Movie Log, 2010-2012

Submitted by lukeprog on Fri, 01/01/2010 - 17:22
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  1. 2012
  2. [No] Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011, Stephen Daldry)
  3. [Really Liked] Pina (2011, Wim Wenders) Saw it in the cinema with 3D glasses. Great use of 3D! A great way to experience Pina's work.
  4. [Liked] The Iron Lady (2011, Phyllida Lloyd) Surprisingly little governmental content, though.
  5. [Liked] Albert Nobbs (2011, Rodrigo Garcia)
  6. [Loved] The Kid with a Bike (2011, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
  7. [Liked] A Dangerous Method (2011, David Cronenberg)
  8. [Meh] The Turin Horse (2011, Bela Tarr)
  9. [No] Anonymous (2011, Roland Emmerich)
  10. [Loved] The Artist (2011, Michel Hazanavicius)
  11. [Really Liked] The Descendents (2011, Alexander Payne)
  12. [Liked] Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011, Tomas Alfredson)
  13. [Loved] Bad Boy Bubby (1993, Rolf de Heer) Amazing. Reminds me of Gummo, but less nihilistic.
  14. [Hated] Real Steel (2011, Shawn Levy) I just skipped around through most of the movie after I found that it sucked. Every line and frame was a self-parody.
  15. [Really Liked] Bridesmaids (2011, Paul Feig)
  16. 2011
  17. [Liked] The Last Rites of Joe May (2011, Joe Maggio)
  18. [Really Liked] The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011, David Fincher) Not as good as The Social Network, but still some solid directing, acting, editing, and scoring.
  19. [No] The Holiday (2005, Nancy Meyers)
  20. [Nah] War Horse (2011, Steven Spielberg) As my mom said, "very schmaltzy." Still, Spielberg is a fabulous technician. And it's nice to have a director who pays attention to the basics. For example I cared about the characters more in this film than in Bird's Mission Impossible, despite Spielberg's heavy hand.
  21. [Liked] Kill List (2011, Bill Wheatley)
  22. [Liked] The Blind Side (2009, John Lee Hancock) Sweet story, though I didn't see the Oscar in Bullock's performance.
  23. [Liked] Rumba (2011, Dominique Abel et al.)
  24. [Loved] A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi) Wow. Definitely one of the best films of the year.
  25. [Liked] The Skin I Live In (2011, Pedro Almodovar)
  26. [Liked] Aliens (1986, James Cameron) [rewatch]
  27. [Liked] Alien (1979, Ridley Scott) [rewatch]
  28. [Liked] The Help (2011, Tate Taylor) Yeah, kinda hokey, but also good acting and emotional arc and all that jazz.
  29. [Liked] Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011, Brad Bird) Loaded with great action, but the characters were never developed enough for me to really care.
  30. [Really Liked] Moneyball (2011, Bennett Miller)
  31. [Meh] Fright Night (2011, Craig Gillespie) This didn't need to exist, but the performances and directing are so committed it works for what it is.
  32. [Liked] The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (2012) This.
  33. [Loved] Contagion (2011, Steven Soderbergh) Wow. Realistic and terrifying.
  34. [Meh] The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009, Terry Gilliam)
  35. [Meh] We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011, Lynne Ramsay) Too drawn out.
  36. [Liked] Frozen Planet (2011, BBC Natural History) Gorgeous, but not nearly as diverse or as many spectacles as in the still-unsurpassed masterpiece Planet Earth..
  37. [Meh] Another Earth (2011, Mike Cahill)
  38. [Meh] Point Blank (Fred Cavaye, 2010)
  39. [Liked] The Ides of March (George Clooney, 2011)
  40. [Hated] Terminator Salvation (McG, 2009) A few fun effects, but a terrible film.
  41. [Liked] Terminator 3 [rewatch] (Jonathan Mostow, 2003) Rewatched, now that I'm up on machine superintelligence. Things it gets wrong: (1) Time travel, (2) substantive human resistance, (3) androids. What it gets right: Once AGI is released to the internet, it's all over.
  42. [Really Liked] Friends with Benefits (2011, Will Gluck) By the numbers romantic comedy, but the witty banter is rapid and the chemistry between the leads might be the best I have ever seen on film.
  43. [Loved] Avatar (2009, James Cameron) Yup! Still a fantastic experience.
  44. [Liked] Tyrannosaur (2011, Paddy Considine)
  45. [Really Liked] 50/50 (2011, Jonathan Levine)
  46. [Loved] Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011, Jennifer Yuh Nelson)
