Odd Thomas Film Review: In Odd we Trust

For those looking for a more supernatural base that is more witty and creative rather than eerie and spooky, Odd Thomas is a well done fun ride.  The twist is easy to spot, but it won’t matter because the heart of the film centers on the Protagonist, Odd, (yes, that is his name, and yes he’ll make a point to tell you) and his girlfriend Stormy. 

Odd is, much like his name suggests a nontraditional hero.  Unlike the super souped up crime fighters of the superhero universe, his strength is more intuitive and less muscle mass, and his supernatural ability to see dead people provides him a sense of vigilante action that will allow him the chance to save the little California town he lives in.  

The film immediately springs into action and is not conservative about taking its time with slow dialogue.  It usually takes ten minutes of screen time to set up universe of a film, but with some quick step the filmmakers of Odd Thomas were able to clue the audience in with just three minutes before the first inciting incident.  It is a heartfelt and emotional film that has the ability to captivate the senses. 

Based on a mystery thriller novel by Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas is a fun Halloween film that follows a young man as he plays “detective to dead people,” the way he puts it.  The supernatural clairvoyant is everything I wish the kid from the sixth sense grew up to be. Anton Yelchin is strong and powerful and poignant in his performance.  There is no much to say about the film other than it is another Netflix pick for some Halloween fun.  

Contracted Film Review: My Netflix Pick

At first glance Contracted seems like a cautionary tale about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases.  It is not.  The ostensible twist does not come until the end, but to start the film, it opens to a medical examiner raping a dead corpse.  Already the visceral senses are made uncomfortable, and you question if this is just another gratuitous and unnecessary shot for shock value.  I say this because the film makes no attempt to disclose any first person account as to who this man is beyond that opening scene. 
He remains faceless even when he meets the female protagonist, Samantha, who is left inebriated at a friend’s party.   It isn’t a stretch of the imagination when the unknown male rapes Samantha, and in a fait accompli, sets in motion the next three harrowing days of this woman’s life.   We are lead to believe that whatever this woman contracted it was this blurred figure that passed it along, making her patient zero.

Scary Halloween films usually consists of creepy monsters, evil, sadistic, often supernatural psychopaths on a murder spree, and a lot of melodramatic acting.  What makes Contracted scary is the opposite.  While it is possible to outrun a murderer, even a supernatural one, one cannot outrun the failings of the body.  The virus, still unknown to Samantha, takes on a physical toll.  There is copious blood loss, teeth following out, nails coming off, and the occasional slew of maggots dripping out of the vagina.  The fear is heightened by the unidentifiable decent into a maddening disease that which has no name.  It is not a demon that can be exercised.  It is not a masked madman that can be killed.  It has no face, but the one that belongs to Samantha.
With no scientific explanation to hold the weight it is up to the film’s lead actress to give a convincing performance of a fractious mind deteriorating in physical form.  Navigating through an already complicated life, Samantha, played assuredly by Najarra Townsend, starts to lose everything she loves. 

What I disliked, though I cannot hold against the film, is that Samantha’s sexual orientation was vilified by her ex lover, Nikki.  The film does not make it clear if she is a lesbian or a bisexual, but what is clear is that sexual relations with men makes a woman contaminated and repulsive, as a scene between Samantha and Nikki fighting implies.  It is an unfair assessment, but one I find that occurs within the LGBTQA community.  Take the words of out bisexual Megan Fox – when stating her bisexuality she said she would not date a bisexual woman because “that means they also sleep with men, and men are so dirty that I’d never want to sleep with a girl who had slept with a man.”

With this quote in mind, perhaps what became an unintended theme of the film centers on the female body; the virus inflicted on Samantha becomes a personification of the loss of agency and personhood.  And succumbing to the virus is a more deeply frightening personification of living under a toxic form of patriarchy.  Samantha’s sexuality is used against her as punishment not just in being raped by a man, discriminated by her female lover, but that she is, by default, a virus too.  In any case, Contracted is a fascinating, but narrow perspective of a subgenre of a genre.  I recommend this as my Netflix pick for horror films to watch on Halloween.    

The Boxtrolls: Better Parents than Actual Humans

The Boxtrolls: Eggs, Winnie and Fish

The Boxtrolls is a stop motion animation film for children with surprising adult themes.

