1. Joyeux Noel— One of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen. I liked it so much, I watched it twice this year—and ended up buying a copy for myself to watch over and over. I believe it will be my yearly Christmas movie to watch from now on. It’s absolutely beautiful in both cinematography and spirit. The documentary/interview with the director on the DVD is a must-watch—and will make you love this film even more. A.
2. Children of Men— An amazing film. This is another film beautiful in spirit—although one has to dig much deeper to get to it. If the ending doesn’t get to you, you are truly heartless. Great performances by Clive Owen and Michael Caine, and Alfonso Cuaron did a beautiful job directing. Worth watching twice just for the mind-blowing single-take scenes. A
3. V For Vendetta— Based on a graphic novel I had an incredibly hard time understanding, this movie pared down all the extraneous bits from the book and ended up being very tight. Great performances and direction here as well. A
4. 300—theatre— Maybe not as great as I raved initially, but it’s still an incredible-looking flick. Gerard Butler owned that role as Leonidas. We’ve seen charismatic leaders before in movies, but I really believed in him. Some movies just grab you, and this was one of them. Maybe it didn’t follow reality perfectly, but so what? This is a well above-par pure-adrenaline movie. B+
5. Weeds Season 2— This show really took off after the shaky first season. Everyone seems to have found their role here. There is some drama here—and lots of laughs. And it’s impossible to take your eyes off Mary-Louise Parker… One of the best moments I’ve seen on TV this year was at the end of the season finale when Shane gave a “valedictorian” speech as his class graduated elementary school that degraded into a scathing review of society’s parenting skills. A-
6. Thank You For Smoking—I wish I could remember more of the details after nearly a year, but I know I loved this movie and its black humor about society and the “fat cats” that reside there. Aaron Eckhart was fantastic in it. A-
7. Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.—Not the best TV show ever made, but it was fun—something TV seems to have forgotten to be of late. This is probably Bruce Campbell’s finest performance so far, and his cowboy lawyer/bounty hunter is just plain fun to watch. If there’s anything to complain about, it’s that the damn DVD set costs too much (and it doesn't have closed captioning). B+
8. This Film Not Yet Rated—A great argument against the movies ratings system. The director tracked down the ridiculously secretive ratings board to prove that these people were not “you and me” as the ratings board boasts, but people who don’t necessarily qualify based on the boards’ own rules. I could write an entire (long) post on this movie. I think it’s vital on a creative standpoint, but it all seemed to be too much given that it won’t change much in the big scheme of things. But I guess if even slight changes are made to level the playing field, then it has performed its duty. Merit points to the film for including excised scenes from movies that moved them from NC-17 or X to R, ensuring that this film does not get rated. And many of the scenes were not “bad” in any sense, just not what the board deemed appropriate for R. B
9. The Seven Samurai— A Japanese movie that inspired so many American ones (including Star Wars), that was, oddly enough, inspired by American Westerns itself. One of the longest movies I’ve ever seen (3-1/2 hrs), but it never felt that long. The band got together around the end of hour one, and it felt as if it had been 30 minutes at most. The length allowed us to explore the villagers, who were being terrorized by bandits, as well as the rag-tag band of samurai they hire to protect them, and also gave enough room to see a number of skirmishes instead of a rushed final battle. There were happy moments, sad moments, beauty, ugliness, silliness all rolled into it. If you can make time for it, it’s worth it. B
10. Juno—theatre—A very solid, funny movie about a teenage girl who gets pregnant. It’s a current movie that’s been getting plenty of well-deserved awards buzz. I liked it quite a bit and only had two quibbles: the nearly clichéd end result of Juno and the adoptive dad’s friendship and Juno’s ability to be a mature teenage smart-ass through the whole movie. I mean, what girl is going to have her shit that together in this situation…? A-
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