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Fuck Pixar. Whew! That felt good to get off my chest. Now, actually that's a bit drastic. I grew up with "Toy Story" and can still enjoy watching "The Incredibles." It just seems to me in the last few years, Pixar has lost the patience to stick with the reality of the human emotions they deal with in their films (even if these protagonists are embodied by animals or robots) and each of these recent works ends with a wam-bam-thank-you-ma'am sensationalism. And sensationalism is fine (for example, what Michael Bay does is not sensationalism) but Pixar has teased us with early levels of greatness with no follow through.  Look at that drab "Finding Nemo." Or the borderline "Spaceballs" campiness in the third act of "Wall*E" (and what a masterful opening act that film had!). Most recently, "Up" lifted our spirits to new heights with a brilliant opening sequence/montage and then let our spirits get lost in the silliness of talking dogs and a colorful, giant bird. And so with that in mind, watching Adam Elliot's "Mary and Max" (surely one of the year's best films) was an exciting venture. While the film is endlessly inventive and clever in both its visuals (claymation) and screenplay, I kept wincing at the possiblity of "Mary and Max" caving into the Pixar routine of dumbing down the stakes for the benefit of a younger audience. And that thematic recession never came so by the time the houselights came on I was moved both emotionally and professionally. This is an uncompromising vision and sustaining work of clarity and grace.

Featuring almost unrecognizable voice-work by Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman as Max, the isolated, tragic character of the title pair, the film mainly follows young Mary (in Australia) from her days as a wistful and shy eight year old to a confident, academically successful wife and mother (voiced by Oscar nominee Toni Collette). Her evolution in maturity and confidence is sparked by her pen pal relationship with Max (a depressed forty-four year old Jew in New York) and the concurrent life milestones in her own immediate world (death, marriage, sex). You're not going to believe some of the ideas and images you'll hear and see but that's just some of the film's charm. Way past the film's clay animation (think of a grittier "Wallace and Gromit") and initial target audience, lies a deep rooted knowledge of mortality and the fragility of hope. I did not see this one coming. If you paid $12 to see "Up" then you might as well throw yourself out the window and land right on top of a street mime if you end up missing this one.

If the reports from Vanity Fair reveal themselves to be ultimately true (claiming that the late Heath Ledger in fact tried to get fired during the filming of "The Dark Knight" thus changing the motives behind his Joker performance) it makes the decade's most successful film a different beast entirely and helps explain Nolan's omission from the short list for a Best Director Oscar nomination. Ledger, without question, was more interested in the challenging & non-popular roles. Which is why for most of its running time Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" works and unfolds quite beautifully. To watch Gilliam fill the screen from edge to edge with his wacky and unprecedented art direction and to see Ledger soak in the scenery like food and drink is a moviegoer's dream (no pun here buddy).  Gilliam was a mentor to Ledger so one can safely assume this was a project Ledger deeply cared about, if not looked forward to. The untimely death of Ledger led to the film's most radical screenplay adjustment: three actors--Colin Farrell, Jude Law & Johnny Depp--filmed the remaining incomplete scenes for Heath Ledger.

Like most of Gilliam's work, "Parnassus" is uneven and sometimes gets lost in its own irony. But if anything--Ledger aside--the film's strongest card is the actual filmmaking itself. The traveling troupe of dream-spinners/carnies (headed by Christopher Plummer) drag around a mobile stage that comes to life like a child's pop-up book. They offer people the chance to literally walk through a mirror and visit a tangible, three dimensional version of their own imagination. With that kind of leap of faith in the audience, Gilliam really had the opportunity to steer the film into provocative waters of examined metaphysics, theories of the sole conscious individual in an unconscious world and on and on--but it instead settles on a simple plot mechanism. Doctor Parnassus (Plummer) is a drunk and a gambler and finds himself owing his teen daughter to the Devil (played by Tom Waits no less). The film's best scenes come in the first half, with Ledger introduced as a wild card individual (he has no memory of his past life) and becomes a valuable addition to the troupe. However, just as the case with Spike Jonze's "Where The Wild Things Are," the opening passages of "Parnassus" are so interesting and quietly brilliant that the closing segments of the film fall flat. Perhaps because with both films, all the magic has been explained by the end and then we are forced to go back to boring realities. Still, for any filmmaker who shivers at the idea of making studio fare, watching "Parnassus" (or "Wild Things" for that matter) can invigorate the soul. Gilliam made his movie and there ain't shit anyone can do about it. Gotta love that.

DIY (Do It Yourself) Filmmaking has proved to be an almost unstoppable force in the new era of film festival success. With Judi Krant's "Made In China" the behind the scenes production story parallels the onscreen narrative. In the film, Johnson (Jackson Kuehn) is a wannabe novelty inventor. He has created a product he says is "novel and needful" and I dare not reveal it here. To realize his dream, he naturally goes to China since everything seems to be made over there. In real life, Krant and her small crew flew to China and shot the bulk of the film guerrilla style: no shooting permits, no location releases & they stole shots of everyday life in Shangai (most of the time with Kuehn's character as an enabler with the individuals around him). It's the rare case where the external location really does enhance a comedy because the scary unfamiliarity of the environment adds to the protagonist's already pungent quirkiness (to see how an external location can fail in a comedy, go see "Couples Retreat").

Of course, as with many films shot in this style, not every scene is a gem but the ones that work (and believe me several do) are enhanced by Krant's animations and crafty visuals. Check out this scene where a back story is given for the man who invented the ant farm. Neat stuff. It should also be noted that "Made In China" won the prize for Best Narrative Feature at this year's SXSW Film Festival which speaks volumes about its bare bones storytelling.

For more info on this film that continues to collect prizes on the festival circuit visit micthemovie.com