Another Earth (2011) - Mike Cahill
Young Adult (2011) - Jason Reitman
Beautiful Boy (2011) - Shawn Ku
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) - Tomas Alfredson
Contagion (2011) - Steven Soderbergh
Attack The Block (2011) - Joe Cornish
Moneyball (2011) - Bennett Miller
Hot Coffee (2011) - Susan Saladoff
The Debt (2011) - John Madden
Paris, Texas (1984) - Wim Wenders
Dirty Girl (2011) - Abe Sylvia
50/50 (2011) - Jonathan Levine
Submarine (2011) - Richard Ayoade
Higher Ground (2011) - Vera Farmiga
Hell And Back Again (2011) - Danfung Dennis
Take Shelter (2011) - Jeff Nichols
Shame (2011) - Steve McQueen
The Ides of March (2011) - George Clooney
The Guard (2011) - John Michael McDonagh
Make Way For Tomorrow (1937) - Leo McCarey
Monday, January 2, 2012
Sunday, January 2, 2011
2011 Films Seen
13 Assassins
30 Minutes Or Less
50/50
The Adjustment Bureau
Another Earth
The Artist
Attack The Block
Bad Teacher
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest
Beautiful Boy
Beginners
Bellflower
A Better Life
Bill Cunningham New York
Bridesmaids
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Cedar Rapids
Colombiana
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop
Contagion
Crazy, Stupid, Love
Curling
A Dangerous Method
The Debt
Dirty Girl
Drive
Everything Must Go
Fright Night
The Guard
Hanna
Hell And Back Again
The Help
Higher Ground
Horrible Bosses
Hot Coffee
The Ides of March
In A Better World
Incendies
Insidious
Jane Eyre
Kill The Irishman
The Last Rites of Joe May
Le Havre
The Lincoln Lawyer
Margin Call
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Melancholia
Meet Monica Velour
Midnight In Paris
Miral
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Moneyball
Monogamy
Of Gods And Men
Oranges And Sunshine
Our Idiot Brother
Over The Hill Band
Page One: Inside The New York Times
Paul
Point Blank
Potiche
Red State
Sarah's Key
Shame
Shit Year
The Skin I Live In
Source Code
Submarine
Super 8
The Swell Season
Tabloid
Take Shelter
Tales From The Golden Age
Terri
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Tree Of Life
The Trip
Tuesday, After Christmas
Warrior
Water For Elephants
Weekend
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Win Win
Young Adult
30 Minutes Or Less
50/50
The Adjustment Bureau
Another Earth
The Artist
Attack The Block
Bad Teacher
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest
Beautiful Boy
Beginners
Bellflower
A Better Life
Bill Cunningham New York
Bridesmaids
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Cedar Rapids
Colombiana
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop
Contagion
Crazy, Stupid, Love
Curling
A Dangerous Method
The Debt
Dirty Girl
Drive
Everything Must Go
Fright Night
The Guard
Hanna
Hell And Back Again
The Help
Higher Ground
Horrible Bosses
Hot Coffee
The Ides of March
In A Better World
Incendies
Insidious
Jane Eyre
Kill The Irishman
The Last Rites of Joe May
Le Havre
The Lincoln Lawyer
Margin Call
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Melancholia
Meet Monica Velour
Midnight In Paris
Miral
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Moneyball
Monogamy
Of Gods And Men
Oranges And Sunshine
Our Idiot Brother
Over The Hill Band
Page One: Inside The New York Times
Paul
Point Blank
Potiche
Red State
Sarah's Key
Shame
Shit Year
The Skin I Live In
Source Code
Submarine
Super 8
The Swell Season
Tabloid
Take Shelter
Tales From The Golden Age
Terri
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Tree Of Life
The Trip
Tuesday, After Christmas
Warrior
Water For Elephants
Weekend
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Win Win
Young Adult
Films Seen in 2011
The Oath (2010) - Laura Poitras
Soul Kitchen (2010) - Fatih Akin
Wild Grass (2010) - Alain Resnais
Catfish (2010) - Ariel Schuman & Henry Joost
Machete (2010) - Robert Rodriguez & Ethan Manquis
The Damned United (2009) - Tom Hooper
The Last Seduction (1994) - John Dahl
Missing (1982) - Costa-Gavras
Dinner For Schmucks (2010) - Jay Roach
The Wild And Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2010) - Julien Nitzberg
Piranha (2010) - Alexandre Aja
Cyrus (2010) - Jay and Mark Duplass
Alamar (2010) - Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio
The City of Lost Children (1995) - Jean-Pierre Jeunet
The American (2010) - Anton Corbijn
Salt (2010) - Phillip Noyce
The Fighter (2010) - David O. Russell
Vampyr (1932) - Carl Theodor Dreyer
Animal Kingdom (2010) - David Michod
Buried (2010) - Rodrigo Cortes
Jack Goes Boating (2010) - Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Army of Crime (2010) - Robert Guediguian
Knight And Day (2010) - James Mangold
Despicable Me (2010) - Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud
The King's Speech (2010) - Tom Hooper
Enter The Void (2010) - Gaspar Noe
Dogtooth (2010) - Yorgos Lanthimos
Let Me In (2010) - Matt Reeves
The Tillman Story (2010) - Amir Bar-Lev
Nowhere Boy (2010) - Sam Taylor-Wood
Monsters (2010) - Gareth Edwards
RED (2010) - Robert Schwentke
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Next (2010) - Daniel Alfredson
Tamara Drewe (2010) - Stephen Frears
Inhale (2010) - Baltasar Kormakur
Night Catches Us (2010) - Tanya Hamilton
Gasland (2010) - Josh Fox
It's Kind Of A Funny Story (2010) - Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
Wild Target (2010) - Jonathan Lynn
Lebanon (2010) - Samuel Maoz
Vincere (2010) - Marco Bellocchio
Waiting For "Superman" (2010) - Davis Guggenheim
You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (2010) - Woody Allen
Blue Valentine (2010) - Derek Cianfrance
Last Train Home (2010) - Lixin Fan
Kings of Pastry (2010) Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker
Fish Tank (2010) - Andrea Arnold
The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Client 9: The Rise And Fall Of Eliot Spitzer (2010) - Alex Gibney
Mesrine Part I: Killer Instinct (2010) - Jean-Francois Richet
Racing Dreams (2010) - Marshall Curry
Get Low (2010) - Aaron Schneider
Carlos (2010) - Olivier Assayas
Inside Job (2010) - Charles Ferguson
Four Lions (2010) - Christopher Morris
A Film Unfinished (2010) - Yael Hersonski
The Bridges of Madison County (1995) - Clint Eastwood
No One Knows About Persian Cats (2010) - Bahman Ghobadi
The Horde (2010) - Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocher
Mrs. Brown (1997) - John Madden
Viridiana (1961) - Luis Bunuel
Brief Encounter (1945) - David Lean
All Good Things (2010) - Andrew Jarecki
Fair Game (2010) - Doug Liman
Made In Dagenham (2010) - Nigel Cole
Hopscotch (1980) - Ronald Neame
Hanna (2011) - Joe Wright
Burlesque (2010) - Steve Antin
Death Of A Cyclist (1955) - Juan Antonio Bardem
The Music Lovers (1970) - Ken Russell
White Material (2010) - Clair Denis
Bridesmaids (2011) - Paul Feig
Smiles Of A Summer Night (1955) - Ingmar Bergman
Somewhere (2010) - Sofia Coppola
Bluebeard (2010) - Catherine Breillat
24 City (2008) - Zhang Ke Jia
Biutiful (2010) - Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Violent Summer (1959) - Valerio Zurlini
Horrible Bosses (2011) - Seth Gordon
Barney's Version (2010) - Richard J Lewis
Insidious (2011) - James Wan
Another Year (2010) - Mike Leigh
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - John Ford
Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) - Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Source Code (2011) - Duncan Jones
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) - Ronald Neame
Cedar Rapids (2011) - Miguel Arteta
The Trial (1962) - Orson Welles
Colombiana (2011)- Olivier Megaton
The Adjustment Bureau (2011) - George Nolfi
In A Better World (2011) - Susanna Bier
Of Gods And Men (2011) - Xavier Beauvois
Everything Must Go (2011) - Dan Rush
Drive (2011) - Nicolas Winding Refn
Paul (2011) - Greg Mottola
The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) - Brad Furman
Win Win (2011) - Thomas McCarthy
Jane Eyre (2011) - Cary Fukunaga
Incendies (2011) - Denis Villeneuve
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011) - Rodman Flender
Topsy Turvy (1999) - Mike Leigh
Potiche (2011) - Francois Ozon
Meet Monica Velour (2011) - Keith Bearden
Miral (2011) - Julian Schnabel
Melancholia (2011) - Lars Von Trier
The Circus (1928) - Charlie Chaplin
Weekend (2011)- Andrew Haigh
Kill The Irishman (2011) - Jonathan Hensleigh
Tabloid (2011) - Errol Morris
Red State (2011) - Kevin Smith
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest (2011) - Michael Rapaport
