WISDOM OF THE OUTSIDER

Here's a link to my review of "Monsieur Lazhar," which appeared today in the Portland Observer:  http://portlandobserver.com/2013/05/wisdom-of-the-outsider/.

"LINCOLN": A DIFFERENT TAKE ON THE END OF SLAVERY

Here's a link to my review, which appeared in The Portland Observer:  http://portlandobserver.com/2013/05/14197/

SLAVERY AFTER "DJANGO UNCHAINED"

I placed "Django Unchained" at number 3 on my own list of the best films of 2012 (http://www.opinionatedjudge.blogspot.com/2013/02/best-films-of-2012.html).The reason I did so is that, despite the varied critical reactions the film has gotten, I believe that writer/director Quentin Tarentino has used his particular creative gifts and the clout that he wields in the movie industry to do something brilliant and important. He has altered our collective consciousness about race and American slavery, for the better.
 

Oppression and wrongdoing do not simply resolve themselves; they reverberate for generations.  Americans, even educated ones, know this in theory but ignore it in practice.To use American slavery as an example (though there are others), we like to act as though it is old news of merely historical interest, and even that it gets too much attention.  It happened a long time ago; it doesn't have anything to do with us today.  To keep dwelling on it--to quote a certain Supreme Court justice--just perpetuates outmoded racial entitlements. Although film is a medium with a singular capacity for telling stories with immediacy, our movies recount the history of slavery from a certain historical remove, and we tend to soften it by, for example, featuring prominent white heroes (as in "Lincoln," which I did admire very much, or "Amazing Grace," about the movement against slavery in England).  As important as these stories are, they don't confront us with the current legacy of past oppression.
 

With "Django Unchained," Tarentino has used his admiration of and facility with such discounted genres as spaghetti westerns and blaxploitation films to lure multiracial audiences (and in places like Portland, largely white audiences) to invest nearly three hours looking at aspects of our relatively recent past that we have declined or even refused to face.  As he has himself pointed out, one cannot make a film as lurid as slavery was in reality. Our popular media has never given us a depiction this specific or this visceral: slaves are whipped, chewed to death by dogs while bystanders watch, made to walk, chained, on bare bloody feet for days; kept in burning holes to die of thirst. Watching the film, I found myself reflecting on where I might have fit into the diabolical social hierarchies enforced among slaves based on their physical attributes.  Would I have been one of an army of house slaves, working above all else to blend into the machinery?  Would I have been a virtual farm implement, toiling in the fields but subject to sexual exploitation at a moment's whim?  Would I have lived in relative comfort and been dressed as an elaborate sexual toy, only to have children ripped from me and later to be cast off when my beauty faded?  This is what humans being treated as property led to a mere 150 years ago, and it's brutal.

Also, in giving us a black hero who provokes audiences to cheer as he mows down white oppressors (who are the ancestors of many of us), Tarentino may well have subliminally provoked us to notice that no such vengeance ever occurred and given us the experience of wishing for it.

Further, his film not only depicts something never before imagined on screen; it conveys some things about how oppression works. A lurking question that troubles many people about slavery is why the black slaves didn't simply rise up and kill the whites; Tarentino puts that question (stated ironically) in the mouth of a vicious slaveholder and then devises a freedman superhero to do just that.  But the film also demonstrates the real answer to the slaveholder's ironic question: that the system of oppression functioned so as to ensure that such a freedman superhero (or even a modest uprising) would never happen.  The mechanics of that system are depicted with uncommon insight; a hierarchy of white enforcers maintained and benefitted from the system in varying degrees.  Even more remarkably, we also see a player who has not been portrayed with this kind of perspicuity:the head house Negro Stephen, played by Samuel L. Jackson.  The white vileness in "Django Unchained" is more familiar, and is certainly chilling--but Jackson's character is a revelation.  Far from a sympathetic Uncle Tom, his ruthless collaborator can also be an essential ingredient of oppression. He is terrifying; he also rings true.
 

I disagree with those who see in King Schultz (the character for which Christoph Waltz won his second Academy Award) just another version of the necessary white hero in a story about black oppression.Schultz is a German and he is not out to fight slavery. This is not his fight; he is out to make money.He winces at slavery's brutality because it is not his brutality; he is not part of this system in the way an American necessarily would be.His motivation to collaborate is less heroic, more practical and more believable.  He is not a stand-in for white Americans.  He is necessary to the plot (he buys and then frees Django), but the essential fight belongs to Django.

As Tarentino has matured as a filmmaker, he has begun to turn his penchant for filming violent revenge stories to more ambitious purposes.  In "Inglorious Bastards," he created a clearly fictional revenge fantasy against the Nazis, which was dangerous enough--but that story is not our American story in the same way this is  .Here we are the subject of the vengeance, we root for that vengeance.  In this movie, we--that is, Americans who benefit from our history of brutal slavery--are the bad guys.

The first time I saw, "Django Unchained," I was profoundly shaken by what I had seen.That seems to me an appropriate response to American slavery, and I am glad to have experienced it, and glad to have sat in a theater of mostly white Americans who experienced it too, even if they didn't reflect on it as deeply as I did. It's that much harder to dismiss this history as old news.One hundred and fifty years ago, the worst and most unacceptable parts of this story actually happened.It's now harder to pretend that it didn't.
 

