The Kite Runner (2007) Short Review

One of the best films of the past decade, The Kite Runner delivers on everything that you want it to. It’s not quite of the epic variety, but it does have all of the elements that epic films tend to have. It covers many years, several countries and (for a short time in the film) has war as a backdrop.

The central story revolves around two childhood friends who exist on vastly different economic scales. There is an act of cowardice (which leads to a succession of acts) that leads to horribly tragic circumstances. The film never tries to gloss over the failings of the protagonist. He also doesn’t willfully return to his homeland to try and right SOME of the wrong that he has rendered, either. The stakes have to be raised a little for him to be too overcome with the guilt that he carries with him.

There are at two or three scenes that I found difficult to watch even though it never lingers too long on the violence. It’s quite beautiful. This is a film I wish that I had seen this on the big screen, because it does immerse you into the region with the visuals. I think I’m going to have to start calling films like this landscape films. The Afghan backdrop (along with the Pakistan and US locations) is impressive in a desolate sort of way.

Marc Foster directed the kind of film that translates well in any language (there are several spoken in the movie). The actors (especially the kids) seem more like real people than characters. Khalid Abdalla completes a GIANT character arc started by Zekeria Ebrahimi; both playing incarnations of Amir, the central character.

Although, the story is effectively simple in how the story is presented, it has some subtleties if you’re paying attention. Every bit as inspiring as it purports to be, the Kite Runner is a rare film and it made my top 10 of 2007 (that was a great year in film) and my Best of the 2000s..

5 of 5

What Are We Doing Tomorrow Night, Brain? Part 3 (Color Stuff)

Just want to mention this (lineart) is up for auction on eBay until the afternoon of March 5th (2011). All proceeds go to feed the hungry… Hungry meaning me… Heh.

Okay! So where’d I leave off? Okay scanned, line art on its own layer and coloring the art….

Here’s the color flats (which took an hour)… or semi color flats since I use gradients when I do that. I’m not using a tablet. Just a mouse. Yes, it does show. Anyway, after that it’s easy.

All the airbrushing took about 3 hours… I’m slow. So from start to finish it took about six and a half hours for a somewhat simple 11″ X14″  cartoon of Pinky And The Brain as a Doombot and Dr. Doom. I’m not proud. It could have turned out a little better, but this one was just for fun in between other stuff… I wasn’t even a fan of the cartoon (never watched it once). This just popped in my head when I ran across Pinky And The Brain #1 in a stack of old comics that I have and I brought it out into the real world. The next won’t be so weird, I promise.

What Are We Going To Do Tomorrow Night, Brain? Part 2 (Or… How I Roll)

This is probably the closest I ever come to instructionals, but here’s another start to finish post. I’ll post the color stuff next…

In my previous Pinky and the Brain as Doombot and Dr. Doom, I posted the prelim sketch that took maybe 10 minutes. I had drawn on regular letter size paper and ran out of room.

I then grabbed a couple sheets of typing paper and taped them together to get s sheet of paper the size of the bristol board that I as going to ink on. I was too lazy to get up and find the proper size paper, I admit it. You can see I moved the globe s I could get all of Pinky/Doombot into the art. This took about a 15 minutes… Shows, doesn’t it?

I inked this on the 9″ X 12″ Bristol board while watching “The Warriors”. I love the Hi Hat gang. Just hilarious! Anyway… I used Pitt Brush and Calligraphy pens, one of those real calligraphy style pens that you dip into the ink, a rapidiograph pen of the .25 pen tip size. Nothing special. I didn’t try getting as close as possible to the animation models, either. I inked the fur and everything else as I’m normally prone to do. Over rendered or something. I would have used some more spot blacks if I wasn’t intending to color it.

I scanned it in at 300 dpi (ALWAYS kids). Some people go 600 or 400 or whatever. Those people tend to be constipated. 300′s fine for most print jobs including billboards and the sides of jet liners. It can depend on the job, though… Don’t scan in grayscale or color modes if you’re scanning lineart. Scan it in whatever bitmap mode your scanner has. And just for all of those people that complain about they “can’t get a good scan because their scanner sucks”; MY scanner sucks, but it never prevents me from getting a clean scan. You have to adjust to the scanner you have. I have a smaller scanner at the moment, too, but piecing together art in photoshop is only a headache if you allow it to be. Scan at right angles and there’s nothing to it. It would be nice to have one of those 11 X 17 scanners, though…

Color toons in the next post.

