Mike Myers' "The Love Guru" was chosen worst picture of the year in the Second Annual Ninth Annual Village Voice/LA Weekly Film Poll, in which I was but one of 81 balloteers. I may have been fortunate in that I didn't see it. Nor was I exposed to runner-up Alan Ball's "Towelhead," which was followed by a multiple tie for third-lousiest between "Burn After Reading," "Changeling," "Doubt," "Gran Torino," "Rachel Getting Married," "Step Brothers," and "Synecdoche, New York." The reason I mention this first is that most of these films (OK, not "Love Guru") were also chosen by some as among the best movies of the year, and they were directed by a few critical darlings: Joel and Ethan Coen, Clint Eastwood (twice), Jonathan Demme, Charlie Kaufman...
10) "Synechdoche, New York" (Charlie Kaufman, USA)
9) "Let the Right One In" (Tomas Alfredson, Sweden)
8) "Wendy and Lucy" (Kelly Reichardt, USA)
7) "Milk" (Gus Van Sant, USA)
6) "Waltz With Bashir" (Ari Folman, Israel)
5) "A Christmas Tale" (Arnaud Desplechin, France)
4) "Still Life" (Jia Zhangke, China)
3) "Happy-Go-Lucky" (Mike Leigh, UK)
2) "The Flight of the Red Balloon" (Hou Hsiao-hsien, France)
1) "WALL-E" (Andrew Stanton, USA)
Voice critic J. Hoberman theorized that the results showed professional film critics among the more optimistic (if rapidly shrinking) segments of American society. And he talked about the passion -- or the Passiondex™:
Not just the winner on points, "WALL-E" was also the movie about which critics felt most strongly. Ballots are weighted (first choices garnering 10 points; second choices, 9; and so on), but a majority of votes doesn't necessarily reflect the degree of devotion that a particular movie inspires. That can only be quantified by the Passiondex™--a form of data-crunching developed with a nerdiness worthy of "WALL-E." The Passiondex™ is determined when a film's total points are divided by the number of ballots on which it appeared; this average-point score is then multiplied by the percentage of voters who cared enough to rank the movie first or, factored in at one-half, second. (I have long suspected that in polls such as this, second place is the real number one. The first listed film is the official choice, offering protection for the secret enthusiasm of the film that follows. But that's another story.) [...]
Unusual for both building a consensus and stirring ardent feelings, "WALL-E" scored most passionately. But the poll's top 10 changes drastically if the movies are reordered by the PassiondexTM and opened up to the top 25 vote-getters. Now, the cult enthusiasms surface: Jonathan Demme's Altmanesque ensemble extravaganza, "Rachel Getting Married" (#12), enters the top 10 in second place... The prize critical cult film: "Rachel Getting Married." Despite generally mixed reviews, Demme's independent feature received a higher percentage of first- and second-place votes than even "WALL-E," meaning that the people who liked it really liked it. (Adding to the passion, Rachel also received two votes for "worst film.")
For winners in acting categories, documentary, best first film, best undistributed films, and other niches, go here.
Heath Ledger's performance was terrific but Eddie Marsan is the one that should get the Oscar. His final scene alone required one hell of a lot more reflection and emotional nudity than anything Ledger was required to do in The Dark Knight. It's not Ledger's fault. His character talks in witticisms and teenage level profundities ("I'm an agent of chaos" - Like Bernie Kopel? Cool!) while Marsan has to dig deep inside his character and show himself bare by the end. I'm disappointed that so many critics (75 points worth, however many critics that is) couldn't see that difference.
I trust aggregate scores of film critic's Top 10 choices the way I trust IQ tests.
Next we should compare the relative IQs of different film critics with their own personal Top 10 choices, to see which film was chosen for top pick by the most intelligent critics, and see what was chosen by those with an average IQ below 90.
Criticism by equations and formulas. Yes!
Looking at this data is utterly pointless. We are trying to figure out how much given critics loved particular movies based on the "passionindex"? I can't, for the life of me, figure out what this information reveals.
JE: Yep, these year-end awards thingies are polls, popularity contests, elections, committee decisions. They are just like box-office tallies except they count points awarded by groups of people instead of tickets purchased by other groups of people. That is all.
The reason Synechdoche, New York was put on the list at the lowest spot is because they wanted to acknowledge its greatness but were embarrassed that Roger Ebert had to explain it to them.
I can hardly believe Wall-E isn't yet a year old! It seems like we've been talking about that film forever! I wonder why it's in the running for an Oscar this year and then I remember that it only came out in 2007.
What? No talk of Speed Racer? No talk of its Incohero-Vision, Ecstasy-Vision, or its unbalanced mix of heavy plot elements with feather light characters and universe? (Oh, wouldn't it have been cool if the film had stated that the Racer names were all pseudonyms and that their real names were Go Mifune, etc.?)
Speaking of Visions, Distracto-Vision is my term. I invented it to describe the film Love & Pop. Now anyone can go ahead and use it, but let's get the copyright straight here and now.
I was hoping to see some real hate for Revolutionary Road, my big for the unchallenged worst film of the year, lapping the rest of the field in a total rout. Which makes it twice now that Sam Mendes has acocmplished that feat for me. I have to respect him for that.
The approbation for WALL-E eludes me. It was cute. It was too long. I mostly liked it. That's all. I don't see anything else to it and I am no animation-hater. Of all the Pixar films to rally behind... this one???
I love lists but I always like the individual lists more than the poll of polls that organizations always feel the need to crank out. They're fun too, but consensus is overrated. I know just about all the votes I cast for the OFCS are going to disappear into the gaping maw of consensus and never be heard from again.
I voted Ann Savage for Best Actress the day before she died. I hope it wasn't my fault. I kind of doubt she'll wind up winning the poll of polls though.
nathan m -- you never liked math, did you? The "passiondex" is a cutesy name for a method of reading between the lines of consensus lists like this one. I think it's a terrific idea and reveals which films might be truly great rather than great-by-consensus.
WALL-E was the best movie of the past 26 years.
I dream of a world in which "Burn After Reading" is one of the worst films released in a given year.
Christopher Long,
Hyperbole much?
CL: Re: "Revolutionary Road" (great Yates novel, as I recall -- though I probably treasure "The Easter Parade" the most), a friend sent out this excerpt from a news item about the Sam Mendes film under the subject line "Insert your joke here":
"Kate Winslet became so emotional filming scenes for her new movie Revolutionary Road that she threw up."
Jay,
WALL-E wasn't even the best movie of the past 26 weeks.
I've seen some critics admit that they choose high profile films for their "worst lists" because they don't see the point of picking on lower profile flops that are actually even worse. No fun kicking something when it's down, I guess.
When compared to My Winnipeg or Let The Right One In, WALL-E wasn't even the best movie of the past twenty-six words.
Vilislem, that's why this is all OPINION.