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A Goofy Movie (1995)
Emotion, so much emotion
A Goofy Movie is one of these kids feature animations that I got back to watching out of sheer pleasure of nostalgia. I remember watching it on a plane, actually. Not all of it but some of it. But I had to watch it all again because I played enough 90's Mickey Mouse video games and was subscribed to Mickey Mouse magazine and I knew this guy who could totally do the Goofy owl so there you have it. I kept remembering how intensively emotional that movie was and watching it as a 23yr old man, yes it sure the hell is emotional. Not that it nearly made me cry like 'Still Alice' did but just so much father/son relationship emotions with excellent animated expressions and voice acting.
What I loved about A Goofy Movie is just how 90's it is and how very very witty, charming and even mature it is in some parts. It's all about the teenager (Max Goof) who has become a teenager and wants to be a rock star and get the girl (Roxanne) who totally has a crush on him from the beginning of the movie which makes his devious teenager plan sort of pointless other than drive the narration of the movie about creating a stronger bond with his father (Goofy). There's also Pete (the big antagonist cat from the Mickey Mouse universe) and his son, P.J.
Overall, it's a fantastic little movie with some typical Disney cheesy singing but if that's your thing, go check it out.
Whiplash (2014)
Remember that teacher you where terrified of that you used to love?
When I first saw the trailer of Whiplash and all the praising reviews it was getting, I knew we were onto something really good and something different. I'm even more so excited when it's an awards season movie that was written, directed and based on a short film of the same name and concept by a fresh young director (Damien Chazelle, 29 yrs old when he was directing it), one of the youngest best picture nominee director for a matter of fact, which shows that he's a keeper with loads of potential and that this movie is very personal to him so he won't let the Producer's Hollywood edit process cliché ruin his vision.
What makes Whiplash stand out as such a breath of fresh air is that it could've been one of those 'loosely based on a crazy true story of week' Oscar bait movie with the protagonist, antagonist, rise, fall and rise with the Hollywood moral driven happy ending, but there was no true protagonist, antagonist and happy or sad ending, it was all contextual to the viewer's opinion but that's not what mattered to me in Whiplash, it was all about: will Andrew (Miles Teller) perform one of the greatest percussion performance of all time and be the next great Buddy Rich no matter how much sweat, tears and blood he must shed but that was the whole visual pleasure of this movie: to see how far and how much pain a person will go through to achieve what he wants.
The beginning of the movie does set up Andrew as the good guy who just want to achieve his dream and Fletcher (J.K. Simons) as the bad guy who is nothing more than a rude and sadistic music teacher who lashes out on his students probably out of bitterness for ending as a music teacher instead of the greatest Jazz maestro in the world, but you later on loose sympathy for Andrew as you realize that his pursue for his dream turns him into an anti-social and a snob who will cut off a bond for a girl who cares for him and likes him in exchange for his masochistic journey to be the greatest drummer in the world. And that's where you realize Fletcher isn't a sadist just to be a sadist; he's a harsh teacher who believes and is still searching for the greatest drummer in the world which you know he sees in Andrew. Fletcher knows Andrew is ready to give everything up and take everything in and he will push him to the limit which achieves in a way the happiest movie ending as both of these painful and tragic individuals have achieved their ultimate goal.
Still Alice (2014)
A beautiful and touching movie about an utterly awful disease
Why do we watch sad movies? most of us do to be moved as like watching a comedy to laugh, but some of us do to relate to and feel less alone and helpless in those particular situations. I'm sure I wasn't as moved as my grandmother was when we watched The Pianist together, probably due to the fact that she grew-up in Nazi-invaded Poland, despite coming from a catholic family, I remember seeing some tears shedding down her eyes. I remember nearly sobbing when watching Silver Linings Playbook but more of joy, joy of finally seeing a movie that said to me in a real and raw way "hey, don't worry, you where not alone going through these bad experiences". Now that's the true power of a movie, book or song.
See, my grandmother suffers from Lewy Body Dementia, a disease very similar to Alzheimer. She was once a bright and vivid woman until that disease stopped her from fully expressing her true self. Alzheimer and LBD are these sort of diseases that can sometimes completely turn some of the brightest and liveliest person incapacitated from there thoughts, memories and personalities. Yeah, sure, some will say that it happens to people at a late age but these people might still be around with us for a while as we wish it to be. And Still Alice isn't a made-up sad story, early-onset Alzheimer is a thing, it's rare but it's a rare thing that happens. When we went inside the cinema room, an ad concerning Alzheimer played before the movie, I then knew that at least a quarter of the people in the cinema (and the cinema was full) knew someone very close to them that had Alzheimer.
