2016--The Year in Review

As in the past few movie years, most of 2016 felt like a bottomless nadir for cinema--I know it looks like I'm listing a lot of movies here, but the real achievers end at about the halfway mark. By November, seeing that the studios had abandoned all good taste, and that foreign product was nearly impossible to see, I was ready to name the collected titles in the current TV revolution as my number one pick of the year. I mean, when you have miniseries like American Crime Story: The People Vs. O.J. Simpson, Horace and Pete, The Night Of, The Crown, and The Night Manager, and series TV like Atlanta, Baskets, Ray Donovan, The Americans, Black Mirror, Better Things, black-ish, Stranger Things, and This Is Us, plus occasional TV movies like Madoff, Confirmation, and All The Way...well, that's an avalanche of great stuff that can't be ignored. I still probably got more enjoyment out of TV than the movies this year, but the big screen finally came through with a tsunami of distinguished titles at the end of the year (to be fair, the indie world gave us some terrific material during its midsection). I still think the movies are in deep trouble, but maybe the current direness in the real world is gonna give the creative community a generous goose.

The film that gave me the biggest cinematic recharge this year was Damien Chazelle's chancy yet unspeakably glorious La La Land, which, by virtue of its early frontrunner status as Best Picture, got a big ol' target painted on its back for no good reason. This year, movie fans were either Team La La or Team Moonlight, referring to Barry Jenkins' widely loved character study of a gay and closeted black boy's progress from childhood to man. I appreciated many things about Jenkins' bravery and filmmaking prowess, yet I feel strangely distanced (and frankly a little bored) by the movie and its inexpressive main character (whose journey I could not completely buy into). All of this contributed to that now-famous clusterfuck at the end of this year's Oscar ceremony, when a Price Waterhouse screw-up of gigantic proportions led to the wrong film being announced as Best Picture (with La La Land, despite winning six awards including Best Director and Best Actress, becoming another victim of the preferential ballot, and the first 3-minute Best Picture winner in Oscar history). Part of me, though, is happy that a small, mini-budgeted indie like Moonlight actually became the winner; maybe, as a result, we'll see more intimate movies like it in the future runnings for Best Picture.

But I'm still in the La La Land cheering section. Chazelle's nostalgic, daring film just floored me with its energy, sweetness, and vivacious craft. Emma Stone ended up besting a formidable slate of competing actresses, totally deserving her Oscar as the film's MVP, though Gosling was very much her perfect match. The art directors' and costumers' bright colors, the daring camera moves by cinematographer Linus Sandgren, and Justin Hurwitz's gorgeous score all ensured this movies quality from the get-go, even if Chazelle's scripting let the film down a tiny bit. I'm as cynical as they come, and I can confidently tell you that this is the movie of the year--a movie lover's movie, eaten up with an adoration of what makes the art form lavish and exciting. Screw the bitter naysayers of the Oscar season: with its often dark and always enraptured examination of things that might have been, La La Land captured my heart from its first frame and never let go. It continues to do so with many others moviegoers, and I'm happy to be in this cabal.

So many of the best movies this year got a little love from the critical community, but not nearly enough in the end. Movies like Whit Stillman's endlessly clever Jane Austen adaptation Love and Friendship,  Mike Mills' revealingly autobiographical 20th Century Women, Jim Jarmusch's gleaming celebration of the average man's creative spirit Paterson, Ira Sachs' aching tale of a dissolving teenage friendship Little Men, Ken Loach's devastating indictment of the UK's unforgiving health care bureaucracy I, Daniel Blake, the Barack-and-Michelle first date movie Southside With You, Jon Favreau's blockbuster remake of The Jungle Book, and the crushing biopic Christine (with the unforgettable Rebecca Hall putting a sure face to a famously mysterious victim of depression) were all largely edged out of the running for year-end acclaim. Yet there was still a little room for Kenneth Lonergan's bleak but emotionally effusive Manchester by the Sea to send that underappreciated filmmaker and his low-key yet immanently deserving star Casey Affleck into the winner's circle.

