So it begins! For me, wrapping up 2010 in film means a string of posts over three days. Today and tomorrow will be the Year in Review: 12 awards given to two films a piece. This gives me an excuse to talk about 24 films in a more general fashion before posting my Top 10 of 2010 on January 1st.
All right, let’s kick things off. Some of the categories from last year remain, but most are new.
Strangest Title Change
1. TANGLED
2. HEARTBEATS
I have this image of a group of 12 year-old boys settling in to watch TANGLED when one of them declares “wait a minute, this is Rapunzel! We are so out of here!” and fleeing the cinema. It seems a lack of confidence saw Disney try and trick young boys in to seeing their latest outing. Maybe I’m being a little cynical, but hey... they started it.
Xavier Dolan’s LES AMOURS IMAGINAIRES had a beautiful title that you could translate to “Imaginary Loves” and it’d still retain a certain whimsical romantic feeling. Instead, it was retitled HEARTBEATS for the international audience. This title lands with a thud and makes me think of that Yorkshore police drama that just finished its 18 year run.
The ‘Mercifully Good’ Award
1. TOY STORY 3
2. BOY
Back at the start of the year, messing with the near perfect double of TOY STORY 1 and 2 seemed like a dangerous gamble. I’d grown up with these films and the thought of some tacky cash-in made me anxious. All of this seems quite silly now as TOY STORY 3 [above] wasn’t just a welcome addition to the series but became the best reviewed film of 2010.
I hadn’t seen a New Zealand film that blew me away in years. It gets a little depressing trying to support your local film scene when it isn’t really doing anything for you. SEPARATION CITY and PREDICAMENT were decent outings, but I don’t want to use muted terms like ‘decent’ to describe local cinema! Luckily there’s Taika Waititi’s BOY which is one of the sweetest, funniest, most imaginative f**king films I’ve seen in a long, long time. I will shower this instant kiwi classic with hyperbole any chance I get! It single-handedly restored my faith in both NZ film and NZ audiences (they made this film break every local record we have). Foreign readers, I encourage you to seek it out.
Biggest Disappointment
1. THE AMERICAN
2. THE TOWN
This is just a personal thing. I’m aware that both of these films have their admirers but I felt so let down leaving the cinema. I loved Anton Corbijn’s CONTROL, a beautiful film about one of my favourite bands. His follow-up, THE AMERICAN, left me cold and hating butterflies. Still looked gorgeous though!
I talked about my response to THE TOWN in some depth here. I’ll revisit it at a later date now that I’ve no expectations but I shouldn’t need to see a film twice in order to enjoy it. GONE BABY GONE instantly blew me away and I was really hoping for a similar response.
The Long Take Award
1. THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES
2. THE BOOK OF ELI
I’m a sucker for long takes. Some people claim they’re distracting and draw attention to the fact you’re watching a film. I have no such problem; they wow me every time, the more complex and contrived the better! THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES has a jaw-dropping long take that starts high above a packed football stadium then moves into the crowd, beneath the stadium and back out onto the pitch in one exhilarating chase sequence.
THE BOOK OF ELI’s long take [above] is even more contrived as it takes place entirely during a shoot-out. The camera weaves in and out of a small house as bullets fly in all directions. It’s so over-the-top ridiculous I couldn’t help but love it. Subtly be damned!
To the Torrents! Award
1. NEVER LET ME GO
2. TRUE GRIT
Somehow, despite the title of this ‘award’, I’ve refrained from tracking down these two readily available titles online. That gap we talked about quite extensively in this post is frustrating enough as it is but during screener season it’s also futile. Late January release dates for both of these films in Australia... I don’t even know the release date for New Zealand where I currently reside. If neither hits before the Oscars, steps will need to be taken. I’ve been hanging out for both all year long!
Best Performance
1. John Hawkes – WINTER’S BONE
2. Woody Harrelson – THE MESSENGER
One of the best pieces of praise I can give John Hawkes' performance in WINTER’S BONE [above] is that I had no idea it was him until I saw the credits. I’m a long-time DEADWOOD fan and have enjoyed him throughout films where he tends to play lovable losers. In this film however, his character is terrifying. A sudden explosion of rage in his first appearance on screen echoes through the rest of the film. We see him soften a little, but the threat of violence always lingers. Jennifer Lawrence terrific lead performance also deserves mention, but Hawkes' Teardrop stole the film for me.
In August, I declared Harrelson in THE MESSENGER the best of MIFF and wrote: “I really like Woody Harrelson and I really love it when he takes roles like this. Such a powerful performance. When he laughs, we laugh. When he cries, we cry.”
That opinion stands. Tremendously charismatic.
I should mention that WINTER’S BONE also played at MIFF but I didn’t see it until much later.
