Bad Education (2004; Pedro Almodovar)This is a dark, complicated, lush, morally complex movie. It pitches you into three or four different time periods and timelines, where characters exist in all these different story arcs, but are not what they seem; somehow, he manages to draw these strands tighter and tighter around each other until they become one narrative...or do they? It's confusing and maddening and so gorgeously coloured and filmed (the presence of Gael Garcia Bernal, playing three characters, doesn't hurt!) that no matter the end the journey is totally engrossing and worth it.
The Incredibles (2004; d. Brad Bird)
I loved this take on the post-superhero experience in a family friendly redux of the Watchmen premise. Instead of darkness, Bird manages to milk a great deal of humour from the situation, but balances it with a pathos and an emotional complexity. It also smartly plays with the conventions of comic books and cartoons, in the script, the beautiful and thoughtful design of the film, and the gorgeous animation. It was my last film of 2004 and I couldn’t have capped the year off with a better movie.
Original post-movie reaction and review.
Mean Girls (2004; d. Mark Waters)I saw this in a packed theatre full of teen girls, the target audience. They laughed and giggled at all the jokes, and there were a lot of the great script from Tina Fey, capturing the zeitgeist while using high school and teen movie clichés to skewer teen behaviour. In doing so it points out the damaged attitudes teen girls have each other and tries, in some small way, to fix things. Unfortunately, in our theatre, about three minutes after one of the characters says something about "don't call each other sluts and whores because it just makes it easier for guys to label you that way", a scuffle happened near the bottom of the theatre and a very clear female voice was heard to yell, "You slut!" But I appreciated the efforts of the film, the way it’s so very funny and quotable, and the very good performances by the cast as a whole (and Lindsay Lohan has never been as appealing and personable as she is in this role).
Mysterious Skin (2005; d. Gregg Araki)
As the last scene faded and the credits rolled, there was a complete silence in the theatre, a hush unlike the end of a multiplex popcorn film; whether it was from shock, or deep thought, or sadness - or even, as I felt, a mixture of all three - it was an eerie feeling. This was a deeply moving film about the loss of innocence. It was a very hard movie to watch at times, even when none of the actual abuse is actually depicted; the hardest part is watching two lost characters stumbling through adulthood, trying to make sense of a world that has already failed them and will again and again. But it’s darkly funny too, walking a fine line between the ridiculous and the pathetically profound, and a strange beauty in the horrific details (I can still see the shower of rainbow colored fruit loops that a young Neil gleefully delights in, that his abuser uses to reel him in). The movie adapts the books really well; for me, the ending of the book is one of the most beautifully written passages I‘ve ever read, and the movie comes close to matching the loveliness in the pathos, the beauty in its sadness. My first reaction, when I walked out of the theatre, was of how amazing this movie was, and how I never wanted to watch it again.
Original post-movie reaction and review.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005; d. Shane Black)This is really funny, highly enjoyable neo-noir take on the buddy movie. Robert Downey Jr is so good as the nervy, fast-talking, no good anti-hero, Michelle Monaghan is so appealing as the ultimate girl-next-door, and there's great chemistry between all three leads. I love the construction of the style, the snappy narrative voice, the way the film hurtles back and forth along the timeline, the gloss of the Hollywood setting against the seedy happenings and people.
Kung Fu Hustle(2005; d. Stephen Chow)
I finally saw this last year, and I'm so glad I got to. It is so much fun; I laughed myself silly. It has a shambolic charm, using a well-worn forumlaic David v. Goliath story to hang its many bizarre, funny and wonderful flights of fancy. The restless referencing to old movies - Hollywood musicals of the 40s, classic kung fu pics of the 70s - is great and geeky. It's major failing is in a romantic subplot that is both boring, underwritten and infuriating (he makes her a one-dimensional, actually mute character!).
Movies of the Decade: 2003
Movies of the Decade: 2002
Movies of the Decade: 2000-2001
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