2000s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#151 Post by domino harvey » Sat Dec 12, 2015 11:35 am

the Astronaut Farmer (Michael Polish 2007) A wonderfully skewed take on the Capra mythos from indie film’s hardest working brothers, this bizarre yet good natured take on inspirational films finds Billy Bob Thornton devoting every aspect of his being, including his family and their financial security and social standing, to his Quixotic quest to go into space. Filled with charming small turns from a lot of well known character actors, this is a strange and incredibly earnest film, but like Thornton’s character, it never falters in its conviction or acknowledges its fundamental absurdity, and as a result, great success is its reward. Highly recommended.

Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron 2006) I can’t believe it took me this long to finally watch this! Looks great, is great, &c.

Collateral (Michael Mann 2004) Dumb 80s action movie made two decades too late and with faux style and sheen by inexplicable Criterion Forum Patron Saint Mann. There are too many illogical script moments to whine about, and the intermittent moments of quirky monologue and dialogue scream desperation on the part of the screenwriter, but the interplay between Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx is mildly entertaining, though I don’t buy Foxx’s descent into badassdom. Cruise’s covert criminal has to be the stupidest assassin I’ve ever seen in a movie (well, maybe tied with whoever used that gun Clooney made in the American)— the nightclub shootout sequence is like watching a twelve year old try to tell a story.

Gerry (Gus Van Sant 2003) The audaciousness of the film’s very existence carries it a little ways, but I’m not sure I walked away from this with much more than a shrug.

House of Sand and Fog (Vadim Perelman 2003) Another candidate for most depressing movie ever made. An excellent Jennifer Connelly is the depressed woman who finds herself homeless due to a tax error and she begins haranguing the new tenants of her home, an Iranian family led by Ben Kingsley. Connelly unwisely takes up with the seemingly sweet cop played by Ron Eldard, who tellingly brags about framing an innocent man accused of beating his wife. It doesn’t help that Mr Wonderful has a wife and kids, either… Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo as his wife both earned Oscar noms, but I am shocked Connelly came up empty, as she is phenomenal (far better than the role that won her an Oscar two years prior) and all the actors bring sympathy and understanding to their individual awful actions and behaviors. Highly recommended.

the Illusionist (Neil Burger 2006) I wasn’t expecting to come down in favor of Nolan’s mediocre ye olde magic tale in the battle between this and the Prestige, but at least Nolan’s movie doesn’t look like a poorly filmed and acted History Channel reenactment. I think Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and even Jessica Biel can be good actors, but none of them are helping their case with their perfs here. A stupid “twist” movie that shows its hand too early with unnecessary details that make it abundantly clear what’s going on long before the “reveal” (complete with Giamatti doing the 1980s police officer-style “Oh you got me!” mugging).

the Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (Jane Anderson 2005) An astonishing story so outlandish and unlikely that of course it’s true: a 1950s suburban housewife and mother of ten keeps her family afloat almost entirely through her well-timed winnings from assorted sponsor contests. While this sounds like a light-hearted romp, I was surprised at how dark the real story is here. Julianne Moore’s protagonist is stuck in her home, raising her brood, while her husband Woody Harrelson lives out a miserable existence, working as a machinist by day and drinking away his salary each night. He takes up residence inside the kitchen and hurls so many hateful statements and thoughts at his family that eventually everyone just gets used to them and treats them like an uneasy joke. The growing resentment from the kids towards their father, and more importantly the father’s resentment towards his wife and the perceived emasculation of her being the breadwinner, is well-observed and suitably ominous and dark. There’s some cutesy interstitial moments of direct address and levity throughout the film that don’t work, but I understand their use as necessary to make some of the more depressing elements of the narrative more palatable to wider audiences. I thought the Hours was a crock of shit, but Moore does an infinitely better job here of capturing the sad existence of many housewives in the late 50s. The true story of Moore’s character and her family is amazing, and the film itself is pretty good too. Recommended.

