I know the Paulies are typically put out the day after the Oscars (to the extent that the Paulies are even typically put out anymore) but I hope that you’ll all forgive the extra few days wait. This year, I decided to finally get a blog going to post the Paulies along with occasional movie reviews and commentaries. Its pretty bare right now but I hope to get it touched up soon. I’d also like to get all of the old Paulies lists archived on the site so if anyone has any pre-2006 Paulies lists in their email archives, please send them along to me.
So, in brief, this was a pretty lackluster year for movies. As usual, there were some true gems (Let the Right One In, Synecdoche, NY, The Wrestler, etc.) and a few god awful failures (Revolutionary Road is almost Dogville-esque in its awfulness). But it was the great mediocre middle that seemed to dominate the box office this year. It was disturbing to see rewards once again heaped upon the undifferentiated mass of middle brow Oscar bait that chokes the cineplexes from November to January every year. (see e.g. Revolutionary Road and Benjamin Button…and probably The Reader…but I can’t cast aspersions since I couldn’t even bring myself to go see it) It was only a year ago that challenging, if mainstream films like There Will be Blood, No Country for Old Men, and Eastern Promises were recognized by the Academy. But this year, it was back to business as usual.
Part of the problem may be the natural ebb and flow of movie releases but, as always, some of the blame can be placed on the myopic distribution choices made by the studios. The prime example is the darling of the 2008 Oscars, Slumdog Millionaire. Slumdog had its distribution pulled by its production studio and had a difficult time picking up another distributor…and the movie was an exotic, fast paced fairy tale with a recognizable director. You can only imagine the problems that less Hollywood-friendly pictures must have. Hopefully, Slumdog will open the eyes of some executives out there and get them to pick up a few more festival favorites and foreign flicks. But its more likely that it will just spawn a series of ripoffs. Well, as always, the good stuff can still be had on Netflix.
Without further ado, here come The Paulies. This year, I also noted whether I saw the film in a theater or at home since that can change the viewing experience. Of course, my usual disclaimer applies: I am not a professional critic. For better or worse, I get paid to negotiate cable contracts not watch movies so I missed a few this year. Some significant films that I didn’t manage to see include: Ballast, The Reader, Happy Go Lucky, My Winnipeg, The Secret of the Grain, Wendy and Lucy, Still Life, Flight of the Red Balloon, Trouble the Water. In addition, I will be counting some films that did not get DC distribution or DVD release this year as 2009 films (these include The Class, Gomorrah, and Silent Light).
Best Film
1. Let the Right One In (Theater): If you only see one Swedish vampire flick this year, Let the Right One In should be it. The film was an inspired re-imagining of the vampire mythos that focused in on, for lack of better terminology, the “real” issues associated with vampirism rather than romanticizing the “condition.” In the world of LTROI, vampires are always, first and foremost, predators. They smell like corpses, they look like death, they can’t eat or drink (except for blood of course), and they have little control over their own instinctive need to feed. Even as the central love (ish) story between the sadistically bullied 12-year old Oskar and the vampire Eli (who has “been 12 for a long time”) develops, the audience is never allowed to forget what Eli is. In fact, ample evidence is presented to suggest that, as sweet as the “romance” is, it may be more of a matter of need and part of a centuries-long cycle of predation of another sort. The depressing thing is that LTROI is already set for an American re-make in 2010. It will almost certainly replace the dark brooding Swedish winter landscape with a midwestern Everytown and the skilled young actors with rejects from High School Musical 12 (Right after I wrote this sentence I decided to look online for more info and, lo and behold, Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) wants to set it in “Colorado…maybe Littleton.” So at least there will be snow. I can’t wait.) . So see the original before its reputation is tainted by the Hollywood Schlock Machine. It comes out on DVD in March.
2. Synecdoche, NY (Theater): Think about the scene in Being John Malkovich where Malkovich crawls inside his own head and sees nothing but Malkovich. Now imagine that each of the Malkoviches crawled inside their own heads again. That’s pretty close to the effect achieved by Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut. By the end, the layers of meta criticisms and self reflexive commentaries become so dense that it is impossible to flesh out which characters are the observers and which are simply observed (moreover, is the distinction even important?). It is a glorious mess. But at the core of it all, it is just Kaufman, unfiltered, trying to explain the creative processes and morbid obsessions that inform not only his writing but his everyday life. It is a fascinating trip…once…but I hope this project was cathartic enough to allow him to get out of his own head just a little bit the next time around.
