Rich Malloy
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2000
- Messages
- 3,998
Not merely to counteract Brook's demotion ( just saw it for the first time last night), I've added "The Squid and the Whale" to my favorite ten list, keeping "The Best of Youth" there, but knocking "Munich" out.
It's funny how much my list has been juggled, and I still haven't seen the vast majority of films released last year (even easy-to-see stuff like "The New World", "Brokeback Mountain", "Broken Flowers", "Walk the Line" and frankly lots more!). "Tropical Malady" stays on top, but "Cache" has moved up to about a tie (and I haven't yet seen it again - it's just stayed in my consciousness more than any other). "A History of Violence" has dropped in my estimation a bit after seeing it again, but still one of my ten favorites of the year. And "Yes" came in strong at no. 3, and I'm already dying to see it again only a week after my first viewing. I'm very glad I followed Rosenbaum's strong review of that film, even though the critical drubbing it got elsewhere delayed my viewing of it for so long.
And I can't believe "Batman Begins" is by an enormous margin the favorite film of the forum. I'd agree it's better than every Batman film that came before, but still an extremely conventional drama without much emotional or thematic resonance. The savior/vigilante dichotomy is not exactly fresh, but I guess this film's up there with "Dirty Harry" on that count, and some people consider "Dirty Harry" a masterpiece, too. I sorta get it - more with "Harry" than "Batman" - but I still found it fairly forgettable and hardly a film worthy of being regarded so much more highly than every other film released last year.
It's funny how much my list has been juggled, and I still haven't seen the vast majority of films released last year (even easy-to-see stuff like "The New World", "Brokeback Mountain", "Broken Flowers", "Walk the Line" and frankly lots more!). "Tropical Malady" stays on top, but "Cache" has moved up to about a tie (and I haven't yet seen it again - it's just stayed in my consciousness more than any other). "A History of Violence" has dropped in my estimation a bit after seeing it again, but still one of my ten favorites of the year. And "Yes" came in strong at no. 3, and I'm already dying to see it again only a week after my first viewing. I'm very glad I followed Rosenbaum's strong review of that film, even though the critical drubbing it got elsewhere delayed my viewing of it for so long.
And I can't believe "Batman Begins" is by an enormous margin the favorite film of the forum. I'd agree it's better than every Batman film that came before, but still an extremely conventional drama without much emotional or thematic resonance. The savior/vigilante dichotomy is not exactly fresh, but I guess this film's up there with "Dirty Harry" on that count, and some people consider "Dirty Harry" a masterpiece, too. I sorta get it - more with "Harry" than "Batman" - but I still found it fairly forgettable and hardly a film worthy of being regarded so much more highly than every other film released last year.