Month: May 2021

[Please note that there will be spoilers for Season 1 of Demon Slayer, but not for the movie]

It’s Thursday night in Odeon. I go to screen seven and I feel it. They haven’t been outside since before COVID, not even realising there is a lockdown. Their must is enforcing of social distancing in a way that would make Chris Whitty shed a tear of joy. These are the anime nerds.

I do of course kid the anime nerds out there. I’ll put my cards on the table here. I don’t really watch anime TV series, I don’t watch much TV at all. However, I respect it as a medium and it does some interesting things. Occasionally if it’s on, I’ll go and see it at the cinema (maybe once or twice a year) to see something different and I always judge it fairly. I had a great time with Akira while I also enjoyed Weathering With You. Needless to say Spirited Away is one of the best movies ever and I cried loads at Grave of the Fireflies. I also get a lump in my throat when Ash gets turned to stone and Pikachu cries. However, DSMT is probably the most hardcore anime film I’ve sat in, mainly due to how much it links to the series, which is available on Netflix.

Going into this film, I didn’t know a thing about Demon Slayer apart from what I learnt in a ten minute summary on IGN (which you can find here). However, I was curious about the most successful box office film ever in Japan. Therefore, while I will talk about the technical aspects universally, I will talk about the story from the perspective of not having too much information.

The important things to know from season one are:

A protagonist with a mark on his head (Let’s call him Harry Potter) comes home one day to find his family murdered by demons, apart from sister who was turned into a demon. He becomes a demon slayer, along with his friends, one is an annoying creepy loud blonde boy (Let’s call him Ron) and the other is overly excited and has a pig on his head (He can be boar-omir). They go around slaying demons and looking to kill the chief bad guy. However, there are some super demons, Premiership demons and Championship Demons. There is only one championship demon left who has super powers or something. Harry, Ron and Boaromir have been sent on a train to find the fire super dragon slayer, let’s call him Dumbledore and that’s where the film starts.

For fans of the demon slayer franchise, you’ll really enjoy this. While some of it was lost on me, there was plenty of chatter as the credits roled and it sounded excitable. I can only imagine that when the Community movie comes out, I’ll be just as excited afterwards in my Joe hair, in my Chang wig, in my Jeff wig in my bald cap. There isn’t much I can say from your perspective, but it’s fine.

However, for those who aren’t fans of Demon Slayer, it’s not as accessible. The film essentially plays out like a two hour episode of the show. Harry, Ron and Boaromir are on the train, and need to take down the higher championship demon which sends them to sleep and kill them via that. It’s basically Charlie Kauffman and they live out their ideal dreams, but need to wake up, thus some season 1 context being necessary. There are also significant story moments which will be lost on you. There isn’t really a neat beginning, middle and end. It’s like watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire without seeing any of the other ones. If you’re cool with that then great. Otherwise, maybe stay away.

The animation looks nice. They clearly put a lot of effort in. As demons only come out at night, some of the earlier nicer lighting is lost, however the interior of the train looks great. The style is fun and unique, instead of what I usually complain about.

The story had a few moments I thought were great. The emotional moments, especially in Harry Potter’s dreams didn’t have the impact on my they would desire, mainly due to my lack of time invested in Mr Potter, although the climax of the dream scenes was pretty cool. There were also some moments later on where the emotion seemed disproportionate, although maybe I was missing something, I’ll wait for someone who has seen the movie to discuss with me whether it was.

The rest of it was fine. The soundtrack was fine and that, although the film’s second act wasn’t as good as its first. It pivoted seemingly out of nowhere in a different direction and it would have been nice for it to have been alluded to, although it may have been and I wouldn’t have known. I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but the story essentially stops, and it becomes a whole new episode which didn’t live up to the last.

There were some quirks that bugged me. I really did not like the Ron character. He is unnecessarily creepy, and I just wanted him to die. Boaromir was mildly humorous at times, although some of it was poorly timed and took me out of the moment. However, this was my opinion and if you like the show, you won’t have an issue with it. I guess the style of the anime may be lost on me in that regard and I’m not sorry for feeling that way.

