Movie Critiques
Independence Day
Synopsis
Independence Day is a classic action film, the plot involves a global alien attack with an unlikely array of characters coming together to save the day, the say that just so happens to be the Fourth of July. This is not the most cinematic movie that has ever been created, but the acting is Gold (because everything Will Smith acts in is gold) and the story is timeless. In this particular scene, Captain Steve Hiller is being chased by an alien ship through a narrow canyon with a very low fuel tank. It is a very stereotypical chase scene in that is fast-paced and filled with explosions and shake cam shots of desperation. It differs from the norm in its resolution, however, as Hiller finds himself in a desolate desert with no supplies and no way to contact HQ . He has the insight to drag the dead(or motionless) alien with him, as it is the first specimen they will be able to study. A very interesting aspect of this scene is the dialogue; Hiller has an entirely one-sided conversation toward or at the alien, first yelling at him and then talking to him. This is likely a way to portray Hiller's inner monologue in a more understandable format than leaving interpretation up to the audience. Overall, 10/10 movie, I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't want to be emotionally damaged by an Oscar worthy movie and is more in favor of an inspirational, uplifting action movie.
Critique
This scene, much like the movie as a whole, is action-packed and fast paced. It starts off by setting up the conflict of the scene by showing a shot of a “fuel low” warning on the dashboard of Captain Steve Hiller’s (played by Will Smith) plane. The camera cuts to Hiller’s eyes looking up and then to a POV shot of the plane fitting through a canyon, giving the viewer a conflict, a character, and a setting. The camera cuts to a shaky cam shot of Hiller looking behind him, setting up the entrance of an alien ship that is shown coming through the same canyon as Hiller. The camera shows a couple different angles of the two planes darting through the canyon, with the alien plane firing at Hiller. These shots are probably mostly CGI, there are multiple explosions and the fast-paced camera cuts prevent the audience from thinking too much about the details of the scene. The next few seconds cut between the plane chase, the “fuel low” screen reaching empty, a POV shot of the plane darting through the canyon, and Hiller becoming more and more desperate. He sees the end of the canyon and he pulls his parachute. The camera cuts to a POV from the alien ship, and the parachute unfurls onto the dash, blocking their view. Hiller is launched into the air as the camera cuts to the alien ship narrowly missing crashing into the side of the canyon, showing a shot of it emerging from an explosion and crashing onto the desolate desert above. As the dust settles, the camera cuts to a shot of Hiller floating to the ground with his parachute, landing with the parachute covering his face. This was most likely done by a stunt double or dummy, because the next shot and the costuming allow for a stunt double to be switched out without using CGI. The next shot shows Hiller scrambling to get up and out of the parachute, and then cuts to a wide shot of the landscape; black smoke drifts over a desert with no civilization in sight. The camera cuts to Hiller, on the ground, figuring out where he is. He sees the alien ship and the camera cuts to a faraway shot of the ship smoking. The camera cuts back to Hiller, and then to a wider shot of him yelling at the ship, and trying to unclip himself from the parachute. The camera cuts to another wide shot of the landscape, this time with very tiny Hiller making his way toward the smoking alien ship. The next shot follows Hiller as he walks toward the alien ship, yelling at the alien (which has yet to show its face). The camera cuts to a wider shot of Hiler reaching the ship, giving the audience a perspective as to how big the ship is. The next show is placed inside the ship as Hiller opens it, and shows his reaction to the alien as tentacles writhe on the edges of the screen. The next shot shows the alien’s head coming out of the smoke, complete with jump-scare music. The camera cuts to an unfazed Hiller, who punches the alien and it falls back into the ship. The next shot is of Hiller against the backdrop of a clear blue sky, sitting down on the edge of the ship and taking out a cigar. This shot signifies the end of the chase scene, and the victory of Hiller against the alien. The next scene shows Hiller’s boots, walking across a white flat plain, dragging rope. Hiller drags the whole of the parachute past the camera, and the audience can see a motionless limb and a couple tentacles falling out of the parachute. The audience can assume that Hiller has wrapped up the dead alien and is now dragging it wherever he is going. The next scene shows Hiller in the middle of a different desert, so he has obviously dragged this alien a long way, but the scenery is possibly even more desolate and vast. Hiller, throughout the scene, talks to the alien even though he knows he will not get an answer. While dragging the alien in the parachute, he yells “and what is that smell?” and the camera cuts to him running back to the alien to kick it, close enough to show the whole scene but far enough away to catch the emptiness of the setting. The camera cute to a shot of Hiller silhouetted against a blue sky, yelling “I could have been at a barbecue!” The next shot is another shot of the vast landscape, ending the scene with the audience satisfied with Hiller’s victory over the alien, but worried about Hiller’s current situation.
La La Land is written and directed by Damien Chazelle and features Emma Stone as Mia and Ryan Gosling as Sebastian. They play two struggling artists in LA who keep running into each other. La La Land is a musical, and is one of the best movie musicals I have seen in a log while, making great use of all the things you can do in editing that you cannot do in a musical on stage, such as insanely large dance numbers, creative cinematography, and authentic contextual setting. The effort that went into the production of this movie is obvious to anyone who watches it and it is not only an incredible film, and incredible movie, and a work of cinematic art, but it is also a great story about two people that really gets at how things feel rather than how things are in reality.
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Besides the incredible cinematography on its own, La La Land makes use of several recurring themes in order to evoke certain emotions in its audience. Early on in the film it is established that monochromatic color means that something important is about to happen; usually a pinkish red lighting immediately precedes or is present during an important scene and a green wash is used for more tense scenes of the same importance. For example, right before Mia’s context in the movie is established, that she is a struggling actress in LA, she is seen in her bathroom with a red wash lighting. Similarly, when she shows Sebastian her one-act, she is seen in a red/pink lighting. When Mia and Sebastian break up, it is done in a red bright lighting. When Mia and Sebastian fight, it is done in front of a bright green wash light. In this way, monochromatic lighting tells the audience to pay attention to what comes next; it is a visual cue to represent the intense emotion and importance carried in a scene. In addition to red monochromatic lighting being used to convey meaning, the color red can also be found in various objects in almost every scene. Mia’s purse is red, there is a red umbrella in a scene, there is a person wearing an all-red suit in one scene, red is used so much throughout the film it is difficult not to notice it. Another recurring theme is the slow piano jazz song that we first hear Sebastian play. If I’m not mistaken, he is listening to the song on a tape when we first meet his character, is again trying to learn the song the first time we hear him play the piano, and the most importantly, when Mia first runs into him at the restaurant. Every time Mia and Sebastian ground their relationship or take another step, the same theme is played and the audience is given a cue to connect the moment they see on the screen with the other scenes of their relationship.
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This review is only touching upon the various ways La La Land uses color, themes, music, and lighting to guide the audience through the story; the preparations and thought that went into this movie was so complex that you just have to admire the mind that created the idea. I would definitely recommend this movie, 10/10, I would definitely see it again. I’m a sucker for creative lighting, but this movie is just purely enjoyable and I think there are very few people who would not like it.
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The True Cost
Synopsis
The True Cost is a documentary primarily about the recent trend of “fast fashion” and the effects it has on those who make our clothing. The documentary interviews people from all over the world and all throughout the fashion industry, from the farmers who grow the cotton, to the factory workers, to the runway designers. The documentary begins by explaining what “fast fashion” is, explaining that inexpensive designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to meet new trends embody the term, and citing big brands like H&M and Zara that have new clothes coming out every few weeks as examples. Producing fashion in this manner has never been done before, and it challenges the practice of seasonal collections from designers that has been in place for decades. The documentary then takes the audience across the world to interview a factory worker, Shima, in Bangladesh to see the conditions that they are forced to work in and the lifestyle it creates. The documentary follows Shima as she describes her difficulty in raising her daughter, as she can only take her to work sometimes, as it is very hot and cramped, but if she sends her daughter to go to school outside of the city, living with a relative, she will not see her daughter more than twice a year. She also describes her effort to advocate for better conditions and a living wage, explaining that they are not allowed to have a union and when she brought her concerns to her superiors, they beat her and the other women with her. The documentary then shows the first disaster that was directly related to fast fashion and was recognized on an international scale. In Bangladesh in 2013, a factory collapsed with over 1,000 people inside, and most did not survive. The factory workers had raised concerns about cracks in the building earlier that same day but were forced back into the building. This raised questions internationally