So far there have been a handful of really good films released in the states this year. There are loads i still need to see..
GOODBYE SOLO
SUMMER HOURS
TREELESS MOUNTAIN
UP!
TOKYO SONATA
LORNA’S SILENCE
SUGAR
TONY MANERO
MOON
THE BEACHES OF AGNES
JULIA
IN THE LOOP
The summer blockbusters have been kind of disappointing this year (I think it’s hard to be when you think about how last year had The Dark Knight), but, surprisingly, my four favorite films of the year so far have all had summer releases: Away We Go, (500) Days of Summer, Up and Funny People.
I haven’t seen Moon or Coraline yet, but I have a feeling that if I did they’d probably be in this group for me.
I haven’t seen Goodbye Solo, Summer Hours, Treeless Mountian or many of the other contenders due to living in oblivion. So far the best new film I’ve seen this year was the new Phillipe Garrel film, Frontier of Dawn which was playing on demand.
Haven’t seen many 2009 releases but did see
the hurt locker
two loves
seraphine
sin nombre
gommorah
the one on the list I liked the best so far is seraphine, the worst two loves.
Tobias – I’m glad to see someone give out some Julia love! That film needs to be seen!
Speaking of which, it comes out on DVD in a couple weeks (Aug. 18).
Okay, revision time.
1. Made in USA
=The Rise of Louis XIV
2. Tetro
3. Free Women
4. Up
5. Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR
6. I Can See You
7. Le genou d’Artémide
=Itinéraire de Jean Bricard
8. Boy Interrupted
9. The Hurt Locker
10. Sita Sings the Blues
11. Public Enemies
I’ll make it a top-so-and-such for ya.
1. (500) Days of Summer
2. The Hurt Locker
3. The Cove
4. Up
5. Cold Souls
double post
According to US release date;
1. Revanche (Götz Spielmann)
2. Le silence de Lorna / Lorna’s Silence (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne)
3. Lake Tahoe (Fernando Eimbcke)
4. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Sacha Gervasi)
5. Du levande / You, The Living (Roy Andersson)
6. Üç maymun / Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
7. L’heure d’été / Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
8. Up (Pete Docter)
9. Gake no ue no Ponyo / Ponyo (Miyazaki Hayao)
10. Tôkyô sonata / Tokyo Sonata (Kurosawa Kiyoshi)
Up
District 9
Star Trek
not in any type of order, but only these stand out in my head.
Inglorious Basterds (I have no idea if that’s the right spelling), District 9, Julia, Watchmen, Moon, Alexander the Last, 500 Days of Summer, Adventureland, Up, Public Enemies & Duplicity.
Best films I’ve seen this year:
Moon
Revanche
Lorna’s Silence
Dod Sno (HOW HAS THIS NOT BEEN MENTIONED!?)
Drag Me to Hell
Three Monkeys
In the Loop
Deadgirl
Inglourious Basterds
Honorable Mention:
The Hurt Locker
District 9
Humpday
500 Days of Summer
Most Anticipated:
Antichryst
Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
White Ribbon
Enter the Void
Shutter Island
Sin Nombre
Gomorah
IN THE LOOP (BEST POLITICAL SATIRE IN 10 YEARS)
THE HURT LOCKER ( quite a decent war movie, but not as good as SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or FULL METAL JACKET)
HUNGER ( 2008?)
PUBLIC ENEMIES ( This one is a little bit skeptic at first, but it slowly grows in you)
WHATEVER WORKS
PONYO
What’s good about 3 Monkeys?
The Hurt Locker
Sin Nombre
Food Inc.
This needs a little update:
1. Julia
2. The Baader Meinhof Complex
3. Tetro
4. Three Monkeys
5. (500) Days of Summer
6. Rudo y Cursi
7. The Hurt Locker
8. Somers Town
9. It Might Get Loud
10. Moon
-Honorable Mentions:
- 12
- Lymelife
- Inglourious Basterds
- Taxidermia
- Adventureland
- In the Loop
I usually wait to see movies until they come out on dvd just because none of my friends are ever down to see smaller or foreign films. I don’t have anything against seeing something like Funny People or IB in theaters, but I’d like to see smaller films also. Because I wait for stuff on dvd I haven’t seen much. So far this year my favorite is probably Drag Me to Hell or Up.
Tomorrow I’m going to see either Thirst or Flame and Citron downtown. Both seem pretty interesting and I’m done not seeing movies because I have nobody to go with.
1. Drag Me to Hell
2. Up
3. District 9
4. La nana
5. Coraline
6. Red Cliff Part Two
7. Angels & Demons
8. Five Minutes of Heaven
9. The Hangover
10. Star Trek
1.) Up
2.) (500) Days of Summer
3.) In the Loop
Gake no Ue no Ponyo was on my 10 best last year and the America version that was released this year was awful.
