Top 10 Films of 2009

As usual, I've been procrastinating in putting this list together, mostly because this wasn't a very strong year for films. In my opinion, there just wasn't anything of high calibre like No Country For Old Men or There Will Be Blood or even Brokeback Mountain. I'm going to sort of cheat and include a movie in my Top Ten that I had as a runner-up in the last year's list. That should tell you something. I say 'sort-of' cheat because even though I viewed The Hurt Locker in 2008, it wasn't released theatrically until 2009. Usually, I wouldn't double dip but it's been slim pickings. Internationally, it's a different story . Although I was disappointed by Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces, there were several strong contenders from Germany, France, Argentina and England. More on that later.

The films that make it onto the list have to be engaging. That is my only criteria. Basically, if I'm thinking what I want for breakfast, it's not a good sign. Here we go.

1. (500) Days of Summer. This was a charming, flawless movie from start to finish. Not your typical love story. It's about a couple who breakup and and how they got to that point. It's both sad and funny and features Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the two leads. I have to say that besides James Franco, Gordon-Levitt is my favourite actor right now. I even sat through G.I. Joe. The man continues to make interesting film choices. In any case, it may appear a strange choice for #1 but I absolutely loved this film.

2. Fish Tank. Shot in cinema-vérité style, this is a fascinating look at a teenage girl living in the Essex projects who is determined to be a dancer despite various obstancles her way. Gritty, raw and powerful -- this ain't a Hollywood picture. If it were, it would be more along the lines of Precious.

3. A Prophet. I really enjoyed this French prison gangster story. Gripping story until the end. If Hollywood remakes this one, I hope they get Scorsese to give it a The Departed treatment.

4. The White Ribbon. Beautifully shot in black & white, it takes place in a German village just before the start of WW I. Sinister things starts to happen and the village residents begin to turn on each other. Children have rarely been this creepy. As with most Michael Haneke films, don't expect a neatly wrapped ending.

5. The Hurt Locker. A movie about Iraq that finally gets it, although I suppose it could be about any of the recent wars. Smart and suspenseful, it avoids most war movie cliches. Best thing about it was that I didn't find it preachy.

6. The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans. If you are not familiar with Werner Herzog, I suggest you rent his earlier work like Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre, Wrath of God or even Woyzeck, Bad Lieutenant is pure madness and a crazy ride. Nicolas Cage is perfect as the drug abusing cop determined to go about his job at any cost. Give this a look and it would not be a Herzog film if it didn't have dancing iguanas.

7. Inglourious Basterds. Tarantino's best film since Pulp Fiction. A very entertaining alternate history of WW II with several intertwining stories. Christopher Waltz as the Nazi villian Col. Hans Landa deserves a best supporting Oscar. My only complaint is that at times Tarantino's verbose buildups were a tad long, but that is his trademark.

8. Avatar. A very entertaining journey and a feast for the eyes. I recommend everyone see it in 3D at the theatre. I'm not sure how well this experience will hold up in 2D at home. When you take away the special effects, this is still a cliched story with occasionally cheesy dialogue. Despite this, I admire James Cameron for proving all the haterz and critics wrong and making it a box office phenomenon. However, I'd be disappointed in seeing this movie pick up the Oscar statue for Best Picture. My thoughts are best summed up by Roger Ebert: "The Hurt Locker is the year’s best film. Should Avatar snatch that Oscar away, it will be because it grossed zillions of millions, not because it’s better. Avatar is an enormously effective experience, an awesome technical achievement, a universal success, but a great film, it’s not. If it were, we’d still be on the floor of the theater."

9. Mary and Max. Clay-mation genius. I didn't anticipate how great this adult cartoon would be. Hilarious and at times tragic. Overall, this was a very strong year for animation and this gem was just slightly better than Up, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Coraline, and deserves equal exposure.

10. Moon. For the last film on the list I was torn between the sci-fi of Moon and District 9. I was impressed by the low budget of District 9 and how great it looked as well as its allegorical overtones. (Starship Troopers it ain't) But I was more moved by the themes of loneliness and self-discovery in Moon. Closer to the cerebral sci-fi variety of films such as 2001 or Solaris, it was an interesting concept if a little predictable half way. What saved the film was the amazing performance by Sam Rockwell as the sole actor performing against himself.