  47. [Nah] Cowboys and Aliens (2011, Jon Favreau)
  48. [Liked] Drive (2011, Nicolas Wolfgang Refn)
  49. [Meh] Midnight in Paris (2011, Woody Allen)
  50. [Liked] Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011, Rupert Wyatt) Occasionally hokey, but generally quite good, with great special effects.
  51. [Liked] Beginners (2010, Mike Mills)
  52. [Liked] Melancholia (2011, Lars von Trier)
  53. [Nah] Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011, David Yates)
  54. [Meh] Captain America (2011, Joe Johnston)
  55. [Really Liked] Stupid. Crazy. Love. (2011, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa) Kind of perfect for what it is, like a pre-Cars Pixar film.
  56. [Meh] African Cats (2011, Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey) I watched this with the volume off while listening to my own music, because I just wanted the pretty nature video anyway.
  57. [Meh] The Red Button and the Man Who Saved the World (2008, Ewa Pieta and Miroslaw Grubek)
  58. [Meh] Small Town Murder Songs (2011, Ed Gass-Donnelly)
  59. [Liked] Super 8 (2011, J.J. Abrams) Spielberg definitely wishes he could have made this movie in 1985. All the classic elements are there, and work well enough.
  60. [Meh] Cars 2 (2011, John Lasseter)
  61. [Liked] Countdown to Zero (2010, Lucy Walker)
  62. I skipped through the action scenes of Transformers 3. Looks horrible.
  63. [Liked] Rio (2011, Carlos Saldanha)
  64. [Meh] Five Centimeters Per Second (2007, Makoto Shinkai) Excellent animation for an anime. Kinda boring.
  65. [Liked] Fast Five (2011, Justin Lin) This is brainless action done right.
  66. [Loved] Hanna (2011, Joe Wright) Oh hells yes.
  67. [Liked] X-Men: First Class (2011, Matthew Vaughn) Fourth film in the series and a prequel… how is this the best film in the series?
  68. [No] Thor (2011, Kenneth Branagh)
  69. [Liked] Meek's Cutoff (2010, Kelly Reichardt)
  70. [Liked] Your Highness (2011, David Gordon Green) Yes, it's dumb, but whatever: I laughed.
  71. [Meh] The Troll Hunter (2010, Andre Ovredal)
  72. [Really Liked] Win Win (2011, Thomas McCarthy)
  73. [Liked] Rango (2011, Gore Verbinski) Incredible animation! I was never as emotionally involved as with a Pixar film, though.
  74. [rewatch] Dr. Strangelove (1964, Stanley Kubrick)
  75. [Liked] Cold Weather (2010, Aaron Katz)
  76. [No] Snakes on a Plane (2006, David Ellis)
  77. [Liked] Source Code (2011, Duncan Jones)
  78. [Liked] Limitless (2011, Niel Burger)
  79. [Meh] Earthlings (2005, Shaun Monson) They call this film 'The Vegan-Maker'. The narration concerning animal experimentation is wrong, but the images are more powerful than in any similar films.
  80. [Really Liked] Tree of Life (2011, Terence Malick)
  81. [Nah] Cedar Rapids (2011, Miguel Arleta)
  82. [Liked] The Adjustment Bureau (2011, George Nolfi)
  83. [Liked] Romancing the Stone (1984, Robert Zemeckis) Heh. Enjoyable.
  84. [Nah] 13 Assassins (2010, Takashi Miike)
  85. [Liked] Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010, David Yates) There was, like, some magic and stuff, and Emma Watson was so adorable I wanted to hug her and then hug her again and then hug her again - basically like when I encountered Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves.
  86. [Meh] No Strings Attached (2011, Ivan Reitman) Not the worst movie, but I wish it had stayed true to its promise instead of having Natalie Portman utter the tearful line "I lost him.".
  87. [Liked] Analyze This (1999, Harold Ramis) Entertaining.
  88. [Meh] New York Stories (1989, Allen & Coppola & Scorsese)
  89. [Liked] A Goofy Movie (1995, Kevin Lima) [rewatch] I loved this movie as a kid. Most kid-Luke-favorites turn out to be terrible when I watch them as an adult, but this one still made me laugh pretty hard.
  90. [Liked] Monsters (2010, Gareth Edwards) Pretty good. More, please.
  91. [No] Paul (2011, Greg Mottola)
  92. [Liked] Pusher 3 (2005, Nicolas Winding Refn)
  93. [Liked] Pusher 2 (2004, Nicolas Winding Refn)
  94. [Liked] Pusher (1996, Nicolas Winding Refn)
  95. [Really Liked] Valhalla Rising (2009, Nicolas Refn) Herzogian. Wonderfully shot and scored. Still, I'm left with a sense that more was possible.
  96. [Liked] Bronson (2008, Nicolas Refn)
  97. [Really Liked] The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief (2006, Jake Clennel) Movie about Japanese host clubs, where professional pickup artists get paid to hang out with women and give them good emotional experiences.
