2005 movies, part 2: hidden treasures
One of the biggest pleasures of watching movies year after year is discovering stuff I'd a) never heard of, b) never been able to find in any theater or video store, or unavailable due to being out of print or c) never been able to catch locally within the respective year of release.
So here is an extended list of discoveries I made this past year:
20:30:40 (04; 2005 AFFD screening) -- Very nice film about three women of varying ages (hence the title) who have varying degrees of success with their respective lovelives and careers.
A SNAKE OF JUNE (02; Tartan DVD) -- One of my personal favorites this year. From the director of Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a dark and strange tale of erotic necessity and misplaced love.
ANATOMY OF HELL (04) -- A Catherine Breillat film I did not dislike, and conversely, found to be one of the more intriguing films this year. A woman and a man make a bargain dealing in observation, sex and emotional detachment, with unexpected results. Nuff said.
ARAKIMENTARI (04; 2005 AFFD screening) -- Documentary about a Japanese photographer; by turns racy, bawdy, profane, beautiful and sad.
BAD TIMING (80; Criterion DVD) -- Who would expect Art Garfunkle and Theresa Russell to make for an interesting pair in this mysterious, overtly sexual film about lives that intertwine with all the worst results?
BREAKING NEWS (04) -- Yet another great Johnnie To film. Find it, buy it, love it.
CIRCLE OF IRON (78) -- David Carradine's valentine to Bruce Lee, it is dated and sometimes laughable, but still a pleasure to watch.
DOPPELGANGER (02) -- Kiyoshi Kurosawa's ever-so-subtle comedy about an inventor who's evil twin appears one day with mixed results. Another great film no one saw.
F FOR FAKE (73; Criterion DVD) -- Seriously dated but still wildly enjoyable if you have the patience and perseverance needed to watch it, this Orson Welles documentary is brilliant moviemaking and deserves the release and credit it never received.
GOZU (03; 2005 AFFD screening) -- This Takashi Miike ode to David Lynch-style weirdness-for-the-sake-of-weirdness was a mystery to me until I watched it at this year's festival, and I discovered an all-new appreciation for it. Not for everyone.
INFERNAL AFFAIRS II (03; 2005 AFFD screening) -- The first film was a solid cop show, but this sequel was charged with a dense drama of Godfather proportions, and was so powerful that I wondered how it never came to be released in the states. Brilliant work all around.
KAMIKAZE GIRLS (04; 2005 AFFD screening) -- Goofy, silly, trippy fun.
LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (03; 2005 AFFD screening) -- It would be in my top ten if it were from this year. Tadanobu Asano stars as a highly introverted man who finds love while evading mobsters. Not in the slightest as wacky as that sentence sounds. It is a beautiful, lyrical film that deserves far more attention than it got.
LES CHORISTES (04) -- French film about a former composer who becomes a teacher in a school for delinquent boys. Not as schmaltzy as that sentence sounds.
MANCHILD (03; BBC TV/DVD) -- Britain's all-male version of Sex In The City, only all four of the primaries are guys pushing 50.
MPD PSYCHO (00) -- Another limited-run series, this time from Miike. Frequently impenetrable, often darkly comical, and always very, very strange, it's about a team of police trying to track down a pair of killer personalities that can jump from body to body.
RECONSTRUCTION (04) -- So weird. I loved it.
RIDING GIANTS (04) -- A second documentary from Stacy Peralta, this time about the history of big-wave surfing. Exhilarating and great fun.
SAMURAI CHAMPLOO (04) -- Finally, an anime series with the same catchy, intriguing style of storytelling and artwork that Cowboy Bebop had...which makes sense: Kaneshiro Watanabe did both shows.
SAVE THE GREEN PLANET (03; 2005 AFFD screening) -- Dark, dark, dark. Slightly satirical, slightly comical, always fascinating. A great film, and another winning effort from the South Korean film industry.
SURVIVE STYLE 5+ (04) -- Extremely hard to find. Extremely bizarre. Also one of the most colorful and gorgeously created films since Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Also, for the ladies: more Asano.
THE BIG RED ONE: THE RECONSTRUCTION (80) -- This re-issue of Samuel Fuller's WWII film on DVD is a victory for fans of the war genre and the director's work.
THE BIG SWINDLE (04) -- Another Korean flick. This caper will seem familiar to anyone who delves regularly into the crime genre, but it still maintains its freshness amidst all the cliches.
THE QUIET FAMILY (98) -- This precursor to Miike's Happiness of the Katikuris is a more subtle, clever and enjoyable thriller that asks the question "why do people keep dying in our possibly haunted inn?"
THE SEA INSIDE (04) -- A real tear-jerker, but also a wonderful film with Javier Bardem giving an award-worthy performance as Ramon Sampedro, an Argentinian man who, once paralyzed from the neck down, fought to gain the right to end his own life.
THIS SO-CALLED DISASTER (03) -- Behind-the-scenes look at the rehearsals of Sam Shepard's play The Late Henry Moss. Terrific review of actors working at their craft, without seeming obnoxious or self-serving.
THROWDOWN (04; 2005 AFFD screening) -- Yet another Johnnie To winner, this time about martial artists working at their craft, without seeming obnoxious or...oh, sorry.
WHEN WILL I BE LOVED (04) -- A perfect little short story of a film.
YAKUZA PAPERS 1: BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY (63) -- Pure brilliance. Before there was The Godfather, before there was Goodfellas, this tale of the creation of the modern-day Yakuza triads is the penultimate "gangster" film.
