I could’nt resist the List!  And could’nt recall very many memorable comedies?  Help me out guys.  Anyways, here is my 10 best movies of the decade list:

12. Zodiac (USA, 2007)

11. The Hurt Locker (2008)

10. Muholland Dr. (2001, USA)

9. Grizzly Man (2005, USA)

8. Visitor Q (2001, Japan)

7. Best in Show (USA, 2000)

6. You can Count on Me (USA, 2000)

5. Amorres Perros (2000, Mexico)

4. The Lives of Others (2006, Germany)

3. Old Boy (2003, South Korea)

2. The Wire (2002-2008, USA)

1. There Will Be Blood (2007, USA)

Please feel free to leave your own Best o’ the 00s in the comments.

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Gael Garcai Bernal คือใคร???

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ชื่อนี้อาจจะไม่คุ้นหูคนทั่วไปมากนัก

แต่ในหมู่ผู้ชื่นชอบภาพยนตร์นอกกระแสแล้ว Gael Garcia Bernal คือดาราหนุ่มที่ฮ็อตสุดๆ

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Gael Garcia Bernal ถือเป็นดาราเม็กซิกันที่ดังที่สุด เขาถูกเรียกว่า “The Darling of Mexico” ถึงแม้จะสูงแค่ 5 ฟุต 7 นิ้ว แต่นั่นก็ไม่เป็นปัญหาต่ออาชีพทางการแสดงเลย เพราะเขาแสดงโดยใช้ฝีมือล้วนๆ (บวกกับหน้าตาที่หล่อซะเหลือเกิน 55+)

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Gael เกิดในครอบครัวที่ทั้งพ่อและแม่ต่างก็เป็นนักแสดงทั้งคู่ ซึ่งก็ส่งอิทธิพลต่ออาชีพการแสดงของเขาเป็นอย่างมาก เพราะ Gael เข้าเรียน acting ในขณะที่อายุได้ 1 ขวบ เท่านั้น!!!!!!!!!! และเขาก็เริ่มอาชีพทางการแสดงตั้งแต่ยังวัยรุ่น โดยการแสดงละครทีวีของเม็กซิโก (คิดว่าคงเป็นพวกละครน้ำเน่าแบบที่คนเม็กซิกันกับคนสเปนชอบดูนั่นแหละค่ะ)  และนั่นทำให้ Gael กลายเป็นขวัญใจของชาวเม็กซิกันเลยทีเดียว

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แต่ Gael ก็ไม่หยุดอยู่แค่นั้น พออายุ 19 เขาก็จากบ้านเกิดไปเรียน acting ที่ลอนดอน และต่อมา Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ผู้กำกับชาวเม็กซิกัน ก็ทาบทามให้ Gael มาแสดงหนังเรื่องแรกในชีวิต คือ Amores Perros (2000) หนังที่ว่าด้วยเหตุการณ์หนึ่งที่ส่งผลกระทบต่อหลายๆ ชีวิตเป็นลูกโซ่ (และต่อมา Inarritu ก็ทำหนังแนวเดียวกันออกมาอีก ได้แก่ 21 Grams และ Babel) ซึ่งภาพยนตร์เรื่องนี้ได้เข้าชิงออสการ์ในสาขา Best Foreign Language Film ครั้งที่ 73 ด้วย

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หลังจาก Amores Perros แล้ว ปี 2001 Gael ก็มีผลงานภาพยนตร์ออกมาอีก 3-4 เรื่อง แต่ที่แจ้งเกิดให้กับเขา ก็คือเรื่อง  Y tu mama tambien (2001) หนัง Coming-of-Age สไตล์ Road Movie ของผู้กำกับ Alfonso Cauron (คนเดียวกับที่ทำแฮร์รี่ พอตเตอร์ภาค 3 นั่นแหละจ้ะ) ซึ่งในเรื่องนี้ Gael รับบทเป็น Julio หนุ่มวัยรุ่นเพื่อนซี้กับ Tenoch (รับบทโดย Diego Luna) ที่พยายามแย่งกันจีบสาวที่อายุมากกว่าโดยชวนนั่งรถไปทะเล ซึ่งระหว่างการเดินทางนั้นก็ทำให้ทั้ง Julio และ Tenoch ได้เรียนรู้อะไรบางอย่าง (?????) และเติบโตเป็นผู้ใหญ่

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(เรื่องนี้ Recommended มากๆ ค่ะ ไม่อยากเล่ามาก เพราะจะเป็นการสปอยล์อย่างใหญ่หลวง)

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หลังจากดังสุดๆ กับ Y tu mama tambien แล้ว Gael ก็มีผลงานภาพยนตร์ออกมาอย่างต่อเนื่อง ซึ่งล้วนแต่ได้รับบทที่ท้าทายความสามารถ รวมถึงได้ร่วมงานกับผู้กำกับชื่อดังมากมาย เช่น

• El Crimen del Padre Amero (2002) ที่ Gael รับบทเป็นบาทหลวงที่ทำผู้หญิงท้อง เป็นภาพยนตร์ที่ทำรายได้สูงสุดตลอดกาลของเม็กซิโก
• Bad Education (2004) ของผกก.เจ้าป้า Pedro Almodovar ที่เรียกได้ว่าเป็นเรื่องที่ Gael ได้ใช้ความสามารถด้านการแสดงอย่างเต็มที่เรื่องหนึ่งเลยทีเดียว เนื่องจากเขาแสดงถึง 3 บทบาท ในเรื่องเดียว!!!
• The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) ของผกก. Walter Salles ที่ Gael รับบทเป็น Che Guevara สมัยยังหนุ่ม ที่ละทิ้งการเรียนหมอชั่วคราว แล้วท่องโลกโดยการขี่มอเตอร์ไซค์ข้ามทวีปอเมริกาใต้ ซึ่งการเดินทางดังกล่าวทำให้เขาเรียนรู้โลก และเป็นจุดผลักดันให้ Che กลายเป็นผู้นำการปฏิวัติในละตินอเมริกา
• Babel (2006) หนังที่เข้าชิง 7 รางวัลในเวทีออสการ์ครั้งที่ 79 รวมถึงรางวัล Best Picture เป็นการกลับมาร่วมงานกันอีกครั้งระหว่าง Gael กับ ผกก. Innarritu ทำให้ Gael ได้เป็นที่รู้จักกว้างขวางในแวดวงฮอลลีวู้ด ซึ่งในเรื่องนี้เขารับบทเป็นหนุ่มเม็กซิกันเลือดร้อนที่มีปัญหากับเจ้าหน้าที่อเมริกันในการข้ามแดน (แต่เรื่องนี้บทน้อยไปนิด เพราะโดนกลบด้วยรัศมีของ Brad Pitt ><)
• The Science of Sleep (2006) หนังกลิ่นอายเซอร์เรียลของผกก.ฝรั่งเศส Michel Gondry (ผกก. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) Gael รับบทเป็นชายที่มีปัญหากับการใช้ชีวิตและความรัก เนื่องจากเขาแยกชีวิตจริงกับความฝันไม่ออก!
• Blindness (2008) หนังของ Fernando Meirelles (ผกก. City of God) ที่แสดงประกบ Julianne Moore และ Mark Ruffalo
• Rudo Y Cursi (2008) หนังเม็กซิกัน ที่ Gael แสดงประกบ Diego Luna ดาราคู่หูจาก Y tu mama tambien อีกครั้ง!
• Mammoth (2009) หนังของผกก.สวีเดน Lukas Moodysson ที่เข้าฉายใน Bagkok Film Festival ปีนี้ เป็นหนังสะท้อนปัญหาสังคมยุคโลกาภิวัฒน์ โดยเล่าผ่านครอบครัวของสองสามีภรรยา (Gael และ Michelle Williams) ซึ่งเรื่องนี้เข้ามาถ่ายทำในไทยด้วย โดยที่นักแสดงไทยผู้โชคดีที่ได้ร่วมแสดงกับ Gael ก็คือ รัน-ณัทธมนกาญจน์ ศรีนิกรโชติ !!!!!!!!!
• The Limits of Control (2009) ของ ผกก. Jim Jarmusch และกำกับภาพโดย Christopher Doyle

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ฯลฯ

นอกจากแสดงหนังแล้ว Gael ยังผันตัวมากำกับเองอีกด้วยถึง 2 เรื่องคือ Deficit (2007) และ 8-’The Letter’ (2009)

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พูดถึงเรื่องงานมาแล้ว ไฉนเลยเราถึงจะไม่พูดถึงเรื่องส่วนตัวบ้าง 5555555

Gael เคยเดทกับ Natalie Portman ตั้งปีกว่า (2003-2004) หากจะนึกภาพคงต้องเป็นคู่ที่ฮ็อตมากจริงๆ

อย่างไรก็ตาม ถึงจะเลิกกับ Natalie ไปแล้ว พวกเราทั้งหลายก็ยังคงหมดหวังอยู่ดี

เนื่องจาก….Gael มีลูกชาย อายุจะครบขวบอยู่แล้ว ชื่อว่าน้อง Lazaro โดยแม่ของลูกก็คือดาราชาวอาร์เจนตินา Doroles Fonzi ค่ะ T_T

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คงรู้จักกับ Gael Garcia Bernal กันไปพอสมควรแล้วนะคะ หากอยากรู้ให้ลึกขึ้น สามารถเข้าไปที่ fansite ได้ที่ www.gaelfan.net (เว็บนี้เค้ามีทุกอย่างจริงๆ)

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ปิดท้ายด้วย Quote สุดจะคมจาก Gael โดยพี่แกฝากมาบอกว่า…

“The talent survives and remains while the beauty is diluted.”

