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The National Parks Project
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011—FilmThe National Parks Project (Canada 2011, Documentary), Writer: Joel McConvey; Directors: Various
A few months ago, I interviewed the creators and producers of The National Parks Project—Joel McConvey, Geoff Morrison and Ryan J. Noth—for my website KickassCanadians.ca. You can read the article (please do!) for more on the project’s genesis, but in a nutshell:
Last year, on the eve of Parks Canada’s centennial, these three wunderminds sent 13 crews of filmmakers and musicians to a national park in each of Canada’s provinces and territories. The artists recorded the sights and sounds that were experienced and inspired in the natural landscape, and their footage and audio was used to create 13 short films. Together, these shorts comprise the feature documentary The National Parks Project.
While catching up with Joel and Geoff this Canada Day weekend, I picked up a DVD of the film and watched it the first chance I got. I was mesmerized throughout almost every short. What a way to celebrate the nation’s 144th birthday!
Some aspects of the documentary surprised me. I knew the shorts were largely experimental and featured mostly music, ambient sound and park footage. I was expecting ethereal shots, breathtaking scenery and transcendent instrumentals, and there was all of that in abundance.
What I wasn’t expecting was the unique artistic slants taken for several of the shorts. Many incorporated effects, titles and voice-over, often to create a somewhat linear story. Some of the shorts I wouldn’t necessarily classify as documentaries per se, but rather as experimental fiction shot in national parks. (In particular, Quand j’aurai vu les îles, shot in Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve, Quebec.) But I guess it depends on how strictly you define “documentary,” as almost every film has a story or slant, to some degree.
I won’t get into specifics on all 13 films, but suffice it to say that I very much liked almost every one, and loved three in particular: Night Vision, Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan; Sirmilik, Sirmilik National Park, Nunavut; and Kluane, Kluane National Park and Reserve, Yukon.
In Night Vision, you don’t see a great deal of the park, both because of the night vision shooting and because of the fact that what is shown are often close-up or abstract glimpses seen through the eyes of the young female narrator. But the film has a certain magic to it and ends with a lovely point about preserving the land (and the dream-like experience of visiting that land) without hammering the message home.
Sirmilik makes a similar point concerning climate change, but again, not throughout the entire piece and not with a heavy hand. I loved Sirmilik in the way it contrasts the stunning natural environment, both in close-up and landscape shots, with touches of civilization (e.g. polar bears spray-painted onto a corner store by the outskirts) and glimpses into the region’s culture, language and music.
Kluane makes it clear from the opening shot that it’s going to turn perspective on its head. It opens with an upside down tracking shot of the rocky terrain and frequently revisits that technique, along with jump cuts, fast motion, abstract imagery, underwater footage and spectacular landscapes, to create a moving still life of the unique and staggering beauty that is Yukon’s National Park.
That feat is something all the films collectively achieve. They take beautiful shots of the parks and bring them to life with motion, music and ingenuity, creating the most incredible album of moving portraits. The artists involved in The National Parks Project have empowered the parks with a voice, letting the landscapes do most of the talking. They’ve imbued each piece with their own flavour and ideas, but on the whole it’s the parks that shine through as the undeniable stars.
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I proudly dedicate this post to Joel, Geoff and Ryan. You’ve done a wonderful thing. Bravo!
For more on The National Parks Project and a full list of the filmmakers and musicians involved, please visit nationalparksproject.ca. The documentary is playing in Ottawa, Waterloo and Winnipeg this week. Click here for details on those and other screenings.
Hanna
Sunday, April 10th, 2011—FilmHanna (USA/UK/Germany 2011, Action/Adventure/Thriller), Writers: Seth Lochhead, David Farr; Director: Joe Wright
Once upon a time in Hollywoodland, a brilliant young actress named Saoirse Ronan re-teamed with her Atonement director Joe Wright to defy boundaries and conventions, and create a new twist on the classic fairytale. The result? A very twisted tale indeed.
