Movie Review Special:something To Warm You On A Cold Winter Night As You Get Ready For The Oscars!

MOVIE REVIEW SPECIAL:

Something to Warm You on a Cold Winter Night as You Get Ready for the Oscars!

WARM BODIES

A post-apocalyptic zombie story told from a zombie’s point of view? And a love story at that? With a living human? For producer Todd Lieberman, that’s exactly what spurred him onward with the production of WARM BODIES. “I remember vividly reading the first three pages and keying in a tone that I had never seen before, and an idea that I had never seen before - a zombie movie told from the zombie’s point of view...and the ability to convey angst, humor, drama, all in the same fell swoop.” Based on Isaac Marion’s novel, I for one, am glad he read those first three pages and then kept going because WARM BODIES is an absolutely delightful film! With a dystopian Romeo and Juliet feeling, WARM BODIES is sweet, charming, heartwarming and adorable. I know, I know. Who would ever think of zombies as sweet and adorable, but with the character of R and his shy tentative teen-aged boy angst filled nervousness of girls, and particularly when it comes to the living breathing Julie, bubbling to the surface, the blood just rushes to your heart, warming you with happiness. WARM BODIES is like Mary Poppins giving you a spoonful of sugar with heart and a smile.

It’s been 8 years since a mysterious virus consumed the world and but for a surviving few hundred or so who are now living in The Green Zone, a Camelotesque bunker enforced world, humanity has been turned into flesh-eating monsters in various stages of decay, but all without any memories of their past lives. Zombies survive by eating the living when they dare venture forth from the Green Zone. If the zombies don’t feed, they then turn into Boneys which in turn eat both zombies and humans. Of course, humans venturing past the walls is a necessary evil in order to secure medicines and supplies that have been abandoned in the zombie-ridden lands outside. But the best part of eating humans is that if you eat the brain, you “see” their memories. And so, during a raid by one party of brave humans, the group is attacked by some zombies, including the meek, mild-mannered R who locks eyes with the lovely Julie who just happens to be the daughter of the military-minded, survivalist, president.

Feeling “something” for Julie, R grabs her, taking her to his “home” where he can protect her from both the Zombies and the Boneys. For R, “home” is an old 747 filled with decades of nostalgia, history and life with everything from vinyl record collections to snow globes and twinkle lights. It’s like a magical fairyland. (All that’s missing is the absinthe Green Fairy.) Initially skeptical about R and this “prison” he calls home, Julie slowly begins to see changes in R. The eyes are not so vacant. The movements not so stoney. And for R, he starts to fall in love.

But what happens when Julie returns to the Green Zone and R follows her?

Nicholas Hoult just melts the heart. Delivering an extraordinarily soulful physical and emotional character metamorphosis through physical movement, facial nuance and particularly movement of his mouth and speech pattern, as R, Hoult oozes charismatic charm. Your own heart grows ten sizes larger with his effectively stirring and sweet nuance. It’s easy to see why Julie would see something beyond the vacant black eyes of a zombie. Hand in hand with Hoult’s exemplary performance is Adrien Morot’s special effects “zombie” make-up which takes on a life of its own as R “changes”.

Teresa Palmer is quickly establishing herself as an actress who can not only deliver emotion and character but excel in action. Here, as Julie, Palmer walks the fine line of fear and trust, while embracing an emotional softness, and on the turn of a dime, goes toe-to-toe with a hard hitting John Malkovich or jumping into hand-to-hand combat with zombies ready to eat her brains out.

So often overlooked as a supporting player is Analeigh Tipton. Here, as Julie’s best friend Nora, Tipton is hysterical! She not only provides a comedic pragmatism that I wish we saw more of in the film, but herself has a dynamic scene with Malkovich. Hey, would you be pulling a gun on him? She does it without a flinch.

Written and directed by Jonathan Levine based on the young adult novel by Isaac Marion, Levine does what Levine does best - he taps into the humanness of humanity and the core of what it means to be human. As he did with The Wackness and 50/50, Levine delivers well defined characters that are textured and layered. All the shades of grey are tackled very simply and subtly. A very noticeable problem comes with the dialogue. While the dialogue is simple, sweet, even cute, it doesn’t mesh with the actors cast in the roles. The film’s narrative by R is great, but the dialogue itself is very "junior high" and doesn't fit with the age of the actors on screen.

Where Levine excels is the advanced visuals with WARM BODIES. Whereas his prior films were character centric, he now shows a truly elevated and blended skill set, stepping up the technical end of the film. Thanks to Javier Aguirresarobe's cinematography, the film has a great visual softness, but a visual tone that exhibits great play with light and framing which is integral to the production design. Wide shots lovingly capture the loneliness and desolation of the Dead Zone. And the use of lens flares is just beautiful for the "memory" flashback sequences. The self-contained Green Zone is like a medieval Camelot, totally self-contained and sustaining within the walls of the city, harboring its own set of light, shadows and warm hidden color. As opined by producer Lieberman, it was apparent that the film would be “really execution dependent...It’s such a tonal tightrope. Tone is really tricky.”, but because Jonathan Levine was at the helm, “I had all the faith in the world that he’d be able to do it.”

