Receding From Human Memory

Jesse Walker lists his top ten films for 1950--titles that very few people today remember seeing the first time around.  So if they're still being talked about, doesn't that mean something?

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2020/12/fiftysomething-ive-gone-through-my.html

Here's the list:

1.  Orpheus

2.  Rashomon

3.  Harvey

4.  Sunset Blvd.

5.  Where The Sidewalk Ends

6.  Les Enfants Terribles

7.  Gone To Earth

8.  In A Lonely Place

9.  Night And The City

10.  House By The River

I like Orpheus, though I'm surprised to see it at #1.

Rashomon is one of the most referenced movie titles ever (though I still think people don't get it).  It's also Kurosawa's most overpraised film, though good enough to make the top 10, I suppose.

I like the stage comedy Harvey (which Jimmy Stewart played on Broadway, though Frank Fay originated the lead role), but find the movie version a bit slow and hokey (like so much 1950s comedy). Wouldn't make my list.

Sunset Blvd. (that's what shows onscreen, though it's usually written Sunset Boulevard) is probably Billy Wilder's most overrated film, though still probably good enough to make the top 10.

Where The Sidewalk Ends is a fine film noir--would make my top twenty.

Les Enfants Terribles is a memorable film, if a little tough to take.  It'd probably make my top ten (though the injury in the snowball fight looks pretty silly).

Gone To Earth is minor Powell.

Following a trend, In A Lonely Place is one of Nicholas Ray's most overrated films, but good enough to make a top twenty list.

Night And The City is a classic noir, top ten material.

House By The River is a Lang film I haven't seen yet.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  Stromboli

12.  The Asphalt Jungle

13.  Los Olvidados

14.  Rabbit Of Seville

15.  Winchester '73

16.  La Beaute Du Diable

17.  All About Eve

18.  Story Of A Love Affair

19.  Last Holiday

20.  Devil's Doorway

Been a long time since I saw 11, which I thought was okay but no classic.  Can barely remember it--need to see it again. (It helped destroy Ingrid Bergman's reputation, but that had nothing to do with the film).

12 flips the script--an overrated director making one of his best films. 13, the film that revived Bunuel's career, should be top ten.  14 is an animated short.  15--well, I've been coming around somewhat on the Mann/Stewart westerns, but still don't think this makes the top twenty.

Haven't seen 16 (don't think I've seen anything of Clair's after he returned to France).  17 was the most honored film at the Oscars, but I don't think has aged that well.  Still, enough good stuff that it probably makes the top twenty.

Antonioni was tough on his early films, though 18 was sort of a breakthrough.  I'd still call it minor.  Haven't seen 19 or 20, though I'd like to (especially 19).

Other films I like:

Annie Get Your Gun, At War With The Army, Born Yesterday, Cinderella, Fancy Pants, Gun Crazy, The Gunfighter, My Friend Irma Goes West, Panic In The Streets, La Ronde, Summer Stock, Three Little Words, Variety Lights, Young Man With A Horn

Other films of note:

711 Ocean Drive, Abbott And Costello In The Foreign Legion, The Admiral Was A Lady, Backfire, The Baron Of Arizona, Between Midnight And Dawn, Broken Arrow, Caged, Captain Carey USA, Cheaper By The Dozen, Crisis, Cyrano De Bergerac, Dark City, Destination Moon, D.O.A., Father Of The Bride, The File On Thelmad Jordan, Francis, The Fuller Brush Girl, The Glass Menagerie, The Jackie Robinson Story, Kim, King Solomon's Mines, Kon-Tiki, The Last Days Of Pompeii, Let's Dance, The Magnificent Yankee, The Men, Never A Dull Moment, The Next Voice You Hear..., No Way Out, Riding High, Rio Grande, Samson And Delilah, Stage Fright, Tea For Two, To Joy, Treasure Island, Triple Trouble, Union Station, Wagon Master, The Yellow Cab Man

Predictions For The Year

Outside some specific activity we've been having lately, this blog is still pretty much shut down.  Thus, I won't be giving out year-end awards, or making predictions for 2021.  Above all, there will be no wrap-up of film year 2020--which would have been canceled due to the virus under any circumstances.

