Caring Is (Not) Creepy: On Matt McCormick's Some Days Are Better Than Others

SOME DAYS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS (Matt McCormick, US, 2010, 93 minutes) 

I get to sleep in my own bed at the end of the day. And my back doesn't hurt as much. -- Carrie Brownstein on the advantages of acting over touring 

Rather than the musical or comedy one might expect, based on the primary participants, director Matt McCormick's Some Days Are Better than Others revolves around loss and the things people leave behind. 

Before the IFC series Portlandia, with Carrie Brownstein, and the debut from Broken Bells, with James Mercer, Brownstein and Mercer starred in this, McCormick's first feature, which premiered at last year's SIFF. 

Since that time, Brownstein formed Wild Flag with three other women, including Sleater-Kinney's Janet Weiss, while Mercer continues to front the Shins. It's fair to say these two have been keeping busy, but who knew they could act--not counting the shorts they made with McCormick, which I haven't seen. They're rough around the edges, but I enjoyed spending time with Brownstein's Katrina, who works at a dog shelter, and Mercer's Eli, who works temp jobs and helps out Otis (David Wodehouse), his step-grandfather, who's making a film out of soap-bubble reflections. 

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** 

Click here for the trailer 

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** 

While Eli hangs out with Otis, Katrina works on art projects and makes audition tapes for a reality show. McCormick contrasts their stories with that of Camille, a middle-aged woman (Renée Roman Nose) who sorts through new arrivals at a thrift shop. She takes most items in stride until the day she uncovers a brass urn bearing the name of a child, and spends the rest of the film trying to find a home for it. Eli has a similar reaction when he helps to clear out a dead woman's house, which means rifling through her belongings--and answering to a self-centered creep. 

As for their love lives, Katrina's been seeing the same guy for five years, but their relationship comes to an end when she finds out he's met someone else (she logs into his email account). When Otis asks Eli why he isn't seeing anyone, he explains, "I have a bad habit of falling in love with lesbians," a reference to his attractive roommate, Chloe (Erin McGarry). 

I didn't buy the reality TV subplot, but found the rest of this low-key entry engaging. It's not that the audition process seemed unrealistic, but that Katrina never came across as the type to fall for it. At least she's not chasing fame or money, but rather the desire to express herself and prove to her ex-boyfriend that she's moved on. Or so she says. 

Though I expected Katrina and Eli to cross paths sooner, they don't meet until the end, at which point McCormick reveals the surprisingly mundane connection between them. Until that point, there was no obvious through-line, and Katrina never runs into Camille as Eli does (in an oblique way). 

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** 

Click the links for McCormick's videos for the Shins' "Australia" and "The Past & Pending" (unfortunately, embedding wasn't an option). 

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** 

Throughout, the filmmaker displays a refined eye. There's a studied symmetry to most scenes, which may strike some as cute or quirky, but I appreciated the attention to detail, especially in a low-budget production (which becomes clear in an early driving scene, where the looping is off). 

A minimalist organ score from Eluvium's Matthew Cooper adds to the feeling of Miranda July-like wistfulness, and compensates for the lack of any selections from Sleater-Kinney or the Shins. On the contrary, there's a sequence in which Eli, a karaoke enthusiast, limps through "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as if it were his first time at a mic. It's believably painful. 

Lately, I've been watching a lot of Portland-set films. If Some Days isn't as light on its feet as Aaron Katz's Cold Weather, which played the Northwest Film Forum last month, the city seems brighter and more welcoming here. Katz was going for a cold, clammy, noirish look, and he succeeded. The Portland in McCormick's movie recalls the one that anchored 2007's Paranoid Park, so it only makes sense when Gabe Nevins, who played the lead in that picture, shows up for a cameo here (as a grocery store clerk), alongside Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker (as a customer at the store). 

Pitchfork confirms the link between these projects: "Neil Kopp and David Cress, the producers of Some Days Are Better than Others, also produced Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park and Kelly Reichardt's Will Oldham-starring Old Joy" (in which McCormick played "weed dealer"). 

