Spoilers.  I think.

Okay, I hate to disappoint, but I really don’t plan on discussing whether or not the whole film or parts of the film are a dream, or if Cobb’s wedding ring is his real totem, or if his wife only left him and didn’t really kill herself. Blah blah blah.

I’m very into discussing the movie, but what I think is really interesting and worth discussing is the relationship between the filmmaker, the film, and the audience. Nolan is known for his thoughtful movie making from Momento to Insomnia to The Dark Knight. In many interviews he mentions his connection of dreaming and filmmaking, and he doesn’t shy away from inserting himself into his films. I think that this film is especially familiar to me as it feels much like one of my favorite films, 8 1/2.

The focus of this film is the discussion. I hate the idea that people are comparing this film to The Matrix. That film is nothing like this one. Inception isn’t a film that screws with you, making you wonder what reality is. Nolan is too smart and intentional about filmmaking to waste our time like that. Inception is a film about film, filmmaking, and the filmmaker, just like 8 1/2.

Full disclosure on this article: I am a dream junkie. I spent years studying dreams, I really like to explore lucid dreaming, and I have written a lot of material on the ethics and morals of dreaming and the dream state (while lucid dreaming or not). On a side not, one thing I thought was fun about Inception is the use of a totem to tell if you are in a dream or not. Lucid dreamers do sort of the same thing to wake up in a dream. I think Nolan has some experience in lucid dreaming.

OK, back to the theory. Film is a fascinating medium unlike any other because it attempts to do something impossible. Films transcend time by attempting to affix your mind in the eternal present, and you have to give yourself wholly to the artist to truly transcend timespace. Watching a film allows us to live as close to the eternal present as we can without supernatural or chemical assistance.

Nolan’s Inception literally transposes the filmmaking and viewing experience into a film. One reason it’s hard to have discussions about when the characters are dreaming in the film is that film itself bends and distorts spacetime in ways that are unseemly to nature. As an audience, we are constantly being transported through timespace without questioning those cuts unless they are poorly executed. A skilled filmmaker and editor can make cuts seem natural and undetected so we don’t find it strange that our perspective moves inches or thousands of miles in 1/24th of a second.

This film takes on a bigger and more important discussion than whether are we all really sleeping (yawn). It forces us to look at every other film we watch with a careful eye. If he did his job, Nolan  is doing at least two things in this film, and they are HUGE!

1: Inception raises the bar for the rest of the industry. He is bare-faced, calling out his peers and reminding them that film is like a dream, a powerful tool that can reveal humanity and truth to the world.
2: Nolan’s film reminds audiences of what film is capable of. He reminds us how we should feel when we watch a film, and tells us not to bother with films that aren’t worth our time.

These are just a few of my thoughts. Let me know what you think!

this kid is amazing

This film is easily on my top ten for the year.  wait top 5 maybe.

As with every good vampire flick I expect religious imagery and some amazing cinematography.  This film delivered all of that and more.  Let The Right One In has simply become my favorite vamp flick.  This film rose above the others for one simple reason.  It isn’t shot like a vampire flick and there are no Victorians.  Seriously I love vamp flicks so much I even watched Twilight…yea I  know 20 years in purgatory for admitting that.

Spoilers as usual:

In this film we see some great storytelling that is subtle and delicate.  What we have is a film that allows us to see a new side of the vampire mythos.  The idea of a vampire that doesn’t want or like to kill is a tired one, this story takes it to a new place.  We start off with a pathetic person incapable of defending himself, Oskar.  He has hate bursting from him but is unable to act on his urges.  When he meets Eli, a 12 (120) year old girl, she urges him to hit back, to hit harder than he dares.

It’s not that Eli is unwilling to kill its that she rather wouldn’t.  She is a parasite on one boy a generation.  Eli feeds off of the love that Oskar gives her just as much as she feeds off of the blood of victims.  Her relationship is perfectly beneficial to Oskar.  She teases with her emotions, her body, and her strength.  Eli has to choose weak individuals with potential.  This is a tragic story for the heroes. Both of them get what they want but they will both suffer.  I only hope that Morse code lets then fall in love!

let me know what you think!

about the most blood you'll see in the film

Wow. Let me tell you this movie was a real surprise!  I thought I would be walking into something rather simple and lame.  I thought it was going to be advertising for Nappa.  What I found was a really quaint histo-drama on a very special unique time for California and for America.  It was kind of like Seabiscuit without the national pride.  Now that I think of it that doesn’t surprise me.  It is a movie about selfish people trying to make a difference without knowing how.  It is typical of how California thinks of itself in terms of the country it is part of.  The fact that on their site they compare this moment with the moon landing and 1980 hockey win seems a bit of a non-sequitor.  But I digress from my thoughts on the film.

So this film was pretty amazing in one spectacular detail.  I have been researching to see how true the facts are but have found squat, so I will just go with it an hope that it is based on real events.