Bad Teacher (2011) - Jake Kasdan
The Tree Of Life (2011) - Terrence Malick
A Dangerous Method (2011) - David Cronenberg
Shit Year (2011) - Cam Archer
Terri (2011) - Azazel Jacobs
We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011) - Lynne Ramsay
Oranges And Sunshine (2011) - Jim Loach
Tales From The Golden Age (2011) - Cristian Mungiu
Curling (2011) - Denis Cote
Le Havre (2011) - Aki Kaurismaki
A Better Life (2011) - Chris Weitz
Bellflower (2011) - Evan Glodell
In A Lonely Place (1950) - Nicholas Ray
Page One: Inside The New York Times (2011) - Andrew Rossi
The Last Rites of Joe May (2011) - Joe Maggio
The Swell Season (2011) - Nick August-Perna, Chris Dapkins, Carlo Mirabella-Davis
The Artist (2011) - Michel Hazanavicius
Super 8 (2011) - J.J. Abrams
Sarah's Key (2011) - Gilles Paquet-Brenner
The Trip (2011) - Michael Winterbottom
Bill Cunningham New York (2011) - Richard Press
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) - T. Sean Durkin
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011) - Werner Herzog
Our Idiot Brother (2011) - Jesse Peretz
The Skin I Live In (2011) - Pedro Almodovar
30 Minutes Or Less (2011) - Ruben Fleischer
The Help (2011) - Tate Taylor
Beginners (2011) - Mike Mills
Point Blank (2011) - Fred Cavaye
Fright Night (2011) - Craig Gillespie
Water For Elephants (2011) - Francis Lawrence
Shoeshine (1946) - Vittorio De Sica
13 Assassins (2011) - Takashi Miike
Midnight In Paris (2011) - Woody Allen
Warrior (2011) - Gavin O'Connor
Margin Call (2011) - J.C. Chandor
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) - Brad Bird
Tuesday, After Christmas (2011) - Radu Muntean
Soul Kitchen (2010) - Fatih Akin
Wild Grass (2010) - Alain Resnais
Catfish (2010) - Ariel Schuman & Henry Joost
Machete (2010) - Robert Rodriguez & Ethan Manquis
The Damned United (2009) - Tom Hooper
The Last Seduction (1994) - John Dahl
Missing (1982) - Costa-Gavras
Dinner For Schmucks (2010) - Jay Roach
The Wild And Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2010) - Julien Nitzberg
Piranha (2010) - Alexandre Aja
Cyrus (2010) - Jay and Mark Duplass
Alamar (2010) - Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio
The City of Lost Children (1995) - Jean-Pierre Jeunet
The American (2010) - Anton Corbijn
Salt (2010) - Phillip Noyce
The Fighter (2010) - David O. Russell
Vampyr (1932) - Carl Theodor Dreyer
Animal Kingdom (2010) - David Michod
Buried (2010) - Rodrigo Cortes
Jack Goes Boating (2010) - Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Army of Crime (2010) - Robert Guediguian
Knight And Day (2010) - James Mangold
Despicable Me (2010) - Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud
The King's Speech (2010) - Tom Hooper
Enter The Void (2010) - Gaspar Noe
Dogtooth (2010) - Yorgos Lanthimos
Let Me In (2010) - Matt Reeves
The Tillman Story (2010) - Amir Bar-Lev
Nowhere Boy (2010) - Sam Taylor-Wood
Monsters (2010) - Gareth Edwards
RED (2010) - Robert Schwentke
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Next (2010) - Daniel Alfredson
Tamara Drewe (2010) - Stephen Frears
Inhale (2010) - Baltasar Kormakur
Night Catches Us (2010) - Tanya Hamilton
Gasland (2010) - Josh Fox
It's Kind Of A Funny Story (2010) - Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
Wild Target (2010) - Jonathan Lynn
Lebanon (2010) - Samuel Maoz
Vincere (2010) - Marco Bellocchio
Waiting For "Superman" (2010) - Davis Guggenheim
You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (2010) - Woody Allen
Blue Valentine (2010) - Derek Cianfrance
Last Train Home (2010) - Lixin Fan
Kings of Pastry (2010) Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker
Fish Tank (2010) - Andrea Arnold
The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Client 9: The Rise And Fall Of Eliot Spitzer (2010) - Alex Gibney
Mesrine Part I: Killer Instinct (2010) - Jean-Francois Richet
Racing Dreams (2010) - Marshall Curry
Get Low (2010) - Aaron Schneider
Carlos (2010) - Olivier Assayas
Inside Job (2010) - Charles Ferguson
Four Lions (2010) - Christopher Morris
A Film Unfinished (2010) - Yael Hersonski
The Bridges of Madison County (1995) - Clint Eastwood
No One Knows About Persian Cats (2010) - Bahman Ghobadi
The Horde (2010) - Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocher
Mrs. Brown (1997) - John Madden
Viridiana (1961) - Luis Bunuel
Brief Encounter (1945) - David Lean
All Good Things (2010) - Andrew Jarecki
Fair Game (2010) - Doug Liman
Made In Dagenham (2010) - Nigel Cole
Hopscotch (1980) - Ronald Neame
Hanna (2011) - Joe Wright
Burlesque (2010) - Steve Antin
Death Of A Cyclist (1955) - Juan Antonio Bardem
The Music Lovers (1970) - Ken Russell
White Material (2010) - Clair Denis
Bridesmaids (2011) - Paul Feig
Smiles Of A Summer Night (1955) - Ingmar Bergman
Somewhere (2010) - Sofia Coppola
Bluebeard (2010) - Catherine Breillat
24 City (2008) - Zhang Ke Jia
Biutiful (2010) - Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Violent Summer (1959) - Valerio Zurlini
Horrible Bosses (2011) - Seth Gordon
Barney's Version (2010) - Richard J Lewis
Insidious (2011) - James Wan
Another Year (2010) - Mike Leigh
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - John Ford
Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) - Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Source Code (2011) - Duncan Jones
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) - Ronald Neame
Cedar Rapids (2011) - Miguel Arteta
The Trial (1962) - Orson Welles
Colombiana (2011)- Olivier Megaton
The Adjustment Bureau (2011) - George Nolfi
In A Better World (2011) - Susanna Bier
Of Gods And Men (2011) - Xavier Beauvois
Everything Must Go (2011) - Dan Rush
Drive (2011) - Nicolas Winding Refn
Paul (2011) - Greg Mottola
The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) - Brad Furman
Win Win (2011) - Thomas McCarthy
Jane Eyre (2011) - Cary Fukunaga
Incendies (2011) - Denis Villeneuve
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011) - Rodman Flender
Topsy Turvy (1999) - Mike Leigh
Potiche (2011) - Francois Ozon
Meet Monica Velour (2011) - Keith Bearden
Miral (2011) - Julian Schnabel
Melancholia (2011) - Lars Von Trier
The Circus (1928) - Charlie Chaplin
Weekend (2011)- Andrew Haigh
Kill The Irishman (2011) - Jonathan Hensleigh
Tabloid (2011) - Errol Morris
Red State (2011) - Kevin Smith
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest (2011) - Michael Rapaport
Bad Teacher (2011) - Jake Kasdan
The Tree Of Life (2011) - Terrence Malick
A Dangerous Method (2011) - David Cronenberg
Shit Year (2011) - Cam Archer
Terri (2011) - Azazel Jacobs
We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011) - Lynne Ramsay
Oranges And Sunshine (2011) - Jim Loach
Tales From The Golden Age (2011) - Cristian Mungiu
Curling (2011) - Denis Cote
Le Havre (2011) - Aki Kaurismaki
A Better Life (2011) - Chris Weitz
Bellflower (2011) - Evan Glodell
In A Lonely Place (1950) - Nicholas Ray
Page One: Inside The New York Times (2011) - Andrew Rossi
The Last Rites of Joe May (2011) - Joe Maggio
The Swell Season (2011) - Nick August-Perna, Chris Dapkins, Carlo Mirabella-Davis
The Artist (2011) - Michel Hazanavicius
Super 8 (2011) - J.J. Abrams
Sarah's Key (2011) - Gilles Paquet-Brenner
The Trip (2011) - Michael Winterbottom
Bill Cunningham New York (2011) - Richard Press
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) - T. Sean Durkin
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011) - Werner Herzog
Our Idiot Brother (2011) - Jesse Peretz
The Skin I Live In (2011) - Pedro Almodovar
30 Minutes Or Less (2011) - Ruben Fleischer
The Help (2011) - Tate Taylor
Beginners (2011) - Mike Mills
Point Blank (2011) - Fred Cavaye
Fright Night (2011) - Craig Gillespie
Water For Elephants (2011) - Francis Lawrence
Shoeshine (1946) - Vittorio De Sica
13 Assassins (2011) - Takashi Miike
Midnight In Paris (2011) - Woody Allen
Warrior (2011) - Gavin O'Connor
Margin Call (2011) - J.C. Chandor
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) - Brad Bird
Tuesday, After Christmas (2011) - Radu Muntean
Monday, April 19, 2010
2007 Foreign Film Submissions
Awhile back, I decided it might be interesting to try catching all of the foreign films that were submitted in a given year, if for no other reason that to have an education opinion on the matter. I chose 2007 since that was a year they just got colossally wrong based on what little I had seen.
