Apocalypto

Mel Gibson

Action/adventure set among the Maya just before the invasion by the Spanish in 1519. Extremely violent film which felt like an attempt to depict a violent society rather than anything gratuitous. Told in three chapters...a traditional form which worked very well. The last chapter was a 45 minute harrowing chase sequence...a exciting as the last chapter of Aliens.

This was engaging and seemed like an honest attempt to give us a window into a world and a time which has been long forgotten. Nice job.

6

Uncertainty

Scott McGehee

Sweet little movie. A couple meet on the Brooklyn Bridge, split and go in two directions and we follow them as they live two separate stories...one a thriller, the other a domestic drama.

Neat idea...sort of like Sliding Doors. Very well acted, shot and edited. I found both stories engaging, liked the way the two actors shaded their characters differently and was intrigued to see how this guy was going to resolve the stories. A very nice indie film.

6

Red Riding

England

This was the first film in a trilogy about a serial killer in northern England who kidnapped, tortured and strangled little girls in the early 70's. We follow a young reporter who tries to uncover the truth of the story and runs into many, sometimes violent obstacles.

Bleak, gray, downbeat, violent, depressing, cynical...have I missed anything? Also true. I can't bring myself to watch any more of these. Just too ugly and I don't care how it all resolves.

5

War and Peace (parts 2&3)

Russia

Part 2 centered on the flowering of Natasha, her first ball, first love, first heartache. She was played by a stunning young actress who epitomized a tempestuous young Russian princess.

The ballroom sequence was the best directed I've ever seen. Sumptuous, moving...satisfying in every way.

Part 3 reenacted the Battle of Borodino in amazing detail with the proverbial cast of thousands. I don't think anything more spectacular has ever graced the screen.

This film is truly a masterwork...one of the great works of world cinema.

10

Mr Hulot's Holiday

Jacques Tati

This guy had an oddball schtick. He plays a bumbling naif who causes all sorts of problems for the people around him but is child-like enough to be found lovable and endearing by his victims. Not many of his gags made me laugh but some were a little amusing and I found myself as indulgent toward him as the characters on screen.

Only the French...

5

Winter Light

Sweden d/ Ingmar Bergman

Stark, austere to the point of self parody. This is what people think of when they think of Bergman...a minister wracked with doubt about his religious faith, viciously rejecting the only person who could offer hum succor, failing in his attempt to counsel a man who seems suicidal...and then the guy does blow his head off, so the minister has to go tell the guy's wife...who has 3 1/2 children. And it's cold, gray, snowing throughout.

What's the point? We'd all be better off ending it all. At least all our suffering/angst would be over...

5

S21

documentary

This was an attempt to bring to life the nightmare Cambodia suffered 1975-79. The focus was on a particular facility where people were brought, tortured and murdered...all for the same mysterious reasons people everywhere do these things. I suppose because they can.

The whole film was interviews and confrontations between guards and former prisoners who miraculously survived. Some of this would have been good but it didn't work for a whole film. An audience who didn't know this story already would have been unenlightened as to what this was all about. It would have seemed like yet another recital of personal atrocities.

Too bad. There's a helluva story here.

3

A Nous La Liberte

France

Delightful French comedy/satire/farce from 1931. Similar themes were picked up by Chaplin in his later piece Modern Times, which generated a plagiarism lawsuit.

This looked like it had been shot as a silent with voices dubbed in later. Nice production values. Lotsa fun to watch.

6

The White Dove

Czech

From 1960. This was a visually stunning treatment of an allegorical children's story. Brilliantly composed, edited and paced. Short at 68 minutes. Almost no dialogue in a way similar to The Red Balloon...and this worked as well.

Some of the symbolic imagery was a bit heavy-handed but didn't detract from the film. The only flaw to me was the use of some post-bebop in the middle which dated it badly. Insert some better music there and you'd have a true masterpiece.

Good stuff.

