Gravity

As I watched the opening scene in Gravity, I was in awe.  Right away, just seeing these astronauts float around on a routine space walk, the film was beautiful and thrilling.  A few minutes in, a couple behind me in the theater remarked with a sneer, “Where are all the satellites and shit?”  Their sarcastic question was more than answered and they didn’t make a peep the rest of the movie.  I believe the whole audience was absolutely spellbound.

In Gravity Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a medical engineer turned relatively inexperienced astronaut.  As she and more experience astronaut, Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) work together, we understand that space is not her element, but perhaps an escape from her troubles on Earth.  During the opening space walk, satellite debris comes crashing at the astronauts, destroying much of the space station around them.  It’s a horrifyingly beautiful sight to see and clearly sets up the fear and danger of being stranded floating in space.  After the danger has passed, and Ryan and Matt are harnessed together, they realize their only chance of survival is to get to another space station, which means drifting through space in the right direction without running out of oxygen.

Many of the scenes are one continuous longshot.  In fact, the opening scene is over twelve minutes without a single break.  Granted, it is digitally edited from multiple takes to seamlessly flow into one continuous image, but still, my God their effect is amazing.  Hitchcock might have been green with envy of all the suspense they produce.

One thing that seemed to damper the film when it was first released was how many scientific inaccuracies could be spotted throughout the film.  For some people, that ruined it, if it’s not accurate then why care?  Personally, I don’t find the inaccuracies to be a problem, let it be fiction and if it’s good enough, I’ll believe what I want to.  However, when Ryan does nothing to stop those little bits of fire floating around the Russian space station, I got a little more ticked than concerned.  Floating fire does not seem like something a trained astronaut would ignore.

At ten nominations, Gravity is tied for the most nominated film of 2013 with American Hustle.  While American Hustle racked up the acting nominations, Gravity got its boost from more technical awards, including visual effects, cinematography, sound editing and sound mixing.  It is also nominated for Best Picture, production design, original score, film editing.  Alfonso Cuarón received his first Oscar nomination for best director and Sandra Bullock received her second nomination as lead actress.

Overall, Gravity is a captivating thrill ride of a film that clearly deserves all this Oscar love. From the moment those wayward satellites crashed in, to the very end, I was on the edge of my seat, nervous, excited and enjoying every minute.

“Because either way, it’s going to be one hell of a ride!  I’m ready.”

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

When you see Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, I think there are a few things you need to remember and keep an open mind about.  One, the film is mostly told from a unique child’s perspective.  So when his inner monologue feels a bit cliche or dramatically out of touch, remember how you thought as a child.  Not all of our ideas were made of gold, but we didn’t know that yet.  Go easy on him.  Two, yes, this film is about the attacks on September 11th, like America cannot get enough of its own tragedy.  Though the film remembers the past (and who could blame this kid for it?), the story is really about moving on from any tragedy.  The scars of September 11th are too much for one film to heal.  And three, this kid has amazing parents, both of them.

Oskar Shell (Thomas Horn) was about nine years old on September 11th.  He and his father (Tom Hanks) were very close and has always encouraged Oskar’s curiosity.  He asks so many questions, many parents would have given him the terrible answer, “Just because,” years ago, but thankfully not his father.  They play elaborate mind games where Oskar searches for artifacts all over Central Park.  These games of critical thinking have made Oskar very organized and independent for a boy his age.  I believe he is a gifted child, but also suffers from anxiety and social issues, possibly Asperger’s syndrome.

After that day, Oskar is without his father, his teacher and playmate, and is faced with something he cannot comprehend: chaos.  He is too logical to understand why this happened and it hurts to see this boy grasping at nothing, hoping he can find answers.  And his mother (Sandra Bullock) is doing all she can for him, more than he knows.

What Oskar does find is a key.  He believes, somehow, that finding what it unlocks will help bring him some last connection and closure with his father.  The elaborate system Oskar sets up to search all over New York is impressive and his determination should be encouraged.

