Staying in bed all day is weird...
Jan. 26th, 2014 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobear ...but you get a lot of movie-watching done!
Kiki's Delivery Service:
In my experience, Studio Ghibli films fall into two categories - weird and disturbing (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) and weird and heart-warming (My Neighbour Totoro, Ponyo). I very much prefer the latter variety, and Kiki's Delivery Service definitely falls into that category. It tells of a young witch in training, travelling to a new town to develop her powers with her sardonic talking cat. Up until the very end, she faces problems like a lost stuffed toy, and a broken oven and mostly meets really nice, helpful people (with one or two exceptions - though I think the nastiest thing anyone does is express dislike of their grandmother's pies). This is what I love about this type of Studio Ghibli film - there is no bad guy, there is very little peril or conflict (though Kiki does have to rescue someone from a runaway dirigible, which ups the tension rather dramatically at the end of the film) but they are wonderfully engaging and really, really sweet. Perfect for a Saturday evening in bed with a cold.
The Bling Ring:
This got four stars in its Empire review, but I found it to be as vacuous as its protagonists. Rather more feeding the celebrity obsession the young burglars suffer from than criticising it, this film doesn't seem to have anything useful to say. The characters aren't changed by their experiences, they don't seem to learn anything and the only message I gleaned from it is that celebrities are apparently stupid enough not to lock their houses when they go out or use any kind of alarm system. Emma Watson does a very good valley girl impression, though - and the clips of various interviews with her character are high points - it's difficult to tell if she believes her own bullshit, but it's scary either way.
Behind the Candelabra:
Ostentatious, flamboyant, and slightly grotesque - possibly as Liberace himself may have been. Great performances from Michael Douglas and Matt Damon and roles you wouldn't normally think of them for - so probably most credit for this film should go to the casting director. I'm not quite sure what the point of it was supposed to be, but it's well made, well acted, and I guess demonstrates the dangers of becoming too dependent on one person, to the detriment of your own life and identity.
Beautiful Creatures:
Third of three films in the last 24 hours where I was left wondering what it was meant to be saying - but this one baffled me most. Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons obviously had a whale of a time, but the film put forward some worrying ideas in my opinion. Premise - casters (or witches if you want to annoy them) come into their powers fully on their sixteenth birthday. Male casters can choose whether they want to follow the light or the dark - but, for female casters, their "true nature" manifests and chooses for them. I mean, really??? Aren't we a bit beyond "teenage girl sexuality is dangerous and uncontrollable" allegories by now??? I guess the fact that the protagonist defeats "the curse" and "claims herself" could suggest an attempt to subvert this appalling premise, but I'm not sure that makes up for the fact that it was presented in the first place. Then, there's the very end - where the protagonist makes the boy she loves forget her so that he can escape the small town and find fulfilment out in the world, while she remains trapped in sacrificial solitude - or so you think until he reaches the town limits, stops the car, jumps out and screams her name... And what exactly are we meant to take from that - his love is stronger than her magic? They will now be trapped together in the crappy town? He is going to liberate her so they can find fulfilment out in the world together? I'm not sure any of those interpretations make things any better. Plus, the choice of the dark is demonstrated by glowing eyes, and the protagonist as one glowing eye and one not in the last scene - until the boy screams her name from the town limits and the glowing eye stops glowing - does this denote his love turning her wholly good? Mixed messages about being true to yourself, finding your own path, allowing the needs of others to prevent you from being happy, and the benefits and disadvantages of obsessive love abound.
I think I'm going to head back to Studio Ghibli...
Kiki's Delivery Service:
In my experience, Studio Ghibli films fall into two categories - weird and disturbing (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) and weird and heart-warming (My Neighbour Totoro, Ponyo). I very much prefer the latter variety, and Kiki's Delivery Service definitely falls into that category. It tells of a young witch in training, travelling to a new town to develop her powers with her sardonic talking cat. Up until the very end, she faces problems like a lost stuffed toy, and a broken oven and mostly meets really nice, helpful people (with one or two exceptions - though I think the nastiest thing anyone does is express dislike of their grandmother's pies). This is what I love about this type of Studio Ghibli film - there is no bad guy, there is very little peril or conflict (though Kiki does have to rescue someone from a runaway dirigible, which ups the tension rather dramatically at the end of the film) but they are wonderfully engaging and really, really sweet. Perfect for a Saturday evening in bed with a cold.
The Bling Ring:
This got four stars in its Empire review, but I found it to be as vacuous as its protagonists. Rather more feeding the celebrity obsession the young burglars suffer from than criticising it, this film doesn't seem to have anything useful to say. The characters aren't changed by their experiences, they don't seem to learn anything and the only message I gleaned from it is that celebrities are apparently stupid enough not to lock their houses when they go out or use any kind of alarm system. Emma Watson does a very good valley girl impression, though - and the clips of various interviews with her character are high points - it's difficult to tell if she believes her own bullshit, but it's scary either way.
Behind the Candelabra:
Ostentatious, flamboyant, and slightly grotesque - possibly as Liberace himself may have been. Great performances from Michael Douglas and Matt Damon and roles you wouldn't normally think of them for - so probably most credit for this film should go to the casting director. I'm not quite sure what the point of it was supposed to be, but it's well made, well acted, and I guess demonstrates the dangers of becoming too dependent on one person, to the detriment of your own life and identity.
Beautiful Creatures:
Third of three films in the last 24 hours where I was left wondering what it was meant to be saying - but this one baffled me most. Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons obviously had a whale of a time, but the film put forward some worrying ideas in my opinion. Premise - casters (or witches if you want to annoy them) come into their powers fully on their sixteenth birthday. Male casters can choose whether they want to follow the light or the dark - but, for female casters, their "true nature" manifests and chooses for them. I mean, really??? Aren't we a bit beyond "teenage girl sexuality is dangerous and uncontrollable" allegories by now??? I guess the fact that the protagonist defeats "the curse" and "claims herself" could suggest an attempt to subvert this appalling premise, but I'm not sure that makes up for the fact that it was presented in the first place. Then, there's the very end - where the protagonist makes the boy she loves forget her so that he can escape the small town and find fulfilment out in the world, while she remains trapped in sacrificial solitude - or so you think until he reaches the town limits, stops the car, jumps out and screams her name... And what exactly are we meant to take from that - his love is stronger than her magic? They will now be trapped together in the crappy town? He is going to liberate her so they can find fulfilment out in the world together? I'm not sure any of those interpretations make things any better. Plus, the choice of the dark is demonstrated by glowing eyes, and the protagonist as one glowing eye and one not in the last scene - until the boy screams her name from the town limits and the glowing eye stops glowing - does this denote his love turning her wholly good? Mixed messages about being true to yourself, finding your own path, allowing the needs of others to prevent you from being happy, and the benefits and disadvantages of obsessive love abound.
I think I'm going to head back to Studio Ghibli...
