50/50 (2011)

A comedy about facing cancer. Sure, that works, plus it's not all funny. Reminded me of the theme from Douglas Coupland's Life After God - this is the first generation (well, we are into the second by now I'm sure...) that grew up without a Christian notion of God. Without that grander meaning of life and purpose, individuals are forced to face questions of mortality alone and without context.

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Oh, this is a great film, if only to fantasize of living in a great city full of culture and croissants. Woody Allen continues to work his way around Europe (London, Barcelona before this and Rome after - I hope he makes it to many more), this time transporting his title character, another writer, to early 1920s Paris to mix with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Baker, Dali, Stein, Porter, etc. Will he cast caution to the wind to live among some of history's greatest misfits or will be bow to economic and social pressures and stay with his boring wife?

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

Woody Allen's treatise on how the wicked go unpunished while the good live difficult lives - also a question as to the existence of God. The film is a masterpiece mainly due to its ability to pose (and attempt to answer) very difficult existential questions while at the same time making you laugh until your abdomen hurts.

A powerful and wealthy doctor tries to cover up his affair through murder while at the same time a geeky documentary film maker tries to flirt with other women hoping for an affair. The two of them suffer different consequences.

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Wanderlust (2012)

Just a comedy about a commune in the spirit of Funny Farm or The Great Outdoors - city folks are just funny out of their urban environs. This film is full of cliché and one-liners.

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All the Little Animals (1998)

This film brought to mind the quote at the beginning of my film:

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace. - Albert Schweitzer

Surely, one can see that cruelty towards animals is a sure indicator of the perpetrator's character. This film brings the idea that love of the lowliest of creatures is an indicator of real humanity, but it also presses the idea that man is the cruelest of animals deserving the least respect. I disagree with this posit, but it made for an interesting contemplation.

The film is driven by a young Christian Bale who plays Bobby, a simpleton whose trust fund is controlled by a cruel stepfather. He runs away and finds an off-grid kindred spirit whose mission it is to give proper burials to road kill.

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The Descendants (2011)

Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, Sideways) walks us through letting go and hanging on at the same time. The Descendants  is fresh and old at the same time, an unromantic look at some upper crust folks in Hawaii.

George Clooney plays a lawyer, father to two daughters, husband to a wife in a coma, and heir to family land - and he does so comically and pathetically. What I discovered thinking about this movie afterwards is that his character has quite a bit of moral strength that was simply disengaged - this narrative shows him putting everything into gear, testing his fabric.

I quite enjoyed it.

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35 Rhums (2008)

This is what I love about European dramas (the not shocking ones) - ordinary people facing ordinary struggle in ordinary time. This French film focuses on an immigrant transit train conductor and the people in his life. Rather than focusing on racial tensions that are commonplace in Paris, it relies on his humanity and the dynamics of his relationships - particularly with his daughter.

Punctuated at times with tragedy and selfishness, the film is more of a celebration of life, the great reasons to raise your 35 Shots of Rum.

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L'emploi du temps (2001)

Vincent was fired from his job in the finance sector a few months ago, but he still hasn't told his wife. Instead, he departs on lonely "business" trips and returns with lies for his wife, children, parents and friends. The lies become elaborate and rehearsed. He begins extorting his friends and family as a means of maintaining his illusion.

Time Out is a brilliant depiction of the emasculation that has taken hold in the west. Men are no longer men, they are tools in an economy devoid of meaning.

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Fanny och Alexander (1982)

Fanny and Alexander is one of Ingmar Bergman's most celebrated films. It is the intimate account of a brother and sister born into the aristocracy of 19th century Sweden. The story begins at Christmas time where opulence is exposed as a deep root for the sadness in the family. It carries through a death into the bleak and cheerless world of a bishop's manse. The third chapter of this grand film is punctuated by the surreal inside a Jewish home.

Bergman helps us interpret these worlds through the discerning eyes of children. One does not necessarily leave the film filled with hope making it tough to watch at times. The engaged viewer should finish with more wisdom though, making it quite worthwhile.

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The Seventh Continent (1989)

Yet another bleak contemplation on violence, hopelessness, and the inexplicable nature of what causes people to give up and how it must be linked to our increasingly secluded society from Michael Haneke.

