Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton version y’all.

image from http://www.costumersguide.com/index.shtml

Weirdly enough (for me) I wasn’t too excited to see this movie. I didn’t grow up with Alice in Wonderland, neither through the Disney animated feature nor the actual books by Lewis Carroll. As more of the production stills came in, I still couldn’t muster much of anything resembling excitement.  The closer it got though, the greater it seemed like I was bound to see it, regardless of anything.

Alice Kingsley (Mia Wasikowska) runs away from her engagement party and returns to Wonder Underland with no memory of her previous adventures there.  She is recruited to defeat the Red Queen, agreeing only because she thinks the world is a dream.

It’s not a bad movie.  Not at all.  You can throw a lot of shit Burton’s way, but you cannot deny that the man knows how a story is supposed to be told.  It doesn’t seem like a rare gift to understand the art of storytelling until you realize just how often people mess it up.  Mostly, you have to let go whatever baggage you might be taking into the theater with you– whether you have something particular about Alice that needs to be just so or Burton-related prejudice or expectation.

There were a lot of interesting bits, mostly visually or through actors’ performances.  In general, the Mad Hatter kind of freaked me out, but I liked the dueling personalities once I got used to it.  I loved Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter as the White and Red Queens, respectively.  I’m not sure why, something about them… the fact that the White Queen was so ethereal in a slightly disturbing way while the Red Queen was really cartoony and obviously evil.  These characters all end up being fun to watch, moving the story along quite briskly.

I was talking with some friends today and they came up with, “It felt like fanfiction!” kind of tone.  Which is hard to argue with. I ended up thinking “Oh, Alice should be wearing longer skirts than THAT by now, if she’s 19,” and “At least the Hatter knows to hold a broad sword with both hands. Oh my GOD, is that a KILT?!”  The best way to describe it is that the entire package is really great, generally very shiny and fun, but a few minute pieces left me chagrined.

On another note entirely, I will probably see this again.  It takes me two watches to really like Burton films, but by the end of that second run-through, I love them.

Twisted Films Observation

I’m watching Batman Returns for the first time in ages right now and what’s really striking tonight is the fact that this is a really weird movie.

I suppose after the pseudo-realism in the Nolan Batman franchise movies, even the Burton films would start to seem a little corny to me. Doesn’t stop the fact that I love them, but now all I can think of is “Damn.” and “Weird.”

But what makes this movie so weird? (Or really, any Burton movie to date). What I’ve been thinking is, they take images and symbols that we consider “pure”, like Christmas in The Nightmare Before Christmas or the giant cartoon duck that the Penguin travels the sewers in, and then puts the innocent objects in a background of the Weird.

It’s the same with the Danny Elfman soundtracks too.  A lot of the time, themes will come up that sound like music box tunes, but then they become more fully realized later on.

There isn’t a problem here, but it is a pattern I keep noticing.  It’s actually typical Burton style and I like it a lot.  It’s subverting expectations, et cetera.

But then there is that Middle America objection to it when it comes to children.  This, I don’t understand.  It goes back to my Astroboy review post awhile back that maybe parents are too sensitive toward what they show their kids.  I remember reading somewhere that the camptastic Schumacher Batman films were made largely because objections came from the Burton films being too dark.  This is similar to the Coraline objections I kept hearing about in reviews or even when Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came out.

I’m not sure if there’s a point here, but it is a kind of observation post.  I guess if I were to suggest a point,  it’s that kids aren’t as sensitive to these things as parents are.  Usually, children accept whatever details end up being thrown into a plot along the way, whether they’re dark or light.  I think on some level we understand that– that’s why we still read fairy tales to children.  It’s just that when something new is presented with a slightly dark or twisted variation on it do people freak out.  Probably because they’re unfamiliar with it, but then there’s just forgetting how accepting children are.

So there are my thoughts on that. All because Batman Returns happened to be on TV tonight.

Dark Shadows!

I’m on Winter Break. Woo-hoo! Further more, it’s actually snowing in North Carolina (for once).

But I decided to try watching Dark Shadows (I guess this must be the 80s revamp of the series) since Tim Burton is planning on this being his next big feature film after Alice in Wonderland. And I couldn’t help but notice that in the opening credits, the little kid in the series is played by none other than a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt?

What? Why wasn’t I aware of this? Actually, I need to double check this with the Tubes before.
…
Yup. thanks to the Internet Movie Database, I can say for certain that in 1991, he played David Collins on Dark Shadows. Weird.

I would love it so much if this means he got to play a part in the Tim Burton movie. That would make life so awesome.

12 Movie Meme

I was tagged by Caitlin at  http://1416andcounting.wordpress.com/  for the 12 Movie Meme, where you design a film festival using your own brains, braun, talent, and personal choices (be what they may) created, as a daunting task, by http://lazyeyetheatre.blogspot.com/2008/07/12-movies-meme.html, who says: 

“On the surface it seems fun and easy, and yet scratch the surface a bit and you’ll find a very daunting task because what you choose is a personal reflection. And you can’t willy nilly it. Your 12 movies should be like a good mixed tape. Strong at first, brought down a little right after, then up again, solid in the middle with a big finish.

So here are the Meme rules:

1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

2) Explain why you chose the films.

3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people.”

So now I come to ponder to myself, just what WOULD I show at some crazy film festival, where I had veto power and I’m the one concocting this thing to begin with?