However, I did make predictions for 2020 a year ago, so I might as well look back and see how I did.  Overall, no matter how accurate I was otherwise, I missed the big stories (COVID, unrest), so I might as well throw out my crystal ball.

Anyway, here are my guesses, with comments.

Domestic Politics:

The big prediction--Donald Trump will not be reelected.

Got this one right, though perhaps for reasons I didn't have a clue about.  The big unanswered question is what would have happened if there'd been no coronavirus?

Trump will not be removed from office before the election.

If you think all the way back to January, Trump was having an impeachment trial.  I didn't take it seriously, and soon everyone was in on the joke. 

Trump will get another Supreme Court pick.  And the nominee will be seated.

Called that one.

Democrats will hold the House but not take back the Senate.

I'm giving myself this one, even if the Dems manage to get to 50 seats in the Senate, because this prediction is for 2020. (A truly impressive prediction would have been we won't know the answer to this by the end of the year.)

No major bills will pass.

I'd say this is wrong.

There will be no major construction of The Wall.

I'd say this is right.

The requirement citizens have new IDs for air travel will be postponed.

I think I'm wrong about this, but since no one's traveling anyway it doesn't matter much yet.


Supreme Court:

The Supreme Court will punt on transgender rights.

Actually, the Court came down on the side of the LGBTQ community.

If the Second Amendment case is not dropped, the Court will extend gun rights.

The Court didn't hear the case, so I guess this is moot.

The Court will allow tax credits for religious schooling.

Got this one right.

The Court will defer to the Trump administration on DACA.

The Court, 5-4, declared the Trump administration's actions arbitrary and capricious.


International Politics:
 
Brexit will finally go through.

Good call on my part.

Immigration into the U.S. will not slow down.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think it did, though for reasons I couldn't foresee.

There will be a major terrorist attack in Europe.

True, though so much was going on in the world it was hard to notice.

The Economy:

The Dow will be lower than where it is now by the end of the year.

It sure looked like this would happen, but the Dow managed to rebound and is higher than it was. Hope you didn't keep your money in a mattress.

Unemployment will be up by the end of the year.

Sure is, but not for any reason I could have guessed.  Unemployment was doing just fine, under 4%, and then due to the virus and the lockdown, jumped to around 15%. It's been going down since, but is still somewhere between 6 and 7%.
 

Sports: 

Tom Brady will retire

He's like the Energizer Bunny.

Gong out on a limb here--Clemson will beat LSU. (A week ago I predicted Ohio State would not be the top college team, but that's already been proved right.)

LSU won.  Seems like a decade ago.

The Wolverines will lose no more than two games in the Big Ten.

Even with a shortened season they managed to lose four games.


Popular Culture:

Movies:

The crystal ball is very cloudy on the Oscars.

Best Picture--The Irishman because they're not sure what else to do

They spread the wealth pretty wide this year, but The Irishman was the one major film that went home empty-handed. Parasite won four Oscars, including this one.

Best Actor--in a highly competitive category, Joaquin Phoenix will best Adam Driver

Called it

Best Actress--Renee Zellweger will take it over Charlize Theron, Cynthia Erivo, Lupita Nyong'o and Scarlett Johansson

Called it, though Saoirse Ronan was nominated, leaving Lupita in the cold.

Best Supporting Actor--Brad Pitt will finally win an acting Oscar, beating out his competition from The Irishman

Called it

Best Supporting Actress--Very close, but it's between Jennifer Lopez and Laura Dern, with the former emerging as winner

Laura Dern ended up winning.  Jennifer Lopez wasn't even nominated.

Best Director--Noah Baumbach will surprise over Martin Scorsese

Baumbach wasn't even nominated, so it was left to Bong Joon-ho to surprise everyone with his victory.

Best Foreign Film--Parasite

Since it won Best Picture, this award was pretty much redundant.

Television:

James Holzhauer will win the Greatest Of All Time Jeopardy! tournament.

Old reliable Ken Jennings won.  Holzhauer blew it so badly in the last game that some suspected this sports gambler had bet against himself.

HBO will not have a show that replaces the popularity of Game Of Thrones.

The final season of GOT was averaging domestically total viewers numbers over 15 million.  By comparison, the latest season of Westworld had total viewers somewhere between one and two million, and Succession's numbers were even lower.

