Anomalisa [2015]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (4 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (A-)  Fr. Dennis (1 Star)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (M. D'Angelo) review  

I found Anomalisa [2015] (written and co-directed by Charlie Kaufman [wikip] [IMDb] along with Duke Johnson [IMDb] based on Charlie Kaufman's [wikip] [IMDb] own stage play by the same name) to be very, very, indeed relentlessly, flat / boring.  'Course that was a good part of the point ;-) or :-/.

This (I kid Readers not) appropriately R-rated movie that uses _clay puppets_ to tell its tale, presents then the story of a short (less than 24 hour) "business trip" of Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) to Cincinnati, Ohio.  Now why was he going to this moderately sized if quite random American city?  Well, Stone was something of a "guru" in the field of "customer service."  He's hailed in the story as the author of a seminal book on the matter entitled: "How may I help you help them?" ;-).  And he was scheduled to give a talk at a trade conference assembling there.

The film begins with Stone arriving the evening before said conference at Cincinnati's airport after a thoroughly uneventful commercial flight.  He hails down a taxi to take him to an upscale hotel -- "The Fregoli" -- in the center of town.

The "chit-chat" of the conversation that takes place between the taxi driver and Stone as they travel between the airport and hotel is one that most American adults would have heard before: Here are two people who've never seen each other before and 10-15-20 minutes from now will never see each other again.  Stone has arrived in this random American city (the "third largest in the state of Ohio") that he's apparently "visited once before" (a fair number of years ago) and will probably not visit again for quite some time afterwards.  On the other hand, it's the taxi driver's city, a city that he's proud of.  So in those 10-15-20 minutes he tries to tell Stone "what to see / do" while in this "Great City of Cincinnati" -- "You must go to the Zoo" / "You must try our Chili" ;-).  And indeed through-out the rest of the film, there are references to Cincinnati's "great zoo" / "delicious chili" ;-)

Stone arrives at the hotel, pays the driver, goes over to  the guy the front desk, gets a room, is assigned a bell-hop (to help him with his one small carry-on bag ;-) to get to his room, arrives at said room, orders room service (and is reminded to "try our great chili" ;-).

EVERYTHING / EVERYBODY seems to be so much _the same_ and quite surprisingly / quite unsettlingly IT ALL IS / THEY ALL ARE ...  very much "THE SAME":  (1) All the people (including Stone) are CLAY PUPPETS who are _given the appearance of movement_ through stop motion animation (where between each frame, the clay puppets -- their appendages, eyes, facial expressions -- are moved / changed _ever so slightly_ so as to GIVE THE APPEARANCE of motion when viewed afterwards at a fairly rapid rate - 10 frames, 20 frames / second ;-).  Then (2) EVERYBODY who Stone meets even seems to SOUND THE SAME.  And they do, because _except for Stone himself_, THEY ARE ALL (male / female, young / old) VOICED BY THE SAME PERSON (Tom Noonan ;-).

What's going on here? ;-)

Well Chicago Tribune movie critic Michael Phillips notes in his review (above) that the name of the Hotel "The Fregoli" gives Viewers a big clue.  This is because there is a psychological condition called the Fregoli Delusion [wikip] in which a person comes to hold the "delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearance or is in disguise."   So the (fictionalized) "customer service guru" Michael Stone finds himself in a world where EVERYBODY seems to be basically the same person.

What does he do?  Well this is IMHO the problematic aspect of the film: He chooses to "act out."

That is, Stone spends much of the film trying "desperately" to find SOME WOMAN who is "different" from everybody else TO SLEEP WITH HER.  Now, we're shown that he's married and even with a kid.  And he talks to them both on the phone after he arrives at the hotel (with both his wife and kid voiced again by the same Tom Noonan ;-) or ;-/ ).  He even looks up an old flame, who apparently lives in Cincinnati (and who he had probably bedded the last time (the only time...) that he had passed through the city).  She's again voiced by Tom Noonan.  And this time, she doesn't want to go to bed with him. 

