DECADE IN REVIEW: THE 50 MOST INFLUENTIAL MOVIES OF THE 2000’S


Pouring into molds of different sizes and shapes, movies are as flexible as liquid and as potent as a well-shaken cocktail. It would be hard to find any other form of artistically expressive force that consistently matches up with the versatility of film. These motion pictures are reliably volatile, yet effective and poignant enough to influence the opinions of many, operating on a magnitude of dizzying scope equal only to the vast intricacies found in everyday life. Buried away are the hidden snapshots of contemporary and past societies. Cinema draws them from the rubble, attaching creatively drawn tales that gravitate towards our magnetic need to find pleasure through vicarious alternatives; hence nostalgia is born from the escape of the everyday

Much like a barometer or any other useful tool that measures the landscape to identify signs of trouble or concern, film holds the ability to form revolutionary ideals because it is anchored by a socially conscious nature. All great forms of art possess this quality. Sometimes one film has enough energy to agitate the surging tide of traditional values into a controversial frenzy. Whatever outcome befalls this new school of thought makes no difference in the grand scheme of things because the act of introduction is enough for the hatching of change. But the power of cinema comes from knowing that even though it can be very persuasive on social issues, the majority of films produced are not created specifically for anything other than good entertainment. Because movies exist in a yin and yang world of paradox, a greater sense of omnipotence should be understood, for it is a form like no other, admired in its motion of poetry and revered for its virtues.

Only art can measure the current conditions of society, recording shifts that we ourselves cannot see while mired in the moving current and unable to disembark and view from firm ground. Great art records all of the beauty and ugliness without bias to present the unclouded truth. Film is the quickest, most direct path that such echoes are conveyed; the unshakable afternoon shadow that mirrors our every move.

Technology

Much has occurred over the past decade but if one key aspect stands out from everything else it would have to be the defining influence felt from major strides in technology. For a movement that can be traced to its infancy of the 1970’s, where miniature models, not computers, provided the entire gamut of special effects in Star Wars, so much has changed. The golden age of computers enabled many great minds throughout the subsequent decade to discover possibilities much in the way a laboratory serves the needs of experimentation through trial and error, successes and failures. And so it comes as no surprise to anyone that the 1980’s stand alone as a period stumbling upon a force of power not entirely understood or reliably harnessed.

To sit down and view the special effects of the 1980’s is comedic when compared to where we are today, and though the experience is an excruciating ordeal of dental visit capacity, it lets you see the transitions. Films like Ghostbusters and Young Sherlock Holmes are the indicative infant stages when computer whizzes began impacting the industry. The first Terminator was a great deal better and it is no surprise that James Cameron was involved in quality work almost 30 years ago; always at the forefront of tight special effects, almost exceeding the limitations of computers and setting the bar very high for all the rest. In the early 90’s, Terminator 2’s release was groundbreaking in its visual shock value, dinosaurs came back from the dead in Jurassic Park, and by the end of that decade The Matrix dropped jaws everywhere. There are many examples of the special effects torch passing, from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, to the animated Pixar gems, fittingly ending up with James Cameron in his passion project that took over 10 years to make, Avatar.

Clearly, technology has caught up with imagination and stepped across an imaginary line. We have entered a new era of refinement, distracting viewers so well, in fact, that the discernable gap to identify the fake from the real becomes practically impossible, much like the illusory slight of hand found in magic shows. Unfortunately, the industry has many levels of movie makers, some who have not entirely understood, even though hope still remains, that simply possessing the aforementioned sophistications does not merit a complete disregard over taste, nor should it allow for the proprieties of balance to tip so far out of whack. Their seesaw slams down toward special effects, and they never want to kick it back up. Nowadays, CGI over usage is rampant, wherein the importance of plot, strong character development and tact are being discarded for all the bells and whistles, and there resides the conundrum. We get it, you can make the screen come alive and animate just about anything, just please respect the essentials. It is ironic to consider how the decade that finally mastered special effects and enhance the movie experience also offered many works degenerating the backbone of quality storytelling, which is truly what has been relied upon most of all. In its most enjoyable form, the seesaw, creaking in the late afternoon sun, suspends both children in the air; beauty is found in balance.

Global Shifts

The proliferated growth of the worldwide film making industry has become an indicative symbol of creative ripeness which can be seen through an eclectic batch of high end films from all over. It could be said that in as short a period of time as, say, ten years ago, it would have been acceptable to scoff the majority of foreign imports as nothing more than precocious and overzealous fodder. Maybe a certain weight of truth in that capacity cannot be overlooked but times have changed and it is becoming much harder to fling stones that shatter and dent their value as anything less than equally relevant in the overall scheme. Admittedly, the occasional viewer, faced with an American cornucopia of works at their disposal, would most definitely decide that looking on the other side of the fence is pointless. Their needs are met.
Coming as an altogether more jarring surprise, in fact, is what occurs when you investigate and find how that very same maxim seeps into the subconscious of the larger social demographic best described as avid filmgoers, which most of us are considered to be. The shock comes when you realize that the majority of this diversified group, with all of its culturally sophisticated levels as an audience, remains particularly happy with the limited selection they have been force fed for years. Go ahead, move in for a closer inspection, you will have trouble locating an ounce of frustration among them. Even the occasional film nerd, all hopped up on chai lattes at the local Starbucks, smugly waxing poetic about the brilliance of Martin Scorcese, often hasn’t even heard of someone like Pedro Almodovar, and that is a shame. This is a precarious state of affairs; a precarious walk within a dark and narrow tunnel.

The diverse nature and sheer number of movies released within a decade makes compiling a short list an unenviable task, but perhaps such is the dilemma when electing 50 from a pool of thousands. There are no numbers or rankings because to say one is better than the other would be a futile attempt like comparing a dessert and an entrée. They are not equals. Most paramount to consider on what goes or what stays comes down to originality and innovation, two aspects in movies that are scarcely met on a consistent basis. As movie lovers, we are bombarded with scores of productions that offer up a cheap thrill or two and, yes, they served to fill up the empty void, but most efforts are passable and mildly entertaining at best, providing nothing to really savor. So we wait as the clock arms whizz around in hopes of being jolted back to life by the unexpected. Sometimes great movies are recommended to us. Sometimes we stumble blindly into them and the feeling is euphoric, very much like discovering a twenty dollar bill in your laundry. Events like these do not take place everyday and they shouldn’t because then we’d all be adrift, blowing around in the breeze throughout an infinitely vast wasteland of jaded proportions.
Now it is time for dealings of business. Here are your top 50 movies from 2000-2009, listed in the year of their respective releases:


2000:


American Psycho

Director: Mary Harron
Starring: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Reese Witherspoon & Jared Leto

Based on the controversial novel by Brett Easton Ellis and set amidst the decadence of the late 1980’s New York “me generation”, American Psycho revolves around the life of Patrick Bateman. He is one of the fortunate few, a member of an elite and wealthy group of society that has all the advantages and options that anyone could ever want. But it is a complex and stressful world where Bateman, like the rest of those in his social circle, finds a desperate need to both fit in and also stand out as an individual.

Measuring himself against others, our protagonist does his absolute best to be seen at the hottest restaurants in town and come up with the niftiest new business card; stressors which often send Bateman into panic stricken moments of cold sweat when he realizes there is always someone who does it better. However, he has such a unique and intriguing depth that comes forth, from his ability to evoke laughter during classic scenes where he shows his love for Huey Lewis, to his diatribes of male sensitivity when he emphasizes traditional moral values, to providing internal soliloquies of dark and disturbing inner turmoil.
Gripping in its representation of the generic and hollow society he traverses, Bateman symbolically acts as the only character of any notable substance, but the only way he achieves this is by deviating into the homicidal, blood thirsty, and psychotic primal force that dwells under his outward façade of culture, intelligence and charm. This is a rare film, where not everything is what it seems to be and the reality is found among the ambiguous surface both between and far outside the lines. Bale’s finest performance to date is also what made him a star.


Gladiator

Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Russel Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielson & Djimon Hounsou
Awards: Won Oscars for best picture and best actor

Fueled by testosterone, this bloody epic centers on the barbaric backdrop of the Roman Empire, where cannibalistic exchanges of power are assuaged only by the self sacrificing individuals pledging loyalty to the idyllic honor of civilized society. In the modern world, the mob loves this type of story. Give them an epoch in ancient history with a tale of bold characters, swords, violence and a hero that seeks revenge and they will love you for it. Give them unforgettable lines like “death and honor” and “shadows and dust” spoken by the honorable and righteous and brave. If you can do all that and pit them against insidious villains whose cups runneth over in a lust for power and their own immortality, then you control the mob. Crowe and Phoenix give spectacular performances, playing off of each other with more than enough convincing hatred and clenched teeth to leave you wanting more of the coliseum and more of the glory of Rome.


Snatch

Writer/Director: Guy Ritchie
Starring: Jason Statham, Benicio Del Toro & Brad Pitt

Guy Ritchie’s long awaited follow-up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, is a playful and irreverent gangster comedy where two low level boxing promoters, Turkish (Jason Statham), and his mate, Tommy, get into a sticky situation with big time crime boss, Brick Top. When their boxer is given a thumping by a knuckle brawling, gibberish talking ‘pikey’, named Mickey (Brad Pitt), they change their plans and enlist him to throw their fixed fight instead. At the same time, a stolen diamond the size of a baby’s fist is carried into London by Frankie Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro), who is on his way to New York after a quick stop along the way for action in the likes of gambling. While Turkish and Tommy do their best to survive the dangerous web of Brick Top and the volatility of Mickey, an overall mayhem ensues when every hapless thief, bookie, crime boss, and fence try to snag the diamond.
What sets Ritchie apart from everyone else is his ability to take the stereotypical British personae – the cups of tea, the prim and proper rigidness – and pull out the dirty insides. What this becomes is a stylistic metamorphosis of brash, grimy, in your face, crime capers with a unique surface that is captured on the spinning reel. As the creator of the thinking man’s action movie, Ritchie’s films make you want to be in the middle of it all, raising hell alongside these criminals because being bad never looked like so much fun.


