The year's best (so far)

The one thing that never ceases to depress me about year-end best-of lists is that any film released before September is forgotten come awards season. Even worse is the fact that, generally, any film released between the end of awards season (early January) and the start of the summer movie season (the first weekend of May) is ultimately forgotten by the vast majority of moviegoers. Normally, this is because movies released during that time are terrible, and these months have the stigma of being Hollywood's "dump months", meant only to eradicate useless movies that would die even faster against legitmate competition. So, now that the summer is underway, I thought it prudent to highlight some of the solid films that have graced 2008 so far. (Note: I've seen "Iron Man" twice already, and fantastic though it may be, the point of this exercise is to get people to see movies that didn't make $100 million in the opening weekend. Congrats on that, though.)

The following are listed in alphabetical order:


The Band's Visit - This is the kind of film that, if you'd tell your friend it's great and they asked what it's about, you wouldn't have the slightest clue how to respond, because it's not about anything in particular. Essentially, it follows an Egyptian police band (the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, to be exact) over the course of one day and night in Israel, after they are abandoned at the airport, sent to the wrong town by the young woman at the information desk and forced to rely on the hospitality of total strangers. A lot of critics made much ado about the idea of the citizens of two notoriously rivaled countries interacting, but that's reading far too much into it. The film is gentle and funny without trying to make any sort of statement; there are no major comedic setpieces, but a lot of laughs, and a lot of quiet truths that emerge throughout the evening, particularly regarding the idea of being passed by, by the rest of the world. The band interacts with the locals, experiences the nightlife (that term being used very loosely) and briefly fall in love, and are on their way the next day. Like I said, nothing of particular consequence, but entirely meaningful all the same.

The Bank Job - I worry about Jason Statham sometimes. For every stellar action film he appears in (most notably "Crank", which might be the wildest movie of its kind ever made), he seems to take a lot of paycheck movies, the most egregious of which would be the most recent Uwe Boll abortion "In The Name Of The King". However, if "The Bank Job" is any indication, he won't be turning into the next Steven Seagal anytime soon. Being that I enjoyed this a lot more going in completely cold, I'll try not to ruin it, but I will say this much: The film starts off with a fairly generic premise (a quirky band of thieves take on an out-of-their-league bank heist; complications ensue), but delightfully, elevates itself above such cliches. This is mainly because the heist itself is merely the catalyst for a wild tale (that according to the film, is at least somewhat based on actual events) involving porn kings, black supremacists, corrupt cops, a high-class brothel and English royalty. The film refuses to go where you think it's headed, making the ride there all the more enjoyable.

Be Kind Rewind - As unfair expectations go, this film was saddled with some of the most severe before it even had a trailer. This is due to the fact that Michel Gondry is still being held to the standards of "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind", and has (according to many) failed to meet them. That film was a once-in-a-career masterwork, and since then, Gondry has indulged his more whimsical side, first with 2006's underrated "The Science Of Sleep" and now with "Be Kind Rewind". Pegged with the cruel writeoff of "cute", "Rewind" is essentially a story about the magic of movies, and the transformative power of old-fashioned kindness. Those who could only speak about the film's "potential" or its cliches missed the point by a mile: the film was an homage to a time long past, when movies were a truly magical experiences and jaded cineastes didn't exist, at least in the droves they do now. In the beginning, Jerry (Jack Black) and Mike (Mos Def) are simply trying to keep their video store afloat by remaking (or "sweding") the movies on the shelves, but by the end, the entire neighborhood has come together to make their own. Despite the PG-13 rating (for some sight gags no worse than anything on the Disney Channel at this point), this might be the best childrens' movie to come out in years.

Cloverfield - Okay, so a lot of people know about "the little monster movie that could", but there was a little hiccup. After a stellar opening weekend, business tailed off. Was it because of the cryptic advertising? The destruction of New York City, seemingly allegorical to 9/11? The camera work, so shaky that most theaters started posting warnings at ticket booths? The reports of people leaving the film with motion sickness? More than anything, I think this got written off as a gimmick due to people failing to recognize how genius of a film this really was. Think about it: there is a dearth of information related to the monster's origins, species, etc., but within the context of the film's established rules, it makes perfect sense. The very first frame of the film tells us that what we are about to see is merely one documentation of an event, as seen through the eyes (and lens) of one group of people. Therefore, we listen to the people talk about pointless things in the throes of panic, we see them make bad choices out of fear and/or self-preservation and we are just as much in the dark as they are, discovering information only as they do, and often only as it's too late. One other issue people took with it: the incredibly bleak climax, which is as haunting and genuinely touching an ending as I've seen in a movie in quite some time. Hopefully, this movie will catch on as time elapses, and more people start to understand exactly what was being done with it.

