MY TOP 5 JAMS OF 2009

So I've been thinking about my top jams of the year for a couple of weeks now and have compiled my top 5 list. Btw, my definition of a "jam" is a popular song you hear on the radio or in a club (assuming you listen to the radio or go to clubs) which instantly hooks you with its obsessive replay-ability. It's the type of song you're not proud to admit you like, at first, until you end up completely and shamelessly in love with it. You know what I'm talking about! The song you can dance to, as you blast on your speakers/headphones, until your limbs give out and/or your eardrums bleed.

Anyway, my top 5 jams are all from the later half of this year. Probably because I played out the jams from earlier this year/I have memory problems. But these are 5 AWESOME songs that I hope to always remember and love...until my 2010 jams replace them. SO ON TO MY JAMS...

***Honorable Mention: Taylor Swift - "You Belong with Me"
Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and I'm gonna let you finish, but your song just missed out my top 5. Beyonce's not on here though so no worries.


AND NOW I PRESENT...MY TOP 5 JAMS OF '09:

5. La Roux - "Bulletproof"
I first heard this song at an American Apparel store. Fitting. This British electropop group's self-titled album is super fun to dance. Dancing aside, I relate to the lyrics of "Bulletproof" so much that it's my official anti-love anthem of the year.


4. Miley Cyrus - "Party in the USA"
Once upon a time, I hated Miley. But now...well ok, now I just rock out to this one song of hers. And I have a feeling many of you have this song in your top 5 jams of '09 as well (if you're cool enough to admit it).


3. Rihanna - "Hard"
OMG I LOVE RIRI. SHE'S SO HOT AND BADASS. FUCK CHRIS BROWN. RIHANNA ROCKS.


2. Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys - "Empire State of Mind"
Aahh the song I refuse to let LoquaciousMuse hear. Why? Because she already has an unhealthy obsession with NYC and the last thing I want is to further fuel her fanaticism. This song even makes me want to move to New York every time I listen to it. I understand that the city sells itself but Jay-Z does a really fabulous job of selling it as well. Jay-Z just sells. He's money. This song is legit. DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO LOQUACIOUSMUSE!


1. Lady Gaga - "Bad Romance"
2009 was the year of Gaga. And I hope much of 2010 will be Lady Gaga's year too. She is our generation's Madonna (I'm not much of a Madonna fan but I think the comparison works). Whatever Lady Gaga does, sings, or wears is genuinely fascinating. She's like an unconventional performance art piece that has miraculously managed to gain mainstream success and fame. "Bad Romance" is a ridiculous song...I don't know why I love it or even why I love Lady Gaga. But I do know that as her best single of the year, it reigns over all other jams. So let's turn it up and dance!

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Why Up in the Air Is Not My Best Picture

In brief,

The thing about Up in the Air is - it was a wonderfully written, well made, entertaining yet melancholy movie, with a beautiful performance from Vera Farmiga (she stole the movie for me) and Clooney's most vulnerable effort yet, but that's just not enough this year, a year when SO many movies I've seen have provided me with a powerful, visceral, emotional experience. Just to name a few that went there for me (and this is just me!)- Hurt Locker, Avatar, Where the Wild Things Are, Fantastic Mr Fox, Inglorious Basterds, Up, D9, even Princess & the Frog! These movies all reached beyond the average voyeuristic relationship that is formed between audience & movie and became actual experiences for me. Which seems like it should be a given, but is actually quite hard to come by with most movies. The fact that SO MANY films accomplished that this year, leaves Up in the Air out in the cold as far as my top ten list is concerned. See full post

Brittany Murphy Dies at Age 32

I can't say I'm affected, much. I didn't know her, and I wasn't a fan of any of the romcoms she participated in, although I did like her other work and I appreciated her talent. But she used to be something like a beacon for me, in the way that she was not the most striking or classically beautiful girl but through talent and an innate likability became a star. I'm really talking about Clueless, here. It's the work I'll always associate her with first and foremost. One of those movies I can pretty much recite through. I loved Tai. I wanted to be Cher, but I associated with Tai, albeit not so much in the sex-drugs-rock-and-grunge department. Knowing as much as anyone with tabloids in their peripheral vision does about her public life, and having watched the evolution of her as an actress and her body as a Hollywood commodity, I have my own first impressions and gut instincts about why a 32 year old who never copped to hard drug use would drop of a heart attack. And it makes me sad.



