Michael J. Tresca gave 4 stars to: You're Next

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

You're Next DVD ~ Sharni Vinson

The cure for what ails jaded horror fans, February 23, 2015

This review is from: You're Next (DVD)

It's easy to get jaded if you're a fan of horror films. We've seen it all before: Slasher kills girl's family, girl meets slasher, slasher dies only to be resurrected in a sequel. "You're Next" is a refreshing twist on the tired slasher tropes.



The first sign that "You're Next" is different is in how director Adam Wingard treats his characters. Five minutes in, we are invited to judge a relationship without understanding what's going on: an older man and a much younger woman having sex. That early scene communicates volumes. Our camera perspective peering into the bedroom makes their lovemaking look more like violence. The girl is clearly unsatisfied. Padding out of the room while her lover takes a shower, she sets up a five-disc CD player of music on repeat that will be integral to the rest of the film. Then she dies.



As our protagonists enter the next scene, driving up to a house nearby ad offhandedly explaining that the double homicide we just witnessed was a professor who left his wife for a college student. Do we feel better about their deaths as a result of their moral transgressions? While that question bounces around, we discover that our protagonists Crispian (A.J. Bowen) and Erin (Sharni Vinson) are in a similar relationship. Do they deserve to die too?



The rest of the film is a running battle between three men in masks wielding crossbows and a WASPy family reunion gone sour. Erin and Crispian don't know each other that well, and the film cleverly juxtaposes the horrors of navigating a boyfriend's family with a slasher film. There's the frail mother, the overbearing father, the little sister who battles for attention, and the bullying older brother who is jealous of everyone else's happiness. All of these family members come with their respective spouses, who are equally clueless and disengaged. All the non-family members (Erin included) also look curiously fake -- Erin and Zee (Wendy Glenn) look like they're wearing wigs. In "You're Next" the killers aren't the only ones wearing masks.



As the assault progresses, we get an explanation for why the bad guys do what they do, and "You're Next" gleefully wallows in the utter depravity of its villains. It throws the sins of the family in stark relief -- they're bad, but they're not murderers. Or are they?



Erin certainly is. In a refreshing twist, we discover that Erin is no shrinking violet. She uses survival tactics worthy of any prepper compound. There's something viscerally satisfying about her increasingly ferocious counterattack as each character's morals (or lack thereof) are brutally unmasked.



"You're Next" is filled with plot holes in service to the genre. Nobody seems to have any guns. The killers can barely see thanks to their ridiculous masks and they refuse to take them off when anonymity is no longer an issue. And the murder plot is flimsy at best. But "You're Next" isn't about realism. It's about really, really hating your family. If you can't find the humor in that, this movie may not be right for you.

Michael J. Tresca gave 5 stars to: Girl (Album Version)

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Girl (Album Version) Beck | Format: MP3 Music

The meaning behind the song, February 21, 2015

This review is from: Girl (Album Version) (MP3 Music)

Just discovered Beck's fabulous "Girl" (I know, it takes me years to discover songs). I've seen a lot of controversy over whether this is a love song, or a serial killer's internal monologue, and a lot of theories in between. Here's what I think:



I saw her, yeah I saw her with her black tongue tied

Round the roses

Fist pounding on a vending machine

Toy diamond ring stuck on her finger

With a noose she can hang from the sun

And put it out with her dark sunglasses



The narrator sees a girl (noticably not a woman) pounding on a vending machine. She has a diamond ring on her finger, which he mocks, calling it a toy. Her marriage, it's clear, is something she's not mature enough to understand. He also feels she's either self-destructive of hopelessly naieve, and that although she wears dark sunglasses (cause she's that cool), she actually has a huge ego. Her ego's big enough that if she were to hang herself, she'd block the sun out. She's obviously into goth-type attitude/attire, as evidenced by her "black tongue tied" and "dark sunglasses." Judging from the tongue-tied, I'd guess she's a theater major or English major fond of spouting epithets that don't make her sound any smarter.



Walking crooked down the beach

She spits on the sand where their bones are bleaching

And I know I'm gonna steal her eye



As she walks down the beach in a crooked line, a line that most people walk straight (and thus representative of her winding, indecisive life), she spits. Again, not a nice image for an object of affection, but more importantly she doesn't even know what's she spits on. Alternately, she's too oblivious to notice the bones of the creatures on the beach, as she's so wrapped up in herself.



