Great MoviesTime to reflect and give a run down of the very best of the recommendations I’ve given over the year. So here’s my list of the top movies to see, a mix of old and new, funny and strange – the very best for the next time you want to stay in with popcorn and a whole bunch of movies (perfect actually for this after New Years weekend):
1. Hausu
2. Amadeus
5. Videodrome
directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (2010)Most likely, anyone entering Valhalla Rising expecting and wanting a Hollywood action epic will come to the same conclusion: “Boring!” (You can read lots of these interpretations on the Amazon reviews). I however, am the opposite. I turned King Arthur off in the middle of what I am sure the makers assumed was the most exciting scene and nearly fell asleep with boredom five seconds into the latest Robin Hood trailer.
Action pics just aren’t interesting to me anymore, but this, this is no action pic despite some of the most brutal fight scenes I’ve seen in some time. No, this is more akin to Aguirre The Wrath of God than Clash of the Titans and in all it’s arty pretension, I found it fascinating and wonderful.
Mads Mikkelsen stars as One Eye, an enslaved Gladiator type warrior who claims to have come from hell who has no qualms about killing men with his teeth. After escaping his captors and earning a young boy as devoted follower and translator, he meets up with a band of violent Christian crusaders bound for Jerusalem. In a fog of mist however, they wander off course from Scotland to the New World and mistake it for Hell. Hallucinating ensues and death looms in slow motion.
Shot like a gorgeous heavy metal video through the eyes of Werner Herzog, this was one of the only times I’ve been frustrated with the quality of streaming video – epic high contrast landscapes just don’t hold up to compression very well. In hindsight, I’d have gone all out and rent the Bluray.
While this is probably not a film that will please everyone I recommend it to, one has to be happy that movies like this – that defy convention, and are not afraid of their silence and allegory are still being made. With Valhalla Rising, director Nicolas Winding Refn has become one of the most interesting filmmakers to watch.
His previous works include the drug dealing Pusher trilogy but I would love to see him tackle more of the D&D type stuff (because who else really is making seriously awesome movies set in 1000 AD about soothsaying warriors?) but am intrigued by the upcoming Only God Forgives, which is described as a Bangkok-set modern western.
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directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (1993)The words “Ninja Scroll” echoed in the halls of my freshman dorm. Nerds coming from all corners of the country and globe were getting introduced to anime with this bloody action packed oddity, all thanks, if I remember correctly, to one Hal Lee who passed a well worn VHS around Nickerson Hall. With explicit sex scenes, demon monsters, and arm ripping/blood soaked fights, well, needless to say the dudes were INTO it. I however, never saw it til last night (thank you Netflix + AppleTV).
Like most things Japanese, Ninja Scroll is somewhat inscrutable, but that hardly matters. Whether you follow the story about a secret gold mine, an old man spy, and a bisexual who plays a deadly game of telephone or not, there’s just so much good stuff to look at. From rape minded rock monsters to ninja birds, from vagina snakes to magic bee swarms, the movie hits the ground running and never stops.
In short, though, Jubei is a ninja for hire who talks with the insensitive staccato of a teenage boy that just learned the word ‘shit” as in “Shit! A cast off skin!!”. He meets up with a girl ninja Kagero who is poison to any man that sleeps with her. Together they reluctantly (since they are fiercely independent, of course) join forces with a sneaky old man to defeat a team of demons with strange abilities who want nothing more than world domination through destruction and a pirate ship full of gold.
In a huge sea of anime, which is daunting to traverse, this one stands out with it’s inventive monsters drawn from folklore, stunningly beautiful artwork and a plot that speaks to my D&D heart.
The movie spawned a sequel series and word has it that Leonardo DiCaprio owns the rights to a planned live action movie coming next year.
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directed by Wong Kar-Wai (1990)Wong Kar-Wai, whose cinematic voice is all his own, brings to the screen quiet moments in time rather than sweeping plots in Days of Being Wild. The moments certainly stuck with me, as I’ve been trying to find the movie again since I saw it years and years ago.
Set in Hong Kong and the Philippines in the 1960’s, Wild is sumptuously shot by Kar-Wai collaborator Christopher Doyle with what looks like a hazy memory filter. The fashions here are eye candy too and I swear it looks like Muccia Prada must have just viewed this movie before her Fall 2010 season.
The attractive cast is also great to look at, including China’s biggest stars like the lovely Maggie Cheung and the dashing Leslie Cheung. They fall in and out of love in this study of relationships, manipulation, sadness and desire. It’s doesn’t sound like much to explain what happens, (someone leaves someone from someone else, someone gets sad…) but there’s something haunting about the whole affair.
An all around gorgeous movie, which unfortunately looks like it was transferred from VHS for instant netflix, Days of Being Wild sounds amazing featuring lilting, mid century tropic instrumentals.
Considered inaccessibly art house by many, this was not a hit in its home country despite an all star cast. Still, many consider it to be a pivotal film in Hong Kong cinema.