Sadly, though, one of the year's most undeniably notable films, writer/producer James Schamus' directorial debut Indignation, culled from a Philip Roth novel, was unjustly forgotten by nearly everyone. I correct that injustice here by giving Schamus and co-star Tracy Letts (stunning as a snooty university dean) their due. I also concurred with the Academy that Viola Davis deserved her Supporting Actress Oscar in reprising her stage role as Denzel Washington's neglected wife in the star's adaptation of August Wilson's Fences. I also agreed with them that the excellent documentary O.J: Made in America definitely deserved the Documentary Feature award, even it it was really a TV production (recent rule changes in the Academy have insured that this sort of confusion won't ever happen again). Two notes: a terrible year for foreign product (at least that of which made it to American shores) and a really incredible year for the Best Song category. In the end, I agreed with 12 of the Academy's 24 choices--not bad! But, finally, I woulda given La La Land nine Oscars in total. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: LA LA LAND (US, Damien Chazelle) (2nd: Manchester by the Sea (US, Kenneth Lonergan), followed by: O.J.: Made in America (US, Ezra Edelman); Love and Friendship (Ireland/France/Netherlands, Whit Stillman); 20th Century Women (US, Mike Mills); Indignation (US, James Schamus); Paterson (US, Jim Jarmusch); I, Daniel Blake (UK/France/Belgium, Ken Loach); Little Men (US, Ira Sachs); Southside With You (US, Richard Tanne); Christine (US, Antonio Campos); Kate Plays Christine (US, Robert Greene); The Jungle Book (US, Jon Favreau); Weiner (US, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg); 13th (US, Ava Duvernay); Things to Come (France, Mia Hansen Love); Toni Erdmann (Germany, Maren Ade); Sully (US, Clint Eastwood); Loving (US, Jeff Nichols); Rules Don't Apply (US, Warren Beatty); Cameraperson (US, Kristen Johnson); Sunset Song (UK, Terrence Davies); Blood Father (US/France, Jean-François Richet); De Palma (US, Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow); Hunt for the Wilderpeople (New Zealand, Taika Waititi); Eye in the Sky (UK/South Africa, Gavin Hood); Certain Women (US, Kelly Reichardt); The Neon Demon (US/Denmark/France, Nicolas Winding Refn); Elle (France/Germany/Belgium, Paul Verhoeven); The Edge of Seventeen (US, Kelly Fremon Craig); Maggie's Plan (US, Rebecca Miller); Silence (US/Taiwan/Mexico, Martin Scorsese); Tower (US, Keith Maitland); A Hologram for the King (UK/US/Germany/France, Tom Tykwer); Sing Street (Ireland/UK/US, John Carney); Moonlight (US, Barry Jenkins); Fences (US, Denzel Washington); Aquarius (Brazil, Kleber Mendonca Filho); War Dogs (US, Todd Phillips); The Founder (US, John Lee Hancock); Nocturnal Animals (US, Tom Ford); Remember (Canada, Atom Egoyan); The Salesman (Iran, Asghar Farhadi); The Infiltrator (US, Brad Furman); Jackie (US/France/Chile, Pablo Larrain); The Invitation (US, Karyn Kusama); The Witch (US/UK/Canada, Robert Eggers); The Phenom (US, Noah Buschel); Don't Think Twice (US, Mike Birbiglia); Zootopia (US, Byron Howard and Rich Moore); Hell or High Water (US, David MacKenzie); Amanda Knox (US/Denmark, Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn); The Birth of a Nation (US, Nate Parker); Train to Busan (South Korea, Sang-ho Yeon); Bad Moms (US, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore); Bleed for This (US, Ben Younger); Mr. Church (US, Bruce Beresford); Audrie and Daisy (US, Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk); The Trust (US, Alex Brewer and Ben Brewer); Kubo and the Two Strings (US, Travis Knight); Into the Inferno (UK/Germany/Canada, Werner Herzog); The Fits (US, Anna Rose Holmer); Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (US, Werner Herzog); The Nice Guys (US, Shane Black); The Accountant (US, Gavin O'Connor); Pee-Wee's Big Holiday (US, John Lee); Keanu (US, Peter Atensio); The Bandit (US, Jesse Moss); Deepwater Horizon (US, Peter Berg); The Shallows (US, Jaume Collet-Serra); Class Divide (US, Marc Levin); Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (US,  Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady); Imperium (US, Daniel Ragussis); Hands of Stone (US/Panama, Jonathan Jakubowicz); The Hollars (US, John Krasinski); Denial (UK/US, Mick Jackson); Anthropoid (UK/France/Czech Republic, Sean Ellis); Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (US/UK, Gareth Edwards); Team Foxcatcher (US, Jon Greenhalgh); Patriot's Day (US, Peter Berg); Hidden Figures (US, Ted Melfi); Hail Caesar! (US, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen); Everybody Wants Some!! (US, Richard Linklater); Midnight Special (US, Jeff Nichols); Eddie the Eagle (UK, Dexter Fletcher); Elvis and Nixon (US, Liza Johnson); The Beatles: Eight Days a Week--The Touring Years (US/UK, Ron Howard); Ghostbusters (US, Paul Feig); Florence Foster Jenkins (US, Stephen Frears); Cafe Society (US, Woody Allen); Life, Animated (US, Roger Ross Williams); Miss Sloane (US/France, John Madden); Snowden (US, Oliver Stone); Morris from America (US/Germany, Chad Hartigan); Fire at Sea (Italy/France, Gianfranco Rosi); Pete's Dragon (US, David Lowery); Popstar: Never Stop Never Stoppin' (US, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone); Arrival (US, Denis Villeneuve); Lion (Australia/US/UK, Garth Davis); Passengers (US, Morten Tyldem); Hacksaw Ridge (US, Mel Gibson); Green Room (US, Jeremy Saulnier); Don't Breathe (US, Fede Alvarez); Approaching the Unknown (US, Mark Elijah Rosenberg); Money Monster (US, Jodie Foster); USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (US, Mario Van Peebles); The Girl on the Train (US, Tate Taylor); Triple 9 (US, John Hillcoat); Get A Job (US, Dylan Kidd); Captain Fantastic (US, Matt Ross); Bad Santa 2 (US, Mark Waters); Deadpool (US, Tim Miller); Sausage Party (US, Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon)) 

ACTOR: Casey Affleck, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (2nd: Dave Johns, I, Daniel Blake, followed by: Adam Driver, Paterson; Tom Hanks, Sully; Ryan Gosling, La La Land; Peter Simonischek, Toni Erdmann; Logan Lerman, Indignation; Denzel Washingston, Fences; Michael Keaton, The Founder)

ACTRESS: Emma Stone, LA LA LAND (2nd: Annette Bening, 20th Century Women, followed by: Kate Beckinsale, Love and Friendship; Isabelle Huppert, Things to Come; Rebecca Hall, Christine; Natalie Portman, Jackie; Ruth Negga, Loving; Sonia Braga, Aquarius; Sandra Hüller, Toni Erdmann)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Tracy Letts, INDIGNATION (2nd: Tom Bennett, Love and Friendship, followed by: Issei Ogata, Silence; Michael Barbieri, Little Men; Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea; Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals; Mahershala Ali, Moonlight; Greg Kinnear, Little Men; Jeff Bridges, Hell and High Water)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Viola Davis, FENCES (2nd: Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea, followed by: Hayley Squires, I, Daniel Blake; Linda Emond, Indignation; Paulina Garcia, Little Men; Greta Gerwig, 20th Century Women; Sarah Gadon, Indignation; Gillian Jacobs, Don't Think Twice; Angourie Rice, The Nice Guys)  



