1)
Beau Travail- "Good Work" (France/dir: Claire Denis) : Up until
this point Claire Denis has not made a film that I would describe as complete.
Her 1997 film "Nenette Et Boni" is well formed early on and stylistically
brilliant but created characters that could not challenge the viewer in
the final hour. In "Beau Travail" she has redone the opera "Billy
Budd" via a Legionnaire outpost in Djibouti and showed the how the
structure of family can form and be destroyed no matter what the construct.
Unforgettable visuals that work with the triumphant soundtrack to showcase
amazing performances, lead by the enigmatic Denis Lavant (Mauvais Sang).
2)
L'Humanite- "Humanity"(France/dir:Bruno Dumont): Director Dumont
was jeered when he accepted the Grand Prize at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival
for this brutal film that centers around the rape and murder of a ten year
old girl. Dumont was criticized as he had been previously with
the sublime "La Vie De Jesus"for using non-professional actors to
add to the feeling of reality of small town desperation. Emmanueul
Schotte won best actor at Cannes for his eerily naive performance as the
policeman investigating the case and Severine Canelle tied best actress
awards with Emille Dequenne(Rosetta) for her performance as his friend
Domino.
3)
Croupier (England/dir: Mike Hodges): In 1973 Mike Hodges set the
standard for British gangster films when he cast the young Michael Caine
in the original "Get Carter". After directing a failed remake of
"Flash Gordon" in 1980. Hodges virtually disappeared from making
good cinema until this past year when he directed a flawless script from
Paul Mayersburg about a young writer's attempt to reveal the underworld
of casino gambling. Even with a cast of B-actors Hodges still maintains
a great level of tension and overwhelms you with surprises. This
film needs to be seen more than once to fully grasp it's complex plot twists.
4)
Yi Yi-"A One and A Two"(Taiwan/dir: Edward Yang): His last film,
the impressive "Mahjong" proves that the real genius of Taiwanese filmmaking
is Edward Yang. Although the much heralded director Hou Hsiou Hsien
creates well structured emotionally precise cinema it is the more daring
Yang that allows a familiarity to occur with his characters through real
sentimentality. At over three hours long this film allows you the
chance to carefully watch to the emotions of a family dealing loss and
past mistakes. A lovely work.
5)
The
Wind Will Carry Us (Iran/dir: Abbas Kiarostami): Like Bruno Dumont Abbas
insists on using non-professional actors in his films to further enhance
the realism of his films. In this story of a photographer who comes
to a sequestered village under the guise of a engineer for the purpose
of shooting a rare and sacred burial ritual. Gorgeous landscape photography
and understated symbolism have now become the standard for Kiarostami's
films.
6)
George Washington (USA/dir: David Gordon Green): This visionary film
does posses many of the same ideas expressed in Lynne Ramsay's much acclaimed
Scottish film "Ratcatcher" which made me wonder why this worked so well
and "Ratcatcher" did not. It may be the fact that David Green's film
never drifts too far from it's emotional center as Lynne Ramsay's film
does. The story of a physically challenged boy that accidentally
kills his friend and tries to hide the fact while still becoming a hero
after rescuing a drowning boy. Green's humor is unique and works
within the mood of the piece where as Lynne Ramsay's film has an offbeat
humor that works too hard and seems superfluous.
7)
Pas De Scandal "Keep It Quiet" (France/dir: Benoit Jacquot): After the
disappointing 1998 film "School of Flesh" Benoit Jacquot has returned to
style with a funny and charming film about an affluent man named Gregoire
(wonderfully underplayed by Fabrice Luchini) who is released from prison
with a new found humanity and gentleness. His love of life is at once frightens
by his repressed wife(Isabelle Huppert) and confuses his conservative brother
played by Jacquot favorite, Vincent Lindon. This movie seems a natural
follow-up to Jacquot's ingenious 1997 film "Seventh Heaven" and not the
overworked "School of Flesh".
8)
American Psycho (USA/dir: Mary Harron): Mary Harron has done the
impossible in making a clever, witty movie based on the Bret Easton
Ellis' novel that many people considered too graphic for film.
What Mary Harron did so cleverly was to make the book's violence campy
to allow the viewer to see the true evil of the 1980s come through.
Christian Bale is perfect in the lead as the sociopathic Patrick Bateman
and Chloe Sevigny continues her string of solid performances.
