loosie: words: In the Dark of the Matinee

In the Dark of the Matinee

Loosie takes a look back at the year 2004 in film.

by A. Rosenbloom | 2005.01.13

Yes, it's already two weeks into 2005. We're unrepentant about our tardiness -- read on.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The brilliant music video director Michel Gondry supposedly filled up more than 10 notebooks full of problems he faced during the filming of his first film, Human Nature. I think it is safe to say that he learned quite a bit, because he took a complex and scientific script from Charlie Kaufman and created the most heartfelt and original love story in ages. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet shine bright as a troubled couple trying to forget each other with the help of a radical medical procedure. Gondry’s amazing integration of eye-popping effects keep “Sunshine” from the cold and cynical film it could have so easily become.

2. I [Heart] Huckabees

In this polarized political climate full of disingenuous celebrities becoming spokespersons for the left, it is nice to have a filmmaker who really leaves it all on the screen, and it not afraid to piss a few people off. David O. Russell’s screwball comedy (billed as “An Existential Comedy”) is filled with wonderful jabs at corporations, religious fundamentalism, and even God. The entire ensemble cast is fantastic, but Mark Wahlberg steals the show as a fireman who becomes disillusioned with the state of the world, namely people’s dependence on oil. Russell dodges disaster left and right to create a difficult, challenging film, which is also the funniest of the year.

3. Bad Education

Pedro Almodovar has had, in a sense, two different careers as a filmmaker. His first several films were a direct response the La Movida, the art movement that sprung up in Spain immediately after the death of Franco and the end of Spanish fascism. They celebrated screwball comedy, sexual and artistic expression, and were, above all, incredibly wacky. He seemed, more than anything else, concerned with the amount of risqué content he could get away with, as opposed to the quality of the content itself. That eventually changed and towards the second half of his career found a much more mature and introspective voice. Those two filmmakers slam right into each other in Bad Education, by far his most personal and reflexive film. He creates a revisionist film noir, a meditation on storytelling, filmmaking and acting, and a beautiful character study in Education, and it ends up being his most interesting films in years.

4. I’m Not Scared

Gabriele Salvatores’ thriller is by far the least talked about and most underappreciated film of the year. A stunning kidnapping story told from the eyes of a naïve 8-year-old boy, the film provides some of the most terrifying and beautiful images of any film this year. Set in a small Italian village in the 1970’s, the film follows 8-year-old Michele and his friendship with Filippo, a child he finds blindfolded and trapped in a whole in an abandoned farm. Michele begins the forbidden relationship despite entering a sinister kidnapping plot that is closer to home than he wants to believe. Pitch perfect performances all around and gorgeous cinematography makes this film memorable almost 10 months after its initial release.

5. The Motorcycle Diaries

A beautifully shot and acted film about one of the most important political figures in history which looks past politics and gets right down to humanism? Sounds good to me.

6. Supersize Me

There is something about a film whose whole premise could have easily been initially conceived as a dare that is immediately appealing. Morgan Spurlock dared himself (despite strong concern from his vegan chef girlfriend, family and three (3) doctors) to eat nothing but McDonalds for 30 straight days, 3 times a day. His headaches, weight gain, depression, loss of sex drive and ensuing liver damage is only the bun in this film, leaving actual journalism for the meat. Spurlock travels all over the country looking for the roots of poor eating in America. Do we blame corporations? Is it more personal responsibility? Do people have genetic predispositions towards obesity? The answers are unclear, but one thing is for sure: watching a grown man vomit after trying to eat a Big Mac is hilarious.

7. Fahrenheit 9/11

Michael Moore triumphed with Bowling For Columbine, and follows it up with a film that is more opinionated, more convincing, and just plain better. He hides behind the camera more than ever before and lets his subjects tell their stories. Do not fear, he has plenty of pranks, like driving around the Mall in Washington DC in an ice cream truck reading the Patriot Act, and stopping congressmen on the street to help them register their children to go to war. This time around though, the sketches are short and sweet, and never take anything away from Moore’s main (and failed) objective.

8. Maria Full of Grace

This Sundance winner by Joshua Marston deals with the problems facing 19-year-old Maria who decides to earn money by helping traffic heroin into the US by swallowing more than 60 small tablets full of the drug. Catalina Sandingo Moreno drives the film with her amazing performance as Maria, and the fly-on-the-wall direction by Marston gives us a unique perspective to the all to common problem of poverty in South America.

9. Napoleon Dynamite

This film is, quite simply, the most original, funniest and best comedy of the year. Plus its got tons of heart and is really really sweet.

10. Control Room

A stunning documentary about the Arab news network al-Jazeera and its coverage of the Iraq war versus that of the BBC and its polar opposite, Fox News. This is the film that Robert Greenwald’s “Outfoxed” wishes it could be: a true and accurate treatment of a very sensitive subject. Whose news is more accurate? Whose is more one-sided or subjective? Is there a way to present a war without any biases? The film attempts to answer all of these important questions with tact and honesty.

In a year full of disappointments, tired sequels and unwelcome comic book adaptations, there were several diamonds in the rough that need to be recognized. Although Jeff Bridges is simply brilliant in Tod Williams’ The Door in the Floor, the movie suffers from its source: one third of a John Irving novel filled with the dead children, somber writers and sexual exploration we have come to expect from the wrestler-cum-novelist. Bridges’ performance as a mourning-but-scheming children’s writer (who likes to draw) is the finest of the year and puts him in a class above the rest as the finest American actor working today. Jamie Foxx does justice to the late Ray Charles in Taylor Hackford’s far from average biographical film. The comedian breathes life into the piano genius instead of pulling off a cheap imitation; his performance is not to be missed. Wes Anderson comes close to greatness with his new film, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, but he lets his penchant for quirk get the better of him. A film about filmmaking, he sets Bill Murray up against pirates, pompous oceanographers and animated sea creatures in what seems like a whole new world. Nicole Kidman is amazing in Jonathan Glazer’s Birth, but the content of the film is so strange that it becomes alienating. Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake features a stunning performance by everyone involved, especially Imelda Staunton as the titular character, a caring wife and mother who performs abortions for women in need. Leigh proves again that he is the master of the human condition, and this is certainly his best film since 1999’s Topsy Turvey. One of the finest documentaries in a year full of them is Ondi Timoner’s film, Dig!, a seven-year voyage into the lives of two hard working bands (The Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols) looking for success. Timoner has studied from the Fred Weismann school of filmmaking and has created a wonderful fly-on-the-wall viewpoint from which the audience can watch. Filled with as many funny moments as chaotic ones, Dig! is a fascinating look at the underside of the music business.