TOP TEN and all the rest:
01 The White Ribbon
02 Fish Tank
03 Antichrist
04 A Prophet
05 The Beaches of Agnès, Agnès Varda
06 Two Lovers, James Gray
07 Still Walking, Kore-Eda
08 Aquele Querido Mes de Agosto, Miguel Gomes
09 Vincere, Marco Bellocchio
10 Birdsong (El Cant dels ocells), Albert Serra
1/2
Villa Amalia, Benoit Jacquot
Bright Star
La fille du RER, André Téchiné
Les derniers jours du monde, Larrieu Brothers
J’ai tué ma mère, Xavier Dolan
To Die Like a Man, Joao Pedro Rodriguez
The Silence of Lorna, les frères Dardenne
35 Rhums, Claire Denis
No One Knows about Persian Cats, Bahman Ghobadi
In the Beginning, Xavier Giannoli,
Le roi de l’évasion, Alain Guiraudie
Wild Grass, Alain Resnais
Tetro, Francis Ford Coppola
Country Teacher, Bohdan Slama
Non ma fille tu n’iras pas danser, Christophe Honoré
Skirt Day, Jean-Paul Lilienfeld
Julia, Eric Zonca
The Headless Woman, Lucrecia Martel
Independencia, Raya Martin
Inglourious Basterds
Looking for Eric
Public Enemies
Adoration
The Other One (L’autre), Patrick-Mario Bernard & Pierre Trividic
Precious
Chéri
Ne te retourne pas, Marina de Van
Tokyo!, Bong Joon-ho Bong, Léos Carax and Michel Gondry
Spy(ies) (Espion(s)), Nicolas Saada
Bellamy, Claude Chabrol
This Night, Werner Schroeter
Up
La belle personne, Christophe Honoré
L’idiot, Pierre Léon
Delta, Kornél Mundruczó
OSS 117 : Rio ne répond plus, Michel Hazanavicius
Pirate Radio (The Boat That Rocked)
Soeur Sourire, Stijn Coninx
Summer Hours
1/2
Ponyo on the Cliff
Broken Embraces
Whatever Works
Face, Tsai Ming-Liang
Brüno
Les beaux gosses, Riad Sattouf
24 City
Pranzo di ferragosto, Gianni Di Gregorio
Watchmen
O’Horten
Fados
The Burning Plain
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Pleasure of Being Robbed
In the Electric Mist
Ricky François Ozon
Je l’aimais, Zabou Breitman
Tony Manero Pablo Larrain
All About Actresses (Le bal des actrices), Maïwen
Coco before Chanel
Parc, Arnaud des Pallières
Private Lessons, Joachim Lafosse
Welcome, Philippe Lioret
Map of the Sounds of Tokyo, Isabel Coixet
**1/2
Enter the Void, Gaspar Noé
Taking Woodstock
Thirst, Park Chan-Wook
Spring Fever, Lou Ye
Silent Light, Reygadas
**
Kinatay, Brillante Mendoza
Un lac, Philippe Grandrieux
Z32, Avi Mograbi
Change of Plans, Danièle Thompson
Eden is West, Costa Gavras
The Sea Wall, Rithy Panh
*
Coco, Gad Elmaleh
Taken
Service (Serbis), Brillante Mendoza
I recently saw Ponyo & Sin Nombre, And I thought both those movies were phenomenal. I personally liked Sin Nombre so much that I watched it almost immediately after with a friend, I wanted to praise it so badly. so add those to list of Inglorious Basterds, District 9, Julia, Watchmen, Moon, Alexander the Last, 500 Days of Summer, Adventureland, Up, Public Enemies & Duplicity. Sugar & Rudo & Cursi were good too.
I’ve seen around 30 films released this year (and countless others from other years xD), and my top would be (in no particular order)… Red Cliff 2, Coraline, Huacho, Public Enemies, Star Trek and Up haha
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea easily takes the cake for me so far.
Well, if I follow the spanish calendar of releases….: Un conte de Nöel, Up, Ponyo, Antichrist, The curious case of Benjamin Button, Star Trek, Still Walking and I admired the powerful moments of Appatow’s Funny People and Almodovar’s Los abrazos rotos. District 9 was a great surprise, too.
1. District 9
2. Moon
3. Funny People
4. The Hurt Locker
5. 500 Days of Summer
6. Inglourious Basterds
7. The Brothers Bloom
8. Adventureland
9. The Hangover
But by the end of the year I’d guess my top 10 would be:
1. District 9
2. Avatar
3. Moon
4. Where the Wild Things Are
5. Funny People
6. The Hurt Locker
7. A Serious Man
8. The Tree of Life
9. Everybody’s Fine
10. The Boat That Rocked
1. Up
2. Revanche
3. Antichrist
4. Two Lovers
5. Inglorious Basterds
6. Ponyo
7. Goodbye Solo
8. The Hurt Locker
9. Three Monkeys
Worst film seen: District 9
I expect this to drastically change upon the arrival of VIFF
@fredo.. was taxidermia 09? i think it was released in 06 but hey it was my favorite film I saw this year
in order of greatness
up
ponyo
inglourious basterds
coraline (3D!)
moon
district 9
food inc
star trek
drag me to hell
rudo y cursi
hurt locker
and worst:
500 days of summer (i hate this movie so much)
watchmen
bruno
terminator
funny people
gigantic
Sinziana – I’m not sure when Taxidermia premiered but it’s only recently made it to the States. It came out in theaters maybe a month ago here in LA.
I’m glad to see you liked Rudo y Cursi. It’s a little-seen gem that deserves some love.
Seen:
Sin Nombre
The Hurt Locker
District 9
Anticipating:
Moon
The Road
Antichrist
Gomorrah
Where the Wild Things Are
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Matt Parks
Summer Hours
The Hurt Locker
Goodbye Solo
Two Lovers
Adoration
Public Enemies