At long last, here is my Top 10 Movies of 2006. I finally finished watching all the favorites of the Academy voters and the critics and of course all the other movies I really wanted to see throughout the year. Some match, some are quite different. Hopefully, you guys might rent some of the lesser known films. There are also probably more foreign films than ever before. Not because I got all snooty and snotty, but because foreign filmmakers are finally making movies that I would enjoy.
1-Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Widescreen Edition)---The Best Movie of the Year. It achieved the highest goal of any movie I want to see--It entertained me throughout. Easily the funniest movie of the year, maybe of the decade. I laughed more at this movie than any since Howard Stern's Private Parts, maybe even more than that. What clinched it for me was after seeing it on a Wednesday night with two friends. I went back Sunday afternoon with my wife and different friends. I laughed more on Sunday than I did on Wednesday and that's after almost having a stroke on Wednesday. What helped was that I laughed so hard on Wednesday that I missed or forgot half the funny parts. And it's also the most original comedy I've ever seen. Basically an R-rated Candid Camera where the people know they are on camera and still say incredibly bigoted and stupid things. Sasha Baron Cohen as Borat should have received an award just for not laughing in the people's faces. He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor and rarely has anyone deserved an award more. He pulled off one of the greatest acting jobs in history, by fooling dozens of ordinary people with his foreign manners and stupid questions. I loved Borat on HBO, but was not prepared for how much I would love this movie. The only film from 2006 that I bought on DVD.
2-United 93 (Widescreen Edition) ---As polar opposite from Borat as any movie could be. The most serious film of the year about the most serious subject, 9/11. A perfect movie for DVD, because you really need subtitles to catch all the dialogue. This film was written from transcripts from the agencies involved on that day. The FAA, the military, the airlines and air traffic control towers. The realism is strong throughout from the mundane to the terrifying. The mundane makes it all the more terrifying, like when the stewardesses discuss the food they will be serving. I assumed that the film would be only about Flight 93 and how it crashed in the Pennsylvania field, but it actually encompasses all that went before it on that day, and much of it in real time. Paul Greengrass, the director, knows how to film in a documentary style from the inside out. His previous film Bloody Sunday was done in much the same way. The overlapping dialogue may have much to do with the action or may not and then there are those abrupt fits of violence that you might miss because the camera is focused on something else, like your eyes might be. Without knowing much about what happened in the plane that morning, this is probably as close to the truth as we will ever see. Using completely unknown actors was a brilliant move because a star would be a distraction. Certainly not for everyone to see, but that doesn't diminish its greatness.
3--Babel ---Finally caught up with this gem last week. Three stories told in three different countries about what trouble we can get into when we lack communication. Babel refers to the Tower of Babel, which is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. A pompous king wanted to build a huge tower to Heaven, hoping to meet God while still living. When the tower gets too high, God decides to put an end to this blasphemy and curses everyone involved with a different language. Before that everyone spoke the same language, the language of Adam and Eve I suppose, but now everyone in Babel spoke different languages and spread across the earth after that. This film has English subtitles for Moroccan (Arabic?), Japanese and Spanish. An American woman gets shot while on a tour bus in Morocco, she needs medical attention quickly, but there are no hospitals for hundreds of miles. Her children are back in the states and their Mexican nanny decides to take them with her to Mexico for her son's wedding. In Japan, a deaf teenage girl is having the hardest time adapting to hearing society. Her only link to the rest of the movie is that years before her father gave away the rifle that shoots the woman to a Moroccan hunting guide. I didn't worry about the tenuous reason for the Japanese part of the film because it all was so engrossing. Scene after scene felt like something I'd never seen before. Like how they kill chickens in Mexico, or how a Moroccan veterinarian would put in stitches, or how a deaf person experiences a nightclub. I couldn't believe some of the stupid moves that some of these characters make, but if people didn't make stupid judgments the newspapers would be pretty empty. Not as downbeat as the director's previous film (24 Grams), but has a ton of harrowing moments. I think he went a little soft at the end though. Particularly with the children in the Mexican desert.
4-The Queen---Did the impossible. Made me appreciate Queen Elizabeth. I never liked this lady before. Thought she was cold and aloof even before Princess Diana's death, but really despised her after Diana died. This film tells the story of the Royal Family's reaction to Diana's death in 1997 and how Tony Blair tried to save them from themselves. Blair was only Prime Minister three months when Diana was killed that night in Paris. She was already divorced from Charles and running around with an Arab playboy. The Royal Family used to love her, at least Prince Philip, Charles' father, did but she changed so much over the years that they all fell out of favor with her. When she died they didn't understand what a big deal it was to the public. They didn't even make a statement about it to the press right away. One scene shows the Royal Family staff watching Blair's press conference about the death and when he calls her "the People's Princess" all the women in the room start crying. Oblivious, the Public Relations man who runs the office, turns to say, "that was a bit overdone wasn't it" and is shocked to see all the tears. Indeed, the tears of England shock the entire Royal Family, including Charles. As the tears build, so does the resentment and at this point you feel much like England does about the Queen and her family. But this movie does the unexpected, it gives us a look at The Queen behind the scenes, from her feelings toward a male deer on their 40,000 acre property, to her fears for her grandsons, William and Harry. She's much more complex a figure than I ever expected. In fact, I hate to say this, from looks to demeanor she started to resemble my own mother. A realization that Tony Blair comes to as well. I think that's why this movie touched me so much. And while it feels like a well-written TV Movie, I'm glad it wasn't, because I probably wouldn't have seen it.
