Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man
Directed by: Marc Webb.
Written by: James Vanderbilt and Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves based on the comics created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
Starring: Andrew Garfield (Spider-Man / Peter Parker), Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy), Rhys Ifans (The Lizard / Dr. Curt Connors), Denis Leary (Captain Stacy), Martin Sheen (Uncle Ben), Sally Field (Aunt May), Irrfan Khan (Rajit Ratha), Campbell Scott (Richard Parker), Embeth Davidtz (Mary Parker), Chris Zylka (Flash Thompson).

Let’s get this out of the way off the top – no, there was no reason, other than money, to reboot the Spider-Man franchise just 10 years after Sam Raimi kicked it off, and just five years after his trilogy came to a terrible finish. And yet, despite this fairly indisputable fact, I have to say this: The Amazing Spider-Man is a much better first chapter for a superhero franchise than Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was back in 2002. I always felt that Raimi’s first chapter was too cartoony for its own good and yet despite that tone cartoony tone that most of the movie had, he tried to make it serious at the end, and that really didn’t work. It was fun the first time through, but I have tough time watching it today.  Spider-Man 2 remains the best Spider-Man movie made to date, because Raimi nailed the tone, and had a better villain. Spider-Man 3 was an embarrassment. So yes, while I do not think that The Amazing Spider-Man was necessary, or even the best Spider-Man movie to date, it gets this series off to a promising start.

The movie starts fresh, with high school student Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield, far too old for the role, but you either role with that or let it distract you the entire movie), still reeling from his parents deaths years before, and living with kindly Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). He discovers some of his father’s old research, and seeks out his old partner, Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) to try and get some answers. Connors is trying to find a way to regenerate cells – specifically his own arm. He works for Oscorp (who we all know is run by Norman Osborne, who will eventually become Green Goblin), and under immense pressure to have a breakthrough – which Parker unwittingly gives him. And when Connors, desperate to produce results, uses himself as a test subject, things go horribly wrong. It is on his initial trip to see Connors that Parker stumbles into a restricted area of his lab, and of course, gets bitten by a radioactive spider, which will eventually turn him into Spider-Man. And of course, Parker also falls in love with a girl at school – not Mary Jane Watson this time, but Parker’s other great comic book love – Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), whose father is of course a cop, on the trail of the new vigilante Spider-Man.

The story, of course, bares an awful lot of resemblance to Raimi’s Spider-Man, with really just a different villain and love interest being the main differences. But while the story hits many of the same story beats as the original film, it is still a different film in many ways than the original. That is because Marc Webb and his writers’ strike a consistent tone throughout. This film is darker than the original Spider-Man, and I prefer my superheroes to be darker, more brooding. In Raimi’s Spider-Man, I thought the turn to darkness in the final reel felt awkward and forced (it was necessary to setup Spider-Man 2, but didn’t work on its own terms), whereas in this film, it is the rare lighter moments that feel out of place. It is clear that Webb and company is going for something closer to Christopher Nolan’s Batman series – from using a more minor villain in the first installment, so they can concentrate on Parker’s journey, and not worry about doing a more beloved villain enough screen time (which was another problem with Raimi’s first film – using Spider-Man’s main villain, Green Goblin, as the villain in the first film), to making Stacy the love interest (who, if they follow the comics, is doomed). Webb and company want to take Spider-Man seriously – and in this first installment they mainly succeed. Garfield is good at brooding, and makes Parker a more believably conflicted hero than Tobey Maguire was. The great Emma Stone, with her wide eyes, is perfectly cast as Stacy, who can melt your heart with a glance. And while, it’s mainly a throwaway role, Rhys Ifans is in fine form as Connors, a tragic figure, who doesn’t really want to do what he does, but cannot help himself. The action sequences are also well handled, but never take over the whole movie. This remains a movie about Peter Parker and his transformation more than a special effects extravaganza.

 
The Amazing Spider-Man is, in short, a good superhero movie – and shows the potential of where this new Spider-Man series can get to. There are certainly flaws in the movie – at nearly two and half hours, the movie drags at times, and repeats itself somewhat during its middle portion. As was inevitable, there is still a sense of been there, done that about the movie – yes, as I have pointed out throughout the review, it differs from the original Spider-Man, and improves on it, but the movie never really rises to the level of greatness. As we have seen in many superhero series before – from Richard Donner’s Superman, to Tim Burton’s Batman to Bryan Singer’s X-Men to Christopher Nolan’s Batman, and yes, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, the first movie in the series is often more setup, and less payoff. In all of those cases, it was the second movie in the series that was truly great. Here’s hoping that the pattern holds this time around – because while this isn’t a great movie, I think this team can make one.

Year in Review: 2009

To end this series, I decided to revisit 2009 – which I had already posted a top 10 list for back in January. Has it changed? Yes, because I decided to move a film that I was going to consider for 2010 back to 2009. It was nominated for the Foreign Language Film Oscar last year, and as such, is not eligible for anything else this year (due to restrictions, it wasn’t eligible for anything by Foreign last year). Other than that, this is the same list. But I felt the need to post it, if for no other reason than for completeness sake. Now that the series is done, I think I will continue to post a rethought list near the end of the following year – because sometimes once the dust as settled, you get a better chance to view the films.

10. District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)
There isn't much left to do with the alien invasion genre - or at least I didn't think there was until I saw Neill Blomkamp's wholly original movie. The setting is South Africa, where an alien spaceship has broken down and its inhabitants have come down to earth. They are treated like crap, shoved into makeshift shanty towns, derided by everyone, who wants them gone. Sharlton Copley gives a wonderful performance as an unprepared government bureaucrat, who is charged with moving the aliens to an even worse place, and doesn't expect what he gets. The movie has a documentary feel in its opening scenes - brilliantly handled with special effects that fit in naturally with its surrondings. And the climax is one of the best action sequences in recent memory. District 9 is a science fiction film that has a larger outlook than most in the genre - and that adds weight to the proceedings. Yet, for me, this is first and foremost a film about Copley's character, and his tragic downfall. A brilliant debut film - I expect big things from Copley in the future.