โอ้วววววววววว………………………คนอะไรพูดได้หล่อเหมือนหน้าตาจริงๆ ><

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The idea that a cultural movement begins or ends with the flip of a calendar is, of course, fallacious. ”60s Music” is an identifier of a specific strain of popular music that really refers to the time period, between 1965 (mid-career Beatles) and 1976 (The Sex Pistols). What we think of as the Golden Era of 70s movies began, arguably, with The Graduate in 1967 (or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the year before) and ended with Raging Bull in 1980.

For now anyway, the 2000s can be called The Netflix Decade, a time when, in theory, more movies were more accessible to more people than ever before. That doesn’t necessarily mean everyone took advantage of this opportunity. Still, the idea that a movie, even one from say, Romania about abortion, can have a second life on video is encouraging. If you’re a stickler for lists, consider this the 90 (or so) best movies of the last ten years. What this era in film will ultimately be called is anyone’s guess, but, many films in this list, particularly those made in the US, reflect life in the Age of Terror, where the country was led by a man whose ambition far exceeded his abilities.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days – Over the last ten years there has been a rush, in relative terms anyway, of films from countries that were formerly behind the Iron Curtain. The best of these was a heartbreakingly frank film about the moral and practical dilemmas of abortion while Eastern Europe crumbled in the late 1980s. A movie of unflinching honesty. (2007)

8 Mile – Don’t laugh. Yes, Eminem played himself, but great movies put the viewer in a time and place and Curtis Hanson’s impeccable direction gives life to the hopelessness of Eminem’s Detroit ring of despair. The performances of Kim Basinger and Mekhi Phifer are first-rate.  The movie looks even more authentic now that Eminem has faded from the limelight. (2002)

21 Grams – The title refers to the amount of weight we lose after we die. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s follow-up to Amores Perros brought together a math professor (Sean Penn), a grieving housewife (Naomi Watts) and a re-born convict (Benicio Del Toro). The story isn’t arranged chronologically and the morality of what’s taking place is apparent before the full impact of the plot.

The 25^th Hour – Spike Lee’s least bombastic work. Three men (Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper) one of whom is preparing for a prison stint, re-assess their lives in New York City while terrorist occupied planes still echo in the background. The request made late in the film by Norton will make you gasp, but then nod in agreement with his logic. (2002)

About Schmidt – When Jack Nicholson’s wife dies he decides to rent an RV and drive around trying to avoid the realization that he’s a selfish creep. Alexander Payne’s portrait of aging shines even brighter when compared to the emptiness of another Nicholson film about old age released several years later—The Bucket List. Hope Davis is brilliant as Nicholson’s estranged daughter. (2002)

Almost Famous – The best fictional account of the rock and roll life this side of Spinal Tap. Billy Crudup hits every note as an ambivalent guitar hero. Philip Seymour Hoffman is hysterical as rock critic Lester Bangs. Cameron Crowe’s movie also launched the career of Kate Hudson, who plays a groupie. Don’t hold that against it. The “Tiny Dancer” sequence on the tour bus is sure to put a lump in your throat. (2000)

Amelie  – Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s fable starring Audrey Tautou is certain to become a beloved classic if it hasn’t achieved that status already. Jeunet and Tautou occupy a world that looks much like our own yet is eminently more just, hopeful and full of love. Engaging from any number of perspectives. (2001)

Amores Perros – The three-pronged story about how lives have been irreversibly altered by a car accident can only be described as awe-inspiring. It introduced the world to the massive talents of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Gael Garcia Bernal and the progenitors of Latin American Cinema. Much as Amores Perros is a child of Pulp Fiction, it is also the father to the acclaimed City of God. (2001)

Away From Her – This tiny movie about a woman (Julie Christie) coming to grips with Alzheimer’s raises challenging questions about the true nature of love, honesty and companionship. That Sarah Polley was only 27 when she directed this counts as a miracle. (2007)

Babel – Whereas Amores Perros’ and 21 Grams’ centerpiece were a singular event, Innaritu’s Babel centers on a singular feeling brought on by a digital, wireless age. It’s one of mutedness. We can speak to more people in more places than ever before, yet we still have no clue what to say. The characters’ eyes tell us everything we need to know about their hollowed-out existences. In Babel, continents are little more than land masses that separate people trying to cope with this new world. Brad Pitt has never been better. (2006)

The Beat That My Heart Skipped – Romain Duris dreams of becoming a concert pianist conflict with his father’s desire that he follow his footsteps into a life of low-level street thuggery. Director Jacques Audiard brings together the disparate physical and emotional universes that Duris occupies. Paris, probably the most-filmed movie locale in the world after New York, is presented in a new, fresh way. (2005)

Before Sunset – Nine years after Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy fell in love on a single night in Vienna they meet again. Except now they’re in Paris. But time has passed and things have changed. Or have they? A great idea executed to perfection by director Richard Linklater and the two leads. (2004)

Black Hawk Down – Mark Bowden’s searing chronicle of the US Army’s disaster in Somalia. Ridley Scott and a strong ensemble cast capture the frantic efforts of well-intentioned men in one impossible situation after another. (2001)

Bigger Faster Stronger* – A straightforward documentary about steroids and American culture by a first time director and former devotee of the weightlifting/bodybuilding scene. (2008)

Bloody Sunday – Made prior to United 93 and The Bourne movies, Paul Greengrass’ re-creation of the events of January 30, 1972 in Derry, Northern Ireland seethes with anger. (2002)

Borat – Far and away the best comedy in recent years. Although it dutifully serves its  function as a biting social satire, it’s the bar which other comedies strive for: “Yeah, (title) was pretty funny. But it’s no Borat.” (2006)

Bowling for Columbine – With the school shootings still fresh in the public mind Michael Moore’s film about America’s obsession with guns is a tour de force of filmmaking. It’s become the template for countless other issue-driven documentaries, but the original is still the best. Who could forget Moore emerging from a bank, gun in hand as gratitude for opening a new bank account? (2002)

Capote – I tend to resist portrayals of historical figures little more than overwrought imitations, but there are some performances that just throw you back in your seat. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s depiction of the caustic, gifted, tortured Truman Capote is such a performance. (2005)

The Dark Knight – One of the major secular features of Bush Era was rampant self-involvement. Facebook has turned the personal into the global scale. In a landscape where fame goes to those who are willing only to be more extreme than their predecessor, Heath Ledger, as the sadistic Joker tapped perfectly into this pathos while living up to unprecedented pre-release hype. Everything, onscreen and off, about The Dark Knight reflected the culture of entitlement. Mostly though, The Dark Knight delivered on all its promise.  The movie has flaws; Christian Bale’s smoky (or is it gravelly?) voice is an unneeded prop and the stunt make-up of Aaron Eckhart’s character is unnecessary. That said, it performs the near impossible—a summer blockbuster whose story and message stays with you for days, if not weeks. (2008)

Darwin’s Nightmare – A documentary about the perch in Lake Victoria that shows the social and political effects of an ecological nightmare. While An Inconvenient Truth was the environmental movie that bagged the awards and attention, Hubert Sauper’s movie chilled and moved. (2005)

Eastern Promises –  David Cronenberg re-emerged with A History of Violence, but its follow-up was far more entertaining. Naomi Watts’ London midwife stumbles across the Russian mob, as personified by Viggo Mortensen, cultures clash, mayhem ensues–including a grisly fight in a steam bath. (2007)

Edge of Heaven – The best movies of the decade made outside the US addressed the blurring of boundaries among class, race, ethnicity or sexuality. Fatih Akin’s film about a German Turk who moves to Istanbul in order to find his half-sister makes you wonder if maybe boundaries aren’t such a bad thing. (2008)

Elephant – Gus Van Sant’s take on school violence is haunting. The impending carnage looms over the characters to such a degree that, as an audience member, you want to shake them by the shoulders and tell them to run before the bullets start flying. (2003)

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room – The best of its type. A traditional talking-heads documentary that harnesses the national outrage of the Enron collapse and the subsequent dominoes that fell. Names are named and we’re given plenty of reason to hold those mentioned in absolute contempt. (2005)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – I resisted this as too gimmicky at first and I don’t buy Jim Carrey doing anything serious, but on a second viewing it struck me as a thoughtful consideration of how memory relates to romantic longing, especially considering it’s a major studio release. The rare instance of  when a blend of a potentially toxic mix of artists–Carrey, Kate Winslet, Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman results in a coherent final product.  (2004)

The Fall – A suicidal stunt man, an eight year old Eastern European immigrant girl who speaks accented English, Charles Darwin, Alexander the Great and many, many others people populate Tarsem Singh’s follow up to The Cell. Reportedly made without CGI, it’s unlike any film ever made. (2008)

Finding Nemo – A father clown fish loses track of his son clown fish. In desperate need of help in finding him, he is assisted by a pang fish with short-term memory. That the movie somehow takes a parent’s worst nightmare and turns it into something cute is a testament to its many charms. Edged Ratatouille and Up for a spot behind WALL-E on this list. (2003)

Garden State – While it’s easy to dismiss the movie as a tool for Zach Braff’s navel-gazing, Garden State appealed to people of a certain age, pre mid-life, who wondered, “What’s it all for?” It owes massive debts to The Graduate and the work of Wes Anderson but it’s a movie of and about its time. (2004)

George Washington – David Gordon Green’s somber sketch on poor black children in North Carolina plays like a Miles Davis number. The movie is all mood, but by the end, you feel like you know the kids in this movie intimately. (2000)

