For All Mankind

For All Mankind is an extraordinary documentary that chronicles the Apollo missions. Director Al Reinert poured over endless amounts of NASA's archival footage to create one of the most inspiring and communal motion pictures ever made. I don't think I can fully articulate this film's invaluability to myself, film in general, or (seriously) mankind, so rather than write my own piece I have a link to an essay by Terrence Rafferty. Read it, have a listen to a bit of Brian Eno's fantastic soundtrack, and then seek out the film for your own viewing. You can watch the film on Criterion's site for a mere five dollars, and I strongly encourage it.

EDIT: I caved and decided to write my own, bad, piece on the film. But it expresses how I was feeling, so that is at least worthy. I am happy.

HAPPY

For All Mankind is an extraordinary chronicle of the Apollo missions. Director Al Reinert poured over endless amounts of NASA’s archival footage to create one of the most unique documentaries ever made. Unlike conventional docs, there are no talking head interviews or camera movement over still photographs. Video is entirely comprised of on location photography by NASA personnel and astronauts, voiced-over by the astronauts themselves. Footage from all the Apollo flights is spliced together to create the sensation of one epic, singular trip. This results in a technically fictitious series of events, but that’s filmmaking. The absence of subtitles to designate who is on-screen or who is speaking creates a humbling anonymity that trivializes the flags and initials emblazoned over the crew and equipment. These aren’t people, but humans.

Can I truly articulate this film’s invaluability? I have watched it every single day since my first viewing, and I can’t wait to watch it again tomorrow. To be there for Armstrong’s famous words, to cower at the terrible, explosive power of liftoff, like some infernal bullet fired from the depths of hell, or to simply marvel at Earth’s, my home’s, beauty. For All Mankind is representative not just of one of our greatest achievements, but of all humanity. You are unlikely to ever see a more inspiring or communal motion picture.

Whatever.

Whenever not epitomizing the role himself, Woody Allen has always found appropriate actors to portray his neurotic, obsessive, and pessimistic protagonists. I stress that Allen is the only one really fit for these roles because he is essentially playing himself, but John Cusack seemed to work alright, and now equally neurotic Larry David is giving it a shot, perhaps to better represent Allen’s age. On paper he seems a great fit. What have become known as the “Larry David moments” of Curb Your Enthusiasm could theoretically work well under Allen’s witful direction, but Whatever Works isn’t a film about Larry David moments, despite the actor’s declamatory presence. David’s deliveries feel forced, and his chemistry with the other actors is generally awkward, in such a way that it’s more like watching a screenplay than a movie.

However, I kept wondering whether or not this was intentional. Is the script supposed to feel so obtrusive? Jokes are obvious and by the climax the characters are all tidied up uncharacteristically neatly for an Allen film. David’s character, Boris Yelnikoff, even turns to the audience to deliver a denouement so no one is left behind. He actually breaks the fourth wall frequently throughout the film, each time the rest of the cast, interestingly, aware of his apparent soliloquies, yet unaware of us, the film-watchers. He must look insane, and maybe he is. Boris is frequently named and self-proclaimed a genius, but history has shown that the line between genius and insanity is a fine one. Maybe that’s why he’s such a misanthrope?

This is all too absurd to be taken seriously or at face value, so I’ll give Allen the benefit of the doubt and say he was being subversive. The point? No idea, so I’ll end this review in similar fashion:

Whatever Works? Well, it kind of does. Whatever works for you, Woody.

The Art of Winning

It is not often enough that Criterion releases a thoroughly American production such as this, so I took particular interest in Downhill Racer. A young Gene Hackman coaches an even younger Robert Redford and the USA Olympic Ski Team to victory, but at what cost? Redford’s protagonist, David Chappellet, is a prick: self-righteous and uncompromising in his quest for athletic admiration. Are these truly the qualities of a champion? Chapellet’s rise to the top is fragile. He is for the most part a pawn manipulated by Hackman, bent on realizing his dream of the States gaining acceptance on the global skiing scene. This fresh, if cynical take turns the typical American sports film on its head. The eventual and expected climax is totally unsatisfying, but this is the point. Shouldn’t winning feel good? Thanks to visceral photography and an uneasy tone (the beats are familiar, but it feels like laughing at a joke you know isn’t funny), Downhill Racer paints a gritty, realistic portrait of competition. How one plays the game ultimately doesn’t matter, it seems.

