Last Tuesday CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS / EASIER WITH PRACTICE

What's this? The last Tuesday of the year? That means a top 10 films of 2011 is coming soon. Although there's a slight chance a weekend movie viewing of some well reviewed action blockbusters might be in order which will increase the field of eligible films.

For now though, a couple of movies, including the first watched using my new system for deciding which 'Criterion' releases to see. Now that Hulu has some (but not all) criterion films I'm selecting 5 random titles from their selections, choosing what I want to see, and then seeking the best format to watch it. Meaning if a hard copy Blu-Ray or HD version is available I'd prefer that to Hulu streaming, so I can see the best version of one of their highly regarded movies.

So...

CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS (1966)

Criterion #131 - Watched via Hulu Plus

Selected because of my vague memories of Time's 100 Best Films of All Time List. Deceptively simple and narrow-minded... it sort of requires reading some film critics praise in order to understand and appreciate its context.

and

EASIER WITH PRACTICE (2009)

WIFF 2010 selection

Pretty engaging indie with a real patience to it, and a good twist that is given time to breathe.

HOW I ENDED THIS SUMMER / YOUNG ADULT

HOW I ENDED THIS SUMMER (2010)

Available via Hulu Plus

2011 WIFF selection

Important because this was a movie I missed at the 2011 WIFF in order to get home from Madison early. It's nice several months later to make up the loss.

YOUNG ADULT (2011)

Seen at Landmark Century Chicago

I didn't much on the Descendants, but one key distraction of that otherwise excellent movie was the narration. Moreover, the narration wasn't used consistently, it just set things up at the beginning. Compare the use of voice-over narration to the incredibly well written Young Adult, where actions and performances shape the backstory. I can't help but think that there might of been a better way to use George Clooney's excellent acting chops to make the point of the movie better without some disembodied monologue. Anyway, both excellent movies... Patton Oswalt is incredible.

THE DESCENDANTS / LIFE DURING WARTIME

It's really late and a stressful work week, but in other circumstances I might elaborate a while on the movie-watching high I was on this weekend. That's because I got to watch the latest from two unique directors that have a filmography that I've completely watched since 1995.

First...

THE DESCENDANTS (2011)

Directed by Alexander Payne (#5)

Viewed at Sundance Cinema Madison

Then...

LIFE DURING WARTIME (2009)

Directed by Todd Solondz (#5)

Criterion Blu-Ray - Spine #574

Pre-Turkey Report

URBANIZED (2011)

Gene Siskel Film Center - Chicago

An urban planning documentary that isn't perfect... but it's good to see my profession presented in an attractive inspiring way.

PRECIOUS (2009)

Blu-Ray

Oscar Count - Best Picture 7/10 - Best Actress 1/5 - Best Supporting Actress 1/5 - Best Director 4/5 - Best Adapted Screenplay 3/5

Movie Report

WINTER'S BONE (2010) - BLU-RAY

Is this gonna be our time?

Oscar Count - 2010 Best Picture 8/10 - Best Supporting Actor 3/5 - Best Actress 2/5 - Best Adapted Screenplay 4/5

THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) - HD ON DEMAND

I don't know. Maybe they just oughta leave it the way it is. Kind of a shrine to all the bullshit in the world.

Oscar Count - 1974 Best Picture 4/5 - Best Supporting Actor 4/5

KICK-ASS (2010) BLU-RAY

Mindy, no more homework, Babydoll. Time for Frank D'Amico to go bye-bye.

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986) ON DEMAND

Okay. You people sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burning. And if we're not back by dawn... call the president.

report after two weeks

a couple more movies, including my first experience seeing a movie on Hulu Plus... my hopefully adequate replacement for Netflix instant.

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928)

Criterion #62

AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE (2010)

2011 WIFF selection... available via Sundance on demand

Tuesday

UGETSU (1953)

Criterion #309

INCEPTION (2010)

Oscar Count - Best Picture 7/10 - Best Original Screenplay 4/5

Monthly (?) report

If I don't keep this updated I'm going to forget what movies I saw! I will save a longer most to describe my survival plan in the post-Instant Netflix era. For now...

THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)

Oscar Count - Best Picture 4/5 - Best Actor 2/5 - Best Supporting Actor 2/5 - Best Director 3/5 - Best Adapted Screenplay 2/5

Format - Blu-Ray

BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE (2000)

Format - my FINAL Netflix Instant

I'M NOT SCARED (2003)

Format - DVD

Two Week Report

THE TREE OF LIFE (2011)

Seen at the Landmark Century Theater in Chicago

FINDING NEVERLAND (2004)

[OSCAR COUNT] Best Picture 4/5 - Best Actor 4/5- Best Adapted Screenplay 4/5

Netflix Blu-ray

SOMERS TOWN (2008)

WIFF 2009 selection

MACHINE GIRL (2008)

Tuesday Report

July travels and not many movies... I'm catching up just a little bit with a couple of Wisconsin Film Fest selections.

MY YEAR WITHOUT SEX (2009)

2010 WIFF selection. Pretty unremarkable... I later read there is a specific genre of movie called the 'Australian middle-class comedy' that this movie is an example of.

HARVARD BEATS YALE 29-29 (2008)

2009 WIFF selection. I wouldn't normally choose this, but it sounded intriguing relative to other sports films. What was a surprise was that the documentary was simply game footage and interviews with the players. A rather straightforward formula manages to hold together a documentary for 100 minutes. It dragged a little towards the end, though.

PICNIC / 12 MONKEYS

Don't want to fall behind

PICNIC (1955) - via Comcast On-Demand

Oscar Count

Best Picture 1/5
Best Supporting Actor 2/5
Best Director 1/5

12 MONKEYS (1995)

Oscar Count

Best Supporting Actor 2/5

For the Record

ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)

Oscar Collection: Best Picture 1/5 - Supporting Actor 1/5 - Actress 2/5 - Supporting Actress - 2/5 - Director 1/5 - Adapted Screenplay 1/5

SUPER 8 (2011)

EUROPA (1991) Criterion #454

SESSION 9 (2001)

HOLY ROLLERS (2010)

EPIDEMIC / THE HANGOVER PART 2 / 127 HOURS

EPIDEMIC (1987)

I wanted to keep true to my completist desire to see all components of any film considered a loose trilogy. But the reviews of this one I came across were almost uniformly negative. So I was not eager to watch this all the way through out of some obligation. For better or worse, the Playstation Network shut down for over a month last month, meaning that I could not watch Netflix instant through my large TV. So I watched this in parts which I think is the best way to appreciate it's somewhat unique qualities. So it was not a great experience, but I have now seen the second installment of Lars Von Trier's Europe Trilogy. The third installment, Europa, from 1991 is available on Netflix Instant and very well-regarded.

THE HANGOVER PART II (2011)

I caught the buzz of the original Hangover very late, but I still enjoyed it. That is, I appreciated it, until I noticed, after seeing Due Date, that for as long as I can remember, movies where an eccentric weirdo destroys the lives of innocent people really bother me at a kind of deep level. I wish I could come up with specific examples, but I'm talking about movies where slightly cranky but perfectly normal, moral people have their lives turned upside down by a malicious loser, and the film is supposed to make it seem like we are supposed to look down at these normal people for getting increasingly upset at this crazy unexpected twist in their perfectly fine lives. In the end the lesson seems to be that we are supposed to forgive these abnormal losers because of some half-apology they make before they once again embarrass everyone around them with their evil shenanigans.