Gone Baby Gone – This may be a blasphemy in some quarters, but Ben Affleck’s directorial debut does Clint Eastwood better than Eastwood himself. It confronts many of the same issues as Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River the difference is the performance of Amy Ryan, as the world’s worst mother. (2007)

Good Night and Good Luck – George Clooney’s paean to an era gone by was meant to be a body blow to the modern media, where rumor and innuendo flourish. More than David Straitharn’s uncanny impersonation of Edward R Murrow, most the high points are the elegant singing of Dianne Reeves that served as a bridge scenes of increasing tension. (2005)

Goodbye Solo – Souleymane Sy Savane is  Solo, a Senegalese cab-driver in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (the Tar Heel State is a new hot spot for American Indie Cinema). He picks up a weary, southern man who asks that a few days from now Solo take him to Blowing Rock National Park, no questions asked. Ramin Bahrani’s movie is so loaded with symbolism it’s easy to overlook what an assured, confident piece of filmmaking it is. If there’s any justice, Savane will pick up an Oscar nomination this year. (2009)

Happy-Go-Lucky – How far does attitude go in life? At first glance Sally Hawkins’ Poppy is gratingly optimistic, but as Mike Leigh’s small masterpiece unfolds we see that Poppy is far more sophisticated than we’ve given her credit for. Furthermore, I can think of no film of this or an era that so lovingly presents a friendship between two women—Hawkins and Alexis Zegerman. They’re co-workers and have each other’s backs in ways that the girls from Sex and the City would never understand. (2008)

The House of Flying Daggers  – Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon set a standard that Zhang Yimou’s exhilarating epic set in the Tang Dynasty surpassed. That’s Ninth Century kids. Two police officers, with differing motives, force a gorgeous dancer to go undercover and infiltrate The House of Flying Daggers, a group of militants who steal from the rich and give to the poor. There’s a sequence where…ok forget that, watch it and you’ll instantly recognize why this movie is on a “Best of” list. (2004)

In America – After WALL-E this was the movie that stole my heart. Jim Sheridan directed a script he wrote with his daughters about a family a lot like their own. It’s the magical story of a family overcoming the loss of the youngest child through great sacrifice and a move to Hell’s Kitchen. Sarah and Emma Bolger, who play the precocious daughters, will steal your heart too. (2003)

In the Bedroom  – Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek have a son (Nick Stahl) who gets involved with an older woman (Marisa Tomei) estranged from her husband. When Stahl gets killed by the husband in a jealous fit Wilkinson must face his own thoughts of revenge in this wrenching drama directed by Todd Field. (2001)

In the Mood for Love – It’s 1962 Hong Kong and Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are neighbors who suspect their spouses of infidelity. Wong Kar-Wai’s film is in the grand tradition of a love story set against a society in upheaval, but simmers with a lust and eroticism all its own. Runner-up to Y Tu Mama Tambien for sexiest film of the decade. (2001)

In the Valley of Elah  – When Tommy Lee Jones’ son goes missing shortly after returning from a tour in Iraq, he sets out to find him. In the course of his quest he’s aided by Charlize Theron and the movie becomes a layered treatise about the war in Iraq, the military and family. In his best roles, Jones face says far more than any word could and that’s certainly the case in this movie, which takes its title from the site of David’s biblical battle with Goliath. (2007)

Into the Wild  – After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta, Chris McCandless, the child of well-to-do parents, gave away all his possessions and hitchhiked across America en route To Alaska. A wonderful companion to Jon Krakauer’s elegiac account of McCandless, Sean Penn’s movie brings together sweeping natural panoramas, marvelous supporting characters (Hal Holbrook especially) and a pitch-perfect score from Eddie Vedder. (2007)

Junebug – So many films about the clash between urban and rural ways of life resort to easy stereotypes, but Phil Morrison’s movie strikes just the right tone. Now living in Chicago, a son brings his art gallery-owning wife (the stunning Embeth Davidtz) to meet his parents in rural North Carolina. He re-acquaints himself with his brother whose wife (played by Amy Adams in the breakthrough performance of the decade) is pregnant. New conflicts arise as old wounds are re-opened. Celia Weston is delightful as the family matriarch. (2005)

Katyn – The legendary director Andrzej Wajda may have made his best film in his 80’s. It’s the heretofore untold story of the slaughter of thousands of Polish soldiers at the beginning of World War II by the Russian Red Army. Wajda focusses on how the Russians lies about the massacre left a permanent stain on the Polish psyche. The final twenty minutes of Katyn put your heart in your throat. (2008)

Kontroll  – Nimrod Antal’s film about life in the Budapest subway system defies easy description. Every scene and piece of dialogue seems loaded with literal and metaphorical interpretations. And the metaphor can apply just as easily to the main characters as to life in Hungary after the fall of the Soviet Empire. (2005)

 Lilya 4-ever – Abandoned by her mother, 16 year-old Lilya must fend for herself in bleak, gray Estonia. She meets a young man different from the abusive thugs in her neighborhood. He is kind to her and promises to pull her out of her dire circumstances. Hopeful and desperate, she trusts him. Thinking they will run off to a slice of heaven, Lilya is instead lowered into a kind of Hell that can only be borne from the minds of the truly evil. Lukas Moodyson’s film muscles its way into the pit of your stomach and stays there for days.

Little Children  – The decade’s best movie about suburban dystopia and arguably Kate Winslet’s best performance. She plays an educated mother whose marriage is passionless. She begins an affair with Patrick Wilson –The Prom King, as he’s dubbed by the neighborhood mothers—whose marriage is  deteriorating while he attempts to pas the bar exam. Most memorable, however, is Jackie Earle Haley, a sex offender trying to start a new life while under the watchful eye of self-appointed moralist. (2006)

The Lives of Others – An engrossing film about the horrors of life on the front lines of the Cold War. Ulrich Muhe is a member of the Stasi in 1984 who listens in on the conversations of a playwright and his lover. His own life being one of boredom he becomes increasingly engrossed in those of his subject. Florian Heckel von Donnersmarck crafted a film of personal destruction while addressing contemporary issues of privacy in a time of unparalleled freedom. (2006)

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – It will be hard to explain to future generations the impact that this series of films had on a populace put on perpetual edge in the age of terrorism. Thousands of people lined up to watch the entire trilogy, nine hours in total. It did not take much imagination to see the similarities between Peter Jackson’s sprawling epics and the state of world affairs. The stories of honor, mysticism, fellowship and duty in the face of an indefatigable enemy bent on an engineering an apocalypse resonated with millions of people who had never even heard of JRR Tolkien. (2001-2003)

Memento  – How Christopher Nolan began the decade. The taut Guy Pearce is covered from head to toe with tattoos. He’s also written himself hundreds of notes. The ink on both the paper and his skin is critical because he has no short term memory. In normal circumstances this would be quite the conundrum, but it’s worse because Pearce’s wife has been murdered and he’s trying to figure if he did it or if someone else did. Memento was that rare, visceral movie that left the audience in their seats after the house lights came up, catching their collective breaths. (2001)

Michael Clayton  – Where Good Night and Good Luck was a clarion call to a lazy media elite, George Clooney got back in front of the camera in this tightly written drama about corporate malfeasance. He’s a fixer who keeps small problems from becoming big ones. He must prevent an old friend gone crazy (a manic Tom Wilkinson) from jeopardizing a billion-dollar project while keeping the company lawyer (a scathing Tilda Swinton) at bay. Tony Gilroy’s movie recalls 70s classics like The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor. (2007)

Minority Report - The back end (after Artificial Intelligence: AI) of a Steven Spielberg double-dip on the dire possibilities of the near future, blisters with energy. Tom Cruise plays a pre-crime officer—criminals are arrested before they commit their crimes—who finds himself caught up in agency politics that have far-reaching implications. Watch it again just to see how prescient it is, based on a Philip K. Dick novel. (2002)

Monster’s Ball  – An extremely graphic sex scene featuring Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton (ick) generated buzz, but Marc Forster’s depiction of troubled lives in the south is harrowing. Heath Ledger, Sean Combs and Peter Boyle are excellent in support of Berry’s raw performance. (2001)

The Motorcycle Diaries – Before he became a face on a t-shirt, Ernesto Guevera was called “Fuser” by his friends. As a student, he and a buddy traveled through South America on a beat up Norton 500. Gael Garcia Bernal is Che in Walter Salles’ exquisite travelogue about idealism colliding with reality. The Machu Picchu sequence is breathtaking. (2004)

Moulin Rouge! – Unapologetically over the top, Baz Luhrman’s was the best musical of the past ten years. A courtesan (Nicole Kidman) falls in love with a would-be poet (Ewan McGregor) much to the chagrin of a duke. This triangle is resolved in a splash of song, color and double-entendres. Jim Broadbent won an Oscar the following year in Iris, but he deserved it for his role as the ringmaster here. (2001)

The New World – Terrence Malick’s lyrical, contemplative rendering of the affair between John Smith (Colin Farrell) and Pocahantas sweeps you up and carries you off to a place that only he seems to be able to construct. When the duties of colonization become too much, the stability of their relationship is threatened. (2005)

The Notebook – The moment you say, “Oh, come on! That would never happen!” you’ve missed the point. Every character in the movie is of a type and that very broadness is what makes the film such a timeless love story. (2004)

