Movies/Manga Recs: All About the Journey Edition

In Movies:

Hereafter: Despite the nightmare fuel opening tsunami sequence (which I didn't actually watch, but listened to, waiting for yebisu9's assurance that it was over), I am so glad we had the chance to see this understated but engrossing film on the big screen. I know critical response to the movie has been along the lines of "you will either love it or hate it because it is tedious", but I must beg to differ about the tedium. I am tired of people whining that they cannot watch stories that take a while to unfold, and that giving a plot time to set up all its necessary pieces equals tedium. Real life isn't hurried or edited like a film (any film), but somehow we manage to survive every day of it! (Sarcastic eye roll here.) And while some movies are great escapes from that real life, have-to-wait-and-see grind, there are others that remind us why it's important to approach things slowly and let them evolve at their own pace. This movie, which adroitly handles three different and separate plotlines, would have failed spectacularly if it had attempted to rush through any of the plot developments it introduced. Instead, everything blooms slowly but surely, and finally ties itself together at the ending, which is utterly unexpected and poignant without seeming maudlin or forced. Matt Damon gives an especially nuanced performance, and the entire cast is fantastic. There's also some beautiful cinematography, and each of the major locations in the film (San Francisco, Paris, and London) feels like a character in its own right. Really, I cannot recommend this enough, but don't go in expecting pyrotechnics--it's a slow series of matches lit in the dark, and searching for candles.

The Fall: Yes, we're late to the party on this one. But what a party it is! There's so much going on in this piece of work, it's almost too much. It's undeniable that movies, storytelling, and truth are at the center of this complicated story, but which is privileged over the others is impossible to tell. It's funny that one of the recurring motifs (the little girl interrupting the story she's being told to protest the treatment of certain characters or the direction of the plot) was one that Yebisu and I repeated in real life as the story took a turn for the dramatically tense about 3/4 of the way through. (Sample dialogue: Me: I don't like where this is going. Him: Yeah, this is pretty heavy. Me: What's with us and sad movies lately? It's like our sad-dar is broken. Him: Crap, you're right.) Anyway, things resolved themselves in a non-tragic way (or at least as non-tragically as the structure of the story would allow) and we both breathed a sigh of relief. Visually, this is such a treat--the colors! The costumes! The locations! It feels like one of those old school movies where the studio had to send someone to stop the director from spending so much money. But the payoff is great and there are so many levels to enjoy this story on. Well worth the time!

Paranormal Activity: And we're late to the party on this one, too. Uhm... so I thought this was actually pretty damn scary, even having read the ending, and despite disliking one of the main characters thoroughly. There was the usual horror movie silliness of "we will not ask anyone for help, even though it is very obvious that we need to do so". On the other hand, this is a very well-made piece of movie-making, done on the cheap, but not squandering any potential for scares. This is a movie made by horror fans who know *exactly* how much to show--anything more would have been too over the top, and anything less would have been frustrating. So, yes, kudos to them for making me scared of waking up to find anyone standing over me, for whatever reason, ever. (No, cannot watch the second one; baby and dog in peril.)

In Manga:

Kingyo Used Books, Vol. 2, Words/Pictures by Seimu Yoshizaki: The love letter to any and all manga continues, with more emphasis on character development. We learn more about Natsuki's family (her parents are constantly feuding over something that's not entirely clear, but appear to periodically resolve their differences) and revisit previous characters who pop up to help out at a used book fair where Natsuki hopes to make some money. But my favorite story in this volume is one that I'm seeing more and more in manga: men who secretly like shoujo manga and have to decide whether to admit to it or not. In this case, a tough high schooler (who is so scary-looking that he intimidates everyone else in the story, from a bookstore employee to a potential new friend) is fond of an annual romance manga aimed at young children, and has to decide whether to admit his preference to all and sundry. (After all, this could ruin his tough guy image!) In the end, he "comes out" about his hobby and his life is obviously better for it. I like this recurring image in modern manga of the man who secretly into "feminine" things, like shoujo manga or cooking, and it's almost always presented fairly seriously. I wonder how much of it is real, and how much is authorial license at work.