Best of 2019 - This Could Be It

The Chicago Cubs killed my grandfather.

It was mid-August 1969, and the Chicago Cubs were beginning an epic collapse -- blowing a 9.5-game lead that month -- eventually ending up 8 games behind the Amazin' New York Mets. My grandfather uttered "The Cubs stink," went off to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and as he returned to the living room, he keeled backward in the doorway and crashed like a tree, gone instantly. He was 65.

I was 6.

A lot of ugly but amazin' stuff happened in 1969, and after a year of anniversaries, it's time to put them in an Apollo time capsule and seal them away forever. Last year my age was a multiple of seven, and it was time to launch a new seven-year life cycle. I rewatched -- either on the big screen or in my mind's eye -- the gathering at Woodstock, the moon landing, Chappaquiddick, the Manson murders, the collapse of those Cubs, the felling of my mom's dad, the start of kindergarten.

In 2019, I was surrounded by death and illness. Cancer attacked my mom and two of my oldest friends, one of whom succumbed. Two close friends had loved ones murdered. My healing guru in Arizona died of a heart attack. During this whole struggle, I outlived my father, whose heart had given out 28 years earlier, a half a lifetime ago. The message of this odd year was loud, if not clear: It was time to let go and move on.

Seven years have passed since I revived this film blog full-time at the start of 2013, and that's a life cycle that feels complete. (It helped that in 2016 the Cubs finally exorcised decades of demons by winning the World Series.) It became clear this year as I indulged in the nostalgia and trauma of my childhood era, that it's time to bury the '60s. It was a treat to revisit the moon mission in the tick-tock documentary "Apollo 11"; watch the baby boomers wallow in rose-tinted memories of Woodstock documentaries; or have Quentin Tarantino meticulously re-create the specific time of the Manson killings in L.A. that summer (or, better yet, view the female perspective in "Charlie Says"). But it's over.

There's a list below of the best films of 2019, and it's, you know, a list -- already pinned to the past. Many of you have already skipped down to it. That's great. Load up your queue. Follow the links. The blurbs speak for themselves. No essay needed to put it all into perspective. There was no grand theme that emerged. Like the past couple of years, only the top two or three will endure as great movies that withstand the test of time. (We're twinning this entry with a Best of the Decade, for perspective. We mean it -- it's time to put a bow on an era.)

Which brings me to the movie that struck me as the most appropriate and symbolic of the year, a little-noticed film from 2005. It's called "Game 6," and it has all the ingredients I need in an obscure film -- pre-"Birdman" Michael Keaton as my avatar, a baseball obsession (this time the Red Sox' epic fail in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series), a screenplay by Don DeLillo. (GRADE: B+)

The film observes one day in the life in Manhattan of noted playwright Nicky Rogan (Keaton), whose latest drama -- based on his family history -- is debuting on Broadway (and before the vicious critic Steven Schwimmer, played by a loopy Robert Downey Jr.) on the same night that the Red Sox are seeking to close out the World Series in Game 6. You might recall it would be the night when Mookie Wilson's dribbler would go through Bill Buckner's legs, continuing the 68-year Curse of the Bambino.



Buckner, the epitome of the agony of defeat, died, conveniently for this essay, in May of last year at 69. For Nicky, Buckner's error was just another in a long line of heartbreaking plays going back to his childhood as a Red Sox fan. (His age 6 scar involved Johnny Pesky's hesitation on a relay throw in Game 7 of the 1946 Series.) It's that decades-long rollercoaster of having hopes perpetually raised and dashed, raised and dashed, by a stupid baseball team you can't let go of. "It's like having your whole childhood die," Nicky laments to his mistress as he spits mouthwash into the sink for effect, "over and over and over again."

Nicky stalks the city for hours, visiting with a panoply of "This Is Your Life" personas: his dotty father (Tom Aldredge), a burned-out playwright pal (Griffin Dunne), his flaky daughter (Ari Graynor), his chain-smoking estranged wife (Catherine O'Hara -- "I've been talking to a prominent divorce attorney." / "How prominent?" / "He has his own submarine."), his barber (who provides him with a Chekhovian pistol), his lover (Bebe Neuwirth), a young actress (Shalom Harlow), and the cast of his play at rehearsal, led by Peter Redmond (Harris Yulin), who has a mysterious brain disease that's messing with his line readings. Peter can't remember a key line, even though his father character must merely repeat the line posed to him by the son in the play: "This could be it."

This could be it.

Nicky engages with a cabdriver (Lillias White) and her grandson. (In classic DeLillo fashion (see "Cosmopolis") Nicky hopscotches through Manhattan on this day, regaling each of the cabbies (who bear ominous post-9/11 foreign monikers) with his own tales of driving a taxi back in his lean days.) He takes gram and grandson to dinner to watch Game 6. The cabdriver, a wise owl, has mistaken Nicky for an infamous local mobster, and he plays along, gun in the waistband and all. She tries to imbue him with positivity, urging him to lose the loser mentality and embrace hope. (They develop the circular mantra "Baseball is life. Life is good.") Cue a bar full of annoying Mets fans.

This could be it. The moment when the tortured past gets purged, sins are washed.

Except -- and we know this all along -- it doesn't work. Or Nicky just isn't open enough to the universe to allow it to end well. That 6-year-old is stubborn. God and Bill Buckner (former Cub) had other plans. (And Tarantino isn't around to rewrite history.)

DeLillo's philosophical musings are a treat throughout this snappy 83-minute stage play for the screen, full of precise phrasing. (At one point Nicky complains to his pal about a reclusive colleague wasting away "in a small, dark apartment eating soft, white bread.") But the novelist isn't exactly subtle here. "Your truth is locked up in the past," Nicky is told. "Find it. Know it for what it is."

Finding it isn't the problem. How obvious can it be? How heavy can it sit on a 6-year-old's shoulders? But knowing it and wrestling it into submission -- that's the challenge. Nicky would have to wait another 18 years for that championship, for expiation, if he could even be bothered to hold out that long. It can feel impossible to let go of the things that stamped us when we were small.

