Top Ten Films of 2012

Why, hello. Nice to see you (hypothetical reader) after nearly a year of my absence from this blog!

Though I have heard fellow friends and acquaintances bemoan the "slim pickings" from amongst film choices released in 2012, personally I found no such dearth of absolutely terrific cinema to be found. Below, I am happy to present my list of the top ten films that played at festivals, or in limited and wide release in the year of the supposed Mayan Apocalypse. Please to enjoy. I hope to soon publish several other "Best Of" lists in various film categories in the coming days. In the meantime, if you do plan on screening any of these films in the near future (which I highly encourage), happy watching!

1. 

Amour, dir. Michael Haneke

2. 

Holy Motors, dir. Leos Carax

3. 

Moonrise Kingdom, dir. Wes Anderson

4. 

Life of Pi, dir. Ang Lee

5. 

Once Upon a Time In Anatolia, dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan

6. 

Beasts of the Southern Wild, dir. Benh Zeitlin

7. 

Wuthering Heights, dir. Andrea Arnold

8. 

Killer Joe, dir. William Friedkin

9. 

Breathing, dir. Karl Markovics

10. 

Oslo, August 31st, dir. Joachim Trier

Honorable Mentions In No Particular Order: Keep the Lights On, dir. Ira Sachs; Monsieur Lazhar, dir. Philippe Falardeau; Looper, dir. Rian Johnson; Argo, dir. Ben Affleck; The Loneliest Planet, dir. Julia Loktev; Seven Psychopaths, dir. Martin McDonagh; Red Hook Summer, Spike Lee; Miss Bala, Gerardo Naranjo; The Deep Blue Sea, dir. Terence Davies; Jiro Dreams of Sushi, dir. David Gelb; Goodbye First Love, Mia Hansen-Love; Postcards from the Zoo, dir. Edwin; Una Noche, dir. Lucy Mulloy; Habibi Karbak Rahsan, dir. Susan Youssef; Magic Mike, dir. Steven Soderbergh; Rust and Bone, dir. Jacques Audiard; Beyond the Hills, dir. Cristian Mungiu; Your Sister's Sister, dir. Lynn Shelton; Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, dir. Alison Klayman; The Imposter, dir. Bart Layton; The Queen of Versailles, dir. Lauren Greenfield; Jackpot, dir. Magnus Martens; Lincoln, dir. Steven Spielberg; Zero Dark Thirty, dir. Kathryn Bigelow; Django Unchained, dir. Quentin Tarantino; The Master, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson; Anna Karenina, dir. Joe Wright; Les Miserables, dir. Tom Hooper; Silver Linings Playbook, dir. David O. Russell; Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, dir. Donald Rice

Last Train Home

A scene from Lixin Fan's Last Train Home.

Happy Chinese New Year, readers!

Every year, when Chinese New Year comes around, my family and I gather around a big celebratory meal together, replete with all the delicious foods that symbolize prosperity, longevity, and success within the Chinese culture.

Like us, millions of families of Asian descent around the globe also gather to celebrate the beginning of the new Lunar calendar year. For many people in China, however, Chinese New Year in fact marks the only time millions of migrant workers will have the opportunity to see their families at all in any given year. For most Western cultures, the geographic splintering of families as adult children leave the nest in order to forge their own paths is by now a phenomenon considered rote. However, by contrast, the extraordinarily rapid industrialization of China's economy has resulted in a particularly striking, sudden, and by some turns tragic iteration of this concept.

Within the last decade, as the Chinese government has allowed more privatized business models to take hold within the country, opportunities for the lower classes to earn more money have exploded. Most of these opportunities lie in factory work within the country's largest cities, while the majority of the country's most economically depressed citizens live in the nation's rural and outlying areas. Meanwhile, the Chinese ethos of placing emphasis upon a child's education as the primary means for a family's upward mobility still remains as strong as ever. Thus, a paradigm that is essentially the inverse to many Western cultures has manifested in which not only have grown children left their homes to seek their fortunes far away, but millions of parents from rural farming communities have also left young children behind in the care of elderly grandparents in order to seek employment, eking out livings in large urban centers so as not to interrupt their children's study. For a culture that has long prioritized filial piety above all else, this massive exodus of both parents and children from the home alike appears to be causing major ruptures in China's societal fabric, in effect rendering the family unit obsolete and many of its traditional values along with it.

Thus, the annual celebration of Chinese New Year has come to take on even more significance for these families who have become estranged-- parents who have not seen their children in years, brothers and sisters who can barely remember a time when they lived together. Few people outside of China can empathize or even really imagine just how highly emotional, hazardous, and sometimes impossible a feat it can be for these families to make the trip home for this sometimes jubilant, but often bittersweet reunion-- which is perhaps what makes Lixin Fan's 2009 documentary, Last Train Home, so extraordinary.