Our condolences and sympathies to her family. We're very sorry for your loss. See full post

Vote Nicole for SheWired's Gay Woman of the Year!

My absolutely gorgeous freshman year roommate from NYU, Nicole Pacent, is one of the stars of the web series Anyone But Me, (from the creators of The L Word, which just began its second season) and has been nominated for SheWire's Gay Woman of the Year!!

Here's the site's write up,

She’s out, she’s proud, she’s adorable! One of the stars of the breakout lesbian-themed Web series Anyone But Me, Pacent casually interjected that she was gay in real life in an interview with SheWired last May, making her lesbian fans very happy to have another role model! Being the great sport that she is, Pacent even accompanied SheWired while we livestreamed Christopher Street West’s LA Gay Pride last June. For those who didn’t get enough of the New Yorker, Anyone But Me’s highly anticipated second season premiered Dec. 15th.

Bad ass! She's nominated among the likes of Lady Gaga, Cherry Jones, Jane Lynch & Rachel Maddow, tough competition, so I encourage you to head to SheWire and give her a vote! You can vote for as many women as you want so just include Nicole Pacent in your vote and we'll be square :) See full post

Damon, Carlton & A Polar Bear Comes to a Close

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the Damon, Carlton and a Polar Bear event, culminating months and months of work.

As you may recall, back in July, Damon, Carlton and Paul Sheer staged a bit where Sheer presented our lovely show-runners with a velvet painting consisting of, well, Damon, Carlton, and a Polar Bear. Thus began what has become a source of CRAZY for most Lost fans. Or at least, for me. See, every few weeks, a new limited edition Lost art print was released and every time, they all sold out before I could buy one. So when I heard that there was going to be an event at Gallery 1988 with all the art on display, plus special surprises, OBVIOUSLY I was gonna go.

Sure enough, our line-waiting efforts were rewarded with a free badass poster on card stock, none of this flimsy shit, and the chance to buy any of the original artwork, some crazy magnetized figurines or the best thing ever - a shirt version of the Olly Moss Locke print. Damon, Carlton, Bob Orci & Alex Kurtzman were all in attendance, along with tons of the artists behind the prints and other behind the scenes Lost folk. At one point I walked by Orci, Kurtzman & Doc Jensen from EW having a chat and it made my geek heart oh so warm.

Below are some photos from the exhibit, featuring brand new art & some shots of Damon and Carlton. Sans polar bear.


I lied! Polar bear!

One of my favorite new pieces

More after the jump!


The crowd inside - can you spot Doc Jensen?

Ronie Midfew Arts!


I liked this guy's shirt


Showdown pieces. Charlie/Coke, Sayid/Ben - what the hell is the third one? Were a TON of these, all of which can be seen in the complete flickr album. Amazing stuff.



Damon & Carlton being interviewed in between chatting/signing with fans!


Magnetized crazy figurines of Locke & Hurley going for $815!


The various stations on the island

Locke being badass

Best shirt EVAR

Orci, Kurtzman and Doc Jensen

Check out more photos of the event & the original art here on my Flickr
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Oscars & The Art Of Influence [Rant]

Disclaimer: This is from the POV of someone (me) who has interacted solely with members of the Academy who are cool, progressive & vote for what they actually love instead of what what many are pressured into voting for by studio campaigns, critics picks & general Oscar prognostication

