Friday Minute
No. 213 | February 11, 2011

Best of 2010

Our theme this week
Top English-language films of 2010

Featured this week
(See Monday post for theme introduction)
Monday         —   Best Films of 2010 (#15 to #11)
Wednesday    —   Best Films of 2010 (#10 to #6)

Best Films of 2010 (#5 to #1)

#5 — Another Year

The Hepples are unusual creatures to build a movie around.  They’re a genuinely happy couple.  In a Mike Leigh movie, though, we should expect a fair share of misery, and the friends of Tom and Gerri (cute) are there to provide it.  Mary has the worst of it.  A coworker of Gerri’s, she takes comfort in the warm, cheerful support she finds in her visits to the Hepple home (not to mention, she has an unrequited crush on the son).  But in the four seasons that the movie spans, life gets ever more difficult for the lonely woman fighting age and a fondness for the bottle.  The ensemble cast is stellar, with Jim Broadbent and Ruth Shore as the embodiment of marital bliss, and Lesley Manville as the parasitic friend.  Another Year is a well-observed look at people we all can recognize, some who have the knack for rolling with whatever life throws them, and some who do not.

#4 — Somewhere

Sofia Coppola knows a thing about movie stars, and about being the daughter of a famous man.  She also knows something about making movies.  Somewhere is a meditation on celebrity, with Stephen Dorff in a strong performance as Johnny Marco, the pampered star.  Elle Fanning is a revelation as Cleo, his daughter, who comes for a visit and changes his life.  The film is a character study, a quiet peek behind the curtain.  One simple shot of Marco sitting in a make-up chair, his head encased in a mold, goes on for a minute or two.  Nothing happens, and that’s the point.  Somewhere isn’t interested in the glamor of the movie business, or even its dark side, but in its utter emptiness.  Altogether, a very assured work, and in parts, simply brilliant.

(Somewhere at MAD:  preview and review)

#3 — Inside Job

Inside Job is a heist film of the most epic proportions.  The grand prize isn’t just thousands, or millions, but billions—and even trillions!—of dollars, the greatest transfer of wealth in history.  The lucky winners in this real-life drama are the very top earners in society.  The losers:  the rest of us.  A documentary on the causes, events, and aftermath of the financial crisis of a few years ago, the film paints a devastating portrait of the rigged game that is Wall Street, where the superrich get even richer, aided and abetted by their co-conspirators, our elected leaders in Washington (where both parties share the blame) and leaders in academia, all bought and paid for.  Though it’s a sordid tale, Inside Job is actually not a strident film.  It’s rather measured and sober.  If you think terms like “collateralized debt obligation” and “credit default swap” are too complicated to get your mind around, you’ll find them explained in simple, understandable language.  The world still hasn’t gotten to its feet after the financial shock of 2008, but the real scandal is not what led to the crisis, but that those who were most responsible got away with it—and thrived.

#2 — Black Swan

One of the standout films of the year, Black Swan tells the tale of a ballerina whose life and role merge in strange and tragic ways.  Natalie Portman is Nina, a dancer whose talent and technique is perfectly suited for the role of the White Swan.  She lacks, however, the passion and daring needed to dance the Black Swan.  She must dance both.  The film follows her journey from white to black, from innocence to experience, from naïf to artist.  The major obstacle is her overbearing mother (a fearsome Barbara Hershey).  Encouraging her development is the dance director (Vincent Cassel, an impressive impresario) and her rival for the role (Mila Kunis, delicious).  The film is a mix of reality and fantasy and paints an unforgettable portrait of an artist coming of age.

(Black Swan at MAD:  review)

#1 — The Social Network

In our bright and shiny new millennium the word “friend” no longer means what it used to.  More than anything else, online social networking is the reason for that change, and The Social Network is an account of the founding of Facebook, the biggest and most successful of the networking sites.  Not coincidentally, the film portrays friends whose relationships do not survive the launch of the new enterprise, however the word might be defined.  Jesse Eisenberg plays whiz-kid founder Mark Zuckerberg, and though it may be a stretch to say an Oscar-nominated performance hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves, his work does drive the story with an energy and ferocity that makes the whole thing click.  Zuckerberg’s main foes are the Winklevoss twins, crew mates from old money who are unbeatable racing backward on the Charles.  Andrew Garfield plays Zuckerberg’s friend (that word again) Eduardo Saverin, who lacks the same vision, gets screwed, and ends up on the other side of a lawsuit.  Justin Timberlake joins the story midway, in a pitch-perfect performance as entrepreneurial glamor boy Sean Parker.  Director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin combine their exceptional talents to craft a compelling tale that grabs you in the first scene and never lets you go.  (Not bad for a film in which the most violent act is a computer being slammed on a desk.)  The Social Network is a defining story of our time, and the best movie of the year.

