film blog

TOP 10 FILMS OF 2007

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:31:51 -0700

1. Michael Clayton
2. Margot at the Wedding
3. Once
4. Juno
5. Dan in Real Life
6. Lars and the Real Girl
7. Enchanted
8. Stardust
9. Breach
10. There Will Be Blood

Pity Poor Flesh

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:11:44 -0600

This update is a little out of date, I know, but I wanted to put it here just for archival purposes. And, it’ll give a few more people a chance to check this out, or feel free to check it out now if you didn’t the first time around.

My work was published in the May issue of Bright Lights Film Journal, a quarterly journal available online at http://www.brightlighsfilm.com. Here’s a link right to my article, which is now in the archives section: http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/56/bodies.htm.

My article is called “Pity Poor Flesh: Terrible Bodies in the Films of Carpenter, Cronenberg, and Romero.” It’s about dead bodies and zombies, so it’s not for the squeamish. Feel free to leave some thoughts in the comments section of this entry. I’ll be adapting it into a chapter for my dissertation, so the more feedback I can get the better.

TOP 10 FILMS OF 2006

Thu, 9 Aug 2007 17:54:19 -0600

1. Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro has been making fascinating but flawed films for years, moving back and forth between smaller independent films and studio features, but finally he made the film I always anticipated from him. In Pan’s Labyrinth, he combines the grandiosity of his studio films with the careful and quirky storytelling of his independent releases. This one’s a masterpiece, combining his unique visual style with a story that is both mature and whimsical. The film is complicated on a thematic and symbolic level but remains simple on an emotional one. The acting by the young lead is phenomenal, the sort of excellent child acting we haven’t seen since the marvelous work by Anna Paquin in The Piano (for which she won a deserved Oscar). The violence in the film is intense and yet never gratuitous. It is a grotesque, fairy tale sort of violence. As I was watching, I felt pulled back and forth between terror and wonder. There were numerous moments while watching this film when I found myself, jaw agape, simply awed by the marvels I was seeing on screen. I appreciate also the way the film comments on reading and imagination--on the power of stories to transport us to other worlds, especially when our own becomes too difficult to bear.

2. An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth is basically a film of Al Gore lecturing in front of a graphically advanced Powerpoint. I tend to be bored during most Powerpoint presentations, and I never found Al Gore to be all that interesting or charismatic a speaker. So, it’s quite a feat for this film to show up so high on my list of top films of 2006. I was also predisposed to believe the argument being made, so the film didn’t “convince” me of anything really. Instead, it succeeded, for me, on an emotional level. I didn’t leave the theatre seeing or thinking about the world in a dramatically different way--I left feeling different about the world and my place in it.

3. Children of Men
I was a little unsure of what I thought of this one as the credits were rolling. The film was hard, loud, gritty, violent, and emotionally abrasive. It was basically a 2-hour barrage on my senses. And, in spite of huge sacrifices made by most of the major characters, the ending remains bleak. The film was aptly compared by critics to Blade Runner, which ends in much the same way with barely a sliver of hope. And, yet, I couldn’t help but relish that little sliver of hope, no matter how small. It was thinking back on Julianne Moore’s performance that made me realize how great this film is. Her role is brief, and yet she is the only character with any vibrance. The world of the film is stark and bitter, and once Moore’s character is gone, you can’t help but notice how utterly empty and soulless the rest of the characters are. She represents both the film’s politics and its stakes. She haunts the film, reminding us that there is something worthwhile about bringing people into the world.

4. Little Miss Sunshine
Filled with funny performances and clever camera work, this film is a delight. It moves quickly back and forth between drama and comedy without ever feeling too heavy or silly. These characters feel like real people even though they are also types. And the ending, which might seem too bizarre in another film, feels triumphant. I haven’t grinned and giggled so much at any other film this year.

5. The Descent
This one’s got a lot of gore. In fact, the main character literally wades through a pool of it in one of the scenes. The Descent isn’t a perfect film. At certain points, it stumbles while trying to toe the line between art horror and b-movie. But with its almost non-existent lighting and claustrophobic setting it manages to truly horrify. I actually considered teaching the film in my women’s lit. course. The basic story is about a group of women on an expedition who get trapped in a cave with a race of devolved humanoids. The women find themselves reverting to pure animal instinct, and ultimately are faced with their own “descent” or de-evolution. They, themselves, become the film’s monsters. There are so many films about men’s innate capacity for violence. Here’s a film that insightfully focuses on the capacity of women for violence.

6. Babel
Crash showed up on my top 10 list last year. I think if I had seen it and this film in the same year, though, Crash wouldn’t have fared as well. Don’t get me wrong. I still think Crash is a great film, but it seems heavy-handed, melodramatic even, when compared to Babel. They both weave together their stories in a similar way, but Babel manages to be more subtle and more emotionally resonant. Crash wears its thesis like a badge, whereas I’m still not exactly sure what Babel is about. It’s an evocative film that makes me realize how large the world is and how little I know about it.

7. Hard Candy
I’m sad that Ellen Page didn’t get any award recognition for her performance in this film. She’s, quite simply, a revelation. I love the film’s theatricality. Even though it was primarily filmed in a single location (and a set at that), it manages some of the most inspiring cinematography and lighting I’ve seen in a film this year. And some of the best close-up frames I’ve ever seen in a film.

