I wrestled with even doing an 'overrated' list this year. First of all, the very idea of such a list is to merely tell other critics and/or the masses that they are dead-wrong for liking something, which I'd argue is very different from telling someone they're wrong for disliking something. Second of all, the Internet has become such a vast land of film criticism that few films completely escape the wrath of critical scrutiny even if the popular consensus happens to lean in the "wrong" direction. Nonetheless, in the end I enjoy writing about the year in film, so far be it for me to cheat myself out of some arbitrary concern for maintaining the proverbial higher ground. So, in alphabetical order as always, let's dive right in...
Brave (review/guest essay):
Had this not been Pixar's first animated feature with a female lead, had this not been marketed within the context that Princess Merida was a kind of sword-wielding/bow-clutching warrior, the the film would have been seen for what it is: a deeply problematic character drama that ignores the icky realities at the center of its tale in order to tell an audience-reassuring mother/daughter story. The film basically tells the same character arc as The Little Mermaid but was declared a feminist milestone because the female lead A) carried a weapon and B) didn't want to get married. But good intentions cannot get past a story line that treats mother and daughter as equally culpable even when one party is advocating forced marriage. Make no mistake, say what you will about 'customs of the time' or 'arranged marriage versus forced marriage', the film tells a story of a child who doesn't want to get married to (and yes, have sex with) a man she doesn't know and treats it like a minor inconvenience. There is a clear right and wrong here, but the film absolves the father of any responsibility while basically stating that the mother (who again, wants her daughter to have sex against her will) kinda-sorta has a point and that the daughter really needs to have empathy for her dear-old mum.
The holiday season started off with a bang this weekend, with three major openers, all of which over-performed or opened within reasonable expectations. If Wreck It Ralph's (
As most of you know, the ambitious and expensive Cloud Atlas will be opening this weekend with around $10 million for the weekend. Even with Warner Bros. merely on the hook for distribution and marketing and even with the film's $100 million budget covered by foreign pre-sales, this is not a pleasant figure for a rather impressive movie. There will be finger-pointing and blame to go around over the next few days. But I would argue that the primary reason for its box office failure is actually a net positive. In short, Cloud Atlas had the bad luck to open during what can only be called a plethora of adult films. I've talked quite a bit about the slow and steady comeback of adult cinema in an age of non-stop tentpoles, but there is one downside to the current deluge. It can be argued that there is actually too much adult product out there in the current marketplace. And as we all know, a large majority of adult moviegoers aren't quite as frequent as the younger crowd. The stereotypical adult moviegoer, the one with a family and a job and various responsibilities, maybe only goes to the movies once a month. And if they went to the movies this weekend, they probably went to see Argo.
