Sunday 12 January 2020

Best of 2019: Part 3 (30-21)


For Part 1

For Part 2


30. House of Seven Belles (1979/2019) [MUBI Streaming Premiere]

A controversial choice, but as part of Nicolas Winding Refn's byBWR website this still technically qualifies as an unfinished Andy Milligan film, one most will not have heard of even if you knew of the notorious cult director, which has been digitally premiered even without an ending and a lack of music. There is even a competition to submit an ending in any form possible that ends in March 2020, which goes to show this is one of the more idiosyncratic aspects of the site that I admire immensely. Even if Refn's own work has disappointed in 2019, he made up for it in this type of production.

If offers a tantalising possibility as, when usually this type of work would be only screened at film festivals or one off screenings, Refn's choice is one of the more inspired ones that emphasises even how an unfinished movie can have a lot of fascinating enticement. Andy Milligan, to be blunt, is an acquired taste - the acting can be broad, he has a very misanthropic view of the world, and barring the lack of his infamous spinning camera shot the film does have an idiosyncratic editing style at times to say the least. Milligan into the 2010s has gained a critical reappraisal, after years in dismissal, so the irony of a film of his getting a streaming premiere on MUBI is not lost. What's also of interest in his attempt at lurid Southern Gothic storytelling is that, with a very complicated history with gender politics due to a terrible childhood, how prominent the female cast are here is a really fascinating change of pace for him, alongside the clear sense of ambition he had. To the point he was behind the costumes himself, Milligan was clearly working on one of his most high budgeted films here which has a style to it, which is compelling to say the least.

To even get this film is of note for 2019, and to be controversial, the climax we do get involving someone falling off a cliff is a good enough even as an abrupt ending in itself.  For a film with an acid attack, his usual gore and really catty dialogue, it's a reminder of how idiosyncratic American grindhouse cinema can be, and as this is an example of one that lived up to expectations rather than disappointed, it does show that byNWR will still grab my attention if they keep up with these ambitious choices. If only there were a few more sites willing to offer this type of material, in art cinema for example, and for free to boot.


29. Dave Made a Maze (2017) [UK Blu-Ray Premiere]

A hipster remake of Vincenzo Natali's Cube (1997)? Not quite but it's my own promotional tag for the film, so I'll stick with it. Another of Arrow Video's acquisitions for the 2019, which sadly is the kind of film you don't get a theatrical release of, which is a shame as when Lords of Chaos (2018) is a poor film for the company to promote, this is one of their sleeper titles which is a reminder that they occasionally take a chance on an obscurity like this.

It's a metaphor for accepting growing into one's thirties, in which a man (almost Michel Gondry in premise) builds a cardboard fort to hide in within his lounge, only with the issue that not only does it bend spayial logic but even if they are made of card, the death traps inside do actually kill people even if they bleed red string. Somehow managing to be sweet and playful even with death involved, Dave Made a Maze was a film I anticipated, felt a little disappointed by, only to grow fond of over the year because of how much it was clearly a passion project for director Bill Watterson, a really strange passion project which is reminder that, whilst sadly a lot of American directors like him didn't get to make a lot of films over the 2010s, there are countless odd one-offs in cult cinema from the last decade. A lot which defy genre like this and are for me many of the most significant signposts for what the 2010s looked like.

Also, you cannot go wrong with a film where the cast briefly turn into puppets. Even The Irishman didn't have its cast turn into puppets. Whilst the ageing computer effects were fascinating, imagine if Robert De Niro's younger self was played by a puppet?


28. Zombi Child (2019) [MUBI Streaming Premiere]

A film I wonder about the release of - is MUBI just waiting for a while as they did with the 2018 Suspiria remake before they release a DVD? - but as further evidence that Bernard Bonello is an idiosyncratic director, what could've been a misguided and problematic tale is actually a really thoughtful tale which deals with Haitian voodoo. It follows two tales of a) a man in Haiti becoming a zombie, not the George Romero brain eater but the real folklore of someone drugged into a daze to become a slave, and b) an ancestor of his, a fictional grand daughter of a real case, living in France and the repercussions of her heritage becoming known to her French classmate as one becomes intrigued by voodoo. It's a calm, methodical drama first which pulls you in with interest, with respect for the religious beliefs. It does eventually become a horror film too, earning it by showing what the actual Baron Samedi is meant to be in all his mad glory rather than the James Bond version. That Bonello is even scoring the film with lovely synthesiser flourishes himself goes to prove he put his heart into the production.


27. The Favourite (2018) [UK Theatrical Premiere]

Yorgos Lanthimos' follow up is probably made one of his weakest films, barring Kinetta (2005) his debut which was a weird little experience very different from his trademarks. It doesn't necessarily have the impact and risk of even the underrated The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), but there's stil a lot to admire in The Favourite.

