Essential Western Films

Cue music. The camera moves slowly from the muddy ground to the tension packed air above. Two men stand on opposite sides, facing each other. Each is dressed in Stetson hats, suede vests, collared shirt, jeans with leather chaps, leather belt with a big shiny buckle, gun holster around their waist and leather boots. The man on the left is a stranger to the town (the man with no name); he has an unshaven look with a red scarf tied around his neck. The one on the right is the town sheriff, a man intoxicated with greed; the sheriff is wearing a bola tie around his neck and a shiny badge on his shirt. The two opponents have their hands suspended in mid-air, around their waist, aching to pull their guns out. And then the clock strikes noon, and with a flash of the hands and silver bullets breaking the tension in the air, the standoff is over. After the smoke clears, only one man is left standing. The outlaw has prevailed and order is restored in the West. -- Sachin Gandhi, "Stetson Hats, Smoky Bandits and a century of gun toting vigilantes", NFDC's On the Western Front, Pune International Film Festival 2003. 

Growing up, westerns were one of my favourite film genres and the above words aptly describe images I formed of a typical Western film. Of course, as a young teenager I knew nothing about the sub-genres and whether a Western film was Spaghetti, Curry, Acid, Revisionist or a Classic. All I knew were the two opposing characters, the Outlaw and a Sheriff with a badge. As I grew up and expanded my film viewing scope, I forgot about Westerns until 2003 when the knowledgeable film critic Deepa Gahlot mentioned that the Pune International Film Festival was doing a retrospective on Westerns. She asked if I wanted to submit an article on the genre for the National Film Development Corporation Limited (NFDC) festival magazine titled On the Western Front which she was editing. I didn’t hesitate in writing the above article Stetson Hats, Smoky Bandits and a century of gun toting vigilantes and as it turned out, it was one of my earliest film articles to be published in print format.

I again put the genre aside until 2012 when Sam Juliano’s trip to see spaghetti Westerns at the Film Forum inspired me to do a quick spotlight on the Da Pasta sub-genre. My plan was to do a proper spotlight on Westerns in the summer of 2013. So I was naturally delighted when a few months ago Sam mentioned that Wonders in the Dark would be doing a top Western films countdown in the fall of 2013. He invited people to submit their ballots for a top 60 Western list by August 1, after which the results would be tallied and essays printed on the website starting September. In order to do justice to the genre, I viewed a total of 82 Westerns over the last two months, revisiting many works and viewing essential works for the first time. Unfortunately, there are still a dozen key films that I have missed seeing. And due to personal commitments, I had to wrap up my viewing this week and send in my ballot. For now, the following top 60 list is provided without any reviews or notes. But over the next few months, I will be adding some comments on the website about some of these excellent films.

Top 60 Westerns: Spaghetti, Curry, Acid & a whole lot of Whiskey

1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone)
2. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968, Sergio Leone)
3. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943, William A. Wellman)
4. The Gunfighter (1950, Henry King)
5. My Darling Clementine (1946, John Ford)
6. Decision at Sundown (1957, Budd Boetticher)
7. Sholay (1975, Ramesh Sippy)
8. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962, John Ford)
9. The Westerner (1940, William Wyler)
10. Unforgiven (1992, Clint Eastwood)
11. For a Few Dollars More (1965, Sergio Leone)
12. The Wild Bunch (1969, Sam Peckinpah)
13. Ride Lonesome (1959, Budd Boetticher)
14. Yellow Sky (1948, William W. Wellman)
15. Rio Bravo (1959, Howard Hawks)
16. Johnny Guitar (1954, Nicholas Ray)
17. 3 Bad Men (1926, John Ford)
18. Red River (1948, Howard Hawks)
19. The Professionals (1966, Richard Brooks)
20. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955, John Sturges)
21. Shane (1953, George Stevens)
22. 3:10 to Yuma (1957, Delmer Daves)
23. Winchester ’73 (1950, Anthony Mann)
24. High Plains Drifter (1973, Clint Eastwood)
25. Stagecoach (1939, John Ford)
26. Jeremiah Johnson (1972, Sydney Pollack)
27. The Searchers (1956, John Ford)
28. The Shootist (1976, Don Siegel)
29. The Great Silence (1968, Sergio Corbucci)
30. The Proposition (2005, John Hillcoat)
31. Keoma (1976, Enzo G. Castellari)
32. Destry Rides Again (1939, George Marshall)
33. Hang ‘em High (1968, Ted Post)
34. Dead Man (1995, Jim Jarmusch)
35. Seven Men from Now (1956, Budd Boetticher)
36. Warlock (1959, Edward Dmytryk)
37. The Magnificent Seven (1960, John Sturges)
38. High Noon (1952, Fred Zinnemann)
39. Forty Guns (1957, Samuel Fuller)
40. Comanche Station (1960, Budd Boetticher)
41. Pale Rider (1985, Clint Eastwood)
42. Heaven’s Gate (1980, Michael Cimino)
43. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007, Andrew Dominik)
44. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976, Clint Eastwood)
45. A Fistful of Dollars (1964, Sergio Leone)
46. Django (1966, Sergio Corbucci)
47. The Naked Spur (1953, Anthony Mann)
48. Wagonmaster (1950, John Ford)
49. Dances with Wolves (1990, Kevin Costner)
50. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, Robert Altman)
51. Meek’s Cutoff (2010, Kelly Reichardt)
52. Tumbleweeds (1925, King Baggot)
53. The Furies (1950, Anthony Mann)
54. Rancho Notorious (1952, Fritz Lang)
55. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973, Sam Peckinpah)
56. The Shooting (1966, Monte Hellman)
57. The Big Trail (1930, USA, Raoul Walsh)
58. Silverado (1985, Lawrence Kasdan)
59. The Man from Laramie (1955, Anthony Mann)
60. El Topo (1970, Alejandro Jodorowsky)

Neighbouring Sounds

Neighbouring Sounds (O som ao redor) (2012, Brazil, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

This IS a film. Aided by a rich sound design & visuals, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s film ensures an immersive cinematic experience. A viewer gets a ringside seat in one of Recife’s neighbourhoods to witness the daily activities of the residents, including their morning and nightly routines. Depicting the everyday reality would have been good enough, but Kleber Mendonça Filho enhances the experience by adding layers of memories and nightmares with a few smart cuts. As a result, the multi-layered film contains a subtle sense of dread but in a much subtler note than Michael Haneke's Caché. This means that even when viewers witness harmless events in and around an apartment complex, there is a sense that something sinister is going to happen. The viewer can't be passive and is instead forced to examine each frame and its accompanying sound to know what the characters are up to.

