5. ALPS

I was looking forward to ALPS because I enjoyed the director’s last film, Dogtooth, which I saw two years ago at TIFF. Where Dogtooth combined disturbing and uncomfortable content with some bizarre comedy in a stylistic way, ALPS tries to be more realistic and grounded. It still has some oddly funny moments, though; my biggest laugh was the “Prince and Bruce Lee” scene which comes out of nowhere.

I thought the ending of the film had depth. The main character’s actions come together to explain her earlier (often strange) behaviour, revealing something about her past in a subtle way. It’s hard to discuss without spoiling it, so I’ll leave it as a vague as that.

4. A Letter to Momo

Probably the funniest movie I saw this year. The story was like a combination of My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke. I fully acknowledge that it’s derivative and a little sappy, but I’m a sucker for silly anime comedy sometimes. Most of the laughs come from a trio of mythical creatures, who have a pretty cool and unique character design. The main character’s grief and guilt over her father’s death gives it some heart-warming moments between the comedy.

3. Violet & Daisy

I think one of the main hurdles for enjoying this film is accepting that the two title characters could exist. I don’t just mean in a practical sense; obviously, no one would actually hire two teenage girls to be assassins in real life. I think the suspension of disbelief has to go further than what would or wouldn’t happen in the real world; it has to go into the psychology of the characters as well. If you can accept that the girls can go from shooting multiple villains in one moment, and then giggling about getting a pretty new dress in the next, then there’s a lot to enjoy here.

Obviously, since I’m putting it this high on my list, I was able to suspend my disbelief. The biggest factor in my getting absorbed into the film was Saoirse Ronan’s performance. Between this film and Hanna, I’ve become a fan of hers. In both films, she’s a girl killer, but she combines innocence and menace in a different way; in Hanna, it’s almost like she’s autistic and has trouble processing her perception of the world, except when she’s killing people; in Violet & Daisy, she uses dark humour to bring out the conflicting sides of her character.

2. Martha Marcy May Marlene

I read a review of this film where the writer says that he would not want to watch it a second time, because of its unsettling nature. I partially agree with that assessment. It is an unsettling film, but the reason that I wouldn’t want to rewatch it is because it would lose its sense of mystery. Much of the enjoyment of watching this film was due to the suspense of not knowing what would happen next, and what happened before. Now that I know what happens, I don’t think a second viewing would be as satisfying.

What might bring me back is the lead performance by Elizabeth Olsen. She’s very quiet throughout, but there’s a feeling that she could explode and lash out at any moment.

1. Take Shelter

As I was watching, I kept changing my mind about what the theme of the movie was. Is it about a man dealing with mental illness? Is it about a man trying to convince an unbelieving community about an impending danger? The strength of the film is that even the main character doesn’t know any more than the audience does. He reacts to his visions as if they were true, but at the same time being aware that doing so is a sign of schizophrenia. This ambiguity is portrayed very well by Michael Shannon, and makes for a very moving climax.

This film also contained some of the most effective special effects I’ve seen. They’re subtle and come at unexpected moments between quieter scenes. It’s a relief from the heavy special effects that we often see in big blockbusters.