Top 50 for 2015 Part 4: Top 20
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View my complete Top 50 list on Letterboxd here.
20. Sicario (USA, dir. Denis Villeneuve)
After two of her fellow officers are killed in an explosion at a house in Arizona owned by a Mexican drug cartel, seasoned FBI field agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) stumbles into a murky international investigation run by CIA operative Matt Graver (Josh Brolin). Graver is accompanied by a “consultant” named Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) whose affiliation is unclear. Kate is wary, but she agrees to join Graver and Alejandro’s operation in hopes of catching whoever owned the house and set the bomb. She quickly discovers the situation is considerably more complicated than she could have imagined.
I was not expecting SICARIO to be anywhere near as good as it actually is, both because it had a distinctly unexciting trailer and because I was not a fan of director Denis Villeneuve’s previous feature ENEMY (although I have been meaning to give it another chance). It really is a damned shame about that trailer, since it might have kept some audiences away from what is one of the best “action” films of the year. SICARIO features a harrowing series of increasingly intense stand-offs and dubiously legal operations in which Kate often finds herself forced into making difficult decisions. There is a protracted shootout scene at the US/Mexico border worthy of Michael Mann’s HEAT, and the climactic nighttime assault is a masterclass in building tension. Villeneuve orchestrates the action brilliantly, and uses unexpectedly artful touches throughout the film to give it a more interesting look than a typical prestige action movie.
19. High-Rise (UK, dir. Ben Wheatley)
In 1970s UK, successful doctor Laing (Tom Hiddleston) moves into an ultra-modern apartment building where there is a strict class stratification: upper middle class on the bottom, very wealthy on the top. As the building experiences intermittent power failures on the lower floors, a class conflict inevitably arises and the building descends into anarchy. As an absurdist satire of capitalism, the class concerns that have been a part of all of Wheatley’s previous films are front and center this time around. However, more than any of his previous work — even the straightforwardly comic SIGHTSEERS — HIGH-RISE has a streak of jet-black humor running through it that helps ground its more surreal moments. And there are plenty of those moments, brilliantly designed and staged to underline the bizarre contrast between the 1970s fashions and retro-future look of the building and the increasingly brutal behavior of the occupants and mimicking the visual style of 1970s films. Wheatley continues his streak as one of the most interesting filmmakers working in UK genre cinema.
18. Ex Machina (UK, dir. Alex Garland): Amazon
As a screenwriter, Alex Garland has been involved with some of the best genre cinema of the last 15 years, including Danny Boyle’s 28 DAYS LATER and SUNSHINE, as well as Mark Romanek’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s NEVER LET ME GO. EX MACHINA is his directorial debut, which seems almost impossible given how confident and accomplished it is. Caleb (Domnhall Gleeson) is a programmer working for a thinly-veiled Google stand-in called Bluebook. He wins a random drawing to spend a week at the remote home of Bluebook’s founder Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Nathan reveals that Caleb’s visit is not a vacation: provided he signs all the non-disclosure paperwork, Caleb will be participating in an experiment. Nathan has developed an advanced artificial intelligence system and placed it in a robotic body he names Ava (Alicia Vikander), and Caleb’s mission is to interact with her and report back to Nathan.
EX MACHINA wrings maximum tension from this minimal setup, and Vikander and Isaac in particular turn in great performances. The film has a cold technical precision, thanks to cinematographer Rob Hardy and some highly effective production design by Mark Digby. It also has one of the best scores of any film this year, thanks to Geoff Barrow (of Portishead) and Ben Salisbury. Garland uses the characters and their relationships to ask intriguing questions, resulting in a rare serious science fiction thriller manages to deliver intelligence and genre entertainment simultaneously.
