A young girl in the Ozarks (Jennifer Lawrence in Debra Granik's "Winter's Bone") who, while caring for her two young siblings and vegetable mother, must track down her father, who listed the family's house for collateral on his bail and then no-showed at court. Another young girl (Hailee Steinfeld in Joel and Ethan Coen's "True Grit") sees the way the men of the West do business, and the way business should be done, and offers no compromise between the two. A CIA operative/Russian Spy/who-knows-anymore (Angelina Jolie in Phillip Noyce's "Salt") is allowed to make intelligent decisions provoked by emotion for what must be one of the first times in the history of the action movie. Raised for the sole purpose of donating her organs to those deemed more worthy of them, a young woman (Carrie Mulligan in Mark Romanek's "Never Let Me Go") maintains impossible posture as the love of her short life mistakenly buys into the seductions of an envious mutual friend.
And these are just American films. I could go on about the brilliant leads in Andrea Arnold's "Fish Tank" (Katie Jarvis) and Martin Provost's "Seraphine" (Yolande Moreau), and already this year we've seen Isabelle Huppert's heroic performance in Claire Denis' "White Material" (already an early favorite for best of the year). Many of these women characters are weak, but none are shallow, and just as many are stalwart figures in emotional torrents. This shift toward an equal female psychology, and the speed and scope by which it occurred, may prove to make 2010 one of the most encouraging years for movies I've seen in my lifetime.
As it were, it was just a terrific year for movies in general. Here are the top 25 films of 2010, having seen theatrical release dates in the state of Nebraska within the year. (Note: a few of these films made the rounds on critics' lists at the end of 2009, but didn't make it out to the plains until early the next year, which would explain why some of these films may seem to be old news)
1. 35 Shots of Rum
That Claire Denis, arguably the most tender and delicate of the world’s living directors, should essentially remake a film from the late Yasujiro Ozu, inarguably the most tender and delicate of all directors, is a rare gift to art. Denis’ “35 Shots of Rum” is one of the most adult films I’ve ever seen. Based on Ozu’s “Late Spring”, about a widower father left alone when his daughter marries and moves out, is enriched by Denis’ astonishingly evocative compositions and the transcendent performances from its four leads: Alex Descas, Mati Diop, Gregoire Colin, and Nicole Dogue. There is a centerpiece scene in a closed down café in the rain that is so surely handled I might have wept simply for the perfection of the moment if not for the power of its emotional consequences. Denis reminds us, with a gentle caress, that when a wound is deep enough, we no longer cry out for help.
2. Black Swan
Here is what the movies are for. Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” is a grand fable, a lavish melodrama, a shameless exploitation horror film, a sinister black comedy, and a touching tragedy all rolled into one. Natalie Portman gives an engrossing and nuanced performance as Nina Sayers, a ballerina undone in pursuit of perfection as the lead in a modernized production of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, “Swan Lake”. Aronofsky transforms her schizophrenic hallucinations into an allegory for the sacrifices made in the name of art. Freed from restraint, unburdened with pretensions, and stripped of formality, we find a movie that casts aside expectations and conventions and sets off in wild search of the muse.
3. The Social Network
I'll spare you the ejaculations about Fincher's latest triumph being a cultural landmark, and its accurate assessment of a society in which every human is being reduced to a figure in a network, a number in a code. All of that is true, granted, but you've heard a thousand times. Let me just add to the discussion the element of the film that has largely gone unspoken - that these networks have reformatted the world of commerce, and that in this frantic age of expediency the youth of our society have suddenly found themselves on an even plane with the veterans. We've been racing toward this period for a long time, when those ill-equipped to manage the world are the only ones who can manage the tools. "The Social Network" ranks among the most socially significant films of the last ten years.
4. Restrepo
Courageously photographed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, the Afghanistan War documentary "Restrepo", about a small platoon stationed in the Korengal Valley - dubbed "the most dangerous place in the world" - reminded me a little of the "Do Long Bridge" sequence in "Apocalypse Now", where American soldiers had been tasked with building a bridge over the Nung River, only to see it destroyed every night by Vietcong hiding in the bush. The effort was impossible, the best possible result a stalemate, thwarted by natives who knew the land and who were far less afraid of death than we were. Restrepo was the name of a soldier killed in the Korengal valley, and the outpost that was named after him, a post that had been built to disrupt travel lines within Taliban territory and disrupt their communication. The outpost drew enemy fire daily, often several times daily. "Restrepo" is a triumph, a testament to the courage and communion of our American troops and to the present futility of the conflict for which they still risk their lives.
