This weekend, I went to the cinema for the first time in several years and watched three films:
Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse
Because it had been a while since I watched it and I didn't want to get a bit lost when watching the sequel, I watched Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse.
I thought it was a great film when I first saw it and this second viewing has confirmed my opinion. It's clever, innovative, and exciting, possibly the best Spider-Man film yet.
The sequel doesn't disappoint as it is equally audacious, funny, and animated with astonishing flair and invention. Because of the number of scenes with captions or split screen (sometimes split three ways), I look forward to watching it again, possibly at the cinema before it disappears.
Elemental
This latest Pixar film follows a couple of fire elements, Bernie and Cinder Lumen, as they move to Element City and open a shop. Struggling with a sluggish business and hostility from the other elements, they raise their daughter, Ember, hoping she will grow up and learn to control her temper so she can take over the shop when they retire.
Ember develops an unlikely friendship – and a burgeoning relationship – with a water element called Wade, and the two spend a lot of time together around the city leading more about the other elements and their place within it.
This isn't a top tier Pixar, and I wasn't entirely convinced by Ember and Wade's relationship, though the storyline about the Lumen family, and the relationship between Ember and Bernie was very authentic and quite moving.
Unusually for a Pixar film (or any animated film from a major studio), there aren't any big-name actors in the voice cast, with the most well-known actors being Wendi McLendon-Covey and Catherine O'Hara. Among the crew, I knew director Peter Sohn (director of The Good Dinosaur) and executive producer Pete Docter (director of Monsters, Inc., Up, Inside Out, and Soul).
Visually and narratively, there are some similarities with Inside Out, though this pales in comparison with that Oscar-winning film, one of the best of 2015. It's probably on a par with The Good Dinosaur and perhaps Cars.
Asteroid City
This isn't going to win Wes Anderson any new fans because it's far from his most accessible film, though it is a brilliant one.
The events take place in the titular town, a small town in the middle of the desert, famous for its meteorite (oddly, not an asteroid) and for hosting an award ceremony for young scientists, including astronomers and someone who's invented an actual death ray!
Actually, that's not quite accurate as the events in Asteroid City are part of the latest work by a bored playwright and presented by an on-screen narrator., switching the story to the 1950s and the titular location.
Like The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson uses aspect ratio as a timestamp: the framing story is in monochrome 1.37:1, with the 'performance" in pastel colored 2.39:1 widescreen. As usual, his mise-en-scène and attention to detail are flawless and there were occasions when I knew I missed some minor details which I'll have to catch when I buy it to watch at home.
Also, typically for a recent Wes Anderson film, there is an all-star cast of which most directors could only dream: Tom thanks, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Edward Norton, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, Hope Davis, Liev Schreiber, Matt Dillon, Adrian Brody, Tilda Swinton, Margot Robbie, Willem Dafoe, and Jeff Goldblum, many of them regular collaborators, whose appearances come as no surprise.
Like the visuals, the script is detailed, brilliant, and with some names and phrases I am looking forward to hearing again. The same eagerness for repetition applies to the soundtrack – I loved Alexandre Desplat's score and there was a clever blend of period and contemporary music. Jarvis Cocker's new song, You Can't Wake up If You Don't Fall Asleep played over the end credits and was a wonderful way to finish the film and I've listened to it several times since.
If you are a fan of Wes Anderson's films, then this is highly recommended. If you aren't keen on his aesthetic and quirky humour, then I'd approach it with caution.
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