12. The Impossible (2013, J.A. Bayona)
Film prior: The Orphanage (2007)
Language: Spanish
Based on the true event that took place during and after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the film follows a tourist family after they get separated from the tsunami. Maria Bennet (Naomi Watts) and Henry Bennet (Ewan McGregor) take their three sons Lucas (Tom Holland), Thomas (Samuel Joslin), and Simon (Oaklee Pendergrast) to Thailand to celebrate Christmas. As the family relax near the poolside, the tsunami strikes them. Lucas and Maria desperately try to stay together as the current pushes them away from the family.
J.A. Bayona’s The Orphanage is still one of the most intense horror films ever made. With ten times the budget, Bayona followed his debut with his English-language debut The Impossible. The special effects in this film are done incredibly well, even as to building sets to simulate current and waves while the actors performed live in the water. But outside the special effects, the quiet moments tend to be the most effective.
What’s impressive about this film is that despite not being a horror film, it’s still pretty horrific in several well-directed moments. Whether it’s the minute right prior the wave, or the moment Lucas first enters the hospital, those scenes put audiences in the moment that makes the experience all the more intense and visceral. The film gets a bit over melodramatic at times, and the kid actors do a fine job to sell the misery and chaos of the situation. The family this was based on also gets a nice nod in the end.
11. The Constant Gardener (2005, Fernando Meirelles)
Film prior: City of God (2002)
Language: Portuguese
Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) is a British diplomat stationed in Kenya who receives news that his wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz) was found dead on the veld, along with her driver. Usually known amongst his colleagues for being shy and mild-manner, Quayle is compelled to investigate the reasons for his wife’s death, especially when he’s challenged with certain suspicions about Tessa’s work and personal life.
City of God is a gangster film like no other — fast, kinetic, and epic in scope for dealing with such a specific location and young characters. To this day, City of God has some amazing sequences that are, on a technical level, awe-inspiring and fascinating. To have Meirelles adapt a John le Carré novel seemed like an exciting prospect, and while the end result didn’t wow like his debut, The Constant Gardener is a fantastic political thriller with some great acting throughout.
Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are great as the main couple, and their flashbacks really add to the emotional drive that propels Quayle’s investigation. Aside from the political intrigue, it’s their relationship that’s the backbone of this story. Danny Huston brings his usual menace and Bill Nighy is great as the mastermind behind the chaos. Again, while this is no City of God, it does retain some of the same intensity, as well as being well shot.
The scenes involving humanitarian work might be purposefully ugly, difficult to bear, but the film will also display gorgeous wide shots of the African landscape, especially nearing the end of Quayle’s investigation. The Constant Gardener is an above average thriller, that’s definitely much more recommendable than his later films.
10. The Name of the Rose (1986, Jean-Jacques Annaud)
Film prior: Quest for Fire (1981)
Language: Invented Language
When a mysterious death occurs in a 14th century Benedictine abbey in Italy, friar William of Bakersfield (Sean Connery) and his novice Adso (Chistian Slater) is called into investigate. Known for his open-minded intellect, William deduces that the death was a murder, possibly by pagans. However, upon further investigation, William doesn’t find the answer to be that simple, especially when more people continue dying. Upon making a great discovery, Williams is also troubled by the arrival of Holy Inquisitor Bernardo Gui (F. Murray Abraham), who also wishes to solve the investigation, but through his own violent methods.
Annaud’s Quest for Fire had most of the actors mime and perform most of the action without discernible dialogue, and whatever was spoken the filmmakers invented. Before that, his first two features were in French. With The Name of the Rose, the characters speak English. He also casts one of the most recognizable performers of all time with Sean Connery playing a monk Sherlock Holmes with Christian Slater more as his Robin than Watson.
While the period details and Annuad’s direction help sell the procedural elements, Connery and his charismatic performance is the real shining light admits the dirty, desolate, and cold location of the abbey. His back-and-forth between the other characters and suspects are fun, if not riveting in certain cases. To make things more awesome, F. Murray Abraham’s Inquisitor Bernardo Gui is a fantastic foil to Connery’s detective. With an amazing score by an early James Horner, Annaud’s The Name of the Rose is an underrated 80s film that’s thought-provoking, but also quite good overall.
