Film Dictionary: 2007

December 12, 2007

Top 10 Films of 2007

1. "Eastern Promises" (David Cronenberg, UK)

2. "Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame" (Hana Makhmalbaf, Iran)

3. "Charlie Wilson's War" (Mike Nichols, USA)

4. "I Served The King Of England" (Jiri Menzel, Czech Republic)

5. "4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days" (Cristian Mungiu, Romania)

6. "Ratatouille" (Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, USA)

7. "No Country For Old Men" (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, UK)

8. "Le Scaphandre et le papillon" (Julian Schnabel, France)

9. "Grindhouse" (Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, USA)

10. "Into The Wild" (Sean Penn, USA)

Other great films:

12 (Russia)

300

3:10 To Yuma
Across The Universe

L'Age de tenebres (Canada)

A l'interieur (France)

American Gangster

Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon (France)

Atonement (UK)

Away From Her (Canada)

The Babysitters

Babysitters

Baixio das bestas (Brazil)

Bakushi (Japan)

Becoming Jane (UK)

Ben X (Belgium)

Black Snake Moan

The Bourne Ultimatum

The Brave One

Il Caimano (Italy)

Caotica Ana (Spain)

The Caregiver

Cashback (UK)

Les Chansons d'amour (France)

Chantal

Cobrador, In God We Trust (Mexico)

Continental, un film sans fusil (Canada)

Daisy Diamond (Denmark)

Deutschland privat (Germany)

Dialogue avec mon jardiner (France)

Du levande (Sweden)

Enchanted

Ex Drummer (Belgium)

Extra Action

Factory Girl

Fados (Portugal)

La Graine et le mulet (France)

Gruz 200 (Russia)

Hairspray

Hostel: Part II

In The Valley Of Elah

It's A Free World (UK)
Juno
Katyn (Poland)

Klimt

Live Free Or Die Hard

The Lookout

Love In The Time Of Cholera

Lust, Caution (Taiwan)

Mad Detective (Hong Kong)
Meet The Robinsons
Mongol (Kazachstan)

Mr Brooks

La Naissance des pieuvres (France)

New Tokyo Decadence – The Slave (Japan)

Nitro (Canada)

Nos vies privées (Canada)

Odette Toulemonde (Belgium)
Once (Ireland)

Opium (Hungary)
The Orphanage (Spain)

Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (Germany)

Persepolis (France)

Pusinky (Czech Republic)

Sans titre (France)

Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure

Un Secret (France)

Secret Sunshine (South Korea)
Shrek The Third
Sicko

Skateboard Kink Freak

Stellet Licht (Mexico)

Superbad

Surviving My Mother (Canada)

Szklane usta (Poland)

Les Témoins (France)

Toi (Canada)

The Tracey Fragments (Canada)

Travelling With Pets (Russia)

Under The Covers

La Vie en rose (France)

War

Xperimental Eros

XXY (Argentina)

Zodiac
La Zona (Mexico)

Short Top 3:

1. "Le Mozart des Pickpockets" (Philippe Pollet-Villard, France)

2. "Barber Gull Rub" (Matthew Rankin, Canada)

3. "Dust Bowl Ha! Ha!" (Sebastien Pilote, Canada)

Other great shorts:

The Colony (Canada)
Cosette (Australia)

Le Gout du temps (Canada)
Les Grands (Canada)
Moi (Canada)

Perle (Canada)
The Same House (Canada)

The Tonto Woman

November 11, 2007

Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (2007) *****

A little girl in Afghanistan tries to get to school. One of the greatest Iranian films of all times, directed by 18-years-old Hana Makhmalbaf (Mohsen's daughter and Samira's younger sister). A profound portrait of humanity at its most complex.

Ratatouille (2007) *****

Terrific animated film about a fin gourmet rat.