2019 was a ghastly, ghostly year at times. To cope, I numbed myself with an inordinate number of "R.I.P." headlines in this space -- Agnes Varda, Bruno Ganz, Robert Forster, Robert Evans, Kim Shattuck, Daniel Johnston, Phillip Blanchard, D.A. Pennebaker, Dick Dale ... even one of the "Seven Up" kids died before the latest installment of "63 Up." Bring out your dead!

The pathetic mantra of the Cubs back in the day was always "Wait till next year." Well, next year has finally arrived. The '60s are now comfortably more than 50 years ago; time to seal the decade in a sarcophagus. I'm still among the living, willing to squint into the sunshine and step forward. This could be it.

THE TOP FILMS

   

  1. Give Me Liberty - An exciting debut feature that captures a day in the life of ordinary folks, including a medical transport driver and his charges, in a big city.
  2. The Other Side of Everything - A mesmerizing tone poem about the breakup of Yugoslavia as seen through one family's history.
  3. Marriage Story - Harrowing, funny, real. It hits uncomfortably close to home.
  4. Thunder Road - A crazed fever dream chronicling a flawed man's often-hilarious mental and emotional breakdown. A one-man tour de force.
  5. Under the Silver Lake - A modern stoner neon neo-noir in the grand tradition of L.A. cinema.
  6. Hail Satan? - A flawless documentary that is informative and entertaining.
  7. Wild Rose - As close to pure joy and heartbreak as we got in 2019.
  8. Never Look Away - A gorgeous sweeping history of the second half of the 20th century from the fussy auteur Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
  9. Fyre - An absolute hoot and a story that tells itself so well that all the filmmakers had to do was get out of the way and let it spill.
10. Parasite  - Bong Joon-ho finally finds the sweet spot between story and spectacle with a sizzling, juicy narrative. 
11. Waves - An epic, gut-wrenching family drama that lures you to the edge of your seat and then slams you back in the chair.
12. Honeyland - Realism doesn't get more depressing or insightful than in this documentary.
13. Booksmart - Sheer giddiness and old-fashioned angsty high school bawdiness with two strong leads.

JUST MISSED THE LIST

(Honorables mentioned)

• "The Heiresses"
• "The Charmer"
• "Little Women"
• "Charlie Says"
• "Knives Out"
• "Transit"
• "Wild Pear Tree"

MORE TOP DOCS

• "Bathtubs Over Broadway" 
• "63 Up"
• "Midnight Family"
• "What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael"
• "Varda by Agnes"
• "American Factory"
• "Jay Myself"
• "Echo in the Canyon"
• "For Sama"
• "Apollo 11"
• "Too Funny to Fail"
• "David Crosby: Remember My Name"
• "Raising Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins"

BONUS TRACKS (& PAST MASTERS)

We got to a few leftovers from 2018, too late to make last year's list. A pair that stood out: the unique perspective of the quirky documentary "Bisbee '17"; the tender story of skate-punk buds, "Minding the Gap"

With the dearth of compelling 2019 releases, we reached back further in time and appreciated the following:

• We finally got around to re-viewing and reviewing one of the greatest movies of all time, 1968's "Spring Night, Summer Night."
• The lovely tale of an old man in his final days, from Italy, "The Window" (2009).
• We paid tribute to the memory of Bruno Ganz by teeing up the 1987 classic "Wings of Desire."
• David Lean adapting Noel Coward with 1945's "Brief Encounter."
• Jamie Bell starring in David MacKenzie's "Mister Foe" from 2008.
• The 2002 gem from Bob Odenkirk, "Melvin Goes to Dinner."
• The Hal Hartley indie darling "Fay Grim" from 2006.
• Vincent Gallo's minor masterpiece "Buffalo '66" (1998).
• The gritty 1961 noir nugget "Blast of Silence."

GUILTY PLEASURES

• "Rocketman" was a lot of fun
• "Yesterday" went far on charm
• "Between Two Ferns: The Movie" is silly and satisfying
• The Elliott family schlocking it up in "Clara's Ghost"
• A reinvigorated Eddie Murphy and friends had a good time making "Dolemite Is My Name."

TOP PERFORMANCES

• Saoirse Ronan head and shoulders above everyone in "Little Women." 
• Adam Driver doing laps around a stellar cast in "Marriage Story."
• Joaquin Phoenix was the only thing to like in "Joker."
• Deadpan second-banana Laura Lapkus wrings laughs in "Between Two Ferns: The Movie."
• Ana Brun, steady in "The Heiresses."
• Jim Cummings -- wow -- in "Thunder Road."
• Jessie Buckley is a natural life force in "Wild Rose."
• Taron Egerton embodied Elton John without doing an insipid imitation in "Rocketman."

IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME

(Some of our favorite directors didn't thrill us this time around)

• Lynn Shelton fumbled with a mismatched cast in "Sword of Trust."
• Nicole Holofcener strayed from her formula and flopped in "The Land of Steady Habits."
• Alex Ross Perry went off the deep end with the hideous "Her Smell." We walked out.
• We also couldn't make it through Claire Denis' dense and droning "High Life."
• Even Asghar Farhadi had somewhat of an off year with the good but not great "Everybody Knows."
• We'll give Quentin Tarantino high praise for everything but the last 20 minutes of "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood."
• Not that we've bothered much with Martin Scorsese the past 20 years, but "The Irishman" was dullsville. And his cheat of a documentary with Bob Dylan was unforgivable, "Rolling Thunder: A Bob Dylan Film."
• Frederick Wiseman is fading fast with the watching-corn-grow tedium of "Monrovia, Indiana," a leftover from late 2018.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

(Haven't caught these yet)

• Celine Sciamma's "Portrait of a Lady on Fire"
• Francois Ozon's "By the Grace of God"
• From Romania, "I Do Not Care If We Go Down as Barbarians"
• From China, "One Child Nation"
• The Safdie brothers' "Uncut Gems"

Stay tuned for reviews of those five titles and plenty more, albeit in condensed form, as we gleefully charge into 2020, such a round even number.
 

The Best of the Decade: 2010-19

To top off our extended retrospective, we somehow picked through the dozens of good movies made the past 10 years and chose the Top 30 films of the Teens. We packaged the Top 30 into groupings.

