A Decade of Fear

by Kimberly Lindbergs | December 20, 2010

Categories | Rants & Raves, Horror, Modern Mondays, Tadanobu Asano, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, David Cronenberg, Louis Garrel, Jim Jarmusch, Danny Boyle

It’s taken me a year but I’ve finally managed to compile a list of my Favorite Films of the Decade: 2000-2009 so I thought I’d share it. My introduction echoes some earlier thoughts about fear and cinema that I shared during Halloween and wanted to expand upon. Besides my alphabetical list of 50 Favorite Films of the Decade I also compiled a list of 10 Favorite Documentaries, 10 Favorite Animation Films and 15 Favorite Female & Male Performances. Naturally I haven’t seen every film produced between 2000 and 2009 so this list is limited to what I have seen and what made a lasting impression on me.

Letʼs just talk about fear. Fear, after all, is our real enemy. Fear is taking over our world. Fear is being used as a tool of manipulation in our society. Itʼs how politicians peddle policy and how Madison Avenue sells us things that we donʼt need. Think about it. Fear that weʼre going to be attacked, fear that there are communists lurking around every corner, fear that some little Caribbean country that doesnʼt believe in our way of life poses a threat to us. Fear that black culture may take over the world. Fear of Elvis Presleyʼs hips. Well, maybe that one is a real fear. Fear that our bad breath might ruin our friendships. Fear of growing old and being alone. Fear that weʼre useless and that no one cares what we have to say.
- Colin Firth in A Single Man; 2009

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself
—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address; 1933

The decade began with a bang heard around the world.

I’m always a little surprised when people write about how “shocked” they were by the events that occurred on September 11, 2001. 9/11 didn’t shock me at all but it did horrify and sadden me. As soon a George Bush Jr. was crowned President I was fully aware that we were in for a shit storm of epic proportions that was going to rain reign down hard on us all. What did surprise me was the way that Americans responded to the events that took place on September 11, 2001. At first there seemed to be a genuine sense of unity and compassion among friends, family and strangers. But unity soon turned to fear and compassion transformed into distrust. Fear seemed to spread like a cancer and it ate away at the very fabric of the country while hindering progress of any kind.

The “Naughts” as they’ve been labeled were years when fear seemed to replace reasonable debate and logical arguments. Fear became the weapon of choice for politicians and media outlets trying to sell ideas and products. We were told to fear our neighbors, fear our food, fear teachers, fear doctors, fear plane travel, fear France, fear new ideas and finally to fear ourselves. Whether we want to admit it or not, the terrorists did what they set out to do on 9/11. They terrorized Americans and turned many of us into skittish creatures that jump when we see our own shadow and mistrust the motivations of just about everyone we come into contact with.

During the naughts people over the age of 60 seemed to disappear from public viewing. They were rarely seen on American TV or in Hollywood films except as figures of ridicule and humor. Old age is the last stage before death and people wanted none of it. We ran away from old age and death as if our own demise was somehow avoidable. Plastic surgery became commonplace. What was once a luxury for the incredibly wealthy or a medical procedure for those with debilitating scars suddenly became a beauty option that everyone should consider. It didn’t seem to matter that plastic surgery made most people look like aliens from another planet just as long as it masked their real age. In other words, looking like something from another world was far better than looking like an elderly person here on planet earth.

While we attempted to avoid the inevitable onset of old age we naturally began to obsess over our appearance. Image became everything. The naughts was a decade obsessed with physical beauty but often completely devoid of intellectual curiosity. American’s apparent obesity epidemic got lots of news coverage while anorexia was glamorized or swept under the rug. We were encouraged to shun overweight people and embrace silicon boobs. And no news outlet wanted to cover the rising poverty and hunger occurring in America throughout the decade. Starving children are not easy to talk about or pleasant to look at and you can’t make jokes about them. Where’s the fun in calling malnutritioned kids lazy and stupid?

In this kind of environment the medical, diet and beauty industries thrived like never before while selling their snake oils in-between episodes of Extreme Makeover, Make Me a Super Model and The Biggest Loser. But it wasn’t just our bodies that needed fixing. Our minds were also in desperate need of a makeover and pharmaceutical companies fed on our fears. Having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning? Hate your job? Feeling trapped in an unhappy relationship? Got a bad case of the blues? Take a pill! Over-the-counter drug pushers made record profits in the naughts while praying on people’s depression during one of the countries most depressing decades. There seemed to be a pill made for everything and people bought what the drug companies were selling. Is it any wonder that legal drugs appear to be killing more people than illegal drugs these days?