9. Antichrist (Lars von Trier)
Lars von Trier is, by all accounts, an asshole in real life - which is why many actors refuse to work with him more than once. Yet, for all his experiments in style, all his preteniousness, he is still a vital, original filmmaker. Antichrist represents von Trier at his most far out. It is a film about a married couple - Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourgh, reeling after the death of their infant son (shot in stunning black and white for the opening scene, which is contrasted by the two of them fucking). He, a doctor, takes her to their cabin in the woods and tries to "cure" her of her depression - which doesn't go well. The film is a study in abject pain and cruelty - he is cruel to her mentally, and she in turn is cruel to him physically, leading to a confrontation. The film mixes genres - throwing in horror with psychological drama and others. The performances are brilliant - especially Charlotte Gainsbourgh who undeniably gives the bravest performance of the year, and also one of the best. You may end up hating Antichrist - but it is a film that demands to be seen.

8. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
The films of Wes Anderson have always had a slightly animated feel to them, so it was probably only a matter of time before he made an actual animated film. This allows Anderson to indulge himself in things like costume design and art direction like he never has before, and also gives him complete control over every aspect of the film. Yet, while to some this may be stifling, I think it actually freed Anderson up a little bit. His films before this hadn't hit the heights of Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums, but with this film, he has made one of his absolute best. It doesn't matter that the film is animated - or about talking animals - this really isn't a family film (although I think kids will enjoy it, even if the wonderful animation isn't quite what the expect), but a film about a dysfunctional family. I have no idea what Anderson's father was really like, but his film fathers are usually distant and cruel - and Mr. Fox here is no exception. When Mrs. Fox berates him for what he has done, and claws at him, it is a painful scene full of honesty and heartbreak. Yes, it's animated, yet it is still a stunning portrait of family dysfunction by a director whose has made it his obsession.

7. Up (Pete Docter)
Pixar may just be the most consistent creative force in American movies right now. Even when they make a film not up to their standards - Cars, A Bug's Life - they are still quite good. And when they get everything right - like in Up - they make animated masterpieces. Up is a strange film about a sad old man, who lost his wife (in a heartbreaking, tear inducing introduction that recalls their life together) and now just wants to be left alone. But they want to take his house away from him - so he ties a bunch of balloons on to it and takes off - unwittingly taking a small child with him on his adventure. The film hits all the right notes, even though it changes tone quite frequently - it is potent study in loss and redemption, a hilarious comedy and a thrilling adventure and action film. While it may not be quite the film that Wall-E was in 2008 (or Toy Story 3 in 2010 for that matter) Up is still Pixar at its best.

6. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Audiences do not want to see movies about the Iraq war. None of them have made all that much money, perhaps because America is still mired in the war there, and audiences crave escape. But they should - and I think have, at least on DVD - see The Hurt Locker, a film that drains the politics out of the film, and simply looks at one bomb squad going about their last month of duty before being sent home. They get a new leader in Jeremy Renner, who is an adrenline junkie - he loves the rush of defusing a bomb, and takes unncessary risks. The other two just want to get home. This is the best film of Kathryn Bigelow's career - that strangely for a female director has mainly focused on wounded masculinity. She is a great director, and the action and thriller sequences in the film are as good as any I have seen in war movie. But there is a deeper level here - and that is what makes The Hurt Locker the one film about the Iraq war that must be seen.

5. Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze)
Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are was criticized by some for not being a kids movie, even though it is based on a beloved children's book and stars a bunch of large creatures. While its true that this film is likely too slow for children, I don't think that's a criticism of the film - which really is a movie about childhood, not a movie for children. The little boy at the center of this film is going through a hard time - his parents are divorced, his mother is dating again, he has no real friends, and his older sister won't hang out with him anymore. He runs off after an argument, and finds himself in a strange land populated by "wild things" - each one representing a different facet of his life and imagination. The movie takes place in the mind of a confused child - one that is fighting his feelings of abandonment and hurt, and his budding sexuality that he doesn't understand. The film is also, it must be said, very entertaining and tremendously directed by Spike Jonze - who I think has made the best film of his career here. This is a funny, sad great movie about what childhood is really like.

4. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)
Michael Haneke never makes it easy for his audiences. In Funny Games, he literally punishes his audience with what he puts on the screen - in Cache in implicates his French audience in the guilt of his protaganist. In The White Ribbon, he has made a film about the birth of fascism, as seen in a small German town just before WWI. The adults in the town - who all indentified by their jobs - impose a strict, absolutist moral code on the children - and then are shocked when the children hold them to the same standards. Shot in brilliant, beautiful black and white, The White Ribbon is not as shocking violent as some of Haneke's films - and isn't quite as good as Cache - but it is still a masterpiece by one of the boldest filmmakers in the world today.

3. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet is a film about a teenage Muslim who goes to jail a naïve young man, and comes out a career criminal. When he arrives, he is a loner, an outsider who doesn’t fit in with any of the groups – not even the other Muslims, who beat him up for his shoes. He is embraced by the Corsicans, who operate like the Mafia, not because they like him – they don’t – but because they need him to murder someone that they cannot get close to. This murder, early in the film, sets the tone – it is brutal, bloody, violent and messy. It doesn’t come off like most movie murders, but has the messiness of real life violence. The young man sits back and observes what he sees around him – just like we sit back and observe him – until he is ready to make his move. Jacques Audiard has been an accomplished director for a while now, but in this movie he takes things to another level – his film is violent and sweeping, encompassing politics, identity issues alongside its prison movie structure – which is also different than most prison movies we see – no one here is looking for redemption. They are violent men. At the heart of the movie is a remarkable performance by Tahr Rahim, who subtlety transforms himself as the movie progresses – from that young man who shakes when he kills his first man, to the confident criminal who leaves the prison years later. In its own way, A Prophet is a rather profound tragedy – the story of a young man who has wasted his life, and has so much more of it to waste.

