10 Reasons To See Inception (Even Though You Probably Already Saw It...) and Poll Results

Since everyone is going to see this film, I figured I’d do a completely useless post about why you should see this movie. I needed to review this movie in chunks, or different levels, in order to fully process it. It’s not without its flaws, but it’s a shining light in the cold and dank summer blockbusters this year. Also, I hope this post finds its way to just one person who is on the fence about seeing this movie and pushes them into the theater.

But first, the poll results...


Question: Inception will be...?


Results: 

Nolan's Best Film	6 (50%)
No Memento or Dark Knight (but still great)	5 (41%)
A solid effort	1 (8%)
His worst film yet	0 (0%)
Absolute rubbish

From a critical standpoint I'd say the movie falls about where the polls predicted it would. According to Rotten Tomatoes The Dark Knight (93%), Memento (93%), Insomnia (92%) and Batman Begins (85%) all have higher ratings than Inception (84%). Of course that's just how universally accepted the films are and not a perfect measuring tool.


And now for the good stuff. *This is spoiler free, so don’t worry.*

1. It Should (Finally) Make Christopher Nolan a Household Name: The Dark Knight should have done this but even the trailer for Inception called him “The man who brought you The Dark Knight”.  Nolan isn’t a Spielberg or Scorsese yet, but he officially deserves to be one of the few directors known by the general public. When a famous director dies, another is born.  M. Night Shamylan career is very dead and I think there’s room in this world’s heart for a top-notch director whose name alone can get butts in the seats.

2. Works as a Sci-Fi Film: I was lucky enough to go into this movie completely cold. I knew Dicaprio was in it and that some big buildings shifted around but that’s it. I had no clue this was a Sci-Fi film when I went in and just the idea of Nolan taking on this genre gets me giggly. Lucid and shared dreaming, zero gravity, flashbacks, mazes and virtual reality? It’s my own cinematic wet (lucid) dream.  In a time where most hard Sci-Fi is spent on time travel or “genetics gone wrong” it’s nice to see something fresh like “dream travel”. You can tell this film’s details have been boiling in Nolan’s head for the last ten years.

Like all great Sci-Fi it even ends in the greatest way a story can. It implants words into the viewer’s minds. Four little words that are responsible for my love of literature or any form of storytelling. That beautiful phrase that I never get tired of…

“…and then what happened?”

3. Works as a Heist Film: I’ve never seen a heist film where they break into somewhere in order to implant something as opposed to stealing something. I don’t know if that disqualifies this movie from the genre or if it makes it one of the best heist films of all time. I’m not going to get hung up on labels. Like Ocean’s Eleven, the film has an amazing supporting cast, fun but intelligent writing and a kick-ass third act. Of course, it has much more to offer than just that but for those who simply like to see a brilliant plan unfold; it’s worth your money for that alone.

4. The Most Cerebral Summer Blockbuster I’ve Ever Seen: It’s as big as The Dark Knight but as complex as Memento. It’s ballsy to make a film that is as complicated as this and call it a popcorn flick. I love that Nolan respect his audience, gives us something intricate and we are able to embrace the challenge.

*However I do have to mention that the full on “cerebral-ness” of this movie is a bit overwhelming. The film’s greatest weakness is it’s detachment from its characters. DiCaprio’s character is the only one that undergoes a significant arch (an arch weirdly similar to the one he goes through in Shutter Island) and its full emotional affect didn’t really intrigue me at all by the end.

5. The Visual: It doesn’t have the gritty noir look that his other films do, but it’s the most visually intriguing things he’s ever created. Certain zero gravity and dream sequences took me places I’d never gone in a film before. The constant cuts between time and space juxtaposed with Zimmer's music creates an almost Kubrick experience.

