2005: Year in Review

Luc Besson hadn't made a film in almost ten years, and then two came along in 2007: the lackluster kid film "Arthur and the Invisibles" and this gorgeous black-and-white entry in the "cinema du look" (ala' "Diva," and Besson's own "La Femme Nikita" and "Subway"). This film is a return to form - somewhat. The serio-comic neo-noir tale of a down on his luck grifter and his supermodel guardian angel (who saves him from suicide, among other things), Besson's film is above all great to look at, mixing in humor and violence with understated aplomb.

David Slade directs Brian Nelson's two-character study, a wicked psychological thriller. At the film's center is a game of sexually-related oneupsmanship, this time between a twisted young woman and the photographer (twice her age) she meets online and agrees to go home with after seeing each other face to face in a coffee bar. Ellen Page (previously unknown to me; she went on to star in Jason Reitman's "Juno," which was my favorite film of 2007) is brilliant as the disturbed (yet sympathetic) young lady who is convinced that this older man (Patrick Wilson of "Little Children") has molested young women in the past and that she is just the girl to turn the tables and punish him for it. The film teeters back and forth in perpetual ambiguity throughout as to whether he's guilty or not, and if so - of what? Well-filmed on a tiny budget, this could easily be done as a two-character play and would be just as mesmerizing on stage as it is, kinetically, on the silver screen. Disturbing and thought-provoking, skirting exploitation without ever diving right in, this is one of the most devisive and brilliant films of the year.

A shiftless loser of a film - about shiftless losers! The directorial debut of Training Day writer David Ayer is roughly as incompetent and unwatchable as its characters: a Gulf War vet (Christian Bale) with a dream of becoming law enforcement (in between bouts of getting high/drunk) and his friend (Six Feet Under's Freddy Rodriguez) who is sponging off his own successful girlfriend (Desperate Housewives' Eva Longoria). Bad performances abound amongst the talented cast, led by the usually reliable Bale, whose Latino accent is intermittent at best and practically non-existent at worst (it pops up largely when the character is high/drunk)! Bad, bad, bad movie...

Ramin Bahrani's portrait of a Pakistani push cart operator (and former rock star in his native land) in New York City is remarkable in the hypnotic way it observes the main character as he does his job, involving in the twists his life takes during the film's running time, and affecting in unexpected ways by employing a potential (though unrealized) romance with a lovely young Spanish woman who operates an adjacent cart (Leticia Dolera) and the adoption of a baby kitten. Ahmad Razvi is transfixing as the ordinary everyday character, and the best comparison I can make is to Italian neorealism such as UMBERTO D. and BICYCLE THIEVES. This is a very strong debut.

Writer-director Miranda july's whimsical, warm, odd but universally relatable ensemble romantic comedy is another in the growing sub-genre of what Amy Taubin in Film Comment called "hyperlink films." These are essentially the kinds of movies where fates are interlocked and characters who seemingly have a tenuous relation at best are shown to in fact be utterly inseparable - if only cosmically (think of the work of Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, but on a smaller scale). July stars as Christine Jesperson, an L.A. performance artist who is actively seeking a showcase for her mixed-media projects, which vibrate with loneliness, warm humor and, yes, whimsy. She drives an ElderCab and is taking a client shoe-shopping when she meets Richard (John Hawkes of TV's "Deadwood"), a father now separated from his wife. His two young sons venture into the world of Internet chat rooms and vaguely sexual advances, leading to the youngest finding someone who is oddly intrigued by his rather lude and perverse (if innocent) suggestion involving a normally non-sexual bodily function (taken in the context of a little boy who knows truly nothing of sex, this might seem like a plausible alternative for him). Meanwhile, two neighborhood high school girls attract some innocent if disgusting suggestions from Richard's co-worker (Brad William Henke). When they get one suggestion which leads to a debate about who would be better at such an endeavor, they go to Richard's older son to put their "abilities" to the test. And there's Sylvie, the odd little girl who is preparing an alarmingly full "dowry" for herself when she gets married (she's got to be about 8 to 10 years old!). Then there's the lonely woman who must decide whether to give July her art showcase and who has more to do with the plot than anyone might've thought. Not that this film has a "plot" per say; it's about me and you and everyone we know, you understand. This film has a fragile magic, a sense of wonder at the possibilities that come with any day in the modern world. The MPAA's assertion that the sexual content involving children is "disturbing" I think misses the point, as well as the reality of our times. It's not all disturbing, but sort of whimsical and innocent in its way. July's film is romantic, odd and sometimes funny, and it may make you feel more connected to the world around you than you thought possible. If you see yourself in these characters, that's a gift, and should be treasured.

