Steamboy ( 2004 ) — Katsuhiro Otomo
While I haven't seen too much of the stuff, steampunk's big appeal for me is its marriage of a wishful aesthetic with a wistful theme : it's a genremachine of incredible force and scope, contorting the borders of nation, physics, and time to suit its end : the production of a unique and deeply naïve form of melancholy.
At any given time, it is more likely than not there's an urgent need to either open or close a valve, at great risk should this not be done : yes, the technology never quite seems to work as it's meant to. But to marvelous effect : the destruction of gargantuan set-pieces. And the artwork shines with detail : so much steam, so many trinkets, numberless doo-dads and dials and gauges and tubes : we pore over the lost dreams of utopia, baroquely gilt, and watch as they slowly break apart. This is definitely the guy who did Akira. ( Funny, William Gibson also charted a course from cyber- to steampunk. ) It is no wonder this was the most a Japanese film had cost to produce on release.
Also at any given time, it is more likely than not that our plucky hero's endeavoring to deliver his granddad's earth-shattering invention, the Steamball, into benevolent hands. Only it doesn't seem like a pair of hands plausibly meeting that description exists. All hands appear rather tied up at the moment in the interests of nationalism, plutocracy, or just plain ego run amok.
In the end, Steamboy saves the day and woos a pet-abusing heiress in the process, floating through the sky with her to light on a romantic rooftop, what whimsy, how hopeful. But he's just a boy. How long can this semblance of peace be maintained ? It seems anyone with any influence is hellbent on destroying humanity. The situation is not looking good on the side of technological optimism. . . But through all human error there is a great deal of money to be made.
Score : 6/10
Office Space ( 1999 ) — Mike Judge
A great slacker comedy and well-deserved classic. Characterization is mostly caricature : cartoonish in the best possible way. So many fun characters here, even the really minor ones, like the "ex crack addict." Unfortunately an unromantic and mostly unfunny Romantic B-Plot takes some of the wind out of its sails.
As the film develops and expands, it goes in unexpected thematic directions. It honestly reminded me of Macbeth : Peter Gibbons, who despises his lot as a lowly desk jockey, ascends the corporate ladder into Upper Management, which upsets the great chain of being apparently, because he soon finds the whole world upside down : his personal life goes to shambles [=a romantic interest, two friends, and even his down-to-earth neighbor all coming to find him noxious and un(boy)friendable], and literal fire is loosed upon the kingdom of Initech. In the end, Peter is taken down a few socioeconomic pegs and shown his ordained seat as a construction worker, a fate with which he is more than happy to comply. It is perfectly plausible that a person like Peter Gibbons would be glad for this career change, but for most people approaching this movie from the Work Sucks attitude that the film courts you with, I don't think this outcome convinces or satisfies.
Anyway, without changing too much about the movie, it could've been much improved by an alternate ending of my invention : Peter's asked to dump Jennifer Anniston, with whom he has little chemistry, by his neighbor Laurence, with whom he has chemistry in spades, so to pursue a loving relationship with him, a proposal he spiritedly accepts, and the credits roll on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." So minus a couple points for that not happening I guess.
Score : 8/10
My favorite movies
And then, in a league all its own:
