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The ten DVDs/movies I'd recommend most from 2010.

My Ten Best DVDs Of 2010

This is something new for me, in fact its a first. In all the time that I’ve been critiquing I’ve never put together a list of the movies/DVDs which have appealed to me most in a year. So what’s so different about this year that all of a sudden I feel compelled to inflict my opinions on you? Looking over the list of movies I’ve selected the only reason I can think of is because none of them are ones that are going to be getting much, if any attention, elsewhere.

Let me be clear, I’ve not put this list together just because they are the 10 most obscure movies of the year, they just happened to be ones that I’ve liked the most from those released this year on DVD that I’ve reviewed. There are other movies I’ve watched this year I might have liked more, but they weren’t current releases or I didn’t review them. (Primary among those was the film adaptation of Arturo Perez-Reverte’s books set in 17th century Spain, Alatriste with Viggo Mortensen in the title role. It’s taken me nearly two years to find a copy of the movie as its never been released in English speaking North America, but if you can get your hands on a copy of the South American DVD do so as its a brilliant film.) However, that does not diminish the worth or quality of the titles listed below as each has something of value to offer an audience.

You might not necessarily be entertained, and I wouldn’t recommend sitting down and watching all ten of them back to back, but the viewing will never be boring. I’ve never been a big fan of the passive entertainment that’s normally on offer in our multiplexes and cinemas, and the list below is reflective of my tastes, so my choices aren’t likely to have much in common with similar retrospectives. Hopefully you will be intrigued enough to follow the links to check out the full reviews and maybe even watch one or two of them. They may not be what you’re used to, but they’re all fine examples of the art of film making and the power of visual communication.

Che: The Collectors Edition. This three-disc collection contains both parts one, The Argentinean and two, Guerrilla, which trace Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s life as a revolutionary. From his success in helping Fidel Castro overthrow the American backed Batista government in Cuba to his death in Bolivia, we follow him through the jungles of South America. While there’re obviously going to be disputes over his place in history, hero or villain, there can be no disputing this is an excellent movie and that Bencio Del Toro gives the performance of the decade in the title role of Che. Complaints have been made that the movie ignores the executions he ordered and is biased, but after more than a century of a pro-American bias in history books, and in media and film when it comes to Latin America, isn’t it about time we see and hear something representing another opinion?

The Yes Men Fix The World. About a month ago the mighty oil company Chevron was publicly embarrassed when their new ad campaign was subverted by press releases under their logo announcing they were taking full responsibility for all the environmental damage they’ve caused. Naturally they were outraged and said they would never admit to any wrongdoing or take any responsibility for any actions they may or may not have done. The Yes Men had struck again. Andy Bichlbuam and Mike Bonanno have been doing their best to take the corporate world to task for decades. They’ve done everything from go on live television as representatives of Union Carbide Chemicals promising to finally clean of and provide proper compensation for the disaster in Bhopal India to appearing as representatives of HUD in New Orleans after Katrina announcing the government had changed their mind and would rebuild all the public housing destroyed in the hurricane.

This movie documents the various actions they have taken around the world, showing us how they go about preparing for events, and just how gullible most of the corporate world really is. Unfortunately, as they are the first to admit, while they may be having a good deal of success increasing public awareness of what corporations like Chevron are up to, they’re not having much success in stopping them. While corporate America might claim to be victims after a Yes Men prank, after watching this movie you have to wonder how that’s possible. A multi-billion dollar corporation on one hand, and two guys, some friends, a good graphics program, and a whole lot of chutzpah on the other hand—and the former are the ones crying foul because they’re being called on their failures to take responsibility for destroying the world and the deaths of thousands of people? After watching a documentary like The Yes Men Fix The World you begin to understand why the world is in such a mess and how much work we still have to do in order to have a hope in hell of fixing it. At first, this is a bit of a laugh, and although it ends hopefully, the overall impact is the realization we need millions of Yes Men if we ever hope to change the world.