8

Alice in Wonderland

Johnny Depp d/ Tim Burton

Visually splendid treatment of this story. They used quite a bit of artistic license but that was fine with me since the story is designed to be fantastical anyway. A framing device was added that didn't help at all but it was short so didn't hurt too badly.

I found the film unengaging though. While it was fun watching all the neat stuff go by I didn't care at all about the fate of the characters or the resolution of the story (which, of course I knew).

This played as a grotesque which I thought was fine.

5

Anna Karenina

Vivian Leigh

British production from 1948. This was the perfect role for her...she was every inch the movie star...in elaborate costumes, sweeping through beautiful sets and bringing to life one of fiction's great characters. The Britishness of the production seemed odd at first...they could have retained the story and changed the names and still had a good film...but I quickly got used to it.

This was a legitimate treatment of Tolstoy's novel. The staging of the death scene was particularly effective. Nice work.

7

Looking for Eric

Ken Loach

Really bad. This guy has done some nice work in the past depicting life for the lower orders in Britain but this was an asinine concept, crudely executed. I thought it was a complete failure.

2

Avatar

James Cameron

This was my third time seeing this and its power and appeal were undiminished. This is a brilliant piece of work and seeing it again on the big screen in 3D was just as intense, awe-inspiring and moving as the first time.

I can't imagine a more satisfying cinematic experience.

10

Tokyo Story

Yasujiro Ozu

The crowning achievement by Japan's great master of the warp and woof of real life. Unpretentious, undramatic, subtle, sensitive, realistic, warm, tender, touching, insightful...all these describe what he presents us on the screen. Powerful emotional forces are driving events here but they are all subliminal, all hidden beneath a surface of polite congeniality.

The fate of the aging couple who come to realize that their life's effort, the raising of their four children...has been something of a failure...is agonizing for us to witness. In a final ironic turn their daughter-in-law turns out to be the only person in their family who is a decent, caring, loving person and she seems to be fated for a lonely, sad life.

"Life is disappointing, isn't it? Yes, it is."

One of the great works of world cinema.

10

The Art of the Steal

documentary

This told the story of the theft of the Barnes collection by the city of Philadelphia over a period of twenty years or so. The film was clearly on the side of the original trust but I thought the conflict somewhat more ambiguous. Barnes was an arrogant jerk who liked sticking his finger in the eye of the local satraps and continuing his will perpetuated this.

Besides he had been dead for fifty years and the issue of controlling human affairs long after one's death isn't necessarily a social good. On the other hand, the people who orchestrated this theft were jerks too...richies and their lackeys who wanted more...always more.

A pox on all their houses.

It didn't help my attitude that they were fighting about paintings that once were considered worthless, now are "worth" billions and one day will be seen as worthless again. We need to re-think the nature, purpose and value of art. Reducing it to a valuable commodity strikes me as asinine.

5

Fish Tank

England Kate Jarvis w/d Andrea Arnold

This one was a sleeper. We follow a trashy, foul-mouthed, angry 15 year old girl, all with a hand-held camera and ambient sound. I found myself irritated for the first hour but as the cause for her anger is subtly revealed to us the story becomes engaging...helped enormously by the skill of the players and the sensibility of the director.

It eventually slides into an engrossing drama and slowly comes to a resolution that works beautifully.

KJ, whose first acting turn this is, was stunning. Hers was an incredibly brave performance...she was in every scene...and she made the film work. Nice job.

7

War and Peace

Russia 1967 (part 1)

A truly stunning adaptation of Tolstoy's great novel. Incredibly lavish with the full resources of the Russian government behind the production. Battle scenes with thousands of costumed extras. Ballroom scenes, banquets, spectacular sets. At first I found it a bit too reverential, not engaging enough, but as the film unfolded I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the spectacle.

Watching this I felt like one of Tolstoy's peasants, staring in open-mouthed awe at the magnitude of this wonderful production.

Without doubt, one of the world's great films.

10

The Aura

Argentina Ricardo Darin

Nifty film. Our protagonist is a deluded taxidermist who suffers from epilepsy and imagines himself to be a criminal mastermind. Through some screenwriter contrivances he gets involved with some real-life criminals and gets to dabble in the real thing...with real consequences.