So, I went and caught everything I could, and as it turns out, there's just not a whole lot of the films that are available. I did manage to catch 32 of the 63 films, so just over half, and I think I've finally exhausted every avenue and just have to resign myself to the fact that I caught everything I could get my hands on.
So, if I were to have been on the nomination committee, here is how I would have ranked at least those 32 films:
1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days - Romania
2. Persepolis - France
3. XXY - Argentina
4. Secret Sunshine - South Korea
5. Takva: A Man's Fear of God - Turkey
6. Katyn - Poland
7. Eklavya: The Royal Guard - India
8. The Edge of Heaven - Germany
9. Shadows - Macedonia
10. Satanas - Colombia
11. The Unknown Woman - Italy
12. 12 - Russia
13. The Counterfeiters - Austria
14. The Trap - Serbia
15. Exiled - Hong Kong
16. Island Etude - Taiwan
17. Beaufort - Israel
18. Jar City - Iceland
19. Ben X - Belgium
20. Taxidermia - Hungary
21. Silent Light - Mexico
22. The Pope's Toilet - Uruguay
23. I Served The King of England - Czech Republic
24. The Year My Parents Went On Vacation - Brazil
25. The Silly Age - Cuba
26. Caramel - Lebanon
27. Love Sickness (aka Maldeamores) - Puerto Rico
28. You, The Living - Sweden
29. The Orphanage - Spain
30. Belle Toujours - Portugal
31. Kings - Ireland
32. Mongol - Kazakhstan
So, I went and caught everything I could, and as it turns out, there's just not a whole lot of the films that are available. I did manage to catch 32 of the 63 films, so just over half, and I think I've finally exhausted every avenue and just have to resign myself to the fact that I caught everything I could get my hands on.
So, if I were to have been on the nomination committee, here is how I would have ranked at least those 32 films:
1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days - Romania
2. Persepolis - France
3. XXY - Argentina
4. Secret Sunshine - South Korea
5. Takva: A Man's Fear of God - Turkey
6. Katyn - Poland
7. Eklavya: The Royal Guard - India
8. The Edge of Heaven - Germany
9. Shadows - Macedonia
10. Satanas - Colombia
11. The Unknown Woman - Italy
12. 12 - Russia
13. The Counterfeiters - Austria
14. The Trap - Serbia
15. Exiled - Hong Kong
16. Island Etude - Taiwan
17. Beaufort - Israel
18. Jar City - Iceland
19. Ben X - Belgium
20. Taxidermia - Hungary
21. Silent Light - Mexico
22. The Pope's Toilet - Uruguay
23. I Served The King of England - Czech Republic
24. The Year My Parents Went On Vacation - Brazil
25. The Silly Age - Cuba
26. Caramel - Lebanon
27. Love Sickness (aka Maldeamores) - Puerto Rico
28. You, The Living - Sweden
29. The Orphanage - Spain
30. Belle Toujours - Portugal
31. Kings - Ireland
32. Mongol - Kazakhstan
Monday, April 12, 2010
Films Watched in 2010
I'm just going to keep a running count of every film I watch during the 2010 calendar year, just out of my own personal curiosity...
Get Him To The Greek (2010) - Nicholas Stoller
True Grit (2010) - Joel and Ethan Coen
Map Of The Sounds Of Tokyo (2010) - Isabel Coixet
I Love You Phillip Morris (2010) - John Requa & Glenn Ficarra
The Art of The Steal (2010) - Don Argott
Prodigal Sons (2010) - Kimberly Reed
Mother And Child (2010) - Rodrigo Garcia
Mugabe and The White African (2010) - Lucy Baily and Andrew Thompson
Micmacs (2010) - Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Joan Rivers: A Piece of work (2010) - Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg
Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010) - Banksy
2:37 (2006) - Murali K. Tharulli
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010) - Edgar Wright
Restrepo (2010) - Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington
Head-On (2005) - Fatih Akin
Cairo Time (2010) - Ruba Nadda
Fox And His Friends (1975) - Rainer Werner Fassbender
The Expendables (2010) - Sylvester Stallone
Everyone Else (2010) - Maren Ade
Branded To Kill (1967) - Seijun Suzuki
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966) - Mike Nichols
Pierrot le Fou (1965) - Jean-Luc Godard
Best Worst Movie (2010) - Michael Stephenson
Kick-Ass (2010) - Matthew Vaughn
Black Swan (2010) - Darren Aronofsky
Sons of Perdition (2010) - Tyler Meason and Jennilyn Merten
Toy Story 3 (2010) - Lee Unkrich
Waste Land (2010) - Lucy Walker
Over The Hill Band (2011) - Geoffrey Enthoven
Samson and Delilah (2010) - Warwick Thorton
127 Hours (2010) - Danny Boyle
Rabbit Hole - (2010) - John Cameron Mitchell
Marwencol (2010) - Jeff Malmberg
Monogamy (2011) - Dana Adam Shapiro
Double Take (2010) - Double Take
Due Date (2010) - Todd Phillips
Toy Story 2 (1999) - John Lasseter
Winter's Bone (2010) - Debra Granik
Splice (2010) - Vincenzo Natali
Agora (2010) - Alejandro Amenabar
Holy Rollers (2010) - Kevin Asch
Please Give (2010) - Nicole Holofcener
The Dinner Game (1998) - Francis Veber
Dark Days (2000) - Marc Singer
The Last House On The Left (1972) - Wes Craven
Doghouse (2009) - Jake West
Passing Strange (2009) - Spike Lee
Easy A (2010) - Will Gluck
The Night of the Hunter (1955) - Charles Laughton
The Secret of Kells (2010) - Tomm Moore
The Human Centipede (2010) - Tom Six
Never Let Me Go (2010) - Mark Romanek
Ajami (2010) - Scandar Copti & Yaron Shani
The Social Network (2010) - David Fincher
The Greatest (2010) - Shana Feste
The Killer Inside Me (2010) - Michael Winterbottom
Chungking Express (1994) - Wong Kar Wai
Days of Being Wild (1990) - Wong Kar Wai
Ashes of Time Redux (2008) - Wong Kar Wai
Ondine (2010) - Neil Jordan
Strangers On A Train (1951) - Alfred Hitchcock
The Town (2010) - Ben Affleck
Notorious (1946) - Alfred Hitchcock
North By Northwest (1959) - Alfred Hitchcock
The Iron Giant (1999) - Brad Bird
Vertigo (1958) - Alfred Hitchcock
Friday Night (2002) - Claire Denis
Solitary Man (2010) - Brian Koppelman
Chocolat (1988) - Claire Denis
Red Riding Trilogy: 1983 (2010) - Anand Tucker
Red Riding Trilogy: 1980 (2010) - James Marsh
Red Riding Trilogy: 1974 (2010) - Julian Jerrold
Survival of the Dead (2010) - George Romero
The Square (2010) - Nash Edgerton
Mosieur Verdoux (1947) - Charlie Chaplin
Le Corbeau (1943) - Henri-Georges Clouzot
Diabolique (1954) - Henri-Georges Clouzot
The Wages of Fear (1953) - Henri-Georges Clouzot
8: The Mormon Proposition (2010) - Reed Cowan
I Am Love (2010) - Luca Guadagnino
The Ghost Writer (2010) - Roman Polanski
Sunrise (1927) - F.W. Murnau
The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsburg and the Pentagon Papers (2010) - Judith Ehrlich & Rick Goldsmith
Nosferatu (1922) - F.W. Murnau
The Girl Who Played With Fire (2010) - Daniel Alfredson
The Kids Are All Right (2010) - Lisa Cholodenko
Man With A Movie Camera (1929) - Dziga Vertov
Green Zone (2010) - Paul Greengrass
The Runaways (2010) - Floria Sigismondi
