Pixar Dust?

Pixar's brillance is well-known. The studio has released 10 consecutive critically acclaimed and successful box-office hits that put the rest of the industry to shame. Probably the only thing more envied about this studio is their painstaking, critical, creative process. They take one movie at a time and work on it for 4-5 years, constantly reworking story, characters, and running each tiny element and shot through the gauntlet. The "Brain-Trust" is perhaps the most interesting element of Pixar's moviemaking. The "Brain-Trust" is a collection of Pixar's Godfathers, if you will, composed of Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton, John Lasseter, and Lee Unkrich to name a few. It's a collection of Pixar's most successful directors responsible for Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and my personal favorire The Incredibles. Each movies is pitched frequently to this group of story geniuses and have their movies ripped to shreds, telling what's working, what will work better, and what should never see the light of day.

So it seems now, Disney is recognizing how legit Pixar is and entreating their help for some in-house story consulting. Both The Muppets movie and Tron met with the Pixar Brain Trust in order to glean some achievement from these guys. Though they are still pretty much under the Disney umbrella, it's cool that they enlisted Pixar, who in all right is running animation these days. Sure Dreamworks makes more money, but they certainly don't wow (I haven't seen How to Train Your Dragon). Anyway, I hope it sparks a trend actually. It reminds me of the early days (for me) during the 90's of the string of musicals where they had a similar story contribution format. A sort of free-flowing contribution of ideas that really contributed to the brilliance of that time. Personally, I'm not that into Tron or The Muppet Movie. But after hearing this news I can be persuaded. Here's hoping a little Pixar dust works on these movies.

Moist Dreams

If you’ve been following my blog lately, you know how moist I’ve been for Inception. The teaser was easily the best trailer I’ve seen in years— rivaling that of Cloverfield in 2008—and it instantly whetted my appetite. Christopher Nolan follows up The Dark Knight inspiring a fervent amount of hype and hullabaloo with probably the most ambitious and improbable summer film in years. I say ambitious because the film is an original screenplay; I say improbable because Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures (who also produced The Dark Knight) actually ponied up the 160 million dollars to fund such an idea (the-numbers.com). If you haven’t done your research, Inception follows Dom Cobb, a thief who invades the dreams of his targets to extract dreams as he undertakes his greatest challenge of inception, planting an idea into the human mind. I'm going to tell you why I'm still moist from the experience.

Leonardo Dicaprio gives another fine performance as Cobb. He’s tasked with bringing a sense of heaviness as Cobb is simultaneously tormented by the death of his wife and his separation from his children. Shutter Island was a little more inspired admittedly, but I found his Cobb interesting. He's a man given little choices who must test his own abilities, stubbornly tabling his own faults in order to control his destiny. The cast of characters equally give delightful turns rounding out Cobb’s squad of idea stealers. Joseph Gordon-Levitt impresses again, playing Cobb’s right-hand man, holding his own against a mammoth actor like Leo. Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Dileep Rao, and Tom Hardy are also bright spots rounding out the cast of fellow dream invaders. There is just enough color in the characters to enjoy seeing them, but not enough for you to need to know their life story. It’s Cobb’s movie and they play their role.



Tonally, the film definitely is sweeping. Each scene pushes into the next not giving a lot of time to catch your breath. This isn’t a knock by any means especially considering that it is an action film. And like a true action film, Nolan has a swift touch in pushing the film’s pace, a heady task considering how complex the world is. Yet here lies one of the film’s faults. The film disseminates exposition quite well considering how complex the film is; however, it may feel at times the characters are holding your hand and taking you aside to tell you why and how things happen in this world. I don’t knock the film too hard because this is an interesting and complex world that deserves some time to explain itself. Nolan covers some of it well with some conflict, and rarely does it hamper the film’s pace or detract from the experience.

Another common criticism is the film’s lack of emotional core. I can’t quite see this movie as being completely hollow and devoid of stakes. The film is grounded in Cobb’s attempt to get back to his children and the anguish he feels over his wife’s suicide. Nolan uses that throughline to explore human consciousness and our ability to root gnawing guilt and sadness deep down in our heads. The film deals with how our feelings and emotions pervade uncontrollably in the things we do and what we try to accomplish, like planting an idea in someone’s head. The story does a fine job of engaging and appealing intellectually to the viewer. If you can take the ride, it will give you some ideas to ponder on the ride home. Leaving the theatre, I heard scores of different conversation pontificating on the film’s ending, the logic of the universe, and generally how awesome the movie was. The last 40 minutes of the film involves some great intricate storytelling. I don’t want to give too much away (and truly I can’t because it’d take 20 minutes to tell you the logic of the world) but the third act is a masterful juggling act of storylines across several layers of consciousness.



I can say, visually, it definitely did not disappoint. Wally Pfister and Nolan have again succeeded in creating a beautiful film, mixing handheld action scenes with high-speed photography. The cinematography creates distinct looks for each setting that the film’s characters interact in. No matter where you are, whether, Paris, Mobassa, or Calgary, the film delineates its settings in an appropriate manner. Pfister stated in an interview with Variety that he gave each scene a distinctive color to ground the viewer in each setting. This strategy worked aesthetically, but also within the context of the narratives dreamy subjective landscape. Also, the action sequences are, forgive me for geeking out, fucking phenomenal. One set piece, teased in the trailer, in which Joey Gordon-Levitt shows off some acrobatics in a tumbles along a spinning hotel hallway in an effective and jaw-dropping action sequence. It was an impressive feat, and I can’t wait for the DVD explaining how they did it.