Hanna is about a lovely girl with big blue eyes and flowing blond locks, who was raised by her father Erik (Eric Bana) in a Finnish forest to be the perfect assassin. Poppa is a former CIA agent with a score to settle. Hanna (Ronan) is grappling with the usual coming-of-age issues facing most young girls who have been brought up in isolation, exposed to the outside world through only Grimm’s fairytales and an outdated encyclopedia, trained to kill without hesitation or remorse, and ingrained with the mantra “Adapt or die.”
When Hanna hits the golden age of 16, Erik realizes she’s ready to step out into the world and complete her life’s mission: to kill CIA operative Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett). Hanna flips the switch to adulthood—the one that also alerts Marissa to her whereabouts, and brings a torrent of armored gunmen to the snow-covered forest for Hanna’s capture—and the story kicks into high gear.
As she journeys through Morocco and Europe, Hanna encounters a series of oddball characters, many of whom are distortions of “classic” fairytale characters. (One is even called Mr. Grimm.) Through her coming-of-age adventure, she gets her first kiss, makes her first friend and completes her first human kill. In the reverse order. And usually in time to The Chemical Brothers’ psychedelic score.
Wright clearly had fun exploring how to incorporate fairytale allusions throughout the film. There’s an abundance of visual references to support the script, as well as a killer soundtrack. In his trippy and highly stylized approach, Wright somehow manages to make his heroine’s peculiar point of view seem normal when compared with the characters and scenarios she stumbles upon. From the hippie tourist family Hanna picks up with, to the manic, obsessive-compulsive Marissa, and especially to Marissa’s rogue henchman Isaacs (Tom Hollander), who plays very much like a sideshow ringmaster, nearly everyone Hanna meets on the yellow brick trail full of bread crumbs is a little… off.
The film takes risks. It throws genre conventions onto the chopping block, then tosses them all back into the bowl to serve up a unique blend of drama and satire, hyperrealism and caricature, simplicity and overkill. A tidily book-ended world of chaos. A bedtime story with bipolar mood disorder.
Hanna may be touted as “a fairytale gone wrong.” But it’s definitely a movie gone right.
Barney’s Version (feat. director Richard J. Lewis)
Thursday, February 24th, 2011—FilmBarney’s Version (Canada/Italy 2010, Drama), Writer: Michael Konyves; Director: Richard J. Lewis
I recently posted an article to my other website KickassCanadians.ca about Barney’s Version director Richard J. Lewis. It features a lot of inside information about the film, so rather than writing a separate post here, I’m offering up the link.
Having the opportunity to pose my questions directly to the source, rather than pondering them here in the ether, was an incredible experience. I hope you’ll enjoy reading the article as much as I enjoyed talking with, and writing about, Lewis.
Blue Valentine
Saturday, January 29th, 2011—FilmBlue Valentine (USA 2010, Drama/Romance), Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne, Joey Curtis; Director: Derek Cianfrance
“You always hurt the one you love, the one you shouldn’t hurt at all….”
I expected to be gushing pink hearts and flowers after seeing Blue Valentine, but instead I’m just sort of reflective.
Blue Valentine examines Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean’s (Ryan Gosling) relationship by crosscutting between the hopeful early days and bitter final ones of their life together. I’ve been eagerly anticipating its release since I read an interview with filmmakers Derek Cianfrance and Joey Curtis last year about the movie’s genesis. Blue Valentine was more than a decade in the making, and involved a hugely collaborative process with its actors, including a one-month period in which Gosling and Williams lived together as a “family” with the actor who plays their daughter.
Now, having finally seen Blue Valentine, I’m somewhat conflicted in my feelings toward it. The film is heavily improvised, which sometimes leads to delicate, wonderfully nuanced delivery, and other times feels a bit self-conscious.
