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Post by [beej] on Dec 30, 2016 21:13:35 GMT -5
I know, I know. But I love lists! So here are mine at the moment. There's still a few notable movies I'll be watching in the coming days/weeks, so I'll edit as necessary.
Honorable Mention: The Conjuring 2 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping The Accountant Blood Father Deadpool
10. Captain America: Civil War 9. The Invitation 8. Arrival 7. The Jungle Book 6. Green Room 5. Rogue One 4. Hell or High Water 3. La La Land 2. Everybody Wants Some!! 1. Hacksaw Ridge
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Post by Reed on Dec 30, 2016 21:22:08 GMT -5
I honestly havent seen enough great films to make a full top 10 from this year, so here are my Top 5 so far. I'll fill in the other 5 later when I actually see some movies.
7: Rougue One: A Star Wars Story 6: The Nice Guys 5: The Witch 4: Hell Or High Water 3: La La Land 2: Arrival 1: Moonlight
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Post by AD on Dec 30, 2016 23:19:01 GMT -5
Ok, so in addition to the usual disclaimer that it always takes me months to catch up on all the late season awards contenders, I also want to mention that I saw far fewer films than I normally do this year. It was a chaotic year for me on a personal level, and I just didn't have the time or the energy. But I do intend to catch up on earlier releases (stuff like Kubo and the Two Strings, Pete's Dragon, The Lobster, Don't Breathe) as well as seeing later releases as they become available in my area (Jackie, Moonlight, La La Land, etc.) in the coming weeks. So this is really just a long way of saying consider this list a work-in-progress.
Honorable Mentions:
Hail, Caesar Green Room 10 Cloverfield Lane The Edge of Seventeen
Top Ten:
10. Arrival 9. Sunset Song 8. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 7. The Jungle Book 6. Midnight Special 5. Sing Street 4. Hell or High Water 3. Manchester by the Sea 2. Everybody Wants Some!! 1. The Witch
Special Mention:
OJ: Made in America (If I included it in the actual list it would probably be #1, and it was screened in theaters for awards consideration, but it just feels weird comparing an eight hour documentary miniseries to normal feature-length films.)
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Post by [beej] on Dec 31, 2016 5:19:02 GMT -5
Okay, so I just watched two films last night and both of them land in my top ten. So my (already) revised list.
Honorable Mention: The Conjuring 2 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping The Accountant Blood Father Deadpool Captain America: Civil War The Invitation
10. Arrival 9. The Jungle Book 8. Green Room 7. Rogue One 6. Hell or High Water 5. Hunt For the Wilderpeople 4. La La Land 3. Everybody Wants Some!! 2. Sing Street 1. Hacksaw Ridge
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Post by AD on Feb 21, 2017 22:38:59 GMT -5
Updated list. I got a little carried away with it. Really don't expect any of you to read it all.
Honorable Mentions:
30. Lion (Garth Davis) - Probably the first time Google Earth has been turned into a beautiful cinematic device. 29. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Jorma Taccone & Akiva Schaffer) - It's really funny. That's about all you need to know. 28. High-Rise - (Ben Wheatley) - A seriously nasty piece of business. 27. The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig) - A throwback to the honest, heartfelt coming-of-age movies that John Hughes and Cameron Crowe made in the 80's. 26. 10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg) - This was a good year for claustrophobic thrillers. 25. Train to Busan (Yeon Sang-ho) - And I thought the zombie genre had reached it's saturation point about five years ago. 24. The Shallows (Jaume Collet-Serra) - 90 minutes of Blake Lively in a bikini. And also a big scary shark. 23. Don't Breathe (Fede Alvarez) - A clever twist on the home invasion thriller. Exceptionally well crafted. 22. Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) - Who knew Patrick Stewart could be so terrifying? 21. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve) - It's reach might occasionally exceed it's grasp, but this is still a beautiful philosophical sci-fi epic. 20. Sunset Song (Terence Davies) - Old fashioned poetic realism mixed with a frank, modernist treatment of sexuality and violence. 19. American Honey (Andrea Arnold) - I probably would've liked it even more if I didn't have to look at Shia LaBeouf and his stupid face. 18. In a Valley of Violence (Ti West) - Probably closer to a true Spaghetti Western (especially the non-Leone ones) than anything that has been made in the US a long time. With some echos of Anthony Mann westerns thrown in. 17. Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi) - Delightful in every sense of the word. Also a pretty great soundtrack. 16. The Jungle Book (Jon Favreau) - Disney's ongoing mission to never have to come up with another original idea ever again produces another frustratingly enjoyable entertainment. 15. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Gareth Edwards) - To my eyes, this is the first Star Wars movie since Empire to actually bear a real directorial vision. 14. Midnight Special & Loving (Jeff Nichols) - Two Jeff Nichols films in one year! Midnight Special is a great little sci-fi movie grounded in the reality of a father's devotion to his child. And Joel Edgerton should've been nominated for an Oscar for Loving. 13. Sing Street (John Carney) - The director of "Once" gives us yet another wonderfully life-affirming modern musical. And a pretty dour portrait of life in Ireland, to be honest. 12. Indignation (James Schamus) - I haven't been this engrossed by scenes of people simply conversing with each other in a long time. 11. Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie) - I'm curious about when foreign directors started understanding the modern American milieu better than most of our own directors. (See American Honey for another example of this phenomenon.)
