Lucy is Top Dog

...and the Special Achievement Award for More-Than-Human Actor of the Decade goes to....Lucy!

Hi All:

More on Lucy coming up.

 Real quick, before we get to a couple fascinating lists, my credentials are that of a HUGE FAN of indies. Exposure to great filmmakers drew me in; particularly the work of Kelly Reichardt and Hal Hartley. An inspirational trip to the 2006 Sundance Film Festival sealed the deal. Generally speaking, indie filmmakers exhibit a freedom of expression that leads to more honest works of art than the bulk of the lineup at your suburban multiplex. Over time, I've simply found these "smaller films" to be much more interesting and rewarding than the mass-marketed blockbuster wannabes. I've learned much just from enjoying the films, plus listening to and reading the words of the likes of Reichardt and Hartley, and many others, as they talk about their craft in interviews and DVD commentaries.

    
    Fun Fact: Reichardt played a small role in Hartley's wonderful 1989 debut feature, The Unbelievable Truth.

     Life is a series of addictive distractions (distractions from what; the great cosmic question). The trick is to pick diversions that do the least harm and maybe even some good. Independent film is my current drug of choice. Here, have a hit....

     First up, Mark's Top Ten Films of the Decade. I really don't know if all of these are strictly indies, loosely defined as films not commissioned by a major studio (you'll learn about Lucy and other "awards" sprinkled throughout the lists). By the way, I don't pretend to be able to say what films are "best", these are my favorites for various reasons.

Mark's Favorites: Top Ten List 2000-2009

1. 21 Grams (2003, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

Poets should compose odes to 21 Grams. Colleges should offer majors in 21 Grams. This is a great film, my all-time favorite. The male and female actors of the decade are in this film. Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. Toss in the great Benicio Del Toro and 2009 Spirit Award winner Melissa Leo and you've got an ensemble not to be beat. It's the second film in Inarritu's trilogy of intersecting story lines, time shifting masterpieces (Amores Perros and Babel). Watts, who can simply do it all, from the gut wrenching realism of this film to over the top melodrama (King Kong) to absurdist comedy (I (Heart) Huckabees) should have won her second Oscar of the decade for her performance. 21 Grams rings true at every turn as the characters struggle with desire, loss, grief ...they seek redemption and revenge and love. This film is brilliant in all aspects.

2. All About My Mother (2000, Pedro Almodovar)

The official release date may have been 1999 but I cheated it up to make this list. You should check out all films by the great Spanish director, Pedro Almodovar. This one is my favorite. It has all the classic Almodovar elements of sharply written dialogue, sharper colors, frank sexuality and intriguing twists. The guy is good.

3. Wendy and Lucy (2008, Kelly Reichardt)

Yes, that Lucy. Lucy the dog shares title roles with the equally talented but certainly no dog, Michelle Williams. Lucy is a discriminating actor/dog, appearing in only two films this decade, as far as I know, this and Reichardt's brilliant 2005 film Old Joy. Word is Lucy had an inside track as she reportedly lives with Reichardt, but her brilliantly understated yet heart-felt portrayals make her a deserving winner of Mark's More-Than-Human Actor of the Decade Award. Congratulations Lucy, your fans hope you are doing well. While we're at it, let's make Reichardt the director of the decade for these two films (also check out her 1995 debut feature River of Grass). Reichardt's style makes her the quintessential indie director. I would call her filmmaking "organic". Her use of natural light, ambient sound and her use of real time, lingering shots capturing the essence of a place in that time (these shots are not allowed at the multiplex) are striking and beautiful. Wendy and Lucy is the definitive film to address the compassionately challenged mainstream culture we faced in the first decade of the 21st century. Let's discuss that nice Christian boy who insists on busting Wendy for shoplifting.

4. Moulin Rouge (2001, Baz Luhrmann)

For originality, fun, fabulously staged and performed musical numbers, a great, heart breaking love story and for revitalizing the big movie musical, this sparkling diamond of a film makes the list. It paved the way for Chicago, a far less ceative musical endeavor to win an Oscar.

5. The Assasination of Richard Nixon (2004, Niels Mueller)

Talk about your overlooked films, how many of you have never heard of this one? It's Penn and Watts again, but this one belongs to Penn (Watts plays a small role). If you've ever felt you just don't belong in this world; how can the people around you act like that, feel that way?... this film talks to you. Penn, as he does, loses himself in this role and nails the alienation of a man who can find no context for himself in this world with a realism and sincerity that others have attempted but have fallen far short in comparison.

