Best of 2011...because this is what we do.

Below is my top ten in accordance with official 2011 US releases submitted to In Review Online. (There is quite a caché of top tens over there, so check it out.) But because the year offered so much more, I've supplemented with other offerings that didn't make the cut. Happy viewing and Happy New Year!

1. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives / Apichatpong Weerasethakul

First viewed VIFF 2010, subsequent viewings Walker Art Center and Trylon microcinema. Now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Netflix Instant.

Over a year has passed since I first saw Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and its ethereal glow still burns brightly. The spiritual world and the natural world mingle effortlessly in Apichatpong Weerasethakul sixth feature and Palme d’Or winner. In one of the most beautiful openings of the past ten years, a water buffalo breaks from its tether in the dim light of the jungle to conjoin with monkey ghosts. The sequence is timeless and ephemeral, and it captures the film’s mesmerizing preoccupation with the mysteries of a tangible environment. The patience and simplicity of ‘Uncle Boonmee’ slowly decodes the fate of one man through gentle curiosity. Death and the magical possibilities of reincarnation materialize in a drift, a journey, a spell that taps the collective unconscious and eventually leads to a pop song induced fracture in the space-time continuum.

2. House of Pleasures / Bertrand Bonello

First viewed VIFF 2011. Coming soon to the Trylon microcinema Feb 7 and 14.

House of Pleasures is a baroque free-fall of sensuality and violence stoked by anachronistic tumbles and sways. Director Bertrand Bonello depicts the corporeal reality of a late 19^th century Parisian brothel without schismatic moralizing and stifled emotional goo, but with a cinematic verve that incites the senses. The graceful narrative patterning, opening and closing with a round, and organic camerawork flow in tandem with the natural performances of the ladies for hire within a closed rococo world. Tenderness and strength, sorrow and joy are amplified with a soundtrack that is seamlessly embellished with English language pop and soul from the 60s. But just as quickly as Bonello embraces the fruition of an illusory dream, he pulls the rug out from underneath the romance for its disjunctive ending. House of Pleasures lends a feminine ring to the emblematic cries of Aeneid: “These are the tears of things, and our mortality cuts to the heart.”

3. The Arbor / Clio Barnard

First viewed at MSPIFF. Now available on DVD and Netflix Instant.

Clio Barnard’s decision to use actors to lip-sync recorded interviews with playwrite Andrea Dunbar’s family is nothing less than a stroke of brilliance. Far from the fallacy that one might expect from this machination, the raw emotion is heightened, and the actors are a constant reminder of a potent reality. Dunbar wrote herself into infamy, but also drank herself to death, leaving a long and winding road of influence and dysfunction on her two daughters. Their shattering accounts come with a tempered blow, crafted with assertive matter-of-fact honesty, and juxtaposed with the unvarnished bluntness of Dunbar’s plays. Barnard spins Dunbar’s tale with the specificity of artistic mathematics and the patterning of a kaleidoscope, allowing shards of fact and fiction to present a semblance of a whole. The experimental presentation of this overwhelming material is both formally and poignantly unique—not necessarily pushing the boundaries of preconceived form more than simply working outside of them.

4. Meek’s Cutoff / Kelly Reichardt

First viewed at the Walker Art Center. Now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Netflix Instant.

Kelly Reichardt rattles the cages of the disaster microcosm with a dusty neo-Western sharply drawn with its script and artistically specific with its form. Shot in the square Academy ratio of 1.33, Meek’s Cutoff boxes nine lost settlers within their own psychology of fear and paranoia and doubt. Extending beyond the frame is the indifference of nature on the outsiders, represented in an unforgiving landscape and an enigmatic Native American. Through cycles of sun-bleached days and inky-black nights, the personal politics of a desperate situation create a divide between individuals, a chasm between genders and a permanent wall between races. Emily Tetherow, played with powerhouse subtlety by Michelle Williams, acknowledges their precarious situation in the hands of larky chauvinist Stephen Meek, a pitch perfect Bruce Greenwood, by following her conscience to rebellion. Haunting and austere, Meek’s Cutoff is filled to the brim with aesthetic elegance and civil allegory.  

5. A Separation / Asghar Farhadi

First viewed at VIFF 2011. Coming soon to the Edina Cinema Feb 3.

