Top Ten – 2016

/0 Comments/in /by

By my rating standards, 2016 was the worst year yet for new movie releases. Perhaps as a reflection, dinner party discussion tended more toward what TV series are you watching/have you seen, than what’s your favorite movie of the moment. While there were movies I admired, there was only one – Hell or High Water – that I felt I could unequivocally recommend to anyone who asked, and that paled in comparison to top movies of yesteryear, specifically No Country for Old Men. Nevertheless, if for no other reason than to reveal my taste and proclivities, I feel compelled to  designate a Top Ten, subject to amendment as other 2016 releases get shown in Santa Barbara.

1. Eye in the Sky. This film about a drone strike in the Mideast gave me more to think and write about than any other and courageously tackled a controversial matter of foreign policy. (Kudos, also, to the similarly overlooked Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.)

2. Hell or High Water. Not rated high upon viewing because of its derivative nature, but it was charming and accomplished everything it set out to. I still get thirsty thinking about its West Texas setting and enjoy any time I spend with Jeff Bridges.

3. Elle. A taut, if kinky, thriller, in which all the pieces fit together and warrant a second thought, if not psychoanalysis.

4. Sully. Corny, in a Tom Hanks way, but heartwarming to watch regular people saving lives by doing their jobs. (More credible, by far, than the also heartwarming Deepwater Horizon.)

5. Manchester by the Sea. I could smell the New England air and feel the palpable heartbreak of the Casey Affleck character. I like “real.”

6. Fences. A dramatic tour de force that barely made it off the stage, but its power builds to a final knockout.

7. Little Men. Real people grappling with a real situation, parents on one page, kids on another. (Maggie’s Plan deserves mention here, too.)

8. Cafe Society. This was my favorite love story, with my favorite actress, Kristen Stewart, and lots of good costumes. (Hail, Caesar was also better than the similarly set, similarly plotted La La Land.)

9. Love and Friendship. Can’t go far wrong with Jane Austen and Kate Beckinsale – may there always be an England!

10. Loving. Realistic and de-dramatized, the movie spoke of hope despite our hopeless times.

Outside the main studio releases, I found much satisfaction in three other movie categories this year:

Documentaries

1. Vegas Baby (f/k/a Haveababy). I rated this as high as any of the ten above, and it was the only film that made me cry (twice).

2. Weiner. For sheer audacity, and subsequent relevance, this couldn’t be beat.

Revivals

1. Elevator to the Gallows. So French, so 1958, so Jeanne Moreau, so noir.

2. Niagara. Marilyn Monroe and Joseph Cotten in Henry Hathaway’s 1953 take on Alfred Hitchcock.

Festival Films

1. The Unknown Girl. A psychological thriller from the Dardennes brothers.

2. Viva. A drag queen, or princess, in Cuba, against all odds.

Oscar Choices (limited to actual Oscar nominees)

Best Picture: Hell or High Water

Best Actor: Casey Affleck

Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert

Featured Actor: Mahershala Ali

Featured Actress: Viola Davis

 

Jackie – 3.5

/0 Comments/in /by

Why? What was the point? Natalie Portman didn’t look like Jackie – not as pretty, nowhere near the presence – and we were given her at her most insecure, at her most vulnerable. No American who lived through “Camelot” could have directed such a picture, and you wonder why Pablo Larrain – much more at home with Neruda – even tried. As for history, Bryan Cranston’s LBJ in All the Way was so much more authentic to the period. Peter Sarsgaard’s Bobby Kennedy missed by a mile, and none of the bit players rang true, although it was fun to see Greta Herwig in a dramatic role. If my score weren’t so low already, I would deduct another 2 for showing a recreation of JFK’s assassination – tasteless, exploitative and totally unnecessary. No Oscar for the lisping Portman.

Manchester by the Sea – 8

/0 Comments/in /by

Matching Hell and High Water in regional atmosphere, Manchester reverberated more closely to home for me, recalling Mystic River and Dennis Lehane novels, Spartina and the whole ball of Matt Damon/Ben Affleck/Mark Wahlberg New England wax – not surprising, as Damon was a producer and Ben’s little brother Casey was the star. I’ve loved watching Casey since Gone, Baby, Gone, and he was riveting here, although there was maybe a tad too much. He was damaged goods, in much the way of Isabelle Huppert in Elle, and the whole point of the movie was watching, and understanding, how he dealt with life after being responsible for the death of three daughters. The second point, I guess, was the counterpoint of how his 16-year-old nephew coped with the death of his father. There was too little Michelle Williams (Casey’s wife), but maybe she would have taken away some of the film’s focus. For those, like me, who pine for movies about “real life,” this was it.

