One Third Gone

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The first four months are never expected to yield much, certainly not in terms of award-quality fare. But a few made the grade with me. Three or four can be called exceptional, and the rest good, mostly satisfying, decent, or at least diverting in an art-house indie obscura vein. Forget awards eligibility in terms of rules and release dates. This is simply the best of what's opened so far in '09, in order of preference.

Except for The Hurt Locker, that is, which opens on 6.26. I'm including it because it's been showing around and has contributed to the winter-spring current.

(In order of preference): Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, Cary Fukunaga's Sin Nombre, Greg Mottola's Adventureland, James Toback's Tyson, Rupert Wyatt's The Escapist, Andrezj Wajda's Katyn, Kevin McDonald's State of Play, strong>Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah,Ramin Bahrani's Goodbye Solo, Tony Gilroy's Duplicity, Steve McQueen's Hunger, Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo, Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light, Terrence Davies' Of Time and the City, Henry Selick's Coraline, Tom Tykwer's The International, Jan Troell's Everlasting Moments, and Adam Del Deo and James D. Stern's Every Little Step.

No complaints about my not yet posting multi-paragraph reviews of some of these. If I didn't review two or three or four it's because I haven't fucking felt like it...okay? I'm not a machine. I never got around to seeing Matt Aselton's Gigantic, which might have made the list. (Or maybe not.) Ditto strong>Mary Stuart Masterson's The Cake Eaters. And whatever happened to poor Killshot? Why won't Harvey let some of us see it?

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 10, 2009 at 11:28 AM

comment #1

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

"No complaints about my not yet posting multi-patagraph reviews of some of these. If I didn't review two or three or four it's because I haven't fucking felt like it...okay?"

Haha.

To be fair, it is pretty much part of your job to review movies. As entertaining as the stories of hats and cake are, I wouldn't keep reading if the reviews stopped. And if you're not going to give your opinion on them, like with State of Play, why mention that you've even seen them? It just makes people curious.

Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey at April 10, 2009 12:44 PM

comment #2

Jeffrey Wells says ...

My understanding is that there's an embargo on with State of Play reviews. I've seen it twice. But it's coming up pretty soon. I guess I can at least say that I found to be a straightforward, right-down-the-middle, nicely old-fashioned print newspaper story....with print traditions deliberately being put forward within the story as a kind of near-anachronism. The closing credits section is a valentine to the romance of paper and printing presses and newspaper delivery trucks...all of the things that are coming to an end.

Plus I loved that you can actually comprehend what's going on -- I was always trying to chase the revelations in my head and keep up with it, but it never got too far ahead of me. (Unlike with Tony Gilroy's Duplicity, which made me feel a little bit like a dumb-ass.)

I found the portrayal of the tension and rivalry between the online and print newspaper cultures via Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams' relationship to be satisfying and symmetrical and the right way to go. I loved that Crowe was strictly nuts-and-bolts in this -- ballpoint pen, note pad, shoe leather, just-the-facts, no swaggering-actor crap.

I had been skeptical about the pruning choices in getting the original six episode, 300-minute British miniseries down to two-hours plus. (What is it, 130 minutes?) I've watched the British version, which is obviously a fuller and more detailed meal in some respects. I loved the relative anonymity of the British actors, and Bill Nighy was terrific, I thought. But at least the honing demanded a story discipline on the part of McDonald & Co. that kept everything extra disciplined and tightly focused. No time for any funny stuff.

I love that Kevin McDonald directed and not Ridley or Tony Scott or (no offense) Paul Greengrass. All of these guys would have made State of Play into something a lot more style-hyper. (And I don't mean this as a putdown....it's just who they are & what they're expected to do.) They would have flash-edited and whirly-gigged this film into a kind of power-pop fashion statement about breathless shooting styles in the Age of Obama. You know what I mean -- they would have made the movie about their cutting-edge, haven't-seen-it-done-that-way-before! sensibility, about too-fast cutting and agitation and coolness.

McDonald, appropriately and fittingly, adheres to just the facts, keeps the visual style moderate and makes the story clear and understandable, the way a good piece of reporting in the NY Times or the Washington Post would be. On top of which McDonald seems to almost go out of his way to avoid the usual urban-thriller elements. Which is my book is a good thing.

Posted by Jeffrey Wells at April 10, 2009 1:04 PM

comment #3

Mark says ...

Killshot hits Netflix in 5 weeks. Or should I say hits Redbox in 5 weeks. Think i may have kabosh Netflix as punishment for Vicky Christina Barcelona being on Long Wait for going on about 6 years now.

Posted by Mark at April 10, 2009 1:12 PM

comment #4

Gabriel says ...

I'm glad to hear that you liked SIlent Light at least enough to include it here. I'd like to hear more of your thoughts on it, particularly when you said you were so adverse to seeing it after Battle in Heaven.

My favorite film of 2008, hands down.

Posted by Gabriel at April 10, 2009 1:44 PM

comment #5

DUDEMAN says ...

I really liked Adventureland. It surprised me just how understated it was. The performances were almost universally great, and I've gotta hand it to Ryan Reynolds, he really toned it down and did a believable job. Anything that gives Martin Starr a job gets a free bonus point from me too.

