The LAST Top Ten List for 2015

March 8, 2016 --

I say LAST because I am woefully behind in my movie-going this year! I have no one to blame but myself. That said, I thought 2015 turned into a strong year for movies (after a slow start). Still, my list of disappointments (at the end) is longer than usual. I even had to introduce a new category for two films I had very mixed feelings about. I am calling it "Impressive but problematic."

Now, onto the important categories:

TOP TEN MOVIES of 2015

1.     SPOTLIGHT
2,     CAROL
>>It was a close rate for No.1. I went back and forth for the last 3 months, but the Academy got it right this time!

"I like the hat." THIS hat, not the Christmas one!

3.     BROOKLYN -- full of life and heart; how could anyone NOT like this movie!?!?
4.     WHITE GOD (Hungary) -- a dog fable that will stay with you for a long time
5.     SICARIO
6.     ROOM -- claustrophobic and compelling
7.     MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
8.     THE BIG SHORT
9.     The End of the Tour
10.    45 Years

Honorable mention
Creed
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Trumbo
Truth

Saw & enjoyed:
An Alicia Vikander double feature: The Danish Girl and Ex Machina
Crimson Peak (keeping alive my streak of honoring at least one Jessica Chastain movie per year!)
Far From the Madding Crowd
Me & Earl & the Dying Girl
Macbeth

Best docs:
Salt of the Earth
The Best of Enemies
Listen to Me, Marlon

*Impressive but problematic* (new category!)
THE REVENANT
SON OF SAUL (Hungary)

Movies that left me disappointed ... and broke:
Bridge of Spies; The Martian; In the Heart of the Sea; The Hateful Eight; Clouds of Sils Maria; While We're Young; Irrational Man.

OSCAR Shorts Part II: Live Action Shorts

February 27th --

This category is clearly a two film race, but I will briefly remark on all the nominees:

AVE MARIA -  This supposed 'comedy' about three grossly stereotypical Israeli settlers stranded at a convent in the Arab part of the West Bank as the Sabbath approaches is poorly shot, over-acted, and (oh yes) not funny! How it made the cut boggles the mind.

ALLES WIRD GUT ("Everything will be okay") - Gripping (at first), this story of a divorced father's plans with his unsuspecting 8-year-old daughter (very well-played by Julia ('yoolia') Pointner), builds the tension slowly, but the overlong climax makes you think the filmmaker just didn't know how to end the movie.

DAY ONE (USA) - A story of an Afghan interpreter's first day on the job with a U.S. unit is commendable: good camerawork, production values, acting. The story, however, is a bit melodramatic for my tastes (it could be a dark-horse winner).

Like a well-crafted short story, these next two nominees are perfectly realized: concise, atmospheric, and moving. Of course, I thought the same thing in 2014 with the exceptional French-Chinese entry "Butter Lamp," and it lost! #OscarsSoStupid

STUTTERER (UK) - The  British entry tells the story of a shy, witty introvert who has a way with words online and in his head, but when he tried to verbalize them ... the title says it all. The crisis comes when a longtime online girlfriend wants to meet: the resolution is satisfying and 'sweet' (and no, that is not a put down).

SHOK (Kosovo) - My pick to win the Oscar, hands-down, is this gut-wrenching story from the Serbian war in Kosovo. Two boys' friendship is tested as one tries to do business with the Serbian troops who are occupying his land. The theme of innocence and complicity in an indifferent world is the stuff of great Italian cinema, which this short recalls -- no mean feat in a 30-minute film! The two young leads (Andi Bajgora and Lum Veseli) are naturals (and I assume are non-professionals, like much of the cast). The ending will haunt you -- and I will haunt the Academy of this film doesn't win!! #OscarsSoStupid

A short recap of the Oscar "Shorts" categories (Part 1)

February 24th:
As a tune-up for the Big Reveal of my OSCAR Predictions at the weekend, here are my impressions (and predictions) for two of the "shorts" categories: Best Documentary Short and Best Live Action Short. (I call it a short recap, because for the third year in a row I am boycotting the Best Animated Short category, as the company that releases the "Oscar Shorts" programs insist on charging separate admission for what is, at most, 40 minutes of nominated films. They always pad it with another 35 minutes of non-nominated animation to (barely) get to 75 minutes. Rip off!

