366 Weird Movies Guest Review: Amer (Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani)

My fifth Guest Review for the fine folks over at 366 Weird Movies has just been posted over at their site.  It is for a strange little thing called Amer - a movie I am still not really sure if I liked or not.  I know several fellow critics who actually despise the damned thing.  I originally posted a review (in a slightly altered state) of the film back in January over at my site, The Cinematheque.  So in case you missed that one, or just want to check out 366 Weird Movies (it is a fun review site full of all the requisite oddities - and some non-requisite ones) go on over now.

Read my guest review of Amer at 366 Weird Movies.

Future guest reviews for 366 Weird Movies will include Zhang Yimou's A Woman, A Gun & A Noodle Shop and a series of pieces on Jess Franco.  See ya in the funny papers...

The Cinematheque Reviews: Biutiful

While I was sitting there watching Alejandro González Iñárritu's fourth film, the strangely titled Biutiful (the title comes from a misspelling by the protag's nine year old daughter), I couldn't help thinking how much I loved his first film (released more than a decade ago now) Amores perros, and how much this film is not that film.  Visually as audacious as always but now seemingly bloated from some sort of apparent self-righteous pretension (closer to his turgid Oscar-bait Babel than to his first two films, the aforementioned and 21 Grams).  Still a well-acted thing, so we have that.  Anyway, before I go and ruin my own review, I will shut up and allow you to go over to my review site (aka, The Cinematheque - but you already knew that) and read it for yourself.

Read my review of Biutiful at The Cinematheque. 

Instead of going with my normal shot from the film in question, here is a shot of the director doing an impersonation of how his film is supposed to make you feel - for better or for worse.

The Cinematheque Reviews: I Love You Phillip Morris

It took nearly two years to make it to US screens (after its 2009 Sundance debut) but it is finally here.  We had a woman come out of I Love You Phillip Morris (at Midtown Cinema, run by my wife and I) and complain that we should warn people that it is a gay movie.  First of all, assuming the poster with two men in a heart shaped formation did not already tip this woman off, just the fact that she needs to be "warned" about homosexuality is, well it is kind of ridiculous - not to mention quite homophobic.  Anyway, this is part of the reason the film took so long to find a distributor (even though it is quite funny throughout), so I suppose we as a society are not as forward thinking as many of the more idealistic amongst us would have you think.  Whatever the case may be, my review is up and running over at The Cinematheque.

Read my review of I Love You Phillip Morris at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole is one of the final Oscar films getting released nationwide (only about three months after its initial, Oscar-eligible NY/LA release) and therefore, with me not making any of the press screenings, opting instead to wait for it's eventual wide(ish) release, one of the last ones being reviewed at The Cinematheque.  Biutiful and I Love You Phillip Morris being the only ones that will debut later (reviews of each coming very soon). The film is surprisingly well-done and doesn't (much) wallow in that typical mainstream maudlin mood such a storyline would more oft than not entail.  The acting of course, is superb (and that is not surprising at all considering the cast).

Read my review of Rabbit Hole at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Another Year

Director Mike Leigh has a curious habit of creating films that defy definition.  They are not comedy, yet they are not drama either.  They are some cross between the comically tragic and the tragically comic.  His films at once portray a world that is so realistic we easily find ourselves trapped inside them, yet so alien, we feel we are watching some sort of cosmic experiment run its course.  Drab and squat and gray, and lined with a certain hopelessness, yet also full of some sort of otherworldly eternal hope.  The director's latest, Another Year, is no different in playing around with such contradictions.  Desolate and at the same time, elegant. It's a wonderful little trick Leigh always seems to have up his sleeve.