She doesn't even know what's wrong

And I know I'm gonna make her die

Take her where her soul belongs

And I know I'm gonna steal her eye

Nothing that I wouldn't try



So "gonna make her die" -- does that mean Beck wants to kill this poor girl?



I doubt it. It's more likely he's going to break her heart. He feels he's a real man, better to bring this girl into a real relationship than the stupid marriage she's locked into. He's been watching her all this time and plans to grab her attention ("steal her eye") and is quite determined to do it.



Hey, My...girl

Hey, My...girl



The refrain is the real crux of the song, and Beck knows it. On his own site he blurred the lyrics. Sure it sounds like sun-eyed girl. Or cyanide girl. Of course, both are right. Despite her goth attire, the girl is hopelessly naieve (sun-eyed). But she's also hopelessly self-destructive as a result of that toy diamond ring. So if someone's going to kill her foolish spirit, Beck's the one to do it...or at least imagining he could do it.



I saw her, yeah I saw her with her hands tied back

And her rags were burning

Crawling out from a landfilled life

Scrawling her name upon the ceiling



We move forward in time. Now see the girl again. Her hands are tied (literally, she doesn't know what to do now), her clothes are a mess. She's now desperate to prove she has value after the wreck of her marriage ("land-filled life"), as so many of us wish to "scrawl our names" -- but she's scrawling it on the ceiling, not the floor. If she's outside, this is a hopelessly futile gesture. If she's inside, it still denotes her naieve outlook of looking up instead of down at the landfill she just crawled out of. Always up and onwards!



Throw a coin in a fountain of dust

White noise, her ears are ringing



She's still taking stupid chances, maybe playing the lottery -- she throws bad money after good by tossing a coin in a fountain, but it's a dusty fountain (traditionally tossing a coin in a fountain is lucky). She's also not listening. She hears white noise instead of any actual advice. So who's next great hope for this hopeless girl? Beck, of course.



Got a ticket for a midnight hanging

Throw a bullet from a freight train leaving

And I know I'm gonna steal her eye

She doesn't even know what's wrong

And I know I'm gonna make her die

Take her where her soul belongs

And I know I'm gonna steal her eye

Nothing that I would not try



The ultimately irony here is that Beck probably caused the dissolution of her marriage. And now he's going to tell her he's breaking up with her too. He's got a ticket to tell her, and then get the hell out of there fast -- throwing a bullet from a train, which is both fast and lethal (to her hopes and dreams).



This is, in my opinion, a rather morose perspective on a relationship; an extremely jaded view on a relatoinship with an immature girl who's trying to be a grown-up but doesn't have the emotional maturity to handle it. And Beck is comforting himself, perhaps, by teaching her an important, painful life lesson that her marriage was never of any value in the first place.

Michael J. Tresca gave 5 stars to: Video Game Storytelling

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques by Evan Skolnick

For game designers in any medium, January 24, 2015

This review is from: Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques (Paperback)

At first blush you might think Evan Skolnick's Video Game Storytelling isn't relevant to role-playing games. I've written at length about the challenges video games face in crafting a good story, something which the nascent industry still struggles with. As a result, video games often repeat the mistakes learned by tabletop board and role-playing games.



This is the book I was hoping Tom Bissell's Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter would be -- an explanation of the flaws in video games and a clear path as to how to fix it. Skolnick isn't a journalist or "artiste" visiting the video game world and espousing his opinions about what's wrong with it; he's a narrative designer in the trenches battling for respect and trying to keep games from completely bombing. In some ways it's sad this book had to be written at all.



The book is divided into two parts, Basic Training and In the Trenches. After outlining in Basic Training the basics of a three-act structure (Setup, Confrontation, Resolution), Skolnick demonstrates how this narrative concept can be applied to a game's structure. Of particular relevance is his discussion of the Monomyth.



The Monomyth was first outlined by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The archetypes are well known to gamers everywhere: Hero, Herald (who announces the conflict), Mentor, Shapeshifter (a character who changes allegiance at a critical moment), and of course the Villain. There's also the Story Structure, which is familiar to fans of "Star Wars" and "The Matrix":



1. The Ordinary World: An introduction to what passes as "normal" in the protagonist's life.

2.