2. A Serious Man (Joel & Ethan Coen)
The Coen Brothers are the best directing team in history - and among the most original filmmakers in the world right now. A Serious Man is one of their very best films - a strange, dark comedy about a Jewish phsyics professor in 1960s Minnesota who is being tested like no one since Job. His family life is falling apart, because his wife wants a divorce to marry his friend - who is one of those infuriatingly calm people who just wants to talk about his feelings. His professional life could also be in tatters, as his tenure is up for review. At each stage in the film, he is given one moral test after another, and struggles to come up with the right answers - going to see three rabbis who are, of course, no help at all. When he finally relents, finally gives in and makes a bad moral choice - it brings on the Apocalypse. A Serious Man is a brilliant, bold dark comedy from the Coen brothers - filmmakers who make whatever the hell they want to.

1. Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Quentin Tarantino is like no other filmmaker in history. You can't really call his films original, as they are inspired by so much of cinema past, and yet he makes films like no one else would even dare. To me, Inglorious Basterds is his masterpiece - his most fully realized film, where his love of language and cinema are ingrained in the narrative like none of his other films. It opens with one of the best scenes ever put on film, as Jew hunting Nazi Christophe Waltz, questions a farmer he thinks is hiding Jews. The sequence is so brilliantly written, directed (with a great nod to Hitchcock) and performed by Waltz, that it is masterpiece in and of itself. The rest of the film - told in various chapters - are just as good though, as Tarantino weaves his complex, masterful alternate history and multiple storylines together until it all comes to a brilliant climax at, where else, a movie theater. To reference another Tarantino film, Inglorious Basterds is like a shot of adrenline - brilliant, bold, original and completely unique. Tarantino's best film, and one of the very best of the decade.

Just Missed The Top 10: Avatar (James Cameron), Bad Lieutentant: Port of Call New Orleans (Werner Herzog), Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi), An Education (Lone Scherfig), 500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb), The Informant (Steven Soderbergh), In the Loop (Armando Ianucci), The Messenger (Oren Moverman), Passing Strange (Spike Lee), Police Adjective (Cristi Puiu), Public Enemies (Michael Mann), The Road (John Hillcoat), Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), Up in the Air (Jason Reitman).

Oscar Winner – Best Picture & Director: The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
I remember seeing The Hurt Locker at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival and thinking that it was a great film that would never get seen by anyone. After all, Iraq war films had all tanked at the box office - and this included films with big names, not one starring Jeremy Renner in the lead role. So it made me very happy in 2010 that the film got embraced by critics and awards groups - and although it remains the lowest grossing Best Picture winner ever, I have heard from more and more people who have seen and loved the film on DVD. It had pretty much the perfect campaign strategy by going all David vs. Goliath against Avatar, and the Academy made the right call by giving it to this film. True, I would have loved to see Tarantino or the Coens win the big prize this year, I won’t complain too much.

Oscar Winner – Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Jeff Bridges is one of the best actors of his generation, and with Crazy Heart he picked up his fifth Oscar nomination since 1971, and he had yet to win. His work in Crazy Heart is the reason to see the film. It is a fairly standard country music movie about a washed up, alcoholic singer who finds a second chance when he cleans up his act. The music, written by T. Bone Burnett is great, and he gets some good support from Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell, but Bridges really is the whole show here. He is great in a movie that is merely good. Out of the nominees, I would have given the Oscar to Jeremy Renner for his work in The Hurt Locker, and would have loved to have seen the ridiculously great Nicolas Cage in Bad Lieutenant got a nomination, but how can you really complain about Bridges finally winning an Oscar?

Oscar Winner – Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Sandra Bullock’s win for The Blind Side caught a lot of flak from many critics and film buffs for a number of reasons. First, Bullock has never really been known as a great actress - she has spent most of her career doing mediocre romantic comedies. And the film itself, although a HUGE hit (I mean really, how many straight dramas make $250 million? Answer - none). I myself thought the movie was pretty good for what it was - not great by any means, but okay and I don’t think Bullock deserved to win, or even be nominated, so I’m not going to defend it too much. But I will say that Bullock was miles better than fellow nominees Helen Mirren, who was WAY too far over the top in The Last Station, and she was at least as good as Meryl Streep’s wildly over praised performance in Julie and Julia. Yes, the youngsters Gaborey Sidibe and especially Carey Mulligan deserved to win - but considering the Academy completely ignored truly great work like Charlotte Gainsbourgh in Antichrist and Tilda Swinton in Julia, what did we really expect?

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actor: Christophe Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
Christophe Waltz’s work in Inglorious Basterds is, in my opinion anyway, far and away the best performance of the year. Even if his performance was nothing more than the first scene in the movie - where he goes back and forth between French, German and English while questioning a man he thinks is hiding Jews in his house - he would have deserved this award. But the performance goes much further than that. Waltz is perhaps the vilest, most memorable movie Nazi in history. A masterful performance in a truly great movie. There was some other decent work this year - particularly Woody Harrelson in The Messenger - but Waltz was still the best by far.

Oscar Winner – Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious
There are some performances that seemingly come out of nowhere. If you asked me at the beginning of 2009 if Mo’Nique would win an Oscar this year, I would have laughed. There is nothing in her background that would suggest that she was capable of delivering this type of performance. But as the title character's monstrous mother, Mo’Nique is truly amazing. I’m sure most people will remember her profanity spewing rants early in the film, but it really it her masterful final scene, where we start to understand what makes this woman tick, that earned her this award. Whether or not Mo’Nique turns this into a more sustained acting career remains to be seen - but no matter what, she earned this Oscar.

