A lot of people are unhappy with the changes Netflix has made, but I still think they offer the best service out there (mostly due to their Watch Instantly library). Here’s 10 reasons why:
1. All the Criterion films on Instant. New and old, there’s a lot and they keep adding more.
2. Every season of Mad Men is on Instant. The new season doesn’t start until 2012, you have plenty of time to catch up.
The bad guy reveals his identity. The monster appears behind the door. The hero’s really a ghost. The lover’s really a man. The gimp is really Keyser Soze. Morgan Freeman really kidnapped the child. I saw it coming! I saw it coming! We argue over who saw it coming and who didn’t. We sit in awe when the storyteller fools everyone.
Everyone loves good slight-of-hand. Magicians at their peak–Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland with L.A. Confidential, M. Night Shyamalam with The Sixth Sense (don’t hate), Martin Scorsese and William Monahan with The Departed–deliver the kind of jaw-droppers that leave you smiling with delight.
Most twist-films aren’t so successful. The fact is, you just can’t build a movie around its twist. If the twist is all you’ve got going for you, then you simply don’t have enough story. Occasionally, great storytellers come along that suck at character and excel at plot. Agatha Christie is a prime example. Christopher Nolan is another (Insomnia and especially The Dark Knight are exceptions–there’s phenomenal character writing in both). If you want to be that kind of writer, then more power to you… but follow their example: you’ll need enough story for three movies\books, and you’ll need to make it clear, economical, and fun.
One very fine example of a twist movie is Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island. It’s not Scorsese’s best, but it’s a very well done film built around a twist, and has the stamp of an auteur. We’ll dissect this film in the final part of this “How To Build A Better Mousetrap” series, which is devoted to studying the art of the twist.
This concludes a series I started a while back. If you wanna catch up, you can do that here:
Shutter Island stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a cop investigating a disappearance on an island/mental hospital “for the criminally insane.” As Leo investigates, he’s sucked into a vortex of lies, twists, turns, madness, and horror.
I’ll skip the plot summary and get to the the film’s big twist: Leo is, in fact, not a police officer, but a patient at the hospital. Unable to cope with the fact that he killed his equally nutty–and murderous–wife, he’s built himself a universe where he’s investigating his wife’s murder. This is revealed to the audience in the last fifteen minutes or so of the film, foreshadowed by odd twists, commiseration with equally insane patients on the island, incredibly visual dream sequences, flashbacks to the holocaust, and haunting supporting performances from Michelle Williams, Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, and Max von Sydow. The film’s based on the book by master crime novelist Dennis Lehane, who wrote an old-school noir complete with 50s hats, snub-nosed revolvers, and Shock Corridor-style trappings.
Somehow this idea ended up in the hands of Martin Scorsese, who knows more about these kinds of movies than even Lehane. Given the knowledge that this was, a twist movie, Scorsese was left to strategize how to bring the story to an audience, making the final twist as effective as possible. As far as I’m concerned, he did everything right:
1) He stuck to the book.
Scorsese realized that, right or wrong, a film adaptation has to stick to the book. Luckily, he was adapting a Lehane novel–the man can write. So Scorsese could proceed with the adaptation knowing that the twists and revelations should approxomate those of the Shutter Island novel as closely as possible. David O. Selznick set the precedent for this when he produced “Gone With The Wind” and “Rebecca.” In particular, when Hitchcock adapted “Rebecca,” Hitch turned in a draft of the script with major plot point changes more suited to his weird sense of humor and idiosyncrasies. Selznick lit him up, ripping him up one side and down the other. The producer forced Hitchcock to make a faithful adaptation. The resulting dogfighting caused a rift between Hitchcock and Selznick, and Hitchcock disowned the film. However, “Rebecca” won the Best Picture Oscar. And Selznick was right.
2) He made the story subjective.
