A couple of good ones.

It's been a pretty poor movie summer, yeah? I've gone to the movies less this year than any on record. Of course, I'm busy, which is a factor, but I also find myself just not excited by what's out. I have seen a couple, recently.

A Solitary Man


Walking into this film was interesting. CByrd and I were the youngest people in the theatre by at least a decade. The other option was The A-Team, which was really "too actiony" for CByrd to get excited about, and frankly I was too on the fence about to push for. This was an option that was supposed to be a good movie.

...And it certainly is. It's just odd to go into a theatre when you feel that out of place with the audience. However, I found lots to love about this film.

When Crazy Heart came out last year, there was a lot of comparisons to The Wrestler. I never bought that, other than in the broad strokes of being films that really hung on astonishing lead performances. However, Crazy Heart never feels like a direct commentary on Jeff Bridges life, the way The Wrestler does about Mickey Rourke. To put it another way, as much as I like what Bridges does in Crazy Heart, I could imagine the film made with several other actors. Could you imagine anyone other than Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler?

A Solitary Man is Michael Douglas' The Wrestler.

We all know about his off-screen problems, his sex addiction, his self-destructive behavior. Of course, he's also known for playing the exact sort of character that Ben Kalman is in this film. A wheeler-dealer, a man of compromised moral values. It's something that Douglas can just tap into about himself, his weakness. With A Solitary Man, Douglas brings that all to a head.

Kalman is a reflection of many men you probably know,or have seen. Men have an astonishing ability to make knowingly stupid choices for immediate gratification. That ability seems to only magnify when the specter of mortality looms large. Kalman is having a massive mid-life crisis (well, probably more like end-life), but what's great about Douglas is that he plays it truthfully. The threat of impending death is only an excuse, a way to justify choices that range from mildly scummy to blindly shallow, and on to acts apocalyptic in their selfishness.

There's an honesty in that Douglas, much like Rourke, knows his own failures are in the public record, yet he still plays every moment with unflinching honestly. Lesser actors would've shied away, tried to massage the script until Ben came off looking better, or just flat turned it down. Douglas walks in, and just does it. It's brave, honest, and I loved it.

The whole cast is great, honestly. With characters that ranges from, I'd say, even more shallow than Kalman himself, long-suffering family trying to explain how much he hurts them, and even a near-saintly performance from Danny DeVito. (He's fantastic)

Also like The Wrestler, and not like Crazy Heart, A Solitary Man doesn't let Ban Kalman off the hook for the choices he's made and the man he's become. There's a sense of redemption, but with a single glance, Douglas lets us know that, perhaps, it's only delaying the inevitable.

Wonderful, interesting movie. So, so worth seeing.

Toy Story 3



Just go buy a ticket, OK?

Sequels are hard, especially third chapters. thing is, I'm now more convinced than ever that Pixar simply can do no wrong. If you loved the first two, you'll be completely satisfied by how this film wraps it all up. Rest assured, it does wrap up. The story of Andy's beloved toys is over. There's talk that we'll see a short with these characters before next year's Pixar offering...

Please don't.

You've set everything off on exactly the right note here. You've tackled all the existential questions that other "children's" or "family" films never even think about touching upon, many "adult" films just botch completely, and done it with oodles of style and wit. Leave it be. I know the Disney suits would love a seemingly unending franchise cash cow like those crap Shrek movies, but don't give in.

Yes, yes...I was in tears by the final frame. The Pixar team found the PERFECT happy/sad ending that feels triumphant, yet also feels real. At earlier moments I cried because of sadness, but the ending let us, and the toys free. Change happens, time passes, old friends fall behind. (The "Bo Peep" moment is pretty astonishing for an animated film.) However, endings let us pass on to something new, and love is a constant.

It's just terrific. I reccommend it heartily...

But Toy Story 2 is still the best one.

The 3D is really nice, lots of depth and interesting uses of it. However, I don't think Toy Story 3 absolutely depends on seeing it in 3D. It's not Avatar. That said, the new Pixar short that precedes the movie, Night and Day? This awesome little short DEMANDS you see it in 3D, it's just that good, and that clever, in the use of the technology. Fantastic.

Do you know where my Pixar?

I love Pixar.

No, no, wait...Maybe I'm not being clear. I LOVE PIXAR.

I mean, I'm so excited to see Toy Story 3 tonight, even if I know that by the time we reach the final reel, I'll be curled up in a fetal ball sobbing quietly to myself. I mean, I can't even read the damn reviews of this moving without wiping away a tear. Look at those reviews I linked to, 100% on the Tomatometer does not happen often, kids.

