10. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
9. Saltburn
8. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
6. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. The Holdovers
4. May December
3. Asteroid City
2. Godzilla Minus One
1. Oppenheimer
Unlike last year, I managed to see a few movies in theaters this year that weren't about Star Wars or superheroes. This is partly because I was willing to go to movies by myself for a change. You should try going to movies by yourself! The movies aren't any different and nobody else cares that you're alone.
Best of 2019
10. 1917
The thing about movies with obviously impressive technical filmmaking behind them is the filmmaking itself can become a distraction. You're thinking about how a shot was achieved as much as what the content of the shot actually does for the story. So when I learned 1917 was shot and edited to appear as a single unbroken take for the entire film, I was a little worried it would be a huge gimmick. While I did find myself sometimes looking for the transitions where cuts to new shots were hidden, overall I was still invested in the story of two British soldiers racing across no man's land in World War I to save a division of their countrymen from annihilation. The decision to make it one take has a purpose, allowing you to take in how incredibly exhausting their journey is, both physically and emotionally. It's a movie that doesn't glamorize war, but does try to honor the men who fight and die in it.
9. Marriage Story
Noah Baumbach generally does comedies about contemporary adult life, but he's been known to veer into drama at times, and Marriage Story is probably his most dramatic work. A lot of divorce stories show a marriage falling apart, but Marriage Story skips to the part where it's clearly over, and covers the messiness of the legal side of the separation. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson play the central couple, both with their charms and still having feelings for each other, but unable to go on sharing a life. It's clear that their characters are at least loosely based on Baumbach and his ex-wife, and it's interesting to look at how they're balanced in the story. Johansson's character is the one who initiated the divorce, feeling like she had no control of her life, and doesn't have as many clear flaws as Driver's does. But the story still seems to tend towards Driver's perspective, especially once he feels blindsided by his wife moving to Los Angeles and bringing their son with her. It's heartbreaking watching the relationship get more contentious as the realities of two adults separating their lives, especially with a child involved, complicate what seemed like it could have been less painful. There are a few comedic moments that keep the movie from being a slog, and the performances of the whole cast deserve the accolades they're getting.
8. Avengers: Endgame
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is still going, but I wouldn't blame anyone who felt like hopping off the ride after Endgame. It's the culmination of 12 years and 22 movies worth of successful mass market storytelling. The fact that it not only isn't an incoherent mess but pays off in all the ways people hoped it would is a miracle. I'm not sure we'll ever see anything like the first "saga" of the MCU again. The opening section of the film is successful at selling the drama and horror of a world that has lost so much. The second act is both a fun tribute to the history of the series and a screwball time travel adventure, with some pathos thrown in. And the final battle is just a smorgasbord of dramatic conclusions to character arcs and entertaining fan service moments. It's not high cinema, but there's a reason it's the highest grossing movie ever made.
7. Us
Us is a lot messier than Jordan Peele's first movie as a director. It has a really big concept behind it, one that seems to make less sense the more you think about it. But I think I may have liked it more than Get Out anyway. It has a lot on its mind, big ideas about America and freedom and class, and it's also more successful as a horror film. Get Out had creepy moments, but Us comes closer to being truly terrifying at moments, and the imagery of it will stick in your mind long afterward. Really, the whole movie stuck with me, which is probably more important than making total logical sense. There's a lot going on in Us, and it certainly would reward watching it more than once. Not too many horror movies can say that.
6. Midsommar
The negative reactions I have seen to Midsommar are interesting. I've seen complaints that the characters are unlikable, it's not very scary, and it's not very unpredictable. None of those things are false, but none of them seemed like flaws to me, because it doesn't seem like it was trying to be scary or unpredictable or have likable characters. There's a sense of inevitability to the movie, as people start disappearing and the others just continue on as if in a daze. It's a movie about trauma and mental health and drugs and shitty friends, and the way the central character gets pulled into the world she's entered is more disturbing than any simple attempts to shock or frighten the viewer. Not that it totally avoids being a horror movie, there are a few moments of gore that should unsettle pretty much anybody. It's a horror movie that takes place almost entirely in daylight, and that idea of everything being right in front of you and it still working is not just an aesthetic choice but the whole point of the movie.
5. Knives Out
Rian Johnson hops off the franchise train for a bit and returns to what he's known for - taking a genre that hasn't gotten much attention and doing it as well as any of the classics you can name. This time it's murder mysteries, with the patriarch of a wealth family seemingly killing himself and an oddball detective taking it upon himself to sniff out what he suspects was really foul play. Every member of the family has a reason they may have wanted the old man dead, but which one of them actually did it? The film quickly diverts from this story in unexpected ways, but it never stops being a thrilling and funny romp. It also does a great job of skewering upper class white people, who can be perfectly friendly and open minded until things stop going their way. Johnson has discussed doing sequels with Daniel Craig's absurdly accented detective character, and I'd love to see them.
4. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
It's indulgent as hell, but what do you expect from late-career Quentin Tarantino? Hollywood is his love letter to his youth and the movies and celebrities he adored growing up. It's also an opportunity to play around a bit with genre from scene to scene. When an actor played by Leonardo DiCaprio and his bodyguard/stunt double played by Brad Pitt are hanging out, it's a nice, loose buddy comedy. When DiCaprio is doing an acting job just to get a paycheck, he returns to the Western setting he's explored in his last couple movies. When Pitt visits the famous Spahn Ranch after learning about the weird group that's staying there, it feels like a tense horror or thriller flick. And of course it ends in a Tarantinian explosion of brutal yet somehow satisfying violence. You probably know if you like his style or not and this isn't likely to change your mind. It's maybe a bit aimless in comparison, but I still had a really good time.
3. The Irishman
Excepting a TV pilot, this is Martin Scorsese's first work in the gangster genre in over a decade. He's decidedly an old man at this point, and we find him reflecting on what a life of violence is really worth. A lot of talk has been about the movie's immense length and the de-aging computer effects, and those can be talked about, but they're not really what interests me. I don't think I've ever seen a violent mob movie that so thoroughly repudiates mob violence. The first couple hours are a solid exploration of the genre, but then after the masterfully tense and regretful climax, we have the long denouement, as the characters tally up their successes and losses and realize how little it was all worth in the end. It has one of the best final shots and final lines I've seen in a movie. It's another masterpiece in a career of them.
2. The Lighthouse
The Lighthouse isn't the easiest movie to categorize. Largely I'd say it's a psychological horror movie, but if so, it's an odd one. It focuses on the complicated relationship of the master of a lighthouse on a remote island and his new assistant. The master can be friendly when he wants, and seems casual about the official rules when it suits him, but he is also a pain to be around and vindictive when he perceives shortcomings in his employee. The assistant struggles to adapt to the situation in a graceful way, which is understandable, but it seems as though he was driven to the post through something in his past he'd rather not speak of, and it's hard to pin down just how sympathetic he should really be. He is haunted by strange visions, nightmares, and a desire to make a connection, and you start to feel the loss connection of reality that he is clearly experiencing himself. It's a weird, funny, frightening movie that pushes a lot of buttons that I like to see get pushed. And the two performances by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are great. I'll gladly watch anything Robert Eggers decides to make.
1. Parasite
A lot has been said about the message of Parasite, and rightly so. It's critical of the class divide in South Korea, but it's a divide that has proven resonant for people all over the planet. There's a justifiable rage against the ultra wealthy living well at the expense of the less fortunate everywhere, and the fact that so many of those ultra wealthy are claiming Parasite as a movie they loved just proves its point that they have no idea what world they are living in. But all of that kind of elides that the movie itself is just brilliantly crafted from start to finish. Bong Joon-ho is one of my favorites of current Korean directors, and Parasite could be his best work. Every single shot seems fully thought out and expertly designed to further the story he's telling. In addition, the whole cast is great, from Song Kang-ho, who he's been working with for over a decade, to newcomers like Park So-dam. It gets darker than you might expect at first, but Parasite is still the best time I had with a new movie in 2019.
Delayed Entry
This is the best movie that wasn't released in 2019 but I didn't see until then.
Mandy
Sometimes you just vibe with a movie, you know? I expected to like Mandy, but I didn't quite expect to fall in love with it so thoroughly. It felt like I was in an actual trance at times, which makes sense with how ethereal it feels and how the central characters are usually on some sort of drugs. Mandy is beautiful and ugly, funny and haunting, with a great soundtrack and a perfect performance from Nicolas Cage. It is sometimes both incredibly real and wonderfully unreal. I don't know, man. It's great.
What usually happens is I end up seeing a lot of above average mainstream movies during the year, and I don't really get caught up with the more prestigious films until after I've already made this list. While that's still somewhat true, as I managed to see things like Star Trek Into Darkness and Elysium while missing new work by acclaimed directors such as the Coen brothers, Steve McQueen, and Spike Jonze, I do think I did a slightly better job this year of seeing some smaller, really good movies. Mostly a fun year, even if the summer was a bit disappointing.