The Recife setting of a closed off apartment complex echoes the gated colonies of New Delhi, another city where each street is constantly watched by a number of people, ranging from drivers, cleaners to night watchmen. In New Delhi, there is a tension between urban and rural because people leave their village and smaller towns for the city on a daily basis. As Neighbouring Sounds progresses, it also becomes clear that there is a link between some of the city residents and the countryside and their actions committed in a rural region will result in an opposite reaction in the city.

2012 ---- 2013

After I saw Once Upon a Time in Anatolia at the end of April 2012, I wondered if there would be another film in 2012 which would knock the Turkish film from the #1 spot in my best of the year list. In the end, only one film, Holy Motors, managed to place above Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. Now I feel the same about Neighbouring Sounds and wonder if any film in 2013 will remove it from my #1 spot for 2013's end of the year list. Of course, Neighbouring Sounds is a 2012 film and if I had seen it last year, it would have finished at #1, easily moving past Holy Motors. And Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a 2011 and it would have surely finished #1 had I seen it in the year of its release. As it stands, for the second straight year, two worthy foreign films are pushed into another calendar year’s evaluations.

The rest of the world have 7 months to deliver an excellent film otherwise the Brazilian film Neighbouring Sounds will be #1 end of 2013.

 

Rituparno Ghosh

I am absolutely shocked by the sudden death of Rituparno Ghosh, one of the best contemporary Indian directors, who passed away at the young age of 49.

My view of Rituparno changed significantly with 2006's Dosar, an absolutely lovely film. But even more memorable was the experience of helping acquire this film for the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF). It turned out that CIFF had the international premier of Dosar.

Back in 2005, I was tipped off about Dosar by a good friend who is a film critic in Mumbai. Then in early 2006, my friend put me in touch with a Bengali critic who provided me Rituparno's home phone number in Kolkata. I still remember being nervous about having to phone him at home. In the early 2000's, my attempts to interview Bollywood actors was a horrible experience. I was once shouted at and treated rudely by a famous Bollywood actor's wife. And Rituparno Ghosh was an exceptional director with multiple award winning films to his name in 2006, with Utsab, Choker Bali & Raincoat. So I was not sure what to expect.

The phone rang and someone picked up. I asked for Rituparno and was told to wait. The phone must have been placed on a table as I could hear the morning street noise heard on most Indian streets. Those street noises of passing cars, horns, vendors and birds chirping allowed me to calm my nerves a bit. After a brief passage of time, Rituparno came on the phone and his calm soothing voice immediately put me at ease. He was incredibly polite and so respectful. Even though he was not aware of CIFF, he didn't hesitate about having his film premier at our festival. In fact, he even talked about flying over to present his film but that didn't happen as our festival dates didn't mesh with his schedule. Rituparno put me in contact with the film's production company, Planman Motion Pictures, who were exceptionally co-operative and friendly in flying the film over. I never interacted with Rituparno after that and never got a chance to tell him how much our audience loved his film.

Rituparno Ghosh's films have a poetic touch to them, with some films depicting riveting dialogue one often finds in plays. Plus, he also managed to extract some memorable performances from Prasenjit Chatterjee, Konkona Sen Sharma, Raima Sen, Kiron Kher, Amitabh Bachchan, Annu Kapoor, Ajay Devgn and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. He will be sorely missed.

CUFF 2013

This past April marked the 10th anniversary of the Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) and the festival celebrated it by having the strongest lineup in their history. The remarkable aspect about the selection was that it felt like someone read my mind in booking the films. 7 titles from my must-see list played at the festival. I had been eagerly waiting to see Berberian Sound Studio, Computer Chess, Frances Ha, Pieta, Sightseers, The Act of Killing and Upstream Color. So I was delighted CUFF booked them. Unfortunately in the end, I could only see 5 of those titles:

Berberian Sound Studio (2012, UK, Peter Strickland)
Upstream Color (2013, USA, Shane Carruth)
Pieta (2012, South Korea, Kim-ki Duk)
The Act of Killing (2012, USA, Joshua Oppenheimer)
Computer Chess(2013, USA, Andrew Bujalski)

I also missed out on Clip, Vanishing Waves, The Rambler and The Final Member, films that got really strong word of mouth buzz.

Here are some brief notes on the films, arranged in order of preference.

1) The Act of Killing

Even though the documentary is rooted in Indonesia, it is universal in depicting how men kill with the aid of media and politicians. The depiction of torture/killing could easily be set in Latin/South America/Africa while the media manipulation applies to most nations. But no individuals will ever admit their crime with such brutal honesty as those in The Act of Killing, making it a living digital document. The killers walk about the city freely, sometimes boasting about their murders. Such honesty ensures the film hits like a ton of bricks but it is one of the most essential and relevant docs ever made.

2) Computer Chess

A playful look at various computer programmer personalties, ranging from the very shy to those whose supreme confidence borders on arrogance. The black and white visuals coupled with the video footage give the film a 1980’s look and feel, at a time when computers were bulky machines that required some effort to transport from room to room. The humor is derived from the collection of eccentric personalities and as a result, the scenarios feel natural and not forced. As a bonus, the film also literally depicts HAL's birth.

3) Berberian Sound Studio

An eerie slow-burning film that smartly uses sound manipulation & cues to abstract a horror genre. As a result, one can appreciate the few elements that make a horror film nerve racking and terrifying. This aspect is reinforced by the decision to not show the film-within-film, thereby letting viewers fill in their own worst images.

4) Upstream Color

A multi-shaped puzzle that assembles the look and feel of a Lynchian nightmare with a Malickian landscape. The film manages to find a balance between sci-fi, horror and nature by rapid fire editing and a score that contrasts the mood of the images that the viewer is seeing. The film’s two editors, Shane Carruth and David Lowery, cover a lot of ground in the opening minutes. One can make 2-3 features from the opening 20 minutes of Upstream Color. After the fast paced opening, the film settles down a little, allowing viewers to get a brief footing before heading off in a different direction altogether.

Credit must be given to Andrew Sensenig whose wordless performance speaks volumes and lends the film a graceful covering. Also, Upstream Color also extends Godard's quote: "All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl" plus some pigs & worms.

5) Pieta

I believe Kim Ki-duk made this film on a bet. He must have wagered with friends that he could make a sloppy film in a few days and throw enough heavy references to fool critics into thinking the film meant something. And his ploy appears to have paid off with the top prize at Venice 2012, even though festival rules prevented The Master from getting that prize. Still, it is hard to imagine that jury, which consisted of Michael Mann, Matteo Garrone, Pablo Trapero, Marina Abramovic, Ursula Meier, Ari Folman, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Laetitia Casta, Samantha Morton, could not have picked any other film if they could not select The Master. Maybe the jury picked Pieta to prove a point that if they could not pick the best film in the competition, they would pick the worst. But given the praise Pieta has gotten in some quarters, it does feel like maybe some in the jury gave the prize on merit.

