Was The Ghost Writer overlooked because of a backlash against Polanski?

I'm surprised at how "The Ghost Writer" has been almost entirely overlooked and underappreciated. Maybe it's a backlash against director Polanski? True, it did pop up as an also-ran on a few Best Movies of 2010 lists (would have made mine as well had I seen it sooner), but I can't remember anyone seeing it or talking about it - yet it's a movie that should have drawn a solid commercial response, and if he'd only been able to cast a more box-office lead actor there's no reason this smart, provocative suspense film shouldn't been as successful as the Bourne films, for example. In fact, it's much smarter than the Bournes, let alone the Bondses. The Ghost Writer, based on a book by Richard Harris (I think) and not to be confused with the Philip Roth novel, is about guy hired to ghost the memoirs of a former British PM closely modeled on Tony Blair - big supporter of the U.S. and of the Bush admin. The first-hired ghost was found dead, apparent suicide, weeks before publication deadline. Obviously we know the writer is in way over his head, and strange his world gets increasingly threatening as he learns that the manuscript he's working on is top secret and as it's reported that the PM is under investigation as a war criminal. There's CIA involvement, complex relations between the writer and the PM's very powerful wife, lots of interesting and completely credible plot twists, very good tense sequences, and a powerful conclusion. Worth noting that all this accomplished with no high-tech high-jinx, action-comic car chases, or deadly explosions. A very literate thriller that kept me guessing and thinking and, at the end, wondering: how much of this could be true?

Best (not recent) movies I saw in 2010

A few days ago I posted notes on the 10 best movies I saw in 2010, but that top-ten list was all of recently released films (released either in theaters or on DVD in 2010 or late 2009 maybe in some cases). But a true best-movies list should also pay homage to some of the classic or at least not-recent movies I saw during the year, so here are notes on the 5 best older movies I saw in 2010, some of them classics, one a seldom-seen but ought-to-be classic, and two too recent to be classics but really good movies that have slipped through the cracks of critical acclaim and ought to be better-known. Here's my list, in alphabetical order:

Cinema Paradiso. I saw the tedious, bloated 3-hour "uncut" version, and I recommend you ignore that monstrosity and find the original 90-minute version and watch that. The original Cinema Paradiso is a charming picture about a boy from a small town, where the entire social and cultural life centers on the movie theater, who goes off to the big city and becomes famous but loses touch with his origins, and returns home for a funeral and finds that everything has changed - and then, that amazing ending!

I Was Born...But. Ozu's 70-year-old silent about two schoolboys boys and their relationship with their father. By today's standards, the story is slow and the somewhat stagy - but still far, far ahead of so many other stilted silents - some beautiful shots of the family gatherings, of the two boys in the landscape of the industrial suburbs of Tokyo, of their father walking the boys to school. You can see the beginning of Ozu's sensibility - which will culminate in great Tokyo Story.

Lantana. Australian. ca 2002? One of those movies with multiple point of view, several strands to the story, you're not clear how or if the strands will intersect, then ultimately the whole design become clear to you. Unlike so many movies and TV series with "surprises," the surprises and twists in Lantana are all credible and in character. And the film also has a serious dramatic dimension. On the surface, it's about a murder investigation, but it's truly about people coming to terms with marriage and trust and faith and infidelity.

Red Road. This Glasgow-set picture from ca 2006 is taut and grim and graphic and very much accomplishes its ends of holding our attention from the first mysterious frame - protagonist Jackie watching multiple screens of video surveillance as part of a police/security anti-terrorism system - and hitting us with various twists and surprises along the way, building to a bang-up conclusion that challenges our assumptions.

Rome Open City. Filmed in the late 40s in what is obviously still a war-ravaged Rome, mostly on location settings, on the cheap, while another, Rome Open City is about resistance to the Nazi occupiers. You're always on edge watching this movie. Anyone could be arrested or shot at any time. The reality of the film is brutal. In so many similar movies, you know the lead characters will survive, because they're stars - but here any character can go at any time. Totally worth watching.

A sendup of the art establishment: Talk about easy targets!

