Tag: 2011

Limitless

Since his first screen appearance in an episode of Sex And The City, Bradley Cooper has gravitated from supporting player to genuine star. Impressing in television spy series Alias, he made his way from forgettable shows Touching Evil, Jack & Bobby and Kitchen Confidential to film appearances in Wedding Crashers, Failure To Launch and The Comebacks, with The Rocker, The Midnight Meat Train and Yes Man padding out his resume.

In 2009, he added New York, I Love You, He’s Just Not That Into You and All About Steve to his body of work, however it was the unexpected popularity of comedy The Hangover that considerably boosted his fame. After 2010 remake The A-Team, Cooper now turns his talents to mystery thriller Limitless, in the first feature to truly test his leading man credentials.

Writer Eddie Morra (Cooper) is on the fast-track to nowhere, with failure following his every move. The words won’t come to him despite the lure of a hefty advance, and his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish, Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole) has had enough of his defeatist attitude. Running into his ex brother-in-law (Johnny Whitworth, Gamer) for the first time in years, Eddie is presented with an opportunity he can’t pass up. Given a sample of wonder drug NZT-48, his mindset is altered from meandering to motivated, with anything seemingly possible. Just as things start looking up, his rise from zero to hero brings with it the attention of characters both shady (Tomas Arana, Defiance) and connected (Robert De Niro, Meet The Parents: Little Fockers). As the stakes are raised, Eddie finds himself caught in a mess of murder and mayhem, with the drugs central to his predicament.

Limitless comes with an intriguing premise, albeit one based on Alan Glynn’s novel “The Dark Fields”. Placing itself almost immediately in the realm of Philip K. Dick’s style of existential parables in which the protagonist’s reality is shifted to a point where he doesn’t know what is real and what is constructed: they are a pluralist view of reality, where the altered state begins to make more sense that what had been perceived up until that point.

We have already seen one of Dick’s stories adapted this year in The Adjustment Bureau, and Limitless holds up quite well when viewed within the contextual framework. Of course, the story is bolstered greatly by the presence of a new certified leading man in Bradley Cooper, who transforms from bum to genius quite literally before our eyes, and the smoke and mirrors direction of Neil Burger (mmm…burger) in his fourth outing in the big chair. Supporting cast members Cornish and De Niro, the latter of whom is still phoning it in at this late stage in his career, offer ample chops, but ultimately it is Cooper who must carry this premise on his shoulders.

Limitless is not quite as clever as it thinks it is, or should be, as the problem with writing a film about a super-smart person is that the people behind the film are nowhere near as brilliant as the character that they are portraying. While not to diminish anything from Leslie Dixon, the scribe behind such straightforward genre pics Mrs. Doubtfire, Pay It Forward and the Freaky Friday remake, she isn’t exactly batting with the four-figure IQ that the lead character purports to have in Limitless. This leaves the film in a bit of a quandary in the final act of the film. The intriguing premise and charming personality of Cooper have carried us through the first two acts effortlessly, and to be frank it is very cool watching a person with no restraints at work.

For the audience, this is the person that we want it to be. However, for a character as smart as this to work there are really only two options for a film that is not as clever as its main character: make all the other characters stupid, or rely on a convoluted denouement to bluff your way out. The latter works quite well for Limitless, as long as you don’t examine it too closely, and we are left with an otherwise above-average thriller.

The Reel Bits: Limitless is not without its limits, but it is clever enough to hide them with just enough pace to stop us from asking too many probing questions. Cooper confirms his status as a winning leading man, and we look forward to seeing him back with the Wolfpack in The Hangover Part II and in what will hopefully be a meatier role in David O. Russell’s The Silver Linings Playbook in 2013.

Limitless was released on March 17, 2011 in Australia by Roadshow Films.

March 23, 2011
On Tour (Alliance Française French Film Festival 2011)

French film personality Mathieu Amalric has found fame appearing on-screen, with a successful career as a renowned character actor to his name. With features as diverse as Munich and Marie Antoinette, Public Enemy #1 and Quantum Of Solace on his resume, the talented thespian has received three César awards (for most promising actor in My Sex Life… or How I Got Into an Argument, and best male lead in Kings And Queen and The Diving Bell And The Butterfly), as well as winning admirers amongst his national and the international audience. His work behind the camera is less well-known, despite having helmed a series of shorts and feature-length efforts. After 1997’s Mange ta soupe, 2001’s Wimbledon Stage and 2003’s Public Affairs, Amalric returns to his filmmaking duties after a seven-year absence with the 2010 Cannes Film Festival best director recipient On Tour (Tournée).

