The Really Drawn-out Blog Cabins Decennial Spectacular: #9

Decennial, in case you're not hip to the term, means 1. relating to or lasting for ten years, or 2. occurring every ten years. It's really a word that we should hear more often. Anyway, this will be my series where I count down my favorites from the last decade, and since I don't plan on it taking 10 years to finish, we're going to go with the second definition.

Previous day's posts:
12/21: Intro/#10: Idiocracy

Number 9 on the RD-oBCDS is...

Children of Men (2006)
It's funny that Neil Blonkamp was raked over the coals for turning District 9 from a faux-documentary about serious social issues in South Africa into a balls-to-the-wall sci-fi action film in its second half. Three years earlier, Alfonso Cuaron did the same thing with Children of Men.

Then again, Cuaron, working from an excellent piece of source material, did it a lot better, which is why this film is on the list of the decade's ten best and Blonkamp's isn't (though it might pop up in another list at a later date).

Worldwide infertility. Immigration. A government at odds with its people. Like the best science fiction, Children melded these big issues with world-class action, technological advances, and (oh by the way) some of the best camera work you'll see in a theater, to say nothing of the A-list, Academy-bred cast, from star Clive Owen to Julianne Moore to Michael Caine and Chiwetel Ejiofor. What resulted was a contemplative action film that jolted your heart with a million volts of electricity and sent them all to your brain for processing.

And then...

A time and place for everything...

Daniel of Getafilm has hopped on the meme train. He's called it The Favorite Movie Period/Place Meme, but you're actually supposed to write about your favorite Martin Scorsese films. Ok, that's a blatant lie - he just doesn't like the title.

THE RULES:
1.) Think of a place (real or fictional) and time (past, present, future) portrayed in a movie (or a few) that you would love to visit.
2.) List the setting, period, applicable movie, and year of the applicable movie's release (for reference).
3.) Explain why, however you'd like (bullet points, list, essay form, screenshots, etc.). If this is a time and place that you have intimate knowledge of, feel free to describe what was done well and what wasn't done well in portraying it.
4.) If possible, list and provide links to any related movies, websites, books, and/or articles that relate to your choice (s).
5.) Modify Rules #1-4 to your liking. And come up with a better name for this meme.
6.) Link back to this Getafilm post in your post, please.
7.) Tag at least five others to participate!

For Daniel's own entry, he chose Back to the Future Part II's Hill Valley circa 2015, as portrayed in the 1989 Robert Zemekis film. Much as I hate to choose something so close to his, my choice is remarkably similar. Although not so strictly tied to one film, I love films that are set just barely in the future, and in a world that looks remarkably like ours, but with some very subtle differences.

The two most recent and best examples I can think of this are 2003's Code 46 and 2006's Children of Men.

Look, it's (relatively) easy to come up with the kind of world portrayed in films like The Matrix or The Fifth Element - these movies are set so far into the future (at least 200 years) that the writers and filmmakers have no rules. They can fit Earth, or any other setting of their choosing, to look however they need to so that it works with the story. I'm reminded of the great line in Thank You for Smoking where Aaron Eckhart's cigarette lobbyist is talking to a Hollywood superagent played by Rob Lowe. They're discussing a possible future movie set in space starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Brad Pitt, and Eckhart wonders aloud how they might fit smoking into the film, especially since the characters would be in a highly flammable, all-oxygen environment. Lowe's answer - sure, they would probably blow up, "But it's an easy fix. One line of dialogue. 'Thank God we invented the... you know, whatever device.'"

Films set in the very near future wouldn't get away with such easy fixes. They have to play by the laws of physics and cultural norms that we are already familiar with, and they'd have trouble convincing us that there might realistically be flying cars within the next five years. We're aware of the technology that's out there, and while we're willing to make small leaps in the service of believability, you and I both know that time travel to distant dimensions ain't happening anytime soon.

