December 31, 2009
Best of 2009
A rough year, you say? Maybe for your 401(k). Meanwhile, Hollywood raked it in, enjoying record box office numbers, as the indie and foreign scene (though spread between fewer companies perhaps) yielded an unprecedented number of treasures. To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I had such a hard time cutting my best-of list off at 10. Surveying my choices, I’m hard-pressed to find a common theme. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I might even wonder what kind of critic can love a G-rated Japanese-animated cartoon and Lars von Trier’s genital-mutilation opus in the same breath, or reconcile the esoteric with the popcorn populism of James Cameron’s Avatar. But there you have it. Of the 274 first-run and festival films I saw last year (that’s as many movies as qualified for Oscar consideration in 2009 — though not the same ones), these are by far the best:
Top 10 of 2009
1. In the Loop
This mockumentary-style political satire from British comedy savant Armando Iannucci brings the fast-talking BBC Four series The Thick of It inside the Beltway, as bellicose “don’t ever call me fucking English” party enforcer Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi, playing the full-body equivalent of a throbbing neck vein) preys on the ego and incompetence of his fellow lawmakers to spin both nations into declaring war on an unnamed country. Applying the unfussy fly-on-the-wall approach of The Office to a screenplay that would’ve made Paddy Chayefsky proud, Iannucci intends merely to update Yes Minister for the Iraq era, but in the way that only comedy can, manages to tap into something deeper. As profound as it is profane, the whirlwind of witty barbs and bureaucratic nonsense demands to be seen twice as it poses the terrifying question, What if the principles of showbiz (where nobody knows anything) governed government?
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Posted by Peter Debruge on December 31, 09 at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)
Worst of 2009
I lied. These aren’t the worst movies of the year. More like my five biggest disappointments, movies that promised the world and delivered a fraction of their potential. To me, that’s far more upsetting than a bad movie, because they’ve squandered the opportunity, and now no one can go back and do it right. You probably won’t agree with my choices (maybe you went into Where the Wild Things Are expecting to be annoyed and came out enraptured — that actually happened to me with co-writer Dave Eggers’ other 2009 release, Away We Go), but these picks were meant to be personal. Here are five letdowns that could have been so much more:
1. Funny People
Let’s face it: No one’s better than Judd Apatow at raunchy-sincere relationship comedies, and I kicked off 2009 covering a day of shooting on Funny People for Collider, so my expectations were sky-high for what looked to be Apatow’s most personal film yet. It also suggested another shot at Serious Acting from Adam Sandler (I’ve been patiently waiting for him to give us more of that Punch-Drunk Love mojo). The stars, as they say, were in alignment. What we got, however, was a long, rambling and deeply self-indulgent powwow between a bunch of talented comics. The characters dress and talk and slouch like us (making this what exactly, a big-budget Mumblecore movie?), but I couldn’t have felt less connected as Apatow struggled to decide whether the movie was about a young joke-writer (Seth Rogen) trying to make it or an old hand (Sandler) trying to make good.
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Posted by Peter Debruge on December 31, 09 at 09:44 AM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2009
Best of 2008
The real world did its best to bring us down this year, but the movies are still about those who dream big, as evidenced by my top three picks for 2008: Whether it’s a lovestruck robot willing to wait 700 years for his soulmate, a burned-out wrestler fighting to regain his respect or a silly Frenchman with all-but-suicidal notions of civil disobedience, such characters reminds us nothing is impossible. Of the 236 first-run and festival films I saw last year (here’s the full list), the following are the ones I simply can’t live without:
Top 10 of 2008
1. Wall-E
There are some who refer to “the Pixar formula” as if consistency of quality were a bad thing. The way I see it, Wall-E raises the bar for not just animation but movies in general. From the beginning, the studio rejected singing forest creatures and fairy-tale source material, always looking for new ways to tell stories. This time, director Andrew Stanton creates a staggering photoreal future — a planet overrun with trash — and finds both a love story (Pixar’s first) and hope for humanity in the rubble. The movie’s unassuming lead character, a rusty trash-compacting robot with eyes and arms and no other immediately relatable features, evokes the pure animation magic of Luxo Jr., the expressive lamp featured in the company’s logo. That we invest so much emotion in that little fella merely proves the extent of their talents. When Buzz Lightyear said, “To infinity and beyond,” this is no doubt the kind of constant innovation his creators had in mind.