Let's get something straight here. I LOVE the Oscars. Love. Every year since I was old enough to have an appreciation of movies, I have made a point to see as many Oscar nominated films as possible, every year. This soon evolved into seeing every movie that COULD be nominated for an Oscar, getting the bulk of my viewing in before the Academy released their noms. I like making my top 10 lists, my top 25 lists and up until this year, my top 5 list, which has always taken careful thought & lots of deliberation, mostly due to having to fight against the influence of Golden Globe winners, Critics choices, etc. My #1 movie of 2005 was Shaun of the Dead. My top five last year consisted of a Swedish Vampire movie & a British movie about a genuinely happy woman from one of my least favorite directors of all time. In 2001, my top 5 was Lord of the Rings and 4 movies that began with the letter M, that are also all considered genre flicks in my book. I've never appreciated being told what to like by critics, but this year, I feel a line is being crossed...

See, every year, the internet gets bigger, but smaller at the same time. More and more blogs get recognition, more sites become well known, more bloggers are invited to screenings, earlier and earlier, so the word gets out sooner and sooner. Opinions are instantly formed and blasted across Twitter and within hours, we have a new front-runner.

Take the past two days. Thursday night my Twitter exploded with 140 character reviews of Avatar, which screened for press for the first time that evening. They were all GLOWING, (save for the seemingly universal thought that the dialogue sucks and the story could have been slightly better) and by Friday morning there were blog posts galore positing that Avatar had a chance not only of being nominated for Best Picture, but winning. That's funny, cause you know who HASN'T seen Avatar yet? ACADEMY MEMBERS.

The rest after the jump

Let's take a look at the Up in the Air, the so called front runner to win Best Picture right now. In December. For weeks, if not months, I've been hearing that this is the movie to beat, it's fantastic, amazing performances, etc etc. But...Paramount only sent the film out to Academy members YESTERDAY. So now, members remotely connected to the Internet at all are going into this movie with incredibly high expectations and perhaps with a bit of a chip on their shoulders. Instead of getting to discover this gem for themselves, they are acutely aware that they are watching the front runner...for the awards THEY nominate. A film that was considered a front-runner before it even opened in theaters or had a single screening for the Academy. Does something not seem off here?

This just adds fuel to the fire that's been steadily rising in my universe of Oscar prognostication. I used to have so much fun guessing the Oscar nominations, but a lot of that fun has been taken away, a little more, year by year, by not only Internet influence, but Critic's Awards.

Children of Men (and frankly, Shaun of the Dead) is now highly regarded as one of the best films of the decade, yet was hardly recognized at the Oscars. I credit this with the fact that it hadn't appeared on any other Critic's list, so what chance did it have? ::Also, Universal, grumble grumble:: Academy members thought, "Oh, it's not on anyone else's best list, so I guess I don't have to watch it" meanwhile, those who DID watch it, had it in their #1 nominating slot. Jennifer Hudson said some lines and sang a song well and because all the other Critics chose her, the Academy certainly had to, right? I'm so sick of this direction the Oscars are heading, where they simply fill in what was outlined by everyone else who didn't work their asses off in this industry to make it into the Academy. (No offense to us bloggers & you critics, you've worked incredibly hard to get where you are, I'm simply saying the Academy should get to do the job they were voted in the Academy to do and that's becoming increasingly difficult.)

Don't get me wrong, politics have been playing a huge role in the Oscars for a long time, especially in the 21st century (Julia Roberts over Ellen Burstyn, anyone?), but we're almost to a place of no return. Up in the Air is officially fucked. Either it's been way too hyped up and a movie that could have taken every Academy member by surprise is swept under the rug as "overrated" or it goes on to win Best Picture and once again, the Oscars are grossly predictable and the new 10 movie nominating format has done nothing.

