Inherent Vice (2014) *****/*****

One of the best things about the movies Paul Thomas Anderson makes is how rich and dense they are. They’re full of thematic dots that need to be connected, visual details that need to be noticed, and the revelatory sort of performances that are so fresh and nuanced that they send your mind racing off in a thousand different directions all at once. They’re the kind of movies you have to see more than once to feel fully comfortable with, and that tend to get better the more times that you see them. He’s a master director, and maybe the only one working who has the skill set necessary to make a worthy adaptation of one of the works of Thomas Pynchon, a novelist who’s also known for creating art that’s difficult to digest, though rewarding once you do so.

Inherent Vice is the fruits of Anderson’s attempt at bringing Pynchon to the big screen. It’s a drug and sun-soaked detective story set in 1970 LA that has more to do with the mourning of lost love and the corruption of the 60s counter culture thanks to its poisonous introduction to sex-crazed cult figures and heroine than it does to presenting you with an actual mystery or introducing you to a protagonist who does any real detective work. Said protagonist, Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), is much more of an observer than he is anything else—an incorruptible figure who’s pushed through a gauntlet of deceit and wrongdoing by a femme fatale ex-girlfriend named Shasta (Katherine Waterston) so that we can see if he’s able to come through the other end still pure and in one piece. 

The Guest (2014) *****/*****

The last time writer Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard teamed up for a feature, the results were 2011’s You’re Next, a film that earned quite a lot of buzz in film critic circles thanks to its style, humor, and the way it was able to add several intelligent spins on the usual home invasion movie formula. You’re Next was a lot of fun. As good as it was, it still didn’t manage to hint at the true potential these two had as a filmmaking team though—potential that has now been revealed and realized thanks to their latest stab at the thriller genre, The Guest, which takes the style, fun, and intelligence of their work on You’re Next, pumps them full of horse steroids, and then elevates them up even a couple levels higher thanks to a handful of truly first-rate performances. To put things simply, watching The Guest was the most fun I’ve had in a movie theater in a really long time. It starts off fun, it continues to get increasingly more fun, and then it climaxes in a big finish that’s pretty much everything great about genre movies distilled down into a powerful potion that overwhelms all of your senses as soon as it hits you.

The film stars Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as a mysterious stranger, allegedly named “David,” who one day shows up on the doorstep of a fairly average American family and fairly immediately inserts himself into their daily routines. You see, the oldest child in the family, Caleb, was a soldier who went away to war and never came back, and the story David is telling is that they served together, and not only were they great friends, but he was also there in the last moments of his life. In that moment, David allegedly made a promise to check up on Caleb’s family, assure them all that he loved them, and to do anything he could to make sure they were all doing okay. I say that Stevens’ character is “allegedly” named David and that his telling of past events is his story rather than his reality because of the character’s overtly mysterious nature. This being a thriller rather than a tear-jerking drama, of course there’s something fishy going on—something murderously fishy, as it turns out.

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) *****/*****

There was a brief period, back around when they were making films that were a bit more mainstream-aimed than their usual output, like The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty, when pundits were starting to wonder whether or not Joel and Ethan Coen had lost it as filmmakers. Since then they’ve made as powerful a movie as has ever been filmed in No Country for Old Men, a small and contemplative art piece in A Serious Man, and one of the most broadly appealing Westerns there’s ever been in True Grit though, so it turns out any notion that the Coens had reached their creative zenith and were now on a creative downslope were completely misguided. In fact, this brother duo’s filmography is now so vast, so diverse, and so consistent in its quality (even The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty look a lot better now, after being separated from expectation) that they have to be considered to be among the greatest filmmakers who have ever lived.

Because of the Coen’s legendary filmography, it’s true praise when I say that their newest film, Inside Llewyn Davis, is among the very best out their output—top tier Coen brothers material right up there with the likes of Barton Fink, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski. And seeing as this is among the very best Coen brothers films, and we’ve already agreed that the Coens are among the very best filmmakers, I guess that would also mean that Inside Llewyn Davis is pretty much one of the best movies that you could see, period, wouldn’t it? That’s some heavy stuff.

