By Rob Fagin
BATTLE OF THE GUMSHOES
Jack Nicholson in Chinatown (1974)
Film critics "Best Of The Year" lists trickle
out all through December, with publications
and blogs racing to be the earliest "kingmaker" without being so early that it just
seems like premature adulation. Puns aside,
this tradition can be both amusing and frustrating. It is common to see disclaimers from
critics nowadays about the arbitrary subjectivity that goes into these lists - which is a bit
of a lily-livered pre-response to the anger they
imagine their opinions might inspire. What’s
truly frustrating, though, is that many of the
movies that appear on these lists are not even
available for public scrutiny until as late as
Christmas Day, which is an intentional move
by studios to stick out in Oscar voters short
memories. While most groups have
announced their nominees for 2014, the
Academy won't announce their list until
January 15.
Even worse, competing films are only
required by the Academy to be shown commercially for 7 days in Los Angeles County
and within the given year to be eligible for
award consideration. While not required,
most of these films will also do a similar New
York run to reach East Coast voters, but any
sorry town between those two self-inflated
cities often has to wait until some time in
January to see many of the supposed "best"
movies of the previous year. These lists are a
reminder that, even in these days of overwhelming web commentary, we are not truly
a part of the conversation because it is almost
impossible to have a fully formed perspective
when you haven't even seen the films. Why is
12 illinoisentertainer.com january 2015
there such a strong compulsion to rank the
years best as it is still unfolding? At any rate,
this is how it works and Chicagoland is still
playing catch-up in January.
One of the more intriguing releases of 2014
we've had to wait extra long for is the most
recent Paul Thomas Anderson/Joaquin
Phoenix joint effort, Inherent Vice (opening
January 9), based on the lovingly labyrinthine,
wickedly goofy novel by the elusive Thomas
Pynchon. This is a shaggy detective story set
in the hazy '70s, which is the decade that gave
birth to the slippery genre known as neo-noir.
The first choice for this double feature is a nobrainer, particularly since Anderson himself
has cited it several times as an influence, but
still is sadly neglected by many film-watchers
and was largely ignored when first released.
First up:
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Dir. Robert Altman (112 min)
In the film world, the words "mystery"
and "crime" may often promise tantalizing
danger. You expect to sit down and get your
heart racing with gritty scenes and lurid shadows. Hollywood has always tried to deliver
on that promise, and Warren Beatty and
director Arthur Penn radicalized that commitment with an ultra-violent vision that
shocked audie