Video Review: THE MARTIAN

Review: THE MARTIAN

Note: Video review is in-production alongside several other projects, but I know people have gotten tired of waiting so for now here is a text version - as ever, content like this is possible in part through The MovieBob Patreon.


THE MARTIAN (2015)

HOLY FUCKING SHIT does it feel good to love a Ridley Scott movie again!

Alright, alright, look. I know people have been asking me about dialing back the profanity on these things, but, I�m sorry � it�s been a long time since one of our undisputed greatest filmmakers actually MADE a great film, and I�m excited about it! This hasn�t happened since the Director�s Cut of KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, and that was in 2005� and since he�s already announced that he�s going to follow this one up with another FUCKING �Prometheus� movie, it probably isn�t gonna happen again for awhile. So how about you get off my ass and enjoy a rare unabashedly positive review, huh?



THE MARTIAN is the best movie I�ve seen so far this year � and since it�s now October, pronouncements like that start to actually mean something. After a solid decade producing movies that looked great but often broke down on the narrative level, Sir Ridley has once again landed on solid base-material and turned in the kind of filmmaking that�s so good you want to call it a miracle� except that�d actually be doing it a disservice: There�s nothing mystical or ephemeral about why THE MARTIAN is great, the answers are all right up there onscreen. The cast is great, the acting is great, the script is tight as hell, the direction is nigh-flawless, the FX work is gorgeous � hell, even the song choices are good.

Everyone is on the same damn page and everyone is doing their damn job. THAT�S why it�s good� which is amusing, considering that that�s also a fairly concise breakdown of the film�s plot, theme and overarching ideals � but I�m getting ahead of myself.

The basic premise here is that in the near future NASA has finally managed to launch a manned mission to Mars. But there�s a storm on the planet�s surface bad enough that the crew has to abort the mission and take off early, and amid the chaos one of them � specifically Matt Damon as team botanist Mark Watney � gets swept up in the storm and thrown to certain death. BUT! By sheer random chance, Watney is NOT actually dead: He�s just stranded, alone, on the Red Planet.

Fortunately for him, Watney happens to not only be a brilliant and capable enough scientist to literally life-hack his way into creating a sustainable longer-term existence on Mars; he�s also one of those Movie Scientists whose ALSO kind of a �bro� and loves to quip sardonically about everything he�s doing for the audience. We�ve had a TON of these �It�s okay for me to be this smug all the time because my confidence comes from my admirable intelligence� heroes lately, and to be honest Watney would probably be insufferable if we had to spend the whole fucking movie with him � but we don�t.

And that's where THE MARTIAN goes from being merely a solid film to a genuinely excellent one, transcending it's starting point as a rock-solid genre exercise to become something like a masterwork.

See, while it'd be all well and good to just stick around on the red planet following Watney � especially since this is absolutely the finest �Movie Star� turn of Damon�s entire career to this point - the film instead cuts back down to Earth where NASA soon discovers what's happening and mobilizes what soon becomes a global effort to bring him home; an effort through which THE MARTIAN slyly reveals it's true colors: this isn't some hackneyed cautionary tale about the dangers of exploring the unknown - it's a high-stakes procedural about the AWESOME power of knowledge, which has placed Mark Watney in one of the most impossible situations imaginable MAINLY so that it can thrill us with detailed depictions of smart, dedicated people figuring out how to get him out of it.

This is, in effect, a love-letter to science, space-exploration and NASA in particular � both in terms of it�s history and also it�s ideals: There�s no �villain� in THE MARTIAN other than shitty luck and Mars itself � none of the human characters turns out to be an asshole or cartoonishly unreasonable in order to generate false drama, there�s no bullshit love-triangles or personal pettiness employed to make us like or dislike certain characters, none of the sappy tacked-on �personal growth� narrative that kept pulling me out of GRAVITY and (thank GAWD!) none of the pseudo-spiritual bullshit that ruined INTERSTELLAR.

