Cream of the Crop
With the sole exception of My Bloody Valentine, I would be able to compile a playlist of my favourite albums of the year in Spotify. I wonder for how much longer until this happens for the movies? Despite the fact that some of my picks were in the last year’s Oscar race, not many are available for streaming in Netflix. Given the leaps Netflix has taken in television, I’m surprised the studios aren’t interested in joining forces to invest in a similar service as Spotify (which is partly owned by the biggest labels). But I guess they need their current business model to be broken before that happens.
One of the most popular movies of the year in Finland has been a documentary (or a hagiography) about the ice hockey player Teemu Selänne who’s played for Anaheim Ducks for as long as most people can remember. If there is an on-going trend that doesn’t seem to be going away, then it is how people are willing to pay to see documentaries that once upon a time would have been destined for a life only on TV. This has been true for the festival circuit as well as theatrical releases.
Curiously enough 2013 saw a promising documentarian make a succesful leap to the world of fiction. Clio Barnard’s The Arbor was one of the oddest experiences I’ve had watching a documentary. At first I was alienated, then moved by it. Her debut fiction film The Selfish Giant is perhaps somewhat similar in that it hits you the deepest at the end.
Similarly a Finnish documentarian made a comeback to fiction filmmaking after 15 years. Concrete Night was picked in TIFF’s Masters programme and received a glowing reaction in Finland.
There needn’t be such a big boundary between fiction and documentary filmmaking, but I’m forced to divide them to different lists because the year’s best documentaries don’t get theatrical releases in these parts of the world.
So before continuing to fiction films, I’ll say something about the documentaries that impressed me this year.
The Act of Killing was an important film on everyone’s lips, but I found myself much more drawn to Jodorowsky’s Dune. It’s not that easy to make old unfinished films feel alive, but with Jodorowsky’s enthusiastic and wild storytelling habit everything seems to be possible. Apart from these two, Queen of Versailles made an impression on me even in the shorter version.
The Master would have topped any mixture of lists from 2012 and 2013 releases even though I’ve yet to see 12 Years A Slave, American Hustle and Her from the Oscar favourites.
I really do think it’s a tremendously remarkable film that uses an old technique (70mm film) and current fashion of short depth of field to create something completely original. It really doesn’t look like any other film ever made before. The latitude and contrast they achieved is quite extraordinary. I’ve seen the film three times now and can’t stop to marvel at the look of the film. (The other films I’ve seen more than once on this list are Spring Breakers and Only God Forgives, which I had to see again as I dozed for a second or two while watching it the first time.)
The story is less complex than has been made out to be. It’s just that it lacks the exciting and more vocal ending of There Will Be Blood. The Master continues Paul Thomas Anderson’s fascination with people’s absurd ways of making sense of the chaotic world.
There’s a scene near the end of the film where Amy Adam’s character says to Freddie Quell played by Joaquin Phoenix (referencing his boozing): “You can’t take life straight, can you?” Of course believing in a cult and married to its master isn’t exactly taking life as it is either. This (Bradshaw calls it addiction) is what ultimately connects Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Freddie despite their behaviour being otherwise complete polar opposites. Mr. Dodd is concerned with spiritual experience of the mind and acts compassionately while Freddie is inclined to more bestial qualities of humans.
What makes the film so opaque is that Paul Thomas Anderson sympathises with every character so well that it’s hard to walk away from the film with any clearcut message. One of the first motives for making the film apparently was that he read post-war eras are especially fertile for new religious movements. In this light, I feel however simple it may appear, the movie seems to be about the inherent need for humans to explain the world and the inclinaiton to falling to the charm of leaders.
Surprisingly little has been said about the recent death of Robert Altman who was the most influential filmmaker for Anderson in addition to befriending him. Anderson even served as an assistant director on his last film. Is it too simplistic to say, at least partly, the film deals with the importance of working without your master’s help?
If you want to come away with a life lesson I think that’s right there in the dialogue too. In introducing his new work Split Saber, Dodd tells the audience: “I have unlocked and discovered a secret to living in these bodies that we hold. Oh yes, and it’s very, very, very serious. The secret is laughter.”
Without further ado, here’s my list of favourite films released locally this year, obviously starting with The Master, and then listing ten others.
- The Master
- Spring Breakers
- Frances Ha
- Blue is the Warmest Colour (La vie d’Adèle)
- The Hunt (Jagten)
- Beasts of the Southern Wild
- Silver Linings Playbook
- Only God Forgives
- Concrete Night (Betoniyö)
- Gravity
- You’re Next
