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Ain't it cool news Downunder
Latauro's 10 best of the year! Guess what movie made the list... He praises Joss and comments on the fandom! Michelle Trachtenberg nearly made the list. |
THE AICN-DOWNUNDER ANNUAL 2005
Another year gone. They're getting quicker, I swear. It seems like barely twelve months ago, I was writing the 2004 edition. Hm.
I've had a pretty good year, personally and professionally. There's a lot of professional stuff I'm pacing back and forth about at the moment (waiting for *that* phone call is the hardest part), but on the whole it's been pretty good. There were too many days where I was working twenty hours straight, running from job to job, and yet somehow I managed to fit in films running into the hundreds. You gotta prioritise, right?
In Australia, it's been a pretty interesting year for local product. We had a lot of success with WOLF CREEK, LOOK BOTH WAYS, THE PROPOSITION, LITTLE FISH, THREE DOLLARS, THE MAGICIAN and THE OYSTER FARMER. A lot of people were claiming these films had saved the Australian film industry, but as I pointed out in this column, we have no industry. It took me a long time to figure out, but the more I thought about what was wrong with our industry, the more I realised that an industry, by definition, promotes growth and builds upon what has come before. What we have in Australia is people with money throwing darts at a dart board. This year just happened to see more bullseyes than usual.
Midway through the year I discussed a massive conflict of interest regarding Project Greenlight Australia. Like everyone else, I was hoping this would be a success and lead to one more film per year getting off the ground. It turned out that one of the judges, Sam Worthington (one of Australia's most-employed actors), was friends with the winner, Morgan O'Neill. The publicist for PGA claimed this wasn't a conflict of interest. I claimed it was the dictionary definition of "conflict of interest". The problem was, once I yelled "J'accuse!" and they responded with "Bugger off!", there wasn't much more I could report on. There was nothing new to the story, so short of repeating myself, there was nothing I could do but let it die. The thing that saddened me was that nobody else in the Australian media wanted a piece of it. Nobody else reported on it. It might not have been the biggest story of the year, but I think it was certainly worth some coverage. It made me a little sad that our blinding desire to follow everything that the publicity machine tells us prevented an important story from being told anywhere but here. The articles covering the Greenlight controversy can be found here and here.
Anyway, you came here to see me categorise and rank art, so I'll cut to the chase.
LATAURO'S TEN BEST OF THE YEAR (AS VOTED BY ME)
I can't believe I managed to get this list down to ten. It wasn't easy, you should know (when is it ever easy?). I was forced to leave out very-near-misses such as BROKEN FLOWERS, THE LIFE AQUATIC, SIDEWAYS, KISS KISS BANG BANG, MYSTERIOUS SKIN [starring Michelle Trachtenberg] and THE ARISTOCRATS. (I've just scrolled through my reviews and discovered that A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT and I HEART HUCKABEES were technically this year, but I've already written the below reviews, so they stay out. These lists piss me off sometimes.) Last night I caught the low budget film PRIMER, which probably would go on the list if I'd had more time to digest it. If you've not yet seen it, you haven't experienced what it's like to have your skull squeezed out through your eyes. Really amazing film.
Being the bad movie goer that I am, I missed Australian films LITTLE FISH, LOOK BOTH WAYS, THE MAGICIAN and THE OYSTER FARMER. I haven't seen THE MACHINIST, LAST DAYS or Paul Haggis's CRASH, films that might have made it onto the list. I didn't see STRINGS at the cinema, nor have I watched the DVD that arrived a month ago.
I disagreed with every other critic by loving 9 SONGSand ELEKTRA, and hating 5x2 and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. My relationship with BROKEBACK is a tricky one. Every review I've read has described a film I would absolutely love, so I'm going to give it another go. In a couple of weeks I'll take another look at it, and I'll let you know if my opinion of it changes drastically. It's certainly a film that's given me a lot of grief.
I walked out of WOLF CREEK, not because I didn't like it, but because it was too full-on. I thought it was a terrific film, but I just didn't have the constitution to sit through it. Violence, I can handle. A main character that frightening and cunning, I can't.
