2011 was truly an excellent year in cinema. So excellent, I'm publishing two lists. For ioncinema, my top 20 theatrically released films will be posted and below, my top favorite 50 new releases, theatrically released and fest titles. I've written a slight blurb on each title. Enjoy!
Honorable Mentions: I Melt With You (US); The Deep Blue Sea (UK); Pina (Germany); Restless City (US); Café De Flor (Canada/France); Tomboy (France); The Artist (France); Bad Teacher (US); The Invader (Belgium); Another Earth (US); Paul (US); Small Town Murder Songs (Canada); Gun Hill Road (US): Livid (France); A Screaming Man (Chad); My Joy (Russia).
50. Outside Satan. Rounding out my top 50 is this latest entry from Bruno Dumont, a bizarre and extremely slow-moving tale about a village outsider somewhere on the Opal Coast that befriends a gothic young woman being abused at home. Set up as a Christ-like figure, the vagrant helps the girl out and refuses to be sexual with her, but as the film progresses, his Christ-like qualities become more demoniacal, culminating in a memorably grotesque sex scene. Dumont doesn’t bother to explain, and we’re left with one strange film that’s both disturbing, dull, and filled with religious overtones that challenge and provoke. Definitely another divisive and excellent title in Dumont’s filmography.
49. Bullhead. A complex noir-ish murder mystery set in the illegal hormone trading world, this directorial debut from Belgian filmmaker Michael Roskam is an excellent character study that parallels hormone fed livestock with its lead protagonist, a memorable performance from Matthias Schoenaerts. Strangely, an intriguing portrait of masculinity, this seedy thriller is one great slow burn.
48. Happy, Happy. The debut of Anne Sewitsky, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2011, features one of the year’s best performances in the shape of Agnes Kittelsen as Kaja, a woman living in the Norwegian sticks with a husband that doesn’t seem to love her. When a city couple move in next door (themselves recovering from a bout of infidelity) significant happenings test each of their relationships, with some surprising and not so surprising results.
47. I Will Follow. Publicist Ava DuVernay makes her directorial debut with this excellent, quiet little film that features a great performance from Salli Richardson-Whitfield. After the death of her musician aunt, with whom she was very close, Maye (Richardson-Whitfield) is in the process of selling her aunt’s house and belongings. At odds with her aunt’s daughter, Fran (Michole White), who weren’t close at all, Maye gets through one long, arduous day with the help of twelve visitors. This is a deliciously quiet, slice-of-life drama that showcases a beautiful actress oft neglected. Look for great scenes featuring Tracie Thoms and Omari Hardwicke.
46. Oslo, August 31st. Director Joachim Trier’s follow-up to Reprise tells the tale of Anders, a young, recovering drug addict that gets a brief leave from a treatment center to interview for a job. Granted leave for the entire day, Anders catches up with past friends and family, only to be faced front and center with personal demons he never really confronted. Powerful and moving, the film features a great performance from Anders Danielsen Lie.
45. Attenberg. Director Athina Rachel Tsangari (who’s produced the films of Yorgos Lanthimos) joins the Greek New Wave with this entry, a sort of coming of age tale of a twentysomething young woman in a small Greek village, coping with her father’s failing health. While the film explores themes of sex, death, nature, and modernization, Tsangari’s film is definitely an eccentric narrative, and offers a new, fresh voice in cinema.
44. The Queen of Hearts. This is the directorial debut of French actress Valerie Donzelli and is actually a 2009 title I lucked out at catching at a 2011 film festival (her sophomore effort, Declaration of War has gotten a lot of attention this year, and while it was also quite good, didn’t make my top 50). A comedy drama musical that stars her real life husband, actor Jeremie Elkaim in four different roles, Donzelli plays the lead role as a woman devastated after being dumped by her boyfriend. Going to love with her rigid cousin, she is coaxed back into the dating scene and the film develops into an effervescent sexual farce. It will probably never open in US theaters, but it’s definitely a title worth seeking out if it becomes available on DVD.
43. Bellflower. A run of the mill love-gone-wrong story gets a fantastically cinematic dude treatment with two Mad Max loving friends who spend their time building flamethrowers and a souped up car in preparation for an imaginary global apocalypse. But when Woodrow (played by director Evan Glodell) meets Milly (Jessie Wiseman), theirs is not a match made in heaven. A sparse little indie film with an impressive flourish of action and effective violence, Bellflower circumvents formula to show us that love’s a bitch.
42. Tabloid. Errol Morris, documentarian extraordinaire, brings us one of his most entertaining and lightest documentaries with this tale of Joyce McKinney, a former Miss Wyoming who famously abducted and raped her Mormon boyfriend in 1977, which became a tabloid sensation coined the Case of the Manacled Mormon. Several decades later, she would be in the news again for having her dog cloned in South Korea. Bizarre, fascinating, and hugely entertaining, the “barking mad” Joyce McKinney is one of the most interesting film subjects of the year.
41. Sleeping Sickness. A German doctor (Pierre Bokma) transplants his family to Cameroon to combat a sleeping sickness epidemic. While openly hostile and derisive to the immigrant population, the first half of the film depicts a strained relationship with his wife and daughter and seems an obvious criticism of neocolonialism. But when wife and daughter leave for the father land, the film switches gears, sending in a young World Health Organization physician (Jean-Christophe Folly) to determine the need to continue having a doctor stationed in Cameroon for an epidemic now in severe decline. As his presence causes the German doctor to seemingly spin out of control (unbeknownst to his wife, he has taken an African wife and fathered children) the film comes to a strange and satisfying, surreal finale.
40. Faust. The winner of 2011’s Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, this latest version of the German tale about a man who sells his soul to the devil has to be the most confounded and nightmarish telling yet. This is the final film in Russian auteur Aleksandr Sokurov’s “Tetrology of Power,” and it also has to be one of the most insane films yet, featuring a wide range of freakshow moments on the way, including a homunculus in a jar, a squishy autopsy, a Lynchian creature home invasion, Hanna Schygulla dancing around like a dotty mental patient, and the flabby, sexless body of the wretch Mephistopheles (a delightfully weird performance from Anton Adasinsky). It’s a trip, to say the least.
39. The Last Circus. I have systematically loathed nearly every film by Spanish filmmaker Alex de la Iglesia, but I liked his latest feature concerning two sparring clowns (one happy, one sad) for the love of a beautiful woman. Grotesque, macabre, and also a political/historical allegory concerning Spain’s history, this is romantic, over-the-top hysterical mess—it’s now wonder that Tarantino awarded it the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2010.
38. We Are What We Are. When the patriarch of a Mexican clan of cannibals passes away, the teenage members of the clan must regroup and start hunting to save the family. A socio-political allegory, this debut from Jorge Michel Grau also manages to be a vicious little chiller as well, starring Paulina Gaitan of Sin Nombre (2009). With their mother locking herself in her room, hysterical, the oldest male, Alfredo (Francisco Barreiro) attempts to bring women home for feeding, but is increasingly unsuccessful…until he discovers he’s better at bringing home young men. And while Gaitan, as the eldest sister proves to be the best equipped for getting food and keeping calm, her gender holds her back in this patriarchal nuclear unit. Full of moody moments and a pulsating soundtrack, this is an excellent cinematic debut.
37. Shame. At times frustratingly opaque, weeks after watching it, I am haunted by certain scenes from this sophomore feature from Steve McQueen (and I wasn’t a huge fan of 2008’s Hunger, though found it interesting). Michael Fassbender is excellent as a sex addict with a complicated relationship with his lounge singer sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan). A difficult film to enjoy, it’s a distant, calculated treatment about a complicated addiction, and it’s refreshing to see that McQueen was uncompromising with the material. Love it or hate it, Shame is a brave film.
36. Tyrannosaur. Actor Paddy Considine makes his directorial debut with this simple tale about Joseph (a stunning Peter Mullan), a thoroughly vicious man, full of rage and violence, who earns a chance at redemption helping a Christian charity ship worker (Olivia Colman, even more stunning), a woman with an abusive husband (Eddie Marsan). This is a completely bleak and violent film, but eerily powerful all the same. Olivia Colman brought tears to my eyes in nearly every scene she’s in---one of the year’s best performances by any gender.
35. Rampart. Oren Moverman’s follow-up to his first feature, the stunning 2009 film The Messenger, is a corrupt cop story written by James Ellroy. Woody Harrelson gives an exceptional performance, a sort of renegade cop that gets caught beating a non-white perpetrator in 1999 Los Angeles. While the political climate is changing, Harrelson’s life and career are melting down, with a past crime also coming back to haunt him. Excellent supporting cast features Sigourney Weaver, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, Robin Wright, Ben Foster, and a somewhat distracting Ice Cube. Another critic described this as a corrupt cop drama that could have been directed by Robert Altman. I agree. And it features a spectacular club scene sequence with the drugged up Harrelson stumbling around between dancing, sex, and gorging himself on food, all before throwing up viciously in a dark alley. Let the cleansing begin.
34. House of Tolerance. Bertrand Bonello’s latest if like a beautiful moving painting. Set in a Parisian brothel at the beginning of the 20th century, the loose narrative loops around several prostitutes, most grotesquely, the one known as the Jewess, whose mouth has been viciously sliced open at the corners by a man she loved. Bonello’s film is not a day in the life of narrative at all, but rather a haunting dream, cutting inexplicably across time in its final frames. Featuring up and coming French actresses like Hafsia Herzi, Jasmine Trinca, and Celine Sallette, Bonello’s film is cinema of the senses.
