Unsolved Movie Mysteries

Mystery is probably one of the most popular genres of film, and also one of the oldest - the first true 'mystery' movie can be dated all the way back to 1903 with "The Great Train Robbery." Being a fairly established genre, a mystery movie follows a general set of rules, but the most imperative one of all is that something which is at first hidden or unknown must be revealed. The timing of this revelation is a matter of dramatic choice; typically it serves as the climax of the movie, the point where suspense breaks and the audience can breathe a sigh of relief. It's the thrill of discovery that makes these movies so much fun - we all want to think we're smarter than everyone else, and whether we do it consciously or not, we all like to search for covered truths, especially in film. So what do we do with the movies that don't play by the rules? Leaving a mystery unsolved or incomplete is probably considered one of the greatest narrative faux pas ever, and the idea of neglecting closure on a mystery is so out of touch with popular mindset that Hollywood has all but ruled out the idea. Still, that mindset didn't stop some renegade directors from crafting these sinister movies that boggle the mind and leave it boggling long after the credits roll. This isn't some cheap trick - in almost every instance, for what we don't learn in the story, we learn something deeper on a fundamental human level - a truth about ourselves and the limits of what can even be known as truth. Woah man. So, here we go - my 10 favorite unsolved movie mysteries:

10. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel, 1962) - Bunuel was well into middle age when he made El ángel exterminador, and by that point he had left both Spain and America because of his controversial work. Having then lived in Mexico for 18 years, this film was is first that he had complete artistic control of during that entire period and he really relishes in that freedom. The basic outline of the story is that a group of wealthy friends gather for a dinner party in a decadent house and break etiquette by overstaying their welcome. However, when they finally find that they want to leave, they find themselves unable to. There is no physical barrier preventing them from crossing, but no matter how hard they try, they cannot will themselves to leave. In this scenario, Bunuel presents a situation with no rational explanation but with significant implications - as the days go by, the civility that coats these people's standard of living wanes and the characters find themselves venturing into witchcraft and brutality in their isolation. The story is a clear-cut satire of the upper class: when stripped of the privileges that keep them superior, they resort to the most savage of beasts. Suddenly, as if nothing had happened, the curse is broken and the guests finally are able to leave with no explanation. No explanation is needed, though, as the sinister truth about the characters has already been revealed. As his final sleight, Bunuel closes his film within a cathedral, where a mass is being dismissed and the churchgoers find themselves unable to leave. As always, none are spared from Bunuel's vision.

9. L'Avventura (Michael Antonioni, 1960) - The 1960s opened up the decade with some groundbreaking films (Psycho, Peeping Tom, Breathless, La Dolce Vita), and L'Avventura is one of those that literally shook the grounds of cinema. The movie, set in Italy, begins with two friends, Anna and Claudia, going on a yacht trip to a volcanic island, with Anna's love Sandro coming along. Tension between Anna and Sandro are apparent right off the bat and references are drawn to a previous split they had. When they reach the island, the three of them take a nap together and upon waking up, Claudia and Sandro find that Anna is missing. Soon, a massive search is assembled, but she is nowhere to be found. Could she have committed suicide? Could she have been murdered by her boyfriend? Could she have just disappeared? And, as if her character had never existed, the movie moves on - a love affair forms between Claudia and Sandro. There is no time for atonement or moral development; the characters simply act for themselves. Anna is never mentioned again. There is no weight behind the actions in the film - Sandro soon betrays Claudia for a call-girl, and Claudia finds the two together. In the end scene, Sandro and Claudia are together, both staring into nothingness, each a brittle twig undergoing too much force. Thus is life.

8. Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997) - David Lynch has been called many things: an absurdist, the modern American surrealist, an unmethodical fraud, a pretentious asshole. Lost Highway is an amalgamation of all those things - cryptic at best, absolute nonsense at worst and naturally it has slowly built itself up as a cult classic. Still, it's a hell of a watch that will leave you either wishing you could have your two hours of watching it back or two more hours to fully digest it. The plot (if you can call it that) begins with a saxophonist named Fred who suspects his wife, Renee, of cheating. The movie is drenched in abstract and surreal loops and turns, including an ominous message that says "Dick Laurent is dead" and an androgynous Mystery Man who stalks Fred, but all that aside, Fred soon finds himself watching a videotape of him killing his wife and soon after is arrested for murder. In jail, he begins having headaches and hallucinations, and one day when the guards come to check on him, they don't find Fred but rather a teenage mechanic named Pete. The police have no choice but to let him go. Pete begins to fall for a girl named Alice who has suspicious similarities to Renee, and Pete soon falls into lustful desires. However, later in the film, Pete undergoes a retrometamorphosis back into Fred. A full analysis would probably fill up this entire blog post, but I'll just leave it at that and say that there is something to be gained from the confusion.

