Emoticons

This title of Emoticons seems to me the most intuitive for the latest Disney-Pixel collaborative work of cinematic art 'Inside Out' because of the powerful way it imagines emotions at the same time making them visually accessible and understandable to all age groups and audiences.

Emoticons are unanimously understood in our daily communications as expressive of our moods and of different aspects of our personality at a specific point in time, as well as showing what we might be feeling or doing as a result of the emotions we experience. 

From the same standpoint, 'Inside Out' tells the story of a 12 year old animated hero and her relationship with herself, her parents and her friends/peers from the view point of how she is feeling at different times and of how she reacts to those feelings.

The break down of emotions is simple: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and the 'green one' which I found a bit intrusive at times because more complex and in a league of its own -the green character does not come across so much as an emotion as a coming of age feeling of being outraged by anything none cool or embarrassing-. 

Funnily enough the other emotions being so well and clearly defined are memorable whereas the green 'Inside' character as I like to refer to it is less evident as an emotion and sensed rather as being a state of mind of a young women on the threshold of young adulthood.

This brings us to the theme of story; mainly a coming of age growing pains story of a girl learning to deal with sadness as well as joy in a mature way. 

The message is that sadness needs to be acknowledged and assimilated to all the other emotions, working together in the brain or 'headquarters' as they refer to the brain in the film, in order for things to function well. 

Ignoring pain and sadness do not bring happiness, and joy alone cannot make the personality grow or reach new heights of maturity and emotional intelligence. These changes happen with both experience and a healthy balance between all the feelings a growing child should both internalise and externalise. 

The story is thus about all these colourful animated characters embodying emotions and this brings these emotions to life inside the growing girl. The characters are equally the 'outside' characters and these 'inside' emotions characters. 

The plot takes these moving talking emotions from one place to the next inside our heroine helping her come to terms with her pain and fears into a new becoming in a new place in her life and within herself. 

It teaches her that being the strong happy one for others isn't the only way forward and that sometimes sadness is required to bring Joy back through the love of family and friends.

The personalities are depicted as islands within her and this is very creatively done by bridging the islands to the 'headquarters' where the emotions and core memories are held.

Core memories are colour coordinated according to feelings and there is even an actual place for the imagination where all her wishes are depicted, a train of thought -literally-, as well as an abstract area of the brain shown to us as an actual place where emotions can be fragmented and disintegrated from one dimension to another.

The imaginary friend and the cute boy fantasies are also objectified and represented in the girl's mind as brief but well thought out characters who fulfill a certain role as they would do in her actual life.

The animation is of course very nicely worked out with strong voices and naturally fitting voice overs but the most extraordinary aspect of the film is this original idea of creating characters for emotions instead of just emotional characters.

The entertainment value is huge with laughs and big personalities but the educational aspect is also clear; it summarises and clearly explains how emotions may work together for or against us and how we can enhance our personalities through a marriage of emotions rather than a disintegration and fragmentation of feelings.

A very imaginative concept and very creatively achieved. A new way for understanding emotions: an 'Emoticoncept.' 

A moving film and a 'EmoJiOY' to watch.

 

Marvel-lous Ant-ics

Marvel has marveled us meticulously with malicious villains and delicious heroes over the years and although the characters are usually very versatile, it seems on the surface a little forced to chose a mini me type hero for the latest addition to the Marvel family.

On the surface, it does indeed seem like someone in the movie making 'think tank' had ran out of ideas and then thought: 'O I know let's chose ants as an analogy this time and make up a tiny hero'.
But actually having seen this film, it offers a little more than one might think at first glance.

Yes the characters own the usual 'earthy' humor we learnt to expect from Marvel over the years (if I may use an an-t-alogy here, no pun(s) intended), and yes the plot has the usual obstacles building up for the heroes who are trying to save the world, and yes also to the predictability of the repeated themes of redemption -both internally for the characters and externally in that they need to save the world-.

But, no, this film does not repeat absolutely all of the same patterns, because although it does rely on props and gimmicks and tricks to show us how our tiny hero saves the world, it is inventive in its editing style and camera work.

Close ups and long shots are of course familiar to all movie makers but what makes this movie stand out a little more is the fantastic fast and furious camera action shots and very cleverly engineered edits that take us very smoothly on a ride of adventure from scene to scene.
All transitions are executed immaculately with the background made big or small to suit the versatile size of the hero as he changes back and forth from large to small.
All of this is very smartly done with hazy backdrops or toys and props as well as with apt choices of shots at the right times and the right places to give the illusion of tiny or large sizes and to imply varied perspectives.
All in all, a crafty work of editorial and camera achievement.

