MC Yearly Consensus (Endgame) - 2007

[Spinal]

Submit your five favorite films from this year and in a week I will give you a top ten. IMDb dates will be used.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-5 points
2nd Place-4 points
3rd Place-3.5 points
4th Place-3 points
5th Place-2.5 points

There will be no restrictions on short films. A minimum of three films must be listed. You may edit your post freely up until the time that the voting is closed, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

You may begin now.

IMDB Power Search (http://www.imdb.com/list)

[Spinal]

1. Lars and the Real Girl
2. Sunshine
3. California Dreamin'
4. The King of Kong
5. There Will Be Blood

[Russ]

1. Ratatouille
2. No Country For Old Men
3. 5 Centimeters Per Second
4. Sicko
5. Jimmy Carter Man from Plains

[Grouchy]

1. Zodiac
2. Secret Sunshine
3. There Will Be Blood
4. I'm Not There
5. The Mist

6. Into the Wild
7. Ratatouille
8. The Man from London
9. Lust, Caution
10. No Country for Old Men

[Ivan Drago]

1. Grindhouse
2. Superbad
3. There Will Be Blood
4. No Country For Old Men
5. Southland Tales
---------------------------------------------
6. Atonement
7. Once
8. Hot Fuzz
9. The Assassination of Jesse James
10. Ratatouille

[Pop Trash]

Aww how sad, I'll savor this final list and wait to put mine in.

Until then, please enjoy my haiku to MC yearly consensus:

Movie Obsessives
Make Lists Canon Out of Time
AFI Lists? Yawn.

[Pop Trash]

1. Grindhouse
2. Superbad
3. There Will Be Blood
4. No Country For Old Men
5. Southland Tales
---------------------------------------------
6. Atonement
7. Once
8. Hot Fuzz
9. The Assassination of Jesse James
10. Ratatouille

I endorse this list. Too bad Southland Tales is 2006 (it was an enormous success at Cannes that year, with many critics calling it the most important Cannes debut since L'Avventura)

[Stay Puft]

1. Encounters at the End of the World
2. Glory to the Filmmaker!
3. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters
4. Useless
5. Lust, Caution

[Spinal]

Once is also 2006 for our purposes.

[Ezee E]

1. There Will Be Blood
2. No Country for Old Men
3. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
5. Zodiac

Ridiculous top 5.

Now what're you going to do Spinal?

[Ivan Drago]

I endorse this list. Too bad Southland Tales is 2006 (it was an enormous success at Cannes that year, with many critics calling it the most important Cannes debut since L'Avventura)

So Southland Tales and Once don't qualify? Dammit!

[Spinal]

So Southland Tales and Once don't qualify? Dammit!

Yeah, if only we were doing this sort of thing for 2006. That would rule.

[Ezee E]

I endorse this list. Too bad Southland Tales is 2006 (it was an enormous success at Cannes that year, with many critics calling it the most important Cannes debut since L'Avventura)
Maybe by one person that got it confused with another movie they saw.

[Derek]

1) There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2) I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
3) No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen)
4) In the City of Sylvia (Jose Luis Guerin)
5) Parnoid Park (Gus Van Sant)
****************************** ***
6) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel)
7) Sunshine (Danny Boyle)
8) Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
9) Redacted (Brian DePalma)
10) You the Living (Roy Andersson)

And let's remind ourselves that 1) Clerks II got a standing ovation at Cannes, 2) Southland Tales is absolute bullshit and many critics called it out for being just that.

[Mysterious Dude]

1. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
3. No Country for Old Men
4. Zodiac
5. There Will Be Blood

[Philosophe_rouge]

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Zodiac (USA, David Fincher)
3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
4. Black Book
5. Atonement

[Spinal]

4. Black Book


2006

[MadMan]

I'll have a halfway compete, halfway decent list for this year by 2020. Heh.

1. Grindhouse
2. The Simpsons Movie
3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
4. Shoot 'Em Up
5. Walk Hard: The Dewy Cox Story
============================== =============
6. Live Free or Die Hard
7. Diary of the Dead
8. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
9. Superbad
10. The Bourne Ultimatum

[The Mike]

1. Zodiac
2. The Kingdom
3. Juno
4. The Mist
5. Things We Lost In The Fire

HM: Charlie Wilson's War, The Lookout, Gone Baby Gone, Into the Wild, Eastern Promises, You Kill Me, In The Valley of Elah, 3:10 to Yuma, No Country for Old Men, Hot Fuzz, Transformers, Hot Rod.

Really strong year on many fronts.

[Boner M]

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Zodiac
3. Flight of the Red Balloon
4. Import/Export
5. Forbidden Lie$

RU: The Tracey Fragments, No Country For Old Men, Hot Fuzz, Gone Baby Gone, We Own the Night, Into the Wild, Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, My Winnipeg

[soitgoes...]

I have Secret Sunshine, Ploy, The Banishment, Flight of the Red Balloon, California Dreamin', Silent Light and The Edge of Heaven all available. I highly doubt I'll get to them all, but I'd like to see a few of them before this thing ends. As it stands now:

1. You, the Living (Roy Andersson)
2. In the Shadow of the Moon (David Sington)
3. Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant)
4. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
5. Secret Sunshine (Chang-dong Lee)
--------------------------------------
6. No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen)
7. Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck)
8. The King of Kong (Seth Gordon)
9. Jimmy Carter Man from Plains (Jonathan Demme)
10.. Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi)

HM's
Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright)
Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez)
Zodiac (David Fincher)
5 Centimeters per Second (Makoto Shinkai)
My Kid Could Paint That (Amir Bar-Lev)
Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach)
Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino)
La Vie en rose (Olivier Dahan)
Sunshine (Danny Boyle)

A lot of great documentaries this year.