33. Three Lives (Dreileben). A film experiment from three modern German directors, this is actually a trilogy of films that could stand on their own, but are best enjoyed watching in one sitting as they each share a common narrative concerning an escaped serial killer. The first portion, “Beats Being Dead,” (directed by one of my favorite German directors, Christian Petzold) tells the tale of an intern (who may have let the killer escape) caught between two women as he plans on going to medical school in Los Angeles. The second film, “Don’t Follow Me Around,” (directed by Dominik Graf) is about a police psychologist called into help the police search for the escaped killer/sex offender, which leads to her staying with an old college friend, where some memories best left alone are dredged up. And the third film, “One Minute of Darkness” (directed by Christoph Hochhausler) is a straight forward police thriller, told from the perspective of a detective and focusing on the escaped killer. Altogether, this stands for an intriguing and beautiful narrative achievement, each film creating a distinct look, a distinct perspective and a compelling film.
32. The Skin I Live In. Almodovar mixes it up a bit, and gives us a transgender genre exercise that pays delicious homage to one of the best films ever made, George Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960). Antonio Banderas returns to work with Almodovar, here a brilliant plastic surgeon that has invented a new type of durable synthetic skin. His wife has died in a tragic accident and after his daughter is assaulted (and nearly raped) at a party, he goes a little crazy on the perpetrator. Meanwhile, a beautiful woman is held captive in his mansion (Elena Anaya, finally in a role that gives her something to do), undergoing some serious skin grafting. Maria Paredes stars as Banderas’ faithful housekeeper. Of course, a multitude of secrets are revealed in Almodovar’s usual fashion, but you won’t be privy to a more stylish and beautiful thriller with such hysterical implications. Costumes and skin, flesh and cloth, there’s enough going on in this narrative to keep one busy on multiple viewings.
31. My Worst Nightmare. While Anne Fontaine isn’t my favorite director (I enjoyed her 2003 Nathalie… but felt her 2009 The Girl From Monaco was terrible) this latest effort sporting Isabelle Huppert as a stuck up bitch art gallery owner who’s ridiculously frigid with her husband (Andre Dussollier) is a fine distraction. When her son brings home a friend with a deadbeat Belgian dad (Benoit Poelvoorde), the two clash from the get go. With circumstances setting the two in close proximity together, screwball antics ensue and Huppert gets to let her hair down a little. Albeit simple and without a serious bone in its body, Fontaine’s latest froth is a showcase for Huppert’s neglected comic side (and if you dig this, definitely check her out in 2010’s Copacabana).
30. Leap Year. No, this isn’t that bizarrely anachronistic romantic comedy starring Amy Adams, but something much darker and startling. The feature debut of Australian born Michael Rowe, who has been living in Mexico for the past 17 years, Leap Year (slightly reminiscent of a grainy Italian art house mess starring Elizabeth Taylor from 1974, The Driver’s Seat) is set nearly entirely in the Mexico City apartment of a freelance magazine writer, Laura (Monica del Carmen). It becomes immediately apparent that Laura is a lonely woman, spouting obvious lies about her life to family members over the phone, masturbating as she spies on a couple engaging in banal activities across the way, and bringing home various men for anonymous sex. As February rolls around, Laura highlights the 29th with a red marker, and as meticulous black X’s eat away the remaining days of the month, a foreboding anxiety develops about why the end of the month is bathed in red. Things get really heavy when she meets Arturo, an aspiring actor who develops a penchant for S/M scenarios with Laura. While he’s the first trick that’s shown to ask Laura her name, director Rowe gives us several explanations about Laura’s attraction and the racial element that may be involved. As their relations become more and more violent, Leap Year becomes the quietest and most devastating film about loneliness that you’re apt to see, and won’t be able to soon forget.
29. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Swedish director Tomas Alfredson’s follow-up to his insanely awesome Let the Right One In, this stylish and intelligent adaptation of the classic John Le Carre novel gives Gary Oldman one of the best roles of his career as retired espionage veteran, George Smiley. A Cold War set tale of funneling out a mole in the upper ranks of the dilapidated British Intelligence, Tinker may be one of the more enthralling and intelligent espionage thrillers ever made, a throwback to filmmaking from the 70’s, when explosives and CGI didn’t dictate the framework of the narrative. A delicious supporting cast including John Hurt, Ciaran Hinds, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, and Benedict Cumberbatch are all highlights. But perhaps the strongest element of Tinker is the decrepit and dank cinematography, which almost gives off a stale fecundity of its own, with background images disappearing into murky, dream-like images at times, our focal points almost stepping out of the vapor as they come into the fore.
28. The Turin Horse. Bela Tarr’s work is often an exercise in patience, and I will never forget how hollowed out I felt after watching his seven hour plus opus Satan’s Tango in the theater (though I’d argue that the much shorter The Man From London was more dense and harder to sit through). His latest (and purportedly last film he will be directing) focuses on what happened to a famous horse that Neitzsche wept over right before going mad. While we all know Neitszche had a lot going on, whatever happened to that damned horse? Opening with one of the most captivating sequences this year, we follow that horse, its owner and his daughter as they eke out an existence in a windblown countryside. When I mean windblown, I mean a windstorm that never lets up for days and howls incessantly. You’ll feel like you’re caught in some level of hell. The two humans barely speak and the horse has refused to eat. We follow them from day to day as they complete the same tasks over and over again. Tarr’s latest is not just a film, it’s an experience, a tribulation, and a beautiful piece of art.
27. Michael. After watching the debut of Austrian director Markus Schleinzer, it’s no surprise that he’s worked as the casting director for Michael Haneke, Ulrich Seidl, and Michael Glawogger (and the lesser know, but a personal favorite of mine, Wolfgang Murnberger) as his debut Michael reflects the sensibilities of these said filmmakers. Concerning a pedophile named Michael (Michael Fuith) who has a young boy locked in his basement, the film certainly makes for an uncomfortable exercise as we watch this unassuming man interact with co-workers and family members who don’t have a clue. Eventually, after some completely surprising turn of events, the film becomes an anxious exercise. A touchy subject (maybe especially in Austria, considering the 2008 Josef Fritzl case), Schleinzer’s debut marks him as an assured peer whose next work I will greatly anticipate. And I just fell in love with how he decided to use Boney M’s song “Sunny.”
26. Cedar Rapids. Certainly lighter in tone than his three previous films, Miguel Arteta still manages to create a portrait of strangely comical identity scenarios with Cedar Rapids, a raunchy yet impeccably sweet film. Ed Helms plays a small-town insurance salesmen sent to represent his company at a convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. While there, he’s placed under the tutelage of three insurance veterans, hilarious John C. Reilly, Isaiah Whitlock Jr, and a brilliantly subtle Anne Heche. While Helms plays a hopelessly naive sweetie-pie thrust into a one of those “do the right thing” scenarios, he manages to make an impressive mark as a leading man here, even if his presence may cause the film to seem like The Hangover in Iowa. Plus, Sigourney Weaver lends a terrific accent as Helm’s junior high school teacher, currently using him for sex.
25. Once Upon a Time In Anatolia. At 150 minutes, this police procedural about a group of men searching for a dead body in the Anatolian steppes goes by rather quickly. Along the way from one fruitless location to the next in the dark flatlands, the prosecutor tells the doctor a mysterious story about a woman that predicted her own death and then died at the time she stated she would. The doctor disagrees with this story, and this seemingly unrelated wonder about intuition vs. fact reveals a surprising revelation. While it may seem like nothing’s going on the surface, the film is quietly innervating and surprising.
24. Hanna. Director Joe Wright takes a step away from Keira Knightly and British period pieces (though he’s currently adapting Anna Karenina with his muse…we’ll just have to see how that goes) to direct this child-assassin, fairy-tale infused action film that sports one of the best soundtracks of the year with original work from The Chemical Brothers. Saoirse Ronan is the titular lass, raised by her father (Eric Bana) to be the perfect killing machine, and hunted by a ruthless intelligent agent (Cate Blanchett) across Europe. Featuring several terrific action sequences, beginning and ending with one killer line, Ronan’s performance in Wright’s film is terrific (and the same cannot be said for the as-yet-unreleased debut of Geoffrey Fletcher, also a child assassin film starring Ronan and Alexis Bledel). And as the deliriously evil agent, Blanchett is just perfect, stalking Ronan in a dilapidated fairy tale themed playground, with one breathtaking sequence in particular where she saunters out of the open maw of a wolf.
23. Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil. Director Eli Craig’s hilarious debut may sound like just another send up of horror movie tropes that’s already been done time and time again, and it really is more of a comedy than a horror flick. However, it just so happens to be charming, gory, hilarious and one hell of a crowd pleaser, perhaps an American cousin to Shaun of the Dead. As with Pegg and Frost in that film, Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as the titular leads are really what make the film so funny and entertaining. For pure slapstick purposes, (and horror movie by mistake), it’s definitely deserving of a cult following.
22. Hugo. Martin Scorsese’s first foray in 3D technology is perhaps one of the only films that warrants a use of such a derided and abused spectacle. A completely charming film even without that, most fitting is the fact that Scorsese’s film is about the first special effects filmmaker, Georges Melies. Hugo is set in 1930’s Paris where the eponymous orphan (Asa Butterfield) lives in the walls of a train station, winding the clocks. He is in possession of a rundown automaton, found by his dead father (Jude Law) in a burned down museum. As he tries to reconstruct the automaton himself, the young Hugo becomes involved in a mysterious plot that leads him to a friendship with a young girl (Chloe Moretz) and her caretaker (Ben Kingsley), a cranky man that runs a toy booth at the train station. This happens to be Scorsese’s ode to cinema, and just as cinema is given as a gift to characters in this film, it’s really Scorsese’s gift to us. Compelling, moving, and an utterly fascinating film about magic, dreams, and one of the few mediums we can share those things with each other.