3. The Wrestler (Theater): Mickey Rourke has justifiably gotten most of the critical attention associated with The Wrestler (with apologies to Sean Penn, doing a great impersonation of Harvey Milk doesn’t get you close to the heights that Rourke reached with his performance). However, there was a lot more to the film than just an amazing performance. Director Darren Aronofsky (a seemingly automatic entry on this list) weaves a tale that focuses on the conflict between Randy the Ram’s stage life and his “real” life. Marisa Tomei’s Cassidy, an exotic dancer that Randy patronizes and ultimately befriends, deals with a similar conflict between her stage life and her life as a mother and her role as provides an excellent counterpoint to Randy’s struggles. Ultimately, the decisions that each character makes call into question the easy definitions of what constitutes the supposedly real life that people cling to even as the close ups of The Ram’s abused body call into question the quick and facile dismissal of professional wrestling as inherently fake.
4. Waltz with Bashir (Theater): Ari Forman’s animated quest to reconstruct his lost memories of the Lebanon war was the most emotionally devastating movie of the year and also the most difficult to categorize. Waltz was based on real interviews conducted by Forman along with his own recollections and memories but it delved so deeply into the subjective nature of memory that the results were far from documentary. The film is all the more powerful for this focus on the human impact of traumatic experiences and the memories that linger on afterwards.
5. Slumdog Millionaire (Theater): The Academy actually got this one right, given the slate of nominees this year. But what I don’t get why it has been pitched as “the feel good movie of the year” by many commentators. Sure, the hero gets the girl but everyone else that he interacts with throughout the film ends up dead, maimed, or otherwise worked over. To my mind, the most poignant images in the movie were of the people (the main character’s brother, the blind beggar, and the crowds watching him win a fortune on TV) who were unable to escape the slums. If Boyle had overlooked or marginalized those figures, Slumdog would have been little more than another slick Hollywood (or Bollywood) fairy tale.
6. Gran Torino (Theater): Eastwood’s pitch perfect homage to the genre movies that made him an iconic American actor was a fitting elegy for his career as an action star and for an older, isolated vision of America. Eastwood’s gruff retiree is a relic in every way…he is the last white man in a rapidly changing suburb, a retired autoworker in an America that no longer makes things, and a veteran haunted by memories of a war that most people rarely think about. He clings to his routine, his past, and his attitudes towards immigrants (attitudes that could charitably be called antiquated) with an almost religious fervor (even as he scoffs at the religious devotion of his parish priest). But, for all his bluster, he also clings to the rigid moral code that motivated the Man With No Name and Dirty Harry. As he so eloquently states “I finish things.” Truer words were never spoken.
7. Encounters at the End of the World (Theater): Werner Herzog has seemingly always been drawn to the farthest and harshest reaches of nature and the people who attempt to survive and thrive within those reaches. So, it was natural that he would eventually end up in perhaps the most extreme environment on earth. Like his human subjects in the film, he is a dreamer and a traveler who, after years of wandering finally has finally found his way to the base of the world. What he finds is a an environment that is unbelievably harsh but full of beauty and life. The images and sounds he captures both above and below the ice shelf are among the most stunning I have seen in years…and the people living at McMurdo Station are stranger than fiction. Suffice to say, I looked up how much a trip to Antarctica would cost as soon as I got home from the theater…then I realized that (1) it costs $25K+ to trek the interior of Antarctica and (2) I complain every time the temperature dips below 55. I think I’ll just have to be happy with the DVD.
8. Milk (Theater): It kills me to say it but Sean Penn did a great job as Harvey Milk. Part of that is because the flamboyant Milk allowed Penn to channel his natural tendency to overact to a productive end (and I’d like to thank the Academy for my recent nomination for “most obvious backhanded compliment”). The movie itself was very ably handled by Gus van Sant (though he had more of an opportunity to showcase his directorial chops in the little seen Paranoid Park) but the performances of Penn and Josh Brolin really propelled the story and transformed the film from a solid but forgettable biopic into one of the better films of 2008.
9. The Dark Knight (IMAX): It was an absolute shock to me that The Dark Knight didn’t get nominated for Best Picture. I mean it had the perfect Oscar formula (high box office + starpower + critical acclaim) along with the Heath Ledger “X Factor”…it seemed like a shoe in. But hey, a three hour snore fest starring Brad Pitt’s CGI enhanced desiccated corpse and the Academy’s mandatory WWII movie are just
as worthy of nomination. I guess that the producers will just have to content themselves with having made the best superhero movie of all time…and more money than Croesus.
