Tampopo

Written and directed by Juzo Itami, Tampopo (Dandelion) is the story of a group of men who help a widowed noodle shop owner in creating the perfect recipe for ramen noodles. The film is an exploration of food and the joys it bring to people where a woman tries to revive her noodle shop in the hope that it can make the world a better place no matter how small it can be. Starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Koji Yakusho, Ken Watanabe, and Riya Yasuoka. Tampopo is an extraordinarily rich film from Juzo Itami.

The film revolves a group of men who encounter a widowed noodle shop owner as she’s struggling with her business as they decide to help her in reinventing her shop as well as create the perfect recipe for ramen noodles. It’s a film with a simple premise that would also include various subplots relating to people’s love for food and the joy it can bring to someone. Juzo Itami’s screenplay opens with a trucker named Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki) and his sidekick Gun (Ken Watanabe) driving towards Tokyo as the latter is reading a book about ramen as they’re both suddenly hungry as they stop at a noodle shop for food. There, they meet its titular owner (Nobuko Miyamoto) who is dealing with the loss of her husband as well as an adolescent son who is first seen beaten up by schoolmates until Goro saved the boy. After getting to know Tampopo, Goro would offer to help her out in creating the best ramen noodle recipe as well as get her shop to become the best.

Throughout the course of the main narrative, Tampopo would venture into nearby noodle shops to see how some of the chefs create their own ramen noodles as she gets the support of an old master (Yoshi Kato) in helping her getting the broth right while a chauffeur named Shohei (Kinzo Sakura) would also help after Tampopo saved his boss from choking on his food. Another person who would help Tampopo is a patron in Pisuken (Riya Yasuoka) who had eaten at her place and sees that she wants to improve everything with her restaurant. This in turn would bring a sense of confidence in Tampopo who would continually refine her craft in creating the perfect ramen noodle as there are various subplots as it relate to the joy of food. One of which involves a man in a white suit (Koji Yasuoka) who finds joy with his girlfriend (Fukumi Kuroda) in eating food erotically as other subplots involve a man’s visit to the dentist, a lowly executive with a vast knowledge for French cuisine, and a woman teaching other women how to eat spaghetti without making any noise.

Itami’s direction is simple in terms of its visuals and for the fact that it satirizes elements of American cinema where it would play into a few genres in some scenes while it opens in an offbeat way in which the man in the white suit and his girlfriend talk to the screen about not eating noisy food during the movie as they’re about to watch a movie. It’s among the offbeat moments in the film that include the man in the white suit and his girlfriend having sex while eating food in a comical manner. Shot largely in Tokyo and areas nearby the city, it is largely set in this rural area where there are these noodle shops where Itami would use a few wide shots to establish the locations as well as play with some of the visuals such as the film’s opening sequence with a wide shot of the entire movie theater. Much of Itami’s direction revolve around intimate compositions such as medium shots and close-ups to get a look of the ramen bowl and the attention to detail in what’s in a ramen noodle soup. The way a broth is made and perfected is shown as Itami would follow Tampopo as she would learn to perfect that broth as there are also a few comical moments including this one scene where Tampopo’s son watches a homeless man break into a kitchen to make an omelet.

Itami’s direction also provide a sense of the kind of joy that food brings such as the story of the man who goes to the dentist, a market owner dealing with a customer with an obsession for touching food, an ailing woman making dinner for her family, and a scam involving a professor and a con man. It all revolves around food as Itami show what it can do as the scene where a rich socialite tries to educate other women how to eat spaghetti is funny for the fact that there’s a man slurping on the spaghetti. Much of Itami’s approach to shots don’t revolve around style while he knows how to create these lively moments such as the climax as it relates to Tampopo’s ramen noodle soup and the impact it would bring into the men that helped her. Overall, Itami crafts a majestic and exhilarating film about a group of men helping a widow in creating the perfect ramen noodle shop.

Cinematographer Masaki Tamura does brilliant work with the film’s cinematography as it play into the natural lighting for the scenes in the day including the shots inside Tampopo’s shop as well as the scenes at night and how the ramen noodle soups are lit in its natural lighting. Editor Akira Suzuki does excellent work with the editing as it is largely straightforward with some stylish cuts to play into the film’s humor including a fight scene involving Goro and Pisuken. Art director Takeo Kimura and set decorator Toshiharu Ochi do amazing work with the look of Tampopo’s restaurant in how drab and ordinary it looks in comparison to the other restaurants as well as the growing change it would have during the film’s evolution.

Costume designer Emiko Kogo does nice work with the costumes from the casual look of the people in Tampopo’s restaurant including the cowboy hat that Goro wears to some of the clothes of the characters in the film’s various subplots. The sound work of Kyoji Kono is superb for its natural sound in the way the slurping of noodles sound as well as some of the film’s comical sound effects and scenes that play into the atmosphere of the areas outside of Tokyo. The film’s music by Kunihiko Murai is incredible for its mixture of jazz and electronic music as it play into the film’s humor as well as some of the quieter moments as it is a highlight of the film.

The casting by Shigeru Sakurada and Kosaburo Sasaoka is wonderful as it feature some notable small roles and appearances from Toshiya Fujita as a man who visits the dentist, Ryutaro Otomo as a ramen master who unknowingly tells Tampopo his approach to making broth, Yoriko Doguchi as a pearl diver that the man in the white suit meets, Masahiko Tsugawa as a supermarket manager, Mariko Okada as a socialite trying to teach women how to eat spaghetti properly, Setsuko Shinoi as a mistress for an old man, Hidej Otaki as a rich old man whose life is saved by Tampopo as he would loan her his chauffeur to help her create the perfect ramen noodle soup, Fukumi Kuroda as the man in the white suit’s girlfriend, and Koji Yakusho in a superb role as the man in the white suit. Yoshi Kato is terrific as the old man who is a master in making noodles as he spends time with the homeless who favor the joy of food rather than what is trendy as he aids Tampopo in teaching her how to made noodles taste good.

Kinzo Sakura is fantastic as the rich old man’s chauffeur Shohei who is good at making noodles as he offers to help Tampopo out as they also go noodle tasting to find the right texture and depth to the noodles. Riya Yasuoka is brilliant as Pisuken as a drunkard who was a customer of Tampopo that decided to help out as he learned what she’s doing as a way to make amends with her. Ken Watanabe is amazing as Gun as Goro’s sidekick who help Tampopo out as he is interested in the idea of the perfect ramen noodle due to a book he reads. Tsutomu Yamazaki is incredible as Goro as a truck driver who arrives at Tampopo’s noodle shop where he sees a woman that is in need to do better as he helps her while dealing with his own feelings for her. Finally, there’s Nobuko Miyamoto in a phenomenal performance as the titular character who is dealing with loss as well as uncertainty as she would be determined to create the perfect ramen noodle recipe as well as revive her noodle shop as it’s a charming and delightful performance from Miyamoto.

