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| Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale in Whit Stillman's Love & Friendship. Photo by Bernard Walsh, courtesy of Amazon Studios and Roadside Attractions |
With so many films out there these days, the independents
are working overtime and overall they’re delivering. It’s a year for hidden
gems and festival favourites. Aside from Hail,
Caesar!, all of 2016’s top films are from artists working outside the
system. (Even the Coens, outsiders turned insiders themselves, are lampooning
the studios from within with their very funny throwback.) So three cheers for
the risk takers in Canada and abroad!
At this point last year, half of the films I listed here
ended up making my picks for the top ten films of 2015. (Phoenix, Sunshine Superman, Far from the Madding Crowd, In Her Place,
and What Happened, Miss Simone?) I
hope that some of these films hold in there, and I suspect a few of them will,
while at least one of the festival films from this year will undoubtedly make
the Top Ten if it comes out by December. There’s no clear favourite among the
films of the year so far, although Love
& Friendship and Into the Forest
are probably at the top, so there’s lots of wiggle room in the months to come!
Here are my picks for the best films of the year so far in
alphabetical order:
(Please note that I’m counting Les êtres chers and Sleeping
Giant as 2015 releases since the former opened in Quebec in November and
the latter had a qualifying run in Toronto in December.)
2 Nights Till Morning
is a must see for fans of the Before
Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight trilogy. This intimate two-hander from
writer/director Mikko Kuparinen sets the courtship between Caroline
(Marie-Josée Croze) and Jakko (Mikko Nousianinen) within an extended layover in
Lithuania during the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull
in Iceland. The ash clouds let the two travellers feel grounded again in this
Finnish-Lithuanian co-pro as they find a common passion in escaping their
commitments from the world and enjoying company that doesn’t revolve around
schedules, emails, and meetings. Croze gives her best performance since her
Cannes-winning turn in The Barbarian
Invasions, enveloping the viewer in Caroline’s mysterious seductiveness and
cautious longing, and Nousianinen is
every bit her equal as the two create a screen team, which, like Jesse and
Celine, is worth revisiting.
(2 Nights Till Morning is now screening
in Quebec.)
Tilda Swinton and Luca Guadagnino deliver on the
expectations they set with 2010’s ravishing I
am Love. The pair enjoys a second round of Italian sexytime with A Bigger Splash, which feels like a film
that one might have seen from the masters of European art cinema in the 1960s
and 70s. The film’s languid pace soaks up the sun and simmers with the
turbo-charged hormones of summer heat as Swinton’s mute rock-star recuperates
from throat surgery by the seaside with her beau (Matthias Schoenaerts), her
excruciatingly boorish ex (Ralph Fiennes), and his sexpot of a daughter (Dakota
Johnson). A Bigger Splash smoulders
until it reaches the boiling point of its unexpected climax, but the biggest
surprise here is Fifty Shades of Grey
star Dakota Johnson, who goes toe-to-toe with Tilda and nearly steals the show.
(A Bigger Splash
is currently playing in theatres.)
Jean-Marc Vallée does it again with Demolition, a bold deconstruction of masculinity that offers one of
Jake Gyllenhaal’s stronger performances. The only drawback to Demolition is that the subject matter echoes
Vallée’s own Wild, which was my pick
for the best film of 2014 and might be my favourite film of the past few years,
so it’s a great study in the pros and cons of authorship while also being a
great film in its own right. To Vallée’s credit, he finds a unique voice for
this character study into the wild wilderness of grief, since Demolition recalls his earlier
performance-driven works like C.R.A.Z.Y.
rather than his trilogy of kaleidoscopically edited films Café de flore, Dallas Buyers Club, and Wild. Demolition also
showcases Vallée’s strong hand with actors since Gyllenhaal’s laudable turn
finds an equal in Naomi Watts’s offbeat customer service agent, and their chemistry
saves a convoluted plot, while newcomer Judah Lewis is a remarkable discovery.
(Demolition comes
to DVD/Blu-ray on August 9.)
