Part five of the Mega Rating Blowout Bonanza reviews. For links to the previous posts in this series, and for a primer on how I apply my ratings, click on the links below:
Part 1: Introduction and Three Star Reviews
Part 2: Two Star Reviews
Part 3: One and Zero Star Reviews
Part 4: Four Star Reviews
Star Review Primer
So here they are, the movies that absolutely blew my brain. Also, unlike the previous four posts, I listed these in chronological order rather than reverse chronological order - it just made more sense to me on this post whereas it didn't seem to matter for the others.
06-12-09: Chungking Express (1995) 5 stars
I had seen In the Mood for Love in college, but I don't think I appreciated it. So, despite knowing about Chungking Express for years, I never had the desire to watch it. Stupid me! The first half of this film is a fine, fine movie, but the second story is sublime. I won't wax poetic about Wong Kar-Wai, but I think the second half of Chungking Express is about the closest cinema can come to imitating Miles Davis' Some Kind of Blue - it's pure cinema, and it's just reveling in its own fun and happiness.
I will never hear The Mamas & The Papas' "California Dreaming" or The Cranberries' "Dreams" again without thinking of Chungking Express, Wong Kar-Wai, Tony Leung, or Faye Wong. Chungking Express isn't for everyone, but I don't think cinema lovers can watch this film without smiling.
06-16-09: 24 Hour Party People (2002) 5 stars
I blame it all on the idiots I went to film school with. In 2002 and 2003, I was completely burnt out on movies - if I remember correctly, I hadn't seen any of the 2002 Best Picture Nominees when the Oscars came around, and I hadn't seen any of the smaller, critical darlings everyone was talking about either. I was fed up, and it took a while before I was truly back in love with the movies. Which is the only reason I can possibly think of for never seeing, or even knowing, about 24 Hour Party People until this year.
I love movies about music, especially funny movies that are totally in love with music, and this might be the best postmodern, quasi-mockumentary, semi-historical, funny as hell portrait of a musical scene ever filmed. It's hilarious, has great performances, has great energy, has great music, and has won my eternal love. I do not think I will ever understand how 24 Hour Party People escaped my attention, and I would feel rightfully shamed right now if it was possible to feel anything but giddy love when thinking about 24 Hour Party People. Please, go see it now!
06-17-09: Badlands (1973) 5 stars
I get it now, why filmlovers were so distraught after Terrence Malik disappeared for twenty years. Having now seen Badlands and Days of Heaven, even though Malik has since returned, I'm pissed at him for not making movies for those twenty years. I love Days of Heaven, I think The Thin Red Line is a masterful movie, and for some dumb reason I still haven't seen The New World. However, minutes after Badlands finished I knew I had just seen a masterpiece. It took maybe an hour more to realize that, not only was Badlands now my favorite Malick film, it was also almost certainly his best.
Badlands came out merely six years after Bonnie and Clyde, but the two are like night and day. Bonnie and Clyde is a wonderful film, but Badlands is a beautiful, haunting, dreamlike masterpiece of two young lovers on the run, one that has neither sympathy nor distaste for the characters or their actions. Malick beautifully presents the what, when, where, and how, leaving the why all to the audience. Badlands is also a showcase of acting, cinematography, editing and sound, all of which go to his credit as a director. Easily one of the most impressive debut films ever made, I am in awe of Badlands.
06-25-09: In the Mood for Love (2000) 5 stars
I obviously didn't give In the Mood for Love its due when I saw it the first time. I can't say much about it. The movie is beautiful, the people are beautiful, the costumes are amazingly beautiful, the music is beautiful, the story is beautifully told, the characters are beautifully tragic.
I can't think of anyone who would not enjoy watching In the Mood for Love, and I guess that is my highest praise. I urge people to see it, I think it's probably a great introduction to Wong Kar-Wai, Tony Leung, and Maggie Cheung. There is a scene where each character gets to confront his and her spouse, and I think it might be one of the best, most original takes on such a scene I have ever had the pleasure to watch . . . and that might not even be the best scene in the movie.
07-13-09: Gosford Park (2001) 5 stars
Gosford Park was my first Altman film, before I really understood what Altman was about (I had heard of him, and of his films, but that was about it). I enjoyed it, but then didn't think much more of it. Later, as I was introduced to Altman, I was able to look back on Gosford Park and appreciate it more, able to see how Altman played with Rules of the Game and Agatha Christie murder mystery stereotypes. I thought it was a very good movie, and understood why people considered it perhaps Altman's last great film.
I've seen a lot more Altman films now, including a nice run of them recently. I think I have grown a lot more as a student of film, and am better prepared to understand everything Altman is doing. When I choose to rewatch this, I was expecting to find it fulfilling on a cerebral level, but not to hold up to some of his other films I considered, until now, more important Altman works (such as Short Cuts).
Oh, how I was wrong. Gosford Park is my favorite Altman film, the one I most enjoy watching, and most certainly one of his masterpieces. I was definitely not dissapointed with the intellectual side of Gosford Park. I saw the references and enjoyed how he played with our expectations of the genre and characters. What I had forgotten, though, was how much fun everyone, especially Altman, was having on this film. Yes, it plays with the genre, but it plays with it in a decidedly wicked way. The knives, the poison, the acidic characters with their many twisted motives; Altman was smiling at us with every single frame of Gosford Park, and I love him for it. This is the work of a master at the absolute top of his game, and everyone else falls in line. It might not be his most groundbreaking film, but Gosford Park is pitch perfect, self assured, and brilliantly fiendish.
08-06-09: Bloody Sunday (2002) 5 stars
The Academy is stupid. Bloody Sunday was the best film of 2002, and an important work in trying to understand a horrible catastrophe. I applaud the UK's Independent Television Authority for producing this film - and I can't imagine why the Academy would then disqualify Bloody Sunday because it was shown on British public access four days after its premier at Sundance. Greengrass learned, obviously, because I remember United 93 being broadcast on network television over here, but it must have been after whatever period of time necessary to stay Academy eligible.
Had I seen Bloody Sunday before hearing about United 93, I would have had zero apprehension about United 93's production. I think United 93 was one of the best films of 2006, and will stand the test of time as the first important film about September 11th. As great as United 93 is, though, it was a step backwards from Bloody Sunday. For instance, United 93's relies on a score, which I found overly dramatic upon a recent rewatch, especially for a film that otherwise takes such great care to stay confined to the reality of its environment. Bloody Sunday, on the other hand, won't give you that comfort; it's soundtrack is made up of protesting voices, military orders, echoing gunshots, screaming, and unsettling silence.
Bloody Sunday is a near perfect film, and simply the best cinema verite style historical movie since Battle of Algiers. Even knowing Greengrass' skill with a handheld camera, I was blown away by what was captured on screen, and how it was presented to us. Bloody Sunday is brutally honest, sophisticatedly restrained, and unapologetically enraged at the atrocity that occurred in Derry on the Thirtieth of January, 1972. This is a film that needs to be seen, about an event that should never be forgotten.
In February 2003, seventeen months after September 11th, 2001, when our country was at war with Afghanistan and knocking on Iraq's door, I'm sure glad the Academy wisely thought to exclude Bloody Sunday on a stupid technicality so that Chicago, a satisfactory adaptation of a well-known Fosse Broadway production, could be recognized as the Best Picture of 2002.
And on that last dig, and over two weeks in the making, I hereby conclude the Mega Review Blowout Bonanza. I hope you enjoyed it, but even more, I hope one person was encouraged to check out a new movie on one of these lists (hopefully from this five star bunch). It was a great run of movies, I the next forty or so are just as good.
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