Mudbound (2017)

My favorite niche, sub-genre is Movies About America. I’m a total sucker for stories that are subtextually about our Nation as a whole. Citizen Kane, The Godfather series, and There Will Be Blood spring most readily to mind, but greed isn’t America’s only defining trait. There’s also the small matter of white people enslaving black people for hundreds of years.

It’s no accident that this film opens with two white guys digging a grave for their racist father and finding the skull of a murdered slave. Slavery is literally just under the surface of this film and it informs every interaction between the numerous characters in this ensemble. The story might be set in the 1940’s, but much of this film looks like the 1840’s because The South is literally stuck in the past. Since the Civil War we have been trying to move forward without addressing slavery and Jim Crow. We are mudbound and will continue to be so until we take a long, hard look in the mirror. A film set 70 years in the past shouldn’t be so relevant, but here we are.

Neruda (2016)

The best films are films that could not exist in another medium. If it can be written as an essay, it should be an essay. If it could be staged as a play, then it should be staged as a play. I don't know if I simply lack the skill or insight, but I cannot seem to put into words what Neruda is doing. I understand it and it provokes fascinating thoughts in me about art and politics, but there is no way I could ever rightly put them into words. It would be a bunch of scattered thoughts with no center. Perhaps Pablo Neruda could have done it. Pablo Larraín certainly did it with this beautiful film.

Christine (2016)

In the past I've admired films "based on a true story" for taking us inside of private moments that a documentary never could. This film I admire for keeping us outside.

Throughout the runtime, we are presented with all sorts of reasons why Christine might have done what she did. There's her physical health, there's her mental health, there's her home situation, her love situation, her work situation, and of course there is also Watergate. But when it comes time for her to do the deed, we still have no clue why she did it. Perhaps it was a combination of all the things we've seen. You can comb through hours of tape looking for an answer, but the only person who can truly give you that answer is dead.

To try and place an answer on to Christine's actions would be doing her a great disservice. Rebecca Hall's performance deserves far more recognition than it has received thus far. She compassionately honored a woman who, like so many other women throughout history, has been reduced to just a single thing.

Jackie (2016)

Say what you will about Natalie Portman's performance (which I personally adore) but there is no way to deny that this film is a subjective masterpiece. It literally puts you in the high-heeled shoes of Jackie Kennedy. Pablo Larrain and his collaborators make you realize that though she came from money and became First Lady, as a woman, a wife, and a public figure, Jackie had almost no agency. Everyone has an opinion on what she should should do or say. Every action is second guessed. And then her husband's head blows up. Suddenly, all bets are off. In the chaotic days after JFK's assassination, Jackie sees a chance to take control for once and she seizes it with both hands. She is a woman liberated and that is a beautiful thing to behold.

Queen of Katwe (2016)

I'm not sure if it's due to the popularity of TV where there are A, B, C and D plot-lines to follow throughout a narrative, but modern films tend to have way too much going on. This is how we end up with Superhero films that run nearly three hours. It's also how we get a cascade of different endings that have to be resolved after the big bad guy has already been dispatched. Though Queen of Katwe is far from a straightforward story that is over and done with in 90 minutes, it does take the novel approach of resolving all of its lesser plot-lines before concluding the main one. This way, when the movie is over, it is over. I desperately hope that screenwriting courses will start teaching this as a way to more delicately handle all of that cinematic bloat.

Hidden Figures (2016)

I really think this movie benefited from being seen in a theater. Not because of any sort of visual or aural grandeur. In fact, both those aspects of this film are pretty rote. What this film benefits from, is following a slew of awful trailers. I always dread seeing PG-rated films because all the trailers have to be family friendly as well. It's just this unending stream of platitudes and fart jokes. So the fact that Hidden Figures is actually good feels like a small miracle. Sure there are still scenes where smart people explain things to other smart people so that the audience can get the information, but oh well. The charisma of those three leads could get me through most anything. And they did it all without dirty words. No wonder my parents loved it.

