Movie Review: American Beauty

American Beauty (1999)

1999 was an interesting year for movies. American Beauty, The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, eXistenZ; just a handful among others who came forward to share the spotlight, whether in confident strides or tentative steps or even a push from behind. It was the turn of the century, the beginnings of quasi-independent films finding their way to mainstream recognition, the predictions for drastic change in the techno-sphere.

American Beauty began as a play in the early 1990s, until writer Alan Ball decided it would work better as a screenplay. Many well-known directors turned down the offer before Sam Mendes was hired to direct what would be his first feature. Alan Ball, Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks and Stan Wlodkowski produced the film. It was well received by both critics and audiences and eventually went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, among other accolades.

On the surface, American Beauty is a simple film. Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), a middle-aged man, lives with his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) and daughter Jane (Flora Birch) in a comfortable suburban existence. Lester hates his office job that makes less than what the high-achieving Carolyn earns as a real estate broker. Jane hates her parents and is going through a teenage phase of excessive eyeliner, baggy clothes and general disdain towards people save for her friend, the gorgeous and superficial cheerleader Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari). Lester becomes infatuated with Angela who encourages his advances. Meanwhile, Jane forges a relationship of sorts with the new neighbours’ son Ricky, whose father Col. Fitts (Chris Cooper) is a retired war veteran and his mother Barbara (Allison Janney) a mentally unstable woman.

The narrative reads like your average soap opera tale of domestic trouble, teenage angst and sexual proclivities. However, that is precisely what American Beauty is about. Its tagline, “Look closer”, already suggests that nothing is really what it seems. For starters, Lester and Carolyn’s marriage is not breaking down due to a lack of intimacy, rather it is deeply rooted in the dominance of one over the other. Carolyn controls Lester; she drives the car while he sleeps, she chooses the music that plays during dinner, in the family portrait that hangs on the wall she is seated while he and Jane remain standing. To add on to Lester’s lack of traditional masculinity, he is unable to communicate properly with his own daughter. Then there is Lester’s job at the advertising agency, where he panders to his boss and clients on the phone while writing meaningless copy. Lester, like everyone else in the film, is living in the Suburban Prison.

This is why Lester falls so hard for Angela. In the scene where Lester sees Angela for the first time, she is clad in a high school cheerleading outfit and dancing along to the music; this quickly turns into the first of Lester’s fantasies in which he and Angela are alone together. In this scene, filmed in slow motion and lit with hyperreal intensity, Angela dances seductively for him only, the long shot of the cheerleaders now a close-up of Angela alone as she opens her jacket to reveal a burst of rose petals. Lester starts working out in the garage after overhearing Angela say that he would be more attractive if he lost weight. He also buys marijuana from Ricky and starts working at a fast food drive-through after blackmailing his boss and leaving his desk job. Lester begins with the aim of winning Angela over, but it soon becomes entangled with his need for self-assertion and release from the picture perfect cage. When Angela finally gives herself up to him it is meant to be a celebration of his manhood, until she tells him she is a virgin. The revelation shocks Lester into seeing Angela as she really is – a child, and he redeems himself by becoming a paternal figure.

The Suburban Prison also holds Carolyn hostage. She is successful, but resorts to crying in a dark room with the blinds drawn and then slapping herself for crying, acutely aware of her weakness. She cannot find sexual satisfaction in her marriage, so she has an affair with her rival, Buddy Kane, thus submitting to the very man she was trying to overcome. The character of Carolyn is an insidious reflection of the backlash against the post-modern woman; the resentment against wives who undermine their husbands’ patriarchal positions, the blame upon her shoulders for the dysfunction of her family. Even the suits Carolyn wears, broad at the shoulders and devoid of figure, paint her as a usurper of masculinity, an undesired, unattractive woman.