Tampopo is a tremendous film from Juzo Itami. Featuring a great cast, beautiful images, a soothing music score, delightful humor, and food that looks so good to eat. It’s a film that plays into the joy of food and what it can do to everyone who makes it as well as eat it all just to ensure the idea of what food can do for someone. In the end, Tampopo is a spectacular film from Juzo Itami.

Juzo Itami Films: (The Funeral (1984 film)) – (A Taxing Woman) – (A Taxing Woman’s Return) – (Tales of a Golden Geisha) – (Minbo) – (Daibyonin) – (Supermarket Woman)

© thevoid99 2018

Isle of Dogs

Directed by Wes Anderson and screenplay by Anderson from a story by Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Kunichi Nomura, Isle of Dogs is the story of a young boy in a futuristic, dystopian-Japan who travels to an island where dogs are living in exile due to an illness outbreak. The film is Anderson’s second stop-motion animated feature as it plays into a boy’s search for his dog where a group of dogs decide to help the boy as well as deal with being in exile because of a leader who hates dogs as the story is narrated by Courtney B. Vance. Featuring the voice cast of Bryan Cranston, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Koyu Rankin, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, Ken Watanabe, Fisher Stevens, Yoko Ono, Harvey Keitel, Liev Schreiber, Bob Balaban, Tilda Swinton, Frank Wood, and F. Murray Abraham. Isle of Dogs is a majestic and adventurous film from Wes Anderson.

Following a mandate to ban dogs from a Japanese by its mayor claiming that dogs are spreading diseases as they’re consumed by a mysterious illness, the film revolves around a young boy who travels to an island of trash to find his dog. It’s a film with a simple story as it explores conspiracy theories and paranoia from the perspective of humans while the dogs are dealing with hunger, an on-going flu, and the horrific environment they live in. Wes Anderson’s screenplay opens with a prologue of a legend about the arrival of dogs in Japan and how it lead to this conflict between man vs. dog until a boy came to the aid of dogs and would make them man’s best friend. It’s a story that would be replayed in this futuristic version of Japan where a mayor who hates dogs decides to create something to get the public to have dogs banned as it is told in four parts by an unseen narrator. Yet, the main narrative involves the mayor’s nephew Atari (Koyu Rankin) wanting to retrieve his dog Spots (Liev Schreiber) whom he got just after Atari had been injured in a train crash that killed his parents.

The need to retrieve Spots would have Atari land on this island filled with trash that was also the former site of a factory and amusement park where he would meet five dogs in Chief (Bryan Cranston), Boss (Bill Murray), Rex (Edward Norton), King (Bob Balaban), and Duke (Jeff Goldblum) where four of the dogs would help Atari find Spots but Chief is reluctant as he’s a stray dog that hasn’t known any loyalty to a master as he’s known to bite. Yet, the dogs would deal with a rescue team that has robotic dogs to attack where Chief decides to help Atari as it would play into this development between dog and boy, respectively, as it would also lead to some revelations to the former while giving the latter a sense of hope. The film also has subplots as it relates to students wanting to go against the mayor led by American foreign exchange student Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig) who believes there’s a conspiracy happening involving the mayor and his cohorts where they are also attempting to shut down a scientist in Professor Watanabe (Akira Ito) from creating a cure for the dogs.

Anderson’s direction is definitely intoxicating for the way he uses Japanese art and its architecture to create a world that is futuristic in some ways but also harkens to the tradition of the past. With the help of animation director Mark Waring, Anderson creates a film that does play into his visual sensibilities in terms of his precise compositions, camera movements, and offbeat humor. Yet, he would also utilize broad visuals to play into this world as the island of trash is desolate but also wild with rumors of cannibalistic dogs who eat other dogs. There are also these elements where Anderson uses satire as it relates to the rule and rhetoric of Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura) that has similarities to current events in the world in how dogs are being treated as they’re sent to this island of trash with more plans to get rid of them altogether. Especially as Kobayashi has a henchman in Major Domo (Akira Takayama) who is trying to create more chaos where a lot of the visuals play into elements of suspense and drama.

Anderson’s direction also has these tender moments as it relates to the developing relationship between Chief and Atari as it has bits of humor and drama with Chief carrying a secret of his own about his life as a stray dog when the subject of favorite foods emerge during a conversation with the other dogs. Many of the dialogue between the dogs are in English while the humans, with the exception of Tracy and a few translators, are in Japanese. It allows audience to see a world that is unique while unsettling at times as it plays into this growing tension for truth with the people in this Japanese city being told false things while Tracy is trying to reveal the truth with Atari making plans to return to the city with the dogs in the hope that the truth will come out. Overall, Anderson crafts a mesmerizing and exhilarating film about a boy who travels to an island of trash to find his dog.

Cinematographer Tristan Oliver does excellent work with the film’s cinematography in the way many of the backgrounds are lit as well as the presentation of some of the interior settings in day and night in terms of the lighting. Editors Andrew Weisblum, Ralph Foster, and Edward Busch do brilliant work with the editing as it has elements of jump cuts and other stylish cut to play into the action and suspense as well as some of the drama. Production designers Paul Harrod and Adam Stockhausen, with art director Curt Enderle, do incredible work with the look of the city in all of its grand detail as it is a major highlight of the film as well as how it would look in the day and night as is the island of trash with its decayed buildings and other places in the island.

Visual effects supervisors Lev Kolobov and Tim Ledbury do fantastic work with the visual effects as it is mainly bits of set dressing including scenes shown on a TV screen for the characters to watch as it help play into the stop-motion animated look. Sound editors Wayne Lemmer and Christopher Scarabosio do superb work with the sound in some of the sound effects involving the drones and robotic dogs as well as in some of the locations the characters are in. The film’s music by Alexandre Desplat is amazing for its usage of Japanese percussion and string music to help play into the drama and suspense as it’s another major highlight of the film while music supervisor Randall Poster provides a soundtrack that include a few score pieces of films by Akira Kurosawa and a song by The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band that play for some of the adventure scenes.

The casting by Douglas Aibel and Kunichi Nomura is incredible as it features some small yet notable voice roles from co-writer Nomura as Mayor Kobayashi in all of his grandiose persona as well as Yoko Ono as Professor Watanabe’s assistant, Ken Watanabe as a head surgeon who helped Atari following the train crash, Fisher Stevens as a dog named Scraps whom Spots meet as he would tell him about cannibal dogs, Kara Hayward as a female dog named Peppermint, Anjelica Huston as a mute dog, Frank Wood as translator machine, Yojiro Noda as a news anchor, Nijiro Murakami as a school newspaper editor, Akira Ito as Professor Watanabe as a scientist who wants to disprove Kobayashi’s claims while wanting to create a cure for the dogs, and Akira Takayama as Kobayashi’s right-hand man Major Domo who would help Kobayashi in creating the anti-dog propaganda.