[A version of this review also appeared today in the Portland Observer, http://portlandobserver.com/2013/04/opinionated-judge/]

THIRD POSTCARD FROM FULL FRAME 2013

Wow--in three days I have not seen a bad film.  And we've had post-show discussions for nearly all the films, too.  This has been an excellent festival!

My favorite film of the day--and one of my favorites of the festival--was "TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM" (9), an inspired tribute to back-up singers.  Featuring one of the best soundtracks of any film I can remember (it will be released soon), the film examines the role that backing vocals have played in a lot of the iconic music of the last forty years.  In everything from David Bowie's "Young Americans," the Rolling Stones's "Gimme Shelter," Joe Cocker's "Feelin' Alright," and Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama," the sublime harmonies of mostly female, mostly African American women have provided texture, soul, and some of the most singable lines.  Many have voices to rival the best solo artists, and they are versatile enough to adapt to a variety of different styles.  The film reflects on the role these singers have played in a host of great hits, wrestles with why so few have achieved stardom themselves, wonders about the mixture of ego and talent that goes into a successful solo career, and examines why some of these singers prefer to stay out of the limelight (though many don't).  The music is sublime, and the film focuses particularly on the stories of 8-10 of these women who account for quite a lot of amazing music.  It will have a theatrical release in June, and I'll be in line to see it again. 

The rest of today's films were also wonderful, though less buoyant.  "THE BABY" (8.5) is one of the most carefully crafted Holocaust stories I have ever seen.  It examines the life of Anneke Kohnke Thompson, who has almost no memories of her life before she came to the U.S. from the Netherlands when she was almost six years old.  She knew very little about her past or the circumstances of her parents' death (except that her parents died in the Holocaust and that her family had some connection with Anne Frank's) and was taught by the aunt and uncle who raised her not to wonder about such things.  As far as she is concerned, she has lived an ordinary life hardly worthy of the dramatic rescue she surmises she had as a young child.  The film came about because the film's Dutch director became acquainted with the woman who took Anneke from her parents as a baby at their request in order to hide her with a Dutch family in the country.  The filmmaker's investigation into what happened to Anneke as a child and Anneke's reaction to the unlocking of her past has the complicated feel of the truest of stories--absorbing, painful, confusing, and illuminating.  To say any more would blunt the film's impact, but I do hope it will get a cable or theatrical release. 

"THE CRASH REEL" (8.5) likely will get a theatrical release, fortunately.  It's the work of director Lucy Walker, who  directed the wonderful film "Wasteland," which I wrote about a couple years ago, and who again here displays remarkable subtlety with a complex story.  Her subject this time is Kevin Pearce, the Olympic hopeful who suffered a traumatic brain injury shortly before the 2010 Winter Olympics.  He's a compelling personality, and the beginning of the film mines a lot of archival footage showing his rise to prominence in his extreme sport prior to his injury.  Then the focus becomes Kevin's recovery and the unique challenge of coming back from a traumatic brain injury, particularly for someone whose whole life has been about pushing himself to more extreme levels of risk.  Woven into the film is the remarkable support that Kevin has received from his family; the film also questions the pressue that drives up risk in extreme sports like snowboarding.  All in all, the film is both moving and gently provocative.

Finally, "THE UNDOCUMENTED" (7) spends some time with problem of unauthorized entry into the U.S. from Mexico, focusing on the neglected issue of the huge numbers of people who die crossing the border.  Those numbers have spiked in recent years, though that subject isn't really on the national media radar screen.  The film focuses on the reasons why people cross, the loss to their families in Mexico when they do not return, and the treatment of their remains when they are discovered in the Sonoran dessert.  It rounds out some pieces of the picture that badly need attention if we are going to address immigration in a rational way.

SECOND POSTCARD FROM FULL FRAME 2013

The first and best film of the day was "GOD LOVES UGANDA" (9).  It's the courageous work of director Roger Ross Williams, an African-American gay man who was raised Baptist, all of which uniquely qualifies him to tell the story of how conservative American evangelical missionaries are exporting intolerance toward gays with missionary zeal, all over Africa but particularly in Uganda, with its relatively youthful and poor population.  Williams also put himself in harm's way in making this film, not only because hatred toward gays is on the rise in Uganda but because so many of the American Christians who he interviewed are so convinced that he needs to be fixed. What you see on screen, though, is a thorough and balanced portrayal of the American and Ugandan followers of the International House of Prayer, a conservative Christian organization based in Kansas City that seeks to export its position in the American culture wars all over the globe.  These folks get a lot of air time in the film expressing their own point of view, which is balanced primarily by two Ugandan ministers (both straight) who have paid a high personal price for speaking out against the tide of anti-gay sentiment being spread by American conservatives.  One has been excommunicated from his denomination and the other lives in the U.S. because of fears for his life in Uganda and now is studying the phenomenon the film depicts.  As he points out, the gospel is being used to pursue a very different agenda--one quite antithetical to the gospel, I might add--heedless of the fact that, in places like Uganda, people will take the law into their own hands.  As a result, LGBTQ people have been subjected to increasing violence and the Ugandan government is considering a measure that would make homosexuality a capital crime.  I was impressed by Williams' handling of this material; he doesn't load the dice and doesn't need to.  Everyone speaking for themselves is quite enough--and this is a story that really needs to be out there.

