Archive for the ‘Lists’ Category

  • 08 Jan

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    Row Three’s TOP TEN FILMS of 2009

    38

     
     

    Welcome to the big list post for 2009! As it takes a while to get the Row Three wheel a turnin’ for something involving nearly all the contributors in these parts, we are a little bit late to the list game (that was strange to type, considering it is only January 8th, but such is the way of online list-making), and even then some releases were not seen by many of us (from Crazy Heart to The Lovely Bones, both of which are 2010 releases in Canada), but we decided to plant the flag in the ground anyway. Judging from the pleasing variety of films considered below, it was a varied year, with very few consensus titles and those (A Serious Man, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Inglourious Basterds for instance) from reliable auteur filmmakers playing to their strengths. Intense and sophisticated childrens films (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up, Coraline, Where The Wild Things Are), intelligent science fiction (Moon, District 9, Mr. Nobody) and films about people coping in hard financial times (The Girlfriend Experience, Up In The Air, Precious, Collapse) are but a few of the themes to emerge in hindsight. We hope you enjoyed past year as much as we did (we celebrated Row Three’s second birthday – with no fanfare – in November) and here is hoping that 2010 holds forth the same sort of variety and daring in the multiplex (District 9, The Hurt Locker, Where The Wild Things Are) and in the arthouse (Enter The Void, The White Ribbon, Antichrist).

    Criteria:
    Each writer had his/her own criteria for putting this list together. Aside from a couple of festival screenings, most of these titles were released in one form or another (From wide release to direct to DVD and video-on-demand) in North America at some point in the calendar year 2009.

    UPDATE: If you are using Internet Explorer as your browser, please be sure it is the latest version (version 7) or some other much better browser (like Chrome or Firefox) to view the lists. Otherwise they may not appear correctly. Thanks!

    Onward…
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 08 Jan

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    Rot’s 10 Best Films of the Decade

    3
    Little Children

    As promised, we’re trickling out each of our individual lists to coincide with, or better qualify, our overall list of the best of the decade as chosen by all of the RowThree contributors.

    I will kick off theses individual lists with my own:

    1. Little Children
    2. The New World
    3. When the Levees Broke
    4. Rachel Getting Married
    5. Waking Life
    6. 25th Hour
    7. Mammoth
    8. Bloody Sunday
    9. Inland Empire
    10. In the Bedroom

  • 07 Jan

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    Who is the director of the decade?

    46

    An interesting question was posited to me the other night and one I actually didn’t have to think about too hard to come up with my own personal answer. After proclaiming Jack White as the musical artist of the decade, someone asked me who I thought was the director of the decade. Without batting an eye I said, “The Coen Brothers.” After a little bit more contemplation I came up with a few other contenders for that title which I’ll get to in a second. But it’s hard to argue against Joel and Ethan Coen; is it not?

    Seven quality films released from 2000 to 2009 (plus a great segment in the 2007 anthology picture, Paris je’taime). Those seven films have garnered eleven Oscar nominations and four wins. This doesn’t even include the Oscar nominations A Serious Man will almost certainly receive this year; likely including a best picture nod. If you take any stock in The Golden Globes, the Coens films in the past ten years have collectively received twelve noms and three wins. Not to mention the countless commendations they’ve received from various critics choice awards and entertainment ceremonies. Adding weight to all of this is 2007′s No Country For Old Men; which, beyond its deserved Oscar win for best picture, many fans and critics consider to be one of the top films of the decade (if not the top film).

    So based on sheer number of films, quality of said films, recognition and awards, coupled with the uncharted amount of entertaining BTU’s of joy per theater, it is really hard (and I actually think incorrect unless I’m forgetting about somebody) to argue against this duo as the directing/storytelling masters of the decade. And for this exercise maybe irrelevant, but if you tack on the entire history of The Coens work (or even just the two films prior to the start of the millennium) it’s even more obvious as to how prolific these guys actually are and continue to be.

