Most Relevant Animated Film: Zootopia.

How long has it been since Russovoir's last animated film review? Four years? Ah yes, Rise Of The Guardians (2012). This is because he normally doesn't write reviews for an animated film. I think it's unfair that we have to hear (or read) what the adults have to say on a material made for children. The last scene of The Polar Express (2004) actually influenced this opinion. When the kids shook the ornament bell, no one in the room could hear it. Except them.

Children have a take in life that we, adults, have shed. They are going to go through changes that are reflected on films for their benefit: friendship, obedience, imagination, e.g. We adults sort of learned this already, so the themes unfolding before us are repetitive. Otherwise, if you're an adult and haven't been acquainted with such themes, your childhood was terribly misguided.

Mistake admitted that Russovoir had not written anything for the 2015 Academy Award winner Big Hero 6, especially interesting by merging San Francisco and Tokyo, San Fransokyo. This is obviously a reference to United States and Japan's relationship, encompassing all themes in the film, technology, medicine, teamwork, and intellectual property theft - but that's another story. We got a little carried away there. Russovoir doesn't blame you, Big Hero 6 is packed with subtext! 

Zootopia is going to be a contender at the 2017 Academy Awards, Russovoir guarantees it. Just like Big Hero 6, Disney has yet broached on what is currently relevant, not with pitchforks and torches, Beyonce music videos, or Chris Rock monologues. Zootopia is like South Park but with tact, like X-Men but without Jennifer Lawrence - ha! - but with animals. Zootopia digs out from the rabbit hole of difursity.

Zootopia Cityscape

Let's begin where we always begin. The title. Zootopia is a portmanteau - obviously, for adults - of 'zoo' and 'utopia', wherein utopia means an imagined, perfect place, and zoo, well -

Right off the first scene, a young bunny, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), stars in her own play where anyone can be anybody - a lion can be an astronaut, for instance. It sounds so far-fetched, but if you look closely, that's everything we're taught growing up. To be whoever we want to be. The theme just doesn't end there no sir. This film isn't banal. We're introduced to the prey and predator hierarchy.

What comes into mind when you think (or see) a predator? Threatening, aggressive, deceitful - a bully, in this context, to helpless preys. Isn't the personification familiar to our society? Throughout history what manipulatively comes to mind of a particular race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, is engraved in our heads like it's the natural order of things, that predator always catches prey, and prey always lives in fear. This is why we cannot blame the parents of Judy when she's been told not to dream too big, and instead tend the farm with them, alongside her centiplet siblings. Persistent as a bunny, Judy eventually becomes what she wants to be, a policewoman.     
 
Well, isn't that convenient? How relevant is this with what's going on with America? Bear that in mind as we go along. So, Judy Hopps is long away from home to the flora and fauna of Zootopia. Imagination hits animation like a bus! The utopic society of animals, big and small, is zoned into their natural habitats, accessible by public transport, despite maximum one-time establishing shot by a train Judy was in.

In Zootopia, the bestial tension of prey and predator is not felt, and somehow each animal knows their place in the society. This pleases Judy because finally that little school play she wrote came to life. This strongly resonates to Russovoir's younger self back in the Philippines and the (pipe) dream to be in America, coursing to the current with foreign films. Now that he's here, at whatever situation he had been in, alone and in a seedy apartment, Russovoir is happy.

Life, of course, with Judy Hopps as with Russovoir, is unfair. Poor Judy assumes life, let alone her career, will be handed on a silver platter. She is a long way to 'serve and protect', and starts out as a meter maid; the zootopia sociographic slowly and cleverly unfold.

Sloths in DMV. How accurate.

"We may be evolved, but we're still animals."

There's so much to tell, but Russovoir wants to jump right in to the most relevant subtext. Judy and her partner in crime Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a fox, a predator, two polar opposites set to one goal - classic trope - are on a missing person case. They go out investigating, meet interesting animals who provide a lead - one of Russovoir's favorites is the mafia capo mole rat (Francis Coppola's Godfather homage) and her equally New Jerseyan bride-to-be daughter, ultimately discovering a government conspiracy of the night howlers.

This is the motherload. The reveal (laughs).
What do you call a baby cow?

