from heroin to back and beyond

Presenting to you, a one of a kind coming of age film in relation to drugs and staying sober – Trainspotting. There may not be a literal transition of young adolescents to adulthood, but in this film, Mark Renton takes viewers on a journey through his personal growth – from heroin to back and beyond.

In the first few scenes, I was a bit confused. Something seemed too familiar. It almost seemed like I was watching part two of Schizopolis. For the first thirty minutes, cinematography and dialogue wise, the two films were quite similar. The scene where Renton is swallowed up by a toliet just to retrieve his stash of opium and where he has vivid hallucinations in his room are just as weird, or considerably even weirder, as Elmo Oxygen and Fletcher Munson. Because of this, I was not as emotionally invested in the movie. However, after a few more minutes and less Schizopolis like scenes, I lent my full attention to one of Danny Boyle’s masterpieces.

Personally, I only started to fully understand the plot when Mark Renton escapes to London for a fresh start. Before this turning point, I looked at this film as something only Steven Soderbergh would come up with.

Instead of focusing on the technical aspects of getting clean, Trainspotting delves into the social aspects. It was also able to tackle a societal issue in the 90s – the AIDS epidemic. As mentioned above, director Danny Boyle was also able to portray Mark Renton’s journey as a sort of coming of age film – from an addict to someone who actually chose life.

Mark’s group of friends, Spud, Sick Boy, Begbie, and Tommy, all affected his life one way or the other – whether a drug addict or a violent psychopath. However, only Mark wakes up and finally realizes he has to stop wasting his time and start living. When he does start his new life in London, his group of friends come back to haunt him. They have no respect for his personal space and his decision to become free of drugs, crime, and violence. For a while, they drag him back to the world of heroin, but in the end, Mark still chooses life.

Mark’s monologue in the beginning and end gave me chills. At first, Mark was telling viewers to choose life, when he himself could not. Instead, he chose to live on drugs. However, in the end, he finally aimed to get the job, the family, the fucking big television, the washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electrical tin opener, and everything he ever dreamed of.

I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?
Mark Renton, Trainspotting (1996)

As the music played in the last scene, and might I say the film’s soundtrack was absolutely iconic for their generation, I felt very triumphant for Mark. He might have lost his friends and his source of happiness, but at least now, he can live to the fullest. When he was running and reciting his monologue, he knew he was on his way to living a normal life – off to discover what it means to be high on life.

king of all monsters

When we thought we had enough of monster movies, director Hideaki Anno decided to release another Japanese kaiju film starring Godzilla – a giant reptile who unleashes mass destruction on Japan. In the 31st installment of the Godzilla franchise, Shin Godzilla revolves around a community of government officials, army men, and scientists who work together to save Japan from the wrath of this ancient beast.

Because I watched Godzilla (2014) prior to this, I found myself comparing both movies. Here I was – watching the same monster, but through different perspectives. In Hideaki Anno’s film, Godzilla is seen as a massive threat to their country. However, in director Gareth Edwards’ version, Godzilla (2014) is seen as a savior against MUTOs or Massive Unidentified Terrestial Organisms. Shin Godzilla was also set solely in Japan, while Godzilla (2014) was set in different areas such as the Philippines, the United States, and of course, Japan. However, the most evident difference for me was that Shin Godzilla featured Japan’s government as its main protagonist.

In this film, viewers watch how the military, political figures, and scientists come together to deal with crisis management and damage control in light of Godzilla’s destruction. At the beginning, I was waiting for the main protagonists to be featured on screen, maybe a heroic soldier or a determined scientist, only to realize that the country’s best groups of people would serve as said protagonist. Because of this, everyone had to use their skill sets to defeat Godzilla. This element of Shin Godzilla set this film apart for other monster movies such as King Kong (2005), Godzilla (2014), and Rampage (2018) where set protagonists with evident background stories try to save their countries from destructive creatures.

Because of this, Shin Godzilla became more focused on plot rather than character development or background. Nobody knows who each character is outside of the destruction of Godzilla. There were no clear background stories. Instead, everyone was focused on saving Japan through government, military, and scientific means. There were no familial ties or love triangles – just a group of Japan’s brightest in time of crisis. At first, not being able to focus on a sole set of characters was very confusing. However, as the movie progressed, I found myself more invested in the plot rather than the characters.

This film was not only very political in a sense that it was able to show how a government acts in times of crisis, but it was also historical. Hideaki Anno was able to direct a film containing multiple easter eggs and connotations. He was able to showcase banter and conflict between the Japanese and Americans – which, honestly, made the film very amusing to watch.

