BEFORE: It's a new year, the calendars and clocks reset, and my list of films that I didn't get to in 2019 transforms into the list of films I'd like to watch in 2020. That's just the way of things, even though it's all arbitrary in the end. Is 2020 the last year of the "tens" decade, or the first year of the "twenties"? Technically it's the former (because there was no Year Zero) but everyone's going to celebrate it like it's the latter. Maybe they're both right, because what is a decade but any collection of 10 years - where it ends just depends on where you started counting. Where my project eventually ends might depend on me, how long I've got the strength and interest to keep on keepin' on. The watchlist is just as long as it ever was, probably even longer than when I started - so what's a good end point? 3,500 films? 4,000? Never? The Hollywood Machine just keeps on cranking out more material, and those Academy screeners relentlessly keep coming to the office, so what's a blogger to do? Stop adding to the list? That's crazy talk.
I may have to draw some line in the sand somewhere, and only add films to the list that are for-sure GOOD (umm, how would I know, before watching them?). OK, how about only films that intrigue me, ones that I'm curious about? That seems more do-able. But I'll probably still be curious about a bunch of crap films that let me down in the end. There's no way of predicting. In the meantime, that calendar flipped and I've got to get going again if I'm going to stay on track, keep pace with the times though I can never, ever, fully catch up.
You may well ask, why am I starting 2020 HERE, why this film? The simple answer is that it's on my list as a "one-linkable", it only shares an actor with one other film on all of my lists. Now, I could sit on it for another few months, or years, in the hope that an actor from this will turn up in another film that finds its way to me - or I could watch it as the first or last film of the year, and burn it off the list that way. That's what I did last year with "Game Night", and it worked out well, my chain lasted all year long (though with great effort, I almost lost the beat several times). OK, so we'll try for another Perfect Year, hope springs eternal - if I don't make it, that's fine, I've already achieved that once. But that's what New Year's resolutions are for - look back on what came before, think about ways to have continued success or even better results in the coming months, and make/re-make your pledge again.
The more complicated answer is that this film seems to be, on some level, about the connection between humans and animals, and at the start of every year I've made some form of dedication. This year my thoughts are still with our cat Data, who died the day before Thanksgiving. I can list a dozen reasons why he was special to me, he was a cat that had a great personality, was very energetic and playful. But he was also my Movie Cat, a near-constant companion on my journey, from the very start. No, I didn't take him to the theater with me as some kind of emotional support animal, but for every film I watched at home (at least in the living room, not on my computer) he was there with me, on the recliner or on the bed. We bought the house in 2004 and we took him in from the backyard to the basement the following year - we had two other cats and he didn't get along with one of them, so I'd go down to the spare room in the basement and watch a movie, so I'd spend a couple hours with him every day. When he was finally allowed upstairs, he stayed with the program and watched my movies with me - who the hell knows how much he understood, but he watched them - or fell asleep as I watched them, that was also good.
October and November were tough months as we watched him deteriorate - we weren't sure if he'd make it during the week we were in Vegas, but he perked up when we came back and lived another month. Eventually he reached a point where he couldn't climb stairs or jump down from the couch, so there's a point at which society says it's OK to end an animal's suffering, I'm still not sure I agree, but we took him to the vet and said a tearful goodbye. Did we do the right thing? I don't know, it's brought up a lot of issues for me regarding life and death and fragility and impermanence, raised a lot of questions. But we soldiered on, telling ourselves we did the right thing, and focused on our other two cats - taking in a new cat from outside helped a little, but there's just no replacement for your best buddy. The house has been too quiet without him and his spirit. So this year's dedication goes out to Data, I know nothing lives forever and I should instead celebrate the 15 years I got to spend with him, but it's still a tough one, that's all.
And the third reason for starting 2020 with this film is that I've already blocked out February's romance chain (which may well run into March, but that's OK, because it also happened last year) and I also know that if I start with this film, I've got a plan mapped out for January that will get me there, and in the right number of steps. (It's still 31 days in January, right?). And that plan takes me through some films like "Joker" and "Shazam!" that are high priority for me. So there, it's settled. I can't see too far past mid-March, so who knows how far into 2020 I can keep the chain going. But the future's never really that certain, now, is it? There are no new releases I'll want to see until April, so this could work.
THE PLOT: A contemporary story of love, rejection and triumph as a young Maori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.
AFTER: Of course I watched the ball drop in Times Square last night - we chose to watch CNN, where Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen hosted the festivities. It got better (and more awkward) as they did more shots, but no matter which channel you watch that on, it's all just a bunch of blather. At least this was blather I could stomach, I can't take Ryan Seacrest or Carson Daly hosting a bunch of bands promoting their new albums, mixed with excessive countdowns of which celebrities have the most Instagram followers and shout-outs to nonsensical trends. Still, watching that on TV has to be slightly better than BEING in Times Square, penned in like animals or prisoners that aren't even allowed to use public restrooms for hours. No thanks! My wife ALMOST made it to midnight, she fell asleep a few minutes before, and woke up a few minutes after. Really, she didn't miss much, just another arbitrary moment as the digits changed.