Returning to his native country after a prolonged absence, television producer turned neo-burlesque troupe manager Joachim Zand (Amalric, Wild Grass) receives a less than warm welcome. Having promised his performers – Mimi Le Meaux (Miranda Colclasure), Kitten on the Keys (Suzanne Ramsey), Dirty Martini (Linda Marraccini), Julie Atlas Muz (Julie Ann Muz), Evie Lovelle (Angela de Lorenzo) and Roky Roulette (Alexander Craven) – a regional tour culminating in a grand Parisian finale, his plans are forced to change when his former business associates refuse to lend a hand. Although some of the dancers are understanding, others – particularly Mimi – are unable to reconcile their disappointment with the way the trip has turned out. When Joachim’s children (Simon and Joseph Roth) join the journey, the group dynamic changes as the producer and his charges are thrust in an unexpected direction.

There is an incredible feeling of authenticity to On Tour, in no small part due to the use of non-actors and genuine neo-burlesque performers Mimi Le Meaux, Kitten on the Keys, Dirty Martini, Julie Atlas Muz, Evie Lovelle and Roky Roulette. In a stark contrast to the sanitised Hollywood version of Burlesque, imagine if you will a world where Christina Aguilera had really let herself go and Cher weighed an extra 30 kilos or so. There is a gritty feel to this that mainstream US cinema would never dare go near, and although this is a fictionalised account (albeit with real performers) there is an almost documentary or cinéma vérité quality to the film. It is no surprise to learn that Amalric based the look of the film on US films of the 1970s, especially The Killing of a Chinese Bookie by John Cassavetes. Indeed, the ghost of Cassavetes is highly present throughout On Tour, with the same spirit of improvisation and allowing the actors to find their own voices within the roles. The burlesque girls directly reference this during a rehearsal, stating that they create their own show for the audience and are not controlled by any man. Despite betraying a fragility to the outwardly rough-and-tumble troupe, one can fully imagine that the cast had a similar thematic relationship with Amalric.

Like an extended road trip, On Tour feels its entire 111 minutes and it is questionable as to whether it overstays its welcome. Certainly there is a definite pace to the film that Amalric consciously, although somewhat effortlessly, instills in the film and it would be difficult to remove any single part without disrupting the whole. Seemingly channeling a mixture of Steve Buscemi (and as one critic pointed out, an uncanny resemblance to a younger Roman Polanski), Joachim’s occasional bursts of outrage are all the more tangible when built on a foundation of uneasy frustrations, represented through the passing of time and the tedium of the road. Although there is much joy to be found in On Tour, there is also a surprising amount of sadness, and this too is found in those quiet reflective moments. More than anything, the film is very much like the unconventional family that is represents: it lives for the spotlight, shines when it is performing, weeps as a unit and would be lost without any of the elements that makes it whole.

The Reel Bits: An unconventional portrait of an unconventional group of people, handled with the delicacy and familiarity of a pro. Amalric solidifies his presence as an all-round performer/director, while allowing this cast of largely non-actors the ability to grow and make these often difficult roles their own.

On Tour is screening as part of the Alliance Française French Film Festival 2011.

March 21, 2011
Battle: Los Angeles

The poor city of Los Angeles just can’t seem to cop a break. At least since the 1950s, when the city was destroyed in the War of the Worlds, the City of Angels has faced one disaster after another. Although it manages to quickly rebuild, it has been perpetually toppled by earthquakes (Earthquake, Double Dragon, 10:5 Apocalypse, 2012), global warming (The Day After Tomorrow), nuclear bombs (Terminator 2), zombie apocalypse (Zombieland) and believe it or not, a volcano (Volcano). At one point, the whole city snapped off and became an island of the damned (Escape from L.A.).

All these disasters in one place have naturally attracted visitors from other planets, seeing the susceptible but strangely resilient city as a place to engage in target practice. Perhaps the War of the Worlds Martians just got the word out. Many lives were lost on Independence Day, and again last year during the Skyline incident. Now that the fragile history is clear, it is time for the Battle: Los Angeles to commence.

Still recovering from the loss of several men in his last mission, US Marine Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart, Rabbit Hole) plans to retire. When some mysterious objects fall from the sky, he is asked to accompany new Lieutenant William Martinez (Ramón Rodríguez, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) on a mission to evacuate civilians from a police station in downtown L.A. It soon becomes apparent that the world is in the midst of an alien invasion, and the nasties show no signs of wanting to talk about it over a nice cup of tea. Eventually joined by Michelle Rodriguez, Machete), the ragtag group must band together to find out a way to stop these alien buggers once and for all.

