The Year in Review (Updated): Images from My Favorite Movies of 2010 and Three Years of Blogging

[Updated on 2/4/11: I've updated the post to include the title's to my favorite movies of 2010. Enjoy.]

As the blogosphere closes the door on showcasing films from 2010 (I won't be, though, since I still have a handful of releases I want to see), I'm left thinking about how hard it is becoming for me to see movies the year they are released. I also often wonder if I'm just wasting my time limiting myself to the year's releases when I do these year-in-review type posts when I should be showcasing all of the great films I see during the year (I like the way Ed Howard does his year-end lists). Looking at the list of films I missed, it's a wonder why I'm even trying to attempt to construct a "best of" list because I feel like I've missed way too much to even begin to make myself believe that I've seen enough for my opinion on the year to matter. However, these lists – as arbitrary as they are – are still fun to do for list-happy people like myself, and this year I figured I would switch up the format and just show images of my favorite films….this isn't a definitive list by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a good idea of the types of movies released in 2010 that I fell in love with. I decided on 14 films this year because I felt like I had 14 great movie experiences, and I didn't want to exclude any of them just because convention says we do a list of 10 or 20 or 25…

Now, I figured to kind make interesting the unveiling of the list I would compile screengrabs that wouldn't be too obvious for you to guess which movie they come from. The purpose? Let's have a little contest: Whoever gets all 16 images (the image that sits atop this post plus an extra one at the very end in addition to the 14 films I've chosen as my favorites of the year) I've placed in this post correct first will get a prize. We'll discuss the prize via email. No foolin'…a prize! It's my way of saying thanks for continuing to check this blog out after 3 years of inconsistency (both in quality and quantity of posts). I feel like this has been the best year yet, and, with my completion of Graduate School a mere two months away, I look forward to spending more time on the blog. I've loaded up the Netflix queue with tons of foreign films. It will be the year of Fellini, Pasolini, Antonioni, Bergman, and any other giant of foreign cinema I can think of on the blog…I'll also be mixing the sacred with the profane with more reviews of exploitation and Italian horror cinema. And this year – with no Grad School to worry about – I will host another Italian Horror Blogathon. So, it's going to be a fun year...I think. I look forward to more enriching conversation with you all. Thanks for reading!

Images after the jump…

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Top 50 Films of the Decade: # 1 - 10

10.) Undertow (2004)

Directed by David Gordon Green

It’s no surprise Terrence Malick produced David Gordon Green's mythological road picture, about two brothers on the run from a greed-obsessed uncle (who may be their father, too), Undertow. His influences are just as evident here as the influence of Night of the Hunter, and it’s refreshing to see another filmmaker, who like Malick, doesn’t just film something beautiful for beauty’s sake. There is a purpose to cinematographer Tim Orr’s shots, and even though they are beautifully framed and conceived, they aren’t showy, blow-away shots that exist only to draw attention to how good the filmmakers are. These are shots that are designed to evoke mood – visually-poetic conceits that conjure up the danger and horrors found in the original Brothers Grimm stories – shots that always tell us something about the narrative, and help move the story along. Undertow is a refreshing thriller that embraces the ethereal qualities found in myths or fables, giving the viewer great locations (the opening six minuets of the film, the junkyard where Chris (Jaime Bell) and his brothers seek refuge) that are feasts for the eyes, and scenes of surprising warmth (the scene where Chris finds out that two waifish girls have tried to steal his coins, and instead of lunging at them in anger, he looks upon them with empathy as if to say: “we come from the same place”.) that showcase Green’s narrative skills in addition to his extremely creative and poetic eye. Undertow is David Gordon Green’s masterpiece.

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Top 50 Films of the Decade: # 11 - 20

20.) Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

Directed by Miranda July

Miranda July's whimsical fairy tale about fractured romance and oddity being sexy is probably the most memorable Sundance darling to be released this decade.  It's just quirky enough to be interesting without being grating, and it's just dark enough to delve into some humorous situations that are only funny because they're handled without vulgarity.  The film's opening, a father (the great John Hawkes...why doesn't he get more film roles?) trying to get the attention of his kids by lighting his hand on fire as some kind of parlor trick (only he uses gasoline, not alcohol), is one of the weirdest and most jarring openings to any film this past decade.  There's also a great moment when a character played by writer/director July walks down a street with Hawkes.  The two converse and as they continue their walk July pretends that they are married, and that the street is their timeline of events as a married couple.  As they stop to consider this half way through their walk she quips that their life is half over.  It doesn't do any kind of justice to explain the scene, but if you've seen it then you know why it works.  It's moments like that stand out and make this oddball film so memorable. 

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Top 50 Films of the Decade: #21 - 30

30.) Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (2000)

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

As he did with his oddball western Dead Man, Jim Jarmusch mashes up another genre and produces an esoteric look at the gangster film as seen through the eyes of a hitman who lives by the ancient code of the samurai. It's a bizarre film (especially the moments of dialogue between our protagonist and a French ice-cream salesman) that I think is meant to be seen as more a cartoon than something super serious (characters are frequently seen throughout watching cartoons); Jarmusch even has one of the gangsters die in such a cartoonish way that he seems to call a spade a spade and just cop to it as the same thing happens in a cartoon a character is watching prior to the gangster's death.  This is Forrest Whitaker's best performance, and it's one of Jarmusch's masterpieces as he satirizes the gangster genre while simultaneously paying homage to it.  That's what makes Ghost Dog work so well is the serious matter in which Jarmusch treats his main character...this isn't some kind of eccentricity, this is a way of like for our hitman, and Jarmusch never condescends; rather, his film is a contemplative genre picture (again, much like Dead Man) as a lot of the film is sans dialogue as The Rza's fantastic soundtrack guides us through the action.

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Top 50 Films of the Decade: #31 - 40

40.) Eastern Promises (2007)

Directed by David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg re-teams with Viggo Mortensen to create one of the darkest, most bleak, and yes, interesting movies about the criminal underworld (I will refrain from the term organized crime, because these Russian mobsters don't seem all that organized). Family members kill important people without consulting their father (the head of the family) and alliances are made behind peoples back. Booze is not stolen, but purchased cheap, but possibly it could have been purchased even cheaper, and when they get the booze they don't sell it for profit they drink it. These quirks and undercutting of the traditional mobster film make this one of the better films on the subject to come along since Miller's Crossing. The film has the appropriate cold aesthetic to it, and when we become privy to a key plot point that turns the entire film on its ear, we stop to think about what might happen to these characters after the film cuts to black. The film doesn't contain the family oriented scenes of the Corleone family of The Godfather, it doesn't contain the appealing mobsters from a film like Goodfellas; however, the film is spot on in recognizing that for these mobsters – who inhabit a world extremely different than the Italian mobsters we're used to seeing in film – their bodies belong to someone else (there's a great scene where Mortensen's character must strip before the heads of the Russian mob and prove, based on his tattoos, that he is fully committed), and that's what makes the film so fascinating: Yes it has all of the typical themes of a Cronenberg film (the decaying of body/soul, the mixture of extreme violence and sex, and the idea that the choices made by these characters have dire circumstances), but it feels fresh for its genre, it's appropriately ambiguous, and it's certainly proof of one of the best director/actor collaborations of the last decade. Oh, and that knife fight in the shower room is something to behold.