In Part 1, I cover
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
I skipped this category last year, because the subject matter of the films was too depressing: Suicide-pollution-terminal illness-old age-and death! This year's features are more upbeat: Ebola-honor killings-capital punishment-birth defects-and (wait for it) The Holocaust! Welcome to the world of documentary shorts.

This category has come a long way in a short time--and that is not necessarily a good thing! I blame HBO and other television "providers" that have flooded this category with well-produced, high-quality films. Why is that a problem? Because in six months, you know they are going to be shown on TV, then nominated for Emmys! That does not seem fair: pick a format, HBO, and stick to it!

The first nominee, "Body Team 12" would have been in contention in years past: it is a brief slice of life following a Ebola body disposal unit in Liberia. While an important, under-reported subject, it just does not have the production values (or length) of the other nominees. And this is one of the 3 HBO Documentary Films!

The other two HBO Films are: "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" and "Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah." HBO loves to use that colon (:). The first, dealing with a botched 'honor killing' in Pakistan, is thought-provoking, beautifully-filmed, and powerful: all features it has in common with the last film I championed that won this category in 2013: "Saving Face" -- about acid attacks against women ... IN PAKISTAN! (WTF Pakistan?) I am compelled to add that this was an HBO Film, too -- HBO knows where the Golden Goose is! Although it is a little too slick for my tastes, I predict this film WILL WIN the Oscar.

The Lanzmann movie is better, in my opinion. It is gripping and introspective throughout (I admit I am drawn to the subject matter, having seen the director's 9.5-hour magnum opus "Shoah" in one, all-day screening). In any other year, I would WANT this to win, but the final nominee blew me away. No, it is not the most-slickly produced, technically superior film among the five, but it has all the heart, determination, and spirit of its subject: I am talking about "Chau, Beyond the Lines." It is the story of a Vietnamese youth born with horrible birth defects, caused by his mother's exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam during the war. I still have not recovered from watching Chau overcome indescribable odds to pursue a career as an artist, while confronting my own complicity (as a U.S. citizen) in contributing to his condition, and that of many other youth who are surviving despite the world's indifference.

The less I say about the last nominee, "Last Day of Freedom," the better. Not for its subject matter: an interview with the brother of a black Vietnam Vet suffering PTSD long before society took notice of such a condition, who has an episode that results in the murder of an elderly woman in Sacramento, CA. The reminiscences of the brother who turned him in and later watched his execution are inherently powerful. So why did the filmmakers rely on the distracting, and distancing device of animating the entire movie? It was a chore to sit through (but it may be a dark horse choice for the #OscarsSoWhite Academy). No pun intended!

Next: Part II:
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

A belated review of MAD MAX: Fury Road

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Director: George Miller

(Gearing up for the Academy awards -- Sunday, Feb. 28th @ 7PM on ABC!! -- I recently caught-up with this movie in its theatrical re-release, and feel compelled to share my thoughts before the big unveiling of my own TOP TEN MOVIE LIST -- date TBD).

This action movie is nothing short of 'visionary' -- of course, this being the latest in the Mad Max franchise, the vision is of a dystopian, post-apocalyptic Hellscape called Australia -- but what can one expect? 

After a 30-year hiatus since Mad Max went Beyond Thunderdome, what is amazing is that the septuagenarian Aussie director George Miller not only still has the vision, he gives the series a jolt of adrenaline to excite both old and new audiences. (J.J. Abrams does something comparable with STAR WARS, under much more pressure from fans, and he likewise succeeds beyond expectations).

Mr. Miller can teach every Hollywood young-gun director a thing of two about staging action scenes : this entire movie is one extended chase sequence, on an epic scale, and he piles on one mind-blowing set piece after another (think 'pole-vaulting bad guys').  From the opening scene, the movie drops you into a horrifying existence, with little exposition, and forces you to go along for the ride.

