Before I Wake (2016)

We decided to watch a horror double feature over the weekend. One film, The Open House was… well it was not very good. So we were hoping that this film would be a bit better. We had reason to hope, because we have enjoyed the work of director Mike Flanagan in the past (check out Hush or his version of The Haunting of Hill House). 

Summary:

Jessie (Kate Bosworth) and Mark (Thomas Jane) are finally able to become foster parents. It was a tough road for them after the death of their son Sean (Antonio Romero). But Cody (Jacob Tremblay) is a sweet boy who seems eager to fit in. He also has had some rough events in his life. His previous two foster families met with tragedy, including abandoning him.

At first Cody seems to be adjusting well, but one night Jessie and Mark witness butterflies in their house. Cody is obsessed with the insects, and becomes apparent that when Cody dreams, elements of those dreams manifest. Jessie wonders if she can see her dead child again, if Cody dreams about him. But they have something else to worry about: Cody’s nightmares. Because one vivid horror is going to become very very real.

Good Points:

• Creates and sustains an atmosphere of dread and the uncanny
• Very good performances by the whole cast
• Manages to get under your skin with its eerie moments

Bad Points:

• If you can’t buy into the overall premise of the film, you won’t get pulled in
• The ending will leave some viewers conflicted
• Looking for fast pace or gore, you’ll be disappointed

Overall:

Flanagan delivers a solid creepy film. He uses the couple’s grief as a jumping off point for how they deal with the powers Cody seems to have. It turns into an interesting character study, while building up some really good dread and scares. The finale may leave some viewers conflicted by the ambiguity, but overall, the film was well worth seeking out. Reminded me a bit of The Babadook, and in a good way.

Scores(out of 5)

Visuals:  4

Sound: 4

Acting:  4

Script:  4

Music: 4

Direction: 4

Entertainment: 4

Total:  4

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.

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Paprika - 2006

Introduction:

Back when Inception came out in theaters audiences were thrilled by the concept of dream warriors diving into other people’s dreams and obtaining secret information. But anime fans felt like they had seen this story only a few years earlier. Where director Christopher Nolan kept a tight rein on the rules and dark visuals of his dreamscapes for Inception, director Satoshi Kon used the chaos and surreal nature of dreams to create a dynamic and colorful world where anything can happen. While the two films share many elements in common, Paprika is just as spicy as it name hints, and way more unhinged.

Summary:

Dr. Chiba (Cindy Robinson) and her colleagues have created the ultimate dream machine – the DC Mini. Put this little device on your head and you can experience another person’s dreams (as long as they have a DC mini on their heads). Not only is this a fun party favor, but it can also be used to help people with psychological problems and stress relief.

Then someone steals the prototype and begins messing around with it. Not all the controls were in place yet, and anyone who’s already used the DC Mini is now susceptible to experiencing a full-blown waking dream. Chiba and her team must find out who stole the DC Mini and stop them before they break down all the barriers between the dream consciousness and the real world, as we perceive it. Luckily there is a dream warrior named Paprika (Cindy Robinson again) who has a little experience in these matters. But is she in over her head?

Good Points:

• Amazing animation makes the dream world come to life
• Balances humor and action very well
• Has some great creepy moments

Bad Points:

• A few too many characters weakens some of the storylines
• Some of the English voice acting is not up to the task
• The ending is anticlimactic

Overall:

Kon takes many of the themes and concepts he explored in Paranoia Agent  and refines them down to a tighter story. The result is more coherent and streamlined, and yet still a bit clunky. Visually the movie is amazing, with Kon flexing his surreal muscles to great effect. But the ending falls a little flat. Still this is one of my favorites by the director and well worth seeking out.

Scores (out of 5)

Visuals: 5

Sound: 5

Acting: 3

Script: 4

Music: 5

Direction: 5

Entertainment: 4

Total:  4

In Depth Review

There is a riddle to be solved, but Paprika doesn't
have the answer.

In many ways, Paprika is the culmination of the imagery and themes that fascinated director Satoshi Kon. It deals with perception of reality and the way dreams fit into that reality. It deals with questions of identity, is the real person the one in the dream or the one that is awake? It deals with our ideas of the future and how it can twist into something we didn’t expect or want. And it does all this while moving at a breakneck speed, exploding with creative visuals and delivering thrills, chills and laughs.

Of all the films by Kon, this appears to have the largest budget, and that makes the visuals some of the most impressive in his cannon. His character design remains familiar, and you’ll see faces you recognize from Millennium Actress or Paranoia Agent playing different roles here. But there is a cleanness to the design that was lacking in the earlier works.

