A 2010s List for Those That Couldn't Wait

[knives]

Bernie (dir. Linklater)
Surprised that we don’t have a thread for this charming ditty which Linklater seems to having been building his career to. I remember reading that Stephen King wrote The Dead Zone to see if he could excuse murder for a protagonist. I don’t think the book is successful because of how extreme the situation is where there is no gray area and the lead would be a monster not to commit murder in that case.

In contrast, Linklater has much more successfully played that idea with Bernie as it really depends on how much of Bernie you buy given how nasty the central crime is. That’s without going into how this is a real crime which adds layers of difficulty to processing his good nature. Everyone plays this idea so well with the humor so expertly playing to audience comfort that it does become hard to question Bernie’s status as a good guy.

What Linklater really does though that’s almost shocking to see pass without comment is how closely the film ties Bernie’s repressed homosexuality with his murder. It seems like a foregone conclusion that the townspeople will go from, “he’s gay, but not a bad one,” to “he’s a murderer, but here’s a list of excuses.” Depending on how you assume Linklater’s motives either this is to see how far he can twist audiences with their sympathies by their discomfort with that line of thinking or a sincere connection to highlight how we can trust Bernie.

I suppose that depends on how we view McConaughey‘s DA. Is he another kind of deluded person or is his love of blind justice something to be admired? That’s just another enigma in a film built upon them so that I don’t know how to take its intentions beyond it succeeding at being great and leaving me morally befuddled. This is one of Linklater’s best without question.

Coin Locker Girl (dir. Han)
This is a fairly generic crime thriller from everyone’s favorite Korea, but as far as those goes this at least has a good sense of character and is willing to be weird in a way not dependent on transgression. At times I was even thinking of Kore-eda although the story never lives up to those moments. The way it goes about it’s female focus is the standout quality as woman to woman relationships are the best etched j. The film and seem the least motivated by plot needs. By itself the movie isn’t much, but it’s a helpful addition to an anthropological look at South Korea through its cinema.

You’re Next (dir. Wingard)
I’ve heard some grumbling about Wingard as one of the modern saviors of horror, but I doubt that based on the evidence here. It’s a 30 minute slasher stretched to a dull 90. My main issue is the weak sauce characterization. It doesn’t really develop people of interest in its overlong prologue so that I really couldn’t tell you anything about this overly large cast of indistinguishable people. I mean, when being played by Joe Swanberg is the most clearly etched in character trait after obvious final girl you’re in trouble. There’s some superficial similarities to the amazing Ready or Not here that both put into relief that brilliance of that film and the failure of this Osterman Weekend to succeed at style fushion and developing worthwhile characters. There is some basic skill here, but there’s a wide chasm between mild entertainment and revitalization.

[bottled spider]

Reaching for the Moon (Barreto, 2013) Bishop was a great poet. Who cares about her drinking habits or domestic arrangements? While this biopic of Elizabeth Bishop's and Lota de Macedo Soares' relationship never quite descends into salaciousness or sensationalism, it still strikes me as essentially prurient. Or to make a similar criticism from a different angle, I don't think the script in its own right would have aroused any interest if it were about an entirely fictional poet. The script is rather linear and schematic, too much of the dialogue there to illustrate the personality traits and relationship problems of Bishop and Soares. Too direct, too purposeful. No mystery or poetry to it.

"The most wrong shoe in the world" according to the Google translation of a Letterboxd comment written in Portuguese.

Edit: I should add that the performances from Miranda Otto and Glória Pires are good, and that the reviews on IMDb are almost uniformly favorable.

[Daneurism]

Adam Wingard gets a lot of leash from me because he has real recognizable human beings in his movies. The little details on the main guy, the brother and the girlfriend. They feel like people I know. I didn't recognize behaviour of anyone in Ready Or Not so I wasn't invested in that movie's outcome(not a bad movie or anything. It was a fun). At a time where I feel like I recognize human behaviour less and less across Hollywood and indie movies alike, I find it pretty refreshing. The family in the movie The Guest is similarly well etched and lived in...I don't know where Wingard grew up but you'd credibly believe he's from the Iowa/Midwest of The Guest.

[domino harvey]

My take from elsewhere on the board. Needless to say, no leash given over here

You're Next (Adam Wingard) Oh, I should have looked at the cast list first to see that this was going to be a Mumblecore slasher and saved myself ninety minutes and fifteen bucks. Seeing so many 80s slasher movies in such a small span of time has given me an appreciation of sorts for their structural riffing and economic perversity, but these constant contemporary throwbacks so rarely bring more to the the party than a rehashing of ideas decades past their sell by date. The best modern reduxes justify their existence by providing some form of genre or issue-related commentary via their existence: Sorority Row gave us an actual feminist slasher; the good Scream entries each had specific satiric targets and executed them and their victims with verifiable wit; and Final Destination 3 proved you could remove everything from a slasher movie but the victims and synthesize the function and meaning to a depressing elemental essence. This movie? This is someone who saw Home Alone, the Strangers, and Home Sweet Home (or any of fifty other slashers just like this) and decided if they just moved quickly, no one would stop to ask why this movie makes absolutely no logical sense, not even within the world of slashers. Everything about the plan at work is idiotic, and what's worse it completely misunderstands how these kind of films function by giving in to these plot maneuvers. What's left is sub-standard performers giving obnoxious line readings before or during their own demise, lots of arch superiority, and little to no actual entertainment value. This was suggested to me as an answer to my lingering questions re: the Strangers. The Strangers was a powerful, beautiful, tense, and effective film undone by an unchecked nihilism that derailed the whole endeavor. You're Next is all derailment.

