The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Posted on November 20, 2013 at 11:35 am

In the second chapter of the three-book, four-movie series, Katniss Everdeen has gone from being a shy unknown with extraordinary skills to being an acclaimed superstar. The same could be said for the actress who plays the part. When Jennifer Lawrence was selected to play the heroine of the blockbuster novels by Suzanne Collins, she was barely out of her teens. She had scored an Oscar nomination for a small, independent film called Winter’s Bone that was seen by about the number of people listed in the credits of this film. And in between the first and second in the “Hunger Games” series, she won a leading actress Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook.

In this deeper, smarter, politically sharper, and more emotionally resonant follow-up, she returns to the dystopian world of Panem as Katniss prepares for her victory tour, following an unprecedented triumph at the titular competition. Once a year, two teenagers are selected from each of the twelve districts to compete to the death in televised combat that the totalitarian government imposes in a gruesome simulacrum of an athletic contest that promotes dedication, talent, and integrity. As the previous film ended, Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) defied the authorities to come up with a way that they could both come out alive — by pretending to be in love and be willing to sacrifice themselves to be together. This has made them very popular, and the dictator, “President” Snow (a nicely corrupt Donald Sutherland) wants to make sure that this popularity is extended on behalf of his regime and will not inspire any rebellious uprisings. When his own granddaughter begins to braid her hair to be like Katniss, he knows that if he cannot control the young archer, he will have to destroy her. However, as the new Head Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) reminds him, he must be careful to get rid of her in a way that will discredit her, to make sure she does not become a martyr and inspire the rebels even more in memory than she already does.

Snow tells Katniss she has to persuade not just the fans but him that she is truly in love with Peeta or he will destroy her and her family. She does her best, and cares for Peeta deeply, but her heart is still with Gale (Liam Hemsworth), who is hurt and jealous.

Plutarch decides to mount an all-star game, pitting previous champions of the Hunger Games against each other in a ramped-up competition. And no skirting the rules with a romance this time. Katniss and Peeta go back to the Capital for another dress-up extravaganza (costume designer Trish Summerville ramps things up with costumes that are a mash-up between “Project Runway’s” unconventional materials and fashion forward challenges and an acid trip. Elizabeth Banks carries off the wildest of the attire better than anyone else could (with the exception of Barbie), and manages to give the outrageous Effie Trinket a little bit of compassion under the Kabuki-like makeup. And Katniss, known as the “girl on fire” thanks to the costumes designed by the stylist Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) gets a wedding gown extravaganza with an unexpected political overlay.

And then, the games begin, as before, with the same race to get supplies and weapons while avoiding attack and assessing possible alliances that by definition will be short-term. Plutarch has some challenges of his own to keep the contestants off-balance and on the run. With each “tribute” a previous winner, the odds are not in anyone’s favor.

Director Francis Lawrence (“I am Legend,” no relation to his star), taking over from Gary Ross, manages the large cast and complicated action well and screenwriters Simon Beaufoy (“Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”) and Michael Arndt (“Toy Story III,” “Little Miss Sunshine”) adapted the book deftly. They balance the small, intimate moments, brief humor, and intense emotion with the grand sweep of the games, acknowledging the over-arching themes of honor, freedom, and courage but keeping the focus on the relationships. It tells us everything that in the short training/assessment/sponsorship-seeking period before the Games begin, Katniss reaches out to the weakest and most vulnerable of the other contestants, helping them with no agenda for her own protection.

The other additions to the series are exceptionally well-chosen, too, especially Hoffman, as a man who knows more about “counter-moves” than we may suspect at first, Sam Claflin as the high-spirited, faun-like Finnick Odair, Jeffrey Wright and Amanda Plummer as the wonkiest participants, and Jena Malone, a fiery delight as the furious Johanna Mason. But it is Lawrence who steals the show again as Katniss. Be sure to keep your eyes on her face in that last scene; it’s a lulu that will have you counting the moments until the next episode (now in production).

Parents should know that the theme of these books concerns a totalitarian dictatorship that forces teenagers to battle to the death in a very intense and disturbing “game.” Many characters are injured and killed and there are scary surprises, graphic images, and disturbing threats. Many teenage and adult characters are beaten, injured, and killed, with knives, guns, whips, arrows, spears, poison fog, animal attacks, psychological abuse, and more. Characters abuse alcohol, there are drug references, and characters use some strong language. There is kissing and some implied nudity in public — nothing shown.

Family discussion: What did Plutarch mean by “moves and countermoves?” Why did the tributes hold hands? Why wouldn’t Gale leave?

If you like this, try: the first movie and the books by Suzanne Collins

“Hunger Games” Apology (sort of) from Jeffrey Wells

Posted on March 26, 2012 at 11:05 am

Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells has conceded my points about his appalling comments on “The Hunger Games,” perhaps more than he realizes.

To recap: I wrote about his offensive comments regarding the body of the movie’s lead actress, Jennifer Lawrence. He said she was “too big” for co-star Josh Hutcherson, revealing his assumptions that (1) for the purposes of aesthetics and credibility, the male lead has to be significantly bigger than the female lead, and (2) it is the obligation of the female star of a film, even if she is playing the most important role, to accommodate any perceived size inadequacy of her male co-star. Not content to insult Lawrence, actors and actresses in general, and the audience of fans, he also went on to insult female film critics, writing that they could not be trusted to evaluate this film. As I wrote earlier:

To add insult to injury — and some more insult, too — Wells advises his readers to beware of the reviews of “The Hunger Games” by female critics ”as they’re probably more susceptible to the lore of this young-female-adult-propelled franchise than most.” Um, “most?” Who would that be again?

