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Post by guttersnipe on Dec 22, 2019 11:45:27 GMT -8
Thanks to popular (?) demand, I present my Top 300 of the decade. No-one wanted this many, and yet there I was, feeling like a neglectful parent over all the treats sitting outside a 50 or 100.
I have several Sion Sono to catch up on (Tag is enticingly described as "a 2015 Japanese action horror thriller art film"), but right now I'm happy with it.
I'll post them in blocks over the next few days to make it slightly more digestible for everyone.
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Post by guttersnipe on Dec 22, 2019 11:52:15 GMT -8
300-201:
Ad Astra An Adventure in Space and Time Ain't Them Bodies Saints Albatross Alpha Papa The American The Avengers An Inspector Calls Anomalisa Archipelago Bad Times at the El Royale Black Pond Black Swan Call Me by Your Name Capernaum Captain America: The First Avenger Chi-Raq Contagion Cyrus Damsels in Distress Dans la Maison Dark Horse Delicacy Eisenstein in Guanajuato Elena Far from the Madding Crowd First Reformed Flight The Flowers of War Four Lions 4:44 Last Day on Earth From Up on Poppy Hill The Golden Dream Godzilla The Grandmaster Halloween A Highjacking Holy Flying Circus If Beale Street Could Talk The Ides of March In Darkness In Fabric Inside Out The Irishman Jeff, Who Lives at Home Joe Juliet, Naked The Jungle Book Knight of Cups The Land of Hope Life of Pi Macbeth (Justin Kurzel) Mia Madre Miss Hokusai Monsieur Lazhar The Mountain Between Us The Mule The Muppets The Mustang My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea Mysteries of Lisbon Never Look Away Nymphomaniac: vol. I Nymphomaniac: vol. II 127 Hours Only Lovers Left Alive Out of Blue Outcast ParaNorman Patema Inverted Peterloo Phantom Thread Piranha Play Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost The Red Turtle The Revenant Room The Rum Diary Ryuzo and His Seven Henchmen Side Effects Sightseers Silent Souls Suspension of Disbelief Suspiria The Town The Tree Tyrannosaur Unsane Vulgaria The Wall A War We Are What We Are (Jorge Michel Grau) When Marnie was There Wolf Children The World's End Wreck-It Ralph Yakuza Apocalypse You Were Never Really Here Zero Dark Thirty
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 22, 2019 15:07:50 GMT -8
I am proud to say that I've seen 13 of those movies, which is certainly more than I expected. (There are another dozen or so that have been on my list for a while; so much I've got to catch up on.) I think I've seen all the animated films you mention, which affirms how much investment I give cartoons relative to live-action.
Also quite happy to see The Muppets get a nod; love that movie. Terrific example of how to do a soft reboot, with great songs and a fresh, upbeat sense of humor. Second-best film in the series, after Great Muppet Caper.
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Post by guttersnipe on Dec 22, 2019 17:57:27 GMT -8
And there's plenty more animation to come!
The Muppets was one hell of a pleasant surprise; for some time I'd been really cynical about seeing it as this decade has been almost defined by its weight of remakes, reimaginings, sequels, spin-offs etc (who could have foreseen a Jumanji franchise this late after the first film?), but this was not only funny, endearing and engrossing but pinioned a lot of dramatic heft on the very notion of the Muppets' ostensible obsolescence, making the journey an effortless marriage of their "let's put on a show" charm with winning over the sceptical real-life audience.
I also enjoyed the sequel more than I expected, especially the wonderful gulag scenes (which sounds like quite the contradiction in terms).
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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 22, 2019 18:58:53 GMT -8
I believe I've seen 36 of those. There are a number of others that I'd meant to see, but didn't have easy access to. Or, in the case of If Beale Street Could Talk, had on my shelf for two weeks, but never got around to (but I will watch it down the line).
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 22, 2019 20:15:30 GMT -8
Okay, just realized I've actually seen 14 of these. Didn't notice you had The World's End there. (Unpopular opinion: That film is better than Shaun of the Dead.)
Both Muppet films this decade were quite good, and Most Wanted is in fact funnier than its predecessor (though it does lack the same emotional weight). The Happytime Murders is an unfortunate misfire that forever sullies the good Henson name. But two out of three ain't bad.