the Shipping News (Lasse Hallstrom 2001) I see my share of bad films (just search my post history) but it’s rare I am struck with such an uneasy, creeping sense of doom like that which I felt watching this failed Oscar bait. "How" is the watch word here. How could anyone think this was a good idea for a movie? How could anyone think these performances, especially those by Kevin Spacey (in a career-worst turn) and an unrecognizable Cate Blanchett, were something anyone wanted to see? How would these phonily colorful Newfoundland locals function in any real adult way based one what we see? How does a small “fishwrap” newspaper make enough to employ five people full-time and buy them new computers, &c? How did the Weinsteins think they’d fool anyone with an Oscar campaign for this piece of shit? Move over Gigantic, this is now the worst film I’ve seen for this project (yet).

User avatar
mizo
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:22 pm
Location: Heard about Pittsburgh PA?

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#152 Post by mizo » Sat Dec 12, 2015 4:24 pm

The Shipping News is one of my dad's favorite movies. Having never seen it myself, and knowing he didn't own a copy, I got the blu-ray for him as a stocking-stuffer gift last Christmas. He insisted we all watch it that night, and I obliged, because what possible reason could I have not to? In our household, whenever we would watch a movie, afterwards, my dad and I would debate its merits, sometimes a little more vigorously than would be called for. Suffice to say that holiday ended somewhat...tensely.

Not that I didn't bring it on myself. And realistically, I don't think I ever resented him any more than both of my parents resented me when I had them watch Pierrot le fou. :)

User avatar
jindianajonz
Jindiana Jonz Abrams
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:11 pm

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#153 Post by jindianajonz » Mon Dec 14, 2015 5:15 pm

Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt): I'm sure I'm not being original when I say this feels like Vagabond meets Umberto D by way of Dardennes. A broke, temporarily homeless woman breaks down at a small Oregonian town, and after she is arrested for shoplifting dog food, she finds that her dog has gone missing. I don't have much to say other than this hits all the right notes in earning sympathy without getting mawkish. This is my first foray into Reichardt's filmography, and if this movie is any indication I greatly look forward to the rest.

Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell): Two and a half intertwined stories (I can't quite consider the Dominatrix's arc a full story) that depicts a married woman who can't achieve orgasm and a young gay man who is haunted by a tragic event in his recent past. If I were to look for a fault in it, it would be that open relationships seem to be a cure-all for everybody's problems in this film, with little room left for monogamy. People seem to dive into this lifestyle like it was a warm jacuzzi, making it seem like a puff piece on polyamory rather than an exploration, but I suspect Mitchell's intent here was to demystify this lifestyle, and in that regard he is successful. I also think the film could have worked just as well without the unsimulated sex scenes, but since the film is trying to demystify sex and encourage people to be more sex positive, it makes sense for Mitchell to include them.

L'Anglaise et le Duc (Eric Rohmer): A two part story depicting an Englishwoman living in France during the waning years of the monarchy. The first segment has her turning to her former lover, a liberal minded Duke, to help a wounded royalist escape the city. The second is set a few years later, when she tries to convince the Duke to vote against executing the last Sun King (Spoiler Alert: Louis gets the axe regardless). My only other exposure to Rohmer was the Six Moral Tales box set, which I found a bit tiresome, but once I got over the 80's daytime TV quality to the image, I found this film quite enjoyable. If the film stock is any evidence, Rohmer had a limited budget to work with, but despite the fuzzy picture quality the costumes and scenery are top notch.

Good Bye Lenin! (Wolfgang Becker): A fun, lighthearted film that explores the societal changes that took place following the fall of the Berlin Wall. After his staunchly communist mother spends the final months of the GDR in a coma, a son tries to keep up the illusion that the republic is going strong by creating fake news reports and stocking up on communist goods lest the shock of this new world drives her to an early grave. Personally I would prefer the film to spend less time in the mother's bedroom and more on the challenges faced during reunification (the integration with the west seems to be a wholly positive experience, with the only casualty of the old way being a former cosmonaut turned taxi driver), but the film still works well enough on its own terms.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Werner Herzog): A few weeks later, and I'm still not sure what to think of the film. Nicholas Cage plays an overzealous, drug addled New Orleans police sergeant investigating a multiple homicide in the aftermath of Katrina. As the cocaine slowly consumes his life, his behavior becomes more erratic and less professional. While most films would revel in seeing an anti-hero like this torn apart by his own demons, Herzog instead gives us a too perfect ending where everything just kind of resolves itself. I have a niggling feeling that there is more to this film than straight criticism of the US's response to Katrina, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what it is.

