2009 at the Movies.

It's that time of year! The big ol' Year End pieces where I get to be all hierarchical in print and online. And guess what? You're soaking in it...

At the movies: The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

When a remake of 1992's Abel Ferrara masterpiece Bad Lieutenant was announced, the world cinema community was dumbstruck.

When director Werner Herzog and star Nicolas Cage were attached to the project, jaws dropped. And then an initial trailer, featuring Cage's character's lucky crack pipe and visions of iguanas, surfaced, and everything seemed to make a strange sort of sense. This is in no way tied directly to Ferrara's film, with its Catholic iconography and druggy Passion Play, it just dives into similar sensibilities of drug-fuelled excess and the juxtaposition of drug addiction in the hands of authority.

Also, where Ferrara's film was a relentless dive into the dankest levels of humanity, Herzog and crew have given us a fairly bonkers swerve through the darkest humor one could hope for, which makes a lot of difference.

Detective Terrence McDonough (Nicolas Cage) is plagued by agonizing back pain ever since he saved the life of a prisoner drowning during the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina. Now in the midst of a crippling addiction to pain pills and socially unacceptable thrills, he finds himself investigating the murders of a Senegalese family and trying to stay one step ahead of his bookie.

Where can hope be found for a man stuck far along the edge of life? If you said, hooker girlfriend and running mad schemes from the police station to the most resplendent mansions of crime bosses, then you would be right on the money.

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans isn't just one of the best comedies of the year, it's nothing less than a complete artistic rebirth for Nicolas Cage. After toiling for so long in crappy mainstream action flicks (ConAir, National Treasure) and offering gonzo turns in otherwise unworthy films (Ghost Rider, The Wicker Man), here at last is the talent who floored the world in Wild at Heart; disrespecting the elderly, smoking crack, solving murders, doing dirty sex stuff with club trash in front of their boyfriends, fighting with small-time hoods, and trying to simultaneously run the trap game and the cop game. Cage does all this and more.

Add in an understated performance from national treasure Jennifer Coolidge and exceptional reptile effects, and you have one of the gleaming surprises of the year. Not to be missed.

At the movies: Sherlock Holmes.

I’ve never been a fan of Director Guy Ritchie. The last time I’d subjected myself to one of his efforts, it was Swept Away, his 2002 collaboration with then-wife Madonna, and it wasn’t so much a film as a violation of the social contract (Actually, the one thing GR had done that I quite liked was the video for Madonna's "What It Feels Like For a Girl," with its amped-up Above & Beyond Remix and bad behavior. But that's not a film). So the idea of him taking on as beloved and intriguing a pair of icons as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson seemed like a particularly sick joke.

So color me surprised; Ritchie’s Holmes is kind of delightful.

It’s certainly made to bring in things that modern audiences will respond to (martial arts, explosions, homoeroticism, the battles between science and religion, sedition, and the limitless palette that computer imaging can give), but it feels kind of right. Robert Downey Jr. isn’t quite the cocaine aficionado of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, but he’s a maladjusted and brilliant mind in the body of a troubled individual- a lonely man prone to benders between cases, a detail-oriented scientist who terrifies London’s more devious minds simply because his precision is both merciless and relentless.

When a bloodthirsty madman is hanged in the first reel, vowing that he would return and our heroes would be entwined within his masterful taking of power, you would correctly assume that this particular story isn’t quite as wrapped up as it appears to be.

Secret orders, chemical warfare, French giants, and a masterful (final bridge battle excepted, sadly) recreation of the filth and bookish mesh of late nineteenth century London are all in order, and the two-plus hours simply flew by.

There’s a lot to like about a big budget blockbuster that emphasizes knowledge over weapons, and as my colleague Sean Burns points out, this film ‘works overtime to present intelligence as another form of badassery,’ which is right on the money and makes me wish I’d thought of it first.

I guess the old saying is true, and this film, The Indian Runner, The Crossing Guard, The Pledge, and Into The Wild would certainly bear it out… “Divorce Madonna, become a good director.”

At the movies: Avatar.

