“You like films that obliterate your sense of self”

Had just seen Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity at the IMAX for the second time and was walking out with a massive massive smile on my face saying things like: “Oh my god I think that was the perfect movie” and “why can’t all of life be just like that?” and my friend Paul said to me: “You like films that obliterate your sense of self” and all I could do was go: “oh wow. Yes. I think you just summed up everything about me in one simple little sentence. Thank you.”

In the past 3 weeks I’ve watched Speed Racer twice. And even tho my head with filled with all of these ideas and thoughts and sensations that I really wanna try and get down in words I’m not quite sure what is it about this film that I love so goddamn much.

Part of it is that inability to be able to capture all of the pleasures of the film in words. Like even if I was sitting in person across from you and was using my hands and making strange noises with my mouth I still won’t be able to do justice to it (“It’s like how the heads go whoosh across the screen? And it’s gets more complicated as it goes on? So they’re like criss-crossing in separate directions and stuff? And the cars kinda bounce around the tracks as they spin upside down and around? And it’s like the light from the bikes in Akira only more so? And it’s like part-cartoon but part real and it’s like reality if everything was soft melted plastic / cotton-candy: you know?”)

I watched an interview with the Wachowskis in a documentary called Side by Side from 2012 (presented by Keanu Reeves!) and even tho they’re supposed to be talking about celluloid compared to film there’s a 25min interview on Disc 2 that you can watch that’s very interesting: especially how it relates to Speed Racer especially with little insights like “We always start with story and aesthetic” and (oh my god I wish I realised this myself) how they talk about Speed Racer not really using traditional editing but instead using the face moving across the screen as fancy dissolves which means that – in a sense – it’s gets closer to how thoughts move in your head – not one after another – but all at once – with things sliding over other things. In fact I think they even make a reference to Picasso and the idea of doing the same thing as his seeing someone from two different directions at the exact same time… Which sounds crazy until well… you watch the movie and then it just seems… simple.

I have this really weird kinda memory thing about this film that wasn’t really there when I watched it these past few times. I could have sworn that the first time I watched it the opening 15 minutes it was doing this kinda impossible Möbius loop thing with it’s opening flashbacks as Speed Racer raced his first race – but it wasn’t nearly as pronounced this time and there’s a part of me that feels like maybe I imagined it? It’s just the film starts off with Speed Racer in the locker room before the race – then it flashes back to him in his classroom – then it flashes to his mum talking in the principal’s office with the principal – and then back to Speed Racer – and then there’s the dream sequence where his desk turns into a racing car (in a kinda cheap looking way I must admit). And yeah – I don’t know reading it back like that it doesn’t seem like much: but those first few times it made it feel like something was broken: that this film could have a flashback that then cut to someone else that then into a dream sequence… And that first time I watched it I didn’t know if I was watching something written by someone who didn’t really know how to structure something properly (always a possibility with the Wachowskis: we’ve all seen The Matrix sequels after all) and the tantalising possibility that actually maybe just maybe that this was a film that was just going to break lots of traditional ideas about how to do things just for the hell of it.

(OH MY GOD ALL THE COLOURS)

And yeah yeah I’ll admit that it’s not perfect and maybe there are some bits where I worry about the Wachowskis’ grip on reality / making sense… Am thinking particularly here of Racer X’s little speech in the middle of the film – which feels like it’s supposed to be a mission statement but instead just gives my face that “huh?” kinda look…

Racer X: It doesn’t matter if racing never changes. What matters is if we let racing change us. Every one of us has to find a reason to do this. You don’t climb into a T-180 to be a driver. You do it because you’re driven.

I mean – it kinda makes sense if you squint your brain a bit? But mostly it just feels like a bit of wordplay that got away from them… (sorry Wachowskis: but then yeah – I guess dialogue was never really their strong point unless you count Keanu Reeves saying “whoa”).