He seems to have some Victorian notion that women get the vapors and cannot think straight. And that women somehow don’t count in deciding who makes up “most” ticket-buyers or members of the population.

I was pleased to see that Wells responded promptly, and if his reaction was a bit shrill, well, perhaps he is experiencing a bit of the vapors himself. Being wrong can do that. It is rather telling that until corrected by an alert commenter, he thought I was a man, referring to me as “Neil Minow.” I take it as a compliment to the validity of my post that he assumed it had to come from a bro and not a “susceptible” female.

But he made some important concessions and I want to give him credit for them. First, he agreed that if he was going to make a point about the mismatch of size of the two leads, his focus should have been on the co-star, not the lead. Second, although he did not mention that he amended the original post I quoted above (thank goodness another alert commenter called him on it), he did soften his indefensible comment about female critics, by revising it to say that “certain” female critics “may” be susceptible. “The use of ‘certain’ and ‘may’ make the difference between a blanket statement and a carefully phrased one,” he says. It is still an idiotic point, but by adding “certain” and “may” he shows that at some level he recognizes that. It would have been classier, though, if he had admitted that he backed down from what he himself calls a blanket statement. And “careful phrasing” would have dropped “female” entirely, I believe.

Wells ends by noting as though anyone had argued otherwise, that everyone brings some bias to a film. Where I come from, we prefer to call it a point of view, but certainly, there is no such thing as pure objectivity, which means that male critics are just as likely to be biased against a female action lead as female critics are to be biased in her favor. I am glad that “The Hunger Games” will be reviewed by fans of the book, people who have not read the book, people who consider it an anti-big government allegory, people who consider it an anti-fascism, pro-99% allegory, men, women, young critics and older critics. If there are film critics in District 12 and Capital City, I’d love to see what they have to say. I welcome all of these perspectives, even unreconstructed critics who think that the job of the female star is to conform to some notion of “appropriate” size and that the job of the female critics is to leave their gender at the door of the theater. But there is no excuse for making a sweeping generalization, refuted by the facts, that female critics and only female critics will over-praise the film. Fortunately, Wells’ admission that everyone is biased implicitly includes himself, so I am going to read that as an admission and apology and hope for better from him next time.

Appalling Critiques of Jennifer Lawrence’s Body in “Hunger Games”

Posted on March 24, 2012 at 10:58 am

Thanks very much to L.V. Anderson for a piece in Slate about truly horrifying discussions of Jennifer Lawrence’s body in reviews of “The Hunger Games.”

A baffling, infuriating trend has cropped up in reviews of The Hunger Games: critics bodysnarking on Jennifer Lawrence. “A few years ago Ms. Lawrence might have looked hungry enough to play Katniss,” writes the New York Times’ Manohla Dargis, “but now, at 21, her seductive, womanly figure makes a bad fit for a dystopian fantasy about a people starved into submission.” The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy comments that Lawrence’s “lingering baby fat shows here.” And—most bluntly—Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells calls Lawrence a “fairly tall, big-boned lady” who’s “too big” for Josh Hutcherson, who plays Katniss’s romantic interest.

As Anderson points out, Lawrence is very slender and attractive. If she does not look super-model skinny (the kind of severely underweight body recently outlawed in Israel for models in ads in an effort to combat eating disorders), I consider it a major step forward to give audiences heroine whose body communicates health and strength.

Oh, and one other appalling — and revealing — aspect of Wells’ comment. Why make the obligation of physical suitability on Lawrence? Why not say that Hutcherson, who is in a supporting role, is too small for her?

To add insult to injury — and some more insult, too — Wells advises his readers to beware of the reviews of “The Hunger Games” by female critics “as they’re probably more susceptible to the lore of this young-female-adult-propelled franchise than most.” Um, “most?” Who would that be again?”

Once again, the male gaze, or Wells’ male gaze, is the norm and everyone else is just an outlier. Thanks to Matt Singer of indieWire for pointing out that there is no statistically significant difference between the ratio of positive to negative reviews of this film by male and female critics.

Related Tags:

Understanding Media and Pop Culture

John Hanlon’s 10 Differences Between the Hunger Games Book and Movie

Posted on March 23, 2012 at 11:43 am

My friend John Hanlon launched his new website today with a terrific list of the 10 biggest differences between the Hunger Games book and movie. Big spoilers alert, but when you know them both, it is both thoughtful and lots of fun. I actually liked the movie better than the book, partly because instead of the subjective re-telling by Katniss it is an objective and more cinematic version of the story. I agreed with the decisions about what and where to trim. And of course the movie benefited tremendously from the performance of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss.

Related Tags:

Books Spoiler Alert

Interview: The Cast of “The Hunger Games”

Posted on March 22, 2012 at 2:03 pm

My wonderful friend Kevin McCarthy interviewed the cast of “The Hunger Games” and graciously gave me permission to share the video. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw5cLvfZb7M

Related Tags:

Actors Interview