Posts Tagged ‘Sarah Polley’

Ezra’s Top Ten Favorite Movies Of 2013

Posted 01 Mar 2014 — by Ezra Stead
Category Film Reviews, Movies I Didn't Get, Movies I Got

By Ezra Stead

Behind the Candelabra is a delightfully decadent look at the life of Liberace, brilliantly played by Michael Douglas in one of his very best performances. Every year, I struggle with the relatively arbitrary process of ranking movies, so this year I’ve decided to do something a little different. Instead of a traditional Top Ten list, I’m grouping two thematically connected films together for each place on the list, resulting in a hopefully more interesting Top 20 list. I’ve also included a more traditional Top Ten below that, for all you “too long, didn’t read” folks. One final note before we get to the list: it should tell you a lot about my credibility as a film critic that I liked Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa more than most of the Academy Award Best Picture nominees for 2013.

10. THE WICKER MAN: FINAL CUT / JURASSIC PARK 3-D – BEST RE-RELEASES. Obviously, this category doesn’t really count, as both of these films were originally released decades ago, but I can’t deny that each of them provided one of the most enjoyable experiences I had in a movie theater in 2013. This new cut of the original 1973 classic The Wicker Man adds some nuance and more musical numbers to an already great film. Most crucially, it opens with a scene of Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) praying in church, emphasizing his piousness from the very start, which enriches the events to follow. Jurassic Park, on the other hand, is quite simply my favorite movie (it has the most dinosaurs in it – I rest my case), and seeing it on a big screen again, in 3-D no less, made me fall in love with it all over again.  Read More

Ezra’s Top 10 Favorite Films of 2012

Posted 15 Feb 2013 — by Ezra Stead
Category Essay, Film Reviews, Movies I Didn't Get, Movies I Got

By Ezra Stead

The Grey is nothing but desolate Alaskan wilderness and people being brutally murdered by wolves for two hours. What's not to love?I’ve been making these lists, in one form or another, for a dozen years now, and every year I’ve done my best to balance my own personal preferences with an objective and educated view of cinema in order to recommend not only my personal favorite films of any given year, but also those I believe to be the best. Well, no more! This year, and forever onward, I strive to give you only my own subjective favorites, the films that I have watched and am likely to watch over and over again throughout the years. When I look back over the last five years, for example, I have to admit that these have proven to be my actual favorite films, despite what I may have written at the time in an effort to recognize other worthy cinematic achievements to which I may or may not have returned even once in the years since: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007); The Dark Knight (2008); Inglourious Basterds (2009); Dogtooth (2010); and Drive (2011).

Of those five, only Dogtooth actually topped my list at the time. So, with this in mind, I present my favorite films of 2012, in all their highly subjective glory. Since ranking films in order of preference is often at least somewhat arbitrary, I should admit that some of these may have made it into the top 10, rather than the runner-up category, solely because they were more fun to write about. However, my top 5 is solidly made up of films I have already seen at least twice, and feel strongly that I would be more than happy to watch again at absolutely any time. Read More

Six Months On A Regimen Of Woman Filmmakers – Sarah Polley

Posted 21 Jul 2012 — by contributor
Category Essay, Film Reviews, Movies I Got

By Alice Shindelar

Sarah Polley has a knack for symbolism that would seem superfluous in dialogue, too on-the-nose, but which plays out beautifully in her imagesAway from Her, Canada / UK / USA, 2006

Written and Directed by Sarah Polley

Based on the Story The Bear Came Over the Mountain by Alice Munro

Take This Waltz, Canada / Spain / Japan, 2011

Written and Directed by Sarah Polley

Once in a while, an artist comes along who gives voice to your world, to your experience of life, better than you can imagine ever being capable of, and you’re left exposed. Young writer-director Sarah Polley did this to me with her second film, Take This Waltz, and then again when I subsequently saw her first film, Away from Her.

Away from Her, Polley’s faithful adaptation of Alice Munro’s short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain, follows Grant (Gordon Pinsent) as he watches Fiona (Julie Christie), to whom he’s been married since their twenties, descend into the throes of Alzheimer’s Disease. Forgotten, Grant travels through memories of their marriage as he stands by and watches his wife love a fellow patient at the nursing home, Aubrey (Michael Murphy). Like all marriages, Grant and Fiona’s wasn’t a perfect one, but the moments we spend with them in their home before she’s checked into the hospital, their quiet hours, the spark of lust between them that doesn’t need to lead to sex before they sleep, provides witness to the survival of their love – a weathered love. Amongst many other awards, Julie Christie (Darling, Dr. Zhivago) was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Fiona. She nails the role in her ability to let Fiona’s memories fall away with a grace that appears so effortless one cannot doubt the fear and pain she must feel. When you witness the maturity and insight with which this story is told, it’s next to impossible to believe that Polley was only 26 when she made it, and to top it off, it was her first feature.  Read More