The Future is Now

There are two theatrical Hollywood released films where the story/plot of the film takes place in the not too distant future, and that future is now, the year 2018. 

Terminator Salvation (2009)

There is a scene in the pre-opening credits; which has now become a staple of marvel blockbuster films, were we are introduced to characters and a back story before the opening logo appears and music starts.  It’s the years 2001, and Marcus Wright (aka Sam Worthington) is a man incarcerated at a correctional facility about to face his own form of judgment for killing two police officers.  A sickly looking scientist played by Helena Bonham Carter, comes to his cell; appearing with a slightly enlarged bald cranium and head cover to shield the back of her head, she’s offering a prolong chance at life by donating his body to science, as at a type of salvation. Initially when I saw this scene in theatres, it was a throw away scene not carrying any significant weight to the plot of the movie.  Upon re-watching this movie in the year 2018, I realize that these characters who nearly book-end the movie have a mild significant importance.  The destination each faces was not what they had expected, as  their conversation and story arc continues through, though together their screen time is no more than ten minutes and is consequently not the heart of the movie. 

The year is 2018, Judgment day has past, the threat of machines to the surviving human population of a nuclear holocaust has come true, and an unwelcomed prophet or potential savior named John Conner played by Christian Bale is leading a small resistance. Armed with the knowledge of the original two James Cameron movies; John needs to send his biological father  (Kyle Reese) to the past in order to be born and start the paradox  that is his existence and the potential seed to save humanity in the future.

Rollerball (1975)

Not to be mistaken with the 2002 remake. 

Rollerball’s opening scroll sets up a dystopian not too distant future “2018”, the world is a global corporate state, containing entities such as the Energy Corporation, a global energy monopoly based in Houston. Rollerball is a globally popular full-contact violent sport. Teams are named after cities they are based in and are owned by various global corporations.  The team we follow is team Houston; that Energy Corporation sponsors.  It’s not specifically expressed, but Rollerball is the game that is a substitute for all current sports and actual warfare.   

The Film stars James Caan, as the lead star and Veteran player Jonathan E. who is the most recognizable player in the league. Who (spoiler alert) poses a threat as a symbolism for individualism; as the sport in executive eyes’ demonstrates “the distinct social purpose of the futility of individual effort”.

The film may not hold up in today’s standards of a marketable movie, and its’ off the mark both politically and geo-politically. In our world, where the leader of the free world is a former reality-based television show host, and self-made conglomerate on a global scale, and there are current stories of corporations running or driving up prices in a monopoly, like recently bread  comes to mind; the connective tissues end there.

Rollerball featured an American cast, and was directed by famed Canadian director Norman Jewison, but was produced by United Artists London -UK, which was largely associated with Bond movies and other exports.  It’s a sociology experiment of the world if put in a certain set of parameters, very much like clockwork orange  was being a giant sociological what if. 

Both films are entertaining, Salvation was poorly received because the speed and vastness of how social media caught wind of Christian Bale’s meltdown (warning there is swearing) towards a crew member on set, and it’s original stars Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger was nowhere on this property.  Rollerball, was well received film of its time, taking in 30 Millions dollars in 1975. It has been proven false in its predictions of the world view, false on the technology that’s on hand today, and the over-all look and style feels dated to that time, and would not hold up with general accepting mind set of our generation/audience.

The Future is Last Year: As a small plug for those interested; two theatrically released films that predicates its story in the not too distant future of 2017 is the Running Man (1987) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger where America is a Totalitarian state.  And a single network is governing the information to the mass audience. The other film is Barb Wire (1996) starring Pamela Anderson, set during the second American Civil War of 2017; when looked closely it’s a carefully re-created plot to the classic Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman Film Casablanca.

The Shape of Water

From Richard Jenkins opening narrative monologue, we get a sense of a fairytale story positioned in extraordinarily hard time.  Not as different in scope to Pan’s Labryinth, which was a fictional world amongst the backdrop of bitter and cruel world war.   Guillermo Del Toro is the living embodiment of auteur theory, and The Shape of Water is his testimonial or Exhibit A.  