Runners Up: Polytechnique is hauntingly beautiful and my top Canadian film this year. A Single Man is gorgeously shot and I am not afraid to say that the stunning grainy film stock is like porn to me. An Education is worthy of accolades especially in Carey Mulligan but I felt like I've seen this coming of age story before. The Argentinian film The Secret in the Eyes is a very impressive murder mystery drama with one of those epic Se7en type endings. I would not be surprised if it upstages The White Ribbon and takes the Best Foreign oscar home. A film that kind of slipped through the cracks as it was released early in the year is Two Lovers. It wasn't what I was expecting (but in a good way) and it features an amazingly captured club scene. Yes, great music in movies has a tendency to sway me. And finally, I really enjoyed the South Korean thriller Mother with an astonishing performance by Kim Hye-Ja and it's kind of a travesty that she is not even nominated, but I digress.

The Rest: I had high hopes for The Road but I'm still trying to figure out why it didn't quite work. Some books just don't work as movies I guess. Up in the Air was decent but I couldn't relate to the awesomeness that everyone else was seeing. I felt the same about A Serious Man. Great ending but I just didn't care for the characters in the film. No one to root for. But maybe I missed something. Sherlock Holmes was better than expected thanks to Guy Ritchie and In the Loop had some of the best dialogue this year.

And finally, I would also like to recommend the british Red Riding trilogy. It's three films but I believe they were shot for british TV so technically they don't really fit into this list. But since they left quite an impression on me, I though I'd share. I'm also not ashamed to admit that I had to watch these films with the subtitles on since the northern slang is sometimes too incomprehensible.

Hot Chip "One Life Stand"

Hot Chip released their forth album One Life Stand this month and in my opinion, it is their best work so far. I was unsure about the title single, but it grew on me. The album is pure synth-pop heaven and it reminds me of Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours. Every track on this album is gold; no fillers here. It's going to be one hell of a soundtrack to summer. Hot Chip plays Toronto April 20th at The Sound Academy.

Video Single "One Life Stand"


Top tracks:

Hot Chip - We Have Love
Hot Chip - I Feel Better

Also, Alexis Taylor talks about Susan Boyle's influence on the new album

Essential Foreign Cinema

During the course of my usual web surfing I recently came across The Movie Fanatic's post on 50 Essential Foreign Films 2000-2008. The usual fare of films like Amelie, Das Experiment, The Diving Bell & the Butterfly, and Downfall is featured. But it looks like I missed a few over the years. I'm eager to see This is London, Red Road, Napola and The Counterfeiters which has been taking up space on my harddrive for quite some time. So many movies, so little time.

Discovering the Classics: "The Apartment"

Once in a while, I get hooked on a director and try to ingest everything they create until my eyes can take no more and I move on the next guy/girl. I'll go through phases of auteurs like Tati or Fassbinder but last year it was all about Billy Wilder. Which is strange to me because I never really considered him an auteur but rather a director the Hollywood studios employed to turn out their projects. I re-watched Double Indemnity and then moved onto the classics The Lost Weekend, Stalag 17, the amazing Sunset Boulevard and finally Some Like it Hot. But the one that really stood out for me was The Apartment. I cannot believe that I waited this long to see this gem. It's one of the cutest rom-coms out there and I don't usually like 'romantic' movies. I just wish the studios today who produce the crap out there, paid a little more attention to these older classics. And how adorable is Shirley MacLaine in this flick? I'll spare you the synopsis which you can find on IMDB.
Mad Men alert! From the opening shots of the company office space in The Apartment, you can see where inspiration for the offices of Sterling Cooper came from.