[knives]

Adam Wingard gets a lot of leash from me because he has real recognizable human beings in his movies. The little details on the main guy, the brother and the girlfriend. They feel like people I know. I didn't recognize behaviour of anyone in Ready Or Not so I wasn't invested in that movie's outcome(not a bad movie or anything. It was a fun). At a time where I feel like I recognize human behaviour less and less across Hollywood and indie movies alike, I find it pretty refreshing. The family in the movie The Guest is similarly well etched and lived in...I don't know where Wingard grew up but you'd credibly believe he's from the Iowa/Midwest of The Guest.

Criticizing a duck for not being a swan doesn't strike me as a correct path. Ready or Not is clearly not attempting to be realistic and the characterization is in the realm of the symbolic. The correct question isn't, "is this what a human would do," but rather, "is this how this archetype would handle this," even the more developed characters like Brody's are symbols of a sort of people.

Alternatively to your perspective I just didn't recognize any human's in You're Next which has that obnoxious mumblecore style of characterization.

[therewillbeblus]

I recognize humans in both, just exaggerated version of them in one direction or the other, prior to (You're Next) or following (Ready or Not) a movement into archetypes, to use and reframe knives' differentiation. You're Next (which I like more than most here it seems) presents a lot of self-obsessed dull people in a family system, and gives a pretty fair entry-point to the uncomfortable and banal experience of being introduced to a new family dynamic via Sharni Vinson's character. However, the reveal about her disrupts all that "realism" and completely drives all characters toward archetypes right in step with the first violent trigger. I think it's a pretty fun demonstration, but one without any real purpose other than to start at the "realistic" mumblecore spirit and venture into cinematic fantasy through shedding all of these observations in the blink of an eye.

Ready or Not does something similar but in a much more interesting way. The film starts with everyone as a person, maybe more of a 'movie' character, but human beings going though familiar personal transitions and social interactions all the same- just without a cue into stalling on relatable mannerisms, which would bare extra fat this non-mumblecore film isn't interested in doing (though I don't think, when taking on the horror genre, that criticizing this choice as the key factor in humanizing a character is being charitable to the scappy-setup-igniting-forward-momentum rhythm many use to compose themselves). The archetypes unveil as either a reduction (in some cases, an outright dismissal) of perceived humanity in the majority of characters, or a heightened sense of empathy toward their humanness, like in Samara Weaving's heroine. This film has much more to say though about how people devolve into archetypes within our solipsistic narratives based on actions. For example, when a significant other cheats or lies or withholds secret expectations forced upon us- like here, they can transform from fully-dimensional complex human beings into the villains of our story, into archetypes that don't define them objectively, but do define them by an oversimplified stripped-worth in our subjective eyes. Conversely, Weaving becomes more human and propelled deeper into the 'hero' archetype. She was already the star of her own movie, but as the dependability on others weakens, her grandiosity enhances, resembling the trend of western millennial isolation and self-perceptive oppression that comes from sensitive reactions to interpretations of social deceit. Even though no family member is the central character, their thin-skinned feeble natures are made transparent emphasizing the negative traits of this social trend to Weaving's more understandable one we feel compassion for- just look at her husband's actions following a rejection that I wrote more about in the film's dedicated thread, and you'll see what I mean.

The extremities of the situation only reinforce this idea, because even though betrayal hardly manifests to such artificial degrees (but it can sure feel like life or death sometimes!) the self evolving into an archetype, in the wake of social expectations defied by a partner, isn't an unrealistic human experience of how we concoct our narratives- which are often delusory and painfully real at the same time. Weaving may transform from an archetype into an archetype, but she's more of a reflection of how we see ourselves as the center of our worlds and how we psychologically approach our life path as we actualize dreams with self-conscious trepidation, and default into introverted defensiveness (core-belief motivated coping mechanisms, or literalized here by defending oneself from death); as opposed to You're Next, which deliberately jumps the shark from mundanity into cartoon heroics without a point other than an exercise in how to wind up and deliver a big jarring swing for entertainment purposes. You're Next is framed more objectively, which may contribute to perceptions of realism, since the vantage point of the camera provides a more observational view of human behavior, to contrast Ready or Not's wholly subjective dream/nightmare internalization. Of course Ready or Not clearly has the imposing classist isolation as a louder social commentary beyond this reactionary reading of our reversions to self-isolation from rejection of ethical dissonance, so I'm not really trying to describe the primary purpose of the film so much as how these two films operate differently along that spectrum of 'humanness' and 'archetypes' put forth by posters.