[chrisnu]

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Zodiac
3. Persepolis
4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
5. There Will Be Blood

[Bosco B Thug]

*bristles* :P

1. Death Proof
2. Zodiac
3. Into the Wild
4. Gone Baby Gone
5. Sweeney Todd

6. Ratatouille - d'oh, wanted this to be in there

[Grouchy]

I have Secret Sunshine, Ploy, The Banishment, Flight of the Red Balloon, California Dreamin', Silent Light and The Edge of Heaven all available. I highly doubt I'll get to them all, but I'd like to see a few of them before this thing ends.
Make Secret Sunshine your top priority.

[Watashi]

1. Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
2. Zodiac (David Fincher)
3. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant)
5. No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen)

[origami_mustache]

1. There Will Be Blood
2. I'm Not There
3. No Country for Old Men
4. Secret Sunshine
5. The Man From London

hm: The Flight of the Red Balloon, My Winnipeg, Eastern Promises, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Snow Angels

[Yxklyx]

I've seen hardly anything from this obscure year, let's do the 30s again!

1. Grindhouse (Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino)
2. Ratatouille (Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava)
3 Joshua (George Ratliff)
4. The Visitor (Thomas McCarthy)
5. Zodiac (David Fincher)

[Raiders]

1. There Will Be Blood (P.T. Anderson)
2. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Gordon)
3. Paranoid Park (Van Sant)
4. Persepolis (Satrapi)
5. No Country for Old Men (Coens)

--------------------------------------

6. 28 Weeks Later (Fresnadillo)
7. Ratatouille (Bird)
8. I'm Not There (Haynes)
9. Zodiac (Fincher)
10. Eastern Promises (Cronenberg)
11. Sunshine (Boyle)

[Gizmo]

1. Ratatouille
2. Juno
3. Atonement
4. There Will Be Blood
5. Across the Universe

[Torgo]

1. No Country For Old Men
2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
3. Zodiac
4. I'm Not There
5. Persepolis
---
6. Ratatouille
7. Michael Clayton
8. Eastern Promises
9. The Bourne Ultimatum
10. Superbad

[Pop Trash]

I've seen hardly anything from this obscure year, let's do the 30s again!

1. Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez)
2. Ratatouille (Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava)
3. Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino)
4. Joshua (George Ratliff)
5. The Visitor (Thomas McCarthy)

Why not just put Grindhouse at #1?

[Melville]

1. There Will Be Blood
2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
4. My Winnipeg
5. The Bourne Ultimatum

HM: The Darjeeling Limited, Michael Clayton, Zodiac

[Pop Trash]

1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2. No Country for Old Men
3. I'm Not There
4. Grindhouse
5. My Blueberry Nights

6. Ratatouille
7. Knocked Up
8. Hot Fuzz
9. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
10. There Will Be Blood

[Ivan Drago]

1. Grindhouse
2. Superbad
3. There Will Be Blood
4. No Country For Old Men
5. Southland Tales
---------------------------------------------
6. Atonement
7. Once
8. Hot Fuzz
9. The Assassination of Jesse James
10. Ratatouille

New list:

1. Grindhouse
2. Superbad
3. There Will Be Blood
4. No Country For Old Men
5. Atonement
---------------------------------
6. Hot Fuzz
7. The Assassination of Jesse James
8. Ratatouille
9. Sweeney Todd
10. Across The Universe

[MadMan]

I have a feeling I am going to be the only person without No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood on their list. The former I thought was great, but I didn't love it, and the latter I haven't seen yet.

PS: Ratatouille and A Bug's Life might be the only Pixar films (out of the ones I've seen) that I don't really love or favor a good deal. Even though the 2007 release is a great film.

[B-side]

1. I'm Not There
2. There Will Be Blood
3. No Country For Old Men
4. Zodiac
5. The Assassination Of Jesse James
6. Sunshine
7. Grindhouse
8. Ratatouille
9. Hot Fuzz
10. Gone Baby Gone

[eternity]

1. Juno (Jason Reitman)
2. In the Land of Women (Jon Kasdan)
3. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
4. No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen)
5. Control (Anton Corbijn)
---
6. SiCKO (Michael Moore)
7. The Tracey Fragments (Bruce McDonald)
8. Across the Universe (Julie Taymor)
9. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Seth Gordon)
10. Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant)

[Spinal]

Ivan --

Please just edit your original list and delete the second post so that I don't have to count it twice. Thanks.

[Spinal]

If you list Grindhouse, I will assume that you are talking about the film as originally released in theaters in the USA.

If you list Planet Terror or Death Proof, I will assume that you are talking about the complete cuts of each film as seen on the DVD releases or perhaps at screenings at festivals or different countries.

I don't know how else to tally it.

[Silencio]

1. There Will Be Blood
2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
3. The Assassination of Jesse James
4. No Country for Old Men
5. Zodiac

One of the best top fives I've ever made. Ridiculously good year.

