The 50 Best Films of the Decade: No. 1-10
January 11th, 2010 by Scott Marks
10. “Heaven” / Tom Tykwer (2002)
Tom Tykwer’s posthumously fulfilled version of the first third of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s planned trilogy based on Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” Infuriated by the Tuscan police force’s refusal to further investigate her husband’s murder, Philippa (Cate Blanchett) decides to build a bomb and take out the drug dealer herself. It all goes terribly wrong when the act of vengeance turns into something akin to a terrorist bombing in which four innocent people are killed. Blanchett will only speak English during the police interrogations and rookie officer (Filippo) Giovanni Ribisi offers to act as translator. He is instantly smitten and helps her to escape and join him on a journey that she will only agree to undertake after accomplishing her initial goal. A wonderfully complex romantic thriller steeped in enough moral ambiguity to keep American audiences at bay. The film’s final transcendent moments would bring a tear to Frank Borzage’s eye.
9. “The Host” (2006) Bong Joon-Ho
A mildly retarded narcoleptic has to save his family and all of Korea from a genetically engineered monster. Come on! You don’t want to see a movie that tells this story? If Hollywood studios took a lesson from this picture, oh how much more entertained and enlightened action film fans would be. For my money, this is not only one of the most compassionate monster movies to come along since “Bride of Frankenstein,” in its own way “The Host” is a much sharper commentary on Bush’s folly than any of the end-of-decade anti-war films. Bong Joon-Ho directed his first film in 2000 and has since turned out another 4 1/3 films, and there’s not a weak one in the bunch. “Mother” has yet to open commercially in the States. When it does, make a beeline for the box office!
8. Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River” (2003) and “Million Dollar Baby” (2004)
Truth be told, Clint’s output this decade is far more impressive than anything Marty has gifted us with. Of the nine films Clint directed there were two duds (“Flags of Our Fathers” & “Invictus”), three entertaining popcorn pictures (“Space Cowboys,” “Blood Work” & “Gran Torino”), a pair of strong message movies (“Letters from Iwo Jima” & “Changeling”) and two out-and-out masterworks (“Mystic River” & “Million Dollar Baby”). Since “Unforgiven” (1992) his films have taken an even darker visual and spiritual tone, but nothing prepared us for the onslaught of gloom the 00s would bring. “Mystic River,” the tragic story of three friends torn apart by the murder of one’s daughter, could be his most emotionally complex work to date. Clint’s habitually distant camera captures the proceedings with a near Preminger-like disdain. It’s a brooding, deeply felt emotional powerhouse that I have yet to revisit. When it comes to “Million Dollar Baby,” I cannot think of a finer defense of the auteur theory than Paul Haggis’ clunky, cliché ridden, old school melodramatic screenplay. In less competent hands, this script, coupled with Hilary Swank’s limited range, never would have made it beyond the small screen. Clint’s masterful direction transforms everything into cinema gold and each of his dark, distant ’Scope frames further illuminate Haggis’ hackneyed saga of a female boxer. With superb performances by the director and Morgan Freeman to carry Swank, the film becomes a truly moving, transcendent experience.
7. “Crimson Gold” / Jafar Panahi (2003)
Take a look at my favorite (and the most stunningly choreographed opening) shot of the decade. Here is visual storytelling at its zenith; an introductory passage that brilliantly sets us up for everything to follow. Look at how small details and an abundance of logic combine to advance the story and add suspense. We start in mid-heist. Once the proprietor is pushed out of frame the first thing we notice is the guy across the street who is also wearing a motorcycle helmet. A driver parallel parks, interrupts the robbery, an alarm sounds, security doors drop into place, an innocent victim is shot and the shooter takes his own life. The scene lasts three-minutes-and-forty seconds and is executed in one unbroken take. It’s a goddamned minimalist tribute to “Touch of Evil!” If there is ever an American remake (and I pray to God that day never arrives) this entire sequence will be shot hand held in order to give it a sense of jarring immediacy. Why jiggle the camera? Strap it to a tripod and create tension by moving objects and people within the frame. For a good two-thirds of the long take we stare motionless out the entrance-way. Everything inside the jewelry store is composed in horizontals and verticals. Even the potted plants and porcelain lions that buttress the exit add a sense of stability to the interior. The shop is situated towards the top of the hill. The street outside runs on an incline and introduces a sense of unbalance to the frame. This exterior space, initially occupied by a lone cyclist gradually becomes a mob scene that fills the frame. Keeping in the spirit of Mother Kane’s Boarding House, all of the action, save for one bullet to the head, shifts out the door without once leaving the room. Jafar Panahi has only directed two other films over the past ten years (“The Circle” and “Offside”) and both were masterpieces. In this instance he was aided by another brilliant Iranian filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami, who wrote the screenplay.
Continue reading The 50 Best Films of the Decade: No. 1-10
Tags: 2001-2009, 50 best films of the decade, Albert Brooks, Clint Eastwood, crimson gold, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Heaven, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, in the mood for love, INLAND EMPIRE, John Boorman, Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, Spider, THE HOST, The Tailor of Panama, Three Times, Tom Tykwer, Wong Kar WaiFiled Under Rants
Albert Brooks finds comedy in Sarah Palin
September 8th, 2008 by Scott Marks
A pair of Kings!
Albert Brooks has a lot of fun raking Ms. Palin’s parenting skills over the coals on his Huffington Post blog. Albert insists that Sarah Palin proved him wrong: “ANYONE can now be president.”
“I like Sarah Palin’s public speaking ability. I think she is fun to look at, certainly the hottest vice presidential candidate in history. But I looked up some facts. The United States has 10,000 nuclear weapons, 100 aircraft carriers, 3,000,000 people in the armed forces, and ten trillion dollars of debt.
I am now hearing from the Karl Roves of the world that having a 17-year-old daughter pregnant out of wedlock will make Palin sympathetic to millions of Americans who know the pain of that situation. But my question is WHERE WAS THE ADVICE? Do we want a president who cannot communicate to their own child that possibly having a baby a year after you get your driver’s license is not the smartest thing to do? Is this the new way for women to break the glass ceiling? To have their daughters throw their babies at it? I want my president to control their children, then they can tell the Navy what to do.”
Sadly, Albert failed to touch upon the opposition’s reaction were Barack Obama’s daughter in a similar situation. One can almost hear Rush Limbaugh spouting off on how “those people” can’t keep it in their pants.
I’ll give Palin credit for one thing: At least she didn’t pull a Joe Kennedy and hide her mentally challenged child from the world. Then again, she doesn’t have to parade Trig around like he’s one of Paris Hilton’s dogs.
I’d still rather Albert was given the funding to make at least 6 movies a year, but until studios realize what a comedic genius he is (and how to market him) we have Ariana Huffington to thank for bringing his wisdom to the world.
Tags: Albert Brooks, huffington post, sara palin, sarah palin, trig palinFiled Under Rants
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