Z/Web

Director: Christopher Nolan

This is an excellent film, though not perfect. The beginning third is too confusing, with flashbacks within flashbacks (we have a character in prison reading a diary which flashes back to another character reading a different diary and flashing back to what he’s reading). But if you stick with it, everything starts to gel, and we soon realize the story’s about two magicians who used to be assistants together, but after a tragedy now hate each other and become rival magicians. The conflict starts out with mild sabotage but escalates into serious injury and murder. It takes a while to get to the good stuff, however, and at times the film’s ponderous. The ending has some surprises but is somewhat predictable and convoluted, but overall the whole thing works as the tricky plot’s somewhat like a magic trick itself. The performances are excellent. Recommended.

This is one of those films where the trailer’s better than the movie. The trailer is brilliant: fun, funky, exciting, sexy, with a heavy rock beat. The film has some of that fun, but only on occasion — much of the time the film’s much too serious, with boring scenes of 18th century French court formality. There are some nice moments of humor — the scene where a chilly naked Marie has to impatiently wait while women of various nobility are privileged to help her dress is hilarious in mocking royal ridiculousness — but unfortunately those are few and far between. But the film’s biggest flaw is that at the end we still don’t know much more than we started about the characters: Marie seems to have had her life dictated for her, and other than a little partying and a couple tender moments with her daughter, we don’t learn much of what makes her tick. And she’s the deepest character we explore — the rest are mere mysteries or shallow stereotypes. Though I liked Kirsten Dunst in the role of Marie, the whole thing was so mild and tragic I was terribly disappointed not to see her get her head chopped off at the end. Conclusion? Mildly entertaining.

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

This was Miyazaki’s first film and it’s not his best or my favorite, though it has many Miyazaki touches. It’s just not as deep and complex as his later works, though it hints at it. Again the hero is a young girl, Nausicaa, who’s a princess of the people of the Valley of the Wind. She’s the best thing in the film, a fantastic character, a strong girl who leads her people and preaches against killing and war. She’s got a gift of being able to communicate with animals and insects — important in a world set 1000 years after war has decimated the earth and rendered most of the planet toxic and created giant cockroaches and poisonous plants. The environmental message is too heavily preached and the plot’s a little too linear and simple, as it mainly deals with warring cities set to attempt to burn the toxic jungle which will anger the giant insects who will destroy the Valley of the Wind for revenge, and only Nausicaa can stop the raging insects. Miyazaki does have some of his characteristic “gray” characters who are both good and evil, but doesn’t go as far with that as he does in later films like Princess Mononoke. Still, this is a good story and an excellent film, with an all-star cast of voices for the English-dubbed edition.