Almost Famous

Director: Cameron Crowe.
Starring: Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Billy Crudup & Frances McDormand
Awards: Oscar - Best Original screenplay

William Miller, a young teenage boy writing a story for Rolling Stone magazine falls in love with music, a band, and a groupie named Penny Lane, as he hits the road and tours the country while getting an education well beyond his years. In this nostalgic look back to the days of early 70’s rock and roll there resides a genuine appeal in the honesty and innocence, found in every moment of dialogue and music that rains down throughout. Along every step of the way there is a rhythmic and rooted attachment that binds everyone, stitching them together as friends that understand the buzz of how it feels to love music more than anything, sometimes even more than yourself, and it is okay to get caught up in those moments.
Kate Hudson, as Penny Lane, couldn’t have been more charming in this film, serving as part muse and part first crush. She almost stands out like the essence of something greater being conveyed, by lending an angelic, floating benevolence that captures us in a paralyzed and smitten transcendence that warms the soul, almost like your first crush or the first time you discovered something you love.
Almost Famous is easily Hudson’s finest effort, either before or since, but this could also be the best film about the pureness of heart found at the core of rock and roll.


Meet the Parents

Director: Jay Roach
Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert DeNiro, Teri Polo & Owen Wilson

It’s safe to say that everyone has seen this classic comedy and each of us has our favorite parts. As Greg “Gaylord” Focker accompanies his sweetie, Pam, to Long Island for the marriage of her sister, his weekend meeting with the in-laws starts out promising and carefree. Intent on making a good impression, Greg meets her over-bearing CIA agent father and spends most of his time throughout the Murphy’s law weekend from hell trying to live up to Jack’s standards. If everything were to go smoothly for Greg then there wouldn’t be much to discuss with this film, but nothing does, and as each scene plunges him into deeper ridicule with the members of his plausible new family, it becomes more hysterical.
As the male nurse tries to find comfort and get everyone to like him, he is besieged by a father who straps him down to a lie detector test, emasculated from in-law doctors who mock his choice of career, and plagued by Pam’s ex-boyfriend with seemingly unlimited talent for earning money, relishing in the sexual pleasures he enjoyed with Gaylord’s girl, and crafting altars with his bare hands. Greg’s girlfriend isn’t exactly the best tour guide to aid his precarious navigation through the multitude of booby traps and surprises involving her dysfunctional family. While being subjected to the insanity of Jack, a man who worships a multi-talented toilet flushing cat name Jinxie, Greg is equally punished by the creations of his own volition as seen when he references his talents for milking cats or smacking the nose of the wife to be with an overzealous spike in pool volleyball. While the humiliating weekend never seems to end for the hapless Focker, where each bumbled opportunity for righting the ship creates uncontrollable laughter, his torture is our gain and also the biggest reason why this film, overflowing with genius writing and performances, has become so revered.
As the most iconic actor of the past 35 years, DeNiro wisely returned to a formula that he is not often known for but has found wide success doing. Much like his partnership with Billy Crystal in the mob spoof, Analyze This, DeNiro once again shines by drumming up playful self parodies directed at his serious, more renowned, roles of the past. To his own credit, Stiller has had a great run of successful films during this decade and he deserves to be recognized as one of the elite creative comedians in Hollywood today, but all the momentum of his fame can be traced back to one source – his on the money performances in this much beloved film.


O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Written by Ethan Coen, directed by Joel Coen
Starring: George Clooney, John Goodman, John Torturro & Holly Hunter

Set in the sweeping panorama of America’s southland, this great film follows three criminals who escape from their prison road work detail in hopes of seeking treasure and happiness. Everett, Pete and Delmar forge ahead on an epic journey while they are chased relentlessly by the lawmen pursuing them in this remake of Homer’s Odyssey, where losing their way becomes the only direction to righting their path. The treasure they seek isn’t necessarily what they will find, especially when their judgments of highest value are deemed by the compass in their hearts.
Most impressive is how the Coen brothers installed a contemporary spin on an ancient tale, but wisely stayed loyal to the spirit of the original text. There is an obvious reverence to the spirit and surroundings of the south that resonates from the clever blend of scenic film work and soundtrack that meanders in and out of the plot, evoking a harmonized, even Zen-like guidebook for the senses. Joel and Ethan Coen are true masters of their craft, most resolutely evidenced by the many facets that refract and sparkle from this cinematic gem.


The Perfect Storm

Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Starring: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane & John C. Reilly

Sometimes we are greeted by stories about people with heavy hearts who bravely move forward amidst tough odds and the dilemmas of normal everyday life. Enter, Billy Tyne, a commercial fishing boat captain who was once great but has since fallen on leaner times, searching for another chance to reverse his fortune. After a run of bad luck in his outings and barely being back in port he opts for one last shot before the season ends, knowing full well of the risks involved with the treacherous October weather. Clearly, being on land offers nothing for him; the ocean is his lady and it is her salty, wind swept kiss that he craves the most. So with that, the brotherhood of captain and rowdy crew make a go of it and head back out, leaving family and friends behind but facing worries of yet another failure.
Serving more as a salute to these men who embody the power of the ocean, the story has nothing to do with the storm at all; it is irrelevant that fate is sometimes unfair to those that deserve a better outcome. For the crew of The Andrea Gail it isn’t how they met their end but more about how they lived. As the events unfold and the storm makes everything come undone, we all wish these brave souls can make it through because in our hearts that is how it should have been.


2001:


Donnie Darko

Director: Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze, Drew Barrymore & Noah Wyle

Donnie Darko cheats death when a plane engine slams into the roof of his home and crashes down on his bedroom, but luckily he was out roaming the streets at night when it happened. Unphased and practically laughing in the face of the near death experience, Darko resumes his teenage life; however, the young man has all sorts of issues to contend with, one of which being the six foot bunny named Frank who often visits him in the middle of the night and warns the end of the world is coming in 28 days. Though vexed by the frequent encounters and the mysteries his new friend represents, Donnie keeps up appearances with school and family, where he is anything but apprehensive, and almost cocky, exuding a darkly lit sardonic gaze as if signaling that he knows all the secrets.
Donnie is not challenged by any of the normal routine, be it the stress of school, evading pesky bullies, or the shrink he often visits for pills and therapeutic hypnosis. He is only challenged by Frank during their sporadic interactions, and when Frank tells Donnie to do something he does it, quickly carrying out a series of law breaking missions throughout the small community. Donnie floods the school and wreaks havoc on the local self help guru everyone in town seems to be so in love with by mocking the man during a school assembly and burning his house to the ground. As if possessed, Donnie seems to enjoy the destruction he creates and you get the sense that he couldn’t care less about anyone catching on to his mischief, but how could they? The entire suburban town is a community of people who walk around half asleep and peer through rose colored lenses of blissful ignorance. Ultimately, perhaps the toughest riddle the viewer must face comes from deciding with any firm affirmation whether Darko is in fact all there because his sightings of Frank could essentially be the confessions of a schizophrenic madman lost within the nightmare of his own mind. As he becomes obsessed with the fact that he is doomed to die alone, Darko remains loyal to unlock the answers of time travel after locating a book on the subject. While he investigates the theoretical possibilities, Donnie looks for answers from his science teacher, but just as he seems to approach an enlightened comprehension, he is turned away and must seek out the town’s most famous crazy person, Grandma Death, an old bat of a woman who wrote the book years ago. As Donnie gets closer to the truth, his 28 days come racing to an end finding the true love of his life in jeopardy and the identity of Frank becomes revealed.
If you think you don’t know what’s going on in the middle of this film, just wait until the end, for then you will really have no idea what’s going on. All sorts of dilemmas arise from this mystical journey set along a suburban backdrop that sways in slow motion to 80’s music and misguided beliefs. Whether everything is a dream, alternate vortex, or paradoxical time loop remains up for debate as the last five minutes of this excellent film will surely stop you in your tracks and keep you talking for days. Pieced together by the carefully layered mysteries of time travel, multiple dimensions and insanity, Donnie Darko is the existential nomad seeking the truth about science, fate and death in an allegorical landscape that captures the essence of a boy tumbling down the rabbit hole.


A Beautiful Mind

Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Russel Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly & Christopher Plummer
Awards: Oscar for best picture, best director & best supporting actress

Ron Howard brings us a film that tells the true story of the mathematical genius, John Nash, from his early days as a Princeton scholar and the years that follow in his professional life while falling under the spell of schizophrenia. His great capacity for doing amazing things with his intellect also becomes a curse that forces him to the brink of terminal insanity. Inspirational and heartfelt, this is a journey that depicts the superfluous love from his wife and her determination to instill hope when faith is all they have left.


Blow

Director: Ted Demme
Starring: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz & Ray Liotta

A four word phrase always surfaces when you are walking through the local Blockbuster and see its case on the shelf. Everyone points to it, smiles and says, “I love that movie”. There is something intangible about this film that just draws you to it and sucks you in with its simplicity of narrative charm. It is based on the true story of one George Jung, recounting the interesting and bittersweet life of the drug dealer who had it made in the shade and somehow lost it all. Through all of the highs and lows there is nothing more touching than the enduring love, no matter what, between father and son.
Johnny Depp gives a very fine performance as Jung, but when can we say that Depp hasn’t been great in the leading role of any movie he’s been in. It’s nice to see him in this type of part, before his career came to the fork in the road that led to outlandishly over the top caricatures. Let there be no doubt that he pulls off the eccentric leads to perfection, however, it would be nice to see him take a hiatus from the oh so dark and creatively bizarre spectacles of Tim Burton garbage. Give me Depp as Donnie Brasco; give me Depp as George Jung.


Y Tu Mama Tambien

Director: Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men)
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal

In the days that follow the departure of their girlfriends for a summer holiday in Europe, Tenoch and Julio, two young friends from very different social classes, meet an older and more sophisticated woman visiting from Spain. Hoping to tame their wild sexual appetites, they invite her to join them on a rather lengthy excursion to the coastline and the allure of a beach she doesn’t want to miss. Faced with the sad reality of a cheating husband, Ana accepts and they go on the road to explore the Mexican countryside. As the miles accrue and they weave around every turn, the focus backs away from the life of Ana and moves towards an interest with the young men who struggle with their entrance at the doorstep of manhood. Rich surroundings, indigenous poverty and liberated sexuality give ample symbolic relation to the beauty and sadness of Mexico, where political upheavals stemming from social class issues muddy the shallow waters and place increased strain on the current and future friendship between Tenoch and Julio. By a sprinkling of literal and figurative levels throughout this film, youthful beginnings and tragic endings dot the landscape to reveal harsh but necessary truths. The term coming of age, or otherwise known as the transition from child to adult, has been shown by those who made this film to describe the reality of pain involved, reminding all of us about a fall from grace and the death of our very own fairy tale. By watching this film we are baptized, allowing for a lasting impression of characters that eventually must disrobe their fleeting, imagined layers of control and realize the profound emphasis of the only survival skill worth knowing – giving in to where the current takes you.