Production designer Martin whist outdoes himself with the creation of very distinct worlds and most notably, the airport where R’s group of zombies live and R’s airplane home. With an airport setting, Levine gives us a wonderfully visual metaphor for R's life - he wants to live and "fly" but doesn't remember how or why until Julie. She gives him his wings.

And let’s here it for special effects CGI and the creation of the Boneys. A silver-grey toned version of the skeletal mummy’s in the Scorpion King’s army in The Mummy, the Boneys are one of the highlights of the film, as is the blend of live action, breaking glass, natural elements and CGI to create a fully realized fight sequence.

A real highlight is the music which employs classic vinyl gems from the past like John Waite’s Missing You, The Scorpions rock You Like a Hurricane, Bob Dylan’s Shelter from the Storm and Springsteen’s Hungry Heart. Adding to the timeless visual quality thanks to un-aging zombies and the decor of R’s 747, the music provides another level of timelessness, and making the soundtrack a must own.

A love story, an action movie, a comedy, a romantic comedy, a drama, a horror movie - all those things blended together - WARM BODIES has something for everyone. Jonathan Levine continues to step up his game as he taps into the humanness of humanity with WARM BODIES. Guaranteed to warm even the coldest heart.

NO

With Oscar voting opening up shortly for Academy members, of whom many of my readers are, let’s shed a little light on a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee vying for the little golden statuette on February 24^th - from Chile, it’s NO.

Written by Pedro Peirano, directed by Pablo Larrain and starring Gael Garcia Bernal, NO is a fictional, albeit rather authentic, look at 1988 Chile, and specifically, a plebiscite on the presidency of Augusto Pinochet, with the country voting “SI” or “NO” to a continuation as president by Pinochet for another eight years. With some of the greatest pressure for the referendum coming from the United States, one of Chile’s staunchest allies, Pinochet had been in power for 15 years with a regime that became synonymous with murder, imprisonments, disappearances of individuals, exiles and disregard for human rights. It had reached a point where 16 political parties within Chile were opposed to Pinochet continuing his reign.

Although many believe the campaign to be a “formality”, the NO faction has every hope in the world that Pinochet can be defeated and calls on Rene Saavedra (an amalgamation of Jose Manuel Salcedo and Enrique Garcia, the two ad men who actually designed the NO campaign), a young, hip, advertising executive, to design and run the NO campaign. With 15 minute television ads required to run everyday for 3 weeks leading up to the vote, Saavedra develops a novel approach. Rather than show the heinous, hard-hitting negativity of what is wrong with the country under Pinochet’s rule, campaign against type with the belief that “Everyone wants to be happy. Happiness will be the campaign.” And so “Happiness is coming if you vote NO!” became the anthem of the NO campaign. With smart, slick, American advertising with a 70's Coca Cola “We’d like to teach the world to sing” look to it, the NO campaign even boasts plugs from Jane Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss and Christopher Reeve. Adding interest to the campaign is Saavedra’s boss who happens to serve on Pinochet’s advisory board and is handling the SI campaign.

It’s no spoiler to tell you what history already knows - 97% of the registered voters turned out at the polls and the NO campaign won almost 56% of the vote.

From an historical and political standpoint and particularly the overthrow of the dictatorial Pinochet in a fair election without coups or jihadist type actions, NO is quite interesting (not as interesting as fellow Oscar contender, The Gatekeepers, which I’ll review here next week, but interesting nonetheless). But perhaps the most interesting aspect of NO is the marketing and advertising campaigns mounted and the importance of ad men in the political system, especially in a country like Chile in 1988.

The individual personal story of Rene Saavedra is what buoys the film, even moreso than the political tactics of the Pinochet "SI" driven campaign. As Saavedra, Gael Garcia Bernal makes a compelling and sympathetic, yet tacit, participant to history, while exuding a great observational quality. It's a wonderful character study and quiet thoughtful performance by Bernal.

Director Larrain, together with his cinematographer Sergio Armstrong, provide lensing that at times look like a poor man's 1970's tv movie, at times like a student film, and at times like surreptitious surveillance. Convoluted at best, and lending to a "third world" interpretation of Chile which I believe to be a misnomer, the look not only lends itself to the time and foreign world, but it blends perfectly with the grainy resolution of actual news footage from the day which is liberally interspersed throughout the film. And speaking of the newsreel footage - perfection. From newsreels to actually tv spots and ads to Chilean tv news broadcasts - PERFECTION. It only adds to the authenticity and historical reference, as well as providing a timeless period perfect quality. Going hand in hand with the cinematography and tonal bandwidth of the film as a whole is Estefania Larrain’s production design, right down to product placement (Phillips, Sony, a vintage microwave) and period perfect clothing, much of which has a 70's feel to it which, in truth and in fact, was being worn in Chile and other Latin American countries at that time.

While an informative film of a minuscule chapter in Latin American history, Chile and the reign of Pinochet, I believe NO would benefit with some more historical bookending on Pinochet. But at the end of the day, while I say “si” to NO for its historical significance and as a light into Chile and infiltration of "American" advertising techniques, I have to say NO to NO for Oscar.