sleepers.

Hello! Here we are again. I'd like to talk a little about movies.

Of course, I'd intended to put up this post the day the Oscar nominations came out to be current, but this and that, blah, blah whatever. Aside from the woeful lack of diversity, I feel really underwhelmed this year. It just doesn't feel like a banner year for film, but I guess that can't happen every year.

Still, there were a few that stood out for me, and a few that I missed and still really want to see--and this blog post is devoted to those. I'm calling 2014 "The Year of the Sleeper," because I feel like there were quite a few quiet, under-the-radar films that were amazing--or look amazing. Here they are.

I'll begin with my favorite films of the year--I'd really like to round it out and have a nice "Top Five" list, but I can only think of four. With one honorable mention. Which makes five. Whatever.

4.  A Most Wanted Man.

I loved this little slow-burn spy movie for three reasons--it's one of my favorite kinds of film, it was a fitting final role for Philip Seymour Hoffman and it's a film that simmers until explodes in a climax that more about emotions, betrayal and the fine art of the double cross than it is about shooting people and car chases. At least, that's how I would describe it if I was a film critic, which I'm not.

3. Enemy.

Jake Gyllenhaal is a famous movies star, but you know what? He's a remarkable actor, too. And I love it when he gets really dark, like he does in Nightcrawler (full disclosure: haven't seen it, but it sure looks dark) and Enemy, which I blogged about earlier this year. If I was a film critic (full disclosure: I'm not), I would call Enemy a searing, unsettling journey into the male psyche.

2. Locke.

Speaking of searing, unsettling journeys into the male psyche, have you seen Locke? I watched this with my brother while I was going through chemo. At one point, I turned to him and said, "This movie should be called 'Driving & Talking About Construction.'"

But it did what a great film should do--it haunted me. I couldn't stop thinking about it afterwards, and it took a day or two for it to sink in how brilliantly constructed it was--you try creating a story around one dude in a car talking on the phone about business, family and his about-to-be-born son with a one-night stand. You can also file Tom Hardy under "Big Movie Star/Remarkable Actor."

And speaking of haunting, we come to...

1. Under the Skin.

I've already written about Under the Skin twice, and I've mentioned that's it's now joined the ranks of my all-time favorite films, following themes that you're probably catching on to: slow-burn sleeper, haunting, Big Movie Star/Remarkable Actor. On the surface, it's about an alien hunting her prey (i.e. men) in modern-day Glasgow, but it's really about a predator who slowly uncovers her humanity, only to...SPOLIER ALERT: become prey to the darkest side of humanity. At least, that's how I would describe it if I was a film critic, which I'm not.

OK, now for my honorable mention: Inherent Vice.

Oh, Paul Thomas Anderson--you brilliant, audacious and maddeningly self-involved auteur--what will you think of next? Filming a Pynchon novel, of course. Clocking in at almost three hours, I felt like most every scene was poking me with a "Hey! I did the impossible! I adapted Pynchon for the screen, nyah, nyah." Ok, ok, I get it. But the film achieved another impossible feat--it made me bury, once and for all, the intense discomfort I feel whenever I see Joaquin Phoenix on the screen.

It was also a mystery that's ultimately about The Mystery, an early 70s potboiler of sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, politics, conspiracies, cults and Los Angeles. Everything I love (except drugs--yuck), all rolled up into one rabbit hole of a film. Also? After the turgid epics that were There Will Be Blood and The Master, Inherent Vice brings back the humor and levity of Boogie Nights. Yea!

Also? Martin Short. The movies need more of him.

Whereas I plan to watch Under the Skin again and again, I don't think I could ever sit through Inherent Vice again. But even though The Crying of Lot 49 flew over my 19-year-old head, and I never cracked open any Pynchon since, I'm excited to read the novel this year.

And now here are the top four flew-under-the-radar films that I still want to see.

1. The Drop.

Dennis Lehane writes great mystery novels. But they always collapse at the end. But they make great films. So, I want to see this one. Plus it starts Big Movie Stars/Remarkable Actors Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini (in his last role--insert sad emoticon).

2. Kill the Messenger.

A movie about the journalist who uncovered the CIA/Contra scandal in the 80s? Yes, yes, yes.

3. The Two Faces of January.

Viggo Mortensen and Oscar Isaac in a film adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel? I had to sit down when I found out about this one. It was in and out of the theaters in one weekend, I think, but you can rent it on itunes.