The average rating for the four networks combined will go down.

There was an uptick in March and April, when the pandemic hit, but then the numbers continued to decline. The Big Four lost about 10% of their viewership. (Though it was a good year for news channels.)

Little Did They Know...

Consider this: we're as far from 1960 as 1960 was from 1900.  I don't know, seems like a big deal.

The late 50s/early 60s was an amazing time for world cinema, though it took Hollywood about a decade to catch up. Anyway, Jesse Walker has just released his top ten film list from 1960.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2020/12/one-cheer-for-mr.html

Here it is:

1.  The Apartment

2.  Cruel Story Of Youth

3.  Psycho

4.  La Dolce Vita

5.  The Little Shop Of Horrors

6.  Le Trou

7.  Peeping Tom

8.  The Virgin Spring

9.  The Young One

10.  The Housemaid

Lot of horror on this list.

For years I've considered The Apartment (closely followed by Sunset Boulevard) to be Billy Wilder's most overrated film. Still do, I guess, but I've come to appreciate it more, and I can't argue with it being on a top ten list, though #1 is too high. (I've seen it recently. Has it become a Christmas film?)

Had a chance to see Cruel Story Of Youth recently, but missed it.  I'll get around to it one of these days. Also haven't see Le Trou and The Housemaid.

After a bunch of glorious Technicolor thrillers, Hitchcock started the 60s with a low-budget black and white horror film that could have been a long episode of his TV show but turned out to be a blockbuster.  And it's quite good.  Top ten good, even.

La Dolce Vita, as I've noted before, was a turning point for Fellini--and not necessarily a good one.  He was moving from realistic films to full-blown (and often tiresome) surrealism.  But it still has enough of the old magic, mixed with a modern feel--new to him--to hold up. (Was also a huge hit--maybe because people heard it was dirty.)

Considering how quickly and cheaply it was made, it's a minor miracle that The Little Shop Of Horrors is so good.

Peeping Tom is an intriguing (and good-looking) film, but perhaps overrated because it unfairly destroyed Michael Powell's career.

The Virgin Spring is not one of my favorite Bergmans. He was about to have a breakthrough in style and subject matter, but this wasn't it.

The Young One is minor (and English) Bunuel.  I need to see it again, but right now it would make my top twenty.

Here's Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  Testament Of Orpheus

12.  Shoot The Piano Player

13.  Comanche Station

14.  Purple Noon

15.  Village Of The Damned

16.  Rocco And His Brothers

17.  Tunes Of Glory

18.  The Thousand Eys Of Dr. Mabuse

19.  Jigoku

20.  Breathless

Following the trend of the top ten, this list features second-class work from first-class directors, such as 11, 16 (I don't mind Rocco, but do we need to see ALL his brothers) and 18.

12 should be top ten--Truffaut made three classics in a row at the start of his career, and this one is the most fun. 13 is pretty good--in the last ten years I've caught up with Boetticher's westerns which are minor but enjoyable. 14 and 15 would make my top twenty.  17 (which I saw again last month) has a memorable performance from Alec Guinness, but mostly leaves me cold.  19 is another memorable horror film, probably top twenty.  20 is as emblematic a nouvelle vague film as exists, but I might rate it even lower than Jesse.

Other films I like, at least in part:

L'Avventura (if you see just one Antonioni--which might be a good idea--this is the one), The Bad Sleep Well, The Bellboy, Devi, Eyes Without A Face (a horror film Jesse missed), Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, Zazie Dans Le Metro (perhaps too much of a good thing)

Other films of note:

The Alamo, All The Fine Young Cannibals, Beat Girl, The Beatniks, Because They're Young, Bells Are Ringing, Les Bonnes Femmes, Breath Of Scandal, The Brides Of Dracula, BUtterfield 8, Can-Can, Carry On Constable, Cash McCall, Cinderfella, The City Of The Dead, College Confidential, The Day They Robbed The Bank Of England, Elmer Gantry, The Entertainer, Exodus, From The Terrace, G. I. Blues, The Gallant Hours, Gangster Story, Heller In Pink Tights, The Hole, House Of Usher, Inherit The Wind, It Started In Naples, Let's Get Married, Let's Make Love, The Magnificent Seven, Make Mine Mink, The Millionairess, Murder Inc., Never On Sunday, Night And Fog In Japan, North To Alaska, Ocean's 11, Pepe, Please Don't Eat The Daisies, Pollyanna, The Rat Race, Sergeant Rutledge, Sex Kittens Go To College, Spartacus, Stop Look And Laugh, Strangers When We Meet, The Sundowners, Sunrise At Campobello, Swiss Family Robinson, Tall Story, Visit To A Small Planet, The Three Worlds Of Gulliver, The Time Machine, Two Women, The Wackiest Ship In The Army, Where The Boys Are, Who Was That Lady?, The World Of Suzie Wong

The Dawn Of An Era

By the 1970s, Hollywood had thrown off the shackles of the Code and started making serious films with adult subjects.  The heyday of such films as major studio releases didn't last the decade, but it was a special time.

Let's imagine we're still in 1970, and no one knows what will happen next.  Jesse Walker has a top ten list for that year.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-year-your-humble-blogger-was-born.html

Here it is:

1.  Five Easy Pieces

2.  MASH

3.  Gimme Shelter

4.  Le Boucher

5.  The Honeymoon Killers

6.  Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion

7.  Hospital

8.  Bed And Board

9.  The Conformist

10.  Le Cercle Rouge

Five Easy Pieces certainly announces Jack Nicholson is a star.  It'd probably make my top ten list, though at times the film seems as aimless as the protagonist.

MASH, the surprise blockbuster that made Robert Altman (and broke a lot of people who bankrolled him through the rest of the decade), is top ten material.

Gimme Shelter is a compelling documentary by the Maysles.  Really nothing quite like it.  Hospital is another fascinating doc by Wiseman about an institution.

I still haven't seen Le Boucher, though I plan too.

I don't think much of The Honeymoon Killers.  I don't mind the low budget--in fact, if this weren't low budget, I don't think it would be have a cult.

Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion is pretty good, and I, like Jesse, place it above The Conformist.

Bed And Board is minor, though enjoyable, Truffaut.  I'd put Le Cercle Rouge above it.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  La Rupture

12.  Claire's Knee

13.  Woodstock

14.  Chicken Real

15.  Wanda

16.  Donkey Skin

17.  Tristana

18.  Deep End

19.  Little Big Man

20.  Original Cast Album: Company

Lotta French films in the top 20 this year.

Alas, I haven't seen 11, 14, 16 or 18.  12 would make my top ten, and I'm sorry to see it's dropped out of Jesse's.  13 is well shot and captures a major event, though it's a bit long.  Probably top twenty material.  15 I can also see in the top twenty.  17 might make it into my top ten.  I was going to say 19 hasn't aged well, but was it that good to begin with?  20 might make my top ten, though it helps I'm a big fan of the show, and the album.  (It's also been parodied well on Documentary Now!)

Here are some other films from the year I like, at least in part:

Airport (perhaps the most influential film of the year), The Boys In The Band, Diary Of A Mad Housewife, Even Dwarfs Started Small, Hi Mom (particularly the "Be Black Baby" sequence, which I used to think was a left-wing guerilla theatre fantasy, but I now realize is straightforward documentary), Joe, Let It Be, Multiple Maniacs, The Rise And Rise Of Michael Rimmer, Start The Revolution With Me, The Twelve Chairs, Where's Poppa?

Other films of interest:

Alex In Wonderland, The Angel Levine, The Aristocats, The Baby Maker, The Ballad Of Cable Hogue, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, Bloody Mama, The Boatniks, Brewster McCloud, Catch-22, Chariots Of The Gods, The Cheyenee Social Club, Chisum, The Christine Jorgensen Story, Le Cochon, Cockeyed Cowboys Of Calico County, Cottom Comes To Harlem, Cromwell, Darling Lili, Dirty Dingus Magee, Elvis: That's The Way It Is, The End Of The Road, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, The Garden Of The Fitzi-Continis, Getting Straight, The Go-Between, The Great White Hope, Hercules In New York, House Of Dark Shadows, Husbands, I Love My Wife, I Never Sang For My Father, I Walk The Line, Kelly's Heroes, The Landlord, The Liberation Of L.B. Jones, Little Fauss And Big Halsy, The Little Theater Of Jean Renoir, The Longest Most Meaningless Movie In The World (if you've got two days to spare), Lovers And Other Strangers, Loving (amazing ending), The Lustful Vicar, A Man Called Horse, Le Mans, The Music Lovers, Myra Breckinridge, Ned Kelly, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Only Game In Town, The Out-of-Towners, The Owl And The Pussycat, Patton, The Penal Colony, Performance, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes, Pufnstuf, Quackser Fortune Has A Cousin In The Bronx, Rabbit Run, Rio Lobo, Ryan's Daughter, Scrooge, Sometimes A Great Notion (great scene for Richard Jaeckel), The Strawberry Statement, Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon, ...tick...tick...tick..., El Topo, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Trash, Two Mules For Sister Sara, WUSA, Watermelon Man, What Do You Say To A Naked Lady?, Which Way To The Front?, What Does Herr R. Run Amok?, The Wild Child, Zabriskie Point

Go-Go-Gone

Just what you were hoping for on Christmas, a new top ten list from Jesse Walker.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2020/12/happy-xmas-lists-arent-over-ive-listed.html

This time it's the best of 1980.  A good time to be alive.  (I'm just saying that.  Generally it's better to be alive than not.)

Here's the list:

1.  Mon Oncle d'Amerique

2.  Melvin And Howard

3.  The Long Good Friday

4.   UFOria

5.  The Stunt Man

6.   Bronco Billy

7.   Kagemusha

8.  The Falls

9.  Raging Bull

10.  The Shining

Some good stuff here, some not so good stuff.

Mon Oncle d'Amerique and Kagemusha are okay but far from the best from these directors.

Melvin And Howard would make my top ten list.  So would The Stunt Man.  The Long Good Friday would make my top twenty.

Haven't seen UFOria (though it sounds like fun) or The Falls (which sounds interesting).

As for the rest...

I'm not a big Clint Eastwood fan, but Bronco Billy is poor even for him.

Raging Bull is another "classic" that mystifies me--as I've noted before, a better title would be Two Pointless Hours With A Lout.

The Shining was a disappointment when released, but has since become a classic.  While it looks great, and has some memorable moments, taken as a whole, the first reaction was closer to the truth.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  Bad Timing

12.  Atlantic City

13.  Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers

14.  The Last Metro

15.  Bye Bye Brazil

16.  Airplane!

17.  Out Of The Blue

18.  The Ninth Configuration

19.  Ashes To Ashes

20.  The Blues Brothers

Haven't seen 11, 13, 17 or 18.  19 is a music video.

12 would make my top ten list (and be at or near the #1 spot--saw it last week and it still holds up).  14 and 15 are okay.  16 would make my top ten list.  20 has some nice musical performances, but isn't much of a film.

Here are some other movies that would have made my top ten (or twenty):

Dressed To Kill

The Elephant Man

The Empire Strikes Back (still surprised not to see it after all these years)

Return Of The Secaucus 7

Stardust Memories (which keeps going up in my estimation, the more bad movies Woody makes)

Superman II

Here are some other films I liked (at least in part):

Breaker Morant, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, Carny, Altered States, Where The Buffalo Roam, The Gods Must Be Crazy, The Gong Show Movie, Health, Used Cars, Hero At Large, Private Benjamin, Flash Gordon, From Mao To Mozart: Isaac Stern In China, The Life And Times Of Rosie The Riveter, Seems Like Old Times, Spetters, Serial

Other films of interest:

American Gigolo, Any Which Way You Can (Eastwood's better movie of the year?), The Big Brawl, The Apple, The Big Red One, The Blue Lagoon, Brubaker, Caddyshack (another disappointment turned into a classic), Can't Stop The Music, Cannibal Holocaust, Cheech & Chong's Next Movie, City Of Women, Coal Miner's Daughter, Coast To Coast, The Competition, Cruising (like to see how this looks today), Divine Madness, D.O.A., Don't Answer The Phone, Fame, The Fiendish Plot Of Dr. Fu Manchu, The Fog, The Formula, Foxes (just watched it last week), Friday The 13th, From The Life Of The Marionettes, Galaxina, Gilda Live, Gloria, Gnomes, He Knows You're Alone, Heaven's Gate, The Hollywood Knights, Honeysuckle Rose, Hopscotch (watched it last month), How To Beat The High Cost Of Living, The Idolmaker, In God We Trust, Inside Moves, It's My Turn, Just Tell Me What You Want, Karl Hess: Toward Liberty, The Last Married Couple In America, Little Darlings, The Long Riders, Loose Shoes, McVicar, The Mirror Crack'd, My Bodyguard, Nijinsky, Nine To Five, The Nude Bomb, One Trick Pony, Ordinary People, Popeye, Prom Night, Roadie, Rockshow, Rough Cut, Rude Boy, Simon, Sitting Ducks, A Small Circle Of Friends, Somewhere In Time, Stir Crazy, Terror Train, That Sinking Feeling, Times Square (just watched it last month--what a weird film), Tom Horn, Tribute, Union City, Up The Academy, Urban Cowboy, Wholly Moses!, Willie & Phil

The Negligible Nineties

Jesse Walker has made it back to 1990.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-late-gorby-era-ive-told-you-my.html

Communism was falling, but what about Hollywood?

Here's his top ten movie list:

1.  Miller's Crossing

2.  Ju Dou

3.  The Reflecting Skin

4.  An Angel At My Table

5.  The Ear

6.  Jacob's Ladder

7.  Europa Europa

8.  The Nasty Girl

9.  Sink Or Swim

10.  Metropolitan

I'm not exactly surprised, since Jesse made a 1990 list 10 years ago and it had many of the same titles.  And now he'll feel a bit of deja vu when I reply a lot like I did 10 years ago.

First, Miller's Crossing.  That it has a reputation mystifies me.  This is probably the worst Coen Brothers films.  I tried to watch it again a couple years ago and all I can say is the film hasn't grown.

I like Ju Dou--would probably make my top ten. Haven't seen The Reflecting Skin.  An Angel At My Table is okay, but I don't love it.  Haven't seen The Ear.

While Miller's Crossing has a reputation, no one I know but Jesse likes Jacob's Ladder.  Ghost is far better.  I remember when it came out one critic compared it to root canal.  That sounds about right.  It's best seen as an infomercial for chiropractors.

Europa Europa deserves a spot in the top ten.  From what I remember of The Nasty Girl I think it would make my top twenty. Haven't seen Sink or Swim.

I can't neutrally discuss Metropolitan since it stars Taylor Nichols, an old friend of mine from college. And I've since come to know the director and some of the cast.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  Paris Is Burning

12.  King Of New York

13.  To Sleep With Anger

14.  Goodfellas

15.  Quick Change

16.  Miami Blues

17.  No Fear, No Die

18.  The Freshman

19.  Close-Up

20.  Gremlins 2: The New Batch

I think this list is better than his top ten.  Haven't seen 17 or 19.  Like, in varying degrees, 12, 13, 16 and 18.  The rest would make my top ten.

Here are a couple other films that would make my top ten:

Life Is Sweet

The Match Factory Girl

Some other films I liked (at least in part):

Tremors, The Witches, The Grifters, Back To The Future III, Edward Scissorhands, House Party, Hamlet (starring Mel Gibson), Berkeley In The Sixties, Bullet In The Head, Cry-Baby, Joe Versus The Volcano, Wild At Heart, Longtime Companion, Reversal Of Fortune, Total Recall, Trust, The Krays, Daddy Nostalgie, Pump Up The Volume, A Chinese Ghost Story II

Other films of interest:

The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane, American Dream, Avalon, Awakenings, The Bonfire Of The Vanities, Dances With Wolves, Dick Tracy, Die Hard 2, Eating, Ghost (the stuff with Whoopi Goldberg is pretty good), Green Card, Home Alone, The Hunt For Red October, The Godfather III (it's been redone, but nothing can fix the central rot), Havana, Henry & June, La Femme Nikita, Men Don't Leave, Misery, Mo' Better Blues (Wesley Snipes is good), Mountains Of The Moon, Mr. And Mrs. Bridge, Narrow Margin, Opportunity Knocks, Pacific Heights, Postcards From The Edge, Presumed Innocent, Pretty Woman, Problem Child, Q & A, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, The Sheltering Sky, Texasville (which captured a mood well), Troll 2 (which Jesse makes note of), Truly Madly Deeply, Where The Hearts Is, White Hunter Black Heart, Without You I'm Nothing, Young Guns II