Liev Schreiber is terrific as Atari’s dog Spots who had been assigned to look after Atari following a near-fatal train crash while Harvey Keitel is superb as Gondo as a dog who leads a group of his own. F. Murray Abraham and Tilda Swinton are fantastic in their respective roles as Jupiter and Oracle as the former is a dog that helps the other dogs in finding Spots by showing them the way while the latter is a dog that claims to see the future as he’s really more into TV. Frances McDormand is excellent as Interpreter Nelson who would reveal the things that Kobayashi is saying while Greta Gerwig is wonderful as Tracy Walker as an American foreign exchange student who helps lead a student revolt against Kobayashi. Scarlett Johansson is brilliant as Nutmeg as a show-dog that convinces Chief to help Atari as she sees Atari as someone that can find the goodness in Chief.

The quartet of Bob Balaban, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, and Edward Norton in their respective roles as King, Duke, Boss, and Rex are brilliant as the four dogs who have been treated well by their masters as they’re willing to help Atari find Spots while dealing with Chief’s reluctance. Koyu Rankin is remarkable as Atari as Kobayashi’s nephew who is eager to find his dog as he endures injuries and heartache as he is determined to get his dog back while befriending the other dogs including Chief. Finally, there’s Bryan Cranston in a phenomenal performance as Chief as a stray dog who has endured being captured and in a lot of fights who is reluctant to help Atari due to his own mistrusts towards humans where he later finds a sense of trust as well as a role that is far more important than himself.

Isle of Dogs is a tremendous film from Wes Anderson. Featuring a great cast, gorgeous visuals, top-notch stop-motion animation, amazing set designs, and a thrilling score by Alexandre Desplat. The film is an exciting yet compelling adventure film that takes a simple concept and inject some real-life allegories about the world as it all plays for a boy’s love for his dog. In the end, Isle of Dogs is a spectacular film from Wes Anderson.

Wes Anderson Films: Bottle Rocket - Rushmore - The Royal Tenenbaums - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - Hotel Chevalier - The Darjeeling Limited - Fantastic Mr. Fox - Moonrise Kingdom - Castello Cavalcanti - The Grand Budapest Hotel - The French Dispatch - Asteroid City - The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar - The Swan - The Rat Catcher - Poison - The Phoenician Scheme - The Auteurs #8: Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson Film Soundtracks: Bottle Rocket - Rushmore - The Royal Tenenbaums - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - Seu Jorge-The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions - The Darjeeling Limited - Fantastic Mr. Fox - (Moonrise Kingdom) – (The Grand Budapest Hotel) – (Isle of Dogs)

© thevoid99 2018

Letters from Iwo Jima

Based on the books Picture Letters from the Commander in Chief by Tadamichi Kuribayashi and So Sad to Fall in Battle: An Account of War by Kumiko Kakehashi, Letters from Iwo Jima is about the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II told from the perspective of the Japanese who would defend the island against the Americans. Directed by Clint Eastwood and screenplay by Iris Yamashita from a screen story by Yamashita and Paul Haggis, the film is the second part of Eastwood’s double-feature film about the battle of Iwo Jima as the first film in Flags of Our Fathers was about the American perspective. Starring Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Ryo Kase, Tsuyoshi Ihara, and Shido Nakamura. Letters from Iwo Jima is a tremendously haunting film from Clint Eastwood.

The film is about the battle of Iwo Jima told from the perspective of the Japanese as they’re led by General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) who deals with the limited resources and lack of support from his fellow generals to face the Americans who had just destroyed the Japanese navy in the Philippines. With Iwo Jima the one island that stands between mainland Japan and the Americans, Kuribiyashi and his men not only have their backs against the wall but also the fact that they might not go home as they’re forced to fight to just survive. While the film is largely told from Kuribayashi’s perspective, it’s also told from the perspective of a young soldier named Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) who watches the battle as well as endure all of the chaos that goes on as he tries to fight for Kuribayashi despite the charges of cowardice from other officers.

The film’s screenplay is very straightforward though it begins and ends in modern-day Iwo Jima where archeologists would find the letters that Japanese soldiers wrote to their loved ones. These letters would be the basis for who Kuribayashi, Saigo, Lt. Col. Baron Takeichi Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), and the former Kempetai officer Shimizu (Ryo Kase) are as they deal with not just with the forces they’re fighting in the battlefield but also those behind the scenes. Kuribayashi and Nishi, as the latter is a former Olympic gold medalist in equestrian, are men who have been to America and are aware of what they’re capable of while coming from a very old-school idea of war as they both express their disdain for modern machinery. They’re also men who are more concerned with trying to keep soldiers to stay alive while not do something rash in the battlefield as Kuribayashi finds himself at odds with superiors who want the soldiers to fight on the battlefield against the Americans which Kuribayashi believes is suicide.

Then there’s Saigo and Shimizu as the former is a baker who learns he’s about to become a father while the latter is an officer who is in deep conflict over his loyalties as well as being accused as a spy. Upon the terror of the battle where Saigo realizes that men are killing themselves rather than die in the hands of the Americans, he tries to find some way for he and Shimizu to go to Kuribayashi who is trying to mount a final attack. Yet, the battle becomes more complicated when Lt. Ito (Shidou Nakamura) tries to launch an attack that proved to be fatal when Shimizu would later encounter an American soldier (Lucas Elliott) as it would showcase the similarities between the two men in this war. What Iris Yamashita does is bring a lot of depth to these characters while creating something where there are no villains but rather men who are put into a terrible situation.

Clint Eastwood’s direction is definitely mesmerizing for massive scope of the film as well as creating an intimacy and sense of terror of what goes on in the caves at Mount Surabachi. Using some extravagant wide shots of the locations in Iwo Jima with some of the shooting set in California, Eastwood aims for something that plays into what the Japanese were going through as they would defend this small island as Kuribayashi would scout the island and see what could help them. While Eastwood takes great advantage of the locations as well as create as sense of claustrophobia and suspense inside the caves where the men are trying to survive the assault of cannons and grenades. The battle scenes would showcase what the Japanese would do as well as some of the foolish tactics that Kuribayashi had warned his superiors about that would contribute to Japan’s loss.

