Best movies of 2012 so far

BEST MOVIES OF 2012 SO FAR

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Wes Anderson's newest [MOONRISE KINGDOM[ is the best film I've seen so far this year.
It's a lock for a Best Picture nomination. Even now in July.
It's an amazing movie, alright.
A match struck in a dark cave.
My faith in cinema is always tested, but movies like this one bring it all back home.
--Johann.

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I agree with this assessment (July 4, 2012): best American film so far.

BEST AMERICAN MOVIES SO FAR:
MOONRISE KINGDOM (Wes Anderson)
THE MASTER (Paul Thomas Anderson)
COSMOPOLIS (David Cronenberg)
LOOPER (Rian Johnsonj)
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BEST FOREIGN FILMS SO FAR (Including non-US-release)
AMOUR (Michael Haneke 2012)
HOLY MOTORS (Leos Caras 2012)
*SISTER (Ursula Meier)
*RUST AND BONE (Jacques Audiard)
BREATHING (Karl Markovics 2011)
DAY HE ARRIVES, THE (Hong Sang-soo 2011)
DEEP BLUE SEA, THE (Terence Davies 2012)
ELENA (Andrei Zvigentsev)
I WISH (Hirakazu Koreeda)
MISS BALA (Geraldo Naranjo)
NEIGHBORING SOUNDS (Kleber Mendoça Filho 2011)
OSLO, AUGUST 31 (Joachim Trier 2011)
RAID, THE: REDEMPTION (Gareth Evans 2012)

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*No US theatrical release yet (August 31, 2012)

I was disappointed by DAMSELS IN DISTRESS (Whit Stillman) , but I will give it some kind of mention due to my admiration for Whit.

GOOD PROSPECTS? NOT YET OUT

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (Benh Zeitlin) - OUT - SHORTLIST, NOT TOP LIST
COSMOPOLIS (Cronenberg) - OUT Aug. -- very much liked.
DARK KNIGHT RISES (Christopher Nolan) -
GRANDMASTERS (Wong Kar-wai)
GRAVITY (Alfonso Cuaron)
GREAT GATSBY (Baz Luhrman)
ROAD, THE (John Hilcoat) -
SAVAGES (Oliver Stone) - NOW OUT - FORGET IT
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)
TAKE THIS WALZ (Sarah Polley) -- NOW OUT -- A TURNOFF
CLOUD ATLAS (Wathowskys, Tom Tykwer) -- interesting, not top ten

Polley's, Stone's, Nolan's, Hillcoat's and Zeitlin's are coming this summer, but LOOPER is scheduled for Sept,. 28.

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Thanks to Peter for getting the site up so quickly when there was a glitch today (July 9, '12)

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SAVAGES certainly didn't pan out. I still need to see TAKE THIS WALTZ, which opened here last week.

Armond White has his mid-year assessment list of movies. This has reminded me I forgot THE DEEP BLUE SEA, which I have added above. Here are his top rated films:

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Pantheon Directors
Unforgivable (Andre Techine)–a tumultuous view of private lives as society and society as family.
The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies)–examines the linkage of desire and despair to find the value of personal resurrection.

The Far Side of Paradise
Damsels in Distress (Whit Stillman)–the rare campus comedy genre visits private worlds that reflect the eccentricities we recognize deep down.
Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)–compares the innocence of youth and maturity.
Dark Horse (Todd Solondz)–tragedy found in the comedy of hopes squandered by misguided fashions.
The Skinny (Patrik-Ian Polk)–clarifies the blur of sex and friendship that gay-life faces straight-on.
A Thousand Words (Brian Robbins)–a Hollywood satire so casually profound it scared off the industry and its fans.

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He also mentions CHRONICLE, GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING, and the (here) still awaited BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD.

DARK HORSE is coming to the Bay Area July 20. There is a SFFS preview with the director present that I may attend July 19.

I don't feel I have seen enough of the films released this year to give an authoritative answer to the topic. Lately I watch at least as many silents as I watch new releases, to be honest. However, I really like three movies you listed and they are
The Deep Blue Sea,
The Day He Arrives
and Elena.

