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| Vicky Cristiana Barcelona, My First #1 On the Blog |
I was looking at one of my yearly top ten films lists over the weekend and couldn’t understand how I’d rank one film so high and another so low. Tastes change quickly. We see a movie a second time and appreciate it a lot more noticing not just the what of the story but the way the story was told. Also some movies don’t hold up to a second viewing, having an initial appeal but not much substance. This is particularly true of rom coms and action pictures. You didn’t even need to re-watch a film to re-assess it. How it sits with you in the coming weeks and months — or how it totally recedes from memory — influences your opinion. In this exercise I’ll be reviewing all the top ten lists I’ve published on ye olde blog since the first for 2008 releases.
2008
1. Vicky Christina Barcelona (Allen)
4. I’ve Loved You For So Long (Claudel)
8. Rachel Getting Married (Demme)
9. The Last Mistress (Breillat)
10. Synechode, New York (Kaufman)
Nailed the first one. I don’t see anything here to change. I don’t think that I’ve seen any from the second half of this list a second time. I don’t remember a thing about The Last Mistress so goodness knows where I’d rank it after a second viewing.
2009
4. Precious
8. A Single Man
9. Sugar
10. Damned United
Definitely got the first two right. I’m a little surprised that I didn’t have A Single Man and Damned United higher.
2010
2. Black Swan
4. True Grit
5. Vincere
6. The American
9. A Prophet
10. The Town
Not a great year for movies was it? That said the list looks fine except I’ve come to really like Shutter Island and it would top a revised list.
2011
1. Melancholia
3. The Artist
5. Shame
6. Hugo
7. Le Havre
9. Beginners
10. Young Adult
Wow, Midnight in Paris has become one of my favorite films of all time and would easily top a revised list and Le Havre is another top 100 film and would be second. Melancholia would be a solid third and Of Gods and Men a very worthy number four. I really had Hugo ahead of Le Havre? I had The Artist ahead of Midnight in Paris? Unbelievable.
2012
2. Django Unchained (Tarantino)
3. Moonrise Kingdom (W. Anderson)
4. Gianni e le donne (DiGregorio)
10. Seven Psychopaths (McDonagh)
Another down year. Moonrise Kingdom would top a revised version of this last and The Master would be second. The rest seems fine. I didn’t see Silver Linings Playbook until much later. It would have topped the list if I’d seen it in time.
2013
1. Inside Llewyn Davis (Coens)
2. Her (Jonze)
3. Nebraska (Payne)
4. Blue Jasmine (Allen)
5. Frances Ha (Baumbach)
6. Reality (Garrone)
7. 12 a Slave (McQueen)
8. Kill Your Darlings (Krokidas)
9. Blue is the Warmest Color (Kechiche)
10. La Grande Belleza (Sorrentino)
I already revised this one. Six months after I posted it I, in an unprecedented Streams of Unconsciousness move, I posted an altered versions in which I put Llewyn Davis first and dropped the original list topper, Nebraska to third. Llyewyn Davis went on to be named my film of the decade. In a re-revised list I’d move Blue Jasmine to second and Blue is the Warmest Color to fifth.
2014
1. Birdman
3. Boyhood
4. Venus in Fur
6. Top Five
7. Gone Girl
8. Whiplash
10. Foxcatcher
Looks good to me.
2015
7. Clouds of Sils Maria (Assayas)
8. Star Wars: The Force Awaken (Abrams)
10. Dope (Famuyiwa)
Another week year. The only revision I’d make would be to move The Clouds of Sils Maria to second.
2016
1 Manchester by the Sea (Lonergan)
5 Hell or High Water (Mackenzie)
9 Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Waititi)
I got this one spot on too.
2017
3. Call Me Be Your Name (Guadagnino)
4. The Florida Project (Baker)
5. The Disaster Artist (Franco)
9. The Other Side of Hope (Kaurismaki)
10 . Get Out (Peele)
I’d move The Other Side of Hope to second (what it’s doing way back there at 9th is beyond me) and Wonder Wheel to fourth.
2018
1. First Reformed (Schrader)
2. Roma (Cuaron)
3. Burning Chang-dong Lee)
4. Shoplifters (Koreeda)
5. You Were Never Really Here (Ramsay)
6. The Favourite (Lannthimos)
7. Blackkklansman (Lee)
8. A Star is Born (Cooper)
9. Blindspotting (Estrada)
10. Wildlife (Dano)
I don’t know what Wildlife is doing back at number ten, fourth or fifth seem more like it. Other than that it’s fine.
2019
1. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Tarantino)
Again I’ve got a film in the tenth spot (Transit) that deserves to be in the middle and I’d slide The Irishman back a few spaces. Otherwise, good job by me.
2020
1. Promising Young Woman (Fennell)
2. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Hittman)
8. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Kaufman)
9. Judas and the Black Messiah (S. King)
10. One Night in Miami (R.King)
Shortly after publishing this much delayed list (thanks for nothing, pandemic) I saw Another Round and if I’d a mind too would have revised the list right then and there and put it at number one. The list is otherwise fine except Palm Springs should be a few spots higher.
2021
2. The Power of the Dog (Campion)
3. Licorice Pizza (P.T. Anderson)
4. The Tragedy of MacBeth (Coen)
6. tick, tick...Boom! (Miranda)
7. The Lost Daughter (Gyllenhaal)
8. The Hand of God (Sorrentino)
I hit this one out of the ballpark. Drive My Car is in my top 100. The only other films I've watched again are tick, tick and Licorice Pizza. I'd move the latter into second.
2022
- Aftersun (Wells)
- Babylon (Chazelle)
- Eo (Skolimowksi)
- Decision to Leave (Chan-wook)
- Tar (Field)
- The Banshees of Inisherin (McDonagh)
- Rifkin’s Festival (Allen)
- Petite Maman (Sciamma)
- Emily the Criminal (Ford)
- All Quiet on the Western Front (Berger)
Other than moving Rifkin’s Festival and Emily the Criminal up a few places and dropping Babylon a couple of spots, I’m happy with this.
In completing the assignment I found that there were far less changes than I’d anticipated. Initial readings of a film are generally correct but with huge exceptions. More often, I noted, I like good films more a second time, sometimes a helluva lot more.
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