Good Criticism, and Anti to boot

this is one of the best video game reviews i have ever read, despite (and truthfully, as a result of) barely even mentioning the game in question. this is because that game, Halo 3, does not deserve to be talked about. as an artistic and meaningful experience, the article bitingly points out that Halo 3 "doesn't even try." Radosh's points are admittedly fundamental to people like myself, who are almost universally seen as radicals for our thoughts and opinions on game design, but to an outsider or a "gamer" as defined by the usual connotation, i think the article will be an eye-opening read

once you have read it, there are a few things i would like to expand upon. in addition to Halo 3 utterly failing artistically, it is equally unremarkable when viewed as the mindless entertainment that video games are often seen to be. as a game where the goal is to shoot things and not die, or more accurately, reach the end of the level, Halo 3 is in no structural way an evolution or even refinement of the systems present in classic shooting games like Galaga and Space Invaders. in fact, it is a regression if anything, because of its first-person perspective and three-dimensional environment. these attributes, while undoubtedly modern, are incredibly conflicting with Halo 3's base design and goals, which are archetypal at best

here's why

a multiplayer match Halo 3

in a shooting game, the number of enemies on screen, the direction from which they are coming, and their relative distance to the player character are all paramount to performance. Halo 3's design is inferior and inefficient in all of these areas when compared to more traditional examples of the genre. case in point: in a sidescroller on a two-dimensional plane, the player is not limited by point of view. the perspective is constant, and challenges are assessed and deduced immediately

two games which many people consider to be excellent 2D shooters, Ikaruga and Contra

the player is also unlimited in its projectile firing and aiming. many of these sidescrollers allow shooting in every direction, and though many still do not, the cardinal movement found in all 2D games allows for swift and precise changes in direction. this level of control is impossible in a first-person shooter due to perspective. the control shift to an aiming reticule rather than of a character is also arguably less interesting

these design conflicts are not found in all FPS games, though. perhaps the best example comes from Nintendo, who i am finding more and more to be the only ones really skilled at video game craft. they recognized these problems immediately when adapting their sidescrolling Metroid franchise into the third-dimension. the result, Metroid Prime, instead exemplifies 3D's strengths. it quite logically is less about shooting and aiming and more about exploration and immersion

showing the transition from 2D (Super Metroid) to 3D (Metroid Prime)

while it may not be apparent from these screenshots, the original Metroid Prime (the game has since been rereleased on the Wii with updated controls) did not allow direct control over the aiming reticule, like most FPS games. it instead relied on a Zelda-esque lock on system for aiming. whether or not this was ultimately the best approach is debatable, but it without question further exemplifies the series' staples of atmosphere and environment


the fact that first person shooters are by far the most popular genre in video games right now, and that very few developers have even a basic grasp of the ideal conditions of a shooting game, is quite troubling

This > That > Something Else

item This: Charlie Chaplin's City Lights and its famously ambivalent ending




item That: an equally ambivalent (if less heart-wrenching) ending in Woody Allen's Manhattan. emulation is afoot




item Something Else: the most famous and arguably best segment from Fantasia 2000 illustrates George Gershwin's performance of "Rhapsody in Blue" in classic Hirschfeld style. you can easily deduce the location






yes, that is the same piece that bookends Allen's film. these guys knew what they were doing

