Second Thoughts on "You Don't Get Life a Second Time"

My youngest niece has been begging me to watch the Indian movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (You Don't Get Life A Second Time) since its release last summer.  It's a great movie, you will love it, she kept saying, but I had my doubts.

I was not looking forward to the sophomore effort from this director, Zoya Akhtar, because I had a problem with her first film, Luck By Chance. That film wanted to give the audience a bottom-up insider's peek at the ugly underbelly of the Indian film industry, by telling the story of an unknown young actor (played incidentally, by the director's twin brother, Farhan Akhtar) trying to gain success in the insular, nepotism-heavy Bollywood. Nothing wrong with that. Only that it seemed awfully hypocritical that a film with that story was being made by the brother-sister team (of lead actor and first-time director) who themselves were children of Hindi film royalty. Zoya and Farhan Akhtar are the grown kids of Javed Akhtar, arguably one of the more regarded screenplay writers / lyricists in the history of Indian cinema. It was like if Sophia Coppola made a film whose central premise was the terrible inequity of trying to become a successful female film director if you are an unknown in Hollywood. I will not deny the talents of Sophia Coppola. Or for that matter, Farhan Akhtar, an accomplished film director in his own right, who in my opinion, has made the definitive modern Hindi film of the past two decades: Dil Chahta Hai (The Heart Wants). But still, for me, Luck By Chance was undone by its queasy, morally muddled intent. 

But I digress. I was not particularly inclined to rush to watch Zindagi No Milegi Dobara, but happened upon a good deal on an original DVD, and eventually got around to viewing it. The film is about three guys, best of friends when they were younger, who decide to take a trip through Spain prior to the impending wedding of one of them. Of course they have a past history, and of course there are resentments to be worked through during this road trip through some of the less touristy destinations in Spain.  The three male leads are played by Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol and (again) Farhan Akhtar, all in real life, sons of Indian cinema giants of the previous generation - but don't get me started on that again. The film was a huge commercial and critical hit in India, and so as I watched it, I kept waiting for the film to wow me. I awaited the point when it would take off, but it remained resolutely grounded. To be certain, the film is entertaining and I watched much of it with a smile on my face. But I wanted it to amaze me, and it didn't. Write about what you know, they say, and clearly Zoya Akhtar is good at penciling in the script around the lives of privileged, highly educated, and confidently successful Indians living in the global new world, and in many areas, defining that world. I say this with nary a resentment. The director knows this world well, and damned if she is not good at anchoring her story within it. But I just did not find the film to be as smart as it thought it was. And where was that spark of genius that I have noticed in so many Indian films of the past few years. Compare Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara to the go for broke, gonzo humor of Delhi Belly from last year. Or the breathtaking, hard-boiled, Tarantino-esque wizardry of Kaminey (Scoundrels). Or the gentle sensitivity of Udaan (Flight), or Wake Up Sid. Or just the hardworking, exquisite purity of entertainment of Jab We Met (When We Met) or Three Idiots. And so I said, meh, and set aside Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara as not a particular achievement. 

But to my surprise - and this is what I love about films - that movie would not leave me alone. Over the next few days, I kept thinking about the film, even when I had acknowledged to myself that it was no great shakes. And now, several months later, the film has worked itself into my conscience. And I am forced to give it second thoughts. 

What is it about this film that has given it durability in my head?

For one thing it is the easy-going rhythm of the film. It does not make a big fuss every time it makes a lap around the racetrack. I appreciate the understated calm with which it paces through plot developments; this is considerable evolution by Indian cinema standards. 

I like that the movie embraces the road-flick genre but does not burden it with cheap, gimmicky plot elements. While it does not possess the melancholy and austere beauty of Road Movie, the best example of the genre in Indian cinema (which incidentally also had Abhay Deol as the lead), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara still maintains an unpredictability about it through much of its running length. 

I liked the Naseeruddin Shah character in the film, which, for its limited screen time, remained beautifully flawed, and altogether real. I liked that the script did not chicken out and give him a crutch by way of an obvious motive for his behavior. That would have been the easy thing to do and the movie bravely resists that temptation.