What I'm saying is that the Zach Galifianakis character is that guy. And while he was the catalyst to get the comedy going in the first movie I was more angry at him in the second one, since it took a whole lot of tolerance to invite him to come along in the first place. I should just have fun with this movie, but it actually didn't provide a whole lot of new ideas.

127 HOURS (2010)

5/5 OSCAR FOR BEST ACTOR, 6/10 Best Picture, 3/5 Best Adapted Screenplay

The most intriguing aspect of this movie, before I saw it, was how a portrayal about this singular event could be made compelling over the length of a feature film. Fortunately, Director Danny Boyle and his editors use every fast-paced technique and creative narrative devices to keep this interesting, even when most of the movie ends up involving James Franco struggling to escape his fate. The performance is wonderful, as you get a very patient portrayal of what it's like for a very free spirit to become slowly insane as all options become extremely limited.

Recap of Oscars coming...

*THE FIGHTER* - 2011 Oscar Nomination Recap

THE FIGHTER (2010)

5/5 Oscar for Best Director - 3/5 Best Picture - 2/5 Best Supporting Actor - 4/5 Best Supporting Actress - 3/5 Best Original Screenplay

At this movie gained buzz, I thought "Oh no... another boxing movie". Boxing films (and to some degree wrestling/fighting films) seem to really get a lot of critical buzz for something that's a relatively narrow subject. But The Fighter overcame this common subject matter by having incredibly engaging characters that were brilliantly performed. The conflict that came with these performers crashing into eachother set the stakes for the organized physical confrontation that occurs during the narrative-serving boxing matches.

And now, I've completed all 5 Oscar nominees for Best Director from the 2011 Academy Awards. I'm finding it more and more that the "Best Film" in my eyes is very intimately tied with Best Director. Nonetheless I'll find a way to separate the movie as a whole with what I perceive to be incredible direction.

TRUE GRIT - JOEL AND ETHAN COEN

I can't fault the Coen brothers for anything... their epic Western blended the right amount a grand landscapes with intimate and quirky character moments. Something in their recent body of films tends to distance themselves from some of the more sweeping unique cinematic set pieces.

THE KING'S SPEECH - TOM HOOPER

A somewhat controversial winner for a year where King's Speech won everything, I have trouble getting excited by a basically straightforward historical drama. I didn't see anything in how the camera moved or depicted things that were any bit distinctive. Every one of the other nominees seemed to have a auter vision behind how they were using film direction to add energy to a story. Not here.

THE FIGHTER - DAVID O. RUSSELL

In my recap above I didn't talk about how this director has been interesting to follow, even though he has made only 4 films in the past 15 years or so. I didn't know what to feel about a boxing movie from the guy who made I Heart Huckabees and you really can't compare those two movies. More likely you can see elements of Three Kings in the direction, which is set on giving free-flowing character moments to ground the film in a realistic rhythm while filming the grand scenes (whether it's a war zone or boxing ring) with the respect they deserve.

BLACK SWAN - DARREN ARONOFSKY

My favorite film of last year if very close to my favorite directed film of last year, just because Aronofsky is so devoted to making his film camera a warped, intimate window into the story he's telling, obscuring just enough when appropriately bending perception and reality in the Black Swan, and in the case of the understated direction of The Wrestler, letting the moments be all too real and powerful. This film is borderline uninteresting without great direction.

#1 THE SOCIAL NETWORK - DAVID FINCHER

Inching ahead of Aronofsky's Black Swan, David Fincher's amazing job gave an otherwise frustratingly shallow script and courtroom setting a real contemporary pace that suited the lightning speed in which Internet start ups take over the world, making tons of people rich quickly and leaving many others left out. By any means a film set at a deposition table would not be a film at all but part of an episode of some throwaway legal drama. But in Fincher's capable hands (with assistance by Oscar winner Trent Reznor with music), The Social Network becomes a slick portrayal of the modern technology-infused world and a depiction of how innocent and brilliant nerds can be tempted by debauchery and capitalist tricks as much as the rest of us.

Falling behind

Not a Tuesday, but I'm losing track.

Comments later... maybe.

WIN WIN (2011)

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)

Oscar Best Picture 1/5 - Best Actor 2/5 - Best Supporting Actor 1/5 - Best Actress 1/5 - Best Supporting Actress 1/5 - Best Director 1/5 - Best Adapted Screenplay 1/5

NOTORIOUS (1946)

Best Supporting Actor 1/5 - Original Screenplay 1/5
Criterion #137

AUGUST EVENING

AUGUST EVENING (2007)

A 2008 WIFF selection...

Just I was starting to think that my 2011 WIFF experience was so disappointing that indie/foreign/artsy films were starting to wear me down, I pick up this selection from the program of my first film fest experience in 2008 and am very pleased. Mind you, there's nothing spectacular or epic in this film, and probably as months and years go by, memories of this movie will be replaced by the top-notch memorable cinema from any background that catches anyone's attention.

But this understated film is patient, puts you in a unique setting, and provides well-rounded engaging characters acting in normal human ways. The film is over two hours, but it is only until the very end that it drags just a teeny bit. Otherwise, August Evening is skillfully made, unique, and completely worthy of my time.

More news from WIFF 2011 shortly...

WIFF report #1

WIFF 2011

Well, the buzz can’t last forever. Now with some distance between my 4th straight Wisconsin Film Festival I can appreciate the experience a little bit more. Once again, I had to leave early before I could see my last scheduled movie, How I Ended Last Summer, which could have very well been my favorite of the weekend, because it was set in a unique environment (Russian outback) and seemed to be very atmospheric. But I did see 3 documentaries, 5 narrative films, and a short film showcase. No doubt I reached my goal of seeing as much of a variety as films as possible, but sometimes the filmmaking vision just isn’t there and doesn’t resonate. With 200+ films to choose from (plus a key film that was at the top of my list that sold out immediately), sometimes you just get the bad luck of the draw. But I’m proud of what I saw. When you’re at a museum, you can follow the crowd and look at whatever paintings everyone is admiring, or you can explore some forgotten corners of exhibit halls. When you finally see what works are collected in those less-visited places, you both understand why they aren’t as popular, but also glad you took a look at something less appreciated.

VIVA RIVA!

Starting off my film fest weekend, was my first example of a popular release from “Nollywood”, a Nigerian-based filmmaking industry that churns out movies popular in Africa quickly and cheaply. This is close to the best film of the festival, not because it profoundly moved me, but it delivered a completely unique context and environment spot-on perfectly. Now, if you are familiar with film noir tropes there’s definitely some tangents here that don’t serve a larger story, but definitely serve the gangster film genre. But through this very different filter, you get some interesting surprises, and understanding the larger cultural context adds to a multi-dimensional film-viewing experience as well. You don’t need to be living in Africa to enjoy this, but it’s intriguing to place yourself in the shoes of a Nollywood follower in Africa. What form of escapism does this kind of film provide? What cultural cues and references don’t make sense to my Western sensibilities? What elements from cinematic traditions, both old and new, influence how this story is told? All of those things and more add something deeper to this movie, even though on the surface it’s a very basic (maybe even basic-cable TV movie caliber) tale of a gas smuggler, the rival gang that is pursuing him, and the fallout brought down upon the eccentric characters that assist the protagonist. A lot of fun.

