2) Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain, the most honored film of 2005, was monumental for its controversial subject matter, which accelerated the acceptance of the LGBT community to mainstream audiences. It was an epic tale of forbidden love, where Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist cried, sweated, and bled in order to end up in each other’s embraces.
Almost a decade ago, this film spread like wildfire, but with a small taint of taboo: the average viewer refrained from watching it in order to avoid the “squeemish” romance or worse, being labeled gay themselves, so they watched it once, away from any judging eyes. However, as our society has made leaps and bounds in acceptance, Brokeback Mountain is noted here because of the excruciating emotional pull that could have filled lakes with the amount of tears that were shed watching this.
With only a couple of planned outings a year, the impossibility of a happy ending grew more apparent as the film went on. In their final meeting, where they sparred with words of torment and heartbreak, the very potent, “I wish I knew how to quit you” was spoken (see video below), followed by the devastating, “It’s because of you, Jack, that I’m like this!” The realization that these two could have led seemingly happy lives had they never met emerges, but more importantly, that they could have led even happier lives had Ennis built up the courage to be with Jack. The stakes were raised to the highest level, and with it came a brilliant film; one that could lead to days of depression and screaming at flannel shirts if watched more than once.
Brokeback Mountain…I swear…
3) Inland Empire
David Lynch’s three hour twisted love/hate letter to Hollywood is nearly impossible to watch. Eschewing the sleek noir stylings of his previous films Blue Velvet, Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire was shot in Poland on DV with mostly natural light and barely any screenplay – the script for that day’s shooting was written fresh everyday, with the film apparently making itself as it evolved in different directions. But does anyone know what Inland Empire is actually about?
No. Nobody knows what the film’s about, and that’s the joy of it. It’s not supposed to be about anything, but everything makes sense somehow. In watching the film, it’s clear that it’s not the jumbled mess you’d expect, and that somewhere – on some deep, undisturbed level, something important is happening. It was well-received critically, being named one of Sight & Sound magazine’s thirty best films of the 2000s and amongst The Guardian’s “10 most underrated movies of the 2000s,” but audiences were mostly baffled by it.
One scene is haunting in particular, but will sound totally ridiculous being explained here – at the bottom of a darkened path, a female figure emerges from the gloom. It’s walking vaguely towards the camera, but soon straightens its path and heads right forwards. As it gets closer it becomes clear that the figure is Laura Dern, and she’s coming right for us. Her face slowly fills the frame and subtly distorts into a pale, horrifying mask.
It’s really horrible, on par with the creature behind the dumpster in Lost Highway, and it makes everyone here at We Got This Covered shiver just to think about it.
Seriously, all of us.
