Summer Wars

I'm continuing this week with my movie reviews for people who donated to the Periscope Studio art books Kickstarter.  A big thanks to Jacob, who requested Summer Wars!  Read on for some spoiler-filled reaction comics!

So here's the thing: I've already seen this movie a few times.  I love it.  It's fantastic.  It's one of those movies I wish I could make everyone I know watch.  It has a little bit of everything--comedy, romance, action, drama...a surprising and amazing film.  The storytelling is fresh and clever.  And the animation is GORGEOUS!  I think the word I used the most in this review was "love".

Basically, just go see this movie if you haven't yet.

I looooooove the big cast, and how well everyone is characterized.  They can have over-the-top slapstick moments, and maybe you could sum each character up in a couple words, but each plays an integral role in the plot, too (I see a lot of similarities with Dickens).  Nana being new to the family means she doesn't know who Wabisuke is, and it's a GREAT excuse to invite the other characters to explain.
The characters interact with one another in many interesting ways, forming different groups at different times the way that real people do (by family, by gender, by opinion, by task).  Nobody is a "good guy" or "bad guy"; they take on protagonist and antagonist roles depending on the situation.  It could have been so easy to fill out the big family with generic characters, but everyone really feels real.  The chaos of the big household is totally believable.  Somehow, the creators manage to keep over 20 characters in character AND keep the plot moving forward.

I loooooove the avatar designs.  They're so personalized and different, I wouldn't be surprised if the film invited a bunch of real people to design their own avatars for the movie to use.  The world of OZ is a delightful tool for the storytelling.  We get to have our real-world story, but also watch fantastic action sequences in a world with anime physics.  And I LOVE when we come back into the real world and see those fights on character's cell phone screens -- how it just looks like normal cell phone game graphics!! xD The visual metaphors for Love Machine messing up the world's systems are GENIUS.  I love the sliding tiles effect when it mixes up the highway system.  GAH.

Kazuma is such a teenage wish fulfillment character.  He games ALL THE TIME uninterrupted by his mother, is the best fighter in the world, has global star status for his character's success...and his gaming ends up saving the world.  Plus, awesome emo hair.

Pretty much xD

Sniff!  Universal cooperation and self-sacrifice....you hit me in the soft spot, Summer Wars.


I haven't even mentioned Sakae Jinnouchi, who is maybe the most interesting character.  I love seeing a matriarch like this.  She can wield a yari, sure, but her greatest strength as demonstrated in the movie is her prowess in conversation, her network of friends/family, and her ability to get people to work together and support one another.  There's a lot of good stuff happening in Summer Wars in terms of what makes characters heroic.  Kenji is smart and willing to stay in harm's way to protect others.  Wabisuke asks for forgiveness and tries to make amends for the damage he's caused.  Everyone seems at their best when they do their duty to serve others and cooperate.

I Heart Huckabees

I watched the 2004 film I Heart Huckabees last week for @etymancer, who pledged in my studio's Kickstarter to raise money for a series of art books!  THANK YOU, @etymancer!!  :D

Read on for some spoiler-filled reaction comics!

 

There were sooooo many excellent acting moments in this movie.  Mark Wahlberg took the cake, though.  Just remembering sad Marky Mark sitting on a rock with a rubber ball makes me burst out laughing.

Ohhh, and Jude Law!!!  So great.  He can make even this asshole character sympathetic.  But I wish the film would have spent some time on why Brad was so obsessed with being cruel to Albert...

If you're going to make your audience that uncomfortable over a scene that long, it had better pay off later.  This just did not. :-/ You know that maddening frustration when you're listening to a podcast, and people keep starting off on interesting tangents and being interrupted before they can get to their points...?

And yeah, that's not the case for everyone.  The first friend I asked about the movie after finishing it said it was one he really liked.  Just wasn't my cup of tea, I guess.

I'M SORRY

The Heat

Portland was in the 90s this week, so watching The Heat on Saturday was a welcome break from, well, the heat.  And I loved it for much more than the 3 hours of air conditioning--this movie was SO fun!  It's a vulgar summer action/comedy to be sure, but it's a GREAT vulgar summer action/comedy.  There were plenty of satisfying surprises, juicy jokes, and memeable moments.  Highly recommended.