Few films are able to keep such a character-rich balance while building a tense, plot-driven drama better than A Separation. Although literally tackling the marital difficulties of Nader and Simin, a young middle class couple living in Tehran, director Asghar Farhadi puts all manner of social issues under an incredibly absorbing microscope, with gender and class at the forefront. Sharp as a razor, the film gives equal space to all characters: the religious caretaker, her downtrodden husband, the conflicted Nader, the brazen Simin and even their mature eleven-year-old daughter who is learning about the grey areas of human nature. Farhadi presents and considers the complex moral decisions of each individual within their respective social and religious confines, but he does so without moralizing to the audience. Tightly wound around an impeccable script and camera choreography, A Separation perfectly parables a country hurtling toward and uncertain future.

6. Certified Copy / Abbas Kiarostami

First viewed at VIFF 2010. Now available on Netflix Instant and import (region free) Blu-ray.

Certified Copy is Abbas Kiarostami at his best, and perhaps better than we have ever seen him before. He directs dialogue in three languages and selects an operatic baritone as the individual who can’t speak Italian. He builds an aura of mystery as he simultaneously points out devise. He vacillates on classic Italian art while polishing the tarnished halo of film-as-art. He takes an academic subject and fills it with the pulse of life. He breaks from a mold of working with non-professional actors and hires the biggest star in Europe. And he casts us, the audience—his audience—as the mirror, the ultimate reflection of his film. Under the auspice of exploring artifice, Certified Copy delves into the esoteric notions of love, life and art on the coattails of a wandering Tuscan tête-à-tête and turns it into something far more fallible and beautiful than a mechanical reproduction.

7. My Joy / Sergei Loznitsa

First viewed MSPIFF 2011. Coming to DVD March 20.

My Joy opens with a mysterious corpse being covered in cement and ends with a shell-shocked murderer walking off into the darkness of the night—although the literal connection is abstruse, the cyclical motif is crystal clear. Blissfully unpredictable stream-of-consciousness, My Joy is made of two haves that meander through various stories and leave a lingering vapor trail to a much larger allegory. Corruption unapologetically blankets My Joy, trickling down from a history of authoritarianism and extreme conditions. Any kindness is met with an untrusting hostility that, at least within the gauge of the film, is not unwarranted. Director Sergei Loznitsa and his cinematographer Oleg Mutu tell much of their story through the complex and sardonic ‘joy’ on peoples’ faces. The film’s vignettes, in their structural ambiguity, are anything but detached. Heavy with heartbreak and despair, each sequence is loaded with the components of profound social destruction and deranged malaise.

8. Le Quattro Volte / Michelangelo Frammartino

First viewed MSPIFF 2011. Now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Netflix Instant. 

Michelangelo Frammartino evokes the spiritual philosophies of Pythagoras and relies entirely on the ambient language of a village in Southern Italy. But the observational tableau gains as much sustenance from the notions of God’s creations (with a capital ‘G’) and the Buddhist cycle of suffering and rebirth as it does the transmigration of the soul. Life, death and the earth-bound rhythms that connect them flow from a man to a goat to a tree to coal. Unconscious gestures of existence were never so poetic and graceful as exhibited in snails teaming from a pot, goats inexplicable exploring and investigating, and, in an unbelievably orchestrated 9-minute shot, a persistent dog communicating to no avail. The magic, however, seems to lie in the final stage of Frammartino’s visual prose and the smoldering, coal-producing mounds that open and close the film like an archetypal symbol of the past, present and future.

9. Love Exposure / Sion Sono

First viewed on import DVD in 2009. Available on DVD.

Born from the bowels of chaos, the euphoric anarchy of Love Exposure trumps the slicked up brutality of Sion Sono’s other 2011 US release, Cold Fish. Sono’s ambition is fleet-footed if not a little blind, but his vision of Catholic repression with hentai aesthetics through a 4-hour maze of cross-dressing, misogyny, obsession, barbarity, sanctimony, redemption and humor is a frenetic supernova. Like Sono’s Noriko’s Dinner Table, Love Exposure uses the bloated runtime, not to slow things down, but to indulge, specify and unreel the impossible with reckless but surprisingly sincere abandon. Sono has a unique film language that, when given free reign, explodes with the unusual dexterity of focusing the mayhem like a laser which in this case is Yu’s serpentine path to personal absolution. Receiving a belated US release, Love Exposure is a film experience that defies explanation but not exultation.

10. Pina /Wim Wenders

First viewed at VIFF 2011. Coming soon to the Walker Art Center Feb 1. 