Then this afternoon, we went to see "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker", for her first viewing and my second. It holds up better the second time, I think on Opening Day the whole film just sort of took me for a loop, and left me physically exhausted and emotionally drained. Knowing the plot points that were coming allowed me to look for the clues better, spot the foreshadowing (oh, it's there) and it just all generally flowed a lot better. I'll update my review with some more thoughts, but my rating stands. I bring this up because I noticed some similiarites between "Whale Rider" and the latest "Star Wars" film, they share some DNA, with a strong female central character who hears a calling and goes on a hero's journey, despite the fact that most of the people in her position before have been men. (Yes, I know there were female Jedis seen in the prequel trilogy, but none of them were main characters.). Also, Keisha Castle-Hughes had a small role in the prequels, as Queen of Naboo after Amidala rose to the position of Senator (yeah, still trying to figure out how that's an upgrade, or how Naboo "elected" their queens...)
But the big difference is that I care about the narrative of "Star Wars", I've been a fan for 42 years and I've sort of built my way of life around it, to some degree, and so that's my franchise, right or wrong. This film didn't really reach me emotionally, because at its heart it's just about a girl trying to make her way in a man's world, and while I support that, I also don't totally relate to it. Don't get me wrong, I believe in female bosses and female sports stars and I think we should have a female President, whatever we can do to reverse or counter years of discrimination and lower salaries and unfair treatment, I'm on board. But I also want to get PAST this, and live in a world where gender discrimination is no longer much of a concern, and I thought we were getting close to something, but we're still finding people who believe in the old ways for some reason, who think that only men can do certain things, and they don't even allow women to audition. (Oh, right, this film was released in 2002, I guess that was a less enlightened time, to some degree.)
In this case, it's a group of New Zealand natives, the Whangara, and the chiefdom in the tribe has always been passed down from father to son, for a thousand years. But when the chief's son dies after giving birth to twins, and only the female twin survives, he's blinded by tradition and refuses to accept his granddaughter as a possible future chief. He still loves her, spends time with her, rides on a bicycle with her, but he doesn't see her as the eventual leader of the tribe. So she sets out to change that, secretly studying that type of martial arts that uses a big stick, learning the tribal chants and studying the old legends about Paikea, the whale rider that she's named after.
I wish I knew more about the Maori traditions, because the film doles out bits and pieces of their ways and beliefs, but it's just not enough. Depicting them as a bunch of people who beat their own chests and make ugly faces during battle sells the whole tribe a little short, I think. And chants and legends only go so far - I might have been fascinated by the practice of upholding the old ways in the modern age if the story would have chosen to enlighten me a bit more about that. Instead this just felt like the type of film that did very well on the festival circuit, because programmers would love that it came from a very ultra-liberal place, depicting the importance and plight of aboriginal people, while remaining very enigmatic too. (Yep, this film won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Audience Award at Sundance in the World Cinema category, that all tracks...)
The last third of the film is the best part, because stuff finally starts to happen and the young girl gets that chance to show what she can accomplish, acting both in secret and out in the open. And it's great that she succeeded, and proved her grandfather wrong - but I'm still left with so many questions that the film just didn't even bother to try to answer, like what was the historical connection between these people and whales? Why did Paikea still write that speech to honor her grandfather, when he wouldn't even give her a chance to do things? Why was the grandfather so stubborn in his ways, was it just tradition, or something more? Or was he just a patriarchal asshole?
We're heading into a new year (some say new decade, others don't) and these sort of metaphors are going to be more important than ever, for things like the next election. Yes, we should consider a female President, because one couldn't possibly be any worse than the one we have now, there's about 100% chance that she'd be an improvement. But I also don't think we should elect a woman JUST to elect a woman, because that would be wrong, too, for the same reasons as always electing men. Can we get ourselves, collectively, to a place where we elect the best PERSON, regardless of gender? Here's hoping.
Starring Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene (last seen in "Man-Thing"), Vicky Haughton (last seen in "King Kong"), Cliff Curtis (last seen in "Risen"), Grant Roa, Mana Taumaunu, Rachel House (last seen in "Thor: Ragnarok"), Taungaroa Emile, Tammy Davis, Tahei Simpson (last seen in "The Matrix Reloaded"), Rawinia Clarke, Elizabeth Skeen, Tyronne White, Jane O'Kane, Peter Patuwai, Rutene Spooner, Riccardo Davis, John Sumner (last seen in "District 9"), Sam Woods.
RATING: 4 out of 10 blowholes
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