With over a week now passed since the opening of Chris Nolan’s Inception, which is perhaps the most cerebral mainstream movie released so far this year, we thought it would be rewarding to analyze it a little further. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a neuroscientist who visits other people’s dreams (along with his own) and has a complex relationship with his late wife through these dreams, the film’s story is rife with philosophical quandaries and interpretive possibilities. Below, we try to take a look at some of both. To further appreciate any film you must look more intently at it and focus on the finer details, because sometimes these details can change how you view the bigger picture. Not that we would be so presumptuous to say that we are about to unveil some monumental factor that will knock your socks off, but taking the following analysis with a grain of salt might cause you to reconsider what you think you already know about this mind-blowing film.

Caution: It is highly recommended that you see Inception before reading any further Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: The tagline reads "Who is Salt?" - but does the movie even know?

Director: Phillip Noyce (The Bone Collector)

Screenwriter: Kurt Wimmer (Law Abiding Citizen)

Cast: Angelina Jolie (Wanted, Changeling), Liev Schreiber (Repo Men), Chiwetel Ejiofor (2012, Serenity)

Length: 1h 40m

Synopsis: Evelyn Salt (Jolie) is a CIA operative who was recently rescued from captivity in North Korea. She has a husband, a distinguished career profile, and is looking forward to celebrating her wedding anniversary. Before officially clocking out the night of, however, her superiors ask that she interrogate a man who could possibly be a Russian spy. During the interrogation the man pegs Salt as also being a Russian spy by saying she was his contact in the United States. Not taking chances, the CIA tries to hold Salt but she gets away, leading them on a wild chase that they hope will reveal exactly which side she’s fighting for. Read the rest of this entry »

I finally found a movie I couldn't finish watching.

The other night I sat down to watch a movie that has been (relatively) quietly circulating around critic and horror fan circles. That movie is the Dutch The Human Centipede (First Sequence), written and directed by Tom Six. It is a horror film unlike any other, and I don’t say this lightly. The reason that I consider it particularly unusual is because it was the first film – ever – that I absolutely could not finish watching.

Without giving away too much to those who may be disinterested in viewing or even knowing about such a movie, I will state its premise as such: An evil ex-surgeon abducts three people and grafts them together. For more information I would suggest going to the film’s IMDb or Wikipedia page.

As an aspiring professional film journalist, I am embarrassed to admit such a thing. But as one movie-watcher out of many, I simply mean to acknowledge the power that the medium can have. Everyone is afraid of something, whether it be death, pain, clowns, spiders, being buried alive, or simply being tied up, and so in theory everyone could be confronted with a film that tackles the subject of that fear in a way that would make that film simply unwatchable without negative side-effects occurring (one example would be nightmares).

Even though I was appalled at the film to such an extent that I could not stomach finishing it, I do vow to one day do so. I make this vow out of respect for the film, because while I only saw the first half I was still able to notice how brilliantly it was made – that is, from an artistic standpoint. I believe that a horror film that can affect a seasoned horror movie fan such as myself to such an extent deserves at least some admiration, even though personally I may worry about its maker’s state of mind.

Since I cannot review the film myself just yet, I’d like to point you towards the best one I have yet read. Roger Ebert’s review is characteristically fair-minded, but this one by HorrorSquad.com’s Alison Nastasi delves further into the story’s ideas, themes, and supporting philosophies. She provides perhaps the most studied interpretation of Tom Six’s intentions with the material, going out of her way to cite multiple obscure references. I wouldn’t claim that her views are the “correct” ones, but they encourage us as readers to consider the film from her point of view better than anyone else I’ve found.

Evaluative judgments aside, The Human Centipede (First Sequence) is NOT a film for the faint of heart. Its subject matter is universally considered deplorable and depraved, and if the fact that this film fanatic and horror junkie could not finish it doesn’t say something significant about it then I fail to think of what will. For those wondering, blood and/or gore are extremely scarce and are not the cause of my or others’ intense trepidation. The most frightening ideas are relatively simple, and this movie proves it once again.

Robin Wood famously articulated the American horror film, but one thing still needs to be added

While rereading Robin Wood’s essay An Introduction to the American Horror Film I noticed that it failed to talk about an important element in the discussion of what exactly describes an American horror film. The absence of this topic in his subsection titled “Basic Formula” surprises me now, as it is arguably just as simple a provision to the genre as the overarching blueprint stipulating that “normality is threatened by the Monster.” While Wood’s essay has long since been considered a seminal one for both him and academic thought about the horror genre, and this is very true, an amendment should nevertheless be made. That amendment is specific but not intricate, dealing with the main protagonist’s direct relationship with the antagonist. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: An absolutely mind-blowing experience - One of the most creative films in years

Director: Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento, The Prestige)

