Magic Tricks

A secret is what a magician likes to keep to himself even if it means carrying it to his own grave.

No matter what the cost. What matters is the performance, the awe of it that shatters the disbelieving. Leaving the audience in an empty gasp, “How does he do it?”

That’s the very gist of the film Prestige which opened last weekend in theaters with a surprisingly turn for a darker edge, the grim reality that befalls struggling magicians and their potential lives. This film focuses on the friendship that turns into a bitter rivalry. And their lives begin to crumble as they reach a Mount Everest of obsession.

The film shows the weakness that magicians may have: the desire to be in the center of everything.

I like to call the film Wolverine Vs. Batman. Hugh Jackman Vs. Christian Bale. The wolverine and the bat. You really can’t avoid it. But it is these two actors who help carry the film’s believability. You can feel their anguish, agony, often colored by ugly brutality as they try to outdo each other.

Some people sadly die around them, others vanish like a magician’s trick. But the one theme is always there—the self-centered staginess that seemed to inflict bellowing magicians. There is no regards for anyone else.

Jackman and Bale both play rivaled eighteenth century magicians, starting from humble beginnings to the London theatrical circuit star performances. At first, it is a friendly competition. But soon they begin to sabotage each other’s performances.

They are both deceiving. The failing of the magician.

The film is very dark with a Victorian atmosphere added to it, often clustered by the coldness of winter, sprawling shots of the city of London that seemed to sag with poverty, illuminating doom that catches people like a sickness. There are moments of dread that floods the city, the back alleys rigged with a feeling of loneliness. The city seems so cold, desolate, in so many ways. Such as the shot of the broken-down theatre, torn into ruins, towards the end of the film where Jackman delivers his final performances.

Much of the mood reflects the rivalry between the dueling magicians. It is a life of tragedy for them. By keeping secrets from each other, and their families and loved ones, they continue to go on a destructive path. Their lives would end up into broken ruins… much like the city they live in.

Some reviewers complain that the film is too slow. But I disagree with them. I found the pacing to be excellent, a slow building of tension, necessary to provoke a solid mood, a lesson to be learned when you’re reading an H.P. Lovecraft horror story. Excellently directed by Christopher Nolan. There’s a methodical, deliberating moving of scenes that is a wonderful set-up for the film's finale—the set up, as you will, of successive moments that lures you, reel you into the film’s real truths. Every door you open in the film leads to a different secret.

You find there is more to these two men than meets the eye.

More powerful performances come from actor Michael Caine, who’s always great in his films—a true presence. But he helps set up the film’s three part act, the last being the Prestige, or the pay-off. Also a surprisingly good job by from rock’n’roll star David Bowie as the mysterious Nikolas Telsa and his unique science at the turn of the century. It’s a good sub-plot where even his character tells Jackman not to go down the destructive path. A remark resonant to the rest of the film’s recurring theme.

So who won out in the end? Woverine? Or Batman? Actually it's both. Look very closely in the final scene before the credits roll up and you’ll see why.

Now I’ll have to be performing a magic trick. The one where I have to be going away. Be seeing you.

Gilliam Returns?

There are few brilliant directors who come to mind. Someone who can bring a wealth of imagination to the screen a journey into the inner sanctum of the human soul.

Terry Gilliam is one of them.

The element of surprise still weaves into his works. Watching any of his films is like falling into a dream from which you can’t wake up. It holds you down until you’re out of breath.

It's another tour-de-force known as Tideland. Based on a novel by Mitch Cullin regarding a little girl Jeliza-Rose who slips between reality and dreams to find her own path to sanity. Perhaps she never gets there. She talks with four disembodied doll heads to find enlightening conversations. The film examines point-blank her survival through a broken world in which she must survive and the ugly Wonderland paths on which she trends.

Even in today’s culture, children are growing up faster than they should. It takes courage for a film to concentrate on this.

But what else did you expect from Terry Gilliam?

Tideland is getting a limited release in the United States. Starting tomorrow the film premieres in New York City. Then it’ll pervade other bigger cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles on Oct. 20. The film will get further limited exposure on Oct. 27. It might make it to Milwaukee and Madison.

I haven’t seen the film yet. I would like to. But chances are nil. But I’m reading several other advanced reviews blasting it already.

There are more bad than good reviews. It’s starting to worry me.

The common complaints are the fact that a smallish, elfish eleven-year-old girl cooks up a spot of cocaine for her dope-loving parents and has a sort of romantic fling with an older man.

Not the type of movie to offer during the era of hardened Republican values. With the gay marriage ban still going, people are afraid. Some of this type of thinking could actually stifle a person’s creative thoughts.

