High Life (2019)

Score: 5 / 5

Sensual and hypnotic, haunting in the best way, High Life is a masterwork of science fiction horror from writer/director Claire Denis. We're trapped on a spacecraft filled with convicted criminals, helmed by a mad scientist, on a suicide mission to investigate what happens in a black hole. If that isn't the most provocative setup in recent sci-fi history, I don't know what is.

Especially with this kind of aesthetic. For a film with such potentially plot-driven foundations, this movie ends up being more of a free-floating chamber piece about human nature on the brink of the abyss. They are literally hurtling toward annihilation -- though they don't all know it -- and what do they do in the meantime? They are forbidden from sexual activity with each other, though the mad scientist leading them (none other than a magnificent Juliette Binoche), obsessed with successful artificial insemination, harvests them regularly for bodily fluids. Similarly, they frequently use the "Fuckbox" on the ship to release their frustrated energies; the most notable scene, in my mind, is of Binoche herself riding a dildo chair in what may well be the most breathtaking and violent autosexual (if that's what we might call masturbation?) scene in cinematic history.

It's not all sex (though that's pretty much the main thrust, so to speak), as Robert Pattinson's protagonist demonstrates. His celibate character is the only one left (...SPOILER ALERT?), as we see at the beginning of this nonlinear movie, to care for a child named Willow. We find out later Willow is his own, but since this information comes from the mad scientist and her experiments, we can't entirely trust it. Pattinson delivers an exceptional performance here, narrating and driving the film in both its heady patches, and its more grounded scenes such as when he advises against us eating our own shit.

Speaking of which, if you want to place this film amidst other spiritual spacefaring movies, I'd place it along with Solaris and Gravity more than with The Martian. Its concern with bodily fluids seems taken from Prometheus while its final act focus on the black hole itself is more in line with Interstellar. But while High Life references its own genre, it is never less than extravagantly original. At once grounded and abstract, the film suggestively encourages us to consider these diverse characters and their bizarre situation as symbolic of themes a little closer to home.

I won't spend too much time talking about this movie because I still don't have wholly coherent thoughts about it. It's just beautiful and creepy and fascinating, and it's meant to be an experience more than an intellectual discussion. You're supposed to feel the movie as you go -- and, yes, use your brain to fill in the gaps -- and sensually appreciate its visceral power before you dissect anything. Inasmuch as you can truly dissect something as obtuse as a "Fuckbox".

Ghost in the Shell (2017)

Score: 2 / 5

Perfectly titled, this shell of a movie is indeed inhabited by a ghost. It's a beautiful shell, to be sure, ornate and visually inventive. Whereas the titular "ghost" suggests a living human spirit with memories and feeling, one that lives inside the human brain of a robotic body, the ghost of the film is unfortunately quite dead.

Another vision of the future in which humans and technology combine in unholy fusion, Ghost in the Shell feels as though the sum of its parts is of less value than its individual components. Following Major Mira Killian, a cyborg with a robotic body and human brain, we descend deep into this new culture of people augmented with machines a populace of artifice and distraction. She has been created to be a counter-terrorist agent, and it doesn't take long for her to recognize her dissatisfaction; "glitches" show her memories of a past life, presumably of when she was human, and she begins to suspect that her superiors harbor dark designs.

It's a tired tale, a rote crime thriller with lots of action. The figure we suspect to be the primary antagonist becomes the catalyst for Killian's awakening, a shady assassination spree is revealed as corporate backstabbing, and a dazzling vision of the future ultimately dissolves into blind violence and laughable predictability. Heavily cliched plot points and flat characterizations render the film watchable but mind-numbing. I found myself hopelessly distracted, wanting to care about the people on screen but far more engaged with the holograms and digital screens in the background. Impressive visual invention can only do so much, and after the first half hour or so, this Ghost dissipates into thin air.

