2013. Movies. You know the drill...

In 2013, I watched at least 175 movies for the very first time.  I say "at least" because I'm pretty sure I failed to record one or two maiden viewings over the course of the year.  And I stopped watching two others before they ended because they sucked, so I didn't count those.  Also, it's entirely possible that I counted wrong.  But 175 is close, anyway.

Of course there were a good number of 2012 films among the ranks.  You know the kinds I mean: those movies you really meant to see but somehow missed, and the other ones you heard really good things about but only after they weren't playing anymore, and of course that one movie you just kept putting off again and again until--what do you know--2012's over and everyone's moving on!  Yeah, those ones.  Anyway, I thought some of them were really good and want you to know about them:

REALLY GOOD 2012 MOVIES I SAW IN 2013
(Don't miss the ones in bold.)

• Barbara
• Bitter Films, Vol. 2
• Detropia
• The Invisible War
• Once Upon a Time In Anatolia
• This Is Not a Film  [Especially great if you're interested in: filmmaking, storytelling in general, Iranian cinema and the constraints involved]

Some of the 175 were older still.  For example, I just saw The Muppet Movie this year.  Can you believe that?  28 years old and I just now got around to seeing The Muppet Movie?  Ridiculous, I know.  Turns out it's a wonderful film, and it wasn't the only one:

WONDERFUL OLDER FILMS I SAW IN 2013 (AND BY "OLDER," I APPARENTLY MEAN PRE-2012)

• Before Sunset  [The best of the three, I think]
• Carnival of Souls
• Good Hair  [Seriously worth a watch]
• The Guard
• Jackie Brown  [Top 3 Tarantino]
• The Muppet Movie
• My Dinner with Andre  [Fair warning: It starts slow, but give it a chance--it gets great]
• Slap Shot
• Trees Lounge  [Directed by (and starring) Steve Buscemi]

Which brings us to 2013.  A fine year for movies but not one worth writing home about.  (Worth writing a slapdash blog post about?  Sure!)  I'll give you the first thirteen in order of preference, then switch back to alphabetical order for the rest.  Sound good?

THE TOP 13 MOVIES OF 2013

1. The Act of Killing  [Head and shoulders above the rest.  Likely one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, and I've seen some great ones.  It's up for a Best Documentary Oscar, much to my surprise/delight.  I don't expect it to win because I think it's way too heavy/abstract/sad/good for the Academy's taste, but I'm really hoping its nomination means many more people will see it.  Everyone should.]
2. Short Term 12  [Head and shoulders above the rest of the rest.  Brie Larson is a terrific actress--I'm looking forward to watching more of her movies.  I hope that some of them are as good as Short Term 12.]
3. Beyond the Hills  [I'm beginning to wonder if very many people saw my Top 3.  I feel like all of them were pretty underseen, even among those of us who knew about them and had access to them.]
4. Spring Breakers  [I suspect this one is ringing a lot more bells.  Could be Harmony Korine's best film to date, though I know a handful of people who I'm almost positive would disagree heartily.]
5. Prince Avalanche  [David Gordon Green + Paul Rudd + Emile Hirsch + remote location + low budget + late 80s period piece = GOLD!]
6. Nebraska  [The best of the Best Picture nominees.  No chance it'll win, of course]
7. The Great Beauty  [Hoping it wins the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.  I've heard really good things about The Missing Picture, though, so who knows what the best pick is...]
8. No  [Should have been among the Best Foreign noms, I think.  So should have Beyond the Hills!]
9. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire  [Seriously.]
10. Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives  [I watched this doc about a group of women who have spent much of their lives promoting and practicing natural childbirth techniques in the Grand Illusion's tiny auditorium, surrounded by women.  Many of them were pregnant (some very much so) and I could just feel their power and pride filling the room as the insane feats of which they're capable were celebrated on screen.  It was incredible.]
11. In a World...  [A feminist film of an entirely different color.  Lake Bell wrote, directed, co-produced, and starred in this movie, which is pretty nuts.  Taking on just one or two of those jobs is enough to make a person crazy.  Nonetheless, she nailed it.  In a World... manages to be socially conscious and self-aware without ever betraying its genre: it's one of the funniest comedies of 2013.  Killer cast, too.]
12. Beware of Mr. Baker  [The best music documentary in a year flush with excellent music documentaries.  Ginger Baker is a madman.]
13. Muscle Shoals  [I told you it was a good year for music docs.  I may be partial to this one for some personal reasons, but hey, it's my list.]

THE BEST OF THE REST OF 2013

• Before Midnight
• The Bitter Buddha
• Dallas Buyers Club
• The Gatekeepers
• Kings of Summer
• More Than Honey
• Room 237
• Rush
• Something In the Air
• Stories We Tell
• 20 Feet From Stardom

GUILTY PLEASURES  (I really liked them!)

• Elysium
• The Great Gatsby

The Wraith of Cobble Hill

[I recommend just clicking through to YouTube and going fullscreen to watch the video.  As convenient as Blogger's YouTube-embedding thing is, the resultant player is just ridiculously tiny.]

I've worked at a small movie theatre since 2005.  Most years we play the Oscar Nominated Short Films in the weeks leading up to the Academy Awards.  Of all the films I've seen over the course of five Februaries (I lived in Georgia during Feb 2009), the one I remember best of all is this one: The Wraith of Cobble Hill.

In true the-Academy-doesn't-know-what-the-hell-it's-doing fashion, this film wasn't even nominated--it made it into the program as a "Highly Commended" film.

Anyway, it's a terrific film and I'm guessing 98% of people have never seen it.  So here it is now, still breaking my heart after all these years.

The Apartment

The Apartment (1960) ...Dir. Billy Wilder

Four or five Decembers ago, I saw The Apartment for the very first time. I was home for the holidays and had stayed up late watching TV with my dad (we’re both notorious night owls). The Apartment was scheduled to play on some old-movie channel (AMC, TCM... you know the sort) and when I told him that I’d never heard of it, he knew immediately that our search for that evening’s entertainment was over.