Finally, by sheer accident, he finds ONE PERSON, a soft spoken Lisa Hesselmann (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh), a customer service rep from Akron, OH (basically just like Cincinnati only smaller, and _perhaps_ "sadder") who's come to Cincinnati with a coworker (voiced again by Tom Noonan) to hear Stone speak at the convention.  And LISA's "somewhat different" ... Indeed, she confesses to Stone that she's always thought of herself as "an anomaly" -- from which the name of the story derives: Anoma(Li)sa ;-)

BUT, (1) how "different" is Lisa really?  After all, she's a well-trained, professional(ized) "customer service rep" from anywhere-ville (Akron, OH) ...  and (2) even if Lisa really is "at least a little different (from the others)" IS "DIFFERENCE" ACTUALLY WHAT STONE "IS LOOKING FOR" ANYWAY?  After all, "difference" can be charming, but it can also be(come) annoying.

In any case, the two -- Stone and Anoma(Li)sa -- share probably the _saddest_ / most pathetic (adulterous) "sex scene" (after all, they are two "clay puppets" ...) in the history of movies.

Honestly, it was awful.  And it makes for a very interesting if very, very sad perspective on adultery.  One at least expects (hopes (!)) adultery to be "Exciting" [TM] ... Here it's presented as a really really sad, even desperate act between _two clay puppets_ filmed in stop-motion-animation _quite literally_ "just going through the motions" ;-) or :-(.

And this feeling of sad emptiness pervades the whole film: Stone seemed to believe that the whole world was filled with people who were pretty much all the same, YET (1) he worked in a field, INDEED WAS AN EXPERT IN A FIELD that HELPS MAKE THEM THAT WAY and (2) he wasn't really sure if he liked "difference" much anyway when he finally seemed to find it.

It becomes rather pathetic / sad ... Yet the film clearly seemed "to speak to" a good part of the rather young, (one guesses) probably "quite liberal" / "hipsterish" audience viewing the film when I saw it recently.  Sigh, again HOW SAD ...

I honestly left QUITE HAPPY that _my world_ "at the Parish" has _never_ been so flat ... If anything, we have "more characters" -- from young to old, from athletic, to "smart", to artistic (and everything in between) of truly a multitude of ethnicities / backgrounds -- than we can handle ;-).   But at least it's NEVER, EVER "BORING."

Sigh, the tragedy of being "too smart" / too jaded for one's own good ...


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Queen [2014]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
Bollywood.com listing
FilmBeat.com listing

Hindustan Times (S. Kaushal) review
India Today (S. Dwivedi) review
Indian Express (K. Gupta) review
Times of India () review

Variety (D. Chute) review

Queen [2014] [IMDb] [BW] [FBt] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Vikas Bahl [IMDb] [BW] [FBt] along with Chaitally Parmar [IMDb] and Parveez Sheikh [IMDb] dialogue by Anvita Dutt [IMDb] [BW] [FBt] and Kangana Ranaut [IMDb]) is a highly acclaimed six 2015 Indian Filmfare Award winning film (the Filmfare Awards being widely regarded as India's version of the Oscars) which playfully turns a common Bollywood story-line on it head ;-).

The film (English subtitled) is available for streaming for a very reasonable price at Amazon Instant Video.

The story begins with 20-something Dehli girl, Rani (in Hindi meaning "Queen", played wonderfully in the film by Kangana Ranuat [IMDb] [BW] [FBt]) about to get married.  The whole extended family is coming into town for the big day.  All the dancing that one would expect to come _at the end_ of a Bollywood movie is taking place at the beginning, AND ... (really not much of a spoiler here, because there wouldn't be much of a film otherwise ;-) ... JUST AT THE LAST MOMENT, her fiance Vijay (played again impressively with appropriate "nose up, still young / doesn't really know yet what he's doing, arrogance" by Rajkummar Rao [IMDb] [FBt]) BREAKS OFF THE ENGAGEMENT.  Why??  Well, it's unclear, but mostly, apparently, because he's young / stupid / arrogant / spoiled ... basically because "he can" and still _honestly_ "doesn't understand" what this kind of a decision, this late in the preparations was going to do to his fiancee / her family. 

