The Year in Film

Media: Film
Title: The Year in Film

Updated 2/20

My Best Film of the Year: The Great New Wonderful

Sadly I do not think this subtle, beautiful and significant film was screened outside of New York. I almost avoided it myself given the subject matter: exploring the emotional impact of September 11th on a disparate group of characters through five separate New York storylines. But no, the actual events of September 11th are never seen or spoken of explicitly; rather we explore the inner struggle of each character as they quietly ask themselves: how do I live now that I see and feel everything differently? One character expresses the inner disequilibrium at the film’s core when she confides in Maggie Gyllenhaal. They both make cakes which sell for many thousands of dollars. Distraught she asks, how can we go on doing this frivolous work “after what happened”? The other characters have been denying this acknowledgement of change in their selves, and the film intelligently and powerfully explores their moments of acceptance. It is all so quiet, so well performed, and so significant. (jerromano.blogspot.com under August 2006 for more)

The Most Fun I Had: Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine was the one film of the year where I could have walked right back into the theater and watched it again as soon as it ended. (Last year it was Napoleon Dynamite.) In fact Napoleon Dynamite is an apt comparison. Little Miss Sunshine’s delight is equal to your love of the quirky characters, the ridiculous story-lines (though stealing the body went a bit far) and the stomach-aching laughter from the final dance sequence. I’m sitting her smiling just thinking about it. Not to mention that Olive and her grandfather portrayed the sweetest relationship of any in film this year. And Olive herself is my film hero for 2006.

The Second-Most Fun I Had: Dreamgirls

To quote The Stranger’s review: This is not a good film. That said, if you approach Dreamgirls as a dollop of superficial, spectacular fluff there is an abundance to enjoy. For instance, I enjoyed watching Eddie Murphy more than I have in 25 years. Don’t expect character development, don’t expect real emotion, don’t imagine that there is anything beneath the shiny surface. The best musicals are sweet frosting slathered over an empty hat box, and that’s what you get from Dreamgirls.

Most Visually Beautiful Film: Marie Antoinette

With Marie Antoinette Sofia Coppola made my “Directors Whose Films I Will Not Miss” list. (Woody Allen, Francois Ozon and Robert Altman, who sadly will have nothing more to show us, are also on that list.) Now Marie Antoinette is not a great movie. It goes nowhere and the ending simply lies down and dies. Antoinette, as played by Kirsten Dunst, undergoes no growth, no catharsis – rather she spends the film finding new and different ways to relieve her boredom – first opulence, then sex and then seclusion at a pastoral retreat. Lucky we in the audience are not similarly bored even as we are unsatisfied. It is the stunning beauty captured by Coppola's camera that is worth the price of admission. I will even go as far as to compare Coppola's visual art with Kar Wai Wong’s (In the Mood for Love, 2046). At just about any point you can stop the projector, pull out the frame and be brought to breathlessness by the image’s composition.

Most Intelligent Film of the Year: The History Boys

The History Boys was one of those films that I did not appreciate fully until I started to write about it. Then all the complexity and thoughtfulness that went into the story started to spill out. The plot: this ensemble of lower and middle class prep-school Britons study for their A-Level tests to gain admittance to Oxford. But the heart of the film is a mediation on the purpose and meaning of education. Do we use education to listen for the magnificent voices of the poets and artists whose eloquence describes an understanding of existence parallel to our own? Do we challenge our own artistic gifts to strengthen to their potential? Or do we work to beat the test, reap the reward and stock pile the treasure? It is a rare film where you should turn the questions right around and ask yourself: what have I chosen?

The Long List of Disappoints

These the films either I anticipated would be great based on the directors’ past work (Science of Sleep, The Departed, Little Children) or films that are on the hyped critically acclaimed list (The Departed, Babel, Pan’s Labyrinth, Little Children, Notes on a Scandal, The Queen, Letters from Iwo Jima) but which ultimately disappointed. To not prolong the dissatisfaction, I will be brief with each.

Letters from Iwo Jima: I just don't like war films and this one certainly didn't change my mine.

