Every 10 years, Sight & Sound magazine names the 10 best films of all time. While the recent announcement of the latest Top 10 has led to much controversy - Vertigo dethroning Citizen Kane as #1 all time - I decided to make my own "best films" list. These lists - no matter who makes them - are always so subjective that it's wise to take them with a grain of salt. Not only is there no tangible criteria for deciding such a list, but also it's extremely hard to not be biased by including one's own personal favorites in it. Thus, my list below does not necessarily mean my 10 favorite movies, but rather the 10 that I consider to be the most well-made - films where the director, writers, actors, etc. just got everything right, films that have made a significant artistic and/or cultural impact. At first, the list consisted of over 50 films, but somehow I (painfully) narrowed it down to just 10, leaving out some films that I hold near and dear to my heart.
10. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
9. Network (Sidney Lumet)
8. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
7. The Searchers (John Ford)
6. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
5. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Chinatown (Roman Polanski)
3. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
2. The Godfather Part I & II (Francis Ford Coppola)
1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
Keep in mind, this list is very incomplete because I'm still young and naive in terms of film diversity. I've only seen two Hitchcock movies, but fear not, I'm taking a class in the fall that's solely devoted to the guy. This is just a compilation of the films I've seen so far, so perhaps next year (and every year after that) my list will be completely different. It's funny how your opinion of a film can change as you get older. Maybe in 20 years something as odious as The King's Speech will be my new #1 (doubtful). You may notice that there's only one foreign film on the list - the reason is that I just haven't seen that many international films yet.
Tomorrow, along with Shot of the Week, I'll be posting commentaries on each of these films, plus Honorable Mentions that barely missed making the list.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Friday, August 3, 2012
Shot of the Week: The Brave Men Stay
Everybody loses the thing that made them. The brave men stay and watch it happen. They don't run.
God, what a struggle I had with this. So many incredible shots in this film - which I chose for reasons stated in my review below - and yet, like Highlander, there can be only one.
As her father lay dying and fellow residents flee, Hushpuppy goes against the grain (when does she not, honestly) and stands up to the monstrous Aurochs. She stares one of them right in the face, and a haunting silence ensues until the beast kneels before her out of respect. Hushpuppy faces the Auroch because she faces the death of her father - "the one who made her". She faces the end of her community, her way of life in The Bathtub, which also had a hand in "making" her. She doesn't run from the uncontrollable forces of nature and death that threaten these things, she stays and watches them happen. The massive problems that threaten her manifest themselves in the Aurochs, and at this moment in the film, we come to realize that Hushpuppy can and will face whatever the universe throws at her.
Aesthetically, the image is beautifully lit, and I was particularly impressed by the visual effects in creating the mythical beasts with such a small budget.
God, what a struggle I had with this. So many incredible shots in this film - which I chose for reasons stated in my review below - and yet, like Highlander, there can be only one.
As her father lay dying and fellow residents flee, Hushpuppy goes against the grain (when does she not, honestly) and stands up to the monstrous Aurochs. She stares one of them right in the face, and a haunting silence ensues until the beast kneels before her out of respect. Hushpuppy faces the Auroch because she faces the death of her father - "the one who made her". She faces the end of her community, her way of life in The Bathtub, which also had a hand in "making" her. She doesn't run from the uncontrollable forces of nature and death that threaten these things, she stays and watches them happen. The massive problems that threaten her manifest themselves in the Aurochs, and at this moment in the film, we come to realize that Hushpuppy can and will face whatever the universe throws at her.
Aesthetically, the image is beautifully lit, and I was particularly impressed by the visual effects in creating the mythical beasts with such a small budget.
Review: Beasts of the Southern Wild
I FINALLY got around to seeing Sundance and Cannes indie hit Beasts of the Southern Wild, a swampy backwoods folk tale made on a shoestring budget by first-time director Benh Zeitlin and featuring a cast of nonprofessional actors in the Lake Charles, Louisiana area. That's the problem with not being in NY or LA - you have to wait centuries before an indie movie comes to your area. Only three more weeks til I'm back at school though. Alas, here's my take on the film.