There's also a perversity that I was able to see this film at a multiplex and that it won so many awards, including for Olivia Colman in the Best Supporting Actress category at the Oscars, when it's still a Lanthimos at its heart, a weird scrutinisation of human behaviour that just happens to be set in early 18th century England. Even if not as extreme as some of his other work, its sumptuous as the best of British period drama films this is technically part of, but with a profanity that makes it feel more alive than many. Even if now with screenwriters Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, the dialogue is just as odd, the sex and violence when occassionally seen is just as striking, and the ritualistic behaviour is the same as any other Lanthimos character from before, be it Nicholas Hoult finding his inner Diva in full period appropriate costume and ridiculously big male wig, to the duck racing indoors among other activities of very bored and misguided gentry.

The result is still worthwhile even if his weakest, better than most peoples' best, and weird enough that you wouldn't have necessarily improved upon it if there was a scene with puppets either.


26. High Life (2018) [UK Theatrical Premiere]

Claire Denis' English language debut is probably one of her weakest films, mainly because outer space nihilism doesn't do it for me. You could probably accuse me as a hypocrite considering how misanthropic Andy Milligan is, but High Life's flaws is just how a bit predictable its cynicism of the human condition can be.

Denis too, like Lanthimos, cannot make a bad film however, and the best of High Life is the idea someone let her helm a sci-fi film with a high profile cast this risky. Everything that is memorable - the perverse ritual sex machine, the astronauts floating in outer space, the moments of heart in among the darkness of the human condition - are her best qualities alongside the sumptuous aesthetic and Tindersticks' Stuart A. Staples knocking the score out of the park. Another aspect, which rarely is mentioned with Denis' talent though, is her knack for great idiosyncratic casting, be it André 3000 from Outkast standing out to Juliette Binoche being as seductively evil as she can.

And of course, there's Robert Patterson. What a fascinating 2010s he had, starting off in the last Twilight films as an actor mocked for his role as Edward the pale sparkling vampire only to, from David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis (2012) onwards, to not only have a taste for idiosyncratic and weird productions, but is in fact a handsome matinee idol who is also an exceptional character actor. He is the kind of person, to keep the running gag for this part of the list going until it gets boring, could actually star in a film with puppets and a) have one of the best performances in it, and b) still be such a known name that, as with Twilight fans reading the source material for Cosmopolis, the possible future Batman star will draw people to his stranger and bolding career choices.

The decade has proven him with the last laugh, after all the mockery he and Kristen Stewart probably got for the Twilight franchise, she also going in a fascinating career direction, and his appeal is going to benefit unique and original voices like Claire Denis' in the long run. For example, the fact that my local former church turned art centre have The Lighthouse (2019) programmed in the upcoming months of 2020, alongside films that'll appeal to a mainstream greying audience, is all because of him in likelihood, all in spite of the fact all I've heard consists of it being a bizarre monochrome nightmare with Willem Dafoe stripping nude, and Patterson in-between masturbating about possible fictional mermaids and being threatened by a one eyed seagull. Even if his role in High Life wasn't also tremendous, he's a guy who I'm proud is a British actor who is good and loves taking risks like he has so far.


25. The Irishman (2019) [World Theatrical Premiere/Netflix Premiere]

With all the praise, articles and arguments over just Martin Scorsese slagging Marvel comic book films that has been generated by his Netflix produced film, let alone the same amount for this crime film itself, I think the truth is that for a three and a near half hour film, the only moment which really stood out for me emotionally is in the last thirty minutes. In a tale based on the real mob hitman Frank Sheeran, that final chapter touches upon something legitimately new in the crime genre as it eventually leads to his old age, forcing one to view criminals from the perspective of the end of their lives, possible jail time to illness and the weight of a life tainted by blood at the end of their own. Everything else is good, but not like this final half hour is.

That said, The Irishman is still a film of note, a handsome production made by a director more ambitious than people who are a quarter of his age. The cast are full of heavyweight who stand out, between Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci (returning from retirement) who are compelling in their roles, with Al Pacino the one standing out of such a strong group just because he steals scenes with premium scenery chewing as a petty ice cream obsessed Jimmy Hoffa, Even if it leaves the young De Niro looking like John Wayne briefly, the digital de-aging effects are fascinating too as a tool to try to tell stories which last over many decades. Certainly, after seeing Tom Hooper's Cats (2019), no one should be able to mock The Irishman even if you find the effect doesn't quite work.

Again, only the fact there are no puppet scenes is in hindsight a disappointment, (all spoken with tongue firmly in cheek), and far from a cheap joke, probably one of the biggest surprises and virtues of The Irishman is that, whilst its melancholic and weighted in Scorsese's Catholic guilt, it has so many hilarious scenes particularly with Pacino swearing the scenes blues that are also some of the strongest moments. If anything too, The Irishman's length, which has been criticised, is actually a virtue in forcing you to feel the weight of time, even though it only picked up for me in the finale, a film that feels worthy of it by being compelling regardless of the hype surrounding the production being a detriment for me.


