It just occurred to me I should have tried to spell out a phrase with my 20 picks. Don’t know what I could have pulled off with 5 vowels and the sometimes Y rule, but it would have been beautifully insane.
Speaking of beautifully insane.
M is for ...
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Was not a fan of any part of this franchise previously. But this one I dug hard. It is impossible to believe Miller wrapped up the original trilogy 30 years prior, made a few films about talking pigs and suburban witches in the meantime, then dropped this monster on us as though it had been in the works all along.
I have never known any director to take his own IP from decades earlier, and bring such a radically aggressive and fresh reimagining of it that I legit thought this was done by a hyper-hip indie auteur thirsty to make a splash in the Hollywood big leagues.
Instead, it’s Miller shaking the rust off his own creation and More Cowbelling the crap out of it.
The world-building on this thing is bonkers. The mythos and ethos are both ridiculously unreal, and plausibly functional. The cinematography is equal parts gorgeous and grotesque. The main narrative is streamlined into elegant simplicity, but the plot points surrounding it are dialed to 11 with intricacies and complex detail. Ordinarily the Rule of Cool is an excuse to ignore absurd leaps of logic, but in this case, the film-making is so superb, one can bask in both the craft and the cool.
This is also one of the few times the costume work and wardrobe stands out in my own personal sphere as being something I would label an integral part of the film's narrative and universe. And it is wicked in its scope and impact. This is a case study of custom design elevating a film a few notches.
Hardy is solid as the titular Max. One fan-theory suggested he was the mute kid from an earlier entry of the franchise and not the original Max, which was interesting in its own right and filled a lingering issue: "Why does Max barely speak and when he does it’s exceedingly awkward?" But ultimately that theory collapses under the weight of every other bit of evidence in the film. Besides, the more canon answer is a little more on brand: Max has spent so much time in the wastelands alone, he's starting to forget how to communicate with people.
Theron is a force as Furiosa, revitalizing her worthy career from languishing in a decade's worth of lack-luster entries. I absolutely love how Miller sticks with the angle that Max and Furiosa are survivalists first and would just as soon kill each other if it got them closer to their respective goals. There are no winners in the wasteland, only survivors.
And special nods to Hugh Keays-Byrne and Nicholas Hoult as Immortan Joe and Nux respectively. For Keays-Byrne it's difficult to emote such villany with a big contraption covering half your face (Hardy can attest to that), but he does it with gloriously sinister style. EDIT: And what an awesome call back his presence in the movie is! Something I just now discovered while researching for this write-up. Meanwhile Hoult is able to run the full hero's journey and take the audience with him while relegated to the outskirts of the main story.
Another of my favorite fan-theories is the main male leads are the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse: Immortan Joe is Pestilence. The People Eater is ironically Famine. The Bullet Farmer is unironically War. Which makes sense given they're the three main villains. But for the fourth horseman, it's none other than our famously reluctant protagonist Mad Max Rockatansky as Death. This really doesn't add anything imperative to the story other than highlighting the moral ambiguity of the characters, including our supposed hero, and generally making everything MORE METAL!
Yeah, MORE METAL. I'll take that. This flick rocks.
Speaking of beautifully insane.
M is for ...
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Was not a fan of any part of this franchise previously. But this one I dug hard. It is impossible to believe Miller wrapped up the original trilogy 30 years prior, made a few films about talking pigs and suburban witches in the meantime, then dropped this monster on us as though it had been in the works all along.
I have never known any director to take his own IP from decades earlier, and bring such a radically aggressive and fresh reimagining of it that I legit thought this was done by a hyper-hip indie auteur thirsty to make a splash in the Hollywood big leagues.
Instead, it’s Miller shaking the rust off his own creation and More Cowbelling the crap out of it.
The world-building on this thing is bonkers. The mythos and ethos are both ridiculously unreal, and plausibly functional. The cinematography is equal parts gorgeous and grotesque. The main narrative is streamlined into elegant simplicity, but the plot points surrounding it are dialed to 11 with intricacies and complex detail. Ordinarily the Rule of Cool is an excuse to ignore absurd leaps of logic, but in this case, the film-making is so superb, one can bask in both the craft and the cool.
This is also one of the few times the costume work and wardrobe stands out in my own personal sphere as being something I would label an integral part of the film's narrative and universe. And it is wicked in its scope and impact. This is a case study of custom design elevating a film a few notches.
Hardy is solid as the titular Max. One fan-theory suggested he was the mute kid from an earlier entry of the franchise and not the original Max, which was interesting in its own right and filled a lingering issue: "Why does Max barely speak and when he does it’s exceedingly awkward?" But ultimately that theory collapses under the weight of every other bit of evidence in the film. Besides, the more canon answer is a little more on brand: Max has spent so much time in the wastelands alone, he's starting to forget how to communicate with people.
Theron is a force as Furiosa, revitalizing her worthy career from languishing in a decade's worth of lack-luster entries. I absolutely love how Miller sticks with the angle that Max and Furiosa are survivalists first and would just as soon kill each other if it got them closer to their respective goals. There are no winners in the wasteland, only survivors.
And special nods to Hugh Keays-Byrne and Nicholas Hoult as Immortan Joe and Nux respectively. For Keays-Byrne it's difficult to emote such villany with a big contraption covering half your face (Hardy can attest to that), but he does it with gloriously sinister style. EDIT: And what an awesome call back his presence in the movie is! Something I just now discovered while researching for this write-up. Meanwhile Hoult is able to run the full hero's journey and take the audience with him while relegated to the outskirts of the main story.
Another of my favorite fan-theories is the main male leads are the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse: Immortan Joe is Pestilence. The People Eater is ironically Famine. The Bullet Farmer is unironically War. Which makes sense given they're the three main villains. But for the fourth horseman, it's none other than our famously reluctant protagonist Mad Max Rockatansky as Death. This really doesn't add anything imperative to the story other than highlighting the moral ambiguity of the characters, including our supposed hero, and generally making everything MORE METAL!
Yeah, MORE METAL. I'll take that. This flick rocks.
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