Movie Recommendations, Rants and Ruminations
To conclude my 2010 in Movies series, here’s another very fun trend: 2010 brought us more food-centric films than any year in memory: I Am Love (Io sono l’amore), Mid-August Lunch, The Kings of Pastry, Today’s Special, A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle House and Soul Kitchen. The Movie Gourmet approves of this trend.
You can get the idea here from I Am Love‘s trailer. Check out the plate of glazed prawns about 58 seconds into the trailer.
Here’s my list of 10 Food Porn Movies.
It’s not that weren’t ANY good comedies in 2010 – just not many. And none made my list of the best films of the year. The funniest movie was Iron Man 2, a comedy masquerading as a super hero movie.
Going the Distance and I Love You, Phillip Morris were good romantic comedies – a particularly meager genre this year. Going the Distance was a rarity – a sweet, smart, funny and successful romantic comedy for adults. Screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe tried a novel approach that respected the audience – creating characters like the ones we know in real life, who talk and act like real people do. Instead of an implausible set-up, the conflict was the real problem of a bi-coastal romance. The offbeat I Love You, Phillip Morris was a gay version of the con man, prison and rom com genres, and the risk paid off.
Once, we get past the three best comedies, there were the passable (but not especially noteworthy) Get Him to the Greek, Morning Glory, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Please Give, Get Low, Love and Other Drugs, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Youth in Revolt, Cyrus and Death at a Funeral.
The Locksmith, a funny little movie which won the low-budget award at Sundance, didn’t even get a theatrical release.
It was disappointing, because even the good 2010 comedies didn’t match up with 2009’s really funny and original movies: (500) Days of Summer, Away We Go, Zombieland, The Hangover, In the Loop, Funny People and I Love You, Man.
This year, we had crappy comedies like Pirate Radio, Date Night and Soul Kitchen. The worst movies that I saw this year were so-called comedies Tooth Fairy and Leap Year – two films that no one thought were good (but that I was stuck with on a long airline flight). Not to mention that the most reviled movies of the year included the alleged comedies Sex in the City 2, Valentine’s Day, The Back-up Plan, Due Date, How Do You Know, Yogi Bear and Little Fockers.
So here’s the trailer for a non-lousy comedy (a romantic comedy, even), the original and funny Going the Distance.
Soul Kitchen is an intermittently funny German romp that tries to find its way between clever humor and broad farce. It’s mildly entertaining but way overrated by critics because it’s a change of pace by trendy Director Fatih Akin (Head-On, Edge of Heaven).
The good autumn movies have started to roll out, and it’s time to go back to the theaters. This week I’m recommending Mesrine: Killer Instinct, Animal Kingdom, The American and The Tillman Story. I’ll be seeing Soul Kitchen soon and will have a recommendation on that, too. And Inception, Toy Story 3, The Girl Who Played With Fire, Get Low and The Kids Are All Right are all still playing in theaters. For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.
For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.
Movies on TV include Rebel Without a Cause, The Graduate and Touch of Evil, all coming up on TCM.