6A — Friday, October 6, 2017
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
DISNEY
Reappraisal: ‘Dead Man’s
Chest’ and ‘At World’s End’
In Reappraisals, Michigan
Daily film writers attempt to
defend films that have been
critically maligned.
This week: Two “Pirates of
the Caribbean” films, 2006’s
“Dead
Man’s
Chest”
(54
percent on Rotten Tomatoes)
and 2007’s “At World’s End” (45
percent on Rotten Tomatoes).
“Pirates of the Caribbean”:
It’s
a
franchise
that
is
uttered in the same breath
as “Transformers,” symbols
of the Hollywood machine
intent on cranking out as
many sequels per year as is
physically possible. To read
reviews of the recent “Pirates”
film is to be assaulted with
descriptive
language
so
unabashedly negative that it
seems impossible there was
ever anything good to be found
in this series. The accepted
consensus in the media world
is that the “Pirates of the
Caribbean” series has been
garbage since the first one. I
think this is absolutely unfair.
In a cinematic landscape filled
with generic, uninspired and
mindlessly
unimaginative
blockbusters, to see “Dead
Man’s Chest” and “At World’s
End” lumped in with all the
rest strikes me as ludicrous.
Far from being repetitive
and derivative schlock like
the more recent “Pirates”
films, the original should
be
considered
the
gold
standard for modern trilogy
storytelling. The first film
tells a complete story that
leaves the door open for
more. Parts two and three
continue and then conclude
the arcs of all major and minor
characters, eventually uniting
all the heroes and villains
from the original film against
a much more dangerous and
chilling foe. People forget that
before Jack Sparrow became
a bumbling idiot, he was the
smartest man in the room. In
all three of the original films,
Jack
Sparrow
continually
outsmarts and outthinks his
enemies, and we watch him
grow from a selfish rogue to
a true hero over the course of
the three films.
Many
blockbusters
nowadays
are
rightfully
critiqued for having basic and
predictable plots, yet “Dead
Man’s Chest” and “At World’s
End” are both criticized for
having plots that actually
require the audience to think.
“World’s End” in particular
is accused of being byzantine
and confusing, but the truth
is that it’s almost like a heist
movie: The more you watch
it the more you understand.
There are a lot of different
layers to that movie, and yes,
almost every character has a
hidden agenda. That doesn’t
mean the movie is bad though,
or that it should be blamed for
its audience’s stupidity. I for
one would prefer more movies
that actually ask something of
the audience rather than hand
them everything on a silver
platter.
The films also boast wildly
creative
action
sequences.
From the three way wheel
sword fight in “Chest” to the
final ship-on-ship maelstrom
at
the
end
of
“World’s
End” these are imaginative
sequences
that
are
still
remembered today and have
stood the test of time. These
first two “Pirates” sequels
also succeed at world building
in a way almost all other
franchises fail to do. Like
“Star Wars,” “The Lord of
the Rings” and maybe a few
others, the original “Pirates”
trilogy
feels
like
a
fully
realized world, with each
addition uncovering a new
part of the universe that feels
like it was always there and
you just couldn’t see it.
Unlike so many more recent
blockbusters,
the
original
“Pirates”
films
are
both
serious and fun. It seems like
every Marvel or DC movie
has to make a choice between
being serious and having fun.
The original “Pirates” movies
remind us that there doesn’t
have to always be a choice.
These
films
have
serious
themes and dark moments and
are also an absolute blast to
watch. Directed by the same
director all the way through
and with the same writers,
cast and crew throughout,
they feel like a complete
whole in a way the later films
and most other franchises
don’t. There’s a reason why
“Dead Man’s Chest” and “At
World’s End” were at one time
two of the highest grossing
films ever made but the fourth
and fifth films have faltered.
“Dead
Man’s
Chest”
and
“At World’s End” are smart,
sophisticated
blockbusters
with compelling characters
and emotional storytelling.
Forget about throwing them
in with the meaningless later
“Pirates” movies. We need
more trilogies like this one.
IAN HARRIS
Daily Arts Writer
DO YOU LIKE ALL THINGS
FASHION & LIFESTYLE?
LIKE PRETENTIOUSLY
RUMINATING OVER YOUR
FAVORITE BOOKS AND
AUTHORS?
Daily Arts is looking to bring on new writers to
their Style and Book Review beats! Email
arts@michigandaily.com for an application.
