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| A scene from Attenberg. |
By Don Simpson
Attenberg -- One might say that Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenbergis like the mellow chaser used to calm the crazy rush after experiencing the sheer frenzy of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth(which Tsangari produced), but it is certainly no less meaningful and pervasive. Attenberg may not be quite as fantastically absurd as Dogtooth, but the two Greek films do share a certain cinematic kinship in farcically discussing the aftereffects of overly restrictive parenting, specifically the social and sexual repression of the offspring.
Bad Fever -- The dark and intimate mood that writer-director Dustin Guy Defa is able to develop during the 77 minute-long Bad Feveris intoxicating. Defa’s timid approach to his characters — and the narrative as a whole — forces the audience to observe the world from Eddie’s (Kentucker Audley) perspective. Eddie carefully flirts with adjectives such as creepy and deranged, yet he always seems deserving of our sympathy and affection; occasionally he hints of a slight mental handicap, but refrains from utilizing such a “burden” to tug at our heartstrings.
Beasts of the Southern Wild --A masterful blend of neo-realism, magic realism, Southern Gothic and children’s fantasy, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild is told from the childlike perspective of Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) with wandering eyes wide open engulfing the natural magnificence of the world. Beasts of the Southern Wild never once purports to exist in our world; instead, like any good fantasy or science fiction story, it functions as an otherworldly critique of our reality.
Cosmopolis -- I cannot imagine a better writer-director to adapt Don DeLillo’s dense-yet-dreamily-poetic dialogue. David Cronenberg nails DeLillo’s token tone, rhythm and pacing that has differentiated him from his peers. DeLillo and Cronenberg saturate every single word, sound and image with significance creating a presumably impossible-to-crack puzzle, not unlike some of Cronenberg’s most challenging films: Existenz, Crash, and Videodrome.
Green -- Writer-director Sophia Takal’s Green approaches female relationships and jealousy with a dreamy haze of obliqueness. The densely forested environs are not only suffocating and ostracizing but they also lend Green the spooky and menacing air of a horror film. Greenis a purely psychological horror film — the violence is all in the mind -- and one of the best I have seen in ages.
Holy Motors -- Like David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, Leos Carax’s Holy Motors shuttles us through its narrative in a white limousine, allowing us a tour of the decaying moral fiber of our post modern world. Holy Motors might be a film about playing roles and fulfilling the fantasies of others, but there is so much more to it than that.
Only the Young --Elizabeth Mims and Jason Tippet’s film is kind of like a punk rock Real World but more gritty and authentic; and like Real World, authenticity is in the eye of the beholder. Some viewers will accept Only the Young as fact, while others will probably believe that it is fiction. Regardless, Only the Young works extremely well as a visual essay on post-suburbia, contemplating the effects that regional economic downturns have on teenagers that are left floundering in the wake.
Oslo, August 31 -- With the visual poeticism of Robert Bresson, Joachim Trier creates an incredibly complex 24-hour character study with the intellectually insightful panache of Camus and Sartre. In this modern day example of existentialism, Trier avoids the Hollywood cliche of drug addiction — which informs us that drug addiction is perpetuated by financial woes and unstable families — revealing that wealthy, intelligent and resourceful people can become addicts too.
Tchoupitoulas -- The Ross brothers’ Tchoupitoulas functions as both a documentary that borrows from narrative storytelling techniques and a narrative film that paints a realistic portrait of its protagonists by utilizing documentary devices. The narrative unfolds like an improvised jazz album with various tangents that flow seamlessly away from and towards the forward-moving primary thread. Tchoupitoulasis a cerebral experience that continues to reverberate in my subconscious like a fading childhood memory.
Wuthering Heights --Writer-director Andrea Arnold de[con]structively whittles down Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights to its core elements of cruelty and violence. A strange Frankenstein-like creature that combines the distinct cinematic worlds of kitchen sink realism, art house and slow cinema, Wuthering Heights truly is a beautiful beast.
Honorable mentions: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry; Alps; America’s Parking Lot; Blancanieves; Cabin in the Woods; The Color Wheel; The Comedy; Girl Model; The Island President; Magic Mike; The Queen of Versailles; Turn Me on, Dammit!; You Hurt My Feelings
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