by Michael Mirasol

One of the great joys of the movies is its ability to bring our fantasies to life. Whether it’s time travel, alien worlds, alternate realities, or superhuman feats, film allows us to transcend our physical limitations; to make the fantastic real.

Superhero films are but the latest popular manifestation of this desire to materialize our fondest imaginings. Any youngster who has ever been entranced by a comic book or serial would surely jump at the chance to see their heroes fully embodied on screen. The child in all of us has always wanted to be super strong; to be super fast; to fly.

And the genre is flying indeed. In the past decade, there has been an average of around 4 superhero films a year, raking in just over $1Billion per annum (2011 has already crossed that number). Some of the most profitable film franchises have come out in this period, along with some of the most ambitious and memorable takes on the most recognizable of costumed crime fighters.

But as the decade came to a close, the genre seemed to be losing its mojo. Since 2008 when the great pair of IRON MAN and THE DARK KNIGHT began and ended that Summer Blockbuster season, there hasn’t been a single worthy successor mentioned in the same breath. There were ambitious attempts here and there (e.g. WATCHMEN) whose success depends on who you speak to. But none have captured the same kind of critical and commercial acceptance comic book fans have been looking for.

This sentiment was probably best captured in A.O. Scott’s essay “How Many Superheroes Does It Take to Tire a Genre?” In it, Scott had a hunch that 2008 may have been the peak of genre’s interest and noted the “rules” which its films have to live by.

“The climax must be a fight with the villain, during which the symbiosis of good guy and bad guy, implicit throughout, must be articulated. The end must point forward to a sequel, and an aura of moral consequence must be sustained even as the killings, explosions and chases multiply. The allegorical stakes in a superhero are raised — it’s not just good guys fighting bad guys, but Righteousness against Evil, Order against Chaos — precisely to authorize a more intense level of violence.”

It was the predictability of such conventions Scott claims that ultimately restrict a superhero film’s greatness, such as the reliance on bigger and more elaborate special effects, or the insistence to spell things out. Read THE DARK KNIGHT’s climactic dialogue on paper and it will feel ham-fisted.

But here enters the important question: What do we, as comic book lovers, want superhero films to be?

When superheroes entered first entered the collective consciousness, they were first adapted to film as Saturday Movie Serials in 1940s. Some of the earliest examples were Captain Marvel, Batman, The Phantom, Captain America, and Superman. Find them on YouTube and discover how they felt anything but super in retrospect. Yet they served their purpose. In the shadow of World War 2, they were an escape for millions of children.

Politics momentarily torpedoed the comic book industry and so with the films that were inspired by them. Caped crusaders were only to be found on TV, most notably Adam West’s “Batman,” which remained securely in its corner of children’s entertainment. But the baby-boomers had grown up by the 70s, and so did special effects. Surely Richard Donner must have seen what Steven Spielberg and George Lucas did with JAWS and STAR WARS. Thus arrived the first great (and probably the greatest) Superhero film, SUPERMAN.

What made SUPERMAN (1978) so great among many things was that it was the first true ambitious attempt to evoke the almost mythological reverie young comic book lovers hold for their heroes. It’s evident from the film’s first shot of a young hand turning a comic book page while a child’s voice narrates the exploits of the Daily Planet. Its aspirations were so grand that they could not be contained in one film and were eventually carried over to its equally majestic sequel.

It was also a product of great creativity, utilizing shots and techniques maximizing the capabilities of special effects despite the limitations of their time. It did so well that no other film of its kind in the 1980s came close to it. That is until Tim Burton revolutionized the feel of the superhero film with his gothic vision of BATMAN (1989). Until then, superheroes had to live up to a kind of sunlit glory. Tim Burton completely upended this notion with his dedication to darkness and shadow, reveling in his hero’s menacing intimidation. Both films set the bar for the genre and set the divergent paths their successors would take in the 1990s.

As more and more superhero films were being produced, partly because advances in computer generated effects (CGI), an over-reliance on spectacle over story started to take hold (sound familiar?). Throwaway characters came and went; the bad outnumbered the good. But regardless of the style whether grand (Supes’ influence) or foreboding (Batsy’s), the genre continued to tell their stories with a strong adherence to the fantastic. A select few dared to focus on the stakes which heroes fight for (e.g. X-MEN and UNBREAKABLE), looking prophetic in hindsight.

