Muriel Award, Countdown to Best Picture: #56 (tie)
24 City [14 points/1 vote]
“The blending of fiction and non-fiction in film is nothing revolutionary, and emerging from the infamous aughts, nothing uncommon either. It’s certainly nothing new to Jia Zhangke, who by finding his key backgrounds in the rapidly changing mainland China, foregrounds his fictions amidst the spectacle which the transition from communism to capitalism has become. 24 City, sort of an inverse to his masterpiece Still Life, muddies the distinction between lived history and fiction, finding another key metaphor to describe the ever-changing face of his homeland. The performers in the film, both the actors and documentary subjects, are nearly impossible to tell apart (aside from Joan Chen, for example), which again is nothing new. But the political urgency of the film, amidst a communist landscape being dismantled piece by piece, and the similarly used formal tropes from Jia’s previous works, creates an opening without didacticism that grounds the film in pure fantasy. An incredibly tender and provocative film, and I think a great one.” - Michael Lieberman