17. Too Late (USA, dir. Dennis Hauck)
Following the massive cultural impact of Quentin Tarantino’s PULP FICTION in 1994, the film landscape became glutted with films and filmmakers desperate to cash in on that film’s success. A handful of these “Taranintoesques” were pretty good; most of them were middling to bad, and a good chunk of them were straight-up garbage. Hell, even Tarantino himself immediately took a huge departure with his follow-up JACKIE BROWN, a movie starring a cast of incredibly cool people that used the crime thriller as a framework on which to hang a drama about just about the least cool thing possible: getting older. Fortunately as time has gone on, we get fewer and fewer films that attempt to blatantly mimic the mid-90s concept of the “Tarantinoesque.” This year, I saw two notable examples. One was among the worst movies I saw this year; the other, Dennis Hauck’s TOO LATE, was one of the best.
Private dick Sampson (John Hawkes) gets a call one morning from a young stripper he met a few years earlier named Dorothy (Crystal Reed). She’s in trouble and could use Sampson’s help. He comes running and quickly finds himself in the middle of a very messy situation. TOO LATE has one hell of a hook: it was shot on 35mm, a rarity for modern independent productions, and aside from a few edits near the end the film consists of a series of 20-minute takes—roughly the length of a reel of 35mm film. It obviously owes a lot to PULP FICTION with its referential dialogue, plays on noir tropes, and nonlinear structure, but after a shaky start TOO LATE turns into an exceptional crime drama. John Hawkes is perfect in the lead, and there are plenty of great character touches to accompany the impressive technical feats on display. This is very much a love letter to the films Hauck was influenced by as well as to celluloid itself. If we’re doomed to have filmmakers returning to the PULP FICTION well forever, let’s hope a lot more of those films going forward are this smart, fun, and ambitious.
16. The Brand New Testament (Belgium, dir. Jaco Van Dormael)
God (Benoît Poelvoorde) is real, and he lives in Brussels in an apartment building from which he created the world. He’s also a total asshole, inflicting nearly as much misery on his wife (Yolande Moreau) and young daughter Ea (Pili Groyne) as he does on humanity on a daily basis. Ea finally decides to escape like her older brother JC (David Murgia). But first she uses her dad’s computer to tell everyone on Earth when they’re going to die, which ruins his entire system of control. Ea recruits a dyslexic homeless man to be her scribe and sets out to find six apostles and write a new book of the bible about their lives. THE BRAND NEW TESTAMENT is one of the best, most original films I’ve seen this year. It’s poignant, hilarious, and completely unpredictable. The cast is excellent — especially young Pili Groyne as Ea — and the film has a look and tone reminiscent of Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman’s collaborations but enough of its own identity that it never feels derivative. Instead, it feels more like a confident peer to those films.
15. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (USA, dir. J.J. Abrams)
It’s totally pointless for me to even try to discuss STAR WARS in any kind of rational manner. One of my first memories — possibly my very first — is of seeing STAR WARS at the Ben Hur Drive-in (demolished in 1997) in Crawfordsville, Indiana, with my parents. And I remember seeing THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (at The Strand in Crawfordsville, which burned to the ground several years ago) and RETURN OF THE JEDI (at The Avon in Lebanon, Indiana, which also subsequently burned down) as a kid, too. I’ve never been a huge fanatic for the series, but I also can’t deny that seeing the original trilogy as a kid had a huge impact on me and my love for film.
All that said, I was not super impressed with THE FORCE AWAKENS on my first watch. It was pretty good, if a little overly familiar. But the characters were really interesting and the cast was great. So I watched it again, and that was that. I love this movie. I know people have a billion complaints about it, but I love it. It really recaptures the feeling of excitement about being dropped into this believable, lived-in universe. I love the characters, I love the look, the sound, the tone, everything. J.J. Abrams might have photocopied the screenplay for A NEW HOPE and pasted new character names in it, but I honestly don’t care. I’m not going to get into spoilers (for the seven people on Earth who haven’t seen the movie yet), but there were moments in THE FORCE AWAKENS when I was reminded of the feeling I had watching the original trilogy as a kid, and that is an extremely rare thing.
