Tim's Top 5:
I've not seen much in the way of movies this year in the theater (I think a total of six), but by my count I've seen 37 movies for the first time this year through finally watching DVDs I own, Netflix, or going to the theater.
1. Elevator to the Gallows - Louis Malle's debut film captures the inevitability and femme fatale aspects of film noir, but spins it in an unforeseen direction. The absurdism is certainly convenient and it requires suspension of disbelief, but the whole saga seems so plagued with fatalism that it feels real. The characters are a bit stock, but the scenario feels fresh 40 years later, and the Miles Davis score is unmatched. I'm embarrassed it took me this long to watch the movie, since I'd owned it since law school.
2. The Last Waltz - To make a concert film of The Band excellent was not something I anticipated would be all that easy, I was hardly a fan of their work. So after they'd played The Weight and Up on Cripple Creek, I really didn't think there'd be any reason to watch. Not so much. It's a fantastic concert from start to finish and the segments where Scorsese interviews The Band are pretty interesting as well.
3. United 93 - If 7 years of misguided responses to September 11 seem to have robbed you of how the day felt, this movie might just reopen those wounds. It brought a lot of gut responses back to me and put me right back in the place where I had been that morning. You know how the movie will end, but it's relentless and forces you to make a serious emotional investment in its outcome. It's a triumph of a film that feels heroic and disastrous all at once, but if nothing else, serves as a reminder of one of the most gut-wrenching days in American history.
4. Once - A nearly perfect film, even if it is functionally plotless. The charm of the two leads is immeasurable and their chemistry is flawless. Add Grafton Street and some other Dublin locales that made it feel relate-able, and you've got a can't-miss film. It doesn't, either, and refuses to take the most obvious path at any point.
5. The Dark Knight - I don't know if Heath Ledger deserves an Oscar, because I haven't seen much of any movies that came out this year, but it was a transformative performance. Though it reads as a political screed as much as a film, Batman's moral ambiguity and the willingness to destroy the sequel that was seemingly being set up pays off in spades. Like Casino Royale, it breathed new life into a film series that had a chance of going too far off the rails. The bad news is that the next film is almost certainly going to be worse (hence, the middling Quantum of Solace not appearing on this list).
Honorable mention: Pan's Labyrinth - I never would have thought it possible to like this movie based on what I'd read, but it's superbly-made and plays very straightforward for what is effectively a fairy tale; Standard Operating Procedure - one of Errol Morris' weaker films, but it personalizes the Abu Ghraib saga more than I'd have imagined possible; The Battle of Algiers - a surprisingly even-handed treatment of the Algerian conflict that relates a story others should have learned from in later conflicts like Vietnam; Iron Man - if anyone is ever cast as me in a movie, I'm hoping it will be Robert Downey Jr. He carries this movie single-handedly and brings a lot of humor to what could have been an overly fawning superhero film. Jon Favreau's direction recognized the humor available in the premise and maximizes it while making it modern.
Dan's Top 5:
As far as I can tell, I've watched 60 movies this year, so this is really hard.
1. Schindler's List - I thought that I wouldn't get this movie. It's about the Holocaust, after all, to which I feel no personal connection at all. But really, this is an excellent film showcasing the essentials of human decency amidst the most senseless of human ferocity. That Steven Spielberg made it is even more astounding, since he had mainly been a director for family-friendly blockbuster movies. At least he doesn't have to worry about which of his movies will be remembered as his best.
2. The Dark Knight - Very seldom is it that I go into a movie theater expecting to be blown away. (Even Best Picture contenders lately leave a lot to be desired.) Even more seldom is the case when the film in question surpasses that already high expectation. What likely seemed a strong movie on paper was taken to a completely different level by the performance of Heath Ledger, which turned the movie into a psychological - and at times philosophical - thriller reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs..
3. Wall-E - Every time Pixar releases a movie, I end up saying it's their best yet. I was fully convinced that Ratatouille was going to be the studio's peak and that the narrative quality would start to decline. The movie manages to accomplish so much with the bare minimum of dialogue, expressing character and emotion through imagery alone. It also accomplishes the remarkable feat of getting you to think about environmental concerns and consumerism without making it some forced political message in disguise. Oh, and if Peter Gabriel doesn't get an academy award for "Down To Earth," I will probably destroy something in my apartment.
