Avatar: biggest. movie. ever?

I don't go to the theaters to see many films twice, but Avatar is an exception in many ways. Although its primary impact is as a visual spectacle and technical achievement, and it may be more heavy-handed than sophisticated, it's still pretty effective in making its points. This is what SF (of the H. G. Wells school) is supposed to do.

My friend Steve Hirby notes that it's a shame Cameron couldn't have come up with a better ending than redemptive violence. I agree. But as the the excellent AV Club Blog review noted: "Cameron has never been a blindingly original storyteller, and Avatar is no exception to the rule." I think his most original feature, which was decidedly nonviolent, was "The Abyss", which I loved even if the ending lacked drama.

Avatar's redemptive violence is (alas) pure standard Hollywood, but I did enjoy the irony of the giant alien female defeating the human in the armored walker as a neat reversal of Sigourney Weaver's victory at the end of his "Aliens." The stefnal value of the redemptive violence is that it was largely ineffective until the planet itself took sides, in away that the Earth had not. It was noted of the humans that “there is no green” on their “dying world” because “they have killed their mother.”

This is sort of where the sociology of the movie broke down for me. Having “killed” the earth, human have clearly learned nothing and our best chance on a new world has only a few scientists who have no sway over short-sighted corporate profit-seeking. Seems like the plausible SF has yielded to the very heavy-handed metaphor, which leaves us again at Cameron's weaknesses as a story-teller.

Avatar may be on-track to become the biggest-grossing film of all time, and deservedly so. Flaws it has, but it's still a terrific & worthwhile film.

District 9: another country heard from

This is a unique film: a South African science fiction mockumentary, resembling a gritty B-movie, but with excellent special effects, using Hitchcockian tropes to grab the viewer and confound expectations. And that's just the form.

The content is a reflection not only on South Africa's heritage of apartheid, but on current problems dealing with immigration issues. The story revolves around an employee of a multi-national corporation, contracted by the South African government to relocate a settlement of cryptic, unattactive aliens from a camp near Johannesburg, and take them somewhere out of sight and mind.

As the protagonist of the film takes a hero's journey, beginning as an unwitting bureaucratic tool, so the story and the film grow right before the viewer. Part action-adventure and part humanistic plea for tolerance, District 9 confronts a lot of issues in the new world order.

Like much quality science fiction, the movie holds up a distorted magic mirror. It's uncomfortable to see ourselves there, but hard to turn away, and ultimately worthwhile. Highly recommended.

Best FSF Films

It's the time of year for making lists. 2008 proved a mixed bag for SF films, ending with a disappointing remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. But the year also brought us the very strong Benjamin Button, the surprisingly good Iron Man, the luminous WALL-E and the DVD of Satoshi Kon's mind-bending Paprika. So in the spirit of year-end lists, and in no particular order, here's my all time top science fiction films:

• Lost Horizon (1937)
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Blade Runner
• Young Frankenstein
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
• WALL•E
• Forbidden Planet
• Metropolis
• A Clockwork Orange
• Aliens
• The Thing from Another World (1951)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Children of Men
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
• The Road Warrior
• The Terminator
• Twelve Monkeys
• The Invisible Man
• Dark City
• Paprika
• Ghost in the Shell
• The Fifth Element
• The Matrix
• Jurassic Park
• Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan
  

and best fantasy films:

• Wizard of Oz
• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Princess Bride
• Ugetsu
• Princess Mononoke
• Groundhog Day
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
  
• Spirited Away
• Howl's Moving Castle
• Kiki's Delivery Service
• My Neighbor Totoro
• Fantasia
• Pan's Labyrinth
• The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button
  
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
  
• Harvey
• Field of Dreams
• Labyrinth
• The Wolf Man
  

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a film with ambitions, though either the ambitions or their execution are a shade too modest for excellence. Still, this is an enjoyable science fiction teen romance, which almost aspires to be an art film. It's a beautiful film to watch.