Films like Code 46 and Children of Men, meanwhile, are set in worlds that look stunningly like the one we inhabit, but are given tweaks so slight, so ingenious, that we can suspend any disbelief we might have and completely swallow the medicine we're given. They're set less than 25 years into the future, but smartly don't look it (at all) at first glance. Contrast this to the doomed world of Terminator Salvation; though it admittedly is playing with a timeline that was set in stone in the mid-80s, the idea that world would or even could look like the post-apocalyptic/robot-dominated portrayed as being 2018 is ludicrous. Instead, think of the odd handheld, finger-intense video game that was being played by Danny Huston's lover (friend?) in Children (he can be seen in the background of the picture below), or the beautiful way that languages from all over the world are blended into a singular universe-speak in Code. Or the instant foam airbag replacement system on display in Demolition Man. Back to the Future II, for all it's sci-fi nonsense (ground-up coffee beans powering a time-travelling Delorean?) still showed many inspired tidbits, many of which Daniel called out in his post, from self-tying shoes to personalized entertainment channels to even the hydratable pizzas.

All of these things might never happen, but they could, and soon. Sign me up.


Other films that sometimes (or more) fit my "Period/Place:"
V for Vendetta
A Scanner Darkly
Robocop
Freejack
Gattaca
Strange Days
I, Robot

And now, for some tagging! Like Daniel, the main ingredient for picking a taggee is choosing someone whom I think will take part. And not picking people that he already chose.

* Nick at Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob
* Tommy Salami at Pluck You, Too!
* Tony Dayoub at Cinema Viewfinder
* Jess at Insight Into Entertainment
* Alex from Film Forager

And then...

Fletch's Film Review: Children of Men

Though I generally try to avoid reviews and/or other "spoiler-ish" literature beforehand for films that I am eager to see, I generally read a lot about films that are in production or are just about to be released, etc. In doing so, not only do I get a gist of what the plot of the movie is, but most times, the same words or phrases keep popping up.

For Children of Men, the word "dystopian" is the one that stood out for me. Many films that take place in the future are described as such. Here is a short list of "dystopian" films that have been released in the past 20 years (from Wikipedia):

12 Monkeys
Brazil
Code 46
Dark City
Freejack
Gattaca
The Island
The Matrix series
Minority Report
A Scanner Darkly
V for Vendetta

A few things stand out with this list (and the full list here). For one, I like and/or love almost all of the films (that I have seen), even some of the ones that I would consider "bad" (Freejack, The Island, Demolition Man). Another obvious point is that they all take place in the future. However, not all of them are dystopian, which is defined as "a fictional society that is the antithesis of utopia. It is usually characterized by an oppressive social control, such as an authoritarian or totalitarian government."

Many of the above films don't seem to be dystopian at all: Minority Report, for example, takes place, in fact, in a society virtually without murder, that is not overseen by any sort of totalitarian overlords. It's basically just a story about some groovy psychics, their ability to predict murders (or lack thereof) and their imminent exploitation. The Island isn't dystopian, as society at large is not even aware of what is happening at a certain facility in southern Arizona. The only affected parties are a group of clones - perhaps it tells the tale of a dystopian subculture.

Perhaps I'm picking nits again. My intrigue arose from the use of the word in describing Children of Men. To make a short story long, Children is not a dystopian film. Sure, there are a lot of police onscreen, and the future is most certainly a bleak one, but that certainly can't be the only criteria to earn such a label. The film takes place in 2027, in a time where the youngest person alive is 18 years old, with the world's women all infertile. Why? No one knows for sure - it could be pollution, gamma rays, anything. But the film is about hope, redemption, salvation and other such "-ion" words. It's about the loss of many lives towards a greater good. The outlook for many is grim, but not all have given up.

Amongst the actors, Michael Caine shines brightest, stealing all of his scenes, playing the 2027 version of an eccentric hippie. Clive Owen has found an excellent vehicle for his brand of melancholy, and Julianne Moore adds class as usual. Chiwetel Ejiofor (Inside Man, Kinky Boots) continues his hot streak and path towards stardom, playing a freedom fighter (or terrorist, depending on your viewpoint).

Alfonso Cuaron, the director of Y Tu Mama Tambien and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the best in the series), has made a film that will be compared favorably to such cult classics as Blade Runner, 12 Monkeys and Brazil, and it is entirely deserving of those comparisons, as it is sad, beautiful and poetic all at once.

91 out of 100

And then...