Film: 2008

Due to consistent 'public' demand, here is my 2008 favorite films list. I added in honorable mentions because I can't help it.

Revolutionary Road dir. by Sam Mendes
Entre Les Murs (The Class) dir. by Laurent Cantet
Rachel Getting Married dir. by Jonathan Demme
The Dark Knight dir by. Christopher Nolan
Encounters at the End of the World dir. by Werner Herzog
Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In) dir. by Thomas Alfredson
Happy-go-lucky dir. by Mike Leigh
The Visitor dir. by Tom McCarthy
The Wrestler dir. Darren Aronofsky
In Bruges dir. by Martin McDonagh

Honorable mentions: Hunger dir. by Steven McQueen, Frozen River dir. by Courtney Hunt, Wendy and Lucy dir. Kelly Reichardt, Funny Games dir. Michael Haneke, Che dir. by Steven Soderbergh, Synecdoche New York dir. by Charlie Kaufman, Valkyrie dir. by Brian Singer, and Stop-Loss dir. by Kimberly Pierce. This is my 2007 list.

trailer truck

It hasn't really occurred to me but an effective indicator of how your life is being busied up by work is by the amount of trailers that you've missed premiered online. As you know, new trailers are being churned out like crazy online, then you realize there's really a ton of movies being churned out every year. Sus! Imagine living in India and thinking they would really release 500 trailers. To sum the copious trailers I just saw in one sitting while doing overtime work on a friggin' Sunday, I can say vampires, zombies and toilet humour.

Have you seen the trailer for the new Apatow bromance? Funny as hell, you might even rekindle some punch-drunk love for Adam Sandler here and Eric Bana is hilarious in his accent. Oh and throw in some Seth Rogen please. I'm looking forward to seeing Funny People. And though I can sniff some Charlie Kaufman-ish shticks, I would want to see Paul Giamatti in Cold Souls. Other comedies looks swell too, like Couples Retreat and Ricky Gervais' The Invention of Lying.

When what seemed to be the dramatic twist in the film is revealed to me, I said, Wha? ABS has thought it first via the Kim-Gerald soap. But then I would want to see a famished Toby Maguire outside Spidey's suit, with Jake Gylenhaal and Natalie Portman in Jim Sheridan's new film, Brothers. I'm really, really, really excited of Moon, which made waves in Sundance and Tribeca. I can see hints of Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris and yeah, throw in some 2001: A Space Odyssey feel in there too. After that bland Choke, Sam Rockwell looks promising in this one.

Just saw Dead Snow this afternoon and boy was it campy. But it's fun. If my 6 and 8-year old bros were laughing at the dismemberment, then I think it's really harmless. If you like intestines for starters, then this schlocky gorefest may just be for you. Also saw Departures the other night. You know the one whose director made a funny speech at the Oscar, the one which beat the anticipated Waltz with Bashir. Simple, doesn't break new ground though but looks gorgeous enough for Academy voters. A blend of comic and melodramatic touches. What's best though is we take a glimpse in a not-so familiar Japanese tradition. It's about death but then it's about life too, as simple as that.

I forgot to talk about Earth, the BBC documentary which is a staggering and painstaking work of art and beauty. If it wasn't intentional, it could be the docu capping An Inconvenient Truth and The 11th Hour. While the two were mostly about scientific and practical approaches, Earth cuts down to the basic equation of all. You have to see it. Also saw The Hurt Locker, which I've been dying to see and which to my surprise scored one of the most highest critic ratings when I checked RT and Metacritic. What can I say but to re-echo what LA Times critic A.O. Scott said, "If it is not the best action movie this summer, I'll blow up my car!" I haven't seen Public Enemies yet, but hands down, this has got to be one of the year's best in action, or even the year's best, period. Kathryn Bigelow gives the guys a run for their war movies, take that. The camera work, editing, acting (Jeremy Renner in an unexpectedly subtle yet powerful performance) is totally swell. If you check you breathing or heartbeat and it's not pulsating like crazy, you're not human.