21. Take Shelter. Director Jeff Nichols’ excellent follow-up to Shotgun Stories, gives Michael Shannon a weighty role as a man that may either be having visions of an apocalyptic storm or he just may be schizophrenic. While it at first seems obvious that he’s really suffering from some kind of breakdown (his mother, played by Kathy Baker, suffered one, forcing her to leave her two young boys) his supportive wife (Jessica Chastain, in the role for which she should receive awards attention) isn’t sure what to do. As Shannon’s behavior spins more and more out of control, the film comes to an awesome crescendo….and then leaves us with one of the best final shots to end a film this year.
20. Miss Bala. Gerardo Naranjo’s latest feature stars the beautiful Stephanie Sigman as a young woman trying to enter the Miss Baja pageant….but along the way she becomes embroiled in the world of organized crime. But since the narrative is from her perspective, we’re just as in the dark as she is. Set up as a kind of gritty thriller, genre falls away as merely window-dressing, and the film becomes a harrowing experience of one beautiful (and arguably passive) woman being pulled in all directions, never knowing what’s going to happen next, perpetually keeping her (and us) in a constant state of dread. If this sounds a bit vague, it’s because Miss Bala is not a conventional film, but a beautiful cinematic experience. If the closing onscreen message about Mexico’s drug wars seems a little trite, so what? We get that Sigman’s beauty contestant is a stand-in for Mexico, getting fucked from all sides.
19. Carnage. Master filmmaker Roman Polanski returns with this comedy of manners, based on Yasmina Reza’s play God of Carnage. A hysterical and simmering chamber-piece set almost entirely within the confines of one Brooklyn apartment, belonging to parents Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly, whose child was recently attacked on the playground by the child of visiting parents Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz, Carnage recalls the aesthetic of one my personal favorite Polanski films, Death and the Maiden starring Sigourney Weaver, also based on a play and set almost entirely within one house. While this latest effort doesn’t happen to be particularly lacerating or deeply provoking (though there are some flourishes with the bookend scenes that recall Michael Haneke’s 2005 masterpiece, Cache) it does showcase four awesome performances from it’s well-chosen cast. In particular, Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster, both playing characters that unravel beautifully in their own surprising ways. Certainly a broad commentary on class and manners (and gender, too), Polanki’s film is really a piece of decomposition. The use of words and language are particularly important to the bitchy bickering, and Polanski’s removal of the word God posits this scenario as one entirely man-made. A brilliant comedic treat in the vein of some Bunuelian born nightmare, Carnage lays waste to good intentions.
18. Pariah. The much hailed debut of Dee Rees is indeed a rarity, the coming out story of a young African-American female. Featuring an awesome lead performance from newcomer Adepero Odiye as Alike, Pariah is one of the most realistic, painful, and hopeful coming out stories that’s been yet made. Deservedly winning a prize at Sundance 2011 for cinematography, it also features a viciously nuanced performance from Kim Wayans, a mother unwilling to accept her daughter for who she is. Pariah obviously has a lot in common with similar coming out stories, and it’s hard to escape the facts that these similarities sometimes seem cliché, (yes, it’s still difficult to be gay and non-white in America), but nevertheless, this is a compelling and gorgeous debut. It does get better, and Dee Rees is among a handful of filmmakers that proves the telling of LGBT stories has gotten better, too.
17. The Kid With a Bike. The Dardenne Bros. also consistently have excellent output---this latest quiet tale about an abandoned boy that just can’t get it into his head that his father (Jeremy Renier) wants nothing to do with him. Criticized for being more of the same by this directing duo, I’d argue that this venture is one of their most touching efforts. The young boy manages to catch the heart of a young hairdresser (one of my favorite younger actresses, Cecile De France), who decides to care for the boy after first agreeing to let him leave the center he’s staying on the weekends. While the boy frustratingly disobeys his new guardian time and time again, his heartbreaking need for love is presented without melodrama or artifice and is simply just a touching story. Also notable, this is the first film in which the Dardenne Bros. employ the use of music----though limited, the blasts of Beethoven’s 5th have rarely been used more eloquently.
16. The Woman. This much reviled latest work from horror master Lucky McKee (yes, his debut May stands as one of the best horror films I’ve ever seen) pairs him with cult writer Jack Ketchum to tell this wildly overblown tale exploring our culture’s ingrained acceptance of misogyny. The female member of an uncivilized violent clan that’s been wandering through the wilderness for decades is abducted by the patriarch of a well-to-do nuclear family. He decides that he must civilize this woman, but immediately upon capture, she bites off his ring finger, and once this symbolic bondage of womanhood is broken, the rest will follow suit. A throwback to the gritty exploitation horror films of the 1970’s, today’s audiences seem unaccustomed to this kind of cinema, often written off as torture porn. Of course, McKee’s tale is an exaggerated exercise, but for all intents and purposes, McKee has directed the most feminist piece of cinema this year. There are so many awesome symbolic elements in The Woman (title included) this also makes for the most intellectual horror film of the year.
15. The Hedgehog. The debut of director Mona Achache, The Hedgehog, based on a popular French novel, centers on Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic), an 11 year old girl that, fed up with her world, has decided to kill herself on her twelfth birthday. Formidably (and thankfully, not annoyingly) precocious, Paloma is fascinated with art and philosophy, decided to film her world around her as she moves forward with her plan, narrating her opinions to us on what’s wrong with her parents and the world at large. Paloma meets a kindred spirit in the form of the cranky and seemingly unhappy Renee (an absolutely fabulous Josiane Balasko), the building janitor. The arrival of a new tenant creates some ripples as he flirts with the avid reader Renee through Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and the cinema of Ozu, and soon a very endearing and unpredictable romance ensues. Touching, tragic, and funny, The Hedgehog is an excellent debut, and features a great performance from one of France’s best performers.
14. When We Leave. This directorial debut from Austrian actress Feo Aladag stars the gorgeous Sibel Kekilli (of Fatih Akin’s Head-On) as Umay, a woman of Turkish descent living in Germany, in the midst of attempting to leave her abusive husband. As she flees with her son (in one incredibly tense scene) and seeks solace with her family in Berlin, she finds she is rejected at every turn due to religious and traditional conventions. A deadly look at the clash of Western and non-Western ideals in the Turkish community, Kekilli gives one hell of a performance as a woman struggling to make a better life for herself even as her own family sabotages her. Infuriating, compelling, and altogether one sucker punch of a film.
13. Jeff, Who Lives At Home. The Duplass Bros. consistently prove they are talented directors, but this latest effort, which also sees them working with more and more well known names, is their best yet. Essentially the story of a pothead loser (Jason Segel) living in his mom’s basement (Susan Sarandon), who, while believing in a philosophy from the movie Signs that everything is connected, goes off one day on a forced errand to explore that possibility. Along the way he stumbles into his asshole brother (Ed Helms), in the midst of a crumbling marriage (Judy Greer). Meanwhile, their mom seems to be embroiled in an office romance. Sweet, unassuming, strangely endearing, and full of laughs, the Duplass Bros. have produced a wonderful film. And I don’t usually address things like this, but it also has one of the best kiss scenes I’ve ever seen in a film, and it’s a wonderful surprise, so I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it.
12. A Separation. Much praise has been heaped on this Iranian film from director Asghar Farhadi, the seemingly simple tale of a married couple faced with the decision to leave Iran. Opening with Nader (Peyman Moaadi, in an excellent performance) and Simin (Leila Hatami) arguing in front of a judge concerning divorce proceedings, it’s this initial separation that causes the remaining conflicts of the film. Simin is eager to leave Iran for a more progressive country, both as an opportunity for herself and their 11 year old daughter. Nader refuses to leave, citing that he needs to stay and care for his father, ailing from Alzheimer’s. Upset that he refuses to leave and that he would rather agree to divorce then do so, Simin flees to her parent’s house, their daughter choosing to stay with her father. When Nader hires a working class woman to care for his father while he is at work, a situation arises which results in one hell of an awesome drama that plays out like an enticing thriller. Beautifully shot and superbly acted, it transfixes from the first frame.
11. Kill List. Director Ben Wheatley’s followup to his excellent 2009 Down Terrace is this genre jumping little twister. Starting off a lot like his previous film, with ruthless hit men speaking in angry garbles, the film quickly turns into a horror film with some eerie Satanic elements---if you loved The Wicker Man and The Last Exorcism, this is definitely a film to add to your hit list. Fun as hell, and creepy, too---it’s better to go in knowing little to nothing.
10. We Need To Talk About Kevin. Lynne Ramsay’s much anticipated follow-up to her quietly beautiful 2002 film, Morvern Callar, plays like The Bad Seed meets The Omen at Columbine. Tilda Swinton gives a knockout performance as a mother who obviously dislikes her child (still a perversely taboo theme, check out a similar mom character played by Isabelle Huppert in 2007’s L’amour Cache) and arguably deserved that Best Actress win at Cannes even more than Ms. Dunst. Played by three different actors at different stages, culminating in the coolly calculating Ezra Miller as a teen, Kevin’s story is told in flashback via his mother and her feelings of guilt surrounding his killing spree, and plays somewhat like a perverse horror film about parenting. Are some kids born evil? Perhaps. But as a film about grief and societal trappings of supposed responsibility, this really is one woman’s dark shower of dead dreams. Swinton dominates every frame, but Ramsay’s artistic flourishes pack some punch, in particular, one instance where the irises of the bow-wielding Miller reflect target signs as he practices archery.