The entire film feels like a joke on the audience. Pieta contains shocking scenes for no reason other than to get a reaction from people while the acting and editing give it a B-grade appearance. As painful as the experience proved to be, I managed to get through it. Thankfully, the many other stellar films at CUFF quickly washed away the experience of Pieta.

The Cinema of Neveldine/Taylor

With the exception of Ghost Rider, the remaining three films of Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor are perfect examples of Video Game Cinema.

Crank (2006)
Crank: High Voltage (2009)
Gamer (2009)
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)

The premise of Crank is setup like a video game where the main character Chev (Jason Statham) can only go for a limited distance before he needs to recharge himself otherwise he will lose his single life, thereby ending the film. The reason Chev needs to recharge is to keep his adrenaline level up otherwise the drugs injected in his body will slowly stop his heart. He can keep his adrenaline level up either by natural or artificial means such as usage of epinephrine. Such a premise allows the movie to freely incorporate whatever is required for him to survive. This means Chev pumps himself full of drugs, gets into fights, steals a car (Grand Theft Auto anyone?) in order to move to a new location in search of an antidote. The script also includes Chev’s attempted rape of his girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart) so that he can keep his heart from slowing down. Chev’s aggressive sexual act starts out as rape but is turned into a semi-consensual act after Eve stops fighting back, much to the shock of an onlooking bus of tourists.

By giving the film a video game premise, the directors get away by including any over the top sequence in the script which ends up making the movie critic-proof. Any questions about the film’s logic can be countered with the explanation that Chev’s desperate need to survive mandates inclusion of abundant excess and crudity. For example, if Chev doesn’t try to rape his girlfriend, then it is game over. If he does not inject himself with drugs, then lights out. On a scale of 1-10 for crudity, Crank breaks the scale with a whopping 11. Incredibly, Crank 2 shatters the scale even further and outdoes the first movie. Although, Crank 2 just follows the template laid out by Crank and the only variation is to ensure every aspect from the first movie is super-sized in the second one. And to hammer the point home, a mock Godzilla like fight scene is included in Crank 2.

Crank and Crank 2 are single player video games where one character has to navigate his way through an urban jungle filled with danger at every corner. Both movies also contain moments when Chev is depicted like a pixelated 1980’s style arcade game. On the other hand, Gamer is a multi-player game designed to follow the structure of a MMORPG, a game style which allows multiple players to control different online characters. A movie based on MMORPG would have been complicated enough but Neveldine & Taylor layer the movie with a “Simulation” style video game & wrap everything around a hyper-interactive social media world. The end result is a movie that bombards a viewer with a stream of information which is delievered in tiny chunks via fast cuts. Such an editing style requires a viewer to take some time to absorb the material and get used to the style. Only once the gaming style is absorbed, the smart social commentary becomes apparent. The directors want to convey a world where the line between an online virtual personality and a real persona is slowly erased. One can even say that the current world is close to what Gamer shows but the movie was released back in 2009, at a time when online gaming was growing substantially but bandwidth sucking smart phones and tablets were still in their infancy.

Fast Cuts

Crank, Crank 2 & Gamer all feature rapid-fire editing which at times appears to contain multiple cuts every second. Such an editing style results in a disorienting effect which does not make for easy viewing. These three movies are on the opposite spectrum of Slow Cinema and demonstrate that hyperactive films which can’t maintain focus for even a second result in an experience where the movies running time appears a lot longer than it actually is. One can only painlessly finish watching these movies if one is able to tune in to their rhythm.

On the other hand, Ghost Rider has no such accelerated video game style. Of course, given the material’s comic book source, such a style would not have made sense. Still, nothing in Ghost Rider indicates any whiff of Neveldine-Taylor's work. The only way one can even form a link to this movie with the directors is by the ending of Crank 2 which features Chev completely in flames showing the finger to the camera. The image of Chev’s head in flames evokes Ghost Rider so it is not a surprize that the directors next project was the Marvel Comic book character.

One can understand what the directors are trying to do with their style but the movies require an investment from a viewer. The blistering style also makes it is hard to recommend their films to anyone. Although, there are plenty of excellent articles that one can read about the directors style and save the trouble of watching any of their films.

Essential Reading

Adam Nayman article perfectly summaries the cinema of Neveldine & Taylor.

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky on Gamer.

Steven Shaviro has a 10,000 word entry on Gamer!

3D challenge

Ghost Rider was in 3D but thankfully the other three movies were in 2D.  The first 15 minutes of Gamer are far more challenging to keep one's headache in check than any 3D movie out there. However, Crank 3 will be in 3D and that will result in a massive viewing challenge for those who see it in a cinema.

Video Game Cinema

“Video Game Cinema” doesn’t only refer to movies based on video games but instead applies to movies which are constructed and edited like a video game. Video games have come a long way from the 1980’s style arcade action and shoot’ em games. Contemporary video games can be divided into multiple genres, contain numerous characters & complicated plots and often include a cinematic sequences called cutscene, which fills in the backstory about characters and their mission. Also, with the rapid evolution in computer graphics, most games feature life-like characters modeled after actors whose movements and facial expressions are captured to create authentic video game replicas. 

Although, as video games get more complicated and involve multiple role playing characters, most video game movies follow an arcade style plot where a single character achieves small goals leading to a final mission completion sequence. The Resident Evil series, Raid: The Redemption and the two Crank movies are examples of such video game cinema which feature a single character moving from one crisis to another. Gamer is also an example of a video game cinema but it is the only one in this spotlight which contains a richly defined complicated world with multiple characters competing for control in a single frame.

Part I of this spotlight looks at all five Resident Evil movies while Part II will cover the cinema of Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor.

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Resident Evil Movies

Any discussion about video game cinema has to start with Paul W.S Anderson. He directed Mortal Kombat in 1995, at a time when video game movies rarely made their way into cinemas. In 2002, he directed the first Resident Evil movie and has written all the movies in the series and directed 3 of the 5 movies so far. He will also direct the 6th movie in the series due in 2014.

Resident Evil (2002, Paul W.S. Anderson)

Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004, Alexander Witt)

Resident Evil: Extinction (2007, Russell Mulcahy)

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010, Paul W.S. Anderson)

Resident Evil: Retribution (2012, Paul W.S. Anderson)

The movies are based on a video game and for the most part, all 5 features follow a video game format where one central character, Alice (Milla Jovovich), moves from one action sequence to another. The first movie contains the most dialogue as it outlines the origins of the T-virus and how the infection ended up getting released from the Umbrella Corporation's underground facility (Hive).