14. The Hateful Eight (USA, dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Say what you will about Quentin Tarantino, but the man is unpredictable. After reveling in outrageous historical revisionist revenge fantasies in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS and DJANGO UNCHAINED, who could have guessed his next film would be a politically-charged drawing room mystery? THE HATEFUL EIGHT revisits the period piece approach of those two films with its setting some years after the American Civil War, but this time there are no heroes and villains. There are only villains and victims, and the suggestion is that this is more or less how things have always been: white men only feel safe when black men are scared, black men are only safe when white men are disarmed, women are totally screwed as long as men are in charge, and any civilized idea of justice is often kicked to the curb for the instant gratification of vigilantism. Sound familiar? Given that the run-up to the film’s opening was accompanied by controversy when Tarantino took part in protests against racially-charged police brutality, it’s all but impossible to see THE HATEFUL EIGHT as anything but Tarantino taking a look at America and feeling an obligation to show us what he sees wrong.
With all that said, it should come as no surprise that THE HATEFUL EIGHT is easily Tarantino’s angriest film ever, and least “fun.” Most of the typical pleasures of watching his work are still here, especially his brilliant dialogue, delivered by a perfect cast. Walton Goggins in particular was clearly born to play the character of Chris Mannix. In fact, the first half of the film is virtually all dialogue. Initially this feels like too much of a good thing until the second half kicks in and the talk takes a backseat to gory action and alliances shift in unexpected ways. THE HATEFUL EIGHT is the first film by Tarantino that didn’t immediately blow me away on a first viewing, the initial rush of excitement at his flair for stylish entertainment replaced by an insistent need to really think about what it meant. The more I thought about it, the more I came to appreciate it. I suspect that quality of the film will result in a lot of fans initially considering it one of Tarantino’s worst films, only for its reputation to improve with time.
13. Evolution (France, dir. Lucile Hadzihalilovic)
While out swimming in the ocean one day, Nicolas (Max Brebant) finds the corpse of a young boy about his age. He returns to tell his caretaker, who dismisses his concerns. When they return the next day to find the body, her search turns up only the distinctive red starfish Nicholas saw on the dead boy’s body. As the details of Nicholas’s life on the island accumulate, it becomes increasingly clear that he, his friends, and their caretakers are living in this isolated remote island for a specific purpose. EVOLUTION is the long-awaited second film from writer/director Lucile Hadžihalilovic, whose debut was 2004’s excellent INNOCENCE.
Like that film, EVOLUTION proceeds at a careful pace, gradually allowing details of its strange world to accumulate to allow the viewer to build an image of what is happening and why. This time, though, the viewer has much less concrete information to go on due to the minimal dialogue throughout. Whereas INNOCENCE worked with a strange dream logic, EVOLUTION presents fragments of what appears to be a much larger story through gorgeous and occasionally nightmarish imagery and very little dialogue. It’s a quiet, hypnotic film that invites the viewer to pay careful attention and thoroughly consider what they have seen. Here’s hoping it’s not another decade before Hadžihalilovic directs another film!
12. Inside Out (USA, dir. Pete Docter & Ronnie Del Carmen): Amazon
MONSTERS, INC. has always been one of my favorite Pixar films, both because it’s funny and touching and because it climaxes with a chase so surreal and imaginative that it feels more like something out of Terry Gilliam than Disney. While Pixar’s other films have often touched on the same emotional territory and handled it well, it’s been a while since they’ve put out something as simultaneously visually inventive and narratively innovative as INSIDE OUT. The film strikes a perfect balance of fun and bittersweet, acknowledging that growing up can be scary but that it’s also exciting. All of this is tied up in a complex but neatly explained model of the human brain that seems influenced in equal parts by some insightful research into actual science and the intricate bureaucracy of Gilliam’s BRAZIL. It’s a beautiful return to form for Pixar after a rough last few years, and a potent reminder that when they’re at their best, nobody is better at this particular kind of big-budget CG animated feature.