 4. The Babadook.

A horror move that's not about gore or torture, or overwhelmed with explosive sound effects or CGI? A horror film that's about what is truly horrific--the pervasive nature of fear? Another yes.

I hope you enjoyed this semi-end-of-the-year list. Now I have four movies I need to watch, and then I'll be back with more fun stuff to love.

doubles.

Hi there. We're back, and we're talking movies again--among a few other delicious and interesting topics.

So, we all enjoy a good flick, but it's rare that one comes along and blows the mind right open. Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal did just that. It's an ominous, metaphysical mystery--a rabbit hole of a film.

Gyllenhaal has teamed up again with Prisoners director Denis Villeneuve, but if you think you're going in for Prisoners II, stop right there. While both films are disturbing, Enemy is unsettling in a more cerebral way. It's premise is nothing new: man sees and becomes obsessed with his double. It's Jung's shadow run amok, but personally, I never tire of the infinite takes on this theme. Man suppresses his darker nature; chaos ensues. I am enthralled.

Everything about Enemy is deliciously dark and foreboding--the gloomy cinematography, the haunting score by Danny Bensi, the role city takes on as a character in the film. I'll never feel the same way about Toronto again (full disclosure: I had no strong feelings towards Toronto before this movie). And the spiders! Creepy, creepy spiders.

A note: Enemy features the song After the Lights Go Out by the Walker Brothers. This is a catchy tune, my friends, and worth taking a listen. You know one of my favorite joys is discovering the lesser-known music of the 60s.

 
Once you see Enemy (which released yesterday on Netflix), and you are all WTF???, I suggest you check out this video by YouTube film critic, Chris Stuckmann, which is excellent--virtually as mind-blowing as the movie itself. Stuckmann dissects it the way a Kubrick freak takes apart The Shining or Eyes Wide Shut. Lots and lots of fun.

Another note: Enemy is based on the novel The Double by José Saramago. The Nobel Committee is already on to this guy. I think it may be time to check him out.

One more note: I was (mildly) surprised to see that there is another film currently out called The Double starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska. Pretty much the same plot, too. I thought it could be fun to compare and contrast the two movies, but I promise I won't make you write an essay on it.

Moving on to some other revelations that are making me happy: let's start with the art of Gerhard Richter. I'm fascinated by any artist who blurs the lines between painting and photography. The documentary Gerhard Richter Painting is on my must-see list.

Also loving: the music of Max Richter (no relation to Gerhard), specifically his reinterpretation of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, featuring one of my favorite violinists, Daniel Hope.

I'm reading a stunning, new novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. The story of two doctors--one brilliant and one less-than-gifted--holding down an abandoned hospital in war-torn Chechnya, it's a book that makes you say, "How does anyone write this well?" Especially someone so young as author Anthony Marra. Amazing.

Next up on the reading front: the new Murakami story in The New Yorker.

A site I'm loving right now: Berfrois. Literature, poetry, art, philosophy and more--Berfrois is a rabbit hole for the intellectual. I'm particularly intrigued by this article that unites Mendelssohn, Annie Besant, Madame Blavatsky and Jack Parsons. ZOMG.

  "The music of Mendelssohn" via Berfrois.

OK, almost done--I swear. I also swear I could go the whole summer subsisting on nothing but gazpacho, ceviche and cold brew coffee. I've rhapsodized plenty about gazpacho on this blog (and made a big batch of it today), so let's talk a bit about ceviche.

There are plenty of articles lauding the most delicious ceviche in the city, like this one and this one, usually featuring the heavy hitters like this place and this place. But I have a personal favorite that all you L.A. foodies are overlooking: Antojitos Guerrero in Highland Park. This bright orange hole in the wall sprinkles some kind of magic on their food before they deliver it to your table, because everything is so simple, yet so freaking good. And their ceviche ranks with the very best.

I also had a chance to pop into Swork Coffee in Eagle Rock. I used to go here all the time, but it drove me a little nuts, because it's where hipster parents take their hipster toddlers, and you know...ugh. But I was impressed how they've completely re-worked the layout of the place. The café area feels like a mini library, with a chest-high wall shielding the play area for kids. Clearly, it was consciously designed this way, and I think it's brilliant.

But we're here to talk about cold brew coffee and Swork's is so satisfying--perfectly smooth and not at all bitter. It's totally worth the jaunt over to lovely Eagle Rock.

That's all for now, dear readers, but you know I'll be back soon. XOXO