5. The White Ribbon
Framed within the fleeting sparseness of the memory, Michael Haneke's ominous and foreboding parable about a small North German village on the eve of World War I, stricken with a series of bizarre "accidents", brings to vivid life the social attitudes that gave rise to fascism in Europe. Uncertainty arises, fear and suspicion begin to ferment and this sheltered society clings to the ritualistic stability of their routines, the concrete authenticity of their hierarchy. If order is openly enforced, then fear and suspicion can be tolerated. Amidst the darkness of this period is a geeky schoolteacher who falls in love with a shy housemaid. Her father wants them to wait a year before they wed. "The world won't collapse in that time," he assures them. If only he knew.
6. The Ghost Writer
Charlie Chaplin once said, "In the end, everything's a gag." I have a suspicion that Roman Polanski feels the same way. His latest film, "The Ghost Writer", is about just such a person (Ewan McGregor) finding himself involved in a conspiracy concerning the politician (Pierce Brosnan as Not Tony Blair) whose memoir he has been tasked with making publishable under an impossible deadline. Polanski is the best since Hitchcock at drawing comedy from the sinister, as evidenced by this film's pitch perfect ending - possibly Polanski's best outside of "Chinatown". At its most basic, "The Ghost Writer" is an inspired web of intrigue, but it also offers a welcome glimpse into the nihilistic mind of a man whose own morality has been the subject of much recent debate.
7. A Prophet
Comparable to "The Godfather" in almost every way, most notably in a botched, ugly, frantically improvised, bloody, but ultimately successful hit job, reminiscent of Pacino's great scene in the cafe, if only for the awesome intensity of the moment. This sprawling crime epic from Jaques Audiard melds triumph and tragedy to remarkable effect, at once a cautionary and coming-of-age tale. Tahar Rahim, with his pitiful, boyish mustache, gives one of the great performances of the year as Malik, an incarcerated petty thief who rides all the right coattails, all the way to the top of a massive crime ring run from inside the walls of a French prison. "A Prophet" is riddled with remarkable moments, from the aforementioned murder through to a later moment that demonstrates the extent of Malik's development, and a late image that reminds us that every action does indeed have an equal and opposite reaction. We might better understand these to be consequences.
8. A Town Called Panic
Or: a radical postmodern ultimatum on our culture's criminally short attention spans. This haphazardly animated film from French directors Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar is as anarchic a comedy as I've seen this side of the Marx Brothers. In a town where everyone lives their lives at a vicious pitch of hyperbole, Cowboy and Indian, together with their roommate Horse, embark on an almost Homerian odyssey to rectify the damage done by a botched birthday present. "A Town Called Panic" is the funniest movie of the year. It is so consistently illogical that it becomes logical, or, "so simple it's sophisticated," as Roger Ebert quipped, and what a relief it is to hear someone recognize the sophistication of a work that goes to such accomplished heights to present itself as unsophisticated.
As much an experiment of form as an anthropological examination of Montana sheepherders, Lucien Castaing-Taylor's and Ilisa Barbash's patient, meditative documentary seems designed to capture the reverence and spirituality of this journey through Montana's harsh Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains to lead a large flock of sheep to summer pasture on public lands. It is surprising how intimate this film manages to be, without the aid of closeups, extensive dialog, or even narration. Here finally is a film that regards the peace and quiet of the mountains, rather than listen to someone speak of just that. Here is a testament to shots. Shots, shots, shots. All of these shots. Beautiful shots. Two, three, four minute long shots. Shots that develop slowly and reveal astonishing secrets. Shots as majestic as the mountains themselves.
