2010 so far...

We're more than halfway through 2010 now and I am about seven months into my blog. Personally, the year so far has been very exciting. It started with a (brief) appearance on BBC Radio Sussex talking about the results of the Golden Globes. Since then I have recorded a bunch of podcasts, reviewed a lot of films and had a lot of amazing opportunities. I have been to a premiere, interviewed stars and written entries for a book. I have also very recently had the pleasure of filling in as temporary host on 'Flick's Flicks', which has been another new and enjoyable exercise.

But (more interestingly for everyone who isn't me) 2010 has also been a very good year for films so far. My friend and fellow film writer, Dennis, today asked me what my top ten films of the year would be up to this point and this has proven a difficult task.



There have been lots of "good" films this year to choose from. Films like the enjoyable 'Kick-Ass' and the extraordinary 'Dogtooth' have failed to make my final list. I could also have put the re-issue of 'Rashomon' in the list (and it would have been very high up) but decided against it. The Cuban boxing documentary 'Sons of Cuba' could just as easily have found its way into the top ten, as could Chris Morris' hilarious 'Four Lions'. It also pains me to leave out Disney's 'The Princess and the Frog' which I really loved every traditionally animated second of.

Anyway, my final list is as follows:

10) Life During Wartime (Solondz/USA)
9) The Father of My Children (Hansen-Løve/FRA)
8) Lebanon (Maoz/ISR)
7) Cemetery Junction (Gervais and Merchant/UK)
6) Capitalism: A Love Story (Moore/USA)
5) Ponyo (Miyazaki/JAP)
4) Greenberg (Baumbach/USA)
3) No One Knows About Persian Cats (Ghobadi/IRN)
2) Micmacs (Jeunet/FRA)
1) The Happiest Girl in the World (Jude/ROM)

These may not be anything like the objective "best" of the year (if such a thing exists), but they are probably the ones which have stuck in my mind and impressed me the most. They also all moved me, many of them to tears. I think there are two big reasons why 'The Happiest Girl in the World' has emerged as an unlikely winner so far this year. The first is that I had no expectations going into the film. Absolutely none. It was able to surprise me. The second is that it is a film of patience and with a simple premise. There are few actors, one setting and the premise is explored fully as a result. The characters are multi-layered and their motivations interesting. The film can also be taken as a look at contemporary post-Communist Romanian society or of the film industry as a whole - and equally could be read as neither.



'Micmacs' was purely joyful from start to finish, though I know many people who really hated it so I think it is a Marmite experience. Regardless, I left it buzzing. 'Persian Cats' hit me a bit like 'Happiest Girl' and came from out of nowhere to really leave an impression upon me. 'Greenberg' hit a nerve with me and I found myself relating to it in a similar way to how I did when I saw Baumbach's 'The Squid and the Whale'.

'Ponyo' is Miyazaki, so it is splendid from start to finish. Michael Moore is as polemical as ever in 'Capitalism', but I agree with him, so I guess I don't mind. I really felt moved by some of the stuff in it too. Especially the part where he explains how FDR backed a group of striking workers and sent in the army to protect them from the police. 'Cemetery Junction' is the most American British film ever made - in a really good way. A fresh and exciting look at British youth that refuses to ignore 1970s social issues, but refuses to be depressing and really feels like Reading's answer to 'American Graffiti'.

'Lebanon' is a fantastic account of the brutality of war from the inside of a tank. Again, like 'Happiest Girl' it is one idea used to its maximum potential and effectiveness. The fact that it is based on the director's real experiences makes it even more vital and compulsive viewing. 'Father of My Children' takes a non-judgmental, un-sentimental look at a suicide: both the cause and the aftermath. And 'Life During Wartime' is daring and strikes exactly the right comic note in uncomfortable territory.



This is how I feel tonight. Who knows? I may change my mind entirely by the end of the year and many of these films may not feature in my 2010 poll. Some may be higher up and others may enter the list which have so far been left out. But I suppose these lists can really only ever be a platform for discussion and an interesting diversion. Hopefully it may also have encouraged you to check out a few movies you may not have considered. If that happens on even one occasion I will have been proud to invest the time in making it. Probably because it didn't take that long.

I can't wait to see what the rest of 2010 has to offer. Come back in January to find out where things stand when it's all behind us.

'They Who Step on the Tiger's Tail' review: A brief, but thoroughly enjoyable, early Kurosawa film...

