with her boss.  

The movie that signaled the decay of comedian Mike Myers' talent (though that was already hinted at through several crude jokes in "Austin Powers 2"), "The Cat in the Hat" is a clumsy adaptation of Dr. Seuss' eponymous short children's book overstretched into a feature length film with unnecessary and excessive zany bits, though it is still watchable. Myers plays the title Cat as some sort of weird, hypermanic combination of Mary Poppins, Beetlejuice and Austin Powers, where the jokes mostly feel empty, forced or contrived, though he tries to be a cartoon character who strives to be untrammeled by any rules of reality. In one rare funny sequence that proves otherwise, the Cat is driving in a vehicle with the two kids, and gives his steering wheel to Conrad (12), who thinks that’s a bad idea, but the Cat goes: “A little voice inside of me is saying: ‘This is a bad idea!’, but I can barely hear that little voice because an even louder little voice is screaming: ‘Let the 12-year old drive!’”. As he even gives another wheel to Sally, and then adds a third one to himself, the vehicle starts spinning around its axis. In another charming bit, after inciting the kids to play games and leaving a whole mess in their house, the Cat admits: "If this were my house, I would be furious." Too many jokes backfire (in one lame one, the Cat dresses up as a plumber, with a butt-crack included on his pants); Sean Hayes is sadly underused in the role of the germophobic boss in the opening act; whereas the ending involving an interdimensional portal on Cat's crate is ludicrous. The movie fails to capture the simple charm of Dr. Seuss' book and the lesson learned by Conrad of constantly doing everything the opposite of what he is told, but some ideas are just so goddam insane they almost feel creative.

Grade:+

World of Tomorrow I & II

World of Tomorrow / World of Tomorrow: Episode Two: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts; animated science-fiction short, USA, 2015, 2017; D: Don Hertzfeldt, S: Julia Pott, Winona Mae

The 4-year old girl Emily is visited by a woman who is her clone from 227 years in the future. The clone Emily brings the kid Emily to the future to show her the new Internet, the Outernet; her job in the future as a robot supervisor on the Moon; a museum exhibit of a clone without a brain... The kid Emily is mostly oblivious to all of this. The clone Emily tells that in the future an asteroid will hit and destroy Earth, so she takes one memory of the kid Emily. The kid Emily is returned back to the present... The kid Emily is contacted by the 6th generation clone Emily, 230 years in the future, who is dysfunctional and needs to scan the kid Emily's memories to repair her gaps. The kid Emily is returned to the present, and Emily no. 6 to the future.

In a contrast to modern animated movies which have overwhelming animation yet underwhelming stories, Don Hertzfeldt's cult short movies "World of Tomorrow" I & II seem to have sucked all the effort from meticulous animation and instead invested it into a staggering, imaginative story. "World of Tomorrow" uses simple sketch-like animation and takes on the kids' curious question of how they will look like in the future to the extreme, here telling a story of the 4-year old Emily meeting her grown up clone from 227 years in the future, which shows her a glimpse of how the world looks like in the 23rd century. In doing so, Hertzfeldt dwells on some thought-provoking, almost surreal philosophical contemplations on how humans change with technology, and what is the border of perversion of human meddling with nature ("For end-of-life procedures for our less affluent citizens in the lower classes, the face of a deceased loved one  can be peeled off, preserved, and stretched over the head of  a simple animatronic robot"). Almost as some sort blend between the concept of a man from the future meeting his ancestor of "Back to the Future" and clones of "Gemini Man", "World of Tomorrow" fascinates thanks to a contrast of the 4-year old Emily's naivety and her clone's wisdom ("That is the thing about the present, Emily Prime. You only appreciate it when it is the past"; "Now is the envy of all of the dead"). Part II is weaker, since it falls too much into the abstract, until it almost feels like an experimental film, yet even it has several incredible moments, such as Emily's clones no. 4, 6 and 7 being "memory tourists" and thus visiting Emily as a kid reading under a tree, Emily as a grown up during a date, and Emily as an old, sick woman inside a futuristic medical unit. The "broken" clone no. 6 feels awkward, yet some of the lines are impressive ("I have memories of dying two times, and these memories traveling across three Emilys"). The story shows a future so advanced that it became alien to humans of the present, fittingly consolidating its theme of the link between the change of time and the change of mankind.