about the fashion industry, mainly about the lack of support the workers receive even though the fashion industry generates over 3 trillion dollars a year. The documentary looks at a bunch of similar events that happened that year or in the following years, such as violent protests in Cambodia and deadly fires in factories all over the world. The documentary then profiles the organic cotton community of Texas, and the rising use of GMO cotton and widespread use of pesticides that are cancer-causing to the farmers. The same effects in Texas are also being seen in the cotton growers in India, who often buy their seeds from Monsanto, a company famous for their patented GMO seeds. Their seeds are expensive and often lead to farmers going into debt if they cannot pay back Monsanto for their seeds or give them a cut of their harvest. In this case, Monsanto will repossess the farmer’s land, which has led to a dramatic increase in farmers suicides in the region. The documentary then goes into the environmental impact of fast fashion, looking at the amount of clothing in landfills that can release harmful chemicals, the harmful chemicals produced in making the clothes that then contaminates water, and the effect all of that has on human health. The documentary also makes a point about the amount of discarded clothing that ends up in developing countries such as Haiti, which often puts local clothing industries out of business. The film explains that capitalism is a large part of the cause for this effect, as brands need to compete for consumers, which means being cheaper. They contract the cheapest labor, which means outsourcing to countries that have lower minimum wage, and the companies in those countries compete for business and are always squeezing the workers wage to make it cheaper, to keep the business. The documentary ends on a hopeful note, profiling the work of designers such as People Tree and the people behind the Green Carpet Challenge, which attempt to change the industry toward more sustainable production and try to be conscious of the effect their brand has on the earth and the people who make it possible.
Synopsis
This documentary was very interesting to watch, as the interviews and footage used were from all over the world. The amount of planning, communication, and troubleshooting that went into this film is truly astonishing. During many of the interviews, the B-roll that is shown was obviously shot specifically for this movie, adding another layer of planning for shots into the mix. The cinematographers for this film really went out of their way to show the effects of fast fashion on the world; getting shots of landfills, polluted rivers, and placing themselves in chemically hazardous environments was dangerous, but has an amazing effect on the film. While a portion of the film focused on the more visible end of the system, the economic aspect, sustainable designers, and how consumers are part of the problem, the majority of the film centers around what is unseen, which is both hard for cinematographers to have access to, and a wonderful effect for the film. This means the audience is seeing something new, learning something they didn’t know before, which draws them in. The story surrounding Shima, a factory worker, begins with her daily life, then moves to her dilemma surrounding her child, and then builds to her violent interaction with her bosses. Her story builds alongside the exploration of the factories in general, which also comes to a peak of intensity when the Bangladesh building collapse is profiled. The editors do this throughout the documentary, always introducing new people on a light note, explaining their role in the industry, and then building to a particularly violent or dramatic peak that draws the attention of the viewer and ensures they remember it, often paired with violent imagery from news stories. The documentary, though it ends on a hopeful note, is unresolved, leaving the viewer wanting more; a way to keep the viewer thinking about the issue of fast fashion and hopefully being more mindful of their consumer choices in the future.
Reccommendation
I would recommend this documentary for anyone interested in the fashion industry or anyone interested in the environment. I learned so much about all aspects of the fashion industry, and I now know exactly how much planning, hard work, and negotiation goes into a single article of clothing. The documentary was very interesting, it kept my attention throughout the entire film, and I learned many new things by watching it.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 2)
Throughout the Harry Potter series, the audience knows that every movie is building up to a final face-off between harry Potter and Voldemort in the last movie. In this iconic scene, Harry finally faces Voldemort in an all-out battle, coming out victorious. This scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is meant to be the most dramatic, the most intense scene in the entire franchise, and using a combination of music, simultaneous stories being connected into one, slow motion, close up, emotive shots, the director David Yates, succeeds in creating the perfect, dramatic end to the Harry Potter series.