Hero (2002)

It's interesting comparing this to American-made, big budget, historical epics. This was China's stab at something like Pearl Harbor or The Patriot where money is not an object in helping to bring history to life - and of course it leaves us in the dust. Maybe it's because Yimou Zhang was directing, but this actually feels like a film rather than just spectacle. For all the lavish sets and costumes of Gone with the Wind, I have no clue what that film is actually about. This film is about something and has a message to impart about world affairs. And it's not some generic message either like "all's well that ends well". But perhaps to a Chinese audience the "message" is "old hat" and I just see it as profound because it's not American. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

13th (2016)

There is no room for ambiguity in this documentary. Ava DuVernay has a message to impart and she wants to make damn sure that you get it. While she never resorts to Michael Moore narration or Errol Morris recreations, the bravura editing by Spencer Averick (obviously under DuVernay's direction) makes damn sure that nothing is lost on anyone. A single cut can bridge 150 years and help us to better understand how we got into this mess in the first place. Sure it's unsubtle, that's deliberate. DuVernay knows how important it is to pick the right tool for the job. If you want to carve the statue of David, you use a chisel. If you want to tear down the Prison Industrial Complex, you use a sledge hammer. I'm glad that this film is on Netflix so that it can be seen by as many people as possible because this is a documentary for right now.

The Grandmaster (2013)

The past plays a huge role in the work of Wong Kar Wai. His characters are haunted by friends, lovers and eras both long and recently departed. Wong's cinema recognizes that the passage of time is inevitable. Nothing can stop it. In this film in particular, characters are literally fighting the future via exquisitely staged kung fu battles. Yet, no matter who wins any particular match, history marches on. It is a wave that cannot be stopped. Some things are allowed to endure. Others are pulled out to sea in a rip current. Those are the cold, hard facts. Yet unlike other Wong Kar Wai films which tend to focus on the person in mourning, this film gives voice to the one being mourned as well. Nobody gets an easy break.

Marie Antoinette (2006)

Though I never hated this film, I've really warmed to it over the years. It's a boldly subjective take on material that many find as boring as...well...a history lesson. This film has no interest in the political. It is 100% focused on the personal. Sofia Coppola's sole aim is to put you in Antoinette's fabulously ornate shoes. How long is a carriage ride from Austria to France? Long! How fun is a masquerade ball? As fun as grooving to Siouxie and the Banshees. And in spite of all the decadent decor and fashion, the camera work is pretty unobtrusive. With the soft, natural light, much of the film feels like home movies...from Versailles. And that final shot of the smashed chandelier is a thing of absolute, heartbreaking beauty. No chyron needed. We know how this ends. It all came crashing down.

Experimenter (2015)

No matter how benign the intent might be, all cinema is a social experiment. It has been produced for a specific purpose. Writers, directors, producers, etc. have deliberately designed it to make the audience feel happy, sad, etc. If the viewer becomes aware of the construction, the experiment has failed. Suddenly you are aware of what you are being fed. You are no longer under their emotional sway and can really examine/digest what you are being shown. You can decide whether you agree or disagree with what the filmmakers are presenting you. In the film Stanley Milgram states, “I believe we are puppets with perception, with awareness. Sometimes we can see the strings. And perhaps our awareness is the first step in our liberation.” Michael Almereyda’s decision to stage this film in such a deliberately artificial way is perfectly in keeping with Milgram’s mission. Since the filmmakers cannot interview us about our experience after the fact, we are instead able to interview ourselves from start to finish.

The Devils (1971)

I find it fascinating that a film about a man condemned to death for something he did not do, has itself been condemned to death based on erroneous charges. I will certainly grant you that there are many shocking act depicted in The Devils, but they are not there to titillate or defile. Father Grandier is certainly no saint, but he is also not the beast which so many in the film accuse him of being. He’s prideful, petty and engages in numerous affairs, but his crimes are nothing in comparison to the myriad ways Sister Jeanne and her fellow nuns debase themselves for the sake of absolute anarchy.

