The Walk

For F*** Magazine

THE WALK

Director : Robert Zemeckis

Cast : Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale, Clément Sibony, César Domboy, Ben Schwartz, Steve Valentine

Genre : Drama

Run Time : 123 mins

Opens : 22 October 2015

Rating : PG (Some Intense Sequences)

Keep those Dramamine pills handy, because director Robert Zemeckis and star Joseph Gordon-Levitt are taking us on a particularly dizzying walk. In this biopic, Gordon-Levitt plays Philippe Petit, the French high-wire artist with, quite literally, a lofty ambition: to walk a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. The moment he first glimpses the structures in a magazine, Petit cannot take his mind off conquering the void between them. He seeks the tutelage of Papa Rudy (Kingsley), the patriarch of a famous clan of high-wire circus performers, and goes about assembling a team of accomplices who will help him break into the South Tower. Street musician Annie (Le Bon), who becomes Petit’s girlfriend, is the first. She is soon joined by photographer Jean-Louis (Sibony), math teacher Jeff (Domboy) and in New York itself, electronics salesman J.P. (Dale) and insurance agent Barry (Valentine), whose office. in the World Trade Centre. Battling doubts, their better judgement and logistical difficulties all the while evading the authorities, Petit and his crew go about preparing for this illegal, dangerous but ultimately breath-taking feat of derring-do. 

The Walk is based on Petit’s autobiography To Reach the Clouds, which earlier served as the basis for the 2008 Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire. After making his acceptance speech, Petit famously balanced the Oscar statuette on his chin. Awards contender biopics, branded as “important movies”, can sometimes be inaccessible and a bit of a chore for the average moviegoer to sit through. The Walk is very far away from that, a straightforward, heartfelt account of one guy’s crazy quest and the lengths he and his friends went to in order to make his dream a reality. There’s an undeniable appeal to the simplicity of the premise which papers over the slightly phony Hollywood sheen the film sometimes has. There are moments that can be twee and cloying, particularly during the nostalgia-heavy scenes set in Paris, but perhaps it adds to the film’s old-school charm in its own way. 

Typically, awards movie season biopics don’t exactly seem like they must be witnessed on the big screen. The Walk’s primary selling point is its spectacle, and the exhilarating sequences of Petit doing his thing 110 storeys up in the air are what Zemeckis and co. hope will convince those who watched the documentary to experience the story again. There have been reports of audiences at screenings actually throwing up from vertigo. We don’t mean to sound insensitive to those viewers, but incidents like that are great publicity indeed, indicating that the film has achieved a sense of immersion for the audience. It’s a little like when horror movies like Last House on the Left proudly proclaimed on their posters that audience members fainted from fright. 

Known for helming effects-heavy films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Back to the Future and Forrest Gump, in addition to motion capture movies like The Polar Express and Beowulf, Zemeckis has never been one to shy away from gimmicks. Surprisingly, 3D hasn’t been used to accomplish the effect of vertigo as often as one would think. The twin towers themselves and the surrounding New York cityscape circa 1974 are faithfully, stunningly realised by visual effects supervisor Kevin Baillie and the artists from effects houses Atomic Fiction, UPP, Rodeo FX and Legend 3D. This is a “based on a true story” affair that isn’t afraid to have lots of fun, and the theme park thrill ride aspect is complementary rather than distracting. 

Gordon-Levitt turns up the charm, bringing lithe athleticism and a mischievous twinkle in his eye to the part of Petit. Yes, his French accent is pretty cringe-inducing and is even more jarring given that Gordon-Levitt is acting opposite actual French actors, but it’s relatively easy to overlook after a while. It’s no mean feat to make obsession endearing, and while there are the expected dramatic beats where we see the toll that Petit’s unceasing drive takes on him and his friends, the film is largely upbeat and free-spirited. His stunt double is former Cirque du Soleil high-wire walker Jade Kindar-Martin. Gordon-Levitt’s take on Petit is almost an imp from another dimension who has materialised on this plane to simply live his dream. Sure, his exploits may seem crazy to the man in the street, but high above that street, Petit seems perfectly at home, and in his projection of this, Gordon-Levitt is irresistible. 

French-Canadian actress Le Bon shares palpable chemistry with Gordon-Levitt. While her introductory scene in which Annie gets upset with Petit for stealing her thunder with his tightrope juggling routine is corny, we do come to buy these two as a couple. Annie definitely has ideas and goals of her own, so her support of Petit is all the more endearing. As the mentor figure Papa Rudy, Kingsley does seem like he’s lived his whole life in a circus, bringing enough personality to the “paternal/authoritarian” archetype. Sibony, Domboy, Dale and Valentine are a likeable bunch and the camaraderie that Petit’s team shares is heart-warming and rousing. Jeff willingly assists Petit on the roof of the South Tower in spite of his own crippling fear of heights. “Squad goals,” as the kids say these days. There is a stoner character who comes off more as inauthentic, unnecessary comic relief than anything else, though. 

The Walk isn’t about a troubled chess champion, a schizophrenic mathematician, a code-breaking genius or women fighting for their right to vote. It’s not particularly weighty, but especially during awards movie season, this reviewer is fine with that. The twin towers stand no more and the film acknowledges this tastefully with a final frame that is wont to give many New Yorkers a lump in their throats. It is occasionally overly schmaltzy, and as Alan Silvestri’s score swells and characters give impassioned speeches about chasing their dreams, one might roll one’s eyes and say “I see what you’re trying to do, movie”. However, the earnestness with which Zemeckis and crew go about things overrides that feeling. A celebration of passion, conviction and artistic expression, The Walk is a thrilling, entertaining and moving journey.  

Summary: While it might give acrophobics pause, The Walk is a heartfelt tale that is easy to get into thanks to its star’s innate likeability and its thrilling spectacle is something to behold. 

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars 

Jedd Jong 

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

For F*** Magazine

SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR 

Director : Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez

Cast : Jessica Alba, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson, Juno Temple, Jaime King, Bruce Willis, Jamie Chung, Lady Gaga, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven

Genre : Action/Thriller

Opens : 8 August 2014

Rating : R21 (Violence, Nudity & Sexual Scenes) 

Running time: 102 mins

Basin CITY. A cesspool dripping with BLOOD and ALCOHOL and SEX and GRIME. A grimy CESSPOOL. NINE years after the FIRST movie, we RETURN. FOUR interlocking stories. “Just ANOTHER Saturday NIGHT” – Marv (Rourke) BEATS up PUNKS and hangs off the side of POLICE CARS. “The Long BAD Night” – Johnny (Gordon-Levitt), a self-assured young gambler, beats Senator Roark (Boothe) in a GAME of POKER. Big MISTAKE. “A DAME to Kill For” – Ava Lord (Green), sly WICKEDNESS taken the form of a WOMAN. She CASTS her SPELL upon former flame Dwight (Brolin) once more. Can he ESCAPE this enchantress’ GRASP? “Nancy’s Last DANCE” – stripper Nancy (Alba) is victim no MORE. She seeks to AVENGE the death of Hartigan (Willis), her PROTECTOR. AVENGING his DEATH. Her crosshairs are SET on Roark.