Produced by the same folks who made Up the Yangtze, Last Train Home chronicles the ups and downs and gradual disintegration of a family as it succumbs to the enormous pressures, expectations, and distances they are forced to endure within this quickly transforming society. Within its first few minutes, the film informs the viewers via subtitles that every Chinese New Year, 130 million workers go home, making it "the world's largest single migration." We then watch as the spectacle of these millions move together in one mass of humanity through the nation's overwhelmed and antiquated rail system. A sea of anxious faces. The pounding of millions of frantic footsteps, mixed with calls of distress, confusion, desperation, and in some cases complete emotional meltdowns. It is one of the most astonishing displays of the lengths to which humans will go in order to reconnect with what we abstractly term as our "roots." The real tragedy of the film, then, is perhaps the slow realization that begins to set in as we follow the journey of one family, The Zhangs, that this ideal of the family hearth to which millions of Chinese citizens cling and hearken back each year is gradually slipping away. Fan never drives this point home with heavy-handed voiceovers or leading editorializing; rather, his unobtrusive lens simply follows the Zhangs and watches-- sometimes with startling intimacy, but always at a respectful distance-- as they grow frustrated, grow tired, and eventually grow apart. At a time when so many families are celebrating the new year with food for feasting, Last Train Home provides much food for thought.

Top 10 Films of 2011

I love movies. So do a lot of my friends. Which is why many of us collectively agonize over deciding which ones rank among our favorites each year. But, after much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair, one finally just has to pull the trigger and make a damned list. So here is my round-up of the Top 10 Films of 2011. And, because the field was so incredibly packed last year, I've also ranked an additional 15 films to round out my Top 25. 2011 was as densely rich a year for movie-going as any in recent memory. Therefore, please keep in mind that there isn't really a wide margin between any of these choices in my estimation. I truly either loved or really liked them all. So, please to enjoy! And if you haven't seen any of these movies, then I sincerely hope you get the chance to screen them soon. Many of them are now available either on DVD, via online streaming, or are still playing in theaters in most major cities.

Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo in The Artist.

1. Hugo, dir. Martin Scorsese
2. The Artist, dir. Michel Hazanavicius
3. A Separation, dir. Asghar Farhadi
4. The Descendants, dir. Alexander Payne
5. Pina 3D, dir. Wim Wenders
6. The Tree of Life, dir. Terrence Malick
7. House of Pleasures, dir. Bertrand Bonello
8. Margin Call, dir. J.C. Chandor
9. Martha Marcy May Marlene, dir. Sean Durkin
10. Shame, dir. Steve McQueen
11. Pariah, dir. Dee Rees
12. Take Shelter, dir. Jeff Nichols
13. Drive, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
14. Jane Eyre, dir. Cary Fukunaga
15. The Skin I Live In, dir. Pedro Almodóvar
16. Margaret, dir. Kenneth Lonergan
17. Beginners, dir. Mike Mills
18. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, dir. David Fincher
19. Attack the Block, dir. Joe Cornish
20. The Trip, dir. Michael Winterbottom
21. The Loving Story, dir. Nancy Buirski
22. Weekend, dir. Andrew Haigh
23. For Lovers Only, dir. Michael Polish
24. Midnight In Paris, dir. Woody Allen
25. Melancholia, dir. Lars von Trier
26. The Swell Season, dirs. Nick August-Perna, Chris Dapkins, Carlo Mirabella-Davis

*Two updates: I am aghast at having realized after posting this list that I mistakenly omitted three very worthy titles: the documentary, Bill Cunningham New York (dir. Richard Press); the modern adaptation of William Shakespeare's Coriolanus (dir. Ralph Fiennes); and the raunch comedy, Bridesmaids (dir. Paul Feig). Though none of these three would have made my Top 10, they all certainly merit inclusion in this list overall.

Secondly, you can see how my Top 10 have figured into the yearly Mini-Poll over at Ten Best Films, which represents the consensus of a small sample of current graduate students and alumni of New York University and Yale University.


*Another belated update (Feb. 9, 2012): I finally saw Martin Scorsese's absolutely beautiful and moving HUGO. Sorry, everyone. This one takes the top prize, knocking The Artist (which, for the record, I still adore) down to number 2. A new film has been crowned.

Asa Butterfield and Chloë Grace Moretz in Hugo.