One of the most important things I learned about cinema was taught to me by a film professor named Drew Casper. He said that the purpose of cinema is to transport you to another world and place you in a life, a person, a story that you have never seen or experienced before. Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild, to me, fits this description beautifully. The film is pure magic, like watching poetry on screen. Cinema, among other things, should be just that - a visual representation of a feeling or thought. Never in my life have I seen this represented so perfectly than when watching this film.
I won't tell you anything about the plot, because it's best if you go into this without knowing anything about it, which is what I did and was truly astounded and surprised by every moment. The film transports you to a community completely cut off from the rest of society, called "The Bathtub" after having been flooded by the construction of a levy to protect the civilized societies from storms. The film's two leads, a little girl named Hushpuppy and her brutish yet loving father Wink, are played beautifully by nonprofessionals Quvenzhane Wallis and Dwight Henry, respectfully.
Wallis is especially brilliant as the film's soulful protagonist, a folk hero raised virtually in the wild who must come to terms with both her father's terminal illness and the ever-changing world around her as The Bathtub becomes subject to overflooding, decay, and the arrival of mythical beasts called Aurochs. These beasts, frozen in ice for thousands of years, have reappeared as a result of the melting of the polar ice caps. A testament to man's effect on nature, the beasts serve as a cautionary consequence of human carelessness and ignorance towards the natural balance of the universe.
If this review seems like a stream-of-consciousness musing on an impossibly complex theme, it's only because this is exactly what Beasts is: a poetic collage of images, words, and sounds that have no straightforward narrative. The film is an absolute mystery in the best way possible - I waited three days after seeing it to write this review because that's how long it took me to really process it. There's so much that Zetilin leaves open to interpretation that each scene and image can be analyzed differently depending on who you ask. Needless to say, the film is ripe with beautiful and haunting moments - Hushpuppy running towards us with sparklers in her hands, facing and ultimately humbling the enormous Aurochs, learning how to catch a fish with her bare hands.
This review, lengthy as it is, still doesn't do the film justice. All I can say is see the film without any knowledge of the plot and let it transport you to another world, a world of magic and poetry and true wonder. The cinematography is gorgeously grimy, the art direction immaculately detailed (it could almost be considered a character of its own in the film), the performances so natural and real that you don't even realize you're watching a film. Hushpuppy's voice-over narration is filled with poetic musings and childlike wonder, and Wink serves as nature incarnate: tough and unforgiving and untamed, but nonetheless nurturing and fiercely protective.
Truly the most original film I have ever had the pleasure of seeing, Beasts is something that is nearly impossible to describe in words. If the goal of cinema is to place the viewer in another world and speak to the human experience, then this film more than accomplishes it. A modern-day folk tale with more imagination in 91 minutes than any other work of art I've seen in my lifetime, Beasts of the Southern Wild proves that great American movies, like the titular Aurochs, are not completely extinct.
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| Hushpuppy on her daddy's makeshift boat |
I won't tell you anything about the plot, because it's best if you go into this without knowing anything about it, which is what I did and was truly astounded and surprised by every moment. The film transports you to a community completely cut off from the rest of society, called "The Bathtub" after having been flooded by the construction of a levy to protect the civilized societies from storms. The film's two leads, a little girl named Hushpuppy and her brutish yet loving father Wink, are played beautifully by nonprofessionals Quvenzhane Wallis and Dwight Henry, respectfully.
Wallis is especially brilliant as the film's soulful protagonist, a folk hero raised virtually in the wild who must come to terms with both her father's terminal illness and the ever-changing world around her as The Bathtub becomes subject to overflooding, decay, and the arrival of mythical beasts called Aurochs. These beasts, frozen in ice for thousands of years, have reappeared as a result of the melting of the polar ice caps. A testament to man's effect on nature, the beasts serve as a cautionary consequence of human carelessness and ignorance towards the natural balance of the universe.
