Over the weekend I saw Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton and was quite impressed: soulful, troubling, gripping --even thrilling in a mature way. A film about adults for adults! (God, I love the Fall / God, I hate Hollywood release patterns that don't give that love any competition) It got me to thinking about the impending critical top ten lists. They start in late November/early December beginning with the long lead magazine journalists or junket blurb whores who want their list out there for quotation right away. Which movies will rise up as consensus favorites this year? Which, though greeted warmly on release, will be surprise no shows? (your guesswork in the comments please)
Of the movies I don't share consensus opinion on I've already prepared myself to witness a terrific showing from Knocked Up (zeitgeist movies always do well in year-end tallies) but I don't mind terribly much. It's not a bad movie. The bad movies I do fear in terms of year end hoopla are 300 and Waitress. The first will be boosted by its visual spectacle (no argument that it's eye-popping) and rationalized by crowd pleaser status and the second? I'll probably make too many enemies if I hammer away at that. I'll just say that I've never in my life seen such inept filmmaking rewarded with nearly unanimous thumbs up and real love, too. Weird.My screening of Michael Clayton on Saturday got me excited for working on my own top ten list and my year end "Film Bitch" Awards. So I thought I'd address reader questions about that process.
I've got 15 favorites at the moment...
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*(for list lovers only)
* Reader Request Topics are chosen by kind patrons who donate to keep the site and blog alive. I apologize for the delays in getting these articles out but I've drafted a strict schedule and there'll be a new one at least once a week, now. Upcoming topics include All That Jazz, Network, Maurice, ABBA the movie, A Touch of Evil and more...