It’s funny. Dheepan
totally reminds me of a movie that I would have watched for a course I took
during grad school in which we studied films about migration. This trip back to
the outskirts of Paris, or a “return journey” to the banlieues (to use some film class jargon), is one case that really
makes me nostalgic for my studying days, not to mention appreciative of the
ways in which one teacher’s passion for film shapes the way one looks at movies
forever. This new film from Jacques Audiard, last year’s winner of the Palme
D’Or at Cannes, offers an explosive study of one “family” and its struggle to
integrate into a new country. Dheepan
shows that a person doesn’t simply shed his or her past life upon arriving in a
new land. Home isn’t a place: it’s a mindset.
(Dheepan is
currently in a very limited release in theatres.)
This zany comedy from the Coen Brothers really deserves a
second chance during its home video life. The film came out on the heels of
this year’s conversation about diversity in film and faced some rather unfair
charges of racism for its star-studded cast of white people. This satire of the
classic era of Tinseltown, and of the studio system politics that make
Hollywood the mess it is today, hilariously sends up the dream machine and the
images it creates. To cry foul over the casting is to miss the point, for
Hollywood whitewashing was in full force in the days of prestige Biblical
epics, Communist parables, gun-slinging ham actors, and sailor-suited musicals.
It still disappoints me that the Coens didn’t go for broke and feature Brad
Pitt, suffering on the cross as a blond, Caucasian Jesus, as the money shot of Hail, Caesar! But a goofy Josh Brolin
and gossipy Tilda Swinton, channelling the ghost of Hedda Hopper and the spirit
of Nikki Finke, do just splendidly.
(Hail, Caesar! is
now on home video.)
Into the Forest
marks a welcome return to the big screen for Patricia Rozema. Following a brief
hiatus and some work in TV, Rozema’s first feature film in seven years is also
one of her best. The Canuck director is the perfect fit for this sparse, atmospheric,
and Margaret Atwood-y dystopian drama that resonates with the spirit of
sisterhood. Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood are in top form as two sisters
battling the elements in a game of survival, cut off from the world and
contemporary conveniences, when a disaster leaves them stranded at their home
in the woods. The backstory of Into the
Forest is lean and the tone is aptly allegorical: nature is something wild,
beautiful, and terrifying—and man in his most basic form is just as brutal a
force.
(Into the Forest is
now in theatres.)
KONELĪNE: our land beautiful
If Into the Forest
leaves any doubt that nature is something wild, beautiful, and terrifying, then
Nettie Wild’s jaw-droppingly cinematic KONELĪNE,
which won a well-deserved prize for Best Canadian Feature at Hot Docs, captures
the full force of nature with unparalleled scope and power. Too few
environmental documentaries harness the majesty of the Canadian landscape in
all its cinematic grandeur and Wild takes the audience deep into the forest, up
into the Rockies, through the grasslands, and into the contentious areas where
roadblocks and resource extraction efforts wage war to immerse the audience
fully in the beauty and complexity of nature. KONELĪNE conveys a landscape worth preserving with unspoken
urgency. Nature looks so much better on the big screen.
(KONELĪNE: our land
beautiful had a brief run at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto and
plans to tour Canadian screens this fall.)
The Lobster is a
love story after my own heart. This darkly funny dystopian fable offers a droll
take on The Hunger Games for the
smarthouse crowd. Colin Farrell, sporting a push broom and a pudgy gut, stars
as David, a man looking for love so that he may survive the chase of
heteronormative coupling. Dogtooth
director Yorgos Lanthimos directs this subtly humorous satire of social norms,
relationship woes, and adventurous heroes with a hunting game that reduces
humans to animals. The deadpan tone of The
Lobster finds its best asset in Olivia Colman’s scene-stealing turn as the
hotel manager who oversees the rituals at the “resort” with docile English
formality. The film’s flat-out rejection of happily-ever-after, though, might
be the most satisfying finale yet for a love story.
(The Lobster will
be on home video later this summer.)
Whit Stillman throws one hell of a costume party. Love & Friendship is the wittiest
take on Jane Austen to hit the screen in some time. Give credit to Stillman’s Last Days of Disco stars Kate Beckinsale
and Chloë Sevigny for gamely donning the frills and corsets of the Austen era
and sipping tea using the same relish with which they’d throw on some halter-tops
and knock back vodka tonics as yuppies of the New York disco scene. This comedy
of manners hits every beat of Stillman’s signature humour while remaining
wholly faithful to the fashion and cadence of Jane Austen’s work. Love & Friendship dryly comments on
its source material, though, with the shrewd wit of the performances and the
slight tongue-in-cheek tone of the delivery. It savours the words of Jane
Austen and chews them up.
