Senses of Cinema invited me to participate in their annual poll again this year. Thought my "ballot" might interest
The Ledge:
By far the best new movie I saw in '09,
Rabioso sol, rabioso cielo (Raging Sun, Raging Sky, Julian Hernandez, 2009) also rightfully owns the number 3 spot on the Best of ‘00s list. However, the film distribution-and-critical hegemony keeps the movie from reaching the audience it deserves. Hernandez seemingly recognizes his circumstance in the film-cult machine: the era's best new filmmaker relegated to the cinema's gay ghetto (currently his
RSRS is available only for festival rentals). Yet, his work does not fit any "gay movie" conventions (lazy critics compare him to the early 1990s New Queer Cinema when Antonioni and Ophuls would be more apt). So in a subversive modernist twist--a relatively minor detail in the film's teeming nexus--Hernandez decorates a porn theater box office with promo stills from his own short
Bramadero (an erotic meditation on death). Significantly: "bramadero" means "tethering post." Although restricted by film-cult hegemony (effectively: censorship), Hernandez's unabashed gay erotic content ties him to a deeper (resistance) gay/art legacy.
Let's break down the multivalent significance of the self-referential use of
Bramadero stills in
Raging Sun, Raging Sky:
1. Hernandez's frank treatment of sexuality addresses the Desire (sexual/spiritual) exploited by grindhouse cinema, while also recognizing that it provides a space for the social expression of Desire by members of a marginalized group
2. Hernandez does not see his films as "above" grindhouse movies, but as part of a particular, sub-cultural history of art-cinema distribution and exhibition
3. Hernandez highlights and subverts the ghetto-ized nature of his own films (relegated to specialty audiences, yet actually expansive in their treatment of the human condition)
It begs the question: To what tethering post is NYC's gaggle of gay film critics chained? (Raise your hand if you were at the lone NYC festival screening of
Raging Sun, Raging Sky.)
The following lists one person's genuine appraisal of time spent at the movies. In the spirit of Hernandez's audacious proposition of the movie theater as the site where love is found (and compassion developed)--I give
Raging Sun, Raging Sky its place on the decade list. Should the U.S. be blessed by its official release in 2010, it will rule that year and set the standard for the next decade as well.
10 Best Movies of 2009 (U.S. Releases Only)
1. This Is It (Kenny Ortega, 2009)
2. Everlasting Moments (Jan Troell, 2008)
3. Brothers (Jim Sheridan, 2009)
4. You, The Living (Roy Andersson, 2007)
5. Next Day Air (Benny Boom, 2009)
6. Bandslam (Todd Graff, 2009)
7. Of Time and the City (Terence Davies, 2008)
8. Gentlemen Broncos (Jared Hess, 2009)
9. The Blind Side (John Lee Hancock, 2009)
10. Revanche (Gotz Spielmann, 2008)
10 Best Movies of the 2000s (one film per director)
1. A.I. - Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
2. Femme Fatale (Brian De Palma, 2002)
3. Raging Sun, Raging Sky (Julian Hernandez, 2009)
4. Together (Chen Kaige, 2003)
5. Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2004)
6. Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme, 2008)
7. The Witnesses (Andre Techine, 2008)
8. Vera Drake (Mike Leigh, 2004)
9. Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow, 2004)
10. 2046 (Wong Kar-Wai, 2004)
(tie)
10. Son frere (Patrice Chereau, 2003)
John Demetry is a film and music critic. A selection of his reviews (2000-2007) will be published by Resistance Works, WDC in the upcoming book: Revolution to Revelation.