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Post by guttersnipe on Dec 23, 2019 14:11:56 GMT -8
Sounds like you guys have a bit of catching up to do. And don't be afraid to call out a stinker if you (mistakenly) spot one.
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Post by guttersnipe on Dec 23, 2019 14:18:19 GMT -8
200-101:
Animal Kingdom Argo Arrival Before Midnight Behind the Candelabra Big Eyes The Big Picture Birdman BlacKkKlansman Black Coal, Thin Ice Blade of the Immortal Blue Jasmine The Brand New Testament Bullhead Caesar Must Die Calvary Catch Me Daddy Cold War The Deep Blue Sea The Devil's Business The Duke of Burgundy 11.25: The Day He Chose His Own Fate End of Watch Exhibition Film Socialisme Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen 45 Years Foxcatcher Foxtrot Freaknik: The Musical Get Out The Ghost (Roman Polanski) Girlhood The Goob Graduation Hanna Hard to be a God The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug How to Train Your Dragon 2 Hugo Ilo Ilo The Immigrant Inception Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter Kung Fu Panda 2 Lawless Logan Lucky The Lost City of Z Loveless Loving Vincent The Lunchbox Manchester by the Sea Michael Moneyball Monsters University Moonrise Kingdom Much Ado About Nothing Nebraska Nightcrawler No Nocturnal Animals The Old Man & the Gun An Ordinary Execution Over Your Dead Body The Past A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence The Place Beyond the Pines Rabbit Hole Rams [REC] 4: Apocalypse Red State Rust and Bone The Salesman Shame Shoplifters Short Term 12 Skyfall Song of the Sea Son of Saul The Square Starred Up Straight Outta Compton Sweet Country Tabu Tangled 13 Assassins Timbuktu To the Wonder Under the Skin Unforgiven Untouchable A Useful Life Wadjda We Are the Best! Weekend (Andrew Haigh) Welcome to New York Widows Wiener-Dog Wonderstruck Zootopia
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 23, 2019 17:30:17 GMT -8
Okay, I've seen 19 in this round. Getting better! (There are also a few others I started watching and never finished. Someday, someday...)
You've got a solid list all around, though I do have a few quibbles. We've discussed BlacKkKlansman in the past, so I won't dwell on that, but I must say I'm quite surprised to see Monsters U get a mention (and above Inside Out, no less!). That film has some nice character designs and picks up qualitatively in its final 20 minutes, but most of it just struck me as forgettable fluff, and one of Pixar's weakest films all around.
I didn't love Wonder - the B&W scenes were much more compelling than the color ones - but I'm happy to see it mentioned. It's an above-average family film, even if it's a bit less inspired than the book it's based on.
Once again, I think I've seen every animated film you mention. I believe I've actually seen more of this decade's animated output than you have, although given the quality of some recent cartoon movies, that's probably not something to brag about.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Dec 23, 2019 17:40:02 GMT -8
Okay, I've seen 19 in this round. Getting better! (There are also a few others I started watching and never finished. Someday, someday...) You've got a solid list all around, though I do have a few quibbles. We've discussed BlacKkKlansman in the past, so I won't dwell on that, but I must say I'm quite surprised to see Monsters U get a mention (and above Inside Out, no less!). That film has some nice character designs and picks up qualitatively in its final 20 minutes, but most of it just struck me as forgettable fluff, and one of Pixar's weakest films all around. I didn't love Wonder - the B&W scenes were much more compelling than the color ones - but I'm happy to see it mentioned. It's an above-average family film, even if it's a bit less inspired than the book it's based on. Once again, I think I've seen every animated film you mention. I believe I've actually seen more of this decade's animated output than you have, although given the quality of some recent cartoon movies, that's probably not something to brag about. I'm quite surprised to see a Hobbit film in there as well. But I really like his animated selection-the first two How to Train Your Dragon films are great.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 23, 2019 17:57:51 GMT -8
I should qualify my above comment by saying that I've only seen the animated films whose titles I recognize. A little Googling tells me that My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea is animated, but i haven't seen it. (Which is my loss, apparently; on the list it goes.)
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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 23, 2019 20:41:06 GMT -8
I believe I've seen 52 from Snipe's second list. But there are probably ~ten more that I had borrowed from the library, but didn't get around to watching, probably because they seemed like homework. Of course, my instincts can certainly be wrong with these things sometimes.
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Post by guttersnipe on Dec 24, 2019 4:19:49 GMT -8
I must say I'm quite surprised to see Monsters U get a mention (and above Inside Out, no less!). That film has some nice character designs and picks up qualitatively in its final 20 minutes, but most of it just struck me as forgettable fluff, and one of Pixar's weakest films all around. There's really three reasons why I took to Monsters University. The first is the pop-culture maestros' effortlessly riffing on a branch of filmmaking I have very little time for, the frat-house comedy. There's something about the versatility of media that permits pastiche on an unwelcome theme to create something that's inviting in its familiarity - Black Dynamite does the same with the mostly-crummy blaxploitation genre. I've often heard (and agreed) that Pixar's magic formula is in appealing to all ages (this isn't really evident in, say, The Good Dinosaur), and there's admirable cheek in parodying gross-out stoopid humour in a family film. In the same vein is the summer camp scare scene at the end, where I felt the team milked horror tropes (the sound of scuttling, brief shafts of light from windows and doors etc) to better effect than most actual horror directors - I genuinely think that's one of the best scenes in the studio's history, and again, they shouldn't be able to get away with it in a "kids' film". The second factor is the believable and endearing spar-cum-rapport between Mike and Sully. When your average family picture settles for slight variations on 'plucky individuals head to the wilderness and recruit a sidekick or two before a showdown at the wizard's tower*', Pixar had enough confidence in their characters and world to reverse-engineer a buddy picture, and frankly it was a breath of fresh air. And finally, and perhaps most crucially, the colour palette is breathtaking. Whenever I think of the film (or see posters, or clips) I'm bowled over by the wealth of gorgeous blues, greens and purples, just as I was with Avatar. Every scene is so bedecked with colour it becomes an absolute candy-box of visuals that I just can't look away. You're going to cry sacrilege here, but I contrast this with how my interest flags in Frozen because of the overuse of white - white literally comes with the territory in that film, but to me it's subtly boring and robs me of immersion in locations when the backdrops are largely the same. (Most people have issues with the indiscriminate killing in The Dirty Dozen; I don't like it because there's too much green.) *I remember a very disparaging review of Treasure Planet that heavily criticised this kind of generic plotting, but this is hardly uncommon for Disney or most of their peers.
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Post by guttersnipe on Dec 24, 2019 4:37:32 GMT -8
Once again, I think I've seen every animated film you mention. I believe I've actually seen more of this decade's animated output than you have, although given the quality of some recent cartoon movies, that's probably not something to brag about. I should imagine we're pretty much on par; I watched every Disney big-screener, every Ghibli, every Pixar bar Coco (didn't have the time), every Laika, about a third of DreamWorks and a couple dozen of them from other studios. You might not have heard of Miss Hokusai, Patema Inverted or Loving Vincent, but those are animations too.
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Post by guttersnipe on Dec 24, 2019 4:59:20 GMT -8
I'm quite surprised to see a Hobbit film in there as well. But I really like his animated selection-the first two How to Train Your Dragon films are great. This is an unusual call as I've long struggled with fantasy - my English teacher gave me a copy of The Hobbit at around ten when she recognised that I was reading at a higher level, which I never admitted to her that I abandoned it midway due to pure disinterest. Philip K. Dick wrote an excellent piece on the difference between sci-fi and fantasy ("There must be a coherent idea in this dislocation"; I can produce the whole text if anyone wants it), and I've always struggled to care about the events unfolding in an impossible world (no matter how much it looks like Shropshire), not to mention how I often got fed up with the constant "It's because of magic" deus ex machina in tabletop games. So the fact that I did care about the events of Smaug is quite impressive, not least because of the immersive Dickensian charm of Laketown and the frankly gobsmacking scene of Bilbo in Smaug's lair - those locations and that monster are remarkable creations of the imagination, and as such my typical misgivings just fell away.
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