MARWENCOL

After rushing from Rockford to get top my first movie on time (I didn’t take any early time off), I had this film at 10:30pm, and I can conclude that most of my thoughts towards it are probably influenced by how late it was, and how it was distinctly not a type of movie that should air this late. A lot of the WIFF 10:30pm-11:00pm shows have a lot of off-kilter midnight movie elements. This is definitely offbeat but it’s portrayed so patiently and brightly that it is incredibly hard to concentrate, especially when something trashy, energized, and dark is what you’re looking for when you are trying to stay awake. In fact reverse the order of my film schedule for this Friday night, and I think I might have enjoyed both better.

Nonetheless, this documentary is an interesting character study of a eccentric fellow who was savagely beaten and suffered brain damage. Already an eccentric alcoholic, the injury caused him to develop a form of art therapy where he built a model World War II - era European town in his backyard, with dolls and figurines designed to represent real people in his life. There's nothing much beyond an interesting window into mental illness, and I think without something broader or even weirder it wasn't as engaging as I thought it would be.

THE BLOB / WALKER / STAGE DOOR / IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

Recap of WIFF 2010 is being written, but I don't want to fall behind, so a quick recap of my film watching since the cinematic adventure at the beginning of the month up in Dairyland.

An important complication to my viewing habits is due to the Playstation Network being down since Wednesday. Apparently Netflix instant is still supposed to work, but not on my TV. And, no I will not watch movies on my computer if I don't have to.

THE BLOB (1958)

Criterion #91

Via Fearnet on Comcast-on-Demand, I got to see a horror classic and feel important by seeing a Criterion Collection film as well! Very low budget, and a pretty short film, with plenty of padding to build up to the few shots of the monster doing its thing. You almost need this as an absolute basic form of training to appreciate all the episodes of MST3k. Growing up with that show, The Blob seems like the purest essence of cheap monster movies.

WALKER (1987)

Criterion #423

An underground "punk" director makes a controversial politicized movie about a white mid-19th century central American dictator, and with the subtlety of a sledgehammer ties the story to the covert American war against the democratically-elected government in Nicaragua. This film definitely comes from a unique place... there's a gory goofball feeling in one second and heavy duty moralizing in the next.

STAGE DOOR (1937)

Oscar Nominee - Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress

I make a little note of all the Oscar award winning movies available for free on Comcast On Demand. This was one I decided to see pretty impulsively when the Netflix Instant wasn't working on the PS3. I was pretty mesmerized by how such and old, old, film could have a lot of resonance. The performances were stellar at a time where perfect delivery and timing were absolutely essential above all else in making a film work. All the overlapping dialogue and barbs between the characters must have been rehearsed to a tilt. And Katherine Hepburn is so otherwordly in this, as she is in everything I've seen. How such an independent, actively non-feminine persona could exist in those archaic sexist times is so interesting.

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)

Oscar Winner - Best Picture, Best Actor, a LOT more

Pretty solid and high quality, with the air of the kind of straightforward picture that is likely to win the Best Picture award any given year. Not to dismiss the fact that this movie must have hit viewers pretty sharply at the height of the Civil Rights era. Sidney Poiter is almost a little too stoic in his performance, but he breaks his stature at just the right moments to make the film tense up. Rod Steiger, as the Sheriff, also let's very little of us inside. There's just a few scenes where we get a little less distance between these two character's worlds. If the goal was just to represent the briefest glimpse the North and South could have of mutual understanding, than the film served that purposely near perfectly. I felt like the film could have really built some more constructive characterizations and relationships however.

THE BEST FILM OF 2010

BLACK SWAN

So it has finally come to this. I have only done this 3-4 times, but by the time I get to writing about my favorite film of the previous year, it's hard to sink my teeth into writing a lot about my ultimate annual cinematic experience. Maybe, as I've tried to make a habit of this movie criticism to keep up my writing, I'm finding the topic of what DOESN'T work in a film more engaging. Could it be a troubling sign of my overall pessimistic attitude that if I can't discuss something that is imperfect about a movie, then I can't say anything at all? I'd rather chalk it up to review fatigue.

I will say that I was very excited about this film, and I had a nagging thought that it wouldn't come up to a theater in Rockford. That's why I scheduled an early Friday afternoon off so I could make it down to Chicago to see Black Swan before I went to a later engagement that evening in the City. That awesome poster symbolized the enormous leg up this film would already have in my year-end top 10 list. The simple elegant shot of the star ballerina transformed, looking sinister or tortured or self-aware signaled something incredible, surreal, dark, and powerful. If you know Darren Aronofsky's work (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, and The Wrestler), you might have anticipated how this film would be, but that poster image convinced the believers that this was going to be really great.

All of this director's previous movies not only had a atmosphere that matched their story , but also a technique and momentum that fit the distinct bold vision of each movie. The gritty trailer-park feel of The Wrestler was a far cry from the sci-fi twists of The Fountain, while Pi and Requiem for a Dream used disorienting edits and cuts to give someone a visceral sensation of what these drug-addled characters were experiencing.

The story of a struggling artist destroying himself/herself for that perfect creative moment has been done before, but after watching Black Swan I was convinced that only this particular filmmaker could tell that story so perfectly with the exact blend of style and substance. I also believe the story was well-grounded and approachable, but with a true fantasy and surreallistic element that harnessed the director's proven character work (exemplified by Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler) to the twisted cinematic visions of his first films.

For a director obsessive like myself, it’s hard to say that Black Swan is the ultimate culmination of Arronosfky’s style. But I do think my enthusiasm before, during, and after viewing Black Swan represents that anticipation for a masterwork that comes with a director who has earned a reputation for quality filmmaking. Unlike the slightly off elements of Tarantino's Ingluorious Basterds, I was completely satisfied with Black Swan. I trust this director with nearly anytihng now, because after building a respectable body of work and a distinct style that always serves the story, I know that he is going to offer an intense interpretation of any script he's given.

I'll begin my recap of this month's Wisconsin Film Festival soon!

#2 FILM OF 2010

TERRIBLY HAPPY

Can a film be perfectly executed, yet not really be about some larger theme, and remain one of my favorite film experiences of the year? That's the question that comes to mind when I decided that I thoroughly enjoyed this Danish neo-noir, the final film of my run of excellent cinema that I viewed at the Wisconsin Film Festival last year. Ultimately, I determined that the much highly regarded, and much wider released, acclaimed films (even the quirky ones like Scott Pilgrim) had just enough shortcomings to be placed a slight notch below this strange and more obscure treasure. It's probably this film's own unique scope and viewing setting (Madison's Orpheum theatre) that gave it those special qualities that it might otherwise lack if I saw it at the local multiplex.

What can I tell you about how it exactly affected me? Well, I had been familiar with Danish cinema for a while, seeing a few selections at previous WIFFs, along with Lars Von Trier films, so I was expected something bleak. But I hadn't seen a Danish film with quite the sensibility as this. There were twisted David Lynchian elements, but the weirdness served the setting. There was a distinct droll atmosphere but incredible suspense. It was expressed with the perfect mix of style and substance, the combination that pretty much defines why Coen brothers movies are so magnificent.

Right now, I'm shaking off the disappointment of this past year's WIFF. While every movie had something unique, they came up short because there were parts that didn't gel together, that reminded the viewer that while what you are seeing is no doubt quality work, it's a little rough around the edges. Those imperfections no doubt took me out of the film watching experience (that and massive film fest fatigue). In contrast, it has been over a year since I saw Terribly Happy (available right now on Netflix Instant!) yet I distinctly remember being compelled from beginning to end. As my 2010 film fest capstone it had a sly attitude (and a film fest audience that was in on the joke) and it was the perfect balance between the type of filmmaking that is mischievous, the types that are charged with a grab bag of odd characters, and the types that are just beautiful to watch. The movie didn't really offer anything profound about the universal human condition, other than the ability of movies to truly surprise and satisfy you by telling stories in a distinct ireplicable way.

