Il meglio del 2011 – Scott Telek

For many months, in fact until the recent year-end Oscar hopeful films, this movie enjoyed the top spot of “Best thing I’ve seen in 2011.” Takashi Miike’s take on the Kurosawa-style samurai film has a nice slow set-up in which it lays out character details and sets up arcs that will pay off over the rest of the film. Then it lets rip with a massive, drawn-out final battle, during which everything set up earlier is resolved or comes to a head in incredibly satisfying ways. I also can’t remember the last time I’ve just been staring wide-eyed at the screen, riveted to what might come next.

This movie about an extended hook-up between two guys earned a special place for including a lot of uniquely gay everyday situations—like standing silently on the bus while some teenagers nearby are mocking gays—and then following through with excellent writing that defines characters, then develops them, and has a lot of those little touches, dropped in earlier, pay off unexpectedly moving dividends late in the movie. Free from the Important Lessons many gay movies are burdened with, this movie just creates a beautiful love story and lets some lessons slip in on their own, as it should be.

Divertentissimo, meditativo, film fantascientifico con risonanze del mondo reale! Quando uno scrittore fallito prende una pillola che libera il potenziale del suo cervello permettendogli di ricordare tutto ciò in cui si imbatte, è finalmente in grado di scrivere quel racconto tanto agognato, di guadagnare milioni in borsa e riconquistare la sua ragazza. Ovviamente, però, ci sono effetti secondari, tra cui pericolosi malviventi che esigono la loro parte, e il piccolo problemuccio che potrebbe trasformarlo in un vegetale se dovesse smettere di assumere la pillola. Il film è fatto di molte idee, è divertente ed ipnoticamente propulsivo, trova in Bradley Cooper l’interprete ideale e idee molto intelligenti per capovolgere la sua situazione centrale. Quindi, e se andasse incontro a un enorme fallimento nel finale? La norma per il genere e per il mercato distributivo attuale.

Super-fun speculative science fiction with real-world resonance! When a loser writer takes a pill that unlocks the potential of his brain and lets him remember everything he encounters, he is able to shoot out that novel, make millions in the stock market, and win back his girlfriend, but of course there are side-effects, dangerous thugs who want their hands on it as well, and the little problem that he will probably become a vegetable if he ever quits. The movie has ideas, is fun and hypnotically propulsive, Bradley Cooper is ideal in the role, and it finds very clever ways to twist its central situation. So what if it pulls a huge cop-out at the end? That’s just par for the genre—and the current releasing market.

Okay, I realize that a nearly four-hour film about a 15th-Century Russian icon painter is probably not going to be the first thing you’ll rush out to watch, but what if I told you it is truly unlike any other film you’ve ever seen? What if I said that every shot is breathtakingly beautiful? What if you knew that Tarkovsky is the rare director that uses the reality of time passing as the film unfolds in a conscious, intelligent way? And that the film ends with an incredibly moving parable about faith, then a spectacular viewing of Rublev’s artwork? Even if you only watch an hour of it, you’ll have gained immeasurably.

This classic noir isn’t a detective story, but about a shiftless lower who always has a new, sure-fire plan to make it, one that is certain to work out this time. He comes close, but then, in an explosive, unforeseen mid-film shake-up, all his plans shatter and he is left scrambling. Also present are a half-dozen characters, all clearly delineated and with perfectly interlocking, understandable arcs of their own. They really just don’t make them like this anymore. Makes an excellent double-feature with another excellent noir starring Richard Widmark, Pickup on South Street.