In Contention

Tag: Me and You and Everyone We Know

  • BERLIN: ‘Sleeping Sickness,’ ‘The Future,’ ‘The Guard’

    Sorry there was no Berlinale dispatch yesterday. It was my birthday, and after “celebrating” it with a triple-bill of variously despairing Competition entries — finishing with “The Turin Horse,” Béla Tarr’s impressive 146-minute ode to blizzards, boiled potatoes and dying — more traditional festivities were in order, beginning with several stiff drinks. There’s nothing like a film festival to infuse a birthday with bleaker-than-usual ruminations on mortality.

    After a dawdling start, however, the Competition really kicked into gear yesterday with a pair of substantial auteur works that will likely remain the prime topic of critical conversation for the duration of the festival: the aforementioned Tarr opus and Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s “Nader and Simin, A Separation,” now the runaway favorite for the Golden Bear for reasons both artistic and political.

    I’ll discuss both these films in due course, but neither one has quite displaced an earlier (and more critically divisive) Competition title from the top of my personal best-of-the-fest list — and indeed, if anything does in the next three days, I’ll be a very happy (and surprised) man. That title would be German director Ulrich Köhler’s third feature “Sleeping Sickness” (****), an arrestingly structured and humidly atmospheric study of immigrant living and integration in west Africa that would make a valuable companion piece to Claire Denis’s more pristine “White Material,” but also warrants discussion on its own merits.

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  • LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 2005 and 2006

    Catch up with the idea behind this series here.

    We all remember Jack Nicholson’s raised eyebrows as he said the word, “Crash” at the end of the 2005 ceremony. What has to be, objectively, one of the biggest surprises of the last twenty years in the Best Picture category is, subjectively, one of the worst catastrophes the Academy has ever produced. “Crash” is a wretched film, but let’s focus on the positive. This was the first time a Best Picture winner was a film that premiered at festivals and was picked up for distribution.

    Ang Lee became our first non-white Best Director winner, George Clooney became the first person to receive acting and directing nods in the same year for different films, no film won more than 3 Oscars for the first time in nearly sixty years and the Best Documentary winner grossed more than the Best Picture winner. No shortage of talking points then.

    2006 was the year of Scorsese, finally winning the big prizes for “The Departed.” Biopics continued to reign in the acting categories, with Forest Whitaker joining last year’s Philip Seymour Hoffman in the category of non-traditional leading men walking away with Best Actor honors.

    Jon Stewart and Ellen DeGeneres were charged with hosting duties, both more famous in the TV realm and both serviceable MCs. Again it was up to Jack Black and Will Ferrell to bring the night’s best entertainment.

    So what should you throw into your Netflix queue other than “Crash?”

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  • Films for my father

    Last year, Kris celebrated Father’s Day with a lovely list of films that are, for him, inextricably connected to his old man. That day has rolled around once again, and because I’m lazy, I’ve resorted to a poster tribute instead. What follows are 10 titles that I have, in my mind, re-dedicated to my own father for one reason or another. Some are old favorites that he introduced to me, others are newer discoveries we made together. One is the first film he ever took me to see on his own, another is the first I took him to see after I’d left the nest. I only chose on the former occasion.

    All are films he’s very fond of, or at least claims to be; I can’t quite say the same, but I’ll keep trying with “Where Eagles Dare.” Happy Father’s Day, Tom.

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  • Guy’s top 50 of the decade: #31-40

    Matt Damon in The Bourne UltimatumYesterday, I began my countdown of my 50 favorite — do note that last word, I hesitate to say “best” — films of the 2000s. Today, we creep up another ten rungs on the ladder.

    I wrote this in my introduction to the list yesterday, but it bears repeating: don’t read too much into the rankings at this level. I’m not the kind of person who can scientifically determine whether my 37th favorite film of the decade is marginally — but conclusively — superior to my 38th favorite. Just today, I did some mild shuffling with the following titles, only to change my mind a few minutes later.

    Bottom line: I think they’re all pretty darn special. The list continues after the cut.

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  • THE LISTS: Top 10 directorial debuts of the decade

    JimMyron Ross in BallastTo me, “great cinema” means something I haven’t seen before or something I have seen before presented in a new way. With 110 years of motion pictures behind us, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to meet those standards, especially since filmmakers find it a lot easier to give in to preconceived notions of story structure, character arcs and tidy resolutions than to try and present something truly unique on the screen. So more often than not, when something new comes along, a new filmmaker unhinged to big money or heavy reputations is brought along with it.

    Actually researching the titles eligible for inclusion made me realize just how few great debut films there really are, let alone in this decade. Most great filmmakers needed at least one title or two to really get their bearings straight. M. Night Shyamalan, Christopher Nolan, Michel Gondry, David Fincher and Alexander Payne all come to mind. Not everyone can be Spike Jonze after all.

    That said, there’s also something amazing and beautiful about catching an artist at their most raw and naïve. Often, the only way to rewrite the rulebook is to be unaware that you are breaking any rules in the first place. When it comes to art, the line between genius and stupidity can be nearly invisible. For example, a film that came close to making this list was “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy.” Less a movie than a patchwork of scenes and caricatures, Adam McKay clearly had no specific vision for this thing since an entire second movie was constructed out of deleted scenes. But what he came up with benefits from a legitimate sense of anarchy that isn’t present in any of his or Will Ferrell’s subsequent work. And from Chaplin and Keaton to Johnny Knoxville and Sacha Baron Cohen, the cornerstone of great comedy has been anarchy.

    Let’s get the obvious out of the way. This list may be a bit premature as there are six whole months left for some obnoxiously talented filmmaker to set my world on fire with their debut work and I’m denying him or her a rightful spot on this list. Well, what are you gonna do? It’s not like I’ve seen all the films eligible for inclusion released up until this point anyway. I’m taking my chances. And before I get stick in the comments, believe me, I was surprised and disappointed that no foreign film made the list. It’s not that I didn’t see many; it’s just that I didn’t see any that deserved it. And yes, I’ve seen “Amores Perros.”

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