Monday, December 31, 2018

Yearbook - Plus a Special Message


While this for all intents and purposes is my usual end of the year article, truth be told, it has been nine months in the making. In the course of one’s life, arguably only a handful of moments become instrumental in the formation of one’s character. Some accredit their first family vacation, their first fist fight, their latest promotion, their most challenging health scare or their last first kiss as a foundation of who they are. Triumph, tragedy, evocations of the joyous or bittersweet; we all experience these moments in waves – reeling from the emotions they stir up, confident that once callused into our psyche they will make us better people.

2018 was a year filled with such moments. I ended my romantic relationship of eight years, lost two jobs in spectacular fashion, lost two phones in equally spectacular fashion, was diagnosed with depression and anxiety and moved to the city I’ve now adopted as home. In the face of momentous change, I’ve run through the gambit of emotion alternating mostly between anger and despair; unable to see the silver-linings among an unending sky of grey.

But the New Year always has a funny way of - if only for a little while, putting a hopeful glint on otherwise dour endings. In the immediate aftermath of my break up, I took up a hackerspace membership, a gym membership, sought a therapist, a writers group, an improv program, and regular volunteer opportunities; started helping a new friend co-host his Youtube program, reconnected with old mates and even started doing standup.


Truth be told, many of these branches of activity have fallen by the wayside but others are still being maintained and others still have bared fruit. I’ve lost about 40 pounds this year which has given me the energy to be more present and physical. Therapy has gotten me off the precipice of despair and nudged me in a more positive direction. And while standup has yielded little aside from notice from the occasional open mic MC’s, my improvement in this field has led me to believe the art form is a worthwhile pursuit for its own sake.

Throughout each challenge I have been propped up by some of the most generous and caring souls I’ve ever known. I am forever grateful to my friends, especially my older friends who have been patient enough with me to digress through the past before creating new memories and hopes for the future. I shirk to think how much harder life would be like without them.

Then there are the movies. Comparatively, I have seen precious few this year than years prior due to all the upheaval. Most of my celluloid bliss has been spent in a cocoon of nostalgia, re-watching such seminal feel-good classics as Billy Elliot, Four Lions, 3 Idiots and Groundhog Day. Still I did get around to seeing 108 films about a third of which were in theaters. I regret not seeing so many films I’ve been told are excellent including Roma, A Star is Born, First Man, The Favourite, Hereditary, Shoplifting; though I’m glad I missed out on Truth or Dare?, The Hurricane Heist and Death Wish.

...and another bloody Robin Hood movie!


Rest assured this coming year will see me going to the movies more. Not sure if I’ll be consuming media at quite the rate I was last year and the year before, but for the sake of sanity I will try to write more.

Anywho, here’s the annual yearbook:



2018 Superlatives


Best Movies I Probably Should Have Seen Sooner
You Can't Take It With You (1938) / Easy Living (1937)

I like sitting down and watching the occasional “classic,” and this year saw quite a few. I finally managed to see early Best Picture Winner, Grand Hotel. I rented Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, the largest Hitchcock oversight on my ever shrinking list of Must-See’s. Later cinema history darlings to make the short list include Arthur Penn’s Night Moves and Bergman’s familial epoch Fanny and Alexander. This is all not to mention I finally got to see my first Paul Robeson movie The Emperor Jones. Though out of all the biggies I should have seen sooner, none are arguably as surprising (at least to me) is Mitchell Leisen’s Easy Living and Capra’s You Can’t Take It With You. You Can’t Take It With You stars Jean Arthur as a doey-eyed secretary who engages a good-natured rich kid played by good ‘ol Jimmy Stewart. Complications ensue when their families meet in a Meet the Fockers-esque (yes that is an apt if pedestrian comparison) clash of class.

Easy Living is a depression era screwball comedy also starring Jean Arthur. Here she plays a stenographer (what can I say she has range), who accidentally comes into the possession of an expensive fur coat. As a result, the world around her begins to suspect she’s the mistress of an important banker played by Edward Arnold leading to all sorts of chaos.