Grade:+++

Despicable Me

Despicable Me; computer animated comedy, USA, 2010, D: Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin, S: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fisher, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Kristen Wiig 

After a young new villain, Vector, gets huge media attention for stealing the great Pyramid of Giza, his rival villain Gru wants to top him by shrinking the Moon—and stealing it. However, Vector has the coveted shrinking ray in his impenetrable fortress, so Gru and his yellow Minions forge a plan. Gru notices that Vector allowed the three orphan girls Margo, Edith and Agnes to enter the fortress to buy cookies from them. Gru thus adopts the girls in his house and sends them to Vector’s fortress once again, hiding miniature robots inside their cookies which help him steal the shrinking ray. When Vector kidnaps the girls, Gru rescues them, and decides to keep them, becoming a better person.  

For a movie of such reputation, “Despicable Me” is good, but nowhere near as funny or ingeniously creative as one would have expected. At the time of its premiere, it was hyped as the best thing ever, when in reality it is closer to a standard episode of “Dexter’s Lab”. Its biggest legacy is the proliferation of the yellow Minions in modern pop culture, which became the trademark of the film’s numerous sequels and spin-offs. “Despicable Me” works the best in the intro, when a kid falls off from a platform on to the Pyramid of Cheops, yet it just bounces him up, revealing to be just a balloon mockup, and that the real pyramid was “stolen” by a villain, Vector. The movie follows the other, "lesser" villain, Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), with several gags that describe hs charachter—in the intro, he spots a crying kid on the street, then blows up a baloon animal for the kid, only to pop it with a needle to "anti-comfort" him; whereas even his back yard has yellow, neglected grass, as opposed to the ideal green gardens of his neighbors. Gru is a strong antagonist, and the movie doesn't have a strong protagonist all the way until the three orphan girls, Margo, Edith and Agnes, show up, who, as incompatible as they are to this story, give it a soul and lead it to a satisfaying conclusion by pulling Gru away from his "villain solipsism" to turn him into the hero at the end. As ludicrous and flimsy this concept of the villain Gru adopting the three orphan girls is, it still works, because it has far more sense than the initial plot of Gru trying to steal the Moon, which is ludicrous and flimsy and does not work. A fun, light, albeit inconsequential comedy film, though it is indicative that it works better during its emotional moments than in its humorous ones.

Grade:++

El Norte

El Norte; drama, USA / UK, 1983, D: Gregory Nava, S: Zaide Silvia Gutierrez, David Villalpando, Lupe Ontiveros, Trinidad Silva, Ernesto Gomez Cruz  

Guatemala. Rosa and her brother Enrique are Maya Indians living in a small village. Exhausted by the conditions on the coffee plantation, their father wants to join a socialist movement and start a worker’s union, and is thus killed by the government forces in an ambush, who hang his decapitated head on a tree. Enrique and Rosa flee north, aiming to reach the US, inspired by flattering rumors of the country told to them by their grandma. On the Mexican border, they are betrayed by a border smuggler who wanted to rob them until realizing they only have 20$. Another smuggler helps them cross through a sevage pipe to Los Angeles. Enrique finds a job in a restaurant and Rosa as a housemaid. Rosa gets sick from a typhus caused by rats and dies, and Enrique misses his flight to Chicago to be with her in the hospital. He remains scouting for hard labor jobs.   

Immigrants drama “El Norte”, included in Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list, is a bitter commentary on how the luxury of the upper class is sustained by the poor workers of the lower class, summed up in the fates of brother and sister Enrique and Rosa. The story is remarkably simple, almost banal, and in some other author’s hands it could have been a soap opera, yet here, thanks to the director Gregory Nava, it somehow feels genuine, authentic, and inspires compassion: if you watch just 10 minutes of the film, you are hooked and want to see it to the end. Besides a chronicle of the journey and accommodation of the migrants, it also indirectly briefly touches upon the rarely talked about topic of the Mayan genocide, at least in the opening act, when the Maya people were persecuted in the Guatemalan Civil War as an extended collective punishment for the allegations of Communist collaboration of some of their members. 