Hell, the movie doesn�t even try to impose a �character arc� on Mark � and he�s the MAIN character! He doesn�t �change� or �grow� or �learn� anything through his ordeal, he and everyone else just face down the problems they�re presented with and solve them one after the other. That�s easier said than done � the whole reason cheap drama and forced-arcs exist in drama is because procedural storytelling isn�t always the most riveting thing in the world � that�s why you fill your cast up with people like Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Mara, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Donald Glover� AND why you hire a director like Ridley Scott. And that�s why, if everyone shows up and does their job, you�ll get a great film out of it.

Now folks� I�ll admit I�m the easiest lay in the world for stuff like this. I�m �that guy� who never stopped being in love with outer space. I�m �that guy� who thinks we oughta be dumping as much funding as we POSSIBLY can into NASA come hell or high water because I do NOT want to die without at least seeing humanity be on it�s way to something like Starfleet in my lifetime � and I�m that guy who if you hear this and come at me with some short-sighted �but people are still� and we need money for� but it�s not as important as�� my response is always going to be SPACESHIP. FUCK YOU. That�s why it�s been hard for me to write this review, because I wanted to be sure I loved this movie MAINLY as a movie, and not just because it�s a fellow �let�s get our asses back to space!� booster � but yeah, this one is REALLY that fucking good!

I cannot think of a single thing I dislike about this movie. I love Scott�s direction, I love the cast, I love watching Matt Damon remind us how GOOD he can be when he�s not making an idiot of himself of that fucking reality show, I love how tight Drew Goddard�s screenplay is, I love how well-executed the denser scientific stuff is handled so that it�s still 100% compelling even though I understood MAYBE 20% of what they were actually talking about, I love seeing Sir Ridley bust out a couple of those music-montage sequences he ALWAYS kills at but doesn�t do enough of, I love the way it celebrates and lionizes the idea of science and mathematics skills as essential tools of survival WITHOUT any shitty STEMLord �Nyah! We run the world now!� pandering �Revenge of The Nerds� bullshit, I love the way it celebrates a GLOBAL future of cooperation via a key subplot involving the CHINESE Space Agency without feeling like it�s unnecessarily getting into OR avoiding politics.

There just isn�t a SINGLE place where THE MARTIAN goes wrong � it is, quite simply, an absolutely perfect realization of exactly what it wants to be. And I haven�t enjoyed a single movie more this year. Don�t miss it.

This review and others like it are possible in part through The MovieBob Patreon. Do you operate an outlet and would like MovieBob content to appear there? Contact Bob at BobChipman82@gmail.com

A Call Out For Recollections Of The Colony Theater

Sadly, I just learned that The Colony Theater in North Raleigh is closing this December. This personally affects me as I have worked there since 2009, and have enjoyed many, many movies there over the years starting  with seeing THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN on a date back in 1988.

At one point I had read that The Colony opened in 1969 as a Jerry Lewis Theatre (the comic actor owned a chain of theatre franchises in the late �60s and early �70s) but while some say it was owned by that company, it actually began life on December 29, 1972 as the one screen Six Forks Cinema.

In the mid �70s a restaurant was converted into a second theater and it was re-opened as The Terrace Twin by Bill Rawls Theatres in 1977. After performing as a second run house, owned by Martin Theaters, in the late �80s and early �90s, it was restored and turned into a art-house cinema named the Colony Theaters 1 & 2 by Bill Peebles under his company Ambassador Entertainment.

This information is according to commenters on the theater website cinematreasures.org, particularly one who goes by the handle rayyson, who the my few paragraphs comes close to plagiarizing I must confess.

I�m sure that many of my local readers have good memories of attending films at the Colony, whether it was a screening at one of their great series like Cool Classics, or seeing a first run independent film in limited release, or hearing one of the countless times that somebody dropped a bottle and it noisily rolled down the floor of the theater, so I wanted to ask folks to share them with Film Babble Blog.

