Hey everyone. Oscar week here (as well as, well, everywhere). I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the 10 Best Picture Nominees, along with various other Oscar-related posts when I get the time and inkling. For now, here are my quick thoughts on five of the Best Picture nominees. Look for part 2 on Friday.
Archive for the 'Film Criticism' Category
22
Feb
2010 Year In Reviews – SHUTTER ISLAND
Haven’t written in awhile, but haven’t seen new films in awhile. I’ll be packing them in before the Oscars, and will post a checklist in a short while with what I’ve seen and what I haven’t, with thoughts about the nominees. Below is my review for the new psychological mind blower that is “Shutter Island. Spoiler-free, as always, especially with something this complex.
posted by Antonio in Film Criticism and have No Comments
01
Feb
2010 Year In Reviews – FANTASTIC MR. FOX, EXTRACT, USA vs. AL-ALARIAN, 30 for 30: The U
Reviewing every film I see for the first time in 2010, spoiler free reviews. Here’s four more:
Read more…
posted by Antonio in Film Criticism and have No Comments
28
Jan
25 Things About Me
25 Things about me.
1. My parents were scared of me as a child. That’s true.
2. I was able to summon water spirits as a child. This might explain the fear.
3. I probably should’ve been born circa 1930, because I like things from the 40’s and 50’s a lot more than stuff from the 80’ and 90’s. But maybe if I was born in 1930, I’d like stuff from 1900 and 1910 better than stuff from the 40’s and 50’s. Maybe we’re all just doomed to be nostalgic for stuff that existed slightly before our times. Maybe we all want to be our parents and grandparents. Suck on that one for a while. I’m gonna be over here adjusting my spats and hoarding war bonds.
posted by Antonio in Film Criticism and have Comment (1)
18
Jan
2010 Year In Reviews – INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
Greetings everyone. I’ll be posting thoughts/reviews of every film I see for the first time in 2010. I’ll try to keep what I write free of spoilers in case you haven’t seen the stuff I’m reviewing. And I’ll use a rating system out of 10, basically what my vote on IMDB would be for the film, but with 1/2 numbers as well.
So let’s get started. Read more…
posted by Antonio in Film Criticism and have Comments (4)
29
Dec
THE ACM TOP 25 FILMS 2000-2009 THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
Let’s start with a quick recap of what we’ve covered so far.
25. Shaun of the Dead
24. Gladiator
23. Sideways
22. In Bruges
21. Lost in Translation
20. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
19. Mulholland Drive
18. Gosford Park
17. O Brother Where Art Thou
16. There Will Be Blood
15. Snatch
14. Borat
13. The Dark Knight
12. Spirited Away
11. The Royal Tenenbaums
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
9. Memento
8. Wall-E
7. Slumdog Millionaire
6. The Hurt Locker
Before I get to the top five, I wanted to mention a few films that just missed this list. The last 10 years have given us a lot of good to great films, and for that reason there’s a glut of films that are all close to, but not in, my top 25 films of the decade. So here, in no particular order, are some films deserving of acclaim from the last decade: Read more…
posted by Antonio in Film Criticism and have Comments (2)
22
Dec
THE ACM TOP 25 FILMS 2000-2009 #’s 10-6
This is where we stand, with the top 5 to come next week.
25. Shaun of the Dead
24. Gladiator
23. Sideways
22. In Bruges
21. Lost in Translation
20. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
19. Mulholland Drive
18. Gosford Park
17. O Brother Where Art Thou
16. There Will Be Blood
15. Snatch
14. Borat
13. The Dark Knight
12. Spirited Away
11. The Royal Tenenbaums
Before I get started, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a film that won’t be on this list due to timing, but absolutely is one of the top 25 films of the last 10 years. And 15 years. And 20 years. And so on. Read more…
posted by Antonio in Film Criticism and have Comments (3)
24
May
THE ACM TOP 100 – 80 through 61
Continuing with “the list” here are numbers 80-61.
And don’t forget to check out Andrew Brenner’s list. He’s getting prolific with this stuff.
No more ado. Here we go.
NUMBER 80 – L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997)
Here’s another film like The Royal Tenenbaums that is just perfectly put together. The casting is almost a dream, and the performances are fantastic (Kim Basinger in an Academy Award winning role, plus Russell Crowe, Guy Peace AND Kevin Spacey all shine.) Director Curtis Hanson must be independently wealthy—he’s only made 4 films in the decade since L.A. Confidential. Either that or he put all he had creatively into this one. Either way, this film is alive. The sets and set decoration capture a vibe of 1950’s L.A. leaping right out of stock footage and the pages of pulp magazines and tabloids (it should come as no surprise that Hanson based a ton of what he did visually on old videos, photographs, and postcards.) But seeing those scenes come to life with actual, three-dimensional characters, and one heck of a well-imagined thrilling story, is just icing on the visual cake. To me this film is a masterpiece because the story works so well you don’t even notice everything else that went into the film technically, and yet you can really appreciate it merely for the technical aspects as well if you choose to (the DVD notably has a “music only” audio track, the only such track I’ve seen on a DVD.)
posted by acmazzaro in Film Criticism and have No Comments
21
Mar
THE ACM TOP 100 —100 through 81
Bored with our final semester of law school, Andrew Brenner and I decided we’d create, and post, our top 100 films of all time lists.
Our undertakings will be different, though the goal is the same–amass a list of the 100 films that mean the most to us. I won’t speak for the criteria Andrew is using to make his list, but I can speak the criteria I’ve used.
-These are the films that mean the most to me.
-These are the films I find the most impactful-both on cinema and my life.
Good Film/Movies/Cinema is a rewarding experience for me. I get just as much entertainment from a well-written, well-made drama as I do from laughing the entire time at Will Ferrell movie. So this list isn’t necessarily full of movies I enjoy on a sheer entertainment level. A movie is just as likely to be on this list for messing with my head for weeks after seeing it, challenging the way I view the world, or being one of the best in a genre as it is just for making me smile. Not every legendary film is going to make my list because some of them just don’t mean as much to me. This whole exercise is subjective.
All this is to say, Anchorman just missed the list. Sorry.
So without further ado, here’s numbers 100-81. The rest will be revealed, 20 at a time, in four additional posts. Don’t forget to view Andrew’s list as well. I think you’ll get a glimpse of how two people with very similar tastes can sometimes view things very differently.
The list begins after the jump…
posted by acmazzaro in Film Criticism and have Comments (3)
18
Jul
The Dark Night
(contains spoilers)
Somewhere around the midpoint of the newly-released second installment in Director Christopher Nolan’s brilliant reimaging of the Batman film series, Gotham City DA Harvey Dent urges Gotham citizens to look at the chaos and despair around them with the mindset that it’s darkest before dawn. If this is true, even as dark as this film is, there’s probably more darkness in store for the caped crusader in chapters to come.
posted by Antonio in Film Criticism and have Comments (2)