The Decade In Review

The decade is coming to an end, and as such, the lists start coming out
of the woodwork in massive force. So if for nothing more than getting
in on the action here's mine. Be sure to keep in mind this is my top 25
in no particular order. The list could possibly expand to 50 if I cannot
live with such a small number. This, of course, cannot include movies
I have not viewed, that probably would have made their way in such
as, The Counterfeiters, Undertow and The Lives of Others just to name
a few. And I may, at a later date, write reviews ( small ones ) of them all.

25. Crash



24. High Fidelity



23. Synecdoche, New York



22. Match Point



21. Lord of the Rings trilogy



20. Lake of Fire



19. Wall-E



18. Up



17. Tell No One



16. Inglorious Basterds



15. Let the Right One In



14. Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2



13. The Orphanage



12. Requiem For A Dream



11. Spirited Away



10. There Will Be Blood



9. Ong Bak



8. Brick



7. City of God



6. Millennium Actress



5. All the Real Girls



4. Park Chan Wook's revenge trilogy ( Old Boy, Sympathy For Mr.
Vengeance and Lady Vengeance )



3. The Descent



2. Infernal Affairs



1. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

If God has nothing to say He could, at the very least, let me know.

"The LORD gave and the LORD has taken
away; may the name of the LORD be praised."The Coen Brothers new film "A Serious Man" is, perhaps, the greatest movie I have ever seen that deals with Judaism and ultimately, faith and religion. It asks all the right questions or rather points it's finger at God and says, there are no answers readily apparent and if there are, God's not talking.

Larry Gopnick ( Michael Stuhlbarg in a spectacular first leading role ) is a very likable physics professor who tries to equate it to his life. "It's a proof. It's mathematics." However his life cannot be explained by a probability map ( though his brother has made one that is fail proof ) and he is in need of great advice. His wife decides to leave him ( for reasons we never really understand ) saying it is nothing either one has done but simply that another man has " come into my life." That man is Sy Ableman. Sy is well respected in the community and is portrayed as a man with a big heart. This is despite the fact that he is taking Larry's wife away from him. He is actually the only person in the movie to comfort Larry, his only solace. That is short lived.

Larry's children are completely ungrateful, they do nothing but bicker and complain the entire film. His daughter steals from him to save up for a nose job and cares about nothing more than washing her hair and going to "The Hole" ( a club ) and his son's only intention the whole film is to smoke weed as much as possible ( he is only thirteen ) even during his Bar Mitzvah. Arthur his brother who lives with the family, sleeping on their couch is a compulsive gambler and a closeted
homosexual. When he curses God, Larry perhaps out of some religious compliance, defends God saying " sometimes you have to help yourself." His neighbor on the right is a racist, and on the left is a lonely housewife who it seems is up for anything. Through all of this, Larry perseveres, never once accusing God of wrongdoing.

A Serious Man is a darkly humorous film. There are quite a few awkward moments in fact it's chock full of them. The funniest being that he goes around saying " I haven't done anything." A true statement for all we know and we know the feeling. Very much unlike the actual story of Job where there is no humor to be found.

The difference between Larry and Job primarily is, Job physically requested a response from God. He didn't demand it, but he still spoke directly to him. Larry, being a present day Jew (1967)
of course doesn't believe in approaching God directly, and is limited to the words of Rabbi's from
his synagogue. These sessions get him nowhere and, if anything, only exacerbate things. These men give him what they think he needs. The first misunderstands him completely and projects his own wants and needs on him. The second, tells him a story that it turns out is his "fall back" story. It has no importance whatsoever for this or perhaps any situation. And the final Rabbi is to busy caught up in his own religiousness to even give him an audience. Leaders of the faith they may be but when it comes to understanding God, they are worse off than he is.

God is nowhere to be found in this, as far as an actual answer goes. To quote Job " If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? My eyes will never see happiness again." If God can create a man simply to punish him for something that is human nature what chance do we have. The Coen's seem to take the stance that God allows negative things to happen to good people without interfering. And when a righteous man at his most vulnerable moment falls, God is there to personally destroy him.

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times. It was the Basterds time.

