Spaghetti's Lustral Cinematic Celebration (100 Best Films From 2010-2014) - Top 10 Time!

[Ezen Baklattan]

NUMBER 9

 

 

 

Wes Anderson's playful and intricate style goes into full overdrive here in this romantic dramedy about two young lovers on a New England island. Throughout the film, we see several flawed individuals trying to do well for themselves and those close to them, set against the backdrop of two pariah children who find solace in one another. The tale has a gentle charm and plays to Wes Anderson's strengths as a director. I'd argue that it touches into Anderson's signature, witty absurdity more so than any of his films before, but to be honest, that's one of the reasons I love this movie so much. You kind of fall in love with the world that he has created, and how bizarre it might seem relative to our own reality is a key contributor to just how well each component of it all works. It's based on the flaws that all of these characters have and the unique and often funny ways that they try to deal with the world they are given and try to be good people in the end. It's ultimately a wonderfully earnest picture, playing like a children's novel from the mid 20th century and basing itself in its ideals, mixed with a gentle symphony at a Sunday afternoon concert. Whatever way you look at it, Moonrise Kingdom is a magical movie, one you won't be forgetting any time soon.

[Alpha]

Yay for Boyhood and Moonrise Kingdom. Two amazing films

[BK007]

Ah, the inevitable appearance of a PTA film. 

 

Am I the only one who thinks he is the most pretentious filmmaker around?

[baumer]

Ah, the inevitable appearance of a PTA film. 

 

Am I the only one who thinks he is the most pretentious filmmaker around?

 

Only liked PDL.  Can't really stand most of his other stuff.

[baumer]

18. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

"Please Mr. Kennedy, I don't wanna go, no no, into outer space!"

The Coen brothers easily seem to be some of the most brilliant directors nowadays, but their skill is taken to equally substantial levels in this fairly under seen 2013 film. It's hardly a crowd pleaser: A reasonably talented folk musician in 1960s New York struggles to find success, but he just can't get a break in life. That, and he's often a screw-up or even a jerk. The Coens squeeze copious amounts of black humor and atmosphere from this seeming sobstory, but the final result is a vivid, well crafted lament of failed American dreams and ties in surprisingly well to the economic woes that have taken up recent American history. It's a deeply felt and profusely well crafted tale that feels just like a folk song in and of itself. 

 

17. TOY STORY 3

"So long, partner"

Pixar strikes the landing perfectly with the end of a trilogy that so many kids grew up with. With Andy now departing for college and leaving his beloved toys behind, they get donated to a daycare center and find that a devious Teddy Bear has created a brutal hierarchy within the toys of the daycare, and must stage an escape/rebellion to save themselves and return to Andy. In what seems like a simple story, it is actually full of the same heart, magic, and joy that has filled the franchise for so long, with a finale so perfect and bittersweet that only those with the coldest hearts (and Tele and Baumer) would resist crying. The frustration at the inevitable release of Toy Story 4 is a testament to how perfectly and brilliantly this simple story wrapped everything up. What more could you ask for in a movie like this?

 

 

[Ezen Baklattan]

Ah, the inevitable appearance of a PTA film.

Am I the only one who thinks he is the most pretentious filmmaker around?

If Inherent Vice were something I saw before making the list, it would likely be in the top 30....

[Ezen Baklattan]

Yay for Boyhood and Moonrise Kingdom. Two amazing films

Well, Boyhood didn't make my list yet. However....

 

NUMBER 8

 

 

 

Richard Linklater somehow manages to capture the essence of life and make it into a movie with this transcendent feature. It becomes a work of art that defies standard filmmaking but Linklater's own earnest sense of empathy never makes you feel like he's trying to grasp onto excessively 'deep' meaning. He just wants to capture of reflection of life, growing up, and all of its hardships and joys in it. It never tries to make big statements or show any big moments. You just become a part of the family as they watch Mason grow from a 7 year old boy to a High School graduate continuing to mark is own path. It's a compilation of the joys, lessons learned, and hardships that Mason encounters in his life, and the constant allusions to trends in American culture from the start of the 20th century ownwards plays another beautiful and nostalgic role in Linklater's own story. It's difficult to talk about as a film simply because of how atypical it is. It's like watching home movies edited into something bigger, but also a reminder of how even the littlest of moments can have great impact. We should aspire to do great things in our life, but we shouldn't dismiss the simple joys that can come out of any single moment. Linklater's latest film will make you laugh, cry, wonder, hope, fear, and quite possibly experience all other emotions there are. What a wonderful movie.

[BK007]

I love how down-to-Earth and unpretentious Boyhood is. 