DIRECTOR: Damien Chazelle, LA LA LAND (2nd: Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea, followed by: Ezra Edelman, O.J.: Made in America; Whit Stillman, Love and Friendship; James Schamus, Indignation; Jim Jarmusch, Paterson; Mike Mills, 20th Century Women; Ken Loach, I, Daniel Blake; Clint Eastwood, Sully) 



NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: THINGS TO COME (France, Mia Hansen Love) (2nd: Toni Erdmann (Germany, Maren Ade), followed by: Elle (France/Germany/Belgium, Paul Verhoeven); The Salesman (Iran, Asghar Farhadi); Aquarius (Brazil, Kleber Mendonca Filho); Train to Busan (South Korea, Sang-ho Yeon)) 



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA (US, Ezra Edelman) (2nd: Weiner (US, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg), followed by: 13th (US, Ava Duvernay); Cameraperson (US, Kristen Johnson); Kate Plays Christine (US, Robert Greene); Tower (US, Keith Maitland); De Palma (US, Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow); Amanda Knox (US/Denmark, Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn); Audrie and Daisy (US, Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk); Into the Inferno (UK/Germany/Canada, Werner Herzog); Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (US, Werner Herzog)) 

ANIMATED FEATURE: ZOOTOPIA (US, Byron Howard and Rich Moore) (2nd: Kubo and the Two Strings (US, Travis Knight))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: PEAR CIDER AND CIGARETTES (US, Robert Valley) (2nd: Pearl (US, Patrick Osborne), followed by: Piper (US, Alan Barillaro); Blind Vaysha (Canada, Theodore Ushev))

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: TEN METER TOWER (Sweden, Axel Danielson and Maximilien van Aertryck) (2nd: Watani, My Homeland (UK, Marcel Mettelsiefen), followed by: Sing (Hungary, Kristóf Deák); The White Helmets (UK, Orlando von Einsiedel) (won as Documentary Short))
 


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Kenneth Lonergan, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (2nd: Mike Mills, 20th Century Women, followed by: Jim Jarmusch, Paterson; Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias, Little Men; Ken Loach, I, Daniel Blake)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: James Schamus, INDIGNATION (2nd: Whit Stillman, Love and Friendship, followed by: Tom Ford, Nocturnal Animals; Taika Waititi, Hunt for the Wilderpeople; Todd Komarnicki, Sully)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Linus Sandgren, LA LA LAND (2nd: Caleb Deschanel, Rules Don't Apply, followed by: James Laxton, Moonlight; Vittorio Storaro, Cafe Society; Rodrigo Prieto, Silence)

ART DIRECTION: LA LA LAND, Hail Caesar!, Jackie, The Witch, The Neon Demon

COSTUME DESIGN: JACKIE, Love and Friendship, La La Land, Hail Caesar!, The Neon Demon



FILM EDITING: LA LA LAND, O.J.: Made in America, Nocturnal Animals, Sully, Hell or High Water

SOUND: LA LA LAND, Sully, Deepwater Horizon, The Jungle Book, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story



SOUND EFFECTS: DEEPWATER HORIZON, Sully, The Jungle Book



ORIGINAL SCORE: Mica Levi, JACKIE (2nd: Abel Korzeniowski, Nocturnal Animals, followed by: Nicholas Britell, Moonlight; Cliff Martinez, The Neon Demon; Dickon Hinchliffe, Little Men)



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Justin Hurwitz, LA LA LAND (won as Best Original Score) (2nd: John Debney, The Jungle Book)



ORIGINAL SONG: "City of Stars" from LA LA LAND (Music by Justin Hurwitz; lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) (2nd: "Rules Don't Apply" from Rules Don't Apply (Music and lyrics by Lorraine Feather and Eddie Arkin), followed by: "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" from La La Land (Music by Justin Hurwitz; lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul); "Waving Goodbye" from The Neon Demon (Music and lyrics by Sia Furler); "Drive It Like You Stole It" from Sing Street (Music and lyrics by Gary Clark); "Can't Stop the Feeling" from Trolls (Music and lyrics by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin, and Karl Johan Schuster); "Another Day of Sun" from La La Land (Music by Justin Hurwitz; lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul); "I'm Still Here" from Miss Sharon Jones (Music and lyrics by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings); “Stay Here” from Presenting Princess Shaw (Music and lyrics by Kutiman); "The Empty Chair" from Jim: The James Foley Story (Music and lyrics by Sting and J. Ralph); "Try Everything" from Zootopia (Music and lyrics by Sia Furler, Tor Erik Hermansen, and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen); “Hurry Home” from Max Rose (Music by Michel Legrand, lyrics by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: THE JUNGLE BOOK, Deepwater Horizon, Sully, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Doctor Strange  

MAKEUP: THE NEON DEMON, Suicide Squad, Sing Street

2007--The Year in Review

An incredible year for movies, top-heavy with masterpieces to the point where this can assuredly be deemed the last most astounding period for the art form. The top four are all western-US-themed--two set in the old (or nearly old) West, and two in a radically new West, and each are now violent modern classics. It was very difficult to pick the best of the best this year, but I had to go with the one that absolutely would not leave my mind after I saw it, and for years afterwards. The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford was abandoned to a dismal box office showing by uncaring Warner Brothers execs. But when I first saw it on the big screen opening weekend, I was so dazzled by it that I left the theater stumbling in amazement at writer/director Andrew Dominick's complete mastery with words and images, all employed to transport us back to this momentous place in history, and all able to connect with our present fascination with celebrity and public adulation. I love that the film was further adorned with Casey Affleck's sadly empty and desirous Robert Ford (a performance I almost counted as a lead) and Roger Deakins' absolutely incredible widescreen cinematography, which literally makes us feel as we're seeing the past through a new (though old) lens. Still, I can watch it again and again, mining more great things from it. It endlessly feels like poetry.

