The latest spot for the all-electric Nissan LEAF automobile is quite a departure from the anthem “Polar Bear” commercial yet cut from the same pro-ecological cloth. This time, we’re asked to imagine a world where everything is gasoline powered.
We open on a man waking up to his gas-powered alarm clock from which spews exhaust. Getting ready for work takes us to the kitchen where a gent jump starts the toaster while his wife gases up the microwave oven. In the bathroom, exhaust belches out from a woman’s hair dryer.
Out on the street, we see a female jogger with a gas-powered pedometer; she scampers past a man who’s talking on his petrol-powered cellphone.
Next we’re at the workplace where a man turns the key and puts his foot on the gas pedal to boot up his personal desktop computer. A repair man reads the oil dipstick on the copier machine. Fueling up the office machinery is as simple as going to the proverbial water cooler–but instead of H20, the cooler with a pump is filled with gasoline as workers stop buy to fill up.
We’re even taken to a dentist’s waiting room where we hear a drill being revved up like a sports car engine. Inside, a patient says “ahh” as the dentist pulls the cord on his power drill akin to how a gardener would be pulling the cord to start his gasoline-driven lawn mower.
The spot then takes us to a gas station where a hybrid car, GM’s Volt, is getting a fill-up.
A voiceover asks, “What if everything ran on gas?”
He continues, “Then again, what if everything didn’t?”
The spot concludes with an eyeful of Nissan’s 100 percent electric LEAF.
Dante Ariola of MJZ directed “Gas Powered Everything” for TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles, with visual effects from The Mill LA.
Matthew Libatique, ASC, was the DP. Editor was Gavin Cutler of Mackenzie Cutler. Colorist was Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3. Ren Klyce of Mit Out Sound was the sound designer. Music house was Black Iris Music.
Review: Director Michael Morris’ “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy”
It is a truth universally acknowledged, as Bridget Jones herself might write in her diary, that at the end of any Bridget Jones movie, our heroine has triumphed over all doubts and obstacles and is finally happy.
With a man. Well, so far, with one particular man: Mark Darcy, the stuffy-yet-dashing man of her dreams.
This, dear viewer, is not a spoiler for the new fourth movie, "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy." In fact, if you've seen the trailer, you'll know that Bridget (Renée Zellweger, still pretty delightful), who finally married Mark at the end of the third film, is now a widow.
We're not supposed to divulge exactly what happens next. But remember, folks, this is a classic romantic comedy franchise. Rom-coms can be sad and deep, but they still need to be romantic.
What makes "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" especially enjoyable, then — and the best since the 2001 original — is not that Bridget finds a way yet again to triumph over doubts and obstacles. It's that she still makes us care so darned much.
How does she do it after all these years? All I know is, I was rooting harder for her at the end of this film than I was with the others, even the original where she's kissing Mark in the snowy street in underwear and sneakers.
There are various possible explanations. One is Zellweger herself, who has brought her character gracefully into her 50s, retaining Bridget's goofiness and deep-set optimism while reflecting hard-won life experience.
And there are subtle changes to the equation. The relationships in this latest film are more interesting — old ones and new.
Bridget's relationship with herself is more interesting, too — and healthier. Sure, she can swig a full bottle of Chardonnay on a bad... Read More