5-Pan's Labyrinth ---Take one part Schindler's List and one part dark chocolate Willy Wonka and you have the most bizarre movie of the year. A little girl's fantasy world shelters her from the madness of her real life. She is the stepdaughter of a brutal Army captain during the Spanish Civil War. This sadistic monster works happily under Franco and is trying to kill off the rebels hiding in the woods behind his stately country home. Meanwhile his new wife is having a difficult pregnancy with his unborn child. The wife's daughter's fantasy world is lead by a tall creature named Pan and his commands to her give her pause, but also give her purpose in trying to save her life and freedom. Nothing is held back here, from the gross gooey slime she must climb through to get the magic key or the battle scenes between the rebels and the stepfather's men. The stepfather, a small beast, is particularly cruel to a stutterer who they capture and reveals his real self when he tells his physician that if he has to save his wife or the unborn child save the child. I keep reading that kids should wait a few years before this seeing this film. A few years? I'm not sure I was ready for it yet. It's a tough watch, but it is extremely well made and eye-opening. When you are not hiding your eyes from a tough scene to watch, you are amazed at the exquisite detail of the other world. Like United 93, the subject matter should not take away from the movie's greatness. Wish it was overdubbed, because reading the bottom of the screen takes your eyes off the magic above.
6-Casino Royale (2-Disc Widescreen Edition)---Best Bond ever. Best Bond movie and Best Bond actor. The most serious Bond film. I'm not the biggest fan of the series, but I loved this movie. This is the first story in the series, retold from a modern point of view. Daniel Craig is not the best looking guy for the part, but he is the most manly and he is hardly a metrosexual. When a bartender asks if he wants his martini shaken or stirred, he asks, "do I look like somebody who cares?" LOL There was a bit of a problem wrapping it up, I felt like there were three different endings, but the final ending ending was perfect.
7-Lucky Number Slevin (Widescreen Edition) ---I gave this the seven slot only because of its name. I would like to put it higher. I still think of this movie today and haven't seen it in about a year. What a great little film. About four cool twists which I never saw coming. Done like a great magic act, which was how it was written. You think one guy is getting killed and it turns out to be the guy across the room. Josh Hartnett, who is a really good young actor, plays a fish out of water as a guy mistaken for someone else who is asked by one crime lord to pull off a difficult hit on another crime lord. Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley play the two crime lords, both with relish. Bruce Willis is the smarmy background guy who is part hitman, part architect. It's like as if M. Night Shymalan and Quentin Tarantino made a movie together, that cool and that good.
8-Children of Men (Widescreen Edition)---In 2027, the whole world is infertile. The last baby born was in 2009 and he just turned 18 and was killed. This slow paced end to the human race has made everyone a little nuts. The last baby born dying has made people even more depressed and the only city that's sort of holding it together is London. Our hero played by Clive Owen is given a task to complete, get this foreign woman to the sea at the other end of the country and see that she gets on this boat. To do this, he will have to evade police, local crazies running amuck and a rebel group looking to take her back. It's a grim look at the future, but it also has ties to today's world, with its treatment of foreign prisoners and immigrants. The lone voice of sweetness and reason is Owen's best friend played as an aging hippie by Michael Caine. Through Caine you hear about Owen's past and why he is the way he is. I loved how they never explained why the world went infertile. One friend who saw it was annoyed by this, but what caused AIDS, cancer or now autism? We the general public don't know and we assume no one else knows, or at least they are not willing to tell us, so I'm sure this scenario would also go unanswered. And he hated the penultimate scene, finding it too unbelievable. On the contrary, I found it incredibly moving and totally believable. In fact, I think if the opposite had happened I would think that that was just morose nonsense on the part of the filmmakers.
9-13 Tzameti----This movie starts off ant slow. Loses a couple places on the list because I did not discover this film on my own. Critics praised this French movie through the roof. If they hadn't called it the best thriller since Hitchcock I would never even have heard of it. But like I said, the beginning starts off so slowly that if it were a video I might have turned it off, but I was in a theatre and knew something was coming, not sure what, but we were building to SOMETHING. And it was going to be something hair raising and razor edged. Knowing that builds the suspense for you in a way the movie actually doesn't. I imagine it's like the first time people saw Psycho. They knew something bad was coming, but waiting for it only made it worse. The main character here is a Russian immigrant to France repairing this old French guy's roof. When the man kills himself, this kid of about 22 steals his mail. This man looked for a letter every day and when it arrived drove the man to suicide. Now my common sense would tell me that if getting a letter makes someone do that, chances are the thing in the letter is not that good. But this kid looks at it differently, he's desperate for money for him and his family and figures this letter could lead to something profitable. So he decides to use the train ticket and hotel fare that comes in the letter and journeys to where the possible money is. He gets there and realizes he's in way over his head. When you see great, tight thrillers, the audience's blood pressure rises, the metabolism kicks into high gear, people sweat and the temperature inside a theatre goes up measurably. All that happens here until finally you walk out of theatre and happy to get on the street where no more harm can come to your senses. Rare that a horror movie or thriller can do that to you, but when it does it deserves high praise. Subtitles hurt this movie a little, but I think the tough French voices make it more alien and scary. The harsh black and white photography is especially unsettling.
10-Little Children ---Talk about dark. A lonely, bitter housewife takes her child on play dates to have an affair with a lonely bitter househusband. Living in the same town is a pedophile who's just been released from jail. Is he better or will he strike again? His one date starts off pleasant enough, but turns into one of the more disturbing scenes in a movie that's filled with them. Everyone is good here. Bad News Bears' Kelly Leak, Jackie Earle Haley as the struggling pedophile; Phyllis Somerville as his delusional mother; Titanic's Kate Winslet as the overeducated housewife; and Noah Emmerich as a neighborhood vigilante. The kind of movie that shows the worst side of human beings and still makes you root for them to do better.
