15. “Tetro”
Francis Ford Coppola‘s sophomore, “return to filmmaking” effort (no one noticed “Youth Without Youth“) might have been maddeningly uneven, but damn if it wasn’t lasting and affective. Vincent Gallo expertly plays… himself…a highly irritable artist incensed at the unannounced arrival of his younger brother, fantastic newcomer Alden Ehrenreich. Gallo’s Tetro abandons his family and left his sibling years ago, and this return brings a flood of unwanted memories. Put aside the color flashbacks and the preoccupation with dream sequence homages to Powell & Pressburger, and you have a near perfect serio-comic picture about family bonds. At times riotously funny (thanks to Gallo) and tremendously moving (thanks to everyone, including wonderful supporting actress Maribel Verdu), “Tetro” is a stirring account of familial discord and the costs of indulging an artistic temperament.
14. “Where The Wild Things Are”
Intuitively rendered with childlike curiosity and handcrafted lo-fi charm, Spike Jonze‘s scrappy ‘Wild Things’ was an extraordinarily captivating version of Maurice Sendak‘s classic kids book that extrapolated the boy-in-the-woods-with-monsters tale into an intimate, raw and extremely honest depiction about the traumas of childhood. With an emphasis of mood over plot (which was a dealbreaker for some), Jonze’s bittersweet look at how kids play and bruise each others feelings may have been pervasively melancholy but was still incredibly rich and emotionally contoured.
13. “Revanche”
A slow-burning meditation on revenge and ultimately forgiveness, Götz Spielmann‘s Austrian drama is an intense, taut but patiently-building thriller cum Greek tragedy about a man seething with vengeance and simmering with an anger that is his own fault. It’s almost two films in one. After admirably trying to give his girlfriend a better life and afford her salvation from a soul-crushing life of acceptable prostitution (Act One) he attempts one last bank job so their life on the run can be sustained (Act Two). But the heist goes terribly awry, and the guilt-ridden protagonist (a fiery Johannes Krisch) decides to hunt down the police officer who has robbed him of the one true thing he loved. The Criterion Collection were so moved by this haunting film that they nabbed it before it was even ever released in theaters. That should tell you all you need to know as it’s a rare move on their part.
12. “Sin Nombre”
While it made a splash at Sundance Film Festival early in the year, Cary Fukunaga‘s arresting first feature was overlooked as the year went on, which is a shame. An occasionally harsh and almost documentary-like immigration drama about a Central American girl trying to illegally emigrate by train to the U.S. and the Mexican ex-gang member on the run that she falls in with, ‘Nombre’ is an unflinching, harrowing chronicle of the brutality and indignities endured in the hopes of pursuing the American dream.
11. “An Education”
Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig‘s celebrated coming-of-age film has its flaws: a weak, wrap-up-too-quick ending and a Hallmark-like tone in spots. Yet the tremendous Carey Mulligan imbues every blush, giggle and rush of awe she feels with an irresistible potency. As her caged character wakes up to the world around her — swinging London in the early ’60s — you cannot take your eyes off her. Mulligan’s magnetic presence pushes this film forward with a terrific, career-making performance that won’t soon be forgotten.