You simply cannot get this across by soft-peddling the more outrageous moments. If you make the nun's blasphemous cavorting just as chaste as Grandier’s post-coital chats with lovers, you are creating a false equivalency. His is a sin of the flesh, the priest and his partners are human and prone to human folly. Father Grandier is even striving to pull himself together and settle down in a monogamous relationship. The sisters, on the other hand, are allowing themselves to be exploited by a corrupt system that desires only power. Sure this film employs graphic imagery, but it does so in the service of telling an extremely moral story. Hopefully one day Warner Brothers will come to their senses and #ReleaseTheDevils

Lincoln (2012)

It's kinda fitting that this movie almost ended up on HBO. In many ways it is the ultimate HBO politics movie. Like Recount, Game Change and Too Big To Fail it's a film about the behind the scenes intricacies of politics and it's filled to the brim with major stars and recognizable character actors. But unlike those other films (which I actually did enjoy) this one actually knows what story it is telling.

Those other film love to go off on tangents and will often let a showboat performance draw attention away from both the narrative and the true protagonist. While Julianne Moore got all the awards and attention for Game Change, that movie is really Steve Schmidt/Woody Harrelson's story. Lincoln does not make that mistake. It's right there in the title.

Sure it's a story about a "team of rivals", but it's first and foremost a story about this odd man who saw the world a little differently than everyone else. Daniel Day Lewis expertly plays Honest Abe like some sort alien who nobody really understands and who constantly needs to explain himself. Like a filmmaker, he has a vision and it's his job to communicate that vision to all his collaborators so that it can become real. No wonder Steven Spielberg has such admiration for him.

Selma (2014)

Throughout this film I found myself thinking about skin and I'm pretty sure this was intentional. In addition to being gorgeous, Bradford Young's un-Oscar nominated cinematography also serves an important narrative function. As a man of color, he knows how to light various skin tones in order to bring out all the texture and nuances contained within darker complexions. And as a filmmaker of color, director Ava DuVernay knew that highlighting said textures and nuances would be an important tool in telling this particular story.

We have all stared at our own skin and taken note of the little wrinkles, blemishes and scratches that make us who we are. It might come in different shades, but we are all covered in it. This is precisely what blackface and minstrel shows attempted to drive out. If you turn an entire group of people into pitch-black, red lipped creatures, then it is extremely easy to label them as not human, deserving of ridicule and unworthy of basic inalienable rights. They are no longer seen as human.

By taking the time to properly light the rainbow of skin tones that comprise this cast, the filmmakers are insisting upon the humanity of all involved. This way, when people are bludgeoned and murdered we as an audience feel it because we can imagine those things happening to us and to our skin. And perhaps most importantly, it reminds us that the great deeds in this film were not done by comic book superheroes sent to earth in order to save us. The battle in this film was won by flesh and blood human beings, just like you and me. And we can do it again.

The New World (2005)

The title of this film is absolutely perfect. It isn't about the English discovering, "the new world" in America and it is also not about Native Americans discovering "the new world" of Europe. One "world" is not older than the other. They were two separate "worlds" that ran parallel to each other for centuries. The "new" world in question here is the one that forms when these two separate universes suddenly smash into one another. The editing at points is jarring with its jump-cuts, but that is because we are witnessing the collision of two cultures. Like forging something from iron, it is a jarring process, and the filmmakers have used the tools of cinema to reflect that. What is most clear is that there is no going back. Some things are forever lost on each side, but we must continue forward. The old world is gone.

Throne of Blood (1957)

I think it would be interesting to see a sci-fi Macbeth. The inciting incident of the story already hinges on magic, so why not just replace that with science? When you really think about it, this is a time travel story, minus the time travel. It's about a character who is given insight as to what the future holds in store for him followed by his attempts to both embrace and counteract that future. That's why this story has stood the test of time. It's the eternal question of whether fate is malleable or written in stone. It's also Looper, Back to the Future and 12 Monkeys...among other things. If this story can work in feudal Japan and the current ganglands of Melbourne, why not try setting it in the not too distant future? Just gotta make sure you have a lead as badass as Toshirô Mifune. Good luck finding one.

Aguirre: The Wrath Of God (1972)

From the opening text you know that this story is doomed. Even if you know nothing about Werner Herzog and his world view, you know the people in this story are doomed because right up front you are told that the thing they are all in pursuit of was "invented". As a result every action seems futile. Horrible things are done for absolutely no reason.