Summary

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train is essentially fan service. Those who love the series will have a great time. However, those who do not know a thing will struggle as it’s not very accessible. While it looks pretty, the film is little more than two extended episodes stuck together, albeit with some interesting moments throughout. [Grade: C+]

There was something poetic about going to Nomadland on that Wednesday evening, in that it was my first cinema outing with my aunt for a very long time. You see, way back when, we used to regularly venture to the picture show together, in full agreement about the cinematic code of conduct (although she likes a burger in her new fancy cinema, a choice with which I am not yet comfortable, but love her unconditionally anyway). We have seen good films together (David Copperfield for example), we’ve seen bad films together (We both found Knives Out to not be our cup of tea). However, the greatest film we have seen together, in my opinion, was the one we saw in our last trip of 2020: Parasite. The fact that our last visit was a recently announced best picture, means it is somewhat poetic that our first trip in over a year would be the next best picture winner, Nomadland. Yet, this form of poetry pales in comparison to the graceful poetry of Chloe Zhao’s film.

In Nomadland, Fern’s hometown has basically become abandoned. Grieving over the loss of her husband, she has gotten rid of most of her things and now lives in the back of a van, as a nomad. We watch her over the course of time, interacting with old friends and family all of whom are concerned about her, and understandably so in the cold winter months. On the other side, we see her with a tight knit community of nomads, including Swankie and David, the latter of whom starts to have feelings for her.

While the above description seems somewhat vague, it’s not even me hiding much information. This film is a quiet character study, working on subtleties and character in an almost documentary like way. We don’t explore great themes of the world, but themes within Fern and the nomad life. There is both a feeling of community and of isolation. She has lots of temp jobs, such as Amazon. Dull if you let them be, but Fern’s attitude makes them fun. Amazon aren’t good or bad, neither is her lifestyle, neither is anyone. This is a film which is refreshing in that it doesn’t tell you what to think. You go in with your emotions, you take away what you’ve put in.

The main reason this film works in such a quiet way and that you buy into Fern is Frances McDormand. The woman can do no wrong. This film is on the other end of the spectrum from Three Billboards and yet she holds it with such care. Her Oscar win for this film was fully deserved.

If you are going to watch this, watch it on a big screen. It’s big, vibrant and beautiful. The far out shots of deserts and mountains are like art and are worthy of the trip to your local movie place. The old classical music sounds great on the speakers as well, apart from one oddly jarring moment where some sound clash took me out of it. Otherwise, Chloe Zhao had me for the ride.

Should you watch the film? Well, the other main reason to watch it at the cinema is no distractions. This film won’t be to everyone’s taste. It took me half an hour to really buy into. Don’t get me wrong, once I was in, I was hooked. However, if you don’t do slow or quiet films, this isn’t the film for you. That’s fine. This is the sort of film I almost don’t want to win best picture. If it’s inaccessible to a mainstream audience, if they go and see it, it gives all the other more accessible fantastic films a bad name. That’s no criticism of Chloe Zhao. Her style has always been slow and poetic and she does it really well. Like I say, it’s not a popcorn movie and if you go in expecting something loud and dramatic you’ll be let down. However, if you’re looking for something slow and sensual, there are few films better at providing that.

Summary

Nomadland is truly a thing of beauty. It looks and sounds wonderful and is carried incredibly by Frances McDormand. It’s not the most accessible film out there, but if you go along prepared for something calm and beautiful, you’ll get plenty out of it. [Grade: A-]

I only looked at the screen for half a second before the narration started “So you’re probably wondering how the world got like this”. I hadn’t even seen the world, just a blur. I wasn’t wondering. I didn’t care. Why did you assume that Raya?

Of course this was just a cliché. However, it should have been a hint. Besides I was watching a family movie after all. It just didn’t make a great start for me and made me worry about the rest of what I was going to watch.

The film starts off with a Lord of the Rings-esque lore narrative. The dragon land was taken in danger from these creatures which turn you into stone, however the dragons saved everyone, but the last one disappeared and only the orb keeps it safe. For one reason or another afterwards, the place splits into five parts, all named after the parts of the dragon. When she’s a kid, young Raya trusts the daughter of the leader of another faction, however this leads to the orb getting destroyed and the monsters being let lose. Six years later, we meet Raya as she goes to find the dragon and the five parts of the orb, kind of like horcruxes, but not. This film is basically Disney trying to make a toothless YA adventure.