6. Mulholland Dr. (2001, David Lynch)

A classic Lynch labyrinth featuring the single best performance of the decade by the here-to-fore unknown Watts. In the A-Star-Is-Born-Take-Of-The-Decade Watts delivers chills when her character's alter ego peers out from the naïve starlet façade in the stunning audition scene. Watts should have won her first Oscar for this performance (she has won none). She carries Lynch's twisted Hollywood tale with her simultaneous portrayal of innocent starlet wannabe and jaded, ambitious actor slapped down by reality. At least that's my take, with Lynch you never know.

7. Requiem for a Dream (2000, Darren Aronofsky)

I've had identical reactions from more than one person to whom I've loaned the DVD of this film: "Don't ever send me a movie like that again." They meant it as a compliment. Yes, it's brilliant, it's moving, engrossing, but it's just so damn disturbing. A story of addiction and the pursuit of happiness, or at least painlessness, these characters are doomed, and there's not a damned thing you can do about it but sit transfixed.

8. Little Children (2006, Todd Field)

As skillful a skewering of suburban ennui as you will ever see. The line of the decade, voice-over from Kate Winslet as she sits with the moms at the playground: "I'm not really one of them, I see myself as an anthropologist." But wait, some of these characters actually grow, and redemption may be possible. Or not.

9. The Lord of the Rings (the trilogy, 2001,2,3, Peter Jackson)

Okay, not exactly an indie struggling for distribution and it cost like a zillion dollars, and yeah, upon repeated viewings it starts to get a little schmaltzy. But it was a huge gamble that paid off, making all three films at once, an achievement for the decade if not the ages. But most of all it did what fans of the books thought impossible, it did the story justice. After the first film you just sat there and said, "wow, he did it".

10. Across the Universe (2007, Julie Taymor)

Put your cynicism to bed, stay up late, slap this in your Blu Ray player, grab your bong and plop yourself in front of your 50 inch flatscreen. Enjoy. Again and again. It's a musical, all Beatles songs, and a love story with the backdrop of political and social turmoil of the 60's. Make it an annual event, on John Lennon's birthday or something, enjoy the interesting interpretations of Beatles songs and all the clever Beatles references. If you like singing and dancing, interestingly choreographed musical numbers and the Beatles, you'll love this wildly entertaining film.

Next, Mark's top ten neglected films from 2009. I usually compile a top ten list just for grins. This year I decided to throw out any film I saw in any other top ten list and see what I had left. It's some pretty good stuff. I didn't google all the top ten lists in the world or anything, but to the best of my recollection the dozen or so I ran across did not include any of these films. These are not perfect films (well, one may be) and I've even noticed several of them get slammed by critics as anything from mediocre to awful. I tend to go into a film rooting for it to be great and ready to appreciate the artist/filmmaker's vision, these films did not disappoint.

These may be what they call "not for everyone" films, and in my book that's a good thing. I highly recommend you check them out.

This time we'll count up from #10.

Mark's Neglected Ten, 2009

10. Tetro (Francis Ford Coppola)

Yes, Coppola is like a corporation onto himself. I don't know how he finances his films, independently or otherwise, but anybody who rubbed shoulders at UCLA film school with Jim Morrison gets automatic street cred, plus, he makes a really good wine. Also, this Italian film was definitely not made with the multiplex in mind. Dark, brooding, mostly in black and white with color-splashed fantasy sequences, it tells the story of two brothers and their life long struggle under the shadow of their father. Gorgeous filmmaking.

9. Surveillance (Jennifer Chambers Lynch)

Pour a glass of irreverence, spice it up with some dark humor, a bit of the ultraviolence, add a twist and you've got a flavorful cocktail of a film served up by David Lynch's daughter. I saw this one last April at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF). Didn't get great reviews, I enjoyed the hell out of it. In the world of independent film, one should be willing to revel in a little deviance from time to time.

8. The Yellow Handkerchief (Udayan Prasad)

I believe this debuted at Sundance a couple years ago and I just noticed it has a release date soon in the Twin Cities. I saw it recently thanks to a film club of sorts called Talk Cinema which screens not yet released films. This is a classic "festival film" indie, a slice of life road trip film with three unlikely companions played by a great cast including William Hurt and Kristen Stewart (yes, Bella from Twilight is a serious actor, seen her in several indies) plus Maria Bello in a nice supporting role. It's a pleasure to watch, but let me know what you think of the ending.

7. Downloading Nancy (Johan Renck)

Maria Bello deserves to win the Film Independent Spirit Award for which she's nominated for her devastating performance in this deeply disturbing film. Relentlessly downbeat but, for me, extremely effective. I refer you back to the deviance comment.

6. The Girl from Monaco (Anne Fontaine)

From France, another discovery at the MSSPIFF. This film starts out as a French sex farce and morphs before your eyes into a dark thriller. More than one critic I saw took it to task for "being tone deaf" or "not knowing what kind of film it wanted to be". I think Fontaine knew exactly what kind of film she wanted, an innovatively unique one. She succeeds. Deliciously entertaining.

