Half a year of movie viewing in review

Because I keep a spreadsheet of these things, I’m aware that I’ve watched 81 films so far this year across both home and cinema viewings. That’s not a bad statistic for the half way point, but considering I watched 200 in total last year, it could be better.

I have however managed to see them in 12 different cinemas, which is more impressive. And they take in wonderful venues like the Phoenix in East Finchley, the cosy Everyman Baker Street and the luxurious Screen on the Green, alongside the shabby Cineworld Haymarket and the downright terrible Cineworld Wood Green – which, with 9 returns, in my most visited cinema this year.

Despite seeing 81 films, the majority were pretty forgettable, let’s do some ranking:

Likely to be near my top ten come December

• Hors Satan – arty French miserablist may or may not be evil.
• Cloud Atlas – a symphonic cacophony of shiny pop philosophy.
• No – outstanding Chilean political campaign drama.
• Spring Breakers – a postmodern dismantling of the American dream.

Pretty entertaining cinema releases

• Les Miserables – over the top melodrama.
• Django Unchained – over the top violence.
• Stoker – stylised black comedy.
• For Ellen – understated wistful indie.
• Safe Haven – romantic pic that plays its genre cards well.
• Underground – 1928 silent set around the London Underground network.
• Iron Man 3 – (Shane) Black is back.
• Star Trek Into Darkness – nice character dynamics and lots of running around.

The best things I watched at home

• Uzak – slow burning Turkish drama.
• Touch of Evil – Orson Welles classic.
• Fallen Angels – Wong Kar Wai classic.
• Lawrence of Arabia – one hell of a classic.
• Magnolia – revisiting one of my all time faves was worthwhile.
• All About Eve – likewise.
• Pulp Fiction – its been a few years since my last watch, but still holds up.
• Fallen Angel – a clever and entertaining Otto Preminger noir.

Fuck my life (both home & cinema)

• Brick – self indulgent nonsense.
• Le Mepris – I still don’t quite ‘get’ Godard. Could be described as self indulgent nonsense.
• Trance – self indulgent nonsense with two gratuitous vagina shots.
• The Great Gatsby – self indulgent nonsense that preaches against self indulgent nonsense.

So I make that a hit rate of 20 out of 81, or 24.7%. Not bad.

Also, the kind of film I don’t like seems pretty clear now.

 

Top Tens: Critics vs. Bloggers

Whether you know me in person, follow me on twitter or read this blog, you might have heard me going on about the Sight & Sound top ten movie list recently. Well just bear with me a little longer and I’ll shut up about it for the next ten years. Promise.

So the Sight & Sound poll results were announced last week, and as expected, Vertigo triumphed. Personally I was happy to see The Searchers return to the top ten but sad to see Singin’ in the Rain go. My biggest disappointment was the lack of any film more recent than 1968 at the top. In The Mood for Love placed highest at 24, but There Will Be Blood not even making the top 100 was a surprising oversight.

Well, not ones to let our opinions go unheard, the ‘Film Bloggers of the Internet’ have gathered together under the guidance of HeyUGuys’ Adam Lowes to put forward our own top tens. Amazingly 120 people contributed and came up with a very different list.

Here are both lists:

Critics (Sight and Sound)	Bloggers (HeyUGuys)
1. Vertigo	1. Jaws
2. Citizen Kane	2. Back to the Future
3. Tokyo Story	3. = The Dark Knight
4. The Rules of the Game	3. = Blade Runner
5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans	5. = 2001 A Space Odyssey
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey	5. = There Will Be Blood
7. The Searchers	5. = Psycho
8. Man with a Movie Camera	5. = Citizen Kane
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc	9. Pulp Fiction
10. 8½	10. = The Thing
	10. = Alien

More ‘mainstream’ than S&S but not as shit as imdb’s Top 250, the blogger’s list makes for an interesting read. What we have managed to do at the very least is establish a consensus on the best modern films, something that Sight & Sound failed to do.

There’s an interesting inversion going on: Where the critics conglomerated around a handful of established classics and threw in a wide variety of modern films to their individual lists, the bloggers were quite happy to agree on the likes of Jaws, Back to the Future and Blade Runner as amongst the best in cinema, but had a scattershot approach to anything made before the sixties aside from Citizen Kane.