J. Hoberman Laid Off From The Village Voice

Though I love to write about films, I don't pretend to be a "real" film critic. I leave the serious business to many of my peers, such as Matt Singer and R. Emmet Sweeney, both of whom have been adding their fine voices to the cinephilic dialogue in print and online for years. One of the most auspicious publications in which Mr. Singer and Mr. Sweeney's film reviews have often appeared is The Village Voice, which has also been the home of the rightfully revered film critic J. Hoberman for several decades.

Well, last night, the shocking news came out-- to the outrage of many-- that the Voice has lain Mr. Hoberman off. I won't go into all the details; you can read about it here. However, one thing is for sure: not only has the world of film criticism been rocked by the news, but the Voice has surely just made one of the biggest mistakes in its long, embattled history. As far as most of the weekly's readers are concerned, J. Hoberman was the voice of the Voice. A titan in the industry may have been temporarily displaced, but the Voice has just lost a significant portion of its readership for good. Guess it's all sex ads (no, literally-- it's all just sex ads) from here on out.

*Update: J. Hoberman's farewell message to the staff of The Village Voice appeared this morning on his blog.

Elizabeth Taylor: 1932-2011

Taking just a moment today to mourn the death of cinema icon Elizabeth Taylor, who died this morning of congestive heart failure. She was 79.

In a career that spanned more the 70 years and with over 50 film credits to her name, Ms. Taylor was the epitome of Hollywood beauty and glamour. She won two Academy Awards for her performance as the call-girl Gloria Wandrous in Butterfield 8 (1960), and as the scornful wife Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Hollywood Remakes Jerry Lewis. Again.

  

Though I have wanted to write about a number of different topics for a while now, I recently read a bit of news that reaffirmed both my ongoing disdain for Hollywood's pandering to mainstream commercial tastes as well as my dismay at the memory of yet another classic film being sullied by the specter of a potentially bad remake. The source of my consternation? Jerry Lewis' announcement in January that he was selling the rights to three of his most beloved films: The Bellboy, Cinderfella, and The Family Jewels. Variety reports that Artificial Intelligence Entertainment and Social Capital Films have signed an exclusive development deal with the screen comedy legend to "reboot each picture as a stand-alone comedy franchise, drawing heavily from Lewis’ comedic genius, as well as his heart-warming storytelling.”

Anyone who read my piece on Jerry Lewis in Scarlett Cinema last year knows how much I adored his films as a child (I still do). So when I heard that he was allowing the studios to remake these wonderfully absurd films-- particularly The Bellboy-- I was more than a little anxious that film executives, hard-pressed to produce sure-fire hits, would not be able to do the films justice. In fact, as of this writing, I am almost certain that they won't. Lewis' films are indelibly marked and characterized by the comedian's own specific brand of physical comedy, which is completely original and wholly embodied by the star's unique on-screen presence. So it comes as no surprise that studios like Paramount and Universal, who have yet to win the bid for these films, are hoping to capitalize upon Lewis' legacy and cash in, just as Universal did with its remake of The Nutty Professor (and sequels) in the late 1990s.

Lewis' candidness in interviews about being aware of the studios' reliance upon tried and true material speaks to one of the greater issues plaguing Hollywood right now; and that is an overarching terror of  anything considered to be risky or original. Though Inception proved last year that audiences were willing to pay the full price of a movie ticket to see a big Hollywood film based on a totally original concept, executives at major studios still seem to view this as the exception rather than the rule. Case in point: seven out of the top ten highest grossing films at the box office last year (Toy Story 3; Alice In Wonderland; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1; Shrek Forever After; The Twighlight Saga: Eclipse; Iron Man 2; Clash of the Titans) were either a remake or a sequel, demonstrating that most studio heads simply aren't willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in vehicles that don't already have a built-in franchise or name brand recognition. At least, not while the economy is still weak, ticket sales are barely holding steady, and revenue from DVD sales are in sharp decline. And so the machine chugs onward, cannibalizing great films of the past while the majority of unique voices in the industry are relegated to the margins of indie-film purgatory.

To my mind, perhaps the most galling thing of all is the sheer irony of the Lewis remake deal: when Lewis was allowed to make his directorial debut with The Bellboy in 1960, he essentially staked his claim as a maverick among filmmakers at the time. He initially began producing his own films so as not to be hindered by studio mandates. Restricted by budget and scheduling constraints, Lewis shot The Bellboy entirely in one location and without a script. He was also the first director in Hollywood to make use of video assist, which has since become an industry standard. In short, Jerry Lewis established himself as a filmmaker who was not only afraid to try new things, he could not tolerate making films in any other way but his own. The result was a legacy towards which Hollywood is now scampering because most studio executives are currently too risk averse to make the kind of bold choices that once guided Jerry Lewis' own career.