I really like the idea of contrasting the couple’s past and present, and of creating a story from only key moments or glimpses of a life. Cianfrance did a gorgeous job of showing how specific gestures and actions that are still technically the same can come across as sweet and tender in one instance, vile and hateful in another. But on the whole, it felt a little disjointed and I occasionally found myself wishing that it had a stronger narrative structure. Or maybe that the filmmakers had made slightly different choices in the moments they decided to show and omit. (I think Blue Valentine would be interesting as a series of installation pieces in an exhibit, with the various scenes—happy or horrendous, hopeful or hateful—playing out at the same time.)
The moments that work (and most of them do) are so raw, real and loaded with truth that they’re often hard to watch. Both Gosling and Williams are incredibly well served by the intensive process Cianfrance put them through. I’m a huge Gosling fan (Lars and the Real Girl, The Believer, Drive, The Ides of March) and he’s excellent here. But as much as he shines, Williams positively glows; her Academy Award nomination is richly deserved.
In addition to its occasionally flawed arrangement, Blue Valentine left me somewhat unsatisfied because I was expecting a story about how a good love can turn bad. Instead, it was more a story of what happens when two people who are poorly matched get married for the “wrong” reasons. I would be more interested in seeing the evolution of a couple who truly are head over heels and a lovely match to start, but for whom life and psychology get in the way.
Blue Valentine is smart, and lovingly put together by a talented filmmaking team. There’s a lot to like, and it’s cool to see the results of such a dedicated and unorthodox approach to moviemaking. I just can’t shake the feeling that it could have been tightened up a bit to work better as a feature film, making every one of the movie’s moments as impactful and resonant as its best.
“… and if I broke your heart last night, it’s because I love you most of all.”
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For LP, GR and MG: Ours will be pink. I promise.
Wonderpress goes digital with KickassCanadians.ca
Saturday, January 8th, 2011—NewsHappy 2011! To kick off the new year, I’m introducing a brand new website called KickassCanadians.ca. The site features articles about inspiring Canadians I’ve interviewed, including five-time Olympian Glenroy Gilbert and The Simpsons writer Rob Cohen. I’ll be uploading new articles on a regular basis, so please check it out and feel free to suggest other Canadian interview subjects.
Black Swan
Tuesday, December 21st, 2010—FilmBlack Swan (USA 2010, Drama/Thriller), Writers: Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin; Director: Darren Aronofsky
It looks like I’m going to have eat my words a bit as far as Black Swan is concerned. Or at least chew them a little longer before spitting them out.
If you read my teaser about Black Swan and 127 Hours, you’ll see that I’m a fan of director Darren Aronofsky’s and that I was looking forward to his treatment of psychological and physical deterioration in the world of the New York City ballet. In that regard, Black Swan didn’t disappoint. It’s an extremely visual film, and Aronofsky achieves many beautiful, even poetic moments. But its script is fairly unsubstantial, and the end result for me was an underdeveloped storyline with two-dimensional characters.
It doesn’t take much of a leap to see why the rigid, punishing life of a ballet dancer could easily lead to self-destruction. But too much of what Nina (Natalie Portman) puts herself through is left unanswered or unexplained. As she spirals further out of control in her quest for perfection—desperate to master both the innocent white swan and the dangerous black swan that are required of her performance—the movie starts to feel increasingly contrived.
Aronofsky has explored similar subject matter in previous films with far greater success. The Wrestler worked because its treatment of Mickey Rourke’s wrestler was clearer and less abstract than Portman’s Nina. Requiem for a Dream took its characters to some dark, confusing places, but it made sense given that they were heroin addicts. Because Nina’s turmoil isn’t fully examined or justified, Black Swan comes across as melodramatic and gratuitous.
Throughout Black Swan, I was reminded of David Lynch’s brilliant film Mulholland Drive. Both movies combine dream, fantasy and reality to explore the main character’s psyche and portray her contradictions and inner conflicts. But with Mulholland Drive, confusing though it can be, everything makes sense. If you study the film, or even read its breakdown online, everything ties up neatly. There’s a satisfaction in that. By contrast, Black Swan feels messy and unfulfilling.