After watching the movie in theatres and the months that followed, I continued to wrestle with the specific MEANING behind the movie’s title. The point is obviously on the noise; but the precise articulate meaning is as follows. “Love has no shape; you can fall in love with any person. You find a soul. Water has no shape until you put it into a container, and it’s the strongest element on Earth. It’s the most malleable. It can cut rock over the millennia and yet it has no shape, which is the epitome of love. We are containers and water, you live in the shape love gives you, a glass of water, a pitcher, a cup, or bowl. The water perfectly fills that container, a perfect metaphor for love”.
In various talk shows, leading into awards season Guillermo Del Toro described the GENESIS of how the film came to be.  It was a six year journey from idea to Celluloid, but its own seeding etches back decades further.

1969, on a Sunday afternoon watching TV (Creature from the Black Lagoon) A then six year old Del Toro saw a Gillman swim a few feet below Actress Jane Adams as she traversed across the surface in a white bikini.  The elegance and beauty of that visual moment in cinema resonated with Del Toro, and how Hollywood could never allow a happy ending with a monster and bathing beauty being together after sharing such an extraordinary moment; he felt an injustice.

2011, Toronto, Canada  Del Toro was having breakfast with his writing partner Daniel Krause (children book series Trollhunters)  Daniel came up with the idea “What if a janitor in a super-secret government Facility  found an amphibian man and stole it – took it home?”   That was the pitch that sold Guillermo, with the childhood inspiration in the back of his mind he spent two years developing the story.

2013. Del Toro always had Sally Hawkins (after watching Happy-Go Lucky and Fingersmith) in mind for the role of Elisa, He contacted her and over a year of emails and refining the character with Sally and developing her sensibilities and machinations of the character in the process. 

2014 Guillermo finally pitched the idea/treatment to Fox Searchlight, who was known to take risk with indie films and found audiences with Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Birdman (The unexpected virtue of Ignorance) as their track record.  They agreed to back his project; partnering with Vanessa Taylor (Divergent, Game of Throne) to help him co-write the screenplay, their collaboration took the next two years before it was finally fully realized.

2016 Toronto, and parts of Ontario Canada – Filming of the production commenced, and movie was released in theatres in late fall of 2017

The SETTING is 1962 Baltimore, This was a time when soldiers had returned home after World War II, And the motto of the American Dream was ‘Make America Great Again’, It’s was the time of Kennedys and Camelot;  It was also the height of the Cold War, and Both superpowers were in a  stalemate in the space race.  Politically, there were activism with rallies and riots for gender & race equality, Vietnam had not occurred yet. So the Shape of Water takes a hard look at prejudice amongst its characters during these times.  While framing its most central characters of a Mute woman and an Amazonian River God who fall in love in this very particular place and time.

Elisa Esposito begins the story as a solitary figure her last name means “placed outside” of “Exposed” and was, in Italian tradition, given to orphans.  She’s a pale, slender mute woman with several mysterious keloid scars on her neck. Zelda Fuller played by academy award winner Octavia Spencer is her chatterbox co-worker, and a perfect foil to Elisa. Giles Dupont played by Richard Jenkins is Elisa’s neighbor and only male companion in Elisa’s life; they share meals, watch musicals and spend a lot of time together when she is not at work.  Giles is an artist and former advertising creative director whose in his twilight years.  Richard Strickland is played by two time academy award nominated actor Michael Shannon.  Strickland is a ruthless and brutal government man who captured the amphibian man and looking to exploit his ability to breath out of water as the edge to break ahead in the space race.   And finally there is Dr. Robert Hoffstetler a marine biologist, charged to study the creature, played by Michael Stuhlbarg.

Del Toro is intimately familiar with every character he creates on the screen.  In addition to the script, he gives the actors he works with a biographical dossier of the character they are portraying, it’s usually around 2 pages typed single space; detailing the history and motivations of the character, hopes and dreams , childhood, and deposits moments in their life that contribute to who they are or become.  Most actors flock to the pages given to them as an extra layer and connection to the people they portray. And to better identify themselves to the world Guillermo Del Toro has built around them.