No Country for Old Men – Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh immediately joined the pantheon of cinematic psychos but Tommy Lee Jones is outstanding as sheriff trying to make sense of killer whose weapon of choice is a cattle prong. Josh Brolin is up to Jones’ lofty standards as Chigurh’s main target. Kelly MacDonald turns a potentially forgettable role as Brolin’s wife into the moral center of the film. While the movie may have caught fans of the Coen Brothers off-guard, it fits nicely in the canon of the makers of Miller’s Crossing, Fargo and Blood Simple. (2007)

Once  – Set in modern day Dublin, Glen Hansard is a Hoover repair man and Marketa Irglova is an immigrant caring for her mother and daughter. They are both amateur musicians and gradually they write songs together that reflect their growing feelings for each other. A small treasure. (2007)

Pan’s Labyrinth – In order to escape her sadistic stepfather in Franco’s Spain, a ten year-old girl imagines a secret world where she must perform three tasks to prove that she is, in fact, a princess. Fashioned by Guillermo Del Toro, who spent the decade creating worlds that exist just beyond the reach of our own. (2006)

Requiem for a Dream — Four disparate characters succumb to drug abuse. Most frightening in Darren Aronofsky’s film is the descent into madness of a woman collecting social security played by Ellen Burstyn. Far from a lecture, the movie shows in explicit detail how different people become addicted for different reasons.  (2000)

Sideways - In celebration of his philandering pal’s upcoming nuptials, Paul Giamatti takes him on a tour of California wine country. Like any good road movie, Alexander Payne’s film contrives one scenario after another in order to reveal something about the characters. What made Sideways different was the intensity of Giamatti’s portrayal of a man consumed by his own self-loathing. (2004)

The Station Agent – A thoughtful independent film from Thomas McCarthy about a dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who inherits an abandoned train station after his best friend dies. He’s subsequently harangued into friendship by a chatty hot dog vendor (Bobby Cannavale). The unlikely friends then encounter a woman (Patricia Clarkson) who is in mourning. Well-deserving of the many awards it picked up on the festival circuit. (2003)

Taxi to the Dark Side – Of the many righteously indignant documentaries criticizing the Bush Administration Alex Gibney’s was the best. It’s the story of an innocent Afghan cab driver who was tortured and killed while in US custody. He’s not a casualty of the madness of war, but rather, the victim of carefully vetted policy.  (2007)

There Will Be Blood  – P. T. Anderson’s sprawling epic of greed, oil and religion has a problematic ending but who could forget the opening scene, where Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, without saying a word, grunts his way into our psyche. He plunges one hole after another into the ground through the force of his personality, creating to a fortune but and future that will, most certainly, be bloody. An instant American classic. (2007)

Traffic  – The War on Drugs from the peripatetic camera of Steven Soderbergh. In his most complete film, he inspects many, if not all, aspects of the struggle and concludes that the effort has been a colossal failure. Sturdy performances by Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Quaid, Don Cheadle and Michael Douglas anchor a somewhat chaotic enterprise. (2000)

Waking Life – Richard Linklater’s mind-massaging meditation on truth, reality, dreams and just about everything else washes over you like a hot shower. The fact that it merges animates live action characters pushes it to the stuff of legend. An exponentially better “alternative reality” film than Mulholland Drive. (2001)

WALL-E – The other major secular strain brought on by the reign of error that was the Bush presidency was conspicuous consumption. Remember that he suggested we go shopping in the weeks after planes were crashed into the financial and political capitols of the country. And we did. Boy did we spend. The magicians at Pixar presented the down side of this approach to calming our collective nerves, while telling a tender love story. If you didn’t go “awwwww” at least once while watching WALL-E may God have mercy on your soul. (2008)

Waltz With Bashir  – Perhaps the first and last of its kind. An animated documentary about an Israeli soldier’s memories of a battle that occurred some twenty years earlier. Ari Folman’s autobiographical story of The Lebanese War had the unique distinction of reminding you of several other films while still being thoroughly original. (2008)

Y Tu Mama Tambien – The sexiest movie of the decade. Maribel Verdu joins Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna on a road trip from Mexico City to a mysterious beach with no strings attached. Much steaminess follows. (2002)

You Can Count on Me  – Before starring in Kenneth Lonergan’s movie Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo had minor roles in minor movies. They play a brother and sister who are connected by a tragic event from their past. Each day is a struggle as they to overcome their flaws and make something out of their shiftless lives. Linney was nominated for an Oscar as a single mother trying to build a life out of perpetual setbacks. The soundtrack features several songs from Steve Earle, who knows a thing or two about turmoil. (2000)

Zodiac  – David Fincher’s story of the serial killer that spooked the Bay Area in the 1970s. Jake Gyllenhaal is a newspaper cartoonist who starts out trying to decode the murderer’s cryptic messages and ends up more obsessed with finding the killer than the police officer (Mark Ruffalo) assigned to the case. Fincher gets the grisliness out of the way early and delivers an unsparing crime procedural; the inclusion of Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man on the soundtrack is inspired. (2007)

They barely missed the cut: High Fidelity, Oldboy, Adaptation and Up

Best Releases Three or Four Decades Late

Army of Shadows – Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic of The French Resistance, released in Europe in the late 1960s made going underground heroic and cool. It ushered in a much-deserved reassessment of Melville’s place in The French New Wave. (2006)

Killer of Sheep – the life of a Los Angeles slaughterhouse worker in black and white with one of the best scores in film history. Charles Burnett’s film sat in a vault at UCLA for 30 years until it was released on video by Milestone/New Yorker Video. (2007)

Underrated, Forgotten or Worth a Second Look

24-Hour Party People – Steve Coogan nails it as the riotously self-possessed Tony Wilson, the television host who sired the Manchester music scene in the late 1970s. Michael Winterbottom adeptly recalls a flowering cultural moment that was both depressing and inspirational. (2002)

The Bridge – Eric Steel’s documentary about why the Golden Gate Bridge has become Ground Zero for suicides. More than that though, it’s about those left behind and trying to make sense of the profoundly tragic. (2006)

The Cell – The acting isn’t much (Jennifer Lopez playing a psychologist and Vince Vaughn playing it straight) and the plot machinations are absurd but Tarsem Singh’s movie about the subconscious of a serial killer is loaded with visual explosions from start to finish. (2000)

The Claim – When you sell off your wife and baby daughter for a gold mine it’s just a matter of time before it comes back to bite you, even in the pre-Information Age. There’s no escaping karma on that one. Michael Winterbottom’s version of Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge is unforgettable. The icy turn-of-the-century Canadian landscape is the ideal backdrop for this morality tale. (2000)

The Dish – What role did Australia play in the first moon landing? Well, the country put up a satellite interface in a remote desert. Sam Neill plays one of the technicians who helps the locals prepare for and cope with their day in the, uhh, sun. Patrick Warburton is winning as the American liaison. (2001)

Everything is Illuminated – The movie based on what might be the best novel of the decade barely registered at the box office. Eugene Hutz steals the movie as Elijah Wood’s linguistically-challenged guide and Liev Schreiber’s debut behind the camera is extremely faithful to Jonathan Safran Foer’s source material. (2005)

Heaven – It came and went in the blink of an eye, but Cate Blanchett is a bald vigilante aided and abetted by police-officer Giovanni Ribisi. Impossible to categorize as an action pic for the art house crowd (or is it vice versa?), Tom Tykwer’s movie merits another consideration. (2002)

Idiocracy – Mike Judge’s futuristic comedy about what happens to a society that spends decades rewarding impulse and hubris over intellect and honesty. Sound familiar? (2005)

The Illusionist – In pre-World War I Vienna Edward Norton plays a magician who astonishes and taunts royalty (Rufus Sewell) and law enforcement (Paul Giamatti). It was overshadowed by The Prestige which was released the same year, but it is better shot, better acted and without the cop-out ending of Christopher Nolan’s film. (2006)

Innocence – After his wife dies a man looks up his lost love from over forty years ago. She has married and is living a comfortable life. Now in their 70s, they try to pick up where they left off. Paul Cox’s film of hope, death, loss, regret and risk tugs at your heart and never lets go. (2001)

Last Orders – A London butcher (Michael Caine) instructed his best friends (Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings and Bob Hoskins) to throw his ashes into the water at Margate beach. His son (Ray Winstone) joins them as they make the journey, recollecting about what was and what might have been. The type of small, touching film that big stars don’t seem to make anymore. (2001)

LIE – Paul Dano, in a pre-There Will Be Blood role plays a teenager who sits on a bridge above the Long Island Expressway. He has nothing, so when a dubious character, the slimy Brian Cox, offers him some semblance of normalcy, he takes it. (2001)

Made – Jon Favreau’s comedy is a follow up to Swingers which again features him and Vince Vaughan. This time they’re playing wanna-be mafiosos hired by Peter Falk to cut a deal with Sean Combs. The repoire of the castcast is terrific and the movie is even funnier with the audio commentary on (by Favreau and Vaughn). (2001)

Our Daily Bread – A dialogue-free documentary about the mechanized, industrialized nature of food production. Make sure you eat before viewing. (2006)

The Proposition – Set in late 19^th century Australia, the underappreciated Ray Winstone is magnetic as a frontier lawman determined to bring peace to his town. A group of four brothers has terrorized the locals and Winstone urges two of them to turn in the oldest, who is the ringleader. This sounds like a traditional Western but Nick Cave’s bloody and depraved script is accompanied by a setting that invites comparisons to Antonioni. (2006)

Reign Over Me – Almost all of Adam Sandler’s comedic characters are emotionally-stunted man-boys. His character in Mike Binder’s film is also a shell of a man, mumbling his way around New York City on a scooter, donning headphones to keep the outside world away. Don Cheadle is his usual superb self playing a dentist, trying to find out what’s gone wrong with Sandler, his old college roommate. In the course of reaching out to Sandler, Cheadle must face problems in his own life. (2007)