However, Weaving is self-actualizing and becoming more human in accordance with her evolution into an archetype, which could be argued as being a polarized positive consequence of this internalized schematic categorization, while the other characters flail and forfeit their humanity in a knee-jerk reaction as they intentionally revert to their own archetypes pathetically by refusing to self-actualize against the safe hiding spot of their class group dynamics. So there is a very 'realistic' human experience taking place of people seeking archetypes to reveal their humanness, in a more objective sense divorced from a reading of subjective solipsism: the weak putting up defensive walls and becoming unidimensional by default because it's simpler than facing their complex flaws, while the resilient adopts a self-inflating heroic characterization to enhance her confidence without external supports.

[yoshimori]

Always good to hear about a film I don't know from those whose lists suggest a similar sensibility. Here, for those folks, is some payback. Probably a lot of love from like-minded quarters here for Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights, Glazer's Under the Skin, Hertzfeld's Such a Beautiful Day, his "World of Tomorrow", and the likes. If those are meaningful for you, the following are a few recs and/or reminders.

Jaturanrasamee Kongdej, P-047 (2011). For me, unquestionably the best Thai movie of the decade. Hints of Wisit and Apichatpong, but more mysterious and engaging than anything they've done recently. This trailer tries hard to mask the utterly unexpected turn the movie takes at its mid-point.

Shane Carruth, Upstream Color (2013). My favorite American (live-action) film of the decade - an intriguing puzzle, and a stunningly beautiful film made on a relative pittance. Trailer

Nicolas Refn, Only God Fogives (2013). Neon-drenched Lynch. One of the great karaoke scenes of all-time. And that little boy in that big chair! The only movie that really dared at Cannes that year. It was met with, of course, a chorus of boos.

Diao Yinan, Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014).

And two from the guy who is, for me, the best director of the decade, Yoshida Daihachi. The Kirishima Thing (2011) and Beautiful Planet (2017). The former is a structural tour-de-force and the epitome of contemporary Japanese filmmaking technique. It, like All About Lily Chou-chou, takes a Japanese high-school genre scenario and transforms it into art. [Here's a clip. It's the climactic scene, so if the first few seconds pique your interest, stop watching and get the whole film.] The latter is a loose adaptation of a sci-fi novel Mishima wrote under a pseudonym. It's outrageous and moving at the same time. Trailer. Yoshida's 2014 Pale Moon is good too, if you find you like either of these. Enjoy!

[colinr0380]

Nicolas Refn, Only God Fogives (2013). Neon-drenched Lynch. One of the great karaoke scenes of all-time. And that little boy in that big chair! The only movie that really dared at Cannes that year. It was met with, of course, a chorus of boos.

As long as we get one film that dares at Cannes a year, I can live with that! I would certainly second the gorgeous looking Only God Forgives (has Too Old To Die Young received a disc release at all yet?), which is both quirkier and more niche than the (also wonderful) Drive, but more existentially terrifying for underlining some of the previous themes in bold with what it says not just about external imposing forces but those urges building within, and the debts to societal obligations that we all end up having to pay in one way or another. Those karaoke scenes which are the only scenes in which the force of nature Inspector Chang gets to let loose, and which bookend the action (spoiler!) are both beautifully melancholic and hauntingly terrifying simultaneously!

Ryan Gosling's own directorial debut Lost River is almost as good and in much the same vein.

[therewillbeblus]

has Too Old To Die Young received a disc release at all yet?

Unfortunately not yet, in any country. I recently revisited Only God Forgives and still don't find it to be nearly as powerful or interesting as everyone else does, but Too Old to Die Young is Refn's magnum opus. I think he really needed to take that long runtime to explore his interests and themes to their limits to reach the very deep existential concerns surrounding his films that often struggle to do more than posture in these directions. I love Drive though, and think Gosling's nonverbal communication about his character's emotions and vulnerabilities goes waves beyond his similar tasks in other films.

[yoshimori]

Ryan Gosling's own directorial debut Lost River is almost as good and in much the same vein.

I resisted watching this until a cinematographer/friend with impeccable taste recommended it. Very impressive.

[JakeB]

I've got a really solid top 50 all ready to submit. This is my first attempt at contributing to one of these List Projects, but I think it might the easiest one I do as I probably started seriously going to the cinema and to festivals to see new releases around 2009-2010. Using Letterboxd to check off everything, I was impressed by how much I'd seen from the 2010s already.

I'm not much of a writer, and I hardly ever write reviews, but here's a little spotlight on some films that are high on my list and might be under-represented:

Das merkwürdige Kätzchen (2013 Ramon Zürcher)

The debut feature from Swiss filmmaker Ramon Zürcher and his brother, Silvan. This was developed in a seminar given by Bela Tarr at the DFFB where Ramon was studying. It's an exercise in adaptation, namely of Kafka's Metamorphosis, but I don't think it really bares any resemblance to Kafka or Tarr. It's a short, brightly lit bit of family portraiture, full of strange moments. All static shots and inventive framing, on the surface I think it comes across as a surrealist art-house black comedy in the 'Greek weird-wave' mold. There is probably a lot of that in there, but I know they are both really into the Berlin School directors, and there is a really solid through line of unheimlich imagery through the film. It's so detailed, I've watched it half a dozen times at least and I think it was still revealing new things to me. The German DVD has English subtitles.