            

            This reviewer had planned to write the whole thing in the style of Frank Miller but gave up after that paragraph. The first Sin City film broke its share of ground by hewing closely to the stylisation Miller had drawn into his graphic novels, using visual effects and cinematography to replicate the striking aesthetic of the Sin City books. Black and white with occasional violent bursts of selective colour, often lapsing into animated silhouettes. Miller was initially reluctant to allow an adaptation to be filmed, but Robert Rodriguez won him over and they became co-directors on both movies. It’s nine years later and it’s not quite so novel anymore. In-between then and now we’ve had the likes of 300 and the dismal The Spirit, the latter directed by Miller himself. It’s still a great gimmick and we bet this movie is stunning in 3D (we saw the 2D version). However, any gimmick can only carry a film so far.

            The movie is clearly striving for a noir feel but so much of the Frank Miller dialogue, in reaching for a hard-boiled attitude, comes off as laughably silly. “It’s another hot night. The kind of night that makes people do sweaty, secret things,” Dwight says in voiceover. When he gets kicked in the crotch, he describes it as “an atom bomb go(ing) off between my legs.” The intensity of all the brutal, wince-inducing violence in the film ends up being undercut by the writing. “A Dame to Kill For” has as its central character an evil, manipulative, often-naked seductress. Eva Green vamps it up entertainingly as is her speciality, but there’s not much more to Ava Lord than that – she’s a textbook femme fatale. The character’s speech about the nature of insanity and evil from the graphic novel, which would have added a layer or two, is cut. “Nancy’s Last Dance”, an original story written for this film, also undoes everything the character went through in the first film. Nancy, that narrow beam of light that was able to escape the darkness of Sin City, is now just another avenging angel. “The Long Bad Night”, the other original story, is carried by Gordon-Levitt playing against Boothe but is never wholly compelling.

            The film’s ensemble cast gets to play it up in ways few other movies would let them, to mostly entertaining results. Josh Brolin, playing Dwight before the character had plastic surgery to look like Clive Owen, is convincingly tough and grizzled. Powers Boothe is a hoot as a “love to hate” villain of the most extreme variety. Gordon-Levitt sinks his teeth into playing Johnny in his transition from cocksure and feeling untouchable to wounded and seething. The afore-mentioned Green, taking the role long-linked to Angelina Jolie, does look like she’s having a ball and seems extremely comfortable with the nigh-gratuitous nudity. Speaking of showing skin, Jessica Alba famously has a no-nudity clause but given Nancy’s get-ups in this film, she might as well be naked. Her attempts at playing an angry Nancy galvanised into taking up arms against Roark are ropey at best. Bruce Willis plays a ghost. Odd sense of déjà vu there.

            In 2005, before the full-on boom of movies based on comic books and graphic novels that we’re experiencing now, Sin City was unlike anything else out there. It was striking, bold and impactful. Now, the cool factor of the film being shot on a digital back-lot with everything but the actors and key props computer-generated has subsided. As over the top as A Dame to Kill For is, it falls short of the visceral oomph the first film had. Comic book fans know Frank Miller as a writer and artist who helped define the medium with the likes of The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, but who seems to have lost his mind, judging from the atrocious likes of Holy Terror and All Star Batman and Robin. His misogynistic attitudes and obsession with dark faux-poetry are on full display in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Robert Rodriguez serving as little more than his errand boy.

Summary: There’s no kill like overkill –Sin City: A Dame to Kill For brims with eye-catching imagery and uncompromising depictions of violence and sex, but there is little beneath its glossy, lurid surface.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Looper

 For F*** Magazine, Singapore

LOOPER

Director:	Rian Johnson
Cast:	Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt
Genre:	Action, Thriller
Run Time:	118 mins
Opens:	11 October 2012

There’s no doubt about it: time travel has been something that’s fascinated the public consciousness for quite a while now. From H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine to Back to the Future to The Time-Traveller’s Wife, it seems authors and filmmakers have tapped into mankind’s almost primal desire to transcend the boundaries of time. It could be compared to mankind’s almost primal desire to fly. But while we’ve kinda achieved flight by way of heavier-than-air flying machines, time travel is still something that is quite elusive, to say the least.

Writer-director Rian Johnson’s film Looper offers an interesting twist on things: the ‘Loopers’ of the title are specialised assassins who take care of the trash of the future, by executing those sent back in time by criminal syndicates for a clean, untraceable disposal. Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is one such Looper, living the high life working his fairly uncomplicated job. However, every Looper must eventually ‘close the loop’ – i.e. kill the future version of themselves sent back in time, effectively tying up any loose ends for the crime syndicates. However, Joe’s future self (Willis) won’t go out without a fight, and evades execution. The younger Joe seeks refuge at a farm owned by redneck single mother Sara (Blunt), and just as he figures out how to deal with future-Joe, future-Joe sees the opportunity to right a few wrongs now that he’s in the past, and both must confront each other - even if it means tearing apart the fabric of time itself.



Looper is not your grandfather’s time-travel movie. Johnson has crafted a very intelligent, highly-engaging picture. He quickly establishes the high-concept premise and the story never gets swallowed up in its complexities. There’s a scene where future-Joe meets Joe in a diner, and says that if he attempted to explain the mechanics of time-travel, they’d end up sitting there for hours “making diagrams with straws”. Johnson makes sure he doesn’t end up doing that himself, instead spinning a very human and surprisingly poignant yarn with the science-fiction element as a backdrop. The picture is stylish but never flashy, and Johnson keeps a firm hold on his narrative even as it branches out into “possible eventualities” and alternate futures. Our attention is captured by the intricate plot, so much so that we never stop to question the metaphysical technicalities of it all, and that is very much to Johnson’s credit.

