The Legend of Korra, Book One: What Didn't Work

**the same notification from the last post applies to this- if you do not know what happens in Book One of Korra and do not wish to know, turn back now**

            And now we come to the hard part- talking about the aspects of Book One that just didn’t go well.  This first season, on the whole, was a very mixed bag.  That’s not to say Book One of Last Airbender wasn’t imperfect, because it was, and it too had a choppy beginning.  What’s different here is that the choppy spots are all over the place, particularly at the ending, and as any Olympic gymnast would say, you can survive a few mishaps at the start of your routine as long as you stick the landing.  Sigh….there’s no point in delaying I guess.  Here’s what did not work in Book One.  

The Love Triangle (Quadrangle?)-

            Why.  Why.  Why, why, why is everything apparently required by law to have a love triangle?  It doesn’t work.  Ever.  I can’t recall seeing/reading about a single love triangle that has ever managed to make me give a damn, and, sadly, Korra is no exception.  I stated above that I really, really like Asami and Bolin, so what made this romantic mash-up especially painful was seeing how Korra and Mako constantly (and callously) trampled over their feelings.  It made both Korra and Mako less sympathetic to me, and it made me a LOT less invested in the outcome of their relationship.  The couples/romantic subplots in Last Airbender worked because they were never shoehorned in- they were there in the background (and sometimes in the foreground), but never more than they needed to be, and that made the romantic moments we did get a lot more effective.  Here’s hoping Book Two strikes a better balancing act. 

The Lack of Filler-

            From what I can tell, the blame for this one can be spread around somehwat- Mike and Brian wanted to do Korra with less filler anyway, and Nickelodeon’s astonishing initial insistence on only two seasons forced them to condense their original plans even more.  Now, irony of ironies, the show’s been green-lit for nearly 60 episodes, almost the length of the original series.  Hopefully they have the room now to let the other three seasons of the show breath a bit more, but the 12-episode limit and the resulting lack of any filler time with the characters really bites Book One in the butt.  As Last Airbender proved, filler can be crucial to a show if it's used well, if it helps to expand the world and show us more sides of the characters.  With Korra, we haven't had that chance yet.  And, as a result, we can’t get as invested as we could with Last Airbender.  Like I said though, since they now have a LOT more time for the rest of the series, they'll have plenty of opportunities to remedy this. 

The Abusive Policies of Tarrlok-

            This is still the big sticking point for me.  The whole crux of the anti-bending movement was the perception that benders (specifically bending gangs) used their powers to abuse non-benders.  Amon builds support by predicting that even harsher measures will be taken against regular people in order to subjugate them.  And Tarrlok plays right into his hands.  His emergency measures are exactly the sort of things that the anti-benders railed against and feared, and their enforcement must have caused support for and enlistment in the movement to skyrocket (which would explain how he could then take over the city without so much as a whisper of opposition). 

            This would have been less of an issue if they’d dealt with it better, but it’s tossed out the window and forgotten quicker than you can say “Cabbage Corp.”  We get a brief image of non-benders being arrested en masse, a brief plea by an unnamed mother to Korra, a brief promise to end this abuse, and that’s it.  Instead of publicly railing against the policy (which she should have done), Korra just tries to get her bending friends freed, and mentions the “other” prisoners as a throwaway line. 

            I get that they were pressed for time, but since that was the case, they should have dropped this particular subplot entirely, because it leaves more than few plot holes in the conclusion of the season- we never see the measures repealed or denounced, and we never hear about the non-benders being released.  And (political scientist discussion incoming) even though Amon is revealed as a fraud, no massive social movement centers around a single individual.  Yes, their leader was discredited, but because the abusive measures that fueled the movement were never fully repealed (to our knowledge), we have no reason to assume the movement is not still just as strong as before.  If anything, it was an even more egregious example of benders manipulating non-benders for their own gain.  Maybe it’s a nit-pick on my part, but this was, for me, even more distracting and frustrating than the damn love triangle, and that’s saying something. 

The Real Ending-

            Alright…..let’s talk about the complete ending to the finale.  I have no problem with Deus ex Machina when it’s used well, but in this case…..it was not.  That’s not to say the WAY they bring her bending back doesn’t work- I knew from the moment they introduced the idea of taking bending away that it would be possible to give it back again (Yin/Yang and all that).  It just happens way, way too fast.  It takes away any sense of there being consequences for the many, many mistakes that allowed Amon’s takeover to get as far as it did.  And the worst part is that they do it right when I started to feel like Korra was learning, and maturing.  Her temper and her rashness have been her biggest flaws as a character, and her having to go a period of time struggling to adapt to only having airbending would be the perfect way to have her really develop herself as a person and as an Avatar.  It would make for great conflict and difficulty in future seasons.  But nope- Aang’s all WHOOSH, her powers come back, and soon, it’ll pretty much be like Amon’s invasion never happened.  Greeeeaaaaat……

             I don’t want to harp on this ending, because despite this (and the other issues mentioned above), Book One was still a solid, solid season, and I am genuinely excited about Book Two.  I just hope that the extended run time they’ve been given allows Mike and Brian to flesh out these new stories just a bit better.  Book One works best as an adrenaline rush, because once the plot gets churning in the second half, boy does it work.  We’ve still got something really great and really unique in this show, and I still harbor high hopes for its future. 

