Below are the ten best films I've seen this year. It wasn't a great year for movies, and it was, in some ways, difficult to come up with a list I could truly stand behind, but I'm happy with what is here.
A NOTE: I am not a paid critic, so I don't see everything. There are many films this year that were lauded critically which I missed, mostly due to a lack of interest on my part. These are the films I paid money to see, and enjoyed.
There are also a few films I missed, and won't have a chance to see before the new year, which I'm disappointed about. They include I AM LOVE and SCOTT PILGRIM, as well as a few others.
1.Carlos
Oliver Assayas' epic Carlos was shot in some 13 different countries in nearly as many languages, and film chronicles the life and career of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, AKA Carlos the Jackal, one of the world's most famous terrorists. This 3-part, 5 and a half hour epic covers several periods in Carlos' life, but focuses on his taking of the OPEC meeting in Vienna 1976. As portrayed by Edgar Ramírez, Carlos is a mesmerizing, arrogant, and charismatic brute. It is by far the most fun I have had in the cinema this year. Shot in grainy, penetrating digital video, Assayas has made a film which is a thrilling look at international terrorism at a time when it had barely stepped onto our shores. A major work from a major director. The film of the year.
2.Black Swan
Black Swan had the potential to be a dud. A psychological horror film centering on the dance world, the film just barely notices the line of good taste and subtlety before blasting beyond it. In anyone else's hands it would have been a disaster. Luckily, it was under the control of Darren Aronofsky, who has fully lived up to the incredible potential he showed with Pi and Requiem For a Dream. Natalie Portman is magnificent. Years from now, this will go down as a masterwork.
3.Winter's Bone
Winter's Bone is a tight and mesmerizing film noir that does incredible work detailing the inner workings of a ruthless world deep within the Ozarks. When 16 year old Rhee (the wonderful Jennifer Lawrence) finds out that her family will lose their house if her absentee crack-cooking father isn't found, she becomes junior detective and tries to hunt him down. What follows is by turns frustrating, complicated, chilling, and deeply revealing about the realities of poverty, while at the same time walking, magnificently, a thin line between film noir and kitchen sink realism. The result is incredible.
4.Mother
The influence of Alfred Hitchcock could be seen in at least 3 films this year, two of which made were made by famous directors (Scorsese's Shutter Island, Polanski's Ghost Writer), but South Korea's Bong Joon-ho's (The Host) story of murder and matriarchy is by far the best. A tightly controlled crackerjack of a film, Mother features an incredible lead performance (Kim Hye-ja as the title character), amazing cinematography, and truly powerful moments of guilt, violence, and finally some kind of sweet release. A must-see, especially for those interested in the rise of South Korean cinema all over the world.
5.Inception
As a follow up to 2008's The Dark Knight, there was a lot of anticipation for Inception, a heist film dealing in dreams, memory, fathers, sons, architecture, and the blissfully cinematic combination of skiing and shooting. Nolan has delivered a major work: a film that never rests on it's flash, and is effortlessly exciting, emotional and thought-provoking.
6. Life During Wartime
Life During Wartime is the least recent of the films on my list, but it's a testament to the film's power that it has stuck with me. A quasi-sequel to Solondz's Happiness, Life During Wartime explores the fractured state of relationships, grief, and, most powerfully, family bonds in the confusion of post 9/11 America. It's a deeply affecting ghost story with one the most haunting final shots in recent memory.
7. Tiny Furniture
Tiny Furniture is an oddity of a film that announces a major new talent: Lena Dunham, a mid 20's writer/director who choose to shoot a film in her own apartment in Tribeca starring her mother and sister as her mother and sister. It is probably one of the few films so far to deal honestly with the realities of post-collegiate life, exploring the anxieties, both personal and professional, being faced by a bright, young adult entering a economically and socially depressed world.
8.The Red Riding Trilogy,
The Red Riding Trilogy is indeed three films, but needs to be taken as one bruising, atmospheric experience. A series of fictionalized films detailing the real life story of the Yorkshire Ripper, who terrorized Nothern England for over a decade, Red Riding is as close to neo-noir as we can get. I walked out of the theater after six hours of cinema exhausted, tired, but ultimately exhilarated by the experience.
