My Favourite Films - School of Rock (2003)

First let me talk about my history with this film. In 2003 when I was 8 years old my dad went to take me and my sister to see this film in cinemas, and that Monday when I went to school, everyone was talking about it. And over the next 10 years, this was the iconic film that every kid knew and loved. Whenever there was a film being shown at school, didn’t matter which class, it was always School of Rock, except for science which showed us the most scientifically inaccurate films like Volcano or The Core (Very odd, I know). So yeah, point is, I have kind of a history with this film. And while granted that element of being a childhood classic in my books certainly has an effect on my reflection of this film, I don’t think that means it’s without merit. Don’t get me wrong there is plenty of stuff in my childhood that to this day I love to death even though it’s really dumb and bad, but the thing is, I know it’s dumb and bad. I’m always going to love Pokémon but I’m not going to pretend the show holds up very well. So I’d like to think that provides me with some sort of immunity to nostalgia goggles, obviously not completely, after all it’s kind of impossible to separate a childhood classic and analytical mindset. If something had a positive impact on your childhood and influenced you in someway, that is a grip you can never free yourself from. With that being said let’s dive into this film.

School of Rock follows the story of a wannabee rocker Dewey Finn desperately looking for money so he poses as a substitute teacher, gets hired at a prep school and once he learns the kids are musically talented, forms a rock n roll band, keeping it a secret from the school, the kid’s parents and his best friend, the actual substitute teacher. Yeah, kind of a ridiculous premise but Richard Linklater, the director has always kind of been an experimental filmmaker. Dazed & Confused, Before Sunset, A Scanner Darkly & Boyhood are all unusual premises for films and you question if they could actually be made to work but Linklater always finds a way (For the most part). And in this film’s case he pulls it off like the expert he is, finding the perfect tone for a film like this and with a witty script by Mike White filled with great dialogue that is both funny and also finds a way to make this scenario believable, with likeable characters and good pacing, the film manages to find that suspension of disbelief that you so badly need with a premise like this in order for it to work in the first place.

However a great script and great direction mean nothing without a great lead, and in my opinion this is still Jack Black’s best role yet. True he has technically had more challenging roles that show his skills as an actor, as well as funnier roles that highlight his comedic side as well as roles that better showcase his musical talent. This is the role that fully embraces that kind of zany, kind of dumb, kind of charming rock n roll nut that gave Black the identity he’s best known for. Like Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire, Michael J Fox in Back to the Future or Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze in Point Break, the movie just does not work without him and no one else could ever play the role as perfectly as him.

But his character actually has more depth to him than you might think on a basic level. There’s a lot to be debated over what we should be teaching our kids and how we should be teaching them, but something that a lot of people have been debating over the years is that it’s more important to teach kids ideas and ways of expression over factoids that will most likely prove to be useless to them in the future, e.g. how many people don’t really need or care that the Mitochondria is the power house of the cell. Now obviously this is a topic with a lot of ground and what ifs that need to be covered and I am severely under-qualified to take part in it, but the basic ideas that we should be helping teach kids more about how to function as people is more useful than knowing about the Battle of Hastings is not a sentiment I disagree with. Thus here we have a character who-through very questionable, but successful methods-is able to help these kids with their issues, find a healthy form of self-expression, teach them new skills and overall make them more confident and happy as people. He teaches Zack the lead guitarist to stand up for himself and not let his parents control him, he gives Lawrence a sense of self-confidence, shows Freddy an outlet to express himself without resorting to bullying, helps Tomika get over her body issues. Even in some smaller cases his actions can mean a lot, when the obviously gay kid Billy (Who Dewey nickname’s ‘Fancy Pants’) says he wants to be the band’s stylist, Dewey doesn’t make any kind of a gay joke or even reference that that’s a non-confirmative gender role, he just says “You got it fancy pants” because this character is all about having the confidence to express yourself in whatever way makes you feel good as long as it’s healthy, of course he wouldn’t draw attention to this or mock him for it, and in the long run that would probably help that boy a lot. So yeah, Dewey Finn, he might not teach you things like maths or science, but damn if he doesn’t help make you a better person.

By the way just as a small note, how lucky were they to end up with this many good child actors? I mean true most of them don’t have that many lines of dialogue outside of the main band and Summer, played by future Nickelodeon star Miranda Cosgrove. But one of the unwritten rules of Hollywood is never work with animals or kids because it’s near impossible to get a good performance, but this film had the challenge of casting over a dozen kids, all of which looked roughly the same age, half a dozen of which had to be musically gifted and fit the physical criteria in some cases with very specific ethnicities, body types or personalities.