(The Social Network at MAD:  review)

BEST OF 2010 SUMMARY

The easiest way to see the Top 15 write-ups in a single view is to click the “Best of 2010″ tag below.  But for a list of my movie picks, sans comments, here you go:

1. The Social Network
2. Black Swan
3. Inside Job
4. Somewhere
5. Another Year
6. Never Let Me Go
7. The Fighter
8. The Ghost Writer
9. Winter’s Bone
10. Blue Valentine
11. The King’s Speech
12. The Illusionist
13. Toy Story 3
14. The Kids Are All Right
15. Fair Game

A handful of other movies worth a mention:  Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (best surprise of the year and best-ever gamer flick), Machete (unadulterated fun), Exit Through the Gift Shop (the utterly watchable art of street art), Inception (an infuriating film yet one fascinating to read about), True Grit (not extraordinary but the best of the Coens in recent years).

A handful of performances worth a mention (in films not covered this week):  Jeremy Renner (The Town), Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole), Michael Douglas (Solitary Man), Diane Lane (Secretariat), Eli Wallach (Wall Street:  Money Never Sleeps).

Coming next week:  a brief look at foreign-language films.

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Inside Job (2010)
Charles Ferguson, director
Chad Beck, Adam Bolt, writers
Svetlana Cvetko, Kalyanee Mam, cinematographer
Matt Damon, narrator
Trailer

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Another Year (2010)
Mike Leigh, writer-director
Dick Pope, cinematographer
Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville
Trailer

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Quote of note
“You are probably going to be a very successful computer person.  But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd.  And I want you to know from the bottom of my heart that that won’t be true.  It’ll be because you’re an asshole.”
—Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), The Social Network (2010)

…58…59…60.

Wednesday Minute
No. 212 | February 9, 2011

Best of 2010

Our theme this week
Top English-language films of 2010

Featured this week
(See Monday post for theme introduction)
Monday         —   Best Films of 2010 (#15 to #11)

Best Films of 2010 (#10 to #6)

#10 – Blue Valentine

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, two excellent actors who just turned 30, give a couple of their finest performances in Derek Cianfrance’s raw and searing Blue Valentine.  It’s a story of a couple told in present day and flashback, from their first meeting to final parting.  The film opens with their young daughter standing in a field screaming for her lost dog, and it closes with her running after her dad, who walks away from his family life in a blaze of fireworks.  There’s hardly a conventional shot in the whole works.  The photography, like the characters, is off-kilter.  The music, scored by Grizzly Bear, keeps us on edge.  The movie is unpredictable, even volatile, and in the end, unforgettable.

(Blue Valentine at MAD:  review)

#9 — Winter’s Bone

The story in short, from my look at Winter’s Bone two weeks ago:

The search for the father is about the oldest story around.  Telemachus, meet Ree.  She’s a 17-year-old living in the dirt-poor hills of Missouri.  She has a sick mother, a couple of younger siblings to care for, and a father nowhere to be found.  Unless she finds him in a few days—dead or alive—her family will lose their home.  The hunt is on.  First-rate performances from Jennifer Lawrence as the fearless teen and John Hawkes as her uncle, Teardrop.

It takes money to make movies, but not a lot to make a good one—or even one of the best of the year.  Winter’s Bone was made for a sum that would be rounding error for most Hollywood productions (less than the cost of those 30-second ads during the Super Bowl).  The result is a taut, focused film about an implacable heroine in a land we hardly ever see at the movies, the Ozarks.  It’s a fine, stirring picture from director Debra Granik.  There’s a lesson there for Hollywood, though not one it’s likely to learn.

#8 — The Ghost Writer

Roman Polanski made plenty of headlines last year, putting a lie to the idea that any publicity is good publicity.  Still under house arrest at the time, Polanski released an especially good movie, though reaction at the time seemed as much a referendum on the director as on the merits of his film.  The Ghost Writer stars Ewan McGregor in the title role, as the hired hand writing the memoirs of Adam Lang, a former British prime minister, and possible war criminal.  Pierce Brosnan plays Lang, in a sterling performance.  The ghostwriter uncovers dark secrets of Lang’s past, putting his own life in danger.  Supporting performances from Olivia Williams, as Lang’s wife, and Kim Cattrall, as Lang’s assistant, add a dash of spice as Polanski lays on the intrigue.  It’s a cynical view of politics, in ways, perhaps even paranoid, but with Tony Blair, the model for the Lang character, now the focus of an inquiry in London for his role in the Iraq War, some elements of the film may in time look prescient.