This film re-teams Johnson with the star of his earlier film Brick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. So, does he make for a decent Junior Bruce Willis? Yes. Although the prosthetic makeup designed by Kazuhiro Tsuji can start off looking a mite goofy, it’s easy to get past that and the actor does a marvellous job emulating Willis’ strained vocal affectations. There was a time when Bruce Willis could have been considered sexy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s portrayal seems to hearken back to those days. He puts across the moral and emotional toll being a Looper takes on Joe very well without doing too much, and he shares crackling chemistry with Willis himself.


As the older Joe, Willis is really good and actively lends his action hero credibility to the part, without his ‘icon’ status overshadowing the rest of the film. This movie doesn’t succumb to the cliché of having the older version of the character act as a mentor to his younger self and show him the ropes; rather both versions of Joe are almost constantly at each other’s throats and Willis is bitter and aggressive as the older one. What’s quite amusing is how quickly both Joes get over the absurdity of it all, staying focused on their respective missions as the other Loopers are sent to hunt them down (led by a rather intimidating Jeff Daniels).

When one thinks ‘redneck single mother’, English Rose Emily Blunt isn’t the name that immediately springs to mind, but she does a fantastic job as Sara, Southern accent and all. The character is a tough chick that isn’t your stereotypical tough chick; she’s just looking out for her son and making a living on the farm. The subplot which focuses on her character is intriguing to say the least. About halfway through, Looper becomes a completely different film, and while this makes sense in retrospect, it can come off as jarring and abrupt to some. This is one aspect of the film we are desperate not to spoil; the twists and revelations are just incredible. We’ll give you one hint – it’s a little “X-Men”. There are themes of predestination (a little akin to The Adjustment Bureau, also starring Emily Blunt) and sacrifice, and by the film’s end it’s turned from a head-spinning sci-fi action thriller to a poignant, moving drama – and yet doesn’t feel too disjointed.

We moviegoers often complain that Hollywood seems to have well and truly lost its creativity and is content in churning out production line cash-ins, banking on the names of franchises by way of sequels and remakes. Looper is a blunderbusser blast in the face to all of that. Here is a heady, intelligently-made science fiction film that true aficionados of the genre will want to take in, layering emotion, thrills and philosophy one on top of the other. It may not be immediately accessible and it will take a bit of effort to make sense of, but audiences will be amply rewarded.

SUMMARY: A refreshingly original, captivating sci-fi action thriller, this is one loop you want to keep yourself in even if it means working a little for it.

RATING: 4 out of 5 STARS

Jedd Jong

Premium Rush

For F*** Magazine, Singapore

Director:	David Koepp
Cast:	Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon, Dania Ramirez, Jamie Chung
Genre:	Action, Thriller
Run Time:	91 mins
Opens:	27 September 2012
Rating:	PG13 - Some Coarse Language

Quick, off the top of your head, name some dangerous jobs, lines of work where risking life and limb are all part of the daily grind. Fighter pilot? Fireman? SWAT Officer? Naval Diver? How about bicycle courier? Fuelled not by diesel nor octane, just adrenaline, these daredevil deliverymen (and women) put the ‘special’ in ‘special delivery’, and the ‘rush’ in ‘rush delivery’, taking the merciless New York traffic head on.

Wilee (Gordon-Levitt) is a rather extreme example, who puts getting the job done and the thrill of it a fair bit over his personal safety as he weaves through the city streets at blinding speeds astride his brakes-less, single-gear fixie bike. His ex-girlfriend Vanessa (Ramirez) is also his colleague, and he faces competition in both professional and personal fields from his cocky rival Manny (Wole Parks). He is tasked with delivering a mysterious envelope from Vanessa’s roommate Nima (Chung), and soon finds himself being pursued by crooked cop Bobby Monday (Shannon), who is in deep with Chinese gambling syndicates and needs to pay his way out. Wheels are spun, blows are traded, bullets are fired, cars and bikes are wrecked – and Wilee needs to stay on top of it all, somehow.


The idea of an action story based around the world of bike messengers is not completely new: there was the 80s film Quicksilver, starring Kevin Bacon, Taylor Lautner’s upcoming flick Tracers, and the 1998 novel The Ultimate Rush – the author of which has actually sued the filmmakers of Premium Rush for copyright infringement. Still, it is pretty novel to see the central vehicles in high-speed road chases not be muscle cars, souped-up choppers or Humvees, but rather comparatively humble bicycles. The key is in making said chases still feel exciting, still having them carry an element of danger in spite of the more mundane modes of transportation used to carry them out.

Premium Rush’s greatest strength is that the chases – and there are loads of ‘em – do indeed feel intense and exhilarating. Director David Koepp and his crew had the task of getting audiences’ blood pumping as they stay seated for two hours, and Premium Rush does a mighty fine job in that regard, with dynamic camerawork and a real tactile feel to the action, genuine enough to draw gasps from all those very, very close calls. There are however, one or two spots where one can tell that Gordon-Levitt has been replaced by a stunt double. The film may have gotten a little carried away in the style department, with sequences showing how Wilee mentally maps out the immediate path to take in “bike vision”, and a visual representation of New York City in miniature buildings-3D map style. At times, this can get a little too dizzying, and one gets the sense that perhaps Koepp was trying a mite too hard to make this ‘cool’ and ‘hip’.

The story is rather straightforward and this is an old-school chase flick at heart. Our hero has something the villain wants, and thus needs to evade the villain by any means necessary. There is actually nothing wrong with this relatively simple story, and it is made more interesting by being told in non-linear fashion, the action occasionally flashing back to show how we got here. It can be a little distracting, but it also adds a layer or two to the proceedings. The plot can be compared to that of the Jason Statham-starring film Safe, also involving a protagonist caught in a web of Chinese mobsters and dirty cops. However, where Safe was generic and boring, Premium Rush is frequently refreshing and a lot of fun.

And then there are the performances, which truly elevate the material. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is perfectly cast as Wilee, the combination of youthful energy and focused intensity he brings to the part well-suited to a bike messenger living life on the absolute edge. Dania Ramirez as his love interest and colleague is good too, she brings a certain physicality to the part of Vanessa and with those toned arms and the athleticism she displays, it isn’t hard at all to buy her as someone who cycles at 50 mph for a living. Wole Parks as the requisite rival is annoying, but then again the character is meant to be. Jamie Chung is a tad stiff and struggles somewhat with her Mandarin Chinese lines, but is okay anyway.