6. Atonement
7. Into the Wild
8. Sweeney Todd
9. Sunshine
10. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

[Lazlo]

1. No Country For Old Men
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Ratatouille
4. Into the Wild
5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

[Ezee E]

I have a feeling I am going to be the only person without No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood on their list. The former I thought was great, but I didn't love it, and the latter I haven't seen yet.

PS: Ratatouille and A Bug's Life might be the only Pixar films (out of the ones I've seen) that I don't really love or favor a good deal. Even though the 2007 release is a great film.
You will also be the only one with The Simpsons Movie on the list. Huzzah!

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. No Country For Old Men
2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
3. The Bourne Ultimatum
4. Ratatouille
5. Atonement

[Yxklyx]

Why not just put Grindhouse at #1?

What has everyone else done? Has anyone listed them singly?

[Pop Trash]

What has everyone else done? Has anyone listed them singly?
I just think it has a better chance of making the top ten if you consolidate the votes into one thing. Unless someone really likes one and not the other. But you seem to like both quite a lot.

[Spinal]

I'm going to count up the Rodriguez/Tarantino thingie as three separate entities, but if a common sense look at the data reveals that there is enough support for some incarnation of it to be on the list, then it will get worked out. I just don't know what that looks like until I see it.

[Pop Trash]

I'm going to count up the Rodriguez/Tarantino thingie as three separate entities, but if a common sense look at the data reveals that there is enough support for some incarnation of it to be on the list, then it will get worked out. I just don't know what that looks like until I see it.
Word.

[trotchky]

1. There Will Be Blood
2. I'm Not There
3. No Country For Old Men
4. The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford
5. Grindhouse

[soitgoes...]

Make Secret Sunshine your top priority.
This is the one I have the highest hopes for. Oasis was amazing, and I've heard the same about Peppermint Candy, though I've yet to see it.

[MacGuffin]

1. I'm Not There. (Todd Haynes)
2. La France (Serge Bozon)
3. No Country for Old Men (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen)
4. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
5. Zodiac (David Fincher)

[MadMan]

You will also be the only one with The Simpsons Movie on the list. Huzzah!I don't understand why this is so. I thought it was a great film, and that it recaptured the spirit of the show back when it didn't suck.

Also I put Grindhouse as #1. I'm kind of tired of trying to figure out whether to count it as two separate films or one.

[MacGuffin]

I don't understand why this is so. I thought it was a great film, and that it recaptured the spirit of the show back when it didn't suck.

It was entertaining, but it was also pointless: it could have just been a TV special.

[baby doll]

1. I'm Not There. (Todd Haynes)
2. The Man From London (Béla Tarr)
3. Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)
4. Hairspray (Adam Shankman)
5. La France (Serge Bozon)

Need to see, among others: Go Go Tales (Abel Ferrara); Mange, ceci est mon corps (Michelange Quay); Milyang (Lee Chang-dong); My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin); Le Voyage du ballon rouge (Hou Hsiao-hsien)

[baby doll]

I have a feeling I am going to be the only person without No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood on their list. The former I thought was great, but I didn't love it, and the latter I haven't seen yet.I liked both films, but they're both vastly overrated. Although they purport to address the state of the contemporary world in general, and Iraq in particular (one is about oil, the other about a psycho who wastes innocent civilians left and right), the nihlist hopelessness of both films gives viewers the perfect alibi: the world is and always has been rotten, and we're all as helpless as Tommy Lee Jones' impotent sheriff to do any thing about it. It's not actual people, like those in the Bush administration, who are responsible for all the cruelty in the world but metaphysical boogey men and the flip of a coin that determine everything.

[Yum-Yum]

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Zodiac
3. Across the Universe
4. Into the Wild
5. Stuck

[MacGuffin]

5. La France (Serge Bozon)


Updated.

[dreamdead]

Eh, I'm not gonna bother voting on this year until there's more time to get dvd access to the marginalized films of this year. Any vote I do for this year just shuffles the same five films rather than giving attention to the more esoteric choices.

Things I need to see: Chang-dong Lee's Secret Sunshine is necessary viewing after Oasis and Peppermint Candy. Sunshine is still necessary at some point, too. Maddin and Hou's are likewise fundamental viewing soon. In the City of Sylvia and You, the Living need a watch. Even van Sant and McCarthy necessitate a view.

[Mysterious Dude]

Although I voted for No Country and There Will Be Blood, I'm not convinced that either one of them is a great film.

[Cherish]

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Lust, Caution
3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
4. Sunshine
5. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

[Duncan]

1. The Man from London
2. There Will Be Blood
3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
4. Persepolis
5. I'm Not There

[Yxklyx]

I just think it has a better chance of making the top ten if you consolidate the votes into one thing. Unless someone really likes one and not the other. But you seem to like both quite a lot.

Edited my list.

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Zodiac
3. There Will Be Blood
4. The Darjeeling Limited
5. No End in Sight

[baby doll]

Although I voted for No Country and There Will Be Blood, I'm not convinced that either one of them is a great film.What about Le Scaphandre et le papillon and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days?

Schnabel's film might seem nominally daring and avant-garde next to most Miramax year-end releases, but I think part of the reason I didn't feel challenged by it is that all of Schnabel's stylistic choices are normalized by the narrative. In the first half of the film, when the character can't speak, the camera restricts itself to his point of view; as he regains the ability to communicate, the film switches over to a more conventional style. The film was compared by a lot of reviewers to Brakhage for employing a subjective camera, but where Brakhage self reflexively wants us to identify with the filmmaker, Schnabel wants to identify with an on-screen protagonist. The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes it ain't.