Ballad of a Soldier (1959) - Grigori Chukhrai
Inception (2010) - Christopher Nolan
The River (1951) - Jean Renoir
Chloe (2010) - Atom Egoyan
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2010) - Niels Arden Oplev
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) - Alain Resnais
Querelle (1982) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Bad Timing (1980) - Nicholas Roeg
Europa (1992) - Lars Von Trier)
Barton Fink (1991) - Joel & Ethan Coen
Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle (1994) Alan Rudolph
Mala Noche (1985) - Gus Van Sant
Swoon (1992) - Tom Kalin
The Maid (2009) - Sebastian Silva
Close-Up (1990) - Abbas Kiarostami
Babette's Feast (1987) - Gabriel Axel
Burma VJ (2009) - Anders Ostergaard
The Celebration (1998) - Thomas Vinterberg
Shutter Island (2010) - Martin Scorsese
Crimson Gold (2004) - Jafar Panahi
Hukkle (2003) - Gyorgy Palfi
Damnation (1988) Bela Tarr
Kontroll (2005) - Nimrod Antal
Primo Amore (2005) - Matteo Garrone
Howard's End (1992) - James Ivory (REVISIT)
In The Name Of The Father (1993) - Jim Sheridan (REVISIT)
California Dreamin' (Endless) (2009) - Cristian Nemescu
Orlando (1992) - Sally Potter (REVISIT)
Tetro (2009) - Francis Ford Coppola
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) - Terry Gilliam
The Horse Boy (2009) - Rupert & Kristin Isaacson
35 Shots of Rum (2009) - Claire Denis
Uncertainty (2009) - Scott McGehee
Shadows (2009) - Milcho Manchevski
Date Night (2010) - Shawn Levy
The Piano (1993) - Jane Campion (REVISIT)
Brothers (2005) - Susanna Bier
Brothers(2009) - Jim Sheridan
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (2006) - Auraeus Solito
A Single Man (2009) - Tom Ford
Summer Hours (2009) - Oliver Assayas
The Secret of The Grain (2008) - Abdel Kechiche
Antibodies (2007) - Christian Alvart
Hunger (2008) - Steve McQueen
The Portrait of a Lady (1996) - Jane Campion
The Messenger (2009) - Oren Moverman
Crazy Heart (2009) - Scott Cooper
A Serious Man (2009) - Joel and Ethan Coen
Where The Wild Things Are (2009) - Spike Jonze
Noi The Albino (2003) - Dagur Kari
Cop Out (2010) - Kevin Smith
The Crazies (2010) - Breck Eisner
The Milk of Sorrow (2010) - Claudia Llosa
The Secret In Their Eyes (2010) - Juan Jose Campanella
Mother (2010) - Joon-ho Bong
Police, Adjective (2009) - Corneliu Porumboiu
Seraphine (2009) - Martin Provost
Broken Embraces (2009) - Pedro Almodovar
A Prophet (2010) - Jacques Audillard
The Book of Eli (2010) - Albert & Allen Hughes
Edge of Darkness (2010) - Jochen Richter
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) - Steve Pink
Of Time And City (2009) - Terence Davies
Revanche (2009) - Gotz Spielmann
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men (2009) - John Krasinski
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) - William A. Wellman
The White Ribbon (2009) - Michael Haneke
Secret Sunshine (2007) - Chang-dong Lee
Yojimbo (1961) - Akira Kurasowa
Taxidermia (2009) - Gyorgy Palfi
The Men Who Stare At Goats (2009) - Grant Heslov
Kwaidan (1964) - Masaki Kobayashi
Last Year At Marienbad (1961) - Alain Resnais
The Beaches of Agnes (2009) - Agnes Varda
The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) - Cyrus Nowrasteh
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) - Michael Moore
La Pointe Courte (1954) - Agnes Varda
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) - Rebecca Miller
Vagabond (1985) - Agnes Varda
Ponyo (2009) - Hayao Miyazaki
The Gleaners and I (2000) - Agnes Varda
The House of Mirth (2000) - Terence Davies
Bronson (2009) - Nicholas Refn
The September Issue (2009) - R.J. Cutler
The Invention of Lying (2009) - Ricky Gervais
Coco Before Chanel (2009) - Anne Fontaine
Good Hair (2009) - Jeff Stilson
The Best of Youth (2003) - Marco Tullio Giordana
The New World (2005) - Terrence Malick
An Angel At My Table (1990) - Jane Campion
Sweetie (1989) - Jane Campion
Bright Star (2009) - Jane Campion
Whip It! (2009) - Drew Barrymore
My Winnipeg (2008) - Guy Maddin
The Weight of Water (2002) - Kathryn Bigelow
Everlasting Moments (2009) - Jan Troell
The Juniper Tree (1990) - Nietzchka Keene
Top Hat (1935) - Marck Sandrich
101 Reykjavik (2000) - Baltasar Kormakur
The Headless Woman (2009) - Lucretia Martel
Outrage (2009) - Kirby Dick
Moon (2009) - Duncan Jones
Departures (2009) - Yojiro Takita
You, The Living (2009) - Roy Andersson
Funny People (2009) - Judd Apatow
Lorna's Silence (2009) - Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Paranormal Activity (2009) - Oren Peli
Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2009) - Sacha Gervasi
Get Him To The Greek (2010) - Nicholas Stoller
True Grit (2010) - Joel and Ethan Coen
Map Of The Sounds Of Tokyo (2010) - Isabel Coixet
I Love You Phillip Morris (2010) - John Requa & Glenn Ficarra
The Art of The Steal (2010) - Don Argott
Prodigal Sons (2010) - Kimberly Reed
Mother And Child (2010) - Rodrigo Garcia
Mugabe and The White African (2010) - Lucy Baily and Andrew Thompson
Micmacs (2010) - Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Joan Rivers: A Piece of work (2010) - Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg
Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010) - Banksy
2:37 (2006) - Murali K. Tharulli
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010) - Edgar Wright
Restrepo (2010) - Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington
Head-On (2005) - Fatih Akin
Cairo Time (2010) - Ruba Nadda
Fox And His Friends (1975) - Rainer Werner Fassbender
The Expendables (2010) - Sylvester Stallone
Everyone Else (2010) - Maren Ade
Branded To Kill (1967) - Seijun Suzuki
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966) - Mike Nichols
Pierrot le Fou (1965) - Jean-Luc Godard
Best Worst Movie (2010) - Michael Stephenson
Kick-Ass (2010) - Matthew Vaughn
Black Swan (2010) - Darren Aronofsky
Sons of Perdition (2010) - Tyler Meason and Jennilyn Merten
Toy Story 3 (2010) - Lee Unkrich
Waste Land (2010) - Lucy Walker
Over The Hill Band (2011) - Geoffrey Enthoven
Samson and Delilah (2010) - Warwick Thorton
127 Hours (2010) - Danny Boyle
Rabbit Hole - (2010) - John Cameron Mitchell
Marwencol (2010) - Jeff Malmberg
Monogamy (2011) - Dana Adam Shapiro
Double Take (2010) - Double Take
Due Date (2010) - Todd Phillips
Toy Story 2 (1999) - John Lasseter
Winter's Bone (2010) - Debra Granik
Splice (2010) - Vincenzo Natali
Agora (2010) - Alejandro Amenabar
Holy Rollers (2010) - Kevin Asch
Please Give (2010) - Nicole Holofcener
The Dinner Game (1998) - Francis Veber
Dark Days (2000) - Marc Singer
The Last House On The Left (1972) - Wes Craven
Doghouse (2009) - Jake West
Passing Strange (2009) - Spike Lee
Easy A (2010) - Will Gluck
The Night of the Hunter (1955) - Charles Laughton
The Secret of Kells (2010) - Tomm Moore
The Human Centipede (2010) - Tom Six
