Movies provide great escapes. One reason I don’t watch TV is that it’s hard to get lost in the small screen. It’s the same reason I sit up close at movie theaters. Like vivid dreams, movies have the power to immerse you in other worlds. Two recent releases, Coraline and Watchmen, satisfy that urge for rapid immersion in alternate universes, but those universe’s couldn’t be less alike. Coraline is the detailed nightmare of an imaginative young girl who longs for more attentive parents and a less boring life. Watchmen depicts a feverish fictitious world, circa mid-1980s, in which the United States and the Soviet Union are on the brink of nuclear war, Richard Nixon has been elected to a fourth term, and someone is targeting a group of mostly washed-up superheroes for extinction. Both films are so inventive that at times they are barely coherent. But Coraline has the wacky logic of a dream world, a world with the moral: Be careful what you wish for. In the case of Coraline, who has just moved into a strange new house from Michigan, she’d like some parents who weren’t cranky writers, a friend who didn’t run off at the mouth, and some outlet for her imagination. There’s only one problem: Her dream parents have button eyes, and her dream mother turns out to be a monster. Watchmen is much more ambitious and complex, but that’s not necessarily a virtue. Based on an acclaimed comic book series turned graphic novel, it’s packed full of superheroes like Rorshach, whose mask is its own ever-changing ink-blot test, and Dr. Manhattan, a mutant nuclear physicist–a big blue naked man with the power of a living bomb and a bent for philosophical pondering. The other characters are far less interesting, however, and though the film is full of stunning imagery, it’s a narrative kitchen sink, crammed with back stories and dueling plots and overwrought with blood, gore, spectacle, and pretentious ideas. In its eagerness to be bolder, bigger, and more important than other superhero movies, it ends up being a bloated bore. You can get a similar story, more economically told, in The Incredibles. It’s worth noting that some of the snappier scripts and smoother plots in recent years have belonged to animated films like Brad Bird’s Incredibles and, yes, Coraline (Wolverines be warned though: an MSU sweatshirt makes several appearances). By comparison, the big spectacle live-action movies increasingly look like they were made by and for people with ADD. Surviving Watchmen, I had the feeling that I kept seeing the same movie over and over again. I call it superhero fatigue. If you’ve got it, too, the quieter Coraline might be the perfect antidote.
Upcoming Events
- April 19, 2024 Carillon Concert Series: U-M School of Music Various Times
- April 19, 2024 U-M Museum of Natural History Planetarium & Dome Theater Various Times
- April 19, 2024 Ann Arbor Group Runs: Fleet Feet 8:00 am
- April 19, 2024 Used Book Sale: JLC Book Sale 9:00 am
- April 19, 2024 "Rise and Shine Exercise": Pittsfield Township Senior Center 9:00 am
- April 19, 2024 Crafting: Pittsfield Township Senior Center 10:00 am
- April 19, 2024 “The Man of Twists and Turns: William Fitzmaurice, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and the End of Enlightenment”: U-M Clements Library Bookworm 10:00 am
- April 19, 2024 Playgroups for Babies: AADL 10:30 am
- April 19, 2024 Zine Mini-Fest 11:00 am
- April 19, 2024 “Investigate Labs”: U-M Museum of Natural History 11:00 am
- April 19, 2024 Chime Concert: Kerrytown Market & Shops 12:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Outdoor Sculpture Party! 12:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Tai Chi: U-M Turner Senior Wellness Program 12:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Bridge: Pittsfield Township Senior Center 12:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 Coral Reef Tank Visit: U-M Museum of Natural History 12:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 "Walking Off the Pounds": U-M Turner Senior Wellness Program 12:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 Bridge: U-M Turner Senior Wellness Program 1:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Duplicate Bridge: Ann Arbor City Club 1:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Preschool Storytimes: AADL 1:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Resume Review Session 1:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Talks & Activities: Pittsfield Township Senior Center 1:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Solo Aging Storytelling”: Limelight 1:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Mindo Chocolate 101 4:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Fix-It Friday”: Maker Works 4:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Taylor Swift Party: Ann Arbor District Library 5:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 “90th Birthday Celebration for George Shirley”: U-M School of Music 5:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Family Night Out 6:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Gala: Penny Seats Theatre Company Fundraiser 6:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Make a Beautiful Bar Class 6:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 “D&D Adventures”: Sylvan Factory 6:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Magic: The Gathering: Sylvan Factory 6:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Household Saints”: Michigan Theater 6:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Poetry at Literati”: Literati Bookstore 6:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 Davis Ransdell Caruso: Argus Farm Stop Packard 7:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 U-M Softball 7:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Charlotte’s Web”: Saline Area Players 7:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Creatures Unleashed”: The Creature Conservancy 7:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Euchre Night!”: Ann Arbor Ski Club 7:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Mayce Galoni: Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase 7:15 pm
- April 19, 2024 Joel Schoenhals: Kerrytown Concert House 7:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 "The Hotel Del Gado": Neighborhood Theatre Group. 7:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Automated Astrophotography (On the Cheap)”: University Lowbrow Astronomers Monthly Meeting 7:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 “I’m Not Rappaport”: The Encore Musical Theatre Company 7:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Open Mic Night”: University Musical Society Ypsilanti Freighthouse Residency 7:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Railroad Photographers”: Ann Arbor Train and Trolley Watchers 7:30 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Timberdoodle Tumble”: Washtenaw County Parks & Recreation Commission 7:45 pm
- April 19, 2024 Tom Chapin: Green Wood Coffee House Series (First United Methodist Church) 8:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 “A Little Night Music”: U-M Musical Theatre Department 8:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 “The Antichrist Cometh”: Purple Rose Theatre Company 8:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Angell Hall Observatory Open House: U-M Student Astronomical Society 9:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 Riverside Swings: Riverside Arts Center 9:00 pm
- April 19, 2024 “Paprika”: State Theatre 9:30 pm