Monday 30 August 2010

Satoshi Kon passes.

Celebrity deaths haven't really ever affected me. They have in the passing “oh, they died? That's awful” sense, and a few times I'd felt bad for the film or music industry, because a talented person had died. Never before have I felt something of a personal loss, though. Not before Satoshi Kon died in his home of pancreatic cancer on August 24th, 2010.I think they loss may have felt so personal to me because he was such a huge motivation to me personally. He wasn't the reason I got into animation, but his influence was undeniable. He was able to make such generic cities and locations feel so personalised in his work, and I've always found I've taken cues from his extravagant use of music.

I'll forgive you for not knowing who the man was. He was never exactly a huge name (though there really aren't too many in animation). Satoshi Kon was a Japanese animator, writer and director of anime. Whilst I have no real strong feelings towards anime, it's not something I have an outstanding love of. When I was younger, however, I confess that I may have been a little obsessed. I was one of the few people in the UK who had a subscription to Shonen Jump, and it would be a lie to say my childhood was not overthrown by Dragon Ball and Pokemon (both of which I think I still have an embarrassing nostalgic non-ironic appreciation for). However as I got older I think I grew out of the medium – I never abandoned it, though. It just seemed for every Death Note there were a thousand Naruto's. I think my drifting away from the animation form was because the fans bothered me, and to be completely honest at times embarrassed me.

When I was about twelve, I remember being at my friends house in Memphis. It was very late, and I was flipping through the channels on his then super-rare high-definition flat screen TV. I saw one of the strangest things I think I've ever seen out of context. About halfway through an episode of some show, a boy started to vomit letters into a toilet. A mysterious figure then stood above him, wielding a gold, crooked baseball bat. I forgot about the show shortly after, but that scene didn't leave me. Years later, I discovered it was a short series called Paranoia Agent.

My God, Paranoia Agent. I watched every episode in two days. I combed the internet searching for explanations and theories on what I just watched. I watched the entire series again with two of my friends. I gave my friend a DVD for Christmas. I think this was the closest I've come to some sort of life-altering appreciation for something, something I'm sure many trekkies and Star Wars nuts experience. It was obvious it would appeal too me. My favorite books were always those crammed full of symbolism that required time to sink in and study (Cask of Amontillado quickly comes to mind) – and I do have a loving relationship with Twin Peaks.Sure, it was only 13 episodes, and there were a couple of duds, but I don't think a work of fiction has really had this much influence over me. I changed the way I went about animation and writing, and it was after watching Paranoia Agent I started experimenting with colours more. After these alterations I won a competition on Newgrounds for animation netting myself a small but pleseant cash prize – a victory I am sure I would not have attained if not for Kons influence. My next animation was for my film studies course, which I made sure to make as weird and obscure and Kon-ish as possible. I ended up writing about Paranoia Agent on my personal statement when applying to university, and I swear if I were ever given millions of dollars to adapt something to the big screen, Paranoia agent is the first place I'd go.

The show had such originality and interesting characters, and the imagery became stronger and stronger with every passing passing episode to the point were the shows strangeness seemed to transcend the art form while being totally at home within it. The show had such an incredible energy to it – it had the most odd and dark story, but would constantly use the most bright and garish colours with the chirpiest, loudest, happiest sounding choir they could find. The series had the most peculiar dreamlike quality to it (which may be why it works so well when things really get strange) which Kon utilised in his
Inception-inspiring feature Paprika, which revolved around travelling into dreams and used similarly bright colours and memorable music. However, while using similar elements, Paprika managed to feel completely and utterly different from Paranoia Agent in every way. It was it's own unique and wonderful experience while borrowing from the directors previous work. Satoshi's death is so tragic because he was still learning. He was already a master writer and director, but he wasn't set in his pace yet (he even said that when watching his directional debut Perfect Blue he felt “a little embarrassed”, but that watching it inspired him to improve). Nothing was ever the same, and he still had so much left to say in so many ways – he wanted to work on a childrens story to force him new directions (the project is called The Dream Machine in English, and was the directors last work). A poster called Jbetteridge said it so perfectly -

It's not that anime will never be the same with Satoshi Kon gone. It's now much more like that with Satoshi Kon gone, anime will always be the same.”

