If you’ve been following this Blog there are not going to be a lot of surprises as to what I think were the best SIFF had to offer this year. To my way of thinking, if I can come out of the festival jazzed and excited about two or three titles (last year The Edge of Heaven and Man on Wire were the definite winners) than I count it as a success. When I have as many of them as I do this year than I count it as the best one I’ve ever had the pleasure to cover.
That’s no joke. I think there are five films, maybe six, which have a legitimate shot at being included on my year-end top ten list. Even better, I think there are another half-dozen or so that might end up as honorable mentions. This was, without question, a SIFF for the time capsule, and as 35th birthdays go here’s hoping mine is even half as awesome as this.
Without further ado, here are my picks as the ten best motion pictures of the festival. Please remember, it is impossible to see everything (still kicking myself over Séraphine, Treeless Mountain and North Face, hopefully I’ll get another chance before they year is out), so this list obviously reflects that fact. (For the record, I saw 84 films this year which isn’t a record for me, but it is definitely pretty darn close.)
1. In the Loop – No surprise here, I’ve been raving about Armando Iannucci’s extremely funny satire since the very moment the credits ended. This is as smart and as hysterical a comedy as I’ve seen in ages, maybe one of the best I’ve ever seen, and the more I think of it the more I’m starting to put it on the same level of say M*A*S*H or Network.
2. The Hurt Locker – Another no-brainer, Kathryn Beigelow’s latest a heart-stopping war epic that’s as harrowing and as chilling as these things come. The tension she builds is almost unbelievable, all of it anchored by a performance from Jeremy Renner that’s easily the best thing the guy’s ever done.
3. Tetro – Another one that grows on me the more I think of it. Frances Ford Coppola’s is a beautifully layered familial melodrama with a star-making performance by young Alden Ehrenreich and a borderline Oscar-worthy one from the luminous Maribel Verdú. It reminded my of my favorite films of Goddard and Truffaut, the legendary director of The Conversation and The Godfather making an idiosyncratic and highly personal film that is only going to get better with age.
4. The Cove – I wasn’t exactly fair to this one back when I first wrote about it. Admittedly, Louie Psihoyos’s investigative documentary unsettled me so much when it was over I had trouble talking about it. But this truly startling piece of investigative journalism is as exciting and – at times – as humorous as they come. It’s those last 20 minutes that knock your socks off, however, and it is a cold hearted human indeed who isn’t sickened by the disgusting horror show the director and his team were able to uncover.
5. Food, Inc. – More documentary happiness, this time concerning the food we buy at the store and are served at the fast food counter. I knew things were probably not as they should be, that government wasn’t doing all they can to make sure what we’re putting on the dinner table is safe. I just didn’t realize things were quite this bad, filmmaker Robert Kenner worthy of a boatload of kudos and commendations for showcasing it here.
6. Hansel and Gretel – This South Korean ghost story is beautiful, eerie and extremely scary, the whole thing feeling like a Tim Burton meets Guillermo del Toro fever dream with plenty of traditional Asian genre tropes thrown in for good measure. But director Pil-Sung Yim’s film never feels derivative. Instead, at times it is downright magic, the final 15 minutes as surreal and touching as anything I’ve seen this year.
7. Grace – Whoa, Nelly! That’s what I have to say about this one. Writer/director Paul Solet’s epic of childbirth and parenthood is chilling to the bone, disturbing, horrific and emotionally moving all at pretty much the same time. There are moments here burned into my memory forever, the last scene so unnerving I get shudders now just thinking about it.
8. That Evening Sun – There is not that much that is new about director Scott Teems latest effort, but when the story it tells is depicted with such subtlety, grace and strength there really doesn’t need to be. Even you thought Hal Holbrook was Oscar-worthy in Into the Wild, just wait until you see what he does here. If handled correctly, this could be his The Visitor and score him another nomination.
9. Small Crime – Director Christos Georgiou weaves an absolutely charming tale of romance and mystery that had me smiling pretty much start to finish. By and large, I couldn’t get enough of it, it’s saga of a small island policeman trying to uncover what happened to the town drunk while also falling in love with his town’s returning lone celebrity an effervescent joy start to finish. I’m hoping it gets some sort of domestic release, U.S. audiences deserving of experiencing the same pleasures here that I did.
10. Humpday – Another one I’m having trouble letting go of, the reservations I originally had about director Lynn Shelton’s bromance comedy beginning to evaporate like the morning dew. There is a dinner table conversation smack in the middle that completely blew my mind, the whole final third of the film a cacophony of heartbreak, friendship and hilarity that more than makes up for the fact the first third or so tends to be an overly talky bore.
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