Email your Colony memories to boopbloop7@gmail.com. They don�t have to be very long or detailed, but if the story calls for that � do it up! I�ll be sharing some of my memories in a series of tribute posts. as well over the next few months leading to the theater�s final days. 


I have been through a theater closing before with the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill, where I worked from 2004-2009. Happily the Varsity re-opened at the end of that end year after an extensive remodeling by its new owners.

In the N & O piece linked to above, David Bracken wrote that �Hobby Properties, the owner of the center, is hoping that a new owner will lease the space and continue operating it as an independent theater, said Boss Poe, Hobby�s director of leasing and sales.� 

That would sure be great if it could remain a theater space, but for now let�s pay tribute to the grand old twin cinema with some favorite recollections. Here�s hoping to hear from you.

Oh, and in the meantime - patronize the Colony! Here's their website with their schedule. Now playing there are a couple of fine films: SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE and PAWN SACRIFICE. 

Great stuff is coming up like Cinema Overdrive's presentation of THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE on Oct 14th, Cool Classics October selection THE SHINING on Oct 21st, and the final HARRY POTTER movie, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2 on Oct 25th.

More later...

SICARIO: A Superbly Dark Cartel Counterinsurgency Thriller

Now playing at multiplexes from here to the borderline:

SICARIO (Dir. Denis Villeneuve, 2015)

Emily Blunt proves her action star turn in last year�s terrific Tom Cruise vehicle EDGE OF TOMORROW was no fluke in this superbly dark cartel counterinsurgency thriller in which she plays a tough as nails F.B.I. agent named Kate Macer.

After a gripping opening that has she and her partner Reggie Wayne (Daniel Kaluyya) storming a Mexican drug lord's safe house in Arizona, Kate gets recruited by Department of Defense advisers Matt Graver (a typically brash Josh Brolin) and Alejandro Gillick (Benicio Del Toro) for a high-risk CIA-led drug operation across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Kate increasingly senses that the system behind the mission is incredibly corrupt, partly because she can�t figure out who the task force actually works for (particularly De Toro�s ultra shady Alejandro), and if their tactics are doing more harm than good, especially in the chaos of a traffic jam shootout on the outside of Juarez, Mexico.

The team is following a bloody trail that leads to drug kingpin Fausto Alarcon (Julio Cedillo), who it is revealed brutally murdered Alejandro�s wife and daughter. Kate learns this following a raid of the cartel's secret cocaine-smuggling tunnel that runs beneath the border - one of several stunning, standout set pieces on hand.

SICARIO, which is Spanish for �hitman,� is Villeneuve�s most fully realized work. The director�s previous films, including INCENDIES, PRISONERS, and ENEMY were intriguing and fairly solid, but this intensely driven treatise has really seared itself into my psyche in a much more profound way.

Working from a well crafted screenplay by Taylor Sheridan (Sons of Anarchy), Villeneuve keeps us up close with the characters, but knows when to give us distance via striking long shots impeccably filmed by legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins. Incidentally, Villeneuve and Deakins have been both tapped to do the long awaited sequel to BLADE RUNNER. Their riveting work here makes me think they could seriously do that project justice.

Justice is what Blunt�s Kate desperately wants here in the murky, immoral terrain that makes up SICARIO, and the actress puts forth a lot of power in both the pulse pounding action moments, and in the edgy confrontations with those she doesn�t trust. People who don�t know the British actress (her American accent here is spot on) by now are really missing out � the woman has mad range.

However, as good as Blunt is, Del Toro steals every scene he�s in, and he does it by barely speaking. His cold yet fascinating presence has us questioning his motives as much as Blunt does, and when he does speak � every word has disturbing weight.

SICARIO may stir memories of such like-minded thrillers such as Steven Soderbergh�s TRAFFIC and Kathryn Bigelow�s ZERO DARK THIRTY, but it has something those otherwise fine films were strongly lacking: a real conscience.