2002:


City of God

Director: Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardner)
Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Matheus Nachtergaele & Leandro Firmino

With a release that started like a hard to discern whisper, a lengthy stretch of time followed where it lurked in the underground shadows, but City of God grew and thrived by being abandoned from the spotlight, without huge marketing budgets, forced to survive along a perilous, seedy journey through the underbelly of the film world. Word grew like a mystical legend about the urban snapshot possessed by an enigmatic mix of sin and undeniable underdog rawness. Most had never heard a sound and it was all the better to keep such a secret in the dark. Telling someone that you had seen this movie, before mainstream America caught on, was kind of like bragging about some out of the way place you had been. That you had been there wasn’t the big deal at all, but it made your street cred more legit if you were able to find it. Every now and then, it seemed, that when a conversation about movies arose amongst friends, this was the gauge that separated the clueless from the clued in.
Based on a true story, City of God spans three decades to illuminate the intersection of poverty and street life in the most lethal ghetto of Rio de Janeiro. Prevalent gangster motifs find their way into the plot of the film but the skilled narration enhances the feel of a more deeply rooted origination of gangs, where to tell the whole story, you have to go back to the historic, legendary myths that spawned the development of contemporary criminals. Scores of ironies come from the blatant misconception that any God exists in a town where violence begets more violence and rules are only dominated by pure anarchy. An accelerated death rate is only surpassed by the cheap value placed on individual lives, uniquely spun to depict the early disappearance of youth inundating the slums in a hectic, usurping shift of power.
In a frenzied but methodical surge filled with drug kingpins struggling over turf, respect, and ownership of the streets, this modern day Lord of the Flies is a quintessential tour de force which blends the urban with the exotic in a package that is nearly impossible to duplicate.


The Pianist

Director: Roman Polanski
Starring Adrien Brody
Awards: Oscar winner for best director and best actor in a leading role

Set in Warsaw during World War II, The Pianist is based on the true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a successful Jewish musician who encounters life changing events during the Nazi invasion of Poland. Starting with beauty, starting with freedom and love, The Pianist shifts and detours the paths of many in a slow paced march of melancholy away from decency, inevitably ending up at a destination where it doesn’t exist at all. What remains are only faded shades and fractions of happiness that last for mere seconds, only to disappear as quickly as they are noticed. They are clutched and held onto but forever lost to memory, as if the dust of his people cannot be slowed as it slides through Szpilman’s gaunt hands.
To empathize is one thing but to truly feel requires something more. Polanski, a man who personally escaped the Nazi ghetto in his youth, successfully pulls the audience in and holds it close to the smell of the gutter by capturing many scenes that make one want to turn away because the truth is too horrible to watch. Magnified and effectively captured in moments that pace horribly slow, The Pianist allows for the extended sting to draw out like the pulsating drum of heartache. Through everything, through the black cloud of death that hovers above for miles and miles across the sky, Szpilman finds the will to survive by remarkably hanging on to the thin thread that resides inwardly.
In life, even in the harshest and most trying of times, beauty can always be found. Seldom does a film capture such high levels of sadness and hope. To prepare for his role as Szpilman, Adrien Brody dropped 30 pounds, forced himself into seclusion for several months and learned how to play Chopin. His legendary performance, which made him the youngest man to win an Oscar at age 29, offers a rare, subtle power in scenes that linger and stay with you well after the credits have finished rolling.



Austin Powers in Goldmember

Director: Jay Roach
Starring: Mike Myers, Seth Green, Rob Lowe, Beyonce Knowles, Verne Troyer and Michael Caine

Austin Powers returns for his trifecta, hot on the trail of Dr. Evil, Minnie Me, Fat Bastard, and the addition of another eeevil neer do well named Goldmember. He is from Holland, isn’t that Veird? The shagadelic man of mystery reunites with his fazer and tugs at the laughter pull cords by owning up to all his daddy issues by incorporating the virtuoso talents of Michael Caine. All the usual corny stupidity that is the benchmark of this franchise comes through in this comedy that brings out all the tricks. The only bad side is how it makes one feel so jealous that you didn’t come up with these things yourself.
As a singular creation, this movie is not a game changer, but it signifies the end of a trilogy that took the world over and watched Mike Myers peak as the king of comedy from the mid 90’s to the early part of the next decade. His characters are the many faces of his hard, innovative work. When everyone, from recollection, can rattle off the names of these creations with ease, there’s no point denying how culturally impactful this family of films is and always will be. Without skipping a beat, Myers’ revival in the art of assorted depictions, reminiscent of Coming to America, follows some very hard to fill footprints left by the great Eddie Murphy. It does not matter if Myers fumbles with his attempts on any future projects because these films are enough to qualify as a comic genius legacy. The skinny on Austin Powers 4 is that it is in production and will release sometime in late 2010 or early 2011.


Gangs of New York

Director: Martin Scorcese
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz

Scorcese’s hodgepodge of gangland beginnings and civil war social commentary opens with a graphic and brutal skirmish on the streets between two rival tribes, ending with a drastic shift in power, a little boy losing his father, and a prelude of things to come. So begins Gangs of New York when the boy, Amsterdam (DiCaprio), returns to the New York City neighborhood, dubbed “the fuyve points”, as a grown man some years later, presumably never forgetting his personal vendetta against the underworld leader, William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis).
Cutting, aka ‘The Butcher’, is a man that refuses to accept change and, with all the power of a lawless district in his grasp, runs the streets with a heavy blade and a glass eye that reflects America’s, perhaps personally imagined, greater past. His tradition is one of violence, not politics, and he doesn’t like what he sees for the future of America. He remains proud of his heritage while keeping outsiders and hated immigrants in check. After Amsterdam proves his scrappy worth and joins Cutting’s group of merry men it becomes a struggle to loosen the emotional bonds that emerge. Taking vengeance on the man that killed your father is the hardest thing to do when you find he takes you in like the son he never had.
As shown through Scorcese’s lens as a microcosm of a society gracelessly maturing through the growing pains of internal war, life means very little in a world that hasn’t quite been able to settle its differences. Indeed, ‘Gangs’ hovers around the turmoil of the violent times themselves, drawing from the internal combustion of civil war that is just waiting to explode and consume the country like rampant wildfire, flaming out onto the streets of the cosmopolitan epicenters like a plague. Day-Lewis’ portrayal as William Cutting is timeless, which stands alone as enough of a reason to leave quite a memorable impression. However, there are all sorts of indicators put forth about a time in our history that we have almost forgot; one that is ugly from change and inner strife; archaic and somehow evoking traces of social issues that haven’t completely been put to rest in all the years since. The greatness of Scorcese films comes from the warped, genius construction of fully immersed journeys into the shadowy corners of society, and though people are harsh critics at times, these films build more and more strength as the years go by because, say what you will, they never give you precisely what you assumed you would get.


The Ring

Director: Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Starring: Naomi Watts

Of all the movies churned out over the course of the past decade, this was the scariest. Young journalist Rachel Keller investigates the mysterious death of her niece occurring exactly one week after viewing a videotape with an urban legend that kills everyone who watches. When Rachel watches the videotape and, to her horror, finds out that her young son has viewed it as well, she enters into a race against time to solve the riddle of the film before her seven days are up and she inevitably winds up dead. Driven by its clever unraveling to create a lost sense of balance, the plot toys with your equilibrium like vertigo, and the apprehension to continue on becomes more gripping and tense as discoveries are made. There are no points on this ride that ease the tempo and let you relax back in your chair to converse every now and then with your sweetie. It is too busy pummeling you relentlessly with enough eerie children, jolts of déjà vu and white knuckle moments that have you jumping out of your skin, begging for more.


28 Days Later

Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston & Brendan Gleeson

Films of the past have perpetually treated the representation of zombies as a relentless pack of sluggish and stupid beasts, which has not entirely ensconced the masses in hysterics or terror. In loud and glaring contrast, this new batch of infected freaks, a crazy reincarnated upgrade to the former model, are frightening enough to make your heart rate thump at rapid cocaine-like cadence. Recognizing a destination best suited for igniting a fire not far from historical truth, 28 Days Later wraps itself within an eerie texture by incorporating widespread, uncontained disease. Clearly this tale of characterized hyperbole and epidemic outbreak draws strength in the way that all good horror films can; they force us to face our biggest fears, balancing themselves in half-truths. See Bubonic Plague. See Cholera. See AIDS.
Shuffled scenes going from accelerated peaks of entropy are returned to valleys of serene calm in a rhythmic breathing of controlled ups and downs. This glaze of filming restraint is a tactfully finessed counterbalance of controlled aggression that, for the characters and audience alike, manifests an oasis of respite in a world of disorder. But the retrieval of sanity to take stock of the hope that remains is a reality mired among the sweeping sense of sprawling desolation, shown brilliantly in shots on the city of London and the outlying English countryside, to create the hollowed out look and feel of a barren wasteland after a nuclear battle.
From front to back, this lofty conceptual idea has been executed to perfection. It would have been quite simple to botch this idea up in a number of filming mishaps and portrayals, but Danny Boyle isn’t the type of director who puts his stamp on anything less than elegant, no matter what the genre.


2003:


Old School

Director: Todd Phillips (The Hangover & Road Trip)
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell & Luke Wilson

It happened almost overnight in a swift, definitive motion. Old School, a film that lacks a shred of maturity because men never grow up and have no desire to do so, vaulted onto the scene and immediately proved itself as one of the greatest comedies of all time. This is about three men and one dream: an opportunity for a double dip on their youth by starting a fraternity and returning to the college daze their lives have missed. Priceless scenes emerge from hazing rituals with Blue, beer funneling induced streaking, re-gifting, and self tranquilizing darts to the neck. The boisterous rapid fire lashings of Vaughn coupled with the innocent boy next door apprehension of Wilson give this story a nice depth of varied personalities, but this is best remembered as classic Will Ferrell, serving up what he does best throughout this great, great film.