All that said, it’s hard to predict how fans of Brownstein and Mercer will react to this film, since it doesn't capitalize on their mu- sic/musical personas, yet they represent the biggest names associated with it. I hope they like it better than Slant's Simon Abrams, who dismissed it as "the kind of American independent quirk-fest that needs to be quarantined and examined." 

The debt to You and Me and Everyone We Know may be too clear at times, intentionally or otherwise--Brownstein has also worked with July--but McCormick flirts with indie rom-com tropes, only to abandon them along the way, which seems fitting in a film about abandonment. 

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** 

Some Days Are Better than Others plays the Northwest Film Forum from 4/15-21 at 7 and 9pm. Matt McCormick will be in attendance on opening night, along with Renée Roman Nose. The NWFF is located at 1515 12th Ave. between Pike and Pine. For more information, please click here. The title, incidentally, comes from a song by Seattle's Carissa's Wierd. According to Urban Honking, source for the image at top, "McCormick was heavily inspired by their music in the creation of this film."

Goodbye to All That: The Time That Remains

THE TIME THAT RE- MAINS: Chronicle of a Present Absentee (Elia Suleiman, 2009, 35mm, 105 mins) 

In his films, Arab-Israeli director Elia Suleiman (Chronicle of a Disappearance, Divine Intervention) blurs the lines between fact and fantasy. It's part of what makes his work so compelling, despite the fact that all three, which constitute a trilogy, focus on the conflict in the Middle East (and if he hailed from Belfast, I don't see how he could avoid the Troubles). 

Where other filmmakers see doom and gloom, he sees irony and absurdity, which doesn't mean he wears rose-colored glasses. His films may be funny, but they're hardly conventional comedies, not when he takes his cues from stern-faced fellows like Franz Kafka and Buster Keaton. Characters rarely smile, but that just makes their predicaments all the more comical. His most straightforward film yet, The Time That Remains, returns to his roots with four chapters about his family. He begins with Nazareth's surrender to Israel in 1948 (his grandfather, the mayor, does the honors).

   

After the Israeli Army imposes a curfew, his father, Fuad (Saleh Bakri, the unbelievably good looking Egyptian musician from The Band's Visit), a gun maker, must stay inside in order to avoid getting shot. When he and a cousin step outside to help a fallen comrade, the army captures him, binds his hands, ties a blindfold around his head, and attempts to coerce information from him about the local weapons supply (they let the cousin go). When he refuses to talk, they beat him up, and leave him for dead. Fuad lives to fight another day--and then some. 

Suleiman next catches up with him in 1970, after he has gained a wife, a son, and streaks of grey in his wavy hair. At one point, Elia's mother (played first by Samar Tanus and then later by Shafika Bajjali) writes a letter to her sister-in-law, quoting a teacher who said her boy is "always in the clouds." Meanwhile, their salty old neighbor is constantly threatening to light himself on fire. "Shit on this life!" he exclaims during his latest attempt. 

Other things remain the same: Fuad still smokes, fishes at night, manufactures weapons, and risks his life for the injured. Because he continues as a gun maker, the authorities hassle him from time to time. And because he continues to smoke, he develops a cardiac condition, which leads to open-heart surgery and further complications. By 1980, the authorities have transferred their attentions to Elia, a smoker and free thinker like his father, who flees the country to save his skin.

In the final chapter, the filmmaker plays himself, as he's done twice before. Suleiman isn't the most expressive actor, but he doesn't direct anyone else to emote in the traditional manner either (he looks like a Gallic Robert Downey Jr. with small-scale Susan Sontag hair). There are no weddings, births, deaths, or funerals. Characters simply appear and disappear. If this Israeli-Italian co-production starts in neo-realist mode, though, it becomes lighter, looser, and more elliptical as it goes on (the fourth chapter even features music cues from Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone ). 

Like Sweden's Roy Andersson (Songs from the Second Floor), Suleiman embraces the static tableaux. Throughout, he arranges characters perfectly within the frame, though he moves the camera more often, and no one shows up in whiteface (an Andersson trait which renders everyone ghost-like). Even without the grease paint, though, sad-eyed Elia seems like a ghost in his own home: life in Nazareth has gone on without him. 

