Ryan McNeil
You may or may not have noticed by now, that every film I’ve written about this week has been labeled “Reaction” instead of “Review”. The main reason for this is that during a festival, there is just too much being consumed to give full-on reviews to everything. Then there’s the secondary reason – that sometimes a film will come along that will shake your brains like its playing a turn of Yahtzee, and then dare you to immediately review it.
CLOUD ATLAS is the latter.
If you’ve seen the long and enigmatic trailer and have asked yourself “what is this about?”, I can tell you that the film deals with six different narratives that are loosely connected to one another in a literal sense. The subject matter of each narrative varies, but they all involve personal quests of varying scope. In each thread, we see the same group of actors in varying degrees of importance. Sound complicated? It is.
For me to even attempt to interpret the film’s elements and execution during a week in which I’ve watched more than twenty other films would be a disservice, so I’ll be holding off on that until the movie’s release in October. For what it’s worth, I took about double the amount of notes I take in an average festival screening. I can tell you a few things though, if you’ll pardon some broad terms.
For starters, I can see CLOUD ATLAS being a divisive and mercurial film. The film is epic, philosophical, theological, and tremendously patient. It clocks in at a whopping 2 hours and 45 minutes, and it uses every last second of that to make its point. There have been a few contemporaries to what CLOUD ATLAS aims to do on screens over the last five or ten years, and many of them have become as love-it-or-hate-it titles. I don’t think it’s a stretch to see CLOUD ATLAS joining them as a source of much debate.
What’s more, as a film that tells multiple storylines, I can see audiences having trouble digging the film as a complete work, since one or more of the chapters won’t be engaging for them on an individual level. If I had to place a bet, I’d wager that the one set in a post-apocalyptic future turns audiences off the most. This is the risk of telling an omnibus (which the source novel is in some ways), but for me it was what drove home some of its grandest ideas.
I have to give everyone involved credit: This film is audacious. For Tom Twyker, a man who has never been able to gain traction in North America, the film is easily the grandest thing he’s ever attempted. As for The Wachowskis, this is their first bit of feature directing since SPEED RACER, and considering that film’s disappointment at the box office, they could have been pardoned for making a safe bet. Instead, they have doubled-down and given us something daring.
CLOUD ATLAS was easily one of the best things I saw all week, even if I can’t articulate why just yet.
I’m really intrigued by this movie. On one hand you have Tom Twyker, who has had some moments of brilliance but on the whole has never been able to recapture the magic of Run Lola Run, having said that I can forgive him anything for having given us Run Lola Run! On the other hand we have the Wachowski’s, who pretty much fucked up their own franchise. Possibly by tuning it into a franchise, The Matrix was fine as a stand alone film. It’s sure to look good but I just hope it has the substance to back it up. Multi strand narratives can be a little hit or miss. We have to wait until next March before we get it here.
It’s funny that you bring up THE MATRIX Trilogy, since a good friend mentioned it as we came out of this screening – specifically the various commentary tracks that are on the DVD set. I’m pretty curious to rewatch them now, so don’t be surprised if they turn up on a “Daus of The Week” post in the next little stretch.
I venture it’ll be love-it-or-hate-it all the way into next Spring, but for my money, I vote you give it a look.
I agree that it’s very divisive. Some love it, some hate it, very little in between. I can understand why people hate this film; it’s a mess. But it’s such an ambitious, bold, beautiful mess, that I sort of fell in love with.
I am going to use a baseball analogy to describe this: It’s like a HR hitter who doesn’t connect very often, but you are always intrigued if he is going to connect, because when he does, it’s glorious. When Cloud Atlas connects, it’s wonderful to watch. Even when it doesn’t, my eyes are always glued to the screen.
I think my tastes are starting to lean themselves towards the “beautiful messes”, especially where sci-fi is concerned. There are a lot of titles from the last ten or twelve years that are overall spotty…but do so many things I can’t forget that I forgive them their sins.
The baseball analogy is apt, and for how many times I’ve seen sluggers strikeout…it’s still glorious to see them go yard.
So pleased that you liked this one. Along with Life of Pi, it’s probably my most anticipated film this year, precisely because there are so many different elements to anticipate with six stories! The trailer looked beautiful visually, and all that philosophical stuff usually raises my interest. The whole thing just seems strange enough to fit my personality, and if history is any indication I’m guessing that the story line that everyone else hates will end up being the one I love the most. Hahaha!
Funny that you mention the trailer…
In between seeing the film and writing this piece I watched both trailers (the 2+ minute cut and the 6 minute cut). I was actually very surprised to see just how much they show, since so many of those moments come in the late going of these plot threads. Not only that, but it spells everything out for viewers.
I had so much fun just letting this film wash over me and trying to make sense of the impressionist piece that it was without any influence. Anyone who watches those clips won’t have that.
I’ll be curious to know what you DO think of “that storyline”, so be sure to ping me whenever you do write about the film.
Trailers always make way more sense after you have seen the film. Before, you mind had nothing to grip onto.
It’s funny though, in the case of ATLAS, I remember people describing the trailer as somewhat enigmatic. Watching it after the film, I’m of the opposite opinion – as it played I thought “This is totally spelling out the whole film”.
Watching the trailers of a lot of TIFF films post-screening led me to a lot of head-scratching places. (Seen the trailer for AMOUR?)
I’ve read about 20% of the book thus far and I can easily see the points you’ve made. I grow interested in some characters to only be flipped into another story. I can’t wait to see how the book comes together in a film and I applaud everyone involved for trying to adapt such a difficult novel. I find myself looking up words every other page myself. Haha. Thanks Ryan.
I’ll now be taking things the other way around – seen the film and now will be reading the book over the next few weeks before seeing it again on its release. I think I’ll be at a bit of an advantage knowing how some of the threads work together visually. From what I understand though, the book gets into a bit more of the texture of the characters.
The movie is facile, empty, glossy and completely without any semblance of humanity. Which is pretty impressive in itself when it considers to be the final word on the universal human condition.
Cloud Atlas is the movie that will give people ammunition when they say the current popular culture offers so little to thinking, feeling adults. Cloud Atlas is the exact opposite of the Sci-Fi filmmaking being pushed forward by the likes of Donnie Darko, The Fountain, Looper and Sunshine. Cloud Atlas, despite being adapted from a novel, is exactly the kind of comic-con circle jerk that just pisses me off. It’s not terrible, it’s just boring, trite and has lots of interesting things to say, but says them in the least interesting way possible.
Save it for The Cinecast brother…
PShaw..
It’s a few weeks away yet for me but if it has any of the style and grace of “Perfume” then it’s a must see. “Perfume” was wide open in terms of meaning and interpretation, in other words, a lasting thought provoking film.
I’ve actually never seen PERFUME, so I couldn’t say for sure, but it certainly seemed to hit all of that criteria you just mentioned.
If you want to hear a great verbal smackdown about it, take a listen to the latest Cinecast on Row Three where Kurt and I spar over it for about fifteen or twenty minutes.