Posted August 20, 2011 by Jeff Categories:Uncategorized
Since the 1960s popular cinema has been regularly combined with pop music. Often times I’ll hear a song completely differently after seeing/hearing it used in a particularly effective scene in a movie. Here are a few songs I hear often coupled with the scenes that changed them for me forever.
Hard not to start with Scorsese when talking about pop songs that have been forever removed from any previous context due to their expert use in a movie. Here are some of my favorite examples, starting with the aftermath of Robert de Niro’s Jimmy cleaning up the loose ends after the Lufthansa heist in Goodfellas set to Derek and the Dominos “Layla”.
And how can you not follow it up with some Tarrantino – of course it’s so hard to choose but here are the two that sprang to mind: David Bowie’s “Cat People” in Inglorious Basterds and Stealer’s Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle with you” in that greusome scene in Reservoir Dogs.
And the wunderkind Xavier Dolan in one of my favorite films of this year: The Knife’s “Pass this On” in Heartbeats
“Modern Love” by David Bowie in Leos Carax’s Mauvais Sang is exhilarating.
The Coen Brothers have also been good at owning some classic songs, few moreso than “Danny Boy” set to a botched mob hit in Miller’s Crossing.
Among the many amazing uses of period music during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the early 80s was Public Image Limited’s “This is Not a Love Song” in Ari Folman’s animated documentary Waltz with Bashir.
Seemingly harmless songs can be made nightmarishly unsettling as seen in this iconic sequence set to Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet…
…and, of course, Q Lazzarus’ “Goodbye Horses” in The Silence of the Lambs.
ODing to the strains of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” in Trainspotting (sorry for the dubbing – a good link to this was hard to find).
Posted April 13, 2011 by Jeff Categories:Uncategorized
Chris Dorr at Tribeca Film Festival online suggests a new buisness model for movie theaters: the subscription.
You go to a website or download an application to your device that gets you a list of every movie theater in the United States. From this list you get to pick two movie theaters.
For example, I would pick the AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 and the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, both on Broadway in Manhattan. One shows mainstream Hollywood fare and the other shows foreign and independent movies. Both are my local theaters.
The key point is this: each customer gets to create her own access point at any theater across the entire United States. Think of it as choosing your own screen much like Netflix allows you to do.
Then I put in my credit card and agree to pay $10 per month ($120 per year) and receive a movie pass to these two theaters. This movie pass allows me to go to any movie at any time at each of these theaters.
Interesting thought but will this really increase theater revenues? Certainly I would love to take advantage of this but that’s because I see at least two if not more movies each month already. Would this encourage more theater-going and save the movie theater industry or would it just be another discount for movie addicts?
Posted March 22, 2011 by Jeff Categories:Uncategorized
The Independent Film Festival Boston has announced it’s film lineup for the 2011 festival. The festival is happening April 27-May 4 and you should go! I will, once again, be volunteering so I don’t have to shell out any $.
The movies that especially caught my eye upon first viewing are in bold (mostly for the directors as I’ve sadly been lax in following festival buzz this year.)