I wasn't able to follow all of the political developments in The Time That Remains, which Suleiman conveys through radio and TV reports. The situation is complex, and he doesn't look strictly at Israel and Palestine, but also Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan. What happens in the Middle East affects Elia's family, both directly and indirectly, making for a film filled with more sadness than anger: at lives lost to the passage of time and to the transfer of land. And yet, the song that plays over the end credits, an Arab take on a 1970s disco hit, sums up these affairs in the most humorous way possible. 

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** 

Suleiman's film isn't the only one this year to explore life as an Arab-Israeli. Click here for A.O. Scott's review of Julian Schnabel's Miral, which opens at Seattle's Varsity Theater on 4/8. The Time That Remains, which opened on Fri., 4/1, continues at the Northwest Film Forum through 4/7 at 7 and 9pm (no 7pm show on 4/7). The NWFF is located at 1515 12th Ave. between Pike and Pine on Capitol Hill. For more information, please click here. Images from indieWIRE.

Sherlock Holmes Is a Pimp: Cold Weather

COLD WEATHER (Aaron Katz, US, HD, 2010, 96 mins.)

"Sherlock Holmes is a pimp."--Carlos (Raúl Castillo) to Doug (Cris Lankenau) 

A forensic science student stumbles into a mystery in writer/director Aaron Katz's third and most accomplished feature. It begins after Doug (Quiet City's Cris Lankenau) moves back to Portland from Chicago to room with his sister, Gail (United 93's Trieste Kelly Dunn). Until he finds a job, he comes and goes as he pleases, but she follows a more set schedule. 

In the opening sequence, though, Doug does convince her to leave early one day for a trip to atmospheric Cannon Beach. This sets the scene for their relationship, as well as the entire film. By the end, these virtual strangers will have reestablished old family ties. Not long afterward, Doug finds work at an ice factory, telling the manager that he's undecided about finishing his degree. He works nights with Carlos (Raúl Castillo, a sparky presence), a part-time disc jockey. When Carlos asks about his area of expertise, Doug explains, "I don't really want to be a CSI-type detective. I want to be more like Sherlock Holmes." He proceeds to turn Carlos on to the Sir Conan Doyle series.

Then, Doug's ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Robyn Rikoon), who says she's been working in a Chicago law office, drops by for a visit while in town for training. At their first meeting, she seems a little out of sorts, but the four go on to form a comfortable social unit. Along the way, Carlos invites Rachel to join him for a Star Trek Convention, since she's the only one who expresses any interest--suffice to say, he's a man of surprises--but when he subsequently invites her to check out one of his DJ nights, she never shows. 

At first, Doug doubts that anything is amiss, even though Rachel left her motel lights on and stopped answering the phone, but Carlos convinces him otherwise. Previously, he had laughed at the Holmes-Watson dynamic--"Elementary, my dear Watson," he sniffed--yet he comes to fulfill that function once Doug gets on board, which makes Gail a Hermione to their Harry-Ron combo, if you'll pardon the Harry Potter reference. 

The trio starts by retracing Rachel's steps: examining her room and following up on the clues she left behind, like a phone number and a porn site handbill. Whereas a different filmmaker might turn to darker lighting or heavier music, Katz takes the opposite tack: the tone becomes brighter and looser as the amateur investigation kicks into high gear (he receives a helpful assist from the inventive Keegan DeWitt, his regular composer). Doug even picks up a certain Holmes affectation to get himself in the optimum frame of mind (not the deerstalker cap, fortunately). 

Unlike the BBC's recent Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch as a contemporary version of Doyle's detective--to Martin Freeman's Watson--Cold Weather doesn't draw from the same source, but Katz never shies away from the inspiration. Despite the use of cell phones and computers, Doug's approach is essentially low-tech, which is to say, anti-CSI. Instead, he relies on library research, stake-outs, and disguises. 

As in Dance Party, USA and Quiet City, Katz, by way of DP Andrew Reed, chooses his compositions with care. They don't feel studied, but they always look just right, which is important, since he favors static shots, an unhurried pace, and naturalistic performances. Like the Chris Doyle-shot Paranoid Park, Portland comes alive as wet, green, and mysterious. 