(Love & Friendship
is now in theatres.)
Terence Davis offers a plaintive, working-class tragedy with
the sad romance of Sunset Song. This
sharp and melancholy adaptation of the novel by Lewis Grassic Gibbon probably
makes for a decent double bill with The
Lobster, since it might be one of the most honest, if pessimistic, love
stories in recent times. Agyness Deyn gives a revelatory performance that
deserves to make her a star with her compelling and heartbreaking turn as
Chris, the long-suffering daughter of a domineering Scottish patriarch (Peter
Mullan) at a farm that somehow survives, like resilient a Big Mac forgotten on
a counter. Davies’ sweeping scope eschews melodrama in favour of pain and
spirit, creating a woman who endures and a nation that struggles to find the
same note of goodness and kindness that Chris carries on her shoulders despite
the countless labours that try to break her back. The aptly named Blawearie
might be the last place on earth one expects to find love, but it’s one of the
first places one should visit this year.
(Sunset Song is
now playing in limited release.)
Honourable mentions: Almost Holy, Born to Be Blue, Chi-Raq, The Daughter, Eye in the Sky, The League of Exotique Dancers, Neon Demon, Tempest
Storm, Tickled, Viva, The Waiting Room.
 |
| The Apology |
Aim for the Roses, The Apology, Spirit Unforgettable, Weiner
The Best Lead Performances of the Year so Far:
(In alphabetical order)
Kate Beckinsale, Love
& Friendship
Marie-Josée Croze, 2
Nights Till Morning
Agyness Deyn, Sunset
Song
Elle Fanning, The Neon
Demon
Jasmin Geljo, The
Waiting Room
Richard Gere, TheBenefactor
Jake Gyllenhaal, Demolition
Ethan Hawke, Born to
Be Blue
Helen Mirren, Eye in
the Sky
Tilda Swinton, A
Bigger Splash
The Best Supporting Performances of the Year so Far:
(In alphabetical order)
Cate Blanchett, Knightof Cups
Olivia Colman, The
Lobster
Carmen Ejogo, Born to
Be Blue
Everyone, Hail,
Caesar!
Ralph Fiennes, A
Bigger Splash
Bella Heathcote, The Neon
Demon
Jennifer Hudson, Chi-Raq
Dakota Johnson, A
Bigger Splash
Julianne Moore, Maggie’s Plan
Chloe Sevigny, Love
& Friendship
And some more shout outs to the best so far:
Best Animated Film:
Honourable mention: Finding Dory
Best Cinematography:
The Neon Demon
Honourable mentions: Knight
of Cups, Jane Got a Gun
Best Film Editing:
Knight of Cups
Honourable mention: Into
the Forest
Best Costumes:
Love & Friendship
Honourable mention: Hail,
Caesar!
Best Song/Dance
Sequence:
“Drive It Like You Stole It” – Sing Street
Honourable mention: The sailor number, Hail, Caesar!
Best Onscreen
Punishment:
Children – The Lobster
Best Malickian
Waterfowl:
The random pelican, Knight
of Cups
Most Scrumptious Food
on Film:
So many noms – A
Bigger Splash
Honourable mention: Coffee with butter, to cut the afternoon
cravings – Maggie’s Plan
Best WTF Accent by an
Oscar Winner:
Julianne Moore’s Euro-tinged intellectual – Maggie’s Plan
Honourable mention: Kate Winslet’s “In Russia, we get
paycheck” thing – Triple 9
Best Short Film:
Honourable mention: Oh What a Wonderful Feeling!
Worst Film:
Hologram for a King
Dis-honourable mentions: End of Days, Inc.; Misconduct; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny
Biggest Letdown:
Dis-honourable mentions: Batmanv. Superman, Knight of Cups, De Palma
Hidden Gem:
2 Nights Till Morning
Honourable mentions: Khoya,
Tempest Storm