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Top 50 Films of the Decade: #41 - 50

Before I get started with this I just wanted to point you all towards a great review by Tony Dayoub of Cinema Viewfinder. He reviews Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar, one of my favorite cult westerns, over at our western blog Decisions at Sundown. Check it out. Onto the countdown...

   
50.) The Claim (2000)

Directed by Michael Winterbottom

Michael Winterbottom's western is completely indebted to its great cinematography by Alwin H. Kuchler which evokes the greatness of the film's most obvious influence, Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller.  The narrative is similar to the Altman film, too, as Winterbottom metes out the information on a need-to-know basis.  He often drops the viewer in the middle of conversations and keeps a lot of the information between the characters.  It's another Altman trope that Winterbottom employs, but he does so brilliantly.  Winterbottom was one of the most prolific filmmakers of the last decade, and despite The Claim's troubled production and bloated budget (mirroring another film it owes something to, Heaven's Gate) it's Winterbottom's magnum opus.  It's a beautiful and elegiac western that any fan of McCabe & Mrs. Miller should see.

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Top 50 Films of the Decade: Introduction (and the other 50)

In what I hope will be something that I can complete before I go back to school and work here is the first entry in my 'best of the decade' series. I'll unveil a new top ten with each entry. Here are my initial thoughts and 50 other films that make the back-end of a top 100. Remember, these exercises are entirely arbitrary, and I could probably find a good enough reason to reposition a lot of these choices. Feel free to discuss in the comments. Enjoy.


I don't feel like I can put some of my favorite films of the last ten years in here that were released during an entirely different decade. I'm speaking specifically here to Apocalypse Now Redux and Army of Shadows, both of which got theatrical releases the last ten years; also, I can't seem to find a place for Russian Ark or Grindhouse. Two very different films, sure, but they both qualify more as experiences than anything else, and they both have very distinct and different feels to them than all of the other 50 films on this list. Russian Ark with its single take is definitely more than a gimmick, and Grindhouse was one of the most surreal experiences for this fan of grindhouse cinema. Certainly the two films within Grndhouse – Planet Terror and Death Proof – can be separated and reviewed as singular films, but I think doing that is to miss the point of what Tarantino and Rodriguez were going for here, and the only way I can certainly review the film is as the experience in the theater – fake trailers and all – that it was meant to be. So, these four films (I'm sure there are others, but I wanted to single these out) deserve special mention as I unveil my list.


This list was a lot of fun to compile. I hope it sparks some debate. This was a good decade for American film, and you're going to see a lot of it on here, but I also have to admit that I was extremely out of the loop of world cinema for the early part of this decade. If you don't see a film on this list there's a good chance that I haven't seen it…or I just didn't like it. Discuss…

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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 also gave me an excuse to talk about things that interested me like books, sports, religion, and Italian horror movies. I remember thinking that it would be fun to do cross-posts with my brother about bad movies, and this year, two years after the initial thought, Troy and I finally started our "bad movie" blog. I think what's most amazing though about my two years on this blog is that people actually read what I have to say. I know it seems passé to say that, but it's true, and there isn't a hint of cynicism behind those words: I truly am amazed. When I stayed I never thought I would have 86 followers…now I know not all 86 of those people read the blog, and really the "Follow" option is admittedly an ego boost when I don't feel like my blog is worth a damn, but I'm more than thrilled that people feel compelled to click that little button on the left side of my screen. More thoughts and my list for the best movies of the year after the jump...

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Wondering About the Top FIlms of the 1980's?

Yep -- It's that time again. Head on over to the wonderful Wonders in the Dark and submit your top 25 films of the 80's. The lists are sure to be eclectic and full of great DVD ideas. I always walk away from the wonderful lists submitted there in awe of how much there is out there I still have to see. My list comes after jump...

My top ten consists of some of the best films to come out of American cinema in the 80's, one of the best films by a cinematic god (Bergman), a documentary, and a flashy French thriller that has one of the best action scenes I have ever seen. However, after those ten films I struggled to fill out the rest of my list. Oh, the films are all great movies -- I hate quantifying years of cinema, after all any year that gets me to talk about the movies is a good year for me -- but my secondary 25 show that as an era the 80's were maybe the worst in cinematic history. There are a lot of films from around the world that I have to see from the 80's (evidenced by the sheer amount of action and horror films to round out the list), but I don't think that necessarily cheapens the skill that went into action films like The Road Warrior or Aliens...for their respective genres, they are masterfully executed films.

Anyway...here's my list:

1.) Raging Bull (Scorsese)
2.) Fanny and Alexander (Bergman)
3.) Blade Runner (Scott)
4.) Crimes and Misdemeanors (Allen)
5.) Blue Velvet (Lynch)
6.) Ran (Kurosawa)
7.) Thief (Mann)
8.) The Thin Blue Line (Morris)
9.) The Right Stuff (Kaufman)
10.) Diva (Beineix)
11.) Kagemusha (Kurosawa)
12.) Lost in America (A. Brooks)
13.) The Fly (Cronenberg)
14.) Witness (Weir)
15.) Stranger Than Paradise (Jarmusch)
16.) Dekalog (Kieslowski)
17.) Raising Arizona (Coen)
18.) Robocop (Verhoeven)
19.) Manhunter (Mann)
20.) Fitzcarraldo (Herzog)
21.) This is Spinal Tap (Reiner)
22.) House of Games (Mamet)
23.) Broadcast News (J. Brooks)
24.) The Killer (Woo)
25.) Once Upon a Time in America (Leone)

Here's the second 25:

26.) Hannah and Her Sisters (Allen)
27.) Body Heat (Kasdan)
28.) The Dead Zone (Cronenberg)
29.) Under the Volcano (Huston)
30.) The Last Temptation of Christ (Scorsese)
31.) Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg)
32.) Another Woman (Allen)
33.) Au revoir les enfants (Malle)
34.) Wings of Desire (Wenders)
35.) The Dead (Huston)
36.) Blood Simple (Coen)
37.) Stage Fright (Soavi)
38.) The King of Comedy (Scorsese)
39.) Matewan (Sayles)
40.) Opera (Argento)
41.) Do the Right Thing (Lee)
42.) American Gigolo (Schrader)
43.) Das Boot (Peterson)
44.) The Beyond (Fulci)
45.) Aliens (Cameron)
46.) A Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven)
47.) Bull Durham (Shelton)
48.) The Company of Wolves (Jordan)
49.) The Terminator (Cameron)
50.) The Road Warrior (Miller)

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Revisiting 1999: The Top 10 Films of the Year, an Introduction

Hallelujah! The top 10 is near!