25th Hour

Director: Spike Lee
Starring: Ed Norton, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Philip Seymour Hoffman & Anna Paquin

Convicted drug dealer Montgomery Brogan (Edward Norton), soon to serve a seven year stretch in prison, reflects on life and loss while spending time with friends and family during his last day as a free man. This electric film delivers a somber mood moving on the hinges of emotional confusion, where Monty must face his biggest fears in a complex process of haunting flashbacks about the day of his bust, the crimes he committed, and the punishment that awaits. And although facing a perilous future, he is undoubtedly far from the only person with issues: his friends, his father, his city; all are entranced in their own misguided worlds, where the elusive desires they covet can never be ensnared. Moving forward becomes increasingly hard to swallow as regrets fill the mind of Monty, and while he considers his own doubts a parallel is drawn, expanding outward to focus upon the alternate and equally profound subplot surrounding New York City, reeling in the wake of 9-11 and the trepidation of losing its label of invincibility. Meandering through the memories and the hard to discern path of how he got pinched puzzles Monty, and he tries to deflect the blame on everyone in his life, even going so far as to blame his own city (during the legendary “fuck you” mirror scene), which he loathes for its diversity yet still loves every once for being just that. In the end, no matter how many kind words or wishes of good luck he receives, as he gets together for one last night in the club to enjoy the festive farewells with the woman he loves and his closest buds, Monty cannot run away from his fate; he can only celebrate among the ashes as he looks back in retrospect on what was and may never be again. Much like the delivery of ominous shots panning down from above and onto ground zero that echo the feelings of a wounded city, Monty’s biggest problem isn’t facing the looming uphill battle, but rather saying goodbye to a past that he now realizes was paved in gold.
From the heavy stream of talented performances, to the seriously dope music, to maybe the best New York club scene ever filmed, Spike Lee finds one of his best grooves in this provocative and revealing movie. Not since Mo Better Blues and Do the Right Thing has this great director been so on point. Without question, 25th Hour was the best picture of 2003.


2004:


Man On Fire

Director: Tony Scott (Enemy of the State, True Romance)
Starring: Denzel Washington, Christopher Walken, Dakota Fanning & Radha Mitchell

If this isn’t Denzel Washington’s best performance then it sure is his most exciting. Shot on location in Mexico City, Man on Fire depicts the dark struggles of Creasy (Denzel Washington), an alcoholic ex military special ops man, who lands a gig as a bodyguard for a wealthy family in Mexico City. Through a relationship that grows from the love of Pita (Dakota Fanning), the little girl he is hired to protect, he finds a special bond and reason to live again. When she is kidnapped and all hope is lost he creates a storm of violence to bring the whole crooked organization down to its knees, eliminating anyone involved on his path to the truth.
You might find a lot of films that offer just as much action but they’ll never equal this story’s heart. Dakota Fanning is fantastic and it is hard to believe how skilled she is at such a young age. This is the best movie Denzel Washington has ever been in, hands down.


Million Dollar Baby

Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank & Morgan Freeman
Awards: Oscar wins for Best Picture, Best Actress in a leading role, Best Director & Best Supporting Actor

Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) is a rough and cranky, old time boxing trainer who seems heartless. A young woman, Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), wants to be a professional boxer, so she trains real hard and stays persistent, finally getting him to take her on and manage her career. He worries though, about her safety and the safety of everyone in his life because he has hidden fears. There is anger inside him too, for a religion that hasn’t answered his prayers. Maggie boxes and does well but then she falls. As he hides the torturous pain in front of those who need his strength when this tragedy strikes surfaces, Frankie blames himself for not being a better protector, trying to deflect the unfortunate luck of those in his life as if all of it were his fault alone. He takes all of it on willingly, this undeserved guilt, and places it upon his shoulders like a weighty cross he has to bear.
As the conclusion draws near you cannot entirely be sure if you feel more sympathy for the victims or the man who watches all of it happen. Frankie is a walking contradiction, a man with the toughest of outer exteriors ironically possessing the biggest heart of all. A lot is left unsaid about the relationship of fathers and daughters, keeping you in the dark about the one he may have lost to his own mistakes, only offering you a lengthy glimpse of the one he tried his hardest to protect.


Motorcycle Diaries

Director: Walter Salles.
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo De La Serna.

The coming of age experiences for Ernesto “Che” Guavara helped to mold and evolve his outlook on how he viewed the world, in such a strong manner, in fact, that literally paved the way to a world that would soon be changed by him. In a story that pairs restless souls thirsting for the open road, Alberto and Ernesto, like outlaws escaping civilization, hop aboard their leaky motorcycle dubbed “The Mighty One”, setting off on an 8,000 kilometer trek to embrace their own untapped vitality during the adventure of a lifetime. Exquisitely picturesque scenery follows their travels all over South America as they search for an exciting conquest of love and the weaving fate they cannot predict.
Through everything, brought on by the foggy mornings along the Amazon, the tireless sands of the Chilean desert, and an altitude of green that reaches the clouds among the Andes, a remarkable awakening develops as their sheltered, affluent existence begins to gaze upon the world with new eyes. Their journey across a continent becomes an enlightened pilgrimage where ideals meet reality, and it is from this marriage, heard among the stone canyon ghosts of Machu Picchu and the lyrical undulations lapping at the shores of Valparaiso, which, perhaps, causes them to discard earlier assumptions and create an outlined vision for the road less traveled instead. While Ernesto and Alberto find challenging personal struggles on their wayward path, nothing of their dilemma compares to those of so many others. Clearly, they begin to encounter signs of change, seen in the haunting eyes of a migrant couple, and laboring farmers with forlorn faces and dirt on their hands cultivating a desire for an indigenous uprising. These are the beginnings of revolutionary times, spreading outward across an entire continent to stimulate the broad ideas of a man who would soon be instrumental in such changes.
It is hard to say that a movie can change you, or change the way you see things, but this film, through the poignant surprises that drift along the dirtiness of the open road, strums a melodic connection into your heart and raises the hairs on the neck just a little easier. It is an experience that warms you like the sun; one of those rare works to come along with a poetic voice resonating throughout each and every defining moment, almost without trying to do so.


Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle

Director: Danny Leiner
Starring: Kal Penn and John Cho

Sometimes the simplest and most basic stories win big in the hearts of many as evidenced when this instant cult classic became a hit among tokers and fans of all things White Castle everywhere. The classic stoner movie has been around since its celebrated tradition began with Cheech & Chong’s “Up in Smoke”. Now, 25 years later, like their predecessors, Harold & Kumar somehow manage to deliver the representation of a refreshing yet culturally odd pairing in an updated version of an old model. Turning the act of getting food after you get high (don’t act like you haven’t done it) into a full length movie laden with ridiculous moments is a gift that plays out in the most endearing way. As Harold and Kumar get themselves into funny sidetracks and setbacks to encounter the craziest of characters, they find ways to move through the obstacles and reach the White Castle prize. Classic scenes involve revisiting the often ridiculed television character, Doogie Howser M.D., delivering a wildly irreverent string of moments as he depicts a sick alter ego personality while being all hopped up on drugs, “trippin’ balls”, and stealing their car. This movie is childish and stupid on so many levels, which is exactly what makes it so unforgettable and unbelievably genius. If you think it isn’t worthy of being on the list just go ask Neil Patrick Harris how his career has been doing ever since.


Wicker Park

Director: Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin, Push)
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Matthew Lillard, Rose Byrne & Diane Kruger

Most will admit that they aren’t very awestruck by Hartnett’s body of acting performances over the years, but he does manage, either by dumb luck or clever decision making, to select good projects. Sometimes movies find you and Wicker Park is one of those movies, one of those word of mouth recommendations by friends. Love is a game for the young at heart and drama is the stinging blow that comes from the risk taking. Maybe it is the unforeseen danger that causes us to ignore the streaks, as we are caught up in the moment of a dream that is within reach and the odds do not even matter anymore. Wicker Park is about people finding love and doing everything they can to hold onto it. If you lose the one you love, how far are you willing to go to get them back?

An unshakable mood and a killer soundtrack, which just might be the best of the decade, earned this film some serious rising of the eyebrows. Wicker Park didn’t make much noise at the box office, but it did manage to surprise those who realized this story -- about young adults in a maze of love, lust and everything in between -- is anything but predictable.



Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Director: Michel Gondry
Starring: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo & Kirsten Dunst

Romance and the bitter dead ends that so many exploits of love encounter has been a topic of obsession, cast down like a baton in an endless marathon through the ages of literature: found among the ruins of ancient Greeks; meandering softly through the dark ages; and rocketing towards the explosive spectrum of colorful Renaissance fireworks displayed by the mighty pen of Shakespeare. From there it has passed through an ever-widening scope of countless authors and poets alike. From Austen to Browning, Dickens to Marquez, Neruda to Fitzgerald, the list goes on and on. When movies emerged love was already there, patiently waiting like an injection of nourishment that kills the heart and cycles it back towards new life. We are captivated by the euphoria of love because it far outweighs any drug – be it chemical, monetary wealth, or power – nothing comes close.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ponders our thirst for the drug and poses a serious question of human dilemma. If we could have the crippling wounds of failed love erased, would we choose to do so? Would our lives improve to the tenth degree or would this take away something we instinctively yearn for and need? All of this is hard to answer. Harder still – as this innovative film suggests by exploring the murky backwaters of relationships – is the inability to break away from all of these masochistic addictions we have become accustomed to.
As Joel and Clementine come to the end of their relationship and breakup, Clementine hires the services of a doctor who erases Joel from her memory. After hearing of this news, himself being unable to cope with the exhausting pain weighing down like an albatross around his neck, Joel hastily opts for the same fate. He starts from the beginning, which in this case means the end, a hollow end of horrible fights and the orders from the doctor to eliminate every picture, keepsake, and property that reminds him of his former girlfriend. As the medical procedures are conducted, the epic romance fires like alternating pistons through Joel’s memories in a balanced path of good and bad highlights. As Joel goes through this dreamlike sequence of scattered yet cohesively mapped points of time, he finds waiting for him, on the other side of the raw hatred and hurt of the heart, a realized truth to what remains most valued.
This is a very true to life tale of woe and love, honest in its grimy details of despair yet poetically romantic in the delivery of precious moments. On one hand we all want to take the pictures down and erase all we can about them, but a part of us never wants to, and that is the side that still loves them. Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey emit a raw edge of inward and painfully reflective glances among the shattered glass of romantic relationships, providing points of anxiety, doubt, and truth, in their portrayals that make a brave film like this all the more exceptional.


