Oscar Time - February 2010

Top 10

Hurt Locker
An Education
Inglorious Basterds
Revanche
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet
Two Lovers
Bad Lieutenant: New Orleans
Adoration
The Last Station
Me and Orson Welles

Best Under the Radar Movies of 2009

Revanche
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet
Adoration
Anvil
Police, Adjective
Tetro

Best Scene
The lengthy opening scene in Inglorious Basterds


Biggest oversights in nominations
Revanche for Best Foreign Language Film
La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet for Best Documentary
Nicholas Cage for Best Actor in Bad Lieutenant: New Orleans

Important note: For Best of the Last Decade see the Jan. 18, 2010 posting on this blog.

Best of the Last Decade

MOVIES

Gideon's Daughter
Traffic
Sideways
No Country for Old Men
Talk to Her
Little Miss Sunshine
Ghost World
Rivers and Tides
Crash
Lost in Translation
Touch the Sound
Memento

After posting today (3/26/10) to the blog the best of the 90s, with honorable mentions, I decided to add an honorable mentions list for the last decade:
Inside Man, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Edge of Heaven, Anniversary Party, The Hours, The Deep End and The Wrestler.

The best movie of the decade is Gideon's Daughter. A central element in this movie deals with a parent's two most, but equally, important responsibilities: protecting children to keep them safe and letting them go to help them become independent. This was a BBC production made for tv in 2005. The brilliant cast includes Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt and Miranda Richardson. Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt each won Golden Globes. The soundtrack is also extraordinary.


TV

Six Feet Under
The Sopranos
Mad Men
Real Time with Bill Maher
Nurse Jackie

Two Big Disappointments + a Gem

The two movies I anticipated the most last month were big disaappointments. Up in the Air - poof. Crazy Heart looked like a sure bet, but where's the story? Both of these movies involve a detached, vacant guy who seems to realize at the end of the movie that he's got no life. mmm. Crazy Heart showed up with Jeff Bridges, country music and the wide open spaces of the southwest and I was pumped up thinking about an old favorite of mine, Payday with Rip Torn, but it's not in the same league with that cult classic from 1972. Then there's La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet. Go see this lengthy but absorbing film, beautifully shot and edited with Paris never looking better.

Three Special Actresses

Meryl Streep comes through, as always, in It's Complicated, a very funny movie. Emily Blunt keeps getting better as the very appealing queen in The Young Victoria and Robin Wright Penn shines through with the complicated title role in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.

3 New Recommendations

All 3 are good movies with This Is It being the most surprising. I've never been a fan of Michael Jackson and have been put off by his sleazy activities, but Willie Brown, in his most interesting San Francisco Chronicle column every Sunday, highly recommended it. I'm so glad he did. This movie stands on its own as an insight into the putting together of a megastar's colossal concert. It's also an education for viewers into the extraordinary talent and serious professionalism of Michael Jackson. The Beaches of Agnes is another compelling documentary and is made by a major Italian talent, Agnes Varda. Bad Lieutenant, a film by Werner Herzog, about a cop in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina played by Nicholas Cage. I've intentionally passed up most of Cage's blockbusters of recent years, but Werner Herzog drew me in, and I thought Cage was phenomenal as a drugged up cop with a conscience, well, some kind of conscience. His performance reminded me of just how engaging he can be, as in Leaving Las Vegas and Red Rock West.

Best Fall Film to Date

An Education stands out prominently as the best movie out there these days. Another movie with a theme about an older guy and young girl but this is no stereotypical film. Peter Sarsgaard is spot on as the sophistcated, suave charmer and the 16 year old girl (the actress is actually 23) is understandably taken in by him. A very engaging movie that might remind us all of the times we have been educated.

August P.S.

I have inadvertently neglected to mention in previous posts that I have a favorite tv show that is not a "series". That is Real Time with Bill Maher. I think he is (almost) always right on the money with whatever issue he's discussing. He's smart and funny and will take to task, where appropriate, any of the wide variety of guests or panelists he has on the show. His is one show I can't wait to see, and it's on tonight!
Back to the movies, I just saw Inglourious Basterds. This is definitely one of my favorites of the year. Christof Waltz plays a Nazi officer and his is an amazing (and funny!) portrayal. If you liked Javier Bardem and the role he played in No Country for Old Men, then I'm sure you'll like this movie. Bardem was menacing and Waltz is charming, but the direction they're going and the startling and eerie things they say have a marked similarity.