Interstellar-Staring the Deep Black in the FACE

That tears it.  Christopher Nolan may be just a bit of a pretentious douche.  I didn't care for his snarky remark about how "real" movies don't do those extra credit scenes, obviously a shot at marvel.  A stylistic difference, Mr. Nolan, you don't have to be a jerk about it.  That said, the man does have his own style and way of doing things.  And given his dual track record of critical acclaim and box office domination, you can't exactly dismiss his opinion, though you may disagree.  He is one of the auteurs on the modern Hollywood scene who not only is a master of modern film technology and techniques, but he is a storyteller supreme with his own style and approach.  In Nolan's case, he likes to tell tales of humans probing the edges of knowledge and perception.  Be it our own memories (Memento), dreamscapes (Inception), the fraying edges of civilization (his Batman/Dark Knight trilogy) or deep space (Interstellar), he is about going "out there" to peer deep inside the human heart.

Nothing new about things, it is well known he has a fascination with technology and human know how and most of his films feature this aspect of humanity in one way or another.  In this case, he sets up the scientific as the existential crisis of an Earth gone sour.  Our world's life supporting systems seem to be breaking down.  No one is sure why, but the food plants we rely on are going extinct and the atmosphere is becoming more and more problematic.  As the nations of the world go more and more into survival mode, energy and resources are spent mostly on food production.  There are no more militaries and space exploration is taught as fiction to school children.

Cooper (Matthew Mcconaughey) is a former engineer and test pilot turned farmer who is disturbed by this turn in education.  His son, Tom, has been written out of college and will likely run the family farm on down the line.  His daughter, Murphy, is brilliant and headstrong, causing fits with the school and her fascination with science and space (again, being taught as a fiction to kids).  Murphy also tells tales of weird activity in her room, calling it her ghost.  One day, the "ghost" leaves a message in the dust in Murphy's room that she and Cooper interpret as map coordinates.  They follow them and find a fenced off compound.  It turns out, they have located the new headquarters of NASA, now a tiny, secretly funded organization seeking an escape for humanity from their current global dilemma.  The apparent escape hatch?  A wormhole, apparently artificial in origin and leading to a potentially life supporting world or worlds on the other side.  NASA needs a hotshot pilot and invite Cooper on the mission.  After some soul searching, Cooper accepts, though the parting from his family, especially Murphy, isn't easy, and it wears at his soul as Cooper and his crew plunge through the wormhole and stare into the dark abyss of a black hole on the other side.

Through wormhole.  Onto the edge of a black hole.  And to the surface of alien worlds.  Dealing with strange environments and the twisty, bendy effects of space-time in extreme environments.  Further, throw in an unknown intelligence working behind the scenes, our four astronauts are put to the test in trying to puzzle out their circumstances and save those they left behind.

You have all that AND cute robots who are smart alecks yet not cloying and annoying.

This is a big, space bound epic.  Lots of science yet not at all lacking a human heart.  It aspires to the big picture, but never forgets about that which drives us to push these barriers in the first place.

Interstellar is stellar.  If you like big, smart, heartfelt space epics, this is a must see film

So...boldly go.

Pretty In Pink-Please don't let Political Correctness Ruin this Classic...

One of the Brat Pack classics, this one was written but not directed by the legendary John Hughes.  Rather, Howard Deutsch is captaining this ship (still in the trade, mostly TV nowadays, notably True Blood).  Classic 80s high school film which stars Molly Ringwald as Andie Walsh, a smart, hard working high school senior girl from the wrong side of the tracks.  She works at a record store with Iona (Annie Potts) and her best friend is Duckie (John Cryer), who is madly in love with her, but plays it off for yucks (one of the classic defensive moves in dealing with pain).   She also admires from afar Blaine (Andrew McCarthy), but dangit, he is a rich kid and the social pressure...oh, just awful.  This is hammered home by a young pre Dr. Daniel Jackson/Blacklist/Utron James Spader (Steff), who, after being shot down by Andie, goes into a vile sour grapes mode and tries to pee in Blaine's pool, under the pretense of "friendship". 

That is most of our players and most of the variables in play, and it proceeds in a fairly predictable path, sold mostly by the skill of our thespians, the 80s high school trappings, the real relatable humanity on display by most and a really, really good soundtrack.

In recent years, under the category of "some people have forgotten what it is like to be young and have too much time on their hands", the "friend zone" concept is now under fire by some in the feminist camp.  Which is just weird.  The rationale is the woman's humanity does not matter, only her as an object to be possessed, and "friendship" is the consolation prize.  Further, that the woman is one more  sexual conquest denied and that is what the bad name of the "friend zone" spins out from.  So...it is bad.  This, of course, is nonsense.  Romance isn't just about lust.  Because you can bone someone without feeling affectionate.  You can lust for them physically without an ounce of tenderness.  A crush is a combo of physical desire combined with a sense of wanting a deeper connection.  It is even more painful when a friendship is indeed in place.  The sense of being "friend zoned" is the knowledge that a big blastproof door has been slammed down on the most tender part of that longing.

