20. “Non-Fiction”
Two couples cheating on each other debate the merits of adult coloring books. A writer (Vincent Macaigne, “Eden”) lies about having fellatio performed on him while watching “The Force Awakens,” pretending he was seeing an acclaimed art-house picture to add flavor to his story. An actress (Juliette Binoche) decides not to renew her contract for the fourth season of a bad cop show where she plays a “strong woman.” Olivier Assayas’ “Non-Fiction” is a cynical quote machine full of whimsical analysis about how affluence has morphed itself into the enemy of storytelling art. Primarily functioning as a series of exceptionally written dialog exchanges debating the merits of the democratization of technology and the death of traditional readership, the film is a pointed look at what happens to the creative marketplace when algorithms and online over-analysis plague every existing piece of content and every content creator. Valuing the ways of the old world is extreme behavior now. Addiction to what’s new and exciting “has become our default setting,” as Binoche’s character puts it. The scholarly discourse could feel like it’s hitting you with a sledgehammer, but Assayas manages to keep things fun and fresh, taking the concept of self-pitying narcissists who sleep with each other to a new level of sharply perceptive comedy about the ever-changing social expectations of the artistic world. – AB
19. “Cold Case Hammarskjöld”
“This could either be the world’s biggest murder mystery, or the most idiotic conspiracy of all time,” director Mads Brügger concedes early on in his haunting documentary, “Cold Case Hammarskjöld.” What begins as a “JFK” type analysis of a mysterious plane crash in Africa, prompting an investigation surrounding the possible assassination of United Nations Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjöld, ends up revealing a far more frightening world conspiracy involving conveniently covered up military operations and epidemic outbreaks (the film only feels more relevant now with what recently happened in Iran). What makes ‘Cold Case’ so frightening is how it functions as an interrogation of national performativity, closely following the documentary filmmaker as he attempts to wrap his brain around the events in order to discern truth from reality in our “fake news” era. Brügger’s constantly curious presence makes for a compelling watch, often alleviating the intensity of the difficult subject matter with his personality, making all the horrors easier to stomach than your average doc might, resulting in an essential political text and entertaining watch that will make your jaw drop. – AB
18 “Grass”/”Hotel by the River”
The infamously prolific Hong Sang-soo released another pair of pictures this past year: the idle writerly experiment “Grass,” and the mournfully apologetic “Hotel by the River.” One only need watch a handful of Hong movies to see what a mad wizard he is regarding storytelling construction; there is a unique and meticulous way he chooses to structure each of his films, nearly always playing with narrative puzzle pieces in some new fashion, building to precise moments he and his actors discover to powerfully pay off the many conversational seeds established. A short little slice of life-like “Grass” (which is only about an hour-long) amplifies the simplicity of his creative focus, ambiguously playing in a tiny sandbox of subjective reality; whereas “Hotel by the River” (a much denser film) finds Hong stretching his stylistic boundaries, opting to use handheld camera work to evoke the feeling of estrangement in a snowy blanket of isolation, the narrative handing itself off between a small cast of characters orbiting an elderly, perhaps suicidal poet (Ki Joo-bong). The filmmaker’s ongoing collaboration with his partner Kim Min-hee (“The Handmaiden”) has been anything but stagnant, their artistic relationship consistently providing wonderful gems of dramatic whimsy to world cinema at large. – AB
17. “Clemency”
A striking, emotional raw-nerve drama that’s also still, quiet and controlled, filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu’s “Clemency,” which debuted at Sundance earlier this year, is gutting and will hollow out the soul. Released very late in the year, there’s a practical, obvious reason why no one has seen this NEON film. That said, Alfre Woodward’s lacerating, Oscar-worthy turn as a death row jail warden reckoning with all the deaths she has overseen over the years and the execution straw that has broken the proverbial camel’s back, is every bit as superb as you’ve seen. As her marriage falls apart, her soul begins to drift, and she watches a terrific Aldis Hodge grapple with the last few days of his existence while trying to cling to the remaining shreds of dignity, Woodward delivers a powerhouse performance of emotional distress, moral implosion and psychological decay. “Clemency” is a tough watch, but it’s a must-see film that makes a confront the brutality of the death penalty while showing the devastating toll it takes on the compartmentalizing Hades figure tasked with, and carrying the burden of, ferrying these prisoners off this mortal coil. – RP
16. “Shadow”
With the exception of flesh tones, grass, bamboo, and blood, the stark contrast of black and white, yin-yang imagery, festers the frame of Zhang Yimou’s “Shadow” at all times. A loose retelling of China’s Three Kingdoms legend, it almost feels like the last in a historic wuxia trilogy, alongside “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers,” only the sweeping color that came to define his previous epics has been bitterly stripped away in favor of shades of grey. Starting as a courtly chamber-piece, the film stretches its storytelling boundaries incrementally, building to a Trojan Horse of a climax, as an imposter, posing as a fallen commander, trains for a duel against the general that disgraced him (both the soldier and his shadow being played by Deng Chao). The Shakespearean plot specifics involving military hierarchy and royal backstabbings can be a bit tough to follow, but the film’s binary symbols continuously pile on top of each other in deeply resonant ways, the feminine form being introduced by the disgraced warrior’s wife (Sun Li) to combat the enemy’s masculine forcefulness. “Shadow’s” most imaginative set-piece, a martial arts dance drenched with bladed umbrellas that cut between parallel action, will leave your mouth on the floor as you scratch your head wondering how the hell they pulled half of the shots off. – AB