Catalog of 2010

Having the benefit of picking and choosing what movies I pay to see, most of these were at least somewhat critically vetted. Thus, there are few "turkeys" on this list. All were worthwhile, in some way or other. 

Films I saw in theaters during 2010
(dates compiled from ticket stubs, but a few seem to be missing)

• 127 Hours    11/13
• Animal Kingdom
• The Book of Eli 1/18 
• Cyrus 7/4
• Daybreakers 1/18
• Dogtooth 9/6
• Easy A 11/07
• An Education (2009) 2/03
• Enter The Void 10/24
• Exit Through the Gift Shop 5/17
• Faster 11/27
• The Fighter 12/18
• Four Lions 11/13
• Get Him To The Greek
• Harry Potter: & the Deathly Hallows, pt.1 11/19
• How To Train Your Dragon 3D 4/25
• Inception 7/18
• Iron Man 2 5/8
• Jackass 3D 10/17
• Kick-Ass
• The Kids Are Alright 7/24
• The King's Speech 12/24
• Let Me In
• MacGruber 5/29
• Mesrine 1 & 2 (Killer Instinct/Public Enemy #1) (actually 2008 release)
• Monsters 11/06
• Never Let Me Go 10/17
• The Other Guys  8/14
• The Princess and the Frog    (2009 release)
• Rare Exports 12/24
• Redline 12/8 (Anime directed by Takeshi Koike, not being helped by sharing a title with an earlier live action US film.)
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
• Shutter Island 2/24 (?)
• The Social Network
• Somewhere 12/31
• Splice 6/13
• Summer Wars 12/27
• Tangled 3D 12/13
• The Town 11/13
• Toy Story 3
• Tron: Legacy
• True Grit 12/23
• Winter's Bone 7/4

also… The Human Centipede via Comcast ON DEMAND

and also… (in November)

• The American
• Black Swan
• Biutiful
• Carlos
• Casino Jack 
• Get Low
• Mutants

Repertory screenings

Midnites For Maniacs @ The Castro: 7/31

Nighthawks / Bloodsport / Big Trouble in Little China

Destroy All Movies! @ the Roxie: 11/19
Surf 2 / Times Square

Mifune x Kurosawa : A Beautiful Man @ VIZ

Red Beard 12/26 

Stray Dog 12/28 

High and Low 12/28

Rifftrax/Cinematic Titanic

CT: Danger On Tiki Island   (live @ The Castro)

RT: House on Haunted Hill  (a Fathom event)

RT: Reefer Madness            (a Fathom event)

(Special note: I had a ticket for CT's War Of The Insects in October but was unable to attend due to my house being burglarized that day.)

(Also, I watched a lot of Rifftrax enhanced films this year at home like Clash of the Titans, The Last Airbender, Twilight: Eclipse, and Santa Claus & The Ice Cream Bunny. But they deserve an eventual post of their own. More later…)

–––––––

Still to see

Rabbit Hole, Another Year, Ghost Writer, The Secret In Their Eyes, Buried, The Last Exorcism, Jack Goes Boating, Hot Tub Time Machine,  A Serbian Film, Mother, Un Prophete, I Am Love, Restrepo, Triangle (?), The Square (?) 

Harry's best of list over at AICN features a number of titles yet to be released that I hope to see this year.

& 
Capone's exhaustive list, including worsts of the year.

–––––––

Also worth mentioning,

Live comedy shows I attended

Doug Benson

Jen Kirkman

Marc Maron

Good times.

See also my earlier home video post. I may edit to add some comments about the above titles, but frankly, the future is here and I've got other shit to do.

Red Hill

Red Hill (2010)
Saw it last night, and liked it a lot. The heat wasn't working at the Lumiere Theater, making it even more of an immersive experience.

An effective blending of Western/vengeance/siege movie tropes, it takes place within a 24-hour period, and is set in a authentic feeling small-town setting surrounded by landscape which is actually integral to the story. Our young constable, who picked the wrong day to go to work without his gun, finds himself repeatedly stranded out of town, struggling to get back to help his fellow officers defend the town from an escaped prisoner.

The villain of the piece, Jimmy Conway, is a no-nonsense badass, whose preternatural abilities make it feel at times like a slasher movie, as if Halloween's Michael Myers strolled into John Sayles' Lone Star. The violent set-pieces are brutal and well-staged, and were the highlight of the film for me. Was let down somewhat in the third act by a couple of cliché music cues and some curious plot twists, but found it a solid genre effort overall.

Alex @ CHUD also gives it a positive review here.
It hits home video January 25.

MST3K - S01E07 - Robot Monster

This week's MST3K episode is Robot Monster (1953). 

