A top top 10: 10 critics, 10 best(s) -- and why

Well, in a year when everybody except me, you, and David Edelstein gushed about The Dark Knight, I guess I'm alone on this one: I thought "A Christmas Tale" was an awful film. After a couple of hours I started to wonder if the whole thing was a put-on, as in "Is this winking parody of French family dramas?" Everybody's selfish, check. Everybody smokes and drinks constantly, check. Nobody is listening or reacting to anyone else, check. Philosophical monologues, check. Infidelity, check. Mental illness, check. Is it "French Movie," as in "Scary Movie"?

I saw it without reading any reviews beforehand (or know how long it was), and having read reviews of it since, I honestly have no idea what movie reviewers saw.

Great math-on-a-chalkboard scene, though!

chris m: "Is this winking parody of French family dramas?" I think that is one of the ways it works/plays -- and as a parody of international prestige films (Deneuve, Amalric, Devos) in general. It's a crazy mix of pungent flavors and I can't really blame anybody for rejecting it. I find it absurd and preposterous (and funny) -- but one of the things I enjoy so much about it is that it's willing to be absurd and preposterous and funny in ways that some will find find downright awful, infuriating, laughable. That's why it surprised me so much when it wound up at the very top of this list!

For "French Movie" I would recommend "To Paint or Make Love". Still not sure whether they were serious or not with that one.
The MSN list has several very accessible films from genre's/countries that may not be thought of that way traditionally. "Let The Right One In", "In Bruges" and "Chop Shop" I found very entertaining and easily recommendable to friends who are not cinefiles.

I'm sorry, I think you've lost your validity as a critic if you put Pineapple Express as #1. It's a guilty pleasure, sure, it makes one laugh a little, but it's just a dumb stoner movie. Seth Rogen is a good actor, IMO, but he isn't that great of a writer. His dialogue is clunky and boring.

JE: OK, if you say so.

While I thought Pineapple Express was a total dud (I don't recall laughing even once), I'd still rather see that make a list than Slumdog or Revolutionary Road or most of the likely examplars of middlebrow mediocrity that are alleged Oscar candidates.

It's nice to see Che get a little love. The more I think about it the more I realize that I really like Soderbergh despite the fact that I think I don't. You know what I mean. I think.

Have you not seen The Wrestler yet or did you not consider it Top 10 worthy?

JE: Not even "It's like god's vagina"? I liked "The Wrestler" (especially that first deli scene), but it's not a movie I really connect with. "Pineapple Express" and "In Bruges," however...!

Finally someone with a list that is refreshingly personal, and talks more about his tastes than a list that is designed more for public consumption. You know, the usual suspects, like Frost/Nixon which is simply put an embarrassment.
And I’m glad Jim you had Pineapple Express at the top. It isn’t a mere comedy, it is genius. It is like the minds of Fight Club get a load of Pulp Fiction and Midnight Run. Hell, it is like every guy’s fantasy ride. to be arrested in development. Frozen in time, so to speak. Be a kid, have fun, frolic around, and be in the company of your best friend. To sit and talk about girls, movies and everything that could be passed off as fodder.

And why would you want to label it guilty pleasure? It is a pleasure, and one I believe we ought to be proud of. It is funny as hell, and it has great heart too.

And Seth Rogen isn’t just a funny guy, he is a fine writer too. True and honest buddy films are so rare these days. This film seems so genuine, and even though much of the praise has been for the very deserving Franco, I believe Rogen and Danny McBride are just as good.

The finale, where everything blows up in smoke is probably the most apt ending to any film this year. It is like the stuff of fantasy, dope fantasy where a whole dope farm is at your service at once.

In Bruges is finally finding some much deserved recognition.

I wonder though, why isn’t The Fall finding much praise outside Ebert and Jim here. It is a straight out masterpiece, a visual and narrative achievement. It is the kind of film that blows one away.

P.S. I would’ve loved if Jim Emerson had loved The Dark Knight, but that is a fact I have to live with. But every film on that list is so brilliant.

RE Pineapple Express, I thought it was pretty confused and poorly made; DGG seemed to be out of his depth, or more precisely he was floundering because there was no depth in which to hide. The one detail that blew my mind was how, in the middle of his stoner/slob/70's throwback comedy he includes the most blatant of indie cliches, the chubby little girl in hornrim glasses. (Observing Seth in the park during his crying fit)

Some good ones in there, but mostly surprised by some omissions: I'd have expected Rachel Getting Married to be a shoo-in, but it made it on only 2 lists; disappointed but not surprised to see Synecdoche, NY getting so little attention (my own pick for best of the year); and Van Sant released what's arguably his best movie much earlier in the year with Paranoid Park (zero lists).