School systems continued to crumble and the dumbing down of the nation not only became unavoidable, it was celebrated. Everyone became a critic. Everyone started to blog (yours truly included) or visited chat forums where they could express their opinions no matter how vile or ignorant. Whenever they were confronted by something that didn’t fit within their comfort zones they often lashed out with hostility. It quickly became apparent that there were a lot of angry and miserable people sitting at home behind their computers and they all seemed to want to point the finger at someone, something or anything but themselves.

Lots of documentary filmmakers also seemed to enjoy using fear as a tool to win attention and forgo good filmmaking. What they lacked in ideas and information they made up for in scare value. Did you know that gorging yourself daily on McDonalds’ food will make you ill and probably kill you? Were people really unaware of this simple fact before Super Size Me (2004) was released? I guess so because for some strange reason the movie was nominated for countless awards and endless imitators have followed Morgan Spurlock’s lead. Ignorance is killing us and fear sells.

But there was some benefit to all this fear peddling. After two decades of scant thrills and very little chills horror movies finally got scary again. Really scary. They also got really good. Thanks to the rising popularity of Asian horror movies in the late ’90s as well as a new wave of independent horror cinema the naughts began as a decade ripe with possibility and the horror genre blossomed. Hollywood may have kept its head in the clouds while it regurgitated tired scripts and remade classic films into easily forgotten entertainment, but outside of Hollywood and in other countries many filmmakers never let us forget that we were living in extremely scary times. Government sanctioned torture, suicide bombers, environmental disasters, serial killers, domestic violence, police brutality, sexual predators, date rape drugs, mental illness, increasing isolation, infectious disease. . . The list of terrors lurking around every corner grew endless and horror films gave us an unblinking look at them all.

I’ve appreciated the extremely graphic nature of horror films made during the last decade. Americans weren’t allowed to see the dead bodies of soldiers killed in an illegal war fought in our name but we could experience some catharsis through the movies we watched. I identified with the victims and sympathized with their plight because they were reflections of us all and our own fears. I also found myself occasionally stunned by the smart, scary and creative ways in which so many directors were able to infuse the tired genre with life. Violent, chaotic, bloody red and uninhibited life, but life nonetheless. Horror cinema was willing and able to tackle the very real terror that seemed to engulf the planet in the last decade and it also offered up the only constant critique of it. Directors around the world found inspiration in the horror films of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s that were often politically motivated and socially conscious. But like the horror films that came before them it will probably take another 10 or 20 years before these recent horror movies are fully understood and appreciated.

You’ll find that many of the films on my “Favorite films of the Decade” list are horror films made by talented directors like Danny Boyle and Brad Anderson as well as Gaspar Noe, Béla Tarr, Gus Van Sant and Claire Danes. Now I know what you’re thinking. Horror Films?! Most of those directors make art films, not horror film! But my response to that is bullshit poppycock. Film is an evolving art form still in it’s infancy. Thinly defined genres are always changing and assumed boundaries should constantly be re-imagined and tossed aside. If you lack the imagination to see films like Irreversible, Werckmeister Harmonies, Elephant and Trouble Every Day as horror films it’s your loss. Not mine. I embrace these films because of their darker nature and their ability to explore and unmask our fears. So to the horror films of the last decade, I salute you! I’m extremely thankful for all the directors that made my favorite film genre interesting and exciting again.

I’d like to write more in-depth about all of these films in the future and expand on the ways in which horror cinema challenged us and entertained us during the last decade, but that could easily turn into a book length article. I did link to a few articles I previously wrote for some films in 2009 during my “Modern Monday” updates.