Screenwriter: Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento, The Prestige)

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio (Shutter Island), Ken Watanabe (Letters from Iwo Jima), Marion Cotillard (Nine), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer), Ellen Page (Whip It), Cillian Murphy (Sunshine), Tom Berenger (Sinners and Saints), Tom Hardy (RocknRolla), Michael Caine (Harry Brown), Dileep Rao (Drag Me to Hell)

Length: 2h 28m

Synopsis: Neuroscientists Cobb (DiCaprio) and Arthur (Gordon-Levitt) have a unique job, which is to enter the dreams of others and navigate them in order to find out important information – mainly secrets (this is called Extraction). The invention that they use to perform such a task allows for several people to share another person’s dream, which they can more or less construct to their liking. While working within dreams may sound (pardon me) like a dream, the procedure can in fact be very dangerous. Many things can go wrong that can leave the individuals inside a dream with severe psychological problems, not the least of which is the inability to ever be sure if you’re dreaming or not. Cobb and Arthur’s newest assignment asks them to not just steal information from someone’s brain, but plant an idea in it as well (this is called Inception). The mission demands that they recruit a team and delve deeper into someone’s mind than they’ve ever gone before, and the deeper they go the less chance they have of ever waking back up. Read the rest of this entry »

We at Movie-Thoughts recently found a fan website for David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. that goes into painstaking detail to interpret the film and its many intricacies. If you’ve ever seen the film, or even just heard about it, you know that it’s not a film that is easy to make heads or tails of. Many who have seen the film, critics included, have been baffled by it since its release in 2001.

Surprisingly, however, a widespread inability to understand the film has not kept it from being enormously liked by critics and audiences alike. It has a rating of 82% on RottenTomatoes.com and 67 on Metacritic, with a consensus being that the movie’s visuals help captivate and intrigue despite the plot and story being “enigmatic.” Many critics have come to regard the film very highly; so much so that Film Comment magazine’s Top 100 Movies of the Decade critics poll has it ranked #1.

The website that we found, Mulholland-Drive.net, has an essay written by a man named Alan Shaw (we had no success in researching exactly who he is) that goes into extreme detail. When we started reading his essay we were absolutely floored. The explanations that Shaw posits may be hard to grasp at first, but they soon become increasingly lucid. The amount of thought he must have put into such ideas had to have exhausted him. His legwork is for our benefit, however, because no other source that we’ve been able to find has provided such interesting, thorough, and thought-provoking material (though the site offers links to other sources for analysis on the film).

Here is a snippet that gives you a sense of what the source provides:

“Throwing caution to the wind, Lynch asks us what would happen if we were not just in one head at a time? What would happen if our complex motivations and conflicted hearts were represented by a cast of personas in conflict with one another, and all struggling for control over the direction that our life will take. If you are willing to think of the main character in Mulholland Drive in this light, and envision her fantasy as a journey to determine the ultimate fate she will face after the fantasy is over, then you begin to understand the enormous trust Lynch puts in his audience. He wants us to take the journey with her, seeing her life through the eyes of multiple personas. And in so doing, Lynch wants us to learn to love her and to be angry with her, to be impressed and unimpressed, to be filled with hope and to be filled with dread. In essence, he wants us to engage her conflict with her, and to come away without any easy answers. And in the end, he wants us to learn some very heart wrenching lessons.”

For those who already love Mulholland Dr. it will enhance the fulfillment you have when watching it (unless you like not being sure of what’s going on), and for those who have been put off or disinterested because of how enigmatic the movie is Shaw’s writings will open your mind in a way that will allow you to begin to actually understand it. We could not recommend this source more highly.

If you know of a great source for in-depth thought on a film, share it with the world by telling us about it! Let us know what it is and where to find it and we’ll pass it along to all the rest of our readers. You can contact us via our Contact page, email at Clifford@Movie-Thoughts.com, or Twitter @MovieThoughts09.

Short Take: Surprisingly touching, good family fun

Director: Pierre Coffin (Gary’s Fall), Chris Renaud (No Time for Nuts)

Screenwriter: Ken Daurio (Horton Hears a Who!, The Santa Clause 2), Sergio Pablos (Début)

Cast: Steve Carell (Date Night, Horton Hears a Who!), Jason Segel (I Love You, Man; Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly, The School of Rock)

Length: 1 hour 35 minutes

Synopsis: Evil villain Gru (Carell) prepares to steal the moon after his nemesis Vector (Segel) manages to purloin one of the pyramids.  In order to pull off his plan, Gru adopts three young orphan girls.  Though Gru sees the girls as little more than destructive nuisances at first, his attitude and love of villainy slowly begins to change the more involved he becomes in their lives.