Really looking forward to State of Play. Glad to hear you liked it.

Posted by DUDEMAN at April 10, 2009 2:07 PM

comment #6

The Winchester says ...

The International? Really?

Aside from that spectacular shoot out in the Guggenheim, the movie was pure nonsense.

Posted by The Winchester at April 10, 2009 2:34 PM

comment #7

lipranzer says ...

I haven't seen enough these first few months, so I'd say my favorites of this year so far were DUPLICITY and GOMORRA.

Posted by lipranzer at April 10, 2009 2:53 PM

comment #8

Chase Kahn says ...

I thought 'Gommorah' was a masterwork, certainly should be higher on your list and I thought you gave a relatively mild recommendation to 'The Escapist' - no?

And 'Sin Nombre' is just fantastic -- really had no intention of seeking it out until after your glowing words and they're spot on.

Posted by Chase Kahn at April 10, 2009 3:00 PM

comment #9

115thDreamer says ...

Wow - I have seen none of these....I will see "Goodbye Solo" tonight or tomorrow though. I did catch "Three Monkeys" a couple of weeks ago, and you were right Jeff - a very powerful film. All three of the main actors were very strong - the kid playing the son had a nice Turkish-Adrien Brody type of feel.

Good of you to mention "Killshot" - how can a movie based on an Elmore Leonard book with Mickey Rourke i& Diane Lane in it not get at least a limited release? You'd think that some suit somewhere would have said, in the last few months, something to the effect of "hey, maybe we should capitalize on all of the good vibes around Mickey right now and get 'Killshot' into the theaters ASAP?"...but, nope, no luck. So, this movie sits, while the promos for "Obsessed" and "Fighting" run unabated on my TV. Sigh.....

Posted by 115thDreamer at April 10, 2009 3:21 PM

comment #10

MAGGA says ...

I absolutely detested "Silent Light", even though I like a lot of Tarkovsky, which is the obvious template. The opening- and closing shots were technically interesting, but the characters were bloodless and dull and the extra-marital relationship had so little passion that I couldn't bring myself to care about it. Most of it was told in radio-like conversations with other people, anyway. And many of the long takes were not conceptiually interesting or good for storytelling, like the never-ending tracking shot from the outside of an auto-shop to the pit of the workers and back, show-off shots used to establish and reveal pecisely nothing. Eveything was so damn predictable, and would have been laughed out of the theaters if they were not smoke-and-mirrored by the pseudo-poetic tempo and symbolic shots of nature. Just my opinion, but I simply can't comprehend what makes people love that film so much.

Anyway, not downloading The Hurt Locker illegally gets harder and harder by the day. I think in this day and age they should get movies out there as quickly as possible, or their moments will pass. Which sounds like a shame on this one.

State of play sounds wonderful!

Posted by MAGGA at April 10, 2009 3:43 PM

comment #11

Chase Kahn says ...

Once again, what was so confusing about 'Duplicity'? I'll give you that it was "disorienting" or maybe "complex" -- but when all is said and done, there isn't much that goes unexplained.

Posted by Chase Kahn at April 10, 2009 5:04 PM

comment #12

actionman says ...

My favorites so far this year:

Gomorrah
Coraline
Watchmen
Two Lovers
Duplicity
I Love You, Man

Posted by actionman at April 10, 2009 5:21 PM

comment #13

Clay says ...

I'd add Two Lovers and Gigantic to the list. And Watchmen.

Adventureland was slight.

Posted by Clay at April 10, 2009 5:23 PM

comment #14

Matthew Lucas says ...

I agree about "Silent Light." It was my #1 film of 08. I didn't care much for "Katyn," and I still haven't decided how I feel about "Il Divo" but the rest of the list is hard to argue with. Most of the best films I've seen this year haven't come out yet. So far my favorites are:

Goodbye Solo, Tokyo Sonata, Captain Abu Raed, Unmistaken Child, Three Monkeys, Summer Hours, Rumba, The Hurt Locker, and The Garden.

Posted by Matthew Lucas at April 10, 2009 5:30 PM

comment #15

markj says ...

Watchmen was, ironically, unwatchable for me. I was bored rigid after 15 minutes. There was no human drama on display. It was static and flat. Snyder is a promo director through and through, not a feature director.

Posted by markj at April 11, 2009 7:18 AM

comment #16

Discman says ...

MAGGA: Tarkovsky's an influence on "Silent Light," but the film owes more, ultimately, to Carl Dreyer.

So predictable, huh? I guess you're a "plot man," which I'm not, but describing the film's ending as in any way predictable boggles the mind (unless you've seen "Ordet"). A better word is "astonishing," or "profound," or even "mysterious." Gosh, I'll take "frustrating," too, because it was, in some ways. But it's an exceptional film.

The best film I've seen this year is "Hunger," which, like "Silent Light," is technically a 2008 release (although I'm not sure how to account for "Light''s release pattern. I put it down as a 2008 release.

Posted by Discman at April 11, 2009 9:28 AM

comment #17