Spoilers follow:  as in total spoilers:

So as I walked out of the theatre I felt way better than I should and as David Wilcox would say “I was bugged for metaphorical reasons.”

You see I had just saw something really beautiful and didn’t know why it was beautiful.  It wasn’t until 2 days later that it struck me.  Christ was the entire focus of this film he was the driving story the reason these people were in community and he taught them about love life and how to be better human beings. He even was a perfect creation that died and rose again in this film.  And it was because it was perfect that it HAD to die and rise again.

Now by no means am I saying that this is a Christian Film, I would never condemn a film like that. :)  what I think is that these filmmakers knew the power of Christ imagery and of the story that so much of the world is familiar with that it became their story.  I am sure a lot of it was coincidence or just playing on tradition western storytelling, but it is there.

Ill be short with the explanation then let you play with it a bit on your own.

The grapes and wine are Christ.  OK for all you sacramentals out there you say “Of course Marshall!” I hope so beacuse this movie mad me want to take communion ASAP.  so the one quote about wine from Galileo “Wine is sunlight held together by water” is ever so meaningful. That image Christiologicaly is very cool.

If Christ is the wine in this story some things need to be there.  Well the wine is brought into the world by the unequipped and unprepared.  People society would never imagine a savior coming from.  It should be prophesied.  It should polarize people.  It should die. it should rise again. and finally it should save people’s lives because of the death and rebirth.

In the film the wine does all these things and more.  it even goes through a 3 day death and rebirth.  AND durring its death it is still sweet and beautiful.  In fact the reason for its necessary death is its perfection. and it literaly saves a “nation.”

On with the diatribe.

***SPOILERS FOLLOW***

We are Gordon/Dent/Dawes

I propose we are Gordon, Dent, or Dawes.  These three are the only people besides Fox and Alfred that Batman can trust.  As we mentioned before Batman would ideally like to hand the city over to them.  These three are agents of good who all have framed their ideas of justice and have presented them to the world.  they have been attacked because of their ideas (literally).  Most of us have ideas about what Justice is and even more have strong opinions about what it is not.  Just because these three are attacked for their beliefs does not mean that they have the right idea.  For the most part they all believe that the law is justice.  But Joker tears this belief apart by using his own capture as a vehicle for chaos.  Joker uses the system that is supposed to work to show the Batman that they dot hold the answer.  and as a final blow he takes out the heads of these systems.  Even more drastically he “kills”  all three of these icons of what Batman believes in.  in the end all we have left is Gordon who was never part of the system in its current form.  At the end of the film Gordon actually has the harder job of reconstructing Gotham and “capturing” Batman.

I think this is a big cue to the audience that we have to look at ourselves as these three as well.  We need to be the greatest believers in Justice, whatever it may be, and we need to stand as a beacon to those who do not know what it is, who are trapped in a battle, or who are blind to it.  There have to be people willing to sacrifice themselves for Justice so that it will survive.  Some of us need to be the support to those who are lost (Dawes), some need to be the executor of the Justice and its hands (Gordon), and some need to be the beacon of hope and an ideal to look to.  I don’t think we get to choose which one we are.

We are Gotham

We are The City of Gotham.  Pathetic, helpless, dirty, cruel, antagonistic, easily manipulated, and represented only by the weakest and strongest among us.  We need help we are creatures that can be threatened by those in charge, good or bad, and we are mechanical predictable in our reactions.  Gotham is not innocent but regardless it needs to be protected because they are beautiful and good because they are people.  This is epically important.  because they are fellow humans they deserve respect and protection and gentle care.  and at all costs to be taken care of.  because they have only seen hate, malice, and manipulation they cannot understand the efforts of good men and women who sacrifice themselves for the city.  Just as the city does, we need to recognize grace given to us and seek out those who love us and want to protect our innocence and soul.  It is no surprise that children are ones who constantly see the good in Batman and desire to be like him in Gotham.

As a memer of the city we cant try to emulate those who are fighting the good fight.  without proper education, dicipline, and understanding we will get hurt and will be used against those who are prepared to be our knights.  There are obvious ||s that can be drawn from this in every arena.  Christians, Muslim, envrionmentalists, liberal, conservatives, etc. are cursed by their “gotham” population desperately trying to be Batmans, Gordons, Dawes, Dents, or worse Foxes and Alfreds.

We are NOT Fox/Alfred

We are not Fox or Alfred.  They have no flaws.  They are our compass and light.  They guide us at our darkest times.  We feel that we have to hide our inadequacies from them and we hide the moments that we step over our boundaries. we hide our sins until we are forced to reveal to them exactly how bad we really are.  and Their reaction is always precisely and perfectly appropriate.  These men our the saints we meet once or twice in our lives.  Chances are if you are reading this you are not this person, I am quite sure I am not.  These are the men we should look to be like but we cannot make the mistake and think we are like them.

What can we learn?

I’ll leave this for you to explore on your own.  There is much more than I have discussed here but please post any thoughts in the comments.