Reviewy Thingys

BIG-EARED ELEPHANTS ONLY

Some have called this film racist. I think they are misinterpreting. Yes there is a crow named Jim. Yes he and his gang are voiced by members of the all-black Hall Johnson Choir. No, this is not in any way racial derogation. If the fact that the crows are among the only human characters in the film (and I’m not talking anthropomorphism) isn’t enough to disprove the controversy, recall the tent-raising scene:

Dumbo, his mother, and the rest of the elephant troupe hammer stakes into the ground using their trunks. These images are intercut with African-American workers doing the same. Soon after, the circus master whips Mrs. Jumbo for crazed behavior, instigated by teasing directed at her son’s fantastically over-sized ears. The analog is obvious, and speaks volumes. Who are the slaves here? I won’t dwell on the fact that the chief bully’s own ears are quite large, but the hypocrisy is noted.

If anything this film is anti-racist. Prejudice conflicts with the film’s central theme; discovering and learning to love one’s uniqueness, to utilize one’s talents. This is a story of understanding and acceptance. To find any advocacy, let alone traces, of something so hateful, one would have to be looking, and have to be looking hard.

Dumbo is undoubtedly one of Disney’s great works, with its spectacularly simple approach (64 minutes running time, now that’s efficient storytelling) and its universal message. It is such a sadness that some adults seem to have complicated something so clear, something that any child wouldn’t give a second thought. I truly wonder who would benefit more.

IT'S ALIVE!

Now this is a film. A chilling and legitimately terrifying look at science and moral. Boris Karloff is famously tragic in an iconic performance, but the rest of the cast is no less great. Colin Clive in particular pores pathos as the mad Doctor. The expressionist photography (a wise choice, given the Easter-European setting) and gothic set-design give the film an unforgettable atmosphere. The art is moody; full of shadows and dark clouds, all seen at erratic angles. This must be how the monster perceives the world. Sure, it’s no Dr. Caligari – it’s something else. An American classic.

MUPPET MAGIC MINUS THE MUPPETS

A provoking fantasy adventure driven by Henson's puppet wizardry, here in full force. There are no human actors throughout the entire film, and the imaginative world of Thra is all the more enthralling because of it. Every expressive creature, every lush, lived-in locale was crafted by a master and physically, truthfully existed in front of a camera. The Dark Crystal will make you loathe the advent of the computer generated image.

Words > Numbers

i have seen the literification of hate. and it is clicky

the evil: Metacritic is a website that chronicles all of the numbers and ratings and letters and charts and graphs that make up Internet criticism and aggregates them into a collective "metascore," one each representing an individual work. The Godfather is 100 (i searched for Citizen Kane but the site only deals with recent releases. alarmingly, The Dark Knight was a result). Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE is 97 (the highest ranked music album on the site. it actually ties with Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose, an album i do rather enjoy, and How The West Was Won, a Led Zeppelin live album. i guess the ordering is alphabetical). Grey's Anatomy the Video Game is 65 (seems kind of high). there are also named tiers, appropriately color-coded relative to their... awesomeness i suppose. 80 and above is green. the categories here are "Universal Acclaim" - because if there is any one universal truth, it's Metacritic - and "Generally Positive Reviews." yellow is the color of mediocrity, or "Mixed or Average Reviews." red; the color of fire, spark, passion... and "Generally Negative Reviews"

the problem: numbers aren't representative or even indicative of opinions. in my earlier post concerning Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars' port to the PSP, i touched on the destructively hyperbolic effect that Metacritic and sites like it are having on quality and its perception. what follows is a(nother) prime example of violence inherent in the system


in 2001 Michael Jackson released what would become his final studio album, Invincible. its reception was less than stellar, as is its metascore: 51. one listed review in particular caught my eye, the second selection from Village Voice (the first being Xgau himself, who notably thought highly of the album, and actually mentions the article in question). Kogan's review is a good one. titled "The Man In The Distance," its insight into the work is schizophrenic, giving an appropriately analogous account of the album's seemingly self-aware duality. Kogan never recommends, and he never condemns, and his reactions are never, ever "mixed or average." he has enough class not to slap some arbitrary digital representation of his thoughts into a conclusion

but guess who didn't

Mighty Jill Off

Anna Anthropy is an indie game designer. one of her games is Mighty Jill Off. it is a game about the often masochistic relationship between the designer and the player. check out the game and her blog, auntie pixelante