Zootopia has given us a tangible agent to address an issue in our society.  The media. The night howler is partly a McGuffin*, even though it's the object of conflict. To be frank about what we're trying to imply, and we've had enough of what's subtle and start being blunt about it, the media is the night howler that makes certain people of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation 'savage'. That we cannot control them because it's what's in their DNA, so we stigmatize, ostracize, and eventually incarcerate them.

A prey mother and child uncomfortable next to a predator.

Hands down to this film. Going back to Judy as a policewoman, United States is in hot water with their police department. People, especially the black community, think they're incredibly racist to not think twice of shooting a black person than a white. Or is it, again, what the media wants us to think? The manifestation of a police academy in Zootopia is no accident. Disney is trying to send a message that this power tripping coverage is manipulated to generate fear. Fear against each other. Prey against predator. White against Black.

"90% of the population, united against one common enemy."

Brilliant, isn't it? Zootopia is the most relevant film of the year. While the kids can enjoy and follow along the underdog - underbunny in this context (laughs) - solving the crime and saving the day (with the blackmailed help of the fox), us adults can - must draw what's really kicking and screaming under the scratches on the surface.

*a device that is deliberately placed to catch the viewer's attention, but serves no purpose. It has little to no narrative explanation.

88th Academy Awards: The Leonardo DiCaprio Blog.

Here we are again, and no one is excited than Russovoir. Leonardo DiCaprio deserves the Oscar for his performance in Alejandro-Gonzales Iñárritu's The Revenant. Let us begin with an article. This article was on Variety (Holy Bible of the film industry). It explained why Dicaprio didn't win the Oscar for the role of Jordon Belfort in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. Russovoir read it, and has read it again so he may able to lay it on to you in the best of his abilities*

The article begins with a line that's, almost, comforting. Cool guys don't win Oscars. Comforting in a sense that performance acting is not a walk in the park career choice. It can be, undoubtedly. Russovoir is not an actor, so he can't back this up, but he has been watching films since 15, and back when he got his own plasma flat screen in his room, he's aware of the glitz and glamour of the high life. Performance acting is actual hard work of getting into character, days of line reading, months of research - but years of value. Performance acting is method acting; there's a method to this madness.

"While there's life, there's hope."

The actor that comes to millennial mind is Eddie Redmayne (picture above) as Stephen Hawking in the 6-time Academy Award nominated film The Theory of Everything (2014). A gay man would say this film is everything. Or winding back the clock, Russell Crowe in 2002 Academy Award Best Picture A Beautiful Mind. The article has brought to our attention 2000 Academy Award Best Actor Tom Hanks of Cast Away. Then, it gets interesting. James Murphy, the writer, introduces a polarity.

Brad Pitt-Tom Hanks Continuum: The Definition of Movie Cool

Pitt (0 Oscar, on the left side) - Mysterious,  Remote
Hanks (2 Oscars, on the right side) - Uninhibited, Immersive

This polarity Murphy that by now you have plotted in your head is interestingly effective. On the Pitt side, an actor who has had slim chances of winning because the character he has played is, as he put it, is 'leave you wondering what it would be like to be them, without imagining that you could'. Classic Pitt roles like Fight Club (1999) - we don't talk about it, and Inglourious Basterds (2009). On the right corner, Hanks is regarded as a likable character. The roles he play, the complete opposite, inviting, communicative, and on an emotional level, sympathetic. Furthermore, saving the best for last on the first half of Murphy's article, think of the Oscar as the jealous type. It wants to shine all its goldness, the attention to it; no one shares with it. Cool guys don't win Oscars. Historically, the Oscar always goes to the disabled, mentally ill, gay, oppressed, and ugly.

2003 Oscar Best Actor Adrien Brody as a Jew in The Pianist.

On the top of your head, what is/are DiCaprio's sympathetic (Hanksian, as Murphy coins it) character(s)? Can we all agree What's Eating Gilbert Grape (2003)? Russovoir hears Titanic (1997) from the back. That's right too. The Basketball Diaries (1995)? Sure, let's pencil that in. Murphy thought these films we mentioned had placed DiCaprio in a sweet spot early on his career (he was only in his 20's!), and later were frustratingly snubbed for reasons surely justified. He was in good hanks, as Russovoir would say (laughs). However, since then, films he has made throughout his successful career, as Murphy points out, were stellar performances - Blood Diamond (2006) as a personal favorite - yet not the kinds deserving an Oscar. Cool guys don't win Oscars. It has now been evident that the polarity chart is a helpful tool to determine who will win. Now everyone's a critic! Fun.