Parenting is not an easy venture, but in the film the contrast between two different worlds is a fascinating axiomatic observation.  Juxtaposed on screen are the merger of an aristocratic society and the gutterpups of the underground – the boxtrolls.  In a tangible, contiguous glimpse, the film brings two worlds together to shows us the variation in environmental development of childhood.

Winnie, the town council’s daughter, and Eggs, the boxtroll child are raised in extreme difference.  Winnie has everything money can buy; she is well fed and living in a palatial home.  All things are given to her in ways the less fortunate can only dream of.  Yet, she is missing the most valued and cherished thing a child needs: Parental guidance and love.  

Love is what the boxtrolls encase Eggs in.  Despite living in the catacombs of the underground they have made a home with a mélange of items that fills the usually damp place with familial warmth.  They provide Eggs with the attention he requires and allow him the agency to discover the ability of creation in artistic ways from materials the above ground society calls garbage.  In many ways Eggs is raised as an equal to the boxtrolls.  They love him enough to nurture him as a living being, in doing so he sees the world in a soft, good natured way.  He sees beyond the so-called monstrosity the town labels the boxtrolls in a caveat of annual entertainment. 

For Winnie, the opulence she is privileged with leaves her in unloved isolation.  She acts out in obstreperous rebellion to garner the attention of her absentminded father, and unlike Eggs, is treated as an inferior being that is not only incessantly talked down to, but neglected as well.  Her father is too busy being an ostentatious, cheese loving blueblood to notice her pleading behavior. 
With no parental guidance, Winnie learns to adopt the ferociously prejudiced thinking of the town.  When she meets Eggs she spews, in non sequitur haste, what the town believes to be true of the boxtrolls, but as the notion is proved false, the shift in the story reveals to Winnie what the audience already knows.  The real monsters that prey on the fear of others are adult humans. 

There are different ways to interpret the film, but one thing is quite clear.  The boxtrolls are lovable creatures with a childlike sensibility; each one unique in style and personality.  Children of all ages will love this film as well as any adult.  Stop motion animation is always a wonderful treat to enjoy given the painstaking time each movement costs, and so with that I say, while the film does not pass the bechdel test, it is still worth a watch or two.  

The Maze Runner: Where are you running to?

Disclaimer: This review is based on the film, and not influenced by the Maze Runner series. 

My first question, upon viewing the Maze Runner, is why a group of scientists would create a maze, where seemingly healthy males, in a very Lord of the Flies existence, could be studied for a cure to a virus that appears to have no cure, especially if an antidote already exists for whatever infliction is caught in the maze.
Further, if the idea was to inject the boys with the virus, and see which develops immunity, it does not explain the need for a maze – in many ways it sounds counterproductive.  But perhaps these are questions best answered in the books. 

In a more existential manner, the maze – as a metaphor – represents the birth of social hierarchy in a patriarchal form.  With a clean slate, a group of just boys are selected and introduced to a “survivor-esque” situation, which they dub the glade.  They build forts, a farm, and create rules to follow.  Within this glade, and amid the confusion of their plight, the boys build a society that becomes their safety net.
Which is why, Living for years in an all male society, the boys are dumbfounded that a lone female – Teresa – is the last person brought up to the glade.  Did the scientist run out of male bodied persons or was Teresa part of their show?  Regardless, how did they think the virus would affect a male body versus a female body given that the whole planet is suffering from this unknown infliction? Was there a similar experiment with just females?  If not, there should have been.

In another matter, the boys’ reaction to Teresa was to treat her as an anomaly – a sense of curiosity.  This leads me to question if the lack of poise with the opposite sex was due to their isolation within the glade or have the boys never interacted with females prior to Teresa’s appearance.  Perhaps we’ll never know, but what is known is that despite her presence her character does very little to improve the situation.  She, like many female characters in film, becomes an empty plot device. 

It is an accurate depiction of how I believe patriarchy came to exist as we know it today.  It is ironic that it takes an unimaginative dystopian future to give us a glimpse to humanity’s past, but alas here we are.  In creating societies, building foundations to countries, male identified people created their own form of a glade without the consideration and utilization of female identified people.

Gally (Will Poulter) is the perfect personification of rigid patriarchy set in his ways, afraid of change.  However, Teresa is not the change that challenges Gally as one would assume.  She is hardly a threat to the status quo of the glade.  It is the film’s male protagonist, Thomas that threatens Gally’s whole existence.  Thomas’ presence revives a desire to change the course of the boys’ lives by breaking the established rules.  This is unsurprisingly very similar to how society functions today.  Males challenge males while women watch in the background.  

