Michael's movies make top movie lists of the year and decade

We're going to put the critics' lists of best movies for the decade

Soda’s Top 5: Part 1

I have asked everyone at Soda to come up with their Top 5 films of the year, Top Soda film, Top 5 films of the decade and Defining film of the decade.

First up (earning herself a gold star) is our Head of Distribution, Kate Gerova’s selections.

Top 5 Films of the year:
Coraline, feisty heroine, loves food - what’s not to like?
Let the Right One In - stark, spare atmospheric filmmaking perfectly conjuring up a landscape in which vampires might exist.
The Hangover. How I laughed. Genuinely.
Fish Tank. Anything with Michael Fassbender doesn’t have to try too hard, he could just stay on screen for 90 minutes and I’d be happy. Add to this the sheer genius that is Andrea Arnold and you have a great film.
A Single Man - Ok, so I’m not supposed to have this one according to the film police because it’s not actually on release yet, BUT, it’s incredibly stylish, has the fabulous Julianne Moore smoking and drinking like it’s going out of fashion. Lovely.

Top Soda Film: Modern Life, technically this could be described as “French farming doc” which tells you N-O-T-H-I-N-G about this exquisitely shot portrait of a community with its list of eccentric characters.

Top 5 Films of the Decade:
Hmmm, tough one this and subject to change but for today:
Hunger; true you may notice a Fassbender theme here (tho note Angel has not made it in) but Hunger was a truly astonishing cinematic experience, visually, aurally, emotionally. It’s a must see film.
Howl’s Moving Castle; might be because my then 2 year old fell in love with this film and watched it repeatedly that it holds a special place in my heart.
WALL-E: simply masterful. Better with each watch (luckily)
Head On: one of my favourite films and certainly my favourite quote - ‘Romeo & Juliet on speed’
The Royal Tenenbaums; because I was holding hands with someone special and because I liked Paltrow’s eye make-up.

Defining film of the decade: Brokeback Mountain. Sheer elegance and unrivalled filmmaking.

http://community.livejournal.com/feverxdreams/9973.html

TV OF THE DECADE

This list was so hard to narrow down, the only easy decision was the number one spot. There’s so many shows I could have added onto this list but it would have been too long so here’s my top six.

Please don’t use for graphics it took me forever to clean and colour.


06. The Devil’s Whore [2008]

Why it’s here: First off the cast is amazing; Andrea Riseborough, John Simm, Peter Capaldi, MICHAEL FASSBENDER AND DOMINIC WEST. The cinematography is stunning and the costumes . Also I’m a bit of a history buff and this has always been a favourite period in history for me.

05. Mad Men [2007-]

I watched the first series just before the second series aired here because I’d heard how good it was and instantly fell in love with this show. I love the clothes and the sets- the show is stunning. Also Pete and Joan.

04. Life on Mars [2006-2007]

I love this show because it’s weird, original and not your average police drama. Also I love every member of the team which is unusual for me. I love the whole world this is set in and even though it was a mindf&%# at times it’s such a good show.

03. Lilies [2007]

This show hasn’t had much recognition (why did the BBC put this on a Friday night?) but it’s my favourite period drama. I love the three girls (May’s probably my fave) and Billy breaks my heart, as does Frank who is Also ‘The Sea’ is one of my favourite television episodes ever because it’s so perfect and just breaks my heart at the end. I may need to picspam the miniseries one day because the show is so pretty.

02. Generation Kill [2008]

I’d heard a lot about how good this show was before it aired here but I didn’t like it at first. I sat through the first episode because I really wanted to like it and I’m so glad I did because it hit me then how bloody fantastic this show is.

01. Band of Brothers [2001]

I first saw a few episodes of this a few years ago but has only been shown once more on TV, I think. Then my Dad borrowed the DVDs off a friend and we kept them for a good year or two lol (which now means I haven’t got the DVDs L). I wish I could do a proper picspam because I love the colours but it would be so long since almost every shot is lovely, these caps don’t do it justice. I’ve never got through this series without bawling like a baby though (especially Bastogne/The Breaking Point/Why We Fight) and it’s impossible for me to even pick a favourite character.

***************
Comments:

YES band of brothers is a YES! love that show to death. i've seen it so many times and it always still blows me away

band of brothers is ok

There's not a lot of Michael for 10 chapters of story, but I do like watching the other actors too.

mmmmmmmmmmm well is o.k

http://www.irishleftreview.org/2009/12/09/100-films-decade-part-2/

Hunger (Steve McQueen – UK/Ireland, 2008)

When I first heard about Hunger, I couldn’t have been less interested. Did we really need another film about the hunger strikes? And, Steve McQueen’s reputation as a visual artist notwithstanding, I was worried that the result might be an over-aestheticization with most of the politics sucked out of it. So I’m glad I was proved wrong. Hunger is a fascinating, unflinching look at the strength of a principle and people’s determinations to stand by them. Previous H-Block films such as Some Mother’s Son and H3 were typically void of either a visual sense or ideas like many British or Irish films but McQueen dissects the historical incident with economy and aplomb. Michael Fassbender is great as Bobby Sands, with the 20-minute-long colloquy with Liam Cunningham that lies at the centre of the film a masterclass in dramatic writing. More remarkably, though McQueen’s sympathies are clearly with the hunger strikers, there is no facile endorsement of the IRA forthcoming. The Republicans are shown to be every bit as brutal as their captors and you don’t need to be a supporter of the men of violence to be affected by this film.