Opening Night Film
BEING ELMO directed by Constance Marks
Closing Night Film
CONAN O’BRIEN CAN’T STOP directed by Rodman Flender
Narrative Features
13 ASSASINS directed by Takashi Miike
BELLFLOWER directed by Evan Glodell
BENEATH CONTEMPT directed by Benjamin Brewer
THE CATECHISM CATACLYSM directed by Todd Rohal
CIRCUMSTANCE directed by Maryam Keshavarz
FANNY, ANNIE & DANNY directed by Chris Brown
THE FUTURE directed by Miranda July
GREEN directed by Sophia Takal
LITTLE ROCK directed by Mike Ott
THE MULBERRY TREE directed by Mark Heller
ON THE ICE directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean
SAHKANAGA directed by John Henry Summerour
THE SALESMAN directed by Sebastien Pilote
SEPTIEN directed by Michael Tully
STAKELAND directed by Jim Mickle
SUBMARINE directed by Richard Ayoade
TERRI directed by Azazel Jacobs
THE TRIP directed by Michael Winterbottom
THE TROLL HUNTER directed by Andre Ovredal
THE WHISTLE BLOWER directed by Larysa Kondracki
Documentary Features
BETTER THIS WORLD directed by Kelly Duane & Katie Galloway
BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD directed by Liz Garbus
BUCK directed by Cindy Meehl
BURMA SOLDIER directed by Nic Dunlop, Ricki Stern, & Annie Sundberg
THE CHINESE ARE COMING TO TOWN directed by Ronja Yu
THE CITY DARK directed by Ian Cheney
COLOR ME OBSESSED directed by Gorman Berchard
CONVENTO directed by Jarred Alterman
CRIME AFTER CRIME directed by Yoav Potash
CULTURES OF RESISTANCE directed by Iara Lee
DRAGONSLAYER directed by Tristan Patterson
EL BULLI: COOKING IN PROGRESS directed by Gereon Wetzel
GOD WILLING directed by Evangeline Griego
GRANITO: HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR directed by Pamela Yates
HEAVEN + EARTH + JOE DAVIS directed by Peter Sasowsky
HOT COFFEE directed by Susan Saladoff
HOW TO DIE IN OREGON directed by Peter Richardson
IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT directed by Marshall Curry
IVAN & IVANA directed by Jeff Silva
LAST DAYS HERE directed by Don Argott & Demian Fenton
MAKE BELIEVE directed by J. Clay Tweel
PAGE ONE: A YEAR INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES directed by Andrew Rossi
PROJECT NIM directed by James Marsh (AKA the guy behind Man on Wire)
PUPPET directed by David Soll
PUSH: MADISON VS. MADISON directed by Rudy Hypolite
RAISING RENEE directed by Steven Ascher & Jeanne Jordan
SONS OF PERDITION directed by Jennilyn Merten & Tyler Measom
SUPERHEROES directed by Michael Barnett
WE STILL LIVE HERE directed by Anne Makepeace
WHO TOOK THE BOMP?: LE TIGRE ON TOUR directed by Kerthy Fix
WINDFALL directed by Laura Israel
Short Films
8 directed by Daniel Laabs & Julie Gould
AFTER YOU LEFT directed by Jef Taylor
ALL DAY YEAH directed by Charlie Anderson
BABY directed by Daniel Mulloy
BOB AND THE TREES directed by Diego Ongaro
THE BOWLER directed by Sean Dunne
BOY directed by Topaz Adizes
CHAINSAW FOUND JESUS directed by Spencer Parsons
THE CONTRACT directed by Lina Mannheimer
DEEPER THAN YESTERDAY directed by Ariel Kleiman
THE DENTIST directed by Alex Mallis
FLYING ANNE directed by Catherine Van Campen
FRACTURE directed by Nicolas Sarkissian
ICE HOCKEY directed by Larry Cohen
ICH BIN’S HELMUT directed by Nicolas Steiner
IRMA directed by Charles Fairbanks
JUPITER ELICIUS directed by Kelly Sears
LITTLE HORSES directed by Levi Abrino
MR. HAPPY MAN directed by Matt Morris
NEGATIVIPEG directed by Matthew Rankin
PIONEER directed by David Lowery
POSTER GIRL directed by Sara Nesson
PROTOPARTICLES directed by Chema Garcia Ibarra
THE STRANGE ONES directed by Christopher Radcliff & Lauren Wolkstein
Posted March 14, 2011 by Jeff Categories:Uncategorized
Heartbeats (the French name is Les Amours Imaginares – why they didn’t just translate the title I have no idea) is Xavier Dolan’s second feature film. The French Canadian Dolan is just 21 years old and as a filmmaker he’s decadess ahead of the game.
Heartbeats is the story of a post-adolescent love triangle (a la Jules et Jim). Two friends, James Dean handsome Francis (played by Dolan himself) and the vampy vintage-chic Marie both lock eyes on and pursue Nicholas, the stunning boy who looks like Michaelangelo’s David. The friends become bitter rivals, each competing desperately for the beautiful boy’s affections. In between these narrative elements are faux-interviews with ancillary characters about their experiences in love.
