Thursday, February 4th 2010

By unknown

Well, here we are. Can you believe we’re at the very end of Andy’s best of the decade list for film and music already? I can’t. Feels like yesterday we were reminiscing about John Mayer’s captivating croon or the significance behind Frodo and Samwise’s underling homosexual attraction in LOTR. For those of you who didn’t see your favourites, don’t be dismayed, I didn’t get what I wanted either. The most glaring omission? A serious lack of Coyote Ugly and Blue Crush to the mix. Guess you can’t always get what you want. Big shout out to our crew of volunteers, you know who are. I’d also like to take this time to cite the relevance of our four-week journey, without it McMaster and the thousands of enrolled students would not have had the opportunity to be profoundly influenced from our obvious taste and intuition of the very best. You’re welcome. Now for this week. In film, we have the Woody Allen inspired The Squid and the Whale (a personal favourite), the flawed yet memorably affecting The Dark Knight, a superbly taut thriller from the Coen brothers, and quite possibly Jim Carrey’s best, yet most restrained performance. For music, Canadians represent with Broken Social Scene and David Bowie’s favourite, The Arcade Fire; Radiohead chalk up two groundbreaking outings, and Sujfan Stevens regales with his ill fated States project, Illinoise. We hope you found our selections adequate, if not astounding, and here’s hoping the next ten years are just as memorable.

the movies

5. The Squid and the Whale (2005)

Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale is a sad, sardonic portrait of divorce. In 1980’s New York, Jeff Daniels plays Bernard, an arrogant writer whose feelings of commercial failure emote an intellectual superiority. When his wife Joan leaves him, their two children take the news in opposing ways. Frank, the eldest, emulates his father’s ideals while Walt, left to his own devices, naively participates in behavior unnatural for a nine year old. In terms of humour and perceptive catheterizations, Baumbach rivals some of Woody Allen’s best work.  Having a keen touch with his actors – especially Daniels, in a brilliant performance, Baumbach recreates a culturally vibrant Brooklyn of the 1980’s, alluding to numerous films, music, and literature. With a run time of a mere eighty-one minutes, the lesson to be learned is one need not create elaborate scenarios or effects in order to create compelling viewing. Hollywood, with its penchant for melodrama, has made very few films that encapsulate the true humanization of a family falling apart. Squid and the Whale is the exception.

•Myles Herod

4. The Dark Knight (2008)

The Dark Knight is the most groundbreaking superhero film ever made. Most attempts at portraying heroic men in tights on screen have largely ignored outside of the fanboy population.  The ones that were successful were whimsical and campy – like Richar Donner’s Superman (1978), even Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002) or exaggerated and stylized – like Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). Few made a serious attempt at portraying superheroes in the real world, enter Christopher Nolan. Of course, Heath Ledger’s scene-stealing performance as The Joker mesmerized audiences, transforming him from Aussie heartthrob into a sadistic maniac. His nuanced rendition of the classic villain was immediately thrust into cult status surrounding the tragic events of his death. Most people wouldn’t expect a superhero movie to have such Academy Award winning performances in it. Or at least before you wouldn’t, which says something about what The Dark Knight did for the overall respectability of the genre.

•Jordan Collver

3. Amélie (2001)

Amélie, first released under its French title Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, is a pretty film that offers a look at life and what makes it beautiful. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the film follows the shy and lonely protagonist, Amélie, who quietly changes the lives of others around her for the better. She covertly manipulates her co-workers, neighbours and family members, plotting sneaky pranks, which result in successful matchmaking, reunions of love lost among other happy surprises. But she doesn’t stop there; Amélie also takes it upon herself to provide increased difficulties for those who are cruel to others, such as the tricks she plays on the grocer who is unkind to his staff. The film is colourful and bright, composed of little subplots that diverge into new character-driven narratives entirely. Nominated for five Academy Awards, this film is possibly particularly entrancing because it concerns itself with the lives of others, voyeurism and urban loneliness, in a deeply romantic and aesthetically pleasing one hundred and twenty-two minutes running time.

•Grace Evans

2. No Country for Old Men (2007)

While the Coen brothers had mixed successes for much of the early 00’s, they came back with a bang with No Country for Old Men. A modern day western, Josh Brolin’s everyman Llewelyn plays a deadly cat and mouse game with Javier Bardem’s coin tossing, sociopath hitman Anton Chigurh, over two million dollars in drug money. While it was the Coen brother’s first action movie, the film continued their signature capture of America’s regional mannerisms, and stoic, seemingly unstoppable villains. Amazing cinematography shows the vastness of the Texan desert, which is amplified by its lack of a soundtrack. Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem both had their breakout roles in No Country while acting, writing and directing are all superb, leading to a truly exceptional cinematic classic.

