FINAL CUT 2008

IntheCity of Sylvia CADILLAC RECORDS

Four Nights with Anna OBAMA MAY OWE HIS VICTORY, in Small part, to his faint resemblance to Hollywood's
Le Genou d'Artémide & Itinéraire de box-office king Will Smith, but the only actor who could do justice to the man's com-
Jean Bricard Straub-Huillet plexity is Jeffrey Wright. What a pity the greatest American actor of his generation can't
Sweeney Todd grow half a foot, because he can do just about everything else. Wright's performance as
Tol<yo Sonata Muddy Waters (oh yeah, he sings too) in Darnell Martin's lively depiction of the Chess
Youth Without Youth Records story, like his previous depictions of Basquiat and Martin Luther King, is a bril-
plus one short: Merde Leos Carax liant rendering of how the dynamics of power shape the psyche and actions of a char-
acter. He beats Sean Penn for the performance of the year.—Amy Täubin
ALEXANDER HORWATH VIENNA
1. Summer Hours LA FRANCE/IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA/THE SILENCE BEFORE BACH (e and 7)
2. Still Walking WHERE THERE'S A WILL there's a way: films without distribution are increasingly finding
A Christmas Tale their way onto U.S. screens through new channels: Netflix's (recently shuttered) Red Enve-
Gomorrah lope Entertainment acquired dozens of films for DVD release and then got them into the-
3. Our Beloved Month of August aters via service deals with indie distributors like New Yorker; Film Movement, a
Miguel Gomes* DVD-of-the-month club focused on films that fall by the wayside, is getting into theatrical.
Jerichow Christian Petzold Meanwhile, enterprising nonprofit exhibitors like New York's Anthology Film
Revanche Archives and Film Forum have begun dealing directly with offshore sales agents and
Tony Mañero the filmmakers themselves, booking films for weeklong runs; Seattle's Northwest Film
Synecdoche, New York Forum went a step further, acquiring limited rights and organizing a 10-city tour for
Wendy and Lucy La France. Who knows, maybe even download sites like The Auteurs will start dipping
Out of Competition: their toes into distribution someday.—Gavin Smith
I'm Not There (my Best Film of 2007, which
I saw too late for last year's list) SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK/BE KIND REWIND (S)
IN THE LAND OF hard-bitten whimsy. Spike Jonze labored for another year on Where
HARLAN JACOBSON NEW YORK the Wild Things Are while Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry struck out on their
1. Summer Hours own. This time out, Gondry made a truly populist film, while Kaufman's paranoid epic
2. Everlasting Moments Jan Troell* of ego disintegration disappears up itself almost the moment it begins. The contrast
3. Tulpan raises an interesting question: how far can you push artistic invention? Gondry's inven-
4. WALL'E tiveness, firmly rooted in a sense of community, soars to the heavens while the aggres-
5. Happy-Go-Lucky sively compulsive Kaufman's, just as firmly rooted in his own apparent mental distress,
6. Man on Wire doubles and quadruples itself down to a nub. Gondry's whacked comedy about low-tech
7. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button movie(re)makers in an endangered Passaic, New Jersey neighborhood turned out to be
8. The Wackness perfectly and winningly in touch with the mood of urban America, while Kaufman's self-
9. Mongol autopsy seemed sadly out of synch with even itself. Charlie don't surf.—Kent Jones
10. Elsa & Fred
A CHRISTMAS TALE/THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN/THE CLASS
KRISTIN M.JONES NEW YORK THE FRENCH BOX-OFFICE success of these films, which collectively grossed $25 million,
1. The Exiles might suggest the longed-for reconciliation of the cinéma d'auteur with the country's gen-
2. Milk eral public. All three aimed squarely at the audience with an unabashed commitment to
3. Ashes of Time Redux storytelling values. And, into the bargain, all three were critical hits both at home and
4. WALL-E abroad. Their commercial fortunes overseas are irrelevant. You could say this trifecta
5. The Headless Woman demonstrates the degree to which today's generation of French filmmakers has refused the
6. False Aging Lewis Klahr* neurosis-inducing dead hand of the New Wave—the largely imaginary burden of expecta-
7. Wendy and Lucy tions and anxiety of influence that Truffaut, Godard, Rivette, et al. supposedly bequeathed
8. Captain Ahab Philippe Ramos . to their successors—and simply rolled up its sleeves to engage with the realities of modern
9. Happy-Go-Lucky life. Another example, coming soon: Olivier Assayas's Summer Hours.—Gavin Smith
10. Momma's Man
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL/THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
DAVE KEHR NEW YORK NOW YOU SEE IT, now you don't. Two movies (with Cate Blanchett) that make use of
A Christmas Tale up-to-the-minute technology—one a two-hour promo for three or four thrill rides com-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ing soon to an amusement park near you, the other a somber vision of time through
Diary of the Dead the eyes of a misfit born physically old and growing young. Granted that Spielberg's
The Fall movie is a set-piece free-for-all while David Fincher's is a matter of mood and emotion,
Gran Torino and that Fincher is all about his storytelling and Spielberg just isn't. But where every
Sparrow Johhnie To* effect in the latest and perhaps the last installment of the Indiana Jones franchise clunks
Still Life loud and hard on the brainpan (and goes none too easily on the eyes), Benjamin But-
Tropic Thunder ton's multiple actors, makeup, animation, and special effects are so seamlessly inte-
WALL'E grated into one beautifully wrought character that you quickly forget they're there.
Wendy and Lucy That was always the idea, right?—Kent jones

40 I FILM COMMENT I January-February 2009