We have accomplished half a year - what kind of year has it been for films? Looking at my lists - 10 deep, it seems pretty good. But it's felt awfully thin, at times. There have been stretches where there seem to be lots of good films out - but also weeks at a time when there is next to nothing that seems worth the trouble. I have resorted to Hollywood comedies (Bridesmaids; Bad Teacher - both quite enjoyable, don't get me wrong), to ho hum documentaries, the sort of thing they'd show on TV if the non-fiction TV channels didn't suck so bad (Blank City; Pianomania, etc.) - enjoyable and informative, but.... I suppose a lot of this is me - though I don't seem to lack for enthusiasm when there is good stuff out.... so - maybe.
Anyway - here are a couple lists for the first half of the year. First - 10 best films released this year:
1. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives
2. Certified Copy
3. Quattro Volte
4. Poetry
5. 13 Assassins
6. Dogtooth
7. Meek's Cutoff
8. Strange Case of Angelica
9. Jane Eyre
10. Rango
And - best films made in 2011 (from what is still a pretty short list...):
1. Meek's Cutoff
2. Jane Eyre
3. Rango
4. Cedar Rapids
5. Bridesmaids
6. Bad Teacher
7. Win WIn
8. Midnight in Paris
9. Rubber
10. Tree of Life
And, since it takes a while for a year's films to turn up - here's a look back at 2010 - a pretty good haul of which have come out this year (with positions on original list marked):
1. Carlos (long Version) - #1 at the end of the year
2. Uncle Boonmee - seen in 2011
3. Certified Copy - ditto
4. Quattro Volte - ditto
5. Poetry - ditto
6. Exit through the Gift Shop - 2
7. True Grit - 4
8. The Social Network - 3
9. Oki's Movie - seen in 2011
10. 13 Assassins - ditto
Showing posts with label 2010 List. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010 List. Show all posts
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
My Favorite Music of 2010
If I can, I am going to make Friday music day at this blog. If nothing else comes to mind, I shall resurrect the old Friday Random Ten posts - though I'll try to keep it more varied than that. I am not as good as I wish I was at writing about music - I end up substituting lists and quotes and allusions for even the barest analysis, but I guess that is all right. We shall see what comes to mind.
I will start the year off by making a list of the best music of 2010... and immediately run into a major problem. Here I want to talk about music, and here I barely listen to music at all anymore. My music habit is very cyclical - I go a few years listening to and buying lots and lots of music; then go a year or two (this spell has been going on almost 2 years now) and barely listen to music at all. Go from buying 40-50 new records a year to buying 15-20 (which I don't listen to) - it's strange. I don't know when I will start up again, though I always do start up again; I don't know what I will listen to when I do (I had a big jazz phase back in the 90s; came back to rock, and passed through a bunch of phases in that - old punk, prog, "post-rock", post punk, etc. - the last semi-trend was a spell of 3-4 months of listening to opera and 20th century classical...) The result - I can barely put together a top 10 (this is almost a top 2, plus a bunch of name-dropping), and most of it turns out to be old favorites - in lean times, one relies heavily on reliable old favorites.... This spell, this year, is no exception. And so - on to the list:
1) Grinderman - Grinderman2 - perhaps the ultimate in old favorites. That itself is a little odd - I heard Nick Cave in the 80s, and did not care too much about him. I listened to him more in the 90s, and around the Murder Ballads era started to really like him. And in the 00s, this grew stronger, until the Grinderman records, which somehow, hit every single one of my buttons and hit them square. I might also have to confess that this is the only record I listened to end to end more than once - though like everything these days, I especially obsess over songs...
Heathen Child - embedding disabled, alas, but this is a hoot of a video...
And here, live, When my baby comes, which I could listen to on infinite loop almost, especially the freak out at the end:
2) Janelle Monae - Archandroid - not a lot in common with Grinderman, I guess, but the rather sad truth is that this is the only other record this year to totally grab me. For good reason, she is the real deal, exciting, varied, imaginative music, just great...