Even more so, I liked the Katrina Kaif character in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Most movies of the recent few years, from Dev D to Omkaara to Ishqiya would have you believe that they have created the quintessential female character of modern indian cinema. Those are all great films with marvelous lead female roles, but they are all heavy, deliberate, force-of-nature characters. Compare that to Katrina Kaif in this film, who at first glance may even seem like an afterthought, a perfunctory love interest for one of the three male leads. But consider how casually independent her character is. She makes a decision during the course of the film, a minor thing really, which would have been inconsequential, if not for the deftness with which the scene is written and the off-handed confidence with which the character takes ownership for her action. And for me, that all but sealed this individual as one of the most genuinely, believably modern female characters in Indian cinema in some time. It is not necessarily an overly feminist take, but one that values individual choice, even when the choice is to concede to the will of someone else. 

And finally there is that end of the film. It is difficult to say much about it without spoiling it. But like most of the film, it is not overwrought or tedious. It comes quickly, with a light-handedness of touch, and carries about it the grace that The Gray did in its conclusion earlier this year. Not too many movies can speak to evoking grace in their conclusion. 

So this movie was a lesson to me. That sometimes a film can grow on you by lingering within your mind even after you have shrugged it aside. And that a little piece from here, and another piece from there in a film can build up to reasonable esteem. My niece was right. 

But Nothing Happens In This Film (Still Walking ****)

There is a particular kind of complaint that moviegoers sometimes voice: Nothing happens in this film. I have done this myself. And as I dig into my brain as to when I might have first done so, my memories coil all the way back to an utterance made in relation to a 1974 Indian film called Avishkaar ("Experiment"). In retrospect, how much more experimental could a film have been than one that announced it in its very title. Upon watching this film on television as a child of eight or nine in India, and already by then conditioned by the steady and robust ingestion of the standard Bollywood film diet, I recall telling my sister with utter incredulity: how can someone make a film where nothing happens? Of course, a lot happened in that film, but not within the specifics of the sharply angular plot turns I expected then from a cinematic experience.

These were the thoughts that came to me as I watched the Japanese film Still Walking for the first time. At first glance, nothing substantive appears to happen in this film. Over the course of a day, a family gets together in a small town away from Tokyo. A brother and sister visit their elderly parents in the home they grew up in, and they bring their own spouses and children along. They talk. They eat. They go for walks. They cook. There are resentments. There are laughs. There is remembering of the past. And by the time the next morning comes along, the families are on their way back to their original lives.

All of this transpires with a rhythm that is unrushed. And a gentleness that suffuses the entire film. To the impatient viewer this film may seem formless, purposeless, without substance.

But like the best films, this movie takes a specific experience, in this case a family reunion in contemporary Japan, and makes it resonate with universal truths. And you realize that the film has all along planned, to bring within its sight of observation, all those things in the world that we ought to care about.

To map out the members of the family in detail is to take away from the quiet pleasures of this film. Here is the grown-up daughter, now a wife and mother herself, who does not have the desire to cook the elaborate dishes that are so much a part of her mother's life. Here is the patriarch of the family, who having retired now from his physician's practice, is lost. But he still exerts the same ruthless command over his children that he probably has all his life. He is short and brusque with them and everyone walks around him on eggshells. And yet, given more consideration, it is his wife who is quietly driving the tides in this household. There is the disapproval that is inherent within parents from an older generation, sure. But there are also the grown children who feel that they can never measure up to their parents' expectations, and while oppressed by it, are too good-natured to make much of it. And inevitably there has been a death of someone young, from which the family has never recovered; years since the death, it is something that is palpably part of the present. There is disapproval of professions taken up by sons and daughters that are outside of rigidly traditional vocations. There is the new daughter-in-law trying to integrate into the larger family, and only slowly realizing the extent to which she will need to give in, in order to do so. There is the lament that the older parents spend more time remembering the dead than in considering the ones alive and present.

Does any of this strike a chord of recognition? To watch the delicate grace with which the ties within this family are revealed is to realize the accomplishment of this film. There is not a bad or selfish or thoughtless person to be found here. The script is too nuanced to allow an easy give such as that. These are people who all mean well, and are inherently good human beings. But even then, unintentional affronts occur. Something said innocently to one person unexpectedly becomes cruel within the context of the person it was never meant for. The younger generation grapples with modern ideals that are tugging and picking at traditional mores, while the older parents do not know how to behave in any way other than how they were taught. And yet, bonds are made between kids and grandparents. Grief manifests unexpectedly. Young children learn a little bit about being grown up. And the bickering between the older couple, while sometimes cruel, hides the inevitability of two lives irreversibly entwined together.

