American Graffiti: A night of cruising in 1960s Modesto

Every generation believes they are the best that ever lived upon the Earth and will continue to be the best when rated against future generations. It is but human nature. But in doing so, we tend to forget previous cultures and the importance they held in developing our current culture. Sometimes a period film can give you a glimpse into the past but perhaps no other film has ever managed to celebrate the culture of a particular era as was done with the film American Graffiti.

Steve and Curt are long-time friends who have recently graduated from high school. They meet one evening, scheduled to leave for college the next day, with Steve adamant to get out of town for a new experience and Curt needing some coaxing to get on the flight to head out to college. They decide to enjoy their last night in their town and figure out their lives before hopping onto the flight. They meet Terry and John at the famous Mel’s Drive-In to make plans for the night. Steve and Curt, accompanied by Curt’s sister and Steve’s girlfriend Laurie, decide to go to a dance organised by their high school. Terry and John decide to drive around town and see where things go from there. The night carries on with unforeseen situations befalling all 5 friends while they run into each other and several other people before sunrise.

The film was written and directed by George Lucas and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. It was released in the year 1973. It stars Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, and Cindy Williams. Actors in supporting roles include Harrison Ford, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and former radio personality Wolfman Jack.

The film is set in 1962 in the town of Modesto in California. The location of the film is pivotal in its style since a major amount of the film consists of vehicles cruising on strips which Modesto was well known for at the time. Radio also plays an important role in the film as a famous radio personality is one of the characters in the film and the other characters are constantly listening to the radio. This was typical behaviour of youngsters during the timeframe the film is set in. Songs are ever present during the course of the film which was the case when young men and women got into their cars to drive around town leisurely. The soundtrack of the film consists of songs from the 50s and early 60s. The dialogues of the characters also reflect the parlance of the time. The women wearing dresses and men in trousers and short-sleeved shirts with slick back hair, the sock hop dances and meeting at drive-ins are also reminders of the time which are reflected in the film. The film also features greasers who were the local hoodlums present in most localities during the time.

The film isn’t very difficult to understand. It is a coming-of-age tale of a group of friends told over one night in their lives. During the course of the film, it is shown that one night can drastically change a person with headstrong characters modifying their previous resolve and confident characters doubting their self belief. The flaws in the film are that it becomes difficult to identify any one character as the protagonist and the film does not seem to have a typical plotline. However, these can be seen as a benchmark in cinema since it is a great film despite it not fulfilling the need for a protagonist or a plot consisting of a straightforward storyline. It was once said that a film should have a beginning, middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order. This film is probably the best example to prove that quote right. It is also an excellent insight into the culture of the 1950s and 1960s with incredible detailing that only a person who lived and experienced such a time would be able to produce on celluloid.

The film is a little out of the way from what we are used to seeing. Since it is a period film, it would be expected to be different but the identity of culture that it provides the audience is what makes it a film worth seeing.

Christmas Vacation: Comedy amid tragedy on Christmas Eve

When Christmas is around the corner, there is a buzz in the air. Plans are made, wishes are exchanged and smiles are ever present. It is a season to be spent surrounded by family members and other near-and-dear ones who care about you. Everyone is happy and very little can go wrong because the general mood is that of merriment. But what can go wrong will go wrong. That is the premise of the National Lampoon film Christmas Vacation.

Clark is the patriarch of the nuclear Griswold family. His parents and in-laws are to visit his house for the holidays and he plans to throw the best possible celebration for the benefit of his family. He gets his wife and children involved by dragging them off to the countryside to chop down and bring back a Christmas tree in the hope that it will bring the authenticity of Christmas to the family and draw them closer together. His efforts carry on as he decorates the exterior of his house with 25,000 lights and places an order for a swimming pool to be installed in his backyard as a surprise gift for his family. Unfortunately, he does not receive the expected Christmas bonus to cover the expenses of the swimming pool, the decorative lights do not seem to work and the Christmas tree is a disaster. To add to the tension, the family is unexpectedly visited by Cousin Eddie and his family and the senile Aunt Bethany and her husband Uncle Lewis which wrecks havoc upon the plans Clark had for Christmas Eve.

Christmas Vacation was written by John Hughes and directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. It was released in the year 1989 and is the third film in the Vacation series produced by National Lampoon. The film stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki. It is a comedy film set to the theme of Christmas.

