Speed Racer
Is Speed Racer Kubrick’s 2001 for kids?
To call its reception ‘lukewarm’ is an understatement, and it’s easy to see why. It’s too child-friendly for adults –the cute-kid-and-monkey comic relief, straight from the cartoon, will set many eyes rolling – but it’s also too long and convoluted for kids. It’s hubris worthy of Greek myth to make a film entirely about velocity run for a leisurely, sometimes leaden, two hours or more.
These real, glaring problems? They don’t matter. Behind Speed Racer’s flat dialogue and clumsy storytelling, there’s more life, more joy, more hypodermic-to-the-eye full-tilt kapow than in a half-dozen other blockbusters slapped together.
The Wachowski Brothers gave us bullet-time and flappy black coats, but now they shift gears into bright colours and bizarre designs. Simple cuts are replaced by kaleidoscopic whip-pans. Kinetic energy turns falling snow into anime speed-lines. It’s more than just eye-candy. In the final moments, Speed Racer's visuals fall apart into gorgeous, candified abstractions.
See it if you’re curious how far and fast the Wachowskis will go.
Format: Cinema
Mood: Rad
Keywords: Speed Racer
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