I yearn for the days back when the new James Cameron film didn’t also happen to be the most expensive movie ever made.

There’s an elegant grace to the way his scripts and ingenious approach to designing technical hardware meshed back in the early 80s, and 1984’s The Terminator and 1986’s Aliens serve as scrappy and inventive genre masterpieces that cemented the brilliant Canadian as the go-to guy for innovative SciFi and action.

Now, twenty-plus years down the road, he’s finally given us his follow-up to Titanic. How do you, in fact, follow up the biggest movie in the history of the world? With a three hour epic about culture clash, greed, evolution, and blue feline aliens with exterior ganglia capable of linking with any other indigenous life directly at the nervous system.

Also, there’s an inordinate amount of weaponry and a lot of explosions. Humans bad, aliens good, terrestrial spirituality viable, free market not so much. Characters, no. Archetypes, certainly.

Avatar is a bounty of visual riches. So much artistry and effort went into the creation of the film’s multiple environments that it becomes entirely possible to just soak in its atmosphere, disregarding the often obvious or clunky dialogue. The world of Pandora is so well laid-out with its multitudes of life that you could tell all sorts of stories in it- it’s just kind of a bummer that this particular one feels so played out (if looking for major influences, start with Cameron’s own Aliens, Dances with Wolves, Dune, Nightbreed, The New World, and eXistenZ).

If nothing else, this film cements the absolute divinity of Sigourney Weaver, who brings class, grit, bemused pragmatism, and fierce decency to her part. She gets the film’s most moving moment, and it’s her history as both icon and alien expert that give the uneven script its perceptible subtexts.

But the one thing I wanted from this film is something we get just a taste of in his highly enjoyable documentary Aliens of the Deep. An early scene, fairly inconsequential to the overall investigation of underwater volcanic habitats, but one that delivers a viscerality that even the highest-powered computers can’t manufacture. An extended tracking shot through an office, navigating rows of desks.

No people, no explosions, no redefining of the medium. Just physical space at constant time, something breathtakingly real. But I’d never bet the man out. He’s nimble, and thrives on limitations. I look forward to what comes next. And any film that can create this kind of hardcore debate (and believe you me, it has) speaks well to the future of the medium.

But the scoreboard doesn't lie: beautiful and derivative. Occasionally visionary, sometimes quite stupid. Worth seeing, certainly. But an odd parable, with uncertain lessons. Perhaps it's the goy's teeth, all over again?

At the movies: The Road.

The Man (Viggo Mortensen) has only his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee), though both are haunted by memories of a woman (Charlize Theron).

Together they wander the remnants of what we know as life.

Taken from Cormac McCarthy's best-selling (and Oprah Book Club-approved) novel, The Road is a dark vision of life after an unexplained cataclysm has wiped the majority of life from the planet, leaving an earth that is both scorched and drowned.

Our infrastructure stands amidst dead forests and black seas, as cannibal thieves and the dishevelled wreckage of humanity scurry through the streets. But where do you go when there's nothing left?

Advance word on The Road has been conflicted, which is actually quite suitable, because the film itself doesn’t dole out much conflict; it’s more situational.

This kind of slow-burn mood piece depends on striking the right tone, and during the film’s two year post-production phase, adjustments have been made here and there to balance out the relentless dour tone of the novel and earlier versions of the film. It isn't fair to judge a film on what might have been, but something here just doesn't feel quite right.

The Road is ambitious, and a faithful representation of the book (all the way down to its choppy, episodic structure). Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe also shot The Others and New Moon, so he knows overcast and oppressive better than most, and Mortensen is, as usual, quite good. But there’s a sense that something’s off balance with the film- moments of occasional happiness are dwelled on, the score is overpowering and at odds with the material, and the ending kind of craps the bed.

But The Road is still the kind of experience we need at the movies, bleak and occasionally incisive. It's just a bit too eager to be valued for its end, and if there's anything that years of studying human nature have taught us, it's that the end never justifies the means.

At the movies: Up in the Air.

