Here's
my dirty dozen, starting with my choice of the best film. The others
are in alphabetical order.
Twelve Years a Slave.
Who would have thought that for two years in a row, the best film of
the year would be about slavery? A number of folks claim that this
is the most realistic film about slavery ever made. I'm not sure how
we'd know that, but it certainly seems plausible. One of the keys to
its success is the fact that Solomon Northup was an educated, free
man before being kidnapped into slavery, which allows the audience to
better identify with his suffering. But its real strength is the
absence of made-for-TV censorship—think Roots—of
the slavemasters' brutality. I have to laugh when I read the
conservative critique of the film's emphasis on human suffering as "torture porn"—for example, the claim that director Steve McQueen held the
scene of Northup on tiptoes with a noose around his neck for just too
long, as if this were somehow an unfair argument against slavery.
On the other hand, one of the few false notes in this great film is
the all-too-convenient “good cop/bad cop” contrast between
slaveowners Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Fassbender. Does anyone
really believe in good slavemasters?
Blue Jasmine.
Woody Allen's modern interpretation of A Streetcar Named
Desire gives Cate Blanchett the
part of a lifetime, a self-centered rich woman who can't cope with
her unexpected downward mobility, and she delivers. The fact that
her ex-husband was a Bernard Madoff-like swindler is only an
incidental detail, but it's enough to make this film a stronger
critique of Wall Street criminality than Scorsese's Wolf.
Closed Circuit. There
are a lot of problems with this film, including the ridiculous
romance between the two leads and the need to explain some
complicated British laws, but it deserves credit for tackling
important issues such as the way law enforcement entraps potential
“terrorists,” and uses false claims of national security to
cover up its mistakes.
The Fifth Estate.
I've previously explained why I think this is an interesting film,
even though it unfairly takes the US government's side by
overemphasizing the alleged harms done by Wiki-Leaks' release of the
Bradley Manning files. Benedict Cumberbatch does a terrific job of
impersonating Julian Assange.
Fruitvale Station.
This is the best low budget film of the year. It recounts the last
24 hours of the life of a young black man who was killed by an
overanxious cop at a San Francisco transit station. His mother's
behavior clearly illustrates the futility of a purely religious
response to injustice.
42.
As a Dodger fan who grew up in the New York area in the '50s, I
enjoyed reliving the Jackie Robinson story, even though I know some
of the details have been changed to turn it into a more traditional
Hollywood biopic.
The Hunt. This
Danish film—my only foreign language film this year—tells the
story of a man falsely accused of molesting a little girl. It gets
the important points right, including the leading questioning of the
girl by authorities, and the tendency of this man's former friends to
still believe her over him even after her charges are shown to be
factually incorrect.
Inside Llewyn Davis.
Every music fan knows that for every Bob Dylan, there were dozens of
others who were equally talented, but just couldn't get a break. The
crushing blow is delivered by promoter F. Murray Abraham after
watching him perform: “I don't see money here.” Thanks also to
the Coen brothers for not making Llewyn Davis a Mr. Nice Guy.
Mandela—Long Walk to Freedom.
The main criticism of this film is that it's superficial, but who
could do justice to Mandela's life in 2.5 hours? The filmmakers
emphasize his personal life and avoid political controversies. But I
was caught up in one of the world's few progressive victories of the
past 25 years, even though the film doesn't tell us how it really
happened.
Nebraska.
How often have you visited relatives only to be greeted with the
question, “So, how long did it take you to drive here?” This
film takes an unusual (for Hollywood) look at the dreary existence of
many middle Americans, where the only thing to do after work is get
drunk and the only hope for a better life is winning the lottery.
The key scene is Woody's (Bruce Dern) inability to introspect when
his son asks him why he married his mother, whether he's been happy,
etc.
Rush. I
went into this film expecting exciting Formula One racing scenes, and
I wasn't disappointed. But I came away from it with much greater
respect for Austrian driver Niki Lauda, especially in comparison to
his loutish British competitor, James Hunt.
My
apologies for this year's many worthwhile films I didn't see, either
because they didn't play in Pittsburgh, or because they were in an
out of town before we had a chance to see them. In the latter
category are All is Lost,
Bastards and Hannah
Arendt.
This
was the year for films “based on a true story”—in many cases,
almost instant history. Six of my twelve films are historical, seven
if you believe Inside Llewyn Davis
is based on the life of folk singer Dave Van Ronk. Add in Captain
Phillips, Dallas
Buyers' Club, Philomena,
and The Wolf of Wall Street,
and you have a heavy dose of recent history. Speaking
of true stories, I choose Robert Reich's Inequality For All
as the year's best documentary.
Although I suspect Jeremy
Scahill's Dirty Wars
may be more deserving, I haven't seen it.
What
was missing? First of all, I was able to see very few foreign
language films this year. We didn't see a new French film all year, and
we saw our first Italian film, La Grande Bellezza
on New Year's Day. (It turned out to be a warmed-over version of La
Dolce Vita, and Paolo Sorrentino
is no Fellini.) Pittsburgh Filmmakers, our previously most reliable
source of foreign films, seems to be phasing them out in favor of
low-to-medium budget American films or documentaries. Some of these
are worthwhile films, but most of them wind up on television in a few
months, while most foreign language films never do.
There
was also a notable absence of well-made genre films this year. I
didn't see any top-notch Westerns, horror films, films
noir, mysteries, or even
sci-fi films. (I'm willing to suspend disbelief when watching
science fiction, but after a promising first half-hour, Gravity
was totally incredible!) It seems as though intelligent genre films
are being crowded out, mostly by big budget, computer-enhanced action
comic books.
As
usual, there are a number of strong performances by leading men,
including Idris Alba (Mandela),
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Fifth Estate),
Bruce Dern (Nebraska),
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Twelve Years a Slave),
and Matthew McConaughy (Dallas Buyers' Club).
If you could add separate performances together, you might give a shout out to Daniel Bruhl for his successive portrayals of Niki
Lauda (Rush) and
Daniel Domscheit-Berg (The Fifth Estate).
Hollywood sometimes uses the Oscar to reward an older actor for a
lifetime's body of work. I hope they'll do that for Bruce Dern this
year. Maybe that will make up for his failure to be nominated for
The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant.
Also
as usual, there were few good women's roles. Cate Blanchett has
almost no competition, with the possible exception of Judi Dench
(Philomena). I hope Sally Hawkins, who played Blanchett's sister,
gets a Supporting Actress nomination. And if movies are still
supposed to be fun, it would be nice to see Woody Harrelson get a
Supporting Actor nomination for Out of the Furnace,
even though Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers' Club)
will probably walk away with most of the awards.
I can
see no good reason to ever give the Best Director award to anyone
other than the director of the best film, in this case, Steve
McQueen.
You may also be interested in reading:
Based on a True Story, Part 1 (Captain Phillips)
Based on a True Story, Part 2 (The Fifth Estate)
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