So there's young 20-something Rani, sitting in lovely, red hued, gold embroidered wedding sari amidst all those flower petals ... quietly weeping ... her own family not really knowing what to say or do ... And after several days of this, she decides ... TO GET UP, AND GO ON HER ALREADY PAID FOR HONEYMOON (to Paris / Europe) ON HER OWN ... (and of course, we cheer) and of course the rest of the movie follows ;-)

Of course many adventures await her, out there, "all on her own" for the first time:

Among the people she meets is Vijayalakshmi (played by Lisa Haydon [IMDb] [BW] [FBt]) a 1/2 Indian single mom, never married, her age in Paris, who Rani initially doesn't know how to understand.  And she is, of course, somewhat challenging, even to the film's Viewers, as Vijayalakshmi, even from her very conception (1/2 Indian / 1/2 European after all) seemed to violate "all the rules" that Rani had grown-up with.  And yet, Vijayalakshmi, despite pushing Rani (and the film's Viewers) at times a bit too much (there are a couple of scenes, not involving nudity -- there is none as this is an Indian film -- that are still needlessly, even stupidly, trashy) proves to be a pretty good guide for someone like Rany who's found herself "thrown 'by events' into the world."

And among the others that Rany meets is an Italian cook / restauranteur named Marcello (played by Marco Canadea [IMDb]) a few years older than she, so perhaps in his late 20s-early 30s, with whom she has comes to have some fairly lively discussions about ... food ;-) ... as both Indians and Italians are, how shall one say this, "quite proud" of their cuisines ;-).

All in all, it's a very nice story, about a young Rani / Queen, who perhaps initially had "different plans" for life, but like the "Mary" of the American Mary Tyler Moore Show [1970-77] [wikip] [IMDb], finds that she _can_ "make it on her own."

Very good job! ;-)


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The Assassin (orig. Nie yin niang) [2015]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
AsianWiki listing*

Film Comment (R. Liang) interview director / the film's two key stars 

APUM.com (A. Saéz) review*
aVoir-aLire.com (G. Crespo) review*
RogerEbert.com (J. Monji) review
Sight & Sound (G. Andrew) review
Slant Magazine (J. Catalgo) review
South China Morning Post (E. Lee) review

The Assassin (orig. Nie yin niang) [2015] [IMDb] [AW] (directed and cowritten by Hsiao-Hsien Hou [IMDb] [AW] along with Cheng Ah [IMDb] and Hai-Meng Hsieh [IMDb] based on the short story by Yuan Xingpei [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is a top-quality Chinese / Taiwanese "period piece" / "martial arts film" if perhaps with (at least in English) a needlessly / quite unfortunately reductive title.  The film played recently at the 2015 (51st Annual) Chicago International Film Festival and has subsequently returned to Chicago to play week-long runs at the Music Box Theater and the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Set in the closing stages of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 C.E.) in/around the rebellious / already (then) de facto independent Weibo Province [en.wikip] [zh.wikip]* (_perhaps_ "kinda like Taiwan" today ...) the story centers on a 20-something woman named Nie Yianning (played quite excellently by Shu Qi [IMDb] [AW]) -- after whom the film, in Chinese, was named.  As per RogerEbert.com's reviewer Jana Monji (link above), Nie Yianning's name is indeed quite evocative - Yianning means "Secret Daughter" and Nie the surname means "Said in Whispers."

So... Nie Yianning was born and spent much of her early childhood in a tiny, thoroughly inconsequential village in rural Weibo Province and yet had been betrothed (as a child) to a distant (and richer) cousin of a similar age named Tian Ji'an (played by Chang Chen [IMDb] [AW]) back when the Tian family was _merely_ "quite rich."

However, when the Weibo Province made its play to break away from the rest of China, the Tian family became the breakaway Province's  de facto rulers and it became important for young Ji'an to marry someone "appropriate to [his family's] _new_ station."  So poor Yianning was left in the village while Ji'an married and had children with a "better-born" Lady (played by Zhou Yun [IMDb] [AW]) and began to live as "a little Emperor" (of the breakaway Province).

So what happens to girl like Nie Yianning, who was betrothed by her family to someone in childhood, who when the time came, chose to marry someone "richer"?  Well her family handed her over to a strange "princess turned wandering warrior nun" (IMHO played magnificently by Sheu Fang-yi [IMDb]) whose backstory would certainly justify its own film.  Well this "princess turned wandering warrior nun" trains Nie Yianning to be an exceptionally lethal assassin, wreaking "black clothed" (of course...) "dropping in out of the blue" vengeance on all sort of powerful (usually male) potentates in the region.   Nie Yianning silently "drops in" ("like the wind..."), slits the powerful evil man's throat, slips out ... and is done.  Another powerful "Evil Doer" meets his (one hopes ...) "just deserts."

And Nie Yianning is certainly "good" at what she does.  We watch her deflecting swords and arrows launched at her by terrified / awestruck guards of said powerful "Evil doers" as if they were mosquitoes or butterflies.