10. A Christmas Tale (Home): A very French take on the “dysfunctional family home for Christmas” story. The setup is simple but the story is propelled by an amazing ensemble cast including Catherine Deneuve (still radiant at 65) and Mathieu Amalric.
HM: Wall-E (Home), Tell No One (Theater), Paranoid Park (Home), Frozen River (Home), Doubt (Theater), Man on Wire (Home)
***I also want to give a shout out to a couple of friends who have made excellent short films recently.
Joe Pettinati recently completed his second film, Family Meeting, and will be submitting it to festivals this year. I saw an almost complete cut a few months ago and it is excellent. Keep an eye out for this hilarious dark comedy on the festival circuit. Details about screenings will be available at http://www.crackerjackies.com/ as they become available.
Kara Herold is an accomplished San Francisco based filmmaker and a longtime friend. Her most recent film, Bachelorette, 34, was recently screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City as part of the museum’s documentary fortnight. It is a humorous take on her mother’s attempts to fix her up with a man. I encourage everyone to see it if it is screened nearby. Details are available at http://www.karaheroldmedia.com/.
The Dogville/Moulin Rouge Memorial Award for Worst Film
Please note that, in the spirit of these awards, extra weight is given to movies that are actually trying to be “Quality” pictures. Also, I decided not to give an award to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull because I am trying to pretend that movie never happened. Besides, South Park already critiqued it much better than I ever could [http://www.blogger.com/www.southparkstudios.com/clips/187269].
1. Revolutionary Road (Theater): This movie was a bigger wreck than the last time Kate and Leo got together (That was in Titanic…get it? I can’t resist the easy jokes.). within the first five minutes of the movie, you know exactly what you are in for: a beautifully shot period piece…that consists entirely of two insufferable people yelling at each other. Sam Mendes isn’t exactly known as an intimate director but he kept the audience at such a distance this time around that it was impossible to empathize with any of the characters. That’s a problem when you are directing a movie that is supposed to be propelled by the audience’s emotional involvement with the main characters. Not that Kate and Leo, or the inexplicably Oscar nominated Michael Shannon (whose role as a supposedly wise crazy person was really an excuse for Mendes or the screenwriters to insert ten minutes of insipid and obvious exposition into the movie) did anything to help their own cause. Seriously though, if a two hour screaming match on the set of Mad Men sounds like your idea of a good time, have at it. But you’ve been warned.
2. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Home): I really want to pretend that Woody Allen’s late career “European Period” never happened. With the exception of Match Point, his last several films have fallen to the level of “Willie Mays on the Mets” in the annals of late career collapses. VCB is nothing but an excuse to show Scarlett Johanssen, Penelope Cruz, and Rebecca Hall flitting about a non-existent, storybook vision of bohemian Europe (though the one saving grace of the film was been Cruz and Johannsen making out). Moreover, the tone of the movie is utterly condescending towards anyone that doesn’t fall in line with the characters artistic temperaments and lifestyles (it is implied, none too subtly, that this group includes most Americans). Even Woody’s usually funny dialogue has grown tired. I wouldn’t wish to deprive the old man of the fantasies of his twilight years, I just don’t want to watch them anymore.
3. The Happening (Home): Does anyone still think M. Knight Shyamalan is talented? Anyone? In answer to my own question, I now present a short play entitled Pitching “The Happening”:
Shyamalan: I want to make Signs 2.
Movie Exec: Well that movie sucked but it did good box office. So, what’s the twist?
S: Get this…instead of aliens the bad guy is oh, lets say…plants…we can tap into that whole Al Gore eco-scare thing.
ME: Um ok. At least that’s more plausible than The Village.
S: Oh, and the plants make people kill themselves in the most ridiculous ways possible. Eli Roth told me that the kids dig that sort of thing these days so I’ll need an R rating.
ME: How do the plants make people kill themselves? Are they intelligent? Are most plants even poisonous? This sounds crazy even for you.
S: How did Bruce Willis become invincible in Unbreakable? How did the little kid talk to ghosts in The Sixth Sense? How could the aliens in Signs master interstellar travel and conceive an elaborate invasion plan...but not realize that water was deadly to them? What the hell was going on in Lady in the Water? My movies don’t need to make sense…they just need to make money.