The show is stolen squarely by Michael Shannon as corrupt policeman Det. Bobby Monday – and it seems that was the actor’s intention to begin with. Shannon will play Superman villain General Zod in next year’s Man of Steel, and if his turn as the antagonist here is any indication, Supes had better watch out. Shannon’s portrayal is utterly unhinged, and he manages to be over-the-top yet still intimidating, his Det. Monday sometimes comic, but always scary. It brings to mind Gary Oldman’s iconic portrayal of psychotic DEA Agent Stansfield in The Professional, and while Shannon may come off as a little goofy to some, he still makes for a memorable adversary to Wilee.

Premium Rush makes for a pretty exciting time at the theatre, its buoyant tone with tongue somewhat in cheek making sure it’s always light on its feet – or its two wheels, as it were. Perhaps where it went a little off track was in gearing itself a little too much towards the younger set.

SUMMARY: Lightning-paced entertainment that doesn’t stop to put on the brakes, but has a basic narrative bodywork and sometimes gets a little carried away in its stylisation.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 STARS

Rush Delivery: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Takes Life by the Handlebars

As published in F*** Magazine, Singapore - Issue 32

Text:

RUSH DELIVERY:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes life by the handlebars 

By Jedd Jong

When one thinks of cool, badass movie rides, what comes to mind? One of the myriad souped-up sports cars in The Fast and the Furious movies? James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5? The time-travelling DeLorean from Back to the Future? The Batmobile? Whatever it is, it probably isn’t a bicycle. Sure, extreme sportsmen and professional racing cyclists can make the things look cool, but as the wheels of choice for an action hero? Premium Rush aims to prove that you don’t need a flux-capacitor or retractable machine guns, all you need are those two wheels, with a savvy bike messenger who knows his way around the streets of New York at the handlebars.  

Intriguing as it sounds, others have had similar ideas:  beyond the lawsuit leveled at the filmmakers by Joe Quirk, author of similarly-plotted novel The Ultimate Rush, Kevin Bacon played a bike messenger in 1986’s Quicksilver, and Taylor Lautner is due to play one as well in Tracers. However, this fall the bike lanes belong to Wilee, a bicycle courier tasked with delivering a mysterious envelope that soon attracts the attention of a corrupt cop indebted to the mob, played by Michael Shannon (who will be Superman villain General Zod in next year’s Man of Steel). 

So, who really is the guy pedaling frantically away on the brakes-less, single gear ‘fixie’ bike? Why, he’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt, probably one of the most-admired younger actors working in Hollywood today, equally known for his dedication to the craft as for his easy, boyish charm and demeanour. He’s an actor who has made a near-seamless transition from being a prolific child performer in commercials, film and television shows to doing equally impressive work in an eclectic filmography peppered with smaller independent comedies and dramas and huge big-budget blockbusters. He’s one of the few child actors to escape the fate of becoming a “Baby Jane” and carve his own way – perhaps he could be considered the male equivalent of Natalie Portman, whom he incidentally co-starred with in Hesher. In addition to Premium Rush, this year sees Joseph Gordon-Levitt appear in The Dark Knight Rises, Looper and Lincoln, propelling him ever further up Hollywood’s A-list and cementing his position as the guy to watch. 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was born in 1981 to Dennis Levitt and Jane Gordon in Los Angeles California, and grew up in the Sherman Oaks suburb, and wasn’t the first in the family to break into show business: his maternal grandfather Michael Gordon was a movie director from the 40s to the 70s, helming films such as Pillow Talk and Cyrano de Bergerac, and his recently-deceased brother Dan was a professional fire dancer and photographer. Gordon-Levitt’s first acting role was as the Scarecrow in a preschool production of The Wizard of Oz, and the audience loved it – so much so that his mother was approached by an agent who was managing two of his cast mates in the school play (remember, this was a suburb of L.A.). The agent wanted to cast Gordon-Levitt in commercials, and the young boy was open to the idea. “I told Mom it sounded awesome”, he recalled in an interview with the New York Times. And so, a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt began starring in television advertisements for Sunny Jim Peanut Butter, Kinney Shoes, Pop-Tarts and Cocoa Puffs. However, even then he was beginning to show signs of artistic integrity. “I didn’t really like doing commercials,” he admitted. “You had to behave like you were on angel dust or something.” 

Gordon-Levitt found film and television work more to his liking, and had his first such role at age six, as Tommy Lee Jones’ son in the TV movie Stranger in My Land. More work quickly followed, such as parts in TV shows including Family Ties, the remake of Dark Shadows, Quantum Leap and The Powers that Be – the latter two earning him Young Artist Award nominations. It was his turn as Young Norman alongside Brad Pitt and Tom Skerritt in the Robert Redford-directed A River Runs Through It that actually won him one. After that came guest appearances on Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman and Roseanne, and a leading role in Disney’s remake of Angels in the Outfield. By the time the first episode of the TV show he’d eventually become known for aired, he had appearances in over 20 other TV shows and movies under his belt.

That particular TV show was, of course, the science-fiction family sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, about the exploits of a team of alien researchers sent on an expedition to earth and masquerading as a regular human family. Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrayed Tommy Solomon, an intelligence specialist who appears to be the youngest of the family but is really the oldest alien of the crew, in the guise of a teenager. The role showcased his comic timing and earned him critical acclaim, netting the young actor two YoungStar awards, one Young Artist Award and a Teen Choice Award, in addition to several more nominations. It also turned him into something of a teen idol and led to his being featured in teen and gossip magazines, something he didn’t particularly like. Reflecting on it, the guy who once played an alien seems very down to earth – “Supermarket tabloids and celebrity gossip shows are not just innocently shallow entertainment, but a fundamental part of a much larger movement that involves apathy, greed and hierarchy. Celebrity doesn’t have anything to do with art or craft. It’s about being rich and thinking that you’re better than everybody else.” In an age when every former child star seems to have sunk to the lowest depths of party-going, drunk driving and rehab stints, Joseph Gordon-Levitt remains a steadfastly focused actor who emphasizes the acting and not the lifestyle commonly associated with Hollywood stardom. “Actors didn`t use to be celebrities,” he says with no delusions. “A hundred years ago, they put the theaters next to the brothels.”

While he was on the show, Joseph Gordon-Levitt also took movie roles – in romantic thriller The Juror as Demi Moore’s son, in horror sequel Halloween H20, and, memorably, in Ten Things I Hate About You, alongside the late Heath Ledger. That’s right; the Joker went to high school with Gotham Police Detective R. John Blake. If you’ve seen The Dark Knight Rises, then you know what the ‘R’ stands for, and the circle of irony is complete. Joseph Gordon-Levitt bowed out of 3rd Rock in its final season, asking out of his contract, to which the producers agreed. “Acting was still fun, but a spark was missing,” he said. “I wanted a new challenge.” 