7. Last Year At Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961) - This is a movie that has polarized critics for years, some claiming it to be one of the greatest philosophical movies ever made, while others pinpointing it as the worst. I can't say I'm a fan of the film, but if anything can be said about the movie, it's that Resnais is completely successful at what he set out to do: as a director, he completely blurs the lines between truth and fiction, reality and dream. Taking place at a château, the film revolves around one man trying to convince a woman that they met the previous year at Marienbad, while another man (we interpret to be the woman's husband) tries to resist his temptations. In fact, as a viewer, we are given the option of whether to submit to the film's nonsensical allure or to resist, saying to ourselves that it makes no sense. And it really doesn't - we see parallel conversations throughout the film, a soft-spoken narrator speaks the same phrases over and over again, the setting feels like it is constantly shifting. Time itself could be stacking on top of itself. Suffice to say, the wandering never stops and we never find out whether woman A ever met man X last year. The film is madness - hypnotic, dreamy madness.

6. Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder, 1990) - I find this movie fascinating simply because every American court room drama I have ever seen is focused on one thing and one thing only: the truth. Reversal of Fortune throws out any notion of what truth even is, and instead uses this ambiguity to turn itself on the justice system: when there is no certainty of truth, how is a system supposed to judge? In the movie, Claus von Bülow is accused of putting his wife in an irreversible coma by giving her an insulin overdose, but he makes an appeal and hires Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz for his case. Dershowitz puts together a team of pragmatic law school students to lead the appeal and review evidence. An interesting narrative twist in the movie is that the whole thing is narrated from the comatose Sunny von Bülow who gives flashbacks of the married couple to shed some light on what actually happened. The more we see, the more we realize that Sunny was actually leading her own path to self-destruction through drug use and idleness, but Claus was just as neglectful of her as she was of herself - we never discover whether it was Sunny or Claus who dealt the final blow. We also discover that the original murder case that convicted Claus was full of holes and did not hold up in the appeal. Despite this victory, Dershowitz gives Claus his final farewell: "One thing, Claus. Legally, this was an important victory. Morally - you're on your own. "

5. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963) - Hitchcock may be the most iconic mystery director of all time, and for good reason - he pretty much invented the formula. What I love most about Hitchcock is the fact that he was a director who cared just as much about form and technique as he did about storytelling, and a movie is never really complete without either. The Birds is a movie that falls fairly late in his career, and it was at this point in his career that Hitchcock really started playing around with the formula that he himself created. Take Vertigo, which is more a psychoanalytical piece on obsession rather than a mystery, and Psycho, which kills off the protagonist halfway through. However, The Birds was probably his biggest narrative risk as there is no answer to the mystery: nothing can explain the deranged action of killer birds over the course of three days in any literal context. It plays as a strange and prophetic view of a temporary apocalypse and suddenly reverting back to reality at the cusp of insanity - if that's not terrifying, I don't know what is.

4. Picnic At Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975) - I hate to admit it, but there really aren't that many worthwhile films from Australia, but Picnic at Hanging Rock is one of those movies that everyone should watch at some point. For one, it was Weir's breakthrough movie (The Truman Show, Dead Poet's Society) and a shining achievement of the Australian New Wave cinema movement, and for another the whole movie is drenched in a magical aura that is sure to keep your head wrapped around it for days. The movie tells the story of an all-girls boarding school that takes a trip to Hanging Rock on Valentine's Day in 1900. Despite of the headmistresses' commands, four girls climb up the rock to explore it's plateau, and at the top all but one of them (Edith) fall under some sort of spell and advance into a crevice in the rock. Edith runs back to the group while another teacher heads up the rock on her own. Though a search party is assembled, no one is able to find the missing girls (similar to L'Avventura). Suffice it to say, Picnic at Hanging Rock is as much an allegory of sexual repression as it is of mystery. The movie captures an age group that is at the height of sexual exploration overrun by the towering and oppressive authorities of the boarding school - the girls' escape into the rock is an expression of sexual freedom, and the teacher who follows (whom Edith sees running without a skirt) joins in that freedom. This act of unbridled resistance to repression stirs the entire school and town - especially since the girls were never seen again.

