For
the Clark’s 50th anniversary in 2005, I programmed a film series based on my choices for the “Top Directors Younger Than the Clark,” the careers
to watch, of “filmmakers for the 21st century, whose names will be
attached to some of the most thought-provoking, funny, and passionate movies
forthcoming.” As I survey the best
films of 2013, I had occasion to revisit that list, and how I arrived at my choices.
(As usual, I include links to Metacritic’s collective critical rating and Netflix availability for each film, and also its ranking in year-end critics polls from Film Comment and IndieWire.)
(As usual, I include links to Metacritic’s collective critical rating and Netflix availability for each film, and also its ranking in year-end critics polls from Film Comment and IndieWire.)
One
of my choices back then, Richard Linklater, produced my very favorite film of
2013, Before Midnight (MC-94, FC #3, IW #3, NFX), which I
already reviewed here. Another, Alfonso Cuaron, got the Best Director Oscar
for Gravity (MC-96, FC #7, IW #5, NFX), my review here.
Two
more of my predictive favorites, David O. Russell and Alexander Payne, were nominated for
Best Director and Best Picture.
Russell’s American Hustle (MC-90, FC #19, IW #15, NFX)
builds upon the successes of The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook,
taking Christian Bale and Amy Adams from one, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer
Lawrence from the other, but I’ll need a second look before I put it in the
class of its predecessors.
Payne’s
Nebraska (MC-86, FC #18, IW #17, NFX) represents a return
to home ground, and to form -- in stark, desolately beautiful black & white -- after the excursions to California wine country in Sideways and
to Hawaii in The Descendants, but his precisely observant and
deliciously dry wit still (con)descends a bit into slapstick and schmaltz. (He almost always goes wrong with the scene
where someone slugs somebody else.)
One
of the Coen brothers was born after 1955, so they snuck on to my list, until schedule was cut back from 12 to 10. Their latest, Inside Llewyn Davis
(MC-92, FC #1, IW #2, NFX) was a critical favorite that got no Oscar love. As for me, I liked it better than their
Oscar winner No Country for Old Men, but not as much as the subsequent A
Serious Man or even their surprising remake of True Grit. Like the movie itself, Oscar Isaac as
Llewyn was amazing while he was singing, and purposefully annoying the rest of
the time.
Of
my other 2005 choices, Cameron Crowe has not made a film that came up to my
earlier expectation, and neither has Atom Egoyan. Lukas Moodyson made Mammoth, a film with Michelle Williams
and Gael Garcia Bernal, which I rather liked, and has another well-received
film not yet released in the U.S.
Michael Winterbottom has continued to churn out diverse, inventive films
at an amazing rate, all of which I’m happy to see, but the high points have
been the three he’s made with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, Tristram Shandy:
A Cock & Bull Story, The Trip, and forthcoming, The Trip to Italy.
Of
my chosen women directors, Sofia Coppola has gone on to make Marie
Antoinette, which I heartily endorse; Somewhere, which left me cold;
and last year’s The Bling Ring, which I found better than could be
expected, given the subject. Gurinder Chadha has fallen off the map, but another young woman to watch has clearly
taken her place among my favorites, Sarah Polley.
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