Frankly, the preceeding paragraph is almost meaningless because the narrative and the faux-documentary vingettes are the weakest part of the film. Writer/Director Dolan is a very immature storyteller. The chararcters are fairly flat and the situations he puts them in invite viewers to laugh at their struggles and naievete rather than sympathize. The characters are all beautiful to look at but they never become more than wonderful mannequins upon which to display hip designer and vintage clothes and always perfectly styled $100 haircuts.
One hopes that Dolan’s talent for narrative develops more because he has a singular cinematic eye and already has an experts instict for composing and editing indellible “cinematic moments.” Dolan is the sweetest fruit borne from the tree of Quentin Tarrantino (and I don’t say that only because of his use of a French pop/ye-ye cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang” – a tune used quite well in the Kill Bill movies). Dolan, like Tarrantino, achieves his most transcendent moments by incorporating music (French pop, The Knife and Fevery Ray) and stylized imagery. What Tarrantino has done for things like absurd brutality (the ear slicing scene in Reservoir dogs) Dolan does for the hopeful seductiveness of primping before a date (evoking yet somehow also outdoing the “Cat People” sequence in Inglorious Basterds)or the libidinal excitement of being young and walking into a dance party anxiously hoping to bed your new crush. The extensive use of super slo-mo (usually a pet peeve of mine) can be forgiven – the awe caused by the combination of music, lighting, costuming and production design of these music video-influenced sequences are anything but cliche.
Dolan is an outrageously promising talent. I’m excited to eventually be able to see his first feature (2009′s I Killed my Mother). I just hope he’s able tol grow up. Heartbeats is too heavy in stealing from it’s influences (the previously mentioned Tarrantino and Truffaut but also early Godard and Gus Van Sant and Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love) and too light on substance. I hope he learns how to create characters that the audience can do more than lust after and laugh at. But he is, after all, a very young man and, really, who can blame a 21 year old for being shallow and obsessed with beauty? He has the all the potential to mature like other celluloid wunderkinds Scorsese, Welles or PT Anderson and if he does I’ll be there in the cinema loving it at every step.
Incidentally I’m guessing we can look forward to seeing Dolan’s face pop up in Hollywood and Indie-wood very soon – he’s quite a fetching young man with a great head of hair and has some quality acting chops.
Heartbeats is playing through the end of this week at the Kendall Square Cinema here in Cambridge and is in limited release elsewhere
Posted March 7, 2011 by Jeff Categories:Uncategorized
In the 90′s Gregg Araki made super-saturated psychedelic teenage movies that not only mixed genres (comedy/thriller/horror/road move/sci-fi/camp) but also csually mixed sexual identities in a way never before seen in the history of cinema (though at the time his inclusion of joyous depictions of frank gay teen sex put him squarely in the “New Queer Cinema” category). Nowhere, The Living End, The Doom Generation and Totally F***ed Up were some of the most thrilling and vital cinema of the era. Moreover Araki proved himself a huge fan of alternative music saturating each of his scenes with awesome background tunes courtesy of his favorite bands (The Jesus and Mary Chain, Nine Inch Nails, Ride, Cocteau Twins, Thrill Kill Kult, etc). Araki proved himself a promising young auteur whose fuck-you attitude and disregard for the rules of cinematic form (to say nothing of the rules of defined sexuality) showed great promise. That promise was fulfilled with 2005′s Mysterious Skin, a more sober yet still vital examination of the fallout of childhood sexual abuse and, more poignantly, the complicated emotions (including some controversially positive) that can come with such a violation. (Incidentially the less said about his later threesome comedy Splendor the better.)