It's a difficult endeavor, trying to find humanity in someone whose job it is to mass-fire a company's workforce. It isn't their fault per se; if anything, they indict the spineless higher-ups who seek outside help to keep their own hands from getting dirty.

But these people exist, and Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is one of the best. A gifted salesman (who here sells the possibility of freedom rather than the despair of unemployment), Bingham spends most of his life on planes, in hotels, engaging with concierges, the future unemployed, and always the disembodied image and voice of whoever is the next level up. Imagine a luxury first-person shooter American version of Demonlover, and you’d not be too far off.

So his company, under the encouragement of up-and-comer Natalie (Anna Kendrick, better known as Bella's best friend from the Twilight movies), decides to start moving into the field of termination by videoconferencing. The lone wolf operative Ryan's come to represent nears obsolescence, and he finds himself having to show the new kid the ropes, knowing he is sealing his own end the whole time. But family drama has a way of intruding, and Mister Happy-On-His-Own finds himself trying to find something meaningful, while at the same time helping his sister get married and possibly building something with his occasional sex buddy (Vera Farmiga, with Meg Foster eyes and hair that speaks volumes as to ideology).

Already surfing in on a giant wave of awards and hype, Up in the Air is the kind of movie that could get by just on being well-made and entertaining; but it also manages to capture the prevailing emotional currents in this country and get at the major sea change in the way people are viewing their jobs and personal stability. Critics’ groups and the blogosphere are already awash with love for the film, and it’s hard to begrudge that- well-crafted films that deal with grownup issues are becoming rarer than unicorns.

Director/cowriter Jason Reitman avoids most of the foolishness that kept his last film Juno so at odds with itself, and in Clooney, he has a game persona to really explore some of the darker sides of the current recession. Add in a guest appearance by Young MC and a two-scene cameo by national treasure Danny McBride, and you've got an accessible, fairly deep film that serves up a few laughs and insights with its look into the state of the American individual. Awards will come in abundance, but it's the quality that matters, and certainly endures.

The 101 Best Films of the Nineties.

101) ROCKULA (Luca BERCOVICI)



100) ORGAZMO (Trey PARKER)
“Dad, I don’t think I’m going to do hamster style anymore.”



099) BÉ-BÉ'S KIDS (Bruce GOWER)

"He's so cheap he wouldn't spend a lovely evening."



098) SHOWGIRLS (Paul VERHOEVEN)
"We take the cash, we cash the check, we show them what they wanna see."

"You know the best advice I ever got? You're up there on stage, hoping on a spot. If anyone gets in your way, step on 'em. That's about it. Thank you and goodnight, Elvis has left the building..."


097) XIA DAO GAO FEI/FULL CONTACT (Ringo LAM Ling-Tung)



096) SERIAL MOM (John WATERS)



095) BLEU/BLUE (Krzyszstof KIESLOWSKI)



094) KING OF THE HILL (Steven SODERBERGH)



093) DANCING OUTLAW (Jacob YOUNG)
"He's the devil in hisself. Uh, nothing satisfies him - he can't be happy. Nothing you do for him makes him happy."



092) EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (Tim BURTON)



091) RAVENOUS (Antonia BIRD)

"Breakfast... lunch... and reinforcements."



090) SUPER 8 1/2 (Bruce LaBRUCE)



089) TOTAL RECALL (Paul VERHOEVEN)



088) SPANKING THE MONKEY (David O. RUSSELL)



087) SCREAM (Wes CRAVEN)



086) DEAD OR ALIVE: HANZAISHA (MIIKE Takashi)



085) ROMY & MICHELE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION (David MIRKIN)



084) WILD AT HEART (David LYNCH)
"I can't find it. My mother's gonna kill me. It's got all my cards in it, and it was in my pocket, and now my pocket's gone. Gotta help me find it, my mother's gonna kill me. It's got all my cards in it, and it was in my pocket. It was in my pocket..."



083) PERFECT BLUE (KON Satoshi)
"This is Mima's last performance with Cham."



