Most screenings today were sold out, so this is a relatively light entry (and RP1 isn't part of the HKIFF obvs).
Other than the basic premise, where a team of unlikely individuals race to find the greatest video game easter egg within a nostalgic virtual playground, Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One completely reworks Ernest Cline's original novel, truncating several elements and completely changing several scenarios, mostly for the better.
The adaptation manages to humanize James Halliday (Mark Rylance), the creator of the sprawling virtual world/MMORPG OASIS, making him into a character haunted by his faiilures and regrets in life. Rylance's speech at the end, while taken from the book, is made even more poignant here. It also removes some awkward and creepy moments between protagonist Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) and his rival/partner Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), though some of the conflict between them is ultimately removed.
Despite being a film that perpetually bathes in nostalgia, the nature of the film's (and the book's) message epouses a rejection of escapism, where, despite our propensity for playthings and mindless entertainment, only 'reality is real.'
On the other hand, the film is unabashedly popcorn entertainment; it is wild, raucous fun and solidly made given Spielberg's filmmaking prowess. The film falls into the trap of being the exact kind of entertainment it stands against.
And the main thing that hampered the book also affects the film: without the rose tinted lenses of nostalgia, the film doesn't hold together as well. Only history will tell us how well the film will age ten or twenty years down the line. But in the here and now, Ready Player One is a pretty great ride.
Halley (Bria Vinaite) and her daughter Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) live in a motel at the very fringes of Disney World. Halley struggles to make ends meet through the help of friends and neighbors, but her rebellious attitude makes inding a legitimate job very hard. Meanwhile, insulated from her mother's troubles, Moonee spends her days, carefree, with her friends, getting into troubles of her own.
The characters of The Florida Project are people who live in the margins of society, a sentiment that is reflected in the film in more ways than one. Despite the film taking place right next to Disney World, we only see glimpses of it: fireworks in the distance, the ever present whirring of tour helicopters, a rogue tourist here and there.
Baker, at least in his past two films, likes to juxtapose dreamlike fantasy worlds like Disney World and Hollywood and the concerns of Americans in the margins of society, contrasting them.
And this is a film about children and their perspective; even if the characters of the Florida Project spend their lives (almost) never setting foot inside the "Happiest Place on Earth," they find their own happiness, as children do. It's even reflected in both the beginning and end of the film with renditions of Kool & The Gang's Celebration, both prefacing very different chapters in these children's lives. It may seem absurd, finding something to celebrate about in such abject poverty, but that's a special power that chiildren just have.
It's also a film about parents: surrogate parents, fathers, mothers, and the extremities of their love: though one cannot say these people are the best parents for their children, they try their best and love their children, blood related or not, with all the love they can muster.
And despite how brash and incorrigible some of the characters may be, they are driven by something positive. That notion, finding something good in a wretched world, is indeed something worth celebrating.
(The preceding review is a reworking of a review for the Florida Project, previously not published here in this blog.)
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