Monday 17 August 2015

Double Bill Mini Musings: Trolls and Doppelgangers...

The Boxtrolls:
What's it about?
From stop motion animation studio Laika (Coraline, ParaNorman), this latest outing revolves around the titular box trolls - essentially scruffy little goblin handymen that live inside cardboard boxes - and the human populace of the world above who believe them to be vicious, man-eating ghouls after a small child is apparently kidnapped.
Who would I recognise in it?
Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan, Elle Fanning, Maurice LaMarche, Nick Frost (voices).
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
As per usual, Laika's visual style is superb - the setting here being a rickety Victorian-esque coastal town that rises up on a large hill - and the story doesn't seek to safely illuminate its darker recesses. The Boxtrolls themselves appear both demonic and lovable, depending on the perspective, with a similar mix applied to the human characters - particularly the main antagonist and his goons. The former is a class-obsessed Boxtroll chaser called Snatcher, weighed down by the weight of the chip on his shoulder and his obsession with cheese (a delicacy reserved for the rich 'white hat' folk). His goons, meanwhile, vary between monosyllabic creepiness and complex introspective musings on whether or not they truly are the 'good guys' (as they have been told by their increasingly sadistic boss). If ParaNorman didn't quite hit the high watermark of Coraline, The Boxtrolls certainly manages to attain the same level of intelligence, wit, fairytale whimsy, and darkness. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for a double dose of Jake Gyllenhaal...

Enemy:
What's it about?
A lecturer, dulled by his boring and repetitive life, discovers his doppelganger in a film he watches. He becomes obsessed with tracking the man down, such is the striking resemblance between the two, but things begin to spiral out of control once the two meet.
Who would I recognise in it?
Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, Isabella Rossellini.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Directed by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Incendies) and adapted from the novel by José Saramago, Enemy is a bit of a head-twister, dealing with scholarly notions of totalitarianism and identity in a package that never quite reveals itself all-the-way. Is this a dream? Is it the hallucination of a damaged mind? Is it something even weirder and more sinister? Are the people in the respective lives of the two identical men to be trusted? For such weighty themes and obscure storytelling Enemy is pleasingly efficient (a slick 89 minutes all-in). Gyllenhaal gives a superb (double) performance, once again illustrating that he is one of the most talented and interesting actors working today, further evidence of which lies within Nightcrawler. Arachnophobes should be cautioned though, with three scenes - two of them brief, one of them particularly surprising - likely to inspire creeping flesh. A strange and twisting thriller, Enemy makes for a particularly intriguing watch. Good.

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