The direction also has Eastwood use the wide shots to create some unique flashbacks into the world of the characters through flashbacks about their life before the war. It’s these segments where Eastwood gets the chance to humanize these characters along with scenes in the cave where the men try to survive the American onslaught. The use of close-ups and medium shots help play into the film’s intimacy inside the caves where there is a chance for these men to die with honor as well as fight for reasons beyond the call of duty. Overall, Eastwood crafts a very chilling yet astonishing film about the Japanese fighting to survive in the island of Iwo Jima.

Cinematographer Tom Stern does brilliant work with the film’s stylish cinematography with its de-saturated colors of blue and gray to play into the desolate look of the island as well as in his eerie approach to lighting for some of the film’s interior scenes in the caves as well as the nighttime exteriors. Editors Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach do excellent work with the editing to convey the sense of terror in the battlefield with some rhythmic cuts as well as methodical pacing to play into the suspense and drama. Production designers Henry Bumstead and James J. Murakami, with set decorator Gary Fettis, do amazing work with the design of the caves as well as trenches in the battlefield as well as the small villages on the island of Iwo Jima.

Costume designer Deborah Hooper does wonderful work with the costumes from the design of the Japanese army uniforms as well as traditional clothing the characters wear in the flashback scenes. Visual effects supervisor Michael Owens does nice work with some of the minimal visual effects such as the wide shots of the U.S. naval ships coming towards the island. Sound designer Charles Mayne, along with sound editors Alan Robert Murray and Bud Asman, does fantastic work with the sound from the way the cannon blasts are heard inside the cave as well as the sense of dread that goes on inside as the battle rages on outside of those caves. The film’s music by Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens is superb for its melancholic approach to the music with its use of pianos and trumpets while creating some operatic arrangements to play into the bombastic tone of the film.

The casting by Phyllis Huffman is incredible for the ensemble that is created as it features some notable small roles from Mark Moses and Roxanne Hart as an American couple Kuribayashi met at a party in his honor, Lucas Elliott as an American soldier who meets Nishi during the battle, Ken Kensei and Nobumasa Sakagami as a couple of Kuribayashi’s superiors who oppose Kuribayashi’s idea to fight the Americans, Nae Yuuki as Saigo’s wife in the film’s flashback scenes, Yuki Matsuzaki as Saigo’s friend/fellow soldier Nozaki, and Takashi Yamaguchi as Saigo’s friend Kashiwara who leaves the battle due to the bad water of the island. Other noteworthy small roles include Takumi Bando as the very tough Captain Tinada who prepares everyone for what is ahead while Eijiro Ozaki is terrific as Nishi’s loyal lieutenant Okubo who would warn the soldiers about surrendering to the Americans.

Hiroshi Watanabe is wonderful as Kuribayashi’s deputy Lt. Fujita who is prepared to do whatever is necessary for his leader while Shidou Nakamura is excellent as Lt. Ito as a soldier who is baffled by Nishi and Kuribayashi’s strategy only to realize the error that he would make in battle. Tsuyoshi Ihara is amazing as the compassionate Lt. Colonel Baron Nishi who was a man who attained great fame while understanding the strategies of the Americans as he views them with great respect. Ryo Kase is brilliant as the former Kempeitai officer Shimizu who deals with his own loyalty and duty in war as his encounter with an American soldier has him deal with the cruelty of war.

Kazanuri Ninomiya is fantastic as the young soldier Saigo who is the film’s conscience as he thinks about the terror of war while being loyal to his soldiers and Kuribayashi. Finally, there’s Ken Watanabe in a magnificent performance as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi as a man who brings this balance between a leader and as a man who knows more about his soldiers than some of his officers while being a strategist who knows what the Americans are capable of. There’s a great sense of restraint and compassion in Watanabe’s performance as he brings many layers to his character as it is one of the most humanistic performances ever told in a war film.

Letters from Iwo Jima is an outstanding film from Clint Eastwood. With a cast led by Ken Watanabe as well as some amazing technical work from its crew. The film is definitely one of the great films about World War II while allowing Western audiences the chance to showcase a viewpoint that isn’t seen very often from other war films. Especially as it’s told with such sensitivity and humanity that most war films would often avoid. In the end, Letters from Iwo Jima is a phenomenally rich film from Clint Eastwood.

Clint Eastwood Films: (Play Misty for Me) - High Plains Drifter - (Breezy) - (The Eiger Sanction) - (The Outlaw Josey Wales) - (The Gauntlet) - (Bronco Billy) - (Firefox) - (Honkytonk Man) - Sudden Impact - Pale Rider - (Heartbreak Ridge) - (Bird) - (White Hunter Black Heart) - (The Rookie) - Unforgiven - (A Perfect World) - (The Bridges of Madison County) - (Absolute Power) - (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) - (True Crime) - (Space Cowboys) - (Blood Work) - (Mystic River) - Million Dollar Baby - Flags of Our Fathers - Changeling - (Gran Torino) - (Invictus) - (Hereafter) - (J. Edgar) - (Jersey Boys) - American Sniper - (Sully) - (The 15:17 to Paris) - (The Mule)

© thevoid99 2014

Batman Begins

Originally Written and Posted at Epinions.com on 6/15/05 w/ Additional Edits.

For many comic book fans, there's been loads of superheroes whether it's Superman, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men. One of the darkest superheroes to come out of the DC Comics franchise has been Batman from comic book writer Bob Kane. A dark vigilante to who preys on villains for justice at night while at day, he's a millionaire named Bruce Wayne. Batman has been one of the most popular comic book franchises that in the 60s, a popular, campy TV show was made that starred Adam West as the Caped Crusader. Then in the late 1980s, Warner Brothers wanted to create a film franchise on the Batman series when finally, they succeeded with the first Batman movie with Michael Keaton in the title role that also starred Jack Nicholson as the Joker.

The success of the first Batman film that was directed by Tim Burton in 1989 returned with a successful 1992 sequel in Batman Returns that starred Keaton, Danny DeVito as the Penguin, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. Many say the reason both films were successful because of Tim Burton's quirky yet dark vision since both films came out with very little color. Fans loved Burton's vision but when Burton chose to step down for more personal projects, he remained as an executive producer for the next part as Warner Brothers chose Joel Schumacher to helm the series. 1995's Batman Forever that starred Val Kilmer in the title role along with Chris O'Donnell as Robin, Jim Carrey as the Riddler, and Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face seemed like a good idea at the time.

Unfortunately, Schumacher's campy approach for a more entertaining Batman didn't fare well with some fans and critics. Despite some fine over-the-top performances from Carrey and Jones, fans felt Kilmer played Batman in a very dull way. George Clooney then replaced Kilmer for the fourth film, Batman & Robin that starred Clooney as the Caped Crusader. With O’Donnell returning as Robin along with Michael Gough as Alfred the Butler and Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon, the new cast also included then "It" girl Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, and Arnold Schwarzennegger as Mr. Freeze. The result was a disaster that fans of the series were disillusioned as plans for a fifth Batman film were scrapped as Schumacher was officially out of the fold.

