Retro Trio: The Wrestler (2008); The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996); Finding Dory (2016)

The Wrestler (2008)

Director: Darren Aronofsky

I fell in love with this movie back before I even started this blog, so I never did a review of it. I recently rewatched it with my wife, who hadn't seen it. She was impressed, and I was reminded of why I saw it twice in the theaters ten years ago.

The movie is a documentary-style following of fictional professional wrestler Robin Ramzinski, whose wrestling moniker is Randy "The Ram" Robinson, played by Mickey Rourke. Set roughly around the late '00s, Randy is a wrestler well past his prime. In the late 1980's, he was on top of the wrestling world, watched and adored by hundreds of thousands of pro wrestling fans. Now, however, he is struggling mightily. Working as a mover in a grocery store and barely able to afford rent for his broken down mobile home, Randy still puts his meager disposable income into staying in shape and wrestling in small, local events. Though still respected by the younger generation of wrestlers and old-school fans of the medium, Randy is only hanging on thanks to his legacy and a steady dose of steroids and other risky supplements. After he suffers heart attack, he begins to rethink the wrestling life. He decides to hang up his bright green tights and try to rebuild his broken life. He begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood), starts working a steadier job at the deli counter in the grocery store, and seeks to deepen his relationship with a stripper (Marisa Tomei) who is, herself, questioning her line of work. But just as Randy seems to be getting his emotional life back in order, old, self-involved habits rear their heads and send him spiraling back to isolation. He ultimately retreats back to the one place he felt comfortable - the ring, even though it will likely cost him his life.

When one hasn't watched a movie in a decade, it is easy to wonder if it will be as entertaining or engaging as the original viewing. Despite being a devoted fan of Darren Aronofsky, this same question ran through my mind before this recent viewing. But it was just as good as I remembered. Even more surprisingly, my wife really liked it, and she has very little interest in pro wrestling. This is due to the movie's dual focuses: the fascinating and often hidden culture and world around pro wrestling, and the brilliant character study of Randy "The Ram."

Shot in documentary style, the feel of the movie wonderfully authentic, and thanks to an Academy Award-winning performance by the battered Mickey Rourke, it is easy to see what exactly makes the Randy character tick. He is not an overly complex man - his love of wrestling and the glory that being in the ring provides supersedes everything else - but within about 100 minutes of movie time, you get to understand this through his various relationships, moments of triumph, and his mistakes.

This has thus far been easily the most accessible film by Aronofsky, whose other films have taken on grand, cerebral, spiritual themes (sometimes all three). From his first movie Pi to his most recent mother!, the Brooklyn-born filmmaker loves going big, thematically, and sometimes even visually, such as with films like The Fountain or Noah. With The Wrestler, he showed that he is equally skilled with small-scale, personal stories grounded very much in the real world. Even if that "real world" involves grown men wearing fluorescent spandex and pretending to fight in a boxing ring.

The ever-outspoken Larry Flynt, being gagged and bound
in court after repeated outbursts and (often successful)
attempts to show up the judge.

The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

Director: Milos Foreman

This movie still holds up phenomenally well, these twenty-plus years after its release.

The People vs. Larry Flint is a fictionalized biopic that chronicles key moments in the life of Larry Flint (Woody Harrelson), the founder and CEO of Hustler magazine - a periodical that started in the 1970s and depicted women in various states of undress and in compromising positions of variously scandalous natures. Flint was a self-made multi-millionaire who started in the strip club business but saw his wealth expand exponentially when his Hustler magazine very quickly became a publishing hit. He also became a target of the newly-emerging "Moral Majority" group founded by televangelist Jerry Falwell and like-minded preachers and their followers. These groups often sued Flint and tried everything they could to shut down his publishing operation, which they saw as corrupting the country. Flint became a rather unlikely and thoroughly uncouth champion of free speech, often taking the government and various powerful groups to court over his right to publish his magazine. He was also paralyzed from the waist down after a failed assassination attempt, and his wife Althea (Courtney Love) suffered a slow and fatal spiral into drug overdose.