            The first episode (or episodes, depending on your source) of Book Two premiers on September 13^th.  I will not be in the States at that time, so my ability to write/vlog about the episode will be contingent upon how quickly I can view each episode online.  Here’s hoping. 

-Noah Franc 

The Legend of Korra, Book One: What Worked

**Note: this article assumes that you have either seen or know what happens in Season One of The Legend of Korra.  If you have not seen the show yet and don’t want it spoiled, turn back now.  You have been warned.**

            Finally!  At long last, Nickelodeon has given us a release date for the official start of Book Two of Legend of Korra, their follow-up to the cult hit Avatar: The Last Airbender, which, in the interest of full disclosure, is my favorite television show of all time.  Plus, there is a trailer, and IT LOOKS AMAZING.  As you can imagine, I am about as excited as any kid at Christmas could possibly be without needing to run the laundry.  So, in honor of this occasion, probably the only time this year anything TV-related will excite me, I am going to revisit the first season of Korra (I just finished rewatching every episode) and discuss what, in my opinion, worked and/or did not work and what my hopes for this new season are.

            I will be frank, I harbored a lot of disappointments after I first saw Legend of Korra.  After the first two episodes were released online, I posted a video response on my Youtube account where I expressed how those episodes had me thinking the show would delve into the more social/political aspects of being the Avatar- what is the purpose of the Avatar in a more modern world, and how should Korra balance her duties to the world of bending with her duties to the world of non-benders (a topic that pretty rarely came up in The Last Airbender).  In the actual season, however, it was given the barest of lip-service in a single episode, and was then dropped.  It bothered me then and it bothers me now, but I’ve been able to get over that as a case of the show simply not doing what I personally would have done, and if I’m going to be that petty, I could do that with literally everything ever.  So this time around, I was able to put aside my earlier expectations and enjoy the show for what it was a lot more. 

            That said, there are other problems with the first season that I can’t chalk up to unmet expectations.  Therefore, in this post, I will try to breakdown as best I can what I felt worked and didn’t work about the first season, and about where I hope the show goes from here.  As a certain young airbender once said, “Let us begin.” 

First off, what worked:  

The Animation-

            Boy, does this show look good.  I hesitate to say it’s “better” than The Last Airbender, since all animation styles boil down to personal taste, but it is undoubtedly more detailed in its designs and backgrounds, which, in this world, have never been anything less than fascinating.  The detailed and dark animation matches the tone the first season tries to set- that of a once-great city starting to decay from the inside out.  And, judging by the trailer, the next season is going to be even more beautiful. 

The Music-

            There are no words that can do justice to how brilliant the music of both Korra and The Last Airbender is.  Korra jumps back and forth between Last Airbender-esque strings and more 20^th-century jazz tunes.  It’s the sort of dichotomy most people wouldn’t think of, but here, it just….works.  And the music used in the new trailer?  I still can’t get it out of my head.    

The Story/Plot/Pacing-

            My personal issues with it aside (and a few we’ll get to in a bit), this is a great plot, and although I felt it was a bit rushed at times, the show paces itself very well.  Each major twist or reveal builds the stakes and raises the bar higher and higher.  The last few episodes are especially potent, creating the kind of rush that only truly great action stories like The Dark Knight and The Avengers are able to bring to the table. 

The Villian-

            Amon was a great, great villain, although I still harbor doubts as to how feasible his plan to literally eliminate ALL bending in the entire world really was.  Nonetheless, for an immediate threat to not only Korra’s friends, but to Korra herself as well, he works just fine.  Good design, great voice acting (as always), and the twists concerning both his powers and his true identity made for solid dramatic tension.  It’ll be interesting to see who (or what?  The trailer gives no real indication) the primary threat/danger in this next season is. 

Asami (and Bolin/Tenzin)-

            Honestly, nearly all of the characters in the show are great (I like Korra plenty- she’s not yet as great a main as Aang was, but that could change).  The standout for me, though, is this trio.  Asami is hands-down my favorite character in the entire show.  She has to put up with so much crap, and so much heartbreak, and in lesser hands, that would have been cause for her to whine, and mope, and do nothing, or worse, betray her friends to Amon.  But no- she acknowledges her pain, but she ALSO has the maturity and wisdom to know that there are bigger things going on.  She accepts her pain and deals with it.  And that makes her more mature, more adult, and more interesting than, well, ANY of the other adults in the show.  If she gets stiffed in Book Two, I will be one pissed off man-child. 

            Bolin and Tenzin round out my trio of favorite characters in the show.  Bolin, at first, irked me, because he initially came across as a cheap Sokka-knockoff, the goofball who just makes silly jokes.  After watching him a second time, however, I realized that my first impression was wrong.  He IS like Sokka insofar that he’s the primary comic relief guy, but he’s comic relief in his own unique ways.  Also, seeing his heart get broken nearly had me crying, and I NEVER cry watching a television show.  In fact, you know what?  I’m calling it now- I want Asami and Bolin to get together.  They’re sweet, they’re awesome, and they’re great characters that deserve better than Korra and Mako. 

