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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