The other positive aspect is that of reinforcement which validates the plot and hero.
The hints (and one appearance of, but I won't say whom) to other Marvel characters give continuity and therefor legitimacy to the film.
The movie is also made more believable and allows identification for the audience through the reinforcement of the theme of redemption. This is achieved through creating a parallel between two running personal stories, being resolved simultaneously, as well as side by side with the main external plot of redemption and of saving the world from the big bad.

The marvelous ants are used both as a tool to give the film momentum and team work ethics as well as to convey the idea that anything is possible with the mind; i.e: where there is a will there is a way.
This is a pleasant positive thought to have running through our minds in the course of this entertaining if slightly predictable cinematic experience.

An additional bonus is that Douglas adopts his usual suave laid back yet emotionally invested on screen personality whilst the honesty and 'almost innocence' of Ant Man balances out his intellectual intelligent side.

Marvel's own brand of Chemistry and Science have shrunk the hero this time honey not the kids.

Enjoy detailed tiny camera magic and meticulous edits on the big screen 'cos' this kind of work certainly cannot be replicated on stage!

Validated Validi-Ted

The humour in the sequel to Ted is what we have come to expect and either love or hate from Seth Macfarlane, The 'Family Guy' type of wry sarcastic dark humour with a not so 'laugh out loud' quality but more with a 'think about issues and make them funny' angle, appeals to some but not all.

Seth basically allows himself humour about all subject matters and delves into free criticism of all things with a crooked metaphorical smile.
Ted 2's comedy is just as subtle, with the topics of racism (racial references), online media, drug abuse, political or legal corruption and gender differences or choices at play, and he dissects and exposes them in a quick and extremely subtle way.

The serious topic of civil rights is explored fully during the action antics of Ted and his crew: i.e the film questions what defines humanity and how to command its recognition, but the main theme which surprisingly comes to the forefront is actually a more deeply set psychological or existential one.
This comes across as mainly this: can we create beings from our ideas/minds and our will power, from wanting them badly enough? Is the human psyche so powerful that it can make a reality out of an inanimate object or a fantasy world. Can we validate our subjective feelings and make them real to everyone else?

Ted personifies the seemingly nonexistent person but through film and the power of imagination and the will of his 'co-pilot' the brilliantly versatile Mark Wahlberg, Ted comes to life universally and is ultimately recognised publicly and by the masses as real. He is validated somehow or gains validi-Ted through the love that Wahlberg has for him as a character in his own life.

This is paralleled by what films do for us: they create a reality for us on screen and make it valid.They create characters and make them real. Going a step further here, they create animated beings from inanimate objects. (Ted is no longer a teddy bear but a moving talking and conscious feeling real character).

The scenes and references to Comicon and to fictionally created figures and characters reinforce this idea of both children and adults alike feeling and creating their own world, validating it to each other through wanting it badly enough.
This is when emotional fiction becomes very real to each individual, through will power and empathy.

The very clever, 'noir' and silent hidden humour in the film is made more accessible to the audience through special guest appearances. Can you guess who? Firstly an actor renowned for his very soothing voice, and secondly a very serious looking actor.
The latter actor provides us in my opinion with one of the most entertaining and surreal short clip moments in the movie. This scene, ironically enough, is set at the supermarket counter over the purchase of a Trix cereal box- no pun intended with either Trix (tricks) or cereal (serial)-.You will know what I mean about the pun once you find out which actor I am referring to and think of his recent film sequels.

The most classic line in the movie for me was the one about women's eyes and what they tell men: some women have bedroom eyes (I am using the terms loosely here-not the actual terms used in the movie- as they were referred to a little more dramatically by Ted) and other women have 'my precious give me the ring eyes'.
I personally thought that was genius comedy from Seth (and team), both alluding to men wrongly reducing women to two categories but also to how in fact some women are either too easy going or just plain 'lord of the rings' psycho 'my precious' about commitment.

This is a taster of Seth's humour generally and does cause upheaval in some circles but frankly since he exposes all subject matters equally sarcastically, no one can accuse him of being prejudiced in any way. All things are funny when all things are ridiculed but not all things can be ridiculed when only a few are selected for humour ,if you get my drift.

Worth a couple of hours if you are in the mood for a taste of dark cynicism with a pinch of comedy 'noire'.

Directing Happiness

Carlo Mazzacurati's (apparently final) film: 'La Sedia della Felicita' or loosely translated: 'The Chair of Happiness' is a really delightful take on both daily human interactions and foibles as well as a deeper exploration of the meaning of taking the director's seat and finding happiness or the treasure of this career line within the journey of directing itself.