I have some catching up to do myself, what with so many films getting late and limited releases.

Glad to see you liked The Edge of Heaven - I thought it on par with Head-On.

Jim, I'm totally with you on A Christmas Tale. I came in to it cold, not knowing anything about Desplechin. I was expecting a morbid Royal Tenenbaums. But the film is so vivacious, I found it irresistable, with just about every single minute of it's (respectible) run-time containing at least one line, conversation, reaction, image, to keep me guessing and delighted at how alive the film is.
And chris, I think it does knowingly parody it's French-ness, and embraces it all the more so. It is the rare French film that I felt was both proud of it's heritage, yet in no way excluded anyone else- it did not reek of pretentiousness, it acknowledged that this culture is no less a collection of foibles than any other. I found that kind of earnest, yet non-exclusionary Chauvinism to be most welcome. And I frankly had no sense whatsoever that "Nobody is listening or reacting to anyone else". That the conversations are covered by layers of French irnoy and detatchment does not mean that things are not said and acknowledged (the marvelous scene between Deneuve and Amalric comes immediately to mind).
I saw no film this year that was more alive.

And I'm thrilled to see that In Bruges wasn't forgotten. I was a bit saddened by it's early release, which seemed to doom it to relative obscurity. First film fo 2008 to stick with me, and no film has of yet stuck with me more. Returning to it on DVD felt like meeting an old friend. Such warmth to the film, a rare film that I instantly knew was a favorite of mine. Speaking of which- Jim, did you ever get around to writing some sort of review for the film? I would love to hear more about you reaction to the film from the view point of a man burdened by guilt (that was only part of my experience with the film).

mr emmerson,
a question. obviously you're a big seth rogen fan. so, do you think you'll ever watch zach and miri?
which is more powerful, your rogen love or your smith hate?
for what it's worth, my wife can't stand kevin smith, but she saw zach and miri for rogen, and liked it alot.

The list closest to mine would probably be Kim Morgan's. Aside from the obvious ones that won't be released here until January (SLUMDOG, THE WRESTLER) or at all (SYNECHDOCHE, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN). The rest is solid, and probably in my top 15 or so. I'm glad IN BRUGES is remembered. I remember several years back when I absolutely loved THE CONSTANT GARDENER, and it had apparently come out so early that no one remembered it (aside from Weisz's performance in an already weak year for females)...And ZODIAC last year, of course.

No offense to you meant, Jim. Yours is a great one as well. Now, how about Franco getting a supporting actor nod from the Academy now, eh? THAT would be something that would make me care about the Oscars again...for this year, at least.

Pineapple Express as number 1? Could you write more about that? I enjoyed much of the film, especially the way it reflected the marijuana culture of California, but the ending struck me as crude and heavy-handed with its cartoonish violence. Your choice hints that you included films that you enjoyed ironically as well? For instance, I very much enjoyed Wanted, but I would still be reluctant to place it in the top half of my favorite films of the year due to its lack of subtlety.

I can't quite grasp why everybody is so ga-ga over WALL-E. Yeah, I really liked it a lot, just like all of Pixar's films, but it seemed like one of their weaker (recent) entries to me. Perhaps it's the fact that I was enamored by Ratatouille while most others weren't. For me, WALL-E is a letdown after Ratatouille but I imagine that could work the other way too. To some degree, it could be a case of "Pixar is back" to the people who didn't give a rat's banana about Ratatouille. Just seems like WALL-E is the most over-praised movie of the year, an odd thing to say about a movie that I really liked.

I am disheartened by the lack of attention Synecdoche, New York has been getting here at awards time. The actors aren't even getting any recognition for their superb performances. I think it is by far the best movie of the year and one of the best of the decade. Ebert and Dargis have gushed about it but apart from them it seems to be overlooked. Maybe it is one of those that will gain in reputation as time passes.

From Bill Hader's early stoned impression of a robot to the Wes Anderson-style park interlude to pretty much any scene featuring Danny McBride's singularly bizarre Red, "Pineapple Express" does not disappoint. At the heart of it, though, is Franco and Rogen's truly touching friendship. What pisses me off, though, is how Huey Lewis and the News will inevitably be screwed by the Academy, despite having composed one of the year's catchiest theme songs. And "In Bruges", glorious film that it is: "That's for John Lennon!"

