Tag Archives: #universe

Comet

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Release: Friday, December 5, 2014

[Netflix]

Written by: Sam Esmail

Directed by: Sam Esmail

Comet can pretend it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event but the stars shone so much brighter in the universes it has been melded by, spectacular constructs like the intricate and heartrending Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and 500 Days of Summer.

Bearing the heartbreak of the former while resembling more of the latter’s narrative nonlinearity and sophistication, Comet isn’t exactly a bad film when comparisons to romantic dramas of that ilk occur so naturally. It’s just unfortunate there isn’t much beyond a different cast that distinguishes Sam Esmail’s work. Of course, the case could be made that his film pays homage but where exactly does one draw the line between dedication and duplication? A few colorful, creative scene transitions beautified by special effects don’t quite cut it for this cynic reviewer. Oh, and the film is supposed to be set within a parallel universe. Although a bit hokey, that angle is one I can work with.

Prior to what is purported to be a spectacular meteorological event, Dell (Justin Long) bumps into the beautiful Kimberly (Emmy Rossum) as they wait in a line to access a park that will provide the ideal vantage point. Caught up in one of his verbalized streams of consciousness stating his lack of faith in humanity, as only a character played by Long can, Dell is saved from being hit by a passing car by the new girl. He spends the remainder of this evening pining after her, lamenting the fact she’s already spoken for by some guy who happens to look good but quite clearly has no personality. He decides the meteor shower can wait until he’s finished his stalking.

Comet then jettisons us out of this present tense and into another, one somewhere in the near future (this film covers a six-year period), where the two are now an intimate couple. Times haven’t changed so much as the dynamic of Long and Rossum’s interactions. We’re privy to heated arguments, weird phone calls, insults stemming from two people slipping out of love and into something more akin to hostility. Resentment. Chain smoking cigarettes becomes a motif. And Long’s character doesn’t become much more likable, though he is certainly interesting. This is probably one of his better performances, though it’s veiled behind pretentiousness and petulance. Conversely Rossum magnetizes with her quick wit and hipster glasses.

Then the narrative shifts yet again, sending us back into a place where things were more romantic. The story constantly moves and changes, with almost every scene introducing a different phase in the relationship. And the process is far from chronological. That the film manages to maintain our interest at all stems from an incisive, brutally honest script that lays bare all the faults — some of which are all too apparent and others that are created through the simple but terrifying passage of time — of a relationship that seems to have been contrived from the very beginning. Who shakes hands to formally kick off a relationship? Who does that?

Apparently this couple. Comet would be a memorable picture but — at the risk of repeating myself — it’s far too reminiscent of Tom and Summer’s experiences together and the slide into their own private oblivion. Whereas 500 Days of Summer justified its experimentation with practical structure (“500 days” prepared us for the inevitable) Comet seems to just drag on and on, never seeming to settle on a pattern or even pretending like one would make any difference. It’s a shame because the performances are strong, the cinematography gorgeous and emotions do run high. Truly, it’s difficult at times to believe Rossum is in fact not in a real relationship with Long but the director himself. (I’m sorry, was that a spoiler?)

Comet has its moments of brilliance but it’s a true challenge shaking the feeling of déjà vu. Of course, there are worse fates for a film steeped in a generally predictable and melodramatic genre.

Recommendation: Visually dazzling and capably performed, it’s frustratingly difficult to ignore Comet‘s contrived nature. For great performances from its two stars, I do recommend a viewing. But be advised, you probably should have a high tolerance for Justin Long. He tested my patience at times and there’s a good chance he will yours. Emmy Rossum is a newcomer to me and she’s a delight. I’d recommend it more for what she puts forth actually.

Rated: R

Running Time: 91 mins.

Quoted: “Why does it feel so impossible to let you go? It’s an addiction, you know. That’s all it is. It’s a biochemical addiction. It’s so stupid. If you think about it relationships are totally narcissistic. Basically, you’re just looking for someone who’ll love you as much as you love yourself. That’s all it is.”

All content originally published and the reproduction elsewhere without the expressed written consent of the blog owner is prohibited.