3. The Call to Adventure: The hero faces the possibility of a quest...

4.

5. Refusal of the Call: But refuses to do it.

6.

7. Meeting with the Mentor: He meets a mentor, a character who convinces him to resume the quest.

8.

9. Crossing the First Threshold: The journey begins and the hero leaves the normalcy of home.

10.

11. Tests, Allies, Enemies: This is the meat of the adventure -- challenges, fights, puzzles, etc.

12.

13. Approach to the Inmost Cave: The hero ventures into enemy territory.

14.

15. The Supreme Ordeal: Things get bad; the hero is sorely tested.

16.

17. Reward: The hero retrieves the item he needs to be successful, but he's not done yet...

18.

19. The Road Back: He must return with it, enemies hot on his heels.

20.

21. Resurrection: This is the moment in every story where things look their worst.

22.

23. Return with the Elixir: The finale, with everyone getting their just rewards, hero and villain alike.

24.

Skolnick goes well beyond the Hero's Journey into villain and hero motivations and narrative techniques, like how to not info-dump massive exposition on characters. There are also critical chapters on dialogue and believability. It's this kind of clear-headed approach to telling a good story that is often lacking in tabletop adventures.



The second half of the book covers what most tabletop gamers have long suspected: game designers get no respect. Or worse, sometimes there's nobody in charge of storytelling at all!



I've often spoken about how, bored with a game, my character shifts from following the Monomyth to just murdering everything -- a stark example of ludonarrative dissonance. Skolnick's frustration with the industry seeps throughout this part of the book as he reinforces the importance of achieving "ludonarrative harmony," the player aligned with the game character's intent.



This is an important work, bridging the storytelling we know so well from movies and books with the gaming tropes we've come to mock. It's an excellent reference for any game designer in any medium.

Michael J. Tresca gave 4 stars to: The Hobbit

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + UltraViolet Combo Pack)

The Battle of Six Films, December 29, 2014

This review is from: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + UltraViolet Combo Pack) (Blu-ray)

We've finally come to the end we've all been waiting for, the one section of The Hobbit novel that really did merit a movie, "The Battle of Five Armies." It's all come down to this: Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) seeks revenge for the theft of his treasure by attacking the townsfolk of Laketown. Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), incumbent king of the dwarves, succumbs to dragon sickness. And Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) uses the Arkenstone, the crowning jewel of the dwarves, as a bargaining chip between the elves, dwarves, and men. A dark army is coming to take the dwarven stronghold, and if the free peoples are to survive they will need to put aside their petty grievances and work together. If there was ever a time and place for a spectacle on the big screen, "The Battle of Five Armies" is it.



Smaug, who was the best part of the second film (SPOILER ALERT) meets his end in this one. It feels a bit anticlimactic. Smaug could have just as easily succumbed at the end of the second film, leaving it a more satisfying chapter. But the showdown between Bard (Luke Evans) and Smaug is thrilling nonetheless as Peter Jackson contrasts family values against that of the rapacious greed.



In stark relief is the real and petty grievances that move the various factions to war. Be it Tauriel's (Evangeline Lilly, an elf in real life) love for Kili (Aidan Turner), Legolas Greenleaf's (Orlando Bloom) rebellion against his king Thranduil (Lee Pace), or Gandalf's (Ian McKellen) attempts to convince mortals of the true threat of Sauron, the familiar characters in this prequel to the "Lord of the Rings" films all make an appearance. We witness the terrifying might of Galadriel glimpsed in the later film, Elrond wield a sword, and even Saruman kicks some Nazgul butt. It's a joy to watch these powerful beings who stood around giving advice in the later movies really cut loose in this one.



There are also visual flourishes that tie all the films together. The more humanoid trolls from the first film stand beside the larger trolls of the "Lord of the Rings." Goblins and orcs work together. Legolas, Tauriel, and even Radagast (Sylvester McCoy) show up to do battle. We even get an explanation for what a were-worm is. Purists may be disappointed by how much Jackson veers from the original story, but the choices made to bolster the narrative are easy to forgive.



There are two scenes where the film drags, both of them involving a character's mental state. There's also the awful Alfrid (Ryan Gage), who is a lot like Grima Wormtongue but with no character development and played for laughs. He's not funny, but it's clear Jackson felt that the tone of the film was so grim it had to be lightened by a cowardly buffoon.