While this summary may initially sound suspicious, since the film tackles the typical “social issue” themes and carries a “messages” about injustice, it is never manipulative, predictable, nor does it aim to be “award bait”. “El norte” is a fascinating ‘raw’ drama that is honest, yet is even more fascinating during some moments of magical realism that blends in nature elements: the sequence where Rosa enters her empty home, walks around and only finds butterflies flying in the room; Rosa sitting on the meadow, a goat stops and looks at her; Rosa having a dream of her dead father appearing in the garden, with two white peacocks lying next to her. At times, the movie has a knack for depicting Americans in the supporting roles: in one funny moment of the waiters arguing, Len says: "Why don't you shit your bed and roll over?", yet Bruce gives a surprisingly gentlemen-style response: "Len, my ears are not garbage cans!". "El Norte" has no stance on all of these events, it is just an unbiased depiction of the archetype story of people on the bottom trying to achieve a better life, but they are stuck in a "suspended life", or better said a "suspended happiness", as their idealistic goal is always shifted further and further away beyond their reach. 

Grade:+++

Grumpy Old Men

Grumpy Old Men; comedy, USA, 1993; D: Donald Petrie, S: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, Daryl Hannah, Kevin Pollak, Burgess Meredith, Buck Henry, Ossie Davis

Minnesotta during winter. Retired and divorced John and Max are two best 'enemy-buddies', who are always arguing even though they are neighbors. Max's son Jacob is running for mayor, while John's daughter Melanie is not seeing her partner for a while, contemplating a divorce. When a retired, but still attractive painter Ariel moves as their neighbor, both John and Max fall in love with her, and thus begin to argue even more between each other. Ariel is attracted to John, but as a favor to Max, John deliberately pretends to be rude and breaks up with her. Ariel begins a relationship with Max, yet when Max admits what happened Ariel returns to John and the two get married. John's tax debt is declared null and void by Jacob, who became the mayor in the meantime.

If you are tired of boring neighbors, the two wacky protagonists from “Grumpy Old Men” are just the right thing for you. John and Max are the types of people you would wish to have either to be your neighbors or your grandpas, since they are a barrel of laughs and never seem to stop. They are played by the duo Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, who have curiously starred in six movies together in their last decade of acting careers in the 90s—out of ten films they made in total, as if they waited until the end to get it going. They are the best ingredients in this light comedy of lukewarm inspiration that did not aim for any higher proficiency, since the duo has enough charm, mostly in funny one-liners: in one scene, Max chastises John for being such a weak fisher, boasting with a fishing rod (“The green hornet's caught more fish than you've lied about!”); over the window, Max mischievously uses a universal remote control from his home to constantly change channels just as John was watching lottery on TV; and he gives his due to an IRS agent, too (“Why don’t you do a favor to the world; put your lip over your head, and swallow!”). Burgess Meredith is underused as John's dad, yet his one good comic line is almost the best in the entire film ("Looks like Chuck's taking old one-eye to the optometrist!"). The love triangle involving Max, John and Ariel (very good Ann-Margret) is kind of a weak link in the plot, but she is a very endearing character when she audaciously invites herself to John’s house at night—who secretly enjoys it no matter how much of a gentleman he pretends to be. "Grumpy Old Men" is no high comedy, yet its relaxed tone, amusing jokes and cozy winter landscapes ensure that it is no waste of the viewers' time. 

Grade:++

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood; drama, USA, 2019, D: Marielle Heller, S: Matthew Rhys, Tom Hanks, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Cooper, Maryann Plunket  

Problematic Esquire journalist Lloyd Vogel gets the assignment to write a short article about the kind Fred Rogers, the host of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. Even though skeptical at first, Lloyd is gradually enchanted by Rogers’ humanity as he accompanies him through the TV studio and daily walks, and is persuaded by Rogers to make up with his estranged father before the latter’s death. The article is so beloved by the editor, it gets on the front page.  

