Into the Wild: 8/10 (Minor Spoilers)

The best stories are those that even the greatest novelists couldn’t make up. Real life, the real world creates some incredible adventures led by incredible characters. In this film, we follow one of the most amazing true stories ever captured on film. Into the Wild is a very deep and engaging one-man trip through the unknown portions of the United States. Based off the best-seller written by John Krakauer, Into the Wild is about a man that gives up all his material possessions and life altogether in search of purpose, in search of happiness, and in search of a direction to head towards in his life. Written and directed by Sean Penn with a lot of love and detail, this movie is beautifully shot, beautifully edited, and even though the third act drags quite a bit, you’ll remain hooked on Christopher McCandless’ travels up until the bitter end.

In case you had not read the startling true story, Christopher McCandless was a very gifted athlete and student with high marks and an extremely bright future. But, spiritually, he was extremely lost; emotionally, he was empty. Upon this, he donates all his money to charity and runs away from his family, his college, everything he had worked for. Now, whatever your stance is on his decision-making, we can all agree he was clearly a man that was lost, and needed to be found. You can be unhappy for only so long before you decide to do something drastic. Some move to another city, some pursue a new career, some search for love. In his case, he chose to become one with nature. Like I said, you can question his common sense and decisions, but don’t question his desire for something more. Sean Penn and John Krakeuer clearly admired the emotional strength and bravery of our main character, as they infused his story with a lot of love, a lot of content, and a lot of overall emotion.

The main core and best element in this film is the overall acting. While not one performance stood out, everyone did an exceptional job. Emile Hirsch does a spectacular job portraying a strong-willed yet spiritually lost man hellbent on achieving true happiness. The smaller roles (people Christopher meets during his journey) added charm to the overall flick, including Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart, Hal Halbrook, and Catherine Keener. The writing supported the acting, as not one line sounds forced or shoved upon, and it adds an added layer of realism to the already-true story.

The directing however is a bit of a mixed bag. Sean Penn really loved this story and definitely displayed it with the elongated running time, insistence on shooting every scene on location, and the artsy final moments; but sometimes the French-style directing was a bit too much. There are instances in which the characters look at the camera and make faces or pose, and that totally breaks down the fourth wall and throws you away from the main structure of the film. You realize it’s a movie and not a story when the main character glares at the camera for a few split seconds. Then the final act, when the climax drags, hinders the overall quality of the movie. Approximately ten minutes could have been cut from the last third and it would have been fine.

Finally, we have the controversial element of morality. Sometimes, moral codes amongst each of us prevent us from sympathizing with the main character, leading to some issues. A recent example is Sex and the City’s first movie’s final act, which results in us totally losing sympathy for the main four (with the exception of one, but avoiding spoilers). Into the Wild also suffers from this. While we can clearly understand and see the frustrations of Christopher against the world we live in, his actions are heavily on the selfish side, despite what he’s gone through.

Instead of seeing a man that has suffered through the childhood and teenage years and needed to escape everything, we see a person so closed-minded on his journey that he shuts off all the people that cared about him throughout his trip. All the offers of help he received, and he practically shuns them all (especially the final human encounter, in an especially gut-wrenching scene). Upon seeing this, the viewer knows how he is going to end up. And whether or not you’ll feel sorry for him is entirely up to you, the witness to all his decisions.

Bottom Line: Enjoy the journey, even if the destination and bumps on the road is going to create some discussions and disagreeing points. Into the Wild is a wonderful film that is beautifully shot, despite the direction being misguided at some instances. Once you get past the questionable directing though, prepare for a visually stimulating trip chronicling the adventures of a man on a self-discovery expedition like nothing else seen before on film. While this movie will not convince you to do what he did, it will lead you to questions concerning fulfillment, love, faith, and happiness. Into the Wild is about a journey in search of answers, and despite it being a beautifully flawed (mildly) flick, it does lead to more questions. Great movie to emotionally digest, just do it slowly.