Although Wem Wenders’ Pina seems like a straightforward documentary on the surface, because of the inspired use of 3D and the equally innovative nature of the material, it was easily one of the most viscerally exhilarating films of the year. The film is an unselfish and vital homage to the work of modern dance icon Pina Bausch, who passed away quite suddenly during the film’s pre-production. Primarily a vehicle for her choreographed pieces—some performed on stage and some in the open-air ambiance of Wuppertal, Bausch’s creative home—the 3D perfectly captures the tactile buoyancy and physicality of these performances. Bausch’s Rite of Spring, which opens Pina is as thrilling as any action sequence I’ve seen all year. Dispersed throughout are quiet portraits of her dance troupe, as animated and impassioned reflections of the artist. Art and film collide in the most unaffected and visually arresting manner—a palpable masterpiece of digital proportions. 

The best of the rest.

11. Poetry / Lee Chang-dong
12. Putty Hill / Matt Porterfield

13. Cold Weather / Aaron Katz
14. Aurora / Cristi Puiu
15. 13 Assassins / Takashi Miike
16. Mysteries of Lisbon / Raúl Ruiz 

17. Nostalgia for the Light / Patricio Guzmán
18. Shit Year / Cam Archer
19. Le Havre / Aki Kaurismäki 

20. Film Socialisme / Jean-Luc Godard
21. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu /Andrei Ujica
22. Tree of Life / Terrence Malick
23. Tuesday After Christmas / Radu Muntean
24. Petition / Zhao Liang
25. To Die Like a Man / João Pedro Rodrigues
26. Leap Year / Michael Rowe
27. Cave of Forgotten Dreams / Werner Herzog
28. Drive / Nicolas Winding Refn
29. The Time That Remains / Elia Suleiman
30. The Mill and the Cross / Lech Majewski

Clio Barnard's THE ARBOR

My review of Clio Barnard's amazing documentary The Arbor is up on In Review Online. I've watched this film four times of the past 6 months and it continues to grow on me exponentially. As I mentioned in my halftime post, it is easily one of my favorite films of the year so far.

I gave The Arbor a four star review in the Star Tribune for an MSPIFF capsule, trying as hard as I could to maximize praise without fluff or hyperbole. Shortly after, I was randomly talking to a stranger at one of my various jobs about the films she had seen at MSPIFF, and she said, "Did you see that one...what was it called...it got a really good review...but really depressing!" I had to take responsibility and sort of explain myself beyond the 100 words I was allotted for the Strib. It seems fitting that I took the time to flesh out a longer review and am glad I did.

Although it has already passed the Twin Cities by, playing at MSPIFF a couple months ago, The Arbor comes out on DVD September 6. Be sure to check it out!

Home Movies - May 2011

Another edition of Home Movies is up on In Review Online where regular co-conspirator Jordan Cronk, special guest Matthew Lucas and I take on the best of the best released in May.

Home Movies - May

As my my luck would have it, I review Masahiro Shinoda's Pale Flower, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Diabolique and Dario Argento's Cat 'o Nine Tails, all on beautiful Blu-ray. These three films couldn't be more different, but they are connected by three directors with an eye for formal perfection, each with their own flavor and each one brilliant in its own right. Pale Flower is a force to be reconciled, and gets my overwhelming approval for the pick of the month. Not only did I recently see (and project) the new 35mm print of Pale Flower at the Trylon as part of our Takemitsu series, but I also sat down with this Blu-ray and watch the film, almost compulsory, three times.

I also check out five DVDs released in May from French director Nicolas Philibert. Jordan Cronk reviews Criterion's Something Wild, Smiles of a Summer Night and Solaris. And Matthew Lucas looks at new releases for In the City of Sylvia and Kino's ambitious Sophia Loren Collection. Enjoy!

Home Moives: April 2011

Masters of Cinema's Le Amiche (1955) Blu-ray/DVD included in this month's Home Movies at In Review Online.

After gorging myself on 39 films at MSPIFF (not to mention the ones I caught on screeners beforehand), it was kind of hard to immediately pull up my bootstraps and think about rallying for DVD and Blu-ray releases for April. But with the help of In Review Online colleague Jordan Cronk, we tackled nine spiffy new releases (all Blu-ray, because we are Hi-def snobs) that won't make anyone sad. The best release I reviewed was the amazing Taxi Driver package put together by Sony. I checked out the Blu-ray a mere week after seeing the new 35mm print at the Trylon, making for a good comparison. On Jordan's side, he champions the new Blu-ray of Blow Out from Criterion that ultimately got our nod for release of the month.