If you are tired of nihilistic, misanthropic, cynical movies, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood“ will be your hero of the season. It features one of the most endearing, sympathetic and fascinating characters lately, Fred Rogers (excellent Tom Hanks), who is such a gentle soul and has such wise innocence that he is able to heal any person he encounters, including the journalist Lloyd Vogel who is interviewing him and has a tragic past. Surprisingly, the movie completely embraces Rogers and his mentality, finding no darker sides or faults in him, no need to be reserved, and it is thus remarkable to have such a positive, considerate character appear on the big screen, which itself feels almost therapeutic. In one sequence, upon trying to schedule an interview with him, Lloyd receives a phone call from Rogers, so he exits the noisy apartment, to the hallway, as Rogers tells him: “You know what’s the most important thing in the world to me now? Talking on the phone with Lloyd Vogel.” Rogers is so nice he stops ever so often to thank everyone he meets, including thanking Lloyd’s wife for picking up the telephone; and as Rogers and Lloyd are traveling in a subway train, a bunch of kids see Rogers and spontaneously start singing the theme song from his TV show: “Won’t you be my neighbor...” This ‘slice of life’ movie does not always work, for instance in the agonizing sequence of Lloyd making up with his sick father, which crosses the good taste and goes into the melodramatic territory, yet other than that, the director Marielle Heller keeps it under control, including with humor (imitating Rogers’ miniature sets, many exterior scenes here are presented as miniatures, including toy cars on a bridge and paper buildings). "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" is one of those movies where one character carries the entire identity of the story, and one is surprised how benign and kind he is, since he shows that sometimes kind words can unlock an iron door.

Grade:+++

Dreamship Surprise: Period 1

(T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1; science-fiction parody, Germany, 2004; D: Michael Herbig, S: Michael Herbig, Christian Tramitz, Anja Kling, Til Schweiger, Rick Kavanian, Sky Du Mont  

In the year 2304, colonists from Mars are attacking Earth, so the Earth council conjures up a plan: they will send the crew of Spaceship Surprise — Cpt. Kork, Mr. Spuck — to travel back in time, to the year 2004, when a UFO crashed in Nevada and its technology enabled people to colonize Mars, thereby preventing colonization of that planet from ever happening. The time machine, in the form of a couch, sends the two, plus Taxi driver Rock and Metapha, to the 14th century, then to the 19th century and the Wild West, until they finally arrive to the year 2004. They destroy the crashed UFO, and return back to the year 2304, where Earth is thus saved.  

At the time of its premiere, this feature length adaptation of comedian Michael “Bully” Herbig’s TV sketch became the 2nd highest grossing German movie of its time with a 51.3 million € gross (though it was just at #11 place when the ticket sales are counted, as over 9,000,000 people saw it at the theaters), just behind “Manitou’s Shoe” on the first place, also directed by Herbig, thus making Herbig the double master of Germany’s box office at the time. He didn’t use this lucky streak wisely, though, or maybe he even couldn’t—since “Traumschiff Surprise” is a weak comedy that aged badly, and signaled his limited range which quickly collapsed, thereby becoming forgotten as fast as it appeared. The majority of the jokes are lame, the story is a mess as it doesn’t even follow the environment of the quasi “Star Trek” crew (they travel back in time, to the 14th, 19th and 21st century, which means they appear in the eponymous spaceship for only 10 minutes!), but its biggest problem is that the movie simply isn’t funny. Herbig rips off inferior sexual innuendo gags from the inferior sequel “Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me”, which makes these gags even more inferior.   

For instance, the Surprise spaceship has a shape of a giant penis—and when the space Taxi flies away from it, it looks like it is ejaculated into space. Unfunny. While in the 14th century dungeon, Taxi driver Rock sits, places a rubber toy on his lap, and encourages Mr. Spuck ("Mr. Spit" in English) to touch it, since it spews a long tongue, yet as Cpt. Kork looks at their shadows, it looks as if Spuck is touching Rock’s penis which keeps popping up. Still unfunny. As they are about to be teleported, a crew member uses a device to scan Spuck, and the device beeps around the latter’s crotch; Kork orders Spuck to “take his pants off”, he complies, they see Spuck is wearing metal underwear, as he explains it is there to protect himself: “Teleportation always goes on my balls”. Still unfunny. They finally find a miniature UFO in 2004, a miniature frog alien sits on it, drinks from a beer can, coughs, so Spuck gives him an asthma inhaler, but this just causes the alien to explode, as its blue blood covers Spuck’s face. Still unfunny. This is garbage humor. Nothing works here, everything is forced or contrived or juvenile, with the only reason for the characters to travel to the Wild West is to have Sky Du Mont reprise his role of the villain from “Manitou’s Shoe”. A lame populist comedy that scraps the bottom of the barrel and leaves no stone unturned, “Traumschiff Surprise” seems more like a scam from a 12-year old that half-heartedly assembled several lame gags just to sell them to the naive audience than a truly worthy, inspired comedy that would represent talent of these actors.  