September 11 changed the cinematic landscape, causing almost all films to focus on the stakes. From then on, it wasn’t enough for a superhero film to have a great protagonist or premise. The conflicts had to involve soul-searching. The risks had to be grave.

Some of the very best Superhero films are characterized by this. The X-MEN films have always put their focus on discrimination and the treatment of minorities as outcasts. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS is the best of the lot because of how it juxtaposes this issue with historical events more closely than any other film of its kind.

HULK is probably the most introspective of all Superhero films, telling how such superhuman abilities can be much more of a curse than a blessing. HELLBOY is amazing in its ability to portray its supernatural character dealing with the human reckoning of nature versus nurture. HELLBOY 2 feels like it was directed by Hayao Miyazaki, soulfully mourning the gap between man and the natural world.

Though Peter Parker is no ordinary man, his not so extra-ordinary abilities make him a more empathetic character as compared to someone who can fly. And in SPIDER-MAN 2, Sam Raimi uses this hero who isn’t extra-ordinarily intelligent, wealthy or powerful to somehow convey the awesome responsibility of doing the right thing. Tony Stark gave America a chance to atone for its wartime sins. IRON MAN was wish-fulfillment, granting the chance to his immense wealth and technological advantages at defeating the correct enemy, big business.

BATMAN BEGINS was epic in finally revealing the nature of Batman’s dark notion of justice, digging deep behind Bruce Wayne’s trauma and patiently building the legendary persona with a complete commitment to defeating evil. And miraculously, THE DARK KNIGHT turned the stakes several notches higher by presenting an ugly, fearsome, and equally determined anarchist who embodied our all-too-grounded fears of complete chaos.

Is it any wonder how superhero films came to the fore during World War 2, and how it reached its cinematic golden age after 9/11? The most interesting ones have grown with gravity along with the times. But as with the 1990s, throwaways are coming back. Would anyone consider the personal dilemmas of THE GREEN HORNET (spoiled brat), THOR (big dumb blonde) and GREEN LANTERN (pilot who’s scared of admitting fear) worthy of a hero? CAPTAIN AMERICA may bring back fuzzy nostalgia of the good ole’ days, but did have to be fuzzy about non-existent discrimination (not to mention being completely predictable)?

Yes, Superheroes by their very nature are fantasies. Originally conceived to make us feel good, and have us suspend logic for the short time we have with them. But even comic book fans want their genre to be taken seriously too, and it is not enough to merely go to the theater and appear more knowledgeable than the casual moviegoer who goes in with a blank slate. Do we really want to see superhero movies, just because we know who is who and what the plot points are?

And for those of us who are seeking that SUPERMAN/BATMAN moment, of seeing something truly original or fantastic for the first time, those moments will come few and far between. CGI has made the incredible familiar. It’s time to tantalize ourselves with ideas, not just imagery. I long for the day when Kal-el has to justify altruism over conquest or to see his alternate history if he had landed in the good ole’ USSR.

Steven Spielberg didn’t make a dozen versions of E.T.’s. He grew with his art. Cowboys didn’t just stop at the duel at high noon. As A.O. Scott noted, the Western was able “to find ambiguities and tensions buried in their own rigid paradigms.” Superhero films have grown and must continue to grow rather than being about the good versus evil storyline that keeps itself from exploring new territory. It’s a scourge that is not only afflicting film but the comic book industry itself. It won’t be solved by constant reboots.

In an inspiring scene in SUPERMAN RETURNS, Kal-el goes into the highest reaches of the stratosphere to listen in on how to help the mankind. But what follows is maddening: Does he help resolve Middle Eastern conflicts? Help to stop the atrocities in Sudan? Rid North Korea of Nukes?

Hell no. He stops a bank robbery.

My fellow fanboys, it’s the 21st Century. Is this the best we can hope for?

Originally published in UNO October – November 2011 issue.