Sure people talking on cell phones in a movie theater
are annoying, but this dream parade is something else!

But my favorite moments are the dream sequences, where Kon always excels. The movie opens with a dream circus, as the police inspector Konakawa (George C. Cole) finds himself searching the big top for a criminal. As he cases the area we start to notice little things are off. An obvious male clown speaks with a woman’s voice, a mask on the back of a child’s head suddenly has eyes and watches him. Then the ring master points at Konakawa and he is bathed in a spotlight. He blinks in the glare of the light and then finds himself in a cage in the center ring, like a circus lion. Before he can react the crowd rushes him, and in a scene inspired by Being John Malkovich all the onlookers have his face – including women and children. They start to paw at him through the cage and the ground suddenly becomes soft, as he sinks into it amid the roaring crowd we can see the terror on his face.

So yeah, Kon captures the nightmare feeling perfectly. His visuals continue in the same vein, often mixing subtle surreal moments with over the top explosions of colorful animation and bizarre imagery. He maintains his technique of keeping the viewer off balance by shifting sequences, often in mid-line or as the camera turns. Because we are often in the dream world (or in the real world as the dreams start to leak in) it all makes some kind of sense. I marvel at his ability to perform these visual slights of hand and yet never lose the audience, and we’ve seen his skill at doing this from the beginning with Perfect Blue.

The deeper Paprika delves into dreams, the darker
they can become.

Perfect Blue got pretty twisted visually, but Kon’s films have never delved into the darkness too much since then. Well Paprika changes that. Nightmare images abound and there are some great creepy moments: the worst being when Paprika is captured and abused by one of the villains. The man is essentially reaching into Paprika and pulling out the naked and helpless woman inside. It is basically a rape of the consciousness playing out In front of us.

But contrast that to some of the scenes where you can tell Kon and the animators are just unleashing the creativity. The dream parade is one of those sequences that will probably stick in your mind whenever you think of the film, because it is so strange, colorful and unique that you can’t help but be impressed with it. Hundreds of fantastical characters dancing, cavorting and flying around down the center of Tokyo is not something you see in any movie very often. There are also scenes where the character revel in the freedom of the dream world, like when Paprika flies into Tokyo for the final confrontation, or when she jumps from sign, to computer screen, to truck artwork to t-shirt during the opening credits. There’s a playfulness in these scenes that invites the viewer to sit back and enjoy the ride.

To go along with the surreal images, Kon’s sound team goes into overdrive to combine the real world sounds with warped, altered and synthesized sounds to put everything off kilter. It’s really a masterful job and it adds quite a bit to the feeling that you are witnessing some bizarre dreams playing out in front of you.

Dr. Chiba explores an abandoned amusement park.
But is she awake, or deep in a dream?

But one of the big heroes of Paprika is composer Susumu Hirasawa. He sticks to his typical style of using electronics and synths to create a series of musical vignettes. Kon then used these to build into his film, taking pieces here and there to flesh out the whole film. Hirasawa does some interesting work with human voices (his own in many cases) editing, warping and layering them in various tracks over the orchestral samples and pure electronics. It’s an eclectic mix, but it works wonders in the film and it unique to the film. Because of the nature of the film, some of the material gets very atmospheric and dark. But the parade tracks, and the theme for Paprika herself are gems. I think found Kon perfect musical collaborator in Hirasawa and it’s a shame we won’t get any more collaborations.

In many ways Paprika is like a summary of Paranoia Agent in a thematic sense. It takes many of the same elements and ideas and concentrates them down into a single slick story. Without all the characters fighting for attention and different side roads that Kon went down in the television series, Paprika is both more focused and dynamic than the television series. Dr. Chiba and Paprika are the main characters, but the way they interact with Dr. Tokita (Yuri Lowenthal) and Dr. Osanai (Doug Erholtz) affect perceptions by all three characters.

Konakawa literally finds no footing as the dream world
warps around him.

The first couple of times I had a problem with the character of Inspector Konakawa, who seemed to be added into the film as a kind of heroic figure to swoop in at the end and save Paprika. And while that does seem to be the case, there is more going on. Much like Tokyo Godfathers, Konakawa explores the concept of dreams in the sense of aspirations. As a young man Konakawa dreamed of becoming a famous film director (Akira Kurosawa is directly referenced in the film). But life’s path lead him to police work. However his job is causing him serious anxiety issues, which is why he is working with Paprika using the DC Mini and dream therapy. And while Konakawa’s journey seems to be running along side the main story, instead of intersecting it, the final moments of the film deal with him. I love the nod to Kon’s previous films appearing as posters in the movie theater Konakawa visits at the end.