4. Network - I didn't really know what to expect of this film going in, other than it was a classic. The level of farce in the story increases ever-so-gradually from completely believable to a level of absurdity matched only by the Bush administration. Personally, I think it would make for a good stage adaptation. It remains a powerful movie even now, when there are starting to emerge people, like me, who don't even watch television.
5. Dark Days - This is, to date, the best documentary film I've seen. It follows a series of homeless people who have taken refuge near abandoned Amtrak tracks near Penn Station. All the characters are engaging and often funny in the face of very hard circumstances. The film actually follows a natural plot rather than meandering from one didactic segment to another a la Bowling for Columbine (which I did like). Most importantly, it ends up being pretty uplifting and shows you what human potential really can be. Feel free to use this movie when battling conservatives.
Honorable Mention: Juno, There Will Be Blood, Do The Right Thing, The Third Man, Into The Wild
Ryan's Top 5:
Perhaps solely for this blog, and to feed my ever-growing OCD, I should start keeping track of movies I watch. (I don't.) So these are my top 5 as best as I can recollect.
1. There Will Be Blood - As much as I disdain anything that's not a comedy, this movie was truly brilliant and veritably flawless. You don't see many true modern tragedies, but this surely was one, and a stellar one.
2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - This movie was A) hilarious, B) heartwarming, C) well-acted with funny actors, and D) funnier than 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up (comparative as all are Apatow movies). Jason Segel and Russell Brand are particularly great. It also boasts a Dracula musical with puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
3. Wall-E - Differs slightly in tone from my choice for #1. I can't say that I circle calendar dates in anticipation of PIXAR movies, but they really deserve praise for their writing. Animation aside, they rarely make bad movies; some are better than others, sure, but have they ever made anything completely bad? I don't think so, and there have been plenty of shit-tastic 3D animation movies (that shark piece of trash that I actually saw in a theater comes to mind). Anyway, Wall-E may be their best effort to date. I don't have kids, but if I did, this seemingly would be the perfect movie to take them to.
4. The Dark Knight - I think Tim and Dan said it better than I could. I will say that when movies are talked up so much it almost always affects my reaction to the film adversely. This was not the case here, though, as The Dark Knight delivered. And for days after the film I was wiki'ing Batman and hypothesizing who would be the villain in the sequel.
5. Be Kind Rewind - Did critics dislike this movie? I guess it wasn't as funny as you'd hope a Jack Black/Mos Def movie would be, but... on second thought, wasn't it? I dunno, I loved it. Michel Gondry does not disappoint.
Honorables: Run, Fatboy, Run (probably a dumb movie, but I laughed a lot); No Country for Old Men (saw it on DVD in March or so); Dewey Cox (honorable in that I really thought it would suck and it was actually worth RedBoxing, pretty funny); W. (either I'm not smart enough or not politically-inclined enough to expound on the film's realism/lack thereof, but I enjoyed it...the press conference scenes, taken from Real Actual Life, are pretty damn painful); Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr., is one of my favorite actors, and Tim's right, this film minus him is forgettable).
Dishonorables: Semi-Pro (do not watch this film--repeat, do NOT watch this film); Strange Wilderness (I wasted money on renting this, blagghgh); 21 (classic case of I-read-the-book-first-and-therefore-this-movie-sucks, but come on, they distort reality so much it hurts); Leatherheads (should have been better/funnier than it was); Harold and Kumar Escape... (not a good movie, at all, in any sense, and I liked the first one); Made of Honor (N.B. I did not actually see this movie but I conjecture it is the worst Pile of Suck ever created, look at the fucking title and forget about it, Jesus, do not see this movie); Indiana Jones (we waited 20 goddamn years for THIS?!?!); An American Carol (see my critique of Made of Honor).
Showing posts with label movies by year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies by year. Show all posts
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Top 5 Worst Best Picture Nominees 2000-present
Tim's Top 5:
I was going to say films to win best picture, but since I'm quite certain I'm the only person on here who can tell you definitively how much worse The English Patient was than Cimarron...I figured I'd keep it current.