Upcoming movies

i want to see these








both films open Thanksgiving day. i think we can all agree that their posters are cool

Rant

i was on Game Trailers the other day (a site i hate) and i saw an advertisement for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. the purpose was to promote the game's upcoming port to the Sony PlayStation Portable

this angered me. this angered me a lot

Chinatown Wars was designed from the ground up exclusively for the Nintendo DS. the PSP has already gotten a few GTA portables; essentially little brother versions of their console counterparts; and i guess Rockstar felt it was Nintendo's turn (though i can't begin to fathom the intended audience). the game featured a return to the series' roots: top-down arcade style gameplay accompanied by cartoony graphics. logic tells us that these decisions were made because of the DS's inferior technology. fair enough. at least it's something relatively new. the DS gets its mediocre handheld edition of a popular game; let us move on


well apparently that notion can go straight to hell




i won't bother with the obvious money-grubbing corporate crap. what really, truthfully troubles me is the opening tagline:

"THE HIGHEST RATED NINTENDO DS GAME EVER NOW ON THE PSP SYSTEM"

these hyperbolic, number-obsessed buzz words are a diseased way of marketing that are becoming a diseased way of thinking, and are destroying not only criticism but consumerism. you see it on sites like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. the best examples though are our old nemesis, the evil IGN, and the only thing in existence that could possibly surpass that evil... Metacritic


expect a post devoted entirely to this evil soon

Apt

to live up to the blog's title im starting a series of "Good Criticism, Bad Criticism," because so many people who get paid to tell me what is good or bad are apparently either monkeys, three year-olds, or a combination of both

so here's to them

Bad Criticism

video games have it especially bad, its "critics" a generation of socially challenged nerds who find shooting things a deeply profound experience. really, people diagnosed with incommunicable disease are paid to write. have a look at Mr. Matt Casamassina's many opuses (opusii?) when youre craving some suicide

but for every million or so of these wordless, rambling descriptions (IGN calls them reviews), we get something along the lines of this:

Good Criticism

Mr. Ryan Stancl of Game Career Guide has critiqued the Katamari Damacy series, and it's a great read. his approach is noticeably blunt, but this is easily forgiven because he is quite literally trailblazing. Stancl ventures through several different schools of criticism, enlightening us to not only the brilliance of the game, but the complete idiocy of modern game journalism

the critique is in three parts: part 1, part 2, part 3


while we're on the subject, Yū Miyake is probably a genius. i say probably because i'm not quite sure what a genius is

but his music sure is great

one day i will write my own piece on Katamari Damacy, because i am finding it harder and harder to contain the exponentially increasing amounts of praise i have for this staggering work of... thing. seriously. if space aliens visited earth and i had to show them something that encapsulates our entire culture, humanity in a nutshell, if you will, i'd show them Katamari Damacy

Some albums

i have been listening to these lately. i like them

Video Game reviews

i have written several of these in the past, but there are only one or two that i can now look back on and be proud of. my writing style has changed and i probably wont post all of these, but look for some new ones and a few of the better old ones

Where the Wild Things Are review

Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
Warner Bros.
directed by Spike Jonze

There is some silliness and perhaps uselessness in adapting a nine sentence picture book into a feature-length film, but the expansion from rise and fall of temper tantrum to an observation on family dynamics and conflict is a worthwhile one. The wild things can be seen as metaphors for Max’s emotions, or his family members, or both. I like the analog to very conflicting, yet very realistic viewpoints most. “It’s hard being a family,” one of the things innocently remarks.