9)
Pola X (France/dir: Leos Carax): In 1986, Leos Carax was raised as
the voice of young France after his film "Mauvais Sang"(Bad Blood)- a fast
and very New Wave reminiscent film which starred a young Denis Savant,
Juliette Binoche and Julie Delpy. After that success he would make
"Lovers On a Bridge" in 1991 which still ranks as one of the largest box-office
failures in French film history. So, it not surprising that for his
next film nine years later he would choose Herman Melville's Pierre, Or
The Ambiguities" which Melville wrote shortly after the failure of "Moby
Dick". Pola X centers around an writer who at once is praised for
being the "voice of truth" then realizes through a hidden family scandal
that all that he has known is lie. Yes, the film is pretentious but
like all of Carax's films we can see the brilliance past any heirs.
10)
Requiem For A Dream (USA/dir: Darren Aronofsky): It amazes me that Hollywood
allowed this film to be made. After the success of his uneven but
visually stunning low budget film "Pi" director Aronofsky has made the
strongest film ever on the subject of addiction. What is to be most
admired by this film besides the great performance of Ellen Burstyn is
the pace and unpleasantness of this film which never lets up. It's
NC-17 rating is well deserved as it's scenes of violence and inhumanity
are tough to take. Sadly, the NC-17 rating will keep young people
away from this film(at least while it's still in the theaters) and from
gaining it's message. Unlike the recent trivial attempts to capture
the drug-subculture such as the pathetic "Trainspotting" and "Jesus' Son"
this film is bound to jolt the most apathetic film watcher. A brave
film.
Just
Missing The List:
Trois
Ponts Sur La Riviere(Portugal/France/dir: Jean Claude Biette): Real-lfe
couple Mathiew Amalric and Jeanne Balibar(last seen in Assayas' Late August
Early September) play recently reunited lovers who go to Portugal for different
reasons; He, to visit his mentor, an old professor who has been silent
for many years and she, to see why they are together this time. This
is the third film in which these two have acted together (1996's My Sex
Life is the other) and it is a treat every time this occurs. The film's
point of detachment is achieved well before the ending and goes on way
too long but it is still an interesting study.
The
Big Kuhuna (USA/dir: John Swanbeck) What is essentially a filmed
stage play proves to be an amazing tale of ethics and purpose in society.
Three industrial lubrication salesmen are held up in a hospitality suite
in Wichita, Kansas. Two veteran salesmen(played wonderfully by Kevin
Spacey and the surprisingly sharp Danny Devito) and a young born-again
Christian salesman played by Peter Facinelli. Facinelli tries to
keep up with the talent in this film but is outmatched. This one
shortcoming keeps it off the top ten but should be seen for it's great
script and well constructed characters. A genuinely moving film.
X-Men
(USA/dir:Bryan Singer) Peter Keough(Boston Phoenix) championed this film
version of the classic comic book and although it's dark imagery is retained
it still feels uneven. X-Men feels like two-halves of a film; the
one half made for fans of the comic and the other for those who have never
seen it but neither telling is complete. The knowledge that over
60 minutes was taken off of the final cut may explain this and like "Blade
Runner" we may someday see what Mr. Singer had really wanted it to be.
Still, an entertaining film with some good performances.
Biggest Disappointments:
Kikujiro
(Japan/dir:Takeshi Kitano) After two years of waiting after my previous
number one pick "Fireworks" I was hoping that Kitano would make his last
Japanese film great (his soon to be realized American film is his first
here). Kiujiro is a marass of sentimental clichés that are
as equally ridiculous and useless at the same time. His story of
a man (played by Kitano) who must travel across Japan with an abondoned
young boy with his mother. The fact that Kitano would not be upstaged
by a child by keeping him mute for almost the entire film adds to the misery.
Ghost
Dog; Way Of The Samourai (USA/dir: Jim Jarmusch) His revisionist 1996 western
"Dead Man" proved that there is no such thing as a dead genre but to remake
Jean Pierre Melville's masterpiece "La Samurai" was pointless. There is
just nothing new here. Even the solid performance by Forrest Whittaker
in the lead cannot save this useless exercise in violence and forced Jarmusch
quirkiness.
Almost Famous (USA/dir: Cameron Crowe) What are the critics seeing in this film that I can't? I was excited to see a film version of the experiences of director Cameron Crowe when he was a rock critic for Rolling Stone. I was still excited during early scenes when the young writer meets the legendary Lester Bangs(played to perfection by the always clever Phillip Seymour Hoffman) but instead we get the cliched love story with a groupie (Golidie Hawn's daughter must apply here) and the admiration of an Allman brother(Played by flavor of the week, Billy Crudup, the Matthew McConoughy of this year). Are we supposed to laugh at played out drug humor or be touched by classic rock losers singing Elton John songs on the tour bus after a arguement?-Cameron, go home to Nancy Wilson and sing Barracuda!
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop me a note at: bovineska@hotmail.com