5. Mammoth (Lukas Moodysson)

A Swedish production (great work coming out of that part of the world, one of my heroes is the Danish madman filmmaker Lars Von Trier). It's an English language film however, about an American couple in New York. I'd been looking for this one since I read about it well over a year ago because it stars two of my favorite actors, Michelle Williams and Gael Garcia Bernal. I finally found it by chance On Demand a few weeks ago. I loved it, I'd call it an existential drama with several individual storylines all asking how much of your identity, your happiness, comes from within and how much depends on your relationships and other people's perceptions of you. Heavy.

4. The Last Station (Michael Hoffman)

Up for five Spirit Awards including best feature. It's got my vote. A beautifully directed film with gorgeous tracking shots, smart dialogue and sophisticated comedy. It's about the last days of Leo Tolstoy as competing forces battle over his estate and legacy. Great performances by Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer. Interesting historically, and watch for the actual footage of Tolstoy during the closing credits.

3. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)

This one has gotten some recognition but I haven't seen it on a top ten list. It won a jury prize at Cannes and just this week collected Best British Film at Britain's version of the Academy Awards. It's a brilliant, gritty look at life in a London housing project centering on a teenage girl desperate to be something other than what her circumstances dictate. Heartbreakingly, you just don't know how much hope there is for her. The filmmakers discovered 18-year old Katie Jarvis while she argued with her boyfriend at a London subway station. They threw her into the lead role of this film and she is pitch perfect, making you taste her frustration.

2. Hound Dog (Deborah Kampmeir)

Best know as The-Dakota-Fanning-Rape-Scene-Movie, this film has been bashed from all sides. You've gotta love the one award it has received; from the Women Film Critics Circle, The Hall of Shame Award. The story, as I understand it, is this film debuted at Sundance last year but couldn't get a distribution deal because the lovely young Dakota's character gets raped and this is oh so controversial (I know she just turned 16, so I guess she was 14 at the time of the filming). Anyway, I guess the filmmakers tried to splice it and dice it to make it palatable to certain segments and I remember reading that it was getting criticized for just ending up to be an incoherent mess, or something like that. So I watched it on DVD a few months ago. Loved it. A tour de force by Fanning. She is absolutely brilliant playing a young girl coming of age in the rural deep south. It's a touching, affecting film and my jaw dropped at the brilliance of the climactic scene when Fanning's character "finds her song". And the rape scene isn't graphic. By the way, I haven't heard about the Women's Circle or anyone else protesting the very graphic rape of the teenage over-weight Black girl in the film Precious. Just sayin'.

1. An Education (Lone Scherfig)

I know, this is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. But it has no chance of winning and I swear I did not see this film on any top ten list. It should win the Oscar because this is the best film of the year (oops, I said best didn't I?). It's sin was coming out too early in the season, I saw it way back in October, thanks again to Talk Cinema. Carey Mulligan is nominated for best female actor, she should win easily but of course won't. She says more with a sideways glance in this film than a certain actress does during two hours of mimicking Julia Child. This film put a smile on my face during the opening credits and it stayed there throughout, it is so thoroughly enjoyable. Plus it's layered with intriguing concepts and questions about what's important in life. This magnificent coming of age story puts you right inside this girl's skin as she struggles with what path to take. As charming as Mulligan is, Peter Saarsgaard plays the role of charmer-in-chief brilliantly. He successfully charms Mulligan, her parents and the audience (at least me). But who is he really? There is so much to say about this film. Just go see it.

There you go. I'll sign off as quickly as possible. I just want to do my bit to promote the art of independent film by urging you all to give some of these films a shot, though some may be hard to find (NO PIRATING!)

Locally, check out groups that support independent film like Landmark Theatres and its film club and Minnesota Film Arts which screens films regularly at St. Anthony Main and runs the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival (starting April 15).

Nationally, there is Film Independent which operates the Spirit Awards. The Spirit Awards are this Friday, March 5 at 10 p.m. central time. It is by far the best awards show. You can see it live and uncut (no 8 second delay here) on IFC, broadcast this year from under a tent on top of some building in LA. It is a wild, uninhibited event. Also, Harlan and Sue Jacobsen's Talk Cinema has screenings across the country, thanks locally to Landmark's Edina Theatre and Laura for running the show here.

Sorry for the length, hope you enjoyed if you stuck with it, I suppose this is something you are supposed to post on Facebook or a blog page or something, but email is as cyber-savvy as I get.

Any feedback is certainly welcome if you wish. Agree, disagree? Want more info about anything? Want some suggestions for Hal Hartley films or others?

Let me know. Thanks.

Indies Rock!

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Steiner

Peace and Love