Lion – 5

/0 Comments/in /by

Hokey and manipulative, plus cursed by that bane of bad plots, “based on a true story.” Why did Saroo have an adopted brother? Why did Nicole Kidman have such an awful hairdo? Neither helped the movie, but both were based on the true story. Dev Patel’s matinee-idol looks, of course, weren’t based on the truth; they were to make you fall in love with him and his quest. I didn’t. The child Saroo was a charmer, and I was happy to follow the first half of the film, although not so much that I’d ever want to go to India.

Neruda – 7

/0 Comments/in /by

A poem of a film, with a fat Communist in the lead and a wispy Gael Bernal Garcia as foil and narrator. By constantly using backlighting, director Pablo Larrain conveys the mood and spirit of the 1940s and half the fun is experiencing the people, politics and costumes of that era in Chile (when the movie moves to France in the final minutes it falls flat). From this distance it’s hard to understand the power or importance of Pablo Neruda, or any poet!, and the director is careful not to make him especially heroic. The chase is clearly a fantasy or fiction, and we don’t take anything that happens too seriously. It is, after all, a poem.

Elle – 8

/0 Comments/in /by

A twisted story with neat directorial touches in every nook and cranny. Every character was driven by sex – and that means “every,” major or minor, old or young. While that may not have seemed totally realistic, it did seem, well, French. Whereas many thrillers fall apart when viewed in retrospect, the more I thought about Elle, the more I found to think about. “Elle” is Isabelle Huppert, and she is one tough, troubled but strong woman, making psychological sense if we could only figure her out. What’s also remarkable is that while the story is all about her – just as it was in Things to Come – there are 13 other fully realized characters with roles to play – and sex drives to deal with.

Fences – 7.7

/0 Comments/in /by

A powerful drama, lifted almost intact from the stage. This seemed a problem at first – the staginess of all the action transpiring on the backyard lot, the declamations in place of conversation – but the sheer humanity of the characters, and their problems, won us over. When Denzel Washington defended his affair by saying, in effect, that it was releasing so much that was cooped up inside him, and his wife, Viola Davis, responded, But what about me and my needs?, emotional cords reverberated, onscreen and off. The cast, as in a play, was small, which allowed us to know, and understand, how they all fit together. In the end, I’m sure this is still better as a play, but the production was a noble effort and should earn Davis, at least, an Oscar nomination.

La La Land – 6.7

/0 Comments/in /by

A cotton candy confection of a film: pretty, sweet, airy, but not much there. Rather than playing real people, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling seemed to be playing Debbie Reynolds and Gene Kelly, or Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. The film embraced its derivative core in such meta moments as the characters’ dream dance sequence at the Griffith Observatory, and you got the feeling that every cliche-driven plot point alluded to Hollywood’s past. In short, it was an exercise in style, and I kept waiting for an emotional click that, for me, never came. The songs, the dancing, the sets, the people – nothing was very memorable. And if I am to watch a Hollywood starlet’s face up close for two hours, there are many I would prefer to Emma Stone’s.

The Handmaiden – 7

/0 Comments/in /by

Two-thirds a good movie, as I thought we were witnessing, Rashomon-like, two different views of the same events, a chamber piece told with Asian elegance and stunning beauty. Then came chapter three, which took the beauty and trashed it, removing the mystery as well as one character’s fingers. The plot that played out made less sense than the plot I had imagined and left us feeling soiled and unsatisfied. There was, I read, a layer of political commentary involving the Japan-Korea interplay, but that was too alien for our understanding or appreciation.

Loving – 7.5

/0 Comments/in /by

The election of Donald Trump has infected so much of my outlook it is not surprising that it dampened my enthusiasm for Loving, which would otherwise have been a hopeful, inspiring story of two regular people and a couple of young ACLU lawyers bringing down Virginia’s hateful anti-miscegenation law. Just look at how backward and racist part of our society used to be, and glory in how far we have come in the last 50 years. Except that racism is coming back and the Supreme Court no longer stands as a beacon of justice. The descendants of the Ku Klux Klan have moved from the fringe to the front page.

The movie’s other problem is its lack of suspense. We know, going in, exactly what happens. Instead of being nervous for our heroes, we feel impatient: come on, let’s get to the Supreme Court decision. The slowness of the movie and the frequent repetition of scenes – there goes Richard Loving slathering concrete on the cement blocks again – only adds to our impatience.

Ruth Negga is being mentioned for acting awards, but I wonder how much of that comes from the Academy’s embarrassment at lack of black Oscar nominees last year. To me, the more challenging and effective portrayal was by Joel Edgerton, who had the harder job of being sympathetic while playing someone who was not too smart. If anyone should get an award, though, it should be the set designer: I was totally convinced we were in 1950s rural Virginia. No award to the casting director: larger-than-Life Michael Shannon in a bit part took me out of Virginia to Hollywood for no good purpose.