9.The Social Network
By now, David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's take on the founding of facebook has already won major awards, and for good reason. It is a tightly controlled, incredibly well crafted and acted film. The script is wonderful, and the score by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor is the score of the year. The Social Network breezes past it's reputation as 'the facebook movie' and becomes a fascinating examination of friendship, betrayal, and boasts one of the more interesting characters of the year (Eisenberg, in a remarkable performance as Zuckerberg). While I'm not sure this is the best film of the year, and nowhere near Fincher's crowning achievement (Zodiac), it's a great film, and deserving of it's reputation.
10.True Grit
True Grit is the most recent of the 2010 prestige films I've had a chance to see, but it made an impression, mostly due to it's fantastic characterization and writing, but also due to (always by the Coens) impeccable production design and cinematography (Richard Deakens, arguably one of the best in the business). A very strong and enjoyable western, one of the simplest films the Coens have made.
Notable mentions:
Exit Through the Gift Shop - Banksy's documentary is a great critique on modern art, and a great prank (maybe) of a film.
Enter the Void - a technical and provocative masterpiece, and one absolutely worth seeing, but marred by weak acting and scripting. Still, Gasper Noe remains one of cinema's most important voices.
Alles Anderen (Everyone Else) - Maren Ade's exploration of the break up of a young couple in Sardinia is European cinema at it's finest.
A Prophet - Jacques Audiard story of a young Muslim man rising through the ranks of a Corsican controlled French prison is epic and powerful.
The American - Anton Corbijn's follow up to his film Control is an atmospheric slow burn of a thriller. Clooney does some of his best 'anti-Clooney' work, and the final twenty minutes are as suspenseful as films get.
SPECIAL MENTION:
Police, Adjective - Police, Adjective came out the waning days of 2009, and I didn't see it until this year. As I didn't do a 2009 list, I wanted to give it a special mention here.
Romanian cinema (or the Romanian New Wave, as it is often called) is being recognized all over the world for it's human stories, simple aesthetic, and political/social relevance.
Police, Adjective is the best of the New Wave so far. A study of a police officer tailing a group of pot-smoking kids in a small Romanian town, Corneliu Poromboiu's film is a masterwork of language and pacing. The final, 15 minute scene (played out in one hardly moving shot) is a stunner. Had this been a 2010 release, it would have been my number 1.
12/21/10
12/4/10
Black Swan
Black Swan
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Venue: Regal Union Square Cinema. Digital Projection
In the list of filmmakers whose work I anticipate with every project, Darren Aronofsky figures high. His debut, Pi, is a mesmerizing, powerful piece of cinema. The follow-up, Requiem for a Dream, was a truly disturbing film. But since then, Aronofosky has yet to fulfill the promise of those two films. While I admired it's ambition, The Fountain suffered from a weak central performance, too short a running time, and a pretentious tone. The Wrestler amounted to very little in my opinion, save some great Aronofosky gore and a compelling (if somewhat overrated) performance from Mickey Rourke.
It was for these reasons that I approached Black Swan with some degree of trepidation. While it looked fascinating and compelling, I couldn't help but wonder if Aronofsky was able to pull it off. I'm happy to report that he does. Aronofsky's film is overblown, ridiculous, hypnotic, one of the best films of the year, and easily his best since Pi.
Black Swan is the story of Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a aging but still childish ballerina with the Lincoln Center ballet. A 4-year veteran, Nina has yet to have her big moment. This opportunity presents itself when aging star Beth Macintyre (Wynona Ryder, playing wonderfully against type) is forced to leave the company by artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel, effective and unlikeable). Leroy has decided to begin the season with a 're-imagining' of the classic Swan Lake, and is looking for a dance capable of playing both the innocent white swan, and her darker counterpart black swan. In what is one of the film's funnier moments, Nina convinces Thomas she is up to the role.
But there is something going on with Nina. The skin around her shoulders is blistering. She is seeing herself everywhere, including in the company's newest dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis, doing great work), who is the opposite of Nina in every way. Her mother seems unwilling to allow her a social life, and there are mentions of self- mutilation and cutting. When all of this comes to a forefront, Nina begins to change.