2005:


Sin City

Written and directed by Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Benicio Del Toro, Clive Owen & Mickey Rourke

Through the narrative use of internal dialogues, greed, debauchery, and atrophied morality emerge in an innovative collage that presents three individually gritty tales about sinners who become heroes. Each story plays out with an old-school detective appeal that follows their paths to protect the honor of the women they love. Cast from a mold that doesn’t scream nobility, these unsung men of like ilk operate with unselfish motives against the wicked schemers who embrace the city in despair. Like shepherds, they have a purpose to defend the weak and know enough of what is right and wrong, but maybe these heroes never asked for any of this, or maybe they are trying to correct their sins of the past with that one righteous deed, possibly going as far as their quest for the sake of morality takes them, even if it means their own death to settle the score.
Jam packed with a laundry list of acting stars and the long awaited return of Mickey Rourke, who absolutely kills it in his role, Sin City is an avant-garde milestone of creativity. The use of black and white adds a seedy coarseness of dread throughout this depiction of a hopeless world that pulses with accentuated moments of color to stimulate the sensual experience for the viewer. But just as this cinematic marvel cuts through the air, knifing its cold, steely blade towards the pliant murkiness of a shadowy world, it is imperative to suggest how such a detailed force of beauty was only made possible by the innovative combination resulting when retro storytelling smoothes out the rough edges of visual bravado.


Crash

Director: Paul Haggis
Starring: Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Matt Dillon, Brendan Frasier and Sandra Bullock
Awards: Oscar winner for Best Picture

Crash, the indie art house film disguised in a big studio production’s body, has one verifiable truth everyone can agree upon: you just don’t normally see scripts like this being made very often. Digging into the microcosms that exist in society, Crash intersects individual lives, where various people of different backgrounds and abundantly ignorant biases openly reveal confessions of narrow minded worlds. These people impact one another in a negative way, yet somehow, even if it is not well-deserved, a sliver of light breaks through their clouded views when luck offers an opportunity to make things right again.
Every vignette and personal passage unravels like a winding pathway, having a loose sense of cohesive force, but when they return to a point of crossing each other again – when the focus is drawn back just a hair – it is realized they are all wandering disoriented among the innumerable thickets of a larger forest.
But what are we to pull from this jumble of characters wading through a personal metamorphosis of viewpoints and states of mind? It does linger unrefined, until, nearing the end of the film, a revealing moment transpires. At first glance it is insignificant, even a little corny, yet the nature of such an event is as defining and poignant as the characters themselves. Los Angeles, the city of angels, is capable of miracles if people believe what they see. Shaken from anger, they are slammed by an obscure self echoing reflection, and this moment of clarity instills a more transparent cognition of beauty, seen everywhere and throughout all things as if floating down upon them like the magical dance of fallen snow.


Wedding Crashers

Director: David Dobkin
Starring: Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, Christopher Walken & Isla Fisher

Comedy is far different from its polar opposite, in large part because dramatic scenes offer a much larger margin for undetected error. If a comedy is to essentially survive, and better yet excel, there must be spotless timing – that perfect fusion of captured surprise and delivery. From conceptual storyboarding to casting, all the way on down to filming and finished project, great comedies are as scarce a thing as you’ll ever see in all of movies. Funny moments can happen to any film, however funny throughout greets an audience but once a year, and even that would be a very skewed sense of reality. These exceptional films are discarded and taken for granted, swept under the rug and forever lost in the memory while moving forward without ever discussing the rarefied rush of air they bring into our gasping lungs.
Maybe some of the movies we love, like Wedding Crashers, garner no critical acclaim because they have hedged us in a gassy fog of laughter and averting our eyes to lighthearted blue skies across the horizon. On the outside, it looks like sheer stupidity, masked by the smoke and mirrors of irreverent thirty-something adult adolescence, where grown men seek weddings and multiple sex partners in an attempt to stay young and free, staving off any real transition towards maturity. Surely examples abound to support such claims but this underrated comedy makes no apologies for celebrating the personification of never wanting to grow up.
Usually this genre does not get into evolutionary progress with their characters, but Crashers offers another level that forms into a more authentic depiction of changing needs. There are enough hilarious scenes to keep you occupied along the way. With his formidable rants, Vince Vaughn is blessed with the uncanny ability to completely take over a scene, and the cameo segments by Will Farrell are some of the funniest he’s ever done, but surprisingly the real stars are Rachel McAdams and Owen Wilson. Their growing romance is more charming and engaging than, come to think of it, any comedy of the decade, maybe even better than any that have come before as well. Though Vaughn and Ferrell brought the headlining laughs, this is a coming out party for Wilson. He isn’t considered a serious player in the industry but nobody else could have pulled this role off quite as well. When he has to, Wilson can walk on both sides of the street as the jester or the Romeo and that combination does not grow on trees in Hollywood.


Batman Begins

Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Liam Neeson & Gary Oldman

After years of sequels and versions that spun off into ridiculous circus type cluster fucks, someone finally brought it all back to where it belongs and made Batman cool again. With a fresh plot and more focused attention on what makes Batman such a badass, this film was able create a new blueprint in how the character should be personified. This rendition hit everyone like a bomb from the sky; no one ever saw it or heard it coming. Bale, dark in his demeanor and chiseled in this role, makes you believe in the spoiled, rich, and emotionally inept Bruce Wayne, forced into an evolution of anguish that gave way to the adoption of his new vision through a baptism of excellent martial arts training scenes.
With all of the egregious buffoonery that had been done to cripple and wound his good name, it was no easy task to resurrect the Batman franchise from the laughable bottom it had sunk to.
But venturing down into the black chasm and embracing the idea of Wayne’s struggle proved worthwhile because it was precisely the type of jolt that enabled Batman to breathe new life again.


Brick

Director: Rian Johnson.
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Drawing from the stylistic influence of Dashiell Hammet, Rian Johnson originally wrote Brick as a novella in the summer of 1996 after graduating college. This classy mystery-thriller follows Brendan, a teenage student who discovers the dead body of his ex-girlfriend. Uncertain of how or why, he begins looking back at the previous two days and searches his memory for the moment where he began to pick up a whiff of the foul that led to her death. He goes on the hunt, foraging for clues, into the seedy passages and back alleys of his high school surroundings. As he continues his search in the days after her death he comes to find that all the angles, seemingly clear at the onset, begin to blur. Determined to figure it all out, Brendan brings in his sidekick to help unravel all the messy details as he uncovers them bit by bit, but it becomes a tightrope where he has to navigate through different cliques of false friends and hidden enemies who try to keep him away from the truth.
There are plenty of twists in the plot, enhanced by a stockpile of slangy teenage dialogue, to offer up just enough information to keep you informed but keep you guessing all the while. This is the best depiction of high school characters put into adult situations of classic film noir fashion. Shot in just 20 days and filmed for under $500,000, this powerhouse of a movie just goes to show what can be accomplished when a story harmonizes the right notes of plot driven guile.


2006:


The Departed

Director: Martin Scorcese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen, Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Vera Farmiga & Mark Wahlberg
Awards: Oscar wins for best picture and best director

With the Academy doling out Oscar awards year after year while snubbing Scorcese for all of his worthy efforts over the past three decades, conspiracy theories sprouted up and grew like ivy, spreading outward to inundate the landscape with every passing year that this injustice continued (See Raging Bull. See Goodfellas). But is it possible that the Academy brain trust, behind a cloak of secrecy, and like a teacher who is hardest on their most talented student, observed the possibilities of a great genius with unlimited potential? Having the foresight to understand that he had so much more in the tank by delaying the confetti shower of accolades in the early goings proved to be a sage tactic indeed. For that elusive Oscar to finally be awarded, it was imperative for the beloved director to force the hand because there’s no debating that wishes never give you what you want. Scorcese knew all too well that the answer was simple, because in life, as Jack Nicholson’s opening monologue suggests, if you want something badly enough, “No one gives it to ya. Ya have to take it”
Settling on the city of Boston, this contemporary western masterpiece pits cops, criminals, mobsters and the federal government in a struggle for power and dominance that hinges on two key players, Costigan and Sullivan, who battle one another and play both sides in a chess match for intelligence. They both go undercover and dig in on opposite sides, mirroring each other step by step like two perfectly equal opponents fighting for the same scraps. And as they struggle with the ever increasing levels of discomfort brought on by operating within an unnatural façade, the most important question isn’t who will be found out first but who will be the first to crack. But this is no surface value crime story, it is something else, something much more layered, bringing the viewer into a realm where everyone is guilty of duplicity, and though Costigan and Sullivan exist as the main plot polarities we know the most about, they are not the only rats in the sewer. In this game nobody plays by the rules and there are no pledges of allegiance to any one institution or brotherhood. Nowhere is this fact better represented than by the depiction of Frank Costello. He seems above the fray, seeking out major upheavals as he challenges every tradition and custom, knocking away, brick by brick, at the foundations of the accepted rule makers of civilized society. While he is intent on poisoning the infrastructure and morality of the law, it is almost beneath him and too easy to accomplish. Costello repeatedly references his distaste for the church, their scandalous pedophile present, and the inner side of ugliness that hides behind the curtain in the dark. His battle is a spiritual war, taking up arms against the metaphysical, where he personifies extremely close parallels to the hyperbolic representation of hubris normally seen only in the likes of Milton.
The Departed draws out the truth, baiting you into a gullible trap, only to yank the rug out from under your feet. Trust becomes the only commodity of value, but as cops become criminals and criminals act like cops, no person or organization holds bankable credibility. Though it might be true for many who claim this is Scorcese’s best picture since GoodFellas, one ancillary caveat remains. This isn’t one of Scorcese’s best films, it is his best film. There’s way too much sophisticated perfection being offered here to qualify as anything else.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Director: Larry Charles
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen

Aaah, Borat, just hearing the name causes smiles. Like the ancient philosophers, comedians build their craft around a finessed foraging, gracefully plucking out socially odd behavior to present it in such a way to help everyone make sense of a crazy world. Sacha Baron Cohen’s character invention is the obnoxious Kazakhstan news reporter on a journey through America’s heartland. Borat is a clown we can laugh at, but make no mistake – we are the guinea pigs in his cultural laboratory. As Cohen jumps from one uncomfortable moment to the next, he extends a goofy high five to anyone who is willing to enjoy losing control in the moment, and there are a few, like the weatherman, who can stop and give themselves up to the spontaneous feeble mindedness of his brilliant timing. But most of the folks Borat encounters are unable to laugh at themselves, adamantly unwilling to let their funny bones be touched while reserving the right to hunker down in their fox holes of stoic acidity as if expecting him to abide by the rules he continuously mocks.
Borat isn’t a movie, it’s an adventure, and we are eager to follow him as he goes on a road trip that makes Kerouac look like a pious little school boy. Every scene with Borat and his sidekick producer, Azamat, delivers a raunchy strain that has us turning red with embarrassment, offering a highlight reel of personal vendetta against all things gypsy and his wanton obsessions that lead them clear across the country to literally bag Pamela Anderson. Midway through, when it seems like nothing more can possibly surprise the audience, creeping up like the numbing effects of novocaine straight to the gums, Cohen unleashes the legendary naked fight scene.
It is a movie moment that makes jaws swivel open in shock, but saying that is not enough. If a sweet old church going lady had a nightmare while on a bad acid trip, this is what it would look like. Drop an egg in a frying pan and repeat after me. This is your brain. This is your brain on Borat, any questions? The homoerotic audacity of this spectacle is absolutely top shelf and will forever be ingrained in the social consciousness like a colon cleans for the American people.
Comedy of this caliber is rare type of pure transparency bursting with irony. As the biggest surprise of the decade, Borat is a brave film that pushes each and every unknowing subject to their own personal limits. It is an epic game changer, coaxing out the silly social mores from the fabric of our society, often making you wonder just who really is the fool in almost every scene.


Casino Royale

Director: Martin Campbell
Starring: Daniel Craig, Mads Mikkelsen, Giancarlo Giannini & Judi Dench

During a stretch of let downs marinating in boring, cheesy plots and yawn-worthy leads, the previous six Bond films have been an exercise in patience requiring the memorized capacity of an amnesiac. It wasn’t so long ago, in fact, that a pair of horrible films was entrusted to Timothy Dalton. Evidently his replacement, Pierce Brosnan, was not much better. Bond, once revered for being a beacon of clever action and British wit, seemed for the many years that have come and gone to be lost in a state of disarray, mangled on the side of the road and left for dead.
Thankfully, with the addition of Daniel Craig, a new identity has transcended 007’s appeal. This fresh insertion of charismatic energy, uncharacteristic of his weaker predecessors, comes off with the type of raw, reckless abandon that we aren’t used to seeing from the civilized spy. But civilized he is not because he replaces everything with a washed over, cold stare, looking like a man who would trade in a tuxedo for a good old fashioned bar brawl any old day of the week. Craig, as Bond, is the bruising, blue collar spy hybrid, who comes off more as a maniac than he is a gentleman, and it works because the main plot of Casino Royale necessitates the depiction of a 007 struggling to learn the art of suave and slick.
He is the perfect centerpiece within a well-balanced story of intriguing innuendo, moments of gripping action, and a surprisingly deep love story to boot. This level of quality hasn’t been attained since Roger Moore starred in Octopussy (1983). However, this work is better and should be immediately noted as one of the highest caliber of Bond films, equaled only by The Spy Who Loved Me and From Russia with Love. Though innumerable changes are presented in this chapter for Bond, the traditional elements remain intact. All the cool toys, beautiful women, and quirky villains, which are the signature hallmarks of the Bond experience, have thankfully not been dispensed, but this film has a sinful sucker punch that knocks you sideways, woozy, and weak at the knees.


The Lives of Others

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Starring: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck & Sebastian Koch
Awards: Oscar win – best foreign language film

The Lives of Others makes it sexy to go behind the Berlin Wall and follow the operations of the East German Secret Police, also known as the Stasi, a section of the government intent on one goal: to know everything. Head investigator and loyal subject to the regime, Weisler eagerly heads up a covert surveillance of a well respected and beloved famous playwright, Georg Dreyman, who is believed to be involved in criminal acts against the state.
Before long, Wiesler becomes aware that he has become a pawn, trapped in a situation that beckons the need to incriminate Dreyman in order to protect his own career. However, as this emotionally replete and loyal comrade searches for incriminating occurrences to report, he becomes enamored with the writer, his lifestyle, and his passionate love affair with well known actress, Christa-Maria.
As if the paleness of his skin returns to a warmer color, most profound are the changes that take place in Wiesler when he retrieves his own individuality from the generic wasteland of imperialism. Maybe we all want to be involved in a life of espionage and the exhilarating tightrope of covert double lives. Like you are walking the streets with a secret to hide on a cold night with many eyes watching in the shadows, The Lives of Others delivers an uber-menacing perspective. This is like watching light capture the hidden, tumbling rise of cigarette smoke in a dark room; thus exposing the classic battle pitting art against the system.


Tell No One

Director: Guillaume Canet
Starring: François Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze & André Dussollier

Don’t let your prejudice towards foreign films fool you to believe this film isn’t worthy of sitting down to give it your full attention. Slow and methodical at the start, Tell No One almost seems like it will fail miserably, but give it time. Sit down, strap in and let it set the table for you the way a theme park roller coaster sends you up the steadily ascending grade. All of the bits of information will click into place and an accelerated motion will grab hold, propelling the main character, Alexandre, towards a dicey navigation where he must run among the ruins of his neatly wrapped life to find the answers on the other side.
Pinpoint formulaic balance could not be found in higher abundance anywhere else, as it is characteristic for this exemplary work to offer up a rhythm of controlled chaos tucked cozily inside a thick web of clever mystery. There’s no debating how this French film should always be a part of the conversation, particularly whenever the entire category of classic thrillers are looked upon and compared from one to another.



2007:


Atonement

Director: Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice)
Starring: Keira Knightly, James McAvoy & Vanessa Redgrave

A sprawling estate in the English countryside serves as the opening setting of a story that focuses on two wealthy sisters from an aristocratic family. Briony, the younger of the two, having the naïve, ruminating musings of a young girl, holds a powerful imagination with all the characteristic prerequisites found in budding young writers, or so it should seem. However, her imagination gets the best of her and what she thinks she sees is not the entire truth. With one mistaken accusation she suffocates the sparking ember of passionate love shared between her older sister and the man she loves, a young laborer who works on their estate. From that point on, their age of innocence shifts from a fairy tale and spirals like a helix of disarrayed dreams, where everything that did make sense is lost, and all that remains is replaced by the affected realities of the war. What gets us through the misery is holding on and believing that the life once known, the paradise lost, will return again in the end. This is a tale about correcting the wrongs of the past, both for oneself and for those we’ve wronged.
An amazing use of light, reflection and brilliant panoramic cinematography makes this film a memorable experience. It’s not even arguable – from top to bottom this is the most beautifully shot movie of the decade…


No Country For Old Men

Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson & Kelly Macdonald

Under the wide expanse of lazy clouds dotting the bright Texas sky, Vietnam veteran and local boy, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad. With dead bodies all around and a pick up truck loaded with brown dope, he asks a wounded and dying man, “where’s the last guy? Ultima hombre…last man standing, there must’ve been one, where’d he go?” Though seemingly inconsequential, such a line packs heavier weight, igniting a masked dialogue that arises often while traversing through this symbolic, open ended slice of Americana by the Coen brothers.
Llewelyn sets off with a suitcase full of money in the neighborhood of $2 million, but he winds up making a mistake or five and gets chased all over Texas by a relentless psychopath that kills often and regularly. The man chasing him, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), is absent of any relatable human connection at all, offering no quarter of any kind, except in the literal sense as demonstrated during high stakes coin tosses that mean the difference between living or dying for those he meets along the way. Watching the varied reactions of those who encounter Chigurh becomes its own dark comedy within a film that never clues the certainties of which is more bizarre, the characters he meets or the way he interacts with society. Even more perplexing are his to kill or not to kill decisions that offer no thread of logic or decency.
At the back end is aging Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), stuck with a messy trail of corpses left by Chigurh. He is plagued by the nagging philosophical questions of why, increasingly aware that he is getting too old to understand the crazy acts of young men. Understanding the ways of the world, one that gets sicker by the day and worse as it forges on towards the future, becomes an ever increasing gap of distance that the sheriff cannot narrow. On higher ground he is the existential, objective voice of social commentary, on a journey without solid answers regarding the conundrums he seeks to solve. He holds the paradoxical fortitude of a lawman scared mostly by the tide of imminent and inevitable change, and Chigurh symbolizes those changes, to the sheriff at least.
Though his persona suggests that he is a lawless man drawn from the deepest wells of evil, the character of Chigurh is very often misunderstood as a crazy and indefinable riddle. His actions are most definitely riddles but his random selections frighten the most. Most plausible, is Chigurh’s embodiment of an abstract confusion we all sit in wonderment about. Like the characters themselves, we try to avoid what chases us, but the truth nips at our heels the way the strong arm of the law follows a fugitive, because in the end there are no clean getaways with death.
The Coen brothers, the brightest stars of their directorial generation, are the soft spoken geniuses who carry a big stick. Their work here is the adroit refinement of an artistic voice that hovers above a geographical immersion of life in the southwest. Much like Fargo, this depiction of local people neither challenges the stereotypical traits assumed for the inhabitants nor does it obsequiously pander to exploit such assumptions. No Country for Old Men remarkably provides a wealthy balance of local life and a journey of characters, some too involved in the craziness of their own path to know any better, where people are looking to attain a higher sense of satisfaction in their lives. Either by finding happiness in a lawless pursuit of wealth, or searching for a spiritual guide, these viewpoints of different levels, frequently depicted by sage perspective or plain differences of opinion, ultimately do not matter. They exist like they do everyday, as two different lifestyles and opinions that can be found scattered among one community, one region, and even the bigger vastness of America itself.