• Three clear masterpieces sit at the top. 
• The next five are near-masterpieces. 
• The next eight were best or near best in their given year and round out the top 16. 
• We then split the second half between solid runners-up and, finally, great films that we have reconsidered since they first came out and have a special fondness for.

The Top 30 of 2010-19

 

• A Bigger Splash - From Luca Guadagnino: "Old loves, young flesh, gorgeous beaches and a heavyweight bout between Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes."
• The Florida Project - "Master storytelling with a mostly rookie cast. A true feel for the human condition." Sean Baker emerged as the storyteller of the decade."
• A Prophet - "A masterwork of the crime genre from Jacques Audiard ("Dheepan," "Rust and Bone") in the grand tradition of 'The Godfather.'"

Past masters ...

• Appropriate Behavior -"Desiree Akhavan spins a smart, funny, passionate tale of relationships in 21st century Brooklyn."
• A Separation -Asghar Farhadi started the decade with this unassailable film and followed it up with other strong ones, such as "The Past," "The Salesman" and "Everybody Knows."
• Frances Ha - Noah Baumbach's best: "Funny, clever, real, insightful, a mix of dread and playfulness, full of sharp performances. Just like life itself."
• Toni Erdmann - Weird and wonderful, this father-daughter comic-drama is "the epitome of storytelling."
• The Rider - "A heart-wrenching look at a real family, their life dramatized by this bold, poignant film" from Chloe Zhao.

As good as you could expect ...

• Baby Driver - "The most fun I can imagine having in a cineplex. Thank you, Edgar Wright, for the music and the mania."
• Fort Tilden - "The cross between 'Girls' and 'Beavis and Butt-head' is infused with the natural chemistry of its stars, Bridey Elliott and Clare McNulty."
• Diary of a Teenage Girl - "This luscious period piece revives that '70s feel of the teen-angst wail, taking a creepy concept and converting it into a meditation on longing, loneliness and self-realization. A feminist howl."
• The Broken Circle Breakdown -"This folk-song ballet elegantly dances the fine line between sweet and bittersweet."
• Birdman -"This is what the wonder of cinema and storytelling is all about."
• Monsieur Lazhar -"A stunning, simple story of students and adults in Quebec dealing with one big tragedy and assorted little ones, with the help of a random kind stranger."
• Polisse -"The cranky characters in a Paris precinct's child-protection division create the best 'Hill Street Blues' episode ever."
• Fish Tank -"A harrowing, suffocating tale of teen angst from Andrea Arnold."

Just missed the top tier ...

• Foxtrot - "An ingenious story, told with grit and whimsy."
• Certain Women - "Three somber tales, barely intertwined, from the American master Kelly Reichardt."
• Tangerine - Another from Sean Baker: "A dizzying day-in-the-life of transgender prostitutes on the sunwashed streets of L.A. on Christmas Eve, an odyssey that never lets up."
• Operation Avalanche - "This is inspired filmmaking by an inspired crew that delights in the art of storytelling. And they do it so well."
• Bisbee '17 - A "captivating historical document."
• Give Me Liberty - "The story they tell is thrilling and heartfelt. It's funny and sweet."
• Ida - A "modest, flawless, gorgeous film."
• The Other Side of Everything - "This mesmerizing tone poem uses one family's story since World War II to catalogue the political history of Serbia and Yugoslavia through the decades."
• Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World - This "heartfelt and technically precise documentary" is "pure joy."

On second thought ...

• Win Win - With powerhouses Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan, "the one movie I could watch over and over."
• Short Term 12 - "A near perfect little gem." Another one that stands up to repeated viewings.
• Zero Motivation - "Like 'MASH,' it mines a war-time support staff for deadpan laughs."
• Inherent Vice - "A shambling mess of a movie that conjures up a distinct time and place, with a mix of hard-boiled storytelling and broad humor."
  
• The House I Live In - "Let's put aside the fact that this is a powerfully crafted polemic; it's simply a great film."

Bonus tracks ...

• The Trip Trilogy - Dueling Caines: "You might enjoy tagging along with these guys every few years to see how things turn out."

Honorable Mention - Features

• The Todd Haynes gem "Carol"
• Luca Guadagnino's earlier film "I Am Love"
• Lena Dunham's splash "Tiny Furniture"
• Baumbach, again, completing the hat trick: "Greenberg" and "Marriage Story"
• Debra Granik's dark and wearying "Winter's Bone," which introduced us to Jennifer Lawrence
• Holy crap, the twin howls of "Donald Cried" and "Thunder Road"
• The dim slogs "Oslo, August 31st" and "The Turin Horse"
• Nicole Holofcener's tales of middle-age privileged angst, "Please Give" and "Enough Said"
• More L.A. neo-noir, "Under the Silver Lake"
• Jay Duplass in "Outside In" and Mark Duplass in "Blue Jay"
• The joy of Sally Field in "Hello, My Name Is Doris"
• The grand silliness of the dracumentary "What We Do in the Shadows"
• The dark, harrowing character study "Foxcatcher"
• Anything from Francois Ozon: "Frantz"; "The New Girlfriend"; "Young & Beautiful"; "In the House"
• The best from Wes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
• The best from Alex Ross Perry "Listen Up Philip"
• The power teen tales "It Felt Like Love" and "The Myth of the American Sleepover"
• A quirky comedy "The Skeleton Twins"
• Pure Americana, "Nebraska"
• The relationship blockbusters "Blue Is the Warmest Color" and "Weekend"
• David Chase's transition from "The Sopranos," "Not Fade Away"
• The Dardennes brothers' haunting "The Kid With a Bike"
• Denzel Washington carrying the high-energy "Flight"

Honorable Mention - Documentaries

• Rockers: "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck" and "Matangi/Maya/M.I.A."
• The singular paean to film itself: "Dawson City: Frozen Time"
• Heartwarming and heartbreaking: "Searching for Sugarman" and "A.K.A. Doc Pomus"
• The powerful political profile "Weiner"
• As entertaining as it gets: "Hail Satan?" and "Fyre"
• Sparring around: "I Am Ali" and "Boxing Gym"
• Urban crime travesties: "13th" and "Let the Fire Burn"
• The joy of "Landfill Harmonic"
• Troubled women: "No Home Movie" and "Finding Vivian Maier"
• Charm to burn in "Exporting Raymond"

Guilty Pleasures

• Escapes
• Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
• Kedi
• Keanu
• No No: A Dockumentary
• L'Attesa
• Get Him to the Greek
• Top Five
• Night of the Living Deb (with my five-second cameo)

Holy Crap

• White God
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
• Alleluia
• The Lure
• The Paperboy
• We Need to Talk About Kevin
• Buzzard
• Frank
• A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III

R.I.P., Terry Jones

Terry Jones, one of the founding members of Monty Python and perhaps the pepperiest of its pepperpots, died yesterday at 77 after battling dementia in recent years. He was a prolific writer and director over the past 50-plus years, and he was the guiding force as director of the Pythons' classic films, including "Life of Brian," where he did a memorable turn as Brian's put-upon mother. ("He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy.")