            There’s not much I can say about Tenzin that others haven’t.  I like him partially out of the fascination of watching offspring of Aang and Katara, but I also identify with his self-serious (and sometimes too self-serious) attitude, and how they it's both a strength and a weakness.  He and Korra have a great dynamic, he's quick to acknowledge when he makes mistakes, and he even gets some of the show's funnier lines ("Lin and I had started to grow apart, and.....and WHY I am I telling you any of this???").  Plus, Airbending is just plain awesome.    

The Ending (most of it)-

            We’ll get to the “actual” ending presently.  For now, something happy.  The finale of Book One, titled “Endgame,” is, on the whole, one of my favorite finales for a TV show (although it can never touch “Crossroads of Destiny”).  Great buildup, genuine threats, fantastic action scenes and animation, I could go on.  The fate of Tarrlok and Amon?  Genius.  Korra losing all her other bending but unlocking air?  Great.  Her despair and pain causing her to contact Aang?  Awesome.  If only they’d stopped there….if only Nickelodeon knew what they had….

            But I shall leave it at that for now, and save my disappointments for my next post, where I look at what didn't work as well in Book One.  Until then!  

-Noah Franc 

Review: Elysium

Elysium (2013): Written and directed by Niell Blomkamp.  Starring: Matt Damon, Sharlto Copley, Jodie Foster, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, and William Fichtner.  Rated R for: Graphic sci-fi violence, and a blown-off face.  Running Time: 109 minutes. 

Rating: 2.5/4

            Anytime that a movie creates its own world, and tries to use that world to play with big, out-there ideas, it has to strike delicate balance- exactly how much of this big new world should be explained, and how much should be left to the imagination?  The movies that do this better *usually* follow the “less is more” rule of storytelling- the only aspects of the larger world that are explained within the movie are those immediately necessary for the story it’s trying to tell.  The Star Wars movies are a good example of this.  The first trilogy drops hints about a huge, multi-species universe, bound together by a mysterious power called the “Force,” and two orders called the “Sith” and the “Jedi.”  Those details, however, are secondary to the adventures of Luke, Leia, and Han, which take up the bulk of the original trilogy’s attention.  Contrast that with the much-derided prequels, which sought to delve further into Star Wars lore and give us not only the gritty details of the rise of the Empire and the downfall of the Jedi, but also of the nature of the Force itself.  In doing so, Lucas (in the minds of many) went way too far in  his efforts to over-explain everything about his world, and in doing so took from the prequels the sense of fun, mystery, and wonderment that made (and still make) the originals so special.  

            Elysium, the latest dystopian sci-fi/political allegory by rising South African talent Niell Blomkamp, is the kind of movie that seeks to pull off such a balancing act in order to work as both a sci-fi thriller and as an over-the-top political metaphor.  The setting is Earth, in the year 2154.  The world’s rich left Earth generations ago for an off-world colony called Elysium, leaving the “99%” behind on an over-polluted and over-crowded Earth.  Access to Elysium is enabled by ID stamps literally burned onto people at birth, giving them access to both Elysium itself and its miraculous technology- med pods that can instantly cure any illness or physical deformity/injury, as long as the person has an Elysium ID and is still alive.  There are plenty who pay good money for an “illegal” ship to Elysium, but nearly all are either destroyed or apprehended by Jodie Foster’s irredeemable Secretary of Defense Delacourt, a poster-image combo of every over-the-top, anti-immigration ranter you could possibly pick out of our current news networks.  In an ever-so-subtle display of the cultural divide at work, the residents of Elysium are mostly white and speak a mixture of English and French, while the residents of Earth (or at least Los Angeles, the only planetside locale we actual visit) are noticeably more Hispanic, and mix English and Spanish. 

            The focus of the story is a former criminal named Max, played by a bald Matt Damon.  Out of prison and seeking to get by as a blue-collar worker, Max is rather quick to jump back into the criminal underworld when exposure to intense radiation at work leaves him with five days to live.  His former employer, and enjoyably over-the-top crime lord called Spider, surgically attaches a metal exoskeleton to Damon’s upper body, giving him both enhanced strength and the ability to literally hack into someone’s brain and “download” whatever information is there, which Spider wants to use to get access to Elysium’s banks. 

            If you can’t guess that the plan goes terribly wrong, you need to watch more movies.  Damon finds himself caught up in a rather uninteresting conspiracy set up by Jodie Foster, who wishes to seize control of Elysium (of COURSE!).  Furious that the information she needed was stolen by Damon, she sicks the loosest of loose cannons on him, a mercenary named Kruger (played by Sharlto Copley), whose committed exuberance for all that is depraved makes him the most interesting performance of the entire film.  Not only are Damon’s underworld contacts at risk, but his childhood friend (Alice Braga) and her dying daughter (Generic Freeze-dried Childhood Innocence) get caught up in the mix as well when they are captured by Sharlto.  Can Damon save his secret love, defeat Sharlto and the mecha-robots defending Elysium, and save humanity from the oppression of the wealthy few?  Can you spell Blomkamp without writing “camp?”  Do you really need to ask? 

