Blind spot

Blind Spot 8: Porco Rosso

| Rachel's Reviews

porco rosso2We are at the 8th in my monthly Blind Spot series and this month I check another anime classic off of my list, Hayao Miyazaki’s comedy-adventure Porco Rosso. This is a completely charming, delightful and a little strange comedy!

The main appeal to this movie is the stunning animation, funny dialogue and quirky weird characters. The lead is named Porco Rosso and he has been cursed to look like a pig. The movie treats this with a refreshing candor. He’s just a pig and that’s that!

porco rosso5The setting is post WWI and Porco is a bounty hunter who relaxes on the beach and likes doing things his own way. One day he gets a call to face off some pirate gangs. This leads to his plane being damaged by a man named Curtis and him landing in Milan to get it fixed.

porco rosso12In Milan there is a girl named Fio who Porco reluctantly hires to fix his plane (all the men have left Milan to find work elsewhere during the Depression). Fio is a great character who won’t take any crap from Porco but who also is vulnerable in moments.

porco rosso19There is also Gina who is love with Porco and yes they play it completely straight that she is in love with a pig man. He’s such a rogue and so confident it kind of makes sense! Unfortunately Curtis is also in love with Gina and it brings the two into conflict.

porco rosso13Curtis and Porco end up in a bet, that ends up in a race, that ends up in a fight. Fio makes the deal that if Porco wins than Curtis must pay off all of Porco’s repair bills and if he loses than Curtis can marry her. They don’t really explain why Fio wants to marry Curtis but it works. The race and then fight go on for perhaps a bit too long but I thought they were very funny.

porco rosso14The animation throughout is either adorable or breathtaking.

Adorable-

porco rosso6Breathtaking-

porco rosso8I really enjoyed Porco Rosso. I liked how different it was and how it made me laugh. I liked the way nobody thought twice about a man with a pig face and they made it work because he was such a grumbling funny character. You could see why he was charismatic enough for people to forget the nose.

porco rosso3I also loved the female characters, Fio and Gina. They thought for themselves but they weren’t cliched warrior women. Just like Porco, I couldn’t help but like both of them.

There also is some heart to the story when you finally get to hear Porco’s backstory and a little bit of a subtle Beauty and the Beast moment that is handled perfectly.

porco rosso7But mostly it will make you laugh and you will smile at these great characters!

They had a terrific dubbing cast as well with Michael Keaton, Cary Elwes, Susan Egan, Brad Garrett, David Ogden Stiers and Kimberly Williams-Paisley in the leads. The music by Joe Hisaishi is of course great as well.

I guess Porco Rosso may not be for everyone but I would think of it as Hayao’s Wes Anderson movie. It totally has that same quirky weirdness about it. It’s great!

What do you think of Porco Rosso?

Overall Grade- A

Blind Spot 7: Talk to Her

| Rachel's Reviews

talk to her4This month for my Blind Spot series I happened to pick a Spanish film without knowing I would be visiting Spain in July. Isn’t that a crazy coincidence? Anyway, I decided to look at Pedro Almodovar’s 2002 Academy Award winning film Talk to Her. It’s a moving, intriguing, weird film that definitely won’t be for everyone, but I’m glad I saw it.

talk to herIt’s a pretty simple story about 2 men, Marco and Benigno who fall in love with strong women who end up in comas. They then care for the comatose women but it’s what Almodovar does with that basic story that makes it interesting.

On the surface what these men are doing is really quite lovely.  They are caring selflessly for women in a coma.  How can that be anything but good? Well, that’s where the line between love and obsession come in. Especially Benigno begins to fantasize  what his life with Alicia is like and that she is responding to his advances.  He imagines this fantasy existence and even says at one point that his relationship is better than most other married couples.

talk-to-her_03There is something decidedly creepy about the way he cares for Alicia which is an intriguing element to the story.

Marco has more of a backstory with his love Lydia who was a bullfighter and is injured in the rink. He is a very emotional man and often takes what others are feeling upon himself. This makes his responses to Alicia, Benigno and Lydia very interesting. Dario Grandinetti as Marco is the standout of the film. He’s a type of man you don’t often see in the movies- sensitive to a fault.

talk to her3The cool thing that Almodovar does is he never really judges either men. You can tell he feels sorry for all involved. They are all weak- whether it is a weak mind or body, and human weakness is sad for Almodovar. Benigno takes his obsession to a disturbing place and it just shows how the human brain can create false narratives to justify our own poor choices.

talk to her2Talk to Her is definitely not for everyone. There is nudity in the film but most of it is non-sensual while the women’s bodies are being cared for. However, there is a fantasy sequence involving a silent movie that is truly bizarre. I can’t really explain it but just know it is out there and is explicit! It was too much for me to be honest but it was brief.

talk to her5If you want to watch a film showing a unique side of masculinity and can handle something that is different I recommend watching Talk to Her.  It earns its R rating but it is a thoughtful unique depiction of that line between love and obsession.

I feel like a movie such as this would never win best screenplay now. What do you think?

