Thoughts about film

Alright, its been a while since I posted. And I don't think I can blog with the consistency of Andrew Sullivan. There's been some pretty nifty (read: infuriating) developments on the political scene. But let's put politics to a rest for now.

I want to write about movies. I suppose I do enough. Movies are part of my life. The experience of watching a great movie is downright creepy. We hear the phrase "out-of-body experience" mentioned often to describe fine filmmaking. I hate using cliches. But this one makes some sense. Truly great movies come around pretty rarely -- there's usually about one every year. That doesn't mean we should only see the truly great movies, because others are interesting, insightful, fun or provocative in their own ways. But knowing the truly greats when we see them is vital for film enthusiasts.

This year the movie was "United 93," a movie as hard to write about as it is to talk about. See it. Rent it now. Don't whine that it's "too soon" or in bad taste if haven't seen it yet. Hijacking planes and flying them into buildings was in worse taste, at any rate. Making an immediately eloquent, graceful and raw film about 9-11 doesn't qualify, I don't think.

Going back through the past five years, the lightning bolts of American celluloid (incidentally) have been "Match Point," "Sideways," "Lost in Translation," "Minority Report," "25th Hour," and "Mulholland Drive." (It's important to say American because, after all, we shouldn't go to "Hero" and "The Sea Inside" and assume we're being exposed to a reasonable share of foreign cinema.) I'm also prepared to defend "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" as deserving a spot on that list. Seriously.

There are "great films," and then there are, simply, great films. This year's "Babel" was a "great film," as I duly noted. It was better than "Crash," which had similar style. But it wasn't transcendent. It was great in the way sophisticated literature is great -- you're constantly aware of its genius, but you never forget that it's pages you're turning. I could still hear the projector in the background as I watched "Babel."

But the inspiration for this post was Owen Gleiberman's list in Entertainment Weekly of the top ten films of the year. Owen Gleiberman ranks with America's best film critics. His top ten really are his top ten. There's no pressue to spice things up. And yet here is Owen Gleiberman calling "Casino Royale" the best film of the year. With "The Good Shepherd" and "Cars" not far behind, at that. For my money, "Casino Royale" really was the best Bond since "Goldfinger," and "The Good Shepherd" indeed something darker and cleverer than many have noted. I like this Top Ten. It doesn't match what mine is shaping up as, and "Infamous" has no place there. But Gleiberman knows what criticism should intend and he knows what movies are about.