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Directed by Alan J Paluka (1971)Deliberate framing and pacing, rich, artistic cinematography, and an adult story that ignores the teen market, Klute is a film of it’s time – the great 1970’s, far before the music video era. Not that I dismiss everything made in the last several decades, just that there’s something distinct about a classic film like this one and though it hasn’t come to be remembered as well as some of its contemporaries, it will be worth checking out if only for our generation to grasp onto the fashions: feathered shags, midi skirts, sequins, and caftans…
Jane Fonda is Bree Daniels, a skilled prostitute trying to become an actress. She’s self-sabotaging, tough, world weary, angry, intelligent, vulnerable, mean, and kind hearted. She’s one of the most damaged characters put to screen and Fonda deserved the Academy Award she earned for her fierce portrayal. Her foil is Tom, played by Donald Sutherland (love) who is quiet, forgiving, seemingly naive and passive but proves himself to be complicated and brave. They are thrown together when Tom’s friend disappears leaving behind only a stack of obscene letters to Bree as any clue to his whereabouts.
As self appointed private detective and reluctant assistant, they traverse the sometimes opulent, often dismal seedy underground of the sex trade in New York, where Rod Schneider is deliciously seedy as a pimp. The mystery is tense at times, with almost horror movie like music and great sets for thrills, but it’s really the relationship that develops between these two unlikely lovers that is at the heart of the movie.
If you want to make an after noon of it, watch along with The Parallax View and All The President’s Men for what’s been called director Alan J Paluka’s “Paranoia Trilogy”.
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directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950)All About Eve (in no way associated with All About Steve) is a classic. Delving into the egocentric world of theater people, it studies the paranoia that accompanies success and the cut throat viciousness of those that yearn for it. Bette Davis, never afraid to look bedraggled, aged or drunk is the star of the show, mixing charm and an acid tongue to play Margo Channing, a revered actress growing older and less pleased by the fact daily.
Surrounded by a small team of friends and a lover that appreciate her for all her faults, Margo let’s a young, sycophantic admirer named Eve into her inner circle. Initially working as an assistant, Eve eventually draws out the venom in Margo, throwing the star into what seem like fits of jealous unfounded paranoia. Like a self fulfilled prophecy, however, everyone soon learns that Eve may not be as temperate and sweet as she seems.
Davis is excellent here and though it always feels strange to critique a classic, Anne Baxter as Eve doesn’t quite deliver. She’s plenty creepy in her obsessive excessive kindness but lacks fire when she shows her true colors – making it hard to understand how she could have threatened anyone in the first place. It’s a talkie movie with lots of grand monologues, leading me to assume it was adapted from a play – but it comes from a short story by Mary Orr and was only adapted for the stage years after the film.
It’s generally considered one of the best American films made.
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directed by Debra Granik (2010)Jim is a bigger fan of back woods noir author Daniel Woodrell but after seeing Winter’s Bone, the exceptionally gritty, atmospheric and unique film based on one of his novels, I may just take second look. Woodrell specializes is grim mysteries in the deep south and this particular story about a tougher than nails Ozark teen forced to look after her sick mom and siblings made its way to the big screen with tremendous dignity with haunting suspense.
What looks at first glance like Independent film award fodder: downtrodden Americans shot against grim but undeniably beautiful landscapes (the cinematography is brilliant) of a country falling apart, is much more than an outsider’s glimpse into a mostly unknown world. While I can not claim to know what the cabins and trailers of the Ozarks look like, the sets, settings and actors here feel genuine and are neither pedantically glorified or demonized. The cast that (like almost anything of value these days) includes actors from Deadwood is superb with Jennifer Lawrence as the heroine, Ree, earning every bit of buzz and praise she’s received.
At heart, Winter’s Bone is a mystery. Ree must find her father, or perhaps the remains of him in order to keep the house he put up for bail on a recent meth arrest. The journey, that climaxes in an act of savage, cold survival, is wrought with tension as she makes her way through the rough, complex order of a dangerous society populated by the stoic, hardened, and vicious.
We were taken with the movie more than we expected. Maybe it’s so effective because Debra Granik is less interested in forcing her opinion of the characters than letting them exist within the simple but gripping plot.
directed by Martin Scorsese (1983)The King of Comedy is a masterpiece about desperation and fame. Scorsese may be better known for crime dramas and prefer sweeping epics but when he focuses on smaller stories and comedy, he has made some of my favorite movies, including this one (along with After Hours and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore). Robert DeNiro, who at this point is usually portraying a caricature of himself either as tough guy or reluctant comedian is brilliant here in a role that could have easily tipping into ridiculousness but retains some real pathetic pathos and the strange creepiness of a real delusional weirdo.
His character, Rupert Pupkin is no Travis Bickle, but he’s no less messed up. He dreams of comedy stardom, specifically stardom reached on the arm of Jerry Langford, a late night talk show host played with incredible jaded subtely by the usually goofy Jerry Lewis. He finds a friend, a rival, and eventually a partner in crime in a wealthy loon Masha played by the amazing Sandra Bernhard. After this off kilter, insane and lusty performance, I forever love her and wonder why her particular brand of on screen craziness isn”t used more often in movies.