I hadn't watched this movie for probably over twenty years, and I was pleasantly surprised at how the quality still shines through on every level. No, I don't find Larry Flint a particularly admirable person for his systematic profiteering off of the blatant sexualization of women in his magazines. But this is the very type of contradiction that the movie addresses - simply because you don't admire a person should not be a reason to silence their right to say and publish what they wish, provided that all involved are consenting adults. It's easy for most people to generally agree on the right to free speech when it comes to political views (though that's taken a hit lately) or general opinions about fairly innocuous topics. But what about when it comes to something that more than a few people find highly objectionable, like pornography? The U.S., as progressive as it is in many ways, has long had a strong Puritanical streak running through it, and sexual prudishness is one of the ways that it has manifested itself. The story of Larry Flint, his legal disputes, and the uproar that they caused is a fascinating case study in what, exactly, free speech represents and protects. These themes are where the real meat and depth of this movie come from.

Even beyond the more meaningful tale of Flint's battles, which actually went all the way to the Supreme Court, the movie is highly entertaining. Larry Flint always cut a very colorful, if crass, character, and he is written and played with great verve by the oft-underrated Woody Harrelson. When you add in the excellent supporting performances by Courtney Love and Ed Norton, you get top notch acting to go along with the other strengths of the film.

I probably won't need to watch this movie again any time soon, but I still highly recommend it to any who have never seen it, or haven't seen it in many years.

And now, from a biopic about a smut-monger to a family-friendly movie about an amnesiac fish...

The folks at Pixar have "cute" down to a science, as
evidenced by the young, large-eyed Dory and her doting
parents.

Finding Dory (2016)

Directors: Andrew Stanton and Angus McLane

The wife and I finally got around to checking this one out, and we enjoyed it.

The story follows Dory, the blue tang fish from Finding Nemo, as she sets off on a quest for her long-lost parents. Along the way, we viewers learn that Dory's famous forgetfulness is a condition that she was born with, and is the reason that she first wandered off from her parents years before she met Nemo and his father Marlon.

Dory's quest takes her back to a massive public aquarium, where she rediscovers several old friends from her time there - a near-sighted whale shark, a beluga whale with damaged echo location, and a few others - who try to help Dory find the trail back to her parents. One of the greatest helpers is a new friend, Hank, a clever, camouflaging octopus with a missing limb.

If you sense a pattern here, you're right. Finding Dory is very much about how those with disabilities can overcome them and succeed at something. It's a welcome message, and one that is handled well, if not always in the subtlest of ways. What impressed me most about this movie is how it truly does stand on its own, without relying on the tremendous success and impact of its predecessor, the early Pixar hit, Finding Nemo. Although several characters from that instant classic animated film appear in the picture, this movie has its own themes, primary characters, and unique plot. And it does bear plenty of the trademark Pixar visual creativity, with some great gags and use of the brilliant color palates at their disposal.

Finding Dory is a very satisfying sequel, even if there is a touch of the saccharine to its ending. It continues the tradition of Pixar movies that have displayed wonderful humor with themes relevant to everyone from age five through a hundred. 

New Release! The Incredibles 2 (2018) [Spoiler-Free Review]

The Parr family, a.k.a. "The Incredibles." They deal with
the same problems as any standard family, along with using
their amazing abilities to stop evildoers.

No Spoilers! Read On!!

Director: Brad Bird

Though perhaps not the dazzling revelation of the first movie, The Incredibles 2 is another brilliant feather in the caps of the animation geniuses at Pixar Studios. And it satisfied this tremendous fan of the original movie quite nicely.

The story picks up only moments after the end of the first movie - with the super-powered Parr family about to square off against the subterranean villain "The Underminer," who emerges from underground to steal from several banks. The consequences of the ensuing fight reinforces the public's belief that "supers" (those with superhuman abilities) should still not be granted the legal right to use their powers in public. Enter Winston and Evelyn Deavor - a brother/sister pair of billionaires who are the heads of a massive communications company. Winston in particular is a longtime fan of superheroes and wants to use the Incredibles - Helen "Elastigirl" Parr, to be precise - to wage a positive public relations campaign to see supers granted license to publicly use their powers once again. Soon after this campaign is underway, a new villain - The Screenslaver - emerges with powerful hypnotizing technology which endangers anyone who sees it.

Helen "Elastigirl" Parr gets to be much more front-and-center
in the sequel. It's a highly effective shift from the original.