Because Katz tends to works with inexperienced or non-actors, there isn't a lot of technique on display, but the characters register as believable. That said, if you're expecting a big reveal or a fast-paced wrap-up, you may leave disappointed. Though the ending took me by surprise--I was expecting an epilogue--it makes perfect sense when you think about it: Doug proves himself the detective he was always meant to be.  

Cold Weather plays the Northwest Film Forum March 11-17 at 7 and 9:15pm. The NWFF is located at 1515 12th Ave. between Pike and Pine on Capitol Hill. For more in- formation, please click here. Image from IONCINEMA/IFC.

Related articles

• Movie Review | 'Cold Weather': Between the Lines of Daily Living, Connecting the Dots That Matter (movies.nytimes.com)
• 'Cold Weather': an offbeat detective story is in the forecast (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

She's Lost Control: The Woodmans

THE WOODMANS (C. Scott Willis, USA, 2010, Digi- Beta, 82 mins) 

If Francesca Woodman hadn't killed herself, it's doubtful that C. Scott Willis's provocative film would exist. There are, after all, other talented 22-year-old photographers who haven't merited their own documentaries. Similarly, photographer-turned-filmmaker Anton Corbijn's Control probably wouldn't exist if Ian Curtis hadn't hung himself, and yet Joy Division was an undeniably influential band whose legacy has long outlived its lead singer.

On the contrary, I hadn't heard of Francesca until I read about The Woodmans in The New York Times. From Stephen Holden's review, I also learned about her parents, George and Betty Woodman, who have been married for over 50 years. The film wouldn't exist without them either, since Willis has produced a group portrait (as if the title didn't give that away).

 

The story begins in Boulder, where George taught at the University of Colorado (as a child, I lived in UC campus housing for a semester while my stepfather was getting his law degree). Tellingly, he describes children Francesca and Charlie, a video artist, as "these sort of gift calamities." 

 

George and Betty continued to produce art while their kids were growing up, and earned enough to buy a home in Italy, where Francesca started sketching. If she inherited their interest in art, her parents worry that they spent more time creating than parenting. Says Charlie about his mother, who was raised in a Jewish family, "She doesn't really practice a religion. Art was sort of the religion for her." George says his daughter picked up photography in boarding school (Phillips Exeter Academy, according to her ID card) and studied the subject at the Rhode Island School of Design. 

By 1979, all three artists were living and working in New York. Willis weaves Francesca's photographs and video pieces throughout the narrative. In most, she appears nude, indicating a certain comfort with her own sexuality and Pre-Raphaelite appearance. In light of her suicide, however, which looms unavoidably, there may have been more to it than that (other female and male subjects appear without clothes). 

 

Also, in some images, like the one at the top of this entry, she looks like a blur or a ghost. If she were still alive, that might not seem quite so eerie, but that's what happens when someone takes their own life: every move can look like a rehearsal for death. 

To add perspective, Willis interviews classmates, as well as neighbor Patricia Sawin, who found Francesca's photos "a little scary," and friend Edwin Frank (editor, New York Review of Books), who acknowledges a crush. In addition, Willis adds words (via on-screen text) from her journal to bring Francesca's voice into play. That she kept one at all invites speculation as to whether she knew it would one day become public. 

 

An unabashed fan, George says Francesca's work made his look "stupid," but who's to say that it wasn't also morbid and self-indulgent? I find it intriguing, but it makes me feel like a voyeur. And her parents admit that her "tragic story" adds to the allure. 

 

Until she moved to New York, though, Francesca's story wasn't really tragic. Unfortunately, she expected instant success. The problem isn't that she over-estimated her worth, but that her expectations weren't realistic. And that's the point at which things fell apart, despite encouragement from friends, relatives, and colleagues. 

 

If I sound cynical, it's because I believe Francesca was an artist in the truest sense, with all the single-mindedness and arrogance that implies. Everyone thought she was special--herself above all. Even her father uses the term "self-preoccupation." Granted, she wasn't the first photographer to make herself her primary subject, but you could hardly compare her to Cindy Sherman, who seems like an actress in comparison, since she takes on a different persona for most every print. 

