The Resident Bitch Prepares for the MoFo 2010s Countdown

I liked the way that it addressed the aftermath of being part of a violent event. And specifically I really like the sequence where

Killer Joe (William Friedkin, 2011)
(Rewatch)

This is a wonderful example of a movie in which shitty people do shitty things to each other and it actually works for me. And these people are really shitty. Every one of them is an absolute garbage human being, but the movie is such trashy fun that the fact that they are such horrible people works in its favor.

The performances are excellent - Gina Gershon, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, and Thomas Haden Church all make for great brainless trailer trash and Matthew McConaughey is superbly repulsive and fascinating as the ruthless police detective who moonlights as a hitman for hire - and the movie is so packed full of ultra dark humor that I simply can't look away as I grapple with competing feelings of disgust and amusement.

As much of an entertaining ride as it is though, I don't know if it's got enough going for it to secure a spot on my ballot but it's definitely not out of the running.

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I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach, 2016)
(Rewatch)

This is a really powerful movie that puts into sharp focus the struggles of those who are dependent on government assistance and the dehumanizing hurdles they face while trying to navigate the system. Dave Johns gives a wonderful performance as Daniel, a man trapped in that system - stuck in an impossible situation with no way to make money - desperately battling the bureaucracy while trying to maintain his dignity. Hayley Squires is equally great as Katie, the single mother of two that Daniel befriends and does his best to help. It tells a very bleak story, though it does try to balance that bleakness with humor, and is very tough watch but is well worth seeing.

To trot out an old cliche: it made me laugh, it made me cry.

I agree that it's a hard movie to watch, but it's so full of humanity and empathy and even a certain brand of hope that I loved it even as it was punching me right in the soul.

We did a food drive in my room last month and I kept thinking about that scene in the food bank from this film. I actually went a bit overboard--I went to the grocery store to buy 10 or 20 cans and ended up spending like $60 on canned items because I just kept replaying that scene in my head and getting overwhelmed and putting more things in my cart, LOL.

Oh man, that scene is so tough to watch. I cried some last night watching it, but the first time I saw it I was sobbing so hard.

I like Juno Temple. But 2011...that's a while ago. What is she a teenager in this?

Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallée, 2013)
(Rewatch)

This is a film with a powerful message about compassion and the rights of the terminally ill, driven by a pair of really incredible performances. It also does a really wonderful job of capturing its setting and mood. It's success in this is especially impressive considering its relatively tiny budget.

All that said, though, this has never been a particular favorite of mine. I have loads of respect for it and, among those nominated, I think McConaughey and Leto were well deserving of their Oscars, but for some reason it just doesn't quite strike that emotional chord that would make me love it.

Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach, 2019)
(Recommended by @seanc)

Like I, Daniel Blake, this is a difficult movie to watch and it stands as an indictment of an unfair system. In this case, it's an indictment of the gig economy and of the ridiculous demands put on such workers. It's hard to watch this pair of hard working people fall apart and find nothing but hardship at every turn - facing unbearable stress at their jobs while finding no respite at home as tensions in the household rise and their emotionally neglected children begin to act out.

It's a very well-crafted film and I'm glad to have watched it, but it didn't move me the way I, Daniel Blake did and I find myself respecting it much more than I actually liked it.

Tikkun (Avishai Sivan, 2015)

Whatever this movie was trying to say - about religion, death, life, whatever - was lost on me and its snail's pace left me completely disengaged. I spent the full two hours feeling nothing but a vague sense of revulsion at pretty much everything on the screen - with the exception of one particular scene near the end where that feeling of revulsion lost its vagueness and became quite apparent.

I'll give it some credit for the look of the film and some strong performances, but I think in the future I'll be avoiding any suggestions or nominations that deal so much with religion.

You should post that in the group watch thread as well.

Done. Something came up right as I was posting this so I had to step away for a bit.

No worries

You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay, 2017)
(Rewatch)

Like another, better known (and Oscar winning) Joaquin Phoenix role, You Were Never Really Here is a character study of a man struggling psychological trauma and social isolation who turns to violence as a means of coping.