Bollywood Sweethearts
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) / Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)

Due to my previously mentioned knack of co-hosting a movie reactions channel on Youtube, I’ve been watching a lot of Hindi/Urdu/Tamil films as of recent. I sat through 90’s classic Dil Chahta Hai, sports dramas Chak De! India and Sultan as well as the controversial Padmavaat.

Ultimately my two favorites this year were road trip adventure Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and lost child saga Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Both were a ball to watch with Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara leaving a particularly great impression on me. What starts as a simple tale of three friends going on a road trip before one of them is to get hitched, turns into a winding story of catharsis and melodrama. Of course that’s not to say it overwhelms some of the truly inspired moments of comedy. As for Bajrangi Bhaijaan, what can I say; I have a soft spot for kids in peril movies.

Most Creative Movies
 
Sorry to Bother You (2018) / The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)
Creative can mean anything from playing with themes and character such as Phantom Thread, narrative such as I, Tonya, the visual artifice such as Eighth Grade, challenging the very definition of a bad movie R.I.P.D.. But in my view there are two movies that really stand out from the rest. The Happiness of the Katakuris - a rollicking black comedy/family movies/zombie musical; and Sorry to Bother You - a radical, singular vision bursting from the screen to the point of being called dangerous.

Happiness of the Katakuris is a Takashi Miike joint that weaves a sing-songy tale of an isolated family trying and failing to run a bed and breakfast, because their tenants have a nasty habit of dying. The movie mixes over-the-top visuals with an energetic story ably handled by some pretty bizarre performances all around. Then there’s Sorry to Bother You which has a fledgling telemarketer played by Lakeith Stanfield plunge into a surreal world of absurdity and exploitation. Honestly I can’t remember the last time I had that much fun in a movie theater!

Movies That Restored My Faith in Humanity


Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018) / Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2013)

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? is a detailed documentary about the life of kid’s TV personality Fred Rogers. For more than thirty years Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood would light up TV sets around the country, entertaining and educating its preschool audience on everything from numbers and words to how to manage complex feelings like sadness and anger. To honor a man who dedicated his life to the healthy development of children, director Morgan Neville and Co. developed a singularly enriching experience in Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and I beseech all those who didn’t see it to check it out now!

This holiday season I sat down and watched Miracle in Cell No. 7, a Korean movie about a mentally challenged man named Yong-Gu (played by Ryu Seung-Ryong) who is wrongfully convicted of murder. Facing the death penalty, the Yong-Gu’s only hope lies in the innocence of his young daughter (Kal So-Won), who is smuggled into the prison with the help of his cellmates. While it may wind up being melodramatic for many, Miracle in Cell No. 7 is arguably the perfect movie for the holiday season and ranks up there with some of the best Christmas movies out there.
                                                                                                                   
…Then Crushed It
You Were Never Really Here (2017) / Manderlay (2005)

You Were Never Really Here is a bleak, austere movie about a hired gun played by Joaquin Phoenix who is tasked with a discreet rescue mission of a little girl. What otherwise sounds like a Man on Fire retread, You Were Never Really Here feels more like an exposed tendon quickly pulsing to the beat of outsized panic. This movie is anxiety driven to an almost unsettling degree so only watch if you feel like getting a panic attack.

Manderlay on the other hand is despairing for an entirely different reason. A spiritual successor to Lars Von Trier’s Dogville, Manderlay tells the story of a gangster’s daughter (Bryce Dallas Howard) who discovers a plantation in rural Alabama that still practices slavery 70-years after the end of the Civil War. With the help of hired guns, Grace stays on the plantation to transition the inhabitance from slavery to freedom realizing only too late that the task is easier said than done. While certainly a lot more problematic than Dogville, Manderlay holds on to its predecessor’s pessimism of humanity while also maintaining an avant-garde artifice. There are no walls or outdoors in Manderlay but minimal theatrical sets and boundaries formed in chalk. Yeah it’s weird but it’s strangely affective.