11. Victoria (Germany, dir. Sebastian Schipper): Amazon
If you know anything about VICTORIA, you probably know that the entire 2+ hour film is presented in a single unbroken take, a technical feat that is undeniably impressive. In addition its existence as a jaw-dropping filmmaking stunt, though, VICTORIA is a damn good crime thriller, and a very immediate reminder of just how much stuff can happen in two hours. The camera follows Victoria (Laia Costa in a seriously amazing performance), a lonely music student from Spain living in Berlin, as she meets a group of drunk buddies on the way out of a club with whom she becomes fast friends. She hangs out with them and soon circumstances lead to them needing her help with pulling off a robbery for a violent gangster.
Honestly, the “one take” concept fades quickly into the background as the film goes on. It reels you in because the characters are interesting and well-drawn. Costa’s performance is obviously the standout, requiring her to cover a vast amount of emotional terrain over the course of the film. Frederick Lau is also very good as Sonne, the man whose invitation brings Victoria into the circle of friends and with whom she shares an instant attraction. Director Sebastian Schipper uses the setup for some gut-wrenchingly tense moments: seeing this film in the theater, there were multiple occasions when it seemed like the whole audience gasped in shock or surprise. “Hitchockian” is an adjective that gets thrown around too much, but VICTORIA deserves it not in respect to its form and structure (Hitchcock himself famously attempted to create the illusion of a single-take film with ROPE), but because Schipper plays the audience “like an organ,” expertly manipulating the audience’s emotions and expectations.
10. Inherent Vice (USA, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Some lucky folks got to see INHERENT VICE during its brief end-of-2014 run, and so it feels like it came out ages ago and everything that could possibly be said about it has been said (and said, and said, and said, etc.). So basically I’m just going to add my voice to the chorus of approval and say that INHERENT VICE is everything I was hoping it would be when it was first announced, and then some. I love everything about this movie; I was completely hooked from the second “Vitamin C” by Can kicked in on the soundtrack, and it never stopped being that great. The main touchstone here is obviously Robert Altman’s THE LONG GOODBYE, but Paul Thomas Anderson uses his hippie detective’s descent into a weird rabbit hole of biker gangs, government agents, shady real estate deals, disappearing musicians, and crew-cut squares as both a celebration of and lament for the idealism of the ’60s.
Of course, that’s not to say that INHERENT VICE is all sad nostalgia. It’s also ridiculously, occasionally cartoonishly absurd, with a plot so labyrinthine many viewers gave up and assumed it was designed to be literally impossible to follow. Repeat watches are definitely rewarding, as every weird touch is revealed to be part of a truly mind-boggling whole. As an extra bonus, some viewers were treated to 35mm screenings of the film, which was about as close to a religious experience as I’ve ever had at the movies. The film’s warm, loose ’70s look and feel is amplified exponentially when screened from a 35mm print.
9. Hard to Be a God (Russia, dir. Aleksey German): Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Google
Much has been made of the uncompromising unpleasantness of HARD TO BE A GOD, but something not many writers have touched on definitely bears mentioning: this is a hell of a lot funnier than you might be expecting. Sure, everything is miserable and everyone (and every single thing) is covered in mud and shit, but the science fiction film closest in spirit to this is probably IDIOCRACY. It feels like half the film’s running time is people blowing raspberries or turning away from the camera, bending over, and slapping their ass. The backstory is genius (the film was adapted from a novel by the authors who wrote the novel on which Andrei Tarkovsky’s classic STALKER is based): An inhabited planet is discovered, and a team of Earth scientists are sent to investigate. What they find is a race of humanoids whose civilization is mired in a never-ending Dark Age. This is a world where anyone who threatens real change is strung up before they can cause too much trouble. The Earth scientists are considered gods here, and the power has gone to their heads. HARD TO BE A GOD is a long, filthy wallow in a deeply pessimistic view of humanity, but it’s also a totally convincing evocation of a period in human history that is so different from modern life it may as well actually have happened on another planet.
