Rango

Back when the first trailers for Rango came out, I was instantly hooked.  That’s what happens when you mix Johnny Depp with a cartoon chameleon for me.  When I went to see it in theaters, I feared that the film would fall to my own hype.  What I saw exceeded all my expectations and left me with joyful excitement.  The film’s award for Best Animated Feature was well deserved, and I hope to see Gore Verbinski direct more animated films.

Rango is originally a pet chameleon so empty he doesn’t even have a name.  He spends his days putting on plays in his little world with the few companions in his terrarium.  Of course, he has given himself the role of the hero, but what is his motive?  He understands somewhat that he is a lonely shell of a character who needs to be put onto the path of an adventure.  And with that, an armadillo in the road sends him out of the car, into the desert and onto destiny.   His path is filled with becoming the new sheriff of Dirt, fighting off the town’s enemies and uncovering a mystery on where the town’s precious water has gone.

Now, chameleons are all about adapting and blending into their surroundings.  Rango is not exactly perfect at this, but we love to see him try.  There is a great moment where he mimics a few different people’s walks.  Once he meets Beans (Isla Fisher) and finds his way into Dirt, he seems to understand what an outsider he truly is.  He takes this moment to redefine himself, blend in, and become who he wants to be: the hero.

Visually, this film holds some of the greatest character animation I have ever seen.  We tend to think of cartoon animals in this fluffy, cute, glossed over style.  In Rango, all the critters of Dirt are full of gritty details.  I love how you can see ever scale, whisker and feather so vividly that you can imagine what they feel like, and none of them are fluffy.  Many of the critters have large, bulbous eyes that look so very real and full of intelligence.  Each of the voices, supplied by many well known stars, fits the look and personality of each character perfectly, I especially loved Abigail Breslin’s slightly deadpan rodent girl with the giant eyes.

I can see most older children (say, six and up) really enjoying Rango alongside adults, who will understand more jokes and classic references.  However, I can also see younger children being a little creeped out by some of the characters.  The combination of booming voice, sharp fangs and gun barrel tail on Rattlesnake Jake (Bill Nighy) can take grown ups aback for a moment.

What I really love about Rango is that the story has a good mix of action, mystery, comedy and wild west adventure.  There are many moments in the movie that harken back to classic films.  The plot has a bit of Chinatown mixed in, the Spirit of the West looks just like Clint Eastwood and many of the wild west details are straight out of other classic westerns.  And that mariachi band of owls who narrate and give Rango a heroic theme song are the perfect cherry on top.

“From out the dust, came a man true and bold, Champion of the fandango, By night he drank whiskey, by day killed bad man, And the townspeople knew him as Rango.”

Little Miss Sunshine

This is my “newest favorite movie.”  By that, I mean than no movie in the past three (going on four) years has been as great as this.  As I explained to my husband earlier, Raiders of the Lost Ark is still my all time favorite, but if I were to meet a physical embodiment of the film, I would high-five Indiana Jones and give the yellow VW from Little Miss Sunshine a great big hug.  That’s just how they differ in my heart.

Little Miss Sunshine is the story of a modern family consisting of a mom Sheryl (Toni Collette), dad Richard (Greg Kinnear), brother Dwayne (Paul Dano), grandpa (Alan Arkin), little Olive (Abigail Breslin) and Uncle Frank (Steve Carell).  Of course there’s more to them than that, they all have their vices.  Except for little Olive, who’s just gotten word that she’s in the running for Little Miss Sunshine in California.  To see her dreams come true, her whole family will drive in a yellow VW buss for eight hundred miles.

A family road trip can be a defining moment in someone’s life, huh?  Well, not everyone can relate to having three generations in one vehicle.  My family drives from Indiana to Florida every winter, sometimes with grandma.  Being the oldest of three, I sometimes felt that I was in the gay uncle position (feeling out of place for a while, then egging on needless conversations for entertainment and offering my advice to the younger ones).  But in the end, it’s not always about the destination, but what we learned and lived through on the way.

The nucleus of this story is little Olive.  She’s so cute, sweet and innocent, everyone wants to protect her.  But the bitter truth is there’s only so much they can do.  She’s exposed to beauty pageants by her aunt (which is before the film ever begins).  Her grandpa shows her “these moves” and constantly swears.  Even when her parents think they’re doing and saying the right things, little Olive can pick up signals, (“Why is everyone upset?”).  One of the great things about this film is the fact that we will always expose kids to really fucked up things (not on purpose, of course), but as long as we keep that family unit and support the youngest generation, they’ll probably turn out all right.  With luck, they might not realize just how messed up everything was around them until they’re older.

Now, Little Miss Sunshine was given the R rating, making it dreadful to parents and more enticing to their children.  Please, if you were to cut out all but one of the fucks this would be PG-13.  In fact, I encourage this to be a family time movie.  I don’t mean round up your five year old and send them to pre-school with their new favorite phrase, “God damn fucking chicken!”  Here’s a good rule of thumb that may open the eyes of a few parents: if you’ve ever let your child watch South Park or anything from the Family Guy realm, Little Miss Sunshine is perfectly fine.  The sexual references in either of those cartoons are way more explicit than Grandpa saying he had “second degree burns on his Johnson.”  As for the unedited fucks, please, they’re barely edited out of those cartoons and your kids can figure out what they are (word gets around schools, by age eight or so).  The worst thing is a little thrill from hearing that famous word so clear.

At the Oscars Little Miss Sunshine was nominated for four awards and took home two.  It was beat out for best picture and Abigail Breslin’s nomination for best supporting actress, but took home top honors in original screenplay and Alan Arkin won best supporting actor.  Not bad for that little indie film from Sundance.

I could gush on this film for hours, but the two things that I believe make this film so wonderful and heartwarming is its sense of timing and showing the strength of a family unit.  Take that first dinner scene, as conversation grows, it’s edited perfectly so we see a specific person’s face react to what the other is saying.  When Uncle Frank is explaining his reasons for suicide, it’s directed mostly to Olive, but we see Richard’s disapproving face and Grandpa blows his nose at the perfect spot to get some awkward laughs from the audience.

Well, that doesn’t sound like a strong family does it?  Remember, that’s only the beginning.  By the time they roll onto Redondo Beach they’ve faced a broken clutch, heartbreaks and over eight hundred miles together.  To get their beloved VW going the whole family has to push it.  What a family exercise!  When everyone’s safe inside with mission accomplished their blood and adrenaline is pumping and there’s that sense of accomplishment.  Even Uncle Frank is all smiles shouting, “No one gets left behind!”

I dare you to find a better family film.  The Griswold family never had such heartwarming laughs or faced such heartbreaking events and they drove twice as far.  Little Miss Sunshine is what a family road trip is all about and once you open your heart to it you might be surprised at what it has to say.

“-You do what you love, and fuck the rest.

-I’m glad you’re talking again, Dwayne. You’re not nearly as stupid as you look.”