The NJNM Podcast: Ep. 37 - The Thing (Guest: Jim Napier from GeekTyrant.com)

(Poster by the awesome Drew Struzan, whose excellent book I reviewed here.)

In this week's episode, Ben and Tyler are joined by Jim Napier (from GeekTyrant.com) to discuss John Carpenter's 1982 film, The Thing.

Introduction

Character Name Game Intro - 1:33

In My Netflix - 2:03

Media Consumed

Tyler

Fighter's History (Super Nintendo game) - 6:35

Jennifer's Body - 7:49

Jim

This Film Is Not Yet Rated - 13:10
Zapped, The Long Kiss Goodnight - 14:00
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - 14:18

Ben

Gamebox 1.0 - 15:13

Review

The Thing - 21:09

Wrap-Up

Next Week: The Fountain - 1:02:29

Listener Voicemail/E-Mail/Twitter - 1:03:09

Character Name Game - 1:05:02

Where You Can Find Us - 1:06:45

(Information about the upcoming prequel can be found here thanks to i09.com.)

Hanna

Joe Wright's filmography is full of things I've never cared to see: Atonement, The Soloist, Pride & Prejudice. But all that changed with Hanna, Wright's first real foray into directing action. For comparison's sake, it's similar to The Bourne Identity in the way it balances psychological issues with sporadic bursts of action. The young female action heroine subgenre seems to have risen in popularity in recent years with Kick-Ass and Sucker Punch, but make no mistake: Hanna deals with the genre's popular themes much more effectively than either of the aforementioned movies.

Hanna
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett

Saoirse Ronan - an actress I've never seen before on screen - is phenomenal in the title role. She's captivating, capable of switching between starry-eyed wonder and straight-faced badassery with the ease of someone far more experienced. Raised in the forest by her rogue ex-CIA agent father Erik Heller (Eric Bana), Hanna has been trained her entire life to be a solider. Armed with knowledge of the world memorized from an encyclopedia, Hanna spends the first twenty-ish minutes of the film convincing her father she's "ready." Erik agrees, and they set a plan in motion that aims to destroy Marissa Weigler (Cate Blanchett), Erik's old CIA handler.

Bana disappears for long stretches of the film, but he gives a compelling performance when he pops up. He's a versatile actor: for my money, he was the best part of both Wolfgang Petersen's Troy and Judd Apatow's Funny People. Cate Blanchett - an actress I normally despise, despite her near-universal critical acclaim - was also relegated to a smaller role than the trailer indicates, and much to my surprise, I enjoyed her performance. She adopted some sort of Southern or Texas accent (a creative decision I assumed would make her even more difficult to tolerate), but she showed restraint and didn't overplay it. This may be the first time I've truly appreciated her in a film (keeping in mind that as of now, I've only seen a handful of her movies).

More than anything, Hanna is Joe Wright's canvas to explore the strangeness of growing up and punctuate these thoughtful, dreamy moments with bouts of ass kicking. Hanna meets a traveling family led by Olivia Williams ("Dollhouse") and Jason Flemyng (Deep Rising), and forms the first friendship she's ever had with their daughter, Sophie (Jessica Barden). Sophie couldn't be farther away from Hanna in a cultural sense, but this provides Wright with some material to ponder that tactile sense of bonding with a friend for the first time that almost everyone can relate to. (Perhaps not quite to the extent that this movie delves into it, but at least on some level.) Wright does a good job at balancing the two aspects, using violence to highlight the power of the relationships formed and giving action film fans something to chew on. There are some phenomenal sequences in this movie: Hanna's interaction with fake Marissa in the holding room, the cargo container chase scene, and - this film's pride and joy - the magnificent long take following Eric Bana through the bus station and continuing down into an extended fight in a subway chamber. (The subway fight will certainly be one of my favorite scenes of the year.)

I don't know anything about The Chemical Brothers, who did the score for this movie, but I do know that their work here was fantastic. The score is pulse-pounding in all the right places and inquisitive when it needs to be, using synths and techno beats to emphasize action and xylophones and bell tones to indicate innocence and curiosity. The score is a work of art unto itself, one that has real staying power and will probably be one of my favorites at year's end. As of this writing, some of the score is streaming for free online over at MySpace, so check it out over there. It's not music I'd normally be inclined to listen to, but it compliments the action on screen really well and the whistling melody adds to the overt fairy tale qualities of the film.

In my review of Sucker Punch, I pleaded that we'd see some smarter blockbusters during this summer season. While I wouldn't categorize Hanna as a blockbuster by any means - the movie has a very down-to-Earth vibe to it - this is the kind of intelligence I'm hoping for. Joe Wright knows what's up: it's not an impossible task to make a movie with a message that also includes excellent action scenes. Fans of the Bourne series, this one's for you. Until next time...

The NJNM Podcast: Ep. 36 - The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Guest: Kate Erbland from GATW)

In this week's episode, Ben and Tyler are joined by Kate Erbland (from Gordon and the Whale) to discuss Terry Gilliam's 2009 film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.