Like most people, I still have a lot of catching up to do -- Milk, Paranoid Park, Synecdoche, NY, Let the Right One In, Wendy and Lucy, Frost/Nixon, Slumdog Millionaire... hell, I'm still waiting for Wall-E to finally become available on Netflix (and those are just the movies I still need to see off the top of my head).

But of what I have seen, I think your top two picks may well be the perfect choices. In a year filled with great comedies (Role Models and Forgetting Sarah Marshall both deserve mention), Pineapple Express was easily the best -- and, as you mention, the best stoner movie, ninja movie, crooks on the lamb movie, weirdly heartwarming buddy movie, government conspiracy movie, and infinitely quotable movie of the year, too ("It's like God's vagina," "It's like killing a unicorn," "Pandora doesn't go back in the box, he only comes out," "Has anyone seen my bigger knife?," and -- correctly identifying the funniest-sounding car name ever -- "You just got killed by a Daewoo Lanos, motherf***er!")

But now that you mention Netflix's Instant Watch feature, that reminds me -- my favorite thing I've seen all year is probably the first four seasons of The Office that I finally marathon'd through in about a week and a half.

Actually, no -- Generation Kill. That's my favorite thing I've seen this year, for sure.

Wait, no... The Wire. Yes, The Wire. That is absolutely my favorite favorite thing I've seen this year. And I'm only halfway through season two...

Clint,

Yeah, I think Synecdoche, New York will quite possibly be more highly regarded a few years from now, probably as a "cult classic". It's pretty tough to argue that it's not a really "self-indulgent" film, and those tend to divide viewers, at first, anyways. Regardless, it's not going to stop you (or me) from buying it on DVD, and pulling apart its layers over multiple viewings.

I wasn't particularly fond of anything about Pineapple Express aside from James Franco's phenomenal performance (I'll be watching it again on DVD just to be sure), but even considering that, I'm kind of happy it's your #1, just because your enthusiasm for whatever it is you love is so infectious. It's also okay, because your list features my own #1 in a relatively high position. I still haven't reviewed it because I'm still trembling in its shadow, so to say.

Also, did you get to finish WALL-E yet?

Clint, JC: I haven't written about "Synecdoche" yet, but I found it tedious and unimaginatively literal-minded, repeating the same few undeveloped ideas over and over for what seemed like, well, a lifetime. I know, that's what it sets out to do, to belabor a metaphor, but I felt like I was watching a computer spitting out pi to the 13 millionth decimal place -- the rote results of an equation, not a particularly dramatic or cinematic experience. And it takes itself soooo seriously. Some people for whom I have great respect and affection (like Roger Ebert and Manohla Dargis) love it. I thought the equation scene in "A Christmas Tale" accomplished something similar, but with more daring and cleverness and humor. (And brevity.) Meanwhile, I'd rather watch Michel Gondry's brilliant video for Bjork's "Bachelorette," which works through many of the same ideas in a more moving and poetic fashion -- in a little over five minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOkUD4ZcEXc

rob: Liked "WALL-E" a lot, but it didn't quite make my top 10. (Roger did a Top 20+ this year and it was at the bottom of that list -- but it was alphabetical by title!) As usual, I'm hoping my list will be a discussion-starter. This wasn't a year, like 2007, in which I felt there was a towering achievement ("NCFOM") that demanded to be recognized as The Best...

Kris: I would put "Generation Kill" at the top of everything I saw as a 2008 release. "Fanny and Alexander," "Scenes From a Marriage," "The Dekalog" -- plenty of great movies have originally aired as TV mini-series, and this one is an achievement that ranks with them. (And, of course, it's by the guys who made "The Wire"!)

Jim: I can absolutely understand that response to Synecdoche, New York. I even admit to checking out a bit towards the end of the film, where I really felt it was belaboring whatever point it was trying to put across. I see it as one of those films that will either rise a little bit in my estimation (over a few more viewings), or tumble considerably. But whatever flaws it has (and surely thematic repetition is one of them), it stayed with me. It lingered. And it made me laugh a lot, particularly in the early going (that little girl was a scene-stealer, no?). So I'm gonna buy a previously-viewed copy (surely copies of this will pile up at mainstream video stores) in a few months, and see what I think of it then.

