Movies of 2013 Part 2: 120-101

Another post, so soon? Why not indeed...

120) The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946, Tay Garnett)

According to IMDb this comes under the genre ‘film-noir’ but I really don’t feel it. It’s that spirit of toughness and gloominess that I feel is really lacking here, and what might have elevated the material from being as lacklustre as it was. The plot also felt very convoluted: in the same way that people accuse the third Lord of the Rings movie as having too many ending, this film had too many middles for me. The central conflict always remained the same but the way things kept transpiring, it just confused me. It also had that disadvantage of going on too long.

119) Ghostbusters (1984, Ivan Reitman)

While I don’t generally agree with Tony Martin-as-Arnold Schwarzenegger’s assertion that Ivan Reitman is “fantastic… I think a genius”, I nevertheless had some pretty high hopes for this comedy classic. And for the most part it was funnier than other classic comedies I’ve had the misfortune to watch (how long has it been since I badmouthed Animal House?), but what let it down was just how non-existent the sci-fi elements were. It really just seems like the dudes have a set of giant-laser shooting thing which sometimes works, and sometimes doesn’t, and when it doesn’t they do something crazy with them to make it more powerful… no other explanation really given. I feel like this sort of supernatural comedy works best (yes, I’m a nerd, not a moviegoing pleb) when the sci-fi informs the comedy, rather than being an inconvenient hurdle to duck conveniently underneath. Mildly amusing but far from clever.

118) The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel, 1979, Volker Schlöndorff)

Wow, so this is my lowest-rated foreign-language film of the year. A bit of a sad result, for this Palme d’Or winner, which was another of my local library acquisitions. It’s also one of my big regrets, getting this, because I’ve wanted to read the Günter Grass-penned novel for ages, and I feel I may have marred that experience by watching this adaptation first. It’s not that this adaptation is particularly bad, but I found it a little long, and the principle character of the ageless man-child Oskar… ummm… gratingly irritating? And there’s the rub: I don’t know if he’s deliberately unsympathetic in the source material and it’s part of a greater vision, but man he just gave me the shits.

117) Quantum of Solace (2008, Marc Forster)

So I did the new Bonds in a weird order. I leapt right on board with Casino Royale at the cinema, and when this received lukewarm-at-best reviews, I neatly avoided it, but then couldn’t escape the hype of Skyfall. So this year I leapt backwards to catch up with whatever I’d missed (as a sidenote, I’m STILL WONDERING, what the hell happened to Q? Did I miss a line in this film? I mean I know Desmond Llewellyn died, but suddenly there was this new ‘Q’ in Skyfall and I thought there might at least be a plot point in this). Anyway, Marc Forster is a studio-type director with a decent, if, inconsistent filmography. Paul Haggis is a very respectable screenwriter… so really what the hell went wrong with this? It’s not out and out bad, but it’s just a mess. I had no idea really what was on the line, and the ending just seemed abrupt, like I’d missed most of the plotting. Yes, it’s a bad idea to come from Skyfall to this, because Skyfall is many, many people’s heads-and-shoulders above this.

116) Miracle (2004, Gavin O’Connor)

Wow, this film came out in 2004? Well it captured the 80s well, I seriously thought I was watching a film made in the 80s, I suck. But ah, a sports movie. You know, there’s nothing like a sports movie to get some easy, unthinking uplift. Even when you’re presented with this ‘here is the one occasion in the entire comprehensible history and future of competition when the USA could be considered by anybody an underdog’ scenario, the syrup-dripped moments of inspiring speeches and the eventual triumph that is as predictable and formulaic as the plot of your average phone book, even with all of that, a sports movie can still make you feel good; I feel like this sort of thing is a guilty pleasure. It is what it is.

115) Ugetsu Monagatari (1953, Kenji Mizoguchi)

Mizoguchi, next to Danny Boyle, is probably going to be the most-featured director on this list, owing to some shameless and unconscionable scoundrel engaged in wanton acts of online piracy that are ruining the film industry forever wonderful person uploading many of them, fully subtitled, to YouTube. Unfortunately this is clearly his lowest-ranked. Not for any particular cinematic flaw, but just the fact that this multi-thread narrative doesn’t really float my boat. I found it hard to connect with many of the characters, got bored at times with one of the threads (try to guess which one! Hint: it’s not the idiot-who-wants-to-be-a-samurai one) and because of the nature of the stories didn’t get the emotional impact I got from Mizoguchi’s other work. Decent addition to his canon, but just not for me.