http://projectmoonshine.blogspot.com/2009/12/decadeannouncement.html

Thursday, December 10, 2009
Decade/Announcement
THE TOP 20 Films of the Decade

20.Let the Right One In (2008) Dir. Tornas Alfredson

In a time when the idea of the character that is the Vampire has been turned from something mythical and terrifying into something pretty for all the girls to look at one movie takes the idea in a new direction. John Aivide Lindgvist bases LTROI off his novel. The story of a small boy Oskar who is the social outcast amongst his peers and has no friends at his school. One day he meets Eli a girl who he only seems to see at night. Eventually we discover she is a vampire and the relationship grows between the two characters and we see a kind of Vampire movie not yet seen.

19.Hunger (2008) Dir. Steve McQueen

Some movies are very intense from start to finish. Hunger is Relentless. The story is that of a Hunger striker in Ireland in 1981 that is making a protest to stop eating along with all the other prisoners. The movie for being so amazingly simple in concept is deep in ways that I still have yet to grasp. Some of the strongest acting to come out of a film in a long time from lead actor Michael Fassbender.

18.Lost in Translation (2003) Dir. Sofia Coppola

In a year when the Oscars were ruled by Kings and most films in categories had to settle for second best. This little independent gem pushed forward and made it’s way into our hearts as one of the best films we have seen in a long time. Bill Murray plays an actor who is in Tokyo and meets a lonely newlywed who has been left to entertain herself and the two make a connection that turns into a wonderful story of love and friendship.

17.Neil Young Heart of Gold (2006) Dir. Jonathan Demme

What can you say when you put one of the greatest performers in the world with one of the greatest concert directors in the world. Neil Young and Demme who directed Stop Making Sense with the talking heads well it just makes too much sense. The movie has a five to ten minute set up of Neil explaining where they are going to be playing and why. From there it is a wonderful and heartfelt concert from Young and his entire back up band that would have you on your feet at home.

16.King of Kong Fistful of Quarters (2007) Dir. Seth Gordon

When talking about great documentaries you have to find something that not only appeals to the film snobs but something that could go towards mass appeal. KOK does that in spades. When told the plot of this film about two guys trying to reach the top Donkey Kong score I thought to myself that this was going to be a slow film. Amazingly this 79-minute film moves like lightning and never slows down. The banter between the two competitors is absolutely fantastic and this is one of the more compelling documentaries of all time.

15.Sexy Beast (2000) Dir. Jonathan Glazer

I can’t believe that this movie had gone so long without reaching my DVD player. If Guy Ritchie is the guy who makes the bright flashy British gangster film then Jonathan Glazer is the dark side of this gangster genre. Glazer brings us a tale of a retired thief/gangster (Ray Winstone) who is contacted and asked to come back to the life by one of his old associates Don Logan (Ben Kingsley). That is the plot to a certain extent after that it is all Kingsley for a very violent and vulgar 90-minute film. Even though Kingsley is not known for playing people like this he slips into the role of this monster seamlessly. His ability to take some of the most fowl words and turns them into things of gold.

14.Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) Dir. Andrew Dominik

Brad Pitt will go down as one of those actors who will become better as time goes on. From Se7en to Twelve Monkeys to his groundbreaking role in Fight Club to the role that stretched him as an actor in the curious case of Benjamin Button. The title role he plays in Jesse James is one of a brutal man with a side we never see. Though Pitt is a very strong lead in this film, it must be said that the strongest performance goes to Casey Affleck for his heartbreaking role of Robert Ford. Even with the movie being two hours and forty minutes it is surprisingly well paced with awesome cinematography by Roger Deakins and a haunting score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis the Assassination of Jesse James is a film to be watched and pondered.

13.Requiem for a Dream (2000) Dir. Darren Aronofsky

The word terrifying doesn’t begin to describe the journey that is Requiem. The movie at no point shows you the sunny side of what drugs will do for you. Aronofsky crafts a wonderful story and brings forth some of the better performances from Ellen Burstyn and Jared Leto. The movie is at no point a sunny feel good time but you will feel changed by the way this film speaks to you.

12.Half Nelson (2006) Dir. Ryan Fleck

If acting has a benchmark one could say that Ryan Gosling has certainly come close to reaching or setting a new one with his altogether brilliant performance in Half Nelson. Gosling plays Dan Dunne an inner-city schoolteacher who has a drug habit and is spiraling down deeper into the clutches of his addiction. Along the way he meets Drey (Shareeka Epps) who befriends and finds out his secret. A wonderful little movie with a lot of heart behind it that shows that we have the ability to change and become better people if only with someone else helping us.