At about the same time, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood was unleashed, and though I didn't get it the first time around (though I was instantly impressed with Daniel Day Lewis's reprehensible oil tycoon Daniel Plainview), I found myself gravitating to the movie more and more, to the point where I now see it as another invaluable P.T. Anderson masterpiece. Same goes for the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men, a gripping adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Texas-set crime novel, and certainly a worthy choice for Best Picture, as the Academy deemed it. The saddest thing is that the Academy didn't even give one nomination to David Fincher's brilliant (though slightly flawed) look at the Zodiac killings that kept the San Francisco area in fright for more than a decade. Zodiac, with its remarkably invisible visual effects, remains perhaps the most underrated movie of the year, though it has competition in Sidney Lumet's nerve-wracked final film Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's pitch-perfect tribute to '70s B-movie glory Grindhouse (which I'm still waiting to see again on digital media in its original form), Mexican director Carlos Reygadas' completely gorgeous Silent Light, Gus Van Sant's unexpectedly beautiful look at the skateboarding subculture Paranoid Park, Andrzej Wajda's unbelievably devastating war drama Katyn; Danny Boyle's deeply felt yet faulty sci-fi drama Sunshine, and James Gray's tense tale of crime and family called We Own the Night. Though there were two movies that fought against it all (the Marion Cotillard-anchored Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose and Julian Schnabel's inspiring The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), the sureness of death and darkness overtook the movies of 2007, to the point of utter brilliance. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (US, Andrew Dominik)
(2nd: There Will Be Blood (US, Paul Thomas Anderson)
followed by: No Country for Old Men (US, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
Zodiac (US, David Fincher)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (US, Julian Schnabel)
No End in Sight (US, Charles Ferguson)
Grindhouse (US, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino)
Encounters at the End of the World (US, Werner Herzog)
Silent Light (Mexico, Carlos Reygadas)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania, Cristian Mungiu)
Paranoid Park (US, Gus Van Sant)
Katyn (Poland, Andrzej Wajda)
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (US, Sidney Lumet)
My Winnipeg (Canada, Guy Maddin)
Gone Baby Gone (US, Ben Affleck)
We Own The Night (US, James Gray)
[●rec] (Spain, Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza)
La Vie En Rose (France, Olivier Dahan)
The Edge of Heaven (Turkey, Fatih Akin)
The Visitor (US, Thomas McCarthy)
Ratatouille (US, Brad Bird)
Superbad (US, Greg Mottola)
American Gangster (US, Ridley Scott)
I’m Not There (US, Todd Haynes)
Michael Clayton (US, Tony Gilroy)
Charlie Wilson's War (US, Mike Nichols)
The Savages (US, Tamara Jenkins)
Into the Wild (US, Sean Penn)
Once (Ireland, John Carney)
La Vie en Rose (France, Olivier Dahan)
Waitress (US, Adrienne Shelly)
Sicko (US, Michael Moore)
Persepolis (France, Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Strapi)
Sunshine (UK, Danny Boyle)
Smiley Face (US, Gregg Araki)
Knocked Up (US, Judd Apatow)
Taxi to the Dark Side (US, Alex Gibney)
A Girl Cut in Two (France, Claude Chabrol)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (US, Tim Burton)
Hannah Takes The Stairs (US, Joe Swanberg)
King of California (US, Mike Cahill)
Hot Fuzz (UK, Edgar Wright)
Enchanted (US, Kevin Lima)
My Blueberry Nights (Hong Hong/US, Wong Kar-Wai)
Year of the Dog (US, Mike White)
Lars and the Real Girl (US/Canada, Craig Gillespie)
Across the Universe (US, Julie Taymor)
The Bourne Ultimatum (US, Paul Greengrass)
Atonement (UK, Joe Wright)
Juno (US, Jason Reitman)
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (US, Jake Kasdan)
Cassandra's Dream (US/UK, Woody Allen)
Death at a Funeral (US/UK/Netherlands, Frank Oz)
The Lookout (US, Scott Frank)
The Mist (US, Frank Darabont)
Paranormal Activity (US, Oren Peli)
Redacted (US, Brian De Palma)
Helvetica (US, Gary Hustwit)
In the Valley of Elah (US, Paul Haggis)
Eastern Promises (UK/Canada, David Cronenberg)
The King of Kong (US, Seth Gordon)
Control (UK, Anton Corbijn)
The Darjeeling Limited (US, Wes Anderson)
Lust, Caution (Hong Kong/China/US, Ang Lee)
Transformers (US, Michael Bay))



ACTOR: Daniel Day Lewis, THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2nd: Tommy Lee Jones, No Country For Old Men, followed by: Richard Jenkins, The Visitor; Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Before the Devil Knows You‘re Dead; Michael Douglas, King of California; Brad Pitt, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford; Chris Cooper, Breach)



ACTRESS: Marion Cotillard, LA VIE EN ROSE (2nd: Anna Faris, Smiley Face, followed by: Anamaria Marinca, 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days; Laura Linney, The Savages; Adrianne Shelley, Waitress; Ellen Page, Juno; Amy Adams, Enchanted)



SUPPORTING ACTOR: Casey Affleck, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2nd: Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men, followed by: Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood; Robert Downey Jr., Zodiac; Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild; Kurt Russell, Grindhouse; Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett, I‘M NOT THERE (2nd: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton, followed by: Saoirse Ronan, Atonement; Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone; Marisa Tomei, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead; Laura Vasiliu, 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days; Sally Hawkins, Cassandra's Dream)



