2004: Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood)

2004: Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood) 

A tough year for me to choose.  The Fuller film really blew me away.  But I finally gave the year to Clint as he just strikes me as a model of simplicity, modest craftsmanship, and intelligence that seems somewhat special in today's landscape.

I do like more audacious cinema, and I often find myself wowed and inspired by some of the medium's greater stylists, but minimalism and simplicity at the height of post-modernism also feels most welcome.  I won't deny that this one can be overly-sentimental at times.  But I think it has real heart, three strong performances (Eastwood, Freeman, and Swank), and a really nice look, too.

I keep wondering, who will carry on this tradition of classicism and professionalism once Clint is gone?  I really think he's one of the treasures of American cinema. 

Other contenders for 2004:  From this year, I still have some titles to see.  These include: Eric Rohmer's Triple Agent, Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education, Zhuangzhuang Tian's Springtime in a Small Town, Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall, Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Bahman Ghobadi's Turtles Can Fly, Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski's Born Into Brothels, and Yoji Yamada's The Hidden Blade.  I love Hong Sang-soo's Woman Is the Future of Man.  And my closest runner-up is Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One: The Reconstruction.  

1/28/11 I watched Martin Scorsese's The Aviator.  DiCaprio was terrific, as I always think he is, and the movie, when it's really dealing with Hughes and all he went through, is quite affecting.  But I found it too meandering, deviod of enough insight into Hughes' real motivations, and a bit flat whenever Blanchett as Hepburn was on screen.


2/2/11 I watched Wong Kar-Wai's 2046.  I'm not sure anyone has been more inventive formally in the last twenty years than Wong Kar-Wai. And I'm pretty sure no one uses slo-mo in a more refreshing and unique way.  But here his style seems to really overwhelm a story that's in desperate need of some shape and some depthful characters.  


3/18/11 I watched Arnaud Desplechin's Kings & Queen.  There's a vitality and playfulness at times that make Desplechin feel like the most correct, contemporary successor of the French New Wave.  But with this vitality comes a certain messiness and muddiness that I often find trying and frustrating.  No doubt Desplechin is a sharp writer and wonderful with actors, particularly his women.  I find though he lacks a filter that keeps his films from really floating, in the way of my favorite works of the Nouvelle Vague.  

4/22/11 I watched Hirokazu Koreeda's Nobody Knows.  Feels like a pretty big departure for the director.  Whereas most of his films tend towards a poetic reality, this film seems under the influence of the Dardenne brothers.  I prefer the other Koreeda though, as this one is unable to elevate itself above a study of misery.  Specifically, the director doesn't seem to possess the Dardenne brothers' ability to offer those real moments of transcendence in the midst of bleakness and despair. 

7/4/11 I watched Bahman Ghobadi's Turtles Can Fly.  A bit more stylized than A Time for Drunken Horses and perhaps slightly too melodramatic.  But a hard, unflinching look at a part of the world that we rarely see. 


7/17/11 I watched Sean Baker's Take Out.  It's really part of one of my less favorite tendencies in American independent cinema right now.  That is, an inexpensive naturalism that consists of almost non-stop extreme close-ups, handheld camerawork, and a claimed continuation of Italian neo-realism.  I don't see it though.  These American films don't have the budgets to show enough of the world to make us feel like we're seeing things how they really are. 


10/3/11 I watched Eric Rohmer's Triple Agent.  Another example of Rohmer's sly, one-of-a-kind filmmaking.  But this one appealed a little less to me as I missed Rohmer's more contemporary trappings.  


10/17/11 I watched Claire Denis' L'intrus.  The most challenging of the Denis films I've seen so far.  Filmmaking of the highest order as she is truly one of the most gifted filmmakers working today, but her sensory experiments go too far for me here.  I like the wanderings but finally want something to bind it all together, and it never comes.  

10/18/16 I watched Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education.  Almodovar seems to be growing as a stylist as he gets older.  This one is complex, full of elegant camera movements and full of tricky dissolves, iris shots and other cinematic flair.  Almodovar is in Hitch territory which he does quite well even if I do not think it is an ideal fit for his daring wit and deep empathy for the outsider.  

10/23/16 I watched Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.  Anderson's 8 1/2 is visually impressive and beautifully art directed but his fey cinema continues to leave me cold.  He is too self-conscious, too cool and ultimately I have a really difficult time caring about the characters in his films.

10/11/17 I watched Christopher Bird and Kevin Brownlow's So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM.  It's a depressing period in Keaton's life, interesting to know about but a bit of a drag to watch.

10/27/17 I watched Werner Herzog's The White Diamond.  Graham Dorrington feels like a Herzog character and some of the footage is moving or zany in that way that is pure Herzog.  But it also all feels too familiar, like Herzog just doing Herzog again.

3/25/18 I watched Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady.  One of the more challenging works I have seen in a while and I am not positive I fully grasped all that "Joe" is doing.  The second half of the film is very unexpected and is as abstract and elusive as the first half is palpable and clear.

5/10/18 I watched Gavin O'Connor's Miracle.  A good sports film with some great lessons in leadership from the coach.  

10/19/22 I watched Xan Cassavetes' Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession.  It just so happens it is the second film I have seen in a row about a special period for the art film in the United States.  The previous film was Searching for Mr. Rugoff.  Both are worth a look but Jerry Harvey struck me as the more important figure and this work by Cassavetes felt far better shaped than Deutchman's tribute to Donald Rugoff.

11/20/22 I watched Tian Zhuangzhuang's Delamu.  The setting and some of the interviews are moving but the music is crummy and the lack of rigor kept me at a distance.

