As I did last November and December, I'm going to consider the pile of Academy screeners and special critics' screenings that come around this time of the year as an opportunity for a kind of miniature film festival, and I'm going to post a weekly journal of what I've seen among the year-end awards contenders, and their chances of making my list. But first, prior to this past week, here's how that list looked (very tentatively):
1. No Country For Old Men
2. Into The Wild
3. Offside
4. Ratatouille
5. This Is England
6. Atonement
7. My Kid Could Paint That
8. Zodiac
9. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
10. I'm Not There
11. Persepolis
12. Black Book
13. Margot At The Wedding
14. Superbad
15. Knocked Up
16. Great World Of Sound
17. The Life Of Reilly
18. The Bothersome Man
19. Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
20. 12:08 East Of Bucharest
21. Michael Clayton
22. Musician
23. Exiled
24. No End In Sight
25. Mr. Brooks (not a misprint…this movie is messed-up in some really wonderful ways)
I often like my lists better in mid-November every year than I do by the end of December, when the uniformly loved films start muscling the likes of This Is England out of the way. But this year's a little different, since the Toronto festival featured more of the big year-end releases than usual, which means there's not that many heavy hitters awaiting me. As of right now, by my accounting, here are the major releases that I haven't yet seen: 3:10 To Yuma, American Gangster, Away From Her, Beowulf, Charlie Wilson's War, Crazy Love, The Darjeeling Limited, The Diving Bell & The Butterfly, Gone Baby Gone, Hot Fuzz, The King Of Kong, Rescue Dawn, The Savages, Sicko, Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood.
I expect some of those to make the list, which, when it runs in The A.V. Club in a few weeks, will just include the Top 10 and five honorable mentions. I also reserve the right to shuffle the order of this list as I give it more thought. (And since some of the above may not get a 2007 release by the end of the year, they'll drop off automatically.) And so, with all that as my guideline, let's get this festival started.
Saturday, November 10th
Once (Academy screener): About 20 minutes into this movie, right after our hero and heroine finished their impromptu duet in a music shop, two thoughts popped into my head. First off, I couldn't believe the movie was already almost a quarter of the way done. So little had happened, and yet everything the movie is about had been laid out so beautifully and economically. I don't know about the rest of you, but I tend to mark time when I watch movies, to get some sense of where I am versus where I'm going (and how much I'm enjoying the journey). At the quarter-point of Once, I knew I was in good hands, and eager to hang around for the next hour. Then I thought about Robert Altman. He's been dead for over a year now, and I miss him. It's not that Once is especially Altmanesque, but after spending more than half my life as an Altman fan, what I'm looking for out of cinema has changed some, and I often appreciate the virtues of performance and human behavior as elements of a film just as much–if not moreso sometimes–as the story, theme or style. Since it's about 60% music, Once is all about performance, and that extends to the acting, which is pleasantly natural and endearing. Credit writer-director John Carney, who makes magnificent use of digital video, not only to elicit immediacy from his leads, but also to create some visual effects that aren't "filmic"–pixelated halos, and the like. In just about every way imaginable, this movie is beautiful.
Grade: A-
On the list? My dear, there couldn't be a list without it. Make it the new #5, and drop everything down a notch.
Sunday, November 11th
Breach (commercial DVD): Billy Ray's follow-up to the fine Shattered Glass kind of came and went in theaters, drawing little of the heat his first film drew. To some extent I can see why. Even though Breach explores some of the same themes–professional lies and boss-employee relations–it's a little dryer and more deliberate, setting up the slow-developing friendship between a duplicitous FBI agent and the young clerk who's been ordered to spy on him. A punchier movie might've garnered more attention. (At the least, Ray could've sold hoary lines like, "I've never misread anyone this badly anymore…except maybe you," which sound especially clunky when the drama's so attenuated.) That said, there's a lot to like about Breach, starting with the special buzz of recent history about the film, and continuing through a portrait of FBI life that makes it look very gray and dreary, locked in basements and sub-basements, with palettes of equipment cluttering up the halls, next to offices marked with taped-up, computer-printed signs. But the core of the film is the relationship between cranky crook Chris Cooper and the bright-eyed Ryan Philippe, which feels very real, from the way Cooper tries to share his conservative Catholic values with Philippe to the way Philippe earns his trust by gently teasing him. It's fascinating to watch Philippe wriggle off the hook when Cooper catches him lying, by telling a truth, if not he whole truth.