Francesa Woodman died believing she was unique, and she was. Her beautiful, fascinating, intriguing work will live on, and she'll loom larger in history than her parents, despite their enduring devotion to their respective crafts. It doesn't seem fair. But I also prefer her work to theirs.   

The Woodmans concludes tonight, Mar 3, at Northwest Film Forum. The NWFF is located at 1515 12th Ave between Pike and Pine. For more information, please click here. Images from Kino Lorber.

Related articles

• 'The Woodmans': a documentary about art, risk and profound loss (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Film: Movie Review: The Woodmans (avclub.com)
• The Long Exposure of Francesca Woodman (nybooks.com)

The Somewhere of Gregg Araki's Kaboom

KABOOM
(Gregg Araki,
US, 2010, 35-
mm, 86 mins.)


"I don't really believe in standardized sexual pigeonholes."
--Smith (Thomas Dekker)

From the opening sequence alone, it's clear that Gregg Araki is back on familiar turf. This is good news for fans of The Doom Generation, Totally Fucked Up, and Nowhere, his teen apocalypse trilogy, but bad news for those expecting another Mysterious Skin. Time will tell if he'll ever make
a movie that gritty again (he followed it up with the loopy Smiley Face).

He introduces his latest lead, Smith (The Sarah Connor Chronicles' Thomas
Dekker, likably low-key), a "perpetually horny" film student at an unnam-
ed So-Cal college, as he's talking about his dreams. In one blue-tinged ep-
isode, he makes love with his roommate, when in reality Thor (Chris Zyl-
ka, believably stupid), a surfer who sleeps in the raw, prefers women.

Like many Araki protagonists, Smith swings both ways. When he isn't dreaming about the "excruciatingly hot" Thor, he's kvetching about him to his best friend, Stella (Haley Bennett, whose blasé act gets old fast). 

The combination of these three lookers--there will be others--also reinforces Araki's abiding interest in triangles of lust. While Stella majors in art, Thor's grand goal is to suck his own dick (hey, it pays to have ambition!).

The apocalypse enters the picture via the Messiah (Araki vet James Duval), Smith's RA, who claims that the end of the world is nigh (and
dresses like Adam Brody's pot dealer in Smiley Face). Then Smith starts to run into people from his dreams, like the spacey-eyed Madeleine (Nicole LaLiberte), who appears to meet her maker at the hands of men in animal masks, and Lorelei (Fat Girl's Roxane Mesquida), a lesbian witch who has the hots for Stella (and recalls The Doom Generation's Rose McGowan).

Smith has a fling of his own with London (director Julien Temple's cute, uninhibited, fuzzy-haired daughter, Juno, who previously appeared in Atonement), a British chick with a thing for gay boys. He makes plans with a few gents, too, including a bashful fellow who tracks him down through Explosions in the Sky's Facebook page--a nice touch on Araki's part.

If Mysterious Skin took place in the real world--Scott Heim's life inspired the 1995 novel which fueled Araki's excellent adaptation--Kaboom inhabits a more stylized realm. Characters may experience real feelings, but they don't talk like real people. Instead the slang-intensive dialogue comes on like an R-rated version of Buffy or The Gilmore Girls.

In the end, it plays like a paranormal teen romance with all the boobs, blood, and blue language that those books and the attendant movies and television shows tend to leave out. I could do without a few of the ick-making scenes--Smith has a habit of walking into puking girls and onto dog shit--but this is definitely one of Araki's more accomplished efforts. If you enjoyed the teen-apocalypse films, do not pass go.

If not, you may want to take a pass, though it's hard not to admire the way he brings all the disparate story strands together at the end with a take-down of phenomena that fully deserves to be taken down: Scientology, doomsday cults, homophobes, and pseudo-Christian sci-fi twaddle about Chosen Ones. I particularly enjoyed the New Order and Joy Division allusions--after all, post-punk has always been as much a part of Araki World as the lovingly shot bisexual three-way.

Kaboom plays the Northwest Film Forum from Feb 25 - Mar 3 at 7 and 9pm. The NWFF is located at 1515 12th Ave between Pike and Pine on Capitol Hill. For more information, please click here. Images from the IFC.

