Double Take: Daybeds

What the f*ck is this?

No, really.

If I wanted to have a f*cking nap I'd just stay at home and lie down in bed for free, rather than paying twenty-six f*cking dollars for it!

Look, I understand the logic behind the idea - make the front row seats more comfortable (you no longer have to break your neck to look up at the screen as I did last year while watching Deadpool 2) and therefore charge more for them. It also recreates the experience, I guess, of watching a movie in bed.

The problem is - no way people aren't going to fall asleep during the movie.

Picture this - it's dark, you're snuggled up in a comfy bed, lying on your back, it's 9:00 at night and slowly, surely, you feel yourself becoming sleepier...and sleepier...

Imagine watching a slow-paced, dialogue-heavy (or lite) film this way. I think Alfonso Cuarón's Roma is a goddamn masterpiece, but I'd probably fall asleep if I watched it this way. Ditto for Schindler's List, or either Godfather*. This is not the fault of those films - they were made to be viewed while sitting upright in a dark cinema (or living room, in Roma's case) with no distractions, allowing you to be completely immersed in the worlds they are creating. There's a reason why I watch slow-paced films sitting upright. We all have busy, tiring lives, and I don't want that to affect my experience of watching a fantastic film.

These 'Daybeds' are also a completely transparent business venture. Event Cinemas is a chain that is clearly fighting to remain relevant and successful in a streaming world. Just months ago they introduced another stupid idea called Boutique, in which cinemas are decorated in random ways to, I don't know, make the audience feel more sophisticated? Seeing Zombieland: Double Tap in a cinema made up to look like it was constructed in the 1920s certainly doesn't help your immersion in any way.

I mean, if this keeps them in business then fine. We don't need to lose another cinema chain. But maybe, instead of having a go at expensive and ill-fated experiments, they should tailor their cinemas to suit the needs of a modern cinephile and produce an experience that Netflix-and-chill simply cannot compete with.

*I've yet to see Part III so I can't comment on it's pacing. For all I know, it might be a rollercoaster action movie that ends with a massive shootout and a car chase.

Ad Astra - A Thoughtful Sci-Fi Character Piece

In an age of big sci-fi blockbusters like the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars, auteur directors have frequently proven that there is still a dedicated market for smaller space films that match big ideas with unparalleled spectacle. The trend of the semi-realistic space movie can be seen all over the last few years - Alfonso Cuaron's 2013 thriller Gravity, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar in 2014, Damien Chazelle's First Man in 2018, even Ridley Scott's 2015 survival piece The Martian which, while certainly more mainstream and crowd-pleasing than the other films I've just mentioned, contains an air of scientific truth about it that, however nonsense it might be, managed to fool my non-scientific brain. Many have theorised that no idea is truly original; sometimes you have to take lots of preexisting ideas and put them together to create something original. 

In Ad Astra, director James Gray and his co-writer Ethan Gross (in his second ever feature film writing credit) have taken many elements of the films previously mentioned; the spectacle of Gravity, the big ideas of Interstellar, the character study of First Man, the loneliness glimpsed in The Martian, and paired them with even more elements from films that predate those ones; 2001: A Space Odyssey, even Alien. This process isn't restrictive to sci-fi; in fact, the film Ad Astra reminded me most of while watching it was Apocalypse Now, in both style and narrative.

So let's talk about the narrative. It's the 'near future' (classic sci-fi vagueness) and the human race has expanded out into the solar system, having set up airport-like terminals on the moon and Mars in a manner reminiscent of 2001. It is in this world that we meet Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), who is conducting a check of a (pretty awesome) space station that extends from the surface of the Earth into the atmosphere when a massive power surge almost kills him. To describe it anymore would be to do a disservice to the film's breathtaking opening scene. Back on Earth, he's informed that the U.S. Space Command believes that the surge had something to do with the work McBride's father, H. Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones), was doing before he disappeared several years before. SpaceComm concludes that Clifford is still alive and is conducting research around Neptune, so they decide to send Roy to investigate his father's project, and destroy it if necessary.