The story is a sequel to a novel well known in Japan, and recently released as a manga, The Girl Who Runs Through Time. The original, by author Yasutaka Tsutsui, has been frequently adapted as feature films and TV series. The anime, from director Mamoru Hosoda and art director Nizo Yamamoto, plays out like Run Lola Run meets Whisper of the Heart. Studio Ghibli veteran Yamamoto also did backgrounds for Whisper of the Heart and it shows. Once again, Tokyo streets and parks are infused with so much reality they seem like an additional character in the movie.

Author Tsutsui also wrote the original for the film Paprika, so he shows a pattern of playing with perception, reality and time. There's a lot to like in Girl Who Leapt as the story and character develop. But the resolution could have been more tightly woven -- it feels like the film has one ending too many or one too few, throwing away some of its potential.

Library Journal does Urban Fantasy

Recommended article: the June 1 issue of LJ has a terrific overview of urban fantasy literature: The City Fantastic by Nanette Wargo Donohue. There's an introduction and a fairly extensive annotated bibliography. Sections of the essay include:

• Introduction
• Folkloric tradition
• Vampires, werewolves, & fairies
  
• Genre confusion
• Shape-shifting formats
• Collection development resources
• Core titles in two areas (see full article for all titles & annotations)
  
• Traditional Urban Fantasy
• Bull, Emma. War for the Oaks
  
• de Lint, Charles. Dreams Underfoot
• Gaiman, Neil. Neverwhere
• Contemporary Urban Fantasy
• Briggs, Patricia. Moon Called
• Butcher, Jim. Storm Front
• Hamilton, Laurell K. Guilty Pleasures
• Harris, Charlaine. Dead Until Dark
• Harrison, Kim. Dead Witch Walking
• Vaughn, Carrie. Kitty and the Midnight Hour
• Web Sites
• Fangs, Fur, & Fey
• Urban Fantasy Land
  

Time travelling

I've been spending a lot of time in the early 19th century lately. Without premeditated intent, I've found a pattern in recent reading and viewing:

• Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian (book & audiobook)
• Sense and Sensibility (PBS Masterpiece TV)
  
• The Jane Austen Book Club (DVD)
  
• Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
  

Patrick O'Brian's rich legacy of Aubrey/Maturin novels was most famously developed into the film Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World. The story of two friends -- the bluff, hearty, Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, and the Irish-Catalonian naval surgeon, natural historian and spy Stephen Maturin -- follows them through the Napoleonic wars, the War of 1812, and other adventures.

It's been said that O'Brian writes about what the men were doing while Jane Austen's heroines anguished over matrimonial prospects. Indeed the second and third Aubrey/Maturin books humorously and successfully satirize Austen. But O'Brian shines in the painstaking historical detail, the period language, and above all in action sequences. I'm currently in the eighth book of the series, but the sixth, Desolation Island, was the beginning of a three book story arc and contained stirring battles that almost redefine the term "page turner."

O'Brian's work is also well served in audiobooks with the work of excellent narrators, John Lee and Patrick Tull. Each brings different strengths, but both make it a joy to listen. Lee's work on Desolation Island makes it difficult to stop listening, with fine voice characterizations and narrative power.

Sense and Sensibility, a two part-adaptation on PBS' Masterpiece, is one of the finest screen translations of Jane Austen. Written by Andrew Davies, who famously adapted Pride and Prejudice as a mini-series, this new production holds its own with Emma Thompson's wonderful 1995 feature film. Wonderfully produced, cast, acted and filmed with strong direction, this is a must see for Austen fans.

The Jane Austen Book Club, the film of Karen Joy Fowler's novel, is fun and entertaining chick-flick stuff. But with a large ensemble cast, the screenplay does not have room for deep characterizations, and the movie feels light-weight. The cast turns in good performances as a group reads Austen's novels and applies them to personal problems, but the whole seems contrived.

Empire of Ivory, on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise. I read the first books in Naomi Novik's fantasy series awhile back and enjoyed them, but thought they were fairly predictable. The premise is goofily engaging -- what if the British and French employed fighting dragons during the Napoleonic wars? But the result was engaging but slight.

