● It's been a while since I watched "Inception" but I am thankful to be blessed with a very good memory.*
Christopher Nolan wrote and directed this deeply psychological thriller that explores nuances of the dream world in a way only he would. Nolan is known for bold casting choices, but I won't spend much time discussing this aspect other than to mention that this film followed too close from "Shutter Island" for Leonardo DiCaprio. The actors are less important than the story of a team who can crack into people's dreams and influence their lives once they awake, and the goal of the haunted main character Cobb (DiCaprio) to be able to get back to the United States so he can see his kids after a years-long exile as a fugitive. We go through the process of how dreams are infiltrated and the rules the team has to follow to avoid being trapped in a dream, which has an exponential time element the further one goes into the subconscious. Then, the story converges --- Cobb is offered an end to his legal trouble if he will implant a thought into the head of a young heir whose father has died. The plan is to create a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream scenario, in order to implant the idea deeply enough. Gun-play and annoyingly slow slow-motion shots ensue. As with any psychological film worth its celluloid, the ending shot implants into our own minds the nagging
Nolan certainly doesn't like making films in the linear fashion. As with "Memento," this is not a movie where one can sit back, turn off the gray matter and simply be entertained. It requires audience thought. I'm not knocking it for these qualities --- after all, I watched LOST religiously. And like LOST, one of the biggest themes is letting go of the things that hold one back. But whereas Jack and Hurley deal with their reality as it has been determined by an unknown something (God/The Island/Fate/Destiny/Time itself), Cobb's dreams about his wife's suicide (because, as a result of the dream-toying, she didn't think the real world was real, and thought it would wake her up. And she may have been right) and her rage, keep him from being able to move on. Nolan has said that he left his ending slightly ambiguous, but he prefers to believe that Cobb was reunited with his children and that's all that matters. Whether this reunion is real is secondary. Overall, "Inception" was an enjoyable film that inspires thought. And it was a blockbuster, raking in an estimated $160 million, according to an industry figure. Psychological thrillers, in my view, have a tougher row to hoe to be worthy of the Best Picture Oscar, and this didn't do enough.
● "The Fighter" is a story of boxer Micky Ware and his half-brother, Dicky Eklund, who acts as his trainer, in mid-'80s Lowell, Mass. While boxing is at the core of the film, the story focuses on their Irish-American family issues and the crack cocaine addiction of Dicky, the former "pride of Lowell" who knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard --- but lost the fight --- years before. Christian Bale, who has garnered a Best Supporting Actor nomination as Dicky, displays his usual physical commitment to the character, dropping a considerable amount of weight to show Dicky's cocaine-ravaged body. The main conflict is in the brothers' vie for attention from their family, mostly their mother, Alice, played by Melissa Leo, who earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for the role.
There are many times where anyone who hasn't lived in the northeast might wonder if people like Micky's sisters really existed. And the answer is, yes --- and there are quite a few of them still around. Same 'Big Hair,' same defensive cattiness, same purposelessness. They really didn't have to look very hard for location shots, as the tract apartment buildings of Lowell still provide that '80s sense of lower-class living conditions.
The prevailing thoughts I had while watching "The Fighter" was of slapping all of these people upside the head and screaming, "WHAT THE F--- ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE?!!? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!" In many ways, the family dynamic is commonplace as a rougher version of the "Beverly Hillbillies" meme, where testosterone and estrogen flow in the air, people seem to think that arguments are won by whomever is loudest, and the leader of the show is the most-organized, chain-smoking, control-freak buffoon of the bunch who appoints herself as manager of the books.
Micky, for a reason perhaps only those who live in the situation can explain, doesn't want to abandon his family even though doing so would bring him a greater chance at success. But there are many characters with this same almost inexplicable devotion to family --- mostly Alice, who refuses to face Dicky's addictions even after finding him twice 8jumping into garbage bins out of the back of a crack-house where he has holed up with his drug-addled friends. There's a poignant moment where she appears ready to burst, before Dicky starts singing a weak rendition of the Bee Gees' "I Started a Joke" and pathetically emphasizing "but I couldn't see / that the joke was on me."
As the story progresses, Dicky's incarceration forces him to get clean and sober, but he also wants to do this because he finally realizes the effect of his drug use on his son when he sees it through the lens of an HBO documentary. There is a lot that the cocaine has taken from Dicky that he will never get back, but he still has a sense about boxing.
This had a lot more going for it than I expected at first blush. As a period piece, it captures the '80s brilliantly. "The Fighter" still doesn't beat out "True Grit" for me, but it's occupying a respectable place as No. 2 in my ratings of the 10, so far.
All that remains is "The Kids Are All Right." I've got until tomorrow night to sneak it in. I'm not generally a fan of Annette Bening or this type of neo-rom-com, but you never know....
* Except for roads, which is a little weird, considering that my father's nickname is "Rand McNally." You can literally call him and say "Hey, I'm totally lost in Hartford. There's a big red building with silver numbers 237 over the door and I need to get to the federal court for jury duty." Without a pause, he'll reply with something like, "OK, bang a left onto Columbus Boulevard and you should be coming up on a yellow newspaper box on the corner of Main...." It's no exaggeration. This was done about 10 years ago by my brother, with his friends in the car assuming that my dad somehow had a video feed. And he knows this for every town or city he's ever been to... and some he hasn't.
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