6. The Narrative: Makes The Matrix look like Sesame Street. The film really makes you question reality when you walk out of the theater. There is tons of exposition thrown at you in the first two acts but if you can figure it out and keep interested into the third act you’ll be taken to one of craziest psychological roller coasters film has to offer. Plus, I can’t really complain about all the new rules and explanation sequences because I didn’t comprehend the entire film. Of course you don't know how much you missed till you see it again, but if it’s anything like Memento there’s a whole different film awaiting me for my second viewing.

7. Hans Zimmer Score: If you’ve seen the film the track you’re looking for is called “Time”. It’s the track played throughout the climax of the “Van Falling” sequence. It’s another top notch score by one of the industry’s best composers.

8. The Supporting Cast: Joseph Gordon Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy (knocks it out of the fucking ball-park!), Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Pete Postlethwaite and of course Michael Caine. Nuff said…

9. The Possibility of a Sequel: This movie is great and it’s about to make a whole lot of bank. It’s very possible. It definitely leaves it open for a sequel and god knows the public would enjoy one. However, it’s not really necessary.

Possibly titles; Inception: Reloaded? Extraction? IInception? A “Gordon Levvitt-Paige” spinoff romance film? Am I joking with that last one?

10. The Best Mind-Fuck Money Can Buy.

Ranking the Films of Christopher Nolan

Check out my new article on Flicksided that ranks all of Nolan's previous films.

News: The Good and The Bad

The bad news: I will not be finishing the Christopher Nolan Marathon on The Daily Rubbish.

The good news: I will be doing a post on Flicksided.com that takes a look at all six films in one super post. Hopefully it'll be up around the time of Inception's release. I'll post a link here if/when it happens.

Music Review: Steel Train "Steel Train"

Grade: A-

Release date: June 29^th, 2010

Okay, I don’t want to jinx myself because I really like this band and where they stand in the indie scene but I have to ask. Why aren’t these guys on the radio yet? Why aren’t they on MTV or the latest Pepsi commercial? What part of lead singer Jack Antonoff isn’t marketable to teenage girls? There’s no excuse.

Anyway, Steel Train is the third full-length studio album released by Steel Train. The album is a shot of pop adrenaline. Sure, it can wear it’s listener out and even make them sick at times if they’re not ready. Then again, why take the medicine if you’re not sick? If you embrace the band’s pop elixir it will cure even the deepest of musical depressions.

If you’re looking for the band’s main source of spirit and drive you won’t have to look far. Antonoff’s aggressive and fresh songwriting ability is present from the first track “Bullet”. The song starts with the lyrics “Fell in love in the backseat of your car”. Appropriate because most will probably fall in love with album while shouting their favorite tracks with their friends in the backseat of a car.

Much like Antonoff’s criminally under-heard side project Fun., the songs work because of their heavy instrumentation and peppy vocals. For example, “Turnpike Ghost” is a schizophrenic jam that grows with every listen and “S.O.G Burning in Hell” is an untamed jungle opera that offers a glimpse at the amazing live shows these guys are known for.

The album races along so that just in case you stumble upon a track you don’t like your well on your way after a chorus or two. One of the very few times the band decides to slow down is on the second to last track “The Speedway Motor Racers Club”. First of all I love any song that spends its first half as a Ramone's anthem rip-off and the second half to some delicate piano playing. The song really just slows down to transition to the final song on the album “Fall Asleep”. I almost laughed when I saw the name of this track come up. I guess Steel Train decided that after their indie rock monster record the wanted to put the beast to sleep. It’s a nice way to transition out of the album because you’ll need a nap anyway if you stomp, hoot and holler your way through this entire piece (which I recommend).

Antonoff really isn’t appreciated enough for what he’s been putting out the last few years. The man isn’t re-inventing the wheel but in a cultural music typhoon where tracks are glorified and forgotten in the same day, his traditional pop-rock songs consistently stand out and thrive.