    So let’s throw out The Coens for a second. If they weren’t around, I think the conversation could get much more interesting and individual directors could be a little bit more difficult to defend or choose from. First of all, if the director didn’t release at least 3 films in those ten years, you’d almost have to throw them out. I mean sure, Terrence Mallick’s The New World is certainly a masterpiece. But in terms of affecting a decade, his mark is but a smudge of greatness on a canvas of great film making. Not only does there have to be three or more films released, but they should all be consistent in quality and marksmanship if you will.

    I’ve picked out a handful of said directors that meet this criteria. I’m not claiming these guys (yes, all guys) to be the only ones deserving to be talked about here and I’m not ranking them in any order. Rather, I’m throwing out some suggestions of persons that meet the above criteria and worthy of being labeled as the director of the decade.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 07 Jan

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    Top Ten of the Decade (2000 – 2009)

    25

     

    Per usual, we’re kind of late to the game here. I mean here we are a week into the new decade and the Third Row is probably the last movie web site on the planet to get around to releasing our favorite films of the past ten years – but it’s because we’re thoughtful (or indecisive; semantics). Picking our favorite ten films over such a long stretch of time is not something that we take lightly. Not to mention it’s damn near impossible for 7 people to all agree on the correct titles; much less the order in which they should be displayed.

    But here we are with quite the stunning list of films, essentially coalescing the last 3650 days into 20 fantabulous hours of cinema. Over the next ten days or so each of the contributors to this list will release their personal choices for best on the decade. Here’s to another 10 years of greatness in film and life and blog.
    Cheers!

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 05 Jan

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    UPDATE: Hurt Locker Still Leading Critics’ Awards. By a Long Shot

    8

    UPDATED: (01/05)Continuing into the new year, critics all across the country are placing their votes and announcing the “winners” of their picks for outstanding achievement in film in all of the usual categories. These are all precursors of course to the Oscars, with the pinnacle of those being The Golden Globe nominations which were announced in December.

    Other than The Hurt Locker taking the spotlight in almost every case by a huge margin, early indications are not really all that surprising. George Clooney, current front-runner for a leading man Oscar leads mentions while Christophe Waltz is not surprisingly completely running away with it for his breakout role in Inglourious Basterds. Carrie Mulligan and Mo’Nique are also top winners so far in the leading and supporting actress categories respectively. Oh and even more surprising (at least to me, who hasn’t seen the film (update: I have now)), NY Critics give the best picture award to Avatar! Interesting.

    Of course it’s still early, but other than The Hurt Locker taking home so many wins for best picture and best director, I’d say this is about as an exact replica of the Oscar ceremony as you’re going to see – at least for the five major categories.

    Below are the Indiewire links to many of the critics choice awards around the country with the full results from the Boston and L.A. critics awards just for reference below that. Take a look below. See anything shamefully overlooked or is this about right? Does the uber-love for The Hurt Locker surprise anyone?

    AWARDS and NOMINATIONS announced so far:
    African-American Film Critics
    Alliance of Women Film Journalists
    Austin Film Critics
    Boston Film Critics
    British Indie Awards
    Broadcast Film Critics Awards
    Chicago Film Critics
    Cinema Eye Honors
    Dallas-Fort Worth Critics
    Detroit Film Critics
    European Film Awards
    Florida Film Critics
    Golden Globes
    Golden Satellites
    Gotham Awards
    Houston Critics
    Int’l Doc. Assoc.
    Indiana Film Critics
    Las Vegas Film Critic
    London Film Critics
    Los Angeles Film Critics
    National Board of Review
    National Society of Film Critics
    New York Film Critics
    New York Film Critics Online
    Online Film Critics Society
    PGA Awards
    Phoenix Film Critics
    San Diego Critics
    San Francisco Film Critics
    Screen Actors Guild Awards
    Southeastern Film Critics
    Spirit Awards
    St. Louis Film Critics
    Toronto Film Critics
    Utah Film Critics
    Washington D.C. Area Critics

     

     