Here's what I've covered so far:

Intro: My Year at "Film School"
The (sorta) Forgettable Films
The Films That Just Don't Hold Up
When Bad Movies Happen to Good Directors

The Forgotten Gems of 1999:
The War Zone (Tim Roth)
Sunshine (István Szabó)
Beyond the Mat (Barry W. Blaustein)
Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot)
Mumford (Lawrence Kasdan)
Bowfinger (Frank Oz)
Cookie's Fortune (Robert Altman)
Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton)
The Iron Giant (Brad Bird)
October Sky (Joe Johnston)
Election (Alexander Payne)

So, here we are. Finally we’re at the end of this long journey. Yeah, it’s been long, but so worth it. I’ve really enjoyed revisiting these titles from 1999 (I did re-watch all but a few of them that weren’t available on DVD), and this project has only cemented the fact that I think 1999 is the best year for film that I’ve ever experienced. Almost all of these movies I got to see in the theater, and whenever you have a year where movies by the likes of Sydney Pollack (Random Hearts), David Fincher (Fight Club), and Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut) range from terrible to forgettable, then that’s a strong year. Now I know I’m in the minority on the Kubrick, but my hope is that you’ll share your lists for the best films of 1999 in the comments section. I am obviously inspired here by my good friends Sam Juliano and his partner in crime Allan Fish of the phenomenal blog Wonders in the Dark, and Ric Burke who also has had great success compiling lists from fellow bloggers with his wonderfully entertaining Counting Down the Zeroes project. So…see what’s on my mind after the jump…

I’m curious what your list is for the ten best films of 1999, and what you think of this particular year in film in general. Just go ahead and post your lists in the comments section, and go tell all your friends to participate too…it should be a lot of fun.

Here’s where things get tricky as they tend to be with any year-end list…I’m talking about release dates. Go by whatever criteria you go by. I tend to think of masterpieces like The Thin Red Line, Rushmore and Gods and Monsters, which are sometimes thought of as 1999 films, as 1998 films. Other great films associated with 1999 like Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and The Virgin Suicides I consider 2000 films. So, my list may look a lot different than yours, but that could also be due to the fact that I live in a rather small city, so we don’t get smaller films until they’re well into their theatrical runs.

I’ve explained already why this year resonates so much with me, but I think it’s more than just the amount of quality films that were released…this is the year I attribute to me becoming a really serious filmgoer…a cinephile if you will. This is where the seeds were planted and my passion for film has been growing ever since. I’m always learning something new, and when I re-watch these films for the second or third, or sometimes tenth, time in the next month I am sure that I will look back with great fondness, because the films that occupy my top 10 list are the perfect metaphor for the beginning stages of my cinephilia.

1999 saw fresh young faces in Hollywood, young directors like: David O. Russell (Three Kings), Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich); faces that weren’t necessarily fresh, but were relatively new like Steven Soderbergh (The Limey) and the Dardenne Brothers (Rosetta); and old masters like Martin Scorsese (Bringing Out the Dead), Paul Schrader (Affliction), Michael Mann (The Insider), and Anthony Minghella (The Talented Mr. Ripley); and finally Chris Smith (American Movie), who made one of the most memorable documentaries about the passion needed to accomplish your dreams.

All of these filmmakers are the perfect metaphor for what I’m talking about…and what do I mean by that? Well, the young filmmakers were offering up something different, something Hollywood hasn’t seen since the glory days in the 60’s and 70’s when directors were given creative control. Hollywood's output had become banal (with exception of some of the older names on this list like Scorsese, Schrader, and Mann), and people were seeking the Indies to give them what they wanted; however, in 1999 filmmakers like David Russell and Paul Thomas Anderson were all working within the studio system, infiltrating that system with the Indie mentality, and by doing so were creating some of the most innovative and memorable films that I’ve ever seen.

I had just started becoming a cinephile, and as a senior in high school it only seemed apt that my new found passion for studying film – I mean really looking at what film says and how it can make us look at our world differently – coincided with this resurgence in Hollywood. That is why I look back at 1999 so fondly – not just because there are insane amounts of brilliant films, but for nostalgic reasons too – for reasons that are totally subjective, and thus make my whole journey here selfish. I just hope that you’ve enjoyed these reviews and re-thinking about some of these films as much as I have. Now the hard part begins…


This is where the whole ranking thing becomes so arbitrary…I mean how in the hell do I justify placing Magnolia, a film that speaks to my soul like few films have, over Bringing Out the Dead, a misunderstood masterpiece from a master of American cinema? How do I place one of the best films from one of my favorite filmmakers, The Insider, over the Palm d’Or winning Rosetta?

I could go on with example after example from this incredible year in film. It’s impossible to justify any of these choices being above the others, so just know that I would gladly take these ten with me to a desert island. Forget the numbers, in fact, and focus on the sheer amount of Quality found in each of these films, and stop and think and see if you conjure up another year in cinema within the last 20 years that compares to 1999. Also, all of these films hold such a special place in my heart – it’s almost impossible to think that I could pick one as being better than another.

But so it is with list-making…yes, it’s an arbitrary exercise, but a fun one. So what will follow starting at the end of August will be the same formula that I used for the “forgotten films” project. Every Monday I will post a new entry in my top 10. I am really excited about re-watching these films, and I hope you’ll share my excitement as perhaps a film I highlight here will prompt you to revisit some of these modern classics.

Here’s a list of other films that I liked from 1999 that I haven’t yet mentioned in this project: All About My Mother, The Big Kahuna, In Dreams, The Matrix, Office Space, Run Lola Run, Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, The Straight Story, The Thirteenth Floor, Topsy-Turvy, The Winslow Boy.

In case you didn’t notice, I strategically named 10 films (plus one for fun which was Burton’s Sleepy Hollow) as the “Forgotten Gems”. These are ten films I would consider a worthy addendum to the list I’m about unveil over the next couple of months: Beyond the Mat, Bowfinger, Cookie’s Fortune, Election, Galaxy Quest, The Iron Giant, Mumford, October Sky, Sunshine, The War Zone.