Photo credits: http://www.impawards.com; http://www.imdb.com 

Interstellar

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Release: Friday, November 7, 2014

[RPX Theater]

Written by: Jonathan Nolan; Christopher Nolan 

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Interstellar is a fascinating adventure, even if its credibility is trumped by spectacle.

And somewhere throughout this epic excursion to the far reaches of our universe I half expected Matthew McConaughey to make the pithy observation that Dorothy is not in Kansas anymore. Alas, that moment never came.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

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There has been a healthy dose of speculation about the latest Christopher Nolan spectacular, on both ends of the spectrum — hype surrounding the fact that Nolan’s grandiose vision would now sync up with quite literally the most grandiose thing ever, space exploration, and caution against the inevitable: against getting hopes up too high (you know, in case Mr. Nolan isn’t actually infallible), and that the science needed to truly pull a feat like this off would likely not gel with the blockbuster formula. At least, not without alienating the majority of theater attendees.

Turns out, and in the wake of the dizzying height of such hype this last week, the cautioners were more accurate than they were naysaying; the positivity has been running a little unchecked. Try as I might to remain level-headed, I got swept up in it too. I for several months felt like a child after chugging an entire box of Pixy Stix. There was no way Christopher Nolan was going to disappoint. Not with this material, not with this cast, and particularly, not when he’s this experienced.

To that end, Interstellar is poised to represent a new standard to which audiences are going to forever hold Nolan accountable. In the build-up to the release, it was all we had to just assume the best of an intergalactic voyage through a never-ending web of stardust and dark matter. I’ve always thought it’s easier (and less scary) to imagine the size of the universe rather than to sit there and calculate its dimensions. Similarly, being ignorant to what the movie actually presents seems to provide a sense of innocence. It’s only in this moment the conditions might seem perfect, that we might have a truly comprehensive look at our place in the universe.

Interstellar is a movie that works best when not questioning, at least too deeply, the very heady developments taking place in the clutches of deep space. Contrary to Nolan’s ambitious hiring of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne as the film’s chief scientific consultant and executive producer, there isn’t a significant moment in the extraterrestrial portion of the narrative that passes without some level of suspension of disbelief. In fact, this happens more frequently than Thorne and any physicist are going to admit.

I don’t want to damn the science part of the fiction. I’d rather grin and go along with the logical gaps, because this film is a lot of fun for being about a very real end of a very real world. This is the most confidently something as technical as physics has been handled in a major motion picture event in some time. Possibly ever. The theory of relativity exists as a recurring theme and quantum physics crops up on more than a couple of occasions. Although reading textbooks isn’t required before sitting down to watch this, some scenes are sure to throw viewers for some exciting but head-scratching loops. Credit most assuredly needs to be given to Nolan for reaching out to field experts like Thorne who could give his film an immediate legitimacy a single filmmaker otherwise could not.

OLD AGE SHOULD BURN AND RAVE AT CLOSE OF DAY

INTERSTELLAR

Nolan once again reaches out to his brother Jonathan for the tall task of penning the script. This was a smart move. Good thing in an industry like entertainment nepotism doesn’t really count for much. He isn’t playing favorites, he just knows what he likes and knows how to get it.

It’s been proven on multiple occasions that the dramatic overtones of Christopher’s directing fall into a blissful matrimony with Jonathan’s perception of human nature. His script suggests a viable endpoint for a species that has for far too long remained ignorant to their impacts on their global environment. Culturally, we no longer exist. We are just a physical collection of individuals still surviving on the surface of this tired planet. In whatever year this is we aren’t exactly in denial but we also have not changed a great deal between present-day (in reality) and the present-day in the film, some near-future where the only food source we have left is corn. Jonathan can see how much trouble we are in today and extrapolates that, say, fifty years into the future with Nostradamian confidence.

The space epic is seated deeply in reality, which is what is most remarkable about a film that also features black holes (a relatively recent scientific discovery), rips in the space-time continuum, and a grab-bag of other assorted mind-bending phenomena. So easily the intellectual reach of Nolan’s direction could tip the proceedings into the realm of the ridiculous — and once or twice it does — but the performances he extracts from the likes of McConaughey, Jessica Chastain (who plays a fully-grown version of Murph, the daughter McConaughey’s Cooper leaves behind on Earth), and Mackenzie Foy (the younger Murph) ensure that we are distracted enough from some of the more obvious offenses.

