I was thinking post-2010 as opposed to the best film of the millennium. Then again, with any kind of list, it usually involves splitting hairs and really comes down to personal preferences so I wouldn’t be able argue confidently that Malick’s film was superior to Anderson’s.
@ Titoli: Interstellar didn’t gain traction with the Academy partly due to Gravity winning last year; they weren’t going to shower major awards on another sci-fi film. Similarly, Selma was affected by the fact that 12 Years a Slave Year won last year: the voters want some sort of variety. It’s not got much to do with quality I know, but then the Oscars are as much about making a political statement about American cinema than rewarding “excellence”.
No Idea what was the best film of the decade so far, probably Gravity (The Tree of Life was a dissapointment for me)
About TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE I said this:
[i]12 YEARS A SLAVE
Everybody’s positive about it (according to Rotten Tomatoes 96% of the critics gave it a positive review) and I won’t say too many bad things about it either. The movie’s compelling and - with a running time of 2h15m - over before you know it. But once it is over, you start wondering if it actually was the movie that was so impressive, or rather the subject matter: it’s very difficult not to be impressed by a movie that shows, in a devastating, visceral way, the horrors of slavery. At the same time a realistic depiction of slavery can hardly be anything other than devastating, etc.
The movie is rather conventional, and the storyline contains no real surprises (the title gives a few things away actually), it even felt predictable on a couple of occasions. To give his movie a modern, artistic look in spite of all this, director Steve McQueen (what’s in a name) occasionally opts for odd angles and compositions, plus a sharp, edgy style of editing. It works, but it also feels a little artificial. Another problem is that you never have the idea of 12 years passing. The film is over before you know it, but so is this slave’s ordeal, and I don’t think that was the intention.
So in the end a good movie with quite a few shortcomings.
@ Sherp:
I agree with some of your points about 12 Years a Slave. You’re right, the lack of time changing throughout the film feels odd and disconcerting; the powerful depictions of brutality are undercut by it. Worse I felt, was Chiwetel Ejiofor’s character that was actually the film’s weak point. John Ridley based his screenplay on a real story, but Solomon Northup seems anonymous. He’s well educated, can write, play the violin - different from the other plantation slaves. And yet apart from the scene at the beginning when he tries to write, he could be anybody else; it didn’t even need to be based on one specific account because Ridley and McQueen universalised their subject. Despite Ejiofor’s sterling performance, there’s very little to his character and it unbalances the picture unfairly towards Michael Fassbender. McQueen;s direction though, is so strong that it almost makes up for it. I need to re-watch Gravity to judge which is the better film.
I saw Gravity, I was thrilled by Gravity, I bought Gravity. Having watched the blu-ray a couple of times since however - the last as recently as the weekend just gone - I don’t think it holds up to repeat viewings. When the tension is stripped away by familiarity with the material, all that’s left is the dialogue. When it’s realistic, it’s dry; when it’s dramatic, it’s alarmingly hokey. George Clooney - an actor I like for the most part - has never been more punchable, I think.
As to whether it’s better than 12 Years a Slave I’ve no idea, having never seen it and having no real interest in ever seeing it.
That’s why I haven’t returned yet; I worry that Gravity, like a lot of modern mainstream films, will have little re-play value, that there is no greater depth and what you see is what you get. On the other hand, both 12 Years a Slave and Birdman, which aren’t solely narrative-orientated, will still work on repeat viewings. And yet I value (if not always agree with) Herr Stanton’s views, so a return will surely happen…
