Kill List: File under "disturbing"

Even fans of hardcore, psychologically disturbing cinema are being advised to enter with caution if they plan to see the new British film, Kill List, opening this weekend at SIFF cinema at the Uptown Theater.  I’d read very little about the movie when I caught a sneak preview of it on-demand several weeks ago and I’ll admit I had a hard time falling asleep afterwards.   Kill List begins in a paranoid atmosphere of domestic strife and ends with a horrifying finale that is so unexpectedly shocking it requires a period of post-film reflection to collect your thoughts.  Only then can you retrace the movie’s narrative spiral from a mundane suburban tract home through a gruesome series of assassinations carried out by PTSD-driven hit men to its ending in a forested coven of witches practicing an especially diabolical version of human sacrifice.  Sleep?  My god, just bury yourself under the covers and try not to dream.

Jump Cuts: February 26th, 2012

My personal Oscar Awards:


Best Picture– The Tree of Life
Best Director– Wim Wenders for Pina
Best Actor– Michael Shannon for Take Shelter
Best Actress– 3 way tie: Anna Paquin for Margaret; Jessica Chastain for Take Shelter; Mia Wasikowska for Jane Eyre
Best Supporting Actor– tie: Albert Brooks for Drive and Nick Nolte for Warrior
Best Supporting Actress– Shailene Woodley for The Descendants
Best Script (Adapted or Original)– Kenneth Lonergan for Margaret
Best Cinematography– Emmanuel Lubezki for The Tree of Life
Best Editing– Toni Froshhammer for Pina
Best Sound and Sound Editing– The Tree of Life
Best Score– David Wingo for Take Shelter
Best Foreign Film–  Le Quattro Volte (Michelangelo Frammartino; Italy)

2011: Ten Best...Bellflower, Take Shelter, Pina...

In a frenzy of catching up on films in preparation for my top ten list of 2011, I watched six movies in 48 hours this past weekend:  three on DVD, one on my laptop via the “play instantly” option offered by Netflix, and two at an actual theater.  In times like this I am very thankful for the cross platform options available to movie lovers and it’s why I continue to remind friends, readers and listeners that never before have so many challenging, artistic, original and, yes, entertaining films been available to such a wide audience.  As always, you simply have to remember a film–maybe even write down the title–that you want to see, and chances are if you miss it at a theater it will show up within the year on DVD and on-demand.

Jump Cuts: February 20th, 2012

Recently watched:


Pina  (Wim Wenders)    *****
Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within  (Jose Padilha)    ****
A Separation  (Ashgar Farhadi)    ****
Take Shelter  (Jeff Nichols)    ****
Margaret  (Kenneth Lonergan)    ****
Senna (Asif Kapadia)    ***

A Separation: Engrossing drama from Iran

The bracing new film from Iran, A Separation, begins with a wife explaining to an off-screen judge why she wants a divorce from her husband.  It’s not because he mistreats her, fails to provide for her, or has fallen out of love.  She wants to leave the country.  She has spent months gathering the appropriate documents for the two of them and their 11-year old daughter and time is running out before the visas expire.  But he can’t leave.  He must care for his father, who has Alzheimer’s, and besides, their daughter is not so sure she wants to go.  This film begins with a marital separation, but in the intense, byzantine narrative that follows, it grows into a scathing, scorching chronicle of all kinds of separations, between classes, between degrees of religious belief, between good lies and bad lies.

2010: Ten Best...Machete, The Kids Are All Right, The Social Network...

America’s major and mini movie studios are paralyzed by a film distribution climate in which the very best films make so little money within the piggybacking platforms of DVD rental, cable on-demand channels, and digital downloads that there is no reason not to continue recycling the same tired plots of meretricious romantic comedies, the perpetual adolescent nonsense of comic book adaptations, and the inexhaustible supply of forgettable sequels.  With the qualitative bar at or near ground level it’s no surprise that 2010 was a movie year in which we now find uninspiring pictures like Black Swan, The Fighter, The King’s Speech, Inception and True Grit competing alongside outstanding fare such as The Social Network in this year’s Oscars.

2009: Ten Best...Public Enemies, The Road, Sin Nombre...

2009 was similar to last year in that the best acts of cinematic artistry were created in other countries. The good news is that you too can watch these films. All are available on DVD.  My resolution for 2010 is to continually urge you to resist rom-coms, boycott CGI sequels, ignore animated retreads, skip post-adolescent male-centric emo indie dramedies and refuse to pay for anything starring Sandra Bullock, Kate Hudson or Matthew McConaughey, and instead seek out, sit down, and watch—patiently and without distractions—movies that challenge you, provoke you, touch you and yes, even entertain you.