2009 Year in Review: Best Unreleased Films (Watch for Them in 2010)

As we wrap up our look back at 2009 today, be sure to watch out for the following films opening sometime in 2010, or at least getting a DVD release. I saw most of these at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, and all of them are worth your time, and the top five are great films. I could have added Ian Fitzgibbon’s supremely entertaining British gangster flick Perrier’s Bounty, Gary Yates’ just released Canadian crime comedy High Life or the French film L’Affaire Farewell with a marvelous performance by director Emir Kustrica as well, or the recent Oscar nominee for best foreign language film The Secret of Their Eyes (which I think is better than a few films on this list, but I still want to ensure that the films below get noticed), but there was only room for 10.

10. George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead (George A. Romero)
In my mind, this is inarguably the least of all of Romero’s zombie films. However, it is still intelligent and stylish – a take on the Western genre (most notably William Wyler’s The Big Country), as a small, island town is torn apart by two warring families who disagree on what to do about the recent zombie outbreak – one family wants to kill all zombies, the others want to “take care of their own”. Romero’s social conscience is on full display here, and there is dynamite performance by Kenneth Walsh. Not as good as the other Romero zombie movies because the performances are weaker, and the screenplay less well thought out – plus after the brilliant reboot that was Diary of the Dead, this is a bit of a letdown. Still, anyone interested in Romero and his zombies needs to see his latest installment.

9. Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe)
Enter the Void is a film that I cannot honestly say I actually liked very much – but it is a film that everyone with an interest in offbeat, mind fuck cinema simply must see. The movie is about a low level American drug dealer living in Tokyo, and his sister, who is working as stripper. The movie is told entirely from the point of view of the brother – literally – we see everything from his point of view, even blinks. When he is killed at the end of the first act, he starts to float above the action, and see everything that goes on beneath him, ending in a wild orgy at a hotel, where all the characters, good and bad, have gathered. At two and half hours, the film is probably an hour too long – and the last act gets fairly ridiculous with all of the trippy “travel” sequences, where the drug dealer will transport from one place to another through lights (or, at one point, an aborted fetus). But you have to hand it to Noe, who follows his story right to the illogical end – which takes place inside his sister vagina during sex. Not a film I would ever want to sit through again, but one I am glad I saw once – and would recommend people interested in this type of thing (all three of you), to watch on the big screen if at all possible.

8. Leaves of Grass (Tim Blake Nelson)
At the present time, I am not sure if Tim Blake Nelson’s film is even going to get a theatrical release – it could go straight to DVD. That would be a shame, because although the movie is a little on the predictable side, it is the best showcase Edward Norton has had for a long time. He plays dual roles as twins from Oklahoma, one who has left and remade himself into a philosophy professor, and the other who never left, and has become the best pot grower in the country. Nelson’s film is part stoner comedy, part crime drama and part philosophical mind trip, all of which is supremely entertaining.

7. The Loved Ones (Sean Bryne)
The winner of the People’s Choice Award for the Midnight Madness program, Sean Bryne’s The Loved Ones is a brutal and unrelenting horror film. Set in Australia it is about a teenager who is drowning himself in drugs following the death of his father, who seems to just be coming out of his downward spiral on prom night with the help of his girlfriend. Not realizing that the shy loner girl he rejected has plans of her own for a memorable prom night. The final is hard core horror at its best – it never devolves into torture porn, yet the violence is purposefully off putting. The performance by Robin McLeavy as the obsessed girl is every bit as creepy and brilliant as Kathy Bates’ Oscar winning turn in Misery. Watch out for this one – something tells me it will end up going straight to video (as horror movies where people talk in accents often do), before the inevitable Hollywood remake.

6. Vincere (Marco Bellochio)
Marco Bellochio was a hero to auteurist critics in the 1960s with his film Fists in the Pocket, then for some reason fell out of vogue for nearly 40 years, despite the fact that he never stopped making movies. His latest film should help to restore his reputation. Set in Italy in early 20th Century, the movie stars Giovanna Mezzogiorno as Ida Dasler, Mussolini’s first wife and mother of his first son, who has all been written out of history. Before WWI, they two are lovers and get married, and she bares him a son. When he returns from the war, his political stock is rising, and he disavows all knowledge of her and her son. She will not let it go, and ends up being put in a mental hospital to try and shut her up. To a certain extent, this is an old fashioned “tortured woman” picture (something Joan Crawford could have done), but rarely have those films been so well made, well acted and well written. Mezzogiorno gives a great performance, as does Filippo Timi as Mussolini (and later as his own son). This one is getting a theatrical release later this spring, so watch out for it.

5. Wild Grass (Alain Resnais)
With the death of Erich Rohmer last week, Resnais remains one of the few surviving French New Wave directors, and is a on an even shorter list of those directors who are still doing interesting work. This film is a wildly ambitious love letter to the movies themselves – a demented romantic comedy about a man who becomes obsessed with the woman whose wallet he finds, and just when she starts coming around, decides that she isn’t so special after all. The movie acrobatic camera work is a marvel to behold, and the movie twists and turns itself around like a pretzel. A marvelous, one of a kind movie from Resnais, and a terrific opportunity for the entire cast to deliver unique performances. A real gem.

4. Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz)
Most critics jumped off the Todd Solondz bandwagon after his critically acclaimed film Happiness in 1998. But I have continued to follow his career with great interest in the years since, as to me, he remains a one of a kind talent, crafting movies that are like moral tests that are impossible to pass. Life During Wartime is a sequel of sorts to Happiness – all the characters are back, they are just played by different people this time around. The cast is a wonder – highlighted by a great turn by Allison Janney as the sister who has no idea who inappropriate she is being, and Paul Reubens, who is perfectly cast as the ghost of Jon Lovitz’s character from the first film. The result is an uncomfortably hilarious, wholly original film that only Solondz could make.

