Sin #35: Nature's Calling

There may be wars and hunger, frailty and death, but while you’re watching a Miyazaki film all is right with the world. Hayao Miyazaki is a true humanitarian, a man who makes movies about people and their connection with nature. In “My Neighbor Totoro” we’re introduced to a family moving into their new home in a Japanese village. Two girls find a giant tree that houses a big and fluffy creature named Totoro who quickly becomes their friend; meanwhile, their mother is sick in the hospital and their father works hard to provide for them as a professor in a university.

The movie has no villains and no formulas; it combines visually dazzling hand-drawn animation with a mature and absorbing narrative. The details of daily life are lovingly captured and add to the fantasy elements that have a spiritual quality of their own. After more than 20 year, “My Neighbor Totoro” remains one of the best and most loved family films of all time (Totoro even makes a cameo on Pixar’s “Toy Story 3”) and a success on video and DVD (there’s no doubt that anime has found its success on the shelves of video stores since they hardly get released in theaters).

Miyazaki most recent adventure, the enchanting “Ponyo”, tells the story of a boy living with his mother on a house on the cliff by the sea. He meets a fish who wants to desperately become a girl so she can be with him. Just like “My Neighbor Totoro”, it’s a film where the realism of the community blends seamlessly with the whimsy and fantastical. When a child tells a grownup a story, they believe them and accept that magic is hidden beneath the mundane and that spirits live among them.

The themes of ecological conservation are essential in Miyazaki’s filmography. In the epic “Princess Mononoke” there’s a serious conflict between men’s industrialization and the ecosystem that has kept all creatures in a state of stability. This movie may be Miyazaki’s most radical since it deals with heavy subjects and features some fairly violent images. But as in all his works, it’s a film about tolerance and understanding. He is one of the few filmmakers who has never failed to provoke and create beautiful human parables. One can approach each one of his movies and discover worlds of happiness and personal growth. It may sound ridiculous but one could say they’re a better person by watching his movies.

Sin #34: The Fan

Paul is a loser. He is reaching 40 and still lives with his mother, works as a booth attendant in the parking lot of a hospital and is obsessed with the New York Giants. At nights he talks to a radio station where he becomes “Paul from Staten Island”, an avid and eloquent commentator that supports his team no matter what.

When there’s a game he goes out to the parking lot of the stadium with his buddy, plugs a TV to his car battery and watches it as he hears the roars of the fans inside.

So, is Paul dangerous or merely a harmless and passionate fan?

Certainly he doesn’t come across as a violent man, not like those crazy hooligans from England that take every chance to beat fans from other teams just to prove their worth as violent offenders.

In “Green Street Hooligans” Elijah Wood’s character goes through a transformation. On America he is a naïve and decent college student recently dismissed after he took the fall for a charge of drug possession from a roommate, who happens to be the son of an important senator. Now he is in London, visiting his sister and her family when he becomes embroiled in the whole Hooligan scene. Unlike Paul, the hooligans aren’t really interested in scoring victories in the field, but more like scoring victories in the street (if violence can be deemed a victory).

“Big Fan” observes Paul without passing any judgment or offering the slightest chance of redemption for him. The movie is fascinating because the character never changes; he sticks fearlessly to his convictions (when a player beats him, he refuses to sue because that will mean that he will get expelled from the team) and even when he could get a chance to find a better job and move out from his mom’s house he refuses with ferocity.

Both movies are about sport fanaticism and unhealthy obsessions that often lead to violent and irrational behaviors. “Green Street Hooligans” is clear about its message of hate and the consequences of devoting your life to a gang; “Big Fan” is more ambiguous on its attitude towards its characters and obsessions. It doesn’t offer easy answers but doesn’t glamorize fanaticism either.

I’ve never been a sports fan (although I did love watching basketball games in the times of the glory of Jordan and the Bulls, now a faded memory) and I’ve always found it a little scary when a crowd gathers to witness a spectacle. These movies try to connect with the impulses that took them to the stadium, and precisely what makes them cheer.