Other Thoughts:

• Jambase.com - “Along with the release of Steel Train, the band will offer an exclusive all-female companion album, via the band's official website, entitled Terrible Thrills Vol. 1. This one of a kind album will feature each of the new album's 12 tracks reinterpreted and remixed by Tegan & Sara, Scarlett Johansson, Holly Miranda, Deradoorian, Amanda Palmer, Nellie McKay and Alia Shawkat to name a few.”

Music Review: Wolf Parade: "Expo 86"

Grade: C

Album released – June 29^th

First Ave. Concert – July 18^th

Lead singer Spencer Krug sings “It always had to go this way…”

Well, I don’t think this band should keep going “this way”. At just under an hour, this album overstays its welcome and I can’t imagine many besides the biggest fans getting all the way through this more than once or twice. I’ve devoured almost every band coming out of Montreal the last few years but this one always tastes a little funny to me.

I give WP credit for putting out a bit of a more cerebral album, but that doesn’t mean they have to sacrifice their energy. The rusty guitars and fractured keyboards that give this quartet potential are there but then again they have been for the last three albums.

The few moments that I didn’t feel detached from the album were mostly over dramatic and too little too late. The albums opener “Cloud Shadow on the Mountain” is the only track I find myself revisiting but towards the end of the album when this whole thing had run out of gas it was hard not to look back on the track and say “Really? That’s all you’ve got?"

The band does have potential and I’m not ready to write them off yet but they need to try something different at this point. They’re missing that Chemical X that could take them to the next level and without it they’ll never be more than a 2^nd rate Franz Ferdinand or Modest Mouse. Since they already have some fairly decent reflective power in their lyrics, they just need to inject a little more passion into their projects and I think they could become an exciting and stylish band.

Midnight Shots: Spider-Man, Mel Gibson, New Normal Music

• While their manifesto might be more than a bit agist or elitist or what have you, the guys over at New Normal Music have something pretty novel going. In short, a 50,000 song playlist of music produced within the last 12 months. Good for a listen.

• I'm 12 hours late on this one, but the new Spider-Man has been cast. Joining Christian Bale as another premier Brit going behind an iconic American superhero mask is Andrew Garfield (Jokes, commence). I know what you're thinking: how'd they wrangle such a name celebrity away from other, more pressing commitments? They must've broke the bank with this one. Oh, and in case you're real behind, the Spider-Man franchise is getting a reboot. Sam Raimi left the series, with any hope to shoot a new Evil Dead. In his place is Marc Webb, director of (500) Days of Summer. Talk of a Hall & Oats musical montage in the new Spider-Man are, at this point, merely speculative.

• Stars aligned: Today, director George Miller announced plans to make back-to-back Mad Max films just as news broke that Mel Gibson said a whole bunch more horrible, racist, chauvinistic, no good, very bad things to his former girlfriend. Ain't he just a peach?

Reviews of The Killer Inside Me and Cyrus should be posted in the coming week.

Christopher Nolan Marathon Part 4 of 7: Film Review: Batman Begins (2005)

In honor of Nolan's upcoming film Inception, I'm reviewing his essential body of work over the course of the next three weeks. Enjoy. (Sorry it's a day late. I set it to publish itself but that didn't work...)

Following (1998) - Monday, June 21st
Memento (2000) – Friday, June 25th

Insomnia (2002) – Monday, June 28th

Batman Begins (2005) – Monday, July 5th

The Prestige (2006) – Friday, July 9th

The Dark Knight (2008) – Monday, July 12th
Inception - (2010) - Friday, July 16th

On paper the relationship looks good. Batman is a strong and lovable character that suffered from cheesiness in the late 90’s. The visuals have always been strong in the franchise but the story was never as dark as the characters on screen. The solution to that phoniness seems to be fixable when you add a neo-noir director like Nolan to the project.  However the product that blossoms from this pairing is more than just acceptable. Nolan has given us the Batman film that we deserve.

Batman Begins explores the nucleolus of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham. After disappearing to the East, Wayne (Bale) seeks counsel with the dangerous but honorable ninja cult leader known as Ra's Al-Ghul (Qui-Gon Jin).