I spent the next 2+ hours watching (and listening) in slack-jawed amazement. The Apartment is easily one of the best-written films I have ever seen. The dialogue is awesomely clever without ever sounding unbelievable--every line sounds like something a person might actually say, a distinction which relatively few movies can honestly claim. And good gravy, that cast! Fred MacMurray is cast against type to incredible effect, Shirley MacLaine is more adorable than any human being should be allowed to be, and Jack Lemmon is simply perfect--one of the greatest actors of all time in one of his greatest roles of all time.

There are a lot of easy picks when looking for movies to watch at the end of the year. Classic options like It’s a Wonderful Life and whichever iteration of A Christmas Carol floats your boat are understandably irresistible. But films as smart and as funny and as graceful as The Apartment only come around so often. Be a mensch! Watch the movie!

OSCAR PICKS, 2011

The Oscars are on Sunday! Holy cats!
Who will win? Who should win? Who cares? (I do! Apparently!)

LEADING ACTOR

• And the winner will be: Colin Firth, The King's Speech
• Better choices: Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine / Michael Shannon, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

LEADING ACTRESS

• And the winner will be: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
• A better choice: Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine (A pair of crazy good performances in that movie.)

SUPPORTING ACTOR

• And the winner will be: Christian Bale, The Fighter
• A better choice: Nope. Bale was the best this year, by far.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• And the winner will be: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit (At least I hope it will be her. Taking a bit of a hopeful risk here...)
• A better choice: Jacki Weaver is downright scary in Animal Kingdom. I'll be pleased if either she or Steinfeld wins.

ANIMATED FEATURE

• And the winner will be: Toy Story 3
• Better choices: How To Train Your Dragon, or Despicable Me, or The Illusionist, or...

ART DIRECTION

• And the winner will be: The King's Speech
• A better choice: I Am Love (Not even nominated! What?!)

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• And the winner will be: Roger Deakins, True Grit
• Better choices: Adam Kimmel, Never Let Me Go / Jeff Cronenweth, The Social Network | (Deakins is amazing, and has deserved an Oscar many times over, but True Grit mostly pales in comparison to his proven capabilities. See The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford for some of Deakins' best stuff.)

COSTUME DESIGN

• And the winner will be: The King's Speech
• A better choice: I Am Love

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• And the winner will be: Inside Job
• A better choice: Restrepo

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

• And the winner will be: Poster Girl (Sure! Why not?)

FILM EDITING

• And the winner will be: The Social Network
• A better choice: Maybe Inception? I still can't believe it was snubbed in this and the Directing categories. Ridiculous.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

• And the winner will be: In a Better World
• A better choice: I've only seen one of the nominees(Biutiful), so I'll withhold judgment on this one. [Note: The First Beautiful Thing may be a great film--I don't know. But had Italy submitted I Am Love as its contender for Best Foreign Language Film, they might very well have won. Dummies.]

MAKEUP

• And the winner will be: The Wolfman (Seriously.)

ORIGINAL SCORE

• And the winner will be: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, The Social Network
• A better choice: Hans Zimmer's Inception score was integral to the film, but I'm 100% behind The Social Network on this one. Paired with Aaron Sorkin's script, that score is the film's backbone. Watch it again with the sound up, you'll see. (PS: How was Daft Punk not at least nominated for their TRON:Legacy score? Highway robbery!)

ORIGINAL SONG

• And the winner will be: "We Belong Together," Toy Story 3
• A better choice: The one Ryan Gosling's character sings in Blue Valentine.

SHORT FILM - ANIMATED

• And the winner will be: Madagascar, carnet de voyage(?)
• A better choice: I still haven't seen them! I know, I'm the worst! (Should I be fortunate/industrious enough to see them this weekend, I'll edit accordingly.)

SHORT FILM - LIVE ACTION

• And the winner will be: Na Wewe(?)
• A better choice: (See "Short Film - Animated".)

SOUND EDITING

• And the winner will be: Inception

SOUND MIXING

• And the winner will be: Inception

VISUAL EFFECTS

• And the winner will be: Inception

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• And the winner will be: The Social Network

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• And the winner will be: The King's Speech
• A better choice: My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

DIRECTOR

• And the winner will be: David Fincher, The Social Network
• A better choice: Depending upon how much (if any) of Exit Through the Gift Shop was constructed by its maker(s?), Banksy might deserve this award more than anyone. But that's also assuming Banksy is the actual director of that film, so.... | Werner Herzog for My Son, My Son..., Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio for Alamar, Charles Ferguson for Inside Job, and the royally-snubbed Christopher Nolan for Inception are all worthy. But all of that said, I'm totally down with Fincher taking it home.

BEST PICTURE

• And the winner will be: The King's Speech
• Better choices: Any of these. (The Social Network definitely has the best chance of pulling the upset, and I'm hoping it does just that.)

Ranking the Best Picture noms:

1. The Fighter
2. The Social Network
3. True Grit
4. Inception
5. Winter's Bone
6. Toy Story 3
7. The King's Speech
8. 127 Hours
9. Black Swan
10. The Kids Are All Right (Don't want to launch into too much of a rant here, but The Kids Are All Right is one of the worst movies I've seen in years. That it received a Best Picture nom really cheeses me off. If it wins any Oscars at all, I'll be quite unhappy. That is all.)

OSCAR PICKS! DONE! YEAH!

Top 10 of '10

I'm done calling my year-end film lists "Best of". I don't buy it anymore. There are simply too many diverse criteria at play for it to be safe to call one great film better than the next great film. These movies are all great, but for wildly different reasons. This list should really be called: "Colin saw these films during 2010 and liked them a lot based on their possessing some combination of Social Significance, Visual Beauty, Excellent Storytelling, Skillful Filmmaking, Literary Merit, Honesty, His Having Connected With It On a Personal Level and Nearly Having Cried While Watching It, Fascinating Undefinability, Great Acting, Etc. Also, he may have just been in a particularly receptive mood when he saw them." But "Top 10" seems less cumbersome. You're welcome.

Notes regarding this list:
...If it was released in a theatre near me in 2010, it's eligible. This does not include reissues of 50 year old films like Breathless, but does include movies like A Prophet which was 'officially' released in 2009 but didn't actually make into theatres for general viewing until February.
...Each title--save one--is linked to its Wikipedia page. I have linked to IMDb in the past, but IMDb's new format is garbage so Wikipedia gets the nod. Besides, should you feel so inclined, a link to the film's IMDb page is available at the bottom of its Wikipedia entry.