3. Hidden (Cache) (Michael Haneke, 2005) - Few films demand as much focus and interpretation as Haneke's Cache, but almost no films offer as much reward for what you put in. The movie begins innocently enough: a long still-shot of a Parisian street showing a typical day as the credits roll out. Soon after, though, this peaceful shot is twisted into a shocking revelation of voyeurism: we find out that the shot is actually a videotape of a couples' house (Georges and Anne), and the tape was anonymously sent to them for them to see. Somebody is watching them. More tapes arrive, shot in the same format, sent to the couple. Is it a warning? A joke? Whatever it is, both Georges and Anne become shaken by the tapes, and Georges begins searching for answers. As he does so, he finds his past haunting him, revealing a secret that he has kept from everyone else. The videos reveal a lot about Georges character, but nothing about their existence. It might be the director himself tormenting his flawed character. It might be the fact that we are actually watching the movie that the characters feel unease about being watched. We will never know.

2. Blow-Up (Michael Antonioni, 1966) - Being the second entry here from Antonioni, you can probably guess that the director gets his kicks out of being elusive, but hey, at least he made some great movies along the way. Blow-Up is a movie that is divided down the middle: one half is the cool, hip protrayal of London mod culture at its finest (including a famous cameo by The Yardbirds) and the other half is a compelling murder mystery in which the main character, Thomas, a fashion photographer, ventures into voyeurism by taking pictures of a random couple in a park and upon deeper inspection of the developed photo discovers a dead body in the background. The films obvious metaphor is brilliant: with a single picture, the closer you try to look for details, the more blurry things become. Upon blowing-up the photo, we see what could be a gunman in the photo, but it could just as well be a patch of bushes. There may have never even been a murder; Thomas goes back to the same spot and finds a body, but when he returns later with a camera, the body is gone. In the famous last scene, we even see the main character, Thomas, disappear into a sea of grass. Nothing is certain and what we do know is skewed. This is a film of deep artistic edge, a thrilling conception of pop-art and Zeitgeist - unfortunately, at this point, people only know it as the film that Austin Powers is making fun of.

1. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950) - There are those movies that leave such an impression on genre and film-making that it would be impossible to look at modern cinema without considering their influence; Rashomon is one of those movies, and was really the movie that introduced the world to Japanese cinema and Kurosawa. It is also probably the most elusive film ever made - supposedly during production the assistant directors came up to Kurosawa and had to say "we don't understand it at all" (a sentiment that is paralleled in the first line of the film: "I just don't understand.") Rashomon is the retelling of the murder of a samurai by four eyewitnesses to the crime: the bandit, the wife, the murdered samurai (by way of a medium) and a passing woodcutter. The majority of the film is composed of flashbacks, albeit flashbacks that don't add up to a sum. Instead, we are left with a sea of discrepancies - each storyteller bends reality to their own truths, and most confusing of all is how they all accept the blame for the murder. Even the woodcutter's story, which reveals the supposed 'truth,' covers up the fact that he stole the dagger after the murder. Rashomon is scary in what it reveals in humanity: the only thing that we care about is self-preservation, and we will go as far as to create our own realities to save ourselves from our own shame. The mystery remains unsolved but the meaning is crystal clear.

Top 5 Awesome Movie Whales

It may be shark week on the Discovery Channel, but do you know what I think is cooler than sharks? Whales. Why? BECAUSE THEY'RE FUCKING HUGE. They have the largest brains on the planet. They breathe through their blowholes. They are the loudest animals on Earth. They kick ass without needing to take names. Because whales are so cool, I decided that I'm going to make a list in veneration of them. So I present what I think are the top 5 most awesome movie whales. By the way, all of these whales could squash Flipper with a single swat.


5. Monstro (Pinocchio, 1940) - Pinocchio was Disney Studio's second animated feature, and for a kid's tale it has a pretty twisted plot. If a wooden puppet coming alive wasn't freaky enough, Pinocchio also gets locked away by an evil puppeteer, joins a rowdy group of boys who drink and gamble on "Pleasure Island" and almost gets turned into a jackass and sold to the circus. Managing to escape all of this, Pinocchio is faced with his biggest trial yet - rescuing his father, Gepetto, from the bowels of a ginormous blue whale. Like a bamf, he heads out to sea, gets eaten by the monster, and is briefly reunited with Gepetto in the guts of the whale. Together they plan their escape by burning wood inside the whale, forcing him to sneeze them out of his blowhole. This works, but the enraged whale chases the pair, and eventually rams Pinocchio against the rocks, killing him. (I give props to Monstro for being one of the few Disney villains to actually kill the main character). In the end, though, the Blue Fairy decides that Pinocchio has proved his worth and turns him into a real boy. I can still remember the chase at sea being one of the more traumatizing memories of my childhood, though. Good job, Disney.

