|
6. |
|
By far the most intellectual film of the year, the History Boys is the film adaptation of the hugely successful, multiple-Tony Award-winning play by Alan Bennett. The play’s entire original cast returns for the film along with its director Nicholas Hytner, whose previous work includes the films The Crucible and The Madness of King George and the Broadway production of Miss Saigon.
The film takes place at a preppy all-boy grammar school in northern England of 1983 and tells the story of eight brainy schoolboys finishing up their high school careers, trying desperately to make it into Oxford or Cambridge. The eclectic troupe of young lads is aided along their journey by their delightfully eccentric and oafish “general studies” teacher, Hector, and a new, youthful unorthodox instructor brought in to help the boys with their final exams, Irwin. |
|
Filled with 80’s “new wave” pop songs and brimming with teen angst, the film feels somewhat like a John Hughes adolescent dramedy with a dash of Shakespearean panache, a bit like the Breakfast Club fused with Much Ado about Nothing.
The dialogue courses sharply through the characters, theatrical in its writing, yet powerful in its execution. The entire ensemble administers this intellectually piercing dynamic banter with such maturation and grace that the History Boys easily features some of the best performances of the year, and from a cast of virtual unknowns. |
|
Ultimately, this film is a piece of high literature rarely seen in recent cinematic history, tackling complex issues such as education, success, sexuality and pedophilia in a responsible and engrossing manner. Though some of the minor characters could have been fleshed out a bit more and some of the thematic conventions that probably worked well on the stage feel somewhat clunky here, yet this film still teems with life and reverence and should not be missed.
Grade: B+ |
|
5. |
|
With a budget at over $10 million, the Host was one of the most expensive South Korean films ever produced, and luckily it went on to become the most commercially successful film in its country’s history. We Americans may scoff at the $10 million price tag as considerably modest in contrast to our bloated Hollywood monstrosities, but this film is just as epic and slick looking as any American made summer blockbuster. |
|
The Host is director Bong Joon-ho’s highly anticipated follow-up to the excellent serial-killer-thriller Memories of Murder from 2003. This film on its surface seems to be an action/suspense “creature feature” about a monster terrorizing the Han River, but beneath the superficial appearances lay a deeply layered dark comedy with elements of political satire.
Without question the film is a smorgasbord of absurdity from the opening minutes to the final sequence. The film begins with the river’s monster creation as we see an American military scientist demand his Korean assistant to pour hundreds of gallons of aging formaldehyde down a sink drain directly into the Han River. So, right from the beginning we learn the logic employed in this monster flick: hundreds of gallons of formaldehyde + dumping into river = horrible amphibious man-eating leviathan… Sure, why not?
|
|
But the comedic ludicrousness of the film is blended so well with edge-of-your-seat suspense you will not only forgive the film’s absurdity, but gladly applaud its genius.
Also juxtaposing the silliness is the family featured at the heart of this story; a rich and realistic clan of empathetic characters, marvelously written and wonderfully acted, trying desperately to retrieve their youngest member, the adolescent Hyeon-seo, from the liar and clutches of the great beast.
The pacing of the film drags a bit in the middle, but it’s still an immensely entertaining thrill-ride.
Grade: A- |
|
Sometimes ambiguity can say more than graphic exposition, as Children of Men is a movie that speaks volumes with what remains unspoken. Director Alfonso Cuarón brings to the screen an adaptation of P. D. James’ novel that will certainly leave some unanswered questions. But that is part of what makes this film so very brilliant. For rather than pummel the audience over the head with endless information dumps of explication, Cuarón allows the viewers to interpret some of the riddles on their own terms. |
|
The plot takes place in the year 2027, eighteen years since a mysterious epidemic of infertility has swept the globe preventing humans from reproducing. A fascist dystopian Britain remains the last relic of a recognizable country, though be it an Orwellian police state, and has become a magnet for massive immigration. The British government has responded to the invading flocks with militant xenophobia, carting nonnative citizens off to internment camps. Meanwhile, brutal cops, religious cults, fervent looters, and rival radical terrorist factions populate the streets and countryside, all aimlessly trying to fulfill their own futile agendas as the human race seemingly spirals toward an inevitable demise.
Clive Owen plays the protagonist, Theo, an ex-radical turned bureaucrat who, through the meddlesomeness of his ex-wife, gets caught up in the seedy underworld of a radical group of activists known as the Fishes who are closely guarding a dark secret. The secret is eventually revealed in the form of a frail, frightened, and mysteriously pregnant refugee named Kee. As the only known human being on the planet to be with child, she is obviously a very highly valued and sought specimen, and reasonably the key preventing humankind’s extinction. Theo then becomes tasked with the daunting quest of escorting Kee to find the mysterious group, “the Human Project,” in hopes she will find safety there. |
|
Cuarón crafts this epic tale with delicate respect. Though the film contains several suspenseful action sequences, they play on the screen with an almost documentary-like subtlety rarely seen in cinema (think Schindler’s List as an example). And cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki shoots this film with the most incredible long takes (shots without cutting away) perhaps ever filmed.
Children of Men is a darkly beautiful and complex film exploring a myriad of issues and themes, from politics to immigration and from hope to despair, and is totally worth your time.
Grade: A- |
|
4. |
|
3. |
|
Easily the most powerful film of the year, United 93 achieves the ambitious and delicate errand of faithfully recreating one of the most famous tragedies in human history. This would have been a very easy film to completely fuck up, but director Paul Greengrass handles his subject with extreme respect and adherence to the facts of the event. The film is shot in a very documentary-like style, with shaky camera work and jagged, kinetic cuts between scenes.
Greengrass even employs many of the real air traffic controllers and FAA employees who were working that day for his cast, including Ben Sliney, the FAA Director of Operations, whose first day on the job was 9/11 (how fucked up is that?!). The rest of the cast is composed of entirely unknown actors, yet these are some the best performances from last year. |
|
The feeling of realism in the film is remarkable. We will never know the specific words that were said that day or the exact actions taken by the passengers, but watching United 93, you will feel as if it must have taken place in this manner.
And this is Greengrass’s monumental achievement: making you believe the events on screen. You will get so lost in the power of this film that you will briefly forget its tragic ending is so very inevitable. In the dramatic final moments, as the passengers decide to storm the hijackers and retake the cockpit, you will be thinking, “Yes! Yes! Kill those bastards and save these fucking people!” … But you will snap back to reality, and all the pain, sorrow and anger from that day will dredge up inside you… and as the credits roll you will sit in contemplative silence, your white knuckles fading, your goose-bumps vanishing, your tears drying… and you will remember how precious and temporary life can be. This movie is a stunning accomplishment in filmmaking and should be required viewing for every human being on the planet.
Grade: A |
|
|