Pixar, once only a subsidiary of Lucasfilm, Ltd., has become, hands down, the most consistent studio in film. They have never made a bad feature. Never. Oh, sure, there's some films I like less than others, like A Bug's Life or Cars. Those films, however, can't be called "bad" in any stretch of the imagination. Anybody who tries to tell you they are is playing some sort of "I'm so hip I hate what everyone else loves" game.

Simply, there's a level of craftsmanship and care that the Pixar team lavishes on each and every project. A sense that it's more than just "pushing product," but a company-wide sense that every film, EVERY SINGLE FILM, ought to be the best they can put out. It's a work ethic and commitment to something more than commerce that all of Hollywood could learn from.

Pixar never, ever gives you the sense that the opening weekend box office is the end goal, but crafting an experience that kids and adults will still want to return to years down the road. Toy Story came out fourteen years ago, and it still plays brilliantly. Knowing what will happen takes away not one iota of the joy in watching it happen. Every. Single. Time.

So, In celebration of the opening of Toy Story 3, I offer my top five Pixar films.

5: Toy Story 2


While the first Toy Story is a winning romp about friendship and tolerance, it's really with the sequel that the makers found the magic, and depth, that could be mined from having your protagonists be playthings. The "buddy" relationship between Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) is firmly established, and from there we get to really dig into what it means to be a toy. From the heart breaking abandonment of Jessie (Joan Cusack) by the little girl who owned her, to the idea that a toy kept sealed in it's package, never to be played with, is an abandonment in it's own way. The film tackles existential issues that many, more "adult," productions have stumbled and fumbled. This is all wrapped in a "rescue and escape" storyline that never fails to thrill and amuse.

4: Wal-E


It's Art, with a capital "A." The first half hour of this film is among the most beautiful and breathtaking sequences put on film, and without a single human voice. Wal-E really does mark the high point of Pixar's ability to use it's characters features, be they electronic, mechanical, or humanoid, in every manner of expression. The love story between Wal-E and EVE (both "voiced" by sound design genius Ben Burtt) is exquisite, and, even if the film moves more to the pedestrian in the second half, it's truly an effective comment on conservation and human self-sufficiency.

3: Ratatouille


There's a moment when I fell in love with Brad Bird's second Pixar work. Our hero, Remy (Patton Oswalt), a rat who wants nothing more than to be a chef, takes a bite of food, and the "flavors" actually fly about him as multicolored swirls. It's a unbridled expression of sensory experience and creation, as Remy mixes ingredients, the flavors swirl and mix together. It's a wonderful, pure film sequence. The movie has such a pure and noble view of creation, and criticism. I will never forget Anton Ego's (Peter O'Toole) final monologue, it's a breathtaking statement of purpose, and something anyone who creates, or critiques, should listen to very, very carefully.

2: Up


I defy anyone, ANYONE, to watch the opening sequence of this film and not shed a tear. Yet again, the folks at Pixar use what's, ostensibly, a children's story to tell a deeply felt tale of aging and finding the strength within yourself to follow your dreams. Carl Fredrickson (Ed Asner - amazing) starts out on his adventure for his late wife, but he finishes it for the best of all reasons, himself. His journey is a tribute to his beloved Ellie, but the greatest tribute is experiencing life to it's fullest, while she lives on in his heart.

1: The Incredibles


Yeah, yeah...I love superheroes. I love them with every fiber of my being. What Brad Bird does here is to pinpoint exactly why superheroes are important, and tie it back to our own fragile, human hearts. The superheroes of Bird's world are shackled and forced into hiding, because they remind the general populace of their own inferiority. Yet, what this film understands deep in it's soul, and as I've mentioned in previous blogs, is that superheroes, in all their greatness, stand as examples to us all. The best of them inspire, and encourage us to ask how much more we can do, how far can we push ourselves. What is the best we can be? Watch the moment when Dash (Spencer Fox) rushes out of the jungle and finds he can run so fast, he can run on water. It's joy, and pride, and excitement. He reaches the fullness of his potential in that moment, and the battle turns decisively in his direction from that moment forward. It's one of the greatest superhero moments ever put on film.

Add to all that the uber-cool, retro 60's James Bond design scheme. This movie just looks sleek and built for fun. It also never backs down from the peril on display, there's no softening "for the kids." The Parr family is in danger, and no one backs off from it. So wonderful, though, I admit, my own interests almost demand this be my favorite Pixar film.