A Serious Man by The Coen Brothers

Some people throw around the word genius a little too freely when it comes to the brothers Coen. They have had their hits and their misses for every No Country for Old Men or Fargo is a Ladykillers or Burn After Reading. The Coen Brothers, regardless of any flops, have indelibly left their mark on filmmaking and it is in 2009 that they offer up their most personal, and brilliant work to date. A Serious Man follows Larry Gopnik, a very serious jewish man, as his life crumbles before him. His wife is leaving him for his best friend who also attempts to console him, his son smokes pot, and his daughter is saving money up for a nose job. At work he is being bribed by a student to bring his grade up and blackmailed by him at the same time, meanwhile he is up for tenure. The whole film plays like a modern rendition of the book of Job in the bible. What is wonderful is that this film is filled with all the dark humor of Fargo and all the serious ambiguities of No Country for Old Men, while offering us what is probably the closest glimpse at the childhood of the Coens as we are ever going to get. This film is hard to write about as it is so wonderful on the strengths of its writing that all of the other elements, all top notch, seem to fall in line with the greatness of the words. Then there is the ending, oy vey what an ending. This film has perhaps one of my favorite endings of the year if not the best one. This film struck me in a way that for the next week coming I just couldn't shake it. If you live in chicago the Landmark is still playing it, grab a friend and go see the best work the brothers have made yet.

Up in the Air by Jason Reitman

Jason Reitman is one of the most intelligent people working in mainstream Hollywood today. He is a man who knows how to get a movie made, give it some style, some brains, some meaning, some quirk, and still get everyone to see it. This year he returns to the screen after his oscar nominated Juno with Up in the Air. Up in the Air is about Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a man who is paid to travel the country to fire people on behalf of their bosses. He loves his job, he loves the idea of reaching a magic number of frequent flyer miles, he loves living up in the air with nothing to tie him down. This is all threatened when the intelligent Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) walks into his life with a plan to keep everyone at home and fire people online. Ryan takes Natalie under his wing to show her why he does what he does. Along the way he meets Alex (Vera Farmiga) who lives a life identical to his, and he sees in her a kindred spirit. The film is intercut with real peoples reactions to getting fired. This all plays well, in fact from the cold clinical technical aspect Up in the Air is a flawless film. It has the best performance of Clooney's career, though it seems as though he is just playing himself. Its screenplay is witty without the quirkiness of Juno, and smooth like butter. The movie has the sheen of a new car, it is sleek, stylish, and everything you could expect, except one thing. For all its perfection Up in the Air seems to miss out entirely on heart. Sure there are scenes meant to redeem the cold life of Ryan, but they are too small, too late, and little proof of any change, and by the end you aren't really sure what to feel besides a little bit of a chill. This movie came out right at the right time as our economy aches and people lose their jobs everyday, and it never preaches which is a wise thing, but I have to wonder what is the staying power of such a movie? Who will care about this movie ten years from now when things don't suck as much (we hope)? Is Ryan's arch as a character enough for the film to stand alone outside of social circumstance? I cannot say, only time will tell, but for me this movie hardly stands up for this years let alone years to come.

(Current Song: Lenin by The Arcade Fire)

A Single Man by Tom Ford

Debut films are always exciting prospects, but typically they come from within the industry or from an indie filmmaker trying to make his way, but not here. Here we have fashion tycoon Tom Ford debuting as auteur. And what a debut it is. A Single Man traces one day in the life of a gay man whose lover of 16 years died in a car crash months prior, and this man's intent to kill himself at day's end. The plot is a pretty simple one, what is not simple is, basically, everything else. Colin Firth plays George Falconer, the single man, with such an intensity that he blows all other performances this year out of the water. George is a man of porcelain, he spends each morning putting on his facade, putting on the person he shows to the world. Inside George is aching and lonely, he searches for life and purpose. The only thing he has is his best friend Charlotte. Charlie, as he calls her, is an alcoholic ex-wife of some man, she lives from drink to drink in the same sadness as George, and desires him more than anything else. Julianne Moore slips into the role of Charlie in a way reminiscent of her gold digging wife in Magnolia, in the same way as then she reaches down into her soul to find the despair that rests inside of Charlie's eyes. George, who is a professor of literature, also has a young man in his class who sees him as a kindred spirit and wants George as more than just a teacher. This young man is play by Nicholas Hoult with such a grace and charm that saves this character from slipping into what could easily be a creepy role. So in many ways A Single Man is an actors film, it is certainly Firth's career best, but it is also Ford's film. Each frame is filled with such lush detail, such exquisite design, each character so fashionable and beautiful it hardly seems to be reality. While some critics have faulted the design of the film, I view it as a great credit to the film, after all art is meant to be a heightened reality, if it all looked and felt exactly as we see it then seeing movies would be more chore than joy. A Single Man is filled with so much pure visual beauty I don't understand how you could fault it for that. But forget the detailed design, the virtuoso cinematography, the moving score, and it all comes back to story and character. This film is a sad one, perhaps this year's best tragedy, but it is such a moving tragedy. It is a film full of ache and yet relief, so full of pain, and yet pleasure, the whole film is about finding those moments of joy inside a lifetime of sadness, a lesson we all could learn.

(Currently Song: Mescaline by Abel Korzeniowski)

Where the Wild Things Are by Spike Jonze

So here we are at the end of 2009 and I have been a terrible writer, but thankfully the masses don't care about this silly thing. Anywho. This year marked a slew of wonderfully quirky and audacious films, not the least of which was Spike Jonze's masterful Where the Wild Things Are. In adapting Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book Jonze had a lot of responsibility. Not only did he have to create a good film, as all directors are charged to, but make it one that expanded the minute book into a big screen adaptation that was true to the heart of the magic of the book. In my eyes he has done it. Where the Wild Things Are is in itself a very wild thing. With little traditional narrative Jonze has instead chosen to allow the film to just be which is part of the wonder of it. It walks with Max, the wildest of all wild things, as he learns about the pains of leaving childhood. It is big and loud when he is and small and tender when he is. It swings on every whim of his emotions, which are plentiful. There is never a rush to a big climax and you never feel like you are being set up for something bigger to come, instead you are allowed to gaze with wonder as you remember those feelings. What separates this film from other "childrens" films is it doesnt dwell on only happiness in childhood, it also reminds you that you cried as a kid and you hurt and you understood a whole lot more than childrens movies typically think children do. The film is accompanied by Karen O's perfect soundtrack that is one of the more genius soundtracks/scores I've heard, maybe up there with Johnny Greenwood's for There Will Be Blood. This film is a spirited hymn to those days long past and to the wonder of imagination.

(Current Song: All is Love by Karen O and the Kids)