Films of the Year: The 'B' List

I posted a Top Ten/Eleven the other day, but last year was such a rich one at the movies that I knew you, Dear Reader, would ask for more.  So, herewith: Films of 09 that I liked, but only just not enough:

The Girlfriend Experience (above): The first of two films Soderbergh made this year about the love of money, and the human as commodity.

Observe and Report: Vastly misunderstood, very serious story of the cruelty of consumer culture and insensitivity to mental illness that characterizes our age.

Star Trek: A wonderful adventure story, knowing in its humour, and let down only by the villain-for-hire/scriptbot nature of the central conflict between imperfect bully Kirk and understandably grieving villain.

Avatar: The evocation of an entire world on Pandora is undeniable, and while the means used to challenge imperialism are predictably violent, there’s a real film trying to get out from behind the tech-spectacle

Youssou N’Dour I Bring What I Love: A film about music and politics, and the politics of music, and the inspiration to dance that made me think about the first two and enact the second.

Up: The first ten minutes constitute the best short film Pixar never made; the rest is magnificent – beautifully written and paced; although regrettably, as usual, with a villain that can only be defeated through killing him, as far as the film is concerned.

Humpday: A delirious entertainment that turns out also to be a sanguine and prickly assessment of where we are now; or at least of where guys my age are now. The fact that am both older than the two lead actors, and apparently less financially stable made this a candidate for what Jett might call the feelgood comedy thrill ride of the year…

Funny People: But that would mean that I couldn’t say this of ‘Funny People’, which I do happen to consider to be the feelgood comedy thrill ride of the year. Why? Because it tells a certain kind of truth about life and work, and does it with a knowing eye to the audience’s pre-conceptions of both Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen.

Sita Sings the Blues: An astonishing animated film made over five years by Nina Paley, and given away for free on-line. One vision of the future of cinema.

Hunger: Hard to detach my personal history in Northern Ireland from my experience of the film, but then again, that’s true for every film. This one took life and death in my home town more seriously than any I’ve ever seen.

Two Lovers: James Gray hasn’t put a foot wrong in re-locating 19th century Russian novels to contemporary New York; the spirit of Kubrick haunts ‘Two Lovers’, and that’s a good thing.

Tetro: Coppola returns again, and no happier way to have him back than in the form of a gorgeous black and white family drama set in Argentina, with Klaus Maria Brandaeur as a Don Corleone stand-in, and Vincent Gallo as the genius he says he is in real life.

Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky: A brilliant documentary with a genuine sense of discovery, as a young man seeks to encounter his cinematic mentor through interactions with those who knew and loved him.

Eddie Adams An Unlikely Weapon: A little clunky in its approach, nonetheless this is an amazing, moving, and entertaining portrait of a man whose most famous work is the most notorious photograph of the Vietnam War, and one of the most horrifying ever recorded.

Summer Hours: A film whose high concept charts the journey of a reasonably well-off French family deciding how to donate their late mother’s art to the Musee D’Orsay as a tax write-off. Far more compelling than that synopsis allows; and one of the truest representations of what life in the globalised/glocalised world is now like.

This Way of Life: Magnificent documentary illustration of the lives of a family seeking to live sustainably from the New Zealand/Aotearoa land.

Where the Wild Things Are: Not a children’s movie, but a movie about childhood, and dreams, and the cinematic nature of the imagination.

(500) Days of Summer: I know you’re not supposed to like it, (something about effortless cool/hipster sensibilities being the root of all evil, apparently) but I couldn’t resist.

The Informant!: Classy 70-s mimicry in Soderbergh’s kitsch money-makes-the-world-go-round comedy. With a Marvin Hamlisch score!

Moon: A homage to 2001 that earns the right, because it doesn’t pretend not to be one; Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey make the most believable couple you’d expect to spend years together in space.

The Invention of Lying: If the last Hollywood cop-out third matched the moral vision of the first two-thirds, it would be one of the greatest comedies ever made.

Zombieland: Ridiculously funny, smart little satire on consumerism and getting by.

A Christmas Carol: Magnificently designed, and elegantly performed.

Cold Souls: If the 80s-era Woody Allen and Andrei Tarkovsky made a film together, this would be the deleted scenes.

Taking Woodstock: More serious than its marketing would imply.

Fantastic Mr Fox: An almost mystical tale, gorgeously mounted.

The Box: A not entirely successful, but profoundly serious, and ultimately hopeful, treatment of the moral weakness of privatized capitalism and colonial guilt. Honest.