There is a point when playing any video game, for that is the format that Battle: Los Angeles is most analogous to, when you just want the cut scene to stop so you can start doing your own running and gunning. No such point ever comes in this tedious, bloated and completely shallow film. There is not so much a narrative as one long action sequence, one that shows no signs of stopping throughout much of its running time. The soundtrack is similarly constant, with the perpetual explosions and painful emotion-directing score (from Brian Tyler) seemingly intent on drowning out any pleas for mercy from the audience.

Despite the film opening with a series of vignettes dedicated to each of the main characters, complete with title card that remind us they all have names, there is nothing subsequent to this that gives any indication as to why we should invest any further time in caring about these carbon copies of other people’s heroes. From the working marine weeks away from retirement to the father just trying to look out for his son, everybody here has been lifted off the shelf without tailoring. They don’t so much engage in dialogue as exchange short bursts of cliché. When that fails, there is always military speak to fall back on, and that doesn’t really have to make sense.

Director Jonathan Liebesman is no stranger to derivation, having previously helmed Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (itself a prequel to the 2003 remake). No spoilers are intended by this statement, but the ending has been lifted wholesale from the conclusion to 1996’s Independence Day. Perhaps scriptwriter Christopher Bertolini (The General’s Daughter) is relying on the age of the demographic or short memories to obscure this little factoid.

Yet even unoriginal movies can be fun, but the Battle: Los Angeles crew seem to have sapped all the good bits out of those sources of inspiration and left us with a whole mess of action, at some points being Black Hawk Down and at others borrowing from the Assault on Precinct 13 genre. Previous efforts following the formula have often seen a diverse group of people pulling together in times of crisis (the scientist, the stoner, the candlestick maker), while here we are only left with a single group of marines to save the day. It’s the cinematic equivalent of watching somebody else play soldier, while being asked to sit on the sidelines and observe.

To a large extent, Battle: Los Angeles is the type of film you either have to just go with or hit the exits. For discerning members of the audience, the urge for flight will override the fight button. If you felt that Independence Day had too many characters to keep track of, then this might just be the film for you. Yet in the face of real-world tragedies and disasters, and we have already seen too many this year, Battle: Los Angeles is a pale imitation of human drama.

Battle: Los Angeles was released on 17 March 2011 in Australia by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

March 18, 2011
‘Puss in Boots’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’: 2011 in animation

Animation lovers of the world rejoice as Paramount sends over not one but two new trailers for their forthcoming films, Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2. We also take a look at some of the other animated favourites, and by that we largely mean sequels and remakes, coming up on the big screen this year.

Puss in Boots

The Shrek franchise has well and truly worn at this point, with no less than four films to the cash-cow franchise. The most recent installment, Shrek Forever After, boldly tagged itself as “The Final Chapter”. This didn’t stop Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Final Destination or Star Trek: The Final Frontier (or the entire Final Fantasy series for that matter), and nobody said anything about spin-offs or prequels. Case in point: Puss in Boots.

Antonio Banderas reprises his role as the titular kitty, and is joined by the likes of Salma Hayek, Billy Bob Thornton, Amy Sedaris and Zach Galifianakis (as Humpty Dumpty!). The film will be a prequel to the Shrek films, and tell the back story of the swashbuckling cat and how he came to meet up with the big green ogre and his donkey.

Puss in Boots is due out in cinemas in Australia on 8 December 2011 from Paramount Australia.

Kung Fu Panda 2

The surprise hit (of sorts) of 2008, the tale of an overweight panda named Po (voiced by Jack Black) was given a deceptively simple and old-fashioned story. Eschewing the kind of pop-song centric approach that many of the Dreamworks stablemates had taken, Jack Black as Po was believable as the everyman in a way he hasn’t been able to pull off in a live-action film in a number of years. The sequel looks promising with the return of the already excellent voice cast that includes Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, David Cross, and the addition of Michelle Yeoh, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Gary Oldman to the mix.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is due out in cinemas in Australia on 23 June 2011 from Paramount Australia.

2 Other Animated Films We Are Looking Forward To…

2011 looks to be the year of birds, cars, bears, cats, penguins and chipmunks – and whatever the hell a Smurf is. (Delicious, apparently). Yet of those films, only the recent Rango and the forthcoming Rio are original creations. Almost all of the forthcoming animated films in 2011 are part of a larger franchise, and it makes us a little worried for the sake of the Best Animated Film category at the Oscars next year.

The Adventures of Tin Tin: Secret of the Unicorn – If the thought of a CGI-animated Tin Tin doesn’t already float your boat, perhaps the state-of-the-art motion capture technology will. Or maybe that the legendary Steven Spielberg is directing a script by Steven Moffat (Doctor Who), Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World) and Joe Cornish (The Adam and Joe Show). Hergé’s most famous creation should have lovers of animation and film-lovers alike wetting their pants in anticipation, especially when the voice (and motion) talents of Simon Pegg, Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Cary Elwes, Nick Frost and Andy Serkis grace the cast list. The Adventures of Tin Tin: Secret of the Unicorn is due out in Australia on 26 December 2011 from Paramount.

