THE BEST OF 2004
The most common characteristic of these 10 films (12, actually, since one selection is a
trilogy) is the strong acting. Two, however, are director showcases - one a
documentary, and the other an homage to movies. Unfortunately, only one selection
has had a wide release. Many of the others have been screened in only a handful of
U.S. cities. Currently, four are available on DVD and VHS. Keep an eye out for the rest
throughout the year.
BRIGHT LEAVES (First Run Features)
Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee returns to his North Carolina home where
he delves into his family's legacies, one denied and one gained. According to familial
lore, tobacco baron James D. Duke stole a patent from McElwee's great-grandfather.
Perhaps denied a king's ransom, the McElwees inherit a "pathological trust fund" by
becoming a family of doctors. Effortlessly entertaining, the film lightly boomerangs from
one tangent to the next: the history behind the Hollywood melodrama Bright Leaf
with Patricia Neal, who also appears in the film, and the last of the Tobacco Parades.
It's the small details that will be fondly remembered.
COWARDS BEND THE KNEE (Zeitgeist)
Revenge tragedy, ghost story, over-the-top melodrama, all set in an off-kilter
Winnipeg within a dab of sperm. Touched with amnesia, hockey star Guy Maddin (the
character, not the director) forgets his pregnant girlfriend and falls for the scheming
Meta (Melissa Dioniso), who seduces Guy (Darcy Fehr) into her plot to kill her father's
murderers. Silent, black and white, briskly-paced, and compact (only 64 minutes) with a
touch of the risqué, this is an excellent introduction to director Guy Maddin's unique
world.
DESERTED STATION (First Run Features)
Here is a heartbreakingly simple day in the life of a young, childless woman from
the big city stranded in a remote village, who becomes a substitute teacher and mother figure for a group of ragtag children. This compassionate film shares
many themes with other recent Iranian films: the clash between modernity and tradition;
the demands on women by society. Its sympathetic message is unimposing as the film
builds towards a rewarding emotional payoff.
DOGVILLE (Lions Gate)
Add this film among the year's most divisive. Fugitive-on-the-run Grace (Nicole
Kidman) seeks refuge in small-town America. Despite its over-the-top artifice which
calls attention to itself (the chalkboard set, minimal props, mimed actions, and a
constantly roving hand-held camera) the film is oddly compelling. It has been referred to
as a cynical take-off of Thornton Wilder's play Our Town. Like that perennial,
don't be surprised to see this mounted on a stage. Director Lars von Trier's linear
writing, with its sharp dialogue and irony-laden narration, could easily be transferred to
the stage. Although a bit long, there are many scenes that hold your attention: a late
night call paid to Grace by three avenging women, her ill-fated escape attempt, and the
climax. Holding the film together is Nicole Kidman's restrained performance.
(DVD/VHS)
MARIA FULL OF GRACE (Fine Line/HBO Films)
Beautifully detailed, Joshua Marston's debut feature follows the empathetic
18-year-old Maria. Fleeing the economic barren backwoods of Columbia, she becomes
a drug mule, swallowing over 40 pellets of cocaine before embarking on a flight to New
York. Less an exposé of immigration than a fully-drawn portrait, the flawed central
character (confidently played by newcomer Catalina Sandino Moreno) makes the film
consistently compelling. She is among a cast that never hits a false note.
(DVD/VHS)
THE MOTHER (Sony Pictures Classics)
Understated with a stiff-upper lip yet rough-edged (filmed in 16mm), Roger
Michell's caustic take on the British family centers on a sixty-something widow's affair
with a man 30 years her junior (who also happens to be the boyfriend of her neurotic
daughter). Set in booming contemporary London, her sexual awakening causes her
dysfunctional family to be united only in its disintegration. Besides being visually
arresting (the title character's visit to the Tate Modern is of special note), Hanif
Kureishi's blunt and droll dialogue is a weapon in and of itself. (DVD/VHS)
RED LIGHTS (Wellspring)
Based on the novel by Georges Simenon, this is a thriller where the nightmare
continues into the day. A bourgeois and bickering Parisian couple's trip to the country
takes a horrific turn as an escaped convict is on the loose. Jean-Pierre Darroussin is
great as the emasculated husband, whether he's angrily getting drunk or at a loss as to
what step to take next. With music by Claude Debussy and strong acting by the entire
ensemble, this is an engrossingly suspenseful pulpy thriller so elegantly made that its
brutality stands out.
SIDEWAYS (Fox Searchlight)
Through California wine country, one man sows his oats, while the other licks his
wounds. Director Alexander Payne's wry road trip of two soon-to-be middle-aged, yet
infantile men smoothly careens from all-out farce to wonderfully subtle drama.
Thin-skinned and temperamental Miles (the manic Paul Giamatti) looks up to (when he
is not repelled by) his longtime and probably only friend, the swaggering Jack (Thomas
Haden Church). Jack has such a strong need to prove he's still a Lothario that he's
funny because he is so obvious.
SINCE OTAR LEFT... (Zeitgeist)
Unlike in The Mother, a family who lies to each other stays together. A sickly
and stubborn Eka (Esther Gorintin) lives in cramped quarters with her bickering
daughter and her peacemaking granddaughter. Motivated by the best of intentions, the
latter two keep Eka in the dark regarding the fate of her beloved son Otar, who has
gone abroad for work. With rich characters and a lucid telling by director Julie
Bertuccelli in her feature film debut, this bittersweet intergenerational drama remains
emotionally involving even after a second viewing. (DVD/VHS)
THE TRILOGY (Magnolia)
With a total running length of nearly six hours, The Trilogy is ideal for home
viewing. Made up of three films - On the Run, An Amazing Couple, and After
the Life, released in the U.S in that order - this series features the crème de la
crème of French actors: Lucas Belvaux, also the director and writer; Gilbert Melki;
Catherine Frot; Ornella Muti, and Dominique Blanc as one of the most thoroughly
convincing junkies ever. It begins with a bang as a former student activist escapes from
prison, out to continue his violent political crusade and settle scores in On the
Run. As a rambunctious martial farce propelled by misunderstandings, An
Amazing Couple is quite the change of pace. And in After the Life, a cop is
caught between catching the aforementioned escapee and a drug lord, who is
the supplier for the cop's heroine-addicted wife. Although this is the most logical order, the films will
nevertheless feel like a jigsaw puzzle. The relationships and subplots will not come fully
into focus until the end (regardless of order). While viewing the second and third films,
it's as if the audience has an omnipresent foreknowledge of the characters,
relationships, and events. This is especially true as many scenes are repeated from
one film to the next from a different point of view, and as story lines overlap and characters intersect.
Kent Turner, Film Review Editor
