A Decade Ago Already?
Hey, guess what--this blog, otherwise defunct, still apparently posts when Jesse Walker has his year-end top ten film lists. What are they? Well, he looks back ten years ago, then twenty, then thirty, and so on, at the top films of those years. And for quite a while we here at Pajama Guy have been posting his lists and commenting on them.
This blog died over a year ago when the template changed and it was too much trouble to post new items. I have to admit there were times I missed discussing some topic (for example, never got to say goodbye to Stephen Sondheim).
So here we go with Jesse. Since we don't have any regular readers these days, I don't know how many will see this, but if you do feel free to spread the word. (And since I have trouble linking, here's Jesse's url: https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-year-world-ended-let-other-blogs.html)
Here's his top ten list for 2011:
1. We Need to Talk About Kevin
Jesse doesn't think 2011 was much of a year, and I agree. And this is not a particularly inspiring top ten list.
I actually haven't gotten around to seeing a number of these films--1, 3, 7 and 9 (I've had numerous chances to see 9 but still haven't managed). I think I've seen 10, but I'm actually not sure (which perhaps tells you something about 10).
As for the others, 2 is pretty special (and I guess you could call it a feature). 4 was fun, though not top ten. 5 is modern gothic, and not bad, but not top ten. 6 didn't do it for me--I kept wishing it was better. 8 would make my top ten.
Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:
20. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Here are some other films that would make my top twenty:
Bill Cunningham New York
Crazy, Stupid, Love
The Guard
Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol
Sarah's Key
Submarine
Tabloid
Win Win
Here are other films of 2011 I liked:
Source Code, Blank City, Jane Eyre, Cameraman: The Life And Work Of Jack Cardiff, Everything Must Go, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Help, Littlerock, Contagion, Hugo, My Week With Marilyn, Corman's World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel, Buck, X-Men: First Class, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, Attack The Block
Other films of note:
Season Of The Witch, The Green Hornet, The Dilemma, The Mechanic, Super, Tron Legacy, Atlas Shrugged: Part 1, Fast Five, Water For Elephants, Hop, The Hangover 2, Beginners, Super 8, Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Rio, Cars 2, Larry Crowne, Page One: Inside The New York Times, Kung Fu Panda 2, Cowboys & Aliens, Puncture, The Ides Of March, Toast, The Women On The Sixth Floor, Tower Heist, Killer Elite, In Time, Real Steel, The Artist, Young Adult, Barney's Version, Jumping The Broom, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Rite, The Ledge, Puss In Boots, A Dangerous Method, War Horse, Pariah, Red Riding Hood, The Eagle, Sucker Punch, The Iron Lady, Arthur, Just Go With It, Rango, Green Lantern, The Change-Up, J. Edgar, Jack And Jill, Melancholia, Cedar Rapids, Hall Pass, Bridesmaids, The People Vs. George Lucas, 13 Assassins, Terri, Take Shelter, Le Havre, Unknown, Adjustment Bureau, Take Me Home Tonight, Limitless, I Am Number Four, The Lincoln Lawyer, Paul, Battle: Los Angeles, Hanna, Thor, The Robber, Midnight In Paris, The Trip, Bad Teacher, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2, Horrible Bosses, 30 Minutes Or Less, Red State, Sholem Aleichem: Laughing In The Darkness, The Hedgehog, The Debt, Moneyball, 50/50, Margin Call, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, The Descendants, Gnomeo And Juliet, The Sitter, Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect And The Painter, The Adventures of Tintin, Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, We Bought A Zoo
posted by LAGuy @ 1:00 PM
7 Comments:
You know, the only one of your alternate top 20 that I've seen is Tabloid. It made my list last year. (I think this is one of those movies that was getting festival screenings a year before it went into general release, so there's two different options for a release date.)
At some point I did see the beginning of Crazy, Stupid, Love, but evidently it didn't hook me.
I haven't seen CSL since. Wonder how it holds up?
I've seen 2, 4, 6, 11, 15, 17 and 20. Loved everything will be okay when I saw it at a short film festival in '07 or '08, but the complete trilogy underwhelmed me. Worth a re-watch though. I saw the Muppets at the multiplex in Silver Springs and then walked a few blocks over to the AFI to see the original right afterwards. Was pleasantly surprised by it at the time but sitting through it again (and again) with my Toddler in early pandemic it didn't hold up. The are you a Man or a Muppet bit was pretty good, and the sequel (Most Wanted) is still pretty good even after repeat viewings. Liked Bernie a lot, would watch again, but it feels a little slight for top ten, and the fact that it's on mine shows what a relatively weak year it is. I liked the beginning of Drive but not much else. Tree of Life was great except for the visual cliche of everyone standing around on a pristine beach as a representation of the afterlife. Or maybe it's just a cliche because Malick has exerted such a massive influence on the quotidian visual culture. For a while there I felt like a hefty chunk the tv ads I saw were drawing from either him or Wong Kar-Wai. Rise of the Apes was a decent blockbuster. I think Weta was involved in the effects which helped a lot.
1. The Guard
2. The Tree of Life
3. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
4. Super 8
5. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
6. The Raid: Redemption
7. Bernie
8. The Immortals
9. This Must Be the Place
10. The Lincoln Lawyer
I can get up to twenty without thinking any of them are bad but there's some definite filler.
Rango
Amigo (lesser Sayles and is really just an excision from his excellent novel A Moment in the Sun, but still worthwhile)
Collaborator
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Contagion
Adventures of Tintin
It's such a beautiful day
The Green Hornet
Blackthorn
From the other things listed by LA Guy I most want to see the Cardiff documentary. Think I have The Trip (the Steve Coogan comedy?) on my list for 2010 but if we're counting it as 2011 it would be somewhere in my top 3, maybe number 1.
Oops cut off at number 20, which was The Deathly Hallows Part 2.
Good to see some comments up on the old blog. Though man did I hate Rango.
By the way, the top ten for 2001 just went up.
You know, I originally had Rango in my top 10 but thought "haven't seen it in 10 years, remember it being kind of pretentiously homage-y" and bumped it down. Post Toy Story 2 I was starting to have some serious Pixar fatigue (which lasts to this day) and the only real alternative in big budget animation were the rare Zemmeckises. Rango felt a bit different, so I may have overrated it at the time. Or maybe not. I'm kind of curious to see it again.
Rango is godawful. As LAGuy might remember, we have mutual friend/colleague in the cast. Knowing and liking a cast member would generally give me a predisposition to like a film. In this case, apparently it was a rebuttable predisposition. Which was rebutted. Completely.
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