(For convenience sake, at the end, I've included all the films that fall into the category. For the record, I've not seen Babel nor Atonement. This completes the list of movies I haven't seen on said list. I suspect both might crack my top 5 list)
1) The Hours - This movie reads like a lifetime original motion picture. Nicole Kidman got an Oscar for being ugly in the same way Bill Murray almost came away with an Oscar for not being funny (see #2), and a movie that's supposed to be about women comes off as being one of the most chauvinistic films in decades. Women get by because of their gay friends with AIDS (Ed Harris in a truly punishing performance), or they don't get by at all. Meryl Streep comes off as an awful stereotype of the independent woman who is, as I wrote in my initial review "perpetually smug"...aw, hell, I have to quote me here "[Streep] occupies the screen like she's paying rent there, and emotes her way through an agonizing, yet critically-acclaimed performance." But since Streep is the focal point of the movie, there's little else to say. It's a dreadful assemblage of thin characters and obvious motifs.
2) Lost In Translation - Sofia Coppola has made three films, two of which I've had the misfortune of seeing. But while The Virgin Suicides suffered from a creepy narrator and not much of a story, Lost In Translation suffers from the fact that no one bothered to check whether the movie was finished before releasing it. You watch Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, they do things, they develop a bit of a relationship, and then the oh so touching ending THAT NO ONE WROTE. If you invite me to pay $10 for a movie, the least you can do is actually have a beginning, a middle, and an end -- not just make the entire movie hinge on words that no one hears. I love this -- someone trying to defend the movie on the IMDb said "pointless, plotless, and boring?" to try and defeat a straw man. But actually, they summarized it pretty beautifully -- I'll strike the question mark and this movie finally has an ending.
3) The Green Mile - Few movies have the gall to be so openly manipulative as The Green Mile, which is a woeful failure in all the ways The Shawshank Redemption was successful. Tom Hanks tries to play a bladder infection for laughs and fails, the Christian allegory is horrifically transparent, the movie is three hours long, and it manages to make every character unlikeable. Then throw in some heavy-handed Hollywood nostalgia. Also, if possible, try to make the movie completely anachronistic in geography and time period. Hey, you did it. Thanks.
4) No Country For Old Men - Few movies have left me feeling so angry. I walked out of there pretty much holding my head with anguish at what had just been declared a massively successful film achievement. While The Departed was a profound disappointment that amounted to little more than a bloodbath, there was a point...sort of. Nearly everyone's dead, you get to watch a lot of gruesome deaths, the sound is horrifying (I'll give them props, they were robbed at the Oscars, listening to this movie made me ill), and Bardem is pretty good at playing the remorseless psychotic with no purpose in killing, but it still adds up to a movie that leaves you pretty much where you started or worse. Fatalism and nihilism doesn't make for good filmmaking unless there's some sort of devolution throughout the film.
5) A Beautiful Mind - So how do you make a terrible biopic? Well, cast someone really unsuitable for a role -- wiry mathematician...enter Russell Crowe. Wipe their life story of anything the least bit controversial -- take that communist tendencies and homosexuality. Throw in a love interest that's not believable -- Jennifer Connelly with mathematician...check. Now add things that are utterly preposterous (like a mythical roommate) and change everything about the story to make it more Hollywood. Shudder. This is fish-in-a-barrel drama, but it's still executed as badly as Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile.
Honorable mention: Finding Neverland - Enough with the Johnny Depp blowing, film critics, it's been a while since he's made a good movie; The Sixth Sense - when you've got a one-bit premise, try not to make it totally obvious. Unbreakable was infinitely better; Chocolat - a film that was so painfully American in attempting to be French or Italian. Harvey Weinstein definitely engaged in sexual favors for it to be nominated; Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring - what happens, exactly? I'm not a fan of LotR, so I could go on, but all others like opaque cinema where you can actually see Peter Jackson making decisions with extreme close-ups, slow motion, soft focus, and everything but a constant barrage of center wipes; The Departed - it sucked. Scorsese needs to stay out of Boston.
Best Picture Nominees:
2000-2008
American Beauty
Atonement
The Aviator
Babel
A Beautiful Mind
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Chicago
Chocolat
The Cider House Rules
Crash
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Departed
Erin Brockovich
Finding Neverland
Gangs of New York
Gladiator
Good Night, and Good Luck
Gosford Park
The Green Mile
The Hours
The Insider
In the Bedroom
Juno
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World
Michael Clayton
Million Dollar Baby
Moulin Rouge!
Munich
Mystic River
No Country For Old Men
The Pianist
The Queen
Ray
Seabiscuit
Sideways
The Sixth Sense
There Will Be Blood
Traffic
Ryan's Top Five
I have not seen but 30-40% of this list. I shall persevere.