Grade:+

Ad Astra

Ad Astra; science-fiction drama, USA, 2019, D: James Gray, S: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland  

In the future, sporadic antimatter waves keep hitting Earth, coming from Project Lima, a spaceship sent to find life in the Galaxy, but which stopped at Neptune. Astronaut Roy McBride is sent to Moon, and then to Mars, because his dad is thought to be on Project Lima, the only survivor after the crew mutinied to get back to Earth. Roy sneaks into a spaceship flying to Neptune, but accidentally causes an airlock failure which kills all other astronauts who didn’t carry a spacesuit helmet. Roy arrives to Project Lima, wants to take his dad back, but the latter ejects himself into space. Roy destroys Project Lima and returns back to Earth.  

"Ad Astra" is a more ambitious, meditative science-fiction film, though it does suffer from a meandering storyline, and one has seen much cheaper art-films about father-child estrangement. The film starts off with a dazzling futuristic sequence in which astronaut Roy (Brad Pitt) descends down the stairs of a giant, 20 mile tall antenna-station that reaches the stratosphere, yet as unknown antimatter waves hit it and it starts to collapse, Roy is forced to jump down to Earth, falling and falling, until he opens up his parachute and lands safely. It is a great intro, yet the rest of the movie never quite reaches that level. "Ad Astra" starts with a story about Roy having to find find the source of the antimatter waves to save Earth, yet as he travels further and further towards Nepture, the movie itself moves further and further away from this initial story, and floats in vague, abstract directions that shift focus towards his relationship with his father. Several plot points just come and go, and just disappear without playing any role later on. For example, there is this suspenseful episode of Roy and other astronauts being chased by smugglers on lunar vehicles on the Moon, yet as soon as Roy leaves Moon to travel to Mars, this is forgotten, and we never hear anything about those smugglers. Later on, all the characters on Mars are also forgotten, and one wonders why introduce them in the first place. Two sequences of deaths on spaceships feel ill-conceived (Roy killing an aggressive monkey by decompressing him until just blood is seen on the window; Roy accidentally triggering air supply failure which kills astronauts) and should have been simply cut. The finale of Roy trying to reconnect with his dad in Neptune's orbit is also far fetched and never truly rings true, whereas it leaves several questions open (wasn't his dad aware the spaceship was causing all this damage to Earth by emitting antimatter waves?), sacrificing everything for its message about how people should not look for life in space, but should care about life on Earth now, though it does feature a strong quote by his dad: "Sometimes, the human will must overcome the impossible".

Grade:++

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; fantasy comedy, USA, 1971, D: Mel Stuart, S: Peter Ostrum, Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Roy Kinnear, Julie Dawn Cole, Denise Nickerson

Willy Wonka, the most famous candy maker in the world, announces that he hid five tickets to his chocolate factory in chocolate bars. Millions of people frantically buy chocolate bars, yet only five kids find them, including the poor Charlie (12), who lives with his four bedridden grandparents and widowed mother. Charlie brings his grandpa to the factory tour, led by Wonka and his dwarf employees, the Oompa-Loompas. The other four egoistical kids get eliminated: Augustus falls into the chocolate river and gets sucked up in a pipe; Violet eats too much candy and inflates like a balloon; Veruca wants to have the golden eggs of geese in a barn, climbs up on a scale and falls down through the trap door; TV fanatic Mike wants to be teleported by a ray into a TV set, but just exits the screen as small as two inches. Charlie returns a special new candy back to Wonka, refusing to take it home, and thus Wonka declares him the winner of the contest, and his heir to the factory.  

