Everyone’s gotta list of “Most”‘s to close-off the year, so here’s mine:
Most Best’est:
“The Constant Gardener” (& best proof “City of God” wasn’t a fluke)
– a real ‘thinking-man’s adventure’: taut, exciting, & endlessly surprising… even though you knew the end the minute it started -and-
– better still– it’s a love story, between mature adults, & ‘lo isn’t that a subversive move in this age of “Titanic” & “Nemo”
– & yet– I’m betting it will be completely ignored at Oscar time. Even the great William Goldman swore twenty yrs ago, “the only adventure the Academy will ever award would probably be a ‘medical’ adventure”… but here it is, & the Academy would much rather feed “Stephen fake-sentimentality Spielburg” one more statue. Every vote they give him assuages their guilt for the mountains of soulless crap they spew…. to everyone else I say– watch “The Constant Gardener”, & then “City of God”… & then try to tell me “nobody’s making good films anymore”. These are no ‘foreign, art-house’ subtitle-afflicted slow-paced mental masturbations– these are simply fantastic films.
Most Disappointing:
“Sin City”
– kudos to Rodriguez for making HD look much better than the ballyhoo’d Episodes 1-3… -&-
– kudos for standing up to the stupid DGA who said the Writer couldn’t be a Co-Director, -but-
– no thanks for making a real mess of what’s actually one of the better retellings of Mickey Spillane, Frank Miller’s “Sin City 1: The Tale of Marv”. Marv is the fantastic underhero, drawn like Batman, with the fists of a brawler & a heart of gold. He truly feels for Goldie, but neither Rodriguez nor Miller [trusted] their audience enough to rein-in a few ‘bullets/blood/broads’ shots & let Marv have his Hamlet moment(s). I highly recommend the graphic novel, or read some early Spillane instead.
“Syriana”
– kudos for ‘trying’ to make a Big Movie about Big Ideas, political ideas, & still make it interesting if not balanced (“Faranheit 9/11″ embarrassed me & I’m really liberal), -but-
– couldn’t they have made a film that made any sense? This film’s story was tangled, confused & disconnected, ultimately making the characters unsympathetic, their actions arbitrary, if not ultimately unmemorable
– if you want a ‘movie that make you go hmmm’ & yet a joy to watch, try “The Player”, a masterpiece (everything about Hollywood filmmaking you’d ever need to know, & infinitely better than “Adaptation”‘s turgid confusion). And if you want ‘political thriller’, just watch “Constant Gardener”
Most ‘Almost’:
“History of Violence”
– This film is pretty good, & even ‘very good’ if you consider David “Videodrome” Cronenberg was at the helm. He deserves a big box-office film; he should have won a stack of awards for “Dead Ringers” -but-
– ouch that was a terrible title, almost as bad as “Constant Gardener”. Did anybody know what the film was about, before they went? Even the commercials were confused… 
-nevertheless-
– the climax of the film, the face-off with Hurt, was too pat. Whereas the previous face-off w/ Ed Harris was pure tension, dramatic angles, & painfully extracted glimmers of back-story… the ‘ultimate confrontation’ between finally-reuinited brothers basically devolved to Hurt strutting around, phoning in the same hammed-up wooden face he perfected in “Network”, while Viggo.M’s not-so-great killing moves weren’t very well protected by the camera. We weren’t shocked, we weren’t surprised, we didn’t learn much, & it was kinda hard to care… so we’re left waiting for a ‘big finish’… which never happens. And yet the ‘negative capability’ of the final scene really would have been sublime, if it had followed a climax as well-drawn as the Viggo-vs-Harris confrontation. William Hurt can act better than this. Too bad.
– But gotta love that stairway scene… the perfect balance to the cheerleader scene. Older ppl can have sexy and mature relationships too! Thank bog for Cronenberg (& Fernando “Pregnant women are sexy” Meirelles)
-and- The Most Fun:
Seeing my short film at the “Shorts Project”, live on-stage amidst some great plays by Steve Martin & Don Niegro, for three weeks in front of paying audiences. We even got great reviews from SF Bay Guardian & SF Weekly!
You can see it too, here.
See you at the ‘Netflix 