11.Gangs of New York (2002) Dir. Martin Scorsese

Arguably one of the most violent and well planned out scenes of violence to open a movie ever. Two gangs go to war over a piece of land called the five points. The gangs are lead by Bill the butcher (Daniel Day Lewis) and Priest Valon (Liam Neeson) after the bloody battle and Valon has fallen his son is sent away and returns year later for vengeance. The movie was nominated for 10 Oscars and did not win. This shows what the academy knows. This movie is a marvel and shows us the return of an acting force that we see from Day-Lewis in his five-year departure from the acting game. His performance as Bill the butcher a wonderful and very true to life. A wonderful and modern epic Gangs of New York is arguably one of Scorsese most underrated movies.

10. 3 Iron (2004) Dir. Kim Ki-duk

This is the movie with so much to say and yet there is barely any dialogue. A man goes from house to house living where people are out of town and helping them by fixing things like a broken scale. He acts like a friendly spirit and moves on until one day he finds an abused woman and the two find a connection. Very little dialogue and the beautiful camera work and direction of Ki-duk makes us realize that sometimes words don’t say enough.

9.The Squid and the Whale (2005) Dir. Noah Baumbach

Joint custody blows is the tagline of this independent film from Baumbach who brought us Kicking and Screaming. This is a story of a man and women (Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney) who are separating and there two kids (Jesse Eisenberg and Frank Berkman) who are caught in the middle. Superbly acted by all members of the cast especially Eisenberg who gives a startling first performance as the older brother who is growing up but in many ways is still very much a child.

8.City of God (2002) Dir. Fernando Meirelles

A movie that takes the approach of telling a non-linier story and keeps everyone entertained by its brutal violence and its unflinching look at life in Rio De Janerio. The look and feel of the movie are almost as gritty as the characters portrayed but the amazing cast hand picked out of the City of God itself. A movie that proves out of brutality can come beauty.

7.Zodiac (2007) Dir. David Fincher

When you do a period piece I am usually the first one to go for the door now Fincher has done something that made me sit back and smile with glee. He took the idea of a period piece and flips it on its ear with the amazing and factually accurate look at the time during the 60’s and 70’s when the name Zodiac was something to be feared in San Francisco. Fincher is brilliant in the way that he takes a tired old genre and makes it something new and wonderful. In the case of Zodiac he has done that and has made one of the most detailed movies about one of the biggest unsolved cases in America.

6.Memento (2000) Dir. Christopher Nolan

The storytelling in anyone else’s hands might have been botched but with Nolan and is careful way of telling a story and his fine eye for details this movies comes off with out a hitch and plays like a Hitchcock movie. Sorry bad pun. The best thing about this is the way that you can go back and see this a few times and not catch all the little smart bits of dialogue and plot development the second or even the third. I won’t say much about the plot so as not to rune it for you needless to say that all the parts are played excellently by the actors.

5.Capote (2005) Dir. Bennett Miller

When great performances are brought up over the last decade in the female category you will have Charlize Theron in Monster Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry and the Hours with Nicole Kidman. For males it would be Forest Whitaker for Last King of Scotland and Mickey Rourke for the Wrestler. Above all of these stands one performance and that is Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote in this dark moody drama of the last novel Capote wrote In Cold Blood. Hoffman does what every actor tries to do with a role he gets lost in the character and at one point doesn’t come back. Hoffman became Capote and for months wasn’t able to drop the voice. Though Hoffman is the juggernaut in this piece some nice secondary performances by Catherine Keener and Clifton Collins Jr. round out the cast perfectly.

4.Dark Knight (2008) Dir. Christopher Nolan

It is no wonder that Nolan is on the top twenty list twice and so close to number one. In terms of a comic book movie this is far and away something else. This is a gritty cop film from the 70’s that happens to have a superhero in it. This plays more like French connection then it does like any other super hero movie. Nolan has the ability to write a story that is one this and says something completely different. Not only does he make Batman into a believable hero who has deep flaws and brings raw power to the character. Now I still love Jack Nicholson’s zany over the top Joker but I have to say that what Heath Ledger did in his final performance as the Joker is nothing short of amazing. Ledger has taken an iconic character and turned him into the stuff of nightmares. As an avid reader of the Batman comics we have seen the Joker grow darker and darker and Ledger updates the character wonderfully with this performance. This movie is nothing short of breathtaking on every scale.

3.Brick (2005) Dir. Rian Johnson

Noir is a tricky thing to do its especially tricky when you take the noir and put it in a non noir setting like high school. Lucky for us writer/director Johnson has it well in hand with this small but powerful film of betrayal obsession and murder. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as our lead detective Brendan who is trying to get to the bottom of what happened to his ex-girlfriend Emily. Along the way he uncovers a series of plots and developments that lead to the discovery of something rotten under the surface of the squeaky clean school. Gordon-Levitt is going to be huge and this is one of the many performances that are pushing him towards that big time. Amongst other great moments of suspense and action is the dialogue that seems like it is ripped from the lips of Dashiell Hammett. The way Johnson makes the dialogue just flow from the lips of his young actors is astounding. Another amazing feature to this film is how Johnson takes the same sort of feel that Lynch did wit Blue Velvet and show that something nice on the surface is usually crawling with disease and vile on the inside. Also you can’t say enough good things about a movie edited on a Macintosh computer.