After the fallout of Batman & Robin that left Warner Brothers in a mess, the company took some years off before deciding that it's time to restart the franchise. Instead of moving forward to the story, some insiders decided to tell the story of how Bruce Wayne became Batman. Fans were excited about Warner Brother restarting the franchise but the development wasn't easy. Rumors were abound on who was to play Batman as some casting people wanted then-hot actors like Freddie Prinze Jr. Fans were disgusted but were relieved that it was a rumor. Producers then approached indie film director Darren Aronofsky of Pi/Requiem for a Dream fame to direct ther series but never got off the ground. After years of searching and creating the right script, Warner Brothers finally found a new director and a new actor for the new Batman movie.

For their director, they chose Christopher Nolan who has only made three features yet 2000's Memento and 2002's remake of Insomnia proved that he was an edgy director with a dark sensibility. Nolan took the job as long as he wanted to remain true to the series and with fans. For the role of Batman, that proved to be harder to find with many actors wanting the role. Everyone from Joshua Jackson, John Cusack, Ashton Kutcher, Hugh Dancy, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Billy Crudup wanted the role.

Two British actors also wanted the role of Batman including Cillian Murphy of 28 Days Later and Girl with a Pearl Earring as Nolan chose to put him in the film but not as Batman. Instead, he chose Christian Bale for the role not because of his physique but also his diverse range of roles from films like Empire of the Sun, Metroland, Laurel Canyon, Velvet Goldmine, and his breakthrough 2000 role in American Psycho. In early 2004, Bale starred in Brad Anderson's dark, indie sci-fi thriller The Machinist in which Bale lost more than 68 pounds for the role where he nearly lost his life but the performance got him great reviews as did a 2002 cult film called Equilibrium as fans felt, he is Batman.

Screenplay by David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan, Batman Begins is a chronicle of Bruce Wayne's transformation from a tortured, troubled young man traumatized by the murder of his parents to an heir who takes over his father's business by day and by night, fights crime in Gotham City. Darker than Tim Burton's version and more intense in terms of action, the film is really more of a character study piece that relies on drama with the intensity of the action ready to build up. With an all-star cast that includes Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, and Katie Holmes. Batman Begins is the Batman movie every fan has been waiting to see.

For the young Bruce Wayne (Gus Lewis), he's lived a carefree life with his parents in Wayne Manor with his caretaker Alfred (Michael Caine). His father Thomas Wayne (Linus Roache) uses his wealth of Wayne Enterprises to be a doctor and help people along with Bruce's mother Martha (Sara Stewart). Then one day when playing with his childhood friend Rachel Dawes (Emma Lockhart), Bruce falls into a well in a greenhouse where he finds himself inside a cave full of bats. The experience left him in fear of bats and after a night on the opera has scared him, the night only got worse when a criminal named Joe Chill (Richard Brake) gunned down Thomas and Martha Wayne in front of young Bruce. While the criminal is captured by a cop named James Gordon (Gary Oldman), Bruce remained emotionally scarred.

Feeling responsible for the death of his parents, life never got easier for Bruce (Christian Bale) as he returned from college to see the trial of Joe Chill. With Rachel (Katie Holmes) now becoming a law student, they oversee the trial as Bruce's plan for revenge is shattered when Joe is killed after being exonerated. Learning that Chill was killed because of a payoff by Gotham's big crime boss Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson), Bruce confronts him only to be bullied his way out. Feeling that no justice is done, Bruce walks away from Gotham and everyone around him. For the next seven years, he would travel alone to the world where finally, he gets arrested and sent into a Chinese prison is where his story begins. After fighting several men in the prison he is locked up to meet with a man named Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) who asks Bruce to join his vigilante group, the League of Shadows.

After walking through the mountains, Bruce meets Ducard and the group's leader Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) as they train him to become part of their group. Ducard tells Bruce that the death of his parents wasn't his fault but the fault of his own father because he doesn't understand the nature of criminals. Bruce is forced to confront his own fears, anger, and guilt until finally, he is about to become part of the League of Shadows. Then when Bruce learns their idea of justice, he chooses to be on his own as he decides to return to Gotham with Alfred at his side. Knowing that Gotham is a town full of corruption, deceit, and no real hope, Bruce decides it's time that someone should go out there and make a difference.

Knowing only sharing his ideals are Jim Gordon and Rachel, who is now an assistant district attorney, Bruce learns that he needs more. After returning to Wayne Enterprises to the shock of its CEO William Earle (Rutger Hauer), Bruce turns to an old adversary of his father in Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman). Fox now works in the basement as an inventor where Bruce notices the armor and gadgets he’s built. Bruce also decides to confront his fears for good as he enters the bat cave and he chooses to make peace with the bats as they use the cave as a new place for his great plan. After meeting with Jim Gordon in disguise, he learns that Gordon is the only cop that is honest and not paid. With Fox showing him new ideas including a hybrid Lambourgini/Hummer called a Tumbler, Bruce's plan nears completion as he receives word that Falcone is going to be at a drug shipment.

With the help of a corrupt cop named Flass (Mark Boone Junior), Falcone and his goons think everything is in the works but they meet the Caped Crusader in Batman. Falcone and his goons are captured only upsetting the plans Falcone has with a controversial doctor in Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy). Rachel suspects Crane of lying on testimony about the behaviors of criminals but what she doesn't know is that Crane had been working on experimental gas that drives people to see their fears as he lives through his alter-ego known as the Scarecrow. With many of the cops in Gotham suspecting Batman to be a villain, only Gordon knows that he's on the side of good as Batman chooses him to be his secret partner. Batman confronts Flass about upcoming plans about Falcone as he goes to meet the Scarecrow only to learn more about the gas he's been using. With the help of Alfred and Fox, he investigates the use of the gas while as Bruce Wayne, he lives the life of a playboy to the disturbance of Earle and to Rachel's disappointment.

When Rachel learns about Falcone being put in Arkham asylum, she learns more about Crane's plans to poison the city's water supply for his experimental gas. Bruce learns to as he puts on his Batman costume to learn more of Crane's plans. He learns that the gas that he's been familiar with as Crane and Falcone had been working with Ra's Al Ghul. It would only get worse as with Gotham in danger, he must battle the Scarecrow and the League of Shadows with very few allies.