That being said, among the other seven releases reviewed, including films from Ken Loach, Jean-Pierre Melville, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jane Campion and Michelangelo Antonioni, there is not a clunker in the bunch. Enjoy.

Home Movies: April - In Review Onine

Aaron Katz's COLD WEATHER

The supposed post-awards pre-summer film doldrums definitely does not apply to the Twin Cities, and I'm not even talking about Sucker Punch. Stellar must-see films such as Poetry, Of Gods and Men, and Another Year, Certified Copy and Jane Eyre continue in theaters, but highest on that list should be Aaron Katz's Cold Weather which is playing at St Anthony Main Theaters.

My review of Cold Weather recently went up over at In Review Online.

Cold Weather is easily one of the best films of the year. But don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

Im Sang-soo's THE HOUSEMAID (2010)

My review for Im Sang-soo's new film The Housemaid is up on In Review Online. It played in the Twin Cities a couple weeks back, but it will no doubt be available on DVD soon (and probably available on demand for all I know.)

The Housemaid is a film that pales in comparison to the stunning original from which it is based upon, but ignore the original and you have a dark and unrelenting thriller. Unfortunately, that was something I could not do. I was a big fan of Im's The President's Last Bang which is a wry comedy about the assassination of former South Korean President Park Chung-hee in 1979. The Housemaid has the same commitment to a tone of discord, but it is, in my opinion, a throw away compared to Kim Ki-young's 1960 masterpiece.

(Do yourself a favor: buy the Region Free DVD of the original Housemaid here.)

(Edit 3/19/11 - Just realized you can watch Kim Ki-young's The Housemaid free on Mubi.)

Home Movies - February 2011

Home Movies for February is up at In Review Online.

Right when I was wrapping up February's DVD/Blu-ray feature for In Review Online, an article appeared in the New York Times regarding the slow but inevitable transition away from DVDs to electronic delivery by either streaming or on-demand. "It's the Delivery, Stupid: Goodbye, DVD. Hello Future." outlines trends and potentials that no doubt greatly effect Dave Kehr, the Times DVD columnist. But I'm not giving up on DVDs yet. They still represent my best opportunity to see films not released in Minneapolis or not released in the US. And while the theaters still playing rep titles are certainly fighting the good fight (and, yes, I work at one), their offerings barely scratch the surface of the amazing restorations going on for your personal DVD and Blu-ray perusal. Case in point with a cross-section of recent purchases: Confessions (Japan, 2010, Tetsuya Nakashima, available on Blu-ray from Hong Kong), At the End of Daybreak (Malaysia, 2009, Ho Yuhang, available on DVD in Hong Kong), Confessions of a Dog (Japan, 2006, Gen Takahashi, banned in Japan and now available on DVD in the UK), La Signora Senza Camelie (Italy, 1953, Michelangelo Antonioni, available on Blu-ray from the UK). Eventually some of these titles will be available in the US, but some won't. And in the case of US releases, there are of course mounds of things unavailable streaming or on-demand or download.

All things considered, what I spend on DVDs and Blu-rays is not that much more than what I would spend on an adequate internet connection (if I was willing to give Comcast my money) and cable in order to access the so-called future, but the future still doesn't include the titles listed above. Nor does the future include many of the films outlined by Jordan Cronk and I in Home Movies.

For my money, DVDs, Blu-rays and my local video store still reign supreme.

Home Movies lives at In Review Online!

Home Movies, on hiatus for much of 2010, lives again with a new installment for January 2011 on In Review Online. With the help of In Review Online music editor Jordan Cronk, I have picked myself up off the floor to relaunch the monthly feature once again. For January, Jordan tackles the two Sam Fuller films, Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss, from Criterion and the new Blu-ray of Sergio Leone's classic Once Upon a Time in America. Meanwhile, I profile the release of Oscar loser/critical winner Social Network, but then dive head first into full tilt genre releases from the month: Buried, The Last Exorcism, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Sante Sangre and a Blu-ray import of Deep Red from the UK. The Deep Red release from Arrow Video comes a few months ahead of the Blue Underground US release in April. Although it is kind of unclear what will be included on the Blue Underground Blu-ray, Arrow's 2-disc set would seem to be the definitive in options and supplements.

