Rss

  • redit
  • delicious
  • stumble
  • youtube

Archives for : Christopher Nolan

The Dark Knight Rises

Posted by :Chris On : July 20, 2012
0

Category: flowerspix, Movie Reviews

Tags:, , , ,

July 20, 2012

Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway

Release Date: July 20, 2012

The Conclusion We Deserve

by Chris Flowers

The unprecedented fervor surrounding the release of the final Batman film of Christopher Nolan’s highly acclaimed trilogy is something we probably should have seen coming.  Fans of the films are rabid about the movies getting their just dues, and it’s become the (unfortunate) habit of many a fanboy to go ballistic on anyone who is a naysayer.  That said, these people are devotees of the series for a reason: each of the two previous offerings have been nothing short of fantastic, and there was no reason to believe that the third—and final—installment, The Dark Knight Rises, would be any different.

The question that’s on everyone’s mind, of course, is if it really does meet (and ultimately exceed) the impossibly high standards set by its predecessors.  The answer is a resounding “yes.”  The Dark Knight Rises is incredibly ambitious and incredibly satisfying; it’s also the best film of the trilogy.

Allow me to explain why.

In both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Gotham was in peril.  Madmen assailed the city’s citizens for varying reasons—some more concrete than others—while a troubled hero in Bruce Wayne sought to use his resources (namely access to incredibly advantageous weaponry and a whole slew of kick-assery he obtained while a brief member of the League of Shadows) to disarm those would see the town destroyed.  While his character has always been interesting, Bruce Wayne hasn’t been a truly engrossing dramatic figure.  That all changes with The Dark Knight Rises.

Here, we see Bruce/Batman’s tragedy and redemption come around full circle.  At the start of the movie, Wayne is a man crippled by the exploits he’s undertaken as the caped crusader.  He’s a recluse who’s holed up in Wayne Manor.  As we’re allowed to see him move beyond exchanging witty barbs with his longtime butler (and caretaker) Alfred Pennyworth, the emotional pay-dirt finally emerges, and the character—in the words of the late Ra’s Al Ghul—becomes more than just a man.  He becomes the embodiment of grief; here, it’s clear that there’s a tangible psychological block that’s eating Bruce from the inside out.  The first hour of Rises is devoted to mining this pain, and it makes Bale’s portrayal of Bruce more accessible than ever.

Then there’s the action, which hits its stride about halfway through the production.  Once it gets going, it’s relentless and, for lack of a better word, harrowing.  Everything that’s happening in the streets of Gotham has weight behind it, as the city faces a challenge unlike anything that’s come before.

I feel like I’m on the verge of spilling the beans about some major plot points, so I’ll wind things down by saying that the supporting cast—Tom Hardy as Bane and Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle—are all splendid.  They each bring something crucial to their characters, and not a moment of screen time is wasted.

I don’t need to tell you this, but if you haven’t already purchased your ticket for Nolan’s epic conclusion to what will go down as one of the best trilogies in movie history, then you need to get on the ball.  After all, this is one of those rare occurrences in cinema—the emergence of a truly great movie that actually lives up to every ounce of hype.

Nicely done, Mr. Nolan.  You deserve the Oscar nods that are surely coming your way.

out of 5

The Dark Knight Rises: What to Expect

Posted by :Chris On : July 3, 2012
0

Category: Ramblings

Tags:, , , ,

July 3, 2012

Predicting The End

by Chris Flowers

It’s impossible to predict what, exactly, will happen in any given movie, but the speculation surrounding the release of The Dark Knight Rises has been nothing short of legendary.  A quick Google search will net you a plethora of blogs (and more credible sites) where people act as fortune tellers, laying out—in amazing detail—what they think will transpire on July 20.  It’s a fun game to play, and I’ve got a few ideas of my own.  As the release date of the most anticipated movie of the summer gets closer, I thought I’d throw my hat in the ring with my thoughts on what’s going to happen during Nolan’s last take on the Batman character.

WARNING: The information contained in this article could or could not be spoiler-ific.  Like everyone else, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but if you want to go into the movie with no preconceived notions it may be best to click away.

Batman—in One Form or Another—Will be Finished

All advertisements for the movie suggest that this is the final movie in what’s been lauded as the greatest superhero series ever made.  In fact, one official tagline is “The Legend Ends.”  Dialogue from the many trailers already released also suggests that Bruce Wayne/Batman is prepared to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the always ailing Gotham City.  We’re supposed to assume that this is his life, but I’m not so sure.  As a writer, the notion that Wayne may simply sacrifice the symbol of Batman—as was done in the previous movie—is something that’s much more meaningful, and, in my mind, much less dramatic.  In other words, Bruce Wayne might live on, and the character of Batman might be eliminated.  The presence of young talents Gordon-Levitt and Hathaway also indicates that one (or both) may be waiting in the wings (pun intended) to take over the central superhero role.