In 2007 Araki cleaned his pallete a bit while trying on some new cinematic clothing. Smiley Face is a lightly absurd stoner comedy in the vein of Danny Leiner’s Harold and Kumar series and Dude Where’s My Car featuring a wonderfully deadpan Anna Faris in the lead role (a departure for Araki who has always casted his leads as his own personal pretty-boy surrogates). Smiley Face had a lighter and more playful tone – a welcome change from the sometimes opressive gravity of Mysterious Skin.
This year Araki returns with Kaboom – a full fledged return to his cinematic roots: heavy doses of primary colors, apocalyptic religious cults, witchrcraft and pretty young things ditching their clothes at every turn. When I saw the trailer I was pumped! But after viewing the unfortunate truth is that Araki seems to have lost something in the 15 years since the close of his “Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy” and the making of Kaboom. Young Araki had all the energy (sexual and otherwise) of a young turk film student. His first movies had a chaotic, amateurish and haphazard quality that gave them a vitality and disregard for cinematic rules that made it easy to ignore the clunky plots and just ride the wave. Araki has become a much more technically accomplished filmmaker since then. Unfortunately this maturity is a detriment to Kaboom. Where once his dialogue and laughibly unrealistic maguffin plot devices were just part of the fun. In Kaboom they stick out like sore thumbs. The first 1/3 of the film is delightful – we are introduced to the fresh-faced, pretty young art school hipsters as they fall asleep in class, make out and sleep with eachother, do drugs and pretty much live out the adolescent sex fantasies untainted by cares of STDs, pregnancy, sexual preference or fidelity in the way that only Araki can. Unfortunately the film gets too lost in it’s plot as the film goes on. Like his earlier films Kaboom includes a doomsday conspiracy with gaping logic holes. Unlike in his past films where Araki kept these plots in the background all the way through the closing credits, the final 1/2 of the film foregrounds the maguffin. Characters begin spouting off absurd expository dialogue when all I really want them to do is go back to fucking, fretting over their crushes and being crazy kids. The film needs more of the dimwit surfer dude Thor trying to suck his own cock and wrestling in his underwear with his supposedly ultra-straight buff dude friends and let the larger, weaker plot continue to be a string of random events that happen in the background while the rest of the characters run around, do drugs and screw.
I saw this movie with my friends Rosie and Jean who liked it a lot more than I did. Rosie had never seen an Araki movie and in some ways I wonder if I had been in her shoes if I would have loved it too. But Kaboom just comes off as an anemic retread of Araki’s older, more vibrant films.
On the upside, it’s awesome to see that Araki and I continue to have the same musical taste. Almost every new band that I’ve fallen in love with over the last five years is included in the soundtrack (the XX, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, A Place to Bury Strangers). I really want Araki to have a music podcast so I don’t have to try to find these bands on my own – I know that Araki will always has my back in that category!
Side note: big thumbs up to the actress Juno Temple as a care-free orgasm addict blonde. She seems to be in almost every excellent independent movie I see these days (Greenberg, Cracks, Year One, Atonement) and she just drips with sex appeal. Excellent casting choice. Oddly enough apparently Araki auditioned the wonderful Rooney Mara (aka Zuckerberg’s ex in The Social Network and future star of the Millenium Trilogy films that David Fincher is working on.)
Posted January 25, 2011 by Jeff Categories:Uncategorized
Oscar noms were announced this morning. There were pretty much zero surprises (the biggest may be the absence of Leslie Manville from Supporting Actress). How did I do with my predictions?
Best picture: 9/10 (predicted The Town but they went with The Kids are All Right)
Director: 3/5
Actor: 4/5 (Gosling gets snubbed for Bardem)
Actress: 3/5 (Sort of surprised about Kidman – that movie hasn’t really gotten a whole lot of buzz)
Supporting Actor: 3/5 (oops, only put 4 in my prediction. Doess the lack of Andrew Garfield portend badly for The Social Network?)
Supporting Actress: 2/5 (batting .400 is only good in baseball…)
Documentary: 3/5
Cinematography: 4/5 (though if I had gone with my sleeper instead of Winter’s Bone’s McDonagh I’d be perfect! Go Roger Deakins – they gotta give it to him at some point!)
I got 31 of 45 correct – not too shabby.