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| Hushpuppy faces an Auroch head on in one of the best moments of the film |
This review, lengthy as it is, still doesn't do the film justice. All I can say is see the film without any knowledge of the plot and let it transport you to another world, a world of magic and poetry and true wonder. The cinematography is gorgeously grimy, the art direction immaculately detailed (it could almost be considered a character of its own in the film), the performances so natural and real that you don't even realize you're watching a film. Hushpuppy's voice-over narration is filled with poetic musings and childlike wonder, and Wink serves as nature incarnate: tough and unforgiving and untamed, but nonetheless nurturing and fiercely protective.
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| Hushpuppy and Wink |
Friday, July 27, 2012
Life of Pi Trailer
Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) is back with this adaptation of Yann Martel's best-selling novel. Obviously the cinematography looks breathtaking and stunning, but can Lee pull off the narrative aspects of this seemingly "unfilmable" work? We'll see when it hits theaters November 21.
Shot of the Week: Why Do We Fall?
Every Friday I'll be posting a shot that I particularly liked, either aesthetically or thematically or both, from a recently-watched film. This week's entry comes from none other than The Dark Knight Rises, a film that I won't review on this site (a little late, plus there's a zillion other reviews already out there) but what I consider to be tied with Moonrise Kingdom as the best of the year so far. For the three of you in the world who haven't seen this movie yet, this shot comes at a pivotal point in the story. Bruce has been placed in a mysterious, hellish underground prison in India and must escape by climbing up a pit in order to save Gotham from Bane - only one person has ever accomplished this climb.
If you remember Batman Begins, the first of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, you'll instantly recognize this shot as a mirror image of the well in which a young Bruce Wayne fell. "Why do we fall, sir?" asks Alfred - the answer being in order to pick ourselves back up. In Begins, Bruce is trapped in the well and terrified by the swarm of bats inhabiting it. In Rises, Bruce must learn not to overcome his fear, but control it to his advantage. This shot represents Bruce climbing up the depths of his fear and "picking himself up" in order to save Gotham, and not only is it beautifully lit but it also displays the sheer brilliance of Nolan in making his Batman trilogy. There are so many elements and shots in TDKR that harken back to the previous two installments, leading one to believe that Nolan - and thus the audience - is treating this trilogy not as three separate films, but rather one complete story.
If you remember Batman Begins, the first of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, you'll instantly recognize this shot as a mirror image of the well in which a young Bruce Wayne fell. "Why do we fall, sir?" asks Alfred - the answer being in order to pick ourselves back up. In Begins, Bruce is trapped in the well and terrified by the swarm of bats inhabiting it. In Rises, Bruce must learn not to overcome his fear, but control it to his advantage. This shot represents Bruce climbing up the depths of his fear and "picking himself up" in order to save Gotham, and not only is it beautifully lit but it also displays the sheer brilliance of Nolan in making his Batman trilogy. There are so many elements and shots in TDKR that harken back to the previous two installments, leading one to believe that Nolan - and thus the audience - is treating this trilogy not as three separate films, but rather one complete story.
I'm Back
Yes, after a disconcertingly long hiatus mainly due to laziness and lack of motivation, your favorite film school student/struggling screenwriter/occasional blogger is back. I decided to revive Film Schooled from the dead (which was accomplished by saying "Beetlejuice" three times) because my two older sisters have started their own blogs/companies and repeatedly urged me to continue mine. So, here I am. To all four of you who followed me faithfully last year, I'm sorry for dropping off the face of the earth, and I hope we can still be friends. So basically, this is my official announcement that you all should start reading my blog again because, like Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Rises, I'm back from the dead and ready to save Gotham. Well, not Gotham, but rather naive filmgoers.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
First Article
Here's a link to my first article for At the Movies, the online blog of the Daily Trojan.
http://dailytrojanbeta.com/2011/08/30/it-takes-two-festivals-to-kick-off-oscar-season/
http://dailytrojanbeta.com/2011/08/30/it-takes-two-festivals-to-kick-off-oscar-season/
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