Dogville (Lars von Trier): A woman on the run from mysterious forces seeks refuge in a small town, but soon finds her goodwill and willingness to earn her keep taken advantage of. Of course, the most striking part of the film is the fact that Von Trier shot the thing with fragments of theatrical sets, with chalk outlines often providing the only definition of scenery. I was worried that this technique would wear out its welcome, but instead it enhances the focus on the character driven narrative while offering an ironic counterpoint to the fact that the town is blind to what goes on behind its own closed doors.

Manderlay (Lars Von Trier): Von Trier's follow-up to Dogville is tough to qualify- viewing the two works as separate pieces, I may prefer Manderlay for its discomforting dive into American race relations, but at the same time it is difficult to see it as anything other than a rehash of the aforementioned Dogville. Howard's Grace feels like a completely different character than Kidmans, being quite a bit more headstrong but still ultimately succumbing to her own naivety, though this does make some narrative sense after the conclusion of the previous film.

Cache (Michel Haneke): Although I watched this film a few months after Manderlay, the two could almost have been companion pieces exploring the legacy of racist institutions (slavery and colonialism) on both sides of the Atlantic. A middle aged Parisian literary critic begins to be haunted by his past when a series of candid videos depicting the front of his house begins showing up on his doorstep. As he begins to connect these events to a previously mistreated and forgotten childhood companion, his inability to confront his own demons leads to further hardships on the victim and his family. I've always loved films that slowly turn against the protagonist as they unravel, making the audience whether they should really be standing behind them, and this one fits the bill perfectly.

Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck): Finally! A film that humanizes the unsung heroes of the Stasi! Kidding aside, this film follows an East German secret policeman as he performs surveillance on a popular patriotic author. The two gradually become disillusioned with authoritarianism after certain events cause the author to question the effectiveness of the state, and the policeman must decide where his loyalties lie. This film takes on an almost religious undertone, with the Stasi agent representing a distant, ambivalent deity who hears prayers and must decide whether or not to intervene in his creation. Of course, despite the power wielded by the police force, he is not divine, and in the end finds himself casually swept aside by his own creation.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#154 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:20 pm

Herzog's Port of Call evokes a sense of vintage Hunters S. Thompson for me (a good thing).

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#155 Post by zedz » Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:49 pm

jindianajonz wrote:L'Anglaise et le Duc (Eric Rohmer): A two part story depicting an Englishwoman living in France during the waning years of the monarchy. The first segment has her turning to her former lover, a liberal minded Duke, to help a wounded royalist escape the city. The second is set a few years later, when she tries to convince the Duke to vote against executing the last Sun King (Spoiler Alert: Louis gets the axe regardless). My only other exposure to Rohmer was the Six Moral Tales box set, which I found a bit tiresome, but once I got over the 80's daytime TV quality to the image, I found this film quite enjoyable. If the film stock is any evidence, Rohmer had a limited budget to work with, but despite the fuzzy picture quality the costumes and scenery are top notch.
It was (famously) shot digitally, in order to obtain the remarkable visual effects with painted backdrops etc. HD has got much more HD in the meantime, and the image quality is now limited by the technical constraints of the format Rohmer was working with in 2001, but those constraints weren't budgetary: it was one of the more technologically adventurous movies of its day and, along with Russian Ark, an arthouse film that used digital to do things that simply couldn't be done on film.