1. "The Sixth Sense" - Tim's right--"Unbreakable" was a lot better (read: good, not bad).
2. "Lost in Translation" - I only saw this once, but damn, this movie was boring. I have to like characters to get involved, and I didn't like any of these people.
3. "Ray" - Jamie Foxx deserved to win best actor. That said, biopics BORE THE BEJESUS out of me.
4. "The Fellowship of the Ring" - I really liked "The Two Towers," this one as boring as sin. Seriously.
5. "Little Miss Sunshine" - I do really like this movie and Steve Carell was great, but the ending was a bit too off for it to be a "best movie." (Keep in mind there are probably many movies I could see that would knock this one off the list.)
Dan's Top 5:
I actually like all the films in the list that I saw in the aforementioned list, with exception of what is noted below.
1. Mystic River - I just flat out didn't like it.
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - All I remember was seeing a bunch of flying around on wires. I didn't get to see the full movie, but I doubt I would have liked it.
3. Erin Brockovich - I like this movie, actually. But I get it already - the main character is a woman.
4. Little Miss Sunshine - Probably one of the worst endings ever, especially for india cinema.
5. Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World - I can't remember the main conflict of this movie. I've seen it, but nothing stuck. I was really expecting more out of this movie.
Honorable mention: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
I was going to say films to win best picture, but since I'm quite certain I'm the only person on here who can tell you definitively how much worse The English Patient was than Cimarron...I figured I'd keep it current.
(For convenience sake, at the end, I've included all the films that fall into the category. For the record, I've not seen Babel nor Atonement. This completes the list of movies I haven't seen on said list. I suspect both might crack my top 5 list)
1) The Hours - This movie reads like a lifetime original motion picture. Nicole Kidman got an Oscar for being ugly in the same way Bill Murray almost came away with an Oscar for not being funny (see #2), and a movie that's supposed to be about women comes off as being one of the most chauvinistic films in decades. Women get by because of their gay friends with AIDS (Ed Harris in a truly punishing performance), or they don't get by at all. Meryl Streep comes off as an awful stereotype of the independent woman who is, as I wrote in my initial review "perpetually smug"...aw, hell, I have to quote me here "[Streep] occupies the screen like she's paying rent there, and emotes her way through an agonizing, yet critically-acclaimed performance." But since Streep is the focal point of the movie, there's little else to say. It's a dreadful assemblage of thin characters and obvious motifs.
2) Lost In Translation - Sofia Coppola has made three films, two of which I've had the misfortune of seeing. But while The Virgin Suicides suffered from a creepy narrator and not much of a story, Lost In Translation suffers from the fact that no one bothered to check whether the movie was finished before releasing it. You watch Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, they do things, they develop a bit of a relationship, and then the oh so touching ending THAT NO ONE WROTE. If you invite me to pay $10 for a movie, the least you can do is actually have a beginning, a middle, and an end -- not just make the entire movie hinge on words that no one hears. I love this -- someone trying to defend the movie on the IMDb said "pointless, plotless, and boring?" to try and defeat a straw man. But actually, they summarized it pretty beautifully -- I'll strike the question mark and this movie finally has an ending.
3) The Green Mile - Few movies have the gall to be so openly manipulative as The Green Mile, which is a woeful failure in all the ways The Shawshank Redemption was successful. Tom Hanks tries to play a bladder infection for laughs and fails, the Christian allegory is horrifically transparent, the movie is three hours long, and it manages to make every character unlikeable. Then throw in some heavy-handed Hollywood nostalgia. Also, if possible, try to make the movie completely anachronistic in geography and time period. Hey, you did it. Thanks.
4) No Country For Old Men - Few movies have left me feeling so angry. I walked out of there pretty much holding my head with anguish at what had just been declared a massively successful film achievement. While The Departed was a profound disappointment that amounted to little more than a bloodbath, there was a point...sort of. Nearly everyone's dead, you get to watch a lot of gruesome deaths, the sound is horrifying (I'll give them props, they were robbed at the Oscars, listening to this movie made me ill), and Bardem is pretty good at playing the remorseless psychotic with no purpose in killing, but it still adds up to a movie that leaves you pretty much where you started or worse. Fatalism and nihilism doesn't make for good filmmaking unless there's some sort of devolution throughout the film.