Cutting to the chase...

1. Restrepo
...And this is why I can't call this list a "Best of". By pure cinematic standards, Restrepo wouldn't touch the top of this list. But it's the most important movie I've seen in quite a long time, and the only movie concerning the ongoing war in Afghanistan that doesn't have an agenda. It is documentary filmmaking at its best: no narration, and no filmmakers trying to make themselves famous by stepping in front of the camera. Restrepo is a rare thing--a pure, uncorrupted document of life (and death) for real American soldiers in Afghanistan.
2. A Prophet
3. My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
...To my knowledge, very few people have seen this film, and that's a shame. Directed by Werner Herzog, produced by David Lynch, and starring Michael Shannon (for my money, the most talented actor currently working) among other greats, My Son, My Son... saw strangely limited distribution. It's on Netflix now; you can even watch it instantly! Seriously, go watch it right now.
4. Exit Through the Gift Shop
5. Alamar
...Hey, I just blogged about this one! Just below this post! Or, if you can't find it there, you can be magically teleported to it by clicking right here!
6. The Fighter
...The best film in serious Oscar contention by leaps and bounds. And it's still in theatres most everywhere, so go see it while you still can.
7. I Am Love
8. Lebanon
9. Inside Job
...The two most stomach-turning images from Movie Year 2010 were almost carbon-copies of one another. In one, Donald Rumsfeld & Co. smile and pat each other on the back after successfully deflecting blame for the death of Pat Tillman in The Tillman Story. In Inside Job, similarly scummy assholes deflect blame for the economic collapse during congressional hearings then go home to the billions they made off with. These buck-passing thieves and murderers-by-proxy are the supervillains of today.
10. It's a tie! Between: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, The Social Network, & True Grit (and probably some others, too. Sorry.)

Alamar

After viewing Alamar last week, one question was stuck at the front of my mind. As I began writing tonight, it seemed natural that I should use the question to frame a discussion of the film. And, if I knew that everyone who might read this post had already seen the film, that question is exactly where I would start. But I've got a feeling that relatively few people have seen Alamar, and I firmly believe that I would be doing anyone who hasn't a disservice by raising the question ahead of time.

So... where does that leave me? Well, it obviously leaves me without my planned jumping-off point. But Alamar is a far more dynamic film than one limited question could do justice.

Alamar explores the relationship between father and son as well as the relationship between man and nature. It contrasts an urban European lifestyle with a rural North American lifestyle and subsequently intermingles two vastly different cultures. Alamar is beautiful. And yes, by that I mean that the photography is beautiful, but I also mean that the story and tone are beautiful. The film is beautifully paced, for crying out loud! Honest to god, Alamar is cut in such a way that the 'space' between scenes just feels perfect. And there is a serendipity inherent to this film that--no joke--seems borderline magical. (I realize how hyperbolic that last statement sounds, but I truly mean it.)

What's the movie about, you ask? The movie is about a 5-year old boy named Natan. Natan's parents separated three years after Natan's birth, due primarily to the fact that they come from two diverse walks of life--dad Jorge is a Mexican who lives and fishes off the Carribean coast, mom Roberta is an Italian on the verge of moving home to bustling Rome. Before traveling to the other side of the world to live with his mother in Italy, Natan spends several weeks in Banco Chinchorro with his father and grandfather, learning to fish, living off the sea, immersed in nature.

And that's pretty much it. Beyond this basic premise lies very little story, if any. Alamar is not a popcorn movie. If you're looking for a traditional plot structure and conventionally drawn characters, you'll be disappointed.

Alamar is--with all due respect to I Am Love--the most beautiful movie released in Seattle last year, one of the most extraordinary documentary-style films I've seen, and will undoubtedly rank among my Top Ten films of 2010 (that list coming very soon to a blog near you).

A week on, I still can't get Alamar out of my head. It would be impossible for me to recommend it too highly. Please, dear readers, see it soon.

[PS: If you see Alamar and want to know what my 'big question' about the film is/was, and maybe even would like to discuss it, let me know.]

Blue Valentine

Two years and a few days ago I saw a film called Revolutionary Road at the E Street Cinema in Washington, D.C. I had been looking forward to seeing the movie for quite some time but had put it off because: a)I was living in Savannah, GA at the time and Savannah--for no good reason at all--is devoid of the sort of movie theatres which release interesting films in a timely manner, and b)I was almost positive that I'd be able to see the movie free-of-charge at the E Street. Much to my delight, the latter came to pass. But much to my dismay, the film fell far short of my (probably too high) expectations. Perhaps Sam Mendes wasn't up to the task of making this movie, perhaps two fine actors--DiCaprio & Winslet--weren't quite fine enough to fully bring their characters to life, or perhaps the story (adapted from what I am told is a great novel by Richard Yates) simply wasn't meant for the cinema.

What does Revolutionary Road have to do with Blue Valentine, you ask? Well, from where I was sitting when I watched it last week, Blue Valentine looked a whole lot like a Revolutionary Road for the aging hipster set. A man and a woman who seem to genuinely love one another get married too soon, and for the wrong reason(s). They do their best to keep their hopes and dreams alive and in sight, but nonetheless wind up settling down in the suburbs and working nondescript jobs to make ends meet. Eventually, inevitably, their 'let's hold this together, we've got our child to think of' lifestyle becomes too much to bear and the first thing to be crushed under its formidable weight is the love this man and this woman once felt for one another. ... All the same pieces of the same puzzle are in play, albeit in a slightly different time and slightly different place. (And, though I'm sure this goes without saying, these circumstances remain heartbreaking.)

What sets Blue Valentine apart from Revolutionary Road is that Blue Valentine explores this emotionally devastating territory with brutal honesty whereas Revolutionary Road felt praticed and scripted and... well, just off.

Writer/director Derek Cianfrance wisely juggles time and space in telling Dean and Cindy's backstory; by intercutting flashbacks of happy, hopeful beginnings with their hopeless present-day predicament, he grants the viewer a respite from the sort of relentless emotional battering which defines Revolutionary Road.