Ah hah. But there IS something changing this year. The Academy saw what was happening and decided to get old school in an attempt to defy the new school. 10 nominees. If you look at the Best Pic nominees of this decade, they all consist of the following: the epic, the indie fav, the biopic, the musical, the period piece/British fare, the arty farty, the scorsese/eastwood/spielberg or a double up like last years Milk Frost/Nixon double bio pic snooze fest (Sidenote: I enjoyed both films). Now take a look at the 90s - the films DO NOT follow this format to a tee, often the nominees may GASP actually have been the best of the year. In the 2009 Oscars, as we enter a new decade, I'm hoping we may see a marriage of the aughts and the 90s in the Best Pic nominees...sure, there will still be at least 5 noms that are selected out of guilt, or being cornered, or politics, but what if there are also 5 that are ACTUALLY favorites?! Perhaps an animated movie or two! A non-epic genre movie or two! The best romantic comedy in years?! God forbid, a movie directed by a woman?! Movies based on children's books?! A doc about an aging metal group?! A brilliantly disturbing Korean vampire movie?! Okay, maybe I'm aiming too high bringing Thirst into the picture, but you get what I mean.

If you think I'm way off base here, please comment below. I've just been having lots of thoughts on the matter lately so I thought I'd throw them out to you loyal readers & see what you think. There are tons of holes in my argument, I'm sure, I'm not going for an air tight dissection of the movie industry here, just looking to encourage thought & discussion.

And hey, just for fun, if we follow the format this decade has set up for us, the top 5 would be:

Invictus (Eastwood/Biopic. Haven't seen yet)
Up in the Air (Indie fav. Haven't seen yet)
Nine (Musical/Epic. Haven't seen yet)
An Education (British Period Piece - 60s counts!. Seen, loved)
A Serious Man (Arty farty. Seen, loved)

....boring, right? Can you think of some other boring mix a 2009 top 5 would bring us, using those categories?

What other categories do you think the aughts were prone to? War movies? Message movies? World War 2/Holocaust specific movies? Which years in the aughts are the exceptions that prove the rule? Was 1994 the best top 5 ever nominated?

Please comment below. Very interested in your thoughts.

Update 12/15 And then there are times when the buzz sets up a scenario that I would DIE to see - check out Erik Lundegaard's tally and check out who is sweeping the Best Director category. It's time for a woman to win Best Director and since in my opinion, based on what I've seen so far this year, she IS the best director, things are looking good. Almost makes me want Cameron to be nominated too, just so he can lose to his ex-wife.
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Happy Len Wein Day!

LA produces a lot of awesome ideas. It rarely executes them well. Today, however, is an example of simplicity reigning on high and bringing success with it. Today in the city of angels, it's LEN WEIN DAY. Joining the proud tradition of politicians and founding fathers, Len Wein, comic book writer or legend and progenitor of some of Earth's mightiest heroes, has been awarded his very own day of worship. So call in sick, get out your Swamp Thing issues and Wolvie claws and GET TO WORSHIPPING.

I have had the immense privilege of getting to know Mr. Wein over the past few years. We've talked about character creation and played glow in the dark put put. Easy to talk to, good humored, and possessing a sense of sartorial elegance engineered to set fangirls a-swooning and fanboys a-coveting (of his embroidered denim jacket, who am I kidding, I want one so badly), our acquaintance has been completely freaking awesome.

If one were to compile a list of creative persons who deserved their own day on which to be kept holy, Len would doubtless rank pretty high. As the creator of some of the most popular characters in comic books, including arguably the most popular character in comic books (if you haven't picked up on this blog's Marvel bias yet, you can go home, now), Len changed the nature of who heroes could be yet still achieve wild successful.

Swamp Thing. Nightcrawler. Storm. Colossus. Jamie Fox. Lucius Fox. Clayface. Wolverine. Collaborating with some of comics greatest artists and editors, at time acting as editor-in-chief himself, Len has created all of the aforementioned characters- to name a few.

Wolverine. Conceive of a world without grumpy, sideburn stylin' Logan in it. You don't want to, do you? Well, of course you don't. You know else doesn't? That would be HUGH JACKMAN- -shown here shaking the scribe's hand, after leaping from the Hall H stage at Comic Con Int'l San Diego.

Because he couldn't contain his appreciation.

And let us not forget that the man edited Watchmen, and did such a good job of it that you cannot on any given page see his touch. Maybe that's just my personal criteria for what makes an awesome editor. But he damn well met it.