Read my review of Another Year at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: 127 Hours

One arm, no waiting.  The story of Aron Ralston, cocksure spelunker who thought it a smart idea to go off into the wilderness without telling anyone where he was going.  Idiot?  Douchebag?  Typical outdoorsy type (how I hate them)?  Probably all these and more, which is how James Franco portrays Aron Ralston in Danny Boyle's highly-anticipated one-man-show blow-out, 127 Hours.  A pretty good movie actually - with Franco's stellar, 176-note performance the number one reason why.   Of course, as we find out in the final post-movie, pre-credit tag, Ralston still goes cave-dwelling, but now he always leaves a note as to where he is going.  Reformed idiot?  Repentant douchebag?  Perhaps.  One arm, no waiting.

Read my review of 127 Hours at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: The King's Speech

Colin Firth should have won the Oscar last year for his devastating performance in A Single Man, but Jeff Bridges won it instead, for a performance that was well below his usual work (more of a we-never-gave-him-one-before Oscar).  Now both Firth and Bridges are up against each other again, but this time it is sure to go the other way, as Firth, though giving a fine performance indeed, will win his own we-never-gave-him-one-before Oscar.  None of this of course has nothing whatsoever to with the supposed quality (or lack thereof) of The King's Speech (as we all know - or should know - the Oscars rarely have anything to do with deserving accolades).  As far as my own personal opinion of the movie goes (the frontrunner for Best Picture as well btw), well, one would have to read my review to find that out (which, for your viewing pleasure, is conveniently linked just below).  For now let us just say it was better than expected but not as good as hoped for.

Read my review of The King's Speech at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Amer

A sexually charged, carnally coloured homage to Dario Argento?  Who could ask for anything more?  Seriously though, the film paints the proverbial pretty picture as a neo-giallo mindfuck of a movie.  All-but-wordless, and filmed with a probing, voyeuristic camera, Amer, is a fascinating, albeit one-note, picture, that seems to work in spite of, or perhaps because of it pretentious, egotistical art-for-art's-sake mentality.  This is meant as a relatively good thing btw, for I quite enjoyed this movie.  There!  Now go read my review dammit.

Read my review of Amer at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Bong Joon-Ho's Mother

Korean cinema has always seemed like an enigma to me.  Strange and perverse, outweighing all other fellow Asian national cinemas in such regard, but also cozy and warm, again outweighing other cinemas of the so-called Far East.  And Bong Joon-ho's cinema is no different than his fellow compatriots - strange and perverse, yet cozy and warm.  His latest, the simply, yet ominously titled Mother, is the very epitome of these rather contradicting characterizations, and its star, Kim Hye-ja, is the proverbial (appropriately enough) mother to this very aforementioned enigmatic theory of mine.  Oh yeah, and she should have been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar too, but that might be asking for a bit too much.

Read my review of Mother at The Cinematheque.

366 Weird Movies Guest Review: The Temptation of St. Tony

I am doing some guest reviews for a site called 366 Weird Movies, a site that (obviously) specializes in weird movies.  I have already done pieces on Johnny Guitar (not so weird per se, as kitschy) and Dogtooth (the Greek weirdness that was just nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar) and now my third guest review is for an Estonian film called The Temptation of St. Tony.  I have already posted my (ever-so-slightly alternate) review of said film over at The Cinematheque, but the fine folks are just now posting the review at their site, so here it is.

Read my review of The Temptation of St. Tony at 366 Weird Movies.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Hadewijch

Part Bresson, part Dardennes, part Bunuel, this chillingly stunning work of spiritual provocativeness, with the strange name, from French auteur Bruno Dumont took my totally by surprise.  Just when I thought I did not have enough films to make a proper Best of 2010 List, along comes Hadewijch, and my dreams are answered.  Sure, I am full of prototypically silly hyperbole here, but it is all true.  My review is finally posted over on my site, so see/read for yourself, then search this beautiful film out and watch the damned thing.....pronto.

Read my review of Hadewijch at The Cinematheque.

