It’s a nice word.  But what is it?

It is an origin.  A beginning of sorts.  The start.

Now, it will be defined as a cinematic masterpiece by Christopher Nolan.  And well it should.

Nolan’s Inception is a journey through the deepest levels of the mind and reality…a rare event that will unite scientist, science fiction buff, action lover, and spiritualist alike.  Indeed, these groups, as well as the casual viewer, can sit side-by-side in the theater, drawn into this insane tale of chaos and perfect sense.

Leonardo DiCaprio is Cobb, an elusive man with an even more elusive past, who carries a briefcase that holds the secret to entering your mind…and your dreams.  Once inside, he can take what he wants, or, in this case, leave what he wants.  Flanked by on-the-spot help including the surprisingly appropriate Ellen Page as Ariadne, and cool-as-a-cuke Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Cobb is on one last mission that could make or break him.  Literally.

The audience is left dangling off the high cliffs of reality, and I believe that is the key to Inception’s masterful touch.  We are often as disoriented as the characters, often not privy to information they are not.  Robbed of the usual in-the-know attitude, we sit on the edge of our seats as solid drama plays out in levels of reality normally reserved for a good night’s sleep or the deep subconscious.

The stakes are high and the action is real.  DiCaprio’s performance is a masterful blend of blank expression that masks deep secrets, and an intensity and passion for inception.  What he keeps out of public view cannot help but seep in while “on the job,” and his unintended disregard for his compatriots only adds to a character complexity rarely seen on the big screen these days.

I could tell you about Inception from start to finish.  I could describe each scene in detail and let you in on the twists and turns.  I could give away the beginning, middle, and end.

And it wouldn’t make a difference.  You would still be lost.  You would still enjoy the movie.  Trust me.

For those of you who meditate, explore the subconscious, study particle physics, or just love to be challenged and entertained, Inception is your imaginary cup of tea.  But make sure you grip your popcorn tight…it’s the one thing that will keep you anchored to reality.

-josh

I saw the movie that I’ve been waiting for, for a long, long time.

I saw “Hot Tub Time Machine.”

John Cusack?  Brilliant.  Rob Corddry?  Insane.  Chevy Chase?  Bizarre.  The squirrel?  Well, he’s great, too.

Don’t go into “Hot Tub Time Machine” expecting anything.  Don’t look upon it as a meditation on the futility of life or the broken promises of destiny.  Don’t assume anything.

If you have that ‘assume nothing’ attitude, you’ll have a good time.

And guess what?  You’ll get more than you expect!

Time Machine is more than a silly movie, although there are laughs galore.  It really does make you think about the question, “What if I could go back again?”  If you could go back to a defining day, or a momentous trip, what would you change?  How would you navigate the often-uneasy terrain between fate and free will?

Yeah, you’ll consider that.  Then you’ll laugh at a body fluid joke.  Then, you’ll ask the question again, right before you laugh at a sight gag.  Then, you’ll reminisce about your high school crush or that weekend getaway that changed your life, and you’ll choke up your cola as the group gets themselves into another stupid situation.

In other words, you’ll get something for your mental nothing!  (Remember?  You didn’t have expectations when you went in).

If you’re the kind of person that doesn’t take life too seriously, Hot Tub is for you.  If you go with a friend that analyzes everything and has to have deep and serious all the time, take them for a drink beforehand.

And if you both go in expecting nothing, you’ll get more for your $10 than you’ve gotten in a long time.  Maybe, say, for the last 25 years?

-josh

Quietly writing the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister.

Imagine, you are at a windswept beach house in a remote part of Massachusetts.  The roaring ocean, the rolling beach, a beautiful, spurned wife, some political issues…a murder…

Alright, at that point, your dream might start to break down, as it does for The Ghost (Ewan McGregor) in Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer”, based on the novel by Robert Harris.

McGregor is hired to finish the prematurely ended memoirs of Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan).  But what starts as a well-paying ghost-writing job quickly turns into mystery and mayhem, as The Ghost, writer-turned-investigator, is flushed deeper and deeper into the toilet of politics and family strife, that has roots much deeper than the surface.