5) A Beautiful Mind - So how do you make a terrible biopic? Well, cast someone really unsuitable for a role -- wiry mathematician...enter Russell Crowe. Wipe their life story of anything the least bit controversial -- take that communist tendencies and homosexuality. Throw in a love interest that's not believable -- Jennifer Connelly with mathematician...check. Now add things that are utterly preposterous (like a mythical roommate) and change everything about the story to make it more Hollywood. Shudder. This is fish-in-a-barrel drama, but it's still executed as badly as Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile.
Honorable mention: Finding Neverland - Enough with the Johnny Depp blowing, film critics, it's been a while since he's made a good movie; The Sixth Sense - when you've got a one-bit premise, try not to make it totally obvious. Unbreakable was infinitely better; Chocolat - a film that was so painfully American in attempting to be French or Italian. Harvey Weinstein definitely engaged in sexual favors for it to be nominated; Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring - what happens, exactly? I'm not a fan of LotR, so I could go on, but all others like opaque cinema where you can actually see Peter Jackson making decisions with extreme close-ups, slow motion, soft focus, and everything but a constant barrage of center wipes; The Departed - it sucked. Scorsese needs to stay out of Boston.
Best Picture Nominees:
2000-2008
American Beauty
Atonement
The Aviator
Babel
A Beautiful Mind
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Chicago
Chocolat
The Cider House Rules
Crash
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Departed
Erin Brockovich
Finding Neverland
Gangs of New York
Gladiator
Good Night, and Good Luck
Gosford Park
The Green Mile
The Hours
The Insider
In the Bedroom
Juno
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World
Michael Clayton
Million Dollar Baby
Moulin Rouge!
Munich
Mystic River
No Country For Old Men
The Pianist
The Queen
Ray
Seabiscuit
Sideways
The Sixth Sense
There Will Be Blood
Traffic
Ryan's Top Five
I have not seen but 30-40% of this list. I shall persevere.
1. "The Sixth Sense" - Tim's right--"Unbreakable" was a lot better (read: good, not bad).
2. "Lost in Translation" - I only saw this once, but damn, this movie was boring. I have to like characters to get involved, and I didn't like any of these people.
3. "Ray" - Jamie Foxx deserved to win best actor. That said, biopics BORE THE BEJESUS out of me.
4. "The Fellowship of the Ring" - I really liked "The Two Towers," this one as boring as sin. Seriously.
5. "Little Miss Sunshine" - I do really like this movie and Steve Carell was great, but the ending was a bit too off for it to be a "best movie." (Keep in mind there are probably many movies I could see that would knock this one off the list.)
Dan's Top 5:
I actually like all the films in the list that I saw in the aforementioned list, with exception of what is noted below.
1. Mystic River - I just flat out didn't like it.
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - All I remember was seeing a bunch of flying around on wires. I didn't get to see the full movie, but I doubt I would have liked it.
3. Erin Brockovich - I like this movie, actually. But I get it already - the main character is a woman.
4. Little Miss Sunshine - Probably one of the worst endings ever, especially for india cinema.
5. Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World - I can't remember the main conflict of this movie. I've seen it, but nothing stuck. I was really expecting more out of this movie.
Honorable mention: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Top 5 Movies of 2007
Having now seen all but a few movies that I want to see, I felt authorized to concoct my all-too-uninformed list.
Tim's Top 5:
1. Into the Wild - Certainly, there could have been more of this movie, and it would have been welcome, but it's still a well-orchestrated masterpiece of a story with some fantastic ensemble performances, evocative photography and a wonderful score. Above all, it captures the tragedy of Christopher McCandless without forgetting the other people that his life touched, both for the positive and the negative. A masterful adaptation of a fantastic book.
2. There Will Be Blood - I knew literally nothing going in, but I could have known it all and it'd have mattered none. It's a slow movie, taking 15 minutes to get to a line of dialogue (though it doesn't seem like that was the case), developing its story for nearly an hour before reaching much of a conflict, but the frenzied energy that Daniel Day-Lewis lets loose through the latter hour and a half of the film make it well worth the wait. Not what you'd expect from Paul Thomas Anderson, by any means, but it's an extraordinary experience nonetheless.
3. Michael Clayton - If you made The Firm into a believable movie, this is probably what you'd have come up with, but George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, and Tom Wilkinson do the job. Sydney Pollack is too low-key in his role (perhaps bitter that he directed The Firm and not this movie), but for the most part, everyone fits their parts and does a good job with an interesting script. It's rare to come across a movie for which you've already seen its climax, but it worked here. The ending is a bit trite, perhaps, but it gives you both ends of what you expect into a solid Hegelian dialectic of an ending that's as Janusian as the practice of law.
