The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is a ridiculous film made plausible through its singularity of vision and the brilliant casting of Jennifer Lawrence, an actress who is rocketing her way toward Can Do No Wrong (CDNW) status.

The film is a take on the conceit of Battle Royale, which was a take on The Most Dangerous Game.  In The Most Dangerous Game and all the films that copy it, people are the quarry for hunters either rich or alien, which is basically the same thing as far as the films are concerned.  In Battle Royale, contemporary Japanese high school kids are trapped on an island and must hunt one another until only one remains.  In The Hunger Games, a random selection of teenagers from the provinces of a dystopian future America are forced to fight for survival amongst themselves in a high-tech dome that happens to replicate our heroine’s home environment of Appalachia.

By backing off from Battle Royale’s unflinching brutality, The Hunger Games allows the audience to maintain a kind of distance.  We know that kids are killing kids, but Battle Royale puts the horror front and center through grisly, unsettling practical effects.  The Hunger Games, on the other hand, shows us enough to get the point across while keeping enough back to maintain its tone as a grim adventure, vice nightmare-inducing horror show.  Further, The Hunger Games creates distance through its setting in a ridiculous future, one in which the ruling class prances about in laughable costumes and makeup that we barely accept only because its members are portrayed by gifted professionals such as Stanley Tucci and Elizabeth Banks. 

It keeps the distance in check through its conviction.  The film never winks at the audience, it builds and maintains its world consistently, and it shines in the casting of its star, Jennifer Lawrence.  Lawrence, who broke out in the magnificent independent film Winter’s Bone and showed that she could hold her own with performers like Kevin Bacon and Michael Fassbender in the tentpole X-Men: First Class, brings an earthy realism and courage to her role as Katniss Everdeen, a young woman who volunteers to compete in the eponymous games in place of her younger sister.  She comes across as smart and resourceful and completely engaged, and she takes us along with her because if she buys in, why shouldn’t we?

The result is a successful film, one that creates a consistent world, populates it with interesting people, and makes us care about what happens to them.  I understand that The Hunger Games is to be the first of a franchise.  I look forward to the further adventures of Katniss Everdeen.  This film made me believe in her.   

Ghost Rider

I never read the “Ghost Rider” comic when I was a kid. The idea of a flaming skeleton on a motorcycle struck me as silly and, even though I knew all the words to “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” nothing about the comic captured my imagination. That lack of predisposition, coupled with its generally poor critical reception, ensured that GHOST RIDER would never find a place on my Netflix queue. When a co-worker of mine put the DVD in my hand and told me she was sure I’d like it, a nodded and smiled and figured this would be 1.5 hours of service to the ideal of office harmony.

Imagine my surprise when GHOST RIDER turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun. In fact, there are very few things in this movie not to like, from the Nicolas Cage’s over-the-top performance as the titular Ghost Rider to Eva Mendez’s Wonderbra’s up-top performance to Sam Elliott’s incredibly realistic and believable performance as Sam Elliott and His Amazing Moustache. The set design and art direction are fantastic, creating a detailed fantasy Southwest that’s full of mythology, foreboding, and flaming devil-bikes. The villains are pleasantly silly, the story soaked in Gothic Latino Catholic mythology, and the whole adventure just a great time at the movies.

Nicolas Cage has so much fun with this role, I’m surprised they paid him to do it. When you need an actor to convey insanity, delight, and fear (but mostly insanity), Cage is your man. When he first catches fire and becomes the Ghost Rider, he works that Crazy Cage look and laugh so effectively that he brought a big, goofy smile to my face. In fact, Cage makes this movie. He’s so much fun that when the Ghost Rider takes over and the movie switches to an animation-fest for its big battles, I actually felt let down. ‘Enough of the flaming skull,’ I thought. ‘Let’s get back to the crazy eyes!’

Eva Mendez, as the love interest, has very little to do here other than wear a half-unbuttoned blouse and get imperiled; but she’s very good at wearing a half-unbuttoned blouse. Sam Elliott, whose shirt remains fully buttoned throughout, does a fine Sam Elliott, and his presence lends authenticity and a sense of the mythic Southwest to the film. Let’s face it: nobody mounts a horse like Sam Elliott, and when he and Cage team up to race across the desert in pursuit of evil (to the tones of a pumped-up version of the Johnny Cash classic), you can’t not dig the groove.

Certainly, GHOST RIDER has its flaws. Donal Logue isn't given enough to do. The villains, from Mephistopheles on down, just aren’t that menacing – the Big Boss, named Blackheart (Wes Bentley), reminded me more of Spider-Manero than an emissary from my darkest nightmares. The action set-pieces are kind of dull (unless you’re really into video game cut-scenes), and whole thing feels like product. Nevertheless, GHOST RIDER is fun product, from the Leone-like standoffs to the loopy dialogue to the brazenly ignored gaps in logic. This is a movie that just wants to show you a nutty good time, and it succeeds.

Who’da thunk it.