DIRECTOR: Andrew Dominik, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2nd: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood, followed by: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men; David Fincher, Zodiac; Julian Schabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Carlos Reygadas, Silent Light; Cristian Mungiu, 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days)



NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (France/US, Julian Schnabel) (2nd: Silent Light (Mexico, Carlos Reygadas), followed by: 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Romania, Cristian Mungiu); Katyn (Poland, Andrej Wadja); [●rec] (Spain, Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza); La Vie En Rose (France, Olivier Dahan); The Edge of Heaven (Germany/Turkey/Italy, Fatih Akin))



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: NO END IN SIGHT (US, Charles Ferguson) (2nd: Encounters at the End of the World (US, Werner Herzog), followed by: My Winnipeg (Canada, Guy Maddin); Sicko (US, Michael Moore); Taxi to the Dark Side (US, Alex Gibney); Helvetica (US, Gary Hustwit))



ANIMATED FEATURE: RATATOUILLE (US, Brad Bird) (2nd: Persepolis (France/US, Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrepi))



ANIMATED SHORT: I MET THE WALRUS (Canada, Josh Raskin) (2nd: My Love (USSR, Alexander Petrov), followed by: Peter and the Wolf (US, Suzie Templeton); Madame Tutli-Putli (Canada, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski); The Ark (Poland, Grzezorj Jonkajtys))



LIVE ACTION SHORT: DENNIS (Denmark, Mads Matthieson) (2nd: Hotel Chevalier (US, Wes Anderson), followed by: Cutlass (US, Kate Hudson); The Mozart of Pickpockets (France, Philippe Pollet-Villard); Tanghi Argentini (Belgium, Guy Thys))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Kelly Masterson, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD (2nd: Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, and Jim Capobianco, Ratatouille, followed by: Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton; Tamara Jenkins, The Savages; Diablo Cody, Juno)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2nd: Andrew Dominick, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, followed by; Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood; Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Aaron Sorkin, Charlie Wilson's War)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Roger Deakins, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2nd: Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood, followed by: Roger Deakins, No Country For Old Men; Christopher Doyle and Rain Li, Paranoid Park; Darius Khondji, My Blueberry Nights)

ART DIRECTION: THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, There Will Be Blood, Atonement, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

COSTUME DESIGN: ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Across the Universe, There Will Be Blood



FILM EDITING: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, There Will Be Blood, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, The Bourne Ultimatum, Zodiac

SOUND: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, There Will Be Blood, The Bourne Ultimatum, Sunshine, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford 



SOUND EFFECTS: THERE WILL BE BLOOD, No Country for Old Men, The Bourne Ultimatum



ORIGINAL SCORE: Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2nd: Jonny Greenwood, There Will Be Blood, followed by: Dario Marinelli, Atonement; Alberto Iglasias, The Kite Runner; David Shire, Zodiac)

ADAPTED OR SONG SCORE: Glen Hansard, ONCE (2nd: Alan Menken, Enchanted, followed by: Michael Andrews, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story; Marc Shaiman, Hairspray; Paul Gemignani, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)



ORIGINAL SONG: "Falling Slowly" from ONCE (Music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) (2nd: “Happy Working Song” from Enchanted (Music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwarz), followed by: “Walk Hard” from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (Music and lyrics by Marshall Crenshaw, John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan); “Le Festin” from Ratatouille (Music and lyrics by Michael Giacchino); “Way Back Into Love” from Music and Lyrics (Music and lyrics by Adam Schlesinger); “That’s How You Know” from Enchanted (Music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwarz))



SPECIAL EFFECTS: ZODIAC, Sunshine, Grindhouse

MAKEUP: LA VIE EN ROSE, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Film #159: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The passage of time, and of eras, overwhelms the film's first frames as cinematographer Roger Deakins aims his camera into the ether, capturing time-lapsed storm clouds speeding through the Missouri skies, with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ tick-tocky score sounding out like mournful timepieces ringing out the end of one hour and the beginning of another. We first see Brad Pitt’s Jesse James as a pensive, well-loved 34-year-old family man fervently contemplating his humanity and his concomitant mortality. The eloquent narration–some of the best ever written for a film–begins by illustrating Jesse’s foibles, normalcies, lies, physical flaws, and almost superhuman charisma. Actor/filmmaker Hugh Ross is the unseen narrator, who speaks in third-person as if he were dissecting this tale’s movements with scientific fervor; his serious, folksy voice is perhaps the most important in the movie, because it’s the authoritative reresentative of human history–the same history that will ensnare and mangle the lives of our two title characters, and of all others who near them.

Writer/director Andrew Dominik, working from Ron Hansen’s novel, laboriously crafts the language of this narration, making it feel like it was cribbed from an 1882 St. Louis newspaper. Even the film’s title–The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford–reads like a bold headline over a story one might’ve consumed the day following Ford’s notorious bullet. This use of antiquated speech, inspired by Hansen’s work, is one of many tricks that the determined Dominik employs as a time-travel devise in this masterful period piece. Often, experiencing this picture’s sights and sounds feels like being hypnotized and transported directly into the heel of the 19th Century.