I just wrapped up an analysis of the "Up" series of films, which started in 1964 and followed a co-hort of British baby boomers through, so far, age 63. The tag line of the series is an adage that states: Give me the boy at 7 and I'll show you the man. In my case, you need to be patient until age 14, because it wasn't until I had experienced and internalized "Monty Python's Flying Circus" during the mid-'70s that I could be considered fully formed. I simply wouldn't be the person I am without Monty Python -- for better or worse. (It's a fair cop.)

Maybe someday I'll follow up on my decades-long intention of analyzing "The Meaning of Life" from 1983 as the definitive fuck-you from a group of performers to the industry as well as to their fans. Jones had two of the most delicious lines in the film -- "I've had another son!" and "I couldn't eat another bite." So many memories from everyone's favorite naked organist.

Here is the BBC tribute to Terry Jones, with plenty of essential clips:


 

Back 'Up': The '7-Up' Series (Part III)

With the release of "63 Up," we first went back to the beginning and reviewed the previous entries in Michael Apted's foundational sociological study of a cohort of Brits born around 1956 and revisited every seven years. Part I (through "28") is here. Part II (through "56") is here.

63 UP (B+) - At this point, Michael Apted -- in checking in every seven years to chronicle a cohort of baby-boomer Brits -- is essentially an editor of his past projects. Ever since the group started to enter middle age -- around "49 Up" -- the new portions have tended to consist of sharp questions to the participants about the uneventful slog toward grandchildren and the grave.

With "63 Up," that latter task takes on added resonance, because, for the first time, one of the original subjects has died since the last installment (yes, it's a tear-jerking moment), and another is battling cancer. And Apted, who is about to turn 79 himself and has been reported to be slowing down, seems to sense the urgency of the moment this time around, as if others might not make it to 70 (about half of them are seriously overweight) or he might not make it to "70 Up." He zeroes in on the big questions of life and how well-lived it has been. He also asks each one if they agree with the adage that our essence is baked in by age 7. Most agree that it seems true. Only Neil (pictured below) -- always the most thoughtful and philosophical of the bunch -- digs deeper for a response. (He also reveals yet another source of heartbreak in his troubled life -- a failed attempt at marriage.)

And in a rare break from protocol, Apted asks his subjects a political question. Their takes on Brexit -- especially from snooty John and East Ender Tony -- might surprise you. But otherwise, this installment, at times, is like a Facebook page devoted to Boomers' kids and grandkids and dogs. Maybe there won't be a need for any more films in the series; most of these folks have settled in to old age and are content to ride it out to the end.

Scholars will someday provide a comprehensive sociological summation of this series. For now, the New York Times takes a serious stab at a full-blown analysis with this piece (warning: SPOILERS) and this insightful excerpt breaking down the class consciousness of the grand experiment:

Apted, like a social scientist, emphasizes the role of big, obstinate forces; his participants almost invariably take the opposing side of agency and self-determination. What we get, as the show goes on, is an ever-fuller picture of how particular individuals at times shrink to inhabit the givens of an inheritance and at times spill over the sides of those constraints. What emerges are the countervailing qualities of structure and dignity.

Apted brings this all together in his typical time frame -- about two and a quarter hours. It makes for even more condensed callbacks to the most iconic scenes. As Apted explains it in the Times piece, “To condense all that time to a hysterical pace — it’s terrifying, in sort of a bogus way, but it does dramatize how quickly things go by.”

Is this the last "Up"? I have to say, when 7-year-old Suzy (the poor little rich girl) appeared on the screen I swooned like I always do -- Suzy! But, sadly, as she threatened back in "49 Up," Suzy did not participate this time. Hers has been one of the most compelling story lines. But she had warned Apted that her journey felt complete -- she was who she was or was ever going to be. As disappointing as her absence is, perhaps she had signaled -- by her inner contentment (or resignation?) -- that while you might not be able to pigeonhole the child at 7, you almost certainly can sum up the person by 49. So, mission accomplished? And fade to black?

BONUS TRACK
While we're on the doc watch, let's knock out a new film from the streets of Mexico:

MIDNIGHT FAMILY (A-minus) - This gorgeous noir of a documentary intimately follows the men and boys of one family who perilously eke out a living operating a private ambulance service in Mexico City. With few ambulances provided by the government, private outfits lurk around the city chasing reports from police scanners and racing each other to the next business opportunity.

The star here is Juan Ochoa, 17, with movie-star looks and "Baby Driver" skills behind the wheel. He is joined by pudgy, baby-faced adolescent Josue and two adults (presumably the father and uncle), Fer and Manuel. They hustle through the night, battling not only other companies, but also corrupt police officers seeking bribes and the health-care system. They never know whether they will get paid for their services -- depending on whether they go to a public or private hospital and whether the victims are insured or not. They never now how cheap their next meal will be.

Writer-director Luke Lorentzen shoots in a claustrophobic but crisp style, lucking into picturesque moments. He nestles his cameras inside the ambulance -- front and back -- making this a true ride-along. The individual tales can be quite moving -- a teenage girl whose nose has been broken by her boyfriend requests a hug to help ease her anxiety (and she gets it). As she is pulled out of the ambulance, the camera shoots from behind her head, and we see her raise her arms, trying to wipe the bloodstains from the tattoo on her forearm. It's an indelible image, one of many unforgettable moments in the life of these men and boys, and the victims they serve.
 