(bathroom break)

Let's look at The Revenant as a whole first, before we close in on Caprio. Because as they say in the filmmaking business, the real winners are those behind the camera. The film is a tremendous group effort; it's still amazing how all that hard work is jammed in a disc that no hand on which it reflects can mirror the callous and cuts each department had to endure to achieve master frames (not just million dollar budget films of course. Especially independent films).

Until hell freezes over, one would say to an unthinkable accusation. Well, been there, done that, as hell was frozen for five (5) months throughout the filming of The Revenant. -40 degrees. That's like Chicago in polar vortex two years ago. Probably worst. All the while reports have documented boiling points from the crew against the director had picked up steam (Skotchdople VS Iñárritu). Crewmembers eventually understandably quit, resignation signed with a frostbitten hand or coming down with - not a cold, silly - hypothermia!

That, and then some (case in point where he went overbudget, yikes!), came down like an avalanche to the visionary Mexican auteur. In an interview, that felt like fresh patch of snow, he came clean. "I have nothing to hide. There were problems but none of them made me ashamed. As a director, if a violin is out of tune, I have to take out from the orchestra." (Did you hear that in his sexy Mexican accent too?)

Iñárritu, 3 Oscars, 51 years old.

(South Park break)

Now it's all coming down to this. Leonardo DiCaprio, and why he must win. Not because the internet wants him to, and forever silence the protests. The wolf doesn't listen to the opinion of the sheep. Harsh, but yeah, no, Johnny Depp, until he cleans up his act, while his performance in Black Mass (2015) felt like Ashton Kutcher in Jobs (2013) and focus on performance acting, there's no Oscar for him - while he is an indelible cultural icon, full credit given.

DiCaprio portrayed American hunter and explorer Hugh Glass. If there's one thing you must know about him, and obvious in the epic, is that he literally lived to tell the tale. Straight up, was he a cool guy? Well, let's break the story down first. What's fact and fiction in the film. It's a fact that Hugh Glass, during an ambulatory expedition, was mauled by a foraging grizzly bear. There, he was butchered, skin off the bones, for which was fed to her grizzly cubs.

Hugh Glass monument, Lemmon, South Dakota.

  

It's also historically accurate his fellow explorers left him for dead, after taking his equipment for their own use, and dug an open grave. In between contracting fever, and yes out of survival, Glass ate a raw bison liver** and fish, he was still in one piece. And it's fact he had wanted John Fitzgerald and Jim Bridger dead, two of his companions who agreed to his vivisepulture. The true motive of Glass' excruciating journey, according the 1939 novel The Oregon Trail, was vengeance served ice-cold for his maltreatment. Wouldn't you?

**DiCaprio reportedly also ate raw bison liver (and vomitted).

Glass didn't have a son. That part is fiction. It was then a conscious directorial choice for Iñárritu to incorporate a Pawnee son, more so interracial marriages, while at that period of time the real story of Thanksgiving was in writing. The Revenant wins in cultural references.

To answer our question where he is in the Pitt-Hanks Continuum, ask yourself: Did DiCaprio's character invite you, the audience, to the experience, or were you outside looking in? Were the emotions shared? Anger, sorrow, vengeance, did you vicariously feel? Finally, was Glass a cool guy? Was he in a suit, like most of DiCaprio's roles? No. He was at his worst in every size, shape, and form. If anything, this is Tom Hanks' Cast Away, but at a historically racial hotbed approach. This is good. Dicaprio becomes, possibly even long before, a catalyst of reform - did you not watch his Golden Globes acceptance speech?

He's a beautiful soul. The Oscar always goes to a beautiful soul.





*Otherwise, help yourself and click here.

King of Summer: Nicholas John Robinson.

There are only ninety-three (93) days until Summer 2016. Tank tops, counterfeit wayfarers, and tan lines - sons of beaches, all that jizz. But most of all, summers since the Chicago summer of September 24, 2013 (thank you Facebook timeline) to the next, Russovoir will have to dotingly think back to one of the best summer movies of all time, The Kings of Summer (2013). Russovoir still remembers - okay, vaguely - the post-excitement he was feeling; it was on RedBox so he had had the luxury to pause the best moments, reaction shots, reversal of fortune (that's climax, fancier), and establishing wide shots (ha, when you're in film school) of the beautiful greenery of Cleveland, Ohio.