Each movie recaps prior events so a viewer does not need to worry about seeing all the previous movies. Subsequent movies provide a little more information about Alice's past but for the most part, the movies are about Alice killing infected and mutated creatures. The subtitles in the movies refer to the creatures as zombies but that word is never used to describe the flesh eating walking dead in any of the movies.

The on-screen action is kept simplistic like an old fashioned arcade game where there are easily classifiable targets that have to be taken out. Once Alice or her allies kill the creatures, then they proceed to the next frame where more creatures await. Resident Evil: Extinction has some outdoor shots in the desert where multiple characters try to kill the zombies but usually Alice and just an additional character is present to do the killing. Alice finds new helpers as the movies progress with Claire (Ali Larter) doing her part in Extinction and Afterlife and Ada Wong (Bingbing Li) in Retribution. This is also a rare series where woman take centre stage both in terms of heroes and villains. The villain of the first four movies is the Umbrella Corporation headed by Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) but the fifth movie finally reveals that the Red Queen computer, shown in the first movie, has gone rogue and taken over. As the name indicates, Red Queen is a female and her personification is a little girl. 

Throughout the series, villains often become allies to Alice in taking out a bigger threat. Or characters that were dead often return back in different roles. Each movie has a well defined end goal that must be reached and the returning characters either assist or stand in the way. The last two movies Afterlife and Retribution are basically cliffhangers that end by revealing that a bigger threat lays waiting.

The 5th movie, Retribution, so far is the high point of the series video game look and feel. By showing the computer as the villain, characters are given a clue as to where their next threat will come from.

For example, as Alice and Ada move through the city simulated landscape (New York), Red Queen’s voice indicates that the New York sequence has been initiated, alerting Alice and Ada that threats are on the way.

The audience also gets their cue as to a fight will take place. Also, just like in a video game, the music changes when a villain is about to enter the frame. Basically, Retribution feels like seeing a video game in demo mode.

All the movies don’t get good reviews because if one treats them as conventional movies, then it is frustrating to watch repetitious sequences over and over. On the other hand, if one sees the movies as simply live video games, then it allows one to get through them. Also, one can see the influence of some shots from this series in The Walking Dead. The Resident Evil movies feature overhead shots showing cluster of zombies narrowing on a target. Such shots can be found in Season One of The Walking Dead. Of course, the TV series has more focus on character development and dialogue driven scenarios whereas Resident Evil strips most of the dialogue out.

Other reading

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky.

R. Emmet Sweeney and Dave Kehr.

Universal Soldier

Like most friends, I saw the first Universal Soldier (1992) and ignored all subsequent sequels, including the official ones (three after 1992) and two TV movies. However, intrigued by some of the critical traction that Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning got in 2012, I decided to see both of the Universal Soldier films directed by John Hyams and revisited the first film to put everything in context.

Universal Solider (1992, Roland Emmerich)
Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009, John Hyams)
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012, John Hyams)

Universal Soldier starts off in the Vietnam war, a starting point for many cinematic stories over the years, where a fight between two soldiers Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Scott (Dolph Lundgren) results in both of their deaths. Both dead bodies are indoctrinated into a US military program and brought back as Universal Soldiers or UniSols, android fighting machines. The concept of UniSols follows the Robocop pattern in reanimating a dead character to fight justice. In Robocop, Murphy is meant to fight crime on the streets and keep civil justice. Whereas, UniSols are meant to safeguard nationalistic interests. Both Murphy and Luc are also united by their desire to return home. Despite the efforts of scientists to erase both Murphy & Luc's memories, a tiny portion of their past lingers on and manages to guide their moral compass. This makes both of these characters heroes, who try to do some good despite being programmed to kill without question. At the end of Universal Soldier, Luc does reach home. But a happy ending in Hollywood is never a guarantee for conclusion and Luc was called into action in 1999’s Universal Soldier: The Return.

Two TV movies filled the gap without JCVD and Dolph Lundgren until John Hyams resurrected the series in 2009. Hyams rightly decided that both JCVD and Dolph Lundgren are not as young as they once were and instead made Andrei Arlovski’s UniSol the central character. Arlovski’s character is a pure representation of what a Unisol was originally meant to be as he has no moral compass and is free to kill without any filters. Regeneration is certainly a major improvement over the 1992 movie and takes the series into a much darker territory. Still, the 2009 film cannot predict the direction that Day of Reckoning jumps towards.

If Regeneration showed shades of darkness, then Day of Reckoning is a full blown nightmare that is only connected to the Universal Solider series in name. The 2012 film does feature Luc Deveraux and Scott but Luc is nothing like the past films. He is more like Tony Todd's Candyman character who appears either inside John’s (Scott Adkins) head or in his house. The Candyman sequence is shown early in the film and follows a point of view nightmarish start reminiscent of Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void. Day of Reckoning then stitches a David Lynch feel and mood throughout the film and includes nods to conspiracy stories and a few horror films along with the way, such as the famous axe breaking door scene of The Shining. It is impressive how many diverse ideas and sub-plots Day of Reckoning incorporates and it might have been better if the film had shed the Universal Soldier tag. As it stands, the UniSol reference will prevent others from checking out the film. The open ended nature of Day of Reckoning suggests a future possibility of another film but more importantly, it will be curious to see what John Hyams directs next.

Related Reading

The following three articles played a big part in my viewing these films.

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky's excellent mubi review.
Ian Buckwalter's review in The Atlantic.
Bilge Ebiri.

Lisandro Alonso

Some quick notes on all four of Lisandro Alonso’s features.

La Libertad (2001)
Los Muertos (2004)
Fantasma (2006)
Liverpool (2008)

All four films focus on a lonely male as he navigates his way through an environment. With the exception of Fantasma, the environment in the three other films is nature, free from the reach of any city, ranging from farmland, forests and mountains.

For a brief moment at the start of Liverpool, the camera is in a confined space but once Farrel leaves the ship, the camera soaks in the open spaced surroundings like it does in La Liberdad and Los Muertos.

Fantasma is the only film where a character, Argentino Vargas, the actor from Los Muertos, wanders within a confined space.

Argentino walks in a cinema hall before settling to watch a special screening of Los Muertos. The cinema hall setting is also the only city location depicted in any of Alonso’s films. However, the city is only viewed in tiny glances through the glass panels in the cinema’s lobby. Even this tiny glimpse of city life is a shocking aspect to find in an Alonso film. Lisandro’s other three features are devoid of people rushing from one place to another so it feels unnatural to see people walking at a brisk pace through the glass panels in Fantasma.