By the way, I think it's cool that White's list borrows ranked categories from Sarris in what constitutes an homage to the recently deceased writer of "The American Cinema".

I watched a couple of "minimalist" films at the local fest that I liked a lot and will not be released commercially: The Last Christeros (Mexico) and Las Acacias (Argentina).

Another film I liked a lot which does have a chance to get distribution is Violeta by Andres Wood (remember Machuca?)

The best two films I have seen this year that have a distributor and a 2012 release date are:
Wuthering Heights by Andrea Arnold
Cafe de Flore by Jean Marc Vallee

I appreciate these comments. I haven't gotten to see those last two you mention yet. I certainly want to see The Andrea Arnold. FISH TANK was great and I think it's Fassbender's most intimate, haunting performance. I only know CAFE DE FLORE is French Canadian and C.R.A.Z.Y was unruly but fun. I had to refresh my memory on MACHUCA. I found flaws in it but said it's "essential viewing."

Those three you list are sterling:
THE DAY HE ARRIVES
THE DEEP BLUE SEA
ELENA

Top quality. Directors working at the top of their game.

You know we differed on LAS ACACIAS. I didn't think there was enough to it. But it is much admired at festivals. and by critics. To me FOUND MEMORIES had more substance, and though I wasn't crazy about it either -- magic realism ain't my thing -- the memory of it lingers very clearly.

Actually Armond White wrote a whole tribute to Sarris, whom he admires. What are the categories of his that he echoes though? I didn't realize that.

I can see now that part of my post is redundant. Sorry.
White is placing this year's films in some of the categories used by Sarris to create a typology of directors who had worked in Hollywood: "Pantheon", "the far side of paradise", "expressive esoterica"...
Two new movies I watched recently turned out to be less interesting to me than I had hoped: Corpo Celeste and Americano...
I have high hopes for Philippe Garrel's A Burning Hot Summer, which I will watch Friday night...

Thanks, I didn't know that about Sarris' categories. My ignorance. Must read White's tribute to Sarris.

Americano was terrible, really. I would not get your hopes up for Un été brûlant; it's pretty terrible too. I liked Corpo Celeste quite well. Was I wrong? As I've said I'm happy when anything good comes out of italy moviewise these days. I was ecstatic over The Double Hour, which did win prizes, but some are less impressed.

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Originally Posted by Chris Knipp

Americano was terrible, really. I liked Corpo Celeste quite well. Was I wrong?

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No, you weren't. I realize that Corpo Celeste generally succeeds in giving us a well-observed characterization of a girl at some kind of existential and/or developmental threshold relative to her concept of an after-life and her emergence as a sexual being. Writer/director Alice Rohrwacher knows her protagonist intimately.
However, I thought she has little to say about the world that surrounds her protagonist (unless saying that organized religion has nothing to offer her can be construed as an insight). Corpo Celeste gives too much screen time to the parish priest, a one-note, flat character if I ever saw one. The symbolism at the end of the picture (a crucified Jesus effigy falling off a vehicle into the ocean below, for instance) felt obvious and forced. Not a bad movie and yet it brings to mind a host of films with similar intents that are so much better in my opinion.

Americano is the lesser work, but not terrible until the last reel, when subtlety and coherence are sacrificed for those ole cheap thrills: cruel violence and (female) nudity.

Good points about CORPO CESLESTE which I'd want to take into account I were going to write about it again. It's a good portrait of the girl, and I can see the priest is a flat character, and the whole context is not as three-dimensional as it might be. Still, it grabbed me and held me and I can remember many of the scenes, and it seemed original even while working in a tradition. CORPO CELESTE was just shown June 29-July 5, 2012 at the SF Film Society Cinema, whose presentations I'm trying to promote.

They're having a preview screening of Todd Solondz's DARK HORSE next week, Thurs., July 19, with Solondz himself at hand to answer questions, presumably. I expect to be there. It opens in in San Francisco for a theatrical release July 20. The East Coast film critic elite has already seen it and it's been showing in NYC since June 8. It's a NYTimes Critics Pick, recommended by A.O. Scott.

