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Quvenzhane Wallis' performance in Beast of the Southern Wild wasn't enough to pick up a Golden Globe.
Photograph by: Jess Pinkham
From Bond to Batman, Hushpuppy to Django, film turned to fantasy in 2012, and fantasy got a reality check. It?s in the blurring of the lines in between that movies find their magic.
I?m not (just) talking hocus-pocus, but the je ne sais quoi that makes a film resonate, excite and enthrall. Movies have long been celebrated for their ability to sweep us away. But if that?s all there was to it, we?d get bored quick.
Which is what made some of the year?s biggest blockbusters stand out. The Hunger Games introduced an alternate universe where kids battle to the death for reality TV-style entertainment, but gritty establishing scenes of life in the district where heroine Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is from gave the film a crucial dose of serious.
The Dark Knight Rises closed Christopher Nolan?s Batman trilogy with a brooding, quasi-apocalyptic touch. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) begins the film beaten down and depressed, hiding from the world as he struggles with his inner demons. Even when Batman emerges to fight for justice, Nolan doesn?t lift the oppressive weight resting on his protagonist?s shoulders. It makes for a better film; in fact, it makes the film.
Much like Sam Mendes?s revitalized James Bond epic, Skyfall. Taking considerable time to delve into 007?s backstory, Mendes imbues the mythical secret service agent with a crucial element of edge.
What fun is a hero who shows no sign of weakness? In Skyfall, Daniel Craig?s Bond is downright unfit for duty in the early stages, while the film?s climactic third act has him returning to face his painful past.
Stripped of modern gadgets and gimmicks, the grand finale is a statement about the timelessness of good old tried-and-true drama over explosions and special effects ? though we get our share of those, too.
On the flip side, several of the year?s most engaging movies borrowed freely from the land of make-believe. Benh Zeitlin?s spectacular Beasts of the Southern Wild was, on the one hand, a devastating reality-based tale about a young girl named Hushpuppy (Quvenzhan? Wallis) who lives with her drug-addicted father in the hurricane-prone backwaters of the Louisiana bayou. Told through her eyes, the film uses prehistoric animals called aurochs as a recurring motif, along with a heart-swelling soundtrack to give her journey a larger-than-life feel. The combination made for the most mesmerizing movie experience of the year.
While he didn?t indulge in fantasy, Quebec director Kim Nguyen allowed for some respite in Rebelle, his tough tale of child soldiers in sub-Saharan Africa. The violence of the film is unflinching, but Nguyen elevates his story via the romance between protagonist Komona (Rachel Mwanza) and fellow child soldier Magicien (Serge Kanyinda). He brings nuance to his story by contrasting the intolerable cruelty suffered by these children with glimpses of the carefree life they should be living.
The balance resonates. Rebelle has racked up accolades internationally, winning best actress (Mwanza) and a special mention from the ecumenical jury at the Berlin International Film Festival; taking best film and best actress at New York?s Tribeca Film Festival; and earning a spot on the nine-film short list for the Oscar for best foreign-language film (the five nominees will be announced Jan. 10).
Quentin Tarantino didn?t let the facts get in the way of a good time as he mined another shameful historical period (following his Nazi Germany remix, Inglourious Basterds) in Django Unchained. Taking inspiration from blaxploitation flicks and spaghetti westerns, his delightfully outlandish revenge fantasy finds a freed slave (Jamie Foxx) and a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) pulling off a guns-blazing rescue mission in the pre-Civil War deep south.
And yet, rooting the story beneath the tomfoolery are the very real indignities suffered by black people a mere century-and-a-half back. That tension ? and the fearless breaking of the social codes of the time ? is at the heart of the film?s twisted humour and giddy appeal.
There is very little reality beyond the awkward idealism of childhood in Wes Anderson?s awesome Moonrise Kingdom. And yet by sticking tightly to the deadpan determination of his young protagonists, he captures a different kind of truth.
When the dismissal of realism is so complete, a story can play by its own rules. The catch is that it has to hook us somewhere along the way; we have to believe it, even if only according to its own skewed internal logic.
Which is the premise of another of the year?s big movies, Ang Lee?s fantastical adaptation of Yann Martel?s Life of Pi. The nature of storytelling is at the heart of Martel?s tale, and Lee?s effects-laden film gives substance to its most outlandish elements. When all is said and done, the truth is still up for grabs.
?I can only tell my story,? says the grown-up Pi. ?After that, you will decide what you believe.?
Sarah Polley put her finger on it with Stories We Tell, her fascinating documentary revealing a long-hidden family secret. Interviewing family members and friends, one by one, the Canadian director shows the truth to be a slippery sucker.
Somewhere in the midst of her interviewees? diverging accounts of events, we get a piecemeal collage of what happened. It?s precisely in that grey area, where things are uncertain, that the story is most intriguing.
Leave it to a documentary to teach us a lesson about our individual need for fiction ? our tendency to make things up, to imagine or remember events as best suits our needs.
In the end, fact and fantasy are equally necessary. The best stories, and the best films, strike a balance.
tdunlevy@montrealgazette.comTwitter:@tchadunlevy
? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
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