9. Killer Joe. William Friedkin returns with another adaptation of a Tracy Letts play (after their excellent 2006 collaboration, Bug) and it is one sweet ass little picture. Starring Matthew McConaughey as a vicious cop (and contract killer on the side), he is hired by bumbling idiot (Emile Hirsch) to kill his own mother so he can pay off some threatening debts. Only thing is, the inheritance will go to Hirsch’s kid sister, Juno Temple (who he has more than familial feelings for). Getting his trailer trash dad (Thomas Haden Church) and step-mom (a fantastic Gina Gershon) involved, they can’t afford to pay Killer Joe up front---so he takes kid sister as collateral, threading itself into a murderous Baby Doll scenario. When the film opens with Gershon’s naked crotch front and center for an unabashed clip of time, you know Friedkin’s got black comedy talons out, resulting in one of the most disgusting and grimace inducing climactic moments you’re going to see. What a fucking beautiful, bizarre movie.
8. Martha Marcy May Marlene. Elizabeth Olsen gives a star making turn as Martha, an escaped cult member, rescued by her estranged sister (Sarah Paulson) who has no idea what’s going on. Haunted by memories and a terrifying paranoia that the dangerous cult leader (John Hawkes, in terribly creepy turn) will soon find her, Martha exhibits increasingly aberrant behavior, alarming her sister and brother-in-law (High Dancy). Filled with plenty of uncomfortable sequences, Sean Durkin’s debut drifts hazily between Olsen’s current surrounding and her recent experiences, creating a nightmarish landscape where it always takes a moment to adjust to the scenery. With each passing scene, an ominous anxiety increases, coming to an incredibly satisfying conclusion.
7. Weekend. While I was not a fan of Andrew Haigh’s 2009 debut, a docudrama low budget film called Greek Pete about an aspiring gay porn star that was more borderline soft-core nonsense than anything, I was amazed at his touching and realistic sophomore effort, Weekend, about two young twentysomething British guys that meet one weekend and find that they have an extremely strong connection to one another. It’s basically a one night stand story that quickly becomes something of a love story, but one that is not altered by romantic fantasy and keeps its story on a realistic level, which makes the situation of its protagonists all the more poignant (one of them is leaving for America at the end of the weekend). Newcomers Tom Cullen and Chris New give exceptional performances. It is indeed one of the best realized films about being gay in the modern day world, about the difficulty of finding a connection in a community still not treated equally, and of the difficulty it is to be your authentic self both in and out of that community.
6. ALPS. The latest from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, (quickly becoming one of my favorite directors with this and his 2009 film, Dogtooth), once again, proves that he is indeed one of the most unique storytellers working today. ALPS is an acronym for a mysterious group of individuals who offer grief services for mourning families….meaning, each group member offers to step in and “act” as the deceased in order to help families cope. The nature of acting and the reverence of film stars are obvious themes explored, but it’s actually more of a strange and beautiful film exploring the nature of grief as a series of reenactments. Thought provoking and astounding, ALPS is a film that begs to be talked about.
5. Another Happy Day. A bitter, nasty, angry film about family members getting together for a wedding, this is the directorial debut of Sam Levinson (son of Barry), and showcases Ellen Barkin in one of her most powerful screen performances. Barkin’s oldest son is about to get married, and family members are converging at her parents’ (George Kennedy and Ellen Burstyn). Slowly, bit by bit, the strange and divisive family dynamic is revealed. Barkin’s abusive ex-husband (Thomas Haden Church) wants to reconnect with their daughter (Kate Bosworth), as upon their separation, he took their son and left Barkin and Bosworth. It’s apparent that their daughter is having severe emotional difficulties as a young woman, as are Barkin’s two younger boys from her second marriage, played by Ezra Miller and Daniel Yelsky. Barkin’s mother seems to care more for her ex-husband and his new wife, played by Demi Moore, and Barkin’s harpy bitch sisters (Siobhan Fallon and Diana Scarwid) also seem to despise her. Incredibly dark and nerve wracking, Another Happy Day is certainly not for all tastes, but it’s honestly one of the best films I’ve seen about how messed up families can really be---and how ridiculous it is to keep traditions like weddings, holidays, and funerals to keep throwing them together. Barkin deserves an Oscar nod, but this material is way to dark and daring to be appreciated by the mainstream.
4. Melancholia. Lars Von Trier’s quieter and elegiac treatment of depression (at least in comparison to 2009’s Antichrist) manages to also be an astounding piece of cinema. Divided into two parts, each named for sisters Justine and Claire (played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg), the film opens with the wedding reception of Justine to Michael (Alexander Skarsgard). We’re treated to a rather boorish reception affair set on the posh estate owned by Claire’s husband (Kiefer Sutherland), where it’s obvious that Dunst is having a difficult time coping with the proceedings, unsure if she’s truly happy about what’s going on. As the night goes on, she breaks down even more, after a succession of depressing relatives and friends make their rounds, including her viciously bitter mother (an awesome bit part for Charlotte Rampling), her drunken father (John Hurt), her maniacal boss (Stellan Skarsgard), his clingy and needy new protégé (Brady Corbet), and a wedding planner that hates her because she’s ruining the reception (Udo Kier). As it devolves even further, Melancholia opens its second half, where the eponymous planet threatens to hit collide with the Earth and destroy it. Dunst, now nearly comatose with depression, is cared for by Claire. As the inevitability of a collision becomes more and more obvious to the sisters, one of them is clearly better able to cope, and is actually comforted by the eventual demise of life. It’s a deliciously beautiful film.
3. Beloved. The latest confection from Christophe Honore once again features the musical talents of Alex Beaupain, the two collaborating again after their excellent 2007 film, Love Songs. This time around, Honore hands us a drama/musical spanning from 1964 to 2001, with Ludivigne Sagnier playing the younger version of Catherine Deneuve, and Deneuve’s own daughter starring in the present day, Chiara Mastroianni. Included in the cast are Milos Forman, Louis Garrel, and an effectively moving Paul Schneider as the HIV+ gay love interest of Mastroianni. Once again, Honore features characters with fluid sexualities, letting their hearts dictate their love. Each performer gets an effective song (or two) and this beautiful ode to the cinema of Jacques Demy (of which Ms. Deneuve starred) is really a beautiful, cinematic musical about love. This was my favorite film of the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.
2. Drive. Words cannot describe the cinematic perfection of a movie like Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive. Ryan Gosling stars as a stoic stunt driver in Los Angeles, falls in love with a taken woman next door (Carey Mulligan) and because of her becomes involved in a heist gone wrong scenario that results in a price on his head. While many have descried that Refn’s film is nothing but an art house genre exercise, and Gosling’s minimal performance dismissed as another “no expression” entry in the limited pantheon of masculine action films, it can only be argued that these critiques are careless and limited. Speckled with bits of glorious car chases, gory violence, and that crazy little thing called love, Drive evokes more emotion than any of its uber masculine genre predecessors. Whether it was the demise of the Christina Hendricks character, Albert Brooks (in an awesome performance) and his fork scene, or that inarguably paramount elevator sequence that will be forever burned into my psyche, all tuned to a deliriously melancholy, vintage evoking soundtrack, I fell head over heels in love with Drive. And to hear wisps of the song “A Real Hero” drifting out of cars all over Los Angeles after the film’s release made me realize that it’s a love that’s shared.
1. Margaret. Due to several lawsuits, the sophomore effort of Kenneth Lonergan was delayed for several years and finally plopped into theaters this past fall. After playing for one week in Los Angeles, it was unceremoniously yanked from theaters, with reports that only around seven or eight hundred people attended, which makes this one of the most profoundly neglected films of recent history. Margaret tells the tale of a high school student, Lisa Cohen (Anna Paquin, never more nuanced and stirring than she is here) who witnesses a bus accident. As Lisa holds a dying woman (Allison Janney) in her arms, a moment of such horrific realness and empathetic beauty is created that rivals any scene from any genre this year. From this scene forward, Lonergan’s film explores Lisa’s decision to first side with the bus driver in stating the dead woman was at fault….but then changes her mind. The deliberation over who was at fault and the intentions of Lisa and the bus driver (Mark Ruffalo) begin to affect various people, including her actress mother (J. Smith Cameron---whose scenes with Paquin will have you transfixed) and the best friend of the dead woman, Emily (Jeannie Berlin, a caustic and incredibly arresting presence). But as Lisa’s behavior begins to be more and more erratic and her intentions are called into question, the film becomes about her own ideals and how they’re at odds with reality. The title of the film is taken from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins called “Spring and Fall,” wherein the poem’s narrator addresses a young girl named Margaret. The narrator instructs the young woman, “Ah as the heart grows older/It will come to sights much colder….It is the blight man was born for,/It is Margaret you mourn for.” And so it is Lisa who begins to learn that she’s not grieving for the dead woman or even fighting for justice. Instead, she’s mourning for her own loss of ideals, her own dissipation of youth and ignorance. A complicated, thoroughly impressive film with some excellent dialogue, it’s also a nostalgic time capsule of both New York and its actors from a few years ago, filmed in 2005. Since then, all our hearts have grown older
Honorable Mentions: I Melt With You (US); The Deep Blue Sea (UK); Pina (Germany); Restless City (US); Café De Flor (Canada/France); Tomboy (France); The Artist (France); Bad Teacher (US); The Invader (Belgium); Another Earth (US); Paul (US); Small Town Murder Songs (Canada); Gun Hill Road (US): Livid (France); A Screaming Man (Chad); My Joy (Russia).