Aronosfky’s direction is great, so if you want to see stunning shots and sequences accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s music, there’s something to be gained from watching Black Swan. Portman is also a highlight, giving a very controlled performance that somehow manages to portray extreme intensity with an incredibly delicate touch. But all in all, I’m underwhelmed by Black Swan.
127 Hours
Saturday, December 4th, 2010—Film127 Hours (USA/UK 2010, Adventure/Biography/Drama), Writers: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy; Director: Danny Boyle
I was really stoked to see 127 Hours and it absolutely lived up to my expectations. This movie is fantastic. As I mentioned not long ago in a teaser about the film, it’s based on the book Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aron Ralston’s real life account of the five days he spent trapped in a Utah canyon and the choice he had to make to survive: cutting off his right arm, which was pinned under a boulder.
I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that writer/director Danny Boyle and lead actor James Franco make 127 Hours a masterpiece. I’m wondering whether some of my love for the film comes from where I’m at right now, just as Into the Wild had a stronger impact on me because of the personal context at the time I saw it. But objectively, I think 127 Hours really is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.
Boyle outdoes himself technically. His film is expertly structured, and visually and aurally stunning. He captures the glorious splendor of the land Aron tries to explore and conquer. Then, with seemingly equal ease, Boyle creates a tight, claustrophobic world where Aron is forced to look within himself and explore an entirely different realm than the vast canyons and mountains that had been his focus for so long. Not only does Boyle make Aron’s time in the crevice feel utterly genuine and believable, but Boyle also manages to bring thrills and excitement to those scenes. He does wonders with Aron’s hallucinations, dreams and flashbacks, not to mention his direction of Franco.
As Aron, Franco delivers what is easily one of his best performances. His portrayal is incredibly raw and completely without artifice. Franco lets us see Aron change before our eyes as he hangs from his (one)handmade sling, trying to stay alive and, in the process, finding a reason behind it all. When he breaks down in sobs, it isn’t just because he’s trapped at the bottom of a canyon. It’s because he’s finally realized just how isolated he’d made himself, and it took being physically prevented from returning to the rest of the world for him to see what a handicap that was. Every moment in his life—every unreturned phone call, every wall he put up between himself and those around him—led him to that canyon, beneath that boulder, with none of his loved ones having the first clue where to find him or even that he was missing. As he says, “I chose this.”
If 127 Hours wasn’t based on a true story, this premise could seem like a very convenient, if artful, metaphor. But it truly was lived by Ralston. He was in such a hurry to seek out what he thought would, or did, make him happy, that he buried and dismissed the cost of avoiding any real connection with the people in his life. (“These things that are pleasin’ you can hurt you somehow.”)
Aron’s story, as well as a number of other events that I’ve heard of or experienced in the past while, have had me wondering: How much of life’s events are laid out in advance as if to form a film or a novel? Whether you believe that things happen for a reason, or that you can draw lessons and create your own reason from what has happened, there’s a certain symmetry in life that I find hard to discount and impossible not to marvel at.
I won’t follow that thought much further so as not to give away more details about the movie. Many of the film’s other moments that struck a chord for me come in Aron’s reactions when he’s finally free of the rock and when he’s able to seek help, and although you know in advance that these things will happen, I don’t want to ruin the delivery. I will say that Boyle has tackled a challenging story and succeeded in creating an impressive, powerful and exciting film that inspires hope without ever being sentimental.
See this movie. Even if you can’t stomach gore. You can close your eyes when Aron parts ways with his limb (I did). But 127 Hours is a film not to be missed; it’s an important and amazing story told by incredible filmmakers working at their best.
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This post is for CDC and MDC. I always love their reason. Merci.
Pop Sandbox’s graphic novel KENK named one of Quill & Quire’s books of the year
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010—NewsMy friend—and longtime source of inspiration—Alex Jansen launched his multimedia production and publishing shingle Pop Sandbox not too long ago, and he’s already got the company on the map with his journalistic comic book, KENK: A Graphic Portrait. The publication was just named one of Quill & Quire’s 2010 non-fiction books of the year. KENK is about Igor Kenk, “the world’s most prolific bicycle thief,” and you can learn more by clicking here.