50 51 Favorite Films: 2000-2009
Title/Director/Year/Country or Main Countries of Origin
1. 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle; 2002) UK
2. American Psycho (Mary Harron; 2000) US
3. The Bank Job (Roger Donaldson; 2008) UK
4. Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku; 2000) Japan
5. Before the Fall (F. Javier Gutiérrez; 2008) Spain
6. Bright Future (Kiyoshi Kurosawa; 2003) Japan
7. Bright Star (Jane Campion; 2009) Australia/UK
8. Calvaire (Fabrice Du Welz; 2004) Belgium/France
9. Capote (Bennett Miller; 2005) US
10. Cecil B. DeMented (John Waters; 2000) US
11. Cloverfield (Matt Reeves; 2008) US
12. Control (Anton Corbijn; 2007) UK
13. Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier; 2000) Denmark
14. The Devil’s Backbone (Guillermo del Toro; 2001) Spain
15. The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci; 2003) Italy
16. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry; 2004) US
17. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff; 2001) US
18. Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett; 2000) Canada
19. Gus Van Sant’s Death Trilogy (Gerry, Elephant, Last Days; 2002-2005) US
20. High Tension (Alexandre Aja; 2003) France
21. Hunger (Steve McQueen; 2008) UK
22. I’m Not Scared (Gabriele Salvatores; 2003) Italy
23. Ichi the Killer (Takeshi Miike; 2001) Japan
24. Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic; 2004) France
25. Irreversible (Gaspar Noé; 2002) France
26. Last Life in the Universe (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang; 2003) Thailand/Japan
27. Left Bank (Pieter Van Hees; 2008) Belgium
28. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson; 2008) Sweden
29. Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch; 2009) US
30. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola; 2003) US
31. Love Songs (Christophe Honoré; 2007) France
32. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay; 2002) UK
33. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch; 2001) US
34. No Country For Old Men (Ethan & Joel Coen; 2007) US
35. Oldboy (Chan-wook Park; 2003) Korea
36. OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (Michel Hazanavicius; 2006) France
37. The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke; 2002) Germany/France
38. The Proposition (John Hillcoat; 2005) Australia
39. The Quiet American (Phillip Noyce; 2001) Australia/US
40. [Rec] (Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza; 2007) Spain
41. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky; 2000) US
42. A Single Man (Tom Ford; 2009) US
43. Session 9 (Brad Anderson; 2001) US
44. Shadow of the Vampire (E. Elias Merhige; 2000) US
44. Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright; 2004) UK
45. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson; 2007) US
46. This Is England (Shane Meadows; 2007) UK
47. Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis; 2001) France
48. Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr; 2000) Hungry
49. Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson; 2000) US
50. Zodiac (David Fincher; 2007) US

Honorable mentions: Sunshine (Danny Boyle; 2007), The Prestige (Christopher Nolan; 2006), In Paris (Christophe Honoré ; 2006), Antichrist (Lars von Trier; 2009), Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas.; 2008), Hostel Part: II (2007), Suicide Club (Shion Sono; 2001), Vinyan (Fabrice Du Welz; 2008), The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach; 2006) and Puffball (Nicolas Roeg; 2007).

10 Favorite Documentaries: 2000-2009
Title/Director/Year/Country or Main Countries of Origin
1. 51 Birch Street (Doug Block; 2005) US
2. Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki; 1003) US
3. Children Underground (Edet Belzberg; 2001) Us/Romania
4. Chris & Don: A Love Story (Guido Santi and Tina Mascara; 2007) US
5. Crazy Love (Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens; 2007) US
6. The Fog of War (Errol Morris; 2003) US
7. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog; 2005) German/US
8. Gumby Dharma (Robina Marchesi; 2006) US
9. In the Realms of the Unreal (Jessica Yu; 2004) US
10. Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (Mary Jordan; 2006) US

10 Favorite Animation Films: 2000-2009
Title/Director/Year/Country or Main Countries of Origin
1. Blood: The Last Vampire (Hiroyuki Kitakubo; 2000) Japan
2. Chicken Run (Nick Park; 2000) UK
3. Metropolis (Rintaro; 2001) Japan
4. The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002; Craig McCracken) US
5. Ratatouille (Brad Bird; 2007) US
6. Samurai Champloo series (Shinichirō Watanabe; 2004-2005)
7. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki; 2001) Japan
8. The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet; 2003) France
9. Vampire Hunter D (Yoshiaki Kawajiri; 2001) Japan
10. Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman; 2008) Israel