Sweet Land – In 1920s Minnesota a beautiful German woman arrives to marry a Norwegian farmer. He speaks little English and she speaks none. This is the least of their troubles as her ethnicity, in light of World War I, gives the rest of the community pause. Ali Selim’s feature debut is quiet, elegant and assured. (2006)

The Widow of St. Pierre – Patrice Leconte’s tale of redemption set in the (then) French colony of Newfoundland in the 1850s. Emir Kusterica plays a drunk sentenced to death for a murder. But time passes before the guillotine can arrive from France. Slowly, the community, represented by Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil, comes to see the murderer in a different light. (2001)

The Yards – James Gray’s story of corruption in the Queens rail yards was unjustly ignored by audiences on its release. Perhaps it was because the star, Mark Wahlberg, was an unproven quantity as a dramatic actor (Ok, some might say he still is), but he more than holds his own among James Caan, Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, Charlize Theron and Joaquin Phoenix. (2000)

A Double Feature About Women Living on the Margins

Frozen River and Wendy and Lucy -  Melisso Leo and Michelle Williams try to save their son and dog, respectively, while staring some hard truths in the face. (Both released in 2008)

Actors of the Decade—Gael Garcia Bernal and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Actresses of the Decade – Cate Blanchett, Laura Linney and Kate Winslet

Directors of the Decade – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Christopher Nolan

Overrated

Brokeback Mountain – A movie more concerned with its message than advancing the story in a cinematic way. The script is clunky (saved by Heath Ledger’s performance) and for a movie intended to bust stereotypes, it’s comprised of supporting characters who are exactly that.

Knocked Up – Where The 40-Year-Old Virgin was a sweet, bromance about the complexities of dating, this was self-indulgent. A stoner who lives with other porn-living potheads hooks up with a successful television producer? That’s a shaky premise to begin with and impossible to ignore whenever the two leads start talking about child rearing. Why weren’t women insulted by this movie?

Lost in Translation – Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are displaced Americans in Tokyo. It’s a Jim Jarmusch movie done by Sofia Coppola. One Jarmusch is plenty thank you very much.

Mulholland Drive – What’s this movie about? No, really somebody tell me.

Movie that’s aged the worst – Crash. Only five years old and the tale of race and circumstance in Los Angeles already feels quaint.

And what of Wes Anderson? – His four films (three live-action and one animated) are entertaining, but they’re all riffs on a similar theme—highly stylized portraits of fractured families done to great soundtracks. They all made my best of the year list when released, but Anderson, so far anyway, has been content to have his characters talk about their struggles rather than show them.

Television (Still a vast wasteland)

The conversation begins and ends with The Wire. If you haven’t seen it you have deprived yourself of storytelling on par with Charles Dickens, but more visual. There’s no point in spilling more cyber-ink on it as countless others have extolled its virtues. So watch it. Now. You’re welcome.

The two best documentaries of the past ten years originally aired on television. Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home revealed every available side of Bob Dylan including a few that Mr. Zimmerman would rather have kept under wraps. Scorsese seemed to talk to everyone who ever had anything to do with Dylan.

The other great doc was Spike Lee’s agonizing, thorough, poetic story of the debacle and failure of our government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. It’s not hyperbolic to call When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts an act of public service.

OK…if I must choose…a baker’s dozen…(I actually already tipped my hand above by adding a clip after the summary)

WALL-E, Amelie, The Dark Knight, Memento, Amores Perros, In America, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Moulin Rouge! There Will Be Blood, The Lives of Others, Waking Life, You Can Count on Me and Lilya 4-ever.

As the year/decade draws to a close I thought it’d be interesting to see which films have left the biggest impression on me. Naturally, I didn’t catch every film released over the past ten years but here’s my personal top ten:

1) Oldboy: 2003 – South Korea
2) Amores Perros: 2000 – Mexico
3) Mystic River: 2003 – America
4) A Bittersweet Life: 2005 – South Korea
5) Children of Men: 2006 – UK
6) Kill Bill Vol 1: 2004 – America
7) Together 2000 – Sweden
No Country For Old Men 2007 – America
9) 3:10 to Yuma 2007 – America
10) Battle Royale 2000 – Japan

I’d also give the following an honourble mention: Memento, The Fall, Intacto, Infernal Affairs, The Woodsman, Bourne Ultimatum, District 9, 3-Iron, Brick, Eternal Sunshine, Primer, Lilya-4-Ever, In Bruges, City of God, Love Me If You Dare

Just realised that they’re almost all action/dramas. Weird.

Amores Perros [ Love's A Bitch ]

 Another movie in my favorite list.

Starring Gael Garcia Bernal ( Y Tu Mama Tambien )

Amores Perros

1.

Carlos: Pedro, would you be capable of waiting for someone?
Pedro: I am waiting…
Carlos: Seriously, could you wait for a woman for very long time?
Pedro: I’m not exactly famous for being patient with the opposite sex. How long?
Carlos: 15 years.
Pedro: 15 years?! I thought you mean half an hour, 20 minutes! No woman deserves that long

2.

El Chivo: So how shall we call my dog?
Luis Miranda Solares: I don’t know, LostDog?
El Chivo: [sarcastically] You have a good imagination, you must be in advertisement!

3.

Carlos: I don’t know what I did to her treat me so bad.
Pedro: Nothing! You just dumped her for the guy you played soccer with on Tuesday nights. What a better reason than that?
Carlos: This things happen…
Pedro: Sure they do. But usually guys play a game with their friends, talk a load of nonsense and then go home smelling of beer. That’s not exactly what happened to you

4.

Ramiro: Did you find everything you needed?
Octavio: I am just missing some condoms. I didn’t find my size

5.

Daniel: I’ll be back around two, okay, hon?
Valeria: If you never come back it’s okay too, bastard.

Amores Perros

It’s a really nice one ( no kidding! )

 :: http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Reviews/Reviews.asp?ReviewID=983 ::

In order to trying something different, I looked at a selection of Experimental films to help inspire my Memory artefact.

Experimental Film couldn’t be more different from mainstream cinema. What I find interesting is the general absence of linear narrative which is obviously a common trait in mainstream cinema. Films such as Memento or Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Death Trilogy (Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel) are an exception and are experimental in the sense that they do not follow this conventional form of narrative. However, Experimental Films tend to apply more abstract techniques that provoke the mind. When watching the beginning of Chris Marker’s La Jetée, in which we see the picture of an airport with the appropriate sound of planes, I am always reminded of setting foot on airport runways. Memories of going abroad come flooding back to me in an instant which ultimately lead on to memories of past holidays. Derek Jarman’s Blue works in a similar fashion. Several narrators talk about past memories which are aided with relevant sounds and have no visual aid (other than the blue screen.) This enables the audience to create their own image of what they think is happening.

This idea of purely using sound fascinates me. We are forced into creating our own images that we pull from past experiences or from what we see in the media. Ultimately, audiences will construct different images as a result of our memories, thus creating a unique experience for each individual. This creates different emotive responses among the audience and as result the film may have diverse effects on each person which I think is important when creating a film that has no visual aid whatsoever.

Matt McCormick’s Fifty Years Later looks at the effect of time on our memories. The short film includes footage taken by his Father in the mid 50s of a family trip and then of footage taken 50 years later in the same place. The road side attraction they visited as family has now become run down and ignored for many years. To me this video suggests a negative outlook at retracing steps that were once taken. A once positive memory has now developed into bleak one that is likely to be forgotten because of the negative attributes this memory now contains. Alternatively, this can be looked on in a different light. The negative aspect forces us to remember the older memory as a way of trying to forget what this attraction has become.

http://www.rodeofilmco.com/projects/film_and_video

Again this idea is very appealing to me and is potentially a technique I could use if I decided to create my artefact on my Auntie Molly. It could be suggested her more recent memories are forgotten because the memories of years ago are important to her. However I know this isn’t the case with my Aunt but if I were to create a separate piece about Nostalgia, I imagine this technique would fit in perfectly.

I currently feel compelled to create my memory artefact on my Great Aunt after seeing Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil. The film is narrated by a woman who talks about a man’s memories of Tokyo and this is a style that I think would work well with what I want to achieve. By talking about someone else’s memories the audience are able to relate to similar events that may have occurred in their life as the video isn’t personal. If my Aunt were to narrate, her memories would be very specific. However, if I were to narrate her memories the audience I think it would have a different effect. 

I get the impression I am leading myself down a rocky road. I have become so absorbed with the idea of using my Aunt that I haven’t really come up with any other ideas and this is a problem. With a lack of ideas, I have been unable to develop anything as I constantly have this idea of using my aunt implanted in my brain and I think this all started when I went back to London. By doing so I think that I was convinced that by acquiring the Cine Footage and photographs, I had cemented a decent idea. This has clearly had a negative input in creative process and I think in future it is viable to not fully start anything until ideas have been created, developed and progressed into something that I see fit. It is at that point that I should have gone home to collect the footage etc that I needed.

In terms of Experimental film making, in my second year of University I created a documentary with four other people about the Deaf community. For this project we experimented with sound specifically looking at the hearing problem tinnitus. The aim was to make audience not only aware of sounds the deaf can hear but to make the audience uncomfortable in order for them to sympathise with the constant ringing certain deaf people can hear. This again is another technique that can be used by the filmmaker in order to get the audience to experience a particular emotion etc.