The story is original: three boys who have had enough of their mundane, pacified lives, and have decided to knock on wood, lay the bricks on their newfound independence into their self-built summer house made of, well, anything they could find in the woods.

The Summer House

As an aspiring screenwriter, this film resonates Russovoir. Fresh coming-of-age storytelling, which he believes is his working progress suit, and secondly, fresh faces with solid performances.

Robinson alongside Simpkins and Pratt.

While a blockbuster exposure is never a bad idea, particularly also, to his opinion, Jurassic World isn't what Transformers (2007) is to Shia LaBeouf, Robinson will always be the alpha dog Joe Toy of The Kings of Summer, like Alden Ehrenreich as Ethan Wate in one of Russovoir's personal favorite films, Beautiful Creatures (2013). Or, faithful to the reference, our childhood favorite loony Louis Stevens.

From Ehrenreich to Tye Sheridan, Anton Yelchin, Dane DeHaan, Nat Wolff, Grant Gustin, Shiloh Fernandez, Dylan O'Brien, Tyler Posey, and the list goes on, one fades and another is born really, they (should) each have, first, a unique -  forgive the euphemism -  personality. And that personality, if you're lucky, is explicitly defined in one critically-acclaimed film that allocates succeeding roles. Molly Ringwald, for example, and her every single John Hughes classic. But of course, a typecast can always be severed. But right now, how he's doing in the saturated film business, Robinson is the Devon Sawa-center-parted blonde hair boy-next-door of our generation.

Not long after The Host (2013) meets Edge of Tomorrow (2014) in The 5th Wave does this whole silver-spooned, soft-spoken captain of the football team will work out for the 20-year old. It's about time we break the stereotype of a jock. Hmm, but we did have Jonathan Bennett in Mean Girls (2004). So, shall we say, the comeback. The Channing Tatum, Robert Hoffman, Travis Van Winkle, and Alexander Ludwig will have their ball back in their court, but right now, the fantasy has turned down a notch. A foul to unrealistic expectations of a football player (ha, took that one out from a feminist).

Ex. Nat Wolff in Ashby (2015).

The 5th Wave is a sci-fi alien invasion chick flick. It has its own charm. Kind of like your Gyllenhaal-Rossum quiet storm in The Day After Tomorrow (2004). The world is ending, everyone dead or dying, no electricity nor running water - yet Moretz is not a day sleep deprived, but amid the row and mess, there's romance. And it only gets interesting! Robinson, particularly, a significant role shift, while Russovoir is still processing to the idea, when he's in military uniform, through combat training, let alone holding a gun - yet still the alpha dog in his unit. It was a personal moment; he's not carefree like he was in The Kings of Summer anymore. While Russovoir is fully aware this is what an actor does, Wildcats jersey to shirtless, allow him to occasionally bask in the sweet summer warm welcome of a king.

 

Star Wars: Revenue of the Seats

It was all good, all good that the Star Wars franchise comes out from the dark side and on the spotlight for the eclipsical fandom. Russovoir sympathizes for them because he was once, always, part of a fandom, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hunger Games, e.g. We get it. Especially since the last episodic Star Wars feature was a decade ago (not including the 2008 computer-animated  Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman, clear as day, was a match made couple galaxy far far away - heroic, the kind of romance the journey is admired ultimately when gazed as a constellation.

The story, the worlds, including family tree and galactic empire ranking, is nothing short of impressive. George Lucas, hats off.

Portman and Christensen in Revenge of the Sith (2005).

Until recently, besides Russovoir never followed through since because of personal reasons, long after Star Wars of Lucasfilm Ltd. was sold for $4 billion in 2012, Disney has become the very mascot they profitably represent: a rodent. The 'corporation clout' has had been right under our feet, and infested the channels of film distribution. It's like they're making (so much) money off of someone else's work to recover from the $200-million snafu with John Carter (2012).