10. The Kids are Alright
We’ve needed a film like this. Here is a film featuring a gay couple, but it is not about gay people. It is, instead, a film about family values. We are certainly not beyond homophobic bigotry in Hollywood. We must still put up with movies like “Wild Hogs” and “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry”, which treat homosexuality as a punch line and regard it with pettiness and disgust. But here are two married women, Annette Benning and Julianne Moore, who are good people but make mistakes, who communicate and in turn miscommunicate, who struggle through and occasionally triumph over life’s challenges. I loved “The Kids are Alright” not just because it is good for us and because its timing is right, though it certainly is, but because it is the rarest of movies - a smart comedy about real people, who are funny not because they are silly but because we like them, and so too do we feel the sting of their mistakes. Moore’s Jules was rather forthright, really, with the film’s central theme – “Marriage is really fucking hard.”
11. Exit Through the Gift Shop
The famous street artist Banksy has made a film about a film about him, delving deep into the world of street art and the pudgy, loving cameraman (Thierry Guetta) who proved the thesis posited to him by one of those street artists, that real power is derived from perceived power.
12. The Secret of Kells
A conventional tale of religious pride and fervor as expressed through a most unconventional use of the frame, Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey's splendid animated feature is vibrant and abstract and very, very two dimensional.
13. Never Let Me Go
A sci-fi parable likely to grow in stature over the years, Mark Romanek's depiction of an alternate history where a strain of laboratory-grown children are raised to donate their vital organs to those deemed more worthy of them powerfully amplifies the missed opportunities of those few lives it follows. This is a film as sparse and fleeting as life itself.
14. Winter's Bone
The teenage Ree (Jennifer Lawrence),charged with caring for her two young siblings and vegetable mother, must now find her meth-addicted father, who posted their house as collateral for his bail and subsequently no-showed at court. Shot in the apocalyptic backwoods of the Ozarks, Debra Granik's harsh, desolate odyssey features one of the great women in recent movies.
15. Shutter Island
The counterpoint to Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds", Martin Scorsese's moody madhouse mystery is yet another film composed of the images and moods that have influenced its director over the years.
16. The American
Anton Corbijn's "The American" is proof that suspense can be suggested through composition as much as, if not more than, exposition. Corbijn has composed this film almost entirely out of vacuums - empty spaces within the frame - into which we pour our unease, our suspicions, and our paranoia. Astonishing how deep this technique alone brings us into George Clooney's opaque assassin Jack.
17. The King's Speech
A conventional story told conventionally that reminds me why said conventions became conventional in the first place. The year's best capital "M" Movie.
18. Fish Tank
Yet another film about a showcased schizophrenic, set this time in the tepid slums of London suburbia, where the potential for escape comes in many forms (a future in dance, Mommy's new boyfriend...), and is almost always an illusion.
19. The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
We have spent much of the last year examining the line between journalism and activism. Perhaps it was for this reason that I observed Daniel Ellsberg, the man who blew the lid on the Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration, with such rapidly increasing regard.
20. Toy Story 3
Finally, the Pixar boys have revealed the function of our most endearing of movie toys. They are the parents, whose naive insecurities lead them to fear obsolescence. No wonder Pixar has enjoyed success across such a wide demographic.
21. True Grit
Here it is at last - the Pre-Hollywood-Western Western. I'd suspected that the Brothers Coen wouldn't bother with a remake unless they had something to say about remakes. In a way, I think I was right, though I'm damned if I can say how.
22. Wild Grass
Gentle on the surface, slyly revolutionary underneath, French New Waver Alain Resnais' touching anti-romance is about the many ways that the love we see in movies eludes us.
23. Seraphine
Picking up in theme essentially where "Black Swan" left off, here is a biopic about a man who tried to bring a great artist back from madness.
24. Salt
A fun, exciting, and well-photographed action flick that injects some new vigor into a genre long thought lost to mediocrity.
25. Greenberg
An voyage through the labyrinthine insecurities of a man ill-equipped to deal with them.
Well done. I've seen a handful. Surprised to see Shutter Island as high as it is, but I have little complaint on it.
ReplyDeleteFantastic piece as always Rollie, I really enjoy reading your stuff. I've only seen 6 of these, but living in Australia means that some have not been released yet, or just won't be. My somewhat less ambitious attempt at the same thing is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://drinkingabeerwatchingamovie.blogspot.com/2011/01/it-is-that-time-of-year-when-people.html