"War. War never changes." For the most part this is true. However, in this film Quentin Tarantino defies history and asks the question, what if? What if "terrorism" was allowed and even encouraged by the allies? What if a small band of Jewish "terrorists" were sent in to ( for all intents and purposes) murder the entire upper crust of the Third Reich at a screening of The German film "A Nation's Pride." Would it be justified? In a world where water-boarding is a common practice, that is widely backed by politicians who assume that because we are Americans, we are always in the right. So long as we get information that leads to "saving lives." Basterds challenges us to look at what we hold "to be self evident." Are all men created equal? Or only Americans.

Ingourious Basterds is a celebration of film itself, every facet is dripping with Tarantino's love and at some points obsession with his knowledge of it and we can't help but give in (willingly for most) and be completely taken along for the ride. Being himself a proclaimed historian of B films and the like, he says "When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'no, I went to films'." The movie itself is a sort of pseudo remake ( in name and time period only, with a slight change in the title, an E instead of an A in Basterds ) and Brad Pitt's character's name is a take off of the real actor Aldo Ray, an actor from the 50's and 60's who was in many a war movie himself. In fact, most of the characters pay homage to other actors. Hugo Stiglitz ( a well known Mexican actor) and Mike Myers General Ed Fenech, ( a tribute to actress Edwige Fenech) to name a few.

Dialogue is what Tarantino is known for, Basterds is among the best. The dialogue is itself so full of energy, that when there is literally a 20 minute conversation of cat and mouse, his words become ammunition in this verbal firefight. When Lt. Raine spouts his anti "Natzzy" speak, it inspires a giddiness only QT could create .

As far as performances go Christoph Waltz's Col. Hans Landa will go down in history as one of the most perfect roles ever conceived. This character is the closest a villain has ever come to being lovable ( except, perhaps Heath Ledger's turn as the Joker). We find ourselves wishing he was the hero. Waltz goes from unconscionably murderous (he doesn't perform the killing of the Jews, only orders it) to childlike excitement, without even blinking.

If you want historical accuracy don't look here. However, if you're interested in seeing what a "popcorn" movie has the possibility of being it's well worth your time and money . As I mentioned before, the average American perhaps won't have the staying power for the "long talkin parts" or the "foreign speakin people" so, I will end in the words of the great directer himself. "I don't make movies for America. I make movies for planet Earth."

Magic Captured on Film

To even begin I have preface by saying that this film has what all animated movies ( save Pixar ) lack. It contains three dimensional characters with minds of their own, and the story unfolds organically as apposed to the formulaic norm we have been getting since the death of Walt Disney himself.

If you have any qualms with animated movies you need to get over them or be damned for all eternity! But seriously, there is no logical argument against them. This state of mind prevents you from viewing some of the most beautiful and thought provoking films of all time.


This film, much like Disney Pixar's Up deals with mature issues.
In these films, both deal with single parent families. Both deal with
loss, with Up being about human loss and Ponyo a loss of innocence,
though the innocence lost in Ponyo is not a sad event it is still, very
much so, a moving one.

Sosuke, the boy in the film, lives on a cliff by the sea, he is ( like any
other boy ) naturally intrigued with the world around him, and as
such, is delighted when he saves Ponyo from asphyxiation
and his mother allows him to keep her ( she, at that point is thought
of as a sort of goldfish) . She falls in love with him and the rest of the
film is spent dealing with the fallout due to her magical powers, though
through no fault of her own. Because she is a fish her dad ( Fujimoto )
refuses to allow her human contact though, he once was a human
himself. He is against humanity for theirdestruction of the environment
and he wants to recreate the world.

Like every great film of it's kind, Ponyo focuses on
love in it's purest form, the love of a child. She
and Sosuke have a love that transcends
everything that comes their way, including a
typhoon and her constant transformation between
fish and human form.

Ponyo lives up to the Miyazaki standard, never once
failing to astound our senses with it's masterful color
pallete and perfect pen strokes.

We as Americans

As I write this article I think of what is currently first in the box office. Yet another summer action film. I can't help but think that the film industry is on a downward slope and has been for sometime. As to what caused it everyone has their own opinion. It could easily be argued that the downfall of modern American cinema coincides with MTV's takeover of American teens minds, or reality television taking over the top Nielson slots consistently. That doesn't even include the fact that the 80's entire selection is either being remade or having some asinine sequel being released. As a whole, America has become childish to the point ( it would seem ) of no return.