Back in 2004, I was completely blown away by the first movie. That year, it was hands-down the most fun I had at the movie theater. Pixar had already had several massive hit movies, with Monsters, Inc., the first two Toy Story movies, and Finding Nemo. But The Incredibles was something else, entirely. It was the first Pixar movie that showed a real sense of chic style and used a really fun fantasy/superhero premise that showed more sophistication than your typical family movie. The humor ran the gamut, and the action was pure joy to watch. While the sequel could never have been as novel as the original, it comes about as close to its predecessor in all other departments. The writing is still exceptionally sharp, the story is very much its own rather than just a retread of the successful elements of the first movie, and the action is as dazzling and inventive as one could hope for. Thanks to the freedom that animation provides and the wonderfully creative mind of writer and director Brad Bird, this movie follows the first in being one of the best superhero movies made - animated or otherwise.

I could nitpick a few things here and there, such as how the third act gets a little convoluted with characters and the finale isn't as impressive as the first movie. Still, there is a satisfactory resolution to everything. Anyone who has enjoyed superhero movies, Pixar movies, or simply fun action movies is bound to have fun with this one. 

Oscar-Nominated Animated Short Films for 2015

I usually try to catch the collections of all of the Oscar-nominated films in the "animated short film" category, which are always shown as a collection in a theater near me. This year's set was, as a whole, one of the best groups I've seen over the four or five years that I've seen these collections:

As always, you can expect a vibrant display of color in Pixar's
entry in the category this year.

Sanjay's Super-Team 

Director: Sanjay Patel

This year's Pixar Studios entry. It's a mostly visual tale about a young Indian boy, Sanjay, who is obsessed with a cartoon superteam of vibrantly costumed heroes. When his devout father has him leave his TV show to pray with him, Sanjay reluctantly joins him at his prayer station. Just as Sanjay's attention starts to completely drift, though, his imagination is sparked by the wondrous Hindu figures in his father's prayer box. What follows is a dazzling action scene in which Sanjay envisions the Hindu gods becoming versions of the superteam characters, who fight off a menacing monster of darkness. As usual for Pixar, the animation and visuals are first-class. The story is a nice little departure for them, too, into the realms of a religion which is not common in the U.S. Still, it's not the best Pixar short I've ever seen. This one was my third favorite of the nominees.

World of Tomorrow

Director: Don Hertzfeld

Mind-blowing. Strong words, I know, for an animated short film, but they are appropriate. World of Tomorrow is a simultaneously hilarious, poetic, and brilliant little piece of speculative fiction. Using rather rudimentary visuals, this 17-minute short tells the story of Emily. A very young Emily is visited by a distant clone of herself from 227 years in the future, who begins telling her about many of the things to come. The future Emily tells tales of space exploration, memory control and

Yes, the animation might look crude at a glance, but its
abstract style makes perfect sense for the story and dialogue.

manipulation, extra-sensory communication, and many bizarre facets of future civilizations which one might find in some of the most fascinating and creative works of science-fiction. The future Emily delivers even the most terrifying and wondrous facts about her future in a dry monotone, which enhances the comedy value exponentially. An unexamined look at this film's visuals might make it seem cheap and simple, but they actually serve as a very plausible way of depicting how the young Emily, who is probably around 3 years old, is attempting to process ideas which are far beyond her mental grasp. This is one of the most creative animated films I've ever seen, and it was my favorite of the group.

Bear Story

Director: Gabriel Osorio

Great animation, but overly sentimental. Bear Story follows a humanoid adult bear who uses a complex mechanized box to both entertain children and tell the story of how he was abducted from his wife and son into a zoo. The animation is digital, and it showcases some spectacular visuals which emulate other animation forms such as stop-motion animation and elaborate, moving dioramas. The story, however, is all about the low-hanging fruit of making you feel sorry for the fluffy, sad bear. No new ground being tilled, here. This wasn't a bad film, but it was my least favorite of the group, by far.

We Can't Live Without Cosmos

Director: Konstantin Broznit

Terrible title, but great little film. Using relatively simple, hand-drawn animation, this film follows a pair of aspiring cosmonauts. The two are roommates who are among a larger group of potential cosmonauts competing for the chance to go into space. There is a touching yet unsentimental feeling to their story as it unfolds, and there is a wealth of great visual storytelling and gags. This one found a rare and welcome blend of gravity, humor, and creativity to make for what I thought was the second best film of the set.

The short Prologue features some stunning, traditional
pencil drawing to tell its story of the horror or warfare.

