As we reach the end of my salute to the achievements of 2009 here are my top films. I have been lucky, of the 42 times I went to the cinema I only consider 6 outright failures, and none of the films were so dreadful they had nothing to recommend them. That doesn't make the compilation of a top ten list any easier, in fact the overall quality has meant that many films which were very good ended up being left out. All but the top 3 could easily have been displaced by the dozen other contenders.
I won't be giving any commentary to list, not even a brief sentence, but please note that I have chosen these films because they moved me, gave me pure unadulterated pleasure or just led to more conversation than any of the other films I saw (number 10 for instance has led to 4 different viewings with deep discussions about the outcome).
1. Where the Wild Things Are
2009. Dir: Spike Jonze. Starring: Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara and Lauren Ambrose. My Review
2. Maria Larsson's Everlasting Moments
2008. Dir: Jan Troell. Starring: Maria Heiskanen, Mikhail Persbrandt, Jesper Christensen, Emil Jensen and Ghita Nørby. My Review
3. Che Part 2
2008. Dir: Steven Soderbergh. Starring Benicio Del Toro, Franka Potenta, Joaquim de Almeida, Demián Bichir and Lou Diamond Phillips. My Review
4. A Serious Man
2009. Dir: Ethan and Joel Coen. Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick and Aaron Wolff. My Review
5. Away We Go
2009. Dir: Sam Mendes. Starring: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Carmen Ejogo, Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels. My Review
6. Milk
2008. Dir: Gus van Sant. Starring: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna and James Franco. Not Reviewed.
7. Antichrist
2009. Dir: Lars von Trier. Starring: Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. My Review
8. Avatar
2009. Dir: James Cameron. Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez. My Review
9. Drag me to Hell
2009. Dir: Sam Raimi. Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao and David Paymer. My Review
10. Doubt
2008. Dir: John Patrick Shanley. Starring: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis and Joseph Foster. My Review
Thursday, 31 December 2009
2009 in Review - Best Film
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
2009 in Review - Best Actor
Compared to the last three days the Best Actor category is by far the starriest group with a couple of massively popular performers, but it still has it's fair share of wtf selections so I'm looking forward to hearing comments on this. Tee hee.
1. Benicio Del Toro - Che Part 1 and 2. There are few biopics where the actor so inhabits the person that we can't see the affectations and walls the actor has copied off the original. As far as I'm concerned Del Toro is Che Guevera.
2. Russell Crowe - State of Play. This superior thriller may not be the sort of film you would imagine as an acting showcase, but in casting Crowe as the archetypal news hound they managed to make it one. Everything he does is natural and built around an solid believeable characterisation.
3. Max Records - Where the Wild Things Are. Few child actors can make me sit up and notice their performance, often they come across as mannered or "stage schooly". As the one real wild thing in the movie Records was equally impressive when having a temper tantrum as when feeling isolated in his fantasy island.
4. Willem Dafoe - Antichrist. The He in Lars von Trier's nightmarish vision was a tough role for anyone to take on, both loving yet arrogant and mentally abusive, the performance had to be perfectly balanced to prevent it from going over the edge. Dafoe managed that and with Charlotte Gainsborough salvaged the humanity in the film.
5. Sean Penn - Milk. It's a tough choice for number 5, with both Penn and Mickey Rourke fighting for it. In the end I had to decide which performance spoke to me more, and Harvey Milk recruited me.
Friday, 23 January 2009
Out this Week (23/01/2009)
An embarrasment of riches this week with three films nominated for Academy Awards yesterday, and a Tom Cruise film. Not to mention the highly praised Van Damme film. All the nominated films tie with 8 points, but if I had to choose it would be Rachel Getting Married, as it comes highly recommended by people I actually trust out there.
Better Things
Things are tough for the kids growing up in Middle England. A sort of Kidulthood set in the country. My Dad lives in the Cotswolds, I'm not sure he's safe now.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Frost/Nixon
Intriguing chronicle of the infamous Richard Nixon interviews by David Frost in the late Seventies. Adapted from a play. Received a best picture nom.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●○○
JCVD
Jean-Claude Van Damme plays an alternative version of himself in this meta thriller where not only is he losing all the good roles but he's holed up in a bank robbery but expected to act like a hero.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Milk
Biopic of the first openly gay man elected to office in the U.S., although I for one have absolutely no idea what a "supervisor" is. One to see with a group of gay friends (I'm going tomorrow).
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●○○
Raaz: The Mystery Continues
Bollywood mystery film. Deals with the evils within the human psyche by presenting age old myths in modern settings.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Rachel Getting Married
Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is getting married, sister (Anne Hathaway) returns from rehab to spoil everything. Many home truths are said and skeletons slip out of the closets in this fine drama from Jonathon Demme.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●○○
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
The third installment in the "UNDERWORLD" trilogy is a prequel that traces the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires known as Death Dealers and their onetime slaves, the Lycans. Does anyone need to see this?
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Valkyrie
Tom Cruise wants to kill Hitler, with a school of British phesps backing him up. Expect thrills, spills and ACTING.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Trailers - Milk
The latest trailer to come out (pun not completely intentional) is for Van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic. I first heard it was released during lunchtime in the office - I can use the internet but not stream files - so I was able to read comments by the editors and users of some websites that I respect and enjoy such as The Film Experience, Awards daily and In contention without being able to actually see the trailer until I came home.
The praise has been deafening - all over the blogosphere people are declaring love for this trailer, and advising Gus Van Sant, Sean Penn and Josh Brolin to prepare their Oscar acceptance speeches. I'm not so sure.
I know Milk has everything going for it: big name actors in tragic true story, critically beloved director with a mainstream film, Academy guilt over Brokeback Mountain/Crash. I will even admit my interest, which was already there, has increased a little. In that way the trailer must be working.
However there is little here to say it's going to win gongs later in the year, in fact much of the trailer seemed to be edited as much like a thriller as a biopic with the steadily quickening cuts and the muscial breaks hitting with the death threats. Maybe I'm wrong - feel free to berate me in the comments.