24. Knife+Heart (2018) [MUBI Screening Premiere]

Yann Gonzalez reappears on this list, and honestly, the only surprise with this fascinating giallo set in gay porno culture is that it's surprisingly not as explicit as I'd presumed it could've been. However, in this tale of a female gay porno producer in 1979 Germany investigating the mysterious murders of her stars, this offers a fascinating new stem of ideas that will hopefully blossom in the 2020s. Namely that, in the 2010s especially, we thankfully got past the ironic neo-grindhouse pastiches to directors actually taking past pulp genres and turning them on their heads in sometimes very experimental forms. The best comparison to Knife+Heart is Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, who also dabbled in the Italian murder mystery genre of giallos, Gonzalez as an LGBT director coming to this genre himself from a different direction of the gaze eroticising the male body and that, in mind the genre was always about style in the best of them, he runs with a smorgasbord of sensual aesthetics for both the eyes and ears.

Helping as well is that giallos, baring a few with good twists, were never really about their plots and could be strange and very erotic, sometimes just lurid and perverted, so here's a film where a rare breed of bird is a major clue, and that the eroticism is a thing of utter celebration with its porno chique. The music by M83 keeps the run of great synth scores on this list, thankfully a reminder that rather than a cheap way to evoke the nineteen eighteens, it's a thing of beauty next to such pretty images and interesting characters.

To see these genres being taken seriously by non-white, female and LGBT directors with high mindedness is only to welcome in cult cinema, especially when the results are great like this. Such a simple chance, a new perspective, is able to bring out some new layers to genres and hopefully more great films.


23. Burning (2018) [UK Theatrical Release]

Since the last film of Lee Chang-dong's I had seen was Green Fish (1997), a contemplative crime-drama film, and the reverse chronology Peppermint Candy (1999), this adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story over nearly two decades later is a drastic change in pace for him upon catching up together.

Murakami has told a few stories like this in his career - down to earth and usually listless men, no going anywhere, who meet mysterious and beautiful women. The physical and emotional romance is going to end badly, he witnesses the worst of people, and like another tale or so, this even involves a cat as a major plot aspect. The major differences are that this is a South Korean director setting the film in South Korea, where there is clearly an entire layer of political commentary about the South Korean middle class that has gone over my head, as the mysterious woman is involved with a sinister rich man. That, and in being just under two and a half hours, Chang-dong turns a film that could've been much shorter into a slow cinema contemplative experience, stripped down to a realism and pace of time that could be extremely divisive for many.

Whatever the case for each person, Burning worked for me. That and the film has one of the scenes of the year in debuting actress Jun Jong-seo's dance sequence, which steal the film from everyone else, even Steven Yeun, a Korean-American actor more likely known for the likes of the Walking Dead series who doesn't feel out of place here in the slightest as the sinister rich man.



22. Under the Silver Lake (2018) [World Theatrical Premiere]

[Read review HERE

Following on from his abrupt horror smash hit It Follows (2014), David Robert Mitchell cashed in on his credit for a bizarro film, which in the history of American cinema usually is the brunt of harsh critical opinion, usually isn't a financial hit, but gets a cult following like Richard Kelly's Southland Tales (2006) did.

Under the Silver Lake is weird, setting this up when a squirrel abruptly drops dead in front of Andrew Garfield at the beginning, apt for a film where clues can be found in SNES video game magazines, Kurt Cobain's guitar makes a cameo, urban legends actually exist like a random dog serial killer, and that one should never disrespect the homeless. Under the Silver Lake does present a challenge that, as a gonzo noir influenced mystery with a Thomas Pynchon like obsession with tangents, the protagonist is a dickhead, a voyeur which is been an issue for some viewers as there is a lot of female nudity. I think the film knows this and sets this up by a) having him assault children even if they vandalised his car, and b) there's a scene where his voyeurism goes too far, with a drone camera watching a woman undress, only for the viewer to be stuck watching this one scene figure visibly in tears and undermine the gaze, a sigh of a film taking a risk by having such a flaw person capable of bad and good things as our guide to this weirdness.

Under the Silver Lake is also gleefully strange. I cannot envision a film in a long while, set in Los Angeles, where it references everything from old Hollywood cinema to REM. It also feels like the tide is changing, thankfully, away from eighties culture to the nineties, which could be unbearable as what I grew up in the decade with as a child gets rammed down my throat, but could also be much more odder. The nineties was also the decade where this type of weirdo genre hybrid cinema which dug into the far flung past, and also was found in other mediums like music, was the most prevalent aspect of the entire decade, so a film like Under the Silver Lake is hopefully not the last of these alongside something potentially god-awful like a Street Sharks reboot.


21. Occidental (2017) [MUBI Streaming Premiere]

[Read full review HERE

A film I wish I could see again, Neil Beloufa's Occidental is a very different film in that its very small scale, a tale of suspicion in a hotel between a small cast whilst riots are taking place outside, but definitely made in the 2010s with its lush neon, disregard for conventional genre structures and a sweet synth score. It proves as much an example of one of the past decade's most interesting features, that the old tropes and plots of yore, of suspicion as two mysterious men become the concern of the female hotel manager, when there's new voices who can approach it from sides that haven't until now been open, and with these playful aesthetic touches that add so much to the table.

Suffice to say that when we get to the top twenty in the next part, not only will there be less puppet jokes, although there are many films from the 2019 that were popular that might have been funnier with a parody of in such a form, but this aspect of Occidental, which also has the advantage of being less than eighty minutes, will be found running a gamut of genres and story types. Until then...

To Be Continued...

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