Having let us know, immediately, that this is going to be no ordinary shoot-’em-up (something that must’ve been a disappointment to Warner Brothers, who treated this complex film with shoddy bewilderment upon its 2007 release; it was a notorious and heartbreaking box office flop), Dominik quickly makes a tonal shift into the first dialogue scene, with king-of-the-court Jesse in good humor and communing with his still Confederate-loyal gang hours before what will be their final train robbery. It’s here, via boyish joviality, that we immediately get familiar with many of the story’s main players: the affable Charley Ford (Sam Rockwell); big talkin’ lover-man bandit Dick Liddil (Paul Schneider); poor and simple Ed Miller (Garret Dillahunt); and Jesse’s cousin, the quietly proud but hair-trigger Wood Hite (Jeremy Renner). Things are kept light…and then Robert Ford shows up. In a dark coat and a tattered, stunted stovepipe hat, Casey Affleck immediately captures our attention with his low-self-esteem shambling (Affleck’s idiosyncratic performance seems slightly influenced by Timothy Carey–something about those lidded eyes and that slightly slurred speech). Sucking the air out of the very forest, Ford puts on an uncertain smile and kneels down to join the boys, but–as it seems to have been for his entire life–the timing is all wrong. Just as he takes a seat, chowtime is called and the James gang goes running, leaving him by lonesome once again. This cloudy outsider desperately wants in.



Bob Ford decides to escape this scene and approach Frank James (Sam Shepard) for some validation. Bad idea. Here, we get more fully introduced to the way Ford carries himself. As he does throughout the film, in a performance of immense grace and empathy, Affleck employs a dazzling array of facial pyrotechnics–toothy smiles, tired and begging eyes, a nearly trembling chin, contrite glances downwards, humiliated glances sideways–in his first unsure attempt to sell himself (and Ford is ALWAYS trying to sell himself in this movie–that’s something that makes this story contemporary, since most of us are trying to sell ourselves to someone these days). This first monologue is key (we should remember: it’s given to Frank James, whom Bob respects but doesn’t hold in high regard as he does Jesse):

Bob: I was lyin’ when I said I just happened down here. I been lookin’ for you. I feel lousy I didn’t say so at the outset. (pause) Folks sometimes take me for a nincompoop on account of the shabby first impression I make, whereas I’ve always thought of myself as being just a rung down from the James Brothers. And I was hoping if I ran into you aside from those peckerwoods, I could show you how truly special I am. (no response from Frank, who lights a cigar). I honestly believe I’m destined for great things, Mr. James. I’ve got qualities that don’t come shinin' through right at the outset, but give me a chance and I’ll get the job done. I can guarantee you that. 

Frank James is, however, way past this manner of life, and is in no mood to hear talk of further exploits, and so he shuffles Bob Ford off with an assertive flash of his gun. But here we see that Bob Ford–who with his first line admits he’s a liar–is the much more unstable person. Through Affleck’s performance and Dominik’s authentic dialogue, we can sense Ford’s foot-stamping rage as he tries to be polite and brush off this rejection from someone he feels stole some of Jesse’s limelight. And, as we will see, Bob Ford is VERY protective over his OWN gilded image of Jesse James.

Dominik intercuts this intense scene with a revisit with the rest of the gang, whose characters become more defined as they talk about their exploits with women (and women are rarely seen in this film, although they do have a fleeting presence, not surprisingly as busy housewives or wide-eyed ingenues). Here, we sense the power of a couple more performances–the sad sugar of Dillahunt’s Miller, and the boss sassiness of Schneider’s Dick Liddil, who schools these guys on what words will and will not work on women. Obviously a devotee of poetry, Liddil understands the power of words, and this is among his weapons–it sets him a level above his ill-educated compatriots, at the very least. This scene provides the transition into Robert Ford’s first meeting with his idol. But Jesse’s see-through-you friendliness puts the flakey Bob off-guard, and leaves him feeling disappointed in Jesse’s lack of seriousness over what Bob sees as a valuable opportunity for him to buy into Bob’s sharp-shooting loyalty.



The robbery at Blue Cut is a showpiece for Deakins’ cinematography (and that’s saying something for a movie shot as impeccably as this one; this is certainly some of Deakins’ most notable work, in a career filled with masterstrokes). Here, as the narrator chimes in again, we get a fuller blush at the film’s visual splendor. We start to take more notice of the camera’s radically blurred lenses, superbly ground to create the feel of looking through hand-blown glass or, maybe, a crystal ball. We see Jesse, tinted by yellowed lantern light, listening to the tracks for activity, and–in an unusual camera move which results in such darkness as to require the viewer to momentarily lean on sound alone–we eventually catch the train emerging out of that inky blackness, its passing headlight refracting psychedelically through the reedy trees amongst which the James Gang lie in wait. Then we catch a towering glimpse of Frank James as the stone through which this steam-spitting locomotive cannot pass. The raiding of the train is memorable not for its brutality, but for its lack of it; while gathering what little loot they can, Ed Miller nervously warns Jesse against killing a meek clerk standing guard over the train’s questionable riches. Here, we get the first glimpse into Jesse’s murderous eyes, and into the notion that maybe something is afoul in this group–something beyond Robert Ford’s vampiric energy. As time further encroaches on the film through its memorably needling score, Jesse and Frank don’t even have to have words after the robbery. They know it’s all over.

But then there is Bob Ford, who shows up to energize Jesse again. For him, at this moment, and often throughout the movie, Bob is a window into the strange fame and adulation he’s achieved, and so Jesse is glad to have him around, for he has not much amusement to hang his hat on at this stage. It’s at this moment, too, that Bob Ford begins to recognize Jesse as someone who might spot his worth. I love the scene where Jesse and Bob smoke cigars on a porch, and Bob lets Jesse in on his fandom. This is where some of the movie’s present-day relevancy comes into play, as it feels like Brad Pitt is now playing a version of himself, having to listen to a slightly scary acolyte’s rapturous praise while trying to hold onto a self-image he can recognize. Meanwhile, Affleck has Bob come across as a kid who takes a wobbly joy in this opportunity, and then quickly realizes he’s playing at a risky game of barely comprehensible hugeness. It’s great how this scene begins, with Bob in little-child mode, bouncing between nervous near-tears and breathless adulation, regaling Jesse with how bad his day began and how well it’s ended, and Jesse calmly remarking “Yeah, it’s a wonderful world.” Just as brilliant is how the scene ends, with Ford revealing his disdain for Frank (a “nothing,” he slips); Jesse is obviously wounded by this, and here the air goes out of Bob Ford’s performance, especially when Jesse tells him those dime novels he takes such stock in are all lies. At this moment, which he typically tries to shrug off, Ford seems to take up residence on another, even more melancholy planet. This is a movie about the perils hidden in being famous, and in adoring the famous too much.