It’s a movie I love to revisit and invites repeat viewings. It’s always exciting to be able to recommend it to people who’ve never seen it, and there are many since this box office bomb is often over looked and forgotten in the careers of DeNiro and Scorsese – who says this is his favorite of all their collaborations.
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directed by George Miller (1979, 1981, 1985)The Mad Max trilogy is a grim, inventive B-movie blend of sci fi and action the likes of which I wish was made more often. Instead of drawing from established science fiction, it made its own mark on the genre and is frequently imitated to this day.
The first film, Mad Max, is the bleakest and the most menacing. Set in a nearer future where the world has certainly changed but some semblances of society are still intact (like family, a police force, and community – albeit broken versions), Gibson plays a law enforcer driven to “Mad”ness Max when a crazy band of outlaws, headed by psycho Toe Cutter, mow down his dearest (if you thought Bambi’s mom being killed was dreadful…) It’s the most convoluted of the three films, and the roughest around the edges, but it sets up the believable dystopia (with a distinctly Australian grit) that endures throughout the trilogy.
Road Warrior, also known as Mad Max 2, finds Max mid road battle with a band of incredibly awesome punk bad guys before stumbling across a ragtag, more peaceful group of gas hoarders in need of just the kind of reluctant heroism a once likable and handsome Gibson was capable of before he became such an evil prick in real life. The story is spare and harsh and once again there’s eye popping, over-the-top costumes and art design which might border on silly if designer Norma Moriceau weren’t so ballsy about it all. In fact, the entire series benefits from the no apologies, true B-movie bad-assness that can spawn straight-faced characters like Lord Humungus, Gayboy Berzerkers, The Toecutter, and Pig Killer. The second installment might just be my favorite of the bunch with its straight forward, almost all action punch.
The trilogy gained some considerable gloss (which rears its ugly head with that head scratching saxophone that was so prevalent at the time – see Ladyhawke) with Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome but it’s a film very dear to my heart; as a kid my sister and I would quote “Master Blaster runs Bartertown!” endlessly. While it definitely ventures into Ewokish territory with the nearly cartoonish second half that features a band of lost kids and goofier violence (it seems strange that the menacing Ironbar played by a sneering Angry Anderson should leave this world in such a Wile E Coyote fashion), still it’s visually stunning and unique with unforgettable set pieces. Bartertown itself, a literal cesspool of vice run on pig shit where feuds are settled in the Thunderdome (two men enter, one man leaves!) has got to be one of cinema’s most memorable post apocalyptic towns and to be honest, I was on Aunty Entity’s side when Max plus brats tore it apart. Like it or not, Aunty (played with the kind of sexually bold bravado that only Tina could lend the role) brought order to an insane world… but perhaps I’m thinking too deeply about it.
There were once rumors of a fourth starring Heath Ledger, which obviously is no longer the case and with Mel’s latest rants of hate and general horribleness, I hope the rumors of his cameos are not true. More intriguing are the latest chit chat circulating about the dashing Tom Hardy (the guy that out did Leo in Inception) taking over the role in a plot that includes “Five Wives” that need protecting. Let’s hope creator George Miller, whose been behind all of the films continues his vision of pure, exploitation cool.
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directed by Claude Chabrol (1978)Violette opens with Isabelle Huppert dressed in black with thick eyeliner, red lips looking every bit the femme fatale. In a bar, she teases young men with intense stares, long cigarettes and indecent proposals. Soon, however, we see young Violette at home, where she is clean faced, seemingly obedient, looking years younger, eye battingly sweet and a pathological lair. She suddenly, in the skillful hands of Huppert, becomes more complex; recognizable as one of those sociopath teenage girls who longs for something more than her common, strict home life – a 1930s echo of all the girls that walk out of their houses in modest clothes and a lie about spending the night with a friend only to have a stash of makeup, revealing tube tops and mini skirts in her backpack for a tour of the mall. Except, of course, that this one has murder on her mind.
Based on a true story, Violette is a conniving teen – deeply passionate underneath a shockingly emotionless exterior. The murder, once it is revealed, is as mundane as it is disturbing. Her life outside the home is daring and dangerous. She meets with many older men, is a blackmailer, and even keeps a hotel room for her many trysts. Her parents, a struggling but happy train conductor and a gorgeous woman with a secret past – played by Chabrol’s wife and muse Stephane Audran, are poor (but never has close quarter apartment living looked so cozily French – save for 400 Blows maybe). They try their best to assure better for their daughter and the relationship and dynamics are tackled with subtly and the artful patience Chabrol is known for. This is not a fast paced film but a quietly fascinating one – partially for the cinematic beauty and partially for Huppert’s captivating performance.
Director Claude Chabrol passed away last week and was one of the most important forerunners of the New Wave movement in France. His career is vast and sadly less known than many of his contemporaries. His last work, Bellamy, comes to theaters this Fall.
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