Elysium (2013)

We enjoyed this taut, violent, science-fiction tale of class warfare with a ripped Matt Damon, a tense Jodie Foster, and a fitting follow-up to director/writer Neill Blomkamp's District 9. In a dystopian 2154 all of earth is a slum and the rich live on the titular space station a short rocket ride away. Damon (last in these pages in Promised Land) is believable as Max, the man with nothing to lose and everything to gain. I commend the casting director on choosing Maxwell Perry Cotton (Rachel Griffiths' son in 82 episodes of Brothers & Sisters) as the young Max. Foster (most recently in Carnage) is perfect as the uptight French-speaking executive Delacourt, a role that was originally written for a man. Speaking of language, it's nice that so many are spoken, reasonable that all of future slumlike Los Angeles would speak Spanish, but odd that the characters sound like teachers, i.e. they speak Spanish so slowly and carefully I could understand them and my Spanish isn't good at all. Alice Braga (covered in On the Road) is sweet as Max's love interest Frey, as is Diego Luna (last in Casa di Mi Padre) as his buddy Julio. Unrecognizable from his mild-mannered role in District 9 (other than his native South African accent) is Sharlto Copley as contract killer Kruger.

Composer Ryan Amon provides appropriately suspenseful music in his feature debut, You can listen to the entire soundtrack, over an hour long, at this link. And there are plenty of songs, including the string quartets on Elysium. I commented to Jack that they had better music--rap, techno, and the like--on earth.

The cinematography by Trent Opaloch (District 9) is a serious inducer of Motion Picture Motion Sickness (MPMS). Not only is the camera operator clearly running without a steadicam, sometimes it seems that the camera is being shaken just for fun, like a dog's toy. I had to move to the back row and still look away to the exit sign occasionally.

Elysium is doing well, seventh at the box office after five weeks, with critics averaging 68% to audiences' 65 on rottentomatoes. There's a high body count and plenty of gore, so this isn't for the faint of heart. Jack and I aren't particularly squeamish, so we thought it was pretty good.