Cianfrance hasn't made a perfect film, of course. There are instances in which the tone of a given scene doesn't quite match that of the scenes surrounding it, and in these instances the cinematic illusion is briefly but definitely broken. It's always disappointing to become deeply invested in a film's characters only to be jarred back to reality by the abrupt realization that, "Oh, yeah. We're sitting in a darkened room watching moving pictures. These people aren't real."

But despite its occasional flaws, Blue Valentine packs a serious and resounding emotional punch. The film is defined by its actors' performances, and Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are painfully believeable as Dean and Cindy. In theory, Blue Valentine is Derek Cianfrance's film, but I simply cannot imagine it being the same with anyone other than Gosling and Williams in these roles.

Blue Valentine is the movie I had hoped Revolutionary Road would be. In nearly every area that Revolutionary Road fell flat, Blue Valentine stands strong. While I am quite glad to put a two-year old disappointment to rest, I am also a bit worried about myself... Why on earth would I want so badly for a film to be this heartbreakingly painful?

A Perfect Getaway

Whenever I'm out of Seattle and away from the near-endless supply of filmic entertainment available from the Seattle Public Library and Scarecrow Video, I make a point of reactivating my usually latent Netflix account. Maintaining a Netflix account that I hardly use is sort of silly, I admit, but I find it comforting to know that a massive DVD catalog is readily available should I choose to relocate for a month or two.

Last June I traveled to Georgia to visit my sister, who is good enough to put a roof over the head of a sizable HD television as well as it's close pal, the Blu-ray player. Naturally, one of my first orders of business was to reactivate the Netflix account and set its default format to Blu-ray. Knowing my time in GA was limited, the obvious next step was to move as many seemingly decent films available on Blu-ray to the top of my queue. One of those 'seemingly decent films' turned out to be A Perfect Getaway. (I don't know exactly what possessed me to think this movie looked decent, but I think I gave it a chance based on the fact that I like Steve Zahn. Anyway, I can't come up with another, better reason.)

Fast-forward to January 2011. I had suspended my account but forgotten when it was set to automatically reactivate (Netflix only allows you to suspend your account for three months at a time, at the end of which it will reactivate automatically should you fail to log on and prolong the suspension. Some real Columbia Record Club-style bullshit.) I come to find out at the end of the holidays--via an unexpected charge on my bank account, of course--hey, I'm a Netflix subscriber again! I decide to make the best of it and start rejuggling my queue in order to get some new movies I wasn't able to see in theatres, but not before the two DVDs at the top are shipped my way, one of which is A Perfect Getaway. I'm less than psyched about this turn of events since it doesn't look nearly as 'decent' as it once did, but the movie has already been delivered and I'll be goddamned if I don't watch it.

Which brings me--mercifully, I know--to my... well, review would be a huge overstatement, so let's just call them thoughts:
...To start simply, this movie is bad. You can sort of tell it's going to be bad based on the premise and the DVD menu, so this isn't really news.
...Badness aside, the movie rebounds remarkably at about the halfway point. Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich (and by Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich I mean the characters portrayed by these actors, characters whose names I've already forgotten) are on their honeymoon in Hawaii. They've just arrived in Kauai from Oahu and are troubled to learn that some fellow honeymooners were just murdered in Honolulu. It comes to light that the suspected killers are a young couple, so all the other young couples our protagonists come across from then on are immediately suspect. From there, things get pretty wacky and over-the-top, but in a sort of fun way. "Are these punky newlyweds capable of murder?!" "Or are this mega-commando and his former meat-cutter of a girlfriend the more likely maniacs?" "Holy shit, we're gonna die! And we only just started this wonderful life together!"
...This movie actually gets pretty exciting/amusing once it puts the cinema references aside (Steve Zahn's character is a newly-minted screenwriter so we get to hear all about how film plots work... exciting) and starts getting into actual plot twists. It's all absurdly ridiculous, of course, but for the purposes of absurd ridiculousness, you could do a lot worse than A Perfect Getaway.
...One last thing: the aforementioned mega-commando is played to great effect by Timothy Olyphant. Seriously... shades of old-school, Aliens-era Bill Paxton. Good stuff.


Coming soon... More thoughts(!): Blue Valentine! Alamar! Etc! Yay.

SOMEWHERE

Starts slow. Real slow.
Primarily pretty pictures.
Truly beautiful father-daughter relationship.
Gorgeous girls galore.
Los Angeles light looks great on film. (Washington Winter-gloom antidote?)
Black Ferrari.

BLACK SWAN

Over-the-top horrorart cinema.
Better than The Wrestler.
So many mirrors!

The rest of the Best of the Decade. (Remember when this was happening?)

About a million years ago, give or take a coupla days, I started counting down what I think to be the best movies created between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009.

#10-6 look like this:

10. In the Mood for Love

9. United 93

8. Sexy Beast

7. The Royal Tenenbaums

6. INLAND EMPIRE

In the interest of wrapping this sucker up before 2010 officially ends, I've decided to go ahead and lump the Top 5 together here in one post. Pretty silly for me to throw the Top 5 together in one ugly entry when I've already gone to the trouble of making separate entries for the "Bottom 5", isn't it? Yeah, I know. But it would be a whole lot sillier to not finish this thing at all, I think. But then silliness is relative. Anyway...

Starting from the bottom!

#5. Children of Men (2006) ...Dir. Alfonso Cuarón

Alfonso Cuarón is one of my favorite filmmakers working today, and I believe this to be his best film. Clive Owen is quietly terrific. Michael Caine is better still. By far the best dystopian future movie made in a decade, and miles better than the novel upon which it is based (a claim which can only rarely be made with any confidence). And let's not forget those unthinkably long follow shots; massive props to DP Emmanuel Lubezki for his contributions.

#4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) ...Dir. Michel Gondry

I was a highly lost freshman in college when Eternal Sunshine was released. I vividly remember receiving a voicemail from my dad who called immediately after seeing it to enthusiastically recommend I do the same. Eventually I did, with my future (and now former) girlfriend. And really, I think it affected me more immediately than any movie has done. When a powerful piece of art enters your life at a particularly critical moment, one which might push you one way or another or another, that experience sticks with you. For my money, Charlie Kaufman is the most important filmmaker since 1999--especially impressive considering he's only had directorial control of one of his films. (Admittedly, Kaufman hasn't been a total hit factory [e.g., Human Nature, which I like but realize is far from great] but he's hit far more adventurous concepts way out of the park than any other filmmaker I can think of over the past decade-plus. Anyway, I think he's a/the champ.)