Always remember, in a dream, the difference between
falling and flying is a matter of perspective.

Aside from that there is also the issue of the finale. I’ve never been a big fan of the ending. From a thematic and conceptual point of view it should work, but the execution seems a little too easy in the end. It feels anticlimactic, and a bit of a letdown after all the different things we’ve seen up to that point. In fact Paprika’s amazing escape from the main villain seems to promise something a bit more. But then again, there is a giant naked woman on the screen, so that will be a great finale for some viewers.

These two elements keep the film from really nailing a top-notch grade. Paprika ends up being a bit uneven in the final analysis. I really enjoy it each time I watch it, and I love how Kon really got down to the center of the themes he’d been working on since Perfect Blue. But in the end I think Millennium Actress had a bit more heart to it. Still for a swan song, Paprika shows the animator developing his abilities and heading toward something more interesting. It’s a shame we didn’t get any more work after this.

Dr. Chiba chats with Paprika. But which is real
and which is the dream?

Let’s return to the original question, was Paprika better than Inception? I firmly vote for a big “Yes!” Nolan’s films always feel distanced and a bit cold to me. The fact that such strict rules were imposed on dreams in Inception took away from the very fact that they were dreams. It is the unpredictability of dreams that makes them so appealing and horrifying. It is something that Kon grasps very well and indulges in his film. Nolan did explore how choices can affect the subconscious and create serious mental problems. In Paprika we have a similar situation with Inspector Konakawa. And in this aspect, I think Nolan’s use of the character is better integrated into the story and works better with the ending. With that said, I enjoyed Inception. I still think it is Nolan’s best film. But compared to the wonderful world created by Satoshi Kon, well let’s just say I’d rather have Paprika visit my dreams instead of Leonardo Di Caprio. I think she’d be more fun.

Inception (2010)

Introduction:

“It’s so complicated you have to see it twice, maybe even three times.” “A really amazing concept, so fresh.” “It’s a real mind f&$#.” So yeah, there’s been no hype on this movie at all. The minute I start hearing hyperbole, I lower my expectations. The last time I heard almost the exact same things about a movie – it was 1999 and the movie was “The Matrix”. I ended up being pretty disappointed. Lets see if I’m able to keep my expectations in line this time.

Summary:

Dreams are the keys to the mind. If you can enter a person’s dreams you can tamper with their mind. If you can accept that premise then you can accept this movie. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a master of entering dreams and stealing information. With the trusty Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) at his side, he’s pulled off some serious jobs. Now Saito (Ken Watanabe) hires him to enter the mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) and pant an idea in his mind. Most dream specialists say its impossible, but Cobb insists that it can be done and that he’s done it before! So he gathers a team and prepares to enter the dreamlands. Of course nothing goes as planned. Cobb’s past begins to enter the dream world. Will this danger prevent the team from accomplishing their “Inception”?

Good Points:

• Solid acting from the cast
• The clever premise keeps you interested over the long running time
• Action fans will enjoy the final half of the film

Bad Points:

• Dreams offer infinite potential, but we don’t get much here
• Explaining the rules of the dream world took a lot of time
• BWWWWWAAAAAA – says Hans Zimmer

Overall

This is not a typical summer popcorn movie. The details of the plot are important and you need to pay attention when they are explained. After that, its fun in dreamland with action scenes and visual effects. It’s a fairly good balance that makes for an entertaining time. However, the movie isn’t mind-blowing or earth shattering in any way. It’s just an intelligent popcorn film. And you know what, we need more of those.

Scores (out of 5)

Visuals: 4

Sound: 4

Acting: 4

Music: 2

Script: 3

Direction: 4

Entertainment: 3

Total: 4

In depth

The hype machine was in full swing for this one. Ok, maybe a little less than for Avatar but still a lot of people were really hyped for this. Me? Well I find Christopher Nolan’s films to be a bit too cold for me. I never get drawn in completely to them. I enjoy them, but I never love them. As you can see, the same thing happened here.

Still there’s a lot to like here. The cast is uniformly good. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb very similarly to the character he played in Shutter Island. Both men are haunted by their past and find it difficult to function in the world because of it. Cobb is a cool professional who finds his skills being affected by his guilt. Guilt is manifested in visions of his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard). Cotillard brings a nice mix of alluring and disturbing to her performance.

I also got a kick out of seeing Joseph Gordon-Levitt: action hero. He kicks some serious butt in this movie, firing automatic weapons, and partaking in the best fight scene in the movie, the zero G hallway battle. On top of that he’s the guy who tries to keep everyone grounded: the voice of reason in the chaos.

