• 3:10 TO YUMA & GONE BABY GONE (2007) – Is it time for Hollywood already? I think it’s better to credit those who are worth it, so here goes a couple from the ‘magic year’ again. First up it’s James Mangold’s reinterpretation of an alleged classic ‘3:10 to Yuma’ that has Russell Crowe and Christian Bale battle it out for a shot to further fame. But what makes the film unforgettable is how immense it was with what it had to say. Quiet, solid, yet firmly placed. Ben Affleck’s debut as director ‘Gone Baby Gone’ was no lesser in intensity, firing with the questions it raised in my mind when I was done with it (or was I?). Overall, these are two films that inspire a higher level of empathy that’s been made incredibly rare.
• BEFORE SUNSET (2004): Richard Linklater deserves this credit for what he weaved nine years previous to this one with his dream on screen that he called ‘Before Sunrise’. But of course, I would only allude ‘Before Sunset’ to an even higher level of impact, reinforced with stronger emotions (and by stronger, I mean more relevant), additional maturity and an increased sense of despair that makes it more equipped than its prequel. Power-packed in the battle of words.
• THE SON’S ROOM (2001): As he demonstrates in the ensemble tribute to the Cannes Film festival, Nanni Moretti prefers exactly what he does, interspersing serious content with believability that almost always involves a level of honesty that’s rare to find. He could have lost a son and I wouldn’t know, and this could exactly have been the scenario. I hope I’m understood when I say that this is an achievement in parallel cinema that has never been accomplished by directors from the middle-east, who make it a point to serve it as a cliché.
• SIDEWAYS (2004) & LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (2006): My entrants to the ‘comedy of the decade’ section, both films established relatable human tendencies by laughing at them: If it was infidelity in Alexander Payne’s ‘Sideways’, it’s underage overindulgence in ‘Little Miss Sunshine’, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. An additional similarity would be the road trips, ravishing with the scent of quality wine with the stench of human complexities and the simple knots that need untying in order to be free of the same. Winners, in their own ways.
• THE DREAMERS (2004): Not some close-run contest for ‘Best Erotic picture of the decade’ (with Alfonso Cuaron’s incredible ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’ and Giuseppe Tornatore’s lustful ‘Malena’ as top competitors), but as the right mix (to ODing proportions) of love, sex and ideology. A film equivalent to a tasteful meal that has the power to linger than to pass off as masturbatory, wrapped in the folds of a tribute to Cinema, ‘The Dreamers’ is a massive chunk off the uncontrollable Betrolucci that’s here to stay. One of pure pleasure.
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