Very good Season One episode from 1989. 
More of my thoughts in the comments over at the Satellite News episode guide.

Down The Hatch

I found Herc's Best TV of 2010 @ AICN list worth a read. Bunch of shows I watched, even more that I don't but probably should.

To my previous post re. watching at home I should add that I watched the first 5 seasons of LOST on my laptop, via HULU. In one week (I had some time off from work)… 

I had never watched the show before (not entirely true: caught the pilot but it didn't take) but decided to try out the Season 6 opener, based on an enthusiastic series of articles at CHUD that analyzed each episode (Back To The Island). Found that I liked what I saw, especially in one of those "Previously On LOST" clip shows they used to start the season. Convinced there was some cool stuff happening besides corny soap-opera antics, I tuned in for a couple of weeks. Eventually got restless realizing there were way too many callbacks to past events, so I decided to catch up on the series ASAP. Luckily, HULU had the entire run available for free and off I went. 

Quickly found the show so addictive I literally stayed up all night just to finish a season. Would then sleep a few hours, wake up and start the next. I managed to catch up in time to narrowly miss the next Tuesday night episode (I DVR'd it). Oddly enough I was far enough into the Season 6 (between eps. 8 & 9) that HULU didn't have the first few online any longer so I had to torrent them to re-see them. So having finally caught up I resumed the series with weekly airings, like the rest of the world. Was finally able to understand what people on message boards were talking about and why the "polar bear" became the symbol of the shows' inscrutability.

The funny part of it is that after maniacally catching up to the current Season 6, it turned out to be the weakest. And the series' finale was a major disappointment, leaving a bad taste in my mouth, mildly spoiling in my memory all the great story-telling that led up to it. Maybe one day I'll revisit the whole thing, not anytime soon. Right now it's like a glorious fever dream…

Night Mov(i)es

In a move away from past years, I saw more movies in theaters during 2010 than I watched at home. This was a result of both being seduced by enthusiastic reviews of current films and the increase of 3-D screenings that required an in-theater experience. But mostly it was due to me getting used to the public transit surrounding my neighborhood and getting over the social stigma of going see movies alone. Actually, it's easier to go solo, as less planning and potentially awkward personal interactions are involved. Cheaper too, if you're going dateless. But first, what I saw at home:


Netflix RENTALS

• (500) Days of Summer 02/09/10 (I heart Zooey, and JGL.)
• Anvil: The Story of Anvil 04/15/10 (Inspirational. Their early catalog is some dumb, fun metal. Drummer Rob is a genius.)
• Brick 09/24/10 (Excessively mannered, but fun, pseudo-noir.)
• The Brothers Bloom 10/26/10 (disappointing)
• Chasing Amy 07/09/10 (Loved it. Commentary w/ Affleck was extra fun.)
• Children of Men 09/28/10 (Bold, brilliant story-telling)
• An Evening with Kevin Smith Disc 1 07/13/10, Disc 2 07/13/10 (Very funny and engaging talks by the fat man.) 
• Funny People: Bonus Material 01/27/10 (Oh, what this movie could have been with some fat trimmed.)
• The Hangover 08/03/10 (Dumb fun.)
• The House of the Devil 06/10/10 (Good mash-up of Argento/haunted house tropes. Ending was cheese but the build-up is exquisite.)
• In the Loop 01/20/10 (Hilarious film that got me to explore its predecessor, the BBC series "The Thick Of It.")
• Irreversible 04/17/10 (Noe's a twisted genius. Great warm-up for this year's Enter The Void.)
• Miller's Crossing  01/14/10 ( A Coen Bros. classic.)
• Night Moves 12/15/10 (Director Arthur Penn died in 2010, heard this was great. It is. But Gene Hackman is good in anything.)
• Ratatouille  (Currently in my BluRay player - Loved it. Still digging through the extras.)
• The Rocketeer 07/09/10 (disappointing)
• Superbad: Bonus Material 01/21/10 (Good stuff. Great film.)
• Thirst 02/11/10 (Wonderfully strange vampire love story based on an obscure literary source - not Twilight.)
• Who Is Harry Nilsson? 11/08/10 (Knew a fraction of his story, and this doc filled me in on the rest. Great music, but depressing tale with redemption at the end.)
• World's Greatest Dad 01/16/10 (Robin Williams ain't dead yet, even if his son is…)

Netflix ON DEMAND

• Arrested Development (all 3 seasons)
• Don't You Forget About Me (Potentially great doc about John Hughes' legacy, defeated by the *SPOILER* sad fact that they never get tho interview the man himself.)
• Humpday (Hilarious mumble-core, hit closer to home than I expected.)
• Footloose ( to sync with Rifftrax Presents) 
• Jaws 3 (to sync with Rifftrax Presents)

Sad Songs Are Nature's Onions

Saturday night I spent online posting passionate (but drunken) opinions on various message boards while listening to a bunch of new music acquisitions, inspired by the double whammy of Somewhere (a song by Amerie) and The Onion A.V. Club's Best Music of 2010 podcast. Got me to finally listen to Janelle Monáe, Kanye West, & Robyn. All good, funky, and fresh. Funny that I've lost my taste for indie rock, which is most of what fills their lists. Podcast & print. 