Best of 2013
10. Mud
Matthew McConaughey has always had a charismatic presence on screen, but he spent a lot of the last decade acting in movies no one cared about, playing regular charming guys and not pushing himself. That's changed in the last few years with roles like in Killer Joe and Magic Mike, and continues with Mud, and seeing him emerge as one of film's most captivating actors has been a real treat. I've noticed a trend recently of well made, independent movies set in rural America going around, and Mud fits right in there with the story of two boys in Arkansas who befriend a strange man living on an island who they slowly realize is a fugitive. The story is simple, but the performances are strong and it's a well-put-together coming-of-age tale worth checking out.
9. Spring Breakers
I guess Spring Break culture is still a thing? I remember MTV pushing it really hard about fifteen years ago. Spring Breakers is a fairly fascinating movie that completely revels in that culture while simultaneously mocking it and subverting it, and the effect is pretty remarkable. It's hard to know what to take from it at certain points, but at the very least, James Franco gives an unusual and memorable performance, there's some truly well crafted shots and moments, and it's a solid crime movie from start to finish. The girls, especially Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson, are fearless in their roles, and despite the rampant sexualization of every woman on screen it somehow comes out feeling like a feminist work on the other end. You kind of need to see it to know where you stand on it.
8. Frances Ha
Noah Baumbach isn't as well known as his occasional writing partner Wes Anderson, but Frances Ha shows how much more human his work can be. He and star Greta Gerwig co-wrote this movie about a young woman struggling to live in New York, and like most good movies of this works well as a story about a young person struggling to do anything. She strives to be more than an assistant at a dance company, she has fights with her best friend, she misses opportunities that could have turned into something important. But the movie is far from depressing, with Gerwig's great, eye-catching performance, the pervasive little moments and snatches of humor, and the way that in the end it shows that, while it can be tough finding how you can live your life and be happy, it's always possible.
7. Pacific Rim
It's sort of funny how Guillermo del Toro left The Hobbit because it was taking too long to get into production, and then the first movie came out before the next thing he actually directed. It was worth it though, since Pacific Rim is one of the most jubilant and exciting original summer blockbusters to come out in years. It seems kind of odd to describe an apocalyptic action movie as jubilant, but I think it fits. The story here could have been stretched out into a trilogy, but they skipped all of the boring parts and went straight to giant robots fighting giant monsters, and express humanity's can-do attitude as the few people left capable of mounting a resistance against the Kaiju fight valiantly to do so. There's only three real fight scenes, and they're all darkly lit, and only the second one is truly of consequence and grandeur. But holy hell, is that ever an action sequence. The cast of mostly TV actors do a fine job of pushing the story forward, and it's a really fun world to inhabit for a couple hours. Again, despite the whole apocalypse thing.
6. Stoker
Park Chan-wook is at the forefront of the Korean cinematic movement that's going on right now, and his first English-language film is a big relief - it's his best movie since Oldboy, and it shows that he can keep his trademark style while working in a completely different system. It's kind of impressive how well that style translates - the actors are white and speaking English, but it really does seem to have an Asian sensibility to it. A fairly innocuous-seeming story slowly reveals its layers of darkness in more and more horrifying ways. It's not really a horror film - it's just horrific. It's unique as far as American movies go, and only gets better as it goes on.
5. Iron Man 3
After The Avengers, I was maybe a bit concerned that Marvel's Cinematic Universe would lose steam and lose whatever special extra kick they had that made them different from the other handful of super hero movies that get released every year now. That wasn't really a problem, though. Shane Black and Robert Downey Jr. reunited to create one of the best movies of this whole crazy Marvel enterprise, and the best action movie of the year. It's a movie that proves to people that Tony Stark is Iron Man, not the suit he wears, and does so by having him not actually wear that suit for a great deal of the running time. Along with some other diversions from what you'd expect based on the trailers, Iron Man 3 is the type of movie that could upset people who are maybe a little stuck in their ways. But I think it's exactly what Marvel needed, and has me excited to keep watching these things every time they come out.
4. Upstream Color
Shane Carruth's first film, Primer, was the essence of pure science fiction. It had a grounded take on time travel that it took very seriously, and was the basis and driving force for the entire story. Upstream Color also has an intriguing science fiction mechanism that kicks off the story, but it goes in a different direction, one that is completely human in a way I really didn't expect. Terence Malick definitely influenced Carruth, as there's a lot of dreamy, wistful sequences that resemble his work closely. But I'm not sure if I've seen Malick's style match the subject matter of his work as well as Upstream Color's does. It's at times terrifying, beautiful, haunting, mournful, and hopeful, and it has an inescapable grip that pulls you through a journey whether you want to go or not. It's kind of incredible.