Never Let Me Go (2010) - Mark Romanek
Ajami (2010) - Scandar Copti & Yaron Shani
The Social Network (2010) - David Fincher
The Greatest (2010) - Shana Feste
The Killer Inside Me (2010) - Michael Winterbottom
Chungking Express (1994) - Wong Kar Wai
Days of Being Wild (1990) - Wong Kar Wai
Ashes of Time Redux (2008) - Wong Kar Wai
Ondine (2010) - Neil Jordan
Strangers On A Train (1951) - Alfred Hitchcock
The Town (2010) - Ben Affleck
Notorious (1946) - Alfred Hitchcock
North By Northwest (1959) - Alfred Hitchcock
The Iron Giant (1999) - Brad Bird
Vertigo (1958) - Alfred Hitchcock
Friday Night (2002) - Claire Denis
Solitary Man (2010) - Brian Koppelman
Chocolat (1988) - Claire Denis
Red Riding Trilogy: 1983 (2010) - Anand Tucker
Red Riding Trilogy: 1980 (2010) - James Marsh
Red Riding Trilogy: 1974 (2010) - Julian Jerrold
Survival of the Dead (2010) - George Romero
The Square (2010) - Nash Edgerton
Mosieur Verdoux (1947) - Charlie Chaplin
Le Corbeau (1943) - Henri-Georges Clouzot
Diabolique (1954) - Henri-Georges Clouzot
The Wages of Fear (1953) - Henri-Georges Clouzot
8: The Mormon Proposition (2010) - Reed Cowan
I Am Love (2010) - Luca Guadagnino
The Ghost Writer (2010) - Roman Polanski
Sunrise (1927) - F.W. Murnau
The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsburg and the Pentagon Papers (2010) - Judith Ehrlich & Rick Goldsmith
Nosferatu (1922) - F.W. Murnau
The Girl Who Played With Fire (2010) - Daniel Alfredson
The Kids Are All Right (2010) - Lisa Cholodenko
Man With A Movie Camera (1929) - Dziga Vertov
Green Zone (2010) - Paul Greengrass
The Runaways (2010) - Floria Sigismondi
Ballad of a Soldier (1959) - Grigori Chukhrai
Inception (2010) - Christopher Nolan
The River (1951) - Jean Renoir
Chloe (2010) - Atom Egoyan
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2010) - Niels Arden Oplev
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) - Alain Resnais
Querelle (1982) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Bad Timing (1980) - Nicholas Roeg
Europa (1992) - Lars Von Trier)
Barton Fink (1991) - Joel & Ethan Coen
Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle (1994) Alan Rudolph
Mala Noche (1985) - Gus Van Sant
Swoon (1992) - Tom Kalin
The Maid (2009) - Sebastian Silva
Close-Up (1990) - Abbas Kiarostami
Babette's Feast (1987) - Gabriel Axel
Burma VJ (2009) - Anders Ostergaard
The Celebration (1998) - Thomas Vinterberg
Shutter Island (2010) - Martin Scorsese
Crimson Gold (2004) - Jafar Panahi
Hukkle (2003) - Gyorgy Palfi
Damnation (1988) Bela Tarr
Kontroll (2005) - Nimrod Antal
Primo Amore (2005) - Matteo Garrone
Howard's End (1992) - James Ivory (REVISIT)
In The Name Of The Father (1993) - Jim Sheridan (REVISIT)
California Dreamin' (Endless) (2009) - Cristian Nemescu
Orlando (1992) - Sally Potter (REVISIT)
Tetro (2009) - Francis Ford Coppola
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) - Terry Gilliam
The Horse Boy (2009) - Rupert & Kristin Isaacson
35 Shots of Rum (2009) - Claire Denis
Uncertainty (2009) - Scott McGehee
Shadows (2009) - Milcho Manchevski
Date Night (2010) - Shawn Levy
The Piano (1993) - Jane Campion (REVISIT)
Brothers (2005) - Susanna Bier
Brothers(2009) - Jim Sheridan
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (2006) - Auraeus Solito
A Single Man (2009) - Tom Ford
Summer Hours (2009) - Oliver Assayas
The Secret of The Grain (2008) - Abdel Kechiche
Antibodies (2007) - Christian Alvart
Hunger (2008) - Steve McQueen
The Portrait of a Lady (1996) - Jane Campion
The Messenger (2009) - Oren Moverman
Crazy Heart (2009) - Scott Cooper
A Serious Man (2009) - Joel and Ethan Coen
Where The Wild Things Are (2009) - Spike Jonze
Noi The Albino (2003) - Dagur Kari
Cop Out (2010) - Kevin Smith
The Crazies (2010) - Breck Eisner
The Milk of Sorrow (2010) - Claudia Llosa
The Secret In Their Eyes (2010) - Juan Jose Campanella
Mother (2010) - Joon-ho Bong
Police, Adjective (2009) - Corneliu Porumboiu
Seraphine (2009) - Martin Provost
Broken Embraces (2009) - Pedro Almodovar
A Prophet (2010) - Jacques Audillard
The Book of Eli (2010) - Albert & Allen Hughes
Edge of Darkness (2010) - Jochen Richter
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) - Steve Pink
Of Time And City (2009) - Terence Davies
Revanche (2009) - Gotz Spielmann
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men (2009) - John Krasinski
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) - William A. Wellman
The White Ribbon (2009) - Michael Haneke
Secret Sunshine (2007) - Chang-dong Lee
Yojimbo (1961) - Akira Kurasowa
Taxidermia (2009) - Gyorgy Palfi
The Men Who Stare At Goats (2009) - Grant Heslov
Kwaidan (1964) - Masaki Kobayashi
Last Year At Marienbad (1961) - Alain Resnais
The Beaches of Agnes (2009) - Agnes Varda
The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) - Cyrus Nowrasteh
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) - Michael Moore
La Pointe Courte (1954) - Agnes Varda
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) - Rebecca Miller
Vagabond (1985) - Agnes Varda
Ponyo (2009) - Hayao Miyazaki
The Gleaners and I (2000) - Agnes Varda
The House of Mirth (2000) - Terence Davies
Bronson (2009) - Nicholas Refn
The September Issue (2009) - R.J. Cutler
The Invention of Lying (2009) - Ricky Gervais
Coco Before Chanel (2009) - Anne Fontaine
Good Hair (2009) - Jeff Stilson
The Best of Youth (2003) - Marco Tullio Giordana
The New World (2005) - Terrence Malick
An Angel At My Table (1990) - Jane Campion
Sweetie (1989) - Jane Campion
Bright Star (2009) - Jane Campion
Whip It! (2009) - Drew Barrymore
My Winnipeg (2008) - Guy Maddin
The Weight of Water (2002) - Kathryn Bigelow
Everlasting Moments (2009) - Jan Troell
The Juniper Tree (1990) - Nietzchka Keene
Top Hat (1935) - Marck Sandrich
101 Reykjavik (2000) - Baltasar Kormakur
The Headless Woman (2009) - Lucretia Martel
Outrage (2009) - Kirby Dick
Moon (2009) - Duncan Jones
Departures (2009) - Yojiro Takita
You, The Living (2009) - Roy Andersson
Funny People (2009) - Judd Apatow
Lorna's Silence (2009) - Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Paranormal Activity (2009) - Oren Peli
Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2009) - Sacha Gervasi
Monday, March 22, 2010
Top 100 Films Of The Decade: Intro and 100-91
I originally thought I would start in on this whole list upon seeing 1,000 movies from 2000 through 2009, but I've found that my viewing habits have become focused a bit more on watching older films as well as catching up on films from the current year, so I figured now would be as good a time as any. Besides, since I'm just about 20 films shy of 1,000, it seems unlikely that I'd find something that would crack the top 100 anyway. Especially when I had to leave so many films I really like off this list.
