2001: A Space Odyssey

I just watched the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey for Bo, who pledged in my studio's Kickstarter to raise money for a series of art books.  Thank you, Bo!

Read on for some spoiler-filled reaction comics!

I got online after finishing the film to read interpretations/theories, and I like the idea that this is actually a 3-minute close-up with the monolith.  The monolith's score is playing, after all, and a visitation from the monolith, which seems to usher in major developments, would be a fitting beginning for us as we move from nothing into the universe of this film.

 COME ON.

Oh, my poor 7th grade science teacher...are you guys ready to go to the sad place?  I have a sad story.  When I was in 7th grade, there was an initiative to re-energize (so to speak) science classrooms in my school district by plucking working scientists out of their labs and dropping them off into middle school classrooms with little-to-no training on how to teach (or control a room full of pubescent hellspawn).  This poor guy--I can't even remember his name--sat in something brown at lunch on his first day, and it only got worse from there.  He lasted 3 months before he was replaced, and his last act in our classroom was showing us 2001: A Space Odyssey.  I'm pretty sure he didn't give enough fucks at that point to even ask for permission.

I was frustrated that after investing two and a half hours in a slow movie I was left with a trippy star baby scene I didn't understand, but it's okay for a film to be ambiguous or complex, and unfold more upon multiple viewings and reading multiple theories from others.  I think Kubrick himself stated that he didn't want to spell it out for people, and was happy that people wrestled with the film's meaning and came to their own conclusions.

Brazil

I watched the 1985 Terry Gilliam film Brazil this weekend for another Kickstarter backer -- my fantastic publisher Oni Press!! :D Editor Charlie Chu has given me many movie recommendations over the years, and he hasn't steered me wrong yet.  This movie was great!!  If you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and go watch it before I spoil it for you here.

Read on for some spoiler-filled reaction comics!

Uuuuuuugh....some of the satire was too close for comfort.  The cosmetic surgery stuff was....unsettling.  Same goes for the ugly highway lined with ads depicting gorgeous landscapes, and the "Consumers for Christ" group in the shopping mall scene.  It was all in that suuuuper uncomfortable space of funny and dark/disturbing at the same time.  Well done, movie.

Easy joke, sorry.

 I loved the bureaucratic satire, especially uniforms like this character's!  All of the official pins and patches and badges and pads and caps.

 WHEN HE'S LEANING IN AND OUT AND UGHHHHH COME ON SAM

 Nooooooo....!

 Lot of WHAT in my first viewing of this film.

The sets and the framing of the shots in Brazil were SO uncomfortable and cramped!  It was really effective but it made me squirm in my seat.  I was dying for a shot of the sky or any open space or green.

UGH.  That was a great ending but UGHHHHHHH.  I wanted Sam to be happy with magically-alive badass Jill in a pretty country home. :( Humph.

I love the song Brazil, and it was a treat hearing so many variations on it throughout the film.  My favorite version will always be Pink Martini's cover, though!  ;)

Dredd (2012)

I watched Dredd yesterday for another Kickstarter backer -- fellow comic artist Ainsley Y.! :D I heard good things about this movie, and was especially excited it was on my queue after seeing it listed at #1 on this list of feminist-friendly blockbusters, so thanks to Ainsley for the selection! :)

Read on for some spoiler-filled reaction comics!

 Psychic indeed!  She explained almost in tandem with me wondering aloud why she didn't have a helmet.

It was so cool, though.

Aren't sidekicks handy?  Sherlock's great, but we need John asking questions to understand what's he's thinking.  Dredd is great, but I can tell you right now I would have had ZERO interest in a movie about a hardened cop silently shooting up an apartment building.  With a rookie engaging him in conversation, we open up Dredd a bit and see into his philosophies as well as learn the rules of the world the story takes place in.
But then, "sidekick" doesn't do her justice; Anderson's more than a foil to Dredd.  She has a real purpose in the story.  She makes a difference in the outcome and experiences growth over the course of the film.  She has a special skill.  She has an origin story / motive.  She moves the plot forward in scenes where our male lead is absent.  She has a functional suit and she's good with her weapon.  She's a rookie but she's good at her job.  What a great treatment of a female character!
I felt that Kay's imagined sex scene was gratuitous and unnecessary, but I'm willing to accept it when there's so much else GOOD subversive stuff happening in the movie.  Dredd and Anderson both have wound-dressing scenes, and they're given a fairly similar treatment (although Dredd dresses himself and Anderson needs him to do it for her).  The scene where Anderson is taken hostage is overseen by a woman and it's also much less sexualized than in other films I've seen.  Let's not forget that while Anderson looks like a damsel in distress for about 10 minutes, she ends up freeing herself, and reversing the trope by coming to save Dredd AND freeing the clan's hostage techie (who had been tormented and controlled by a woman--another great, subtle reversal).
Oh, and OH MY GOD, no romance, not even a hinted romance, between her and anyone?  What?  It's like she has a life outside of that or something??

However--I liked the use of the "slo mo" drug to give a reason for lavished shots and slow motion.  The effect was actually really cool!

So, Dredd was pretty great.  It was one of those movies where I realized I was an hour in and only had one comic so far.  I was absorbed!  It was amazing to me that the movie pulled off the start-to-finish "nonstop action" plot so many movies try for and fail.  Somehow I didn't get bored by the action or forget what the stakes were; things kept changing and evolving in ways I could follow and stay engaged with.  There was a lot of tension in scenes where Dredd and Anderson showed off against sympathetic characters, like the kids with guns.  The movie attempted more antagonist complexity than most do, and I really liked the characterizations we got of the apartment tenants.  I appreciated the quiet moments woven in so well, like the pause on the outdoor skate park and talking with Cathy in her apartment.

THANKS, AINSLEY!  I want to watch this one again! :D

Looper

I saw Looper this week!  Read on for SPOILER-filled reaction comics:

One of the things I liked best about the film was the slow (like, embarrassingly slow) realization that I was NOT rooting for Old Joe.  Him killing that little boy was a point of no return, but I didn't realize until the final confrontation that Old Joe was not our protagonist.  We are so conditioned to side with characters who are motivated by love, it takes time to see that Old Joe is not the wiser of the Joes.  In actuality, Young Joe comes to understand the nature of love far better than Old Joe does--he chooses self-sacrifice for the greater good over preserving one individual's experience of love.  He sees beyond himself and breaks the cycle so that others can thrive.

I mean, you all saw the movie.  You know this.  But can we talk about it a bit?  That was amazing!

At Sara's first appearance, I asked, "Is this our prostitute friend (Suzie)?"  I was not the only one in the group who assumed that it was.  Diversity please.

Okay so this movie you guys.  Two days ago I would swear up and down that Safety Not Guaranteed was the best film of the year, but now...I think I'm on team Looper.  Just.  Wow.  It almost never happens that a movie is that surprising and makes sense.  That it also makes statements about ending the cycle of violence, self-sacrifice, and the subjectivity of good/evil at the end of a shoot-em-up action movie?  Incredible.

Details I absolutely loved: Old Joe's falling-in-love montage, Sara's mimed smoke on the porch, Abe's understated death off-camera cuing that he is not our main antagonist, Joe practicing French while waiting to kill someone, frog toy booty call, final shots of Sara and Sid going through daily life together.

Read my reactions to other movies:
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2, Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises, Magic Mike, Brave, Prometheus