TOP TEN OF 2012: DON SIMPSON'S PICKS

A scene from Attenberg.

Grouch the Oscar

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

LAFF 2012: BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD



Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

A hard rain falling

By John Esther

In a bayou community located in the southern Delta there is an area known as the Bathtub. Free from postmodernity’s profits, prophets, power, products and prisons, animals with two legs cohabitate with the other animals until one becomes meat for another animal. “Everything is meat."

Amongst the habitants is a six-year-old girl named Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis). Dirty much left to her own devices since her mom “swam away,” Hushpuppy can take care of herself wild-child beyond her years, thanks to the disciplinary ways of her father, Wink (Dwight Henry).

Dad is all about self-reliance (and booze dependent) and yells at his daughter to be a man. Hushpuppy growls. Hushpuppy has her own crib where she can cook her own cat food stew with a blowtorch. When dad disappears, Hushpuppy must fend for herself, as well as the pets.

While dad tries to instill personal responsibility in his daughter, Hushpuppy guides her childhood through her wild imagination. She listens to the other animals talk. They tell her they are hungry or have to poop. She sees herself as an artifact to be studied by people in the great future. She imagines Aurochs, an extinct bovine animal, running across her land, hunting her down (Aurochs were herbivores).

As nasty and noble as their lives may be, Hushpuppy and her fellow creatures are threatened with possible extinction when Hurricane Katrina rears its vicious head (They know not its name. Wink thinks it is the devil). While many beasts leave the area, her father and a few Bathtub residents remain in the dark – usually by getting so wasted they pass out. (In one hilarious scene a drunkard consuming beer walks right out of his house and falls into the deep water, which was not there yesterday.)

Smarter than your typical Fox News viewer (they have no television so the do not watch any news, they accept global warming, and religion and race are irrelevant), the habitants who remained have a harder time with the Bathtub, which is now drenched in salt water and disease. Hurricane Katrina has demolished most of the already-dilapidated homes. Living off the land is no longer a viable option, especially since Wink is ill and authorities are rounding up the inhabitants and bringing them to mainland quarters. What is a six-year-old girl to do? Escape, but to where?

Directed by Behn Zeitlan, co-written by Zeiltan and Lucy Alibar -- based on her stage play, Juicy and Delicious, and shot by Ben Richardson, Beasts of the Southern Wild is a mesmerizing, fantastic piece of cinema. From the opening scenes prior to the sparkling credits (yeah, you know you are in for something better than the usual) to the final de(construct)evolution scene, the crew and cast --both Wallis and Henry had no prior acting experience! -- have made a film that will be talked about this summer (the film opens theatrically June 27), in future film/ethnography classes and at the upcoming awards season. New talents have arrived.

Highly recommended.

Beasts of the Southern Wild screens at the Los Angeles Film Festival: June 15, 7 p.m., Regal Cinemas.