Speed Racer

I decided to start with with film Speed Racer for a few reasons. For starters, outside of a few friends with likeminded opinions, I have not heard of any one else who likes this movie. The movie has a reputation of being a children's movie, and a bad one at that. However, I love this movie.

When the Wachowski siblings made Speed Racer, their reputation was not very solid. They had created one of the greatest science-fiction movies of all time, The Matrix, and then continued to destroy any good will they gained by releasing two horrendous sequels. They followed this up by writing and producing a mediocre film adaptation of V for Vendetta, the much-loved comic book written by the genius/crazy person Alan Moore.

Speed Racer is a slight return to normalcy for the siblings. The Matrix was not your typical science-fiction movies. It was heavily inspired by post-modern writers like Michel Foucault and Jacque Derrida. The movie was attempting to explain some of the notions developed by these rights, such as simulations and social constructs. I do not want to get into this much more, because it is highly theoretical and, from my experience, pisses people off.

To get back to the point, Speed Racer is not your typical children's movie. Yes, it is based on the much loved, Saturday morning cartoon. Yes, it features a pet monkey that throws his own shit at the bad guy. Yes, there are mountains and mountains of candy. But, more than anything, Speed Racer is about color. Soo much fucking color.

The entire movie was shot in front of a green screen, and the Wachowskis do not do anything to hide this fact. They use the freedom to do things that are slightly disorienting, but certainly original. I cannot think of any director since Godard went crazy to be this obsessed with color. The brightness, crispness, and overpowering quality to the colors of this film are certainly jarring. But, it is also refreshing to see a filmmaker (or team of filmmakers) experiment with what types emotions they can draw out with this use of color.

The film is most memorable for the three different races. I have no idea about how true this is, but it seems to me that it must have taken weeks to choreography these races. The turns, jumps, spins, crashes all blend together to give off the impression not of a typical race (even though there are alot of explosions), but of a ballet. I can think of one scene in particular (a section of the second race that takes place inside a cave of ice) where the colors/light reflect of anything and everything and create a piece of art that is only slightly worse than a Pollack. The viewer is both scared and excited, even if the outcome is completely known to the viewer. Art at its best.

Finally, I want to talk about the most jarring aspect of this film, and it has nothing to do with color. The Wachowskis fell in love with swipe cuts. A numerous times in the film, a talking head is swiped across the screen, changing the shot from one to another. This is hard to explain, and I recommend watching the first race of the movie again to remember how often this technique is used to perfection. By the end of the final race, the directors are cutting every second of two, in such a chaotic manor that the viewer, naturally, feels the excitement of the race.

Overall, Speed Racer is an art house film dressed up like a children's movie. Im sure that some children will love it for its silly humor and general joyousness. However, the true fans will not be children, but will be film-buffs. The end of the final race says it all. As Speed is finishing off the last of his opponents and crosses the finish line by jumping through an explosion, the background and the car disappear. The screen is  not only filled with a rotating red and white checkerboard, as if you say to the audience, "you came for the race, but you leave with the color explosion."

PS. The cast is unreal. Emile Hirsch, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox,  Richard Roundtree, and Christina Ricci (who is playing 10 years younger).