Shutter Island (2010)

A psychological thriller that takes place

on an island mental institution.
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Michelle Williams and Mark Ruffalo.
Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow.
Based on a New York Times Bestseller.

Big names, big budget, catchy concept.
Does Shutter Island pan out?

Shutter Island delivers payoffs. Patience is required, especially through an abundance of expository dialogue, but when the film's questions are answered, the trip was worth taking. Kalogridis' script (based on Lehane's novel) spins a labyrinthian tale of mystery, deceit, and paranoia. Scorsese's visuals compliment the writing through its complexity of the writing. Pay close attention to the visuals, and especially the editing, and you'll appreciate the film much more than those who don't. Jump cuts and purposeful errors in continutity place the viewer into the protagonist's shoes as he begins to question his mental state. Within the narrative, questions lead to more questions but rest assured that they'll all be answered.

The puzzle that U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) pieces together shifts between definitions, his motivations revealed layer after layer. It'd be cliche to remark on Daniels' psychological developments during his stay at the mental hospital but as the subplots continue to intertwine, the film results as a character study more than anything else. Set within a mystery plot, the film's dream sequences and flashbacks are multifaceted. Primarily serving as character development, these scenes also contain clues. Like any strong mystery, clues are everywhere but in Shutter Island they might as well be nowhere as the story's involution is heightened by the protaonist's involution. In other words, this is not Sherlock Holmes. Daniel's inner-conflicts weave within the mystery of the missing murderess (Mortimer) in a particular way that convolutes the entire detective work process. The upside to this weaving is that the story is strengthened instead of muddled.

Big names, big budget, catchy concept. Shutter Island does pan out. All of the questions are answered satisfactorily. The thrills are thrilling. The conflicts are gripping. The performances are effective. Shutter Island pays off. The visuals are stunning. The editing is extremely effective. All of the elements compliment each other with such strength that its original release date would have most likely proved to be a smart business move. There are rumors that Paramount released Island in early 2010 to mirror the success of Silence of the Lambs. While that paints of picture of faith around their film, it's clear that Island wasn't going to steal any Oscars from Avatar or The Hurt Locker and Paramount didn't feel like spending the money for a "loser." Who knows, maybe every release from March until December 2010 will be terrible?

Scorsese's Posters [The Floating Heads Collection]

Congratulations to Whitney from Dear Jesus for guessing the theme for PART TWO of Scorsese's Posters: the dreaded FLOATING HEADS. She's earned an extra entry in February's Thanks for Writing contest.

Nothing screams "lazy art direction" like a floating head. But to keep things on an even keel, these seven posters will be ranked against one another. Sort of like the Special Olympics of posters.

Andwe'reoff.



Shutter Island: Whoever designed this poster must have had a list from the studio of things he had to include. 1. Leo 2. The island institution. 3. The title. 4. The tiny-type movie credits. Knowing that he had to include everything, he simply went down the list, checking off each one as he finished, and lined them down the center.

Leo, check.
Island, check.
Title, check.
Credits, check.

Whitney pointed out that, without the island, the poster would be much more dramatic and intriguing. All the poster needed was DiCaprio with the match lighting his face. The bulk of the poster would be pitch black and way more eerie. Also, we both love the simple tagline.

Poster Rating: B-

The Aviator: "Some men dream the future. He built it." And here, we have a giant, bulbous head to prove it. He looks determined, doesn't he? This poster is ludicrous. It's the worst poster of Scorsese's career. There's only one explaination for a poster this hideous: Miramax didn't trust their audience. Don't worry, I have a theory about that.

In 2004, Miramax found themselves in an unfortuate situation. They had just spent (a lot of) money on a Howard Hughes movie and then decided that no one would probably care about a Howard Hughes movie. They had just made a huge Christmas release about someone whose name people wouldn't recognize. But Miramax had a plan. Moviegoers might not recognize Howard Hughes but they would definitely recognize Leonardo DiCaprio. So that's how the decision was made to cover 2/3 of the poster with DiCap's big mug. I have a second theory. They put an airplane on the poster to help their "uncultured viewers" figure out what the word "aviator" meant.

Poster Rating: D- (only because I like the font used for the title).

Gangs of New York: The bottom three quarters of this poster is great. The ragged American flag forming the New York skyline is incredible. The tagline is badass. This is an example of a strong poster that's rendered almost ineffective by the floating heads. Just because you can't figure out a way to incorporate your characters into the poster's current design doesn't give you an excuse to just plop on their faces at random. And if you are going to use the floating heads, try to use photographs that don't make your lead actors look ridculous. Diaz is almost unrecognizable and Day-Lewis looks like some sort of JibJab creation.