 

Related articles

• 'Kaboom': A polymorphous sex comedy/murder mystery/sci-fi freakout (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Movie Review | 'Kaboom': End of the World? Maybe. First, Sex. (movies.nytimes.com)

Kind of Blue: Damien Chazelle's Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench

GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH (Damien Cha- zelle, US, 2009, Digibeta, 82 mins.) 

"No movie I've seen this year has given me more joy."-- J. Hoberman, The Village Voice 

During the short film-like opening credits to Damien Chazelle's jazz mu- sical, Guy (musician Jason Palmer) and Madeline (film professor Desiree Garcia) appear to break up. As the credits end, Madeline sits alone on a park bench, but Chazelle's film actually begins some time after that. The 25-year-old Harvard graduate shot his debut in 16mm B&W and es- chews expository dialogue, so I didn't realize at first that the story unfolds primarily in Boston--it looks nothing like the city in The Town--but it's clear that Madeline sings and that Guy plays the trumpet (Filmmaker Maga- zine coined the term "mumblemusical," which isn't too far off the mark).

Related articles

• Movie Review | 'Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench': The Blissed-Out Rhythms of the Young and in Love (movies.nytimes.com)
• 'Guy and Madeline': A muted, musical experiment (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Films opening Friday include 'Blue Valentine' and 'Somewhere' (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Springing organically from the slender narrative, the music sequences occur in clubs, public squares, and restaurants. In one bit, the wait staff joins Madeline in a tap routine (there's also tapping at a house party). Chazelle captures the duo as they lead their separate, but parallel liv- es: goofing around with friends, fending off street vendors, and getting hit on by sad strangers. A recent MFA graduate, Madeline rents a room, gets a job, and dates an older man (played by the director's father, Bernard), while Guy hangs out with his girlfriend, Elena (Sandha Khin). Though the characters run in the same circles, they keep missing each other.  Chazelle is patient and attentive. When he isn't filming Guy and Made- line from the back, he's moving in for close-ups. Consequently, I was bored for the first half-hour, but the scenario grows more absorbing on- ce the protagonists register as distinct individuals. It doesn't hurt that they're so interesting-looking: Guy has delicate features (he appears to be of Caribbean descent), while Madeline has full lips and a gap be- tween her teeth (features that have done Béatrice Dalle no harm). So, they don't re-connect until the end, except Chazelle doesn't indicate whether they're getting together to say one last goodbye or starting all over again. Instead of a duet, then, the film consists of a series of solos. Though I was initially skeptical of the Godard and Cassavetes compari- sons, it does recall Band of Outsiders and Shadows at times, especially when Madeline dances around the diner. By the conclusion, the movie had won me over. Most impressive: the classic-sounding original songs. Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench continues at the Northwest Film Forum through 1/13 at 7 and 9pm. The NWFF is located at 1515 12th Ave. between Pike and Pine on Capitol Hill. For more infor- mation, please click here. Im- ages from Variance Films.

Movies for Music Lovers: 2010 Edition

Click here for the 2009 edition

Some of these films premier- ed in the US in 2009, but didn't make their way to Seattle until 2010, in which case I deferred to local release dates. Some missed the city altogether, in which case I caught up via DVD. Altogether, I saw around 250 films, and wrote about most of them for Amazon, Siffblog, and Video Librarian.

The Tops 1. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)

2. The White Ribbon / Das Weisse Band (Michael Haneke)

3. The Social Network (David Fincher) 

4. A Prophet / Un Prophète (Jacques Audiard)  

5. Animal Kingdom (David Michôd)   

6. Carlos (Olivier Assayas)

7. The King's Speech (Tom Hooper)  

8. Greenberg (Noah Baumbach)

9. Daddy Longlegs (Josh and Ben Safdie)

10. The Red Riding Trilogy (Julian Jarrold, James Marsh, Anand Tucker)

Note: If I had gotten the chance to see Fish Tank and The White Ribbon in '09, The Social Network would top this list. Last year's #1: The Hurt Locker.