The Silver Linings Playbook (2012) *****/*****

David O. Russell doesn’t make the mundane sort of movies that blend in with everything else that gets released. No matter his subject, Russell is the kind of filmmaker who makes work that takes risks; that takes elements that may not seem to go together at first glance and puts them together anyway. Sometimes that can result in movies that look more like messy experiments than they do refined work, but sometimes the risks all work out, and the results are the sort of original, affecting movies that stick with you long after you’ve seen them. His most recent film, The Fighter, tried to take an inspirational sports movie and a gritty drug drama and mash them together. The results were mixed, but so compelling that people ended up liking them a whole lot anyway. His new film, The Silver Linings Playbook, is even more confusing to explain. It’s a comeback story, a family drama, a look at compulsion and mental illness, a movie about dancing, and a nail-biter about gambling, all at the same time—and somehow all of these elements work perfectly in concert with one another, creating the sort of special filmgoing experience that you don’t get to have all that often.

The story here, put as simply as possible, is that of a schoolteacher named Pat (Bradley Cooper) who found his wife acting salaciously in the shower with another man, reacted to the situation violently, and learned that he had been suffering from serious, undiagnosed mental illnesses in the aftermath of his violent outburst. After spending a good chunk of time in the care of a mental institution he’s now out, adhering to a new code that emphasizes maintaining a positive mental outlook, living with his parents, and looking to win back his wife. The only problems with this are... it doesn’t really seem like Pat is actually that much better, his wife now has a restraining order against him, and she and pretty much the entire community no longer want anything to do with him. Can he work through his bipolar ticks, survive life back at home with his parents, and make everything that’s gone wrong right again? Probably not, especially if the unwanted attentions of a similarly disturbed acquaintance (Jennifer Lawrence) don’t stop distracting him.

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) *****/*****

The word that I kept hearing before I sat down and watched Beasts of the Southern Wild was “original.” The talk was that it was such a wildly original film, it would be completely unlike anything else I had ever seen. I didn’t find it to be that exactly. You could compare its ramshackle, junkyard aesthetic to the sets from City of Lost Children, its lingering on nature imagery to the “visual poetry” of a Terrence Malick film, and its mixing of fairy tale elements with bleak realism to something like Pan’s Labyrinth. Too many films have been made with too many different approaches for anything to be wholly original these days. I think what people really mean is that this film is hard to write about.

While you can see bits and pieces of influences from other works cropping up here and there, Beasts of Southern Wild puts them in a setting that most are unfamiliar with, and don’t feel comfortable speaking with authority on. It tells a pretty simple father/daughter story at its core, but it doesn’t follow the usual sort of narrative structure that scholarly types are used to picking apart and examining. And its director, Benh Zeitlin, and its stars, Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry, are all newcomers, so they haven’t done any work that we can look back on and compare this to. That all adds up to a filmgoing experience that’s pretty hard to attack, intellectually. In the end, that shouldn’t really matter much though, because it’s not intellect that Beasts of the Southern Wild is directly targeting; it’s emotion.

Shame (2011) *****/*****

Leading up to the release of this movie an increasing amount of attention has been given to its sexually explicit content and the amount of nudity that gets shown by its lead actors. If you’ll forgive just this one pun; that’s a shame. Being fortunate enough to see Shame at a festival, just a week after its world premiere, I got to take it in before all of the controversy and hoopla began, and I wish that were something everyone got to experience. So let’s just get all of this out of the way early. Yes, there is a lot of sex in this movie. Yes, you see Michael Fassbender’s penis. Yes, you see Carey Mulligan’s boobs and vagina. No, you don’t see them as often or as long as you would imagine you’re going to based on all the hype. And no, all of that is certainly not the point of the film. This movie explores deep themes, it builds complex characters, it’s masterful at creating mood and building tension. Shame is the kind of filmgoing experience that leaves you breathless, that makes a theater full of 1700 people file out in silence after the end credits, still fully enveloped in its world. It really is high art, and everyone involved, especially director Steve McQueen and stars Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, should be commended.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) *****/*****