Although I just spent a whole paragraph explaining the premise, Ad Astra is not a very plot-driven film. It's more interested in exploring McBride's character, which it does through an always-subjective viewpoint and a lot of Apocalypse Now-esque voiceover. The voiceover has become a sticking point for some viewers but it didn't bother me that much. McBride is a very introverted and emotionally distant (we're told early on that his heart rate never rises above around 80 BPM, even in dangerous situations such as the opening scene) character, so voiceover was probably the way to go, allowing us to see his introspective side. I think it's realistic to be quiet on the outside but constantly cross-examining everything internally - it's something I can relate to. 

The film is very devoted to this character study, so much so that all the other people in the film seem more like set dressing. Kind of like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, this is a movie that shuffles big names in and out of the story faster than you can say 'wonder how much they got paid for that?'. Donald Sutherland gets a handful of scenes. Liv Tyler gets a handful of lines. With so little support, it was up to the leading man to carry the film completely, and I'm happy to report that Brad Pitt was more than up to the task. While I wasn't as blown away by his performance as some others were (I'd still much prefer to see him win an Oscar for Cliff Booth than this role), he does do a very good job. 

As you can probably tell from the still above, all of the technical elements are brilliant. Hoyte van Hoytema's (that's a fun name to say) cinematography is absolutely breathtaking, capturing the emptiness of space with a diverse colour palette that changes as the film continues so that each sequence of events is almost colour-coded. Hoytema also shot Interstellar so he's no stranger to science fiction. Additionally, Max Richter's score is subtle and beautiful. Many audience members have taken issue with the film's slow pace but I thought it suited the story it was trying to tell. You definitely notice the slow-burn but it's far from boring. 

Gray does throw in a couple of action scenes - probably around three or four over the 124-minute runtime, though your mileage may vary. They were probably put into the script to make it more marketable for a studio, but most of them were so well-done that it didn't bother me, with the exception being one involving a baboon that felt completely out-of-place and the film spends the next scene bending over backwards to justify its existence. It really didn't add to the story and it's thematic relevance felt overly manufactured. You could say it's no different to Apocalypse Now's various side quests but it felt like way too much of a diversion from the plot for me.

The film does stumble a bit in the third act. It's a shame that, after taking a lot of inspiration from Apocalypse Now, it didn't take one more leaf out of Coppola's book and have an ambiguous ending, because it really is hard to wrap up a cerebral story like this. In the end, the climax feels very messy and illogical, with not enough conflict to be satisfying. Ultimately, it felt a bit lazy and in need of another draft. It also went around in circles in kind of a stupid way.

Ultimately, I can't stay mad at Ad Astra for the ending because I'd love to see more films like it; sci-fi with philosophical intentions, good acting, great cinematography and perhaps a slightly better script next time. The film is well worth your time on its own merits, and as an added bonus you get to be privy to the discussion surrounding it (the film was the Letterboxd Talking Point for a couple of weeks before Joker came along and stole its thunder). As far as the 'awards season sci-fi' film I was talking about before, Letterboxd tells me that there have been seven of them since 2013 and I've seen six. As far as my preferences, Ad Astra is better than Gravity and The Martian but not as good as Arrival, First Man or Blade Runner 2049. I've still yet to see Interstellar.

Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (B+)

Reacting to The Guardian's Top 100 Films of the 21st Century List

The cover image for the list, which shows stills from Moonlight, The Handmaiden, There Will Be Blood and Under the Skin.

On the 13th of September, The Guardian published their Top 100 Best Films of the 21st Century list. I don't know why they're doing it now and not waiting until the end of 2019 when they'll have a couple of full decades to go on, but whatever, that's film criticism for you.

I thought we'd do something different today. I have not looked at any reactions to this list and I don't know any of the choices yet (aside from, presumably, the four pictured above). I thought I'd go through the list, reacting to it in writing. I won't make a comment about every single film, only the ones I've either seen or have something to say about. I'll be telling you whether I agree or disagree with their choices and you'll get to read my genuine, unfiltered reactions. I have high hopes for the list as I tend to trust The Guardian's film criticism, if only because they have one of my favourite film critics (and definitely my favourite living film critic) on there, Mark Kermode. No idea if he contributed to the list, but let's go!