During the four books of the series, however, Novik has continued to develop larger themes. And now she kicks it up a notch in both seriousness and imagination. She continues to use human exploitation of dragons as an analog for the 19th century slave trade. Here she mixes in the discovery of a hidden, advanced pan-African empire that threatens European dominance. In the earlier books, dragons sometimes seemed curiously tacked on to world history as we know it. Novik has gotten bolder, giving her secondary world a stronger narrative life.

The Star Beast - renovating a classic

As Gillian mentioned in the previous post, Bruce Coville and the folks at Full Cast Audio have been producing dramatized audio versions of Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile novels. With three books adapted thus far (Have Spacesuit Will Travel, The Rolling Stones, and The Star Beast), and three more to come (including Red Planet and Between Planets), Full Cast is doing a great job of bringing these somewhat forgotten titles new life.

The Star Beast was first published in 1954 and is out of print in book form, though it's fairly easy to find a copy. The story shows its age a bit, particularly in the portrayal of female characters and in failures to predict technology. Some of our current technology has already overtaken Heinlein's 23rd century predictions. As for the female characters, Heinlein was always sexist, though not necessarily in a bad way -- he had a firm sense of gender roles. This softened somewhat in his later works, but in the 1950s, it was decidedly a traditional and old-fashioned, occasionally unflattering view. And his juveniles were squarely aimed at pre-adolescent and teen boys, and sometimes serialized in Boy's Life magazine.

A 1985 article in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, "Heinlein's Juveniles: Still Contemporary After All These Years" calls attention to the timeless nature of Heinlein's work, despite the dated sociology and technology. There's still tremendous humor, satire, and the exaltation of personal responsibility, common sense, kindness and practical science. But mainly, Heinlein was a gifted storyteller, with a fine sense of character and plot. For all these reasons, it's a good thing that Full Cast Audio is reviving these neglected works.

I've listened to several Full Cast books and have never been disappointed, but The Star Beast is the best yet. With a large cast of over twenty performers, the production is engaging and the performances, particularly by the leads, are excellent. The book is eight hours on eight discs.

At the ALA conference in Toronto in 2003, I talked with Bruce Coville about the then-fledgling Full Cast Audio. I thanked him for reviving Edward Ormondroyd's David and the Phoenix, another childhood favorite. He was pleased that others remember these books, and was committed to bringing back some of the old classics as well as providing opportunities for contemporary writers to get their work dramatized.

Coville is working to make "family friendly" audiobooks, which he defines as "Can an intelligent adult and an intelligent youngster listen to the recording at the same time with mutual pleasure and a lack of embarrassment?" So he helps remind us that you don't have to outgrow children's books and that one of the strengths of audiobooks is the way they create opportunities for sharing.

He's succeeding admirably in all aspects.

Cybils Winners

The Cybils winners were announced a few weeks ago. Check 'em out! Read 'em all! Thanks to Jennie at Biblio File for the reminder!

The Golden Compass

The headline in tonight's paper reads "Atheistic Agenda?" I hope this sensationalized criticism sells lots of tickets. Then Hollywood will make the sequels and we'll find out about that atheism thing, since the theological problems in the novels are much more convoluted as Pullman's original trilogy progresses.

But you sure can't tell it from this film.

I enjoyed the movie, for lots of reasons. The production design is very good, ditto the special effects. The performers are well-cast and the performances uniformly good. The young lead, Dakota Blue Richards, can speak volumes with her eyes, and Sam Elliott was born to play Lee Scoresby.

The movie gets a couple of down-checks for over-simplification, particularly moral over-simplification, and an all-too-abrupt ending. But this is a largely satisfying fantasy. It's unclear how much the over-simplification and skating over plot points weakens the film. It bothered me, but I've read the book. People new to the story seem likely to find it more confusing.

Does this film assail religion? Not particularly. This is a fantasy after all, and patently not set in our world. It attacks authoritarianism, and indicates that there's a struggle to preserve free will. Anyone who feels threatened by that might wish to avoid the film.