The visual effects alone are worthy of an Oscar, but the cinematography, hair & make-up, sound mixing, and sound effects editing are also top notch. A note on the actors: amidst the chaos around her, Charlize Theron conveys more with her eyes than many a silent film star did. It is loud, confusing, and unrelenting. And for a movie-lover, it is why you go to the movies.

Annual OSCAR Rant - 2016 version

There are certainly people with more deserving OSCAR RANTS than your humble foreignfilmguy (#OscarSoWhite:TheSequel), but I have to admit I didn't see "Straight Outta Compton" or "Creed", so I cannot comment on those snubs. What I CAN and WILL comment on are the following outrageous SNUBS:

No Best Picture or Best Director nominations for perhaps (I don't want to give away my Top Ten List too early) the Best Movie of the Year: "CAROL"! WTF#1? It is clearly the class of the Oscar season (the backing of those no-good Weinsteins notwithstanding) Instead, we have to suffer the far inferior BRIDGE OF SPIES and THE MARTIAN as Best Picture (not to give away my Not Top Ten List).

"SICARIO" - snubbed for everything but Best Cinematography, Score, and Sound editing (it should win for all three).

Screenplays: Aaron Sorkin not getting nominated for "Steve Jobs" is a snub, especially since the lame script for "The Martian" did get one. I have yet to see "The Hateful Eight," but I am sure there is more wit and artistry in the first five minutes of it than in the entire patchwork, obviously written by several hands mess that is "Bridge of Spies."

Best Costume Design: NO recognition for the outstanding costumes in "BROOKLYN"?? WTF#2!

I am sure all five best documentary features are deserving, but to leave out MY two fave docs of the year -- "Best of Enemies" and "Listen to Me, Marlon" -- seems wrong.

Best Song: I'm sorry, Sam Smith fans, but as soon as I heard the opening song for the new James Bond film "Spectre" I was ready to declare it the WORST Bond Film song EVER! (And that is saying something!)

At this point in my annual RANT, you expect to hear me go off on my favorite Oscar whipping boy: JOHN WILLIAMS. Well, this year, I am not gonna do it! It's STAR WARS, after all. That is the man's bread-and-butter! Props to JW! In his stead, I am awarding the honorary John Wiliams Rant to another composer who is clearly a hack unworthy of Oscar recognition, and that person is . . .

THOMAS NEWMAN, "Bridge of Spies"! You, sir, suck as a composer! What an ingratiating, hackneyed, obvious and unrelenting score that was! No matter what the rest of the movie was like, I knew the score would ruin the entire movie for me. Have I mentioned that it's not that great a movie, anyway?

MACBETH

Starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard

Lady M goes to town with her eye shadow!

I hesitated before buying my ticket to the latest cinematic treatment of one of the Bard's classics -- in spite of its stellar lead actors -- wary of sitting through yet another stage-bound retelling of a work I know so well. Boy, was I in for a surprise! This film doesn't simply 'open-up' the play, it de-constructs and re-constructs it into the time and place where it was originally set: the wild Scottish Highlands where witches and omens co-exist with the harsh realities of life in the Middle Ages.

The landscape -- fog and fire and breathtaking natural wonders (filmed on the Isle of Skye, I learned later) -- grounds the action to a time and place where the gruesome events don't seem so out of place. Call it the "Game of Thrones" effect, but the grimness of the setting makes the blood-drenched action more believable. And there is a lot of blood: from the battle Macbeth wins to first early glory, to the chaotic murder of Duncan and his guards, to the final battle against MacDuff, you are immersed in it.
All of this comes at a price, however: the price of Shakespeare's beautiful verse. I was continually struggling to decipher the thick Scottish brogue in many of the line readings. Some of his most-cherished soliloquies sneak-up on you -- in a way that is both organic, yet somehow offhand. This worked effectively in Lady Macbeth's "Out, damned spot!" speech; less so in Macbeth's "Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow" (delivered by an otherwise excellent Michael Fassbender as he drags around his lifeless wife). A final word about said lifeless wife: Marion Cotillard was so good I almost wished they changed the script so Lady M wouldn't have to die! She nailed the English verse like a true professional. And she's French! The ultimate compliment (for this visual medium of film) is perhaps this fact: I spent the 'dead week' at work looking into B&Bs on Skye to wander the heath where this movie was filmed.