#1... what is it???? Maybe I'll over my 2011 WIFF films first. who knows?

Of course there are movies

So, as you are aware, I have yet to announce my two favorite movies of that distance past year of 2010.

This weekend, I also saw 8 movies as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival of 2011.

So there are a lot of bases to cover, and I will need to decide how to cover all of them. Stay tuned...

#3 FILM OF 2010

#3 - TRUE GRIT

After watching Inglourious Basterds last year, I had almost reached a definitive conclusion that, despite the the tremendously high quality of Quentin Tarantino movies, there is a slight chance that there are certain types of movies that, if he made, I would be reluctant to be 110% excited about. That's a heck of qualifier, and I doubt that director won't continue to defy expectations, but if there's anything wrong with Basterds (and I need to see it again soon... I'm still picking up brilliant subtleties in Kill Bill upon repeat viewings) it's that little bit of extra eccentricity that might serve the interest of the director, but doesn't quite serve the audience or what I expect from the story. There's a risk that without a new film genre to break apart and comment on, Tarantino would have nowhere to go except retread through his punchy dialogue and cult actor cast. All I'm saying is that if he decided to make, for example, a gangster movie, I have a feeling that he couldn't surprise me, and might actually waste my time.

The Coen brothers, on the other hand, have earned by unmitigated devotion. I have now seen more films by them than any other director (Barton Fink, from 1992, in the last man standing), and, with the exception of the odd diversions of Intolerable Cruelty and The Lady Killers, they have provided, in their work, incredible characters, profound cinematic images, and a real lingering sense of mystery afterwards regarding what the film was supposed to mean or symbolize. Nothing sums things up better than a recent episode of the WTF Podcast where host Marc Maron and guest Kevin Smith, in between discussions about being stoned, took some time to discuss Coen Brothers movies. One or the other said that watching a Coen Brothers is like having a warehouse door opened for you. There are all these incredibly unique characters and activities going on in this warehouse, but no one is guiding you through this warehouse, telling you what to pay attention to, or what to focus on. The Coens just populate this warehouse with the most incredible situations, scenes, and quirks imaginable, and whatever there is lacking in a narrative is more than made up for the clear care in which this cinematic constructers have set these pieces in motion.

Now, critics have called TRUE GRIT a "genre exercise", and in many cases it is very straightforward. I saw a few clips of the original True Grit (with John Wayne) online and it sounds like there are even very similar scenes and plot points. Without that film as a reference point, there's still plenty of weirdness, beauty, humor, and a unique sense of hollow dread, resignation, and/or cynicism that has characterized their annual output since No Country for Old Men.

Overall, it's a film that respects the genre of the Western but with the types of imagery, performances, and off-kilter situations that make a remake of a movie from the 1960s strike a note with the film-going audiences of today.

It's hard to say much about a film that pretty much delivers perfectly. I think growing up and adoring all the other Coen Brothers films, you can appreciate this even more. Because these visionaries have pushed the cinematic envelope with so much wackiness, dark humour, and cynical quirks, it's an incredible thrill to watch them filter their energies into a measured, beautiful film that sits right in the middle of their stylistics and thematic extremes.

The 400 Blows

THE 400 BLOWS (1959)

CRITERION COLLECTION #5

I could probably get motivated to write another long-form essay solely devoted to discussing the implications of how my main point of reference coming into this movie was that I recalled on VH1's Pop Up Video many years ago that the techniques in some scenes of Beck's Devil's Haircut video were an homage to the final shot in this movie. I don't think that spoils it for anybody. Given a little bit of my familiarity with new wave European cinema, this could have been a riveting film that uses the art of cinema to tell a compelling story, or an exploration of film technique with a directionless narrative that I have to force myself to appreciate because it was one of those "important films". It's more of the latter with this one, unfortunately, and now the big question is whether I should take advantage of the feature length commentary track Criterion provided that might help me understand the film a lot more completely, as was the case with L'Avventura which could be comparable to this. As far as that modern context in which I watched that film, perhaps this film is too dated to appreciate in a contemporary setting. Maybe the lack of direction and deep story was the point of filmmakers back then, as they pushed the enveloped of what people could expect from filmmaking, and that there were truly revolutionary counter-culture elements in The 400 Blows that shocked audiences then, when a disturbing twist on other norms (creative use of sex and violence perhaps) are what can grab our attention nowadays. Anyway, it was a good looking movie. I just will probably have to read a film school textbook to understand why it was a masterpiece.

#4 FILM OF 2010

ABOUT ELLY

This was something I viewed at the 2010 Wisconsin International Film Festival. If you take a look at the film festival program it's a little overwhelming to decide which films to see... there are some obvious candidates... I usually keep my eyes peeled for an obscure director, unique film style, or something from a country that I'm not familiar with, but then you kind of just have to pick what fits into your schedule and seems intriguing. There wasn't a lot regarding About Elly, only that it was an Iranian movie and it involves the repercussions of a mysterious tragedy. Good enough for me.

The twist on this naturalistic film is how the cultural elements of Iran aren't commented on directly, yet shape the suspense and motivations of the characters in ways that enhance a story that could be very conventional and unmemorable if placed in a more common Western setting. It begins very organically with patient scenes of a set of young families and couples going on a beach vacation. Once again, a foreign film really seems to display a very straightforward depiction of people having a good time, and I would hope these depictions would make casual audiences identify with the global world more, especially with the bravado in which we threaten some of these countries with military might. But after settling us into what might be an understated drama, the aforementioned tragedy strikes, and slowly there are issues that are brought to the tension that are unique to the society of this country. It doesn't make the story alienating at all, but rather these norms subtly shape the action, as the hope for happiness is dangled and withdrawn, with an ultimately poignant finale that offers no easy answers.

It's the perfect kind of film festival discovery in that it is something unique and special, the viewing experience enhanced by the possibility that other than a few small audiences in small festival venues, a powerful film like this might not be exposed to as many people as it deserves. While in many respects About Elly doesn't hold a candle to the grander acclaimed cinema out there it's also wholly unforgetable.

TREELESS MOUNTAIN

TREELESS MOUNTAIN 2008

This was a WIFF selection from 2009, and it's availability on Netflix Instant expired this week. I actually remember this being a close candidate for my viewing schedule that festival weekend. I'm sort of glad I didn't watch it.

The one unique aspect of this is the perspective the director uses on keeping every scene in this movie focused on how these adorable little Korean girls deal with obstacles. Otherwise it's a very unfocused film. A narrative is definitely present but I think indie films start to reveal their faults when you start to think that it could very easily be a powerful short film (between 20-40 minutes) instead of feature length. Unlike other uniquely ambiguous endings, this one just seemed to stop.

I know that perhaps I'm too adjusted to Korean films being ultra-violent and/or morally disturbing masterpieces, but this was not that compelling.

In news of WIFF for 2011, I received 10 film festival tickets for the first weekend in April! By no means do I want the protests in Madison to subside in order cater to my film festival needs, but I am curious about how I'm going to get from place to place. Not to spoil anything there are two WIFF 2010 films remaining in my top four films of 2010, and it would probably be appropriate to wrap that countdown up before the end of the first quarter. Stay tuned.