Genre bending: Avalon High by Meg Cabot

The heroine of Avalon High has it tough. Transplanted into a new life and school when her parents take a sabbatical, she is forced to spend days floating in her pool, be a track star and hang out with the most popular kids.

Ok, maybe she doesn't have it so tough, but she still has a lot of problems, which are slowly revealed in this entertaining novel. Actually, it doesn't take a whole lot of figuring out, though Meg Cabot wisely saves a twist or two for the end of the book.

OK, I like young adult novels as a class, but it is seldom that I find myself reading a girls romance story. Fortunately I was reassured by my favorite YA librarian: "It's okay, Dad, it's pretty geeky."

And geeky it is, as Cabot nicely fuses the classic YA problem novel, romance and fantasy, and manages to turn the blend into a page turner rather than a hodge-podge Cabot show a nice sense of pacing and the book is quick and fun.. Hey, I'm a sucker for Arthurian fiction, and rather fond of the Tennyson poem "The Lady of Shalott" that Cabot uses for chapter epigraphs.

Library science fiction

Gotta watch for this one. It's from Production I.G., where they know how to make intelligent science fiction -- hope it makes it across the ocean to us...thanks to Steven Cohen at Library Stuff :

from Anime News Network

Japanese publishing group MediaWorks officially announced that Hiro Arikawa's popular novel Toshokan Sensō (Library War) will become a TV anime series. ...

Taking place in the year 2019, Library War focuses on the battles fought by "Library Armies" to preserve the freedom of having libraries when a new law threatens to clamp down on freedom of expression.

from activeanime.com

It takes place in a fictional Japan, where a "Media Improvement Law" is being enforced. The Media Improvement Committee's Special Improvement Organization tries to expunge any bad books, while the library's Book Defense Force tries to fight them to protect the books under the Library Freedom Law. Broadcast will begin April 2008 on Fuji TV's late night anime block.

This sounds like my everyday job!

Next, please

• Mystery
• Fantasy & science fiction
• Humor
• Literary allusions

Roll 'em all into a smooth ball, and what you have are Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next stories (and the spin-off Nursery Crime series). The stories are set in an alternate world where England is still fighting in the Crimea in 1985 and was occupied by Germany in WW II, time travel is not unknown, and where people have genetically engineered dodo birds as pets.

Thursday begins her career in The Eyre Affair, fighting a nefarious villain who kidnaps Jane Eyre right out of her book, forcing an abrupt ending in every existing copy. In order to set things aright, Thursday has to enter the novel and get personally involved with the plot and characters. This device proves so successful that in subsequent books she moves into the fictional world full-time, as an agent of JurisFiction, the policing agency of the fictional world. As a trainee in fiction, she is apprenticed to Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Havisham proves not only feisty, but pursues a longstanding rivalry with the Red Queen and is addicted to high speed motorcars and wont to getting into races with Mr. Toad.

You get the idea: books within books, etc. As the Fforde Ffan Club FfAQ says "there are a lot of jokes that play upon jokes that have played upon puns that travel from book to book". Suffice it to say that there is one laugh-aloud moment after another. The books are well-suited to anyone who enjoys mystery, SF and humor based on literature. Indeed, there are so many literary allusions, one never knows how much one is missing! You don't have to have read Jane Eyre, etc. to enjoy these books, but it helps.

These stories make you want to read others to find out what you're missing. Librarians, among others, should love these! Does anyone have a copy of Shadow the Sheepdog?

As of this writing, the novels involved are:

Thursday Next

• 1: The Eyre Affair
• 2: Lost In A Good Book
• 3: The Well Of Lost Plots
• 4: Something Rotten
• 5: First Among Sequels

Nursery Crime

• 1: The Big Over Easy
• 2: The Fourth Bear

Beowulf: Stardust goes viking with Pulp Fiction

Hwæt. We Gardena in gear-dagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

As students have had to learn for centuries, these are the opening lines of the poem Beowulf, practically an English national epic as one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon poems, written over 1,200 years ago. The recent best-selling poetic translation by Seamus Heaney notwithstanding, as an undergrad years ago I found the poem difficult and dull. Yet the story is undeniably memorable. Not only is it the first significant piece of English literature, but a tale for the ages, enduring because of its inherent power and images.

