In no particular order, my favourites are
Changeling and Milk, two ‘true(ish) stories well told with superbly well acted leads by Angelina Jolie and Sean Penn. I thought that Changeling is much better than Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood’s other directorial offering this year.
Two films posed moral dilemmas, again with outstanding leads, from Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt, and Kate Winslet and David Kross in The Reader. Doubt left us in absolute uncertainty about the guilt or innocence of the priest accused of child abuse, a most uncomfortable state of mind, but one we have to face sometimes. The Reader was also about abuse, but this issue was so morally over-shadowed by the film’s Holocaust background that the abusive nature of its central relationship was seldom remarked on.
Four films chosen for their Directorial qualities are; Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle, Inglorious Basterds, by Quentin Tarantino, The Hurt Locker by Kate Bigelow and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. by Terry Gilliam. The last three showed a return to form by their idiosyncratic, inconsistent but sometimes wonderful Directors, with Gilliam’s film being completed by the hasty additions to the cast of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, as a fitting tribute to their friend Heath Ledger.
I don’t usually like Vampire movies, yet two figure this year; Let the Right One In was directed by the Swede Tomas Alfreson from John Ajvide’s script of his own novel. This is a tender pre-adolescent love story, set in modern Sweden, recognising and gently subverting the genre’s traditions. I was really moved by it. Thirst is very different, from the leading Korean director Park Chan-wook, previously known for the Vengeance trilogy and I’m a Cyborg But that’s OK. This could be called I’m a vampire but it’s not OK! as we follow the transformation of a Catholic priest who inadvertently becomes infected with vampirism. Song Kang-ho is persuasive and sympathetic as the tormented priest, and Kim Ok-bin outstanding as the young woman who becomes his lover. This is a complex moral and theological tale, told with bravura and style but certainly not for the squeamish. Like most vampire tales it is about sex and death and blood, love and (eventual) redemption. But the sacramental aspects of blood supping, the dark side of desire and the yearning to be with those we love, for ever, are taken very seriously, in this very black tragi-comedy.
Last year the best animation film for me was Walle -E; this year it’s Up! Both are from Pixar, of course. Both address adult and younger audiences. Up! is beautifully realised, very moving in its early sequences, later on very funny and it makes good use of 3D, not as a gimmick but as a real tool to enhance the effect of the story. (I am told that Coraline does the same , but I only saw that on a plane).
Where The Wild Things Are is not a children’s film. It is a movie about the world of childhood; chaotic, mercurial, confusing, where adults say things we don’t understand and make jokes we don’t understand. Where people have feelings we feel impacted by, but we do not understand what they are feeling or why we are reacting the way we are. Where alliances can shift with bewildering and frightening swiftness. We want to be wild, and we need to be loved. This is a place where a howl can speak a thousand words. Don’t be tempted to view this film through the tunnel of expectations, or be distracted by irrelevant questions. Just go for the ride; feel what it invites you feel, and think about it afterwards. WTWTA has a groundbreaking script by Dave Eggars, inventive direction from Spike Jonze, Maurice Sendak’s whole-hearted approval, and a wonderful cast.
District 9 is a political science fiction film from South Africa, with a most unexpectedly heroic protagonist. Moon, made by David Bowie’s son, Duncan Jones, is virtually a two hander, with Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey, made for pennies, original and moving. Star Trek, the best of the franchise, bursts with fun and excitement and invention.
My two near misses were Watchmen, a great comic strip very well translated to the big-screen, but 20 years too late, and Paranormal Activity, made for even less than Moon, and a very clever home-movie, but one that did not get the hairs on the back of neck standing up the way it was meant too. Maybe I’m just jaded.
My two Turnkeys were definitely The Day the Earth Stood Still and X Men Origins: Wolverine.
My favourite DVD releases this year were Red Sorghum, The Ashes of Time (redux) and Chungking Express, all from China; I’ve loved you so Long from France, but starring the divine Kirstin Scot Thomas; and classic British films The Spy Who Came in From The Cold, (surely Richard Burton’s best performance); Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Orlando. The 1987 TV series Tutti Frutti with Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thomson has at last been released.