In chasing down the mans career, I also found (unsurprisingly) he was quite an interesting chap, starting out as a background artist on a series of films and originally wanting to be a painter, he eventually moved on to Magnetic Rose (He never had time to paint after that - amusingly saying that because he made his hobby his job, he doesn't have a hobby anymore). He is the founding member of the Japan Animators Creators Association (JANiCA). He was (I think now predictably) a bit eccentric, too. He said that while working on his films, he would attempt to think beyond his own imagination, and to even try to surprise himself. He also had the most intense love for his medium - Ilya Garger said the easiest way to annoy Satoshi Kon would be to ask him why he makes cartoons – that he would begin answering the question before you finished the sentence (not that he didn't adore films, he even dresses a character up as Akira Kurasawa when explaining the “line rule” in Paprika). Kon also stated that animation is just something he feels far more comfortable with. Garger goes on to talk about Kon breaking convention and writing about otherwise untouched subjects (when was the last time you saw a movie about homeless people?), and indeed Kon was also somewhat of a contrarian, trying as hard as he could to destroy the traditional “moe” female character in anime, and admitting to not being a big fan of Miyazaki, that in the other animators films everyone “has to love each other” and that the morals are “always so clear”. He would always seem offended if he was ever compared to or asked if he aspired to be like Miyazaki - not only because the question itself is somewhat insulting, but because Kon and Miyazaki are so fundamentally different anyway – Miyazaki is typically associated with fairytales, whereas Kon is known for his urban settings.

Kon's final blog post has been floating around, and if you're a fan of his work, I really recommend you read it. The Japanese have a terrific phrase we don't have that Kon ends his post with - o-saki ni - meaning when someone has to leave a place before other people. That pretty much perfectly sums up how I feel about his passing. He had such a he impact on my life, and I would constantly check for updates on what he was working on. He was a man who so obviously had so much to say even he wasn't aware of it all, and losing him is truly an enormous loss for the industry and his fans. I will remember Satoshi Kon for the rest of my life.


http://makikoitoh.com/journal/satoshi-kons-last-words

Tuesday 24 August 2010

Michael Cera versus the Internet

I've never understood hating actors. Never. My mother completely hates Adam Sandler, some friends of mine can't stand Seth Rogen and it appears that many of the "cool kids" don't really like Tom Cruise, but to my knowledge, nobody dislike Leonardo DiCaprio.


What a sweetheart.

When it comes to hating actors, I just don't understand why. To me, there are two reasons to hate an actor:

1) They are a complete jerk
2) They are such an objectively bad actor that them simply being in a movie makes it worse.

Yet, time and time again people will simply shrug and just say "I can't stand them". Usually, I believe it comes down more to the actor simply being in movies that the hate-ee hates, or more obviously; being type-cast in a role the hate-ee hates. I can sort of understand this - I've grown pretty tired of Jim Carrey silly-facing his way through his career, and we can all agree robin Williams has made some bad choices lately. However, I don't hate the actors, and when I see them on screen, I'm well-aware that they're both talented actors fully capable of playing a wide range of roles - it's just that more recently, they haven't been.

Now is when we get to Michael Cera. Several years ago, the Internet had the biggest boy-crush on Michael Cera you could imagine. He had just finished acting in the universally-adored series Arrested Development and was appearing in the majorly hyped Superbad. Sure, he was sort of playing George Michael Bluth in Superbad, but he was different enough from the character to still be funny and have plenty of memorable lines. You wouldn't catch 4chan admitting it now, but when Superbad came out they were pretty much ready to give Cera a shrine. So what happened? Well, that same year he was in Juno (which I've never really seen, but from what the Internet tells me it's Knocked Up with teenagers smarter than teenagers actually are)and then Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. To my knowledge, neither of these films were reviewed badly - so why the hate for Cera? Okay, yeah, he was in the awful Extreme Movie, I'll give you that, as well as the failure Year One. Was he really the same character in those two movies? Even if you give him those two misses, he has Paper Heart, which at the very least we can say was him at least trying to branch off.