  98. [Loved] Another Year (2010, Mike Leigh) Had I simply read a plot summary, I never would have watched this in a million years. And that would have been a grave mistake. The only thing is that I think the ambiguous ending didn't work for this one. It should have closed with Mary smiling after a long pause and saying something nice to Katie.
  99. [Loved] Dogtooth (2009, Giorgos Lanthimos) Hilarious, tragic, original, brilliant.
  100. [Meh] Survive Style 5 (2004, Gen Sekiguchi)
  101. [Liked] The People Speak (2009, Anthony Arnove)
  102. [Really Liked] Animal Kingdom (2010, David Michod)
  103. [Meh] Fair Game (2010, Doug Liman)
  104. [Liked] Transcendent Man (2009, Robert Barry Ptolemy)
  105. [Nah] Of Gods and Men (2010, Xavier Beauvois) This movie manages to make religious violence boring.
  106. [Nah] They Live (1988, John Carpenter)
  107. [No] Eagle Eye (2008, D.J. Caruso)
  108. [Liked] The Tillman Story (2010, Amir Bar-Lev)
  109. [Nah] Tron: Legacy (2010, Joseph Kosinski) Well, it's not boring. The soundtrack was kinda boring without the movie, but in the movie itself it's pretty rad.
  110. [Meh] Tangled (Nathan Greno, Byron Howard) Yeah, lots of money on that screen. Disney still hasn't gotten back to the Aladdin / Lion King days, though. Also: this is the stuff that makes so many young women sad because they never, ever have a romance anything like this... right? Yeah, I thought so.
  111. [Liked] How I Ended This Summer (2010, Aleksei Popogrebsky) Starts out slow, but otherwise good. It seems like an odd thing to mention, but the sound mixing was excellent here.
  112. [Nah] All Star Superman (2010, Sam Liu) Jam-packed with story elements that are fresh and interesting (to me, anyway, since I don't read the comics). But not a "good movie" in any sense I can think of.
  113. [Meh] Certified Copy (2010, Abbas Kiarostami) I enjoyed watching it, but I actually agree most with Bradshaw's review.
  114. [Nah] I Am Love (2009, Luca Guadagnino) Slow and boring. The John Adams music, which I love, kept "waking" me.
  115. [Loved] Inside Job (2010, Charles Ferguson) The most important film on human morality you can watch.
  116. [Liked] Hot Tub Time Machine (2010, Steve Pink) Starts kinda lame but then it's a good old funny party movie.
  117. [Loved] The Ghost Writer (2010, Roman Polanski) Nicely done.
  118. [Really Liked] GasLand (2010, Josh Fox) Wow. This is a much bigger problem than I realized. I assumed companies couldn't get away with outrages of this scale, but I was wrong. Well done, Mr. Fox.
  119. [Meh] Unstoppable (2010, Tony Scott) I decided I don't really like the direction style, and of course the story was window dressing, but I will admit it was intense for about 45 minutes straight.
  120. [Meh] Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010, Bansky)
  121. [Nah] 127 Hours (2010, Danny Boyle) I couldn't stay engaged that long.
  122. [Loved] Megamind (2010, Tom McGrath) Good movie. I didn't think I'd say this ever again, but Will Ferrell was perfect in this.
  123. [Rewatch] Inception (2010, Chris Nolan) The "snow level" gets kinda silly, but otherwise this is still frickin' brilliant.
  124. [Devestating] Blue Valentine (2010, Derek Cianfrance) If you've ever fallen hard in love and then fallen out of it, this movie is more painful to watch than a gore flick.
  125. [Really Liked] The King's Speech (2010, Tom Hooper)
  126. [Really Liked] Carlos (2010, Olivier Assayas) Gripping for three hours straight.
  127. [No] Freakonomics (2010, many directors) Good content (same as the book), but a poorly made documentary.
  128. [Loved] The Kids Are All Right (2010, Lisa Cholodenko) Very genuine and affecting. I really cared about these characters.
  129. [Liked] The Fighter (2010, David O. Russell) I could have liked this more, but somehow it felt forced.
  130. [Liked] Life During Wartime (2009, Todd Solondz) Makes me want to slap every character. Best line: "No, actually, I have no advice for you." This one feels like it ended too soon.
  131. [Liked] Greenberg (2010, Noah Baumbach)
  132. [Really Liked] True Grit (2010, Coens) Surely not their best, but solid, raucus filmmaking nonetheless.
  133. [Really Liked] Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010, Edgar Wright) Fast, funny, and quirky.
