Every now and again – maybe a few times in any era or generation – a movie comes along that uses the technology of the day in a way that is insightful, human and prophetic.
The trailer for Ben Stiller‘s re-make of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty indicates this might be one of those movies.
Instead of garish Transformer-like OTT childish, poser VFX overdone in set pieces that would look more at home in a branding video for a piece of software, a great filmmaker can use tech tools to artfully tell a story that feels so personal, it’s a vision of what goes on inside my own heart and mind.
Back in 1985, Terry Gilliam made Brazil and the VFX captured what being inside imagination was really like. The VFX reflected and revealed the reality of human fantasy – what desire looked like and frustration felt like. It also turned out to be a prophetic, fightening satire.
I still watch this film from time to time and laugh and cry and marvel.
So when I saw the trailer for this new version of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty – I got a few tingles.
Could Ben Stiller be giving us a film that is visually delicious as well as offer a chance for us to experience ourselves at a deeper level providing a tragi-comic understanding of what ‘it’ is all about?
Fingers crossed.
Check it out below and compare it to the 1985 trailer for Brazil.