private fears in public places Tagged Articles at Cinematical

2007 was an above average year at the movies, far better than the depressing state of 2005 or 2006. And for me it was also the year of the Western. By coincidence I happened to be studying the Western in a graduate course taught by Jim Kitses, who is arguably the #1 Western movie scholar in America. During my semester, 3:10 to Yuma, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and No Country for Old Men opened in theaters, and we studied them in class. Two of these would have made my top ten anyway, but looking at them in-depth gave me even greater pleasure and made me even surer of my choices. Seraphim Falls and There Will Be Blood were also Westerns of a sort, and the number and general high quality of these films make this the strongest year for the genre since the early 1970s, or perhaps even the late 1960s.

The most frustrating thing about the year is that three of my favorite movies didn't qualify for list consideration. David Lynch's Inland Empire opened in 2006 but didn't screen for the San Francisco press until early 2007. (You can look for it on my best-of-the-decade list instead.) Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep is a masterpiece, and an essential part of the history of American cinema. It had its official theatrical debut in 2007, but I decided that its contribution to cinema has more to do with 1977, when it was made, than 2007. Finally, Quentin Tarantino's uncut version of Death Proof was a revelation, and far, far better than the truncated version that most people saw in Grindhouse. It screened at Cannes and then went straight to DVD in the U.S., so it, too, was disqualified. No matter. I came up with ten excellent films anyway.

1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, USA)
Normally I like to save my #1 slot for a film by a proven master, and Dominik is far from that; his only other film, Chopper, failed to prepare me for the astonishing, haunting dreamlike quality of this new film. I have to admit I thought about this movie just about every day since I saw it. It's too easy to label this as a "revisionist Western," since it contributed so many new ideas to the genre. It's by far the best Jesse James movie ever made, and certainly one of the greatest Westerns I've ever seen.

If the merest suggestion of watching a "Jackie Chan movie" sends you scurrying from the room, I don't blame you. The trailer for Rush Hour 3 makes me shudder; in general, his Hollywood films have reinforced the idea that he is a glorified stunt man who is happy to be a goofy, athletic straight man to his co-stars. Even his best Hong Kong films, which far exceed his Hollywood output in both quantity and quality -- and which I personally adore -- leave some indie film fans cold.

My pick of a rather thin week is a little different: Crime Story leaves out most of the action in favor of tension and high powered dramatics. Available for the first time in the US in its original Cantonese-language version, Crime Story features Chan as a detective in a kidnapping case battling a ticking clock and police corruption. It's Chan's best dramatic performance in a picture that simmers with unease. Be sure to watch the new Dragon Dynasty version -- with some nice extras including a commentary featuring director Kirk Wong -- and not the inferior previous release from Buena Vista, which only has an English dub.

A new film from an old master, Alain Resnais' Private Fears in Public Places earned praise from Cinematical's Jeffrey M. Anderson, who put it in perspective: "Resnais is responsible for several official masterworks, Night and Fog (1955), Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) and Last Year at Marienbad (1961) among them. While Private Fears may not live up to their innovation and brilliance, it shows a steady hand and an eye for adapting a stage play into a movie that actually moves." The film received a "metascore" of 77 out of 100 from Metacritic. The DVD is coming out from IFC First Take and appears to be completely bare of any extras, so a rental may suffice.

I saw Michael Moore's Sicko (1 screen) yesterday. But rather than talk about Moore's good points and bad points, or the nature of propaganda, or the broken health care system, or liberals vs. conservatives, I'd like to pick one small moment from the film and expand upon it. After surveying the French health care system and finding it good, Moore asks why the American government and American media want us to hate France so much. "Is it because they're afraid we'll like it?" he wonders?

He has a point. The anti-France sentiment of the last decade or so is based mostly on stupid insults and jokes about surrendering (see last year's brain-dead Flushed Away for an example). It's the type of stuff the class bully comes up with and everyone just goes along. But if we stop for a moment and use our common sense, the French have it pretty good. Aside from the free health care depicted in Sicko, and their apparent longevity (despite their taste for wine, cigarettes and fatty foods), they've got one of the most beautiful cities in the world, great food, landmarks, music, and some of the finest filmmakers in the world.

2007 is now one-third over, and four movies have broken $100 million: 300, Wild Hogs, Ghost Rider and Blades of Glory. Eddie Murphy's Norbit is creeping up on a $100 million score as well. Only Blades of Glory is interesting in the slightest. It's a poorly-directed, uneven comedy, but with plenty of laughs, all thanks to Will Ferrell. I guess I could waste time wondering why people are paying good money to see these so-called movies, but the fact remains that they all opened on more than 3000 screens, and were available for just about everyone in the country to see.

Despite these duds, the year in movies hasn't been so bad so far. I'd rather focus on some of the year's really good entries, the ones that will probably be forgotten eight months from now when the list and awards season starts all over again. I haven't been able to see it yet, but Syndromes and a Century (1 screen) from Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul should be enlightening. His Mysterious Object at Noon (2000), a beautiful combination of documentary and storytelling, is on my personal list of the best films of the past ten years. His amazing Blissfully Yours (2002), among other things, rolled the credits right in the middle of the movie, and his Tropical Malady (2005) had a gay romance far more tender and engrossing than the more widely celebrated Brokeback Mountain.