Court(2014 Chaitanya Tamhane

This is a quasi-musical (well ok, only as much as Night of the Hunter is a musical) from India about a stoic folk singer who is dragged through the courts for inciting the suicide of a sewage worker. It is mostly told in wide static takes. Realist and observational. There's an absurdism to this folk singers predicament that almost spills into satire, but I'm not sure that is the intention here. It also Does a really interesting trick of showing the prosecutors home life, which is by all accounts quite mundane, without any moral handwringing. I really need to see this one again if I have time before I submit my final list. I saw Tamhane's new one, The Disciple, at LFF last year and he's really one to watch! This is available from Kino Lorber.

Le Parc (2016 Damien Manivel)

I have a feeling I might be the only person voting for this very slight film. A lot of 'likes' but not 'loves' on Letterboxd. This is another uncanny miniature from a young European writer/director. Le Parc centres on a teenage couple, possibly on a first date but again, an uncanniness seeps in; over the short runtime you get a sense of a whole relationship happening over the course of a day in this one location. There's some really bold stylistic moves, including a long shot of the girl texting as the daylight gradually fades and her face is illuminated by the screen. I think there's touches of Rivette's paranoid mysticism and sprinklings of Pedro Costa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's natural/unnatural aesthetic. Le Parc was released by Mubi, and is available on their site (the UK one at least)

Aita (2010 José María de Orbe)

A very quiet, contemplative film. A kind of ghost story, where archive film is the ghost illuminating the walls of a dilapidated mansion in the Basque country. I believe it begins with a César Vallejo poem, which perfectly sets the mood. It's probably more of a documentary than a fiction film, the plot is almost none existent. Orbe foregrounds the house as the central character. The shots that are pitch black until an image projected onto a wall illuminates the frame were a bit of a revelation to me at the time. I think until then I wasn't paying much attention to contemporary films (shamefully, I was 26 when I saw this.)

I've spent way too long on this post, but If I have time I'll come back and try and make a case for 3 Faces (2018), by far the most underrated Jafar Panahi film of the decade, and my personal favourite.

[skilar]

Le Parc (2016 Damien Manivel)

I have a feeling I might be the only person voting for this very slight film. A lot of 'likes' but not 'loves' on Letterboxd. This is another uncanny miniature from a young European writer/director. Le Parc centres on a teenage couple, possibly on a first date but again, an uncanniness seeps in; over the short runtime you get a sense of a whole relationship happening over the course of a day in this one location. There's some really bold stylistic moves, including a long shot of the girl texting as the daylight gradually fades and her face is illuminated by the screen. I think there's touches of Rivette's paranoid mysticism and sprinklings of Pedro Costa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's natural/unnatural aesthetic. Le Parc was released by Mubi, and is available on their site (the UK one at least)

I watched Le Parc last night after seeing it mentioned here. I don't know if it would make my list, nevertheless I found it to be a wonderful little film. I haven't seen enough Rivette, Costa, or Weerasethakul to be able to comment on those associations. I will say that I entered the film thinking I'd get something in the vein of Rohmer, and was pleasantly surprised when the story veered in another direction.

The texting scene Jake mentions is quite moving and carries the story from the wandering, talkative vibe to the other direction I mentioned before. There are wonderful long shots, both in duration and lens choice, of what I presume are real people walking, running, biking, or otherwise enjoying the park. I love the idea that all you need to make a movie are a few actors and a park.

The ending did not quite do it for me, but everything leading up to it is beautiful, heartbreaking, funny, and disturbing.

[senseabove]

I remember really, really liking that one when I first signed up for MUBI ages ago, so thanks for the bump. I'd missed the earlier write-up, but I'd like to rewatch it for list purposes...

[JakeB]

I remember really, really liking that one when I first signed up for MUBI ages ago, so thanks for the bump. I'd missed the earlier write-up, but I'd like to rewatch it for list purposes...

I feel like I should also revisit. Though I ended up watching it two times early on, and did a write up. It would be a nice short watch to catch up with,

[JakeB]

Les démons (2015 Phillipe Lesage)

Québecois thriller. This is the first fiction film by Phillipe Lesage and owes a lot to Michael Haneke's style, especially Caché. I'm not sure if this will end up being on my list in the end, but I'm really tempted to shuffle things around and find space for it after a second viewing.
The film is set to a backdrop of child abductions in suburban Montreal, though I'd say it works more as a family drama or coming of age film. It centers on Felix, who is the youngest of three siblings, and I think the film shows how children aren't able to be completely shielded from the adult world, and it follows that thesis through to a really unsettling conclusion. It's like a melodrama in that it is really overstuffed with visual metaphor, numerous examples of the blurring of children and adult worlds, and the liminal space occupied by teens etc.
People seem to prefer Lesage's second film, Genèse, so I need to catch up with that one before this project is over.

