cinema

Checked out two excellent, very different films this week.

Tekkon Kinreet, a near future anime, and Cache, a psychological thriller often horribly misrepresented as "Hitchcockian".

Both dovetail nicely with the junkpile of my recent history, but they're also impeccable examples of their genres.

Tekkon is based on the manga Black and White, which I haven't read, but the visuals are so reminiscent of Geoff Darrow they should be paying him royalties.
Technically, it's the best melding of computer and human animation I've seen.
Plot wise, it's a neat balance between the outlandish conventions of anime and familiar comforts of Western screenwriting.

The examination of nihilism vs hopefulness hit me harder than it might some others, and it gets a little off track in the 'showstopping' third act, but pulls back together for a thoroughly satisfying ending.

It isn't like a Miyazake film, the kind of anime I'd recommend to everyone without reservation- it will exert more gravity on comic/anime/game nerds than the general populace. But it deserves an audience outside the anime ghetto.

Cache is one I wanted to catch on the big screen but didn't, and there isn't much to say about the plot without giving it away. It's one of those movies that works on multiple levels simultaneously- it's a good psychological thriller, it's works as a political and racial metaphor, it's a penetrating examination of a certain type of marriage.

The aspect that hooked me was its examination of guilt and how twisted up a life can get when someone abdicates responsibility for their actions, however understandable the motivation.

It's a movie you have to watch closely, where everything has a purpose. The wife noticed a Kubrickian flavor to it, and I agree. There are a lot of seemingly static shots and scenes with tremendously powerful undercurrents that generate palpable surface tension.

I don't really like anything else I've seen from this director, which is strange given how much I loved Cache.
Pelf is mad for the German version of Funny Games, but I'm too old for 'torture as cultural criticism'. Maybe I'll give The Piano Teacher another try.

Then again, maybe not.