Mud Songs

Anything directed by Jim Jarmusch is worth watching, even though his movies don’t always do much for me (Dead Man and Coffee and Cigarettes). His camera quietly observes people in an unobtrusive way that brings out the subtlties of character and has us feeling for them because they’re just so unremarkable. Broken Flowers, a road trip movie about a guy (Bill Murray) looking for a woman who leaves an unsigned letter in his mailbox informing him that he has a son, is Jarmusch’s most conventional movie to date, and as good as anything he’s done.

Saint Ralph is an excellent Canadian film that — like most Canadian films — didn’t have a chance to be seen because of all the Hollywood crap that controls the market in North America. It’s a cliched, by-the-numbers underdog story, but it’s still the most enjoyable family movie I saw this year. (I enjoyed it much more than Millions.)

House of Flying Daggers may not be as good as Hero, but it sure looks and feels like an epic martial arts film. Surreal at times, and beautifully shot. I can watch this with the sound down and still get into it.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is one of the most engaging family movies I saw is 2005, with CGI characters that seem like the real thing. It’s a fairy tale with a message, and it works.

Donnie Brasco has to be one of the best and most overlooked gangster movies ever made. An entertaining but sympathetic look at the personal lives of criminals and the cops who go after them. Al Pacino doesn’t get any better than this, and Johnny Depp doesn’t miss a beat. Impressive all around, gets better with each viewing.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring is a movie that doesn’t rush to get to where it’s going: A Buddhist monk and his young apprentice live alone on a houseboat in the middle of a lake surrounded by hills and forest. They sweep the floor, they read, they meditate, they row a boat to shore where they pick wild herbs for making soups and teas. Then one day someone drops by looking for spiritual guidance. From beginning to end, there might be 5 minutes of dialogue. It’s pure cinema. I love it.

Himalaya tells the story of some Nepalese villagers who trek down the mountains to trade their mountain salt for grain and try not to get killed along the way. The plot is simple but contains all the elements of a great story. The magnificence of the Himalayan landscape provides an epic feel to every single frame of the film. The DVD bonus material, “Himalaya: The Making Of,” shows how it was shot entirely on location under environmental conditions that put all their lives at risk, and makes you wonder how they ever finished it. Deeply moving, astounding, and compelling in every way. This is my favourite movie of 2005.

Click the image for non-subtitled YouTube clip. It’s a good clip.

Ingmar Bergman’s films are hit-and-miss with me. He’s made cinematic masterpieces that bore me into a stupor. But sometimes when he comes in close, like he does in Persona, the result is so psychologically intimate, I sit back and marvel at the accomplishment.