3. The World's End
To me, The World's End is the best movie in the "three flavours" trilogy. Big fans of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz might disagree, because The World's End is not quite the pure genre exercise that those movies are (and excel at being). The World's End is secretly a character piece that uses genre (in this case, alien invasion) to explore its concepts of adulthood, addiction, friendship, and other important things, and it does a lot of it under the surface. It's also extremely funny, has Simon Pegg's best performance yet, and proves again that Edgar Wright is secretly one of the best directors of action working today. It's a god damned good movie and an excellent way to put a cap on the themes they started exploring nearly a decade ago.
2. The Wolf of Wall Street
After I saw this movie, it was sort of baffling to see that there were people who didn't get that it doesn't actually like or approve of the people or actions it depicts. Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DeCaprio know they shouldn't have to rub our noses in it. Jordan Belfort and his cronies are inherently scum. They do tons of drugs, they will have sex with anyone willing, and they smugly give not a single shit while robbing people of their fortunes. The movie doesn't punish them because these people don't get punished in real life. That's the point. For crying out loud, Belfort's best buddy is married to his first cousin and starts masturbating in the middle of a party while high on Quaaludes. I'm getting away from what I wanted to say though, which is that Wolf is a great movie, and it's unfortunate that Scorsese is still having people react in exactly the wrong way after all these years. It has great acting from everyone, a great sense of humor, great pacing (three hours that feel like maybe a little over two), and... it's great. Retweets are not endorsements.
1. Gravity
Scientific accuracy is a funny thing. The closer you get to it, the more the deviations that remain feel like they could completely snap you out of the experience. Some people struggled with this in Gravity, even if they had to look up what the inaccuracies actually were afterward. But I appreciate that Gravity hewed as close to reality as possible, fudging the truth only when it was needed to make the story work. Gravity is one of the most tightly constructed and effective thrillers that has ever been made. Every big sequence is absolutely breathtaking, and the periods in between make for solid drama in bridging the gaps. The visual effects and long takes are exceptional, and at times I wondered how the hell they were doing certain things. The dialogue is a bit clunky at times, and there were a couple of places where the science probably could have been better without hurting the story. But they're very minor quibbles when you're looking at pure filmmaking that is this well done. I don't have any qualms with calling this my favorite movie of 2013.
Delayed Entry
This is the best movie that wasn't released in 2012 but I didn't see until then.
The Man From Nowhere
I'm not sure exactly why I love The Man From Nowhere so much. Well, that's kind of a lie. A big part of it is the fight scene at the end. It's seriously one of the ten best things I've ever seen in a movie. It's worth a lot. The rest of the movie is good too, though. While modern Korean cinema doesn't have the breadth of experience as Japanese movies did in their heyday, I'm still reminded of that movement when I see all of these movies by different directors with little previous experience and they all seem so good. This might be my favorite. It's sort of just a revenge movie, but a well crafted revenge movie can be a wonderful thing, and it's really a great example of what you can do with straight up genre filmmaking. Like a lot of my personal favorites, some people might not understand where I'm coming from. But what can I say. It's a great movie.
I was pretty awful about going to the theater this year before autumn rolled around, but I did okay after that and Netflix helped me catch up on a bunch of movies from earlier in the year. This is probably the first year that I've seen at least ten movies I'd consider very good before the year actually ended since... ever. I think it was a solid year, considering I enjoyed all of the Marvel movies and none made the cut.
Best of 2011
10. Source Code
Duncan Jones' second science fiction film is more accessible than his first, and that's not a bad thing when the core idea behind it is still totally solid. The advertising made me really skeptical, but the material ended up working a lot better than expected, and supported a moving human story without overshadowing it. This might be the first time I've seen Jake Gyllenhaal in a heroic leading man type-role, and he does a good job playing a guy who's not perfect but has a good heart and a good head on his shoulders. He carries a movie that's a bit brief but totally memorable.
9. Bridesmaids
Maybe one of the most successfully gender-neutral comedies ever made, Bridesmaids is laugh-out-loud funny without ever forgetting to tell an honest and occasionally really harsh story about a woman gliding through life who starts to see how many things are broken when her best friend gets engaged. The performances are great, and there are very few moments in the film that seem ill advised or that don't at least serve the story. Not the easiest comedy to watch, but a very worthwhile one.
8. Attack the Block
The second best movie about kids trying to survive aliens appearing in their neighborhood this year, Attack the Block combines elements of horror, sci-fi, and comedy expertly to create an experience that is more original and distinctly of a time and place than maybe anything on this list. Some bits are maybe a bit heavy-handed, but the thuggish teenagers are likable, the aliens are scary, and the film succeeds at pretty much everything it attempts.