Although the film is about Christmas with plenty of talk about family and festivities, the focus of the film is on the dire situations of the ill-fated protagonist. The situations are bizarre but believable. The condition goes from bad to worse as the film progresses with Clark becoming desperate over things not going the way he planned them. His neighbours also seem to share in his unwanted fate, if not worse. Although it would be assumed that family is important during the festive season and Clark constantly reiterates that he wants it to be a special event for his family, he grows increasingly annoyed and agitated with the antics of his relatives as the film progresses. His eventual meltdown is hilarious as are the unthinkable situations that get him there.

Chevy Chase as the protagonist is excellent. He is at the height of his powers as a humorist and his comedic timing is impeccable. Whether it is a hot-blooded rant or a nervous mumbling, his ability to deliver his dialogues as required is quite impressive.

The film is quite hilarious on the whole. It is less about Christmas and more about unfortunate instants occurring at inconvenient timings. It is quite a good film but it does not have the warm feeling of the holiday that classic Christmas films are expected to have.

Noel: 5 stories with no Christmas connection

December brings in an excellent spirit of cheerfulness and joy because of the impending end of the year and the merry festival of Christmas. It is a festival that is probably celebrated all over the world with the belief that people forgive and forget during the festive season to spread happiness and good tidings. Hollywood follows suit during the festive season with films about Christmas always having a sense of happiness and warmth to share with its audience.

Rose is a middle-aged woman who lives alone spare for her hospitalised mother. She is a divorcee who moved into her mother’s house after her marriage ended followed by the death of her father and her mother being struck with Alzheimer’s disease. She is about to spend Christmas Eve by herself but is invited to dinner by a young and handsome colleague from her workplace. Despite being attracted to him, she refuses his advances later in the night and decides to bring in Christmas by her mother’s bedside. She meets a young Hispanic girl named Nina who is having her own trouble with her jealous fiancé Mike while doubts of pregnancy loom in her head. Mike in turn is followed around by an old waiter named Artie who believes that Mike is the reincarnation of his dead wife. Lastly, Jules is a young man who is ready to cause harm to himself in the hope that he will be admitted to the hospital Rose’s mother is in because it was the location for his fondest Christmas memory ever.

Noel was written by David Hubbard and directed by Chazz Palminteri. It is a drama film with the theme of Christmas which was released in the year 2004 and stars Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, Paul Walker, Alan Arkin and Marcus Thomas. An important supporting role is performed by Robin Williams.

For a Christmas-themed film, it is uncharacteristically depressing. The filmmakers opted to make a film with reality forming the core. The characters and the situations were meant to feel real and not come across as made up stories. However, a Christmas film is expected to have a cheerful spirit. This film has none of it. It is expected to give the audience a warm and fuzzy feeling and provide them with hope. Unfortunately this film lacks that panache. In fact, even the attempt to make a realistic film can be considered a fail. For one, it is difficult to believe a person is so delusional as to think of young men as his reincarnated wife every Christmas and hope that they would forgive him for his mistakes. Secondly, the character of a young Charlie is meant to come across as Rose’s figment of imagination at the end of the film. It would be impossible for Rose to be able to picture Charlie in his youthful avatar considering she has never seen him before even as his present aged self. If she does know what Charlie looks like presently, she should have been surprised to have met him as a young man considering he appears to be her age in her imagination when he is in fact decades older than her.

The storyline has no ebbs and surges. There are multiple stories which are forcefully woven together to find a connection when there isn’t one. Most of the stories have a beginning, but no conflict, followed by an inconsequential ending. This film is not good; especially if one is looking to get into the Christmas spirit.

In Bruges: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory or Bruges

If made well, a dark comedy can be very enjoyable for an audience watching it in good humour. It isn’t good enough to have an audience that will tolerate the film making fun of usually serious topics, the film has to hold its own when bringing out the humour in grave situations in a respectable manner. Death, rape, war and drugs are usually selected as the subjects of dark comedies which require a certain level of respect when making fun of these topics so it is not misconstrued as being disrespectful.

Ray is a rookie Irish hitman who messes up on his first assignment. During the course of eliminating his target, a priest, Ray accidentally kills a young boy in a church in London. Under strict instructions from his boss Harry, Ray and his handler Ken go to live in a hotel in Bruges to hideout until given further instructions. While Ken is excited to sightsee Bruges’ historical brilliance, Ray couldn’t care less for its heritage. He is also guilt-stricken from having taken the life of a young boy and finds it difficult to sit cooped up in his hotel room while waiting for Harry’s phone call. Finally convincing Ken to visit a pub, Ray manages to meet a beautiful Belgian girl named Chloe and an American dwarf actor named Jimmy on a film set. Ray gets a date with Chloe and goes out while Ken stays back at the hotel to await Harry’s instructions. When Harry finally connects with Ken, there is bad news that may result in a few more lives being taken than Ken originally anticipated.