It has always bothered me that during apocalyptic/dystopian films, having one or even two women in the film feels like it is filling a quota rather than allowing women agency in something as life altering as the end of the world.  The Maze Runner is another film that fails the Bechdel test; there may be, theoretically, two women in the film, but neither ever speak to each other or are even on screen together.  I understand that the book was not written as such, but inconsistency like this does build over time, polarizing the roles of female identified people in all media forms, and as a female moviegoer it is difficult to relate to the films with stories I enjoy. 

As a cinematic venture, The Maze Runner was a moderately fair dystopian film.  It is a series of books, so the ending left on an almost anticlimactic place, but certainly if you love the actors and one main actress in the film then you’d surely enjoy what the film has to offer.  

Dracula Untold: Film Review

Luke Evans as Vlad the Impaler

The brilliance of Dracula Untold is not, as one would assume, in the newly elucidated version, its plot, but in the impacted performance of the film’s lead. 
Against the backdrop of flat dialogue and superficial supporting performances, Luke Evans transforms the infamous Vlad the Impaler from a sadistic, blood thirsty warrior into a sympathetic anti-hero choosing an unconventional way to save his family. 

There seemed, also, to be a great haste in the film’s development of plot, rushing through its storytelling of Vlad’s younger days in order to set up a deflated conflict between two characters whose chemistry had not been established in any aesthetic way.  A missed opportunity to showcase a compassionate affection tied into a youthful bond, especially given the two actors, Luke Evans and Dominic Cooper both have starred together in another film, Tamara Drewe.  Their familiarity with each other could have given the film a familial feel that was missing. 

I was also disappointed in the limited characterization of Mirena (Sarah Gadon), which I believed could have been so much more than a cliché plot device for the anti-hero’s return to vampiric revenge that would plague him for centuries.  It is simply tiring that female characters continue to be nothing more than sacrificial lambs to propel the male protagonist into his climatic battle of the last act, but this is, unfortunately, how films in Hollywood are made. 

Dracula Untold is average in plot, but makes up for it in action sequences.  One scene, in particular, stood out the most.  With a thousand men to one, Vlad, with his newfound powers, takes flight toward the desolation of his enemies, which can be seen through the reflection of a sword impaled inside a falling solider. 

In the words of papa Lannister (because he is forever papa Lannister) and resident master vampire (Charles Dance), “Let the games begin.”  Though, for us, the audience, we never see the games begin for alas the film ends too quickly, hinting at a possible sequel that most likely will not happen.  All the more disappointing since the 21^st century retelling of Dracula with Luke Evans would make more money than any archaic origin story of the impaler.  

Let’s be Cops: Fake Cops, Real Trouble, no Consequence

No, let's NOT be cops

A disorganized version of 21 Jump Street, Let’s be Cops couldn’t be more poorly timed with the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri.  The film follows two 30 something men named Ryan and Justin as they pretend to be cops as a means to exert power and retain a warped vision of their rigid masculinity.  Though the film is not racially charged it is a clear presentation of pop culture maleness.  In deconstructing the social definitions of manhood presented in this film, it can reveal a small fraction of the toxicity of hegemonic masculine existence that can lead to a disproportion of man on man violence.   

First thing we learn about manhood is that either you are a jobless has been (Ryan) or completely diffident in the job you have (Justin).  Both scenarios expect men to be aggressive and assertive.  Dominating other men within the workforce determines your ascribed status of maleness.  When Justin, a game designer, is pitching his idea for a game his boss ignores him to show a pornographic image – “Check out this girl’s pussy.” – To an employee.  That is sexual harassment on top of being highly inappropriate, but what is determined is that men not only must take the lead (the boss later takes over the presentation and Justin is established as an inept character) but their sexual desires must have total disregard of female agency. “Real men” are established only through their predator-like ability to achieve many conquests.    

Not being a “real man” in a toxic patriarchal society means being potentially bullied by other men. Within the first 30 seconds of the film it’s very clear that Justin is a timid man who – like many of us – has difficulty speaking to someone he likes.  But by not being domineering or rapacious Ryan bullies him by calling him a “pussy.” Somehow the word pussy is associated with weakness, and in our society this is the worst thing to call a man.  It is not only a pejorative word to use, but completely sexist in nature.  Yet, this word is repeated on several occasions throughout the film by men who want to dismantle the masculinity of other men by associating them with a female anatomy. 