Dear 1985 self: I know you have trouble imagining the next year, much less the next millennium, and you never thought you’d be around to see the 25th anniversary of Back to the Future, and yet here we are. You haven’t seen Back to the Future II yet, but in case you’re wondering, the future is more like that other movie you saw in 1985, Brazil. (For example, that clip about bureaucracy will give you deja vu in the next decade, when you start experiencing the joy of enrollment in UP Diliman).

Still, it’s not all bad news. As you can see in the video above, Lea Thompson 25 years later is still cute.

[image]

By Paul Schrader as told to Philbert Dy, originally printed in the December ’09 issue of UNO Magazine.

START WITH YOUR PROBLEMS 

Films are just metaphors for personal problems. Start with something you’re having trouble with, and then find a metaphor that helps describe it. 

HIT ROCK BOTTOM

I started out as a critic, but non-fiction wasn’t doing it for me. At the time, I fell out with (film critic and Schrader’s mentor) Pauline [Kael], I owed money to the AFI, my marriage had fallen apart, and I was basically just drifting around LA, watching a lot of pornography. I was living in my car, and that’s around the time that I came up with the metaphor of the taxi driver, stuck in this metal coffin in the city. That’s where Taxi Driver came from. I was Travis Bickle. 

DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF

I needed a city that was run by cabs. I’d never been to New York, so I got the streets all wrong. I had 6th Avenue running the wrong way. But it didn’t matter. The story was what mattered. 

DO IT YOURSELF

With Blue Collar, this young writer was talking to me about car plants, and I came up with the idea of this story about the workers at those plants, with a racial angle. I offered it to him and he wasn’t interested, so I came home and told my brother that I had given this writer a great idea, and he’d turned it down. And I thought, we should do it ourselves. I’m very interested in characters who act against their best interests; characters who can’t see what’s good for them. 

SURVIVE

(On Blue Collar, which became legendary for its cast fighting through the entire production) Richard Pryor was the unhappiest man I’ve ever known. But I guess that’s typical of comics. He’d have these wild mood swings. He’d go from extremely nice to extremely nasty in a moment. I knew that if directing was going to be like this every time, I wouldn’t be doing it much. Sometimes I think I didn’t direct that movie. I survived it. 

FINDING A COLLABORATOR

(On Martin Scorsese, who Schrader worked with on four films) We’re alike in many ways. We’re both asthmatic film buffs. And we’re intellectuals. He grew up in an urban Catholic environment though, while I had a more rural upbringing, so there’s just enough difference to make it work. 

STAND YOUR GROUND

(On Hardcore) I made that movie because I wanted to write about my father. I didn’t like that film very much. I didn’t like how it turned out. The studio made me change the ending, and I don’t like that ending. They made me recast the girl, and I don’t like that actress very much. I should have stood my ground on those things. I made a movie about my father and a movie about my mother and I screwed them both up. What does that tell you? 

DEALING WITH DEATH THREATS

The first few days in the production of Mishima, we were receiving a lot of death threats. There were these people on the far right who didn’t like the idea of an American telling the story of their hero. There still are. The people who financed the film had to negotiate with the people on the far right, and the compromise was that instead of shutting down production, they’d block the screening in Japan instead. It still hasn’t been shown in Japan. There was talk of that a couple of years ago, but it still hasn’t happened. 

Normally you assume that if you die during production, they could get someone else to finish the movie. Not with Mishima. I was thinking that if I die, the film would never get made. It’s too complex. It’s a lot to hold in your head. 

HOW TO DIRECT ACTORS

Directing actors is 75% casting. You catch the right actor at the right time in the right place at their life, and you don’t have to do much else. I think that as a director, my job is to just give a couple of hints.

ON FAILURE

Why dwell on that? The truth is I’ve been lucky. [My films] have their followers, and few films can find that level of success. I love film. I love working.  

Sometimes you just know that you got it. Like in Affliction. I really think that’s a perfect little film. I got that story. Or it could be a performance. Or sometimes it’s just a shot. The best moments are whenever anything feels good. I focus on that.

WRITING MOVIES IN THE MODERN AGE

They don’t make movies like the ones I used to make. Nowadays, I start with where the money is. Independent filmmakers are like scavenger dogs. I hear that there’s money in India, and I think “well I’ve got an idea for that.” But after that, it’s mostly the same. You find something you care about, and you put it up on screen.