            Joking aside, I didn’t at all mind the blatant political allegory that is the entirety of Elysium’s script.  In fact, it’s the main reason I went to see the film in the first place.  That, and to see some good, sci-fi smackdowns by men wearing overcompensatory mech suits.  Does the film deliver on both counts? 

            Well…….see, this is why I started this review musing over the “less is more” principle of storytelling that I am usually so fond of.    Elysium is flawed in numerous ways, but the only issue that really brought it down for me (aside from the now ubiquitous shaky-cam/rapid-fire editing during the action scenes) is how little it all pays off in the end.  There are a slew of interesting designs here- the few shots we get of Elysium from space reminded me of 2001’s famous space flight sequence, Damon’s mech-suit makes him look suitably imposing, and the ships and robots are well-done, if a touch generic- but we never get to see enough of them, either because the camera zooms in for uncomfortable close-ups or because the damn thing won’t stop shaking.  There are some GREAT weapons that the characters pull out, use once, and then discard for the remainder of the film.  There are unending possibilities for a suit like Damon’s, but all he does with it is tear up one robot, lift a few heavy objects, and beat up a few civilians.  And for all its pretense as a “F*** YEAH” call for economic redistribution, Elysium never fully embraces just how hammy it could (and, in my opinion, should) be.  Blomkamp probably just didn’t want to bog down the story with too much detail, ala Phantom Menace, but at the same time, he never fully fleshes out the bits and pieces he does throw at us, and the result is something slightly underwhelming. 

            This is not to say it’s a bad movie, far from it.  While I take issue with all the hype over how “original” Blomkamp’s work supposedly is, he’s clearly got plenty of interesting ideas bouncing around his head, even if he hasn’t quite found solid footing as a filmmaker.  And, like Pacific Rim, Elysium is at least trying to be something new and less thematically confused than the avalanche of corporate rebrands this summer has dumped into our screaming mouths.  Plus, I really dug how the film's "hero" is motivated by purely selfish reasons- "I don't wanna die" is his unending mantra from the moment he's told he's going to do just that.  And yet, even that ends up being a disadvantage in the end- the movie tries to parley that into a mini-character arc that gives his actions at the very end more emotional weight (I won't spoil how, except to say that it involves zoo animals).  However, like so much else in the movie, it's too rushed, too thin, and happens too fast to leave much of an impact.  This is a movie that I think is absolutely worth seeing, but I can’t blame anyone for waiting for the DVD release.  And with that, at long last, the summer blockbuster days come to a much-needed close. 

-Noah Franc 

Review: Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim (2013):  Written by Guillermo del Toro and Travis Beacham. Directed by Guillermo del Toro.  Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, and Ron Perlman.  Running Time: 132 minutes. 

Rating: 4/4

            Pacific Rim might be the loudest experience I’ve ever had in a movie theater.  This is the sort of sound design that’s perfectly suited for its subject matter- the fights are explosive, the soundtrack bombastic, and the dialogue high-flying, but it’s all very well-balanced, and one rarely drowns out the others (although there are some moments where it does do just that).  In fact, pretty much every aspect of this film- the overblown monster/robot designs, the simple (but still engaging) characters, the basic story, the massive, set-piece fights, etc.- are tailor-made for the purpose of delivering two-hours of pure sensory-overload.  And it succeeds.  Oh boy, does it succeed. 

            In the near-future, humanity suddenly finds itself under attack from massive, Godzilla-like demons called Kaiju, all originating from an inter-dimensional rift in the Pacific Ocean.  The attacks seem scattered and random at first, but slowly start to occur more frequently, until a frightening pattern emerges.  When conventional weapons prove inadequate to taking down the beasts, the nations of the world unite to create the Jaeger program (“Jaeger” is German for “hunter”), a series of massive, Gundam Wing/Neon Genesis-style robotic suits big enough to battle the Kaiju one-on-one.  Although successful at first, the Kaiju continue to come, and (say it with me) “in greater numbers,” to the point that the Jaegers are slowly whittled down to a handful of veteran crews, and the leaders of the world contemplate abandoning the program altogether and simply hunkering down behind ever-larger walls.  Message?  Oh yes.   

            Our main character is Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam), an ex-Jaeger pilot who left the program after losing his brother in an earlier fight with a Kaiju.  The Jaegers, we learn, have to be piloted by two people simultaneously, since the mental strain is too great for one person (the Kaiju seem to operate on a similar principle- we later learn that they themselves have two brains).  Because of this, those fighting in Jaeger suits have to be as physically and mentally in sync as possible, otherwise the suit can’t be fully utilized.  After his brother died, Raleigh was convinced that he would never again find someone else he could fight with.  He agrees to rejoin the program only after he receives a visit from his old commander, another ex-pilot named Stacker (Idris Elba), who now heads all Jaeger operations.  With the Jaeger program about to be shut down, he is planning a final assault on the portal itself that, according to his quirky, off-beat scientists (Charlie Day and Burn Gorman), should be able to seal it permanently. 