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

A movie that you’re never really sure what is going on and who is really real. A man (Josh Brolin) finds a satchel full of money at a drug deal gone horribly wrong. Another man (Javier Bardem) is searching for the money and attempting to retrieve it for its rightful owner. A third man (Tommy Lee Jones) is attempting to put all the pieces together and figure the whole mess out. Sounds confusing just wait till it gets to secondary characters that seem important but just pass by the wayside or just die unexpectedly. I have to agree with a friend of mine who said that at one point you seem to have a really good grasp on what’s going on and all of a sudden in typical Coen brother fashion they pull the rug out from under you and you never seem to be able to get up for the rest of the film. The Coens are absolute geniuses in the fact that they never return to the same genre twice. This time they tackle the tricky work of adapting a Cormac McCarthy Novel and they do it without a hitch. Not only do they have the talent to take the novel and make it into a perfect movie. In some ways they make the story their own and you feel that they have come up with this dense thriller that makes you jump more at every turn. Now when you talk about acting in a movie you usually focus on a leading man. In No Country this film has three and all of them stay with each other and keep the pace of the film moving exceptionally well. Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss a man running from any and everyone. Jones plays Ed Tom Bell the town sheriff trying to piece the entire plot together. Finally we have Bardem who plays Anton Chigurh a man who will do whatever it takes to recover the money. While all three are very well rounded characters Bardem takes Chigurh to a place of pure evil and never returns. One could argue that the scene between him and the gas station attendant is one of the most intense scenes in years. The movie won four Oscars and deserved everyone especially for Bardem in the supporting role.

1.Wall-e (2008) Dir. Andrew Stanton

It has been a long time since a film has made me believe in something that wasn’t really there. Director Stanton has made me believe in the world he has created and the wonderful little character that he brought to the screen known as Wall-e. Several hundred years in the future we have left earth after completely trashing it and we set off for space. We leave earths picking up in the hands of a bunch of robots known as Wall-e’s or Waste Allocator Load Lifter Earth Class. Over the years most of them have broken down or just stopped working for one reason or another except for one little robot who has continued on and that’s where the story begins with our little robot cleaning up Earth one trash cube at a time. Wall-e is alone except for one friend who is a cockroach. Eventually after years of loneliness a ship comes to earth with a robot known as EVE or Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. She is sent to Earth to find a sign that life has returned to the planet. Wall-e and her develop a friendship and eventually Wall-e begins to fall in love with her. Eventually EVE is called home and Wall-e in act of love follows her to the outer reaches of space where he discovers humanity has become something inhuman. With every man made comfort the humans have become fat lazy slobs who sit in hover chairs all day. This movie is in a word perfect. Now most of the time a trailer to a movie is the first sign that I will get into the movie. Out of the top twenty this is the one that did not peak my interest with its teaser and then its theatrical trailer. When I sat in this for the first time I was under the assumption that I would find it to be a fun little movie like Ratatouille but nothing like The Incredibles. At about half way through the movie I knew I was on to something that was nothing short of perfect. The idea is loosely based off a movie called City Lights by Charlie Chaplin. The lovable little tramp AKA (Wall-e) has to win the heart of the flower girl, AKA (EVE). This movie works because of how much is said without words. The only thing Wall-e says is with his name but so much more is conveyed through the amazing facial expressions. This movie is fantastic because of how little dialogue there is and how much story is told through just actions. This is a movie that was sold as a children’s film but it is so much more then that and in some ways is not for children at all. This is a movie that will be studied and talked about in classes as a prime example of how film making should be done.

cool

I know, huh?

If he wasn't already a critically acclaimed actor, people actually enjoy the movies and tv shows he's been in.

That's not an easy task.

I like angel a lot of people don't like the movie

I liked Michael in Angel. One of his best moments. It was really good on TV, too.

http://joegriffinwrites.blogspot.com/2009/11/2009-best-scenes-part-1.html

SPOILERS!!!!!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
2009, the best scenes (part 1)

Yes, I know the year isn’t over, but it’s early enough to talk about the best bits. Sometimes moments in movies get forgotten in favour of the big picture, or overlooked entirely. Here’s to some of the parts that make up the sum of their films. I’ll try to avoid spoilers…

The putting-to-bed scene in Fish Tank
Another silent one. Andrea Arnold’s meaty and poetic coming-of-age drama is (like its lead character) lippy and feisty, but also (like its lead character) surprisingly delicate at times. While teenaged Mia (Kate Jarvis) is pretending to be asleep, her mother’s boyfriend (played by Michael Fassbender) carries her to bed, removes her runners and jeans, and gently covers her with a duvet. In Mia’s world of confrontation it’s a rare moment of affection. This collection of point-of-view shots is gorgeously shot, intense but also tender. The surrounding silence amplifies the gentle exhales and inhales.