There is so much fun to be had with an origin story yet so few of them are done right. The beginning of the film is dived into two stories. The first is the transformation of our dark hero and the second is a series of flashbacks that adds depth and understanding to his metamorphosis. Nolan is careful to setup a strong set of ideological principles for Wayne to stand for while at the same time having a lot of fun with some ninja training montages.

Soon Wayne returns the city and unveils his alter-ego: Batman. The second act of film is where Nolan has the most fun and where we get to flesh out a bundle of supporting performances. Morgan Freeman shows up as a form of “Q” from the James Bond films and has no problem dishing out witty dialogue with Bale while at the same time introducing us to our favorite Bat gadgets. Michael Caine was born to play Alfred and is operating on a level of charm that couldn’t be produced by anyone else. Let’s not forget Oldman, Murphy and Wilkinson who all carry their weight and make this movie just that much better.

It’s fun to compare the stylistic differences between Nolan and Burton. Nolan’s Gotham isn’t glossy like Burton’s but instead a harsher more realistic look at the urban decay. The Batman franchise have been privileged to have both Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer step up and create some of the best film scores from each of their respective decades. While I prefer Nolan’s film to Burton’s I don’t think Nolan could have made the film he did without Burton’s original.

Near the end of the film, the complicated plot and multiple villains catch up with the story and force a few stumbles in an overall solid script. Of course, Nolan isn’t going to end his film on a complex climax and a love story. Han’s Zimmer score blares and the Bat Signal shines as we learn that there’s a new kid in town and he leaves a calling card (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

This is the best Batman film in the franchise but maybe Nolan will top himself in a later part of our marathon (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).


Grade: B+

Louie- "Poker/Divorce"

A-

        I’ve got to give F/X credit. Even with being the cable cousin of Fox, a network where airing a show called Angry Hippos Chase the Obese would raise no brows, they’re brave to give Louie a shot (and Louis C.K almost complete creative control). Granted, they’ve kept It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on the air for half a decade, but the political incorrectness seen there is always tempered by a glaze of zaniness. What seems to be one of the crucial and distinctive qualities of Louie is its sincerity. At the start of “Poker/Divorce,” a group of comics sit around a poker table and spend several minutes of airtime discoursing about tamped-down dick diamonds, gay masturbation orgies and the origins of the word “faggot”. It’s typical TV-MA, but none of it is played for cheap, profane thrills. Sure, there are funny people saying funny things, but it feels legitimately organic. The scene slides between irreverent guy-talk to quiet seriousness more assuredly--without cheaply trolling for false depth-- than the show should have any right to. That level of craft being displayed this early in a show’s run is promising and very exciting.

        That opening scene challenges what seemed to be the formula established in the pilot episode: stand-up, vignette, stand-up, vignette. It exists in isolation, neither led-in nor followed by any similarly-themed stand-up routine. But it has such a controlled pace and pitch that it works in isolation. Maybe that roundtable will be a recurring opening segment. I’d certainly be open to the possibility.

        The bulk of the show features Louis freshly divorced from, as he puts it, the “really shitty time machine” of marriage. He tries to stay positive, but his brother stirs his well-established fatalistic pessimism: “You signed a paper that says you’re going to die alone in a room with a thin sheet of paper over you.” The following stand-up bit, consequently, has Louis acknowledging that his life will exponentially worsen from here on out. Louis’s optimism is a fickle thing.

