Movie of the Year: Alice in Wonderland

Hedorah and I recently completed a five viewing marathon of Tim Burton's latest masterpiece Alice in Wonderland. The word masterpiece is not good enough to describe this film. We both venture to say that this is the film of the year.

The story is well known to people who have read the beloved children's classic novel. Alice falls down the rabbit hole and enters Wonderland aka Underland, a strange, zany, and wondrous world populated by equally bizarre denizens, from talking animals and playing card soldiers.

Many things make this film memorable, magical, touching, and endearing.

You fall in love with the characters. Mallyumpkin, a mouse that brandishes a sword, is annoying but her fierce loyalty is lovable. Absolem, the cool caterpillar, is enlightening. The fat boys are secondary characters but their humorous banter lights up the screen. The rabbit in the waistcoat is nervous but an intelligent member of the troop. The White Queen, inspired by sexual tv chef Nigella Lawson, is a force of goodness, and is genuine and pure. Bayard the dog is diligent, kind, and protective of his family. The Red Queen is not one dimensional, but a complex, cruel, but sympathetic character because she isn't pretty and was disfavored by her parents. Even minor characters like the frog stewards in the Red Queen's court are lovable. Human characters such as Hamish, though he is ugly and delusional, are endearing in their simplicity. Aunt Imogen, who believes she is engaged to a prince, is a hilarious yet awesomely bizarre character (she's our second favorite). The Mad Hatter, played by chameleon Johnny Depp, of any character is the best. He is adorable and endearing. His lines are so profound and touching, and his scenes are equally humorous and heartwarming. I can't say enough of the Mad Hatter.

The film's message that mad people (aka the most original, true-to-themselves people) are the best kind of people is a powerful theme that sticks with you. The visuals in the movie are not cheap, but imaginative. The story is not just solid, but is of substance. Alice's journey in finding herself and recapturing imagination is a theme that touches everyone, it is through this that we can recapture the wonderment and magic of childhood, where we simply believe six impossible things before breakfast. One where the fact that there is no answer to the question "how is a raven like a writing desk?" an answer enough. One where friendship spans not only distance, but time and place itself. One where the measure of one's worth is their muchness, and can be found only inside oneself. One where madness is normal, and normalcy mad. A world where the best way to travel is by hat... a wonderland.

On the controversial scene of futterwacken: the dance scene catches the viewer off-guard upon the first viewing as it seems to come from nowhere; however, after a second viewing it makes sense as the futterwacken dance is alluded to repeatedly during the film. The scene is really kawaii and a highlight of many highlights.

A Single Man: Style over Substance

The trailer for Tom Ford's directorial debut A Single Man got me interested: the repetitions of a ticking clock over sumtuously shot scenes, with a spattering of quotes that praised the film was a great way to capture interest. I was especially interested in seeing the masterwork of Julianne Moore on screen.

Yet A Single Man is ultimately a film of style over any real substance. George, a lonely man who had lost his partner eight months before, plans to kill himself. Along the day, he puts everything together for his suicide and talks to a few people who share his bitter, depressing world. This includes Charley, a woman who is poised to lose her good looks, and is holding her pitiful life together with drinking and smoking, while pining for George, who is ever unattainable.

My first complaint is that every other shot was an extreme closeup of an eye, a mouth, or the burning end of a cigarette. The first few times were arresting, but afterwards, the technique got tired rather quickly. The music in the movie was beautiful and urgent, but hearing the same damn song on repeat for two hours drilled it into your head. Julianne Moore, known as Freckleface Strawberry in her youth, was hardly in the film! Yet she was shown in all the trailers. I lamented her severely limited role, because her acting abilities (though routine) are astounding. The sexual tension of the film was ridiculous. George trolled about through life confronting men who looked like they just stepped off the runway but refused to do anything about it. I'm not saying he should have gone and screwed them all, it was just ridiculous that he found himself in that situation all the time.

The dialogue was unrealistic. No 20 year old college student speaks so enlightened and profound as the Mr. Potter character, and George never had a banal thought the whole movie. The symbolism was heavy handed, such as when George is pulled out of the water (oh he's saved from his drowning life, how deep!) Finally, the film seemed to be trying to make a grand point about life, death and love, but it was so full of points and themes and topics that it was weighted down and sunk. Some ideas were presented and went nowhere, others were so muddled and confused that it was baffling as to why they were included.

