Charles,
I believe the best movie released in 2010 was "Cairo Time". Wow, was that good. I hope Patricia Clarkson gets an acknowledgement for her extraordinary performance.
Both Rabia and Inception made my list of the year's most overrated films. Inception, particularly, ranks right up there (or down there) as not just overrated, but truly one of the worst films ever. Alas, it became popular enough that its largely middle-brow audience will claim it as the cinematic equivalent of Joyce's Ulysses and thus pressure the Academy to hand it an Oscar.
I haven't seen most of these, but Inception? True Grit was 100 thousand times if not 100 million times better than Inception. Seriously, drop #3. The spinning top at the credits was the #1 most predictable cinematic ending of all time. It's like they filmed that scene and then wrote a movie to go with it.
Hi Charles,
Fair enough. I guess I've seen enough Wes Anderson flicks to know that a plot isn't absolutely necessary in a movie. But as for Inception, if not the plot, what else has that movie got going for it? Leo gave one of his more-than-the-beach yet less-than-the-departed performances, the soundtrack had the appropriate proportion of brass instruments for "tension", and the upside-down city from the previews made it into the movie. What rockets it to your top 10?
a director does not need good actors, he needs great faces and shapes and types of movement. acting is for the theater.
what worked in inception also worked in the first batman: stimmung.
Hahaha! Godammit, I've got a classical music degree tucked in my past somewhere and I'm getting called out on blogs for not recognizing Stockhausen. I've got to lay off the movies and play my records more often.
Well, the acting sucked but acting doesn't matter. The plot sucked but plot doesn't matter. Leo's apparently got the right face and Ellen's got the right shape. I'm out of arguments.
I meant to see all of these; in the end, I've seen only two.
But since one of those two was The Portuguese Nun, I have to pipe up and agree that the film is completely spellbinding. Never have I seen intentional cinematic awkwardness used quite that way: to suggest altruism, gradually achieved, rather than the usual suspicion and foreboding. A fantastic and truly unusual work!
My favorite part of Imani was the plot strand that, similarly, hinted at a coming cataclysm yet swapped it unexpectedly for uneasy stasis. Unfortunately, the other two plot strands failed to fully congeal. An "important" film, but hardly a great one.
@20: Just accept that some people like things different than you and there is no objective measurement. Write your own list. (I liked True Grit many times more than Inception, too)
@21, i wholly agree with your reading of PN. but you missed the greatness of imani. it's not in the stories but the photography of blackness. black skin has never been richer and bolder. the movie is a revolution in this kind of photography.
Inception was a well-made film but that doesn't make it great. At the end it all gets tied up and so what? Did you know these characters or care about them? No. It's a journey movie but was it worth the ride? Not to me.
I Am Love is just a high-class soap opera and not much more. Dull, overscored and way too obvious. But really, rent it, watch and then wonder where 2 hours of your life went.
It's on Netflix Instant this very minute - please don't miss it if you can help it.
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/I-Am-Love/7…
Not sure about 9 - is that the really long music video that runs forever that Kanye West did?
His SNL performance of parts of that was better, IMHO.
Quiz:
Which nine of those were never shown at AMC Kent Station 14?
I believe the best movie released in 2010 was "Cairo Time". Wow, was that good. I hope Patricia Clarkson gets an acknowledgement for her extraordinary performance.
Fair enough. I guess I've seen enough Wes Anderson flicks to know that a plot isn't absolutely necessary in a movie. But as for Inception, if not the plot, what else has that movie got going for it? Leo gave one of his more-than-the-beach yet less-than-the-departed performances, the soundtrack had the appropriate proportion of brass instruments for "tension", and the upside-down city from the previews made it into the movie. What rockets it to your top 10?
what worked in inception also worked in the first batman: stimmung.
Well, the acting sucked but acting doesn't matter. The plot sucked but plot doesn't matter. Leo's apparently got the right face and Ellen's got the right shape. I'm out of arguments.
Fucking Stockhausen...
But since one of those two was The Portuguese Nun, I have to pipe up and agree that the film is completely spellbinding. Never have I seen intentional cinematic awkwardness used quite that way: to suggest altruism, gradually achieved, rather than the usual suspicion and foreboding. A fantastic and truly unusual work!
My favorite part of Imani was the plot strand that, similarly, hinted at a coming cataclysm yet swapped it unexpectedly for uneasy stasis. Unfortunately, the other two plot strands failed to fully congeal. An "important" film, but hardly a great one.
What are you saying about ol' Karlheinz? Was his music used in Inception?
Rabia was overrated? Who wrote about it besides Charles?
I Am Love is just a high-class soap opera and not much more. Dull, overscored and way too obvious. But really, rent it, watch and then wonder where 2 hours of your life went.