#100: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
It took me a second to work out what the hell the writer meant by saying '[it] knocks Kill Bill: Vol. 1 off the list.' Was it a reference to the Death List? What list? Then I realised that KB: V1 had been on this list and had been knocked off by OUATIH, at which point I formally decided that I am an idiot for that not being obvious. Anyway, OUATIH is fantastic (because of a busy schedule I sadly never got to review it on this blog) and I'm very happy with its inclusion, with the condition that Django and Inglourious Basterds are on the way.
#99: Bright Star
#98: The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight is my second favourite film of the 21st century thus far, my favourite Christopher Nolan film, and the only comic book film that I have ever awarded five stars. While I would have loved to see it place higher, I'm happy that it made the list at all as I feel many cinephiles tend to dismiss it at eleven years' distance.
#97: Fahrenheit 9/11
#96: Private Life
The first Netflix film to make an appearance, interesting.
#95: Call Me By Your Name
#94: Gladiator
First Best Picture winner on the list and probably the only Ridley Scott movie unless they throw us a curveball and put Alien: Covenant at number one.
#93: You, The Living
#92: The Hurt Locker
I'm looking at the unwatched Hurt Locker Blu-Ray on my shelf right now.
#91: Etre et Avoir
#90: Eden
#89: The Selfish Giant
#88: Gomorrah
#87: The Wind That Shakes the Barley
#86: No Country For Old Men
Finally, another film I've seen! I love the Coen Brothers but personally I don't love No Country as much as everyone else. I gave it four stars, so I still think of it as a very good film, but most people would award it five stars. I found certain scenes to be hugely tense but the space in between them to be, dare I say it, a little dull? I didn't really see the point of Tommy Lee Jones' character but I did love a lot of elements about the film, particularly Javier Bardem's performance. I should probably rewatch it at some point as I've only seen it once and apparently it's one of those movies that grows on you. Personally, I wouldn't put it above OUATIH or The Dark Knight but I guess it's mostly worthy of this list.
#85: Burning
I really wanted to see Burning but it took bloody forever to come to Australian cinemas and by the time it did I'd more or less forgotten about it. I'll seek it out on Blu-Ray at some point, I guess.
#84: Tropical Malady
#83: The Son's Room
#82: Stories We Tell
#81: Fish Tank
#80: Requiem For a Dream
#79: Persepolis
I hadn't heard of this film before today but looking at the image that they've put above it's entry makes me want to see it. It looks very strange.
#78: Ocean's Eleven
#77: Lost in Translation
I always forget Lost in Translation is a film from 2003. I always think of it as a Nineties movie for some reason. Maybe it's just because Bill Murray is in it.
#76: Ten
Should've put it at #10.
#75: Philomena
Sorry, I admit that was a bad joke.
#74: A Prophet
#73: Love & Friendship
#72: Waltz With Bashir
#71: Capernaum
#70: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Last year, I watched about thirty minutes of Anchorman in class and guess what? It really wasn't that funny. My dad loves the film but I just don't get it. Maybe it just hasn't aged that well post-#MeToo since it's essentially a film where workplace sexual harassment is portrayed as comedic. I don't like to judge a film without finishing it but it sure as hell isn't better than The Dark Knight!
#69: Paddington 2
#68: Mr Turner
#67: Dogtooth
#66: Brokeback Mountain
#65: Happy As Lazzaro
#64: The Incredibles
The description of this pick says that  'The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw ranked The Incredibles as Pixar's best ever film...' I hope that's referring to another list because there are other Pixar films from the 21st century that I like more. That being said, I do love The Incredibles, and it's a stone-cold childhood classic for me. Many describe it as the best Fantastic Four film, but I think that cheapens it. It's more like... well, it's more like Watchmen for the whole family.
#63: We Need to Talk About Kevin
#62: Waiting for Happiness
#61: The Souvenir
I've raved about this British independent film elsewhere on this blog after I was fortunate enough to be able to see it at the Sydney Film Festival 2019. It truly is an excellent slice-of-life drama and I'm happy to see it place this high. As far as 2019 films on this list go I think I prefer Once Upon a Time in Hollywood but I gave them the same rating - they're both great.