#7 — The Fighter

The Fighter is the true-life story of Micky Ward, a welterweight boxer from working-class Lowell, Massachusetts, whose greatest obstacle in pursuit of a championship is his own family.  Micky’s half-brother, Dicky Ecklund, is the home favorite, a onetime pug hoping to make a comeback.  The story is entertaining, but the real pleasure of the film is in the performances.  Mark Wahlberg is Micky, the quiet center of the storm, with the three Oscar nominees providing the fireworks:  Christian Bale as Dicky, Melissa Leo as the matriarch of the clan, and Amy Adams as the tough-as-nails girlfriend.  Director David O. Russell is best known for his comic and off-beat works (Flirting With Disaster, I Heart Huckabees), and that sensibility is evident in a few scenes, but overall this is a more conventional work, and one of his most enjoyable.

(The Fighter at MAD:  review and Micky vs. Marky)

#6 — Never Let Me Go

No other film from last year haunted me as did Never Let Me Go.  Based on the wonderful novel of Kazuo Ishiguro, the film tells the story of Kathy H., educated at the English boarding school Hailsham, where students live an idyllic existence while preparing for a special mission in life.  Slowly, the children (and we) learn the role for which they have been selected, and the utopian dream turns into a nightmare.  The film has been called science fiction, but don’t expect any special effects or whiz-bang gadgetry.  It’s a quiet, unhurried film, uncommonly tuned in to the inner thoughts of its characters.  What is it that makes people dedicate their lives, literally, to service of others?  What allows them to accept an inherently unfair fate?  In a way, Ishiguro’s eye, and the film’s, has its gaze on a class of society, perhaps more evident in Britain, whose circumstances offer limited freedom and opportunity.  But the story has a deeper resonance.  It’s a meditation on life, that too-brief time each of us is given, and the need for us to choose how to spend it.  The film, I felt, came especially alive when Carey Mulligan, the adult Kathy, was onscreen.  Never Let Me Go has much to offer, not the least a chance to see one of the great talents of her generation.

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Never Let Me Go (2010)
Mark Romanek, director
Kazuo Ishiguro (novel), Alex Garland (screenplay), writers
Adam Kimmel, cinematographer
Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley
Trailer

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Winter’s Bone (2010)
Debra Granik, director
Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, writers
Michael McDonough, cinematographer
Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Garret Dillahunt
Trailer

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Quote of note
The Ghost:  You realize I know nothing about politics.
Rick Ricardelli:  You voted for him, didn’t you?
The Ghost:  Adam Lang?  Of course, I did.  Everyone voted for him.  He wasn’t a politician, he was a craze.
—The Ghost (Ewan McGregor), Rick Ricardelli (Jon Bernthal), The Ghost Writer (2010)

…58…59…60.

Monday Minute
No. 211 | February 7, 2011

Best of 2010

It’s never too late to take a look back, and with the Oscars coming later this month, this may be as good a time as any.  I will forgo any lengthy introduction—none needed, really—except to say that the films featured this week are what I view to be the best of 2010.  The number 15 seems to work best for the format of this site and allows me to avoid skipping some worthy films which would be the case if I limited the list to 10.  The rankings are somewhat arbitrary.  I might rank them differently on another day.  The exception would be the top two films, which I think are head and shoulders above the other contenders, movies most likely to remembered and watched again many years from now.

For this week, I’ll just be looking at English-language films.  I’ll take a briefer look at a few foreign-language movies next week.

Our theme this week
Top English-language films of 2010

Best Films of 2010 (#15 to #11)

#15 — Fair Game

A political thriller about the Plame affair in which a high-profile couple takes on the Bush regime and are fortunate to survive, Fair Game is a mostly fact-based document of what happened in one telling episode of a low, dishonest decade.  In their third collaboration, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn offer first-rate performances as wife and husband Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson, who sacrifice careers for getting out the truth.  At this moment, the nation may not have much passion for a film about the misconduct (not to mention, crimes) of our bygone leaders; we have more urgent problems, and we’d just as well be done with the past.  Hardly a hit, the film fell short of $10 million at the domestic box office, and barely broke $20 million worldwide.  But I’d guess the picture will stand as one of the better political films of our time.  It’s not exactly an uplifting tale, not if you like to see justice prevail, though that’s not the fault of the filmmaking so much as history.