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Posted by Peter Debruge on January 1, 09 at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2008
Best of 2007
Readers have been picking on Roger Ebert lately for handing out four-star reviews like popcorn, and though I can't agree with all his endorsements (Rendition, really?), I certainly share his enthusiasm for what has surely been one of the strongest years for film I've witnessed in my lifetime. Not since 1999 (the year of Being John Malkovich, Magnolia, Fight Club and a dozen other first-class titles) have I seen so many genuine masterpieces in a single year. I could make a top 40 list this year and still not run out of films to be genuinely excited about. Below, I've somehow managed to whittle it down to the 10 best (out of 209 new releases I saw this year).
Top 10 of 2007
1. Atonement
After reimagining Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice as a ragged, realistic coming-of-age tale, director Joe Wright does a complete 180 and embraces the sweeping romantic style of classic Hollywood love stories (think Billy Wilder or David Lean), updating it through a series of thoroughly modern innovations. Wright uses all the tools at his disposal in weaving a scorching hot reverie that, in its final minutes, asks us to reexamine everything that came before. I suppose it's unfair to claim that the twist excuses any supposed faults you might see in the film, but Briony is much too hard on herself, and I prefer to believe she adjusts events accordingly. It's a nice Nabokovian concept, entirely consistent with Ian McEwan's novel, which questions the motives and power of literature. That Wright can engage these ideas without using narration is a resounding argument against those who view cinema as a second-class medium.
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Posted by Peter Debruge on January 1, 08 at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2007
Best of 2006
I can’t decide whether 2006 was a strong year for Hollywood or a weak one for American independent cinema. It’s certainly the first time in ages when the best picture Oscar could conceivably go to one of my two favorite movies (and if Babel and World Trade Center would kindly stay out of the race, all five nominees could be great). Dangling just past the ten films listed here (the best of 200 new releases screened in ’06) are the studio-financed runners-up Letters from Iwo Jima, Children of Men and Stranger Than Fiction. Maybe Hollywood isn’t a lost cause after all.
Top 10 of 2006
1. Dreamgirls
I don’t much care for musicals, so imagine my surprise that this year’s big Hollywood “tuner” should top my list. But Dreamgirls isn’t your usual stop-and-start show, where we squirm through a small dose of story, then everything grinds to a halt while the characters perform a big number. This one, about a Supremes-style girl group with diva issues galore, is wall-to-wall music. And that’s the perfect vehicle for heavy-duty montage, as director Bill Condon compresses six hours of movie into two hours’ running time. The whirlwind result embraces classical storytelling even as it propels the medium forward into the 21st century.
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Posted by Peter Debruge on January 1, 07 at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
Worst of 2006
You don’t really want to hear the WORST movies of 2006, do you? Why punish Pulse (or Another Gay Movie, BloodRayne, The Libertine or An American Haunting) any more than they already have by bombing in theaters? The best part about scaling back my 2006 moviegoing (I saw 200 new releases, instead of 250 the year before) is that it gave me license to skip the worst offenders. But that doesn’t mean the other movies all lived up to my expectations — far from it. Here’s a recap of the year’s biggest disappointments, the movies that promised the moon but delivered only cheese.
5 Biggest Disappointments of 2006
1. Running with Scissors
A tricky bestseller becomes a disastrous misfire in the hands of first-time director Ryan Murphy (the brains behind the smarmy-yet-addictive Nip/Tuck series). First, Murphy picks 20-year-old Joseph Cross to play his tortured 13-year-old hero, Augusten Burroughs. Then, he gives Annette Bening license to run away with the movie, inadvertently making her the star of Augusten’s memoirs (which means the middle hour doesn’t work, when she’s largely absent). Finally, he glazes the whole affair in production design so berserk (think Wes Anderson on crack) we’re paying more attention to the fact that Bening’s earrings match the retro yellow drapes than the scenes themselves.
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Posted by Peter Debruge on January 1, 07 at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2006
Best of 2005
It's been a week and a half since I've been to the movies. That's astonishing in a year packed with nearly 250 in-theater screenings. To pick the 10 best films from that group is to single out a meager 4%, ignoring the dozens of other movies I loved. Here are the 10 films this critic couldn't live without in '05:
Top 10 of 2005
1. Me and You and Everyone We Know
))<>(( That symbol, like Miranda July's splendid daydream of a movie, reimagines the mystery of human connection from a child's point of view. Where other films (Crash, Munich) shake their fist at the world and tell audiences what to think, July invites us to share her precocious sense of curiosity, finding magic in things as mundane as old photographs, a new pair of shoes, even the sunrise. In a series of whimsically observed little moments, July captures all that is scary, fresh and right with the world.