My only issue was Ken Watanabe as Saito. I really wish they had let him speak in Japanese and subtitled him (although that would have scared away too many viewers). His accent is a bit thick and when he’s competing with the explosions, gunfire and Zimmer’s blaring music score, it can be hard to understand what he’s saying. This wouldn’t be too big of a problem, except he’s got some very important lines. I was able to muddle through based on context, and Watanbe’s actual performance is fine.

Action fans will be happy with the second half of the film. This movie has a bit of everything. It’s got stunt driving. It’s got shootouts. It’s action on skis and in the snow. It’s got the zero G battle. It’s got a commando style raid on a secure compound. It’s all handled very well, with clear but exciting action scenes. Jiggly cameras and annoying zooms are kept to a minimum, and it’s all for the good. The sound works great too, immersing you in the action, if sometimes drowning out the dialogue.

Nolan had a tough job here, balancing an interesting concept with lots of details with a movie that people expect to be action packed. He does a very good job, making most of the explanation scenes work organically into the story. You always feel like things are moving along even as the characters are explaining how dreamland works. In all this he injects Cobbs history and creates a solid climax out of it. On top of that, we are in Fischer’s brain for a big chunk of the movie, we get to know about him too. My hat is off to Nolan for pulling this off. In the hands of a less skilled director, this could have been a real bore until the action kicked in.

But a few things kept me from really getting sucked in. First is the music. Hans Zimmer does his usual here, with some good atmospheric music and propulsive action music. It works well with the film and never draws attention to itself. It frames the movie and provide another layer of sound. That’s exactly what Nolan wants in his movies and it works most of the time.

There is one little element in the score that just rubbed me the wrong way. I’ve heard other people call it other things, but I’ll call it - BWAAAAA! This little sound appears in the score on a number of occasions, usually when some revelation is occurring or when we are deep in dreamland. The arrival at the deepest part of the dream world is heralded by a number of BWAAAAA! This sound could easily be substituted by – bum Bum BUM! You’d get the same affect – at least from me. It made me laugh. At dramatic parts of your movie, you don’t want the audiance laughing.

I know what the BWAAAAA! Is. A song by Edith Piaf is used in the movie as a way to signal the dreamers. The song opens with trumpets. Take one of those trumpets and slow it way, way down and you get BWAAAAA! Kinda clever actually. I see what Zimmer had in mind and it makes sense. But I’m sorry it really took me out of the film. Now I have met a few people who don’t know what I’m BWAAAAAing about, so don’t feel bad if you missed it.

Then there’s the aspect of the final sequences of the film. This is hard to explain without giving too much away, and really it’s a nitpick. I found the final half of the film dragging a bit. There are lots of action scenes going on at once and in between are scenes where we see the dreamers asleep. This is done so that the audience gets an idea of where in time all these things are happening. I actually started to find the scenes with the dreamers really disruptive to the flow of the film. I think I’m in the minority on this one, but I found the second half of the movie a bit clunky. Still it must have been hard to figure out how to orchestrate this and not lose an audience. I’m just wondering if there may have been a better solution.

The final bit is really based on my expectations. I love dreams and their use in film. Some of my favorite directors can capture the feel of a dream or nightmare and the results are amazing. Nolan never really captured that feel in my opinion. We get cool visuals, some really neat fighting sequences, but that actual feel of a dream – I never felt it.

Compared to masters like David Lynch or Satoshi Kon, the dreams never really took off. I felt like this was a serious missed opportunity. I think I know the reason why the movie never went there (and even included rules to keep it from going there). Most people don’t know who the heck David Lynch or Satoshi Kon are. Their films aren’t popular and usually the reason is because they just plain weird. I love their stuff, but I can understand why others don’t. Lynch and Kon understand that dreams don’t operate by rules and this allows them to take flight in their films. Nolan forces rules so people will enjoy the fantasy and never feel the weirdness. That’s the difference. Nolan created a fantasy film about dream worlds. Lynch and Kon create films about dreams. I feel that if you are really going to delve into dreams then do it. Rules for dreams? That’s like making a bland dessert.

Sounds like I came down a bit hard, but honestly I enjoyed the film. I wish more popcorn movies had this amount of thought put into them. Since the movie is doing well, I think most viewers wanted something like this too. My issues with the movie are based on my expectations and the hype. Yeah I let it get to me. Still, this is a good movie, with some real highpoints. But not the best movie I’ve seen this year, much less of all time. Nolan’s going to have to warm up a bit to pull me in. But I admit, this is the most accessible film he’s made yet.