The Elixir: Inception is far from a perfect movie. In fact, bloggers have already descended like vultures to tear the film’s logic apart. Personally, I’ll wait to watch it again before I jump even harder on this movie’s nuts. Nonetheless, Inception was a welcome and an inspiring anomaly in today’s summer film market. Visually breathtaking, Inception engages your eyes as well as your brain in a grand scale. These are the types of movie’s remind me why I want to make movies. I can only hope that good word of mouth propels it forward and inspires similar endeavors.

High Concept, now in 3-D

In Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Robert Altman criticizes the state of the movie industry. He states, “Last summer trying to find a picture to see, I went to the two multiplexes in Beverly Hills. Every single screen was playing Lost World, Con Air, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and Face/Off….It’s just become one big amusement park. It’s the death of film.” Bear in mind, that book came out in 1998. It’s a saddening reality that he could have said this last summer (except for the fact that he’s dead now).

I’m sure you’ve experienced it. Whether watching television or sitting in a theater, you can’t avoid being bombarded with advertisements of the year’s supposed event pic, the one everyone will be talking about Monday morning. But the big actioner or action rom-com often turns out to be little more than insipid, trivialized, drivel. Simple duds that wind up at Best Buy in three weeks after they open and on HBO in 9 months. So let’s get to the root of this thing. And why the only thing I have to look forward to for the rest of the summer is Inception.




The term high concept describes a film’s plot where usually the plot is succinct and easily digestible. Think for a minute. What’s the draw for Transformers? Go see robots that transform into cars, or other awesome things. How about Snakes on a Plane? It’s right in the title. Hollywood loves films like this. Why? They are easy to market, easy to explain. The more time you spend explaining what a movies is, the less time you have for telling me why to go see it. That doesn’t quite make sense. Let me explain. Time is money; it’s a pretty universal concept. If I can get you to recognize things that you already like and smush ‘em together into a mediocre hour and a half film, I don’t need to explain to you what it is and why you’re watching it. Movies like these are a boon for Hollywood agents and production companies looking for surefire hits. It’s a Burger King philosophy. Have it your way. Fry up a clichéd story beats, localize it to a specific protagonist, and plopping it down with a side of fries. So how did we to the unenviable position of such movies like Dance Flick? Two men are responsible: Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.



You can’t talk about high concept summer blockbusters without two of the Granddaddies: Star Wars and Jaws. Jaws (1975) is recognized as the first perennial blockbuster. Universal Studios unleashed, what was in those days, a mammoth campaign and the first wide-release to fill the theatres to see the movie. Although early pictures like Gone With the Wind created a similar atmosphere, the summer event picture in its current iteration began with Jaws. Grossing 7 million dollars in its first weekend, it would eventually be the first movie to reach 100 million dollars (Boxofficemojo.com). And if Jaws wasn’t enough to convince Hollywood Star Wars cemented the legacy of the blockbuster, which grossed a staggering 122 million dollars in less than three months of its release (boxofficemojo.com).

It’s important to take a look at the consequences of the films’ glorious box office success and how today’s current climate of popcorn entertainment has hit a fever trough. The fact that the May-August months have regressed to a wasteland of oversimplified premises is a symptom of what can happen when the film industry gets a hold of a good idea. Yes, I think these films succeeded in creating a culture that I very much enjoy. These movies emphasized the importance and rightful place of escapist films that overwhelm you visually with action and excitement, giving the viewer enough to chew on thematically, but not taking itself too seriously. There is as much a need for bombastic mindless fun as high brow arty films. Jaws certainly captured a nice medium of the two.



But this method of moviemaking and distribution has evolved, or devolved, into the demographically specific content that we see today. Piranhas 3-D and Cats and Dogs: the Revenge of Kitty Galore owe their very specific audience targeting and simple premises to more than 30 years of movie marketing, explosive box office weekends, and market testing. Producers get lax thinking of the next big sensation. So they turn to tried and true ideas or research into features. It’s like reading the Cliff’s Notes before a big test or researching a paper on Wikipedia. So the quality of the big tentpole diminishes over the summers and we wind up with uninspired drawl that composes the summer of 2010. B movies earn the coveted spots of Memorial Day Weekend and July 4th. And don’t get me started on comic book adaptations.
Now there are some examples of solid concepts like 2009’s The Hangover. The Hangover was a movie itching to be made. The audience for a film like that is probably college-age to just out of college. You can’t get more of a dunk shot than making a movie about a hangover than that! Today, it’s a modern classic. I’ll even mention Talladega Nights. Of course, that came out in 2006 back when Will Ferrell was funny. But it was born out of an idea that was a slam dunk. In last week’s Entertainment Weekly in Summer Must Issue, he talks about how he leveraged a bidding war out of the idea of him driving a NASCAR. Cool,right?



So let’s not damn the whole idea of these movies because there is potential for some fun ideas. The issue is the sparseness of the movies. Simplicity isn’t the problem; it’s creativity and effort. The only course of action I suppose to vote with your dollars. Please people. Don’t cuddle up to movies during the night that you’ll just hate yourself for watching in the morning. Vote with your dollars people. And go see Inception; it’s going to be awesome, and we need more films like this during the summer.