The Lookout

Written and directed by Scott Frank (screenplay - Minority Report)
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Isla Fisher, Jeff Daniels & Matthew Goode

Chris Pratt is a man with a problem; he cannot function the way he used to or remember the most basic things anymore. A car accident has done this to him; a horrible car accident that damaged his frontal lobe and killed two of his friends. His life before the accident was a dream, but all of that was just a fleeting moment in time, and now he blames himself for messing up the continuation, haunted by that tragic night on old route 24.
Living with a blind roommate and being a janitor for a sleepy town bank, Chris follows a lifeless pattern as he works with educators who specialize in memorization drills. He struggles to remember silly daily routines, using a notepad to write things down, always stowing a car key in his shoe for those times when he locks them in because he forgets. He doesn’t want to be the special case or viewed as a delicate cripple. He used to be a guy people looked up to but now he gets no respect and he doesn’t have anyone taking him seriously, except the guys manipulating him to rob a bank.
Once upon a time, Chris woke up and changed the sequence of his morning routine to case a bank. Once upon a time he came to find those new friends were not so nice and he was the underdog yet again. The solution to his problems was only solved when he listened to the advice of a friend – to begin the story at the end and work his way back again. Never reaching for overindulgent plot twists, The Lookout is a clean and clever tale about a guy who tries to move on from debilitating injury and find a way to forgive himself for the mistakes he’s made. Chris, like the rest of us, eventually learns that tranquility does exist but never spans entire lives, and that is okay because luck runs out and misery is easy, but happiness you have to work for.


Michael Clayton

Written and directed by: Tony Gilroy (screenplay writer of the Bourne trilogy)
Starring: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson & Sidney Pollock

This movie, from the onset, produces a mood that is on the edge, tense and, in the words of rap legend Rakim, “serious as cancer”. Pressure is the forceful catapult to this entire story, creating a scenario of events where people stand to lose everything and every move counts. They all feel it, this heavy handed weight to succeed, this pressure to cover up the dirt. Enter Michael Clayton, the man who tries to minimize and cleanup the mess others make.
Some messes are bigger than others and he falls into a situation that is bigger than he could have imagined. The subject matter, with past films already hovering in the same vicinity, isn’t anything categorically novel. However, the devil is in the details, as they say, and that is what separates this story from its predecessors. It is how he realizes the truth and how he is forced to make moral decisions that makes the character so intriguing and the story even more so compelling. Assuredly, it is easier to look from the outside in but what if you were right in the middle, if these were the experiences of your life? Staying in the center of the street is dangerous, almost more dangerous than picking the side you want to be on.
Overall, high marks go to the fine work done on this film pertaining to pace and mood, but it must also be mentioned that this was, perhaps, the best work Clooney has ever done.


Paranoid Park

Director: Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting)
Starring: Gabe Nevins

Guilt, secrets, and responsibility lead the way on an introspective journey into the life of Alex, a young teenage skateboarder dealing with the after effects from his involvement in an accidental death of a security guard. Paranoid Park scours and spans the days both before and after in search of measurable contrasts stemming from the traumatic event. Clearly, the jumbled and out of sequence moments that are experienced by the troubled teen create a depiction of forfeited innocence, which may or may not lead to any more of an admittance of guilt or personal confession aside from that fact.
Those in search of beautiful cinematography, innovatively captured viewpoints, and well manipulated film change outs will not be disappointed. Rolling batches of inventive, playful film work merge like the echoes of swelling waves, rising and pushing towards impact, then retreating away to make room for the next unique sequence. This movie, rare in its visual obscurity, continually interchanges a flow of dreamy and engaging camera work that bubbles forth in grainy super-8 skating scenes, a myriad of time-lapse photography, slow-motion rushes of sound, and vivid concentrations of color. By subtracting the preponderance normally found in the ebb and flow of the dialogue phase, Gus Van Sant continues to chronicle disaffected youth in creative new ways.


2008:


Man on Wire:

Director: James Marsh
Starring: Philippe Petit, Jean François Heckel and Jean-Louis Blondeau

With so much negative energy stemming from every story surrounding the World Trade Towers since 2001, therapy comes from an unlikely source in the true tale of a man who inspired everyone to dream big. As it is easy to address how this fantastic picture qualifies as the best documentary of the decade, Man on Wire suggestively impresses the type of undertones that you might assume to find in more abundance by searching through the pages of Jane Austen novels. This flowing dance of flirting ebb and flow is a romantic interplay that fluctuates between past and present to recount the youthful beginnings of Phillippe’s personal journey starting from his days as a street performer.
For great realities to materialize, they must begin as even greater dreams. Such is the case with charming parallels for, not one, but two grand plans that are drawn in this fairy tale, as the Towers were being constructed a world away. Inspired by the accomplishments, Phillippe entertained his own possibilities and used the engineering feat as a compass to guide his greatest staged performance.
This is a tribute to the man and a landmark brought together in an unforgettable moment of miracles. It is hard to describe exactly how it feels to watch Phillippe and his friends methodically form an intricate plan that seems more like sheer stupidity if it wasn’t done with so much genius. Having everything in place is one thing, but to be brave enough to take that second step away from the sure footing of the building is, for the audience, almost unacceptable and partially insane. As for the feat of an individual walking on a wire, suspended between two of the tallest buildings ever made, there are no words only sensations. A rush of heat flushes through you like some religious experience, where the dogmatic concepts offered as an explanation simply cannot be grasped no matter how much effort is put forth. To see the shots of him kneeling on the wire, lying on the wire, heck, even smiling at the top of the World Trade Center buildings, sends chills through your spine. This mind bending experience takes previously believed limitations of human capabilities and drags them all the way to the brink, then shoves them over the precipice. Rarely do occurrences and awe induced feats of humankind strike such elegant keys as we watch, but this is one of those points of contact where the vast void between God and humankind has been bridged, if only to span for a handful of minutes.


Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting)
Starring: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto & Saurabh Shukla

In the wake of Slumdog’s release upon the general public, just about every publication raced to label it a Hollywood meets Bollywood hybrid, but the critics entirely missed the mark. In our obsession to categorize everything, far too many comparisons have been suggested concerning the culturally merging aspects between Hollywood and Bombay, and all of this noise has taken our eyes away from what really matters. Every movie blends historical influences to some degree, but because this happens to focus on India there seems to have been this prescribed notion of characterizing such a work as anything other than a unique film classic from a great director. Films are films, and they deserve better judgment than indignant, trivialized attempts to downgrade their value by stereotypical branding.
For some intangible reason, stories celebrating the strength of the human spirit to fight through adversity never seem to get old. Slumdog Millionaire orchestrates a harmony along every capability at its disposal, unifying a series of dynamic elements much like a great symphony that carries a sweeping depth of culture and people sparkling like the Ganges. This movie absorbs your full attention in every frame and every beat, taking a hold of you, stripping away the layers that get in the way to leave you naked but warm, reborn and responsive like a child’s alacrity for the characters and the love story between Jamal and Latika .
Everything involved in this specimen of a film, from the music, to the engaging flashback storytelling, to the rebirth of innocence through undying love, overflows with a refreshing wave.
This movie is a drug, a habit forming synthesis concocted by Danny Boyle in his lab, but his breakthrough makes one wonder if it was luck or skill that played the bigger part in making this project possible. Every so often a film of this merit comes along where it feels almost more like stars aligned and, by the hands of fate or otherwise, this plateau of cinematic nirvana would inevitably be reached.


Gran Torino

Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang & Christopher Carley

Race, culture and religion very often combine to form social and moral dilemmas that influence the actions and relationships of many, so it is no surprise that these issues lay at the fundamental core of the well rounded character encountered by viewers when Walt Kowalski makes his appearance. He is the adamant Korean War veteran who grimaces at the living but never once about the wife he has just buried. He knows death, almost to a point of accepted comfort - it is an acquired taste. Times have changed in the old neighborhood but Walt doesn’t see any reason to worry in the face of growing crime, and it becomes apparent that he almost wants others to test his meddle and give him just one excuse to end a fight. Walt is a throwback design of gritty strength and muscle, symbolic of the classic car he polishes in the driveway. His distaste for Korean neighbors built from bigotry enrages most but it is hard to hate him when you look at the world through his eyes, and even more so because he makes no apologies.
There’s no denying Walt’s improper racial bias, something he obviously learned through his own life, but he does hold values that far outshine his faults, clearly shown when he instinctively steps into a front yard brawl with a gun to protect his neighbors from a local gang. Walt won’t allow the weak to be pushed around by the strong. Not on his street, not in his neighborhood. Morals are morals and the weighty actions of a hero who never desires recognition leads one to uncover a kind heart beneath a cranky exterior. Through his kind act and a blossoming friendship, Walt bestows all the gifts of knowledge that are much needed for the young Tao to become a man. Indeed, this unique growth is very fragile, easily crushed by the teacher as much as the pupil, as seen in the loosely placed but never directly referenced fact that Walt may have some regrets in dealing with his own sons. Now Walt has a second chance. Perhaps the best way to understand this film comes from the associations surrounding the very definition of the fatherly male role model. The essence of such a subject, with all the fortitude, mistakes and lessons that come with it, is the backbone that makes every motion of Gran Torino possible.
It doesn’t even matter that subpar performances surround Eastwood’s portrayal as the aging hero. He’s an icon whose acting makes all the difference in every film, taking one last ride at the rodeo in the type of persona only he has been able to perfect. It’s been a long ride and for this, his last western, the feeling is bittersweet to watch the old cowboy holster those pistols for good. Gran Torino is the stop he takes to motion around for one last narrow-eyed gaze before setting off. Unfortunately, all we can do is sit silently, captivated by the onset of twilight as this long, bright career fades out of distance and dips behind the horizon.


Waltz With Bashir

Director: Ari Folman

This compelling foreign film, beautifully packaged in flash animation, follows Ari, a film director who searches his past military exploits to recall the role he played during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Stuck with large gaps of amnesia, Ari tracks down his war buddies to help him fill in the missing pieces. As the narrative cleverly draws from the encounters of the men he served with, their truncated tales, like his, offer more questions than they do answers. Ari’s quest for answers weaves its way between a dream and a nightmare, becoming a bumpy path of discovery as he wades through the psychological to attain a better sense of the factual. Dark pockets of confusion and ugliness are opened, giving way to the relationship of larger meanings and the associations that are blurred, processed, and stored within the shell shocked individual.
This is a rewarding film experience manifested through the savvy capacity to harness perplexing issues by the way it is told, however, the defining impact is not derived from the hellish depictions of shooting and exploding skirmishes. It is better conveyed through an exploration to uncover the mysterious ways the human mind buries a multitude of agonizing details in order to survive and continue on. Eventually Ari’s persistence dislodges what is underneath where the massacre of Sabra and Shatila emerge above the water’s surface, stirring an ironic involvement of his own culture’s hypocrisy or, possibly, forgotten sense of history.