This new challenge came in the form of a stint at Columbia University’s School of General Studies, where Gordon-Levitt studied history, literature and French Studies – the school also figures in Premium Rush; it’s where Wilee picks up the strange envelope. While a student there, he developed a love for French language and culture, learning how to speak French (which probably makes him all the sexier) and a taste for snails (which should make him a little less sexy but probably doesn’t).  While most teens at the time were likely lusting over Playboy centerfolds and the girls on Baywatch, Gordon-Levitt’s celebrity crushes were French New Wave actresses such as Anna Karina, Corrine Marchand and Brigitte Bardot.  “For me,” he said, “few things are more erotic than a woman speaking in a French accent.” However, when he did make a trip to France at age 20, the ladies there didn’t return his affection. “I tried to meet French women and struck out left and right,” he sighed. There is something reassuring that even the alien-boy-turned-heartthrob is only human. 

Speaking about returning to acting after that, Gordon-Levitt told Movies Online, “well, the conscious decision was that I wanted to be in good movies.” As a younger actor, he was in it for fun, but he soon began taking acting more and more seriously, becoming the craftsman audiences known him as today. “When I started acting again,” he continued, “I wanted the acting to engage with that connection whereas, when I was younger, I was really unnerved when anybody would recognize me for something I’d done.” Many child actors desire to break out of the “cutesy” mould and attempt to do so with one or more performances that are as shocking as possible – it can be said that Gordon-Levitt did that to a degree. In Manic he played an abused teen committed to a mental institution, in Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin he played a homosexual prostitute who was a victim of sexual abuse, in Latter Days he played a Mormon missionary (who has a cycling accident – amusing in retrospect), in Havoc he played a trailer park faux-gangster alongside Anne Hathaway (aka Catwoman), in Stop-Loss he became a traumatized Iraq War veteran and in Rian Johnson’s Brick he played a teen detective who gets embroiled in a drug ring. Quite the selection of heady dramatic parts indeed, seemingly a far cry from Tommy on 3rd Rock or his voice acting role as Jim Hawkins in Disney’s Treasure Planet. 

Of course, Gordon-Levitt really made all the girls sit up and take notice in (500) Days of Summer, a quirky little subversive romantic comedy film that in itself was a deconstruction of various chick flick tropes, billed as not a love story, but a story about love. The film, helmed by Marc Webb (who’d go on to direct The Amazing Spider-Man) paired Joseph Gordon-Levitt up with manic pixie dream goddess Zooey Deschanel. The chemistry between the two was explosive and just brought smiles to moviegoers’ faces, and the most iconic onscreen hipster couple in recent memory was born. The two leads also played a part in earning the film near-universal acclaim, putting it in “top ten best movies of 2009” lists in magazines and newspapers everywhere. For his efforts as the sweet, aw-shucks architect-turned-greeting card designer, Gordon-Levitt was nominated for a ‘Best Actor (Musical or Comedy)’ award at the Golden Globes. 

The same year, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in a very different film – the blockbuster action flick G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra, based off the line of Hasbro Toys which had earlier inspired comic books and the nostalgia classic cartoon series. As for his role in the film, *Spoiler Alert* - he’s Cobra Commander. The serious young actor playing a cartoony villain in a toy movie? No way! The film’s version of Cobra Commander was formerly a mild-mannered US soldier, presumed dead after a mission goes awry. Keeping his survival a secret, becomes the insane, scarred head scientist of weapons manufacturer MARS. Gordon-Levitt was nearly unrecognizable, in a mask with prosthetic makeup beneath it as a Darth Vader of sorts. The actor recalls being excited by conceptual art for the film. "I was like, 'I get to be that? You're going to make that (makeup) in real life and stick it on me? Cool. Let me do it.' That's a once-in-lifetime opportunity." It also helped that Gordon-Levitt’s friend and co-star from Havoc and Stop-Loss, Channing Tatum, had been cast as main character Duke. Joseph Gordon-Levitt won’t be returning for the sequel, with Cobra Commander being played instead by Faran Tahir. Gordon-Levitt has moved on to bigger, better things. 

Namely, Christopher Nolan’s cyber-punk inspired action drama magnum opus, Inception. Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrayed the “point man” Arthur, partner-in-crime to the film’s main character Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. “When problems arise,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt explained, “it's sort of Arthur's job to smooth things out - and problems inevitably arise." The part was originally intended for James Franco, who became unavailable due to scheduling conflicts. Aside from his penchant for stylish waistcoats, Gordon-Levitt as Arthur is also remembered for the mind-blowing action sequence set in a hotel corridor, where he tangles with his opponent in zero-gravity, bouncing and running off the walls and ceiling. Gordon-Levitt performed the sequence himself, barring one quick shot. About working with the Inception stunt team, Gordon-Levitt said, “They were really cool and brought me in and taught me a lot, and let me do it. It was hard and it hurt sometimes, but it was so much fun." At the Scream Awards that year, Joseph Gordon-Levitt took home the Best Supporting Actor award, and his gravity-defying hallway skirmish was named ‘Best Fight Scene of the Year’. 

Once reaching the big leagues, however, Gordon-Levitt didn’t abandon his dramatic aspirations and continued to appear in smaller films such as the quirky erotic comedy Elextra Luxx, the afore-mentioned drama Hesher alongside Natalie Portman and in the comedy-drama 50/50 alongside Seth Rogen. His role as a cancer patient, which was partially based on the real-life experiences of screenwriter Will Reiser, got him a second Golden Globes nomination for ‘Best Actor (Musical or Comedy)’. Gordon-Levitt also directed and starred in two personal short film projects featuring his character “Morgan M. Morgansen”, which were super-artsy and screened at film festivals. Gordon-Levitt’s other pet project is hitRECord, an online collaborative production venture where contributing artists share in the profits. Gordon-Levitt oversees this alternative outlet of multimedia artistic expression from a computer setup in his home studio. 

And now, 2012 is well and truly Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s year. Christopher Nolan enjoyed working with him in Inception so much that he was cast in The Dark Knight Rises, the final installment in the Dark Knight Trilogy. Gordon-Levitt played Det. John Blake, an idealistic policeman whose optimism and sincerity did not go unrewarded. Gordon-Levitt even got an action figure made in his likeness. Soon, he will appear in the science-fiction action film Looper, from his Brick director Rian Johnson. In the time travel assassin tale, Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrays – get this – the younger version of Bruce Willis. According to him, the prosthetics makeup people baulked, but eventually came up with something (it mainly involves giving Gordon-Levitt more of a chin). And he rounds out 2012 in Steven Spielberg’s long-awaited biopic Lincoln as Robert Todd Lincoln, the 16th US President’s first son. 