The director of Still Walking, Hirokazu Koreeda, frames the film with long shots. Of family members gathering around the dinner table in conversation. Of individuals coming and leaving the kitchen, in and out of the camera frame. Of children playing in the periphery as elders talk. Sometimes many speak at once, as in an Altman film. But Koreeda summons a larger cinematic giant in his deft, non-judgmental, minimalist take on families: Yasujiro Ozu. In fact there is much in this film that appears to bear the blueprint from Ozu's Tokyo Story. In cinema, it is easier to depict characters that are miserable or mean, but to have wondrous actors display decency and kindness of spirit takes a greater gift. Koreeda seems best poised to carry this gift forward from Ozu. To come away from a film hungering to spend more time with its characters is a high accomplishment. To recognize your own life within it, is a higher laurel still.

Many years ago, Roger Ebert wrote in his review of Touchez Pas au Grisbi, "I responded to the way (the film) understood that a great movie can involve not plot, but life, and the daily living of it, and that although movies can amuse and excite us, their greatest consolation comes when they understand us". He could have been talking about Still Walking.

I have come back to Still Walking and re-watched it with gratitude, peeling layers from it, and finding truisms within almost every piece of its dialog. I can think of few better ways to spend two hours of my life.

Best of 2011: Oddities

Jessica Chastain, in The Debt

• Its Okay To Take A Day Off Once In a While (or Most Hardworking Actor, Female): Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Debt, Coriolanus, The Help)

• Dude, Its Okay For You To Take A Day Off Too (or Most Hardworking Actor, Male): Michael Fassbender (Jane Eyre, X-Men First Class, Shame, A Dangerous Method)

• Evidence That Gone Are The Days When Getting Naked Onscreen All But Guaranteed An Oscar Nomination: Carey Mulligan (Shame), Kiera Knightley (A Dangerous Method), Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia)

• Get Her Bigger Roles Already, Hollywood: Marisa Tomei, playing bit parts in Lincoln Lawyer, Ides of March, Crazy Stupid Love.

• Frankly, Didn’t Think You Had It In You: Matthew McConnaghey in Lincoln Lawyer, Jennifer Aniston in Horrible Bosses

Matthew McConnaughey in The Lincoln Law

• We Have Missed You On The Big Screen: Helen Hunt in Soul Surfer
• "I'm an actor, and I'm here to stay, dammit": Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene

• Even Good Actors Have To Pay Mortgages: Frances McDormand in Transformers 3, John Malkovich in Transformers 3, Angela Bassett in Green Lantern, Hope Davis in Real Steel

• Most Consistently Miscast: Carey Mulligan in Drive and Shame (although she was admirable in both)

• Most Perplexing Casting : Robin Wright’s single, nearly wordless scene in Moneyball (maybe most of her work landed on the editing room floor)

• Most Criminally Overlooked: Joseph Gordon Levitt in 50/50, Viggo Mortenson in A Dangerous Method, John Krasinski in Something Borrowed, Colin Farell in Horrible Bosses.

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Joseph Gordon Levitt in 50/50

• Yoeman's Service For Improving Movies By Appearing In Them: Judy Dench in Jayne Eyre, My Week With Marilyn, and J. Edgar

• Best Movie Poster: Shame 

• Best Final Scene : The Descendants, Melancholia

• Most Perplexing Ending: Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Tree Of Life
• Most Endearing Shout-out To Family: Julia Roberts mouthing "Hi, Mom!", during the end-credits for Larry Crowne
• Best Way To End A Franchise: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 

• Best Film You Haven’t Seen: A Better Life, The Big Year
• Best Reason To Read Subtitles: Delhi Belly

• Best Action Film: Fast Five, Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

• Best Superhero Film: Captain America

• Best Film Awaiting Theatrical Distribution: Your Sister's Sister (Emily Blunt, Rosemary Dewitt, Mark Duplass), The Oranges (Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Allison Janney, Oliver Platt, Leighton Meester, Adam Brody)

• Best Use Of 3D, Ever: Hugo

• Most Underrated: Fright Night, Hanna, Warrior

• It Wasn’t That Bad (or decent movie to watch at the back of an airplane): Jumping The Broom, Something Borrowed 

• Brilliant Or Bogus, You Decide: The Tree Of Life, Drive

• Most Disappointing: Hangover II, Water for Elephants, Red Riding Hood 

• Most Wasted Opportunity: In Time (which squandered away one of the best premises for a movie)