But hey, this is a film about Rock N Roll so how does it hold up on that end? Kinda brilliant. This was certainly one of those films that had a big influence on my own personal taste in music and to this day I’ve always felt my music preferences can be summed up in two genres, classic rock and Disney songs. So while this film did introduce me to a lot of great music, it also works as a great critical analysis on the genre. Dewey even has a great scene talking about the origins and intentions of what rock n roll is supposed to be and how while it is certainly a genre based around rebellion, it’s not so much rebelling to hurt the oppressor, but to uplift oneself, make you not feel ashamed of liking what you like and not letting anyone get you down for it. The film even subtly takes jabs at bad rock n roll, the band’s main rival for the battle of the bands competition and winner of the show-to which everyone thinks didn’t deserve it-was a cheesy rock n roll ballad with pretentious nonsensical lyrics meant to appeal to the mass audience with little artistic integrity. Which is interesting considering the film itself doesn’t make this observation, you just have to listen to the song and understand the intention given the context, so yeah, the film intentionally made a “So bad it’s good” song, which I didn’t think was possible.

What else needs to be said? This is one of those lightning in the bottle films where all the right people came together to make a truly outstanding film, perfect casting, perfect directing, perfect music, absolutely one of the best.

-Danny

My Favourite Films - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

You know when most people discuss their favourite films it’s important to set a precedence of what exactly their preferred type of movie is. Honestly I can’t think of a better example than an action/sci-fi/comedy adaptation of a popular children’s franchise set in the dark grimy underbelly of New York City with a heavy focus on distinct characters and their interpersonal relationships…Yeah that pretty much sums it up.

The Ninja Turtles franchise is one of those that I have always loved as a child, and while granted everyone likes bickering over which one the best adaptation is and usually their arguments can be summed up with “This one’s the best because it’s the one I grew up with” Which…yeah that goes true for me. But thing is I didn’t actually grow up on the live-action movie, I watched it once when I was 4, completely forgot about it and didn’t see it again until I was 17 and you know what? It’s a damn good movie and possibly the best adaptation of the Ninja Turtles franchise, or at the very least, the first good one.

While the original comic book works fine as a satirical take on the gritty comic books of the bronze age and one can appreciate the low budget indie becoming a massive success in a pre-internet era surviving just off of word of mouth, the comic itself…is just kinda okay by today’s standards. While the comic thrives as a satire, where it falters is in it’s own story and characters, by which I mean there is basically none, hell you can’t even tell the turtles apart, through writing or artwork. While the animated series, though still the most popular adaptation of the turtles I maintain is one of the worst. Again, I respect it for bringing the turtles into the limelight and without it the franchise would not be what it is today. But from a technical standpoint the show has horribly cheap animation, very poor writing and I’m just gonna say it, the voice-acting is pretty bad as well, yes most of the cast are voice-acting icons and have most definitely gone on to do better work, for this series it felt like none of them were providing their A-Game. Hell Rob Paulsen, the voice of Raphael would go on to play Donatello in the Nickelodeon animated series and he's 100x better there.

So when approaching this adaptation what do the filmmakers go for? Do they stick to the dark satirical nature of the source material or do they make it goofy and comedic to be closer to the more popular version of the time? Somehow, they found a way to be both. The film is shot with a very dirty and dark style to match the comic but also has plenty of comedic and almost cartoonish moments much like the animated series and it never feels forced or inappropriate, the story is dark where it needs to be and silly when it needs to be. To this day I still think no other adaptation has met the perfect blend, they’ve always gone either too dark or too wacky, to be able to maintain a tonal balance that well shows true talent. But it does more than find the perfect tone for the franchise, it also helps with the protagonists’ characterization. True while the original cartoon did most of the groundwork for Michelangelo and Donatello, Leonardo & Raphael never had much going for them. Raph played practically the same role as Mikey, just with a bit more of a sarcastic edge and Leo was…the leader. This film gave them much more of an identity, Raph became the aggressive and over-emotional hothead but with a caring heart deep down who would protect his family no matter what and Leo was the blind follower of Splinter dealing with his own insecurities as a leader without him. Almost every adaptation of the Turtles since have had these two constantly at conflict and this is the product that started that. So yeah, what we have here is an adaptation that not only perfects aspects of the franchise but also reshapes others and makes them even better, how often does that happen? Not very.

