#7 The Tree of Life
Pretentious? A little. Confusing? At times. Heavy-handed? Absolutely--any film comparing the rearing of a small-town 1950s Texas family to the creation of the universe has to be.
However...
Fascinating? It had the ability to be. Gorgeous? Very much so. Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography was the best of the year, sun streaming in through picture windows, wind blowing through grasses and trees, follow shots of both children and adults walking down empty streets. And was it evocative? I thought so, especially being a male in that there were elements of it that reminded me a little of my own growing up and the confusion, anger and lack of responsibility that comes with adolescence. Others felt it more so than me.
There's not really a narrative arc to speak of in this movie, and that was a little bit of a problem. Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain are a husband and wife raising a family. We see the world through the eyes of their son, 11-year old Jack (Hunter McCracken) in jumbled vignettes and subtle, simple meditations on life. Pitt, a patent salesman, is an intimidating disciplinarian, who, despite the my-way-or-the-highway act, loves them all. He can be stern and has the ability to snap on a dime, and Chastain is the quiet, submissive counterpart.
Interwoven with all of this is adult Jack (Sean Penn), wandering lost in big-city, business world and looking for answers, and a long montage detailing the creation of the world, complete with NASA quality cosmos shots and exploding volcanoes. And even CGI dinosaurs. There are voiceover whispers and sweeping orchestral fare. Art house favorite Terrence Malick, in only his fifth feature in 40 years, decided to go as big he possibly could with the Tree of Life. Sometimes his conception of big is over our heads, and sometimes you find the film meandering and sleepy.
But my God, is it ever something to look at.
#6 Harry Potter 8
One of the most remarkable things about the mega-franchise, and I think I said this last year, is that Rowling has written them in such a way that each progressive book gets more adult and less kid. The movies follow the gameplan-thanks largely to having David Yates at the helm for the last four films-by holding onto dark undertones. We have watched the Radcliffe/Grint/Watson trio grow up on screen over ten years, from optimistic and wide-eyed (Rafcliffe), frightened and goofy (Grint), snippy and mousy (Watson) to full-fledged adults. Where Deathly Hallows Part I was a showcase for all three (Grint has come a long way from the one dimensional "scared of spiders' face in Chamber of Secrets), Part II is all Radcliffe, and he absolutely rises to the challenge of impending martyrdom.
We pick up right where we left off with a little bit of a re-cap to kick things into gear: Voldemort has just jacked the elder wand from Dumbledore's giant white tomb, rendering him virtually unstoppable; our fearless three escaped an attack at Malfoy manor by the skin of their teeth; and fan favorite Dobby the house elf bit the dust via a knife thrown by evil nutjob Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). They had spent the last movie on the run, away from their family, away from Hogwarts, hunting down the final horcruxes--items containing pieces of Voldemort's soul. For those keeping score at home, they had previously destroyed three of the seven: Harry stabbed Tom Riddle's (Voldemort's childhood identity) diary in the Chamber of Secrets, Marvolo Gaunt's ring was pulverized by Dumbledore sometime in the timeline of Half-Blood Prince, and the locket that Harry and Dumbledore failed to dispose of near the end of Half-Blood Prince gets finished off by Ron Weasley in the Deathly Hallows, Part I. At the beginning of Part II, four remain. To make Voldemort mortal and defeat the bald asshole once and for all, the horcruxes must go. The trio starts by infiltrating Gringott's Bank in disguise for the purpose of a goblet that they have reason to believe is a horcrux, and from there it's back towards Hogwart's for a final showdown. Unlike Part I, this one is straight-up action, and wastes no time in chugging to the finish line.
The most successful film franchise of all time (it helps when there are eight of them) thus comes to a close, and it does so in a bombastic fashion worthy of the superbly-structured books. Throughout, there are game-changing reveals that continue to hit Harry like a quidditch bludger to the stomach, and eventually he comes to understand that his fate is unavoidable. Both the good (Maggie Smith as McGonnagal, Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, David Thewlis as Lupin) and the bad (Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort, Alan Rickman as Snape, Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy) suffer a gang of casualties. All of the actors convey the urgency very well, and special props go to Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom, who experiences a heroic coming-out of sorts, and to director David Yates, who knows exactly what is at stake and delivers a stark and powerful finale to legions upon legions of muggle fans. None, though, are on quite on Radcliffe's level this time around. There's a scene that takes place when on the way to meet Voldemort in the woods that he plays so perfectly, so quietly that it's practically a dance. He's a great and fearless actor with tremendous upside, and as the heart and soul of the story, he takes the viewer right into the psyche of the boy who, for better or for worse, lived.
#5 Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
A couple-three years ago, I was sitting on my best friend's couch, paging through the contents of the book "Stuff White People Like". Lo and behold, there was a Tribe Called Quest. I was confronted with two harsh realizations on that day: One, I am, in fact, white; and two, following the hip-hop group was both ubiquitous and not at all unique. The truth is that I know every last word to Midnight Marauders and own a cat named Q-Tip with plans to eventually own a cat named Ali Shaheed Mohammed and a dog named Phife. This does not mean I am the world's only fan of ATCQ and I guess that's a good thing. It should come as no surprise to those who know me that this one would be charting high.
None of my biases, though, stop this from being a great and engaging film. I have watched it both with people who enjoy their music and those who had barely heard of them, and the result was the same. Early on in the film, the group is introduced via the semi-famous (at least in the hip-hop community) audio of the robotic woman who gives public service announcements in between tracks on Midnight Marauders: "A Tribe Called Quest consists of four members-Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Mohammed, Q-Tip and Jarobi. A, E, I, O-" "And sometimes Y, motherf***as!" Jarobi interrupts, and just like that, we're off and running.
The movie begins with the renowned Queens, NY group in a state of turmoil; it's 2008, and they have agreed to reunite to headline the Rock the Bells hip-hop lineup. Things have since gone south in a hurry, with Phife and Q-Tip at playing battling egos. As the movie unfolds, we come to realize that through the years, Q-Tip and Phife were oftentimes more competitors than allies (Phife Dawg's diabetes diagnosis played a role as well), both struggling to equally share the spotlight while ASM (Jarobi left in the early '90s) played the background.
It wasn't always tense, though, and it is a blast to see and hear how the whole thing came together, from the high school lunch table rhymes, to sampling records, to the formation of the Native Tongues collective (ATCQ, Black Sheep, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers) and their eventual rise to fame. Director and superfan Michael Rapaport spent years collecting testimonials of hip-hop heavies like the Beastie Boys, De La Soul, ?uestlove and Busta Rhymes, along with studio execs like Jimmy Iovine and Lyor Cohen who can all agree that A Tribe Called Quest's influential music and path changed the game for good.
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