Inception

Title: Inception (2010)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Drama, Sci-fi
Lead Actor(s): Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page
Rating: PG-13
148 minutes

Christopher Nolan is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. Inception is trippy and thinky and great. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, the best “extractor” around with a very preoccupied subconscious. Extractors go into people’s dreams to unlock secrets for other people. Cobb and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are recruited for a big job and they must build a team including a forger, Eames (Tom Hardy), an architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page), a chemist, Yusuf (Dileep Rao), and the benefactor, Saito (Ken Wantanabe) to go deep into a mark’s mind.

Cobb has the most story in the movie and it is very complicated. DiCaprio handles such an intricate character with the taut skill he has become adept at. That being said, I would like to see him as a lighter character. His recent choices for characters never have a chance to smile and he was just as good at characters that smile. Back to his performance in this movie, I completely understand why Nolan only intended for DiCaprio for the role. This character is constantly tormented by personifications of his subconscious. He literally faces his evils in a more concrete way than the average person can dream. Cobb, however, feels that he has to continue. It doesn’t matter if he puts his whole team at risk. This gravity ways on DiCaprio as heavy as an anchor. Every movement, facial expression, every inflection is defined by this evil.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is absolutely magnificent. He is half of the comedic relief (the other being Hardy as Eames) and also a more balanced and level person than Cobb. He is more dimensional than Cobb as well. Gordon-Levitt is just fun to watch in the movie. DiCaprio is tormented and marvelous, but Gordon-Levitt just helps pull the audience away from a constant and sharp decline with Cobb. Gordon-Levitt has really grown into a fun and talented actor.

The one actor I was probably most disappointed with was Ellen Page. She was great the first 20-30 minutes, but as soon as she started discovering Cobb’s back story, I thought she dropped the ball a bit. I know that Page can do serious, even frightening. She proved this in Hard Candy. As such I am not entirely sure why when things got darker, she distanced herself from the character. I think Gordon-Levitt’s character would have been just as effective in the role this character had to play.

The directing and writing, both done by Nolan, were interesting and made the movie more of an experience. I am dying to know how he did those hallway scenes. I also want to say I loved the villain. There were times where it was so utterly unsettling. The villain really bumped the movie to the next level. I am trying not to give too much away because it would ruin the movie and the ad campaign was so careful to reveal so little. That is how I like my trailers. They need to leave some mystery so I don’t come out of the theatre feeling like I could have saved my money and just watched all the trailers to get to the end.

If Inception is not recognized for certain elements come award season, I will be very disappointed and it will probably just make me like Nolan more. I urge everyone to see this movie. This is what great movies can be. They don’t have to be in 3-d, if they have a good plot, fun and interesting characters, and the director can use his imagination. Too many directors are relying on 3-d to make their movies. If Avatar had not been in 3-d, there is no way it would have made the massive amounts of money it did. It certainly would not have been nominated for Best Picture. I will now get off my soapbox and give one last plea to see this movie. There have been practically no good movies, not made by Pixar, out this summer and finally this arrived. If it were not for Ellen Page, this movie would have gotten a 10.

********* 9/10

Whip It

Title: Whip It (2009)
Director: Drew Barrymore
Genre: Comedy, Sport
Lead Actor(s): Ellen Page
Rating: PG-13
111 minutes

This is Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut. The movie is based on a book called Derby Girl and follows a teenager, Bliss (Ellen Page), discovering the sport of roller derby. She lives in a hick town in Texas called Bodeen and drives into Austin one night to see her first derby match. She falls in love with the sport, lies about her age, and tries out for a team called the Hurl Scouts. She is reborn as Babe Ruthless and becomes a great jammer for the team. They are in a league with five other teams. Their enemy team is the Holy Rollers who have a bitch as a team captain. Bliss lies to her parents who want her to compete in pageants. The movie culminates in a match between the Holy Rollers and the Hurl Scouts.

Ellen Page does quite well as the girl stuck in a nowhere town dying to get away from the close-minded inhabitants in her town. She also seems to truly enjoy the scenes in the derby arena. Page is 5 years older than her character in the movie, but she has the kind of face where until she is 50 she will be able to play characters much younger than herself. I found her performance and evolution very believable and natural.

There are several wonderful supporting characters. Alia Shawkat, best known as Maeby from Arrested Development, is her best friend and the only one who understands Bliss. Marcia Gay Harden is Bliss’s uptight, ex-pageant queen mom. Harden is a wonderful actress and this performance is no different, although it is not the hardest role she has ever taken on. Drew Barrymore plays a stoner roller girl named Smashlee Simpson and has a fun time doing it. She, however, does not appear in every scene like some other actor/directors. Finally, how has Juliette Lewis, who plays villain Iron Maven, not been in a roller derby movie yet? She has the perfect angry energy for it.

The two actress that impress me the most though are definitely Kristen Wiig and Zoe Bell. Normally I can’t stand the overdone nature of Wiig’s characters, but despite the easy possibility to overdo a roller derby girl, Wiig is refined and natural in her role as Maggie Mayhem. If anything Wiig is the most withdrawn of the girls on the team. I love Zoe Bell. She started working in Hollywood as a stunt woman, but has since branched out into acting. She has a wonderful energy in everything I see her in and she has a tendency to steal the scenes she is in. She brings that same wonderful energy to her role as Bloody Holly. I really expect to see her in more roles, although probably not any dramatic roles.

Drew Barrymore does a decent though unremarkable job in her first job as director. It is not surprising that she has picked up some knowledge given how long she has been in the business, but I would like to see her tackle some harder material before I make in judgments on her ability as a director.

This is obviously not a high brow film, but it is a fun movie to watch with friends that doesn’t revolve around a desperate woman trying to get an unrealistic man. I will probably buy it at some point, but it is not something I feel a need to buy immediately. I recommend seeing it if you are a woman, enjoy the sport, or just want a completely different kind of chick flick.

***** 5/10