A Century of Progress: Vol. 3 (2015-18)

In our run-up to listing our favorite films released in 2019 (and, separately, the best of the past decade), we are looking back on our previous best-of lists. Today, we pick out some highlights from the best-of lists 2015-2018. Click the year headers for links to full lists and analysis.

2015
My Year of the Woman: "Diary of a Teenage Girl," the amazing debut "Appropriate Behavior," "Carol," "Girlhood," "Tangerine," "About Elly," "Room." Boom. The most haunting film: "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck." The docs, faux and real, that can play on repeat: "What We Do in the Shadows" and "The Wolfpack." Obscure pick of the year: Israeli army women in "Zero Motivation." You say you like pulp and/or horror? Holy crap, try "Buzzard" and "Alleluia." And the funniest movie you've never seen: "Fort Tilden" (included, belatedly, on the 2016 list).

2016
Pure bliss: "A Bigger Splash." Great storytelling: "Certain Women," "Blue Jay," "Dheepan," "Aquarius." In your face: "L'Atessa," "Krisha." Giddy fun: "The Bronze," "Keanu," "Hello, My Name Is Doris." A star is born: Riley Keough in "American Honey." One of the best movies, pound for pound, that you probably missed: "Toni Erdmann" (included, belatedly, on the 2017 list).

2017
The beginning of the end of my deep love affair with movies, as I get crankier and struggle to fill out a top ten. Thank goodness for Sean Baker ("The Florida Project"), Edgar Wright ("Baby Driver"), and the total whack job Kris Avedisian ("Donald Cried"). The diversion of quirky comedies "The Little Hours" and "Band Aid" helped. But too many of our favorite filmmakers swung and whiffed throughout the year.

2018
Really only two feature films will stand the test of time: "The Rider" and "Foxtrot." Three docs were spotless: "The King," "Bisbee '17," "Matanga/Maya/M.I.A." Two more docs ventured off the beaten path, which I'll surely be returning to: "Escapes" and "Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood." If you want something obscure and challenging, try "The Endless."
  

A Century of Progress: Vol. 2 (2010-14)

In our run-up to listing our favorite films released in 2019 (and, separately, the best of the past decade), we are looking back on our previous best-of lists. Today, we pick out some highlights from the best-of lists 2010-14. Click the year headers for links to full lists and analysis.

2010
You don't get much more dark and compelling than the Euro-trio of "A Prophet," "Fish Tank" and "I Am Love." And then there were moody adult males like "Greenberg" and the detached father in Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere." Other women had a strong year: "Winter's Bone," "Tiny Furniture," "White Material," "Please Give." The Duplass brothers came of age with "Cyrus"; Philip Seymour Hoffman directed a film, "Jack Goes Boating"; and the "Catfish" craze began.

2011
"A Separation" is still the gold standard for Asghar Farhadi films. And we still could watch Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan in the wrestling movie "Win Win" over and over. More strong female stories emerged: "Martha Mary May Marlene," "Pariah," "Meek's Cutoff," "We Need to Talk About Kevin," "Higher Ground." Michael Winterbottom started his "The Trip" series.

2012
Three foreign films topped the list, followed by Denzel Washington's tour de force in "Flight," and even the trashy "Magic Mike," a total hoot, made the Top 15. Films that still resonate, years later, include "Oslo, August 31st" and "Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present." I probably should have given more credit to Bela Tarr's "The Turin Horse" and Alex Ross Perry's "The Color Wheel." And, in retrospect, "The House I Live In" could have found a spot on the big list. (We re-viewed it a year later.)

2013
Noah Baumbach again reached the top spot, this time with "Frances Ha" starring Greta Gerwig. "Nebraska" and "Enough Said" offered funny slices of Americana. The movie that haunts me the most to this day is "The Broken Circle Breakdown," and the one I can watch over and over is "Short Term 12." Documentaries were uplifting and heartbreaking: "20 Feet From Stardom" and "AKA Doc Pomus."

2014
I was on team "Birdman" (despite the detractors) and team "Foxcatcher." You can keep "Boyhood." Quirky comedies made the list: "Grand Budapest Hotel," "Listen Up Philip," "Skeleton Twins," "Top Five." The movie I can go back and watch again and again is "Inherent Vice," and the one that haunts me most is "I Am Ali." Check out the original foreign versions of "Gloria" (later "Gloria Bell") and "Force Majeure" (the upcoming "Downhill"). And, OMG, "Wetlands."
  

A Century of Progress: Vol. 1 (2005-07)

In our run-up to listing our favorite films released in 2019 (and, separately, the best of the past decade), we are looking back on our previous best-of lists. Today, we go back to the previous decade and dig out a few lists of favorites.

When we were back at the Albuquerque Tribune, we participated in the staff reviews of the year in film. In 2005, we liked "The Squid and the Whale." And one day we must revisit "The Dying Gaul" (if it's available anywhere) to see if it still holds up. We got crap for calling "The Aristocrats" and "Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic" "fundamentally funny." We still have a soft spot for "Junebug" and "Thumbsucker."

In 2006, we discovered Jia Zhang-ke through "The World." Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu followed up "21 Grams" with his attempted masterpiece "Babel." Michael Winterbottom was working his magic with "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story." The Dardenne brothers unspooled "L'Enfant (The Child)." We still have a fondness for small movies like "Duck Season" and "The Sisters."

The year 2007, my last full year at a newspaper and as a paid critic, brought the twin towers of "No Country for Old Men" and "I'm Not There," a pair of epics. After catching a full-house screening at the Santa Fe Film Festival, I was certain that "The Astronaut Farmer," from the Polish brothers, was going to be a beloved classic for the ages; I still don't understand why it isn't (they never really recovered). I even showed some prescience when I gave props to Mike Judge for being prescient in chronicling the coming "Idiocracy." And documentaries don't come much simpler and better than "51 Birch Street."

Click the date links for the full lists and accompanying essays, where applicable.
  

That '70s Drift: Blaxploitation and Sexploitation

DOLEMITE IS MY NAME (B) - Eddie Murphy is still a movie star.