  134. [Loved] Somewhere (2010, Sofia Coppola) It's like a whole movie told in foley. Just my kind of movie. Also, it is very noticeably L.A., which is fun. Johnny drives the same roads I've driven a thousand times. :)
  135. 2010
  136. [Loved] Black Swan (2010, Darren Aronofsky) Familiar material, but thunderingly directed and acted.
  137. [Hated] Weird Science (1985, John Hughes) Unbearably 80s.
  138. [No] The Nature of Existence
  139. [Meh] The American (2010, Anton Corbijn)
  140. [Loved] The White Diamond (2004, Werner Herzog)
  141. [Really Liked] Despicable Me (2010, Pierre Coffin)
  142. [Loved] Enter the Void (2009, Gaspar Noe) WOW.
  143. [Liked] The Town (2010, Ben Affleck)
  144. [Liked] Trading Places (1983, John Landis) Kinda likable in that super-corny 80s way.
  145. [Loved] The Social Network (2010, David Fincher) When I heard of the Facebook Movie, I assumed it would suck. Then I heard David Fincher was directing, and I figured it would actually be pretty good. Then I watched it and I was like, "Man, this is crack for males of my generation." Also, good acting from everyone, including Justin Timberlake. I also like the attention to detail: all the techno-talk was accurate, for example, unlike the ridiculous nonsense that technicians spew on CSI.
  146. [Meh] The Onion Movie (2008, Tom Kuntz)
  147. [Really Liked] Red (2010, Robert Schwentke) Very, very fun.
  148. [Really Liked] Winter's Bone (2010, Debra Granick) Very good.
  149. [Liked] Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel)
  150. [Loved] District 9 (2009, Neill Blomkamp) [rewatch] Astonishingly good. This might be my favorite science fiction film of all time. I am dying to see Blomkamp's next work, apparently a sociopolitical film set on a distant planet in the far future.
  151. [Hated] Beowulf (2007, Robert Zemeckis) We are getting close to not needing actors anymore... at least for big dumb action movies.
  152. [Hated] Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010, Mike Newell) I kept hoping for some redeeming feature, but it never came.
  153. [Liked] Toy Story 3 (2010, Lee Unkrich) One of the least good Pixar movies, but still enjoyable.
  154. [Loved] Inception (2010, Chris Nolan) Jesus Christ. This movie is brilliant so many levels all at once. A tiny bit of the action is kind of silly but there are a thousand good ideas in this three hour film, and they all work together quite well. This is the genius of Memento on a $150 million budget. The three levels of dreaming allows for constant action in three different environments, the 'higher' levels having constant effects on the lower levels and changing things up. Fucking brilliant. And I left the cinema emotionally drained, because Nolan never forgets this is a human story first and foremost. So, scientists: Are we there yet? Can we clone Nolan brothers and just make them write and direct every action on the docket? Please?
  155. [Rewatch] Wall-E (2008, Andrew Stanton)
  156. [Meh] The Dinner Game (1998, Francis Veber)
  157. [Loved] How to Train Your Dragon (2010, Dean Deblois) This is one of those movies where, once you accept the genre, it's basically flawless, like a Pixar film but faster. Charming, disarming, and hilarious. Also, several superb moral messages, right to the end.
  158. [Loved] Green Zone (2010, Paul Greengrass) Cliched, but I loved it because it has lots of action and agrees with my opinion of the Iraq war. :)
  159. [Liked] Youth in Revolt (2009, Miguel Arteta)
  160. [Liked] Shutter Island (2010, Martin Scorsese) Everything about this movie is disorienting; the camerawork, the scenery, the action, and especially the pacing of the shots. And the story is seriously, seriously fucked up. Do NOT watch this movie right before you go to bed like I did.
  161. [Meh] State of Play (2009, Kevin Macdonald) Kinda stupid sometimes.
  162. [Liked] The Square (2008, Nash Edgerton)
  163. [Meh] Defendor (2009, Peter Stebbings)
  164. [Meh] The Secret of the Kells (2009, Tomm Moore) Interesting art direction, interesting setting (9th century Ireland), but some lazy storytelling.