Here is a follow-up to yesterday's post regarding my trip to see a very rare early Kurosawa film at the BFI Southbank. I didn't know quite what to expect from the 1945 film 'They Who Step on the Tiger's Tail' but I was really pleasantly surprised by what I saw tonight. One of the few things I knew about the film before going in was that it based on an old 12th Century Japanese tale and uses aspects of Nah and Kabuki theatre adaptations in its telling. I worried slightly that this may be alienating or (frankly) boring to watch, but actually the film was really well paced and consistently entertaining. Of course, it helped that it ran at a brisk 58 minutes in length.

'They Who Step on the Tiger's Tail' really feels like the simple, effective telling of an age-old tale. What surprised me the most was that, despite the fact the film pre-dates his "golden period", many of Kurosawa's trademark shots and techniques are visible here. There are screenwipes, quick cuts between multiple protagonists and even many of his consistent themes are invoked (humanist values, criticism of traditional values and the emphasis on male characters). Furthermore, the film features a number of actors he would later rely on such as Masayuki Mori ('Rashomon', 'The Idiot', 'The Bad Sleep Well'), Susumu Fujita ('Yojimbo', 'The Hidden Fortress') and the great Takashi Shimura (too many to mention, most famously 'Ikiru' and 'Seven Samurai').

As I wrote yesterday, I couldn't pass up the chance to see this rarely screened film which is unavailable on DVD (at least in the UK). I wondered what the quality of the print would be like for this movie and when it started it was plain to see not only that this piece of film had been around since the film's US release in 1952, but that it was an American version. For one thing the subtitles looked like they had been scratched directly onto the film and, more obviously, the opening credits and titles were all in English. There was also a three page forward giving the context of the story and telling us that "this is a story which is loved by the Japanese". Sometimes the sound went and even the picture cut out at other times, but I found that strangely charming. After seeing the remastered splendour of 'Rashomon' the week before, it was sort of nice to see what a used and abused print looked like. It was a great advert for the likes of Martin Scorsese, who tell us frequently about the need to restore and maintain older films. Hopefully somebody will do the same for this movie before it is worn out of existence!



This is not to criticise the BFI at all. They deserve kudos for finding and screening such an unsung and obscure film as this as part of their Kurosawa season. The screening (admittedly in one of the smaller screens) was pleasingly quite well attended too and the movie played to a good atmosphere, with the comedy of contemporary comedian Kenichi "Enoken" Enomoto going down a storm. Enoken is really exaggerated and campy throughout but his porter character (introduced to the tale by Kurosawa) is what makes the film satirical, as he undermines the heroism and traditional values of the party of soldiers he is in service of. Displaying all the cowardice and opportunism of the lowly pair later seen in 'The Hidden Fortress', the porter delightfully contradicts the earnest Bushido of the rest of the film.

I don't usually go in for plot synopsis here, but seeing as this film is so hard to come by it might be a good idea. Basically, a group of warriors are disguised as travelling monks in order to escort their lord safely into another territory as he is on the run after a dispute with the ruling clan (in another plot element reminiscent of 'The Hidden Fortress'). However, they are expected at the checkpoint barrier and the film mainly involves a stand-off between the head warrior (Captain Beneki, played by the wonderful Denjiro Okochi) and the barrier guard (Togashi, played by Fujita) as he attempts to convince him that the group are the monks they claim to be. It is sometimes funny, sometimes actually very tense and always gripping stuff.

When the barrier guards recognise one of the porters as the wanted lord, Beneki trashes his master with a stick, supposedly to discipline him for being slow. Convinced that a warrior would never beat his master the barrier guard agree to let the men pass. Apparently the debate among Japanese fans of the old tale is whether Togashi knows that Beneki is lying or not, perhaps deciding to let him pass regardless. However here, in this telling, I believe Kurosawa has Togashi convinced by the beating, so stuck is he in an old code of honour now obsolete. Or at least, if not wholly convinced, Beneki breaks all the rules and Togashi is socially unable to accuse another man of his class of that dishonesty and ultimate shame. To deal with his shame at beating his master (in order to save his life) Beneki is shown to drink a barrel full of sake, much like Toshiro Mifune's Kikuchiyo does in 'Seven Samurai' after his own shameful episode.



Despite its brevity there is a lot to take in after watching 'They Who Step on the Tiger's Tail', a complex and thoroughly entertaining film. I had expected to find myself appreciating it more than liking it and had hoped to see the genesis of some of Kurosawa's later work represented in this early film. Instead what I was treated to was a film full of such moments, but which also worked completely in its own right. It was made quite cheaply and is entirely set-bound (with painted exterior backdrops), but it is quite atmospheric all the same thanks to Kurosawa's direction and the photography of Takeo Itô (who later worked on 'Drunken Angel'). Enoken's rampant over-acting may grate with some, so (intentionally) at odds is it with the rest of the piece, but if you get the chance to see it some time in the future then I would recommend you spend 58 minutes watching 'They Who Step on the Tiger's Tail'. Especially if you appreciate Kurosawa's later work.