Eastern Promises (2007) *****

While also being a terrific and exciting gangster film in its own right, David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" is above all a profound human drama about integrity and courage. Naomi Watts plays a second-generation Russian immigrant in London who is confronted by a difficult moral dilemma. And so does the viewer, because unlike most films dealing with sensationalistic subjects such as forced prostitution, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, "Eastern Promises" doesn't manicheistically divide the world between "good" victims and "bad" villains. Instead, the victims are mostly passive (like in real life), while the real struggle occurs between our revulsion at oppression and injustice, and our fascination with the human evil. Rarely have we seen a more complex and fascinating gallery of ruthless gangsters who remain humane and attractive despite their unforgivable behaviour. They are members of the London chapter of the fearsome Russian mafia organization known as "Vory v zakone" ("Thieves in law") and they include such memorable figures as Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), his son Kirill (Vincent Cassel) and his driver Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen). Sharply written, brilliantly directed and perfectly acted, "Eastern Promises" is David Cronenberg's best film.

October 10, 2007

Charlie Wilson's War (2007) ****

This is an amazing film. Amazing for many reasons. It's an amazing film because it's fiercely anti-Communist, denouncing Soviet crimes against humanity in Afghanistan in the 1980's like no other Hollywood movie in recent memory. It's an amazing film because it celebrates Texas Congressman Charles Wilson (Tom Hanks) as a great American hero, without sweeping his personal life under the carpet. In fact, the film praises the hedonistic lifestyle of "Good Time Charlie" and goes as far as to denounce a young hot-shot district attorney from New York named Rudy Giuliani for trying to investigate him. It's an amazing film because it celebrates Texas socialite Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) as an arch-conservative, right-wing Christian fundamentalist who hates Commies like a plague - it is absolutely unprecedented to see such a figure presented as a 100% positive and admirable character in a Hollywood movie. Especially in a Hollywood movie written by liberal Aaron Sorkin ("West Wing", "The American President") and directed by liberal Mike Nichols ("Primary Colors"). But "Charlie Wilson's War" had to be an amazing movie, because Charlie Wilson was a such an amazing character himself. He was a liberal, pro-choice, women-chasing Democrat from Texas who was more anti-Communist than Ronald Reagan himself. Like Oscar Schindler (another hedonistic bon vivant turned humanitarian crusader), he had an epiphany while visiting a refugee camp in Pakistan and seeing Afghan children mutilated by bombs hidden in toys. Brilliantly directed, "Charlie Wilson's War" is a crisp, biting satire that confidently mixes sex and politics, and moves at a breakneck pace without wasting a single moment. Soundbites are sharp and memorable. Moreover, the film offers an amazing emotional roller-coaster, going from satiric farce to Schindler-caliber pathos in a matter of seconds, and featuring naked Playboy bunnies in hot tubs, as well as disfigured Afghan mothers, not to mention a bevy of drop-dead gorgeous congressional assistants working for Charlie (Amy Adams among them). While the film is a hilarious political satire, it has no broad political caricatures. Every major character - left or right - is a complex, multi-dimensional individual full of contradictions and nuances. The film is anti-red, but it paints everything in amazing shades of grey.

Du levande (2007) ****

Juno (2007) ****

Hilarious, intelligent, bittersweet and deeply touching comedy about a teenage girl who gets pregnant and decides to give her baby for adoption. This is an amazingly surprising film, which subverts every imaginable cliché on this subject (usually after suggesting a cliché, but then pulling the rug from under the viewer's feet by avoiding it altogether). Ellen Page is amazing in the title role. The unbelievably clever script was written by former stripper Diablo Cody.

There is a great review of the movie by Dana Stevens in Slate.

Once (2007) ****

A superlative musical film from Ireland. A pure delight.

La Zona (2007) ****

Excellent Mexican drama directed by Rodrigo Pla, a powerful allegory about fascism. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Katyn (2007) ****

Incredibly powerful film about the massacre of the Polish POWs at the Katyn Forest by the Soviets in 1940.

American Gangster (2007) ****

Continental, un film sans fusil (2007) ****

Excellent film about alienation and solitude. In its own, uniquely Canadian style, this gently, ever-so-bittersweet comedy recalls the upbeat sad-sack ethos of a Kaurismaki film. Characters in their daily struggle possess the strange dignity of their persistence and the odd ingenuity of their patchwork coping mechanisms. The film is available for purchase here.

Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon (2007) ****

Le Scaphandre et le papillon (2007) ****

Grindhouse (2007) ****

As its producer Harvey Weinstein was the first to admit, to release Quentin Tarantino's ''Death Proof'' and Robert Rodriguez's ''Planet Terror'' on a double-bill was a financially disastrous decision, turning an otherwise brilliant enterprise into a monumental box office flop. Less so because of its 3 hours and 12 minutes length, and more so because no two movies could possibly be more dissimilar and more inappropriate for a ''package deal'' release. Robert Rodriguez's film is an exciting, fast-paced action movie about zombies. It's an easy-to-watch, crowd-pleasing gorefest full of humour, blood, sex and high-adrenaline action. Quentin Tarantino's film, on the other hand, is a genuine masterpiece of the cinematic art, whose highly unusual narrative structure, brilliant dialogue scenes, eccentric pacing, and truly weird characters, have turned off most mainstream viewers (who probably fell asleep long before the unbelievably exciting car chase sequence that ends the movie). Between the two films, there are some marvellous fake trailers, the best being ''Machete'' (top photo), which Robert Rodriguez wants to turn into his next movie. There is little to add to ''Planet Terror'' except to note that it is a magnificent homage to George Romero and that there isn't a single dull moment in the entire movie. But it isn’t a masterwork. ''Death Proof'', on the other hand, has few parallels in the history of cinema. It’s basically a porno movie about a rapist, except that his penis has been replaced by a race car. There is vaginal sex in the film (a head-on collision early in the film, with a girl's leg sticking out of the car’s window). There is also anal sex in the film (when Kurt Russell’s car is repeatedly bumping the girls’ car from the rear). The final shot of the film is an homage to ''Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!'', but the fabulous and entertaining dialogue scenes prove once again that Tarantino owes far more to Eric Rohmer than to Russ Meyer. The amazing car chase scene (probably the best ever filmed) was shot in long, unbroken takes, with a girl (real-life stuntwoman Zoe Bell) clinging to a hood at unbelievable speeds. The jazzy, super-quirky "Chick Habit" plays during the closing credits. Jog has an excellent review of the film here.

"Planet Terror" ***

"Death Proof" *****

I Served The King Of England (2007) ****

This marvelous black comedy by Jiri Menzel, set in Czechoslovakia before, during and after the World War II, has been adapted, as was Menzel's 1967 Oscar-winning masterpiece "Closely Watched Trains", from a novel by Bohumil Hrabal. There are many similarities between both films, starting with a naive young protagonist in the tradition of Good Soldier Švejk, but while ''Closely Watched Trains'' (Menzel's film debut) was a modest, and largely apolitical work (despite its World War II setting), ''I Served The King Of England'' is an ambitious, epic saga that spans almost a quarter of the century of the Czech history (from circa 1935 to circa 1960) and deals with extremely controversial themes in a fabulously ironic and comedic way. In a way, ''I Served The King Of England'' is a bit like a Czech ''Forrest Gump", except that this Forrest Gump is a Nazi collaborator and war profiteer, but despite all that, he still remains an immensely likeable fellow. It wasn't his fault, after all, that he fell in love with a poor German girl (Julia Jentsch), molested by brutish Czech thugs during the Sudetenland crisis in 1938. And it wasn't his fault that his sexy new girlfriend turned out to be a fervent Nazi fanatic. Our Czech Forrest Gump could hardly be blamed for choosing the losing side in World War II and suffering the consequences afterwards (although the exact reason he suffers those consequences is a deliciously ironic twist that won't be revealed here, but which perfectly sums up the absurd conundrum in which Eastern Europe has found itself in the late 1940’s). Eddie Cockrell praises the film in Variety as "a unique mixture of self-deprecating dark humour and personal tragedy that has been the Czech cinema's stock-in-trade since their celebrated 1960s New Wave (...) And pic's tone is nothing if not audacious, wringing laughs from subjects that include a Nazi human breeding centre. (…) There's nothing lecherous about the parade of beautiful women on view, all of whom are photographed as lovingly as the beer". It is all true, except for the last sentence - the film is actually quite lecherous, sexy and perverse.