As the film goes on, she gets together a rag-tag team of disney misfits, including weird sentient animal #83, annoying young male child #74, and weird hyper intellegent baby #3 with her three weird sentient animals #85-88. Oh and the dragon who is… going to teach her to trust others, despite the trusting getting them into this mess in the first place. It’s a disney film, you know how its going to go.

So far, I’ve sounded rather negative, but let’s get one big positive out of the way, this film looks incredible. Yes, that should be expected now, but comparing this film even to Frozen, the difference is huge. Each of the five places had their own unique interesting aesthetic. The use of light in this film was phenomenal and the whole experience was engrossing. The soundtrack was fine as well. The whole film was professionally made. Lots of love and attention went into it and it is unquestionably a good movie.

The problem is the usual Disney playing it safe. The characters are one dimensional and the heroic dragon is of course annoying and weak until the power of friendship saves the day. The comedy level is much more like an episode of new simpsons where quantity matters more than quality. However, that is only one person’s opinion.

There were plenty of children in the cinema and they laughed multiple times, because this is a family film. While I’m craving a fantastic new piece of art like Wolfwalkers or any other Cartoon Saloon masterpiece, these kids want to see the kung fu baby do kung fu, and that’s fine. Your family will enjoy the film, it’s good fun half term entertainment if you are waiting for that migraine tablet to kick in.

Summary

At worst another churned out formulaic output for the behemoth Disney machine. At best, a fun family movie for those who can’t face James Corden being a CGI rabbit. The film is beautiful to look at, however a lack of originality means it struggles to stand out from the crowd. [Grade: B-]

Raya and the Last Dragon is out on cinema, available to stream on Disney+ and is even out on DVD.

On a side note, while I wasn’t huge on this film, the Disney short before hand, Us Again, was absolutely beautiful. That’s worth looking for.

Apples really provided a tense movie-going experience to return to. Having taken my seat in the middle of Curzon Victoria Screen 3 for the screening, others slowly flooded in (without their noisy snacks) and a couple of old folks sat in the row in front of me. I was texting someone at this point, and one of the old fellas was getting a little bit annoyed, no doubt wondering whether this oik would turn off his phone (Yes, when the trailers started). For reference, we’ll call this guy A4, because of his seat number. Anyway, I keep on texting in excitement about my return, but I must say this story is not about me for ten minutes later, in come a couple of others, ready to sit behind me. However, they don’t have face coverings, but do have the lanyards. Ultimately, whether someone has a face covering doesn’t really bother me, in fact I didn’t notice that C6 & C7 didn’t (For the record, I’m B4). However, it was a big enough deal for our friend A4, who said with such indignation “I assume you’ll be wearing your masks” to our row C dwelling indiciduals. Note how I use a full stop in the this instead of a question mark. This is the sort of guy A4 is, straight in there with no craps given. Anyway, C6 & C7 are rather upset and say no, they have their lanyards. This should be this, A4 is suitably embarrassed and sits quietly, while C6 & C7 rise above this petty point scoring attempt at sticking the nose in the other guy’s business.

But no, C7 just needs to make one comment doesn’t he. “My mummy told me not to talk to strange men” as he walks way. Now he was near me, so maybe it was quiet. No, it wasn’t quiet. C7 was suitably pissed off and retaliated and this meant war. Within 30 seconds, A4 was saying to A3, again far too loudly to not be heard, “Them being in here without masks is risking my life”. Trust me, A4, you’re old enough to have been vaccinated and with a nose that size it needs to interfere with everyone else, I guarantee it’s not sticking in your mask either. C7 goes on to jibe loudly about how A3 & A4 shouldn’t be sat next to one another as they’re not in the same households. Again, dude be the bigger man. But no, this is pension warfare.

The ill feeling was palpable in the cinema as there were loud remarks after loud remarks. This truly was the popcorn moment. Did A4 & C7 not read my piece about the truce from last night? Is this what it is like when I fight SurbitonRebelWilsonFanClub? Either way, regardless of your opinion on the situation, it’s nice to know that for once, I wasn’t the biggest pillock in the cinema.

