The Ultimate Measure of a Man.

95. Redbelt (David Mamet, 2008)

Redbelt is David Mamet's morality tale about the unquestionable value of honor in comparison with the petty emptiness of excess and greed. Chiwetel Ejifor stars as Mike Terry, a Jiu-Jitsu instructor, who through a series of events is faced with tall obstacles and hard times. Mamet's script is a precise exercise in the use of accepted pure character traits such as honesty, integrity, and loyalty in conflict with their general counterparts: deceit, corruption, and betrayal. Terry's views are put to a test as the film knocks the wind out of its protagonist as if the picture itself is trying to find the man's breaking point. However, his true strength is not measured by his battles in the ring but by his own convictions, and by the end of the film we find that Mr. Terry, in that regard, has no breaking point.

Redbelt has two distinct stars, its deftly constructed script and its lesser known leading man, Chiwetel Ejifor. Ejifor must be one of the most under appreciated actors working today. Primarily recognizable in supporting roles in such films as Children of Men (2006), Talk to Me (2007), and Inside Man (2006) he's a versatile actor who appears to be able to do a rare thing in the film industry, leave his ego aside. In Redbelt he has the chance to show his worth as a leading man and he delivers a performance that makes him not only one of the more inspiring figures in the last ten years, his portrayal of Mike Terry turns the characters into a quintessential modern day hero in the tradition of the great Takashi Shimura in Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954).

A comparison to earlier samurai films is distinctly appropriate, especially with that of Seven Samurai, a film in which seven men defend a persecuted village for no more than a few meals each day. Mike Terry's competition does not reside in marketed bouts to earn money but rather he is in constant competition with himself. A desire to not only better himself in body, but in mind as well. It's a film about knowing one's self and one's own strengths and using that strength to uphold one's own integrity. Such is the importance of the words of the late Martin Luther King Jr., "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

10 Films of 2008:

10. Redbelt (David Mamet)

The Rules of the Game.

96. Gosford Park (Robert Altman, 2001)

Gosford Park is perhaps the late Robert Altman's last bona fide masterpiece. Like many of Altman's films it features an ensemble cast with subplots intertwined and overlapping dialogue. It's a complex and detailed period piece set in the early 1930s. On the surface the film is a rousing murder mystery wrapped in the pasts of the variety of individuals in the film. This murder mystery is used as a device to present the class structure of Great Britain in the early 1900s. The subplots of each individual and how these people are connected shows the broad gap between the wealthy and their servants.

Altman is in top form working his intricate plot off without a hitch. Not only is the film able to sustain it itself, it thrives. Reminiscent of Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game (1939), of which can be seen to have a significant impact on Altman's career as a whole, Gosford Park is able to build its own microcosmic world within that large estate house. With the final breath of social hierarchy drawing near Altman develops his film into it's own organism, like a living cell, with characters and dialogue, plots and themes traversing through and around each other.

In Gosfard Park authenticity is key. Though the murder mystery elements are there to draw the audience into the picture the precise production is there to keep them involved. With such pinpoint representation Altman is able to recreate the time period in complete faithfulness. Displaying not only some of its hypocrisy and superficiality but also it's allure, charm, grace, and glamor. It's a time in which it's easy to loss yourself and for two hours and twenty minutes Robert Altman's film makes that possible.

Top ten of 2001:

Robert Altman's Gosford Park comes in at number 9 on my list of 10 films from 2001 so I'll just post a few words about the tenth film.

10. Waking Life (Richard Linklater)

My number ten film is Richard Linklater's surrealist philosophically jumbled animation piece Waking Life. The movie is a lot to take in on one sitting and even if you can't prescribe to each of the musings within every section it's a movie that not only requests you to think, it requires you to do so. With each encounter phasing into another we see our main character travel through what looks like a dream, discussing the nature of how and why we dream and essentially how we live and derive meaning from our lives, the world, and those around us.