As for Mungiu's film, I found the long takes simply called attention to the director's unimaginative mise en scène. By the final shot, with the two leads sitting at opposite ends of the 'Scope frame and not saying or doing anything for a really long time, we've entered the realm of art movie cliché.

[Hugh_Grant]

1. Into the Wild
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
3. Waitress
4. Persepolis
5. The Savages

HM: Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, Atonement

[Rowland]

1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2. Into the Wild
3. Gone Baby Gone
4. Ratatouille
5. Atonement

[Pop Trash]

Schnabel's film might seem nominally daring and avant-garde next to most Miramax year-end releases, but I think part of the reason I didn't feel challenged by it is that all of Schnabel's stylistic choices are normalized by the narrative. In the first half of the film, when the character can't speak, the camera restricts itself to his point of view; as he regains the ability to communicate, the film switches over to a more conventional style. The film was compared by a lot of reviewers to Brakhage for employing a subjective camera, but where Brakhage self reflexively wants us to identify with the filmmaker, Schnabel wants to identify with an on-screen protagonist. The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes it ain't.


I actually thought the Brackage like stylistics improved the film and elevated it beyond just a well meaning, but uninteresting, biopic of overcoming a handicap (ala Awakenings or My Left Foot, etc.)

This and I'm Not There were two movies I missed in the theaters since I figured I wouldn't like them but was pleasantly surprised when I gave them a chance on DVD.

[trotchky]

I liked both films, but they're both vastly overrated. Although they purport to address the state of the contemporary world in general, and Iraq in particular (one is about oil, the other about a psycho who wastes innocent civilians left and right), the nihlist hopelessness of both films gives viewers the perfect alibi: the world is and always has been rotten, and we're all as helpless as Tommy Lee Jones' impotent sheriff to do any thing about it. It's not actual people, like those in the Bush administration, who are responsible for all the cruelty in the world but metaphysical boogey men and the flip of a coin that determine everything.

Uh. I'd object to your claim that There Will Be Blood purports "to address the state of the contemporary world in general, and Iraq in particular" (seriously, what?), but since you came away from it thinking it meant to mystify, rather than ground in reality and humanize, the cruelty that has shaped the USA's social, economic, cultural development I guess we just had two completely different readings of the film. Also, how is it nihilistic?

[origami_mustache]

I guess this is the most fitting place to post this at the moment

http://data.tumblr.com/4p9526O82f5vhz441mMO2bC7o1_500 .jpg

[SirNewt]

1. Michael Clayton
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Planet Earth
4. The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford
5.

Hmm. . . I think I see a pattern.

I have my new favorite genre, slow paced character studies with moody tonal music and high contrast photography.

[Dead & Messed Up]

01) Zodiac
02) No Country for Old Men
03) The Mist
04) The Hunting Party
05) Waitress
-------------------------------
06) There Will Be Blood
07) The Lookout
08) The Simpsons Movie
09) The Namesake
10) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

[baby doll]

Uh. I'd object to your claim that There Will Be Blood purports "to address the state of the contemporary world in general, and Iraq in particular" (seriously, what?), but since you came away from it thinking it meant to mystify, rather than ground in reality and humanize, the cruelty that has shaped the USA's social, economic, cultural development I guess we just had two completely different readings of the film. Also, how is it nihilistic?Paul Thomas Anderson doesn't live in a cave. He knows if he makes a film about oil, reviewers are going to run with it. During the run up to the Oscars, Charlie Rose had a panel of reviewers on his show (Peter Travers and a few others) and they all agreed these two films, Anderson's and the Coen's, were getting so much recognition from the grey old Academy in part because they reflect the zeitgeist. So either Anderson is being very cynical or very stupid.

As far as what's actually onscreen is concerned, maybe nihlistic is the wrong word, but like the Javier Bardem character in the Coen's film, the Daniel Day-Lewis character is a larger-than-life, mythic figure who arrives in the first scene fully formed. In both films, the rotteness of world is a pre-existing, eternal condition and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it, so we're off the hook.

[The Mike]

07) The Lookout

Glad to see I'm not the only fan of this one. A neat little thriller with a rather mature view of Levitt's character and psychological state.

[Watashi]

I guess Planet Earth would count. No idea how I would rate it properly.

[Ezee E]

I guess Planet Earth would count. No idea how I would rate it properly.
Bah. Same here.

[soitgoes...]

Edited original post to include Secret Sunshine. I'm pretty sure I just saw Chang-dong Lee direct the second best performance for a female lead that I've seen so far this decade. I'd love to give total credit to Do-yeon Jeon, the actress, but Lee's responsible for directing the best female performance as well. So I'm almost certain he's got hand in it.

[Grouchy]

Edited my post.

Ratatouille out.

The Mist in.

It's frigging awesome that more people are watching the masterpiece that Secret Sunshine is.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. You, The Living
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Mister Lonely
4. Secret Sunshine
5. Ploy

[SirNewt]

I guess Planet Earth would count. No idea how I would rate it properly.

ummm, as awesome!?

[B-side]

In both films, the rotteness of world is a pre-existing, eternal condition and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it, so we're off the hook.

I don't think I understand. Is this supposed to be a problem?