Runners-up:  

11. The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko)  

12. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)  

13. The Fighter (David O. Russell)  

14. Sweetgrass (Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor)  

15. Please Give (Nicole Holofcener)  

16. Mother and Child (Rodrigo García)  

17. Police, Adjective / Politist, Adjectiv (Corneliu Porumboiu)  

18. Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek)  

19. Mid-August Lunch / Pranzo di Ferragosto (Gianni Di Gregorio)  

20. The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski)

Note: I've been saying all year that Annette Bening gives an even better per- formance in Mother and Child than in The Kids Are All Right...but no one noticed.

Second Runners-up:  

21. Everyone Else / Alle Anderen (Maren Ade)  

22. The New Year Parade (Tom Quinn)  

23. 127 Hours (Danny Boyle)

24. Somewhere (Sofia Coppola)  

25. True Grit (Joel and Ethan Coen) 

26. Nowhere Boy (Sam Taylor-Wood)  

27. The Hedgehog / Le Hérisson (Mona Achache) 

28. Mother / Madeo (Bong Joon Ho)  

29. A Town Called Panic / Panique au Village (Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar)  

30. The Runaways (Floria Sigismondi)

Also worthy of note: 44 Inch Chest, The American, Blue Valentine, Cen- turion, Crazy Heart, The Company Men, Disgrace, The Eclipse, Farewell / L'Affaire Farewell, Get Low, The Girl on the Train / La Fille du RER, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Män Som Hatar Kvinnor, Hereafter, Hipsters / Stil- yagi, Howl, I Am Love / Io Sono l'Amore, The Killer Inside Me, The Maid / La Nana, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?, The Night Catches Us, No One Knows about Persian Cats / Kasi Az Gorbehaye Irani Khabar Nadar- eh, Passenger Side, Rabbit Hole, Soul Kitchen, The Town, White Mater- ial, Wild Grass / Les Herbes Folles, A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop / San Qiang Pai an Jing Qi, and HBO's You Don't Know Jack.  Documentaries: 1. The Tillman Story (Amir Bar-Lev) 2. The Oath (Laura Poitras) 3. Jean-Michel Basquiat - The Radiant Child (Tamra Davis) 4. Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo (Brad Beesley) 5. Inside Job (Charles Ferguson) 6. The Beaches of Agnès / Les Plages d'Agnès (Agnès Varda) 7. Joan Rivers - A Piece of Work (Anne Sundberg and Ricki Stern) 8. Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy) 9. Marwencol (Jeff Malmberg) 10. I Am Secretly an Important Man (Peter Sillen)

Also worthy of note: Beautiful Darling, Casino Jack & the United States of Money, Client 9 - The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, Countdown to Zero, Four Seasons Lodge, Garbage Dreams, Glenn Gould - The Genius Within, Mine, Rio Breaks, Kings of Pastry, La Danse - Le Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris, LennoNYC, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, Prodigal Sons, Rush - Beyond the Lighted Stage, She's a Boy I Knew, Strange Powers - Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields, Two in the Wave, Waiting for Superman, The Way We Get By, When You're Strange, If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise.  Reissues and Rediscoveries: 1. House / Hausu (Nobuhiko Ôbayashi) 2. Léon Morin, Priest / Léon Morin, Prêtre (Jean-Pierre Melville) 3. Le Amiche / The Girlfriends (Michelangelo Antonioni) 4. Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini) 5. Wild River (Elia Kazan) 6. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Ôshima) 7. Tie: The Only Son / There Was a Father (Yasujirô Ozu) 8. Roger Corman's Cult Classics: Rock & Roll High School (Allan Arkush) and Suburbia (Penelope Spheeris) 9. Senso (Luchino Visconti) 10. The River (Jean Renoir)

Note: Mamma Roma marked my introduction to Pasolini. It's as good a place to start as any; I suspect I won't enjoy his other films as much. Missed (or haven't seen yet): Air Doll, Biutiful, Certified Copy, Dogtooth, Enter the Void, The Illusionist, I'm Still Here, Kick- Ass, The Complete Metropolis, Of Gods and Men, Poetry, Se- cret Sunshine, Shutter Island, The Strange Case of Angeli- ca, Toy Story 3, Uncle Boon- mee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Waste Land. Yes, I did see: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Endnote: Cross-posted here. Images from Cinema Enthusiast.