    Best Picture:
    The Hurt Locker 11 wins (NY, LA, NSFC, Las Vegas, Austin, Satellites, Houston San Francisco, Boston, Gothams), 13 mentions (PGA, Globes, London, Online, BFCA, Utah, Southeastern, St. Louis, Detroit, African-American, NBR, Washington, NY Online)
    Up In The Air 7 wins (Dallas, Florida, Southeastern, Utah, Indiana, NBR, Washington) 12 mentions (PGA, Globes, London, Online, Chicago, Dallas, African-American, BFCA, St. Louis, LA, Satellites, Detroit, NY Online)
    Inglourious Basterds 3 wins (Toronto, Phoenix, San Diego) 14 mentions (PGA, Globes, BFCA, NSFC, Online, Chicago, Utah, Dallas, Southeastern, Detroit, NBR, Washington, NY Online)
    Precious 1 win (African-American Critics) 10 mentions (PGA, Globes, Dallas, BFCA, Southeastern, St. Louis, Spirits, Washington, NY Online, Satellites)
    Up 1 win (Detroit) 11 mentions (PGA, BFCA, African-American, Online Southeastern, Dallas, St. Louis, NBR, Washington, NY Online)
    Avatar 1 win (NY Online) 5 mentions (PGA, Globes, London, Dallas, BFCA)
    Moon 1 win (British Indie)
    Hunger 1 win (Toronto)
    A Serious Man 9 mentions (BFCA, Southeastern, Online, Chicago, NBR, Dallas, Gothams, NY Online, Satellites)
    (500) Days of Summer 6 mentions (Globes, Southeastern, St. Louis, Spirits, Detroit, NBR)
    An Education 6 mentions (PGA, BFCA, Dallas, St. Louis, NBR, Satellites)
    The Messenger 4 mentions (Southeastern, NBR, NY Online, Satellites)
    Fantastic Mr. Fox 4 mentions (Dallas, Southeastern, Indiana, NY Online)
    Invictus 4 mentions (PGA, BFCA, St. Louis, NBR)

    Best Director:
    Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker 14 wins (NY, LA, NSFC, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Southeastern, Houston, Satellites, NY Online, Washington, Las Vegas, Austin, Toronto) 6 mentions (BFCA, London, Online, St. Louis, Globes, Detroit)
    Jason Reitman, Up in the Air 3 wins (Utah, Florida, Dallas) 7 mentions (Globes, Chicago, London, BFCA, Southeastern, St. Louis, Detroit, Washington)
    Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds 2 wins (Phoenix, San Diego) 6 mentions (Globes, Online, Chicago, BFCA, St. Louis, Detroit, Washington)
    Lee Daniels, Precious 1 win (African-American) 4 mentions (BFCA, Spirits, Satellites, Washington)
    Clint Eastwood, Invictus 1 win (NBR) 3 mentions (Globes, BFCA, Washington)
    Spike Jonze, Where The Wild Things Are 1 win (Indiana) 1 mention (Chicago)
    Andrea Arnold, Fish Tank 1 win (British Indie)
    Pete Docter, Up 1 win (Detroit)
    James Cameron, Avatar 4 mentions (London, Online, Globes, BFCA)

    Best Actor:
    George Clooney, Up in the Air 9 wins (NY, Dallas, Phoenix, Indiana, Florida, NBR, Houston, Southeastern, Washington) 9 mentions (Globes, Online, Chicago, SAGs, London, BFCA, St. Louis, Detroit, Satellites)
    Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker 5 wins (NSFC, Las Vegas, Chicago, Satellites, Boston) 8 mentions (SAGs, Online, Utah, Southeastern, Indiana, BFCA, St. Louis, Washington)
    Colin Firth, A Single Man 4 wins (Austin, Detroit, San Diego, San Francisco) 7 mentions (Globes, SAGs, BFCA, LA, Spirits, Washington, Satellites)
    Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart 2 wins (LA, NY Online) 10 mentions (SAGs, Chicago, NSFC, Online, London, Globes, BFCA, St. Louis, Spirits, Satellites)
    Morgan Freeman, Invictus 2 wins (African-American, NBR) 5 mentions (SAGs, Globes, BFCA, St. Louis, Washington)
    Viggo Mortensen, The Road 1 win (Utah) 2 mentions (BFCA, Washington)
    Nicolas Cage, Bad Lieutenant 1 win (Toronto) 1 mention (NSFC)
    Tom Hardy, Bronson 1 win (British Indie)
    Matt Damon, The Informant! 4 mentions (Globes, Chicago, Detroit, Satelllites)
    Joseph Gordon-Levitt, (500) Days of Summer 3 mentions (Globes, Spirits, Detroit)
    Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man 1 win (Satellites) 3 mentions (London, Globes, Chicago)

