Toy Story 4

Let me begin this by saying I saw the first Toy Story some years after release (maybe around 2008) and I really didn't like it. Couldn't see what all the fuss was about. So when my kids (and wife) proposed seeing number 4 at the cinema, I was reluctant to say the least. Add to this the necessity of seeing ALL the films in the series before the new one because, well, I want to bring them up correctly, and the task bubbled with dread. But, imagine my surprise when I actually enjoyed Toy Story 2, wasn't too annoyed with Toy Story 3 and, yes, quite liked Toy Story 4.

This was the first film for the kids at the cinema and there's something to be said for watching kids watching films, especially when they're experiencing a completely new environment. The interest dropped off slightly during the talky exposition points in the film but for the action scenes, they were buzzing.

For me, this was probably the first 'kids' film I've seen on the big screen since I was literally pubeless. It was diverting enough with some clever moments and one or two genuine chuckles - Ducky and Bunny's mooted plans for getting a key was a mirth highlight. The voice cast was fine, Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz must know these characters inside out by now. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele (director of Get Out and Us) are great fun as the previously mentioned Ducky and Bunny and it was slightly poignant to realise that Mr Potato Head was voiced from beyond the grave by Don Rickles, who died in 2017. There are also nice little cameos for Mel Brooks, Betty White, Carl Reiner and Carol Burnett as well as Carl Weathers, Timothy Dalton and Flea. Keanu Reeves, playing an insecure motorbike stunt toy and Annie Potts as newly empowered Bo Peep are top drawer too.

The gimmick running through these films is that the toys are not to be seen or heard in their animated state by humans. In Toy Story 4, the boundaries are pushed close and sometimes traversed - Buzz simply shouts something to his kid at one point in a reverse of Woody's threats to the evil neighbour kid in the first film. Admittedly, the tricks the writers, directors and animators have come up with in this series are pretty innovative and clever. Another nice touch was Buzz trying to emulate Woody's 'inner voice' by simply pressing his chest buttons and following the instructions given.

Woody is played throughout the series as a guy who constantly makes sacrifices for others, especially the kids that 'own' him, but here he finally gets his chance to do something for himself. Kind of similar to Steve Rogers in Endgame, or even George Bailey from It's a Wonderful Life (without the suicide attempt). I'm guessing Woody's final choice spells the end of this cash cow for now but really, this animation has the potential to run and run until the profits stories dry up.

See also:

Brad Bird's The Incredibles (2004) and Andrew Stanton's WALL-E (2008) for the two best Pixar films.

SPOILERS IN POD!!

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Black '47

Black '47 is a revenge western set in Ireland during the Great Famine of 1845-1849. I saw this at the Luna Leederville as part of the Revelation Film Festival a week or so ago. There was even an intro from an actual Irishman, Dr. Enda Murray, who curates the Irish Film Festival.

The story follows a young Irish fella who returns home after fighting with the British Army in various exotic climes. He lands bang in the middle of the famine to find most of his family gone, primarily at the hands of the Brits he was fighting for. Needless to say, this shits him a touch. Though this guy, Feeney, played by the Aussie lad from Animal Kingdom, James Frecheville, is nominally the protagonist, it's his supposed nemesis, Hannah, played brilliantly by Hugo Weaving, who is the real star of the film. It's a clever angle that the villainous Englishman, who murders an Irish rebel at the start, can turn out to be the pseudo-protagonist by the end. A hint may have been that the first and final shots of the film are of Weaving.

Another nice moment was seeing Stephen Rea on screen again. He's always great and here was no exception, playing Conneely, a chancer with questionable loyalties, who tags along with Hannah and crew in the hunt for Feeney. This crew is made up of a proper posh twat, Pope, played by Freddie Fox and Hobson, played by the impressive Barry Keoghan. Most films of this ilk tend to portray the British as moustache-twirling, morally bereft rotters but even the aforementioned toff, Pope, has an inkling of shade to his character by the end. Admittedly, Jim Broadbent's character, Lord Kilmichael, is fairly irredeemable.

The pacing of the film is pretty solid, albeit after a slowish beginning and the miserable vistas are nicely shot. The images of loads of houses without roofs scattered through the countryside made me wonder what the deal was with 'tumbling' - ripping the thatched roofs from houses. Was it for feeding livestock? Burning for warmth? Or just an evil British ploy to freeze people out of their homes?

I'd recommend this film, mainly for the performances and the nuanced treatment of characters. There are some neat set-pieces and the final scene is just about perfect, a very Coen-esque ending.

See also:

Ken Loach's excellent The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) and for more Stephen Rea, try Neil Jordan's The Crying Game (1992).

Parasite

I caught a screening of Bong Joon-ho's Palme d'Or winner, Parasite at the Innaloo Event Cinemas on Saturday night. This is a dark satire on class distinctions in modern day Korea, and more broadly, the world. It's weird, funny and shockingly brutal at times. The premise concerns a down-at-heel family of four living in a poor neighbourhood of Seoul, who suddenly get a break when a friend of the son passes a tutoring job onto him. Slowly, the whole family manoeuvre their way into this rich household and much of the bite comes from the way the two sets of families interact. Things take a pretty sharp deviation about halfway through the film, which raises the tension, as well as providing motivation for the themes of class and bigotry to come to the fore.

The Bong man is responsible for Snowpiercer and Okja, among other films, but from what I've seen, this is his best work. He gets some great performances from the likes of Jo Yeo-jeong as Yeon-kyo, the wealthy, easily-distracted mother and Song Kang-ho as Ki-taek, the father of the poor family. The sets and locations are superb also. Most of the film gravitates between the stark, modernist finery of the Park's house and the grubby, busy streets running into the sub-basement abode of the Kim family. This setting is a real feather in the cap of Parasite. It manages to look cool and miserable at the same time and there's a fantastic set-piece where Ki-taek and his two kids run home through a downpour to be caught in a sewage flood in their neighbourhood. Really great film making here, epitomised by the daughter, Ki-jung sitting on the shite-spewing toilet to have a smoke while the water rises around her.

Speaking of sewage, smell is an integral part of the film. The young rich kid tells his parents that the new staff all smell the same (and as they've entered the home 'unknown' to one another, this is potentially troubling). Mr. Park tells his wife that his new driver reeks, as "all people who ride the subway have a special smell." As Ki-taek hides under a table, Mr. Park muses that he can still smell him now. In fact, smell turns out to be a pivotal point in the bloody climax but I'll say no more on that front.

The dialogue is a particular treat. Ki-taek's wife, Chung-sook tells the family that she'd be nice like the Parks if she were rich, saying, "Money is an iron; it smooths out all the wrinkles." Ki-taek morosely tells his kids that it's best to do nothing and that having no plans means nothing can go wrong. The son, Ki-woo explains that his forged university degree is not fake, it's just early, as he plans to go to university one day.

Parasite pushes all the right buttons - equal parts vicious and sweet, funny and morose, hopeful and bereft. One of the best films of the year so far.

See also:

Park Chan-wook's vampire romance Thirst (2009), also starring Kang Ho-song and for thematic similarities to a recent film, Jordan Peele's Us (2019).

SPOILERS IN POD!!!

Listen to "Parasite" on Spreaker.