(1) The scene opens in one of the towers of Hogwarts, beginning with Harry running past the camera, looking behind him every so often. The camera cuts to Voldemort, who appears suddenly and hits harry with a spell, knocking a platform down with him. Harry tries to crawl away, but Voldemort controls metal to restrain his limbs, all the while calm and collected, showing he has the upper hand. The camera then cuts back to the previous scene, where Nagini, Voldemort’s snake and last horcrux, is slithering through debri towards Hermione, who holds a basilisk fang, which is able to kill horcruxes. The camera zooms in on her while she backs up through a doorway, then cutting to Ron, also
holding a fang, just behind Nagini. Nagini notices him and lunges, making Ron drop his fang, the camera cutting from under the stairs where they are to show the fang falling out of reach. The camera then cuts to a wide shot of Hermione and Ron standing on either side of Nagini. The scene then changes to the Great Hall, a close up on Bellatrix Lestrange casting a spell, which almost hits Ginny Weasley. Molly Weasley, seeing this, moves toward Bellatrix and begins to duel her with the iconic line “Not my daughter, you bitch!” the scene alternates close ups on Molly and Bellatrix, Ending with a medium shot of Bellatrix exploding into dust. The scene then changes back to Harry and Voldemort, who is physically attacking Harry. The camera cuts back and forth between shots from behind Harry and shots from behind Voldemort as Harry eggs on Voldemort, ending with a pan above the two and then a close up of Harry grabbing onto Voldemort and launching the both of them off of the tower. The camera shows a wide shot of Harry and Voldemort falling off the tower and then cuts between wide shots of them traveling through the air and close ups of their faces as they grapple with each other. The dramatic music mixes with their yelling and the sound of wind rushing past them. In one of the close ups of the pair, their faces actually merge together, a mechanism that has been used throughout the franchise to show how Voldemort and Harry are similar, even that their minds are connected. Their heads unmerge and the pair is shown being thrown to the ground in a deserted courtyard with a shot that pans left from behind some pillars. The music drops as the pair come to a stop.
(2) The next scene begins with alternating slow motion close ups of Voldemort and Harry crawling toward their wands. The camera focuses on their respective wands, showing close ups of the wands as they grab them. The music builds, intensifying as the pair stands up until Voldemort yells and the pair begin to duel. The wands connect in a beam of light, the camera alternates between close ups of their faces and wide shots of the whole courtyard, a dramatic theme playing in the background. As the pair duel, the camera switches to Nagini, the same theme i the background to show the simultaneous action, chasing after Ron and Hermione.
The camera alternates between the two scenes, all in slow motion with dramatic melancholy music in the background, culminating in a close up of Nagini lunging at Ron and Hermione with a hiss/scream sound rising in the background. Luckily, Neville then enters the scene and the camera cuts to him slicing off Nagini’s head with the Sword of Gryffindor, dispelling Nagini’s body into dust, with the scream and music dissipating into silence. The scene switches back to Harry and Voldemort, alternating between close ups of their faces to show that both of them have realized that Nagini has been killed and Voldemort in now mortal. As the pair begins to duel again, the camera cuts between close ups with increasing speed, ending with a shot of Harry’s side of the duel, and a close up of his face to show his renewed confidence and hope. The music swells in unison with the hope that Harry and the audience feel, continuing to build as the camera follows the beam of light toward Voldemort, showing him having trouble with his wand. The music continues to build as the light dissipates and Voldemort’s wand is thrown into the air, the camera following the wand and then cutting to a dramatic slow motion shot of Harry catching the wand, the music ending with his victory. The camera then cuts to a close up on Voldemort slowly disintegrating, and then to an aerial shot following the dust particles and panning up to the silhouette of the castle, the castle coming into focus with the sun rising behind it. During this, a mournful theme plays, showing that, even though the battle is won, it came at a great cost.
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Throughout these scenes, the lighting is very dark and gloomy, especially when Voldemort seems to winning, giving the audience a feel of desperation, tragedy, and hopelessness. When Harry gets the upper hand, after Nagini dies, the entire scene brightens. The music follows suit, being dramatic, tragic, and intense until Harry begins to defeat Voldemort, when it turns victorious and hopeful. The music when Voldemort dies is more melancholy, as mentioned before, which reminds the viewer that there is still much misery to face even though the enemy has been defeated. Some of the more interesting cinematic parts were when Voldemort used metal to restrain Harry, I still have no idea how they managed to make that look real. Some other difficult shots to get were when Harry and Voldemort fell off the building, and when several characters died and exploded into dust. Also, when Nagini died, smoke was released that had warped versions of Voldemort's face within the smoke. Overall, these scenes required a massive amount of technology and equipment to create the intense affect it has on the audience.