But hey it’s one thing to be a great adaptation, how does it stand as it’s own film? Well it’s still kind of a technical marvel. The costume work on the turtles themselves are outstanding, getting believable look suits to be this expressive and flexible when just walking and talking is impressive enough but the fight scenes could go down as some of the best in cinema history. Now it’s no Jackie Chan martial arts fight, but then again Jackie Chan didn’t have to wear a 60lbs body suit in every single scene, again one cannot underestimate how impressive it is that they got them this good. And all credit goes towards Jim Henson and his crew, because when you want impressive suit and puppet work you go to the master himself, and it just stands to reason how important his crew was because seeing as he didn’t work on any other live action turtles product, with every future instalment the suits would look worse and worse.

And like I said, the gritty viewpoint of the film with everything looking dirty, smoggy and dark goes great with the tone of the source material and shows the filmmakers really did understand the property and gives the film a unique style seeing as you don’t usually get kids’ movies looking this bleakly stylized outside of a Don Bluth film. And you know what makes all of this even more impressive? The fact that this was an independent movie. Yeah it’s kind of hard to believe that even during a time period where the Turtles were at their peak of popularity, Hollywood didn’t want to cash in on that so they made it independently. Not only is this again fitting considering the origins of the turtles, but it means this was truly a passion project and you can see where all of the effort was placed and they knew what the focus should be. It also means that you can be a little more forgiving of some of the technical issues, speaking of…

…Yeah this is why I say you shouldn’t expect films on this series to be cinematic marvels because if we’re being honest there are some very obvious production issues with this film. Mostly with the script, it is a very basic story and a lot of it doesn’t make sense. Shredder is recruiting kids in the city to steal random junk…because? In fact it makes even less sense considering Shredder has an army of ninjas at his beck and call, why not use them? Actually everything about the Shredder is kind of awful, from his look, to his plan, to how he was beaten. Also you can tell where they cut corners, some scenes seem poorly lit even considering the style, other times the cinematography looks cheap and the plot itself leaves much to be desired.

But like I said, the film knows where the focus should be and it’s on the turtles, like any good Ninja Turtles product. Also while the script has its flaws it doesn’t make it bad, especially in the dialogue, it’s charming, each character has a distinct voice even outside the turtles and that one joke from the cabbie makes me laugh every time.

Also the ranch scene is in my eyes still done brilliantly, an entire sequence where the movie just slows down and allows for a lot of character building and emotional pay-offs that you don’t really see enough of. Sure there are plenty of kids films that will slow down to have an emotional moment but it’s often too short to have an effect or it’s just not earned. This film earns the emotional payoff and is possibly the strongest moment in the film. And just as a final note the music itself is kinda great too. Partners in Kryme is a fun hip-hop song which helped form the musical identity between this genre and the Turtles franchise that would be continued (For better or worse) with Vanilla Ice, Juicy J, Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla Sign, Sebastian Evans II and Stanley Martinez. And the score by John Du Prez is has a nice upbeat tone that fits the usual style established from the cartoon but honestly the track 'All Fathers Care For Their Sons' is pretty beautiful and feels more like something out of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

So to sum it up, this film to me is a perfect adaptation of a franchise that at this point was yet to have a good product in it’s name and opened the doors for great adaptations in the future. From a technical aspect the effects are impressive, the script charming-if flawed-and with so much talent and passion behind it, how can I not considering it one of my favourite films?

-Danny

My Favourite Films - Introduction

Sort of a spin-off of ‘My Favourite Characters’ series, pretty self-explanatory that this will be me discussing some of my favourite movies of all time. Now something that I should make clear, as I am writing this, none of the movies discussed are currently one of my “all-time” favourite movies. Meaning if I were to publish my top 20 favourite films, none of these would be on it. Yes, granted this can change with time but as of right now, that is how I feel. They just happen to be movies I love, have watched multiple times, in some cases they’re obvious picks (Films such as Shawshank Redemption would be applicable for the series) and others they might not be as obvious or praised for their technical achievements or critical acclaim, but for purely subjective reasons I love them. Which is also why the first film to be talked about in this series is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). See ya tomorrow.

-Danny

My Favourite Characters - Vinsmoke Sanji

Yeah I’m still on One Piece because I went so long without wanting to talk about it I’m making up for lost time by really wanting to talk about it. So let’s milk this by talking about my second favourite crew member: Vinsmoke Sanji. And yes I say second because of course Luffy is first no question. But when it comes to the crew of the Straw Hat Pirates, none of them have has had as much development, layers and consistency in their writing than Sanji. I say that because while I love everyone else there are certain traits of their character that varies depending on what the plot needs. Zoro has a horrible sense of direction except when the plot needs him to be somewhere right now, Usopp is a coward that is sometimes brave in adversity but goes back to being a coward again in much easier scenarios, Franky can do pretty much anything so Oda introduced a ‘cola feature’ so he can do pretty much anything…except when they don’t want him to.