8. Liza the Fox-Fairy (Hungary, dir. Károly Ujj Mészáros)
Liza (Mónika Balsai) is the lonely caretaker for the widow of the former Japanese ambassador to Hungary. Six years ago, the ghost of Japanese pop star Tomy Tani (David Sakurai) started to visit Liza and they would sing and dance together. But when Liza reaches her thirtieth birthday without finding true love, Tomy sets into motion a devious plan to keep her all for himself by eliminating all potential competition from Liza’s life. LIZA THE FOX-FAIRY is a massively entertaining fantasy comedy, packed with beautiful images and a soundtrack of faux-’60s Japanese pop tunes that are utterly convincing as products of that era. The film is hilarious and sweet without getting too dark, even though Tomy’s plan revolves around causing a whole lot of people to die. It’s tough to imagine anyone stone-hearted enough to resist the charms of both Liza and the film that bears her name.
7. The Witch (USA, dir. Robert Eggers)
Banished from his village for reasons never fully explained (although related to his strict Christianity), William (Ralph Ineson) and his family build a home and farm out in the wilderness of 1600s America. One day his infant son Sam is taken by something in the woods while under the care of Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), the oldest of the family’s five children. William’s wife Katherine (Kate Dickie) is devastated by grief, and while William believes a wolf took the boy, young siblings Jonas (Lucas Dawson) and Mercy (Ellie Grainger) insist that the family’s goat Black Phillip told them a witch took Sam. Weird occurrences begin to afflict the family as fingers are pointed and suspicions intensify. THE WITCH won best director at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and with obvious reason: it’s an intricately detailed study of life on the early American frontier, and the intense research done by writer/director Robert Eggers really pays off. Eggers plays the story (subtitled “A New-England Folk Tale”) totally seriously, and his chilling portrayal of the fears of 1600s American settlers makes this one of the most original and unnerving horror films in recent memory.
6. Tangerine (USA, dir. Sean Baker): Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Google
Sean Baker’s TANGERINE tears out of the gate after its opening credit sequence, immediately dropping the viewer into the middle of a conversation between the hyperactive, newly-paroled Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and her best friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor). Alexandra accidentally informs Sin-Dee that her pimp/boyfriend Chester (James Ransone) has been cheating while she’s been locked up, sending Sin-Dee on a relentless search for Chester and/or the white “fish” (a woman “with a vagina and everything”) he’s been sleeping with. As Sin-Dee terrorizes people on the street, Alexandra tries to drum up interest in her Christmas Eve singing gig and make a little money while taxi driver Razmik (Karren Karagulian) trolls for some action between holiday fares.
Famously shot guerilla-style with iPhones on the streets of Los Angeles, the camera in TANGERINE almost never stops moving, and the wild soundtrack keeps pace. It’s an impressive feat of digital filmmaking, but more than that it’s a peek into the lives of characters who would usually barely rate more than a stereotyped supporting role in most movies. The casting here is absolutely crucial: if Sin-Dee and Alexandra — and their friendship — weren’t utterly believable, the film would not work at all. Needless to say, Rodriguez and Taylor are both incredible, and they have the easy chemistry of longtime best friends whose personalities occasionally grate but perfectly complement each other. TANGERINE is fast, flashy, colorful, smart, sweet, hilarious, and exhilarating. There was nothing else like this anywhere all year, and this is easily one of the best Christmas movies to come along in ages.
5. Tokyo Tribe/Love & Peace (Japan, dir. Shion Sono): Amazon, Google, iTunes (Tokyo Tribe)
Shion Sono is one of the most interesting directors in the world, a prolific auteur whose output can be frustratingly inconsistent but is never mistakeable for anything but his own work. Among the several films Sono has released in 2014–2015, these two were representative of Sono trying his hand at different things and succeeding in grand fashion.
To say TOKYO TRIBE (given a few theatrical dates and released on home video this year in the States) is Sion Sono’s “most entertaining” film to spectacularly undersell just how insanely fun it actually is. Sono’s films have been a lot of things, but “fun” is not usually a descriptor much of anyone would ascribe to them. TOKYO TRIBE is a loud, vibrant, hilarious, bizarre explosion; nothing in even Sono’s wildly varied back catalog (with the possible exception of the finale of WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL?) has hinted he had THIS in him. The movie comes across as an amalgam of Takashi Miike’s V-Cinema gangster movies, THE WARRIORS, JET SET RADIO, and the constantly floating camera and eye-searing neon color schemes of ENTER THE VOID.
