BEST OF 2010-2014 #3 ALL IS LOST

All is Lost is as simple and as straightforward as storytelling will likely get, but at the same time, it strenuously avoids (or upends) cliché at every turn and is totally devoid of obvious, cheap-seats sentimentality. It’s a nearly wordless motion picture, relying on clear-cut visual storytelling to communicate its ideas and feelings. Writer/director J.C. Chandor and screen legend Robert Redford..., in a historic performance, take the viewer on a harrowing and breathtaking journey with a finale that shakes to the core – this is vital cinema for anyone who considers themselves a fan of the medium. Recalling the sadness and melancholy of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea but also infused with a sense of pride, elegance, and grace under pressure, All is Lost will likely test the limits of most moviegoers, as it offers little in the way of backstory or easily identifiable character traits; it values patience and quiet like few recent films. The primal muscularity and overwhelming visceral tension that Chandor and cinematographer Frank G. DeMarco achieved harkens back to 80's-era Friedkin and Mann, recalling past glories such as Sorcerer and Thief, while sharing familiar beats with modern classics such as Castaway and The Grey. Shooting on the open water in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen, while also utilizing hand-held cameras which were fitted with wide-angle lenses, the filmmakers presented themselves with a huge task, and the film possess a near-constant state of nervousness and excitement. Alex Ebert’s moody and inventive score surrounds the film but never overpowers it, allowing Redford’s remarkable face to do the heavy emotional lifting rather than a cloying soundtrack; it’s the smartest use of music in a film that I can remember. All is Lost is a masterwork for all involved, a work that’s interested in pushing boundaries and expectations, and is clearly the closest we will get to pure, existential filmmaking in the current Hollywood landscape.

BEST OF 2010-2014 #4 THE GREY

The Grey is tough-guy poetry, wearing its bruised, wounded heart on its heavy-flannel sleeve, a force of nature cinema experience that leaves me crushed every time I watch it. Quiet, oppressively cold, and deeply introspective, this is a brilliant, Jack London-esque tale of machismo in the face of all-but-certain-death. Had this movie been released at the end of 2011 the Oscar nominations would have bee...n different, as Liam Neeson’s towering performance would surely have been recognized with a nomination. Jumping into this project almost immediately after the death of his wife, he couldn’t have known how real life would have informed his aching, forceful work in The Grey. When the final 10 minutes of The Grey arrive, there’s a major twist, and it makes the entire film even that much more moving and powerful. I’m aware of the fact that many meat-head audience members were near riotous over the fact that The Grey wasn’t some sort of WWF-style smack-down between the guy from Taken and a pack of rabid wolves. With certain movies, the job of Hollywood marketing teams seems to be to hoodwink potential ticket buyers into thinking they’re seeing one thing, and this is what happened when people saw the ads for The Grey – they saw guys running away from wolves and Neeson throwing up his dukes. Yes, this stuff does happen, just not in the way you’d think it would happen. And when things get rough, they’re believably rough. And besides, the wolves in this movie are merely metaphorical creations; to literalize every single thing we see in a feature film is to do a disservice to the artists who are asking more of us as viewers. Carnahan is a 70’s influenced filmmaker, interested in character as much as action, and his output over the years has been interesting to observe. I’ve always felt that he’s constantly at odds with the money-guys, as he’s always interested in digging beneath the surface of things, whether or not that’s what people want to see. He’s due to have that film that truly blows him up and I can’t wait for that day. With The Grey, I was not prepared for how still and patient the filmmaking would be one minute, and then how visceral and violent it would get the next. It's a slug-to-the-gut type movie, a piece of work that will haunt anyone who encounters it. Featuring one of the most harrowing depictions of a plane crash ever captured on film and ending on a note of tremendous ambiguity and narrative power, The Grey isn’t a film for the weak stomached or weak willed.

BEST OF 2010-2014 #5 MARGARET

Kenneth Lonergan's almost-never-released masterpiece Margaret is a film that many don't even know exists, and that's truly a shame, because it's as compelling and as powerful as dramatic cinema can get. Lonergan’s lone previous directorial credit, You Can Count On Me, was as perfectly observed indie dramedy with black humor and lots of heart. With Margaret, he goes large, and the results are no le...ss impressive. Featuring a volcanic lead performance from Anna Paquin (never better), the film centers on a tragic city-bus accident and the aftermath that it creates. It's a story about guilt, grief, acceptance, and finally, forgiveness, and nothing about the narrative is easy or simple. The film utilizes an Altman-esque sound design with tons of overlapping dialogue; Lonergan's decision to also have the casual conversations of extras and passerbys audible on the soundtrack and audible to the main characters further heightens the anxious mood and frenzied atmosphere of this unobtrusively engrossing tapestry of people and events and places and emotions. The superb Mark Ruffalo pops up in yet another soul-searching supporting turn, and the film is enlivened with the likes of Matt Damon, Allison Janney, Kieran Culkin, Rosemarie DeWitt, Matthew Broderick, Olivia Thirlby, and Lonergan himself. We'll never know exactly what happened behind the scenes with this film. The oft-rumored "Scorsese-Schoonmaker Cut" would certainly be interesting to see, but what we're left with is a film of enormous ambition, a multilayered magnum opus from one of the best, most underappreciated voices that Hollywood has come across in years.