The rest of the day was focused on music personalities.  The first was "GOOD OL' FREDA" (6.5), a biography of the woman who served as the personal secretary to the Beatles from the time she was seventeen years old.  She's an endearing subject for her ordinariness and her modesty; chosen because she was a fan herself and took the fans seriously but also treated the band's secrets with absolute discretion, she is the only living person in the Beatles' inner circle whose story hasn't been told.  It's a pretty simple tale, but Freda is remarkable because the discretion that made her such a good secretary also makes it unthinkable to her to break that discretion even now.  As a result, what we see is largely her personal story--an ordinary girl who conducted herself admirably in an unexpectedly primary role in one of the great music success stories of all time--and then reentered a life so ordinary that her coworkers were not aware of her connection to the Beatles and even her daughter didn't know most of what she shares in the film.

"THE PLEASURES OF BEING OUT OF STEP" (6) takes as its subject Nat Hentoff, whose passion for jazz is equalled only by his passion for free speech.  He has been writing jazz criticism for Downbeat and poetic, discerning liner notes for decades, and has earned a reputation as a particularly thoughtful afficionado.  Hentoff is equally well known for his writing on the First Amendment; he has written several books and was a regular contributor to the Village Voice for many years.  The film meanders back and forth between Hentoff's two interests, and the lack of a more conventional narrative structure requires some work from the viewer but also sets off the relationship between his two passions.  Hentoff is a good jazz critic because he appreciates the freedom and expressiveness of good jazz; he also insists that freedom and expressiveness be available to all points of view, even those he finds personally offensive.  The film is an interesting window into the New York press and jazz scenes and an appreciative portrait of a compelling personality.

"MUSCLE SHOALS" (6.5) has the best commercial prospects of the three, as it it chronicles stories of the Muscle Shoals, Alabama music scene.  Muscle Shoals is the home of a famous recording studio that spawned a host of the best American records ever recorded.  Using some pretty wonderful archival footage and intervals with some of the top names in music, including Aretha Franklin, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Alicia Keys, and Bono, the film imparts a host of insider stories of the creation of some amazing music.  It's an entertaining exercise in music appreciation. 

FIRST POSTCARD FROM FULL FRAME 2013

I'm back where I belong -- at the Full Frame Documentary Festival, the premier documentary film festival held every year in Durham, North Carolina.  Four days of wall-to-wall documentaries, many featuring panel discussions with the filmmakers afterwards--I'm in hog heaven.

 

The first batch of films was particularly strong, beginning with "Free Angela and All Political Prisoners" (9), a long-overdue feature-length treatment of Angela Davis.  A couple of years ago when I saw the remarkable "Black Power Mixtape" (which I also highly recommend), I marveled at the lack of a biopic on Davis or Stokely Carmichael or some of the other leaders of the Black Power movement.  Although I still want a biopic, I'm delighted that director Shola Lynch devoted eight years of her life to this passion project.  Securing the funding for this project was no easy task (hence the eight years), because despite Davis's notoriety as a symbol of the Black Power movement, people my age and younger (and perhaps people older than me, actually, given the media accounts they had to rely upon) don't really know much about Davis other than that she was once on the FBI's most wanted list.  This film places in context the events that thrust her into prominence and makes sense of why she became such a lightening rod.  

Using contemporary footage and current interviews with Davis herself, her friends and supporters, her defense counsel, reporters, even the judge at her trial, the filmmaker shows us the articulate and strong young woman who within a short period of time managed to get hired by UCLA to teach Marxist philosophy, fired for her political views in a backlash led by then-Governor Ronald Reagan, and then implicated in a bloody courthouse shooting that galvanized fear of the Black Power movement of which she was a part.  Although her eventual acquittal by an all-white San Jose jury on three charges originally carrying the death penalty ended up being a triumph of the legal system, that triumph was surrounded by a host of legal travesties (including the scant bases for the charges themselves).  Director Lynch makes good use of the forty years since these events to find perspective that enables the telling of a story whose significance could not be broadly understood at the time--yet Lynch also bridges the distance of those forty years and helps us see what an inspiring figure Davis really was, and still is.  The contemporary footage looks so different now than I imagine it did then; from this distance it seems both clear and remarkable how brilliant and impressive Davis was, not to mention her skilled defense team (two black men and a white woman) and quite a number of other articulate women and African Americans who supported and responded to her struggle at the time.  This is a story that needs telling--and I hope the film, which opens in select cities tomorrow, will get a wider release.