Since I'm linking in friends and family from Facebook who might not be quite as familiar with my tastes in film, I figure I might try to give you a little idea of what to expect here. I've been a bit of a movie dork all of my life, and as a kid, would ride my bike down to the local movie theater at Seminole Mall and see pretty much everything that was playing (those of you who worked at the movie theaters in high school can probably attest to this!)
But with so much time spent watching movies in my teens, I just saw a lot of trends come and go, and every time an interesting film came along, the studios tripped all over themselves to remake that same movie over and over again to see if lightning struck twice (...or more often, three, four, or ten times). For example, remember all the "Tarantino-esque" movies that came along in the wake of Pulp Fiction? Or how about all of the teen horror flicks that came along in the wake of the first Scream revitalizing that genre?. I guess, one part of developing my tastes was born out of that, and I stopped going for the obvious cash-grabbing ploys. And sort of going hand-in-hand with that, I've stopped listening to a lot of the mainstream hype. It seems like each summer, one big special effects extravaganza comes along after the next, and roughly 80% of the time, the people I know who saw that weekend's "event" film would tell me how much it sucked later that night at the bar or at work on Monday. Mostly, it seems like the hype exists to get as many people into the theater opening weekend before word of mouth spreads. This isn't to say all of these films suck, but think about it... for every Dark Knight that comes along, there are a lot more Transformers 2.
While I've learned to avoid a lot of films, I've also learned to seek out the sorts of films that I never had access to growing up... foreign films, documentaries, micro-budget indies and such that simply weren't available at our little AMC or at Blockbuster. This isn't to say that any of those genres are necessarily better. I've seen a lot of terrible foreign films and documentaries too. And while there will be quite a strong number of foreign films on this list, you have to consider just how many different countries there are around the world putting out film, and the U.S. is merely one of them. But don't fret... American filmmaking is more than amply represented here.
So, the 100 films I picked here are all films that made me think, struck a personal connection, lingered in the brain, entertained me in a way that I found smart, felt innovative, or even appalled me to the core in some cases... but all of have managed to stick with me in one way or another. Where available, I've linked to trailers, so you can watch the trailer for most of these films by clicking on the film's title.
100. Fat Girl
(2001) Catherine Breillat - France
This one is one I went back and forth on including honestly. When I first saw it, I found it ballsy, unnerving, and completely unflinching in it's look at sexuality and it's willingness to go to places I never imagined. Yet, with subsequent films by Breillat, I'm starting to think of her as someone whose main purpose is crass shock value, and it has somewhat diminished my appreciation for this film to a certain extent. I know people who love this one to pieces, and I know others who find this film absolutely abhorrent. I understand both sides of the argument. But, I decided to include this one because I think to retroactively dismiss it would be to deny the impact I felt.
This one is about a couple of sisters vacationing with their family and discovering their sexuality as well. The elder sister is young, thin, and conventionally attractive. The younger sister is chubby and plain and doesn't attract the boys. But beyond their physical differences, the sisters also have very different views about romance and sex as well. The ending here is shockingly abrupt, graphic, and disturbing, and I think it's probably the reason most people either love it or hate it. At the time, I loved it for it's boldness. I'm not quite sure where I fall on it now.
99. Sangre de mi Sangre
(2008) Christopher Zalla - USA/Argentina
There've been a few films as of late that have delved into illegal immigration and the immigrant experience, some successful, others less so, but I this is the one that I found to be the most interesting of the bunch, and interestingly enough, one I caught entirely by accident.
This two young men sneaking into the country - one is meet up with the father he never knew when his mother dies, the other a criminal who is fleeing to escape some hoodlums who want him killed. The two become friendly, but their friendship is short lived as the criminal steals the other guy's backpack with everything he had and shows up on the father's doorstep assuming the other's identity. The real son is left to wander New York City alone with no resources. The film follows what becomes of these two boys and both halves of the story are equally compelling.
98. Best In Show
(2000) Christopher Guest - USA
One thing I've come to discover is that my taste in comedy doesn't seem to match up with the majority. There always seems to be one big breakout comedy that comes along each year that breaks box office records and people endlessly quote or become sort of cult classics. But I've watched them, and I simply don't understand. The Hangover, Wedding Crashers, Borat, Napoleon Dynamite... all these films seem to make people laugh, and well, I wish I was in on the joke. I just never found myself laughing or even amused. But Christopher Guest's mockumentaries... THESE make me laugh.
This one follows a bunch of pet-obsessed eccentrics who compete in the dog show circuit and it really sort of spoofs and mocks the whole culture of these little stage parent-like kooks that obsess about their dogs and these contests. And I crack up every time.
97. Werckmeister Harmonies
(2001) Béla Tarr - Hungary
Curiously intriguing would probably be the best way I could describe this one. It's one of those films that's rather ambiguous in nature, but manages to evoke a mood and a feeling like few others I've seen, and it's managed to linger ever. I recall watching this one, and experiencing such a feeling of dread, even though I had no idea what lied ahead or if I was even supposed to be feeling that way. There's just such an odd and ominous air about the film the builds and grows, and mostly through Tarr's use of music and uncomfortably long takes (I recall reading that there were only 33 takes or something like that in the entire two-and-a-half hours). If a largely dialogue-free, black-and-white Hungarian film sounds like it would be a chore to you, than it quite likely will be. But for the few who think that the above sounds interesting, I would encourage you to check it out. Although I couldn't find a trailer with English subtitles, I think this clip does a pretty good job of succinctly giving you a feel for the film.
95. The Gleaners And I
93. Minority Report
(2002) Steven Spielberg - USA
Since I'm linking in friends and family from Facebook who might not be quite as familiar with my tastes in film, I figure I might try to give you a little idea of what to expect here. I've been a bit of a movie dork all of my life, and as a kid, would ride my bike down to the local movie theater at Seminole Mall and see pretty much everything that was playing (those of you who worked at the movie theaters in high school can probably attest to this!)
But with so much time spent watching movies in my teens, I just saw a lot of trends come and go, and every time an interesting film came along, the studios tripped all over themselves to remake that same movie over and over again to see if lightning struck twice (...or more often, three, four, or ten times). For example, remember all the "Tarantino-esque" movies that came along in the wake of Pulp Fiction? Or how about all of the teen horror flicks that came along in the wake of the first Scream revitalizing that genre?. I guess, one part of developing my tastes was born out of that, and I stopped going for the obvious cash-grabbing ploys. And sort of going hand-in-hand with that, I've stopped listening to a lot of the mainstream hype. It seems like each summer, one big special effects extravaganza comes along after the next, and roughly 80% of the time, the people I know who saw that weekend's "event" film would tell me how much it sucked later that night at the bar or at work on Monday. Mostly, it seems like the hype exists to get as many people into the theater opening weekend before word of mouth spreads. This isn't to say all of these films suck, but think about it... for every Dark Knight that comes along, there are a lot more Transformers 2.
While I've learned to avoid a lot of films, I've also learned to seek out the sorts of films that I never had access to growing up... foreign films, documentaries, micro-budget indies and such that simply weren't available at our little AMC or at Blockbuster. This isn't to say that any of those genres are necessarily better. I've seen a lot of terrible foreign films and documentaries too. And while there will be quite a strong number of foreign films on this list, you have to consider just how many different countries there are around the world putting out film, and the U.S. is merely one of them. But don't fret... American filmmaking is more than amply represented here.