So...Starting August 24th I will post the first entry for my top 10…I hope you all stop by for that. As for now…what are your thoughts on the year 1999? What are your top 10 films for 1999?

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My Top 10: 2003

It’s time to submit your top 10 for Film for the Soul’s Counting Down the Zeroes project. So head on over to Film for the Soul and submit your list in the comments section here. Then Ibetolis (the blog’s author and organizer of this massively impressive project) will place the lists on the Counting Down the Zeroes blog, which acts as an archive for all of the reviews and lists associated with this fun project. My list comes after the jump...

This list wraps-up the year 2003 and looking back on the releases from that year, I have to say that I quite shocked by how many quality action films there were. I count four (Open Range, Kill Bill, Master and Commander, Lord of the Rings) in my top ten.

Three foreign language films find their way into the top 10 this year – one was two of the best filmmakers working today (The Son), and the others were by two old pros (The Man on the Train and Saraband) one of those masters, Ingmar Bergman, is the greatest filmmaker of all time in my humble opinion, and sadly 2003 would mark the final time he would release a movie – and another three foreign films find their way onto the honorable mention list.

Two really good horror films (May, Oldboy) were released in 2003, but couldn’t quite make the cut. I think this marks the first year I don’t have a slot open for a comedy…although Christopher Guest’s lovely A Mighty Wind, and the very warm and funny (not to mention manic) Jack Black vehicle School of Rock, came awfully close to cracking the top ten.

One of the most wonderfully bizarre film experiences I’ve ever had was watching the Polish Brothers’ Twin Falls Idaho upon its release in the late 90’s – and their 2003 follow up, Northfork, was one of the most beautifully photographed films of the year. Another indie darling, David Gordon Green, made quite possibly his "worst" film in 2003 (All the Real Girls), and that’s not a knock on the film, because it’s a beautiful film…it’s just proof how high the bar has been set by the North Carolina director. From indie darlings to an old master: Peter Weir proved once again why he’s one of the best filmmakers we have working today (Master and Commander)…I just wish he would release more stuff.

Billy Ray made a phenomenal debut with the extremely tense and always interesting biopic about “journalist” Stephen Glass (Shattered Glass). Sofia Coppola followed up her 2000 masterpiece The Virgin Suicides with a wonderfully genuine and sweet, unconventional comedy (wisely removing the romance) starring Bill Murray in a career performance (Lost in Translation).

The best film of the year was a film that elevated my soul to new heights…a film that had me thinking about it long after I walked out of the theater. I still remember the day I first saw it, and the many subsequent viewings haven’t lessened the power of the Dardenne’s film. The Son is a rare film that, as Roger Ebert so eloquently said in his review, “needs no insight or explanation. It sees everything and explains all. It is as assured and flawless a telling of sadness and joy as I have ever seen.” The Dardenne’s are a treasure, and in 2003 you will find their most prized jewel in The Son.

On with the list…

Honorable mention (AKA “the other ten”): All the Real Girls, American Splendor, The Dreamers, Elephant, House of Sand and Fog, May, A Mighty Wind, Oldboy, School of Rock, Whale Rider

10. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson)
9. The Man on the Train (Patrice Leconte)
8. Open Range (Kevin Costner)
7. Northfork (The Polish Brothers)
6. Saraband (Ingmar Bergman)
5. Master and Commander (Peter Weir)
4. Shattered Glass (Billy Ray)
3. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino)
2. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
1. The Son (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

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Your Summer Quiz is Due at SLIFR

Another brilliant quiz has been constructed by Dennis Cozzalio of the brilliant movie blog Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule. Head here to the take the quiz. My answers come after the jump...


1) Second-favorite Stanley Kubrick film.

2001: A Space Odyssey

2) Most significant/important/interesting trend in movies over the past decade, for good or evil.

The length of films – it’s both good and bad. It’ good because in this hyperkinetic, ADD society we live in I find it interesting that some of the most popular movies every year are 140+ minutes long (with a lot of comedies clocking in at 120-30+ minutes). It’s bad because a lot of those films don’t need that much time to tell their story. What ever happened to the art of making the 90-minute action or comedy film? I mean Passenger 57 was only 81 minutes long…

3) Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood) or Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Newman)?

Bronco Billy

4) Best Film of 1949.

The obvious answer is The Third Man, but I’ll go with the noir masterpiece Force of Evil by Abraham Polanski.

6) Has the hand-held shaky-cam directorial style become a visual cliché?

In action movies, yes. Quantum of Solace would have been a lot better had they decided to film the action scenes by keeping the camera on some medium shots for more than half a second. However, the shaky-cam can still be an affective tool a la a Dardenne Brothers or Michael Mann film.

7) What was the first foreign-language film you ever saw?

John Woo’s The Killer

9) Favorite World War II drama (1950-1970).

Army of Shadows

10) Favorite animal movie star.

The Mogwai from Gremlins

11) Who or whatever is to blame, name an irresponsible moment in cinema.

Michael Bay – not for his directing, but for producing the horrid remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre which kick started the barrage of god-awful “re-imaginings” of classic horror films.

12) Best Film of 1969.

I don’t want to repeat myself (because Army of Shadows is already mentioned here), so I’ll say The Bird with the Crystal Plumage by Dario Argento.

13) Name the last movie you saw theatrically, and also on DVD or Blu-ray.

Theatrically: Public Enemies
DVD: The Son

14) Second-favorite Robert Altman film.

3 Women

15) What is your favorite independent outlet for reading about movies, either online or in print?

Every blog I have listed under “what I read”.

17) Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei) or Olive Neal (Jennifer Tilly)?

Mona. Not even close.

18) Favorite movie that features a carnival setting or sequence.

Some Came Running. I agree with Scorsese that it remains one of the most brilliant and expressive uses of Cinemascope.


Click here to watch video


19) Best use of high-definition video on the big screen to date.

Miami Vice.

20) Favorite movie that is equal parts genre film and a deconstruction or consideration of that same genre.

Hmmm. I could just answer with my favorite film 8 ½, but I think I’ll go with a movie I just talked about on my blog: Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.

21) Best Film of 1979.

Good year for movies (Alien, Breaking Away, Manhatten), but I’ll go with the obvious (and deserving) selection: Apocalypse Now.

22) Most realistic and/or sincere depiction of small-town life in the movies.

Wow. Great question. Can I cheat? I’ll assume you said yes…anything by David Gordon Green, October Sky, American Movie, and Breaking Away.

23) Best horror movie creature (non-giant division).

Freddy Kreuger. But only when he was a serious boogeyman, not the sardonic caricature he became in the films sandwiched between the original Nightmare film and New Nightmare.

24) Second-favorite Francis Ford Coppola film.

Jack…I kid, I kid…The Godfather.