The brilliance of Polanski’s movie is the crossing of intrigue, drama, and humor that keeps us involved.  McGregor is any curious person at a new job – he wants details, and he doesn’t always know where the boundaries are.  Frustration mounts as suspicions mount, and we are treated to an inside look into a very complicated inter-country cesspool that, very likely, happens every day.  There are thinly veiled references to modern political problems that will keep the attentive viewer smiling, and McGregor’s pitch perfect performance is more than enough to keep you involved for all 120 minutes.

Brosnan’s Lang is brooding and angry, counterbalancing McGregor’s nonchalant demeanor.  Both turn in terrific performances, as does Olivia Williams as Lang’s wife, Ruth.

Although you may start to put the pieces together a little faster than McGregor, “The Ghost Writer” is well worth it.

And, while you’re watching think about all the things in your life that you wanted…that you wished for…that you thought would give you freedom or peace (money, work, etc…).  Then, as you watch McGregor bang his head against the brick wall of political reality, think to yourself, “Should I be more careful what I wish for?”

-josh

To be our own person.

To cast tradition into the wind and break free of the bonds of those who would hold us back.

Ah, the dream of Alice.

Alice in Wonderland, the latest offering from the team of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, certainly scores points in the “giving me things to think about category” although I’m not sure it is one I would rush to think about again.  Burton’s Alice, the captivatingly airy Mia Wasikowska, finds herself in a tough predicament.  Marry a man she does not love or…run.

(SPOILER ALERT COMING UP!)

She runs.

And falls.

Down the hole she goes into a world of red queens, mad hatters, talking rabbits, and eye-poking mice.  The Burton-esque world that awaits is surely one viewers will find tantalizing, filled with digital creatures and dreary backgrounds (of course), but the quality certainly suits the mood of the movie and does much where the rest fails.  Alice has her hero’s journey and we root for her, but there was something in it all that seemed to come up short.  Depp is, as always, worth the price of admission, but don’t expect that you won’t regret missing at least some of that $10 you spent.

However, despite that, we are certainly given the chance to consider, like Alice, if we are making the most of our lives…are we only in the dreams of Wonderland wandering, or do we take life by the horns and face a new destiny of our own design?

With friends like Depp, we would be brave, too.  But for those of us who live in the real world, Alice’s story is something to consider.  If we have dreams, and we live in reality, then when they merge, that is where beauty can be found.

In essence, we can live the dream…even if Burton’s film leaves us feeling somewhat sleepy.

-josh

I am not schooled in the art of war.

But one does not need such schooling to be carried away by the intensity and profundity of Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (2009; DVD 2010).  He or she only needs to have something they want to live for…something they care about…to feel the emotions that are quietly rampant through Bigelow’s work.

After its stunning Oscar trip, I decided to check it out on DVD and was, quite to my non-surprise, blown away.

The Hurt Locker, written by Mark Boal, is a harrowing look at the Army’s secretive bomb disposal unit that disarms bombs in combat zones.  The search for wires, fuses, and corpses (yes, bombs can be hidden in humans) is intense, and the documentary-esque, hand-held camera intensifies the already suspense-filled scenes.  Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd’s the ‘audience-as-fourth-in-the-humvee’ at times is suffocating and overbearing in the most exhilarating sense.

The movie follows a three-man team, Sergeant Will James (Jeremy Renner), Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie), and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) of Bravo Company on their forays through Baghdad, investigating and disposing of explosives.  The performances are raw and intense, as each man, through his courage, also harbors secret hopes and dreams that makes the countdown to home ever more excruciating, as each call could mean the end.  Following these men into the heroic and the insane sets the senses on edge.

As I watched the movie, I was taken by a range of emotions, such as the often perceived inanity of war and the undeniable pressure on brave men and women that is necessary to protect others from the absurdity of enemy war tactics that place civilian and army in like danger.  At times, one is led to question the veracity of Boal’s portrayal of the locals’ often laissez-faire investment in the almost-certain dangers they face every day, as they look on from rooftops and porches into skirmishes that might as well end with an offer of lemonade and a snack.

We can quibble with the Academy all day as to whether The Hurt Locker was the right choice for movie of the year.  However, one thing is clear:  the message it conveys, and how it conveys it with the thin $15 million budget it had, makes it an astounding cinematic achievement.

One certainly does not need schooling in movies or war to appreciate it.  One only need be a member of the human race, with hopes, desires, and a healthy sense of frustration.

