Top 10 of 2005

Brilliant Movie, the goofyspook, burtonesque theme is a wonderful thing to dwelve into, especially in cozy evenings at home. A good successor of the three short movies by Ardman. Although I found Ralph Fiennes' voicework was a bit heartless. Go see it !

Nolan takes the campy comic book hero of Burton's movies (let alone those botched attempts in between) and transports Batman into the present, which is dense, bleak and not funny at all. Christian Bale again lets his infinite pool of anger and hatred ooze of the silverscreen and turns a franchise (just like Terminator) into the story of one man turning one-man-gang and vigilante. The prequel to the Batman setting nicely rounds up the character, deepening his inner drive and motivation, casting the much needed shadow of broodyness on the Dark Knight. Thus, both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight introduce the core philosophy of a vengeance seeking crusader into franchise, moral ambiguity, the question of right and wrong and the ultimate goal of justice. While Batman begins does not take these issues as far as The Dark Knight, is does a good job of making Batman a far more interesting character than in Burton's movies, playing off the man that is Bruce Wayne and the idea that is Batman off against each other nicely. Michael Caine adds a touch of class to the movie and his screen presence decorates the movie even further, despite his "small" role, which is not small at of course. Liam Neeson does a good job although he looks way to nice and cuddly to be truly menacing, and Nolan would have done better to cast an actor more capable of filling the role of the villain and of Wayne's nemesis. Cillian Murphy shows off his unique face and his faerielike beauty takes a turn for the eerie in his portrayal of Scarecrow. Katie Holmes is decoration, like most women in American mainstream cinema. It is a shame Elfman's theme did not make it back to the movie (at least not audible).

God stuff.

Lars von Trier is a master filmmaker, this can hardly be argued. Everything else aside, the way he uses the set and ligthning and directs his actors in Dogville and Manderlay is haunting and a feast for every film connoisseur.

Yet, the "stories" of his films vary so much you cannot talk about his oeuvre in total. Dogville and Manderlay differ from his Dogma movies and all of these again very much from his Swedish movies.

Manderlay explores another episode of American history/life, yet the focus dwindles between the fate of slaves in general and (which has always been Trier's prior interest), the question of good and bad, morals, decisions and fate.

While I very much enjoyed this movie, I think it is a questionable decision to make a movie that singular in likeliness and subjective in opinion, but yet make it all part of an triolgy called "America", which supposedly portraits aspect of American history. The movie is utterly anti-American or anti-West for that matter, anti-capitalism and anti-human in general, as there is not one "good" person in the movie.

Yet, one cannot deny that Trier's portrayal of humanity and humans is more realistic than many other. The division between good and bad, right and wrong cannot be made in reality and not a lot of moviemakers dare to speak out that truth in their movie and make each of their characters ambigious and ultimately human. The human nature is ambigious, paradox and neither good nor bad.

Of course, this makes the movie not easy to digest as it is both disturbing as well as shockingly truthful which might put people off that already surrendered to the simpleness of mainstream cinema.

A brilliant movie with an extraordinary cast except for a very disappointing Bryce Dallas Howard in the lead. The Anglo-African cast is very strong and intense, so is Danny Glover.

Highly Recommended !

What an extraordinary imaginative and well directed movie that was. The story is about a gang of boys, led by the somewhat off-beatish boy Dick who form a gang called the "Dandies", a secret society obsessed with classic marksmanship and honor codes. The movie adressess many issues on a very subtle and beautifully mellow level. The question of gun possession, how modern weaponry and warfare went over the top, especially in the context of youth politics. The movie has the quirkyness and love for its characters like a Wes Anderson movie, but also sports the brooding Post-America atmosphere of Lars von Trier and David Lynch movies. The cast is brilliant, from Pullman to Jamie Bell, so is the 60ies OST. I strongly recommend this movie to my friends here at Flixster, you will be surprised and raising your eyebrows at times but cannot help to be immersed, forced to rethink often and of course entertained by this work of art.

H.