Top Ten:
10. Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight) - A wondrous cinematic adventure. Aesthetically beautiful, and emotionally resonant. Laika is the real new Pixar (that's a callback to an old argument). 9. Hacksaw Ridge (Mel Gibson) - Beautiful and horrifying in equal measure. The vocal minority who criticize this movie for glorifying violence while pretending to be anti-violence are completely missing the point. It's not an anti-war movie, or a pro-pacifism movie. It simply presents war as an ugly fact of life, and acknowledges that there are many forms of courage, and not all of them involve being willing to kill people. And it doesn't hurt that Mel Gibson can direct a battle sequence as well as anybody. That man obviously learned his lessons well from George Miller.
8. Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan) - Part of me thinks I might be overrating this as a film, just because I relate to it so deeply as a story. But whatever, it's my list. I've lived my whole life in this same part of the country, and I feel like I know these characters intimately. The Catholicism. The alcoholism. The repressed emotions. The obsession with sports. I fell like I'm describing my own family. And that's to say nothing of how well Lonergan captures the awkwardness of the grieving process.
7. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) - The funniest movie of the year, if you like your humor dry, perverse, and occasionally borderline-sadistic. The kind of humor that involves extremely awkward social encounters, bizarre sexual torments, and various forms of mutilation. I love the way it spoofs society's bias against single people, and then completely switches gears in the second half to destroy the equally ridiculous notion of rugged individualism.
6. Jackie (Pablo Larrain) - This film provides an interesting lesson in how strong directorial form can help overcome any other flaws a movie might have. I had trouble accepting Natalie Portman in the lead role at first. She can't pull off the accent convincingly, and her face looks like it's frozen in a single expression the whole movie. But once I got swept up in the rhythms and atmosphere of the filmmaking it helped me warm to her presence considerably.
5. Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater) - I don't know how Linklater does it. His story seems almost non-existant. His craft is so laid back and confident that you barely notice it. And yet I hang on every word his characters speak. And by the time his movie is over I'm actually disappointed that it had to end. I don't think there is another director on the planet who could make a movie like this. And I know nobody else could make it as good as this one. 4. The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook) - The year's most delicious cinematic feast for the senses. I'm pretty sure this is what Guillermo del Toro has in mind when he talks about "eye protein" instead of "eye candy." The whole thing is constructed like a piece of clockwork. Not just the visuals, but the plot as well. Also, I don't mind saying it, those lesbian sex scenes are very hot!
3. Pete's Dragon (David Lowery) - A movie that is completely out of step with what a big studio movie is "supposed to be" in 2016. Which is exactly why I think it's so important that we celebrate it. It's nothing at all like the bruising, excessive, epics modern filmmakers seem to love making so much. It's more in love with the beauty of the natural world than it is with anything a computer can create. And the digital effects that are used (mainly the eponymous creature) are spectacular without ever feeling soulless. Of the films I've seen from the past year, nothing else embodies the term "movie magic" quite so well. It had me in tears on multiple occasions.
2. The Witch (Robert Eggers) - A feminist parable. A drama about a family tearing itself apart from the inside. A metaphor for the dangers of unquestioning religious extremism. These might be the things that make this movie "great." But they have little to do with why I love it so much. I love it as just a straight up horror movie about the fear of the natural world. We used to go camping in those same New England woods when I was a kid. And this movie nails the sensual side of that experience. The sights. The sounds. I swear I could even smell it. I like to think I'm a pretty rational person, but I have to admit I understand why the puritans thought their was evil in the wood. And so does this film. 1. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins) - A lot has been written about how important this film is. But I'll leave those statements to more interested people. I don't care so much that it's a gay film. Or a black film. Or a gay black film. Or even so much that it's a universal story about identity. Though it is all of those things and more. What's more important to me isn't this film's supposed importance, but it's beauty. The lyricism of it's images and rhythms. It is mesmerizing cinematic poetry! The type of thing that is usually far too good to win Academy Awards. And this one should win all the Oscars that it will probably lose to La La Land.
Special Mention:
OJ: Made in America (Ezra Edelman) - It's monumental! The only movie (or tv show/miniseries/whathaveyou) I saw last year that I genuinely think every American needs to see.
Still haven't seen: Silence; The Love Witch; Elle; Paterson; Fences; Nocturnal Animals; lots of other stuff, but you can't see everything. I will not be updated this further.
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Post by Reed on Feb 21, 2017 23:48:44 GMT -5
1. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins) - A lot has been written about how important this film is. But I'll leave those statements to more interested people. I don't care so much that it's a gay film. Or a black film. Or a gay black film. Or even so much that it's a universal story about identity. Though it is all of those things and more. What's more important to me isn't this film's supposed importance, but it's beauty. The lyricism of it's images and rhythms. It is mesmerizing cinematic poetry! The type of thing that is usually far too good to win Academy Awards. And this one should win all the Oscars that it will probably lose to La La Land. This This This x1000000.
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