P.S. Where on earth is Eddie Vedder’s Oscar for his musical contribution?

Y Tu Mama Tambien: 8/10

Y tu mamá también (2001)
A benchmark in Mexican cinema, and a bookmark for Mexican culture, youth, and politics

Decades from now, if there is a movie to show to describe how youth life in Mexico is life at the turn of the millennium, this one would be it. Re-launching the career of director Alfonso Cuaron, Y Tu Mama Tambien is an explicit film full of politics, subtle commentary, and sex. This movie is also a tough pill to swallow, as it showcases rough emotions, rough dialogue, tough moments of truth, and an overwhelming amount of sexual tension and material. If you can get past the intensity and frank content, then it's a good film to watch. But, this movie is not for the shy, not for the easily-embarrassed, and not for those that lack an open mind. View at your own risk. Don't let it scare you too much though, because this movie is full of heart, humor, and beautiful drama.

Everyone has that one major moment in their life when they realize they must grow up, they must do something different in their life. Every person (that eventually matures) goes through that one period of time when ugly realizations open up, leading to them drastically changing. Before jumping to the mature stage, the edge or blockade to leap from must occur. In Y Tu Mama Tambien, we follow a road trip led by three people that deflowers into a plethora of emotions, ugly truths, and sudden realization of mortality. Two young horny teenagers (Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal) with nothing better to do in their lives attempt to convince a beautiful older woman (Maribel Verdu) to accompany them on a trip to the beach. What starts as a harmless attempt to have sex with this woman winds up opening up deep dark secrets that threaten the extremely strong friendship and bond between the two boys.

Written by the director and his brother Carlos Curaon, this film not only feels very realistic and close to the heart, but also gets meshed in with the political turmoil happening at the time and taps into what was going on in Mexican youth culture. With Mexico having problems in its government for years, very few realize that those most affected are the next generation of leaders and movers, the young adults. The splitting class systems and constant political turmoil was leaving the Mexican youth in a Generation-X state of mind. This movie reveals all this in a matter of 105 minutes, and for that reason this is one of the better original scripts released in a decade.

It is not just the writing that's very gritty; the acting is fantastic as well. I personally believe some of the toughest scenes you could possibly act in are sex scenes, and especially when there are no clothes and no camera tricks to hide the action. A lesser group of actors would have trouble delivering a decent performance when having to reveal it all and engage in graphic sexual scenes, but the three main actors were flawless in their performance. You can feel their tension, you can feel their rage, and sympathize with them when they are at their absolute lowest. The chemistry amongst the three is impressively strong, giving the movie a near documentary feel. Road trip movies always require that the audience can remain interested and invested in the characters involved at all times, and Y Tu Mama Tambien definitely delivers.

After a stint of failures, Alfonso Curaon went back to the basics with this movie, ultimately delivering the best directing performance of his career. No shot is ever too long or too short, as he does a superb job visually showing the beauty of Mexico within its fragile status. His directing of the sex scenes were most impressive, as they hold nothing back in a physical scene, while at the same time still deliver the emotions. Sex scenes rarely deliver drama and reveal character traits (usually…its to make the men happy inside), but Y Tu Mama Tambien's assortment of explicit scenes happen for a reason—they are not used for show. While some of the dialogue could have been cut, making this a shorter film, Curaon did a fantastic job directing his script.

Bottom Line: An amazing look at turn-of-the-century Mexico, Y Tu Mama Tambien is an emotionally-driven road trip through a beautiful country marred by politics, reputation, and ugly stereotypes. There's so much more to Mexico then just Hispanics angry at their government and trying to head to the States; here is a country rich with culture, history, beauty, and unfortunate uncertainty. Few movies can represent their city well, and fewer movies can accurately portray entire countries well. But, Y Tu Mama Tambien accomplishes just that with a blend of fantastic writing, excellent acting, and great directing. One of the best road trip movies you'll ever see, I recommend this Mexican cinematic modern classic as long as your eyes can tolerate graphic sexual content and graphic nudity. Otherwise, you'll be missing out on a good film that's rough along the artistic edges.

