Imaginary Heroes: Wait, Dan Harris is incredibly talented?

So who remembers Superman Returns? Or maybe X2?
Questions, questions, I know.
Okay granted they are decent movies with high budgets. I mean hey, its hard to pull off a comic book character and story line, especially popular ones which have had prior media adaptations (Cartoons, live action series, not to mention wildly popular films released in a Hollywood era of "greater integrity"). Still neither of these movies -which grossed pretty high profits for sequels- are that perfect combination of mass appeal and fanboy accuracy. Unless that is, I suppose, if equate cheap melodramatic symbolism and gaping plot holes with the rustic feel of a comic book. Or unless perhaps you consider the awkward and unnecessary use of CGI and big flashy explosions and action sequences as the mark of true poetic filmography. I know I'm being harsh. Entertainment value wise I have to say I remember watching both of these films and enjoying them and even getting that fanboy(girl?) feeling of glee experiencing the overwhelming psychological thrill of American superhero personal association. But this does NOT a good movie make.
And so Harris fades from my memory.
UNTIL dun dun dun,
I saw Into the Wild... which was not directed or written by Harris, but did have Emile Hirsch, who I came to have a great affinity toward in a span of two hours. A few quick clicks on IMDB and badabingbadaboom nestled between his rise to major motion picture stardom and his bit roles in TV movies and series, was DAN FRICKEN HARRIS. suck it! Imaginary Heroes
"Okay, curious" I thought to myself. Click.
Sigourney Weaver! wait, what?!!
That dude who looks exactly like the annoying guy on Full House?!!? (Jeff Daniels)
Michelle Williams. omg Ledger's girl (who at the time was still alive)
Wait a second, Kip Pardue, what are you doing here? Somehow the name had stuck out in my mind from Remember the Titans,
Deirdre O'Connell, Ryan Donowho, Jay Paulson, the list goes on.. I AM INTRIGUED!
So I immediately put the film on my parents' Netflix queue, (which they hated when I did that), received, put in DVD player, and voila, I found one of my favorite films.

The story revolves around the Travis family, with Hirsch's character, Tim, serving as the sometimes narrator. We begin with quite the event: the older brother Matt, who is a shoo-in for the Olympic team in swimming, shoots himself. And the movie follows. Of course this is no "lets cry and be depressing and boring" movie, there are twists, deep and interesting characters, problems, frustrations, just people. Really, really, screwed up, and normal people. Weaver as the mother Sandy, Oh so delightful. Entiely beaten up by losing a child and finding all her relationships crumbling around her. She is so likable and entirely the perfect mother... well except for, eh watch the movie. Daniels is the perfect overbearing stage-dad, who is obsessed with his son's swimming career, some great psychological interworkings which come together (for so many reasons) in the end. Tim and his sister Penny deal with their own grief and their parents', while trying to carry on in some sort of vein of normalcy. I don't want to give too much, so watch it yourself.Perhaps my initial connection can be attributed to the somewhat macabre temperament of a girl on the precipice of being shoved into society, still being molded in the scalding fire of first experiences but having left the pubescent hormone-surge excitement. A first true depression. The period of an incredibly dry face of a disenfranchised youth. Poetic shit, you know. But the movie still gets to me, and anyone I have shown it to, no matter the age, is so effected. That is another great thing, you can keep watching the film without getting bored and tired.
Death, drugs, guilt, retribution, sex, et cetera, the normal things, they are all here. Rarely could a character (Tim) of such emotional turmoil stand so solidly, without begging for ridicule. He is just so specific, such a person, it is wonderful!
A dark comedy, nearly a perfect one at that.
I'm not quite sure what inspired me to write this entry considering it has been a solid six months since my last viewing of the movie, but the fact that even with that sort of distance such vivid moments of poignancy and comedic beauteousness are easily brought to mind says quite a bit about the film. The Christmas party scene, hilarious! Very simple things will make you fall in love with the characters, such as the Sandy finding Tim's pot and smoking it herself, taking great glee in sort of assuming this different persona as she goes out for rolling papers, and then being hit on by a college student.
The writing, the dialogue, the acting, the execution, the mood set up by music, lighting and camera, so great. So who knew? Dan Harris is an awesome writer/director, and in this case his heroes and totally super. (I like ending on corny jokes)
PS. I entirely forgot, but hey, this is the title of my blog, I KNOW.

