In Contention

Tag: You Can Count on Me

  • 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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  • Are you there, Fox? It’s me, ‘Margaret’

    I have to say, I’ve all but given up hope that Kenneth Lonergan’s “Margaret” will ever see the light of day. For years now, I’ve kept an optimistic eye out for the film, kept putting it on my early Oscar prediction lists, kept checking the Fox Searchlight release schedule — only for the film, originally shot in 2005, to fall further and further beneath the radar.

    There’s talk of an unruly, wildly overlong shooting script as being to blame, while chronic perfectionism on Lonergan’s part has also been rumoured. I’m not sure what to believe — but as someone who thinks that “You Can Count on Me” is looking to remain one of the decade’s finest American films (yeah, we have to start thinking about such things, don’t we?), it’s certainly a frustrating state of affairs.

    It’s certainly hard to imagine a film of “Margaret’s” pedigree — to jog your memory, the cast includes Anna Paquin, Matt Damon and Mark Ruffalo, while Scott Rudin and the late duo of Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack all have producer credits — just falling by the wayside.

    So I was intrigued to stumble upon this news tidbit that suggests the film hasn’t been entirely forgotten — and that it doesn’t only share a trio of producers with last year’s “The Reader.” It would appear that prodigious young composer Nico Muhly has taken on the job of scoring the film, which may or may not mean anything. Searchlight’s website offers no helpful information, for one thing. Still, it’s nice to hear that “Margaret” hasn’t completely vanished off the face of the earth.

    (Coincidentally, this is the second time Muhly has cropped up in my thoughts today. This morning, I was checking out the lineup for the ATP UK Weekend, a music fest I’m attending in May — and lo and behold, there he was, alongside the likes of The Jesus Lizard and Spiritualized. Dude’s got it going on.)

  • Oscar nominations that made me cheer

    Over the years I have been watching and studying the Oscars in earnest, since about 1974 (age 13).  It has always been a nice surprise when an unexpected actor, director or film made the cut to the final five.  It’s a special kind of high.

    I remember reacting with surprise and genuine happiness when Giancarlo Giannini was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in “Seven Beauties,” but even better was the inclusion of Lina Wertmuller, the film’s director (becoming the first woman ever to receive a designation in the directing category — nd for a foreign language film, no less).  I loved the film, so this put me over the moon, even though Giannini’s nod likely cost John Wayne his nomination for “The Shootist.”

    In 1997 it was Atom Egoyan, nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Sweet Hereafter,” a brilliant study of grief in small town Canada; the L.A. Times named it the best film of the year but up here in Canada, we never expected Oscar attention for Atom and his film.

    I was equally thrilled when Martin Scorsese was rewarded with a nomination for his direction of “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a bold, passionate film made from the heart by one of our greatest directors.

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