Shrek Forever After: 6/10

Shrek Forever After (2010)
Makes you forget and forgive the existence of the third Shrek, even when it still falters against the original
4 June 2010

The Shrek franchise has risen from a good competitor against Disney and Pixar to a mere joke that still makes money because it appeals to the kids. By the time the third Shrek rolled around, the green ogre went from a clever family comedy with subtle adult humor to an unfunny kiddie flick with very little entertainment whatsoever. This is why I was prepared to shun and practically avoid the fourth and final installment beyond any means necessary. Unfortunately for us moviegoers though, the month of May offered practically nothing outside the Iron Man (and maybe Prince of Persia…maybe) realm. And with the next major major release not happening until mid-June, Shrek Goes Fourth was the final option.

Now, there are some good news and bad news with the final installment. The good news is this film redeems itself for the rather mediocre sequel and the repulsive third one. The bad news is, the film still is weaker than anything Pixar (and quiet third party Blue Sky) has produced, and even weaker then some of Dreamworks' greatest hits. At least the sentimental value and heart of the original is duplicated here, even if the wit and nonstop humor disappeared. The pop culture references aren't as rampant but aren't as good either, while the random musical numbers and dances just don't cut it like they used to. Despite all that griping, it still remains a ho-hum ending to a ho-hum quadrilogy.

In Shrek Forever After or whatever it is called nowadays, we follow Shrek (Mike Myers) as he is becoming quite bored of his watered-down lifestyle of being a father, husband, and town hero. In the midst of the frustrations, he makes a deal with Rumpelstilskin, resulting in him creating a world in which he was never born---resulting in Rumpelstilskin being king of the land. In this alternate universe, he must win the heart of Fiona (Cameron Diaz) all over again before his existence begins to deteriorate. One funny note though, there is no mention of Artie and his new reign of king.

The script is a small retread of the original, mixed in with It's a Wonderful Life and even unexpected parallels to Beauty and the Beast. In other words, the script isn't very original, but does offer a chance to inject some heart into a franchise that lost all of it a couple of years ago. Written by John Klausner (Shrek the Third) and Darren Lemke (Lost), this final chapter has a lot of references to the original Shrek and its sequel, while avoiding all the Disney-bashing the first three were known for. Sadly though, outside the Disney bashing, Shrek didn't have a lot of humor, which makes this Shrek one of the weaker ones in terms of humor. The laughs are mildly there, but mostly coming from the supporting cast (Once again, Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots stealing the show).

With Shrek losing his main love and struggling to win her again, the heartstrings are tugged a bit. Director Mike Mitchell paces the movie well by quickly showing the source of Rumpilstilskin's rage as well as the source of Shrek's troubles. While American Beauty jump-started the middle aged-crisis thing to holy heaven back in 1999, Shrek Forever After still remains a bit fresh by giving us a little time and alternate universe travel. While I was never a fan of Dreamworks trying to infuse heart into any of their movies (I see them more as the antidepressant of Pixar's excellent but heart-destroying films), Shrek is a definite exception. The core of the four films has been the characters and their love for each other, so when the climax approaches, expect to be a bit moved, even when you haven't been laughing.

Bottom Line: Shrek's final trip into the movie theaters was better than I had expected, but still wasn't as funny as the first two, which is what I did expect. You can run on competitive bashing and pop culture humor for so long before you quickly run out of steam. While I believe this fairy tale ran two movies too long, the finale is definitely worthy of a viewing if you love the green ogre and all his friends. The supporting cast provided the laughs, while the main characters provided the heart. This is by no means a triumph, but isn't a total toad wreck either. Dreamworks however really needs to lay off the pace-breaking and unfunny and uninteresting musical bits. Let the spin-offs begin!