LOVE & PEACE (which played this year’s Fantastic Fest) is the story of Ryo, a former musician now working an unsatisfying office job, who impulsively buys a tiny turtle one day and names it Pikadon (a Japanese term for the atomic bomb). This momentarily inspires him to dream big dreams of rock ‘n roll success again. When his coworkers find out about the turtle and ridicule him, Ryo flushes Pikadon down into the Tokyo sewers and is immediately wracked with guilt. Pikadon meets a magical bum who takes in unwanted toys and pets. He accidentally gives Pikadon a wish-granting candy, and Pika’s wishes cause Ryo to be struck with musical inspiration that lead him to stumble into a music career. Meanwhile Pikadon grows larger and larger in accordance with Ryo’s ambitions. LOVE & PEACE is, once again, a massive curveball from Sono even after the wildly entertaining TOKYO TRIBE. This is the sweetest film he’s ever made, a sometimes touching and genuinely heartwarming and hilarious story of rags to rock ‘n roll riches that just happens to include talking animals and toys and an adorable ever-growing turtle. It’s almost impossible to imagine the same guy who made NORIKO’S DINNER TABLE is responsible for this!
4. Bombay Velvet (India, dir. Anurag Kashyap)
Ranbir Kapoor stars as “Johnny” Balraj, an ambitious small-time hood who is hired by gangster Khambatta (Karan Johar) to run the titular jazz club. Balraj falls for singer Rosie (Anushka Sharma), who has been sent to infiltrate the club and dig up dirt on Khambatta by her lover Jimmy Mistry (Manish Chaudhary). Rosie becomes a sensation and falls in love with Johnny, causing complications both professional and personal. Despite his success, Johnny remains a violent thug, spending his free time making extra cash by street fighting and using violence to solve any problems that come his way. As the legitimate business and the criminal enterprises both expand, it seems inevitable that Balraj will be caught in the middle when Khambatta’s empire collapses. The only question is how many others will he take down with him?
BOMBAY VELVET opens with a title card thanking (among others) Martin Scorsese and Danny Boyle, and then proceeds to tell an epic story of love and crime in a style that would do both of those filmmakers proud. In a film industry that is defined by rigid adherence to formula, this is a radical departure from contemporary Indian studio films. It’s a fantastic crime drama done in a very Western style, and its central setting gives its periodic song-and-dance numbers a context for occurring within the film’s story instead of stopping the action. Everything here is top-notch, and like the best films of this type its characters are compelling even if they’re not always (or hell, ever) likable or sympathetic. Even if you’re not usually interested in Indian cinema, it’s well worth a look.
3. Green Room (USA, dir. Jeremy Saulnier)
Struggling punk band The Ain’t Rights drive 90 miles out of their way for a show promised by a young kid with a podcast, but the gig is canceled. With no other choice, they take the kid’s offer of another paying gig at an isolated club frequented by skinheads. The band arrives and plays their set, but when they’re loading out bassist Pat (Anton Yelchin) stumbles upon a crime scene that club manager Gabe (Macon Blair) is trying to cover up. The situation rapidly escalates until the band is trapped in the club’s green room fighting for their lives against a violent neo-Nazi group trying to force them out and eliminate all evidence of the crime. Jeremy Saulnier’s previous film, BLUE RUIN, upended revenge film conventions and garnered huge critical acclaim that set expectations impossibly high for GREEN ROOM. Almost unbelievably, GREEN ROOM absolutely meets and very possibly exceeds those expectations.
The cast is excellent, and the amazingly detailed production design brings the world of low-rent punk clubs to absolutely convincing life. There’s a lot of violence, but like BLUE RUIN, GREEN ROOM treats its characters and their chances of survival realistically. Saulnier also takes time to draw all the characters well, giving an unexpected twinge of sympathy for even some of the skinheads. Everyone’s stuck in an impossible situation, and compelled to act according to their own personal loyalties and ethics. On top of all this, GREEN ROOM is fast-paced and fun, with plenty of gruesome black comedy. That’s a lot for any filmmaker to take on, but Saulnier and his cast make it look effortless.