From Sweden

http://nojesguiden.se/artiklar/haer-aer-arets-baesta-utlaendska-filmer

This is the year's best foreign films

17:03 December 10th

It's been a decent film. Not so many big elephants have been seen, but in the undergrowth, it is teeming with originality. Nature, war, animated and genreomtolkningar has dominated. As for temperament, it has been a bit ... bipolar. The best apple kind of feel-good-comedy (like UK) has tampats with really oduschat misery (like Danish). In the middle of the scale: no one at home. In by far was three films. One of power in the small, one on the power of the large and one of - well, Mickey Rourke.

6th Inglourious Basterds Directed and Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender

Ever since the first based on a true story, the film was launched, the filmmakers tampats having to stick to facts. Too often, the directors considered the entertainment level of truthfulness, compromised and had a finished product, by now, neither is so based on a real event or for that matter very well. With Inglorious Basterds has Quentin Tarantino said, "fuck it" and gave us a version of the Second World War, including the ruthless Jewish commando team, with a husky Brad Pitt in the lead, on a brutal mission behind enemy lines. The result is hardly realistic. But who cares about history when we get to see Hitler with stress properly and not cowards out of suicide?

10th Hunger Director: Steve McQueen
Screenplay: Steve McQueen, Enda Walsh
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Stuart Graham

The British video artist Steve McQueen's portrait of the iconic IRA member Bobby Sands, who starved himself to death in Belfast Prison The Maze in 1981, Hunger is an incredibly bold film. Terrible to watch, but also breathtaking consistent in its depiction of the body politics. Much space is given to such things as when the Maze-prisoners, in protest at not having the status of political prisoners, ritual metar poop on the walls - an act that Margaret Thatcher did was uncivilized monkeys and thus essentially different from "politics". Hunger will be eventually broader than a pure British era depiction - this is a film about the repression phenomenon. As such it is splendid.

http://benlambsfilmreviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/10-best-films-of-2009.html

12/12/2009
The 10 Best Films of 2009
1) The Hurt Locker (August)
Not only the best film on the Iraq war to date, but one of the greatest war movies ever made. This testosterone fuelled account of Bravo Company’s bomb disposal unit is excruciatingly tense from start to finish. Politically interesting and authentically filmed with digital hand held cameras, Bigelow has well and truly flown the flag for female directors the world over.

2) Let The Right One In (April)
This enchanting yet unnerving coming-of-age vampire story, set in the snow laden town of Blackeberg, Sweden, is rich in its poetically minimal direction.

3) The White Ribbon (November)
The deranged psyche of Michael Haneke is unveiled to us yet again, but this time suppressed and abused village dwelling children are at the centre of strange events. Most interestingly though, the tone of the film is so downbeat that we find ourselves most on edge every time a character expresses the slightest hint of happiness.

4) Up (October)
It may not have been as experimental as last year’s Wall-E but this sweet tale about an old man’s floating house has the most emotionally provoking opening ten minute sequence to a film ever conceived. Once again Pixar push the boundaries of the children’s film format to great success.

5) Anvil! The Story Of Anvil (February)
The real life Spinal Tap has been found. With one last chance to make it to the big time after 40 years of barely scraping a living in the far reaches of Canada, you really find yourself willing the band to succeed. The sheer pathetic organisation of their European tour twinned with such colourful characters has to be seen to be believed.

6) The Wrestler (January)
A career defining performance for Mickey Rourke, he should have won the Oscar!

7) Moon (July)
An homage to the Sci-fi films of the 1960s and 1970s based on substantial ideas about the human condition rather than flashy special effects. Duncan Jones (or Zowie Bowie) has made a stunning debut and having shaken off the burden of his father’s legacy he will no doubt develop into a fine filmmaker indeed.

Fish Tank (September)
Andrea Arnold’s second feature, since her debut Red Road, won this year’s Jury Prize at Cannes and rightly so. Newcomer Katie Jarvis gives a fine performance as a lower class angst ridden teenager and plays off the ever brilliant Michael Fassbender with ease.

9) A Serious Man (December)
The Coens have quite simply done it again! As Larry Gopnik’s life falls apart, his deadpan attitude is tested to the limit in this fantastic black comedy. Think 'the dude' from The Big Lebowski trying to live in an American 1960s surburbia.

10) District 9 (September)
The complex allegory for the racial politics and immigration issues in South Africa is an enjoyable romp.

Runners Up: Public Enemies, Gran Torino, Antichrist, Martyrs, In The Loop

http://www.t5m.com/nick-clarke/top-10-films-of-2009.html?fmt=news

What’s in a list? Probably little more than an opportunity to show off, indulge in a some lazy cultural showboating and maybe even a chance to stir up a dash of barroom provocation. Perfect. So, in no particular order, here is my attempt to do just that. Any disagreements, disputes, outraged contempt, please feel free to comment…..

6. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)

Stark and uncomfortable in parts, gripping and poetic throughout. Arnold’s wonderfully directed and edited exploration of a society and generation on the edge was a triumph.

http://ialam.livejournal.com/5192.html

The 50 Best Movies of the 00's! Or the Noughties

12/10/09 11:45 pm

Courtesy of Daily Mail UK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1234905/Tolkeins-Lord-Rings-heads-list-Noughties-50-best-films.html

Do You Agree with the List? Put Your Comments Below?