#3. No Country for Old Men (2007) ...Dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Hands down, the best made film of the past decade. In fact, No Country is likely the most flawlessly constructed film I've ever seen, period. It is a perfect adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel remarkable for its sparse efficiency, the story of which could easily have been stripped of all meaning and still made for a thrilling film. The Coens are better than that, though--so in command of their craft, they exploit cinema's potential completely and without any apparent effort; it's dumbfounding. I watched this movie twice in a row (that is, one screening followed immediately by the next when it was in theatres). If not for social importance(#2) and personal favoritism(#1), No Country would be the best film of the past decade by a long, long shot.

#2. 9/11 (2002) ...Dir. Jules Naudet, Gedeon Naudet, and James Hanlon

I never know what to say about this movie. In September 2001, the Naudet brothers were in NYC shooting a documentary about Manhattan fire fighters. On the 11th, two passenger jets were flown into the Twin Towers. We all know how this ends, yet it becomes easier with each passing year to put it out of our minds. This film--the best I've seen regarding 9/11--is not just a reminder of what happened but also a window into what it was like to be on the ground that day in Lower Manhattan. It's almost purely observational; what good will commentary/voiceover/interviews be once you're in the thick of a surreal living nightmare? I hope you'll forgive my preaching, but I sincerely believe that 9/11 ought to be required viewing for every American. Yes, we all know the story and don't particularly want to live it again... but what this film comprises is unfathomable until you've seen it for yourself.

#1. Synecdoche, New York (2008) ...Dir. Charlie Kaufman

When I made my Best of 2008 list two years ago, this film topped it, and the write-up I conjured then can be found here. Synecdoche is still neck-and-neck with Kieslowski's Blue in the race for the best film I've ever seen, and for good reason. Blue is perhaps the most beautiful piece of art I've ever experienced, but Synecdoche remains the richest, most complete depiction of one human being's attempt to comprehend and cope with his life. Fortunately, I don't have to consider Blue as a part of this particular countdown, so I can say with zero hesitation that Synecdoche, New York is the best film of the past decade. And then some. Watch it three times... it will change you.

Again: I apologize for the low-rent nature of this second half of the countdown. Thank you for checking in. With any luck and due diligence, I will be a decidedly more attentive movie-blogger in 2011. Stay tuned to find out!

I interrupt the regularly scheduled Most-Painfully-Drawn-Out-Movie-Countdown-of-All-Time to bring you...

...my Oscar picks! I'm admittedly doing some of these at the last minute, so regrettable decisions may be made. But time's a-wasting--The Academy waits for no man.

(Quick disclaimer: Just because I include "A better choice" with most categories doesn't necessarily mean that I think my predicted winner is undeserving. For instance, Jeff Bridges' performance is terrific. Of the nominated actors, he's the cream. But his wasn't the year's best performance. That's all.)

[Winners highlighted in red.]

LEADING ACTOR

• And the winner will be: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
• A better choice: Sam Rockwell, Moon

LEADING ACTRESS

• And the winner will be: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side (...Don't get me started.)
• A better choice: Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

SUPPORTING ACTOR

• And the winner will be: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
• A better choice: Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker (...That Mackie wasn't even nominated is criminal.)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• And the winner will be: Mo'Nique, Precious
• A better choice: Not possible.

ANIMATED FEATURE

• And the winner will be: Up
• A better choice: Fantastic Mr. Fox (...Let's face facts: they're both great movies.)

ART DIRECTION

• And the winner will be: Avatar

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• And the winner will be: The White Ribbon

COSTUME DESIGN

• And the winner will be: The Young Victoria
• A better choice: Guess who doesn't give a shit about costume design. This guy.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• And the winner will be: The Cove
• A better choice: Anvil! The Story of Anvil

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

• And the winner will be: China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province

FILM EDITING

• And the winner will be: The Hurt Locker
• A better choice: Precious

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

• And the winner will be: The White Ribbon
• A better choice: Hunger Sin Nombre (I'm a dummy...Hunger is in English. But it is the best movie I saw last year.)

MAKEUP

• And the winner will be: Star Trek
• A better choice: The bedsore makeup in Hunger was pretty damn convincing.

ORIGINAL SCORE

• And the winner will be: Michael Giacchino, Up
• A better choice: Clint Mansell, Moon (...Probably my favorite film score not composed by Jon Brion since Air did the Virgin Suicides score more than ten years ago.)

ORIGINAL SONG

• And the winner will be: "The Weary Kind", Crazy Heart

SHORT FILM - ANIMATED

• And the winner will be: A Matter of Loaf and Death
• A better choice: Logorama (...Probably a bit too "adult" for the Academy's taste, but most definitely the best of the bunch.)

SHORT FILM - LIVE ACTION

• And the winner will be: Kavi (...Speaking of shots in the dark.)

SOUND EDITING

• And the winner will be: Avatar

SOUND MIXING

• And the winner will be: The Hurt Locker
• A better choice: Revanche (...Best sound design in recent memory. I'm not positive that great sound design equals great sound mixing, but whatever.)

VISUAL EFFECTS

• And the winner will be: Avatar (...Duh.)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• And the winner will be: Up in the Air
• A better choice: Gommorah (...Having read the book after seeing the movie, I feel completely confident in this one.)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• And the winner will be: Inglourious Basterds
• A better choice: Moon (...A great, story-driven sci-fi movie with nary a monster or fancy, high-tech special effect in sight?! That's good writing, homey.)

DIRECTOR

• And the winner will be: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
• A better choice: Hard to argue with Bigelow. She deserves it. But suffice it to say that there a number of directors to whom I would give this award before I'd give it to her. Too many to list, even. Ya feel me? I thought so.

BEST PICTURE

• And the winner will be: The Hurt Locker
• A better choice: See #'s 1-8.