I had the pleasure up meeting up with Alex again in October when he was in town for the Ottawa International Writing and Animation Festivals. Most of the KENK team came together to talk about the process behind the book and their plans to adapt it into an animated short film. Their work so far has been extremely innovative and creative, and promises to continue in that vein.
Check out Pop Sandbox and keep an eye on Alex. He’s got a lot more projects coming down the pipe, and I’m hoping to team up with him some day soon through one medium or another, be it print, film or something in between. Congratulations, Alex! Very well deserved.
Black Swan & 127 Hours (teasers)
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010—FilmBlack Swan (USA 2010, Drama/Thriller), Writers: Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin; Director: Darren Aronofsky
127 Hours (USA/UK 2010, Adventure/Biography/Drama), Writers: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy; Director: Danny Boyle
Two movies are coming down the pipes that I’m VERY excited about… and that make me think I should put more effort into getting to film festivals so that I won’t be forced to wait so long before seeing works like these. The movies are Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan and Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours. You can see the trailer for Black Swan here and for 127 Hours here. Both gave me shivers the first time I watched them.
Aronofsky’s films always intrigue me. After glancing back at what I wrote about his fantastic 2008 film The Wrestler, I’m reminded of the director’s penchant for exploring the depths of human misery, and how far obsession and the need for acceptance can drive people to spiral completely out of control. That may not make Black Swan sound like an appealing holiday flick, but if you’re interested in human psychology and pathology—as well as artful filmmaking—I think Black Swan is a very safe bet.
The film is set in the highly competitive, and evidently toxic, world of the New York City Ballet. When sweet Nina (Natalie Portman) is cast as the lead dancer in Swan Lake, her struggle to summon the darker, more sultry side of the role takes her to some very dangerous places. Everything about this movie entices me, from the tone to the subject matter to the cast. Portman is one of the most captivating and impressive people in the film industry. And I look forward to seeing what tricks of the imagination Aronofsky will pull this time around.
My reasons for wanting to see 127 Hours are similar, although the movies appear to be completely different. I hadn’t heard of 127 Hours until I saw its trailer before Howl, both of which star the outstanding James Franco. The energy and excitement of 127 Hours came across immediately. It’s based on the book Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aron Ralston’s (Franco) real-life account of his experience getting caught between a rock (a boulder) and a hard place (a canyon wall) in Canyonlands, Utah, and having to choose whether to perish alone or amputate himself.
Given the performances Franco has been giving lately, he’s reason enough to get in line for 127 Hours. Milk, Howl, even Pineapple Express—all showcase his talent, range and fearlessness. Then there’s director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire). He has all the creativity and cojones needed to take a book about a guy trapped alone in a canyon and make it an engaging movie. Boyle has proven he takes no prisoners when it comes to filmmaking, which both draws me to his latest effort and guarantees that I’ll be closing my eyes when it’s decision time for Aron. (People have reportedly been vomiting or passing out during the movie’s most intense moments.)
There’s a really interesting article by Peter Debruge in Creative Screenwriting Magazine about the evolution of 127 Hours. I can’t find it online, but it’s worth tracking down if you want to read more about how Boyle adapted the book for the screen, and how the challenges of the medium necessitated climbing even farther into Ralston’s psyche and personal life.
So, I’ll almost certainly be writing about these two films in the coming weeks, and will most definitely be watching them. Even without having seen the films, I can say with complete confidence that you should go; they will be worth the price of admission.
Wonderpress fan and Juno-winner Jen Gould returns with Music Soup the DVD
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010—NewsJuno Award-winning children’s musician, and avid Wonderpress fan, Jen Gould recently released the DVD version of her album Music Soup. Visit her website to learn more and order your copy.