Just a quick note about costume design: good on the Academy for nominating at least one (essentially) contemporary film with I Am Love.
Posted January 24, 2011 by Jeff Categories:Uncategorized
Lately I find myself becoming more and more contrarian when it comes to popular film-critical taste and my own taste. Specifically I have grown quite weary of only the big and flashy being recognized as greatness. Film costuming is only recognized when it’s a period piece or something contemporary yet theatrical like a musical. Yet I appreciate the more commonplace but incredibly effective use of dress in contemporary films filled with everyday people.
But what has really gotten my goat this year is the praise heaped on BIG ACTING with a capital-A performances while smaller, internal, quiet performances are overlooked. The most egregious of these is the over-the-top praise for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo’s perforamnces in The Fighter while Mark Wahlberg is dismissed for deftly playing a character who clearly has spent his entire life living in the shadow of his larger than life relatives. But not all acting has to have the “can’t look away” quality that Leo and Bale epitomize. Acting small can be just as breath-taking.
Which brings me to Mike Leigh’s Another Year – another of his small slice of life dramadies about England’s lower-middle class. The film’s four acts revolve around Tom and Geri, a well adjusted, jovial and compassionate 60-something couple and their largely down-on-their-luck (not to mention alcoholic and personality disordered) friends and (more functional) family. Lesley Manville, one of Leigh’s regulars, is getting serious praise for her performance as the lonely and histrionic chatterbox co-worker Mary. And rightly so – Manville fills the character up completely and remains well rounded and sympathetic in spite of the pathos that Leigh falls into at times. But I was unmoved by her performance. Rather I was moved to tears by the quiet performance of David Bradley (who many apparently know from the Harry Potter movies) as the brother Carl who has just lost his wife. The stoically furrowed brow and the slight glint of moisture in his eye convey something more piercing and a sense of peronal history and sadness than all of Manville’s facial tics and telegraphed looks ever could. (Mary eventually became a character whom, in spite of the fact that she was supposed to be a flawed but ultimately sympathetic figure, ended up becoming truly annoying and despicable such that I wish she’d just disappreared before the winter arrived – Leigh should have known when to say when with Mary’s screen time).
Small and quiet performances rarely get the big accolades but, when they are displayed with such skill as David Bradley’s in this film they get my appreciation all the more. He has the inside track for my favorite performance of 2011 (this movie didn’t come out in my area until just now so it’s 2011 in my mind).
Anyhow, Another Year is a perfectly fine film. A bit of a disappointment though. Leigh has a bad tendency to go head-first into the melodrama and heaviness near the end of some of his movies. The last few moments of Another Year reminded me (in a bad way) of the last 10 minutes of Vera Drake – a pathos-heavy martyrdom that had me almost wishing they’d just nail her up on the cross already. What was wonderful about Leigh’s most previous film Happy, Go Lucky was it’s perfect balance of sadness, lightness and profundity – a testament to Sally Hawkins’ and Eddie Marsan’s restraint as compared to Manville’s balls-to-the-wall emotionalism.
Posted January 21, 2011 by Jeff Categories:Uncategorized
Only 11 days until the votes of a bunch of people (who probably watched fewer movies last year than I did and too many of whom have no idea what good costume design or good acting vs. over-acting is) have their votes tallied and the Academy releases it’s nominations. This year seems a lot less wide open than some previous years – there’s clearly one big lock movie that may have some coattails (The Social Network) and one that may have peaked in it’s Oscar buzz at just the right time (Black Swan). Unfortunately there’s also the fact that my favorite film of the year was released last Spring and thus is has been long forgotten by most voters. Timing is everything.
There’s only two mortal locks I see for winners among these awards and those are Best Picture and Best Actress. Everything else is up for grabs.
My Oscar Nomination predictions for the marquee awards (in the order of most likely to win it to least).