            The only person who proves able to match him in combat is a young woman named Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), a girl who survived an earlier Kaiju attack stopped by Stacker himself, who then raised her as his own.  While the argument could be made that her relationship with Raleigh is a romantic one, I would counter that their dynamic is more of the girl-with-crush meets scarred-and-grizzled-mentor variety.  And even if it was meant to be romantic, it’s thankfully never a distraction from the business of beating giant monsters into big, bluish pulp.  The rest of the cast is filled out with the aforementioned commander and his research team, as well as another of the remaining Jaeger crews- a father-and-son duo, the younger of whom may as well walk around in a shirt saying, “I HAVE DADDY ISSUES.” 

            Honestly, even though Pacific Rim bills itself (and has been viewed by most) as nothing more than another loud, superficial, CGI-laden maelstrom with the emotional depth of a teaspoon, I walked out with a lot to mull over.  My initially favorable opinions of Ironman 3, Into Darkness, and Man of Steel all crumbled distressingly fast the moment they ended and I started to really think about them (and no, I won’t just “turn my brain off” for a movie- I rather enjoy being alive, thank you very much).  Pacific Rim is the first action movie of the year to actually appreciate in my mind the more I ponder everything in it.  Yes, the story is simple, and at times clichéd.  Yes, the characters are also pretty simple people, with straightforward arcs and actions.  And no, that is not a bad thing.  No, that does not make the movie superficial.  And no, it does NOT make the movie stupid. 

            Beneath all its grandiose bluster, this is a movie about relationships, about people with differences who either fix them or learn to leave them be in order to work together to solve a common problem, to defeat a common enemy.  Each of the major duos in the movie have their particular issues- Raleigh and Stacker, Raleigh and Mako, Raleigh and the hotshot young Aussie, the hotshot young Aussie and his father, the two scientists with each other, and so on and so forth.  Each one is resolved in its own way in a fairly short time frame.  None of the conflicts are drawn out unnecessarily.  They flare up, maybe a few punches get thrown, a few plans go awry, the people fix them or agree to let it be, and they get on with the war.  And, as basic as all the conflicts and resolutions are, it’s the coolness and the maturity with which they are handled that makes this scattered and odd cast feel more real and interesting than most others I’ve seen this year.  No one has a big, dramatic scene or monologue, and there are no unexpected twists, but you know what?  This cast sticks out in my mind despite that.  I remember each named character vividly.  Not every story has to have the brilliant, unexpected depth of In Bruges to be interesting and, dare I say it, fun.  Not every character has to be as layered as Daniel Plainview or as complex as Maestro Salieri.  As long as they feel real, and genuine, we will feel invested in finding out what happens to them.  And, regardless of its flaws, when a movie makes us want to know what happens, it’s doing at least a few things right.    

            Pacific Rim may not be the best movie of the year, but it is the easily the best of this year’s batch of summer blockbusters, and a rare- a very, very, very rare- example of 200 million dollars well-spent.  Ironman 3, Man of Steel, and Into Darkness all threw themselves at us with aims just as lofty and budgets just as bloated, but none of them ever managed to make me cheer out loud in the middle of the theater.  They all sought to dazzle us, but only Pacific Rim tried to make us wonder.  It brings a horde of big ideas and bigger set pieces into play and spends two hours simply playing with them, like a child with its Lego set.  It does not try to force overt religious or political symbolism down our throats.  Because it’s not a remake, reboot, sequel, or adaptation, there are no previous incarnations to trod upon, no diehard fanbases to offend.  Pacific Rim is, first and foremost, an immensely fun and exciting time at the movies, like any good, loud, effects-driven blockbuster should be. 

-Noah Franc 

Review: Paulette

Paulette (2013): Written by Laurie Aubanel, Jerome Enrico, Bianca Olsen, and Cyril Rambour.  Directed by Jerome Enrico.  Starring: Bernadette Lafont, Carmen Maura, Dominique Lavanant, Andre Penvern, and Ismael Drame.  Running Time: 87 Minutes. 

Rating: 3/4 Stars

            Do you recall those ads about not judging by appearance?  Where they show you the photo of a seemingly sweet old grandma before telling you that Granny was arrested for selling drugs?  Apparently someone saw one of those and thought to themselves, “Now THAT is the stuff of screwball comedy legend!”  While, sad to say, this movie never approaches the realm of legend, Paulette does have enough wit and clever visual gagery to earn its screwball cred, despite a story that ends up being a touch too airy for its own good. 

            Paulette is a hilariously racist old widower, feeling increasingly angry and bitter at the modern, multi-ethnic France that surrounds her.  Her husband apparently died from alcoholism.  Her restaurant has been taken over by a Japanese couple.  Her daughter had the gall to marry an African and have a child with him, whom she “zanily” refers to as her “little nigger.”  On top of all that, she is now flat out of cash, and has to find food and furniture by rummaging through the garbage.  She senses a chance to change her luck, however, when her son-in-law, a police detective, mentions to her the insane profits the drug-dealers he tracks down make.  Smelling green (both literally and figuratively), she tracks down a local dealer and slowly worms her way into his trust by selling more dope faster than anyone else under him.  Eventually, she stumbles onto the idea of using her skills from her restaurant days to make pastries laced with the drugs.  The explosion of success this brings catches the attention of both the “big boss” (read Russian) and her son-in-law detective, setting the stage for some hy-LAIR-eyous third-act hijinks. 