(Fair Game at MAD:  preview and review)

#14 — The Kids Are All Right

It’s a normal family in the usual way—dysfunctional.  But a family headed by a lesbian couple is not something we’ve seen much onscreen before.  Nic and Jules have two teenage kids, and when the biological father comes into the picture, life gets complicated.  The title tells the story:  the kids are better at coping than any of the adults.  The acting is pitch-perfect, with a fine ensemble that includes Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo.  I enjoyed the mix of comedy and drama, along with the interplay of the characters.  It all felt very much like family.  The writing, though, I found a bit uneven.  Mark Ruffalo’s sperm-donor character is at times clichéd and in the end left dangling without a real resolution.  But The Kids Are All Right was nevertheless one of the gems of the summer, and having just then seen a string of films that fell short of the mark, I left the theater this time smiling.  For that, I remain grateful.

#13 — Toy Story 3

Andy is heading off to college and that brings some big changes to the lives of Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and their toy pals.  Toy Story 3 tugs at the heartstrings, and though manipulative, it’s effective in the best Pixar tradition.  It’s hard to argue with the success of the studio, the envy of the rest of Hollywood, but this film, as enjoyable as it was, seemed to be missing some of the spark that Pixar is known for.  That may be because this is a sequel, a reprise of many characters we know very well, here in a new film for the third (and hopefully last) time.  Two of the next three Pixar releases will also be sequels (Cars 2 this year, Monsters, Inc. 2 next year); if the focus of the company now is to mine old hits for new box office gold, that would be a shame.  Pixar became Pixar because it was startlingly original.  That’s its legacy, and I hope, its future.

#12 — The Illusionist

Here’s an animated film that felt original from the first frame to the last.  Maybe the trick is to dust off an old, unproduced script written by the great Jacques Tati.  Director Sylvain Chomet brings the story to life, a whimsical and melancholy tale about an aging magician who befriends Alice, a young fan who believes his illusions are real.  The illusionist is Tatischeff (Tati’s birth name), and the story is a personal one, intended to be a missive to Tati’s estranged daughter.  The Illusionist is set in a series of European cities, primarily Edinburgh.  A British-French production, the movie takes its time, in stark contrast to the hyper, breathless pace of much American animation.  It’s not a story aimed at kids, but still one that kids can enjoy.  My five-year-old son liked it some but thought it slow in parts.  Children a bit older should find the film entertaining and worthwhile.

#11 — The King’s Speech

Movies about British royals have become staples of the holiday film calendar, and The King’s Speech is one of the finer examples.  It’s an entertaining look at the troubles of George VI, the king with the stammer who needs the help of a commoner to learn to give a speech.  The cast is superb throughout, led by Colin Firth as the king, Geoffrey Rush as his unorthodox speech therapist, and Helena Bonham Carter as the devoted queen whose faith in her husband hardly wavers and is never broken.  The king’s ordeal, and his efforts to overcome it, are the focus of the story.  Unspoken is the fact that his heroism, as important as it may be, does not compare on a personal level with the heroism of the many thousands who fought for their country, at great sacrifice, in the war to come.  One quibble with the film is its utter respectability, as if the filmmakers knew they had a dynamite story, a real crowd-pleaser, and didn’t dare do a thing to risk it.  A little more of the unexpected may have made a very good film even better.

(The King’s Speech at MAD:  preview and review)

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The Illusionist (2010)
Sylvain Chomet, director
Jacques Tati (original screenplay), Sylvain Chomet (adaptation), writers
Trailer

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The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Lisa Cholodenko, director
Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg, writers
Igor Jadue-Lillo, director of photography
Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo
Trailer

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Quote of note
Ken:  And this, well, this is where I live.  It’s got a disco, it’s got a dune buggy, and a whole room just for trying on clothes.
Barbie:  You have everything!
Ken:  Everything, except someone to share it with.
—Ken (Michael Keaton, voice), Barbie (Jodi Benson, voice), Toy Story 3 (2010)

…58…59…60.

Thursday Minute
Entr’acte | January 20, 2011

White Nights

More ballet (dancing with—who else—Death).

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White Nights (1985)
Taylor Hackford, director
David Watkin, cinematograhper
“Le Jeune Homme et la Mort”
Roland Petit, choreographer
Johann Sebastian Bach, music (“Passacaglia in C Minor”)
Mikhail Baryshnikov, Florence Faure

 

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…58…59…60.

Tuesday Minute
Entr’acte | January 18, 2011

Limelight

More ballet (someone, it seems, is always dying).

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Limelight (1952)
Charlie Chaplin, writer-director-composer-choreographer
Karl Struss, director of photography
Charlie Chaplin (Calvero), Claire Bloom (Terry), Norman Lloyd (Bodalink)
Melissa Hayden (Columbine), Andre Eglevsky (Harlequin), dancers, choreographers
Harlequinade Ballet

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…58…59…60.