Introduction
Character Name Game Intro - 1:31
In My Netflix - 2:00

Media Consumed

Kate

The Big Lebowski - 6:41

We Are What We Are - 8:35

Source Code - 11:14

Tyler

Final Fantasy XII - 14:41

Terror of Mechagodzilla - 16:05

Assaultgirls - 16:57

Ben

"Dinner for Five": Season 1, Episode 11 - 20:05

Attack the Block - 25:29

Review

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - 28:38

Wrap-Up

Next Week: The Thing - 52:46

Listener Voicemail/E-Mail/Twitter - 53:42

Character Name Game - 59:05

Where You Can Find Us - 1:02:30

Attack the Block

Joe Cornish is a name many of you probably aren't familiar with...yet. But this guy is poised on the edge of breakout status, and my hope is that in a few years, he'll be drawing the same admiration and acclaim as his contemporary and sometimes-writing partner, Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). The duo co-wrote the screenplay for Spielberg's upcoming holiday release The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, and they have been working on a script for the lower-tier Marvel superhero Ant-Man for years now. Attack the Block marks Cornish's feature directorial debut (he also wrote the movie), and with its kinetic pacing, solid character work, and genre-mashing sensibilities, the movie already seems destined to become a cult classic.

Attack the Block
Writer/Director: Joe Cornish
Starring: Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones, Nick Frost

It opens in South London with a girl named Sam (Whittaker) getting mugged by a gang of teenage hoodlums, led by Moses (Boyega). The mugging is interrupted when an alien smashes through a car roof nearby, and after the guys kill the creature and parade it back to their "block," they soon realize the invasion isn't limited to one creature - there are many more falling from the sky, and these are a lot bigger and meaner than the first one. Teaming up with Sam and a few potheads (one played by Edgar Wright staple Nick Frost), the gang must band together in order to survive both the invasion and the unstable antics of the perpetually pissed off psychotic local drug dealer Hi-Hatz.

Rarely have the genres of action, comedy, and science fiction combined to such rousing effect as in this movie. The script is blazingly quick-witted, tearing from chase scene to set piece with jokes peppered throughout and near-perfect comic timing. Every gag works, every action scene is both conceived and executed in terrific fashion, and the character moments are spectacular. Similar movies may feel predictable, but things actually matter here: characters you grow to love die thanks to the glow-in-the-dark fangs of the aliens, and since no one is off limits, it heightens the drama throughout. The montage sequences of the gang preparing for battle has Wright's influence all over it, and the movie has a genuinely fun atmosphere even though these characters are enduring a horrifying situation.

Cornish used a cast comprised almost entirely of unknowns and they all work wonderfully together. They bounce their London slang off each other and practically finish each other's sentences with a youthful exuberance and blustery bravado found in kids who think they're gangsters, but are really just victims of a bad social situation. The colleague who got me into this screening (Drew McWeeny at HitFix - thanks Drew!) told me Cornish went through a four month casting search, and after he found everyone, he allowed the kids to essentially rewrite the dialogue into more natural language, mimicking the way they actually speak. That sensibility comes across brilliantly in the movie; the characters feel like real people instead of stock roles, and each one has his or her own defining characteristics. The accents may be a bit harsh at times, but there's absolutely no reason to subtitle the movie if and when it gets U.S. distribution (as discussions have indicated since Attack the Block's SXSW Film Festival premiere).

Unfortunately, you read that correctly - this movie hits the UK on May 13th, 2011, but if you're in the United States and you want to see it, you're sadly out of luck. It's shocking to me that distributors haven't picked this up yet, because it's a surefire cult classic that may not do gangbusters at the box office, but will make some serious cash in the home video market. I know I'll be purchasing the Blu-ray and showing it to all of my friends; this is the type of movie that plays great to a crowd, and fans of science fiction, comedy, or even some of the old Amblin films will be in geek heaven.

Attack the Block is full of references to other films, but these aren't nearly as obvious as the ones in Paul, another recent alien film with which Edgar Wright and Nick Frost were involved. Instead, this one relies more on the vibe than specific homages; there are touches of Gremlins, Alien, The Thing, and many more, but Attack always feels confident in its own skin, fine with sitting back and allowing the story to speak for itself. The language of the characters actually serves to strengthen this film's own voice: catch phrases and exclamations like "allow it," "truth!" and "believe!" give the movie a charm that no American remake (shudder) could hope to recapture.

Props must be given to first-time actor John Boyega who carries the film as Moses, the leader of the gang. He's equally successful in the quietly intense moments as in the bombastic slow motion battle scenes, and I'm certain we haven't seen the last of him on the big screen. Alex Esmail (who plays Pest) and Leeon Jones (who plays Jerome) also did some solid work, and Jodie Whittaker (Sam) did a great job as the emotional center of the movie. Nick Frost has a really small role, but he's content with underplaying his part in order to let the young cast shine, so don't expect much from him or you'll surely be disappointed.

I can't imagine having a more purely fun time in theaters this year, so expect Attack the Block to make it onto my Favorites of the Year list come December. If you ask me, there aren't enough movies that feature swords and fireworks as ridiculous weapons, and this movie not only has both, but embraces them - they actually provide some of the coolest moments in the movie. Keep your eyes peeled for this one - it's totally worth your while. Until next time...