"American Promise" (8.5) also yields complex rewards for those willing to make the journey.  The 12-year project of a highly-educated African American couple, it follows their intensely personal journey through the education of their oldest son Idris and his childhood friend Seun, both of whom began their education at the prestigious Dalton School in upper east Manhattan.  The parents of both boys choose the school with the highest of hopes for two bright, earnest, and engaging kids, but it is obvious from the beginning that, despite the school's newly acquired interest in diversity, its commitment does not translate into insight as to how to create a level playing field for kids who don't fit the mold of what already exists in that privileged and intensely white environment.  As the boys progress, and despite two sets of very supportive and involved parents, they, along with the handful of other black children, find themselves singled out as pupils in need of extra help.  It turns out that both boys had learning disabilities, but that does not totally account for the social and academic challenges these two relatively privileged African American kids experience.  So much of what this film depicts made me think of what I see minority students encounter in law school every year; their relative privilege and talent and promise so often does not shield them from demoralizing setbacks and isolation.  This film benefits from the filmmakers' bravery, their long-term commitment to the project, and their willingness to portray a rather unvarnished version of their own story that offers neither easy explanations nor easy answers.  The film also ends up being a moving depiction of the complexity of parenting in the broader sense, and how one's hopes for one's child meet that child's uniqueness, one's one limitations, and the inflexibility of the broader world. 
 

For something completely different, "The Last Shepherd" (8) is a deceptively simple and surprisingly moving portrait of a man who represents a dying breed.  Renato Zucchelli, a beefy man of about 50, views shepherding as his vocation, one he had to fight to pursue over the objection of his own parents.  He spends a few months each year with his large herd in the mountains outside Milan, and there one can clearly witness the joy that he and his sheep dog experience in equal measure in the freedom of shepherding as it was meant to be practiced.  But during the rest of the year, Zucchelli and the herd and his scruffy assistant Piero return to Milan, and guide the herd through the city streets to ever-diminishing patches of green.  Even here, there is something profound about watching this rotund man in a dirty tank top striding confidently through traffic in the midst of the undulating mass of sheep--and also something poignant about watching the ease with which his four children approach life with these animals.  The film's deep pleasures center around Zucchelli's connectedness to the elemental life of the animals and also his interactions with urban school children whom he introduces to shepherding; their intuitive response to the Zucchelli's herd despite having so little exposure to what shepherds actually do, along with the sensitivity of the film itself, raise legitimate questions about the cost of progress.

Finally, "Gideon's Army" (7) lacks the complexity of the first two films and the beauty of the third, but is a worthy exploration of the role public defenders play in the American justice system.  The film follows three dedicated defenders in the South, providing a window into a world of unsustainable caseloads that require of these practitioners the missionary zeal of Mother Theresa.  One thing I appreciated about the film is that it treats these defenders not as heroes defending the mostly guilty but as a necessary bullwark against a criminal justice system gone horribly wrong, in which the poor are herded into the system in numbers that reflect misguided public policy and then are pressured into pleading guilty as the least costly alternative. 
 

My review of "Beasts of the Southern Wild" as printed in the Portland Observer

http://portlandobserver.com/2013/03/beasts-of-the-southern-wild-stands-out/

THE TEN BEST FILMS OF 2012

Although my ability to blog longer reviews throughout the year has flagged a bit, I still continue to see as many films as ever.  (Check my blog regularly to follow my sidebar of films'I've seen for short reviews on most films, which I also post on my facebook page.)  This year's top ten list gives a brief take on each of the films; my hope is to post some longer reactions to them in the coming weeks.  You'll find some familiar names (seven of these have received some kind of Oscar recognition) but three of them have been largely overlooked by mainstream sources.  You'll find four documentaries and two French language films.  These are the very best films I saw this year--I hope you find some that catch your fancy!

1.  BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (10) imparts a vision of ultimate truth that crackles with urgency, courage, and originality. Without idealizing them, the poor and disenfranchised are portrayed with dignity and reverence for their role in the universe. In this world, a child receives gifts of love from a neglectful father far more precious than what many children (myself included) have received from more outwardly acceptable parents; real women who exist beyond fashion are depicted with genuine respect for their wisdom and beauty; and a fierce little black girl absorbs and speaks ultimate truth. It's a work of art.  [Rated PG-13 for thematic material including child imperilment, some disturbing images, language, and brief sensuality; on at least 52 other critics' top ten lists; nominated for and deserves Academy Awards for best picture, best director, best actress, and best adapted screenplay; still playing in second-run theaters and worth seeing on the big screen.]

2.  MONSIEUR LAZHAR (10) received a lot of Canadian film awards and an Oscar nomination last year for best foreign language film, though its theatrical release in most American cities occurred long after Oscar time. The story involves an Algerian refugee to Montreal who is hired to take over a sixth grade class after the beloved teacher commits suicide. It is an extraordinarily nuanced and perceptive study in how careless we often are in our judgments and how studiously we avoid addressing the whole truth. Watching this good man show his students the way through their suffering is deeply inspiring. [In English, French, and Arabic; rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, a disturbing image, and brief language; on at least one other critic's top ten list; nominated for an Academy Award in 2012 for best foreign language film; available on DVD.]

