7. Anders - Oslo, August 31st
Oslo, August 31st is an excellent film, a simple character study of a rehabilitated drug addict named Anders, and the bleak situation of being over the age of thirty with nothing at all to show for it- no meaningful relationships, no career experience to help him build a professional life. We see him fail a job interview when he storms out upon being questioned about the years missing from his CV- even though the interviewer is sympathetic to his past, Anders is too frustrated and demotivated by the great gap in his life to continue. Perhaps he seems so unfortunate because Ive never seen a film that portrays addiction in quite the same way, one that so completely abandons the notion that after rehabilitation life is a rosy series of lovely opportunities, there for the taking.
6. H. W. Plainview - There Will Be Blood
If youve seen There Will Be Blood (and if you havent I cant really look at you in your stupid face) youll no doubt have been engaged throughout by the intensity of Daniel Day-Lewis as the megalomaniacal and insane Daniel Plainview, who builds a vast oil business empire and then destroys everything around him while shouting loudly. However, maybe we could spare a thought for his adopted son, H. W., who cant hear Daniels shouting after going deaf in an explosion. All of this after losing his father, who worked for Daniel and was killed while mining for oil. He is later told by his adopted father that he was never loved, and that Daniel just wanted a child to make his business look warm, trustworthy, and family-based.