Rare Magic

Rating: 10/10 (4 September 2009)

**** (out of four)
By Aaron Dumont
A work like Coraline is, much like Pixar's Up, a relieving work. The state of mainstream cinema today---a cynical feeding tube of explosions, borderline-playboys, one-dimensional insults to characters and character development, and pretty much vapid cultural nothingness---seems always to be steeped in a complete lack of ideas, thought or obstacles. That, among several other things, is what makes Coraline so special. Of course, it's still a great work when standing on it's own, but such an unlikely breath of fresh air is simply difficult to come across these days---Coraline is well-near rapturous. The endless sense of unsettling terror, of mystery, of complete perplexity---the kinetic, vibrant balance between emotion, adventure and hallucinatory near-myth is purely stunning. In the wasteland of today's arts and entertainment medium, one so dense with mediocrity that intellect can barely survive in it, Coraline finds itself in the humble, calm, albeit mundane world of a young girl named (ever-so-obviously enough) Coraline. Coraline, bored with her limited surroundings, workaholic parents and (utter lack of) contact and friends, goes exploring in her twisty, spirally house, before finding a small door, leading through a pulsating, acid-like tunnel, before getting dragged right into a darkly perfect alternate life, with an Other Mother, Other Father, delicious meals, ridiculously luxurious mansion/garden/shows and magic/et cetera. Though as Coraline gets more and more obsessed with this psychedelic happy-circus alternate life, she begins to become disillusioned by a series of unfortunate findings; the mandatory buttons-for-eyes, the Other other's insanely cruel punishment towards Coraline's only friend, the trapped souls... I won't reveal much more; such a movie needs to be experienced. During the final moments of the movie, the dusky, cloudy shades from previously bloom into complex interplays of lights, shadows, primaries, often wandering off into more psychedelic regions, often entering a twisted dream logic and topsy-turvy psyche, though the brilliance of Coraline is that is stays earthy and on its feet even when it has its head and arms embraced right into the wildest of fantasies, dreams, nightmares and puzzles---the terrifying, vertiginous scene where Coraline has a final standoff between her and the Other Mother, is one of pure, handcrafted imagination; it's something so antique yet so inventive, something nostalgic yet open and liberating that it can only be one thing, something difficult-to-recognize but more than welcome: genius.