3.  DJANGO UNCHAINED (10) breaks ground in some significant ways: it depicts the brutality of American slavery in a way that we really haven't seen in American popular media; it gives us the catharsis of a black hero; and, in asking the question (stated ironically by a slaveholder) why the black slaves don't simply rise up and kill the whites and devising a freedman superhero to do just that, the film also demonstrates the real answer to the question--that is, the system of oppression ensured that an uprising was not possible. Yes, Tarentino loves spaghetti Westerns and blaxploitation films and packs his films with great dialogue and reverential nods to film history--but he is also doing something profound with this film. I left quite sobered, in just the right ways--and I was blown away by the thought that he found a way to get a bunch of Americans to spend nearly three hours looking at aspects of our relatively recent past that we have been refusing to face for a long time.  I think Tarentino deserves a lot more credit here than he is getting. [Rated R for strong graphic violence throughout, a vicious fight, language, and some nudity; on at least 35 other critics' top ten lists; nominated for Academy Awards for best picture, best actor in a supporting role (Christoph Waltz, who deserves to win), best sound editing, and best original screenplay (which it deserves to win), and should have received a nomination for best director; still playing in theaters.]

4.  LINCOLN (10) imparts a master class in Civil War history and, like "Django Unchained" (but using entirely different methods) alters the cultural conversation about our racist history in some significant ways.  I can't think of a dramatization of the political process that conveys with more nuance just how messy and complicated it is to get anything done, nor could one hope for a depiction of the great president (his personality, his relationships, and his politics) that is more nuanced, compelling, and appropriately complex.  Everything works--but particularly, Daniel Day-Lewis's phenomenal performance, Tony Kushner's wise screenplay, a production design that is more faithful to the period than anything I can remember, and Steven Spielberg displaying admirable restraint and none of his characteristic excess.  Bravo! [Rated PG-13 for an intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage, and brief strong language; on at least 58 other critics' top ten lists; nominated for Academy Awards for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best film editing, and best sound mixing; nominated for, and deserves, Academy Awards for best actor, best cinematography, best costume design, best original score, and best production design; still playing in theaters.]

5.  SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN (10) deserves to win the Oscar for best documentary feature in a strong field of nominees.  It's the thoroughly inspiring story of Rodriguez, a Mexican American musician who recorded two brilliant folk rock albums in the early 1970s and then disappeared into obscurity when they didn't find commercial success, unaware that he went on to literally become a rock star in South Africa. The true story of how Rodriguez learned of all this decades later is far stranger than fiction, not least because he turns out to be a heroic person, a living example of how light overcomes darkness. Though he was exploited and forgotten here in the U.S., the beauty and truth of his music inspired resistance to apartheid and oppression while he lived a life of simplicity and quiet integrity. And the music is phenomenal.  [Rated PG-13 for brief strong language and some drug references; on at least four other critics' top ten lists; nominated for and should win an Academy Award for best documentary feature; still playing in second-run theaters. ]

6.  THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE (10) ought to be required viewing, especially for those of us involved in the legal system. Co-directed by Ken Burns, it very carefully unpacks the story of how five black and Hispanic teenage boys ended up being wrongfully convicted (in the press and in court) of brutally raping a white woman jogger based solely on coerced confessions. It is hard to sit through but offers extremely important insights into our criminal justice system, how human beings work, and race in America. Attention must be paid.  [On at least one other critic's top ten list; DVD release expected in April.]

7.  THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (10) won the grand jury prize for documentary at Sundance but, as far as I know has not received much of a theatrical release.  It.is an astoundingly comprehensive look at the so-called "war on drugs," including the perspectives of police officers, corrections officers, journalists, historians, a federal judge, drug dealers, and people charged with or convicted of drug offenses. What emerges is a solid case that the resources spent on investigating and prosecuting drug offenses and housing those convicted disproportionately affects minorities and the poor and has resulted in no appreciable progress in reducing the use of illegal drugs. Some of the most insightful speakers include such unlikely sources as a prison guard who loves his job but astutely questions drug sentencing policies and a Lincoln scholar who connects societal attitude changes regarding certain substances (heroin, cocaine, marijuana) to xenophobia directed at various immigrant groups. David Simon, the genius behind "The Wire," weighs in cogently as well. Impressively marshalling huge quantities of information into a compelling and cohesive narrative, director Eugene Jarecki has produced a definitive and helpful analysis of a national problem that has the potential to raise the level of the national conversation about drug policy. [On at least one other critic's top ten list; available for online viewing at amazon.com and hopefully will have a DVD release.]

8.  AMOUR (9.5) is a profound film about how a well-to-do elderly couple copes with her physical and mental decline. It depicts love, not infatuation or obsession or sex--and it unsparingly depicts aging and death in all their relentlessness, without platitudes or clichés. In these ways, it rises above most other films about romance and about older folks; it is so observant and so unflinchingly truthful that it makes you wince--but it also shows (without undue explanation) what love really looks like.  [In English and French; rated PG-13 for mature thematic material including a disturbing act, and for brief language; on at least 57 other critics' top ten lists; nominated for Academy Awards for best picture, best director, best actress (Emmanuelle Riva), and best original screenplay; nominated and should win for best foreign language film; still in theaters.]