Now for the movie…

It seems appropriate that the first film I see in the cinemas of 2021 takes place during a pandemic. However, this is no ordinary pandemic. In this dystopian undefined era of Greece, people are getting random bouts of amnesia, which are unexplainable. The lead character (Aris according to IMDB) is a victim of this within the first ten minutes. He has a problem though. He has no ID and no family comes to get him, meaning he has to re-assimilate into society, completing increasingly specific and complex tasks given to him by doctors to become a fully functioning person. We know nothing about him or his past, only that he really likes eating apples. During this time, he meets a girl, Anna, who also has amnesiaand they start to bond as they go through this process together.

The film plays off like a dark comedy, with a few amusing moments interspersed. It’s very dry, much like fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, albeit without such sharp claws. It’s accessible, but is very understated in its performances and it’s writing. Thematically the whole film is smart as well, putting value on what people remember, with those around Aris valuing his photos of his experiences as he must take photos of them. However, the film takes a more tender route as it goes on and becomes a deeper, much more profound film.

The actor and director do a good job of helping you care about this character, despite the mysteries around him. He is a clean slate and despite what his past may have been, you support him in achieving his goals. The storytelling as a whole is great as well. It uses a show don’t tell way of saying what’s happening, with small background details showing you the scale of this epidemic, but not saying that it is an epidemic. The reason the film sticks out is that you don’t have just one character with amnesia, but many. As the film goes on, we understand more about the character, although I worked out where the film was going fairly early on. I wish I hadn’t because a re-watch would’ve been so much more interesting.

The whole film is low budget, with very natural grey lighting. The soundtrack is understated and effective and the whole film was put together really tightly. The 4:3 aspect ratio shows a man closed into his small world with no knowledge of anyone or anything outside of it.

Summary

A quirky, dark comedy from which you get a tender emotional piece of cinema, Apples offers an intriguing and alternative choice of film to see on the big screen. Christos Nikou is in full control of the film as we watch a lone man with amnesia come to terms with his place in the world. [Grade: B]

Apples is available at the cinema or on Curzon Home Cinema

So we started on a sour note and I thought I would end on an upbeat note. When I got home, I saw one of my housemates and started talking to him about the film I watched. I didn’t think it would be interesting to him, however he is Greek. As soon as he heard a Greek film was playing at the cinemas, he was immediately interested. I enjoy international films, but sometimes you forget how important it is and how warm it is for the people from those countries to see their countries voice represented in this country, especially on a big screen.

By the time I press publish, it will have been 152 days or 1326.5 2001: A Space Odysseys since I last set foot in a cinema. However, on day 153 I shall gallantly walk into Curzon Victoria and yell just as William Wallace did in the Best Picture winner. I will be back.

In that eternity, many things have happened. The border between Belgium and France was changed by a disgruntled farmer, the Suez Canal was blocked and the rest of the world realised what I’d preached for ages, Paddington 2 is the greatest film of all time (Here’s hoping CitizenRayne.blogspot.com, the Raynes Park based 6th best film blog in SW London don’t read this). Yet throughout this, one has yearned to be taken away into a whole new world, and that yearning has not wavered, so here we go:

Over the next week, I doth lower my guard and embrace you all returning to the cinema. Whether you are watching the brilliant Judas & The Black Messiah or Minari, or you decide to see Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, because why not, I shall not judge you or frown upon your decisions. Whether you go alone, or are making out during Schindler’s List, as long as I’m not disturbed, I don’t really care. It’s just so great to be back.

Personally, on Monday, I will be watching the Greek film Apple. I know very little about it, other than it’s about someone with Amnesia. At some point soon, I’ll re-watch Minari & Sound of Metal as well. I might even consider Ammonite, but that depends how my weekend goes.

My big news is because it’s now been five months without the cinema, myself and Surbiton Rebel Wilson Fan Club will be calling a ceasefire. It’s been a bloody, bruising battle over the third spot on the official SW London film charts, however what unites us all is the love of film and regardless of our different tastes, we shall both be putting down our keyboards and instead watching films.

I look forward to returning to the cinema with you all.

Unless you eat popcorn. If that’s the case, then you can piss off.