056. The Broken Tower

056. (19 Feb) The Broken Tower (2011, James Franco) 41



The deliberately episodic nature of The Broken Tower, providing brief snapshots of Hart Crane, really does nothing to define the man. Though Franco would surely be annoyed to hear it, this is style with little substance. To his credit, his aesthetic is at least well-developed and confident; it's rare that a contemporary black-and-white film looks this good.

Franco's recent work make him appear determined to announce himself as a voice in New Queer Cinema. There's a fearlessness in the gay content, like in an early scene where he graphically gives a blowjob. The best scene here by far has Franco picking up a sailor from a bar. In an alley, he lights both of their cigarettes and stares longing in a way that's too electric to really fit the film's tone. Romance and that sense of longing are really where he has a strength in creating atmosphere.

Though The Broken Tower moves briskly and Franco photographs well, it's willfully dull. A lengthy poetry reading, for instance, underscores Franco's limitations as a performer. It's punishing watching him try to hold attention, thinking he's magnetic when he's plainly not.

Winner Breakdown: Best Visual Effects

Best Visual Effects:
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
- Hugo
- Real Steel
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon


Here comes a really unpopular opinion. The apes in Rise of the Planet of the Apes didn't like as good as everyone said. Sure, when you looked at them by themselves, or when they interact with each other, the look good. But they look so blatantly fake when they're next to humans that it was kind of silly. I had thought maybe I was the only one who thought this, but my dad sat down and watched the movie with me last week, and said the same thing. Anyone else? Sure, they looked amazing when you saw this: http://www.themagazine.ca/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/RISE-OF-THE-PLANET-OF-THE-APES-.jpg , but looked silly here: http://bluraymedia.ign.com/bluray/image/article/121/1214134/2-1080p_1323219298_640w.jpg 


However, I don't think my opinion will chance the outcome of the winners. Rise of the Planet of the Apes will likely win, since it did do a good job, and it's from the same people who did Avatar. But I'd really love to see Harry Potter win here. It had some fantastic Visual Effects (as always), this film being the big showcase for that. If anyone upsets Apes win, it'll be Potter. However, don't count out Scorsese favourite Hugo, though I feel it very less likely to win in this category. 

Will Win: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Could Win: Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part II
Dark Horse: Hugo
Who I Want to Win: Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part II

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I have to confess, I am not a huge fan of the whole Planet of the Apes series. I have seen a few (including the adaptation with Mark Wahlberg), but they have never really struck a chord. So, after much hesitation, and a number of good reviews from fellow bloggers, I finally bought the DVD of the latest for a viewing.

My first and immediate reaction was that I liked it, no, I enjoyed it. The story moved along nicely and managed to captivate me. It's simple enough to pass as a popcorn flick, but complicated enough to satisfy someone who always wants a little more from their movie going experience.

In a nutshell, Rise of the Planet of the Apes sees how a medication to cure Alzheimer's, being tested on an ape Caesar (Andy Serkis), eventually results in giving him heightened brain function. As the experiment is closed, he is secretly adopted by the lead researcher Will Rodman (James Franco). Hereon, the movie moves on covering different events over a few years that eventually leads to the Ape uprising.    

James Franco continues to wow me with the diversity in his roles. It's not a challenging role, yet he performs it well. John Lithgow and Tom Felton were a pleasant surprise. Andy Serkis, makes the most of the performance capture technology, to bring Caesar to life, and without doubt is the star of the film. As for Frieda Pinto… meh!, as always (sorry I still cannot get around liking her in films). From a technical viewpoint, the film is supreme.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a good starting point for anyone who wants to get into the whole Ape franchise. I'm not sure if sequels are planned, but watching some of the previous releases after this one will definitely whet your appetite in case there is time before we see another Ape-fest. 

Rating 3.5/5

YOUR HIGHNESS

Written by Danny McBride and Ben Best

Directed by David Gordon Green

Starring Danny McBride, James Franco, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Theroux

and Natalie Portman

Isabel: It is my legacy to do anything to stop those who fuck to make dragons.

I don’t know about you but if I am going to get high, it’s because I want to laugh and have a good time. Apparently, when Danny McBride wants to get high, he would rather be painfully unfunny instead, and then drag all of the good people who spent their hard-earned pot money on a ticket to his new movie, YOUR HIGHNESS, down with him into his own personal hell of a bad trip. Not since Harold and Kumar got their dumb asses stuck in a certain detention facility have I had such a sobering experience at a stoner movie.