Honorable Mention:
Dreamgirls (Widescreen Edition)---Eddie Murphy did a great impression of James Brown back in the early '80s. He reprises it here to play James Thunder Early, an exceptionally talented black soul singer at a time when black singers couldn't get on popular radio. His role in this movie is good, but not as impressive as Jennifer Hudson the big girl who lost on American Idol. She plays the Florence Ballard part of the Supremes, as Effie the most talented member of the Dreamettes. She, along with Beyonce and this other girl play a Detroit trio who hope to make the big time. But she is too black, too big and her voice too strong to make it on traditional radio, so the Berry Gordy character, played by Jamie Foxx pushes her to the back and makes Beyonce the star of the group. The songs are stirring if unmemorable. This movie would have been 10 times better if they could have used real Motown hits, but Berry Gordy would never have allowed that.
Superman Returns (Two-Disc Special Edition)---Saw Superman 2 recently, which is more entertaining, but this is a better movie, the best of the series. Skips 3 and 4 and gets right to it. Lex Luthor is more evil here and less goofy and I like the new Lois Lane way more than nutty Margot Kidder.
CSA: The Confederate States of America----Most creative movie of the year. What if the South had won the Civil War? Story told in documentary format like a Ken Burns film. Using real facts and photos and spinning a different history of America. In some ways much worse, in other ways not that much different. Doubt that many of the technological achievements that we take for granted today would have existed in such a repressive regime. I mean what did South Africa ever invent?
Happy Feet (Full Screen Edition) ---Singing, dancing penguins is good enough, but to use classic pop songs and reimagine them is another. Then you add in the best use of Robin Williams' talents in years and a strong, environmentally conscious storyline and you have yourself a real winner. Much more entertaining than the stalled Cars.
The Departed (Two-Disc Special Edition) ---Only my friend Harry really likes this movie. Every other person I've talked to was disappointed by it and they are all big Martin Scorsese fans. In fact, it's because they are Scorsese fans that they are so disappointed. They expect better from him. Maybe if it was original I would have appreciated it more, but like I said before, the Chinese original called Infernal Affairs was made better and faster (90 minutes) and when I was watching THAT film I never thought I was looking at a Best Picture. Still don't.
Blood Diamond (Widescreen Edition)---Director Ed Zwick has an independent vision that gets sideswiped by his commercial style. This could have been one the year's best movies, but instead of letting the characters be real he pulls up short because you can't have the main character be too dislikable a person. Leonardo DiCaprio could have put some mean varnish on his portrayal as a mercenary out to get the Pink Diamond, but Zwick makes him too soft too often. Love to see what a younger Gene Hackman could have done with this part. Djimon Hounsou is wonderful as the man who's trying to get his son back. When he raises a shovel in anger the fear and hatred of 400 years of oppression are seen in his eyes like no other actor's. Amazing how he can switch on from sweet to killer in a manner of seconds.
Half Nelson ---A young white male teacher in Brooklyn named Dan Dunne befriends a 12 year old female black student and tries to be both a friend and mentor to her. But despite her tough background and his comfortable background, he's the one with the problems, smoking crack and trying to make sense of his life. Dunne is played by probably the best actor of his generation, Ryan Gosling. Shareeka Epps plays the young girl and even though this is her first acting role she does a fantastic job. This movie is not at all sweet, but it has a good heart.
Stranger Than Fiction---Will Ferrell turns the heat down so much in this film that he almost seems like he isn't there. But his performance as Harold Crick is a gentle souffle that would be ruined by too much acting out as he is wont to do. Emma Thompson is a brilliant author who is writing the story of a man's life, Harold Crick's life to be exact. And when her novel narrates his story he can actually hear the narration in his head. He tries to outrun the narration, but it always catches up to him. Whether by skipping a bus to work or stepping through a puddle rather than around it, the author is always one step ahead of him. This might be more of a nuisance than a problem if she doesn't let on that Crick will eventually die. The story is brilliant and the performances by almost everyone, especially Maggie Gyllenhaal as the punk rock baker, are great. But the one sore point for me was that of Dustin Hoffman. His literary professor is certainly believable enough, but his reaction to Crick's dilemma seems too easily convinced. They lose a key dramatic element in the movie by first having Hoffman believe him too easily and then not be more amazed throughout by his predicament. It's like someone finding out that Jesus was back and walking among us. How long would that take you to accept as run of the mill news? Days, weeks, months?
Sherrybaby ---Gyllenhaal is back as Sherry Swanson, a recent ex-convict, junkie who moves back into her New Jersey neighborhood and tries to revive a relationship with her young daughter. Maggie gives one naked performance in this film, and I don't just mean with her clothes. The life of an ex-con and rehabbing junkie is nothing pretty, but to try and bring up a daughter in that environment makes it seem that much uglier. Couple that with the fact that her brother and sister in law don't want to relinquish custody of the child back to her and her seemingly nice, but incestuous father (Sam Bottoms) and you have a stew of dysfunction that you will need a bath to wash off. Danny Trejo is good as her sponsor, an ex-junkie who has a lot problems of his own. And Giancarlo Esposito is great as her parole officer, who wants to help her but is not above putting her back in prison. When you've been a tremendous screw-up your whole life and you don't have much family support it must be a crushing problem to try and make a better life for yourself. Sherry wants to and it is her struggle of one day a timing it that we the viewers root for her to overcome.
The Freditor
Sunday, February 24, 2008
FINALLY--My Top 21 List of 2005 Movies (Begun 3/26/06)
I like to do this list before the Academy Awards, but at first I just wasn't into it like in the past. I was kind of down on the movies that came out in 2005 and found it hard to be enthused about a Top 10 List.