In The Year 2000

Jesse Walker has just put up his top ten film list for 2000.  Hard to believe that was 20 years ago.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2020/12/its-end-end-of-century-over-weekend-i.html

Here they are:

1. The Gleaners & I

2.  Yi Yi

3.  You Can Count On Me

4.  Dark Days

5.  Rejected

6.  High Fidelity

7.  Memento

8.  Sexy Beast

9.  Almost Famous

10.  Code Unknown

Unlike the 2010 list, I haven't seen any of these lately.

The Gleaners & I is pretty good, though I don't think #1 good.

Yi Yi is okay, but I like You Can Count On Me better.

Dark Days is also okay, though not top ten.

Rejected is a short. Maybe the best short of the past 20 years, but does it belong on this list?

Loved High Fidelity, would make my top ten.

Memento is flawed but ingenious.  Interesting enough in conception to make the top ten, I suppose.

Sexy Beast is minor, if enjoyable, mostly made by Ben Kingsley's performance.

I don't like Almost Famous.  Maybe I would have liked it more if it weren't so badly cast.

I'm not much of a fan of Haneke, though Code Unknown is one of his better films.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions.

11. Panic

12. Wonder Boys

13.  Brave New World

14.  Amores Perros

15.  Buffy The Vampire Slayer 4

16.  The Heart Of The World

17.  Faithless

18.  Gangster No. 1

19.  Tragos

20. Unbreakable

Haven't seen 11, 13, 17, 18 and 19.

I wanted to like 12, but it just wasn't there.  14 would make my top ten.  15 is a TV series.  You can't put TV series on movie lists--that way anarchy lies.  16 is a short.  20 is okay--not Shyamalan's lost classic, or anything like that.

Here are some other films that would make my top ten:

Battle Royale

Best In Show

Chicken Run

Dancer In The Dark

George Washington

Here are some others I liked to one degree or another:

Bring It On, In The Mood For Love, Italian For Beginners, Me Myself And Irene (though nowhere near as good as There's Something About Mary), The Emperor's New Groove, O Brother Where Are Thou?, Quills, Space Cowboys, The Specials, The Tao Of Steve, Traffic

Here are some others that at least had redeeming parts:

Billy Elliot, Cast Away, Chocolat, Dude Where's My Car?, Duets, Erin Brockovich, The Family Man, Fantasia 2000, Frequency, Pollock, Small Time Crooks, Songcatcher, What Lies Beneath, What Planet Are You From?

I won't list all the films I didn't like, but here are some that made a splash:

Mission: Impossible II, X-Men, Meet The Parents, Gladiator, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Perfect Storm, What Women Want, Nurse Betty, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

2010 (The Movie Year, Not The Movie)

I'm putting up a new post, though it's hard enough to even open up the Blogger template and attempt it.  And further, I doubt anyone checks out Pajama Guy any more, since we've been silent for over a month.

But it's the time of year when my friend Jesse Walker puts out his decade by decade lists, looking back, of the top ten films of the certain years.  This being 2020 (and don't we know it), he's starting out with a top ten list of the best films of 2010. A fine year--though we'll see what Jesse thinks.

Since I'm not sure how to link any more, I'll just spell out his url:

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2020/12/my-annual-movie-thingie-i-have-no-idea.html

Here's the list, followed by my comments.  Sorry, I still can't figure out how to embed photos. 

Top Ten:

1. True Grit

2. Tabloid

3. Toy Story 3

4. Winter's Bone

5.  Meek's Cutoff

6.  Four Lions

7.  Marwencol

8.  Essential Killing

9.  Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

10.  The Kids Are Alright

A pretty good list.  Just by chance I watched #1 and #4 in the past few days.

True Grit is top ten.  It's got great dialogue, which I though was from the Coen's, but I've been informed comes from the novel.

Tabloid is at least top twenty.  Toy Story 3 I like, though I wasn't as knocked out as a lot of people--I see diminishing returns in the series.