This level of emasculation is important to understand because it is constantly blamed on feminism or the “feminization” of men – where the logic is that giving space and agency to women creates a “softer” and less rugged type of man, which counters every definition men have created for themselves – but the reality is that feminism – and in turn, feminists – are giving society the chance to recognize how much sexism hurts men as much as it hurts women.  On the surface, telling men that their value is in domination, sexual promiscuity, and wealth appears to be favorable, but it is a privilege of power that leaves no room for young boys to grow into decent human beings.  The “boys will be boys” mentality keeps men forever puerile, incapable of seeing beyond their copy of playboy.  This is how our culture creates violence in men; violence is not an inherent or intrinsic behavior.  It is the product of social construction, and Let’s be Cops is a reflection of social norms. 

Ryan and Justin’s antics lead them, moreover, to impersonating police officers, and by putting on police uniforms the two protagonists transform from “losers” to buddy cop bro dudes that abuse the power that comes from being perceived as authority figures.  They are suddenly above the law, and able to manipulate unsuspecting civilians. By portraying the main characters as failures, and subsequently giving them privilege by wearing a uniform, one thing becomes very clear: Men in the position of power emasculate other men, and later threaten violence in order to maintain dominance. In this way the toxic patriarchal norm is also maintained, and violence becomes the essential ingredient to developing a strong backbone for men, particularly these two men.   

In what I call the most egregious violation of a human being, the character Pupa (Keegan-Michael Key) verbally assaults Josie (Nina Dobrev) in a sexual manner.  Josie is called upon to help the men transform Justin into Pupa with her artistic makeup skills so that he may go undercover. But rather that being that, her character becomes a vessel in which Pupa violates her.  He literally tells her to her face that he wants to “put his penis inside of her vagina.” To some people that would be funny, but the reality of it is not so funny. If a man I did not know said that to my face I would feel gross, but for some reason film writers continually write female characters that remain silent – almost oblivious – to the fact they are being violated by men (same scenario with April O’Neil on TMNT). 

Let’s be Cops perpetuates the same theme over and over again: the ability to get away with the worst behaviors possible. It may appear to be a bromance film, and in many ways it is, but it is a bromance film that condones bad behaviors with no real consequence.   The concern in watching the film goes beyond the childish comedic tone, and into its lack of accountability.  In the end the two men experience no severe consequences for their actions because officer Segers (Rob Riggle) simply vouches for them – Justin becomes a successful gamer and Ryan become a police officer; a very disturbing reality that many can resonate in Ferguson.  Ryan had the most unhinged characteristics and a desire to prove his manhood that it often leads him and Justin to go too far.  I found myself saying “thank god he’s not a real cop,” but of course the film ends with Ryan graduating from the police academy – how many Ferguson police officers are just like Ryan? In Justin’s case, he had lied to the woman he liked – Joise – but in the end, all he had to do was simply apologize for his insensitive behavior and he – the usually bashful and geeky man child – would win the hot girl of his dreams.  This film is what I call, the average Joe’s wet dream; getting away with the most ridiculous stunts in order to test their manhood with no real consequence and still getting what they want.   

If you are not a fan of Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. from their New Girl gig then this film might be best seen on DVD. There is nothing inspiring about a tired narrative of two bro dudes learning to love each other by being fake cops.  

TMNT: The New Reboot Review

Front: Michelangelo, Leonardo; Back: Raphael, Donatello in the best scene of the whole film.

Warning: Spoilers

On the heels of a sequel announcement the popularity of the reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) is no surprise.  After years of Marvel dominating the box office with their slew of superheroes, moviegoers have been craving something different.  Mutant turtles are very different; they are 65 million dollars domestically different. The Ninja turtles are remnants of childhood memories for many older generations, and a fresh reminder of the 90’s for the newly discovered.  I am one of those 90’s kids that grew up on the ninja turtles so for me this was like revisiting my childhood, and so I had high hopes, but not high expectations that it would fulfill the glory days of the old TMNT.  It wasn’t everything I wanted, but with that in mind I still enjoyed the distinct characterization of the four teenage mutant bro dudes; Leonardo (blue mask) the authoritative boss, Michelangelo (orange mask) the free spirited punster, Raphael (red mask) the sarcastic bad boy, and Donatello (purple mask) the tech savvy genius.   