Most Romantic Movies
The Way He Looks (2014) / Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Reeling from everyone’s fascination with Call Me By Your Name last year, I explored Netflix to try to find a comparable gay romantic drama with a slightly less creepy age disparity. And wouldn’t you know it; I found a much more satisfying movie in The Way He Looks – a coming-of-age drama anchored by a relationship between the blind Leonardo (Ghilherme Lobo) and new kid Fabio (Pablo Carvalho). What could have come across as melodrama actually comes across as a sweet and tender love story with a light touch. The acting is fantastic and the chemistry between the two leads is palpable.

And of course in this segment it almost seems sacrilegious to not include Crazy Rich Asians. While I personally found the film a wee bit stale, there’s little denying Constance Wu and Henry Golding had immediate chemistry that elevated all material that wasn’t directly handled by Michelle Yeoh. Also the wedding scene…very cool.

Most Human Movies
Short Term 12 (2013) / Le Promesse (1996)

Short Term 12 is one of those amazing movies that hit a bit too close to home. It tells the story of a group of young supervisors to a group home for troubled teenagers as they struggle to hold everything together amid constant transition. Years ago I worked in a somewhat similar place, making the best out of an objectively terrible situation. Thus Short Term 12 wasn’t an easy watch but it was well worth it if for no other reason than it stars Brie Larson, Lakeith Stanfield, Rami Malek and John Gallagher Jr. before they became big.

La Promesse is my second exposure to Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s filmography and if this and The Unknown Girl are any indication, I think I’m going to love their work. La Promesse is a deeply moving and painfully human story about a boy whose father traffics and exploits illegal immigrants. After helping to cover up an accidental death, Igor (Jeremie Renier) tries to help the surviving family of immigrants against the express wishes of his father played by Olivier Gourmet.

Biggest Disappointments
Tag (2018) / Simran (2017)

Okay, call me dense for thinking this but I did expect a lot more from Tag. The trailer seemed solid and the premise, with its real story bona fides felt like it could have been great with the right cast and crew. Unfortunately one little chink in Tag’s armor unraveled the whole yarn and was left with a lot of balls in the air…okay I’m mixing my metaphors here. Truth is this movie went somewhere it shouldn’t have and stepped on its own rich premise as a result.

Speaking of rich premises – Simran; the true story of a Georgia girl who became infamous for getting in deep with the mob and robbed banks…what’s not to love? Well apparently a lot. The movie had a markedly condescending tone that treated the protagonist like a silly little girl. Actress Kangana Ranaut does her best to elevate the script but can’t help but seem out of place in a story that pulls one too many punches and treats the whole affair like a modern Grimm fairytale – sexism intact.

Best Looking Films
 
Annihilation (2018) / Loving Vincent (2017)
Ah Annihilation – the Tarkovsky inspired creature feature that somehow takes a story about a group of scientists waltzing through an alien force field, and turns it into a rumination of identity and trauma. Natalie Portman stars as a cellular biology professor who’s missing and presumed dead husband appears out of thin air. Moments later the Army descends on their abode and she’s suddenly tasked with studying a phenomenon her husband had been observing before his disappearance. I don’t really want to say much more as to prevent spoilers – lest to say it’s a unique and gorgeous looking film that you really shouldn’t miss.

Loving Vincent is a speculative biography investigating the final days of Vincent Van Gogh before his untimely death. What differentiates Loving Vincent from other movies however is it’s an animated movie where every frame is an oil canvas painted in the Van Gogh style. What results is a movie that at once feels modest in its goals but grand in its execution. In other-words it’s a work of art.

Political Movies That Should Have Been Better
Vice (2018) / Chappaquiddick (2018)

Seriously though, with subjects as immediately polarizing and juicy as Former Senator Ted Kennedy and  Former Vice President Dick Cheney, you’d think you’d have better movies. Alas while Vice and Chappaquiddick did have great lead performances, the scripts were strictly pedestrian and lacked that certain depth that was needed. Oh well.

Best Episodes of MS3TK
Mac and Me (1988) / Atlantic Rim (2013)

Yes I watched this season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and yes I do count those movies towards my total…fight me. Anywho favorite movies and favorite episodes were definitely Mac and Me and Atlantic Rim. Atlantic Rim is a quicky mockbuster that tries to recreate the grandeur of Pacific Rim on a budget of zero dollars. The results are awkward and hilarious.