Sanji on the other hand has a fixed list of character traits that he rarely wavers from, he’s a suave perverted chef who only fights with his feet. He has a list of rules that he abides by and has a dream that he wants to achieve but it’s also one he can’t really make any active progression towards so it’s not so much an active plot thread as it is a cross off the checklist of ‘Straw Hat Crewmember shared traits’. And like most of his crewmates a lot of this comes from his backstory (Or backstories now) without the lesson being shoved down our throats. After all, Zoro’s goals and values were literally spelt out at the end of his flashback while Sanji, though not subtly done by any means, expects the audience to understand why he behaves in certain ways given his past experiences.

So let’s take a look at those rules he abides by. Number One: He never lets anyone go hungry. This is one of the earliest established aspects of his character, not only is he a great chef but he will always cook someone a meal even if their unable to pay or if they’re a bad guy. The reason why is one of those not-subtle but also not spelled out moments I mentioned earlier. Back when Sanji was a child he was stranded on a giant rock in the middle of the ocean and nearly starved to death, because of this, Sanji knows hunger better than anyone and doesn’t want anyone to experience the same kind of pain, regardless of their prior actions. Also considering his mentor and father figure Zeff was also on this rock and whatever food they did have he gave to Sanji, also taught him compassion and kindness, another reasoning to why he will help pretty much anyone in need.

Even just the fact that he’s a chef tells us so much about his character, yes he’s a great cook but seeing how far he takes it and how passionate he is makes it such a more fascinating character trait than it usually is for characters. Sanji treats cooking like it’s an art form, the perfect elements coming to together to create something stimulating for the senses, no matter how much time and effort has to go into it. Likewise, he respects anyone who would put their passion into cooking and even if the food itself doesn’t meet his standards he still respects them as an equal for trying. The opposite is also true, anytime people disrespects food for both the effort put into it but also the necessity of it instantly becomes an enemy in his book. This is especially true in one of the recent chapters where his obnoxious and arrogantly privileged brother throws a plate of food on the floor and Sanji berates him both wasting food that thousands of people don’t have access too, but also for insulting the chef who spent hours making it.

Then of course there’s the aspect he’s best known for, his love of women. Yes, this is one of Sanji’s more…abrasive elements to a lot of fans, they think his perverted nature is taken too far and often crosses the line of being comedic to downright creepy. This is a thought pattern I don’t disagree with and I will say this is the only case where he can fluctuate, sometimes he can’t keep his cool when in front of a woman, other times he’s as cool as a cucumber, again it all comes back to what the plot demands. But still even there’s a lot about his character than can be analysed from this, not necessarily his perverted nature but his admiration for women in general.

Sanji has said multiple times that he would never hit a woman even if his life depended on it and how he’ll always forgive them for their lies. Part of this might come from his sister Reiju, who despite also mocking him and berating him like the rest of his family, she also took care of him and apologised for her behaviour in private, making her the only person in Sanji’s childhood to show him some compassion. For nothing else Sanji has always shown that he would go to extreme lengths to repay a debt, Zeff saves his life so Sanji dedicated it to helping him until Zeff says otherwise, Reiju shows him compassion so he in return treats every woman like a goddess, not unreasonable to make that assumption.

What makes Sanji (And most of the Straw Hat Crew) interesting is seeing how far they can be pushed and whether or not the antagonist can get them to cross that line. For Sanji this line would be having to take on a master assassin and nearly be killed because he didn’t fight back cause the assassin was female. Now some might argue that works against the character, if he never breaks that rule then how can there be conflict? How do you prevent the character from seeming stale? To that I say: Shut Up. One Piece is not a story about characters changed by the world, it’s the world changed by the characters. For this small crew to look everyone else dead in the eye and shout “No, you move”. Because Sanji doesn’t need to break his rules in order to succeed, he’ll find another way, and that other way is one of the major themes of One Piece, trusting in your crew, hoping they can pick up the slack in areas where you falter and you do the same for them in return. And in the case of One Piece Sanji is one of the most important crew members in that sense, he’s a badass fighter, he keeps everyone healthy, he’s optimistic but also brutally honest and he’s a man that sticks to his word and given the right circumstances will always show you sympathy. Of course someone like that would turn out to be one of my favourite characters.

-Danny

One Piece is Good Again, Hallelujah

Being a fan of something for over 12 years can have a lot of drawbacks. The worst one being when the story goes bad, I can’t drop it because I’ve invested so much time and want to know what happens. But I also can’t skip it because I’m sure I’ll miss some very important story points in the long run. This has been my quarrel with One Piece for the past 5 years.