21. Eden Lake (2008)
Kelly Reilly is extraordinary in this first-rate British horror film. It’s willing to say what other films have been too scared or politically correct to mention: that the true horrors we fear from day to day are not supernatural bogeymen; they’re our own feral youth and their feckless parents.

http://magnolia12883.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/the-best-films-of-2008/


The Best Films of 2008

December 13, 2009 by magnolia12883

To quote Roger Ebert, whom I cannot top: “I am violating the age-old custom that film critics announce the year’s 10 best films, but after years of such lists, I’ve had it. A best films list should be a celebration of wonderful films, not a chopping process. And 2008 was a great year for movies, even if many of them didn’t receive wide distribution.”

Here, then, are the very cream of the crop of U.S. film releases I’ve seen in 2008. The listing is alphabetical as well because, like Ebert, I cannot decide what should go in what order. If I gave a film an A or A- grade it’s here. I have, however, picked my favorite film of the year, followed by a first runner-up.

You may also notice a few separate lists here. After my list of the “Rest of the Best” English-language narrative films, I’ve separated the rest into categories, with the alphabetical Best Foreign Language Films, Best Documentaries and Best Animated Films. Because I rate on a curve and my ratings are relative and not absolute, I wanted to highlight the best of each “type” of film and not just throw them all together. They are all equals. A separate list of the Honorable Mentions (B+) will follow. Till then… Enjoy!

............

Steve McQueen’s Hunger (2008): A disturbingly accurate-feeling portrait of life inside Maze Prison, focusing on a British security guard, two IRA prisoners who become hunger strikers, and their ringleader, the stubborn and resolute Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender). The long two-shot of Sands conferring with a priest about the ramifications of his hunger strike, which will effectively result in suicide, is hypnotic, tense and gut-wrenching.

http://www.horrorbid.com/blog/blog1.php/2009/12/13/the-top-10-horror-films-of-the-2000-s-yo

The top 10 horror movies of 2000's you've never seen

At the end of the 90s, horror movies were almost non-existent. They were doing nothing new—trying only to steal the fame that Scream harnessed in 1995. Theatres were flooded with neo-Slasher knockoffs, and mediocrity ran amok. If it weren’t for The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense, the 90s would have drowned in a sea of its own plainness. Once the 90s ended and the new millennium began, horror slowly glided on the watered-down plotlines of the should-not-be-classics of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend, and gave us such teen-friendly flicks as Valentine, Wrong Turn, Jeepers Creepers and Darkness. Neither too edgy nor risqué, these movies were a safe way to ensure that everyone was having a good time without upsetting apple carts.

As the 2000s progressed, horror took a turn for the worse. As if you thought the onslaught of pubescent drivel in horror was bad, this murky genre quickly descended into a heretical darkness where it still dwells today, and has yet to claw its way out. In 2003, Michael Bay did the unthinkable. He hired music video director, Marcus Nispel, to helm a remake of Tobe Hooper’s all-to-real and disturbing masterpiece, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This was a blow not only to horror fans, but to cinephiles as well. The deed seemed almost as blasphemous as yelling the Lord’s name in vain, but audiences ate it up and accepted it as their own, greeting it with open arms. The success of this film (I say “film”, but, really, it’s plagiarist bullcrap) soon saw bigwigs in the film biz illuminate the dusty light bulb that hovered above their scalps. Assuming this was the way to make more money, companies dug through the aisles of their local video stores to uncover other “classics” that have been “burdened” by such discrepancies as being “too old” and not having enough “nu-metal”. Black Christmas, Amityville Horror and When A Stranger Calls eventually saw copies, and Friday the 13th and Last House on the Left soon followed. Remakes were a dime a dozen and, at one point, seemed like that was all that was being churned out.

Not only were these landmark horror films seeing double, American companies also sought inspiration in the East. The Japanese seemed to know exactly how to terrify audiences, and instead of using their films to rouse their own ideas, the US just ended up remaking the movies with English actors. Ringu, Ju-on, Kairo and Dark Water all saw redos in no-time with the years of the release dates between doppelgangers being small enough to bridge two neighboring towns.

Japanese horror wasn’t the only foreign exchange that had its successes in America. Australia gave us Wolf Creek, a great accompaniment to what was happening in the States, Spain gave us The Orphanage (which was produced by Guillmero del Toro) and Sweden gave us Let the Right One In, a vampire fairy tale which "makes the cast of Twilight look like Saved by the Bell” (thank you, Ryan Reynolds, for that analogy). In the latter half of the 2000s, the French stepped the “extreme violence”, found mostly in American horror, up a notch with such adversaries as Frontier(s) and Inside.