[baby doll]

I don't think I understand. Is this supposed to be a problem?Films like No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood legitimize viewers' passivity. Not only is any kind of positive change impossible (it doesn't matter who you vote for or if you shop at Wal-Mart because evil isn't banal, in Hannah Arendt's words, but eternal and way fucking cool), but the Anton Chigurhs aren't responsible for their actions anyway since everything's an accident. As well crafted as the films are as storytelling, neither one is very challenging or memorable.

[Derek]

Films like No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood legitimize viewers' passivity. Not only is any kind of positive change impossible (it doesn't matter who you vote for or if you shop at Wal-Mart because evil isn't banal, in Hannah Arendt's words, but eternal and way fucking cool), but the Anton Chigurhs aren't responsible for their actions anyway since everything's an accident. As well crafted as the films are as storytelling, neither one is very challenging or memorable.

I think what Brightside might be trying to get at, or if he's not, then what I'm interested in, is why this is inherently a bad thing? Or rather, is inspiring social change the responsibility of a director tackling the state of the modern world? If so, how would rectify this position with, say, Bresson's L'Argent, a film which certainly reflects the pervasiveness and randomness of evil in the modern world without offering any alternative or escape? Is that film inherently unchallenging because I'm left with the sneaking suspicion that Bresson doesn't think positive change is possible?

Also, your interpreting No Country as suggesting the Chigurh of the world aren't responsible for their actions is way off. I think Kelly Macdonald's character's dialogue with Chigurh implicates him, even if he continues to see himself as an agent of fate.

[B-side]

I think what Brightside might be trying to get at, or if he's not, then what I'm interested in, is why this is inherently a bad thing? Or rather, is inspiring social change the responsibility of a director tackling the state of the modern world? If so, how would rectify this position with, say, Bresson's L'Argent, a film which certainly reflects the pervasiveness and randomness of evil in the modern world without offering any alternative or escape? Is that film inherently unchallenging because I'm left with the sneaking suspicion that Bresson doesn't think positive change is possible?

Also, your interpreting No Country as suggesting the Chigurh of the world aren't responsible for their actions is way off. I think Kelly Macdonald's character's dialogue with Chigurh implicates him, even if he continues to see himself as an agent of fate.

Yeah, I don't understand why there being no moral rectification is a bad thing. Are we now placing the responsibility of discerning between right and wrong in the hands of the director? Must a director portray a completely morally nuanced tale in order to be worthy of praise? I guess I don't really understand where the line is drawn here.

[baby doll]

Yeah, I don't understand why there being no moral rectification is a bad thing. Are we now placing the responsibility of discerning between right and wrong in the hands of the director? Must a director portray a completely morally nuanced tale in order to be worthy of praise? I guess I don't really understand where the line is drawn here.No, I'm being more pragmatic. I merely find it an over-simplified, ahistorical thesis that doesn't bare out any serious thought and seems designed to comfort rather than provoke.

[baby doll]

I think what Brightside might be trying to get at, or if he's not, then what I'm interested in, is why this is inherently a bad thing? Or rather, is inspiring social change the responsibility of a director tackling the state of the modern world? If so, how would rectify this position with, say, Bresson's L'Argent, a film which certainly reflects the pervasiveness and randomness of evil in the modern world without offering any alternative or escape? Is that film inherently unchallenging because I'm left with the sneaking suspicion that Bresson doesn't think positive change is possible?

Also, your interpreting No Country as suggesting the Chigurh of the world aren't responsible for their actions is way off. I think Kelly Macdonald's character's dialogue with Chigurh implicates him, even if he continues to see himself as an agent of fate.For starters, Bresson is a better filmmaker than Anderson or the Coens, but also, as the title suggests, the evil depicted in the film isn't an eternal, pre-existing metaphysical state, but a condition of capitalism.

In regards to the Kelly MacDonald scene in No Country for Old Men: (a) it's too little, too late; (b) the film ends up endorsing Bardem's position pretty strongly. He gets the last word in the scene, and then he kills her, and then he gets hit by a car (another random act of fate), and on top of that, the film ends with a voice-over by Tommy Lee Jones' impotent lawman.

[trotchky]

Paul Thomas Anderson doesn't live in a cave. He knows if he makes a film about oil, reviewers are going to run with it. During the run up to the Oscars, Charlie Rose had a panel of reviewers on his show (Peter Travers and a few others) and they all agreed these two films, Anderson's and the Coen's, were getting so much recognition from the grey old Academy in part because they reflect the zeitgeist.

Yes? And how does that have any bearing on the film's, or Anderson's, intentions? Or, rather, you said that the movie purports to address the state of Iraq, but if both Paul Thomas Anderson and the film itself reject that idea doesn't that sort of mean it, uh, doesn't purport to do that?


So either Anderson is being very cynical or very stupid.

Why? Just because Anderson disagrees with a reading that's centered in contemporary politics it doesn't mean he isn't aware of those associations and doesn't choose to engage with them at points within the film. It's just that the movie is about a fuck of a lot more than just the contemporary state of Iraq.


As far as what's actually onscreen is concerned, maybe nihlistic is the wrong word, but like the Javier Bardem character in the Coen's film, the Daniel Day-Lewis character is a larger-than-life, mythic figure who arrives in the first scene fully formed. In both films, the rotteness of world is a pre-existing, eternal condition and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it, so we're off the hook.