SHOWGIRLS / THE ELEMENT OF CRIME

SHOWGIRLS

Not since The Human Centipede have I felt more ashamed to admit watching something out of morbid curiosity.

BUT, I had a rare bout of insomnia (likely caused by a rich dinner with coffee and dessert after a long week), and nothing is more appropriate to do when wired up at odd hours of the night then watching trashy movies available for free on Comcast OnDemand.

Also, Showgirls is put of AV Club's New Cult Canon, so it has some respects in some circles as a good "bad" film.

I remember when this first came out in 1995, I heard about it's reputation in my early high school years and was a little frightened of how extreme it might be for my wholesome adolescent eyes. Now that I'm more mature and have been exposed to much more sex and violence in pop culture, most of it wasn't too bad, although when it inches into soft-core porn territory I definitely felt defensive about justifying watching it, and subsequently, whether it's one of those cinematic treasures I want to go on record as deliberately watching....

ANYWAY, as far as it's campy cult status, you can hold Elizabeth Berkeley's performance responsible for its possibly unintentional WTF moments. The best part of the movie was waiting through Nomi Malone's blank stares at every situation she faces, and being hilariously surprised at whatever extreme emotional reaction she decides to express. That's the element that gives this film a little extra punch.

But, yes, let's never speak of Showgirls again.

THE ELEMENT OF CRIME 1984

So, I have referenced my movie list shuffle method before. Up popped the Lars Von Trier movie Europa, from 1991. I then found out that Europa was the final film of an informal Europe trilogy that consisted of the famous Danish director's first three feature films. So I decided that if I find a movie that's part of a series, even a seemingly loosely connected one, I'll start at the beginning, despite Lars Von Trier being a notoriously difficult and very artsy director.

The previews on the Criterion DVD for Element of Crime didn't look promising. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for something TOO stylistic this weekend. And for the most part, Element of Crime was very difficult and challenging, with an ending that didn't seem earned to me. But I excuse this film's eccentricities for a few reasons. First of all, it sets up a perspective in the initial scene that explains the murky, unstructured, surreal setting, so if things go off on tangents and elements are unexplained, that's kind of the point. Second, the style is wholly unique... I hope you enjoy the color yellow. Third, the movie is nonetheless anchored in a traditional crime story that you can follow for the most part.

But there are a lot of frustrating things about this movie. I'm glad I can say I watched it, but I have already read a review that said the second film in the Europe trilogy, is pretty unwatchable. I've got to ponder whether it's worth my time.

BEST OF 2010: NUMBER 5

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

So I have already discussed my predilection for animated movies, which seem to represent the purest form of escapism I seek in cinema. When non-animated movies come up short in the artistic escapist fantasy department, you get an endless range of realism and skewed relationships towards escapism and innocence that more than make up for the lack of pretty drawings and wonderment. But what about the live action cartoon? Who Framed Roger Rabbit, for example, combined some serious film noir elements with Loony Tunes. Cool World (taking me back a long time) was definitely an adult movie, probably to the chagrin of my father who took me and my brother to the theaters to see it. And the masterpiece Space Jam... well words would not do it justice.

Scott Pilgrim starts with Michael Cera acting in his typical understated ways... and I wonder if those not familiar that this was a comic book adaptation came into the theaters expecting, at the beginning at least, a quirky coming-of-age teen comedy, like a Juno, Superbad, or Adventureland. Upon the encounter with the first "evil ex", everything blows up, and kudos to the filmmaker for keeping everything calm and collected until that happens making it all the more spectacular as the video game graphics pop up and we start seeing crazy martial arts style fighting and flashiness. Because while the critics seemed to say that The Social Network captured the communication channels of a new plugged in generation, Scott Pilgrim made perfect use of those channels to provide the kinetics that made an endearing love story more relevant and in tune with the constant barrage of references and stimuli young generations are inundated with.

Analysis aside, it was an absolute blast. Once Scott Pilgrim vs. the World goes into hyperactivity, you don't know what to expect frame by frame, and the buildup between each Evil Ex battle is perfectly executed. I regret not reading the comics because I can imagine how perfect an adaption this was.

DEPARTURES

One movie this week, surprisingly, and it really wasn't really a complete movie...

Since I go off on rants on the movie watching experience, I might as well explain. My Instant Netflix movie viewing choice is often influenced by the looming expiration date for streaming. If I miss the deadline, the movie I want to see is relegated to my Snail Mail Queue. So the night before Departures was set to expire I dialed it up pretty late... I was pretty darn tired halfway in but I had no choice to stay up and watch. I couldn't split my movie viewing ordeal between an evening and morning like I sometimes do. It turned out the movie was really good... but with 50 minutes remaining, the audio/video got out of sync! Even for a Japanese language movie it was very distracting. So two weeks ago, I had to leave a movie.... wait for it.... UNFINISHED... until the hard copy was mailed to me. So, there is a risk to all this access, at least until the Netflix streaming nerds get their service down perfectly. Anyway...

DEPARTURES (2008)

A unique film, and a Foreign language Film Oscar winner from 2008. For those keeping track, of the 5 Foreign Language film nominees that year, I've now seen 2 (the excellent Revanche, from Austria, is another). I don't recall seeing a non-horror, non-bloody, non-Samurai, non-animated Japanese film in a long while, and it's nice to be reminded that can do human stories just fine, although there's a shifty tone (eyes bug out to show emotional expression, for example) which might be a little off-putting, probably due to cultural differences. It's a little heavy-handed and treacly at times, which was reminiscent of that shallow emotional magic that's a component of a lot of Oscar winners. But the film goes someplace really special and interesting when the camera spends an intimate amount of time depicting grieving families and the funeral rituals that give them some peace.

THE KING'S SPEECH / THE PASSENGER / PERFORMANCE / FOOD INC.

THE KING'S SPEECH (2010)

Oscar Record: Best Picture (4/10), Best Actor (4/5), Best Supporting Actor (1/5), Best Supporting Actress (2/5), Best Director (4/5), Best Original Screenplay (2/5)

I take the Oscar catnip and am thoroughly pleased. There's a little bit of shallowness to this movie but the lead performance by Collin Firth is one of the best I've seen. Although it's not graphically similar to the physical torture Natalie Portman goes through in Black Swan, I was cringing and uncomfortable with the main character's verbal tribulations all the same. The gravity of the situation a monarch participates in, perfectly orchestrated by the director makes you feel all the worse for this king. That solid drama keeps you engaged the whole time, even if the supporting characters don't have much depth at times. As the drama starts to become too conventional (not a fan of using that overplayed Beethoven symphony movement for a climatic scene) it adds just the right difficulties, in particular a short scene with the King watching footage of Hitler that not too subtly suggests the power of rhetoric. Very good, and I wouldn't be too annoyed if it won all the Oscars out there.

THE PASSENGER (1975)

Nope, I haven't finished Antonioni's Italian trilogy yet, but I received this later film of his starring Jack Nicholson and it's an incredible combination of talent. I was actively following the metonymic style I'm supposed to be looking for when I'm watching this director's movies, but then I just got lost in the beauty and desolation of it all. How a movie can never be urgent but never be boring is such a filmmaking feat. One of the final shots of the film (which is pretty famous in film appreciate circles) reminds any cinephile why these kinds of movies hit a very sweet spot. I love how I've learned to understand and appreciate this style of movies, and have learned to appreciate it distinctively from other types of entertainment, including excellent "traditional" movies. This could definitely be a gateway for a lot of casual movie goers to get into artsy movies.