        While rummaging through some shoebox nostalgia, he comes across the yearbook picture of a bad-girl from his past. Cut to flashback of 14-year-old Tammy (estimate, but neither young- Louis nor young-Tammy look more than that) giving Louis her dead dad’s hospital bracelet because “it’s some creepy shit, right?” In his fantasy, Louis imagines adult Tammy as never having entered any sort of shitty time machine, fully recuperating her adolescent hotness in adulthood. So, he decides to play “couldabeen” and look her up on Facebook, which prompts him to remember a separate encounter in which a Peppermint Schnapps-buzzed Tammy implores him to whip it out. He meets her at her cluttered house, but the Tammy of today is still very much in that shitty box: haggard, overweight, anchored by the demands of being married with kids. She doesn’t remember him, but when he tells her he didn’t have the guts to whip it out back then, the two go at it like only two past-their-prime fortysomethings can. For Louis, it’s an acceptance of that exponential worsening. He acknowledges that, while things may be as good as they were, they’re also never going to be better than they are now. He might as well make hay while the sun’s still just partially beclouded. C.K’s punchline to that whole vignette is that, as editor, he decided to lead in the last routine over the visual of two overweight adults fumbling over each other with awkward fervor: “If nobody ever told me not to fuck animals…” Buttoning the episode with a bit advocating for (consensual) beastiality? Balls, Louis. Mammoth-grade.

Other Thoughts:

- Louis C.K is succeeding in all capacities he’s assigned himself: star, writer, director, editor. He’s taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by a single-camera set-up, namely the ability for intimate back-and-forth close-ups, used in this episode for the hilarious transportation of adult Louis and Tammy into the “whip it out” flashback. He also made a jarringly effective cut from his first stand-up bit to his stone-faced and, for a couple seconds, motionless divorce lawyer. He’s demonstrating a deft hand for tonal transitions.

-I really respect the fact that, so far, none of the vignettes are direct translations of previous stand-up material not in the show. There have been some small moments, in this and the pilot, that evoke the ideas— Louis checking himself out in the mirror mirrors his bit about the only commonality between a 40 year old man and a 13 year old girl being the discovery of breasts—but on the whole he seems to be going in fresh.

-Nice touch: Among the items worth saving for decades in his shoebox: a measly 3rd place medal.

AmeRemake Post #1

        When I first saw Let the Right One In on a biting MPLS January afternoon, it knocked me on my ass. Like most making their webvoices heard, I'm a devoted fan who's understandably wary of unnecessary American remakes. And yes, I do think this remake is completely unnecessary. No matter how much writer/director Matt Reeves avows to "tread lightly", many will remain skeptical and prematurely incensed.

       Remakes can happen for any number of reasons. There may be a particularly well-crafted story which, by transplanting it stateside, opens itself up to another distinctive cultural sensibility--The Departed is a serviceable example. More often than that, they're a product of imaginative bankruptcy(Exhibit A). The bottom line, of course, is the dollar, and few can look past seeing Let Me In as anything besides an opportunistic ploy to lasso the Twilight masses. Had Reeves waited a decade or so for Let the Right One In to soak deeper into American awareness and cement its place in modern horror history, I might be more optimistic, but the immediacy of it all reeks of rotting salmon.

       Now, the trailer. I won't yet fully begrudge it its slick background track, quick edits and overt, spoiler-ish elements only because the cinematography looks to be in keeping with the feel of the original. As for the lead roles, I can only give initial impressions. I'm just not getting Oskar's vulnerability from Cody Smit-McPhee. He looks much more like he could play Damien Thorn, or one of Oskar's bullies, than Oskar himself (0:31 in the trailer). As for Chloe Moretz, I'm glad she's been able to break out of her type-casting as the precocious, wise-beyond-her-years 12-year-old to play a 200 year-old immortal trapped in a prepubescent body.

       In all seriousness, though, I think this has the potential to be good. Really, I'm optimistic. I don't think it will be anywhere near the original, but I'm hopeful that it'll be sufficiently faithful and good enough in its own right to not be a travesty.

