Cultural Mining

Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

It’s a  holiday weekend, a time when people of all ages have time to catch a movie on the big screen. This week, I’m looking at two new films, a video game movie aimed at very small children, and a sophisticated rom-com meant for grownups, There’s a plumber fighting a dragon in outer space; and a young couple having it out in midtown Manhattan.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Dir: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc

Mario and Luigi are plumber-brothers who live on a mushroom planet ruled by Princess Peach. It’s her birthday, so Mario — who has a crush on her — gives her a new umbrella. Her planet is a peaceful one, since the only villain, a dragon named Bowser, is safely locked up. Meanwhile, on another distant planet ruled by Princess Rosalina, little lunas — candy-coloured five-pointed stars — fly about happily until she tucks them in each night with a bedtime story. And the stories she tells are all about Princess Peach and the Mario Bros! But the peaceable kingdoms on these two planets is threatened by a new villain, Bowser Jr, who lives in a giant spaceship that flies around the galaxy wreaking havoc on various planets.  His plan? To rescue his dad, kidnap the various princesses, suck out their cosmic power, and rule the universe in his own evil way. So now it’s up to Mario, Luigi, Peach, a talking mushroom named Toad, and a green baby dinosaur called Yoshi to stop Bowser Jr’s evil plans and restore peace and order. But which side will triumph? 

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is the latest animated film for small children based on characters drawn from Japanese arcade and home games released over the past half-century. You can tell because Super Mario actually plays those games as part of the plot, jumping on floating blocks, amassing “coins”, and avoiding legions of enemies, just like in the real games. You can expect power-ups, transformations, and devices that make them bigger, smaller, stronger, weaker or turn them into babies. The plot is so basic, even a three-year-old can easily follow it: big or small, strong or weak, good guys or bad guys, without any real motivation as to what they do. The dialogue could be translated instantly into any language in the world without losing its meaning: There are no plays-on-words or double entendre here. (My favourite character from the previous Super Mario Brothers movie, Lumalee, a nihilistic Luma who constantly predicts death and doom, has been largely eliminated from this version.) So don’t go to this movie expecting intellectual stimulation. This is a dumbing-down of an already dumbed-down franchise. 

What it does provide is ample eye-candy, fast-moving action, lovely music and lots of bright, colourful images darting across the screen. Sorry folks, I enjoy glowing, psychedelic images wherever they come from — they give me a primal sense of stimulation and satisfaction. Added to this are multimedia images introduced at key moments — 16-bit video games and crayon-and-paper puppets who reenact certain parts of the story… what a hoot. 

And that’s how a movie like Super Mario Galaxy can be simultaneously as dumb as dirt but still a pleasure to watch.

The Drama

Wri/Dir: Kristoffer Borgli

It’s present-day Manhattan. Charlie (Robert Pattinson) is a tall but geeky guy with an English accent who works at a publishing house. He has a tendency to confabulate stories and tell little white lies.  Emma (Zendaya) is a socially-awkward professional who is deaf in one ear. She is pretty and diminutive. Their offices are nearby and they meet, seemingly by chance, one day, when Charlie approaches her in a cafe they both frequent. Now, a year later, their relationship has grown. They already share an apartment and are planning to tie the knot. This involves myriad meetings: rentals, planning the dinner, hiring a DJ, meeting their photographer…So they frequently turn to another couple for advice. Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim) are longtime friends of Charlie, and will serve as the Best Man and the Maid of Honour at the wedding. 

But when the four meet to sample the wines for the wedding banquet, they all get sloshed. Their conversation shifts from idle chatter to the deep, dark embarrassing secrets they all hold inside. In an informal truth or dare, they all have to answer What is the worst thing you ever did? When Emma, who rarely drinks, admits something she has never told a soul (and should have kept it a secret) everything changes. They look at her in a different way, as if she’s a monster or a lunatic, even though she only thought about doing something bad and never actually carried it out. But Charlie can barely go near her, never mind touch her. Every word they say or hear becomes loaded with meaning. An they’re both plagued by nightmares and dystopian day dreams. Her relationship with Charlie’s best friends has gone sour. And Charlie himself is growing unhinged. Are they still a couple? Will the wedding go through? And what is the future of their fraught relationship? 

The Drama is a very dark comedy about the vagaries and pitfalls of a wedding. It’s surprising, hilarious and more than a little disconcerting, sort of the antithesis of slapstick wedding comedies like Bridesmaids or The Hangover. This one is much more quirky, sophisticated and psychological. The story is largely told through Charlie’s point-of-view, but shifts at times to Emma’s thoughts. I started watching this movie thinking it’s going to be just another rom-com, with the expected clumsy first meeting, messy first date, opposites attract, etc., but about halfway through it turns into a something else entirely, the drama of the movie’s title, introducing things like rumours, awful spontaneous decisions, and cringe-worthy situations. Its Norwegian director, Kristoffer Borgli is known for his decidedly non-mainstream movies (I’ve never seen his previous films like Dream Scenario, but I’ve only heard good things about them.) It tells the story in a largely straightforward way (but with some crucial flashbacks to the distant past) and enough shocks to keep you guessing. The acting is great: Zendaya underplays the introverted but beautiful Emma; Mamondou Athie is an affable best friend, and Alana Haim gives Rachel an appropriate “mean girl” edge. But it’s most of all about Robert Pattinson who portrays the goofy and hapless Charlie in a likeable way but with enough slime and questionable morality to make him just hateable enough, to give him depth.

Far from being a forgettable rom-com, The Drama is the kind of movies you end up talking about for hours after you see it.

I like this one.

The Drama and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie are both playing this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. 

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com