CLOUD ATLAS : Not a review

I'm not a film critic. I try to be one but I know I just don't have it in me. I know what makes a film tick (I've watched too many not to know) but if I judge every movie by that, it'll make me a hypocritical douchebag. I've not studied film professionally, I've not made films or watched every film in existence. I just love films. Over the course of my life, I've fallen in love with great films as well as horrible ones. I tend to recognize feel the effort a filmmaker puts into making a film.
That's why I love a crappy (but fun) film like James Gunn's Super and hate Michael Bay's Transformers.
Cloud Atlas is by no means a crappy film. It's a great one, with some great performances, brilliant cinematography, sublime makeup work, astounding visual effects, but I can see why people may hate it.

Firstly, it's anything but conventional. You've got actors playing multiple roles across different time periods; women play males, males play women, white actors play asians and asians play white people. Then there's six storylines, and the film tends to jump haphazardly from one story to another. The film gives you no time to breathe, or to go and take a leak. It demands your constant attention. Miss a single beat and you're screwed. The weird, mumbly dialect in one of the stories doesn't help either.
Cloud Atlas cannot be reviewed. To write a review that'll decide if people should go spend their money on it or not is an act of sin. Don't look at the Rottentomatoes ratings, or the ridiculous yellowface accusations. Go and fucking watch this film.

I've never seen anything like Cloud Atlas. Ever. It's not the greatest thing ever, but it's beautiful, it's funny and fucking marvelous. I mean, have you seen a film that has Halle Berry play a white woman? Or Hugo Weaving play an asshole nurse?
The Wachowskis and Tom Twyker had no studio backing for the film. They had to scramble for the $102 million it took them to make the film. Scramble. The three of them have been hit-or-miss directors. The Wachowskis hit gold with their Matrix trilogy, but people didn't respond so positively to Speed Racer, an adaptation of the anime of the same name. Me? I loved the fucking hell out of it. I can't hate a film the directors actually gave a shit about making. Twyker's Run Lola Run is a magnificent film, but he faltered with the visually stunning, but otherwise morose Perfume. 
Cloud Atlas is also a hit and miss affair. But even the misses have great moments in them. There's this charm in them that I can't quite put my finger on.
But why should you go watch it? Why should you go watch a film that you probably won't like?
Because Cloud Atlas has something that ninety percent of the movies out there don't have : a vision. Does Transformers have a vision? Nope. Just Robots hitting each other until one of them topples over. Does Paranormal Activity have a vision? I'm laughing at you right now. Ted? Funny, but Seth MacFarlane's brand of comedy is absolute drivel. Student Of The Year? Fuck that shit. Cloud Atlas had no studio backing. It was the directors' vision through and through. And a vision of such ambition, of such scope deserves support.

And maybe maybe studios will become more daring, more supportive of such vision. Maybe one day we'll see theaters jam packed with films filmmakers actually give a shit about rather than Battleship. 
So go to a theater. Buy a ticket for Cloud Atlas. Two, if you're feeling generous. Sit down and immerse yourself into six worlds for three hours. It may frustrate you, chances are you may love it, but know this : it's worth it. Lana, Andy and Tom deserve your money. Just this once.

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