Presentation: MAR's Top 100 of the 2000's (Sunday 11am EST)

To describe the film's story as being about two guys (Damon and Affleck) who get lost in the desert is not to be flip and vague: as far as straight narrative goes, that really is all there is. But what the film lacks in traditional satisfactions is compensated by some truly transcendental virtues. Most notably, the cinematography by Harris Savides is, quite simply, jaw-dropping; the desert landscapes are stunning and intimidating in their beautiful vastness. Not lost in the scenery, however, are Damon and Affleck. Their characters begin as aimless goofs, but their initially silly, everyday banter makes their dying desperation in the film's latter stages all the more relatable and involving, turning an experimental concept into an intimately experiential work. Gerry is a difficult, demanding sit, but it wouldn't have been nearly as fascinating and rewarding a film if it weren’t.

You can find some characters annoying in this movie but then again, sometimes that’s what getting lost in a relationship feels like. Sometimes love turns us into a totally annoying people that are hard to get. I liked it a lot when the film first came out; surely it had some of the unnecessarily cute rom-com clichés (little sister giving advices to her much older brother...like, please) but still it felt original, not for the narration only but the jokes, the way the relationship develops, even the main characters came off refreshingly original and at the same time, surprisingly honest. It’s not even predictable for the most part which is very impressive thing to do in this genre. Years after seeing the film, I met my own Summer and re-watching the film afterwards made me understand both Tom and Summer even more. Many of us had different expectations from our relationships but sometimes reality was just vastly different. Summer told Tom right from the start she doesn’t want a serious relationship but it’s not hard to understand why Tom felt so lost because it was not just physical intimacy between them, but there were seemingly emotional intimacy as well. That’s why the film is so good, probably. You can’t blame any of those two, or at least you can’t do that immediately. In a re-watch, the way you judge the characters can change. It explores these kind of relationships in a more complex way than it gets credit for because even though Tom feels more like a “lead” and we get the film mostly from his perspective, Summer is not some underdeveloped character. Zooey Deschanel makes her complicated as an individual by only sticking to her talent as a deadpan comedienne. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of the finest actors of his generation (“The Lookout”, "Mysterious Skin", “50/50”) and he plays Tom in an empathetic way. He’s also very charming and his chemistry with Deschanel makes the film. It’s particularly impressive to think that their previous collaboration in the film called “Manic” was totally different kind of roles than the ones they play here. Marc Webb clearly has a good visual eye, the film has a very carefully selected color palette, and narratively it’s very engaging. Non-linear sequence works really well and even some of its cutesy moments like “Hall & Oates” sequence are so well-made that you just go for it.

As the film tells you: it’s not a love story. Their relationship – whatever they had between them – doesn’t end in a happy or tragic way. The movie is not interested in that; it’s about what we all go through in such complicated relationships. “500 Days of Summer” reminds us to take a step back and look at things as honest as we can. When we can see everything with a clear eye, we act like an adult; we stop blaming the other side for everything and just let it go. So what happens when we do all that and finally move on from those 500 days? Well… “What always happens: Life”.

In 2001 Jean-Pierre Jeunet created one beautiful and magical film with “Amelie”, a piece about a special girl, her search for love and especially about the beauty of the small little things of everyday life. Following up a masterpiece is one of the most difficult tasks. But Jeunet did it like hardly anybody before. He took all his wonderful ingredients of his previous film and his own special magic and put it into the more complex “A Very Long Engagement”.

Audrey Tautou in the role of Mathilde is searching for Manech, her great love, who was lost in the horror of the First World War and is believed to be dead. But Mathilde disavows this news and tries to find him in a search that is a fascinating puzzle of mysterious hints, filled with Jeunet’s special charm, foremost the devotedness to many details and a conglomeration of grotesque, yes jeunetesque characters. What adds to the atmosphere is that the film is dipped into a yellow light, making it look like a fairy tale in the yellowed pages of a book. The cinematography of Bruno Delbonnel, who creates countless breathtaking images, is among the very best works ever and “A Very Long Engagement” looks as gorgeous as any other movie that was ever made. The film easily spans different genres from film noir over war to drama, but at its core it’s one of the most beautiful love stories – and generally films - ever put on screen.

A History of Violence opens on two criminals who so nonchalantly murder a small child it phases them no different than a mundane task to complete. This is in stark contract to the introduction to the Stall family, a seemingly ordinary, quaint, small town family led by their gentle father Tom (Viggo Mortensen). When the paths cross between the criminals robbing Tom’s diner, the confrontation ends with unexpected results of Tom killing both me. This act of heroism makes nation news and sets off a chain of events sending mobster Carl Fogerty (Ed Harris) to the dinner recognizing Mortensen not as Tom, but as Joey, a violent criminal from back east. Mortensen is indeed this Joey but it’s not revealed immediately. The uncertainly and tension during this stretch is played perfectly by director David Cronenberg. Mortensen is adamant in his denial and Harris couldn’t be more certain, especially with his personnel connection. Harris even brings doubt to Tom’s wife (Maria Bello) during confrontation at the mall. The ultimate revelation from Mortensen after another violent bout is just masterfully performed. The subtleties between his Tom and Joey are just noticeable enough. The two characters are juxtaposed perfectly over two sex scenes between Mortensen and Bello, one sweet and passionate, one aggressive and violent. Mortensen returns home to face his past in a stand-off with his brother, played brilliantly by William Hurt. The film asks if one can escape their past and who they really are and create a new life for themselves. When Tom’s family knows his true nature be able to accept and move on?

Miami Vice is a hard movie to "get." Take it from me, a person who took three attempts to fall in love with it. On my first attempted viewing, I was so confused and bored that I turned it off after about thirty minutes (something I seldom if ever do). The second time I tried it and made it all the way through, while being enchanted by its visuals, I nonetheless hated it. Not only was the plot incomprehensible, but worst of all, the characters felt totally wooden, making my emotional investment non-existent. 

I wrote-off Miami Vice after this second attempt, yet, it still haunted me. It haunted me because I reached a point in which I had seen and loved every single other film of Michael Mann's (sans The Keep, a journey I've yet to embark on to this day), except for Miami Vice -- a film that has slowly amassed its passionate cult following over the years and is constantly cited by much of Mann's fanbase to be his greatest film. So, I tried Miami Vice for the third time, making the crucial choice of watching it with subtitles to finally decipher all that damn mumbling, and it absolutely astonished me. The thing about Miami Vice is that it taps into an incredibly specific energy, and if you're not on its wavelength, it'll just leave you in the dust. It's an exhilarating last glimpse at a time when an auteur with a budget and studio support had full freedom, and Mann swings for the fences like never before by abandoning most semblance of conventional plot and creates an enchanting mosaic of colors and textures and moods. This movie is just one non-stop vibe -- a heartbreaking yet cathartic story about living in the moment, that perfectly captures what "the moment" feels like, and how ephemeral it is. This film is a universal human experience dressed-up as a boilerplate cop drama, in quintessential Mann fashion. Sure, it's a hard movie to "get," but when Colin Farrell and Gong Li take their impromptu, improbable speed-boat trip to Havana to the tune of Moby's "One of These Mornings" (with Patti LaBelle's heavenly vocals), it's impossible to not believe in its magic.