Also powerful and memorable is the new film version by Robert Zemeckis. In recreating the old story in a movie that works Zemeckis has beautifully fused two creative elements: motion capture animation bringing the fantastic to life, and an edgy script from Neil Gaiman (Stardust) and Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction).

The motion capture goes the next step beyond that used by Zemeckis in his 2004 Polar Express or Peter Jackson in 2001's Lord of the Rings. While characters clearly appear animated, individual actors are recognizable and facial expressions are captured with subtlety. The animation feels less intrusive than Polar Express and allows for both strong performances and smoothly integrated special effects. All the lead actors turn in creditable work: Anthony Perkins and John Malkovich are expansive as leaders of the Spear Danes, Robin Wright Penn is nicely understated as the Queen and Ray Winstone's Beowulf is appropriately withdrawn as the heroic braggart with secret shame. Grendel and the dragon are suitably monstrous studies in SFX and Angelina Jolie is memorably animated.

It is in the character of Jolie as Grendel's mother that the script has its genius. By changing the nature of the mother and the encounter between her and Beowulf, Gaiman and Avary manage to tie together the disparate plot elements and story conflicts, making the whole story more cohesive than the original as well as more cinematic. If their Beowulf is less than a heroic caricature, he is a more human character -- and his story the more riveting.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

I expect that librarians should be recommending books and that doctors should be keeping us well, but it doesn't always happen just that way. After I told my doctor about a recent trip to Transylvania, he said "wait a minute, I've got a book for you to read." And ducking into his office he returned to the exam room with Kostova's The Historian. He had just finished it and told me to keep it as long as I needed to (and it's a long book).

This wasn't the first time somebody had recommended the book, but this one felt like fate. Who am I to go against my doctor's recommendation? I didn't know that much about the book beyond the blurb, but I soon realized it was a vampire story -- a Dracula story, to be precise -- with a lot of history thrown in. By the time I got to the undead librarians, I was hooked.

This is a good book, and a lot of its charm comes from its settings. Much of it takes place in libraries, but the locaitons vary tremendously, from the U.S. to Britain to Western Europe to Eastern Europe and Turkey. The combination of travelogue and history woven into a suspenseful vampire story makes a fascinating read. Though one chapter reads like an extended history lecture, interest in the narrative rarely flags. Flashbacks within flashbacks can occasionally be a bit confusing in remembering who the point-of-view narrator is, but confusion is rare and the device adds a lot of interest and variety. I talked up the book around the house and it became one of the rare titles that Marsha & I both read and enjoyed.

I read much of this in print, but also listened to a lot of the unabridged recorded version on my iPod. The recording alternates between two readers, who change with female and male narration in the text. Both readers do an outstanding job with a large number of characters and accents appropriate to many nationalities.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys historical ficiton, horror, speculative fiction, travel stories or undead librarians!

Solty Rei - disappointing anime

The first disc of Solty Rei starts with a lot of promise, but alas, seems to collapse into cliches. It's a science fictional premise: in an unknown city, on an unknown world at an unknown time, there has been a natural disaster of epic proportions, causing many deaths and many more people to become lost. Many of the survivors receive mechanical enhancements or "resembles." Into the life of hard-bitten and embittered Roy, there literally falls a girl, saving his life and incurring a debt of gratitude. But she's not just a girls, she's all resemble, even her brain. there's nothing human about her, except that she's gosh darn cute and annoyingly needy.

Solty Rei has lots of pros and cons. On the plus side: there are six episodes on the disc -- good value. The animation and art are well done; it's from the Gonzo studio, after all. The character designs are nice, and the overall color tone of the town reminds you of an Edward Hopper painting: a sort of warm tone that makes you think of late afternoons or yellow streetlights, a lonely feeling and a softness to the textures. This contrasts nicely with the grittiness of the story. The initial characters seem intriguing.