I should warn you right off that I like typing Martha Marcy May Marlene so much I’m going to be referring to the film by it’s full title in this first paragraph as often as possible. Let’s get it out of the way early. Martha Marcy May Marlene is a unique filmgoing experience that had me completely riveted and in emotional turmoil from the moment it began until the moment it ended. Sean Durkin is a first time feature director and Elizabeth Olsen is a very new presence in Hollywood, having only starred in one film before this, but with Martha Marcy May Marlene they have both just landed on the scene like megaton bombs. Durkin and Olsen are the real deal, and with this haunting, harrowing tale of a young girl joining and attempting to escape a secluded cult, they have created a film that is sure to be at the very top of a million best-of lists come the end of the year. Martha Marcy May Marlene has serious awards season potential for sure, but it’s also so dang creepy and scary that it could have some potential for mainstream success as well. Forget any of the typical horror movies that come out around Halloween, none of those 3D gore fests and found footage ghost stories will have anything on the chills provided by the sharp direction of Durkin and the frightening menace of cult leader Patrick (John Hawkes) in Martha Marcy May Marlene. Any success is going to depend on whether or not enough people head out to the theaters in the next couple weeks to expand the film to a wide release. So let’s dig a little deeper and see if it sounds like something you’d be interested in.

Short Round: C'era una volta il West (1968) *****/*****

For the longest time classic Westerns were a pretty big hole in my film knowledge, but over the last year I’ve been doing a lot to fill that in. So far I’ve seen a lot of them that I really like, but until now I hadn’t really found my go to Western; that one that would encapsulate the whole genre for me and become a favorite that I watch over and over. After my first viewing of Once Upon a Time in the West, I think this might be it. This movie has it all. All of the classic Western themes are here, the stranger coming to town, the rich tyrant holding a people hostage through thuggery, the romantic outlaw, the pampered woman struggling to adapt to a rugged terrain. But, more so than any other Western I’ve seen, its characters are memorable as people rather than archetypes. And the dialogue is clever, insightful, and quotable rather than being stock, macho banter. This movie encapsulates the whole of the western experience, but at the same time stays a very personal tale. With story credits attributed not just to Sergio Leone, but also Bernardo Bertelucci and Dario Argento, I guess it should be no surprise that it’s such a memorable yarn. I watched Leone’s Man With No Name Trilogy, and I liked the filmmaking that I saw there, but I never got completely sucked in. Here he has me. He combines his masterful use of the camera, his unparalleled skill at manipulating editing to create tension, an Ennio Morricone score that is unparalleled in power and versatility, with some of the grandest sets and most epic landscapes I’ve ever seen in a Western. This movie might just have it all. The only thing that turned me off was some pretty ridiculous overacting by Claudia Cardinale, but she was so beautiful that I can hardly fault her being cast in this movie. I mean, Claudia Cardinale in this movie might be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life. Yowza. I haven’t even gotten to the iconic work done by Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, and Charles Bronson. This is one I will definitely be watching again.

Attack the Block (2011) *****/*****

I didn’t have to get too far into Attack the Block before I started to realize that it didn’t feel like any movie I had seen in a long time. This gem from the UK is about a group of young teenagers who get swept up into an adventure, but it in no way resembles the kind of movie that description brings to mind. Despite the fact that it’s about invading aliens and a gang of kids banding together to take them on, this isn’t one of the homogenized, PC movies that would come out of modern Hollywood. The kids in this movie curse, they do drugs, they get their faces bitten off. For much of the film you’re not even sure if you like the little punks, but eventually what you’re watching takes on such a Goonies and Monster Squad throwback feel that you can’t help but just give in and acquiesce to their hooligan charms.

That’s not to say that Attack the Block is homage, spoof, or parody though. It’s a film that wears its influences on its sleeve, but still manages to feel unique and to stand alone as its own thing. For a first time director, Joe Cornish already has a very strong and defined voice. A lot was said about the way this year’s Super 8 was made in tribute to classic Steven Spielberg films, and seeing as how Spielberg’s presence is always felt looming over this picture, I’m sure comparisons between the two will be made. But Attack the Block takes the family feel of Spielberg’s gems, and mixes it with the more explicit and violent genre works of the 80s as well. Residing deep in its DNA is the influence of directors like Joe Dante, Walter Hill, John Carpenter, and James Cameron. And still, these are modern characters talking in modern voices very unique to Cornish’s writing style. If you were to show this one to a group of today’s teenagers, it wouldn’t feel old fashioned to them in the slightest.

