Knight at the Movies Archives
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This year's biggest entry in the fantasy film sweepstakes arrives, Jessica Yu's offbeat documentary focuses on men behaving
extremely
extremely
Lyra Belacqua is the unlikely name for the heroine of a wildly popular adventure-fantasy book series for tweens. Now 12 year-old
Lyra (personified on screen by Dakota Blue Richards sporting corkscrew red curls and plenty of sass) has come to the screen in an
adaptation of the first of these three books, The Golden Compass. New Line Cinema, the studio that so successfully bet the
house and won big time with the Lord of the Rings trilogy is hoping to do so again. This time, however, they want both kids and
adults in tow, hoping that plenty of that Harry Potter magic will rub off on them. It didn’t quite work for Lemony Snickets, another
fantasy adventure book series brought to the movies a few years back (though the film boasts eye popping visual panache) but
based on this first outing New Line should get their wish – as Compass certainly plays like a pint sized version of Lord of the Rings.
Fantasy is one of my favorite movie genres (The Wizard of Oz remains at the top of my list) but the return of the fantasy film genre
has coincided with the rise of special effects technology and the insistence by Hollywood on explaining how each and every effect is
created. The advances in special effects are indeed dazzling but have become so familiar that by now we know that Nicole Kidman’s
vicious monkey (her character’s familiar) in Compass isn’t really there when it’s attacking Lyra’s little kitty cat familiar and that the cat
isn’t there either. The awareness that the on screen magic is being created by a horde of computer operators has had the
unfortunate effect of dulling the magic integral to fantasy films. And Compass, with so many characters and effects utilizing the
technique, suffers for it.
It also doesn’t help that Compass plops us with a thud into a world with the metaphorical thickness of the Dune series – a parallel
universe made up of words and cultures of many vowels and confusing subterfuge about the “dust” that connects all the different
lands (remember Kyle MacLachlan and cast mates musing about “the spice” in Dune – same thing here). You’re still getting your
bearings in this linguistic stew before the chase is afoot. Basically, the plot boils down to this: the bad characters, in allegiance to an
all controlling, pseudo religious conservative institution called the Magisterium want what Kyra the orphan has, the coveted compass
or “alethiometer” which is dangerous because its power could bring down the fear mongering Magisterium and, naturally, these bad
eggs will stop at nothing to get it.
The baddies send out the beautiful but phony/nice Mrs. Coulter (Kidman) to take charge. (Was it on purpose that Kidman’s
character was named after the love goddess of conservatives, real life witch Ann Coulter?) Mrs. Coulter, firm, chic and authoritative,
dazzles Lyra whose protective adventurer uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) has gone off to work on his experiments to prove that dust
is real. Lyra has successfully saved him from poisoning by a smarmy member of the Magisterium (Simon McBurney) in the first
moments of the film but now he’s out of the picture and there’s no stopping Mrs. Coulter and company from swooping in to get the
compass. Kidman uses the gasping for air voice that she effected in The Others, looks stunning in the exquisite fashions, certainly
relishes the part, and whatever she’s done to her face works in tandem with the enormous vanity one would guess the character
would have (it was the opposite story in Margot at the Wedding).
Meanwhile, Lyra, as it turns out, has friends she doesn’t know about who are also eager to protect her and to make sure the
prophecy about “the child” (or “the one” or “the girl with the red corkscrew curls”) gets fulfilled. This resistance is made up of a
group called the Gyptians, armored polar bears (one of whom is voiced by Sir Ian MacKellen, another by Ian McShane), a white
haired, bewhiskered Texan aeronaut (Sam Elliott), and flying witches led by Eva Green as their queen. The bears are named Iorek
Byrnison and Ragnar Sturlusson, Lyra’s familiar Pantalaimon, the witch queen Serafina Pekkala, and your friendly movie reviewer
Confusion Reigns.
It does eventually all sort of make sense as the picture moves towards the end of part one and little Lyra, a latter day Dorothy and
her band of miscasts will surely be back for a second go round offering further clarification. I’m not really vested in the characters or
their outcome yet (maybe part two will ensnare me) and don’t care a whit about the controversy over the series’ supposed anti-
religious allegories. But the movie’s starry cast, sumptuous design (New Line has spared no expense), Alexandre Desplat’s
gorgeous score (topped off by Kate Bush singing “Lyra,” her new composition for the film over the end credits), lickety-split running
time, and love of fantasy in general, pointed The Golden Compass toward the winner’s circle for me.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jessica Yu, who made the fascinating documentary In the Realm of the Senses about Chicagoan outsider artist Henry Darger is now two
for two with her new film, Protagonist. It’s about four men – a former ex-gay evangelist, a Mexican bank robber, a Kung Fu
fanatic, and a German political terrorist – each compelling in their honesty whose only connection is their individual battles with
extreme behavior. Yu uses excerpts from the ancient Greek plays of Euripides as her thematic template for the film and in an
interesting device has dramatic moments from her subjects’ lives reinterpreted with puppets in the style of ancient Greek theatre.
The link between the puppets and the men – who are all forceful personalities – isn’t clear at first but slowly comes into focus. The
journey of these four individuals who each represent how men (gay and straight) can easily be emotionally screwed up by society’s
rigid ideals of masculinity is a fascinating one. Yu’s little explored subject matter and her offbeat, contemplative approach makes
Protagonist worth contemplation itself.