More later...

Lost Age

Colin Hanks, following in his dad's footsteps as a friendly chronicler of history/pop-Americana:

This is gonna kick my ass, I can already tell.

I was a video-store guy, so my physical media retail experience lacks the direct rock n' roll connection of my record-store brethren (musicians, even burnouts, make everything "cooler" by presence, even if they're just working the checkout between dive gigs) but I'm desperately nostalgic for that "scene" all the same. Yes, streaming is a lovely modern convenience. Yes, lack of physical overhead levels the field for films/distributors of diverse backgrounds. 

But the end of the video/music/game/etc store as community hub for enthusiasts and dilettantes alike is a genuine cultural loss, there's no question about that. People ask all the time how so much of film/TV/etc fandom has become toxic and narrow lately, and I can't think of single bigger culprit than removing the idea of physical, real-world interaction with the media itself, with other consumers, with salespeople and so forth. We've very much lost the concept of growing by sharing spaces/interest, and this looks very much like a eulogy for that.

Don�t Diss On Matt Damon And Miss THE MARTIAN

Now playing at multiplexes from here to Acidalia Planitia:

THE MARTIAN (Dir. Ridley Scott, 2015)

Two years ago around this time we had Alfonso Cuar�n�s GRAVITY, last year there was Christopher Nolan�s INTERSTELLAR, and now there�s this year�s cerebral sci-fi fall release about astronauts struggling for survival in space, Ridley Scott�s THE MARTIAN, an adaptation of the 2011 bestseller by Andrew Weir that I never got around to reading. And with the news that they just found water on Mars, it couldn't be more timely.

Set in the near future, the film stars Matt Damon as Mark Watney, a NASA Astronaut who is left behind by mistake on Mars when the crew of the Ares 3 mission are forced to evacuate during a dangerous dust storm. In the chaos, Damon�s Watney is impaled by flying debris and sent flying off into the distance, leaving his team members to believe that he�s dead.

After Watney regains consciousness and gets back to his house base module in the middle of a large northern basin on Mars called Acidalia Planitia (a real area on the planet) he sizes up the situation via a direct-to-camera video log: �I have no way to contact NASA or my crewmates, but even if I could, it would take four years for another manned mission to reach me, and I�m in a hab designed to last 31 days.�

Our hero figures in order to make water (I guess this aspect is now retro-dated) and grow food on a planet where nothing grows, re-establish contact with NASA, and make the months long journey on the Mars rover cross-planet to the landing site of the next mission he�s �going to have to science the shit out of this!�

Meanwhile back on earth, NASA scientists and officials, including Chiwetel Ejiofor as Director of Mars Mission, Jeff Daniels as the head of NASA, Kristen Wiig as NASA�s head of public relations, and Sean Bean as the flight director, find out that Watney is still alive and they attempt to do the math, with the help of Donald Glover as a awkward scruffy astrodynamicist, and unravel the red tape needed to get him back.

Oh, and the NASA brain trust struggles with whether or not to tell the returning crew headed by Jessica Chastain, who, guilt-stricken at leaving behind her fellow colleague, would surely go against orders to turn her ship around to go back and try to save him if she knew. Also on board with Chastain are Kate Mara, Michael Pe�a, Sebastian Stan, and Aksel Hennie, who each have their moments and add to the film�s driving force of humanity.

Damon�s performance as the can-do optimist Watney is so solid that you�ll forget about the controversial crap he�s said that�s had him raked over the coals by the press lately. Here he�s a guy you are really rooting for as he successfully grows a crop of potatoes and laughing with as he bitches about the only music he has to listen to � Commander Chastain�s disco collection on her computer: �I will not turn the beat around!�

Despite the stakes, which do carry considerable weight, this is one of Scott�s sunniest and most fun films. Especially when compared to his last space epic, the ALIEN prequel PROMETHEUS, which I found more grueling than a good time.