I recall Shortbus as a sweet, fun film. It certainly deserves attention beyond its sexual notoriety.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#156 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:13 pm

Is Rohmer's short Le canape rouge (2005) available anywhere?

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#157 Post by knives » Tue Dec 15, 2015 5:42 pm

It's in the big Potemkin set, but without subs. If I remember rightly he isn't actually credited as director but editor on it.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#158 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Dec 15, 2015 7:22 pm

knives wrote:It's in the big Potemkin set, but without subs. If I remember rightly he isn't actually credited as director but editor on it.
Must have missed this. Too bad no subs (even French ones would do).

User avatar
jindianajonz
Jindiana Jonz Abrams
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:11 pm

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#159 Post by jindianajonz » Tue Dec 15, 2015 7:36 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:Herzog's Port of Call evokes a sense of vintage Hunters S. Thompson for me (a good thing).
My only exposure to Thompson is Gilliam's Fear and Loathing, but I can see some similarities in the surreal dreaminess and the random appearance of reptiles. However, based on my limited knowledge Thompson seems to capture a very particular 70's counterculture zeitgeist, whereas Port of Call didn't seem to have any sort of... timeliness to it. It seemed to lampoon police corruption in a way that could fit in just as well in 80's New York or 20's Chicago, instead of being pegged in the post-Katrina, pre-recession timeframe that seemed to be peculiar and central to the film.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#160 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Dec 15, 2015 8:44 pm

I strongly recommend HST's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail (a movie version would probably be impossible). Maybe good reading during what promises to be a campaign season that HST himself might have found improbably insane.

User avatar
Shrew
The Untamed One
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:22 am

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#161 Post by Shrew » Tue Dec 15, 2015 10:33 pm

Port of Call is definitely an odd duck, and any character or possible greatness it contains is owed entirely to Cage and Herzog. The screenplay is a bland direct-to-DVD thriller about a bad but effective cop (it was apparently originally set in New York as well, for extra blandness). There's still a lot of cheap cheap exploitation elements present, like Eva Mendes's high-class hooker and Cage's night-club daliances, or the random randy policewoman. But the film really benefits from working New Orelans for local color (Cage has lived there for awhile too, so that likely helped). There's a great specificity (Herzog has always had a good sense of place) but nothing that's "zeitgeisty" perse. I think any thematic resonance with Katrina and abuses of power is incidental.

If the film is about anything, it's the arbitrary and slippery nature of good and evil. The script is content to just muddy the water a bit but Herzog conflates it to a cosmic nature, and treats it like a joke. The "too perfect" ending is a hilarious cherry on top (especially Dourif and the police captain).

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#162 Post by knives » Wed Dec 16, 2015 7:50 am

Michael Kerpan wrote:I strongly recommend HST's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail (a movie version would probably be impossible). Maybe good reading during what promises to be a campaign season that HST himself might have found improbably insane.
I'll second this motion as not just Thompson at his best, but as the best book of political events to come out of America.

User avatar
Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#163 Post by Drucker » Wed Dec 16, 2015 4:08 pm

Campaign Trail is an amazing book and HST never stopped being prescient.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#164 Post by Michael Kerpan » Wed Dec 16, 2015 4:48 pm

Drucker wrote: ... and HST never stopped being prescient.
Indeed (sadly).

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#165 Post by swo17 » Wed Dec 16, 2015 5:03 pm

It's not hard to be prescient--just always predict that things will go wrong.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#166 Post by Michael Kerpan » Wed Dec 16, 2015 9:55 pm

swo17 wrote:It's not hard to be prescient--just always predict that things will go wrong.
That's why John Brunner's books still seem so timely? (Cinematic note -- not a single significant Brunner book has ever been adapted into a movie).