50. Outside Satan. Rounding out my top 50 is this latest entry from Bruno Dumont, a bizarre and extremely slow-moving tale about a village outsider somewhere on the Opal Coast that befriends a gothic young woman being abused at home. Set up as a Christ-like figure, the vagrant helps the girl out and refuses to be sexual with her, but as the film progresses, his Christ-like qualities become more demoniacal, culminating in a memorably grotesque sex scene. Dumont doesn’t bother to explain, and we’re left with one strange film that’s both disturbing, dull, and filled with religious overtones that challenge and provoke. Definitely another divisive and excellent title in Dumont’s filmography.
49. Bullhead. A complex noir-ish murder mystery set in the illegal hormone trading world, this directorial debut from Belgian filmmaker Michael Roskam is an excellent character study that parallels hormone fed livestock with its lead protagonist, a memorable performance from Matthias Schoenaerts. Strangely, an intriguing portrait of masculinity, this seedy thriller is one great slow burn.
48. Happy, Happy. The debut of Anne Sewitsky, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2011, features one of the year’s best performances in the shape of Agnes Kittelsen as Kaja, a woman living in the Norwegian sticks with a husband that doesn’t seem to love her. When a city couple move in next door (themselves recovering from a bout of infidelity) significant happenings test each of their relationships, with some surprising and not so surprising results.
47. I Will Follow. Publicist Ava DuVernay makes her directorial debut with this excellent, quiet little film that features a great performance from Salli Richardson-Whitfield. After the death of her musician aunt, with whom she was very close, Maye (Richardson-Whitfield) is in the process of selling her aunt’s house and belongings. At odds with her aunt’s daughter, Fran (Michole White), who weren’t close at all, Maye gets through one long, arduous day with the help of twelve visitors. This is a deliciously quiet, slice-of-life drama that showcases a beautiful actress oft neglected. Look for great scenes featuring Tracie Thoms and Omari Hardwicke.
46. Oslo, August 31st. Director Joachim Trier’s follow-up to Reprise tells the tale of Anders, a young, recovering drug addict that gets a brief leave from a treatment center to interview for a job. Granted leave for the entire day, Anders catches up with past friends and family, only to be faced front and center with personal demons he never really confronted. Powerful and moving, the film features a great performance from Anders Danielsen Lie.
45. Attenberg. Director Athina Rachel Tsangari (who’s produced the films of Yorgos Lanthimos) joins the Greek New Wave with this entry, a sort of coming of age tale of a twentysomething young woman in a small Greek village, coping with her father’s failing health. While the film explores themes of sex, death, nature, and modernization, Tsangari’s film is definitely an eccentric narrative, and offers a new, fresh voice in cinema.
44. The Queen of Hearts. This is the directorial debut of French actress Valerie Donzelli and is actually a 2009 title I lucked out at catching at a 2011 film festival (her sophomore effort, Declaration of War has gotten a lot of attention this year, and while it was also quite good, didn’t make my top 50). A comedy drama musical that stars her real life husband, actor Jeremie Elkaim in four different roles, Donzelli plays the lead role as a woman devastated after being dumped by her boyfriend. Going to love with her rigid cousin, she is coaxed back into the dating scene and the film develops into an effervescent sexual farce. It will probably never open in US theaters, but it’s definitely a title worth seeking out if it becomes available on DVD.
43. Bellflower. A run of the mill love-gone-wrong story gets a fantastically cinematic dude treatment with two Mad Max loving friends who spend their time building flamethrowers and a souped up car in preparation for an imaginary global apocalypse. But when Woodrow (played by director Evan Glodell) meets Milly (Jessie Wiseman), theirs is not a match made in heaven. A sparse little indie film with an impressive flourish of action and effective violence, Bellflower circumvents formula to show us that love’s a bitch.
42. Tabloid. Errol Morris, documentarian extraordinaire, brings us one of his most entertaining and lightest documentaries with this tale of Joyce McKinney, a former Miss Wyoming who famously abducted and raped her Mormon boyfriend in 1977, which became a tabloid sensation coined the Case of the Manacled Mormon. Several decades later, she would be in the news again for having her dog cloned in South Korea. Bizarre, fascinating, and hugely entertaining, the “barking mad” Joyce McKinney is one of the most interesting film subjects of the year.
41. Sleeping Sickness. A German doctor (Pierre Bokma) transplants his family to Cameroon to combat a sleeping sickness epidemic. While openly hostile and derisive to the immigrant population, the first half of the film depicts a strained relationship with his wife and daughter and seems an obvious criticism of neocolonialism. But when wife and daughter leave for the father land, the film switches gears, sending in a young World Health Organization physician (Jean-Christophe Folly) to determine the need to continue having a doctor stationed in Cameroon for an epidemic now in severe decline. As his presence causes the German doctor to seemingly spin out of control (unbeknownst to his wife, he has taken an African wife and fathered children) the film comes to a strange and satisfying, surreal finale.
40. Faust. The winner of 2011’s Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, this latest version of the German tale about a man who sells his soul to the devil has to be the most confounded and nightmarish telling yet. This is the final film in Russian auteur Aleksandr Sokurov’s “Tetrology of Power,” and it also has to be one of the most insane films yet, featuring a wide range of freakshow moments on the way, including a homunculus in a jar, a squishy autopsy, a Lynchian creature home invasion, Hanna Schygulla dancing around like a dotty mental patient, and the flabby, sexless body of the wretch Mephistopheles (a delightfully weird performance from Anton Adasinsky). It’s a trip, to say the least.
39. The Last Circus. I have systematically loathed nearly every film by Spanish filmmaker Alex de la Iglesia, but I liked his latest feature concerning two sparring clowns (one happy, one sad) for the love of a beautiful woman. Grotesque, macabre, and also a political/historical allegory concerning Spain’s history, this is romantic, over-the-top hysterical mess—it’s now wonder that Tarantino awarded it the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2010.
38. We Are What We Are. When the patriarch of a Mexican clan of cannibals passes away, the teenage members of the clan must regroup and start hunting to save the family. A socio-political allegory, this debut from Jorge Michel Grau also manages to be a vicious little chiller as well, starring Paulina Gaitan of Sin Nombre (2009). With their mother locking herself in her room, hysterical, the oldest male, Alfredo (Francisco Barreiro) attempts to bring women home for feeding, but is increasingly unsuccessful…until he discovers he’s better at bringing home young men. And while Gaitan, as the eldest sister proves to be the best equipped for getting food and keeping calm, her gender holds her back in this patriarchal nuclear unit. Full of moody moments and a pulsating soundtrack, this is an excellent cinematic debut.
37. Shame. At times frustratingly opaque, weeks after watching it, I am haunted by certain scenes from this sophomore feature from Steve McQueen (and I wasn’t a huge fan of 2008’s Hunger, though found it interesting). Michael Fassbender is excellent as a sex addict with a complicated relationship with his lounge singer sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan). A difficult film to enjoy, it’s a distant, calculated treatment about a complicated addiction, and it’s refreshing to see that McQueen was uncompromising with the material. Love it or hate it, Shame is a brave film.
36. Tyrannosaur. Actor Paddy Considine makes his directorial debut with this simple tale about Joseph (a stunning Peter Mullan), a thoroughly vicious man, full of rage and violence, who earns a chance at redemption helping a Christian charity ship worker (Olivia Colman, even more stunning), a woman with an abusive husband (Eddie Marsan). This is a completely bleak and violent film, but eerily powerful all the same. Olivia Colman brought tears to my eyes in nearly every scene she’s in---one of the year’s best performances by any gender.
35. Rampart. Oren Moverman’s follow-up to his first feature, the stunning 2009 film The Messenger, is a corrupt cop story written by James Ellroy. Woody Harrelson gives an exceptional performance, a sort of renegade cop that gets caught beating a non-white perpetrator in 1999 Los Angeles. While the political climate is changing, Harrelson’s life and career are melting down, with a past crime also coming back to haunt him. Excellent supporting cast features Sigourney Weaver, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, Robin Wright, Ben Foster, and a somewhat distracting Ice Cube. Another critic described this as a corrupt cop drama that could have been directed by Robert Altman. I agree. And it features a spectacular club scene sequence with the drugged up Harrelson stumbling around between dancing, sex, and gorging himself on food, all before throwing up viciously in a dark alley. Let the cleansing begin.
34. House of Tolerance. Bertrand Bonello’s latest if like a beautiful moving painting. Set in a Parisian brothel at the beginning of the 20th century, the loose narrative loops around several prostitutes, most grotesquely, the one known as the Jewess, whose mouth has been viciously sliced open at the corners by a man she loved. Bonello’s film is not a day in the life of narrative at all, but rather a haunting dream, cutting inexplicably across time in its final frames. Featuring up and coming French actresses like Hafsia Herzi, Jasmine Trinca, and Celine Sallette, Bonello’s film is cinema of the senses.