*Note: Despite my cynicism towards the remakes of The Bellboy, Cinderfella, and The Family Jewels, fans of Lewis' work can at least be consoled by the fact that Lewis himself will be critically involved in every step of these films' development. So, there's that. Here's hoping.

Top Ten Films of 2010

Happy New Year, readers!

Now I concede: I haven't really made any kind of a scene here on You're Making a Scene in quite some time. Sometimes, life does get in the way of blogging. So what have I been doing these past two months? Well, getting married; going on a honeymoon; apartment hunting; moving; the holidays; and resuming my programming duties at Tribeca Film Institute for starters! One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2011, however, is to devote more time to writing about the films, filmmaking practices, and media-related issues that matter most to me. That being said, there's nothing like a good Top Ten list to start off the new year!

I count myself lucky to be a member of a group of incredibly discerning film critics, comprised of a number of New York University and Yale University graduate film and cinema studies alumni, who participate each year in a "Top Ten" poll organized by the illustrious Michael J. Anderson. (His fine film criticism, which can be found on his blogs Tativille and Ten Best Films, is some of the best commentary on the cinematic arts currently being written today.) Other participants in this year's poll also include P.L. Kerpius (Scarlett Cinema); R. Emmett Sweeney (Movie Morlocks and Termite Art); Matthew L. Singer (IFC.com and Termite Art); and Mike Lyon (Tits and Gore). The results of this year's poll are truly extraordinary; so, I encourage you all to check out our selections in the upcoming months, since many of the titles are probably unfamiliar to most American cinema-goers and have yet to receive distribution deals. (If there is any justice in this world, ALL of them will eventually get some kind of a theatrical or DVD release.) For the full consensus, check out Ten Best Films. My own list and a few thoughts on these selections follow below.

Sae Ron Kim in Ounie Lecomte's A Brand New Life

1. A Brand New Life, dir. Ounie Lecomte
2. Poetry, dir. Lee Chang-Dong
3. Black Venus, dir. Abdellatif Kechiche
4. Of Gods and Men, dir. Xavier Beauvois
5. Another Year, dir. Mike Leigh
6. The Social Network, dir. David Fincher
7. Into Eternity, dir. Michael Madsen
8. The Robber, dir. Benjamin Heisenberg
9. Black Swan, dir. Darren Aronofsky
10. My Brothers, dir. Paul Fraser

Upon reviewing this list, I am immediately struck by the number of intesely quiet and intimate character portraits (A Brand New Life, Poetry, Black Venus, The Robber) as well as family dramas (one could argue that A Brand New Life,  Poetry, and even Of Gods and Men all qualify as family dramas in addition to Another Year and My Brothers) that dominated this year. This is particularly striking in view of the showier and more widely covered Hollywood blockbusters that were released in 2010, such as Inception and True Grit (although, to be fair, I did not see the latter). The remaining films on the list are comprised of both highly topical films, such as The Social Network and Into Eternity, which manage to capture and distill unique moments in cultural and technological history, as well as the high-concept film, Black Swan. It was an extraordinary year for cinema, full of terrific writing, bold direction, and even gutsier performances, all of which amounted to a collection of films that somehow made its audiences feel the intangible, analyze the most challenging of ideas and concepts, and, in some cases, revel in the pure joy of art on the screen.

Honorable Mentions

If I may be completely frank, to choose only ten films and deem them "the best" of any given year does somehow feel a bit inane. Art is, after all, subjective; and cinema, more than any other art form, is the product of an incredibly collaborative process full of compromise, a plethora of chance happenings, budgetary and time constraints, as well as a host of other factors that remain out of any director's limits of control. Thus, I just want to make it clear that the above list is simply comprised of those ten films which, for one reason or another, left the most indelible impressions upon me. Which is to say that there were many other films I screened this year that also deserve special mention and which, depending on the criteria and on the day, could take the place of at least a few of those films listed in my top ten. These are (in no particular order):

A Prophet (dir. Jacques Audiard)
Winter's Bone (dir. Debra Granik)
Exit Through the Gift Shop (dir. Banksy)
The Fighter (dir. David O. Russell)
Soul Kitchen (dir. Fatih Akin)
When We Leave (dir. Feo Aladag)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Never Let Me Go (dir. Mark Romanek)
Post Mortem (dir. Pablo Larrain)
I Am Love (dir. Luca Guadagnino)
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (dir. Ricki Stern & Anne Sundberg)
Lucky Life (dir. Lee Isaac Chung)
Micmacs (dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
The White Meadows (dir. Mohammad Rasoulof)
Cairo Time (dir. Ruba Nadda)
The Other Guys (dir. Adam McKay)