2012: A post-colonial disaster epic with a young black man who works in the White House as its hero, salvation made in China, and the future of humanity resting in Africa. Best of all, it knows it’s a comedy.

That Evening Sun: A glorious twilight performance from Hal Holbrook in a film about the recognition, sorrow over, and eventual acceptance of one’s own death. Ray McKinnon and Walton Goggins produce superb little movies that unfold in the US Southeast – (their comedy ‘Randy and the Mob’ is delirious, smart fun) – and Scott Teems is a classy new talent.

(Dis)honourable mention:

Watchmen: A gratuitously violent, shallow re-tread of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ serious political epic that forwent the philosophical depth and moral challenge of the book in exchange for throwing burning oil in a man's face to get a laugh.

Knowing: A disaster movie which squanders its premise: angels are watching us so that they can nominate the new Adam and Eve when the world ends.

Wolverine: A complete waste of time after extraordinary opening titles.

Terminator: Salvation: Makes the parts of the original film that didn’t make sense seem as clear as the largest letters on an eye test. And that’s a bad thing.

Special Award for Vampire Story as Analogy for Mormon Abstinence and Fidelity that Turned Out to be Nowhere Near as Bad as I Expected, in Fact it was Almost a Real Movie, OK Then Maybe That’s An Overstatement But Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged: Twilight New Moon, a film-by-corporation if ever there was one, but also a film by the real director Chris Weitz, who wanted to do something that conveyed real teenage emotions, and managed to achieve it.

Special Award for Being the Films I was Most Pretentiously Wrong About the First Time I Saw But About Which I’ve Now Changed My Mind:

Jointly awarded to:

The Hangover, which I initially couldn’t stand for being a homophobic and racist lionization of immaturity. On a second viewing it seemed like one of the smartest and funniest representations of male identity and the value of friendship.

The Cove, which seemed like an ideal candidate for the best film of the year first time round, for the compelling way in which it presents the courage of its protagonist, Ric O’Barry’s work to save dolphins from cruel deaths. But Jett convinced me that I’d missed the troubling echoes of something approaching colonialist xenophobia in its approach to the Japanese fishermen who are its target.

Public Enemies: I came late to the view that Michael Mann made the most meticulously detailed vision of 1930s gangster life, and one in which the relationship of cinema to our individual and communal dreams is as well portrayed as anywhere; but he did, and I was wrong about this film the first time I saw it.

Up in the Air, which felt a little, how should I say it? Meh?, on first viewing; but a week later was still unfolding in my memory, a visually beautiful and thoughtful portrayal of the moral damage of privatized capitalism, the breakdown of community, and the lack of purpose derived from life-as-a-transaction.

And now, to the year we find ourselves, whose first new release I paid to see was 'The Book of Eli', which we'll review on next week's episode.  A preview?  I'm tiring of the God's-lonely-man-as-violent-avenger tropes, but everything else about this film was deliriously entertaining.  Especially Ned Beatty's skinny younger brother.

At last: My Films of the Year 2009

Hello there –  after the privilege of matrimonial gallivanting in Godzone, it’s a delight to be back to the blog.  I wrote at length before I disappeared about the year gone by; and so here, with brief commentary, is part one of my list of what seem to be the best films released in 2009.   I'll post a much more extensive piece on also-rans, near-misses, and dishonourable mentions in a couple of days...But for now:

10: Il Divo/Anvil: The rise and rise and rise of a fallen leader; and the fall and rise of an elevated twosome: the most compelling political biopic and most engaging music documentary of the year.

9: Mary and Max:  Sundance opener which I saw a year ago and isn’t easily forgotten – a wise and funny treatment of loneliness and outsider status in a stop-motion tale of a middle aged obese New Yorker with Asperger’s syndrome, and the nerdy Australian teenager he writes to.

8: Inglourious Basterds: A ‘moviemovie’ that renews our relationship with war; while I have no idea what Tarantino wants me to think, seems to me that it’s both exhilirating, and a provocative response to our appetite for violence.

7: The Road: This year’s winner of the ‘Will Smith/Seven Pounds’ award for most melancholic feelgood film ever made; a post-apocalyptic wasteland photographed as if through mud, with nothing but the love of a father for his child to propel it.  Metaphor-full, but alive with the realistic hope that good is worthwhile, whether it outshines the darkness or not.  And the best of the recent remarkable Robert Duvall twilight performances.