Sin #33: The Architect's Son

Architecture is the reaching out for the truth

Louis Kahn

Khan was one of the great architects. He understood what it meant to give a building momentum and using volumes to create spaces that felt rich, imaginative and even spiritual. His professional life was full of triumphs that included the Salk Institute and the Kimbell Art Museum. His personal life, however, was full of mystery and guilt. At the end of his life he was found lying down on a subway station dead of a heart attack, unable to be located for days since he crossed out his address in his ID. But why would he do that? It appears that the answer isn’t simple. Kahn was married but had 2 daughters and a son from different women and lived a life completely focused on his work, leaving the people who loved him emotionally stranded.

In “My Architect”, Khan’s son goes on a journey to try to understand his father; not only his legacy as an artist but a little of his motivations as a human being. The movie is not a lecture on the technicalities of his buildings since it focuses more on the emotional travelogue, working more as a terrific and significant drama. At the end we contemplate the only thing that Khan left, his body of work and wonder if he had any regrets.

As an architect Frank Gehry is completely different from Louis Kahn. His work is audacious and organic using bold structures that forge a strange and ethereal mood on the viewer. Look at his most famous building, the Guggenheim museum on Bilbao; it completely drains the attention of the city to itself and remains like an alien craft hovering over a city of more conservative traditions. His buildings have the quality of dividing the opinion of the public; some think they merely stand as magnificent follies while others relish its unusual esthetic. In Sydney Pollack’s documentary “Sketches of Frank Gehry” we meet the man and the impact of his work; it is not a profound work that delves too much on psychology (like “My Architect”) but is invaluable as an amazing portfolio of interesting architectural works.

Both these documentaries offer insight into the lives of creative artists. While the Frank Gehry documentary is interesting, it doesn’t achieve the power of “My Architect” where the quest of the filmmaker was higher than delivering mere entertainment, it was a personal odyssey into his own family making the viewer conspirator in the search for Louis.

Sin #32: Baby, Don't Hurt Me

It always begins with a casual encounter.

A friend introduces Annie to Alvy, who finds her attractive and whips a series of intellectual debacles in order to interest her although he is quite unsure of his own charm. Fortunately Annie delights in his sly and witty sense of humor and falls in love with him.

“Annie Hall” was released in 1977 and is the perfect example of the Allen-persona on film; a socially awkward and angst ridden pseudo intellectual from Manhattan who happens to be extremely funny. The movie is full of gags that build a certain kind of momentum although there’s barely any plot at all (it is said that, originally, it featured a murder plot that was completely scrapped in the editing process; that movie was finally made with “Manhattan Murder Mystery” some years later). As a non-traditional love story “Annie Hall” created a revolution that influenced most romantic comedies that followed (from the sweet “When Harry Met Sally” to the lesbian-themed “Kissing Jessica Stein” among many).

Now, picture the scenario some 30 years later in a greeting card company where a young man named Tom meets a girl named Summer. While Alvy sometimes broke the fourth wall with his endlessly inventive monologues, Tom draws from popular culture to describe his relationship and the 500 days he spent dealing with the pains of a love that wasn’t meant to be.

“(500) Days of Summer” could do for our generation what “Annie Hall” did for our parents’. Both cement themselves in a particular time and create three-dimensional character who we feel for. What’s so universal about their appeal is that everyone can relate to them at some point in their lives. When Alvy takes Annie home and begins speaking to her, we see subtitles (representing their thoughts) that undermine every word being spoken. Later, in a love scene, Alvy watches as her spirit leaves her body and realizes she isn’t into sex as much as he is.

Tom, on the other hand, after making love to Summer bursts into a song and dance number featuring a song by Hall and Oats and when his relationship goes sour he begins to see his life as a French New Wave movie (…endless suffering).

It’s these kinds of emotions that connect with the audience, since most people have felt exhilaration and disappointment on equal measure and have used film and music as a way to describe their feelings.

And even though both movies don’t have a traditional happy ending, we pretty much know Tom, Summer, Alvy and Annie are going to be all right. We care too much for them to wish them any harm.

Sin #31: Cabin Fever

You know the drill. A group of teenagers go venturing into the woods and find a creepy and terrifying force against them; it might be a serial killer, a strange disease or even demons from hell. Most of these movies are terribly lame and become mere excuses for showing horrible acts of violence or gratuitous nudity and sex.