That sucks.  Even when not a teenager, though it doesn't happen as often in the later years.

What sucks even worse, though, is politically obsessed, agenda driven types who have forgotten their youth try to take something painful, yet exquisite about the experience  and sully it with their spin, no doubt dressing up painful experiences of their own with an attempt to try to turn it into some kind of misguided social crusade.

Just stop it.

The "friend zone" sucks.  But you deal with it.  It isn't oppressing anyone.

Stop trying to suck the recognizable humanity, the sweet and sour out of the life experience.

Oh, and Pretty In Pink is a great film, with such great artists as the Psychedelic Furs.

The Fisher King-In the Midst of Dysfunction, Make Me Care...

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AM1200-Listening to back country radio used to be a comfort.

Anyone who has driven the country roads and backways of America has had the experience of flipping through the radio dials and hearing those voices permeating the atmosphere.  Even in the days post Telecom 96, unique voices sound off on the dial.  Besides, no matter where you go, when you are spinning through the frequencies, on FM and especially AM, you can get a public radio station broadcasting NPR.  You can get some country music.  And usually you can get some religious programming, often a ranting, podium thumping pastor going on about sin and hellfire.  When you are by yourself on the dark backroads, especially late at night, the image of sinners resting their hedonistic bones in the hands of an angry God doesn't comfort.  Of course, it isn't intended to be comfortable.  But little do those thundering theologians know that it is future horror story tellers they are inspiring.  Stephen King would be one.  He has used such vignettes in several of his stories, most notably "Children of the Corn".  Then...there is AM 1200. 

The story sets up Eric Lange, who apparently is a money handling type who has done something wrong and is now making his getaway.  He finds himself in the back roads of Montana, driving to exhaustion to put some distance between himself and whatever lays behind.  Late at night, he picks up a radio station, AM 1200, and apparently someone is sending out a distress call and wants help sent to the station.  And "coincidentally", Eric finds himself driving near the station.  The night is pitch black with little outdoor lighting and it makes things hard to see and super creepy.  As if the radio signal wasn't enough.  Eric eventually finds the station and a man handcuffed to a poll inside the station (John Billingsly).  Things get really weird at that point.

The unknown.  The step beyond the comfortable.  No good can come of this.  And the thought of a voice from the ether reaching you from the invisible, radio alone, though we tell ourselves we have categorized and have it pretty well figured out...the mysterious voices from the dark always serve to draw and fascinate.  But what if, at the end of the message lies...

...that would be telling.


Great film.  See it.

Space Station 76-A Polyester Time Capsule

It is interesting to think that when we get to the future, it will look, sound and feel like the past.  Or more to the point, looking at older science fiction in literature and other mediums, and seeing that though they are visions of the future, they are very much products of their times.  Space Station 76 takes that idea and pumps it up to the nth degree, with a bleak yet tongue in cheek look at times to come through a decade long passed.

Space Station 76 takes place on Omega 76, an interstellar depot, intended to be a way station for travelers as well as a refueling and maintenance depot.  The human crew here is relatively small and lots of the station's functions are automated.  So you have this crew on this huge station that seems relatively isolated and alone when not doing their jobs.  Right off the bat, there seems to be some baggage. Captain Glenn (Patrick Wilson) seems especially isolated from his crew, even for someone in command, and is clearly struggling with some kind of demons which include the reassignment of the station's previous executive officer.  The new XO, Jessica (Liv Tyler) steps in, her skills and experience where they need to be, ready to do the gig.  Unlike the Captain, she tries to connect with the crew, but has trouble both with her position being a barrier and her sex, as the human crew is still functioning under the cultural mores of the 70s when it comes to relations between the sexes, which was an era far more in flux than it is now.

Later, you see scenes with various crew members interacting with each other, using technology that is clearly outdated by our current level of knowledge, and existing in a world that seems at times cold and awkward. Even the Christmas party which sets the stage for the denoument is purely surface and function, even more perfunctory than your worst office Christmas party you can imagine.

Right when the movie kicks off, the opening music is some rock psychedelia, setting the cosmic, existentialist tone of the film, firmly placing you in that retro future that the film is shooting for.   Many of the effects and the sets have a physical look to them.  They are functional and beautiful, with a tactile sense to them that the more CGI driven films of now lack at times.  The costumes, pure retro, harkening to Space 1999.   Later, as the film develops, you see more cultural drops place in that feel organic, yet clearly fill out that retro timelessness the film is going for, including easily recognizable pop tunes from the 70s.

Look, feel, technology and cultural mores put down those layers which make the sci fi salad of Space Station 76 work.  But the true nailing down of this is that the creators clearly know their 70s science fiction.  The 70s were an era that relatively few science fiction films were made, but many of them that were had a distinctly...if not fatalistic outlook, at least one of pessimism and existentialist angst, even crisis.  They had the idea that we can get out on the edge of space and time, looking for the answers.  But the real deep ones will continue to elude us and when we turn to each other, we will find the same confusion and difficulty of connecting we always have.  If we are lucky, occasionally, we will breach those barriers and make a connection that has a chance to transcend.

