The Playlist's Best Films Of The Year... So Far

We kind of hate lists. We really do. They perturb us. As Glen Kenny just wrote in his evaluation of the recent "New Classics" list by Entertainment Weekly, "Lists are bullshit. Lists are such blatant bullshit that any magazine person will admit to you that they're bullshit. Why do magazines and websites do them almost all the frickin' time? Because lists are putatively "fun." People notice them, argue about them. They take them fairly seriously, pretty much regardless of what their sources are...oddly enough. For a magazine in particular, a list is a potential goldmine of publicity. It gets your product noticed. TV news, radio outlets, they LOVE lists."

Which is totally true. It's easy, it's lazy and it's almost always motivated out of monetary/traffic concerns. But in the face of all the horrible movies out there this year getting semi-decent ink, we thought we'd list our favorite films of the year so far in the small, small hopes of getting some of them noticed.

Even worse about this post is we'll be providing little context on the surface; but links to all our reviews are provided where applicable. Also, we just need to get the bad taste of "Hancock" out of our mouths, and this is a small, small token in that direction. This post is just full of Playlist no-nos. We also do not endorse, mid-year lists either, but see the above sentence about Hancock to see why we're going against our principals here, sorry.

The Playlist's Best Films Of The Year... So Far

"Reprise"
Two Norwegian best friends and aspiring writers lives are forever changed by fame, love and chance.

"4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days" (NY Times review, we didn't properly review)
A unflinching and haunting abortion story set during 1980s Romania where such procedures are highly illegal, the chronicle becomes potent by being told through the eyes of the friend trying to assist the matter who pays her own heavy psychic toll. It's a kind of brutal in spots, but super powerful.

"Anvil! The Story Of Anvil"
Winning documentary about the under-appreciated and underachieving Canadian heavy metal icons, Anvil.

"My Winnipeg"
Guy Maddin's "docu-fantasia" about his Winnipeg hometown is part propaganda piece, part civics history lesson and part imagined fabrication, the film is infused with his trademark wintry aesthetics, a drunken sleepwalking milieu and dysfunctional autobiographical elements that are eroticized and creatively embellished.

"Mister Lonely"
Directed by enfante terrible gone softer, Harmony Korine, 'Lonely' stars Diego Luna as a Michael Jackson impersonator who meets Marilyn Monroe impersonator Samantha Morton in Paris and the two travel to a "magical land" that acts as a home to Charlie Chaplin, James Dean and many other impersonators by actors unknown and well-known (the latter includes the great Anita Pallenberg and James Fox - somone's been watching "Performance").

"The Edge Of Heaven"
Three seemingly disparate Turkish and German families intercede through fate and chance in this Kieslowskian-esque film by noted director Fatih Akin.

"Joy Division"
Grant Gee's (Radiohead's "Meeting People Is Easy") endlessly compelling and well-crafted take on the Joy Division story.

"Forgetting Sarah Marshall"
A jilted ex (Jason Segel) tries to forget his famous celebrity ex and heartbreak by escaping to Hawaii only to find this ex gf, Sarah Marshall (played by "Veronica Mars"' Kristen Bell) there as well with her new boyfriend to boot (British comedian and TV personality Russell Brand). Bittersweet, charming and funny.

"The Counterfeiters" (yes, an Oscar 2008 winner, but only released Stateside in the winter)
Colluding Jewish Holocaust prisoners try and outwit the Germans forcing them to create counterfeit money to collapse the Allied economy in a devious, longtale subterfuge.

"The Go-Getter"
A road trip flick of personal discovery inspired by a parent's death that stars Lou Taylor Pucci (the breakout star of "Thumbsucker"), Zooey Deschanel, indie-enthusiast Jena Malone and scored by sensitive Merge alt-folkie M.Ward

"Frozen River"
A desperate mother turns to smuggling illegal aliens with a Native American accomplice who also leads a hardscrabble life.

"Snow Angels"
David Gordon Green's fourth feature tracks smalltown relationships, both budding and disintergrating, in this tragic wintry tale starring Olivia Thirlby, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell and Michael Angarano.

"In Bruges"
Colin Farell and Brendan Gleeson star as contract killers sent to the medieval Beligian city of Bruges after a botched hit at the behest of their loose cannon boss Ralph Fiennes.

Many of these films may not make the cut at the end of the year, so keep in mind it is a mid-year list, but "Reprise" was so amazing we're not sure if anything can topple it. Read more...

'Anvil! The Story Of Anvil:' A Heavy Tale Of Perseverance And Metallic Inspiration

“I can’t envision myself being a millionaire,” Anvil frontman/guitarist Steve Ludlow, a k a Lips, told the New York Times a few short weeks ago. “but I can envision myself going to a gig every night and making enough money to make ends meet. I want to be the biggest bar band in the world and work endlessly.”

That's a pretty great summary of the underdog life of the Canadian metal band Anvil and their uphill slog of a story as told in the Sacha Gervasi directed documentary, "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" (cheekily titled on purpose). We saw the keenly self-aware yet condescension-free documentary this weekend over at BAM's Sundance Institute in Brooklyn and while we didn't want to do a full-blown review quite yet, we just wanted to note just how amazing it was.

