#35 — Brick (Rian Johnson, 2006) Sometimes movies use dialogue to capture how we do talk, wallowing in the stammers, the pauses, the redundancies. False starts and restless thinking out loud intermingle, obscuring the exposition and banter while also lending … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Thirty-Five
#36 — Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006) A persuasive argument can be made that all movies–all fiction movies, anyway–are individual testimonies to the wonders of the imagination. Ideas are given form and motion, emotions are conveyed in bold, almost … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Thirty-Six
Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957). You probably don’t need me to tell you this is masterful. Kurosawa’s adaptation of Macbeth is raw, muscular, urgent. Revisioning it to accommodate samurai doesn’t deepen or otherwise change the story in any dramatic way. It really just winds up being a different way to tell it, letting the natural power of the story emerge. (Sometimes this sort of thing can get tripped up by its own trickiness, even when well done like the version of Richard III starring and partially orchestrated by Ian McKellen.) Toshiro Mifune brings exactly the right intensity to the … Continue reading A new-wave Hollywood where everybody’s good but not great
Now it seems that any indie-inclined band or performer that concocts a bright song around a clever hook can get massive exposure on a commercial for a hip automobile or a sleek Apple product. That wasn’t the case when I was in college. This was in part because the bands the filled the programming hours at our student-run radio station were still operating under the notion that during their songs into jingles was the pinnacle of selling out, but it was largely attributable to disinterest in connecting to youth culture through the cult hits that received little exposure apart from … Continue reading One for Friday: Concrete Blonde, “Carry Me Away”
#37 — Ratatouille (Brad Bird with Jan Pinkava, 2007) When a new feature is produced by the artisans at Pixar, praise usually follows. Even after all their triumphs, there are still those who feel obligated to couch the praise in … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Thirty-Seven
At it’s best, science fiction is all about ideas. Shrewd philosophical debates and trenchant social commentary are housed within fantastical tales of space travel and futurescapes. That’s harder to discern from the offerings in the multiplex, where the default approach … Continue reading I am a visitor here…I am not permanent
#38 — Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002) There is a contingent of film observers that met Gangs of New York with the perspective that Martin Scorsese’s professional narrative had eclipsed that of his films. Gangs wasn’t about the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Thirty-Eight
#39 — 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007) The city the characters move through is a bleached slate gray, as if all the color had been systematically drained from it. As if a cold, winter sky … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Thirty-Nine
Swing Vote (Joshua Michael Stern, 2008). Stern builds his soft political satire around the notion of a contentious U.S. presidential election coming down to one vote, an entirely ambivalent, freshly unemployed middle-aged scamp. That role, as it must, goes to Kevin Costner, who tries to find a new side to the die he’s been casting periodically ever since Bull Durham. It doesn’t work, in part because he can’t quite get a handle on how this guy’s charm should be balanced against his more problematic behavior. It’s mostly due to the tepid script, though. The raw material is there to tackle … Continue reading It’s just another movie, another song and dance
#40 — In the Bedroom (Todd Field, 2001) There is an argument. Between a man and a woman, a husband and wife. It is fueled by their grief, their lingering shock after a tragic loss in the family. They fight … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Forty