Grade: B
On the list? I liked it, but it doesn't crack the Top 25.
Monday, November 12th
A Mighty Heart (commercial DVD, sent for awards purposes): Funny how the perception of a project changes from pre-release to festival screenings to release. When it was announced that Angelina Jolie would be starring in a film about the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl, directed by Michael Winterbottom, pundits predicted an awards-season shoo-in at least, and a major commercial and artistic breakthrough for the talented Winterbottom at best. When the film played Cannes, reaction was muted but respectful, with many still guessing that the movie would be a player come year-end. Then it opened over the summer and promptly died: few raves, fewer box office. In a year stuffed with great films, no one's talking about A Mighty Heart much anymore, except for some lingering buzz about Jolie as an acting nominee. Jolie's quite good here as Pearl's wife–especially in the scenes shortly after Daniel gets kidnapped, when she's not sure how panicked to be, or how to greet every car that pulls up–but now that I've finally caught up with the film, I can see why it didn't set the world afire. Sure, Winterbottom's docu-realist this-is-where-and-how-it-happened approach captures the cultural dislocation that both led to the kidnapping and kept Daniel Pearl from being quickly found. (Just note how stony every one gets when the person asking for information identifies him- or herself as a "Jew" or "American" or "Indian.") But since we know how the story ends, Winterbottom can't really generate any suspense with the hunt-for-Daniel angle, and his emphasis on the procedural–a few compelling "life" moments aside–comes off as artless, and even numbing. And I'm sorry, but that title still just sucks.
Grade: B-
On the list? Afraid not.
Tuesday, November 13th
Bug (commercial DVD): I know not many people would consider this none-too-acclaimed low-budget suspense flick a must-see, but I'm a William Friedkin freak, and I know a few critics who've been enthusiastic about Bug. And I have to say: I liked it myself. Not in a "best of the year" kind of way, but as an oddball change of pace, and an acting tour-de-force for Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon and even Harry Connick Jr. True, Friedkin doesn't exactly "open up" Tracy Letts' stage play, but as the story develops from a laconic lower-class love story to a study of excessive paranoia, Friedkin picks up the pace, through editing, shifting camera placement, and pushing the actors to speed up their lines. Sometimes he goes too far, and the movie gets too shrill–although a lot of that can be laid at Letts' feet, and the impossibility of making lines like, "I Am The Super Mother Bug!" sound non-hilarious–but Friedkin creates a believable atmosphere of pestilence, and shows how easy it is to buy into a conspiracy, especially if what you're really doing is clinging to a person you think you can trust. Also, there have been few scenes this year as funny and scary all at once as Shannon and Judd destroying a freshly delivered pizza to check it for creepy-crawlies.
Grade: B+
On the list? Not in the Top 10, but yes, around 15 or 16.
Thursday, November 15th
Things We Lost In The Fire (Academy screener): In his A.V. Club review, Nathan categorized Susanne Bier's English-language debut as "griefsploitation," and man I couldn't agree with my friend and colleague more. (Except that Nathan still gave the movie a "B-," which I'm not quite willing to swing.) I understand that cinema can and should grapple with hard emotions–like profound loss, for example–but nearly everyting about Things We Lost In The Fire is programmatic, from the blandly reliable nature of The Man We Mourn, played with zero snap by David Duchovny, to the way every character's motivation is revealed through pat dialogue, in which they lay out their various causes and addictions. Benecio Del Toro gives a typically interesting performance, but Halle Berry overemotes, and the whole movie becomes one long wallow. If I want relentless bathos, I'll read Funky Winkerbean, thank you very much. At least it's over quick.
Grade: C-
On the list? I was tempted to say, "On the shit list, maybe," but then I decided it wouldn't read as funny as it initially struck me.
Next week: Beowulf, The Boss Of It All, Crazy Love, Gone Baby Gone and The Hoax, at least.