BEST OF 2010-2014 #6 CARLOS

Forceful. Commanding. Absolutely gripping. There’s a brooding sense of danger and impending violence that hangs over every frame of Olivier Assayas’s five hour epic Carlos. Edgar Ramirez went all out in his searing, terrifying, completely transformative performance as the infamous terrorist Carlos “The Jackal”. The verisimilitude of Assayas’s filmmaking is exquisite, and as the film swiftly progre...sses due to the dynamic and exhilarating pacing, the viewer can’t help but be fully engrossed by the stunning craft and meticulous details on display. With procedural elements that are worthy of Pakula/Fincher comparisons and showcasing a sprawling narrative that spans the final years of the Cold War, Carlos is vast in scope yet intimate with its fine details. Considering the elephantine length, multiple viewings are necessary in order to distill each and every plot-point, fact, relationship, and motive. The viewer is treated to Ramirez burning up the screen with an intensely physical, Brando-esque performance of transformation and verbal command. French filmmaker Assayas utilizes hand-held camera work, a propulsive musical score, nimble editing, and a variety of spoken languages which all helps to create a totally real and organic atmosphere and viewing experience. Much of the film feels like a documentary, and the ability of Assayas and his crew to transport the audience into many of these frightening sequences makes the film feel incredibly vital. Carlos sort of feels like distant cousins with Steven Spielberg’s Munich, another terrorism epic set all across Europe. The international hop-scotching and zigzagging of Carlos is extremely impressive especially when you consider how many speaking parts there are in this massive film. It’s a towering achievement for all involved.

BEST OF 2010-2014 #7 UNDER THE SKIN

Under the Skin. Kubrick has been re-born. I’ve said a lot about this film over the last few months and I’ll be saying more about it in the near future. Jonathan Glazer has made an indelible work of art, something that allows itself to be constantly studied and pondered, and like the best of cinema, truly takes you somewhere that is strange and foreign and new. (More thoughts and ruminations on Under the Skin will appear in my upcoming Favorites of 2014).

BEST OF 2010-2014 #8 THE COUNSELOR

Cynical. Ruthless. Unmerciful. A modern day Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Ridley Scott’s uncompromising neo-noir gem The Counselor is tack-sharp filmmaking, never afraid to head into the bleakest of territory, always ready to inflict a death-blow. Boasting a career-defining performance from Cameron Diaz as the ultimate femme fatale and a rogues gallery of sleazy supporting turns (Javi...er Bardem, Brad Pitt, Bruno Ganz, Ruben Blades, Toby Kebbell, Dean Norris, John Leguizamo), the film is anchored by Michael Fassbender’s brilliantly modulated performance as a man who thinks he knows how to swim with the sharks but fast realizes that he’s but a mere guppy and dinner is about to be served. The Counselor died a fast death at the box-office and critics sliced into it with as much vicious aplomb as writer Cormac McCarthy brought to his ultra-sadistic landscape of drug-dealers and killers. I think that this movie scared people too much; they didn’t like their sexy Hollywood stars getting killed and acting like ass-holes and it was a turn-off for many people. I think people were afraid of what McCarthy’s prose has to say about the human condition, how we’re all just lions lying in wait, looking for our next meal, no matter the consequences or repercussions of our (potentially disastrous) decisions. Being that The Counselor is the work of Ridley Scott, there’s a sexy élan to the visual style, with cinematographer Dariusz Wolski bathing the film in a sinister gloss that reflects the new-money-opulence of the morally bankrupt characters. Nobody is safe in this film, nothing is what it seems, and the final moments are some of the nastiest to come out of Hollywood in many years. Scott’s choices in projects typically veers towards the epic, but it’s interesting to note that two of his most interesting works as a filmmaker (The Counselor and Matchstick Men) find him playing on a smaller scale. This is a cold-hearted, brilliant anti-thriller that doesn’t play by any traditional rules.

BEST OF 2010-2014 #9 BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR

Blue is the Warmest Color is one of the most romantic movies I’ve ever encountered, often times transcending what we normally expect from a “love story,” and on numerous occasions becomes something else entirely: a direct peek into another person’s soul. A raw and incredibly open glimpse at a woman experiencing a sexual and spiritual awakening filled with both her inner most desires ...and deepest uncertainties, Blue is the Warmest Color unfolds with grace and simplicity, and is guided by two of the most fearless performances that I’ve ever seen from any actor or actress in my lifetime from Adele Exarchopoulous and Lea Sedoux. Writer-director Abdellatif Kechiche favors naturalism above all else, and he’s clearly fascinated with the daily minutiae of everyday life. As his camera fixes its stare on his characters, you get the sense that he’s a filmmaker who’s constantly searching for that perfect moment of clarity: that one beat where you can say to yourself – that’s life at its purest. This film reminds you that love is unexplainable and comes at us in various forms and shapes and sizes, at any moment that it chooses, and that when we’re least expecting it, our lives can forever be altered by just a glance at the right (or wrong) person. Blue is the Warmest Color is a study of human behavior, and how we act and react in a variety of situations and contexts. What does it mean to love and what does it mean to know when your love isn’t enough for another person? Every kiss in this film is felt, every bite of food or sip of wine is tasted, every moment is savored as if it might be the last. The sexuality on display will leave many people speechless; you become privy to two people exploring the boundaries of themselves and one another, and in those moments, you feel as if you’re in that room with them, a curious observer to something private and extraordinary. Everything in Blue is the Warmest Color feels real. There’s a lover’s quarrel that feels as scary and as intense as any cinematic fight has ever felt (or at least that I’ve seen); it’s shockingly believable and phenomenally sad because every verbal sling feels like an honest dent in the armor.