Winnie the Pooh – The multi-billion dollar franchise may have already overstayed its welcome for some, especially those who still believe it was sacrilege to tamper with the works of A.A. Milne. However, Disney’s red-shirted version of the bear of very little brain has become iconic in its own right, and this gentle reminder of all things great about being simple may be just the ticket in these dark times. To make things more interesting, Disney’s first 2D theatrical short, The Ballad of Nessie, will screen before the film making this a double-feature of sorts for Disney animation buffs. Winnie the Pooh is due out in the US on 15 July 2011, and 22 September 2011 in Australia from Walt Disney Pictures.

… and a Couple We Aren’t Looking Forward To

Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked – It baffles the mind that this has made it to a third installment, but at least one other franchise on this page has made it to an official fifth, so go figure. While this is technically only part-animated, with live action and CGI elements mixed together, the principle ‘cast’ are all animated characters so we think it counts. We just really wish that it didn’t. The title-puns are still bad, but this is marginally better than ‘The Squeakquel‘. The similar-looking Hop is coming soon, although that does look as though it has a bit more depth than a record being played at high-speed. Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked is due out in Australia on 15 December 2011 from Fox.

Cars 2 – This may be a surprise from a website that has long favoured anything that comes from the House of Mouse or Pixar, but the original 2006 John Lasseter/Joe Ranft vanity project is one of the few misfires in the Pixar canon. There was so much wrong with the overlong and complete unmagical first installment, and adding more cars and the convoluted ‘spy thriller’ storyline only seems likely to compound the problem. We will remain cautiously optimistic in the wake of Up and Toy Story 3, but reserve our excitement for 2012’s Brave. Cars 2 is due out 23 June 2011 in Australia from Walt Disney Pictures.

The Reel Bits is the cinema arm of DVD Bits. DVD Bits can be found on Twitter @DVDBits and The Reel Bits @The_ReelBits. DVD Bits is athttp://www.dvdbits.com.

March 17, 2011
First Look: The Ballad of Nessie

One of the Most Anticipated Films of 2011 we listed back in December last year was Winnie the Pooh, the continuation of Disney’s return to cel-animation that began with The Princess and the Frog after almost a decade in the 3D digital playground. Now there is another reason to get excited about the film’s release: the animated short The Ballad of Nessie that is due to screen with it. Today, Disney released some stills from the forthcoming animated short.

Narrated by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, Disney describes this as the “honest to goodness true tale of Loch Ness and its most famous resident”. It tells the story of how Nessie the Loch Ness Monster and her best friend MacQuack the rubber duck came to live in the most famous loch in Scotland.

The short film will be directed by Stevie Wermers-Skelton and Kevin Deters, who won an Emmy® Award for the Christmas 2009 short Prep & Landing and are also responsible for the Goofy short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater. Written by the duo and Regina Conroy, the animation will come courtesy of Disney veteran animators Andreas Deja (The Lion King), Mark Henn (The Princess and the Frog), Randy Haycock (Meet the Robinsons), Dale Baer (Home on the Range) and Ruben A. Aquino (Lilo & Stitch). If that’s not enough of a pedigree, the music will come courtesy of Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino (Ratatouille and Up). Animation fans, get excited now.

The gorgeous-looking art direction has been pitched by Disney as evoking the Disney shorts of the 1940s and 1950s, and what we can see so far is beautiful. Check out those watercolour, tartan-thatched backgrounds! Plus, Nessie and MacQuack are too cute for words. They just make us squee. That’s right, squee. Out loud. We really can’t wait.

The short not only marks the continuation of the return to traditional cel-animated films from Walt Disney Animation, many of which used to grace the screen prior to their theatrical presentations. Although the major stars of these shorts were undoubtedly Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy, Disney’s theatrical shorts go back as far as 1921 with the Alice short live action/cartoon hybrids. Similarly, 75 Silly Symphonies were made between 1929 and 1939, including seminal shorts Flowers and Trees, Three Little Pigs, The Tortise and the Hare, The Old Mill and The Ugly Duckling.

While Pixar has been keeping the short film tradition alive, and more recently Fox and Warner has begun doing the same (including Scrat’s Continental Crack-Up and Rabid Rider respectively), only a handful (such as Destino, Lorenzo and How to Hook Up Your Home Theater) have appeared in the last decade.

Winnie the Pooh is due out in the US on 15 July 2011, and 22 September 2011 in Australia from Walt Disney Pictures.