Sure, there shades of many movies in play here from APOLLO 13 to CASTAWAY; from the aforementioned GRAVITY to 127 HOURS and so on, but THE MARTIAN never feels derivative. Drew Goddard�s tightly scripted structure smoothes out the tropes into a thoroughly engaging, and consistently gripping narrative. It�s also the second film I�ve seen this week that well utilized the 3D format � THE WALK was the other.

THE MARTIAN and THE WALK, which both open this week, are also alike in that they are inspirational epics that were immaculately shot by the same cinematographer, Dariusz Wolski. I�ll be shocked if Wolski doesn�t take home an Oscar next year for one of these visual feasts.

It�s so nice to be back in the �movies are getting good again� season, with such a marvelously gripping movie as THE MARTIAN heading the herd. Just don�t be dissing on Damon so hard that you miss it.

More later...

SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE: A Warm, Fuzzy, & Very Profane Sex Comedy

Now playing at an indie art house near me:

SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE

(Dir. Leslye Headland, 2015)

I don�t think it would be accurate to label this an anti-rom com, because it really doesn�t subvert or satirize the formula, but I would say that it�s probably the among the most profane romantic comedies I�ve ever seen. Which makes sense since it was co-produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.

From its opening in which boy (Jason Sudekis), meets girl (Alison Brie) while at college, to its premise that over a decade later the couple attempts a platonic friendship, writer/director Headland�s follow-up to her 2012 debut BACHELORETTE often resembles a foul-mouthed, raunchy remake of WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, but that�s so not a bad thing.

You see, since Sudekis� Jake and Brie�s Lainey lost their virginity to each other on the roof of his dorm back in 2002, they�ve both had scores of failed relationships.

Jake and Lainey run into each other at a sex addict support meeting in the present day and start hanging out, but with the understanding that because they screw up every sexual relationship they�ve had, they should just be friends. They even come up with a safe word should the sexual tension ever gets to be too much: �mousetrap,� abbreviated from �dick in a mousetrap.�

Lainey, who is a kindergarten teacher, is still pining for another guy from her college days that she�s been seeing on and off, Adam Scott as the mustached OB-GYN Matthew Sovochek, who Jake considers one of the most boring people ever. It�s a constant hang-up for Lainey that Matthew is going to marry somebody else.

Jake, who with his business partner (Jason Mantzoukas) is about to get rich from selling a tech patent to a major company, has his eyes on his boss (Amanda Peet), but from the get go we know he�s really in love with Lainey.

Of course, that and the whole path here, with our leads going through the motions with others (Marc Blucas for Brie; Peet for Sudekis) while falling for each other, is as predictable as they come but the conversations that they have along the way riffing on masturbation (Jake teaches Lainey how to do it properly with the help of an empty green-tea bottle), sexual positions, and other deep topics are amusingly relatable and keep the project humming along.

There�s also the hilarious highlight of a scene halfway through in which Jake and Lainey attend a children�s pary at Mantzoukas and his wife (Andrea Savage) while tripping on ecstasy and we get a bikini-topped, cut off wearing Brie teaching the kids to dance to David Bowie�s �Modern Love.� �Why don�t we do drugs?� Savage asks Mantzoukas longingly while watching.

With the amusingly self deprecating Brie building likable layers on top of her work on Mad Men and Community, and Sudekis putting in a less smarmy, and far wittier turn than his HORRIBLE BOSSES persona (or his SNL characters for that matter), there�s a lot of genuine warmth in the humor and in the tender touches of drama here.

It may be very dirty-minded, in that even the indie rock songs on the soundtrack drop the f-bomb (I�m looking at you, The Echo Friendly!), with plenty of plot points that you can see coming from the theater parking lot, but SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE is pleasing time spent with people who you want to get together. It�s a warm and fuzzy film about wanting to f*** your best friend. That's the best way I can put it.

More later...