            My inane sarcasm aside, this movie works very well.  Lafont does an excellent job of creating a character that you just love hating, but can still understand.  I mean, racism is racism no matter what, but when it’s been a part of someone’s life for so long, it makes sense that it would only slowly dissipate, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that their previous assumptions are just plain wrong- her grandchild has to literally save her life before she starts seeing him as something other than black.  The rest of the cast is serviceable, but the only other person who manages to make an impression is Paulette’s neighbor across the hall, a widower who is obscenely, almost pathetically, in love with her- in a fantastically cruel twist of fate, for their first date he takes her to the (Japanese) restaurant that ran hers out of business.  The rest- the family, her retired friends, the dealers- fill out the screen well enough without giving offense, but this movie could have benefited greatly from a few more memorable side characters. 

            From a visual standpoint the only thing of note that makes Paulette stand out is its clever use of doorway peepholes.  The inherent distortion that they give to the image makes for some excellent gags, including one where the son-in-law trips over the neighbor that we can see, but he can’t.  I wish there was more I could offer than that, but from a technical standpoint the movie stays pretty basic.  Again, like with the cast, this does not lessen it, but some more creativity with the camerawork/lighting/sets/etc. could have also elevated the movie a bit more above its plot. 

            I won’t delve into specific spoilers, but I really shouldn’t have to- there are no major twists or turns that take the movie out of the realm of the comedy.  Which, in a way, works against it, because a movie about old ladies getting into drug rings should not be nearly as rosy as this movie is.  The humor and jokes never stop working, but its refusal to make more than token gestures of seriousness give the film an air of dispassionate detachment.  Lafont’s Paulette is witty enough to keep you laughing, but, as I said before, this is the sort of character who is interesting only insofar that it’s a lot of fun hating her.  Her bitterness, her racism, and the fact that she is doing all sorts of illegal and dangerous things never make her someone most people could sympathize with.  As a result, not only does the movie feel detached, but we, the audience, become detached as well, and thus are less likely to care about what happens.    

            This is not helped by the fact that there are never any real consequences for her actions.  There are a lot of moments where the movie could veer into dark or grim territory, forcing Paulette to really reexamine her priorities in life.  If her “conversions” were accompanied or paralleled by the sort of real tragedy that could so easily result from being a drug dealer- the sort of tragedy that actually DOES happen to plenty of real people- then Paulette would be a much more memorable experience.  As it is, it’s a fun way to kill an hour and a half, one that won’t tax your brain too hard.  It may be fluff, but when it’s funny, it’s really funny.  

Review: First Position

First Position (2011/2012): Directed by Bess Kargman.  Featuring: Michaela DePrince, Aran Bell, Miko Fogarty, Jules Fogarty, Joan Sebastian Zamora, and Rebecca Hausknecht.  Running Time: 90 minutes. 

Rating: 3/4 Stars

            The common stereotype of ballet is, of course, that it’s just for girls.  I was spared having such a misconception at a pretty early age thanks to my cousin, a lifelong dance enthusiast who currently does ballet professionally (and whose physique makes me hang my head in shame at every family gathering).  So I never had any hang-ups about the idea that ballet was something for both men and women.  Nevertheless, it is virtually impossible to truly understand what ballet dancers must endure day in and day out unless you’ve either a) done professional ballet yourself at any point or b) watched a close friend or immediate family member do so.  First Position is a documentary intended to correct such understandable ignorance in its audience by looking at a small group of contestants at the 2010 Youth America Grand Prix, one of the premiere competitions for young, aspiring ballet dancers (young in this case being under 19). 

            The film begins by showing a stage crew sweeping a dance floor covered in the rubber mats used for ballet performances.  I have had to prepare those mats myself.  Such mats are around three feet wide, and long, long enough that each one can reach across an entire professional stage.  The mats must all be laid down side by side.  There can be no gaps, cracks, bumps, or inconsistencies in how the mats are set up- they must form a perfectly smooth, clean surface.  Any imperfections are potential catalysts for disaster- stubbed toes, ruined numbers, or even (God forbid) serious falls and injuries.  Once laid down, the mats must be taped to each other and to the floor.  They must then be swept and mopped, and re-swept between each performance.  Dust, dirt, and water are just as dangerous for the dancers as a bumpy mat. 

            It is precisely that perfectionist attention to detail, magnified exponentially, that is required to perform ballet well enough just to be able to compete in the Youth America Grand Prix, much less actually place at the competition or win one of its coveted scholarships.  First Position takes us into this world of unyielding competition, brutal mental stress, and constant, body-breaking work through the eyes of six children of various ages, detailing their lives before their selection, during their training, and after the competition.  All six- Michaela, Aran, Jules, Miko, Joan Sebastian, and Rebecca- hope to land either a medal or a scholarship at the 2010 Prix.  For some of them, this is their single, best chance at professional recognition- if they win something, their chances for success soar.  If they fail to impress, do poorly, or are seriously injured, it can be a mortal blow to their odds. 

