• WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
(2009): Here’s a film that’s as innocent as it’s not. Spike Jonze’s latest offering might have been an exhilarating kick-start for Max Records, but it still surprised me with the amount of impact it could pack into a picture-book. Neither instructions to the brat, nor guidelines for the ones who manage him, ‘Where the wild things are’ balances an unbelievable level of innocence in a hefty lot of subject matter in a package that’s water-tight secure. Also commendable is the lush soundtrack by American musician Karen O.
(2009): Here’s a film that’s as innocent as it’s not. Spike Jonze’s latest offering might have been an exhilarating kick-start for Max Records, but it still surprised me with the amount of impact it could pack into a picture-book. Neither instructions to the brat, nor guidelines for the ones who manage him, ‘Where the wild things are’ balances an unbelievable level of innocence in a hefty lot of subject matter in a package that’s water-tight secure. Also commendable is the lush soundtrack by American musician Karen O.
• THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE
(2009): If this film is feminist, then it would be my second inclusion to the list, for which I wouldn’t apologize. Sasha Grey takes acting to levels it hasn’t seen before by the merest act of bringing it down to what she is and nothing more, and director Steven Soderbergh nails his position in the integrity of American cinema. In what could be branded as the most faithful American allusion of the decade, ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ takes one through what’s inarguably the most mysterious dimension on the face of the earth: the mind of a woman. And what a woman, that too!
(2009): If this film is feminist, then it would be my second inclusion to the list, for which I wouldn’t apologize. Sasha Grey takes acting to levels it hasn’t seen before by the merest act of bringing it down to what she is and nothing more, and director Steven Soderbergh nails his position in the integrity of American cinema. In what could be branded as the most faithful American allusion of the decade, ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ takes one through what’s inarguably the most mysterious dimension on the face of the earth: the mind of a woman. And what a woman, that too!
• GOODBYE SOLO
(2009): Inter-ethnic complexities being his recurring theme, Ramin Bahrani (‘Man Push Cart
’, ‘Chop Shop
’) lives up to his name of being hailed as ‘THE American director of the decade’ by Roger Ebert. Inconsequential as it might seem (as it is written out to be) in this version called ‘Goodbye Solo’, Bahrani serves to extrapolate the possibilities of human behaviour to a new high solely by sticking to the basics: Keeping it real. A masterful life that’s lived on screen, requiring nothing more than photography, ‘Goodbye Solo’ helps induce that kind of a numbness that you’d attribute to perfect sense. And that’s exactly what it is.
(2009): Inter-ethnic complexities being his recurring theme, Ramin Bahrani (‘Man Push Cart’, ‘Chop Shop’) lives up to his name of being hailed as ‘THE American director of the decade’ by Roger Ebert. Inconsequential as it might seem (as it is written out to be) in this version called ‘Goodbye Solo’, Bahrani serves to extrapolate the possibilities of human behaviour to a new high solely by sticking to the basics: Keeping it real. A masterful life that’s lived on screen, requiring nothing more than photography, ‘Goodbye Solo’ helps induce that kind of a numbness that you’d attribute to perfect sense. And that’s exactly what it is.
• HALF NELSON
(2005): This undoubtedly is me saving the best for last, and I don’t want misconceptions about it. Affecting as it’s real, heavy as it’s built to be and powered by utterances that are no less relevant than they are impacting, Ryan Fleck bundles the reality of a thousand yearning minds into an epic film venture that served to hold me closer, every time I watched it. ‘Half Nelson’ is a film which I’d brand to be my life, and I’m glad that it happened in the decade where it exactly mattered to me. Special Mention to Ryan Gosling for having added flesh to this blueprint of Dan Dunne, an acting capability that’s more channelized than forced. Unforgettable, to say the least.
(2005): This undoubtedly is me saving the best for last, and I don’t want misconceptions about it. Affecting as it’s real, heavy as it’s built to be and powered by utterances that are no less relevant than they are impacting, Ryan Fleck bundles the reality of a thousand yearning minds into an epic film venture that served to hold me closer, every time I watched it. ‘Half Nelson’ is a film which I’d brand to be my life, and I’m glad that it happened in the decade where it exactly mattered to me. Special Mention to Ryan Gosling for having added flesh to this blueprint of Dan Dunne, an acting capability that’s more channelized than forced. Unforgettable, to say the least.
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