Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...

Copernicus is one of AICN’s oldest friends and spies, and it’s awesome to hear from him anytime he finds a moment to write in... especially when it’s from a festival as cool as Toronto. Check this out:

Lila dit ca (Lila Says)

My head is buzzing. My wallet is barren. My loins are agitated. But boy do I have a smile on my face! I just stumbled home from a bachelor party. My moral compass is as broken as the trail of laws left in my wake. Despite the wonders I saw, and my oh my there were wondrous things, I witnessed one thing this weekend that was both sexier and more shocking: Lila dit ca (Lila Says).

Doueiri was assistant cameraman for Quentin Tarantino, and he seems to have learned a few things from him: the placement of the camera, the power of the soliloquy, and the force of a certain word in the English language.Lila dit ca opens with a shot of the troublingly sexy 16 year old Lila (Vahina Giacante) on a playground, talking to a neighborhood boy and narrator of the movie, Chimo (Mohammed Khouas).

"Look at my hair… so blond. A perfect blond. My grandmother says that it is from ancient genes - hair this blond has not been seen in 5 generations. And my skin, so perfect… like the skin of an angel."

Those lines I am paraphrasing, but the next line I am not.

"Do you want to see my pussy?"

Now that is how to start a movie! And that is only the beginning.

Lila and her aunt have just moved to an Arab ghetto (presumably in Paris), where she quickly becomes a fixation for a gang of wayward young punks led by Mouloud (Karim Benhadou). Chimo shiftlessly drifts through life with the gang - harassed by the cops, continually poor, fighting with his single mother. But when Lila directs her flirtations at him, Chimo's world really goes off the rails. He has no idea whether he is a pawn in some game she is playing, a passing distraction, or something more. To make matters worse, Mouloud is obsessed with Lila, and his suspicion that she is secretly flirting with Chimo is escalating to rage.

Chimo's story is the core of the movie. However, the most interesting character, Lila, is the one driving the plot, and every minute she is onscreen is transcendent. In fact, Lila is so fantastic a character she seems transplanted straight from the realm of the gods right down to earth. But is she an angel or a siren? Her mythic stature gives the movie a Shakespearean edge, though only in tone - thankfully not in language or pacing. Though there is symbolism, and meaningful themes are explored, the movie never feels pedantic. The film is at once titillating and intellectual, a mix which keeps you interested, but ultimately gives you something to talk about. In that way, it is supremely French, possibly too French for American audiences, but just about perfect in my book.

As you might expect given his background, Doueiri makes amazing use of the camera. He seems to know exactly where to place it to make a statement without resorting to over the top trickery that would distract from the plot. There is one scene with two characters on a moped that is wonderfully dynamic but somehow also so intimate. His uses music just as adeptly, mixing in a Euro-techno-pop soundtrack that helps to set the mood and keep things bouncing. Given that this is essentially a movie about two or three characters, you might expect that it could be done as a play. But in actuality, the story would not work at all in that context. It is Doueiri's craftsmanship as a filmmaker that transforms what could be just an interesting, well written story into a complete cinematic experience.

It’s always such a pleasure to hear from you, Copernicus. I would imagine GHOST IN THE SHELL 2 to be right up your alley. Was it?

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

I saw the first Ghost in the Shell at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, beer (and more!) in hand, surrounded by rabid anime fans. It is hard to beat that experience, but the prospect of seeing Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence as the lead-off Midnight Madness screening of the 2004 Toronto Film Festival had my geek anticipatometer set to full-on orgy strength. You can’t get “a glass of beer” but what these screenings lack in alcohol they almost make up for in sheer numbers of frenzied diehard geeks – 1300 strong.

The plot: set in a universe of androids, cyborgs, and mechanical dolls, nearly every human in 2032 is machine-augmented. Batou is a cyborg investigator trying our a new mostly-human partner, Togusa. Fans of the original will remember that Batou’s original partner, The Major, pulled a Wesley and disappeared after achieving a higher state of consciousness. Batou and Togusa must investigate a string of murder-suicides by sex dolls, as Batou struggles to retain traces of his slowly disappearing humanity.

Unfortunately, it isn’t the kind of film that is going to bring howls of delight at furious gunplay punctuated by spectacular eviscerations. The pacing and look of the film are more like Blade Runner – deliberate, philosophical, and so wonderfully crafted that you believe that that universe truly exists in some reality. Every technical detail is perfectly executed – the backgrounds are rendered, rather than drawn, but the characters are traditional, but gloriously drawn, 2d animation. This is an odd choice that can at times take you out of the film, but it allows it to have all of the beauty of Final Fantasy without the creepiness of not-quite-human rendered characters. The music, by Kenji Kawai, and sound by Randy Thom are equally magnificent and help to establish one of the most immersive films in recent memory.

I truly enjoyed Ghost in the Shell 2, but I did have some pretty huge reservations, and this balance between being impressed and disappointed seemed to be shared by most at the screening. Only once, after a particularly spectacular duel, did I hear a fan behind me say “Now that’s what I came here to see!” He said it expressing disappointment as much as glee, sad that up until that point the characters were mostly droning on and on with their armchair philosophy. The protagonists are very well fleshed out, but they have an annoying habit of repeating quotations to each other and debating the meaning of human existence. A little of this would be interesting, but at the dosage we get it is nearly narcoleptic. Cut 2/3 of the pontification and add in another couple of action scenes and Ghost in the Shell 2 would have been absolute perfections. Instead, it is an interesting, if fatally flawed, trip into a spectacular universe.

One more thing: the plot actually gets fairly complex, so if you are going in super-baked you will be a bit confused. But hey visuals like this are just asking for some reality augmentation. So here is my drug-user’s guide to Ghost in the Shell 2:

Weed: stay away, man, you will fall asleep and not understand a thing.

Mushrooms: I predict a mind-blowing good time

Alcohol: Fun if you can’t get the above, but you might get rowdy and scream for more action.

Cocaine: Man if you’ve got some blow, what are you doing at a screeing full of geeks – go pick up some strippers!

This is exactly why I miss you, man. Nice work on both, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the fest.

"Moriarty" out.