PERFORMANCE (1970)

Back to the long list of older films to see, this was a bit of a risk, coming from an Ain't It Cool DVD release column a year or so ago and available via Netflix Instant. For a good part of it, it was similar to a few hippie dippy trip-fests of films that were released around this time. It's very colorful and confusing at times, but it wasn't completely incoherent, which believe me, is saying something. It's grounded in a story about a gang enforcer hiding out in a hedonistic den after going too far with one of his projects. Mick Jagger's appearance is I guess what originally intrigued me, and he was interesting in this movie, though hard to understand. Mostly it's quite random, though, not an easy film to introduce to someone if you want them to appreciate your tastes.

FOOD INC (2008)

Wrapped up an excellent holiday weekend of traveling and movie watching with a documentary from WIFF 2009 that got a lot of exposure in other circles. I'm thinking about the leftover turkey cutlets I will eat after writing this, because turkey is one of the few foods whose production methods aren't thoroughly decimated in this expose'. That means turkey is safe, right? This documentary covers a lot of ground and I mainly took away, as I do from these rabble-rousing things, that there are so many odds stacked against the little guy, and the ultimate ideal of the little guy in America is the farmer who is selflessly feeding us through his hard labors. Now, corporate America, likely housed in urban boardrooms is managing agriculture and rural life with an iron fist. It's hard to imagine what I personally can do to change this, but Food Inc. offers a hopeful vision that this movement about agribusiness is being tackled from multiple angles, including a surprising amount of support from Wal-Mart. I need to plan my cooking projects a little more in advance so I can buy at farmer's markets more.

Whew... got to watch less, update more, or be more brief. Movies are awesome!

BEST OF 2010: NUMBER 6

A TOWN CALLED PANIC

For 2008 and 2009 my ultimate favorite movies were animated films. I seemed to reflect, in both the situations of Wall-E and Coraline, that these perfectly crafted new worlds truly transformed me, as a film-watcher, into a different environment that tapped into a child-like sense of wonder along with a true heart of a story. If you go to films to truly escape, what could be ideal than a fantasy land of beautiful images, especially if the images and story tap into more universal dramas and have lovable characters.

When I watched A Town Called Panic at the Wisconsin Film Festival, in between the nonstop giggling moments I couldn't help but think about how I judged the animated marvels of recent years, and that this completely unique animated world and unmitigated joy brightly expressed on the screen was giving me such a strong criterion to once again crown an animated movie as the top film I will ever see this year. As the year went by, and I thought more and more about the quality of films I had seen, a little bit of a more reasonable attitude prevailed. Quite simply, and I mean this in the absolute best way possible, A Town Called Panic is just too silly to be my favorite movie of 2010.

Now you can ignore that last sentence, because silliness can take you a long way on its own, and nothing I have seen in a long time created such a madcap pace of goofiness as this inventive Belgian animated movie. There's no way to intelluctualize this giddy movie into a long analysis about the nature of my personal cinematic journey. This movie represents what happens when inventive grown-ups take a trunk full of toys and let their imaginations loose. Nothing is expected or taken seriously in a Town Called Panic yet there is an innocent Loony Tunes like sense of structure and closure that makes this more that an exercise in random surrealism. Leaving logic at the door is freeing, and this movie provides that escapism in spades (and lots and lots of bricks).

ANOTHER YEAR / BIUTIFUL

It's Oscar season and I have conveniently been taking trips to Chicago the past two weekends and it's been so freezing cold that indoor activities such as movie watching were an even more attractive option than normal, especially with the Oscar nominees announced and the wealth of artsy movie watching options in Chicago.

In between some parties and social events, I stopped at the Lakeview neighborhood's Landmark Century Theater and chose from several equally attractive cinema options depending on how the starting times coordinated with my schedule, with some influence based on whether I could see these movies back in Rockford for a few dollars cheaper. Even 12 nominations for the King's Speech was too much for my local multiplex to ignore, so they spared a fourth screen for Yogi Bear to make room for that movie, and I'll have to see it soon.

ANOTHER YEAR (2010)

[oscar nom: Best Original Screenplay 1/5]

Two years ago, at the same theater, I saw Mike Leigh's last film Happy-Go-Lucky, which became one of my favorite films of 2008 and one I hope to see for the second timesoon because I can't remember a more recent life affirming film or more loveable character that the main one in that movie. This is definitely a more somber picture, but still invigorating because of the improvisational style and "scriptless" approach that creates natural moments and suspense even in the most conventional settings. Like Happy-Go-Lucky, the only nomination this film got was for original screenplay, despite the incredible performances, especially Lesley Manville's desperation and vulnerability in the form of a middle-aged single woman coming to terms with the conclusion that there is a type of happiness and emotional stability she'll never be able to reach, and that, one can hope, her conclusion helps her pursue a different kind of happiness and satisfaction after the film's final scene. The flipside of giving actors room to breathe and flesh out characters during the course of the film does lead to some moments that drag, but no other style of filmmaking is quite like this, and I'll follow this director anywhere.

BIUTIFUL (2010)

[oscar nom Best Actor 3/5]

Javier Barden in an Oscar nominated performance for Best Lead Actor... that's all I needed to take a risk, and perhaps it was an even better move to watch this film because I didn't read any reviews or summaries to tell me what the movie was about... a completely cold turkey . Bardem nearly carries the whole film during its length over two hours... despite some frustrating elements, conventional themes, and a character that broods and seems to have trouble giving me the satisfaction of expressing himself at appropriate moments in order to move the film forward. It comes just short of satisfying because of the sensation I have when leaving some indie movies that I just viewed a bunch of random things for no deep reason. I will say that the director, Alejandra Gonzalez Inarritu, received some criticism for making an acclaimed movie, Babel (which I haven't seen), that tried too hard to throw together random character stories into a theme about how connected the world's struggles are. That criticism, in part, really turned me off to seeing Babel, because of my assumptions of how those movies are Oscar catnip but don't really take risks. This movie, however, is actually anchored in the personal battle of one well-acted character in one city, and the diversions from Bardem seem appropriate and add interesting elements to an overall picture of the environment this character works in. Critics didn't say absolutely wonderful things about it, but I think that it was worth my time for the most part.

[P.S. I'm going to make a little note whenever I watch an Oscar nominee... Best Picture/Director/Actor/Actress/Supp. Actor/Supp. Actress/Orig. Screenplay/Adapted Screenplay... I'll celebrate the viewing of a complete category of nominations with a recollections of all the nominations and my personal pick for the best]

BEST OF 2010: NUMBER 7

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

This will seem like a very half glass half empty kind of recap, and I'll just say that I consider this spot in the countdown the cutoff... the top 6 films coming soon really excel in beautiful unique ways and have very few faults. This comes close, but... let's say if The Social Network was a Facebook friend... I wouldn't be taking EVERY opportunity to "Like" its status updates.

Isn't that clever?

Anyway, if the awards season momentum means anything it sounds like The Social Network is set to take a lot of prestigious awards. I can even predict that the voters for the Oscar Best Picture, out of a collective ability to not appear too stodgy and very current, could very well vote this to be the Best Picture of the Year.

No doubt it is a sharp picture, very smoothly paced, and has just the right dark touches to have a tone that is a little more contemporary than regular Oscar fare. In fact, with the exception of the director of the King's Speech, all the other Oscar best Director nominees cut their teeth on some of the boldest, coolest cult pictures of the last 15-20 years (Fight Club, Requiem for a Dream, Three Kings, Fargo) and it's great to see these filmmakers as a team be nominated together.