3. Mother (Bong Joon-ho)
Korea is one of the most interesting countries in the world right now for filmmaking, and in my mind Bong Joon-ho is the best director currently working in that country. The three films of his that I have seen – the wonderful police procedural Memories of Murder (trust me, track that masterpiece down), his monster movie The Host and now Mother have marked him for me as one of the best directors in the world. In this film, a young girl is found murdered, and the police suspect that it is the work of the mentally challenged young man from the neighborhood – they drag him in for questioning, and he confesses, but he doesn’t quite seem to know what is going on. The film focuses on his mother (obviously) – a remarkable performance by Kim Hye-ja who is overly devoted to her son, and wants to prove his innocence. This is a marvelous film – part police procedural, part revenge movie, part thriller, part drama, part surrealist movie, Bong combines these elements masterfully. The fact that the Academy had a chance to nominate this film, and didn’t, is yet another reason why the Foreign Language Film category needs to be changed.

2. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)
England produced two first rate films in 2009 about a teenage girl falling for an older man – An Education, and this one which I think is far superior, even though I loved An Education. Katie Jarvis is a real find here, playing Mia, a 15 year old high school dropout, who wants to become a professional dancer. When she meets Connor (Michael Fassbender), the latest in her mother’s seemingly never ending string of boyfriends, there is something not quite right in the way he looks at her. Fish Tank is like Catherine Hardwicke’s thirteen, without all the bombast. Instead it is an insightful, powerful film, anchored by two great performances that deals with the issues it presents openly and honestly. A great sophomore film for director Arnold.

1. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
There are certain films that key to a director’s career – that one film that kicks it up another notch and shows just how far ahead of everyone else they really are. To be, A Prophet is that film for French director Jacques Audiard. The two films that immediately proceed A Prophet on his resume were the excellent thriller Read My Lips, and the remake of James Toback’s crime film The Beat My Heart Skipped – both quite good. But in A Prophet, he reaches an entirely new level. The film stars Tahar Rahim in a brilliant performance as a young Arab man sent to prison in France for causing trouble during the riots. He doesn’t fit in with the Arabs in jail, or anyone else for that matter. The Corsicans, who run the jail (led by a brilliant Niels Arestrup), reach out to him to have him kill a fellow prisoner they cannot get close to. Thus begins Rahim’s education at the hands of the Corsicans, as he gradually becomes more confident, and more criminal. At two and half hours, Audiard spins his dizzying web of violence and intrigue. It is a masterful film, and would have easily ranked high on my 2009 top ten list had it actually gotten a release this year. As it stands, I will have a tough time choosing who to root for if this, or The White Ribbon, as both got nominated for the foreign language film Oscar this year. A masterpiece.

2009 Year in Review: Best Directorial Debuts

One of the most exciting things every year is to watch new filmmakers emerge and making great films their first time out. When a new filmmaker emerges, it forces you to take off those blinders and simply watch the films. This year produced many great new filmmakers. In addition to the top 10 listed below, I am looking forward to seeing whether James Mottern can make something as intelligent as Trucker the next time around and whether actress Drew Barrymore can make something as fun as Whip It again. Sophie Barthes made a hugely ambitious debut with Cold Souls, but I hope next time she scales it back and makes a more complete, satisfying film. I wonder if Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity is simply going to be a one off, like The Blair Witch Project, or the start of something special. The 10 filmmakers listed below however did even better.

10. Sin Nombre (Cary Fukunaga)
Sin Nombre tells the story of two very different people from South America, both trying to cross the border into America. Paulina Gaitlin stars as a young woman from Guatemala travelling with her father to America so she can join him and his new family. Edgar Flores is a Mexican gang banger, who cannot take the life anymore and kills his boss, and has to flee before the rest of the gang catches up with him. Their paths intersect, and Gaitlin will not let him go on without her. Sin Nombre goes beyond the stereotypes of illegal immigrants, and gets to the heart of their stories. Cary Fukunaga has crafted a memorable, exciting, honest film – I cannot wait to see what he does next.

9. A Single Man (Tom Ford)
Fashion designer Ford has crafted a fine debut film – visually interesting, emotionally resonant and magnificently acted. Colin Firth stars as George, a gay professor in 1960s California whose life starts to fall apart after the death of his long time partner (Matthew Goode). The movie follows George over the course of one day, at the end of which he plans to kill himself. The main attraction to the movie is Firth, who is utterly brilliant in his best performance, but the rest of the cast – especially Julianne Moore as his drunken best pal – are also wonderful. But Ford’s film is more than just an actor’s showcase – it is visually inventive and alive from beginning to end. As a fashion designer, he obviously loves beautiful things – and that would include this movie.

8. Moon (Duncan Jones)
Jones, the son of David Bowie, has crafted an intelligent, low budget science fiction film with a great performance by Sam Rockwell at the center. Rockwell is stationed by himself on the moon for a three year contract harvesting a new energy source they have found there. His only company is the ships ever present computer, with the voice of Kevin Spacey. When Rockwell gets into an accident and almost dies, he wakes up to discover another him on board. Things get stranger from there. Science fiction, at least good science fiction, has always been more about ideas than special effects (although, it must be said that Jones does a lot with the special effects considering his budget). This is a great debut film.

7. Big Fan (Robert Siegel)
Robert Siegel’s broke out last year with his screenplay for Darren Aronofsky’s magnificent film The Wrestler. This year, he stepped into the director’s chair for the first time and crafted this wonderful, under seen indie film. Comedian Patton Oswalt gives a terrific dramatic performance as a guy in his mid 30s who still lives at home with his mother, and who defines his entire life on the success of the New York Football Giants. When he meets his favorite player in a strip club, he thinks his dream is coming true – but when the player ends up beating him up, his world crashes down around him. Big Fan is a great movie about when fandom becomes dangerous obsession, and marks Siegel as a director to watch.