10 Films of 2001:

9. Gosford Park (Robert Altman)
10. Waking Life (Richard Linklater)

Sometimes When Things Are Closed, You Just Open Them Up.

97. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, 2007)

Like Chan-Wook Park, David Cronenberg is another filmmaker that often uses violence in his films as in A History of Violence (2005) and Videodrome (1983). Cronenberg does this in an attempt to understand the nature of human being's acts of violence as well as their enjoyment of it. Though Eastern Promises isn't as contemplative as something like Videodrome, it is still a far more interesting thriller than most and its production shows maturity and polish. If it was as strong as Croneberg's classics in thought it would be one hell of a thriller to best.

Like I said in one of my earlier posts collecting these hundred films, Eastern Promises follows Naomi Watts as Anna, a midwife, who discovers a journal that may uncover rape and abuse perpetrated by the Russian mob when a young girl dies while giving birth. Against advice she pursues translating the journal endangering herself in the process. Nikolai, played by Viggo Mortensen, at first begins intimidating Anna, seemingly trying to deter her from stumbling upon the mob's dark secrets, though partially through the film it becomes apparent that there is more to Nikolai than originally perceived.

One of the best things about the film is the way Nikolai and his motivations are portrayed. Even when his motives become apparent we're never completely sure and Mortensen, in his second collaboration with Cronenberg, displays the mystery behind the man strikingly well. This accompanies one of my favorite aspects about David Cronenberg's films. He never seems to give the audience complete closure at the end of his pictures. There is always something left to ponder, to keep this story and the characters within open to a great number of possibilities awaiting them, and Eastern Promises is no different. I am wary of the recent news I've heard for a sequel to the film for fear of that the mystery will be destroyed. I find Cronenberg's films most interesting with their doors left open.

10 Films of 2007:

10. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)

Where Vengeance Will Get No Sympathy.

98. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Chan-Wook Park, 2002)

In 2002 Korean director Chan-Wook Park kicked off his critically acclaimed Vengeance Trilogy with the first installment, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the first of three films to get him international recognition. Though this may be my least favorite of the trilogy I want to establish that it's still a hell of a film. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance begins with a young man, a mute young man, who's sister is in need of an organ transplant. After being swindled and drugged during a failed black market deal to get his sister a transplant illegally he attempts to raise money through a kidnapping which also ends in complications. Two stories of anger, revenge, and torment later conflict in one of the most intense thrillers of the last decade.

One of the most fascinating things about Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is the way the audience can react to the two main men in the film. Both of them are going through severely tragic losses and commit terrible acts in retaliation, fueled by rage and their own pain. It's a great example of how Park views violence, wants to examine it, and utilize it in his films as well as how fear, pain, and violence connect the perpetrators with their victims. His films don't glorify violence, but they do show that wanting to commit acts of violence, the desire for revenge from pain or anger due to loss is a very human trait, however the line is crossed when these desires are acted upon because his films display just all too harshly the hurt caused by such acts even if they may elicit momentary alleviation, in the end it can only lead to more destruction and suffering.

Park is one of my favorite emerging directors of the last decade. His films are as bold and full of enough raw emotion and energy to remind me of Martin Scorsese in his early days from the 1970s and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is a film from a man showing great promise for things to come, which I would claim is fulfilled with the increasing quality of the second and third films in the Vengeance Trilogy. Another remarkable thing is Park is always able to keep his movies not only fresh with unexpected resolutions, especially when dealing with well known themes, he's able to keep them provocative rather than just shocking. Perhaps this is because he's against passivity in films. This mindset could very well be the reason he's able to go into such territory with his dramas that many filmmakers would be too timid to venture on their own or even dare follow.

10 Films of 2002:

8. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Chan-Wook Park)
9. Chicago (Rob Marshall)
10. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay)

Where Do You Go To (My Lovely).