But things bog down. The characters seem more stereotypical the longer you watch. There's lots of mild fan service: frequent shots of the female rear clad in skin-tight clothes. You know you weren't just imagining this when they get to a swimsuit episode on the first disk -- pretty early in the series to resort to the distractions of pure cheesecake. There are not many recurring male characters, but lots of attractive women, teenage girls and female android types. You get the picture -- fine if it floats your boat, but if you're looking for intelligent, original storytelling and well-developed characters, you may be disappointed.

Maybe it gets more serious later. But its nice-looking, lightweight and fun. Just not all that good.

Lucky Jack Goes to Pern

OK, if Annne McCaffrey and Patrick O'Brian had a child, her name would be Naomi Novik and she'd have written His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade and Black Powder War. In the alternative history subgenre of SF, Novik sets her stories in a world where dragons are real, domesticated and, at least in western Europe, bred for war.

Napoleonic war sea stories, so familiar to readers of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester, take on a vivid new dimension in Novik's world. In the first book, a British naval captain accidentally impresses a young dragon, and the plot is off to the races. Although these dragons lack the psychic abilities of McCaffrey's, and are not all fire-breathers, they are highly intelligent and of varied capacities. They bond with their riders in a way not readily understood by those live outside the rather closed society of dragonriders (who live in coverts, not weyrs). This creates innumerable social tensions, particularly for a naval officer who loses all his prospects and has his life turned upside down by his new charge, the delightfully-characterized Temeraire.

This is only the beginning of the story, which very quickly shows itself a page-turner. I've only finished the first book and barely started the second. It's probably not great literature: plot points are often predictable and characterizations are not deep. But it is a great read, especially for anyone who enjoys fantasy and sea stories or Napoleonic period pieces. There's even a little flavor of Jane Austen occasionally. The characters are fun and the story pulls you in. I learned of this series on Ain't-It-Cool-News, when Peter Jackson bought up the film rights. Pretty good endorsement right there -- here's hoping he makes the movie.

Movies: Good SF!

This has been a good winter for quality films, and SF fans can count themselves lucky that two recent releases are among the best films of the year. Neither could be called a fun movie, but intelligent and provocative, they're good for a thoughtful date. Coincidentally, both are from Mexican directors, though one is set in England and the other is a Spanish language film set in Spain.

The first is Children of Men, from director Alfonso Cuaron, whose credits include Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban, Y Tu Mama Tambien and A Little Princess. Obviously the man has range as well as the ability to adapt English novels to the screen. Children is an adaptation from P.D. James, best known for her Dalgleish mystery novels.

But this is social science fiction par excellence, in the best tradition of H.G. Wells. "What if...?" is the premise for this kind of story, and the what if in this case is that people stop having babies. It portrays a world disintegrating in despair after nearly two decades of childlessness. Without hope for the future, what are we? What do children mean to us as individuals, as neighbors, as a society, as people who grub for power and advantage?

The film asks all these and many more, in the compelling story of a writer who has given up, his ex-wife who has taken refuge in revolution, and their quest to help a young woman who is miraculously pregnant. Poignant and breathtaking, though often violent, with terrific performances by a cast including Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine.

The next film is just as good, though painted on a smaller canvas. Following the Spanish Civil War, a brutal fascist capitan leads a detachment of soldiers against loyalist guerillas in the hills. He brings his pregnant wife and step-daughter to join him. The alienated girl, with only a sympathetic maid to count as a friend, finds a labyrinth and is soon immersed in a fantastic world.

This is Pan's Labyrinth from writer-director Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Blade II), who shows style, confidence and originality. In the world where the faun dwells below the garden labyrinth and fairies visit her room, the girl Ofelia undertakes the Hero's Quest. She braves difficulties, makes serious mistakes and displays immense courage as her quest becomes more desparate. Simultaneously, the real world situation of the family and the small military outpost grows more desparate, and the capitan grows more brutal. The movie is occasionally unpleasant to the point of horrific, but compelling in the excellence of its execution, bringing myth to life.