Could I even find 10 movies worth putting on it?
Then I found a website with every movie released in 2005 and actually found it hard keeping it to 10. The Top 5 were very easy, but the next five became so impossible to choose from that I decided to make it a Top 21. Now you could say that none of those last 16 were great enough to be considered Top 10 material and you might be right, but I would say they are too good to be left off.
I saw the George Clooney double feature of Syriana and Good Luck and Good Night, and while good, they were a little sluggish for me. I like my movies to zip along.
So here's my list and as Harry says, "And that's that!"
1. The 40 Year Old Virgin---I've seen it 3 times now and it doesn't get old. I laugh at all the big jokes, but now I appreciate the little nuances as well. At first I thought the Paul Rudd character of the depressed, lovelorn sad sack was the one weak spot in the film, but upon further viewing I see his role as pivotal in balancing out the Maxim level of testosterone that permeates the film. I've come to love all the characters, even the secondary ones and really see this as a brilliant ensemble comedy. Everyone shines here. The script is hysterical and heart warming, the acting dead on and the party atmosphere rarely lets up. These four guys remind me of my favorite groups of friends over the years whether it's the Game Night crew or in college. The perfect metaphor for the entire movie is when one guy playfully punches another friend in the nuts to get him out of his funk. We all need that friend sometimes.
2. King Kong---Before I reconsidered 40 Year Old Virgin, I considered this the finest movie of the year. It's easily the best made movie, with its wonderful attention to detail. Lord of the Rings creator, Peter Jackson, recreated New York City in 1933 at a movie studio in New Zealand. And what a beautiful job he does. Scene after scene is a smorgasbord for the eyes and the action moves along pretty swiftly (at least after the sea voyage to Skull Island). Kong looks fantastic and his ape-like movements are extremely real. You might quibble with the choices of Jack Black and Adrien Brody for the male leads, but you cannot say enough about Naomi Watts performance as Ann Darrow. She's beautiful, funny, athletic, tormented and her scream is perfect. When Brody's Jack comes to rescue her, she actually looks sad that she must leave her true love Kong behind. The scene of Kong butt-skating on Central Park's Wollman Skating rink is the most romantic of the year. The Christmas Lights on the trees just add to the warm beauty of the moment. I loved this movie and thought the 3+ hours went by very quickly. It is an awful shame that more people didn't see this new classic.
3. Cinderella Man---Talk about recreating New York City in 1933, this movie does it and for the whole film as opposed to the one hour in Kong. Russell Crowe is brilliant as usual as the Depression-era boxer, Jim J. Braddock. Maybe if he didn't throw his phone at that bellhop, more people would have gone to see this movie, but that shouldn't take away from its greatness. Renee Zellwegger shines as his strong wife. A New Jersey family struggling after years of being on top of the world, this movie is as much about the Depression and its character-challenging effects as about boxing. When Braddock's son steals from a storekeeper, he shames the boy into giving the salami back and apologizing to the man. When Braddock is forced to swallow his pride and take government assistance (essentially welfare), he pays back every penny when he gets to fight again. My boy, Paul Giamatti, hits another one out of the park as Braddock's brotherly manager. If this movie was released around Christmas it would have been nominated for tons of Oscars. As big a shame as King Kong's fate.
4. The Upside of Anger---Joan Allen is sexy. What???!!! Who knew? The queen of dowdy, but great acting, puts on some show here as a mother of four daughters who's husband suddenly abandons her for his secretary. She becomes angry and bitter and a big-time drunk and let's all her inhibitions run wild when she hooks up with Kevin Costner's drunken, ex-ballplayer neighbor. Costner schmoozes his way into the back door of their lives and really is a glutton for punishment. A man who will hang out with five women (the girls range in age from 16 to 24), who all have issues of their own. The best role in the film might belong to the one daughter's much older boyfriend. As played by the film's writer/director Mike Binder is at once a very funny sleazeball and then a pretty good guy with a different way of looking at things. The scene of him slurping his soup and Joan Allen's furious reaction is one I had to play over and over again on my DVD player. Hilarious.
5. A History of Violence---Peter Jackson and his crew were not the only Lord of the Rings' veterans to come back with another great film. So did Aragon's Viggo Mortesson as Tom Stall, a small-town Indiana coffeeshop owner. When two sick, violent felons come into his restaurant, his response changes his life forever. Like all movies that are supposed to be about anti-violence this film revels in it (see also Unforgiven). The action scenes are sick and funny and arouse cheers from the audience. But the relationship between Stall and his wife, played by Maria Bello, is warm and playful, until it gets down and dirty. The sexiest love scenes you'll see in a movie this year.
6. Wedding Crashers---Would have finished higher until I saw it a second time. This movie pins all its humor on Vince Vaughn, without him it limps along. Owen Wilson thinks he's funny in the picture, but he's really just a straight man. But when Vaughn is in the scene, hilarity ensues. He makes this movie hilarious the way Bill Murray used to. Like 40-Year Old Virgin, the movie cheerfully blends its Maxim/Stuff sense of humor with more mature romantic yearnings.
7. Batman Begins--The first great Batman movie. Christian Bale can sometimes come across as dry toast, but it's Pepperidge Farm, so the taste is unique. The Murderer's Row of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson and Tom Wilkinson add all the spice you'd want. The action can be sometimes confusing, but the big stunts are tremendous. Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow is a terrifying character and the finale is one of the best you'll see in any action movie. Loved Gotham City, the island with the million bridges and especially the above ground train. One word kept coming out of my mouth throughout the movie, "Cool!"
8. Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic---I read complaints about the songs. Some worked some didn't, but her standup is incredibly funny. This was the year of comedy (including the very entertaining The Aristocrats, which Silverman also shined in). Silverman's stand-up act is incredibly offensive, but very enjoyable. She sets up so many jokes with a left hand and then surprises you with a right. "A couple of nights ago, I was licking jelly off my boyfriend's p---s. And I thought, 'Oh, my God. I'm turning into my mother.'" The real joke is that she delivers lines like this with a combination of California beach girl and nice Jewish girl. My favorite: "Guess what, Martin Luther King? I had a dream, too. I had a dream that I was in my living room. I went to the back yard, where there was a pool. And before I got into it, a shark came out. And he had braces. So maybe you're not so f----g special."
9. Hustle and Flow---It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp and can anybody deny that? Terence Howard did the impossible. He had me feeling sorry for and eventually cheering for a pimp to make it in this world. Howard's pimp, Day, has three hookers who he takes pretty good care of, but one black girl is always angry. The white girl is trash, but he gets her to believe in herself and the other black girl is pregnant and sweet as Tupelo Honey. I realize completely that this movie manipulates you into cheering for these Southerners, but unlike so many bigger movies this year, you really feel a special bond between you and the characters. We root for prisoners to escape, why not root for a pimp and his girls to lead an honest life?
10. Capote---Catherine Keener plays supporting roles in two of my favorite films this year. First as the trashy, but loving Trish in 40 Year Old Virgin and then as the very serious, very quiet best friend of Truman Capote, Harper Lee. Capote is the story of how Truman came to write his classic, "In Cold Blood." Two bad guys try to rob a Kansas farm house and end up killing the entire family around 1957. When very odd, very gay Capote arrives in this small town it's Harper Lee's demeanor that allows him to interview this town's folk. Philip Seymour Hoffman deserves the Oscar for bringing Capote back to life. Like Jamie Foxx's Ray, he becomes the character and shows us all of Capote's outward exuberance and inner demons. Unfortunately the movie is not as brilliant as the character. It's 90 minutes of story told in 2+ hours.
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--The best of the four Harry Potter films. The effects are great, but it's the heart that's always been missing in the past that bursts through here. The filmmakers capture the torture of pubescence perfectly.
12. Millions---From the man who brought you Trainspotting and 28 Days Later of all things, comes the best children's movie of the year. Two young brothers discover a bag full of cash in England, just before the Pound is to be destroyed and the Euro put in its place. Damien is adorable as the younger, better brother. He wants to donate all the money to the poor, but Anthony wants to spend it on cool stuff. The best of many great scenes in the movie is when Anthony turns his classmates into a junior Secret Service complete with sunglasses. Nice what a few quid will do for you. Could be a Christmas classic if America discovers it.
13. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang---Shane Black, the man who wrote Lethal Weapon and tons of other action hits, finally puts his unedited stamp on the genre with this gem. He brings Robert Downey Jr. back to life as a lowlife, dirtbag who stumbles into a cop role in a police movie. When the movie's movie producers make him hook up with Val Kilmer's gay private eye/film consultant, great fun is had by all. Sort of a serious spoof of the action genre, in the way Shane Black meant Last Action Hero to be.
14. Unleashed---Jet Li's best American movie. He plays "Dog," a caged assassin, who Bob Hoskins keeps locked up until he needs some heads to roll. Morgan Freeman plays the blind piano tuner who saves Dog and turns him back into a man. In an odd way, sort of like an ultraviolet, kung fu Pinocchio.
15. The Matador---In a year with several funny movies, add this one to the list. Pierce Brosnan plays the role of his career as an assassin with stage fright. Greg Kinnear plays a bored traveling salesman who half-seriously wants to learn the tools of the trade. Brosnan's sailor-on-leave dialogue is priceless. Remington Steele is dead.
16. Kung Fu Hustle---Comedies usually die with subtitles, so it helps if they have slapstick to cross the cultural divide. This Chinese movie has the most creative slapstick I've ever seen. It makes live action into a Roadrunner cartoon and still makes you feel for the characters. The landlady is the best.
17. Crash---Best movie of the year? Not even close, but a memorable and rare look at racism in America. Overdone and ham-fisted, definitely. Does it really try to manipulate you, absolutely. First time director Paul Haggis has too many coincidences that tie everything up to really take this film seriously. And while white characters do not utter racist dialogue this openly in real life, at least this film tries to address an issue that you rarely see in American film. Sweeping racism under the rug like it doesn't exist is like bandaging an infected wound without taking penicillin, eventually the country will get septic shock and not be able to heal itself.
18. Mr. and Mrs. Smith---Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie beating the shit out of each other for 45 minutes and killing bad guys the rest of the time. How could you not love this?
19. Munich---Overlong, but if I was a Jew I'd really love this movie. Finally the Jews are doing the killing and not being pushovers. Not the message Spielberg was trying to convey, but the one many like me took away from it. Don't mess with Golda Meir.
20. Junebug---Sllooooowwww. But what an adorable presence Amy Adams is. As Junebug the young pregnant wife of a real Southern jerk, she plays a sweet North Carolina girl with small dreams and a big heart. Her sister in law is a whipsmart Chicago editor played by Embeth Davidtz, who wears black and looks at first like a stuck-up bitch, but who's humanity increases as she is exposed to Junebug. This movie strives to be like real life and unfortunately I recognize it all too well. Like when I was young and there were those do-nothing Sundays. You could easily turn your brain to mush like Junebug's inlaws do. The scene of the Jewish Davidtz being surrounded by Bible-thumping Christians is very awkward. Her husband has done a great job of hiding this part of his life from her, so you can imagine her shock when he starts singing hymns--Solo.