March 15, 2011
The Rite

The Exorcist has a lot to answer for. Ever since a little girl’s head spun around spouting pea soup like a lawn sprinkler, it has become the touchstone for all tales of demonic possession over the last four decades. In addition to the two sequels it spawned, it also holds a record for its two prequels (The Exorcist – The Beginning and Dominion – The Exorcist Prequel) being complete remakes of each other starring the same actor. There have been parodies (Leslie Nielsen in Repossessed), and last year’s mockumentary The Last Exorcism. The Exorcism of Emily Rose seemed to mirror many of the themes of The Exorcist, but all of these films have a commonality. The idea that there is a battle being waged between the celestial forces of good and the minions of hell is one as old as religion, and each of these films sets the human body as the battleground.

Mikael Håfström’s The Rite follows this tradition. Michael Kovac (Colin O’Donoghue) is young trainee priest in the midst of a crisis of faith. Rather than follow in the footsteps of his mortician father (Rutger Hauer, Hobo with a Shotgun), Michael has undertaken four years of training in a seminary to become a priest. When he decides to tell his superiors that he is leaving, he is sent for a bit of a Catholic priest boot camp at the Vatican and taught all about demonic possession and exorcism. Still a skeptic, Father Xavier (Ciarán Hinds, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1) directs Michael to the eccentric Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins, The City of Your Final Destination) for some hands-on experience.

Didn’t Anthony Hopkins retire? There doesn’t seem to have been much pause in the works of Sir Tony, but what he has made up for in quantity he has lacked in quality. After a lamentable appearance in The Wolfman, and a spot in Woody Allen’s forgettable You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Hopkins continues to have no sense of shame as he gets set to don celestial armour as the god of thunder’s dad Odin in the forthcoming Thor. We may never know exactly where it all went wrong for Hopkins, but ever since The Silence of the Lambs (or more accurately, Hannibal and Red Dragon), the refined acting we know from The Remains of the Day has been replaced with wide-eyed mugging and lip-smacking insanity. It’s actually quite wonderful to watch, as a revered Oscar-winning actor throws caution and convention to the wind and gives a balmy performance that he is clearly having a lot of fun with. At least somebody is having fun, as everybody else seems to be going through the motions and plodding through this fairly standard supernatural thriller. Colin O’Donoghue is fairly new to the big screen, and while he provides a fairly accessible and likeable persona to guide the audience through the familiar turf, his character is far from rounded and really only has two modes: emotionally crippled skeptic and soldier of god.

The Rite is really three movies: the crisis of faith film, the supernatural scares film and the film that is blatantly ripping off The Exorcist. For the last part, the ‘based on a true story’ title card seems to be a licence for every film to borrow liberally from William Friedkin’s classic, or to throw logic out the window in favour of cheap scares. The first part of the film, in which Kovacs explores his own faith and the nature of the relationship with his father, is actually a captivating story. Indeed, it almost seems as though this is the movie that they wanted to tell until someone chickened out and declared “We better throw in a demon mule if this thing is going to work”. Once the supernatural is introduced, and the film completely shifts gears into b-movie territory, the film relies on cheap scares, Lynchian dream sequences and nonsensical non sequiturs to keep the audience on its toes. When Michael Patroni’s script finishes playing around the edges, we finally get the old-school exorcisms that we were promised on the back of the box. Earlier in the film, Hopkins’ character quips “What were you expecting? Spinning heads and pea soup?”. By the time the film reaches its familiar finale, these may have actually lifted The Rite above the run-of-the-mill thrills we get here.

The Reel Bits: A promising premise gives way to predictable possessions and a demonically possessed Anthony Hopkins, who has chosen to retire from acting while remaining on-screen.

The Rite was released on March 10, 2011 in Australia by Roadshow Films.

March 11, 2011
Rango

Gore Verbinski is perhaps best known these days at the director of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and its two sequels Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Having worked his way up to the massive Jerry Bruckheimer blockbusters, via Brad Pitt/Julia Roberts vehicle The Mexican and the J-horror remake The Ring, it is easy to forget that he made his feature debut on the children’s film Mouse Hunt. Verbinski returns to his roots with a crazy western-action-animated hybrid that goes by the innocuous name of Rango.

A chameleon with no name (voiced by Johnny Depp, The Tourist) is accidentally flung from his owners’ truck and find himself in the middle of the desert. After a brief encounter with an armadillo (Alfred Molina, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), he winds up in an Old West town in the middle of the Mojave Desert named Dirt. The town seems to have stepped straight out of a million dime-store westerns, complete with a powerful and shady mayor (Ned Beatty, Toy Story 3) and the chameleon quickly establishes himself as the gunslinging hero Rango, despite any discernible talent. Falling head over tail for Beans (Isla Fisher, Confessions of a Shopaholic), Rango attempts to uncover the water crisis that has befallen the town of Dirt but uncovers a complex plot in the process.