As for A Christmas Tale, I could've seen it last week at a downtown Vancouver theater, but I'd already indulged Slumdog and Frost/Nixon earlier in the day, and didn't have enough energy to settle in for a 2 1/2 hour French gabfest (I'd done arthouse triple-headers the previous two weeks). If The Wrestler makes it to that same theater in the next few weeks, I'll make an effort to catch ACT then. Mind you, I doubt it's one of those films that will lose that much on a smaller screen at home.

Re: Michel Gondry, I'm a big fan of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, as well as his music video work for Bjork (indeed) and The White Stripes.

And I'll certainly make an effort to see Generation Kill, as The Wire is one of my all-time-favourite television series. I love long-form storytelling, when it's done right.

Jim

Are you still planning a favorite movie moments in 2008. That is something I always look forward to.

JE: Yes, indeed -- as soon as I catch up with a few more movies!

Also is "The Edge of Heaven" available on DVD yet?

JE: Yes it is. I got it through Netflix.

Jim, I hope you eventually write something on Synecdoche so we can point out how egregiously wrong your reading of the film is. :)

I'm a huge fan of the Bjork video (and all her collaborations with Gondry), but I don't think it's accurate to say it covers the same ground. A regressive loop is just a structural conceit; I think the two works are after very different ideas.

Thank you, thank you, Jim, for boosting for "The Edge of Heaven." Just a fantastic, emotionally mesmerizing film that needs a wider audience.

I'll concur on "The Fall" and the "Wendy and Lucy" as well; they also have probable slots in my Top Ten of 2008 list. Two films farther apart stylistically are hard to imagine and yet I keep coming back to both of them.

Brad: Take heart. Both "Synecdoche" and "Paranoid" are strong candidates for my Best of 2008 list. Not that anyone listens to *me*...

Jim,

Nah, I didn't laugh at anything in Pineapple. For me, Seth Rogen makes things not funny.

This is apropos of nothing, but regarding the Wrestler... On Monday night, while watching the Eagles game, I told my friend, who liked the film a lot, "The Wrestler is at 100% on the Tomato Meter with more than 40 reviews. But Armond White hasn't chimed in yet." He asked me who Armond White is.

Today I sent him this link:

http://www.nypress.com/article-19175-the-wrestler.html

God, I love Mr. White, the most reliable critic in the business.

I might add Joss Whedon's musical/comedy/action/romance web series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog among the best works of the year, if we're expanding the definition of "film." As with much of Whedon's other work, it's unabashedly sentimental, all over the map in genre influences, and funny and fluffy on the surface--but with a deep existential and moral unrest lying just beneath. (And it's surprisingly critical of a large portion of its target audience--the "sweet" shy male geek.)

I haven't honestly seen many of the films on the list--I lay claim to low income and poor local theatres--but I really look forward to seeing them, especially (despite Jim's problems with it) Synecdoche, New York. (Although I agree that the Michel Gondry/Bjork video is wonderful and moving.) I saw both Wall-E and The Dark Knight and enjoyed both; the former though I thought became too predictable once Wall-E and Eve left Earth, and the latter had serious problems with pacing, plot and dialogue.

I watched Pineapple Express for the first time tonight due to comments on this blog, and your rating of it. Well short of a classic, but I really liked it. But really, better than In Bruges? Splitting hairs on reviews is a fool's errand, I realize, but wow. I teared up at the ending both times I watched In Bruges.

Sorta like rating Star Wars ahead of 2001. Kinda. I think.

H

Jim, I get that you think Pineapple Express is a stoner movie as if imagined by a stoner. Hell, you're obviously correct--the people who made this film came up with it while stoned. (Franco said as much at a Q and A I attended.)

I just don't understand how that conceit makes it a good movie. Being unformed, incoherent, and unsubtle aren't virtues, they're flaws. In fact, they're some of the same flaws that you take movies like The Dark Knight and Synecdoche, New York to task for. So how can you praise Pineapple Express for essentially being made by people in a state of mind not conducive to film-making?