Mysterious and atmospheric throughout which made the film work. Almost blank, enigmatic performance by RD was off-putting at first but the sheer unknowability of the character held my interest all the way. Nice resolution. Was it all a daydream?

6

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence

Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne d/John Ford

One of the last gasps of studio Hollywood. If you were willing to surrender your critical judgement it was a lot of fun to watch. Many character actors from the 40's and 50's...including Andy Devine!

The story was fine...everybody overacted and the resolution tied it all up in a neat little bow. And Jimmy Stewart got to win the West for law and order and democracy. Oddly, for John Ford, most of the film was shot in a soundstage. Studio Westerns created their own, special reality...a place where chairs break over people's heads, folks thrown through glass windows don't get cut and a full roundhouse punch just makes the recipient rub his jaw for a second. They were fun but I'm not sorry they've passed.

5

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Jane Fonda, Gig Young d/Sidney Pollack

A devastating film. One of the rawest, most lacerating portraits of humanity in extremis ever put on film. Set in 1932 but applicable anytime resources become inadequate to provide for the population.

Very strong character development, brilliant direction and outstanding performances all around (special mention to Susannah York for her Harlow-to-meltdown turn). An unforgettable film that hasn't aged at all.

8

It Might Get Loud

documentary

Three guitarists...one rock, one punk, one post both of these...ruminate on their careers and celebrate themselves in a way that skirts uncomfortably close to Spinal Tap. The big surprise to me was that Jimmy Page, the big hair, tight pants god of Led Zeppelin seemed to be a nice guy.

The guy from U2 was an inarticulate, stone-faced mick who bragged about his inability to play his instrument when the band first burst on the scene. He has since learned and acquired a vast collection of electronic doodads.

Jack White was an embarrassing mess...a grown man with a silly hat and a bad haircut who played really obnoxious variations on 12-bar blues. His screeching "singing" could easily remove paint from walls.

The tone here was worshipful but it was close enough to parody to tickle me. And Stairway to Heaven is still a great song.

5

An Autumn Afternoon

Ozu

One of the last films from this master. Typically understated, this revolved around the decision of a widower to sacrifice his own well-being and marry off his 24 year old daughter. As always, the emotions of the characters are intense but subtly played...real-life happiness and misery are at stake here but it's all depicted under the surface.

All his usual techniques, actors and tropes are here and serve as a fitting summary of his oeuvre. He has been called the depictor of the Japanese soul...whether true or not he has left us a priceless body of work.

9

The Secret Life of Words

Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins

An outstanding film. An actors' showcase...both leads excel in an intense, understated drama of people with terrible secrets they are trying to forget. But there is no forgetting...there is the reality of remembering and somehow continuing on.

Beautifully acted and directed, with a fine sensitivity to the importance of letting the story breathe...moving around the oil rig, touching the supporting players just enough to let the main thread set in our minds...then returning for more revelations.

This is what I hope for when I pick up a small film. This is a jewel. I won't forget this one...ever.

8

The Matrix

Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne

It had been ten years since this was released and I was curious to see if it held up. It did. Easily. Great concept and while I thought a lot of the gunplay was over-the-top, the action raced along lickety-split and easily held me.

Nice use of CGI, especially the robot-monsters. I never did understand who the agents were though or what their capacities were...but it really didn't matter. KR was perfect as the blank-faced hero who seems bewildered throughout...not a stretch for this guy.

Lotsa fun.

6

Julia

Tilda Swinton

Tour de force performance By TS. Julia is a mess...a trashy alcoholic living in San Diego who hits upon a scheme to lurch herself out of debt and decrepitude. It's an extremely stupid one of course and things go wrong from the beginning.

This was a painful film to watch...it was obvious that this was going in one direction...but she was so compelling and believable (and TS a Scot no less!) that I felt compelled to watch the train wreck her life had become. From Orlando on she has compiled an impressive CV and now stands as one of the most skilled actors in world cinema.

7