•Noah Nemoy

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s audacious reflection on memory and love lost redefined the romantic comedy. The film is a brilliant rendering of Kaufman’s anguished neuroses and twisted eccentricities, and the deep sincerity and earnestness of Gondry. Similar to Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, Gondry steers Kaufman’s nihilistic scepticism towards unflinching hope and into the breathless void of brokenness and beauty. Jim Carrey deftly plays the neurotic ex-boyfriend trying to salvage the memories of Clementine, the object of his affection. Clementine’s assessment of Joel is accurate: Joel’s personality is as bland and muted as the winter landscapes in the film. While self pity isn’t particularly attractive, Carrey makes it endearing. And when Joel tries to purge his own memories of Clementine, the audience realizes that love transcends insecurity, disagreements, and emotional instability. Inventive and painfully real, Eternal Sunshine portrays both the beautiful and fragile sides of love uniquely and heartbreakingly, so much so that Gondry virtually remade it in his next film, The Science of Sleep.

•Mike Clemens

the albums

5. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot it In People (Year)

A violinist, saxophone player, drum machinist, trumpeter, pianist, percussionist, trombone player, guitarist, flutist, harmonica player, bassist and a few vocalists walk into a recording studio; What kind of music would you expect to come out? I certainly would not have guessed it to sound anything like the peacefully chaotic and artistically inspired music of Broken Social Scene. Musical collaborations simultaneously have the potential for greatness and the possibility for failure as the minds of musicians can either flow beautifully together or clash in artistic confusion. The Toronto-based indie rock band Broken Social Scene has successfully achieved the former as fourteen musicians are brought seamlessly together on the album You Forgot It in People. In a seemingly effortless manner You Forgot It in People blends together catchy beats and hauntingly appealing overtones that will either have you up and dancing or lost in thought. It’s a well-made musical montage.

Notable track: “Lovers Spit”

•Trevor Roach

4. Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)

Another smash hit for Radiohead, this album is filled with driving and intricate percussion, the sort of expert guitar work fans have come to expect from Johnny Greenwood, and of course the haunting, and often incomprehensible, vocals of Thom Yorke. This album makes use of everything from electronic sounds to string arrangements and everything in-between to create what is an often lonely, and deeply personal sounding album, perhaps best represented by the popular single “Reckoner.” With this in mind, what truly makes this album significant is its widely publicized release as a “pay what you want” download. Radiohead is not the first band to release its own album in this format, but it was the potentially costless nature of it to the consumer and inherent “we could care less about record companies” attitude that made this a groundbreaking move by the band.

Notable track: “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”

•Harrison Cruikshank

3. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (2005)

Come on Feel the Illinoise, Sufjan Stevens’ fifth record, is perhaps the most ambitious album of the past decade.  As part of his grandiose experiment to produce an album for every state (which is now defunct,) Illinois is the fullest sounding, and the lushest of his records. He moves confidently beyond the stripped down aesthetic of folk music and orchestrates breathless compositions complete with brash horns, strings and percussion (“Chicago” is a near perfect pop song). However, Steven’s does not forget his “roots” and dutifully sings in the folk tradition of writing about the stories of the people. While he certainly explores the historical anecdotes of the “Land of Lincoln” with detail and accuracy, Stevens goes beyond the historical sense of place, and delves into the spirit of being. The history of Illinois functions as a conduit to Sufjan Steven’s own history and his personal experiences. Even the disturbing story of serial killer John Wayne Gacy Jr. is somewhat autobiographical. Illinois is a remarkable accomplishment of both musicianship and storytelling. Using the state of Illinois as a backdrop, Stevens deftly expresses the ecstatic truth of life’s beauty and brokenness. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “There is properly no history, only biography.”

Notable track: “Chicago”

•Michael Clemens

2. Radiohead – Kid A (2000)

Upon its release, people couldn’t decide whether Kid A was a groundbreaking masterpiece, or a spectacular failure. Casting electronic melodies against orchestral or ambient backgrounds, its frigid synthetic atmosphere marked a total reversal in musical style from the group’s 1997 multi-platinum breakthrough album, the anthemic guitar-heavy OK Computer, putting off many fans who dismissed Kid A as Radiohead’s failed attempt to outdo themselves. When treated as separate from OK Computer however, Kid A shines as a perfect ode to the twenty-first century, fusing themes of fear, technology, violence, hopelessness, and disconnection into a rather unnerving work of beauty. No singles were ever released, but standout tracks such as “Everything in its Right Place,” “Idioteque,” and “National Anthem” serves as structural centerpiece’s to the album, mixing eerie lyrics with an infectiously danceable break beats, synthesizer, and a free jazz brass section.

Notable track: “Everything in its Right Place”

•Michael Hewak

1. The Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)

After the Arcade Fire worked their way onto the Canadian cover of Time Magazine in the spring of 2005, it was apparent that they were about to become the influential indie-rock group during the second half of the past decade. The Arcade Fire’s then distinct musical style, a sound that seemed to combine French Canadian folk music with that of echo-heavy, thoughtful and guitar driven underground British rock music of the nineteen eighties, became ubiquitous with what it meant to be ‘indie’ in the years following its release. Indeed, prior to Funeral, no one was making music quite like the Arcade Fire. After Funeral, aspiring indie-rock heroes the world over began adopting the group’s sound without looking back.

Notable Track: “Wake Up”

•Corrigan Hammond