4. The Squid and Whale Diorama (The Squid and the Whale, 2005) - The whale in this movie might not be real per se, but plays a very important role in the development of the characters. The Squid and the Whale is the story of divorce and its impact on the family, most especially for children who are often pressured to take the side of one parent. Walt, the older son, defends his Dad while Frank, the younger son, feels sympathy for his Mom, but are constantly tugged one way or the other. Noah Baumbach's semi-autobiographical portrayal felt very realistic, and having gone through a similar experience, I identified a lot with the characters, especially Frank (though I didn't smear semen on my school lockers - my elementary school didn't have lockers.) The turning point in the film comes when Walt discovers that his favorite childhood memory was that of his Mom taking him to see the Squid and the Whale exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. With this revelation, he realizes that his Dad isn't exonerated from the mess they were now in, and if anything is to blame. The movie finishes with Walt going back to revisit the diorama and soaking it in - perhaps to forgive his Mom in his own way and to wash himself free of the whole affair.

3. Flying Sperm Whales (Fantasia 2000, 1999) - No, you did not just drop acid. Yes, those whales are flying. A lot of people were mixed about Disney's revamp of their classic (and I am one of those people), but I'd be lying if I didn't say this was a truly spectacular piece. Set to the soundtrack of Respighi's "Pines of Rome," this short begins with a family of whales doing what they normally do - swimming, singing, flipping babies in midair. Suddenly a light from a star shines on them and they just take off, like that! The serenity of floating doesn't last long, though, as the baby gets separated from the herd and becomes trapped in an ice cavern. The tension eases when he gets caught in what looks like an alien abduction to return to his parents. However, the finale is the real kicker, when all of the whales join together and fly up into the clouds and migrate together into the bright golden horizon, into the light that summoned their flight. The CGI of the whales looks a bit dated, and I think they would've been better off sticking with flat animation, but despite that flaw, you're still bound to have goosebumps by the triumphant end.

2. The Whale (Werckmeister Harmonies, 2001) - To call Bela Tarr's masterpiece meditative is an understatement. In the 2 1/2 hour running time there are only 39 shots, making an average shot length almost 4 minutes. By doing this he really makes the viewer live within the film (or fall asleep, depending on the viewer), and doesn't preach, but challenges us to comprehend his vision. The story takes place in a small Hungarian town during winter when a circus truck comes through and stops in the main marketplace. Despite the cold, people come from all around to see the main attraction - a huge whale carcass concealed in an iron cage. These strangers form their own cult settlement in the town, and the presence of both the foreign circus and the strangers bring unrest throughout the town. János, the main character, is different because he is absolutely compelled by the whale, astounded at how such a creature could even exist. The whale serves as a symbol for both the fear and wonder of the unknown, and the breaking point comes when a disfigured man called "The Prince" is revealed behind the whale. The Prince is the fulcrum that decides whether society gives in to fear or accepts János' wonder of things we cannot understand. I won't explicitly give it away, but the films climax is one of the most harrowing depictions of humanity I've ever seen caught on screen.

1. Willy (Free Willy, 1993) - Free Willy isn't that great of a movie. It's not bad, but I'll come right out and say it isn't great; if you don't like that, you are probably wallowing in a pool of nostalgia that at some point you're going to drown in. Still, nonetheless, Willy is always a character I'll hold dear in my heart because he is someone who you can connect with at any age. I mean, look how fucking heart-warming this trailer is. As a society we've always had a soft spot for Orcas - apparent by how long Shamu has been the star attraction of SeaWorld and other water parks. Why not, they're like the pandas of the sea! Willy is great because he is something that Shamu couldn't possibly be - a friend. He understands that Jesse cares for him, and would do anything to set him free. Sure, anthropomorphism has been employed many times before, but never with a 10,000 lb sea creature and rarely as effectively. And that last scene where Willy has to jump the rocks for safety, right over Jesse's outstretched arms has to be one of the most inspiring shots of any kid's movie.