    Best Actress:
    Carey Mulligan, An Education 9 wins (NBR, Toronto, Dallas, San Diego, Utah, Chicago, Washington, Indiana, British Indie) 9 mentions (Globes, SAGs, London, Online, BFCA, St. Louis, LA, Detroit, Satellites)
    Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia 7 wins (NY, San Francisco, Phoenix, Boston, Satellites, Southeastern, NY Online) 12 mentions (Globes, BFCA, SAGs, NSFC, Online, Chicago, London, Indiana, St. Louis, Detroit, Washington)
    Gabourey Sidibe, Precious 3 wins (Detroit, Florida, Las Vegas) 9 mentions (Globes, SAGs, Chicago, BFCA, Online, Southeastern, St. Louis, Washington, Spirits)
    Yolande Moreau, Seraphine 2 wins (NSFC, LA)
    Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds 1 win (Austin) 1 mention (Online)
    Nicole Beharie, American Violet 1 win (African-American)
    Shoreh Aghdashloo, The Stoning of Soraya M. 1 win (Satellites)
    Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side 4 mentions (SAGs, Globes, BFCA, Washington)
    Abbie Cornish, Bright Star 4 mentions (Chicago, NSFC, London, Satellites)
    Maya Rudolph, Away We Go 4 mentions (Chicago, Utah, St. Louis, Washington)

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 04 Jan

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    FINAL Updated List of Lists (v. 2.5)

    13

    UPDATED (01/04):

    • Several lists added
    • Alpha-numerical orderized

    send me any list to add!

    …this list of lists will continue to be updated as they come in, but this will be the last time it appears on the front page…

     

    You probably know how we really like our lists at RowThree. We post a new one on whatever movie topic we can come up with as often as possible. It’s almost always more fun to put together your list than it is to read others. Still, there are a lot of people out there who might have an interesting take or someone whose opinion of film you take a lot more stock in than others. Hence, I thought it a good idea to just have a list of lists. This is a boatload of top ten (or 20 or 50 or 100) lists that are surfacing all over the place. The first batch counts down 2009′s best while the second batch is for the decade. I’ll update this list of lists periodically and repost. If you know of a top films list that isn’t here and should be, shoot me an email or leave a comment below and I’ll get to adding it the next time I update this list.

