During the emotional roller coaster that was the Intervention marathon Maria and I watched last night someone slipped in a trailer for the new movie Devil, out in theatres in a couple of weeks. It was a short trailer, I wasn’t even really paying attention, but we did both pause and take note when the name “M. Night Shyamalan” whipped across the screen.

Shyamalan is one of my favourite writers/directors working today and so, since I follow him pretty closely, I was totally surprised to find that he had a new film coming out. Well, not exactly. As it turns out, Shyamalan was involved in the film only as far as the story concept goes. He came up with the idea, but that’s about it. Still, I like the way he thinks and all of his films in the past, as far as I’m concerned, have had really interesting stories at the heart of them so I’m excited for Devil. But let me tell you why I’m a bit frustrated too.

The concept behind devil—the concept that Shyamalan came up with—is that a bunch of people are stuck in an elevator on their way to work. One by one, they begin dying, and someone in that elevator is responsible for killing them, one of them is the devil himself.

It sounds like an interesting concept, but of course Shyamalan is going to get some flack. Sometimes I wonder if he isn’t the (amateur) movie critics whipping boy..

As soon as trailers for Devil trickled out of the production house the press dug up that same tired old line, “It might be a good movie, but I bet it has a twist ending.”

Ah, the good old twist ending. That style of film-making and story-telling that M. Night Shyamalan is infamous for. Well, the press say, he better work hard to dig himself out of that whole, he better finally make a movie without a twist ending.

And I roll my eyes clear out of my head.

Now I don’t want to confuse being a Shyamalan fan with being a fanboy, a fanatic, or an apologist. I am none of those things but I am tired of hearing the poor guy get flack for widely help misconceptions and poorly-researched assertions.

It is incorrect to say that all M. Night Shyamalan films have twist endings. It’s incorrect to say that he really needs to redeem himself from that plot device and come up with something new.

A quick look at his film-making resume from the past ten or so years is revealing:

- The Sixth Sense (Twist; he’s dead)
- Stuart Little (No Twist; we knew he was a mouse all along)
- Unbreakable (Small twist; you’re a superhero and he’s your nemesis)
- Signs (No Twist; we knew they were aliens)
- The Village (Twist; it’s the 21st century, better buy a new wardrobe)
- Lady in the Water (No Twist)
- The Happening (No Twist)
- The Last Airbender (No Twist)

Basing our conclusions on actual research (i.e., I looked at a list of films he’s made) it’s clear that less than half of his movies feature twist endings. But why does he still receive so much negative attention over it? Why does he have to redeem himself with a film like Devil?

As far as I’m concerned Shyamalan does a great twist ending, he’s a clever writer and director, but it isn’t the only thing he can do. He’s proven himself as a competent film-maker time and time again. While I didn’t see The Last Airbender (I think it’s a film for kids) both The Happening (an intentionally-crafted B-movie) and Lady in the Water (a fairytale) were pulled off very well. And no twists.

From what I’ve seen so far Devil looks like it’ll be a pretty good film. It’s a cool concept. But all the buzz on whether or not we’ll be in for a big twist in the end is just foolishness. Although for a film about the devil, wouldn’t it be perfectly fitting?

I’ll tell you why I loved Inception.

Sitting in the theatre, Inception is an absolutely mind-throttling movie. It makes you think, harder then you may have ever thought before, to try and piece together it’s complicated puzzle of a plot line. But—and this is the brilliance of Christopher Nolan—it isn’t too complicated that you grow frustrated or bored with it (although it does run a bit long). It’s deep, and gets deeper, as layer is heaped upon layer. It’s a great thinking movie, and a great action movie. Like The Dark Knight, another gem from Nolan, Inception’s action is intelligent, interesting and innovative. Nolan isn’t satisfied with stock footage, he pushes the limits of an action film, and it works.

But what’s really got me sold on Inception is the feeling that I had after I left the theatre. I felt inspired. I felt creative. And I think it’s a direct result of the film.

See, Inception absolutely pushes the limits of the creative imagination. Watching Inception I’m not allowed to take the role of passive observer, instead I’m pulled in and completely engaged with the film, the characters, and the whole world that Nolan’s created. It’s an absolute imagination-stretching film and when I left the theatre, my imagination continued to race, continued to create, the odometer in my brain kept on clicking. I think that’s a hallmark of an incredible movie: not that it’s so good that you talk about it for days after, but that it’s so creative and imaginative, that you keep creating—keep imagining—even after it’s done.  Truly, if there’s ever a cure for writer’s block it’s Inception and in an industry full of creative films, I think that says a lot.

I had the opportunity to watch The Brothers Bloom this weekend. It’s a film that Maria and I had wanted to see for a long time but just hadn’t got around to it. To be honest, after our extended Oscar-nominated film-watching marathon we’ve both been a little burnt out on the cinema. However, if we’d realized how great The Brothers Bloom was going to be, we certainly wouldn’t have waited this long to watch it.

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This past weekend, Maria and I watched Yes Man, a film which we normally wouldn’t have rented if it were not free from the library. I’m going to summarize my thoughts on this film in three paragraphs. I think that’s all it will take. This paragraph does not count.

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500 Days of Summer is one of those films that surprises you. I was surprised. When Maria mentioned that she wanted to watch it I was kind of skeptical. It looked like a chick flick, and even though I’ve been known not to mind a chick flick from time to time, I still approach them with some reserve. That said, 500 Days of Summer was really anything but a chick flick. Instead, it was an absolutely wonderful piece of film making that stretched and bent the edges of narrative story-telling, character and plot development, and imagination. It’s a must-see.

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I really didn’t expect a lot from Bobby. After all, it was written and directed by Emilio Estevez. Yes, that Emilio Estevez—the guy who played Coach Gordon in the highly-acclaimed Mighty Ducks series (tongue firmly planted in cheek). Really. So you can see why I didn’t go into this film expecting a whole lot, but Maria assured me that it was good and, as it turns out like in most all things, she was right.

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Over the weekend I had a man date with my friend Jason. Like all manly men do when they get together, we decided to watch a scary movie. We picked Paranormal Activity a movie we both wanted to see but hadn’t got around to yet because, in both our cases, we didn’t have anyone to watch it with—and this isn’t the kind of movie you want to watch alone!

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