Finding Is An End

Rating: 4 Trees

The Weatherman, directed by Will Becher is a claymation that follows the troubles of being a weatherman. The animation is seamless and allows for you to accept the absurdities that exist, such as the triangle shaped bird, or the weather baring a physical resemblance to the symbols used by the weather man. The music really stood out and compliment the actions taking place. This film really made me laugh. It was both sweet and charming, and it was obvious that the production team planned well and implemented a top notch short. 

Rating: 4 Trees

Landing Lights, directed by Graham Young, might at first horrify many. The scenario of a jumbo jet heading for a large building, brought back glimpses of the news footage for 9-11, where a small group of terrorists guided passenger planes into the trade towers in New York. However, at the point of collision I was offered a sweet relief, the plane passed through the walls, becoming much like a risen ghost, bound to relive the moment over and over for eternity. Though this may sound horrible, the animation, colors and the angles used, are serene and stand in a direct contrast to the acts carried our out in real life. While the director may not have intended for a comparison such as this, the symbols used have become etched into the minds of many not only in America, but the world.  This was beautiful and well conceived. 

Rating: 4 Trees

The Life Size Zeotrope, directed by Mark Simon Harris, starts by a large quantity of people filing onto a carnival ride that spins around. It is in essence a very large Zeotrope, a devise used to make successive still images appear to move.  The animation occurs on the pages that the riders hold. This film is fun and the techniques used to make it are mysterious, it will have you scratching your head. Aside from the animation, I enjoyed the unique differences in the participants, such as their hands. The hands ranged in size from small and slender to large and meaty. Overall the production was well thought out and executed. 

Rating: 4 Trees

A film set in the late nineteen forties about a wealthy older business man with an attraction to a younger woman even though he’s married, didn’t strike me as being of much relevance to a poor late-twenties happily married man as myself. Could a period piece have a potential draw to draw crowds who would usually shy away from this sort of thing? If one feels the answer is no, than this film will change the harbored disdain for what I’ve consider a rather boring genre.  

Married Life directed by Ira Sachs, begins with an animated opening that illustrates immediately the time period that one is about to observe. Harry, a mild manner businessman, played by Chris Cooper, invites his best friend Richard, played charmingly by Pierce Brosnan, to a dinner to discuss his affections for another woman other than his wife, Pat, played by Patricia Clarkson. Upon the entrance of a beautiful women, Harry stands up from the table gazing her way. Richard turns to look, squinting, seemingly unable to believe this beauty would love such a man as his friend. The woman Kay, played by Rachel McAdams, is a platinum haired belle who seems innocent at first, but beneath, darker things brew. She meets Harry with a kiss, and is invited to stay and chat a bit. Richard who is a  stereotypical ladies man, well dress, out going, well spoken and just plain cool, has fallen for her. Richard, rations that Harry is married to a fine wife and is asking to much, it is he, who should have Kay. This film is filled with deceit, that has the power over life and death and to destroy the morals that bind us as men.

Many will enjoy this film for its humor or wit, but it is the observation that no one is either good or evil, but are complex beings capable of both, that stands as a modern  and enlightening theme.  The film cinematography is smooth and well shot. The set director and costume designers captured the period well, submersing the audience into the forties. I know it made seem hard to believe, but this film is relevant and should be seen.

The Robotic Heart

Ratings: 4 trees

What does it mean to have to have human connections? Does it require a beating heart? The film Mechanical Love explores the notions of human contact, the human soul and if there is a possibility of robots obtaining the ability to become, in a sense, more human than human.  This documentary follows the works of Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, a robotic engineer, and the creation of what he calls a “geminoid” (meaning loosly twin being). The geminoid is a robot that is so similar in appearance and action that Professor Ishiguro hopes it would be possible to take the place of the person it replicates. We are offered a glimpse of a geminoid that bares a remarkable similarity to the Professor. It is with this robot that he test the limits of what we define as being human and the existence of the soul. 

As humans we question things intensely, if we have had a large amount of exposer to them. We note ill-regularities that we cannot quite explain, but when something seems off, we know that we must question the validity of what is being seen. So in contrast to the geminoid, we are presented with a fluffy white robot that resembles a toy seal and is called Paro. Many have not had direct contact with seals on a daily basis, so we question it with less emphasis on if it real or living.

Paro is introduced to a retirement home, in particular one woman named, Mrs. Körner. She is elderly and rarely has relatives that visit. It is in this relationship between Mrs. Korner, and Paro that the film finds it charm. We are lead slowly into a web were we may view Mrs. Korner as our own grandmother. We share her frustrations and her desires for something, anything that will offer her love and interaction. Her environment questions if, we, as humans, treat some, as dispensable, providing only marginal care.  

In Japanese the word sonzai means roughly “the aura of human presence”. We are forced, due to dialogue and visuals, to question the possibility that the definition of life may delve further into the realms of phycology than into the logical realm of pure science. We are asked to note the importance of bonds and how those bonds frailly hold the structure of mankind.