082) CHASING AMY (Kevin SMITH)



081) TESIS/THESIS (Alejandro AMENÁBAR)



080) GEORGIA (Ulu GROSBARD)



079) BASIC INSTINCT (Paul VERHOEVEN)

"You weren't making love to me... You weren't making love at all!"



078) BREAKING THE WAVES (Lars Von TRIER)



077) MAGNOLIA (Paul Thomas ANDERSON)
“I have a lot of love to give.”



076) FAST, CHEAP, AND OUT OF CONTROL (Errol MORRIS)



075) KURENAI NO BUTA/PORCO ROSSO (MIYAZAKI Hayao)



074) THE LIMEY (Steven SODERBERGH)



073) HARD TO DIE (Jim WYNORSKI)



072) BLUE (Derek JARMAN)



071) BABE (Chris NOONAN)



070) OFFICE KILLER (Cindy SHERMAN)



069) BAD LIEUTENANT (Abel FERRARA)



068) WES CRAVEN'S NEW NIGHTMARE (Wes CRAVEN)

"Just because it's a love story doesn't mean it can't have a decapitation or two."



067) THE STRAIGHT STORY (David LYNCH)



066) SOMBRE (Philippe GRANDRIEUX)



065) BODY SNATCHERS (Abel FERRARA)
"Where you gonna go? Where you gonna hide? Where you gonna run? Nowhere. Because there's no one like you left."



064) LES AMANTS DU PONT-NEUF/THE LOVERS ON THE BRIDGE (Léos CARAX)



063) GOODFELLAS (Martin SCORSESE)



062) LORD OF ILLUSIONS (Clive BARKER)

"I was born- to murder the world."



061) eXistenZ (David CRONENBERG)
"This is it, you see. This is the cage of your own making."



060) BEAU TRAVAIL (Claire DENIS)



059) SAFE MEN (John HAMBURG)



058) THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (Anthony MINGHELLA)



057) BILLY MADISON (Tamra DAVIS)
"What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."



056) BLACK AND WHITE (James TOBACK)
"And in the dream, I was holding you..."



055) SHAKES THE CLOWN (Bobcat GOLDTHWAIT)
"Hey, this is my bathroom, not your bedroom, you big drunken mess."



054) A PERFECT WORLD (Clint EASTWOOD)



053) SUMMER OF SAM (Spike LEE)



052) POLA X (Léos CARAX)



051) ED WOOD (Tim BURTON)



050) DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (Woody ALLEN)

"I'm a guy who can't function well in life but can in art."



049) DUST DEVIL (Richard STANLEY)



048) THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY (Jane CAMPION)



047) TOY STORY 2 (John LASSETER)



046) OUT OF SIGHT (Steven SODERBERGH)



045) FREEWAY (Matthew BRIGHT)
"You had your turn to speak! I think it's only fair to get my two cents in. But when a guy does that and hurts someone who never hurt them! Which makes him a criminal first and a sick guy second. It's like being crooked takes second place. And Bob, you're crooked, you've proved that to me tonight."

"This is a crucial question, Bob. Do you believe in the lord Jesus Christ and take him for your personal savior?"


044) THE IRON GIANT (Brad BIRD)
"Superman."



043) THAT THING YOU DO! Extended Version (Tom HANKS)
"I have wasted thousands and thousands of kisses on you - kisses that I thought were special because of your lips and your smile and all your color and life. I used to think that was the real you, when you smiled. But now I know you don't mean any of it. You just save it for all your songs. Shame on me for kissing you with my eyes closed so tight."

"Oh, there he goes off to his room to write that hit song 'Alone in my Principles.'"


042) ELECTION (Alexander PAYNE)



041) OUTER SPACE (Peter TSCHERKASSKY)



040) LE TEMPS RETROUVÉ/TIME REGAINED (Raoul RUIZ)



039) LA SINDROME DI STENDHAL/THE STENDHAL SYNDROME (Dario ARGENTO)



038) THE HOURS AND TIMES (Christopher MUNCH)



037) THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT Sundance Cut (Daniel MYRICK and Eduardo SANCHEZ)



036) CONFESSIONS OF A TRICKBABY (Matthew BRIGHT)

"These people really love to eat."