In Bruges was written and directed by Martin McDonagh and was released in 2008. The film stars Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Clemence Poesy and Ralph Fiennes. The film is a dark comedy that plays around with the ideas of life and death. The protagonist is a young hitman who has been exiled as a way of keeping him out of trouble for a mistake he has made. There are many jokes involving death, racism, dwarfs, war, nationalities and sexuality.

One of the constant fixes in the film is the protagonist abusing Bruges and cursing the fact that he is forced to be in the city. He goes as far as to compare Bruges with hell or purgatory where people would be sent to live in the city for their sins, which is quite a similar situation to his own since he has been exiled to the city for murdering a boy. The irony is the protagonist constantly complaining about the city but the director showing the audience the beauty of the city with plenty of shots of the city’s architecture, art and culture. Certain scenes in the film are quite hilarious, one in particular when two hitmen are about to have a shootout but cannot go through with it because a pregnant lady in the room refuses to leave the premises.

The dark tone of the film coupled with comedy makes it endearing for the audience. The use of a score that was especially composed for the film is something that isn’t seen too often in recent films and is a refreshing change. The film score has one particular track which is repeated throughout the film and becomes easily identifiable as it conveys the despair, guilt and shame the characters in the film are experiencing. Since the characters are Irish, they have a strong Irish accent which makes it difficult to follow the dialogues but also adds to the comedic effect since it helps with the timing and the delivery of the dialogues. The idea of introducing a film-within-the-film was quite clever on the part of the director especially since the characters speak about paying homage which is what is done in this film as well.

Overall, the film is quite funny once you get accustomed to the accent and dialogue delivery. It has a slow pace so it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But it is excellently executed for a dark comedy.

Bedazzled: Seven wishes for a soul

Anyone would love it if they were granted the opportunity to make all their dreams come true just by wishing them into reality. The catch is what has to be sacrificed in order to receive those wishes or to make them come true. One of the concepts of alchemy states that nothing can be created out of thin air but anything important can be converted into something else that may or may not be more useful. You have to lose something of equal or greater importance to be able to gain something else that you wish for. All that taken into consideration, would you accept losing something very dear to you to make your dreams come true?

Elliot Richards works at a dead-end job in an IT company where he answers calls and helps customers as part of the tech support team. He is enthusiastic about making friends but doesn’t manage to fit in with anyone and is ignored by his co-workers every time he attempts to meet them socially. He is also a secret admirer of Alison Gardner, a pretty co-worker who is too far out of his league but who he has been in love with for over four years. Despite their efforts to leave him out of their plan, Elliot manages to meet his co-workers at a pub they frequent and is dared to strike up a conversation with Alison. Petrified by the request, Elliot musters up some courage but is shot down within seconds. Standing alone and ruing his luck, Elliot confesses to himself that he would give anything to have Alison in his life. Fortuitously Elliot meets a hot young woman who tells him she has the power to give him anything he can imagine. She proposes a deal where Elliot will receive seven wishes in exchange for his soul as she confesses to being the Devil. Elliot agrees reluctantly but soon curses his choice.

Bedazzled was released in the year 2000 and was directed by Harold Ramis. It is the remake of a 1967 film of the same name which was in turn adapted from an old folklore. The film is a simple comedy with play on situation and dialogue bringing up a few laughs every now and then. The plot isn’t particularly extensive and comes across as a set of vignettes put together clumsily to make a feature film. The casting is good but the direction seems a little lacking. The characters aren’t particularly believable with the protagonist starting off with a lack of confidence and ending the film with immense self belief which stems from nowhere during the story. The protagonist is put through situations that are humorous. The anti-hero Devil is amusing with a light-hearted approach to good versus evil and a naturally fun loving nature.

The film has a part melancholy ending which is reached over the course of an entertaining story. It falls short in many areas and isn’t particularly good for a film that is intended to have comedy as one of its strong features. All the same, it is a fun movie to watch when no inhibitions are attached.

Up: Expressionistic cinema at its very best

Expressionistic cinema is always interesting since it manages to extend the boundaries of human imagination. Not only does it allow us to imagine our deepest wishes but also watch them as they are portrayed on the big screen. It also provides a simple breakaway from the monotonies of day-to-day life. Up is a film which joins the league of excellent expressionistic films. Being an animated film with an exception it manages to form a class of its own.

