Reviews

Disney's Wreck it Ralph presents as an animation visual thrill ride through multiple video game worlds, the audience is besot with comic gags and punchy one liners but is ultimately left to believe that while we are all interconnected we also exist within the restricted confines of our own social strata. Through survey of film theories in Structuralism, Constructivism, Post-Structuralism, Post-Modernism, Post-Humanism and finally Super-modernity it may be proved that such children's fantasy entertainment posits social expectations within the impressionable spectator. Wreck it Ralph as a mainstream entertainment vehicle lends credence to the empowerment of the individual whom does not feel accepted by the status quo through recognition that as individuals we must determine our own self-worth within our respective cultures.

Welcome to the South The final installment of the Metro-Detroit Italian Film Festival (2012) featured director Luca Minero's Benvenuti al sud, Welcome to the South (2011). The venue of Royal Oak's new Emagine Theatre was filled to capacity and resulted in the always unfortunate scenario of turning away hundreds of would be patrons. The film begins with Alberto Colombo (Claudio Bisso) as a civil servant of the Italian-Postale. Alberto has been passed up for promotion to a coveted Milan position and following a comical yet ill-fated attempt to secure another such opening is assigned to two years postale purgatory in Italy's southern region. Alberto's wife Silvia (Angela Finocchiaro) chooses to remain in the civilized north while Alberto is subjected to his penance. The ensuing journey is a farcical romp through social stereotypes and false assumptions which leads Alberto to re-evaluate his own system of beliefs. Steeped in Italian cinemas rich history of neo-realism and romanticism it seems that amore' is the parallel undercurrent to the film. Love reigns supreme beneath the comical veneer, as southern mama's boy Mattia Volpe (Alessandro Siani) garners courage to express his affections for local bellissima Maria (Valentina Lodovini). Alberto and Silvia teeter on the brink of their faltering relationship and her brave trip to the south will either break them or change them forever. A wonderful introspective on pre-conceived notions that prove false wrong when people understand one another combined with breathtaking scenery of Italy's southern coastal regions make this a film for all the world to enjoy. The sequel Welcome to the North (2012) should prove to be equally entertaining as the noteworthy cast of Alberto's friends invade the northern regions. Caio!

What begins as a slow freight train of the slogging political campaign trail picks up to become a downward spiraling vortex in which no player escapes unscathed. The checkerboard of dirty politicking gets uglier as the stakes are raised in a game of secrets and lies. George Clooney as the Director moves his pieces about his role of Presidential hopeful and sitting Governor like moons orbiting Jupiter. The central core of his moral servitude destabilizes and results in the collision of those caught in his gravitational pull. Ryan Goslin gives a dark and stormy performance as the kid who will do what it takes to stay in the game. Evan Rachel Wood who is hard pressed to pass for twenty lends a subtle seductress sans innocent intern credibility. Paul Giomantii creates a swarthy opponent to the Morris campaign, He don't drink no F---in Merlot and He didn't order any F---in Buffalo Wings! Phillip Seymour Hoffman gives an incredible level of believability and proves that great acting is knowing when to shut your trap. Marrisa Tomei blends in beautifully as the reporter hot on the trail, she's a bloodhound that is going to sniff out what she can from the campaign. Very well done, and hat's off to George for not stealing the show.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher, 2011) concerns the interaction of two characters who are dipoles on the social spectrum. The wrapper of the mystery and acts of aggression committed by or against them serve to enamor the spectator to Lisbeth Salander (Mara Rooney) and Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig). The character Lisbeth is title namesake and hence the primary protagonist. Lisbeth is the first character to appear in the film as she engulfs the spectator in the opening credit title sequence. The primordial ink stained technological opening denotes the subconscious processing of present and early traumatic events in the dragon girls dream-nightmare life. From this point forward Lisbeth remains an enigma of feminism exploited. In the tradition of fetishism of female protagonists, Lisbeth falls somewhere between horror and pornography. She is broken up, dissected and split between the two genres as both victim and hero. The sadomasochistic aspects unleashed upon our hero have her pinned into the corner of inescapable social conformity that has been thoroughly corrupted by perpetrators of the administration. She is obviously not a nice girl and as such must be punished for her non conformity. Director David Fincher gives us this punishment beyond what we may have imagined. This added level of pure sadism inflicted upon Lisbeth and physicality of abuse leaves her character totality stripped of any humanistic element, there is little choice for her other than to curl up and die or fight for her life. It leaves the spectator with the feeling, "well she did not deserve that!" and questioning their own system of beliefs and morality. Reacting as a caged animal would, she lashes back at the audience in the psychic castration most feared by the phallus wielding spectator. The audience is more than elated by her resilience and exacting revenge against the atrocities committed, indeed it has been quite some time since I have witnessed such an outburst of cheers elicited from todays placated spectators. Her vengeance is not only for herself individually but for female victims everywhere. As is the trend of modern cinema, the character has become a vessel for the spectator ego-ghost, and we are given a protagonist that is a blank canvas upon which we paint.

Trnet Reznor's sound-image adds considerably to the film. I especially enjoyed Lisbeth's scream/roar on the subway escalator. The NIN t-shirt plug is a little cliché. Fincher does a nice job, in Hitchcockian fashion, of building suspense and downplaying they more graphic elements as contained in the original version. It was an excellent film and Fincher is at the top of his game, although the general public still may not recognize his name as much as more celebrated Directors.

Excerpt: The Ego-Ghost Theory: "The oscillation continues between the inner (RIS) Spheres as sustained elevated duration enables reading of a complete cinematic language. The double level communication structure exists between the Ego-Ghost and the Screen Universe itself. Complete cinematic language as interpreted by the Ego-Ghost is provided in transference as a psychic imprint to the outer (RIS) Spheres of the Ego.

Future trends with respect to the Cinema can be observed in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The Ego-Ghost as inhabitant of the characters of Lisbeth Salander and Mickael Blomkvist moves beyond the screen universe. As the characters seek to solve the mystery, they, and we as their inhabitants, are drawn into the spectacle of home movies, multi frame still images, computer video media and audio-visual evidence. This spectacle within the spectacle may produce an additional level of (RIS) essentially inverting the model again and the producing a perceptive refection that the events and evidence are in effect real".

The film Lifeboat (1944) contains racial discriminative elements resulting from the PCA code failure to follow it's own primary principle of disallowing creation of entertainment that does harm to human beings in lowering the moral standards of those who see it. Drafted on March 31, 1930 the PCA omitted language of the initial meeting minutes that would have provided protection from willful offensive treatment of race. The review process for the film Lifeboat addresses individual censorship concerns only in relation to the moralistic behavior of white passengers. In contrast, the review poses no restriction nor objection to the 20th Century Fox Studios negative portrayal and morally objectionable inferences imposed on the sole African American character. Furthermore, it allowed for the continued representation of the stereotypical socially denigrated Negro at a time when movie viewing on a national scale was approaching its peak attendance. For both blacks and whites such portrayals caused harm to the moral fabric constitutionally governed that all men are created equal.