In Defense of Sofia Coppola, And A Link To My Review of Somewhere

There are many who call Sofia Coppola's cinema, the cinema of privilege, the cinema of entitlement, and I suppose, in a manner of speaking, they are correct.  One can also say, and many have said, the same of directors such as Noah Baumbach and Spike Jonze and (of course) Woody Allen, but when this criticism is thrown at the young Coppola, it seems to come off as much more mean-spirited than when it is said of these others.  Perhaps this is a gender thing, who knows.  My point being (and, it seems, I am really doing a bad job of trying to get to said point) that just because Coppola writes and films about those one might consider entitled and/or privileged, does not mean her work is shallow because if it.  Many boo hoo about how we should not feel sorry for the wealthy - they have money and therefore have no real problems like the rest of us - including the two friends I happened to see Somewhere with this past weekend (my wife on the other hand, like me, had none of these qualms) but when all is said and done, anyone and everyone can have problems (the old chestnut of money not being capable of buying happiness, and all that).  

Perhaps if Coppola were to make films about steelworkers or bartenders or the cop on the beat, then she may not get the same criticisms about her work.  But she does not make movies about steelworkers or bartenders or the cop on the beat, she makes films about movie stars and queens and teen beauties.  Hemingway wrote about drinking and bullfighting and Paris after the war because this is what he knew.  Fitzgerald wrote about Jazz parties and flappers because that is what he knew.  Kerouac wrote about Zen Buddhism, being on the road and doing lots of drugs because that is what he knew.  Howard Hawks made films about male comradery and pilots because that is what he knew.  Sofia Coppola makes movies about the absurdities and foibles of privilege because that is what she knows.  Somewhere is probably the writer/director's most autobiographical work to date (just put her in the Elle Fanning role and Francis Ford in the Stephen Dorff role).

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that just beacuse a person writes/directs about things and people that may seem shallow or haughty to the common moviegoer (or even those critics who enjoy badmouthing such things - and you know who you are Mr. White! - someone who incidentally, also managed to dis the girl's father in the same review, as being a boring filmmaker!? - but enough about ole Armond, he is not worth the ire).....back to my point, none of this means this same filmmaker cannot express her particular worldview, admittedly a narrow one (but not necessarily a shallow one), with a certain kind of sublime melancholy that makes her films quite enjoyable.  

There, I said it!  Of course none of this defense of Ms. Coppola changes the fact that I was somewhat disappointed in Somewhere - or at the very least, in the last half hour of Somewhere, when it suddenly became the cliche'd thing I was so happy the rest of the film was most certainly not.  Anyway, I've rambled on long enough - there is actually a review of the film (though it too is encumbered by my seeming need to defend the director to the high heavens) over at my website, The Cinematheque (linked just below), that you might want to peruse at your leisure.  You too Armond, if you're not too busy shoving your head up your own ass.

Read my review of Somewhere at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Tiny Furniture

There have been many many (many) complaints about how Lena Dunham's Mumblecorely manufactured Tiny Furniture is nothing more than a D.I.Y. soapbox for a privileged white kid to climb up on and whine about how Goddamned tough life is for her and her fellow Gen Y grouses, and yes, it most certainly is just that (as is pretty much 97.3% of the rather vapid, self-involved Mumblecore movement), but still, for some strange reason (a reason I may never fathom anywhere but in the dark recesses of my brain and a reason that led to my inexplicable enjoyment of past Mumblecore films such as Hannah Takes the Stairs and Beeswax), this self-absorbed whining somehow fascinates me, and therefore I actually quite enjoyed (inexplicably again) Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture, not in spite of its incessant nagging and whining, but because of its incessant nagging and whining.  Strange, ain't it?

Read my review of Tiny Furniture at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: The Temptation of St. Tony

I must admit to having little to no knowledge of the national cinema of Estonia.  In fact my watching of The Temptation of St. Tony is the full extent of that aforementioned little to no knowledge of the national cinema of Estonia.  Judging from just this one movie though, I have nothing but good things to say about said cinema. 