Mac and Me on the other hand is a downright legendary clone of E.T. that will live in infamy for its cheesiness, remarkably stale special-effects and shameless plugging of McDonalds merchandise. Seriously this thing is a treasure even without the movie riffing…check it out!
 
Funniest Films
 
Obvious Child (2014) / The Death of Stalin (2018)
Obvious Child stars Jenny Slate as a comedienne scrapping by in New York City. After a one night stand, Donna discovers she’s pregnant and decides to get an abortion; a task that is complicated when the guy reappears in her world. Gillian Robespierre is one of those incredibly gifted writer/directors that have flown under-the-radar for me. Both Obvious Child and last year’s Landline had that rare quality of being touching, understated, witty and wise. I’d probably peg Obvious Child as the lesser of the two but there’s no denying its quite a hilarious, fun little ride.

Death of Stalin is a remarkably darker comedy which retells the story of…the death of Stalin…you know I don’t have to spoon feed you everything, you can kinda infer through context clues. The film stars Jeffrey Tambor, Jason Isaacs, Rupert Friend, Michael Palin, Paddy Considine and Steve ‘f**king’ Buscemi as Nikita ‘f**king’ Khrushchev! Additionally the film is written and directed by Armando ‘I did Alan Partridge, The Thick of It, and f**king Veep’ Iannucci so honestly if you can’t see any humor in that, you’re probably dead.

Most Underrated
12 Strong (2018) / Hurry Up, Or I'll Be 30 (1973)

Okay so it wasn’t a technical achievement or a dramatic milestone, but within the narrow confines of what it set out to do 12 Strong is pretty much what it’s supposed to be. It’s a wholly exaggerated war action-adventure about a group of he-men who propelled into Afghanistan, Lawrence of Arabia the crap out of the local area and led the U.S. Army to its biggest success in the early days of the Afghanistan War. Considering that most movies about Afghanistan or Iraq are about either back room stratagems or psychological scars, it’s just nice to see a movie that went a different route with it.
So I’m going to let my hipster flag fly on this one and say, you probably haven’t heard of Hurry Up, or I’ll Be 30. Also known by the title I Am Waiting No More, the film stars John Lefkowitz as a down-on-his luck New Yorker who struggles to accept his lack of success and puts himself in awkward situations as a result. It’s a movie about anxiety, impostor syndrome, learning to fit in and trying unsuccessfully to be more of an adult. As a recent 30-year-old myself, I can definitely relate to this movies protagonist to an almost scary degree.

Wordiest
Six Degrees of Separation (1993) / On Golden Pond (1981)

Makes sense both recipients of this superlative are based on plays doesn’t it? Six Degrees of Separation stars Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland as a well-to-do couple who fall for a con man’s ruse (exuberantly played by Will Smith). Entranced by his wit and clever yarn about being Sidney Poitier’s bastard son, the Kittredges soon realize the stranger had repeated his story several times to members of high society forcing them to reflect on their choices and effects on others. The play and subsequent screenplay was written by John Guare who is known for his tragic wit and wordy lucidity. Yeah, that’s how I’d describe this screenplay for sure.

On Golden Pond stars Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn as an elderly couple who spend their summers along an idyllic New England lake. Their estranged daughter and grand-son come to visit along with her new fiancé testing the family’s testy relationships. The film won both leads Academy Awards back in 1982 as well as an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Still doesn’t help the fact however that Ernest Thompson’s adaptation occasionally feels tortured in its prose.

Biggest Misfires
15:17 to Paris (2018) / Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

I’ve been told director Clint Eastwood has since redeemed himself with The Mule but d**n 15:17 to Paris the true tale of a foiled terrorist attack was just awful. I’d say it was a mistake to hire the actual guys the story was about to play themselves but I honestly think it was a bigger mistake to let Eastwood direct this specific property. Guess some directors can coach non-actors and some just can’t

 As for Jurassic World 2: Electric Boogaloo – I mean we all saw this disaster coming. And yet we did nothing!

Best Doc (That’s Not Won’t You Be My Neighbor? *gush*)
Dolores (2017) / Three Identical Strangers (2018)

In case it wasn’t clear earlier, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? has the key to my heart when it comes to docs. But it already got a superlative so I have to kind of spread the love. And in fairness, this year was pretty good for documentaries. My personal picks however: Dolores and Three Identical Strangers.