Fantasma

Even though Fantasma stands apart from the other three journey features, it forms a closed loop with Alonso’s first 2 features. Both the actors of La Libertad (Misael Saavedra) and Los Muertos (Argentino Vargas) are present in Fantasma while the cinema hall is playing Los Muertos. If Liverpool had not taken place in an open space, then Fantasma would have formed a natural trilogy with La Libertad and Los Muertos. However, in terms of location and style, La Libertad, Los Muertos and Liverpool form a natural trilogy. La Liberdad, Los Muertos and Liverpool evoke Bresson by depicting emotionless characters and stripping out any irrelevant details from the frame. The following quote from Robert Bresson applies to these three features:

One does not create by adding but by taking away.

Alonso’s films have removed any distractions from the frame thereby allowing an intense focus on a singular character.

Fantasma also deviates from the style of the other three features. The cinema hall in Fantasma evokes Tsai Ming-liang’s Goodbye, Dragon Inn and the large glass panels in the lobby and stairs remind of Tati.

Fantasma

Tati in Playtime

James Quandt’s excellent essay outlines this Tati connection in splendid detail:

But, oddly, it is Tati who most comes to mind in surveying the San Martín’s modernist horror of malfunctioning elevators, confounding staircases, and harshly lit hallways, rooms too ample or cramped, humanity subjugated to decor, architecture, mazes, and machinery. Like Tati, Alonso sees in this surrounding a kind of elegant inutility, a vast contraption in which people stumble, turn back, retrace their steps, push buttons that don’t work, tentatively position themselves in spaces not designed for their being, much less comfort. And, again like Tati, he embeds this vision of errant modernity in a musique concrète of mechanical sound: outside traffic; the whoosh, buzz, and hum of elevators; a computer whirring to life; an incessant, unanswered telephone; the squeal of an unoiled door; the roar of the projector showing Vargas the rural world of Los Muertos, with its contrasting quiet and cacophony of birds.

Alonso's new film (2014)

At first, the casting of Viggo Mortensen in Alonso's new film seemed to indicate a continuation of the lonely men journey structure but the following synopsis on imdb indicates otherwise:

A father and daughter journey from Denmark to an unknown desert that exists in a realm beyond the confines of civilization.

Related Reading

James Quandt’s article.

Michael Guillen’s interview.

Srikanth (JAFB) on the films of Alonso.

Cinema Scope’s interview.

Gabe Klinger’s 2005 article anticipated the rise of Alonso.

Paul Verhoeven

It is easy to label Paul Verhoeven’s films as a cinema of excessive sex, blood and violence. However, these tags just refer to the surface of the films. Revisiting the following three films revealed the presence of multiple layers underneath:

Robocop (1987)
Total Recall (1990)
Starship Troopers (1997)

Robocop and Starship Troopers are razor sharp satires that are packed with social, economic and political commentary. On first glance, these references are overshadowed by over the top sequences which grab all the attention and become the film’s major talking points, such as the extremely violent killing of Officer Murphy (Peter Weller) in Robocop. Murphy’s killing is brutal but it fits in the film’s context of portraying a society where violence is used to drive all social, economic and political policies. For example, brutal force is used to evict the poor out of their homes in order to build a safer and cleaner new Detroit. And the residents have no choice but to use violent means to fight back. The rise of violence & crime is in turn used to justify the need for building more destructive killing machines so that peace can finally be achieved. RoboCop shows a society that is constantly in war with itself and depicts how once the war machine is started, it will never stop. The faces making the political decisions will change but an endless cycle of building bigger weapons will continue. In this regard, the film correctly anticipates the rise of private corporations in getting lucrative government contracts to protect society.

RoboCop not only targets private security firms but throws its net over all corporations. The appropriately named Omni Consumer Products (OCP) has its hands in every aspect of society and citizens can’t escape its influence. OCP not only thrusts its products down citizens throats but also creates weapons for them to kill or be killed. The media is not spared either and the hilariously depicted fake newscasts in both RoboCop and Starship Troopers shows how a culture of fear is created and controlled by a small group. When RoboCop was released back in 1987, news channels didn’t run 24 hours / 7 days a week. So the film can be credited as correctly predicting the state of contemporary news channels which repeat the same stories over and over again.

RoboCop and Total Recall also show that policies which deny basic equality to all citizens will force the have nots to fight for their rights. And when these citizens demand their rights, they will be labelled as troublemakers and attempt to be crushed by those in power. The enforcement of force is made possible by a collusion between government, corporations and certain elements of the police.

Even though Paul Verhoeven didn’t direct RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, those later films continue the story, themes and style explored by Verhoeven’s film. For example, in RoboCop 2 Murphy’s programming is altered by those in charge to make him more friendly so that he is not seen as a cold killing machine but instead a friendly killing machine. This example is another piece of witty satire which shows how corporations use media spin and public relations to shift public opinion.

Other related reading

Aaron Light has an excellent essay about Verhoeven & his "Cinema of Excess".

Robert Koehler’s interview with Paul Verhoeven.

Remake

It is not surprizing that the remake of RoboCop (2014) will be directed by José Padilha whose Elite Squad films contain a biting social commentary about violence between the poor and the police. Padilha’s films don’t feature any satire so his selection appears to indicate that the remake will be a more serious and darker examination of society.

Nacer Khemir's Desert Trilogy

Nacer Khemir’s Desert Trilogy:

Wanderers of the Desert (1986)
The Dove’s Lost Necklace (1992)
Bab’Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul (2005)

All three films have a wonderful myth + fable structure which incorporates motifs of journey and death. Music is also a key component and plays the biggest part in Bab’Aziz, a film infused with Sufi music. As the title of the trilogy indicates, the films are set against a desert background. In an interview, Nacer Khemir explains the beauty that comes with filming in a desert:

There is a Tuareg proverb that says: "There are lands that are full of water for the well-being of the body, and lands that are full of sand for the well-being of the soul." The desert is a literary field and a field of abstraction at the same time. It is one of the rare places where the infinitely small, that is a speck of sand, and the infinitely big, and that is billions of specks of sand, meet. It is also a place where one can have a true sense of the Universe and of its scale. The desert also evokes the Arabic language, which bears the memory of its origins. In every Arabic word, there is a bit of flowing sand. It is also one of the main sources of Arabic love poetry. In all of my three movies, which form a trilogy, The Wanderers of the Desert, The Dove’s Lost Necklace, and today, Bab’Aziz, The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul, the desert is a character in itself.

The Wanderers of the Desert

A bus drops a teacher off in the middle of the desert. The village that he is looking for doesn’t appear to exist.