In 2011 One Piece did a 2-year time skip in the story and though conceptually it was a good idea, the stories for some reason have not being good because of it with no clear reason why. They don’t suck because of the time skip; they just happen to suck after the time skip happened. In those 5 years we have had 4 arcs, the first one ‘Fishman Island’ is the only one that I can say suffered because of the time skip, the characters became too powerful that the antagonists weren’t threatening and there was so much time spent developing the Fishman Island and culture when really why should we care about a temporary setting? The second arc ‘Punk Hazard’ suffers from a similar issue of a bad villain, but also the fact it turned out to be one giant set up arc for the next arc. ‘Dressrosa’ which might be the worst arc in One Piece history, with half the main characters missing, too much time spent with characters we don’t care about, awful pacing even by One Piece standards and for taking 2 fucking years to finish. Really at that point, nothing else matters, no story would be interesting if it lasted for 2 years.

Then most recently there was the ‘Zou Arc’ which the anime is currently going through and I hesitate to even call this an arc because of how short it was and was just set-up for the next (and current) arc in the manga. But I consider that a good thing, the Zou Arc only lasted for 20 chapters in the manga, while Punk Hazard? 45! So already a considerable achievement.

This brings us to the current arc in the story, ‘Totto Land’ which over 20 chapters in and I am loving it. So what makes this arc work better than the others? The biggest reason is simply it revolves around the crew! Not the whole crew mind you, but the crew. The story follows Sanji being forced to leave the crew to fulfil a duty to his family, who turn out to be royal elitists with serious Nazi parallels…so you can see why Sanji chose to keep this a secret. They’ve even gone as far to say is Sanji doesn’t marry a woman they’ve picked out from another royal family they’ll blow off his hands and kill someone he loves.

Like I said, all of the other arcs didn’t really revolve around the crew, but rather they go to an island, things happen there and they get roped into it somehow, and we don’t care about this random countries politics! We don’t care about this temporary character’s tragic backstory! Yes those are all nice developments to flesh out the story but at its core the story should revolve around the Straw Hat Crew! They are our main characters! If they’re only involved on behalf of someone else then why should anything that happens matter?

This is where this arc shines, Sanji has always been one of the best and most well rounded characters in One Piece, so seeing the origin of a lot of his beliefs and mannerisms is interesting to watch. Though really wasn’t his backstory of nearly starving to death tragic enough? Did you have to throw in an abusive family? I mean it works and is so far the best thing about the story, I’m just saying. Sanji’s relationship with his family is so well defined at this point that I want to see where it’s going, every week I’m excited for new developments. And even though we’re only 20 chapters in, it feels like we’ve covered a lot of ground, I’d guess we’re 1/3 if not 1/2 through the story by now.

Then there are just the bonuses of Oda throwing in references to other famous works, such as Alice in Wonderland, The Man in the Iron Mask and like I already said, Nazism. Not only does it give the story more of a visual flare but the fact that we can connect it actually fleshes out the story better than exposition would. I could spend an entire blog post explaining why the Vinsmoke family is evil and how their system works, or I could just say: They’re like Nazis. Boom, in those 3 words you understand everything you need to about how the Vinsmoke family works, what their goals are and how they function.

So, to go over why this story works so much better than all the other post-time skip stories: Story revolves around a main character, better paced and is a nice pastiche to other works and real life events.

So where can they go from here? The build-up has been great, what can they do for the payoff? In my opinion one of three things (If not all three) need to happen to get the emotional resolution we could want as well as for more character development. It’s established Sanji hates and quite possibly fears his family and they in return thing he is pathetic and useless. So what I would like to see if Sanji’s brothers insult and torment him and he’s too afraid or injured to fight back, then one of the Straw Hat crewmembers comes in and saves him, but who would it be? I feel it has to be either Nami or Zoro who comes to defend him. Yes, Zoro isn’t on the island but I would completely buy that he got so lost on his way to Wano he ended up in a different country. But the reason why I feel it has to be one of these two is because they are yet to show their full care for Sanji. If Luffy shows up and defends him then of course he’ll do that, he’s always been open about how much he loves Sanji like he loves all of his crew.

Nami & Zoro have never expressed any sympathy or concern for Sanji, even though we know they do care and would defend him at the cost of their lives, how great would it be to see them stick up for him? To assure him that he is strong and useful? So see them kick the shit out of the Vinsmoke family because they hurt their Nakama. It would be a new development for their characters and would strengthen the relationship between them. Then Sanji could go kick the shit out of his dad because…that would be awesome to see.

But still, I do hope this story ends as great as it started off and it is so…so freaking great to say One Piece is good again. It’s been so long since I’ve felt this way that it makes me so happy that a franchise I have this much love for I can actually enjoy once more.

-Danny