33. Three Lives (Dreileben). A film experiment from three modern German directors, this is actually a trilogy of films that could stand on their own, but are best enjoyed watching in one sitting as they each share a common narrative concerning an escaped serial killer. The first portion, “Beats Being Dead,” (directed by one of my favorite German directors, Christian Petzold) tells the tale of an intern (who may have let the killer escape) caught between two women as he plans on going to medical school in Los Angeles. The second film, “Don’t Follow Me Around,” (directed by Dominik Graf) is about a police psychologist called into help the police search for the escaped killer/sex offender, which leads to her staying with an old college friend, where some memories best left alone are dredged up. And the third film, “One Minute of Darkness” (directed by Christoph Hochhausler) is a straight forward police thriller, told from the perspective of a detective and focusing on the escaped killer. Altogether, this stands for an intriguing and beautiful narrative achievement, each film creating a distinct look, a distinct perspective and a compelling film.
32. The Skin I Live In. Almodovar mixes it up a bit, and gives us a transgender genre exercise that pays delicious homage to one of the best films ever made, George Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960). Antonio Banderas returns to work with Almodovar, here a brilliant plastic surgeon that has invented a new type of durable synthetic skin. His wife has died in a tragic accident and after his daughter is assaulted (and nearly raped) at a party, he goes a little crazy on the perpetrator. Meanwhile, a beautiful woman is held captive in his mansion (Elena Anaya, finally in a role that gives her something to do), undergoing some serious skin grafting. Maria Paredes stars as Banderas’ faithful housekeeper. Of course, a multitude of secrets are revealed in Almodovar’s usual fashion, but you won’t be privy to a more stylish and beautiful thriller with such hysterical implications. Costumes and skin, flesh and cloth, there’s enough going on in this narrative to keep one busy on multiple viewings.
31. My Worst Nightmare. While Anne Fontaine isn’t my favorite director (I enjoyed her 2003 Nathalie… but felt her 2009 The Girl From Monaco was terrible) this latest effort sporting Isabelle Huppert as a stuck up bitch art gallery owner who’s ridiculously frigid with her husband (Andre Dussollier) is a fine distraction. When her son brings home a friend with a deadbeat Belgian dad (Benoit Poelvoorde), the two clash from the get go. With circumstances setting the two in close proximity together, screwball antics ensue and Huppert gets to let her hair down a little. Albeit simple and without a serious bone in its body, Fontaine’s latest froth is a showcase for Huppert’s neglected comic side (and if you dig this, definitely check her out in 2010’s Copacabana).
30. Leap Year. No, this isn’t that bizarrely anachronistic romantic comedy starring Amy Adams, but something much darker and startling. The feature debut of Australian born Michael Rowe, who has been living in Mexico for the past 17 years, Leap Year (slightly reminiscent of a grainy Italian art house mess starring Elizabeth Taylor from 1974, The Driver’s Seat) is set nearly entirely in the Mexico City apartment of a freelance magazine writer, Laura (Monica del Carmen). It becomes immediately apparent that Laura is a lonely woman, spouting obvious lies about her life to family members over the phone, masturbating as she spies on a couple engaging in banal activities across the way, and bringing home various men for anonymous sex. As February rolls around, Laura highlights the 29th with a red marker, and as meticulous black X’s eat away the remaining days of the month, a foreboding anxiety develops about why the end of the month is bathed in red. Things get really heavy when she meets Arturo, an aspiring actor who develops a penchant for S/M scenarios with Laura. While he’s the first trick that’s shown to ask Laura her name, director Rowe gives us several explanations about Laura’s attraction and the racial element that may be involved. As their relations become more and more violent, Leap Year becomes the quietest and most devastating film about loneliness that you’re apt to see, and won’t be able to soon forget.
29. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Swedish director Tomas Alfredson’s follow-up to his insanely awesome Let the Right One In, this stylish and intelligent adaptation of the classic John Le Carre novel gives Gary Oldman one of the best roles of his career as retired espionage veteran, George Smiley. A Cold War set tale of funneling out a mole in the upper ranks of the dilapidated British Intelligence, Tinker may be one of the more enthralling and intelligent espionage thrillers ever made, a throwback to filmmaking from the 70’s, when explosives and CGI didn’t dictate the framework of the narrative. A delicious supporting cast including John Hurt, Ciaran Hinds, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, and Benedict Cumberbatch are all highlights. But perhaps the strongest element of Tinker is the decrepit and dank cinematography, which almost gives off a stale fecundity of its own, with background images disappearing into murky, dream-like images at times, our focal points almost stepping out of the vapor as they come into the fore.
28. The Turin Horse. Bela Tarr’s work is often an exercise in patience, and I will never forget how hollowed out I felt after watching his seven hour plus opus Satan’s Tango in the theater (though I’d argue that the much shorter The Man From London was more dense and harder to sit through). His latest (and purportedly last film he will be directing) focuses on what happened to a famous horse that Neitzsche wept over right before going mad. While we all know Neitszche had a lot going on, whatever happened to that damned horse? Opening with one of the most captivating sequences this year, we follow that horse, its owner and his daughter as they eke out an existence in a windblown countryside. When I mean windblown, I mean a windstorm that never lets up for days and howls incessantly. You’ll feel like you’re caught in some level of hell. The two humans barely speak and the horse has refused to eat. We follow them from day to day as they complete the same tasks over and over again. Tarr’s latest is not just a film, it’s an experience, a tribulation, and a beautiful piece of art.
27. Michael. After watching the debut of Austrian director Markus Schleinzer, it’s no surprise that he’s worked as the casting director for Michael Haneke, Ulrich Seidl, and Michael Glawogger (and the lesser know, but a personal favorite of mine, Wolfgang Murnberger) as his debut Michael reflects the sensibilities of these said filmmakers. Concerning a pedophile named Michael (Michael Fuith) who has a young boy locked in his basement, the film certainly makes for an uncomfortable exercise as we watch this unassuming man interact with co-workers and family members who don’t have a clue. Eventually, after some completely surprising turn of events, the film becomes an anxious exercise. A touchy subject (maybe especially in Austria, considering the 2008 Josef Fritzl case), Schleinzer’s debut marks him as an assured peer whose next work I will greatly anticipate. And I just fell in love with how he decided to use Boney M’s song “Sunny.”
26. Cedar Rapids. Certainly lighter in tone than his three previous films, Miguel Arteta still manages to create a portrait of strangely comical identity scenarios with Cedar Rapids, a raunchy yet impeccably sweet film. Ed Helms plays a small-town insurance salesmen sent to represent his company at a convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. While there, he’s placed under the tutelage of three insurance veterans, hilarious John C. Reilly, Isaiah Whitlock Jr, and a brilliantly subtle Anne Heche. While Helms plays a hopelessly naive sweetie-pie thrust into a one of those “do the right thing” scenarios, he manages to make an impressive mark as a leading man here, even if his presence may cause the film to seem like The Hangover in Iowa. Plus, Sigourney Weaver lends a terrific accent as Helm’s junior high school teacher, currently using him for sex.
25. Once Upon a Time In Anatolia. At 150 minutes, this police procedural about a group of men searching for a dead body in the Anatolian steppes goes by rather quickly. Along the way from one fruitless location to the next in the dark flatlands, the prosecutor tells the doctor a mysterious story about a woman that predicted her own death and then died at the time she stated she would. The doctor disagrees with this story, and this seemingly unrelated wonder about intuition vs. fact reveals a surprising revelation. While it may seem like nothing’s going on the surface, the film is quietly innervating and surprising.
24. Hanna. Director Joe Wright takes a step away from Keira Knightly and British period pieces (though he’s currently adapting Anna Karenina with his muse…we’ll just have to see how that goes) to direct this child-assassin, fairy-tale infused action film that sports one of the best soundtracks of the year with original work from The Chemical Brothers. Saoirse Ronan is the titular lass, raised by her father (Eric Bana) to be the perfect killing machine, and hunted by a ruthless intelligent agent (Cate Blanchett) across Europe. Featuring several terrific action sequences, beginning and ending with one killer line, Ronan’s performance in Wright’s film is terrific (and the same cannot be said for the as-yet-unreleased debut of Geoffrey Fletcher, also a child assassin film starring Ronan and Alexis Bledel). And as the deliriously evil agent, Blanchett is just perfect, stalking Ronan in a dilapidated fairy tale themed playground, with one breathtaking sequence in particular where she saunters out of the open maw of a wolf.
23. Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil. Director Eli Craig’s hilarious debut may sound like just another send up of horror movie tropes that’s already been done time and time again, and it really is more of a comedy than a horror flick. However, it just so happens to be charming, gory, hilarious and one hell of a crowd pleaser, perhaps an American cousin to Shaun of the Dead. As with Pegg and Frost in that film, Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as the titular leads are really what make the film so funny and entertaining. For pure slapstick purposes, (and horror movie by mistake), it’s definitely deserving of a cult following.
22. Hugo. Martin Scorsese’s first foray in 3D technology is perhaps one of the only films that warrants a use of such a derided and abused spectacle. A completely charming film even without that, most fitting is the fact that Scorsese’s film is about the first special effects filmmaker, Georges Melies. Hugo is set in 1930’s Paris where the eponymous orphan (Asa Butterfield) lives in the walls of a train station, winding the clocks. He is in possession of a rundown automaton, found by his dead father (Jude Law) in a burned down museum. As he tries to reconstruct the automaton himself, the young Hugo becomes involved in a mysterious plot that leads him to a friendship with a young girl (Chloe Moretz) and her caretaker (Ben Kingsley), a cranky man that runs a toy booth at the train station. This happens to be Scorsese’s ode to cinema, and just as cinema is given as a gift to characters in this film, it’s really Scorsese’s gift to us. Compelling, moving, and an utterly fascinating film about magic, dreams, and one of the few mediums we can share those things with each other.