Revered screenwriter/director, while he didn't come up with lightsabers and the Jedi clergy; he only took 'experience point' type of action/adventure quest to bloodbath and carnage in Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino, a while now, has a gift for us Tarantino fans and movie goers altogether this holiday season. The gift of The Hateful Eight, starring Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, and Christoph Waltz. The proof is in the filming when this eight feature of Tarantino is impressively shot in actual film. The extent of this directorial choice didn't affect Russovoir until it was recently explained (in his defense, he's concerned of the storytelling than film equipment). Simply put, Tarantino films are made by film stock, not digital. A film stock is that sheet of plastic film base (below left) used to record motion pictures, the linchpin of traditional filmmaking, whereas digital video (below right), also known as camcorder, video camera, or camera, is a newer recording device by which of encoded digital data, while understandably is efficient and universal, serious filmmakers including but not limited to Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, and J.J. Abrams frown upon digital video in making films because 'cinematic' picture is always compromised.

Film stock

Digital Video

The point of all this is here: Arclight Hollywood Cinerama Dome.

Granted these big shot filmmakers are doing the same thing differently, there must be some kind of order, and etiquette among each other. You would think so, but apparently not. In a radio interview with Howard Stern, Tarantino awakens the force:

“We were gonna play at the Cinerama Dome on the 25th. We were gonna open there and play there exclusively for two weeks. And ‘Star Wars’ was gonna play the two weeks before us. I grew up in LA, so I think of the Cinerama Dome as a real big deal and imagine seeing it at the Cinerama Dome. So the thing about it was, Disney, who owns ‘Star Wars,’ decided ‘Well, you know what? Maybe we wanna play throughout the entire holiday season.’ So, we’re gonna go to the Cinerama Dome and say that they can’t honor their contract with us to show the ‘Hateful Eight.’ And the Archlight people that own the Cinerama Dome said, ‘No, no, you can’t do that, we have a deal with The Hateful Eight.'

As of [yesterday], Disney came to the Archlight people and said, ‘No, you are going to play Star Wars in the Cinerama Dome for the entire holiday season. And if you don’t, if you honor your deal with The Hateful Eight, we will not allow you to have ‘Star Wars’, the biggest movie in the world, we will not allow you to show it at any of your Archlight theater... It’s vindictive, it’s mean, and it’s extortion. They literally threatened the Archlight to do this."

Now, Russovoir knows what you're thinking. No, he's not writing this because he loves Tarantino to bits and he'll do anything for him. It just so happens Tarantino is an influential filmmaker, which compounds, alarms, and escalates the issue by itself because it's Tarantino, and he's such a good man. If it were somebody else, maybe not, because 1) they might have no use of Cinerama Dome on the novice choice of digital over expensive 70MM film resolution, and/or simply 2) not well-connected to market and distribute their film. Again, this is Quentin Tarantino. He obviously has a reason why he chose to premiere his film on Christmas day. It's heavily snowing in his film for God's sake, maybe that's why. So the characters in fur coats in the film don't come off weird to the audience - we don't know! He didn't just go 'Oh, Star Wars? The biggest film in the world? Yeah no, let's see about that'. There was a deal. And that deal was breached.

Greed.

What does this mean to all of us? To aspiring filmmakers? It's a new breed of a 'film buff', corporations who appear larger and think they can trample over a relatively smaller group of people, let alone an individual the luxury to showcase their earnest, life's work on the big screen - what will happen to Russovoir? He can't possibly file, let alone win a lawsuit against Disney! He's the type that cries in the corner if his movie didn't sell, but that's another story.

If it can happen to a Tarantino, it can happen to anyone (or maybe, it's been happening. In which case, it took a Tarantino to see it). Russovoir weeps for the industry; it's not fair play, it's foul ploy.

Support Quentin Tarantino and storytelling

 

The Hateful Eight

Dir. Quentin Tarantino

December 25, in select theaters

January 1, in theaters nationawide

The Revenant
Dir. Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu
December 25, in select theaters
January 8, in theaters nationwide

Joy
Dir. David O. Russell
December 25, in theaters nationwide

Playing in theaters now, Russovoir highly RUSSO-mends these films:

In the Heart of the Sea

Dir. Ron Howard

Sisters

 Dir. Jason Moore

 

 

Perlas Ng Silanganan.

Heneral Luna will not win an Oscar*. This isn't some anti-Filipino statement, and that Philippine Cinema is undeserving of international acclaim. The opposite, actually. What Russovoir would like to call in mind is, Heneral Luna, as it's always been, and either A) they take this movie review positively and do something or B) take this movie review negatively and do nothing (this is what Russovoir is here for), is still a working progress; it lacked style, it lacked sense, and directorial choices that threw off the experience**.