7. The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life is less about really understanding what's going and more about just soaking in an experience that Terrence Malick puts on the screen. I can't claim to understand everything that happens in this movie or how certain parts related to each other, but it's always beautiful to look at and I found myself at times profoundly affected by how well certain elements of life, particularly growing up, were captured, understanding things that I wasn't aware anyone besides me could remember. If you let it grab you, it's hard to get it to let go.
6. The Adventures of Tintin
An adventure film so relentlessly fun and exciting that I almost breathed a sigh of relief once the credits started rolling. There's not a lot of meat on these bones, but what is there is always driving forward with a sense of innocent wonder, asking "why not?" and latching onto possibilities that live action productions just wouldn't have the budget to try out. Steven Spielberg maybe isn't as deep as some of the other famous directors, but when he can still make movies as sharp and enjoyable as this one (along with the help of hundreds of animators, I'm sure), I still can't help but consider him one of the best alive at his job.
5. Hugo
A movie that made me believe in the possibilities of 3D again. Although it's mostly about kids, Hugo is one of Martin Scorsese's most personal movies, reveling in his love of cinema, both overtly and more discretely with the way it celebrates and pays homage to what has come before. The cast is solid, the story is intriguing with a sweet sentimental core at its center, and it's hard to overstate just how nice the movie is to look at, whether you paid for the 3D tickets or not. In case you forgot, Scorsese can do a lot more than gangster movies.
4. Super 8
This was my most anticipated movie of the last summer, and it delivered on pretty much every expectation. It combines the more charming elements of older family science fiction movies with the more visceral thrills of something closer to horror, and does so without either side really getting short shrift or feeling underdeveloped. There's not much here that hasn't been done before, but usually it just isn't done this well, and I had a hard time worrying about small problems when the whole thing was just sitting right with me otherwise. And it's hard to get over just how good the kids in it were.
3. Warrior
The biggest surprise of the year was just how much I ended up loving this movie, despite it resting on material that sounds like a mix of movies made for Lifetime and TNT. The simple fact though is that Gavin O'Connor knows what he's doing behind the camera, and he had three actors working for him who fit their characters perfectly, and were simply great in their roles. It's not the most realistic sports story, and it doesn't have the benefit of being based on anything true. But the human element that drives it makes it work, and it's so spot-on emotionally that the end result is much more powerful than I was expecting.
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Another case of the people behind a film elevating relatively mundane (if notably popular and gritty) material, although in this case it was pretty much entirely expected. David Fincher is able to apply a specific feel and general standard of quality to his work without ever getting too flashy or obvious with it, and that continues with Dragon Tattoo, the first film in a planned trilogy that he actually hasn't signed on to finish yet. I can only hope he does, but I can't imagine having to get through parts two and three done by someone else, wondering what he could have done with it. The two leads give totally magnetic performances, and it's just so well shot and scored that numerous flaws inherent in the story just don't add up to much in the end.
1. Drive
I'm giving you a night call to tell you how I feel
I want to drive you through the night, down the hills
I'm gonna tell you something you don't want to hear
I'm gonna show you where it's dark, but have no fear
There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same
Here are a few movies I saw before the end of the year. I won't keep you in suspense: I liked them all.
Dreams
One of Akira Kurosawa's last films, Dreams is more like a collection of shorts, all based on various dreams he had and presented in very different ways. You can detect some progression as it goes on, as the early segments feature children as the central characters, while later ones are generally darker, and the last few all star the same person. But mostly it's just disjointed ideas brought to life in usually interesting ways. I liked the movie more than I thought it would, from its bizarre fantasy imagery to its more unsettling moments. I've never felt more cold watching a movie than I did watching the blizzard segment. It also features Martin Scorsese in a cameo as Vincent van Gogh, which is weird.
The Limey
I kind of like the idea of Steven Soderbergh, but I haven't actually really, really enjoyed a movie he's made until now. The Limey is an extremely sharp and tight revenge thriller starring Terence Stamp as an older British career criminal who takes a trip to America after getting out of jail to get even with the man responsible for his daughter's death. There's really no nonsense about the movie, it's pretty short and has very few characters who aren't directly related to the single central story thread. It's not the most exciting movie ever, but it's occasionally quite tense and sometimes even pretty funny. It also has a lot of nice little touches, like Soderbergh inserting snippets of a much younger Stamp from another movie to establish his backstory. The whole thing is very minimal and hazy, with its frequently jumping around in time in moments of reflection. Not quite great, but a very good take on some pretty basic material.
Miracle on 34th Street
I've seen pieces of this movie before, but the part that I didn't know, and what I think is totally brilliant about it, is that it never answers the question of whether the "Santa Claus" in this movie is actually Santa Claus. It doesn't answer the question because the answer doesn't matter, what matters is the message he's trying to give to the people around him. Well, I thought it was clever, anyway. Otherwise, it's a charming old Hollywood movie with charming old Hollywood acting, and it's sort of interesting seeing Natalie Wood this young even if her character is pretty annoying. A really nice family holiday movie, that nicely skirts a lot of issues with that subgenre.