I think Paper Heart may be a bad thing to list. You see, after me breaking one of my only life rules and actually going to 4chan (my shower is only 20 seconds away from my computer, I should be safe), I've discovered something. Something scary, ironic, and most of all; completely retarded. 4chan, and I believe the rest of the Internet, are in the middle of the Hipster Witch hunts. Paper Heart is fake documentary about some teenagers trying to find out about love? Hipster garbage. Juno had a bunch of songs on the soundtrack I hadn't heard of - Well they may as well have been wearing Che Guevara t-shirts! Here's a comment I read that I think pretty much sums up the movie going ignorance of hating actors:

I would consider seeing Scott Pilgrim, if I didn't hate Michael Cera with every fibre of my being.

Every fibre?
Even the nice ones? If this hate stems from Cera playing similar/the same role, grow up. It's not his fault he's being type-cast, he's known for playing those roles, he plays them well, he makes everyone money for playing those roles. When he's well-known for making money with a certain type of role - hey guess what - he's going to get lets of offers for similar roles. Also, you know what? Cera is still a young guy. He's been being type-cast for what? Four years? That's nothing. How long has Will Smith been playing "the black guy who is charming enough to still attract a white audience?" Almost his whole career, and I bet you love him for it.


What a sweetheart.


Cera has his entire career to break away from the character's he's being cast as, and here's a hint - he's already done playing those characters. He is too gnarfing old too anymore. That's a flaw in the haters logic right there - it doesn't make sense to hate an actor for the roles they play, if they're no longer playing those roles. Refusing to admit that it is even possible for an actor to play a role other than the ones you are familiar with him playing shows your own stupidity, lack of faith and inability to understand how acting actually works.

Now onto the hipster debate; I dislike hipsters intently. I believe there is no such thing as intentional non-conforming, I hate the preaching-but-not-acting philosophy of hipsters and they just look silly. However, there's something I've noticed about the hipster hate on the Internet: nobody knows what a hipster is. Someone will make a topic about Scott Pilgrim, get a "hipster shit" reply, and the whole thread will turn into a back and forth about who in the topic is an actual hipster. It's basically the same as two white people yelling "no you're a racist" at each other. Why is Michael Cera a hipster? Because he's in Hipster films? What makes his films hipster films? Oh dang, too late, I'm a hipster for asking. "Hipster" was originally a term used by black jazz musicians to describer white Jazz musicians - a hipster is a poser. So... Why is Cera a poser, and no other actors are? He must dress like a hipster, his characters must say hipster things. Except, you kow, those things are both out of Cera's control. The instant knee-jerk "hipster shit" response almost seems one of self-defense, of the cliche gay-hating homosexual. I'm not calling hipster-haters hipsters, but I am saying that one shouldn't jump so quickly to a conclusion so baselessly.
If we take a "hipster movie" to be about non-conforming, about half thought-out philosophies, possible nihilism, anti-consumerism etc., you know what the first movie that comes to mind when I think of those things is? Fight Club. It has more "hipster" morals than I'm sure Scott Pilgrim does, anyway. It's still a damn fine movie, though, and I wouldn't even freaking accuse it of being a hipster movie. This leads into my next point...

Now, I am going to risk something here; something that may (if you're one of the witch hunters): So what if Michael Cera is a hipster? So What if Scott Pilgrim is a Hipster Movie? Why does it fucking matter? Why is a hipster movie instantly bad? Newsflash guys: You don't have to like the characters in a movie and still enjoy it. Show of hands, who really really liked Daniel Plainview? Who thought he was a swell guy?


What a sweetheart.


You don't have to agree with a films message. You don't have to like the characters. You don't have to see your own opinions and persona on the screen to appreciate a good movie. One of my favorite characters of recent films is Chad from In the Company of Men. I also find him one of the most disgusting chatacters ever put on film.
I saw Harry Brown, waiting for the film to give Michael Cane a good talking to - to tell him that revenge wasn't the answer, and that maybe the kids are just as much victims as the people they pick on. That maybe they're the way they are because they've never been offered help, or that it would be better to let the actual law handle this. It never did, though. Do I hate the movie for that? No. Does the director even have to agree with the characters? No.

Forgive actors you hate. Abandon the hipster-fear, and learn to actually enjoy movies again. Be a sweetheart.

Friday 6 August 2010

Nerd Rising.

Is it just me, or has the Nerd been having a very good year? Or dare I say, a good decade?