It doesn’t get much better for Bob the next morning, when Jesse chooses him as his footman while demonstrating his willingness to kill enemies by beheading a pair of snakes. Here we get the sense that Ford finally knows he’s been idolizing an unforgiving killer. Even so, all this “sounds like an adventure” to him, and taking the job is definitely a transient way for him to look better than the rest of the gang (even though Wood and Charley end up mocking Bob, as always; this movie, in another display of present-day relevance, touches on those revenge fantasies that many of the bullied have often, and still do now, turn into realities). The narration that follows keys us into another of the film’s themes: the intermingling of the hunter and the hunted:

Narrator: They moved to 1017 Troost Avenue at night so that the neighborhood couldn’t get a good look at them or their belongings. And then Bob thought Jesse would give him eight hours of sleep and a daydreaming goodbye. But with a second day in the Thomas Howard house, Bob thought he might never go, but might be brought in as a good-natured cousin to the boy and a gentleman helper to Zee. He went everywhere with Jesse. They made trips to the Topeka Exchange Saloon, where Jesse could spend nearly sixty minutes sipping one glass of beer and still complain about feeling tipsy. Bob would rarely vouchsafe his opinions as they talked. If spoken to, he would fidget and grin. If Jesse palavered with another person, Bob secretaried their dialogue, getting every gesture, reading every inflection and tic, as if he wanted to compose a biography of the outlaw, or as if he were preparing an impersonation. 

 
After Bob is sent away by an increasingly creeped-out Jesse, we get into the film’s mesmerizing second act, detailing the machinations that set the barely-regarded Robert Ford swirling into a tornado of destined events that’ll send him crashing into the “Thomas Howard house” almost seven months later, with Jesse at the end of his gun. Dick Liddil’s copious feel for female flesh–at first a plot element that seems superfluous–ends up being the lit match that melts the tar holding Jesse’s gang together. It spurs Wood Hite to seek revenge against Liddil (for diddling his elderly father’s young wife, played with a saucy impertinence by Alison Elliott). This sets Bob Ford against Hite, whom he dispatches in a steady but lucky shot (probably more inspired by Hite‘s mockery of Ford, and his closeness to Jesse, than by Liddil’s well-being); and this sets Bob and Charley finally in the same camp, bound by blood to protect each other, despite all the years Charley has spent ribbing Bob for his gaga droolings over the James itinerary.

All this intrigue comes amidst rumors that Liddel and Ed Miller are planning to backstab Jesse (this leads to an excellent scene with Bob Ford taking a bath out in a meadow, and Liddil threatening him with a pistol shot if he ever lets on anything he knows; Schneider, a veteran of David Gordon Green’s All The Real Girls and, later, Jane Campion’s Bright Star, is really splendid here with his honeyed phraseology and sly vocals). Jesse, however, seems to know all that’s going to happen before it does and so it’s no surprise he’s onto the virtually translucent Ed Miller, whom he visits in an extremely tense scene that highlights Dillahunt’s stammering yokel as a grim figure submerged over his head. Dillahunt had an extremely good year in 2007, appearing in both this and Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men. Unlike that film appearance, he brilliantly cuts a pale and underfed profile here–one painfully blue, unloved and discarded.



Eventually, Jesse is compelled to visit the Ford brothers, ostensibly to ask them to help him case another bank, but really to see if there are any fissures in their loyalty. This leads to another of the film’s most quietly explosive scenes, with Sam Rockwell’s boisterous Charley at the family dinner table, trying mightily to distract Jesse’s sense of something amiss by making Bob the butt of jokes. But Bob turns things around for himself, and for the on-edge family: through this exchange, he both reignites Jesse’s inexplicably prescient fascination with him and, with a subsequent tantrum, underscores his own strong scent of disloyalty:

Jesse: Give me some more conversations, Bob.
Charley: I got one. (laughing hard) This one’s ’bout as crackerjack as the one–
Jesse: Let Bob tell it.
Bob: (long pause) I don’t even know what you’re talking about.
Charley: About how much you and Jesse have soooo much in common.
Jesse: Go on, Bob.
Charley: Yeah, come on, Bob. Tell us a story.
Bob: Nope. Nope.
Charley: C’mon, entertain Jesse. He’s here…c’mon
Bob: (long pause as his hems and then smiles) Well, if you’ll pardon my saying so, I guess it is interesting, the many ways you and I overlap and what not. I mean, you begin with our daddies. Your daddy was a pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church; my daddy was a pastor of a church at Excelsior Springs. Um. You’re the youngest of the three James boys; I’m the youngest of the five Ford boys. Between Charley and me, is another brother, Wilbur here, with six letters in his name; and between Frank and is another brother, Robert, also with six letters. And my Christian name is Robert, of course. You have blue eyes; I have blue eyes. You’re five feet eight inches tall. I’m five feet eight inches tall…Oh me, I must’ve had a list as long as your nightshirt when I was twelve, but I’ve seem to have lost some curiosities over the years. (the camera remains on Bob longer than it should; the smile drifts off his face).
Jesse: (after staring at Bob for a while, grinning) Ain’t he somethin’?