Comedy Links

Here’s a link to a story in the The Independent on local comedy  with Matt Moseley (among others)… Click HERE to read it.

 

What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?

Just a preliminary sketch for a Pinky And The Brain drawing with the Brain as Dr. Doom and Pinky as a Doombot…

I roughed it out on letter typing paper. I redrew this in pencil to fit on 11″ X 14″ bristol. It fit without having to resize anything, but just barely. I’ve actually already finished this (drawing part) and will post the rest later. I embellished on their traditional look so I don’t know if the end result looks like them. That’s for others to decide I guess.

Smoke Signals (1998) Short Review

Smoke Signals is one of my favorite films of the 90s and one of the best. It’s not very well known, but it is worth watching being maybe the first or at least the most successful film about indigenous Americans. Based on the book “The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven” (which is hilarious by itself), it’s light hearted, but genuine. It’s almost completely told from the viewpoint of Native Americans which was quite rare at that point. I guess it still is.

The story is about the two Indians venturing from the reservation to collect the remains of one of their fathers. It’s a film about fathers and sons, but is subtle in the way it approaches that, as well as the other topics that it covers. The pace is very laid back, but it captures the miles of empty space that the characters travel very well.

There are several memorable characters in the film, none more so than Thomas played by Evan Adams. He is truly an original character and I didn’t ‘get’ his role in the film until almost the end of the film the first time I saw this. He provides many laughs and some of the more poignant moments. He is a storyteller, after all.

Adam Beach is also great as the ‘character with the arc’. His character also is unusual in the fact that you rarely see a native american character that is presented with the flaws that he’s presented with. This isn’t  the traditional romanticized view of American Indians. Usually they’re presented as mystical in nature, confident and are one with the land. Not so here. Beach and Adams both portray  characters that are somewhat innocent as are most all of the characters in the film. I don’t want to make it sound like an ABC After School Special. It has much in common with some of the best John Hughes film in tone.

Fans of ‘Northern Exposure will recognize at least a couple of cameos along with Disney’s Pocahontas, the beautiful Irene Bedard. Even though she’s on the poster she’s not in the movie as much as maybe she SHOULD have been. I think I would have rewritten a bigger part for her, but I digress. This provides big entertainment for a film shot on such a shoestring budget. It is very understated and low key, but it’s never boring. Highly recommended, especially if you’re a fan of independent films.

It just missed my Top 100 of the 1990s and my Best Of 1998. I should probably reshuffle some films, though, since clearly this would have more significance than many of the others.

5 of 5 “Hey, Victor…”

 

Educating Rita (1983) Review

Educating Rita is an understated story about an alcoholic professor that agrees to tutor a hairdresser that has decided to go back to school, not completely knowing why initially. The script is NOT predictable in my opinion. There was a period in the film that seemed it was going to run the course of normal romantic comedies; then it veers off on its own. Some have said that it’s not a happy ending, but I disagree. There is a tinge of the bittersweetness in where the film leaves the two main characters, but it gives a strong indication of where both are in life after the film ends. They both get what they might be wanting when they are introduced, but maybe not what they want where their minds are at the end. I’m not spoiling anything by saying that. As I said, it did not end how I thought that it would.

There are quite a few chuckles. It is funny, but it is a more reserved humor. I found a few moments in the film that were very poignant, but not necessarily in the places where you might think. I was surprised how emotionally involved I was in some of the smaller quiet instances. It’s a film that largely relies on the actors to succeed, especially when it comes to the slightly bubble headed character that Julie Walters plays. She is quite a believable character even with her tendency to say and do the absurd. Michael Caine is Michael Caine. Hes typically fantastic in this in the role of a reserved, cynical professor. Both characters exhibit a degree of self loathsomeness in the film.