Morning Shots: UK Comedy, Apatow Does Pee-Wee, 100 Greatest Insults and More

• Cut The Crap Movie Reviews gets Juno right. "If someone told me they were “forshizz up the spout”, I’d probably respond with, “Sorry, but I can’t sell you any cocaine.” But then again, why so much hate?"
• Punchline Magazine shows us 5 UK comedians worth knowing about. Watch the videos and seek these people out if you like what you hear. 
• Apatow is now attached to Pee-Wee Herman pic. What's more exciting is that achingly underrated comedian Paul Rust is working on the script. However, this does mean that I'll finally have to see Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. It's been on my to-watch list for a long time and it's never interested me.
• As we should have expected, Ebert saves himself from looking like an old ign't geezer. He still doesn't think video games are art but at least he has the balls to say "I should not have written that entry without being more familiar with the actual experience of video games."

Louie- "Pilot"

Episode : B

Series Potential: A

Hey all, I'm Tyler O'Neill and I'm going to be contributing to TDR now and then. Well, enough with introductions. Let's get on with it.

      

        Louis opens Louie with a riff about how his kids’ school is so woefully understaffed that he has to volunteer as an on-call assistant to pry out the “finger-filth disease spouts” from the milk envelopes that are still, somehow, the lunchroom standard. It’s a great piece, and it exemplifies a common formula in Louis C.K's stand-up repertoire: exposing social/institutional inanities through an anecdote with relatable, angry observational humor and self-deprecation. It's a likely blueprint for the rest of the show.

      

        The comparisons to be made between Louie and Seinfeld are inevitable and obvious, so let’s tease them out from the get-go. Both feature a stand-up comedian playing their quasi-selves in a show which extrapolates ideas from their routines into fictional plots. At least going off the pilot,Louie looks to have a more even ratio of stand-up: narrative than Seinfeld, and rightfully so. Louie is unlikely to develop a strong supporting cast (nearly all of them in this pilot were mediocre) and his personal anecdotes make much better raw narrative material than airplane peanuts. I’m going to go for broke here and say Louie is going to be about Louis.

      

        But just who is Louis C.K? Well, Louis C.K is a schlub, a schmo, and a bit of a shmuck. At least, that’s the persona the world assigns him— a “red-headed nobody piece of shit.” It’s clear that appearances count: C.K’s oft-donned outfit of blue jeans and a black tee make him out as some kind of everyman rebuttal to Steve Jobs. But the suit Louis wears on his ill-fated date (“We have, like, reunions for [my dad’s] funeral”) suggests that, low and behold, looks can be deceiving. Louis’s behavior in the narrative belies his apathetic stage persona, for whom the glass is half-empty, laced with strychnine, and will wait until your life’s happiest moment to kill you.

      

        That near-even mixture of stand-up and story makes sense because they're mutually explanatory. “Real-life” Louis C.K tries to be a decent person, especially when others refuse. He chides the bus driver for his crass and destructive apathy, calls the nude spinster neighbor on her bullshit, and tears away the façade of chivalry and pressure on his date. But, invariably, he becomes the asshole: the kids get stranded in Harlem, he’s called a pig in a medley of notes, and his date flees in a chopper. Thus, his stage-self reduces a wife to a best friend that’ll die, a new puppy to a rain-check for tears. It’s a psychologically intriguing and potentially very fruitful duality that Seinfeld never had the need to explore. But Louis C.K has long-since earned his due to do this right. While his stand-up here was characteristically strong, the comedic elements of the story weren’t quite up to the same standard or originality or delivery. Still, C.K is pushing the buttons and boundaries of even cable television. That in his show's pilot he talks about an infected child vagina leaves me confident that Louie will soon strike its balance.

Other Things:

-I’m not yet sure what to make of the show’s comedic style. The limo cavalcade, the helicopter and the nude neighbor were way too absurd and broad among what was otherwise grounded humor. I’ll grant that they’re “punchlines,” but I worry about that formula getting tired quick.

-The bit about being an evil person because of the car he drives was a well-considered inclusion. Not only does it belie his blue-collar appearance and persona, it exposes the white, middle-class guilt of his likely viewership. For the amount he otherwise bitches about how bad things are, this is a perspectival bitchslap.

-As the faceless audience member says at the cut-to-black, “You still got it!”