But first, he’s got to ride for his life, in Premium Rush, under the direction of veteran screenwriter/director David Koepp, whose writing credits include Jurassic Park, Spider-Man and Mission: Impossible. While expert cyclists and other stunt performers were used, Joseph Gordon-Levitt did a fair bit of the high-speed riding himself, and suffered for his art: he was cycling too fast and hit the back of a taxi, flying into its rear windscreen and slashing his arm, which required 31 stitches. A home video taken on the set shows Gordon-Levitt laughing the painful injury off, remarking “this is f***ing cool” before issuing a disclaimer for viewers not to try it at home – it is then that the cameraman realises that it’s time to whisk Gordon-Levitt away to the paramedics. That’s as cool as they come, folks. Come next year, Gordon-Levitt will take the title role in Don Jon which he will also direct, a retelling of the tale of Don Juan which re-imagines him as a young sex addict. 

There is no doubt that in the past several years, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s remarkable talent has come to the fore, and audiences are embracing the actor. On his status as something of a sex symbol, Gordon-Levitt remarked “I've played the smart kid, the funny one, the nice sweet one, even the angry one, but never the sexy one.” There certainly is something sexy about him, and it probably is – above everything else – that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the real deal. He’s a movie star who’s all about the “movie” part and not the “star” bit, someone who has plainly said “the whole concept of celebrity pisses me off” and that “astronauts and teachers are much more amazing than actors”, someone whose appeal is that he comes off as a genuine guy with no airs about him – someone who takes life by the handlebars. 

The Dark Knight Rises

For F*** Magazine, Singapore

(The following review is spoiler-free)

Movie Review                                                                                                             18/7/12

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

2012

Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Warner Bros/Legendary Pictures

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you're so strange
And in your darkest hour, I hold secret’s flame
You can watch the world devoured in its pain

            So go the lyrics to Smashing Pumpkins’ The End is the Beginning Is the End, from 1997’s Batman and Robin. It seems at least a little ironic that a song from the worst Batman film ever made seems to sum up the plot of what is possibly the best Batman film ever made. Christopher Nolan, his brother Jonathan, wife and producer Emma Thomas, co-plotter David S Goyer and their whole production posse seem to have had a Sisyphean task thrust upon them in topping 2008’s The Dark Knight, widely hailed as the best comic book-based film ever made and having bragging rights as the only Batman film that won an Academy Award in an acting category. Laconically put, they have. They have made a Batman film better than The Dark Knight.

            Eight years have transpired since the events of the last film, and a frail and battered Bruce Wayne (Bale) has gone into self-imposed exile within the walls of the rebuilt Wayne Manor, haunted by his perceived failure as the Dark Knight. Gotham City has settled into a comfortable position as a hellhole reformed, and there seems to be no further need for Batman or his ally Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), himself tormented by the fateful death of Harvey Dent all those years ago. The new CEO of Wayne Enterprises Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) is facing the absorption of the company by the amoral John Daggett (Ben Mendelssohn)  and appeals to Bruce Wayne to put the fusion energy machine developed by Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) into action.

            However, the sinister, brutish yet ruthlessly cunning masked criminal Bane (Hardy) has revolution on the brain. He puts into motion a devastating and far-reaching master plan that will lead to Gotham’s downfall, giving the greedy and corrupt elite the retribution they deserve. Meanwhile, Bruce catches the thief Selina Kyle (Hathaway) stealing a precious memento from him, and they play their requisite game of cat-and-bat. The rookie cop John Blake (Gordon-Levitt) sees that there is hope yet for his broken city, as deputy commissioner Foley (Matthew Modine) dismisses the efforts of Blake and Gordon. Now more than ever, Wayne feels the weight on his weary shoulders and must pull himself together to save and liberate the city that turned on him.

            It’s quite safe to say that there has very rarely been a film with such hype and anticipation heaped onto it, a film so widely viewed as an event rather than a mere movie. There has also very rarely been a tougher act to follow than The Dark Knight. However, those involved seem to have taken this immense challenge head on and spectacularly shattered the brick wall of lofty expectations with a motion picture that delivers on such a grandiose scale Cecil B DeMille would be jealous. It’s not so much the filmmaking tools that were available to Nolan, as there are many movies with high production values that fall flat story or character wise. It’s the sheer craft and dedication plain to see which make it all the more satisfying to soak in.

            Nolan has said that he and his brother were inspired by Dickens’ classic story A Tale of Two Cities, and that it just so happened that the recession and the “Occupy Wall Street” movement occurred, so if he is to be believed, it is partial coincidence that this is a very, very timely story. Bane’s role in the story is that of zealous liberator who sees himself as a saviour who “frees” Gotham from the clutches of the 1% by ambushing the stock exchange, isolating Gotham City from the country at large and seizing control through intimidation and bravado. There are many parallels to be drawn to such events as the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, the 9/11 attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing. This is also echoed by the characterisation of Catwoman, who steals from the rich not to give to the poor, but rather to spite the rich. Bane launches an attack on a sports stadium right after “The Star-Spangled Banner” is sung, and there is a shot of a tattered American flag. A city’s resolve broken, with Batman and his allies stepping in to patch it up in the face of insurmountable odds.

            While no one actor in the film matches the tour de force of the late Heath Ledger’s turn as the Joker in the previous instalment, the overall effect of this film certainly carries more impact. For one, it follows a solid plot line and doesn’t lapse into false endings the way The Dark Knight sometimes did. Some felt that Nolan might fall into the trap of a tangled web of subplots and extraneous villains along the lines of Spider-Man 3, but it is safe to say he didn’t.

The big thing this one does that Part 2 didn’t was it ties back to the previous instalments, making character arcs come full circle in a deeply satisfying manner. Also, it is more faithful to the source material than one might think; this isn’t merely a war movie with Batman characters tacked onto it. There are some explosive plot twists and revelations – comic book devotees may see these coming a mile away, but Nolan plays a game of “maybe I will, maybe I won’t”, so that when such turning points occur they are truly sensational.

            Bale has made it clear that this will almost certainly be his last outing in the cape and cowl, and as the backbone of the trilogy, he has done an outstanding job. His portrayal gives Batman the combination of a tortured psyche, an iron resolve and a remarkable physicality, and it is great to see him rise again. Michael Caine’s Alfred has a slightly reduced role in the story, although he is given a rift with Bruce Wayne and it is intriguing to see the strongest relationship in Bruce’s life undergo quite the testing. Newcomer Joseph Gordon-Levitt could have felt out of place in Nolan’s grim Gotham, but as John Blake, his fresh-faced, idealistic optimism may actually be his greatest asset.