25) Name a one-off movie that could have produced a franchise you would have wanted to see.

The Talented Mr. Ripley. I know there have been other adaptations of the Highsmith books about Tom Ripley, but I think it would have been amazing to see Matt Damon and the late, brilliant director Anthony Minghella continue telling their version of Ripley.

26) Favorite sequence from a Brian De Palma film.

The homage to Argento in The Untouchables where the viewer gets the POV of the black-gloved killer made famous by Argento’s gialli films. Here it is:


Click here to watch video

27) Favorite moment in three-strip Technicolor.

I like Jamie’s answer of anything from Argento’s Suspiria, but I don’t want to copy him. So, I’ll go with the scene on the lake in Leave Her to Heaven where Gene Tierney’s femme fatale watches her fiancé’s paraplegic brother, one of the last people to stand between her and her future husband, drown. The scene is incredibly eerie and off-putting because we don’t expect these noir moments to occur in beautiful, vibrant thee-strip Technicolor. Video below (go to about the 5:20 mark):


Click here to watch video

28) Favorite Alan Smithee film. (Thanks, Peter!)

Let’s Get Harry -- written by Samuel Fuller; starring Gary Busey, Mark Harmon, Ben Johnson, Rick Rossovich, and Robert Duvall.

29) Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) or Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau)?

No question about it: the wisdom of Crash Davis.

30) Best post-Crimes and Misdemeanors Woody Allen film.

Deconstructing Harry

31) Best Film of 1999.

This question is quite relevant to what I’ve been doing the last few months on my blog.

Anyway the best film of 1999 is The Talented Mr. Ripley.

32) Favorite movie tag line.

"Does for rock and roll what "The Sound of Music" did for hills." This is Spinal Tap.

33) Favorite B-movie western.

What a convenient question as I was just talking about this movie: The Last Hard Men.

34) Overall, the author best served by movie adaptations of her or his work.

Stephen King

35) Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) or Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard)?

Susan Vance. I fall in love with her every time I watch Hawkes’ masterpiece.

37) Bruno (the character, if you haven’t seen the movie, or the film, if you have): subversive satire or purveyor of stereotyping?

Meh.

38) Five film folks, living or deceased, you would love to meet. (Thanks, Rick!)

(In no particular order): Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman, Cary Grant, Roger Ebert, and Keira Knightley of course…

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My Top 10: 2002

Ibetolis of the brilliant Film for the Soul has added another fun feature to his massive "Counting Down the Zeroes" project. It's simple: just click the links above or go here to "My Top 10" on the man's blog and submit your top 10 list.

Late last month I pointed you all towards the above links in hopes that you would submit your top 10 lists on Ibetolis' blog. Well, he's wrapped-up another successful year in 2002, and as we head into 2003 he;s once again asking all of us to submit our top 10 lists. Click here and submit your list in the comments section and Ibetolis will archive it on the Top 10 blog. Onto the list...

Looking at my list of films 2002 was another American-heavy year on my list. It was also a year that had two great films by Spielberg (perhaps the most unfairly scrutinized filmmaker in a long while...being popular gets you hated I guess), and contributions to the list from great filmmakers like: Paul Schrader, Paul Thomas Anderson, Spike Jonze, Steven Soderbergh, and Martin Scorsese. Not too shabby.

The best film of the year for me was Paul Schrader's masterful biopic about the sex-obsessed life of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane, Auto Focus. It reminded me of some of the best work the man has previously done in his career: American Gigolo, Taxi Driver (as a screenwriter), Affliction, and Bringing Out the Dead (again as a screenwriter). I have always been fascinated by Schrader's own obsession with themes about men who are so narrow minded and controlled by their desires that they spiral out of control. Their slavish duties to their personal yens create fantastically interesting cinema, and Schrader is among the best in the biz at showcasing these kinds of male-centric stories. Auto Focus is perhaps Schrader's greats film as a director.

Spielberg pops up twice on the list -- perhaps the first and only time a director has appeared twice on a best of list -- first is Minority Report, a brilliant neo-noir that has some of the most beautiful shots I've seen in any noir picture. It's a fantastic ride, and the story unfolds at a brisk clip, and actually makes a lot of sense. Adapted from the Philip K. Dick novel, it rivals another Dick adaptation, Blade Runner, as being one of the best noir/sci-fi hybrids ever made. The other Spielberg on the list is his super-fun, and super-glossy Catch Me if You Can. An infectiously fun film with some great performances by Leonardo DiCaprio (who like Spielberg had two great films released in 2002, the other being Scorsese's Gangs of New York) and Tom Hanks who enjoys playing the East Coast G-man out to get DiCaprio's con man. The chase is a lot of fun and reminded me of films like North by Northwest and Charade, other "thrillers" that were all about the relentlessness of a chase. Catch Me if You Can also has one of the most fantastic credit sequences I've seen in any film.

City of God and Russian Ark are the only foreign films to make the list this year. City of God reminded me of a Brazilian Goodfellas as it has every kind of post-production trick in the book brusquely pushing the viewer through relentless scene after relentless scene. It was definitely one of the more interesting films of the year, and showed an interesting, darker side of Rio. Russian Ark is famous of course for being one continuous shot. It finds its way on the list for the sheer audaciousness of such a feat...and the film isn't half bad, either.

Punch-Drunk Love at one time would have been tops on the list, but I find myself coming back to some of the other films more often than Paul Thomas Anderson's sweet and bizarre romantic comedy. Adam Sandler proves that there's something in there lurking...maybe not a great actor, but an interesting one; and Anderson always makes us interested in Sandler's Barry. He's an odd duck, but Sandler plays him as something more than just a misunderstood soul...there's nuances to the performance that just make you shake your head and think "what has Sandler been hiding from us all these years." It's about as dark, strange, and otherworldly a romantic comedy can get -- but those scenes in Hawaii -- let me tell ya: pure cinematic poetry.

Charlie Kaufman's best film Adaptation. was also, sadly, the last film Spike Jonze directed (until this years much anticipated Fall release of Where the Wild Things Are). This is also one of Nicolas Cage's best performance as twin Kaufman brothers who must write a screenplay for an adaptation of a popular book penned by Meryl Streep's character. The amazing thing about the film is not just about the astute commentary on all of the "how to" workshops offered in Hollywood (although, the scenes with Brian Cox are some of the funniest, and most pointed bits of satire I've seen), but as it progresses it evolves into a meta-film of monumental proportions. It's one of the best examples of Kaufman's obsession with postmodern cinema, and it's easily his finest work. Jonze has a lot of fun too turning the film into all of the cliches that Cage's character relies on to burst through his writers block.

Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven was a wonderfully constructed call back to the melodramas of Douglas Sirk. I cannot add anything that my friend Sam Juliano hasn't said better --- after all, he saw it 21 times in the theater! Click here to read his thoughts on the film. It's definitely one of the most beautiful looking films of the 2000's.

One of the biggest films of the year was also one of the most entertaining. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was the last time Harry and friends would be so innocent and squeaky clean. It has all of the fun elements of a film like The Wizard of Oz: meaning that it's both childish in delight and still contains a bit of bite with its darker elements. This is my favorite Potter picture as it was the last time any remnants of joy seeped through the darker elements of the story -- you know, before every Potter film became The Empire Strikes Back.

I always try to include one comedy on my list, and one of my favorite in all of the 2000's was Jake Kasdan's brilliantly funny Orange County. I am a lover of writing, and literature, so naturally the protagonist journey was one that was appealing to me. And when he finally gets to Stanford and meets his mentor, it's one of the warmest scenes of the year. Jack Black also proves with this film (and 2000's High Fidelity) that he's best used in small does. I'll never stop quoting the line: "I didn't go to college, and look at me, I'm kick ass."

Here's the list with the honorable mentions:

1.) Auto Focus (Paul Schrader)
2.) Minority Report (Steven Spielberg)
3.) City of God (Fernando Meirelles)
4.) Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson)
5.) Adaptation. (Spike Jonze)
6.) Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes)
7.) Catch Me if You Can (Steven Spielberg)
8.) Russian Ark (Aleksandr Sokurov)
9.) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Chris Columbus)
10.) Orange County (Jake Kasdan)

Honorable Mentions:

About a Boy, Changing Lanes, Femme Fatale, Gangs of New York, Solaris, Talk to Her, Whale Rider.

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My list for the best films of the 70's

Well...I knew I forget at least one filmmaker, and sure enough I did: the great Bernardo Bertolucci. His The Conformist is a masterpiece and would have certainly placed in the top 50 somewhere...perhaps I thought it came out in the late 60's, I don't know, but I'm sorry I omitted it. So, there, that's me rectifying the problem. This list was a lot of fun to construct, but just like any kind of comprehensive list, it's all pretty arbitrary, because I could easily justify any film in my top 5 being in the number one slot. Although, the more I think about it the more I feel good about the choice I went with (my all time favorite film from my all time favorite filmmaker). Construct your own lists or if you want discuss my list, here in the comments if you'd like, but I would prefer you head over to Wonders in the Dark, who is hosting this big 'ol shindig. My list comes after the jump...


Supplementary list:
50.) Play it Again, Sam (Allen)
49.) The Outlaw Josey Wales (Eastwood)
48.) The Conversation (Coppola)
47.) Mean Streets (Scorsese)
46.) Star Wars (Lucas)
45.) Night Moves (Penn)
44.) Monty Python’s The Life of Brian (Jones)
43.) Five Easy Pieces (Raffelson)
42.) Small Change (Truffaut)
41.) A Woman Under the Influence (Cassavettes)
40.) The Exorcist (Friedkin)
39.) The Last Waltz (Scorsese)
38.) The Last Detail (Ashby)
37.) Animal House (Landis)
36.) Claire’s Knee (Rohmer)
35.) Day for Night (Truffaut)
34.) Walkabout (Roeg)
33.) Three Days of the Condor (Pollack)
32.) Fellini Satyricon (Fellini)
31.) Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (Grau)
30.) Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Herzog)
29.) Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (Van Peebles)
28.) Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (Fulci)
27.) Autumn Sonata (Bergman)
26.) Black Christmas (Clark)

Now the top 25:

25.) McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Altman)
24.) Picnic at Hanging Rock (Weir)
23.) The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Peckinpah)
22.) Amarcord (Fellini)
21.) Bay of Blood (Bava)
20.) Dirty Harry (Siegel)
19.) Suspiria (Argento)
18.) Interiors (Allen)
17.) Halloween (Carpenter)
16.) 3 Women (Altman)
15.) Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Herzog)
14.) Don’t Look Now (Roeg)
13.) Deep Red (Argento)
12.) Nashville (Altman)
11.) Scenes from a Marriage (Bergman)
10.) Alien (Scott)
9.) Taxi Driver (Scorsese)
8.) The Last Picture Show (Bogdanovich)
7.) Days of Heaven (Malick)
6.) Chinatown (Polanski)
5.) Le Cercle Rouge (Melville)
4.) The Godfather Saga (Parts 1 and 2) (Coppola) (Yes I view these two as a whole)
3.) Barry Lyndon (Kubrick)
2.) Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
1.) Cries and Whispers (Bergman)

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Wondering About the Top FIlms of the 1970's?

Hey everyone (okay, the four of you that read this blog) head on over to one of the best film blogs in the whole 'sphere, Wonders in the Dark, for their always brilliant polling of what the best films of each decade are. This month they're onto the 1970's, an era that is known for the onslaught of upstart American filmmakers who were able to do whatever they wanted with the studios money. The slew of brilliant Art House fair from other countries was slowing down, and American films started to take their place as the films young, hip cinephiles raved about. My own list will be somewhat unorthodox, what with all the Italian Horror sure to be on the list, but that's what makes Sam Juliano and co. endeavor so much fun: you get to see what other films buffs hold in high regard. So head on over to Wonders in the Dark and participate in their always-fun polling process. Make sure you subscribe to the comments, because discussion will continue throughout the month, and their comments section is always an interesting read. I will unveil my list at their site, so head on over and participate.

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My Top 10: 2001

Ibetolis of the brilliant Film for the Soul has added another fun feature to his massive "Counting Down the Zeroes" project. It's simple: just click the links above or go here to "My Top 10" on the man's blog and submit your top 10 list. It should be another fun thing to look back at in the archives. I'll post my list on here every time he wraps up another year on his site and remind you guys to head on over there and submit your lists. Since I didn't do this for 2000, I'll post that list at the bottom. Here's what I submitted as my list for 2001:

I'm still trying to catch A.I. as I know my fellow blogging friends like Sam Juliano hold it in high regard, so as it is with any list, it has the possibilities to change at any time.

2001 was a funny year for me. If I were to construct this list during that time (fresh out of one semester of college and thinking "what the hell am I to do with my life?") this list would look awfully different. You would probably see Vanilla Sky atop the list because at the time I was younger, dumber, and a Crowe apologist.

I pretty much copped out with this list from the onset by placing a released film Apocalypse Now Redux, at the top of the list, even though it does have a lot of new footage. But still, it's one of the greatest achievements in the history of cinema, and it was released in 2001 (albeit a different version that is debatable if it was necessary at all) so it goes at the top as a reminder of its influence on all the films below it.