The one character who has little to do in this third chapter is the titular Hobbit himself, Bilbo. J.R.R. Tolkien's narrative didn't thrust hobbits into war until The Lord of the Rings, so Bilbo sits most of the battle out. His actions have far-reaching effects on the war itself, but mostly Bilbo's there to show how incorruptible hobbits really are. Unlike his dwarven compatriots, Bilbo finds no lure in dragon gold.



"The Battle of Five Armies" isn't perfect, but it's a fitting finale to a six-part franchise. The real test will be in years to come when future Middle Earth fans view the films collectively. Will we watch them in chronological order? I look forward to finding out.

Michael J. Tresca gave 4 stars to: Snowpiercer [Blu-ray]

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Snowpiercer [Blu-ray] Blu-ray ~ Chris Evans

Train to nowhere, December 7, 2014

This review is from: Snowpiercer [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

"Snowpiercer" is one of those sci-fi films that has a seemingly simple premise rife with symbolism. It doesn't really hold up under prolonged examination, but then "Snowpiercer" is more parable than movie.



To wit, global warming has frozen the earth, accelerated by the very attempts to halt it. The last of humanity is huddled on a massive, perpetual-motion train known as the Snowpiercer. But even in this closed ecosystem the old class struggles erupt, from the have-nots in the back to the hedonists in the front. Finally fed up with the inhumane treatment and kidnapping of their youngest children, a ragtag band of rebels decide they're going to fight their way to the front of the train and take it over. They include the reluctant leader Curtis Everett (Chris Evans), his gee-whiz second Edgar (Jamie Bell), determined mother Tanya (Octavia Spencer), security specialist and drug addict Namgoong Minsu (Song Kang-ho), and his daughter Yona (Go Ah-sung).



The battle takes place car-by-car, one bloody guard at a time. Because director Bong Joon-ho is primarily interested in cinematography, logic holes open up a few cars in. Characters stand around in enemy territory (basically, any car beyond the back few) in slack-jawed awe, villains survive who should be dead, and twists are telegraphed with all the subtlety of a freight train. This is one of those films that's big on concept and short on logic.



The biggest problem is that after being betrayed by "civilians" who appeared innocent in the very first upper-class car they encounter, our heroes never learn from that lesson -- they act as if what's behind them is never a threat, only what's ahead of them, despite the fact that they leave an entire train's worth of potential enemies behind them. Of course, to do that would rob the film of its forward narrative -- it would turn into a siege rather than a desperate battle of forward attrition -- so director Joon-ho just plunges ahead and hopes you forgive him.



The logic fallacies are easy to forgive. What's on film is frequently gorgeous, brutal, and inventive. The snaking nature of a train surrounded by a hostile environment opens up a lot of possibilities for protracted combat. The conclusion is rife with symbolism of clenched fists -- the fist of the worker, the fist of the slave, the fist of the oppressor. It just takes a long, winding path to get there, punctuated by weird choices by characters who frequently appear insane. To be fair, there's a toss-off line that the only people who are still alive on the train ARE insane, but that's a bit of a dodge that robs the entire struggle of its urgency.



In the end, "Snowpiercer" doesn't have a lot of nice things to say about humanity. This is one of those movies film critics love to applaud for its edginess. It's a highly ambitious concept film that only partially succeeds. But what it does achieve is still worth watching.

Michael J. Tresca gave 4 stars to: Exam

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Exam DVD ~ Luke Mably

A Modern 'No Exit', December 3, 2014

This review is from: Exam (DVD)

"The Exam" is a minimalist single-room film that could easily be a one-act play. When one of the characters name-checks Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit, we know where this is going. For those not familiar with Sartre's play, three characters show up in the afterlife expecting to be tortured in hell, only to discover that they are stuck in a room with each other. Hell, they eventually conclude, is other people. Director Stuart Hazeldine flips the script: Hell may be other people, but it's the path to Heaven.



Instead of three characters we have eight. They are there to take a test in what can only be described as the world's worst job interview. It starts with some terse instructions from the Invigilator (Colin Salmon) about the rules: 80 minutes, one question, and they are not to talk to the Invigilator (watching on security cameras), the armed guard, spoil their paper, or leave the room. To break any of the rules is to be immediately disqualified and tossed out into the real world, which from the dialogue of the interviewees appears to be an awful place suffering from a pandemic.