99. The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, 2007)

For his fifth feature Wes Anderson sets his film about grief, personal understanding, and reconnection abroad in India. Adrien Brody joins Anderson film returning actors Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson as three estranged brothers who haven't spoken since their father's funeral. The reoccurring theme of desired acceptance appears throughout Anderson's body of work and it's no surprise that it's prevalent in this film as well. Also he returns to his examination of grief after the loss of a loved one which was evident in his films Rushmore (1998) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). And much like The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) Anderson has a selection of characters with deeply explored faults and insecurities, these are damaged individuals and part of the beauty of the film is how these imperfections are portrayed and dealt with if not always indefinitely cured.

I find Wes Anderson to be the closest filmmaker I can think of to be the successor to Hal Ashby. Much like Ashby's Being There (1979) and Harold and Maude (1971) there are touches of whimsy beneath the painful realities endured through life. Perhaps Anderson's films are a little more surreal than Ashby's at times with his identifiable visual style which includes his signature slow motion photography and striking colors but the scars are still there, overcome by laughter in the face of the hurt and longing of the characters involved. No matter how fantastic Anderson's films are visually, the heart of the film, his characters are still as complex and realistic as the many people walking the streets today.

With the look of The Darjeeling Limited, it's not surprising that Anderson's meticulous control seems to be evident in every small aspect of the film. From costumes to the smallest detail on the train on which the brothers ride across the country. The only draw back I can think of is that the train itself feels somewhat constricting to the camera work especially in comparison to his three previous films. Anderson overcame this problem on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou with his ingenious stage like design of Zissou's ship. Here it isn't a large drawback but it still doesn't allow the film to breath as much as the other sections, a few that take place on the open landscape. Though this is perhaps intentional, that while the brothers are having a difficult time reconnecting with each other and growing into the men they should be, dealing with their imperfections, it's only fitting that the film itself feels more closed, more suffocating. It isn't until they experience the foreign funeral and relieve themselves of their emotional baggage, which takes physical shape in the luggage of their late father, that they are able to open up and grow along with the film itself. This aligns the nature of the film with the nature of each brother within the picture, becoming an organic thing itself that grows and opens and gives the movie more of a life of its own.

Top 10 of 2007:

Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you want to look at it) The Darjeeling Limited just misses my list of ten films from 2007. Unfortunate because it's a fine movie but fortunate because I found 2007 to be such a great year that it was difficult to pick my top fifteen or twenty films let alone just ten.

All That Jazz.

2After over a month I've returned here and I have some rearranging to do. Originally I wanted to put together a top ten list for each year of the 2000s as well as the top 100 list (which I was partially through). But since the decade list was taking so long it seemed I would never get back to the top ten lists so I've decided to restart the entire collection of 100 films in ascending order to combine both lists. While some movies won't make the top ten lists of each year it'll let me post both at the same time. It will also allow me to hopefully make more detailed posts about each individual film on the list rather than small blurbs in each post (though films that appear in a top ten list that do not appear on the 100 will have a short blurb about them much like the one at the end of this post). Some of the films off my favorite 100 films of 2000s have changed around a little so there are even a few new additions. Also, I hope to get around to doing large collections of posts on the feature films of animation director Hayao Miyazaki as well as a collection of posts on 40s low budget horror film producer Val Lewton.

100. Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002)

The 2002 Oscar winner is perhaps the most important Hollywood musical since the early 70s Cabaret (1972). Renée Zellweger is Roxie Hart, married to a dim but agreeable husband, she fools around on the side with a man who claims to have connections to get her into the glitz of showbiz. When things become apparent that he's only using her she turns a gun on him and ends up in a death row cell block in the Cook County Jail and that's when the real razzle dazzle begins. In the process she meets the film's array of scoundrels as the criminal justice world meets show business and the film takes a look at the susceptibility the media coverage has over the common man as murderesses become mini celebrities.

Adapted from the knockout stage musical of the same name the film is able to keep some of the stage familiarity of the musical numbers but parallel it with a more thematic telling of the story events and it all works. I don't think I appreciated the film as much as I did before I was lucky enough to catch Chicago on the stage. One thing I've never been too positive on was the cast outside of Zellweger and John C. Reilly but Catherine Zeta Jones and Richard Gere still give solid performances in their respective roles and Queen Latifah hits "When You're Good to Momma" just right.