Dieser Film stammt zwar aus dem Jahr 2000, hat aber alles was ein super guter Film braucht. Spannung, Action und die Liebe … alles ist vorhanden. Eigentlich sind es mehrere Geschichten oder Schicksale die zu einer Geschichte zusammen geführt werden. Die Kleinigkeiten, winzige Details die man zuerst nicht weiter beachtet und später zu einem Ganzen werden. Kunstvolles Kino mit Schmerz der Leidenschaft. Ein “Episodenfilm” vom ALLERFEINSTEN!!! (Kai Peter Jasny)

Handlung:

In seinem hochgelobten Debütfilm erzählt der mexikanische Regisseur Alejandro González Inárritu drei Episoden über Liebe, Hass, Träume und Tod in der Millionenmetropole Mexiko-Stadt, die sich durch einen schweren Autounfall schicksalhaft überschneiden. (Quelle Wikipedia)

Kritiken

„Größer als Pulp Fiction.“

– Süddeutsche Zeitung

„… ein ebenso brutales wie liebevolles Meisterwerk …“

– Stern

„Amores Perros scheint der erste Klassiker des neuen Jahrzehnts zu sein, mit Szenen, die wahrscheinlich in die Geschichte eingehen werden.“

– New York Times

„International ausgezeichnetes und verehrtes Menschen- und Milieuporträt aus Mexiko City.“

– DVD & Video Report

„Selten wurde Gesellschaftskritik in solch stilistischer Perfektion geübt. Das gewalttätige und zugleich zärtliche (Über-)Lebensporträt wird Filmkunstliebhaber faszinieren.“

– VideoWoche

„’Amores Perros’ zeigt seine Liebe zum Leben, gibt sich aber keinen Illusionen hin. Hoffnung existiert, aber der Mensch selbst tritt sie mit Füßen. So wie Liebe und Hass die Extrempole desselben Gefühls sind, definieren die Widersprüche, am besten vereint in der Figur des gebrochenen Revolutionärs, die wahre Natur des Lebens. Schwer vorstellbar, das man diesen Film, über den sich lange diskutieren lässt, am Kinoausgang zurücklässt und nicht nachdenklich nach Hause mitnimmt.“

– Blickpunkt:Film

Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarrítu isn’t really known for the use of music in his films. He’s a modern filmmaker, certainly, but not a modern pop filmmaker in the way Quentin Tarantino or Wes Anderson are. He’s far more meat and potatoes, even as he explores boundary-pushing narrative techniques.

I read an interview where he was asked how much of a debt his debut film, Amores Perros, owed to Pulp Fiction (both films follow three storylines out of sequence) and Iñarrítu said that, though he’s a fan of Tarantino, he never made the connection… he was too busy trying to steal from William Faulkner.

Most of the music in Amores Perros is scored by composer/guitarist Gustavo Santaolalla. Santaolalla bathes the film in atmosphere — an acoustic guitarist strumming at the dawn of the apocalypse. It’s the same vibe he brought to his Academy Award-winning score of Brokeback Mountain.

But Iñarrítu does find room for a few songs, including a hard rap number by Control Machete and today’s SOTD, ‘Lucha de Gigantes’ by Nacha Pop. This song plays over a sequence juxtaposing two pivotal scenes in the film. In one, a man is jumped and beaten in an alley and the other features a secret tryst between two lovers. The men in these scenes are brothers and the woman is married to one of them (but not the one she’s making love to).

In the audio commentary of the film, Iñarrítu admits that he views the use of the song over this sequence as a bit of a cop-out. It’s effective but the way he sees it he’s using a crutch. Though I understand his point to a degree, I don’t share it… not even close. Music in a film is always manipulative — in fact, everything in a film is manipulative. But if it’s done right, it’s the kind of manipulation I welcome.

Picture the scene. It’s Sunday afternoon. I’m very tired, slightly hungover, browsing the internet for things to keep me amused while I should be doing freelance work. All of a sudden, through a series of successive links on Youtube, I come across this video – ‘Fandango’ by the then Bajofondo Tango Club (now shortened to just Bajofondo), taken from their 2004 album ‘Supervielle’:

How nice was that? Having done a little bit of research (and by research I mean looked them up on Wikipedia and consulted their Myspace page) I can exclusively reveal to you that Bajofondo is a Uruguayan-Argentinian collective of extremely talented musicians, headed up by Gustavo Santaolalla, a two-time Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Grammy award-winner. Composer for Ang Lee’s critically acclaimed 2005 film, Brokeback Mountain, as well as 2000’s Amores Perros, a slightly less well-known film but worthy of mention purely because I love it, Santaolalla’s credentials speak for themselves.

If you can get hold of ‘Supervielle’, and you clearly can because I’ve just given you the link to buy it on Amazon, do; the album sits in a beautifully evocative middle-ground between Latin-infused classical, trip hop, drum ‘n’ bass… if only I’d have discovered this three or four months ago, it would have been the perfect backing track to my summer.

Or, indeed, some overdue freelance work…

James

I had a colonoscopy once, and they let me watch it on TV. It was more entertaining than The Brown Bunny.

~ Roger Ebert

If life and death are truly cyclical, and we really do get to come back and be someone else for a lifetime, then I hope I’ve enough karma set aside to be reborn as a facsimile of Roger Ebert.

If you’ll allow me to resort to a couple of now-antiquated terms of endearment, Da Man is Da Bomb.

He’s won a Pulitzer Prize. He’s got a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. And he watches movies for a living. Can it possibly get any better than that?!

As fellow movie critic and writer Christ Beaumont once put it . . .

Roger Ebert is a national treasure. He is the most recognizable and well known movie critic. He has been my favorite writer for some time now. I do not always agree with his opinions, which is my right, but he always backs them up. He is not someone who will say that such and such about movie X is bad and leave it at that – he will give the reasons for his thought process.

As a case in point, consider Ebert’s response to Steven Jay Bernheim and David Defalco, the brains behind the movie Chaos . . .

Your real purpose in making Chaos, I suspect, was not to educate, but to create a scandal that would draw an audience. There’s always money to be made by going further and being more shocking. Sometimes there is also art to be found in that direction, but not this time. That’s because your film creates a closed system in which any alternative outcome is excluded; it is like a movie of a man falling to his death, which can have no developments except that he continues to fall, and no ending except that he dies. Pre-destination may be useful in theology, but as a narrative strategy, it is self-defeating . . . What I miss in your film is any sense of hope. Sometimes it is all that keeps us going. The message of futility and despair in Chaos is unrelieved, and while I do not require a “happy ending,” I do appreciate some kind of catharsis. As the Greeks understood tragedy, it exists not to bury us in death and dismay, but to help us to deal with it, to accept it as a part of life, to learn about our own humanity from it. That is why the Greek tragedies were poems: The language ennobled the material.

That quote hangs on the wall above my desk, a poignant reminder to find the hope in even the darkest of subjects.

About many of my favorite movies, we are in total agreement:

Dances with Wolves

. . . has the kind of vision and ambition that is rare in movies today. It is not a formula movie, but a thoughtful, carefully observed story.

Minority Report

Some directors place their trust in technology. Spielberg, who is a master of technology, trusts only story and character, and then uses everything else as a workman uses his tools. He makes Minority Report with the new technology; other directors seem to be trying to make their movies from it.

Monster

What Charlize Theron achieves in Patty Jenkins’ Monster isn’t a performance but an embodiment. With courage, art and charity, she empathizes with Aileen Wuornos, a damaged woman who committed seven murders. She does not excuse the murders. She simply asks that we witness the woman’s final desperate attempt to be a better person than her fate intended.

Amores Perros

Inarritu’s characters are not the bland, amoral totems of so much modern Hollywood violence, but people with feelings and motives. They want love, money and revenge.

Magnolia

. . . is the kind of film I instinctively respond to. Leave logic at the door. Do not expect subdued taste and restraint, but instead a kind of operatic ecstasy.

And at his personal blog, he writes with equal passion about topics ranging from evolution . . .

The zealots of Creationism are indefatigable. Even now there are attempts to legislate that the pseudo science of Intelligent Design must be taught in school systems as a “debate” with Evolution. In common sense terms, that debate was over a century ago. Yet there are votes out there for politicians who support such legislation, and at the 2008 GOP presidential debate, no less that three candidates said they do not believe in evolution. I suppose I should be gratified that there weren’t more. They were Mike Huckabee, Tom Tancredo, and Sam Brownback. Some took their stand on religious grounds, but didn’t include Mitt Romney, who as a Mormon knows his church has no official dogma about whether or not Darwin’s theory is valid. A Mormon can be a Darwinian if he chooses. Romney chooses to.

. . . to his own battle with alcoholism:

I’ve known two heavy drinkers who claimed they never had hangovers. I didn’t believe them. Without hangovers, it is possible that I would still be drinking. Unemployed, unmarried, but still drinking–or, more likely, dead. Most alcoholics continue to drink as long as they can. For many, that means death. Unlike drugs in most cases, alcohol allows you to continue your addiction for what’s left of your life, barring an accident. The lucky ones find their bottom, and surrender.

God, I love Roger. And hate him as well, for this week he’s at the Toronto International Film Festival, where he had a chance to see Lee Daniels’ film Precious . . .

I have been dying to see this movie since hearing about it several months ago. The book it is based on is a difficult, painful and powerful read. And now Ebert has seen the movie and I haven’t. He writes . . .