8. The Pursuit of Happyness
The interactions at the heart of this movie between Will Smith’s character and his son are charming without being cloying. I was worried the movie would be overly sentimental, but it never is. Ultimately, it’s the goofiness and subtlety of the humor that won me over.

9. Slither
Slither is a hilarious send-up of the horror genre. It gets a nod for its clever, unadulterated b-movieness. The worst movies are the ones that aim high and end up being pretentious nonsense. Slither knows it’s nonsense and isn’t afraid to laugh at itself. It’s also surprisingly scary.

10. The Illusionist
There were a number of movies I was considering for this spot including Friends With Money, Notes on a Scandal, Shortbus, and Sherrybaby, but The Illusionist just barely edged the others out. The others are all flawed films that nevertheless manage to astound on one level or another. Friends With Money has a wry sense of humor and a nice premise but doesn’t really add up to much in the end. Shortbus is revolutionary in the way it handles sex on screen, while also managing to be emotionally gripping, but it ultimately seems raw--too much like an experiment. Sherrybaby and Notes on a Scandal have some of the best performances I’ve seen this year (from Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cate Blanchett, and Judi Dench), but the characters they play are types, and the scripts get off to a good start but devolve pretty quickly into movie-of-the-week nonsense. It’s really the relative mediocrity of The Illusionist that makes it succeed where these other films fail. It doesn’t try to be the virtuoso and ends up all the better for it. The film is neat and tidy, with edges that line up, and actors that get the job done without letting their performance be all that noticeable. Quite simply, the movie entertains without letting us see the dangling strings.

TOP 10 FILMS OF 2005

Wed, 8 Aug 2007 18:02:13 -0600

1. Grizzly Man
Quite possibly the best film of the last 10 years. Grizzly Man works on so many levels. It’s a film about man’s tenuous relationship with nature, a film about mental illness, a film about the wonders and mysteries of animals, a film about gender, and (at its best) a film about filmmaking. It’s a tragic story, and a harrowing film to watch, but I left the theatre feeling changed, inspired even. It’s a shame (and an utter mystery to me) that this film wasn’t nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar.

2. Brokeback Mountain
Ang Lee has never failed to deliver, in spite of the fact that he hopscotches genres and styles with each film he makes. This film is right up their with his best, Ice Storm. With fantastic performances by Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams, the movie has a visual subtlety and grace missing from most contemporary movies. Where lesser directors try to make films that look like novels, Ang Lee understands that the best films have more in common with poetry. Like Grizzly Man, Brokeback Mountain uses nature as the backdrop (and a metaphor for) a complicated exploration of identity and human emotion.

3. Serenity
A great series (cancelled just as it found its footing) gets a bitter sweet send-off. Joss Whedon got to make the series finale that he didn’t get to do for TV, and it’s a transcendent film. It looks like sci-fi and feels like sci-fi, but it’s so much more. Whedon uses genre (horror and sci-fi) and the fantastic to deal with fundamental human drama. This film is right up there with his best episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

4. The Squid and the Whale
It’s hard to even put words to what’s so great about this film. It has great actors (Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney) and a great script (nominated for the Oscar). Very simple and unassuming camera-work. And a perfect metaphor at its center. The emotions are so real in this film that it feels almost like a documentary, a story of the collapse of an American family. If Capturing the Friedmans were a fiction film, this would be it.

5. Unleashed
Came out in January but has stuck with me ever since. This is probably the biggest surprise of the year, a Jet Li action movie that left me breathless. The action is marvelous but also superfluous. The real story here is a fable about human growth and vulnerability.

6. Red Eye
Wes Craven’s best film without a doubt. He’s flirted (for his entire career) at making a horror film that transcends its genre, but he’s never really succeeded (he came close with the second Scream movie and his most recent addition to the Nightmare on Elm Street series). Red Eye is the best Hitchcock film made, well, since Hitchcock. It’s also the tightest genre film made in years. Everything in the film (every character, every visual detail, the pacing, etc.) is note-perfect. This films doesn’t transcend its genre. It is the epitome of it.

7. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
Another one that’s hard to describe in words. The one that comes to mind is “pleasant” and yet it seems almost degrading. It’s not in this case. This film is a little morsel that left me smiling and giggling. On the surface, it seems so light that it might almost float away, but there’s a real heart beating beneath that surface. And yet another fantastic performance by Julianne Moore (some of her most understated work yet).

8. Crash
Not the most cinematic film ever made, this one is driven by the best ensemble cast of the year. Thandie Newton, in particular, is amazing, but every performance in the film is compelling.

9. Junebug
See my review of this one for more. The film doesn’t really know what it wants to be when it grows up. It’s kind of a comedy, kind of a drama. It’s not really about anything. The camera work seems awkward and fumbling. The performances are odd (none of these are people I’ve ever met). And, yet, somehow everything is exactly right.

10. A History of Violence
This movie wanted to be my pick for best picture of the year, but it doesn’t entirely work. Still, it has great performances, a visual sensibility that carries over from the graphic novel without seeming as “hey, look at me” as Sin City, and it plays with genre in really clever ways. People are touting it as David Cronenberg’s best film, but I think he’s done better. Perhaps, this is his most focused film and, well, his most palatable (but he’s still Cronenberg, so it’s just barely that).