Del Toro’s Director of Photography Dan Laustsen (Crimson Peak) who shot an incredible world, an often fantasy setting under water, or completely out of water.  It’s a 60’s period piece with less colorfulness that is normally associated with that era, with key lighting that makes all shadows fall into black/darkness; whereas Crimson Peak was very saturated in color with stark shadows.

The Shape of water was given the most nominations than any other film for the 90^th Academy awards.  13 in total and took home 4  of its nominations including Best Picture and Director, ear marking the awards season as the year of inclusion.

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Guillermo Del Toro

To avoid the obvious data stream you can find on imdb or Wikipedia. I want to attempt to try and better understand the man himself,
Director Guillermo Del Toro has long been regarded as a contemporary Master of Horror and has been influential in the genre of Sci-fi and fantasy. This is mainly because he excels richly at providing an eerie palette for mood and atmosphere to his varied film creations and his connection with monsters. He has stated in numerous interviews that he feels most at home when he is surrounded by his monsters. So let’s begin there, Del Toro was born in Guadalajara, Mexico,  

Growing up as a child he found the monsters in pulp cinema magazines liberating and has called them the “immense minority”; one that was not evil as they are perceived to be, but outcasts from society, where he found pathos to them that he could empathize.

Angel of Death - Hellboy (2008)

Del Toro has been quoted as referring to them as the patron saints of misfits; outcasts from paradise. He goes on to define two poles of art, one that celebrates’ mankind as god’s greatest creation and the other as abandoned children or monsters. Monsters represent an image of humanity itself, the imperfection of the human condition; they are shown to us as a twisted reflection like a funhouse mirror, and within that reflection there are aspects of one’s self you don’t normally see. “The creation of a monster is to shock and provide horror, but in the process they define and complete us. And it has been this way for all of human history, because in one form or another monsters have constantly been with us”. A key example of that train of thought, is  Del Toro has a life size replica of the 1931’s Frankenstein with the young girl Maria. Near the end of the movie the monster meets a child by a pond.” They throw daises into the water, but when they ran out of flowers, the monster tosses her in. He realizes his mistake, but it’s too late Maria has drowned”.  As in Del Toro’s own films the fables and fairy tales he admires; Frankenstein does not protect its young or innocent characters from violence, tragedy or death.

Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, was a creature created purposely by man, in his pursuit of knowledge, to which distinguishes him from every other creature associated in the horror genre. As he represents man’s pursuit for immortality through science; the creature’s only sin was being brought into a world that doesn’t except him.

Del Toro’s films’ often reflects his own emotional memories of his childhood. Like being bullied by classmates, or being subjected to his grandmother’s repressive interpretation of Catholicism – she exorcised him twice by putting metal bottle caps in his shoes as a form of penance. It was also around the age of seven or eight, when he saw his first ever dead body.  It was on the side of the road, and rather than witnessing the macabre, he saw the fragile state of the human condition, and  its connection to nature, being almost symbiotic and beautifully connected.

 Guillermo Del Toro is an ever evolving artistic human being, His early career films were Spanish speaking films of Cronos, Devil’s Backbone, and Pan’s Labyrinth, the latter won him 3 Oscars, for Cinematography, Art Direction and Make-up. And it was Pan’s Labyrinth that catapulted him to the populist Hollywood production with Blade II,  Hellboy films, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak, and most recently the 13 Oscar nominated film The Shape of Water (see next blog). If you look at Tim Burton’s humble beginnings he was an animator with Disney. To this day, Burton completes a fully comprehensive storyboard to all his film projects, Del Toro also follows suit. In Guillermo’s own words, it provides “a coding of the film before starting a project. Storyboarding serves as a running dialogue with himself and amongst his department heads, to show ideas behind a monster or a piece of wardrobe”. 