6: The Messenger: Sadly overlooked by audiences, along with ‘The Hurt Locker’, the first fully realized Iraq war veteran film; a ‘Deer Hunter’ for our generation (or at least the post-war ‘return’ sequences of Cimino’s film).

5: In the Loop: A genius comedy about the run up to the war that is so truthful about motivation, spin, and the unhinged grasp of the facts and their consequences that it stops being laughable almost immediately.

4: The Hurt Locker: A film about a generation of two kinds of men who can’t decide which cereal they want.  Men who went, and men who didn’t.

3: Goodbye Solo: Ramin Bahrani told us that his film is not a metaphor for the myth of liberal non-intervention, but a query into whether or not a person can love another enough to let them make terrible decisions.  I think it turns out to be both; but it’s also the most exciting early film from a new(ish) director working in the US that I’ve seen since ‘Rushmore’.

2: A Serious Man: The best film by the Coen Brothers, or at least the one that felt most like me: an epically funny, and profoundly sad treatment of religion at its most cursed, and faith at its most elevating.

1: Gaia: A $28 000 miracle – Jason Lehel wrote a treatment, gathered some colleagues, went into the desert, and in a few weeks captured the story of a physically and emotionally broken woman finding healing among the economically disenfranchised survivors of historic racism and displacement.  ‘Gaia’ features what Jett has called one of the most sacred things he’s ever seen on screen; and is a perfect fusion of image, sound, and performance, weaving in and apart from each other.  Watching it was a religious experience, in every good sense of the phrase.

Radio Silence

Hi there - sorry for being absent lately - am away from the computer in a land where internet access costs more than I'm willing to pay (or able to justify).  But will be back up and running in a week or so.  Meantime, please do sign up for the 'Beyond Cinema' film & spirituality event on 22nd and 23rd Jan in LA if you're able to be there.  (The 23rd is my birthday, so I'll be in a good mood.  A New Year bonus!) Take care, and keep in touch.

Beyond Cinema: Your Invitation to a Film & Spirit Event

Gaia

In just over three weeks some of us are getting together in LA to participate in a small festival of extraordinary films: You're invited, and we'd love to have you with us - please read on:

Beyond Cinema: Film and Spirit will be a night and a day of movies and meaning, featuring Tibetan Buddhists, New Zealand communitarians, Russian mystics, and Native American wisdom.   We'll have three local premieres, in-person appearances by the film-makers, and conversation to nourish the soul, provoke the mind, and encourage change.

The film-makers have produced, photographed, or directed movies as diverse and important as 'Hoop Dreams', 'City of Industry', and U2's 'Zoo-TV' concert film, and we think their personal projects are as thematically rich, beautifully mounted, and emotionally resonant.  Hosted by film critic,  writer, and failed Irish lounge singer Gareth Higgins, and theologian, musician, and renaissance man Barry Taylor, and open to a maximum of 40 people, Beyond Cinema aims to provide space to reimagine ourselves through reflecting on extraordinary films, and encountering other people passionate about film and spirituality.

When? Friday 22nd January, 7pm - 10pm; Saturday 23rd January, 10am-10pm. Where? 506 N Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. What? Screenings of the following movies:

This Way of Life (Dir. Thomas Burstyn, Barbara Sumner Burstyn; 84 mins): A New Zealand family live off the land, and seek to resist technological stresses, while being nurtured by the spirituality of nature.  Official Selection Berlin Film Festival, 2010.  We hope to be able to have a conversation with the directors during the Beyond Cinema event.

Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky (Dir. Dmitry Trakovsky; 90 mins): 24 year old Russian film maker Dmitry Trakovsky travels across Europe to search for traces of his spiritual mentor and near-namesake Andrei Tarkovsky.  Director will be present and participate in our conversation.

Gaia (Dir. Jason Lehel; 100 mins): A woman recovers from abuse on a Native American reservation.  Director, producer, and lead actor will be coming to the event and will do a Q&A.  Official Selection Toronto Film Festival, 2009.

Journey from Zanskar (Dir. Frederick Marx, 90 mins approx. work-in-progress screening): Tibetan Buddhist monks bring children on a treacherous journey to the schools where they will live for a decade.  We hope that film-maker Frederick Marx (producer of 'Hoop Dreams') may be able to join us for conversation.