"Close Up and Private"

Let me just start off by saying that I love Menswear. Womenswear, not so much really. I'm just not one of those girls that gets excited over Christian Louboutin pumps or girly clothes. Exceptions such as something like this YSL apply of course. Thankfully, when he's not chilling in a tee and jeans, my better half has a slightly off-beat dandy-ish style and I live vicariously through his bowtie donning on the occasional night out.
Why am I sharing all this, you ask? Well, this leads me to a very interesting photo-blog project by Ukrainian born photographer Sergei Sviatchenko called Close Up & Private. His latest Spring Summer 2010 lookbook came out last month and this time around almost all his photos are up close shots of boys who adhere to the dandy-ish/ivy league style. Most importantly, I love how he also features girls in ties, ascots, bowtie. Don't get me wrong, I love me some chambray shirts and baracuta jackets, but I just adore this oldschool style of herringbone, tweed and oxford shirting on a woman. It's not often I stumble upon websites that feature men's clothes on women so if anyone knows any, shoot some blogs my way.

Check out an interview with Sergei Sviatchenko in Components of Enthusiasm.

autumn-winter 2009 lookbook

Photos below from Close Up & Private. See the website for a lot more...

Little Red Riding Hood re-imagined

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

Growing up in Commie Poland, I have fond memories of staying up late reading into the night. Maybe because of it's sinister plot, I always loved the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Here is a very cool animated re-interpretation by Tomas Nilsson. The song is 'Sponsored by Destiny' by swedish band Slagsmålsklubben. I usually go mental at about 0:47. Crank it.

A bike trip out of town

One of the drawbacks of living downtown-ish and not owning a car, is not having the opportunity to just jump in the car and hit the open road. So when GO Transit expanded it's train route from Toronto and added a Niagara Falls stop on weekends and holidays last summer, my better half and I jumped at the chance to get out of the city for a few day trips with some friends. We would bike down to Union Station and take the 9:30am train, place our bikes in one of the train cabs and take in the sights through the window. The train was never too crowded. Once arriving at the Niagara Falls train stop, we simply hopped on the bikes and rode the 25 km trail north along the Niagara River to the quaintness that is Niagara-On-The-Lake. This trail is in the opposite direction of the Falls, which I'd seen enough times and it simply doesn't have the same effect on me as it does on the tourists.
The best part about the trip is the series of wineries along the trail. Our pattern involved riding for about an hour and then once reaching the wineries area, stopping every 20 minutes for a glass of vino and then continuing on. On our route we stopped by Riverview Cellars, Inniskillin, and Reif Estate. The town has other big wineries such as Jackson-Triggs, Stratus and Peller. Further west, past St.Catherines you have Tawse, Hillebrand, Cave Springs and countless other smaller estates equally as good, but unfortunately it is just too out of the way by bike. On the first trip, we simply sampled too much wine and almost resulted in missing the train on the way back, because we had to race for about 2 hours against the wind direction. So I advise against hitting the bottle too early in the trip. I'm not a daily bike commuter, infact I was afraid the hills might prove too much for me, but the trail is pretty even and my 3-speed cruiser performed just fine. The air is fresh and the greenery very pretty to take in, not to mention the gorgeous houses with their pristinely sculpted lawns. Also, the folks here love to take their fancy cars out and often, beautiful vintage convertibles passed us by. At one point we took a break and walked around the Butterfly Conservatory. These are not shy insects.

Mad Man-ize Yourself

The third season of the acclaimed AMC series Mad Men is premering August 16th. In the spirit of whimsical marketing, AMC has posted the neat-o MadMenYourself application that let's you create an avatar in the likelines of the show's characters. Above is my attempt. Click on the picture to see a bigger version. I don't know why, but I felt the equastrian outfit suited me best.

The First Post

So after months and months of debating on the name of this blog, I chose Cafe Disco. I should note that I actually stole the title from last night's episode of The Office. The lead character Michael Scott decides to start a lunch time dance+espresso break event and hilarity ensues. In any case, the name Cafe Disco conjures two interests of mine: espresso coffee & disco (specifically italo disco), and so I though it was a fitting title. I'm not quite sure where this blog will take me but I suppose I will post and write about things that pique my interest and/or inspire me: films, music, literature, design & travel. It's also a test for me since I don't consider myself to be a very good writer but I need start somewhere dammit.

cheers.