Whew.
Next: MOVIES, part 3
So here is an extended list of discoveries I made this past year:
20:30:40 (04; 2005 AFFD screening) -- Very nice film about three women of varying ages (hence the title) who have varying degrees of success with their respective lovelives and careers.
A SNAKE OF JUNE (02; Tartan DVD) -- One of my personal favorites this year. From the director of Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a dark and strange tale of erotic necessity and misplaced love.
ANATOMY OF HELL (04) -- A Catherine Breillat film I did not dislike, and conversely, found to be one of the more intriguing films this year. A woman and a man make a bargain dealing in observation, sex and emotional detachment, with unexpected results. Nuff said.
ARAKIMENTARI (04; 2005 AFFD screening) -- Documentary about a Japanese photographer; by turns racy, bawdy, profane, beautiful and sad.
BAD TIMING (80; Criterion DVD) -- Who would expect Art Garfunkle and Theresa Russell to make for an interesting pair in this mysterious, overtly sexual film about lives that intertwine with all the worst results?
BREAKING NEWS (04) -- Yet another great Johnnie To film. Find it, buy it, love it.
CIRCLE OF IRON (78) -- David Carradine's valentine to Bruce Lee, it is dated and sometimes laughable, but still a pleasure to watch.
DOPPELGANGER (02) -- Kiyoshi Kurosawa's ever-so-subtle comedy about an inventor who's evil twin appears one day with mixed results. Another great film no one saw.
F FOR FAKE (73; Criterion DVD) -- Seriously dated but still wildly enjoyable if you have the patience and perseverance needed to watch it, this Orson Welles documentary is brilliant moviemaking and deserves the release and credit it never received.
GOZU (03; 2005 AFFD screening) -- This Takashi Miike ode to David Lynch-style weirdness-for-the-sake-of-weirdness was a mystery to me until I watched it at this year's festival, and I discovered an all-new appreciation for it. Not for everyone.
INFERNAL AFFAIRS II (03; 2005 AFFD screening) -- The first film was a solid cop show, but this sequel was charged with a dense drama of Godfather proportions, and was so powerful that I wondered how it never came to be released in the states. Brilliant work all around.
KAMIKAZE GIRLS (04; 2005 AFFD screening) -- Goofy, silly, trippy fun.
LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (03; 2005 AFFD screening) -- It would be in my top ten if it were from this year. Tadanobu Asano stars as a highly introverted man who finds love while evading mobsters. Not in the slightest as wacky as that sentence sounds. It is a beautiful, lyrical film that deserves far more attention than it got.
LES CHORISTES (04) -- French film about a former composer who becomes a teacher in a school for delinquent boys. Not as schmaltzy as that sentence sounds.
MANCHILD (03; BBC TV/DVD) -- Britain's all-male version of Sex In The City, only all four of the primaries are guys pushing 50.
MPD PSYCHO (00) -- Another limited-run series, this time from Miike. Frequently impenetrable, often darkly comical, and always very, very strange, it's about a team of police trying to track down a pair of killer personalities that can jump from body to body.
RECONSTRUCTION (04) -- So weird. I loved it.
RIDING GIANTS (04) -- A second documentary from Stacy Peralta, this time about the history of big-wave surfing. Exhilarating and great fun.
SAMURAI CHAMPLOO (04) -- Finally, an anime series with the same catchy, intriguing style of storytelling and artwork that Cowboy Bebop had...which makes sense: Kaneshiro Watanabe did both shows.
SAVE THE GREEN PLANET (03; 2005 AFFD screening) -- Dark, dark, dark. Slightly satirical, slightly comical, always fascinating. A great film, and another winning effort from the South Korean film industry.
SURVIVE STYLE 5+ (04) -- Extremely hard to find. Extremely bizarre. Also one of the most colorful and gorgeously created films since Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Also, for the ladies: more Asano.
THE BIG RED ONE: THE RECONSTRUCTION (80) -- This re-issue of Samuel Fuller's WWII film on DVD is a victory for fans of the war genre and the director's work.
THE BIG SWINDLE (04) -- Another Korean flick. This caper will seem familiar to anyone who delves regularly into the crime genre, but it still maintains its freshness amidst all the cliches.
THE QUIET FAMILY (98) -- This precursor to Miike's Happiness of the Katikuris is a more subtle, clever and enjoyable thriller that asks the question "why do people keep dying in our possibly haunted inn?"
THE SEA INSIDE (04) -- A real tear-jerker, but also a wonderful film with Javier Bardem giving an award-worthy performance as Ramon Sampedro, an Argentinian man who, once paralyzed from the neck down, fought to gain the right to end his own life.
THIS SO-CALLED DISASTER (03) -- Behind-the-scenes look at the rehearsals of Sam Shepard's play The Late Henry Moss. Terrific review of actors working at their craft, without seeming obnoxious or self-serving.
THROWDOWN (04; 2005 AFFD screening) -- Yet another Johnnie To winner, this time about martial artists working at their craft, without seeming obnoxious or...oh, sorry.
WHEN WILL I BE LOVED (04) -- A perfect little short story of a film.
YAKUZA PAPERS 1: BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY (63) -- Pure brilliance. Before there was The Godfather, before there was Goodfellas, this tale of the creation of the modern-day Yakuza triads is the penultimate "gangster" film.
Whew.
Next: MOVIES, part 3
posted by scn at 9:30 AM
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