It is a look at how a director's passion for his work can bring him the ultimate happiness. This is the director's very clever and subtle way of seeing this profession with all it's ups and downs not just as an end result of successful completion but as a powerful tool of discovery. Herein lies the happiness; it is in the joy of the journey, in the adventure along the way, rather than just in the end result.

The story is simply told about a tattoo artist and a manicurist fated to meet and to look for a hidden treasure in an artistic looking chair. There lies the metaphor of finding happiness in the director's chair.

The characters are all very artistically sculpted; the story in fact unfolds very quickly at times but with very clever emotional shifts within the characters themselves as well as in their interactions with one another. The shifts maybe fast and furious but they are very believable, making the characters both real as well as fictional because of the quick pace of the film.
The only slow part was towards the end where we feel that it no longer matters because we now know the characters really well.

This film is one of the most intricate exposition of mixed versatile characters that I have seen (in a film of one and a half hours) in a very long time.
European films are notorious for their twisting plots and strong story lines as well as their powerful characters and this does not vary much from that particular formula except in how detailed the characters are drawn out for us in such a short period of 'filmic' time.

Exceptional character development throughout:  from the fiery sweet and slightly clumsy manicurist to the caring both clever and clueless tattooist, to the freaky mountaineers, to the complex greedy priest, to the weird slightly believable fortune teller, even to the secondary characters surrounding the main ones, all of these characters are so thought out and well exposed that one wonders at whether these could in fact be real people in the director's life.

The humour in the film is both ironic and superbly inserted at the right times and places, including comic caricatures of certain strange personalities who add a lot of charm to the film.
Even animals were given intelligent 'lines' in the movie and given certain expressions or reactions mirroring our own as an audience (watch out for the bear in one of the last scenes: a superb insertion for comic value, as well as emphasising the irony of life and it's unexpected turns).

The shots are mostly close ups and mid range shots to work out the characters' motivations and relationships for us as an audience. Two very close up shots come hand in hand with one tragic but comical moment towards the end. The event is followed by a shot of the tattoo artist (main character) facing the camera straight on -looking at the audience in fact- as if to say these things happen in real life even if this is fiction. This tragic comic scene is also followed by a close up of the statue of a Madonna in church, and this perhaps is Carlo's own take on the many faces of religion.

The theme of religion is in fact one of the themes he explores, exposing it as a double edged knife; both as compassionate belief and as a tool for control. It is perceived by him as dependent on human motivations.The priest is a very interesting character embodying the above duality

The choice of characters as artists with artists' tools and their versatile purpose is part of the theme of Art as a happy world where human beings can adapt their crafts and learn and develop as well as find happiness in the process of creative art itself.

This theme is directly linked to Carlo's metaphor of the director's chair in the movie. He sees perhaps his own happiness as coming into being through the artistic process of directing and creating a fictional world with the tools of an artist.

The chair in the film (where the treasure is hidden) in fact becomes the treasure itself as its value is in the journey the characters take and what they discover about each other trying to find the chairs.
They find their own feelings and touch other people's lives along the way.(See the scene with the Chinese boy as a direct example of this). Even the flower seller (exaggerated on purpose as a caricature of an Indian native) is projected as part of the happy process of directive creation. The character caricatures drawn for us are part of the director's artistic process.

Carlo does not try to mask his craft; he exaggerates the characters on purpose with humour and costumes and colours to share with us his secret treasure: that of the joy found in ones true artistic calling in life.

The props such as costumes, a crown and jewels, as well as flowers in a cemetery and the guns at one point in the film, are there only as reminders that these objects are fluid images, they don't determine the characters or the outcome of their journey and that the outcome in fact does not matter as much as the road followed and the discoveries made along the way.

The magician scene with the twisting turning chair comes in too as a reinforcing agent to the idea that directing is similar in fact to painting and drawing and magic, it is like any other artistic profession and is sometimes uncontrollable and random.

The chair also takes part in other scenes as an actual chair for resting as well as a chair in odd places, hardly fitting or being torn apart and reconstructed or re-sewn together and used and pursued by all types of characters.

This is the director's mainstream message throughout the film: directing or Art generally doesn't come easy, it takes us to places where we have to improvise, change, fit, fix, rethink, break the rules and remake them but ultimately we find the funny in that because what matters is that we love what we do, we love creating and that is the end result rather than the work of art or metaphorically speaking 'the painting' itself.

Coming back for a moment to using intelligent animal cut outs for expressing or mirroring the audience's reactions or feelings to the scenes (and in fact to many potentially similar real life situations), try to spot the other animal scene (not the boars) where an inanimate shot of a fish somehow manages to portray our feelings about a particular scene. Unbelievably crafty shot which exudes emotion although the shot is of a still dead fish and this still image manages to unite the whole audience in the irony of a situation and the humour in it.