Thematically and storywise, Aronofsky isn't breaking any new ground. We've seen this before, and if we know the story of Swan Lake, it's very clear where this is going. It's the approach and vision that make this film such a show stopper. Aronofsky's character's are always ones of great ambition, and they are always a reflection of him. He isn't afraid to pull out all the stops in order to achieve what he wants. This is fully on display in Swan, which is a technical masterpiece. The cinematography, sound, and production design are incredible. Every inch of this film is realized, and corresponds to Aronofsky's vision. It is one of the most vividly directed films of the year. At times, it goes too far with it's surrealistic touches and horror (in addition to being one of the best films this year, it's also one of the least subtle. It is a credit to the entire team that this lack of subtlety doesn't ruin the film), but it is this kind of balls to the wall, unhinged filmmaking that we rarely seen anymore. There are moments that take us back to the films of Bergman, and of David Lynch as well. It is an impressive achievement, technically and artistically.
None of this would be possible without good performances, and here is where we come to Natalie Portman, who absolutely owns this film (she is rarely not on screen). It is a large, expressive performance that runs across the spectrum, but is most effective in it's few quieter moments (a early on phone conversation in a bathroom stall is moving and beautiful). Able support is provided by Cassel, Kunis, and Barbara Hershey, as Nina's mother.
Black Swan is an incredible work, a film of such passion and force that occasionally it's unclear what response it wants from us, but I can't find fault with it for that. Aronofsky has absolutely pushed his ideas and vision to the limit, and it's a breathtaking thing to see.
4/4
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Venue: Regal Union Square Cinema. Digital Projection
In the list of filmmakers whose work I anticipate with every project, Darren Aronofsky figures high. His debut, Pi, is a mesmerizing, powerful piece of cinema. The follow-up, Requiem for a Dream, was a truly disturbing film. But since then, Aronofosky has yet to fulfill the promise of those two films. While I admired it's ambition, The Fountain suffered from a weak central performance, too short a running time, and a pretentious tone. The Wrestler amounted to very little in my opinion, save some great Aronofosky gore and a compelling (if somewhat overrated) performance from Mickey Rourke.
It was for these reasons that I approached Black Swan with some degree of trepidation. While it looked fascinating and compelling, I couldn't help but wonder if Aronofsky was able to pull it off. I'm happy to report that he does. Aronofsky's film is overblown, ridiculous, hypnotic, one of the best films of the year, and easily his best since Pi.
Black Swan is the story of Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a aging but still childish ballerina with the Lincoln Center ballet. A 4-year veteran, Nina has yet to have her big moment. This opportunity presents itself when aging star Beth Macintyre (Wynona Ryder, playing wonderfully against type) is forced to leave the company by artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel, effective and unlikeable). Leroy has decided to begin the season with a 're-imagining' of the classic Swan Lake, and is looking for a dance capable of playing both the innocent white swan, and her darker counterpart black swan. In what is one of the film's funnier moments, Nina convinces Thomas she is up to the role.
But there is something going on with Nina. The skin around her shoulders is blistering. She is seeing herself everywhere, including in the company's newest dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis, doing great work), who is the opposite of Nina in every way. Her mother seems unwilling to allow her a social life, and there are mentions of self- mutilation and cutting. When all of this comes to a forefront, Nina begins to change.
Thematically and storywise, Aronofsky isn't breaking any new ground. We've seen this before, and if we know the story of Swan Lake, it's very clear where this is going. It's the approach and vision that make this film such a show stopper. Aronofsky's character's are always ones of great ambition, and they are always a reflection of him. He isn't afraid to pull out all the stops in order to achieve what he wants. This is fully on display in Swan, which is a technical masterpiece. The cinematography, sound, and production design are incredible. Every inch of this film is realized, and corresponds to Aronofsky's vision. It is one of the most vividly directed films of the year. At times, it goes too far with it's surrealistic touches and horror (in addition to being one of the best films this year, it's also one of the least subtle. It is a credit to the entire team that this lack of subtlety doesn't ruin the film), but it is this kind of balls to the wall, unhinged filmmaking that we rarely seen anymore. There are moments that take us back to the films of Bergman, and of David Lynch as well. It is an impressive achievement, technically and artistically.
None of this would be possible without good performances, and here is where we come to Natalie Portman, who absolutely owns this film (she is rarely not on screen). It is a large, expressive performance that runs across the spectrum, but is most effective in it's few quieter moments (a early on phone conversation in a bathroom stall is moving and beautiful). Able support is provided by Cassel, Kunis, and Barbara Hershey, as Nina's mother.
Black Swan is an incredible work, a film of such passion and force that occasionally it's unclear what response it wants from us, but I can't find fault with it for that. Aronofsky has absolutely pushed his ideas and vision to the limit, and it's a breathtaking thing to see.
4/4
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