American Cinema

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Behind the Plot: Brave

“The Time and attention to detail on the hair of Merida, the main character in Brave is more than just about making her look realistic on screen.” - PIXAR

Brave is an American film produced by Pixar Animation Studios. It is 3D CGI computer-animated and falls into the genre of a fantasy, action, and drama film. It was released in 2012 and received positive box-office reviews, going on to win both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe award. The film is the company’s first film that features a female protagonist. In total, the film earned (worldwide) $540.4 million, making it the 13^th highest-grossing film of the year. Brave received a rating of 78% (from 232 critics) on the well-known movie review website RottenTomatoes.

The film is set in Scotland during a Medieval period and follows the story of a young woman, Merida, who defies a custom in her kingdom, which eventually end up with her accidentally cursing her mother and turning her into a bear.

The plot follows Merida and her mother as she sets out to undo the spell herself. It is a story of a strong-willed, independent young girl and the bond between a mother and daughter. Mark Andrews (one of the two directors of the film) was inspired by a scenario that took place between his sons and 12-year old daughter. Andrews asked his daughter to give his boys some television watching time. She answered by replying “I can’t do anything. They get away with murder.” This was the moment that inspired him.

One of the most striking and confounding aspects of this animated film is the Merida’s fiery locks. The computer creation behind this striking feature was executed by the scientists and artists at Pixar. They used a total of 1,500 individual curls that were hand-placed onto Merida’s head to create her voluminous hair. Claudia Chung (one of the simulation supervisors) said, "There is this weird paradox where a 'spring' of hair needs to remain stiff in order to hold its curl but it also has to remain soft in its movement."

Her hair started as springs due to the curly nature of her hair. These springs were long, thin, wide, compressed, bouncy, stiff, and stretched.

Once they placed the curls/strings onto her head they needed to make it ‘move’. The team of creators were said to have used a new technique called “core curve and points” which is said to be similar to a beaded necklace. The core curve is explained as the chain of the necklace and the points are said to be the beads (aka the springs). This produces the effect seen in the film. When Merida moves her head, her curls move along the curve while they keep their shape and still manage to maintain the look on her character.

Chung and her team were said to have also used a real-life wig to see a live model of what they were creating.

She says that it took them a total of three years to perfect her hair and they even spent two months on a specific scene that portrays the full volume of her hair. Chung said in an interview with a staff writer for Inside Science, "Everything we do is done to reinforce the character, we created these great individual 'breakaway' curls that really add to her wild spirit."

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

The Blind Side

The Blind Side is a 2009 American biographical sports drama film. This movie is written and directed by John Lee Hancock. The story features Michael Oher, an offensive lineman who was plays for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL. Quinton Aaron plays as Michael Oher, and Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy.The Blind Side grossed over $300 million. Sandra Bullock went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. The film also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

Michael has been in foster care with different families in Tennessee because of his mother's drug addiction. Every time he is placed in a new home, he runs away. His friend's father asks the coach of Wingate School, to help enroll his son and Mike. Impressed by Mike's size and athleticism, Cotton gets him admitted to the school even though he has a poor academic record. Michael then becomes friends with a younger student named Sean Jr. ("SJ"). Later on, Leigh Anne and Sean watch their daughter Collins playing volleyball. After the game, Sean notices Michael picking up leftover food on the bleachers. Leigh Anne notices Michael walking alone on the road at night, shivering in the cold without proper clothing. When she asks where he plans to spend the night he claims he is staying outside the gym. Leigh Ann offers to let him stay on their couch at home that night. The next morning, Leigh Anne notices that Michael was walking away from the house. Seeing him walking away, she runs up to him and asks him to spend Thanksgiving with the family.

Slowly, Michael becomes a part of the family. Later, Leigh Anne decides to take Michael to his mother's house. He sees an eviction sign posted on the door. When Leigh Anne tries to become Michael's legal guardian, she learns he was taken from his mother when he was seven and that no one knows where he has been. She is also told that he scored poorly in a career aptitude test but was ranked in the 98th percentile in protective instincts. When Michael appears to be nervous to use his strength and size while learning to play football, Leigh Anne tells him, as an offensive lineman, he must protect his quarterback. From that moment, Michael improves tremendously. The Tuohys decide to hire a private tutor for Michael, Miss Sue. Leigh Anne asks Michael’s mother if she can adopt him. The mother allows her to do that.