Running on Empty
Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty is an odd little movie, combining elements of crime and soap opera. The story begins years before the film itself starts, when a couple decides to bomb a laboratory owned by a company that made napalm, and accidentally severely injures a janitor that wasn't supposed to be there and goes on the run. Years later, they're still on the run, changing identities and moving every time they suspect the law might be on their trail, with two kids in tow. They're pretty used to it, but the older son, played by River Phoenix, is getting a bit old to be staying with them, almost ready to graduate high school. Things really change when he both meets a music teacher who's impressed by his piano skills and wants him to go to college for it, and falls in love with the teacher's daughter. Family drama ensues. It's the kind of thing that probably shouldn't have worked, but Lumet is a director who seems to be able to do a lot with some slim material. It's far from his best movie, but it's a pretty good one with some strong emotional moments.
Martin Scorsese is one of the best directors who ever lived, and I think that Christopher Nolan is on his way to earning that distinction. In the last week I've watched the few remaining movies by both of them available for streaming on Netflix.
The Age of Innocence
Love stories are often passionate, but few let that passion boil just under the surface as much as it does in The Age of Innocence. Daniel Day-Lewis plays a lawyer from a wealthy family in 1870s New York City (only a few years after the chaos and violence depicted in Scorsese's other film Gangs of New York) who becomes engaged to a woman played by Winona Ryder, but when her cousin played by Michelle Pfeiffer returns from Europe, he realizes how much stronger his feelings are for her instead. Wealthy families always want to avoid scandal though, and Pfeiffer is already damaged goods since she's considering divorce from her powerful husband, and they struggle with whether to take a chance or avoid causing a stir. Innocence is a well made movie with really good lead performances, but because it's so wrapped up in that distant old wealthy people mode, I didn't really find it gripping for most of its duration. A good movie, but I didn't find myself very invested.
Boxcar Bertha
Boxcar Bertha was Scorsese's first film that wasn't connected to his student projects, and it took a while for me to figure out what was off about it. Eventually though, it hit me - it's an exploitation movie. Not a terrible one, and it's one based on unusual concepts for that sort of thing, but it's still an exploitation movie. It uses issues like labor unions and race relations to make a movie about a girl who gets naked sometimes and robs banks and shoots people with her partners. It's sort of a second-rate Bonnie and Clyde with worse acting. I don't want to be too harsh on the movie, because it does some interesting things that most B movies you'd compare it too wouldn't. But it still never reaches very high, so even its solid execution results in a movie that's decent at best.
Following
Following is Nolan's first film, shot independently in black and white on a very small budget. It concerns an unemployed aspiring writer who decided to start following random people to learn about them and get inspired. Eventually he repeatedly follows the wrong guy, and gets pulled into a world of small-time burglary and betrayal. Much like his next film Memento, Following has a complex plot that is further complicated by the script's non-linear approach to structure. It jumps back and forth between time periods, always revealing things that end up clarifying or contradicting what came before. The actual truth behind what's going on when it's finally revealed can be looked at in two ways. On one hand, it's really kind of an absurdly complicated scheme to resolve what wasn't that difficult of an issue, and it's sort of unlikely that the whole thing would come together correctly. But on the other hand, it's still a really fun mystery to unravel, and the fun of noir movies is always that moment of realization when it all finally makes sense. It's a really good first effort.
Insomnia
Insomnia is the only film Nolan's directed that wasn't based on his own screenplay, and it shows a bit. He was proving to studios that he could handle a larger budget and more recognizable cast, and he does a good job of that, though the movie underneath is merely solid and definitely the least interesting thing that he's done. It's pretty much a boilerplate detective story with a plot that wouldn't be out of place in a random episode of most cop shows, but there are a few things that make it work. The first act twist that provides Al Pacino's Detective Dormer with an internal conflict does a good job of complicating an otherwise standard plot, and the ensuing insomnia that plagues him adds a lot of flavor to the whole movie. The acting by him and Robin Williams is good, and it's a really well-shot film, particularly in a few really tense sequences that are unlike what you'd usually see in this type of story. Hilary Swank's character seemed really badly written, and there are a few other hiccups, but mostly it's an above average Hollywood mystery/thriller. Nolan's best asset is probably his screenwriting, but I think with Insomnia he shows it's not the only thing he can do.
