Jmunney's Blog

As Above, So Below has one of the most unique horror premises in a while: a team of explorers go spelunking in the catacombs below Paris and as they enter rarely-explored sections, they discover that they might be in a portal to Hell, or something like it.  Too bad it takes forever for the story to actually get around to exploring that premise.  The lead spelunker is multilingual, multi-degreed Scarlett (Perdita Weeks), who is carrying on the work of her late father of finding the Philosopher’s Stone, a legendary substance said to have alchemical and life elixir powers.  A prologue of Scarlet searching for clues in an Iranian cave suggests that the hellish nature of underground locations may not be limited to one place, as she sees a vision of a man hanging himself that serves as a bit of foreshadowing.  Following this prologue is approximately 45 minutes of Scarlet and her crew in Paris figuring out how they are going to enter the catacombs, and it is just as boring as it sounds.

Much has been made of the fact that As Above, So Below is yet another in horror’s found-footage sub-genre, and the talk I have seen is generally bemoaning that there is yet another fake documentary in the arena.  As Above would have worked perfectly fine without this gimmick, even though it actually does attempt some interesting techniques with it, such as placing mounted cameras on everyone’s cave headgear, which solves the problem of limited realistic camera angles.  But, ultimately, this movie does not make sense as found-footage because there is no reason for this footage to be found, because (SPOILER ALERT) multiple characters survive and presumably hold onto the footage.

The failing of As Above, So Below is that all of its worthwhile elements are crammed into the last act.  This is either a failure of pacing, or a failure of not having enough ideas to fill out a feature length.  I actually think it is mostly the former, as the last 15 minutes or so show the weird, exciting adventure that this film could have been all along.  Ultimately the catacombs are less Hell but something closer to purgatory.  It is a gauntlet that can be survived, if those who pass through it prove worthy.  Scarlet and her crew are haunted by terrible memories of their past, specifically, moments when a loved one died that they fear they could have done something to prevent. The ghosts of these loved ones can serve as agents of either retribution or forgiveness, which could have led to some fascinating psychological territory.  But this pattern is a little inconsistent, and it takes too long for it to become clear for it to have its fullest effect.  As Above, So Below does, however, feature a first-person perspective of Scarlet punching not one, but two, monsters in the head, after more than an hour of everyone having no idea how to fend off the evil creatures. C+

I don’t know if the filming-over-11-years gimmick made this happen, or if it was just Richard Linklater’s sensibility, but Boyhood avoided just about every coming-of-age cliché it possibly could.  And let’s be clear: the 11 years of filming was a gimmick.  That’s not a knock – I love gimmicks.  You just gotta commit to them.  And the very nature of this gimmick required commitment.

There are so many moments in Mason Evans, Jr.’s boyhood that seem like they are heading towards the typical melodramatic formula of getting into trouble, followed by confrontations, and then tearful apologies.  Take, for example, Mason drinking beer in his friend’s family cabin, or watching porn with his stepbrother.  These are things that could get him into trouble, but instead, they are just things that happen.  These moments are typical of most boys’ lives.  What is important in portraying them is how each particular boy experiences them.  This extended filmmaking technique proves to be a successful experiment in exploring these moments as they pertain to the meaning of growing up.  A decade on one project has led to wonderfully internalized character work, resulting in one-of-a-kind performances from Ellar Coltrane (Mason), Patricia Arquette (Mason’s mom), Ethan Hawke (Mason, Sr.), and Lorelei Linklater (Mason’s sister). A-

When reviewing the latest Captain America, I diagnosed myself with Superhero Fatigue.  Marvel’s cinematic output has lately been consistent, but safe.  So kudos to them for going unpredictable with Guardians of the Galaxy.  This one is different insofar as it is not really a superhero movie at all, but insted a goofy romp through the universe starring roguish Earthling Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), roguish green woman Gamora (Zoe Saldana), roguish vengeful warrior Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), roguish tree-like humanoid Groot (Vin Diesel), and roguish talking raccoon Rocket (Bradley Cooper, in one of the great voice acting performances of all time).  The “space opera” is a longstanding genre, but it has been a long time since it has been presented as imaginatively and thoughtfully as it is here.

The plot revolves around a MacGuffin: an orb stolen by Quill that is sought by the genocidal Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) of the Kree race.  Like other MacGuffins, this orb may not be what the movie is really about, but it is a bigger deal than most MacGuffins.  Ronan means to use the orb to destroy an entire rival race, and the fight for possession of the orb lasts until the very end.  Thus it is strange – though not necessarily problematically – that the tone remains so lighthearted throughout.  Actually, the mix of light and dark that Guardians pulls off is often a highlight of great adventure films.  It is just too bad that every discussion explaining the orb – and there are a lot of them – is a bunch of gobbledygook.  It also would have been more engaging if Ronan and the other villains (save for Michael Rooker as the bandit Yondu, who was more antagonist than villain) had felt more like characters instead of just pure forces of evil.  Ultimately, Guardians is inconsistent about conveying a high-stakes tone, rendering its thrills not quite as viscerally satisfying as they could have been.  Still, it does pull off the fun side of the adventure genre with no problem, and I imagine it might grow on me, because I could watch a baby tree dance to the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” all day long. B