Saturday, November 10, 2012

Cloud Atlas directed by the Lana and Andy Wachowski, with Tom Tykwer




“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”




Cloud Atlas is a story of amazing and immense scope through small interactions between a few people at a time.  This is the most compelling and emotionally rich sci/fi fantasy film I have beheld in a great while.  At 2 hours and 45 minutes (and 15 minutes of trailers) I did check my watch once, but still wholly recommend this film, a financial flop of epic proportions.

Side note, I saw this the same week the new bond filmed opened and pondered this thought as I walked from the theater.  Cloud Atlas carried with it an R rating, their was small amounts of profanity violence and sexual content.  Yet these elements were handled with great maturity.  Violence was shown as never an answer in and of itself, and always unpleasant.  Sexuality was portrayed as something wholly natural and emotionally complicated.  There the profanity but it was never overbearing and a crutch for the dialogue.

While I have not seen Sky Fall, I have seen many Bond films.  Violence is portrayed as glamorous and the most effective manner for solving conflicts.  Sexually, women are available for Bond and he treats most of them as little more than objects.  But at least no one swore, because then it would not be appropriate for 13 year old boys who are by no means impressionable.

I am not suggesting Bond movies should not be seen by younger audiences, what I am suggesting is that we be willing to challenge kids intellectually and emotionally when showing them depictions of sex and violence.


Click above for an amazing piece from The New Yorker on the Wachowskis.











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