The time has come around when the best of the year's films are selected. The list, in alphabetical order is based on films that open in Canada during the period of January 1st to December 31st, 2003. Oddly enough, there was hardly a worthwhile film during the first 6 months of the year while most of the best films appeared during the last 2 weeks of October ("Mystic River", "Elephant" and "Kill Bill"). Overall, a good year for films! One of my favorites is the unreleased Korean film "Memories of Murder" available on video without subtitles. It is almost worth it to learn the language to enjoy this movie.
When the critics rave that South American cinema has returned with a vengeance, they weren't kidding. Director Fernando Meirelles' 2002 feature, based on a true story set in the 'City of God' just outside Rio de Janeiro is a harrowing account of three generations of gang warfare. In the opening sequence, the handheld camera rotates, jumps, circles, tilts and moves at the speed of the bullets that are fired out of the pistols of the adolescent protagonists. There are shots interspersed of a blade sharpening, bare-feet dancing on the dusty ground, beating drums and a chicken's eye view of the action as it escapes from its captors and runs for dear life amidst a speeding jeep. As the chicken is cornered, two gangs emerge to corner the fowl and the main protagonist, Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) who begins narrating his story back to the 60s. "City of God" is extremely violent, both graphically and in content. But Meirelles gets his message across in a fierce, edgy and compelling film that amazes, astounds and finally captivates.
It is no secret that "Elephant", Gus Van Sant's account of a high school shooting tragedy attempts to portray an everyday teen school day as uneventful as possible. John arrives late to school and is awarded detention. Eliot interested in photography, takes a few snapshots of his friends. Van Sant's characters interact and his film shifts forwards and back in time, interspersing scenes while moving at normal speed and slow motion. His film is lyrical, slow at times (comparable in parts to his recent experimental "Gerry") but always pleasant and engaging. Only he could get away with a soundtrack of Beethoven played in the background of a football practice. All the actors are (non-professional) high school students and they look it, giving the film a raw yet realistic edge. Van Sant also throws in interesting analogies to the shooting incident such as higher energy electrons in the outer orbits of atoms displacing inner less active ones. Van Sant offers no answers to why the teens commit the wicked deed. But no questions were posed from the beginning. By presenting the casualty of the incidents, he proposes that such acts do occur for the same reason that human beings are as different as the day is ordinary. For each student presented, high school is a dissimilar experience - it might be stimulating or exciting but on the other hand, it could be traumatic, lonely and difficult. In the same way, "Elephant" will have differing effect on viewers. "Elephant" deservedly won this year's Palme d'Or in Cannes and Van Sant the best director award. A very powerful film!
"Finding Nemo" is the classic story-telling tale involving self discovery, a lengthy and marvelous journey involving making new friends, love (father-and-son in this case) and some tragedy (the destruction of Nemo's family in the beginning). Little Nemo is lost landing up in a dentist's aquarium in Sydney, Australia and father fish, Marlin with the help of forgetful fish, Dory, undertake an arduous journey to rescue Nemo. The filmmakers play it safe working with the same formula of Pixar's previous hits. Humour is aplenty (clown fish unable to tell jokes and the inspired seagull chase though the Sydney wharf) and so is the family element (father bonding with son, dentist getting fish for daughter) like "Toy Story" and "Monsters Inc." As a bonus, kids gain educational knowledge through the scriptwriters (Peterson and Reynolds) who themselves have done their homework phasing in geographical facts like the East Australian Current (that sweeps the turtles to Sydney Harbour from the Great Barrier Reef) and the dozens of colourful true aquatic creatures that populate the story. Even Nemo's attempted escape through the tank's filters is cautiously plotted and mechanically and technologically accurate. Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres voice Marlin and Dory with both the desperation and lightness required in the story. But what is especially gratifying is the filmmakers' decision to go all the way with voices of veteran Australian actors like Bill Hunter (as the dentist) and Geoffrey Rush. Hollywood has recently created a new Academy Award category for Best Animated feature. Last year, one of the 10 best films of the year "Spirited Away" won. For 2003, this brilliant gem will no doubt carry away the coveted prize.
The first major and pleasant surprise of Tarantino's ultra over-the-top blood fest sword saga is the fanfare followed by the tacky Shaw Brothers' caption 'Shaw Scope'. In "Kill Bill - Vol. 1" a child witnesses Thurman's killing of her mother. Though the incident is not brought up anywhere else in the film, a seasoned Shaw Brothers' film fan can only predict that Tarantino would have this child make another appearance in Vol. 2, out next February. "Kill Bill", the 4th film by Tarantino, is pure adrenaline delight for the cineaste. Part western, part martial-arts (Chinese and Japanese) but mostly action, this is what spirited filmmaking is all about. Tarantino utilizes everything from musical interludes, to Japanese anime, from rock music to country and western to chronological fragmentation to offer the viewer a tantalizing sit-through of the fastest one and a half hours of movie going. The fights are exquisitely staged, exciting, fast and furious. For the film enthusiast, there is much to delight from the homage paid to Godard ("Band Apart" in the film's start) to O-Ren Ishi's (Lucy Liu) bodyguard, a teen in school uniform (from the recent Japanese hit "Battle Royale"). Narrative-wise, "Kill Bill" is all over the place. There is mention of any reason why the Bride and her wedding party got massacred. Or who Bill really is! But the film works. "Kill Bill" is what filmmaking should be all about. Taking risks with the genre and with filming techniques - and succeeding in entertaining and astonishing the viewer.
"The horses are restless. The men are quiet!" utters Legolas (Orlando Bloom) at one point in the film. Running at three and a half hours, Peter Jackson's awesome "Return of the King" succeeds in capturing the viewer's attention for the entire span of the film. The film takes off where the last one ("The Two Towers") left off. Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) continue their arduous journey to destroy the ring to save mankind while Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Aragon (Viggo Mortensen) prepare for war. Jackson intercuts constantly between the two adventures. But through the effective use of flashbacks, Jackson reminds the viewer of each stage of the action. Peter Jackson's final installment "Return of the King" brings the trilogy to a perfect closure. (And he takes his time at it, showing the Shire back as it was in the first "Fellowship of the Ring".) The ring is destroyed at Mordor, the battles are won and peace is restored to Middle Earth. And Jackson's film is everything that is to be expected - stupendous, emotional, grand, funny, exciting and fulfilling. It is what moviemaking should be all about. But besides the magnificent locales (New Zealand), imagery (the white Gandalf on horse galloping amidst dark background), costumes (wedding gowns to battle armor), editing (Legolas destroying a mammoth), musical scoring, photography, blend of CGI and live-action, it is the script's humane dialogue that stand out. So far, the Tolkien trilogy stands as the best serial fantasy ever created for the cinema blowing all the "The Matrix" and "Star Wars" movies to Kingdom come. Long Live The King!
"The Magdalene Sisters" refer the sisters of mercy who run a laundry facility for women who have sinned against God and humanity. In Peter Mullan's (director of the mostly unseen "Orphans") powerful adaptation inspired by the documentary "Sex in a Cold Climate", the story centres around 3 women inmates, Margaret (Anne Marie Duff), raped by a cousin during a wedding, Rose (Dorothy Duffy) who has given birth to an illegitimate child and Bernadette (Nora Jane Noone) whose only sin is her attractiveness.
Mullan traces the cruelty, often with equally wicked relish, that goes on behind the walls of the building. The girls are brainwashed (Rose is even given another name Patricia by a sister), humiliated (consider the outrageous 'which girl has the hairiest cunt/largest breast' scene) and beaten by the so-called servants of God. It is of no surprise then that the Vatican tried, without success to prevent this film from being distributed. But the humour (a priest revealed not to be a 'man of God' or the escape sequence) is just as black as it is bitingly funny. Performances are superb, especially McEwan's, Noone's and Walsh's. The irony of it all is that Mullan demonstrates the escaping or a release from the asylum as a relatively simple chore. Margaret's brother only has to show up to claim her. And in real life, the greatest irony is that Mullan's film, which has garnered multiple awards everywhere - including the coveted Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival and the Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival - is still struggling to do well despite the fact that almost every review has praised "The Magdalene Sisters" has my vote as the best film this year!
When the man without a past known only as M (Markku Peltola), wakes up after being mugged in the park, he is totally without memory. He cannot recall his name, job or wife except that he does swill down beer and smoke cigarettes. He is bloody, almost dead and lies most of the time in the street before some kind, poor and just as unfortunate a soul as himself takes him in. This is Finnish Master's story of Finland. Through the eyes of M, he portrays a gloomy, deteriorated yet optimistic perspective of his homeland. This is hardly surprising for a filmmaker who worked as a mailman, dish-washer and film critic before gaining fame as a film director. "Man Without a Past" is the best looking of all the Kaurismaki films, this one handsomely shot by Timo Salminen with the colour of blue brightly standing out - little white and blue flowers that litter the bank of a filthy river and a grayish blue sky that often surround the images being prime examples. Just as M regains confidence in mankind through a newly found love with a Salvation Army worker (the long-time staple of Kaurismaki films - Kati Outinen who won the best actress prize at Cannes last year for her performance in this film), Kaurismaki's tale of humanity, life, survival and dignity grows in depth and intelligence as the film progresses. Like the over serious deadpan comedies Kaurismaki is known for, the film is sad and hilarious, melancholy and joyous but ultimately entertaining and rewarding.
Director Gerard Jugnot gets everything right in this charming bittersweet comedy about smuggling three Jewish children to the free zone. This is the film Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful" should have been - clever, unrelentingly honest in the depiction of its characters, atmospherically realistic and suspenseful instead of being cute and coy and eventually annoying. "Monsieur Batignole" is name of the protagonist and unlikely hero, a French butcher (Jugnot himself), whose future son-in-law, Pierre-Jean Lamour (Jean-Pierre Rouve), an active German collaborator causes him to inadvertently take part in the deportation of his upstairs Jewish family. His own family then occupies the new upstairs dwelling but the Jewish boy Simon (Jules Sitruk) who has just escaped his German captors suddenly appears at Batignole's doorstep. Guilty, Batignole aids Simon and two cousins escape to the Swiss free zone. This feel good formula film has the viewer obviously rooting for the passive and timid Batignole as he discovers dignity and courage to commit a heroic act. The director's flair appears to be the ability to wring remarkable situations out of the world's sorrows. But the pure joy of the film comes from Jugnot's bag of surprises. What is also priceless is not so much the impressive exploration of the way the situation threatens Batignole's accepted way of life but Jugnot's cool, brutal and often funny depiction of the suddenly erupting violence and death. The miraculous irony of it all is that a near perfect picture has been made based on imperfect people. The film is now available on video.
Eastwood's finest film since "Unforgiven" and "Honkytonk Man" tells the effects of a sexual abduction on the lives of three childhood pals. The key is that the kidnapping could have happened to any one of them. As grown ups, Tim Robbins plays the walking zombie never fully recovers from the incident while Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon barely survive trying to forget what had transpired. Not only are all three actors magnificent in their roles but Marcia Gay Harden stands out as Robbins' long suffering wife who is never sure of her husband who returns home drunk one very early morning with blood on his hands. Is he really the murderer of Penn's teenage daughter? One flaw of the film is the many coincidences that occur the night of the murder. But all is forgiven as Eastwood and scriptwriter Brian Helgeland (of "L.A. Confidential" and the last Eastwood vehicle "Blood Work") weave a mesmerizing tale of mood, regret and hopelessness in a town that is just as lost as its characters. There are no winners but only survivors in a film that is guaranteed to numb you by its last reel.
The outward monstrosities of Cronenberg's earlier films ("The Fly", "eXistenz", and "Naked Lunch") are replaced by the inner demons that taunt Spider, the mumbling schizophrenic protagonist, prematurely released from a mental institution. This is a study of Spider's (Ralph Fiennes in a subdued performance) gradual descent into madness as he re-examines his past through flashbacks of his childhood. Did his father (Gabriel Byrne) actually murder and replace his long suffering mother with the local pub tart (both played by Miranda Richardson) or is it Spider's imagination as a child? Cronenberg's film is full of ambiguities (child observes ground that mum was supposedly buried in but observes no earth disturbed), creating an atmosphere of creepiness, gloom and mystery, aided by Peter Suschitzky's handsome photography and Howard Shore's haunting score. Performances are altogether top-notch especially Fiennes', Richardson's and Lynne Redgrave's as the landlady of the half-way house. This is Cronenberg's best film to date.