Since Batman Begins is an origin story of the creation of Batman, the credit of the film's structure, approach to storytelling, and its intention really goes not just the film's screen story writer David S. Goyer but also co-screenwriter Christopher Nolan. Relying on their research of comic book stories of Batman, the duo crafted one of the smartest scripts ever put into a blockbuster that exceeds the one Alvin Sargent wrote for Spider-Man 2. The first act is non-linear since part of it is told in flashbacks of how Bruce Wayne feared bats and his training with the League of Shadows. The second is Wayne reentering the world and creating Batman with the third act showing Wayne in accepting his role as Bruce Wayne and Batman while leaving fans with the idea of what's to come. The story builds the momentum while there's a bit of action in the first act but once the second and third act moves, there's plenty of action and fighting with a mix of drama and humor that keeps everyone attentive.

The script is told in a smart way with a lot of dark elements including character study of how a man can become a superhero without any kind of powers or coming from another planet. The reason people identified with Batman because he is human yet with the right training, the access to gadgets, and the heart and determination, anyone can be Batman. This is something Goyer and Nolan understood right from the beginning while they know that if they're going to make a movie about Batman, it doesn't just have to be smart but entertaining as well. On the entertainment side, only 1/3 of that is there but it's enough since the film has a bit of humor and some great one-liners from every major character so each one is filled with depth and can be memorable.

Then there's Nolan in the directing front and going away from the Gothic look of Tim Burton and the campy mess of Joel Schmacher, Nolan takes the Batman story to darker levels including its look and location with Chicago playing the role of Gotham City. Using wonderful crane shots, steadicams, and loads of intense camera angles, Nolan uses his independent director's vision to create a unique feel for Batman. Mixing a bit of humor with drama and action, there Nolan finds the balance without sacrificing too much to the point that it leans towards a campiness that would ruin the story and the idea of Batman himself. Sure, there's not much humor in the Caped Crusader but there's no need since he's all about doing the right thing for the people of Gotham.

With Nolan bringing in a great vision to the film, credit also goes to his dedicated crew. Wally Pfister does a great job in the cinematography department by using a bit of dark, sepia colors for many of the sequences of Gotham with very little color while the Chinese sequences are used with great natural lighting in some of the best cinematography work done in a blockbuster film. Production designer Nathan Crowley along with a team of art directors and visual effects designer give Batman that dark, intense look that is need in great detail. From the dreary world of China to the early, clean look of Gotham and the look of Wayne Manor to the dreariness of modern day Gotham. Crowley also deserves credit for the new look of the Batmobile and in the words of Jim Gordon, "I gotta get me one of those".

Costume designer Lindy Hemming does a great job with the contemporary look of Gotham from its posh lifestyle to the working class of Gotham but in the Batsuit, it is a vast improvement and thank God there are no, no, no, nipples in the Batsuit. The film in its 140 minute time running doesn't miss a beat thanks to editor Lee Smith who gives the film a nicely paced feel and some non-linear style of editing in the film’s first act. The sound work and everything is just loud enough to keep up with the film's intensity. Even the score work of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard helps up with the film's intensity and dramatic tones with vast arrangements in its orchestra and thunderous rhythms that keeps everything going.

Then, there's the cast and you have to give credit to Nolan and his casting directors for choosing not just the right actors but a cast that is to die for. With some nice small performances from Mark Boone Junior, Sara Stewart, Richard Brake, Emma Lockhart, Linus Roache, and Rade Serbedzija as a homeless man along with Gus Lewis bringing an excellent performance as the young Bruce Wayne. Tom Wilkinson might seem like a strange choice to play a mob boss with a Brooklyn accent but Wilkinson gives a cunning and expertly played performance with intimidation and swagger that is needed for someone as evil as Falcone. Rutger Hauer is also excellent as the sly, power-hungry Earle who has great scenes with Bale and Freeman as he tries to maintain power while holding on with Bruce Wayne now re-appearing to the world as Hauer remains one of our most gifted character actors. Ken Watanabe brings a mysterious complexity as the Ra's Al Ghul character with a sense of strange wisdom and intelligence to the point where at first, we're not sure what kind of man he's playing only to see his idealism as Watanabe does fine work in that character.

Katie Holmes is pretty good as Rachel Dawes with her good-hearted idealism for a safe, good world while having great moments with Bale, even in a scene as she confronts him about his behavior. Holmes makes sure she doesn't make her character as some damsel in distress but a woman who gives Bruce Wayne a reason to be Batman. It's not a great role but Holmes makes her character likeable and memorable enough. Gary Oldman plays against type in the role of a honest cop who wants to do right and when Batman arrives, the character finds hope as Oldman plays the character with a weariness turn usefulness as Oldman makes the Jim Gordon character one of the centerpieces in the Batman story.

Cillian Murphy brings a wonderful charm and intensity to his role as Dr. Crane/Scarecrow with his sly intelligence and maddening faces where he gives the Scarecrow a wonderfully memorable villain that makes everyone forget about Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and all of those other lame villains. Liam Neeson is also excellent in his mentor-like role as Henri Ducard with an intensity and strictness that is punishing to watch since he is tough as Neeson proves himself to be one of the most memorable characters with his role of teacher and vigilante.

When it comes to great actors, there's a list of those elite who deserve to be on top of the mountain like Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Christopher Walken, Gene Hackman, and Clint Eastwood. In this film, we have two. First is the always eloquent Morgan Freeman who uses his sly charm and intellect as inventor Lucius Fox who delivers some great one-liners and a performance that is only to be described as expertly handled. With Morgan Freeman, you can never get a bad performance. The same goes for Michael Caine who brings a fraternal/mentor role of Alfred as he comes up with some funny one-liners and a lot of heart as he is the man to remind Bruce Wayne of his family's legacy and is more of a butler as the man who guides Bruce into doing the right thing.

Finally, there's Christian Bale in the dual role of Bruce Wayne and Batman and if your names are Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and George Clooney. Go away, Bale is Batman. Bale brings a mix of wit, torment, determination, and morality into the role of Bruce Wayne. This is a star-making performance for Bale since he has some great one-liners and a lot of charm while he seems to have a good time being the playboy. When he's Batman, you better watch out because he brings an intimidation and excitement to a superhero that you can only dream of. He makes Batman more real to an audience since he's someone that feels pain and has fear only to find ways to use that fear for the heart of good. If this doesn't make Bale a full-fledge star, then I don't know what film will do but he deserves every amount of credit for all the hard work from all the film work he's done to actually giving fans a Batman that lives up to the character.

Batman Begins is a magnificent film and one of the rarest of blockbusters that is smart and entertaining thanks in large part to Christopher Nolan, co-writer David S. Goyer, a dedicated film crews, and a great cast led by Christian Bale. Finally, this is Batman film to see. Thank Nolan for not bringing in anything stupid like nipples, Robin, or anything campy. Not even using stupid corporate sponsorship like Batnuggets or a lame Batman credit card. This is by far one of the best films of 2005 and it's really the only blockbuster film to see that is entertaining and filled with great intelligence while remaining true to the comic book fans.

