October Recap

So October is a wrap! As I was cobbling together my last-minute Doof Warrior costume in time for last night's frivolities, I figured now was the best time to start taking note of how the 2015-16 Oscar race is shaping up.

I realize that for many, the September festival circuit is the official kick-off of awards season. But for those of us without press credentials or travel time to burn, October is when we actually get to see the buzzy titles we've been reading about for a month or more. And this October was chalk full of them.

Review - Pacific Rim

In yet another summer bursting at the seams with sequels and franchise tentpoles, some of us can be forgiven for chomping at the bit for any blockbuster that wasn't made simply to sell tickets to an established fanbase of some proven brand. We get it this year in the form of Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro's sloppy kiss to the subgenre of “kaiju eiga”; the Japanese monster movie. It's debatable whether or not Pacific Rim is the best of this year's big, loud, spectacular summer blockbusters, but it cannot be denied that the movie is big, that it is loud, and that it is spectacular.

The original premise behind Pacific Rim – “original” insomuch that it was not directly adapted from preexisting source material, although decades of kaiju eiga and anime/manga, from Godzilla to Neon Genesis Evangelion and more, serve as its inspiration – was initially concocted by screenwriter Travis Beacham. In his story, we are plunged into a world that has been at war with malicious alien life for some years now. A brief expository prologue sets the stage: from a space-time rift between two tectonic plates on the floor of the Pacific, skyscraping monstrosities (the kaiju) emerge and lay waste to coastal cities.

Best of the Decade #9: Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

With his spark of imagination and his knowledge of the craft of cinema, Guillermo Del Toro seamlessly integrated a tragic historical drama and a dark fantasy (borrowing elements from ancient mythology), filled it with unfathomable images, and topped it off with an ending Shakespeare couldn't have written better himself. The result is an uncontestable masterpiece. Del Toro's story is one loaded with allegory and double meaning, worthy of - nay, requiring - dissection and multiple viewings. It is movingly conveyed by a talented assembly of actors in which it is just impossible to find a standout; they're all too good.

But to only say Pan's Labyrinth is an expertly told story would be a disservice to the film, for it is also a thing of utter beauty. Eugenio Caballero's production design is BRILLIANT, brimming with more thematic details and subtleties than can possibly be detected even if you watched the film a hundred times. It is exquisitely shot by Guillermo Navarro (note his excellent use of the trees in the forest scenes), and provided with a gorgeous and unforgettable musical score by Javier Navarrete. Some sequences are quite scary, so or full effect, watch it in the dark.

BRILLIANT SCORE ALERT: