Loveable Leftovers: films from 2005 I caught up with this year:
Shopgirl
Brokeback Mountain
Dying Gaul
24 Hours on Craigslist
Walmart: the High Cost of Low Prices
Reefer Madness
Melinda & Melinda
the Squid and the Whale
2006 Best Surprises:
Half Nelson - this film came barreling out of Sundance with so hype a lot of us (haters) were bracing to sharpen our claws on its crackhead-with-a-heart-of-gold back. Unnecessary! Ryan Gosling is now officially on my 'he's in this movie? it probably won't suck' list.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - Yeah yeah yeah, you, me and your mom are all sick of hearing about the nudity, lawsuits and whether Pam Anderson was in on it. But honestly, a year ago if someone had told you we would all be so fascinated by a fake Kazakhi reporter holding a mirror up to America's melting pot shortcomings and absurdities you probably would've been spraying yourself with tears of gypsies.
Winter Passing - Does the world need another indie film about drug addiction, grief and isolation that oh yeah, is also kind of funny? Sure and why not, Zooey Deschannel, Ed Harris and Will Ferrel are an utter joy. Let this be known as the year I wanted to see more of John C. Reilly doing blunt object comedy (A Prarie Home Companion, Talladega Nights) and Will Ferrel doing small dramas.
the Quiet - Continuing in the vein of "riot grrl cinema" Jamie Babbit's (But I'm a Cheerleader) also stars Edie "I Make Everything a Little Less Sucky" Falco.
Somersault - Like Kids but with a soul & snow. See my full review at Guru.
the Wild Blue Yonder - You might think it's boring and weird, and you'd be right. But as Manohla Dargis writes "Sometimes the pieces snap neatly into place, as when the Andromedan raps about how a species went searching for a new world only to build a couple of shopping malls; sometimes, as when fragments of ice swirl underwater like snow, the images have no reason beyond beauty. There is pleasure in such useless beauty, of course, and pleasure too in drifting with the jellyfish amid the wild blue yonder of a great filmmaker’s imagination." Werner "so crazy!" Herzog.
Dandelion - a rural, low-rent Romeo and Juliet with stellar performances from Taryn Manning (Hustle & Flow) and Vincent Kartheiser (who proves he's A-list material by only doing A-titled material: Alaska, Angel, Alpha Dog). And beautifully lensed by David Gordon Green go-to cinematographer Tim Orr.
Loverboy - Bacon and Sedwick using their fame and industry power to shine a light on child molestors, wife beaters and neglectful parents... like indie film was meant to do! Loverboy looks luscious and posits Sandra Bullock in a quasi-lesbian kiss. Worth it alone for the scene of Sosie Bacon (Kyra & Kevin's real life daughter playing Kyra as a child) singing "Life on Mars?" acapella in her school talent show.
Nightwatch - The first in a Russian vampire trilogy whose chief inspirations are the Matrix, Lord of the Rings and Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Starry musch!
Game 6 - Baseball, theater and New York in the eighties are each their own recipe for film disaster. Maybe it's just seeing Robert Downey Jr. in drag but this felt like a real hidden gem.
Comments