Ten Years After

Wake up, everyone!  This blog comes out of hibernation in the winter (that can't be right) to discuss my friend Jesse Walker's top ten movie lists.  Not for 2023, but looking back ten years, then twenty, then thirty and so on until they weren't making movies.  So please take some time off from opening gifts and give it a look.

Because I'm not sure how to do anything on this template anymore, I will simply print out Jesse's URL so you can go to the original:

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-bakers-coven-i-havent-seen-enough.html

Here is his top ten for 2013:

1. Her

2. The Wind Rises

3. Computer Chess

4. Inside Llewyn Davis

5. Enemy

6. Ida

7. Stoker

8. The East

9. Orphan Black

10. The Wolf Of Wall Street

An interesting list, though I have some strong disagreements.  Such as #1.

I didn't like Her at all. I thought it took over two hours to tell a minor story that could have been handled in a short. While there were some interesting things in it, I thought very little of the script, which is why awarding Spike Jonze the Best Screenplay Oscar seemed to me one of the worst decisions the Academy ever made.

The Wind Rises is minor Miyazaki (not unlike his film out now), but still pretty good.

Computer Chess is an odd little film that few have seen.  It would make my top ten.

Inside Llewyn Davis has some great things in it: the sets and costumes, some of the acting, some of the dialogue.  But I'm still not sure if I get the point of showing a few depressing days in the life of a loser.

Enemy is another odd little film (not as little as Computer Chess, but perhaps odder) which I think has aged quite well.  Would probably make my top twenty.

Ida was a well-done depressing film. (And it was under 90 minutes.  If you're going to be depressing, don't overstay your welcome.) By the way, just because you can make your film in black and white doesn't mean you should.

To my surprise, I didn't see Stoker.

My biggest disagreement is with The East, which I thought was one of the most annoying films of the year.  Though my filmgoing experience was very exciting, since after the movie a fight almost broke out in the theatre (not over the film, though).

Orphan Black is a TV series, and thus shouldn't be on the list.

The Wolf Of Wall Street is sort of Scorsese transferring Goodfellas to the fiduciary world.  A bit overdone, but fun.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. Before Midnight

12. The Americans

13. 12 Years A Slave

14. Snowpiercer

15. Mood Indigo

16. Frozen

17. Upstream Color

18. Twenty Feet From Stardom

19. American Reflexxx

20. Skinner Box Head

11 is the third in Linklater's Before trilogy.  I skipped it. Perhaps I should give it a chance.

12 is a TV series.

13 won the Oscar for Best Picture, and I recall is pretty good--one of the best films about the horrors of slavery--though I've never felt the need to revisit it, so I don't know how well it holds up.

14 I liked quite a bit.  A great concept, with built-in surprises. (As in The East, the politics are pretty silly, but I don't judge films by their politics--a good rule in general when it comes to Bong Joon Ho.)

Haven't seen 15 (though Michael Gondry, for all his shortcomings, often does interesting work).

16 is one of the hugest films ever to come from Disney, and Anna and Elsa are as important to their brand as almost any other characters, but let's forget that and remember it all started as a very entertaining cartoon.

17 would make my top ten.  There's good confusing and bad confusing, and this is the former.  No one can get more bang for the buck than Shane Carruth (who apparently has personal problems so won't be making more films).

18 was perhaps the most entertaining documentary of the year.

19 is a short.  20 is a GIF.  So it's come to this.

Other films that would make my top ten (or twenty):

American Hustle (people seemed to have turned on it, but I recall it as very entertaining)

AKA Doc Pomus

Dallas Buyer's Club (though flawed)

Enough Said

Gravity (another film people have turned on)

Happy People: A Year In The Taiga

In The House (Dans La Maison)

Monster's University (liked it better than the first one)

No

Our Nixon

Room 237

Rush

The Sapphires

Warm Bodies

Other films I liked:

Play Dead, Side Effects, Sound City, The Croods, The Way Way Back, Captain Phillips, Kill Your Darlings, Philomena, Saving Mr. Banks (though the flashbacks slowed the story down)

Other films of interest:

John Dies At The End, Oz The Great And Powerful, Olympus Has Fallen, Wrong, It's A Disaster, Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries And Mentors Of Ricky Jay, Now You See Me, 42, This Is The End, Epic, Blue Jasmine, We're The Millers, When Comedy Went To School, The World's End, Pacific Rim, Afternoon Delight, Bad Grandpa, All Is Lost, The Ackermonster Chronicles, The Hobbit: The Desolution Of Smaug (not bad considering the first film was just awful), Jack The Giant Killer, Thor 2, Dhoom 3, Wrong Cops, Struck By Lightning, Movie 43 (so disgusting it's almost worth seeing), The Last Stand, Parker, Bullet To The Head, Admission, Identity Thief, A Good Day To Die Hard, Gangster Squad, Snitch, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Adventures Of Serial Buddies, Spring Breakers (though James Franco was something), Somebody Up There Likes Me, Gimme The Loot, The Place Beyond The Pines, Trance, Oblivion, Iron Man 3,  Pain And Gain, The Great Gatsby, Star Trek Into Darkness, Frances Ha, The Hangover III, Fast & Furious 6, The Iceman, The Internship, The Kings Of Summer, Man Of Steel, World War Z, Much Ado About Nothing, The Bling Ring, The Heat, The Lone Ranger, Despicable Me 2, Grown Ups 2, Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus, Red 2, The To Do List, Girl Most Likely, 2 Guns, The Spectacular Now, Europa Report, In A World...., Elysium, Prince Avalanche, Kick Ass 2, Lee Daniel's The Butler, R.I.P.D., After Earth, White House Down, Drinking Buddies, The Grandmaster, The Conjuring, The Family, Prisoner, Don Jon, Thanks For Sharing, Nebraska, A.C.O.D., Escape Plan, Percy Jackson 2, Last Vegas, Ender's Game, Hunger Games 2, The Counselor, The Call, Delivery Man, Broken City, Homefront, About Time, Anchorman 2, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, August: Osage County