Who? Anyone, from any faith background or none is welcome to sign up for an invitation to attend the event.  This is not a conventional film festival, nor are the screenings open to the general public.  We'll watch four feature length movies, facilitate some conversation, have Q&As with film-makers, and provide creative space for interaction with spiritual practices.  But no faith background will be assumed or expected.  We're deliberately aiming for a group of no more than 40 participants to enhance the opportunity for conversation; and we've invited the film-makers and others to participate in the whole event as fellow travellers with everyone who is attending.  We really do hope for the event to be a time of extraordinary cinema and conversation with a dynamic group of people.  We'd love you to be one of them.

How much? We're asking $99 for attendance at the whole gathering, including dinner on Saturday night (there are plenty of local places to eat lunch on Saturday); and $20 per session/film if you can't make it to the whole event.  (Session 1: Friday evening; Session 2: Saturday 10am-1pm; Session 3: Saturday 2-5pm; Session 4: Saturday 7-10pm)  We want to make the event accessible - so please feel free to pay less or more as your budget and desire to support the event and others like it allow.

Places are limited to 40 participants, so if you want to be there, please sign up as soon as possible using this link.  You can also contact us through the link if you have any questions.  For now, we hope you'll be able to join us.

Arthur's Easy to Like

The Feet of Rawiri Paratene

*Continuing my posts from the set of 'The Insatiable Moon', Auckland, New Zealand.

Rawiri (Ra) Paratene is one of the most respected New Zealand actors, known to international audiences as the angry grandfather Koro in 'Whale Rider'; it's been a privilege to watch him work on the set of 'The Insatiable Moon'.  Ra's been involved in the production before it was a script - reading the novel almost a decade ago, and approaching Mike Riddell for the rights.  Mike, being a clever and strategic fellow, suggested that they could make the film together; and I'm sure that periodically each of them looks at the work being done here and now, and thinks how strange and wonderful it all is that the film is finally happening.

Ra told me yesterday that as he read the novel, he really wanted Arthur to turn out to be what he says he is: the Second Son of God; one of the most attractive elements of Arthur's character is that 'he knows who he is.  It's real simple to him.'  One of the most appealing aspects of Ra's performance is how he slips into the role as if he was born to play it.  That's a cliche, of course; but hopefully I can be forgiven, and the cliche offset by the fact that the story of a homeless Maori man with schizophrenia who believes he's God's second son doesn't exactly fit a literary formula.  Ra says that 'part of me roots for people who don't fit in', and that  Arthur is 'a little guy in everyone else's eyes' (despite who he knows himself to be).

There are moments in the film when Ra makes Arthur's eyes sparkle in innocence, or when he rages against social injustice with the attitude of a mad prophet; he embodies this character in a way that I think will move audiences to the place where we become more sensitive to the pain of the world, without falling into unproductive, conscience-clearing sentimentality.  Ra's a gentle bloke, or at least he was when we talked; but the challenge of playing a gentle soul isn't easy: he put it succinctly, saying that 'To act the role, you have to find the innocence within.  There's an evil man and an innocent man in all of us; and it's as hard to play nice as Arthur as it is to be the arsehole grandfather in 'Whale Rider''

One thing Ra finds easier about this role is the frugal way of working - the low budget has forced everything to be done faster than usual; there's a community feel on set, and real pleasure to  be had in working with colleagues like Ian Mune and Sara Wiseman.  The budget is so low that Ra is even walking around without shoes - a decision taken to authenticate the soles of Arthur, and one that Ra wishes he'd made earlier, as it takes a bit of time to harden one's feet to the streets of Ponsonby (streets, by the way, that Ra declares he's enjoying getting to know; as am I - Ponsonby's a fascinating mix of gentrified, aspirational and economically challenged.  There is, as Arthur's dad might say, some potential here...

Ra's approaching the metaphysical, philosophical and spiritual resonances of 'The Insatiable Moon' from the perspective of respect for whatever meaningful tradition gets you through the day.  You don't have to be religious to enjoy this film (in fact, it might help if you're not): but if you're thinking about meaning and life and spirituality, you like the idea that love really does transcend everything else, and, like Ra, you root for people who don't fit in (who Paul Simon would call 'the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on'), most of all, if the notion that really knowing who you are is both a) impossible and b) something to be strived for, then Arthur may very well be the avatar you're looking for.  (BTW, thanks to the time difference here I'll see James Cameron's appropriation of that word tomorrow night - we'll record our 'Avatar' show asap...)

Meantime, we're at one of our last three locations today; Mick Innes, who I wrote about last week is doing his final scenes with us.  And then, three days to go...