Many years ago I saw a documentary about the artist Bruce Naumann, an eccentric minimalist, and I was convinced that there was no such person, that he was a hoax invented by fellow-artists, that his entire corpus and existence was a form of performance art (the term didn't exist then). Over the years, I've seen so many references to Naumann (even the name suggests No Man, right?), and I even have a book about him, that I've come to accept he's a real person - unless someone has been playing this real person for an entire lifetime. The film "Enter Through the Gift Shop" plays with that same concept - part documentary, part mockumentary, about a filmmaker named Thierry Guetta who sets out to document the work of street artists and becomes a successful street artist himself. The film is in itself a work of street art, in that the career of Guetta is clearly a fabrication and a sendup of the commercial success street artists and the gullibility of the art establishment and of the public. Okay, but unfortunately, it's not that funny a sendup and it's been done before. If Spinal Tap had not existed, never mind Best in Show et al., this would be a better movie, but it's hardly the kind of groundbreaking work of cinema you'd expect from the highly creative and brave and unconventional street artists - the real ones - whom we meet in the film. In fact, the documentary footage of the street artists is by far the highlight of Gift Shop, and I wished I'd watched a real full-length doc about their work, not this hybrid.

The 10 Best (recent) Movies I Saw in 2010

A friend of mine was recently telling me about his new 55-inch flat-screen with 3D. I told him I didn't really need a 3D screen - most of the movies I watch are just barely 2D, as will be obvious to anyone who reads my list of the 10 Best Movies of 2010. These are actually the 10 best (recent) movies I saw in 2010, some of which were made or released in 2009 - but mere mortals, as opposed to film critics and industry insiders, can never see all or even most of the good movies in the year of release. Note the NYT recent 10-best lists: how many of those movies are not yet released? How many have opened in NY and LA only? Also, like most people these days, I see most of my movies @ home on DVD. Anyway, this list does not include a few of the true classics and recent classics that I saw this year, which may be topics for a future post. Here are the 10 best movies I saw this year, none in 3D, listed alphabetically:

Headless Woman. Argentine. It's a story of fate and of moral and ethical decisions. Short, not pretty, totally compelling, and haunting.

The Hurt Locker. One of the few American movies on my list, and one of the few "hits." 2+ hours of complete tension and engagement, without a sense of exploitation, gratuitous violence, or video-game extravagance. It feels totally real, genuine, as if you're in the boots of the men on the ground in Iraq.

Mother. Korean. It's a great movie because of its exploration of characters and relationships, and because of the mother's gradual and surprising awakening as the movie progresses. Great movies (and novels) are about crisis, collision of forces, leading to growth, change, knowledge - and this is the epitome.

Precious. Here's one I liked much more than I thought I would. Really strong acting by the leads, and for once a movie doesn't blame everything on the unfeeling social workers and the crushing bureaucracy of the system. The social agencies do help, and Mariah Carey, surprisingly, is terrific as a thoughtful but tough social worker.

Revanche. Austrian. Though this sounds like an action picture - and it does have some very tense scenes, a robbery, a chase, a lot of graphic sex - it is a surprisingly deep and thoughtful movie, with a lot of exploration of the spiritual angst of the characters (obvious echos of Bergman) and a very credible portrait of a criminal couple who are obviously losers.

The Secret in Their Eyes. Argentine. Definitely jumps to the top of the list as the best movie I saw in 2010, even one of the best of the decade - a totally compelling story with lots of surprises and an absolutely terrifying ending.

The Social Network. The only big-budget film on the list. It's as good as the hype. The tone and the playing is exactly right, down to the small scenes - the two rich jocks coming to Larry Summers and expecting his help is a great moment, as is the already-famous first scene of the movie.

Summer Hours. Very French. A beautiful film, and not only because of La Binoche - the whole movie, the look, the acting, the very smart script, just loose and open enough to keep you thinking and guessing, but very nicely structured to bring you through the course of a year, summer to summer, in the life of one family. This one struck many personal notes for me.

The White Ribbon. Austrian. A geopolitical allegory, without the allegorical trappings. Beautiful to watch in a strange and mysterious way (it's in b/w), and some of the scenes of nastiness and marital strife and verbal cruelty are painful to watch and powerful and make Bergman look like a Disney cartoon.

Winter's Bone. An American indie makes the list. A totally captivating movie especially because of the work of its star, Julie(?) Lawrence, young actor who captures the plight of this 17-year-old nearly overwhelmed by the responsibilities of her life - invalid mother, two young sibs, dad on the run, no money, no social or family supports (at least so it seems). You'll never again, when visiting the Ozards, wander unannounced into a meth lab.


The also-rans, in no particular order, include: The Maid, 35 Shots of Rum, District 9 (waiting for the sequel), Gomorrah (The Wire via Italy), In the Loop (very funny! - wish I had a comedy for the Top 10, but this isn't quite up to the level), Lorna's Silence, Ajami, and the strange Mexican-made Silent Light.