So, the 100 films I picked here are all films that made me think, struck a personal connection, lingered in the brain, entertained me in a way that I found smart, felt innovative, or even appalled me to the core in some cases... but all of have managed to stick with me in one way or another. Where available, I've linked to trailers, so you can watch the trailer for most of these films by clicking on the film's title.
100. Fat Girl (2001) Catherine Breillat - France
This one is one I went back and forth on including honestly. When I first saw it, I found it ballsy, unnerving, and completely unflinching in it's look at sexuality and it's willingness to go to places I never imagined. Yet, with subsequent films by Breillat, I'm starting to think of her as someone whose main purpose is crass shock value, and it has somewhat diminished my appreciation for this film to a certain extent. I know people who love this one to pieces, and I know others who find this film absolutely abhorrent. I understand both sides of the argument. But, I decided to include this one because I think to retroactively dismiss it would be to deny the impact I felt.
This one is about a couple of sisters vacationing with their family and discovering their sexuality as well. The elder sister is young, thin, and conventionally attractive. The younger sister is chubby and plain and doesn't attract the boys. But beyond their physical differences, the sisters also have very different views about romance and sex as well. The ending here is shockingly abrupt, graphic, and disturbing, and I think it's probably the reason most people either love it or hate it. At the time, I loved it for it's boldness. I'm not quite sure where I fall on it now.
99. Sangre de mi Sangre(2008) Christopher Zalla - USA/Argentina
There've been a few films as of late that have delved into illegal immigration and the immigrant experience, some successful, others less so, but I this is the one that I found to be the most interesting of the bunch, and interestingly enough, one I caught entirely by accident.
This two young men sneaking into the country - one is meet up with the father he never knew when his mother dies, the other a criminal who is fleeing to escape some hoodlums who want him killed. The two become friendly, but their friendship is short lived as the criminal steals the other guy's backpack with everything he had and shows up on the father's doorstep assuming the other's identity. The real son is left to wander New York City alone with no resources. The film follows what becomes of these two boys and both halves of the story are equally compelling.
98. Best In Show(2000) Christopher Guest - USA
One thing I've come to discover is that my taste in comedy doesn't seem to match up with the majority. There always seems to be one big breakout comedy that comes along each year that breaks box office records and people endlessly quote or become sort of cult classics. But I've watched them, and I simply don't understand. The Hangover, Wedding Crashers, Borat, Napoleon Dynamite... all these films seem to make people laugh, and well, I wish I was in on the joke. I just never found myself laughing or even amused. But Christopher Guest's mockumentaries... THESE make me laugh.
This one follows a bunch of pet-obsessed eccentrics who compete in the dog show circuit and it really sort of spoofs and mocks the whole culture of these little stage parent-like kooks that obsess about their dogs and these contests. And I crack up every time.
97. Werckmeister Harmonies(2001) Béla Tarr - Hungary
Curiously intriguing would probably be the best way I could describe this one. It's one of those films that's rather ambiguous in nature, but manages to evoke a mood and a feeling like few others I've seen, and it's managed to linger ever. I recall watching this one, and experiencing such a feeling of dread, even though I had no idea what lied ahead or if I was even supposed to be feeling that way. There's just such an odd and ominous air about the film the builds and grows, and mostly through Tarr's use of music and uncomfortably long takes (I recall reading that there were only 33 takes or something like that in the entire two-and-a-half hours). If a largely dialogue-free, black-and-white Hungarian film sounds like it would be a chore to you, than it quite likely will be. But for the few who think that the above sounds interesting, I would encourage you to check it out. Although I couldn't find a trailer with English subtitles, I think this clip does a pretty good job of succinctly giving you a feel for the film.
(2002) Lynne Ramsay - Scotland
Lynne Ramsay was one of my favorite directors to emerge at the turn of the decade, so it's been disappointing to me that she hasn't made another film since this one, though I recently read that she is teaming up with Tilda Swinton to adapt the novel We Need To Talk About Kevin into a film, which makes me very happy. I find this one a little more difficult to discuss regarding the whole plot, but I find this one fascinating mostly because of the character and the actress who plays her. Samantha Morton stars as the title character, and I believe her to be among the best actresses of her generation (she'll be in quite a few of these films, including another in this segment). I don't think many actresses could have played such a damaged character like Morvern quite so effectively, especially since much of the performance (and the film, by extension) is so internal, and I think that her performance fuses beautifully with Ramsay's style of filmmaking.
Lynne Ramsay was one of my favorite directors to emerge at the turn of the decade, so it's been disappointing to me that she hasn't made another film since this one, though I recently read that she is teaming up with Tilda Swinton to adapt the novel We Need To Talk About Kevin into a film, which makes me very happy. I find this one a little more difficult to discuss regarding the whole plot, but I find this one fascinating mostly because of the character and the actress who plays her. Samantha Morton stars as the title character, and I believe her to be among the best actresses of her generation (she'll be in quite a few of these films, including another in this segment). I don't think many actresses could have played such a damaged character like Morvern quite so effectively, especially since much of the performance (and the film, by extension) is so internal, and I think that her performance fuses beautifully with Ramsay's style of filmmaking.
95. The Gleaners And I (2000) Agnès Varda - France
While Varda is probably best known for her films from the French new Wave, such as Cleo From 5 to 7, she's one of those directors whose documentary work I find infinitely more fascinating. In part because I find Varda herself so fascinating. One of the biggest lessons I learned in college was that a fascinating professor could make even the dullest of subjects interesting, and I think that sort of applies here as well. Inspired by a painting of a woman gleaning (or, scavenging) wheat, she set off to make a documentary about people who live off the land scavenging to survive, both in rural and in urban settings. But Varda is very much a part of this film, as she mingles with the subjects she speaks with and scavenges along side of them. And while in her 70's at the time the film was made, she's a complete free spirit and her childlike enthusiasm for what she's doing makes this such an enjoyable watch.
While Varda is probably best known for her films from the French new Wave, such as Cleo From 5 to 7, she's one of those directors whose documentary work I find infinitely more fascinating. In part because I find Varda herself so fascinating. One of the biggest lessons I learned in college was that a fascinating professor could make even the dullest of subjects interesting, and I think that sort of applies here as well. Inspired by a painting of a woman gleaning (or, scavenging) wheat, she set off to make a documentary about people who live off the land scavenging to survive, both in rural and in urban settings. But Varda is very much a part of this film, as she mingles with the subjects she speaks with and scavenges along side of them. And while in her 70's at the time the film was made, she's a complete free spirit and her childlike enthusiasm for what she's doing makes this such an enjoyable watch.
94. The Weather UndergroundWhile this group drew more attention later in the decade, I'd not been familiar with them at the time this film came out, and I found this to be an interesting and well-researched look at the group who despite lofty ideals, imploded in on itself by adopting the wrong tactics to convey their message.
93. Minority Report(2002) Steven Spielberg - USA
See, I like mainstream stuff too! It's not all artsy-fartsy existential documentaries about Bolivian ox herders and stuff :)
But seriously, I've always appreciated this one quite a bit and find it a bit underrated among the decade's science fiction films, and I find the moral implications of the story interesting. Though I'm no Tom Cruise fan and I think the supporting cast (Max Von Sydow, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton) is much better, he didn't annoy me, so there's that. This one might have come in just outside of the top 100, but I actually happened to catch this one again not too long ago, and found it held up rather well and I found myself reconsidering it for this list.
(2006) Jeff Feuerzeig - USA
I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a fan of Johnston's music, but I did find this documentary about this man and his career to be a rather amazing look at mental illness. I can't say I knew much about the man beforehand, though I'd heard of him and was aware that he had a small but devoted cult following, I was unaware of the man's battle with severe bipolar disorder that has both shaped his work and undermined any hopes for success he would ever have.
