More the Book of Kells, Less the Secret of Kells- Review

This oscar nominated animated film from Cartoon Saloon and first time director Tomm Moore is full of tragedy but it's also hopeful, full of color imagery and a stylistic sense of animation. This is a unique film, with an interesting premise and a beautiful surrounding fantastical world. Although the Vikings really get a bad reputation here.

The film begins with Brendan, an Abbot in training under his uncle Abbot Cellach (the fairly noticeable voice of Brendan Gleeson) chasing after a rooster (pretty funny). After having lived in the Abbey fortress of a place called Kells his entire life, he begins to feel contained inside of its walls. And so drops in Aidan of Iona, a illuminating wanderer who carries with him an unfinished but mythical book and a cat Pangur Bán (which is based on a poem that is very evident in the film). Aidan tempts Brendan to leave Kells and enter the forest, despite the fact that there is an evil dark force (actual black figures, pure evil) that is contained in the forest and a slowly approaching army of barbarians. The rest of the movie centers around Brendan's training as Aidan's apprentice and his friendship to a fairy/wolf spirit named Aisling (sounded like Ashley in the theater).

The animation is beautiful, shown through this sequence of war:


and this portrait shot of Brendan meeting with Aisling at one point:


While not greater than Up or Coraline, (Liked it more than Fantastic Mr. Fox, despite it being a Wes Anderson film, and The Princess and the Frog), I loved it all the same. 2010 was a good year for animation and I would recommend this film to most people. There is an interesting 2D animation against some 3D backdrop that provides an interesting look to the film, if that were the only reason to see it. Overall the plot seems like it would have been better if it were extended, as the film manages to skip ahead in time to show an adult Brendan. While the whole film centers on Brendan's innocence, he suddenly becomes an adult and then the film is over. But then again, maybe that was a point the film was trying to reveal. The fact that innocence is fleeting, and it is always over before we want it to. Only, behind the christian ideology, strong imagery, traditional irish music, this concept could be lost.

- Jeff Bassin

Buried with Suspense!

"Buried", a film by Rodrigo Cortés and written by Chris Sparling was released January 23 at the Sundance film festival and has yet to be released to general audiences. While I wasn't able to make it down to Utah for the fest, I was recently able to read the screenplay. First things first, here's the general plot, as long as you haven't seen the trailers.

The story opens in complete darkness with Ryan Reynolds' character Paul Conroy, your hardworking truck driving everyman, buried in a small casket deep under Iraqi ground (OHhHhhh, the that's what the title refers to). Inside of this small prison, Conroy finds only a few things: a pen, lighter, cellphone, and eventually a box provided by his captors. Without revealing to much of the plot, the rest of the film explores Conroy's struggle to escape this sand surrounded death with only a few minutes to breathe. Conveniently enough for the plot's sake, Conroy has one bar of reception for the cell phone so he can use the phone to make outgoing calls. Throughout the journey, Conroy makes calls to his work, family, friends, and even his alzheimer stricken mother, only to find hope in a leader of a search and rescue team, Dan Brenner, played by Robert Paterson (No, not Robert Pattinson, this is not a typo). He also eventually learns this cellphone was provided by his captors, a group of mysterious men that provide the political agenda of this film. While the movie never really addresses all its characters to properly, we are, in every sense of the words, given a very suspense film that plays with the audiences desire for Conroy to survive. Test after test, call after call, Conroy never seems to lose hope, and thus the audience keeps its head held high while he struggles with a lack of oxygen, fire ants, and the demands of the captors, led by the kind of stereotypical Jabir, played by José Luis García Pérez (although I suppose that is the point). At the center of this film is the conflict with mankind's resources and because of this, the film makes one question how many would be able to save you if you were in the same situation. Also there is a claustrophobic feel to Conroy's lack of an ability to move.

Despite the complaints that this film steals the idea from Quentin Tarantino's implementations in movies like Kill Bill vol. 2 and the episode of CSI episode "Grave Danger", this film comes out on its own, much more like that movie "Phone Booth" with Colin Farrell. I was especially surprised and relieved that the entire film was set in the box because this film also then becomes a test of the budget constraints versus the entertainments factor. As an independent film, it does everything it can to make itself as professional as it can, and after reading the script's fast paced style, realism definitely becomes a factor.

"Every minute counts" would have made a good tagline for this movie, especially since it would have been a double entendre for the style this film creates. Conroy is always on the move (figuratively, of course) and is doing his best throughout the movie to survive. Despite some scenes depicting Conroy's frustration and anger towards the box (completely understandable frustration and anger, I mean, he is trapped in a box and slowly suffocating), Sparling's script excites for every moment he can get out of the 80 paged script.

- Jeff Bassin