In 2017 Del Toro ran an exhibit called At Home with monster that debuted in Los Angeles in 2016  and toured in Minnesota and Toronto in 2017. It showcased his Bleak House, a Victorian Era reference to his home of personal collections. In it we learn over the span of his film making career Del Toro has collected an array of art, that includes film props and sculptures, artifacts, specimens, paintings,  drawings, literatures in novels, poems, magazines, and comics.  These are physical representative things he has systematically cultivated to inspire him.  When he begins to research or prepare a new project he tries to absorb as much as he can, from the art of the time, to its religion, history and literature of the time, and so forth. His bleak house is composed of several libraries, and each room differs in its theme. He has a Victorian Era room called the Dickens Room, filled thousands of novels of that era, with paintings and sculptures

Of that period, there you’ll find all the works of Charles Dickens; it is also the room in which Guillermo Del Toro wrote his 9^th film, Crimson Peak, his first fully realized period piece, a film that was set in a Victorian era.  Though he crafts his films with intent to not fully render what we see as CGI, he feels the need that there is an actual actor playing that ghost or each character, so we can see the imperfection and details in movement and interaction, as well as some mistakes, in his words “you can never capture those subtle nuances in a controlled world”.  

Though he understands and appreciates the incredible ease of digital technology and how it plays in today’s film making to which he does embrace.

Cronos  (1993)

Hellboy's arsenal

  Artist he admired was Jack Kirby, though his medium was comic books Del Toro felt he never held back, he was one of the greatest storytellers of the twentieth century; “Kirby was completely contained within his work”. He was also heavily influenced by Hitchcock and Fellini; Fellini did films in black and White and in color using a vibrant palette or neorealist tones so to have the point of having the color tell the story.  In Del Toro’s first film Cronos he patterned the movie after the colors of the alchemist process of black, red white and gold, and used elements of fire and water. “The great goal of the alchemist is to make vile matter into transcendent matter – the purist matter, that’s basically what I do with everything I love: comic books or Vinyl toys. I try to sublimate them”.   In regards to color specifically, Del Toro has stated he uses it carefully. To him Red comes with a radioactive warning, there isn’t a movie where he uses it casually, he gives it specific meaning.  In Pacific Rim blue is the color of memories, red is the color of life. In Hellboy, red was only with characters or objects associated with the Hellboy’s character, and in Crimson Peak red became the color of the past, and of sin & secrets.

Horror Film Review #12

Mom and Dad

Written and Directed by Brian Taylor,  one-half  of the directing Team of Neveldine and Taylor. The guys who brought you both the Crank films, Gamer, and both Ghost Rider movies that starred Nicolas Cage. Taylor originally had a singular idea; of "What if your parents really wanted to kill you", and within 2-3 years flushed out a fully conceived story, Mom and Dad finally made it's film debut at the 2017's Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness Screening, as the film was characterized as a black comedy/horror film. 

The actual theatrical released version is very subdued all the real violence that lends to gore are  implied and is never seen on camera. However, it was given an R-rating  for disturbing horror violence, language throughout, some sexual content/nudity and teen drug use. 

The Premise: Parents one day across the country are given the uncontrollable desire and instinct to savagely kill their own children, and hold a completely innocuous relationship with everyone  else they come in contact with.  It seems the flickering of a television signal that displays snow or dead air on the screen triggers this sudden behavior.  In Hitchcockian terms its a McGuffin or red herring , or in JJ Abrams terms a mystery box, that gives this film its plot device, but the writer/director does not really care on what the source or mystery is  really all about.  It is up to the viewer to devise our own conclusion, as hints and suggestions are peppered throughout the story from news outlets, Expert Tv panels and Dr. Oz, giving us possible ideas and reasons.  Nicolas Cage & Selma Blair play the title roles, Cage seems tailored for his character as Brent the father who skirts the line of manic to loving to gonzo insane at a drop of a hat. Brian Taylor adds to the intrigue by showing us levels of the infection, from a mother's desire to kill her new born infant, to visiting grandparents wanting to kill their own children, but love  their Grandchildren, and signs within the animal kingdom from birds and squirrels killing their offspring.