In preparing “Shutter Island,” Scorsese saw through the trappings of plot mechanics, choosing to film the story as if it were a character study. Not only is character Scorsese’s ‘sweet spot’ as a director, it is a cunning way to distract the audience from trying to guess the twist.
In addition, focusing on character gives the twist movie its greatest value: true suspense. During the second viewing of a twist movie, the main character should be deep enough that the audience is fascinated by the protagonist’s behavior. When the writing is so strong that the audience knows that CHARACTERS are making decisions–not deus ex machina plotting–then the audience is less likely to focus on guessing plot points.
3) He made the story emotional.
Scorsese chose to make a subjective story. Since “Shutter Island” is the story of a madman, the audience should be drawn into the protagonist’s madness as accurately as possible. The insane are often on huge emotional highs all the time, as DiCaprio’s character is. Scorsese uses his camera to add exclamation points to nearly all of DiCaprio’s actions. We are enervated by the lead character’s passion, drawn along with him, and it makes the final twist even more devastating.
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This strategy informs everything in the film, from the performances to the visuals to the score. DiCaprio spends almost the whole film at one emotional extreme or another, always on “10″ while the gentle hospital attendants–especially Mark Ruffalo’s sympathetic undercover psychiatrist–underplay, listening quietly and patiently. The visuals are a fireworks display of bright colors, movement, and jagged edges, strongly evoking Scorsese’s hero, Michael Powell. The score is a dissonant, grating, claws-on-chalkboard collection of classical recordings.
If you’re gonna deliver a twist, there’s no better way to do it. Scorsese played to his strengths as a director–character, subjectivity, insecurity, and unstoppable energy. He allowed the screenwriter to do his stuff: as in all latter-day Scorsese flicks, the film is carefully scripted, appearing free of the improvisation that so legendarily colored his pre-Gangs of New York films.
The Art of The Twist: it’s an essential tool of the storyteller’s trade. When well-delivered, it’s also the funnest prank a storyteller can pull on his audience. The flicks we’ve gone through in this series–Inception, Vertigo, Salt, Shutter Island–all depend on them, and are worthy of study by the aspiring storyteller.
It’s not that I’m not proud to be an American, or that I don’t love frozen yogurt and Chicago deep dish pizza. But I have recently fallen for British films and television shows. Most Americans think that the only movies and television come from the United States. Silly Americans. And England is not the only country that makes quality films.
The main reasons for my deep reverence for British films/television are Luther and Never Let Me Go.
Luther stars Idris Elba, who has been featured in many American films. But he really shines in Luther. I’m so tired of criminal procedural shows whether it be Law and Order–which I am glad finally ended–and CSI– which should have never started. Luther takes a darker look at a police detective with his own vices. The crimes are not at all obvious and the supporting cast is strong. Luther is engrossing, and the pacing of the show is top notch. It doesn’t try to put too many foils or too much character development in each episode. There is character development as the series goes on, but in comparison to American crime shows, the pasts and current issues of the characters unfold at a reasonable pace where you don’t feel like information is being forced on you.
And on a completely different note comes Never Let Me Go. The ensemble cast of Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and the relatively unknown Andrew Garfield. Garfield’s career is about to explode, as he is in the reboot of Spiderman. However, Garfield finds his step in this film. Without giving too much of the plot away, the characters are in the midst of a love triangle and a desire to live. Not only does the scenery take my breath away, but the film score puts you in their world, which is far different from present day. There is something to be said about the understated acting of Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield. They use their features to display emotion instead of explaining their every feeling. The pace of the film is slow, but it needs to be for us to understand the characters’ lives as they begin as young children and develop in their twenties. I have not seen such a beautiful film in months. Even as it ended, I wanted more.
Luther and Never Let Me Go are not the only reasons why British films and television shows take precedence in my mind over current American television… whether it be reality shows or silly sitcoms. And who can forget the best import of Britain, Ricky Gervais? But that’s another story in itself.