I'm not really sure what you mean by "fully formed," but Day-Lewis' character undergoes such massive (yet subtle) transformations from the first scene to the last that this criticism seems pretty absurd. In particular (and I think this addresses more specifically what you're talking about), he's presented with numerous opportunities at "salvation" or escaping his perpetual unhappiness, and when those opportunities don't work out his ensuing frustration, anger, alienation, etc. are presented with appropriate poignancy and tact. I'm thinking of the sequence where he leaves his son on the train here, specifically. If it seems inevitable or pre-determined maybe that's because, from a wide lens, it is, but there are always humans ticking beneath Anderson's archetypes and that's sort of what makes it such a great movie in the first place. Oh and I don't agree that the movie concludes "the rotteness of world is a pre-existing, eternal condition and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it, so we're off the hook." If that's true, why does H.W. rise above the sins of his father and ultimately go out into the world as the more caring, humane person?

[Duncan]

I agree with soori on No Country for Old Men, disagree on There Will Be Blood. I always think it's unfortunate that they get grouped together because they're such different pictures with such different philosophies.

[Stay Puft]

5. Paprika

This is 2006.

Don't know if that would change your list for 2006... ;)

EDIT: The Lives of Others, too. But that's not what's important.

[Sven]

I agree with soori on No Country for Old Men, disagree on There Will Be Blood. I always think it's unfortunate that they get grouped together because they're such different pictures with such different philosophies.

Funny, because reading all of the comments, I'm always like "Right on!" when the subject is TWBB, and I'm always like "Get out!" when the subject is NCFOM.

[Kurosawa Fan]

This is 2006.

Don't know if that would change your list for 2006... ;)

EDIT: The Lives of Others, too. But that's not what's important.

Crap. Edited both. I'll also be going to edit 2006.

[SirNewt]

As for Mungiu's film, I found the long takes simply called attention to the director's unimaginative mise en scène. By the final shot, with the two leads sitting at opposite ends of the 'Scope frame and not saying or doing anything for a really long time, we've entered the realm of art movie cliché.

Wow, thank you for this insight. I saw this recently and was pretty unmoved. I couldn't figure out why.

This film falls apart in so many ways. It is now completely imploding within my brain.

[Spinal]

Last call. One more day for this and then ... it will all be over. :pritch:

[Raiders]

:sad:

[Ezee E]

And then, you gather all the winners from each decade, and those become ranked...

And then you take those decade winners, and vote on those... and we have another list.

And then...

[Gizmo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ADTPYAEi80

[thefourthwall]

If I'm not too late...

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Gone Baby Gone
3. Across the Universe
4. Atonement
5. Lars and the Real Girl

[Spinal]

OK, this has been counted. No more edits, but new posts are acceptable until I am able to start the list. Tomorrow earliest.

[Spinal]

And as of right now, there is a three-way tie for 10th place, so if you have not voted yet, please do so.

[origami_mustache]

:sad:

:sad:

[Spinal]

And as of right now, there is a three-way tie for 10th place, so if you have not voted yet, please do so.

Pretty please.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

Since I live in Chicago, can I vote again?

[Grouchy]

Spinal, bring the Top12 already.

You magnificent bastard.

[eternity]

We can vote on a tiebreaker, perhaps?

[Spinal]

Honorables Mentions (or #10 if you prefer)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/4_months_photo_2.jpg

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Director: Cristian Mungiu
Country: Romania

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/persepolispunk.jpg

Persepolis

Director: Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi
Country: France/USA

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/divingbellbutterfly.jpg

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Director: Julian Schnabel
Country: France/USA

[Spinal]

#9

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/07atone-600.jpg

Atonement

Director: Joe Wright

Country: UK/France

Fledgling writer Briony Tallis, as a 13-year-old, irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.

Won the Oscar for Best Original Score. Nominated for six others including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Saoirse Ronan), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography. The celebrated 5 1/2 minute tracking shot was done in four takes (the third one was used). It was conceived out of necessity, for the crew only had a day to film and had limited time with the 1,000 extras and had to shoot before the tide would come in and wash away the set.

"In a world of green fields and sculptured gardens, of tuxedos, cocktails and studied composure, a person might expect stodginess and conventionality, but not cosmic upheaval. A green lawn is not supposed to open up and swallow people. Atonement takes a familiar movie environment, a setting that we think we know, and uses it for an examination of a host of dark impulses, such as jealousy, lust, cruelty and deceit." - Mick LaSalle

[Spinal]

#8

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/into_the_wild_still.jpg

Into the Wild

Director: Sean Penn

Country: USA

After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.

Nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Editing and Best Supporting Actor (Hal Holbrook). No stunt-men or doubles were used for Emile Hirsch, including the scenes where Chris goes through river rapids, confronts a grizzly bear or rock-climbs. The production made four separate trips to Alaska in order to film during different seasons.

"[Into The Wild] reveals a young man of inspiring vision and dogged contradiction, driven at once by his angry rejection of consumerist society, his despair over personal betrayals, and an infectious love of the natural world ... Tempting as it might be to dismiss McCandless as a hare-brained hippie, he's not so easily reduced, and Penn does well to honor his slippery nature, even as he's clearly awed by his grand adventure." - Scott Tobias

[Spinal]

#7

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/photo_18_hires.jpg

Grindhouse

Director: Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino (with help from Eli Roth, Rob Zombie and Edgar Wright)

Country: USA

An homage to exploitation B-movie thrillers that combines two feature-length segments into one double-bill designed to replicate the grind house theatergoing experience of the 70s and 80s. In Planet Terror, a small-town sheriffs' department has to deal with an outbreak of murderous, infected people. In Death Proof, a psycho named Stuntman Mike stalks and kills beautiful women with his car.