Best Movie of the Year (so far)

SICARIO

Dir: Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio del Toro

Leave it to a Canadian director (Denis Villeneuve, nominated in 2010 for a foreign film Oscar for "Incendies") to pull back the curtain on the drug war and its consequences, compromises, and collateral damage on our southern border. And he does it without flinching or offering anything close to hope for the future. Not since "Traffic" in 2000 (by American Steven Soderburgh, also starring Benicio del Toro!) has a movie tackled this subject so effectively. (Sadly, the situation has only gotten worse in the intervening 15 years).

The fictional story is more focused than the interweaving stories in "Traffic." The movie starts with a tense FBI raid on a suburban home in Chandler, Arizona (and its gruesome contents) and doesn't let up for the next two hours. Emily Blunt plays the FBI agent recruited into an ambiguous governmnet operation to catch the ringleader of the Mexican cartel responsible for much of the bloodshed and drugs infitrating the U.S. By the time the make-shift team of FBI, CIA, and assorted special forces storms a drug-smuggling tunnel with night-vision goggles and heavy weaponry, the movie reaches "Zero Dark Thirty"-level intensity.

All three leads listed above are worthy of award consideration for shedding any semblance of stardom for their roles. Special mention also to cinematographer (Coen Brothers' favorite Roger Deakins) for the aerial shots of the desert landscape and to the ominous music score (by Oscar nominee Johan Johansson--"The Theory of Everything") for heightening the film's drama. I especially liked how the story never loses touch with the personal toll this war has taken on the Mexican people--very literally left in the crossfire. This movie is not for the faint of heart. 

"White God" (Hungary 2014)

White God (Hungarian: Fehér isten) 

Directed by Kornél Mundruczó

Starring Zsófia Psotta as Lili; brothers "Bodie" and "Luke" as Hagen

Look at that pack of rampaging canines in the picture above: they are just a fraction of the more than 200 mixed breed dogs that run amok in the deserted streets of Budapest during the climactic scenes of "White God." All 200 of them are trained actors, and they are a delight to watch in this gripping and thoroughly entertaining Hungarian 'fable' (I have also heard it described as a 'parable') of an oppressed minority fighting back against its oppressors. A more accurate description is a "revenge fantasy" along the lines of "Inglourious Basterds" -- and it has the same winking humor while depicting bloody scenes of violence and cruelty that is a hallmark of Quentin Tarantino. (Unlike QT, much of the violence and cruelty takes place offscreen).

The story follows two 'outcasts' -- 13 year-old tweener Lili, too young to be accepted by the older kids in her student orchestra, shuffled between divorced parents, smart and with a smarter mouth; and her mutt "Hagen", abandoned under a bridge by Lili's uncaring father when he refuses to pay the mongrel tax for owning a mixed breed. That part of the plot is never fleshed-out, but no matter, it is just a plot device anyway.

Equal time is given to each character as they struggle to survive in a new and hostile environment. As poor Hagen is passed from one sadistic 'owner' to another, and trained to become a fighter, one is also reminded of "Amores Perroes." Fortunately, Hagen makes his escape after only one fight. Any animal-lover will find satisfaction in the film's extended and strangely cathartic finale (he gets his revenge on everybody!), for the 'White God' of the title is us (humans), and we deserve this wake-up call for the way we treat the animals we share the planet with. On another level, because this is the product of a formerly-Communist country, the political subtext is inescapable. That said, the movie would not connect with an audience without the empathy aroused by the sad, loyal, confused countenance of the protagonist -- Hagen -- and his lovable cohorts throughout his travails. (Look at the pictures below: he's that good!). The young actress Zsofia Psotta is also quite believable and sympathetic as Lili.

A headline writer for the New York Times captured the essence of the movie best: "Man Bites Dog, Dog Bites Back." The film won the Prize Un Certain Regard at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The dogs in the film were also awarded the Palm Dog Award. I saw it on the Closing Night of the Sarasota Film Festival, where it won the Narrative Feature competition. The film was selected as the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated (yet another glaring snub by the Oscars in a year full of them. Hagen, sic 'em!)