Jonathan English’s “Ironclad” carries a unique distinction: it is the most expensive independent film production ever shot in Wales. An ultra-violent hack-and-slash medieval epic, you can expect much shouting and bloodletting from stars Brian Cox, Paul Giammatti, and Rome-alum James Purefoy. It’s available on VOD starting tomorrow.
The trailer:
From the Associated Press, this behind-the-scenes video features star Brian Cox awaiting CG removal of his limbs:
Also coming out tomorrow is John Carpenter’s “The Ward,” with Amber Heard, which can be seen on VOD starting tomorrow. We posted on this film like two days ago.
Here’s a very funny video of John Carpenter introducing the film at TIFF.
Big Hollywood continues its downward spiral into impotence this weekend with these telling box office numbers:
1- X-Men: First Class – $56m NEW
2 – The Hangover Part II – $32.4m (-62.2%) $186.8m total
3 – Kung Fu Panda 2 – $24.3m (-49%) $100.4m total
4 – Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – $18m (-54.8%) $190.2m total
5 – Bridesmaids – $12.1m (-26.7%) $107.2m total
6 – Thor – $4.2m (-55.9%) $169m total
7 – Fast Five – $3.2m (-49.4%) $202m total
8 – Midnight in Paris – $2.9m (+51.1%) $6.9m total
9 – Jumping the Broom – $.8m (-52.6%) $35.9m total
10 – Something Borrowed – $.8m (-55.1%) $36.6m total
The report above will be largely ignored by Hollywood number-crunchers, who ironically can’t use a calculator or identify a trend, and would rather hide behind a rock and avoid the truth.
Here’s the trend: This weekend saw the opening of X-Men: First Class, the fifth X-Men movie. This one was a reboot. The last one was an origin story. The one before that was a second sequel. Executives are surprised that the new one only made $56 million this weekend.
There appears to be a massive lack of circumspection here.
The reason, guys, that you aren’t happy with the box office receipts is because your audience is not stupid. We are perfectly aware that we’ve seen X-Men before. Four times. And we know you don’t have anything new to offer us. We know you didn’t go the second mile and give us a great movie. We aren’t fooled by the carefully prepared Internet pre-hype. You fast-tracked the film, clipping the storytellers’ wings, not allowing them to do their best work.
We can’t get through this clip with a straight face.
Yes, there is a formula to producing a blockbuster. It does not involve following comic book trends, or running around in a panic to please fanboys. The formula doesn’t require you to pore over everyone else’s ideas, steal them, recontextualize them, and hope that they work.
The formula is this: make good movies that everybody likes.
Every summer it’s been proven over and over again with a film that is not a franchise. This year, it’s Bridesmaids. Last year, it was Inception. Before that, there was The Hangover.
It’s not rocket science. Put the calculator down and hire writers. It doesn’t even mean you need to need to hire artsy morons who want to defy expectations, giving you unpalatable dark films. Just let the writers write. Let the directors have a decent amount of preproduction. Heck, give them time to rehearse their actors. Let them storyboard.
To be honest, Hollywood films–especially during the summer–have looked rushed, lazy, and unprofessional for years. The surprise summer hits, ninety percent of the time, are simply the ones that were given a second thought before the cameras rolled.
We are long past being shocked at this inanity. We are past eye-rolling. We are past complaining that “this is ridiculous.” Audiences are simply numb.
It’s a good thing Hollywood has some free thinkers like Judd Apatow and JJ Abrams, who are known for quality productions. They know the value of clear, simple writing, glossy production, and putting the camera where it belongs. They also know that those practices tend to make people rich. And happy.
So for once, act like good socialists and let the workers have a say in what gets produced in Hollywood.
It might bring up those ticket sales faster than you think.
death2themovies Do D-Wade & Lebron dress each other? And isn't it odd that every b-ball player wears glasses now but none of them wear goggles on the court?
death2themovies I think Americans have officially adopted "no worries" I'm sorry Aussies, it's ours now. Don't worry though, we will never take "g'day mate"