"A Candy-Colored Clown They Call The Sandman..."

With the release of "Inception" this week, Christopher Nolan joins a milieu of filmmakers who have tried using the subconscious as a dramatic platform. Specifically, the exploration of dreams has fascinated both writers and directors, giving no limit to visual style or story structure. It's a world where symbolism and setting rule over plot or progression, and meaning could be hidden anywhere. So, in honor of this narrative motif, I'll give my top 10 "Dream Films." (note that I didn't organize these movies in order of their overall quality, but how well they used the idea of dreams in them. Also, under normal circumstances I would include "Mulholland Dr." on this list, but since it topped my last list, I'd rather go for variety.)

10. Dreams (Akira Kurosawa, 1990) - 'Dreams' is an appropriate enough title to start off this list, and it really is all in the title. Kurosawa's film consists of eight separate vignettes, each based off of a dream that he had at some point in his life. The stories range from a young boy mourning the loss of his peach orchard, which are enchanted back to life by mysterious dolls, to a nightmare about a family withering away in a nuclear holocaust. The colors and cinematography are beautiful, and Kurosawa plays out every scenario with poignant care.




9. A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984) - Wes Craven might be best known now for consistently shitting on the already floundering horror genre, but it's important not to overlook his gem of a slasher flick, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" for giving us something truly original - Freddy Krueger, a character who can kill you in your dreams. What Craven really did was put a playful shift on the genre - scary movies are made to give you nightmares, but here it's the nightmares themselves that he scares us with.





8. Paprika (Satoshi Kon, 2006) - In the realm of anime, Kon is the king of psychological suspense, and with "Paprika" he delves directly into the world of dreams. The movie is based around dream therapy, in which the main character, Dr. Atsuko, uses a device called the "DC Mini" to enter peoples dreams as her alter-ego 'Paprika' and analyze them as a psychiatrist would to cure mental ailments. Things go awry when the DC Minis are stolen and the thieves use the devices to invade peoples' dreams and cause them to commit suicide, go insane or do their bidding. As the movie progresses, the distinction between dreams and reality becomes increasingly blurred, and the climax is one beautiful clusterfuck to behold.

7. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1972) - Buñuel, probably the best surrealist director in history, had a vicious sense of humor, and it's never more apparent than in "Discreet Charm." The movie is about a group of bourgeois friends who have gathered to eat but find that no matter how hard they attempt to do so, they cannot. At first it's due to simple things, such as making reservations on the wrong night or being out of food, but the hindrances become increasingly absurd - the French military invades in one scene, and in another the guests find that the living room is nothing more than a stage for the audience (us) to watch them. Buñuel uses this constant interruption to peel back the refined exterior of the bourgeois, revealing them as nothing more than immoral savages when robbed of their petty rituals. The ultimate farce of the movie is on itself, though, when it is revealed that the movie is all the dream of one guest who just happened to be hungry in his sleep.

6. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) - Kubrick's final feature, his most sinful cerebral drama, deals with the crisis of a couple dealing with the temptation of infidelity. The film works on two levels, the first with Bill and his real encounters of seduction and provocation with a multitude of women, and Alice, who is at home with their daughter, but is plagued with lust for a sailor she only met once, but fantasizes about constantly in her dreams. The film unfolds these parallel states together, equating them with each other, suggesting that a couple must be faithful in both mind and body to remain devoted. And what's the best way to reaffirm that devotion? A little of the ol' in-out in-out. Also if you like reading, try checking out this.

5. Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) - The real world of "Inception" is never well established, but it never needs to be - the only thing we know as an audience is that a top-notch group of dream-delvers must convince a man to break apart his father's company without knowing he was forced to do so; in other words, they have to plant the seed in his subconscious. The plan they create to accomplish this is completely insane - it is literally a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream scenario, wherein each realm of his psyche they push him both to come to terms with his father and himself. The real treat is the distortion of time (time in dreams is much longer than in actuality, and it grows exponentially longer the further into the subconscious you go), out of this world action sequences, and the invasion of the team's composed dream with the unstable memories of one team-members dead wife, who wants to steal him for the dream world.

4. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) - Perhaps the most classic use of a dream in cinema is "The Wizard of Oz," and it's probably because it is honestly one of the most memorable and magical ones. Dorothy's dream plays out like an allegory of her life, but like most dreams, things are twisted and blown out of proportion - the grouchy Miss Almira is now the evil Wicked Witch of the West, and the bamboozling Professor Marvel who read Dorothy's fortune is now the fraudulent and deceptive Wizard of Oz. The jump from sepia-toned black-and-white reality to the technicolor dream world is a great use of the medium to show how bright and animated dreams can be, but Dorothy's final revelation that there's "no place like home" is the film's ultimate message - you don't need to escape to dreams to fulfill your heart's desire - it's often there all along.

3. The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975) - This movie, like many others, including Fellini's "8 1/2" and Resnais' "Last Year at Marienbad," is never explicitly stated to be a dream, but flows as a dream-like state, like a novel written as a stream of consciousness would. I chose Tarkovsky "The Mirror" over others because it has the most personal flair, taking flashes from the director's own past, weaving timelines through each other, portraying life not as one long thins string, but a decorated pleat. I see this movie as the dreams of a dying artist, an old man panning for meaning from the substance of experiences, only to be thrust back to the same insecurities of chilhood. Good thing Tarkosvky was such a great artist.

2. Waking Life (Richard Linklater, 2001) - A dream documentary? That might be the best way to explain "Waking Life, " a trip down into a young man's mind to venture what a dream really is, and how these dreams correspond to the reality that we perceive. The film was made using the technique of rotoscoping, giving it its strange, disorienting proportions while still having the appearance of something that is ingrained in reality. The protagonist wanders his own thought-space, striking up conversations with the people he encounters on topics ranging from the paradoxical nature of free will to the meaninf of life - often with real-life experts of the field. It's a feast for the eyes and brain, and might convince you to get that minor in Philosophy.

1. Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel, 1929) - Here it is, the infamous silent film that started it all, the mad concoction from the minds of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. The title doesn't make sense, the images don't make sense, there is no plot, and then there's the gruesome eye-cutting scene. Buñuel and Dalí got the idea for the movie when they were sharing the inanity of each other's dreams and decided that they would take the bits and pieces they remembered and compilate them into a short film. Sure, the film only has a 16 minute running time, but served as the basis for every dream sequence in every movie to come. Also, as far as remaining true to the often nonsensical nature of the mind, it has never been topped - but then again, how could you top the images of ants crawling out of a man's hand or a man dragging pianos with dead, rotting donkeys on top? Psychoanalyze that.

Last but not least, here's a short film one of my good friends from college made for the Berkeley Campus Movie Fest about so-called 'dream police' - Enjoy!

In the words of Agent Smith, “It is inevitable...”

Alright, so I guess I've been holding this one off for a while, but being the list-frenzied movie-critic douchebag that I am, I simply have to do it. So here we go, in reverse order, my 10 favorite movies of the 2000-2009 decade with a short description why for each:

10. The Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003), for bringing a new scale to fantasy movies and David Lean-esque epics, and giving our generation a worthwhile trilogy to revisit for the rest of our lives.

9. Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007), for being the best and most pervasive indie flick to pin itself into pop culture.

8. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006), for giving the sci-fi genre the neo-realist kick it has needed for years.

7. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008), for proving that blockbusters can still be daring and successful, and epitomizing the Joker as the ultimate badass villain.

6. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001), for setting new standards of imagination and animated storytelling (a standard that Pixar has thankfully upheld for American audiences).

5. Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000), for striking the perfect balance between drama and art-house, giving meaning and beauty to every little detail of life.

4. City of God (Fernando Meirelles/Kátia Lund, 2002), for being the best blend of style and substance since Tarantino's “Pulp Fiction.”

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004), for giving Hollywood's most perfectly imperfect couple, redefining love and relationships in a time when both need to be reexamined.

2. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007), for putting a modern lens on the American classic and giving one of the most memorable characters in modern cinema – Daniel Plainview.

1. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2002), for giving a surrealist pop dream that is as irresistible as it is confounding, raising a huge middle finger to Hollywood conventions while never compromising entertainment.