Of course I am pretty sure The Temptation of St. Tony is not meant to be the standard bearer for Estonian cinema, so I can only say what I think of this one particular film.  What I think of this one particular film though is also nothing but good things.  A remarkably surprising film, or a surprisingly remarkable film, with not-so-hidden homages and/or inspirations to and/or from every director from Tarkovsky to Bresson to Bergman to David Lynch, and back again, The Temptation of St. Tony is a stunning, strange, sublime visual work of art that took this critic completely by surprise.

Read my review of The Temptation of St. Tony at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Life During Wartime

If Happiness wasn't enough to make people hate and despise Todd Solondz, then this semi-sequel should put that proverbial final nail in that proverbial coffin.  Seriously though, I like the guy - or at least I like the guy's movies (I am guessing he is a big creepy freak in person - though that isn't necessarily a bad thing).  Perhaps this one doesn't go quite as far as Happiness did (the earlier film was far superior in both its intensity and audacity) but it is still worth the "read".  Of course, the new film is still enough to get peoples cockles all ruffled once more.

Read my review of Life During Wartime at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Lourdes

I was browsing through a slew of critical top ten lists for 2010 and came across a film I had never even heard of prior to reading it on (I cannot for the life of me remember upon whose list I saw it)'s list.  The film is called Lourdes and it starred the lovely and charming (and somewhat off in the best meaning of the term) Sylvie Testud.  The film hit US screens (for about one hot minute) way back in February, but since I seem to be pretty late coming to this particular party, my review is just now going up for all to see.

Read my review of Lourdes at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Blue Valentine

All the NC-17 vs. R controversy aside, Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine, a film that shows a relationship in the throes of its dying days, interspersing it with the wonderment of new love that was this same relationship only a few years earlier, is a remarkable film on many grounds, not least of which are the lead performances of Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.  A difficult film some might say (i had no difficulty though) but a film well worth whatever ills may go with it.  I guess what I am saying, in the most basic of critical analysis is, go see this film before it is too late.

Read my review of Blue Valentine at The Cinematheque.

The Best of 2010

Without much ado, here are my choices for the ten best films of 2010

1) The Social Network

2) Black Swan

3) The Killer Inside Me

4) Shutter Island

5) I Am Love

6) Hadewijch

7) Blue Valentine

8) Winter's Bone

9) Enter The Void

10) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

and since any self-respecting Top 10 list needs a second half

11) White Material

12) Carlos

13) The Temptation of St. Tony

14) Never Let Me Go

15) Dogtooth

16) The American

17) Easy A

18) Life During Wartime

19) Tiny Furniture

20) Machete

I suppose if one wants to keep going and tack on some obligatory runners-up, one would be so inclined to include (in no particular order) Fish Tank; Animal Kingdom; Catfish; Making Plans for Lena; North Face; Bluebeard; Mid-August Lunch; Splice; Vincere; True Grit; The Runaways; Wild Grass; The Fighter; I'm Still Here; Inception; The Kids Are All Right; Howl; Heartbreakers; Piranha; Amer; The Other Guys; Lourdes; Jack Goes Boating; Ondine; Greenberg & City Island.

To add some other cinematic things of note (both good and bad):

Three films that ended up being better than expected, but still not so good as to reach the above runners-up spot (again, in nor particular order): Love & Other Drugs; Let Me In & Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

A few films that I expected a lot more out of than what I got - these are not necessarily bad films (some are actually rather good) but still a lot less that what they should have or could have or would have been otherwise, which is why I am subtitling this the coulda, shoulda, woulda category (and again, no particular order): Solitary Man; Please Give; The Town; Get Low; All Good Things; Kick-Ass; A Woman, a Gun & a Noodle Shop; Survival of the Dead; the French double feature of Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 and the Millennium trilogy of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire & The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

The "what's all the hubbub, bub?" category: In no way did I find Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer to be a bad film (I quite enjoyed some of it and completely loved the ending) but I still do not get pretty much every other critic's rabid love for it.  I would say it is better than average, with a few moments of cinematic intensity, and leave it at that.  Then again, who am I to complain, it could be Macgruber all the hubbub is about.