So the Oscars have this crazy new voting system for Best Picture. Per ew.com:

"In the past, once the nominees were announced, Academy members voted only for the one film they thought should win the award, and the film with the most votes won. But with so many nominees next year, it’s feasible that a movie could have won Best Picture with only 11 percent of the vote, which seems crazy. So now, once the 10 nominees are named, voters will rank the films from 1 to 10. All the No. 1 votes will be counted, and if no film has more than 50 percent of the vote (which will certainly be the case), the last-place film will be eliminated and the voters who voted for that film will have their No. 2 votes counted instead. That process will continue until one film has a majority of the votes. As Pond points out, there is a chance that the film that ends up winning won’t actually have the most No. 1 votes, but will instead emerge the victor in the second, third, or fourth rounds."

This could wind up being a total clustercuss, of course. But I think it sounds kind of fun. So much fun that I'm doing my own fake vote! So, from 1 to 10, here is how I would vote for the Best Picture nominees:

1. Precious
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Inglourious Basterds
4. An Education
5. A Serious Man
6. Up
7. District 9
8. Avatar
9. Up in the Air
10. The Blind Side (The only one of the ten I haven't seen. I seriously doubt that it would be any higher on this list were I to give it a shot.)

#6. INLAND EMPIRE

(2006) ...Dir. David Lynch

I do not envy David Lynch. Yes, he is an absolute genius. Yes, he has made some of the most incredible films of all time. And yes, he is a transcendental meditation aficionado. (That last bit isn't just for bonus points. Lynch insists that TM has become an indispensable part of his creative process.) But the stuff that comes out of his head has a tendency to be both frightening and bewildering (at first blush, anyway). Yet Lynch is somehow able to make it all comprehensible.

Bizarre and terrifying thoughts and ideas, I can handle. I expect all of us experience moments of shock/fright/fascination at the strange thoughts which occasionally pop into our heads. But while most people shake off such notions, dismissing them as flukes of the human mind, David Lynch goes the other way. He explores the apparent quirks of the mind, derives their origins and meanings, then makes sense of them!

It is remarkable to think that one could dive so deeply into his own consciousness--scouring its deepest and darkest cavities--and not lose his mind entirely. Not only does Lynch retain his sanity, he goes one better. Molding practically inconceivable concepts into story and sound and image, he creates beautiful, often unsettling pieces of art capable of sincerely communicating the incommunicable.

Again, I do not envy Lynch. His filmmaking prowess is awe-inspiring, of course, but I have no interest in even imagining how a mind like his must work. I doubt I'd come out alive.

Which brings me to INLAND EMPIRE (FINALLY, I know!) I've seen the film exactly one time, at the Neptune Theatre, with my dad and Megaen Paladin. I remember very vividly watching the film, despite not remembering the details of the film itself quite so well. The fact that I remember the actual watching of a particular film would be a lot less noteworthy if the film in question wasn't partly about film-watching (good luck sorting out this sentence, by the way). INLAND EMPIRE is also about film-making, Hollywood, technology, reality, time, getting lost, being a woman, and many, many other things. In true David Lynch fashion, the vast majority of the film is highly surreal. Out of context, almost every scene seems unrelated to the scene which precedes it and the scene which follows it. (I expect some would claim that it's all nonsense in context, too.) Characters regularly walk through doors or down hallways only to emerge into an apparently different reality from the one they previously occupied. If you're familiar at all with David Lynch, you already know there's no way to explain any of what happens in the movie and expect it to make any sort of sense.

This is where I tell you that INLAND EMPIRE makes a whole lot of sense to me. For all the surreality and mind-boggling content, I understand this movie. This is where you think me a crazy person, or a liar, or a pretentious asshole (or maybe a bit of each). Movies like this don't work for everyone. In fact, they probably don't work for a lot of people. And when a movie like INLAND EMPIRE misses a person completely, that person is going to have a very difficult time believing anyone who claims to "get it". I've been that person on numerous occasions, for films far simpler than this one--I speak from experience here. But when I tell you that INLAND EMPIRE works for me, I'm not making it up. I can't explain how or why it works, it just does.

The fact that I can spend nearly three hours staring at a screen in a darkened room without so much as a clue about the relationship between one scene and the next, then leave the theatre with a clear idea of what the film is about blows my mind. When I called David Lynch an "absolute genius" in the opening paragraph, I sincerely meant it. Normal people can't do this kind of thing.

If I wasn't playing favorites with this whole countdown, INLAND EMPIRE would almost certainly crack the Top 3. Having seen it just one time, more than three years ago, though, it sits at #6. But it's quite a movie, folks. It refreshingly assumes at least a modicum of open-minded effort on the viewer's part, too, so if you're not into giving a bit of yourself to a movie, you may as well just skip it.

[I'm going to try to keep this short, in the interest of making it to bed by 6am, but I must at least mention INLAND EMPIRE's relationship to Lynch's 2001 film Mulholland Drive. In many ways, they're almost the same film. INLAND EMPIRE's tagline--"A Woman in Trouble"--could be slapped onto Mulholland Drive and fit like a glove. But Lynch is the sort of filmmaker who could make the "same movie" for the rest of his life and each subsequent version would be as fresh as the first.

The interplay between INLAND EMPIRE and Mulholland Drive is of particular interest to film nerds like myself, however, as Mulholland Drive was shot on film and INLAND EMPIRE was shot digitally. Considered together, the two films serve as a fascinating examination and reflection of the continuing evolution of filmmaking as digital technology further encroaches upon the cinematic tradition that is film stock. As the only two films Lynch made during the past decade, Mulholland Drive and INLAND EMPIRE sort of bookend (metaphorically, not chronologically) a decade which brought digital filmmaking to industry-altering heights.

Anyway, a lot of people, when making their Decade Lists, made the decision to consider Mulholland Drive and INLAND EMPIRE together. I had to separate them, as INLAND EMPIRE was far more accessible to me than Mulholland Drive was. I owe it to myself to re-watch both. So many movies, so little time, though.]

BONUS FEATURE!

In 2000, Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg made this incredible short film called Camera. I include it here because it, too, engages the Digital vs. Film discussion. In less than seven minutes, it says a great deal. Consider it a taste of the sort of dialogue embarked upon by Mulholland Drive and INLAND EMPIRE. Consider it also an amazing film in its own right.

Missed my 6am target bedtime. Sheeooot.

#7. The Royal Tenenbaums

(2001) ...Dir. Wes Anderson

I know, I know. Being a Royal Tenenbaums fan is way played-out. Everybody and their brother and their brother's dog loves this movie, right? Well there's a reason for that. Reason: it's a great movie.

