I had read some advice a few months ago in The A.V. Club to avoid any information about this film unless I was a Kaufman agnostic, which I am not, and so I studiously avoided any articles or trailers. I was aware the film was out but I really wanted to see 'The Witch' and so I thought I'd see this later if it was still on. When I arrived, however, the screening had been cancelled and I hurriedly picked up a ticket for this and sat down, not knowing what to expect.
It didn't take an awfully long time for me to get back into a Kaufman groove and I enjoyed Michael's uncomfortable moment on the plane at the beginning. I was very taken with how intricately made the sets were and charmed by the little details like the way the toilet paper was folded into a triangle in the hotel room. I like the slow pace and the awkwardness, and after Michael checked into the hotel I thought to myself, "that bellhop sounds an awful lot like the clerk." When Michael goes down to the hotel bar, it finally dawned on me: everyone apart from Michael has the same face and the same voice. This realisation, a little late though it may have been, had me smiling for the rest of the film. I don't know of anyone but Charlie Kaufman who would create something like this.
Despite the entire cast being made up of puppets, they're able to convey a tenderness and humanity that goes beyond what I can remember seeing in most films in the last few years. Lisa singing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun manages to be the most powerful moment in the film, making me feel embarrassed, amused and then achingly sad. David Thewlis' vocal performance grated on me enormously but the more I think about it, I don't think that Michael could have been voiced in any other way.
I've been thinking about this film almost constantly since I went to see it. I work in telephony-based customer service and the film explores many of the issues that I think about day-to-day. I look forward to being able to explore the depths of the film again but I don't think it'll settle anything - this will stay with me for a long time and there's nothing more I could ask for from a Kaufman film.
Very imaginative and with a very conscious message of what humanity is capable of, interpreting that through different meanings.
Snowpiercer is a film based on a French graphic novel called Le Transperceneige, and in this we follow the story of mankind, who lives aboard a large train, after a serious ecological problem that froze Planet Earth forever. Almost everyone in the world died frozen least the ones who boarded on the train, and past 18 years still travels a worldwide route and according to its inventor, Wilford, an engineer who predicted the fatal events, the train will never stop. If any of the passengers tries to leave, will freeze to death. The train is divided into several sections and social levels which can not mix with each other. In the last car of the train lives the lowest social class that sick of living in extreme poverty, found a plan to try to bring down Wilford's field who lives commanding everything that happens in the first train carriage. The main goal of the rebels is to reach Wilford and end inequality among all human beings.
Despite is unreal story this turns out to be a film with immense significance and to be able to appreciate the importance of the messages it wants to deliver we have to know first of all to analyze the meaning of all the moments that we think are out of place. For what at first sight may be out of context or not seems to make sense (due to the condition of the world and the people of the train) will make much sense anyway if we look beyond what we see.
The main reason why this film manages to be successful it may be the direction of the Korean Bong Joon-ho, who with this film makes his directorial debut in English language. Despite the language and the amount of known actors, we feel anyway the Asian cinema style very present throughout the film and that is very interesting.
The set design is absolutely magnificent! The way the carriages were designed are great, but when it comes to the image of the outside world leaves much to be desired. The CGI is very poor and all the frozen world seems very unreal.
Is full of bizarre characters and moments that break a little of the dark atmosphere in the story and this is great because it gives us spontaneous laughs from time to time, relieving its tension.
Chris Evans surprised me a lot! His performance is very emotional and managed to convince me of their intentions and feelings. His figure in the past few years is very attached to Captain America and during this film he made me forget about that. My favorite character is without a doubt Tilda Swinton's, extremely bizarre and unique, something she knows how to make and very good! The rest of the cast, with names such as John Hurt, Ed Harris, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer and Koreans Song Kang-ho and Ko Ah-sung were also good.
I believe this is the kind of film that grows on us after consecutive views. Is biggest problem may be is long duration. Although is quite entertaining for most of the time, because of its length, the final act ends up losing a little magic not having so much intensity and impact as it should have been.
Flaws aside, it's very good to see a different style in Hollywood and I am sure that this film will be the subject of constant analysis over the years, not only for is unique style but also for the messages it wants to pass.
Snowpiercer is a film that perfectly projects the type of stigma in society in general, the problem that has always existed and unfortunately still exists today between the different social classes.