#60: Ted
Well, that's an interesting choice.
#59: Gangs of Wasseypur
#58: Wuthering Heights
#57: Leave No Trace
#56: Behind the Candelabra
Candelabra is a word I have an endless amount of trouble pronouncing.
#55: Russian Ark
#54: The Social Network
The Social Network is a fantastic film that I'm happy to see on this list. I actually think about it a lot; it gives you tons of food for thought. It's my third favourite David Fincher film - the other two are both from this century so I hope to see them in the top fifty. And may I remark what an absolute tragedy it was that Colin Firth won Best Actor over Jesse Eisenberg in this film. Firth in The King's Speech was an often amusing and serviceably compelling protagonist. Eisenberg's portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg was naturalistically flawed, at times cold and unforgettable. All in all, it deserves it's spot on this list and I'm eagerly awaiting the yet-to-be-announced Part II where we get to see Zuckerberg's recent trials.
#53: Fire At Sea
#52: Amores Perros
#51: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
*deep sigh* Look, I really don't like CT, HD and I don't get the hype. It's a bunch of great action scenes held together by a poorly-paced, repetitive and at times downright dull story with forgettable characters. The fight choreography is fantastic, Ang Lee's direction is fantastic, but the film is kind of bad. I know this is a hot take but I have to do it: the placement of this film on the list earns a hard disagree from me.
#50: Before Sunset
#49: 24 Hour Party People
I'm now regretting my decision to praise lots of English-language films and then completely trash the first foreign language film I come across. That doesn't reflect very well.
#48: The House of Mirth
#47: Margaret
#46: Volver
#45: 13th
#44: Toni Erdmann
#43: The Wolf of Wall Street
Surprised it took this long to come across a Scorsese film but that might mean they're all in the top forty.
#42: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
#41: The Handmaiden
#40: Unrelated
#39: Meek's Cutoff
#38: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
The second film on this list so far with Once Upon a Time in... as part of its title.
#37: Dogville
#36: A Separation
#35: 45 Years
Should've put it at #45. Yes, I just did that joke again. Feel free to close this page.
#34: The Child
#33: The Royal Tenenbaums
I've yet to see The Royal Tenenbaums but the description says that it is 'certainly his finest', which is a shame because it means that we probably won't see my favourite Anderson film The Grand Budapest Hotel later on.
#32: Gravity
Ay, Alfonso! Gravity has some of the best visual effects I've ever seen and at four stars, it's a pretty good benchmark for deciding whether a semi-realistic space movie is good or not. The whole premise of a sharp cloud of debris flying around the Earth's gravity at hundreds of miles per hour is a really effective and terrifying way to build tension and create a ticking clock for the plot. I think the movie is let down a little bit by the two characters, who are a little thin, but they have enough motivation and conflict that it doesn't bother me. I hope this isn't the last Cuaron film on the list because there are at least two more films in his directorial filmography that I would consider to be stronger than Gravity. 
#31: Anomalisa
Hey, we're having a good run as far as films I've seen. Anomalisa is a meditation on existence and society. With puppets. It's penned by one of my favourite screenwriters, Charlie Kaufman, who also co-directed the film, and it's incredibly clever, with some great performances and probably the best stop motion animation I've ever seen with the some of the most detailed and expressive animated characters to ever be put to film. It's five stars from me, and easily deserves its place on the list.
#30: Leviathan
#29: Nebraska
#28: The Tree of Life
#27: The Grand Budapest Hotel
WOO-HOO! I thought The Royal Tenenbaums' entry implied that this one had been knocked out of the running but I guess it did get in after all. This film boasts some fantastic characters (and the best performance I've ever seen from Ralph Fiennes) and a quirky visual style that's instantly recognisable and iconic. Great score, great screenplay, great film. It definitely deserves to be on this list.
#26: Yi Yi 
#25: Get Out