Michael is then interviewed by many schools for football. SJ talks to coaches and negotiates. He decides on Ole Miss. That is a problem because that is where Sean and Leigh Anne went to school. That causes an investigator to look into the decision to determine if the Tuohys took him in and made him select that certain school. Michael runs away before the interview is over. He then finds his mother. A gang leader welcomes him back, but when the gang leader threatens to go after his family, Michael gets into a fight with him. Michael tells the investigator he chose Ole Miss because "it's where my family goes to school". Michael is accepted into college and says his goodbyes to his family.

I really enjoyed this movie. This is definitely one of my favorite movies. It is such a great story, and I would highly recommend it to everyone. I have watched it many times, and I still really enjoy this film.

Creed

Creed is Ryan Coogler's, the director of Black Panther second film ever directed. This film entails the uprising of Adonis Creed, the son of the Rocky Films series side character, Apollo Creed. Adonis is trying to become a professional boxer like his father Apollo was, but does not want to use the Creed name as a way to get famous and have his career circle around that. Creed shows that he is a legitimate threat to the Professional Boxing League, however can never really land a fight against a good opponent. After meeting a woman who lives in the same apartment complex and having thoughtful and dramatic discussions, Adonis is convinced he should ask his dad's old friend, Rocky, to be his trainer.

Rocky takes him to all of the same old gyms in Philly that he trained in. The owner of the gym claimed that Adonis could find a worthy opponent right there in his gym, the owner's son. The owner is a bit jealous that Rocky decided to train Adonis, since Rocky has been refusing to train the owner's son for years. The owner comes to find out that Adonis is the son of Apollo, and spills it to the entire world that another Creed is entering the boxing world. The event becomes televised, and gathers more attention from the boxing world. Adonis ends up winning the fight, and the current Light Heavyweight Champion challenges him to fight six months from then in order to have a chance at the title belt.

A couple months before the fight, Rocky finds out he has cancer, the same cancer that killed his wife Adrian many years before. Rocky tries to hide it from Adonis, but Adonis eventually ends up finding out. Rocky does not elect to start treatment at first, but Adonis convinces him to get the life-saving help he needs. The two become like family and Rocky plays the father figure that Adonis never had. Adonis finally gets to fight the champion, and the first few rounds are him getting absolutely crushed. Rocky wants to stop the fight at one point, but Adonis convinces him not to. Adonis ends up landing a huge punch on the champion and knocks him down, though he is able to stand back up and the fight ends. Adonis ends up losing the split decision, but makes a name for himself in the boxing world and establishes himself as a very good boxer, just like his dad was.

Monday, April 2, 2018

Happy Death Day

Happy Death Day, directed by Christopher B. Landon, is an action thriller film containing a unique story of a college girl trying to solve her own murder. The main character, Tree, is brutally murdered one night and wakes up the next day thinking it was all a dream. The same situations play out as the day before, and yet again she is killed. She realizes she is experiencing Deja Vu and it will not stop until she can find her murderer and kill that person. She finds a nice guy named Carter along the way and wakes up in his room every day having to re-explain the situation and try to get his help.

Carter has a huge crush on Tree and does pretty much whatever she asks him to in order to help solve her situation. When Tree finally thinks she has it figured out, she realizes that if she were to follow through with killing her murderer, it would result in killing Carter as well. She ends up letting herself die yet again in order to spare Carter. Throughout the process of dying every night, her body slowly deteriorates and she knows she only has a few nights left to figure out how to kill her murderer before she dies for real.

Finally, Tree finds out the man who she believes to be her killer is in the hospital and she tries to kill him while he is asleep. After a lot of struggle, she ends up killing him, yet still dies that night and wakes up the next morning wondering how any of that is possible. She comes to find out that her roommate has been the murderer the whole time. She has killed her via stabbing, gun shot, and even poisoning and Tree never had any idea of how. When Tree confronts her roommate and lets her know she knows she is the murderer, they have a long action-packed fight scene that results in Tree killing her. Everything ends up working out with Tree and Carter and they start a relationship after their crazy experiences together.