Tomorrow the ‘awards’ continue with Best Feature Debut, Best Musical Moment and four others...
All right, let’s kick things off. Some of the categories from last year remain, but most are new.
Strangest Title Change
1. TANGLED
2. HEARTBEATS
I have this image of a group of 12 year-old boys settling in to watch TANGLED when one of them declares “wait a minute, this is Rapunzel! We are so out of here!” and fleeing the cinema. It seems a lack of confidence saw Disney try and trick young boys in to seeing their latest outing. Maybe I’m being a little cynical, but hey... they started it.
Xavier Dolan’s LES AMOURS IMAGINAIRES had a beautiful title that you could translate to “Imaginary Loves” and it’d still retain a certain whimsical romantic feeling. Instead, it was retitled HEARTBEATS for the international audience. This title lands with a thud and makes me think of that Yorkshore police drama that just finished its 18 year run.
The ‘Mercifully Good’ Award1. TOY STORY 3
2. BOY
Back at the start of the year, messing with the near perfect double of TOY STORY 1 and 2 seemed like a dangerous gamble. I’d grown up with these films and the thought of some tacky cash-in made me anxious. All of this seems quite silly now as TOY STORY 3 [above] wasn’t just a welcome addition to the series but became the best reviewed film of 2010.
I hadn’t seen a New Zealand film that blew me away in years. It gets a little depressing trying to support your local film scene when it isn’t really doing anything for you. SEPARATION CITY and PREDICAMENT were decent outings, but I don’t want to use muted terms like ‘decent’ to describe local cinema! Luckily there’s Taika Waititi’s BOY which is one of the sweetest, funniest, most imaginative f**king films I’ve seen in a long, long time. I will shower this instant kiwi classic with hyperbole any chance I get! It single-handedly restored my faith in both NZ film and NZ audiences (they made this film break every local record we have). Foreign readers, I encourage you to seek it out.
Biggest Disappointment
1. THE AMERICAN
2. THE TOWN
This is just a personal thing. I’m aware that both of these films have their admirers but I felt so let down leaving the cinema. I loved Anton Corbijn’s CONTROL, a beautiful film about one of my favourite bands. His follow-up, THE AMERICAN, left me cold and hating butterflies. Still looked gorgeous though!
I talked about my response to THE TOWN in some depth here. I’ll revisit it at a later date now that I’ve no expectations but I shouldn’t need to see a film twice in order to enjoy it. GONE BABY GONE instantly blew me away and I was really hoping for a similar response.
The Long Take Award1. THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES
2. THE BOOK OF ELI
I’m a sucker for long takes. Some people claim they’re distracting and draw attention to the fact you’re watching a film. I have no such problem; they wow me every time, the more complex and contrived the better! THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES has a jaw-dropping long take that starts high above a packed football stadium then moves into the crowd, beneath the stadium and back out onto the pitch in one exhilarating chase sequence.
THE BOOK OF ELI’s long take [above] is even more contrived as it takes place entirely during a shoot-out. The camera weaves in and out of a small house as bullets fly in all directions. It’s so over-the-top ridiculous I couldn’t help but love it. Subtly be damned!
To the Torrents! Award
1. NEVER LET ME GO
2. TRUE GRIT
Somehow, despite the title of this ‘award’, I’ve refrained from tracking down these two readily available titles online. That gap we talked about quite extensively in this post is frustrating enough as it is but during screener season it’s also futile. Late January release dates for both of these films in Australia... I don’t even know the release date for New Zealand where I currently reside. If neither hits before the Oscars, steps will need to be taken. I’ve been hanging out for both all year long!
Best Performance1. John Hawkes – WINTER’S BONE
2. Woody Harrelson – THE MESSENGER
One of the best pieces of praise I can give John Hawkes' performance in WINTER’S BONE [above] is that I had no idea it was him until I saw the credits. I’m a long-time DEADWOOD fan and have enjoyed him throughout films where he tends to play lovable losers. In this film however, his character is terrifying. A sudden explosion of rage in his first appearance on screen echoes through the rest of the film. We see him soften a little, but the threat of violence always lingers. Jennifer Lawrence terrific lead performance also deserves mention, but Hawkes' Teardrop stole the film for me.
In August, I declared Harrelson in THE MESSENGER the best of MIFF and wrote: “I really like Woody Harrelson and I really love it when he takes roles like this. Such a powerful performance. When he laughs, we laugh. When he cries, we cry.”
That opinion stands. Tremendously charismatic.
I should mention that WINTER’S BONE also played at MIFF but I didn’t see it until much later.
Tomorrow the ‘awards’ continue with Best Feature Debut, Best Musical Moment and four others...