The tank top Kurt Russell wore in Big Trouble in Little China can be seen hanging on the wall of the Texas Chili Parlour. Nicolas Cage agreed to play Fu Manchu in the Werewolf Women of the SS trailer - for free -- as a favor for friend Rob Zombie.

"I've got a theory about Grindhouse, and it goes like this: At some point during the brainstorming/beer-bonging process by which Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino developed their multimillion-dollar ersatz-exploitation double feature, the boys finished off the super nachos, sparked up a spliff, and said 'Dude, let's just motherfucking bring it.' ... Rodriguez, Tarantino, and Co. aim for nothing more noble than to freak the funk, and it's about goddamn time." - Nathan Lee

[Spinal]

#6

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/ratatouille_3.jpg

Ratatouille

Director: Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava

Country: USA

Remy is a young rat in the French countryside who arrives in Paris, only to find out that his cooking idol is dead. When he makes an unusual alliance with a restaurant's new garbage boy, the culinary and personal adventures begin despite the rat-hating world of humans.

Won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Also nominated for four others including Best Original Screenplay. The animation team worked alongside chef Thomas Keller at his restaurant French Laundry in order to learn the art of cooking. Mr. Keller also appears in a cameo role as the voice of a patron at Gusteau's. The French waiter in the trailer talking about the cheeses is voiced by Brad Bird.

"What truly separates this vigorous adventure from the animated film pack ... isn't just its superficial beauty, clever writing, or nimble direction, but its enchanting democratic spirit. Ratatouille may eventually be a tad protracted but its ingratiating desire to jam-pack something for everyone into its 110 minutes is in line with its touching advocacy of tolerance, self-definition, and believing in one's ability to achieve the seemingly impossible." - Nick Schager

[Ezee E]

Psh, those honorable mentions must be underseen. Diving Bell in particular.

[Spinal]

#5

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/ImNotThere-Wenk03444s_502.jpg

I'm Not There

Director: Todd Haynes

Country: USA

Six incarnations of Bob Dylan: an actor, a folk singer, an electrified troubadour, Rimbaud, Billy the Kid, and Woody Guthrie. Put Dylan's music behind their adventures, soliloquies, interviews, marriage, and infidelity. Recreate 1960s documentaries in black and white. Put each at a crossroads, the artist becoming someone else.

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett). Blanchett won Best Supporting Female at the Independent Spirit Awards. Named Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. Cate Blanchett wore a sock down her trousers to play Bob Dylan. The actress said it 'helped me walk like a man.'

"Coming away from I'm Not There, we have, first of all, heard some great music ... We've seen six gifted actors challenged by playing facets of a complete man. We've seen a daring attempt at biography as collage ... And we have been left not one step closer to comprehending Bob Dylan, which is as it should be." - Roger Ebert

[Spinal]

#4

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/Assassination-of-Jesse-James-by-the.jpg

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Director: Andrew Dominik

Country: USA

Robert Ford, who's idolized Jesse James since childhood, tries hard to join the reforming gang of the Missouri outlaw, but gradually becomes resentful of the bandit leader.

Nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actor (Casey Affleck). Brad Pitt won Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. According to Andrew Dominik, Brad Pitt had it put in his contract that the name of the movie was not to be changed. The original cut was nearly four hours long. This was the version that played at Venice.

"That Jesse James, brazenly affected and acutely interested in investigating the notion of personal and collective myths, doesn't resound with full, heartbreaking intensity until its climax and coda will likely prove too long a wait for those less enamored than Dominik with the seminal, plaintive, demanding westerns of Robert Altman and Terrence Malick, among others. To this impatience, the film has an apt reply ... 'Poetry doesn't work on whores.'" - Nick Schager

[Kurosawa Fan]

Yikes. This is one unimpressive top ten. #4 is the only film so far that I really liked. Haven't seen any of the Honorable Mentions though.

[Spinal]

#3

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/zodiac460.jpg

Zodiac

Director: David Fincher

Country: USA

A serial killer in the San Francisco Bay Area taunts police with his letters and cryptic messages. We follow the investigators and reporters in this lightly fictionalized account of the true 1970's case as they search for the murderer, becoming obsessed with the case.

The cab scene on Washington and Cherry Streets in San Francisco could not be entirely shot due to filming restrictions and the opposition of the neighborhood residents. So, a set of the intersection, including the street, apartments and crime scene was constructed at Downey Studios just outside of Los Angeles, California. Backdrops of San Francisco were digitally inserted to complete the scene. In order to save time, David Fincher decided to digitally add all the blood in the murder scenes.

"Zodiac exhausts more than one genre. Termite art par excellence, it burrows for the sake of burrowing, as fascinated by its own nooks and crannies as Inland Empire ... The movie operates with the back-and-forth insistence of a scanner arm, gathering, filtering, digitizing, and storing an immense catalog of analog enigmas. It might have been titled A Scanner Darkly." - Nathan Lee

[Spinal]

#2

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/NoCountryForOldMen3.jpg

No Country for Old Men

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen

Country: USA

After stumbling across a case of money among dead bodies, Llewelyn Moss thinks he can keep it quiet, but when silent killer Anton Chigurh locates Moss and his money, Vietnam veteran Moss makes a run for it.