Getting away from some of the more practical considerations, the production on a creative level is a thing of beauty. I’ll touch back on the practical for just a second: once we get into space the first thing that should be taken notice of, just like in Alfonso Cuarón’s brilliant Gravity of last year, is the deafening silence outside the space vessel. In a second we realize we are in a place we don’t naturally find ourselves. Unlike Gravity, the curvature of the Earth outside the Endurance’s windows is as close to familiar ground as we will be for the remainder of the film.

Hans Zimmer once again reminds the world of why he has a job scoring films. His work here is mesmeric, haunting, truly the stuff of science fiction and space exploration. Melancholic vibes are quickly supplanted by a racing pulse of optimism, determination. Where concerns grow about the convenience of certain plot developments, Zimmer steps in and whisks us to a galaxy far, far away. The musical composition of Interstellar is fantastical as much as it is fantastic.

I suppose in some ways Nolan’s latest was going to be a predictable affair. There was almost no way this concept could work perfectly. After all, what he is attempting is something no other filmmaker has really sought out, save for perhaps Stanley Kubrick. In Nolan’s vision we are shrunken to the size of worker ants. We have an enormous task ahead of us and it’s more weight upon our backs than we ought to be carrying, but we have no choice. A lot of things happen within this nearly three-hour runtime. But to credit the film editors, the running time almost seems insufficient. Arguably this is Christopher Nolan reaching for the stars while only managing to strike a new crater on the moon.

But even if it isn’t top-shelf Christopher Nolan, it still sits up higher than most films of its ilk in the last 30 years. Interstellar is a trip worth taking for the views and some reminders of how far scientific discovery actually has come if nothing else.

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4-0Recommendation: If it were any more serious, this film could be considered the most bombastic thing Nolan has ever undertaken. Fortunately he sprinkles in some much-needed humor to provide levity to this desperate search for another Earth-like planet. I highly doubt I need to recommend this film, but in case you are having any questions regarding the hype and whether it’s too much, it is a little overblown but certainly not enough to warrant skipping it at the theaters. This is a film, much like Cuarón’s Oscar-sweeper of yesteryear, that demands the big-screen treatment. It will lose so much if you wait for a rental. I also have to recommend seeing this on the largest screen possible, though you might save a few extra bucks by not going for the 3D. 

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 169 mins.

Quoted: “We’ve always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we’ve just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we’ve barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us.”

All content originally published and the reproduction elsewhere without the expressed written consent of the blog owner is prohibited.

Photo credits: http://www.impawards.com; http://www.imdb.com 

Particle Fever

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Release: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 (limited)

[Theater]

Time to bust out those nerdy glasses, kids, because today we’re going back to school to talk a lot about the Large Hadron Collider, henceforth referred to as the LHC! (YAY!) Some of you may be looking for a quick exit already. That’s okay, I’m pretty sure there’s a support group for people who don’t mind living in ignorance, right down the hall. Should be on your left, you can’t miss it.

For everyone else with an open mind, let’s jump right into a quick analysis of this highly intriguing documentary, Particle Fever.

Everyone recalls the construction (or at least the completion thereof) of the world’s largest particle accelerator, located near Geneva, Switzerland. Harbored deep within a subterranean, concrete-reinforced tunnel at the Franco-Swiss border, the LHC today looms among the world’s largest and most complex machines ever built by human hands. One lap around this puppy is a 17-mile jog. ‘Ambitious’ is a term that doesn’t even begin to describe the size of both the device itself and the project requiring its use. Design, construction and operation of the LHC involved the decade-long (1998-2008) efforts of approximately 10,000 scientists and engineers, and due to it’s immense implications, far more eyes than those of the scientific community were turning towards this little corner of the globe.

When it comes to explaining just what the LHC is supposed to do, it might be easier to start explaining exactly what the thing isn’t supposed to do. Understandably, with an event of this magnitude, great speculation surrounded the whole enterprise. . .almost to the point where the LHC became a mythological construct. The ultimate plaything.