But this is a very different sort of film. The violence is not cathartic for either the audience or the film's protagonist. Indeed, we often don't even get to witness his acts of brutality, but instead only get to see the aftermath. And whereas that other film (which I'll likely be watching next) is a bit showy and bombastic, this film is quiet and meditative and its central performance hinges on subtlety. Dialogue is sparse and the film always keeps its audience at arm's length, and yet even so I feel very much connected to it because we also get small glimpses of this man's humanity and capacity for gentleness - stopping to pet a cat or offering comfort and pain relief to a dying man that he's just shot.

It's a wonderful showcase for Phoenix's talent and a very unique and engrossing film to watch. It's also a lock for my ballot and I'll be very disappointed if it fails to make the countdown proper.

It will certainly be on my ballot as well, and it's a film I go back to over and over.

It's funny--I know you weren't a fan of Tikkun at all, but I see some similarities in the way that the main characters interact with the world and also the way that they are filmed in relation to their surroundings.

I also think that You Were Never Really Here is one of the best combinations of drama and thriller elements that I've ever seen, period. It doesn't just alternate between those two modes--it exists as both for almost the whole runtime.

Yeah I saw you make that comparison in the Group Watch thread. I'd already planned on rewatching You Were Never Really Here today (as a double feature with Joker, which has a lot of parallels with it) so it was kind of an interesting coincidence. I can see the similarities between them, but I just couldn't connect at all with Haim-Aaron. Actually I found him kind of creepy and off-putting, even before the scene with the car wreck.

I get it.

I think that he is creepy and off-putting. In You Were Never Really Here, the main character is made more lovable by both his relationship with his mother and the fact that he spends a fair amount of the film saving children from harm. But Haim-Aaron doesn't really have those redeeming qualities. He clearly loves his family (and vise-versa), but there's a really strange energy to their interactions. He is deeply religious, but his religious studies don't connect him to the world around him, quite the opposite.

Both characters are alienated and isolated, but in You Were Never Really Here it's a direct result of trauma, while in Tikkun the main character just . . . doesn't seem to belong in the world.

You Were Never Really Here will probably make my ballot as well. Here's hoping it makes the countdown.

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Joker (Todd Phillips, 2019)
(Rewatch)

I have to say that when this movie was first announced I was not at all excited about it. I knew I would watch it, but I've never been much of a fan of anything superhero related (unless you count The Incredibles). Then that teaser trailer hit and I was stunned.

I'll admit though, that it took me a couple of viewings before I loved the movie, but love the movie I do and my admiration for it has only grown since then. I love the grit and the realism. I love the violence. I love the dark humor. I love the look of the film - the way it is lit and shot so that it lends a strange and mesmerizing beauty to the filth and unrest of the city.

But of course the main thing I love is Joaquin Phoenix. He disappears into this role and his transformation is both mesmerizing and terrifying. But perhaps the most frightening thing about him is how human he is - damaged and disturbed - but human. As he's done with other despicable characters before, Phoenix endows Arthur Fleck with depth and raw emotion and makes this downtrodden man turned joyful killer into a sympathetic figure. And what is perhaps most striking about this performance too is the way that Fleck's physical and mental health seem to improve with each act of violence. Though this is not my favorite of his performances (nor even of his performances from the 2010s), it is definitely among his best and, as such, makes this movie an absolute lock for my ballot.

Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
(Recommended by @cricket)

In attempting to review this, I have a bit of a dilemma: Do I rate it highly, because it's incredibly well-crafted, or do I give it a more neutral rating because I don't think I ever want to watch it again?

Nightcrawler is incredibly well-crafted - and also aptly titled. It's crawling with soulless, slimy people in settings that are equally disgusting. Jake Gyllenhaal's Louis Bloom is equal parts intriguing and revolting as a freelance crime journalist who views his work more like a movie production and will go to terrible extremes to create the perfect shot.

And with all this spectacle of greed, carnage, and misery, I couldn't look away but I also felt somehow unclean for having watched it. It's an amazing film, but also one that is just, well, kind of icky and my lack of desire to see it again means it's unlikely to make my ballot.

It seems I prefer films with crap people lol. Killer Joe my favorite from this page but also love The Town, Joker, and Nightcrawler.