There are some worthwhile moments in AMERICANO. I thought Selma Hayek was brave. But the whole film got on my nerves.

Great. I'm looking forward to Dark Horse too. I won't get to meet Solondz though...I'd like to also attend their showing of a new 35mm print of Bresson's The Devil, Probably.
At the Cosford, we're excited about three screenings of Japanese classics in 35mm prints which will include Ozu's swan song. I will be introducing one of the films.

I won't go to THE DEVIL, PROBABLY, which I have seen. It's just not that convenient for me to go to the SFFS Cinema to go to everything. BUt I have gone a few times and will continue to go. You're lucky if the Cosford is not out of your way.

Well, SAVAGES was not Best Movies material, TAKE THIS WALTZ was a turnoff. What about BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD? In accord with its Camera d'Or, I'd call it promising newcomer work and unusual, but not (I hope!) in my Top Ten. Some things about it made a lot of movie critics go way overboard on it, but if they wipe the stardust out of their eyes they are going to see some serious flaws in BOTSW as moviemaking and as thinking, despite its amazing starlet and dedicated location shooting.

Hope for these in the New York Film Festival, all from Cannes:

HOLY MOTORS (Leos Carax)
AMOUR (Michael Haneke)
REAUTY (Matteo Garrone)
NO (Pablo Larrain)

(I got my wish on all but Garrone's REALITY -- still not seen as of Nov. 17, 2012.)

Distance is not an issue for me. I have two alternative cinemas within a 2-mile drive and three others within 10 to 12 miles. I'm lucky to live in Miami and it may not last long as I'll probably have to relocate after I get my doctorate. I have high hopes for Sarah Polley's film and look forward to Amour. Haneke is one director who'll be on my mind in the next year since a few of his films are relevant to my dissertation.

A great many films are quite close to me, in Berkeley. But the SFFS Cinema and SFIFF are across the Bay Bridge, which can be a hassle. When I'm in NYC, it's all near at hand.

I remember Mike D'Angelo's Cannes Day Five title, "Get out your Haneke-chiefs, we have a Palme d'Or favorite." And he was right. I know you like Polley but I was not as impressed the first time around, even though it was obviously a good start for a young director. I have to say the subject matter of Away from Her seems profound and important compared to the juvenile, boring young adult behavior considered in Take This Waltz/

What is your dissertation topic again?

http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3068
It remains basically the same idea. The critical approach continues to be a mixture of narrative theory and phenomenology. I plan to write the whole thing in 6 months (November 2012 to April 2013) which may only be possible because of the preparatory work I've been doing for the past year.
I also hope to be able to write some criticism involving films from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. It has become increasingly clear to me over the past few months, while designing a course in Latin American Cinema I am teaching in Spring 2013, that generally speaking mid-20th century Mexican Cinema was as good as the Italian, Japanese, American and French cinema masterpieces of the Post-war period. Part of the reason for this is a general depreciation of Hispanic culture particularly in the US but also genre prejudice against melodrama, a prejudice I have finally expunged.

I see; thanks. Unresolved stories and open-ended narratives in film. Again I'd keep it specific and point out where it works artistically and where it's just incompetence.

Essays on Mexican cinema sounds like a fun idea. There were some early ones we saw at the 2010 NYFF Fernando Fuentes' Mexican revolution trilogy.

In 2006, 25 Mexican film critics were polled to produce a list of the best 100 Mexican films of all time and two of the films from Fuentes' trilogy, Let's Go with Pancho Villa and El Compadre Mendoza were #1 and #3 with Bunuel's Los Olvidados at #2. One thing about Mexican movies before 1960 is that the quality of the cinematography is consistently excellent. Gabriel Figueroa and Alex Phillips are two of the best EVER and they were so prolific. Figueroa won the first of many awards at Venice '36 for Alla en el Rancho Grande, Fuentes' follow-up to the Revolution Trilogy. When Gregg Toland died in 1948, Samuel Goldwyn offered Figueroa an exclusive contract. I'm glad he turned down this offer and stayed in Mexico (although he worked in a few Hollywood productions in the 60s and 70s).