The characters in American Beauty are on a quest. They desire meaning, they desire truth. The pursuit of material wealth has made them unhappy, unfulfilled shells of people, and so they resort to any means of escape possible. Whether it is Angela and Lester’s paedophilic relationship, or Carolyn and Buddy’s affair, or Jane and Ricky’s plan to run away together, or Col. Fitts’ attempt to mask his homosexual nature, they are united in the life they share within the American Dream. The aesthetics of the film reflect its realist nature, showing up the Suburban Prison perfectly through its picket fences, large manicured homes, trimmed rose bushes and intentionally stereotyped characters. American Beauty is a critique against consumerism as an effect of late capitalism. It succeeds, but only if you think about the characters on the second level – that is, below the stereotypes they are meant to play. Personally, I enjoyed the movie at the second level. It was refreshing, a film that dared to mock and question the seemingly perfect middle class. On a third level, however, it also suggests a return to the idealist days of patriarchal households with submissive women would be the solution. Carolyn, Jane and Angela are not only two-dimensional stereotypes of women, but they have no redemption. Meanwhile, Lester eventually becomes the rightful father, while Ricky stands up for himself, finds a girl to love and becomes the good American guy. I would not belittle the creativity and intelligence of American Beauty, but I do wonder why it was widely recognised while other films that went far further to question notions of culture and humanity were overlooked. Perhaps it was easier for critics to nudge audiences in the direction of a film that praised idealist notions of families and men and women, harking back to the good ol’ days, rather than to encourage films that looked at less comfortable issues that could prove to be the undoing of society and the elite, critics included.

(1100 words)

References

Mendes, S. (1999). American Beauty. Drama.

Concert Review: Bon Jovi Live In Malaysia

The first time American rock band Bon Jovi played live in Malaysia was back in 1995, on the 4th of May, at Shah Alam Stadium. For the next 20 years they toured the rest of the world, wrote more hit records and aged with substantial grace. When they announced that they would finally be returning to Kuala Lumpur in September 2015, Malaysian fans rejoiced.

Now, I have loved Bon Jovi since my teenage years. Their songs are the kind of classics you hear on the radio all the time, regardless of the station. "Livin' On A Prayer" is a karaoke staple for me, and "Always" makes me hopeful for a timeless kind of love. Attending the concert was a dream come true, with much heartfelt gratitude to a friend of mine who procured free tickets for myself and two other friends. 

The concert was due to start at 8.30pm. The journey from Subang Jaya to Stadium Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur on a regular day shouldn't take more than 45 minutes but that night the traffic was absolutely crazy. It literally came to a standstill when we reached the turning into the stadium because there were too many cars going in. My friends and I ended up parking on the other side of the highway and walking over using the pedestrian bridge. From the bridge to the stadium we had to walk up a narrow slip road. This was fully lined with stalls selling fried snacks, canned drinks, glowsticks and of course, concert paraphernalia. I was especially amazed at the amount and range of merchandise they had ready - from t-shirts to singlets to lanyards to tote bags, all emblazoned with the Bon Jovi logo. Some even specifically stated the date and location of the Kuala Lumpur show. 

We arrived at the stadium and made our way into the VIP area, which was really the grassy field in the middle, cordoned off into sections and filled with numbered chairs. Judging by the sea of faces in the stands and in the middle, it was a near-sold out crowd. Bon Jovi was already rocking out in full swing on stage as we found our seats. 

The audience was comprised mostly of young working adults, with a good sprinkling of middle-aged people, which wasn't surprising seeing as Bon Jovi would be a little too old for teenagers. Their diehard fans seem to be mostly the baby boomers as well as early Generation Y-ers. 

I was a little surprised that they chose Stadium Merdeka over some of the newer stadiums in KL, especially since Bon Jovi is a big name, but they pulled off an excellent show nonetheless. The six-piece band sounded amazing in the open air, each member fully energised although their ages range from late forties to early fifties. Lead singer Jon Bon Jovi himself was in his element, working the stage in leather jacket and jeans with the effortless charm that has won him fans all the world over throughout their impressive 30-year run. 

The setlist was fairly safe, consisting of mostly classic hits mixed with a few lesser-known ones. One of these was "We Don't Run", from their latest studio album Burning Bridges (2015). The usual staples such as "Bad Medicine", "You Give Love A Bad Name" and "Dead Or Alive" were met with great enthusiasm from the audience. It was amazing just hearing the crowd sing their hearts out. 