The Last Temptation of Christ
Based on a book besides The Bible, The Last Temptation of Christ tells the story of Jesus Christ in a very different way than we're used to. Willem Dafoe's Jesus is tormented by his knowledge and his communications with God, and he is a much weaker man than he is ever depicted as being in the New Testament. The movie hits a lot of the expected notes from the few years that he worked as a prophet, from his wandering in the desert to his sermon on the mount to turning water into wine to the healing of the sick and of course, his arrest and crucifixion. But it shows these moments in different ways than we're used to, and considering these stories in a different light, seeing them as the actions of a man with weaknesses and desires that he must sacrifice rather than an all-knowing and serene son of God is very interesting. The most memorable and controversial sequence comes near the end, when we see Jesus as a man who raised his own family rather than one who died for our sins, but the resolution of this sequence, when everything finally comes together, is extremely powerful, and strikes me as something that would restore faith rather than challenge it. Definitely one of the best religious movies I've ever seen.
When the first season of Boardwalk Empire aired last year, I was impressed by the quality of its production and enjoyed its variously interconnected characters and sense of humor. I was less enamored by the plot, which was mostly fine but a bit slow-going and nothing too new. That hasn't exactly changed too much this year, but the show definitely felt more confident and original in what it wanted to be, and that along with an extra year of time to deepen and explore the show's ideas and themes resulted in something ultimately more satisfying and exciting to watch. At the very least, my anticipation for what would happen next was more breathless, and the big moments packed a bigger punch.
Although the ending of season one wasn't exactly a complete upheaval in the show's world, it did provide a number of developments which played out over the course of season two. Nelson Van Alden's upright, do-gooder image was tarnished when he started committing crimes of his own and got someone besides his wife pregnant, and this year we spent a lot of time watching that veneer peel away in public, which made him more sympathetic despite him still being a self-righteous bastard. Jimmy and Eli joined forces with the Commodore and other influential men to challenge Nucky's supremacy in Atlantic City, and their back and forth along with the other organizations in other cities that get dragged into it makes up a lot of the season's most overt conflict. Margaret decided to stay with a man she knew was a criminal in order to provide for herself and her children, and this year she definitely struggled with her own feelings on the matter.
On top of these, the show piles on even more little struggles and battles. Chalky's operation is attacked by white supremacists, and he has to manage both his duties to the black community and his loyalty to Nucky. I thought Chalky had the weakest arc of any that really lasted a significant amount of time this season; Michael K. Williams' performance is strong but they just didn't put the time into making me buy how hamstrung he appeared to be. Perhaps most significantly, Nucky himself is charged with a number of crimes, and finds out who his real friends are as he struggles to keep himself out of jail. He was pretty put upon all season, with the law and a lot of his former friends working against him, and really only having the Irish and Arnold Rothstein (still a fun character even if he doesn't have much to do) on his side consistently. By the end of the season though, he's cemented his ability to fight his way out of jams and win some allies when he needs them.
They've done a good job of building him up from a shrewd manipulator of men and money into more of a complete criminal mastermind, not exactly invincible but smart enough to find a solution most of the time. We do see though that there are still chinks in the armor, and I look forward to the continued development of the character. As far as the content itself goes, it seems like they definitely cut back on unnecessary nudity this year, but they increased the violence to compensate. Boardwalk Empire's first season drew a little criticism for being mellow now and then, a complaint that seems weird to me since The Sopranos and The Wire are two of the best crime dramas ever, and aren't exactly dripping with blood from week to week. Boardwalk was definitely more brutal this year though, and I won't deny that the unflinching nature of the violence enhanced the intensity of the show's most shocking story moments. Maybe just a bit over-the-top though, I was watching the show at the same time as The Walking Dead and it was often the former than was the most disgusting. In any case, I still don't think Boardwalk is quite the classic drama it wants to be just yet, but it's still a very fun and often poignant one, using its period setting to highlight issues that cut across centuries, and always trying to get better. I'm easily on board for season three.
A lot of people were loudly skeptical when they heard that Martin Scorsese would be directing a 3D family movie, but for some reason I wasn't. The main things I thought were that his films are successful because they are well crafted, not because they're violent, and he is a strongly visual director, so he could probably handle the third dimension as well as anyone in the business. Both of these proved to be true when I saw Hugo, based on a book that weaves a small part of the real history of film into a nice story about a young boy who finally makes some friends.
Hugo Cabret is a young orphan who lives in the walls of a Paris train station, and is left to maintain the building's clocks on his own when his drunk uncle skips town. He's also trying to repair a broken automaton that his father found in a museum and was working on before he died, and his quest to do so introduces him to Ben Kingsley's character, the owner of a small toy shop in the station, and his adoptive daughter played by Chloë Moretz, who loves reading but has never seen a movie. He takes her to the theater, and shows her the automaton, and they eventually stumble into revelations that that bring the seemingly disparate elements of a broken robot and the love of film together.