Here's a live clip, a couple songs:
3) MIA - Maya - I'm cheating, I'm afraid. I have no idea if I listened to this record or not. I think so, most of it - but this is mostly because of "Born Free". The video - well, it's interesting, maybe not exactly coherent - a bit of a cliche, I suppose - interesting though. But the song - from that accelerating drum intro, through the shuddering drone of it - it's for me. It's apparently a Suicide cover/rewrite, given a battering ram drum track - plus, someone on a blog somewhere, that at this point I would have no chance of ever finding, compared it to the Fall - I hear that, too, some of those phrasings are very Mark Smith.... If you must steal, those are good sources - and I think she pulls it off. It's certainly addictive. Between this and Grinderman, it should be obvious that what little I have listened to has tended to the drony - fast, noisy drones....
Here, in all its overblown glory, is the Video:
and here, live - it is interesting, digging around YouTube, how different her performances are from one another. Start here, on Letterman with an army of impersonators, and Martin Rev himself:
And here on Jools Holland, with an all girl band, including, apparently, Victoria Smith on drums:
4) Melvins - The Bride Screamed Bloody Murder - another old favorite, that probably makes it in for providing what I like them for, if not doing anything special with it. Though who knows - they are a more immersive band - I like settling in with them awhile - which mitigates against the hit or miss listening habits I have these days, and against really evaluating any given song or record. I like the Melvins - any song, any bunch of songs will do... in that sense, this is still quite a satisfying record, that I tend to like more whenever I hear it...
A couple songs, live:
5) Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart - This is the record that seems to benefit the most from coming up on the iPod, this year. Odd, but their brand of hippy sludge doesn't always play as well when I mean to listen to it as when it comes along randomly - it has an odd way of tempting me to dismiss it, but not quite letting me - and paying off... And here's a video...
And now - this is about as far as I can go in accurately assessing even as subjective a thing as how much I liked a bunch of records. After this - I don't think I bought anything last year I don't like, and won't like in the future - but the rest is pretty arbitrary. I will make the list to 10, though from here on out, it's guesswork.
6. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
7. The New Pornographers - Together - a very Canadian year... I don't know if I trust this record - New Pornographers records are getting very indistinguishable, which isn't quite a virtue in their case....
8. Richard Thompson - Dream Attic - lots of polite sounding, well crafted songs, with effortlessly brilliant guitar bits - another typical late career Richard Thompson record, that I can't help grading on a curve.
9. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter - they're still around, making good music - so I ain't leaving them out.
10. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
I leave out live records - I would make my life a little easier including them - Mogwai's Special Moves is quite nice, especially. A live clip would not be amiss:
I will start the year off by making a list of the best music of 2010... and immediately run into a major problem. Here I want to talk about music, and here I barely listen to music at all anymore. My music habit is very cyclical - I go a few years listening to and buying lots and lots of music; then go a year or two (this spell has been going on almost 2 years now) and barely listen to music at all. Go from buying 40-50 new records a year to buying 15-20 (which I don't listen to) - it's strange. I don't know when I will start up again, though I always do start up again; I don't know what I will listen to when I do (I had a big jazz phase back in the 90s; came back to rock, and passed through a bunch of phases in that - old punk, prog, "post-rock", post punk, etc. - the last semi-trend was a spell of 3-4 months of listening to opera and 20th century classical...) The result - I can barely put together a top 10 (this is almost a top 2, plus a bunch of name-dropping), and most of it turns out to be old favorites - in lean times, one relies heavily on reliable old favorites.... This spell, this year, is no exception. And so - on to the list:
1) Grinderman - Grinderman2 - perhaps the ultimate in old favorites. That itself is a little odd - I heard Nick Cave in the 80s, and did not care too much about him. I listened to him more in the 90s, and around the Murder Ballads era started to really like him. And in the 00s, this grew stronger, until the Grinderman records, which somehow, hit every single one of my buttons and hit them square. I might also have to confess that this is the only record I listened to end to end more than once - though like everything these days, I especially obsess over songs...
Heathen Child - embedding disabled, alas, but this is a hoot of a video...
And here, live, When my baby comes, which I could listen to on infinite loop almost, especially the freak out at the end:
2) Janelle Monae - Archandroid - not a lot in common with Grinderman, I guess, but the rather sad truth is that this is the only other record this year to totally grab me. For good reason, she is the real deal, exciting, varied, imaginative music, just great...