Jennifer Lawrence has become such a big star it's hard to believe she was an unknown when Winter's Bone came out.  A fascinating look at life in the Ozarks (though I wonder how the people who live there feel about the portrayal).

Kelly Reichardt's First Cow just won the New York film critics award for best film of 2020.  It's one of the few films I saw in a theatre this year.  Reichardt came out afterward and the interviewer told her he loved how she ended her films. She replied the company that put out her DVDs would regularly get complaints that the disc was defective since the ending was missing. She's was probably referring to Meek's Cutoff--still one of her best.

Didn't see Four Lions.  Didn't see Marwencol, though I did see the awful adaptation starring Steve Carrell. Didn't see Essential Killing.

Lot of great stuff in Scott Pilgrim, but it's still pretty empty and I still think the lead is miscast.

The Kids Are Alright would probably make my top ten.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  Greenberg.

12.  Inception

13.  Kick-Ass

14.  Carlos

15.  Exit Through The Gift Shop

16.  And Everything Is Going Fine

17.  The Secret World Of Arrietty.

18.  Black Swan

19.  Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

20.  Down Home Music

I thought 11 was horrible.  12 still doesn't make any sense, but still works--maybe even top ten.  13 might be my #1 film of the year.  Didn't think much of 14.  15 would compete with 13 for #1 film of the year.  Didn't see 16.  I like 17. 18 is overdone and tiresome.  Haven't seen 19 and 20.

Because I've written about 2010 in the past, I was able to pull up lists of films from that year--otherwise, not sure I could have pulled it off.

So here are some other films that would have made my top ten:

3 Idiots.  (Apparently it was released in Asia in 2009, but I saw it in America in 2010).  A huge Bollywood hit that gives you everything you could want in a movie in its three hours, and I mean everything--people in India expect a lot for their money. Another film fighting for the #1 spot.

City Island (which I also watched this past week--once again, some say it's from 2009 but it was released in regular theatres in 2010). A small comedy from Andy Garcia that no one seems to know about but I find a delight.

Easy A (though maybe I'm an easy grader on this one).

Tangled (my favorite Disney animated feature of the 21st century, and another potential #1 for the year)

Here are are a few more that might make my top twenty:

Despicable Me, Dogtooth, How To Train Your Dragon, Jackass 3, Rabbit Hole, Solitary Man, Somewhere (which I watched two weeks ago)

Here are some other films I thought were good.  Let me start with two that won lots of awards but Jesse doesn't go for, The King's Speech and The Social Network.  Then there's Blue Valentine, The Ghost Writer, The Illusionist, Another Year, Leap Year, 127 Hours, Nowhere Boy, Megamind, RED (which I watched earlier this month), The Town, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, Please Give, When You're Strange, For The Love Of Movies: The History Of American Film Criticism (which I just watched last week, and which they say was made in 2007, but which wasn't available to see until 2010, at least for me). I also sort of liked Youth In Revolt, and at least didn't hate critically reviled How Do You Know?, Gulliver's Travels and Due Date

Here are some films that were okay, but not great:  Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Rare Exports, Animal Kingdom, The Fighter (some people really loved this one), The Next Three Days, Faster, Unstoppable, Let Me In, Secretariat, Takers, Mesrine (parts 1 and 2), The Other Guys, Salt, The Infidel, Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work, Smash His Camera, Get Him To The Greek, The Joneses, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Secret Of Kells, The Runaways, Daybreakers

Here are films I didn't like, and in a few cases despised:  Alice In Wonderland, Death At A Funeral, Legion, Hereafter, I Love You Philip Morris, Love And Other Drugs (bait and switch--seems to be a romantic comedy, but is actually about a young women suffering from an illness), Made In Dagenham, Morning Glory, The Switch, Life During Wartime (I had hopes), The Trotsky, Knight And Day, Cyrus (I'm glad mumblecore seems to be gone), Splice, MacGruber, Behind The Burly Q, Hot Tub Time Machine (though it's become a cult film), She's Out Of My League, Cop Out, Shutter Island, The Lovely Bones, Edge Of Darkness, The Book Of Eli, Little Fockers, The Wolfman, Clash Of The Titans, The Expendables, Grown Ups, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Micmacs, Iron Man 2, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Harry Potter And Whatever (first half of the last film)