Also Worthy and Worthwhile «Keep The Lights On,» «Neighboring Sounds,» «A Royal Affair» (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard guy should have also been in our Breakout Performances of 2012 piece), «The Forgiveness Of Blood» (already Criterion approved with good reason), «Shut Up and Play the Hits,» «Compliance» (captivatingly ugly), «2 Days In New York» (hilariously neurotic, Julie Delpy is clearly the heir apparent to Woody Allen), «Cosmopolis,» «Side By Side,» «Argo,» «The Turin Horse» (Goodnight, Mr. Tarr you sweet prince of the
bleak and wretched), «Once Upon A Time In Anatolia» (in many ways mesmerizing and beautiful, but for me, ultimately more in a cerebral way than in a moving, emotional one), «Goodbye Love» (Mia Hansen - Love clearly watches the
films of her husband Olivier Assayas; a spiritual cousin to his last 3 - 4 pictures), «Elena,» «Francine» (great non-judgemental direction; Melissa Leo is terrific), «Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,» «Alps,» «The Loneliest Planet,» «The Kid With The Bike» and
pretty much every
film in our 11
Films You May Not Have Seen list.
Martin McDonagh's
bleak, hilarious slice of small town life feels like a
pretty major step up from his previous two
films, In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, by virtue of focusing on true blue humanity in a way those other
films did not.
Both Trainspotting and Young Adam, the two big Scots
films of the last few years, are both
pretty bleak and existential in nature.