Inspired by the filmed history of the Old West, and in particular Sergio Leone’s so-called spaghetti westerns of the 1960s, Rango may just mark a turning point in the marketing of animation to adult audiences. Animated films of the last decade or so have been either marketed at a family audience including the high achievers such as Toy Story 3 and Up, or gone for broad anachronistic comedy of the Shrek variety. Rango seems to create something entirely different, being an existential western first and foremost, and it just happens to be an animated comedy. Yet in many ways, Rango is a story that could not be told in any other medium than animation, as it exists entirely in an imagined reality that could never occur. Naturally, animals don’t talk and wear clothes in our reality, but Rango‘s reality is one that only ever existed in the films on the wild west. Characters have each stepped out of other films, and the film is wall-to-wall with movie references. There are the obvious ones to classic western films, but there is plenty in there for those paying attention. There’s a nice Hunter S. Thompson/Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas gag early in the film, and it barely lets up after that. Even the mayor is a reference to John Huston’s Noah Cross in Chinatown. If anything, this may be the only barriers in stopping all audiences from enjoying the film, with many of these moments bound to fly over the heads of younger audience members. Yet this is a minor quibble in what is otherwise a near-perfect piece of modern animation.

The cinematography, aided by consultant Roger Deakins, is the slickest and most sophisticated seen on an animated film in recent memory. Technologically somewhere between CG animation and the motion-capture on the recent Robert Zemeckis animation version of A Christmas Carol, Rango‘s cast of characters have subtlety and nuance, and are so finely rendered that you would be forgiven for thinking they are real. The use of light and shadow (or should we say, ‘simulated light’) in the film is revelatory, giving the film a level of depth previously unseen – and all without the aid of 3D! Yet it is the old-fashioned art of storytelling – coupled with a terrific voice cast that also includes Bill Nighy, Abigail Breslin, Ray Winstone and Timothy Olyphant to name a few – that lifts Rango above the rest of the game.

The Reel Bits: Rango is an instant classic, not just as a piece of animation, but as one of the best westerns in years. Drawing on the traditions of over a century of westerns, coupled with the outstanding voice talents and gorgeous cinematic animation.

Rango is released on March 10, 2011 in Australia by Paramount Pictures.

March 6, 2011
The Alliance Française French Film Festival 2011 – Highlights
The Alliance Française French Film Festival has been running for 22 years, and remains Australia’s primary portal for accessing French language cinema from around the world – but mostly France. As the largest foreign film festival in Australia, the Alliance Française French Film Festival (AFFFF) maintains a prestigious roster of films and is often the first and only place Australians will get to see these films outside of their homeland. Kicking off nationally next week, beginning with the Sydney season, the AFFFF tours the country these days, with stops in Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.

France has long been associated with high quality cinema, and a look through this year’s program is indicative of why this remains the case in 2011. With no less than a whopping 40 Australian premieres, screenings include films that have been official selections at the Cannes Films Festival, The Toronto International Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival and the Tokyo International Film Festival. Only last week, France’s Cesar Awards proved how right the AFFFF had got it this year, with numerous awards for films screening this year, including the Best Picture (Of Gods and Men), Best Actress (Sara Forestier, The Name of Love), Best Supporting Actress (Anne Alvaro, The Clink of Ice), Best Supporting Actor (Michael Lonsdale, Of Gods and Men), Best Male Newcomer (Edgar Ramírez, Carlos), Best Costume Design (The Princess of Montpensier) and Best Cinematography (Of Gods an Men).

The gala opening night salvo is traditionally a French farce, and 2011 follows this tradition with Potiche (Trophy Wife). From seasoned director François Ozon (Eight Women), Gérard Depardieu appears alongside Catherine Deneuve who plays a housewife in the 1970s, who unexpectedly finds herself in charge of her philandering husband’s factory when he is taken ill. While French comedy is often hit and miss for anybody outside of France, this one promises to be a little more satirical and knowing that most of its brethren. The opening night screening is a gala invite online event, but it will have multiple screenings around the country by the time the festival is done.

Undoubtedly, one of the most anticipated films of the festival will be Xavier Beauvois’ Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux), winner of three Cesar awards and the Grand Prix winner in competition at Cannes. The ensemble drama starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale. Playing for the first time in Australia, the timely film examines the relationship between some French Cistercian monks and the local Muslim community in the Algerian mountains after they become the targets of Islamic fundamentalists.