But as I outlined in my original review, there was an element missing in The Social Network, and if it wins a lot of big film awards, the parallels with another Oscar winner from a few years ago, A Beautiful Mind, will become even stronger, and it won't be a welcome comparison. As I remember, shortly after A Beautiful Mind became obvious Oscar bait, it was revealed that much of the storyline of mentally troubled economist John Nash was made up. Not only that, but revealing and true aspects of his life were left out for the sake of creating more drama and sympathy. Did this selective fictionalizing take away from the powerful portrayal of mental illness or the great performances? Not really... but it also creates a picture that just exists on the surface. If there is a lot of truth missed in what is presented as a powerful personal drama of an actual living person, than I have trouble understanding its relevance. In the end, A Beautiful Mind was put together in such a beautiful (and apolitical) package and moved in such grand gestures that it was an obvious Best Picture of the year winner, in similar fashion to other beautifully made but inconsequential winners like the English Patient and Shakespeare in Love.

So of course something based on true events can be highly fictionalized if it creates a better movie. However, in the case of the very relevant, very current, and very ubiquitous world of Facebook, if you are going to exaggerate the characters and dramatize events, you have to make the movie about something more deeper, thematically, than the legal battles of these people whose characterizations are to some degree fabricated. Except for some some fleeting moments, and two excellent scenes opening and ending the movie, there was little insight into how facebook shapes social interactions, what it means to have a whole generation wired to communicate this way, or even any types of broader analysis of the rapid expansion of various tech bubbles and Internet fads. Without enough of those elements (which are compelling to me, personally) all we're left with in The Social Network is a movie that mostly spends time with greedy young eccentrics battling eachother in boardrooms and flashbacks for millions and millions of dollars. How relevant that reductive experience is to me, just as how engaged I am in A Beautiful Mind, depends on how much I believe the "facts" of the story. And recent stories have revealed that Mr. Mark Zuckerberg isn't really that much of a jerk. Maybe all of his minions are doing damage control behind the scenes to improve his image, but I could be forgiving of fictionalized "true" events if the movie relied a little bit less on spending specific personal moments with these characters to tell a story.

All in all, this movie took a different direction that I expected, but was still solid and engaging in its own way. The final thought I have... will it make me feel old or mainstream or both if Trent Reznor wins and accepts an Oscar for Best Dramatic Score?

For the Record Tuesday

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2009)

Not a great adaptation of a pretty good literary blockbuster. More later, in between countdown posts, maybe.

BEST OF 2010: NUMBER 8

NUMBER 8

IRON MAN 2

Here it is, the best "traditional blockbuster type movie" of 2010. There is an odd effect when I watch Robert Downey Jr. in anything. Let's see, I have recently viewed him in Tropic Thunder, Due Date, Sherlock Holmes, and this movie, and despite the flaws in these otherwise thoroughly enjoyable flicks, Downer Jr. carries the film by giving whatever role he has the respect that you might not think it deserves. Instead of a charismatic action hero, in the mold of say, a Bruce Willis, Downey has that charisma but also has a gravity and weariness to his performances. Instead of a brooding toughness in a performance that is motivated most primally to declare "I am the action star" around lots of explosions, special effects, and hot women, I see his Tony Stark as truly a person first and a comic book superhero second. Due Date isn't in my top 10 because despite its moments it was pretty formulaic, but it would be a movie close to intolerable if Robert Downey Jr. didn't bring some additional dimensions to a buddy comedy when numerous other movies have already had the character of the outraged neurotic mess that is saddled with a weirdo against his will.

Anyway, Downey doesn't carry Iron Man 2 all alone. There is of course the anticipation of where the movie will go after the final line of the first Iron Man, as well as the Mickey Rourke villian performance and all the pretty bells and whistles (yes, including the eye candy of Gweneth Paltrow and Scarlett Johannsen that I'm not about appreciating) All elements of a perfect action movie that hit the sweet spot in so many ways.

Sequels that are not disappointing are very few in number, but there has been an exciting recent trend of comic book movies really doing a lot better the second time around. Perhaps because more likely than not, a new Batman or Spiderman franchise is going to be guaranteed a smash, so they can devote a lot of time to what comic book geeks call the "origin story" in the first movie, where the characters take their time to fall from grace, stitch up their costumes and have about one big fight before the credits roll, with audiences still wanting more. But Iron Man 2 doesn't just make everything louder, hotter, and faster. It makes it smarter and more satisfying.

BEST OF 2010: NUMBER 9

Continuing...

#9

THE ART OF THE STEAL

The documentary I selected to watch at the 2010 Wisconsin Film Fest definitely changed the way I view art. I would like to think that art, whether it's paintings, literature, films, music, etc. create a form of escapism that by definition is consciously separated from more pragmatic pressures and commercialism. As The Art of the Steal demonstrates, however, art that was deliberately set aside for non-commercial exploitation can just as easily become a tool of marketing and business, with the right circumstances and patient, well-financed, opportunistic civic leaders. But that's not the only fascinating question this film brings up. Another is whether a person, by establishing ownership of creative masterworks, not only has the right to display those masterpieces in a way that he/she sees fit, but can also dictate how those works are displayed after they die. Barnes definitely is a sympathetic character compared to other wealthy eccentrics, and the care and philosophy behind the design and display of his original collection of famous paintings is something to be admired. But you can follow the slippery slope... what if an owner just buys things for their personal pleasure, and doesn't feel an obligation to share them with anybody, regardless of price? Shouldn't an outside force be willing to step in and create opportunities for others less wealthy to experience something culturally or creatively important?

It seems like I'm being very specific to the subject of the movie, but it was very compelling. Turning the concept of "art for arts sake" upside down has a lot of implications and questions whether even the most purely beautiful creations by artistic visionaries ultimatley end up having a real, concrete price in the end.

Break

A long postponement of the top 10 (maybe my order of movies will change by the time I start again?)... due to a family vacation. Instead of watching movies, we played a fun guess-the-movie game, when it was too cold and dark to enjoy the Florida beaches, so it wasn't a complete cinematic break.

The weekend before I left I did watch one movie...

BRONSON (2008)

This was available via Netflix instant, and came highly recommended from Ain't It Cools Harry Knowles. It was also a more recent film from the director of the Pusher trilogy, Nicolas Winding Refn, so I was excited, especially after the awesome opening credits. Hands down, no opening has pumped me up so quickly then those for the Pusher trilogy and Bronson. Start out with such a heart pumping, pounding beat of a title sequence, that focuses attention squarely on your characters, and it builds a lot of goodwill to follow whatever path the accompanying film takes.

Bronson is based on a true story of a notorious British prisoner that seems to have a primal reaction to incarceration, which is to beat the living crap out of everybody. Branching out from that base instinct is a very complex character and a great performance that seems to try to capture the expanded insanity that comes from extended solitary incarceration. Often times I thought I was viewing a portrayal of failed reprogramming that comes very close to A Clockwork Orange. It just got a little too stylized at times for me, with extending classical musical accompaniment to brutal scenes and a scenes that were a little too dragged out.

TOP 10 FILMS OF 2010... HM and #10

TOP 10 FILMS OF 2010...

I'm ready to go.. but to be the obsessive movie geek I have to let out some ground rules of the movies that were available to be ranked.