Super 8 (2011) *****/*****

It’s been widely publicized that Super 8 is director J.J. Abram’s tribute to the early works of Steven Spielberg. But, more than that, it’s a tribute to the freedoms and innocent optimism of childhood. Specifically, the childhood of those of us who grew up in the late 70s and early 80s. Before kids were dressing too sexy or talking on cell phones, before reality television made fame everyone’s life goal. It was a time when childhood was filled with imagination, creativity, and romance. There wasn’t a constant stream of information to wade through, so you had to make your own entertainment. Young minds were still factories, not junkyards. Super 8 can be viewed as a sort of greatest hits reel of Spielberg’s work from the 80s. It’s got that sense of reaching out into the unknown of Close Encounters, the misunderstood alien persecuted by the government of E.T., it’s got the mysterious predator hidden in the shadows of Jaws, and the group of young misfits coming together for an adventure of The Goonies. But, even though it’s status as homage has been publically acknowledged, to look at Super 8 only in the context of what it achieves as a mirror to Spielberg’s work would be to ignore everything that it is able to accomplish on it’s own.

Short Round: Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993) *****/*****

Trying to fill the Krysztof Kieslowski hole in my film knowledge. A while ago I watched The Double Life of Veronique, which was quite good, then I decided to go after the Three Colors trilogy next. Blue kind of knocked me on my ass. How do you write a little blog post about such a layered piece of art? Probably you don’t. Just know that this is a really interesting film about loss, trying to find liberty through isolation, and the different ways you can enjoy coffee. I imagine this is probably Juliette Binoche’s best performance, and she’s someone I always like. And no, I don’t just mean I like her, I mean I like-like her.

Short Round: Cidade de Deus (2002) *****/*****

Fernando Meirelles’ masterpiece look at crime in the slums of Rio de Janeiro is one of the best films of the last decade. It succeeds on a level that the director has yet been able to come close to recreating. It’s one of the only films set in Rio that you are likely ever to see that doesn’t linger on helicopter shots of the beautiful coast and the giant Jesus statue. The landmarks of the city never so much as make an appearance. Cidade de Deus takes place entirely in some of the worst slums on the planet. It’s gritty, street level; but it portrays its characters with a heart and humanity that keeps it from ever becoming depressing or exploitive. In addition to being a film about crime, class, and poverty, Cidade de Deus is also a vibrant, kinetic portrayal of life, love, and struggle. It’s characters are memorable, relatable, fully formed, and well acted. The photography is beyond beautiful, beyond enthralling; it’s spawned countless imitators and can be re-appreciated over and over again. It’s films like this that need to be shown to those that fear the dreaded subtitle, that avoid anything not put out by Hollywood. There’s a whole interesting world out there just dying to be explored, a wealth of cultures worth experiencing, and watching this film would be a fine first step in moving in that direction.

Short Round: Marwencol (2010) *****/*****

Marwencol might be my favorite documentary of all time. Usually I find most documentaries to be interesting, but too dry in their execution to watch as entertainment. With Marwencol that isn’t the case. Not only is the subject interesting, but the story unfolds as a developing narrative complete with layers and surprises. This film is interesting as a look into the life of a man who has experienced trauma, yes, but it is often hilarious, and sometimes emotionally affecting as well. And it hits largely because of the way it is crafted, not just because sadness is inherent in the story. Most documentaries rely on their subject matter to be intriguing, Marwencol has both a great subject and a cinematic approach to production that takes it to the next level. Plus, Mark Hogancamp’s doll world and photography would be interesting and well done enough to be appreciated just as a static art show like in the film’s climax; here, when coupled with an account of his life story, it is magical.