21. March of the Penguins---Started an entire industry of Penguin movies. Slow, yes, but beautifully told. I know way more about penguins now than any other non-domestic animal in the world. When we get to heaven, don't you expect God to sound like Morgan Freeman?
The Freditor
Could I even find 10 movies worth putting on it?
Then I found a website with every movie released in 2005 and actually found it hard keeping it to 10. The Top 5 were very easy, but the next five became so impossible to choose from that I decided to make it a Top 21. Now you could say that none of those last 16 were great enough to be considered Top 10 material and you might be right, but I would say they are too good to be left off.
I saw the George Clooney double feature of Syriana and Good Luck and Good Night, and while good, they were a little sluggish for me. I like my movies to zip along.
So here's my list and as Harry says, "And that's that!"
1. The 40 Year Old Virgin---I've seen it 3 times now and it doesn't get old. I laugh at all the big jokes, but now I appreciate the little nuances as well. At first I thought the Paul Rudd character of the depressed, lovelorn sad sack was the one weak spot in the film, but upon further viewing I see his role as pivotal in balancing out the Maxim level of testosterone that permeates the film. I've come to love all the characters, even the secondary ones and really see this as a brilliant ensemble comedy. Everyone shines here. The script is hysterical and heart warming, the acting dead on and the party atmosphere rarely lets up. These four guys remind me of my favorite groups of friends over the years whether it's the Game Night crew or in college. The perfect metaphor for the entire movie is when one guy playfully punches another friend in the nuts to get him out of his funk. We all need that friend sometimes.
2. King Kong---Before I reconsidered 40 Year Old Virgin, I considered this the finest movie of the year. It's easily the best made movie, with its wonderful attention to detail. Lord of the Rings creator, Peter Jackson, recreated New York City in 1933 at a movie studio in New Zealand. And what a beautiful job he does. Scene after scene is a smorgasbord for the eyes and the action moves along pretty swiftly (at least after the sea voyage to Skull Island). Kong looks fantastic and his ape-like movements are extremely real. You might quibble with the choices of Jack Black and Adrien Brody for the male leads, but you cannot say enough about Naomi Watts performance as Ann Darrow. She's beautiful, funny, athletic, tormented and her scream is perfect. When Brody's Jack comes to rescue her, she actually looks sad that she must leave her true love Kong behind. The scene of Kong butt-skating on Central Park's Wollman Skating rink is the most romantic of the year. The Christmas Lights on the trees just add to the warm beauty of the moment. I loved this movie and thought the 3+ hours went by very quickly. It is an awful shame that more people didn't see this new classic.
3. Cinderella Man---Talk about recreating New York City in 1933, this movie does it and for the whole film as opposed to the one hour in Kong. Russell Crowe is brilliant as usual as the Depression-era boxer, Jim J. Braddock. Maybe if he didn't throw his phone at that bellhop, more people would have gone to see this movie, but that shouldn't take away from its greatness. Renee Zellwegger shines as his strong wife. A New Jersey family struggling after years of being on top of the world, this movie is as much about the Depression and its character-challenging effects as about boxing. When Braddock's son steals from a storekeeper, he shames the boy into giving the salami back and apologizing to the man. When Braddock is forced to swallow his pride and take government assistance (essentially welfare), he pays back every penny when he gets to fight again. My boy, Paul Giamatti, hits another one out of the park as Braddock's brotherly manager. If this movie was released around Christmas it would have been nominated for tons of Oscars. As big a shame as King Kong's fate.
4. The Upside of Anger---Joan Allen is sexy. What???!!! Who knew? The queen of dowdy, but great acting, puts on some show here as a mother of four daughters who's husband suddenly abandons her for his secretary. She becomes angry and bitter and a big-time drunk and let's all her inhibitions run wild when she hooks up with Kevin Costner's drunken, ex-ballplayer neighbor. Costner schmoozes his way into the back door of their lives and really is a glutton for punishment. A man who will hang out with five women (the girls range in age from 16 to 24), who all have issues of their own. The best role in the film might belong to the one daughter's much older boyfriend. As played by the film's writer/director Mike Binder is at once a very funny sleazeball and then a pretty good guy with a different way of looking at things. The scene of him slurping his soup and Joan Allen's furious reaction is one I had to play over and over again on my DVD player. Hilarious.
5. A History of Violence---Peter Jackson and his crew were not the only Lord of the Rings' veterans to come back with another great film. So did Aragon's Viggo Mortesson as Tom Stall, a small-town Indiana coffeeshop owner. When two sick, violent felons come into his restaurant, his response changes his life forever. Like all movies that are supposed to be about anti-violence this film revels in it (see also Unforgiven). The action scenes are sick and funny and arouse cheers from the audience. But the relationship between Stall and his wife, played by Maria Bello, is warm and playful, until it gets down and dirty. The sexiest love scenes you'll see in a movie this year.
6. Wedding Crashers---Would have finished higher until I saw it a second time. This movie pins all its humor on Vince Vaughn, without him it limps along. Owen Wilson thinks he's funny in the picture, but he's really just a straight man. But when Vaughn is in the scene, hilarity ensues. He makes this movie hilarious the way Bill Murray used to. Like 40-Year Old Virgin, the movie cheerfully blends its Maxim/Stuff sense of humor with more mature romantic yearnings.
7. Batman Begins--The first great Batman movie. Christian Bale can sometimes come across as dry toast, but it's Pepperidge Farm, so the taste is unique. The Murderer's Row of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson and Tom Wilkinson add all the spice you'd want. The action can be sometimes confusing, but the big stunts are tremendous. Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow is a terrifying character and the finale is one of the best you'll see in any action movie. Loved Gotham City, the island with the million bridges and especially the above ground train. One word kept coming out of my mouth throughout the movie, "Cool!"
8. Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic---I read complaints about the songs. Some worked some didn't, but her standup is incredibly funny. This was the year of comedy (including the very entertaining The Aristocrats, which Silverman also shined in). Silverman's stand-up act is incredibly offensive, but very enjoyable. She sets up so many jokes with a left hand and then surprises you with a right. "A couple of nights ago, I was licking jelly off my boyfriend's p---s. And I thought, 'Oh, my God. I'm turning into my mother.'" The real joke is that she delivers lines like this with a combination of California beach girl and nice Jewish girl. My favorite: "Guess what, Martin Luther King? I had a dream, too. I had a dream that I was in my living room. I went to the back yard, where there was a pool. And before I got into it, a shark came out. And he had braces. So maybe you're not so f----g special."
9. Hustle and Flow---It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp and can anybody deny that? Terence Howard did the impossible. He had me feeling sorry for and eventually cheering for a pimp to make it in this world. Howard's pimp, Day, has three hookers who he takes pretty good care of, but one black girl is always angry. The white girl is trash, but he gets her to believe in herself and the other black girl is pregnant and sweet as Tupelo Honey. I realize completely that this movie manipulates you into cheering for these Southerners, but unlike so many bigger movies this year, you really feel a special bond between you and the characters. We root for prisoners to escape, why not root for a pimp and his girls to lead an honest life?
10. Capote---Catherine Keener plays supporting roles in two of my favorite films this year. First as the trashy, but loving Trish in 40 Year Old Virgin and then as the very serious, very quiet best friend of Truman Capote, Harper Lee. Capote is the story of how Truman came to write his classic, "In Cold Blood." Two bad guys try to rob a Kansas farm house and end up killing the entire family around 1957. When very odd, very gay Capote arrives in this small town it's Harper Lee's demeanor that allows him to interview this town's folk. Philip Seymour Hoffman deserves the Oscar for bringing Capote back to life. Like Jamie Foxx's Ray, he becomes the character and shows us all of Capote's outward exuberance and inner demons. Unfortunately the movie is not as brilliant as the character. It's 90 minutes of story told in 2+ hours.
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--The best of the four Harry Potter films. The effects are great, but it's the heart that's always been missing in the past that bursts through here. The filmmakers capture the torture of pubescence perfectly.
12. Millions---From the man who brought you Trainspotting and 28 Days Later of all things, comes the best children's movie of the year. Two young brothers discover a bag full of cash in England, just before the Pound is to be destroyed and the Euro put in its place. Damien is adorable as the younger, better brother. He wants to donate all the money to the poor, but Anthony wants to spend it on cool stuff. The best of many great scenes in the movie is when Anthony turns his classmates into a junior Secret Service complete with sunglasses. Nice what a few quid will do for you. Could be a Christmas classic if America discovers it.
13. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang---Shane Black, the man who wrote Lethal Weapon and tons of other action hits, finally puts his unedited stamp on the genre with this gem. He brings Robert Downey Jr. back to life as a lowlife, dirtbag who stumbles into a cop role in a police movie. When the movie's movie producers make him hook up with Val Kilmer's gay private eye/film consultant, great fun is had by all. Sort of a serious spoof of the action genre, in the way Shane Black meant Last Action Hero to be.
14. Unleashed---Jet Li's best American movie. He plays "Dog," a caged assassin, who Bob Hoskins keeps locked up until he needs some heads to roll. Morgan Freeman plays the blind piano tuner who saves Dog and turns him back into a man. In an odd way, sort of like an ultraviolet, kung fu Pinocchio.
15. The Matador---In a year with several funny movies, add this one to the list. Pierce Brosnan plays the role of his career as an assassin with stage fright. Greg Kinnear plays a bored traveling salesman who half-seriously wants to learn the tools of the trade. Brosnan's sailor-on-leave dialogue is priceless. Remington Steele is dead.
16. Kung Fu Hustle---Comedies usually die with subtitles, so it helps if they have slapstick to cross the cultural divide. This Chinese movie has the most creative slapstick I've ever seen. It makes live action into a Roadrunner cartoon and still makes you feel for the characters. The landlady is the best.
17. Crash---Best movie of the year? Not even close, but a memorable and rare look at racism in America. Overdone and ham-fisted, definitely. Does it really try to manipulate you, absolutely. First time director Paul Haggis has too many coincidences that tie everything up to really take this film seriously. And while white characters do not utter racist dialogue this openly in real life, at least this film tries to address an issue that you rarely see in American film. Sweeping racism under the rug like it doesn't exist is like bandaging an infected wound without taking penicillin, eventually the country will get septic shock and not be able to heal itself.
18. Mr. and Mrs. Smith---Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie beating the shit out of each other for 45 minutes and killing bad guys the rest of the time. How could you not love this?
19. Munich---Overlong, but if I was a Jew I'd really love this movie. Finally the Jews are doing the killing and not being pushovers. Not the message Spielberg was trying to convey, but the one many like me took away from it. Don't mess with Golda Meir.
20. Junebug---Sllooooowwww. But what an adorable presence Amy Adams is. As Junebug the young pregnant wife of a real Southern jerk, she plays a sweet North Carolina girl with small dreams and a big heart. Her sister in law is a whipsmart Chicago editor played by Embeth Davidtz, who wears black and looks at first like a stuck-up bitch, but who's humanity increases as she is exposed to Junebug. This movie strives to be like real life and unfortunately I recognize it all too well. Like when I was young and there were those do-nothing Sundays. You could easily turn your brain to mush like Junebug's inlaws do. The scene of the Jewish Davidtz being surrounded by Bible-thumping Christians is very awkward. Her husband has done a great job of hiding this part of his life from her, so you can imagine her shock when he starts singing hymns--Solo.