No Country For Old Men (2007) ****

The Coen Brothers have came up with another cinematic gem. An ingenious mix between "Fargo" and "The Terminator", it's a stylistic tour-de-force about a cold-blooded killer (Javier Bardem) relentlessly pursuing a Texas hunter (Josh Brolin). A sort of modern Tex-Mex western, set on the both sides of the Rio Grande in a kind of no-man's-land separating rugged individualism from a nihilistic abyss. The film was named "Best Picture of the Year" by the National Board of Review (see here and here). John Podhoretz has an unfairly negative, but hilarious review of the film in Weekly Standard, calling the film "The Texas Highbrow Massacre"...

300 (2007) ****

The mullahs in Iran have correctly identified the real message of the film, and denounced ''300'' as a pro-American diatribe which is, and I quote, ''part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological war aimed at Iranian culture''. And they are absolutely correct. Directed by Zack Snyder, ''300'' is a jingoistic, unabashedly fascistic celebration of Western superiority over Eastern despotism and barbarism. The film is guaranteed to give every woke university professor a solid heart attack. Spartan culture is probably the closest the Western civilization has ever come in creating a purely Darwinian state ruled by ruthless natural selection. In Sparta, you either died or became a fearless warrior. The weak were mercilessly eliminated in ways even Adolf Hitler would have probably found a bit harsh. The film honestly deals with the fascist reality of Sparta, but instead of denouncing it, it brazenly celebrates it. It also celebrates heroism, patriotism and other universal virtues, but it also reminds the viewers that those heroic individuals were incredibly cruel, uncompromising and brutal. So while admiring King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) for his courage, we are also forced to condemn him when he refuses the help of a deformed dwarf willing to fight alongside him. Physically deformed people had no place in Sparta. On the other hand - SPOILERS ALERT - when Leoniodas's gorgeous wife Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) has sex with her husband's political opponent in a vain attempt to save Leonidas' life, her adultery is presented as a heroic and admirable gesture. That too is historically accurate - Spartan women, even married ones, had the right to sleep with other men (and women). In fact, a good Spartan warrior was expected to share his wife with his comrades in arms. Spartan women enjoyed a status, power and respect that was unknown in the rest of the classical world.

October 9, 2007

4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days (2007) ****

Into The Wild (2007) ****

Sean Penn has made one of the best and most memorable films of 2007 - "Into The Wild". The film tells the fascinating true story of Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch), a 20-year-old college graduate, who abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity, and hitchhikes across the United States to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Masterfully directed by Sean Penn, it's a deeply moving portrait of America in the 1990's, with a memorable gallery of characters. As Roger Ebert mentions in his excellent review of the film, Chris McCandless could be seen as "a heroic loner, renouncing civilization, returning to the embrace of nature. In centuries past such men might have been saints, retreating to a cave or hidden hermitage, denying themselves all pleasures except subsistence (...) This is a reflective, regretful, serious film about a young man swept away by his uncompromising choices". It's profoundly touching and unforgettable. A minor masterpiece.