Cannes 2009

Hear ye, hear ye, the official line up of Cannes 2009 is up for grabs. Loads of heavyweight shit. Pretty impressive lineup huh. Where else can you find Tarantino, Lee, Campion, Almodovar, and a familiar posse of Haneke, Loach, Noe, Lou Ye, Chan-Wook, To, Ming-liang, Coixet, Von Trier, and Alain Resnais! and Mendoza strikes yet again, whew, gosh, did I already mention the entire oeuvre? That's how promising it looks. But the unfortunate remains, I have to beg off from attending the coverage of the premiere. I know it sucks, especially if delude yourself. Ha! Anyway, the Pinoy indie scene is on a rampage. Martin and Alix also makes an appearance in Un Certain Regard and Special Screenings.

The complete line up:

• Pedro Almodovar - Broken Embraces
• Andrea Arnold - Fish Tank
• Jacques Audiard - Un Prophete
• Marco Bellocchio – Vincere
• Jane Campion - Bright Star
• Xavier Giannoli – A L’Origine
• Isabel Coixet – Map of the Sounds of Tokyo
• Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon
• Ang Lee – Taking Woodstock
• Ken Loach – Looking for Eric
• Lou Ye - Spring Fever
• Brillante Mendoza – Kinatay
• Gaspar Noe – Enter The Void
• Park Chan-Wook – Thirst
• Alain Resnais – Les Herbes Folles
• Elia Suleiman – The Time That Remains
• Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
• Johnnie To – Vengeance
• Tsai Ming-liang – Face
• Lars Von Trier – Antichrist

The poster by the way is taken from Michaelangelo Antonioni's 1960 film L'Avventura.

How do you break free without breaking apart?

Apparently, they have the answer. Much as I wouldn't want to talk Oscars... Ok, whatever, let me post this fantastic photo instead of one of the most indubitable tandems, real-life at that, of 2008. Vanity Fair released this, and other actor-director tandems, weeks before ceremonies, but I'm posting it now.

Due to insistent public demand, or rather, due to a demand made publicly (hi Andy, hehe), I'm posting also the Woody-Penelope photo. What conjures up your mind?

And Here. We. Go.

I can smell it. It’s in the air. No, I’m not talking about the commercialized ‘tis-the-season-to-be-jolly’ holidays. To put it simply, the season of the really good movies are here and some of the festivals have announced their winners as well. A lot would call it Oscar mania, but I wouldn’t really want to label it that, as I previously did, because I came to realize that there are a lot of good films left out, the ones that either lacked studio backing or marketing strategy, but standouts. The Academy is a sucker for marketing strategy. Put up a whopper of a poster, and then some. You know, that For Your Consideration thingy that usually appears in bootlegged copies of films. Well, it’s Oscar fever for one because most of the films that would likely end in the Academy’s roster are released this time of the year.

Around September last year, I listed down films that piqued me and what I thought would be potential contenders come awards season. It’s usually safe because most of it I haven’t seen yet, except some trailers and it’s really fun how your amateurish prognostication will turn out.

3 out of 5 nominated films last year I was able to mention: There will be Blood, Atonement, and No Country for Old Men. No Country I didn’t even knew about until it was raved in most of the festivals it screened. I was partial with Blood because it’s Paul Thomas Anderson and Atonement because that time I just finished reading the novel. Wasn’t gaga that much for Atonement, but thought that Blood and No Country are important films because it cinematically depicted the current socio-political milieu, whether America or the world.

I also mentioned The Savages, which earned an Original Screenplay nod and I’m Not There, though it earned just an acting nod from a luminous and unbelievable Cate Blanchett.

Oh and I also finally decided to start a new blog. Well, it's just a move actually, because, well it's one of those things that you know you just have to do. I'd thought this blog, which I wasn't able to update as regularly as much as I want to (in fact it will turn 1 year of being untouched), and for reasons that are only apparent to me, was a bit tight, and with the risk of sounding cheesy, so academic, which I think is not really a bad idea. After all, it's the experience of watching. So I decided that I had to do more than just that, nitpicking; I should try to enjoy more, though I'm not saying that it wasn't really fun. It was an exercise and fulfilling to say the least.