I could take this opportunity to redundantly list the merits and achievements of this film, but that'd be lame. Instead, I'd like to solicit answers to the following questions:

1. Is The Royal Tenenbaums the best film Wes Anderson has made? If not, what is?
2. While it would be a big stretch to call Anderson one of my favorite directors, I do feel like I can count on him to consistently make very good films. Even his "worst" films are still pretty darn good. Which begs the question: is Wes Anderson the best filmmaker of his generation?

I've got my own answers to both of these questions, but I'd be interested to know what everybody else thinks first. So hit up that comment thread. Aint No Snob's going interactive. Yeah.

#8. Sexy Beast

(2001) ...Dir. Jonathan Glazer

"Oh yeah. Bloody hell. I'm sweating here. Roasting. Boiling. Baking. Sweltering. It's like a sauna. Furnace. You can fry an egg on my stomach. Ohh. Who wouldn't lap this up? It's ridiculous. Tremendous. Fantastic. Fan-dabby-dozy-tastic."

Sexy Beast opens with what may be my favorite first scene in film history. When I started making this list, I was a little bit shocked to learn that the movie is only nine years old. I sincerely feel like it has been a part of my cinematic consciousness forever (granted, I haven't been alive and conscious of movies long enough for nine years to be so negligible).

I'll forever love Ray Winstone for his turn as retired English gangster Gal Dove (as if Winstone's track record isn't pretty damn solid, as is). All supporting performances more than measure up to the impeccably written dialogue, but Ben Kingsley is most impressive as Don Logan, one of the nastiest motherfuckers you'll ever see on screen. Just you wait.

My disclosure of this Decade List has proven incredibly fitful. Two weeks ago I posted my Honorable Mentions and I've only just made it to #8, publishing each subsequent post with no regularity whatsoever. As a preface to that list of Honorable Mentions, I mentioned that some movies on this list have taken on a sort of legendary quality in my mind, have become so near to my heart and embedded in my memory that I can no longer be trusted to fairly assess or discuss them. A less neurotic person might call them Favorites.

Sexy Beast is doubtlessly one of my Favorites. So instead of blathering on and on, I'll just shut up and let you watch it for yourself. You're welcome.

#9. United 93

(2006) ...Dir. Paul Greengrass

Some people are able to watch films and detach themselves completely from the subject matter. They just observe the images and sounds, see how they're put together, and decide if the movie works or doesn't work. Me? I'm not very good at that.

So when United 93 opened in April 2006, I made a conscious decision to avoid it. Not because I was disinterested, but because I felt that dramatizing a 9/11 storyline would be a serious mistake. The most likely result of recreating a horrific scenario--the inflicted wound still fresh, no less--would be a cheapening of the lives lost. And, oh yeah, 9/11 was totally fucked. I had absolutely no intention of revisiting that day, only to risk seeing the whole gut-wrenching (yet somehow sacred) event disgraced by an ill-made film. Such was my line of thinking. So I skipped it.

The film eventually left theatres, of course, but I kept hearing about it. Kept hearing that instead of feeling cheap, the film possessed an almost unbelievable realness; a disarming authenticity. As more and more overheard feedback continued to erode my rational reason for ignoring the film (i.e., that it was inevitably doomed to fail), I began to realize that I was just being a coward. I, like many Americans, simply wanted to push the story of United 93 from my mind. I wanted to pretend that it had nothing to do with me and just leave it to history.

Not being one to casually accept behaving like a complete pussy, I checked United 93 out from the library, invited over my homey Jason Ryan, and we sat in silence for the next 111 minutes as a perfect film played on the television. United 93 had to be perfect. It had to feel real. And Paul Greengrass (an Englishman, interestingly) nailed it. He gave the United States the single best narrative film about the single most horrifyingly jarring event in our country's history.

I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of the American public still hasn't seen this film. And I think that's due primarily to the fact that the vast majority of Americans can't bear to face 9/11 again. I can appreciate that. I avoided seeing this film for the very same reason. But I was wrong.

United 93 is required viewing. I don't mean required for film fans, I mean required for EVERYONE. See it.

#10. In the Mood for Love

(2001) ...Dir. Wong Kar-Wai

The first time I tried to watch In the Mood for Love, I fell asleep (such is the price of staying up to watch movies while the rest of the world has already gone to bed). Fortunately, I had the good sense to try again.

The second-most beautiful film of the decade (to Flight of the Red Balloon), the second-best love story of the decade (to my as-yet unnamed but perhaps obvious #4 film), and my second-favorite Wong Kar-Wai film (to Chungking Express, unoriginally), In the Mood for Love has the undesirable distinction of being the first runner-up in a number of categories. And so it occupies the #10 spot on my list, despite likely deserving better. Just wait: I'll watch it again in next month and be back here writing some desperate apology for ranking it so low.

BEST OF THE DECADE: #11-25

11. The American Astronaut (2001) ...Dir. Cory McAbee--Criminally underseen. Make your world a better place; watch it tonight.

12. Caché (2005) ...Dir. Michael Haneke

13. Amélie (2001) ...Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet

14. Lake of Fire (2007) ...Dir. Tony Kaye--Ever seen a documentary which caused you to seriously reexamine a belief you had previously considered unassailable? I have. It's called Lake of Fire.

15. Flight of the Red Balloon (2008) ...Dir. Hou Hsiao Hsien--Absolutely, without a doubt, the most beautiful film of the decade.

16. El Aura (2006) ...Dir. Fabián Bielinsky--Bielinsky died not long after making this, his second feature film. We're all lucky he made two great movies while he could.

17. Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai (2000) ...Dir. Jim Jarmusch

18. Hunger (2008) ...Dir. Steve McQueen--Yes, it tops my Best of 2009 list, but was apparently released in the US in 2008. Can't follow my own rules all the time, can I?

19. City of God (2003) ...Dir. Fernando Meirelles

20. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) ...Dir. Julian Schnabel

21. WALL-E (2008) ...Dir. Andrew Stanton

22. Shotgun Stories (2007) ...Dir. Jeff Nichols--Being a man in America can be a lot more difficult than you might imagine. [Michael Shannon is an incredible actor, by the way.]

