It Takes a Village (to do PPP): Results and ruminations from race day

I told you pesky kids to stay off my porch.Early in Up-the tenth feature from the cinematic quality machine called
Pixar-there's a sequence that distills all of the best that the
animation powerhouse brings to filmmaking. After a brief prologue
introducing us to a pair of simpatico kids named Carl and Ellie in the
1930s, we watch without a word of dialogue as the childhood friends
become sweethearts, then follow them through 50 years of married life.

As
Up moves into its primary storyline, that's the challenge
co-writer/director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.) faces. In the present
day, Carl (Edward Asner) is now a curmudgeonly septuagenarian, living
alone in his house while high-rise development goes on around him.
Facing the prospect of life in a retirement home, Carl instead sends a
massive cascade of balloons through his chimney, launching the house
into the air with a plan to head to a remote South American jungle
There's also an unexpected hitchhiker: Russell (Jordan Nagai), a young
Wilderness Explorer who didn't take the hint that Carl didn't want to
be helped across the street.

Filmmaker and yoga enthusiast Kate Churchill had a goal for her
documentary: find a novice yoga student and give him six months to
transform physically and spiritually through yoga. She picks Nick
Rosen, a rock climber/journalist whose father is a corporate lawyer and
mother is a shaman healer. She introduces Nick to many of the American
"Baskin Robbins choices" of yoga, and then takes him to India to learn
directly from the great masters.

Enlighten Up! skims the surface of
every encounter, not to mention yoga in general. And the by-the-numbers
documentary has its moments, but not enough of them. Beginning with
talking head testimonials from internationally known yoga instructors
who explain that there are exceptions and contradictions to all rules,
it briefly cuts back and forth with mixed messages and innuendoes
instead of information. It's easy to tell from the first five minutes
that Nick isn't going to get it. Even as every single spiritual guru
tells him that "the brain is not the boss," "don't dwell on thoughts,"
"keep practicing yoga and let it happen," Nick constantly resists and
stonewalls.
While the focus is on Nick the skeptic, the
narration amateurishly switches between Nick and Kate, with both
figures having dramatic moments. Thanks to Kate's off-camera remarks
and input, it's obvious she is being affected by the events in the
film. But behind the scenes, she proves to be more distracting than
beneficial.