Through this film, the relationship between Japan and America became clear – a big grudge over the United States and lack of forgiveness from the Japanese. In one way or another, there were scenes and important plot points that were able to mimic historical events. In the film, it is shown that America is responsible for dumping nuclear waste in Japan’s oceans – causing Godzilla to emerge. The United States also proposed that bombs be dropped on Godzilla. This only caused the monster to emit radiation and fire throughout the city – causing the prime minister and other important political figures to die. After this, the United States still wanted to drop nuclear bombs on Godzilla. Japan declined for they could not see another nuclear bomb destroy their country. Because of this, each Japanese official worked day and night to ensure their deep freeze plan would be a success. Even Kayoko Patterson, a Japanese-American who is daughter to US Senator Patterson, tried to buy time for countrymen for she could not bear the thought of another nuclear bombing.

Through these scenes, it was clear that Japan had not yet forgiven America for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings. Even in the film itself, America was the culprit once more for destruction unleashed on Japan. The fact that director Hideaki Anno integrated, and even explicitly mentioned this historical event in his feature film, speaks volumes on what the Japanese people truly feel about America.

The integration of both political and historical factors made Shin Godzilla more interesting than your typical monster movie. I was not only immersed due to plot and dialogue, but also by how past and present events were boldly featured in the fascinating franchise of Godzilla.

the weird yet wonderful world of schizopolis

From the beginning, I knew that Schizopolis would not be your average comedy. Just by hearing the title alone, I figured that I would be immersing myself in something weird yet wonderful. However, as soon as the last scene appeared, I realized describing director Steven Soderbergh’s 96 minute film as simply weird yet wonderful would be an understatement.

This film is definitely not be everyone’s cup of tea. At first glance, everything would appear to be complete nonsense – from the plot, script, characters, down to the opening scene. Some might even depict the director’s execution of these elements as mere garbage, but I am certain Soderbergh’s humorous scenes hold multiple underlying messages.

Besides the title, I was extremely intrigued by how the film was first introduced to its viewers. The opening scene of Schizopolis, a scene of Soderbergh himself introducing the film to his audience, was an unconventional way to begin a movie. In conventional films, interpretations are to be made by the viewers. However, in Schizopolis, our first impression is set in front of us. Soderbergh warns us that some scenes may be confusing – forcing us to watch the film repeatedly until we understand its elements. Because of how the opening scene was executed, I suddenly prepared myself for a bizarre comedy.

After the opening scene, one would expect the plot to unfold. However, for this film, there was no linear plot, but instead three separate acts. This is why, for the first 30 minutes of the film, I was very confused. It also did not help that some parts of the script were pure nonsense and camera shots were shaky. The plot only became clearer to me when both main characters, Fletcher Munson and doppleganger Dr. Jeffrey Korchek, appeared in the same shot. However, even when the two narratives were starting to make sense, one did not. The plot of Elmo Oxygen, an exterminator who preys on lonely housewives, seemed insignificant to me. Personally, I felt like his narrative could have been more integrated with both Munson and Korchek’s.

Without the right characters, Soderbergh’s plot execution would not have came about. In this film, I thoroughly enjoyed everyone’s performance. Every actor and actress brought a weirdly enjoyable dynamic to the film. Through their acting, I was able to feel secondhand embarrassment for certain scenes such as Munson’s one to two minute scene of him making different faces in front of the mirror. Since Munson had a doppleganger, it came to a point where Soderbergh had to take on two roles – switching up his personality. Through the use of the same characters and a non linear plot, the film became even more confusing. However, what I loved the most about the characters was that each of them heard their fellow peers differently to some extent – highlighting the different perspectives of the world around them.

Lastly, my favorite element of this film was its script. Throughout the whole movie, I found myself laughing wholeheartedly at how witty the lines were written and delivered. There was this one scene in particular that I was so invested in – the scene between Munson and his wife where scriptwriters replace generic dialogue for that certain situation with literal “generic dialogue”. As I was watching this scene, all I could think about was how accurate these dialogues were in comparison to real life situations. We just string together different words to describe how we are feeling. However, we follow the same formula for a certain situation. When the script was absolute nonsense, such as the first scene of Elmo and a lonely housewife, I would try to decipher the meaning behind their conversations, but eventually gave up. In conclusion, the way the script was written reminded me of meme videos – absolute nonsense yet weirdly entertaining.

Schizopolis is not the kind of film you would expect from the director of the well known Ocean’s trilogy. In fact, it is the complete opposite. This film is filled with pure comedy and satire. It leaves you confused and longing for more. Because of its bizarre plot, script, characters, and scenes, Schizopolis ranks number one on my list of weird yet wonderful films.