No chases, no guns, no special effects - just an exciting movie : Red Road

"Red Road," a Glasgow-set picture from ca 2006 (by Andrea Arnold?) is taut and grim and graphic and very much accomplishes its ends of holding our attention from the first mysterious frame - protagonist Jackie watching multiple screens of video surveillance as part of a police/security anti-terrorism system pervasive in Britain - and hitting us with various twists and surprises along the way, building to a bang-up conclusion that challenges our assumptions. Actress playing Jackie is in virtually every scene, and she's really strong and courageous, especially in the extremely graphic sex scene near the conclusion. Movie not for everyone - the grimness of Glasgow in this and other pictures, e.g., Trainspotting, is a well-known off-putter - but Red Road is much more tense and realistic and vivid than any number of crappy crime dramas and thrillers that rely on car chases and shootouts. This one done with no special effects, nothing high speed, no guns or weapons of any kind. Basic plot line is that Jackie, through her surveillance, spots the man now out of prison who killed her husband and child, and she sets off to exact revenge. Here come the spoilers, so stop here if you might see the film: The only downside to Red Road is that it's practically impossible to believe that Jackie or anyone short of psychopath (which she is not) would embark on a revenge plot that involves having sex with the target and then charging him with rape. Also we do feel a bit manipulated by the film, in that we are strongly led to believe that the target was a "killer" out of jail, when in fact he turns out to be a former drunken driver, now trying (not very effectively) to reform - film wants to have too many things both ways. Those quibbles aside, though, it's a really intelligent film, shot with great economy and using real Glasgow street locations, and stands up very well alongside the many much-better-known dark American indie films of recent years.

Sometimes you have to live with a series for a while before it begins to make sense

The Canadian series "Intelligence" (2006?) season one pilot episode, a 90-minute take, gets the season off to a great start, full of tension and odd twists, sets up a really interesting antagonism between Vancouver major crimes unit leader and her chief underling, with lots of overtones of interoffice rivalry, rivalry between agencies, racism, sexism, and the strange relations established between cops and crooks when the cops recruit spies within various criminal gangs. Episode was very compelling, but like so many of its type pretty hard to follow at times, especially because of some of the low-budget casting and directing: minor characters who mumble and are rather indistinguishable, totally forgettable names (and faces sometimes), murky lighting in some key scenes, exceptionally elliptical plot exposition. Still, I got enough of it to follow the story line and to want to see more of the series, which will I think unfold some of these narrative creases. I felt the same way to an extent after the first episode or two of The Wire - with some of these series, you have to live with them for a while before you understand and recognize the characters and their life stories. To try to give a brief summary of the pilot: Mary (?) being recruited by Canada CIA has to bring with her a # of inside sources in Vancouver crime; staff develops a list of such; the list is stolen from deputy (Ted?)'s car; they have to bring all the sources in; leading crime figure (Reardon) obtains the list; deal-making ensues.

Tragedy, comedy, farce - and an ending that's much like Shakespeare : Final episode of Slings & Arrows

Last episode of final season of "Slings & Arrows" is a perfect summation of the three seasons of the series. It's sweet and touching, but not saccharine - and ends as I expected with some sad and wry notes as well, a true Shakespearean ending. To no one's surprise, they do manage to pull off a great performance of King Lear, with the dying Charles Kingman rising to the occasion. But this final performance is done outside the festival, in a church. Simply by running through this performance (and in Anna's case b attending it), the actors and crew put their contracts with the festival in jeopardy. And the surprise (spoiler!) is that Richard ultimately turns out to be a selfish prick. He fires the whole crew, brings in Derrin as the new artistic director, decides to make the festival much more commercial, appeasing his thuggish board chairman and retaining his job. Through the three seasons he veered from being an uptight businessman led around by a dominating woman to a sensitive guy who just wanted to be loved - and then in this final season we see that he's shallow and self-centered. So there's tragedy and comedy and face in this final episode: the season actually echoes Lear in some way, in that the characters have everything stripped from them. But unlike the tragic Lear, they do rise and survive: we see that Sophie/Sara Polley will go on and have a great career, Ellen and Jeffrey at last get married and they seem OK about moving on to new careers in Montreal, and the ghost of Oliver leaves (though he does seem to attach himself to Charles, as predicted). Very realistically captures the feeling of the end of a long run.