User avatar
Dr Amicus
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:20 am
Location: Guernsey

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#167 Post by Dr Amicus » Thu Dec 17, 2015 6:30 am

Although, bizarrely and off topic, he did write the screenplay for Amicus's The Terrornauts, from Murray Leinster's The Wailing Asteroid. Really not good, but interesting in the move from a very gung-ho approach to space travel in the book to a much more muddling through / swept along by events version in the film.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#168 Post by knives » Sun Dec 20, 2015 4:49 pm

I don't have much time nor wit for this, but I'd like to put in a good word for La Antena which seems to have one or two fans on the board already. It's part of what seems to be a growing silent revival experiment and easily the best example I've seen of such. It's dealing with the concept by limiting the pastiche, probably the smartest move possible, so as to excuse the renovations which directly deal with the question of what if silent grammar evolved with the technology. This leaves a beautiful and magnificent image lacking in the ticks that accompany, say, Guy Maddin. Instead the movie seems entirely comfortable and assured. The visual inspirations are also screamingly fun and unique for this sort of thing. It tastes of Eisenstein, art deco, and Lang of course, but there is also a strong Medvedkin flavour to spin things. The technique doesn't just seem an act of personal taste, but a total necessity in explaining the story. Which naturally leads to the themes which are presented a little too bluntly at points (Swastika vs Magen David), but are folded into the narrative just well enough to feel a part of the aesthetic rather then an act of stupidity on the film's part. It's definitely high in my recommendation list now.

User avatar
Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
Location: East of Shanghai

Mary & Max

#169 Post by Lemmy Caution » Mon Dec 21, 2015 3:42 am

Mary and Max is a charmingly ugly 2009 claymation film from Australian Adam Elliot.
Mary is a lonely Aussie girl who arbitrarily chooses NYer Max to be her pen pal so she can learn about the US. Max is a neurotic asocial type, but slowly they get along. It's a rather quirky film, but has some wonderful humor. At one point, Max is attacked by a bird on the streets of NY. So he has to go to the hospital -- The Bird Injury Ward, of course. Everyone has problems, things often go wrong, mistakes and misunderstandings are rife, but through it all, life goes on (at least until it ends). I should add that the voice work is done by
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Barry Humphries and Eric Bana

I sent a copy of M&M to my niece who was around 17 at the time and it quickly became her favorite film.
I was pleased to see a young person could connect with it. As for me, I've watched it three times.

Elliot's earlier short film (23 mins) Harvie Krumpet won an Academy Award for Best Short Animation in 2004. Has anyone seen Ernie Biscuit, a 20 minute Adam Elliot stop motion film, which came out this Summer?

User avatar
dustybooks
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:52 am
Location: Wilmington, NC

Re: Mary & Max

#170 Post by dustybooks » Mon Dec 21, 2015 11:23 am

Lemmy Caution wrote:Mary and Max is a charmingly ugly 2009 claymation film from Australian Adam Elliot.
I found this sort of unpleasant while it was on -- I know it's a personal flaw but the excess of toilet humor just grates on me -- but its emotional heft stuck with me long afterward. It's actually quite grim and, I would imagine, especially resonant to someone who's suffered with depression. It's interesting to see stop-motion employed for such an adult-targeted story. I found Philip Seymour Hoffman's voice work impressive because he was completely unrecognizable to me.

User avatar
jindianajonz
Jindiana Jonz Abrams
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:11 pm

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#171 Post by jindianajonz » Mon Dec 21, 2015 6:07 pm

I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell): After enjoying Silver Linings Playbook and (to a lesser extent) American Hustle, I was pretty disappointed in this one. I felt like Russell was trying to channel Wes Anderson and Spike Jonze at the same time, but the two styles tended to clash with eachother. I feel like Jonze's surrealism has to be grounded by relatable characters in order for it to be effective, but by also including the staginess of Anderson, the whole thing just felt put on. I also have a tough time with Screwball Comedies because of the similar lack of a straight man, so maybe it's just me.

