For the last academic year I have been privileged enough to hold the position of Recess film editor. Perks? Countless free, weekly press screenings. The result? In the last 10 months I have attended over 50 full-length features and abused dozens of PR firms. In the name of Recess, I dedicated my life to film. In short, I provided myself with a legitimate excuse to put off all school work.
But in viewing the vast majority of this year's films, I was able to appreciate the full umbrella of cinema - the popular blockbusters, the failures, the ingenious indies, even those that fell through the cracks. As I evolved as a writer and a critic, I began to see how impossible it is to "grade" a film: Even romantic comedies can be entertaining, the sexiest indie flics impossibly boring and pop-culture blockbusters thought-provoking.
However, even as film remains the most important social medium in America, we (the audience) often get so wrapped up in the entertainment of modern technology that we lose touch with the very roots of film. Film is (was?) meant to make us laugh and cry and identify with the emotions of characters we unconsciously dream of emulating. Film is a personal experience - one that forces us to examine our own emotional fabric.
This is the road I followed.
I began the year with the snotty aspiration to dive into the independent arts theatres in the hopes that I could convince Duke students to do something different. However, my foray into indie led me to the most BEAUTIFUL FILMS of the year - Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner and Gerry, two films that relied upon the panoramas (the Arctic tundra and the plateaus of the southwest) of the natural world to awaken us.
However, the artsy scene proved thin at times, as exemplified by the MOST BORING FILM of the year, Punch Drunk Love. Yes, Adam Sandler can really act, yes director Paul Thomas Anderson made us explore love. Entertaining? No. I wanted so badly to like it, but I only churned in my seat.
As a writer, I progressed through the year trying to find the raw material to fuel my creativity. Struggling at times, I got lucky. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, grappling with his own writer's block, produced Adaptation, my most INSPIRING FILM of the year. While I was enraptured by its conflict of the "the blank page," the flick's orchids were apparently powerful enough to inspire English major (and Chronicle university associate editor) Molly Nicholson to enroll in an upper-level botany class.
Shortly thereafter, in my hometown Indiana theater, I experienced another "awakening" at the hands of my personal Midwestern crisis. My most DEPRESSING FILM, Alexander Payne's About Schmidt, jarred me to my very soul. What I encountered in Jack Nicholson's character was the nightmare that forever haunts me. I was put tête-à-tête with my greatest fear - that I will end up like Schmidt, alone, old, meaningless and living in the Midwest.
While I'm not stupid enough to let a movie convince me to take a science class, I found my history major influencing my critical interpretations. For a while, I became rather concerned with history and film. While appalled by the overly romantic vistas of Gods and Generals and Gangs of New York, I found the BEST HISTORY within Roman Polanski's The Pianist. Enough said - The Pianist's brilliance relied in its attempt to approach a controversial subject and present it "as is" without weighing itself down with overt moral messages.
Along with the Full Frame festival and Sam Jones' I'm Trying to Break Your Heart, I viewed more documentaries than I care to remember. However, there was one that satisfied my distrust of conservative white men - Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine was the MOST PROVOCATIVE FILM of the year. With war looming, I needed Moore to diagnose my fears.
But sometimes the best films slip through the cracks - such was the case with Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko. Thought to be a potentially revolutionary blockbuster, distributors plopped their proverbial asses on the Darko reels - and waited for the right moment. Never released outside of NYC, Darko's moment never came, and it disappeared, only to be released on DVD a year later. The movie is something within its own league - a quagmire of teenage isolation and social problems intertwined with science fiction - Darko is the MOST DEEPLY ENGAGING FILM I have ever viewed. Nothing has ever been such a big surprise.
Yet my overall COOLEST EXPERIENCE was my invitation to attend a press-only screening of The Two Towers nine days before the official release date. The only drawback to being one of the first people in the country to see it was that I didn't have anyone to talk about it with...
As I sit here writing this, I find my thoughts drifting towards the latest Matrix trailer and this year's other upcoming gems. However, even in my anticipation, because of my personal involvement with Recess, this last year of cinema will always be my favorite.
Oh, and one last note you underclassmen should remember: There are few communities more supportive of film than Durham, N.C.
See ya at the Carolina Theatre...
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