Snowden (2016)

Edward Snowden's saga has been well documented, thanks to the efforts of Snowden himself. It will be redone many times. It's an enthralling tale. I don't think any account will match up to Citizenfour. But this dramatization does an excellent job of painting Snowden as a patriot. Having seen all these different accounts over the last several years, I've gone back and forth on the issue. I constantly ask myself, would I be able to work for the NSA, or for the intelligence community generally? And I honestly have not arrived at an answer yet. I am really unsure about how I feel about the NSA's questionable efforts to enhance our safety. This film actually had the opposite effect of what I imagine was intended. It gives the impression that Snowden did the right thing and it did that. But I actually felt more inclined to join the intelligence community. It looked like they were doing important, cutting edge work. Some methods are better than others, but on the whole it is positive. Even if their morals are debatable, Stone does not undercut the work that the NSA does, in my view (though he might've been trying to). And although he disagrees with their methods, we know that Snowden has always maintained that it was for the public to decide, they simply had the right to know and make an educated decision. He's a humble bragger--that certainly comes across. Well done, JGL.

The Walk (2015)

This movie is very cleverly narrated by a charming Joseph Gordon Levitt as Philippe Petit in part French, part French-accented English. He sounds really good and he apparently learned to speak fluently for the role. I really liked the narration. It is direct and intimate with the viewer and it allows the viewer special insight into what anyone else would deem suicidal. In fact, the film opens with him staring directly down the lens of the camera. And from the beginning, you are welcomed into a surreal world as the camera zooms out to show Petit in the torch of the Statue of Liberty overlooking the Twin Towers. And then we are transported to France through a bit of globe magic for a sequence in black-and-white. And all of these little intricacies make the first hour interesting in what is an otherwise uninteresting setup before we get to the titular walk. But anticipation and excitement grows.

The walk itself is really well done. The visual effects and dizzying camerawork make you really feel like you're up there with him a hundred stories up. Throughout the film, the visual effects, though sometimes small, are really cool. And we delight in seeing the crazy joy sweep across his face when he is out on his wire despite our fear of falling that is not present in the man that is actually at risk. 

The Interview (2014)

I readily admit that I probably would not have seen this movie had it not been for all the controversy brought by the cyber-terrorist attack.  It is important that the right to free speech be preserved and protected and that no one, let alone cyber-terrorists, be allowed to decide what may be said.  Political satire has been consistently protected by the Constitution--it is the Constitution not terrorism that dictates law in America.  

The movie just as much a satire on the North Korean regime as it is on the American media.  It presents an interesting idea about politics.  How does a regime fall?  The initial plan is to kill the Supreme Leader, hoping that a better leader will usurp power.  But of course there is a Plan B.  Plan B shows the full potential of the media in its power to affect change and to make the public aware of what has been kept secret.

That being said, it is not a great movie.  It has its funny moments, mostly in the beginning of the film (I appreciate a good Hobbit reference).  As the movie progresses, the jokes get old.  We don't know too much about Kim Jong Un, so Randall Park runs with his portrayal, playing a shy, not-very-charismatic leader.  His depiction of the Supreme Leader is almost as funny as Margaret Cho's portrayal of the late Kim Jong Il in 30 Rock.  I've come to rather like Seth Rogen who is quite likable, but James Franco just comes off as annoying.    

The Wind Rises (2013)

Having grown up with Hayao Miyazaki's films, I was very saddened to hear that he would be retiring.  This was his final film. In the past, Miyazaki has shown a fascination with flight (much like his protagonist), and his films have featured pacifist themes.  It is Miyazaki's only film based on real life, though it retains his signature fantastical elements in lifelike dreams and imagination. The Wind Rises is about Jiro Horikoshi, who designed Japanese war planes during WWII--or rather he designed planes that Japan used for war.  Miyazaki ran into some controversy.  The film does not attempt to glorify a weapons maker, but an engineer and artist whose art was corrupted by war.  Horikoshi sums his feelings up in one line: "All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful."

As always in Studio Ghibli's films, the animation is incredible.  Depicting prewar Japan (which I became very familiar with after taking a class on Modern Japan last semester), Horikoshi experiences the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.  Watching this animated world shake and the city set ablaze is a feat of animation.  If there is any question as to Miyazaki's pacifist views, all the characters question who the warplanes would be used to attack, surely not America.  After reading John Dower's Embracing Defeat, I learned that most Japanese in the weapons industry were always aware of how behind Japan was technologically.  They knew that western weapons were far superior and figured Japan would not dare bomb America.  Miyazaki does not shy away from the historical facts, but presents it honestly.