Founder and General of the first military academy of the Philippines, Antonio Luna is an influential figure in Philippine history. Absolutely necessary to immortalize (not literally. Luna was shot many times, stabbed, and finally a bullet through the eye killed him, whereas the one stray bullet to his Waterbury button, he didn't think twice committing suicide? Russovoir understood the meaning of both, yet they contradict in logic) his seminal contributions in a film, no question. Luna's influence is so great and arguably, heroic that the genre in which his presence, power, and prodigy must be classified as an epic. We can achieve epic in a motion picture in a number of ways, including but not limited to lighting, shadowing, blocking, camera shot and movement (and not the tawdry head exploding from a gun shot). As far as Russovoir can remember, from which really what the audience 'take away' and talk about after, there were only two camera techniques (not including subtext, one of which was Luna's flashback sequence, however inaptly shot) applied, the wind that erected the Philippine flag inside; it was effectively creative.

A scene inspired from Juan Luna's 1884 Spoliarium.

Sitting through two hours is no joke. We have to keep our audience interested. Do not confuse your genuine interest with nationalism. Russovoir is fully aware, and closely observing, Heneral Luna is a diamond in a haystack of shitty rom coms, and the first to premiere outside the cash cowing, cow milking, poor showcase of films at the annual Metro Manila Film Festival. Let us not cloud our judgement with Philippine pride. Anyway, so, in the two hours sitting, there was too much dialogue. Some lines, absolutely, stirring and winning, and other times, we can do without. A film, Russovoir learned in the years of film school, is the language of pictures. How one scene affects the next. And if you're brilliant enough, how a scene suggests something else (picture above). It's what you show, and don't show that makes the film compelling. No dialogue, just cinematic composition.

Stop. Russovoir is not here to lecture. He surely wasn't insisting on perfection. That isn't relevant, because Philippine Cinema is far behind, but slowly adapting to international standard. Director Jerrold Tarog must already know this, but impeded by funding, and daresay a competent workforce. Russovoir cannot blame him. Russovoir cannot blame anyone. We do what we know, yet despite all, Heneral Luna is absolutely a zeitgeist in Philippine independent cinema apart from the mundane mainstream, like the separation of church from government.

*opinion expressed is solely based on educated forecast

**not the historical accuracy, for which all creative liberties were respected, assuming in-depth research prior to filming was done

The August Line Up: What Should Have You Watched.

August of wind passed, and it's September. Wake me up when September ends - are you Filipino? Merry Christmas! - posts - September, be good to me, that's another one - are, or more recently, have had been to our scrolling attention on our Facebook NewsFeed.

Here. Wake up! Russovoir has left behind movies back in August, and you must forgive him. He had already long decided to do this, life just has a funny way of switching the lanes of his train of thought. And probably because Russovoir celebrated his 25th (chuckles).

5. Final Girl

Light and shadows. Tyler Shields' Final Girl is curiously attractive because of his exorbitant, almost rebellious display of shadows. We say rebellious because, manipulation of light and shadows should complement (not to be confused with compliment) the world in which the characters live in. Too bright, too dark, or among cinematographers' jargon, overexposed and underexposed, are a big no-no because it throws the audience off, making it seem therefore 'conscious camera', a fourth wall, rather a subsidiary, occurrence where the audience is aware of the camera, tricks and trade encompassing. Obviously it was a directorial choice to shine a light excessively (picture below), remove and add light unusually, creating these hard and ominous shadows, angelic and flattering close ups, that to a keen eye, one cannot help ask where the light is coming from, especially as we assume these scenes are 'realistically' set.

Abigail Breslin as Veronica

This 'cinemantic' (cinema + antics), should we say, primarily stirred Russovoir's attention, agitatedly to the prevention of the crystallization of boredom. Speaking on behalf of director Tyler Shields, this stylistic approach, newfangled and playful, worked effectively into the story he's trying to tell, a group of preppy, high school senior boys on a blonde girl killing sport, until secret agent Veronica dyes her hair. Cast, including but not limited to the aptly charismatic display of Alexander Ludwig (The Hunger Games, 2012), significantly added weight to the investment of this 90-minute film. Don't tell Russovoir these still images don't speak to you:

4. When Animals Dream 

Midnight Son (2011) is one of Russovoir's personal favorite vampire films. Reminiscent thereof, Scandinavian film When Animals Dream tapped into the same concept, but with an execution differently.