91. The Virgin Suicides
(2000) Sofia Coppola - USA
Back when this came out, I saw the trailer, and I didn't recall thinking too much of it (I think it had somewhat of a teeny bopper chick-literature appeal), but I caught it later on DVD and was interested to find it had more depth than I imagined it to have. The story focuses more on the group of young boys in the film who now, 25 years later, are recalling the events that occurred one summer when the Lisbon sisters - the object of all the boys affections - offed themselves, and the memory that lingers for them all these years later. Coppola gives the film a very moody, mysterious aura and manages to imbue the whole film with a very distinct feeling of time and place that makes this film work so well. I was happy that my preconceived notions were wrong.
91. The Virgin Suicides(2000) Sofia Coppola - USA
Back when this came out, I saw the trailer, and I didn't recall thinking too much of it (I think it had somewhat of a teeny bopper chick-literature appeal), but I caught it later on DVD and was interested to find it had more depth than I imagined it to have. The story focuses more on the group of young boys in the film who now, 25 years later, are recalling the events that occurred one summer when the Lisbon sisters - the object of all the boys affections - offed themselves, and the memory that lingers for them all these years later. Coppola gives the film a very moody, mysterious aura and manages to imbue the whole film with a very distinct feeling of time and place that makes this film work so well. I was happy that my preconceived notions were wrong.
90-81 will be up soon...
Top 100 Films Of The Decade: 90-81
90. Burn After Reading(2008) Joel and Ethan Coen - USA
In conversation, I've discovered that this falls into that "love it or hate it" category that so many Coen Brothers films seem to fall into. Quite obviously, I'm on the "loved it" side of that debate. I don't think Brad Pitt or Frances McDormand have ever been funnier or more endearing, and while it may be a screwball comedy that doesn't add up to much, it's one hell of an entertaining ride.
89. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
(2006) Cristi Puiu - Romania
This one's a bit more difficult to pigeonhole... a darkly comedic tragedy, perhaps? Anyway, this tale of a dying man being shuffled from hospital to hospital all over Bucharest is among the best of a great crop of films coming out of Romania these days.
88. (2009) Ruben Fleischer - USA
For whatever reason, I have a strange affection for zombie films, and seeing this in a crowded theater certainly added to that experience (it doesn't fare quite as well at home for me). It provided me with one of the most flat out entertaining theater-going experiences of the past year. And although Woody Harrellson earned an Oscar nomination for his performance in The Messenger I actually prefer his performance in this one, as the wisecracking Tallahassee, who gave the movie some of it's best laughs, along with the surprise celebrity cameo (which I won't ruin for you).
81. The Aura
For whatever reason, I have a strange affection for zombie films, and seeing this in a crowded theater certainly added to that experience (it doesn't fare quite as well at home for me). It provided me with one of the most flat out entertaining theater-going experiences of the past year. And although Woody Harrellson earned an Oscar nomination for his performance in The Messenger I actually prefer his performance in this one, as the wisecracking Tallahassee, who gave the movie some of it's best laughs, along with the surprise celebrity cameo (which I won't ruin for you).
(2008) Matteo Garrone - Italy
Five different stories interweave in this film with one common bond: The Camorra, a Naples-based crime syndicate that controls the city and whose tentacles extend far beyond just the seedy criminal underworld. The stories are based on an exposé done by Roberto Saviano, who now lives under 24-hour government protection because of what he managed to expose about the Camorra's operations. If you're fond of films like The Godfather series or Scarface (which serves as the inspiration for the two young wanna-be gangsters at the center of one story), you may want to give this one a go.
Five different stories interweave in this film with one common bond: The Camorra, a Naples-based crime syndicate that controls the city and whose tentacles extend far beyond just the seedy criminal underworld. The stories are based on an exposé done by Roberto Saviano, who now lives under 24-hour government protection because of what he managed to expose about the Camorra's operations. If you're fond of films like The Godfather series or Scarface (which serves as the inspiration for the two young wanna-be gangsters at the center of one story), you may want to give this one a go.
86. The Magdalene Sisters(2003) Peter Mullan - Ireland
The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland were a place where "wayward" girls were sent for punishment, forced to work mercilessly while enduring cruel abuse at the hands of the nuns that headed the laundries. This is the story of one group of girls sent to live there back in the 1960's, many of whom found themselves there for wrongs that would even be considered slight by 60's standards. I don't much care for the trailer (Miramax went through a period where they had to make all of their films look like "triumphs of the human spirit," and this is one example). It's a lot grittier than the trailer suggests.
The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland were a place where "wayward" girls were sent for punishment, forced to work mercilessly while enduring cruel abuse at the hands of the nuns that headed the laundries. This is the story of one group of girls sent to live there back in the 1960's, many of whom found themselves there for wrongs that would even be considered slight by 60's standards. I don't much care for the trailer (Miramax went through a period where they had to make all of their films look like "triumphs of the human spirit," and this is one example). It's a lot grittier than the trailer suggests.
(2006) Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden - USA
As a devoted educator and teen basketball coach by day and a crack addict by night, Ryan Gosling deservingly garnered an Oscar nomination for his performance in this one. Matching him every step of the way was young Shareeka Epps, as a street smart young girl finding herself at a crossroads - she's clearly capable of so much more than what her surroundings offer her, yet in danger of becoming another statistic of those surroundings. An incredibly smart and insightful character study.
As a devoted educator and teen basketball coach by day and a crack addict by night, Ryan Gosling deservingly garnered an Oscar nomination for his performance in this one. Matching him every step of the way was young Shareeka Epps, as a street smart young girl finding herself at a crossroads - she's clearly capable of so much more than what her surroundings offer her, yet in danger of becoming another statistic of those surroundings. An incredibly smart and insightful character study.
84. Together(2001) Lukas Moodysson - Sweden
Set in the mid-70's, the story starts off with a young mother of two leaves her alcoholic abusive husband and takes her two kids with her to go and live with her brother, who lives in a hippie commune with a group of friends. And what follows is a film about a lot of things, really.
But, what I most took away from this film was how human each character is made to feel. The group of hippies might constantly espouse ideals that they don't always live up to; the concept of "free love" isn't without unintended consequences; the characters who might seem unfathomable aren't portrayed as saints, but aren't beyond redemption either. And what I think most impressed me about Moodysson's first two films (1998's Show Me Love being the other) was that he has a remarkable knack for depicting children. While I felt that there were a lot of great storylines here, the one that strikes the most resonant chord was that of the little girl forced to move in with this commune of people she doesn't understand and her blossoming friendship with the chubby kid from across the street whose ultra-conservative parents despise everything the commune represents.
(2006) Billy Corben - USA
I've found that some of my favorite documentaries from the past decade aren't necessarily the most well-made films in the world in terms of filmmaking gifts, but the stories they tell are so compelling that I'm more than willing to overlook some of their shortcomings, and this would certainly be one of them. Cocaine Cowboys takes an uncompromising look at the cocaine trade that exploded in Miami in the 70s and 80s and the gruesome violence that came along with it. Some of the reenactments they use are kind of corny, but the stories presented were compelling enough to inspire a number of films and television shows, like Scarface and Miami Vice. Cocaine Cowboys takes a long hard look at the true stories of what went on, and it's horrifying but completely compelling.
(2004) Alexander Payne - USA
I have to admit that my reaction to this one wasn't one of immediate adoration. Upon first viewing, it was one of those cases where the hype that built during limited release elevated my expectations to unrealistic levels, so I left a little disappointed. Thankfully, I gave it a second chance down the road, and I think it helped me revel in the nuances that I was unable to when burdened with lofty expectations. I found so many relatable characteristics in each of the four main characters, and I found Virginia Madsen's dialogue with Paul Giamatti in the scene paralleling wine with life to be one of the more sly and fascinating insights on life articulated on screen during the past decade.
81. The Aura(2006) Fabián Belinsky - Argentina
Belinsky only got a chance to make two films before his untimely death, and both of them are worth the watch. While Nine Queens got a little more ink upon its release, I prefer his later film. The story centers on an epileptic whose otherwise a relatively simple, normal man, but he often fantasizes about pulling off heists. He has no intention of actually carrying them out, but simply enjoys thinking about the various angles and formulating the plans. However, an ill-fated camping trip sets off a chain of events that lands him right in the middle of a heist in the works. While there are a lot of coincidences you need to suspend belief for, somehow Belinsky makes it all work.
80-71 coming this weekend...
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