Films of 2011 Part 7: 40-31

I realise after writing the last two posts yesterday that I’ve gotten to the stage where I’m no longer qualifying my opinion by saying anything bad about films, so I recognise that the only place to go from here is to the land of ever-increasingly effusive praise. This is a bit odd, since I actually don’t feel that enamoured with some of the films in this chunk of 10. But anyway, you can’t question Jez’s sorting program.

#40. The Towering Inferno (1974, John Guillermin)

Until I saw this film, I think my only exposure to disaster films was in spoof form, in sketch comedy shows and, of course, Airplane! (that’s Flying High to my Australian friends) So again my expectations came to the fore as I anticipated token coloured characters, histrionic clichés and sappy, manipulative scenes involving orphaned children with extremely rare respiratory disorders. Okay, so there are children and token coloured characters (O.J. Simpson, in fact!), but to my surprise this was actually a very dark film, and there was far more death, despair and actual gravitas vis-a-vis the whole building-on-fire thing. I mean, okay, O.J. Simpson handing adorably old Fred Astaire the puppy belonging to his new-found romance who fell out of a lift and died is kind of the most ridiculously sappy piece of schmaltz ever put onto film, but aside from that I was impressed. Oh, and is that the sound of male ovaries going into overdrive? (ovarie-drive, boomtish) It must be the presence of Paul Newman... Oh, and Steve McQueen as well? *masculine swoon*

#39. Dracula (1931, Tod Browning)

Okay, so we’ve reached that part of the countdown where my enjoyment of a film can be comically disproportionate to the film’s intrinsic quality. So is the case with Dracula, whose spot on this list is due to a couple of things: firstly, the camp factor, which is cranked up way beyond the 11-mark here; and secondly the circumstances in which I saw it, namely at the Sydney Festival 2011 with a live string ensemble playing a new score composed by Philip Glass (who also led the ensemble). That aside, the fact that this isn’t made as a comedy shouldn’t discourage one’s enjoyment of it as a most hilarious piece of celluloid. Bela Lugosi is magnificent, in a campy and hilariously un-magnificent kind of way, and what may have passed for creepy horror back in the thirties is so ridiculous and overblown now that the laughter produced retains not a trace of catharsis but consists entirely of scorn. And yet, what absolute fun this film is.

#38. True Grit (2010, Joel & Ethan Coen)

As a bit of disclosure I should say I haven’t seen the original John Wayne version of this film, but also I should mention that I love westerns, to an extent completely out of proportion with the fact that I was brought up in suburban Sydney. So when you put two masters of the art like the Coen brothers in front of a tough and macho western setting where every man (and, in this case, young girl) is in it for themselves, you know I will enjoy. This is less a fascinating exploration of human nature as it is an adventurous and, at times, violent romp through the western genre, with plenty of cynical humour courtesy of Jeff Bridges and a gutsy lead performance from Haylee Steinfeld whose Oscar nod for her ‘supporting’ role was largely the product of cold committee reasoning. There’s a dichotomy regarding Coen brothers films (and I will expand upon this later, as well); namely in their films, either pretty much everybody dies, or in spite of everybody’s best efforts, only one person will die – usually some testosterone-soaked ‘avenger’ caricature. Credit to the brothers that this film falls vaguely in the middle – it’s definitely more of the bloodbath variety but not more so than any other western, and the lead characters are allowed to live to drive home the message of the film.

#37. The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004, Niels Mueller)

This is another film I saw on an inspiration from Filmspotting, specifically when they did their top 5 Sean Penn performances (as a sidenote, shit and bugger, I just realised I somehow completely forgot about putting Dead Man Walking on this list, which would have fallen around this spot as well; anyway...). This film is, as a whole, a bit questionable in quality. It tells the story of a misfit loser whose marriage and job are at best rocky, and who throughout the course of the film hatches an irrational plot to try and assassinate Richard Nixon (I hope that’s not a spoiler, I mean, it’s the title of the damn film). The odd thing is it’s hard to see what the point of the film is; the obvious comparison is Taxi Driver but there is none of the social commentary and complexity of which Travis Bickle is so emblematic; this guy’s just a loser. However, the emotional power and magnetism of Sean Penn’s performance carries this well beyond the finish line. There’s a scene where his character tracks down his estranged wife over the phone, only to have her new lover answer. Watching his indignation as he tries – and fails – to retain his dignity is quite simply one of the most heartbreaking scenes I can recall, and it typifies the strength and power of this otherwise OK film.

