Category: Film

Review: Tokyo Godfathers at the Michigan Theater

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What would a small town be without its indie theaters? Ann Arbor is blessed to have not only one but two independent theaters showing the likes of Wes Anderson as well as cult favorites like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and cutting documentaries like I Am Not Your Negro. But one of my very favorite things about these theaters is that they introduce foreign films to Ann Arbor. This friday, I saw the classic Christmas anime Tokyo Godfathers at the Michigan Theater. (Highly recommend grabbing some ramen at Tomukun beforehand). Before we even saw the film, my friends and I were amazed by the gorgeous Art Deco interior of the theater which reminded this reviewer of another film, Eyes Wide Shut. The interior is a bit of a labyrinth and it took us a few tries to find our auditorium. The Michigan Theater was built in 1928 and also hosts theater, comedy, and live music.

When we nestled into the velvet seats, I was struck by what a turnout this one night viewing had! There was diverse audience of students and families, as well as Japanese speakers and those of us relying on subtitles. (There was one particular scene in which one of protagonists escapes at gun point with a Spanish-speaking mafioso, made even funnier if you understand Spanish.) Despite being an animated film, Tokyo Godfathers is a dark comedy full of slapstick and physical comedy than anyone of any age or background can enjoy. This film centers on a homeless trio who find a newborn abandoned newborn in a garbage can. The three protagonists are a middle-aged alcoholic named Gin, a transgender woman named Hana, and a dependent teenage runaway named Miyuki. Hana immediately accepts the child and takes her back to their dwelling to play house. They all have varying opinions about what to do with the baby and ultimately decide to find and confront the parents, as she was abandoned with some identifying photographs.

Thus begins their odyssey from Christmas to New Years to find the baby’s parents. Along the way, we learn more about the protagonists and how they became homeless. Despite being  a picaresque comedy, the movie is fairly realistic in its depiction of homelessness. It shows the protagonists’ difficulty finding warm and clean places to bathe the baby and sleep. At one point, they find some money and stay all night at a diner, sleeping in shifts. In a harrowing sequence, Gin is separated from the group and attacked and beaten by a group of young men walking through the park. It’s a grim reminder that although many cities and people fear the homeless or see them as a problem, it is in fact people with out homes who are the most vulnerable and likely to be victimized. Without consistent access to phones or internet, homeless people can also lose touch with each other quite easily and may not know if friends and family are still alive.

 

 

Whenever the movie begins to verge on despair however, the protagonists have a turn of luck or lightheartedness, something they attribute to the baby. In an ironic twist, Gin is saved by a bartender who is part of Hana’s chosen family. Without spoiling too much more, this is a gem of film not to be missed. If you’re looking for a quirky holiday film that celebrates family and will keep you on the edge of your seat, I highly recommend checking out Tokyo Godfathers.

PREVIEW: All Too Well: The Short Film

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A few months ago, when I initially picked up the ukulele, the first song I decided to learn was “All Too Well” by Taylor Swift. I’m a fan of Swift’s musical lyricism and the chords for the song were easy enough. 

Months later, I would have never guessed my first ukulele song would be given its own short film.

In the Swift fandom, RED’s “All Too Well,” defied expectations and became a beloved classic after its first release nine years ago in 2012. Taylor herself has said before that she never expected the song to become so huge; it was never released as a single and it didn’t have a music video . . . but perhaps it will soon.

Tomorrow, in conjunction with the release of the re-recorded RED (Taylor’s Version), Taylor will be dropping  All Too Well: The Short Film, starring Sadie Sink, Dylan O’Brien, and Taylor herself. The film will be out on YouTube at 7 pm Eastern. Hopefully, it will include the anticipated ten-minute version of “All Too Well.”

I definitely, can’t wait to get cozy this November 12, 2021, with my own favorite red scarf. 

Happy RED-release everyone!

REVIEW: Last Night in Soho

Nellie Shih Leave a comment

Eloise/Ellie/Elle is a student at the London College of Fashion with a penchant for having visions of the past. Ellie moves out of the college’s student housing and into the upstairs room of an elderly woman’s home. There, she begins to experience 1960s London when she sleeps, and is led toward a young aspiring singer named Sandie’s rise to fame. However, as Sandie discovers the journey to fame is not the glitzy, glamorous life she had expected, Sandie’s past begins to haunt Ellie in the present day. 