Fake Movies I Nerdily Pine For

So I admit it: I'm a nerd. Maybe not a dweeb or spaz, who knows- but I have a few fascinations which are awkward to try to explain and I think that is all that is required. Once you catch yourself squealing (internally of course) in glee over these following trailers, there is no going back.

First, and probably the oldest of these is The Legend of Zelda trailer

I have to admit it is a bit cheesy, especially once you see the little hat on Link who apparently is Michael Cera's doppelganger, but STILL! I was never great at Zelda considering I just played around on my brother's Nintendo64 (I spent ages trying to get out of that stupid Great Deku Tree!) but I loved the game and it was an exciting little part of my childhood. Now I sort of want to spend the summer tyring to beat the Ocarina of Time, too bad the only game here is the stupid FF X which I lost the game card of all my play on. But yes the trailer is fake :( An independant film was made, which I saw the trailer for and found it a mix between hilariously bad and depressing bad, so I'm not goign to post it, but it can be found at www.theherooftime.com

Next is a super short one put together for a Green Lantern movie.

I was severely dissapointed when I realized that this wasn't real; althoguh it really just took the first notes of Lux Aeterna to make me doubt the clip. Apparently the creator used bits from the likes of Transformers, Daredevil, and Smallville of all things.

A more complex trailer for Green Lantern:

This is some pretty great editing I have to say, but obviously when you can pick out clips from Star Trek, it is a bit hard to suspend your disbelief for a glimmer of hope :) There are in fact a lot of goings on about when a GL movie will be made and there are ideas being tossed around. This site follows that progress: http://green-lantern.moviechronicles.com/

The last trailer I have to show, and one which makes me sooo mad for being obviously phoney is this Thundercats movie trailer

The guy who made this did some pretty intense work. Each frame was individually photoshopped and then the clip run through Premiere! As an artgraphics dabbeler that gives me a sympathy migraine. In reality there is concept work going on for a thundercats movie as well. To see the actual facts on that there is this website: http://thundercats-the-movie.net/

So yes. This was me practicing humility by exposing my geeky tendencies. Don't lie, they so gave you goosebumps.

Movie Review: The Brothers Bloom

Dear reader, go see The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson, 2009)
I went and saw this last week with my sister at her request, and didn't have time to go look up IMDB and check out the specs, and was pleasantly surprised.

I wouldn't call myself a movie snob by any means, I don't wrinkle my nose at going to a movie like Twilight for the pure mindless entertainment, and I am an avid lover of Cane Toads (best documentary ever made). But I will have my degree in film in a few years, and that gives me at least an ounce of credibility, right? I have seen hundreds of films, but I still get all worked up about going to the cinema or renting a movie (or *other* methods) and I think loving it is what really gives me any right to judge them.

I promise not to say too much; I tent to get over excited about things like this. I'm not going to give you a plot synopsis per se, but here is the general idea: Two orphaned brothers Bloom (Adrien Brody) and Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) discover at an early age they have a knack for conning their way to whatever goal they desire. The older designs the elaborate plots whereas the younger (Bloom) seems to do more of the legwork. We see early on that living their life creating relationships is both very isolating and seems to weigh heavily on Bloom. Cut to them grown and experienced with Bloom wanting to get out of his lifestyle. Along with their acquired sidekick Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), a silent Japanese explosives expert, the brothers embark on their last con of an eccentric lonely young millionairess (Rachel Weisz). Enter the love story. I will say no more.

What is great about this movie is it is entirely unpredictable, as you are constantly trying to decide what is a con and what is real, and asking the question "Does it really matter?" We see some great devices throughout, some slapstick comedy, Brechtian distancing paired with ironic results, and the use of symbolism is present but not overwhelming.

Now this might sound pretentious: I absolutely adore the integration of some classic Russian cinematic moments, and they were nicely paired with the whole idea of the Russian novel being similar to the cons, the references to the Russian mobsters for the big finish, and the crazy cameo by Maximilian Schel (who I swore was Sean Connery the whole time!).
The characters are the real beauty here though. They pull you in and you actually like them, as unbelievable as they would seem in the real world. Bang Bang was superb despite only saying three words the whole film, notably: "Campari".

I hate to say "I laughed, I cried", but yes I certainly laughed and had to fight back tears at one point, shh don't tell. Go see it. You will enjoy it immensely even if you know jack squat about film, and will love it even more if you do. I expect good things from Rian Johnson who has only directed one other film (Brick in 2005) and has had pretty solid positive critiques, and he's only 35 so I imagine there will be a lot more coming from him.