The epic Carlos (Carlos Le Chacal) follows in the footsteps of Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 in elevating an infamous criminal to cinematic proportions. This theatrical cut of Oliver Assayas’ (Summer Hours) five-and-a-half hour TV mini-series follows the life and crimes of the Venezuelan revolutionary that became one of the world most wanted terrorists.

Bertrand Tavernier (In the Electric Mist) is always a director to watch out for, and from all reports Princess of Montpensier (La Princesse De Montpensier) is no exception. Lush historical dramas tend to be crowd pleasers, and with a Best Costume Design Cesar under its belt it should be gorgeous to look at if nothing else!

For films with a different (Viva La Différence!), there is always Bertrand Blier’s The Clink of Ice (Le bruit des glaçons) and Mathieu Almaric’s fourth turn as director in On Tour (Tournée). In the former, a man is confronted with his own cancer in the form of a suit-wearing man. Regular viewers of the AFFFF will remember Blier’s How Much Do You Love Me? played at the festival in 2006, and remains a crowd-pleasing favourite. Meanwhile, Almaric – perhaps best known for his performances in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Quantum and Solace – casts himself in the world of burlesque as it goes on tour. You’ve seen the Hollywood take on Burlesque, now see what the winner of Best Director at Cannes last year has to say on the subject.

There are an impressive number of documentaries this year, from the French occupation of Indo-China (Empire of Mid-South) to a kindergarten that discusses philiosophy (Ce n’est qu’un début). Of particular interest is L’Amour Fou, tracing the life of designer Yves Saint Laurent and his lifelong partnership with Pierre Bergé. Lovers of film will find much to like about Two in the Wave (Deux de la vague), examining the (sometimes tempestuous) friendship between French New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Featuring clips from the works of both filmmakers, archival footage and press of the day, this is a must-see for all film buffs (which we assume you are if you have made it this far into the article).

These are just a handful of almost 50 films being screened at the AFFF this year, featuring globally known stars Kristin Scott Thomas, Audrey Tatou, Gérard Depardieu, Marion Cotillard and Clémence Poésy. Screening details are below, but for more information you can always visit the Alliance Française French Film Festival website.

The 2011 AFFFF dates are:
- Sydney: 8 – 27 March
- Melbourne: 9 – 27 March
- Brisbane: 16 March – 3 April
- Canberra: 16 March – 3 April
- Perth: 23 March – 10 April
- Adelaide: 23 March – 10 April
March 4, 2011
Finding Nemo (Australian Film Festival 2011)

When Finding Nemo hit cinemas in 2003, Pixar could do no wrong. Indeed, almost a decade later – with the possible exception of Cars – there has been nary a misstep in the cinematic canon. The winners of no less than three Best Animated Feature Oscars, their last two films (Up and Toy Story 3) have even been nominated for Best Picture of the year by the same Academy. While their debut Toy Story may have been the film that put the then-radical Pixar Studios on the map, and was the impetus for birth of a number of other rival computer-generated animation houses, it is arguable that Finding Nemo was the film that shot them into the stratosphere. Coming only second to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at the box office that year, and remains one of the highest grossing animated features of all time.

When clownfish Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks, The Simpsons Movie) loses his wife and most of his spawn to one of the ocean’s more sinister creatures, he becomes the overprotective father his sole surviving son Nemo (Alexander Gould). After reluctantly letting Nemo attend school, tragedy strikes when Nemo is snatched by a group of human divers. Frantic, Marlin swims out into open waters in search of his boy. Teaming up with forgetful but optimistic blue reef fish Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), Marlin must face sharks, jellyfish and other ocean dangers in the quest to find Nemo.

Regardless of the increasingly outlandish settings of Pixar’s films, more recently taking us into space and away on a balloon-powered house, the attraction of the films have always been their emotional core. Just as the Toy Story films were about dealing with mortality and outliving one’s usefulness, Finding Nemo deals with the very human issue of dealing with children growing up and knowing when to let go. Marlin may be the quintessential overreacting parent, but whether we are parents or not, we can completely relate to the pain and angst this orange clownfish feels. Pixar have an incredible ability to make audiences cry within the first ten minutes of a film, most notably in Up and Toy Story 3. The opening scenes of Finding Nemo are devastating, but are also fundamental in helping us identify with Marlin’s pain and providing a sense of urgency and immediacy to his quest, which begins not too long after the initial tragedy. Part of the reason Pixar is still spoken of in revered tones is not simply because of the quality of their animation, which is sublime, but because their ability to evoke feeling in everything from fish to robots falling in love is genuine and heartfelt.