The cast of The Oranges




• Most Unsettling Use Of CGI: The nudity digitally tacked on to the female actors in The Change-Up

• For Shame, Hollywood: Transformers 3

• What Was All The Fuss About? Moneyball, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

• Shouldn’t This Be On Television Instead? My Week With Marilyn, Pina

• The Movie Ticket Should Come With A Voter Registration Card (Or, most shamefully jingoistic): Battle Los Angeles, Transformers 3

• The Movie Ticket Should Come With An Instruction Manual (Or, what the hell was going on?): Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best of 2011: Performances

These are the actors in 2011 who showed us how it is done. They are listed here more or less in the order in which they knocked my socks off.

Michael Fassbender in Shame

Actor, Male

1. Michael Fassbender, Shame
2. Joseph Gordon Levitt, 50/50
3. Peyman Moadi, A Separation
4. Michael Shannon, Take Shelter
5. Damian Bechir, A Better Life
6. George Clooney, The Descendants

Tilda Swinton and Jasper Newell in
 We Need to Talk About Kevin

Actor, Female

1. Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin 
2. Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy
3. Jessica Chastain, The Debt
4. Elizabeth Olson, Martha Marcy May Marlene
5. Viola Davis, The Help
6. Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
7. Charlize Theron, Young Adult
8. Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia
9. Charlotte Gainsbourgh, Melancholia

Brad Pitt and Tye Sheridan in
The Tree Of Life

Supporting Actor, Male

1. Brad Pitt, The Tree Of Life
2. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Ides Of March
3. Paul Giamatti, The Ides Of March
4. John Hawkes, Martha Marcy May Marlene
5. Nick Nolte, The Warrior
6. Hunter McCracken, The Tree Of Life

Carey Mulligan in Shame

Supporting Actor, Female

1. Carey Mulligan, Shame
2. Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter 
3. Octavia Spencer, The Help
4. Marisa Tomei, The Ides Of March
5. Judy Greer, The Descendants
6. Jessica Chastain, The Help
7. Amara Miller, The Descendants
8. Sarah Paulson, Martha Marcy May Marlene

Best of 2011: Movies

Movies can be many things. And few years in recent memory have brought a crop of films with as diverse an affect as 2011. In the past twelve months there were movies that were gleefully, unapologetically high octane entertainment (Fast Five, Mission Impossible Four: Ghost Protocol). Movies that were determinedly cerebral (A Dangerous Method). Movies that became Rubic's cubes embedded in my brain, demanding that I keep turning keys exhaustingly until I had them solved (Melancholia, Certified Copy, Martha Marcy May Marlene). Movies that were drunk on movies (Hugo, The Artist). Movies that were mercury in the palm of your hand: ungraspable, unsolvable, meditative, denying resolution (The Tree Of Life). Movies that raised the bar for what it means to be uncompromising (Shame, Take Shelter, We Need To Talk About Kevin). Movies that sang loud their anthem of individuality (Drive, Hanna). Movies that had no business being as good as they were (The Lincoln Lawyer, The Big Year). And movies that just did their job so bracingly, charmingly well (Midnight in Paris, Harry Potter and the Deathly Gallows).

How then to come up with best of the year? Even after acknowledging that these lists are uniquely personal and that it would be a foolish pursuit to expect such a list to dovetail exactly with anyone else's, how to define the basis for picking the best? As in past years, I went with the simple tenet that a movie simply should have moved me to be on this list. All of the movies below turned on a switch and tripped some circuit within me.

1. 50/50 - Sure, I could have picked something highbrow and irreducible for the top of the list, but I had to be honest. You feel what you feel. No film this year had an effect on me like 50/50; it washed over me like a tidal wave. This is the story of a young man informed suddenly that he has cancer and the people in his life who react to this news, chiefly his best friend. This movie takes this harshest of settings to generate genuine comedy. Why does every scene, every situation in this film feel genuine? Because the script is autobiographical, sure. But also because the movie features an uncelebrated, understated performance from Joseph Gordon Levitt in the lead role. The film walks a tightrope and gets just the right tone, not maudlin, not seeped in fake sentimentality, not indulgent and never wallowing in self pity. Many brushed this movie aside as overly familiar, but this is a pulsing, breathing film of startling authenticity.