Probably the most successful films of the 2000s were done by those indicted into the “Splat Pack”, such as James Wan’s Saw, Eli Roth's Hostel, Rob Zombie's The Devils Rejects, Alexandre Aja's High Tension and Neil Marshall's The Descent. The success of these gore-centric films gave birth to a subgenre (as ridiculous as record companies in the early 90s using the term "grunge" to describe dirty and angst-ridden musicians) known as "torture porn" - the watching of characters in pain for entertainment purposes. Horror was instantly reverted back to its “extreme roots”, posing as 70s exploitation aspirants. Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers and Frank Darabont’s The Mist, though they left audiences divided, both saw a good sum at the box office and drew inspiration from its gorno predecessors. Not only that, the triumph of both 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake paved the way for more compatibles like Shaun of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Slither, [Rec] (as well as its American Xerox, Quarantine), and Dead Snow, and jump-started the zombie apocalypse subgenre into a frenzy. Independent horror even saw success with Ginger Snaps, May and Fido, and achieved cult status.

With the first decade of the 2000s coming to an end, a good slew of horror films are still left uncovered. As many horror movies that came out and elated audiences with a sort of morbid glee, an unsung few still sit by their lonesome, collecting dust and fading fast. This small group may not have made the big bucks, but they sure as hell should be ranked up there with the big guns. They’re all original scripts and they all hail from different parts of the world. Below are our favorite unsung horror movies along with a brief review of each.

Hopefully these films will be known as classics in the years to come. Who knows. Maybe one of these listed is the scariest movies you’ve never seen. Enjoy.

EDEN LAKE

James Watkins, 2008



Hailing from England, Eden Lake is a torturous film about a gang of punks terrorizing a young couple who vacation on a tranquil lake for the weekend. Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and Steve (Michael Fassbender) make their way down to the beach to romantically kiss each other amidst the sunset. The serenity is quickly interrupted by a clan of delinquents drinking, smoking and polluting the air with raucous music. Steve becomes enraged and walks over to crash the party, but after the teens mutter a few choice four-letter-words, Steve dejectedly returns to Kelly. Later that day, the couple’s car keys are stolen, and, upon finding the thieves in the woods, Steve gets into a physical altercation which renders him helpless to the blade that pierces his throat. Aside from the sheer and brilliantly formed tension that inhabits the film, the real reason you want to see Eden Lake is because of Jack O’Connell’s harrowing performance as the gang’s ring leader of morbidity. Some movie villains never quite get off the ground, and they quickly fade with time, but I have never seen a performance so real and so hateful, especially in an 18 year old kid. Suspense triumphs over gratuity in this British thriller. Boys will be boys and kids will be killers.

http://blog.reelloop.com/4671/news/kierons-top-13-films-2009/


Kieron’s Top 13 Films of 2009

Posted by Kieron on Dec 14th, 2009

Looking back over the past twelve months highlights what a strange year this has been in cinema. Transformers 2 swept up at the box office, Terminator 3 nearly killed the franchise. (500) Days Of Summer’s incredible trailer resulted in an incredibly dissapointing film, Where The Wild Things Are dared to be even better than its Arcade Fire powered trailer suggested it would be. So, even though the year hasn’t been the best quality wise, there have been some absolutely terrific films released. In fact for every Blue, Antichrist or Dead Men Running there has been a film of great quality to counter it to the degree I struggled wittling down my list of favourites to the standard ten entries. So I didn’t bother. Each of the films in this list debuted cinematically in the UK in 2009 with the exception of Cyborg, She which was a direct to DVD release.

My Top 13 Films of 2009 in alphabetical order are:

............

Fish Tank

The Jury Prize winner at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival isn’t exactly an easy watch. Andrea Arnold’s latest focuses on a troubled 15 year old aspiring dancer (Katie Jarvis) and her relationship with her mother’s apparently charming boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender). Shot with a keen eye for depressing detail by cinematographer Robbie Ryan, Fish Tank is a dark drama which establishes Arnold, who also wrote the feature, as being amongst Britain’s premier talents.

http://smoorns.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/top-20-of-the-decade/

I haven’t quite finished my top 10 of 2009 but here is my Top 20 films from 2000 – 2009.

What’s yours?

1)Lost in Translation

2)X-men 2

3)Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

4)Cache(Hidden)

5)Let the Right One In

6)King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

7)Memento

8)Bourne Trilogy

9)Children of Men

10)Eden Lake

11)Inglourious Basterds

12)Elephant

13)Hedwig and the Angry Inch

14)Superbad

15)Pan’s Labyrinth

16)Spirited Away

17)About a Boy

18)Munich

19)The Dark Knight

20)Planet Terror

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/12/15/toronto-critics-picks.html?ref=rss&asid=809afa62


Toronto critics pick Hunger, Inglourious Basterds as top films
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 | 11:20 PM ET

CBC News

Irish republican Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) slowly ends his life through a hunger strike at Maze prison in 1980s Northern Ireland in British director Steve McQueen's Hunger, which nabbed a best picture and best first feature prize from Toronto critics. Irish republican Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) slowly ends his life through a hunger strike at Maze prison in 1980s Northern Ireland in British director Steve McQueen's Hunger, which nabbed a best picture and best first feature prize from Toronto critics. (Maple Pictures)

The Toronto Film Critics Association has selected its top movies for 2009 and, for the first time, the best picture category resulted in a tie between the Irish drama Hunger and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.

The group's picks differed from those in Los Angeles and New York City, where critics chose Katherine Bigelow's Iraq war piece, The Hurt Locker, as the year's top film.

