Big Eyes

Year:  2014

Director:  Tim Burton

Screenplay:  Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski

Starring:  Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Jon Polito, Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman, Terence Stamp

Running Time:  106 minutes

Genre:  Drama, comedy, biography

In 1958 aspiring artist Margaret Ulrich (Adams) leaves her husband and travels with her young daughter to San Francisco, where she meets unsuccessful but charismatic painter Walter Keane (Waltz), and they soon get married.  While Walter paints nondescript landscapes, Margaret specialises in pictures of waif-like children with oversized eyes.  As Walter continues to have no success with his own works, he begins to pass off Margaret's work as his own (she signs her paintings simply as "Keane").  The paintings become extremely successful, and Walter becomes something of a celebrity, but Margaret is increasingly dissatisfied at doing all of the work and getting none of the credit.

You may not be familiar with Margaret and Walter Keane and the slightly creepy paintings of sad children with huge eyes (which look now for all the world like the sinister Black Eyed Kids of modern urban legend).  However in the 1960s Walter Keane was a big celebrity, and the paintings were hugely popular.  It turned out of course that the paintings were all the work of his wife, Margaret.  It's a strange and interesting story, and this is an interesting film.  Director Tim Burton and screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski had previously explored the odd fringes of popular culture with Ed Wood (1994), and while this shares the often humorous take and appreciation of kitsch, Big Eyes is not as distinctive or impressive.  In fact it is a surprisingly conventional film from Tim Burton who made his name with bizarre, grotesque and slightly surreal films, the main stylistic element here is that everything seems overly bright and colourful.  Amy Adams gives a muted, nuanced performance as Margaret Keane, but Christoph Waltz goes completely over the top as the charismatic conman Walter Keane, who comes across as something between a gameshow host and a sleazy used car salesman, he constantly talks about his travels throughout France, and it turns out that he spent all of a week there, and when it come to art he has far more confidence than talent.   Together Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz seem to be making two completely different films.  Amy Adams, a drama about a woman trying to find her voice, and Christoph Waltz, a broad comedy about a lovable rogue.  The film is interesting and always entertaining, but it is quite conventional.  It's certainly worth your time, but probably won't linger very long after the end credits have rolled.  

Amy Adams in Big Eyes
   

Batman

Year of Release:  1989
Director:  Tim Burton
Screenplay:  Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren, from a story by on Sam Hamm, based on characters created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger
Starring:  Micheal Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Billy Dee Williams, Micheal Gough, Pat Hingle, Jack Palance
Running Time:  121 minutes
Genre:  Action, science-fiction, fantasy, superhero

In Gotham City, reporter Alexander Knox (Wuhl) is investigating the mysterious "Batman" terrorizing the city's criminals.  No-one takes Knox seriously except photojournalist Vicki Vale (Basinger).  The trail leads them to eccentric billionaire Bruce Wayne (Keaton).  Meanwhile, the city's police department are desperate to bring down powerful crime boss Carl Grissom (Palance) and his ruthless enforcer Jack Napier (Nicholson).  Realising that Napier is having an affair with his girlfriend, Alicia (Jerry Hall), Grissom sets him up during a raid on a chemical works.  Batman intervenes and badly injures Napier, who is presumed dead.  Shortly afterwards Gotham City's underworld is taken over by a mysterious and deadly new criminal known as The Joker, who plans a horrific revenge on the good people of Gotham City.

This is kind of a difficult film because it gets a lot right, and when it's good it's brilliant, but it gets a lot wrong, and when it's bad it is terrible.  At the time it came out Batman was probably best known to general audiences from the campy 1960s TV series with Adam West and Burt Ward, but in the world of comics writers such as Frank Millar, Alan Moore and Grant Morrison were bringing a much darker and grittier version of the Dark Knight with critically acclaimed stories such as The Dark Knight Returns (1986), Year One (1987), The Killing Joke (1988) and Arkham Asylum (1989).  The film combines both aesthetics, despite the gloom and surprising levels of violence, a lot of it is as camp as anything in the TV series.  As you would expect from Tim Burton, the film has a lot of visual style.  Borrowing a lot from the shadowy world of traditional film noir, Gotham City is an almost surreal blend of 1920s, 1940s and 1980s styles.  Micheal Keaton does a great job as Bruce Wayne and Batman, although his casting was controversial at the time, with some fans deeming him not muscular enough for the role, as well as the fact that he was best known as a comedy actor.  He makes Bruce Wayne a strange and slightly sinister character (although to be fair, it is a little strange to dress up in an animal costume and beat up criminals every night), however it is slightly odd the amount of times that Batman get his ass kicked in the film.  He's knocked over a couple of times and gets knocked out and unmasked once by a gaggle of random goons (which include Mac McDonald, best known as Captain Hollister in Red Dwarf (1988-present)).  However Jack Nicholson is perfect as The Joker.  However, the film's biggest flaw is that it totally demystifies The Joker, because it gives him a definitive origin, whereas the character works better when he is ambiguous, as well as forcing a connection between the Joker and Batman.  Kim Basinger is good as Vicki Vale, although she is not given enough to do.  The film's unsung hero, however is Robert Wuhl as Alexander Knox.  It's an interesting idea to have a superhero story told from the point of view of an investigative journalist and Knox adds a lot of humour to the story, and he is the main character early in the film, but then he pretty much gets written out and abandoned. 
The film was released to huge publicity in the summer of 1989, and, when viewed with later Batman films, seems like kind of an oddity.  Tim Burton openly stated that he had no interest in comics, and the filmmakers don't really seem to connect with the Batman mythology and it's characters.  

Batman (Micheal Keaton) investigates The Joker (Jack Nicholson) in Batman