2. Hugo - I watched this film in a constant state of delight, grateful that someone still knows to make films of undiluted joy. Who knew that while Martin Scorcese was making ostensibly a children's film that he would also create his most personal movie to date. A movie about movies! If you are a lover of movies, there is no other film from the past year that you need to see. Notice how Scorcese tethers this story with emotionality that is never forced, but organic. Notice the sheer beauty of a Paris  - as it has perhaps never existed - that at once sates and agitates the heart. To see the first ten minutes of Hugo is to have unquestionable proof that here is the best use of 3D ever employed in film. This is a triumph that will remind you of the time when you were a child and enjoyed the classics with wide-eyed wonder. 

3. The Descendants - This film may seem deceptively simple, and I suspect many will find it unremarkable. But like the best films, it reflects the universe through the experience of a single person. Here is the story of a man trying to grapple with the sudden news of his wife's infidelity as she lies hospitalized in a coma after an accident. The need thrust upon him to become a better parent to his two teenaged daughters is put to the test as the rest of his extended family, descendants of the original settlers of Hawaaii, also start to pressure him to sell the last remaining piece of family-owned pristine island property. Like 50/50, this movie accomplishes the improbable task of being funny when dealing with subject matter that is altogether grim. Clooney isn't his usual smug charmer here, and he forsakes vanity to play a worn, dog-eared character that is believable precisely because of everything he does that leading men in movies seldom do. The film also features the single most devastating scene I saw all year, involving the divulgence of a certain piece of news to Clooney's younger daughter, played with uncannily perfect pitch by the young Amara Miller. There is no yelling in this film, no melodrama - but that makes it no less intense. God bless Alexander Payne who continues to make small films that have some mighty big things to say.

4. Buck - there were more accomplished films, more amazing films, and more entertaining films released in 2011, but only one that made me question the kind of person I am.  I would never have guessed that Buck, a documentary about the life and ways of Buck Brannaman, a horse-trainer, would make its way into this list.  A film about a trainer who rejects the long-established norm of 'breaking' horses when dealing with even the most unruly animals, and who espouses understanding and respect instead of force and fear may sound a bit touchy-feely. But the movie suddenly resonates, and with unexpected power, when you start to consider the possibility of expanding this man's philosophy - about the relationship between man and horse - to man and any other: family, neighbor, church, nation. A film that brings dignity to the old-fashioned virtues of the hard American frontier life, while being so brave as to declare that we can do better with how we interact with long-considered enemies - is fine by me. This is one of wisest films I have seen. And one that earns the right to use the one adjective that so often eludes movies, even the best ones: inspiring.

5. Midnight In Paris - Nothing about this film should work. The story - about an American writer visiting Paris who, at the stroke of midnight, is able to cross over into the past and meet all of the 1920s artists that he so idolizes - should collapse under its own labored weight. Woody Allen does Back To The Future? But not only does the movie work, but it comes off light, wistful, romantic and idealistic.  And the movie's central message that deconstructs nostalgia is a true insight. Midnight in Paris betters Allen's more recently acknowledged successes such as Match Point and Vicki Cristina Barcelona. You will be delighted with this film, of this I am sure. But how much additional pleasure you will get from the sly depictions of historical characters that parade through the film will depend on your own familiarity with them. I smile every time I think of this film.

6. The Adjustment Bureau - You settle down to watch this film (and I strongly recommend that you do) and you realize that you have signed up for a goofy-cool sci-fi thriller. You realize that the urban Chicago setting has seldom yielded this much retro chic as you watch bad men in 1950s suits go about enforcing a pre-determined fate on our increasingly bewildered hero. And as this thriller progresses, it morphs - right there in front of your eyes - into the unlikeliest of things: an unabashedly romantic film. An intelligent action film that dares to be equal parts smart and swoon is something to celebrate.

7. Bridesmaids - Much has been made about the funny women in Bridesmaids elbowing their way into the raunchy, gross-out movie genre, a space previously (over)populated with males stuck in adolescence. Am I the only one then to find that Bridesmaids is actually a rather dark film. Underneath all the loud hilarity is a central character with surprisingly realistic despair. And the sputter and stop relationship between the lead and her unlikely love interest is real and deftly rendered. This film is so much more than the funny chick flick genre it is being pigeonholed into.