The Seventh Continent - literally Australia, but symbolically it is death - follows the unceremonious daily routine of a family of three, then it shows their deliberate march into oblivion.

Not a picker upper. About as haunting as they come.

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Metropolis (1927)

This classic film about class struggle pulled out all the stops to generate a bleak, futuristic world where the masses were simply cogs in the wheel of progress (or at least labourers in an unfriendly factory). There are plenty of dials and steam in this analog future and not many smiles. Director Fritz Lang incorporates plenty of grouped choreographed movement and solo modern dances to demonstrate visually the moral of the film:

"The head and hand need a mediator, and that mediator is the heart!"

At the heart of the film is class struggle and considering that the film was made during the interwar period in Germany, I think it captures much of the sentiment of the Weimar Republic.

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Maelström (2000)

Part Norweigian myth, part generational commentary, and part romance, Québec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve recounts the downward spiral of a woman's life and what it takes to bring her back to life. The luminous resurrection of a woman who has lost all hope is inspiring. As a film, it is life affirming.

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The Future (2011)

I was eager to see what Miranda July would give us after Me and You and Everyone We Know. Sadly, this film disappointed me. It tackles some good ideas, but the characters are just too weird and self-interested that I really didn't care what happened to them. And the talking cat was the worst part of the film -and the strange for the sake of being strange dance July does. Why??!

I guess it incited some emotion from me...

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The Tree of Life (2011)

One of my favourite film makers delivers this masterpiece of cinema - a poetic account of one boy's struggle with meaning juxtaposed with images of the cosmos and eternity. Absolutely stunning camera work, realism blended with childlike wonder and real emotional pain and joy.

The pace is slow, but the characters are engaging and the 139 minutes pass as though a dream. Categorically perfect contemplation.

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The American (2010)

George Clooney plays a professional hit man who has to hide out for a while in Italy. It's ofttold story, one questioning if even the most hardened man can be redeemed. What makes this one unique? It's an American set in Europe. That and the director is an established European photographer: Anton Corbijn and that makes the film far more poetic than what we have seen in the past.

All considered, this is quite a remarkable film.

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The Animatrix (2003)

To complete my first viewing of The Matrix films, I watched this collection of animated shorts that flesh out some of the side stories from the live action films. Each of the nine animations are produced by a different production company and carry very different styles with them. It is clear that some of the films direct their efforts to emphasize very different aspects of the Matrix flicks: style, philosophy, and action.

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The Hit (1984)

This is really quite a brilliant film in that it layers the character of this retired British hit man who is captured and being transported to where he will be executed by his former boss. The layers come in the form of his two captors - one a ruthless career man and the other an upstart trying to prove himself. The doomed veteran demonstrates his charisma and skill at every turn, showing that he's been through his captors' experience before.

The journey from Spain to France is beautifully filmed and the characters are just as colourful - especially the woman they've also taken captive who uses her wiles to try and survive the ordeal.

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Schizopolis (1996)

Tough to follow, but oddly gripping, Steven Soderbergh stars in this psychological film experiment.

Fletcher Munson works in a generic office setting where he does virtually nothing while at the same time trying to climb the promotion ladder and satisfy vague demands by his supervisor. At home, his marriage is falling apart and he ends up living in an alternative universe - I think.

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À Bout de Souffle (1960)

From another time - generational angst that defined the 1960s. Chock full of anti-establishment, lust, and recklessness. A cop killing Frenchman pines over a blond American girl trying to get her to escape with him. She half-heartedly gives in to his advances only to half-heartedly flee. There is a back and forth that shows they both really don't know what they want.

The movie is a classic and it's worth watching just to see what Paris looked like a half century ago. The plot and acting is dramatic enough to keep you engaged, but the tale has been told many times since by copycats, so it isn't that new anymore.

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One Week (2008)

Without taking any firm positions, One Week crosses dying, relationship, and purpose with a journey to the west coast of Canada. And despite the real possibility that the movie is going to be corny (and it is a little), I was pleased with its genuine sentiment.

Joshua Jackson plays a man diagnosed with cancer who decides to leave his job, his fiancée and treatment for a while to discover why he is alive. His conclusion does seem rather selfish, but he comes by it honestly.

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