{"id":34864,"date":"2013-04-05T09:47:27","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T16:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/?p=34864"},"modified":"2013-04-05T09:47:27","modified_gmt":"2013-04-05T16:47:27","slug":"rethink-reviews-trance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/2013\/04\/05\/rethink-reviews-trance\/","title":{"rendered":"ReThink Reviews: Trance"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"inline-playlist playlist\" title=\"\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/download\/20130405Reitman\/TranceKpfk_1-2.mp3\">Listen to this segment <\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n<p><a href =\"http:\/\/www.rethinkreviews.net\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=right width=55% src=\"\/home\/graphics\/rethink_reviews_small.jpg\" alt=\"Rethink Reviews\" \/><\/a><strong>Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today. <\/strong>  <\/p>\n<p><em>Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films. <\/em>  <\/p>\n<p> Read his reviews online at <a href=\"http:\/\/ReThinkReviews.net\">ReThinkReviews.net<\/a>. Watch his videos at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim\">www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim<\/a>, and follow him on Twitter at <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ReThinkReviews\">twitter.com\/ReThinkReviews<\/a>. ReThink Reviews&#8217; theme song is by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/restaurantmusic\">Restavrant<\/a>.    <\/p>\n<p><strong>TRANCE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Other than his penchant for bright colors, quick cutting, and pulsing electric soundtracks, director Danny Boyle\u2019s filmography defies easy categorization, with such diverse works as the junkie adventure \u2018Trainspotting\u2019, sprinting zombies in \u201828 Days Later\u2019, the rags-to-riches Mumbai love story \u2018Slumdog Millionaire\u2019, and slow motion amputation in \u2018127 Hours\u2019. So after pulling off the spectacle of London\u2019s 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, Boyle has gone to something considerably smaller, a twisty crime caper slash love triangle slash psychological thriller called \u2018Trance\u2019 that would get Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s nod of approval.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Trance\u2019 takes place in modern-day London with an art auctioneer named Simon (played by James McAvoy) who gets bashed in the head during a heist to steal a Goya painting worth millions. But we quickly learn that Simon was no innocent victim and had plans to steal the painting for himself, but the concussion Simon suffered has erased his memory of where he hid the painting. So when Franck, the heist leader (played by a wonderfully menacing Vincent Cassel), realizes he doesn\u2019t have the painting and can\u2019t simply torture its location out of Simon, he forces Simon to find a hypnotherapist (played by Rosario Dawson) to uncover his lost memories.<\/p>\n<p>But as Elizabeth and Simon grow closer as she digs further into his unconscious, it becomes clear that \u2018Trance\u2019 is about more than a heist gone wrong. And as you learn more about Simon, Franck, and Elizabeth, you\u2019ll find yourself not only wondering what genre of movie you\u2019re watching, but also who\u2019s tricking who, who the main character is, and who you should be rooting for. That\u2019s why \u2018Trance\u2019 reminded me somewhat of a Hitchcock film, where the crime itself was often only a springboard for psychological examinations of criminals, their victims, and their pursuers. \u2018Trance\u2019 also reminded me of Christopher Nolan\u2019s breakout film \u2018Memento\u2019, another twisty film with an unreliable narrator who can\u2019t trust his own memories.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps \u2018Trance\u2019\u2019s biggest flaw is some of its claims about hypnosis. While hypnotherapy can certainly be a powerful and effective tool, it won\u2019t get someone to doing something against their will or their own self interest. But I don\u2019t begrudge it since hypnosis in movies has always existed in its own semi-magical reality, and in the case of \u2018Trance\u2019, it\u2019s the portal to interesting themes like dealing with the past, our past selves, and what we\u2019ll do in an attempt to forge a more hopeful future, similar to the role the sci-fi memory-erasing technology in \u2018Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind\u2019 plays.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Trance\u2019 isn\u2019t out to save the world, but it\u2019s nice to see a solid little piece of entertainment that has a fun time mashing up genres, going against conventions, and keeping you guessing while expecting the audience to keep up with its zippy pace and twisty plot. And if you need a more juvenile reason to see \u2018Trance\u2019, it has Rosario Dawson getting very, very naked which, like Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis\u2019 kiss in \u2018Black Swan\u2019, is probably going to dominate the coverage of this movie. But don\u2019t let that distract you, since \u2018Trance\u2019 is an engrossing Friday or Saturday night movie and a reminder that Danny Boyle remains one of the most interesting directors out there.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Trance\u2019 is rated R and opens today in select theaters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today. Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films. Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rethink-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34865,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34864\/revisions\/34865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}