We should see more of them.

I am watching a lot of Mexican movies from the 30s, 40s and 50s on DVD right now. It is really a shame that most of them do not have English subtitles even though they are Region 1 releases. The underlying assumption is that only Spanish-speakers are interested in them. Pity.

I forgot to list THE KID WITH A BIKE, which is at least as good as the three movies I named as "best I've seen so far".

I also liked Oslo, August 31st. I don't know where it would end up on a list of the year's best but I can see why you'd list it. We do disagree about Take this Waltz though, as I pointed out on the film's thread. I was surprised you didn't list The Kid with a Bike, a sure top 10 foreign film for me.

No I know you like Polley. I never have. Less so this time though.

I listed THE KID WITH THE BIKE last year because I saw it twice in theaters last year. So it came out March 2012 in the US, I see that now. It was first on my foreign list. You should list it. I do not dispute that at all. I find it very moving. (I listed MELANCHOLIA as American purposely.)



Chris Knipp's Best Movies of 2011

BEST FOREIGN
The Kid with the Bike (Jean-Pierre, Luc Darnenne)
Incendies (Denis Villeneuve)
Submarine (Richard Ayoade)
Miss Bala (Fernando Naranjo
Tomboy (Céline Sciamma)
Tyrannosaur (Paddy Considine)
Attack the Block (Joe Cornish)
House of Tolerance L'Appolonide (Bertrand Bonello)
Weekend (Andres Haigh)
Queen to Play (Caroline Bottero)

BEST AMERICAN
Tree of Life (Terrence Mallick)
Melancholia (Lars von Traier)
The Descendants (Wes Anderson)
Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)
Moneyball (Bennett Miller)
Martha Marcy May Marlene Sean Durkin
Margin Call (J.C. Chandor)
Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
Crazy, Stupid, Love (Glenn Ficarra, John Requa)
Warrior (Gavin O'Connor)

I'm going to see the Swedish EASY MONEY next Monday. Reviews are goood and it sounds up my alley. HEADHUNTERS was somewhat a disappointment (I might mention that as a runner-up though, as another good recent Scandinavian crime thriller.)

Variety review of EASY MONEY.
Film Forum page on EASY MONEY.

HOLY MOTORS (Carax) and AMOUR (Haneke) will both debut in the US at Film Forum in October and I hope to see them there.

I hope REALITY and Larraín's NO are going to be included in the NYFF.

Audiard's RUST AND BONE, possibly the prestige French directed film of the year, needs a US release or NYFF inclusion but I am not sure that is happening.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is my favorite summer blockbuster by far.

RUBY SPARKS was a pleasant surprise.

EASY MONEY is a good one and could be Best Foreign (US released) material.

THE CAMPAIGN is the worst movie I've seen this year -- so far.

Horrible, horrible movie, tasteless, pointless and lame. Just awful. Critics: low/mixed; Metacritic 49.

All duly noted!

Hope we all get to see them all -- the good ones, that is. HOLY MOTORS will be the trippy, highly debatable one, but not one I'd want to miss now, after Mike D'Angelo's comments on it.

Two recent viewings of note. On the positive side, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, the documentary about the prominent Chinese artist/activist, strikes me as particularly inspiring and important. On the other hand, I was rooting for the film Hermano (Brother) because Venezuela has rarely produced any movies worth mentioning and my hopes were high because it won a triple crown at 2010 Moscow: audience award, critics' award, and the top jury prize. This hybrid gangster film/sports movie shot in the slums of Caracas keeps your interest but it is dramatically inconsistent and ultimately wrongheaded. Nice lensing, performances, and keen sense of location simply not enough to recommend. I notice CK's listing of Miss Bala, which shares thematic elements with Hermano. The Mexican film is better but it's nothing special in my experience, rather superficial in scope, with a protagonist who comes off a bit too sketchy to suit me. I will make a point to see Ruby Sparks when it comes out on DVD. Planning to see the new Cronenberg soon. Right now he is hands down my favorite North American "commercial" director. I count M. Butterfly ('93) as his last failure, perhaps his only failure!