21. Take Shelter. Director Jeff Nichols’ excellent follow-up to Shotgun Stories, gives Michael Shannon a weighty role as a man that may either be having visions of an apocalyptic storm or he just may be schizophrenic. While it at first seems obvious that he’s really suffering from some kind of breakdown (his mother, played by Kathy Baker, suffered one, forcing her to leave her two young boys) his supportive wife (Jessica Chastain, in the role for which she should receive awards attention) isn’t sure what to do. As Shannon’s behavior spins more and more out of control, the film comes to an awesome crescendo….and then leaves us with one of the best final shots to end a film this year.
20. Miss Bala. Gerardo Naranjo’s latest feature stars the beautiful Stephanie Sigman as a young woman trying to enter the Miss Baja pageant….but along the way she becomes embroiled in the world of organized crime. But since the narrative is from her perspective, we’re just as in the dark as she is. Set up as a kind of gritty thriller, genre falls away as merely window-dressing, and the film becomes a harrowing experience of one beautiful (and arguably passive) woman being pulled in all directions, never knowing what’s going to happen next, perpetually keeping her (and us) in a constant state of dread. If this sounds a bit vague, it’s because Miss Bala is not a conventional film, but a beautiful cinematic experience. If the closing onscreen message about Mexico’s drug wars seems a little trite, so what? We get that Sigman’s beauty contestant is a stand-in for Mexico, getting fucked from all sides.
19. Carnage. Master filmmaker Roman Polanski returns with this comedy of manners, based on Yasmina Reza’s play God of Carnage. A hysterical and simmering chamber-piece set almost entirely within the confines of one Brooklyn apartment, belonging to parents Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly, whose child was recently attacked on the playground by the child of visiting parents Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz, Carnage recalls the aesthetic of one my personal favorite Polanski films, Death and the Maiden starring Sigourney Weaver, also based on a play and set almost entirely within one house. While this latest effort doesn’t happen to be particularly lacerating or deeply provoking (though there are some flourishes with the bookend scenes that recall Michael Haneke’s 2005 masterpiece, Cache) it does showcase four awesome performances from it’s well-chosen cast. In particular, Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster, both playing characters that unravel beautifully in their own surprising ways. Certainly a broad commentary on class and manners (and gender, too), Polanki’s film is really a piece of decomposition. The use of words and language are particularly important to the bitchy bickering, and Polanski’s removal of the word God posits this scenario as one entirely man-made. A brilliant comedic treat in the vein of some Bunuelian born nightmare, Carnage lays waste to good intentions.
18. Pariah. The much hailed debut of Dee Rees is indeed a rarity, the coming out story of a young African-American female. Featuring an awesome lead performance from newcomer Adepero Odiye as Alike, Pariah is one of the most realistic, painful, and hopeful coming out stories that’s been yet made. Deservedly winning a prize at Sundance 2011 for cinematography, it also features a viciously nuanced performance from Kim Wayans, a mother unwilling to accept her daughter for who she is. Pariah obviously has a lot in common with similar coming out stories, and it’s hard to escape the facts that these similarities sometimes seem cliché, (yes, it’s still difficult to be gay and non-white in America), but nevertheless, this is a compelling and gorgeous debut. It does get better, and Dee Rees is among a handful of filmmakers that proves the telling of LGBT stories has gotten better, too.
17. The Kid With a Bike. The Dardenne Bros. also consistently have excellent output---this latest quiet tale about an abandoned boy that just can’t get it into his head that his father (Jeremy Renier) wants nothing to do with him. Criticized for being more of the same by this directing duo, I’d argue that this venture is one of their most touching efforts. The young boy manages to catch the heart of a young hairdresser (one of my favorite younger actresses, Cecile De France), who decides to care for the boy after first agreeing to let him leave the center he’s staying on the weekends. While the boy frustratingly disobeys his new guardian time and time again, his heartbreaking need for love is presented without melodrama or artifice and is simply just a touching story. Also notable, this is the first film in which the Dardenne Bros. employ the use of music----though limited, the blasts of Beethoven’s 5th have rarely been used more eloquently.
16. The Woman. This much reviled latest work from horror master Lucky McKee (yes, his debut May stands as one of the best horror films I’ve ever seen) pairs him with cult writer Jack Ketchum to tell this wildly overblown tale exploring our culture’s ingrained acceptance of misogyny. The female member of an uncivilized violent clan that’s been wandering through the wilderness for decades is abducted by the patriarch of a well-to-do nuclear family. He decides that he must civilize this woman, but immediately upon capture, she bites off his ring finger, and once this symbolic bondage of womanhood is broken, the rest will follow suit. A throwback to the gritty exploitation horror films of the 1970’s, today’s audiences seem unaccustomed to this kind of cinema, often written off as torture porn. Of course, McKee’s tale is an exaggerated exercise, but for all intents and purposes, McKee has directed the most feminist piece of cinema this year. There are so many awesome symbolic elements in The Woman (title included) this also makes for the most intellectual horror film of the year.
15. The Hedgehog. The debut of director Mona Achache, The Hedgehog, based on a popular French novel, centers on Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic), an 11 year old girl that, fed up with her world, has decided to kill herself on her twelfth birthday. Formidably (and thankfully, not annoyingly) precocious, Paloma is fascinated with art and philosophy, decided to film her world around her as she moves forward with her plan, narrating her opinions to us on what’s wrong with her parents and the world at large. Paloma meets a kindred spirit in the form of the cranky and seemingly unhappy Renee (an absolutely fabulous Josiane Balasko), the building janitor. The arrival of a new tenant creates some ripples as he flirts with the avid reader Renee through Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and the cinema of Ozu, and soon a very endearing and unpredictable romance ensues. Touching, tragic, and funny, The Hedgehog is an excellent debut, and features a great performance from one of France’s best performers.
14. When We Leave. This directorial debut from Austrian actress Feo Aladag stars the gorgeous Sibel Kekilli (of Fatih Akin’s Head-On) as Umay, a woman of Turkish descent living in Germany, in the midst of attempting to leave her abusive husband. As she flees with her son (in one incredibly tense scene) and seeks solace with her family in Berlin, she finds she is rejected at every turn due to religious and traditional conventions. A deadly look at the clash of Western and non-Western ideals in the Turkish community, Kekilli gives one hell of a performance as a woman struggling to make a better life for herself even as her own family sabotages her. Infuriating, compelling, and altogether one sucker punch of a film.
13. Jeff, Who Lives At Home. The Duplass Bros. consistently prove they are talented directors, but this latest effort, which also sees them working with more and more well known names, is their best yet. Essentially the story of a pothead loser (Jason Segel) living in his mom’s basement (Susan Sarandon), who, while believing in a philosophy from the movie Signs that everything is connected, goes off one day on a forced errand to explore that possibility. Along the way he stumbles into his asshole brother (Ed Helms), in the midst of a crumbling marriage (Judy Greer). Meanwhile, their mom seems to be embroiled in an office romance. Sweet, unassuming, strangely endearing, and full of laughs, the Duplass Bros. have produced a wonderful film. And I don’t usually address things like this, but it also has one of the best kiss scenes I’ve ever seen in a film, and it’s a wonderful surprise, so I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it.
12. A Separation. Much praise has been heaped on this Iranian film from director Asghar Farhadi, the seemingly simple tale of a married couple faced with the decision to leave Iran. Opening with Nader (Peyman Moaadi, in an excellent performance) and Simin (Leila Hatami) arguing in front of a judge concerning divorce proceedings, it’s this initial separation that causes the remaining conflicts of the film. Simin is eager to leave Iran for a more progressive country, both as an opportunity for herself and their 11 year old daughter. Nader refuses to leave, citing that he needs to stay and care for his father, ailing from Alzheimer’s. Upset that he refuses to leave and that he would rather agree to divorce then do so, Simin flees to her parent’s house, their daughter choosing to stay with her father. When Nader hires a working class woman to care for his father while he is at work, a situation arises which results in one hell of an awesome drama that plays out like an enticing thriller. Beautifully shot and superbly acted, it transfixes from the first frame.
11. Kill List. Director Ben Wheatley’s followup to his excellent 2009 Down Terrace is this genre jumping little twister. Starting off a lot like his previous film, with ruthless hit men speaking in angry garbles, the film quickly turns into a horror film with some eerie Satanic elements---if you loved The Wicker Man and The Last Exorcism, this is definitely a film to add to your hit list. Fun as hell, and creepy, too---it’s better to go in knowing little to nothing.
10. We Need To Talk About Kevin. Lynne Ramsay’s much anticipated follow-up to her quietly beautiful 2002 film, Morvern Callar, plays like The Bad Seed meets The Omen at Columbine. Tilda Swinton gives a knockout performance as a mother who obviously dislikes her child (still a perversely taboo theme, check out a similar mom character played by Isabelle Huppert in 2007’s L’amour Cache) and arguably deserved that Best Actress win at Cannes even more than Ms. Dunst. Played by three different actors at different stages, culminating in the coolly calculating Ezra Miller as a teen, Kevin’s story is told in flashback via his mother and her feelings of guilt surrounding his killing spree, and plays somewhat like a perverse horror film about parenting. Are some kids born evil? Perhaps. But as a film about grief and societal trappings of supposed responsibility, this really is one woman’s dark shower of dead dreams. Swinton dominates every frame, but Ramsay’s artistic flourishes pack some punch, in particular, one instance where the irises of the bow-wielding Miller reflect target signs as he practices archery.