Read the rest of this entry »

Metro Goldwyn-Mayer is drowning in debt, but its survival behooves its investors

In order to play catch-up with the latest news that has happened over the past few days, here are some of the more notable headlines aside from Despicable Me’s opening weekend box-office numbers (which reportedly exceeded $60 million).

Metro Goldwyn-Mayer Requests 6th Debt Extention

The longstanding Hollywood studios is reportedly almost $4 billion in debt. More than 100 lenders who will assume control of the company soon (due to this debt) are in the process of phasing in new management, but in the meantime the company still owes the lenders a $250 million payment with a $200 million interest tag, which must be paid by July 15th. However, MGM will have more time to come up with these funds if the lenders grant the company a sixth extension, which they have until July 13th to do.

Disney to Finally Sell Miramax?

Disney has made an agreement (but not an official deal) with a group headed by construction executive Ronald Tutor and joined by Colony Capital that will sell the latter Miramax studios, along with its 611 film library, for $650 million. Only $300 million is available in equity to Disney at the moment with more to be raised in the near future, and so a $200 million debt is to be expected for Tudor and Colony Capitol if the deal goes through. Disney appears to have confidence that the buyers will be able to raise the money.

The Weinstein Co. still claims to have interest in buying Miramax, but their 2005 exit agreement happened because they felt Disney’s asking price of $650 million was too high. If the Tudor/Capitol talks fall through, Weinstein will reportedly consider making another bid. If the current deal does become official, it will raise questions about the rights to certain films that Weinstein still owns due to their exit agreement. Miramax will not be able to make sequels or remakes for any films Weinstein owns without their approval.

Academy Changes Rules for Animated Films

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors has released new rules about which animated films can be nominated for the Best Animated Feature category. The original cutoff for animated shorts was a 40 minute maximum, and animated features had to be at least 70 minutes. The gap has been corrected to include animated films over 40 mins in the feature-length category.

Also, the board has decreed that motion-capture animation does not qualify as true animation, which is the traditional “frame-by-frame technique”. So, mo-cap animated films will not be eligible for Best Animated Short or Feature Oscar categories. The new rule regarding animated films is as follows: “An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of greater than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75% of the picture’s running time.”

Short Take: Decidedly loyal, but not afraid to break new ground

Director: Nimród Antal (debut)

Screenwriters: Alex Litvak, Michael Finch

Cast: Adrien Brody (Splice), Alice Braga (Repo Men), Topher Grace (Spider-Man 3), Lawrence Fishburne (TV’s C.S.I.), Danny Trejo (Grindhouse), Walton Goggins (TV’s Justified)

Length: 1h 46m

Synopsis: After mysteriously arriving on an alien planet that resembles the jungles of our own, 8 random people find themselves confused and paranoid, reluctant to trust one another but determined to find answers. Before long they realize that their purpose on this strange world is to be prey to an advanced alien species that finds the idea of hunting synonymous with sport. Not coincidentally, all 8 members of the abducted group are killers themselves in one way or another (mercenary, Spetsnaz, serial killer, R.U.F., etc.), and so they must rely on their predatory instincts to survive. The only question is, which predators will come out on top?

Warning: This review contains information that some might consider spoiling Read the rest of this entry »

Netflix and Relativity Media have made a deal that will allow the video-rental giant to stream up to 30 of the studio’s films during the “traditional pay-TV distribution window.” Netflix has deals with all major studios that allows them to stream online a certain amount of those studios’ films, however up until now only Disney and Sony were allowing the streaming of their movies during this period.

The deal will begin with only the 10-12 films that Relativity will release over the next year (their typical output) but Netflix will be able to max out at 30 over the next five years. Both companies have stated that they believe this deal will be the beginning of a different age of distribution, away from pay-TV channels.

“Our continued goal is to expand the breadth and timeliness of films and TV shows

Netflix's streaming rights continue to grow, which will possibly help smaller studios gain better exposure

available to stream on Netflix,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said.

“We have always been about finding new ways to grow and monetize our business,” Relativity chief Ryan Kavanaugh said. “This clearly is a natural step in the evolution of the movie business and opens up a whole new world of revenue and marketing opportunities.”

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Quick Opinion: That Netflix is now making streaming deals with non-major Hollywood studios should be encouraging for those who are excited about the idea of “big” Hollywood not having as big a monopoly on exposure. With more streaming movies being from smaller (but not small) production and distribution studios the greater leverage they have in making distribution deals with those bigger companies. The more people see your films – and the more evidence you have that they do – gives you more creative authority because there is less reason to bend over backwards to appease a big distributor’s standards. One easy example to cite is how Disney doesn’t tell Pixar how to make their films, they simply get a cut of the profits for distribution. What this all could do is open up an opportunity for production studios like Relativity (Lionsgate, Focus Features, Rogue Pictures, etc.), who prefer to create movies for peripheral audiences.