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    First Class & Still Walking

    By Donal on Sun, 06/12/2011 - 11:32pm | Arts & Entertainment

    I caught one large summer flick this weekend, X-Men: First Class, and one small art-house film, Still Walking. 

    First Class had good performances, good effects, was rather loud, but I didn't care for the staging of scenes. In too many scenes we saw a lot of mutants standing around trying to look engaged. The X-Men franchise has positioned itself as a series of parables about people that don't fit in to normal society, and First Class was no exception. I attended with two teenage girls - one an aspie, and one low-functioning in some way. They were introduced by a social worker trying to socialize them. So their reactions to scenes where a young Beast and Professor X try to help mutants fit in while young Mystique and Magneto advocate celebrating one's differences were, ummm, interesting.

    A few things didn't fit the timeline from the previous films. In a previous film, Jean Grey was recruited by the older versions of Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Erik Lansherr (Ian McKellen) but this film shows McAvoy's Xavier and Fassbender's Lansherr choosing different sides as much younger mutants. But in general the filmmakers bent over backwards to maintain a sense of continuity. And there are now a lot more degrees of Kevin Bacon.

    Still Walking from 2008 was so very quiet and intimate, and even though it concerned a Japanese family healing from a great loss, the gathering reminded me of when we would gather at my mother's parent's house. Even though she speaks Japanese, my daughter complained that it was boring ("Where are the giant robots?" she kidded) but if you pay attention to small talk,  you will be rewarded.

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     Sometimes I enjoy hero movies and sometimes I don't but I cannot remember ever being affected by one emotionally or being inspired to think much about the subject. If I still took my kids to movies I would probably go see X-Men. 

     I hope it is okay to bring up other movies since I cannot comment on either of the ones you write about.
     Friday evening I watched one of the saddest movies I have seen in a long time. I had heard nothing about it, even the name, before I saw it. Maybe you have. I consider the the actors, the acting, and the script to be excellent. I would not be surprised to see it nominated for academy awards but that is just because it affected me. The movie is Blue Valentine. It is an extremely strong polar opposite of a "date movie".
     Because it got me thinking about strong movies that were heartbreaking I recalled the saddest movie ever that I have seen and being a masochist, apparently, I went to Hastings and got it to watch again Saturday night. The movie is "Holly". Googling it just now I find that it is available free on line.  I recommend it.
    Summary:
    "Shot on location in Cambodia, including many scenes in actual brothels in the notorious red light district of Phnom Penh, HOLLY is a captivating, touching and emotional experience. Patrick, an American card shark and dealer of stolen artifacts, has been 'comfortably numb' in Cambodia for years, when he encounters Holly, a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl, in the K11 red light village. The girl has been sold by her impoverished family and smuggled across the border to work as a prostitute. Holly's virginity makes her a lucrative prize, and when she is sold to a child trafficker, Patrick embarks on a frantic search through both the beautiful and sordid faces of the country, in an attempt to bring her to safety. Harsh, yet poetic, this feature forms part of the 'K-11' Project, dedicated to raising awareness of the epidemic of child trafficking and the sex slavery trade through several film projects. The film's producers endured substantial hardships in order to be able to shoot in Cambodia and have also founded the RedLight Children Campaign, which is a worldwide grassroots initiative generating conscious concern and inspiring immediate action against child sexploitation. "

    http://hqmovies.me/397474


    by A Guy Called LULU on Mon, 06/13/2011 - 1:08am

    Thanks for the recommendations. I'll keep my eyes open for them. I've read about a film like Holly, but I think it was shot in the Phillippines.


    by Donal on Mon, 06/13/2011 - 7:49am

    I had to turn Blue Valentine off. It was just horribly depressing and didn't seem like it was going to get a feel-good ending. 

    On a lighter note, I saw X-Men over the weekend and thought it was pretty good, if a bit long. But I'm a sucker for a James McAvoy movie. He's amazing.


    by Orlando on Mon, 06/13/2011 - 8:17am

    I liked X-Men.  Smart movie and very Magneto focused.  He's my favorite of them.  Bacon was a good Sebastian Shaw.


    by Michael Maiello on Mon, 06/13/2011 - 10:36am

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