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Posted by Peter Debruge on January 1, 06 at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
Worst of 2005
Rather than tear into the worst movies of the year (a rather boring prospect with under-achievers like Stealth, Elektra, Pretty Persuasion and the Deuce Bigalow sequel to contend with), I though I might tackle 2005's biggest letdowns instead. After all, it's far more interesting to consider the films that actually had a shot at greatness, but devastated me instead.
5 Biggest Disappointments of 2005
1. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Narnia is to Christians what Battlefield Earth was for Scientologists — a pseudo-religious allegory artlessly adapted to the big screen. The box office may have worked out in Narnia's favor, but this clunky, shamefully mismanaged version of the C.S. Lewis classic misses the point entirely, spending all of its energy on a Lord of the Rings-style battle sequence. With four dull British brats as our guide, the film plods through what should have been a magical passage into a parallel universe.
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Posted by Peter Debruge on January 1, 06 at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2005
Best of 2004
Every year, I like to keep a tally of how many new releases I've seen (it helps when December rolls around and I have to remember the best and worst films of the year). At last count, I'd somehow managed to squeeze in 185 in 2004. At that rate, it's amazing that I haven't started collecting moss. That's roughly two full weeks in the dark, or more than a movie every other day. And that doesn't even count DVDs, repertory screenings and TV, which all just goes to show: I desperately need to find some new hobbies.
Top 10 of 2004
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jim Carrey shines in a performance that couldn't be more different from his Lemony Snicket shenanigans. His world literally falls apart as he tries to erase ex Kate Winslet from his memory, which just goes to show that you can't take the good without the bad. People seem so lazy in love these days, and Charlie Kaufman's latest self-deprecating screenplay drills every bit as deep as Adaptation to advise: "love the one you're with."
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Posted by Peter Debruge on January 1, 05 at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
Worst of 2004
Bottom 5 of 2004
1. A Hole in My Heart
The very definition of torture: A sadistic enterprise designed to be so offensive that it will jar audiences into taking stock of what’s wrong with the world. Trust me, there is no prize for watching till the end... and describing what happens will only make you want to try. Don’t.
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Posted by Peter Debruge on January 1, 05 at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2004
Best of 2003
1. Lost in Translation
Meet Bob and Charlotte: two souls with nothing in common besides feeling alien and alone in a strange land, but somehow that's enough. Sofia Coppola's surprisingly mature second feature acknowledges that bittersweet bond — not quite love — that overshadows relationships forged on timing and circumstance.
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Posted by Peter Debruge on January 1, 04 at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2000
Best of 1999
What a year for the movies! When a no-budget movie that threatens but never shows a witch attack can generate as much interest as a Star Wars prequel, Well, neither film made the cut, but a bevy of terrific films did...
Top 10 of 1999
1. Being John Malkovich
Like a trip more twisted than any Alice ever took down the rabbit hole, Being John Malkovich is as bewilderingly inventive as it is gloriously absurd. Nestled somewhere on the 7 1/2th floor of the Mertin Flemmer Building, a miniature door leads thrill-seekers directly into actor John Malkovich's head for short 15-minute visits. The kooky head-trips serve each of the characters with a wildly unique experience, offering bizarre enlightenment and a taste of fame.
The year's cleverest, most original concoction combines the genius of Charlie Kaufman's script (unsurprisingly, numerous studios seemed baffled by its premise) with director Spike Jonze's just-right attitude, further buoyed by Carter Burwell's score and actors glad to embrace parts drained of all glamour. The elements merge as a playful and intelligent comedy with a knockout concept and plenty of substance.
Kudos to Malkovich for a delightfully self-deprecating performance, with congratulations extended to a cast including John Cusack as an out-of-work puppeteer, Cameron Diaz as his frazzled pet-peeved wife and Catherine Keener as the sneaky manipulatress who leads them both on.
With its constant narrative and stylistic innovation, Being John Malkovich tantalizes audiences into following its sprawling creative path. Moments of startling originality spring forth welcome along a path of unpredictable intellectual abandon. Curioser and curioser, Jonze and Kaufman's mad little movie far surpasses its many worthy competitors in a year virtually bursting with excellent films.
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Posted by Peter Debruge on January 1, 00 at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)
January 01, 1999
Best of 1998
1. Life Is Beautiful
Roberto Benigni combines his delightfully inventive sense of humor with a serious examination of the Holocaust to create a masterpiece which captures the triumph of optimism in the most unlikely of places, a concentration camp. This is Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers rolled into one.
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Posted by Peter Debruge on January 1, 99 at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)