How Many Robot Fights is Too Many? Suspension of Disbelief and "Pacific Rim"

Over the summer, I managed to catch a few movies in the theater. One of those was Pacific Rim, a sci-fi film stemming from the Godzilla tradition. It was my husband and his friend's pick, but I was definitely willing to give it a shot mostly owing to the involvement of Guillermo del Toro. I loved del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and The Orphanage, and read his Strain trilogy (perhaps more on that another time), so I'm willing to give him a chance even outside of genres that normally draw me in. And Pacific Rim was pretty fun; it had some interesting characters, in particular the female lead Mako Mori who subverts some traditional movie tropes. But, my nitpick-y self had some issues with it, and after watching the movie I spent a lot of time thinking about where I draw the line in my suspension of disbelief. Spoilers follow.

Beasts of the Southern Wild: Magical Realism in the American South

I actually tried to see Beasts of the Southern Wild while it was still in theaters; my friend and I actually got together to go and the theater was sold out. We ended up seeing Celeste and Jesse Forever, so it was not a total loss by any means, but one of my biggest regrets about this awards season was having seen so few of the nominees before the ceremonies, particularly this show. It's odd to cheer for a film you haven't even seen yet. I can't completely blame the sold out theater, though--I did get the DVD from Netflix before the Oscars and I still didn't watch it in time.

After all of that anticipation, of course Beasts was not exactly how I expected it to be in my head, but it was a fantastic movie. Much has been said about star Quvenzhané Wallis' Oscar nominated performance, making her the youngest actress nominated for the award. (I find it very interesting that Emmanuelle Riva's nomination this year also made her the oldest person nominated for Best Actress--there seem to be far fewer Best Actor nods at such far ends of the spectrum, and I wonder if it isn't telling that really juicy roles for actresses come with roles when women are not seen as romantic interests as much, but I digress.) Beasts is proof positive that waiting for the ideal people to make a film can make or break it.

Oz the Great and Smarmy

For once I actually got out to a movie in a timely fashion--opening weekend no less! This so rarely happens lately, and I've developed a considerable list of movies that I need to catch up on once they hit Netflix. I think I will have to give up on sleeping if I ever want to watch them all. So how disappointing that one of the rare times that I actually saw a movie within a week of its release, it was such a disappointment, while I continue to miss out on a lot of really amazing films on the big screen.

The New Breed of "Romantic Comedy"

I was a little bit at a loss for what to write about this week; a few things that I've been preparing are not ready yet, and my hopes to start retro-recapping the first season of one of my favorite TV shows have gone down the drain for the moment since our PS3 died so I have no way to watch the blu-ray I got for Christmas. I was considering discussing last week's Golden Globe awards and awards season in general, and while considering the films from those nominees that I've been lucky enough to see already I stumbled upon another topic.

Since this is the Behind the Times Blog, after all, I was ruminating on the films I had seen and the ones that I was sorely disappointed to miss in the theaters. At the top of that list was Beasts of the Southern Wild, which I have heard phenomenal things about. I actually went to see Beasts in the theaters... only to find it sold out and on the last week of its theatrical run where I live. While I'm sad to have to settle for the DVD, I saw another film that day in its place: Celeste and Jesse Forever. It surpassed my expectations, and I've been thinking about some of the similarities between it and one of the few awards season nominees that I have seen at this point: Silver Linings Playbook.