#36. The Social Network (2010, David Fincher)

Oh, okay, here it is. The doyenne of critical acclaim in early 2011 makes an appearance on my list. I feel there’s not a lot I can add that hasn’t already been said a million times before, except to talk specifically about what I enjoyed. While most of the time I do look for sympathy with characters, I admire a film such as this that is willing to present us with a cast full of arseholes of varying completeness. What’s more, I enjoyed the feeling this film left us, namely that the whole concept of Facebook is poisoned by the egomaniacal ambition surrounding its inception and founding philosophy. But more specific to the film, another crackling Aaron Sorkin screenplay is put through its paces by the very deliberate, but at times almost frenetic, directorial style of Fincher, and while at times the snappiness of the dialogue leaps beyond the bounds of realism, the story is told so entertainingly that it’s pretty easy to shrug it off.

#35. The French Connection (1971, William Friedkin)

Yes, another ‘I should watch Best Picture winners’ entry. I’ve always hated this film, for absolutely no reason than that it beat out A Clockwork Orange for that very award in 1972. Stupid reason, I know, particularly when this film stands on its own as a masterpiece of its genre. Mostly just cop drama with a bit of gritty gangster-film thrown in, this is basically just a very well-made crime caper. Gene Hackman is excellent as the hard-hitting Popeye Doyle, but the main star of the film is the suspenseful action sequences. There’s possibly the most exhilarating car chase I’ve encountered, as well as a tense but hilarious tailing sequence where the villain is trying to shake off his dogged pursuer. Just a crime drama, but what a crime drama.

#34. Shane (1953, George Stevens)

Okay, so apart from my great love of westerns, I’m a bit confused as to why this film ended up so high. There’s certainly nothing bad I can say about it, but in all honesty I have to say it has all the classic hallmarks of the genre with nothing particularly innovative. That said, the titular Shane, played by Alan Ladd, is up there with the best of the loner cowboy heroes, and there is a perfect amount of ass-kicking to please the audience. Basically just a bullies vs villagers tale reminiscent of Seven Samurai, this film tells a fairly simple story very well. Even while writing about it, I can’t quite figure out why it would be this high, but I can say there’s never a dull moment and it falls neatly as one of the great pioneers of what could be called the 'revisionist western' genre. Check it out if you want to disagree with me.

#33. The Fountain (2006, Darren Aronofsky)

I’m not anticipating too much vitriol for this one, unless actual esteemed film critics read my blog, because it seems that anyone with credentials in this field hates this film, while the one person I know who’s seen it (me) loved it. The obvious trouble with it is that it is very ambitious, trying to combine a love tragedy with a mystical cosmogony, but in spite of its grand scope it really spoke to me. The pathos of the love story was obviously going to get to me, but I felt myself more moved by the mystical, almost exegetic sequences in space, while the combination of the three time periods – Mayan, present-ish day and future - really worked to draw out and expose the key themes of love, death and immortality. Hugh Jackman is as good as I’ve seen him here, and the philosophical nature of the film made sure it stuck in my mind as I puzzled over it for a long time afterwards. One final note: I think Aronofsky’s visual genius is put to its best use here, in what is arguably his most stylish film.

#32. Margin Call (2011, J.C. Chandor)

This is another film that hasn’t yet hit our shores, and I imagine it may not for a while. But let me just say it’s definitely worth a look. What a romp! It tells the story of 24 hours in not-quite-Lehmann Brothers prior to the onset of the Global Financial Crisis, as the full extent of the toxicity of the firm’s assets spreads rapidly up the chain of rich, bloated bastardry. Vile characters populate the film, but the cast is world class and makes the story captivating. Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany and a surprisingly good Simon Baker lead into none other than the über-cool Jeremy Irons with a huge late effort from the bench. While the film has obvious problems with dumbing-down (a lot of the film is people looking at off-screen computer monitors and saying “holy shit” as if one screen could capture the complexity of the economic crash), it’s one of the most gripping dramas I’ve seen this year.

#31. Persona (1966, Ingmar Bergman)

Part of my top 250 catch-up and one of the hardest to get my hands on (guess where I eventually found this one. Go on, have a guess. Wrong. YOUTUBE, of all places.), this is another of Bergman’s existential classics. Hang on, scrap that, that’s bad film-writing. This is a Bergman film, therefore it’s existential, duh. Masterfully worked with a creepy Gothic edge, it tells the story of an actress who has apparently been shocked into silence, and the naive young nurse who tends to her. As the story unfolds, the relationship between the two women is revealed to be more complex than realised, and there is a haunting psychological ambiguity to the whole payoff. This is hypnotic, existential filmmaking at its finest.

Unfortunately this morning we had to dump a sofabed and buy a new one, so my fervent hope of having two posts written and only two to write hasn't worked. Two will hopefully follow tomorrow leading up to the grand finale on New Year's Eve. For now, peace out, and don't try to swallow anything larger than a tennis ball.