Being an auteurist you will fortunately be strongly inclinned to like COSMOPOLIS! I like it very much, except for the final scene -- Paul Giamatti isn't right for that part -- too strong (one could argue that the book itself is anticlimactic and over-dilatory at that point too). But starting with Cannes it has gotten very mixed reviews, apparently due to several prejudices: a distaste for and misunderstanding of the main character; a loathing toard the star Robert Pattinson for being the teen idol from 'Twilight' and allegedly being incapable of acting; a (to me) inexplicable lack of enthusiasm for the source book by Don DeLillo. I recently read the book and find it terrific -- first time I've really liked DeLillo. And, little though people may care if their minds are already made up, this is one of the most faithful and accurate of recent on screen literary adaptations,, as well as the first time any DeLillo novel has ever been filmed. I would agree Cronenberg hasn't had what you could call failures, though I prefer his more pulp efforts to some of his more serious recent ones. But almost everything he does, he does well for what it is. In the case of COSMOPOLIS everything clicked, starting with the director's natural affinity with DeLillo. I might be wrong, but I think people are eventually going to realize it's better than they knew.

I don't think MISS BALA is to be watched for depth of character portrayal (could its genre roots put you off, despite your protest that genre is fine with you?) but for its sweeping depiction of a passive picaresque survivor/victim's experience. Such characters, as in Fielding's TOM JONES, are not notable for introspection of psychological analysis. The accomplishment is in point of view and narrative technique. It is a technical tour de force. As I've mentioned, Ed Lachman, the cinematographer, was on hand at the screenings and was in awe of the long shots and went back to see MISS BALA a second time to study them. Why not see RUBY SPARKS on the big screen? Do at least see the beautiful, epic COSMOPOLIS that way.

AI WEI WEI may indeed be inspiring and important; the artist himself has certainly risked everything in his campaign to dramatize China's repression of free speech, and he's also a very noted artist (though I had not seen his work). But it's not a particularly outstanding or memorable film. Like so many documentaries it's celebrated for its content,in particularly for its newsworthiness, not its accomplishment as a film. And like so many documentarians, she just got lucky due to events that happened while she was making her mediocre film.

Unfortunately I haven't seen HERMANO. Did you see at at the MFFF? I see limited US release from Aug. 24 is listed, and it showed at Lincoln Center. It got its US debut in the Latin Beat series at the Walter Reade Theater showing Aug. 12, 13 and 14, 2012. And it was the Venezuelan entry in the Oscar Best Foreign competition. But the only name English language publication review I can find, Slant, is pretty reserved: "a well-meaning melodrama, equal parts heartfelt and contrived. . . . [it] ambitions ultimately break even with its mawkish ineptitude, and while the result is certainly more impressive than that of the average underdog sports film, the lingering aftertaste is that of what could have been." However I enjoy young man-coming of age things and will probably like it.

Hermano is having a theatrical run at "my" Cosford Cinema.

Maybe the director of Never Sorry got lucky but so what? The point is that this film is compelling and I don't have any reason to call the film "mediocre". It's a straightforward presentation of the material that follows a clear chronology of events, with a good balance between the private and the public Ai Weiwei.

No doubt you like Miss Bala more than I do. The thin characterization of the protagonist detracted from my interest in the story. Naranjo not among Mexican filmmakers that truly impress me, although I liked his previous film a bit more than this one.

I don't think Ruby Sparks is still in theaters...but Cosmopolis is and I can't wait to check it out.

It is certainly okay to get lucky. It's better than okay. If I seem too harsh on AI WEI WEI, it's as a corrective. It simply does not deserve raves adding up to a Metacritic rating of 81. Documentaries tend to get too much of a free ride. They are rated too much on the merits of the subject matter they take on, not enough on their artistry as films. You can't get away with that on fiction films.