Precious, one of the best films of the autumn, is Lee Daniels’ story of a physically and mentally abused poor black girl from the ghetto, who summons the inner strength to fight back for her future. It contains two great performances, by Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe, in the title role, and Mo’Nique as her pathetic mother. Sidibe is the life force personified. Mo’Nique has a closing monologue that reduced some of us to tears.

Damn him! I cry just watching the trailer. I imagine I’ll be a blubbering mess when I finally get to see this one for myself. For I love movies. And (have I said this already?) I love Roger Ebert.

This has been a long post, filled with many words that are not my own. And if you’ve made it this far, Dear Tweaker, you deserve some sort of payoff. Which is why I am now, publically, making a promise to myself: Next April 21-25, I do solemnly swear to be in Champaign, Illinois for Ebertfest 2010. I’ve lived too long without meeting enough people that I truly admire. I’ve thought of making plans to do this or that thing and then let them fall by the wayside of life’s rambling and unpredictable highway. But, unemployment be damned, I will find a way. Like Roger, I will take my place in an aisle seat and feed my passion for movies until I’m sick with glee. I’ll wait patiently in the queue to shake Roger’s hand. And if I can get a word out of what I imagine will be my extremely cottony mouth and can still my beating heart for more than a second or two, I’ll thank him for giving me so many things: a passion for movies; for words; for thinking critically about the details of life. And for being a survivor . . .

[photo credit]

Alejandro González Iñarritu

El Comite Organizador del Tokyo International Film Festival anunció que el presidente del jurado de esta edición del evento será el mexicano Alejandro González Iñarritu. Esto lo coloca no sólo como el primer mexicano, sino el primer latinoamericano que resulta depositario de este honor. Curiosamente, el director no había estado presente en este festival desde el 2000, cuando recibió el premio Grand Prix por su cinta Amores Perros. Es realmente muy satisfactorio saber que el talento mexicano está siendo reconocido a nivel mundial.

Titulo Original: Amores perros

Genero: Drama | Thriller

Año: 2000

Duración: 150 min.

Reparto: Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Álvaro Guerrero, Vanessa Bauche, Jorge Salinas, Marco Pérez, Rodrigo Murray, Humberto Busto, Gerardo Campbell, Rosa María Bianchi, Dunia Saldívar, Adriana Barraza, José Sefami, Lourdes Echevarría

Puntuación IMDB: 7.8

Sinopsis: Ciudad de México, un fatal accidente automovilístico. Tres vidas chocan entre sí y nos revelan lo perro de la naturaleza humana. Octavio, un joven adolescente, decide fugarse con Susana, la esposa de su hermano. El Cofí, su perro, se convierte en un cruel vehículo para conseguir el dinero necesario para poder escapar juntos, complicando aún más un conmovedor triángulo pasional en donde el amor clandestino se convierte en un camino sin retorno. Al mismo tiempo, Daniel, un hombre de 42 años, deja a su esposa y a sus hijos para irse a vivir con Valeria, una hermosa modelo. El mismo día en que ambos festejan su nueva vida, el destino conduce a Valeria a ser embestida brutalmente en el trágico accidente.

Trailer:

பாஸ்டன் பாலாவுக்கு மீண்டும் நன்றி!

அஞ்சும் ராஜாபலியின் லிஸ்டும் என் குறிப்புகளும். அஞ்சும் ராஜாபலி யார்? யாருக்கு தெரியும்? பாஸ்டன் பாலா சொன்னால்தான் உண்டு. வர வர யார் லிஸ்ட் போட்டாலும் அதை பற்றி எழுதிவிடுகிறேன்!

அனேகமாக திரைக்கதை ஆசிரியர் என்று நினைக்கிறேன். அவரது எல்லா குறிப்புகளும் திரைக்கதையை பற்றி பேசுகின்றன.

1. சைனாடௌன் (Chinatown) – ஜாக் நிக்கல்சன் நடித்த புகழ் பெற்ற படம். எனக்கு பெரிதாக பிடிக்கவில்லை.

2. காசாப்ளாங்கா (Casablanca) – மிக அருமையான காதல் படங்களில் ஒன்று. பார்க்க வேண்டிய படம்.

3. 12 ஆங்ரி மென் (12 Angry Men) – நல்ல படம். ஹென்றி ஃபோண்டா அருமையாக நடித்திருப்பார்.

4. இட்’ஸ் எ வொண்டர்ஃபுல் லைஃப் (It’s a Wonderful Life) – ஒவ்வொரு கிருஸ்துமஸ்போதும் அமெரிக்க டிவியில் போட்டுவிடுவார்கள். சுமாரான படம்தான். இது வரைக்கும் நான் அங்கும் இங்குமாகத்தான் பார்த்திருக்கிறேன், முழுதாக உட்கார்ந்து பார்க்கவில்லை.

5. ஃப்யுஜிடிவ் (Fugitive) – ஹாரிசன் ஃபோர்ட் நடித்த த்ரில்லர் படம். இதெல்லாம் பார்த்து மறந்துவிடும் படங்கள்தான்.

6. விட்னஸ் (Witness) – பார்த்ததில்லை.

7. ஜோடியாக் (Zodiac) – பார்த்ததில்லை.

8. அமோறேஸ் பெர்ரோஸ் (Amores Perros) – பார்த்ததில்லை

9. சில்ரன் ஆஃப் ஹெவன் (Children of Heaven) – டிவிடி எடுத்து வைத்திருக்கிறேன், பார்க்க வேண்டும்.

10. எடர்னல் சன்ஷைன் ஆஃப் த ஸ்பாட்லெஸ் மைண்ட் (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) – பார்த்ததில்லை.

11. பிக் ஃபிஷ் (Big Fish) – பார்த்ததில்லை

12. ஸ்வீட் சிக்ஸ்டீன் (Sweet Sixteen) – பார்த்ததில்லை

13. டெட் கல் (Dead Girl) – பார்த்ததில்லை

14. மெஷினிஸ்ட் (Machinist) – பார்த்ததில்லை

15. க்ரோநிகாஸ் (Cronicas) – பார்த்ததில்லை

16. நோ மேன்’ஸ் லாண்ட் (No Man’s Land) – பார்த்ததில்லை.

17. அமேடியஸ் (Amadeus) – நல்ல படம். இசை மேதை மொசார்ட்டை பற்றியது.

18. வெர்டிக்ட் (Verdict) – பார்த்ததில்லை

19. பேட்டில் ஆஃப் அல்ஜியர்ஸ் (Battle of Algiers) – பார்த்ததில்லை.

20. தீவார் – மிக நல்ல படம். அருமையான திரைக்கதை, நல்ல நடிப்பு. க்ளிஷேக்களை வைத்தே நல்ல படத்தை உருவாக முடியும், திரைக்கதைதான் தேவை என்பது இந்த படத்தை பார்த்தல் புரிந்து கொள்ளலாம்.

21. ஆக்ரோஷ் – பார்த்ததில்லை.

22. ஜோ ஜீதா வொஹி சிக்கந்தர் – நல்ல படம். பார்க்கலாம்.

np: Escape the Fate – The Guillotine

Nos últimos dias assisti a muitos filmes. Todos com histórias totalmente diferentes. Sendo eles,  3 americanos, 4 mexicanos e 1 japonês. Também acompanhei o nono episódio de Atashinchi no Danshi pelo dramacrazy (em inglês). 

Os 3 americanos que assisti foram Elsewhere, The Skeptic e Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Elsewhere fala sobre uma garota tida como “o lixo da cidade” que na busca desesperada por sair de sua cidade natal, tenta buscar homens “online” e acaba desaparecendo. Apenas a sua amiga se preocupa e tenta encontrá-la, sofrendo várias ameaças até que por fim, descobre não somente o paradeiro da amiga, como também de várias outras garotas que também haviam “desaparecido” da cidade.

The Skeptic é sobre um advogado cético que após a morte de sua tia vai morar em sua casa e que todos dizem ser mal assombrada. Sim, o gênero é terror mas nem assusta tanto, hehe. Durante a sua estadia na casa da tia, muitas coisas acontecem. Ele pensa estar sofrendo alucinações por ser insomne, mas nem. Tudo está realmente acontecendo e o final é chocante. Exatamente como The Skeleton Key, as coisas não acabam bem e eu particularmente adoro filmes assim. Estou cansada das historinhas perfeitas de Hollywood. Assim como no 3º filme que assisti…

Confessions of a Shopaholic é a típica história hollywoodiana, onde a garota se dá muito mal no início e no final tudo acaba perfeitamente bem e ela encontra o amor da vida dela, d´oh !!! Como o título diz, “Confissões de uma viciada em compras”, ela compra, compra, compra. Se endivida até a alma, perde o emprego mas depois encontra outro. Fica famosa, é desmascarada em rede nacional, bla bla bla, babaloo. Mas, como já esperamos das grandes produções hollywoodianas, tudo acaba perfeitamente bem no final do filme. Ela paga as contas e quanto ao seu chefe? Well, they live happily ever after !!! bléh

Os 4 filmes mexicanos que assisti foram Y tú mamá también, Amores Perros, Casi Divas  e Malos Hábitos.  