Visually the film is pretty stunning, whether you see it in 3D or 2D, though I saw the former. The sets and costumes are impeccably gorgeous on their own, and the depth from the 3D further brings the world to life in a pretty incredible way. I was definitely more impressed than I was by Avatar. This movie proved to me that the argument that 2D film is inherently superior because it is more dreamlike is absolute garbage. The visuals in this movie make it seem almost like it's animation even though it was filmed with live actors, and they bring you into a fantasy setting that doesn't seem real, but much more imaginative and fun than that. I don't like the over-saturation of 3D in the theater market, because most films aren't made with it in mind and don't seem to really benefit from the process. But Hugo was made to be shown this way, and the effect is great at pulling you into this other place, in the same way that many people probably felt when they watched a movie for the first time.
In a funny way, that 3D thing does really well to tie into the idea of the dawn of filmmaking and the newness of the concept when the film takes place. It's a couple decades after the cinema had become commonplace, but the characters do a good deal of digging into the medium's origins, and a good portion of the running time is just devoted to celebration of the art form. Scorsese is a big proponent of film preservation and film in general, so it makes perfect sense for him to get attached to this concept, almost to the detriment of the main plot of the movie. There were some flaws with the movie that detracted from the overall good feeling I got from the experience. I thought Asa Butterfield's performance was a little uneven, and while I liked Sacha Baron Cohen's inspector character, he only seemed to be in the movie because the story needed an antagonist. I definitely liked him more when he was awkwardly trying to be friendly than when he was the villain rounding up orphans.
And for a family movie, I don't know how much kids would actually like it. A good deal of what's interesting about the film is referential to things they probably wouldn't understand, and it was neither terribly funny not terribly exciting most of the time. There were a couple really fun moments, but what I liked most about the movie was the setting it created, and pretty much every kid's movie is decent enough at that. But if you enjoy Scorsese as a filmmaker, and still have a sense of wonder, and an appreciation for the history of human entertainment, you'll probably like the movie a lot.
I'll be honest, I usually find historical epics to be pretty boring. Even the good ones could use some trimming. Leave it to Martin Scorsese though to create one that's gripping from the first second of its nearly three hour running time to the last. It tells the story of New York City before it became the mecca of human civilization it is today, when the streets still ran red with the blood of the many warring factions that vied for influence and their many victims. The film isn't a true story, but besides some embellishments it may as well have been. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio in his first of four collaborations with Scorsese as the son of an Irish immigrant and leader of the Dead Rabbits, and Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill the Butcher, the man who killed him. It starts with a war between two gangs for control of Five Points, a district in the city where the poor make do. The extremely bloody battle sets the tone for the rest of the film, establishing its main characters and their later motivations, as the plot quickly jumps forward to when DiCaprio's character has grown up.
The two best things about the movie are easily Scorsese's direction combined with the amazing work done to recreate 1800s New York and capture it on film, and Day-Lewis' performance. You could pretty much cut the protagonist out of the film and it could just be a great story about a leader of both crime and community in a city as it slowly develops into something resembling modern society. That's not really to slight DiCaprio, that's just how good Day-Lewis is. There's just something cool about the place the film creates, filled with hard men with curly mustaches, top hats, and razors and knives tucked into their clothing. And he epitomizes it with his glass eye and inscrutable nature. You never know if he's going to cut your throat or give you a pat on the shoulder. DiCaprio has his romantic foil, played by Cameron Diaz, can't quite measure up to his work, though they're perfectly fine otherwise.
The supporting cast is fantastic too, featuring recognizable faces in a variety of roles, supporting various sides as they see fit. Liam Neeson brings plenty of gravitas to the couple scenes in the beginning where he plays DiCaprio's father, which lends weight to later scenes where Bill shows clear ongoing respect for his former foe. The small time crew DiCaprio runs with features Al Capone from Boardwalk Empire and D'Angelo from The Wire, and Brendan Gleeson and John C. Reilly give interesting performances as former allies of Neeson who may no longer agree with his ideas. The film isn't without problems, of course. The entire third act is pretty messy, as though the screenwriters lost momentum and had to basically force things to make sure they managed to check off all the plot details they needed to to reach their conclusion. And that conclusion, while thematically appropriate, does result in a rather unfortunate anticlimax of an ending. With Scorsese at the helm though, all of those individual scenes manage to be good if not great, and he makes the problematic ending work because it's very clear what they're going for. He just knows how to make great movies, and this is certainly one of them.