Despite eight years having passed since Nemo first went missing, a relative century in animation turns, Finding Nemo is as fresh as the day it was released. It is by no means a major departure from Pixar’s earlier (or subsequent) works, essentially sticking to the same mismatched buddy comedy formula that has worked so well in Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Up, Cars, Ratatouille and to a lesser extent, WALL-E. Once again, this reliance on formula has worked for the studio and there was no reason they should depart from it: they have become very good at showing us a secret world unbeknownst to humans. It also provides much of the accessible comedy for both kids and adults: the little ones may laugh at the sheer ditziness of Ellen’s Dory or surfer dude Crush the turtle, while adults will find much to like about a group of vegetarian sharks (voiced by Australia’s own Barry Humphries, Eric Bana and Bruce Spence). Australians are actually depicted as a functioning nation of adults as well, with genuine Aussie voice Bill Hunter as a dentist and Geoffrey Rush as Nigel the pelican. Non-Australian voices, including Willem Dafoe, give additional weight to the film.

Finding Nemo will long remain one of Pixar’s classics, with a timeless quality that will ensure it finds a new audience every generation. Having been the better part of a decade since the film was released, it is time for a whole new audience to discover the wonders of the magical world beneath the ocean.

Finding Nemo screens for FREE as part of the Australian Film Festival next weekend at Coogee Beach in Sydney on Saturday 5 March 2011. It is also available on DVD globally. There is still no word on the Blu-ray release.

March 3, 2011
Mr. & Mrs. Incredible

Chinese New Year is the traditional time for farcical rom-coms in the Asian markets, as is evidenced by the seemingly annual All’s Well That Ends Well (最強囍事) series that has been running since 1992. While never known for being subtle, their over-the-top stylings have been keeping audiences pleased en masse for decades and they show no sign of stopping. One of this year’s entries is Mr. & Mrs. Incredible (神奇俠侶) shifts the gaze from straight-up crazy rom-com and taking notes from the plethora of US superhero movies that flood our markets every year. The results may be something wholly unique to mainstream western audiences.

In ancient China, the super-powered heroes known as the laser-sighted Gazer Warrior (Louis Koo, Election) and the sweet-smelling Aroma Woman (Sandra Ng Kwan Yue, Golden Chicken) have retired from public life to their rather more domestic personas of Huan and Red respectively. However, after a decade away from the excitement, they have begun to tire of the quiet life. Adventure finds them when a martial arts ranking tournament rolls into town, and both begin to feel a rush of blood. However, as Red increasingly wants to settle down and have a family, will Huan’s urges to return to the ‘awesome’ fighting days win out?

Mr. & Mrs. Incredible is a nonsensical farce that jumps from one moment to the next, with no discernible regard for a cohesive narrative, and that is just one of its many charms. Throwing reality out the window, director Vincent Kok (perhaps best known in the west for Shaolin Soccer) and his co-writer Min Hun Fung (the mad genius behind Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle and CJ7) aim for the kind of hyper-real comic-book look that US audiences have only recently been exposed to through Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. This is incredibly liberating for an audience that has increasingly been asked to treat superheroes in reverential tones. While comics often deal with weight issues in ways that other mediums can never dream of, one must never forget that the genre (and any genre for that matter) must be entertaining first and foremost. On this level, Kok succeeds brilliantly, creating a world that is not quite ancient China but not really modern-day either. Through extensive use of CGI and other special effects, it exists in its own film reality: a time that never existed, but at the same time is wholly appropriate to the high concept of Mr. & Mrs. Incredible.

Comedy veterans Sandra Ng and Louis Koo provide more than ample expressiveness to a script that isn’t afraid to give a bit of domestic love to the married couple, and while those seeking wall-to-wall action may wish to pop out to the candy bar around the midway point, it does give us a deeper connection to the characters as we build our way up to the inevitable action conclusion. It’s a whopper of a cataclysm too, with special effects that can stand proud next to the seven-figure budgets of their Hollywood cousins. When the filmmakers do cut corners on effects, it is usually a deliberate choice for comic effect. After all, it is a film that is all in good fun, and despite some of the narrative shortcomings that may put off more discerning audiences, there is a joy to proceedings that is an all too rare treat these days.

The Reel Bits: An incredibly silly superhero parody that will hit all the right marks for fans of the genre, but may test the tolerance levels of the initiated. Heavy on both the special effects and the slapstick, it put the ‘comic’ back into ‘comic book heroes’.

Mr. & Mrs. Incredible has been in limited release since 3 February, 2011 from Incubate.

If you care about seeing Asian cinema in Australia on the big screen, we encourage you to go out and support the regular screenings at selected Event Cinemas and the regular Asian Cinema screenings at Hoyts Cinemas. Increasingly they are day-and-date with their Chinese release, so there are no excuses for that ‘other method’ of acquiring them.

March 2, 2011