But what the crap. Ok. So here goes.

Honey, honey

Oh gosh why am I beaming when Amanda Seyfried started singing I have a dream/A song to sing, and why can’t I help myself but mouth Super Trooper/Lights are gonna blind me/But I won’t feel blue/Cause somewhere in the crowd there’s you? Super Trooper is actually my favorite Abba song. Father used to own this double cassette Abba collection, and that’s precisely the reason – me growing up listening to Abba tunes – I trooped to the theatre and watched Mamma Mia. Ok, so it’s so girly or rather so grandma-ish. I was actually sandwiched by two old ladies on my left and an old couple on my right. The theater though not really full was littered with old people ranging prolly between 40 to 60.

I first saw Ms. Seyfried in a Justice episode where she was mistaken a college high-class hooker -murderer and her partner Dominic Cooper appeared in the film adaptation of the play The History Boys. And yes Meryl Streep can sing, so does Mr. Brosnan. Maybe she’ll do a superhero movie next year. Who knows what she can do? Might as well do everything and risk life and limb. It was an okay musical, a bit mushy – it’s a celebration of mothers and daughters, what’d you expect – but totally enjoyed it. Abba, the phenomenal Swedish pop sensation, will only be further indelibly marked in the minds of those who grew up with them, who grew up singing to their songs, and will be introduced to the now generation who will hear for the first time some of the songs other than the much-karaoke-maligned Dancing Queen. Contrary to the now generation pop music, Abba songs will likely to remain for the longest time.

Speaking of disposable poppish (I actually just invented this word) tunes, I will officially confess my guilty pleasure recently -- oohhh, this is an SOS/don’t want a second guess or when you look me in the eye/I catch a glimpse of heaven. Yes, those squeaky pre-pubescent boys of the Jonas Brothers. I can’t get out of the friggin LSS. You can now laugh and crucify me. Speaking of more boybands, why are the pre-BSB and NSYNC groups suddenly arose from their boyband graves? New Kids on the Block and Menudo released their reunion singles recently. I’m guessing Marilyn Manson’s ears are bleeding right now.

Deformed skulls and counting cards.

I find myself increasingly less and less tolerable with a theatre crowd. So I haven't really enjoyed the summer blockbusters without some assholes lurking in the dark theatre. So I am for the passage of a law that will establish cinema/theatre ethics. A legislation that is based on common sense, with utmost regard for respect of the other and mere delicadeza. It would penalize those whose cellphones ring to the tune like FUCK YOU MY PHONE IS RINGING AND I DON'T GIVE A SHIT in the middle of an important conversation in the movie knocking your concentration off or those who can't seem to shut their sorry vile-stuffed mouths from tendering their own analysis of the movies or the stars in it or those whose knees are kept pounded by an imaginary reflex hammer because they constantly kick the chairs in front of them. The penalty would be simple (and depending on the gravity of the offense): the perpetrator of assholeness owes the aggrieved party one year to a lifetime free movie tickets to the theatre of the aggrieved party's choice or be subjected to A-Clockwork-Orange-type of viewing/conditioning.

***

After watching 21 last night, I passed by a local hotel here while aboard on a jeep and saw a huge tarp with the super-imposed face of Bayani Fernando and 2 seconds after I saw him coming out of the main door. Anyway…

It's typical, but think I enjoyed 21 better than Indy 4. Jeff Ma, the real Ben Campbell, does not resemble the actor Jim Sturgess, which points again to the stereotype that geeks can't be fuckable-looking. Jim, who's British and who debuted in Across the Universe, looks like a famished young Paul McCartney.

21 is just okay. I lost track of the techniques because the couple behind kept shitting about the movie. 21 needs more to dazzle though. Something that would jump off the page, right? Life experience, anyone? The sex was not hot too. Meanwhile, the good thing about Indy 4 is Cate Blanchett, who plays a Russian dominatrix. Cate can play anything, as Oscar host Jon Stewart said. I can't believe they survived the falls and I knew the moment I saw the deformed skull that there was something fishy, E.T.-fishy.