AUGUST 31 – MONDAY
9 PM – Were the World Mine
Directed by Tom Gustafson
Written by Tom Gustafson and Cory James Krueckeberg
Timothy, a young gay high school student who feels like an outsider in his community, finds a recipe for the love potion used in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Timothy decides to use the potion to turn his entire town gay, turning his world into a musical fantasyland of his own devising. Were the World Mine is an exuberant musical film that also ends up being pretty poignant.

SEPTEMBER 1 – TUESDAY
9 PM – Grace
Written and Directed by Paul Solet
Madeleine Matheson (Jordan Ladd) gets into a car accident that leaves her husband and the baby inside her womb dead. Traumatized, she is unwilling to accept the death of her unborn child, and insists on carrying it to term. Much to everyone’s surprise, the baby miraculously returns to life in Madeleine’s arms after a bloody delivery. But the baby has a thirst for blood, and Madeleine, unwilling to see her only child go hungry, will do anything to keep her fed. What sounds like the premise for a cheesy horror movie is actually a pretty disturbing yet strangely affecting drama about the role of a mother, and the lengths a mother might take to protect her child.

SEPTEMBER 2 – WEDNESDAY
9 PM – The Soloist
Directed by Joe Wright
Written by Susannah Grant
Based on the book by Steve Lopez
During a major case of writer’s block, L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey Jr.) befriends Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), an incredibly talented mentally ill homeless street musician. Inspired by his story, Lopez sets out to try and help Ayers and others like him, but he finds that reality can be a tough foe to deal with.

SEPTEMBER 3 – THURSDAY
9 PM – Taking Chance
Directed by Ross Katz
Written by Ross Katz and Michael Strobl
Based on the true story of Lt. Col. Michael Strobl (played by Kevin Bacon). Frustrated with his superiors’ disregard for his recommendations pertaining to the Iraq war, Strobl volunteered for military escort duty, and accompanied the remains of Pfc. Chance Phelps, a marine who died at the age of 19, from Dover to the Phelps family home in Wyoming. Taking Chance looks at a much-ignored aspect of the war; that of the bodies coming home, and everything that follows.

SEPTEMBER 5 – SATURDAY
9 PM – Little Ashes
Directed by Paul Morrisson
Written by Philippa Goslet
It is 1922 in Madrid. A young Salvador Dali (Robert Pattinson) enters university of dreams of becoming a great artist. There, he makes friends with Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Buñuel, and for a while, the three of them become the prime movers of Madrid’s rising modern art movement. But Dali finds himself unsatisfied with his current relationship with Lorca, and risks their friendship and reputation as he attempts to cross boundaries. And their ensuing closeness destroys as much as it nurtures.

***

Mogwai is a haven for those who crave a taste of something different,a great hangout with a rural heart in the bosom of the urban metro. In both its menu and ambience, it’s a melting pot of Filipino tastes,serving up the best of the traditional and the eclectic, the familiarand the new.

A café and restaurant, Mogwai serves the best home-style cooking in a setting as homely as a rustic watering hole. With a menu especially prepared for the no-frills but discerning diner, it also offers a good selection of native coffees and drinks for those who enjoy a hearty discussion after their meals.

On the second floor, Mogwai has a cinema room dedicated to showing all sorts of films from Hollywood classics to underground cinema,art-house fare to Pinoy grindhouse flicks. Run by practicing filmmakers and film scholars as consultants, it is the only other cinema aside from the U.P. Film Center and Cultural Center of the Philippines to have no censorship restrictions in the country. With its excellent audio-visual facilities, it will have a minimum of 9 screenings, 6 films a week and will consistently premiere the best indie short films and features. Workshops and discussions with top directors, cinematographers, writers and other technicians will be held regularly both for the budding filmmaker and cineastes (Discounted workshops rates for members.)

Unit 62 & 63 Cubao Expo, Gen. Romulo Ave., Cubao mogwaifilmclub@gmail.com Open from 6pm-2am (adjustments may be made for private functions and special events)