21. March of the Penguins---Started an entire industry of Penguin movies. Slow, yes, but beautifully told. I know way more about penguins now than any other non-domestic animal in the world. When we get to heaven, don't you expect God to sound like Morgan Freeman?
The Freditor
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Jaws' Chief Brody, Roy Scheider, dies at 75--fred
One of the great stars of the 1970s has died and I'm going to miss him. He was nominated for an Oscar as Popeye Doyle's partner Buddy Russo in The French Connection and made a perfect cool side man to crazy Gene Hackman. Two years later he played a version of Popeye in The Seven Ups, a movie with an equally great car chase scene that nearly killed Scheider. (When he goes under the truck, that really happened by accident and without the planned stuntman.) But his greatest role to me is as Amity's Chief Martin Brody, the former NYPD cop who has to hunt his worst killer in a shark. His line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat" is one that will always be remembered in movie history, but I love another more, "Die, you son of a....(Boom)" as the shark blows up. He was nominated again for All That Jazz and while he might have been good in the part as Bob Fosse's alter ego, I thought the movie was a mess. His last great role was a small one, as, Wilfred Keeley, the amoral head of a large health insurance company in "The Rainmaker." His death is from unknown reasons at the moment, but his movie career is immortal.
The Freditor
Sunday, February 3, 2008
The Missouri Breaks-One of the stranger-but more entertaining westerns I've seen
* * * * (out of 5)
Acclaimed director Arthur Penn (The Miracle Worker, Bonnie and Clyde) got some fine actors together and made a slightly different, but fun western in 1976 called The Missouri Breaks. Jack Nicholson stars as the head of an off-kilter horse-rustling gang. His tormentor is hired gun extraordinaire, Marlon Brando.
In the last 30 years of his life, Brando (who died in 2004) played only a few roles, but mostly mailed in his performances. I liked him in The Score and Apocalypse Now, but his greatest work in that time had to be the mafia don in The Freshman. In this movie, as Robert E. Lee Clayton, he does his second best work in that period. While Nicholson is the star, Brando steals the movie with his odd, but sincere performance.
Nicholson's sidekicks are the always great character actors Harry Dean Stanton, Frederic Forrest and Randy Quaid. After pulling off a semi-successful train robbery, Jack convinces the locals that he's a respectable business man looking to buy a ranch. The ranch is merely a front for their horse stealing and since they are in Montana, their next big step is to steal Canadian horses. Horse stealing is a hanging offense at this time and without any formal law in the area, hangings without a trial are common.
(According to WikiPedia) The Missouri Breaks are actually called the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument: a series of badland areas characterized by rock outcroppings, steep bluffs and grassy plains. While the sidekicks head up to Canada to steal the vaunted Mounties' horses, Nicholson's neighbor, the biggest rancher in the area hires Brando to track and kill the varmints.
Brando comes in with a flourish and never lets up. Wearing a white fringe jacket, he puts on a great Irish brogue and seems very fancy for a "regulator." Before the movie is over he will change his accent three times, play love songs to his horse, take bubble baths and kill someone dressed as a granny for no other obvious reason than to satisfy his own bi-polar disorders.
Jack is toned down here, but in control as a bandit who seems to want to go straight. He doesn't even come close to matching Brando on the Crazy Train, but has his own quirks, like wearing a funny kerchief while tending his cabbage garden and offering his lady friend Chinese tea.
Not a dull moment.
The Freditor
Acclaimed director Arthur Penn (The Miracle Worker, Bonnie and Clyde) got some fine actors together and made a slightly different, but fun western in 1976 called The Missouri Breaks. Jack Nicholson stars as the head of an off-kilter horse-rustling gang. His tormentor is hired gun extraordinaire, Marlon Brando.
In the last 30 years of his life, Brando (who died in 2004) played only a few roles, but mostly mailed in his performances. I liked him in The Score and Apocalypse Now, but his greatest work in that time had to be the mafia don in The Freshman. In this movie, as Robert E. Lee Clayton, he does his second best work in that period. While Nicholson is the star, Brando steals the movie with his odd, but sincere performance.
Nicholson's sidekicks are the always great character actors Harry Dean Stanton, Frederic Forrest and Randy Quaid. After pulling off a semi-successful train robbery, Jack convinces the locals that he's a respectable business man looking to buy a ranch. The ranch is merely a front for their horse stealing and since they are in Montana, their next big step is to steal Canadian horses. Horse stealing is a hanging offense at this time and without any formal law in the area, hangings without a trial are common.
(According to WikiPedia) The Missouri Breaks are actually called the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument: a series of badland areas characterized by rock outcroppings, steep bluffs and grassy plains. While the sidekicks head up to Canada to steal the vaunted Mounties' horses, Nicholson's neighbor, the biggest rancher in the area hires Brando to track and kill the varmints.
Brando comes in with a flourish and never lets up. Wearing a white fringe jacket, he puts on a great Irish brogue and seems very fancy for a "regulator." Before the movie is over he will change his accent three times, play love songs to his horse, take bubble baths and kill someone dressed as a granny for no other obvious reason than to satisfy his own bi-polar disorders.
Jack is toned down here, but in control as a bandit who seems to want to go straight. He doesn't even come close to matching Brando on the Crazy Train, but has his own quirks, like wearing a funny kerchief while tending his cabbage garden and offering his lady friend Chinese tea.
Not a dull moment.
The Freditor
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