September 9, 2007

Klimt (2007) ***

This is what a certain Martin Kelly wrote about this film on imdb.com: "I didn't know too much about Gustav Klimt before watching this film and I didn't leave the cinema all that enlightened either. This pretentious and baffling movie informs us of the following: that Klimt painted lots of pictures of naked women, he swore quite a lot, he wasn't religious, he had lots of illegitimate children and his mother and sister were mentally unstable. Fascinating (...) If Klimt's story isn't worth telling, then why bother? And if a film had to be made, couldn't the filmmakers have produced something at the very least coherent? This is the kind of movie which gives biopics a bad name. Definitely one to avoid unless you enjoy being confused and bored". This hilariously obtuse comment must be even more amusing to those familiar with the work of Raoul Ruiz, who directed "Klimt", because compared to the Chilean-born filmmaker's other cinematic accomplishments (such as "Le Temps retrouvé" or "Trois vies et une seule mort"), "Klimt" is a remarkable example of complete clarity, perfect coherence, edge-of-your-seat excitement and utter lack of pretensions. The film stars John Malkovich as the famous Austrian painter whose lavish, sexual masterpieces came to symbolize the Art Nouveau style (or "Secession") of the early 20th century. Saffron Burrows, Georgia Reeve, Julie Brauning, Ariella Hirshfeld and Verena Mundhenke make memorable appearances as his muses and models. As Martin Kelly correctly points out, Klimt's life was hardly dramatic in itself. But Raoul Ruiz actually manages to squeeze every ounce of drama out of his otherwise uneventful life story. It's far from a perfect movie, but it's as good (or better) as its subject matter allows it to be.

The Brave One (2007) ***

Sicko (2007) ***

Michael Moore's best movie in years, a hilarious indictment of the health care insurance system in the United States. He's as manipulative as in all his other movies, but this time, unlike with the pro-Saddam Hussein's ''Fahrenheit 9/11", at least he's fighting for a good cause.

A l'interieur (2007) ***

Excellent horror movie from France, about a pregnant woman in danger.

Hostel: Part II (2007) ***

The ''Hostel'' series is doing to Eastern Europe what ''Deliverance'' did to the American South. With memories of the Holocaust still fresh, and additionally inspired by recent accusations of illegal CIA-run torture camps for Al Qaeda prisoners (see this post for more details), the ''Hostel'' series presents Eastern Europe as this dangerous land where Communists-turned-capitalist psychopaths lure innocent young people to be killed and tortured for a price. And while the first ''Hostel'' (2006), with its Germanic villains, was clearly trying to evoke the Holocaust, ''Hostel: Part II'', with its two American villains, might have very well been inspired by those CIA torture camps stories. And the film certainly feeds on the same kind of anti-Eastern Europe prejudice and bigotry that makes Western liberals so determined to prove their accusations concerning illegal detention of Muslim terrorists in Eastern Europe. Directed once again by Eli Roth (with Quentin Tarantino still as executive producer), ''Hostel: Part II'' is different from its predecessor in several respects. For once, it’s now about girls - Beth (Lauren German), Lorna (Heather Matarazzo), and Whitney (Bijou Phillips) – touring Eastern Europe on the cheap. On a train, they meet Axelle (Vera Jordanova) who takes them to the same hostel deep in the wild woods of Slovakia, where the horny guys from the first film met their gruesome end. This time, there is a bit less sex and nudity, and - SPOILERS ALERT - unlike the guys from the first film, who seemed to fuck every available Euro-chick in sight, the poor girls here don't even get to have any sex (not even once) before being strapped to torture chairs or hanged naked upside down. A possible lesbian attraction between Beth and Axelle is hinted upon, but never explored, implicitly or explicitly. But while the film has almost no soft-core nude scenes - except for a scene with Vera Jordanova, Iveta Rucka and two naked girls swimming in a fish tank - it more than makes up for it with a truly disturbing scene involving Lorna and a cruel descendent of the infamous Hungarian countess, Elizabeth Bathory (Monika Malacova), who likes to bathe in the blood of virgins (and Lorna is a virgin). It is quite a surprise to see the star of Todd Solondz's ''Welcome To The Dollhouse'' perform in such a graphic, erotic, gory and demeaning scene. Unfortunately, it's mostly downhill after that. Is it because the film was directed by a man that its only killing of a woman by a man takes place offscreen, while the most graphic and shocking murder scenes involve women killing other women or men ? The ending is quite predictable (telegraphed well in advance when Whitney mentions Beth's inheritance), but it still packs a wallop. And it's way more disturbing than the conventional ending of the first film (neatly betrayed at the beginning of ''Part II'').

Film Dictionary