Best Picture:
The Social Network
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
Inception
Toy Story 3
127 Hours
Winter’s Bone
True Grit
The Town
Sleepers: Another Year, Rabbit Hole
Who deserves it (according to Jeff’s weird tastes): Greenberg
Best Actor:
Jesse Eisenberg (Social Network)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
Sleeper: Aaron Eckhart (Rabbit Hole)
Who deserves it: Ben Stiller (Greenberg)
Best Actress:
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Annette Benning (The Kids are All Right)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)
Tilda Swinton (I Am Love)
Julianne Moore (The Kids are All Right)
Sleeper: Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Who deserves it: Hailee Steinfeld
Best Supporting Actor:
Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)
Andrew Garfield (The Social Network)
John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone)
Sleeper: Pete Postlethwaite (posthumous tribute possibility for his work in The Town)
Who deserves it: Hawkes
Best Supporting Actress:
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Jackie Weaver (Animal Kingdom)
Leslie Manville (Another Year)
Olivia Williams (The Ghost Writer)
Mila Kunis (Black Swan)
Sleeper: Dianne Weist (Rabbit Hole)
Who deserves it: Rooney Mara (The Social Network)
Best Documentary:
Inside Job
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Last Train Home
Restrepo
The Tillman Story
Sleeper: Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Who deserves it: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Best Director:
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone)
Mike Leigh (Another Year)
Sleeper: Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine)
Who deserves it: David Fincher (The Social Network)
Best Cinematography:
Roger Deakins (True Grit)
Wally Pfister (Inception)
Jeff Cronenweth (The Social Network)
Danny Cohen (The King’s Speech)
Michael McDonogh (Winter’s Bone)
Sleeper: Matthew Libatique (Black Swan)
Who deserves it: Harris Savides (Greenberg)
Anything I missed? Do you think any film will upset The Social Network?
Posted January 8, 2011 by Jeff Categories:Uncategorized
2010 was a really full movie year for me – I believe the 63 new features I saw this year was probably the most in my lifetime. Clearly I have far too much
time on my hands.
Looking back at 2010 one sad truth I’ve discovered is that I missed out on a whole lot of non-English language films. I blame this largely on lack of distribution/screening in my area. And it seems that even when most foreign languague features are shown in Metro-Boston they get but a one-week limited release. By my count of the 63 films I saw in 2010 only 10 were foreign language. I sincerely regret missing many of these and having to wait for a long-delayed DVD release (Mother, Carlos) but I do want to credit Netflix for picking up on-demand many others that I missed during their short theatrical run (specifically the quiet relationship meltdown drama Everyone Else.
As has been said by many before me, 2010 was a wonderful year for the narrative, non-journalistic, non- verite documentary. A number of the best films of the year were films that split the difference between artful narrative film and documentary. Eschewing the constraints of truth and organic real-life events films like Exit Through the Gift Shop and I’m Not There were able to craft films that eclipse many less “truthful” stories for pure entertainment and compelling narrative arc. It’s good to see that the popular documentary format has survived beyond the preachy propaganda of Michael Moore and his brethren.
Top 10 films of 2010:
Please note that some of these films were released outside of my area in 2009 but with the lack of consistency in release dates across geographic areas these days it’s hard to have any such consistency with regard to what year some films should count as. Deal with it.
1. Greenberg
I’m a huge fan of the small character/relationship-based films that Noah Baumbach has been making for the last decade and Greenberg may be his best. Baumbach’s ear for the subtile humor in the lives of hip-ouisie is unparalelled. Ben Stiller’s almost perfect performance of a pathetic, angry, mean and cluelessly lost man casting about for explanations for why he’s so damn sad all the time is a career best. For this I give him a pass for 100 Night at the Museum and Meet the Parents sequels. This was also a break-out performance for Greta Gerwig (Matt Singer from IFC.com sings her praises beautifully in this piece) who demonstrates some of the best naturalistic internal acting you’ll find. Big props to Rhys Ifans performance as the old friend who knows his buddy is a thoughtless douche and needs to grow up but loves him anyway. I must also mention the great Harris Savides and his camera – his work in this film and Somewhere create a blinding, sprawling, hazy and totally unique visual image of a Los Angeles – he puts his stamp on the city in the same way Gordon Willis did with Manhattan.