I think Naranjo has grown exponentially from film to film, and the appearance of superficiality of MISS BALA is deceptive because you are looking for the wrong thing. There is a lot there. I liked I'M GONNA EXPLODE a lot too, and I can understand how it might seem more complex to you. MISS BALA is complex too; it's just a completely different sort of film.

Judging by the Metacritic ratings, AI WEI WEI and COSMOPOLIS have been greatly overrated and greatly underrated, respectively; but MISS BALA got a fair shake (81, 59, 80) I hope you'll reassess.

It indeed appears that RUBY SPARKS is not showing anywhere around Miami. It is showing at five theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area, north, east, south, and west.

HERMANO was picked up by Music Box and offered a somet AMC theaters, but it looks like a quickie one-week release at them starting Aug. 24. Not now (Aug. 31) at the big downtown San Francisco AMC 16 cineplex where it listed an Aug. 24 opening. Could Miami be the number one US Spanish language movie market area?

I can't see HERMANO but I can see RED HOOK SUMMER in downtown Berkeley. Not very eager to though. That's an AMC release too.

COSMOPOLIS may not be the best American film of the year (or is it Canadian?) -- I still hold out for MOONRISE KINGDOM for that title -- but it has a better grip on the zeitgeist than any other 2012 release so far (but some people put it down even for that). It's resonant, relevant, and outright brilliant. It's like THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN, which it in some ways resembles (with way less humor though; and I don't think as some do that the film has less humor than the novel). It looks destined for cult status. I'm collecting reviews and online pieces that "get" COSMOPOLIS (book and film). A blog review starts out promisingly: "David Cronenberg’s film version of Don DeLillo’s character-driven novel of the same name is one of the best book adaptations in recent memory." Absolutely true. I found watching the film immediately after reading the novel quite thrilling and astonishing.

Could Miami be the number one US Spanish language movie market area? (CK)
This is an interesting question. Someone who works for a distributor told me that there are more Hispanics in New York than Miami but Miami Hispanics are higher income/education and watch more foreign language/art/indie movies.

Judging by the Metacritic ratings, AI WEI WEI and COSMOPOLIS have been greatly overrated and greatly underrated, respectively; but MISS BALA got a fair shake (81, 59, 80) I hope you'll reassess. (CK)
I was already aware that US critics have high regard for Naranjo and Miss Bala.

Documentaries tend to get too much of a free ride. They are rated too much on the merits of the subject matter they take on, not enough on their artistry as films. You can't get away with that on fiction films.(CK)
Do you think docs generally require less skill or artistry than fiction films? Perhaps. Different modes of filmmaking some say. Belong in different categories like at the Oscars. I use to have a separate list for docs.

Hispanics are more high profile and significant in the city cultural life in Miami than in NYC. Earlier like in the Sixties and Seventies they were more high profile in NYC pehaps, Puerto Ricans particularly, in the days of WEST SIDE STORY.

Yes definitely nowadays a doc can get out there with less to offer technically. And they are a different category of film. Content rules.

That makes sense.

I just watched Unforgivable. Rich, complex characterizations all around. Characters may not be as sympathetic as audiences prefer...maybe that applies to critics too...None of the characters is a villain but none of them are easy to like, they feel so ...Human...I didn't like any French film from last year as much as this. Best French movie since Les herbes folles (2009) as far as I'm concerned.

In NYC now for the NYFF, main slate screeings schedule listed in Festival Coverage, begin Monday. Meanwhile the city is a film festival of its own and I watched these ten movies in six days (Sept. 11-16, 2012) waiting for the 50th New York Film Festival press screenings to begin. I wrote reviews of half of them.

DETROPIA, a beautiful elegiac documentary about Detroit. Urban destruction eye candy, and some smart comments by locals.

EYE OF THE STORM,THE (Fred Schepisi). Brittle, uninvolving, handsome, sometimes icky old-school adaptation of the super-famous Patrick White novel with big Aussie names Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis, plus Charlotte Rampling, slowly, elegantly dying. Despite the production values and cast, this is far from being one of Schhepisi's best films.