114) Samson + Delilah (2009, Warwick Thornton)

I’d heard so many great things about this little Australian film that could, so following on from my enjoyment of Ivan Sen’s Beneath Clouds last year I gave it a go. To be honest, I was a little disappointed. The two central performances were great, but I found the central figure of the silent Samson kind of a stock character from so many similar Australian films (that I don’t, as a rule, love), while the relationship between the two struck me as more troubling than redemptive. I bring up Beneath Clouds not just because it’s another Aboriginal Australian filmmaker at work, but just because I thought the relationship and the story in BC was stronger, and just more pleasing.

113) Last Tango in Paris (Ultimo tango a Parigi, 1972, Bernardo Bertolucci)

I did try to get through more of Bertolucci’s filmography this year, but this was the only effort I managed. Another film that suffers mostly from its length, this twisted romance-cum-softcore porn film is also noteworthy for the extraordinary amount of vagina in it (given that it’s not a Peter Greenaway film). That’s not in and of itself a bad thing of course, but even I raise an eyebrow when you cross that line between ‘unflinchingly candid romance’ and ‘HEEEEERRE’S VAGINA!’. I’m joking, incidentally. There really isn’t that much vagina, but there is a lot of nudity – probably more Marlon Brando nudity than I needed- and too many (60 or so) minutes of this film. It got tedious.

112) Sweet and Lowdown (1999, Woody Allen)

So not that long after I trashed Woody’s Scoop, I’m back to… well, be lukewarm about another effort. This probably doesn’t deserve to be as low as it is. It’s down here because the central conceit of the film kind of frustrated me, a lot. The reason it’s undeserving of its spot is that the central conceit of the film - namely that our protagonist, Emmet Ray, is supposed to idolise the great jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, but consistently evade every opportunity he’s given to meet, or even play with, him – is supposed to be extremely frustrating, so in frustrating me it fulfilled its purpose. It’s actually a really good film from Woody Allen: offbeat humour with a cynical and bittersweet romance at the centre of it; Sean Penn delivers a great Woody-stand-in type performance and Samantha Morton is sweet; but I just couldn’t like Emmet Ray enough to like the film.

111) Life of Pi (2012, Ang Lee)

Hmmm, well what can I say about this film that hasn’t already been said? Oh, I know: the cinematography and visual effects were rubbish. But there’s a reason that hasn’t been said: it isn’t true. In fact they were the saving grace for this film, notching it up from the bottom of the 2012-film rankings. I can’t really love the story of this film, or the way it fanfared so loudly the emotional significance of every moment, but I could almost put it all aside and just enjoy the spectacle. I still think the great Roger Deakins should have won the Oscar for Skyfall, but the breathtaking beauty of most of this film still can’t be denied.

110) The Shop Around the Corner (1940, Ernst Lubitsch)

Lubitsch was another filmmaker I tried, but ultimately, failed, to catch up with this year. This charming little romance is probably best known (or, completely unknown, I don’t know) as the inspiration for the far inferior Nora Ephron piffle You’ve Got Mail, and of course in spite of Tom Hanks’ charisma, it’s easier to get me on board by just putting Jimmy Stewart in a film instead. ‘Charming’ is really the only word to describe this film, though, because ‘meaningful’, ‘compelling’ and ‘substantial’ don’t really seem to fit the bill.

109) House of Flying Daggers (Shi mian mai fu, 2004, Yimou Zhang)

Riding the same fad-like wave of Hong Kong films as Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that, in spite of being just like everything that had always been produced there, suddenly became hugely popular in the west and then completely disappeared, this is certainly the least of that wave. It’s beautifully shot, taking full advantage of some gorgeous landscapes, but it suffers from a fair few plot contrivances and a very indulgent self-interest. Yes, it’s a good-looking film, but damn it knows it. It also suffers, as do all films that don’t have Tony Leung in them, from not having Tony Leung in it.

108) 28 Days Later (2002, Danny Boyle)

Another of my Danny Boyle ‘marathon’ of sorts, this not-quite-zombie film was a bit of harmless horror fun. It lost a few points from me for a couple of reasons: one, I didn’t really experience any shock or even any real suspense during the meatier parts of the film; and two, it’s as close to literally beat-for-beat the plot of Day of the Triffids as you can get without just adapting Day of the Triffids, which didn’t help with the whole surprise-factor thing I was missing. I did enjoy Boyle’s evocation of desolation and apocalyptic confusion, though, so as a mood piece I mark it up. As a sidenote, it’s also nice to see David Schneider in anything (whom Jez and I will recognise as Bradley from the 90s Jim Broadbent-starring sitcom The Boss, but others might recognise from some of his other TV credits including ‘Man in porn film’ and ‘Man outside toilet (uncredited)’)