Well, kudos to you, LA. And Len, walk around with a nametag and a calendar because people, they need to know how awesome you are, since we all do. For you comic aficionados out there looking to give back this holiday season, Mark Evanier has set up a list at his blog of comics Len deserves to get back again, after suffering a fire that tragically consumed his home and invaluable collection of original works. If I had any of them, I would send them all, but I think if I start mailing him Fabian Nicieza X-Men issues, he's going to get offended or weirded out.


Len shown here with Phoenix, Rogue, Tony Stark and a chick in a ball gown cradling the ashes of Michael Sheard. Courtesy of P. Verrant. See full post

It's Len Wein Day! How Are You Celebrating? [Event]

You heard right!

December 5th is now Len Wein Day in LA County! How effing cool is that?

If you don't know who Len Wein is, you are very silly, but I suppose I'll forgive you cause you are learning now! He created Wolverine. If you don't know who Wolverine is, I don't understand your existence.

Here's a blurb about him from his wiki page,

Len Wein is an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men (including the co-creation of Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus). Additionally, he was the editor for writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons' influential DC miniseries Watchmen.

Wein was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.

Here is Hugh Jackman shaking Len Wein's hand at Comic Con 2008. Bad ass.



So how should you celebrate this important day? How about by attending the ceremony that officiates all this business? Info below,

1. LEN WEIN - creator of Wolverine, Storm, Collossus, Nightcrawler, Swamp Thing. Editor of Watchmen. Len will receive the official proclamation from the County of Los Angeles signifying today as the Official LEN WEIN day in LA County.

2. 8 popular artists including Joe Benitez (Titans, Fathom), Christian Gossett (Red Star, Star Wars) and many more, signing and SKETCHING for charity.

3. Original Art from the book displayed in our gallery, your only opportunity to see this art before it's sold on Ebay.

4. Refreshments , including some adult beverages, will be supplied on the house.

Come by on Saturday December 5th, from 7pm to 10pm and help us celebrate release of this amazing new book with an exciting multi-creator book Signing event. Meet creator of Wolverine, LEN WEIN, our Special Guest of Honor, as well as a VERY TALENTED Group of artists who had participated in creation of this book.

Artists include : Joe Benitez, Danny Miki, Bill Morrison, Dave Bullock, Christian Gossett, Aaron Sowd, Chris Moreno and Scott Koblish. The is is not complete, as there is a possibility that several other artists who could not commit to the event, will attend and sign.

Len and the artists involved will autograph the Wolverine 100 Covers books, and many of the artists will do sketches, with all proceeds going to Hero Initiative.

We will be displaying the covers to the book produced by many of the artists involved in the Gallery, and will provide refreshments (including alcohol drinks, to anyone 21 and over) and snacks.

You can also RSVP for the event by going to our Facebook event page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=178581988107&ref=mf

Yeah. You should go to that. If I weren't seeing Jeffrey Combs in Nevermore tonight, I'd be there!

PS Click here to follow Len Wein on Twitter! See full post

Jason Schwartzman makes being awkward so adorable

Wednesday night, Jason Schwartzman was on The Tavis Smiley Show. And he was so cute and silly! But you know that he's cute and silly. In case you don't know, Tavis Smiley is an awesome journalist/talk show host. His show airs on weeknights on PBS.

So follow the link to Tavis' full interview with Jason where he discusses working on Fantastic Mr. Fox, his bromance with Wes Anderson, Coppola family outings, and his jacket being too tight.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=tavi08s3626qce3 See full post

Oscar Predictions. 12/4 [Fanboy Edition]

oookey dokey, so now that i’ve seen allllmooost everything, i figured i’d take another stab at what’s gonna be nominated for best picture. i do this not because i care, but because it’s a really quick way of pulling together a deceptively substantial post. kinda. i mean, it’s definitely quick, but the substantial part is a pretty tenuous argument. at this point i’m just typing to make it seem that much more substantial. because i care. annnnddd the universe implodes upon itself. okay, *said like mario* HEEREE WEE GOOO!*

okay, let’s start with guaranteed nominations:

1. The Hurt Locker (DAVID MORSE ALERT! but otherwise… pretty good)

2. Invictus (surprisingly involving)

3. Precious (this movie made me want to Mo’Nique myself in the face. and no, i don’t know what that means, but it probably involves a television hurled at my head).