Christopher Nolan Films: Following - Memento - Insomnia (2002 film) - The Prestige - The Dark Knight - Inception - The Dark Knight Rises - Interstellar - Dunkirk - Tenet - Oppenheimer - The Auteurs #13: Christopher Nolan

Batman Films: (Batman (1966 film)) - Batman (1989 film) - Batman Returns - Batman Forever - Batman & Robin - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - The Lego Batman Movie - The Batman (2022 film)

© thevoid99 2011

Inception

Ever since scoring a breakthrough with 2000’s Memento, Christopher Nolan has been considered to be one of the finest new directors making films at this time. 2002’s remake of 1997 Norwegian film Insomnia ensured Nolan’s place as one of the top new directors as he was selected to revive the Batman film franchise. In 2005, Batman Begins was released to a lot of acclaim as did its 2008 sequel The Dark Knight that is currently the third highest grossing film in the U.S. While 2006’s The Prestige was a break from the franchise that also maintained Nolan’s viability and anticipation running high for the third Batman film. Nolan returns to more original material with a film about mind extractions and other strange occurrences with Inception.

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Inception tells the story of a man who steals ideas from a company by extracting into their mind. In his job, he is also trying to deal with the death of his wife while hoping to do one last job before returning to his family. During this job, he encounters trouble as he tries to escape from his own guilt and everything else. A psychological drama of sorts mixed in with elements of heist films, Nolan crafts a film with a lot of ambition filled with dazzling visual effects and a complex story line that recalls some of his early films. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Tom Berenger, and Pete Postlethwaithe. The film also stars such Nolan regulars as Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Caine. Inception is a remarkable, visually-stunning film from Christopher Nolan and company.

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is at a party for a Japanese businessman to talk about his job which is to extract ideas from other people’s minds. Joining Dom is his right-hand man and researcher Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). At the party, Dom sees his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) where things go wrong. All of a sudden, Dom and Arthur have woken up in the middle of another world with Saito and an architect named Nash (Lukas Haas). When it is revealed that Saito really has nothing to be extracted from, it is clear that Saito used Dom and Arthur as an audition for what he really seeks. He wants to inject an idea into the mind of a corporate rival which is known as inception as he offers Dom something he couldn’t refuse.

The offer was for Dom to finally return to America if he takes the job. Dom’s inability to return to the U.S. to return to his kids was due to the death of his wife whom he’s been seeing frequently in his own dreams. Seeking guidance from his father-in-law and mentor Miles (Michael Caine), Miles gives Dom a new architect to work with in a young student named Ariadne (Ellen Page) who becomes part of his new team. Learning about how to construct dreams, Ariadne enters into a new world as she is joined by a forger named Eames who takes on various disguises and a chemist named Yusuf (Dileep Rao) who has created a powerful sedative for deep dream sleep. Saito joins the team as Arthur finds the target in Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the son of Saito’s corporate rival Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaithe), who is currently dying.

During the planning, Ariadne learns of Dom’s troubles as she would often see Mal or something from Dom’s memories into his subconscious as he could be a liability to the upcoming mission. Realizing that Ariadne is the one who knows what might’ve happened, Dom realizes that he needs her to keep him on check. With the entire team including Saito boarding a 747 plane with Robert Fischer on board, Fischer gets drugged as the whole team goes into his subconscious. Upon their arrival into Fischer’s subconscious, trouble ensues as they realize that Fischer has put some defenses. After kidnapping Fischer in his own subconscious, Eames disguises himself as Fischer’s godfather Peter Browning (Tom Berenger) to get some information.

Instead, it becomes more troubling as Fischer and the team have to go into another subconscious with Yusuf keeping an eye out for trouble. Inside becomes more complicated as Dom and everyone goes into levels of subconscious minds to get what’s inside the safe of the Fischer family. Yet, Dom becomes more troubled by his own past and the presence of Mal as he confesses his own guilt as he realize what he must do.

For a film as ambitious and complex as Inception is, what is more surprising is how simple the plot of the film. It’s about a man doing one more heist job by going into someone’s mind so he can go home. While that plotline seems simple, nothing in the mind of Christopher Nolan is simple as he fleshes out ideas that are truly complex and layered. Notably for the fact that he takes the audience into a journey that revolves around a man’s guilt as well as his attempts to break into people’s minds.

While the screenplay and concepts recall some of the work of Charlie Kaufman, Nolan creates a story where he distorts the idea of where people are at.  The film starts with a sequence of Cobb arriving into the home of an old man which would be revisited towards the end. Yet, it cuts to a scene of Cobb at a party with Arthur and Saito where the audience thinks its real. Then comes the realization that they’re all in someone’s subconscious and then what is going on now is someone else’s subconscious. While at first, what happens is hard to follow. Nolan is just giving the audience an idea of what is real and what is fiction. Immediately, the audience gets a chance to figure things and there’s a character that sort of becomes their guide in the form of Ariadne, the new member of Cobb’s team.

Ariadne is one of several supporting characters that does get a chance to stand out as she doesn’t just serve as a Greek chorus in a way for the audience. She is also the one person who goes deeper into Cobb’s mind and tries to help him deal with it. While another supporting character in Arthur does have an idea about Cobb’s state of mind, he only backs away just so he can do his job. Arthur, like Cobb, does become a mentor for Ariadne so she can be guided into what subconscious she’s in. Others like Saito, Fischer, Yusuf, and Eames don’t get as much development yet they’re characters that audiences do get to care about and get to know them a bit. Yet, it’s Cobb that is the man that drives the film as he is dealing with his own guilt over his wife’s death as well as his reasons to want to go home. When the audience is introduced to Mal, we see a woman who seems angry yet there’s a reason for her anger that is rooted in what Cobb might’ve done to her.

If Nolan’s creation of characters, environments, and how they interact to the different subconscious worlds they’re in. It’s Nolan’s direction that really takes the story to a level that is truly stunning. When the film is shown, it’s clear that Nolan uses his ambition to tell a story that is truly mesmerizing. In creating cities and places where things can fold on top of another or action sequences that involves a fight where the hallway is spinning around. Nolan is going for tricks where he doesn’t have to use CGI entirely by getting sets built and actually make sure it doesn’t look it’s being made by computers.

Nolan still utilizes certain framing styles and compositions along with close-ups and zooming shots to make audiences know that they’re watching a Christopher Nolan film. Still, it’s clear that the film the audience is watching is by a director who is refining his craft while learning new tricks to create something that is fascinating and jaw-dropping. Even in the visual-effects driven sequences about the recreation of cities where there’s a scene where a city folds on top of itself that looks truly amazing. Even as he uses visual effects for more than just spectacle but use it as a form of storytelling. What Nolan does overall with the film whether its creating high-octane action sequences reminiscent of chase movies or even James Bond-inspired action sequences. Even if it’s just a simple scene where they set up the heist. This film proves that Nolan is clearly at the top of his game as he is becoming one of the best filmmakers working today.