The Queen: Very fine acting, but I was not interested in the subject matter.

Science of Sleep: Director Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless was near or at the top of my 2004 film list so I hoped for great things from Science of Sleep. Admittedly Science of Sleep offers truly marvelous, even breathtaking visual experiences as the director captures moments of pure imagination on film. Yet ultimately Gondry had the same shortcoming as the film’s main character, he cannot generate the necessary emotional connection to make his playful experiment a satisfying experience.

The Departed: I liken The Departed to The Aviator. Scorsese is able to keep you utterly captivated for over two hours without a moment of let-down. Yet, like The Aviator, once you awaken from the world of the film you realize there is not much there beyond the perfect execution of a riveting plot, which hardly sounds like criticism, but we know Scorsese is capable of providing something more significant.
Beyond that backhanded criticism, there are number of moments when the film feels like a caricature of a Scorsese film rather than the real thing – for example, Nicholson coming out from an ‘interrogation’ all covered in blood, and the trite concluding symbol of the rat on the deck. Come-on Marty!

Babel: OK, after Crash last year and Babel this year I must scream: There is nothing innovative about a film exploring a theme through a number of seemingly unconnected stories and various points of view! D.W. Griffith created this structure in 1916 with Intolerance, and he did it better! So cut it out, Crash and Babel are mediocre and good respectively. Now Babel does has many masterful elements. In particular the editing which often cross-cuts from one story to the next allowing a necessary exhale at moments of unbearable tension. Also, Iñárritu has superbly captured distinct visual signatures for each of the various settings.

Pan’s Labrinth : Pan’s Labyrinth is half fairy tale and half military movie. I loved the fairy tale, told in the pre-Disney understanding that fairy tales are about a child’s psyche confronting death, parental abandonment and impending sexuality. I did not care for the film’s reality, a military story set in fascist Spain. Here del Toro uses his abundant visual talents to makes us squirm anticipating torture and looking at gore (from which I chose to look away). As you may imagine, loving only half a film is ultimately unsatisfying.

Little Children: At about the half way point I thought to myself, yes, this is the best movie of the year. I wasn’t surprised because Todd Field’s In the Bedroom was one of the best films of 2001. Little Children, a film about suburban alienation, depicts the supremely unsatisfying lives of Sarah and Brad. Each was married in their early 20s and they suddenly awaken, with 30 approaching, to the suffocating reality of their suburban lives. The title, Little Children, refers to the suburban ideal that life should center around children, but neither Sarah nor Brad can find meaning taking their children to the park and the pool, so they try an affair imagining love. Little Children is also overflowing with smart literary and film references, the best of which is the homage to Jaws in the ‘child-molester goes for a swim’ scene. So what’s the problem? The ending is so unsatisfying that it taints the brilliance and insightfulness of all that came before it. It is not just that we are left with unresolved storylines, the unforgivable sin is that the final choices Sarah and Brad make are entirely out of character; and the change in tone from drama to horror film is both idiotic and ineffective.
Yes, another disappointment but probably the best disappointment of the bunch.

Notes on a Scandal: I loved the first 20 minutes of Notes on a Scandal. You hear Judi Dench, as the omniscient narrator, providing dry, intellectually superior, hilarious commentary about the students and teachers in the school where she is a history teacher. Soon all the comedy and eventually all the empathy is squeezed from the film. When you have a pedophile on the one hand and a deranged human vampire on the other it is difficult to care what happens to either, and easy to tune out emotionally. Plus- like Cate Blanchett is really going to live with Judi Dench after she has just viciously tried to blackmail her – give me a break!

Best Foreign Film: Time to Leave

This did not surprise me. Director Francois Ozon is on my short list of directors whose film I will not miss. After last year’s awful 5X2 Ozon has created a quiet, contemplative film on death and the psychological role children play in one’s idea of living beyond one’s death. It has one rare, transcendent moment – a quick 5 second close up of a crying baby beginning to nurse. I cannot explain it, but the image was so unexpected, so pure and sweet I actually shed a tear. It was the most perfect moment in film this year.