Stuart Samuels' documentary is a kind-of fascinating examination of a unique segment of cinema history, how it has affected pop culture, and the impact it has had on movies today. In 1970, Alexandro Jodorowsky ("Santa Sangre") made a bloody, violent, controversial, surrealistic, visually stunning Mexican Spaghetti Western called "El Topo." When it arrived in America, "El Topo" (we learn) first played in midnight shows only. Soon, it was a cult hit, drawing in lines around the block. John Lennon and Yoko Ono loved it. Then, a man named Allen Klein (the Beatles manager) bought it at Lennon's urging and attempted to release it in a mainstream theater at all times of day before giving up - it flopped outside the midnight circuit. This first watershed success of a "midnight movie" became the cornerstone of cult cinema and a tradition that lives on today. In his documentary, writer-director Samuels investigates this phenomenon, and how it has affected the successful longevity of once-deplored and/or confusion-ridden passion projects such as George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), John Waters' "Pink Flamingos" (1972), Perry Henzell's "The Harder They Come" (1972), Jim Sharman and Richard O'Brien's "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975) and, ultimately, David Lynch's "Eraserhead" (1977). Through archival news footage, new interviews with the filmmakers, interviews with critics like Roger Ebert, J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum, as well as the various figures who affected (both positively and negatively) the impact these films had in their initial inceptions, Samuels' documentary gives an alternatingly fascinating and previously unseen look at a worldwide cinematic phenomena.

Roman Polanski's dark but splendid vision of Charles Dickens' classic novel is about as harrowing a "children's tale" as any sane person could imagine. Oliver (Barney Clark) is a young orphan of about age 10 who is sent (briefly) to the workhouse in the English countryside, is given away to a rather cruel shopkeeper and his wife, escapes and walks over 70 miles to London where he meets the Artful Dodger (Harry Eden), and is thrust into the middle of a group of young pickpockets being run by the exploitative but (comparatively) decent Fagin (Ben Kingsley), whose business is unfortunately entwined with the evil Bill Sykes (Jamie Foreman). Oliver has the chance at a good life after a misunderstanding with a kindly old man named Brownlow (Edward Hardwicke), but that doesn't last long. In Fagin's circle, there's even a kindly young prostitute named Nancy (Leanne Rowe), who has hair of crimson and a kind heart, and who will prove instrumental to Oliver's survival. Roman Polanksi ("The Pianist," "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown") is known for his dark tales of fates spiraling downward, often psychologically affected, as in the case of films like "The Tenant" and "Repulsion." He might not seem like the obvious choice for directing this beloved Dickens tale (which previously inspired a 60's musical by Carol Reed!), but the material is dark enough and Polanski, a Holocaust survivor as a child, is gritty enough to make this work, and surely he must have relied upon a questionable benefactor or two as a young orphan himself. London is presented here as a dirty, brutal place where you almost have to watch your own back, because nobody's going to watch it for you; indeed, this may seem even darker than the Dickens novel you'll recall. The cast, particularly Kingsley as the crusty old fence, is solid as a rock and the film is very well-made. A strong piece of work, and an overlooked gem.