            Their stories are as varied as their dancing styles.  Aran is an “military brat” living in Italy, Rebecca, a blond-haired, pink-wearing “princess” in a typical high school.  Joan Sebastian is the oldest son of a poor family in South America, training in New York, Michaela, an African girl adopted by a white, Jewish couple in the States.  Miko and her brother Jules are young children of Asian-American parentage.  They are all clearly talented, and are far more physically fit than I will ever be, even though some of them are only half my age.  They all push themselves through immensely difficult training just to have a shot at maybe making it professionally one day.  They must bend and twist their legs in ways they aren’t supposed to.  Their feet must be just as dexterous as their hands.  They must be hard on themselves to want to correct mistakes and perfect techniques, but too much emotional pressure, from either themselves or others, can be just as destructive as a physical injury. 

            It's inspiring to hear their stories and to see their obvious passion for what they do.  They all admit it’s hard, even agonizing at times- but it’s what they want to do, and they could never live with themselves if they didn’t at least try to make it.  Ballet dancers like these kids (not to mention my cousin) are blessed in that, from their earliest years, they know what direction they want their lives to take.  While the rest of us (myself firmly included) are mired in youthful indecision exacerbated by the limitless choices presented to us, these kids are not just exercising a whole lot- they are literally breaking down and rebuilding not just their bodies, but themselves as people, and seeing this group do that, each in their own ways and for their own reasons, is a powerful reminder of what is possible when you have that level of passion for something. 

            If I had to level a criticism at First Position from a cinematic standpoint, it would be that the whole endeavor is often unfocused.  Beyond showing us the six people, there is little effort to offer a comprehensive view of the world of youth ballet and its various effects (both good and bad) on the body.  There are sporadic interviews with teachers that discuss the physical threat of injury, but the viewer leaves the film no more informed about how often and how serious various injuries are in the world of ballet than before they saw the film.  No statistics are presented to show whether or not ballet is a growing activity among younger generations.  Even the film's attention to its main subjects is uneven and choppy.  A few of them are given lots of screen time with their families, and their results at the Prix are delved into in great detail, while the rest are relegated to a brief summary after the credits have already started rolling.  One of the dancers, Miko’s brother Jules, quits ballet halfway through the film and disappears altogether.  Meanwhile, a close friend of Aran’s from Israel is given more and more screen time as the film progresses, but is never credited as one of the “six dancers” the film claims to follow- neither she nor her family are ever interviewed directly.  Snippets of interviews with other dancers are shown, but only briefly, leaving the impression that a lot more people were interviewed for this project and got cut or edited out somewhere along the line, giving more than a few spots of the film an unfinished feel.  

            This is not a criticism of something that detracts from the film, but it does distract, if only sporadically.  The film’s subject matter- six children struggling to make their dreams comes true, never stops making you want to see what happens next, and the clips of them dancing are amazing and beautiful to watch.  If you have ever had an interest in dancing, specifically ballet, this is a must-see. 

-Noah Franc 

Review: Man of Steel

Man of Steel (2013): Written by David S. Goyer (and Chris Nolan), directed by Zach Snyder (but really Chris Nolan).  Starring: Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe, Laurence Fishburne, Christopher Meloni, and Amy Adams.  Rated PG-13 for: intense action and violence.  Running Time: 143 Minutes.  Based on The Dark Knight Trilogy by Chris Nolan. 

Rating:  2/4 Stars

            I will state up front that I very much enjoyed watching Man of Steel.  It is a deeply flawed movie, and it reveals the cracks in Chris Nolan’s vision of superhero movies far more than last year’s Dark Knight Rises did.  And yet, even though it fell short of my expectations (as well as those of many others), even though the whole project is so very symptomatic of everything wrong and getting worse about the current bubble of superhero movies bloating up this year’s release schedule, I just can’t work up too many hard feelings about it.  I say this now to partially blunt the somewhat barbed (yet sadly necessary) critiques I am about to level at what is easily the weakest movie Chris Nolan’s name has yet been attached to. 

            Repeat after me if you already know this bit- Krypton is literally being torn apart by the reckless energy policies of its leaders.  Jor-El, whose wife has given birth to the first natural child on Krypton in centuries, tries to get the Council to alter their policies in time to save their race while simultaneously planning to send his son, Kal-El, off alone to ensure that he survives.  His efforts are thwarted by General Zod, who attempts a coup to save the planet, although how exactly his plan would accomplish this is a wibbly-wobbly ball of shut-the-hell-up.  He fails to stop Jor-El from launching the pod with his son, however, along with a Magic McGuffin that apparently contains the….stuff….needed to recreate Krypton.  Zod’s coup fails, and he and his crew are locked away off-world just in time for the exploding volcanoes to break up the planet, conveniently leaving Zod and his cohorts the only surviving Kryptonians left (along with Kal-El).  Kal-El, as we all know, arrives in Kansas and is found by a conveniently-childless All American couple, who raise him as their own and instill in him a sense that his powers are a gift, which he must carefully contain and hide until the time is right.  The time to decide who and what he is, though, is quickly forced upon him when General Zod finally manages to track him down, determined to recover the…thingy…that will allow him to rebuild Krypton.  On Earth, of course.  Also, without humans around.  Of course. 

