IN THEATERSWinter’s BoneOpening with an understated, mood-setting vocal performance of "The Missouri Waltz" as a soundtrack for imagery captured deep, deep within flyover country, Winter's Bone hinges largely on the execution of a simple idea — it's a formula mystery story set in rural Missouri.
IN THEATERSThe HousemaidI don't believe in guilty pleasures, but if I did, Im Sang-soo's The Housemaid would surely be among them. It panders to an audience that craves victims and villains, but it's glossy and lush and full of gorgeously decadent people doing their gorgeously decadent thing. In its way, it's a delight.
IN THEATERSCertified CopyCertified Copy, which opens on a lecture consigning the concept of originality in art to the Academy of the Overrated, is an awesomely playful intellectual romance (or is it a farce?) from the great Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. When I say playful, I mean confounding in the manner of Last Year at Marienbad, which basically dared viewers to say which competing, contradictory story threads represented real events in the film’s world.
IN THEATERSUncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past LivesWatching Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives on the big screen at the New York Film Festival's Alice Tully Hall, it occurred to me almost immediately that waiting to see anything by Weerasethakul on DVD is a terrible idea.
Screening Log
- Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski, 2013) 73/100
- Mud (Jeff Nichols, 2012) 56/100
- her (Spike Jonze, 2013) 46/100
- Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2013) 85/100
- The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013) 92/100
- American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013) 44/100
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Francis Lawrence, 2013) 19/100
- Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (Stephen Chow, 2013) 71/100
- Why Don't You Play in Hell? (Sion Sono, 2013) 62/100
- Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 2013) 88/100
- Blue is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013) 70/100
- The Counselor (Ridley Scott, 2013) 77/100
- Bad Grandpa (Jeff Tremaine, 2013) 48/100
- All Is Lost (J.C. Chandor, 2013) 71/100
- Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass, 2013) 57/100
- John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness * (John Carpenter, 1987) 85/100
- Autumn Sonata (Ingmar Bergman, 2009) 91/100
- Riddick (David Twohy, 2013) 53/100
- After Tiller (Martha Shane and Lana Wilson, 2013) 54/100
- Short Term 12 (Destin Cretton, 2013) 61/100
- Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013) 63/100
- You're Next (Adam Wingard, 2011) 64/100
- Q * (Larry Cohen, 1982) 65/100
- The World's End (Edgar Wright, 2013) 68/100
- The Grandmaster (Wong Kar-Wai, 2013) 67/100
- The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012) 66/100
- Passion (Brian De Palma, 2012) 53/100
- Swamp Thing (Wes Craven, 2009) 60/100
- Sound City (Dave Grohl, 2013) 55/100
- Exotica * (Atom Egoyan, 1994) 98/100
Top Ten List (by IMDB date: first public screening)
- Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
- Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)
- Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010)
- Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010)
- The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)
- True Grit (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2010)
- The Housemaid (Im Sang-soo, 2010)
- Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010)
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright, 2010)
2010 U.S. Releases by Grade
- Blue Beard (Catherine Breillat, 2009) B
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (David Yates, 2010) C+
- I Spit on Your Grave (Steven R. Monroe, 2010) D
- Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010) A-
- True Grit (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2010) B+
- The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010) B+
- Wishful Drinking (Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, 2010) B-
- Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010) C+
- Amer (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, 2009) B+
- Jackass 3D (Jeff Tremayne, 2010) B
- Hereafter (Clint Eastwood, 2010) C-
- Buried (Rodrigo Cortés, 2010) B+
- Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe, 2009) B-
- The Town (Ben Affleck, 2010) B
- Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010) C+
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright, 2010) B+
- After.Life (Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo , 2009) C+
- Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz, 2009) B-
- Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) B-
- Dogtooth (Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009) B+
- The Killer Inside Me (Michael Winterbottom, 2010) B+
- Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010) A-
- Ondine (Neil Jordan, 2009) B+
- Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) C+
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev, 2009) C+
- Splice (Vincenzo Natali, 2009) B+
- Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010) A-
- Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn, 2010) C+
- Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, 2010) B
- Vincere (Marco Bellocchio, 2009) A-
- Survival of the Dead (George Romero, 2009) C+
- Green Zone (Paul Greengrass, 2010) B-
- The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, 2010) B
- District 13: Ultimatum (Patrick Allessandrin, 2009) B
- Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) B+
2010 U.S. Releases by Title
- After.Life (Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo , 2009) C+
- Amer (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, 2009) B+
- Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010) C+
- Blue Beard (Catherine Breillat, 2009) B
- Buried (Rodrigo Cortés, 2010) B+
- Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010) A-
- District 13: Ultimatum (Patrick Allessandrin, 2009) B
- Dogtooth (Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009) B+
- Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010) C+
- Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe, 2009) B-
- Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010) A-
- Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) B+
- The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, 2010) B
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev, 2009) C+
- Green Zone (Paul Greengrass, 2010) B-
- Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, 2010) B
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (David Yates, 2010) C+
- Hereafter (Clint Eastwood, 2010) C-
- I Spit on Your Grave (Steven R. Monroe, 2010) D
- Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) B-
- Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) C+
- Jackass 3D (Jeff Tremayne, 2010) B
- Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn, 2010) C+
- The Killer Inside Me (Michael Winterbottom, 2010) B+
- Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz, 2009) B-
- Ondine (Neil Jordan, 2009) B+
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright, 2010) B+
- The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010) B+
- Splice (Vincenzo Natali, 2009) B+
- Survival of the Dead (George Romero, 2009) C+
- The Town (Ben Affleck, 2010) B
- True Grit (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2010) B+
- Vincere (Marco Bellocchio, 2009) A-
- Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010) A-
- Wishful Drinking (Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, 2010) B-
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