The influential yet overlooked and underachieving rockers were once one of the key bands in the early '80s metal scene and early pioneers of the lightning fast sound that became known as thrash metal, but due to a confluence of circumstances - incompetent managers, inept record labels for just two examples - the band were never able to capitalize on their sound the same way bands like Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer did (representatives from all those bands, plus Motorhead's Lemmy and Guns N' Roses' Slash all adamantly sing the bands praises in the doc).

Alternatively, hilarious, pathetic and moving, 'Anvil' goes from a doofusy, real-life "This Is Spinal Tap" set-up (you think they're morons who should've given up the ghost a long time ago) to an incredibly poignant and very human story of friendship, brotherhood, cockroach-like tenacity and resilience in the face of the harshest of obstacles (you want them to succeed in every way imaginable). No joke, the inspiring tale provoked an emotional standing ovation after the screening where Gervasi (who wrote the Spielberg film, "The Terminal") and the Anvil hosers were onhand for a Q&A (more on that in another post). The guileless rockers (now in their 50s!) also rocked out for an amazing 45 minute concert afterwards (which totally ruled). You might (and probably don't) not know anything about this band nor care one iota about heavy metal, but that won't delude your enjoyment of this film in the least. 'The Story Of Anvil' is a remarkably gratifying and universal tale and probably one of our favorite movies of the year so far; it was that fucking good.

Noted texturalist David Torn composed the moving Mogwai-like score (he also wrote the score to "The Wackness" coming out later this summer among many other great scores like the recent "Lars And The Real Girl" one) and apart from featuring a shit-ton of Anvil songs, the film also features tracks from Explosions In The Sky, Air and Alice Cooper to name a few (but yes, it's all about Anvil at the end of the day). So yeah, highly, highly recommended. More on this film in the next few weeks including details revealed in the Q&A and afterwards. PS, their website rules.
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High Tops And Long Locks: Canadian Metal Hosers Soar In 'The Story Of Anvil'

If you had bad hair and taste in the late 80's (like me) you are well familiar with the mainstream breakthrough of metal acts like Metallica and Slayer. What you may not know is that for one brief millisecond in those heady days of high tops and long locks, a band of hard rock hosers in Toronto were poised for similar stardom. Or were they?

"Anvil! The Story of Anvil" is a documentary that tells this tale of this little band that couldn't - and still can't. But that's not for lack of trying as here we are 20 years after the band's greatest moment, their 'hit'"Metal on Metal", and the band is still alive, still making the kind of classic head-banging clatter that even folks in the depths of eastern Europe have 'moved on' from.

The film begins with a who’s who of Metal luminaries – Slash, Lemmy, Lars Ulrich from Metallica, and Tom Araya of Slayer – all professing their debt and touching respect to Anvil. While the presence of Ulrich has drawn the obvious comparisons to Metallica’s "Some Kind of Monster," the film is more like "American Movie" meets "Spinal Tap." Anvil are essentially the real life ‘Tap. Lead man Steve "Lips" Kudlow and childhood-friend drummer Robb Reiner (the irony man!) are now married, with kids, working dead-end jobs, playing half-empty holes in the Toronto suburbs yet still talk of 'making it' like they were 15-year-olds. It's deluded, and kinda sad, but also so damn inspiring.

It's hard not to root for these lovable losers as we follow them on a disappointing and disastrous tour of Europe. At one bar, the camera pulls back to reveal an near empty room and one solitary dude kicking back in a recliner, shaking his fist - yet the band plays on like they’re rocking Roskilde. Backstage at some 3rd Tier Euro fest, like a kid on Christmas morning, Kudlow chases down aging rocker Carmen Appice (Vanilla Fudge anyone?) – “Remember us? Anvil? (He doesn’t). And when Lips starts reminiscing with the wide-eyed reverence about Appice putting the moves on his girlfriend, it’s awkward and hilarious.

The half-empty halls, missed trains and scuffles with promoters pushes Rob and Lips to the brink, and their Troggs-ian blow-up in the streets is one for the ages. Licking their wounds, coming back home, the guys decide to pour everything into a new record, with predictable results – one record exec, in the understatement of the century, says “finding an audience for this would be a challenge” – uhhh, no shit.

We can’t imagine being able to sit through one of their albums either, but on screen, I can’t get enough of them because Anvil! isn't really about the music - it's a story about a friendship. Goofy, sweet and naïve, Kudlow and Reiner are like the kids in "Superbad"...only in their 40's. Director Sascha Girvasi’s history with the duo – he was teen ‘roadie’ for the band for a year in the 80’s – earns him a trust that gets them to open up about their families and their friendship in a way that makes you hurt every single inevitable time that musical door is slammed in their face. And although Girvasi stage manages the whole thing with perhaps a little too much mock, and too little doc for purists, there's something triumphant about the idea of Lips and Robb finally getting something akin to the 'Hollywood treatment' – hell, who needs a slot at Isle of Wight when you’re the toast of Sundance?
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This review was written by original Playlist member Angelo Colussi who attended a screening at the recent Toronto Hot Docs festival. Once such example of the Playlist music email-zine can be read here if you want to get nostalgic.

Watch 'Anvil' Clips: AnvilMovie.com
Watch: Anvil - "Metal On Metal"

Watch: Sundance '08 - My Premiere: Anvil! The Story Of Anvil

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