Mark's Neglected Ten, 2009

This is a list of my top ten favorite films from 2009 that didn't appear on any other top ten list that I saw.  I don't know if I can necessarily pretend to know which are the "best" films, these are my favorites for a variety of reasons.  I'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.