When the battle is man vs. nature, nature always wins in the end. Even if man survives for the moment, the fact remains that nature was here long before us and will be here long after us. We are an anomaly that will eventually be corrected. Attempting to conquer and possess that which cannot ever be tamed is madness...but it's also human nature.

12 Years A Slave (2013)

Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) lives comfortably with his family as a free man in upstate New York until one day he is abducted and sold into slavery.

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Though I have great admiration for both of Steve McQueen's previous films, neither quite works for me entirely. Hunger and Shame both feel like this odd collision between experimental art film and traditional narrative cinema where the static dialogue scenes stick out like sore thumbs among all the beautiful, free-flowing images that come before and after. I get that this is a great tool for making your audience really focus on the words that are being said, but in terms of pacing it brings everything to a grinding halt. Fortunately he did not employ this technique for 12 Years A Slave.

To watch this film is to watch a great artist finally hit his stride. Everything works. The images are unforgettable both in their beauty and their brutality, the performances are impeccable and despite the importance of the subject matter, it is never resorts to cheap sentimentality. Every moment is earned. Even the text at the end of the film packs a wallop.

Allegedly President Wilson once described The Birth Of A Nation as, "History written with lightning." Well 12 Years A Slave has it beat because it is history written with blood, sweat, tears AND lightning. Believe the hype.

The Aviator (2004)

A bio-pic portraying the early years of filmmaker and pilot Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) who made the most expensive movies and flew the fastest planes.

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Aside from his attempt at a musical with New York, New York, all of Martin Scorsese’s films prior to 2002 had all been decidedly small and low-fi. Even his “Biblical Epic” The Last Temptation Of Christ was rendered intimate and small. No elaborate sets or sweeping crane shots here folks. And he made Gangs Of New York. Shot on the Fellini stages at Cinecittà, no expense was spared. Finally Scorsese was able to live out his dream of being a classical Hollywood director like the ones he grew up admiring.

As much as I enjoy aspects of that film, it doesn’t quite work for me as a whole. Anchored by strong performances (especially that of Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill The Butcher) it feels less like a film and more like an opportunity for Scorsese to show off how much research he had accumulated in the 25 years the film had been in development. Having all that research in the background of your story is fine, it helps to make things more real, but placing it before your narrative becomes tiresome. Though I was bummed about him losing the Best Director Oscar that year, I have to admit I was kind of OK with it.

When The Aviator was announced as his follow up film I was quietly dreading more of the same. Once again he would be working on an epic canvas with apparently unlimited resources. I was worried that Howard Hughes would become nothing more than a means by which to express all of the Hollywood history Marty had been voraciously consuming since childhood. I was prepared for another well-shot yet meticulous history lesson. Thank God I was wrong.

Now of course I’m not saying that this film is an intimate affair in any sense of the word (the sets are huge and the flying/crashing scenes are rivetingly intense) but foregrounding all of this spectacle is an extremely strong script by John Logan and most importantly a fascinating character, exquisitely portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. More so than the parties and the planes and the women, this is a story about a man who despite all his wealth, power and cunning, could not escape his own mind. He can find ways to make it work for a time. He can even overcome the occasional breakdown. But in the end, the inevitable is always nipping at his heels and ready to overtake him. Ready to overtake him. Ready to overtake him. Ready to overtake him…

How To Survive A Plague (2012)

A documentary chronicling activists of the late 80s/early 90s who fought drug companies and the  US government in order to get something done about the plague of AIDS.

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I completely understand why this is a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination on Thursday. It's a great documentary! It's not just informative, it's also engaging. Not only is this a great piece of activism reminding people that AIDS is still something to be conquered, it is also a great story of young people hearing the call to action and making great things of themselves by striving to help others.  Director David France's decision to withhold video footage of the people who have survived the disease until near the end, was master stroke. You go through the film never knowing who is safe. And the deaths that do come over the course of this narrative are particularly tough. Some moments in this film nearly brought me to tears. Thank God for the people who were out there with cameras to record all of this important action as it was happening. Thanks to the people in front of and behind these cameras, HIV is no longer a certain death sentence. But there is still plenty of work to be done. How do you survive a plague? You get off your fat ass and do something!