The five best performances of the year belong to Casey Affleck in The Killer Inside Me; Tilda Swinton in I Am Love; Julie Sokolowski in Hadewijch and Michelle Williams & Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine.

Other well-deserved acting accolades go to Isabelle Huppert in White Material; Edgar Ramirez in Carlos; Christian Bale in The Fighter; Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network; George Clooney in The American; Melissa Leo in The Fighter; Andrew Garfield in Never Let Me Go; Natalie Portman & Barbara Hershey in Black Swan; Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go; Emma Stone in Easy A and Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes & Dale Dickey in Winter's Bone.

As for the worst of the year, unlike past years where I tried to see enough obvious bad movies to fill up a proper Worst 10 list, I successfully avoided most of the rabble from the year.  Still, I did see some pretty awful films in 2010.  Some of these are the obvious films like Macgruber, Clash of the Titans & Robin Hood, but the worst three (by some pretty substantial margin) are The Wolfman, Alice in Wonderland and the remarkably, but inevitably terrible M. Night Shambalambadingdong's The Last Airbender.

To end on a high note, two films that I first saw at the New York Film Festival, Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, will be getting proper US releases in Spring 2011, and therefore will become early frontrunners for the Best of 2011 (since I loved them both - and what a day that was to see them back-to-back as I did).  I will be back in a few days with my "Most Anticipated Films of 2011" list to see what possible compatriots those two films could have on said Best of 2011 list.

Editor's (final) note: Since I have not yet had the opportunity to see either Mike Leigh's Another Year or Sofia Coppola's  Somewhere (I did not take my annual late December trip to NYC to catch up on all those releases that usually trickle out wider after the new year) I reserve the right to alter this list after I do finally see these two films (Jan. 15th-ish it looks like).  Actually I will not alter the list so much as tack on an addendum, but whatever the case, I hereby reserve the right to do so.

Here is yet another take on the Best of 2010: My column for a local alt called The Burg (this is a copy of said column on my website, The Cinematheque, to see the actual column you would have to pick up a January 2011 copy of the actual paper).  This is a somewhat outdated Best of list, since I had a deadline of Dec. 15, and had yet to see several films that would eventually make my list above.

Happy New Year..... 

*01/17 Addendum (re: Sofia Coppola's Somewhere):  I said above, that I reserved the right to include Somewhere on this list when the time finally came to see the film (which was yesterday).  I suppose in the end though, I enjoyed the film well enough, but only well enough to include it in my runners-up category.

The Cinematheque Reviews: Animal Kingdom

This Aussie movie got a US release way back in August, but I am only just now getting around to it, having flown below my radar until now (and even now, my interest is mainly due to all the Oscar buzz surrounding Jacki Weaver's performance in the film).  Perhaps I shouldn't have waited but this movie ended up being well worth that wait.  A Scorsese-driven family crime drama that not only gives us Weaver's bravura performance (this ain't your grandma's grandma!) but a slew of chilling performances surrounding the possible Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner - or at least nominee.

Read my review of Animal Kingdom at The Cinematheque.

The Cinematheque Reviews: True Grit

I don't want to call the Coen Brothers' remake of True Grit a disappointment, for that would make one think I did not like it - and I most certainly did.  Yet, when one thinks of the high level of anticipation that comes with such a film as this, and then having said film not live up to that (perhaps) unfair expectation, one surely must come to grips with using the term disappointed, no matter how misleading such a term may end up being.  Let us just say that the new True Grit did not live up to what this critic was hoping it would be, but it still ended up being a rather good film in this very same critic's eyes.

Read my review of True Grit at The Cinematheque.