I spent most of YOUR HIGHNESS with my mouth wide open in stupefied awe of what I was watching. Wait. Was that a mechanical bird I just saw in this medieval setting? Hold on a second. Is James Franco masturbating that strangely unconvincing, Yoda-like alien creature? Uh, is that a minotaur’s penis I see and is it erect? Between all this nonsense and the broken “Ye Olde English” mixed with random cuss word diaglogue, I had no idea what was going on most of the time. And I was sober! Imagine the poor folks who actually prepared ahead of time to see this movie the way it was intended to be seen. In their impaired state, how could they possibly make sense of this insanity? And if you thought James Franco was bad at the Oscars, wait until you hear him sing.

Somewhere behind all the smoke, there is something resembling a plot in YOUR HIGHNESS. Whiny younger prince, Thadeus (McBride), lives in the shadow of older brother, Fabius (Franco). Together, they embark on a quest to stop some wizard type (Justin Theroux) from impregnating Fabius’s new virginal love (Zooey Deschanel) with a dragon baby. That’s right; I said dragon baby. Natalie Portman shows up half way through to kick some random monsters but doesn’t serve much other purpose. (She probably only did 5% of the ass-kicking anyway.) Aside from that though, it is pretty much one completely pointless scene after another, featuring a talented cast making complete boobs of themselves. (Seriously – Toby Jones: Why would you sign on to make yourself look this bad?)

Speaking of boobs, I imagine that McBride and his writing partner, Ben Best, basically inhaled as much ganja as they could before whipping out their penises, dipping them in ink, and sitting down to write YOUR HIGHNESS with them. How else could they possibly explain the total lack of reality in this film (even by fantasy standards) and the disturbing and obsessive manner in which every joke seems to lead back to McBride’s crotch? (Ladies, you have been warned – this movie is especially not for you.) YOUR HIGHNESS might have seemed like a hilarious idea high in McBride’s basement, maybe even genius by their altered standards, but on screen, the buzz is long gone before the credits are even done.

Oh, and David Gordon Green might want to try some actual direction next time.

BREAKING NEWS: James Franco wasn't high

Apparently this still matters.  If you don't know, just hours after hosting this year's Academy Awards, the internet was flooded with speculation regarding Franco.  Rumor had it, the 127 Hours star was high as a kite during the ceremony, thus explaining his apathetic line delivery and generally unenthusiastic nature.  I never really bought it then, and I still don't know.  Whether or not the host was high doesn't absolve the writers of randomly dressing him up as Marilyn Monroe or shoving low-brow Charlie Sheen humor into his mouth.  The writing was just bad.  At least Franco can commiserate with an unpopular past Oscar host, David Letterman.  It goes without saying that laying an egg on Oscar night didn't do too much damage to Letterman's career.

That being said, Franco wasn't the world's best host.  But as he put it on Letterman the other night, that doesn't really matter.  No matter who hosts the Oscars, they're going to be reamed the next morning and then forgiven eventually when everyone forgets just what the host did that was so awful to begin with.  Thankfully, Franco doesn't sound like he'll accept an unlikely return invite anyway.  People forget the "Oh we want him back" man of the moment, Hugh Jackman, got tepid reviews of his Oscar telecast.

But above all, even with all this slandering of Franco's character, we have to stop caring so much about the telecast itself.  It's designed and meant for people who don't care about the Oscars. Those who root for whatever nominee's name they recognize and whatever blockbuster film they saw.  The average viewer doesn't care about Art Direction, or who's favored to win Best Cinematography.  The telecast is a money-making machine, and still foolishly attempting to pander to a younger demographic (see: Anne Hathaway and Franco).  It's unfortunate they were roped into this, but at the end of the day, few people will even remember they hosted the ceremony.  Can you even name half of the hosts this last decade?

Great, he wasn't high.  Who'da thunk?  Moving on.



.

127 HOURS

Written by Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy

Directed by Danny Boyle

Starring James Franco

Aron Ralston: This rock has been waiting for me my whole life.

I thought that winning an Oscar might mellow SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE director, Danny Boyle, but it only seems to have fueled his fire. Before anything has a chance to happen in his latest, 127 HOURS, the screen is split into three and images of people going to work or running marathons are inundating the screen at rapid speeds. I understand that he has his own style but I want to see Boyle just let the action unfold for a change, instead of just chopping it up and rearranging it visually to simply make it look cooler. At times in Boyle’s career, it has felt like the images needed the overt style to become relevant or meaningful but this time is different. Boyle has finally found a story that begs for his personal yet simultaneously impersonal touch.

127 HOURS is the story of an adrenaline junkie, a nature nut, a loner. Forcing an image to wake the heck up and jump off the screen itself is akin to what protagonist Aron Ralston (James Franco) does whenever he can. And when he can’t make that happen, he would almost rather be alone. He seeks out thrills to elevate himself above the mundane just like Boyle tries to enhance his image. When Ralston gets away from the city though and into the peaks and valleys of Blue John Canyon, Boyle slows his pace and allows the sheer grandness and beauty of the landscape to speak for itself. And speak it does. It asserts itself and its immovable brilliance by reminding man just who’s in charge here after all when it almost swallows young Ralston whole.