To put a cap on a person’s creative powers could upset the rhythm of filmmaking, a desire to put on celluloid the translation of innermost thoughts. Gilliam has a powerful flow of imagination. He is like a child still trapped inside an adult’s body.

Gilliam has left a weary trail of brilliant films we shouldn’t take for granted. They take you to place you sometimes don’t want to visit. But you already know what you’re getting into when you’re preparing to see a Gilliam movie such as Tideland.

So why all the fuss?

His films challenge you. They’re not a roller-coaster ride of entertainment. But a philosophy of art.

Even during his Monty Python’s Flying Circus days, Gilliam was already plundering his creative resources to come up with some madcap animated scenes to bridge together sketches. His humor has always been irreverent. Now multiply that imagination by a hundredfold and you’d get one of his crazy movies.

The problem is there’s always a backlash. Gilliam still suffers from his reputation of making a film like Brazil. His tendency to go overboard with the production and budget still carries over to this day. That’s to be expected. But people seem to crucify him for past mistakes. He still bears this burden going through the usual Hollywood bullshit.

So why not give his new film Tideland a chance? Don’t knock it down before it even gets off the poetic ground. You might be surprised. Sometimes his art can be an acquired taste. But it can have it owns rewards.

I hope you’ll give Tideland a second thought. There are not many films willing to challenge. Not all films can be filled with sunshine and crossing guards showing you the safe route. Some can be frustrating, ambiguous and on the edge of the dangerous. Perhaps there is still a morbid fascination under the camera lens. Hopefully.

Girl Power in Horror Movies

There's a rising star in the horror hall of fame in the form of newcomer director Lucky McKee.

His films, still relatively unknown to the general public, are quickly catching interest within the horror community. For good reason.

A host of ghouls, witches, twisted monsters and things go bump in the night fuel the movies. Sure that's nothing new when you've gone through a huge portion of the horror genre. But stripped down, to the bare minimal, his films are about women. And their struggle to survive womanhood in their younger years. Finding their voice and inner beauty.

His women characters are often very strong, interesting, and the stories revolve around their everyday life struggles. It's a good theme being reworked in three of his films including a TV episode meant for the Masters of Horror series on Showtime.

But his films are much better.

The most recent film The Woods has a checkered history. Released for the American audiences on Oct. 3 after being shelved away in the vaults, its theatrical exposure remains very limited. if nothing at all. But now, thankfully with the DVD treatment, The Woods will find broader audiences who may find this buried treasure. It's too bad The Woods never got a release it deserved. But better late than never.

Set in 1965, this period film involves a young woman Heather played (played to perfection by Agnes Bruckner) and she is sent to an all-girl boarding school cradled in the middle of woods, casting shadows, often glaring with dread. And a legend of witches is abound.

There's a certain mystique about Heather's flowing red hair and almost bland features. Yet she conveys a powerful sexual aura about herself.

But it's the relationship between the younger women that remains the focus. In several scenes reminding one of Carrie, with a horde of high school pressures, Heather must fend off a group of snooty girls, a strange and powerful headmistress and the feelings of loneliness as the heroine is boxed into a dreadful world surrounded by the gnarly, fierce woods. The trees come to life.

Heather learns about an inner plot being devised by the school staff using the girls in a witch cult scenario. The sense of atmosphere grows like a shroud of blackness as Heather digs deeper to find out the true meaning for her arrival at the boarding school.

It's nice to see a film not go for the shock value. But an enjoyable horror fest crowded with mounting dread, a good performance by Patricia Clarkson as the headmistress, an inspired casting of Evil Dead veteran Bruce Campbell, and a mystery that unfolds in a blackened abyss. Campbell throws in a fun factor with his perfectly chiseled jaw looks.

There is the other film worthy of note is simply called May. It's McKee's first film. Like The Woods, it's about a woman dealing with her problems and loneliness. And it's really a sad story more than anything else.

Her growing up with her parents did nothing to help her build bridges with other people. She's become a social misfit. Again we see the sexual awakening in the main woman character. She's an odd duck. But there's a beauty trapped beneath that fractured shell of shyness.

May's inability to deal with having a boyfriend and working with blind children at the local nursery shows her growing loneliness. She's not a bad person. Not in the strictest sense. She's obviously unable to function in the world. Her dementia becomes a reality as she sinks deeper into a prison of feelings. A helplessness.

Even his TV episode "Sick Girl" involves a lesbian relationship-and does a good job portraying the girls without turning them into stereotypes.

It's recommended to see these films. Especially for straight-forward, peeping-tom look into the woman's personality. The horror genre has always been something for men. But McKee is changing that. He's making horror movies for women.