Doomsday - Before you raise an eyebrow at this one, hear me out. Neil Marshall, on the heels of his nightmarish gem "The Descent", decided to take the action route, and much like with the previous film, decided to wear his influences on his sleeve. Much like Richard Kelly's following of "Donnie Darko" with the gonzo epic "Southland Tales", Marshall swings for the fences, and how far he gets really depends on who's watching the movie. The film is hilarious and brutal, sometimes alternately, sometimes not, and more or less exists for a small sect of people who are going to burn holes in their DVD copies of it. The film takes place in three distinct acts: Act One, where a group of mercanaries led by Rhona Mitra enters a quarantined area of Scotland, ravaged by a deadly virus, only to find survivors; Act Two, where the mercanaries are ransacked by said survivors and those remaining are dragged into a neo-gothic underworld; and Act Three, where the even fewer remaining are whisked away to a medieval castle to confront the madman behind it all. Oh, and the film ends with a car chase. Now, if Acts One and Two sounded uncannily like "28 Days Later" and "The Road Warrior", you're right. Don't know why Act Three is there? That's okay. The film switches tones every ten minutes or so, and when put with an action movie, it works. Also, the aforementioned car chase? It easily rivals the ending of last year's "Death Proof" as the best in the last twenty years or so.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - The fact that this hasn't yet caught on the way that "Knocked Up" and "Superbad" did last year is a shame, because this is funnier than the former and just as great as the latter. In Judd Apatow's latest chapter of his crusade to turn semi-attractive pop culture geeks into sex symbols, regular supporting star Jason Segal is front and center as the TV music composer who flees to Hawaii to escape the titular ex-girlfriend, only to find out she's beaten him there. On a personal level, this is my favorite film of the year so far, in no small part due to Segal, who is absolutely fearless here. Disregarding his already-infamous full-frontal nudity throughout the film, he is also sweet and flawed as the jilted boyfriend fighting to recover, and spends much of the film crying hysterically and binge drinking; it is a measure of how good he is in this film that we find him endearing in light of such behavior. He is also surrounded by stellar co-stars. Kristen Bell, normally so charming in any role, is much less so as Sarah, but manages to pull off the tricky balancing act of switching between sympathetic and enraging, sometimes in the same scene. Mila Kunis is as gorgeous and desirable as movie characters get here, as a hotel employee who leads the charge to save Segal's heart, and British comedian Russell Brand steals every scene he's in as the pompous rock star who catches Sarah on the rebound. Given more space, I would throw accolades at every supporting actor in the film, but suffice it to say that when Richard Roeper stated that he wanted to get down on his knees and proclaim his undying love for this movie, he wasn't too far off.

In Bruges - Imagine a Wes Anderson movie on downers and cynicism, and you're about halfway to understanding just how bizarre "In Bruges" is. The film starts off like a bad joke: Two assassins, one a childish prick (Colin Farrell, in his best performance to date) and the other mellowed by middle age (Brendan Gleeson), are sent to hide in a quaint little town after a hit gone wrong. The town is Bruges, Belgium, a dreamy medieval town and popular tourist destination. Their instructions are simple: Enjoy yourselves, and lay low. They fail at both spectacularly, and soon find themselves involved with a mysterious young woman, a European art film and a dwarf with a penchant for prostitutes and horse tranquilizers. And that's before their boss (Ralph Fiennes) shows up to deal with them. Irish playwright Martin McDonaugh makes his full-length film debut here, and the devilish wit he displays in his plays is ramped up tenfold. The film is at turns gorgeous, hysterical, heartbreaking and incredibly violent, and even as the situation unravels and the bodies start piling up, the wit never disappears; it just requires you to find comedy in the unfunny, which isn't as hard as you'd think.

Snow Angels - Every so often, a movie comes along that seems totally unremarkable during a viewing, and only later emerges as poignant and memorable. This is definitely one of those movies. Character studies are often laborious or too simple for their genre, but here we get several, all done well. There is the story of a woman working in a local restaurant to support her daughter, whose ex-husband refuses to abide her requests to stay out of her life. There is the story of a young teenager forced to cope both with his parents' divorce and a crush on the quirky new girl in school. Their lives cross in and out of one another, but unlike a film such as "Crash", there is no pondering of fate or chance or human connection; the entire story unfolds in a small town, where it is entirely plausible that everybody knows everybody, and that nobody can keep a secret for very long. Director David Gordon Green handles the material at hand well; he does not push us toward a particular conclusion about any of the characters, but rather, allows us to judge them however we see fit, good or bad.
(Side note: Green's next film will be hitting theatres in August: "The Pineapple Express", a film that, if the trailers are any indication, could not be any more different from this.)

The Spiderwick Chronicles - At last, another valuable addition to the pantheon of "kid" movies made more for parents than their kids. Like "The Goonies", "Spiderwick" is a bit morbid for its target audience, but is all the better for it. Freddie Highmore plays twin brothers uprooted from their home in mid-divorce and taken to live in a secluded house, where they discover a book that tells them about a magical world right around them, that they can only see when they look for it. However, soon the wonder of this new world turns to terror as an evil creature (played, in a bit of irony to be appreciated, by Nick Nolte) threatens to kill their family if they keep the book. The film is, for a PG rating, incredibly dark (When's the last time a boy hero stabbed his father in the chest in any movie, let alone one aimed at kids?), but this only helps to give the film a life beyond a certain classification. This is one of those movies, like "The Goonies" or even "Jumanji" that will mean a lot more to the kids who see it now in ten years or so.

Teeth - Allow me to just throw all my cards on the table upfront: Yes, "Teeth" is what you've probably heard of as the "killer vagina movie". And yes, the movie is, in a sense, about just that. However, in another sense, it's also about the importance of sexual discretion and the dangers of exploiting young women, among other things. In both regards, the film works. If taken as pure shock cinema, this is as shocking as you can get, with B-grade monster movie sound effects, numerous shots of stumps where a penis should reside and even a dog ingesting one at one point. Should you choose to go the allegorical route, the film is a potent tale of being at once intrigued by and afraid of sex, and all the potential consequences. This is one fact I cannot stress enough. Jess Weixler, at Dawn, moderates her role with a sense of innocence; she is afraid of sex because of the dangers involved for her lovers, but is simultaneously surrounded by those looking to exploit her, at seemingly every turn. No matter how you slice it, this is solid horror filmmaking.