8. A Separation - This little Iranian film came out of nowhere and spring-vaulted to the top of many year-end movie lists. I can see why. It is the most human film I have seen in a long time. There are no fancy shots here, no playing with chronology, no artful pretension, no gimmicks. But you do not need any of those things when you have a filmmaker who acutely understands human behavior, and who has this much genuine respect for every character, no matter how flawed. The film makes the case that we judge our interactions with others based on the limited information we are privy to. By definition we seldom know the whole truth. But if we did, the film argues, the actions of others that we find perplexing, reprehensible even, would suddenly make more sense. This film may seem slight upon first watch. But let it simmer in your mind and you will start to marvel at what it has to say. 

9. Delhi Belly - The coming of age of Indian cinema is continuing with reassuring and confident steps forward, such as those made by this little film. This unapologetically rude movie makes its assertion loudly: it can do irreverent, randy comedies like the best of them. There are no vestigial traits here that would associate it with Indian cinema save for the (occasional) use of the spoken Hindi. It is jolly good fun though, this movie, as it repeatedly scratches the itch to roil in both the absurd and the perverse. In not caring to be everything for everybody (which is what ails most Indian films) it lends a distinctive voice to independent urban cinema from the country. 

10. The Help - There is a scene late in The Help, where Octavia Spencer's character Minny, who plays a black maid in the 1950's South comes to the home of her employers to do the usual cleaning and house work. However that day, her employers, husband and wife, take her by the hand, sit her down at their dining table, and start putting food on her plate. The maid gets served by her employer. This simple reversal of roles broke me down. The Help has been accused of many thing: being manipulative, playing to the galleys, and oversimplifying the complex issue of race in America. But I have no interest in that. Simply put, the movie provides one example after another of Roger Ebert's contention that what moves us most in films is not the terribly tragic, but it is people doing good in spite of their circumstances. 

11. Melancholia - This is an End of Days film with a defiantly unique vantage; Armageddon for the art-house set, if you will. To see the first ten minutes of this film is to realize that it is made by someone approaching masterfulness. Accuse him of what you want (and I suspect he is playing his audience like puppets in most of his films), but Lars Von Triers' films get funded, made, watched and passionately debated precisely because he has such a singularity of vision. Who else can make a film that is about deep, debilitating depression and also about the End Of The World. Featuring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourgh as sisters trying to deal with personal troubles, and then, a very big universal one, this movie also has the most visually stunning end-frame of any in 2011. 

12. Shame - This movie is the definition of uncompromising. It reminded me that this too is what cinema can be. That films can be introspective, plotless, excessive, unbearably real, transformative. Where most films stop when a character closes the door, this movie walks inside after the door is closed and goes with the character to all the dark places. A filmmaker couldn't possibly ask for more from an actor than where Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan go - hand in hand - with this director. Who knew that a film about sex addiction could come close to something approximating grace. 

13. Martha Marcy May Marlene - Here is a film that has no desire in judging its central character - a fragile girl (called, at different times, by all of the names in the movie title) who is gloriously failing at trying to reinsert herself into her old world after leaving behind her experiences at a cult. To its credit the movie never tries to make her likable, or even her behavior understandable. Played with ferocious intelligence by Elizabeth Olsen in a star-making performance, here is an individual too splintered to tell reality from memory. Or from the imagined. Or to tell past from present. Featuring the tightest editing I have seen all year, an adroit use of background music, and an eye for composition that is truly unique, first time director Sean Durkin brings the confidence of an accomplished filmmaker to his debut. This is the sort of film that movie lovers like to talk over for hours. 

14. Kung Fu Panda 2 - When it comes to sequels, sophomore efforts have so much going against them that it is frankly amazing when the second installment of a movie matches or even betters the original. Case in point, Kung Fu Panda 2. This sequel has been made with heart to spare. When I was not being wowed by the amazing choreography of the action in this animated movie, I was moved by the simple morals that the film espouses with crystalline focus. Folks at Pixar need to start having some serious discussions; for a second year in a row, they have been bested by a non-Pixar film.

15. Hanna - A most unlikely offering from the maker of tony period British adaptations (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement), Joe Wright strikes out with a movie of unquestionable originality. I just have not seen anything quite like this all year. Slightly overcooked (particularly toward the end) yes, but what frankly ambitious work this is. The story of a teenaged girl conditioned almost since birth to be a one-person army designed to exact revenge from the individual who destroyed her family, the film is one long stretch of amazing set pieces, that gallop to the inevitable showdown between young warrior and seasoned villian. This movie is at once modern and iconic.