2. Exit Through the Gift Shop
A wonder of post-production filmmaking, Banksy (or whoemever made this film with permission to put Banksy’s name on it) creates and interweaves two enormously compelling dual narratives. The first documents, through thrilling first-person footage taken on rooftops, sidewalks and on the back of scooters from LA to The West Bank, the rise of street art in the new millenium. The second crafts an image of the character(?)/film maker/poseur street artist Thierry/Mr. Brainwash. The backbone of the story is the obscured talking-head
of Banksy himself who provides some of the most hillarious and insightful commentary about the nature of good art vs. imitation and a demonstration of how critical opinion in the art world can be manipulated by one quote and a big ego. I had pretty much zero interest in Banksy or street art going in to this film and yet it makes #2 on my year end list. Quite an achievement.
3. Fish Tank
Andrea Arnold’s second feature cements her as one of the most vital filmmakers working today. An incredibly sensitive portrait of a marginalized British teen (a magnificent performance from non-professional actor Katie Jarvis) with big dreams of being a hip-hop dancer and escaping the run-down council tower that is her prosaic prison. Another fantastic performance, as well, from Michael Fassbender as Jarvis’ mother’s boyfriend whose interactions with Jarvis’ teen become more complicated and intimate leading to an almost-tragic third act that lets nobody off the hook. Andrea Arnold is for Britain what the Dardennes are for Belgium.
4. Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
Hands down most stunningly alive film of 2010. This micro-budget jazz musical/love story is able to transcend it’s flawed dialogue and sometimes stilted acting through the pure force of the unadulterated joy of it’s set-piece musical and dancing scenes. Some beautiful b&w cinematography that makes Boston look as romantic as Paris or Rome. Harvard film student Damien Chazelle dropped out to finish this Cassavettes meets MGM gem that shows just how artificial and soulless Hollywood musicals have become.
5. Winter’s Bone
An Ozarks noir fueled by breakout performances from Jennifer Lawrence and especially John Hawkes whose “Uncle Teardrop” is able to convey bucket-loads of menace through one gaze. I also have to shout out to Garret Dillahunt who is becoming one of the best and most understated character actors in cinema today.
6. The Secret of Kells
Fuck CGI animation. The beauty contained in this wonderful story of a young boy in a Celtic monastery working to protect an illuminated bible from the invading Viking armies brought me to tears.
7. Blue Valentine
My most anticipated movie of 2010. Slightly disappointing (something was missing from the narrative to really bring home the emotional impact of the turmoil of the main couple) but two stunning pieces of acting from Ryan Gosling and especially Michelle Williams. Williams’ Cindy holds a hurricane of frustration and loathing below the surface allowing it to arise only through looks and piercing sarcasm. The mutual disgust expressed in scene of the two eating dinner in the shabby Future/Sci-fi themed hotel room was spot on. Gosling and Williams imbue these characters with rich unspoken backstory of a relationship begun in haste and ended with both metaphorical and literal fireworks.
8. The Oath
Laura Poitras documentary about Abu Jandal, once a close associate and later betrayer of Osama bin Laden. An incredibly conflicted character, the film makes the mistake of trying to combine Jandal’s conflicted story and beliefs with a jeremiad about the American detention center in Guantanamo.
9. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
The most purely enjoyable movie experience of the year. Edgar Wright is able to combine cinema, video games and comics into something wholly new and always exciting.
10. Four Lions
Co-written by one of the writers of my favorite comedy of last year (In the Loop), Four Lions bravely puts a comedic spin on contemporary Islamo-terrorism. This film walks the line between hillarity and bad taste as well as the line between sympathy and pity for the bumbling wannabe terrorists. Some absolutely hillarious scenes – how to run while carrying volatile explosives, whether a wookie is a bear, and an explanation about how heaven for a martyr means getting to be first in line for the inflatible tube water park rides at a British theme park (rubber dinghy rapids bro!)
