“The Souvenir”
British auteur Joanna Hogg makes glacial, deliberate human dramas that can take a while to find your way into. To call her work “uncompromising” almost seems too basic: simply put, Hogg has no time for or interest in plodding melodrama or predictable moments of expedient redemption. Hers is a style that’s fussy and often austere, as anyone who’s seen her gloomy familial portrait “Archipelago” or her more experimental and severe 2013 offering “Exhibition” can attest to. Her films seem to unfold in real time, and by the end of them, you feel as though you’ve come to know the characters on a bone-deep level – whether or not you find them agreeable is almost beside the point. While A24’s stunning “The Souvenir” is most certainly a continuation of Hogg’s pet themes – family, class, and codependence, to name but a few – it’s also her emotionally richest work to date, one that reverberates with an unfathomable sense of sadness and a keen sense of remembrance. It’s also, not coincidentally, her most nakedly autobiographical offering: a clear-eyed, defiantly unsentimental evocation of first love, beautifully depicting a turbulent and nebulous romance between a privileged film student (played in a remarkably vulnerable performance by Honor Swinton Byrne, daughter of Tilda) and an arrogant, gaslighting drug addict (Tom Burke). The fact that the film has been given the stamp of approval from none other than Martin Scorsese (as well as one of the world’s foremost independent film distributors) means that Hogg’s latest may attract more eyeballs than her earlier, more potentially alienating directorial works – and with good reason. As clinical as Hogg’s touch can sometimes be, she’s inviting us into her past with “The Souvenir,” which might just be her masterpiece. The film is an unusually open-ended display of unmasking from one of our most reserved cinematic storytellers, even as it keeps its character’s desires close to its well-tailored vest. – NL [Our Review]
“An Elephant Sitting Still”
Describing the selling points of Hu Bo’s tragic masterpiece “An Elephant Sitting Still” will either motivate you to watch the film as soon as possible or leave you wondering why anyone would willingly choose to sit through a four-hour movie about four miserable people. And yet, “An Elephant Sitting Still” will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the most extraordinary directorial debuts of the 2010s. Although adjectives like “alienating” and “despondent” do not typically function as compliments—even within the world of film criticism—the unadulterated bleakness of this grand-scale, strikingly relatable examination of sadness cannot be understated. Bo’s dissection of the dissatisfaction eating away at the heart of the modern urban landscape appeals as much to the aimlessness of youth as it does to the dread of growing old, and achieves the rare cinematic accomplishment of timelessness as a result. Remarkably, the film manages to assert an unwavering thesis regarding human existence while simultaneously offering ambiguous answers to its ever-present questions. Truth be told, anyone in search of entertainment should avoid “An Elephant Sitting Still” at all costs, but for the passionate movie enthusiast, the feature operates as a textbook definition of required viewing, if only for the sole reason to check it off your film buff bucket list. As a cynical love letter composed by a heartbroken artist to an uncaring world, “An Elephant Sitting Still” will endure as an unforgettable experience until the end of time. – Jonathan Christian [Our Review]
“Knock Down The House”
“Knock Down The House” is the kind of documentary that needs to be seen by voters of this country, but some may, sadly, write it off as obligatory political rallying (see, also, “Booksmart”). Though, this is precisely what makes Rachel Lears’ “utterly prescient” campaign film so stirring, following the ever-impassioned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and a handful of other motivated grassroots candidates, lobbying through the 2018 midterm elections. Joe Crowley, a New York politician who hasn’t had a real challenger in 14 years and doesn’t even send his kids to school in the state in which he lobbies for, is her primary competition. Given the intersectional power wielded by Crowley – and so many other millionaires, often appointed through election loopholes – Ocasio-Cortez knows she and her campaign sisters face an almost impossible uphill battle, but these ladies are done settling and fiercely believe they were born in a country capable of better. “It’s just the reality, that for one of us to break through, a hundred of us have to try,” she tells a fellow candidate, who’s become discouraged. Sometimes, the only way to fight back against a corrupt machine is to start a movement. “Knock Down the House” is equal parts informative and energizing, building to an electrifying catharsis and incredibly moving denouement. – Andrew Bundy [Our Review]
“Greta”
An underrated film from one of the most underrated directors working today, Neil Jordan’s “Greta” sees the filmmaker return to the psychosexual preoccupations that defined his best work in “The Crying Game,” with a tinge of the fairy tale elements that he’s consistently explored in works such as “In The Company of Wolves” and “Ondine.” Starring a reserved Chloe Grace Moretz as Frances, a struggling waitress who still hasn’t gotten over the death of mother, the film immediately turns to the improbable, when upon finding a handbag on the subway (in NYC, no less), she seeks out its owner, coming upon Isabelle Huppert’s titular Greta, a lonely older woman whose motherly charms are just what Frances is looking for. Even before the expected stalking, poisoning, and kidnapping, “Greta” announces itself as ridiculous as Frances finds multiple identical handbags within the first few minutes of meeting Greta, only to return to her again. In all, “Greta” is pretty trashy stuff elevated because Jordan leans into the genre elements. Is it absurd? Of course. Yet critics too quickly piled onto the film for its implausibility, but for Jordan, that’s kind of the point. “Greta” is a twisted fairy tale, featuring an atypically crazy performance by one the best actresses working today. Come for Huppert’s scene-chewing performance and stay for Jordan’s kitschy take of Little Red Riding Hood. – Christian Gallachio [Our Review]
Honorable Mentions
It’s technically not a theatrically released movie, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention HBO’s” Deadwood: The Movie,” written by David Milch and directed by Daniel Minahan, known for directing key episodes of “Game of Thrones,” “The Newsroom” and well, “Deadwood” of course. We called it one of the most immensely satisfying endings to a TV series ever, and that’s definitely worth a shoutout. You should catch up with the finale on HBO if you haven’t already.
What else? Joe Cornish’s “The Kid Who Would Be King” is terrific and Zhang Yimou’s “The Shadow” is an excellent return to form. Other writers were in the tank for the stellar documentary “The Biggest Little Farm” and the long-delayed Sydney Pollack concert documentary about Aretha Franklin, titled, “Amazing Grace;” Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows” with Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, which premiered at Cannes 2018; Mike Leigh’s “Peterloo,” the shaggy, charming Netflix comedy “Paddleton,” Nicolas Pesce’s horror comedy “Piercing” and the riveting Netflix Fyre Festival documentary “Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened.”
Finally, don’t forget our The Best Films Of 2019 We’ve Already Seen feature. Of course, that was written in January 2019 and was based on all the festival movies we already saw in 2018 that we knew were coming out this year. And granted, it doesn’t play by the U.S. theatrical release dates of this feature, but it is another good primer of things that a) already came out in 2019 that are very good and or b) movies that debuted at festivals last year, are terrific and are set to appear later this year. A few of those worth a shout out and coming soon are Peter Strickland’s “In Fabric,” Jennifer Kent’s “The Babadook” follow-up, “The Nightingale,” Rick Alverson’s “The Mountain,” “The Breaker Upperers,” Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Maya,” Richard Billingham’s “Ray & Liz,” many more.
Films that have actually been released already that are on that list that we recommend include Werner Herzog’s “Meeting Gorbachev,” Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt’s “Diamantino,” Marcelo Martinessi’s
“The Heiress,” and more. There’s tons of good stuff in theaters, on DVD/Blu-Ray and or on VOD/Digital to rent so hopefully this is a solid guide of what to catch up with this year, if you missed them in theaters earlier. Bonne chance.