At the time of the machine’s first day of operation — in the scientific world, September 10, 2008 was known as the day of ‘First Beam’ — newspaper headlines the world over announced that we were officially one step closer to better understanding conditions present at the time of the supposed ‘Big Bang,’ a singular event that is thought to have spawned everything that has ever been. While the sensational claim isn’t entirely false, it is misleading, if only because general interest news articles tend not to delve particularly deep into the details of the genius of this machine and of the people who designed it.

Avoiding going into excessive detail is a tactic that Mark Levinson uses to great effect in his behind-the-scenes peek at some of the individuals involved in this massive project. Levinson likes to keep things simple, and though the documentary’s subject matter is anything but, he succeeds in creating a film that doesn’t require a deep understanding of particle physics for viewers to keep up with the discussion. Rather, interviews with a variety of scientists from all over the world offer up a kind of collage of dialogue that viewers can sift through and try to identify from their own point of view. None of these scientists condescend, nor do they ever break from stereotype, either. Sure, a dance party themed out as a tribute to the collider is a bit dorky, but what else should we have expected here?

Particle Fever catalogs major events on a timeline that’s in its infancy. Beginning with the days leading up to the aforementioned ‘First Beam,’ a day where only a single particle was sent through the circuit as a way to test the very most basic functional aspects, the film moves on to cover many triumphs and setbacks, including the infamous breakdown that occurred a mere week-and-a-half after the first test — a day that gave the world media and the skeptics additional fuel in their arguments against the LHC’s being a tool for the betterment of mankind. When the LHC proved almost too powerful for its own good on that fateful day, those doubting whether science was really trying to push knowledge forward (as opposed to trying to kill everyone on earth by accidentally creating a black hole in the middle of the planet — remember that little laugh?) came flooding out of the woodwork. It was, for all intents and purposes, a day of science fiction for the brainiacs gathered in Geneva.

However, despite setbacks, the conversation constantly shifts to excitedly discussing more and increasingly greater successes. What really lies at the heart of this experiment, as you may or may not recall, is a little theoretical particle called the Higgs boson. So, if the truth is to be told to the public eventually, the question becomes “what are we missing from the big picture?” rather than merely “what is the big picture?” Fortunately, and thanks to the brilliant design of the LHC, the particle is no longer theoretical. The Higgs particle is viewed as the long-missing piece of a puzzle that the mainstream media were quick to label the ‘God particle,’ based on the almost miraculous nature of its discovery. Of course, scientists pooh-pooh the term, as its a little too sensational.

In July of 2012 a convention was held to officially announce that the Higgs particle indeed existed, thanks to the efforts of one seriously expensive piece of equipment. By way of this groundbreaking presentation, the global scientific community were also honoring and congratulating the two men who were credited for the Higgs’ initial discovery, Dr. Peter Higgs and Belgian physicist François Englert. The pair’s efforts would receive their ultimate affirmation with their sharing of the 2013 Nobel Prize.

The documentary is a strong testimony to the power of the human mind, as it almost exclusively revolves around the lives of a few scientists working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (otherwise known as CERN) who dedicate themselves entirely to ensure the LHC not only works but helps provide new answers to age-old questions. The gamble is an absolutely crazy one, since the possibility of the LHC revealing no new information would be largely viewed as a catastrophic step backward for science. I would reveal more myself, but what’s left unaddressed here will only be more powerful when it’s revealed for you on the big screen. I guess what I am saying is. . .class dismissed boys and girls!

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3-5Recommendation: Insightful, Particle Fever may seem a pretty niched topic for a film but it holds information of a very general appeal. The discussion ongoing is very profound and important to consider at least on some level for everyone at some point. Hard to imagine most viewers walking around everyday with all of this information constantly crowding their thoughts, but if that’s the case, then this film should be even more fascinating.

Rated: NR

Running Time: 99 mins.

Quoted: “This could be nothing, other than understanding everything. . .”

All content originally published and the reproduction elsewhere without the expressed written consent of the blog owner is prohibited.

Photo credits: http://www.impawards.com; http://www.pbs.org