ME: You have a point. People do keep paying to see your movies no matter how ridiculous they are. Ok, the film’s a go as long as Mel has signed off…
S: No need to bother Mel. I have Marky Mark attached…and he produces Entourage.
ME: What could possibly go wrong?
Sean Penn (Pre-Milk) Memorial “Worst Actor” Award
1. Marky Mark, The Happening: Marky Mark is a bit of an enigma. We know he can act when he is paired with a good director (See e.g. Boogie Nights, The Departed, Three Kings) but he also mails in some absolute stink bombs (see e.g. just about everything else he’s done). Shyamalan is not a good director and Marky would be better off simply talking to his animal friends [http://www.hulu.com/watch/37753/saturday-night-live-mark-wahlberg-talks-to-animals] rather than taking another role in one of his movies.
Most Overrated Film
1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: How the hell did this movie get 13 Academy Award nominations? It wasn’t awful like Revolutionary Road or Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Fincher’s direction was technically brilliant as always and none of the actors were particularly offensive. The problem is that the movie was unbelievably boring and I mean “watching paint dry” boring. Sure, the paint was pretty but, in the end, its still just paint.
One side note on Benjamin Button. I can buy the central conceipt (he’s born as an old man and as he grows up he gets younger) for purposes of the film but why does he shrink when he ages into a child? When he is born he is an infant sized old man, not a full grown geezer so shouldn’t his last days be spent as some freakish six foot tall infant rather than a little baby? I guess it lacks a certain poetry but damnit if I wasn’t looking forward to seeing that CGI man-baby for three full hours.
Best Director:
1. Ari Forman, Waltz with Bashir: Its an animated movie but the orchestration of the visual imagery and its integration with the documentary elements in the film was just jaw dropping.
2. Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
3. Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler
4. Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
5. Tomas Alfredson, Let the Right One In: Alfredson has a real gift for setting a mood and for eliciting some amazingly nuanced performances from his actors, often with very few words. Here’s hoping we see more of him stateside in the near future.
HM: Gus van Sant, Paranoid Park
Best Actor
1. Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler: Sure, it helped that Rourke’s career trajectory paralleled The Ram’s but anyone who derides this performance as just “Rourke being Rourke” didn’t watch his face when he was pulling staples out of his own back…or when he was coming down the stairs into the deli…or when he was giving his speech at the end. There are a lot of junkies, child actors, and sports stars out there who have had similar career/life arcs as Rourke but it takes a genuine talent to convey the full spectrum of those emotions so convincingly to a movie audience.
2. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Synecdoche, New York/Doubt: Its almost unfair how good Phillip Seymour Hoffman is. I combined his two roles so that I could give credit to a few other notable performances.
3. Sean Penn, Milk
HM: Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Best Actress
1. Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You so Long (Theater): An absolutely stunning, nuanced performance by the veteran actress. for the record, this movie would have been right in the middle of the top-10 if it hadn’t had such an emotionally dishonest ending. I really can’t help but think that the ending may have cost the movie some additional acclaim and Scott Thomas the Oscar nomination she so richly deserved.
2. Lina Leandersson, Let the Right One In
3. Meryl Streep, Doubt
HM: Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Best Supporting Actress
1. Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler: At this point I think the jokes have to stop…Tomei is a fine actress. If you look at her body of work this decade, she has turned in very good performances in In the Bedroom, Factotum, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, and The Wrestler. Plus, that Oscar she somehow won for My Cousin Vinny. Not many people can claim that kind of track record these days.
2. Emily Watson, Synecdoche, NY
3. Catherine Deneuve, A Christmas Tale
HM: Viola Davis, Doubt
Best Supporting Actor
1. Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight: Is it better to burn out or to fade away? No one is happy that Heath Ledger died but, if he had lived, this performance would have ensured any number of Joker sequels and (potentially) spin offs. As it is, we were left with one amazing performance that will probably grow in stature over time rather than being diluted by over exposure. As is too often the case, the art is made more powerful and unique by the death of the artist.
2. Josh Brolin, Milk
3. Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder (Home)
HM: Tom Cruise, Tropic Thunder
Last year’s Top-10
Get your queue revved up. These are the movies I didn’t get around to reviewing last year but they’re all available on Netflix.
1. I’m Not There
2. There Will be Blood
3. No Country For Old Men
4. Eastern Promises
5. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
6. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
7. The Orphanage
8. Persepolis
9. Zodiac
10. Black Book
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