When an old man becomes a widower with the recent demise of his wife, he stumbles upon some of her photographs and is reminded of a promise he made to her in their youth. Acknowledging that he wasn’t able to fulfil her only wish during her life, he immediately takes it upon himself to fulfil his promise to her. Just as a demolition team arrives to take down his house he successfully gets the house airborne by tying it with innumerable balloons. His plan is to land the house upon a waterfall where his wife’s idol had once landed a hot air balloon. But the old man is unaware that there is a boy scout on board as the house takes off. Realising that the old man and his house are journeying to South America, the boy voices his opinion of wishing to see a rare creature which lives in the jungles there. The tale ensues as the old man and the boy try to fulfil their wishes while stumbling across many hurdles, helping each other out and finally succeeding in their missions.

The film was directed by Pete Docter and released in the year 2009. It was a production under the Pixar banner and features the brilliant animation they are known to have. The personification of the animated characters comes through perfectly which is something that has come to be expected of Pixar.

The storyline of the film is extraordinary since the key points in the plot are interesting events that are unimaginable without the right context. It is impossible to understand how an old man would be able to carry a house on his back or how the entire house could be lifted off its foundations in the first place, the film has dealt with it superbly by keeping a light-hearted tone throughout. The imagination which has gone into the making of the film clearly shows since the film is bursting with creative ideas.

The use of vibrant colours and many shades was very visually appealing. The most appealing element of the film is the innocence with which the characters are portrayed. Since it is a drama-comedy film and most of the characters come across as being fairly honest and innocent, the humour comes forth in the form of simplicity of the characters mostly. Being a film for family audiences it has been executed simply with no major need for a complicated story or execution.

It is a splendid animated film which sets a landmark for other animations since it has a simple story with an excellent portrayal. On the whole, Up is a fascinating film which has made use of light-hearted humour to portray relationships and imagination. It set a standard for a new way of thinking.

Animal Farm: Not all animals are equal

There are few films which are made with a certain context in mind and don’t necessarily make sense when not viewed from that same perspective. Few films like Animal Farm are made as a reflection of a political scenario and while they have a storyline of their own, to understand the truth in them it is important to realise the context in which the film is made and how it is relative in real life.

When an aged hog named Major calls for a meeting with all the animals on Manor Farm, he reveals his vision for the animals to revolt against the owner Mr Jones for crimes committed against the animals. Major believes the dismal state of the animals should not be taken lightly and the only way to get what they truly deserve is if every animal unites to overthrow the oppressive humans. Major succumbs to his age the same night but the animals pay heed to his message and claim the farm for themselves the very next day by chasing Jones off the property and renaming the farm ‘Animal Farm’. Being the smartest of the lot, the pigs organise the codes to live by for all the animals on the farm and teach them the importance of education and hard work. The pig named Snowball takes it upon himself to make sure all the animals are taken care of but his efforts go in vain as another pig named Napoleon chooses to ignore the plights of his comrades and ultimately teaches the rest of the animals the bitter truth that all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

The film was directed by Joy Batchelor and John Halas and released in the year 1954. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name written by George Orwell. While most of the plot in the film is closely based on that of the novel, a few liberties have been taken with the screen version which differentiate from the original storyline. The story is an allegory of the political situation which existed in one particular nation in the 1940s and predicts what was likely to happen in the near future from the time of the novel being written.

The animation style is typical of that used in animated films in the 1950s. The major visible difference is in the colour tones which are used for the film. The colours are dull since it takes on a serious topic as opposed to other animated films which were light-hearted movies. This clearly demarcated that the film wasn’t naturally targeted towards children but was an animated film meant to be watched by adult audiences. The dull colour tones reflect the grave situation of the characters in the film since their lives are depressed and sombre at every turn.

The film takes a fair amount of time to establish the storyline but then tends to speed up towards the later stages of the plot. Unfortunately, not enough time is given to explain the plot in detail as the film progresses and the concluding stages are rushed into. The thoughts of the characters do not come across clearly because of lack of adequate dialogues or expressions. The narration does the job of explaining the internal monologues of the characters which is unfortunate since it is the easiest way to showcase a character’s emotions but not the best. The film clearly comes across as a propaganda film since the negative characters are painted in a bad light from the start without much explanation to their actions.

There is much to be desired with this film. While the storyline is adapted from a very good novel, the film does not manage to do it justice.