SOME GOOD FILMS FROM 2005, Part Two;

Undertow by David Gordon Green was another good one that didn’t seem to get the attention in deserved. A studio-financed picture from the director of ‘acclaimed’ indies ‘George Washington’ and ‘All the Real Girls’ (both of which I’ve managed to miss, but would very much like to see). A masterfully shot and directed movie with more than it’s fair share of moments of achingly grand fucking beauty, I thought it was rather let down by it’s over-reliance on a brand of Southern Gothic cliché which didn’t quite ring true, and a certain amount of borrowed material from ‘Night of the Hunter’ which danced merrily across that fine line separating ‘homage’ from ‘rip-off’. In purely visual and technical terms though, it’s pretty stunning, and the opening sequence in particular just kicks ass. Aesthetically, it kinda struck me as being like “Iron & Wine: The Movie” – I realise it’s a strange connection to make, but if you’ve seen this film and are familiar with their music, you’ll know what I mean.

A film that hit British cinemas this year and actually did feature Iron & Wine on the soundtrack was Jonathan Caouette’s utterly incredible Tarnation. If you’re not familiar with the story behind the film, it’s pretty difficult to summarise, but basically ; Caouette has had an extremely weird, traumatic and confusing childhood and family history. He put Tarnation together on his Apple Mac using decades worth of home movies, stock footage and his own teenage homemade films, and the result is less a conventional documentary than an insanely intense act of catharsis and self-definition. Obviously the real-life footage of abuse and mental breakdown makes sections of it quite difficult to sit through, but by the end you’ll be glad you did. Caouette’s background in underground / queer cinema comes across strongly in the film’s editing, with a mind-shredding, almost Kenneth Anger like combination of obsessive montage editing, vision/sound contrasts, pop culture references and insane psychedelic visual effects that help to turn what could have been a grim, misanthropic documentary into some kinda mesmerising, emotionally-draining, sensory overload rollercoaster. One of those films where you leave the cinema knowing you’ve never seen anything like that before and never will again.

As has been frequently acknowledged, 2005 was a pretty landmark year for good music documentaries – trend I obviously approve of. Dig! (Ondi Timoner) predictably takes the crown, as one of the best portraits of life in the crazy world of rock n’ roll ever put on film, fictional or otherwise. Yeah, it’s good as everyone says it is – documentary gold all round.

Pretty close competition comes from The Fearless Freaks, Bradley Beesley’s film about the Flaming Lips, a wild and unlikely story that captures one of those inspiring moments when the freak-flag flying underdogs of My World actually win out against all the odds – what a band and what a film.

Of course I’ve also got to give a shout-out to End of the Century, the Ramones movie (Dir; Jim Fields / Michael Gramaglia). My appreciation of it was probably undermined by the fact that I’d just finished reading Everett True’s Ramones book, which basically tells the same story in greater detail, and as a rabid fan since the age of 15 I scarcely need to be reminded how great the Ramones are/were. And obviously it’s not as good as ‘Rock n Roll High School’, but then what is? It’s still a fuckin’ pleasure and a film that needed to be made.

And I’ll even give a mention to No Direction Home, Scorsese’s Dylan documentary and probably the best thing that wretched hack has lent his name to since the ‘70s (Martin I mean, not Bob, tho could apply to both of ‘em I suppose). It’s great to see a music doc. long and involved enough to actually do it’s subject justice, and it’s certainly gone some way toward increasing my appreciation of the big BD (as I’m sure no one on earth is stupid enough to call him).

I’m looking forward to catching the films about the Minutemen and Daniel Johnson in 2006, and hey, is it true what I hear about somebody making a fictional movie about the Replacements…?!!? Crazy.

What else to mention? Oh yes, nearly forgot Howl’s Moving Castle. Probably not Miyazaki’s best film, possibly due to it being based on an outside story and just moving too fast to really do the narrative justice, but nevertheless, a sub-par Miyazaki picture is still better than just about anything else, and a single frame still contains more joy, love, creativity and spirit than every single thing those foul bastards at Disney have ever birthed upon the world, and don’t you forget it!

Caught David Cronenberg’s new one, A History of Violence, the other week and hmm…. an interesting film with some powerful scenes, but sadly sunk by an unbearable level of cliché. Yeah, I know Cronenberg has always had a certain level of deliberate plasticity going on with his dialogue and characters, but for all the real world relevance it has after those sub-Sopranos gangsters turn up, he may as well be fighting pirates. Some good gut-churning violence though for those of you who get off on such things.

It is to my great shame that I haven’t actually SEEN what was surely one of 2005’s best films, George Romero’s Land of the Dead. Especially embarrassing as I’m a)an avid horror fan and b)always harping on about how Romero’s a genius who doesn’t get the respect he deserves from high-minded film people. I know, I know, I’m sorry, what can I say… I was just really busy on the week it was showing at the cinema, I tried to go down and see it on a Sunday afternoon, but I got the times wrong. I’ll catch it on DVD as soon as I can.

I haven’t seen Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers yet either – that’s sure to be good.

So that’s how things shaped up re: my movie-going in 2005, and you’re probably pretty sick of hearing about it by now, so let’s call it a day. Phew!