            Compared to other villains who have appeared in Batman films, Bane is a relatively recent introduction in the comics, having made his debut in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 in 1993. Tom Hardy does quite the job of making Bane more than Batman’s mental and physical match. Half his face obscured by a mask that is a cross between an attack dog’s muzzle and venomous spider, the actor still manages to be charismatic and larger-than-life while displaying commendable restraint. This certainly is very many notches up Robert Swenson’s portrayal of Bane in Batman and Robin, in that film reduced to a barely-articulate, brutish errand boy. Throughout the whole film, Hardy talks with a Sean Connery-esque lilt that makes him sound amused by all the suffering he has caused – but he briefly switches to a more sinister tone during his brutal one-on-one encounter with Batman in the middle of the film.

Despite being widely lauded for his strengths as a writer-director, Christopher Nolan’s Achilles heel is widely regarded to be writing women. He breaks that spell with Catwoman, her characterisation damn near perfect and portrayed with very surprising skill by Anne Hathaway. This reviewer was amongst the scores who doubted the decision to cast the actress best known for playing kooky sweethearts as a dangerous femme fatale, but Hathaway sure did pull this one off. Her Selina Kyle is confident, self-assured, oh-so-seductive and quick with a scathing remark, but Hathaway also conveys the well-hidden torment within her. And she also performs one of the best exasperated eye-rolls in cinematic history! Marion Cotillard fulfils the more traditional damsel-in-a-degree-of-distress role, her Miranda Tate kind and disarming, and it is easy to see why Bruce Wayne would fall headlong for her. Of course her character has her own tragic past, and Cotillard can be counted upon to deliver that aspect of Tate too.

            Beyond the story and performances, The Dark Knight Rises looks, sounds and feels like the event it is touted to be. Cinematographer Wally Pfister throws in some very inventive shots, including a brief moment where a charging Batman is lit by muzzle flashes, and delivers dizzyingly gorgeous panoramas as well. Chris Corbould and his practical effects crew help stage several awe-inspiring action set-pieces, and the tone is set well with an opening scene involving a staged plane crash orchestrated by Bane. There is a level of admiration to be had when a film fits a massive brawl shot on Wall Street, the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, India and a terrorist attack on a football stadium (Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field) into one movie. It’s also of note that most films of this kind try to cram in shiny gadgets to sell more toys, but apart from “The Bat" most of Batman's gadgets are recycled from the second movie in the name of practicality.

            Christopher Nolan and co. have brought the curtain down on their trilogy in truly bittersweet fashion. These three films were emblematic of The Dark Knight rising, rising from an outrageously campy, seemingly franchise-killing film. This is the final cape flourish, the big send-off, the tearful goodbye. As Dickens wrote in the book that partially inspired this movie, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” – this is the Caped Crusader’s finest hour, and seeing this incarnation hang up the cape and cowl is quite saddening indeed.

SUMMARY: The Dark Knight Rises takes Nolan’s trademark blend of spectacle and thought-provoking substance up to eleven, delivering a meaty, satisfying last course of the Batman set meal – and you’ll want another taste as soon as you’re done.

RATING: 5/5 STARS

Jedd Jong Yue 

Lucid Dreaming: Inception Blu-Ray review

(Please see earlier entry for the review of the film proper)

 THE BLU-RAY RELEASE

When I walked out of the movie theatre after seeing this film with my family, my brother turned to me excitedly, and said "we HAVE to buy the Blu-Ray when it comes out." I must say I agreed, and now he's been proven correct. The format was the winner in the "optical disc format war", pitting it against the now-defunct "HD DVD" format - never since the days of Betmax vs VHS have home video format wars been this brutal. My Dad says he feels for those who stocked up on a HD DVD collection and are now left with a large pile of very useless discs.

Anyway, the format has been around for three-ish years now, but Blu Ray discs are still significantly more expensive than a normal DVD release. In the case of the Blu-Ray release for Inception, is it worth it?

Simply put, yes.

Watching the film in the comfort of your own home, you can rewind, pause or play the film in slow-motion, and Inception is one of those films where many cinemagoers did want to go back to have a closer look at an earlier scene. But why watch it in Blu-Ray?

As you've gathered from the section above, Inception is a very visual film. Oodles and oodles of artfully-shot, awe-inspiring images come one after another. I'm sure it looks great on a regular DVD as well, but the Blu-Ray format does indeed do the film incredible justice. Every tiny detail in unparalleled quality. There's also the sound. Hans Zimmer's throbbing, ominous score and the sound effects - especially the bit where Ariadne steps on a broken glass, and there's that eerie ringing tone - come to vivid life. Not every film needs to be seen in Blu-Ray. When my Dad bought the Blu-Ray player, one of the free discs they packaged with it was a Blu-Ray release of the comedy "First Sunday". That film doesn't need to be seen in Blu-Ray - Tracy Jordan is scary enough as he is on TV.

But Inception is one film that needs to be seen in Blu-Ray. I'll go as far as to say if someone puts a gun to your head and says you can only choose one film to own on Blu-Ray, choose this one. And no, neither Warner Bros. Pictures, Syncopy, Legendary Pictures, Christopher Nolan, Leonardo DiCaprio nor Tai Li-Lee (the Japanese kid on the train who helps Cobb with the "kicks") are paying me any money to say all this. I'm just really excited that it looks, sounds and feels brilliant at home - as much as it did in the movie theatre.

And of course, the biggest reason that I get video releases of films to watch at home - aside from being able to watch the film at home and as many times as I want to - are special features. Unfortunately, Inception is slightly thin on the special features, at least when compared to some other Blu-Ray releases which contain tens of hours of bonus material. However, quality does trump quantity this time around. The second disc contains most of the supplementals. There's a 45-minute-long documentary featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and real-life PhD and MD-holding dream experts, who discuss the psychology and the inexact science behind dreaming. I always like it when the audience gets a peek into some real-life context behind a movie, and the documentary is informative, deep, yet fun to watch. Apart from the interviews, "Dreams: Cinema of the Subconscious" features fascinating animated and re-enacted sequences that attempt to portray what it looks like when we dream. Very artistic.

This here is hard to top.

