2002: What I've Seen...
Submitted by SteveR on Sat, 06/05/2004 - 03:58
Tags:
- In order of preference:
MASTERPIECE
- Punch-Drunk Love (P.T. Anderson, USA) - Among its many virtues, I'll mention one here: Anderson brilliantly makes an art-form out of lensflares, transfiguring them to compliment the story and theme in a way that no filmmaker has ever previously attempted.
NEAR-MASTERPIECE
- Harmful Insect (Akihiko Shiota, Japan) - A spare and nuanced film, Shiota's acute visuals and brilliant ellipses would be enough alone to carry the opaque narrative, but it's elevated to another plane entirely by the nearly wordless performance of Aoi Miyazaki, who, in one transcendental moment of acting, encapsulates the strange comfort afforded by a stranger in a time of need with an unexpected smile that haunts the remainder of the film. This movie is the rare teenage film that views that period of flux with neither sentimental nor melodramatic eyes but rather an icy, fatalistic stare that's downright harrowing. It's shameful that this doesn't have an American distributor.
GREAT
- Irreversible (Gaspar Noe, France) - I'm one of those that thinks there's more going on here than mere exploitation. There are too many Kubrickian elements of structure relating to cosmic universals (Man from Savage to Enlightened? from Chaos to Civilization?) for me to walk down that path. Oh, and there's no denying that it's also as exhilarating as any movie watching experience you've ever had, whether it, err, exhilarated you good or exhilarated you bad. C'mon, admit it.
- Femme Fatale (Brian De Palma, USA) - De Palma's best movie in nearly a decade, though I'm sure people who hate it wouldn't be able to be convinced otherwise, so I'll save it.
- Blue Gate Crossing (Yee Chin-yen, Taiwan)
- Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (Guy Maddin, Canada) - Guy Maddin directed this 73-minute mostly silent screen-adaptation of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's program of the same name (accompanied by music from Mahler's symphonies), and it's probably his best movie. If it sounds at first a little too arty or self-conscious, there's nothing to fear: I think it's almost impossible for any film fan who has an interest in either classic film or experimental film (or both) not to love this. Basically, if you've ever been enamored by a silent films' capacity to bowl you over on the mere combination of gestures and music and the unique aesthetic of a movie that's been worn down by spinning through countless projectors, this tribute is a perfect representation. And Maddin's ever-present updating through transcendent moments of sound or sparse, expressionistic color or dry, gaudy humor only add to the appeal. Don't be tricked into thinking this is something only for those with experimental tastes: this should be right down the alley of anyone who loves film. Fantastic stuff.
- Hero (Zhang Yimou, Hong Kong)
- Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon, Japan) - Though Kon's film deals much with childish innocence, it's actually quite a mature film, and it filters a history of Japanese live-action film through animation as if it'd always existed that way (images like the classic white witch from Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" make appearances within new contexts). It's a unique anime in that it doesn't envision a science-fiction world, but instead distant pasts and near-futures. Surprisingly poignant and emotionally affecting as well.
- The Rules of Attraction (Roger Avery, USA) - Unfairly shat upon, this dour teen movie is a violent anecdote to all those cheerily vapid high school sleaze comedies -- here, the repercussions to actions generally viewed on the big screen as funny or hilariously gross touch much deeper, and the death and depression that follow, while lightly glazed with dark humor, are surprisingly astute, timely, and well-observed. Does for the teen comedy what "The Wild Bunch" did for the western, and nobody seemed to notice.
REALLY GOOD
- Turning Gate (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)
- Adaptation. (Spike Jonze, USA)
- The 25th Hour (Spike Lee, USA)
- Demonlover (Olivier Assayas, France)
- To Be and To Have (Nicolas Philibert, France)
- Solaris (Steven Soderbergh, USA)
- Roger Dodger (Dylan Kidd, USA)
- The Skywalk is Gone (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan)
- Catch Me if you Can (Steven Spielberg, USA)
- No Such Thing (Hal Hartley, USA)
- The Grey Zone (Tim Blake Nelson, USA) - Were it not for the unfortunate Mametian dialogue, this'd be much higher on the list.
- Blade II (Guillermo del Toro, USA)
- Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
- Haibane Renmei (Tomokazu Tokoro, Japan)
- Decasia (Bill Morrison, USA) - A frightening vision of our deteriorating film history. Feels downright apocalyptic.
- Russian Ark (Alexander Sokurov, Russia)
- The Son (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium) - Not quite as good as the Dardenne's Brothers previous film, "Rosetta", so it qualifies as a minor disappointment, but a damn fine film nonetheless. Jean-Pierre and Luc's rigorously claustrophobic atmosphere is fairly similar to their previous film, but this one contains a catharsis at the end in deep contrast to Rosetta's grim abruption. The final shot is stunning in so many ways.
- Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, USA)
GOOD
- Japon (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico)
- In My Skin (Marina de Van, France) - Reminded me most of Claire Denis' "Trouble Every Day" in its' very feminine portrayal of brutal, erotic body horror. The camera glides intimately over de Van's soft skin, only to find her oozing self-inflicted wounds as she prods and digs deeper. The delicately-shot scene where de Van's own body becomes like a dislocated lover as she cuts away flesh and drinks the blood is probably one of the most impressive love scenes I've seen in a long time. And as seemingly repulsive and off-putting as it sounds, the recent deluge of movies featuring that usually horrifying image of the naked female body completely enshrouded in crimson but now minus any screams of terror (and replaced with an almost calm sense of discovery) feels strange and new. Feminism writ with blood.
