A Gilded Planet

I watched  232 movies in the 365 Days of 2010 . Here's some more: Me and You and Everyone We Know 2005. 91 minutes. USA. Directed by Miranda July. Watchdate: 11/11/2010 I had seen this several times, but some of my friends hadn't and it has been a couple years at least since I last viewed it. I noticed some rather obvious things in the movie that I hadn't before, which I think speaks to the fact that the movie throws a lot at you without you entirely realizing it. I'm also quite in love with this deathless line: "Email wouldn't even exist if it weren't for AIDS." John Hawkes is great and I also enjoy Hector Elias but Brandon Ratcliff still walks away with the movie in his back pocket. I hope Miranda July gets around to making another feature one of these days. Actually I'm looking at IMDB's page for the movie right now and on the Related News sidebar there's a headline that says she's bringing a new movie to Sundance this winter. So, ...

I watched 232 movies in the 365 Days of 2010 . Here is the 222nd movie I watched: Black Swan 2010. USA. Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Watchdate: 12/14/2010 It's as least as good as everyone says. It gripped my attention completely for its entire running time, and didn't let go for quite awhile after the credits had rolled. Aronofsky's direction is way over the top, to the point where even his subtleties are over the top. But that's okay because it's about ballet. With a subject matter as dramatic and theatrical as that, it's almost an obligation to go over the top as the Archers might tell you (if you haven't seen The Red Shoes , that shit's on Netflix Instant so hop to it). Between this and Requiem for a Dream , Aronofsky could fairly be called an expert at visualizing how compulsions torment and distort the mind. Describing any of the scenes I liked would do them a disservice because out of context they would sound fairly idiotic. But I will single...

I watched  232 movies in the 365 Days of 2010 . Here are the 226th,  225th, and 224th  movies I watched: I Love You Phillip Morris 2010. 102 min. USA. Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. Watchdate: 12/17/2010. Glenn Ficarra and John Requa seem to specialize in fucked up criminal fairy tales like Bad Santa  and this movie, which was really a whole lot of fun. Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are both at the top of their game, and the movie plays like a dark comedy version of Catch Me If You Can  with more complex political and psychosexual undertones. I'm a big fan of the con artist subgenre perhaps best defined by classic 70s movies like The Sting  and Paper Moon , and this is really quite an inventive entry into that tradition because it subverts the form nearly as much as it follows its well worn patterns. It's treatment of AIDS in particular really has to be seen to believed. But I think my favorite bit involves a scene in prison where McGregor pays ...

I watched 232 movies in the 365 Days of 2010 . Here are the 228th and 229th movies that I watched. 127 Hours 2010. 94 min. USA/UK. Directed by Danny Boyle. Watchdate: 12/21/2010 So first, a realization. James Franco is almost always as good or better than the movies he appears in. This holds true both in good movies (he's pretty much the best thing in Pineapple Express ) and in terrible ones (he's practically the only good thing in Howl ). This is definitely true here too, as he is terrific while the movie itself has problems. It's not bad by any means, but it does begin like a television commercial and too often has the feeling of being that sort of slick contraption. There's also one moment near the end that smacked of sentimentalism partly because of the brief and thankfully abortive deployment of one of those Feist/Spektor/Enya type sirens in the musical score. Other than the those two noisome flaws, the movie works fairly well. It does not rely too much at all on...

5. Wu Massacre - Raekwon, Ghostface Killah & Method Man This cracks my top five for the album artwork alone. I got to see the Wu Tang Clan  live this year, and they were actually fairly underwhelming - all shouting over each other and sich. But Method Man is a beast and Ghostface Killah has an inimitable style, both of which made this album quite enjoyable. The three standout tracks are "It's That Wu Shit" along with "Our Dreams" and "Gunshowers" but the whole album has a brisk energetic tone to it which I dig. There's a big gap between this and the rest on my list, except for the album art where it matches or exceeds some of the other awesome album covers of this year. 4. Down There - Avey Tare Avey Tare of Animal Collective deploys some pretty groovyspooky beats and bleats on this record. I especially like "Ghost of Books" which has a fairly mesmerizing end refrain that I was repeating a lot with variations on a recent moun...