JE: But just because the movie portrays or reflects a certain sensibility doesn't mean it's simply a product of it. If you smack somebody on the head with a window that doesn't mean they'll make "The Wizard of Oz." Give 'em coke and they won't simply be able to capture the experience like the last section of "GoodFellas." While I do criticize the pretentious/portentous "Dark Knight" and "Synecdoche" for being unformed, incoherent and unsubtle, the three movies are wildly different in tone, style and intent. Next to those two, I'd say the quick-witted improvisational comedy of "Pineapple Express" looks subtle (even when guys are yelling and screaming -- at least they're not endlessly pronouncing thesis statements on behalf of the filmmakers) and a model of formal elegance and concision. But that's only in comparison. Comedy is always underrated...

Going through individual ballots, looks like everybody forgot that 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days never got a general US release last year, or it's just completely forgotten. Nevertheless, seeing In Bruges and Let the Right One In getting the love makes me happy.

JE: "4 Months..." just missed the combined top ten for the 2007 MSN Movies critics poll. Last year's runners-up were: "12:08 East of Bucharest"; "4 Months, 3 Weeks, And 2 Days"; "Away From Her"; "Once"; "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters"

http://movies.msn.com/movies/2007review/top10movieslists/

i appreciate a critic who can admit to loving a film that isn't widely considered a "great new film". i also enjoyed Pineapple Express, although i wish the comedy love was being given to Tropic Thunder, which is probably the funniest movie i've seen since 40 Year Old Virgin. and hell, i'm a stoner, and i think it was better than Pineapple.
cheers
KZ

I'm with you on Synechdoche, Jim. I loved Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, so I was expecting another revelatory film from Kaufman. Instead, I got a muddled bore without much of a sense of humor. It had a neat effect on me, that I felt completely lost in the world as I left the theater, but it faded from memory way too quickly.

Do you think the majority of negative reaction to Pineapple Express came from a predetermined idea of a laugh out loud comedy? I'd say so, when you put Rogen on a poster and say 'from the guys who brought you Superbad' you're expecting a certain something. By that same token do you believe it was undeservedly hailed by those of us excited by the idea of David Gordon Green tackling what could be considered a more mainstream film, a stoner action buddy comedy in which he navigates and observes the genre and builds characters out of ideas of those characters and staring around the corner of the films it took inspiration from to observe and pay homage and in its own way move the genre a bit forward, since it's not an 80's buddy comedy but a modern comedy made by fans of the buddy action comedy, what does it have to say about those people or the people we see in this film, what their relationships are, is it a defensive mechanism since so many of the players in the film are favorites of us people with a certain bent, who like to see things subverted a bit, who enjoy cinema being aware of itself but needing to do it in a specific way, towing a line, otherwise it falls very flat. Does the film deserve a top spot for bringing these considerations to light or is it as the French do: inventing reasons to admire admirable things? I don't know, I loved the films on your list that I have seen and as you do hate ranking films. Merry Christmas!

Re: Pineapple Express, I've seen some criticism of the seriousness of the Gary Cole/Rosie Perez scenes in the first two-thirds, when they don't really interact with the stoners. But isn't that the point? I thought the gravity of those scenes was hilarious next to the goofy goings-on in the Franco/Rogen-mobile. Cole and Perez are in some 70s cop show, complete with the dramatic last-stand kiss, while Franco/Rogen/McBride are in the most awesome stoner movie their marijuana-affected brains could come up with. The convergence of the two at the end necessarily leads to a hilarious but gritty action sequence. At least, that's how I took it.

H Man: I'm glad you enjoyed "PE." As I said in my post, I don't think this was a year (like last) when one or two pictures towered over all others. I put "Pineapple" at the top of my list because, as I mentioned, that was the first title that popped into my head. I appreciated it that much, and I think it (and comedy in general) gets too little respect, so I wanted to make a symbolic gesture (that's what these lists are, after all), stimulate discussion (that seems to have worked) and do my best to get it onto the final composite list (which also worked -- much to my surprise, since I didn't know if anybody besides Dave McCoy would vote for it). I love "In Bruges," too, and if putting it on my list encourages anyone to see it, then I'm happy. As Roger Ebert wrote in his Best Foreign Films remarks today: "Maybe one of my motives is to demonstrate my belief that ranking movies in lists has only one point: to honor good films I hope you would admire."

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081218/COMMENTARY/812189993

Bruges rhymes with Stooges. One Bruge, two Bruges, The Three Stooges in Bruges.

JE: Actually, it comes closer to rhyming with "luge," as in Winter Olympics. Unless you prefer the Dutch spelling/pronunciation, which is "Brugge," kind of like the sound automobile horns make in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. You're just trying to lower the level of discussion here, aren't you...?