Well, after a short 5 min, b&w introduction introducing us to the awesomely well-trained / supremely "good at what she does" Nie Yianning, she's given by her "former princess turned wandering warrior nun" mentor her next mission.  Guess who she's asked to kill? ;-) ...

Can she do it?  From a purely "skills" POV, certainly _yes_.  There's NO place that the 20-something, "hurt as a little girl," "secret daughter, spoken of in whispers..." Nie Yianning can not penetrate.  BUT _can_ she do _this_ "job" (even if her assigned target _certainly_ "kinda deserved it")?

The rest of the story follows ... ;-)

 It makes for a quite compelling story, and the cinematography, both indoors and out, is once again simply exquisite.  Anyone who's ever enjoyed traditional chinese paintings with their impossibly steep fog strewn cliffs or beautiful silky interiors will certainly appreciate this film.

So good job folks, very good job.  I just wish that the film's English title didn't simply reduce Nie Yianning to "The Assassin."  Her name was far more evocative than that ...


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

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The Hateful Eight [2015]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (L)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (A-)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review  

The Hateful Eight [2015] (written and directed by Quentin Tarantino) is, for better / worse, "a Quentin Tarantino movie" ;-).

Hence it is _needlessly long_ and is punctuated with brief moments of QT's signature (but still needlessly) extreme violence.  Seriously, it's obvious that Tarrentino thinks very highly of himself in forcing his viewers here to sit through this 2hr 45min movie that could have easily been an hour shorter and better for it.  As it is, the only humane way to watch this movie is on a widescreen TV at home.

YET, the characters, dialogues and even outdoor cinematography in this "Agatha Christie meets The Western" mash-up are often exceptional, outstanding even spectacular.  Again, seriously, by the end of the film Jennifer Jason Leigh's Daisy Domerge is _utterly unforgettable_, and Samuel Jackson's former Union soldier turned black bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren, Kurt Russell's more conventional "John Wayne-like" white bounty hunter named "John Ruth" and Walton Goggin's Chris Mannix a former "Confederate Marauder" turned future Sheriff of a "hole in the wall" Wyoming hamlet called "Red Rock", together comprising the first four characters introduced to us in the film, are all extremely well (and with very broad strokes quite amusingly) drawn. 

And the story, which by the end (not much of a spoiler alert here ...) doesn't exactly "leave a lot of people still standing" takes place in the context of a spectacular "Big Sky Wyoming winter blizzard" and then largely at a circa-1880s "Stage Coach Inn" in the middle of nowhere.

To say more would start to spoil the film.  My only advice is wait for it to come out on DVD / Blue Ray, because it's really too long to watch in a theater.


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Daddy's Home [2015]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (L)  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
ChicagoTribune (K. Walsh) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review  


Daddy's Home [2015] (directed by Sean Anders, story by Brian Burns screenplay by Sean Anders, Brian Burns and John Morris) is not exactly a kids movie (though _very_ strictly speaking there's little that would particularly disturb or offend most kids).  However, it seems clear to me that the film's intended audience are the adults perhaps particularly those who find themselves in "blended family situations."

I write this because the film is actually about the insecurities of a step-parent, in the case at hand of Brad Whitaker (played actually quite well by Will Farrell).  He is the super-responsible if inevitably nerdy (seriously, he works for "Radio Panda - Satellite Radio's 24 hour continuous slow jazz" ;-) second husband of Sara (played by Linda Cardellini).  Her _really cool_ if truly never-at-home, doing truly "only God knows what" (again seriously, he seems to have been some sort of a gun-running 'copter pilot for the CIA/DEA) Harley-riding first husband was Dusty Mayron (played by Mark Wahlberg) who had proven, at least as a husband / father, truly _irresponsible_.

And Sara then had two precocious little kids, Dylan (played by Owen Vaccaro) and Megan (played by Scarlett Estevez), with said super-cool if never-ever-around first husband, who in as much as 6 or 4 year olds could "hate" a step-parent (because, well, Brad's not dad ...) ... do.

So ... six months after Sara and Brad got married  ... and after a two year period of having been totally "out of the picture," Dusty, first dad, real / biological dad, rides back into town ... and the rest of the movie ensues ;-).