Prologue

Director: Richard Williams

The hardest-hitting of the bunch. So hard-hitting and graphic, in fact, that this one came with a disclaimer suggesting that young children not see it. Prologue goes old-school with its graphics, using color pencil sketches to depict a battle between four ancient warriors, seemingly from Classical Greek times. The four soldiers, armed with spears and bows, brutally attack and kill each other. The final images convey the horrors of warfare, and everything is done without the use of dialogue. This one showed some nice traditional animation skills and sticks with a profound, if not exactly novel, message. My fourth favorite of the group, though right on par with Sanjay's Super Team.

Final Thoughts

This year's was actually a good group, top to bottom. In recent years, there have always been at least one short which seemed pointless beyond displaying some commendable animation. In past years, there have also been at least one extremely sappy, sentimental entry, which almost always wins. This year, though, I felt that only Bear Story was conspicuous in its attempts at your emotions. The others steered well clear. If I had my way, World of Tomorrow would be the hands-down winner this year. In terms of creativity, it is well beyond the other entries. If it doesn't win, I expect that Sanjay's Super Team could pull in down, both for its strong animation and its culturally inclusive nature. 

New Release! Inside Out (2015)

Director: Pete Docter & Ronaldo Del Carmen

Arguably the best Pixar movie yet. I can't exactly say it's my personal favorite, but it's one of the most brilliant movies, animated or otherwise, that you're ever likely to see.

Chances are you've heard about this movie's premise. If not, here's the quick summary. We get to see a few crucial days in the life of Riley, an 11-year old girl who is going through the troubling experience of moving from the hometown she loves in Minnesota to San Fransisco. The way we follow her experience is from the perspective of the five primary feelings in her brain: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. Each one of these emotions serves a particular purpose in keeping Riley safe and healthy, though the purpose of Sadness is not made clear in the beginning. Each has a distinctive look and sound: Joy is an effervescent, greenish pixie; Sadness is mopey and frumpy; Anger is small and red, with flame shooting out of his head when irked; Fear is a neurotic, skittish, skinny basketcase; and Disgust is a prissy, self-conscious fashion maven.

The movie spans roughly the first 48 hours of Riley's arrival in San Fransisco. Through the actions and reaction of the five emotions in her brain, known as "headquarters," we get complete insight as to her attempts to deal with one undesirable situation after another. Most of the humor derives from when Fear, Anger, or Disgust are piloting Riley's actions. Anger, voiced by Lewis Black in arguably the greatest voice casting of all time, becomes a show-stealer time and time again. Seeing how Riley lives out these three feelings provides comic moments that are as great in any Pixar movie.

The movie goes far beyond quality humor, though. True to the very best Pixar films, Inside Out actually probes into deeper emotions in ways that any person over the age of three can sink his or her teeth into. As Riley begins to grapple with feeling alienated, homesick, and misunderstood by her parents, we see it all play out in headquarters. The previously well-established safe places in her mind start to crumble, and Joy and Sadness become lost and have to struggle with each other to return to headquarters. For Riley, this means a growing disconnect with her parents and anyone else whom she encounters. Any person who has experienced such alienation and confusion can relate to what is happening, and it is amazing how well the movie handles such profound and universal struggles.

Joy shows Sadness one of Riley's memories. The background
is the landscape of Riley's mind. This fertile territory is the
setting for one of the the most imaginative looks at how a
child can grow into adulthood.

On a side note, I am thankful that, for once, a Disney/Pixar movie didn't feel the need to kill one of the protagonist's family members to stoke the emotions of us viewers. One need look no further than the recent Big Hero 6, which was a fun enough movie, for the studios' most ham-fisted attempt at evoking sympathy. With Inside Out, no such brutality is needed. The film's much lighter tough is hopefully a message to current and future writers that a story can be deeply emotional without using horrifying tragedy. It's simply not necessary to burn a protagonist's kindly elder brother to a crisp when far more accessible experiences are on hand.

While my favorite Pixar movie is still The Incredibles, Inside Out will stand as a timeless masterpiece that has set a new bar for what family films can do. Walt Disney once said that he wasn't in the business of make great "children's" movies; he was in the business of making great movies. With Inside Out, Pixar has revitalized this ideal of its parent studio's iconic founder and set the bar even higher for future filmmakers.