4. Inglourious Basterds: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (uh-mazing)

5. Up in the Air (does it’s thing, but methinks Reitman can’t make a capital GREAT great film)

the rest, i’d bet your life on. but not my life. my life is too good to be determined by the cussing Oscars.

6. Up (10 nominees means Up makes the cut… i theenk?)

7. An Education (meh)

8. A Single Man (haven’t seen it, but… perhaps?)

9. Nine. but only because this is a total impulse nomination. DDL slays dragons in this thing but it’s not much of an experience.

10. Avatar. haven’t seen it (duh), but… it’s the best guess around.

other possibilities include The Last Station, Bright Star, and A Serious Man. If the Lovely Bones is nominated for best picture, i’m going all Shoshanna on the Kodak theater. but it won’t. it can’t, right? cause there’s awful, and then there’s AWFUL. oh, and then there’s The Lovely Cussing Bones. cuss. cuss. balls. cuss, i hated that movie.

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We Missed Our Own Birthday!

On November 17th, 2009, All Things Fangirl turned one year old!

Fittingly, that was also the day we posted our Lady Gaga video (which has now reached over 1,000,000 hits on you tube!)

I just wanna extend a huge thank you to many people.

First, our regular contributers - EruditeChick, david, Castling, Konoko Bailey, Stealth Bear, & Da7e. You guys rock and this blog wouldn't be nearly as fun without you. In fact, it would probably just suck. Readers, take the time to follow these awesome folk on Twitter!

Second, a few of our most loyal supporters, some of whom have already contributed and others who will hopefully write with us some day - Sarah, Scarletscribe, Garrett, genjadeshade & Erin.

Lastly a HUGE thank you to our fellow geek bloggers & our readers. All of you are our compadres in geekery. We read every comment, every tweet and every post from your own bog that you guys send our way and I'm thrilled that you find some worth in our blabbering.

In honor of this birthday, here are some links to posts from our first month, November 2008.

Five Ways To Avoid Screwing Up Y: The Last Man Self-explanatory and still applies one year later! Only thing that's changed is who I think should play Yorick...

My first ever 90210 Semi-Live Blogging post. Actually makes you realize how far the show has come. Well, at least the product placement has subsided dramatically. That's a step in the right direction!

I prove to you that every product ever created has a Star Wars version in this post - Star Wars Everything

I detail my experience seeing Twilight at midnight

david's first ever Oscar Watch post!

Eruditechick wonders about the leading man/leading woman double standard.

I name all the actors on TV as of 11/08 that are British, Irish, Scottish, Australian etc. who were cast in American TV shows and asked to use American accents. Grrr.

Hope you enjoyed this trip to the past & you enjoy our second year just as much as you've enjoyed the first. Thanks for reading! See full post

Carney Says Farewell To LA and Hello to Broadway!

I had the pleasure of attending Carney's farewell concert this Thanksgiving weekend, and despite the fact that the venue was littered with entirely too many people from my high school, I had a great time. These guys are seriously talented and will fit in well with the Broadway scene next year - a year that will also include the high-octane, non-stop rock opera musical fun-gasm that is American Idiot and Christopher Walken looking for his missing hand in the brand new Martin McDonagh play, A Behanding in Spokane.

Hang on. Let's all re-read that bit about Martin McDonagh and them scream in joy together.
.....
That felt good. Moving on.

At this concert, Castling and I turned the good ol' reliable iPhone camera on at the exact right moment and captured a fantastic 10 minutes, broken up into three videos below.