Home Movies is the first feature on a redesigned In Review Online. The new year has mostly been dedicated to fine tuning the site, but we will be back on our game soon with new music and movie reviews that you can agree and disagree with. Home Movies for February will be up sometime mid-March.

Lee Chang-dong's SECRET SUNSHINE

Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine opened Friday at St Anthony Main and is absolutely one of those films that should not be missed. Secret Sunshine lit up Cannes nearly four years ago earning Jeon Do-yeon Best Actress and earning the film mounds of critical praise. Six months later, as the film languished without US distribution, I opted to import the South Korean DVD as my only option to see the film and was stunned by the film's audacious delicacy. Although late in the game, IFC picked up the film (along with Lee's equally impressive new film Poetry) for 2010 release. At 142 minutes, Secret Sunshine is a seriously in depth inquiry on human emotions. Below is a review I wrote for In Review Online to be posted there soon.


Prior to the release of Secret Sunshine in South Korea, director Lee Chang-dong insisted that his highly anticipated new film was just “normal.” In an interview with Kim Young-jin, Lee said, “Things couldn’t have been more normal.” Anyone who knows Lee’s work had good reason to be suspicious of this statement. ‘Normal’ is not a word you would use to describe this meticulous director and it is certainly not a word you would use to describe the circumstances surrounding the arrival of Secret Sunshine. Shortly after he completed his third feature, Oasis, to great critical acclaim, Lee was appointed the Minister of Culture by newly elected president Roh Moo-hyun. His filmmaking career went on hold indefinitely when it seemed to be at a peak. After spending one year embroiled in politics, including the bitter fight to maintain film quotas in South Korea, Lee stepped down and disappeared. A few years later this revered novelist and filmmaker emerged with a new script and a new film to make. And everyone knew that it would be anything but normal.

But there is a bit of truth to Lee’s proclamation. Secret Sunshine lacks a certain amount of overt style in favor of unpredictable emotions and a chaos driven narrative. But this is not the chaos of, say, extracting a memory from a dream within a dream within a dream, but a smaller, more personal and inconsequential chaos. Lee’s schisms in time and flights of fantasy found in Peppermint Candy and Oasis are not on the agenda for Secret Sunshine. Lee instead uses his ‘normal’ approach to observe a painful pattern of tragedies and failed self-discoveries in the life of Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon), a woman struggling for stability in a very unstable set of circumstances.

Shin-ae is an irreverent single mother with the aura of a woman taking control of her life. Recently widowed, she is moving to her late husband’s hometown of Milyang, which, using Chinese characters, translates to ‘secret sunshine.’ Starting over, however, is far more involved than reconciling the death of her husband. As facts percolate to the surface, we realize that she is not only escaping the accidental death of a philandering and most likely abusive husband, but also a family that blames her for her own misfortune. Finding solace in a strange place is part of the plan, but so is reinventing herself into something other than a victim, not only for herself but also for her solemn young son. Her face of confidence and urban sophistication is a thinly veiled farce, but one that Lee allows us to slowly discover.

Her first encounter is with Jong Chan (Song Kang-ho), an earnest local mechanic who helps Shin-ae when her car breaks down. Just as Shin-ae is looking to start anew, Jong Chan also sees an opportunity for himself by forging a friendship with this newcomer. When Shin-ae boasts that she might be looking for land to invest in, Jong Chan finds a real estate agent to help out. When Shin-ae tells Jong Chan that she will be teaching piano in town, he aggressively solicits students. Their push-pull relationship defines their surface characteristics as well as their more concealed idiosyncrasies. At one point, Jong Chan marches into Shin-ae’s teaching room to hang a bogus award on the wall. It is an odd moment: for Jong Chan, it is an innocent gesture that he thinks will help Shin-ae’s business, but written on Shin-ae’s face and in her reaction is a pathetic admission that ‘awards’ have never been a part of her history. The subtle yet so specific interaction is there for the taking, but it is far from pushed in your face. Its delicacy exists because of a careful lack of emphasis that permeates even the most dramatic moments.