I couldn't help thinking, while viewing, that other films have done it all before, and better. As much as Ghost wants to be dark, poetic, and edgy, it ends up feeling cheap and familiar. It might have worked as a noir piece; Blade Runner certainly did, and it handled its own philosophy with grander style and considerable grace. Ghost doesn't even try to mine its considerable thematic weight, beyond a gimmicky few scenes of Killian looking for and finding her birth mother. Even those moments ring hollow, as Scarlett Johansson -- despite her talents carrying the film against all odds -- is more than a little too white to relate to her "mother", Kaori Momoi. I don't want to dive into the whitewashing controversy, especially considering that Killian's body was literally constructed, except to say that the central emotional journey of our protagonist just doesn't work due to the casting.

As I say, Blade Runner or even The Matrix both handle similar material better. Unlike this film, those each balance the melancholia and spectacle, capitalizing on their characters and themes with style and intelligence. Ghost wants to be eerie but settles for iffy. Its glossy exterior belies an empty void. The mystery it promises is no more mysterious than its first half-hour. What is unmistakably intended to be a cult favorite is lost in big-budget excess, and the sweet, tied-up ending seems determined to churn out a sequel. The only thing that kept me engaged past the halfway mark was Juliette Binoche as Dr Ouelet, who exhibits the film's only character development in one particularly lovely scene. Other than that, I was left wondering what the shell these filmmakers were doing.

IMDb: Ghost in the Shell

Godzilla (2014)

Score: 4.5 / 5

Infinitely superior to Roland Emmerich's 1998 attempt, this Godzilla is a welcome reboot of the franchise. Hardcore Godzilla fans are particularly pleased with the titular monster's design, as he looks like a contemporary version of the original monster rather than a glorified dinosaur. And this one has fiery blue breath, so of course he's better. Gareth Edwards brilliantly directs this two-hour, big-budget sci-fi thriller like a drama or art film, drawing attention to atmosphere and character rather than spectacle.

The main story is familiar enough: humanity's aggressive scientific efforts have brought forth monsters, the otherwise unnamed MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms), which feed off radioactive material. Godzilla rises from the ocean to eliminate this new threat and bring balance. The heart of the film, though, resides in its characters. The Brody family seems intertwined with these monsters, and suffers both tragedy and redemption through the horrors of their rampage.

Joe and Sandra Brody (Bryan Cranston, Juliette Binoche) work in a Japanese nuclear power plant until its destruction in 1999, following unusual seismic activity that causes a radiation leak and Sandra's death. In the present day, Joe enlists the help of his son Ford (the very hunky Aaron Taylor-Johnson) in returning to their old home -- now in quarantine -- to retrieve his old research on the true case of the seismic activity. When they are detained by soldiers working to cover up the secret workings inside the ruined plant, the first MUTO awakens and Joe is killed. Ford works with special task forces in tracking and observing the monsters, in an unspoken effort to fulfill or honor his father's work. The emotional core of this movie isn't Ford becoming a hero; it's his coming of age and learning to love his family again.

The film feels a lot like War of the Worlds (2005). Tonally and chromatically, it's gritty and dark and bleak, because when a disaster movie is centered on the human experience, the horrors of the proceedings come into focus. We aren't battered into submission by endless images of buildings crumbling and clouds of dust everywhere; instead, we follow the characters into the dust and see just about what they see. The big Cinematic Moments are reserved for the profoundly human images. In fact, my favorite scene was a shattering surprise to me: I'm talking about The Scene. The scene that seems to be highlighted in every promotional image of the movie, wherein soldiers skydive into the hellish San Francisco skyline, trailed by red smoke, in search of a warhead. It's a gamble of a mission, and the jump is in many ways the central metaphor for the movie. I had wondered why this scene was getting so much promo attention, and now I get it. In context, it is the emotional turning point of the film, and the camerawork/editing is particularly beautiful. You'll just have to watch it to understand.

And watch it you should! Haunting and thrilling, dramatic and beautiful, I hope this one does well for Oscar nominations (though it's far too early to predict with any certainty, we can hope it'll get nods for visual effects, sound mixing and editing, and maybe even cinematography and score). Oh, I almost forgot: the lovely score, composed by the incredible Alexandre Desplat, can be added to his already lengthy list of masterpieces. He's one of the best. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but this year we've seen a lot of special effects-driven movies. Godzilla may be one of them, but it's got real craft too.

IMDb: Godzilla