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The Best Movies of 2013, #9: Inside Llewyn Davis

December 9, 2014March 4, 2021 Jeremy BeckReviews, Top 10 Lists

Not much happens in Inside Llewyn Davis, the sixteenth—and arguably most soulful—feature from the inimitable Joel and Ethan Coen. Its narrative is elliptical, to the point that it ends literally where it began. It chronicles a week in the life of a New York folk singer (Oscar Isaac, extraordinary) who shuffles from one indignity to the next; he crashes at various houses (“Got a couch?”), scrounges for any gig he can find, and huddles to keep warm, lacking a winter coat to protect him from the city’s bitter chill. It systematically deconstructs its title character, establishing his talent and promise before methodically breaking him down through a series of humbling, escalating defeats. Not much happens, and yet for Llewyn, so much does.

This may sound like a curious endorsement, especially if you insist on triumph and happy endings from your movies. Yet while Inside Llewyn Davis is piercingly sad, it is by no means miserable. For one, it’s funny. The Coens have always had a keen eye for offbeat humor (remember Nicolas Cage’s nightmarish vision of Tex Cobb in Raising Arizona?), and they regularly sprinkle Llewyn’s misadventures with bizarre, playful moments—an addled agent’s familiar patter with his longtime secretary, a cantankerous musician’s (John Goodman) incessant grumblings, a very persistent cat—that add minute, flavorful detail to his world. The movie is also a proud celebration of American music. Working again with T Bone Burnett, the legendary producer who turned the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack into a phenomenon, the Coens have assembled a diverse anthology of scraggly folk anthems, from the clipped, wistful “Shoals of Herring” to the gentle, elegiac “Fare Thee Well” (both performed by Isaac with aching tenderness). They’ve also created the boisterous original piece “Please Mr. Kennedy”, a toe-tapping jaunt in which Isaac, Justin Timberlake (pleasant), and Adam Driver (hysterical) collaborate to deliver two of the most jubilant minutes of cinematic music-making you’ll ever see. Read More

The Best Movies of 2013, #10: Stoker

December 8, 2014March 4, 2021 Jeremy BeckReviews, Top 10 Lists

[Note: The Manifesto has reviewed 89 different 2013 releases up to this point. Some were bad, some were good; some reached for greatness and failed, others didn’t reach at all. In short, it was another year at the movies. To that end, this review constitutes the beginning of our countdown of the year’s 10 best.]

On its face, Stoker, the first English-language effort from the Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, is vulgar to the point of childishness. Its plot traffics in incest and murder. Its central characters are a lecherous uncle, an unhinged mother, and a depraved daughter. It is, without doubt, lurid, tawdry, and obscene. Yet it is also—at least for viewers who admire bold and authoritative filmmaking—provocative, debonair, and sexy. It is pulp entertainment dressed up as high art. Or perhaps it’s the other way around. Either way, it’s spellbinding. Read More

The Best Movies of 2012 (Part II)

December 17, 2013March 18, 2024 Jeremy BeckTop 10 Lists

In case you missed it, you can find Part I of the Manifesto’s countdown of the 16 best movies of 2012 here. And now, the final octet.

8. Silver Linings Playbook. Until he made The Fighter, David O. Russell was pretty much the last director I could have imagined helming a pure crowd-pleaser. But while that boxing flick was a sturdy enough piece of genre execution elevated by a tremendous performance from Christian Bale, it nevertheless represented a step backward for Russell, sacrificing the angularity and unpredictability of his earlier work in favor of stock characters and easy sentiment. Silver Linings Playbook doesn’t shy away from uplift—it’s arguably the most thrillingly happy movie of 2012—but it derives its emotional impact through a delightfully haphazard mix of screwball comedy and disturbing family drama, as well as a provocative examination of mental illness. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence make a pretty pair, but each suggests real sadness; Cooper’s constant gesticulation conveys the whirlwind of thoughts assaulting his fraying mind, while Lawrence’s flashing eyes and uptilted chin mask quiet vulnerability and heartache. This frenzy of feeling culminates in a landmark scene, which Russell stages with symphonic élan, in which Lawrence goes toe-to-toe with the legendary Robert De Niro (in his best form in years) and shifts her long-simmering passion into overdrive. On one level, it’s just a bunch of crazy Philadelphians rehashing the Eagles. On another, it’s a madcap marvel, a winning illustration of how movies can take pain and fury and desperation, mix them together, and turn them into joy.

The Best Movies of 2012 (Part I)

August 22, 2013March 18, 2024 Jeremy BeckTop 10 Lists

After the astonishing year at the movies that was 2011, it was perhaps inevitable that 2012 would regress to the mean somewhat. The result is that, whereas last year I felt compelled to extend my annual year-end list to include 25 different films, this year I’m limiting myself to 16. Whether this is because the quality of the cinematic output declined slightly or because the Manifesto has a bizarre preoccupation with perfect squares, it doesn’t matter. In the end, 2012 was a year like any other, one that featured plenty of good movies, just as many bad movies, and a handful of spectacular movies. In the Manifesto’s eyes, here are the 16 best:

Honorable mention: Cloud Atlas, Compliance, The Flowers of War, Michael, Miss Bala, The Secret World of Arrietty, Sleep Tight, Smashed, Take This Waltz, Your Sister’s Sister. Read More

The Best Movies of 2011 (Part III)

December 30, 2012March 18, 2024 Jeremy BeckTop 10 Lists

And finally, the Manifesto completes its countdown of the Top 25 Movies of 2011. If you missed the earlier installments, here’s Part I, and here’s Part II.

5. The Adjustment Bureau. The skeleton of The Adjustment Bureau – an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story about omnipotent beings with the power to shape the course of human history – hardly sounds like the blueprint for a stirring romance. Yet while George Nolfi’s movie engages on numerous levels – as crackerjack thriller, as soft-spoken political commentary, as metaphysical mind-bender – it works strongest as a pure love story. As a charismatic politician and his elusive soul mate, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt exhibit a rare chemistry that is both electric and soothing. Nolfi’s screenplay toys with a number of legitimately fascinating ideas, particularly the Promethean notion that humanity is destined to destroy itself absent divine intervention, but at its core, it’s about two people’s desperate efforts to be together, even as otherworldly forces conspire to keep them apart. To that end, the success of The Adjustment Bureau hinges entirely on its ability to illustrate that its two heroes were literally made for one another, and when we see Damon and Blunt on screen together – when we witness the ease of their laughs, the softness of their smiles, the longing in their eyes – there’s simply no doubt. Another entry in the canon of cinematic romance might suggest that their problems don’t amount to a hill of beans, but The Adjustment Bureau proffers a different theory: that in this dystopian universe of sinister angels and teleporting doors, love is the most powerful force in the world. Read More