The first is Reeve Carney's first public announcement to his fans that he will be taking on the role of Peter Parker on Broadway next year. Here, we're also treated to some fantastic news - since the entire Carney band will be in the orchestra, Carney will be performing occasional midnight shows for their NY fans!

The second, is Reeve's solo cover of the first part of Bohemian Rhapsody.

The third is Carney's amazing cover of I Want You/She's So Heavy.

Enjoy! Videos after the jump.






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My Favorite 25 Films of 2009 [Fanboy Edition]

listomania! which is like “lisztomania” but a lot less insidiously catchy. seriously, that is like the chlamydia of pop songs, you know? i hope you don’t know. cause that would be gross. also, chlamydia is one of those words like “cemetery” where you think it’s gonna require some caraazyy spelling, but really you just have to stick to your guns. sound it out.

anyhoo, now that i’ve seen Sherlock Holmes, Invictus, and The Lovely Bones (don’t talk to me about The Lovely Bones. you wouldn’t like me when you talk to me about The Lovely Bones), i feel like i’m ready to get this hogwash out of the way. there are - as always - a handful of films on my radar that i completely failed to see, and i’m still waiting for A Single Man and Avatar… but i’m in hour 39843 of grad school application hell, and i’ll post what i want when I want, dammit.

ooovverralll, methinks that this year was rather rife with wonderful films… i was able to rattle off 25 i seriously enjoyed without too much effort, which is increasingly rare. and while I was initially going to say something to the effect of the year offering few GREAT films… i’ve recently begun to reconsider, as several of these films are growing in my estimation with every subsequent remembrance. and as i’ve begun trying to scrounge up my favorite 100 films of the 90s (stay tuned for 9 months or so for that time suck), it’s dawned on me that it takes several years for some films to announce themselves. a quick perusal of any film quarterly (we all collect those, right?) reveals that there are dozens upon dozens of SERIOUSLY acclaimed films that are just beginning their struggle for distribution, and may not see the light of dvd or glorious blu-ray for quite a long time. i feel as if the extent to which the 90s were such a golden age for world cinema wasn’t fully apparent to me until just a few years ago. i’m hoping i feel that way about the naughties in 5 years time.

oh, also, Hunger doesn’t count cause it was on my 2008 list. but it would have been number 1. sucks. also, Up in the Air could somehow sneak in but methinks i need to see it again before weighing in. astute / deranged / my favorite readers will notice that this doesn’t always jive with my top 100+ of the decade list, to which i say… what, are you one of those fitness freaks? go fuck yourself.

okay, let’s do this thing:

25.) Invictus (dir. Clint Eastwood)

24.) The Hurt Locker (dir. Kathryn Bigelow)

23.) Tulpan (dir. Sergei Dvortsevoy)

22.) Mother (dir. Bong Joon-Ho)

21.) Julia (dir. Erick Zonka)

20.) Coraline (dir. Henry Selick)

19.) Adventureland (dir. Greg Mottola)

18.) A Prophet (dir. Jacques Audiard)

17.) Fish Tank (dir. Andrea Arnold)

16.) Lebanon (dir. Samuel Maoz)

15.) Where the Wild Things Are (dir. Spike Jonze)

14.) Antichrist (dir. Lars Von Trier)

13.) Revanche (dir. Goetz Spielmann)

12.) Fantastic Mr. Fox (dir. Wes Anderson)

11.) Thirst (dir. Park Chan-Wook)

——————————————————-

10.) A Serious Man (dir. Coen bros.)

9.) Goodbye Solo (dir. Ramin Bahrani)

8.) Up (dir. Pete Docter)

7.) Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (dir. He who is too glorious to be named)

6.) Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)

5.) Tokyo Sonata (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

4.) The White Ribbon (dir. Michael Haneke)

3.) 35 Shots of Rum (dir. Claire Denis)

2.) Still Walking (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)

1.) Silent Light (dir. Carlos Reygadas)

p.s. click here for a ridiculously ridiculous NSFW version of the poster above (is a giant phallus ejaculating a sharp spike of some kind safe for work? i’m unemployed. i don’t know these things).

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