Hungover Sunday morning, I caught a bunch of the Mr. Show Marathon on IFC. Basically the back half of Season 4, plus the two Best of Specials (that cover Seasons 1 & 3).* Very impressed. Not sure why it took me so long catch up with this show. Maybe their personas put me off. I'm sometimes slow to adapt to new things, especially if they seem "arch," "ironic," or "post-modern." But I've loved some of their later projects like Tom Goes To the Mayor/Tim & Eric Awesome Show (produced by Bob Odenkirk), and Arrested Development (which I was also late the party to) that featured David Cross. His current Todd Margret show didn't impress me upon a single viewing, but I predict I'll be wrong about that one too. 

Anyway, looking forward to taking in the rest of Mr. Show. It just keeps coming up, the deeper I get into the current "alternative comedy" scene. Added the sets to my Netflix Queue to hear the commentaries (there's one for every episode?). Just heard Paul F. Tompkins speak about his experiences on the show in a 2006 interview from the now defunct AST Radio podcast. Only recently became a fan of PFT, so I didn't know he'd even been a cast member. And as he points out, he was a pudgy MF back then.

The appearance of these 90's shows (Mr. Show, Sanders, Ben Stiller, etc.) on IFC comes at a good time for me, as I was on the verge of canceling my "Preferred" Channel package from Comcast. For Christmas I got a new Samsung HD TV and upgraded my cable to HD service. Was looking to save a few bucks but love having TCM & IFC available. If I could order channels à la carte, I would have only those and skip all the other stuff. 

My Showtime reduced price one-year offer runs out soon and I have considered paying for HBO for it's original programming, but my DVR's still full-up and with my Netflix Queue at over 300 titles, I think I'll pass. Besides, everything good on HBO gets released on DVD eventually doesn't it? The only reason to have it is to "keep up with the conversation," a weird cultural elite thing amongst TV fans. 

So between these new (old) comedy shows running on IFC with Comedy Death Ray features, and seeing some great Turner Classic Movies in Hi-Def (like A Matter of Life & Death and The Great Dictator), I feel I made the right choice. 

Geez, I have to get cracking on my Catalog of 2010 before any more time passes. In less than two weeks, SF Sketchfest starts and my weekends will be full.

*For the record I caught 405, 402, 408, 409, 410, Fantastic Newness, & The Incredible, Fantastical News Report.

Stupid Kid Han Solo

Mr Plinkett's review of SW3: Revenge of the Sith plopped yesterday. Between his series and the Rifftrax commentaries on the trilogy, I've seen the Prequels mocked & deconstructed more times than I've seen them "straight." Truly the series fanboys love-to-hate, and Plinkett takes the time to show why these films fail as films, beyond all the childhood-raping business Lucas is accused of. My theory is that George mostly identified with Palpatine/The Emperor, and made the films to show his rise to power, and took an unconscious glee in killing off the heroic Jedi that have haunted his career since inventing them. I posted more thoughts over on the CHUD message boards here. 

• So I basically spent my New Year's Eve enjoying the above and the latest video podcast from Jimmy Pardo's Never Not Funny, episode 806 with guest Allan Havey.

• Marx Bros. marathon on TCM put me to sleep after 5 minutes, but I DVR'd Duck Soup to watch later. My Motorola is already full so I couldn't record more of them.
• Today, IFC is premiering marathons of their new acquisitions Mr.Show and The Larry Sanders Show. But they'll be repeating them for months, so I'm not too concerned about missing them now. Looking forward to the Comedy Death Ray wraparound/featurettes starting on the 3rd. (ETA: I watched a few Sanders shows and they are still very funny, but not made for Hi-Def. As the show was likely shot on video, I wonder if an upgrade will ever happen.)

• Yesterday I saw Somewhere, which I enjoyed, but being unsure about the ending I'm going to wait to post my thoughts.

• Also just saw that A.V. Club posted it's Best podcasts of 2010, about half of which I already subscribe to. More on my favorites later…