These will be the top 10 films first viewed, by me, in movie theaters throughout 2010. It's very possible that some of the selections from the Wisconsin Film Festival might have been officially released in a previous year in the country of their origin, but they nonetheless count, because I'm seeing them with my eyes as a brand new movie in a theater.

Even with my limited means, I find it very difficult to keep this as a rule. You may recall, that I put an amazing Chinese epic called Red Cliff in my top 10 of last year, even though I watched in on a region-free DVD on my computer. This was due to it's only availability being a set of Chinese DVDs a friend lent to me. In fact, there was a theatrical version edited for United States release that apparently was really terrible, so this was the ideal version of Red Cliff to watch.

That being said, it's time to break the rule in some way, because as a very special honorable mention...

MOTHER

None other than the guru of film criticism, Roger Ebert, put this movie on his top 10 foreign films of 2010, even though I had saw it at home through Netflix Instant. Doing some digging it looked like it was released in its home country of Korea in 2009 but released in the U.S. in 2010. It was actually a selection at WIFF 2010, along with all of the director Bong Jon-Ho's other films. But I can't bring myself to judge it among the theatrical experiences I had during 2010... it seemed like I was already viewing it from my backcatalog of films I want to see.

In a perfect world, though, it would be very difficult not to make this my best film of 2010. This Korean director has continually upped the ante, after Memories of Murder, and the Host, to make hauntingly ambiguous endings that never seem like a cop-out. A murder mystery, a steadfast belief in innocence, and a mother and son that goes beyond anyone's casual comfort zone... the elements combine in ways totally unexpected, and conjure up feelings and emotions that I had no reference point for. Incredible movie.

NUMBER 10 (TIE):

CYRUS

HANDSOME HARRY

This will be the only tie, I swear, but these two movies ended up having some tremendously distinct qualities, while being balanced with some flaws that couldn't be completely excused. I couldn't recognize one over the other.

Cyrus' strengths were its acting and very natural dialogue. Unlike many high quality but grandiose movies, the small set of characters in Cyrus talked and reacted in ways that you could relate to if you were in that situation. Jonah Hill, beyond anything else I've seen, shows that he can take his persona to creepy (but not psychotic) lengths. So while it's refreshing to see these kind of human characters, it would have been better for the story to have a little more substance. I wouldn't want to see this movie right away for the second time, but I definitely would like to watch these characters and see what happens to them.

It's pretty much coincidental that these two movies are tied, but Handsome Harry might be contrastable to Cyrus in that the characters, with possibly the exception of the main protagonist, are actually very ill-defined. Cliched performances and general stereotypes of "men with troubled pasts" can be disengaging, and the secret that drives the story has been a topic of more prominent movies for many years. Perhaps I was too much in film festival mode to tolerate something remotely conventional, but then something interesting happened. The story, pacing, and structure became so perfectly composed that the meaning of these 'conventional' characters' actions shifted to something deeply emotional and sad. The main character was so confident and masculine that the slightest shift of perception into who he actually is created a ripple effect that reached its point in a devastating conclusion that truly expresses the incredible damage of keeping shame and pain bottled up tight for decades.

And the final report of the year...

The holiday season allowed me to do a significant chunk of movie watching, including the final new release of 2010. That makes the possible candidates for the 2010 Top Ten closed, with a top 10 list to come very shortly.

For now… here's what I saw in the past week.

TRUE GRIT (2010)

This was the one I wanted to see before the year got out, and my last two hours of available personal time for the year were put to good use, as I saw a 4:20 screening of this on Thursday at 12/30 before my day off. More about this later.

TIME AFTER TIME (1979)

First it was listed on Ain’t It Cool News as a good time traveler flick, and then the expiration date for Netflix Instant got closer. Finally, I wanted to see Malcolm McDowell again in something. It was pretty good.

That being said, I have to agree with some archived reviews that said the direction was clumsy. The romance was not very believable, and while it was a unique diversion for a sci-fi movie, it felt like it was an easy way to play along with a human interest subplot to avoid expanding the much more interesting and dynamic implications of both H.G. Wells being in modern society and Jack the Ripper reeking havoc in a new world.

I also have to say that, after watching a beautifully shot San Francisco in The Conversation a month ago and now this, that it seems like a really beautiful City to visit.

CHE (PARTS 1 AND 2)

[Criterion 496] This was a viewing project. A film in two parts (over two hours each) on Che Guevara. Selected randomly from my Netflix list, this is also a Criterion release and I’m still making my way through the extras on the Blu-Ray. Sometimes I don’t like to read the reviews afterwards because they reveal faults in the film I simply couldn’t realize while watching it because of the initial inundation of senses that comes with watching a movie made by someone who has an obvious vision and is passionate about it. And sure, the reviews I read had a little bit of a point, but I don't think anyone with some sense of impatience is going to dismiss some of the plotting and pacing that director Steven Sodenbergh decided to go with. I will say, that I did really want to see the second part (I split the viewing over two days) after the style and performance of part 1 hooked me. Given that I didn't know much about Che despite his appearance on the dorm room posters of radical college students, it's a very strong epic movie that can compell my attention like this film series did. With additional contemplation, I have to say that this film is nearly perfect and very long... whether length is good or bad I can't really conclude one way or another.

TOP 10 OF 2010 .... TOP 10 OF 2010 ... COMING SOON!

Follow-up

Seven Samurai

[Criterion collection #2] I hate to be uptight and say that Netflix did not have a streaming widescreen version or a Blu-Ray available so I had to watch this epic 3 hour movie on a square screen. The horror, the horror, I know.

I’m trying to be of the mindset that these very old classic movies are something that I have to sit through, despite my contemporary tastes and attention span, just as a self-imposed requirement that I begin to have a foundation of cinematic understanding based on all the good epic movies that inspired so many future films. Just when I was getting antsy and thought I was sitting through a movie that was made for a different audience and time, Seven Samurai has the breadth and patience enough to give you some out of nowhere characterizations that get me paying attention once again. The whole farmers vs. warriors class dynamic created some very unique tensions. I think what puts me a little off are the battle scenes. While epic and important to the story, they also drag on for a while. I believe that’s my reaction to just being accustomed to that kind of dynamic epic violence being so easy to view in any number of filmed mediums. Back in 1954, I bet the movie-going audiences without televisions were willing to watch battles as long as possible on the big screen.

Diversion aside, this film’s length made it a struggle to watch, but no doubt was this an important and entertaining movie.

Irreversible

Probably close to the most disturbing and brutal movie I’ve ever seen. In regards to The Human Centipede, which might now be the runner-up in this category, there are inventive ways to shock and awe by depicting a horrible torture fantasy in the most realistic way possible. It’s quite another thing to portray something horrible that is realistically possible and structure a movie in the most incredibly jarring way, so the audience can’t really gain a comfortable distance from the movie because they are so incredibly disoriented that they can’t tell what’s going on, who the characters are, and what their motivations for acting in the most extreme way possible. I’m so glad (if you could call that an appropriate emotion allowed in this movie) that while I knew there was going to be a pivotal and brutal scene going in, I didn’t read the Wikipedia entry or any reviews further than that. What I experienced was a film whose very form, function, and style, allowed for the themes and story to hit you deeply, in ways that the most bloody, disgusting, straightforward horror film never could. I only think I’ll be watching Irreversible again for plot clarification, because there are parts I never want to see again unless I feel like showing a very trusted friend the absolute edge I’m willing to go when watching movies.