The worst part about this movie is that George resolves to live, then he suffers a heart attack after burning all the kind words he wrote out about the people close to him. Pointless death.

What I can praise is the art direction, it captured the 60s very well. The costumes were good as well, though black was overused.

Overall, the film was boring, pointless, directionless, and a monotonous repeat of the same music and shot style. There were even moments that the acting felt self conscious, like when George runs an inked finger across his mouth (it was a very "acting" moment, something that wouldn't happen in real life). The dearth of scenes with Julianne Moore, the fact that Colin Firth couldn't carry a movie, and that the film took itself too seriously (it was self conceited) made for a regrettable waste of two hours.

Pretentious and pointless.

Counting Down the Top 5 Soundtracks of All Time

Soundtracks are what make film perhaps the greatest medium of artistic expression. There is nothing so moving as a stirring score playing over stunningly shot scenes. This combination of the visual and the auditory makes film a unique experience.

Join us as we count down the top 5 soundtracks of all time:

5) “Gladiator” 2000. This sword and sandal epic is a triumph for director Ridley Scott. But it is Hans Zimmer’s emotional and uplifting score that really made the film great. From the ending, when Maximus dies in the coliseum, and the emperor’s sister gives a rousing speech, to the moment when his slave friend says goodbye, the score is positively emotive and griping. This truly is a beautiful piece of music, conveying the height of greed and decadence, but also the inspiration of one man.

4) “Gone with the Wind” 1939. Max Steiner’s score is as epic as the movie itself. The main theme, “Tara’s Theme” conveys the sweeping, stirring drama of the greatest movie of all time. As the words “Gone with the Wind” move across the screen, the music thunders. The result is an impressive moment in film. The most compelling scene in the movie is when Scarlett vows to never starve, and as the film comes to intermission “Tara’s Theme” triumphantly echoes her emotional resolve.

3) “The Last of the Mohicans” 1992. Composers Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman contributed to the score. Edelman’s synthesizer music is very good, but it is an obvious rip-off of Vangelis ala “Blade Runner” and “Chariots of Fire.” It is Jones’ stringed instrumentation that really carries the score into greatness. Interpolating Scottish tune “The Gael” into the soundtrack, the tension between the fiddles reach crescendos that match the romance of the film, and the breathtaking vistas of the Blue Ridge mountains. The last 10 minutes or so of the movie feature just standout track “The Promontory” playing, with little or no dialogue, as the film reaches its beautiful and devastating climax. A contribution by Enya’s former group Clannad, “I Will Find You,” makes a montage of the group pursuing the villainous Magwa absolutely affecting.

2) “The Piano” 1993. Michael Nyman constructed a gorgeous score for Jan Campion’s Oscar winning film. Relying on the eponymous piano, Nyman’s score manages to make the piano sound like an orchestra unto itself. The piano is the voice for the mute main character, and thus the songs in the movie have many moods. Stand out tracks are “The Promise” and “The Heart asks Pleasure First,” which convey the romance and drama of the forbidden relationship and the mystical danger of New Zealand.

1) Star Wars 1977-2005. John Williams took the sublime creation of visionary George Lucas to a whole other level with his score. Both profound and moving, Williams and Lucas made a risky decision to use a classical score for a science fiction movie made at a time when the electronic sounds of disco ruled the airwaves. Who can forget the sweeping majesty of Luke looking at the twin suns while “The Force Theme” plays? Or the rollicking Cantina band playing to a crowd of otherworldly patrons? The “Imperial March” is synonymous with “Star Wars” itself. More recently, the prequel trilogy featured memorable songs like the chant-heavy “Duel of Fates,” the exuberant “Augie’s great Municipal Band” during the parade and the romantic “Across the Stars.” And nothing is so amazing as the main theme. Whether thundering in a theatre or in your living room, the main theme is unparalleled. 2009’s Star Wars: In Concert was a privilege for this blog to have seen. Truly iconic.

(Note: all clips and posters are property of their respective owners/copyright owners.)