There are fifteen films already on this list and yet there were so many others that could have easily taken a spot here: A Better Life, Certified Copy, The Debt, Fast Five, The Guard, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 2, The Ides Of March, The Lincoln Lawyer, Take Shelter and We Need To Talk About Kevin.

Oscar Predictions / Those Who Deserve And Those Who Get: 2010 Edition

The Academy Awards, which will recognize quality in films from 2010, are only a couple of days away. And as always, there will be a disconnect between those who deserve to win and those who do win. The granddaddy of film awards has always been political, and how can it not. So, there isn't much point in getting in a huff about those that made the cut, and those that go on to win. Yes we all have our favorites, and yes a win can mean a lot for a Hollywood career. But after a point, it seems silly to get worked up about the awards; there are more critical things in the world to lose sleep over. So using minimal ink, and following a tradition from last year, here are my predictions for the wins this year in the major categories. 

BEST PICTURE
Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

The King’s Speech

127 Hours

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

At year’s end, it appeared that there was only one dog in this fight, as The Social Network was lapping up the top prize in one award ceremony after another. And then the inevitable fatigue set in, and in the past few weeks, The King’s Speech got the tail-wind to forge ahead and has been sweeping the awards shows. The conventional wisdom therefore is that The King’s Speech will win the top Oscar. But like in the remarkably similar race from last year (remember the see-sawing between Avatar and The Hurt Locker) I have a suspicion that staunch defenders of The Social Network (I am not one of them) may come out en masse to show their support for their film. So this category is not a done deal yet in my books.

Who should win: 127 Hours

Who will win: The King’s Speech

BEST DIRECTING
Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky

The Fighter, David O. Russell

The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper

The Social Network, David Fincher

True Grit, Joel and Ethan Coen

The Coens have been recognized in this category too recently. The Fighter and Black Swan just do not have that much support in the big (Best Film, Best Director) categories. Suspecting that The King’s Speech will clean out most of the categories, I have a feeling voters will want to grant an acknowledgment for the other film that was leading up until now. And I suspect this will translate to a win for David Fincher.

Who will win: David Fincher, The Social Network

Who should win: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech

BEST ACTOR, LEADING ROLE, MALE
Javier Bardem, Biutiful

Jeff Bridges, True Grit

Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network

Colin Firth, The King’s Speech

James Franco, 127 Hours

To win the trophy in the Leading Role category, it appears that two conditions need to be met. One needs to be nominated for doing a good job that year. And more importantly one needs to have reached that undefinable critical mass in public opinion, when it is generally acknowledged that it is time for the person to win the award. Sometimes this happens relatively quickly in a career (Halle Berry, Adrien Brody) and sometimes it takes decades (Jeff Bridges). Be that the situation, nobody can deny that Colin Forth has gained that elusive critical mass. He was nominated for his wonderfully restrained performance in A Single Man last year. And here he is again, with a high level of difficulty role in The King’s Speech. The others just don’t have the right alignment of recognition and critical mass to pull off this win.

Who will win: Colin Firth

Who should win: Colin Firth (with a tip of the hat to James Franco. Of course if it were up to me, Ryan Reynolds or Ryan Gosling would be taking home the prize, but don’t get me started)

BEST ACTOR, LEADING ROLE, FEMALE

Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole

Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone

Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Bening did the best job of these five in my books, and has been denied the prize in the past despite multiple nominations. It would seem unusually cruel to not hand the award to her yet again. But Natalie Portman has that elusive critical mass right now, where everyone just believes that its her time to win. And win she will.

Who will win: Natalie Portman

Who should win: Annette Bening (with a shout out to Michelle Williams).

BEST ACTOR, SUPPORTING ROLE, MALE

Christian Bale, The Fighter

John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone

Jeremy Renner, The Town

Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

The Supporting Role categories are refreshingly free from the critical mass requirement, and hence we often see surprise winners in this category (because nobody expects the winners in this category to have consistently paid their dues over a long period of time). The fight here, and it is a tight one, will be between Christian Bale and Geoffrey Rush. I have to concede that both have put in frankly amazing performances. Many expect Geoffrey Rush to pull through to the podium on the heels of general goodwill for The King’s Speech. But I would not put it past Bale to finally get recognition from Hollywood. This is the closest race amongst all the categories.