But unlike the 90’s version where the turtles were live action skater punks that shouted cowabunga at everything, these CGI mutants were just that, mutant.  Their appearance is more like low riding souped up Cadillacs on steroids.  Taller than the originals, the new version of the beloved franchise makes the teenagers look like a quartet of hyper-masculine surfer dudes you’d see pumping iron in Venice beach.   The hardcore “brah-mance” is this generation’s re-imagined definition of adolescent machismo, but their incessant juvenile behavior is expected since they are teenagers, and like most teenage males they favor more brawn than brains – unless you’re Donatello, but even he is drawn up as a rough riding bouncer than the typical “nerd.”  Yet, the troupe is gleefully entertaining. 

In contrast to the callow virility, the chance to recreate April O’Neil as a badass heroine in her own right fell short to disappointing.   Despite being an integral part of the storyline – the turtles Hogosha (guardian) – April is consistently dismissed as she attempts to transform herself into a serious journalist.  Any attempts to speak on a subject matter that is beyond the superficial her coworkers make fun of her.  Her boss, Bernadette (Whoopi Goldberg) does the same, and in the course of proving herself, April frequently encounters characters that reduce her to a sexual pun. 

“I can feel my shell tightening,” says Michelangelo upon first meeting April, which is an obvious euphemism for someone’s dick getting hard.  Through the course of the film, Michelangelo constantly hits on April and calls “dibs” on her as if she were to be a prize between the four souped up turtle bros.  The construction of April’s character as a badass is made worse when Michelangelo says “my girlfriend is totes the hogosha.” She is immediately imprinted as the “girlfriend” and her roles as the guardian becomes nothing more than a cursory mention.  This causes her significance to dwindle as she remains silent on the matter.  The reason why this is worse is because later on when Vernon (Will Arnett) April’s cameraman joins in he makes several comments that keep reducing her further to nothing more than an empty plot device. 

First, he consistently makes comments about her beauty, “nothing like dropping off a pretty girl at a rich guy’s house,” in which April is simply seen as a shallow plastron, but when the truth is finally revealed that there are in fact mutant turtle vigilantes, he echoes, again, what everyone thought, “I still can’t believe you’re not crazy.  How crazy is that?”  It’s as if film writers are confessing to us that their vision of women in film is simply to write them as mere crazy sexbots that will satisfy horny teenage boys (seemingly the only target audience these days).  It feels unfathomable for male writers to accept that women in film can be constructed to have more agency as a character.  April’s word cannot be taken seriously unless it is validated by a male character – in this case Vernon the terribly misguided schmuck. 

He then further perpetuates this fedora wearing douchebag persona by implying she is a “complicated chick” when Michelangelo once again openly and discomfortingly hits on her.  What exactly is the implication?  That should there be competition between two male characters – one very much a nonhuman – something must be wrong with April?  Why does she never correct them or call them out; would this make her too much of a “strong character?” It’s as if the responsibility of being a grown ass adult male is shifted to the female protagonist where her silence is written to condone this unfledged behavior.   

Because the complexity of female characters is too much to understand for male writers they must reduce them to something more “manageable.”  This is exemplified perfectly in a gratuitous shot of April’s behind during a chase scene.  It’s not actually funny to anyone but immature writers that a man sexualizes a female coworker while they nearly avert death in a snowy mountain while being chased by a gang of villains.  Now, I understand that many of the jokes were supposed to be funny, but there were too many at the expense of April, which sadly ruins the joy of reliving TMNT.

But let’s talk main plot; unoriginal, the story is as old as human existence; money.  Everything is about money.  By taking Power and control via poisoning New York City it will allow for the commodification of an antidote.  However, to make the antidote Eric Sacks (William Fitchner) and the foot clan require the blood of the ninja turtles.  “We will be gods” Sacks says.  A translucent statement of what a patriarchal society looks like, of what men in this world are supposed to look like.  Coveting a place in the world, men colonize the environment around them.  It’s a very toxic behavior, but it is socialized as normal for men.   99% of films always have this theme, and I can’t say I am surprised, yet I will say, however glossy the work of cinematic art is, using this tired narrative tends to do a disservice for popular franchises. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn’t a film meant to comment on social issues in today’s world, but it is a film for the everyday filmgoer that is looking to turn off their brain for an hour or so and simply enjoy a fun ride.  I enjoyed it for what it was and so will you.