[swo17]

Les démons (2015 Phillipe Lesage)

A great film I need to revisit

[therewillbeblus]

Les démons (2015 Phillipe Lesage)

It's like a melodrama in that it is really overstuffed with visual metaphor, numerous examples of the blurring of children and adult worlds, and the liminal space occupied by teens etc.
People seem to prefer Lesage's second film, Genèse, so I need to catch up with that one before this project is over.

I liked this film but definitely prefer Genèse, and the left-turn last act is wonderful with one of the greatest last shots in cinema that continues to get my brain and heart working today -and I’m still waiting on others to see to discuss here!

When I addressed Les démons, I did so in conjunction with his second film, so I may as well retool that spoiler box here:

SpoilerShow

I find myself leaning towards the identity and non-subjectively-Felix scenes of the killer to be ambiguously manifestations of his worried fantasies, emulating his internal anxious emotional protective part of his psyche, developed from jarring inescapable daydreams to momentary instinctual blockages to uninhibited confidence.

I'm curious to how people read the end of Les Démons.. do you take the lifeguard-as-killer at face value, or can his suicide also serve as an allegory for the fantasy dying, as Felix becomes liberated from his excessive fears? The relationship with the teacher/counselor who singles Felix out feels too coincidental not to allow for this interpretation.

It’s been long enough since I’ve seen the film to not remember exactly what I’m referring to at the end there, but maybe someone with a fresher viewing can help.

[therewillbeblus]

It's worth proactively mentioning that even though A24's latest horror masterpiece, Saint Maud, was just released (and most people will be seeing it when it hits VOD on Feb 12), it's technically listed as a 2019 release on IMDb and thus eligible for this list. I have a feeling we may be seeing a few weird examples like this over the course of the year- 2021 releases two years pushed back- but I also have a feeling that this film in particular will be eaten up by this forum's indie horror enthusiasts. It'll certainly be making my list way ahead of most of its established cult 'competitors'.

It's impossible, and just plain unfair, to discuss the film outside of spoilerboxes, but when folks get around to seeing it join me in creating a thread. Oh and I strongly suggest seeing this in a theatre if you're brave enough to do so. I didn't, but if I did it would have been an infinitely better experience than it already was.

[JakeB]

We were lucky last year in the UK that Saint Maud got a release when cinemas were open again, so I managed to see it at a local multiplex before everything got closed again.

No spoilers here but I'll say I thought the visuals were top notch, and the performances were really good. My criticism is that the plot felt a little too slight, and I didn't love the conclusion. I went in blind and it was a nice surprise to see it was shot in Scarborough, which is just up the road from me on the East Coast. I may rewatch!

[therewillbeblus]

We were lucky last year in the UK that Saint Maud got a release when cinemas were open again, so I managed to see it at a local multiplex before everything got closed again.

FYI I responded in the Films of 2021 thread under my writeup of the film in the hope that we can generate some discussion there and get a thread started

[bamwc2]

Apologies for my extended absence. I got a lot of writing done early on, followed by a long streak of bipolar depression during which I only watched two movies (both with my family). I'm trying to get some more viewing in before the deadline. Here's what I've got:

3 from Hell (Rob Zombie, 2019):

SpoilerShow

Despite apparently being killed off at the end of The Devil’s Rejects

Otis (Bill Moseley) and Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) return to the murder and mayhem they do best. Due to his failing health Sid Haig retires his character early on after Captain Spaulding is executed by the state of Texas. In his place, Zombie introduces the siblings’ half-brother Winslow "The Midnight Wolfman" Coltrane (Richard Brake). After getting revenge against members of the penal system, the three abscond to Mexico in the hope of both avoiding the authorities and finding new ways for the psychopathic Baby to entertain herself. Of course they run into trouble, and have to fight for survival. Zombie introduced the siblings in House of 1000 Corpses. I thought that the film had potential, but was unsuccessful in the final analysis. However, the anti-heroes' return in The Devil's Rejects was, in my estimation, one of the best films of 2005. This entry lies between the two on the continuum. The extreme violence got to me in a way that the earlier entries did not, but there is no doubt that Rob Zombie can do a magnificent job showing the grindhouse inspired chaos of the Firefly clan. However, as I age, I find their antics more disturbing than entertaining. I still liked it enough to recommend the film, but I can't root for Otis and Baby this time around. In other words, it's not you Rob, it's me.

Aroused by Gymnopedies (Isao Yukisada, 2016): The two entries in Nikkatsu's Roman Porno Reboot that have official North American editions (Wet Woman in the Wind and Antiporno) are among my favorite films of the decade, so I jumped at the chance to grab a torrent in another entry in the series with an English language .srt file. The film tells the story of Shinjin (Itsuji Itao) a once-great sexploitation director that's run into creative and financial difficulties. With his latest production collapsing mid-filming, Shinjin wanders from one woman to another as his dying wife's condition worsens. Like the aforementioned titles, this one is chock full of nudity and perversion. Shinjin's sexual aggression knows no bounds as he rips down women's tops and forces kisses on the objects of his desire. This is taken to its logical conclusion when he

SpoilerShow

rapes a nurse over his comatose wife's hospital bed.