Won four Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem). Nominated for four others including Best Cinematography. The weapon used by Anton Chigurh is a captive bolt pistol. It is most widely used in the slaughter of cattle to stun the animals before they are butchered. Contrary to most successful films made from books, much of the film's action is taken word for word from Cormac McCarthy's novel. Bell's final speech in the film, for instance, can be read on the final page of the book.

"This movie is a masterful evocation of time, place, character, moral choices, immoral certainties, human nature and fate. It is also, in the photography by Roger Deakins, the editing by the Coens and the music by Carter Burwell, startlingly beautiful, stark and lonely ... The movie also loves some of its characters, and pities them, and has an ear for dialog not as it is spoken but as it is dreamed." - Roger Ebert

[Ezee E]

Yikes. This is one unimpressive top ten. #4 is the only film so far that I really liked. Haven't seen any of the Honorable Mentions though.
Definitely see Diving Bell and 4 Months. Both can be seen instantly if you have that option on Netflix.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

and now the film that should have won the Oscar.....

[Spinal]

#1

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/2007_there_will_be_blood_013.j pg

There Will Be Blood

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Country: USA

Daniel Plainview is an oil man and spends his days harvesting the money from discovered oil. When Paul Sunday asks Plainview to dig for the oil at his family home, he finds it too hard to resist. Soon, he is up in Little Boston, California. Not everyone is pleased to see him as the tension builds between Daniel and preacher, Eli Sunday as well as the greed.

Won two Oscars: Best Cinematography and Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis). Nominated for six others including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay. Daniel Day-Lewis based his voice for and characterization of Daniel Plainview in part on old recordings of the director, writer, and actor John Huston. The infamous 'I drink your milkshake!' is, in part, a real quote. Anderson found the metaphor in congressional transcripts from the 1920's Teapot Dome scandal, in which New Mexico Republican Senator Albert Fall was convicted of accepting bribes for oil drilling rights to various lands.

"There's hardly a dull moment. Digs collapse, gushers burst into flame, God metes out punishment and so does man. Revelations overturn the narrative: The last 20 minutes are as shocking in their way as the plague that rains from the sky in Magnolia's finale. By the time the closing words 'There Will Be Blood' appear (with a burst of Brahms) inscribed in heavy gothic letters on the screen, Anderson's movie has come to seem an Old Testament story of cosmic comeuppance and filicidal madness—American history glimpsed through the smoke and fire that the lightning left behind." - J. Hoberman

[Kurosawa Fan]

Great finish, but still one of the more disappointing results we've come up with.

[Spinal]

1. There Will Be Blood (100.5)
2. No Country for Old Men (86)
3. Zodiac (62.5)
4. The Assassination of Jesse James (53)
5. I’m Not There (42.5)
6. Ratatouille (28.5)
7 Grindhouse (20.5) (Death Proof 5)
8. Into the Wild (18.5)
9. Atonement (17)

Honorable Mentions:
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (15)
Persepolis (15)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (15)

Close:
Secret Sunshine (12.5)
Paranoid Park (12.5)
Juno (12.5)

[Arthur Seaton]

Definitely see Diving Bell and 4 Months. Both can be seen instantly if you have that option on Netflix.

See Persepolis, too. All three are definitely worth your time.

[Ezee E]

Great finish, but still one of the more disappointing results we've come up with.
Other than the swap of #1 and #2, the site remained entirely consistent in the top 5.

[Arthur Seaton]

I'm surprised Atonement was top ten. Doesn't seem like a Match-Cutty type of film. At least Juno didn't make it.

[eternity]

I'm surprised Atonement was top ten. Doesn't seem like a Match-Cutty type of film. At least Juno didn't make it.

Facepalm.

[Arthur Seaton]

Facepalm.
Sowee.

[SirNewt]

ehhh. . . My only beef is that Michael Clayton didn't even get an HM. Otherwise, it's pretty good.

[Grouchy]

The Mist definitively deserved better.

Other than that, good. I'm glad Blood beats No Country in recollection - both unarguably fine films, though.

[Rowland]

1. There Will Be Blood 62
2. No Country for Old Men 70
3. Zodiac 71
4. The Assassination of Jesse James 83
5. I’m Not There --
6. Ratatouille 74
7 Grindhouse 57 (Death Proof 66)
8. Into the Wild 79
9. Atonement 75

Honorable Mentions:
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly 54
Persepolis --
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days --

Close:
Secret Sunshine --
Paranoid Park --
Juno 35

Hmm, well I'm most disappointed by the lack of a showing for Gone Baby Gone. Otherwise, I like all but one of the movies listed here, and four from my selection made the top ten, so I'm satisfied.

[Watashi]

There Will Be Blood on the same level as Mindhunters.

Makes sense.

[Pop Trash]

Yikes. This is one unimpressive top ten. #4 is the only film so far that I really liked. Haven't seen any of the Honorable Mentions though.
I'm much more satisfied with this list than 2006.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I concur with Grouchy on The Mist, but it's otherwise a solid top ten. I wish There Will Be Blood wasn't number one, mostly because I found it so mannered and "flawlessly done" that it began to feel artificial.

[trotchky]

Pleased to see the best film of the decade wind up as number one.