Tuesday, 29 December 1998

TOP 10 MOVIES I JUST DON'T GET

Every year there are a bunch of movies that catch the imagination of the critics and/or the public and I don't know why -- 1998 was no different. Here is a list of the 10 films that most confused my little brain and the reasons for my confusion. I've left off films like Beloved and Meet Joe Black, which I think got overly attacked or praised, but about which I understand the flaws or glories.

Before we start, here is a list of the 18 releases that I didn't see this year that might have inspired a strong opinion or maybe more confusion on my part: Buffalo 66, Dancing at Lughnasa, Disturbing Behavior, Festen (The Celebration), Henry Fool, The Hi-Lo Country, The Land Girls, Love and Death on Long Island, Mercury Rising, My Giant, A Night at the Roxbury, One Tough Cop, Phantoms, A Price Above Rubies, Return to Paradise, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, Twilight and Why Do Fools Fall in Love.

10. Slums of Beverly Hills: Didn't love it, didn't hate it. I liked almost every performance, but I really don't understand why anyone would be crazy for this flick. A female coming-of-age movie that's more breast obsessed than any guy flick, starring actresses who were made to pad their bras by the female director. Seems like a false note to me.

9. What Dreams May Come: My mother loved it -- reason enough there for me to be confused. It's easy enough to write this one off as cloying and overly sentimental, but there was something going on there. I just have no idea what it was. This was not the work of someone who was just, pardon the cimematic pun, painting by numbers, but it was deeply failed art. (And it is my sincerest hope that Robin Williams will start using this film as a "career low" joke on talk shows and will leave Popeye alone. Call me crazy, but I love Robert Altman's surreal comic saga.)

8. Permanent Midnight: This one had high heat coming off the festival circuit. But it was a big "so what?" for me. I like Ben Stiller as an actor, but I thought his performance here had a lot more to do with white make-up than with some bravura acting. And sex with Maria Bello as a framing device was more desperate than clever. I was much happier taking my bad trip with Terry Gilliam and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. For those of you who haven't seen this film, here it is: Drugs are bad and make you really, really desperate. I just saved you two hours.

7. Armageddon/Godzilla: The intensity of support amongst the "geek" community for Armageddon and the harshness of the reaction to Godzilla left me shaking my head all last summer. Armageddon wasn't that cool and Godzilla just wasn't that bad. Neither film was really up to carrying the weight of being THE summer blockbuster of 1998. Jurassic Park, The Lion King, Independence Day and Men in Black were all better films than either of these two. But one was overly defended and the other beaten mercilessly. Go figure.

6. High Art: Again, didn't love it, didn't hate it. I felt compelled to get my landlord, a lesbian, to offer her expert view. Read her view under The Good in THB 6/19.

5. Central Station: Slow, uninteresting, aggressively international. Fernanda Montenegro and Vinicius de Oliveira's performances were wonderful, but hardly the stuff of awards ceremonies. If you did this film in English, you'd have a hard time getting distribution. Lots of people love this film, so maybe it's me. But I've seen Hallmark Hall of Fames that I find more compelling.

4. Pleasantville: This film almost fell off this list because it fell off the box office charts so quickly. It also went without Golden Globe nominations, even for Joan Allen, who seemed like a lock, and probably still is, for the Oscars. What I don't understand is how anyone can watch this film start throwing around phrases like "No Coloreds" and not demand more from it than a neatly wrapped happy ending. Gary Ross did offer an interesting take on why people turned from black and white to color, an issue which seemed to confuse many, but that wasn't my primary concern. Racism as part of the nature of man is not a light subject. It shouldn't be treated as such. Unless treating it that way defines the issue in and of itself. That doesn't happen in P'ville.

3. A Simple Plan: A good film. But a great one? Sam Raimi didn't do exceptional work here. He did barely passable work. The performances were quite good, but they were so human that they took the edge off the danger that drove the story. So why am I seeing this film on Top 10 lists all over the place? Maybe because so many critics take one great performance (Billy Bob Thornton) as enough to catapult an entire movie into some higher status. Me? I just don't get it.

2. Shakespeare in Love: Another not bad movie. But "the best movie of the year?" On what planet? The tone shifts from melodrama to farce every 90 seconds. The "inside" jokes about Shakespeare are so heavily laid on that it feels as though a sign should come on telling you to laugh at each one with an explanation for those who haven't read the entire canon. Joseph Fiennes seems to finally be getting some media attention because, despite praising his two films (the other is the vastly superior Elizabeth), no one seems to have noticed that he was alive. And frankly, he barely was. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead makes this thin work of Stoppard pale in comparison. Get thee to a video store.

1. Gods and Monsters: What up with this?!?! An aging gay director tries to seduce a young stud who looks like Frankenstein and hates himself because of that and a wide range of other reasons. Powerful story. Bill Condon uses the camera like a movie of the week director in a hurry. Genius. Sir Ian McKellen gives the most mannered performance of his career as a character that has emotional depth that we all understand within seconds of his first line of dialogue. THIS is why he gets an Oscar? I know this is not a good film. I know it's undeserving of the acclaim it has garnered, but I have to respect the wide range of people who have taken it to heart. They are getting something out of it. None of them has really been able to explain what they got out of it to me, but I will take them at their word. Maybe it is deeper than intellect, but the vast ocean of incredulity that separates me and the lovers of this film make it easily the film I "get" the least this year. It's more than two thumbs. It's all thumbs.

HOLIDAY SCHEDULE:
Thursday, Dec. 24: Hanukkah Special
Today: 'Twas The Night Before Christmas '98
Monday, Dec. 28: Weekend Review
Tuesday, Dec. 29: Top 10 Movies I Just Don't Get
Wednesday, Dec. 30: The Worst 10 of 1998
Thursday, Dec. 31: The Best 10 Films of 1998
Friday, Jan. 1: New Year's Resolutions

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E ME: Write David throughout the holidays.