Wednesday, January 27, 2010

2009 in Film (and Some Thoughts on Two Years of Blogging)

We'll get to the best films of 2009 in a moment, but first some thoughts as I think about the second anniversary of this blog… Well this week marks the anniversary of this blog, and I have to say I'm surprised I've kept with it for this long. There were times when I felt like throwing in the towel, but I kept coming back to why I started this thing in the first place. When I started this blog two years ago it was just an excuse to throw my amateur musings on film into the already crowded blogosphere…it...

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Sharing the Road We Walk: Wes Anderson and His Music

Watching The Darjeeling Limited the other day I was completely energized by a moment in the film that I had forgotten altogether. The moment is the funeral scene where our three wanderers, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman – three brothers on a quest to find familial unity in India – happen across three boys struggling to carry some cargo across a raging river. As their load crumbles, so do the boys, and they are sent into the water at the mercy of the current. As the brothers...

Sunday, January 24, 2010

2009 Capsule Reviews, Part 3: The Limits of Control, The Hurt Locker, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and A Serious Man

Well, I've tried to watch as many 2009 films as possible in the past two weeks, but a co-worker got sick and I had to sub all week -- so I was teaching from 8am - 7:30pm -- thus squelching all of my movie-watching possibilities during the day (I normally teach from 3 - 7:30).  There are more than a few movies I had planned to watch that I just didn't get the opportunity to, but I'll list those in a later post.  I'm hoping to get my year-end review/2nd Anniversary post up sometime tomorrow...

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Rethinking Spielberg's War of the Worlds

I'm sitting here at work watching War of the Worlds with the students while they work on projects, and I forgot how good this movie is.  It got me thinking...have I missed something about what Spielberg accomplished in the 2000's?  I mean he made to sure-fire masterpieces Minority Report and Munich, a big-budget (and dare I say arty) summer blockbuster in War of the Worlds, and not to mention a movie I still haven't seen that many consider his greatest achievement of the decade, A.I. ...

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

No...not the bees!

It's no surprise if you aren't aware that my brother Troy and I have a blog entitled It's Garbage Day -- where we discuss the merits of bad movies -- because we haven't posted any new material in about four months.  But the long awaited Wicker Man post is finally up.  Head on over to the Garbage Day blog and see what we have to say about a really weird Nicolas Cage performance...and not weird in the good, Bad Lieutanant kind of way....

Saturday, January 16, 2010

My Favorite Albums of 2009

I usually don't talk music on here, but I figured since I'm working on my year-end review (to be posted at the ever-relevant time of January 25th) I would toss up 20 of my favorite albums I've heard this year.  My tastes aren't for everyone, but there's some good stuff in here, and I hope some of you will ask about them in the comments...I'll be more than willing to let you know which songs to sample.  My choices after the jump... ...

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Symbolism has never looked so tasty...

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

2009 Capsule Reviews, Part 2: The Girlfriend Experience, Where the Wild Things Are, Bad Lieutenant, In the Loop, Extract

Here are more capsule reviews for the year 2009.  I still have a handful of films to get to.  On the 25th I'll post my year-end wrap up, which will also mark my two year anniversary with the blog.  Until then here are some snapshot reviews of some pretty good movies I watched in the last couple of weeks... ...

Monday, January 11, 2010

Question of the Day: What do you think of Phillips and Scott’s version of “At the Movies”?

Just a quick question today: I was watching their “Worst of the Year” special last night and I have to say it was nice to have critics on TV who weren’t afraid to after films like Departures, Watchmen, Transformers, and others…calling all of them some of the worst movie experiences of the year. Now I liked some of the movies they ripped on, but that’s what always made the Siskel & Ebert show so great, they weren’t afraid to rip on movies that people – including a lot of popular critics –...

Thursday, January 7, 2010

My 20 Favorite Things of the Decade

Instead of doing a traditional countdown of the best films of the decade (for that you can see the Question of the Day feature that was posted in the last week or so) I thought I would change it up and just list some of the things that made me extremely happy the past 10 years. I think people may be a bit "listed" out right now, and I like doing something more personal than just listing movies I loved…which is an exercise I take pleasure in, but for that just look at my top 10 lists for the past...

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Mosey on Over to Decisions at Sundown...

Yup...that's the western blog I've mentioned in the past. It hasn't been updated by me in a long while, but thankfully the incredibly smart people I share blog duties with over there have picked up the slack. The most recent entry being Ed Howard -- of the deeply rich and resplendent movie blog Only the Cinema -- and his take on the classic Hawkes helmed El Dorado. Check it out. Also, check out Jon Lanthier's (the creator of Decisions at Sundown) essay on one of my very favorite films of the year, The Limits of Control. Ed's take on this fine...

My Favorite Books of the Decade

I hate choosing favorites. Especially when it comes to books…which is why I am just going to list these things alphabetically. I hope you'll ask about some of these choices in the comments section; I also hope that you will pick some of these titles up if you haven't read them. There are some great authors here, but before I reveal the list there is one caveat: my tastes unabashedly lean towards the British writers. Sorry Chuck Palahniuk and Don DeLillo fans (although I do love White Noise...

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

2009 Capsule Reviews, Part 1: Avatar, Invictus, The Hangover, The Brothers Bloom, and Moon

So many movies from this year to get to (and I'm still catching up), so I'm going to do what I did last year when I was watching multiple movies a day: capsule reviews. It's just a lot easier on me that way. I'll elaborate more on the really good movies in my year-end wrap-up. Movie reviews are after the jump… ...

Monday, January 4, 2010

Question of the Day: Your Favorite Films of 2007?

Today's question is about what many consider to be the best/deepest slate of films released this decade, and arguably the best/deepest since 1999.  Discuss and list your favorites in the comments.  Here's my list: 20.) 28 Weeks Later 19.) The Simpson's Movie 18.) Knocked Up 17.) Black Snake Moan 16.) The Lookout 15.) Grindhouse 14.) Juno 13.) Atonement 12.) The Darjeeling Limited 11.) Inland Empire 10.) Bug 9.) The Orphanage 8.) Gone Baby Gone 7.) Breach 6.) Into Great Silence 5.)...

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year

This picture makes me happy as two of my favorite things, Keira Knightley and Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go, join forces in making sure I'll have at least one amazing filmgoing experience in 2010.  I'll be interested to see how this adaptation turns out, but I remember reading the novel a few years ago and thinking that Keira would be perfect as the opinionated Ruth.  Anyway...I'll have more to post on Monday, but you know, I can never get enough of Keira Knightley...so there ya go. ...