2. The Forbidden Room (Canada, dir. Guy Maddin & Evan Johnson): Fandor
Since his 1988 feature debut TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL, Guy Maddin has established one of the most instantly identifiable aesthetics around. Initially drawing comparisons to (and by his own admission influenced by) David Lynch, Maddin’s idiosyncratic approach has staked out its own territory in the cinematic landscape. Where Lynch frequently draws inspiration from Golden Age Hollywood, Maddin’s references are more obscure: German mountaineering movies, Soviet propaganda films, flip-animation “peep shows,” and other primitive moving picture technologies. Following his 2007 feature MY WINNIPEG, the culmination of his trilogy of quasi-autobiographical features (each had protagonists named “Guy Maddin”), Maddin took an unexpected turn toward using sharp digital video for KEYHOLE in 2011, taking cues from American film noir. In some ways, KEYHOLE is one of Maddin’s most straightforward films, and it could hardly prepare us for what was coming next.
THE FORBIDDEN ROOM is unprecedented in its ambition and sheer weirdness, even in Maddin’s previous work. It’s a series of stories inspired by lost films from the silent era, hilarious and sad and creepy and disorienting, presented as stories within stories within stories. The experience of watching this film is probably the closest a feature-length narrative film has ever gotten to what it must be like to wander around in someone’s brain for a couple of hours. And in this case, that brain happens to be an endless labyrinth of cinema history and wildly inventive absurdity. It’s simultaneously Maddin’s INLAND EMPIRE and NYMPHOMANIAC: the ultimate expression of Maddin’s obsessions and unique style that also works as an overview of his entire filmography by echoing characters and themes from his previous works. This film could not exist without the old films Maddin loves, and it also could not exist without the technology that allows filmmakers like Maddin and his co-director Evan Johnson to manipulate images in ways previous generations of directors could hardly have imagined. Like the demonic bust of Janus in one of THE FORBIDDEN ROOM’s many tales, the film casts its view simultaneously to cinema’s distant past and to its future. This is one of those rare films that dismantles cinema and reconfigures it into something that feels totally new.
- The Duke of Burgundy (UK, dir. Peter Strickland): Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Google
Peter Strickland’s previous feature BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO was a tribute to Italian genre cinema of the 70s that took a completely unexpected approach, focusing entirely on the aspect of sound in those films. The audience is never shown any footage from THE EQUESTRIAN VORTEX, the film Toby Jones’s increasingly unhinged sound editor has been hired to work on, other than its opening credits sequence. But that hardly matters; Strickland’s attention to detail in the film’s score and sound design is more than enough to evoke the lurid images that the viewer would expect to see. BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, in short, announced Strickland as a filmmaker concerned with and influenced by “disreputable” genres and film styles who translated those interests into something totally different.
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY does something similar with 70s European erotic and genre cinema, using films like Jesús Franco’s A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD and Radley Metzger’s THE IMAGE as a jumping-off point for something even more brilliantly unpredictable than BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO’s behind-the-scenes psychological thriller: a mature, finely nuanced portrait of two adults involved in a committed long-term relationship. The fact that both of these adults are women (and seem to live in a world in which men do not exist) and that their physical intimacy includes elements of BDSM is beside the point. Like the role-playing that threatens to overwhelm its central characters’ relationship, the film’s imposing artifice — the gorgeous costumes, the impeccable cinematography, the florid scoring and unsettling sound design— is all “extra.” Beneath that exquisite facade, this is a film about how each love may be unique, but any love will be defined by how its participants navigate difficulties and compromise to each other’s mutual benefit to the best of their abilities.
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY is perceptive, surprising, disarming, touching, and often quite funny. It is a miracle that this film exists. It’s not just my favorite film I saw in 2015, it’s one of my new favorite films Of All Time.
2015 Recap:
Part 1: Favorite Restorations & Reissues, Five Favorite Independent Genre Films