About halfway through the set we decided to go to the front to take some photographs. In my experience with concerts and festivals, the front is always a sweaty mess of bodies where your feet get trampled on, tall people block your view and drunkards annoy everyone with their antics. You never get close to the railing (the one that separates the crowd from the stage) because that's where the hardcore fans camp out. This time, however, we were able to get right up to the railing because it was a VIP section. Most of the hardcore fans were right in the centre, while we were on the right side of the stage. It was a good spot so we stayed there, hanging on to the railing and jamming out to the tunes. It wasn't long before Jon decided to take a stroll. He got off the stage and started walking along the railing, shaking hands and high-fiving people. My friends and I were practically beside ourselves with excitement. I was the closest to the middle, hanging right over the railing as far as I could go. Sadly, I was within five feet of Jon when he stopped and turned to walk back to the other side. 

The band played for nearly two hours, ending their set with "Bad Medicine" and Jon bidding everyone goodbye, saying they were done. The audience knew better, though, and chanted for an encore for several minutes before Bon Jovi came back on to the stage. They performed "Have A Nice Day" and finished with "Livin' On A Prayer", which was the absolute highlight of the night. Everyone was on their feet, singing their hearts out. It was a fantastic concert, one for the books, and I'm very grateful to have been able to see a much-loved, well-weathered rock band live in my home country.

Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

It was the year 1979. George Miller, a then unknown Australian emergency room doctor, was making his feature film debut with Mad Max, a dystopian action film he made with a producer he met at summer film school named Byron Kennedy. Mad Max was a smash hit and launched the career of Mel Gibson, who portrayed the titular character, as well as Miller, who would go on to make three more Mad Max movies and other famous films such as Babe and Happy Feet. 

(Mel Gibson as Mad Max) 

After the success of the first three Mad Max films, pre-production for the fourth began in 1997. However, it was a troubled project, plagued by numerous difficulties. Mel Gibson, who was set to reprise his role as Max, eventually dropped out. In June 2010, Tom Hardy was cast as his replacement. Principal photography began in July 2012 and wrapped six months later. The film finally premiered in May 2015 as Mad Max: Fury Road and has so far proven to be the biggest success in the franchise, garnering significant critical praise and raking in box office sales. 

Fury Road is not a perfect film, but it certainly comes close. The plot is seemingly simple: the world is now a desert wasteland after the nuclear holocaust, civilisation has broken down, and Max Rockatansky, although surviving, is no longer the man we know from his previous days. He is wild and feral, alone yet haunted by the ghosts of his past, constantly on the run. He is captured by the army of a tyrant known as Immortan Joe and put to use as a universal donor. When Imperator Furiosa, one of Joe’s lieutenants, leads Joe’s wives on an escape mission, Joe sets out with his army in pursuit. Max is forced to tag along and manages to detach himself from the army in the process. However, both Max and Furiosa quickly discover that they need to work together in order to survive the wasteland.

As an action film, Fury Road delivers. The pace is frenetic and fueled by octane, lasting the entire 2 hours of runtime. Right from the get-go it never slows. At the end of my first viewing I found myself having to unclench my muscles because I had been unconsciously tensing up throughout the film. The action sequences are spectacularly filmed and choreographed, with a visceral feel to them. I had the opportunity to watch it in the cinemas twice, then on DVD for the first time, on the 9th of September, 2015. It was decidedly less engaging on the senses when viewed on a television screen, yet no less amazing. The luxury of repeated viewings on DVD also makes for observations of things which may have previously gone unnoticed.

 
(The above scene was not CGI work but a choreographed stunt sequence, with Hardy swinging back and forth on a pole as Max)

The colours and cinematography are absolutely breathtakingly stunning. Instead of de-saturating the colours as other movies within the genre do, Miller chose to “…go really all-out on the colour” [1].

(The one in red is Coma the Doof Warrior, whose sole job is to provide a soundtrack for Joe and his Warboys. The guitar used was a real guitar that could also shoot flames, just as it appears in the film.)

The cinematography is a thing of beauty in this film. Shot by Oscar winner John Seale, it is notable for its use of crosshair framing, where the subject is placed in the centre of the frame, going against the Rule of Thirds. This is also helps the film eschew the male gaze, as the women are not framed as they usually are, with the focus on their bodies, but here the attention is drawn to their eyes and their motions.