Get Out was one of the most impressive directorial debuts in recent times, if not forever. Jordan Peele somehow managed to suddenly jump from being a comedian to writing and directing one of the most interesting horror films of the decade. It's a very interesting film to really dig into, even if the themes can be a little in-your-face at times (his second feature Us, while definitely messier, is a bit more complex and subtle). I gave it four-and-a-half stars and I think it deserves its place on the list.
#24: Ida 
#23: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan 
Thanks to Inglourious Basterds, I can now not spell 'glorious' correctly on my first try.
#22: Spirited Away
#21: The White Ribbon
#20: Roma
Nice! Very happy to see this make the list. I'm pretty sure it's writer/director/cinematographer/editor/producer Alfonso Cuarón's masterpiece and easily the best film of last year. It's a very personal, semi-autobiographical story with fantastic characters and great acting by a mostly amateur cast. The cinematography is absolutely stunning and the film can be incredibly calming, tense, heartwarming and heartbreaking at various different points, sometimes doing more than one at once. It's a slow-burn emotional rollercoaster that everyone needs to see. I doubt it's a film mainstream audiences would find especially entertaining but it is a masterpiece - five stars, easily.
#19: Lincoln
#18: A Serious Man
#17: The Great Beauty
#16: The Act of Killing
#15: Shoplifters
#14: White Material
#13: Far From Heaven
#12: Son of Saul
#11: Mulholland Drive
Phew, I'm glad this made it onto the list, I was getting worried there. Anyway, you don't need me to tell you that Mulholland Drive is an absolute masterwork that I would give more than five stars if I could. I came out of watching it in a daze, mulling over the complex enigma of a plot. This was Naomi Watts' breakout role and she is utterly brilliant in it, starring alongside Laura Harring, who's also a great actress. It's very much a part of David Lynch's canon as it explores the idea of a seemingly idyllic town having a dark, rotten side, a theme that can be seen in his other work, particularly Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet. Other than narrative, this theme is personified in two characters who are played by the same actress in the film. I'll leave it at that because spoilers (it helps to know nothing about a David Lynch film before going in, which is why the tagline for Inland Empire was simply 'a woman in trouble' and there were barely any trailers for Twin Peaks: The Return). 
#10: Team America: World Police 
#9: Zama
#8: Moonlight
#7: Synecdoche, New York
Another one of my favourites from the 21st Century. I think it's Charlie Kaufman's best film (he proved that he has more than just a talent for screenwriting in this, his directorial debut) and Philip Seymour Hoffman gives one of the best performances I've ever seen. It's not a very crowd-pleasing film; it's dark and moody, confusing at times, and makes you feel very, very alone. I think we can all recognise aspects of our own behaviour in the plight of Hoffman's character, Caden, especially if you're a creative type. I love Synecdoche and would give it five stars.
#6: Hidden
#5: In the Mood For Love
#4: Under the Skin
#3: Boyhood
#2: 12 Years a Slave
Should've put it at #12- okay, I'm done.
#1: There Will Be Blood

Overall, I think that was a pretty solid list. I'll admit that I have not seen the majority of the films on there (I'm working on it, okay?) but of the ones I have seen, everything seemed to be in the right place. aside from the crap Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I would have switched the order up a bit (I really like Gravity but no way is it better than The Social Network, The Dark Knight, The Souvenir, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the list goes on), but overall the choices were well-informed. Some notable exceptions that I would have personally included are Inglourious Basterds, Zodiac, Hero (a much better martial arts film than CT, HD), Children of Men (better than Gravity), Adaptation., Unbreakable, Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Mad Max: Fury Road, Inside Llewyn Davis, Parasite (though I'll forgive that one because it hasn't been released in a lot of places yet), Django Unchained, Birdman, Whiplash, Three Billboards and Blade Runner 2049. It would have also been fun to see some Nightcrawler or Pan's Labyrinth action. 

Thanks for reading!