When tragedy strikes nearly a third of the way into the film, the event, although gratuitous, neither looks nor feels that way. Instead, Lee’s “tragedy” is used as device no different from Hitchcock’s MacGuffin—to propel Secret Sunshine down its eventual wandering road. But more importantly, it allows Lee to fully explore the tumultuous emotions of the enigmatic Shin-ae and her intrepid tag along, Jong Chan. In many ways, the major earthquake in Shin-ae’s life causes Lee to steady his camera even more and keep a lock on his unobtrusive observational tone. As his lead character rides an emotional rollercoaster—distilling grief with shock, revelation, grace, depression, anger and eventual resignation—the film never pushes the story or the audience with manipulation. In one of the most harrowing scenes, Shin-ae, overcome with sorrow, aimlessly walks into a religious revival and proceeds to emote with unabashed tears and wailing. Jong Chan, who has followed her in, is our companion in trying to process what is going on. Ultimately, it seems that Shin-ae is most comfortable among complete strangers, but the questions of a character’s actions (both Shin-ae’s and Jong Chan’s) are the elegant mysteries of Secret Sunshine.

One of the most refreshing things about Secret Sunshine is how hands-off Lee Chang-dong is with Jeon Do-yeon as Shin-ae. Tags of artifice, be it music or close-ups, are cast aside to allow Jeon to give a performance that won Best Actress at Cannes in 2007. Shin-ae’s breakdown does not solicit false sympathies and it certainly isn’t a setup for a narrative trap (or the nominal cue that breakdown will eventually equal recovery.) Jeon embodies the innocence and grace of someone born again, but also the erratic emotions that go along with trauma and grief. The same could be said about Song Kang-ho as Jong Chan, but his character keeps the (mostly) even-keel of a misguided playboy. Nonetheless, Song performance is a tempered counterpoint to Jeon.

Secret Sunshine is receiving a belated U.S. release—nearly four years after it drew attention at Cannes—just ahead of Lee’s new film Poetry, another film that Lee would no doubt call normal. Extraordinary is what I would call both of these films: testaments to exquisite filmmaking and audacious acting. Secret Sunshine takes the makings of a melodrama and pulls the spotlight off the drama and onto the characters with such elegant ease, you hardly notice. Jeon Do-yeon and Song Kang-ho turn the film into a rich discovery in which no one succumbs to the heavy-handed design. The result exposes our human frailties and innate paradoxes. The final shot of the film has the last word. With a note of irrelevance, the camera slowly moves away from Shin-ae and Jong Chan to follow a lock of her cut hair. It lands on the peripheral, a spot of otherwise unnoticed secret sunshine, ending with a beautifully understated and unresolved dot-dot-dot.

Darren Aronofsky's BLACK SWAN

My review of the very well received Black Swan is up over at In Review Online. Black Swan continues to do really well at the box office and is collecting top ten accolades around the globe. This trend will no doubt continue when the Oscar nominations are announced where we are sure to see Natalie Portman and Darren Aronofsky's names in the lineup. I think part of the brilliance of Black Swan is it's sincerity to simply exist as a thriller. Every great scene, every great performance, every great edit, and every great narrative twist all has the same common goal: to provide an entertaining ride. The accolades and the awards are just the outcome of that commitment.

In Review Online: Year in Review 2010

The full roundup of films and music is up over at In Review Online. It's an impressive mix with some thought provoking write-ups. I contributed to the 2010 highlights in Home Movies and also put in my two cent vote for the staff lists of film and music.

Only films that got a 2010 theatrical (not festival) release in the US were eligible (which is why it will differ from my forthcoming list that randomly includes everything I saw in 2010, festival or otherwise.) For the record, here's how my vote went:

Movies
1. White Material / Claire Denis
2. Secret Sunshine / Lee Chang-dong
3. Mundane History / Anocha Suwichakornpong
4. Alamar / Pedro González-Rubio
5. Another Year / Mike Leigh
6. I Am Love / Luca Guadagnino
7. October Country / Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher
8. Shutter Island / Martin Scorsese
9. Poetry / Lee Chang-dong
10. Wild Grass / Alain Resnais
11. Eccentricities of a Blond Haired Girl / Manoel de Oliveira
12. Trash Humpers / Harmony Korine
13. The Social Network / David Fincher
14. Dogtooth / Giorgos Lanthimos
15. Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench / Damien Chazelle
16. Mother / Bong Joon-ho
17. Winter’s Bone / Debra Granik
18. Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno / Serge Bromberg, Ruxandra Medrea
19. Ne Change Rein / Pedro Costa
20. Everyone Else / Maren Ade

Performances:
1. Ruth Sheen/ Another Year
2. Kim Hye-ja/ Mother
3. Isabelle Huppert/ White Material
4. Jennifer Lawrence/ Winter’s Bone
5. Jeon Do-yeon/ Secret Sunshine

