5 best films seen in January

Films watched: 19

Blue Valentine (Cianfrance,10)

White Material (Denis,10)

Scenes from a Marriage (Bergman,73)

Opening Night (Cassavetes,77)

L'Intrus (Denis,04)

My dream Oscar ballot

If I had a ballot, these would be my picks.

Best Picture
Blue Valentine
Somewhere
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Black Swan
The Social Network
Inception
White Material
Dogtooth
Carlos
127 Hours

Best Director
Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Christopher Nolan (Inception)
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
Claire Denis (White Material)

Best Actor
Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)
Edgar Ramirez (Carlos)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Stephen Dorff (Somewhere)

Best Actress
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
Tilda Swinton (I Am Love)

Best Supporting Actor
Andrew Garfield (The Social Network)
Armie Hammer (The Social Network)
Vincent Cassell (Black Swan)
Sean Penn (Fair Game)
John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)

Best Supporting Actress
Barbara Hershey (Black Swan)
Mila Kunis (Black Swan)
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Marion Cotillard (Incepetion)

L'Intrus

L'Intrus
Starring: Michel Subor, Gregoire Colin
Directed by: Claire Denis
France/2004
130 minutes

Claire Denis' 2004 film L'Intrus is a highly impenetrable work, and probably ranks as her least accessible offering.  The film follows Louis, a mysterious loner around the age of 65 or 70, who's heart problems cause him to seek out a transplant. Denis constructs the film around the fractured and diluted view of Louis's dreams, and at times, his reality. The man lives with a weighted regret that is not fully fleshed out. Louis' identity is extremely evasive, but Denis isn't particularly interested in telling his full-fledged story.

The world of L'Intrus is one of dazzling imagery, told from multiple landscapes, which no doubt tell us more about the nature of Louis. A handful of characters appear throughout L'Intrus, but we get the feeling that Louis and his son are possibly the only ones that truly matter. The title loosely eludes to a wanderer that gets killed by Louis after trespassing in his home during the early part of the film, but Denis leaves much more to be desired in terms of tracking down the titles references.

L'Intrus has the vague hint of a road picture, as Louis embarks on a sort of spiritual journey to parts of his past. Denis shuffles a deck of non-linear sequences and scenes that keep L'Intrus and its viewer at a certain distance. There are no qualms with how Denis' narrative unfolds, but the second hour of the film may test the patience for those not familiar with Denis. As enigmatic at it is, L'Intrus is perhaps easy to admire then love, but one can't deny how Denis is able to tell this story of a fractured and lost man seeking redemption through dreams, nightmares, and ultimately life.

2010 film awards

Best film

Blue Valentine

Best Director

David Fincher (The Social Network)

Best Actor

Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)

Best Actress

Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Best Supporting Actor

Andrew Garfield (The Social Network)

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams (The Fighter)

Best Original Screenplay
Giorgios Lanthimos (Dogtooth)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)

Best Editing: The Social Network

Best Cinematography: Black Swan
Best Score: The Social Network
Best Documentary: Exit Through the Gift Shop

The best film moments of 2010

- Zero gravity fight scene in Christopher Nolan's Inception


- All seems lost when a Prime Minister's memoirs fly through the street in The Ghost Writer


- An ambitious reporter finds the truth and storms a local bar of crooks in Red Riding: 1974 


- Mark Zuckerberg swiftly races back to his dorm after being dismissed from his girlfriend in The Social Network


- A dad discovers the innocence of his young daughter while she ice-skates in Somewhere


- Nina Sayers observes the backstage area like an animal searching for prey in Black Swan


- Thierry and Banksy take a trip to Disneyland in Exit Through the Gift Shop


- A disconnected son stands in front of the mirror and shaves his head for what lies ahead in White Material


- Young love blossoms on a street corner as Dean serenades Cindy in Blue Valentine


- A violent hotel scene in Carlos


- Rooster Cogburn's race against time to save the young Mattie Ross in True Grit


- Lionel and King George share a much earned victory in The King's Speech


- Strangers (or are they?) walk and talk through a long day in Certified Copy


- Racing through the streets of Boston after a heist in The Town


- Aron Ralston takes a picture of his severed arm in 127 Hours


- Two guys knocking on a door in Catfish

Blue Valentine

"Blue Valentine"
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman
Directed by: Derek Cianfrance
USA/2010
112 minutes

Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine has been a passion project for many years, and it shows in almost every frame. Often is the cliche in films of finding love, losing love, and finding love again. Blue Valentine is the anti-thesis to that specific notion that is played out in so many modern love stories. At its worst, and by worst I mean its most honest, the film plays like a car crash. Unable to turn away from the wounded souls of the two main characters in the film, we sit back and wonder how a relationship so pure and loving could evaporate over the years.

