The Last 10 Films I've Seen_ Project Nim Stands Out

Here are the last ten films I've seen; I will write a brief commentary on some of the films after they have been listed:

1. "The Tillman Story (doc. 2010. Dir-Amir Bar-Lev)

2. *Project Nim (doc. 2011. Dir- James Marsh)

3. *The Guard (Ireland. 2011. Dir-John Michael McDonagh)

4. Man Push Cart (2005. Dir- Ramin Bahrani)

5. The Stoning of Soraya M. (2008. With Farsi subtitles. Dir-Cyrus Nowrasteh)

6. Days and Nights (Egypt. 1955. Dir-Henry Barakat)

7. Benny's Video (Austria. 1992. Dir- Michael Haneke)

8. * Another Earth (2011. Dir- Mike Cahill)

9. #% Summer Love/O Da Beni Seviyor (Turkey. 2001. Dir- Baris Pirhasan)

10. Bhutto (doc. 2010. Dir-Duane Baughman)

*-Films I saw at a cinema

#-Previously viewed film

%- Not released in the United States

Many of the films I saw dealt with the Middle East or Central Asia in one form or another.

One of the exceptions is film number two "Project Nim," yet another amazing documentary from the director of "Man on Wire." Like his last film, this one also deals with radical risks and the obstacles they pose for those who undertake them. In this case, those risk-takers are a group of people, as opposed to one man in particular, as the film examines the reasons why many people tried to humanize a chimp named Nim and the results which ensued.

The fifth film "The Stoning of Soraya M." is an American movie by a right-wing director who had helmed the highly controversial "Path to 9-11" tv docudrama. This time he surprisngly takes on human rights and female oppression, two subjects that have been usually involved liberal filmmakers. Though no one would argue that the stoning executions of women in Iran for alleged infidelities are ever justified irregardless if the woman engaged in such affairs or not, the film felt very much like a '70s Turkish melodrama with a forced script and considerable over-acting. Nonetheless, since the film has a 7.9 rating on the IMDB, it apparently has its fans.

"Benny's Video" is yet another wonderful and disturbing film by Michael Haneke, which was the director's second film. Like both versions of "Funny Games," this film explores how fake violence on tv and in film can influence young people towards dasterdly deeds.

"Summer Love" has its production flaws, as is common in Turkish cinema, but it is a moving coming of age story with brilliant cinematography and tremendous acting by its young cast. And, unlike most films from my late father's country, this one actually has a happy ending!

Best Films of 2001- A Very Good Year

We are continuing our look at the best films which are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year, with a look at the films we consider to be the ten best of 2001.

This was an amazing year for film as there were many acclaimed films from either established directors, such as "Mullholland Drive" (dir. David Lynch) or up and coming filmmaking stars of international cinema, such as "The Piano Teacher" (France. dir-Michael Haneke) and "Fat Girl" (France dir-Catherine Brelliat).

Along with these three titles the following titles were considered, but did not make our list, including "Amelie," "Black Hawk Down," "A Beatiful Mind," "Y Tu Mama Tambien?," "Frality" and "Waking Life," from one of my favorite directors Richard Linklater.

So, here is our list:

1. A.I. (Steven Spielberg)

2. In the Bedroom (Todd Field)

3. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)

4. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson)

5. Storytelling (Todd Solodnz)

6. Spirited Away (Japan. Hayao Miyazaki)

7. Ali (Michael Mann)

8. Monster's Ball (Marc Foster)

9. No Man's Land (Bosnia. Danis Tanovic)

10. The Believer (Henry Bean)

The Semi-Annual Oscar Rant

For starters, it should be pointed out that I am/was one of the people who thought that expanding the field to nominated films for Best Picture Oscar to ten was a good idea.

Perhaps this was because I felt that one of the great talented directors of my generation Wes Anderson had been snubbed once too often. Well, Anderson made yet another solid film this year in "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" but even with an expanded field, it was still snubbed! The film is nominated for Best Animated Feature, but the odds of it upsetting "Up" are about the same as North Carolina Central University, the 'other school' in Durham, NC, winning the NCAA tournament!

But, my main beef with the Academy Awards is that "The Blind Side," a film which appears to be nothing more than a two hour "ABC Afterschool Special" actually landed a nomination for Best Picture! One could say I am being very pre-judgmental because I haven't seen the film myself, but I thought the 30-second trailer was painful enough! Somehow, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Sandra Bullock, who has done some fairly good acting here and there given her limited range, wins the coveted Oscar over Carey Mulligan who gave a wonderful performance in "An Education."

This is also the first year that my choice for best film of the year ("Up in the Air") and worst film of the year ("Avatar") have both been nominated for Best Picture. I can't say enough negative things about "Avatar" which is somehow an even more annoying over-the-top boring spectacle than director James Cameron's (pictured) previous epic box office champ/Oscar winner "Titanic." Of course, "Avatar" will win Best Picture which is almost enough to make me think I would vote for "The Hurt Locker" by Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow even though it ranks eighth on my Ten Best List. "Up in the Air," on the other hand, is a truly wonderful film in every regard. At least, it got nominated.

I also disapprove of the Oscar nomination for "District Nine," my second least favorite film of 2009. Like "Avatar," it's a completely fake film with no interesting characters which moves at an agonizing slow pace. The only impressive thing about either film seems to be their special effects, but if looks alone were a criteria for selecting a nomination then one should nominate Sandra Bullock for Best Actress (oh wait, they did that, didn't they?!).