Good Hagen

Bad Hagen

Hagen's bestie

Best Foreign Film Oscar Recap, Part Dos

WILD TALES

"Relatos salvajes"

(Argentina 2014)

Directed by Damián Szifrón

Now I get to the second worthy nominee for Best Foreign Film, Argentina's entry "Wild Tales," Second only the eventual winner (and my #3 movie of the year) "Ida" from Poland, and on-par with two films I saw earlier in the year (that were far superior to Mauritania's nominee "Timbuktu") -- namely, my #6 movie of the year, "Two Days, One Night" (Belgium) and my honorable mention "Force Majeure" from Sweden -- the entry from Argentina is a brilliant dark comedy directed with visual flair by veteran Damian Szifron. [I would say 'Tarantinonian,' but that is too much of a mouthful.]

Like the Swedish movie, "Wild Tales" turns an unblinking eye on one of man's less honorable traits: in "Force" is was Cowardice. Szifron uses six separate stories to explore a different one: Revenge (with a healthy dose of greed throw-into two of the episodes). Both film's explore these foibles with humor (we are all in the same boat, after all), which makes for a relatable, hilarious, yet often uncomfortable, two hours. 

The visual comparison to the animal kingdom that accompanies the opening credits is sly -- for as much as we may tell ourselves these characters are behaving like animals, the behavior exhibited in each vignette is uniquely human. What is refreshing -- and rare -- in such an anthology, is that there no weak link to these short films. My two favorite episodes: one involves a case of extreme road rage, and the other features a Bride-zilla from Hell that ends the movie on an adrenaline high. The script, acting and pace are spot-on throughout.

I must warn you, however, that the vignette that opens this 2014 release, which takes place on an airliner in mid-flight, while certainly the equal of the other episodes in execution, is forever ruined for me since I saw the movie after the tragedy of the German Airwings flight crash in the Alps in 2015. No one could have predicted such a horrible event, naturally, but the timing of it with this movie's U.S. release is unfortunate.

Best Foreign Film Recap, Part One

This is the time of year when all the foreign films submitted for an Oscar nomination last year slowly trickle into theaters around the country, giving us between-the-coasts critics a chance to see if the foreign branch did their job correctly. This year, they failed in one instance (glaringly so, IMHO). I have not seen Estonia's nominee, "Tangerines," and I missed the one-week window to see Russia's "Leviathan," but of the three other nominees I did see, only one was undeserving: Mauritania's "Timbuktu" (directed by a Malian--I don't know how they skirted the academy's strict rules on that one).

It is not surprising it made the cut, given its topicality: the story of a jihadist take-over of the Malian town of Timbuktu and its effect on the everyday lives of its citizens (based on actual events). The film is heavy with symbolism, bloated with metaphor (the first scene is a tip-off), and weighed-down by what I can only call a Western style of filmmaking (artfully-composed but artificial scenes, travel channel panoramas, an intrusive musical score that cues the audience on how it should feel during every scene).

I suspect the director, Abderrahmane Sissako (from Mali!), did not learn his craft indigenously. There is an artificiality to the scenes in the town itself--I never got the sense that any of the residents actually lived there, but were props placed into a staged and scrubbed environment. I'm not suggesting it was too clean to be Africa -- it simply wasn't lived-in. That, with the confusing storylines and two ludicrous set-pieces (see next paragraph), diminished the truly potent scenes in the film: a brutal whipping and stoning straight out of the Dark Ages, and a tense, insightful back-and-forth in an interrogation room between the protagonist Kidane (played by a fine, natural actor), his jihadi jailer, and their interpreter.

But I have to mention the two scenes that sent me over the edge: 1) kids playing soccer with an imaginary soccer ball (because the jihadists outlawed sports) -- the only thing missing was a flashing subtitle that read "STATEMENT"; and 2) one of the jihadi officals, in a private moment, doing an interpretive dance in front of a crazy Haitian woman's house. Please! (and while I am ranting, what was a Haitian woman doing in the middle of Africa, anyway?). One of many confounding details in this confounding film.