Everything else on the list is just kind of "meh" as 2001 wasn't a particularly strong year in film, but as I always say on this blog, any year that produces reasons for me to talk about film is a good year -- there is no such thing as a bad movie year as long as intelligent and provocative movies are being produced.

David Lynch produced one of his masterpieces with Mulholland Dr. and Wes Anderson topped his previous masterpiece Bottle Rocket (yeah that's right, not Rushmore) with the amazing The Royal Tenenbaums, a film he has yet to top. The Claim was Michael Winterbottom's (who seems to release a good to great film every year) criminally underrated western starring Wes Bentley and Sarah Polley and Milla Jovovich and containing some of the most beautiful cinematography in a western since Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

No Man's Land was the only real Foreign film that got my attention. The Tailor of Panama was a lot smoother and cooler than Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (which was also a great, fun movie). The Pledge was the last great performance we've gotten from Jack (yes that includes The Departed). And Ghost World was the perfect film for nerds like me...plus I'll always remember the soul patch line, ha.

The Majestic was another patience required drama from the king of lingering Frank Darabont. The only difference between this film and the way too long The Green Mile was that The Majestic was a sweet call back to the old style of dramas released in the 30's and 40's. Like his masterpiece The Shawshank Redemption, you don't mind the length of the film because you like the characters and like hanging out with them.

Finally Wet Hot American Summer: I always try to place one comedy on my year end lists, and even though Ghost World could qualify for that title, it's a tad too dark, and I really just wanted to give some love to the people who made The State and are starting to become a popular now with films like Role Models and I Love You Man (too many to name, but the most famous to come out of that group are Michael Ian Black and of course Paul Rudd).


So with that, here's my list for the best films of 2001:

1. Apocalypse Now Redux
2. The Royal Tenenbaums
3. Mulholland Dr.
4. The Claim
5. No Man's Land
6. The Tailor of Panama
7. The Pledge
8. Ghost World
9. The Majestic
10. Wet Hot American Summer

Runner ups: Ali, Amores Perros, Black Hawk Down, Devil's Backbone, Heart's in Atlantis, Heist, Memento, Monster's INC., Ocean's Eleven, Sexy Beast, Vanilla Sky.


Here's 2000 (in no particular order):

Traffic
Wonder Boys
The Virgin Suicides
You Can Count on Me
George Washington
Almost Famous
High Fidelity
The Contender
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai


Other good movies from 2000:

Dancer in the Dark, All the Pretty Horses, The Way of the Gun, O Brother Where Art Thou, Requiem for a Dream, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Thirteen Days, and Yi Yi.

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Another Quiz is Due at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule...

One of the greatest of blogs that exists in the blogosphere is Dennis Cozzalio's Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule. Every now and then he hands out tests to his faithful readers. I'm looking forward to this one. You can see a previous example here. All of you should give it a go. None of these answers, of course, are definitive, but they're the best I could come up with at the present time. And once again I omit some of the questions because I have no idea how to answer them...


Favorite Biopic?

This is a difficult one since it is far and away my favorite subgenre of film -- I'll go with Quiz Show...even though I'm sure they took liberties with the actual story for dramatic purposes, but hey, what biopic doesn't?


Best example of science fiction futurism rendered silly by the event of time catching up to the prediction?

Gotta go with Blade Runner on this one.


Favorite Raoul Walsh movie?

Because I'm a big cheater I'll go with a tie: The Roaring Twenties and Colorado Territory.


Sophomore film which represents greatest improvement over the director’s debut?

well, the easy pick would be Pulp Fiction (Tarantino) or Boogie Nights (PT Anderson), but I'll go with Ridley Scott as his second feature was one of the most influential sci-fi/horror films ever made. Alien came after his so-so debut film The Duellists.


Ice Cube or Mos Def?

Mos Def. Have you ever seen that guy on Bill Maher's show? He's crazy. Also, his performance, even though it exists in an average action film, from 16 Blocks is an amazing piece of acting.


Favorite movie about the music industry?

Well I was thinking I would go with movies more about the art of making music, like Hustle and Flow or something along those lines (sorry most of my picks lean towards modern films), but then I though I thought about the brief scenes in Boogie Nights that are about the music industry and I just couldn't resist this:



Click here to view video

In addition that amazing scene I love when Dirk and Reed try to get the master tapes back from the record studio and they can't seem to grasp the idea that they signed them over to the studio when they signed their contracts. "YP, MP, I don't know your record lingo...all I know is, granted you own the tapes, but the magic, the magic that is on there...that is ours!" Such a great scene. "I know karate."


Director most deserving of respect or upwardly mobile critical reassessment?

Oh boy I'll get killed for this one...but I have to say Tony Scott. I think Quentin Tarantino said it best on the commentary track for the True Romance DVD that Scott is a director who makes films where you as the viewer know what you're getting; not only that he has a distinct look that is solely his -- aped by many other directors, but it is uniquely and unquestionably his look (I'm speaking of the rooms drenched in blue and the thickest cloud of smoke you've ever scene). The man can film people smoking like no one else and make it look arty as hell. I remember being the only one in the theater thinking Domino and Man on Fire were any good. The élan of those films are exactly what I mean by films that actually succeed in being entertaining that solely rely on style over substance. Sure, his films aren't groundbreaking or even necessarily memorable, but they are always entertaining and they are always a feast for the senses -- even if sometimes his visuals dizzy you into closing your eyes and rubbing your temples. The man can direct, people! It's time we all gave him his due.


Best filmed adaptation of a play?

I really should see more plays...but I'll go with Mike Nichols' adaptation of Wit, a play I read in high school and absolutely loved. The film was an amazing adaptation and just as powerful and moving as the play.


Favorite Jean Renoir movie?

The Lower Depths . Maybe not his best, but my favorite.


Favorite one-word movie title, and why?

Gummo. The title basically dares you to not watch it. You don't think...oooh Gummo! That sounds like fun.


Summer movies—your highest and lowest expectations?

I don't know if this means in general or this year...I don't follow summer movies as closely as I used to, but I would say high expectations is definitely Michael Mann's Public Enemies (on a campier not it's hands down G.I. Joe). Lowest expectations: Terminator 4. "McG...McG!!!"


Whether or not you’re a parent, what would be your ideal pick as first movie to see with your own child (or niece/nephew)? Why?

Anything by Chaplin. The pantomime is a universal language, and I think kids, since they haven't been turned into cynics yet, can appreciate those films the way they are meant to be appreciated. You can throw Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd in there, too. This is why Wall-E works as such a great kids movie, too. It's essentially about getting across the emotion through pantomime the way Chaplin did.


Movie most recently seen in theaters? On DVD/Blu-ray?