9:  THE INVISIBLE WAR (9.5) --The work of director Kirby Dick (who also helmed "Outrage," about anti-gay politicians who are evidently gay), this film seeks to expose the institutional corruption that has made sexual assault within the U.S. military a rampant problem for decades, even while military leaders have claimed "zero tolerance." All of the statistics in the film are from the government itself, but the filmmakers had to hire a statistician to sort through them because they are reported in a deliberately opaque manner--and what we learn is that an astounding 20% of females in the military have reported assault, and 80% of victims don't report the crimes against them--and it's no wonder because those who do end up being assaulted again by the system. Almost all of them end up being either involuntarily discharged (often after having their trauma diagnosed as a personality disorder or having been charged with conduct unbecoming an officer or adultery, though it is usually the assailants who are married) while their assailants suffer no more than a slap on the wrist; fewer than 10% are ever criminally charged and almost never with a felony. One of the most obvious problems is that these incidents are all handled through military justice system (so-called), which creates a quite-obvious conflict of interest for those charged with responding to complaints. Indeed, in an estimated 25% of cases, the assailant is the person to whom the victim is supposed to report and, in another 30% of cases, the victim is supposed to report to a friend of the assailant. What I really admire about this film is how smart it is; the filmmakers proceeded with an awareness of how intractable these problems are and anticipated the military's response. They interviewed hundreds of victims and, though they focus on a few stories, those stories are presented in a way that makes clear that these few represent hundreds of thousands of others. Lots of insiders speak as well, and there is lots of footage of military brass claiming to have taken care of the problem (just as has happened since this film was released). Some of the most moving footage is of male family members of the victims, who decided to speak on camera at the risk of their own military careers. All in all, it's a brilliant expose' of institutional oppression and a calculated move to dismantle it.   [On at least one other critic's top ten list; nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature; available on DVD.]

10. IN THE FAMILY (9) is long, but it rewards patience and surpasses typical Hollywood fare in every respect. The work of a first-time writer-director, Patrick Wang, who is a stage actor and dramaturg, it is a plain-spoken, deliberate depiction of an Asian-American Tennessean (played by Wang) grappling with the aftermath of his partner's death and a custody fight over the boy they viewed as his son but the law doesn't. No shortcuts, no polemics, no manipulation; Wang understands the importance of everyday life and the power of telling the truth. The emotional pay-offs in the last hour of the film are all earned, and the story even includes a lawyer demonstrating how to be a true change-agent and a way to view the limits of the law with both realism and visionary imagination. I think I felt the earth move a little; you will too. [On at least three other critics' top ten lists; no DVD release yet but you can follow screenings at http://www.inthefamilythemovie.com.]

MY OSCAR BALLOT

Although I am entering an Oscar pool this year, I don't expect to win it.  I tend to be too distracted by what I think should happen to predict what will happen.  So, if I were picking the winners, here is who I'd pick.

Best Picture:  BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD.  This is the number one film on my list of top films of the year.  "Django Unchained," "Lincoln," and "Amour" all will also appear on my top-ten list, so if any of those win (only "Lincoln" has a shot), I'll be happy enough.  If "Argo" or "Life of Pi" wins, I'll be slightly annoyed; I liked both films but don't think they are best picture material.  Definitely not "Les Miserables," though I found much to admire in it.  And if "Silver Linings Playbook" wins, I'll be pissed.  Good performances, but the film feels exploitive to me.  All that said, "Beasts" deserves to win because it is visionary and very original.  There is nothing like it in this or any year.

Best Actor in a Leading Role:  DANIEL DAY-LEWIS.  None of the other nominees are in his league this year; his Lincoln is a truly towering achievement.  Joaquin Phoenix is very interesting in "The Master," and Bradley Cooper does fine work in a problematic film.  I found Hugh Jackman to be pretty grating in "Les Mis," though I think it is mostly because his voice is wrong for the music.  Love Denzel, but "Flight" is not worthy of his talents.  Daniel Day-Lewis all the way.  Who else deserved a nomination?  Jack Black for "Bernie"  (dead-on funny and wise) and Richard Gere in "Arbitrage."

Best Actress in a Leading Role:  QUVENZHANE' WALLIS.  The youngest-ever nominee is mind-boggling in "Beasts."  I don't know where the director found her and whether she will sustain this level of charisma and talent over time--but she is absolutely inspired in this movie and fully carries it in her own right.  That's worthy of recognition.  I won't be upset if Emmanuelle Riva wins; the oldest-ever nominee is also truly fine in "Amour."  I love Jennifer Lawrence  and Jessica Chastain, but their performances are in films I found too problematic to reward.  That's even more true of Naomi Watts; she's a fine actress but this particular performance doesn't deserve to be on this list at all in my mind.  Who else deserved a nomination?  Marian Cotillard for "Rust and Bone."

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:  CHRISTOPH WALTZ.  The Austrian actor who has again inspired Quentin Tarentino is phenomenal in everything, but particularly his two Tarentino roles.  No one, but no one, can do what he does.  I admired Philip Seymour Hofman's work in "The Master" and Tommy Lee Jones is very good in "Lincoln," but I'll actually be disappointed if Waltz doesn't win.  De Niro's work in "Silver Linings Playbook" is unremarkable, and Alan Arkin is always fun and watching but doesn't deserve an Oscar for "Argo."  I'd replace those nominations with any of the following:  Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson in "Django Unchained" and Matthew McConnaughey in "Bernie."