Lyra (personified on screen by Dakota Blue Richards sporting corkscrew red curls and plenty of sass) has come to the screen in an
adaptation of the first of these three books, The Golden Compass. New Line Cinema, the studio that so successfully bet the
house and won big time with the Lord of the Rings trilogy is hoping to do so again. This time, however, they want both kids and
adults in tow, hoping that plenty of that Harry Potter magic will rub off on them. It didn’t quite work for Lemony Snickets, another
fantasy adventure book series brought to the movies a few years back (though the film boasts eye popping visual panache) but
based on this first outing New Line should get their wish – as Compass certainly plays like a pint sized version of Lord of the Rings.
Fantasy is one of my favorite movie genres (The Wizard of Oz remains at the top of my list) but the return of the fantasy film genre
has coincided with the rise of special effects technology and the insistence by Hollywood on explaining how each and every effect is
created. The advances in special effects are indeed dazzling but have become so familiar that by now we know that Nicole Kidman’s
vicious monkey (her character’s familiar) in Compass isn’t really there when it’s attacking Lyra’s little kitty cat familiar and that the cat
isn’t there either. The awareness that the on screen magic is being created by a horde of computer operators has had the
unfortunate effect of dulling the magic integral to fantasy films. And Compass, with so many characters and effects utilizing the
technique, suffers for it.
It also doesn’t help that Compass plops us with a thud into a world with the metaphorical thickness of the Dune series – a parallel
universe made up of words and cultures of many vowels and confusing subterfuge about the “dust” that connects all the different
lands (remember Kyle MacLachlan and cast mates musing about “the spice” in Dune – same thing here). You’re still getting your
bearings in this linguistic stew before the chase is afoot. Basically, the plot boils down to this: the bad characters, in allegiance to an
all controlling, pseudo religious conservative institution called the Magisterium want what Kyra the orphan has, the coveted compass
or “alethiometer” which is dangerous because its power could bring down the fear mongering Magisterium and, naturally, these bad
eggs will stop at nothing to get it.
The baddies send out the beautiful but phony/nice Mrs. Coulter (Kidman) to take charge. (Was it on purpose that Kidman’s
character was named after the love goddess of conservatives, real life witch Ann Coulter?) Mrs. Coulter, firm, chic and authoritative,
dazzles Lyra whose protective adventurer uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) has gone off to work on his experiments to prove that dust
is real. Lyra has successfully saved him from poisoning by a smarmy member of the Magisterium (Simon McBurney) in the first
moments of the film but now he’s out of the picture and there’s no stopping Mrs. Coulter and company from swooping in to get the
compass. Kidman uses the gasping for air voice that she effected in The Others, looks stunning in the exquisite fashions, certainly
relishes the part, and whatever she’s done to her face works in tandem with the enormous vanity one would guess the character
would have (it was the opposite story in Margot at the Wedding).
Meanwhile, Lyra, as it turns out, has friends she doesn’t know about who are also eager to protect her and to make sure the
prophecy about “the child” (or “the one” or “the girl with the red corkscrew curls”) gets fulfilled. This resistance is made up of a
group called the Gyptians, armored polar bears (one of whom is voiced by Sir Ian MacKellen, another by Ian McShane), a white
haired, bewhiskered Texan aeronaut (Sam Elliott), and flying witches led by Eva Green as their queen. The bears are named Iorek
Byrnison and Ragnar Sturlusson, Lyra’s familiar Pantalaimon, the witch queen Serafina Pekkala, and your friendly movie reviewer
Confusion Reigns.
It does eventually all sort of make sense as the picture moves towards the end of part one and little Lyra, a latter day Dorothy and
her band of miscasts will surely be back for a second go round offering further clarification. I’m not really vested in the characters or
their outcome yet (maybe part two will ensnare me) and don’t care a whit about the controversy over the series’ supposed anti-
religious allegories. But the movie’s starry cast, sumptuous design (New Line has spared no expense), Alexandre Desplat’s
gorgeous score (topped off by Kate Bush singing “Lyra,” her new composition for the film over the end credits), lickety-split running
time, and love of fantasy in general, pointed The Golden Compass toward the winner’s circle for me.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jessica Yu, who made the fascinating documentary In the Realm of the Senses about Chicagoan outsider artist Henry Darger is now two
for two with her new film, Protagonist. It’s about four men – a former ex-gay evangelist, a Mexican bank robber, a Kung Fu
fanatic, and a German political terrorist – each compelling in their honesty whose only connection is their individual battles with
extreme behavior. Yu uses excerpts from the ancient Greek plays of Euripides as her thematic template for the film and in an
interesting device has dramatic moments from her subjects’ lives reinterpreted with puppets in the style of ancient Greek theatre.
The link between the puppets and the men – who are all forceful personalities – isn’t clear at first but slowly comes into focus. The
journey of these four individuals who each represent how men (gay and straight) can easily be emotionally screwed up by society’s
rigid ideals of masculinity is a fascinating one. Yu’s little explored subject matter and her offbeat, contemplative approach makes
Protagonist worth contemplation itself.
Extreme Fantasy:
The Golden Compass-Protagonist
Expanded Edition of 12-05-07 Windy City Times Knight at the Movies Column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
The Golden Compass-Protagonist
Expanded Edition of 12-05-07 Windy City Times Knight at the Movies Column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