In Bruges

Director: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson & Ralph Fiennes
Awards: Best Actor Golden Globe – Colin Farrell

Two criminals arrive in Belgium to hide out and await orders from their boss after a deal has gone bad back in England. Ray (Colin Farrell), the younger of the two men, is unhappy and holds a rather affectionate distaste for their destination, while Ken (Brendan Gleeson), more reserved and open minded in his ways, finds an appeal from the charm and extensive history in the canals, churches, and art museums by taking a keen interest in seeing the sights. As they await orders from their psychotic, profanity spouting leader, Harry (Ralph Fiennes), hilarious moments spring up when they encounter small time criminals, rude tourists and angry, drug addict dwarves. Ray also strikes up the chance to fall in love, but he is a tortured soul, and hiding underneath his brash, flippant surface is a man trying to break free from his paralyzing guilt as he seeks answers, forgiveness and methods of distraction. Many elements of richer and deeper self-analysis emerge as both men discuss and question the validity of their beliefs concerning religion, faith, and the metaphysical in relation to the altered courses their lives take after mistakes have been made. Being In Bruges becomes a scattered yet cohesive interplay of heaven and hell, where comedy meets tragedy and people get what they ultimately deserve.
This highly underrated film was greeted by the unfortunate luck of hitting theatres in the year of the Slumdog. If this had released in 2009 it would have won best picture.


Iron Man

Director: Jon Favreau (Swingers)
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow & Terrence Howard

It’s like sitting and looking out from the window of an airplane making its descent. Gazing down, homes have been built in grouped clusters. In each particular development every house is almost exactly the same, though slight nuances are suggested from formation to formation. The captain grabs the microphone and directs you to the right, alerting your attention to the gated communities of Superman. Over to the left are the modern and grand views up on Spiderman Hill. Just up ahead, you’ll see the enormous and posh hub near downtown, Batman Village. Closer to the airport are the project high rises, those dilapidated eyesores known as Hulk Projects; two attempts, both failures. Near the back end of the town limits you see an idle back hoe at the cul-de-sac of yet another outcropping of homes but work seems to have stopped. A local sitting next to you points out how that is where the builders backed themselves into the dead end called Bourgeois Lane, forced to halt construction due to a lack of interest from the buying community. People wanted something new, something different, you get the point.
It’s too bad that in the real world most will accept the same watered down, uninspired creations, never asking why the current trends lack passion, but, to be fair, we are all guilty of buying into the monopoly of blandness. Director Jon Favreau is one of those guys you’d like to see while out at the clubs, where from across the room you catch his eye and send over one of those respectful much love nods, simply out of appreciation for alertly pioneering a fresh take and discarding an obsolete model. Ironman grabbed for an emphatically driven rock and roll vibe and never bothered to waste itself away in extended pitfalls of serious behavior, which effectively let the audience loosen up and enjoy the fun of the ride. Casting Robert Downey Jr. was a nice departure from the norm. As an actor, he has continually molded himself in a variety of strong portrayals, seeming as if he only uses half of his abilities needed for any given role he wanders into, but that is a compliment to his skill. Great cast, tight special effects and well placed dry humor made this film a surprising addition for a genre that desperately needed a change of pace.


Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz & Scarlett Johansson
Awards: Golden Globe - best picture in the musical or comedy category. Oscar, best supporting actress – Penelope Cruz

During a summer in Spain, two young women who follow much different compasses in their pursuits of life and love meet the alluring Juan Antonio, a well-known artist reputed for being involved in a passionate marriage with a tempestuous end. He makes no apologies for his attempts to seize the moment at their first encounter and boldly invites the two women away for the weekend. Cristina, seeing this as an opportunity to find herself through a liberated plunge into the unknown, urges her friend to go along. Vicky agrees after initially resisting, but warns that she cannot be fooled by Juan Antonio’s beguiling charm. Assumptions about what everyone thinks they want and do not want in life begin to blur like merging colors on canvas, producing an impression of unforeseen events, feelings, and growth as everyone involved is urged along a contrary path of personal discovery.
This is a film that carries an aroma and mouth watering taste bouncing along every palette level, feeding the sensations of every desire to drink in the full bodied moments of those friends and lovers you’ve met along the way. Woody Allen has found new ways to portray his whimsical themes of love and sexuality by repeatedly inventing new channels of inspiration to depict the complicated relationships found between men and women, perhaps better than any other director of recent note. Faintly heard is the whispering homage to the works of Pedro Almodovar, Spain’s greatest and most well known film maker. While Allen may not admit to this easily overlooked fact, the work of his peer has, either consciously or unconsciously, inspired the finished product being offered here. Cruz and Bardem have done both foreign and American films, but Allen has used them in such a way to produce a hybrid suspension that brings out their flexibility. Cruz, serving as the muse in the love triangle, is a pressurized concentration of passion holding all the eruptive forces of a volcano that cause harm and beauty equally. Allen deserves credit for excavating the entire array of Cruz’s talents. It is obvious that she has rapidly ascended to peak as one of the finest actors in the world. Behind her is a path of devastation where yet another big name director and the rest of us are left in a daze, but we want this, we want to be claimed as the next victim to fall under her enchanting spell.


2009:


2009 was not a good year for movies, but art is fickle and it cares not about clocks or calendars. Avatar is not included on this list though the achievements in visual effects will change the way we experience movies forever. Unfortunately, without the decadent ruse of dressing it up as a feast for the eyes, Avatar is the unsightly companion who you took home the night before, uglier now in the morning light than your drunken vision was able to perceive. Take away the technology, the marketing, the nifty glasses and the inebriated sways of hype. There was far too much predictability in plot, hokey scenes involving the tree of life, and blue people that began to grate on your patience towards the end of a film that was thirty minutes too long and, if you remove the fantastic special effects, unable to offer up many surprises outside of a visual orgy.


The Secret in Their Eyes

Director: Juan Jose Campanella
Starring: Ricardo Darín, Guillermo Francella, Soledad Villamil
Awards: Best Foreign Language Film Oscar - 2010

The best film of 2009 conjures a visual spectacle that is luxurious and timeless. As his career comes to a close, criminal investigator Benjamin Esposito, in an attempt to seek out answers to many befuddling questions concerning the one case that eluded him, begins his biographical novel focusing on the brutal rape and murder of a young newlywed woman decades prior. Now, with all the freedom of retirement at his disposal, Esposito undertakes a quest of inward recollections that exhume the past. But as he tinkers about and kicks up every unturned stone he previously missed, Esposito finds more than he bargained for, ultimately making startling discoveries about the elusive case and the intertwining hidden revelations about his own life.
From the very beginning, this crime thriller strings an engaging dose of beauty counterbalanced by brutality in a classic representation of unrequited love and personal tragedies during Esposito’s navigation among the past and the present. It would behoove aspiring filmmakers everywhere, particularly those eager to learn the proper way to develop a fluctuating timeline of flashbacks, to study this epic example. One can only hope Mr. Campanella will grace the movie world with more of his work. Three scenes in particular, just overpower you, they are that good. Look for them and enjoy them because their unique grace is hard to equal anywhere. If you think you have seen it all, let this director tell you otherwise; let him show you an adroit, instinctive sense for transitioning multiple filming styles at will. This captivating piece of cinema fulfills every hope and expectation by serving up an experience of unpredictability locked within a world wavering between the borders of reminiscent nostalgia and bittersweet reality.


The Hurt Locker

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie & Brian Geraghty
Awards: Oscar for Best Picture

War movies that have delved into the Middle Eastern combat zones and, more notably, the Iraq war front have been a mixed bag of miserable failures (see Jarhead & Stop Loss) and light successes (see Syriana & Three Kings). For some reason or another, at least as far as the reactions of the general public have indicated, it seems that contemporary war fronts have lacked the drama or the nostalgia that is found to be more abundant in past war eras. Now this film, which won the best picture Oscar of 2009, was drawn out of a different well entirely. Following the exploits of bomb experts as they move from place to place removing detonators one hairy scene at a time, The Hurt Locker brings the focus down to a smaller, more personal scope. Jeremy Renner plays Sgt. James, a wild man bomb squad specialist who shrugs off the dangers of the job with fearless ease. He isn’t worried too much about safety during their forays into combat but his partner detests his reckless behavior. Holding steady to his own philosophy is Sergeant JT Sanborn, played brilliantly by the ever rising, multi-talented, Anthony Mackie. Sanborn searches to control as much about each operation that he can, aspiring for order in a world where there is none to grasp. But Sergeant James thirsts for the mayhem, perhaps mirroring his primal, warrior senses to rebel against the same ideal his partner seeks to achieve. He loves what he does and the high he gets from the adrenaline may be the only thing he is passionate about in life. Everything else, outside the realm of bomb disposal, is much harder for him to understand or even enjoy.
An eerie sense of unease accompanies practically every aspect of their patrolling job detail as complex moments place the men in highly populated areas where the enemy is faceless. The potentially harmful threats, being everywhere and oftentimes nowhere at all, are never easily identified among the hazy landscape. It is hard to say if Sanborn’s by the book methodologies are any better than the full tilt, throwing caution to the wind approach held by James. No matter whose set of beliefs may be right or wrong doesn’t matter because they are all stuck in the same spot doing the same job together, and for some it is hell and for others, well, war is a drug.


Inglorious Basterds

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Brad Pitt, Christopher Waltz and Eli Roth

A group of Jewish soldiers are put together to go into Nazi occupied France and hunt out Nazi soldiers, creating chaos within the Third Reich. It’s a fun ride filled with the classic Tarantino segments of witty dialogue, action, violence, and let’s not forget, lots of guns. All of the scenes are painted with an impressive intellectual dialogue, extended and bridging between different languages, supremely performed by the very talented Christoph Waltz, performing as Col. Hans Landa.
It’s nice to see Tarantino has not forgotten how to make a great movie. Every film since Pulp Fiction hasn’t been able to live up to the expectations of that classic, but it’s got to be hard to replicate such a high standard, where every critic, both professional and otherwise, has scrutinized everything he’s put forth since. Pulp is one of the 50 best movies of all time, a film that was so revolutionary and precociously surprising that a return to that exact address is almost impossible, but Inglorious Basterds is definitely a return to that neighborhood. The WWII movie has been done by so many people over the last 10-15 years and it is nice to see Tarantino putting his own personal stamp on the genre with that twisted genius perspective that can only come through from his charismatic style.