Again, the film is more far more for adults than for kids and actually treats both Farrell's Brad and Wahlberg's Dusty as well as Sara (Cardellini's character) quite well.  And the film could give both college aged young adults and young married's much to talk about: Do you marry for dependability or for cool?  And yes, there's a choice being made there, and all choices do have consequences (their pluses and minuses).


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Concussion [2015]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (K. Walsh) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review  

Concussion [2015] (screenplay and directed by Peter Landesman by based on the GQ article "Game Brain" [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Jeanne Marie Laskas [wikip] [GR] [GQ.com] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) tells the story of Nigerian-born Dr. Bennet Omalu (played with Oscar Nomination worthy sobriety in the film by Will Smith) who while working as a coroner for the Allegheny County, PA Medical Examiner's office performed autopsies on several former National Football League Players including Pittsburgh Steelers greats Mike Webster (played in the film by David Morse) and Justin_Strzelczyk (played in the film by Matthew Willig) who "died young" often by suicide in the years following their retirement from the NFL and discovered that they were suffering from early onset dementia, which he came to believe was the result of Chronic Traumatic Encelopathy (CTE), caused by "repetitive brain trauma" caused by concussions, and subconcussive hits to the head during the course of their decades long (from childhood, into their 30s) football careers.

Needless to say, Dr. Omalu's findings, which he published though the University of Pittsburgh in the medical journal Neurosurgery, 2005 July; 57(1):128-34, produced a good deal of blowback, as watching football is a beloved American pasttime, and he was finding this condition in retired, though still quite young (in their late 30s-40s) athletes in Pittsburgh (!) where Football has arguably been all-but a religion. 

His boss, then Allegheny County Medical Examiner Dr. Cyril Wecht (played in the film by Albert Brooks) though portrayed as supportive of Dr. Omalu throughout, noted to the puzzled-by-the-reaction Nigerian immigrant that: "You've found yourself taking on a national institution that owns a day of the week, the same day that the Church used to own, but now it [the NFL] does."   Still, as Dr. Omalu (presented as a practicing Catholic, incidentally) noted: "The truth is the truth," and while "Football Management" was certainly "running scared," preferring to just deny or at least minimize everything, Dr. Omalu was shown as getting increasing support from the players families, the players themselves, and even some of their trainers.  Notably former Pittsburgh Steelers' sports doctor / trainer Dr. Julian Bailes (played by Alec Baldwin) who had worked with the former players while they played for the Steelers is shown to take Dr. Omalu's side.

It all makes for a quite sobering film, and just as in the case of the story behind Spotlight [2015], which was largely about how it took a new editor, Jewish, from Miami, to expose the cover-up of pedophilia among Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Boston, the current film also reminds Viewers of the value of "the Outsider," who can perhaps see more clearly (and act more courageously) than those closer to the situation / problem.

Again, a quite excellent and sobering story and one that one hopes that the NFL will be able to effectively deal with.  American Football is a beautiful game, but it should not have to kill its stars / heroes.


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Point Break [2015]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChicagoTribune (1 Star)  RogerEbert.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (D+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jenson) review
ChiTrib / WashPost  (S. Merry) review
RogerEbert.com (P. Sobczynski) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review  

Point Break [2015] (directed by Ericson Core, screenplay by Kurt Wimmer, story by Rick King, W. Peter Iliff and Kurt Wimmer) is INSPIRED BY / A REMAKE OF of the CULT (SURFER) CLASSIC Point Break [1991] (directed by Kathryn Bigelow, screenplay by Peter Iliff, story by Rick King and W. Peter Iliff) only EXPANDED to take into account developments (an arguably AN EXPLOSION OF DEVELOPMENTS) in the realm of EXTREME SPORTS since the making of the original.

AND it is ALSO IMPORTANT / IMPERATIVE TO NOTE that Ericson Core the director of the current film was DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY for the first Fast and Furious [2001] movie.  Otherwise, one simply won't understand the nature / purpose of the current film.

AS IN THE 1991-ORIGINAL, THE PLOT _QUITE NOMINALLY_ FOLLOWS Johnny Utah (played in the original by Keanu Reeves, and in the current film by Luke Bracey) a (former "star college football athlete" in the original, and a former "extreme athlete" in the current film) who's since joined the FBI. He's tasked with infiltrating a group of ["surfers" in the original film, and "extreme athletes" in the current one] whose enjoyment of Nature (or of the "Rush" that comes from participating in Extreme Sports) _may have_ turned them into a particularly dangerous / nihilistic Band of Criminals -- living for the thrill, they appear utterly unafraid of death, hence the (folks at the Bureau) fear that they could become capable of anything...