16 Favorite Female Performances: 2000-2009
1. Asia Argento (The Last Mistress)
2. Maria Bello (History of Violence)
3. Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream)
4. Abbie Cornish (Bright Star)
5. Béatrice Dalle (Trouble Every Day)
6. Julie Deply (Before Sunset)
7. Cécile De France (High Tension)
8. Eva Green (The Dreamers)
9. Naomie Harris (28 Days Later)
10. Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher)
11. Katharine Isabelle & Emily Perkins tie (Ginger Snaps)
12. Nicole Kidman (Birth)
13. Eline Kuppens (Left Bank)
14. Julianne Moore (Blindness)
15. Samantha Morton (Morven Callar)
16. Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)

16 Favorite Male Performances: 2000-2009
1. Tadanobu Asano (Ichi the Killer)
2. Christian Bale (American Psycho)
3. Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men)
4. Min-sik Choi (Oldboy)
5. Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
6. Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road)
7. Michael Douglas & Robert Downey Jr. tie (Wonder Boys)
8. Michael Fassbender (Hunger & Fish Tank - tie)
9. Colin Firth (A Single Man)
10. Louis Garrel (Love Songs)
11. Stephen Graham (This Is England)
12. Viggo Mortensen (History of Violence)
13. Bill Murray (Lost In Translation)
14. Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later)
15. Sam Riley (Control)
16. Jason Statham (The Bank Job)

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Modern Mondays: Last Life in the Universe (2003)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | September 21, 2009

Categories | Movie Reviews, Modern Mondays, Tadanobu Asano

Is it Monday already? Lately the weeks seem to fly by but I managed to pull a little something together for Modern Monday. Forgive the brevity of my blog posts lately, but house hunting continues to consume most of my free time at the moment. With that in mind I figured I’d share a little something about a film that is much more interested in images than words.

Last Life in the Universe (aka Ruang rak noi nid mahasan, 2003) is a beautiful and thoughtful meditation on life, death, alienation and reconciliation written and directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang with breathtaking cinematography by the impeccable Christopher Doyle. It also features an wonderfully subtle performance by one of my favorite working actors, the brilliant Tadanobu Asano.

Last Life in the Universe forgoes familiar storytelling techniques and uses it’s own surreal language to examine familiar themes in an unconventional way. This macabre and melancholy movie is touching but never sappy and it always maintains its sense of humor. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s innovative film occasionally recalls the work of filmmakers such as Louis Bunuel and even Jean Cocteau but Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s Thai background gives his film a unique perspective and tone.

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Modern Mondays: Bright Future (2003)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 29, 2009

Categories | Japanese Cinema, Modern Mondays, Tadanobu Asano

My regular readers may have noticed that my blog was impossible to access for 3 or 4 days. This was due to a major problem with the blog servers. They’re still ironing out the bugs so don’t be surprised if Cinebeats disappears again. Hopefully the problems will be worked out soon.

In the meantime, Modern Mondays has sort of snuck up on me. Since I’ve been unofficially counting down my favorite films of the last decade I thought I’d continue to do so with some shots from Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Bright Future (aka Akarui mirai; 2003). Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of my favorite Japanese directors at the moment and his chilling 1997 film Cure made my list of “31 films that give me the willies.” Bright Future is another one of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s best films and it features a stunning low-key performance by Tadanobu Asano.

I didn’t have time to write anything substantial about the film, but here’s a bit of text borrowed from the Bright Future DVD box: “Friends Mamoru and Yuji are aimless young men stuck in dead-end jobs in a dreary factory in Tokyo. Mamoru, the more antisocial of the two, is obsessed with his pet project of acclimating a poisonous jellyfish to fresh water by gradually changing the water in its tank. One night, he inexplicably murders his boss’ family and is sentenced to death. Yuji, left to continue the jellyfish experiment, befriends Mamoru’s estranged father, and the two form a bond. But Yuji’s attachment to the jellyfish is even stronger, and problems arise when he accidentally releases the poisonous creature into the canals of Tokyo ”

Of course the film is so much more than that simple plot outline, which is why Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s films have garnered a lot of praise in recent years. Much has been written about Bright Future already and if you’d like to read more about the film I highly recommend visiting Michael Guillen’s blog The Evening Class. During last year’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa Blogathon Michael put together a great collection of links to some of the best writing about Bright Future that’s available online.

