#5 — Good Night, and Good Luck. (George Clooney, 2005) The year that Good Night, and Good Luck. was released, George Clooney used his ample personal funds to get particularly fitting and telling Christmas gifts for many of his friends. … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Five
Since at least 1989’s The Abyss, James Cameron has expanded the technical limits of cinema with each successive film. He’s gone to special effects artisans with a reasonable assessment of their capabilities and explained, probably with some degree of forcefulness, … Continue reading So break a leg now, soon all the world will be a stage
The Road seems like it should work. Cormac McCarthy’s novel is a riveting depiction of life after society has broken down completely, following a bedraggled father and son as they achingly march towards the coast and the indeterminate promise that … Continue reading This dead road leads down to that dead road and back
#6 — The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001) Forget for a moment the Oscar attention, the box office tallies, and the awestruck acclaim from unlikely quarters. Think instead about the context when The Lord … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Six
#7 — Sideways (Alexander Payne, 2004) Movies often trade in cataclysm and heartbreak, sending characters sprinting down rainswept streets chasing after that one urgent moment destined to change everything. That’s certainly stirring, but there’s also an inherent phoniness to it, … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Seven
#8 — The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004) Those whose entire knowledge of superheroes derives from visits to the cineplex–and I still find it remarkable that a working background acquired through such means could be so much more thorough that I … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Eight
Adventureland (Greg Mottola, 2009). Clearly Greg Mottola decided the Superbad path was the one to follow. He edges ahead a few years, focusing on college-aged youth who are all spun around by their romantic anguish and general horniness. Noticeably autobiographical in nature, the film is set in the late nineteen-eighties and features Jesse Eisenberg as a bright young man whose plans for graduate school are derailed causing him to seek summer work at the crummy amusement park in his hometown. It’s amusing enough, but also shaggy to the point of being aimless. Nothing sticks beyond the suspicion that Kristen Stewart … Continue reading Cassavetes, Dick, Donaldson, Frankel, Mottola
#9 — Up (Pete Docter with Bob Peterson, 2009) Let’s start where everyone starts in discussing Up, with the sequence that seemingly inspires universal agreement about its excellence. With just a few minutes of screen-time, Pete Docter and Bob Peterson … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Nine
The mad rush of Academy Awards precursors is underway, and one of the biggest hit today as the Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced their annual awards. It’s so very early in the process, but this is already looking like another one of those years where the eventual Oscar winners will practically lock in early, and the critics’ organizations and other groups will be spending as much time ratifying those nearly predetermined selections as they do hashing out bold proclamations of merit. I note this because I take offense at any of their choices. Indeed, as a movie observer who … Continue reading No Man Can Be a God and Win At All
#10 — Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000) It’s all about those records under the bed, a treasure trove of rock ‘n’ roll left by a departing sibling with the promise that there are life-changing notes contained within the collection. When … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 00s — Number Ten
Coffee for Two 