"Anna Karenina" Trailer

Can I be perfectly honest in saying that "Anna Karenina" sounds particularly all over the place, even if it does have the potential to be wildly gorgeous thanks to cinematography by Seamus McGarvey and Joe Wright's natural sensibilities? I have a tendency to distrust films with Jude Law in the cast, which is no mark against him. It's just that they often don't know what to do with him. This seems like similar terrain, since Aaron Johnton is given more focus than Law. Johnston is an odd actor, and tends to feel rather too timid in all his performances. I know it sounds like I'm declaring war against "Anna Karenina" from the start, but this could be the boring period spectacle that the Academy just fawns over. In fact, I'm certain it will be.

TOP 10 SHOTS from "Atonement"

Welcome to "Top 10 Shots", our weekly column to get together, look at some gorgeous visuals, and reminisce about great cinematic gems past and present, so if you haven't seen this week's central film, I warn of SPOILERS and urge you to come back once you've seen the film. "The Avengers" is out today, coming out to much anticipation from the geek and normal community of cinemagoers. It's rather firmly in position to become a juggernaut at the box office, so it's a no-brainer to do something that mindfully attaches. For quite some time, I believed that to ideally be the previous Marvel installments. But I ran into something of a roadblock while going back into the Marvel canon. This may come as no surprise to anybody, but the Marvel superhero films aren't all the brilliantly shot in terms of singular visual wonders.

Despite having such a great cinematographer as Matthew Libatique on "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2", Jon Favreau simply didn't have any direction for what the films were about. They looked good, but nothing stuck out as expressionist as "Black Swan". "The Incredible Hulk" was quite obviously a dull action fest with no visual inclinations. "Thor" is an absolute visual feast, but mostly in terms of concept art. Some shots stuck out, but it would be too greatly in that film's favor. And "Captain America" was a damn good time and all, but Joe Johnston has never been one to inflect major strokes of intelligence into his films.

Open Thread: Children, Wake Up!

If things have been generally subdued here at the site for the past two weeks, that's probably a byproduct of the sluggish trend the film industry has fallen into this year. Everything about this year thus far screams of a sort of sedation and lack of enthusiasm, so much that it makes me question the overall happiness of people these days. No film this year has opened higher than $40 million over the weekend, something that should be remedied this weekend by either the child skewing Rio or the horror genre parody Scream 4. Are audiences really just tired with the theatrical experience, or is it just that there's nothing worth seeing out there? I'd very much like to believe the latter, but seeing as Hop is getting higher numbers than Source Code, we could throw that idea out the window.

Interestingly enough, Hanna seems to be playing better with audiences than I expected it would. The theater I went to see Joe Wright's art house feature in was skewing more towards the younger demographic than one would expect. I'm not just talking about teens and such, but there were young children in the audience, of course accompanied by their parents. It's almost as if they were begging to be observed for their reactions in this really frightening action piece. It actually reminded me an awful lot of Coraline in 2009, filled with kids who weren't expecting a terrifying experience when they initially sat down.

The older demographic's response to Hanna was one of unmitigated shock, and it's something that's completely understandable. I'm not sure if you noticed, but Hanna is an absolutely terrible role model for children. She murders people at the drop of the hat, showing little remorse for her actions afterwords. Obviously, I understand that there's more to Saoirse Ronan's character and performance than that narrow description allows for. It's one of the many things that makes the film brilliant, how varying she is in her emotions of love, happiness, fear, anger, ambition, and apathy. All the same, you could excuse the parents for dragging their kids screaming out of the theater some time before the end.

Film Review: Hanna

It looks like the powers that be have been holding off on the truly great films of this year until the unnecessary fever of the Oscars has worn off. Last week gave us a taste of something entertaining with Source Code, a thriller with similar vibes to the works of J.J. Abrams. This weekend finally gives us something fully rewarding in the way we always hope for. I was surprised by Joe Wright's latest feature, even if I didn't expect to be. I went in with high expectations, which weren't exceeded or diminished. I kept the idea in the back of my head constantly that Hanna might not be a great film, and that it could fail on the promises of the trailer. Rest assured that it didn't.

The film is set along the infinite canvas of Europe and Asia, with a young girl named Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) being trained in the frozen wilderness by her father, former CIA agent Erik Heller (Eric Bana). When she decides that she wants to see the world, Erik puts her ambition to the test, tasking her with killing the woman that murdered her mother, Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett). This leads us on a grand scale cat and mouse chase, as Eric evades agents on his way to keep Hanna safe, Wiegler hires a group of nasty thugs to find the girl, and Hanna stows away with a vacationing English family.

This really brings us into the heart of the film, because while most people complain that Hanna slows down while Hanna is traveling with the family, that's really what the film is about. It's about her adventures in the real world, finding out who she is as a person, and overcoming the ugly world that created her in the first place. As said before, it's a modern day set fairy tale, but while it draws inspiration from various sources, it is completely its own story. There are such wild bursts of originality and ambition, which you can tell from the first shot of the film. The text used in subtitles is unique in design and execution, and you can tell that Joe Wright slaved over each of these various aspects to make the film the way it is.

The film may not be necessarily about the performances, but such performances the cast gives us. Saoirse Ronan gives a more texture, frightening, and stimulating performance than I've seen from any other actress in recent memory. She carries us through wild progression of the film and her character, lulling us into believing her sweet and amusing, along with a bizarre yet appealing bit of sexiness, but occasionally flashing a darkly inhuman stare. You are always on edge, wondering who she is or who she wants to be, and the ending to the film doesn't necessarily give us an answer. It is an abrupt ending, but one that pays off in full as you think back over what you've experienced.

Eric Bana gives the most down-to-earth performance of the film, doling out some insanely gratifying action beats, but always holding onto the humanity of the situation. This isn't just murder and insanity for no reason and with no consequences. Blanchett is a real wild card in this film, playing the villain in a way that recalls the great Disney animated witches and devils, all the while bringing it to reality. You'll be fascinated with her as long as you don't mind a moment of camp at the end of the film. The cinematography in this film is absolutely gorgeous, offering several shots worthy of mention, but too many to acknowledge. The film does have an abrupt and somewhat unfinished nature to it, but it's supposed to. There are things that spit in the face of convention and clean closing, leaving some of our favorite characters in limbo without revealing their ultimate fates. I'm convinced that Hanna is the start of the next great era in film, offering something new and binding to hold onto for the following year. If this is merely a sign of things to come, which I feel like it is, it's a marvelous sign.


B+/A-

For Your Anticipation: Thank You For Being My Friend

Last weekend proved that the film industry hasn't yet lost its potential to massively entertain us, even if Source Code wasn't exactly a masterpiece. It was emotional, involving, and surprising, but Hanna looks to be something different. Joe Wright has made some interesting work across the past few years, but I was worried that he would only consign to the British period drama films for most of his work. This time he's going with a modern setting, a more distinct story, and a chance to truly show off his elaborate directing skills. My anticipation for this film is unending, until I see it this weekend.

Theatrical Trailer: Hanna

This is one of the films whose plot and purpose has been somewhat evasive, and I still haven't got it figured out. I understand that it's about a girl who has been trained from birth to kill. I'm not quite sure why, but she's driven into a world of violence on her own, and it's directed by Joe Wright (Atonement). It definitely seems like a harder and less whimsical version of the Hit Girl story from Kick-Ass. I'm still not sure if I trust the film entirely, but I like the execution of this trailer. Take a look, and please comment on your thoughts.