This year disappointed me with its lack of flat-out, future classics, but it's apparent when I look at my list that the majority of the films I saw this year were some sort of good.
And there are many films currently in theaters, or not quite on dvd, which are supposed to be great but I have not yet seen. Up in the Air, An Education, Lorna's Silence being but a few such films.
I'm not putting up my whole list in full until the top 25. Here are some highlights from the top 50.
I thought this following movie was a fucking well-edited, insanely gripping goddamn blast:
50. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Stephen Sommers) - Yeah, that's right. Sommers knows how to film action scenes that feel coherent and have a sense of location. And he knows how to keep an action movie rolling.
Some great films nobody fucking saw apparently make up a large portion of the good films I saw this year:
39. Sauna (Antti-Jussi Annila)
38. Medicine for Melancholy (Barry Jenkins)
37. Pontypool (Bruce McDonald)
36. The Escapist (Rupert Wyatt)
34. I Sell the Dead (Glenn McQuaid)
33. Tulpan (Sergei Dvortsevoy)
32. The Chaser (Na Hong-jin)
31. I'm Gonna Explode (Gerardo Naranjo)
30. Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
29. Five Minutes of Heaven (Olivier Hirschbiegel)
27. Afterschool (Antonio Campos)
26. Zift (Javor Gardev)
25. Two Lovers (James Gray) - I guess if Joaquin never acts again, this is a fantastic performance to go out on.
24. The Girlfriend Experience (Stephen Soderbergh) - Witness the Glenn Kenny at his most disgusting.
23. The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson) - Wrongfully hated as an Anderson copy. I honestly don't see it. I see a wonderfully entertaining film about two brothers who love stories. With quirks....
22. Sugar (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck) - After this and Half Nelson, apparently we can expect beautiful cinematography and disgruntled and unflinching character studies from these two filmmakers.
21. Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi) - Spook-a-blast master returning to what he's best at.
20. Public Enemies (Michael Mann) - No masterpiece, but an entertaining and well made account of Dillinger, none the less.
19. World's Greatest Dad (Bobcat Goldthwait) - This is pitch black. I don't know how robin Williams and his penis pulled it off.
18. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel) - A disorienting account of a woman losing herself in the wake of a tragic accident.
17. Mary and Max (Adam Elliot) - Clay mation. It's ugly and beautiful. I cried.
16. Humpday (Lynn Shelton) - Much better than it looked. Genuinely moving story of two confused best friends.
15. Revanche (Gotz Spielmann) - A quietly devastating tale of emotional revenge.
14. Away We Go (Sam Mendes) - Not the Pitchfork/American Apparel film its ads promised. A heartwarming film of two uncertain and lost future parents.
13. Funny People (Judd Apatow) - It's long, loosely structured, and cruel, but it's an uncompromised vision from a great filmmaker and it has all the heart of his previous two masterpieces.
12. Bronson (Nicolas Winding Refn) - Absolutely insane film about an insane man with a riveting lead performance from Tom Hardy.
11. In the Loop (Armando Iannucci) - Takes the English language to places it's never been before.
10. Coraline (Henry Sellick) - Perfectly recreates the spirit of youth in Neil Gaiman's novel in the form of a visually wonderous and magical film.
9. The Informant (Stephen Soderbergh) - A wacky performance from Matt Damon's makes this film great. And the wonky score helps out too.
8. Antichrist (Lars von Trier) - Oh my fucking god. This movie is powerful in a number of ways. Its much publicized third act isn't even the most horrifying part.
7. Everlasting Moments (Jan Troell) - A lonely woman's life is changed when she discovers photography. It's simple and elegant, and a masterfully told story.
The rest were on the decade list:
6. Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)
5. Ponyo (Hiyao Miyazaki)
4. Adventureland (Greg Mottola)
3. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
2. Still Walking (Koreeda Hirokazu)
1. A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Fuck this decade. I'm done with it. Next year, in my head, promises us the return of Julie Andrews to the live action musical, and the death of psychadelic folk as the reigning musical genre of hipsters. I can't stand Grizzly Bear. Bring back the style of Strawberry Jam!
Oh, and Third Eye Blind's gonna make a comeback.
Count on it.
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