6. Zombieland (Ruben Flesicher)
Zombieland maintains an incredible comedic pace from beginning to end, and that all has to do with Flesicher’s direction. Right off the bat, he establishes this world over run by zombies, and that Jessie Eisenberg is going to be our unlikely hero, with his hilarious voice over narration. He then introduces more characters – the demented Woody Harrellson, the sweet Abigail Breslin, and the sultry Emma Stone, and keeps the laughs and the gore coming on strong. It is hard to make a horror comedy – so many are downright horrid – but Flesicher nailed the tone from the beginning. Let’s see if he can keep it going.

5. Crazy Heart (Scott Cooper)
Scott Cooper’s debut film could have easily become one cliché after another. After all, it is a movie about an aging country music star whose stock has fallen, and is lost in alcoholism who is saved by his relationship with a beautiful younger woman and her son. Yet, the reason why Crazy Heart works is because Cooper, along with his great cast led by Jeff Bridges, but also featuring great work by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell, make you believe that these clichés are true for these people. That’s a hard thing to pull off, but Cooper and company do so brilliantly well – with great help from T-Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham, whose songs make the movie.

4. 500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb)
The romantic comedy is perhaps my least favorite genre, because they really haven’t come up with anything new or original to say in them since the 1930s. But 500 Days of Summer is an absolute joy – a wonder to behold – as it tells the story of a couple who are almost right for each other. Joseph Gordon Levitt continues his excellent streak of performances here as an architect slumming it in a job for a greeting card company, who thinks he has found the girl of his dreams in Summer (Zooey Deschanell). The movie flashes back and forth in time to during and after their relationship to see how things went so terribly wrong. Marvelously directed by Marc Webb – who is visually inventive throughout, 500 Days of Summer is the best romantic comedy in years – and a marvelous debut picture for Webb.

3. The Messenger (Oren Moverman)
Until now, Oren Moverman has made his living as a screenwriter – collaborating on such films as I’m Not There, Married Life and Jesus’ Son. But in The Messenger, he steps into the director’s chair for the first time, and does a wonderful job. Yes, The Messenger is a movie more about writing and acting than it is about directing, but Moverman knows enough to kind of stay out of his own way here. His direction is subtle, the camera hovering behind the characters, or closing in for a close-up at just the right moment. Moverman is the real deal as a director – not just a writer.

2. In the Loop (Armando Iannucci)
In the Loop is the best political satire in years. Armando Iannucci comes from a television background, and it shows, as the movie does look at times like an episode of The Office (or presumably, The Thick Of It, the series that this movie is a spinoff from). Yet the visual style (and yes, the movie does have a visual style) is appropriate the movie itself. Grubby backrooms, monuments that appear small and less grand than normal, and the jump cut style editing help to make the tone of the film, yet never detract from the writing or the performances. I hope that Iannucci makes more films, and doesn’t simply go back to television.

1. District 9 (Neil Blomkamp)

Blomkamp’s directorial debut was, to be, the most challenging film any newcomer took on this year. He mixes together science fiction, action and his social agenda, with a story that packs an emotional wallop in Sharlto Copley’s descent from bumbling bureaucrat into a alien prawn. He uses special effects perfectly, blending them effortlessly into the background, or right there in your face. His pseudo-documentary style at the beginning of the film is handled brilliantly well, and as the movie moves into action movie terrain, he handles the transition well, and creates the best action sequences of the year. I have no idea how involved producer Peter Jackson was in the making of this film, but I have a feeling that this is the start of a brilliant career for Blomkamp.

2009 Year in Review: The Best Documentaries of the Year

For the second year in a row, I have to say that I was disappointed by the documentary films that came out this year. That’s not to say that there were no good docs this year, but I do not think that there were any truly greats ones either. Of course, I missed some of the more acclaimed docs this year - most notably The Beaches of Agnes, but also several others. It’s too bad that docs don’t seem to get very wide releases, and even in Toronto, I often find that docs don’t get much play. The exception this year was Kenny Ortega’s Michael Jackson’s This is It, but was that even really a film? I did enjoy, at least slightly, Pete McCormack’s Facing Ali a fascinating doc about the legendary boxer through the eyes of his opponents. Under Our Skin was a surprisingly involving doc about Lyme disease, and how the medical establishment seems to be completely ignoring the massive effect the illness has on its victims. The recent Oscar nominated doc Which Way Home is a fascinating, real life Sin Nombre – yet the film is somewhat hurt my that comparison (look for a full length review of the film either today or tomorrow). I know that a lot of critics loved Terence Davies’ Of Time and the City, but although I think it was a great looking film, it was also dull. Valentino: The Last Emperor was an audience favorite as much as a doc can be anyway, but I didn’t find it very illuminating. I was also disappointed in Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love, which should have been fascinating, but was actually rather dull. The Michael Moore tactic of documentary filmmaking reached a new low with The Yes Men Fix the World a doc about two clueless idiots with none of Moore's talent or charm, who think they are doing something clever – spoiler alert, they’re not. Nevertheless, these 10 docs were actually worthy of a look.

10. In a Dream (Jeremiah Zagar)
One of the rare “family” documentaries that is actually insightful and enlightening. Zagar documents his father’s artistic work all over the city of Philadelphia, where he has create murals on the walls of his neighborhood that document his life and his family. The art is interesting, but it takes on a darker tone when it is revealed that the father is having an affair, and his mental demons are coming back to haunt him once again. Most films about a family made by one of their own are not very involving or interesting – this is the exception.