1992: Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)

1992: Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)

Such a stupid thing to say, but when I think about this one, I just think about an extremely well-made film.  Everything is top shelf -- the acting, the writing, the directing.

I know there is a critique of violence in this one and a certain moral position taken, but that doesn't really connect with me all that much. What really gets me here is its theme of friendship, the incredibly moving bond between Eastwood and Morgan Freeman.

Eastwood is so adult, so patient, so restrained that he stands out by not standing out.  He's carrying on a certain tradition of classical filmmaking, and the further we get away from the source, it's a wonder that a non post-modern work was able to gain this much attention.  A UFO, perhaps, but also craftsmanship of the highest order.  Quiet perfection, without all the bells and whistles.

Other contenders for 1992:  I still have some titles to see from this year.  These include: Alex Cox's Highway Patrolman, Eric Rohmer's A Tale of Winter, Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, Christopher Munch's The Hours and Times, Terrence Davies' The Long Day Closes, and James Ivory's Howards End.  At some point, I'll need to revisit Robert Altman's The Player and Agnieszka Holland's Olivier Olivier as it's been too long since I've seen either of them to know where they'd place on this list.  From this year though, I really like Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives, Arnaud Desplechin's La Sentinelle, and Carl Franklin's One False Move.  I love Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant. And my closest runner-up is David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

3/21/11 I watched Robert Altman's The Player.  Messy, in typical Altman fashion, and as incisive as it might be on Hollywood, at times it suffers from feeling so insular and claustrophobic.  Still it's one of our best ever exposes on the movie business, and much of the casting is spot-on.  

8/29/11 I watched James Ivory's Howards End.  Victorian tragedy lively rendered.  Full of deception and compromise, Ivory does extremely well with actors, music, and locations.  I'm just a bit wary of his world view, a sort of chic bleakness, if you will.  

6/20/16 I watched Eric Rohmer's A Tale of Winter.  Rohmer again proves himself a master of his specific approach and style.  Like Bresson or Ozu, Rohmer is a director of transcendence.  Since his primary tools are reduction and refinement, when he decides in those rare moments to unleash it hits the viewer with a real force.  Like someone who whispers 95% of the time, when words are spoken at regular or louder volumes, the ear perks up and becomes unusually attentive.  Perhaps not Rohmer's finest but certainly another testament of his mastery and greatness.      

12/29/21 I watched Bill Duke's Deep Cover.  Interesting as a noir told more from the African-American perspective.  It is entertaining enough but for me it dwarfs in comparison to other films from the period like King of New York and Heat.

1988: Bird (Clint Eastwood)

1988: Bird (Clint Eastwood)
Clint Eastwood as a filmmaker appears on this list three times.  And even though I can't say any of his work are "desert island films" for me, I do greatly admire both his formal and business approach.  

Formally, his work recalls some of my favorite early films from Hollywood, well-told by a director that backgrounds style and makes the material his focus.  As for business, he's among the few directors with a system of delivering nearly a film a year. 

I can't say too much about this work; I haven't seen it in many years. But I do remember feeling that it gave me a great sense of what it meant to be a jazz musician in the forties and fifties.  It features two remarkable performances by Forest Whitaker and Diane Venora and displays an extraordinary patience in the way that it allows its story to unfold.  

There's nothing really flashy and nothing really cool here, but that doesn't mean Eastwood isn't conscious of film form.  He just uses it sparingly, and as always, with great discipline.

Other contenders for 1988: I still have some titles to see.  These include: Mike Leigh's High Hopes, Jean-Luc Godard's King Lear, John Waters' Hairspray, Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue, Jean-Claude Brisseau's De bruit et de fureur, Jacques Demy's Trois places pour le 26, Terrence Davies' Distant Voices, Still Lives, and Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies. I need to revisit Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso as it's been too long since I've seen it to know where it'd place on this list.  But from this year, I really like David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers.  And my closest runner-up is Catherine Breillat's 36 fillette.

9/1/11 I watched John Waters' Hairspray.   Incredibly inventive, it's truly amazing to see this whole world that Waters creates.  He's also able to maintain his trademark, tongue-in-cheek tone, even as he navigates some pretty difficult political and esthetic terrain.  I prefer a little more depth and seriousness, but I greatly respect this achievement.

2/4/12 I watched Claire Denis' Chocolat.  Already sensuous like the best of Denis even if the subject matter feels slightly too esoteric to connect. A strong debut but not at the same level, I would say, as some of her very best. 

7/20/12 I watched Andrew Solt's Imagine: John Lennon.  Impressionistic approach gives us a feel for Lennon. This approach also deprives us though of some real opportunity to understand this fascinating man and all his many transformations.   

5/28/18 I watched Mike Leigh's High Hopes.  Incredible acting meets Leigh's overly forced direction.  Too much music and too many close-ups with no real purpose.  

3/14/20 I watched Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty.  Not a very good film but Phoenix is once again remarkable.  The sensitivity and depth of emotion he shows at such an early age are astounding.

1/8/22 I watched Jean-Luc Godard's Histoire(s) du cinema.  Is it possible to praise a film in which you grasp less than 10% of what the filmmaker is saying?  I would argue that it is.  Particularly with someone like Godard who can send shockwaves through your brain with some of his insights and with the lyricism he sometimes finds as he works sound and image together.  

1/17/22 I watched Claude Chabrol's Story of Women.  An interesting story with a very strong Huppert performance but Chabrol's direction feels quite broad.