Movies: Bad SF!

Lifeforce (1985)

Soul power! Naked vampires! Flaming zombies! Yep, a beautiful naked space vampire wreaks havoc as flaming zombies run amok in London, while the starship sucks up human souls, seemingly for use as fuel.

I don't recall if I noticed a kitchen sink, but there should've been one, as there's everything else in the plot.

Oddly enough, this is less of a muddle than it sounds like, though every bit as over the top. Decent actors like Patrick Stewart and Frank Finlay play supporting roles.

The DVD contains no extras. This is a marginal purchase for libraries -- particularly for extensive nudity that serves no other point but to establish that naked vampires can seem quite appealing -- but diehard B-movie SF fans will be able to sit through it. Would've been perfect for MST3K!

Genrebenders

** spoiler warning **
The nature of this posting contains plot spoilers which may detract from first-time viewers' appreciation of films. Proceed at own risk.

Three recent film which I've enjoyed greatly all add to their appeal by serious ambiguity. They play with or disguise either thematic elements or even the fundamental nature of the story. In one case, a film is revealed about halfway through to actually be a science fiction story, with the revelation taking viewers by surprise. In another case, what appears to be a ghost story is revealed to have logical explanations. In the third case, the film leaves the viewer with lingering doubts about its ambiguities. In all cases, the tension generated by not knowing what is going on, or even what the rules are, adds to the strength of the film.

Volver

Of course, the ghost story which is resolved and revealed through logic, is such a staple as to nearly qualify as a sub-genre of detective or suspense movies. But in the case of Volver, the movie is a character-driven family comic drama which strongly suggests itself to the viewer as magic realism. The revelation that there is no ghost comes slowly and gently, with plenty of clues for the viewer, and the entire plot thread is only one of several in Pedro Almodovar's marvelously realized story.

The Prestige

In The Prestige, the revelation goes in the other direction, as strong science fiction elements are introduced mid-film with only the most cryptic foreshadowing. In this case, the science fictional plot device becomes a major lynch-pin of the film's resolution. But it's really just a means of further escalating the tension between two rival magicians that is the axis of the film. Ultimately, the science fictional element provides a fine demonstration of Clarke's Third Law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Pan's Labyrinth

The final example is the most problematic: Guillermo Del Toro's fantastic Pan's Labyrinth. It's the most problematic because it's the most ambiguous. Did Ofelia really enter a magical world or was it an illusory retreat? The film argues it both ways, but any film is, of course, an illusory retreat.

Still, the power of the fantasy sequences is compelling, and the question of the "secondary reality" of Ofelia's experiences is ultimately moot at film's end when we emerge from the labyrinth back into the real world, as we believe it to be.

You mean I don't know Dick?

One of my dream library programs would be a Philip K. Dick film/book festival. I think we've now reached critical mass of worthwhile Dick films. Were I to plan a Dick film series, I would include:

• A Scanner Darkly
• Blade Runner
• Minority Report

...and if I wanted to get into "guilty pleasure" territory:

• Total Recall

I'd most likely take a pass on:

• Paycheck
• Impostor

And films I haven't seen include:

• Confessions d'un Barjo
• Screamers
• The Gospel According to Philip K. Dick [documentary]

The thing that prompts me is seeing the recent video release of A Scanner Darkly, which was both well done and appropriately disturbing. Director Richard Linklater's approach of rotoscoping live actors and producing a photorealistic animated film is uniquely appropriate to Dick's surrealistic story-telling. Linklater smoothly layers multiple realities, leaving the viewer to question the differences between reality and perception. Characteristic themes of drugs and paranoia get worthwhile and serious treatment from start to finish. A difficult but worthwhile film, and Robert Downey Jr. is a standout in an excellent cast.
There's also the forthcoming major release of Next, based on "The Golden Man" story. Now if somebody would just film The Man in the High Castle, and if I could just figure out how to get enough of a decent audience to a Dick film series at the library...