This leads to a very important aspect and one of the underlying themes of Fury Road: women are important, women are not secondary to men, women are not mere sexual objects. Although Max is the titular character, it is really Furiosa's story. Furiosa is the one who has fought her way up through the ranks, hatched a plan to take revenge on the one who imprisoned her, and is a match for Max in every sense. Like Max, she is made of nothing but sinew and strength, shaped by a determination to survive against all the odds. They know what it is to be caged and what it is to break free. They are equal in their different strengths. When they fight, Max outweighs her physically but Furiosa is quicker and more brutal. There is also a scene where Max gives up his gun to Furiosa because he realises she is a better shot than he is.

Aside from Furiosa, there is plenty of variation in the other women of Fury Road. The Five Wives are clearly distinct in their own personalities; they are fierce, quiet, resilient, vulnerable and courageous, amongst many others. It is refreshing to see a group of women band together in support of each other without a man at the centre. There is also the Vuvalini clan, to which Furiosa once belonged, comprised of elderly female gun-toting motorcycle riders. Together, these characters represent a range of women hardly seen in the cinema.

Fury Road critics often make a point of Furiosa's role overshadowing that of Max's. In my opinion, Furiosa and Max do not outshine each other, rather they complement each other. It is still Furiosa's story, and Max a vagrant who partly by force and partly by choice becomes an ally. Yet it is clear that one cannot survive without the other. There is a mutual respect that grows into a strange, refreshingly romance-free relationship between two long-isolated individuals finding a kinship in the other. The most telling scene lies towards the end of the film; Furiosa is near death, having suffered injury and blood loss. The ever-willing universal blood donor, Max quickly sets up an IV line from his arm to hers, then cradles Furiosa in his arms and tells her, in a hesitant voice, that his name is Max. It is a stark contrast to the first time they ride in the War Rig together, when Furiosa christens Max "fool" after he refuses to tell her his name, instead asking if it really matters. At that point in time, Max is a shell of himself, so unused to communicating with anyone other than the dead, that he deems himself unworthy of a name. Yet as he holds Furiosa, his blood in her veins, something has changed within him. He is not whole, but he has reason to live beyond mere human instinct. He has seen hope, and what hope can do. Together with Furiosa, redemption is a flicker of light in their long-darkened skies, thus he finds the courage to call himself Max again.

References:

[1] http://collider.com/mad-max-fury-road-18-things-to-know/

Movie Review: Inside Out

When I watch a film I always look at the creators. Film authorship plays a big role in my moviegoing decisions. I'm not usually a fan of animations, but when I saw that Inside Out was written and directed by Pete Docter, the man behind Up and Toy StoryT, I was sold.

The tagline of the movie is "Meet The Little Voices Inside Your Head", which sounds both inviting and creepy at the same time, and alludes to the basic premise of the movie. A little girl, specifically a white American girl, is born to her loving parents in Minnesota, who name her Riley and proceed to give her the best life they could possibly provide. We see Riley toddling about the house, learning to eat her greens, discovering a love for ice hockey, and generally having a wonderful childhood. All is hunky dory until she's about eleven or so and Daddy gets a new job and they're packed off to San Francisco. The move is hard on everyone, especially Riley. The twist in all of this is that we experience everything through the inside of Riley's mind, through her emotions. These emotions are personified through individual characters, namely Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger.

The movie suggests that every person has a dominant emotion within them. In Riley's case, it is Joy, who is everything one thinks of when the word 'joy' comes to mind. She does her best to keep Riley happy, managing Headquarters, which is where the core memories that power the "islands" (facets of Riley's personality) are stored. Conflict arises when Sadness accidentally causes Riley to cry in front of her class on her first day at school, creating a sad core memory. Joy tries to dispose of the sad memory, but she accidentally knocks the other core memories loose in her struggle with Sadness. The islands are shut down in the process, rendering Riley's personality unstable. Joy and Sadness are sucked out of Headquarters through the memory tube that leads to the rest of Riley's mind, and therefore set out on a long journey to get back to HQ and restore everything to normal.

The beauty of the film is in its ability to engage both children and adults, on similar and different levels. While children may find the emotions funny, adults will see the poignancy in the way one's emotions work together to form our reactions towards what happens around us. I was particularly struck by Riley's imaginary friend, Bing Bong, who wants nothing more than to relive the happy times he had when he and Riley were best friends.