4. Zodiac - Making a murder mystery where there isn't necessarily an answer is a difficult task. Making a murder mystery with no answer and making the protagonist a cartoonist? Nigh on impossible. But David Fincher does a great job of capturing the story and the feeling of 1960s-70s San Francisco, or at least conveying what it seems like it should feel like. An underrated gem that was mistakenly released in the spring, where it was guaranteed to be ignored by critics and moviegoers.
5. American Gangster - Not a fantastic movie, but a well-acted movie that would be even more enjoyable if it weren't pure fiction (having read that even more of it was false than I expected does take away from it), but in a very down year for movies, it should have generated more buzz than it did. A great score and a good script, combined with two dynamic lead performances, makes for an enjoyable, if flawed film.
Honorable mention: Knocked Up, Superbad, and Transformers were all well beyond expectations. Ratatouille was less than expected, but that speaks volumes about the expectations I have for Pixar. (I've not seen Cars nor Meet the Robinsons, I don't intend to change either, so they've yet to miss with me.)
Dan's Top 5:
1. There Will Be Blood - Everyone loves a good tycoon story - the American Dream at it's most successful and its most heartless. Daniel Day-Lewis makes this one to remember and brings to life a genius character who always waits to hide his cards until the very moment he can use them to their full effect - even if it's years later.
2. Ratatouille - My favorite Pixar movie yet, and that's saying something. I may be giving the movie an edge because it's a Pixar film, or because my favorite stand-up comedian voices the lead role, or because I think it got cheated out of the Best Picture category at the Oscars. Anyway, it strikes me as very real and human, probably a testament to the direction of Brad Bird. Great, now I'm going to have to see The Iron Giant.
3. Juno - I normally like indie films, which I consider to be a guilty pleasure by now. What I like about this movie is that the sense of humor seems sincere and doesn't often force the dramatic emotions that come along with the comedy. I liked it better than Little Miss Sunshine, if only for the fact that there's a subject to dwell on apart from family dysfunction.
4. No Country For Old Men - I was so astounded by how much I liked this movie that I'm surprised I didn't put it higher. For me, it took on a new level when I realized that Bardem's character, Anton Chigurh, represents the sum total of sin in the world - murder, greed, etc. - to the point that he could even be Satan. And his emotionless belief in order and fate only further the comparison. Loses points because the film is mostly a character study, and the plot isn't polished.
5. 3:10 to Yuma - A film I don't think any of my fellow Top 5 authors saw. I've never been a fan of Westerns, apart from the later Spaghetti Westerns, and I especially hate John Wayne films. This movie, however, is another fine character piece with good acting from Bale and Crowe. The plot is much more forgiving than No Country for Old Men, because Westerns tend to have the simplest plots ever. Based on an Elmore Leonard short story, if that's any incentive.
Honorable mentions:
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - My favorite musical yet. However, the progression of the plot suffers from being interrupted by song too often. In other words, things take too long to happen. Great film, though, and I'd recommend it unless you're allergic to musicals.
Hot Fuzz - Loses points only because it wasn't a "quality" movie that would be considered for awards. It revels in absurdity, and that's what makes it so damn good.
The Darjeeling Limited - I could very easily bump out #5 and place high on the list, but Ryan will surely include it, thus giving me a chance to talk about a more-overlooked movie in 3:10 to Yuma.
Ryan's Top Five
I always forget to put the heading. Whoops. In the spirit of disagreement, I'll go with five new movies. (I also have not seen There Will Be Blood.)
1. Once - I am forcing myself not to pick The Darjeeling Limited in this spot. If you haven't seen Once yet, do yourself a favor and buy it. It's really a great little movie, a simple plot with simple dialogue and excellent songs. Glen Hansard penned a good number of the songs before the movie was even an idea, so they don't feel like songs written for a specific movie.
2. Hot Fuzz - Damn it, it deserves mention. There was a debate about whether or not to consider "40-Year-Old Virgin" for serious awards, as people think comedy deserves more play. If this is true, then Hot Fuzz was the best comedy I saw last year, bar none (and better than 40-Y-O-V). (I've accepted that Shaun of the Dead is a better/funnier movie, but still...the last thirty minutes of Hot Fuzz are sheer joy.) Edgar Wright basically does the same thing Quentin Tarentino does, albeit less arrogantly; he knows how to master a genre, and, having done so, subvert it. The result is brilliance.