Others I Liked (in no particular order):

The Royal Tenenbaums - No Country for Old Men - Lost in Translation - The Hurt Locker - Kill Bill Vol. 1 - Amélie - Before Sunset - Y tu mamá también - Cache (Hidden) - Pan's Labyrinth - Brokeback Mountain - In the Mood for Love - Adaptation - The New World - Memento - Donnie Darko - The Incredibles - Primer - Knocked Up - Casino Royale - United 93 - Man on Wire - Almost Famous - Grizzly Man - Ghost World - Fantastic Mr. Fox - Oldboy - Black Hawk Down - Elephant - 28 Days Later... - Capturing the Friedmans - Inland Empire - The World

The 10 Best Documentary Villains

I think it's safe to say that though the documentary style of filmmaking has been around for a while, it has taken an unexpected rise in the 21^st century, and a whole slew of recent documentary films have become beacons for specific social and political movements like never before. This newly popularized style of muckraking is no doubt powerful, and the most effective of these films really bend and fold the reality into a dramatic narrative in a way that speaks directly to its audience. But at the root of every problem is an antagonizer, someone or something that pulls the strings, and it's usually the role of the documentary to call these adversaries out and expose their wrongdoings to the entire world. When done right, these evildoers enter the realm of some of the greatest and most memorable movie villains ever – Hannibal Lecter, Dracula, Darth Vader, HAL 9000, and so on. So, here it goes – my list of the 10 best documentary villains:

10. 'Kids on Fire' School of Ministry, from “Jesus Camp”

“Jesus Camp” recounts the experiences of three kids who attend a religious summer camp called “Kids On Fire,” aimed to train children to become little less than warriors for God. It is an eye-opener for Christians and atheists alike as the film repeatedly shows clips of the camps lessons and ceremonies, which are less about spiritual enlightenment than about brainwashing these children to become an affecting army for their political causes, encompassing everything from fighting abortion rights to denouncing global warming. It is no wonder that shortly after the film was released, the summer camp was closed down.

9. Leopard Seals, from “March of the Penguins”

There's no question about it – penguins are cute, and in 2005 they became all the rage because of this quirky little French documentary narrated by the master of all narrators, Morgan Freeman. It's hard to believe, but seeing all the struggles these little guys have to go through to simply stay alive in the harsh conditions of Antarctica, let alone their startling determination for filial responsibility, the Emperor Penguins captured the hearts of everyone. And then there were the Leopard Seals: these godless, soulless beings who don't even think twice about gobbling up our adorable friends in an instant, especially when the penguins were just trying to return home to feed their hungry chicks.

8. President George W. Bush, from “Fahrenheit 9/11”

Michael Moore released his most political-charged film to date on the brink of the 2004 presidential election, directly targeting President George W. Bush in an effort to make him look both incapable of running this country and, even further, harmful to its welfare. And boy does it get its job done. It may not be the best of Moore's efforts and it may be preaching to an already converted audience, but the way he chronicles and tabulates Bush's every misdeed and shortfall during his first term, it's irrefutable to say that as a nation, we screwed up. Two big issues the film hits on are evidence of ties between the Bush and bin Laden family before and after 9/11 and reinforcing the point that the Iraq War was being fought on the false premise that Saddam Hussein was manufacturing nuclear weapons. The film is ripe with satirical wit, but is filled with sad truths that all point the blame to one person – the leader of our nation.

7. Arnold Friedman, from “Capturing the Freidmans”

What was first meant to be a documentary about birthday party clowns ended up being one of the darkest and foreboding films of the decade when filmmakers found out that family entertainer David Friedman's father and brother were arrested on child molestation charges. The film details the sting operation that first exposed Arnold Friedman's collection of child pornography and the eventual trial that ensued. This is interchanged with contradictory interviews from the alleged victims and news stories that blew up the case into a full-sized “witch hunt.” Still, the heart of the film isn't the trial, but the home videos taken during the whole ordeal, which painfully shows the disintegration of a family and the weakness of a discovered criminal backed into a corner.

6. Enron Heads, from “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”

By the end of 2001, after being exposed for all of its wrongdoings, Enron was certainly the most hated company in the US. What this documentary does is pick apart every front of the biggest corporate fraud in history, and at the heart of every guise and lie is the insurmountable greed of the top executives. Everyone from Jeffrey Skilling, the Head C.E.O. who came up with the idea to use “mark-to-market accounting” which would allow the company to mark future profits before they were actually achieved to Andrew Fastow, who disguised Enron's deficits by creating fake off-balance-sheet partnerships and diverting the losses to them (and soaked up any potential gains for himself) had their hand in the cookie jar. What is really scary is how smart all of these people are and the strategies they came up propped up the failing company for years, and the idea of compensating someone for a good idea is really only useful if that idea is carried through. The resulting downfall left a terrible wake, crushing everything from supportive bank investors to the entire state of California.

