Top Posts Tagged with #tom mcarthy

(Archive) Animated movie of the day: Up (2009)

Originally posted: January 15th, 2023 What makes life worth living? Is it the accumulated experiences we gain? The dreams and aspirations we set out to accomplish? Or maybe… something simpler? Can those dreams get in the way of what truly matters?

One of the most critically lauded Pixar films, the opening is so powerful most people would agree it's already a narratively satisfying experience, if a heartbreaking one. A sentiment I agree with: an entire married life of good and bad times, unfulfilled dreams intertwined with lovely everyday experiences, and the void that comes when one half of that whole parts. All in just seven minutes, it could have been a masterpiece of a short film on it's own merits.

Which provides an interesting contention point: some claim the movie peaks at that point and is followed by an underwhelming wacky adventure, which is kind of missing the point of the story. While you can discuss whether or not the execution was on part with such a striking opening(and I can see the decidedly sillier comedy clashing a bit with the surprisingly down to Earth drama of set up), the contrast is needed for the core of the film to shine. And shine it did: this was nominated by the Academy for Best Film when it came out. Even with their contempt for animation they couldn't deny it's greatness.

You need to feel how deep the loss of Carl is, and how ingrained his sense of failure to Ellie's dream is for it to dawn the stronger he is missing on the other things life still has to offer or have already offered him. How that grand dream never coming for her didn't stop her life being worth living by his side, as it's those small experiences that made it valuable. How to move on, keep going and meeting new people was the most meaningful way to embrace the true spirit of said dreamed voyage: an adventure to share with others you care for.

In the words of Doctor Seuss:

"Don't cry because it's over, be happy because it happened"

#roskirambles #animated films #adventure film #fantasy films #comedy film #drama film #disney #pixar #up #pete docter #bob peterson #tom mcarthy #ed asner #cristopher plummer #jordan nagai #michael giacchino

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Spotlight (January 2016)

Another powerful film telling us an important story. This time it’s the sexual abuse of minors by The Catholic Church, Boston Chapter. Unlike THE BIG SHORT here some of the bad guys do get their comeuppance. The director Tom McArthy (“Meet The Parents”) seems undaunted by the clichés that lie in wait in the busy newsroom (All the President’s Men comes to mind) because he is armed with a tight, fast script and a really excellent cast. The boldest moment for me was when “the presses roll” and we see those rivers of paper and then the lorries departing from the dispatch area in line astern – but it works because we are by then also in that world and that’s what happens. For those of us who are convinced that our lives are directed by vast cynical corporations this film offers an inspiring example of the triumph of good over evil, that humans can and do make stands and understand and recognise evil when they see it. And remember that these events took place in Boston – the capital of Irish Catholic America. It is set in 2001/2002 when maybe public life was more transparent and records more accessible – we can only pray (sic) that such an expose of wrongdoing could still succeed today. I wonder if Sir John Chilcott has seen it? Maybe he is too busy, though his show has now been in production for almost nine years – scripting problems? Or maybe he needs a really big name star. This film is great fun and about something. It’s certainly a “feel much better” film to dispel the Winter Blues. There is welcome hope here. 8/10

#spotlight #tom mcarthy #film reviews

It is not just that people with degrees in English generally go to work for corporations (which of course they do); the point is that the company, in its most cutting-edge incarnation, has become the arena in which narratives and fictions, metaphors and metonymies and symbol networks at their most dynamic and incisive are being generated, worked through and transformed. While “official” fiction has retreated into comforting nostalgia about kings and queens, or supposed tales of the contemporary rendered in an equally nostalgic mode of unexamined realism, it is funky architecture firms, digital media companies and brand consultancies that have assumed the mantle of the cultural avant garde. It is they who, now, seem to be performing writers’ essential task of working through the fragmentations of old orders of experience and representation, and coming up with radical new forms to chart and manage new, emergent ones. If there is an individual alive in 2015 with the genius and vision of James Joyce, they’re probably working for Google, and if there isn’t, it doesn’t matter since the operations of that genius and vision are being developed and performed collectively by operators on the payroll of that company, or of one like it.

The death of writing – if James Joyce were alive today he’d be working for Google by Tom McCarthy

#writing #james joyce #tom mcarthy #quote #google #corporation #fiction