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:  ANNE HATHAWAY.  She is so jaw-droppingly good in "Les Mes" that it is worth sitting through the entire film just to watch her version of "I Dreamed a Dream."  Amy Adams is a worthy nominee for her interesting portrayal of a strong post-WWII woman in "The Master," and Sally Field does good work as Mrs.. Lincoln.  Helen Hunt is fine in "The Sessions" but I don't actually find her performance worthy of a nod.  I love Jackie Weaver but she has done far better work elsewhere.  To me, Anne is by far the best of the nominees.

Best Animated Feature Film:  FRANKENWEENIE.  This film is one of Tim Burton's best:  weird and sweet and gently soulful.  I didn't see "The Pirates," so I can't compare it. Of the other nominees, I'd pick "Wreck-It Ralph," which is original and dazzling, though slightly cacophonous in spots.  The animation in both "Brave" and "Paranorman" is beautiful, but the stories in both are pretty lame. 

Best Cinematography:  LINCOLN.  This is one of the hardest categories to pick, because all the nominees are good in their way.  I'd be quite happy to see "Django" win, since I think Tarentino is doing some important things here with the depiction of the slavery.  I'd also not begrudge a win to "Life of Pi," which creates a very convincing world with a boy and a tiger on a lifeboat.  "Anna Karenina" displays some real visual originality.  "Skyfall" is the weakest of the nominees but still has some interesting visual tricks up its sleeve.  I pick "Lincoln" because it so faithfully conveys the time period that there are moments where one feels as though an old photograph has come to life.

Best Costume Design:  LINCOLN.  I choose it for similar reasons; it is remarkably evocative of the period.  The costumes in "Anna" are just plain beautiful.  They are certainly fine in "Les Mis."  I don't think we need to go overboard on recognizing "Snow White," though the costumes are competently done.  I didn't see "Mirror Mirror" but doubt it is really a contender.

Best Director:  BENH ZEITLIN FOR "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD."  As far as I'm concern, this first-time director is a visionary genius.  I don't know how he conceived of such an astounding world, and I definitely don't know how he pulled it off.  I won't be upset if the award goes to Spielberg for "Lincoln"; I think it is his best work and shows remarkable vision and also restraint.  Michael Haneke does fine work in "Amour" as well.  Any of those three I could accept.  I don't think Ang Lee should win the award for "Life of Pi," though I think the visuals here are wonderful.  Quentin Tarentino deserved a nomination here for "Django."  David O. Russell doesn't; in my opinion, he uses his talent for directing chaotic situations like family dysfunction and mental illness and addiction (here and in "The Fighter") to make films that cheap out and treat these same problems as more easily resolved than they really are. 

Best Documentary Feature:  SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN.  I haven't seen "Broken Cameras," but all the other nominees are really terrific.  "How to Survive a Plague" is absolutely devastating and does an impressive job of amassing tons of footage to tell a story we really need to know.  "The Invisible War" is one of the best documentaries I saw at Full Frame and does a masterful job of using the military's own statistics and several stories of successful soldiers who were assaulted to expose its how abominably the military addresses sexual assault in its ranks.  "The Gatekeepers" is a fascinating set of interviews with the heads of Shin Benh and asks all the right questions.  But "Searching for Sugar Man" made it into my top ten for the year and is so inspiring that it is my clear pick.  Missing from the list of nominees:  "Central Park Five," which will be on my top ten list.

Best Film Editing: LIFE OF PI.  This is one place I'd recognize the good work of creating such a convincing visual world, though I could easily make a case for "Lincoln."  Of the remaining nominees, "Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty" are respectable but shouldn't win.  I don't think "Silver Linings Playbook" deserves the nomination.

Best Foreign Language Film:  AMOUR.  This beautiful film is on my top ten list for the year.  I also loved "A Royal Affair," which does a terrific job of conveying an important piece of Danish history.  "No" is also a worthy nominee, with its canny interpretation of the ad campaign that toppled Augusto Pinochet.  I wouldn't have nominated the other two, but they are both very good.  "Kon-Tiki" is a wonderfully rendered high seas adventure with some broader significance, and "War Witch" is a very effective story of a child soldier.  Of the Oscar eligible films I've seen at PIFF this year, I'd have nominated "In the Shadows" from the Czech Republic, "Kauwboy" from The Netherlands, and "Beyond the Hills" from Romania.  I will see the submissions from India, Japan, and Poland in the next few days so stay tuned.

Best Original Score:  LINCOLN.  I usually find John Williams' scores to be very overbearing, but this one is quite restrained and effective.  I recall appreciating the more buoyant score for "Anna Karenina,"  and the music from "Life of Pi" was good work as always from Mychael Danna.  I don't really have much of an opinion as to the other two scores.

Best Original Song:  "SKYFALL."  This is really a terrific movie song, creating a killer opening for the film.  My criteria for best original song is that it should be good music that plays an effective role in bringing the film to life, and "Skyfall" does that in spades.  As for the rest, "Pi's Lullaby" is quite beautiful, and  I didn't like the version of "Suddenly" from Les Mis. I didn't see the other two films whose songs were nominated, so I can't speak to what they do for those films--but I do like "Before My Time" from Chasing Ice.  "Everybody Needs a Best Friend" is just silly.