Overall Grade- B+

Here is the trailer

Blindspot 6: Tales from Earthsea

| Rachel's Reviews

earthsea2One of my great animation crimes I’ve been trying to remedy the last year or so is how many Studio Ghibli films I still haven’t seen. The list is embarrassingly long! This is why I have 2 Ghibli films as my Blind Spot picks for 2016. June gave me the first with Tales from Earthsea. I’d been wanting to see this epic fantasy film for some time and now that I have I’m glad I saw it.

I don’t know if I was kinder on this film because I just saw Warcraft- a fantasy film that made no sense and bored me out of my mind. Tales from Earthsea falls prey to some of the problems of the genre but overall it’s a satisfying enough fantasy story.

It is directed by Goro Miyazaki- Hayao’s son, and it is based on a novel by Ursula Le Guin which I have actually read. To read my review of the book click here.

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Tales from Earthsea starts off with a bang. We get dragons fighting each other and the assassination of a King. (I’ll try not to spoil anything big). Our hero Aren is a very flawed character from the beginning, which I really appreciated. It made the narrative more interesting and unpredictable.

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Aren meets a man named Sparrowhawk who agrees to help him bring ‘balance’ to the world again.  They meet a girl named Therru who has a burn on her face and lives in a farm with her mother (I think) named Tenar. They introduce Aren to a slower way of life, and we get some nice quiet moments with them.

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But it can’t last long because Aren and Sparrowhawk are being pursued by an androgynous wizard named Cob and his henchman called Hare.  Cob isn’t like any other fantasy villain I’ve ever seen. He’s hypnotic and calm while also being extremely powerful.

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There are also dragons and sorcery and all kinds of fantasy adventure in the story. The animation is gorgeous of course from Studio Ghibli and for his first time I think Goro did well.

However, there are some problems with Tales of Earthsea. Like many fantasy films, it gets a little muddled and confused once it has set up its world. Particularly as it gets to the ending powers change, positions are altered and we aren’t really sure what’s going on.

They try to explain some things but don’t quite explain them enough for my satisfaction, and I was left a little confused. Also while Aren’s flawed nature makes him interesting it also can be a little hard to root for.

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That said, I enjoyed watching Tales from Earthsea. It is beautiful and makes some interesting choices that kept my attention. I was rarely bored watching this because it was always trying something new. I don’t know if those same risks would interest me on a rewatch but for this time I liked it.

The dub this time from Disney is very well done. We have Timothy Dalton, Mariska Hargitay, William Dafoe, Cheech Marin, and others.

It’s interesting that I guess Hayao Miyazaki didn’t think his son should have been promoted to director at such a young age. Evidently he was so convinced of it he didn’t talk to his son for the development of the film! I guess he eventually came around but doesn’t that just show how seriously Studio Ghibli takes their art? Even Hayao’s own son must go through the proper channels and get the experience needed.

With all of that, Goro still managed to do a decent job and I’d like to see more from him. Think of this as a very lightweight Princess Mononoke

Overall Grade- B-

Blind Spot 5: The Jerk

| Rachel's Reviews

jerk3There are few films that leave me speechless- The Jerk is one of them.  I honestly don’t know what to say. I can’t decide whether it is brilliant or horrible. It certainly succeeds in being a comedy like no other.

jerkI guess you’d call The Jerk an absurdist comedy but it’s kind of making fun of the ‘down on his luck’ biographical narrative we often see in dramatic films.  For example, some of the best laughs come at the beginning when Steve Martin’s Navin finds out he is adopted in his black sharecropping family. These scenes are very non-PC and the film goes for it and it made me laugh. Lines like this I thought were funny:

Taj: “You wanna, wanna come in and sing some blues?” Navin: “No thanks Taj. There’s something about those songs. They depress me.”

Navin ends up hearing ‘crazy rhythm’ on the radio and goes to St Louis to find where the song was broadcast from. He gets a job working for Jackie Mason’s Harry Hartounian and is thrilled when his name is in the phone book.

the-jerk-snipe3Unfortunately a crazy sniper picks his name randomly out of that book to shoot but Navin evades. All of this is bizarre and mostly made me laugh.

He then ends up meeting a tough carnie woman named Patty who teaches him about his “special purpose” and then meets Bernadette Peters’ Marie who is a sweet yet shallow woman. A lot of this humor involving the women was more awkward than funny but maybe that is just my more traditional values when it comes to humor.

jerk5A lot of this movie in fact was more awkward than funny. It kind of reminded me of the first Meet the Parents where I was laughing but also cringing the entire time. I can’t decide whether I like that kind of comedy or hate it.

jerk4In a way The Jerk had the feel of a silent movie but raunchier. He starts out wide eyed and gullible and ends up a world- weary hobo. Some of the jokes really work but a lot fell flat for me. I don’t know. It’s a hard one to judge. It’s one I can see myself liking the more I see it.

Anyway, I can’t really recommend The Jerk because it is so uneven but if it sounds like something you’d like than you’ll probably like it. If it doesn’t than you might hate it. It’s just a strange little movie.

Overall Grade- C