I must profess that there were some pleasant surprises from the Oscar nominations this year. "An Education," "A Serious Man," "Up in the Air," "Inglorious Basterds" and "The Hurt Locker" are deserving of Oscar nominations even though I personally had qualms with the final act of Quentin Tarantino's film ('Basterds).

Stanley Tucci ("The Lovely Bones"), Matt Damon ("Invictus") and Christopher Waltz ("Basterds") are terrific nomination choices in the Best Supporting Actor category. The same can be said for the cast of "Up in Air." George Clooney was nominated for Best Actor and his co-stars Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick were nominated for Best Supporting Actress. I was also delighted to see Jeff Bridges get a Best Actor nomination even though I have yet to see his film "Crazy Heart." And, with a few major exceptions, I was pleased with the Best Director and screenwriting nominations as well as many of the technical categories.

And, lastly it was great to see the great Austrian director Michael Haneke's film "The White Ribbon" get nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film.

Of course, there's no way in expletive H-E-DoubleL that the film will actually win what many of us film fans consider to be the category with the most dubious history (at least in recent years). But, there is always a chance that your horse can win the Kentucky Derby, and I suppose that is the reason why we always watch the Oscars. But, this year, I might actually turn off the set before the Best Picture Oscar is announced.

My Top 25 Films of The Decade (second draft)

The French film "Cache/Hidden" from Austrian director Michael Haneke is actually my favorite film of the 2000s, but more people are familiar with "Sideways." Haneke's film was ranked 16th in the recent "Film Comment" critic's poll for best films of the decade. David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" was the magazine's top pick.

Here is the rest of my list, updated from an earlier December entry:


1. "Cache/Hidden" (France)
2. "Sideways"
3. "Distant" (Turkey)
4. "Lilya 4-ever" (Sweden)
5. "A History of Violence"
6. "Little Children"
7. "A.I."
8. "The Darjeeling Limited"
9. "Talk to Her" (Spain)
10. "Ten" (Iran)
11. "City of God" (Brazil)
12. "Lost in Translation"
13. "Almost Famous"
14. "The Magdalene Sisters" (Ireland)
15. "Up in the Air"
16. "Edge of Heaven" (Turkey/Germany)
17. "The Pianist"
18. "Borat"
19. "Before Sunset"
20. "Waltz with Bashir" (Israel)
21. "Downfall" (Germany)
22. "y tu mama tambien" (Mexico)
23. "Three Times" (Taiwan)
24. "I'm Not There"
25. "Into the Wild"

My Ten Best Films of the Decade (2000-09)

It is hard enough to choose the best films of the year, but it always even more daunting to proclaim a film to be 'the best movie of the decade.' I am still deliberting if Robert Altman's "The Player" was a better film than Mike Figgis' "Leaving Las Vegas," which gave Nicholas Cage an Oscar. Those are my two top choices for the best of the nineties.

This decade saw the emergence of international film. It was the decade of cinema globalization as now good films can come from Mexico, Brazil, Iran or Turkey as easily as they can come from The United States, France, Germany or Japan.

There are also many great films which did not make this list including "Elephant," "Lost in Translation," "21 Grams" and "There Will Be Blood."

All lists by their nature subjective and if mine reflects a bias it comes that reflected by a British film critic who when listing his ten best films ever made said he was choosing a Turkish and an Iranian film because those films were always overlooked. Perhaps, because Turkey is my late father's country, I fully sympathize with that view. And, perhaps for that reason, a Turkish and an Iranian film made my list, but I assure you both "Distant" and "Ten" are outstanding films, irrespective of my own bias.

Here is the list, with a compilation of titles I thought about selecting listed under 'honrable mention:'

1. Cache (Hidden)- France, 2005. dir. Michael Haneke
2. Sideways- USA, 2004. dir. Alexander Payne
3. Distant- Turkey, 2002. dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
4.Lilya 4-ever- Sweden. 2002. dir, Lukas Moodysson
5. A History of Violence- USA/Canada. 2005. dir, David Cronenberg
6. Little Children- USA, 2006. USA. dir, Todd Field
7. AI- USA, 2001. dir, Steven Spielberg
8. The Darjeeling Limited- USA, 2007. dir, Wes Anderson
9. Talk to Her- Spain, 2002. dir, Pedro Almodovar
10. Ten- Iran, 2002. dir. Abbas Kiarostami


Honorable Mention:
"21 Grams"
"Y Tu Mama, Tambien?"
"4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days"
"In the Bedroom"
"You Can Count on Me"
"Grizzly Man"
"Downfall"
"Mullholland Drive"
"The Fantastic Mr. Fox"
"The Royal Teenbaums"
"City of God"
"Borat"
"Bruno"
"Before Sunset"
"Bus 174"
"spirited Away"
"Minority Report"
"The Road to Perdition"
"I'm Not There"
"Climates"
"High Fidelity"
"Little Miss Sunshine"
"Lost in Translation"
"Fog of War"
"Bright Future"
"Best of Show"
"Frost/Nixon"
"The Wrestler"
"The Aviator"
"The Departed"
"There Will Be Blood"
"No Country for Old Men"
"Mystic River"
"Million Dollar Baby"
"Elephant"
"Traffic"
"Almost Famous"
"The Pianist"
"The Magdalene Sisters"

And, I'm sure there was at least one film I overlooked!