The Screengrab : james marsh

The Best of 2008: Leonard Pierce's Picks for the Best Movies of the Year, Part One

Leonard Pierce — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

2008 is already getting a rap as a bad year for filmmaking, which is entirely unfair -- it's merely a good year that has to contend with coming right after 2007, one of the greatest years in recent cinematic history. It's also the first year where I spent the entire year as a critic living in a city that seems allergic to art films; when it came time to compile my top tens, which no doubt reflect my current cultural circumstances, I found I had seen fewer of the most highly praised films of the year than in any recent memory. Putting this list together involved a lot of work on my part -- not the normal intellectual work of weighing the artistic merits of each movie and finding something to say about them, but the physical work of actually seeing the damn things, when a good half of them didn't play in my city. This is especially true of the 2008 end-of-year releases. But throught a combination of tactics, including but not limited to Netflix, filesharing, begging publicists for screeners, shuttling back and forth to Austin, and, in the case of my #1 pick, engaging in a quest that would, itself, make a pretty good movie, I managed to put together a list of my ten favorite films of the year. I don't know how you loyal readers will take it -- I know that I'm at odds with a few of my Screengrab colleagues on at least a couple of these -- but here I stand, in a year that ain't as bad as it seemed.

10. MILK (Gus Van Sant, dir.)

Three decades too late, but this is the year of Harvey Milk: the new album by an Athens-based band that bears the assassinated San Francisco supervisor’s name is one of the best of the year, as is Gus Van Sant’s biopic of the country’s first openly gay elected official. Noted by Van Sant as the first movie of his return to mainstream filmmaking, Milk has been criticized for taking a straightforward approach rather than showcasing the director’s more experimental side, but, like Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, it largely succeeds because it lets the flashy stylistic touches take a back seat to what is, after all, one of the most compelling political stories of the American century. Sean Penn is rightly getting props for his terrific performance as Harvey Milk; it’s a career-redeeming showing after nearly a decade of missteps. But no one should ignore the excellent supporting performance, especially those of James Franco as Milk’s partner Scott Smith and Josh Brolin as the tortured killer Dan White. Elegant, appealing, timely and persuasive without being preachy, Milk is one of the best biopics of recent vintage.

9. BALLAST (Lance Hammer, dir.)

Lance Hammer’s debut feature film Ballast is being widely proffered as proof that reports of independent film’s death have been greatly exaggerated. The indie scene was on the rocks this year, to be sure, but Ballast is a mighty convincing argument for its continued vitality. It deals quietly and hypnotically with the emotional paralysis into which a Mississippi family is thrown after one brother commits suicide, and its characters – played almost entirely by an amateur cast using improvised dialogue – are so real as to be astonishing. The performances by a batch of promising unknowns are halting, wandering, and unspectacular, because people rarely react to such an event in a spectacular way. Likewise, criticism of the film’s slow pace seem off the mark to me: the movie’s slow movement and stately grace (visually abetted by some incredible cinematography by Lol Crawley) recall Ozu, who was rarely subject to such carping. Ballast is a thing of dark, slow beauty.

8. THE DARK KNIGHT (Christopher Nolan, dir.)

The opinion of a million IMDB fanboys notwithstanding, The Dark Knight isn’t one of the greatest films ever made. Now that it’s available on DVD, its flaws are easy to catch on repeat viewings: too much of David S. Goyer’s heavy scriptwriting hand, a confused and uncentered role for Batman himself, and an ending that continues to make precious little sense. But, by the same token, its strengths are also mightily in evidence, ready for anyone to savor who thinks a big-screen action picture can’t also be a good movie: a number of near-perfect emotional moments, a riveting conjuration of a city caught in the grips of terror, and, of course, Heath Ledger’s absolutely electrifying performance as the Joker, one of the greatest screen villains in history. And, in the same way he used a pulp noir thriller as the framework for one of the most deeply philosophical mainstream movies ever in Memento, Nolan manages to take a superhero punch-‘em-up and turn it into one of the most profoundly political movies of the year.