  165. [Loved] The Cove (2009, Louie Psihoyos) An Ocean's Eleven team of crack experts infiltrate the largest cove of dolphin-slaughter in the world to record it with disguised cameras and open it to international condemnation. The Japanese representatives have lied to the Japanese people and to the International Whaling Commission, so Ric Barry, the former trainer of Flipper, took his covert video of dolphin slaughter, strapped a TV to his chest, and walked into a meeting of the International Whaling Commission with it playing. He then did the same thing on the streets of Tokyo. Can anybody say 'hero'? If you care about the second most self-aware and intelligent beings we know of in the universe, go here.
  166. [Liked] Capitalism: A Love Story (2009, Michael Moore) Let's be honest. Michael Moore makes very good documentaries. Of course he's biased. Of course he focuses on (anecdotal) human stories rather than boring statistics. Agree or disagree, it will make you think. It's difficult to think of subjects that are more important than the ones discussed by this film, so you should definitely watch it.
  167. [Really Liked] The Apostle (1997, Robert Duvall) [rewatch]
  168. [Meh] Crazy Heart (2009, Scott Cooper) I dunno, I just never bought the relationship at the core of the film. Jeff Bridges is great, though.
  169. [Liked] Agora (2009, Alejandro Amenábar) The most pro-science, anti-religious film I've ever seen. Full review here.
  170. [Loved] Dogville (2003, Lars von Trier) [rewatch]
  171. [Loved] Avatar (2009, James Cameron) Yeah, still awesome the whole way through. This time I noticed the comparisons to FernGully. [rewatch]
  172. [Meh] Tetro (2009, Francis Ford Coppola) Ebert was right. Alden Ehrenreich is so the next Leonardo DiCaprio. Unfortunately, Coppola only makes unstable, inconsistent films now.
  173. [Liked] Revanche (2008, Götz Spielmann)
  174. [Really Liked] Julia (2008, Erick Zonca) Like Man on Fire but WAY better.
  175. [No] Uncertainty (2009, Scott McGehee) A young couple flip a coin to make a decision. The narrative splits in two and we watch both possible stories unfold, thankfully with the main characters wearing differntly colored clothes in each possible world. Unfortunately, the directors don't do much with this structure.
  176. [No] Lake Tahoe (2008, Fernando Eimbcke) Booooooooooooriiiiiiiiiiiiiing.
  177. [Loved] In the Loop (2009, Armando Iannucci) Original, hilarious, and extremely fast-paced.
  178. [Really Liked] The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009, Werner Herzog)
  179. [Liked] Two Lovers (2008, James Gray)
  180. [Meh] The Cult of Sincerity (2008, Adam Browne) Huh. A film about the New Sincerity. Some major script problems and generally poor acting.
  181. [Liked] Whatever Works (2009, Woody Allen) Entertaining, with several belly-cracking laughs.
  182. [Really Liked] The Informant! (2009, Steven Soderbergh) Good old-time fun.
  183. [Meh] Police, Adjective. (2009, Corneliu Porumboiu) Philosophy of law framed in a ponderous Romanian "story" about a Romanian narc and a drug user.
  184. [Meh] Red Road (2006, Andrea Arnold)
  185. [Loved] Buffalo '66 (1998, Vincent Gallo) Singular. Why do I get the feeling that Gallo is only barely acting?
  186. [Really Liked] The Puffy Chair (2005, Jay Duplass) Genuine characters. Great, great ending.
  187. [Hated] 2012 (2009, Roland Emmerich) If possible, watch without subtitles on the foreign dialogue. Then skip from destruction scene to
  188. destruction scene. The rest is unbearable.
  189. [Loved] Fish Tank (2009, Andrea Arnold) Genuine and affecting story of an angry young girl who is impacted by her mean mother's sexy new boyfriend - a man who knows how to enjoy life. And then... well, to give away the second half of the movie would be a spoiler. So far, this movie is second only to The White Ribbon for 2009.
  190. [Hated] Adventureland (2009, Greg Mottola) Sooooo painful. I had to pause this movie quite often because it was torturous to watch the lead character do everything wrong, like watching Steve Carrell in The Office. I seriously couldn't handle it. There's nothing wrong with this movie, I just couldn't stand the lead character. I gave up after 30 minutes and read the plot summary on Wikipedia instead. I then skipped to the last scene when the lead character finally is going to get laid, and as she's taking off her clothes he asks her, nervously, "Are we doing this?" and I screamed "Fuck you!" at the screen and stopped the movie. I'd rather watch a movie about an incurable pedophile played by Kevin Bacon.
  191. [Loved] (500) Days of Summer (2009, Marc Webb) Endlessly delightful. Also, very good advice on relationships, if you ask me. This is the guy the picked to do the Spider-Man reboot? This bodes well. Does Joseph Gordon-Levitt age? I hope Zooey Deschanel never does.