Along his journey to find where the key fits, Oskar meets a wide variety of people.  Most of them are helpful and welcoming.  As he meets them, in his unique socially awkward fashion, Oskar takes their photograph and catalogs them in his journal.  While he is focused on the key, the boy  does not realize how his journey is touching so many people in a beautiful way.  But that’s just how kids are, right?  Too easily they can focus on one tangible idea and gloss over the big picture in front of them.  I’m sure we can all remember a moment like that from our childhood.

One important person Oskar meets is The Renter (Max von Sydow), who rents a room from his grandmother (Zoe Caldwell).  He does not talk (whether he can or not is a mystery) and offers to help Oskar on his quest.  I love how he keeps his communication simple, with a thick pen and pad of paper and tattoos on his palms for ‘yes’ and ‘no’.  I think that sort of simple logic draws Oskar to him.  Without saying a word, The Renter reveals levels of intrigue and guilt, that adults will connect far before Oskar does.

This film seems oddly slipped into the Best Picture nominations, I certainly did not expect it.  It only has one other nomination, Max von Sydow for Best Supporting Actor, and to hear his name called in 2012 feels out of place.  I do not find the technical aspects of the film great.  Adults will connect a few plot points before they come to fruition, but I feel compelled to overlook that since this is a child’s journey and mostly his perspective.

What I believe earned this film that last slot is something emotionally poignant and intangible.  Since I saw it on Friday, I find myself thinking back to it often.  I have reanalyzed moments unintentionally throughout the day.  There are small, telling moments that haunt me a bit.  Perhaps the way this film is hard to shake is what put it in the Best Picture category.  I do believe this film is good, very good, but not great.  It is too easy to mistake this to be a film simply about September 11th.  It’s about moving on from it and should serve as hope to anyone after experiencing unspeakable tragedy.

“Isn’t everyone somehow odd?”

If the Academy is looking to award a film that uses one tragic story to better understand a different kind of grieving that people can experience, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close will win the Oscar for Best Picture.

The Blind Side

Directed by John Lee Hancock, The Blind Side is based off the true story of Michael Oher, a current NFL player who was adopted by the Touhy family who helped him increase his grades in high school enough to earn a college scholarship.  Though Michael (Quinton Aaron) is a student at a private Christian school in Memphis, we see that he is homeless and has nothing more than an extra pair of clothes in a plastic bag.  Leigh Anne Touhy (Sandra Bullock) notices the boy’s problems and her children are his schoolmates, her son S.J. (Jae Head) is especially fond of him.  When she sees Michael wandering in the pouring rain, she sternly asks him if he has anywhere to go and invites him into her family’s home.  As the Toughy’s learn more about Michael’s troubling past and his potential, both in the classroom and on the field, he becomes a permanent part of the family, despite the social implications.

Let’s be honest, in recent years Hollywood has usually turned non-liberal characters into the enemy.  Basically anyone who is religious, a republican or from the south is being turned into a Tea Party caricature.  In The Blind Side, Leigh Anne has all three of these usually damning traits, plus her family lives in a large beautifully decorated house with plenty of money to spare.  It’s refreshing to see the sort of characteristics we find in sappy afternoon-special movies taken seriously and turned into a truly positive role.  And best of all, the film doesn’t try to pretend that Leigh Anne is blind to her political traits, “Who would’ve thought we’d have a black son before we met a Democrat?”

Around Leigh Anne, we do see that the ugly stereotypical side of being a well-to-do southern, republican, Christian.  When she’s out to a fancy lunch with her more stuck-up friends, they make racist judgments about the dangers of letting a large black boy stay in the same house as her teenage daughter.  At the football game, we see a few fans and players of the opposing team pick on Michael because of his race.  Leigh Anne is not blind to the hate and injustice she sees around her, but stands tall against it, even when it singles her out.

Having not seen The Blind Side as I watched Bullock win her first Oscar, I could not help but be skeptical.  I mean, she was up against Streep and Mirren, two classy lady-titans, and we all loved the underdog story behind Sidibe.  Now I can see where this came from, Bullock perfectly portrays a woman who is not constrained by stereotype and becomes an inspiration without even trying.  And she’s propelled by this take-charge attitude that gives her a ferocious mother-bear feel.  Call that cheesy if you like, but I prefer this to the old myth of how to win best actress: nude scenes.