3. The Darjeeling Limited - Wes Anderson doesn't garner critical support anymore, but who cares. I wouldn't have liked this movie as much without the flashback scene, and the timing of the flashback scene was spot on. Wes Anderson's soundtrack is, again, amazing.
4. The Bourne Ultimatum - In my book, this is about as close to perfect as a pure action/spy thriller movie can get. There apparently was dialogue, but there really didn't have to be. The fight scenes hook you--they don't bore you, like most fight scenes do (for me, anyway). Paul Greengrass really knows how to shoot chase scenes, as well. The plot has some holes in it, but you really couldn't care less. You don't have time to stop and think anyway, lest you miss any Jason-Bourne-ass-kickery. (Note to self: draft Michael Bourn, rename team.)
5. Superbad - I can safely say this was a lot better than I thought it would be. The first time I saw the preview, I wasn't very interested, as it looked like a teen movie and I have a natural aversion to them after The She's All That Incident of 98 (read: I saw She's All That in a theater in 1998). Superbad, however, is legitimately hilarious. If I tried to explain how, it wouldn't be funny, so I'll not try.
Honorables: No Country For Old Men (I gotta rep the haircut...I have a tough time ranking things that aren't comedies, though), Knocked Up (upon further viewing, not as good as Superbad), Dan in Real Life (good in an In Good Company kind of way), Juno (I don't think I liked it as much as everyone else did, but it was good).
Tim's Top 5:
1. Into the Wild - Certainly, there could have been more of this movie, and it would have been welcome, but it's still a well-orchestrated masterpiece of a story with some fantastic ensemble performances, evocative photography and a wonderful score. Above all, it captures the tragedy of Christopher McCandless without forgetting the other people that his life touched, both for the positive and the negative. A masterful adaptation of a fantastic book.
2. There Will Be Blood - I knew literally nothing going in, but I could have known it all and it'd have mattered none. It's a slow movie, taking 15 minutes to get to a line of dialogue (though it doesn't seem like that was the case), developing its story for nearly an hour before reaching much of a conflict, but the frenzied energy that Daniel Day-Lewis lets loose through the latter hour and a half of the film make it well worth the wait. Not what you'd expect from Paul Thomas Anderson, by any means, but it's an extraordinary experience nonetheless.
3. Michael Clayton - If you made The Firm into a believable movie, this is probably what you'd have come up with, but George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, and Tom Wilkinson do the job. Sydney Pollack is too low-key in his role (perhaps bitter that he directed The Firm and not this movie), but for the most part, everyone fits their parts and does a good job with an interesting script. It's rare to come across a movie for which you've already seen its climax, but it worked here. The ending is a bit trite, perhaps, but it gives you both ends of what you expect into a solid Hegelian dialectic of an ending that's as Janusian as the practice of law.
4. Zodiac - Making a murder mystery where there isn't necessarily an answer is a difficult task. Making a murder mystery with no answer and making the protagonist a cartoonist? Nigh on impossible. But David Fincher does a great job of capturing the story and the feeling of 1960s-70s San Francisco, or at least conveying what it seems like it should feel like. An underrated gem that was mistakenly released in the spring, where it was guaranteed to be ignored by critics and moviegoers.
5. American Gangster - Not a fantastic movie, but a well-acted movie that would be even more enjoyable if it weren't pure fiction (having read that even more of it was false than I expected does take away from it), but in a very down year for movies, it should have generated more buzz than it did. A great score and a good script, combined with two dynamic lead performances, makes for an enjoyable, if flawed film.
Honorable mention: Knocked Up, Superbad, and Transformers were all well beyond expectations. Ratatouille was less than expected, but that speaks volumes about the expectations I have for Pixar. (I've not seen Cars nor Meet the Robinsons, I don't intend to change either, so they've yet to miss with me.)
Dan's Top 5:
1. There Will Be Blood - Everyone loves a good tycoon story - the American Dream at it's most successful and its most heartless. Daniel Day-Lewis makes this one to remember and brings to life a genius character who always waits to hide his cards until the very moment he can use them to their full effect - even if it's years later.