  192. [Meh] The Headless Woman (2008, Lucrecia Martel)
  193. [Liked] Cold Souls (2009, Sophie Barthes) It's no Charlie Kaufman, but it's a decent try.
  194. [Liked] The Princess and the Frog (2009, Clements & Musker) Basically flawless, if predictable and, well, for children.
  195. [Meh] Creation (2009, Jon Amiel)
  196. [Liked] Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009, Wes Anderson)
  197. [Liked] Killer of Sheep (1977, Charles Burnett) Neorealist film of vignettes about blacks in the Watts neighborhood of L.A. Shot in 1977 but not released until 2007.
  198. [Loved] A Serious Man (2009, Coens) Jesus. Cut it with the nihilism, guys, you're freakin' me out! :)
  199. [Really Liked] Monster (2003, Patty Jenkins) Yup, still pretty much the performance of the decade.
  200. [Liked] Mister Lonely (2007, Harmony Korine) A Michael Jackson impersonator is invited to live with a commune of impersonators: Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Abe Lincoln, the Three Stooges, etc. This is by far Korine's most accessible film. It's funny and quirky and that's about it. The main thing is that Michael Jackson is played by Diego Luna, whose name is more fun to say than just about anyone else's.
  201. [Liked] Julien Donkey-Boy (1999, Harmony Korine) Ebert sums it up: "[The film] adds up to something, unlike a lot of movies where individual shots are sensational, but they add up to nothing... The odds are good that most people will dislike this film and be offended by it. For others, it will provoke sympathy rather than scorn. You know who you are."
  202. [Liked] The Road (2009, John Hillcoat) Oooooh, pretty. Every frame looks like a painting. Hillcoat is certainly one to watch.
  203. [Loved] Gummo (1997, Harmony Korine) Holy shit! This might be one of the best movies of the 90s! How come I never heard of it until a few days ago?
  204. [Nah] Brothers (2009, Jim Sheridan)
  205. [Loved] Chop Shop (2007, Ramin Bahrani) A superb entry to the canon of neorealism.
  206. [No] Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009, John Krasinski)
  207. [Loved] Up in the Air (2009, Jason Reitman) Just like with Juno, I kept begging the screen "Don't end! Don't end!" Reitman, whatcha doin' next? Oh, and I still want to be George Clooney, but maybe that's cuz I'm young and stupid.
  208. [Liked] Lars and the Real Girl (2007, Craig Gillespie) A shy, lonely, socially awkward guy buys a realistic sex doll as a companion and comes to believe she is real. His brother and sister try to help him, but they don't know what to do. The town psychologist says everyone should pretend she's real, so Lars can work through his problems and come out the other side okay. There were a million times this could have gone for the cheap laugh or lewd moment, but instead it stayed true to all the characters.
  209. [No] The Lovely Bones (2009, Peter Jackson) Great acting from Tucci and Ronan, but otherwise the film is a dud.
  210. [Nah] Flight of the Red Balloon (2007, Hsiao-hsien Hou) I just couldn't get into it at all. I guess I'm not sophisticated enough, or something.
  211. [Nah] La vie nouvelle (2002, Philippe Grandrieux) A worldwind of emotional moments and striking images with some kind of narrative happening out of order, but I couldn't connect to this one and I don't think it was just me. Lots of intense staring and stuff.
  212. [Loved] The Piano Teacher (2001, Michael Haneke) Lol, Haneke. What a ride. But now I'm pretty sure The White Ribbon really is his best.
  213. [Loved] Coraline (2009, Henry Selick) Like a cross between Pan's Labyrinth and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Very creepy and very good. Even better than Up.
  214. [Liked] Sin Nombre (2009, Cary Fukunaga) Kinda hokey but pretty good.
  215. [Really Liked] The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005, Rebecca Miller)
  216. [Loved] Avatar (2009, James Cameron) I usually don't like action movies. I hated Cameron's last movie, Titanic, and the trailers for Avatar made it look just as bad. I've had the opinion that 3D cinema is an annoying gimmick that spoils a great 2D artistic medium. My list of the best films of all times contains no action movies, but rather avantgarde films like Persona and Un Chien Andalou and Zerkalo.