John Hillcoat?s Australian western starred Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential, Memento) as one third of a troublesome fraternal gang in the 1800?s Outback, Ray Winstone as the police captain who has sworn to ?civilize this land? and Danny Huston (in a mesmerizingly frightening turn) as Arthur Burns, the brains of the clan who has escaped justice and whom Winstone orders Pearce to turn in in order to save his youngest brother from execution before Christmas Day. Emily Watson also shows up as the distressed wife of Winstone?s law enforcement official. This is a brutal, bloody, occasionally sardonically humorous but ultimately pitiless masterwork of period criminology. A morality play, a character study, a mood piece and a beautifully filmed action epic on a small scale, Nick Cave?s first screenplay (he was lead singer of The Bad Seeds; he also wrote the music) is no less than ingenious!

Isabel Coixet's sweet, funny, sad, odd little romantic drama is about a Yugoslavian factory worker (Sarah Polley) who volunteers to nurse a temporarily blind oil rig worker (Tim Robbins) back to health after a blindness-causing accident. The two leads are terrific, giving performances which pulse with tragedy and frailty, and Coixet ("Things I Never Told You," "My Life Without Me") crafts a wonderful improbable connection between them.

Noah Baumbach's bitter, dry, sardonically witty dramedy is a remarkably observant portrait of a family on the brink of self-implosion. In Brooklyn in 1986, Bernard Berkman (Jeff Daniels), once a somewhat successful published author now teaching literary classes to college students, is becoming attracted to his racy protege (Anna Paquin). Meanwhile, his wife Joan (Laura Linney), who has had multiple sexual affairs ("nothing serious"), is carrying on with the family tennis pro (William Baldwin) and attempting to become a published author herself. These two pseudo-intellectuals' marriage is on a collision course with an apocalypse of their own creation; so where does that leave their two children? They respond in different ways. The youngest is Frank (Owen Kline, son of Kevin) who is unprepared for the revelation that his parents' marriage has fallen apart and that he will be going back and forth between them "for a while;" he tends to favor his mother, and soon is swearing up a storm, drinking beer, and masturbating and spreading his semen all over school. Meanwhile, the oldest son, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg of "Roger Dodger"), is a high school student and would-be intellectual monster in the making, skewing toward his father's side of things: he asks his opinion about class-assigned books to decide whether or not to "waste his time" on them (turns out "A Tale of Two Cities" is "minor Dickens"); he tries to impress his sweet potential first girlfriend Sophie (Halley Feiffer) by regurgitating his dad's opinions on Kafka's "Metamorphosis" and when it turns out she's actually read it, he responds: "It's very Kafkaesque," to which she quickly fires back, "Well...it's by Franz Kafka. It has to be;" he lets his father dictate that he, Walt and Sophie should skip "Short Circuit" and see something else ("I hear 'Blue Velvet' is supposed to be quite interesting"); and even claims he wrote "Hey You" by Pink Floyd - only to be caught after winning the school talent competition. The film was written and directed by Noah Baumbach, the maker of "Kicking & Screaming" (1995; not the Will Farrell kids soccer one), a tale of literary college graduates who become slackers, and the co-writer of Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004). In the locations, art direction, cinematography, right down to the choice of music, Baumbach shows a sure hand at evoking a specific time, place and style of people while also paying astonishingly minute attention to the details of what divorce does to children and their parents; as a child of divorce, I could completely empathize and understand. The story, it may not shock you to discover then, is heavily autobiographical; Baumbach came from writing stock - his father was novelist Jonathan Baumbach and his mother was film critic Georgia Brown. The performances too are dead-on in their portrayal of the anger, sadness and confusion that must go on when a child is almost forced to favor one parent over another, yet must be ferried back and forth between them. This is a tough, honest, bitter and bruisingly funny look at a powder keg of a situation, and its explosion is often funny, insightful and memorable. One of the year's best films.



NOTE: At the Toronto Film Festival, the film premiered with an 88 minute running time, but was seemingly cut for theatrical and DVD release. The film was (deservedly) a 2005 Oscar nominee for Best Original Screenplay. Baumbach, meanwhile, has since gone on to write and direct "Margot at the Wedding" (2007) with Nicole Kidman as a similarly cold would-be intellectual writer.

Zero stars