By the time the government gets wind of Dick Liddil’s whereabouts, Robert Ford has enough animosity built up against Jesse that something has to give. Searching for any way he can finally become as notorious as his hero, Bob Ford–like many modern assassins–finally turns against his idol. With the collusion of some Missouri lawmen (Ted Levine and Tarantino favorite Michael Parks) and under the direction of Governor Crittenden (played by former Bill Clinton advisor James Carville, in a sharp, surprising cameo), he gets caught up in a false sense of importance. Even the government, who’s depending on Bob’s commitment to this manhunt, seem to belittle his abilities. They know they’re well past the scrapings and into the barrel. But they’re trying everything they can–even putting their trust in someone who may frankly be a madman. And Bob is extra willing to play along, especially if it can fill the hole inside himself, if only for a short while (“I’ve been a nobody all my life,” Ford tells Levine’s Sheriff Timberlake. “I was the baby–I was the one they made promises to they never kept. And ever since I can remember, Jesse James has been big as a tree.”)

Jesse, meanwhile, comes to a new appreciation of the Ford brothers, having forged a bond with Charley after asking him for and tentatively believing Charley’s version of the truth regarding Dick Liddil and Wood Hite. It’s Charley who seals his own and his brother’s fates, with the final selling of Robert Ford. And as Jesse has no other associates whom he can even remotely count on (none that are alive, at least), he relents in letting Bob back in the gang. But he does so because he’s already seen death approaching; while stalking fish under the ice of a frozen lake, he tells Charley “…one thing that’s for certain: you don’t mind dyin’ once you’ve peeked over the other side. You’d no more wanna go back to your body than you’d wanna spoon up your own puke.”



True to its title, the film’s final act dramatizes James’ death, with a sweaty Robert Ford nervously ramping up to his deed, and Charley over in the corner, gut-sick with guilt and fear. But we get the most unguarded insight into Robert Ford’s persona after Jesse’s death–after we as an audience feel the loss of Brad Pitt’s glamour from the film (Pitt’s terrific throughout, especially when being menacing or playful, or both at the same time). Ironically, it’s while he’s making his living as a stage star, in hideous makeup and with wooden line readings, recreating his murder of a superstar criminal and folk hero night after night (with Charley portentously standing in as Jesse), that we are finally clued in to Bob’s secret feelings of shame and confusion (particularly in the scene where he bares his feelings to his understanding paramour, played gently and all too briefly by Zooey Deschanel). It’s in this section that Affleck’s Robert Ford becomes truly tragic–not just simply an accidental monster or a wayward goof, but a frightened, neglected man-child with delusions of glory and ill-gotten fame, a man who still respects Jesse James’ code of loyalty and who ultimately joins the rest of the world in seeing himself as a Judas enriched with only a few mollifying pieces of silver.

As director, Andrew Dominik showed promise with his debut film Chopper. But nothing he displayed there prepared me for seeing The Assassination of Jesse James on the big screen upon its release. The film’s glorious visage swallowed me up whole–it felt so monumental and yet so intimate. It’s a film that screams to be seen in clarity and enormity, even though Dominik is fond of using the 2:35 frame to box his characters in behind windows, through doorways, reflected in picture frames or mirrors, or simply in claustrophobic settings. Scenes in the Missouri countryside can be expansive, but mostly in transitional moments. Often, we feel somewhat trapped even when the camera’s under open skies. Deakins’ design of the color palette is realistic without being overly sepia, as many period pieces make the mistake of being these days; his blacks are particularly striking in both the robbery scene and also especially in Jesse’s ride with Ed Miller (where Jesse almost–but not quite–disappears into the darkness). But I’ll really never forget first drinking in all those shots filmed through altered lenses and blown glass; they add the eeriest feel, like we’re peering through a prism into another world. Dominick is doubly wise to have a costume designer (Patricia Norris) that doesn’t overdress an actor, and production designers (Ms. Norris and Richard Hoover) that don’t overdress a set–everything seems authentically spare when needed, and ornate when needed otherwise (as in the final half, which toys with the upper crust).



The natural and layered sound work (with that insanely great Cave/Ellis score) adds a further note of detail, and the editing, by Dylan Tichenor and Curtis Clayton, is measured and well-timed (some might consider Assassination slow, but I don’t). This 160 minute film went through some trying episodes in post-production, and Dominik says there’s still about 10 minutes he’d like to add back in, including a late-film sequence he calls “The Garden” which the director maintains is the film’s best scene (he was asked by Warner Brothers to trim Assassination after he delivered an even longer initial cut; we should consider ourselves lucky, though, because Warners was proposing a 102-minute massacre that would’ve gutted the movie).

As it is, with the last confident salvo of Hugh Ross’ narration (which is truly ravishing--some of film history's most stunning final words), the viewer is sent stumbling away, stultified, jolted by the film’s meticulous design, with Robert Ford’s dead stare frozen as a reminder that notoriety received without integrity is really best refused. And with that, Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford makes its way into the top pantheon of western epics. Perhaps more accurately than any genre entries that preceded it, this movie sets us right square into that age where a certain violent strain of honor gulped its final, inextricable taste of air. It tells a yarn with as much resonance today as it had in 1882, and it does so with one of the finest film performances ever–Casey Affleck’s sorry, sorrowful, pitiful Robert Ford–working in tandem with Dominik’s uncommonly lyrical vision and fate-filled language. It's a movie unlike any other. 

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is now enjoying a huge revival, spearheaded by superfan Jamieson McGonigle. His efforts to reignite passion for this neglected masterpiece resulted in sold-out two screenings at The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York City (attended by director Dominick and author Hansen).  Happily, though, and with the director’s approval, McGonigle–who owns his own personal 35mm print of the film–is looking for other venues, in other cities, in which to bring this masterful movie to life on the big screen once again. If you’re interested in contacting him, here is the Facebook page for this devoted revival.  

NOTE: This article originally appeared as entry #12 in Wonders in the Dark's overview of cinema's 60 greatest westerns.