A few films of the past weeks:
Berlinale Screenings:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5XeXNFNHQA
"White Plastic Sky / Műanyag égbolt" (Hungary - D:Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó)
A mixed media animated (rotoscoped/CG/2D) dystopian SciFi indie with a familiar but nonetheless compelling premise: in humanity's last functioning city, Budapest under a glass dome, humans at the age of 50 are basically turned into trees through a techical process called the Implantation, to provide oxygen and food for society.
The worldbuilding is interesting and inventive, and the atmosphere very mysterious and compelling. The plot sometimes gets a bit bogged down by half-heartedly implemented action beats, which are hindered by the film's lack of emotionality. But the philosophical and cerebral elements of it, especially about transformation of the human body, are as interesting and thoughtprovoking as one would wish from a high concept scifi story and make the film enjoyable nonetheless.
The directors called their film "slightly hopeful", although I personally would disagree... :D
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3jCUhr0p_4
"Deep Sea/Shen Hai 深海" (PR China - D: Tian Xiaopeng)
An incredibly colorful family film about a sad teenage girl that boards an unlikely underwater restaurant-that's-also-a-submarine-at-the-same-time filled to the brim with magical sealions, beavers (who constitute the crew) and the equally grotesque patrons (think the bathhouse in Spirited Away). Central however is the relationship with the restaurant's head chef/captain, a lanky, ambitious pirate cook who looks like a cross between Lupin the 3rd and the Joker.
The director apologized after the screening that he might have overdone it with the overwhelming colorfulness, richness of the effects and never-ceasing movement.
I agree.
A few moments here and there to let the film breath properly would have done wonders I believe. It's so frantic and full and neverstopping and overwhelming (especially in 3D Stereo) people might get headaches after the first hour.
HOWEVER, the film is also incredibly beautiful and fun. The images alone are worth the watch - there's something interesting going on with the shading and rendering. The film doesn't go for a "naturalistic" material feel, but stylizes the shading without reducing the detail, and adding the motherload of particle effects on top. The end result feels very fresh and has feels of oil painting, ink painting, naturalistic skin shading, Ghibliesque 2D animation but seen through "realistic" camera lenses. The madness on screen is anchored by a basic, but effective central performance of the girl who navigates the wonderland to find a way back home.
And, as is often the case with east asian child's fare, there's no holding back on darker subject matters: depression, malfunctioning families, self-harm, the frivol depiction of alcohol and tobacco, loneliness etc.
Recommended (but don't eat too much beforehand)
Outside of the Berlinale
ELVIS (USA, AUS - D: Baz Luhrmann)
I'm not an Elvis expert, but: Seriously underwhelmed. The first hour feels like a lazy adaptation of a Wikipedia page, just with music underlaid. Feels at the same time overstuffed and undercooked, as I could never get an emotional connection with Elvis, while the direction wasn't stylized enough to make it fun. The narrative point-of-view chosen, of his manager, is interesting but doesn't carry enough emotional weight for me to pull another almost-three-hour movie.
Stylistically, the sequence with the christmas special, where the boundaries of space and time seem to unhinge, is the only time the film seems to do something interesting with its Baz-Luhrmann-ness.
Butler's performance is undercut by the film's pace, as is Elvis' music. Seriously, how sad is it that a film about Elvis Presley never finds its groove.
Not recommended, listen to his music instead while taking painkillers.