Honestly, I enjoyed this film much more than I thought I would.  It was not as sappy or religiously based as I had been told to fear.  I’ve heard people call this a movie showing positive Christian values, but I believe it’s just showing positive human values.  The moral isn’t for all rich white people to bring a poor black kid into their home.  That’s just how this story pans out.  The real idea to take away is if you see the need, do take the time to help someone out if you can.

“ If you so much as set foot downtown, you will be sorry.  I’m in a prayer group with the D.A., I’m a member of the NRA and I’m always packing.”

Crash

Before I saw this film in its entirety, I had a few small encounters with it.  Let’s call them crashes.  The first was when this was in theaters, I was a lowly employee sweeping up popcorn that day when someone stopped me and asked me what “this Crash movie” was about.  I hadn’t heard much of anything about it, it just showed up at our theater and I had read something about people in LA and it had Brendan Fraser in it.  So that’s what I told him, not the best word of mouth for the future Best Picture winner.  Months later, in my college dorm, my roommate and I flipped channels to the campus movie network to land in the middle of the upside down car crash scene of the film.  With no knowledge of prior events in the film, we started yelling at the lady who wouldn’t let the cop help her and when things only got worse, we only got more vocal.  After seeing just that scene, my roommate decided to buy Crash on DVD so we could finally see the whole thing.  I only wish I had made the purchase.

So, to finally have an answer to that guy at the theater, what is this Crash movie about?  It’s a multiple story line film, where all the different characters have their own stuff to deal with and they’re all interconnected (crashed together) in some way.  Rick (Brendan Fraser) is the district attorney, he’s married to Jean (Sandra Bullock) who’s your pampered housewife ordering her cleaning lady around.  They get carjacked by two young black men, Anthony (Ludacris) who is constantly making racist theories and then living them out and Peter (Larenz Tate) who’s older brother is a detective.  Daniel is a Hispanic locksmith with a young daughter who changes the locks for Bullock and Farhad, a Persian immigrant, who has just bought a gun to protect his store.  Cameron is a black television director pulled over by racist cop John (Matt Dillon) who proceeds to molest his wife.  John’s young partner Tom now wants to patrol solo.  You got all that?

In case you didn’t notice, there were many races all in that mix.  You’ll notice plenty in the film.  Racism is one of the main themes that carries through the entire film.  But it isn’t simply fueling racism, it just shows you what it assumes you’ve already know and shows you how it fuels all the terrible events of the film.  It seems that everyone has their own personal hardships to deal with and the racism flows out to help them release their tensions (Bullock angry about being carjacked and doesn’t want a Hispanic man, she presumes to be in a gang, changing the lock.) but only fuels the rage of those around them.  It’s a circle of frustration that becomes hate that turns into violence and eventually will kill people.

Seeing this film always brings back memories of a class I took: Black Drama.  It was an English credit and classified as my cultural credit, and I guessed that we would read plays by African Americans, which was all true.  What I didn’t expect was to walk into class everyday guilty of being white.  That class brought up racism in ways I had never dreamed of and only expanded the stereotypes I knew.  Besides the general expansion of literature, I don’t think I really learned anything good in that class.  I knew racism was alive and well before that, no one needs to take a class on it.  I guess what I want to link between my class experience and the film is, Crash is more eye opening and understanding about how racism lives today that that entire semester.  Not to diss my former Professor or classmates, but they just don’t get their point across as well.

One of the things that makes this film so amazing, isn’t it’s dripping racism.  Let’s forget about that for a paragraph.  See that image just above, with the guy crying out?  There are some gripping emotional moments in this film where everything is frantically on the verge of destruction.  That moment my roommate and I were yelling at before?  Absolutely astounding.  The way the action builds up and the tension between the characters and everything near the brink of explosion, director Paul Haggis handles it like a master, milking our emotions and seeing the big picture.  That’s what really makes this a film to see and experience.

So who would like Crash?  First off, you’ve got to be thick skinned to the N-word and most other racial slurs.  I also think this movie needs to be approached with an open mind, where you can try to understand each characters situation more.  In the end, this is a great film.  The messages are clear, the acting is wonderful and the film gets those rusty gears in your head moving in new ways.  I completely recommend Crash.

“They think we’re Arab. When did Persian become Arab?”