    2009

    American Film Institute
    About.com [Rebecca Murray]
    Anne Thompson
    Art & Education
    Associated Content
    Associated Content (kids movies)
    At Carmel [Tom Britt]
    At the Movies [Michael Phillips & A.O. Scott]
    Black Book [Edmund Mullins]
    Brendon Bouzard
    Cartoon Flophouse
    Chud [Devin Feraci]
    Chud [Nick Nunziata]
    CNN
    Collider [Peter Debruge]
    Collider [Matt Goldberg]
    Documentary Blog [Jay Cheel] (docs)
    Film Annex
    Film Comment
    Film.com [Laremy Legel]
    Film Feed
    Fused Film [Kevin Coll]
    gmanReviews
    Green Cine Daily
    Guardian [Philip French]
    The Guy with the Glasses
    Hollywood Reporter
    Hollywood and Fine [Marshall Fine]
    Horror-Movies.ca
    IFC
    In Contention [Christopher Tapley]
    Industry lists [via IndieWire]
    IO9 (si-fi/fantasy)
    Jim Emerson
    JoBlo
    John Waters
    Left Field Cinema
    Life in Equinox
    Light Sensitive [Patrick Z McGavin]
    Martini Boys [Phil Brown]
    Metacritic
    MetroMix
    MetroMix New York [Geoff Berkshire]
    Mitch Davis
    The Movie Blog [John Campea]
    Moviefone (public)
    Movie Moxie
    MovieRetriever
    Movieset (under appreciated)
    MSN
    MSN [David Germain & Christy Lemire]
    MTV [Kurt Loder]
    The New Yorker [David Denby]
    The New Yorker [Anthony Lane]
    The New Yorker [Richard Brody]
    National Board of Review
    Newsweek [David Ansen]
    On Film [Bob Green]
    Pop Candy
    Popcorn Reel [Omar Moore]
    Quentin Tarantino
    A Random Walk Through Film
    Roger Ebert (mainstream and indie)
    Roger Ebert (documentaries)
    ScreenSucked
    She Wired [Jamie Wetherbe] (lesbian)
    Slant
    Some Came Running [Glenn Kenney]
    Spiteful Critic [Lauren Flanagan]
    Steve Erickson
    Substream [Mike]
    Substream [Rojo]
    Switchblade Comb
    Tederick Tumbles
    Time [Richard Corliss]
    Time Out London
    Time Out New York
    Top Ten Reviews
    Twitchfilm [Ben Umstead]
    Twitchfilm [James Marsh]
    Twitchfilm [Jim Tudor]
    Twitchfilm [Jim Tudor] (worst)
    Twitchfilm [Onderhond]
    Twitchfilm [Rodney Perkins]
    Twitchfilm [Sean Smithson]
    Twitchfilm [Todd Brown]
    Vanity Fair [Julian Sancton]
    Vloggerheads
    Washington Post [Ann Hornaday]
    What Would Toto Watch

    		               

    DECADE:

    Acidemic
    Anne Thompson
    AP [David Germain and Christy Lemire]
    The Auteurs (forum)
    Blog Cabins
    Bloody Disgusting (horror)
    Brooklyn Rail [David N Meyer]
    Bunel [Matt Langdon]
    Cinematical
    Collider [Matt Goldberg]
    Complex
    The Documentary Blog [guest filmmakers]
    Entertainment Weekly
    Eye Weekly
    Ferdy on Films [M. Ferdinand] (docs)
    Film Comment
    Film Junk
    Film Talk (podcast)
    FirstShowing
    Flickchart
    Flicks
    Gary King
    Geek Tyrant
    Green Cine Daily (“shaggy dog” movies)
    Glen Kenney
    Guardian (10 “key” films)
    Guardian (top 100)
    IFC
    IMDb [via /film]
    Indie Wire (critics survey)
    London Times
    Metacritic
    MSN [David Germain & Christy Lemire]
    The New Yorker [David Denby]
    The New Yorker [Richard Brody]
    The Onion AV Club
    Pajiba
    Paste
    The Playlist
    Polly Staffle
    Popcorn Reel [Omar Moore]
    Reverse Shot
    Rolling Stone [Peter Travers]
    Rotten in Denmark [Mike Baab]
    Rotten Tomatoes
    Salon
    Switchblade Comb
    Sydney Film Happenings
    Steve Erickson
    Tederick Tumbles
    TIFF Cinematheque
    Time Out London
    Wired (most daring)
    Zero for Conduct [Michael Atkinson]

     

  • 31 Dec

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    New Year’s Flicks

    2

    Looking for something to lift your spirits this New Year’s Eve? Here’s yet another list. This one though a list of movies that highlight New Year’s Eve/Day in one way or another. I can’t say they’re all good, but hey, what is?

    [via]

    When Harry Met Sally
    Possibly the greatest New Year’s Eve scene of all: After years as friends with (occasional) benefits, Harry (Billy Crystal) finally declares his love for Sally (Meg Ryan). The best quote? ”It’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve,” Harry says after party-crashing. ”I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

    Bridget Jones’s Diary
    You’re single, a little sad and are bracing for a booze-soaked New Year’s Eve blowout. It could be worse: You could have to face your mom tomorrow at a turkey curry buffet. This Renée Zellweger romp is perfect NYE material: It’s all about fresh starts, clean slates and Colin Firth.

