It’s Friday, it’s slow and we generally like to (or should) use this time to just ramble on about whatever, which we don’t do enough because we’re too busy chasing news. This post by Jeffrey Wells about “Sin Nombre” inadvertently inspired us. He calls the excellent debut, the “second near-great, sterling-silver, belongs-to-the-ages movie I’ve seen this year. (The first one that qualifies is ‘The Hurt Locker’.) It’s a tough, fully-believable story about survival, love, family and fate.” And as usual he’s on the money. Which gets us to thinking: what are the best movies of the year so far? Well, it’s super, super early of course and no one wants to lock shit in stone right away (or at least we don’t), but so far, here’s how we would play it out. And it’s not different from what Wells’ got. Update: We forgot “Revanche” so we’re adding it.
1. “The Hurt Locker”
You’ve hopefully already written what we’ve said about this film centered on EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) experts who happen to be in the thick of the Iraq War. We already called it the first great film of 2009 when we first saw it in early March. We wrote, “Shot on 16mm with entirely hand held cameras by “United 93″ cinematographer Barry Ackroyd (also known for his work with Ken Loach), director Kathryn Bigelow’s ‘Locker’ is a tightly-wound nerveracker of controlled chaos and the fever pitch of unnerving and anxiety-ridden suspense is masterfully conducted.” It’s all true. It’s also easily Bigelow’s best and most fully realized film and apolitical to boot. The principal cast, Jeremey Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty are all fantastic (with Renner showing his finest work to date), the supporting players a nice touch (brief appearances by Guy Pearce, Evangeline Lilly, David Morse and Ralph Fiennes that are not distracting) and it has enough drama, action and tension to please any audience, but its created by an assured filmmaking hand.
2. “Sin Nombre”
Much more than just an immigration drama (which it only is superficially), Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Mexico-set tale is an incredibly accomplished piece of cinema and even more remarkable when you realize it’s his debut feature film. Socio-political only by proxy, the examination of separate miseries and collision-course stories (Mexican gang members who want to get out and Central Americans trying to emigrate to the U.S.) is hauntingly realistic, extremely naturalistic and documentarian at times and carefully and compassionately told (and also occasionally kind of brutal). As we’ve probably said two-three times this week already, but this is a bold and startling first work from a filmmaker with a very distinct talents. This auspicious debut is definitely a signal that a new and vibrant director has arrived. Also: Let this be a reminder: “Sin Nombre” is out in limited release starting today.
3. “Summer Hours”
We haven’t had a chance to write about this one, but we saw it a few short weeks ago and it’s probably the most mature and singular work that Oliver Assayas has ever done. We never quite caught on to the cult of Assayas, “Irma Vep,” really doesn’t do much for us, “Clean,” is strong, but rough around the edges, but recently he seems to be really finding his footing. This all coalesces with “Summer Hours,” a film that suggest he should perhaps leave the genre-film genre and perhaps attempt more matters of the heart, because his first real stab at being personal is tender and very alive. You don’t need to have had a parent or family member to have died, but the director’s mannered examination of family life and death…, really the evolution and inevitably sad thought of, “all things must pass,” is moving, well observed and heartrending, but never ever too sentimental. The French-language film centers on a group of siblings (Juliette Binoche is really the only well-known one to North American audiences, but cineastes should easily recognize Jérémie Renier and Charles Berling), who have to weigh out their options over what to do about their beloved summer home in France once their mother passes away. Some have suggested that since it’s French and about family, that it looks similar to Arnaud Desplechin’s “A Christmas Tale,” but they’re really at the opposite spectrum of tenor and tones.
4. “Revanche”
Götz Spielmann’s Austrian red-light district drama seemingly about prostitutes and their secret romances has two major things going for it before we even saw it: It was shortlisted by the Academy for the Foreign Oscar nomination and Janus Films and its sister company the Criterion Collection loved the film so much when they saw it at Telluride, they picked it up for immediate distribution, a move even they called “unusual.” But the film’s modest turns slowly reveal the meditative picture to actually be an beautifully unpredictable and brooding tale of revenge and forgiveness. Johannes Krisch delivers an incredibly anguished performance and the slow-burn rhythms eventually unveil so much more humanity and emotional depth than you’re average vengeance film. There’s a lot going on in this one, including a wonderfully tender father-son subplot, and it’s absolutely a must-see.
If we had to do a five and six, they’d probably belong to “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” (even though we included it in our 2008 Best of the Year picks), and other technically-2009 films we saw last year like, “The Headless Woman, “Hunger,” “Tony Manero,” “The Class,” “Tokyo Sonata,” etc. (many if not all picked in our Best of 2008 picks again), but of the films, we’ve actually seen since January 2009 began, this would be the leading pack. We’d also probably have to give a shout out to “I Love You, Man,” which is probably the best comedy of 2009 we’ve seen so far, but that’s a tender footed statement, as we really haven’t been introduced to any quality comedies yet so far this year (“Observe & Report” hopefully next week).
Also, “Gigantic” is a winning, and off-center indie that’s really charming and seemingly being ignored for some reason. If we see one more lazy writer simply write it off as “quirky,” we might snap. A stellar cast (including Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel and John Goodman) agreed to be part of this thing because the writing is extremely fresh and unique.