Saw a lot at the Salem Film Festival. So I'll go with the best of that bunch, Atom Egoyan's Adoration.


Do you see more movies theatrically or at home? Why?

At home. Thanks to Brandon's set up it's more fun to watch a movie in the setting of a home theater than a regular theater with all of the usual distractions.


Name an award-worthy comic performance that was completely ignored by Oscar and his pals.

Cameron Diaz in two totally different kinds of comedies: There's Something About Mary and Being John Malkovich.


Name a great (or merely very good) movie that is too painful to watch a second time (Thanks to The Onion A.V. Club)

Tim Roth's The War Zone.


Beyonce Knowles or Jennifer Hudson?

Beyonce. Not even close.


Favorite Robert Mitchum movie?

It's predictable, conventional (my choice that is, not the movie), but hey, it's the best of the bunch : The Night of the Hunter.


Favorite Vincent Price movie?

Not a movie, but I have fond memories of him as Egghead from the old Batman show.


Name a movie currently flying under the radar that is deserving of rabid cult status.

I don't know that it's officially 'out' yet, but I just saw Jeffrey Goodman's brilliant neo noir The Last Lullaby at the Salem Film Festival. If people get out to see it, it will turn the man into a go-to director for these kinds of thrillers. It's really a brilliant film.


Single line from a movie that never fails to make your laugh or otherwise cheer you up. (This may be obvious, but the line does not have to come from a comedy.)

"We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired."

Sorry, I know that you only asked for one line, but that first line makes me think about the rest that follow, and well, they all make me smile.


Elliot Gould or Donald Sutherland?

Donald Sutherland. Especially for his role as X in JFK.


Best performance by a director in an acting role

Eric von Stroheim in Sunset Blvd. as Max von Mayerling


Outside of reading film criticism or other literature about the movies, what subject do you enjoy reading about or studying which you would say best enriches or illuminates your understanding and appreciation of life, a life that includes the movies?

I have an affinity for postmodern literature...authors like Rushdie, McEwan, Amis, Coetzee, Swift, Winterson, and the like. Since I went to school to study literature I usually find myself reading a lot of literary theory like Lyotard and Baudrillard; Umberto Eco's book On Literature is one of the best ever written on the topics of semiotics and why we interpret things the way we do. I also am intrigued by world cultures and their religions. So I read a lot of stuff that varies from Joseph Campbell to Thomas Merton. All of the above help me better understand myself and life, and allow me to view life through a variety of lenses.

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Survey Says...

Dennis Cozzalio over at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule (one of the best blogs out there) offered up this quiz way back in December. I am just now responding to it. Here are my answers to some of the questions (some good videos below, too!):

Way late to the party on this one, but I'll give it a go, sadly I have to omit some questions due to lack of knowledge:

1) What was the last movie you saw theatrically? On DVD or Blu-ray?

Theatrically: Revolutionary Road
Blue Ray: The Fall

2) Holiday movies— Do you like them naughty or nice?

Nice. Like Die Hard 2: Die Harder.

3) Ida Lupino or Mercedes McCambridge?

Lupino. She was a hell of a brave director.

4) Favorite actor/character from Twin Peaks?

I'm ashamed to say that I never watched the show...

5) It’s been said that, rather than remaking beloved, respected films, Hollywood should concentrate more on righting the wrongs of the past and tinker more with films that didn’t work so well the first time. Pretending for a moment that movies are made in an economic vacuum, name a good candidate for a remake based on this criterion.

The most recent examples I can think of would be Atonement or, on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, Step Brothers.

6) Favorite Spike Lee joint.

Crooklyn

7) Lawrence Tierney or Scott Brady?

Tierney, especially for the time he did a voice spot on The Simpson's.

8) Are most movies too long?

Not if they're good. But comedies are getting harder and harder to sit through.

9) Favorite performance by an actor portraying a real-life politician.

Philip Baker Hall as Nixon

10) Create the main event card for the ultimate giant movie monster smackdown.

Emo/Goth-throb Johnny Depp vs Shirtless-Frat Boy Matthew Mcconaughey.

12) Why would you ever want or need to see a movie more than once?

Truly great films only get better. You can never have stop learning something about a movie; or yourself in relation to the movie.

13) Favorite road movie.

Stranger Than Paradise. But I also love Road House...


15) Who is the one person, living or dead, famous or unknown, who most informed or encouraged your appreciation of movies?

Mike Markee. Film teacher from high school. That man LOVED him some dutch angles.

16) Favorite opening credit sequence. (Please include YouTube link if possible.)

David Gordon Green's Undertow.


Click here to watch video


I love how green is so unapologetic about throwing every effect at you within the first five minutes of the film. The score by Philip Glass is pretty great, too.

18) Jean-Luc Godard once suggested that the more popular the movie, the less likely it was that it was a good movie. Is he right or just cranky? Cite the best evidence one way or the other.

Cranky! Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Spider-Man 2, Iron Man, The Silence of the Lambs, etc.

19) Favorite Jonathan Demme movie.

Something Wild.

20) Tatum O’Neal or Linda Blair?

Tatum, because I just saw her in an amazing Lifetime original movie about corrupt cheerleaders. She played the principle who did nothing to stop them. Riveting stuff.

21) Favorite use of irony in a movie. (This could be an idea, moment, scene, or an entire film.)

Not in a movie, but this has been discussed already on Emerson's site...but I have to use it: Kate Winslet's performance on Extra's stating that there are too many Holocaust films, and they exist for the sake of raking in the easy Oscar. I hope she mentions this in her acceptance speech (if she wins).

23) The best movie of the year to which very little attention seems to have been paid.

Shotgun Stories.

24) Dennis Christopher or Robby Benson?

Christopher. "Do it for the cutters!"

25) Favorite movie about journalism.

Hands down, The Insider.

27) Favorite movie directed by Clint Eastwood.

High Plains Drifter

28) Paul Dooley or Kurtwood Smith?

Kurtwood Smith, of course! And here's why:


Click here to watch video


29) Your clairvoyant moment: Make a prediction about the Oscar season.

To everyone's dismay The Reader will win Best Picture.

30) Your hope for the movies in 2009.

Keep 'em coming...

31) What’s your top 10 of 2008? (If you have a blog and have your list posted, please feel free to leave a link to the post.)

My top 10:

Pineapple Express
Redbelt
The Fall
Frozen River
Let the Right One In
The Edge of Heaven
Rachel Getting Married
Wendy and Lucy
In Bruges
Shotgun Stories


BONUS QUESTION (to be answered after December 25):

32) What was your favorite movie-related Christmas gift that you received this year?

Sadly no film related gifts this year. I will buy myself Ebert's book on Scorsese, though.

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