where cats have wings and pigeons don’t

Spoiler alert: no plot developments posted, but you may not want to know anything anyway.

Mirrormask, yet another collaboration by Neil Gaiman and David McKean, was everything I expected it to be. And since I can’t write a review to save my life (argh, when will i ever finish that damn piece), here’s what the LA Times had to say about the movie. And being a lazy git (already established in previous posts), I shall merely comment on snippets of the review….

“Although the plot and motifs are largely borrowed from “The Wizard of Oz” and “Alice in Wonderland,” there is something oddly intoxicating about Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman’s coming-of-age fantasy “MirrorMask.” The teenager’s journey through a nightmarish reverie presents hallucinogenic imagery that simultaneously dulls the senses and hot-wires the imagination, but it never fully engages emotionally.”

It’s the first paragraph, and already I’m in disagreement. What I enjoy about Gaiman’s work is that he takes well-known/established stories, and gives them the subversive Gaiman treatment. Like a slightly warped mind telling bedtime stories with elements of Dadaism and stark reality. As for the lack of emotional engagement, it’s an oft-made criticism. But that, for me, is part of its charm. You are but an observer in this world of fantasy. If the reviewer was perhaps refering to a lack of empathy for the characters, then again I’d have to disagree. Right from the start, it’s clear that though our protaganist leads a life very different to her peers, the dynamics of her relationship with her mother are no different from the norm. That very ordinariness immediately endears her to half the audience (assuming it’s 50% female, with their teenage years behind them).

“As out-of-the-ordinary as the Dark Lands and its unusual inhabitants are, the realization of them fails to transcend the rather predictable story McKean conceived with screenwriter Gaiman (a novelist and comic-book writer with a large cult following).”
[snip]
“Gaiman and McKean never successfully connect the kitchen-sink emotions of the film’s real world to Helena’s journey through the fantasy world. While a boon to special effects and low-cost filmmaking, digital images still largely project a coolness that keeps our feelings at arm’s length.”

Perhaps the reviewer has missed the point of the movie. It’s not about twists and turns in the plot (that M Night Shayamalan really has spoilt it for all the other storytellers), it’s about the journey, how things unfold. As for the digital backdrops, I rather think that was the whole point of them doing this movie now, when the technology has finally caught up with their imagination. These guys are graphic novelists after all. This movie is like a giant graphic novel, with moving bits and atmospheric music.

So, maybe not one for the mainstream audiences (it has a mere week’s run in LA; in only one theatre). But does a “mainstream” audience exist anymore? And if it does, what does it watch? Harry Potter and the difficulty-he-must-overcome-with-the-help-of-his-friends? Cos that’s fantasy too, dressed in Hollywood clothes.

But if you read comic books when you were younger (or graphic novels if you were posh), this is definitely one for you. If you can’t stand even the mild surrealness of Tim Burton’s creations, or don’t watch a movie unless it’s had the word “gritty” in the review, then you might want to watch something else. That maybe has Sean Bean dying in it. Again.

Technorati tag: mirrormask.

Tagged by the curious hamster for a meme on where bloggers write their “pearls of wisdom”. Ha! I’m much more likely to cook sago pearls than write wisdom. And since I’m avoiding writing work-stuff again, and waiting for the cable guy (who is now three-quarters of an hour late), here is a photo of my new beloved:

As you can see, she sits on my dining table when I’m at home, although sometimes she joins me on the sofa when I’m watching a DVD on the telly. And next to her, the ever-present cuppa. Rationale? I always try to sit facing a window, even if it doesn’t have much of a view (the patio is in serious need of some greenery). Anything else is too claustrophobic.

As for tagging people, well… How about Gunnella, manthatcooks and the meme graveyard (Santos)?

Update: Cable guy didn’t turn up. Hacked off.

In today’s theguardian*, Stuart Jeffries talks of understanding our neighbours and, in particular, their religions. Although I’m an out-and-out aetheist, I understand his point about not just “tolerating” our neighbours’ differences, but “understanding” them instead.

I was fortunate enough to attend a secular school as a child, which did not enforce its religion on me, the way some Catholic and Methodist-backed schools in S’pore insisted the entire school had daily prayers. Not that that’s a bad thing, per se. Just not for me, thanksverymuch.

But even that lack of school or state sponsored religious teaching did not mean that I was cocooned from the world of believers. The beauty of the secularity of my school was that we had girls from almost every major religion in S’pore enrolled. And religious education (RE) was a class you had to choose to take (not that I did, lazy git). Even then, RE classes covered all the major religions, for everyone.

Anyway. My point? Getting there. From an early age, I was friends with Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Christians (Jews being quite scarce in S’pore). I never thought of myself as tolerating their different beliefs. I didn’t really understand the concept of “tolerance”; it just seemed to me that this state of affairs was quite proper and natural. And that’s the way I still think it should be.

From discussions at recess time, to being invited to my friends’ homes and churches/temples/mosques, I learned enough about each religion to understand that in the majority, teachings of their religious leaders were all about how to lead one’s life in the “proper” way, and had absolutely nothing to do with denouncing those different to them. No, that came from the lay people. The bigots who, to make themselves feel special, divided the world into “them” and “us”.

And while we’re talking about religious divisions, consider the Old Firm. Why can’t supporters of Rangers and Celtic just be completely honest with themselves and admit their rivalry has nothing to do with religion anymore, and more about the fact that they are the only two clubs that play good enough football in Scotland to feel absolute enmity for the other?

*I’m liking the way thefiver calls its own employers: “berliner theguardian”…

From BBC news: Bali bomb attacks claim 25 lives.

From LA times: Death toll climbs to 25 in Bali blasts.

Update: Now suspected to be suicide attacks. I find it so difficult to understand why tourist areas are targeted in SE Asia. It makes it less about ideology, and more about economic damage or publicity.

Wildfires Rage Across Southern California

More on my LA blog.