There is a heartbreaking scene where Bing Bong and Joy are trying to get out of the Memory Dump, a kind of barren wasteland, by riding Bing Bong's old wagon rocket. After several failed attempts Bing Bong realises he has to sacrifice himself in order for Joy to succeed, symbolising the death of childhood innocence and imagination to the harsh reality of life.



Overall, Inside Out was an excellent effort from Pixar. There were some parts I questioned, such as the library scene where Joy and Sadness are lost - there were ladders that Joy could have climbed to see her way out of the maze of bookshelves. I also found the stereotypical depictions of the emotions rather flat - why does Sadness have to be a chubby, bespectacled girl? However, it was refreshing to see Riley portrayed as a gender-neutral girl who plays ice hockey, wears jeans and still has close girl friends. With a runtime of 1 hour and 42 minutes, Inside Out is a film I would recommend for an enjoyable and slightly thought-provoking moviegoing experience.

Series Review: Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp

It's pretty embarassing to admit this but I only recently watched the gem that is Wet Hot American Summer (2001), a sort of sleeper film that later became a cult favourite. I think it's one of those films that I've come across every now and then but never really got around to watching until my Paul Rudd obsession blew up. I've always liked Paul Rudd (let's be honest, who doesn't?) but after Ant-Man I started my Rudd phase as I do with all the middle-aged men I fall in love with: 1) download/stream any and every film or show he's ever done 2) watch all his interviews on YouTube 3) change the wallpaper on my laptop and phone to display his glorious ageless face. Naturally at some point I watched WHAS, loved it, heard there was a prequel, and flipped out.

The thing about WHAS is that if you know nothing of it, I can only tell you it's a film about a bunch of camp counselors on their last day at Camp Firewood. That's it. Is it a comedy? Yes. Is it a parody? Yes. Is it satire? Definitely. Is it a drama? You could say so. It's just this crazy, zany, weird, intelligent and completely delightful ride that you can only enjoy if you don't think too much of things like narrative and coherence, because those things aren't treated in this film the same way other films treat them. And that's the beauty of it. It's meant to be a film about one single day at camp, yet there are literally a thousand and one things happening, sometimes simultaneously, all in the space of those few hours.

Prequels and sequels aren't always well-received, especially when the original is really good. When I heard that there was going to be an eight-episode miniseries prequel for WHAS I was pretty skeptical, even with practically the entire original cast returning. Still, I waited anxiously for July 31, the day of the release of WHAS: First Day Of Camp, and naturally had to wait some more because the episodes were released on Netflix, which is a service I don't have access to, and thus had to get hold of the episodes from a, uh, different source. Anyway! Guess what?

I LOVED First Day Of Camp. Absolutely loved it. Had a blast.

I think the hilarity in First Day Of Camp is that it just keeps getting more and more ridiculous, which is what WHAS was all about. One bit that always gets me is when they reference their ages by clearly insisting that they are all "sixteen or seventeen" with their lives ahead of them while wearing outfits that display all manner of paunches and double chins. Even makeup can't hide the lines on their faces. Although there are exceptions to this - ie. Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks.

Paul Rudd as Andy honestly gets some of the best lines, like this one. The fact that Rudd is just about the nicest guy in Hollywood only makes his turn as the super-hot but super-douchebaggy Andy all the better. In WHAS, he was constantly cheating on girlfriend Katie (Marguerite Moreau) with Banks' character, Lindsay. In First Day Of Camp, we get to see how Andy and Katie got together, with Andy working hard to win Katie's heart. 

While the fun is largely in seeing beloved characters tell their story, there's also plenty of references to the original movie, as well as new characters to inject some fresh life into the camp. Not all the characters work, and some storylines could have been dropped, but overall it was the perfect thing to binge watch within a day. I'll let the gifs/screencaps do the talking:

Abby Bernstein before she hit puberty (which in itself is extremely entertaining) 

Lindsay on her Camp Firewood friends

Andy talking about his romantic side

Andy being late

Gene and the famous can of vegetables

Andy being a good counselor

Coop getting a gift from his girlfriend Donna

Acclaimed sleazeball of a theatre director Claude Dumet seducing Susie

This could go on for a long time. I should just end this by saying that I'm highly impressed that David Wain and Michael Showalter managed to make a prequel miniseries that lived up to and surpassed expectations, and if you haven't seen it yet, you really should. Start with the film, then watch the prequel episodes. It's worth it.

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