Similar films to which Mom and Dad follow in the footsteps are Hitchcock's the Birds, Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive, and M. Night's The Happening.  Arguably a little bit more polished than the latter examples; Mom and Dad ends slightly open ended, and given the movie's description, which implies that the kids need to survive 24 hours. There is no exposition or reason for the suggested timeframe nor does it seem to hold itself to any definitive rules.  Each primary character displays flaws or traits that deem them worthy of a scolding, while secondary characters like the boyfriend  are treated as appetizer to the main course of  insanity.  The film is palatable but not memorable, while trying to give a unique character study to dissociative motivations.

Horror Film Review #11

IT

Undeniably one of author Stephen King’s better big screen adaptation. IT; next to the academy nominated film Get Out has ushered in a respectful appreciation to the horror/thriller genre for a more mainstream general audience. Gaining much critical praise as well as raking in millions of dollars at the box office.  IT:Chapter one is a call back to the original 1981 novel and aspects to the 1990 two part TV mini-series. Improving on the written ending of the novel where Bill the leader of the losers club faces off against pennywise by performing the Ritual of Chud and entering the Macroverse.

Alan Moore's Watchman

Writer Alan Moore had a similar insane climax with an alien invasion conspiracy becoming the set-up for the end of Watchman’s graphic novel. The plot
device of two pieces of silver dollar chunks was not used in this movie, but the theme of children banding together as a team to defeat an evil, is universal in each and every incarnation.

The Dark Tower

 The connections with IT, and other of King’s film properties has shown up, in The Dark Tower  movie for example, The film had a nod to Pennywise in a very brief scene of a desolated and ravaged playground; and with multiple of parallels with characters of both the losers club and the older teen bullies existing in Stand by Me. In the novel IT, Pennywise is first introduced to Georgie by calling himself Mr. Bob Gray.  Mr. Gray was the name of alien antagonist in the movie Dreamcatcher. Conversely in the Dreamcatcher novel our main characters come across a spray painted sign saying Pennywise, as Dreamcatcher takes places in the town of Derry, Maine, and Bill and his friends are nearing 27/30 year reunion mark to re-face Pennywise for their final confrontation; in that timeline. To see how more crossover and inter-woven stories exist watch the series Castle Rock, the Stephen King new landmark series. Bill Skarsgard plays a Shawshank prisoner.

With the implementing of today’s special effects into the make up and action sequences; Bill Skarsgard’s Pennywise gives this version more menace than the iconic Tim Curry creation.  Those who panned or criticized the television re-imagination of IT from the novel, did not give a bad review of Curry’s portrayal, Skarsgard was smart, to go a different path, giving this clown certain facial tics and mannerisms that set him apart from Curry’s portrayal.  In the first 15 minutes of this movie a vicious dramatic tone was set and the atmosphere and drama did not relent.

The Premise: Several kids band together to face an ancient evil that has plague Derry, Maine. Every 27 years  begins the killing of many children underneath a mystical shroud covering over all the unassuming adults from seeing the truth. Pennywise the clown can invade a child's thoughts, and manifest their own worst fears against them as he picks off a child/teen one at a time. The last stand transpires in a place called the Barrens, where these seven kids must face their fears and stop IT before he kills again.

The cast of children who play the losers club are phenomenal, Sophia Lillis who plays Beverly Marsh is only 15 years old, but is surprisingly sophisticated for the layered levels of maturity she displays; she does bare a striking resemblance to actress Amy Adams, and that has not gone unnoticed as she plays a younger version of the actress in this summer’s  HBO series Sharp Objects.  The movie also closely resembles the Netflix series Stranger Things and their amazing cast;  No surprise that Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things aka  Mike Wheeler, plays Richie in this movie a Pubescent  13 year old with a lewd vocabulary.