- Lilya 4-Ever (Lukas Moodysson, Sweden)
- Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore, USA)
- Springtime in a Small Town (Tian Zhuangzhuang, China)
- Graveyard of Honor (Takashi Miike, Japan) - Routinely humdrum, but is electrifying in bits and pieces. Like lots of Miike's middle-ground work, there are moments that seem like they belong in his upper-tier level stuff, and I think that's the main reason that I continue to be drawn to every film he makes and is also the reason he's one of my favorite working filmmakers despite having made a large handful of movies that I wouldn't recommend. A documentary-like staging of a police raid and shoot-out stands out as most impressive in this one, but really, the entire final 20 minutes -- wherein Miike orchestrates a series of wordless revenge episodes in which many-a-person is shot and/or brutalized by our marauding, wrathful protag who is seemingly hell-bent on destroying all fucking life he sees -- is downright stunning. But then, this movie is friggin' 130 minutes long, and that's about 40 minutes longer than needs-be.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson, USA) - I still regard the extended cut of "Fellowship of the Ring" as a masterpiece; a gorgeous, dreamlike journey with an astonishing breadth of time and place that manages to maintain a solid sense of pacing and propulsion. "The Two Towers" feels downright cumbersome and herky-jerky by comparison, clumsily intercutting between three different storylines, often demolishing momentum in the process. It only truly comes alive during the last thirty minutes, which capture much of the same sense of magic that the first possessed.
NOT RECOMMENDED
- Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
- About Schmidt
- Ararat
- Austin Powers in Goldmember
- The Believer
- Birthday Girl
- The Business of Fancydancing
- CQ
- The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
- 8 Women
- Frailty
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Heaven
- Ice Age
- Igby Goes Down
- Lilo and Stitch
- Maryam
- The Mothman Prophecies
- Murderous Maids
- Narc
- Rain
- Red Dragon
- A Rumor of Angels
- Storytelling
- Super Troopers
- Tadpole
- Undisputed
- Wendigo
- XXX
- Antwone Fisher
- Auto Focus
- Below
- Big Trouble
- Collateral Damage
- Comedian
- The Crime of Father Amaro
- Crush
- Dahmer
- Festival in Cannes
- 40 Days and 40 Nights
- Eight Legged Freaks
- Harrison's Flowers
- Hart's War
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- Impostor
- Murder By Numbers
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding
- Possession
- Reign of Fire
- Resident Evil
- Road to Perdition
- The Scorpion King
- Simone
- The Sum of All Fears
- Sunshine State
- Ted Bundy
- The Truth About Charlie
- We Were Soldiers
- Windtalkers
- The Zookeeper
- Dragonfly
- High Crimes
- Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
- Men in Black II
- Pumpkin
- Showtime
- Swept Away
- The Time Machine
- The Transporter
- FearDotCom
- L'auberge espangole
- Jason X
- Queen of the Damned
- Mr. Deeds
- Slackers
- Slap Her, She's French
- Sorority Boys
- Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
- Crossroads
- Enough
- The Sweetest Thing
- Vulgar
- The Master of Disguise
- Still need to see from this year:
- Ana and the Others
- Angel on the Right
- Monday Morning
Cloned From:
Ah, what fun ... It's always nice to find somebody else that has seen Hero and thinks highly of it. I hope the latest supposed theatrical release actually happens (looks like it finally will). I can't wait for Shi Mian Mai Fu.
What Miike movies do you most recommend? I've only seen Audition, which I loved, once I got over all the squirming it induced.
Finally, there are a few surprises in your "Not Recommended" block for me this time around, the biggest of which is probably Frailty, one of the more effective horror movies I've seen in awhile. It did an amazing job of convincing me it was gory without showing much blood, and thought it was an auspicious directorial debut for Bill "Game over man!" Paxton.
Audition is my favorite Miike, but also check out Ichi the Killer (only the uncut version), Gozu, and Happiness of the Katakuris.
To be honest, I can barely remember Frailty, but I do remember disliking it for some pretty major reasons (and arguing with my friend about it on the way home). I don't remember hating it, just being kind of "bleh" on it.
Where did you see Harmful Insect? I've been curious about that one since I read Mike D'Angelo's rave from a few years back.
I purchased the sub-less Japanese DVD a couple years back, and a friend online gave me English subs that were translated by a fan of the movie to use in coordination with the DVD.
Not that I encourage downloading over importing, but the movie and the subs are fairly easy to download online now. It's an incredible film, though, and since it never had a US distributor, I'm willing to say see it any way you possibly can. :)
I've read Jim's arguments for it, but why did you feel 'Hero' was 'GREAT'?
I also loved Irreversible.
I dunno if I could say anything that other supporters of the film haven't already -- orgasmic fights and cinematography paired with an intriguing story. A case where I didn't give a rats ass about the probably-objectionable politics of the work and just allowed myself to be absorbed by its silky allure.