The two lists side by side make for fascinating reading – and provide a definitive top twenty  if you like (well, 21 anyway). It also shows that personal film favourites are quite generational.

The greatest films of all time: My top ten

With Sight & Sound due to announce their list of the greatest ever films this week I thought I’d have a little go and come up with my own top ten.

For those of you not in the know, Sight & Sound is a BFI-published magazine which has been running since 1932 and takes a serious, scholarly approach to cinema. Once a decade they invite critics and directors to contribute their top ten films, resulting in one of the most definitive lists of the greatest movies ever.

I for one am very excited about the results, and particularly keen to see if Citizen Kane holds onto the top spot as it has done since 1962 or finally relinquishes its place. It will also be interesting to see if There Will Be Blood (above) can become the youngest film to be inducted into the list in several decades.

In putting together my own list I wanted to strike a balance between creative brilliance (what I would refer to as the best movies) and personal preference (the ones I would call my favourite movies), so this list should represent my admiration for the art form as well as my own tastes.

I also wanted to use this as a springboard for a series of reviews, looking back not only at these ten films, but also many others that made my initial long-list and a few greats I’m yet to see (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans springs to mind). So look out for those in coming months.

In this situation it seems unfair and almost impossible to rank each film individually, so here are my ten sorted chronologically:

The General (1927)

Casablanca (1942)

Black Narcissus (1947)

All About Eve (1950)

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

The Searchers (1956)

Persona (1966)

Ashes of Time (1994)

Magnolia (1999)

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Edit: Between the Sight and Sound results being announced and Hey U Guys running their own poll amongst bloggers (which I have contributed to) I have actually revisited my list and made slight alterations. I decided to make my selection more personal, thinking about the films that have made an impact on my life rather than focusing more on ones I think are technically brilliant.

For reference, the old list was: The General; Casablanca; Black Narcissus; Sunset Boulevard; Singin’ in the Rain; Rear Window; The Searchers; Persona; 2001: A Space Odyssey; There Will Be Blood

Let me know what you think of my list on twitter.

Top ten films of 2011

As is customary this time of year, I’ve put together a list of ten movies that I thought were better than the rest. Here they are.

01 Super 8 – My number 1 film hasn’t even appeared in most people’s top tens, but for me Super 8 captured the complete magic of cinema. As the kids in the movie discover the joys of filmmaking we’re caught up in movie every bit as enthralling. Capturing nostalgia, thrills, action, a sense of childlike wonder and heartfelt emotion, it’s the film that captivated me the most in 2011.

02 Drive – If you aggregate all the movie blog polls Drive would probably come out on top. A stylish thriller that’s dark and absorbing, with minimal dialogue but an excellent performance from the now superstar Gosling.

03 Weekend – Sometimes a film makes a personal connection and forces its way into your psyche. That happened for me with Weekend. Essentially a brilliant indie romance but full relevant social commentary while never overtly forcing its issues.

04 The Skin I Live In – Bizarre and creepy rather than outright scary, it’s the kind of horror film I like. At the time I never expected it to chart so highly in my end of year list but it’s a film that stays with you and I can’t wait to go back to it.

05 Attack the Block – For a while I was convinced this was the film of the year. Like Weekend it takes a genre approach to social issues. Funny, exciting and relevant. An excellent debut from Joe Cornish.

06 Life in a Day – A documentary made from YouTube footage that captures a huge range of characters, emotions and experiences and actually works. Strangely moving and absolutely absorbing.

07 Submarine – To be fair this might have charted higher had I watched it again since release. A delightful Brit coming of age film that’s both funny and touching. Full of promising talent.

08 True Grit – A beautiful reimaging of the John Wayne classic. The Coen brothers continue the more mature touch that was explored in No Country for Old Men and A Single Man. The dialogue is exquisite, the performances superb.

09 127 Hours – A visceral experience that draws you in emotionally and physically (you can’t help but wince and feel pain in sympathy at certain points). Amazing what Danny Boyle and James Franco can do with such a limited location.

10 The Ides of March – Somehow missed out on the credit it really deserves. George Clooney’s film is an enthralling battle of wits and political savvy between four great actors at the top of their game: Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and Clooney himself.