But it does. The village exists even though it is mostly empty because the village men often disappear to wander off in the desert for days on end.

The concept of a journey is a key ingredient in The Wanderers of the Desert where characters yearn to leave for far-off lands, especially for Cordoba which is seen as the ultimate pilgrimage.

 
Myths and fables are found in almost every frame as the film feels similar to the multiple layered structure of One Thousand and One Nights. In fact, at certain moments, fairy tales manifest themselves into reality such as the appearance of Sinbad’s boat:

The Dove’s Lost Neckless

Hassan (Navin Chowdhry), a calligrapher, queries many wise men to gain their wisdom about the meaning of love. One elder tells Hassan that the Arabic language has 60 different words to describe love. At first, Hassan believes the discovery of all 60 words would bring him closer to an understanding of love. Unfortunately, he remains stuck at 35 words but his hopes are boosted by finding a single partly burnt page from a book about love. That page makes makes him yearn for the “Princess of Samarkand”, who haunts his dreams. He goes on a quest to find the book and perhaps his princess along the way.

The film is garnished with many thoughtful philosophical dialogues:

The Beginning is easy but the end is hard.

The above words are applicable to life and stories in general but they also perfectly describe the structure of all three films. The beginning of each film appears to be simplistic but the complexity of life is only revealed as the characters undertake a physical, emotional and spiritual journey. At the end of each journey, death greets one of the characters. But this death is not meant to be a final stop but just one of the paths in a cosmic journey that spans generations.

People often run after a dream. One day they run across it and don’t recognize it.

A basic truth where a person often loses sight of their goal during an exhaustive quest.

Bab’Aziz: The Prince who Contemplated his Soul

Unlike other trilogies, the third film of the Desert trilogy, Bab’Aziz, is the strongest work.

This is because the desert’s beauty comes through in virtually frame of Bab’Aziz. Also, the Sufi music against the background of giant sand dunes makes for a calm and mesmerizing experience.

Once Upon a Time....

These four words have started countless stories but they appropriately describe the Desert Trilogy as well. Each film contains scenes of story telling that peels off multiple layers of fables, myths or reality. Often, a character is mesmerized by a story they are listening to and slowly find themselves drifting into the realms of myth, where they in-turn become characters in stories that will be narrated to future generations.

Nacer Khemir deserves a lot of credit for creating a visually rich form of an ancient story telling tradition that is mostly lost in contemporary cinema.

It also seems appropriate that I came across two films in the trilogy in an old fashioned way by flipping through DVD racks in the library. With the disappearance of almost all rental DVD stores in the city, finding new films is down to online digital files. But my discovery of The Wanderers in the Desert and Bab’Aziz evoked memories of a time when DVD stores and the library played a big part in discovering gems. “Once Upon a time....” indeed!

Essential Reading

Chale Nafus, Director of Programming for the Austin Film Society, perfectly describes The Wanderers in the Desert, including the Arabian Nights references.

The Right IP Address

A few years ago, Verena Paravel and J.P. Sniadecki’s Foreign Parts got some critical love and was a must-see film. The documentary’s setting in the Queen’s auto parts lanes besides the New York Metz stadium was also the setting for Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop, a film which made it across Canada. However, Foreign Parts has remained foreign and not touched my local Canadian shores theatrically or rental DVD. Currently, Amazon.com streams the film for $2.99 (USD), a few weeks ago that price was $2.35. The website also sells a digital copy of the film for $9.99. But one can only rent or buy this digitial film if they live in the US. The only legal option for me to view Foreign Parts is to buy the film's DVD. Amazon.ca sells a DVD of Foreign Parts in Canada for $29.71 (CAD). Hardly a fair differential to view the same film but people in Canada are used to paying more for everything. Even Canadian oil is cheaper in the United States than in the Canadian spots that extract the crude variety out of the ground.

Often excuses of tariffs, taxes, population and currency disparity is used to explain the price difference. None of these excuses matter when it comes to a digital streaming file which does not have to travel across a physical border. In fact, the price difference feels worse when it comes to streaming a digital file from a remote server which may be located in one common location. For example, iTunes US rents most new releases for $3.99 (USD) while the same film costs $4.99 (CAD) in iTunes Canada. At the current currency rate, USD 3.99 = CAD 4.09. And this ignores the fact that for most of last year, the Canadian dollar was on par or above the American dollar.

Then there are the lack of legal streaming options in Canada compared to the US. Fandor and Hulu don’t stream in Canada while Netflix.com has almost 10,000 more titles than Netflix Canada. SundanceNOW also has more streaming films in the US than in Canada. Licensing rights are blamed for lack of film availability in Canada. But there are many titles that have no distributor or rights holder in Canada. To make matters worse, in a few cases Amazon.com won’t ship a DVD to a Canadian postal code even though there is no place in Canada that sells the DVD. I ran into this problem last year when Film Movement confirmed in an email that they don’t have legal rights to sell The Country Teacher in Canada. As a result, Film Movement and Amazon.com won’t ship a DVD of The Country Teacher to a Canadian postal address.

When seeking reasons for the lack of film title availabilities in Canada, some say it is due to the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regulations. But the CRTC can’t be blamed in all cases. Regardless of who is to blame, the fact remains that many films remain unseen.

If one followed the legal path, then one won’t have access to most films. But if a computer has the right IP Address, an American one in this case, then one has access to a world of films. But if a computer has a Canadian IP Address, then one must continue to be frustrated and see the message that the film is not available.

Best Films of the Decade: 2003-12

Compiling a best of the decade list using only top 10 film lists from 2003-12 resulted in omissions from many of the best directors in the world. That meant no films from Claire Denis, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pedro Costa, Béla Tarr, Manoel de Oliveira, Wang Bing, Terrence Malick, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jia Zhangke & Nuri Bilge Ceylan. In most cases, it took me a few years to catch up with the forenamed auteur’s work thereby making the film ineligible from an end of the year list. On a few occasions, worthy films narrowly missed out on the top 10. For example, Syndromes and a Century placed #12 in 2008, Uncle Boonmee.. was #15 in 2010 and The Turin Horse grabbed #18 in 2011.

In order to come up with a more complete best of the decade list, I put together a collection of stellar films that I caught a few years after the film’s release. Also, I included some films that were initially cut from my top 10 but placed in an end of the year list. The final tally of this collection ended up being a staggering 181 titles. These 181 titles combined with the original 100 more accurately reflects some of the best films of 2003-2012.

List 1 (reproduced here): 100 films from 2003-2012 top 10 lists

List 2 (in alphabetical order below): 181 films that were delayed viewing or narrowly missed out on the top 10.