The 'chair' of happiness is a work of art in itself in many ways.
I highly recommend watching it and if you do, try to find the subtlety in how 'Felicita' is associated with a director's lot. Despite his struggles to create a film along the way, he finds happiness in his work as a director.

Take a happy seat and watch the movie.

Generating Genius

The extreme immersion in the 3D Imax experience is a spiritually gluttonous wondrous time spent well by all accounts but to add an extremely imaginative digital world of illusive special effects to the mix can really overwhelm and overload the senses.

This is not a bad thing by any standards since we go to these types of imaginative, futuristic films for that reason despite them being sequels in terms of a re concocted story line.

Terminator Genisys certainly manages to generate new themes allowing for a slightly different take on the characters' interactions with one another, although perhaps not elaborating character traits as much as creating new and fabulous special digital effects and very imaginative camera acrobatics.

The story is mainly the same: a handful of special heroes travelling back and forth in time to save the world but there is no pretentiousness in it and Arnie's sense of humour both real and acted lightens the repeated story line because he winks at us metaphorically: I am back (yet again) he is whispering to the audience, older but not obsolete, and he smiles viciously and 'robotically' at us too with his teeth rather than his eyes. 

The characters interact superficially exposing their raw emotions throughout the film: love, fear, desperation and hope, and the main characters establish the family setting of: pops (Arnie as the dad this time), Sarah, the young heroine and her fated 'mate'.

There isn't much to say about how the characters develop throughout nor about the story line for that matter but we don't go to an Imax film to see a three stage act of Shakespeare and an elaborate complex dialogue, we go for the adventure and to immerse the senses in the intricate scenes and genius camera work displays.

From that point of  view the film certainly does not disappoint: camera cirque du soleil standards of movements: fast, fluid close ups and medium shots, creating emotional scenes and lovely continuity.

The genius comes from the camera acrobatics in a couple of scenes (the bus scene and the helicopter scene): here the images are side ways and even reverse shots; upside down shots that look unreal but very realistic at the same time.

The music compliments these shots beautifully and these scenes are somehow reminiscent of the  Matrix films where our senses exploded for the first time with this creative type pf film technique generating robotic movements but also anti gravitational shots.Gravity seems obsolete in this sky net world of  genetically designed super fibre optic beings.

The other components of the film which are extraordinary are the special effects digitally super advanced images which created a sense of fluidity and continuity. Cells are exposed as one moving body of grey silver matter integrated and disintegrating at the same time in an array of colour schemes and circular as well as linear movements. (Again reminding one of the Matrix but in a much more complex and advanced way technically).

The themes of the film are still like the olden days of Arnie's heroism as the Terminator: future past and present interact magically to bring about the salvation of humanity against the machines. and genetically born beings can be similar to humans in some ways but not in others.

The concept takes us a little further in Genisys though in that there is a subtle hint at the soul of the machine. It begs the question of humanity becoming part of the machine (humour, love, empathy) and of the machine taking over humanity's soul by changing its molecular structure (no spoilers promise!). The idea here being that if a machine takes over it can change humanity to one of it's own soulless kind, whereas when humanity is in control, it can change a machine into a feeling being. This is a very complex moral dilemma hidden beneath the gloss of the super special effects but just as luminous in it's effects on the viewers nevertheless. There is a danger recently of being so involved with our 'machines' on a daily basis that we may become a part of them, part machine so to speak, almost an extension of the machine. 

Arnie shines brightly enough as the non obsolete terminator with the heart of gold, with some cheeky old shots of his previous younger self  slipped into the mix (abs and all), and this creates continuity within the film as well as with the previous ones. 

There are also tongue in cheek references to him still being a star on the screen despite his greying hair and mayor status; 'wink wink' says Arnie, I'm still the same and I can still manage the old tricks of the trade.

He handles this well with a forced  likable smile and a twinkle in his eye as well as the odd slap stick humour: not only is he back but he is OK with his age and apparently OK with a reference to him not speaking English, which was a subtle dig at his heavy accent and the fact that he may not be eloquent but he is likable on screen nevertheless and he knows it! 

Hints at him remaining the Terminator for a while yet are a little worrying though since I would say this film stretches his Terminator years far enough; gracious and successful rather than over stretched seems to be the best policy but what do I know I don't live in Hollywood and I wasn't the governor of California. 

Live long and prosper Arnie, but maybe consider 'terminating' the Terminator? because it's better to go out with a big bang of film glory than with a slow painful death on screen. 

Somehow another Terminator role would likely 'terminate' his success in this latest one I fear and maybe even 'terminate' the fond memories we have of Arnold in all of his previous Terminator movies.