More Ten Bests and Five Not Bests: Amour the Merrier
Two more lists from Phoenix contributors.
Ann Lewinson:
Top Ten
- Amour Michael Haneke's trains his
cinema of cruelty on the everyday brutality of aging with this
compassionate, unflinching examination of love at the end of the line.
- Holy Motors Norma Desmond was wrong:
it wasn't the pictures that got small, it was the cameras. Leos Carax may
not be enamored of this brave new digital world, but he understands its
endgame better than anyone.
- Beasts of the Southern Wild Neorealism dissolves into
magic in Benh Zeitlin and the New
Orleans collective Court 13's rapturous,
post-Katrina fever-dream, a cry for the handmade in our chilly digital
era.
- Zero Dark Thirty Kathryn Bigelow
seals her bid to become the filmmaker laureate of America's
post-9/11 adventures. Dispassionate, shocking and absolutely necessary.
- Argo It's not easy to ping-pong
tastefully between a real-life hostage crisis and Hollywood
shenanigans, but Ben Affleck and his nimble editor William Goldenberg make
it work.
- The Kid with a Bike Jean-Pierre
and Luc Dardenne lighten up for this sun-streaked tale of a boy, his bike,
and the kindness of strangers. The Belgians' blend of social realism and
redemption has never jelled so gracefully.
- Sister a.k.a. The Kid with the Skis. Ursula Meier's drama about a thief living
in the shadow of a Swiss resort (who runs afoul of Gillian Anderson's
wealthy tourist) is a Little
Fugitive for our economically bifurcated age.
- Tabu Miguel Gomes' two-part
metamovie uses 16 and 35 mm black-and-white film to limn a Portugal
haunted by its colonial past (and ill-advised Phil Spector covers). The
medium really is the message. [Opens 1/18 at Coolidge Corner]
- This is Not a Film The Iranian
government has banned Jafar Panahi (The
White Balloon) from making films for 20 years, so he didn't make this
movie. Which was smuggled out of Iran in a cake.
- The Master A lost '50s, on a
canvas so vast you can barely breathe. Paul Thomas Anderson's 70mm
indulgence may be another last gasp of cinema as we knew it, but what a
way to go.
Worst Five
- The Hobbit 48 frames-per-second is
either a folly of Zemeckisian proportions or the death of cinema; judging
from last week's box office receipts, I'm inclined to fear the latter.
- Red Hook Summer Spike Lee and his
NYU students made a film so inept their parents should be asking for their
$45,000 back.
- Hyde Park on Hudson As Presidential handjobs go,
I'd take Oliver Stone's W over
sitting through this one again.
- Haywire A tough call between
Steven Soderbergh's two head-scratchers starring skull-cracking fighters
and Channing Tatum, but at least the other one had male strippers.
- Damsels in Distress Whit Stillman
used to write smart; making his comeback in our lowest-common-denominator
age, he dumbs it down and smugs it up. And he never got women anyway
Peg Aloi:
1. AMOUR
2. OSLO AUGUST 31
3. CLOUD ATLAS
4. TAKE THIS WALTZ
5. SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS
6. ANNA KARENINA
7. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
8. BERNIE
9. PARANORMAN
10. BRAVE
5 BEST DOCUMENTARIES
1. HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
2. THE INVISIBLE WAR
3. 5 BROKEN CAMERAS
4. WEST OF MEMPHIS
5. THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, SISTER, BARBARA, HEADHUNTERS, ARGO, LINCOLN, THE
MASTER, THE HUNGER GAMES, MOONRISE KINGDOM, SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE
WORLD
10 BEST PERFORMANCES
1. Tom Holland in THE IMPOSSIBLE
2. Emmanuelle Riva in AMOUR
3. Alan Arkin in ARGO
4. Bradley Cooper in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
5. Nina Hoss in BARBARA
6. Michelle Williams in TAKE THIS WALTZ
7. Jack Black in BERNIE
8. Elle Fanning in GINGER AND ROSA
9. Christopher Walken in SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS
10. Aksel Hennie in HEADHUNTERS
Latest Slideshows