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams wonderfully inhibit the roles of Dean and Cindy. In terms of natural performances, you can't find two better actors working today. They're a working class couple from Pennsylvania, Dean is a painter, and Cindy a nurse. The film opens with their young daughter Frankie calling out for the family's dog. There's a thick sense of tension and awful foreboding in these early scenes. We're clearly seeing the last days of Dean and Cindy's marriage. The dynamic of the film is the effortless cross-cutting between the present, and the beginning of the couples courtship, about 6 years earlier.  Cianfrance was so dedicated to the authenticity of the film, that he wanted to wait 6 years after the early scenes were shot, in order to shoot the present scenes of the crumbling marriage. The studio said no for obvious reasons, but the same emotion is intact in the film.

Most films chart the highs and lows of a couple and end at a rather comfortable spot for the audience. Blue Valentine's characters are just as complex as one would think, but Cianfrance is interested in the notion of the beginning of love, and how it can be lost between a couple. We wonder where the love has gone, no easy answers are offered here, and it's almost impossible to side with either Dean or Cindy. The emotional texture of Blue Valentine is one of piercing truth and brutal honesty. Some have compared the film to the work of the late John Cassavetes, and they wouldn't be wrong since Blue Valentine is dedicated to portraying emotional truth in the most natural manner.

Cianfrance is like a surgeon here, his glimpses into the past form clouded theories for the viewer on how the present has become such an unlivable mess, most notably for Cindy who displays disdain for Dean's lack of ambition and drive. His role is clearly designated as the homemaker, while Cindy is the one who has made the most of her career. But, Dean is a good person through and through. He may crack a beer at 8 a.m., but he's whole heartedly dedicated to the idea of what a family should be. He loves Cindy and their daughter, but the love has gone astray between the distant couple. Dean makes one last ditch effort to salvage something by bringing Cindy to a cheesy themed hotel that is as unnatural and fake as their current state.

Dean sees himself as the model for young Americanized love, a romantic at heart, we watch as Dean eventually charms his way into Cindy's life after they first meet. Dean works for a small moving company, and Cindy meets him at an elderly home while tending to her grandmother. Before they meet and start a relationship, Dean and Cindy are both yearning for something, Dean knows it's love, Cindy can't seem to grasp it. Their differing views of companionship are clear, but certain circumstances bring them together. The tone of these earlier scenes distinguish themselves in a strong persuasive manner. Cianfrance shoots the early romance in film, creating a grainy and nostalgic look at Dean and Cindy's hopeful days.The present scenes are shot in digital, clearly pointing out that things aren't rosy anymore.

Blue Valentine offers more commentary than the thrill of young love, and the eventual falling out of love with a partner. Cianfrance's narrative, which juxtaposes two periods gracefully, asks of the characters rare emotional nakedness and examines the expectations of a man and woman. Dean romanticism isn't bruised by the end, but beaten to a pulp. There's no one to blame here, just victims of a dream that was once palpable and within reach. By the end of Blue Valentine, we aren't offered a hopeful future, but a terse examination of two people who have drifted apart for better or worse.

Grade: 5/5

Top 10 films of 2010

1. Blue Valentine (Cianfrance)
2. Somewhere (Coppola)
3. Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy)
4. Black Swan (Aronofsky)
5. The Social Network (Fincher)
6. Dogtooth (Lanthimos)
7. White Material (Denis)
8. Inception (Nolan)
9. Carlos (Assayas)
10. 127 Hours (Boyle)

Honorable mention (no order)

Let Me In

Catfish

The American

The Ghost Writer

Wild Grass

Certified Copy

Toy Story 3

Life During Wartime

The Fighter

True Grit

Worst films of 2010

Alice in Wonderland

Hereafter

The Exploding Girl

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Kick-Ass

The Other Guys

Iron Man 2

Four Lions

Minor disappointments

Enter the Void

Never Let Me Go

TRON: Legacy

The Kids Are All Right

The King's Speech

Films seen in 2010: 56