I suppose that Shinjin isn't any more of a predator than the sadist leads of Antiporno, but I found his behavior far more disturbing than the women in that one. Perhaps it was the gender reversal. Perhaps it was the fantastical narrative of Antiporno versus the conventional narrative of the this one, but I couldn’t stomach it here. Shinjin's behavior is inexcusable. I can't recommend this one.

Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, 2014): Viggo Mortensen stars as Gunnar Dinesen, a Danish emigre traversing an unnamed desert with his daughter Ingeborg (Viilbjørk Malling Agger) and their mysterious guides in a realm that exists somewhere between dream and reality. At least that's what imdb tells me, because I found this to be completely incomprehensible. Normally I'm fine with ethereal dreamlike constructions in films, but this one came off as pretentious and boring. I sat it out, but couldn't wait for it to end.

Journey to the West (Ming-liang Tsai, 2014): Speaking of slow-moving films where little happens, Ming-liang Tsai's dialogue free 2014 features a Buddhist monk s-l-o-w-l-y walking around Marseille. Nothing happens, but I found it far more digestible than Jauja. imdb informs me that this is part of his "walking trilogy". um...I could handle it with a runtime of under an hour, but two more of these might be a bridge too far.

Le passé (Asghar Farhadi, 2013): Four years ago Ahmed (Ali Mosaffa) left his wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo) and his two step daughters to return to his native Iran. The film begins with Marie picking Ahmed up from the airport, where he has returned to grant her the divorce she wants. Unbeknownst to him, Marie has taken up with Samir (Tahar Rahim) in his absence. Marie wants to marry Samir, and welcome's his son into her family, but not without drama. As Ahmed's time in France unfolds, Marie's life unravels leading to tragic consequences for those closest to her. I'm a bit embarrassed to say it, but this is my first Farhadi. He's been on my radar for a while, but I've never gotten around to exploring his work before. If this is emblematic of his work, then I guess I'd like to see more. It's a decent enough family drama, but nothing that would come close to making my list.

Stranger in Paradise (Guido Hendrikx, 2016): Valentijn Dhaenens stars as a teacher instructing refugees, most of whom are native Africans who fled persecution or are merely looking for opportunities that they wouldn't have had in their home countries. His students look to start a new life in the Netherlands, but quickly find out that most of them will be denied residency and returned to their countries of origin. Dhaenens alternates between the platitudinous and the practical, trying to work his class through the intricacies of navigating their quest for refuge. It would have been all too easy to portray those seeking asylum negatively or Dhaenens as a white savior. Instead, the film does a good job at presenting a realistic picture of the situation and shows Dhaenens for the caring, but tired and disillusioned bureaucrat that he is. It's not the final word on the European refugee crisis, but it is a worthwhile look.

'Til Madness Do Us Part (Wang Bing, 2013): Wang's nearly four-hour documentary of a provincial Chinese mental asylum was shot over several months as he follows around numerous patients. As we learn in the film's coda, a few are there because of mental health issues, but many more populate the hospital because they have opposed the government, struggled with addiction, or displayed "antisocial" behavior like religious zeal. Regardless of the reason for their institutionalization, the figures profiled here are all broken. They sleepwalk through the day--frequently in the nude--or get into squabbles with their fellow residents. They live in conditions beyond dilapidated, and there is little hope of anyone ever getting better. It's a depressing viewing, but a worthwhile one. This was my introduction to Wang, and I can't wait to explore more of his work.

[knives]

Most of the Waljing films are only about ten or 15 minutes.

[JakeB]

Some recent watches that I liked.

The Dreamed Path & I Was At Home, But... (Angela Schanelec 2016, 2019)

The Dreamed Path is honestly one of the best films I've watched exclusively for this project. In the opening scenes, a couple climb through woods to busk on the edge of a carpark, there seems to be some kind of grassroots activism going on related to the GDR/Berlin wall (I presume, after a later news report). The young man gets a call with bad news and faints, the short sequence of shots here is amazing: him dropping his hat, his girlfriend realising something is up, him being caught by someone waiting at the phone as he collapses. There's obviously something very Bressionian in the deliberateness of the framing, movements and performances. Shanelec herself has said she was inspired to become a director after seeing Pickpocket.
After that bravura opening sequence, we have a deceptively epic bifurcated plot which spans years(?!) following the young people as they go their separate ways. Parallel to this, we have a storyline following an actress, played by Schanelec regular Maren Eggert, who is dealing with an all consuming depression that leads to the breakdown of her marriage. From what I remember, these stories don't cross over, despite happening in close proximity eventually.
I really loved the film, it's ambiguous narrative and the constant in-between feeling of the environments (like the canteen on set, the drug dispensary, the hospital), this feeling of suspension and unease. I loved the father's description of seeing his son only when he moves, and knowing that it was him from his shape and movements, it emphasised the attention to detail I was talking about earlier. The final shot was also a kicker. I couldn't really concentrate on anything for a while after.

Later that evening I watched Schanelec's follow up, I Was At Home But..., which evaded me a little more, despite being just as beautifully made. Maybe I needed to be more familiar with Shakespeare/Hamlet for it to fully click, but it still looked amazing, and I appreciated the similar approach of parallel plots and narrative ambiguity. Maren Eggert was great again, and any scene she was in had me glued. I feel like I need to rewatch this in a months time or something, formulate more thoughts on it. It definitely didn't bring about as immediate a visceral reaction as The Dreamed Path.