Iron Man kicked ass though. I mean, Mr. Downey did some major ass-kickin. I bet the robotically geeky had a major hard on with that one. Also, notice how Gwyneth maintains her poise and elegance as she runs while everything is exploding behind her like she's walking the red carpet. Speed Racer was fun too but structurally flawed. It was eye-candy which basically is the main ingredient for a family popcorn movie. Street Kings is violent enough but lacks the grit of Training Day. David Ayer keeps on repeating the same themes, he need some major re-tracking.

I'm now rooting for Kung Fu Panda and The Dark Knight. Every time the DK trailer is on, my heart pounds like a sledgehammer. The cast is so big time and Maggie Gylenhaal! I'm looking at a post-mortem nod for Heath, he's so disturbing. Here's to the caper!

Smells like Oscar popcorn

My film blog has been shamefully lagging for the past month. I had written only about 3 articles and the first one I wrote this month is on The Bourne Ultimatum (The Lookout and Knocked Up on pending mode), the last movie I saw, which was like ages already. In the States, usually after summer, the most exciting of the season ensues contrary to the popular but understandable commercial period of summer blockbies. It is also the time when prestigious film festivals start handing out accolades, and this early, forecast what we will expect come next few months.

So after thorough sifting here’s the top five films I look forward to watching (and no, despite the early hype and looking all so Oscarly dolled up, no Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise):

Lust, Caution by Ang Lee. This just won Golden Lion, the top trophy in the recently concluded Venice Film Festival. And though it stirred mixed reactions on its supposed worthiness towards the other top contenders, I just couldn’t resist that trademark Ang Lee. This Chinese-language film is a tempting espionage set in 1920-something China. Tony Leung is forceful than ever and Lee introduces the serene and beautiful Tang Wei.

I’m Not There by Todd Haynes. This is the other film I was talking about who has kept critics saying in the top tier as Lust, Caution. Who wouldn’t? This is a courageous conceptual biopic of Bob Dylan, supposedly the only one he seems to agree to. I’m particularly excited about Cate Blanchett (who just won Best Actress in the same festival) who plays Dylan in one of the artist’s musical periods. Haynes is one of the directors I haven’t seen. Velvet Goldmine, prepare to be scratched.

Margot at the Wedding by Noah Baumbach. I have yet to see Kicking and Screaming but The Squid and the Whale just did it for me. I’m going to watch this because Noah Baumbach is one hell of a writer and his semi-autobiographical funny take on divorce is one of the best of 2004. I can’t wait for Nicole Kidman and Jack Black in an indie and Jennifer Jason Leigh is long overdue for a nod.

3:10 to Yuma by James Mangold. I was tempted to put Rescue Dawn by Werner Herzog because I really picked this one because I felt this would be the year for Christian Bale. But something about 3:10 to Yuma is so appealing that I would like to see it more than the former. An early review looks promising and the Crowe-Bale tandem is a tour-de-force. This is a remake of a 1957 classic based on an Elmore Leonard short and if the film lives up to its hype come awards season, I have a feeling that it will be this year’s The Departed.

There Will be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson. Boogie Nights and Magnolia are among my favorite movies and both are of the same director. PTA is one of the youngest talented directors around and what makes this film exciting is the fact that it’s a totally new genre for him and he is not working on an ensemble. Moreover, he adapts the screenplay from a Sinclair novel titled “Oil”. Daniel Day Lewis is inevitable but besides PTA, I’m excited about this because Paul Dano is so good in the trailer that I actually forgot his name.

Atonement by Joe Wright. I’m so looking forward to this one that I’m reading the book now by Ian McEwan. Everything in the trailer looks like it’s headed for Oscar. Even Keira Knightley is staggering despite being unbelievably thin and I’m sensing a James McAvoy mania right now. If last year, Children of Men has the famous cinematographic moment in 2006 film history, this year, by the looks and raves of it, Atonement has it for the running.