There is, however, a movie that is genuinely creepy and startlingly original.

It’s Sam Raimi’s “The Evil Dead”, which might be the mother of the “cabin in the woods” subgenre. In a remarkable debut, Raimi takes a tiny budget and creates sequences that are absurd, scary and simply a lot of fun. Not only did it rejuvenate the horror genre but it also turned Bruce Campbell into a star (Ash is now an iconic hero). The success of the movie spawned an equally inventive sequel which was a little bit less “serious” (using quotations since the first one had a sequence where a woman gets raped by a tree). There was a third installment that also featured Ash but was tonally different from the previous pictures (it was more action adventure with a splash of comedy and less successful as a whole).

So, what’s “The Evil Dead” about?

In the first adventure, some friends go to a cabin in the woods for a vacation. In the abandoned shack they find a weird book that happens to be the Necronomicon or book of the dead. After reading a few passages they summon a series of demons which possesses each one in the group. Only Ash survives (except for an open ending that suggests that Ash might also be possessed).

In the second installment the daughter of the man who owned the cabin goes for a visit and once again the demons are summoned. It appears that Ash might be in trouble since the demons like messing with him (leading to a hilarious sequence where he cuts his hand, and the hand makes fun of him). In the original movie there was no apparent way to end the mayhem, while in the second one it appears that one can vanish the evil to another dimension leading to the events of “Army of Darkness”.

Raimi is a talented and eclectic director that has tackled several genres with various degrees of success (his Spiderman films are hit-and-miss, although his best movie remains the dark and engrossing “A Simple Plan” about a group of men who find a bag full of money after a plane crash). Last year he tried to recreate a little bit of the Evil Dead spirit with “Drag Me to Hell”, which is a goofy and funny horror/comedy.

But no spirit can reclaim the power of the Evil Dead movies; they’re just too much darn fun.

Sin #30: El Melodrama

Manuela lives with his seventeen year-old son Esteban, who wants to become an author and write about his mother’s story to finally reveal his origins since Manuela is adamant about speaking about his father and her past.

One day they go to see a play and wait in the rain to get an autograph from one of the actresses, in a rush Esteban is hit by a car and killed.

Manuela, heartbroken, decides to go back to Barcelona in search of Esteban’s father who now works as a transsexual prostitute. In Barcelona she meets a nun named Rosa that cares for the prostitutes and helps Manuela, thinking she’s one of the girls. They become close and Rosa finally confesses she’s pregnant from Esteban’s father and is HIV positive. Meanwhile Manuela meets the actress of the play and becomes her personal assistant.

The brilliance of “Todo Sobre mi Madre” is that it introduces several characters and fleshes them out as real human beings. Pedro Almodovar’s film is filled with wonderful performances and emotionally potent moments. There may not be a filmmaker alive that loves his women as much as him; he writes characters that burst out of the screen and refuse to leave our imaginations. Manuela, Rosa, Huma and the others are so delicately created and played that one is totally transfixed by their stories. The same can be said about the women of “Volver”, my favorite of his movies (and the best of Penelope Cruz’s performances, although she’s also amazing in this movie).

“Todo Sobre mi Madre” is clearly influenced by Hollywood dramas from the fifties, especially “All about Eve” with Bette Davis. Eve Harrington’s name is mentioned, a character confesses to start smoking thanks to Davis and at the beginning of the movie Manuela and Esteban watch the movie at their home.

I saw “All about Eve” recently and was fascinated at its story of power and obsession. It may be one of the best movies ever made about fame and deceit propelled by amazing performances from the entire cast. “Todo Sobre mi Madre” isn’t in any way a rehash of Eve, it’s merely a lovely tribute as Almodovar plunges into unforgettable melodrama.

It’s impossible to discuss Almodovar without mentioning his visual style that saturates the colors creating a stylized and visually appealing palette. It may not be realistic but it creates its own universe, perfectly complementing the heavy emotions and larger-than-life characters. Every one of his movies is an experience than delves into the human condition.