Genèse (Phillipe Lesage 2019)

Speaking of films that didn't elicit such a visceral reaction as previous films, but were very good nonetheless... Genèse is Lesage's follow up to his Les démons, and actually has a really inventive and intriguing connection to the previous film, in an extended coda featuring Édouard Tremblay-Grenier reprising his role of Felix. The Main plot, however, follows two step siblings who lead very seperate lives, actually the film features another split narrative similar to The Dreamed Path. Guillaume, played by the kind captivating Theodore Pellerin, is at a boarding school and is the class clown; overly confident, gangly, loved by everyone, and the bulk of his plotline is about how he pines for his best friend, and despite his general confidence, this is something that eats away at him because deep down he knows he will be rejected. Guillaume's sister, Charlotte is a little more timid, with an over-reliance on alcohol to loosen herself up. She's dissatisfied with her relationship to her high school boyfriend, but is finding it to move on and find something new an meaningful in her university milieu. Both plotlines come to quite dramatic and difficult to watch conclusions, and I appreciated the film introducing this Felix coda.
Aside from wonderful cinematography, and interesting structure, and Pellerin's performance, I wasn't completely knocked out by this... it was quite a familiar plot overall. Something I need to rewatch though, as I was intrigued by it.

Something Useful (Pelin Esmer 2017)

Speaking of intriguing! This is a little talked about Turkish film on Mubi that I actually really liked, despite being a little dissatisfied with it's conclusion. It's essentially an extended character study about a poet who is travelling to attend a high school(?) reunion. Onboard the train she befriends a student doctor, who is on her way to do a very dubious and highly illegal job in the same town. A lot of the film is people watching, we are often alone with the poet, as she spies scenes from the train windows, and watches other passengers on board. We hear her inner monologue; ideas on life and art. We get a sense of an artistic process at work.
Once they arrive at their destination, the film loses me a little, the tension and mystery that was driving the plot is kind of lost, although I appreciated the continuation of that people watching aesthetic.
The more I think about the film, the more it dissipates though. Anyone else a fan? will it be included in their top 50? Looking online, it does seem to have a small but devoted fanbase.
I have another of her films from this decade, The Watchtower, which I will endeavour to watch before the project is up.

Two Shots Fired (Martín Rejtman 2014)

Rejtman is another filmmaker highlighted on Mubi, who is well loved, but I'm new to. This was really enjoyable but also perhaps not list worthy. again, a character study, this time about a young man who in the beginning of the film, attempts suicide. What follows is a deadpan comedy of sorts, in the Kaurismaki mold, dealing with weighty subjects with a lightness of touch, including a running joke about the bullet still lodged in the young man's body.
It was cute but perhaps a little too light. Again, anyone a fan?

I have a few others to post up, but I've run out of time! I'll post them later.

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Caprice (Mouret, 2015) If nothing else, the first half-hour or so of this is probably the most tone-perfect modernization of classic screwball imaginable, neither willfully adaptive nor slavishly devoted to the form. And then its characters play through, with almost syllogistic beauty, the psychological fallout of the screwball setup. That shift in tone from straight-up screwball to bruised earnestness caught me off guard in a good way, and I expect I'd like this even more on a rewatch when I can track that as it's happening. I'd ask where to next, but it looks like dom's got that covered in the Mouret thread.

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Viewing log:

45 Years (Andrew Haigh, 2015): Geoff (Tom Courtenay) and Kate (Charlotte Rampling) are on the eve of celebrating their sapphire wedding anniversary when he receives a letter in the mail that throws their life together into turmoil. Before he was with Kate, Geoff was in a passionate affair with the German Katya who suddenly went missing fifty years ago. The letter informs Geoff of the discovery of Katya's remains on an Alpine peak. Though he initially tries to hide his feelings, Geoff is shaken to the core, leading Kate to reevaluate the 45 years they've spent together. The leads do a good enough job, but I could never get beyond the unfairness of the emotional jealousy at the core of the film. Is it really that big of a shock that people still pine for lost loves decades later? Thinking that you’re the only person your partner is allowed to have romantic feelings toward is a sign of emotional immaturity, not a healthy relationship. I far prefer Haigh's Weekend to this.

Blind Detective (Johnnie To, 2013): Andy Lau stars as former ace detective Chong Si-teun, who's forced into early retirement after losing his eyesight. Unwilling to let his disability define him, Chong takes up work as a private detective where he uses his near superhuman abilities of recreating crime scenes mentally and deduce culprits. Early on he beats the police to the scene of a crime where a madman is about to pour acid off the side of a building on unsuspecting people below. After a madcap fight between the three factions, he meets Ho Ka Tung (Sammi Cheng), a young police detective with a mysterious past. Soon the two of them embark on a quest to find a missing girl that leads them to a series of other women who went missing under suspicious circumstances. Not everything is as it appears, however, as To delights in throwing one curve ball after another at the audience. As someone who lives with multiple disabilities, I'm sick and tired of their fetishization. Just as Monk portrayed having OCD as tantamount to possessing crime solving superpowers, so too does Blind Detective for the visually impaired. No, living with a loss of vision doesn't grant one amazing abilities that others lack. It's a genuinely offensive way to understand the disabled. Add to that a relentlessly frenetic style and a forced romance between the leads, and you've got a real stinker of a film.