That's mostly all you need to know about his heartfelt portrayal of the anachronistic entertainer, Rudy Ray Moore, who by sheer will parlayed underground success with party records in the early '70s into a Hollywood B-movie career. Director Craig Brewer (who apparently has been doing mostly TV work since his attempted breakthroughs "Hustle & Flow" and "Black Snake Moan") helms this flat but charming production. The writing team of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski ("The People vs. Larry Flynt") inject some snap into the dialogue and move the story along in fits and starts.

But it's Murphy having a blast in a period piece surrounded by an energetic cast including Mike Epps, Tituss Burgess, Craig Robinson, Wesley Snipes and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, with fun DJ cameos by Snoop Dogg and Chris Rock. The flashback to the '70s comes through not only in the fashions and decor, but also in the made-for-TV production values (this comes from Netflix). There is also an old-fashioned "Let's put on a show" enthusiasm that permeates the proceedings.

It's got the right mix of laughs, nostalgia, bawdiness and reverence, which it helps it chug along to a nearly two-hour length.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MY MOTHER (B) - Do Italian adult males have mommy issues? Is the pope socialist? Beniamino Barrese takes up his camera and stalks his mother -- the model-feminist-academic Benedetta Barzini -- to document her desire to, at 75, fade from our collective consciousness.

Benedetta does not have so much a death wish as a disgusted urge to purge her images and herself from an image-obsessed society. The first half of the film can be a challenge, because it seems to be mostly about Barrese hounding his mother relentlessly, and her cursing him out for doing so. Lauren Hutton comes by for a visit, and both former models repeatedly try to shoo his camera away.

You wonder how sincere Benedetta is about evaporating. She still does cameos during runway shoots. She still cares about being rail thin (chain smoking seems to help with that), though maybe that's another way she tries to disappear. Benedetta also doesn't mind striking a pose, present day, or dashing off a girlish flip as she prances through a courtyard. She also has a lot of stuff and doesn't seem to be diligent about shipping it off so that she can take this dreamed-of final trip to some isolated island.

She is an ardent Marxist, and she fulminates often about our culture and the "petit bourgeousie." In the end, this comes together as a deep character study and not just an egotistic personal diary for either character. The power builds and the mystery deepens.

BONUS TRACK
From the "Dolemite" soundtrack, which is packed with dusties, Booker T and the MG's with "Hip Hug-Her":

Catching Up: 2010, a Best-of List

In our run-up to our list of the best films of 2019, we go back and consider the entire decade as well. So, while we're working on a list of the best films of the 2010s, we first fill a gap in our 21st century accounting. To make the decade complete, we start at the beginning and list our favorite movies of 2010:

The Top 12 of 2010

  1. A Prophet - A masterwork of the crime genre from Jacques Audiard ("Dheepan," "Rust and Bone") in the grand tradition of "The Godfather."

  2. Fish Tank - A harrowing, suffocating tale of teen angst from Andrea Arnold.

  3. I Am Love - Luca Guadagnino ("A Bigger Splash") kicks off the decade with Tilda Swinton by his side.

  4. Tiny Furniture  - Lena Dunham (HBO's "Girls") emerged from the Mumblecore scene with this finely crafted character study of a stunted young adult (who might eventually go on to be a voice of a generation).

  5. Greenberg - Noah Baumbach nails the annoying cadence of the 40-something loser, as embodied by Ben Stiller.

  6. Winter’s Bone  - Jennifer Lawrence arrived on the scene to carry this rural epic on her shoulders, under the direction of Debra Granik ("Leave No Trace," "Stray Dog")

  7. Somewhere - Another plodding adult male. Sofia Coppola's minor-key gem was tucked in between her showier "Marie Antoinette" and "The Bling Ring."

  8. Blue Valentine - Michelle Williams shows Ryan Gosling how relationship films are executed in this tale of passion and emotional violence.

  9. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World  - It's hard to have more fun at a movie theater than this head trip, unless you went to a subsequent Edgar Wright film, such as "The World's End" or "Baby Driver."

10. Dogtooth - Yorgos Lanthimos splashes on the scene with this disturbing avant-garde study of a dysfunctional family.

11. Please Give  - Nicole Holofcener ("Enough Said") is totally in her zone, teaming with Catherine Keener to chronicle the near-breakdown of a privileged woman.

12. Exit Through the Gift Shop - Street-artist provocateur Banksy gives us the ultimate head-fake psych-out.

Honorable Mention

• Spike Lee directs Denzel Washington in "Inside Man"
• Claire Denis directs Isabelle Huppert in "White Material"
• The French mini-series "Carlos"
• Gabourey Sidibe splashes in "Precious"
• The Coen brothers put their twang on "True Grit"
• The Duplass brothers go mainstream with "Cyrus"
• Todd Solondz gets back on his game with "Life During Wartime"
• From Australia, "Animal Kingdom"
• Julianne Moore and Annette Bening shine in "The Kids Are All Right"
• David O. Russell peaks with "The Fighter"
• Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart scald in "Rabbit Hole"
• Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Ryan click in "Jack Goes Boating"
• Anne Hathaway is a star in "Love & Other Drugs"
• A charming tale of incompetent British terrorists, "Four Lions"
• A period piece about the Brits' labor movement, "Made in Dagenham"
• Robert Duvall is classically creepy in "Get Low"

Other Top Docs

• Boxing Gym
• Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
• Catfish
• Winnebago Man

Guilty Pleasures

• Get Him to the Greek
• Easy A
• Nowhere Boy
• The Runaways
• Hot Tub Time Machine
• It's Kind of a Funny Story
• Enter the Void

Holy Crap*: 'Waves'

What if "Terms of Endearment" were a horror movie? Trey Edward Shults takes his big splash of a family drama, 2016's "Krisha," and mixes it with the dread of his water-treading last film "It Comes at Night" and he comes out with a grand stab at a masterpiece.

Shults dazzles with images and stabs at the gut emotionally with this tale of a brother and sister whose teenage lives take divergent paths as they explore romantic relationships and deal with underlying family drama. The intensity of it all can be literally breathtaking.

Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr. from last year's "Luce") is a star wrestler who is pushed to his physical limits by his demanding father, Ronald (TV star Sterling K. Brown), to the point where Tyler jeopardizes his physical well-being to succeed. A scene in which Tyler knowingly goes to the mat with a serious shoulder injury can make you jump out of your seat with frightful apprehension. Meantime, Tyler navigates a shaky romance with Alexis (Alexa Demie). As Tyler pops his dad's pain pills, he loses his grip on his senior-year responsibilities and begins to unravel.

Shults, working again with cinematographer Drew Daniels, shows great command over his surroundings and pumps up the adrenaline to alternately produce joy or pain. He plays with focus to drift into a scene or a mood. (Although he's a little too infatuated with whirling 360 shots. And most of his demerits stem from the bad habit of relying on text messages -- in small fonts -- to convey critical plot information.) A shot of Tyler and Alexis dancing together on the beach -- her neon orange fingernails splashed against his peroxided short-cropped hair -- is mesmerizing.

A bristling soundtrack -- pop and rap trading off with unnerving ambient music from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross -- perfectly captures the primal way in which teenagers bond and identify with songs. The music is pervasive but critical to the development of the story.

With a slow, onerous fade to black at the halfway mark, Tyler steps aside for his younger sister Emily (Taylor Russell), for a character study that is much more thoughtful and tender as she now enters her senior year. The testosterone feuds between Tyler and their father -- which has left the family scarred -- give way to pauses and introspection. Emily embarks on her own relationship (with a nerdy Lucas Hedges from "Manchester by the Sea"), warily but with an open mind and heart.

Recriminations are unavoidable in this second half. Tears are shed. Lots of them. I imagine that the raw display of The Feels is on a par with Brown's weepy series "This Is Us." And while there probably is at least one too many crying jags, the effusive emotion on display feels earned and effective.

If you buy into this nonstop gut-punch of a movie, you will be wrung out in the end. It's a sharp slap in the face from an earnest filmmaker who cares about your feelings but doesn't handle them very carefully. Buckle up for the ride.

GRADE: A-minus

* -- Holy Crap is an occasional series about unique films, cutting a wide swath from brilliant to awful. Check out previous entries here.

BONUS TRACKS
Kendrick Lamar's "Backseat Freestyle" presages a breakdown by Tyler:



Emily blisses out to "Bluish" by Animal Collective:


 

In Love With the Movies

WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL (A-minus) - Rob Garver seems to love movies as much as Pauline Kael did. His profile of the former New Yorker film critic is both an homage to and a montage of Kael and the movies that she championed. And like her, this documentary has attitude and swagger.

Garver, in his debut, probably tries to cram too many ideas into this biography -- it's quite visually and aurally stimulating. But Kael shot from the lip and let the chips fall, and this paean to not just a film writer but a bygone era of the American New Wave comes out with barrels blazing.

You get a good flavor of Kael, warts and all, from fanboys like Quentin Tarantino and Paul Schrader to John Guare and Camile Paglia (along with fresh voices like Lili Anolik from Vanity Fair). Garver digs out a clip of Jerry Lewis on a talk show both disparaging and praising Kael for her talent and passion. He quotes liberally from Renata Adler's 1980 attempted puncturing of her rival. He recounts some of Kael's memorable takedowns, like her evisceration of "The Sound of Music."

Garver starts with film clips from the 1930s of trash-talking dames to set the theme: Here was a confident woman kicking ass and taking names, taking a pin-prick to the New Yorker's stuffy prose style, and building an army of acolytes akin to that of a speaker of the House.

It's all so bittersweet, though, because Kael, who retired in 1991 and died in 2001 (just before 9/11), represents a whole distinct era, where things like erudite criticism mattered, pre-Internet, before Yelp and the insipid Rotten Tomatoes. She championed and challenged an art form, and she did so with gusto. She and her favorites, like Brian De Palma, had quite a lusty run during an analog heyday, and life in a CGI world seems so much flatter without her.

VARDA BY AGNES (B+) - I doubt anyone has ever so meticulously curated her life like Agnes Varda did. Here, the doyenne of the French New Wave, who died in March at 90, films herself giving a lecture wherein she methodically marches through her career achievements. It's a loving and clear-eyed tribute to the creative process by someone who seemed to devote every waking hour to not only creating images but connecting with her fellow humans.

Varda says it's not enough to create; she argues that no piece of art is trite if it's imbued with empathy. Her art installations are as impressive as her movies, which include the landmark "Cleo From 5 to 7" and "The Gleaners and I." Those titles and the rest are generously represented here during a full two-hour retrospective. It helps if you are a fan of Varda's or are familiar with her movies (recently we've reviewed her collaborations with Jane Birkin and the photographer JR ("Faces Places")). But even newcomers should appreciate a legend who shared her art and her heart so generously.

BONUS TRACKS
The trailers:




 

Flying the Nest

LITTLE WOMEN (A-minus) - Greta Gerwig has a sure hand and some verve -- and Saoirse Ronan -- as she updates this classic for a savvy new audience. Gerwig, following up her autobiographical "Lady Bird," gives a fresh feminist slant to the story of four sisters, harboring divergent hopes and dreams, coming of age in Civil War-era America.

Gerwig keeps the focus on Jo (Ronan), the writer and the least boy-crazy of the bunch, but she carves out distinct personalities for the other three. She bookends the movie with Jo's visit to a New York publisher (Tracy Letts) who pushes her to appeal to popular convention and gender expectations of the day. Gerwig subverts expectations with a rather meta conclusion that leaves you wondering what is "real" (from Louisa May Alcott's original perspective) and what is "real" (from the character Jo's perspective) and what is "real" (from Gerwig's perspective). Is there such a thing as a happy ending?

Gerwig also chops up the narrative, jerking back and forth in time, from the girls nestling like puppies to their own eventual endings. That jumble can be slightly disconcerting at times, but it has the effect, in the long run, of keeping the viewers (especially younger ones accustomed to cut-and-paste consumption of media) on their toes.

Ronan is a regal leading lady, much more grounded than in "Lady Bird." In a brief scene between Jo and her rich Aunt March riding in a carriage, I fell out of the film for a moment and marveled at the frisson of Hollywood za-zaa going on between Ronan and Meryl Streep, as if witnessing a passing of a torch. Elsewhere, the supporting cast is strong. Emma Watson plays beautiful Meg, who weds for love instead of money. Eliza Scanlen doesn't get much to do with the role of sickly Beth, though her interactions with Mr. Laurence are touching, thanks in part to a particularly deep performance by Chris Cooper.

