Sunday, February 27, 2011

2010: A Review in Pictures



Since Oscar Day seems like the last opportunity to wrap 2010 up, I figured I would at least offer a brief review of my own. As you can probably guess, I did not think 2010 was a stellar year. In fact, the best film of last year I watched on television, not to mention I believed the third season of "Breaking Bad" probably topped most, if not all of these movies as well. There were many good films, but I cannot say that my enthusiasm level was all that high.

Even the above still is misleading, as I considered Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" a very good film that was surprisingly elevated to a great film by perhaps those wanting to support a film of solid craftsmanship while overlooking some of its glaring flaws. But, still, that last shot was my favorite of the year and probably represents what I thought about the year in film in general. Interpret that as you will.

This post will cover what I considered the best movies of the year and a few questions for some of the films that stuck in mind for all the wrong reasons. Finally, I also included my best experiences watching older movies on the big screen, which were the true highlights of moviegoing in 2010. I perhaps may write about or do a video essay about films from last year sometime in the future, one of which is already being planned. But I figured this would give you a good idea of what my overall feelings about the films of 2010 since this blog went dark during a few stretches last year. Here we go:

Sunday, February 20, 2011

The Prototype of Noir: Fritz Lang's M




I figured this blogathon needed a video essay, so here's something I whipped up to help a good cause. I look at how Fritz Lang's "M" is viewed as the prototype for the film noir genre.

This is my contribution to the For the Love of Film (Noir) blogathon being hosted by Ferdy on Films and the Self-Styled Siren. The blogathon has been organized for the benefit of the Film Noir Foundation, who do important work to restore and preserve the noir heritage. You can donate to the Foundation via this Paypal link.
 

Monday, February 7, 2011

McCabe & Mrs. Miller: A Video Essay



Since we have such a slew of interesting new movies being released these days (please note I cannot write with the Sarcastica font), one of the new aspects on this blog will be video essays about movies from the past. We are about to approach the 40th anniversary of the release of Robert Altman's western "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" in June. Remember when serious movies were released in the summer?

This essay has some of my thoughts about the film when I watched it not too long ago. Please note that there are some SPOILERS, particularly past the 10 minute mark. Then again, if you haven't seen the movie yet, then you probably should.