    Someone Like You
    It’s romantic comedy 101: New Year’s Eve rolls around and our heroine (the plucky Ashley Judd) realizes her feelings for a platonic pal (the hunky Hugh Jackman). (It helps that she’s been stood up by her bad-news ex-boyfriend.) She rushes out to meet him — but will she make it in time for a countdown kiss?

    Sex and the City: The Movie
    It’s kinda like the scenario from “Someone Like You.” Only this time the role of Ashley Judd is played by Cynthia Nixon. Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw) rushes to Miranda’s apartment for a New Year’s bonding session. She even (gasp!) takes the subway. Now that’s a good friend.

    Sleepless in Seattle
    Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are at the top of their game in this romantic comedy. But the sweetest scene comes when Hanks’ grieving Sam Baldwin imagines a New Year’s Eve conversation with his deceased wife (played by the ethereal Carey Lowell). ”Here’s to us.”

    Trading Places
    Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis (with her Swedish meatballs) board a New York-bound party train for New Year’s in this comedy classic. Bonus: the movie’s anti-fat-cat-banker sentiment feels just as relevant today as is it was in 1983.

    200 Cigarettes
    Set during New Year’s Eve, 1981, this quirky nostalgia piece stars a who’s who of the late ’90s: Ben and Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci, Dave Chappelle, Janeane Garofalo, Martha Plimpton, Paul Rudd, Gaby Hoffmann and Courtney Love.

    The Hudsucker Proxy
    OK, so we’re still reeling from the Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon breakup news. But that doesn’t make this New Year’s Eve-set film (directed by the Coen Brothers and co-starring the divine Paul Newman) any less enjoyable. Be prepared to break out the hula hoops.

    Sunset Boulevard
    New Year’s Eve is all about looking ahead — even for a fading silent movie star who’s trapped in the past. This 1950 gem (starring Gloria Swanson as the past-her-prime legend and William Holden as her reluctant boy toy) perfectly captures the melancholy misery of forced optimism.

    Entrapment
    No plans this evening? Why not pull off a major bank heist. Before you do, though, invite Catherine Zeta Jones over and watch her wiggle around on the floor.

    Poseidon
    No matter how bad your night is, at least you’re not stuck on a rapidly sinking cruise ship with Josh Lucas and Fergie. Boom, boom, POW!

     

  • 15 Dec

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    25 Awesome Characters of the Decade

    25

    Not really an actual ranked top 25 list (though I make a case for the “top” 10). Rather, this is just sort of a half-assed list of some of the more memorable and fun characters the silver screen has graced upon us over the past ten years. With so many great characters and roles to choose from, whittling this down to just 25 is damn near impossible (hence the cheating of a few honorable mentions at the bottom). Still, these names are hard to argue with; but if you’ve got a couple of characters we might’ve missed, by all means drop them into the comment section at your leisure. Remember though, these are great, memorable characters, not necessarily great, Oscar worthy performances.

    25) V (V for Vendetta)
    24) Ronnie J. McGorvey (Little Children)
    23) Randy “The Ram” Robinson (The Wrestler)
    22) Brick Top (Snatch)
    21) Marv (Sin City)
    20) Giselle (Enchanted)
    19) Haley Stark (Hard Candy)
    18) Miranda Priestly (The Devil Wears Prada)
    17) Charlie/Donald Kaufman
    16) Elvis Presley (Bubba Ho-Tep)
    15) Bob, Dick, Barry (High Fidelity)
    14) Hans Landa (Inglourious Basterds)
    13) Royal Tenenbaum (The Royal Tenenbaums)
    12) Barry Egan (Punch Drunk Love)
    11) Juno (Juno)
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 15 Dec

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    Tarantino’s Top 8 Films of 2009

    14

    Hey, we’re likely to see Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds on quite a few top ten lists this year and we know he’s probably a bigger movie buff than anyone reading this, so it’s only natural he would unleash his personal top movies list as well.

    So here he is telling The Hollywood Reporter his favorite films of the year (so far). With Tarantino, it’s not really all that surprising to see Drag Me to Hell on the list and frankly not one I would even want to argue with; great pick! It’s only a top eight so that he has room to potentially add a couple films that he admits to not having seen yet that might make the cut: Avatar, Invictus and The Lovely Bones.