I can’t put it past Nolan to actually kill Bruce Wayne, though, and I think either conclusion will be brimming with plenty of emotional heft.  One way or another, though, I think it’s safe to say that this is the last we’ll see of Batman (at least in the Nolan iteration).

Gordon-Levitt Takes on the Superhero Mantle

At this point, not much is known about the role Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play in the film.  For many, intuition suggests that he will likely become the one to “carry the torch” when the Batman legend—as the teaser posters indicate—is finally over.  I’m not intimately familiar with the comic source material the movies are based on, so I don’t know which specific character Gordon-Levitt may assume the identity of when it’s all said and done.  When I review the cast list displayed at IMDB.com, I can’t help but notice the presence of several Al Ghul characters, and part of me wants to believe that Gordon-Levitt may also have been a pupil of the League of Shadows—one who share’s Bruce’s sympathetic mentality that people can be saved.

Alfred’s a Goner

This may be a bold call on my part, but I think Alfred is going to perish in the final moments of the film.  He’s certainly not an action centerpiece in the series, but his declaration that he won’t lose another member of the Wayne family on his watch leads me to believe that he’s going to do something rash in an effort to protect Bruce.  If that’s the case, that’s all well and good, I just hope it doesn’t result in some sort of cheesy and implausible sequence that sees him operating a piece of elaborate Bat-machinery.  I don’t think Nolan would resort to something like that, but you never know.  Heck, he may even join forces with Lucius Fox and we’ll get something similar to The Bucket List.

Catwoman’s Shifting Motives

Something tells me that Catwoman (Hathaway) is going to be bad, then good, then bad again.  I’ve never been a big fan of the “shifting motives” technique, but maybe Nolan can pull it off in such a way as to make her a likable anti-hero.  Clearly, she joins up with Batman at one point in the movie—see the trailer sequence where they’re both flying the Tumbler-like Batwing—but the darkness of character could make her a tricky proposition.

We’ll Find Out Soon Enough

Some of my predictions are more bold (and specific) than others, but I’m simply going on intuition.  What do you think?  Have I gotten it right?  Or am I way off the mark?  Do you have your own predictions?

Let me know in the comments below!

 

Insomnia

Posted by :Chris On : February 4, 2011
0

Category: Blast from the Past, flowerspix

Tags:, , ,

February 3, 2010

Sleep Will be the Last Thing on Your Mind

Christopher Nolan wasn’t always directing caped crusaders and dreamworld desperadoes.  Once insomniaupon a time (nine years ago to be exact) he was at the helm of a criminally underrated crime thriller by the name of Insomnia.

Starring Al Pacino as a L.A. detective who travels to a remote Alaskan town to help identify the killer of a teen, this is one of Pacino’s most recently truly great performances (a shame, I know).  Hilary Swank and Robin Williams co-star as an up-and-coming local policewoman and deranged author (respectively), and both do a superb job of keeping pace with the venerable titan of Tinseltown.

What’s particularly effective here is the excellent use of setting.  In Nightmute (sounds inviting, huh?), because of its far-northern location, the sun doesn’t set for long periods of time.  This causes Detective Dormer (Pacino) to eventually start falling apart at the seams, as the sun seems to penetrate every effort he makes to lose himself in restful slumber.  This naturally ties into a specific subtext that reveals much about Dormer’s personality and tainted past as a detective, and it’s very refreshing to see the usual them of darkness giving way to light flipped on its head.

The problem with writing a review of Insomnia is that I can’t detail too much about what unfolds (in terms of plot) without ruining some of the major twists that lend genuine weight to the story as it ambles along some truly dark and disturbing corridors.  Don’t let the analogy fool you, though; there’s nothing slow about the pacing, and it’s wholly engrossing from start to finish.  The sense of impending slumber is imminent, though, and this heightens the tension in the third act when “truth” starts to become a relative term for our exhausted protagonist.

Insomnia isn’t nearly as stylish as Nolan’s most recent offerings, but it’s certainly ably directed and its tale is spun with maximum efficiency.  If, for one reason or another, this gem that originally shone almost a decade ago has eluded your radar, be sure to check it out.