Last Night in Soho is Edgar Wright’s first psychological horror film, and this is evident. Though the film is populated with impressive visuals of beautiful and vibrant neon lighting and Sandie’s reflections being replaced by Ellie, Wright relies on a single technique to deliver all of his scares. Because of this, the climax of the film is not as effective since at that point, I had seen the same visual used over and over again in the previous scenes. 

That being said, the beginning of the film is particularly strong, and not just because it is better than the end by default. The audience is introduced to 1960s London as Sandie and Ellie do, and the late night club scene Sandie leads us through is dazzling and sinister all at the same time. However, I will say that the plot/writing of the film relies heavily on the visuals – it sometimes feels as if Wright had inventive ideas for stunning visuals and snappy editing techniques and fit the story to the imagery he had in mind. 

Though the film is so technically impressive, I question some of the writing in the film. For example, Ellie just kind of happens to be a fashion student. Yes, it is clear the film is about the dangers of romanticizing the past, however some of the logic behind the progression of the plot is questionable. It feels like Wright knew where he wanted to start and end the film, but he struggles at some points along the way. 

Aside from the visuals, a lot of credit must be given to the two lead actresses for carrying the film’s momentum. Thomasin McKenzie perfectly encapsulates Ellie’s naive, shy, and thoughtful nature, and Anya Taylor-Joy carries herself with grace as usual as Ellie’s more confident foil. Though the two actresses never share any dialogue despite being in many scenes together, McKenzie expertly portrays Ellie’s despair as she witnesses Sandie’s fall into the rabbit hole of show business. 

Overall, Last Night in Soho is more style over substance, but it is still a refreshing watch and the technical aspects are what make the film worth watching.

REVIEW: Expedition Reef

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What. A. Fantastic Show.

Do you like planetariums? Even if you don’t like planetariums this is a show you ought to check out. Expedition Reef is a new planetarium show at the Natural History Museum in Ann Arbor and it is a-ma-zing.

Expedition Reef is a 30-minute long film of sorts that takes viewers on a journey through the different coral reefs in our oceans, how they form, how they are dying etc. While the film is educational it is not boring in the least. The film is absolutely gorgeous: the realistic underwater animation shows these rainforests of the ocean to you as if you were a scuba diver. Seeing the ocean stretched out on a whole planetarium is breathtaking, to say the least. It is an immersive experience and the visuals are top-notch. It is described as an oceanic safari and it really is that diverse and fun.

Even the educational material about coral reefs is super well done. In fact, my favorite part of the film was when we are shown how reefs reproduce (they do it by expelling spores in the water which I know because I saw this awesome film). During the scene, spores fill the 180 degree screen and it is akin to watching thousands of lanterns being sent to the sky. So gorgeous! I wished this show was longer than just 30 minutes.

After this, we were given a 15 minute guided tour of our universe. A graduate student in astronomy showed us our planet’s location in the solar system, our solar system’s location in the galaxy, our galaxy’s location in the universe, and so on. The tour explained a lot of things like exoplanets, interstellar space, and more (I finally understood why Pluto was kicked out from the planet committee of our solar system). Even though we saw a lot in a short time, the presentation on the screen made it very easy to follow and also to conceptualize distances in space.

After the show ends, the viewers exit through a gallery to a science museum! It had a vast array of hands-on activities, interactive information, and really fun, elaborate nature displays.

Going to see a planetarium show with a friend followed by a museum visit as you all point to different exhibits, take pictures of a raccoon eating peanut butter will be a wholesome, serotonin-filled way to spend the weekend. The planetarium is still offering tickets for shows that you can buy at the museum for just 8 dollars. Since it is so close to home (basically in the center of the city) there is no reason for you to not go explore what all our world-renowned museums have to offer.

 

 

PREVIEW: LAST NIGHT IN SOHO

Nellie Shih Leave a comment

Last Night in Soho is the new film from director Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Baby Driver). The film stars The Queen’s Gambit actress Anya Taylor-Joy and Jojo Rabbit actress Thomasin McKenzie. McKenzie plays an aspiring fashion designer who is somehow able to shift between time periods, where she encounters Taylor-Joy’s character, an aspiring singer in the sixties. This is Wright’s first psychological horror film, as this ability to time travel is intertwined with something more sinister. 

I am looking forward to seeing how Wright will tackle this psychological horror genre. The trailers are populated by impressive visuals, with neon lighting and shots where the two actresses will switch spots midway through a sequence. I have seen some behind the scenes footage of McKenzie and Taylor-Joy running on and off camera to replace each other, and I’m excited to see all of these technical aspects be translated on screen. As for Wright’s past work, I very much preferred Scott Pilgrim over Baby Driver, but this can be attributed to the fact I prefer the comedy-based-on-graphic-novel genre over the straight action of Baby Driver. I think my preferences for Wright’s work depend largely on the genre he is tackling at the time because I did appreciate his style coming through in Baby Driver even though I did not love the story. I have reasonably high hopes for Last Night in Soho, but I’m most excited to see the two actresses and another example of Wright’s style. 

Last Night in Soho is now playing at the State Theater.

REVIEW: The French Dispatch

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The French Dispatch is a display of director Wes Anderson’s uninhibited ambition, manifesting itself in a whirlwind of drama and colorful characters. The film does not stick to a single narrative but rather tells three stories in long segments. Each story is a vignette written by a journalist for The French Dispatch, an international outpost of an American newspaper that operates in a dreary French town by the name of Ennui-sur-Blasé. Everything is mundane— even the name of the fictional town translates to “boredom-on-apathy”— except for the dedicated journalists, the invigorating stories they release to the world, and the eccentric people involved in the stories. Thus the typical Anderson irony begins. This film is, at its core, a celebration of journalists and a love letter to all things literary and artistic. It is an Anderson classic: upbeat, artistic, and a bit pretentious, but its unfamiliar structure makes it feel fresh.

Each scene is rich with deadpan humor, rarely outright saying a joke but implying it in every corner of the frame. The juxtaposition of the still-faced, sharp-tongued characters and their chaotic predicaments against the colorful backdrop feels unnatural, as is the constant narration that overlays the stories, but they both add to the unique nostalgia of the film. Rather than experiencing the stories myself, I am being guided through them like a picture book. The visuals add to the book-like atmosphere— black-and-white scenes, entirely animated scenes, and experimental lighting exaggerate the easily-missed emotions. The world is symmetrical, well-color-coordinated, and moving in synchronicity, just as a storybook world should. Wes Anderson’s films stick with me for this reason— not because they are believable in the slightest but because they revive a childlike amusement. The unrealistic twists and turns in each segment are comical and effortlessly engaging. However, the sentimentality of his films is usually amplified by emotional depth. This is where The French Dispatch falters. The three-story structure and quick pace refuse to allow us to get attached to one character for too long or watch the slow development of relationships. I gravitated toward the recognizable faces and quirky personalities (such as the mustache-wearing and disheveled teenage rebel played by Timothée Chalamet) but the characters disappear shortly after they serve their purpose.

The French Dispatch manages to be a sensory feast on top of an exciting tangle of stories but the combination is nearly exhausting. From the hard-to-catch humor to the drastic time jumps, I attempted to absorb everything yet desperately needed to let my senses rest. It is also overwhelming in its organization, as the stories have no connection besides the journalists publishing them, so the film is difficult to process as a sum of all its parts. The French Dispatch is not a casual watch if you want to enjoy all its beauty; it requires patience, energy, and an attention span, and an estimated two or three watches.

As a sum of its visuals, script, and diverse storylines, each element of The French Dispatch is crafted in a way that maximizes Anderson’s quirky innocence and childlike fun. Anderson may have been trying to emphasize too much of his signature style in one film, resulting in entertainment so constant that it is almost nauseating. The French Dispatch is an exhilarating masterpiece but it is a masterpiece that needs to be prepared for.