Sonia Suhl as Marie

What works here is love; how established it is between a husband and [catatonic] wife, how fast it developed and how strong it could become. It's formulaic: she turns into an animal, and those who wronged her will taste her wrath. Overall, the film makes you vulnerably human (unless you're an animal), even going so far as fantasizing of a similar fate (right, animals can dream).

3. Cop Car

There are movies that are fast-paced, the action happens right away, exciting and exhilarating. On the other hand, there are films that require patience. Over time, Russovoir's patience has had slowly lain out like a roll of film. And clever enough - thank you! - his patience stops as the film ends. Cop Car, actually, isn't the first nor the only one. Coincidentally enough, as it happens, Robert Pattinson is fun to watch post-Twilight - talented actor, Remember Me (2010) and The Rover (2014) had a slow pacing, but just like the seed that grows into a tree, it takes time. After which, in fact, these slow-paced stories are effective, especially when they can uproot one's bearings.

Two unattended kids found a cop car, and drove it. Guess they wanted a little danger in their boring summer, before school starts. Then there was an awesome cut, sly even, taking us back in time to introduce a fork in the road, so to speak. Kevin Bacon enters, tense as though being held at gunpoint, which soon we come to realize he could've had been, after all what is a police officer's day's work. Why go through all the trouble to get the car? What's to become for the two troublemakers? Exoneration or execution? Good cop, or bad cop? Original story writing, Cop Car is an effectively slow-paced film.

2. The Gift

Russovoir must say, it was a difficult decision, especially because The Gift and American Ultra are both original stories*

Joel Edgerton as Gordo

Disturbing, and yet satisfying, The Gift is, simply put, a different anti-bullying film. Different as the operative, yet simple description. Normally, in anti-bullying films, the victim(s) is/are portrayed as soft and frail, a helpless and eternal loser. The story bypassed all of that, hoping to achieve that there shouldn't be a mold a victim fills into to fit the label. The worst thing is to give a bully a composite. They aren't going to be always soft, frail, helpless or a loser for long. That's when bullies watch out for.

Jason Bateman as Simon

Once a bully, always a bully, Jason Bateman champions being a bully. A performance whose deception was a charming face until the mask came off. On the other hand, Joel Edgerton champions being a doormat. Gestures of goodwill, and at one point still had cowered under his bully's fist, are a deception to the final gesture of revenge.

"Revenge is a deed best served conceived." - RUSSOVOIR.

1. American Ultra (Movie of the Month - personally)

Screenwriter Max Landis was generous of his time enough to visit the movie house at the premiere night of his second, most anticipated film, American Ultra; the 30-year old has the sleeper success Chronicle (2012) under his belt. Having had a glass too many champagnes, understandably because he must've had already received raves of his film since that morning so he had been merrymaking, Russovoir will never forget what he said to us, as they say, drunk words are sober thoughts, "[This] film is the first film of the weekend of this month that isn't an adaptation."

The audience roared in applause.

Max Landis

Which is true. The film industry, particularly Hollywood has dedicated its time to adaptations, and sequels, and based on a true story stories, which is fine, Russovoir doesn't mind getting to know the life story of Bobby Fischer in Pawn Sacrifice (September 16), but there is little to no room for imagination in those aforementioned. What Landis is trying to convey here is that the art of movies is in the (he)art of storytelling. Stylistic approach and visual effects can follow (and just as important). But of course, American Ultra didn't lack visual effects; it embodied it, with which its screenplay is the skeletal component, Eisenberg and Stewart as its beating heart.

"Mike, I'm the tree, you've been the car."

The character arc is familiar, think Jason Bourne, where stoned and hipster boyfriend Mike Howell (Eisenberg) doesn't know he possesses a special set of skills of combat. And where else one could possibly acquire such advanced pseudo-superhuman training? Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). That, or the Russian counterpart KGB. Almost always, like the premise of I Am Number Four (2011), someone wants him dead because he's becoming, or already is a threat. Funny how Stewart and Teresa Palmer look alike. Russovoir himself confused them one time.

