Goodman and Susan Sarandon, both actors accustom to contributing simpler and less sophisticated performances than we know they're capable of, offer subtlety and sophistication as Pops and Mom Racer, even while they're clearly having fun. Hirsch continues to mature into a solid leading man as he trades back and forth between paydays like this and Into the Wild, providing this film's squeaky-clean heroism as effortlessly as the Penn film's earnest intensity. As with the plot, broad strokes work best when the filmmakers are doing as much (or in this case, more) visually as they are conceptually, and the characterizations need to be archetypal - which almost without exception, they are. On the other hand, if one were to suggest that "cartoonish" was the only adjective needed to describe successful performances in a film like Speed Racer, they would only be half right. Not only with Tattersall behind the lens but Industrial Light & Magic assembling the ones and zeroes, Speed Racer takes the technology George Lucas experimented with in the prequel trilogy and tests the limits of what it was designed for - namely, immersing the characters (and by extension, the audience) in worlds that they could only previously imagine in their heads. This is an important distinction to note because in movies, realism means nothing since every world created in the camera is literally constructed or manipulated but believability testifies to a filmmaker's ability to make the audience go along for the ride when they construct or manipulate that world.
SPEED RACER 2008 ROSIE HOW TO
What the Wachowskis have mastered over the last decade is creating a true sense of believability, and that's because they know how to distinguish from anything as pedestrian as realism. The actors, meanwhile, are shot unflinchingly with blaring lights and sharp-focus digital cameras that give them the exaggerated texture of colorized black and white film if you ever wondered what each of Matthew Fox's eyelashes looked like in excruciating detail then this is most definitely the film for you. There's not a single thing in the film that looks remotely realistic, but the Wachowskis and director of photography David Tattersall ( Star Wars Episodes I, II and III) commit with such passion to realizing this absurd, candy-coated universe that it somehow becomes believable. Imagine Tokyo designed by Willy Wonka after watching Tron and you're somewhere in the ballpark.
SPEED RACER 2008 ROSIE SERIES
(Seriously… in an adaptation of the animated series Speed Racer, who cares about corporate politics or anything else when there are so many colors, images, and - of course - races to marvel at?) Thankfully, the film more then delivers on the level of pure excitement, offering the most visually arresting world ever conceived for a piece of mainstream entertainment. What matters here is that Speed is the best he cares deeply about his family and refuses to sell out his principles no matter how insurmountable the odds stacked against him. Uniquely for a summer blockbuster, Speed Racer actually has too much plot for its own good, which will no doubt bore the film's preteen audience (or at least allow them to nap in between racing sequences). There's a ridiculous wealth of details left out of that synopsis, but that's the defining characteristic of a Wachowski film - twice as many words are necessary to convey the stakes of the story. But when a ruthless tycoon named Royalton (Roger Allam) approaches him with a lucrative offer to buy the family business, Speed is forced to decide what matters more: the financial security of his family or the pure artistry of his racing out on the track. After his older brother Rex dies in a mysterious accident, Speed ascends the family throne and joyfully races for his father Pops (John Goodman). Emile Hirsch ( Into the Wild) plays Speed, a kid who has dreamt of racing cars since he was in short pants. Almost 10 years later, they have at last perfected this speech-action-speech rhythm with Speed Racer - a film of such (literal) blinding ambition, artistic pretense and undeniable entertainment value that the Wachowskis may indeed have created the second truly iconic film of their young careers. This began way back in 1999's The Matrix, where moments of great philosophical rhetoric receded only long enough for the characters to kick the crap out of each other. It's their persistence in the belief that action and dialogue should seldom if ever take place at the same time - essentially, there is a time for talking and a time for fighting, and never the two shall meet. With the release of Speed Racer, it's becoming clear that the Wachowskis are not unlike David Mamet or Wes Anderson in that they have their own distinctive, consistent filmmaking style.