LARS AND THE REAL GIRL

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Release Date: 2007

Runtime: 107 minutes

The words on the back of the box describe this film as "moving," which is ironic because that's exactly the opposite of what it is.  While I'm sure they paid off some critic somewhere to call it the "feel good comedy of the year," Lars and the Real Girl is anything but.  When you combine a somewhat lacking plot with Ryan Gosling's somewhat lacking acting skills (Did anyone see Fracture?  "I'm Willie Beachum I never lose a case!"  Good news everyone, Ryan Gosling 2.0 comes with detachable come and grease for the perfectly styled hair-do for disguising shitty acting).  And don't anybody mention The Notebook, or I'm gonna hurl:  The ladies can pine all they want, but in my opinion it's hardly real acting if it's a played out ideal (Such as ideal love).  By definition ideal is unreal.  If you want to be a good actor, you better be seriously conflicted about your shit.  Which appears to be what he's going for here.  Unfortunately for Gosling you could probably watch the movie for the mannequin and have a better time.

But seriously, why wouldn't I want to watch an hour and 47 minutes indie/emo flick about a guy who brings a town together by learning love from a mannequin?  It's not even about the plot.  All that aside, the main reason the film bothered me is because by the end I just didn't care what happened.  Bothered is the wrong word to use here.  If I was bothered that would actually be an upgrade from what I felt.  There's just not really much to say here.  The film doesn't really provoke any meaningful thought processes, mainly because it's predictable and there's a definite lack of ability to relate with the main character.  Sorry to beat a dead horse here, but the film is about a serious internal struggle on the part of the main character, and I'm just not feeling brought in at all.  I can't feel for the main character because I don't get the main character.  And don't try to blame it on the nature of the disorder: you can't make a movie about a psychological struggle where a man drags a mannequin all over town and ends up finding love all with long shots of bland scenes on a wide angle lens and then call it art.  You can't relate to the characters because the entire film is set up (poorly) for this main theme, which you can see coming from a mile away.  On a brighter note, Paul Schneider and Kelli Garner's acting almost made the movie worthwhile...  But that's like saying a tugboat could carry the titanic back from the depths.  All joking aside though, bang up job there: I could relate to some characters in a film desperately seeking any actual legitimate expression.

Calling this film a comedy/drama would be misleading, because that would give moviegoers the impression that they're going to laugh and cry and be generally moved during the course of the film.  I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or stare at the wall instead.  Because when Hollywood writers think of gimmicks and then try to force exorbitant amounts of feeling down your throat, the opposite occurs: a hollow feeling filled with how pissed off you are that you rented this film over braving the moviegoing crowds to see The Dark Night.  I give this film a -$2 rating.  I want some money for my time.  Thank God Adam payed for the rental.

AKIRA

Genre: Foreign/Anime

Release Date: 1988

Runtime: 124 minutes

For those of you who want more Japanese people screaming japanese as buildings are destroyed and the general populous of Tokyo is maimed, Akira is the film for you.  Don't worry about the political correctness of that statement, I took a class on the Asian-American experience in college so we're good to go.  

But seriously, if you enjoy anime, sci-fi, fantasy, or any sort of futuristic action thrillers (Can you say Total Recall?), this is probably a good choice.  If you're curious about anime this movie is especially worthwhile because it is one of the first and probably one of the most famous anime flicks around (We're talking an onto the scene catapult here).  While some people dislike anime because it's generally viewed as the stuff of Saturday morning television (Pokemon) and late night college stoner television (Cowboy Bebop, Drangonball Z, Gundam Wing), the movie actually brings up some worthwhile stuff.  Also, some people get turned off by the whole subtitles thing, not to worry, if you obtain the special edition it is dubbed (so you can watched horribly mismatched speech with wide open anime mouths - once again, ASIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE - actually that's not even the case it's fairly realistic as far as speaking animation goes).  So the main point here is, it's a legitimate future type action flick with really cool animation, available to you in English.

So to give some pretext for the movie without trying to reveal any of the plot, the movie begins in a Neo-Tokyo set in 2019,  30 years after world war 3.  The movie deals with what happens when a power so great man cannot harness it is unleashed.

Now, given my semester of Intro to Japanese Culture (B+ baby), I'm going to go ahead and consider myself an expert on modern Japanese anime films and their cultural context.  The coolest theme I thought the movie had going for it was the idea of what will happen when man discovers power greater than his own, and how it will be handled.  It's an interesting concept, and certainly very thought provoking.  As far as the technology of warfare goes, the recurring sci-fi theme is that of either general world peace or the more popular mutually assured destruction.  And none have had a more immediate experience with the horrifyingly apocalyptic direction of warfare technology than the Japanese.  You talk about devastating, the atom bomb made the end of the world/humanity a very real scenario for the Japanese.  Which gave them the tools for a movie set in a hedonistic post world war 3, a corrupt society with little direction and lots of technology.  And it turns out they make good storytellers when it comes to sci-fi's ominous prediction for the future of man.

Besides the heavy themes addressed by the movie, it's also easy to sit back and watch - the artists depictions of Neo-Tokyo are incredibly detailed, and the animation style is an interesting and very open ended approach that leads to some very cool shots and some pretty epic scenes.  The music soundtrack is pretty remarkable and well fitting, keeping the pace going for the ever snowballing plot.  Even the characters are well placed:  The young gang of teenagers with their sweet high speed motorcycles aptly characterize a society headed towards almost certain disaster.  One thing is for sure: it's definitely a very cool movie to watch if you enjoy animated films.  It's certainly refreshing after numerous computer made pixar films (Granted, Wall-E was the bomb).

No film is perfect, however, there's really not that much in the way of character development.  One might argue that there doesn't have to be; typically with anime the role of a character is signified by the way he or she is depicted in the illustration.  For example, older looking characters are typically always wiser, more muscular characters are battle ready leaders, etc.  But the movie does trade time to develop characters for more action and plot development.  You may find yourself getting tired watching more and more shooting and generally excessive violence.  

However, I did think that on the whole it was a pretty cool flick.  In it's own right, and for it's class, it's one of the best.  But this movie is probably not for those who appreciate, say, a drama with an intricate web of character personalities and interactions.  It all depends on what you are looking for.  Which is hopefully why you're reading this; to find out.  As far as the ending goes, it's open to interpretation - you'll probably either love it or hate it, that's all I care to venture there.

I give it a $9.50.  I would've seen this guy when it came out.  But I'm kind of a nerd, so who knows.