Why does this even matter? This matters because this brings us back to the asterisk placed. This top 5 films are original stories. As original as it can get. Meaning, while they're reminiscent of and/or of similar concept, what we always, always look for is the uniqueness of execution. American Ultra wins as an original film because, influentially by dialogue, onscreen chemistry was a gun to the holster. Also, such names are big both indie and mainstream, for which already marketed the film itself. And lastly, American Ultra wins original movie of the month because at least a person we now know is 'first line of defense', one film at a time, for fresh storytelling.

 

Man of the Month: Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal.

The name's Darko. Donnie Darko. The 2001 cult classic about an introverted boy just on the surface of time traveling, and because he's just your average, restless, high school boy, 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds until the 'world will end' was in one ear and out the other. The Donnie Darko saga was first, a sleeper success, then picked up its pace as though its days were numbered. The $7M worldwide yet cult phenomenon has shown a dramatic turnover that all its simplicities and complexities were at a significant period of time obsessed by, including the hypnotic, seductive, devil horns-silhouette performance of 21-year old then Jake Gyllenhaal.

One could argue that's the beginning of the end of Gyllenhaal's grapple for future film roles; they were lined up for him because his momma had told him to strike when the iron's still hot. Yes, he was here, he was there, all but comme ci comme ça, until the world literally ended, as though Frank the Rabbit was off only by three years, in The Day After Tomorrow (2004). Remember? While the entire New York froze over by a hurricane-like super storm, Gyllenhaal and the gallantry of his character in the middle of it all is like a cone of soft serve ice cream coated in hot chocolate (he's the hot chocolate). A precocious college student whose innocent arrogance of not showing solutions on his math test because he did all the solving in his head, later frustrate us to learn the world is going to end, and this boy, confined mostly within the walls of a classroom, could possibly lack the skills to survive, but we're rooting for him because, besides being one of the lead, if you're going to be that boring and predictable, he must have learned a thing or two from his paleoclimatologist father (Dennis Quiad). Among other scenes we love of Gyllenhaal and about his character, the blanket scene warmed, even melted us at an otherwise freezing place.

"I'm using my body heat to warm you."

After which, Gyllenhaal has seen himself mounting on a high horse, literally too with the late Heath Ledger, for the Academy Award-winning film Brokeback Mountain (2006). Moved the world for its portrayal of masculine gay romance, two cowboys, minimal, powerful - as opposed to gratuitous - sex scenes, not only supporting gay rights, but most pivotal, toning down the loudness of the stereotype.

"I wish I knew how to quit you."

Zodiac (2007), Rendition (2007), Brothers (2009), Source Code (2012) - it's like looking at a resume and seeing solid work experience. And only recently, the dangerously dedicated 30-pound weight loss to a weighted performance and consuming story of Dan Gilroy in Nightcrawler (2014). It was a performance so palpably riveting, Gyllenhaal's disappearance at the 2015 Academy Awards, while kudos to Eddie Redmayne of The Theory of Everything, had made Russovoir want to punch someone. But he's not into violence, so we're just going to let that slide, and cross our fingers for Southpaw.

Russovoir gives credit to where it is due. One of which, one especially gives batting of the eyes of disbelief and awe, is the (drastic) physical immersion for the role. Russovoir believes that when an actor goes out of their comfort zone to satisfy the existent or nonexistent caveat of a role, losing weight, gaining weight, mimicry of accent, gait, overall attitudes and eccentricities, besides classified as method acting, it is the single, solid proof of effective acting. Gyllenhaal isn't the only one; there are obviously many, and they have been duly celebrated: Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Eddie Redmayne, Meryl Streep (Iron Lady, 2011), Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables, 2012), to name a few.

Southpaw draws our attention to the bone because it seems only recently Nightcrawler came out, and he was scraped off of fat. Six months later, we see this ripped and resilient Gyllenhaal in a boxing ring, rambunctious, rancorous, radiant. This shouldn't surprise Russovoir anymore, as there is already a method to the madness, but it always does; it makes Russovoir happy that amid the reboots, remakes, sequels, and for a lack of a better word, gross films this year, there is/are film(s) that stand(s) out, keeping the film industry almost, again, sidereal: even stars have to burn to shine.

Russovoir is as excited as the next person for the storyline of Southpaw; it looks bad ass. While Christian Bale balled our eyes in The Fighter (2010). But to be completely honest, Russovoir just wants to see Gyllenhaal on the screen again, this time, 'put together' - little less Prince of Persia (2010), little more End of Watch (2012).

Southpaw, July 24