12 (2008, Russia, Nikita Mikhalkov)
12:08 East of Bucharest (2006, Romania, Corneliu Porumboiu)
15 Park Avenue (2005, India, Aparna Sen)
2046 (2004, Hong Kong co-production, Wong Kar-wai)
35 Shots of Rum (2008, France, Claire Denis)
4 Months 3 Weeks 2 days (2007, Romania, Cristian Mungiu)
5x2 (2004, France, François Ozon)
A Town Called Panic (2009, Belgium co-production, Stéphane Aubier/Vincent Patar)
A Useful Life (2010, Uruguay, Federico Veiroj)
After this our exile (2006, Hong Kong, Patrick Tam)
Agrarian Utopia (2009, Thailand, Uruphong Raksasad)
Alamar (2009, Mexico, Pedro González-Rubio)
Alexandra (2007, Russia/France, Aleksandr Sokurov)
Apocalypto (2006, USA, Mel Gibson)
Applause (2009, Denmark, Martin Zandvliet)
Attenberg (2010, Greece, Athina Rachel Tsangari)
Avenida Brasilia Formosa (2009, Brazil, Gabriel Mascaro)
Away from Her (2006, Canada, Sarah Polley)
Baixio das Bestas (2007, Brazil, Cláudio Assis)
Ballast (2008, USA, Lance Hammer)
Before I Forget (2007, France, Jacques Nolot)
Between Two Worlds (2009, Sri Lanka, Vimukthi Jayasundara)
Black Butterfly (2006, Peru, Francisco J. Lombardi)
Blind Shaft (2003, China co-production, Yang Li)
Blockade (2006, Russia, Sergey Loznitsa)
Broken Flowers (2005, USA, Jim Jarmusch)
Bug (2006, USA, William Friedkin)
Café Lumière (2003, Japan/Taiwan, Hou Hsiao-heien)
California Dreaming (2007, Romania, Cristian Nemescu)
Carcasses (2009, Canada, Denis Côté)
Certified Copy (2010, France/Iran/Italy, Abbas Kiarostami)
Children (2006, Iceland, Ragnar Bragason)
Chronicles of an Escape (2006, Argentina, Adrián Caetano)
Citizen Havel (2008, Czech Republic, Miroslav Janek/Pavel Koutecký)
Climates (2006, Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Closer (2004, USA/UK, Mike Nichols)
Colossal Youth (2006, Portugal, Pedro Costa)
Continental: A film without guns (2008, Canada, Stéphane Lafleur)
Crane World (2003, Argentina, Pablo Trapero)
Crime and Punishment (2007, China, Zhao Liang)
Crimson Gold (2003, Iran, Jafar Panahi, Writer -- Abbas Kiarostami)
Curling (2010, Canada, Denis Côté)
De Muze (2006, Holland, Ben van Lieshout)
Delta (2008, Hungary, Kornél Mundruczó)
Departures (2008, Japan, Yôjirô Takita)
Dirty Carnival (2006, South Korea, Ha Yu)
Dogtooth (2009, Greece, Giorgos Lanthimos)
Dogville (2003, Denmark co-production, Lars von Trier)
Duck Season (2004, Mexico, Fernando Eimbcke)
Election (2005, Hong Kong, Johnnie To)
Elephant (2003, USA, Gus Van Sant)
Enter the Void (2009, France co-production, Gaspar Noé)
Euphoria (2006, Russia, Ivan Vyrypaev)
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010, USA/UK, Banksy)
Good Bye Dragon Inn (2003, Taiwan, Tsai Ming-liang)
Happy New Life (2007, Hungary, Árpád Bogdán)
Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003, India, Sudhir Mishra)
Helvetica (2007, UK, Gary Hustwit)
Hunger (2008, UK, Steve McQueen)
I Wish I Knew (2010, China, Jia ZhangKe)
Import Export (2007, Austria/France, Ulrich Seidl)
In Memory of Myself (2007, Italy, Saverio Costanzo)
Independencia (2009, Philippines, Raya Martin)
Inland Empire (2006, USA co-production, David Lynch)
In the Pit (2006, Mexico, Juan Carlos Rulfo)
Invisible Waves (2006, Thailand, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang)
Iraq in Fragments (2006, USA, James Longley)
It’s Winter (2006, Iran, Rafi Pitts)
I’m Not Scared (2003, Italy co-production, Gabriele Salvatores)
Japanese Story (2003, Australia, Sue Brooks)
Julia (2009, France/USA/Mexico/Belgium, Erick Zonca)
Khadak (2006, Belgium/Germany, Peter Brosens & Jessica Hope Woodworth)
Khamosh Pani (2003, Pakistan co-production, Sabiha Sumar)
Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003, USA, Quentin Tarantino)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005, USA, Shane Black)
La France (2007, France, Serge Bozon)
Last Life in the Universe (2003, Thailand/Japan, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang)
Let Each One go Where He May (2009, USA/Suriname, Ben Russell)
Like you know it All (2009, South Korea, Hong Sang-Soo)
Lion's Den (2008, Argentina co-production, Pablo Trapero)
Look At Me (2004, France/Italy, Agnès Jaoui)
Los Angeles Plays itself (2003, USA, Thom Andersen)
Los Muertos (2004, Argentina, Lisandro Alonso)
Lourdes (2009, Austria/France/Germany, Jessica Hausner)
Love Exposure (2008, Japan, Shion Sono)
L’Appolinde (2011, France, Bertrand Bonello)
L’Enfer (2005, France co-production, Danis Tanovic)
L’Intrus (2004, France, Claire Denis)
Machuca (2004, Chile, Andrés Wood)
Manufacturing Landscapes (2006, Canada, Jennifer Baichwal)
Memories of Murder (2003, South Korea, Joon-ho Bong)
Miami Vice (2006, USA, Michael Mann)
Mildred Pierce (2011, USA, Todd Haynes)
Milk of Sorrow (2009, Peru/Spain, Claudia Llosa)
Mirage (2004, Macedonia, Svetozar Ristovski)
Mithya (2008, India, Rajat Kapoor)
Mo & Me (2006, Kenya, Roger Mills/Murad Rayani)
Moolaade (2004, Senegal co-production, Ousmane Sembene)
Moon (2009, UK, Duncan Jones)
My Joy (2010, Ukraine co-production, Sergei Loznitsa)
Mysteries of Lisbon (2010, Portugal/France, Raoul Ruiz)
Mystic Ball (2006, Canada/USA, Greg Hamilton)
Mystic River (2003, USA, Clint Eastwood)
No Smoking (2007, India, Anurag Kashyap)
Notes on a Scandal (2006, UK, Richard Eyre)
Of Gods and Men (2010, France, Xavier Beauvois)
Oki’s Movie (2010, South Korea, Hong Sang-soo)
Oldboy (2003, South Korea, Chan-wook Park)
Our Beloved Month of August (2008, Portugal, Miguel Gomes)
Oxhide (2005, China, Jiayin Liu)
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006, Mexico, Guillermo del Toro)
Paprika (2006, Japan, Satoshi Kon)
Paradise Now (2005, Palestine co-production, Hany Abu-Assad)
Paraguayan Hammock (2006, Paraguay co-production, Paz Encina)
Paranoid Park (2007, USA, Gus Van Sant)
Parents (2007, Iceland, Ragnar Bragason)
Poetry (2010, South Korea, Lee Chang-dong)
Putty Hill (2010, USA, Matthew Porterfield)
Rapt (2009, France/Belgium, Lucas Belvaux)
Requiem (2006, Germany, Hans-Christian Schmid)
Rhinoceros Eyes (2003, USA, Aaron Woodley)
Rumba (2008, France/Belgium, Dominique Abel/Fiona Gordon/Bruno Romy)
Secret Sunshine (2007, South Korea, Lee Chang-Dong)
Shame (2011, UK, Steve McQueen)
Shut up & Sing (2007, USA, Barbara Kopple/Cecilia Peck)
Siddharth: The Prisoner (2008, India, Pryas Gupta)
Sideways (2004, USA, Alexander Payne)
Silent Souls (2010, Russia, Aleksei Fedorchenko)
Songs from the Second Floor (2003, Sweden, Roy Andersson)
Spare Parts (2003, Slovenia, Damjan Kozole)
Still Life (2006, China/Hong Kong, Jia ZhangKe)
Summer Wars (2009, Japan, Mamoru Hosoda)
Sun Spots (2009, China, Heng Yang)
Syndromes and a Century (2006, Thailand, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Synedoche, New York (2008, USA, Charlie Kaufman)
Take Shelter (2011, USA, Jeff Nichols)
The Barbarian Invasions (2003, Canada/France, Denys Arcand)
The Box (2009, USA, Richard Kelly)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007, France/USA, Julian Schnabel)
The Edukators (2004, Germany/Austria, Hans Weingartner)
The Ghost Writer (2010, France/Germany/UK,Roman Polanski)
The Girl Cut in Two (2007, France, Claude Chabrol)
The House of Sand (2005, Brazil, Andrucha Waddington)
The Inheritance (2003, Denmark, Per Fly)
The International (2009, multiple, Tom Tykwer)
The King and the Clown (2005, South Korea, Joon-ik Lee)
The Machinist (2004, Spain, Brad Anderson)
The Man’s Woman and other Stories (2009, India, Amit Dutta)
The Middle of the World (2003, Brazil, Vicente Amorim)
The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories (2007, Bulgaria, Director Andrey Paounov)
The New World (2005, USA/UK, Terrence Malick)
The Russian Dolls (2005, France/UK, Cédric Klapisch)
The Strange Case of Angelica (2010, Portugal co-production, Manoel de Oliveira)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005, USA, Tommy Lee Jones)
The Tiger Factory (2010, Malaysia/Japan, Woo Ming Jin)
The Tree of Life (2011, USA, Terrence Malick)
The Turin Horse (2011, Hungary co-production, Béla Tarr/Ágnes Hranitzky)
The Wind Journeys (2009, Colombia co-production, Ciro Guerra)
The World (2004, China co-production, Jia Zhang ke)
The Wrestler (2008, USA, Darren Aronofsky)
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006, Brazil, Cao Hamburger)
There Will be Blood (2007, USA, Paul Thomas Anderson)
Three Times (2005, France/Taiwan, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
Tinker Tailor Sailor Spy (2011, UK co-production, Tomas Alfredson)
Todo Todo Torres (2006, Philippines, John Torres)
Tony Manero (2008, Chile/Brazil, Pablo Larraín)
Torremolinos 73 (2003, Spain, Pablo Berger)
Tropical Malady (2004, Thailand, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Thailand co-production, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Undertow (2009, Peru co-production, Javier Fuentes-León)
United 93 (2006, USA co-production, Paul Greengrass)
Used Parts (2007, Mexico, Aarón Fernández)
We Own the Night (2007, USA, James Gray)
West of the Tracks (2003, China, Wang Bing)
Whisky (2004, Uruguay, Juan Pablo Rebella, Pablo Stoll)
White Material (2009, France, Claire Denis)
Win/Win (2010, Holland, Jaap van Heusden)
Woman on Fire Looks for Water (2009, Malaysia/South Korea, Woo Ming Jin)
Woman without a Piano (2009, Spain, Javier Rebollo)
You, the Living (2009, Sweden, Roy Andersson)
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004, USA, Xan Cassavetes)

