For 2015 I'll be undertaking a blogging project assessing the films of the decade thus far, as 2015 marks the halfway point of the second decade in the 21st century.
I'm primarily doing this for fun and to shore up my critical opinions on the films made in the era where cinema is supposedly dead.
I've been actively seeing and documenting as many new films as possible since 2010; I've made lists and notes that never amount to much except to clutter my desk top. So this project is a way to put some of these viewing experiences to use in case anyone else is interested in such an endeavor. 2010 seems too recent to be properly historical and not quite remote enough to warrant engaged critical excavation.
This project will be a bit unwieldy. My ultimate goal is to build up to a thorough Best of the Decade So Far list that encompasses 2010 to 2014. However, I am far from systematic and refuse to use any sort of criteria. This is, after all, a personal project. So my gut will be the deciding factor. If this pans out, I will do a series for each year, but for now I'm focusing exclusively on 2010.
Project Guidelines
I'll be adhering strictly to 2010 debuts, which I will determine through a triangulation of imdb, KG, and if the film has a home video release or press kit that determines its debut date. I realize this is arbitrary and many films that debut in one year are not actually seen until the next, but I'm choosing this to clear up confusion and make the process easier for me. So anything that actually debuted in a festival in 2009 will not be considered for 2010. For example Life During Wartime is listed on imdb as having debuted in 2009 at Telluride, but the Criterion Collection release lists it as a 2010 release. Here I defer to imdb.
List-o-mania
I'll be using Letterboxd to keep these lists organized and so far I have two to start with:
2010 film's I've already seen (ranked) here
2010 film's I've yet to see (alphabetized) here
My current Top 10:
The Strange Case of Angelica (Oliveira)
Attenberg (Tsangari)
Film socialism (Godard)
Resident Evil: Afterlife (W.S. Anderson)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Weerasethakul)
The Sleeping Beauty (Breillat)
Unstoppable (T. Scott)
You, the World, and I (Rafman)
The Expendables (Stallone)
Jackass 3D (Tremaine)
My Top 10 to see:
The Autobiography of Nicolas Ceausescu (Ujica)
Cold Fish (Sono)
Curling (Côté)
Easy A (Gluck)
Hereafter (Eastwood)
In the Shadows (Arslan)
L.A. Zombie (LaBruce)
Mysteries of Lisbon (Ruiz)
Refrains Happen Like Revolutions in a Song (Torres)
Step Up 3D (Chu)
My plan of action is to rewatch some key films that I believe my positions may have shifted on, such as The Social Network (which I disliked), Tiny Furniture (which I liked), as well as Certified Copy, Meek's Cutoff, and Poetry (all of which are a bit hazy on the details for me).
To rectify the reality that much of my viewing consists of theatrical narrative features and auteur festival films, I'm planning on watching as much direct-to-video, erotica, pornography, and avant garde film and video shorts as I can.
Format
There is no official format for how I will post stuff here. I'll have more to say on some films than on others. I plan on posting a series of round-ups of brief reflections. Once I've seen enough I'll start making various lists, favorites, worst films, underrated titles, etc.
Also, I'm motivated most strongly by personal recommendations, so any film that you think deserves a rewatch or that I've missed entirely, please let me know in the comments.
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