Nolan’s longtime cinematographer Wally Pfister does spectacular work with the film’s lighting design and visual look. Pfister’s photography is stunning in its wide scope along with dark shades for interior and exterior scenes to create a chilling mood. For the first inception subconscious sequence in the rain, the look of the film is dark but also pristine but without any kind of polish. It’s truly some of the best photography captured on film as Pfister is definitely becoming one of the best cinematographers in the business.

Another noted Nolan collaborator in Lee Smith does some fantastic work with the film’s editing. Taking on a mostly, leisurely pace for a majority of the film so it can move quite seamlessly without anything moving very fast or going too slow. Smith pretty much slow things down once the action sequences are done so audiences can have a breather. There’s even dramatic scenes where the cutting is fast but only to intensify what is happening in the heist while the action is fast but not hyperactive so the audience can have an idea of what is happening. The work that Smith puts into the editing is masterful and an example of how it should be done.

Production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, along with set decorators Larry Dias and Doug Mowat plus supervising art director Brad Ricker, does amazing work with set design for the film. While some of the film is shot on location in Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles, Tangiers, parts of England, and in Canada. Many of the interiors for some of the subconscious scenes, including the zero-gravity sequence, were built with a look that is polished but not in a bloated manner. The designs of the buildings and for Saito’s Japanese style home is superb as the art direction is truly stunning.

Costume designer Jeffrey Kurland does some excellent work with the look of the costumes that complement the visual look of the art direction. While a lot of the clothes is mostly casual in several scenes. Some of the scenes have the characters were suits or evening gowns to convey the sense of atmosphere in the subconscious the characters are in. Visual effects supervisor Paul J. Franklin is phenomenal in the use of CGI that doesn‘t look fake. For several of the subconscious-driven sequences, notably the folding building scene. Franklin, along with his team, succeed in not going overboard in visual effects as it’s an example of how it should be done.

Sound designer Richard King does amazing work in the film‘s sound editing and design to create broad layers for the locations the characters are in. Notably the action scenes that are layered with sounds of heavy rain, tire squeals, gunshots, and trains railing on the ground as the layering is phenomenal. King’s work is definitely another of the film’s technical highlights. The film’s music by Hans Zimmer is a haunting yet eerie score piece that is filled with broad orchestral arrangements mixed in with down-tempo yet smooth electronic textures. Adding flourish to the sound on guitar is legendary guitarist for the Smiths in Johnny Marr. The guitar textures Marr brings to Zimmer’s score is incredible while the rest of the soundtrack includes the drone-based score music of Zack Hemsey and the Edith Piaf song Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien that’s played throughout the film.

The casting by John Papsidera is definitely spellbinding as it‘s definitely one of the best ensemble cast team ever assembled. Small roles from Claire & Taylor Geare as different ages of Dom’s daughter Phillipa and Magnus Nolan & Taylor Geare as his son James are excellent for their small, face-less appearances. Others include Talulah Riley as a blonde in a subconscious fantasy scene and Tai-Li Lee as a man who helps people sleep longer in a brothel of sorts. Notable small but memorable appearances include Lukas Haas as Nash, an architect in an early sequence while Michael Caine makes a cameo appearance of sorts as Dom’s father-in-law/mentor who gives him advice about what to do. Tom Berenger is very good as Fischer’s godfather who tries to go into the secret code of Fischer’s vault while Pete Postlethwaithe is also good as Fischer’s hardened father whom Fischer has a strained relationship with.

Dileep Rao is excellent as Yusuf, a chemist who helps Dom and the team in their mission by creating a sedative for long sleeps while they’re on the job as he also gets in the action for a brilliant car chase scene. Tom Hardy, of Bronson fame, is great as Eames. A humorous forger who takes on various disguises while being the guy who goes into the action and be the shooter as Hardy’s performance is a real standout. Cillian Murphy is wonderful as Robert Fischer, the target of the inception who wonders what’s going on as he ends up becoming part of team despite his reluctance. Ken Watanabe is brilliant as Saito, the businessman who hires Dom for the inception as he also takes part in the action not knowing about the stakes of what has to be done.

Marion Cotilliard is phenomenal as Mal, Dom’s deceased wife who appears in Dom’s subconscious and others who seems to have a vendetta over the idea that Dom has abandoned her.  Cotillard’s performance is definitely complex as a woman who has no idea what happened to her but is determined to get into Dom’s head. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is great as Arthur, Don’s right-hand man and researcher who helps organize the job while taking in part of the action. Gordon-Levitt proves to be able to stand with the likes of DiCaprio while getting involved in one of the film’s best action sequences as it’s another solid performance from the young actor. Ellen Page delivers what is probably her best performance to date as Ariadne, the new architect for the team. While not displaying the wit she had in Juno a few years ago, it’s definitely a more mature performance as she plays the observer and conscious of sorts. Even as she plays DiCaprio’s anchor where she shows her true dramatic talents in working with DiCaprio as it’s definitely a winning supporting turn.

Finally, there’s Leonardo DiCaprio in what is definitely one of his greatest performances to date. In the role of Dom Cobb, DiCaprio brings a tour-de-force performance as man struggling to get home while dealing with the death of his wife. There’s a sense of restraint and anguish to his performance while maintaining a sense of professionalism when he’s on the job. DiCaprio definitely shows his presence in doing physical stunts and such while he has a great camaraderie with the entire cast. It’s clear how far DiCaprio has grown as an actor since the days of Leo-mania when Titanic was the highest-grossing film of all-time back in 1997. His role as Dom Cobb proves that Leonardo DiCaprio is becoming one of the best actors working today.

Inception is a marvelous yet jaw-dropping film from Christopher Nolan and company. Featuring amazing technical work and a solid ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, it’s a film that definitely that challenges the audience of what can be done with a blockbuster. Particularly in an era where 3D and low-concept films with silly gimmicks are expected to bring asses in the seats. Fortunately, Nolan nor his cohorts believe in that as Inception is a film that is smart enough for audiences of moderate taste that they can follow. In the end, Inception is a remarkable film that shows that ambition doesn’t have to be presented with loads of CGI and gimmicks. All that is needed is a story and a vision that is unique as it comes from the spectacular mind of Christopher Nolan.

Christopher Nolan Films: Following - Memento - Insomnia (2002 film) - Batman Begins - The Prestige - The Dark Knight - The Dark Knight Rises - Interstellar - Dunkirk - Tenet - Oppenheimer - The Auteurs #13: Christopher Nolan

© thevoid99 2010