Black Swan (2010) *****/*****

Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake is based on old Russian folk tales and German legends.  It tells the story of a princess whom an evil sorcerer turns into a swan.  As the story goes, the only thing that can turn her back is if she finds true love.  I guess it’s a sort of genetic inverse of the prince as a frog story.  If there is a lesson to be learned from or a social motivation behind the crafting of these zoophilic, love restoring humanity stories, then it is lost on me.  But, for whatever reason, fairy tales tend to have some creepy, horrific undercurrents, and Swan Lake is no exception.  As the story goes on, the swan does meet a prince, and he does fall in love with her, but the sorcerer tricks the prince by disguising his daughter as a dark version of the swan and having her seduce him.  When the prince gives in to the seduction the white swan is doomed to be a swan forever.  Upset with this unfortunate turn of events, the white swan and the prince kill themselves.  Early on in Black Swan Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), the head of a large ballet company, briefs his dancers on the particulars of their next production.  They are going to put on Swan Lake, an overdone classic, sure; but they’re going to make it new.  This version is going to be “stripped down and visceral”.  We get no real sense of this unique vision of his throughout the course of the film, but as things progress, as his choice to play the duel role of the black and white swan Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) struggles to perfect the two different dancing styles inherent to the part, we start to realize that he wasn’t necessarily talking about the production that we see come together in the film, but the film we are watching itself.  Nina is pure and virginal, a technically proficient dancer, a perfectionist.  She is the perfect choice for the role of the white swan.  But the loose, passionate, sexual nature of the black swan eludes her.  Enter a new rival ballerina named Lily (Mila Kunis).  She is everything that Nina is not, and soon they enter into a dance of conflict and connection.  Here, in this new stripped down and visceral version of Swan Lake we get a girl who is very much trapped within the limitations of the white swan, there is an evil sorcerer controlling her, and a dark mirror of herself undercuts every one of her efforts; but here in this modern retelling there is no prince.  There is no way to break the spell.  And the destructive consequences of that loss become even more horrific than the fairy tales of the past.

The Social Network (2010) *****/*****

Even seeing this film on opening night I went into it having already heard a lot of praise and discussion.  The hype train was rolling on full speed ahead and I wasn’t ignorant to the excitement that this film was generating whatsoever.  It made me kind of nervous going in.  When a film gets hyped up as the best of the year by everyone before it even comes out, it can color your viewing whether you want it to or not.  Early on in this film I caught myself jumping on a couple of small things and wondering whether they were indicators that this movie had been overrated.  The music struck me at first as being overpowering and intrusive.  It sounded really good, but it was almost overpowering the scenes it was a part of.  Early on there is a reference to watching Shark Week.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Shark Week, but it made me worried that this would be a trite film full of pop culture references meant to suck in the college crowd who showed up to watch the movie about Facebook.  Thankfully, this didn’t happen at all.  And before I knew it, I wasn’t thinking about the music much at all other than how it was interesting and modern, and how it’s pulsing rhythms felt really unique and cutting edge and fit in very well with the film’s overall aesthetic.  I think I was initially reacting negatively to the fact that this isn’t a mundane film.  This is different from anything else I’ve ever seen.  It was almost as if I had to learn to watch this movie properly. 

Winter’s Bone (2010) *****/*****

One of the opening images of Winter’s Bone is that of a little boy trying to play with a skateboard on a patch of dirt.  Set in backwater Ozark country, Winter’s Bone is a film about struggle and adversity more than anything else.  That image of the boy, jumping on his board and not getting more than a couple of feet in the gravely dirt is a pretty appropriate metaphor for the lives of the people in this part of the country.  There isn’t any pavement around for him to ride on.  The land on which he lives in neglected, unkempt.  The resources he might need to succeed at as simple a task as riding a skateboard just aren’t there.  And even further, he’s probably not aware that any such resources might exist anywhere.  The characters of Winter’s Bone are the type of people who have never known anything but making due.  They know nothing of potential, nothing of hope.  There is a small sense of happy ignorance to be found in the children here, but the adults; they’re a different story entirely.  The adults are just educated enough, just traveled enough, to know the desperation of their situation.  These are hardened people weathered by handicap and failure.  This is director Debra Granik’s second feature film.  It is such an effective, well-crafted portrayal of the horror of rural poverty that I immediately sought out her first film Down to the Bone and added it to my Netflix queue.  The talent here is palpable, and I can’t wait to see what else she has to offer.