Bigelow's film was runner-up in the Toronto competition, but she was named best director.

Hunger, about the 1981 hunger strike at Ireland's notorious Maze prison, also nabbed a best first feature trophy for British artist Steve McQueen.

The critics' picks also ended in a draw in the screenplay category with Jason Reitman's Up in the Airtied with Inglourious Basterds.

Nicolas Cage was victorious as best actor for his role as a drug-addicted cop in Werner Herzog's The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

The association handed British newcomer Casey Mulligan the best actress accolade in the coming-of-age film An Education.

Up in the Air's Anna Kendrick was named best supporting actress, while Christoph Waltz took best supporting actor for his turn as a Nazi villain in Inglourious Basterds.

Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, which was triumphant at the European Film Awards over the weekend, was named best foreign film.

Other prizes included Louie Psihoyos's thrilling exposé of Japan's dolphin slaughter, The Cove, in the documentary division while Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox grabbed best animated feature.
Canadian feature trophy to be announced

The 2009 TFCA Awards, voted on by Toronto-area film journalists, will be presented at a gala dinner in the city on Jan. 12, hosted by Cameron Bailey, co-director of the Toronto International Film Festival.

It is also then that the association will announce the winner of the $10,000 Rogers Best Canadian Feature Award.

Films in the running are:

* The Necessities of Life by Benoit Pilon.
* Polytechnique by Denis Villeneuve.
* Pontypool by Bruce McDonald.

http://oscarbeachhouse.blogspot.com/2009/12/awards-toronto-film-critics.html

Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Awards -- Toronto Film Critics
A few new choices hear and there. The first prize of the year for Nicolas Cage. And they also split their awards in both the Best Picture and Best Screenplay categories. Also another win for Mr. Fox over Up. That particular race is getting quite interesting.

BEST PICTURE -- Hunger & Inglourious Basterds (tie)
Runner-up: The Hurt Locker

BEST DIRECTOR -- Kathryn Bigelow "The Hurt Locker"
Runner-up: Steve McQueen "Hunger" & Quentin Tarantino "Inglourious Basterds"

BEST ACTOR -- Nicolas Cage "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans"
Runner-up: George Clooney "Up in the Air", Michael Fassbender "Hunger",
Colin Firth "A Serious Man" & Viggo Mortensen "The Road"

BEST ACTRESS -- Carey Mulligan "An Education"
Runner-up: Arta Dobroshi "Le Silence de Lorna" & Meryl Streep "Julie & Julia"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR -- Christoph Waltz "Inglourious Basterds"
Runner-up: Christian McKay "Me and Orson Welles" & Timothy Olyphant "A Perfect Getaway"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS -- Anna Kendrick "Up in the Air"
Runner-up: Vera Farmiga "Up in the Air" & Mo'Nique "Precious"

BEST SCREENPLAY -- Inglourious Basterds & Up in the Air (tie)
Runner-up: A Serious Man

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE -- Fantastic Mr. Fox
Runner-up: Coraline & Up

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM -- The White Ribbon
Runner-up: Police, Adjective & Summer Hours

BEST DOCUMENTARY -- The Cove
Runner-up: Anvil! The Story of Anvil & The Beaches of Anges

BEST FIRST FEATURE -- Steve McQueen "Hunger"
Runner-up: Neill Blomkamp "District 9" & Marc Webb "(500) Days of Summer"

I'm very happy to see Michael's name with other great and respected actors.

http://smokingcroise.hautetfort.com/archive/2009/12/17/1.html

17/12/2009
Top Ten 2009

This year I saw about 40 films in the cinema with a significant number of fine short films and a regret - I missed 2012.

A grade anyway, if Fish Tank is a great little film, electrified by the hottie Michael Fassbender, Wendy and Lucy, for me, the only major film of 2009.

2. Fish Tank

English film with Katie Jarvis, Kierston Wareing, Michael Fassbender, Harry Treadaway ...

"Hi Michael, we'll take a ride in your car?"

http://www.soundonsight.org/top-10-international-films-of-the-decade/

Top 10 International Films of the Decade

Posted by Zornitsa on Dec 17th, 2009

2. Hunger (2008)

Directed / Written by Steve McQueen

Historical Drama, UK

A visual tour-de-force by first-time director Steve McQueen (the Turner-prize winning visual artist), Hunger retraces the events surrounding the 1981 hunger strike of IRA prisoners in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland, centring around Bobby Sands, the first of ten hunger strikers who died, while Margaret Thatcher’s unflinching government withheld political-prisoner status. Weaving scenes of unpalatable aestheticism and violence within and outside of the prison walls, Hunger shocks both in documentary impact and stylistic bravura. The physicality of the ‘Dirty Protest’ and the ideological and religious justification for political violence combine to visceral effect in the depiction of this historical moment during ‘The Troubles’. The physical transformation of Michael Fassbender as Sands seems to sear the bitter violence of the inextricable conflict onto his very flesh, so visually harrowing is the frittering of his body. Martyr or criminal, Sands seems to become a legend on both sides of the conflict even before the rending spectacle of his death.