Honorable Mentions: Lebanon, Everyone Else, True Grit, Shutter Island, The Social Network, The Killer Inside Me, 127 Hours, White Material, Please Give
Most overrated movie of the year:
The Kids are Alright – a perfectly fine quirky little indie comedy with an impressive performance from Annette Benning. Far from transcendent and wildly over-praised.
Trailer of the Year
The American
Not because it’s a particularly excellent trailer from an artistic perspective. Rather because the trailer made this slow, Euro-style art house low-key “thriller” which, I swear, uses a full 1/3 of it’s running time focusing on George Clooney making a gun by hand, appear to be a Jason Bourne-esque action spy thriller. The film made $35 million domestically and I’d guess that $30 million of those ticket purchasers left the theater pissed off and bored.
Best lead and supporting acting of the year
Favorite lead performance goes to Ben Stiller in Greenberg and Hailee Steinfeld who just came out of nowhere in True Grit. I can’t believe Steinfeld was only 13 when this was filmed. Amazing.
Favorite supporting performance goes to John Hawkes in Winter’s Bone and Rooney Mara for the mind-blowingly perfect first scene from The Social Network. I’m really looking forward to her as the lead in the American versions of Steig Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy.
Favorite over the top crazy supporting performance of the year goes to Michael Shannon as Kim Fowley in The Runaways, who beats out Christian Bale’s eyes about to pop out of his head life of the crack party Dickie Ecklund in The Fighter.
Most impressive cinematic experience of the year:Enter the Void
Beginning with the most memorable opening credits (the jarring machine-gun cut speed and propulsive electronic-dance accompanyment let you know that you are in for something pretty damn exciting) Enter the Void is an experience designed specifically for the movie house. While many of the film’s concepts are stoner-laughable and the Freudian themes are clunky and obvious I could not help but be help rapt by the formal and technical aspects of this film. Noe is able to seamlessly combine traditional cinematography with cutting edge computer animation better than I’ve ever seen. Avatar, eat your heart out.
Biggest disappointments of the year:
Atom Egoyan’s movie-of-the-week psycho-girl melodrama Chloe, Sofia Coppolla’s wheel-spinning yet occasionally perfect Somewhere and Woody Allen’s dull and forgettable You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.
Full list of all 63 movies I’ve seen this year: Centurion, Predators, The Human Centipede: First Sequence, Buried, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Unstoppable, The Runaways, The Kids are All Right, The Fighter, The Extra Man, The Crazies, Somehwere, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, Never Let me Go, Lovers of Hate, Kick Ass, I’m Still Here, Hot Tub Time Machine, Green Zone, Frozen, Fair Game, Enter the Void, Cyrus, The Exploding Girl, Splice, Ondine, I Love You Phillip Morris, Colony, Chloe, Prodigal Sons, Drones, Shutter Island, Solitary Man, Please Give, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Four Lions, The Town, Animal Kingdom, Inception, The Killer Inside Me, The Social Network, 127 Hours, The Ghost Writer, The American, Black Swan, Restrepo, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Tiny Furniture, True Grit, Rabbit Hole, A Prophet, Lebanon, Micmacs, Everyone Else, White Material, The Oath, Winter’s Bone, Greenberg, Exit Thorough the Gift Shop, Blue Valentine, Fish Tank, The Secret of Kells, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, Valhalla Rising, A Serbian Film
Some gaps in my 2010 viewing: Easy A, Catfish, Carlos, Toy Story 3, Inside Job, 45365, The King’s Speech, The Tillman Story, Hadewijch, Vincere, Secret Sunshine, Boxing Gym, Ajami, Marwencol, The Illusionist, Another Year, Mother, Let Me In, Waste Land, Alamar, The Square, Bluebeard, Dogtooth, Easy A, Life During Wartime, Looking for Eric, Wild Grass, Jack Goes Boating
Please respond to my thoughts in the comments. What’s your top 10 of the year? Was I a freaking idiot for not liking Black Swan enough? Do I have too much of a man crush on Michael Fassbender? Have at me!