9. The Congress (2013, Ari Folman)
Film prior: Waltz with Bashir (2008)
Language: Hebrew/Arabic
Actor Robin Wright plays a fictionalized version of herself in the present, in a world where she did not have House of Cards. After The Princess Bride, Wright has felt the pressure in her career after a string of bombs, especially when no studio wants her. Her agent Al (Harvey Keitel) sets her up with a meeting with Jeff Green (Danny Huston) an executive at “Miramount Studios,” who’s interested in purchasing the rights to “Robin Wright.”
What they plan to do so is digitally scan her and replicate her performance for future productions. However, as time passes and this technology becomes more widespread, the line between reality and fantasy get blurred as the digital scans have evolved into fully active animated avatars, where mankind is leaving life behind for the animated world.
Ari Folman’s debut, Waltz with Bashir, was met with immense critical praise upon release, nominated for an Oscar in Best Foreign Language, while also being the first animated feature to be nominated in said category. Aside from the beautiful animation in that film, the story itself is compelling, providing multiple perspectives of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Folman takes the animation style from his first film and interestingly employs for his English-speaking debut, The Congress.
When Robin Wright jumps into the animated world, it’s highly reminiscent of the 2-D hand-drawn style that Disney employed in their glory days, popping with color and movement without losing Folman’s surrealism. The animation is swell and all, but the acting is pretty fantastic too. Robin Wright is stellar playing herself as both a struggling performer and a mother. Harvey Keitel is surprisingly memorable as her agent, providing a heartbreaking performance as the man who feels Wright’s failure in equal measure.
The Congress tries to handle many subjects such as fame, image, drug abuse, and some other metaphysical ideas but each topic is somewhat glossed over in a film that feels quite overstuffed already. Also, those looking for a straight adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s source material will be disappointed, as the filmmaker was only inspired the by the material. Still, Folman’s sophomore feature is a gorgeous one, and fans of Waltz with Bashir or alternative animation styles should find much to love here.
8. Snowpiercer (2014, Bong Joon-ho)
Film prior: Mother (2009)
Language: Korean
After accidentally causing an ice age, the remainder of humanity inhabit a large, perpetual motion train. The train’s leader and creator, Wilson, lives in the front of the train with the haves while the have not decay in the tail section. Tired of the treatment and condition from the train’s authorities, Curtis (Chris Evans) leads a small unit of followers to fight against the system and make their way to the front. However, it isn’t easy when Mason (Tilda Swinton) leads armed enforcers against Curtis and his people, ready to cut them down.
Even though Bong Joon-ho was the last of his Korean brethren to release his English-language debut (following Kim Jee-woon, then Park Chan-wook), there’s no doubt that Snowpiercer is the most successful of the three. Snowpiercer’s diverse cast, unrecognizable set design, and universal story made this film also a great international success for the filmmaker as well. While the film is ripe for nitpicks and criticisms (especially with the train logic and the ending), it’s recommended for the journey. Snowpiercer also has the fortune (or misfortune) of not being butchered by Harvey Weinstein of the Weinstein company.
There are many anecdotes by distressed filmmaker, local and foreign, of the executive notoriously buying films, cutting them, and re-releasing them despite the filmmakers intentions. After a year-long battle between the filmmaker and the Weinstein’s, Snowpiercer was released in its original form. It’s also the most recent one on the list.
7. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011, Tomas Alfredson)
Film prior: Let the Right One In (2008)
Language: Swedish
Based on novel of the same name by John le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a film adaptation made in 2011. Gary Oldman plays “retired” master-spy George Smiley, who is pulled back from semi-retirement under the request of his former boss Control (John Hurt). His mission: to locate a double-agent who’s long disguised himself as a senior British Intelligence official for the Soviets.
There’s a lot to like about this film. The cast is phenomenal, featuring many of the best British actors — Colin Firth, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch — lead by a masterful Gary Oldman as George Smiley. Oldman’s character performs a monologue all alone — except maybe to an empty chair — and you buy it completely, when a lesser actor would just make it feel overtly theatrical. The tone and direction by Alfredson is purposefully done, enigmatic to sell a cool, calculated espionage-filled setting that feels more like a film from the 70s, as opposed to something modern.
Speaking of the 70s, the attention to detail nails down the look and feel of the time as well. Now, for a spy thriller, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy doesn’t move like a Bond or Bourne film — it’s much slower. It’s also quite moody, much like his previous film Let the Right One In. There’s a lot of information within in this film, and the filmmaker doesn’t spoon-feed audiences every step of the way, which requires the audience to stay attentive and alert like Smiley. It uses the premise for a mole-hunt as a look into the inner workings of British Intelligence to what makes a great spy. It’s unglamorous, but interesting nonetheless.