2. Ratatouille - My favorite Pixar movie yet, and that's saying something. I may be giving the movie an edge because it's a Pixar film, or because my favorite stand-up comedian voices the lead role, or because I think it got cheated out of the Best Picture category at the Oscars. Anyway, it strikes me as very real and human, probably a testament to the direction of Brad Bird. Great, now I'm going to have to see The Iron Giant.
3. Juno - I normally like indie films, which I consider to be a guilty pleasure by now. What I like about this movie is that the sense of humor seems sincere and doesn't often force the dramatic emotions that come along with the comedy. I liked it better than Little Miss Sunshine, if only for the fact that there's a subject to dwell on apart from family dysfunction.
4. No Country For Old Men - I was so astounded by how much I liked this movie that I'm surprised I didn't put it higher. For me, it took on a new level when I realized that Bardem's character, Anton Chigurh, represents the sum total of sin in the world - murder, greed, etc. - to the point that he could even be Satan. And his emotionless belief in order and fate only further the comparison. Loses points because the film is mostly a character study, and the plot isn't polished.
5. 3:10 to Yuma - A film I don't think any of my fellow Top 5 authors saw. I've never been a fan of Westerns, apart from the later Spaghetti Westerns, and I especially hate John Wayne films. This movie, however, is another fine character piece with good acting from Bale and Crowe. The plot is much more forgiving than No Country for Old Men, because Westerns tend to have the simplest plots ever. Based on an Elmore Leonard short story, if that's any incentive.
Honorable mentions:
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - My favorite musical yet. However, the progression of the plot suffers from being interrupted by song too often. In other words, things take too long to happen. Great film, though, and I'd recommend it unless you're allergic to musicals.
Hot Fuzz - Loses points only because it wasn't a "quality" movie that would be considered for awards. It revels in absurdity, and that's what makes it so damn good.
The Darjeeling Limited - I could very easily bump out #5 and place high on the list, but Ryan will surely include it, thus giving me a chance to talk about a more-overlooked movie in 3:10 to Yuma.
Ryan's Top Five
I always forget to put the heading. Whoops. In the spirit of disagreement, I'll go with five new movies. (I also have not seen There Will Be Blood.)
1. Once - I am forcing myself not to pick The Darjeeling Limited in this spot. If you haven't seen Once yet, do yourself a favor and buy it. It's really a great little movie, a simple plot with simple dialogue and excellent songs. Glen Hansard penned a good number of the songs before the movie was even an idea, so they don't feel like songs written for a specific movie.
2. Hot Fuzz - Damn it, it deserves mention. There was a debate about whether or not to consider "40-Year-Old Virgin" for serious awards, as people think comedy deserves more play. If this is true, then Hot Fuzz was the best comedy I saw last year, bar none (and better than 40-Y-O-V). (I've accepted that Shaun of the Dead is a better/funnier movie, but still...the last thirty minutes of Hot Fuzz are sheer joy.) Edgar Wright basically does the same thing Quentin Tarentino does, albeit less arrogantly; he knows how to master a genre, and, having done so, subvert it. The result is brilliance.
3. The Darjeeling Limited - Wes Anderson doesn't garner critical support anymore, but who cares. I wouldn't have liked this movie as much without the flashback scene, and the timing of the flashback scene was spot on. Wes Anderson's soundtrack is, again, amazing.
4. The Bourne Ultimatum - In my book, this is about as close to perfect as a pure action/spy thriller movie can get. There apparently was dialogue, but there really didn't have to be. The fight scenes hook you--they don't bore you, like most fight scenes do (for me, anyway). Paul Greengrass really knows how to shoot chase scenes, as well. The plot has some holes in it, but you really couldn't care less. You don't have time to stop and think anyway, lest you miss any Jason-Bourne-ass-kickery. (Note to self: draft Michael Bourn, rename team.)
5. Superbad - I can safely say this was a lot better than I thought it would be. The first time I saw the preview, I wasn't very interested, as it looked like a teen movie and I have a natural aversion to them after The She's All That Incident of 98 (read: I saw She's All That in a theater in 1998). Superbad, however, is legitimately hilarious. If I tried to explain how, it wouldn't be funny, so I'll not try.
Honorables: No Country For Old Men (I gotta rep the haircut...I have a tough time ranking things that aren't comedies, though), Knocked Up (upon further viewing, not as good as Superbad), Dan in Real Life (good in an In Good Company kind of way), Juno (I don't think I liked it as much as everyone else did, but it was good).
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