First Reformed (Paul Schrader, 2017): Ethan Hawke gives one of his finest performances as Rev. Toller, a former member of the armed forces who entered seminary after his son was killed in Iraq and his marriage collapsed. He comes under the wing of Rev. Jeffers (Cedric the Entertainer) the leader of a megachurch that also oversees the smaller historic First Reform church. Toller rotely delivers sermons to First Reformed's handful of parishioners, and spends his evenings constantly repairing the church's crumbling plumbing. Toller lives his life in a deep malaise until Mary (Amanda Seyfried) interrupts it by asking him to talk with her husband Michael (Philip Ettinger). Michael, recently released from prison to tend to his pregnant wife, is himself in a deep depression over the environmental degradation that he researches online. Soon Mary discovers a suicide vest that Michael apparently intends to use in an act of environmental terrorism. Toller confiscates it, leading him down the path of his own suicidal ideation. As most critics observed, the film doesn't just borrow beats from Bresson and Bergman, it shamelessly repeats them nearly verbatim. That doesn't lessen the fact that it's a fine drama centered on the spiritual disillusionment of a seemingly purposeless clergyman. Yes, we've seen this before, but Schrader does it well here. The film has a very dedicated fan base. I don't think it's quite the masterpiece that some consider it, but it's still an easy recommendation.

Himizu (Sion Sono, 2011): Teenage Keiko (Fumi Nikaidô) has a crush on her troubled classmate Yuichi (Shôta Sometani). Although he rejects her attention, she sees a recent earthquake as an excuse to try and get closer to him. Soon enough the two form the foundation of a surrogate family with others left homeless by the earthquake. After a series of acts of unspeakable violence shakes Yuichi to his core, he embarks on a quest to rid the world of "bad people". As he's driven to the edge of sanity, Keiko fights to keep him from destroying himself and harming others. Sion Sono is responsible for one of my favorite films of the decade Antiporno and, in my estimation, one of the decade's worst, Why Don't You Play in Hell?. Himizu exists somewhere between those two extremes. Yuichi is given a lot of time to grow as a character, but Keiko is kept as the archetypal worried girlfriend that continuously frets over the boy she loves. Not everything works here, but Sono has enough panache to pull off the stylistic flourishes that To only wishes he could handle.

Loveless (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2017): Boris (Aleksey Rozin) and Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) are in the midst of divorcing and spend most of their time sniping at each other. Their 12-year-old son, Alyosha (Matvey Novikov), alternates between isolating himself from them, and weeping as they fight. Boris has moved out and already impregnated a younger lover. Zhenya too has found someone else. Despite their overwhelming disdain for one another, the two must come together when Alyosha disappears. Since the ex-couple squabble so much, it took them two days to realize that their son is missing. It would be all too easy to make the rest of the film about the parents learning to love each other once again as they frantically search for their boy. However, Zvyagintsev doesn't go a route as hackneyed as that. Instead, the film is brutal and remains emotionally honest to where the characters are at the beginning of the film. It's difficult to relate to either of these damaged individuals, but we still feel sorry for them over the loss of the child. The film keeps us guessing over whether or not we'll ever see the boy again until the final frame, and even then, doesn't offer any easy answers.

Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2012): Elderly Lisbon dweller Aurora (Laura Soveral) desperately wants to reconnect with a man from her past before dying. To accomplish this, she enlists the aid of Pilar (Teresa Madruga) to find Ventura (Henrique Espírito Santo). Pilar lives an uneventful and lonely existence as a single middle-aged woman, so she jumps at the chance to add a little adventure to her life. After finding Ventura, the remainder of the film shifts from present day Portugal to one of the nation's African colonies in 1961 as he tells Pilar about his time with a young Aurora fifty years earlier. The film is shot in luscious black and white tones that are reminiscent of the Europeans movies of the early 60's. It's a fantastical tale that never quite dips its toes into magical realism, but often feels like it exists somewhere near its border. Miguel Gomes and Mariana Ricardo's script isn't the easiest to follow, but I ultimately found it to be a rewarding experience.

Venus (Mette Carla Albrechtsen and Lea Glob, 2016): Shot over the course of four years, directors Mette Carla Albrechtsen and Lea Glob interview a dozen or so women about their sex lives. The film's participants answered advertisements in a Danish newspaper, and all tell their stories sitting in a chair in what appears to be an otherwise empty studio apartment. Without getting into the specifics of what the participants communicate, I will say that I found this to be a fascinating experience. I'm a cishet male from the US who teaches both feminism and the philosophy of sex/sexuality. I'm always interested in hearing stories of sexual exploits that don't match my own embodied experiences. I'm deeply grateful to the directors for putting this together. I feel like I got a lot out of it.