My runners up include two favorites at this year's Sundance: Grace is Gone by James C. Strouse. Something about this film is so strikingly orginal. One of the big winners in this year's Sundance, Grace is Gone tells the story of a father and family who copes with the death of the mother, who is a military official, in the Iraq war. John Cusack's performance looks Oscarrific. The Savages by Tamara Jenkins has Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney playing as siblings attending to their dying father (the trailer is so funny that I shouldn't dismiss this one). Other notables include the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men and Julie Taymor's Across the Universe.

Will link up the trailers as soon as I can and possibly add up some if I've seen enough trailers.

Bergman, 89; Antonioni, 94

Early this year, I rekindled my passion for the cinema, which means the serious, contemplative thus boring, unappealing and unbearable to most. I'm quite sure I had it running during that semester when we had a film appreciation elective, but while I was seriously reading supplementary materials and read names like Eisenstein and Buñuel, we kept viewing stuff like X-Men (oh, here I am again, and not to say X-Men is bad, alright?) and recent commercial releases. The closest serious shit was Scorsese's Taxi Driver and Coppola's The Godfather.

And while I was being introduced to great filmmakers in a matter of months, two of the most important directors died in a matter of two weeks. Ingmar Bergman and Michaelangelo Antonioni. And while I must confess that I have only seen Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957) and Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960) this year, I'm quite glad that I caught up with these films before their deaths. And so my memories of them are moot and I'd prolly lose to any discussions on their filmography, so I'm humbly sharing these clips in honor.

The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957). The hooded figure who personifies death still gives me the creeps.



L'Avventura (Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1960). This may be a montage of all the kissing scenes in the film, but that's the closest it can get.

Jaycloptron, activating.

Alter-ego Scott Summers right there, going through serious galactic transformation. Really, wouldn't it be ultra-cool if Jayclops could morph himself into a sleek blue Chevy Camaro and still emit his trademark optic laser via headlights. Maybe I'm really one of the Bots who's taking refuge among the stars. I can hear Optimus Prime sending the message via hardcoded undecipherable signals. Pardon my childish meandering, but that some megatronic hangover right there. Transformers really packs some neat shit and explodes in your face that you can't help but cheer (though discreetly, thanks to the already annoyed lady beside me) like an eight-year old kid and not feel guilty about it. Oh and it's Sha-ya La-Beau. "I gotcha boy!," ensures Optimus, with quirky me hanging on to Allspark and dear life. Sweet. So here's my little eight-year-old take on what I think is the most enjoyable summer blockbies so far.

Horde.

I finally reckon the events of yesterday's post-labor day angst as moot. Plotting a coup isn't gonna work out anyway.

To break the monotony of last Tuesday, I decided to go shortly to this long-standing booksale in Victoria to see if they have new arrivals or books which I may have passed by previously. Luckily, there was another new bunch of 35-peso books -- a welcome development from the last weeks' one section. I was beaming with excitement when I grabbed Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, Crash - J.G. Ballard's cult classic, and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, the original German version of which was written by Patrick Susskind. David Cronenberg had a film adaptation of Crash which starred James Spader, while the film version of Perfume was released last year with Dustin Hoffman.

Because I am running low on budget these days, I hid the Willa Cather, the Margaret Atwood and Muriel Spark. Which means I cannot shell out anything for any pirated DVD as well. I saw the sophomore feature of Steven Shainberg - Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus - which stars Nicole Kidman as the famous photographer Diane Arbus who fell in love with her man-ape neighbor played by Robert Downey Jr.

I decided to give pirated DVDs a rest because Limewire and YouTube has been overwhelmingly generous. I now have 5 of Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick films and a slew of other classics like Casablanca, Annie Hall, Apocalypse Now, and Blade Runner. Plus rare ones from Wong Kar-wai, Nicolas Roeg, Jean Luc Godard, and Akira Kurosawa. Plus classic silent films like Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein), Le Passion d' Jeanne D'Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer), and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiener). To think, I only read about them in the library. No such luck though with Altman and Polanski.