- 020. Watch 21 films I haven't seen before.
Last time, I opted for a modern Japanese drama-comedy about a cellist turned funeral director, a 1980's US fantasy animation with an evil psychokinetic ice magician, and a 1920's Russian silent docu-drama about the October Revolution of 1917. So, continuing on with the theme of "films that are nothing alike" - variety is good! - here are the next three.
Title: Song of the Sea (2014)
Director: Tomm Moore
Starring: David Rawle; Lucy O'Connell; Brendan Gleeson; Lisa Hannigan; Fionnula Flanagan
Cert: PG
Genre: Animation, fantasy, adventure, drama, family
Language: English (Gaeilge in song)
Plot: After the death of their mother, Ben, a young Irish boy, and his younger sister Saoirse, a selkie, go on a quest to free the fairies and save the spirit world, as well as their family in the process.
Best Bit: All of the Irish mythology included. Not only the selkies - humans able to transform into seals - but also fairies, Mac Lir (it means "son of the sea" and is probably loosely based around Manannán mac Lir, whose father is a sea god in myth), Macha (the name of an ancient Irish goddess) and the general merging of magical and human realms. Also, the great care taken with everything, from the gorgeous backgrounds, to the storytelling, to the names carefully chosen for each character, really makes this film wonderful. (If you'd like to read more about that, there's already a great explanation of it here).
Worst Bit: The animation style of the humanoid characters in the film was not to my taste, but that's just a personal preference. Also, I didn't like the way that Ben's father put so much importance and on his sister and somewhat neglected him, even though Ben was suffering from his mother's death too. However, it did make sense within the context of the plot, and I understand why the story was done that way. Other than that, sometimes Ben's running around exclaiming: "woo!" when he was having adventurous times became a little tiresome. I realise that it was probably put in to keep the younger audiences entertained, but, I'm a grumpy old person with no children, haha.
Overall: It wasn't a film I had originally intended to see, but someone asked me if I wanted to watch it with them since they know I like both anything to do with mythology and the sea. I wasn't disappointed - it was a wonderful film!
Watch it if you like: Irish mythology; animation; films with a similar feel to Hayao Miyazaki's animations.
Rating: 8.5/10
Title: Shake It All About [Danish: En kort En lang] (2001)
Director: Hella Joof
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Charlotte Munck, Troels Lyby
Cert: DK7 (It doesn't have a UK rating, but it seems like something that might be a PG or 12 over here?)
Genre: Romantic comedy
Language: Danish (English subs)
Plot: Jacob and Jørgen have been in a relationship for several years and get engaged after Jacob proposes. Everything seems perfect, until Jacob falls in love with Caroline, the woman married to Jørgen's younger brother, Tom. Things get complicated and Jacob has to decide who he wants to spend the rest of his life with: Jørgen or Caroline.
Best Bit: Jacob's purple shirt (it made me think of Violet). The ice skating scene. Oh, and the ending because it was so cheesy. Jacob driving, then running, then riding a horse to the airport to stop a plane with a bouquet of flowers was really silly and too much, but it amused me all the same! (There were better bits than these I'm sure, but I can't remember without watching it again).
Worst Bit: Some of the things Jacob did didn't make a lot of sense and his behaviour was pretty immature and selfish at times. Caroline too, but it seemed like she had more reasons than Jacob did. I understand that he was finding himself or whatever, but if your fiance's in hospital because he was upset that you had sex with someone else, got drunk and had an accident, you should probably not continue to have sex with said person. Just a thought. Ah, but it's a romantic comedy, so it all works out in the end!
Overall: A friend recommended this to me because it has an actor in it (guess which one :P) from some other things that I like and I hadn't seen it. Well, romantic comedies aren't my thing, but I chose it at random from my "to watch" list, and it did amuse me in places. It was a pleasant enough film.
Apart from that, I liked that it didn't suggest that Jacob just hadn't "met the right girl yet", and didn't explain his choice of partner that way. Jacob's behaviour seemed to be more about the fact that he was panicking because of the impending lifelong commitment to Jørgen. Also, he didn't really fit into the "gay community", he really wanted to have children (at the time of this film, it wasn't possible for a gay couple to adopt; it is now), that his parents didn't really approve of him being gay (though they never mentioned it until he was with Caroline), and then that he realised that he also had feelings for a woman and might be bisexual.
Caroline too was unhappy with things about her life and marriage (to Jørgen's brother, a pilot), so the relationship was something of an escape for both. It's really just about Jacob and Caroline figuring out what they really want, but they hurt other people in the process, as a side effect.
Watch it if you like: Romantic comedies; dramatic relationships with happy endings; Danish language films; frilly purple shirts; guys riding on horses to airports to stop planes.
Rating: 6/10
Title: Ex Machina (2014)
Director: Alex Garland
Starring: Alicia Vikander; Domhnall Gleeson; Oscar Isaac; Sonoya Mizuno
Cert: 15
Genre: Sci-fi, drama, mystery/thriller
Language: English
Plot: Caleb, a 26 year old programmer employed by the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at the remote private mountain retreat of the company's CEO, Nathan. When Caleb gets to the compound, he discovers that the real reason behind the competition was to find someone to interact with and carry out an extended Turing test on the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful gynoid.
Best Bit: Caleb's interactions with both Ava and Nathan. The similarities between Ava and Nathan that made them almost like an extremely dysfunctional father and daughter (Nathan even comments on him being "like her dad" at one point). The workshop Nathan built Ava in (the brains!). Kyoko getting to interact with Ava. The ending, because even though it seemed unfair to one - two if you count the events leading up to the very end - of the characters, as they didn't really do anything wrong, it actually completely made sense. (Also, if you go for Roko's Basilisk theory, then I guess it was inevitable at some point anyway). I liked that you don't get to see what happens to everyone once the experiment is over, as well. Even though it's pretty obvious what happens after the events of the film, it's left somewhat open-ended.
Worst Bit: N A T H A N. I don't think I've disliked a character so much in a long time. But, that was the point really. He wasn't supposed to be likeable. Oscar Isaac did a great job of playing him though! And, maybe the worst bit is really that I started to understand his point of view by the end, whether I liked it or not, even though he just got worse.
Overall: This was one of the best films I've seen in ages and I wish it hadn't taken me so long to see it. It manages to balance hard sci-fi based in the real world, with entertainment, beautiful cinematography, solid effects, and an original take on the AI genre of film. Brilliant!
Watch it if you like: Sci-fi; artificial intelligence; gynoids; androids; robots; horrible "bad guys"; programmers who fall in love with robots; random dance scenes; Turing tests; technology; search engines.
Rating: 9
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☆Thank you for imagining another part of this paracosm☆