Beijing Bicycle (Wang Xiaoshuai): A seventeen year old Beijinger gets a job as a courier, but after a botched delivery finds that his bicycle has been stolen. After a sappy beginning establishing how important this vehicle is to the teens livelihood, I expected a retelling of Bicycle thieves, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the second act introduces us to the bike's new owner, and the film allows us to follow his story as well as the ostensible protagonist. I was happy to see that what appeared to be a black and white story eventually developed many shades of grey, and the film acts as an exploration of injustice in modern China, particularly how the systems of the older generation create hardship and conflict in the younger generation. Recommended, though the version I watched, which came in an imported set that also included Olivier Assayas' HHH, had quite a few instances of botched subtitles. Thankfully I had some Mandarin speakers in the room to help me out, but there were a number of times that the titular Bicycle was mistranslated as Car, as well as a few other confusions.
Last edited by jindianajonz on Mon Dec 21, 2015 6:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#172 Post by swo17 » Mon Dec 21, 2015 6:15 pm

But but...Mark Wahlberg?

User avatar
Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
Location: East of Shanghai

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#173 Post by Lemmy Caution » Tue Dec 22, 2015 4:11 am

Some Chinese films I'd rec.

Blind Shaft (2003), a joint production with Germany, is a pretty grim look at migrant coal miners in China. Present-day China is largely a safety last culture with interlocking levels of corruption institutionalizing shortcuts and illegalities. Statistics from a few years ago had an average of 30 coal miners dying per day in China. Fathom that. The story is pretty grim and realistic. A pretty harsh tale of survival and corruption. I found this to be very compelling, a pretty frank depiction, good story, no easy answers or anyone left untainted. The film was successful enough to spawn a follow-up expose of a social problem in Blind Mountain (2007), in which a woman is abducted and forced to marry in a a distant countryside village. Also worthwhile, but not as taut storytelling as in Blind Shaft.

Please make Blind Shaft my spotlight film. It's grim realism might go over well here.

Up the Yangtze (2007) a documentary about the Three Gorges damming primarily focusing on a few youngsters who try to make a living on a Yangtze River cruise ship. A lot of issues at play, especially the modern competitive economy intruding into the countryside. The filmmakers have great access and it's really an interesting look at how young people are thinking and acting in the new New China. I've lived in China quite a long time, so I'm not an easy audience and could pick out false notes fairly easily. This film really captures a time and place and elements of change. Small-scale impressive.

User avatar
Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
Location: East of Shanghai

Re: 2000s List Discussion and Suggestions

#174 Post by Lemmy Caution » Tue Dec 22, 2015 4:21 am

Facing Ali (2009)
In this documentary, 10 of Ali's opponents talk about their careers, their encounters with Ali, and their lives. It's really a fascinating portrait of these aging warriors looking back and discussing their triumphs and regrets. There are poignant moments such as Larry Holmes forthrightly stating "I wish I was smarter than I am."
Leon Spinks displays a good sense of humor. A few of these pugilists overcame serious obstacles (Lyle trained in prison) or had serious adversity in retirement (Ken Norton's horrendous car accident. And it speaks volumes that Ali isn't interviewed, though his presence hovers around the whole project.

More than just a boxing film, it's a film about men looking back and taking inventory of their lives and where they're at and what might be left. I believe this went direct to video and is woefully under-seen. Powerful.
I wrote a longer more detailed review of this and will link it up when I locate it.

User avatar
Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
Location: East of Shanghai

What's up Doc ....

#175 Post by Lemmy Caution » Tue Dec 22, 2015 4:40 am

The 21st C has really been a golden age of documentary filmmaking. Some others which will certainly compete to be on my list:

In The Realms of The Unreal (2004)
The amazing, obsessive outsider art of Henry Darger, janitor. With Dakota Fanning narrating the tale of The Vivian Girls.

Born Into Brothels (2004)
A mix of heartbreak and uplift and the power of art and creativity. Amazing film. A nice comment on the possibilities inherent in every individual, and how the harsh adult world tends to crush the spirit.

Talhotblond (2009) really impressed me. Very well paced and put together, with a rather bizarre true story to tell. I have no idea why the rather bland and mediocre Catfish garnered so much attention the following year for a somewhat similar true internet false-identity tale.

Capturing the Friedmans

Post Reply