TFC Journal at TheFilmChair.com

The Ape (2009)–***1/2

Director Jesper Ganslandt says that his film The Ape was inspired by the true crimes he read about in newspapers. But he didn’t want the fiction behind those stories. For 81 minutes, Ganslandt thrusts us into the life, and the psyche, of a man dealing with the aftermath of a violent act of his own making. It’s not an easy experience, and by the end of the film, you question how rewarding it was at all. Yet, Ganslandt, whose clearest objective may simply have been to unsettle the audience, succeeds in intimately tying the character’s psychology to our own.

The film opens with Krister (Olle Sarri), a man in his mid-to-late 30s, waking up on his bathroom floor covered in blood. You don’t immediately get the sense that he has done anything, but something terrible has definitely happened. About the time that Krister, who works as a driving instructor, flips out on one of his students, you realize that he knows what happened and he knows he did it.

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Crazy Heart (2009) — ***1/2
Quickie Review

A washed-up, alcoholic country singer named Bad Blake tries to get his life and career in order after meeting an upstart music writer in Santa Fe. With the humble lyricism of a great country song, this understated drama from first-time director Scott Cooper aches with the spirit of musical roots. As Blake, Jeff Bridges gives a performance so good that lesser filmmakers would have let it consume the movie. Thankfully the story and the songs are a strong as the headliner, even if it doesn’t appear so at first glance. Also starring an outstanding supporting cast that includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, and Robert Duvall.

The Lovely Bones (2009)–**
Quickie Review

A young girl who is brutally murdered remains in between heaven and earth, watching her family, her friends and even her murderer endure the aftermath of her violent death. As tepid as it is inauthentic, the Peter Jackson picture never finds a balance between fantasy, horror and reality. There are moments of great filmmaking here, but that can only go so far when the characters feel like they were written for a broadcast TV movie. As the killer, Stanley Tucci is lucky to have the most fully-realized character and performs admirably because of it. Everyone else, in particular a terribly miscast Mark Wahlberg, must contend with their shallow characters and a screenplay with as much emotional nuance as a drugstore greeting card. Also starring Saoirise Ronan, Susan Sarandon, and Rachel Weisz.

schism (2009)
DVD Review

Schism is a tough film to watch. It’s tough because the story, one of a older man named Neil who is stuck in a nursing home battling the onset of Alzheimer’s, isn’t something we like to talk about in our culture. Bring up eldercare at a party, or even in everyday conversation, and, well, I don’t even know what. I can’t say that I’ve ever even had a conversation like it.

For families that love someone like Neil, such conversations are part of a difficult reality. What schism succeeds in doing is making us aware of what dementias really look like. In its own surreal way, schism shows it to us, warts and all. Families affected by similar circumstances know they’re not alone after seeing schism. And people who haven’t personally experienced what we see here are asked to consider, for 96 minutes, what it’s like to age in America.

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I saw fewer new movies this year than in any other since I started putting together my top ten lists. That’s not bad news. I just cut out a lot of… well… crap. No, I didn’t see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and no, I didn’t see Sherlock Holmes. I love movies, but what’s the point in watching all the bad when there’s so much good out there. (That doesn’t explain how I ended up seeing Nine, though. Ugh.)

The good, in fact, was so good that I could have chosen any one of the 11 pictures on my top 10 list to be the best movie of the year. That’s a testament to the quality of all the pictures listed below. All the films on my list, from Tarantino, Reitman, the Coen brothers, Bigelow and more, may very well be the best work these directors have ever done. But when I rewatched Ramin Bahrani’s Goodbye Solo and was more moved than I was the first time around, I knew that it was the best film of the year.

Without further ado, here are my best films of 2009:

1. Goodbye Solo (dir. Ramin Bahrani)
   No other American director focuses his or her lens on the world that Barhrani does. In doing so, Bahrani tells a story about the human experience that can shift paradigms. Quiet and understated, but with more power in any given scene than any other film this year, Goodbye Solo is a genuine masterpiece.
2. A Serious Man (dirs. Ethan & Joel Coen)
   As brilliantly made as any other Coen film, but with added personal significance for the filmmakers. A Serious Man makes the Coens’ previous work seem so much clearer and, yes, more important.
3. Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
   Tarantino defies history and in doing so shows the power of the medium. Who knew Tarantino had this, his best film since Pulp Fiction and maybe ever, in him?
4. Summer Hours (dir. Olivier Assayas)
   This French drama about our relationships with and through the objects around us is mesmerizing. Skillfully and delicately pieced together from script to screen.
5. The Hurt Locker (dir. Kathryn Bigelow)
   When it comes to pure, visceral filmmaking, no other film this year has anything on The Hurt Locker.
6. Up in the Air (dir. Jason Reitman)
   Reitman’s film about white-collar unemployment and personal isolation, isn’t at the top of my list, but I can’t think of any other film that defines the decade like Reitman’s third feature.
7. Up (dir. Pete Docter)
   Part three in Pixar’s trifecta of greatness, following Ratatouille (2007) and WALL-E (2008)
8. Sin Nombre (dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga)
   A riveting feature debut, Sin Nombre could have been a simple border-crossing drama, but instead evolves something grander. It’s a thriller, a gangster film, and a tragic love story all in one. It’s epic in just 96  minutes. Can’t wait to see what else Fukunaga has in store for us.
9. Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (dir. Lee Daniels)
   If nothing else, Precious contains two of the most powerful performances you’ll see this or any other year courtesy of Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique.
10. Alexander the Last (dir. Joe Swanberg) & Humpday (dir. Lynn Shelton)
    Mark it down: 2009 was the year mumblecore came of age. While I didn’t get a chance to see Andrew Bujalski’s Beeswax, the two films listed here turned a self-indulgent film movement into a pointed storytelling powerhouse. This is what all the earlier viewers were waiting for.

Honorable Mentions
Sugar (dirs. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck) | Avatar (dir. James Cameron) | Star Trek (dir. J.J. Abrams)

Best Actor – George Clooney, Up in the Air
Best Actress – Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress – Mo’Nique, Precious

Quote of the Year – “That’s right, things aren’t so bad. Look at the parking lot, Larry. Just look at that parking lot.”- Rabbi Scott, A Serious Man.

Nine (2009)–1/2*
Quickie Review

In 1965, Italian film director Guido Contini struggles to make his latest film while grappling with the women in his life. Based on the Broadway show that was inspired by Fellini’s 8 1/2, this movie musical is an affront to fans of cinema and musicals alike. In trying to capture the manic spirit of Fellini’s masterpiece, the film, not shockingly, fails to produce a coherent narrative. Director Rob Marshall’s theatrical flair further undermines the story with silly musical numbers that, as filmed, are neither necessary or entertaining. The excess of Hollywood glamour (including six Oscar winning actors), rather than helping the picture, turns a simple tragedy into a Titanic disaster. I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT GO SEE THIS MOVIE. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, Judi Dench, and Kate Hudson.

Avatar (2009)–****

Avatar goes far beyond simple entertainment, transporting audiences to an exotic new world in a bold new way. It’s a film that must be seen in 3D. Yes, if you see Avatar in 3D, you’ll have experienced something that’s not just groundbreaking, but could very well change the way you watch movies.

Of course that’s what James Cameron set out to do, wasn’t it? He’s been talking about it for years. That this early proponent of digital 3D cinema succeeds here is astonishing enough. But that he does it in such a glorious fashion is a testament to his skill as a filmmaker and to the power of the medium.

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Up in the Air (2009)–****

When I walked out of Up in the Air, I had a feeling I don’t often get after seeing a Hollywood motion picture. As a matter of fact, I can honestly say I’ve never really had it. The closest thing I can remember to it is when I watched American Beauty on DVD in late-2000, almost a year after I had seen the film in theaters.

I’m relatively young, so American Beauty’s release was early in my self-education in film. On the occasion of that home video viewing, which followed a solid year of cinema consumption, I felt I had seen something. And with Up in the Air, I felt it too. It’s the feeling that I had just witnessed an American classic.

Up in the Air is a rarity, a picture of depth and substance with charm and humor. It has indie spirit and Hollywood swagger. For cinephiles, it’s a film to be celebrated. For all audiences, Up in the Air is a motion picture worth more than the price of admission.

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The Blind Side (2009)–**1/2

There’s an argument to be made to whether The Blind Side, an unsentimental tale of inspiration, should have been made into a movie at all. There isn’t much conflict. There’s very little drama. And the protagonist, a young man from the wrong side of Memphis, isn’t someone you find yourself rooting for, but rather casually wondering what may derail him from making it.

He does make it, of course. Anyone who has caught a recent Baltimore Ravens game may have seen Michael Oher, the real-life inspiration for the film, on the team’s offensive line. What’s inspiring about Oher’s tale isn’t his dramatic rise out from the projects. It’s how that rise became as undramatic as possible. That’s where Sandra Bullock comes in.

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The Road (2009)–**
Quickie Review

A father and son struggle to survive in an ashen wasteland left after an unknown cataclysm destroys the world as we know it. Director John Hillcoat treats this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece like a Harry Potter book, focusing on the bleak landscape and atmospheric details rather than trying to get to the heart of the story. With sparse dialogue and detrimentally understated performances, The Road does better keeping people out of the characters’ minds than it does welcoming them in. Starring Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Michael Kenneth Williams, Garet Dillahunt and Kodi Smit-McPhee.