Sunday, December 16, 2007

Film-Watching Robot's Ten Favorite Movies of 2007

I'm a nerd who likes lists, and I also write down in a notebook every movie I see in a theater and every rock show I attend. However, I think ranking lists in any kind of hierarchical order is silly and ridiculous. Therefore, this year I have taken on the silly and ridiculous challenge of trying to rank my favorite movies in order of preference. I think it's also ridiculous that most critics' top tens of the year mostly include movies released in the last two months. They seem to be little more than PR tools for Oscar season. I've included the whole year on this list, bitch! Huzzah!

1. Inland Empire (David Lynch)
2. The Boss of It All (Lars Von Trier)
3. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
4. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
5. Offside (Jafar Panahi)
6. Lights in the Dusk (Aki Kaurismaki)
7. Rescue Dawn (Werner Herzog)
8. No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
9. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)
10. Romance & Cigarettes (John Turturro)

Close, but no cigar: Tsai Ming-Liang's "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone," the fake trailers and Tarantino's half of "Grindhouse," Bong Joon-Ho's "The Host," and Wes Anderson's "The Darjeeling Limited." I can't decide if Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales" is a giant turd or hilariously appropriate. Answer: Both! I liked everything about Sean Penn's "Into the Wild," except the boring lump of Emile Hirsch in the lead role, Eddie Vedder's score, and Penn's uncritical adoration of Christopher McCandless. Unlike previous years, I didn't see anything I completely hated. Thank god I didn't have to sit through anything like "Blue Car" or "The Dreamers" this year. Curse god I didn't see anything as delightfully shitty as Labute's remake of "The Wicker Man."



























Film-Watching Robot Year-End Top 10, Part II: My Favorite Reissues, Film Society, and Revival Screenings of 2007

1. Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)
2. My Brother's Wedding (Charles Burnett)
3. The Whole Shootin' Match (Eagle Pennell)
4. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)
5. Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
6. Clash by Night (Fritz Lang)
7. The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke)
8. Brewster McCloud (Robert Altman)
9. Brief Encounter (David Lean)
10. The Window (Ted Tatzlaff)



















Monday, December 03, 2007

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