As for myself, it’s time to get a little shut-eye.

redstar2redstar2redstar2redstar2redstarhalfout of 5

–Chris Flowers

Inception

Posted by :Chris On : July 16, 2010
1

Category: flowerspix, Movie Reviews

Tags:, , , ,

July 16, 2010

Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page

Release Date: July 16, 2010

I Dreamed a Dream

Back in 1999, I was a junior in high school, and a little movie called The Matrix was unleashed upon the world.  I remember going to see it with a friend; we were both fairly oblivious regarding the nature of the plot, as well as the presence of the now famous stylized (and infinitely duplicated) action sequences.  Leaving the theater, I had the distinct feeling that I’d seen something revolutionary—as ambiguous as that term may be—and that I had really only processed a fraction of what was taking place on screen.  During the wee hours of this past morning—around 2:35 AM, to be exact—that feeling of having experienced something undeniably groundbreaking was finally replicated.

As a matter of fact, I’ll go so far as to say that Inception surpasses The Matrix on nearly every level.  zz51cab659-550x813It’s that rare film which is simply unforgettable, thriving on superb acting, a brilliantly layered story, and mesmerizing choreography.

If you’ve seen the trailers—and who hasn’t?—you might be a little confused as to what it’s all about, so let me take a stab at cluing you in.  Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) is an “extractor”—a person who’s hired to create an artificial dreamworld (an oxymoron?) and steal people’s secrets while they sleep.  This, of course, is illegal, and for a variety of reasons Cobb has been globetrotting for some time to avoid capture.  He’s also an estranged father, and is believed to be guilty in the murder of his wife (who frequently shows up in each of the dream environments he constructs).  Anyway, entering the human mind is apparently a fairly straightforward task, and it’s all accomplished via a device that was originally developed for military training.

After a botched attempt to extract information from a wealthy businessman named Saito (Ken Watanabe), he’s hired to perform what’s known as an “inception.”  Essentially, it’s the highly controversial notion that you can plant an idea in someone’s mind to cause him/her to behave in a specific way.  In this instance, Saito wants Cobb to convince the heir of an energy tycoon to break up his father’s empire.  This is in Saito’s interest because it eliminates his only competition, thus allowing his corporation to exist as an unfettered monopoly.  If Cobb is able to successfully do this, says Saito, he’ll pull a few strings and Cobb will be able to return to his native America and once again be with this children.

I’ve obviously left out a lot of key details, but trust me when I say the plot—though admittedly complex—is wholly engaging and completely rewarding.  As a number of critics have noted, Inception demands that its viewers’ intellect is engaged full throttle as things progress, and I found that this was a natural consequence of being thrust into the story.  In other words, it didn’t seem like a “chore” to really think deeply about what was happening on screen; it was second nature.  The film moves at a brisk pace, but it provides enough cues to remind you of certain narrative intricacies that might otherwise have dissolved into your own subconscious.

As you’d imagine, the setup is a veritable cornucopia of possibilities for action junkies.  I found myself collecting my jaw from the theater floor as cityscapes folded in on themselves and modernistic dreamscapes crumbled because of protruding influences from the outside world.  Of special note is a prolonged car chase sequence.  It pushes the boundaries of time perception, and takes the notion of stacking one dream atop another to new levels.  Let me elaborate briefly (and I’ll try to do so without ruining any of the surprise that inevitably comes with such a thrilling tale).

Our protagonists—a team of “dream thieves,” if you will—enter the dreams of their intended target.  Once there, they’re attacked by his subconscious, which has been trained to defend against just this sort of “break in.”  As they try to buy themselves time so that they can accomplish their goal, they enter a dream within that dream and find that they’re now able to interact with their mark in an entirely new fashion.  As the car chase continues in the original dream, though, they feel the physical effects in their new dream.  When their driver takes a sharp turn, for instance, their gravity shifts in the new dream, and they’re all thrown to one side of a room.

Yeah, I know.  It sounds crazy complicated.  It is.  Trust me, though, when I say that it all makes complete sense within the context of the story, and you’ll marvel at Nolan’s ability to generate a plot that asks so much of its audience.

This, of course, is only the tip of the iceberg, and there are some excellently crafted subplots that tackle more universal issues (such as learning how to “let go” of lost loved ones, etc.).  It’s the sort of movie that warrants a seemingly infinite number of viewings, and you’ll find yourself analyzing its idiosyncrasies for decades to come.

I’ll close by saying Inception is not only the best film I’ve seen thus far in 2010, it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen, and has rightfully earned a spot on my Top 10 list.  This is a moment in cinematic history that shouldn’t be missed.

redstar2redstar2redstar2redstar2redstar2 out of 5

–Chris Flowers

Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout.

Check out a trailer for Inception: