Ten-Years-Later Match Cut Consensus - 2009

[Peng]

I was searching for something and stumbled upon the Ten-Years-Later Match Cut things for 2007 and 2008, and see that we missed last year for 2009. I think they're fascinating look-back exercises and want to keep the tradition going. I am not sure if our pool is deep enough for the full Awards voting one though, so I'm gonna go with Spinal's easier Consensus first. Edited from his thread (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?7224-Ten-Years-Later-Match-Cut-Consensus-2008):


Let's also do a countdown of your favorite films from the year. Post a top 10 (IMDb dates) below. I'll count up the votes and give you a top 20-25 (depending on the statistical significance of the results).

Points will be counted using a weighted system:

1. - 10 pts
2. - 8 pts
3. - 7 pts
4. - 6 pts
5. - 5 pts
6. - 4.5 pts
7. - 4 pts
8. - 3.5 pts
9. - 3 pts
10. - 2.5 pts

(Weighted system used to give top films a boost, and to minimize the distinction between second tier films.)

[Peng]

1. Inglorious Basterds
2. A Serious Man
3. Mary and Max
4. Fantastic Mr. Fox
5. Dogtooth
6. Castaway on the Moon
7. Up
8. About Elly
9. Avatar
10. Moon

[Yxklyx]

1. Enter the Void (Gaspar Noé)
2. Soul Kitchen (Fatih Akin)
3. El secreto de sus ojos (Juan José Campanella)
4. World's Greatest Dad (Bobcat Goldthwait)
5. The Hangover (Todd Phillips)
6. Daddy Longlegs (Ben Safdie & Joshua Safdie)
7. Star Trek (J.J. Abrams)
8. Humpday (Lynn Shelton)
9.The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)
10. Amer (Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani)

not...one...match :) - almost for Everyone Else.

[MadMan]

Not sure this is a good list, but it is a list:

1. A Serious Man (Coen Brothers)
2. In The Loop (Iannucci)
3. (500) Days of Summer (Webb)
4. Antichrist (von Trier)
5. Up (Peterson and Docter)
6. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Herzog)
7. Inglourious Basterds (Tarentino)
8. District 9 (Blomkamp)
9. The Hurt Locker (Bigelow)
10. Up In The Air (Reitman)

[Stay Puft]

1. Symbol (Hitoshi Matsumoto)
2. Soul Kitchen (Fatih Akin)
3. Mundane History (Anocha Suwichakornpong)
4. White Material (Claire Denis)
5. Coraline (Henry Selick)
6. Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos)
7. Face (Tsai Ming-liang)
8. A Town Called Panic (Stéphane Aubier & Vincent Patar)
9. A Serious Man (Ethan Coen & Joel Coen)
10. Redline (Takeshi Koike)

[Peng]

Oh I forgot Dogtooth, which was in my 2010 list. Edited.


MadMan, The Hurt Locker was 2008 on imdb (and was also among the last edition's thread).

[Ezee E]

Been to MN many a times, and never heard of the hotdish.

They do claim to like sauerkraut on pizza, which is insane... but that may be more Wisconsin.

[Ezee E]

1. Inglorious Basterds
2. A Prophet
3. The Hurt Locker
3. The Hangover
4. The Road
5. Observe and Report
6. Fish Tank
7. Enter the Void
8. A Serious Man
9. Mother
10. District 9

[Dukefrukem]

1. Antichrist
2. Enter the Void
3. Moon
4. Up
5. District 9
6. Drag Me to Hell
7. The House of the Devil
8. (500) Days of Summer
9. Inglourious Basterds
10. fantastic mr fox

In fairness, Dogtooth would probably be my #1 if I had seen it.

[Mysterious Dude]

1. The White Ribbon
2. Bright Star
3. Where the Wild Things Are
4. Enter the Void
5. A Serious Man
6. In the Loop
7. The Exploding Girl
8. Mother
9. Moon
10. Son of Babylon

[Skitch]

18 star trek
17 sherlock holmes
16 avatar
15 enter the void
14 astro boy
13 coraline
12 district 9
11 ponyo
--------------------------
10 house of the devil
9 pandorum
8 cloudy with a chance of meatballs
7 ben button
6 moon
5 observe and report
4 watchmen
3 inglorious basterds
2 fantastic mr fox
1 the box

[Dukefrukem]

Thanks for reminding me about fantastic mr fox. Left it off my list but I've edited it above.

[Grouchy]

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. The White Ribbon
3. A Prophet
4. Where the Wild Things Are
5. Mother
6. A Serious Man
7. Moon
8. District 9
9. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
10. Thirst

HM: Broken Embraces, The Informant!, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Drag Me to Hell

[Skitch]

Whats the ruling on Imaginarium? I've seen different release dates. This matters to me because that would make my top 10.

[Dukefrukem]

We go by first USA release dates here. October 2009 (Chicago International Film Festival)

[Skitch]

We go by first USA release dates here. October 2009 (Chicago International Film Festival)

Updated

19 star trek
18 sherlock holmes
17 avatar
16 enter the void
15 astro boy
14 coraline
13 district 9
12 ponyo
11 house of the devil
---------------------------------------
10 pandorum
9 cloudy with a chance of meatballs
8 ben button
7 moon
6 observe and report
5 watchmen
4 inglorious basterds
3 fantastic mr fox
2 imaginarium of dr parnassus
1 the box

[Pop Trash]

We go by first USA release dates here. October 2009 (Chicago International Film Festival)

Wait ... what? Spinal did imdb (per his comment in the first post). Are we changing to USA dates? Only matters for my placement of Dogtooth. Might be easier to follow imdb / letterboxd (which uses the imdb system of first public showing / streaming eg. a film festival) since I never remember when exactly movies came out.

[Pop Trash]

1. Adventureland
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
4. Where the Wild Things Are
5. Dogtooth (if it counts)
6. Bright Star (if it counts)
7. The House of the Devil (if it counts)
8. Drag Me to Hell
9. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (if it counts)
10. Mother (if it counts)


You can see how annoying it is to look up the USA release dates for all these.

[Dukefrukem]

We've always done this since day 1 across the site. It's how we determined what section to put the voting thread in.

I didn't read Spinal's original post. I just assumed we did this across the site to never make it confusing. Oh well.

[Peng]

My opinion, separate of this thread's voting and its imdb rules from Spinal, is that the more general release date/US release date is apt when it's new films (within 1-2 years) because of the availability issue, so as not to have any new (and often smaller) film fall by wayside when making/voting list like this. If it's some time removed, such as our decade lookback, it's enough distance to revert back to imdb date. (There will be a rare case like The Hurt Locker though, in which it both crosses a year and then becomes insanely high-profile to the point of Oscars, that I'm personally ambivalent about sticking to imdb dates since its year of wide release etches itself in film history. But since it appears in both 2008 Ten-Years-Later threads of Consensus and Awards throughout, that easily clears up the matter for the purpose of this thread.)

[Pop Trash]

Agree w/ Peng. I get it with a new consensus, but I sure as hell can't remember when a foreign film or indie film came out 10 years ago.

[Dukefrukem]

I'm ok with whatever decision we make. No real preference.

BTW, anyone know what happened to Spinal and what set him off on his last post?

[Grouchy]

I'm OK with either as well but Duke is right, it was always by US release date in the old days.

EDIT: I prefer IMDb, though.

[Lazlo]

I think Peng's right, US release works to make sense of the currently in-progress conversation around a movie year, but ten years removed it becomes much simpler to stick to IMDb.

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Up
3. Adventureland
4. Bright Star
5. Where the Wild Things Are
6. Avatar
7. Fish Tank
8. Un Prophète
9. The Road
10. A Single Man

[Ezee E]

I'll need to remove Hurt Locker

[baby doll]

Vincere (Marco Bellocchio)
Das weiße Band, eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (Michael Haneke)
Un prophète (Jacques Audiard)
Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos)
La Religieuse portugaise (Eugène Green)
A Serious Man (Ethan and Joel Coen)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl (Manoel de Oliveira)
About Elly (Asghar Farhadi)
Night Mayor (Guy Maddin)

[Skitch]

All our lists dont matter. As long as Fantastic Mr Fox is on all of them, thats all that matters.

[transmogrifier]

1. The Informant!
2. Polytechnique
3. Thirst
4. Castaway on the Moon
5. The Actresses
6. In the Loop
7. Air Doll
8. Fantastic Mr. Fox
9. A Serious Man
10. Mother

[MadMan]

The Hurt Locker was nominated for Best Picture for 2009 (2010 Oscars) and beat out Avatar for the top prize. It had a June US release date so I'm leaving it in. I miss Spinal but he probably got tired of this place like many others have.

[MadMan]

All our lists dont matter. As long as Fantastic Mr Fox is on all of them, thats all that matters.

I liked it, but didn't love it.

[MadMan]

baby doll I really liked Un prophète but I can't remember why I only gave it a 9/10. I should see it again sometime. Dogtooth is a major one I need to view sometime.

[MadMan]

trans The Informant! is a really fun flick and one of my favorites from 2009 even if it fell short of my list. Also Moon just barely misses the cut. Sam Rockwell getting snubbed for that movie still makes little sense to me.

[Peng]

what set him off on his last post?

That post is after I pointing out Irish in editing or deleting past posts for his own current arguments.

[Peng]

The Hurt Locker was nominated for Best Picture for 2009 (2010 Oscars) and beat out Avatar for the top prize. It had a June US release date so I'm leaving it in. I miss Spinal but he probably got tired of this place like many others have.

Fine, but if it somehow makes the cut (probably unlikely, because anyone who wants to vote of it either already did it for 2008 thread, or else they follow Spinal's imdb rule) I will have to disqualify because it already appears at #11 on our 2008 consensus, and I see no reason for one film to take up two spots on two different years. Just mentioning this in case you want to bump/promote a different film up to #10.

[MadMan]

IMDB is wrong because the Oscars clearly considered it a 2009 movie. I think I'll take the Academy over a movie website. Spinal can show up and defend his own rule.

[Skitch]

Hurt Locker sucks anyway so who cares

*shitpost and flee*

[Dukefrukem]

Hurt Locker sucks anyway so who cares

*shitpost and flee*

Most overrated movie of the 21st century.

It only won Best Picture because James Cameron is a jerk.

[Grouchy]

IMDB is wrong because the Oscars clearly considered it a 2009 movie. I think I'll take the Academy over a movie website. Spinal can show up and defend his own rule.
Hahahah what the hell? Why?

Not that big a deal anyway. Just pick one and go with it.

[Skitch]

Most overrated movie of the 21st century.

It only won Best Picture because James Cameron is a jerk.

ffs how much rep do i have to spread

[Ezee E]

IMDB is wrong because the Oscars clearly considered it a 2009 movie. I think I'll take the Academy over a movie website. Spinal can show up and defend his own rule.

It is one of the bigger movies that shows the IMDB flaw. It had a Toronto Film Festival release in 2008, which makes it align with the IMDB decision.

It's probably the biggest outlier when looking back into IMDB since 75%+ of film festival movies are typically released within the same year or amount to nothing. This one just happened to win best picture.

I think it's this and Amarcord (IMDB Italy release in 1973, US Oscar Foreign Film win in 1975) that are the two most notable flaws.

Other than that, I'm in agreement that IMDB is the way to go since it's the easiest to reference.

[Ezee E]

BTW, I have watched Hurt Locker since the release. Still a great starring vehicle for Renner/Mackie, and enjoy the suspense as much as I did the first time I saw it.

Inglorious Basterds was my favorite of the bunch, but had no chance at the win. It was Avatar VS. Hurt Locker.

And I HATE Avatar at this point.

big lol at Precious.

[baby doll]

It is one of the bigger movies that shows the IMDB flaw. It had a Toronto Film Festival release in 2008, which makes it align with the IMDB decision.

It's probably the biggest outlier when looking back into IMDB since 75%+ of film festival movies are typically released within the same year or amount to nothing. This one just happened to win best picture.

I think it's this and Amarcord (IMDB Italy release in 1973, US Oscar Foreign Film win in 1975) that are the two most notable flaws.

Other than that, I'm in agreement that IMDB is the way to go since it's the easiest to reference.As I've said elsewhere on this site, going by Oscar eligibility rules is needlessly prohibitive, since a lot of important films never get a commercial release in the US (e.g., virtually every avant-garde film) or get one only belatedly (A Brighter Summer Day in 2011, About Elly in 2015, Sátántangó in 2019).

[Grouchy]

As I've said elsewhere on this site, going by Oscar eligibility rules is needlessly prohibitive, since a lot of important films never get a commercial release in the US (e.g., virtually every avant-garde film) or get one only belatedly (A Brighter Summer Day in 2011, About Elly in 2015, Sátántangó in 2019).
Exactly. It makes sense for the Oscars because they're a US industry award, but there's no real reason why it should function as a rule for the rest of the world. The TIFF release of The Hurt Locker is the actual release of that movie.

[Ezee E]

As I've said elsewhere on this site, going by Oscar eligibility rules is needlessly prohibitive, since a lot of important films never get a commercial release in the US (e.g., virtually every avant-garde film) or get one only belatedly (A Brighter Summer Day in 2011, About Elly in 2015, Sátántangó in 2019).

Right.

[Mr. McGibblets]

The Informant!
Mother
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Inglourious Basterds
In The Loop
A Serious Man
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Adventureland
Moon
Up

[MadMan]

I thought Hurt Locker was great and saw it before the Oscars. Maybe I think it's worthy of being in my Top 10 for the year because it's a 2009 film and is one of the best movies I saw from 2009? No wonder Spinal left match-cut.

For the record A Serious Man should have won Best Picture for that year.

[Peng]

Hahahah what the hell? Why?

Not that big a deal anyway. Just pick one and go with it.

Same with this. One can do whatever they like with their own top 10, and I don't mind sticking to US release date, since I just had disagreement with Grouchy on actually this matter in a new film thread (That falls in my previously stated camp of new release being discussed in term of wider/US release). It's just the reasoning behind MadMan's post is so goofy in thinking the Acadmey and IMDB can't be both right; one of them must be wrong. Just been a while since someone actually treats the Academy as relatively sacred or near it. As for IMDB, they don't add random dates for giggles, here's the reason they have it as 2008 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/releaseinfo?ref_=tt_ov_inf):




Italy (https://www.imdb.com/calendar/?region=it&ref_=ttrel_rel_1)
4 September 2008
(Venice Film Festival)


Canada (https://www.imdb.com/calendar/?region=ca&ref_=ttrel_rel_2)
8 September 2008
(Toronto International Film Festival)


Italy (https://www.imdb.com/calendar/?region=it&ref_=ttrel_rel_3)
10 October 2008



Canada (https://www.imdb.com/calendar/?region=ca&ref_=ttrel_rel_4)
18 October 2008
(Montreal Festival du nouveau cinéma)


Argentina (https://www.imdb.com/calendar/?region=ar&ref_=ttrel_rel_5)
6 November 2008
(Mar del Plata Film Festival)


Norway (https://www.imdb.com/calendar/?region=no&ref_=ttrel_rel_6)
29 November 2008
(Oslo International Film Festival)


Poland (https://www.imdb.com/calendar/?region=pl&ref_=ttrel_rel_7)
December 2008
(Camerimage)

[Peng]

I thought Hurt Locker was great and saw it before the Oscars. Maybe I think it's worthy of being in my Top 10 for the year because it's a 2009 film and is one of the best movies I saw from 2009? No wonder Spinal left match-cut.

I'm genuinely perplexed why you're so pressed over this. No one is asking you to alter your personal top 10; for the purpose of *just this thread* I just asked if you might want to submit something else because going by Spinal's past thread will not count one of your choices. Which makes that last sentence a bit rich since (if we're doing this "invoking a past member's reasons/actions for our own post like we actually know why" thing) directly flouting his rule would sureee not be part of any frustration.

[Grouchy]

I have no earthly idea why Spinal left Matchcut, by the way. Now I'm genuinely curious.

[MadMan]

I don't get why a movie that was nominated for Best Picture for 2009 is not a 2009 movie. Also I'm guessing Spinal left Matchcut because people argue about silly shit here. I also posted that he can come back and tell me his damn self why it's not a 2009 film. Also I use Criticker instead of IMDB because they suck less.

[Pop Trash]

BTW, anyone know what happened to Spinal and what set him off on his last post?

I'm sure at some point he was like "what am I doing?" and decided he was too old for this shit like Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon movies. I think he's well into his 40s and maybe offline life biz called. I know he has kid(s?) and maybe a wife. Same thing happened with Raiders and that dude who liked George Miller and had a Fury Road avatar (Sven? was that his name?)

[Ezee E]

I'll never leave.

[Pop Trash]

It is one of the bigger movies that shows the IMDB flaw. It had a Toronto Film Festival release in 2008, which makes it align with the IMDB decision.

It's probably the biggest outlier when looking back into IMDB since 75%+ of film festival movies are typically released within the same year or amount to nothing. This one just happened to win best picture.

I think it's this and Amarcord (IMDB Italy release in 1973, US Oscar Foreign Film win in 1975) that are the two most notable flaws.

Other than that, I'm in agreement that IMDB is the way to go since it's the easiest to reference.

Oh man I got in this heated discussion with Mike D'Angelo (A/V Club and former Entertainment Weekly critic) on letterboxd about the release date of King of Comedy. Normally I like how imdb dates work. It keeps things uniform and doesn't turn film into American-centric. If you release something publicly, either at a film fest or streaming or whatever that is the "date" your film was released. King of Comedy was for years, nay DECADES even, always considered a 1983 movie, until somebody just recently discovered it apparently was released in Iceland of all places in December of 1982. I'm still semi convinced it's bullshit, but people have scanned newspapers from Iceland saying it played there in Dec. 1982. Why, I have no idea. So all of a sudden King of Comedy becomes a 1982 movie and anyone that does year-by-year lists (like me and Mike D'Angelo) have to lodge it into 1982. I think it's kinda bullshit if for decades a movie is known from one year, and only due to very random info, the film gets retroactively stuck in the previous year. Mike disagreed and didn't care much, but I guarantee you if you looked up King of Comedy in a Leonard Maltin or Roger Ebert video companion from the '80s and '90s it would be a 1983. I think Scorsese should get involved and officially make it a 1983 movie. I'd also like to know if he remembers if or why the hell it played in Iceland in December of 1982.

[Pop Trash]

I'll never leave.

I'm covid furloughed and pretty bored right now, so yeah I'll be around.

[Ezee E]

Oh man I got in this heated discussion with Mike D'Angelo (A/V Club and former Entertainment Weekly critic) on letterboxd about the release date of King of Comedy. Normally I like how imdb dates work. It keeps things uniform and doesn't turn film into American-centric. If you release something publicly, either at a film fest or streaming or whatever that is the "date" your film was released. King of Comedy was for years, nay DECADES even, always considered a 1983 movie, until somebody just recently discovered it apparently was released in Iceland of all places in December of 1982. I'm still semi convinced it's bullshit, but people have scanned newspapers from Iceland saying it played there in Dec. 1982. Why, I have no idea. So all of a sudden King of Comedy becomes a 1982 movie and anyone that does year-by-year lists (like me and Mike D'Angelo) have to lodge it into 1982. I think it's kinda bullshit if for decades a movie is known from one year, and only due to very random info, the film gets retroactively stuck in the previous year. Mike disagreed and didn't care much, but I guarantee you if you looked up King of Comedy in a Leonard Maltin or Roger Ebert video companion from the '80s and '90s it would be a 1983. I think Scorsese should get involved and officially make it a 1983 movie. I'd also like to know if he remembers if or why the hell it played in Iceland in December of 1982.

lol. Released in the US in February, and somehow played Cannes in May.

Should make a list of Top 10 IMDB Year Fuck Ups.

[Philip J. Fry]

1. Inglorious Basterds
2. A Serious Man
3. Up
4. (500) Days of Summer
5. Mary and Max
6. Fantastic Mr. Fox
7. REDLINE
8. Moon
9. The Secret of Kells
10. Coraline

[Peng]

I don't get why a movie that was nominated for Best Picture for 2009 is not a 2009 movie. Also I'm guessing Spinal left Matchcut because people argue about silly shit here. I also posted that he can come back and tell me his damn self why it's not a 2009 film. Also I use Criticker instead of IMDB because they suck less.

2009 Best Picture as determined the American Academy... because we know USA is the be-all and end-all of all things, including cinema. :rolleyes: (and I'm saying this as someone who thinks the Academy gets too much flak, including from this forum, and has The Hurt Locker as #15 on his own 2009 list)

And I'm continuing to argue your posts because you still reply to my and others' newer posts (which include "why" imdb has it as 2008 on imdb) but strangely still in your old unchanging words, barely bothering to have discussion with us at all, and also because I find using past member's unknowable reason for leaving as a front to vent one's own grievance pretty unpleasant, tbh.

[Dukefrukem]

I'll never leave.

I was doing some nostalgia thinking the other day about friends I grew up with who lost interest in films and stuff... and I always wondered why?

I love my wife and kids but my hobbies will never die. It might slow down, as it's hard to find time.

Like, what's number8 doing to get his film discussion fix? How does he not want to discuss the things that have come up in the last year? Especially during COVID19?

[Grouchy]

Like, what's number8 doing to get his film discussion fix? How does he not want to discuss the things that have come up in the last year? Especially during COVID19?
Hahah I talked to him recently on instagram. I think he still works as a pop culture journalist, though, so his real life must be surrounded by nerds already.

[Dukefrukem]

If that's true, he probably sees us as simpletons.

[Grouchy]

Hahahah I didn't say that. It was true when I went to New York and met him in person back in... 2013? Jesus, feels too long ago.

[Dukefrukem]

I tried to get him to want to hang out one time during one of his movie marathons but I don't think he likes me.

[Grouchy]

I think his personality is just like that, because I used to think that too, but then while I was in NYC he answered my message and I met him and his girlfriend for a few beers and there was no trouble at all.

[Ezee E]

Met him in 2010 with NickGlass. We got Indonesian food. Was a good time.

[Yxklyx]

lol. Released in the US in February, and somehow played Cannes in May.

Should make a list of Top 10 IMDB Year Fuck Ups.

Interesting, IMDB says filming ended October 1981. Post production (or whatever it's called) doesn't take more than a whole year does it? It seems like it was languishing around for over a year and someone stole/took a copy to show to some friends?

[MadMan]

I think I follow number8 on Twitter. No idea if he followed back. Also the only reason I came back here is because RT killed off their message boards. In fact I was on verge of leaving every other board I posted at simply because I like RT and I was enjoying posting reviews of MST3K episodes. The OT crowd was also still mostly around-they migrated to Kateland when RT went down.

I have no idea why Spinal left. I liked him as a poster. I used to leave message boards before they ended, but I was there for RT's end so I figure I'll stick around for the end of this site, too. At least I get along with the mods here-Sunatory Times and Icine saw me argue and fight with some in charge, and I never liked the people running moviejustice. Maybe if I had a life I would have quit posting. I donno. I do like Twitter a lot.

[Peng]

Bump. Let's say put this up just over a week, and have the deadline on Monday.

[Peng]

12 ponyo
11 house of the devil
---------------------------------------
10 pandorum
9 cloudy with a chance of meatballs
8 ben button
7 moon
6 observe and report
5 watchmen
4 inglorious basterds
3 fantastic mr fox
2 imaginarium of dr parnassus
1 the box

I have been busy with sudden WFH workload so just getting to compile score just now and see your list. If #8 is the Fincher film it's 2008. Do you want to bump House of the Devil up to #10?

[Skitch]

I have been busy with sudden WFH workload so just getting to compile score just now and see your list. If #8 is the Fincher film it's 2008. Do you want to bump House of the Devil up to #10?

I hate dealing with release dates lol, but if so then yes.

[Peng]

Okkk I'm done with all the scoring and compiling, probably gonna start in the next day or two.

Probably will be not as in-depth history as Spinal's old thread, although I will try to add something or two about each entry. Some stats and house-clearing for this thread to start off:

- It will be a top 20, as anything beyond than that will be a smudge of ties and/or near lone mentions.
- Even then there are still three ties in the top 20. One is solved by which one having more mentions; the other two pairs have equal scores and mentions, and are solved by which one placing the highest in a list.
- 15 members participated. In the top 20, film(s) getting in with the most mentions have 10 mentions, while the least have 2.

Stay tuned!

[Peng]

Until then, here are the 4 HMs (aka Just Misses), alphabetically:


HONORABLE MENTIONS


Castaway on the Moon (Lee Hae-jun)

https://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1a33xMsLG1roivhxo1_500 .gif


The Hangover (Todd Phillips)

https://media.giphy.com/media/3owzVXFJ663zVb0W9q/giphy.gif


The House of the Devil (Ti West)

https://bloodypopcorn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/hotd-1.gif


Mary and Max (Adam Elliot)

https://66.media.tumblr.com/8663e5a76b4b41e3c847dd14876f8c ba/tumblr_mjqcwbgt8g1qhgrbko1_r2_ 500.gif

[Skitch]

I forgot Mary and Max. That film is incredible.

[Peng]

Gonna do an irregular interval of 5 placements, in which the first batch starts... now. Per Spinal's (edited) words:


You've had a whole decade to see more movies, to get past your initial biases and reflect. Now there can be no excuses. Here are your top 20 films of 2009 ...

[Peng]

#20

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2009/11/20/arts/20badlieutenantspan-1/articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale
HELLO, MISS! I'm a lieutenant in the police department! I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF A HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION! CAN I GET MY PRESCRIPTION, PLEASE?

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

14.5 points - 4 lists - no #1 - avg score 3.6

Director: Werner Herzog

Country: USA

Terence McDonagh is a drug- and gambling-addled detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating the killing of five Senegalese immigrants.


Awards
- Venice Film Festival 2009 Golden Lion nomination for Werner Herzog (lost to Samuel Maoz for Lebanon)
- Christopher D. Smithers Foundation Special Award for Werner Herzog
- Independent Spirit Awards 2010 Best Cinematography nomination for Peter Zeitlinger (lost to Roger Deakins for A Serious Man)
- Toronto Film Critics Association 2010 Best Actor award for Nicolas Cage
- Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2010 Special Jury Prize award


Critics' Praise: "It's not always easy to sort out the legitimately inspired touches from the merely campy ones, but the film has a deranged, go-for-broke spirit that makes such distinctions irrelevant." - Scott Tobias, AV Club

Match Cut's Praise: "I'm not about to call it top tier Herzog. It's true that it's an intentionally light and silly film, but it's successfully light and silly as far as that goes. The material is basically Hollywood-lite entertainment, and Herzog runs with it in his own peculiar fashion, building to the most appropriate ending possible. I've always loved Herzog for his ability to end a movie, hitting the perfect tone, image, etc. The endings in both this film and My Son, My Son are perfect for the given material, probably his best endings since My Best Fiend (or maybe Invincible, I always liked that one, too). I had felt Herzog had been getting a bit soft with his endings lately, but that's not the case here. I'm not going to remember Herzog as a filmmaker for this film in particular, of course, but it's a well executed piece of comedy and entertainment. It is not to be so readily dismissed." - Stay Puft (11/11/2009) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?886-Werner-Herzog-s-Bad-Lieutenant-Port-of-Call-New-Orleans-(2009)&p=217267&viewfull=1#post217267)

[Peng]

#19

https://img.kapook.com/u/2017/surauch/movie/dtwe.jpg
When dealing with aliens, try to be polite, but firm. And always remember that a smile is cheaper than a bullet.

District 9

14.5 points - 4 lists - no #1 - avg score 3.6

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Country: South Africa

Violence ensues after an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth finds a kindred spirit in a government agent exposed to their biotechnology.


Awards include:
- Nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
- Winner, Best New Filmmaker (Neill Blomkamp) - Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 2009
- Winner, New Generation Award (Neill Blomkamp) - Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2009
- Best Sound Editing, Motion Picture Sound Editors Guild


Critics' Praise: "This grossly engrossing speculative fiction bears Jackson's blood-splattered fingerprints but also heralds first-time feature director Neill Blomkamp as a nimble talent to watch." - Justin Chang, Variety

Match Cut's Praise: "I also loved it and haven't stopped thinking about it all day. Pretty much agree with what's been said on all points: Awesome action and plotting, incredible lead performance, amazing CG (and remember, even though more than few favours were probably called in the effects department, this had 1/6th of the budget G.I. Joe did... and it looks ten times better) and just so well made overall. It's a really great and thoughtful summer movie with a very unique tone and emotional payoff to it that you don't expect to get from a movie with packed crowds at a multiplex (or to be #1 at the box office). And the final moment is beautifully done. It really snuck up on me and got me in a way I wasn't expecting without feeling random or tacked on. " - Henry Gale (16/8/2009) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?2049-District-9&p=195975&viewfull=1#post195975)

[Peng]

#18

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/77/6a/f2/776af2262dfb3a1861853b276849ea ef.jpg
"I don't like these foods either, but people like them."
"They don't have a taste. They have a hole in the stomach. And they fill this hole with shit."

Soul Kitchen

16 points - 2 lists - no #1 - avg score 8.0

Director: Fatih Akin

Country: Germany

In Hamburg, German-Greek chef Zinos unknowingly disturbs the peace in his locals-only restaurant by hiring a more talented chef.


Awards
- 2009 Venice Film Festival: Special prize


Critics' Praise: "Soul Kitchen is sprawling, undisciplined, raucous, occasionally crass -- and so full of life you forgive it everything. " - Dana Stevens, Slate

Match Cut's Praise: "Good film, humorous and charming and a lot of fun. A film like Head-On resonates with greater emotional depth, and is a much more visceral experience... perhaps I'm just saying it's the more memorable film for me... but Soul Kitchen is a welcome addition to Akin's filmography. I might even prefer it to the clumsy contrivances of The Edge of Heaven." - Stay Puft (28/7/2010) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?2700-2010-New-Release-Database&p=276434&viewfull=1#post276434)

[Peng]

#17

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6d/68/58/6d685899c18c3d38a49dce984462e6 62.gif
Nature is Satan's church.

Antichrist

16 points - 2 lists - one #1 - avg score 8.0

Director: Lars von Trier

Country: Denmark

A grieving couple retreat to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage, but nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.


Awards include:
- 2009 Cannes Film Festival: Best Actress, Charlotte Gainsbourg
- 7 Robert Awards (aka Danish Oscars), including Best Film
- 5 Bodil Awards (given by Danish Film Critics Association), including Best Danish Film


Critics' Praise: "Antichrist is a boldly personal film, tossing all von Trier's ideas about faith, fear, and human nature into an unfettered phantasmagoria, full of repulsive visions and fierce scorn." -Noel Murray, AV Club

Match Cut's Praise: "This is a beautiful, haunting and courageous work full of resonant symbolism and dangerous thoughts. A horror film that is perhaps more horrifying after you have left the theater and have time to let the ramifications of what you have just seen sink in." - Spinal (1/11/2009) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?1960-Antichrist-(Lars-von-Trier)&p=214900&viewfull=1#post214900)

[Peng]

#16

https://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/review/primary_image/reviews/500-days-of-summer-2009/EB20090715REVIEWS907159997AR.j pg
Look, I know you think she was the one, but I don't. I think you're just remembering the good stuff. Next time you look back, I really think you should look again.

(500) Days of Summer

16.5 points - 3 lists - no #1 - avg score 5.5

Director: Marc Webb

Country: USA

An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn't believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her.


Awards include:
- Best Screenplay, Independent Spirit Award
- Best Screenplay, Las Vegas Film Critics Society
- Best Editing, San Diego Film Critics Society


Critics' Praise: "It's the oldest bittersweet story in the book, of course, but music-video director Marc Webb approaches his feature debut with great confidence, flair and a minimum of schmaltz." - Lou Lumenick, New York Post

Match Cut's Praise: "When it's on, the film's study of the internal dynamics of trust, honesty, and romantic yearning within the relationship are all well-handled, especially for a mainstream Hollywood release. All the business of the Expectations/Reality binary are incredibly heartbreaking and true to life, and the film successfully balances pathos and humor well." - dreamdead (8/8/2009) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?1796-(500)-Days-of-Summer-(Joseph-Gordon-Levitt-and-Zooey-Deschanel)&p=193677&viewfull=1#post193677)

[Peng]

First batch done! Now I have to go sleep, and will continue during/after work tomorrow. Result so far:

20. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
19. District 9
18. Soul Kitchen
17. Antichrist
16. (500) Days of Summer


Between Duke's Melancholia rec for my decade catch-up and Antichrist placing #1, I didn't notice before he is a von Trier fan. Which other films of his do you also love, Duke?

[Lazlo]

Thanks for putting this together Peng!

[Ezee E]

Never heard of Soul Kitchen.

[Peng]

#15

https://realityisscary.files.wordpress .com/2015/11/bs-ac-bw.jpg
There is a holiness to the heart's affection. Know you nothing of that?

Bright Star

18.5 points - 3 lists - no #1 - avg score 6.2

Director: Jane Campion

Country: UK/Australia/France

The three-year romance between 19th-century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne near the end of his life.


Awards include:
- 3 AACTA Awards (Australian Oscars)
- Women Film Critics Circle Awards: Best Actress, Abbie Cornish
- Nominated for Academy Award, Best Costume Design


Critics' Praise: "Every frame of this exquisite period romance features an attention to detail, a passion for literature and an intense, fully clothed, pre-Victorian sexiness that suggest a director in something close to rapture." - Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle

Match Cut's Praise: "It's the best evocation of romantic love—the feeling of it, the textures and moods, if not the details of the relationship—ever put to film. Between this and Two Lovers, 2009 offers a pretty great survey of what film can express about romance." – Melville (28/1/2010) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?2472-Bright-Star&p=237340&viewfull=1#post237340)

[Peng]

#14

https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/images/newsite/inform_600.jpg
- Mark Whitacre, secret agent 0014.
- Why 0014?
- Cause I'm twice as smart as 007?


The Informant!

20 points - 2 lists - two #1 - avg score 10

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Country: USA

The U.S. government decides to go after an agro-business giant with a price-fixing accusation, based on the evidence submitted by their star witness, vice president-turned-informant Mark Whitacre.


Awards include:
- Nominated for two Golden Globes, including Best Actor – Comedy or Musical (Matt Damon)


Critics' Praise: "While the details are fresh, the story arc follows a standard pattern, a cautionary tale of spiraling bad-faith decisions. But Soderbergh and Burns compensate by playing the story for wry laughs and adding an almost distracting variety of texture." - Tasha Robinson, AV Club

Match Cut's Praise: "Quite surprisingly, the best film of 2009 so far right here, and Soderbergh's best since Out of Sight… We have a genuinely nimble, funny, yet deeply cynical look at business culture and the delusions many of us need to cling to in order to maintain a life that looks good on the outside… Soderbergh does well to maintain a consistently jaunty tone that accurately reflects the disjunct between what we project to others and what is happening beneath the surface." – transmogrifier (8/10/2010) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?2227-The-Informant-(Soderbergh)&p=291309&viewfull=1#post291309)

[Peng]

#13

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3364/3610932562_ddf5e79ed3.jpg
Cabby, hot dog vendor, marijuana delivery guy. The world is my oyster.


Adventureland

20.5 points - 3 lists - one #1 - avg score 6.8

Director: Greg Mottola

Country: USA

In the summer of 1987, a college graduate takes a 'nowhere' job at his local amusement park, only to find it's the perfect course to get him prepared for the real world.


Awards include:
- 2 High Times magazine Winners: 2009 Stoner Movie of the Year Award and 2009 Stonette of the Year Award (Kristen Stewart)
- Top Films of the Year, New York Film Critics Online (2009)
- Nominated for Best Screenplay, Film Independent Spirit Awards


Critics' Praise: "It is a coming-of-age picture which seems not so different from any other but hits delightfully odd notes thanks to Mottola's terrifically smart script and a cast of mostly eager young actors." - Anthony Quinn, Independent (UK)

Match Cut's Praise: "Mottola's eye and feel for a certain middle tone between overt "haha" comedy and :sad: drama certainly elevates it… Mottola and his cinematographer really captured the beauty of amusement park lights in the early evening… I liked how nearly all of the characters were well balanced. Even Ryan Reynolds, who could have easily come off as an over-the-top douchebag type of guy, comes off as simultaneously pathetic and sympathetic." – Pop Trash (26/8/2009) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?1466-Adventureland&p=200084&viewfull=1#post200084)

[Peng]

#12


https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-305bhZqmjbI/UWORywzaRRI/AAAAAAAAGSw/u6GU3B1KfA0/s1600/Dogtooth.jpg
A "cunt" is a large lamp. Example: The "cunt" switched off and the room got all dark.


Dogtooth

20.5 points - 4 lists - no #1 - avg score 5.1

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Country: Greece

Three teenagers live isolated, without leaving their house, because their over-protective parents say they can only leave when their dogtooth falls out.


Awards include:
- Nominated for Academy Award, Best Foreign Language Film
- Winner of 5 Hellenic Film Academy Awards (Greek Oscar), including Best Feature Film
- Winner of Prix Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival


Critics' Praise: "Few movies convey such a deeply unnerving atmosphere in nearly every scene while simultaneously capitalizing on an absurd black comic sensibility." - Eric Kohn, Indiewire

Match Cut's Praise: "This was awesome. As a deconstruction of the nuclear family, it is invigorating and its blacker than black humour really stings. As an absurdist nightmare, it delightfully skewers with reckless abandon as it goes from wacky weirdness to pure horror many times within the same scene. I absolutely adore go-for-broke filmmaking (when it works, that is), but this is just as revelatory as it is audacious." – Spaceman Spiff (31/1/2011) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?3352-Dogtooth-(Giorgos-Lanthimos-2009)&p=321213&viewfull=1#post321213)

[Peng]

#11


https://media1.fdncms.com/charlotte/imager/in-the-loop-savage-satire/u/slideshow/2342625/filmloopreview2.jpg
"Climbing the mountain of conflict"? You sounded like a Nazi Julie Andrews!


In the Loop

22 points - 4 lists - no #1 - avg score 5.5

Director: Armando Iannucci

Country: UK

A political satire about a group of skeptical American and British operatives attempting to prevent a war between two countries.


Awards include:
- Nominated for Academy Award, Best Adapted Screenplay
- British Independent Film Award (BIFA), Best Screenplay
- New York Film Critics Circle Award, Best Screenplay


Critics' Praise: "While In the Loop is a highly disciplined inquiry into a very serious subject, it is also, line by filthy line, scene by chaotic scene, by far the funniest big-screen satire in recent memory." - A.O. Scott, New York Times

Match Cut's Praise: "I saw In The Loop. I have come to realise that showing angry Scottish people swearing a lot is the apex of what cinema can do." - Winston* (20/10/2009) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?14-28-Film-Discussion-Threads-Later&p=212283&viewfull=1#post212283)

[Peng]

Top 10 starts in a (hopefully short) while. For now, recap so far:

20. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
19. District 9
18. Soul Kitchen
17. Antichrist
16. (500) Days of Summer

15. Bright Star
14. The Informant!
13. Adventureland
12. Dogtooth
11. In the Loop

[Ezee E]

Spaceman and Winston.

:(

[Peng]

#10


https://static01.nyt.com/images/2009/10/16/arts/16where3_650.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale
I have a sadness shield that keeps out all the sadness, and it's big enough for all of us.


Where the Wild Things Are

24 points - 4 lists - no #1 - avg score 6.0

Director: Spike Jonze

Country: Australia/Germany/USA

Yearning for escape and adventure, a young boy runs away from home and sails to an island filled with creatures that take him in as their king.


Awards include:
- Nominated for Golden Globe Award, Best Original Score
- Indiana Film Journalists Association Award, Best Director
- National Board of Review, Top Ten Films


Critics' Praise: "Where the Wild Things Are stands out for its unusually potent evocation of the timbre of childhood imagining, with its combination of the outré and the banal, grand schemes jumbled up with delicate feelings and the urge to smash things up." - Ben Walters, Time Out

Match Cut's Praise: "I haven't been this moved by a movie in a while (yep, not even by The Road this morning). It's not just emotional on an existential, human level like most movies that make me cry, but it digs really really deep into childhood memories and emotions. It was expressive, haunting, beautiful and deeply resonant. This is Spike Jonze's best, most personal movie to date." - number8 (14/10/2009) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?1458-Spike-Jonze-s-Where-the-Wild-Things-Are&p=210920&viewfull=1#post210920)

[Peng]

#9


https://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/aj6293/mother.jpg
You and me are one. We only have each other.


Mother

24.5 points – 6 lists - no #1 - avg score 4.1

Director: Bong Joon-Ho

Country: South Korea

A mother desperately searches for the killer who framed her son for a girl's horrific murder.


Awards include:
- Nominated for 6 Grand Bell Awards (Korean Oscars), winning Best Supporting Actor (Jin Goo)
- Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, Best Actress (Kim Hye-ja)
- Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, Best Foreign Language Film


Critics' Praise: "Though richly and believably drawn, Mr. Bong's characters are often opaque and mysterious, given to sudden rages, behavioral blurts and hiccups of weird humor. But it's this very mystery that can make them feel terribly real." - Manohla Dargis, New York Times

Match Cut's Praise: "This crime drama… starts out one way and then undergoes not so much a twist as an expansion of its story. Elements that we had overlooked or not analyzed properly enter the film to make it something else, greater and more complex than the already challenging thriller we'd been watching before. Few feature films even attempt things like that and, really, the only reason I keep watching cinema so compulsively is to find the ones that do." - Grouchy (24/10/2011) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?3663-The-Years-According-to-Grouchy&p=380057&viewfull=1#post380057)

[Peng]

#8


https://americanmoviefan.files.wordpre ss.com/2011/05/a-prophet-006.jpg
There is no risk. Staying here is the only risk.


A Prophet

25.5 points – 4 lists - no #1 - avg score 6.4

Director: Jacques Audiard

Country: France

A young Arab man is sent to a French prison.


Awards include:
- Nominated for Academy Award, Best Foreign Language Film
- Winner of 9 Cesar Awards (French Oscar), including Best Film
- Winner of Grand Prize, Cannes Film Festival


Critics' Praise: "Writer-director Jacques Audiard manages to replicate The Godfather's most elusive element, not the dark comedy or the operatic bloodletting, but the incremental corruption of a decent man into a willful, coldhearted killer." - J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

Match Cut's Praise: "Un prophète is a hugely ambitious work with a narrative density and formal sophistication that puts it in the same league as Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972) and Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990)." - baby doll (8/8/2010) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?14-28-Film-Discussion-Threads-Later&p=279580&viewfull=1#post279580)*


*Cheating a bit, but when there’s no dedicated film thread I’ll take what I can get.

[Dukefrukem]

Okay so far that's three movies I've never seen.

[Peng]

#7


https://i.ytimg.com/vi/twuScTcDP_Q/hqdefault.jpg
I hope life on Earth is everything you remember it to be.


Moon

27 points – 7 lists - no #1 - avg score 3.9

Director: Duncan Jones

Country: UK/USA

Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.


Awards include:
- BAFTA Award Winner, Outstanding Debut
- Hugo Award Winner, Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form
- British Independent Film Award (BIFA), Best British Independent Film


Critics' Praise: "Moon is a superior example of that threatened genre, hard science-fiction, which is often about the interface between humans and alien intelligence of one kind of or other, including digital." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Match Cut's Praise: "Of any recent sci-fi films, I'd say it most feels like Soderbergh's Solaris or a dialed-down Sunshine, but my comparisons would basically stop at the similarities in the settings of people working on spacecrafts for prolongued periods and filmmaker's own spin on the effects of that. Jones' movie really shines because it manages to throw out so many ideas and bits of mythology to the world in which it takes place and incredibly manages to have them all make perfect sense emotionally and story-wise by the end." - Henry Gale (8/7/2009) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?1460-Moon-(2009)&p=182087&viewfull=1#post182087)

[Peng]

Okay so far that's three movies I've never seen.

I haven't seen #7 (yet) either. Surprised you missed Where the Wild Things Are though; maybe watchlist for films to see with your kid!

And ten years after Mother, Bong made a film for the Oscar history book.

[Peng]

#6


https://static01.nyt.com/images/2010/09/24/arts/24ENTER-1/24ENTER-1-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale
DMT only lasts for six minutes, but it really seems like an eternity. It releases the same chemical your brain receives when you die. It's a little like dying would be the ultimate trip.


Enter the Void

28 points – 4 lists - one #1 - avg score 7.0

Director: Gaspar Noé

Country: France/Germany/Italy

An American drug dealer living in Tokyo is betrayed by his best friend and killed in a drug deal. His soul, observing the repercussions of his death, seeks resurrection.


Awards include:
- 2009 Cannes Film Festival: Palme d'Or Nominee


Critics' Praise: "It takes some adjustment, but Enter The Void is a trance-like experience, feeding the shimmering neon of Tokyo at night into a spectacular hallucinogenic head-trip." - Scott Tobias, AV Club

Match Cut's Praise: "It's like Irreversible meets 2001's Jupiter segment meets Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up." Directed by Takashi Miike." - number8 (25/6/2010) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?926-Enter-the-Void-(2009)-Gaspar-Noe&p=268277&viewfull=1#post268277)

[Peng]

Resuming the (protracted) announcement tomorrow after I wake up. Last summary:

20. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
19. District 9
18. Soul Kitchen
17. Antichrist
16. (500) Days of Summer

15. Bright Star
14. The Informant!
13. Adventureland
12. Dogtooth
11. In the Loop

10. Where the Wild Things Are
9. Mother
8. A Prophet
7. Moon
6. Enter the Void

[Ezee E]

Majority of Entering the Void sucks, but there's a masterful 15 minute sequence in there after the protagonist takes drugs.

[Ezee E]

Okay so far that's three movies I've never seen.

A Prophet is definitely worth your time

[Grouchy]

So far I love all movies on the top 10.

[Peng]

#5


https://mpics.mgronline.com/pics/Images/552000014794501.JPEG
I gave God a chance to kill me. He didn't do it, so he's pleased with me.


The White Ribbon

29 points – 4 lists - one #1 - avg score 7.3

Director: Michael Haneke

Country: Germany

Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?


Awards include:
- 2009 Cannes Film Festival: Palme d'Or Winner
- Nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography
- Winner of 10 Lola Awards (German Oscars), including Outstanding Feature Film



Critics' Praise: "As strong and memorable as anything Haneke has previously accomplished, an austere and fastidious masterpiece that digs deep into what remains of the souls of the children and adults without appearing to strain for significance." - Derek Malcolm, London Evening Standard

Match Cut's Praise: "One of the things that impressed me the most about this is that it's one of the few films that achieve the density of characters and plot of a novel. And it's not like it's particularly long. There are longer, more loudly epic movies, but this is just so thick with plot and character development that it stands on a class almost all of its own." - Grouchy (16/4/2010) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?2360-The-White-Ribbon&p=255279&viewfull=1#post255279)

[Peng]

#4


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2017/04/06/up-fredericksons_2581888k_trans_N vBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTm JwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpg?i mwidth=450
I was hiding under your porch because I love you. Can I stay?


Up

32.5 points – 6 lists - no #1 - avg score 5.4

Director: Pete Docter & Bob Peterson

Country: USA

78-year-old Carl Fredricksen travels to Paradise Falls in his house equipped with balloons, inadvertently taking a young stowaway.


Awards include:
- Winner of 2 Academy Awards, Best Animated Film and Best Original Score
- Winner of 2 BAFTA Awards, Best Animated Film and Best Film Music
- Winner of 2 Grammy Awards, Best Instrumental Composition and Best Score Soundtrack Album


Critics' Praise: "[Up] could easily have been cloying, but instead proves disarming in its deep reserves of narrative imagination and surprise, as well as its poignant thematic balance of dreams deferred and dreams fulfilled." - Todd McCarthy, Variety

Match Cut's Praise: "Outstanding. Gorgeous visuals, hilarious gags, phenomenal character moments--so subtle, many left unsaid, and yet so emotionally effective. I got teary-eyed just from a shot of Carl sitting next to an empty chair in silence. The direction is just bloody masterful." - number8 (27/5/2009) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?1369-UP-(Pixar-2009)&p=167223&viewfull=1#post167223)

[Peng]

And starting from #4 to #3, we will see some wider score gaps now...

[Peng]

#3


https://static01.nyt.com/images/2010/01/12/arts/12fox_CA1span/articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale
- You know, you really are... fantastic.
- I try.


Fantastic Mr. Fox

41.5 points – 8 lists - no #1 - avg score 5.2

Director: Wes Anderson

Country: USA

An urbane fox cannot resist returning to his farm raiding ways and then must help his community survive the farmers' retaliation.


Awards include:
- Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Best Animated Film and Best Original Score
- New York Film Critics Circle, Best Animated Film
- Online Film Critics Society, Best Adapted Screenplay


Critics' Praise: "Children, especially, will find things they don't understand, and things that scare them. Excellent. A good story for children should suggest a hidden dimension, and that dimension of course is the lifetime still ahead of them." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Match Cut's Praise: "Wes Anderson's multiple narrative and character devices work extremely well in this medium--and particularly in the whimsical story of loyalty, identity and family that is The Fantastic Mr. Fox… I was charmed by its awkward quality." - NickGlass (20/11/2009) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?2264-The-Fantastic-Mr-Fox-(Wes-Anderson)&p=219006&viewfull=1#post219006)

[Peng]

#2


https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/PFPhhxB61-W30ISPdywq305k3cs=/0x75:1400x863/720x405/media/img/mt/2014/09/A_Serious_Man/original.jpg
Please. Accept the mystery.


A Serious Man

54 points – 10 lists - one #1 - avg score 5.4

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen

Country: USA/UK/France

Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking.


Awards include:
- Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay
- Boston Society of Film Critics Award, Best Screenplay
- Film Independent Spirit Award, Best Cinematography


Critics' Praise: " [The Coens have made] their most personal, most intensely Jewish film, a pitch-perfect comedy of despair that, against some odds, turns out to be one of their most universal as well." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Match Cut's Praise: "Further embracing their brand of dark comedy that has gotten only stronger and more harsh lately (see: Burn After Reading), the Brothers Coen craft a truly amazing movie. Hilarious, unforgiving, honest, never flinching, and not providing any easy answers (perhaps even no answers at all), this is one of their best movies to date." - MadMan (28/2/2012) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?2254-A-Serious-Man-(Coens-2009-(!!))&p=404480&viewfull=1#post404480)

[Peng]

#1


https://i.pinimg.com/600x315/41/5f/0b/415f0b67bee7fe7523a3cad698cde1 dd.jpg
Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France...


Inglourious Basterds

77 points – 10 lists - five #1 - avg score 7.7

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Country: USA/Germany

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.


Awards include:
- Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, winning Best Supporting Actor (Christoph Waltz)
- 2009 Cannes Film Festival: Best Actor, Christoph Waltz
- Winner of 2 Screen Actors Guild Awards, including Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture


Critics' Praise: "The true moral universe in which the film unfolds is that of the spaghetti westerns...: a world in which the strong are above the law and the way to tell the good guys from the bad guys is not by their acts but by the kind of hats they wear." - Christopher Orr, The New Republic

Match Cut's Praise: "I'm not sure if this is Tarantino's masterpiece as he himself claims in the final line, but it's surely his most meaningful work… While other movies about the war limit themselves to portraying atrocities and keeping memory alive, Inglourious Basterds attacks the idea of memory by nonchalantly changing the course of history and creating a bold and attractive catharsis fantasy. This is the stuff most movies should be made of." - Grouchy (4/9/2009) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?934-Inglourious-Basterds&p=202574&viewfull=1#post202574)

[Skitch]

A biiiiiiiiig hell yeah to 1 and 3. I still havent seen 2. No reason, just havent.

[Peng]

TEN YEARS LATER MC CONSENSUS - 2009

The three ties are addressed here (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?7800-Ten-Years-Later-Match-Cut-Consensus-2009&p=620013&viewfull=1#post620013).

1. Inglourious Basterds (77)
2. A Serious Man (54)
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox (41.5)
4. Up (32.5)
5. The White Ribbon (29)
6. Enter the Void (28)
7. Moon (27)
8. A Prophet (25.5)
9. Mother (24.5)
10. Where the Wild Things Are (24)
11. In The Loop (22)
12. Dogtooth (20.5)
13. Adventureland (20.5)
14. The Informant! (20)
15. Bright Star (18.5)
16. (500) Days of Summer (16.5)
17. Antichrist (16)
18. Soul Kitchen (16)
19. District 9 (14.5)
20. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (14.5)

Next 4 (alphabetically):

Castaway on the Moon
The Hangover
The House of the Devil
Mary and Max


ORIGINAL RESULTS:

First time (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?3216-MC-Yearly-Consensus-2009&p=294391&viewfull=1#post294391) (announced on 20/10/2010):


1. Inglourious Basterds (101)
2. A Serious Man (61)
3. The White Ribbon (38.5)
4. Where the Wild Things Are (32)
5t. Bright Star (29.5)
5t. Up (29.5)
7. Antichrist (28.5)
8. The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (24.5)
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox (20.5)
10. Moon (20)

There's also a revision eight months later, which I guess to include more 2009-imdb ones that have really belated releases.

Revision (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?3544-MC-Yearly-Consensus-(Revision-of-2009)&p=355776&viewfull=1#post355776) (announced on 25/6/2011):


1. Inglourious Basterds (86)
2. A Serious Man (67)
3. Dogtooth (36.5)
4. Bright Star (30)
5. The White Ribbon (29)
6. Enter the Void (27)
7. Antichrist (26.5)
8. Up (20.5)
9. Where the Wild Things Are (16.5)
10. Everyone Else (15.5)

Not quite:
Fantastic Mr. Fox (14.5)
Alamar (14.5)
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (14)
Moon (13)



Smaller sample size and all, but so our top 2 for this year have always stayed that way since (The White Ribbon and Enter the Void are pretty consistently high too). Bright Star and Bad Lieutenant slips further the most the more the years pass by, whereas Wes Anderson's stock rises well.


Thank you all for participating!

[Skitch]

Good job Peng!

[Peng]

A biiiiiiiiig hell yeah to 1 and 3. I still havent seen 2. No reason, just havent.

#3 has quite a journey from original #9, down to #11 (or #12) eight months later, and then up to this placement now.

A Serious Man is my favorite Coen, but (weird to say of a Best Picture nominee) it's probably in the lower-half tier of their works I would recommend to others if I don't know them first. It can be divisive.


Good job Peng!

Thanks!

[Grouchy]

It's weird reading yourself from 10 years ago and think how your life was when you wrote that. I think Death Proof is great now. And I think Zoller did mean to rape Shohana at the end of Inglourious Basterds.

[Ezee E]

Yeah, can't recall a single scene in Bright Star.

[baby doll]

Although I admired the craftsmanship behind Inglourious Basterds more the second time I saw it, I'm still pretty ambivalent about the film overall. On the one hand, it's certainly Tarantino's most disciplined film since the 1990s, yet the ending still leaves a sour taste in my mouth: The overarching message seems to be that people are trash and that the only adequate response to brutality is more brutality. It's easily Tarantino's best film since the '90s and it makes my skin crawl.

Up is certainly agreeable enough but I could feel the clockwork mechanism of the Hero's Journey arc grinding away behind every obligatory plot point.

I might've liked Enter the Void more if I'd seen the shorter version. With the possible exception of Love, which I haven't seen, this is by far the most indulgent and repetitive of Noé's films, and it does all too good a job of portraying the sort of boring idiot expats who infest East Asia like termites.

If nothing else, Mother is better (read: more coherent) than Snowpiercer, though I can barely remember it now. (Am I the only one who thinks Bong's abject reliance on genre tropes is his biggest limitation rather than some kind of strength?)

I was bored by Where the Wild Things Are because I don't think being depressed makes people (or computer-generated monsters) interesting. Also, they spent something like 70 million dollars on this movie but clearly none of that went into lighting. It's a muddy, ugly, unpleasant dirge of a movie.

I don't think Soul Kitchen is an altogether successful movie (has Moritz Bliebtreu ever been in a good movie?), but I still think it's cool to see a movie where the lead actor looks so much like me.

(500) Days of Summer feels more like an audition for a studio contract than a self-contained film.

I might've liked District 9 more if it were openly a hyper-violent video game and did without the allegorical trappings. That a film without any stars got such a wide release suggests that the only way to interest a major distributor in a film about South African Apartheid is to substitute giant grasshoppers for black people. Then again, I doubt a film showing black bodies being blown to bits (or even tossed out of windows, as they used to under Apartheid) could be sold as entertainment to a mass audience.

A Serious Man, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Das weiße Band, Moon, Un prophète, Dogtooth, The Informant!, Bright Star, Antichrist, and Bad Lieutenant are all warm, if not spicy.

I haven't seen In the Loop or Adventureland and have little desire to.

[Peng]

I haven't seen In the Loop or Adventureland and have little desire to.

I kinda understand for Adventureland but curious about your reason for In The Loop.

[baby doll]

I kinda understand for Adventureland but curious about your reason for In The Loop.The trailer makes it look like a film made by a TV director.

[MadMan]

#2


https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/PFPhhxB61-W30ISPdywq305k3cs=/0x75:1400x863/720x405/media/img/mt/2014/09/A_Serious_Man/original.jpg
Please. Accept the mystery.


A Serious Man

54 points – 10 lists - one #1 - avg score 5.4

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen

Country: USA/UK/France

Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking.


Awards include:
- Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay
- Boston Society of Film Critics Award, Best Screenplay
- Film Independent Spirit Award, Best Cinematography


Critics' Praise: " [The Coens have made] their most personal, most intensely Jewish film, a pitch-perfect comedy of despair that, against some odds, turns out to be one of their most universal as well." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Match Cut's Praise: "Further embracing their brand of dark comedy that has gotten only stronger and more harsh lately (see: Burn After Reading), the Brothers Coen craft a truly amazing movie. Hilarious, unforgiving, honest, never flinching, and not providing any easy answers (perhaps even no answers at all), this is one of their best movies to date." - MadMan (28/2/2012) (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?2254-A-Serious-Man-(Coens-2009-(!!))&p=404480&viewfull=1#post404480)

Whoa in 2012 I was a much better writer, clearly. Maybe I still sucked back then haha. Anyways thanks for doing this sir.

[MadMan]

1. Inglourious Basterds (77)-Seen it, love it.
2. A Serious Man (54)-My #1 of the year. For now.
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox (41.5)-Pretty good, needs a rewatch.
4. Up (32.5)-Top tier Pixar, might be their best.
5. The White Ribbon (29)-N/A
6. Enter the Void (28)-N/A
7. Moon (27)-Great flick, perhaps Rockwell's finest hour.
8. A Prophet (25.5)-Near great crime flick
9. Mother (24.5)-N/A
10. Where the Wild Things Are (24)-Hit me right in the feels.
11. In The Loop (22)-Excellent satire, utterly hilarious.
12. Dogtooth (20.5)-I will get to this, two streaming services have it.
13. Adventureland (20.5)-N/A
14. The Informant! (20)-I liked this a lot. I should watch it again.
15. Bright Star (18.5)-I really should have seen this by now.
16. (500) Days of Summer (16.5)-I have no idea if this would stand up to a rewatch, but I fully embraced this movie when I saw it.
17. Antichrist (16)-I think this is still my #1 horror film of the 2000s. Maybe. I want to see The House Jack Built.
18. Soul Kitchen (16)-Never heard of it.
19. District 9 (14.5)-Great flick, I haven't seen anything else Neill Blomkamp has made since.
20. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (14.5)-If you consider this a remake, it is one of the best ones. Regardless it's Herzog being awesome as usual.

Next 4 (alphabetically):

Castaway on the Moon-No idea this existed
The Hangover-Good but really dated
The House of the Devil-Great flick, I enjoyed Joe Bob Briggs covering this on The Last Drive In.
Mary and Max-Need to see this one.

[MadMan]

The trailer makes it look like a film made by a TV director.

Watch it, you might like it. But don't take my word for it!

[Peng]

The trailer makes it look like a film made by a TV director.

I haven't seen the film myself, but even if he does the majority of TV, based on The Death of Stalin I feel he falls more on a 'script-driven' director side than 'network TV' director side.

[baby doll]

I haven't seen the film myself, but even if he does the majority of TV, based on The Death of Stalin I feel he falls more on a 'script-driven' director side than 'network TV' director side.I'm not clear on the distinction between "script-driven" and "network TV" direction.

[Grouchy]

Shall we do more random years? I volunteer to tally one of them.

[Skitch]

Shall we do more random years? I volunteer to tally one of them.

FUCK YES

[Pop Trash]

I tend to forget most films if I don't rewatch them after a few years. I mean, there are some exceptions. I imagine I'd still have the ending of Basterds burned (har har) into my brain from seeing it opening weekend. That's still one of the biggest bait-and-switch films I've seen since I dunno ... From Dusk Til Dawn maybe. The trailer and promotional material made it seem like it was going to be Brad Pitt and his Nazi killin' leathernecks and, yeah, it's that too, but so much of it is about Shoshana and the entire lead up to the finale I was thinking "wait ... Quentin isn't going to actually go there is he?" and then he did, and it was glorious.

I've seen it several times since then and it holds up. I've also seen Adventureland at least three times and I still love it. One of the best movies about post college aimlessness (along w/ The Graduate obv) and one of the best portraits of the '80s. Soundtrack bangs too.

[Peng]

Shall we do more random years? I volunteer to tally one of them.

Very down with it, although I get the impression that MC has done every year already? (I may be wrong, as all of them were before my time and I don't know if the threads are comprehensive) Or do you mean the 10-Years-Later one for 2010 this year? That said, I wouldn't mind MC redoing some years, as I can join in now.

[Grouchy]

Yeah, I'll do 2010 if you want.

[Peng]

Deal!

[Yxklyx]

The trailer makes it look like a film made by a TV director.

Yeah, I remember it looking a lot like a TV show. Amazing work on this thread Peng!