The film breaks the characters down, "Reservoir Dogs"-style, into archetypes by color. There's the unctuous soldier/gambler Brown (Jimi Mistry), the icy Blonde (Nathalie Cox), the noble Black (Chukwudi Iwuji), the scheming Brunette (Polyanna McIntosh), the analytical Dark (Adar Beck), the hyper-aggressive alpha male White (Luke Mably), and the unresponsive Deaf (John Lloyd Fillingham). There's a ninth character, the guard (Chris Carey) who is perhaps more important than all of them. He takes the role of the bellhop in No Exit, a mannequin that seemingly has no purpose but is as much a part of the room as the furniture.



Nothing in "The Exam" is an accident. Every item on screen is relevant. Like No Exit, there's a paper knife equivalent that is presumably there for some other purpose but, because of humanity's basest instincts, is ultimately used for violence. "The Exam" spins conspiracy theories with glee and allows its interviewees to dive down the rabbit hole. There's nothing on the sheet, so how do you beat the exam? Does winning constitute beating the abstract concept of the exam itself, or just defeating all the competitors? Do you even have to? Is there even an exam?



"The Exam" is as much nightmare as it is scathing critique of the business world as its cutthroat worst. Or at least, that's how it seems until the very end, when it becomes clear that this is all for a more noble purpose. It is a "harrowing of hell" that has a more complete (if less existentialist) ending than Sartre's work. And that's okay. As a sci-fi film in just one room, it manages to spin more drama out of 80 minutes and eight people than most big-budget movies.

Michael J. Tresca gave 5 stars to: Big Hero 6

Michael J. Tresca reviewed:

Big Hero 6 Amazon Instant Video ~ Scott Adsit

Science is the real hero, December 1, 2014

This review is from: Big Hero 6 (Amazon Instant Video)

My family is well-acquainted with the Man of Action team of writers from their work on the Generator Rex, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Marvel's Avengers Assemble cartoons, so we were excited to see their movie debut with "Big Hero 6." My seven-year-old boy was not disappointed.



That said, the film isn't quite about what you might think from the trailers. It's not so much "a boy and his robot" as it is "a boy helps form a super-science hero team, one of which happens to be a robot." "Big Hero 6" doesn't refer to a person, it refers to the team of six heroes, all of them powered by cutting-edge sci-fi technology. One of the powerful and welcome messages that comes through in this film is that the pursuit of science is important, but it is only as good or bad as the person wielding it.



Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter) is a 13-year-old robotics genius who lives with his Aunt Cass (Maya Rudolph) and older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney). Hiro is fond of engaging in illegal robot fighting to earn some money, which Tadashi recognizes is the wrong path for a prodigy like his little brother. He encourages Hiro to apply to the robotics lab at Tadashi's university, where the entrance exam is determined by a science competition. Hiro enters his nanobots.



Nanobots are game-changers and the power Hiro demonstrates is both breathtaking and terrifying. It's not long before a fire breaks out at the competition, a tragedy that results in the loss of the nanobots. Hiro mopes about, listless, until he accidentally stumbles upon Tadashi's crowning achievement: Baymax, an inflatable medical robot dedicated to helping people. You can see where this is going, right?



Hiro slowly unravels the mystery behind the fire -- BIG SPOILER 6! It was no accident -- and creates a team of superheroes by retrofitting Baymax and drawing on the collective genius of Tadashi's colleagues. There's Fed (T.J. Miller) the stoner who likes kaiju movies with a fire-breathing suit to match; Gogo Tomago (Jamie Chung) who uses electromagnetic wheels as skates and weapons; Wasabi (Damon Wayans) who wields laser cutters on his forearms; and Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez) who has a purse-full of sticky goo bombs.



The heart of the movie revolves around Baymax. He is a soft, huggable helper spawned from the ideals of Tadashi -- but his armor and weapons are all Hiro's youthful rage. Baymax waffles between these two ideologies throughout the film, but it's ultimately Hiro's choice to be a hero.



The superhero tropes don't always make sense (Wasabi's laser hands seem like the worst power) but it's easy to overlook in light of the beautifully rendered, diverse futurescape that is San Fransokyo. It also features a kid who overcomes his challenges with science. My son gave it five stars.