More images from a film filled with stunning imagery. . .

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Rebels Artists Superstars

by Kimberly Lindbergs | February 24, 2008

Categories | News, Actors, Oscars, Tadanobu Asano, Viggo Mortensen, David Cronenberg

Viggo Mortensen and Tadanobu Asano

I’ve only had the opportunity to see a few of the films nominated for Academy Awards this year and besides David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises, I haven’t been all that impressed with what I’ve seen. Since I don’t write about modern film that often I wasn’t going to mention the Oscars this year, but I will be watching the award show tonight and I hope to catch a glimpse of two of my favorite modern actors; Viggo Mortensen and Tadanobu Asano.

I’ve been following Viggo Mortensen’s acting career closely since I first saw him in the entertaining horror film Prison back in 1988. Viggo really stood out and it was clear to me back then that he had the good looks and acting abilities to become a major star so I’m not sure why it took so long for everyone else to notice him. Besides acting Mortensen is an accomplished poet and artist, and he’s also recorded multiple albums. He’s a truly talented individual and an American original who’s not afraid to speak his mind and stand up for what he believes in.

After enjoying Mortensen in somewhat lackluster films like Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) and Young Guns II (1990), he went on make some of his best films in the early 1990s such as The Reflecting Skin (1990), The Indian Runner (1991) and The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995). By the late 1990s, I had sort of lost track of him and stopped paying attention to the films he appeared in until his name was suddenly everywhere following the success of the Lord of the Rings movies. I naively assumed he would continue making blockbuster action films in Hollywood after that so I was completely caught off guard by his incredible performance in David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence (2005) and I’m really happy that the director and actor seem to have forged an interesting creative bond that I hope will continue to evolve over time. I’d like to see Viggo Mortensen take home the Oscar for Best Actor tonight, but the odds are not in his favor.

Top: Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises
Bottom: Tadanobu Asano in Mongol

Much like Viggo Mortensen, Tadanobu Asano is a true “Renaissance Man” and besides being one of Japan’s most accomplished modern actors, he’s also a talented artist and musician.

I first discovered Asano’s talent back in 1998 (exactly 10 years after I came across Viggo Mortensen in Prison) when he starred in the excellent Japanese crime thriller and dark satire Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl (Samehada otoko to momojiri onna) followed by his impressive role in the samurai drama Taboo (Gohatto, 1999). I lost track of Asano for a few years until I caught him starring in Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer (Koroshiya 1, 2001), but he was hard to recognize at first. His hair was bleached bright blond and it took me awhile to figure out that he was the same handsome actor that I had been impressed with in earlier films. From that moment on I was determined to know more about Asano and I’ve made an effort to see many of his early films as well as his newest efforts whenever I can. Some of his best movies in recent years include Bright Future (Akarui mirai, 2003), Last Life in the Universe (Ruang rak noi nid mahasan, 2003), Zatoichi (2003), Vital (2004), Survive Style 5+ (2004) and Rampo Noir (2005).

Unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to see Tadanobu Asano’s new Oscar nominated film Mongol (Sergei Bodrov; 2007) yet, but it’s up for Best Picture in the much-contested Foreign Film category. I hope Asano will be able to attend the award show tonight on the off chance that the film he starred in might win.

Countless Oscars have been handed out as consolatory prizes for overlooked work and Viggo Mortensen and Tadanobu Asano’s ongoing and impressive acting careers have been overlooked by Hollywood and American film audiences for far too long. The odds might be stacked against them both tonight, but I’ll be rooting for them!

Related Links:
- Offical Website for Eastern Promises
- Official Site for Mongol
- Tadanobu Asano’s Offical Website
- Informative Viggo Mortensen Fan Site

Update (2.25.08)
- Unfortunately my guys didn’t win anything and I thought the Award show was dull as dishwater this year (my favorite moment was when the Coen brothers won best director and Joel’s wife Frances McDormand couldn’t contain her happiness!). Oh well, there’s always next year. In the meantime, here are some pics of the most interesting actors who attended last nights red carpet affair. For my money, Asano was the best looking and best dressed man there. Even Viggo looked terrific with his bushy beard.

Viggo Mortensen and Tadanobu Asano at the 80th Academy Awards

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