TAKING A WALK ON THE FILMIC SIDE, TRANSITING THE VINTAGE ROADS.
Monday, January 04, 2010
"Brothers" in NPR's Top 13 Films List
1. Summer Hours The premise is simple: A matriarch who inherited the estate and collection of her artist uncle dies, and two of her three children vote to sell it all instead of keeping the house and work in the family. The next hour is mostly about inventory, pricing, discussions of tax deductions, and an auction. But director Olivier Assayas evokes the sadness of the passing of the Old World and its indigenous forms of culture, the rise of globalization, and the weakening of family ties.2. Everlasting Moments Jan Troell's entrancingly beautiful drama centers on a turn-of-the-century woman who finds an old camera in a cabinet and discovers that she has what another character calls "a gift for seeing." Troell uses surfaces — light, texture, faces — to hint at another world, a shadow realm.3. Brothers Jim Sheridan's melancholy drama (with superlative performances by Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Sam Shepard), explores not just the horror of the "war on terror," but the chemistry of families — the connections that shape our actions even when separated from loved ones by continents.4. The Fantastic Mr. Fox In this stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl's book, Wes Anderson's ultra-composed frames are magically, mischievously alive.6.A Serious Man A Jewish joke with a sting, Joel and Ethan Coen lampoon traditions and folklore, along with the sanctified notion of moral "seriousness." Underneath, another note creeps in — existential dislocation and dread, and the impossibility of discerning divine motives.10. The Hurt Locker Director Kathryn Bigelow's adrenaline-soaked Iraq film evokes both the charge and the terrifying disorientation of a war in which death can come from any direction at anytime from anyone.12. Where the Wild Things Are With some computer work but largely with live action, Spike Jonze brings Maurice Sendak's wondrous world of giant beasts and bestial little boys to life — with all its rage and longing and even depression intact. 13. Avatar With the help of a brontosaurian budget, James Cameron creates a pantheistic virtual world with such thrilling, vertigo-inducing depth that as you watch you barely notice it's a dumb, guilt-assuaging parable in which Native Americans and their living ecosystem best their capitalist-imperialist invaders". Source: www.npr.org
1. Summer Hours The premise is simple: A matriarch who inherited the estate and collection of her artist uncle dies, and two of her three children vote to sell it all instead of keeping the house and work in the family. The next hour is mostly about inventory, pricing, discussions of tax deductions, and an auction. But director Olivier Assayas evokes the sadness of the passing of the Old World and its indigenous forms of culture, the rise of globalization, and the weakening of family ties.
2. Everlasting Moments Jan Troell's entrancingly beautiful drama centers on a turn-of-the-century woman who finds an old camera in a cabinet and discovers that she has what another character calls "a gift for seeing." Troell uses surfaces — light, texture, faces — to hint at another world, a shadow realm.
3. Brothers Jim Sheridan's melancholy drama (with superlative performances by Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Sam Shepard), explores not just the horror of the "war on terror," but the chemistry of families — the connections that shape our actions even when separated from loved ones by continents.
4. The Fantastic Mr. Fox In this stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl's book, Wes Anderson's ultra-composed frames are magically, mischievously alive.
6.A Serious Man A Jewish joke with a sting, Joel and Ethan Coen lampoon traditions and folklore, along with the sanctified notion of moral "seriousness." Underneath, another note creeps in — existential dislocation and dread, and the impossibility of discerning divine motives.
10. The Hurt Locker Director Kathryn Bigelow's adrenaline-soaked Iraq film evokes both the charge and the terrifying disorientation of a war in which death can come from any direction at anytime from anyone.
12. Where the Wild Things Are With some computer work but largely with live action, Spike Jonze brings Maurice Sendak's wondrous world of giant beasts and bestial little boys to life — with all its rage and longing and even depression intact.
13. Avatar With the help of a brontosaurian budget, James Cameron creates a pantheistic virtual world with such thrilling, vertigo-inducing depth that as you watch you barely notice it's a dumb, guilt-assuaging parable in which Native Americans and their living ecosystem best their capitalist-imperialist invaders". Source: www.npr.org
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