 

I mean, it is a coming of age story, and there are obviously certain events that happen, just as they are present in a lot of coming of age movies, and yet what this does differently, is that it never tries to tell you there's any lesson to be learnt. 

 

The characters never break character in that sense, to deliver pearls of wisdom. They just say what they would and then you (and he) have to deal with the problem yourself anyway. That reality is beautiful. It basically forces you, in that sense, to come to terms with yourself and since he (and possibly you) has not dealt with or not enough time has passed between events for him to learn, it's like anything and everything can help or hinder, you just have to choose. I love this movie. 

 

It leaves everything up to interpretation and in that sense, is a real mirror of life. Now, people may say "nothing happens" or "who wants to watch another person's life" (I'd refute this already with the amount of reality TV, obsession with celebrities etc but I digress) but looking through the real life lens on someone else's life makes you think and learn, and I cannot say what it is you will learn, because to each his or her own and that is what makes Boyhood so great. In a sense, it's almost an interactive experience, we are Ellar Coltrane and what we see are his choices but every scene still is open ended enough to make you think of what direction it can take, and each has its own little or big event that has just enough parallel for you to relate, or even put your own life on the blueprint and while you see him and his life, you also see the opportunity and possibilities for your own life. 

 

I could sing this movie's praises a lot more. Maybe when the time comes. 

[Ezen Baklattan]

And now for something completely different
 
NUMBER 7

 

 

Darren Aronofsky's dark fairy tale set against the backdrop of New York Ballet acts miraculous as one of the best psychological horror movies we've seen this decade. It works because we truly see and believe the desolation of Nina's own sanity as she strives for perfection, a task ingrained in her very soul by her mother, who had designed Nina to live the success she never could. Nina has given everything she has to the art of ballet, and she'll be damned if anyone is to take it all from her, noticing a seemingly obvious threat from a new ballet dancer, Lily. In the battle of style and substance that seems to pervade Hollywood, Black Swan actually uses its style to contribute to substance, forcing us to stand beside, or within, Nina as her emotionally volatile state leaves her increasingly vulnerable and desperate. The film experience is a nightmare-ish ride that becomes as mysterious as it is entralling, and you're never certain what Aronofsky is going to throw at you next. I also find it to be an interesting companion to Whiplash, although this one is more overt in the harm that arises when Nina lets her perfectionist ambition drive her to the edge, building up to one last, jaw dropping finale. It's just straight up amazing storytelling, and I have to say, quite ironically, it was perfect.

 

Edited January 25, 2015 by Spaghetti

[Ezen Baklattan]

NUMBER 6

 

 

 

A movie of wicked nature, but god damn is it so cool. Martin Scorsese goes full drive for his most insane film to date, a 3 hour roller coaster ride into the life of one of Wall Street's most maniacal gatekeepers, Jordan Belfort. Leonardo DiCaprio lets loose like he never has before, becoming so gloriously unhinged and over the top as you've never seen him before, making it one of the best static performances of the lustrum. I mentioned it was three hours, which might seem daunting, but the story movies so lightning fast and becomes chock full of wildly entertaining excess and ribald, irreverent, and just plain ridiculous actions that you become almost hypnotized into this world. You become convinced that Belfort is a rock star and even though you know he cheated and lied to get to the top, you secretly would love to be him. And that's exactly what Scorsese wants you to think in this movie. It ultimately boils down to a satire less of the unruly 1% of the country, but of the fact that we, as a culture, do nothing to stop it and are convinced that money is what makes the world go round in a celebration of power and masculinity. Film Crit Hulk said it best: We as a society don't punish people like Belfort, so why should Scorsese and Winter be obligated to do so? It's a wickedly smart, entertaining, and thought provoking satire where nobody leaves the theater unscathed. Scorsese says it like it is, and boy, can he speak.

[Ezen Baklattan]

Top 5 tomorrow. 

 

All will be done by the end of the month.

[Avatree]

Interesting that you say the viewer would love to be Jordan Belfort. I really couldn't stand him, he was hateful and thoroughly unlikeable, as were all the characters in the movie. I was really hoping for the cops to latch on to him earlier on, so that: 1) He would get punished; and 2) So the movie would actually end. It was the longest, most boring 3 hours I've ever spent with a film.

[acsc1312]

OMG this top 20 is incredible! 

[acsc1312]

Interesting that you say the viewer would love to be Jordan Belfort. I really couldn't stand him, he was hateful and thoroughly unlikeable, as were all the characters in the movie. I was really hoping for the cops to latch on to him earlier on, so that: 1) He would get punished; and 2) So the movie would actually end. It was the longest, most boring 3 hours I've ever spent with a film.

 

You just need to GTFO

[Alpha]

Spaghetti, you have really good taste in film.