Sin #29: New Lands

If there is a common theme running deep in the movies by Werner Herzog it’s madness and obsession. He seems to love portraying characters as they venture away on dangerous and inhospitable regions and then rotting away burdened by their own follies.

Take Aguirre, for example. Here’s a Spanish conquistador on a suicidal mission through the Amazon convinced he will find the legendary city of El Dorado and become king of this new land. After Hernan Cortes took Mexico it seems that he might just do the same, ruling with an iron fist. We can almost figure from the start that his journey is doomed, making him a tragic figure.

The journey of filming “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” is almost as exciting as the movie itself. Herzog took his crew and actors to actual locations where disease and starvation were a constant threat. His lead actor Klaus Kinski hated the director so much he wrote heinous and despicable things about him in his autobiography.

The conditions of filming “Aguirre” were so harsh that there was an instance where Kinski announced he was leaving the film; Herzog said he would kill him if he did. This love-hate relationship continued for another three movies and was chronicled in Herzog’s documentary “My Best Fiend”.

It’s the authenticity of the locations that gives the movie a strange and eerie power. When we see the conquistadors fighting to keep the raft floating on water, we sense that we are watching real people struggling to hold on. And in the end, when Aguirre is finally alone we simply gaze as madness consumes him (in a breathtaking shot we see several monkeys getting on the raft and Aguirre trying to shake them off; it’s a powerful metaphor).

A recent movie that reminded me of Aguirre is Terrence Malik’s “The New World” which is a serious adaptation of the Pocahontas’ myth. “The New World” starts as a beautiful meditation on nature and the clash between the European and American traditions as the new settlers try to understand this mysterious new land. While the opening scenes have a spellbinding quality, the movie finally descends to cheap and pointless melodrama as Pocahontas goes to Europe; it’s a shame really that “The New World” becomes so generic, but it’s still worth for its hypnotic and beautiful tone.

These movies give us a feel of what it to discover new lands and realize that some things simply cannot be tamed.

Sin #28: Oscar Season

There’s an underwhelming forecast for this year’s academy awards. First came the news of an expanded ten-nominees for best picture, a pointless and ill-fated decision (surely influenced by last year’s snub of Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight”); my guess is that one of these years it will go back to the usual five.

Then came the movies themselves: “Up in the Air”, “Avatar”, “Inglorious Basterds”, “Precious” and “The Hurt Locker” have figured prominently in most awards but I doubt the greatness of the nominees (except for “Basterds”, which was my favorite movie of 2009; haven’t seen “Precious”). The other contenders are “District 9”, “Up”, “The Blind Side”, “An Education” and “A Serious Man”; since they virtually don’t have a chance, what’s the point in nominating them?

Now, some find interesting the duel between ex-spouses James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, whose films are pretty competitive for the best picture award (and direction, certainly). While “The Hurt Locker” is a much better film than Avatar (which is merely a visually interesting ecologically-themed adventure with zero originality), I still didn’t think Bigelow’s film was so great; yes, it is an incredibly tense and focused thriller with amazing direction but still, it left me a bit cold.

In the acting categories there will be no surprises. It will be Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Mo’Nique and Christoph Waltz. On the technical fronts no doubt “Avatar” will rule. Another certainty is “Up” winning best animated feature (it’s pretty much guaranteed since it received a Best Picture nomination).

I was disappointed at this year’s nominations. Where is “(500) Days of Summer” and its rightful spot at the best screenplay nominations, why was “Bright Star” and its stars Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw completely shut out, where is “Ponyo” or “Mary and Max” on the animated nominations or, on the foreign category, why wasn’t “Broken Embraces” or “We, the Living” considered?

Well, every year is the same thing and I guess that Hollywood and its policies justify many cinematic crimes. The academy awards have always been a parade of glamour that doesn’t really mean much beyond its frivolous front. Every once in a while they get it right, but it’s not really important for the viewer (many classic movies, like “Citizen Kane” or “2001”, were completely snubbed at the time). Filmmakers and actors are more interested in them since it looks nice on their resumes and might even get them more work opportunities on the future. But for us, it’s all about the glamour.