9. Every Little Step (Adam Del Deo & James D. Stern)
A Chorus Line is one of the biggest shows in Broadway history, and is beloved by the dancers, singers and actors who actually work on Broadway, because it tells their story of grueling auditions and personal pain and triumph. When they decided to do a revival of the show on Broadway a few years ago, they opened up the audition process to these documentarians, who I think have created a movie that is going to be as loved by Broadway actors as the original show was. You go along with these actors for the entire, grueling 8 month audition process, and feel their joy and most particularly their pain (I felt really bad for the one woman who was told in the final round of auditions to “do what you did last summer”, when last summer was 6 months ago, and she had no idea what the hell it was she did). One of those rare documentaries that could actually be called a crowd pleaser.

8. Good Hair (Jeff Stilson)
Chris Rock is a funny guy, and his documentary Good Hair is without a doubt the funniest documentary of the year. Rock questions why black people, especially women, have such an obsession with their hair, and specifically making their hair look long, luxurious and straight – or more specifically like white women’s hair. Rock goes from place to place talking to people – celebrities to just regular people, and finds out their opinions, and then follows the money to see where it all goes. Black hair is worth millions upon millions every year. Yes, it takes a few missteps along the way, but overall, Good Hair is just downright fun to watch.

7. Capitalism: A Love Story (Michael Moore)
Michael Moore has become the biggest name in documentary films with his own brand of rabble rousing with his movies, which are more like filmed essays than an objective documentary. But really, who says documentaries need to be objective? In Capitalism: A Love Story, Moore takes direct aim at the economic system that let America down, and sent them spiraling into a recession in the first place. When Moore is playing his pranks and focusing on the real people who were hurt by this recession, and contrasting it to the banks which got bailed out, his film is strong. When he tries to look at capitalism itself, and prove its inherent flaws, he is on shakier ground. Capitalism: A Love Story is perhaps the weakest documentary of Moore’s career (it’s kind of a tie with The Big One), but it is still a fine film.

6. Anvil: The Story of Anvil! (Sacha Gervasi)
In the early-1980s, Toronto based heavy metal band Anvil was poised to breakout big time. Their album, Metal on Metal, had influence such bands as Metallica, and a tour of with Bon Jovi made them huge – at least they thought it would. Now 25 years later, the success never came, but the boys in the band are still struggling, still believing in their rock star dreams. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed doc of the year caused mixed feelings in me – yes the friendship between the two guys at the heart of the movie is sweet, and it is kind of inspiring to see two guys who will not give up on their dreams. But they also struck me as kind of pathetic – at what point are you supposed to give up on your dreams and face reality? Still, the movie is involving and entertaining from beginning to end. But I’m still not going to go out and buy an Anvil album.

5. Food Inc. (Robert Kenner)
Our food system likes to keep us fat. That is why food that is horrible for you is so cheap, while healthy food is so expensive. Well, that and the fact that farmers get huge subsidies for growing corn, so “agricultural” companies purchase large quantities of it and make high fructose corn syrup that is in pretty much everything we eat, despite the fact that it is terrible for you. Profit trumps everything else, and farmers who want to grow healthier food are singled out and picked on by the government, who receive massive contributions for the giant agricultural companies. There really is nothing new here – if you’ve done any reading on this subject, what the movie has to say will not shock you – yet it is still important to get the information out there, and director Robert Kenner does so in a fascinating and entertaining way.

4. Burma VJ (Anders Ostergaard)
Anders Ostergaard’s film is made up of real footage caught by on the ground video journalists during the protests in Burma in August and September 2007. Because foreign journalists are banned from the country, and the major networks in the country are just pawns for the government, the only way the Burmese people – and the rest of the world – got to see what was actually happening was through the cameras of these brave journalists who were risking their freedom and lives in order to capture it all. The film is gripping in its imagery, and the story it tells.

3. Tyson (James Toback)
Mike Tyson is one of the more controversial figures in America. From his huge success and fame in the boxing ring at a young age, to his conviction for rape, to his marriage to Robin Givens, to his eat biting episode and everything in between, it seems like everyone has an opinion on Mike Tyson – and very few of those opinions are positive. James Toback’s Tyson is a chance for Tyson to tell his side of the story in full. Toback is a trusted friend of Tyson’s, and he gets Iron Mike to open up about his childhood, his legal problems and everything else. No, this is not an objective view of Tyson – Toback and Tyson have the objective of trying to cleanse his image. Yet, this is perhaps the best movie we are going to see where Tyson tells his story the way he sees it. It may not all be true, and you could walk out of the film hating Iron Mike as much as you did going in, but it is a fascinating movie, and Mike Tyson is a fascinating person.

2. Collapse (Chris Smith)
Michael Ruppert is a former LAPD officer, who has made his modest living for the last three decades as an investigative journalist, uncovering conspiracies and stories that the “mainstream” media has left alone. Now, he is talking about the inevitable collapse that is going to hit the world when we run out of oil. He believes that there is no viable alternative to oil, and that we are on the down slope of what there is left in the world, and that soon we will all be living in some sort of Mad Max like world. I didn’t agree with everything that Ruppert had to say – hell, I didn’t agree with most of it – but he is a fascinating person to make a documentary about, and he a great speaker. Chris Smith, best known for his great comedic doc American Movie, steps into Errol Morris territory here, and makes a fascinating doc.

1. The Cove (Louis Pishoyoas)
Easily the best documentary in this weak year was Louis Pishoyoas devastating film The Cove. The movie is about an isolated cove in Japan where fishermen lure dolphins in by the hundreds to try and sell them to people from zoos the world over. They need a constant supply of dolphins, because in captivity and forced to perform, dolphins become depressed easily, and are miserable enough that they commit suicide. The even bigger tragedy however is that after the zoo people go home, the fishermen slaughter the dolphins, and then sell the meat to supermarkets, passing it off as a different kind of meat. The movie is a meticulously made film, with undercover cameras exposing the dirty little secret Japan denied was even happening at all. The movie is a powerful, devastating film that left me shaken.