BOOK REVIEW
‘Funeral Platter: Stories’
encapsulates the absurd
Greg Ames, the author of
“Buffalo Lockjaw” — a novel
that won the 2009 Book of
the
Year
Award
from
the
New
Atlantic
Booksellers
Association — has written a
collection of short stories that
might be one of
the most absurd
collections of the
past
few
years.
The
only
way
I
can
think
to
describe the pace
of “Funeral Platter:
Stories” is to say
that it moves like
the galloping horse
in
every
horse
movie you’ve seen,
at the moment the
plucky protagonist
aims
too
high
and rides the wild horse that
everyone warns can’t be tamed.
The
characters
in
every
story of “Funeral Platter” are
unhinged; many of them have
cast off the cloak of propriety
and run around as if naked (not
literally — for the most part).
Many of them have no filters,
either verbally or mentally,
and we are privy to their
most bizarre, uncomfortable
thoughts. They are eccentric,
erratic,
sometimes
ecstatic
— and the style is stripped
down to match. There are no
unnecessary stylizations, just
stenographic observations and
dialogue that moves feverishly.
The first story sets the tone
for the rest. A blind date — or
what seems like a blind date —
begins to take peculiar turns
the second both
people are there.
At
times,
it
feels like we are
witnessing
an
eyeroll-worthy
quirky
meet-
cute, but it never
builds
to
that
recognizable
rom-com
crescendo;
rather,
they
argue, and make
up, and argue,
and
make
up,
and each time it gets more
and more confusing as to how
either of them got here. The
ending leaves you even more
bewildered than you were in
the middle; and when looked at
retrospectively, the beginning
makes no sense either.
Stories that could be cute
are missing the glossy facade
that would make them so. One
story is told from the point
of view of a wisecracking
thirteen-year-old who thinks
his crossing guard returns his
romantic affections — their
significant age difference is
but a gauntlet thrown down
by a society determined to
keep the star crossed lovers
apart — but he isn’t exactly the
most likeable of incorrigible
boys. In another tale, a man
casually dismembers himself
as a form of revenge against an
ex girlfriend, recounting each
of his self-inflicted wounds,
growing
in
severity,
with
savage satisfaction until he
dies; you can almost hear his
maniacal
laughter.
Another
man follows an elaborate five
step plan to get a wonderful
girlfriend to break up with him
(this one is eerily reminiscent
of “Fight Club”). The final story
ends what the first one begins;
it is a tale of two idiosyncratic
old lovers for whom “till death
do us part” is but a challenge to
be laughed at.
Some of the stories are more
outlandish than others; even the
ones that would be depressing
are often just too baffling to be
so. Where other authors have
worked tirelessly to capture the
pathos of the human condition,
Greg Ames has effortlessly
captured the absurd.
“Funeral
Platter:
Stories”
Greg Ames
Arcade Publishing
Oct. 3
SOPHIA KAUFMAN
Book Review Editor
MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW
If you were to make a checklist
of things you might find in a fun
and lighthearted music video, it
would probably include dancing.
Fashionable clothes. Attrac-
tive, young people who look like
they’re having a really, really
good time. Some hip setting — a
club, maybe, or some other place
where people go to let loose and
have fun.
HAIM’s new music video for
“Little of Your Love” hits every
single one of these checkmarks.
Sisters Alana, Danielle and Este
Haim spend the entire video
dancing and striding around a
retro cafe space, complete with
arcade games, pool tables and
a nice big wooden dancefloor.
A crowd of extras surrounds
them, shuffling and clapping and
tapping their feet. It’s a dance
that looks coordinated, but also
fun and approachable, in a you-
could-totally-learn-this-at-home
type of way.
It’s nothing we haven’t seen
before, but then again, the
young-people-grinning-and-
dancing formula is tried and true
for a reason. The “Little of Your
Love” video is fun to watch, if
not particularly inventive, and
it’s interesting to see the ways
in which the camera slips and
slides easily between the three
sisters as they trade vocal parts.
It’s a video that beckons the
viewer to join in with the joyful
spirit of the song, and by the end,
when the song escalates into
jumping and clapping and then
slams into silence, that effort
does feel like it’s paid off. The
dancers all stamp their feet in
unison and freeze, and the video
and the song wrap up quickly
and neatly. It’s as if they’re say-
ing: “We’re all done, and wasn’t
that a fun time? Wouldn’t you do
it again?”
- LAURA DZUBAY
COLUMBIA
FILM NOTEBOOK