You notice the capital N in Nerd. I'm not talking about a nerd specifically, but rather, the species (even as a nerd myself I would be embarrassed to call it a subculture. Species is much more fitting). Comic book movies, while once something to not be talked about even when in theatres (Did you even know the was a Flash movie? How about Dr. Strange?) then erased from the Zeitgeist forever are now expected summer releases. "What action movies are showing" and "what comic book movies are showing" are almost interchangeable now. It's not even A-List heroes, either. This year alone we've had The Losers, Jonah Hex and Defendor.

Allow me to highlight Kick-Ass for a moment. Boy oh boy, Kick-Ass. It's an indie comic which nobody has ever heard of, highlighting on the contrast between current and golden age comics and overall is nerd wish fulfilment. And Nic Cage is in it. How did this get made - how is it getting a sequel - how was it actually good? I my opinion, even better than the source material!
We also got Prince of Persia this year. Now, this didn't set any box-office records, nor was it met with outstanding critical acclaim. But you know what? Metacritic says it's okay. Exactly, slap-dab in-the-middle okay. A videogame movie is okay. WE DID IT!

However, as glorious as Prince of Persia's okay-ness is, it's not the main gaming attraction this year. This year we get Scott Pilgram vs. The World. If Kick-Ass was confusing, Scott Pilgrim is completely baffling. Not only is it a small indie comic nobody has heard of (although I believe it's a bigger nobody than Kick-Ass), but it's ridden with pop-culture references only nerds would get. There's Seinfeld and Zelda music in it (okay, non-Nerds watched Seinfeld, but not for the past 8 years). Most shockingly, it may be the single most video-game-y film ever made, despite not being based on a videogame at all. It injects videogame logic into it without characters as much as questioning it, and delights in being as flashy as possible.

Sci-fi in general is no longer just a Nerd subculture, either. Sure, Bladerunner was critically acclaimed and Star Wars is inescapable, but sci-fi was still very much somewhat of a taboo until recently. It was the kind of thing where if you liked it it was probably best to keep it to yourself, or at the very least you'd probably get some sass for mentioning a sci-fi you liked. However, in the last decade we've not only seen intelligent sci-fi films grab some well-deserved acclaim (Children of Men, Inception), but sci-fi in general being accepted. Cool, even. When did you ever think you'd see crowds cueing up to see a new Star Trek movie? Let alone see actual breasts in that cue? This year, Lost ended after six years. The show was full of sci-fi and fantasy references, littered with the names of scientists and authors and had enough philosophical metaphors to choke a polar bear. This show got six years. Twin Peaks got two. The Prisoner got one. Would this show have lasted in the 80's?

The Thor movie is also happening. This shocks me - Marvel has been trying to make their movies feel a bit more gritty recently. Sci-fi over fantasy, imperfect hero over altruist. Then, they go and make a movie about Norse Gods wearing silly gold armour flinging massive hammers into things. I could not be happier.
Then, there's the Avengers teaser. Oh my God. If you had told a Nerd in the mid-ninties that Marvel would in fifteen years have started a movie company that is working on releasing films involving numerous characters from different franchises, ultimately building to an enormous team-up movie being teased for years before it's released, they would assume the only way it would be possible is if they personally were appointed the head of Marvel the next day. You want to know how strong Nerds are? The man directing The Avengers is none other than Joss Whedon is directing it. The man behind The Iron Giant and Dr. Horrible's Sing-along blog. At this point it seems nothing BUT nerdspoitation.

This makes me wonder, though: Have we always had this much pulling power? Have we always been such a huge influential force? Has the right strategy all along ACUTALLY been giving us what we want (If so, where is my Viewtiful Joe movie, Hollywood!)? Maybe if we had waved our fists a little earlier, we wouldn't have had to wait until 2008 for a darker take on Batman, or the John Woo Metroid film wouldn't have just vanished. I'm glad this is becoming apparent now, though. I would have much rather waited for the 200's than gotten some crummy-looking Thor movie in the 80's. This year I saw the trailer for Rubber, a film about a tyre with psychic powers set in the desert. When else could this film possibly be made?! Okay, maybe it's not that out-there compared to some other things, but damnit, I want to talk about Rubber!

What does this mean though? Are Nerds growing in numbers, or are we simply (wrongly) growing less ashamed? In a world where WoW players actually make up a percentage of the Earth, I assume it must be a bit of both. Let's just not abuse this, okay fellas? After all, we did get Ghost Rider(I love you Nic!).