Florence Pugh easily holds her own as Amy, the young rascal who takes one for the family and eventually marries Laurie, the boy who always pined for Jo, and who is played with jangly limbs by Timothee Chalamet, somehow of the era but also thoroughly modern (it's an impressive performance). Laura Dern (like in "Marriage Story") suffers through another thankless hit-and-miss pitchy role as the girls' mother, salvaging the proceedings with a powerful one-on-one with Jo, revealing the bleakness of her own married, impoverished life. Jo gets the message loud and clear, and so, cleverly, does the filmmaker.

EARTHQUAKE BIRD (C+) - This is almost worth it for Alicia Vikander's dead-eyed performance as a transplant to Japan working as a translator and slowly ensnared in a creepy quasi love triangle. But none of the parts -- culled from a moody novel by Susanna Jones -- add up in this trippy drama from British director Wash Westmoreland.

Even Riley Keough is off-key as a third wheel threatening the awkward relationship between Vikander's Lucy Fly (ahem) and hunky, gloomy photographer Teiji (Naoki Kobayashi). Lucy is troubled and seemingly bruised emotionally, and we're never quite sure why. But everyone is mopey here, even the occasionally bubbly Lily (Keough), who eventually goes missing, landing Lucy in an interview room with two detectives. But, billed as a psychological thriller, this one can't get off the ground, and though Vikander digs deep and is arresting at times for her boyish brooding, it's tough to get a handle on the sloppy narrative.

BONUS TRACK
"Little Women" was our traditional Christmas Day Mainstream Movie. It sneaks into the top five among the 15 films we've scored at our annual holiday outing:

  1. Up in the Air (2009)
  2. Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)
  3. Dreamgirls (2006)
  4. Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
  5. Little Women (2019)
  6. The Fighter (2010)
  7. American Hustle (2013)
  8. The Shape of Water (2017)
  9. La La Land (2016)
10. The Wrestler (2008)
11. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
12. Young Adult (2011)
13. This Is 40 (2012)
14. Holmes & Watson (2018)
15. Into the Woods (2014)

Now & Then: Conscious Uncoupling

We review the latest from Noah Baumbach and revisit one of his classics:

MARRIAGE STORY (A) - Noah Baumbach rebounds all the way back with this searing, insightful analysis of a crumbling marriage. He captures that suffocating feeling when a married person wonders whether any significant part of the relationship was ever valid in the first place.

Adam Driver stews and stalks like a madman, and he challenges the rest of the cast to keep up with him. Scarlett Johansson gamely tries, and she turns in a workmanlike performance as Nicole, an actress and mother liberating herself from the toxic careerism of her avant-garde director/husband Charlie. Baumbach, back in his discomfort zone after a lot of whining in the wilderness in recent years (was it guilt over dumping actress wife Jennifer Jason Leigh for Greta Gerwig?), crafts a script full of stinging barbs between scared, wounded lovers.

Charlie is caught off-guard by what he expected to be the temporary move of Nicole and their son, Henry (solid child actor Azhy Robertson), from New York back to her hometown of Los Angeles to shoot a pilot (apostasy!) and stay with her mom, also a former actress (a welcome return by Julie Haggerty). When Nicole files for divorce and hires a pit bull of a lawyer (Laura Dern, trying a little too hard to be an alpha female), Charlie is flummoxed and tries to be the good guy. He hires a get-along old lawyer (Alan Alda, delightfully daft) before considering his own legal attack animal, played by Ray Liotta, who almost runs away with the entire film in two scenes.

Baumbach knows that these things are not black and white (see Leigh, above), and he expertly gives both Nicole and Charlie a generous dollop of understandable flaws and admirable traits as parents and professionals. The script is both funny and harrowing, sometimes at the same time. The dialogue and the narrative sail along effortlessly, even considering that this exercise clocks in at a hulking two and a quarter hours. It is the sum of "Kramer vs. Kramer" ('80s) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" ('60s), a benchmark for Generation X.

Driver plumbs depths of character and emotion rarely scene on screen. (He even sings a syrupy Sondheim show tune and manages not to make it embarrassing.) The supporting cast nimbly dances in and out of this couple's hellscape, including Merritt Weaver as Nicole's sister; Wallace Shawn as a troupe member; and even Robert Smigel as an in-over-his-head mediator. You may have been through a nasty divorce, but you weren't taking notes like Baumbach was during his. Here, every move he makes is perfect.

THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (2005) (A) - Baumbach's mid-aughts breakthrough still carries the sting of a teenager's view of his parents' toxic marriage and break-up. Jessie Eisenberg landed on the map here too as Walt, the supersensitive son of insufferable intellectuals. Jeff Daniels is beyond acerbic as the bitter writer worried that he is going to be eclipsed by the pen of his wife, played by Laura Linney in a raw performance. Even David Benger as Walt's oversexualized little brother is a carefully realized character. (And would you believe that William Baldwin is spot-on as a randy tennis-instructor bro?)

Walt suffers from idol worship of his father, and he mimics all of Bernard's worst flaws, mainly the pomposity of thinking they know everything about literature and culture. Bernard, a half-assed single parent at best (he lets one his students, played by Anna Paquin, crash with them), toys with Walt's brain, repeatedly suggesting that Walt shouldn't be a doting boyfriend but instead should play the field while he's young. Linney is wonderful as the caring mother who fails to observe normal boundaries with her sons (whom she calls Chicken and Pickle) as she emerges as a hot writer (and desirable MILF).

Deep down, Walt is a good kid (even if he claims authorship of a Pink Floyd song, to the acclaim of his oblivious parents), but these adults are messing with his mind. You ache for him and for Baumbach, the adult trying to reconcile that scarring time in his life. Like "Marriage Story," this one stings and amuses in equal, impressive measures. (For the record, this was my favorite movie of 2005.)

BONUS TRACK
From the closing credits of "Squid," Lou Reed with "Street Hassle":