One of the most famous live action adaptations of Roald Dahl's novels and one of the most unusual roles of comedian Gene Wilder in one, this peculiar comedy cleverly evades traps of children's movies to offer a universally fun film—minus an ocassional lukewarm musical sequence—though it does stray a little bit too much towards black comedy in the second half. The first half is wonderfully funny and irresistibly charming, offering some deliciously burlesque jokes—in one, after the whole world is in frenzy to try to find the golden ticket in Wonka's chocolate bars, the film presents the case of the spoiled girl Veruca whose rich father bought 750,000 bars and ordered all his employees in the factory to check for as many as possible to find one. When a TV reporter announces that a girl, Violet, found a ticket, he begins to interview her father, but the girl just grabs the microphone and redirects it towards herself, saying: "Dad, they don't want you!", and then goes on to boast about her achievement for the camera. The highlight is one gem of a joke worthy of the Monty Python's, in which a patient is lying on the couch and having this exchange with his psychiatrist: "I dreamed the Archangel appeared and whispered into my ear where to find the golden ticket!" - "And what exactly did he say?" - "What difference does that make? It was just a dream..." - "Shut up and tell me where the ticket is!" However, the second half is weaker and questionable, since its surreal-bizarre ideas sometimes overshadow the story (and its quality). The message that all the selfish, spoiled kids are punished, while Charlie's good heart leads him to victory is wonderful, yet the former is presented through weird ideas, the dumbest being how the kid Mike is shrunk to be transported to a TV screen. Due to such uneven junction of the two parts, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" is uneven, yet it has its own kind of logic which assured it cult status.

Grade:++

Shine

Shine; drama, Australia, 1996; D: Scott Hicks, S: Geoffrey Rush, Noah Taylor, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sonia Todd, Lynn Redgrave, Chris Haywood, John Gielgud

Adelaide, Australia. David Helfgott is a child piano prodigy pressured by his overbearing father Peter to dedicate more and more of his life to music. David visits a music teacher, and wins several competitions, yet when he is invited to study in the US, his father burns the letter of invitation in the fire stove, claiming that David would destroy the family at the age of 14 if he left. Several years later, a teenage David defies his father and accepts to study at the Royal College of Music in London. He experiences a nervous breakdown while playing Rachmaninoff's 3rd Concerto in public, is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and sent to a mental asylum. As a grown up, David plays a piano at a restaurant, but has to be under surveillance by caretakers. He marries Gillian and returns to fame by playing concerts.

A disputed biopic of Australian pianist David Helfgott, "Shine" is an emotional and unconventional film about people who devote their whole life to their talent and passion, until this takes a toll on their private life and mental health, yet it will not be for everyone's taste. The film's main problem is that the first hour, which follows David's struggles as a kid and a teenager, is much more coherent and easier to identify with than the last 40 minutes which follow David as a grown up who suffers from schizoaffective disorder and is sometimes difficult to "digest" due to his manic fast talking and inappropriate behavior (jumping on a trampoline in the garden wearing only a raincoat, so his butt is seen each time he falls down). Cinematically, this second segment is a "dead end", since the movie does not know what to do with a grown up David, who is lost. The best moments are the one involving David as a kid who has to endure his strict father Peter, who tells him that "only the strong survive" and that "the weak will be crushed like insects", pressuring him to win as many competitions as possible, causing the kid to revolt in unusual ways (i.e. defecating in the bathtub). The highlight is his first live concert in London, when the sound suddenly disappears, as David plays the piano keyboard on "autopilot", signalling his imminent mental collapse. Geoffrey Rush is strong and energetic as the grown up David, though he takes up only 45 minutes of the film's running time, and thus almost feels like a supporting actor who shows up in the final chapter. Some of his babel has charm (when asked how many music competitions he took part in, he drily replies: "You can't lose them all"), yet a fair share leads nowhere and shows why the authors rushed to conclude his segment faster than his coming-of-age one. However, he has a small triumph when he plays Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" with such energy that it sweeps you off your feet.

Grade:++