7. IL Y A LONGTEMPS QUE JE T'AIME [I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG] (Phillipe Claudel, dir.)

This French drama is, with Synechdoche, New York, one of two amazing films made this year by first-time directors who are better known for their writing. Phillipe Claudel, a well-respected screenwriter and novelist, has made a movie as small and controlled as Charlie Kaufman’s is ambitious and sprawling: it’s remarkably tight for a first effort, with none of the excess that often betrays a first effort. With not a single frame wasted, he brings us the story of Juliette Fontaine, a woman whose sister takes her into a distrusting – not to say dysfunctional – family after she has spent fifteen years in prison; Kristin Scott Thomas (who seems an entirely different actress, and a far superior one, in French than she is in English) plays her with an emotional and physical reticence that borders on exhaustion, and she’s perfectly complemented by Elsa Zylberstein as her loving, determined sister. It’s the best family drama in years, understated and nearly perfect at conveying its emotional complexities.

6. MAN ON WIRE (James Marsh, dir.)

The most compelling documentary of the year is based on an event so trivial it would be almost entirely forgotten if not for the existence of the movie: Phillipe Petit’s jaw-dropping, pointless, spectacular, and foolhardy tightrope walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center during its construction in 1974. Filmed by the director of Wisconsin Death Trip and using similar techniques (including some arbitrary, though skillful reenactments), Man On Wire brings us a movie about the WTC that has nothing to do with the terror attacks that brought it down – and yet which cannot escape comparison, with its images of bits of the towers in chaos (though from construction, not destruction), its central plot of a small group of schemers engaging in intricate planning to conquer them (though their motivation is art, not violence), and its unforgettable image of Petit suspended between the buildings, so eerily reminiscent of the shots of those who fell on September 11th. Petit did not fall; we know he did not, because we see and hear him from the movie’s first shots. The fact that it’s so fascinating to watch though we know he didn’t fall is a testament to its power as a film.

Click for Part Two

DVD Digest for December 9, 2008

Paul Clark — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:00:00 GMT

This week brings a number of interesting possible Christmas gifts for the DVD lover in your life, no matter what his or her taste might be.

DVD of the Week: There are probably about half a dozen DVDs coming out today that I’d be happy to receive for Christmas. But if, say, some unnamed benefactor with deep pockets was to give me any of this week’s new releases (hint hint), the one I would want most would be the Murnau, Borzage and Fox DVD Collection (Fox). Spotlighting two of Fox’s most celebrated silent filmmakers- F.W. Murnau and Frank Borzage- the set collects a dozen of their great American silents, from Murnau’s City Girl and Sunrise to Borzage’s 7th Heaven and Street Angel. But while the films alone would justify the purchase, the set is also filled with extras that should prove to be catnip for silent film junkies, including a feature-length documentary about the filmmakers, several commentary tracks, and the alternate European cut of Murnau’s masterpiece Sunrise. Perhaps most exciting is the inclusion of material related to Murnau’s famous lost film 4 Devils, including the screenplay, a stills gallery, and a documentary about the film. All in all, it’s the perfect Christmas gift for the movie nerd in your life, not least if that movie nerd is me.

Of course, if you’re on a budget, that movie nerd would probably be happy with a number of this week’s other releases. Also worth mentioning on the classics front is the release of two of the most inventive films of the 1990s, Olivier Assayas’s Irma Vep (Zeitgeist) and Lars Von Trier’s Europa (Criterion), released in the U.S. as Zentropa. Also of note are a pair of double-feature DVDs from Warner, one containing Chamber of Horrors and The Brides of Fu Manchu, the other pairing The Shuttered Room and It!

If the DVD nut in your life is more of a TV watcher, you could do a hell of a lot worse than HBO’s massive box sets of The Wire: The Complete Series (HBO) and Deadwood: The Complete Series (HBO). Or if he’s more into brain-teasing fantasy, give Lost Season 4 (Disney, also Blu-Ray) a spin. And the classic TV nut should go for Get Smart: The Complete Series (Universal).

If you’re looking for some discs to go with the snazzy new Blu-Ray player you’re getting Christmas morning, this week brings the comedy triple feature of Dodgeball (Fox), The Mask (Warner), and Super Troopers (Fox).

Finally, this week’s new releases on DVD include something for the kids (Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! [Fox, also Blu-Ray]), something for the ladies (Sex and the City: The Movie Ultimate Collector’s Edition [Warner]), and something for the documentary fans (James Marsh’s stunning Man on Wire [Magnolia]). Oh, and there’s a little something called The Dark Knight (Warner, also Blu-Ray) coming out this week. I figure it’ll sell at least a few copies, but don’t quote me on that.

