Review: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

If you ask any cinephile to list his or her favorite films of all time, at least one Woody Allen film is likely to make the cut. The iconic director may be revered for his early comedies, but his latest film, Midnight in Paris, proves that he still has what it takes to captivate audiences with his imaginative storytelling.

Midnight in Paris centers on Gil (Owen Wilson), a screenwriter attempting to divert from the Hollywood fluff of his day job and finish writing a novel while vacationing with his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams), and her parents in the city of love. As a nostalgic dreamer who longs to tap into the brilliance of Paris in the 1920s, Gil cannot seem to relate to Inez’s superficial desire to live in Malibu and play the role of wealthy trophy wife. One evening, tired of carrying on with Inez and her friends Paul (Michael Sheen) and Carol (Nina Arianda), Gil drunkenly wanders the city’s streets and, upon accepting a carriage ride from a group of friendly strangers, finds himself transported back to the time he idolizes. He then discovers that the friendly strangers are not exactly strangers; rather, they are famous artists and writers from the era who are eager to help him with his novel and lend him sound advice. The more Gil frequents the past when the clock strikes midnight, the more he learns to ensure his happiness in the present.

Though Allen’s work in recent years has been hit and miss, this charming film swept me off my feet with the way in which it illuminates the wonders of Paris. The opening sequence––various shots of the city in motion––lets the audience know from the very beginning that, in typical Woody Allen fashion, the film’s setting is the star of the show. However, keeping this significant detail in mind is almost vital in order to enjoy the decisions the director makes in terms of character and plot development. Each character that exists in Paris’s “present” is paper thin at best, playing the most clichéd versions of themselves possible. McAdams’s snooty Inez proves to be the most guilty of this as she saunters through her scenes obnoxiously punctuating her distain for her fiancé’s whimsical ambitions, though Wilson is hardly better off with the dopey role he is given. These personalities could never carry the film on their own, but because they are juxtaposed with the lively, charismatic figures that live in Paris’s “past” (namely, Allison Pill’s portrayal of Zelda Fitzgerald and Marion Cotillard’s turn as Adriana), they serve a greater purpose: to create an internal conflict for Gil and to ultimately propel the film toward a delightfully fulfilling conclusion for its audience. Predictable? Yes, but uninspired? Absolutely not.

The golden era of Annie Hall may be long gone, but Midnight in Paris is bound to woo you regardless.

Review: SUPER 8

Ever since I saw the teaser trailer attached to Iron Man 2 over a year ago, I have been anxiously awaiting Super 8, Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams’ cinematic lovechild. Would it be Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets Cloverfield like everyone anticipated or would it be something original orchestrated by the two veterans? The answer is neither, but the outcome does not disappoint.

Set in the summer of 1979 in the small town of Lillian, Ohio, Super 8 follows a group of middle school-aged friends making a zombie detective film together. Joe (Joel Courtney), the son of sheriff deputy Jackson (Kyle Chandler), is still recovering from the tragic loss of his mother in an industrial accident four months prior. Despite his father’s wishes for him to attend baseball camp and make some new friends, Joe stays in town to help writer/director Charles (Riley Griffiths) finish the film. Along with Carey (Ryan Lee), Preston (Zach Mills), Martin (Gabriel Basso), and the recent addition of Alice (Elle Fanning), the kids head out to an old train depot one night to film a pivotal scene and end up capturing the collision of a pick-up truck and an Air Force freight train. The wreckage reveals to the kids the train’s bizarre cargo and the truck’s driver, an honor’s biology teacher at the middle school, warns them not to speak of the incident. However, as the Air Force moves in to secure the situation and the residents of Lillian become tormented by supernatural occurrences, the young friends take it upon themselves to figure out what exactly the military is working to hide.

Super 8 perfectly captures the youthful wonderment inherent, but by no means exclusive, to the time in which it takes place, making me nostalgic for a childhood reminiscent of Joe and his friends’. The aesthetics of the time period paired with the universal theme of friendship––which is undoubtedly guided by Spielberg’s hand in the film (ET, anyone?)––keeps the story grounded in a relatable reality as the sci-fi aspects of the plot unfold. On the whole, Super 8 maintains a nice balance between action and heart and is well-paced from start to finish. However, for a film that clocks in at almost two hours long, many of the relationships and key plot points are surprisingly left underdeveloped and underexplained in the end. For example, Jackson and Joe go from being at odds to bonding as father and son, but I cannot seem to buy how the change in their relationship occurs. Likewise, the resolution to the film’s overarching conflict happens far too easily and winks at the audience far too blatantly, even for a film as digestible as this one. I wish I could have earned the moral of the story, but instead Abrams handed it me on a silver platter.

As a sci-fi film that delivers the thrills of the genre but remains deeply rooted in the importance of family and friendship, Super 8 is an entertaining summer blockbuster for all audiences.

Rating: 4/5