Dir: Henry Selick
The amount of directors that practice the autuer style of film making has become frighteningly scarce. No longer is the medium of film a privileged source of artistic expression for those who are crazy enough to man the helm. It is in this dismal detection that movies with no compelling mise-en-scene are delivered again and again like some sort of possessed vegetation that keeps reproducing. That is why Henry Selick comes as a breath of fresh air. The man is consistent in producing works that carry such intricate detail within the frame that I have to question his anal retentive sanity.
However...
Whereas Coraline is one intensely beautiful piece of work that will hold up next to Selick’s previous animated wonders, it suffers from an extreme case of faddish meticulousness.
No one can deny that Coraline is one magnificent piece of animated cinema. There are moments that even border on superhuman. To try and deconstruct how one man can direct a team of people to create such a mind-blowing outcome is beyond my comprehension. The film is stunning. And even though the visual complexity of this movie is unlike anything you have ever seen, it comes on like a wave of saturation that your brain might not be able to handle. Speaking as an admirer of aesthetically intense cinema, I had a hard time not thinking "Wow, I wonder how they did that", every few minutes. It became less about telling an interesting (and frightening) tale and more about showing off what the LAIKA production house is capable of with the right director and the right amount of money.
Never establishing well enough its target audience, Coraline would have benefitted from going full force one way or the other. The film is by no means a children's movie, nor is it frightening enough for adults. Knowing full well what Selick is capable of, I would have liked to have seen the man really stretch himself to his fear limit (the largest bit of disturbing imagery came from a very supple bust line, courtesy of Miss Forcible). And even though I posses a never ending thirst for all things horrific and terrifying, I can recognize the fact that the movies marketed to children when I was young undoubtedly scared the hell out of each and every one of us-- one could even make the connection that these films spawned my obsession with the macabre. Since I was fortunate enough to grow up in the same time period that produced gems such as Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, I have a high standard for movies geared towards those vexatious little vermin we refer to as "children". And whereas Coraline won't make your kids soil themselves, at least it will get them to shut up for an hour and a half.
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