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YEAR END CLARENCE
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"Favorites from the past year"
Being new to this weekly column thing (I am under instructions not to call it a ‘blog’ as there is no comment string capabilities or some such thing. Apparently, readers not only want to send along their comments but they want to see them, too. Believe me, people. Your comments manage to get through to me. I don’t know how. I’m no expert with this whole new-fangled internet technology stuff but, trust me, I do get your comments. Not always ‘get’ as in understand but I do receive them...)
What was I saying before I so rudely interrupted myself?
Right. New to this whole columnist thing. Each and every week.. Nope. Lost it completely. Go back to the beginning, retrace my steps. Being new to this weekly column thing, I have come to the realization that (yep, there it is) there will be times when you are totally bereft of ideas, barren, devoid of anything resembling a coherent thought. You draw a blank.
Not coincidentally, I assume, this lack of material manifests itself most prominently at this time of year as the work ethic gets bogged down in an avalanche of sweetened carbohydrates and a sea of rum spiked egg nog. On top of which, editors decide to take a powder, wrapped up it would seem in their own lives and concerns. (That said and with all resentment aside, I have to send out a tip of the hat and a genuinely heartfelt thanks to my two blue pencillers, Lindsey and Page, for their notes and assistance on this column. Without which, it would be even more meandering, less comprehensible and fraught with misspelling and grammatical outrages. Thanks you two. I hope you had a great Christmas.)
So, what’s a writer to do when suddenly left alone with nothing to write about and less inclination to write about it even if there was anything to write about?
A year end, Best of Column!
(This is especially inviting when travelling editor-less, with no one to set you back on the road toward making a point in a rational, logical manner or helping you to be less dependent[sp?] dependant[sp?] on paranthetical asides.)
So, here it is. The Best in Film and Television of 2007, a mon avis.
I hesitate to anoint favourites in the movie category, having not yet been able to see There Will Be Blood. Already a very big fan of the film’s director, P.T. Anderson, I literally froze stiff with anticipation both times watching the trailer. I fully expect it to be the greatest movie ever. Ever.
Another couple caveats. I have not been able to bring myself to see A Mighty Heart. Despite liking much of director Michael Winterbottom’s work, the combination of gruelling content along with a serious lack of desire to be further exposed to the already over-exposed Angelina Jolie has made the prospect of watching this movie a chore for me.
(Take a hint from Daniel Day-Lewis, sweetheart. Disappear from view for a bit. Create a little mystery around yourself.)
I also managed to miss This is England so far. No explanation. Just didn’t get my act together to see it.
With my omissions admitted, drum roll, please!
My favourite movie in 2007 was Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There. It’s been sometime since I sat through a movie so thoroughly mesmerized. I hooked up to the conceit from the get-go and just went with the flow. Yes, Cate Blanchett’s performance was as outstanding as it looks in the ads and trailers. As a screenwriter who fusses and frets over getting a story’s structure as tight as possible, I just swooned over I’m Not There’s narrative boldness. Up yours, Robert McKee! Not everyone in the theatre was as enamoured with its nonlinearity but when was the last time you witnessed a disparate group of audience members out in the lobby animatedly discussing the pros and cons of the movie they just finished watching?
In a much more traditional vein but nearly as engrossing for me was Michael Clayton. Your by-the-numbers ‘Slightly Greasy Lawyer Who Discovers His Morality’ tale, the movie’s execution was flawless. George Clooney is simply the best movie star going right now. When he spits out the line, “You’re so fucked!” near the end, it made me want to go and just swear at somebody with such impeccable precision.
Another runner-up nod goes to Zodiac, a surprisingly quiet, almost sedate film. Why surprisingly? First, its subject matter. A serial killer on the loose in 1970s San Francisco. Second, the director, normally the very ‘loud’ and never sedate David Fincher. Here, he methodically documents the downward spiral of 3 characters’s lives who obsessively set out to solve the seemingly random and high profile murders. Two and a half hours pass without nary a glance at the watch. And the shot of the Golden Gate Bridge just made me smile happily.
The best movie I watched on an airplane this year was Once. Looking for something to put me to sleep on a particularly long flight, this schmaltzy love story seemed like just the ticket. Damn the turbulence and this very muscularly endearing film! Right from the start with Glen Hansard’s musician Guy having to run down a thief who attempted to steal his busking money, I was caught up. While no expert on such matters, I believe that this might be the best unconsummated love story in recent years. (Nice soundtrack, too.) I would think the film holds up equally well in the theatres and big screen TVs.
Wait, wait, wait, I hear you clamoring. What about foreign language films, you xenophobic bastard!?
Well, I guess I just didn’t see that many. No, I’m not going to inflict a Communist era, Romanian abortion film upon my tender sensibilities. I don’t care how many awards it receives.
I did see After the Wedding and thought it almost a great film until it collapsed under the weight of its relentless emotional manipulation. And I kept waiting for Mads Mikkelsen’s eye to start bleeding.
Speaking of almost fantastic films, how about Sunshine? I’m not much of a sci-fi guy but this story intrigued me: a spaceship full of astronauts on a near certain suicide mission to defibrilate the sickly sun with a nuclear payload and save the world! Visually stunning, I was marvelling at a particular tracking shot down a long corridor with all the groans and creaks we expect from an outer space faring vehicle. What’s so great about this, I thought, was no Aliens to worry about. Just pure, unadulterated existential dread. Apparently, the exact thought some knucklehead in the studio had because before you know it, the crew are being tracked down by a space zombie. This is my pick for the early version of the screenplay I’d most like to read before the executives got involved.
Ratatouille reminded me that unless they’re made by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, animated films always disappoint me. The Simpsons Movie did nothing to disabuse me of that notion.
Oh, wait. You want foreign language films? Let me tell you about the 5 films I saw at the Jacques Rivette retrospective at Cinematheque early this year. OK. I won’t talk about 4 of them but I highly recommend Celine and Julie Go Boating if you can get your hands on it. Another narrative dipsy-doodle but very funny in a painterly, 1970s French manner.
I also highly recommend David Thomson if you’re looking for dynamite writing about the movies. His The New Biographical Dictionary of Film is a goldmine of incisive commentary and if you allow him, he will take you down avenues you might not always agree with but you’ll be glad you went down.
Speaking of which, who still has my copy of Thomson’s The Whole Equation? I’d like it back, please. Along with my first season of Extras. I know one of you have it.
**sigh**
You see? This is what happens when I have no editorial oversight. I just wander off in any and all directions. Having just poured myself another big gulp of rum and egg nog, I can see no way of tackling the thorny Best of TV topic. That will have to wait for now. Probably a good thing as I feel another Lost Weekend bender nipping at my nose. I’ll need the subject matter for next week’s column.
Until 2008, my friends. Happy holidays.