On the surface, Space Station 76 is a comedy about 70s science fiction tropes.  But much deeper, it is a wandering through all the things of the 70s, not just science fiction, that made it such a unique cultural period, and yet, especially through the lense of science fiction, manages to be timeless.

It is a thought movie.  Not a yuck yuck comedy and NOT one driven by 'splosions.  It is almost all dialogue.  But if the above thought exercise appeals to you and the decade exploration is something you can relate to...especially if you remember the 70s and love the science fiction of that decade, this film is for you.

Zardoz: Hard To Say Whether 70s Science Fiction Was Daring Or Just Plain Weird...

Probably both.  Yes, that is Sir Sean Connery in a red Speedo.  I avoided this film for a number of years, because...c'mon, Sean Connery in a red Speedo.  Could the movie really be worth that?  Well...then I saw who directed, John Boorman, who brought us the amazing Excalibur, a great take on the Arthurian legend.  So...yeah.  Alright.  For the sake of 70s cinematic science fiction literacy...sure. 

So...opening up, I see this...

Yep.  A floating stone head.  This is after a prologue with some guy ranting on and wondering if God is the ultimate showman or something along those lines.  Could be brilliant or pretentious, hard to tell at this point.  So anyway, the stone head lands, gives a lecture about evil penises and good guns and tosses out a bunch of guns.  The primitives worshiping the stone head pick them up and rejoice.  Then we see our first look at Zed (Connery), one of these Brutals.  These are Exterminators, who do the bid of Zardoz (the stone head), mostly involving culling the Brutal populations and keeping them from overrunning the now fragile world with their out of control babymaking.

Later, we see Zed suddenly emerging out of a pile of sand inside the stone head, which is again airborne and headed for a "Vortex".  A Vortex is a protected area ruled by Eternals, a society of near immortal scientists and intellectuals who seemingly have become totally about calculation and data.  Their passion, emotion and more abstract or primitive elements of the human soul atrophied.  They look at the world and the other humans who live there with a detatchment.  Only a few of them seem to give a damn about anything, and those tend to be regarded as outsiders and heretics, kept separated from the rest of the group.

They find Zed in their midst and find him a wonder, this primitive in their midst.  Little do they know that there is more to this man-ape than they think and that plans are underfoot to break this sociological cul-de-sac the Eternals have found themselves in.

This thing is weird.  And not the most optimistic film.  However, it is strong in ideas and imagery, about how too much emphasis on one culture, one way of doing things, how a lack of variety can ultimately doom a society.  Sometimes, you just have to shake things up a bit.  That when you get too insular and complacent, you weaken yourself.

Sometimes you need a "primitive" ape-man to come in and remind you of the essentials of life.

Zardoz, a strange one but a good one.

Fury: Male Bonding Has It's Costs...

It is 1945 and the Allied Army is rolling up Germany.  Staff Sergeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier (Brad Pitt) is the tank commander (TC) of the stalwart crew of the Sherman tank "Fury".  They've been through the hellfire of war together, starting in North Africa.  They are now an elite armor crew, knowing how to move and fight their machine with lethal efficiency.  They can be put in odds stacked far against them and make the enemy, a fearsome foe, pay in blood and steel many times over.  But the war has taken its toll on this team of American soldiers. 

When the film opens, Fury has apparently just been through a vicious engagement and we see Wardaddy take out a German officer in a hand to hand ambush.  They seem to be the lone survivor on a carnage laden battlefield.  They also just lost their assistant driver and will need a new troop.  They get one, PVT Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), a rear echelon soldier trained as a staff clerk, with the lethal skill of typing "sixty words a minute".  He has the privilege of taking the assistant driver position.  Initially, the tight knit crew, not surprisingly, is not that welcoming to the new soldier.  In the first engagement Ellison participates in, the horror of what is asked of him overwhelms him, and Wardaddy takes some drastic measures to try to cure him of it, as his reticence is a liability to Fury and its crew.

Later, we see scenes of the crew of Fury taking some RnR in a German village, and we get more of a look at where the minds and souls of Fury's crew are at in this stage of the game.  This war and what they have had to do to play their part has had its cost.  However, it is made plain that they aren't entirely unaware of this.

And when it is all said and done, even with the Germans, it is plain that for the most part, we aren't talking about monsters here.  We are talking about men trained to do a deadly serious job.  Prosecuting that job costs.  War costs.  Not just in money in blood, but in damage on the inside that haunts one long after the shooting is done.

And that is what Fury depicts, despite on the surface appearing to take on the trappings of a traditional Hollywood war movie.

 

 

 

War is indeed hell, a place where demons dwell.  And they will have their payment in humanity, one way or another.

 

 

Good flick, for both that and some awesome tank on tank action.