Note: No reflection of the Eyes

Within 9 days of the movie's release, confirmation of Chapter Two became official and its set to hit theatres in September 2019. Our film began in 1989/90 and concludes present day. Giving an adult take a with very modern coat of paint and interpretation of the story. No word of casting besides the return of Bill Skarsgard  and Jackson Robert Scott as little Georgie. Pennywise’s first shown victim.  If the TV movie is an indication of what to expect, the fallout of the chapter two will be just as good and fulfilling as the first.

Horror Film Review #10

Happy Death Day

A movie marketed as a horror film that is brought to you by Blumhouse productions. A company known for producing all the ‘Paranormal Activities’, ‘The Purge’ and ‘Insidious’ films. The company’s model is to roll out films at a low to very modest budget, which has become a staple of its success.
Happy Death Day is no exception, given a PG-13 rating.

For violence/terror, crude sexual content, language, some drug material and partial nudity.

All of the criteria marked in its rating are correct; it is a horror movie without gore. It’s a film that is very much aware of its self and spins humor and above average intelligence into a story with an otherwise simple narrative.





The Premise: Sorority/college student Tree Gelbman discovers she is reliving the same day over and over again. It just so happens to be her birthday, and the day she gets murdered.  To break the cycle and survive to see the next day; Tree must solve who is trying to kill her, or is doomed to live, repeat, and fail.

The cast are all new faces, which works’, we the viewers can believe they are everyday average students, as the actors put in a set of solid performances, into a smart script. The screenplay can be argued and criticized, or the direction can feeling somewhat limited for not going further in horror elements. But with that in mind, it should be pointed out the film is set for a general audience with a 4.8 Million dollar budget.
The groundhogs day movie connection is obvious, but this movie  draws more from other contemporary time-looping films like  Edge of Tomorrow, 12:01,  and more closely to a Taye Diggs Television series called ‘Day Break’.

Happy Death Day was a financial success raking in over 55 Million dollars, that's nearly eleven  times it' estimated budget, and opening up in 1^st place on its opening day weekend.   Amazing when it you consider its entire cast are unknown actors.

Horror Film Review #9

Better Watch Out


By Hollywood standards, Better Watch Out is a horror film brought to us through a relatively new creative team. Writer/Director  Chris Peckover and Co-writer Zack Khan, has come to us with holiday home invasion movie that follows a horror trope, in which its' biggest twist is revealed at the end of the first act. 
The premise is Parents of pubescent teen named Luke (played by Levi Miller of  Pan) go out to a party and enlist a babysitter named Ashley (Olivia DeJonge of The Visit) who is 5 years Luke's senior to look after their child.  The film starts off with Luke and his best friend Garret (Ed Oxenbould of The Visit) discussing ways to lose their virginity, as Luke's parents prepare to leave.
Ashley, unaware that Luke will be attempting to get to second base with her; will be swatting away any advances he innocently and awkwardly tries, and as you can imagine everything is light hearted until they realize someone(s) have entered the house, where-upon the babysitter must now protect her young wards.
It is also around here at the thirty minute mark, that we conclude the first act and the twist gets dropped.  Peckover uses one trope of having a scene play out and then hold a few extra beats to allow us  the viewer to see and focus on an item that might be foreshadowing. For example a sound monitor under the bed, a pencil under the carpet, and the laundry room. All random, but done with deliberate intent with big or small pay-off as the movie progresses.  The approach to the film is refreshingly similar to A Cabin in the Woods where we find out what's going on at the beginning of the movie and then follow how it all plays-out. Better Watch Out draws and gives inspirational nods to the original Home Alone movie and sadistic home invasion movies like Funny Games, and a 90s Brian Bonsall starring film. The logistics of how every scene is played out can be argued.  The time frame from incorporating carolers to arrival of boyfriends and how acts and sounds happen almost in sync at completely different places; and with how the invader(s) motives and true nature can leave intent viewers scratching their heads.

The movie is for a genre specific fan base; it is elevated by rising above a conventional plot and if you can suspend a glaring disbelief in that plot. Better watch out should develop a cult like following and stronger appreciation in time.