Lost In La Mancha. Anybody who has any illusions left about the film industry will quickly have them dashed after watching this documentary about Terry Gilliams attempts to film an adaptation of Don Quixote. What was supposed to have been a student project, two film students follow the director of a major motion picture through the process of making a movie from pre-production to screen. It ended up becoming a record of the insanity involved in producing a film in today’s market. As Gilliam discovers, there is little or no room for artistry or imagination in a world where all anybody is worried about is the box office results, and not how you get there. The truly depressing thing about this documentary comes at the point when you realize the potential lost with the movie remaining unmade. Without being overt, but just by letting the facts speak for themselves, Lost In La Mancha shows just how far removed film making has become from anything close to representing an artistic vision.

Black White & Grey. I’d wager that most Americans who even think they know something about the visual arts wouldn’t be familiar with the name Sam Wagstaff. However, if you have any interest in photography as an art form, according to this DVD, it’s Sam you have to thank for it being considered something other than a poor cousin to painting and sculpture. The movie traces Wagstaff’s career in the arts. He was a curator who championed experimental art in the early 1960s, an independent collector of first objects d’art and then photographs, and then patron of the arts through his championship of his lover, the brilliant but controversial photographer, Robert Maplethorpe.

As is usual with this type of film a great deal of what we learn about the man comes from other people’s opinions, and some of the talking heads are just a bit catty and should be taken with a couple tons of salt. However, people like poet and rock singer Patti Smith not only provide a good deal of insight into Wagstaff’s motivations for collecting, but go behind rumour and innuendo in describing his and Maplethorpe’s relationship. Without people like Sam Wagstaff, it is impossible for a country to reach its potential culturally. Not a visual artist himself, he had an eye for knowing what was real and the courage to champion unpopular work. This is a moving portrait of one of the great unsung heroes of contemporary art in North America.

The End Of Poverty? Anyone out there who still doesn’t consider the economic imperialism of the developed world to be the root cause of poverty in Africa, South America and Asia needs to watch this movie. Interviews with economists, historians and individuals from various countries whose lives have been effected by the economic policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank show both how the system works and its results. When a country is forced to allow foreign corporations to develop their national resources so they receive little or no economic benefits and have no say in how the development takes place, the situation is bad enough. When the raw product is then shipped overseas for processing and then sold back to the country again at usurious prices the effects on their economy are crippling. It’s more than obvious after watching this movie that the answer to the question of the title is, there is no end in sight when it comes to poverty. You may want to deny what your hearing and seeing at first. but the arguments and testimony are too compelling to be ignored. By the end of this film you will have to agree there is a serious problem and the only way it can be addressed is if we radically change the way we treat the developing world.

Taqwacore: The Birth Of Punk Islam. This is rock documentary with a difference. Inspired by Muslim convert Michael Muhammad Knight’s novel The Taqwacore he and a collection of Islamic punk bands head out on a barnstorming tour of the US with their ultimate destination being the Islamic Society Of North America’s national convention. When the tour is over, the cameras and Knight then follow one of the bands over to Pakistan where they are attempting to start a punk movement in their parents’ homeland.

For Knight, it is also a chance to revisit the mosque where he first studied after converting and to continue his exploration of his new faith by visiting the shrines of various Sufi saints. While a bit rough around the edges the movie does a good job in not only capturing the excitement felt by the young people involved in the tour and their fiercely independent attitude—best expressed by Knight as giving the finger to both Bush and fundamentalist Muslims. The movie also introduces us to Knight, a figure of interest for having converted to Islam at seventeen, and we learn he is a very complex and intelligent man not afraid to take responsibility for past mistakes and willing to accept the challenges converting throw at him. A fascinating portrait of a man that will also offer viewers a far different view of Islam than is normally seen in popular media – a view that as many people as possible need to see.