Poster Rating: B

Casino: What do you think Sharon Stone's looking at? She's like a cat that just saw a laser beam. Other than the floating heads, the poster has a lot of strengths. First, I love the font. It's rare to see the word "casino" written with a classy, thin typeface. This casino doesn't have any flashing lights or neon letters. It conjours up a different set of imagery, doesn't it? The tagline makes sense and says a lot about the film's conflict. But the most impressive element of the entire poster is the tagline's spacing. It makes you read "No one...stays...at the...top...forever" and says that the fall is slow and absolute rather than a fast plummet.

Poster Rating: C

The Age of Innocence: Imagine this poster without Ryder's head. What's left is a strong image of a lovers embrace. The tagline shows that it's a forbidden love. The title, "The Age of Innocence," sharply contrasts against the lovers' actions. All in all, the poster works. The idea gets across. But then there's Ryder's head. She's placed in the foreground, in front of the lovers, which leads us to believe that she's more important than the people behind her. I'm convinced that the studio felt that Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer weren't enough to sell this movie. They added her pretty young face to the poster to sell more tickets. And that's all they did. She clearly didn't fit with the other people on the poster, you know, the ones entangled in one another's passionate embraces. So, how do they fit her in? They just crop her head off and plop it on anywhere with some blank space. And that's exactly what's wrong with the Floating Head art direction.

Poster Rating: C+

Cape Fear: Technically, this one features Floating Eyes rather than an entire head. As it turns out, stylistically, that makes all the difference. This poster is pretty damn cool. Sure, it's pretty dated (peep the Polaroid) and looks more like a grocery store paperback than a movie poster but there's something about it I like. Robert De Niro was the biggest star in Cape Fear and they felt comfortable only putting his eyes on the poster. That's gutsy. Look at every other De Niro poster. He's front and center (see below) and you always know who you're looking at.

Poster Rating: B-

Goodfellas: Compare the Goodfellas poster to the Casino poster. The pose makes all the difference, doesn't it? Instead of three unconnected Floating Heads, Liotta, De Niro, and Pesci are postioned with one another in a way that speaks about their characters' relationship both with one another and with the audience. Three tough men standing in the darkness. That's cool. Three Floating Heads with no reference to the other Heads surrounding them? That's lazy.

The complexity of the poster's bottom half compliments the simplicity of the top half. The sharp contrasts between the darkened bridge and the lit city buildings are beautiful. Overall, this is a really strong poster--even with the dreaded Floating Heads.

Poster Rating: A-

Scorsese's Posters

Since "Soderberg's Posters" and "Cameron's Posters" went over so well, I'm keeping things rolling with PART ONE of Martin Scorsese's posters. Part Two will be coming soon.

As a bonus, the first person to guess the THEME of Part Two (or, what the missing Scorsese posters have in common) before I post them will get an extra entry slot in February's Thanks For Writing contest.

Ladiesandgentlemenherewego.

The Departed: There are things I like and don't like about using the cut-out letters to spell out the film's title. Here's what I like. The artists seemed to be heading towards using the dreaded "Floating Heads" design which almost never looks good. The cut-outs provide some framing for those magical flying heads. It's an interesting technique that isn't frequently used on movie posters and while it could have been used much better, the poster definitely could have been worse.

Here's what I don't like about the poster. The cut-outs spell "The Departed." But the artist didn't have enough faith in his design not to just write "The Departed" next to the cut-outs. So, now, the poster reads "The Deaprted The Departed. Also, what's up with Nicholson's face? Look at that. Damon and DiCaprio don't have huge chunks of their faces missing. I should also point out the huge, unused negative space in the bottom left hand corner. This poster started out with an okay concept, didn't take advantage of it, and ended up with a sup-par poster.

Poster Rating: B-

Bringing Out the Dead: This is a fantastic poster. The red and black contrast make the imagery stand out, the title stand out, and the even the poster itself stands out against its competitors. The cross directly relates to the Cage's character's profession and his eyes speak more about his present frame of mind than 10 minutes of explanitory dialogue. A simple yet effective design executed perfectly.

Poster Rating: A

Kundun: First off, that's a great tagline. "A destiny of a people lives in the heart of a boy." If that doesn't set you up for Kundun, there isn't much that will. The photograph of the young Dalai Lama looks great. The child's expression is awfully apathetic but the ligthing behind his head says just how great he'll be. Behind him stand the people he's going to save and the land they live in. Other than the stereotypical typeface, this is a strong poster.

Poster Rating: B+

The Last Temptation of Christ: This is one of Scorsese's strongest poster. The illustrations of the iconic thorn crown extend past the poster and other than that ugly white text box sitting uncomfortably on that beautiful drawing. There's no reason why the title couldn't have been repositioned beneath the thorns. But even with that God-awful (pun intended) box, it stands out in Scorsese's Top 5.