2009 Year in Review: Animated Films

This has been a wonderful year for animation. Normally, the Oscars only nominate three movies for best animated film, but this year, they are going to nominate five as there were so many animated films released. The pleasant surprise for me is that while I sometimes struggle to find three quality nominees for this category, this year I would be happy for any of the top nine animated films on the list below getting a nomination (although, one sadly, is not eligible). In addition to these 10 there were other animated films that I saw - but they were mostly disappointing like Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol, Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and the opening of anime epic Evangelion 1.0. I would have loved to have seen A Town Called Panic before the deadline, but alas, it was not in the cards.

10. Monsters vs. Aliens (Rob Letterman & Conrad Vernon)
Monsters vs. Aliens is just straight ahead, fun family filmmaking. A group of aliens come to attack the world, and all human weapons are useless against them. So the American government unleashes a group of monsters to attack them – including their newest member a giant woman (with the voice of Reese Witherspoon). The real reason to see the film is the entertaining byplay between the other three monsters – with the voices of Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie and Will Arnett, and of course the hilarious vocal styling of Stephen Colbert as the inept President. The 3-D animation is also top notch. Not a great film by any means, but it sure as hell is entertaining.

9. 9 (Shane Acker)
This is certainly among the best looking animated films of the year – a stylish, futuristic movie where people have been wiped off the face of the earth, and the only things left are a group of rag dolls created by a mad scientist and the machines that wiped out humanity in the first place. There is not a frame of this film that is not breathtaking and gorgeous. If only the story, which is a little too pat and predictable, had been better, this easily could have been much higher on the list.

8. Mary and Max (Adam Eliot)
Another one of those movie that barely secured a release, this melancholy, black and white stop motion animated film is decidedly not for children – even though the main character Mary is a child for most of the movie. She is an overweight kid in Australia with no friends, a distant father and an alcoholic mother, who finds an interesting name in the book down at the post office for a guy in New York City and decides to write him a letter. Max has mental problems of his own. There pen pal friendship lasts for years and keeps both of them going through hard times. Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers a wonderful vocal performance as Max. This is an intelligent, thoughtful animated film, and while it is a little drawn out (I think perhaps a short would have been better), it is still a wonderful animated film.

7. Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Palfrey)
This movie, only available online because of copyright issues, is one of the most joyous do-it-yourself movies I can ever recall seeing. Reeling for a breakup, director Nina Palfrey decided to make this wonderfully absurd animated take on the Hindu story the Ramayana, about God Rama, and his long suffering wife Sita. The result is a movie that mixes animation styles, modern storytelling and wonderful jazz music from the 1920s (hence the copyright issues) into a hybrid of movie that is simply a joy to behold. I cannot wait to see what Palfrey does with a real budget.

6. The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore)

This barely released Irish animated film surprised many by getting a best picture nod at the Annie Awards this year. But if you had seen the film, you wouldn’t be surprised. It is a charming, classically animated story of a little boy in Kells whose strict Uncle will not allow him outside the walls of their town, and is busy trying to prepare for an invasion by the Vikings. Then a new man arrives in town, with a secret book, and asks the boy to help him with it. The Secrets of Kells is a grand adventure story, very well animated with charming voice work. I hope this finds an audience on DVD – it deserves one (and its shocking Oscar nomination this morning should help it get one!).

5. Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki)
Hayao Miyazaki is one of the greatest animators in cinema history. His previous films include at least two masterpieces – Princess Monoke and Spirited Away. His most recent film, Ponyo, does not reach those heights. It is a little too cutesy and predictable for that. Yet, it is still a wonderfully animated film about a little girl from the sea who wants to become human and be with her friend forever. The film is magical for kids, and a wondrous visual experience for adults.

4. The Princess and the Frog ( Ron Clements & John Musker)
It had been over five years since Disney made one of their classically animated movies – and almost 10 since they did one properly. But The Princess and the Frog brings Disney animation back in a marvelous way. Set in New Orleans, the movie is about an industrious young woman who works hard to make her dreams come true – that is until she kisses a Prince who has been turned into a frog, and turns into one herself. The movie is animated in the classic Disney style – which is wonderful to see again – the music by Randy Newman, which recalls some of his old music – works wonderfully well. Cinematic comfort food of the highest order.

3. Coraline (Henry Selick)
Henry Selick is finally out of Tim Burton’s shadow with this wonderfully dark, creepy kids movie from Neil Gaiman’s novel. Coraline is a little girl stuck in a big old house with no friends or siblings to play with, and parents that ignore her. She enters a dark mirror world where everything is like she dreamed, but there is something decidedly off about the whole thing. The film has a wonderful look – the 3-D is among the best I have seen in a theater so far – and the movie doesn’t try to lighten Gaiman’s dark original. The director of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas is finally getting his due.

2. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
Wes Anderson’s films have always been so closely controlled by the director, so colorful and intricately detailed, that the move to animation seems to have been preordained from the beginning of his career. Finally, he can have absolute control over every aspect of the visual look of his films, making the characters move just how he wants them to. The film is brilliantly well detailed – the different animal and human characters all have a distinct look and way of moving – yet the film is more than just a visual delight (although, it must be said, it is one of the most delightful visual films of the year), but also a touching, bittersweet family drama. Just because the family at the center of the film are foxes, that doesn’t mean they are any less human.

1. Up (Pete Docter)
Pixar seemingly always makes the best animated film of the year. The reason is simple – they spend as much time and effort on writing their films as they do in making them the best looking animated films, so the result are emotionally powerful films that stick in your mind (and your heart) long after they movie is over. Up is a movie about a widow who wants to go on an adventure – by himself – and he finds that without friends and family around him, it is all meaningless. The movie switches gears from emotional tearjerker, to soaring adventure, to gripping action, and never loses sight of its goal. This ranks among the best movies that Pixar has ever made.