Y tú mamá también. Cara, de boa, como latino curte putaria uahauahauahu.  O filme já começa com cenas de sexo, durante o filme só tem cenas de sexo mas não termina com uma . Sacanagem isso :p .  Com Diego Luna e Gael Garcia, os dois atores mexicanos mais gostosos da atualidade. Uuuuh você tem a oportunidade de ver claramente o pênis dos dois, cenas com os dois se masturbando e ainda se beijando. Só achei ridículo o final. Só por que os dois fizeram menage com a mulher, por que um comeu o outro, vão cortar relações??? Se foder vai. Oops !! eles foderam um ao outro uahauahauhau. Ooh eu no lugar da mulher hein? Uiiii

Amores Perros também com Gael Garcia mas dessa vez mais contido com poucas (quase não existentes) cenas de sexo, o filme só me irritou por que mostra a luta de cães e mostra muitos deles sendo mortos Odiei !!! ¬¬

Casi Divas é filme besta, pra adolescente. Fala sobre 4 garotas de diferentes lugares do México que se inscrevem para ser a nova “Maria Enamorada”. Mas desta vez na produção cinematográfica. Filme besta, na real.

Malos Hábitos é um filme bom e todos que sofrem de distúrbios alimentares deveriam assistir. Os 3 personagens principais do filme. 1 freira que acredita piamente no poder de sua fé e entra em um jejum místico para impedir a inundação que acreditava estar por vir (quase morre).  A mãe de uma garota “gordinha” que tenta de todos os modos fazer com que a filha emagreça até o dia de sua primeira comunhão. A menina tenta lutar de todas as maneiras contra a neura da mãe que por sinal, sofre de distúrbios alimentares é bulimica e anoréxica, e que acaba sendo envenenada pela sua própria filha ¬¬ . Por  sua vez, seu marido que não aguentava mais a loucura da esposa, reencontra o amor nos braços de uma estudante que tem o apelido de “gordinha”. Só em filme né? Só em filme o cara vai largar a esposa linda e magra pra ficar com uma gordinha.  Mas o filme é interessante. Gostei

O japonês que assiti foi 20th century Boys que para quem curte mangá é um prato cheio.

20th century Boys retrata a história de garotos que quando crianças escreviam a história de um vilão que queria dominar o mundo e por isso criava vírus mortais e armas nucleares. Quando crescem as coisas começam a acontecer exatamente como foi escrito. Os ataques, o vírus, as armas e tudo o mais. Muito interessante, vale a pena.

Bom, eu não sei escrever muito bem e eu sou uma merdinha com descrições. Então, se consegui ao menos deixá-los interessados, googleien mais sobre os filmes ok? Gomen

As you can see from the sidebar I’ve been feeding on a healthy diet of 2009 releases. I have also put up the ‘grade’ page which you can view by clicking on (here it comes) Grades and then the Where The Wild Things Are image (who isn’t salivating over everything about that movie right now?).

17 movies into 2009. Currently playing here in Toronto there are about five movies I feel the urge or the duty to catch (Gommorah, The Pool, Tulpan, The Soloist and Coraline) and hopefully I’ll be able to screen those before next Friday when the onslaught of summer noise begins.

Anyways, the point of this post isn’t to talk about the inevitable disappointment that comes every summer, instead I want to stay firmly in the present and discuss the movies of the past four months (wait a minute . . .).

Let’s start with the bad shall we . . .

The Uninvited

My interest was peaked after the ad for this proclaimed it to have the “greatest ending in movie history”. Nope. The Uninvited was a laughable wanna-be psychological horror movie from the extremely dull-sounding Guard brothers. About as well-crafted as a porno, and as subtle as Plan 9 from Outer Space. And that ending? The greatest? Well, not quite, seeing as it uses the most over-used twist cinema’s history. D- (and it should probably be an F.)

Knowing

I admit to being intrigued by this concept since I first heard it, even if I never quite believed a quality film would emerge. So, while I cannot attest to being bored, I certainly can to groaning and laughing quite consistently throughout Knowing. Nicolas Cage has developed into one of the dullest, most un-natural actors working today; he doesn’t utter one line of dialogue that resembles anything close to a human being. Blame also has to go to director Alex Proyas who seems unsure of what movie he wants to make (horror? disaster? sci-fi?) and instead comes out with an odd and unsatisfactory amalgamation of different genres and ideas that have been utilized much more effectively in other movies. D+

The Burning Plain

(Screened at TIFF last year but due to be released this fall.)
The Burning Plain is all of the worst aspects of screenwriter turned director Guillermo Arriaga’s previous films rolled up into one. Rehashing familiar ideas and narrative contrivances, that by now have become cliche, yet lacking Innaritu’s directorial flair, the film’s drama falls flat mainly due to Arriaga’s stunted storytelling and poor characterizations. Handsomely filmed by Robert Elswit and John Toll, but lacking Innaritu’s dynamic cinematic sensibilities that shaped Babel, 21 Grams and Amores Perros into more involving and emotionally rewarding experiences. C-

Sunshine Cleaning

Despite two likable leads in Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, Sunshine Cleaning is simply the latest quirky indie that features neither profound drama nor humorous comedy. Filled with half-baked plot lines and false uplift, the film neither capitalizes on its central premise or it’s more than capable stars. C

Watchmen

By now olds news, but one month ago the talk of the town, Watchmen, for me at least, turned out to be not worth the fuss. Not the disaster I believed it could be (and certainly a more engaging and intelligent picture than the abomination that was 300) but also not anywhere near the masterpiece many hoped it would be.

While Zack Snyder certainly seems to have made the film he wanted to make, that’s simply not the film I find myself attracted to. Snyder seems more interested in slow-motion action sequences and lurid violence than he does in honouring the book’s compelling ideas and themes, and while he hasn’t obliterated them altogether, he’s certainly watered them down. Moments of glory, such as Dr. Manhattan’s backstory, are simply unable to makeup for the one-note acting of Malin Akerman and Patrick Wilson, a cliched soundtrack (All Along The Watchtower? The Sound of Silence?? Hallelujah???), poor CGI and running time of close to three hours. Mediocrity at its finest. C

The rest to come tomorrow!

young jamal making u-u

I love Slumdog. But I don’t love it as much everyone is loving it. There’s a big cloud of doubt on my head. I want to watch it again.

Maybe it’s because I’m looking at it with a critical eye. And given that poverty is close to every Pinoy’s hearts, then we’re looking at this movie from that perspective. If India didn’t embrace it as warmly as the rest of the world, then my ambiguity towards the movie must have some logic. Everybody seems to be gushing over the movie. Maybe I was just a victim of the hype.

Of Boyle’s, Trainspotting and 28 days are way ahead of the pack.

The writing is just amazing but I wonder why it had to be in English most of the time. It was a huge disconnect.

The idea of fairy tale destiny has given the story’s melodrama and outrageous timing an “escape clause” as dude likes to say it. But it was an acceptable device. Except when I think of poverty, I’m favoring City of God, Amores Perros and even Pila Balde.

But all the child actors were fantastic! I loved them all.

It was an outsider doing a movie about one of the most unique cultures in the world, about poverty that is only palpable if you are in it. Maybe that’s where I’m coming from. Because technically, that movie was nearly flawless. Does it have heart? It does…although I would say it was borne of the observations of a shrink to a troubled child, and not the point of view of say, a mother’s child. And what’s with the very far out analogy? Well, I just saw last night a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed…Parenthood!

Por Beatriz Cebas

Otra película más sobre vidas cruzadas. Esto es lo que pensé al leer en el programa del Festival de Cine de Toronto del año pasado el argumento de La Buena Vida, la última película del director chileno Andrés Wood. Precisamente por esa reticencia  a entregarme una vez más a un trabajo cinematográfico donde la coralidad de los protagonistas y la relación que se forma en sus aparentes vidas inconexas son el eje central, descarté este filme de los escogidos para ver en la ciudad canadiense.

Meses más tarde, y a pesar de mis prejuicios iniciales, felizmente he caído en la tentación y he visto La Buena Vida. La película de Wood, estrenada recientemente en España tras ganar el Goya a la Mejor Película Hispanoamericana, ha conseguido que mi perspectiva sobre el tan manido recurso de las vidas cruzadas cambie.

Sin llegar a la desgarradora historia que el entonces matrimonio cinematográfico de González Iñárritu y Guillermo Arriaga cultivó con la pionera y magistral Amores Perros –trabajo gracias al cual Gael García Bernal acabó de despegar como el gran actor que es-, el conmovedor drama de 21 gramos o la historia global que culminó esta trilogía de la incomunicación que es Babel, lo cierto es que La Buena Vida posee una frescura que ya echaba yo en falta en el cine hispano.

La simplicidad embriagadora de la cinta de Wood procede de una excelente historia cotidiana, urbana, real, humana. La Buena Vida habla sobre la verdad de la soledad en las grandes ciudades, sobre los anhelos irrealizables, y de cómo a veces la vida se nos escapa sin que apenas nos demos cuenta.

Todas las historias, como la de la trabajadora social cuya hija adolescente está embarazada, el peluquero cuya aspiración es comprarse un coche y para ello encandila a la dependienta de un banco, o el muchacho cuyo sueño roto es entrar en la Filarmónica de Chile, son pequeñas muestras de la miseria cotidiana sin que por ello el filme se convierta en una tragedia dramática. Y de ahí procede su grandeza, su lado más humano, su calado.

Sin ningún lugar a duda esta obra no ganará ningún Oscar, como sí fue el caso de la interesante Magnolia -donde Tom Cruise nos enseñó que si realmente quería, podía ser buen actor- o la sobrevalorada Crash. Tampoco tendrá una promoción internacional como Lejos de la tierra quemada, la oportunidad fallida de que Arriaga se alejase de la estela de Iñárritu. Y quizás por todo esto, por esta carencia de “toxicidad” de la Industria, La Buena Vida ofrece al espectador una realidad que aunque triste, no nos deja devastados, porque se observa como algo cercano, un espejo en el que de alguna manera es imposible no sentirse reflejados.