Best Production Design:  LINCOLN.  The production design is part of what made this film so effective.  I also thought the production design for "Anna Karenina" was remarkable.  The other three nominees are also deserving.  But where is the nomination for "Django"?

Best Sound Editing:  DJANGO UNCHAINED.  This film deserves more recognition than it got in the nominations, and the sound editing is very good.  All the other nominees are also quite deserving, though.

Best Sound Mixing:  LES MISERABLES.  The complexity of the sound work here deserves recognition in this category, though I, again, think all the other nominees are worthy.

Best Visual Effects:  LIFE OF PI, all the way.  I'm fine with the nomination for "The Hobbit," but the other nominations are just silly. 

Best Adapted Screenplay:  BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD.  This is the joint work of director Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar and, frankly, I think they pulled of a miracle.  However, Tony Kushner is a close second and, if he wins for "Lincoln," I'll be quite happy too.  I wouldn't have nominated "Life of Pi" or "Argo," although they are decent enough.  "Silver Linings Playbook" does not deserve a nomination for its screenplay. 

Best Original Screenplay:  DJANGO UNCHAINED.  Frankly, I am going to be pissed if Tarentino doesn't win, because I think he has permanently deepened the conversation about slavery in American culture with this film.  (More on that in my top ten list and a longer review.)  Both "Amour" and "Moonrise Kingdom" are very worthy nominees.  Neither "Zero Dark Thirty" nor, especially, "Flight" deserved their nominations.  Missing from the list:  "Bernie" and "In the Family." 

I'll get out my top ten list by Sunday, with short reviews and longer ones to follow over the course of the coming weeks.  Happy movie weekend!

TRIPS TO SENEGAL AND TIBET, AN AMERICAN IMMIGRANT EXPLORATION, AND A BRITISH STAR VEHICLE

Today's films were a bit of a mixed bag.  The best of the bunch was LA PIROGUE (6), the first Senegalese film I've had a chance to watch.  It is named for a type of long, brightly painted wooden fishing canoe that Senagalese use to make the seven-day trip across the Atlantic to Spain.  The journey is so perilous that apparently about 5,000 people died making it out of the 30,000 who attempted it from 2005 to 2010, so that gives you an idea of the stakes that drive people to make the trip.  Immigrant stories are cropping up more and more in European cinema, as well as in the U.S., and this one certainly has its good points, including a straightorward approach to its dramatic story and competent filming of the high seas challenges.  Its story lacks the complexity of other immigrant stories that I have liked better, but nonetheless is an interesting window into a culture to which we get little exposure.

OLD DOG (3.5), set in a mountainous region of China that covers part of what used to be Tibet, offers a window into another little-seen culture.  The Tibetan filmmaker uses the story of an old mastiff to illustrate how Tibetan culture is disappearing due to encroaching urbanization.  Mastiffs apparently are so in demand among urban Chinese that they will fetch quite a high price, and the story here involves a father and son in a tug of war over whether to sell the mastiff that the father raised as a pup.  The filmmaker uses a very straightforward style with long shots and no close-ups to give a flavor of the simple and plain life of these Tibetan folks, but it is awfully slow-going to watch and the action changes very little.

MEN AT LUNCH (4) apparently started out as a 45-minute PBS documentary--and doubling its running time in order to reach feature length has stretched the premise a little thin.  Its jumping-off point, so to speak, is the famous photograph featuring steelworkers on a lunch break high above Central Park during construction of Rockefeller Center, and the film does contain some interesting tidbits about the photo and the risks taken by iron workers back in the 1930s, as well as by the photographers who captured them (mostly without attribution).  But the film lays on the sentimentality pretty thickly, including the assertion that the photograph represents "the city's greatest legend" and constant references to the dreams of the immigrants who came over on Ellis Island, particularly the Irish ones (who get special attention given that the film is the work of an Irish director and was produced with support from the Irish Film Board).  All and all, it's mildly entertaining but seems to assume it will provoke more adoration than it really deserves.

Of those I missed reviewing from the first week, here is one I particularly recommend. 

In GINGER AND ROSA (7), Elle Fanning gives an astonishing performance as a teenager coming of age in England in 1962.  Although the scope of the story is small, the film's depth of insight and good performances make up for it.  The mother of Fanning's Ginger had her as a teenager and her father, a handsome philandering college professor, wears his liberal credentials on his sleeve.  Now a teenager herself, Ginger predictably finds her unhappy mother irritating and her father inspiring.  She also is joined at the hip to her lifelong friend Rosa, whose dreams of romance pair nicely with Ginger's romantic notions of idealism.  But when Ginger's parents separate and she begs to live with her dad, Ginger increasingly feels herself to be carrying the weight of the world in more ways than one as she sublimates her growing dread at a budding affair between Rosa and her father into a deepening concern about the prospect of nuclear annihilation.  All of these characters are very well-drawn, especially Ginger's dad, who Alessandro Nivola plays quite insightfully as the worst kind of narcissist, and Annette Bening, Oliver Platt and Timothy Spall have very good turns as godparents who notice and care about Ginger's suffering long before her parents do.  The film really belongs to Fanning, though; just 13 when this was filmed, she is clearly one to watch.  Hopefully its star-laden cast and esteemed director Sally Potter will assure it a wider release.