  218. But then, James Cameron's Avatar gave me the best cinematic experience of my life.

  220. I imagine this is the effect Star Wars had on people in 1977, before I was born. Avatar is such a leap forward in technology and visual splendor, and such a well-paced archetypal heroic epic, it hit almost all my emotional buttons perfectly. Avatar made me a believer in 3D cinema, a believer in 'performance capture' (which was previously plagued by the uncanny valley effect), and a believer again in space operas (which are almost always terrible).

  222. Which is not to say that Avatar is one of the best movies of the decade or anything like that. The story follows all the usual screenwriting rules, and is therefore predictable. The dialogue isn't annoying, but it isn't smart either. And there are lots of scientific and tactical absurdities, such as the military decision to deploy ground troops to get picked off by the Na'vi while missile-launching airships do all the work.

  224. But here's the thing. Avatar is a classic action-adventure movie. Its purpose is not to revolutionize storytelling or mise-en-scene or montage or chronology. Its purpose is to tell an exciting, emotional, moral story that we connect to as humans. And frankly, Avatar does that better than any other film I can think of. For example, let's consider four elements crucial to the action-adventure genre: pacing, visuals, excitement, and moral message. I think a strong case could be made that Avatar does all of these better than Raiders of the Lost Ark. Better than Star Wars. Better than any similar movie you can think of. Better even than The Matrix. Frankly, as a straight-up action-adventure movie, Avatar might be the best action-adventure of all time.

  226. And if I had different aesthetic criteria, I might consider Avatar one of the best movies of all time, period.
neptune01/02/2010

Totaly agree with you on Avatar. Have you seen Flight of the Red Balloon? If so, what were your thoughts on it?

lukeprog01/02/2010

Not yet. It's one of the films I have to see before I can semi-finalize my 'best movies of the decade' list. I also need to see Gaspar Noe's latest.

Elston01/03/2010

I had the exact same reaction to Flight of the Red Balloon. After about 20 min, "uhh..." *click* It's one of those films that sacrifices everything wonderful about filmmaking for the sake of realism.

AJDaGreat01/22/2010

Re: Adventureland

Who are you, Frank T.J. Mackey? Can you really no longer bear to watch a character who's not as learned at attracting women as you are? It's not like awkward teenagers are hard to come by, in movies or in real life.

Glad you enjoyed 500 Days and A Serious Man though. You mind coming up with some thoughts on Creation? I was contemplating seeing it, but I wasn't sure.

lukeprog01/22/2010

Creation ain't much of a movie. Neat angle, but doesn't quite work.

I'm not particularly successful with women. I'm betting the reason Adventureland was so painful for me is precisely because it reminds me so much of how I was with women for most of my life. The lead character is a fate I only narrowly avoided!

AJDaGreat01/22/2010

I think that's exactly why I loved Adventureland: its awkwardness completely resonated with me and felt totally real. But the lead character gets the girl, and so do plenty of shy guys, perhaps in spite of themselves.

No, I haven't seen Gummo, but you have certainly intrigued me, sir.

lukeprog01/22/2010

BTW, have you seen Gummo? I was blown away. I seriously think it would make my top 10 of the 90s.

Elston01/22/2010

Amen. Gummo is amazing. How about Buffalo '66 ?

Zacharyyy01/24/2010

Dunno why suggesting, but maybe you'd dig some of Su Friedrich's weird little personal documentaries. The best ones are Sink Or Swim (this, I'd say, being one of the best documentaries ever made), The Ties That Bind, and Rules Of The Road (First Comes Love is pretty interesting too (And so is Damned If You Don't, and it also has some lesbian sex in it, so I guess that could also be incentive to watch it, heheh))

lukeprog02/05/2010

Best movies of 2009:

1. Coraline
2. The White Ribbon
3. Fish Tank

neptune02/07/2010

If you liked In The Loop, check out the TV series on which it was based; The Thick of It. It's not got the international crossover that the film had, but it's still hilarious and has that beautifully nuanced comedy that's present in shows such as The Office.

lukeprog02/08/2010

I wondered if it was based on a TV show. Thanks!

kaplan02/07/2010

I know you haven't played a for a few years, but any chance you might join the Listology Scoreboard again? You find it here.

lukeprog02/13/2010

Submit your suggestions for the most philosophical movie of 2009, here.

neptune07/19/2010

I'm intruiged to see if you're going to love Inception as much as I did. IMO, the perfect blend of the psychologically charged work Nolan's done (Memento) and the visceral, blockbuster stuff (The Dark Knight) of his later career. Surprisingly emotionally affecting too, really an amazing cinematic experience.

platoso07/31/2010

Anyone want to discuss the ending? It's as confusing as Memento's final flashback of "I Did It"... or perhaps less confusing actually.

neptune08/07/2010

I'm definitely sure he's in a dream at the end, and fairly certain he is for the entirety of the film, for reasons I'll expand on later if anyone cares.