Caine manages to hide the characters feelings even when what he is feeling is right in front of you onscreen. Director Lewis Gilbert does a very good job presenting the screenplay by Willy Russell. There is a stretch at about the three quarter mark where the movie starts to feel like its going off course to meander a bit, but it resets and recovers. Its maybe just a little long and has a subplot or two that seems forced, but overall it manages to satisfy just enough in its denouement.

4.5 of 5

It also made my Best of 1983.

The Fountain (2006) Short Review

The Fountain is Darren Aronofsky’s very sombre meditation on some of life’s biggest questions. It covers a wide range of topics that include love, mortality, regret, spirituality, time, rebirth, reincarnation, obsession and acceptance of the inevitable and/or about finding meaning in a loved one’s death more than the meaning of life itself. Or something… There’s a lot thrown at you in this film.

I also think you have to be in the right mood to view it. Aronofsky is not for everyone. His films tend to have a gloominess to them and this is one of his gloomiest. The color scheme is at times bathed in gold and earthy browns, but mostly is quite murky. It stays in the dark almost the entire film. In the end, it does have a hopeful outlook. It is distinct in the film’s entire appearance.

Jackman is at his melodramatic best in this. Jackman is a leading man of the ‘pretty boy’ variety, but it must be said that he delivers in onscreen intensity.  He completely throws himself into the part (as he has in all of his films that I’ve seen). If anything he needs to take it down a notch, but he does fit perfectly into Aronofsky’s hyper-realistic melodramas.

Rachel Weisz is endearing in the role of the wife facing imminent mortality. She does a lot with not as much screen time as I expected that she would have. It’s interesting to note that her character exists in the past and the present of the film and is seen very little in the future.

The film is mostly Jackman’s, though. His character’s three anachronistic counterparts dominate the screen time. He rages as the 16th century conquistador, is anguished as the contemporary physician and resides in solemn contemplation as the 26th century spiritualist.

The story depicts a character(s) that exists in the past, present and future . Tom is the central character that is trying to save wife/love from dying. I think the point of the film is found in what happens to Tom’s future and past selves when he arrives at his moment of enlightenment. The other two also have their moments, but when they are illuminated… well… see for yourself.

The film challenges the viewer. It shifts back in forth in time and sometimes they even overlap. There are many symbolic images that are revisited as the story progresses. The symbols themselves are as intertwined as the multple incarnations of the central characters. The stars. The life cycle of a tree. The many reflections of those such as the tattoos that resemble the rings of a tree that represent the tree’s age. The ring….

The first time I saw this I was prepared for something like his previous films Pi and Requiem For A Dream. This was so much slower paced than those that I got a little bored by it. I watched it again, prepared for a slow film and I enjoyed it a lot more. I’ve now seen it maybe 4 times and it’s a much better film than I originally gave it credit for. Aronofsky usually has figuratively stated the obvious by the end of his films, but it’s the way that the end point is arrived at that is so interesting.

4.5 of 5

The Fountain made my Best of 2006 and The Best Of The 2000s. I can’t wait for Aranofsky’s interpretation of Robocop.

The Voice Of Anita Gordon

This is from “Fun And Fancy Free” or the short “Mickey And The Beanstalk”. It is easily one of my favorite sequences in a film, mostly because of the voice of Anita Gordon. Anita Gordon is the beautiful voice behind the lovingly rendered ‘The Magic Harp’. Billy Gilbert plays Willie The Giant. Of course, Clarence Nash is the voice of Donald, Pinto Colvig is Goofy (the character), and Uncle Walt is the indomitable Mickey. I saw this when I was very young and I love it every bit as much now as I did then.

If this were remade, I’m sure there would be lots of pop culture references and The Magic Harp would probably rap instead of sing. Hope that never happens.

Coloring Old Line Art

As I said a few days ago, I’ve recently been go through some of my older stuff and scanning the art. It’s surprising what complete crap (ie my old line art) can look like when you add color in Photoslop.

This one’s not finished yet, but whereas that first pic of the lineart is flat and fairly lifeless (and just a bad drawing), the third one is already starting to look as passable as my art ever looks. I drew that sucker years ago. YEARS I say! But it looks new to me with the color. What do you think?