Poster Rating: A-

The Color of Money: I'm a sucker for painted movie posters. I feel something was lost when the transition to PhotoShopped images became the new standard. For The Color of Money, the artist captured Newman's unstoppable swagger. Cruise, after a string of blockbuster hits, gets equal billing when it comes to name size but his portrait literally fits inside Newman's. It's less detailed, of a lower quality, and if it wasn't for poor Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, no one would believe that Cruise was anything more than a good looking actor with a bit part. This isn't my favorite painted poster but there have been worse.

Poster Rating: B

After Hours: Haha, this poster is the sole reason it took years for me to watch After Hours. From the ugly Twizzler-styled title to the confusing clock metaphor. Some posters just seem to say "There's nothing worth watching here" and for me, this poster couldn't stop saying that. But once I eventually watched the film, it became clear that the artwork matched the script's comedic style. Either way, the artwork's outdated and corny and even though I'm usually a fan of 80s/90s comedy posters, this one doesn't do a thing for me. It doesn't make me gag, it just makes me uninterested.

Poster Rating: C

The King of Comedy: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Starting at the top, why two taglines? Why an ugly gray background? And WHY would you think that drawing DeNiro and Lewis on playing cards would make anyone want to see your movie? Just because the word "King" is in your title doesn't give you permission to try passing off something like this. It's art direction like this that can sink a movie. And it's probably art direction like this that did sink The King of Comedy.

Poster Rating: D

Raging Bull: The poster's as iconic as the movie itself. I can't tell you how many (dorm) rooms I've seen with this poster hanging on the wall. Little needs to be said about this poster. Everything the movie did right, the poster did just as well. Whoever's responsible for that picture of DeNiro should have won an Oscar. In fact, why isn't there a Best Poster Oscar? Anyone up for a letter writing campaign? The only things I don't care for are the quotation marks around the title.

Poster Rating: A

The Last Waltz: This looks like a cover for an early-90s steamy thriller novel that my grandma might keep in a decorative basket in the bathroom. That font...that gold...sweet Moses. It's like someone took a champagne colored Buick LeSabre and transformed it into a movie poster.

Poster Rating: D-

Taxi Driver: I love the font and the curding (spacing) between the letters. And what a great choice to keep the design simple. Taxi Driver doesn't need a tagline. Taxi Driver doesn't need color. Like the Raging Bull poster, all you need is DeNiro. It doesn't hurt to put DeNiro on the last city street I'd ever want to visit. Except for this one. Or this one. The choice to show Bickle without his signature mohawk was the right one to make. Unless it's a monster movie or a superhero movie (and maybe Taxi Driver could be argued as either), showing the latter end of a character's transformation on the poster cheapens the impact of the evolution.

Poster Rating: A+

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore: The black and white isn't very crisp and the (branches?) jutting into the frame are distracting. Unlike Travis Bickle's surroundings, the (farm?) they're standing in front of doesn't say much about anything. They're outside. They're not downtown Manhattan. But it doesn't say much else. Also, if I had designed Alice's poster, I wouldn't have featured Kristofferson. It's Alice's strength and resilience that makes the film so compelling. This cuddle session makes Alice look like just another romance. And that tagline makes me barf.

Poster Rating: C

Mean Streets: If I had to use four words to describe the Mean Streets poster, I'd have to call it "exquisite, savage, compassionate and brilliant." But seriously, whoever designed this poster (and I tried to track down a name) deserves an award. Why isn't there an Oscar for Best Poster? Maybe then studios would put a little more effort into their one-sheets. Notice how the gun (or violence) is literally a part of the city. It's as natural as the buildings and the people inside them. Even it's smoke is absorbed into the skyline and used as clouds. The poster makes an excellent use of negative space and says just as much about Mean Streets as its trailer.

Poster Rating: A+

Boxcar Bertha: The photograph that Hershey's portrait was based off of has one big difference: the big ol' shotgun in Bertha's hand. Seeing her without the weaponry makes her look like a laid-back flower child with nothing better to do than stare into the sky. Look at all the action around her. A train's going off the tracks. A group of cops are chillin' with their rifles. I mean, Jesus Christ, someone's getting crucified! Now look at the film's protagonist. Does this picture say "outcast?" Or "outlaw?" Not at all. If it wasn't for the poorly written tagline, we'd have no clue that Bertha was anything but a pretty girl with a glazed look in her eyes. And that is definitely not how to sell a movie like Boxcar Bertha. The bottom half is an exciting adventure. The top half might be sleepy or bored or delightfully deranged. One last side note, none of the fonts on this poster match one another and that's just sloppy poster-making.

Poster Rating: C