The screenplay is by Katie Dippold, who has been a writer on Parks & Recreation since 2009.  Smart and hilarious buddy-cop / chick flick / blockbuster deconstructions abound.  Get thee to a theater if you haven't seen it yet.  If you have, read on for reaction comics~!

Since I often have to point out how movies FAIL to so much as pass the Bechdel Test, let's take this opportunity to celebrate and praise one that gets so many things right:

+Two developed, interesting, and different female protagonists
+Both have flaws and experience growth
+Neither is characterized solely by gender or romantic interest to another character
+Both have high levels of agency and specialized skill making them valuable in their work/life and allowing them to solve problems and resolve the film's conflict almost entirely on their own (the precision driving scene, all of the fight scenes, the torture scene, the scene where Ashburn responds to a potential home invader by seamlessly reaching for her concealed handgun....so refreshing)
+Sisterhood / ladybroship / lady-collaboration as a central theme
+Oh hay, a coroner only in the move for 2 minutes who is female, not eye candy, good at her job, and speaks only with other women about work and helps them solve a problem?  What is happening?!
+Mullins taking a protective/leadership role in her family, giving tough love to her brother and doing what's right despite her family's ungrateful response

 

And the car explosion scene!  AAH!  I was so lulled by the drunken montage that I jumped in my seat!! xD I also liked the torture scene, because while that's normally incredibly creepy and gross, it was treated with this equal tone to the rest of the film, not sexualized or anything.  The characters are in REAL danger; they're being taken seriously by the villains and they have to be very clever and brave to get out of it.  Female protagonists aren't often injured in movies, and if they are it's used as a way to sideline them from the action and/or motivate another (usually male) protagonist, so seeing Ashburn get a knife in the leg (three times?  four??) and then keep crawling around and eventually take out the villain, it was SO great.  Just another nice surprise for me, seeing something turned on its head in a really satisfying way.
The knife stuff was even done in a laugh-out-loud funny way!

 And the baddie doesn't have one!  Did any of the baddies, come to think of it...??

Marlon Wayans you have the cutest wink I have ever seen.  Love that this possible romance was left open-ended.

 

 WHEN SHE REARRANGED ASHBURN'S BOOBS.  OMFG.

 Also, Taran Killam you are the best twist villain.  I totally called this, because you hadn't spoken much in the movie yet, but still.  No less satisfying.

One thing I kept noticing was how great the pacing was.  We kept at a great, brisk clip throughout, and jokes that I expected would return again and again often only showed up the once (THANK YOU).  Some of my favorite jokes were the spoofs on cop procedurals, with Ashburn giving one-liners but then her cool exits being foiled, or the scene with Levy dishing the scoop on the location of the killings, and Ashburn and Mullins being decreasingly able to finish his sentences.  There was also this fantastic comedic tone where things could be very weird or awkward or just subvert expectations and not end in a predictable punchline.  Ashburn failing to save the choking victim was such a shock and a hysterical, unexpected scene!

Sooooo I'll be laughing about this movie for a good long time.

What Women Want

So here's what happened last night:

Have you seen What Women Want?  I recommend it!  Try finding a copy to watch before reading these comics; they'll be funnier if you are familiar with the movie:

 

What Women Want was released when I was 12, and I only saw about 10 minutes of it on TV once, so it was practically brand new to me.  I thought previously that it was a standard romcom, and the convenient magic element turned me off in the previews, but I turned out to really like it!  I'm glad I went back and watched it.  It had some really great things to say and I loved a LOT of little things the movie did.  Probably too many to list.  But here are a few: hearing the deaf women's conversation, Nick's rant to his male coworker about what he's discovered about men and women, positive portrayal of Nike (Portland priiiide), so very many lady characters / speaking roles, the Ivy-league-graduated secretary's rant, the way that Alex knew all of the reassuring cliches but hearing them reinforced by her dad helped her believe them, the reveal about Erin appealing to Nick to be a copywriter, Darcy sinking into her bubble bath after her bad day rather than answering her phone, and just the general lack of things that piss me off in movies (directed by a woman and co-written by a man and two women...coincidence?).

My other movie reaction comics:  Looper, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2, Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises, Magic Mike, Brave, Prometheus