Still Alice is about a 50yr old lecturer (Julianne Moore) who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer. From the beginning of the movie, her performance is true and heartbreaking as she portrays the illness perfectly and in a stellar way through her performance as Alice's Alzheimer gradually gets worse and worse throughout the movie. Some scenes where her Alzheimer kicks in are shot in a beautiful and disturbing way by emphasizing the blur on the out-of- focus parts of the shot around her. Alec Baldwin, playing her husband, does his classic acting style and adapts it very well to his character. Then there's Kate Bosworth, Shane McRae and Hunter Parrish playing the three of the four children of the parents. Their performance are OK-ish enough as minor supporting actors. The movie, addressing such a tough subject, does feel forced to portray the family as wealthy, successful, good looking and happy. Then there's the fourth child, the cliché ugly duckling of the family, the artsy one that doesn't want to do graduate studies and wants to be an actress ...played by Kirsten Stewart... that's where we get to the tough part...
Look, let's get something out of the way, Kirsten Stewart can't act to save her own life. And the most frustrating part of it all is she's playing one of the kids who gets the major supporting role because she's Kirsten Stewart. And it's pure irony that she plays the girl that wants to be an actress because (hold the phone on this one) she can't act. It was frustrating to see one of the greatest actress of all time interact with one of the worst A-list actress of all time. That was unfortunately that one big weakness of the movie. Nevertheless, the movie was an absolute accomplishment all thanks to Julianne Moore and co-directors: Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland. I remember seeing Julianne Moore in her earliest role, The Fugitive (1993) as that nurse and here she is. Go watch it.
Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Why I think it's the best Disney animation.
Which are the Disney undisputed all-time classics? Why The Lion King and Aladdin or course. sure, The Lion King is stellar and Aladdin has the genie... and uh... it has the genie. anyone will say that Disney's golden decade was the 90's which to me is the one where they all started singing for some reason to the point where I was relieved when Phil Collins would do the singing in Tarzan and Brother Bear. To me, the two golden decades of Disney was the 60's (101 dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book and The Aristocats) and the early 00's. yeah, sure, Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Brother Bear where kinda mediocre. But The Emperor's New Groove, Treasure Planet and Lilo & Stitch was Disney waking up from there 90's musical/princess/cheesefest trip. Emperor's New Groove was more self-aware and fourth-wall breaking than anything else, Treasure Planet was more ambitious and refreshing than anything else but Lilo & Stitch was just nothing like anything else in the Disney catalog. Then, drawn animation officially died in 2003 when Finding Nemo came out but let's not be resentful of the past, shall we. we're here to talk about Lilo & Stitch.
The movie starts of in the extra-terrestrial world where Stitch (currently called experiment 626) and Dr. Jumba are both on trial. Jumba is accused of having created Stitch and Stitch is accused of being Stitch. From this very first scene, everything works beautifully, you feel engaged and sucked into this super cool setup and it's characters including the grand councilwoman (yes, that's her official name) and Captain Gantu. Then, Stitch escapes effortlessly, flies away with a ship and then crashes on our favorite little blue planet. The galactic government peeps decide to send their own version of Laurel & Hardy (Jumba & Pleakley) to Earth to destroy Stitch. Jumba, because he created Stitch and Pleakley, because he's the alien nerd who knows stuff about Earth. What's so great about Jumba and Pleakley is that they're not evil and stupid because they have to be as Disney antagonists. They're actually very likable and are carrying this mission because Stitch is actually a threat during the beginning of the movie. And the reason they keep failing to catch Stitch is not because they're stupid and clumsy but because Stitch is just impossible to catch, which makes it so brilliant.
We then get to the good people of Kauai, introducing Lilo and her older sister, Nani. And that's where this wonderful little Disney feature get's very heavy and emotional. Lilo and Nani are orphaned sisters and Nani being the young adult, has to take care of Lilo all by herself, under the supervision of the harsh but fair social worker, Cobra Bubbles. They are all introduced in that first infamously heart-grabbing scene that some will remember having cried to back in the day and maybe still today. The wonderful yet heartbreaking connection that Lilo has with Stitch is that Lilo, too, acts like a strange and destructive alien and can't fit in with anyone due to the troma of having lost both her parents and only having her caring sister left as a parent figure who yet is patience-limited at times while going under the stress of her little sister's odd behavior and finding a job so that the social worker won't have to take Lilo away from her (yes, it's a Disney movie we're talking about). I don't think I have ever seen a film or animation that shows a truer and rawer depiction of sibling relationship, while struggling under the burden of living as a broken family.
Eventually, Lilo meets and adopts Stitch in a dog adoption home, as he makes himself look like and act like a dog to stay undercover while trying to get Jumba and Pleakley off his tail. From the point Stitch comes in the picture with Lilo and Nina, he starts of acting destructive and careless while Lilo constantly finds an appeal to him and tries to tame him and soothe him all while Nina is very skeptical of Stitch.