FOR ELLEN (So Yong Kim). As the droopy wannabe rock star unwillingly giving up rights to his daughter Paul Dano is perfect and does some cool things he's never done before; when he gets drunk and does some heavy metal air guitar in a dive bar it's amazing. But I'm not saying you have to sit through it. I have not seen the Korean-American director's TREELESS MOUNTAIN or IN BETWEEN DAYS, which Howard Schumann had really good things to say about on Cinescene, but this one was way too slow and downbeat for me or most people.

ARBITRAGE (Nicolas Jarecki) A "white-collar white-knuckler" where the bad guy gets away with it, like they do, a lot, on Wall Street. A slick, entertaining first feature.

INBETWEENERS/aka/THE INBETWEENERS MOVIE (Ben Palmer). From the Brit young guy TV series, crude, good natured humor. Helps if you're a Brit and watched the series.

THE MATCHMAKER, a nostalgic new Israeli film about a boy and an odd mentor in Sixties Haifa. Cute, but not as cute as MONSIEUR IBRAHIM, of which its theme and central relationship is somewhat reminiscent. Some of the intergenerational subtleties of the period would resonate most with Israelis of a certain age, but I think the main problem is the two principals haven't the charisma of Omar Sharif and Pierre Boulanger, which admittedly not to many people do, but this kid is a bit remote and the matchmaker guy is too crudely drawn.

KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, a searching, intense, yet in some ways strangely one-dimensional new gay love relationship movie by Ira Sachs. (My review is on Cinescene.)

ORNETTE COLEMAN: MADE IN AMERICA, a restored print of Shirley Clarke's 1985 non-documentary about the great jazz revolutinary, which I found quite disappointing -- but for a jazz fan and an Ornette fan still a must-see.

SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN. I had heard for a while about this documentary about a mysterious failed and disappeared singer of great talent from the early Seventies -- producers liked him better than Bob Dylan -- which is as thrilling as promised. A dream subject, elegantly handled by a Swedish director with an Arab name, Malik Bendjelloul.. Howard Schumann has a review of it just published on Cinescene. This mysterious Rodriguez guy remains a mystery, which is fine, but it is clear that he is some kind of holy person. I'm not sure this film is all it could be but it's an amazing story and beautifully made and satisfying. When Rodrigueez gets to perform in South Africa where he's a huge star it's unbelievably moving.

An exciting film event tomorrow (Friday, September 14, 2012):

THE MASTER, Paul Thomas Anderson's new feature starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix. It opens only here and in LA 9/14/12/ At the Angelika Film Center. I will be there.

P.s. THE MASTER is clearly one of the year's best. Wish I could have seen it projected in 70mm.

No, Tabuno, I didn't get to see THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN, so I can't comment.

I remember watching Ornette Coleman: Made in America when originally released and just being so grateful to Clarke for it, as any Ornette fan must be. I love him so much that I did not think of the film as something that I can evaluate in the manner of a critic. I watched as one watches home movies of relatives and friends. The negative comments from critics (in the context of a Metacritic score of 82) are valid but, as far as I am concerned, inconsequential. It is almost as if the rough spots or boring moments in the film are a welcome respite from the excitement of seeing Ornette, talk, blow, and just plain hang out.

Re Shirley Clarke's ORNETTE COLEMAN: the Metacritic score of 82 bears out our earlier discussion: docs are rated for content not their accomplishment as films. Current reviewers also tend to give a free pass to any revival item, rating it as a "classic" because it could not have been made today. Both are, however, a mistake. Granted films of jazz greats in performance are so rare we are grateful for whatever we can get. But jazz greats deserve great filmmaking, not a home movie. And Shirley Clarke would probably rather have been panned for making a real movie than praised for making a home movie.

Re: THE MASTER. We can go back to the topic of this thread, because Paul Thomas Anderson has provided another to go on the so far very short list of BEST U.S. MOVIES OF 2012.