23. Downfall (2005) ...Dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel--Hitler was a human being. And that's a rather terrifying thing to face.

24. Why We Fight (2006) ...Dir. Eugene Jarecki--Find out why the US will never stop fighting wars.

25. Wet Hot American Summer (2001) ...Dir. David Wain--"I want you inside me."

Top Ten coming soon. Promise.

BEST OF THE DECADE: a 37-way tie for 26th place (a.k.a., the Honorable Mentions)

The problem with making a decade-spanning "Best of" list of any kind is that, after enough time has passed, memory begins to corrupt reality. Guess that applies to everything, really. Life's weird, huh? Anyway, once I began consciously considering which movies do and do not merit inclusion on my Best Films of the Decade list, I found myself struggling mightily to separate actual films from my mind's idea of them.

For example, I might not have even considered including Amélie if I hadn't had the opportunity to re-watch it recently. As it turned out, Amélie managed to find its way into my Top 15 (and, as such, shall not be found listed below)! It works both ways, of course. There are almost certainly some movies that dug themselves so deeply and warmly into my brain/heart that despite their being perhaps less-deserving than other films, they still made the cut. In any event, as much as I would love to revisit each and every film on my "short" list, I just don't have that kind of time. Maybe in 2020...

[For the record: the year listed next to the film's title does not necessarily reflect the film's year of production. Rather, the year listed indicates either the year of a film's official US release, or--in the rare case that I am able to see a film prior to its US release--the year in which I first viewed the film. It's the way I've always done it; I don't intend to stop now.]

The 37 great films which all just barely missed the Top 25 and are thus insultingly relegated to a lowly, alphabetically-organized "Honorable Mentions" list are:

• Amores Perros (2001) ...Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu
• Bowling for Columbine (2002) ...Dir. Michael Moore
• The Bridge (2006) ...Dir. Eric Steel
• Casino Royale (2006) ...Dir. Martin Campbell
• The Corporation (2004) ...Dir. Mark Achbar & Jennifer Abbott
• The Departed (2006) ...Dir. Martin Scorsese
• Donnie Darko (2001) ...Dir. Richard Kelly
• Gerry (2003) ...Dir. Gus Van Sant
• Grizzly Man (2005) ...Dir. Werner Herzog
• Half Nelson (2006) ...Dir. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) ...Dir. Mike Newell
• i ♥ huckabees (2004) ...Dir. David O. Russell
• Idiocracy (2006) ...Dir. Mike Judge
• Iraq in Fragments (2007) ...Dir. James Longley
• I Served the King of England (2008) ...Dir. Jiří Menzel--This one surprises even me. Came out of nowhere.
• Jonestown: the Life and Death of Peoples’ Temple (2006) ...Dir. Stanley Nelson
• Junebug (2005) ....Dir. Phil Morrison
• Knocked Up (2007) ...Dir. Judd Apatow
• Kurt Cobain: About a Son (2007) ...Dir. AJ Schnack
• Life in Loops: a Megacities RMX (2007) ...Dir. Timo Novotny
• Memento (2001) ...Dir. Christopher Nolan
• Mulholland Drive (2001) ...Dir. David Lynch
• Nobody Knows (2005) ...Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) ...Dir. Joel [& Ethan] Coen
• Paprika (2007) ...Dir. Satoshi Kon
• Paradise Now (2005) ...Dir. Hany Abu-Assad
• Paris, Je t’aime (2007) ...Multiple directors
• The Proposition (2006) ...Dir. John Hillcoat
• Punch-Drunk Love (2002) ...Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson--Magnolia would have been, at worst, #3 on my Decade list if it hadn't missed the 2000s by less than one week.
• Sin City (2005) ...Dir. Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez
• Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2004) ...Dir. Kim Ki-duk
• Super Troopers (2002) ...Dir. Jay Chandrasekhar
• Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2006) ...Dir. Park Chan-wook
• Talk to Her (2002) ...Dir. Pedro Almodóvar
• Traffic (2000) ...Dir. Steven Soderbergh
• Zodiac (2007) ...Dir. David Fincher

Stay tuned for the big reveal of my Top 25 Films of the Decade! Coming...SOON.

The Girlfriend Experience | Fantastic Mr. Fox | Broken Embraces

A nice little three-movie day. Titles above, in the order I watched them.

The Girlfriend Experience is terrific. My homey Jason Ryan (I linked to his old short story blog, so you all can enjoy some real good reading--you're welcome) mentioned earlier this year in 2009 that he really liked it, that it might be one of the best he's seen this year saw in 2009. Admittedly, I had my doubts. But I watched it this afternoon and it's really pretty special. It's Steven Soderbergh's other 2009 film (The Informant! being what I consider his primary release this year), and it only solidifies his status in my mind as the most prolific talent currently working. He made his big splash way back in '89 with sex, lies, and videotape, and since then he has made at least twenty films, the vast majority of which are good movies. And that's really saying something. Most directors put out films at no better than half the pace of Soderbergh, with half the creativity and vision (at best), and most of them are less than half as watchable.

Anyway, I don't think I'm going to tell you anything about The Girlfriend Experience, other than that you should watch it as soon as you're able. If you have Netflix, there's really no excuse, as it's available to "Watch Instantly". So get to it. Time's a-wasting.

Fantastic Mr. Fox, Round 2 was lovely. I liked it very much the first time I saw it, and I liked it very much this second time, as well. My repeat viewing didn't convince me that it's a great film (as opposed to a very good and very enjoyable one), but I did notice more, different bits that I hadn't before. I hereby submit that Fantastic Mr. Fox is Wes Anderson's third-best movie to date, by the way. (Feel free to guess the first two. It shouldn't be hard.)

Broken Embraces. Not a lot to say about this one. It's good. It's not great. It's definitely worth seeing. But it's also definitely rentable, if you prefer the DVD route. I have yet to see a Pedro Almodovar film that is boring, and this is no exception. All of his films seem to have interesting, slightly bizarre stories told in a way that always feels fresh and unique. And for that, I love him. But Broken Embraces--despite being interesting and slightly bizarre, and feeling (somewhat) fresh and unique--ultimately left me unenthused. I'm glad I went to see it, but a week from now, I'll probably have forgotten all about it. And I'm fine with that.