I thought I might break the Christmasfast by commenting on movies, which I'm not seeing at the moment, as I'm hanging around my mother's house, watching old British comedy Christmas specials and crime shows. In fact, any of the movies I comment on probably will have been on release for at least three months.
A couple of weeks back, I made mention on FB that I was about to see a teenage Mormon vampire flick (no prizes for guessing the title) and I did indeed see it. I didn't mind this gehn-rah flick, tho I was half-hoping to like New Moon, rather than finding enough fodder to bag it mercilessly outright. I thought it was much better than a lot of other B-grade schmaltz I've seen (and there's a lot of it in the Springs), especially The Time Traveller's Wife, tho I didn't like it as much as Let the Right One In, that kooky little Scandinavian art-house flick with strange overtones of p**doph*lia at the end. (Not that I'm into anything like that.)
What I really liked about New Moon was its sense of subcultures and seeing an America you don't usually see in teenflix (tho I probably don't see enough of them to make that comparison). I was quite intrigued by the location (Washington state, I was told), and the borderline white trash and native American subcultures living alongside each other. If you haven't seen the film, there's a group of native American boys who become werewolves in their teen years and a more sinister middle-class clan of vampires, the Cullens. The latter seem to be living in a futuristic version of the Brady Bunch mansion: they're 'soul-less monsters', somehow associated with upward mobility.
Bella, the heroine, is caught between both classes, and a little like myself in that she's always hanging round on the edge of obscure subcultures. She has to choose between Jacob, the nice, decent poor boy werewolf, and Edward, the classier, but more narcissistic vampire frat boy-type. The tension erupts when Edward declares he's not hanging out with Bella any longer because she's 'not good for him'. Of course, it's the old story -- forbidden fruit is tastier, and nice boys always lose out to bad boys, especially where teenage girl are involved.
I have to say, I was rooting for Jacob throughout the film, as not only is more my type (darker, solider as well as being one of the few men who look ok with long hair), but he's just the more decent person. I'm not so sure about Robert Pattinson as a s*x symbol -- very nice carved bone structure but spades of deadening make-up (natch -- Ed). His body is a little too creepily fey for my tastes, and he has an odd nipple.
There are some nice touches in this film, and the occasional clever and more adult popcultural reference. I particularly liked some of the scenes in the development of Bella's romance with Jacob, where she brings him some old motorcycle parts and they build a bike together, and she sees how he's different to Edward (not just because it's about bikes, but it's a more subtle story about bonding than the average romantic flick). The film is, of course, barely suppressed teenage desire. Bella writhes around on her sheets, plagued by thoughts of vampires, tho no one gets much further than 'first base'. There's a lot of talk about the moment at which Bella will become a vampire (i.e. s*x8al adult). At very end, Bella says she wants Edward to 'be the one to do it' but not until after 'her grad'. Edward turns round and says he'll only do it on one condition: that they get married (tho of course, they wouldn't want any vampiretttes out of warlock, ha ha). So there's the kicker -- Mormon dating 101.
If I have one major complaint, it's that the overall feel of the film is a little episodic ...traipsing from one minor eruption to the next, a 'the story thus far' feel. I'm all for filmic sagas, but I'd prefer it if the individual episodes were made as stand-alone films (I think most of the Star Wars films managed this).
Anyway, I was semi-intrigued. I can see myself watching more in the series . A Very Young Friend of My Acquaintance (as in, a 25 yo) tells me that Eclipse should be the best, as it is in the book series. I'm yet to negotiate one of the Twilight books, btw -- I have #6, in my ABC swag of books, but I haven't gotten further than the second chapter, which is not a good sign. Doesn't look like I'm going to become one of those middle-age Robert Pattinson fans, anyway.
The other couple of films, Genova and The Boys are Back, I saw (as inflight entertainment, so probably pretty 'old' by now) deserve a whole new genre title of their own: grieving dads flicks. I'm not wanting to give this genre a hard time either (esp not in some kind of Disapproving Feminist Way), but I did think it was odd that there should be two films featuring grieving dads in a short period of time. I wondered if something was being sublimated here: young widowers are the more unusual and respectful situation than standard single dads. The Boys are Back dad has definitely been a bad dad in the past, as we're to discover, running off and leaving his first wife and even more inexcusably, his first son. It almost seems as if he's being punished for his past misdemeanors by the death of his second wife and near destruction of his second family. The film is about grieving for the loss of family bonds on a number of levels.
Of the two films, I thought The Boys are Back was the more substantial, although I loved the use of the location in Genova. Although such a powerful emotion, grief is hard to do without becoming boring (close focus on subtle and everyday moments) or histrionic (big picture emotional gestures: think of the painfully wearisome Truly, Madly, Deeply (not to mention the terrible 80s hair)). Seeing both films made me think again what a great series 6FU had been for its treatment of grief and family ties, though there's more time to develop emotional themes in TV. A lot of the crazy car tripping and lying on the floor business became a bit dull in the first half of The Boys are Back: the film picked up in the second half when more characters and their problems were introduced. In Genova, the youngest daughter becomes the resident mourner with delusional and sometimes dangerous episodes involving fantasies about her dead mother while the rest of the family bottle up their grief and try to carry on as normal. Their responses to her outbursts are so low key (e.g. a group hug after she's been wandering around in heavy Genoan traffic), it's hard to believe they've been challenged or changed in any way by her at-risk behaviour. Overall, I felt the film was underbaked rather than subtle in its portrayal of a family grieving.
The Boys are Back is the much better film in terms of emotional range, with some very real depictions of child and adult grief. I'm a little scared that I found it better merely because people actually talked in the end, and there were consequences for actions...how very humdrum of me! In both films, there are also some believably botched and middle-aged post-grief attempts at romance, thankfully rather than taking the Hollywood route. And they also feature foxy tho increasingly crepe-y British leading men, Clive Owen and Colin Firth (tho surely both these men have Celtic origins). What is this about? Admittedly, one of these films is an all-British production while the other is an Australian film based o a British book. But are Brits supposed to be sensitive, in the way that Aussie men are the new tough guys (now there's a laugh!) in Hollywood?
Interesting for me to read your thoughts about New Moon, as I've only discussed it so far with people who have read the books. My daughter suggests, rightly I think, that the Twilight films are not designed as a stand-alone works at all, but rather as partners to the books... hence the episodic-ness. As for Jacob being a good boy, and speaking of p++doph+lia, just you wait for the next movie!
Posted by: Meredith | January 01, 2010 at 10:41 AM
Well, of course I'm waiting with baited breath now!
Posted by: elsewhere | January 02, 2010 at 01:07 PM