Who will win: Geoffrey Rush

Who should win: Mark Ruffalo

BEST ACTOR, SUPPORTING ROLE, FEMALE

Amy Adams, The Fighter

Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech

Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

This is the one category that has the most uncertainty. Melissa Leo had an early lead, but got bad press of late due to some goofy ads she placed on behalf of herself in contention for this prize. Jacki Weaver is too unknown. And Helena Bonham Carter and Amy Adams, while putting in solid performances, just did not have that show-stopper moment in either of their films. Hence, overall I believe this prize may actually fall in the very young, (but not undeserving) hands of Hailee Steinfeld.

Who will win: Hailee Steinfeld

Who should win: I don’t particularly have a dog in this race (amongst those nominated), but if I was forced to choose, I would go with Melissa Leo.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

How To Train Your Dragon

The Illusionist

Toy Story 3

I am not going to belabor my minority opinion that How To Train Your Dragon was a superior film than Toy Story 3. And I have not yet seen The Illusionist. But this is the one sure lock amongst all categories: the Pixar folks are going home happy on Oscar night

Who will win: Toy Story 3

Who should win: How To Train Your Dragon (unless The Illusionist wows me even more)

BEST WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

127 Hours

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

All of the nominated films had amazing writing, no question about it. But I believe the academy will not drop the ball on this one, and will nominate the one script that has had people talking for months: Aaron Sorkin for his fast, smart and incisive script for The Social Network. This prize is Sorkin’s to lose.

Who will win: The Social Network

Who should win: The Social Network

BEST WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

Another Year

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

The King’s Speech

This is a tough one to predict. If The King’s Speech pulls a complete sweep, then it is likely it will grab the prize here too (and I would not be one to begrudge it). I am wondering though if those riled by Christopher Nolan being denied a directing nomination, may choose to award his film with a prize here instead. I am going to go on a whim here and predict that Inception will pull an upset win.

Who will win: Inception

Who should win: The Kids Are All Right, with a pat on the back to Another Year. 

Best of 2010: Performances

Here are film actors who made their mark in 2010, and then some. The ones in bold are those that knocked my socks off; the rest are listed alphabetically.

Actor, Male

Colin Firth, The King’s Speech

Ryan Reynolds, Buried

Jim Carrey, I Love You, Phillip Morris

James Franco, 127 Hours

Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine

Actor, Female

Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right

Naomi Watts, Mother and Child

Annette Bening, Mother and Child

Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

Lesley Manville, Another Year

Naomi Watts, Fair Game

Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Supporting Actor, Male

Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

Christian Bale, The Fighter
Jeff Bridges, True Grit

Andrew Garfield, The Social Network

Sean Penn, Fair Game

Supporting Actor, Female

Mila Kunis, Black Swan

Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech

Rebecca Hall, The Town

Emily Mortimer, City Island

Ruth Sheen, Another Year

Best of 2010: Oddities

Best opening credits: 127 Hours

Best ending: Buried

Best remake: Let Me In (based on Let The Right One In)

Worst remake: Clash of The Titans

Most sorry to see end: City Island
Most happy to see end: Hot Tub Time Machine

Best film seen by no one: Buried

Best film poster: The Social Network, Buried

Best comic book adaptation: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Worst comic book adaption: The Last Airbender

Most unexpectedly good: Unstoppable

Most unexpectedly awful: The Tourist

Most overcooked: Shutter Island
Most original: Dogtooth

Most universally reviled: Sex and The City-2

Most universally adored/overrated: The Social Network

Glen Beck's worst nightmare: I Love You Phillip Morris


Most ink spent on a film: Inception

For shame, Hollywood: Skyline

Best Clueless homage: Easy A

Most judicious use of nudity: Mother and Child

Least judicious use of nudity (or You look great naked, now go put on some clothes please): Love and Other Drugs

Most surprising lack of nudity: Black Swan

Sexiest sexagenarian: Helen Mirren in Red

Didn't I Just See You? (or Most hardworking actor): Matt Damon in Green Zone, Hereafter, Inside Job, 30 Rock, and True Grit

Most wasted talent, female: Diane Keaton in Morning Glory

Most wasted talent, male: Morgan Freeman in Red

Biggest snub, actor, male, at the Oscars: the two Ryans - Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine and Ryan Reynolds in Buried

Biggest snub, actor, female, at the Oscars: Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right, Leslie Manville in Another Year

Include immediately in Acting School curriculum: Michelle Williams/Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine

Yeah okay, the camera loves you: Angelina Jolie in Salt

Give this man some respect please: Ben Affleck for directing The Town