Why I think Lilo & Stitch is the best is because it's made for everyone and has the power to move anyone. Everything feels so true and organic, the attention to detail when it comes to timing, dialogue, comedy, little actions and mannerisms, character relations and personalities and the loyal attention to Kauai's culture when it comes to the dancing and the music makes Lilo & Stitch's quality the same level as an award-nominated live-action movie and if Lilo & Stitch was adapted perfectly as a live-action movie and it could be (even though, I don't want it to be), it would still be amazing but of course not as amazing as it's original form. go watch it.
Turist (2014)
I think this ski station might be haunted...
Force Majeure is a movie that tricks you and mocks your instincts from the start and it just keeps getting better. At first glance of the poster, I thought (like everyone else probably) that it would be a disaster movie. it's not, at all. Force Majeure is a Swedish black comedy (as most Scandinavian comedies are) about your average happy wealthy Swedish family going on a ski vacation in the Alps. The movie (being very realistic in it's core) captures the ski holiday at your fancy ski station experience in an authentic and satirical way with scenes where classic ski holiday things happen all while keeping you amused and entertained in a very cunning and nostalgic way. besides the main family which I will get to eventually, the side characters are brilliant satires which will always be there at any ski station: the 35yr old divorcée going with his new 20yr old girlfriend and the 40yr old married mother who goes by herself to sleep around with younger men and the brilliance of it all is that they both are very likable characters.
Now let's get to the family, nothing much to say, they're your average 40yr old couple with two kids they had around 10yrs ago. From the point their disequilibrium gets triggered is when they witness an incoming avalanche as they are having lunch at a ski restaurant, but this avalanche ends up being a mere false alarm as it doesn't fully reach the restaurant and only throws some harmless snow dust on everyone at the ski restaurant. Yet everyone at the restaurant panicked including the main family. The mother grabbed on to her two children and screamed help to her husband but he was busy running away and here's where the real avalanche starts: the two kids are obviously traumatised and the mother is in spite that her husband ran away from them instead of being the protective hero and in making things worse, he's in denial that he ran away. And this is where things get very weird and darkly comedic. The mother is in more and more spite and obsesses towards her husband as he's still in denial that he ran away all while days pass with a haunting atmosphere at every night time scene with the heavy snow falling, the sound of ski station works and Vivaldi's 'Summer' symphony playing along, giving you this feeling as if the ski station was haunted.
Force Majeure is a brilliant dark comedy with a haunting Kubrick- esque atmosphere and a genius satire of the perfect family image and the ethics of what makes a decent husband and father, reminding us that we are nothing more but mere shameless animals with primal survival instincts like any other. Watch this rare gem.
Glassland (2014)
So realistic, so minimalist, so slow, so quiet...
I've never ran across a movie seriously addressing the topic of alcoholism, that is until I saw Glassland. Most dramas will show you the drunk dad who drinks too much because that's what some bad dads do in western culture, or the stressed mum who drinks too much because the bad dad did something bad. Glassland shows the true ugly colour of Alcoholism as an addiction and an illness. Based in Dublin, John (played by Jack Reynor), mid-twenties cab driver, has two problems to deal with: trying to save his single mother, Jean (played by Toni Collette) from alcoholism all while being unintentionally tangled in human trafficking as a cab driver while it affects his conscience despite that he needs the money to pay for everything as his mother just stays home and drinks herself to death.
The little weakness that I found in Glassland is that our main protagonist, John, is the strong silent type, the very very silent type. Now, when it comes to me, i'm a dialogue crazed audience, fan of Kevin Smith and Tarantino. Some people love these strong silent type characters but me, not my cup of tea. I had the same problem with Ryan Gosling in Drive and Only God Forgives (but Only God Forgives was a terrible movie as most will agree) yet The Passenger with Jack Nicholson worked for me somehow, it might had something to do with Maria Schneider... Anyway, getting back to the movie, as the viewer, I felt very distanced and snubbed by the movie and protagonist's long moments of silence where little things just happened and you're expected to just be very emotionally cunning to comprehend them (which I thought I did on some occasions). The movie itself is aware of it's own overwhelming silence and slow pace by giving John a friend called Shane (played by Will Poulter) who is a 20yr old adorably cocky lad who says "grand" a lot of time. But it really does feel like Shane was added arbitrarily just to give some colour to a film that clearly doesn't want to be colourful.
The undeniable strength of this movie is it's fearless and raw truth about how alcoholism affects people and the people around them with heart grabbing scenes with Toni Collette giving amazing performances as she always does and Jack Reynor (despite me complaining that he's too quiet) is pretty damn good in some scenes and has a lot of potential as a young upcoming actor. Jean also isn't just portrayed as the drinking monster but as a likable and suffering individual, noticeably shown in a scene where she explains why she is to John based on her resentments about having given birth to a child with down syndrome which she disowned after her husband left all of them due to that child. The movie also shows and reminds us how the public health-care system in many countries is useless and broken when it comes to helping people with mental illnesses and addictions. A movie worth giving a shot.