Good news: at Angelika where I saw THE MASTER (too bad I couldn't see a 70mm screening), I learned that Ursula Meier's SISTER/L'ENFANT D'EN HAUT is getting a US theatrical release shortly.

If you go back two posts in this thread to HERE I filled in the list of all ten movies I saw in the six days I've waited for the NYFF press screenings to begin.

It is hard to separate form from content in terms of evaluation. It seems to some extent that content is one aspect by which documentaries have to be evaluated. I appreciate your comments and your interest in trying to be as objective as possible in film criticism, allowing for the fact, of course, that there is ultimately an unavoidable, inescapable subjectivity to the whole critical enterprise.

Of course content is central to docs but you can forgive me for preferring those that excel in every aspect, or in more aspects anyway.

http://imageshack.us/a/img59/7107/8820278600x338.jpg
RIVER PHOENIX IS DARK BLOOD

Recent Mike D'Angelo tweet:

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My most anticipated film of 1993 has its world premiere in 6 days! (For college freshmen, River Phoenix has always been dead.)

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A cut of the unfinished 1993 George (THE VANISHING) Sluizer film DARK BLOOD will be shown shortly. Ed Lachman, who was the cinematographer, told me this at a NYFF press screening thiis week (Sept. 17-21, 2012).

River Phoenix's final film 'Dark Blood' to debut at Netherlands Film Festival

Click on that headline and watch the videos on the page and you'll learn George Sluizer decided to finish the film several years ago because he learned his days might be numbered. I wrote about a beautiful short film Ed Lachman made with Slater Bradley called SHADOW, celebrating the moment of the DARK BLOOD shooting in an oblique way. This was shown in installation at the Whitney Museum in October 2010; the piece was to be on view for three months but was received with such interest it ran for six. Earlier this year we had James Franco's variations on MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO "My Own Private River" (FCS), now this, a Sluizer-edited "Dark Blood - The Unfinished Film."

Ed Lachman also told me about an interesting project he carried out at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid this summer, recreating Edward Hopper's 1952 painting "Morning Sun" as a tableau vivant. There's a YouTube video of the installation. Lachman describes how the project came about here. It was the result of Lachman's being asked to participate in a symposium on Hopper; he chose to recreate a Hoper painting instead of just talk about it. This resulted in discoveries of ways that the painting wasn't realistic. All kinds of alterations had to be made to duplicate the painting in real space and with actual light -- as film noir directors did, some shadows had to be panted on.

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The final room in the exhibition has been transformed into a film set in which the American filmmaker Ed Lachmann has produced a recreation of Hopper’s work Morning Sun (1952). The installation, which will be open for the entire period of the exhibition, comprises a three-dimensional reproduction of the scene in the painting, revealing Hopper’s use of cinematographic devices. --Thyssen Museum webpate.

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http://imageshack.us/a/img339/9995/97754463.jpg
ED LACHMAN AND HIS MADRID TABLEAU VIVANT

Ed Lachman might most be remembered for ERIN BROCKOVICH, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, FAR FROM HEAVEN AND I'M NOT THERE. Also (the notorious) Larry Clark film KEN PARK (banned from showing in the US) and Todd Solondz's LIFE DURING WARTIME. He recently worked on Ulrich Seidl's PARADISE trilogy.

Thanks for all that. Informative and interesting.
One movie that is likely to get some votes in year-end polls is Compliance. If memory serves, that reviewer you like (D'Angelo?) liked it a lot. A lot of people I talked to found the film "uncomfortable to watch" which applies to me. Ebert and others have talked about people walking out, not because they think the film is bad or boring but because they just can't take it. Is that a symptom or an attribute? What does it say about the movie? The critical response is quite interesting to consider, particularly a few extremely negative reviews for a film that seems to me has obvious merits. The zero and one star reviews from Wall St. Journal, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, and Slant reflect to me a neurotic evasiveness or denial about what the movie compellingly demonstrates about human weakness and frailty. More specifically, I think Ebert is right when he say that Compliance proves we (humans? Americans?) are afraid of authority.