5. Monsanto Company, from “Food, Inc.”

Robert Kenner worked together with Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser to explore the modern world of corporate farming and food production and unearthed a world of issues that envelops everything from the basic economic structure to consumer health. Though other food companies carry their own guilt, the biggest and baddest villain of all is Monsanto Company, whose patent on genetically modified foods has completely demolished the ability of small independent farmers to conduct business. Not only do they restrict farmers from possessing their plant seeds, but they will actively seek out farms for crops containing their patent (which, of course, inevitably happens naturally with crossbreeding). Once discovered, the company files massive lawsuits for patent infringement, which it has already done to over 150 farmers, putting most offenders out of business. It is a complete rupture of free market economics and a mockery of the legal system, but for now Monsanto Company still stands tall and crushes all opposition.

4. Humans, from every Liberal Guilt Documentary

It's no secret that most documentaries have progressive roots and agendas, and it's simply because these are the easiest and most pressing issues to address to the public. Even further we have entered into the era of “Liberal Guilt”: feeling bad for the things we have because, well, having things means taking from something else. The more issues that are examined, the more one point shines with perfect clarity: humans really suck. It's shown in everything from “An Inconvenient Truth” which tells us that humans are responsible for dumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ever before (which, if continued, will have irreversible affects on global climate) to “Who Killed the Electric Car?” which reveals, when it really comes down to it, was everyone. Very recently, documentary filmmakers have become fixated on the idea that most of the problems with the world today are caused by one giant culprit – us.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2009/06/eight-best-documentaries-to-turn-you-into-a-green.html

3. Rupert Murdoch, from “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism”

This film is a thorough, unabated attack on the Fox News Channel and media mogul Rupert Murdoch for their right-wing agenda and biased coverage despite the slogan “Fair and Balanced.” Fox News is the sole subject, but the movie hits on something bigger – the death of honest news to the whims of subjectivity and opinion for the sake of ratings (it even brings up the 1976 classic “Network” as a startling voice of reason). At the head of this bastion of misinformation is Rupert Murdoch, the enabler who knows that people would sooner listen to constant reinforcement of their own beliefs rather than any reality that will challenge them, leading to a network whose purpose is not to inform but to incite. At its core, Fox News is propaganda at the basest of forms, and it is still continuously the most watched cable news channel in the United States, which simply means that for now, Rupert Murdoch has won.

2. The Japanese Fishermen, from “The Cove”

The most recent winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary is a thrill of a film; it not only reveals a chilling reality about the Japanese whaling industry, but it takes us on a journey along with the filmmakers as they work against the seemingly impossible odds of trying to get the film made. Ric O'Barry heads a team of activists trying to document the slaughter of an estimated 23,000 dolphins by the Japanese fishermen every year during the hunt for amusement park dolphins. Though this seems to be a straightforward task, his team is met with constant opposition from the entire town of Taiji. They overcome incredible obstacles to set up cameras in the infamous cove where the massacre takes place, evading constant surveillance from the police and local volunteers who will apparently do anything to prevent any footage from escaping the cove. What is especially infuriating is the way they block our heroes with the utmost arrogance and scorn, making the audience hate everything about them. The footage that the group is finally able to obtain, and the astonishing truths that they reveal is little less than amazing.

1. Billy Mitchell, from “King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters”

Most other villains on this list are not single persons but huge conglomerates that have in some way or another harmed the public. However, my number one most evil villain for this list is just one person, a person hwith a would-be innocent background: Billy Mitchell was famous for setting the all-time high scores for a number of classic arcade games, most notably Donkey Kong. However, when his score is challenged by Steve Wiebe, a nobody from Washington who crushes Mitchell's all-time high score from his garage, Mitchell releases a fury of vengeance. Wiebe's Donkey Kong console is sabotaged by affiliates of Mitchell, and Mitchell uses influence on the official tracker of gaming high scores, Twin Galaxies, to completely defame Wiebe. Perhaps it's because Steve Wiebe is such a tragic hero – an ex-Boeing employee who is now a humble science teacher, a star pitcher who fell short of fame due to an injury, a defeated soul who still has the drive to do anything he sets his mind to; or perhaps it is because Billy Mitchell is such a familiar antagonist – the bully who is too big and powerful for you to do anything when he carelessly sweeps you aside and shames you in front of everyone, but Billy Mitchell is certainly a villain, and in the context of documentaries, the most effective one in my books.