107) Fitzcarraldo (1982, Werner Herzog)

The central conceit of this film: a man determined to build an opera house in the middle of the Amazon jungle first needs to haul a ridiculously colossal paddle steamer out of the water and across a mountain. It sounds like the most absurd plot ever, but this film unveils an even more ridiculously lofty and misguided ambition: trying to direct Klaus Kinski. I went into this film hoping for the same discordant magic that Kinski and Herzog produced to such startling effect in Aguirre: der zorn Gottes, or even the lesser and quite psychotic effort Woyzeck, from 1979. Alas, Fitzcarraldo really needs a particular type of whimsical charm and bombast to work as a character, and when Kinski tries whimsy it’s completely the wrong type of harrowing. It’s an interesting film relic, but not one I could jump on board with.

106) Stoker (2013, Chan-wook Park)

Another of the films I caught up with on the plane to/from North America last year, the debut English-language feature from Park held a lot of promise. In the first few minutes I was a bit disappointed when I remembered how much I dislike Nicole Kidman’s wounded-kitten act. Fortunately, Park’s blend of ethereal and emphatic managed to temper it after a while, helped along the way by an obviously great central performance by the obviously great Mia Wasikowska. There’s also a great deal of suspension of disbelief required for this film to get in lockstep with the viewer, and my disbelief sadly got the better of me. A decent film, but I think a bit overambitious.

105) My Own Private Idaho (1991, Gus Van Sant)

Another of my Gus Van Sant retrospective, I feel this film might hit the mark more if you recognise early on, or go in with the knowledge, that it’s a loose adaptation of Henry IV. Going in not knowing that, and with no real knowledge of the play (and hence an inability to recognise the plot points) it seemed quite absurdly anachronistic, the way the dramatic action and the dialogue plays out. It took me until the rejection of the Falstaff stand-in character that I recognised that there was something else besides just anachronistic action going on, because it seemed oddly familiar and then realised more what Gus was going for. I’d say therefore I appreciated the final thirty minutes or so more than the rest of the film.

104) Best in Show (2000, Christopher Guest)

Guest’s mockumentaries are quite easy to like. At the same time, if you dislike one you’re bound to dislike them all. I didn’t dislike this, but the reason it’s easy to like is that Guest’s comic formula and cast of regulars is quite predictable, so you can appreciate the humour even if you’re not laughing out loud. In my case, it’s an easy watch, but to really love this you need to connect more with the absurd, over-the-top motley crue of characters than I did. Or maybe just be more of a dog lover and less of an advocate for the ‘canine final solution’ as I am. I found more resonance, both comic and just narratorially, in Waiting for Guffman which will come up later.

103) Sleeper (1973, Woody Allen)

Dear me, a lot of Woody quite down on this list, isn’t there? Thing is there’s still plenty more to come. This was a minor disappointment for me: the idea of Woody doing sci-fi comedy should really appeal to me in theory. But in practice the combination of his sense of humour with his sense of futuristic imagination comes off as totally camp. It does beat out Ghostbusters in being able to use the sci-fi vision to drive both plot and humour, but there’s an overwhelmingly twee nature to the slapstick that had me rolling my eyes more than laughing.

102) Marty (1955, Delbert Mann)

Funny how things change, isn’t it? A film like this winning Best Picture? These days you wouldn’t be able to get this film financed, or released and if somehow you made it through those hurdles, it would be a depth charge at the box office. However, its place in that holy pantheon aside, it’s unerringly sweet, and such a simple story as it is, it’s easy to be charmed at least somewhat. Ernest Borgnine is always good value, while Betsy Blair fulfils the role of being ‘not all that pretty’ well. This is low-stakes filmmaking from a simpler time, and while a couple of zombified Rottweilers and a submarine chase may have raised the heartbeat a little, it’s a nice, if unexciting, film.

101) Nikita (1990, Luc Besson)

Basically The Bourne Identity without the memory loss or the mystery or Matt Damon, Nikita (I refuse to call it La Femme Nikita) is really just another bit of Luc Besson action cheese. The fact that it came out 10 years before Bourne doesn’t stop me reflecting on how much better than this Bourne enthralled me in its action, the character and the moral ambiguity of the protagonist and who was after and behind him. The fact that Nikita starts as a remorseless killer of innocents and the training regime are all transparent just detaches me from any emotional involvement. Although at the risk of potentially ruining my credibility, I do have a soft spot for Tchéky Karyo on screen. He’s ruggedly handsome and has a mysteriously menacing presence, so he became the saving grace of this film for me.