    8. An Education
    7. Precious
    6. Observe and Report
    5. Chocolate
    4. Up in the Air
    3. Funny People
    2. Drag Me To Hell
    1. Star Trek

    The video interview is under the seats if you want to see and hear the man himself “announce” his picks.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 13 Dec

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    My Favorite People (Fictional or Otherwise) of 2009

    9
    Funny People

    Last year around this time I wrote a post about five amazing female characters of 2009 on the belief that it was a bumper crop year for such roles, and going on the scarcity this year, I think it was worth celebrating them while it lasted. Irrespective of the quality of character roles afforded women, this has been an incredible year for film in general. If I had to characterize what I experienced in the cinema during 2009, I would say it was more fun than years past. While kids films were inexplicably becoming more serious (Where the Wild Things Are, Coraline and Up), the grown-up films, or many of the good ones at least, had found their inner child. The somber epics that are the trademark of Oscar season feel scarcer this time around (ironic considering their decision to choose 10 instead of 5 nominees), and in their place documentaries, comedies and even summer blockbusters raised their game. Films like Rip! A Remix Manifesto, Away We Go and Star Trek brought fun back to the movies and there are more such films I have yet to see (Anvil! and Avatar for starters).

    This post is a celebration of a somewhat random collection of people I enjoyed during 2009, people that made me smile (and no, the girl from Precious is not on this list) » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 12 Dec

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    The 2009 Black List

    2

    Hadn’t really ever paid much attention to The Black List in the past, but after the last couple of years I’m now giving the list a bit more than just a passing glance. The Black List is an annual list of Hollywood’s most liked unproduced screenplays published by Franklin Leonard on the second Friday of December each year. It began in 2004 as a survey with contributions from 75 film studio and production company executives. In 2008, 260 executives contributed their opinions and this year, there were 97 scripts and 311 people contributing to the rankings.

    Franklin Leonard has been named by “The Hollywood Reporter” as one of the top 35 executives under 35 working in Hollywood and his list has gained even more prominence. The top 10 (actually, 11, due to a tie) is filled with mostly up-and-comers, with the exception of Aaron Sorkin and David Scarpa. All of the scripts are in some stage of development around Hollywood, with two of them currently in production.

    Since its inception, dozens of screenplays that appeared on the list have been optioned, produced, and released, many to great commercial success. Two of the top three screenplays on the inaugural 2005 list – Juno and Lars and the Real Girl went on to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, with Juno winning the award.
    [via]

    Here are the Top Ten (eleven). Any of these get you excited?…
     

    1. The Muppet Man By Christopher Weekes
    What it’s about: The life and times of the late Jim Henson (pictured), the man behind “Sesame Street” and “The Muppet Show.”
    What it’s like: The Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon, but with puppets. This moving story depicts the life of a creative genius, with occasional surreal appearances by the likes of Kermit and Miss Piggy.
    Status: Set up at The Jim Henson Co.

    2. The Social Network By Aaron Sorkin
    What it’s about: Chronicles Mark Zuckerberg’s complicated journey towards creating Facebook. Sorkin depicts both the founder’s motivations for starting the largest social network in the world and the human casualties that came with his profound success.
    What it’s like: The fascinating biographical elements of Shattered Glass meets the courtroom drama of Kramer vs. Kramer, without the tears. Sorkin cuts between Zuckerberg’s heated depositions with his former Harvard colleagues who claimed he stole Facebook from them and the chronological retelling of the company’s trip to becoming a billion-dollar enterprise.
    Status: In production for Sony Pictures. Jesse Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg while Justin Timberlake portrays Sean Parker, one of the founders of Napster and Zuckerberg’s idol. David Fincher is directing.