Thursday Morning Poll for September 11, 2008

Paul Clark — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

With the year two-thirds over, we thought it was a good time to look back at some of the most acclaimed titles of 2008 so far. But while IMDb users and tough-talking bands of blog commenters are largely in agreement that The Dark Knight is pretty much the greatest thing ever (or at least since The Shawshank Redemption), it might come as a surprise that the Screengrab readership does not concur with this opinion. To wit: in last week’s poll of the top five best-reviewed major releases of 2008 (according to Rotten Tomatoes), the winner was Pixar’s latest contemporary classic, Wall-E, which brought in 39% of the vote. Furthermore, The Dark Knight actually tied for second (22% of the vote apiece) with a film that was never released on more than fifty screens at any given time, last year’s Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. As for me, I cast my vote for the James Marsh’s thrilling documentary Man on Wire, which came in a solid fourth (17%) but at least fared better than Best Foreign Language Film Oscar-winner The Counterfeiters, which garnered no votes whatsoever.

This week, in conjunction with my colleague Andrew Osborne’s run-down of the biggest hits and flops of the summer, we get your opinions on the hottest tickets from the last four months. As you might have guessed, two of the titles this week were also included in last week’s poll, but we’re hoping that perhaps some of you Iron Man fans out there were waiting for your chance to cast your vote here. So, which of the summer’s biggest box-office winners was your favorite?

Favorite of this summer's biggest blockbusters? | BuzzDash polls

In addition, we’d like to know how many of the summer’s reigning blockbusters you managed to see.

How many of the blockbusters in question did you see? | BuzzDash polls

As always, the comments section is open. See you next week!

Tribeca Film Festival Review: "Man on Wire"

Phil Nugent — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:00:00 GMT

James Marsh's documentary Man on Wire may not be the best movie in the Tribeca Film Festival--it feels a little drawn-out at 94 minutes, and it includes "dramatic reconstructions" that, mixed in with home movies and news footage, create confusion about whether what we're seeing is real or staged--but it's easy to see why it belongs in the Tribeca Film Festival. As everyone knows, the festival was created in the wake of, and as a response to, the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and the movie is about one of the few moments in the WTC's history that can only be called likable: the day of August 7, 1974, when Philippe Petit, a self-taught wire walker and master of other carny skills, such as picking pockets, managed to hang a wire between the two towers and perform on it, some 1300 feet above the ground. Interviewed in the movie along with his various accomplices, Petit, who couldn't be more elfinly French if he were played by Dominique Pinon, says that he knew that he had to do it when he first learned of the WTC's construction, years before the buildings were finished; while he was working the kinks out of his plan, he warmed up by performing similar illegal wire walks above Notre Dame Cathedral and Australia's Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Marsh's film, which is an entertaining curio, builds up to the triumphant big moment by letting the principles lay out how the scheme came together. (For Petit, getting out on that wire was nothing compared to smuggling his equipment into the building and up onto a high floor so that the wire itself could be set in place.) It can't be said that the movie does much for the legend of the American can-do spirit; of the three Americans in in the plot, one of them panicked and bailed at a crucial moment and another was summarily dispensed by Petit for turning up at a planning session while stoned. (Asked about it now, the man says, "I smoked pot every day for thirty-five years. I don't know why I wouldn't have smoked it that day.") As for the third local member of the team, the "inside man" Barry Greenhouse, his mustache alone is cause to suspect that he's really a Martian who took a job working in an office on the 82nd floor of Tower Two just to make ends meet. For New York audiences, the real star of the movie will be the cop who turns up in news footage at the end to explain it all to the TV cameras in an accent that would bring tears to Clifford Odets's eyes and with the kind of phrasing that you only encounter when a New York cop decides to get all precise on your ass. Calling Petit "a wire dancer" because "you couldn't really call him a wire walker" based on what he saw him doing out there, the cop says that it was explained to Petit's partner in crime that if he didn't come inside, "we were gonna get a helicopter out there and pluck him" off the wire, whereupon the accomplice began to "shout at him in French," which made perfect sense when you think about it, "seeing as how he's from France."