Elston08/07/2010

I'd like to hear your thoughts because I'm uncertain myself.

neptune08/11/2010

Well this is all only speculation but I'm fairly sure most (if not all) of the film is a dream; Cobb's life plays out as the dreams in the film do.

Mal (who is at this point just a part of his subconscious and is therefore himself) points out the strange and fantastical nature of being chased across the globe by 'faceless corporations' (much in the same way projections of a subject attack those in their mind). The world he inhabits centres around him (just like a dream); just look at when he in Mombassa and Watanabe's character is conveniently placed in a car as an escape route just as he has taken out some baddies. Cobb is even told by Michael Caine's character to explicitly 'come back to reality', which when we first watch the film we assume is a reference to the fact he is still an extractor, or we just dismiss it, but actually when considered within the fractured presentation of the 'real world' in the film suggests strongly that Cobb has lost his grip on reality and is permanently in a dream state.

Plus, two other characters are shown to lose their grip of reality in limbo (Mal and later Saito as an old man), so why shouldn't Cobb, who has already shown himself to be incredibly mentally unstable at this point in his life? The fact that losing yourself in the dream is dwelt on so much heavily indicates that we should at least suspect Leo of having done this.

As for the ending, it's just without a doubt a dream IMO, Nolan couldn't have made it more obvious without explicitly stating as such. For one, the kids haven't aged noticeably at all, they're wearing the same clothes, they're in the same position they were as when he last remembers them (though we now see their faces this doesn't actually mean it's real). Secondly, the move from the completion of the inception to being back in the plane/getting home is done in such a rapid pace that it almost rushes to the happy ending that Cobb feels he has earnt in completing his mission. We as the audience are yearning for this ending and so we do not instantly question it, but think about the fact that from killing himself in limbo with Saito to reuniting with his kids only a couple of minutes elapses. It just feels rushed and I do not think it is just Nolan trying to bring the film to an end, he is drawing our attention to question the 'reality' of the film itself. Furthermore, this whole thing about the totem starting to topple is irrelevant; the totem only tests whether or not you're in someone else's dream, the top can still fall in your own dream even though it doesn't spin forever in theirs. Therefore, even if the top falls, Leo can still be batshit insane in his own limbo.

Sorry if that's not entirely clear, it's been a few weeks since I last saw it so it's not quite as clear in my mind, but that's a few points as to why I don't think it's real.

Elston08/11/2010

No, that's a good summation and I think you have a good case. But how do we know Mal lost her mind in limbo? If she's a manifestation of Cobb's subconscious, then she exists only in a dream (Cobb's dream). This is true for all the characters, who may as well be representations of his life. Mal could be his refusal to face the truth, Michael Caine his desire to wake up. Not sure what the other characters could be, but this way of looking at the film (that it's all inside his head) makes it all the more interesting. Would you say it's Nolan's most interesting script yet?

neptune08/11/2010

I totally see your point. For instance, even if Mal is a real character who he has lost, it may be that she has divorced him and this caused him to go on a downward spiral of living in the dreamworld. It's interesting that Cobb and his team are shown the room full of people who spend more time in a day dreaming than awake, and it is certainly possible this was done to hint at the kind of life Cobb is actualyl leading.

It's a contender for his best script, but I do love Memento and The Prestige a lot too. It's easily one of my favourite blockbusters. Out of interest, seeing as you love Punch Drunk Love, do you like There Will Be Blood too? I just rewatched and it blew me out of the water, a truly astounding piece of cinema.

Elston08/12/2010

gd I want to see this again. and yeah, i love There Will Be Blood. really need to see the Prestige tho.

platoso08/12/2010

Nice points there and I agree with you on a lot, although I'll play around with what I thought a few days ago (I know right? This film just keeps returning into your head and asking you to find the real truth). I understand your concern about the ending with the kids, but don't you think that Nolan is just making the audience feel a connection between every time he sees them in that position, in that house, in those clothes and at that age but never looking at him, to when he actually finally does see them? I feel like its thematic correspondence and not contributing much to the deciphering of the real truth...

Also to me the chasing around scene is similar to one you see in Indiana Jones, where as you said, he takes out a few baddies and help is right there in front of him. It was also planned (as he did tell ____ [really bad with names here] to meet him up 30 minutes later) and doesn't exactly fit your description of a dream.

Would you like to explain more about the totem? I don't really understand how can it fall in your own dream. So since Limbo is not dreamed by anyone, would the totem topple? Have you heard of the ring debate as well? All this makes me want to see it again...

AfterHours01/30/2011

It would be fascinating if you participated in my "Greatest Films Poll" ( :