Elemental
Gillipedia Official Rating: Where does this take place? Element City. Wonder how they thought of that one
Score: 6/10
And the
mid-Pixar phase continues. I think Elemental could be a franchise in the
making, or at least have some really fun theming at Disney World, but as a film
on its own, the forest is a bit trimmed of layers. The incredible animation can’t
save a lackluster story, underbaked characters, and analogies and themes that
are too on the nose for Pixar standards. This is a good film, maybe even a
triumph, for any other studio, but when you say this is Pixar—we don’t hit that
standard.
The world
of Elemental is centered around 4 elements: water, earth, wind, and
fire. Element City was built by the water people, and earth and wind integrated
quite well late on. Pushed outside of the city, the fire people have to live on
their own due to their fiery tendencies. Such is the tale of Bernie and Cinder,
and the film centers around their fire shop and a young Ember trying to prove she
can one day take over her parents’ shop. The stage is set when some pipes
burst, and pop goes the Wade—a water person city inspector. Emotional, clumsy,
and trying to do his job, Wade puts the fire shop on notice and ultimately, it
will be shut down in a week without improvements. When Wade learns more about
Ember and her story, he does what he can to help save the shop that he first
doomed. And the unlikely love story is off to the races in Pixar’s first
romcom.
I like the
venture into a new genre—although I can’t tell you how hard I cringed when they
said “hanky panky” near the end of the film. But we hit every trope in the
book: date montages, nighttime settings with real talks, meeting the families,
breaking up for no good reason, and trying to piece things back together in an
action-packed climax. And clocking in roughly at 100 minutes, I didn’t feel
like Ember and Wade’s bond felt fully earned. Ember is both dominant and
reserved while Wade is submissive and emotional, and the film has a few scenes
to find overlaps and the two balancing their differences, but again, the jump
to love was a river too wide in my books.
So where
the film tries to earn its boy scout badges is Ember’s family’s clear
immigration story juxtaposed with Wade’s affluent background. I’m not saying
there isn’t an interesting story in there, but as an adult, they spelled
everything out clearly in the dialogue. There’s enough interesting ideas
already conveyed through the visuals that they could’ve trusted the audience
even more. And before you start sharpening the pitch forks over my “as an adult”
remark because this is a kid’s movie, I’ll refer back to my Across the
Spider-Verse review where that film conveys so much storytelling solely
through visuals.
Speaking of
the visuals, this is one of Pixar’s finest films conceptually. How blimps
deflate and inflate to pick up the cloud people for their morning commutes, how
Bernie’s age is reflected by him coughing smoke, and all the light refractions
through water are just a few of the many examples of where the filmmakers had
fun with their setting. There’s even a version of basketball with cloud people,
and I think they could’ve made the sport look more unique, but I did love when
Wade started a literal wave with the crowd.
The music
is their biggest departure from other films, and to me it was going for like
the streets of India kind of vibes as Ember even drove around on a version of a
moped. I’m using this word a lot, but there were some interesting choices made,
not all fully successful. This film also fulfilled enough of the rom part, but
I’m sorry to say it lacked in the com. I laughed out loud a few times with some
other chuckles sprinkled in—better than most comedies I’ve watched in the past
year to be fair—but it wasn’t consistent enough.
There’s ingredients
here—including one of Pixar’s strongest concepts with world-building—but they
don’t escape any romcom tropes and are heavy-handed in their delivery. The
characters are a mixed bag, the visuals are fantastic, and the story is there
to hand enough convenient conflicts for our characters to overcome. Covid and
Disney+ has not been kind to this studio financially, and while I’m very
excited for Inside Out 2, Pixar has to turn over some new leaves to
regain the magic of the 2000s.
Society of the
Snow
Gillipedia Official Rating: Elemental’s unofficial 5th element
Score: 8/10
Available
on Netflix dubbed or subbed (how I watched and would recommend), Society of
the Snow was one of the best international film nominees this year. This is
based on the true story of the Uruguayan rugby team in the 70s and the plane
they’re on going down in the mountains on the way to Chile. The film uses the
first 15 minutes to build up a jovial, energetic camaraderie only to have a
stark contrast for the rest of the film as this survival film hits all the
notes of freezing cold, illness, surviving the elements, and the inevitable
hunger that leads to the dreaded questions of what am I willing to do in order
to survive?
I liken
this film to All Quiet on the Western Front. That film’s first act depicted
most of its themes really well, but then the film kept on for another 2 hours
in successful, if slightly bloated, fashion. Now if this is the first survival
film you’ve ever watched, it may seem revolutionary. Our narrator takes the
side early on that he won’t be nibbling on the dead. That debate is repeated
throughout the film (slightly too much actually), but it’s not the only debate
that happens. Is the suffering through hunger and the cold even worth it when
it seems like there’s no more chance of a rescue? Do we venture out further to
try to find more supplies?
So if this
film doesn’t really tread too much new ground in a winter survival film, how
does it become well-regarded, and why do I give it an 8? It’s because it makes
lots of smart choices all centered around one thought: this is a real story.
And because of that, yes, there are outspoken and reserved characters and
debates on how to proceed and what to do, but these are very real people that want
to do the right thing. This film finds the humanity in people in a dire
situation. Instead of fighting over resources, people tearfully proclaim that
they volunteer their bodies to be eaten if they die. There’s never anyone that
goes on a crazy rampage killing everyone because producers felt the film needed
to be more thrilling; no, any time the characters get any small win, mother
nature punches everyone in the stomach. And one of the hardest hitting choices
is that with every death, that character’s name and age appears on screen.
Because that isn’t a character. That is a person that died.
Oftentimes
I commend films with longer takes that lingers on emotions, and this film is an
example of super quick shots that give the precise info you need. There’s both
a plane crash (duh) and an avalanche that consumes the group, and you get a
rapid fire mix of reaction shots and snapping body parts with absolutely
grueling sound effects. The prosthetics earn a worthy Oscar nomination here. I
won’t say much more, but again, there’s some good choices made in terms of
characters we focus on and how that impacts how we believe the story will play
out. Also, the mix of claustrophobia combined with the incredible shots of the
Andes mountains works so well.
The fact
that all the forms of trouble and the themes that play out have been seen in
one way or another in other films is an unfortunate consequence to this film. To
me it makes the film play out a little too long, but wherever there is overlap,
Society of the Snow makes smart choices in how it displays its story and
information to the audience. You’ll need a bit of a stomach for this one, but
this is one of the more entertaining nominated films of the year.