035) IN DREAMS (Neil JORDAN)



034) THREE KINGS (David O. RUSSELL)



033) CANDYMAN (Bernard ROSE)



032) VELVET GOLDMINE (Todd HAYNES)

"You live in terror of not being misunderstood."



031) JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO (John Patrick SHANLEY)



030) STARSHIP TROOPERS (Paul VERHOEVEN)



029) THE THIN RED LINE (Terrence MALICK)



028) KICKING AND SCREAMING (Noah BAUMBACH)
"You know, even though all 618 of us were wearing caps and gowns out there today, I couldn't help but think it was a coincidence that we were both wearing black."



027) ZERO EFFECT (Jake KASDAN)
"When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad. Because of all the things in the world, you're only looking for one of them. When you go looking for anything at all, your chances of finding it are very good. Because of all the things in the world, you're sure to find some of them."

"What doesn't kill you defines you."


026) SCHIZOPOLIS (Steven SODERBERGH)
"I know that if for an instant I could have you lie next to me, or on top of me, or sit on me, or stand over me and shake, then I would be the happiest man in my pants. I know all of this, and yet you do not know me. Change your life; accept my love. Or, at least let me pay you to accept it."

"A New Mexico woman was named Final Arbiter of Taste & Justice today, ending God's lengthy search for someone to straighten this country out. Eileen Harriet Palglace will have final say on every known subject, including who should be put to death, what clothes everyone should wear, what movies suck, and whether bald men who grow ponytails should still get laid."


025) FLIRTING WITH DISASTER (David O. RUSSELL)

“I had an experience. I resisted it at first, but then it evolved and it continues to evolve for me."


024) BABE: PIG IN THE CITY (George MILLER)



023) NAKED LUNCH (David CRONENBERG)



022) BARTON FINK (Joel COEN)



021) RÉGARDE LA MER/SEE THE SEA (François OZON)



020) TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (David LYNCH)

"When this kind of fire starts, it is very hard to put out. The tender boughs of innocence burn first, and the wind rises, and then all goodness is in jeopardy."



019) THE RAPTURE (Michael TOLKIN)



018) TROMEO AND JULIET (James GUNN and Lloyd KAUFMAN)

"When I was a kid, right, I stepped on a nail one time. It went right through the top of my foot. I thought nothing would ever hurt worse... I was wrong."

017) SÁTÁNTANGÓ (TARR Béla)



016) THE ADJUSTER (Atom EGOYAN)



015) THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (Sofia COPPOLA)

"We knew the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love, and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them."



014) WANDAFURU RAIFU/AFTER LIFE (KORE-EDA Hirokazu)



013) L'HUMANITÉ (Bruno DUMONT)



012) LOST HIGHWAY (David LYNCH)

“I like to remember things my own way; not necessarily the way they happened.”


011) GROUNDHOG DAY (Harold RAMIS)



010) [SAFE] (Todd HAYNES)



009) QUICK CHANGE (Howard FRANKLIN and Bill MURRAY)

"Flores! Flores para los muertos!"



008) WITTGENSTEIN (Derek JARMAN)



007) CLUELESS (Amy HECKERLING)

"I hear girls at NYU aren't at all particular."


006) EYES WIDE SHUT (Stanley KUBRICK)

"Because at the same time, you were dearer to me than ever, and at that moment, my love for you was both tender and sad."



005) THE ADDICTION (Abel FERRARA)



004) JACKIE BROWN (Quentin TARANTINO)

"Aw, the milk went bad while I was in jail."



003) ALIEN3 Workprint Version (David FINCHER)

"Why? Why are the innocent punished? Why the sacrifice? Why the pain? There aren't any promises. Nothing certain. Only that some get called, some get saved. She won't ever know the hardship and grief for those of us left behind. We commit these bodies to the void with a glad heart."



002) DOGME 2: IDIOTERNE/THE IDIOTS (Lars Von TRIER)



001) CRASH (David CRONENBERG)

"Describe it to me."