You also get a "motion comic" of "The Cobol Job", which is a comic book that acts as a prequel to the film and sets it up very nicely. "The Cobol Job" tells of the circumstances leading up to Cobb, Arthur and Nash performing the extraction on Saito at the beginning of the film, and provides great context - provided you watch the film first, as the film in turn provides context to its prequel. A motion comic is a stylised animated representation of the comic book: you get the speech bubbles, narration and onomatopoeic "sound effects", but also a degree of animation accompanied by Hans Zimmer's music and some sound effects. It's a surreal and novel way to tell a story as the characters don't "speak" audibly. It's supposed to be a comic book come to life, and that's exactly what it is. The art is gorgeous, and there are some pretty good likenesses of Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt drawn into it.

You get the standard collection of trailers, TV spots and promotional art, with intriguing and very exquisite concept art thrown in for good measure. Disc 2 is rounded off with ten tracks taken off the film's soundtrack, composed by Hans Zimmer. I'm not a big fan of the composer, as his scores are often derivative and repetitive - there indeed are moments of the soundtrack that are recognisable as riffs from other Hans Zimmer soundtracks for other films. However, he does use some very clever tricks in his composition, including adapting parts of "Non, je ne regrette rien" (the Edith Piaf song used for the kicks) into his score. It's fun to listen to the music in such quality, and it does suit the film very well.

The main special feature is back on Disc 1: "Extraction Mode", which is a version of Warner Bros' "Maximum Movie Mode" feature only available on its Blu-Ray discs. It's like an audio commentary, but much cooler: at certain points in the film, a behind-the-scenes clip detailing the making of that particular scene is inserted into the film. This includes astounding and revealing footage of how some of the mind-blowing special/visual effects were done, and interviews with the main creative team (and Leonardo DiCaprio). This is sure to excite any movie buff: an opportunity to enter the mind of the mastermind, so to speak, and hear it straight from Nolan himself. For those who want to go deeper into the story and want some questions answered, watching the movie this way is sure to be a treat. But, just as a magician never gives out his secrets, Nolan attempts to remain deliberately vague on those plot details. At any rate, the "extraction mode", which is exclusive to the Blu-Ray edition, is a really big reason to get this on that format. You can also watch the clips by themselves, without having them pop up during the film.

I don't own it, but there is also a limited edition release packaged slickly in an aluminium briefcase-type case. You get the Blu-Ray, DVD and digital copy versions of the film, as well as four postcards, an in-universe "instruction manual" on how to operate the PASIV device that enables the shared dreaming in the film, and coolest of all, a prop replica of the spinning top totem.

The Blu-Ray release of Inception lets you dream big, dream clear, dream in vivid detail and dream as often as you want to. Now, the dream truly is real.

Inception

Probably still the best movie of 2010.

Movie Review                                                                                                             16/7/10

INCEPTION

2010

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Released by: Warner Bros Pictures

            As many reviewers have noted, this summer movie season...well, it’s almost not deserving of being called a summer movie season at all. Sequels. Remakes. Reboots. Rehashes. Re-what-have-yous. Granted, they were not all bad, but neither were they all good. Along comes Christopher Nolan, saviour of the movie universe, with Inception.

            The psychological action-thriller centres on Dom Cobb (DiCaprio), a skilled “extractor”. Cobb is a master of a specific kind of corporate espionage: he enters peoples’ minds while they are asleep to retrieve secrets from their dreams. 

Cobb and his partner Arthur (Gordon-Levitt) are approached by the wealthy Saito (Ken Watanabe) to perform “inception”: planting an idea instead of stealing one. Their target is Robert Fischer Jr (Cillian Murphy), the son of a terminally-ill tycoon. Saito wants Fischer to disband his father’s empire.

However, Dom is a deeply troubled individual, and with valid reason: he is wanted for the supposed murder of his wife Mallorie (Cotillard), and visions of his wife manifest themselves in the dreams Dom enters. Being a fugitive, Dom is unable to return to their children.

Dom assembles a team to help perform the inception, consisting of Arthur, college graduate and “dream architect” Ariadne (Ellen Page), “forger” Eames (Tom Hardy) who impersonates others within a dream, Yusuf (Dileep Rao) the “chemist” who formulates the drugs needed to enter the dream state and Saito himself, as a “tourist” in the dream world.

And then things get (even more) complex.

In many ways, Inception, despite its mind-bending premise, is classic Christopher Nolan. Memento, Insomnia and the Prestige all display similar traits in that they enjoy playing with the audiences’ minds. However, Nolan is a director who learns, and after gaining the experience of the big-budget Batman films, is able to translate his ideas into mind-blowing spectacle.

Inception exemplifies the thinking man’s blockbuster, and it is very rare that filmmakers of tentpole summer fare treat their audiences like geniuses. After scores of films that are so painfully dumbed-down, it doesn’t hurt to watch a brain cell-jolting flick like this one once in a while.

Inception operates on its visuals: the notion that anything is possible within the world of the dream allowed production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas to go wild. The film includes such scenes as an entire city folding in on itself, a freight train running through a city, an assault on a fortress that wouldn’t be out of place in a Bond movie and a desolate, abandoned dream city filled with crumbling buildings. One of the many great sequences in the film is a zero-gravity fight scene performed by Gordon-Levitt along the corridors of a hotel. Even for audiences jaded by the proliferation of “wire-fu” since the Matrix films, it’s exciting.

Inception’s greatest asset however is arguably its emotional core that functions like a rope guiding the viewer through the labyrinth of story. Leonardo DiCaprio has carved a career out of playing emotionally-complex characters, Cobb indeed brings to mind DiCaprio’s recent performance in Shutter Island. Cotillard is also commendable in that it’s never easy to play a character who exists only as a figment of another character’s imagination, and Cotillard does this hauntingly well.

The rest of the cast, too, is an iron-clad ensemble. There is literally not one weak link, everybody is perfectly cast. Gordon-Levitt especially seems to be emerging as a bona fide movie star, after making a name for himself in smaller character films. Watanabe manages to be dignified yet possess a misleading sinister streak as the employer and money man.

Tom Hardy is a hoot as the comic relief who is actually really useful. My favourite however (it could be just that I’m a 17-year-old male) is the lovely Ellen Page, who has no problems portraying the youngest yet deepest character in the film. My only complaint with regards to the cast is that Michael Caine, as Cobb’s mentor and father-in-law, is woefully underused.

If you’re tired of being insulted by blockbusters that throw money at the screen and hope it sticks, then treat yourself to one of the best cinematic uses of money ever. There’s no shortage of spectacle or intelligence in what I can safely say the best movie of the year. And it’s only July! Or is it...

RATING: 4.5/5 STARS

Jedd Jong Yue