    3. The Voices By Michael R. Perry
    What it’s about: Jerry, a schizophrenic worker at a bathtub factory, accidentally kills an attractive woman from accounting. While trying to cover his bloody tracks, Jerry starts taking advice from his talking (and foul-mouthed) cat and dog.
    What it’s like: Watching the lovable pig from Babe join forces with American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman. Some may be turned off by the script’s twisted sense of humor – Jerry has friendly conversations with his victim’s severed head – while others will get a kick out of its sheer audacity.
    Status: Vertigo Entertainment is trying to package the film with a lead actor. Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) is developing.
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 04 Dec

    Posted by


    Category

    Beyond The Canon

    23
    EyesWideShut2

    As we near the end of not only 2009, but also the decade of “The Naughts”, we movie buffs turn our attention to lists. Glorious lists. Top 10s, Top 50s, Best ofs, Worst ofs and all the rest. Along with the lists though, come the anti-list brigades. The onslaught of comments about how useless lists are, how they always represent the same small crop of movies and how they don’t represent the complainer’s personal tastes (which leads one to wonder if the list did match their tastes, would they still complain?). Some people just really hate lists.

    This was never more apparent than when the Online Film Community Top 100 films of all time was published a few years ago. The thought was an interesting one – gather numerous bloggers and online film buffs and have them put together their “canon” of top films to see how it compares to the same old same old lists that always have “Citizen Kane”, “Casablanca” and “Vertigo”. Nothing wrong with those films of course, but there was the idea that the online community might come up with something different…What hidden gems might the community rally around? How might this newer generation of film critics (mostly non-professional of course) expand the canon of great films? As it turned out, neither of those questions had hugely satisfactory answers – the resulting list was different in many ways than existing canon lists (pulling in more action/sci-fi/genre titles as well as recent features), but it didn’t really unearth any surprises since many of the individual “different” films selected were sifted out when the data was rolled up. Which is fair enough and should be expected since any list that pulls together more than, say, 10 people’s individual lists will weed out the stuff that is “different”. That’s just the nature of the task (and to be fair to the fine gentlemen who initiated the project, wasn’t really their intent anyway). The list, however, generated discussion – and movie geeks love discussion…

    TheTenant1
    LaBelleNoiseuse1

    So Iain Stott thought he would try to generate some more discussion with a new list and to do it in a novel way. His idea was to come up with a secondary “canon” of films – something Beyond The Canon. He thought that some of the most interesting parts of these consolidated lists were the dark corners of the individual taste which contained those movies that the listmakers loved and thought deserved wider recognition, but never made the final cut because they wouldn’t receive enough votes. He wondered what would happen if we lopped off that top heavy section of “standard” favourites and found what lurked just below. Were there any commonalities in these bubbling under films? Was there a list that could serve to extend the canon? Iain’s approach was slightly different: he started by blacklisting any typical “canon fodder” from anyone’s list of 100 choices (by combining several sources of top films, he devised a list of films that contributors could not pick). The idea was that it would force the submitters to go deeper into their reserves of favourites and pick out some titles they thought might not get the recognition they so richly deserved. The final list would rank the films that were selected the most often (from unranked submissions).

    So, how did it turn out? Pretty good if you ask me…The list is not an amalgam of rare and surprising choices – in fact, there’s some very popular and straightforward titles on it. But what other list will have a Top 25 consisting of Polanski’s The Tenant, Preminger’s Laura and Welles’ F For Fake? Or Eric Rohmer’s The Green Ray at number 33 (aka “Summer”), Wim Wenders’ Alice In The Cities at 47 and Jacques Rivette’s La Belle Noiseuse at 87 (3 films I have not seen, but am now eager to search out). In addition to the 100 most popular, Iain has also created a weighted list of films called Further Beyond The Canon – a list of some of those films that really aren’t that well known, but still received more than just a smattering of votes.

    So have at it. Explore the site and the individual contributors lists and the list of films that got 4 or more votes and even this guy’s negative feedback about the whole idea (I agree with his thought that people should extend their comfort zones when watching film, but I love lists far too much to agree with him beyond that). I’ll admit my bias here – I was one of the contributors to the list. And I’d do it again.

    Note: Top and bottom images (“Eyes Wide Shut” and “Mulholland Drive”) finished 1-2 on the list. Middle two images from “The Tenant” and “La Belle Noiseuse”.

    MulhollandDrive1
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