Music
1. Watain “Lawless Darkness”
2. Agalloch “Marrow of the Spirit”
3. Sailors With Wax Wings “Sailors With Wax Wings”
4. The Body “All the Waters of Earth Turn to Blood”
5. Janelle Monae “The ArchAndroid”
6. White Moth “White Moth”
7. Four Tet “There is Love in You”
8. Harmonious Thelonious “Talking”
9. Xasthur “Portal of Sarrow”
10. Witehred “Dualities”
11. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “Before Today”
12. Jenks Miller and Nicholas Szczepanik “American Gothic”
13. Caribou “Swim”
14. Marnie Stern “Marnie Stern”
15. Horseback “The Invisible Mountain”

Year in Review 2010 - Home Movies

I have fallen down on the job of offering home movie recommendations. But that doesn't mean I have stopped buying or watching. At the prodding of fellow In Review Online music critic (and DVD hoarder) Jordan Cronk, I put my home movies sash back on and, like kids in our own candy store, he and I have come up with 15 of the best DVD and Blu-ray releases of 2010 the world over. Last minute Christmas shopping ideas for the cinephile on your list found here!

Year in Review 2010 - Home Movies

Here were some others on our list that didn't make the cut, but are certainly worth checking out:

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence [Blu-Ray] (Criterion; Region A)
The World [Blu-Ray] (Eureka – Masters of Cinema; Region Free)
The Vengeance Trilogy [Blu-Ray] (Tartan; Region A)
Memories of Murder [Blu-Ray] (CJ Entertainment; Region A & B)
Zed and Two Noughts [Blu-Ray] (BFI; Region Free)
The General [Blu-Ray] (Kino; Region Free)
The Thin Red Line [Blu-Ray] (Criterion; Region A)
The Magician [Blu-Ray] (Criterion; Region A)
The Burmese Harp (Eureka – Masters of Cinema; Region B)
Late Spring / The Only Son [Blu-Ray] (BFI; Region B)
Early Summer / What Did the Lady Forget? [Blu-Ray / DVD] (BFI; Region B)
Tokyo Story / Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family [Blu-Ray / DVD] (BFI;
Region B)
Night of the Hunter [Blu-Ray] (Criterion; Region A)
Apocalypse Now: Full Disclosure Edition [Blu-Ray] (Lionsgate; Region Free)
Paths of Glory [Blu-Ray] (Criterion; Region A)
Crumb [Blu-Ray] (Criterion; Region A)
M [Blu-Ray] (Criterion; Region A)
Vivre sa vie [Blu-Ray] (Criterion; Region A)
Contempt [Blu-Ray] (Lionsgate – Studio Canal Collection; Region A+B)
Fallen Angels [Blu-Ray] (Kino; Region Free)
Happy Together [Blu-Ray] (Kino; Region Free)
The Housemaid (1960) [DVD] (Korean Federation of Film Archives; Region Free)

Johnnie To's VENGEANCE

I wrote a review for Johnnie To's most recent film Vengeance for In Review Online that went up over the weekend. At first glancee, Vengeance seems like a departure for To. A French/Hong Kong co-production, Vengeance includes a couple key French actors to shake things up. Sylvie Testud has a small role in which she delivers a couple good lines in Cantonese, and French pop star Johnny Halladay is the film's irrefutable star and anchor (although no Cantonese spoken here.) Once the film smoothly slides into its modus operandi with Anthony Wong, Lam Suet Lam Ka-tung and Simon Yam in tow, it becomes a leisurely stroll of patented five-star Johnnie To action. Nothing too new here, but a lot to enjoy.

Vengeance has been available for some time on DVD from Hong Kong and on demand from IFC, but recently made a theatrical appearance in NY and LA.

In Review Online: VIFF 2010 Coverage, Part 2

Part two of my coverage of the Vancouver International Film Festival is now up on In Review Online which focuses exclusively on five of the Asian films at the Festival: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, I Wish I Knew, Hahaha, Cold Fish and Winter Vacation.

In all the years that I have wanted to go to VIFF, it was because of their Dragons and Tigers series that year after year screened some of the most interesting titles from across the Pacific. Although some of these films get picked up for US release (Uncle Boonmee and Cold Fish are slated for 2011) others remain shrouded in the fog of distribution (including I Wish I Knew, Hahaha, and certainly the obscure and laconic Winter Vacation.) Five other films that I would highly recommend if they ever show their faces are Mundane History (Thailand), End of Animal (South Korea), Karamay (China), Fortune Teller (China) and Don't Be Afraid Bi! (Vietnam). Catch them if you can!