            You might have noticed that I’ve already thrown Chris Nolan’s name around a lot in this review, even though he neither directed the movie nor wrote the screenplay.  The reason for this is that Man of Steel looks, sounds, and feels a LOT more like a Nolan film than it does a Snyder film, from the overly-explained plot devices, to the shaky-cam, right down to the backstory told in disjointed, non-chronological flashbacks.  Say what you will about movies like 300 (hated it) and Watchmen (a faithful if flawed adaptation), they both had enough visual and aesthetic similarities that they were undoubtedly from the mind of Zach Snyder- washed-out color schemes, insanely gratuitous slow-mo’s during every action scene, and a still and steady camera, letting you soak in the visual design enough to really feel like you’d entered a comic-book world.  The production design here is equally detailed and interested, but I can’t say I was able to really enjoy the sets more than sporadically because the damn camera wouldn’t stop wobbling.  Needless to say, both Nolan and Snyder should know better at this point. 

            This is a relatively small nit-pick though.  The occasionally shoddy camera-work aside, visually this film is as strong as it gets.  Copied though they are, the designs are good, and the visual effects are every bit as spectacular and awe-inspiring as you would expect from a movie that had 220 million and change to throw around.  The fight scenes are fantastic to watch, especially the final smack-down between Superman and Zod, even if it doesn’t measure up to the pure exhilaration of The Avengers, or the mind-bending, they-totally-just-went-there insanity of Cabin In The Woods.  So, on a purely superficial level, there’s really not much in the way of major problems with the film.  Many aspects of the film are even really, really good.  Hans Zimmer’s score is excellent, as always.  Michael Shannon makes a great Zod, and I actually really like Cavill’s Superman.  One of the best scenes in the film is of Clark having a panic attack as a child, and running out of class- his abilities cause him to sense everything around him to an overwhelming degree, and his mother has to find a way to help him “make the world small.”  The real problems with it lie with the plot and screenplay. 

            This is not to say that the story itself is bad, because it isn’t.  Superman trying to learn to control/hide his powers, and being forced to do so quickly by the arrival of Zod and his minions, is a perfectly fine story.  It allows for plenty of philosophical soul-searching on Superman’s part, it lets you show his growth, and then when Zod arrives, you can jump right into the flying and punching and humanity-saving.  And we get plenty of the punching and the flying (the humanity-saving part is up for debate), and as I said above, it looks great.  The issues lie with the first two-thirds of the film, where we’re supposed to see Clark/Kal/Superman’s development as an alien on another world, striving to find an identity for himself, before taking up the mantle of a watchful guardian.  The biggest problem is that we never really see Clark decide much on his own.  Instead, the Superman mantle comes across as something decided for him, at his birth, by his father back on Krypton, which wreaks havoc with the idea that Superman has the free will to decide his own fate, as opposed to Zod, who was genetically pre-programmed to obsessively “defend” Krypton and its people. 

            Russell Crowe’s preaching is given further dense weight by Kevin Costner’s preaching as Clark’s human father, who seems remarkably in sync with Jor-El despite the two of them living on opposite ends of the known universe.  I can recall very few scenes where Clark really delves into what he’s feeling or thinking at any given time, and the one time he does, he’s interrupted by a tornado (no, really).  This is partly why I liked Cavill’s performance- he’s given almost no room in which to develop his own Superman character, and yet despite this, he still manages to carry himself well enough to make an impression in all of his scenes.  The same can be said for most of the cast, nearly all of whom have been placed into similar pits of having no room to breathe and just exist as characters- instead, they are all given speeches on “The Meaning of Superman for Dummies.”  The worst cases in the movie are Amy Adams and Laurence Fishburne as the Lois Lane and her boss from the Daily Planet, who literally have no other purpose other than to make sure the words “Daily Planet” are uttered together several times in the movie.  They clearly tried to make Lois Lane more of a “strong, independent woman” in this version, but the fact that she has to be saved by Superman no less than 3 times pretty much shoots their efforts right in the feet. 

            The crushing density of its plot and its lack of solid character development aside, I still don’t think this is a bad film.  I don’t even think it’s a too dark or too violent rendition of Superman, although they would do well to tie up certain loose ends in the event they do a sequel, which now looks like a near-certainty.  For all the dumb and clichéd moments in the film, there’s nothing as shockingly stupid as the ending of Into Darkness, or as deal-breaking as the abuse of Pepper Pots in Ironman 3.  What it noticeably lacks though, and I’m not the first to point this out, is a sense of fun and wonder at the idea of Superman and his powers.  And that, ultimately, is really the only wish I had for this movie- to get caught up in the wonder of Superman, something I was resistant to for most of my childhood. 

            There is a single scene in the movie that comes very, very close to doing this- after discovering an old Kryptonian ship, Clark is able to speak with a hologram of his dead father, learns of his real identity, and is presented with a suit crafted on Krypton.  He then walks out onto a cold, Arctic plane and, for the first time, pushes himself to fly, as high and as fast as he can.  It’s the lone moment of pure adrenaline rush that I got from the entire film, which not even the spectacular fistfights could provide.  A few more of those scenes would have taken the film a long way.  Without them, we are left with a film that is well-made and structurally sound, for the most part, but one that will leave an awful lot of people wanting something more. 

-Noah Franc