-josh

We’ve heard it before, right?

Well, sometimes we see a classic movie from the past that seems to make that tidy little phrase come together in a way that we, and the director, did not expect.

And so it is with Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 masterpiece, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”.  Its true genius is that it was mocking the unchanging nature of war and politics in decades, and centuries, that were not yet come to pass.  This timelessness is the hallmark of many creations with staying power.  Consider a great book with timeless themes of power and darkness or a work of art that speaks to our sensibilities about love, sex, and enduring creativity.

And then, there’s the simple and complex motif of war…

In Kubrick’s world, as the bombing planes are set on their course for destruction inside Soviet Russia under Attack Plan R, a small group of D.C. insiders waits. And hopes.  And prays.  And so do the Soviets.  The world has no idea what is about to hit it.  Literally.

And neither do we!

Will the blunder of so few be the destruction of so many?  Do we love the bomb for its scare power, even when that fright is turned back on us?  I guess in this scenario, war is easy to make but hard to take.

Strangelove’s cast reads like a who’s who of Hollywood, and for this alone it is worth 95 minutes of your time.  Peter Sellers is of course impeccable in his three roles as Strangelove, President Muffley, and Captain Mandrake.  George C. Scott’s caricatured General Turgidson can make us bristle with horror at who may be at the helm of our weapons, or thankful for modern-day screening procedures.  Slim Pickens, Stirling Hayden, and James Earl Jones round out the bitter romp as men trapped in an unintended massacre, either by psychosis or duty.

As we are taken on this comical, nail-biting journey with the U.S. and Russian brass, we are swept away into a world that could very well be ours today.  Sure, the pieces have moved around the board a little and the hardware has changed, becoming somewhat more sophisticated, but what Stranglelove asks us, even if unintentionally, is “Does it matter what weapons we use if human nature stays the same?”

Watch Dr. Strangelove for yourself and decide if times have changed.  If you decide times have indeed changed, the next question you must ask is: for better or for worse?

-josh

The film festival was amazing.  It always is.  We saw many of our old friends who go on that same 10-day journey through the Palm Springs movie theaters.  There is a definite religious/ritualistic approach to the who thing.  Stand in line 60-90 minutes early, get your numbered ticket, get into the theater and sit in your favorite seat, plan your next movie, strike up 30 minute friendships with complete strangers and ask them what they’ve seen, make a film grid for yourself and then spend your days erasing, changing, and moving around, and sit over dinner and interpret, interpret, interpret.  A film festival is not just about seeing movies.  It’s about seeing ourselves reflected in thousands of miles of film.

I have a friend who says she loves the festival because she can “see the world in a week.” And she’s right.  We visited a sumo training camp in Israel in A Matter of Size, hit a ranch in rural Australia in Beautiful Kate, tried to swin the English Channel in Welcome, and traveled New Zealand with the Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls.

And, it’s inspiring.  You sit through some of these works and you feel alive…motivated…like you could take on the world.

All you have to do is sit through a screening of Norway’s Max Manus, and you will want to fight to change the world!  And, even if you can’t find a place in your life for espionage, you realize what an amazing difference one motivated person can make.  Or, you can laugh your way through USA’s Artois the Goat, and marvel at what some kids can do with a $50,000 budget.  The almost-oppressive silence of Australia’s Samson and Delilah is a powerful reminder that our lives run amok in subtext, and that what is really important, need not be spoken.

Film reminds us that whether we believe our lives are in our control or out of control, we’re right.  We laugh with the irresponsibly lovestruck characters in Mediterranean Food or shake our heads at the injustices of life in Berlin ‘36, and wonder if we’ve loved enough or fought enough.

If we look deep enough into each person, we can find a story, and there is most certainly a director willing to take up the challenge of telling even the most seemingly-trivial details of a life.  Don’t believe me?  Play chess with a chamber maid in Queen to Play and think about if you’ve paid enough attention to your hobbies.  Can they become your passions?

Anyway, I’m home now.  But, like each January, I’m different somehow.  I’ve seen more, heard more, made new friends, and expanded my mind in new directions.  I’ve had a common experience with hundreds…thousands of others, from the ticket lines to the script lines.

And I absolutely cannot wait until next year’s journey.

I better get my passport ready.

-josh