Festival Coverage - Vancouver 2010 - Dispatch 2

In Review Online: VIFF 2010 Coverage, Part 1

Finally, some of the fruits of some of my labors are up on In Review Online in the first of two dispatches from the 2010 Vancouver International Film Festival. Included are five capsule reviews of Abbas Kiarostami's amazing return to narrative film with Certified Copy, Raúl Ruiz's luscious 4 1/2 hour epic Mysteries of Lisbon, Michael Rowe's daring first film Leap Year, Catharine Breillat's slightly disappointing The Sleeping Beauty and Xavier Dolan's meditation on superficiality in his sophomore film Heartbeats.

Four of these represent some of the high profile releases at VIFF, with Leap Year being a big surprise despite the fact that it won the Camera d'Or this past Spring at the Cannes Film Festival.

Festival Coverage - Vancouver 2010 - Dispatch 1

Coming soon: Dispatch 2 - Five amazing films from the Dragons and Tigers Program.

Zhang Yimou's A WOMAN A GUN AND A NOODLE SHOP

My review for A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop is now up on In Review Online.

Although I really hate to say it, this film is a mess. I saw A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop before I headed off to Vancouver, and the more I think about it (and compare it to some of the amazing films I've seen in the past couple of weeks) the more I'm convinced that this crazy idea to remake Blood Simple into a Chinese period piece is just that: crazy. The unfortunate component to slamming this film is that Zhang is no slouch and has brought a well crafted film to the table.

(This poster speaks louder than words. Even when I look at it, I wonder "What is going on!?" If it seems like it has a Stephen Chow/Chinese Odyssey element to it, that is not far off the mark.) Read here.

Yael Hersonski's A FILM UNFINISHED (2010)

My review of A Film Unfinished is up at In Review Online.

It's strange how a reiteration of things you already know can be so powerful. A Film Unfinished is just such a documentary. It doesn't reveal anything new or anything we didn't already know about the Nazis. However, this close inspection of a propaganda film shot in the Warsaw Ghetto in those tenuous months in mid-1942, sits in the chest like a rock. As quoted on the film's website by director Yael Hersonski: "A Film Unfinished first emerged out of my theoretical preoccupation with the notion of the 'archive', and the unique nature of the witnessing it bears." This documentary starts with theory and curiosity but is finished with a great deal of compassion. A fascinating and heartbreaking film.

I think this may have played in the Twin Cities while I was out of town. It will likely come out on DVD early next year.

Casey Affleck's I'M STILL HERE (2010)

My review for Casey Affleck's I'm Still Here is up on In Review Online. If you could award prizes for an enduring performance, Joaquin Phoenix would surely win. However, my disappointment in Affleck's admission of the hoax continues to grow. I saw the film before he let the cat out the bag, and most of my enjoyment and observations are reliant on the absurd is-it-real-or-not debate. Reports continue to flood in: Letterman knew about it, Paltrow knew about it and on and on, like they all want a pat on the back. I'm Still Here is an incredibly funny film, and I could care less if Phoenix's sincerity is any more or less than his sincerity for Leonard Kraditor or Johnny Cash.

(I'm also having the worst brain fart on the title, writing I'm Not Here almost every time without fail - also an apropos title!)

Alexandre Aja's PIRANHA 3D

My review for Piranha 3D is up on In Review Online and as my editor astutely noted on Twitter: I didn't like it much. I could have easily watched Piranha 3D and walked away from it, but forced with the task of thinking about it and critically assessing it...well, let's just say it didn't make me more fond of it. It is a ridiculous use of 3D, nudity, blood and CGI. Bitter about not being able to walk away from it, I give it half a star.

Summer Roundup: Home Movies

Kei Sato and Keiko Sakurai in some sort of surreal rapture
from Nagisa Oshima's Japanese Summer: Double Suicide.

In Review Online just published my summer DVD picks. Summer Roundup: Home Movies. Normally a monthly feature (that I will return to in September so I can finally gush publicly over Trash Humpers) Home Movies went on hiatus for the summer and I put myself in the impossible position of prioritizing ten. Even though three of the best picks—Oshima's Outlaw Sixties, Two From Ozu and The First Films of Kurosawa—came out on plain ol' DVD, they are nothing but pure gold. Follow the link to check out the rest of my picks and my persuading arguments for buying all of them and joining me in the poor house.