Jim, I'm wondering how something can be both incoherent and unsubtle - to me, the combination suggests that there might be far, far more going on than what seems to be on the surface. In the cases of both The Dark Knight and Synecdoche, I think there's a danger in taking some of the superficial conceits at face value when (especially in the latter case) the film is aiming at something quite a bit more sophisticated.

But like I said I hope you eventually devote an essay to this, in part because I don't want to clutter your comment section with digressions on films that aren't the main topic of discussion. I'm still wrestling with Synecdoche because it raises some compelling questions, and I'd love the chance to air them out with someone who didn't enjoy the film at all.

Andrew - thanks for the comment. I read (both) your reviews on Paranoid Park, and I agree both with the praise and with the very just criticisms.

I, too, am not feeling the love of Synecdoche, NY. I am, however, going to Ebert's advice and watch it again. I found it muddled, confusing, and worst of all, boring. Ebert did a good job of pontificating on it's purpose but I think I appreciated his writing more than the film itself. The second half really dragged the film down and I never felt like it was a natural extension of where it began.

Just noticed that there's been no love for Snow Angels in the lists I've seen. Funny to see DGG's Pineapple Express on lists but not his Snow Angels, a movie much more typical of DGG's critically-beloved style.

Hi Jim,

I regularly read your site for its quasi-scholarly (I mean that it a good way) film criticism. This is one of my go-to sites for the snob in me. You always provide insightful, near-academic-level film analysis.

Having said that, I'm still pretty confused by your Pineapple Express pick. Don't get me wrong: I liked the movie, definitely. More than most people. But, when I saw it as your #1, I was hoping to find a well-developed justification, perhaps an analysis of the film's use of genre. Instead, you justify the pick by claiming it was "the first title that popped in my head" and that it was a "symbolic" choice to give comedies greater recognition. I know you're a smart guy, but don't you see how lazy and apathetic you sound? Where is the sense of intellectual curiosity? I'm sorry to have to put it in harsh terms, but is this a consequence of the death of your dog? Have you lost some of your passion for cinema?

As a reader, I strongly get the vibe that you have. The site I remember was professional, with a strong adherence to in-depth film analysis. To put it simply, you've gotten a lot bloggier, Jim. This time last year you were doing scene and shot-by-shot analyses of NCFOM. That was some of the best film writing I've seen online. You weren't writing about yourself -- you were writing about your insights into a film, which is of course much harder to do, but much more interesting for readers who don't know you. That was then. Now you're justifying a #1 pick because it was the first thing that popped in your head? You've drifted too far, in my opinion, into the subjective.

Just because 2008's crop doesn't compare to 2007's in quality doesn't mean we (meaning those who write and think about cinema) should treat them with disregard.

JE: I always treat these lists as 100 percent subjective. But read my blurb about why I chose it: I think Franco's performance and Colin Farrell's ("In Bruges") are the two most impressive of the year. And I find "PE" "as conceptually clever and daring as anything by Quentin Tarantino or Charlie Kaufman, and funnier besides." I've written about the movie in more detail here:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/2008/08/rogen_franco_pineapple_taranti.html

1. Man on Wire is the best movie of the year, for those who like poetry, adventure, romance, wit, world-class athletics and a heist movie in which there's a real-life heist.

2. What William B says. I was given Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog for Xmas. Never heard of it. It's just plain wonderful.

3. I wish my TDK Conspiracy Theory had gotten legs, to wit: a lot of Heath Ledger's scenes were not finished. This fact had to be suppressed; it would kill box office. Christopher Nolan (whom I regard as brilliant even if his last two movies are not) pieced together what he could, under deadline, and crossed his fingers. The ill-fitting chunks of The Dark Knight, luckily, is the sort of accidental incoherence that cons willing True Believers into a reverie of deep meaning and revelation. We know the type all too well.

I wish someone would actually construct a list of the top 10 movies that someone who lives outside of a major metropolitan area would realistically have an opportunity to view. No more than 3 or 4 from this list played on our local 10 screen cinema.

JE: The sad truth is that, in any given year, probably only three or four of the best movies play in local multiplexes. That's been true for at least 30 years, and even before there were mall/multiplex cinemas. I think one of the major functions of ten best lists these days is to suggest titles that many people have not had much of an opportunity to see -- until they become available on PPV, cable/satellite, NetFlix, Amazon Unbox, museum series, etc.