But yeah – none of that is the main thing I really wanted to talk about: the thing I want to talk about is the ending where everything kinda comes together and the whole film goes transcendental and does the whole 2001-thing with racing cars in a way that yeah: keeps me coming back to it again and again and again and constantly leaves me with a tingling feeling of elation and pure blissed-out bliss. I mean: it’s funny right? In terms of film structure that really does it for me – my soft spot is always for films and stories which go full out orchestral craziness in the climax – that build and build and build until they reach the point where they explode with somesort of revelation or grand finale. I mean – gosh – there’s even a part of me that’s like: isn’t that how all stories are supposed to go? Isn’t the ending the most important part? And isn’t that the place where all the stops get pulled out and things get all crazy and shit?

(Thinking back – the person I blame most for this is Alan Moore: Watchmen and From Hell in particular are both very good at building towards epic conclusions and well yeah of course: there’s the very obvious sexual analogy too – but ssssh – don’t cheapen this).

The end of Matrix the First is a pretty good example of the thing I mean: when Neo does his whole Jesus thing and stops the bullets and sees all the green line of code: it’s what the whole film has been leading towards and after watching him being beaten and messed up by the dastardly agent Smith – I mean: my fists were pumped and I may have even uttered the phrase “hell yeah” and if you didn’t even have the same type of reaction then: oh my god what’s wrong with you? Are you dead inside or something?

And yeah: the thing that I found interesting / cool or whatever is how Speed Racer manages to do this with what is still (despite all of its oh-so-colourful bells and whistles) a fairly typical racing car movie: because think about it – how does this stuff normally work? There’s the good guy and the bad guy right? And it all leads up to the final race and a nail-biting suspense-filled back-and-forth until – right at the very last second (due to something or another) the good guy crosses the line first. How boring and predictable right? And yeah – ok – Speed Racer still does the same kinda thing (“Ok, Mr. two-time-Grand-Prix five-time-WRL future-Hall-of-Fame – teach me something!”) but actually short-circuits it before well before it gets to the finish line and does – well – that thing it does instead. Speed Racer in the car that won’t start needing to put it in fifth but not actually knowing why and then doing his Luke Skywalker thing and feeling the force of the um… car? I mean yes of course – it’s as hokey as hell: but what’s brilliant about it is how all of the things you’d typically expect at this point (notably the suspense of whether or not he’s going to win) is thrown away and instead is replaced with this magical moment where you know he’s going to win and any real pretense to a typical “story moment” just kinda falls away and instead the film turns into this kinda subjective thing: where it puts you into the head of Speed Racer and you can feel the exhilaration and heightened senses of just going really really fucking fast. The nearest thing I can think to describe it too is when you get a star in Super Mario and suddenly you’re invincible and can jump through anything: and well yeah – I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything in a movie like it before and yeah everytime I watch it (everytime I experience it) it just – obliterates my sense of self and just for a few seconds or so I feel completely and utterly transported… which is what cinema is all about – no?

And yeah – it looks cool.

AMIR
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Rough last minute splurge –

I love this movie. To the point that I get all the emotions from 5 seconds of the score.

Why though? The movie is pure green screen, it has nothing to say (okay there is “fuck corporate socialism” and it is a great speech) and the characters are archetypes who express themselves in bland ass exposition. It should be a catastrophe and in many ways – box office, initial critical reception. It was.

To me though – this is up there. Not the top 5, but not far off. There are few films that give me such a bum rush of emotion. Anything the W sisters (it’s easier) want me to feel – I feel. Why is that?

As I said on movie night – it’s “earnestly expressionistic”.

Speed Racer is a movie that always wears it’s heart on it’s sleeve. It never holds back. It’s always honest. The W Sisters take the story, the characters and the world as seriously as a 4 year old would have when they watched the original cartoon. They take it all so seriously – so you take the quest seriously – you take the world, it’s candy colours and the stakes as seriously as Speed does. Individually, the dialogue, the music, the imagery is all ludicrously over the top. Synthesised into a cinematic language – it’s pure operatic power.