... 'Cept it's more complicated than that.  The Band of Extreme Surfers (1991) / Extreme Athletes (2015) led by Bodhi (played in the original by Patrick Swayze and in the current film by Édgar Ramírez) are motivated _at least partly_ by an Eastern tinged / radical environmentalist ideology.  Hence they don't really commit random crimes.  Instead, they appear to commit "actions" (remaining at least partly _crimes_ ...) aimed, at least in part, to "restore balance to Nature" / "the Earth" / even "Society."   Hence, they rob Banks (in the first movie), Diamond Dealers, Gold Miners, etc (in the current one) and "restore" the ill-gotten goods of (evil) Corporate Interests "to the Earth" (or "to the Poor") "to whom they belong."

In both films, the young Johnny Utah, who is at least in part seduced by Bodhi's Eastern / "Zen" tinged radical environmentalist idealism, is partnered with an older, no nonsense, curmudgeon of an FBI agent named Pappas (played in the original by Gary Busey and in the current film by Ray Winstone) who finds the aspirational ideology supposedly behind Bodhi's band of criminals' crimes a bunch of nonsense -- "They (criminals) always have an explanation / an excuse for what they are doing" he tells the partly/largely "starry eyed" entranced Utah at one point in the current story.

And so much ensues ... Is Bodhi and his group just a bunch of adrenaline crazed nihilistic criminals?  Or are they actually on a (perhaps quite crazy / stupidly dangerous) path to Nirvana / Enlightenment?   Where will Johnny Utah's (and even the film-makers') loyalties finally go?

BUT HONESTLY FOLKS, ALL OF THIS IS REALLY BESIDE THE POINT.  The story, in as much as it exists, does so to allow the film-makers to offer Viewers of the film one truly spectacular sequence after another of death defying "extreme sports" stunts that could honestly serve as a "Stress Test" for us "mere mortals."  AND IT IS EXHILIRATING ;-).

MY CONCERN -- as a Catholic Priest -- is that it ALL becomes, at times, truly Nihilistic:

EARLY / UNNECESSARILY STUPID Death is shrugged off by Bodhi's band of extreme athletes as perhaps an inevitable passage to "Enlightenment."  Each time one of the group's members die, the others salute him with the phrase: "See you soon..."

I do think I understand "the thrill" of doing something that NO ONE (or VERY FEW) have done -- like SNOWBOARDING down a random rock-strewn cliff-face somewhere in the Alps (after being dropped off there by a helicopter), or WING-SUIT FLYING through a winding, narrow / deep canyon at speeds aproaching 160 mpg, or SURFING insanely high 100 foot waves that appear from time to time in random parts of the globe, or ROCK-CLIMBING (with no rope or gear) 3200 feet up the shear face of a cliff _beside a spectacular waterfall_, that also _randomly spews mist about_ (dampening everything around...).

It's all spectacular.  But then, if someone dies as a result, it just seems so hollow to respond by essentially saying: "Oops..." 

We're more than "Oops."  Our lives are more than "Oops." 

Something to remember.

Still, the film _is_ ONE HECK OF A RIDE ... ;-) ... and definitely worthy of lively discussion afterwards.

ADDENDUM -

A good part of the current film has the extreme athletes seeking to complete a list of challenges called "The Ozaki 8" after a supposed extreme athlete / Zen-ish mystic from Japan named, well..., Ozaki ;-).  The eight challenges were all in some way supposed to highlight one-or-another of the "forces of nature."  In the film, after completing each of these challenges, Bodhi's gang committed one or another of their "actions" (arguably crimes) to "give back to nature" something of what they / humanity was taking from it.

It turns out that there was no renowned extreme athlete named Ozaki, nor (then) his eight challenges until the making of this film (article by Michael R. Powell on the matter).  However, one gets a sense that the Eight Challenges (hopefully minus the crimes ...) will be with us from now on. 

What are The Ozaki Eight Challenges?  Well their names are:

1.Emerging Force
2.Birth of Sky
3.Awakening Earth
4.Life of Water
5.Life of Wind
6.Life of Ice
7.Master of Six Lives
8.Act of Ultimate Trust.


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