Here's a live clip, a couple songs:
3) MIA - Maya - I'm cheating, I'm afraid. I have no idea if I listened to this record or not. I think so, most of it - but this is mostly because of "Born Free". The video - well, it's interesting, maybe not exactly coherent - a bit of a cliche, I suppose - interesting though. But the song - from that accelerating drum intro, through the shuddering drone of it - it's for me. It's apparently a Suicide cover/rewrite, given a battering ram drum track - plus, someone on a blog somewhere, that at this point I would have no chance of ever finding, compared it to the Fall - I hear that, too, some of those phrasings are very Mark Smith.... If you must steal, those are good sources - and I think she pulls it off. It's certainly addictive. Between this and Grinderman, it should be obvious that what little I have listened to has tended to the drony - fast, noisy drones....
Here, in all its overblown glory, is the Video:
and here, live - it is interesting, digging around YouTube, how different her performances are from one another. Start here, on Letterman with an army of impersonators, and Martin Rev himself:
And here on Jools Holland, with an all girl band, including, apparently, Victoria Smith on drums:
4) Melvins - The Bride Screamed Bloody Murder - another old favorite, that probably makes it in for providing what I like them for, if not doing anything special with it. Though who knows - they are a more immersive band - I like settling in with them awhile - which mitigates against the hit or miss listening habits I have these days, and against really evaluating any given song or record. I like the Melvins - any song, any bunch of songs will do... in that sense, this is still quite a satisfying record, that I tend to like more whenever I hear it...
A couple songs, live:
5) Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart - This is the record that seems to benefit the most from coming up on the iPod, this year. Odd, but their brand of hippy sludge doesn't always play as well when I mean to listen to it as when it comes along randomly - it has an odd way of tempting me to dismiss it, but not quite letting me - and paying off... And here's a video...
And now - this is about as far as I can go in accurately assessing even as subjective a thing as how much I liked a bunch of records. After this - I don't think I bought anything last year I don't like, and won't like in the future - but the rest is pretty arbitrary. I will make the list to 10, though from here on out, it's guesswork.
6. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
7. The New Pornographers - Together - a very Canadian year... I don't know if I trust this record - New Pornographers records are getting very indistinguishable, which isn't quite a virtue in their case....
8. Richard Thompson - Dream Attic - lots of polite sounding, well crafted songs, with effortlessly brilliant guitar bits - another typical late career Richard Thompson record, that I can't help grading on a curve.
9. The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter - they're still around, making good music - so I ain't leaving them out.
10. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
I leave out live records - I would make my life a little easier including them - Mogwai's Special Moves is quite nice, especially. A live clip would not be amiss:
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Best Releases of 2010 (And 2009 revisited)
Happy New Year, again. And - no point beating around the bush - straight into the best of 2010. With all the usual caveats - this list of of the best films given a first release (that I know of) in a commercial theater in Boston and its environs in 2010. Obviously, that I have seen - a caveat that might matter more this year than most. This was a down year for me - I went 2-3 months barely seeing any film - I moved in the spring, which proved very time consuming, especially on weekends when I might be watching movies. I spent most of June and the beginning of July parked in front of the TV set watching soccer. I took a vacation in July and made lots of little trips. I did not watch as many films as usual. Though it's not just me - I did not find the year's releases all that thrilling. The first half the year was okay, with last year's foreign films coming through - but when that slacked off, the new offerings were singularly uninspiring - and this did not improve in the fall.... I don't know if that is fair - I may have skipped a lot of films for bad reasons that might belong on this list... But there it is.
Enough of that. I complain about it being a bad year for movies, but that's less true at the top. Maybe nothing world-beating, and definitely thin, but there were still plenty of very fine new and recent films. (And quite a few that still haven't gotten screened here in town.) This is still a pretty good top 25, I think:
1. Carlos (long version) - Olivier Assayas
2. Mother - Bong Joon-ho
3. White Material - Claire Denis
4. Police, Adjective - Corneliu Porumboiu
5. Exit Through the Gift Shop - Banksy
6. The Social Network - David Fincher
7. True Grit - Coen Brothers
8. No One Knows About Persian Cats - Bahman Ghobadi
9. The White Ribbon - Haneke
10. A Film Unfinished - Yael Hersonski
11. House - Obayashi Nobuhiko (took 33 years, but it's a first release, right?)
12. Fish Tank - Andrea Arnold
13. Wild Grass - Alain Resnais
14. Greenberg - Noah Baumbach
15. The Tillman Story - Amir Ben-Lev
16. Vincere - Marco Bellochio
17. I am Love - Luca Guadagnino
18. Bluebeard - Catherine Breillat
19. Anton Chekhov's The Duel - Dover Koshashvili
20. The Ghost Writer - Roman Polanski
21. The Kids Are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko
22. Air Doll - Kore-Eda
23. A Woman A Gun and a Noodle Shop - Zhang Yimou
24. Kick Ass - Matthew Vaughan
25. Catfish - Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost
And - an early crack at a best of 2010 (made in 2010):
1. Carlos
2. Exit Through the Gift Shop
3. The Social Network
4. True Grit
5. A Film Unfinished
6. Greenberg
7. The Tillman Story
8. The Ghost Writer
9. The Kids Are All Right
10. Kick-Ass
The latter I imagine will change dramatically. In fact - since I did not do so last year, here is a retrospective top 25 for 2009, to compare to my first crack at 2009 - the latter (posted here) first:
1. Thirst
2. Bad Lieutenant...
3. A Serious Man
4. Inglourious Basterds
5. The Limits of Control
6. Antichrist
7. The Hurt Locker
8. Moon
9. Beeswax
10. Bright Star
With a year to think about it:
1. Mother
2. Thirst
3. White Material
4. Police, Adjective
5. Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans
6. A Serious Man
7. Limits of Control
8. The Antichrist
9. Inglourious Basterds
10.No One Knows About Persian Cats
11. White Ribbon
12. Eccentricities of a Blonde Haired Girl
13. Fish Tank
14. Wild Grass
15. The Hurt Locker
16. Beeswax
17. 36 Vues du Pic Saint Loup
18. Fantastic Mr. Fox
19. Bright Star
20. Vincere
21. The Informant!
22. Moon
23. I Am Love
24. Bluebeard
25. Up
Enough of that. I complain about it being a bad year for movies, but that's less true at the top. Maybe nothing world-beating, and definitely thin, but there were still plenty of very fine new and recent films. (And quite a few that still haven't gotten screened here in town.) This is still a pretty good top 25, I think:
1. Carlos (long version) - Olivier Assayas
2. Mother - Bong Joon-ho
3. White Material - Claire Denis
4. Police, Adjective - Corneliu Porumboiu
5. Exit Through the Gift Shop - Banksy
6. The Social Network - David Fincher
7. True Grit - Coen Brothers
8. No One Knows About Persian Cats - Bahman Ghobadi
9. The White Ribbon - Haneke
10. A Film Unfinished - Yael Hersonski
11. House - Obayashi Nobuhiko (took 33 years, but it's a first release, right?)
12. Fish Tank - Andrea Arnold
13. Wild Grass - Alain Resnais
14. Greenberg - Noah Baumbach
15. The Tillman Story - Amir Ben-Lev
16. Vincere - Marco Bellochio
17. I am Love - Luca Guadagnino
18. Bluebeard - Catherine Breillat
19. Anton Chekhov's The Duel - Dover Koshashvili
20. The Ghost Writer - Roman Polanski
21. The Kids Are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko
22. Air Doll - Kore-Eda
23. A Woman A Gun and a Noodle Shop - Zhang Yimou
24. Kick Ass - Matthew Vaughan
25. Catfish - Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost
And - an early crack at a best of 2010 (made in 2010):
1. Carlos
2. Exit Through the Gift Shop
3. The Social Network
4. True Grit
5. A Film Unfinished
6. Greenberg
7. The Tillman Story
8. The Ghost Writer
9. The Kids Are All Right
10. Kick-Ass
The latter I imagine will change dramatically. In fact - since I did not do so last year, here is a retrospective top 25 for 2009, to compare to my first crack at 2009 - the latter (posted here) first:
1. Thirst
2. Bad Lieutenant...
3. A Serious Man
4. Inglourious Basterds
5. The Limits of Control
6. Antichrist
7. The Hurt Locker
8. Moon
9. Beeswax
10. Bright Star
With a year to think about it:
1. Mother
2. Thirst
3. White Material
4. Police, Adjective
5. Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans
6. A Serious Man
7. Limits of Control
8. The Antichrist
9. Inglourious Basterds
10.No One Knows About Persian Cats
11. White Ribbon
12. Eccentricities of a Blonde Haired Girl
13. Fish Tank
14. Wild Grass
15. The Hurt Locker
16. Beeswax
17. 36 Vues du Pic Saint Loup
18. Fantastic Mr. Fox
19. Bright Star
20. Vincere
21. The Informant!
22. Moon
23. I Am Love
24. Bluebeard
25. Up
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