Ralston is a real person and in 2003, he spent a sum total of, you guessed it, 127 hours literally stuck between a rock and hard place when a rock fell with him into a cavernous gap and crushed his arm against the wall. Franco’s journey as Ralston is rarely easy to bear and sometimes just as difficult for us to take as well. His spirit goes from exuberant to painfully sober to near delirium and he carries it off with a strength I’m not the least bit surprised to see. Boyle was sure to lighten the tension with flashbacks that inform us of exactly everything Ralston still has to live for, which in turn teaches him a thing or two about how to actually live for it. The point may be somewhat plain but the experience that is 127 HOURS is a testament to an amazing feat of human endurance and perseverance, as well as an adventure that won’t soon be forgotten.

HOWL

Written and Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman

Starring James Franco, Jon Hamm and David Strathairn

Mark Schorer: Sir, you cannot translate poetry to prose. That is why it’s poetry.

I seriously doubt this could happen today, that a poem could spark such outcry as to demand it be banned in the courts as obscene. Fifty years ago though, that is exactly what happened to American poet, Allen Geinsberg, with his poem, “Howl”. The poem depicted the darker underbelly of America, a side of the country that the majority didn’t want to acknowledge. It spoke of the impoverished, the bohemians, the homosexuals and anyone else that really that didn’t fit into the status quo because of who they were or what they did with their days and nights. And so the debate is on – does different mean obscene simply because you cannot understand it?

The trial, the poet and the poem itself are portrayed separately and cut together to form what is the first narrative film by the Academy Award winning documentary filmmaking team of Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (THE CELLULOID CLOSET, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HARVEY MILK). Named after the poem, HOWL can only loosely be described as a narrative though. Albeit a somewhat safe choice for their first fiction foray, the filmmakers based their screenplay on court transcripts, archival footage and interviews, giving HOWL a very documentary feel. Ginsberg himself, played calmly and coolly by James Franco, is only ever shown in interview or in flashback, never driving any plot forward. The lack of formal focus makes for a free flowing experience but also never allows the film to truly find a firm foundation.

Like the point being proved in court by the “Howl” defense attorney (Jon Hamm) though, form needn’t be formal for the themes to be meaningful or have literary merit. Each component of the film, including a dark and rich animated interpretation of “Howl” from Monk Studios, functions fine individually and creates a whole unique unto itself. In that sense, HOWL honours its inspiration as best it can and proves the timelessness of the poem by allowing its relevance resonate even still today.

TIFF Review: 127 HOURS

Written by Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy

Directed by Danny Boyle

Starring James Franco

Aron Ralston: This rock has been waiting for me my whole life.

I thought that winning an Oscar might mellow SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE director, Danny Boyle, but it only seems to have fueled his fire. Before anything has a chance to happen in his latest, 127 HOURS, the screen is split into three and images of people going to work or running marathons are inundating the screen at rapid speeds. I understand that he has his own style but I want to see Boyle just let the action unfold for a change, instead of just chopping it up and rearranging it visually to simply make it look cooler. At times in Boyle’s career, it has felt like the images needed the overt style to become relevant or meaningful but this time is different. Boyle has finally found a story that begs for his personal yet simultaneously impersonal touch.

127 HOURS is the story of an adrenaline junkie, a nature nut, a loner. Forcing an image to wake the heck up and jump off the screen itself is akin to what protagonist Aron Ralston (James Franco) does whenever he can. And when he can’t make that happen, he would almost rather be alone. He seeks out thrills to elevate himself above the mundane just like Boyle tries to enhance his image. When Ralston gets away from the city though and into the peaks and valleys of Blue John Canyon, Boyle slows his pace and allows the sheer grandness and beauty of the landscape to speak for itself. And speak it does. It asserts itself and its immovable brilliance by reminding man just who’s in charge here after all when it almost swallows young Ralston whole.

Ralston is a real person and in 2003, he spent a sum total of, you guessed it, 127 hours literally stuck between a rock and hard place when a rock fell with him into a cavernous gap and crushed his arm against the wall. Franco’s journey as Ralston is rarely easy to bear and sometimes just as difficult for us to take as well. His spirit goes from exuberant to painfully sober to near delirium and he carries it off with a strength I’m not the least bit surprised to see. Boyle was sure to lighten the tension with flashbacks that inform us of exactly everything Ralston still has to live for, which in turn teaches him a thing or two about how to actually live for it. The point may be somewhat plain but the experience that is 127 HOURS is a testament to an amazing feat of human endurance and perseverance, as well as an adventure that won’t soon be forgotten.