Where the Wild Things Are didn’t do a lot for me, as an adult. The film is best at the beginning, before Max even steps foot on the island. Here it is a genuinely moving meditation on childhood, reminding us that being a kid is pretty awkward and lonely. There is a particularly beautiful moment that captures Max as he, eyes glossy and altogether somewhere else, cascades a toy boat over his sea-blue bed spread.

I was afraid that what I loved about Spike Jonze’s previous films were Charlie Kaufman’s genius screenplays, but I can see now that the man has a talent and an eye for showing things we all understand and feel, but rarely solidify or are even aware of. In this film he has such a grasp on the mind and experience of a child, and I think this is a great one for children to see. Its themes and situations will feel dark, but that’s only because of the general schlock that is deemed worthy for up and coming generations. Compared to most kids’ films, Where the Wild Things Are is master class.

Inglourious Basterds review

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

The Weinstein Company, Universal Pictures
directed by Quentin Tarantino



Inglourious Basterds is not a war film. Nor is it historical. Inglourious Basterds is a spaghetti western. Nazi-occupied France is no more than a canvas for Tarantino to scribble his colorful stories and characters. Sometimes the results are insultingly simple doodles, but more often than not they beautifully coalesce into cathartic assaults of aesthetics from the director's encyclopedic mind of movies. History be damned.

Because of this emulation I found the film decidedly more fun than QT's previous efforts. That distinct "movieness" is more present than ever, in large part due to a literally film-oriented plot. Cinema is the McGuffin here, and there were some unsettlingly surreal moments, for me as a viewer, in which the camera paints the characters as audience members themselves.

Though too high-concept and stylized to resonate emotionally, the film left me pondering the deterrence and deception of not only war propaganda, but the figurehead-edness of modern media. During the climax when the film bravely barrages into alternate history (more so than before I mean), consider the alternative; the obvious fabrication is anything but.

Ponyo review

Gake no Ue no Ponyo
Toho (Japan), Walt Disney Pictures (USA)
directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Many have called this a "lesser" work of the master. I prefer "familiar;" Miyazaki's staples are everywhere, such as child protagonists and some light environmental messages (though his signature motif, flight, is notably absent). So Ponyo is pretty much business as usual with Studio Ghibli - business as usual with one of the most consistently creative and charming film studios in the world. Expect beautiful animation (here traditionally hand-drawn), endless expression, and a highly imaginative whimsical romp through the glowing eyes of youth.

Some will find the story simplistic and pointless, but those with an eye for nuance will see Miyazaki's gift for situation and presence on par with his masterful My Neighbor Totoro. I responded best to scenes reminiscent of my own childhood (and others of theirs I'm sure), for instance the respective feather-ruffling of parents or the excitement of exploring a new friend's home. Both were nostalgic illustrations of particular instances I had long forgotten, and am now glad to remember. Because of this focus more still will miss the sweeping epicness of say Laputa or Mononoke, however they will also miss the point. This is thoroughly a family film, its themes paternal and its conflicts relative. See it with your family. Grab some kids and join their wide-eyed ranks for 90 minutes.

District 9 review

District 9 (2009)

TriStar Pictures

directed by Neill Blomkamp

The South African apartheid allegory falls flat, especially when equating the oppressed. The “prawns” are not human after all. One could defend the director's heritage, and the film’s setting in his native Johannesburg, but I don’t buy it. The man is a white 29 year-old.

At its best the film highlights the dangers of bureaucracy and its inherent silliness. One sequence culminates with the scientific and bodily horrors of putting advanced alien bioweapons in human hands. I haven’t seen such poignant illustration of the system since Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, and found the scene deeply, affectingly relevant.

District 9 sparks the imagination thanks to its (probably) realistic depiction of an alien race and the events following their arrival, both in situation and visuals, but its exposition-free documentary style ultimately leaves the viewer with more questions than answers. Inquisitive people though, are hardly a bad thing.

Film reviews

i have written a number of film reviews this year for my theater goings. i will be posting them. ive skipped writing about a few, but may catch up so i'll have a year catalogue