9. Killer Joe. William Friedkin returns with another adaptation of a Tracy Letts play (after their excellent 2006 collaboration, Bug) and it is one sweet ass little picture. Starring Matthew McConaughey as a vicious cop (and contract killer on the side), he is hired by bumbling idiot (Emile Hirsch) to kill his own mother so he can pay off some threatening debts. Only thing is, the inheritance will go to Hirsch’s kid sister, Juno Temple (who he has more than familial feelings for). Getting his trailer trash dad (Thomas Haden Church) and step-mom (a fantastic Gina Gershon) involved, they can’t afford to pay Killer Joe up front---so he takes kid sister as collateral, threading itself into a murderous Baby Doll scenario. When the film opens with Gershon’s naked crotch front and center for an unabashed clip of time, you know Friedkin’s got black comedy talons out, resulting in one of the most disgusting and grimace inducing climactic moments you’re going to see. What a fucking beautiful, bizarre movie.
8. Martha Marcy May Marlene. Elizabeth Olsen gives a star making turn as Martha, an escaped cult member, rescued by her estranged sister (Sarah Paulson) who has no idea what’s going on. Haunted by memories and a terrifying paranoia that the dangerous cult leader (John Hawkes, in terribly creepy turn) will soon find her, Martha exhibits increasingly aberrant behavior, alarming her sister and brother-in-law (High Dancy). Filled with plenty of uncomfortable sequences, Sean Durkin’s debut drifts hazily between Olsen’s current surrounding and her recent experiences, creating a nightmarish landscape where it always takes a moment to adjust to the scenery. With each passing scene, an ominous anxiety increases, coming to an incredibly satisfying conclusion.
7. Weekend. While I was not a fan of Andrew Haigh’s 2009 debut, a docudrama low budget film called Greek Pete about an aspiring gay porn star that was more borderline soft-core nonsense than anything, I was amazed at his touching and realistic sophomore effort, Weekend, about two young twentysomething British guys that meet one weekend and find that they have an extremely strong connection to one another. It’s basically a one night stand story that quickly becomes something of a love story, but one that is not altered by romantic fantasy and keeps its story on a realistic level, which makes the situation of its protagonists all the more poignant (one of them is leaving for America at the end of the weekend). Newcomers Tom Cullen and Chris New give exceptional performances. It is indeed one of the best realized films about being gay in the modern day world, about the difficulty of finding a connection in a community still not treated equally, and of the difficulty it is to be your authentic self both in and out of that community.
6. ALPS. The latest from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, (quickly becoming one of my favorite directors with this and his 2009 film, Dogtooth), once again, proves that he is indeed one of the most unique storytellers working today. ALPS is an acronym for a mysterious group of individuals who offer grief services for mourning families….meaning, each group member offers to step in and “act” as the deceased in order to help families cope. The nature of acting and the reverence of film stars are obvious themes explored, but it’s actually more of a strange and beautiful film exploring the nature of grief as a series of reenactments. Thought provoking and astounding, ALPS is a film that begs to be talked about.
5. Another Happy Day. A bitter, nasty, angry film about family members getting together for a wedding, this is the directorial debut of Sam Levinson (son of Barry), and showcases Ellen Barkin in one of her most powerful screen performances. Barkin’s oldest son is about to get married, and family members are converging at her parents’ (George Kennedy and Ellen Burstyn). Slowly, bit by bit, the strange and divisive family dynamic is revealed. Barkin’s abusive ex-husband (Thomas Haden Church) wants to reconnect with their daughter (Kate Bosworth), as upon their separation, he took their son and left Barkin and Bosworth. It’s apparent that their daughter is having severe emotional difficulties as a young woman, as are Barkin’s two younger boys from her second marriage, played by Ezra Miller and Daniel Yelsky. Barkin’s mother seems to care more for her ex-husband and his new wife, played by Demi Moore, and Barkin’s harpy bitch sisters (Siobhan Fallon and Diana Scarwid) also seem to despise her. Incredibly dark and nerve wracking, Another Happy Day is certainly not for all tastes, but it’s honestly one of the best films I’ve seen about how messed up families can really be---and how ridiculous it is to keep traditions like weddings, holidays, and funerals to keep throwing them together. Barkin deserves an Oscar nod, but this material is way to dark and daring to be appreciated by the mainstream.
4. Melancholia. Lars Von Trier’s quieter and elegiac treatment of depression (at least in comparison to 2009’s Antichrist) manages to also be an astounding piece of cinema. Divided into two parts, each named for sisters Justine and Claire (played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg), the film opens with the wedding reception of Justine to Michael (Alexander Skarsgard). We’re treated to a rather boorish reception affair set on the posh estate owned by Claire’s husband (Kiefer Sutherland), where it’s obvious that Dunst is having a difficult time coping with the proceedings, unsure if she’s truly happy about what’s going on. As the night goes on, she breaks down even more, after a succession of depressing relatives and friends make their rounds, including her viciously bitter mother (an awesome bit part for Charlotte Rampling), her drunken father (John Hurt), her maniacal boss (Stellan Skarsgard), his clingy and needy new protégé (Brady Corbet), and a wedding planner that hates her because she’s ruining the reception (Udo Kier). As it devolves even further, Melancholia opens its second half, where the eponymous planet threatens to hit collide with the Earth and destroy it. Dunst, now nearly comatose with depression, is cared for by Claire. As the inevitability of a collision becomes more and more obvious to the sisters, one of them is clearly better able to cope, and is actually comforted by the eventual demise of life. It’s a deliciously beautiful film.
3. Beloved. The latest confection from Christophe Honore once again features the musical talents of Alex Beaupain, the two collaborating again after their excellent 2007 film, Love Songs. This time around, Honore hands us a drama/musical spanning from 1964 to 2001, with Ludivigne Sagnier playing the younger version of Catherine Deneuve, and Deneuve’s own daughter starring in the present day, Chiara Mastroianni. Included in the cast are Milos Forman, Louis Garrel, and an effectively moving Paul Schneider as the HIV+ gay love interest of Mastroianni. Once again, Honore features characters with fluid sexualities, letting their hearts dictate their love. Each performer gets an effective song (or two) and this beautiful ode to the cinema of Jacques Demy (of which Ms. Deneuve starred) is really a beautiful, cinematic musical about love. This was my favorite film of the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.
2. Drive. Words cannot describe the cinematic perfection of a movie like Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive. Ryan Gosling stars as a stoic stunt driver in Los Angeles, falls in love with a taken woman next door (Carey Mulligan) and because of her becomes involved in a heist gone wrong scenario that results in a price on his head. While many have descried that Refn’s film is nothing but an art house genre exercise, and Gosling’s minimal performance dismissed as another “no expression” entry in the limited pantheon of masculine action films, it can only be argued that these critiques are careless and limited. Speckled with bits of glorious car chases, gory violence, and that crazy little thing called love, Drive evokes more emotion than any of its uber masculine genre predecessors. Whether it was the demise of the Christina Hendricks character, Albert Brooks (in an awesome performance) and his fork scene, or that inarguably paramount elevator sequence that will be forever burned into my psyche, all tuned to a deliriously melancholy, vintage evoking soundtrack, I fell head over heels in love with Drive. And to hear wisps of the song “A Real Hero” drifting out of cars all over Los Angeles after the film’s release made me realize that it’s a love that’s shared.
1. Margaret. Due to several lawsuits, the sophomore effort of Kenneth Lonergan was delayed for several years and finally plopped into theaters this past fall. After playing for one week in Los Angeles, it was unceremoniously yanked from theaters, with reports that only around seven or eight hundred people attended, which makes this one of the most profoundly neglected films of recent history. Margaret tells the tale of a high school student, Lisa Cohen (Anna Paquin, never more nuanced and stirring than she is here) who witnesses a bus accident. As Lisa holds a dying woman (Allison Janney) in her arms, a moment of such horrific realness and empathetic beauty is created that rivals any scene from any genre this year. From this scene forward, Lonergan’s film explores Lisa’s decision to first side with the bus driver in stating the dead woman was at fault….but then changes her mind. The deliberation over who was at fault and the intentions of Lisa and the bus driver (Mark Ruffalo) begin to affect various people, including her actress mother (J. Smith Cameron---whose scenes with Paquin will have you transfixed) and the best friend of the dead woman, Emily (Jeannie Berlin, a caustic and incredibly arresting presence). But as Lisa’s behavior begins to be more and more erratic and her intentions are called into question, the film becomes about her own ideals and how they’re at odds with reality. The title of the film is taken from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins called “Spring and Fall,” wherein the poem’s narrator addresses a young girl named Margaret. The narrator instructs the young woman, “Ah as the heart grows older/It will come to sights much colder….It is the blight man was born for,/It is Margaret you mourn for.” And so it is Lisa who begins to learn that she’s not grieving for the dead woman or even fighting for justice. Instead, she’s mourning for her own loss of ideals, her own dissipation of youth and ignorance. A complicated, thoroughly impressive film with some excellent dialogue, it’s also a nostalgic time capsule of both New York and its actors from a few years ago, filmed in 2005. Since then, all our hearts have grown older