'They Who Step on the Tiger's Tail' is currently exempt from classification by the BBFC. However, with the complete absence of shown violence or any bad language it would comfortably receive a 'U' in my opinion.

Retrospective Review: 'Punch-Drunk Love'

Here is the first in a planned series of retrospective reviews of some of favourite movies. I have chosen to start this series with a look at a movie which is depicted in this blog's heading and which I have frequently mentioned in my posts:



‘Punch-Drunk Love’ (2002) is the fourth feature film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and stars Adam Sandler, who became a major box-office draw in the latter half of the 1990’s with broad and brash man-child comedies like ‘The Waterboy’ (1998) and ‘Big Daddy’ (1999). But it should come as no surprise that ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ isn’t a slapstick comedy farce, however, as Anderson had come to prominence with such bold and unusual films as ‘Boogie Nights’ (1997) and ‘Magnolia’ (1999) and would go on to make the dark, satirical oil-epic ‘There Will Be Blood’ (2007), which was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar at the 80th Academy Awards and also earned Anderson a nomination for directing (although it was defeated in both categories by the Coen brothers’ ‘No Country For Old Men’).

‘Punch-Drunk Love’ is not an easy film to summarise, although the surface level “plot” is admittedly rather slender. Barry Egan (Sandler) is a nervous and isolated man who is unable to express himself emotionally, a fact which leads to sudden fits of violent rage (a typical Sandler archetype, though played much darker here). Barry soon meets Lena (Emily Watson) and they share a mutual attraction, but Barry feels uncomfortable talking to women and avoids the situation. To confront this issue Barry takes the step of calling a sex hotline, however this leads the hotline’s supervisor (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) to attempt to blackmail Barry, with violent repercussions for everyone involved. Against this fraught backdrop Barry and Lena begin a romance. Explaining the story like this will give you some idea of what happens, but very little idea what the film is about.



Whilst Todd McCarthy of Variety found the film to be “marked by audacious strokes of directorial bravado” and Roger Ebert found it “exhilarating”, some critics were less enthusiastic when the film was released, with Lawrence Toppman of the Charlotte Observer expressing the belief that “‘Punch-Drunk Love’ buries a terrific performance by Adam Sandler under a heap of faux cleverness, meaningless symbolism and irritating mannerisms.” The accusations of “meaningless symbolism” and “faux cleverness” are probably directed at the way Anderson’s film uses symbols and visual motifs to represent feelings and themes. For example, early on in the film Barry witnesses a massive, unexplained, unrealistic (and never again referenced) car crash, which is immediately followed by a taxi cab leaving a harmonium on the sidewalk. For me, the car crash represents Barry’s heightened anxiety at the outside world, which he is afraid of and unable to relate to, and the harmonium becomes a method of catharsis during the film's most stressful moments, representing beauty and a reason to keep on. These moments serve to make ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ a genuinely cinematic experience with Anderson painting on a large canvas, covering the emotional rather than the literal.

The real triumph of ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ is that the viewer is forced to experience Barry’s emotional state and to see situations through his eyes. For example, in an early scene Barry attends a gathering with his seven sisters in which he loses the plot and completely destroys a glass patio door. Nothing the sisters say during this sequence is malicious or intended to rile Barry at all, in fact his sisters can’t understand why he acts the way he does towards them. However, the scene is cleverly devised so that the viewer experiences what they are saying the way Barry does: the sisters are loud and their voices overlap as they tell stories about his childhood which they think are amusing and endearing but which he interprets as a personal attack. When he destroys the glass door it is without question a disturbing, seemingly unprovoked overreaction, but one which we are made to understand and empathise with due to the mounting anxiety and hysteria created by the mood to the sequence.



The experience of watching ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ is visceral, emotional and often horribly tense, thanks in no small part to (frequent Anderson collaborator) Jon Brion, whose excellent score plays a huge part in creating the film’s atmosphere which can change quickly from terrified anxiety to pure elation, often within moments. Likewise the cinematography of Robert Elswit (who has worked on every film of Anderson’s since 1996’s ‘Hard Eight’) is breathtaking. The film’s use of colour is stunning with a muted blue colour palette, which contrasts brilliantly with some of the later scenes which display a much more intense, bright and sharply defined use of colour. These elements compliment the stunning multi-coloured visual interludes designed by the late Jeremy Blake, which feel as though they are being painted by Jon Brion’s music. All these elements complement each other so wonderfully that ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ is perhaps the most perfect movie yet by a director who seems destined to be hailed as an American master.