NYFF Diaries: The end

Lesley Manville as Mary
Photo by Simon Mein (c) Thin Man Films Ltd., Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

2010's New York Film Festival wraps up, and I have four more films seen: Inside Job, Certified Copy, Aurora and Another Year. For lack of time, the reviews haven't been posted yet, but I think I'll do another larger MOB segment on Another Year and its chances the same way I did for The Social Network in my last post.





Eliot Spitzer
Governor, New York State (2007-2008); Attorney General, New York State (1999-2007)
Photo by Representational Pictures, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Inside Job is an infuriating look at the breakdown of successful regulations upon our financial system starting with Ronald Reagan and continuing even today with President Obama following the ensuing financial meltdown. Effective in its arguments with very strong interviews, the film presents the facts in a manner that's very comprehensible to more people than just those who profit off of the system's manipulation as many who were interviewed for the project did. Made by a liberal, but even the most ardent Obama supporter will leave the film reflecting upon how criminal it seems that Obama appointed the type of people who fed into the system's downfall even after the fact. The film takes no prisoners, and our country could benefit from more average people being educated by the film enough to hold our nation's leaders more responsible for their economic actions.

Grade: B

Celebrated Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami marks a new chapter in his long career with Certified Copy, making a film outside of his home country for the first time. The naturally sunny Tuscan cinematography keeps the film floating light on its feet as Kiarostami's trademark ponderous dialogue and themes unfold. English Opera singer William Shimmell and heavily decorated French actress Juliette Binoche play characters that, at first glance, seem to be meeting for the first time but then brilliantly evolve their dynamic into a couple that may or may not have been married for fifteen years. The common insecurities, grievances, and worries of both of their respective married lives slowly unfurl throughout the film. Shimmell's tonal sensibilities make for a solid film debut, but it's Binoche, under the baggage of fifteen years of the character's single motherhood, who steals the show. To me, probably the best (and certainly most accessible) film of Kiarostami's yet.

Grade: A-

Aurora is the latest offering of Romania's booming new wave film scene, perhaps jumpstarted by director Cristi Puiu's film The Death of Mr. Lazarescu several yeas ago. His latest, which he both directs and stars in, is a dreadful test of your patience and movie watching ability. Throughout its three hour lifespan, perhaps four brief events in between seem to advance a plot in any way and two of those might hold your slightest interest. Puiu himself gives a very soulful performance as a very average man who goes on a killing spree against several people associated with his ex-wife. But again, the action is few and far between the tedious display of his everyday life and encounters that stretches the film to its length. The only slight payoff of the whole thing is an amusing conversation with investigators at the very end.

Grade: D



Lesley Manville as Mary
Photo by Simon Mein (c) Thin Man Films Ltd., Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Another Year is the latest offering from Mike Leigh and among the most emotionally affecting films of the year. The film, among other things, studies age and its various consequences and connotations. Among his illustrious string of performance pieces, Another Year offers the very best performances in any Leigh film thus far and adds Lesley Manville's role as Mary to a competitive list of cinema's very best drunkard performances. The other two central performances of Jim Broadbent's Tom and Ruth Sheen's Gerri give off a magnificent parental warmth and naturally convinces you of their forty years together. But it's Manville, especially at the end, who ends up shattering your heart. It's also among the most visually sophisticated and cinematic of Leigh's films, showing each of the four seasons with a different tone and feel appropriate to that time of the year. Another Year is magnificent.

Grade: A+