I've decided against a "Worst List" this year, partly because of the vitriol that last year's rant inspired ("Mel Gibson hates Jewish people!"), and partly because I didn't see the worst films of the year. I at least make an effort to see as many of the best films (or what I think will be the best films) each year. The worst ones, I try to avoid. I was disappointed by HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE, and not just because of my high expectations. It *was* possible to live up to my hopes of what a HHGTTG could be; this film dropped the ball, big time. It wasn't close to being the worst film of the year, though. The clips I saw of MISS CONGENIALITY 2 actually made me physically ill. The worst film I actually sat through? It's tough. BE COOL was an abomination, as bad as GET SHORTY was good. BROTHERS GRIMM was an embarrassing mess, and IN HER SHOESwas one of the worst scripts of the year. ROBOTS didn't quite scale the depths that SHARK TALE did the year before, but it's certainly one of the laziest kids films I've ever seen. SKY CAPTAIN was a boring missed opportunity, and the French film 5x2 redefined pretension. The worst film of the year, however, has to go to Australian crapfest YOU AND YOUR STUPID MATE. I rarely agree with Melbourne film critic Jim Schembri, but when he wrote "Unreleasable" as his entire review (before writing a secondary review that tore the film to shreds), I couldn't have agreed more. STUPID MATE is barely a film, and the fact that its makers seem to be getting more films made than anyone else in the country should give you an idea of how well we're doing.
Nevertheless, there were some good films this year. There were some very good films. Below is (obviously) my list of the top ten. I've gone on some pretty strange rants down there. If you like reading me go off on tangents then you may enjoy it. If you think I rabbit on too much, just scroll down the titles.
On with the show...
10. HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE
9. SERENITY
Yeah. So sue me.
 Speaking of vibes and socratic wavelengths, if you're lucky enough to "get" Joss Whedon, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. For my money, Whedon writes characters, story, dialogue and subtext so effortlessly, you just want to bathe in his work. Effusive? Fannish? Sure. I'm an effusive fan.
There's been so much crap leveled at the so-called Browncoats (although some of it's deserved... seriously, who gave their phone bill a thrashing just so this film could reach the top half of Margaret Pomeranz's best film show on the ABC?), they've almost replaced Trekkies in the derision and scorn department. This departments exists only within fandom, it's important to remember. Your average movie-going public guy dude person has no idea what a Browncoat is, and has probably only heard of "Firefly" in passing from a friend of a friend. I don't know of anyone who was turned off the film by an overenthusiastic fan.
These Browncoats copped a decent amount of blame in some circles for the film's poor box office results, a charge that was as incorrect as it was wrong (now THAT'S English). Simply put, the film did badly because of the sheer amount of pre-release screenings (which would have significantly diminished its opening weekend, the only thing that seems to matter these days) and the awful, awful marketing campaign. Sure, the film is not an easy one to sell, but even I was slightly turned off by the terrible posters and misleading trailers. The film failed in a big way, but it's no more the fault of the fans than it is of the key grip (Jerry C. Deats, you will feel my wrath).
Wait, am I discussing the film's brilliance, or adding to the overcrowded debate on where to point the blame? Clearly, I'm adding to the debate. Feel free to read it again if you're confused.
There's been so much damned press on this film; you don't need to hear any more. Whedon is a goddamn genius, who writes and directs so fucking well that he alone inspires such passion and love in his fans. I've come to terms with the fact that this may be the last outing for the Serenity crew. So long as Whedon is still breathing and near a keyboard, captivating stories will continue to be told.
8. OLD BOY
7. SIN CITY
6. HOTEL RWANDA
5. WAR OF THE WORLDS
4. BATMAN BEGINS
3. GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK
2. THE PROPOSITION
1. KING KONG
So, there it is. An Australian film at number two, and a (mostly) New Zealand film at number one. (I didn't plan it that way, incidentally, it's just something I noticed as I was wrapping up the KONG review). It's a nice year to be writing this column.
I hope you all have an excellent new year, and let us pray that 2006 is one of those years we talk about in hushed tones for years afterwards. A year where every week sees at least one new film that blows us away in some capacity.
Happy new year,
Latauro
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