[BK007]

Save PTA. 

 

But, yeah, I will check out some of the movies on this list. Some, I've been meaning to already, so that's good.

 

Won't be seeing PTA 

[Ezen Baklattan]

Interesting that you say the viewer would love to be Jordan Belfort. I really couldn't stand him, he was hateful and thoroughly unlikeable, as were all the characters in the movie. I was really hoping for the cops to latch on to him earlier on, so that: 1) He would get punished; and 2) So the movie would actually end. It was the longest, most boring 3 hours I've ever spent with a film.

Belfort's not a good role model at all, but the movie makes us believe he is, exploiting our deep desire to be a rich and glorious hedonist just like Belfort.

[Ezen Baklattan]

5.
 

 

 

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's fucked-up fantast lets us, er, makes us, dive into the psyche of a troubled actor seeking for relevance once more by directing and starring in a Broadway show after a burnt out Hollywood career, marked by his refusal to return for Birdman 4. Through unique direction that gives audiences the illusion that it's all one big shot, (helped in no doubt by the remarkable cinematography and the remarkably precise art direction) simultaneously mixing both the components of theater and film while also providing audiences a glimpse into Riggan Thompson's own unstable and chaotic mind, especially when he has to deal with such a multitude of aggravating and almost equally messed up characters, some of which are part of his own family. We dive into Thompson's world headfirst, and Keaton's the key to this amazing story.

 

Moreover, Birdman seems like a satire that scathes all facets of the film industry, from the filmmakers themselves to snobby critics to audiences who don't want to be challenged in entertainment. In that sense, however, it becomes funny due to the seemingly contradictory insults this movie throws out at Hollywood and western society that you come to realize that it manifests in something greater. Birdman, both the character and perhaps the movie also, has a bitter and cynical view on life which was fueled by instability and lack of perceived self worth, that there's a great deal of tragedy behind it all. The film takes on a very unique angle as it becomes more than the sum of its parts and lets the film become almost a straight reflection of Riggan himself. 

 

Birdman is one of the most gloriously ludicrous movies I've ever seen, but it's one that taps into ideas much greater than just straight satire of the film and theater industry. It's tremendously entertaining as far as the film itself goes, but it creates such a unique vision of style that it will stay with you long after you leave the theater. It's the kind of character study where we don't just see the character, we see the character's world through his eyes. I've never seen a movie this visceral, twisted, or brilliantly bizarre.

 

 

[Avatree]

Belfort's not a good role model at all, but the movie makes us believe he is, exploiting our deep desire to be a rich and glorious hedonist just like Belfort.

Well, I didn't feel like I wanted anything from his lifestyle. Maybe I'm just perfect.

[Ezen Baklattan]

4. 

 

 

 

Quite simply put, Cloud Atlas is a movie about, well, everything. Within 3 hours, you feel everything. Actors play everyone. The Wachowskis take you everywhere. It's such a hard movie to talk about without getting into such hyperbolic terms, but this is truly epic in every sense of the world. I don't think I've ever seen a film of this scale and ambition, and that alone could have gotten it so much love. It's quite a funny contrast to a lot of the smaller, more low-key and focused movies that appear high up on this list, but Clod Atlas , oh boy. This could have been amazing even if it didn't work at all, simply because of what The Wachowskis were trying to do with this amazing epic, and it could have been just a huge flop without any love.

 

However, I'm just flat out pretrified at the brilliance of the final product. It's a film that's undoubtedly trying to showcase journeys of humanity through varying context, be it a journal on a 19th century boat, a  caper set at an old person's home, or even a thriller of rebellion in a Dystopian Neo Seoul. What makes the movie so amazing is not the stories themselves, although they work fairly well on their own merits, but how they come together. The stories are only connected by the souls that inhabit the characters in each story.  The entire ensemble each plays a different role in each story (and in some cases, a different race or even gender), and reflects a soul undergoing chance, perhaps from virtue to redemption or vice versa. The stories are edited together in a non-linear fashion, but they end up creating a greater harmony where each one shines at its most appropriate instance.

 

In the end, what does Cloud Atlas boil down to? It's not so much a message about something greater than ourselves, but a plea for kindness, empathy, and idealism to its audience, a plea for them to provide light in what may seem like an otherwise dark or hopeless world. A simple act of kindness can spark an entire revolution, and everyone receives an opportunity to do something amazing. It's a movie that not only gives you an amazingly well crafted and well realized ride through time and space, but it also gives you immesurable hope for Hollywood, humanity, and life itself. Thank you so much, Lana and Andy Wachowski, for creating one of the most messy, beautiful, and jaw dropping stories of our time.

 

Edited January 26, 2015 by Spaghetti