To, start:

It’s Gotta Be Southern

Big Fish

This is one of the unique plumes in Tim Burton’s hat-o’-films for various reasons, one being that it actually was shot in the same area as where the movie takes place.   Further, it’s… bright.  And is full of Britisth actors faking Southern accents like they were born down south.  This movie is a good beginning film, since it is part fairy tale, part family drama.  I love the angst Billy Crudup manages to work up as Will Bloom, who can’t seem to understand his father at all.

Dead Man Walking

Someone in my Cinema Ethics’s class this year pointed out that this is a quintessencial nineties movie, what with Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon as the stars and… that’s pretty much true.  All of the action takes place in Louisiana and it’s technically a biopic about a nun’s relationship with a man on death row.  After the light, comes the deep, dark issue-y goodness that is Dead Man Walking.  And, if anything else, you can snicker at Sean Penn’s mullet.  Then cry your eyes out at the end of the film.

Growing Up in Japan

Late Spring

This is a post-World War II flick about one family in Japan.  Namely, the only daughter of a novelist who still lives with her father and is pressured into marriage.  Noriko is in denial about her situation and repressed–she doesn’t want to get married because she’s comfortable living with her father.  Until about a quarter of the way through, Noriko is just annoying because her smile is permafixed to her face and it’s more than just a little disturbing, but then the layers of sorrow come out.  Not an upper of a film, but enlightening to the Japan of sixty years ago.

Kamikaze Girls

My favorite hyper-lolita-friendship movie.  Ever.  With Cabbage to spare.  This movie combines my love of quick cuts and weird characters with the Japanese fashion movement Gothic Lolita.  There’s a novel and I’d love to read it (once i get through the 25ish books kicking around my room).  What’s fun with this movie is that you could try to read into while watching, or you could just sit back and let the crazy take you.

 A Night of Fantasia

The Fall

ZOMG, Charles Darwin?

I saw this movie about a month ago, and it blew me away.  It makes you think about stories and story telling, while the relationship between Roy and the little girl is just adorable and actually touching (going where few movies are able to go to anymore).  The fantasy of the second plot, the stories Roy tells, reveals this beautiful world of colors and ruins and Charles Darwin in a really ugly coat.  The extra plus?  This movie did not use any CGI.  Everything was set designed or filmed on location.

Mirrormask

When Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean come together: Magic.  This contrasts with The Fall well because it moves from having no CGI at all to having over half of the movie entirely CGI.  This is one of the modern fairy tales in film that just leaves a person smiling.  Character to watch is Valentine, who is hilarious and weird and wraps up the ending well, when it comes.  Also, if you happen to like audio books, this one is brilliant.

Ed Wood Nite

Plan Nine from Outer Space (MST3K Version)

Part of why Plan Nine from Outer Space fails at being a “good” movie, is that it’s boring.  It’s the most terrible movie in the world for a reason, and that’s a big one.  With the guys from Myster Science Theater 3000, the entertainment level is raised and keeps people laughing and awake for the night.  In time for…

Ed Wood

The cute lil’ biopic directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp.  It’s fun!  It’s weird!  It’s wanton!  It’s in black and white!  This is one of Burton’s gems in his crown of career, critically acclaimed, and all of that rot.  This movie is just fun: as Ed Wood, Johnny Depp is this eternal optimist or likes to wear women’s clothes and hangs out with Bela Lugosi and Criswell.  It’s endlessly quotable and a good finish for the night.

 Dude, That’s Murder

Rope

Rope just happens to be one of those movies that matches this idea.  And it’s Hitchcockian with it’s “pure cinema” and the murder happens immediately and… whatever.  It’s about snobby rich kids who commit murder to see what it’s like and to impress James Stewart. One’s a psychopath and the other is twitchy because he doesn’t want to get caught.

 M

M is the epitome of classic murder stories.  It’s an early German sound movie that totally kicks ass, but near the end I feel for the murderer.  And ethical questions are posed!  While a weighed trial is held.  Fairly deep and an interesting look at the German city life in the thirties, even through film, or just the end of innocence.

And to end this festival of terrors and delights:

Love, Blood, and Rhetoric (Crack Movies I’m Addicted To)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

This movie makes me blink and say “What the fuck?” aloud everytime I watch it, because it’s technically the closest version of Dracula to the book, but it’s still really crackfilled and… not like the book.  I don’t believe in Francis Ford Coppola after this movie… seriously.  I watch it because of Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkin’s and Winona Rider’s green dress.  But it’s my guilty please, the movie I watch with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Karamelsutra on my lap with the lights off and a sketchpad next to me.

Sleepy Hollow

Blood, Love, and Rhetoric all wrapped up in a film created because Tim Burton and Johnny Depp said “Hey, remember Hammer Horrors?  Let’s make one of those.”  I really enjoy the plot of this movie, but it is one of those films that I watch because I want to watch a hot Johnny Depp or the costumes are gorgeous.  And they are– I might kill someone for the stepmother’s dress (You’ll know it if you’ve seen this movie).  But I’m ending the festival with this because it is one of my favorite movies.  Even if it’s not close to the original plot of the Washington Irving story, it’s beautiful and a great mystery story for those who like them unpredictable.  (hey, can you guys tell that I like Tim Burton?  Because I don’t think I made it obvious enough…).

Thus ends the great and terrible film fest.  God, that took me awhile to come together… but I’m glad I put the effort into it.  It was worth it.

Forward, MARCH!