Dolores is a biographical documentary on Dolores Huerta the legendary farm workers organizer which among other things originated the phrase “Yes we can”. The film tells of her efforts with the UFW and consensus building with the Civil Rights movement, the LGBTQ movement and the Women’s Rights movement.

Three Identical Strangers tells the impossible story of a trio of triplets who separated at birth and reunited by sheer happenstance as adults. What starts as a sensational feel-good story soon turns into an investigation of dark secrets held by a shady adoption agency. To whit the movie indirectly deals with the age-old nature versus nurture question which keeps you very interested throughout.

Biggest Surprises
A Quiet Place (2018) / The White World According to Daliborek (2017)

Boy, who knew such a singular premise could yield such a richly layered and absorbedly creepy horror film. A Quiet Place stars Emily Blunt and John Krasinski (who plays double duty as director) as a couple who must keep their family safe in a post-apocalyptic upstate New York. In order to survive, they must avoid making any sound lest a race of blind monsters hear them and turn them into minced meat. Told with abundant style and an acute sense of drama, A Quiet Place is one of those rare filmic works that thrills and keeps you at the edge of your seat. Good stuff!

The White World According to Daliborek is one weird, surprising ride. I walked in knowing only two things: one it was Czech, and two it was “unconventional”. I recommend you walk in knowing only that as well to get the requisite jollies out of this movie. It’s basically about a vainglorious white supremacist that goes about his days spreading hate however he can, often coming across as foolish and ignorant in the process. Just…just watch it, I promise you won’t regret it.

Most Overrated
Fanny and Alexander (1982) / Osaka Elegy (1936)

It took me three tries to watch this movie! Granted first time I was very tired but the other two times, I just had to take a break and walk away. The film is a semi-autobiographical work about a large family in Sweden whose two younger children struggle to adjust to a strict step-father. Look, I love Ingmar Bergman. Very few filmmakers so fully encapsulates such incessant ennui and eternal questioning as austerely and as poised as Bergman. But man 312 minutes?! Dude, I really do have other things to do.

Yet while Fanny and Alexander is overall engrossing, that cannot be said of Mizoguchi’s Osaka Elegy. I’ll chalk it up to it being an earlier work of the great Japanese master as I loved Sansho the Bailiff and Ugetsu. Osaka Elegy tells the semi-tragic tale of Ayako (Isuzu Yamada), a telephone operator who reluctantly becomes a mistress to a wealthy business man. Considered his first serious work, you can see a lot of the signature camerawork that would become the norm for Kenji Mizoguchi. That said however, the version I watched was grainy and the sound was poor leading to an overall lackluster experience.

Best in Show
Los Olvidados (1950) / The Teacher (2016)

Luis Bunuel is probably my favorite international director. His surreal early work like Un Chien Andalou and L’Age d’Or were works of a mad genius while his Spain and French period stuff kept pushing the envelope of good taste and effective satire. Los Olvidados is only one of two films from his Mexican period that I’ve seen though it’s a top five contender if there ever was one. Los Olvidados, translated as ‘the forgotten’ tells the sordid melodrama of slum children living in Mexico City in the 1950’s. Noted for its realistic depiction of extreme poverty, Los Olvidados is a tragic but immovable masterpiece that shouldn’t be missed.

The Teacher is a little known Slovakian film that takes place in the Soviet Era circa 1983. The film tells the story of a corrupt school teacher who uses her pupils to garner special favors from their parents. As leverage she is the leader of the local party which keeps her colleagues in constant fear and suspicion. Meanwhile kids who refuse to grease the wheels or are not useful to her; she bullies and torpedoes their grades. Zuzna Maurery stars as the downright scaly Ms. Drazdechova, and man does her performance just glitter. Imagine Dolores Umbridge but somehow more conniving and syrupy. She along with a talented ensemble cast of kids and parents make this movie not just a political satire, but an effecting morality tale. Check it out for sure, it’s a must see!


No comments:

Post a Comment