A Single Man. Aside from being one of the most beautiful examinations of life and death ever depicted, a wonderful script, and amazing cinematography this film should be compulsory viewing because of Colin Firth. Maybe there have been more flamboyant performances by an actor in a movie before, but this, to my mind, has to have been one of the most complete I’ve ever seen. Everything, from his body language to the way he uses his voice conveys something of his emotional state every step of the way through the movie. Their is such grace and economy of movement in everything he does that you almost forget he is acting. It’s still beyond me how he could have failed to win the Oscar for best actor. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, do so now as its brilliant.

Leonard Cohen: Bird On A Wire. In 1972 Leonard Cohen was probably at the height of his international popularity as a singer/songwriter. On his twenty concert tour of Europe that year he was joined by documentary film maker Tony Palmer who followed him with cameras on and off stage from Dublin, Ireland to Tel Aviv, Israel. For various reasons, the film was never released and it was only in 2009 Palmer was informed the raw footage had been found in a warehouse in Los Angeles. After a year of restoring and doing what he could, he came away with this remarkable portrait of both Leonard Cohen the individual and Leonard Cohen the performer. You’ll be surprised at both Cohen’s sense of humour and the intensity of his passion. While there are obvious deficiencies in the sound quality, the tour was plagued by equipment trouble, the concert footage is wonderful for its intimacy and the way it captures the connection Cohen has with his audiences. While one movie will never be enough to reveal Leonard Cohen, this one does a remarkable job in peeling back some of his layers.

Infidel. There are occasions when a little irreverence is a lot better than a ton of seriousness, and this movie is proof positive of that. Completely without shame this movie makes fun of fanatics on both sides of the Muslim-Jewish divide without ever losing sympathy for the individuals caught in the middle. Omid Djalli plays a British-born man who is the son of immigrants from Pakistan. Naturally he has always assumed he’s a Muslim, but when his mother dies he discovers not only was he adopted but he was born to Jewish birth parents. At first, he tries to overcompensate, making blustery anti-Zionist comments, but soon he decides he must get in touch with his real roots.

He turns to a Jewish taxi driver, Richard Schiff, who teaches him dance steps from Fiddler On The Roof, how to shrug and say “oy vey” and other essentials of Judaism. This movie is bound to offend people on both sides of the issue who take themselves too seriously, and brings a much needed human face to the divide between the two faiths. People tend to forget that Jews and Muslims are kin from way back, and it’s politics that truly separates them, not religion. Hopefully this movie will help us all remember the things we have in common are more important than those which divide us.

Charles Bukowski: One Tough Mother If you ever needed proof that notoriety is probably the worst enemy of art, this two DVD set is a perfect example. Each DVD contains footage from one of the last two public readings American poet Charles Bukowski ever gave. Over the years his rough and honest poems and his vivid descriptions of the rough life of an alcoholic garnered him a literary reputation as a great writer.

Unfortunately far too many people were unable to separate the man from his work and would show up at his readings in the hopes of seeing some “action”. So while the record of the two readings does give us a great idea of his abilities as a writer, we also quickly see why he stopped giving public readings more then fifteen years before his death. He can barely get through a poem’s introduction without being heckled, and is reduced to having to yell at the audience to shut up so he can keep reading. Even his occasional reminders that they paid for him to be there, and he’ll happily sit there and say nothing if they don’t shut up, doesn’t stop them from acting like idiots. It’s a real pity, because if they bothered to listen they would hear between the lines the real beauty and pain that he describes in his poems and might just realize he’s not anything like they think or expect. Watching these movies lets you know just how much our expectations of those we call celebrities can actually destroy the art we claim to appreciate.

About Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of three books commissioned by Ulysses Press, "What Will Happen In Eragon IV?" (2009) and "The Unofficial Heroes Of Olympus Companion" and "Introduction to Greek Mythology For Kids". Aside from Blogcritics he contributes to Qantara.de and his work has appeared in the German edition of Rolling Stone Magazine and has been translated into numerous languages in multiple publications.

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