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Top 10 of the decade, 2003-12

1. L’Intrus (2004, France, Claire Denis)

2. Tropical Malady (2004, Thailand, Apichatpong Weerasethakul) 

3. Colossal Youth (2006, Portugal, Pedro Costa) 

4. West of the Tracks: parts I, II, III (2003, China, Wang Bing)

5. Crimson Gold (2003, Iran, Jafar Panahi) 
6. The Strange Case of Angelica (2010, Portugal co-production, Manoel de Oliveira) 
7. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005, Romania, Cristi Puiu) 
8. Three Times (2005, France/Taiwan, Hou Hsiao-hsien) 
9. Foster Child (2007, Philippines, Brillante Mendoza) 
10. Los Muertos (2004, Argentina, Lisandro Alonso)

Runners-up: 

Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (2005, Brazil, Marcelo Gomes)
Liverpool (2008, Argentina, Lisandro Alonso)
Syndromes and a Century (2006, Thailand, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
My Joy (2010, Ukraine co-production, Sergei Loznitsa)
The Turin Horse (2011, Hungary co-production, Béla Tarr/Ágnes Hranitzky)
Climates (2006, Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

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The comparison of List 1 & List 2 is further proof that it often takes a few years to catch up with all the worthy films from one calendar year. And I am certain the above 278 titles still don't cover everything. I have missed many films over the last decade, including those by Lav Diaz, and need to catch up with a few 2011 & 2012 titles. So the above best of decade could still change in 2014.

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Update Log

Entry #1, Feb 13: Less than a few hours after posting this list, I realized that I left out The New World from the above list. So List 2 grew from 178 titles to 179. I am certain the list will grow in upcoming weeks, so I will gradually update this page and modify the top 10 as needed. But for now, the top 10 stays unchanged.
Entry #2, Feb 16: Hard to imagine I left out the wonderful Mexican documentry In the Pit. Also, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly deserves its place. Total titles in List #2 have been modified from 179 to 181.

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