And the musical numbers, let me tell you about the musical numbers. Not only is this a smart and brazen musical about crime, corruption, murder, sex, and scandal, it's a hell of a lot fun. With some top numbers like the seductive and blisteringly tense "Cell Block Tango" to the Gleeful and shameless "Press Conference Rag" Chicago is a real visual and musical treat, not only does this film have brains, it's got looks and the notes to match.

And.

All.

That.

Jazz.

Favorite films of 2002.

While Chicago is the last spot on my list of 100 films of the 2000s it falls in at number 9 on my list of films from 2002. So since it didn't make the list of 100 films of the decade I want to mention the movie that rounds out the number ten spot on my list from movies from 2002.

10. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay)

Samantha Morton stars as the title character of this understated and introspective film in perhaps her finest performance to date. After her boyfriend commits suicide Morvern finds his unpublished novel and sends it off as her own. This sparks an interesting and uncommon journey both geographical and emotional. With it's presentation of Callar's passions, grief, mourning, and guilt clashing with her newly blossoming sense of individuality and personal understanding and experiencing parts of life and the world she may not have been wholly familiar with Morvern Callar is a rare diversion from the hectic high concept films from big studios. It's a little seen oddity and a unique and rewarding film for those in the right mind who happen to be looking for something new and unique themselves.


10 Films of 2002:

9. Chicago (Rob Marshall)
10. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay)

Through the Looking-Glass.

It's become apparent that I will not finish this before tonight. Though that isn't a problem. I've just been busy for the last few days with work, other small tasks, and I went into the city on Friday. I will have to just soldier on and post the last few later this week even though the Oscars will have already aired. So I should try and post one or two things today anyway and moving along I give you my seventh favorite movie from 2009:

7. Coraline (2009)

Coraline is adapted from the Neil Gaiman book of the same name and comes from the creative mind of the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) (no, that isn't Tim Burton) Henry Selick who has been a leading figure in stop animation for several years.

Coraline is the story of a girl trapped in the bored isolation of a recent move and the loneliness of workaholic parents and distance from old friends. She wants attention and adventure but what she gets is an empty old house and a number of strange neighbors. All this changes when she finds a doorway to another world not entirely unlike her own. In this world her parents are far more attentive and every character is a magical caricature of their real world counterpart. The paradise is soon revealed to be more sinister than she first perceived as the fantasy turns into a nightmare with Coraline and her family in dire danger.

The first thing I have to mention with Coraline is the art design and animation. Having spent years in production this is most likely the best looking stop-animation film I've ever seen. Its design comes in part from the work of illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi. His concept art for the film is unique and breathtaking. Though credit must be given to the many animators and designers on the movie. I feel that it must have taken a lot of time to come up with a way to turn Uesugi's designs, which are quite flat, into a rounded set design while still retaining their original style. The result is a gorgeous and immersive fantasy adventure and one of the best visual treats of the year.

Another thing I've noticed is that a handful of my favorite films from last year involve the expression of adolescent rebellion and the world seen through their eyes (Which is explored much more thoroughly in another film on this list, though I'm sure saying that gives away which film that will be). An interesting perspective the movie gives is just how finite and frightening the world of a child can be. The rewards and consequences feel immediate and conclusive until the picture allows Coraline to grow up and accept responsibility over indulgence and lasting care over immediate attention.

Unlike a lot of movies geared towards children it isn't a condescending pop culture reference filled mind numbing experience. Few things film related bother me more than movies that do nothing but dull the senses and exist purely to waste time and thoughts. Thankfully Coraline is expressive and emotional. It's a film that can be enjoyed by someone of any age and for the older folks can give a retrospective glimpse of that lost childhood imagination once exercised many years ago on a cold rainy day.