The Best Movies I Watched In January 2016

January is known to be a dredge month for film releases, so it was a perfect time for me to catch up on some recent releases that I had missed as well as a few classics that have been on my "To-See" lists for far too long.  I'm only going to write about three in detail, but some of the other movies I watched were damn fine as well.

Other great movies I watched:  Paddington, The Wicker Man, The Philadelphia Story, Room, The Revenant, On The Waterfront, James White

The Great Beauty

God almighty is this film pretty. This movie won the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2014 and even without having seen the other nominees I can say it was deserved. This movie is so artfully composed I can only compare it to films like Baraka and Koyaanisqatsi- but those are avant-garde screensaver-type movies and this one actually has an elegant plot. The story of an aging writer/socialite enjoying frivolities and managing malaise recalls La Dolce Vita in a good way; this isn't quite theft or even homage of that famous tale, but rather something of an update. Malaise persists, after all, to the modern age. Protagonist Jep Gambardella is trapped in that all-too-real place where he recognizes how devoid of meaning his life is but he cannot seem to stop himself from enjoying the distractions. In director Paolo Sorrentino's version of Rome, the distractions are just too beautiful to be ignored. I am now officially angry at myself for not catching Sorrentino's Youth, released this past awards season. Put it on the To-See list!

Mustang

Son of Saul is the horse to beat for this year's Foreign Language Oscar, but gosh darnit I want more people to see the Turkish masterpiece that is Mustang. I can recommend this one whole-heartedly to anybody. The movie tells the story of five sisters growing up under the guardianship of a few tradition-minded (ultra-conservative) aunts and uncles. The girls feel trapped in their current environment and act out in rebellious ways; some of these transgressions are minor and others have severe repercussions. Comparisons to The Virgin Suicides are inevitable, but this story seems so embedded in Turkish-ness (and indeed, much of the story by writer-director Deniz Gamze Ergüven is based on her own experiences) that it really should be judged on its own merits. The film's transition from lighthearted coming-of-age tale to emotionally-devastating social critique is so seamless that I didn't notice it until I realized I was weeping. Walking out of the theater I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry and in the end I was too emotionally exhausted to do either. This is the real deal.

The Intouchables

I started The Intouchables and was really ready to hate it. I despise the trope where a young, poor, black man is paired up with an old, rich, white guy and over the course of the movie the two teach each other how to get the most out of life. Even writing that sentence kind of gave me the heeby-jeebies. That plot was maybe okay for movies made in the 70s and 80s, but not in 2011. Anyways, long-story-short the aforementioned trope is the exact plot of this movie and somehow, through the sheer charisma of the two leads, I could not help but fall in love with it. Almost nothing surprising happens in this movie; things play out in the plot about how you expect they should. The only surprise is the acting chops and hilarious antics of the two suddenly-best-friend guys, and I got swept up in how genuine their relationship felt. I'm still mad at myself for enjoying this so much, but I was powerless against it. This movie proves that compelling characters can overpower a lot of otherwise weak or even offensive elements. I hope they make a sequel, just so I can keep hanging out with these two.