Utopia in Four Movements
by Sam Green
A breathtaking documentary or sorts, but with a live presentation by Green along with musical accompaniment. In “movements”: “Esperanto”, “Revolution”, “The Largest Mall in the World” (in China, empty), and the finale, “Experiences of the 21st Century” as filtered through forensic science’s search for the history of the 20th century. Beautiful, elegiac, and blistering.
The Hurt Locker
by Kathryn Bigelow
Let’s pray Bigelow finally gets her due for this meticulous war film with psychological undertones. One of the few Iraq War movies I’ve felt worth engaging.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
by Wes Anderson
Not sure if this was actually meant to be a “kid movie”, but I do know that it made me damn comfortable being a quirky parent.
Medicine for Melancholy
by Barry Jenkins
Probably a better She’s Gotta Have It than Spike could have ever conceived.
Red Cliff (Part I & Part II)
by John Woo
As opposed to the truncated two-hour version released in the States this past fall, I’m referring to Woo’s original Asia version, released as multiple 2 1/2 hour movies (and easily found on DVD in Chinatown). Think Ran meets Hero meets The Civil War doc. This historical tale is thousands of years old and outdrew Titanic at the Chinese box office.
Where The Wild Things Are
by Spike Jonze
Though somewhat uncomfortable with the obvious escapist Williamsburg-Best-Picture-Ever nature of this, I’m trying to imagine circumstances under which I might conceivably not have liked a film such as.
The Exiles
by Kent Mackenzie
After viewing scenes from this 1961 film in Thom Andersen’s meditative 2001 documentary on the city of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Plays Itself, and having become obsessed with it ever since, I finally, finally, hunted down a pristine restored copy (which screened at IFC Center in 2009). Some filmmakers are good, some are lucky, some both.
Avatar
by James Cameron
I can’t for the life of me understand how anyone could not be mesmerized by this (especially the 3D version). I felt like a 15-year-old watching something very, very special. And has there ever been as aggressively a lefty mainstream movie?
Gomorrah
by Matteo Garrone
Economics, corporate structures, and societal management—21st century-style. (13th century-style?)
The Girlfriend Experience
by Steven Soderbergh
The emperor strikes back with another of his great “experimental” works. Just when you’d thought he’d lost spirit and focus.
Gospel Hill
by Giancarlo Esposito
This went straight to video in 2008. I found it on the Starz cable channel this past summer while visiting my parents. (It screened at Riverside Church in Morningside Heights the summer of ‘09.) I’m not sure I want to live in a world where a film like this can’t manage to get properly released.
The Limits of Control
by Jim Jarmusch
An assured return to form. I rarely watch films twice so soon. I’d watch this a third time.
Up
by Pete Docter
The relatively silent 12-minute intro (as in Wall*E these mainstream animated filmmakers take daring narrative risks) is impossible not to be truly and deeply moved by.
Summer Hours (L'Heure d'été)
by Olivier Assayas
Time passes. The manner in which we live alters. It’s not quite The Road, but it does feel as if things are slowly becoming lost. Of course—I’ve been one of the main proponents of such a sense of change. Hope something is left for my daughter.
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Left Off For No Particular Reason:
The Cool World (1964), Transformers 2 (I keep slowly, slowly losing the respect of friends over this series), Coraline, Tyson, Antichrist, Star Trek, Passing Strange, District 9 (stupid), Precious, and Watchmen.
Yes, it is curious to discuss movies in a year when ten months passed—because of the birth of my daughter—without my stepping foot in a theater. Wonders of the Internet, various discs, etc. Doesn’t really count? Or the future? (For the record—saw Gomorrah in a theater in early March, then Avatar in December. Sam Green’s film/performance at a screening in June at the Light Industry loft space in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The Girlfriend Experience was an online stream from IFC concurrent with it playing in theaters.
2008 roundup
I had not viewed Rachel Getting Married by the time of the 2008 list, and, oh boy, is it a moving, fun film. Wendy & Lucy and Frozen River are both very good also, and not only would have made last year’s list, but accordingly have shifted the ratio of that year’s women filmmakers, of which I was never proud (which has now shifted to ‘09).
a 2007 reference
After some study and repeated viewings I consider The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford a masterpiece, and am disappointed that I didn’t deem it as such on its original release.
Pop Musica
Death
…For The World To See
Reissue from 1974 that I dare anyone to say isn’t the best rock album of the 21st century so far.
The Roe Family Singers
The Earth and All That Is In It
Along with their informal July gig outside on the Flatbush Farm garden patio, alt bluegrass at its best.
Derrick May
Live in Paris at Djoon Club
I don’t know where I got this two-part four-hour spring of ‘09 set, but it may well be the best Derrick May set I’ve EVER heard, and that is saying a whole, whole lot.
Naked Heroes
99 Diamond
Simple—these fuckers ROCK. Sexy punk ‘n blues.
Raekwon
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II
I’m embarrassed to still be here like a grandpa 15 years after the original. But it’s got some killer (albeit redundant) sonic and lyrical moments.
Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Still don’t know what to think of this, but “Brother Sport” and “My Girls” are worth the price themselves. Perhaps the Fall Be Kind EP is superior? (Have you checked the Deakin / Decon live New Year’s Day solo bootleg from some show at a club in Baltimore? He’s back.)
Moody a.k.a. Moodymann
Anotha Black Sunday
If the Black Panthers had a techno DJ wing based out of Detroit, Kenny Dixon Jr. (a.k.a. Moodymann) would be the post-modern Minister of Vinyl Grooves. (The Jose James remix itself made me want to run through streets of Detroit naked smoking a blunt reciting passages from Remembrances of Things Past.)
Afro-Punk VOL. 2 “FUCK ROCK STARS”
The title pretty much says it all.
Drake
“Successful” feat. Trey Songz
The only single here—I just haven’t managed to come to terms with the mixtape. But this track kills, and is properly complex.
Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest
I tried to hate this, but could not, failed miserably. (It’s probably better than the AC too.)
Mos Def
The Ecstatic
I’m not sure it’s better than True Magic (which I loved), though everyone seems to say that it is. The production is superior. Whatever. The lyrical legacy of the art form lives on. And dare I say—a Black Star track!
peace,
January, ‘10
