Children’s Tales

Many movies get lost in the world of aggregate ratings. I confess to being one of those moviegoers that checks the percentages critics and the public have given a movie before venturing into the cinema. Movies cost too much not to. But I also make sure to check  how my favorite critics have rated the movie, picking up some insights in the process. I have found, however, that because movies are so personal, you end up going for what you like and the artists you've enjoyed to pick your films. If not, you may miss out on something good. Remember that many great movies were not recognized as such in their time. Here’s a recent example of the need to rely on your taste: the new Disney Cinderella got better reviews than Chappie, the most recent sci-fi by Neill Blomkamp. But I like Blomkamp, so of course I went to see it. I also saw Cinderella. I found the latter a bit  boring (although I suppose many little girls of six to fourteen years of age will disagree), and found Chappie a good futuristic movie… about our times.

The two movies, in their own way, are fairy tales. Both in their own peculiar manner deal with the beautiful spirit we are born with that ends up being crushed by greed, ruthlessness, and a society that prizes those two “qualities” above others.

Dev Patel and Hugh Jackman in Chappie

The audiences for these two films, of course, couldn't be more different, in quite a gendered way.  Cinderella is out to capture the hearts of little girls, who will walk from the movie theatre to the nearest store to dress up in the blue taffeta and blonde curls of the “heroine” of that movie. And it’s really not that difficult to connect with little girls and show them how the good fairy will help the young, kind and beautifully dressed girl succeed, all the while sticking to her motto: “Have Courage and Be Kind”.  But how do you connect on issues of social justice, class warfare, urban degradation, civil unrest and/ or brutal racism to a whole generation of young, white males that have grown up with their thumbs glued to a game controller and their eyes to a screen that sucks them into an alienating virtual reality? One way is to offer them Neill Blomkamp’s films, which they are very likely to want to see, given that they are sci-fi and amazingly stunning in their FX and virtual reality wizardry.

District 9, Elysium and Chappie, by the 36 year old South African Director, make us feel as if we have finally gone back to a time when science fiction films were works of art, philosophy and social analysis, like they once were when 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick: 1968), A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick: 1971), Alien (Scott: 1979) and Blade Runner (Scott: 1982) filled the movie screens. A time before the blockbuster, money producing machine that was the Star Wars franchise broke into the theatres and the aisles of toy stores, spreading pure entertainment, Manichean plots and  a bit of mediocrity.

Chappie is the story of innocence and what happens to it when faced with poverty, marginality and survival. The film is about a police robot (an amazing FX feat), which has been given an operating system so sophisticated that it can actually feel. Yes, Blomkamp is a Ridley Scott fan, so in Chappie there is much reminiscent of Scott’s androids in Blade Runner, both can feel, both don’t want to “die”.  There’s also a little of the original Mad Max in the gangs Chappie ends up consorting with. All good influences. But this story is looking to appeal to a younger crowd, so there is more of a fairy tale element to it than in Blomkamp’s other films.

Yo-Landi Visser in Chappie

It’s still to be seen whether Blomkamp will reach the tech savvy young gamers with his tales of social justice but, in the process, we’re given a movie that fills the screen with seamless CGI, is visually stunning and tells the tales that need to be told, even if they don’t end with a happily ever after.


[Check out "Fresh Cuts" tab above to read about Cinderella and other recent films!]