Sweetgrass

2010 in Movies: The Year's Best Movies

by

Here’s my list of the best films of 2010: 1)  Winter’s Bone; 2) Toy Story 3;  3) The Social Network; 4) The Secrets in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos); 5) Rabbit Hole; 6) Black Swan; 7) A Prophet (Un Prophete); 8 ) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; 9) Mademoiselle Chambon; 10) (tie) Ajami and Inception.

(Note:  I’m saving room for some films that I haven’t yet seen, especially Mike Leigh’s Another Year.)

Continuing with my list of 2010’s best films: The Tillman Story, True Grit, The King’s Speech, The Girl on the Train (La Fille du RER), Inside Job, Fish Tank, The Ghost Writer, Carlos, Fair Game, Hereafter, The Fighter, Solitary Man, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work and Sweetgrass.

You can watch the trailers and see my comments on all these films at Best Movies of 2010.

(Further Note:  The Secrets in their Eyes, A Prophet and Ajami were nominated for the 2009 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but were widely released in the US in 2010.)

2010 in Movies: Documentaries

by

As usual several documentaries made my list of  Best Movies of 2010:  Inside Job, The Tillman Story, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, and Sweetgrass.

And there were still more excellent documentaries.  Ken Burns augmented his brilliant Baseball with The Tenth Inning.  PBS’s Earth Days told the story of the modern environmental movement through the voices of key players.  The Most Dangerous Man in America brought new texture to the story of Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.   The fine PBS series Independent Lens brought us Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas), in which filmmaker Monika Navarro trailed an uncle deported to Mexico and discovered secrets in her own family.

Here’s the trailer for the magical Sweetgrass.

Movies to See Right Now (very late August Edition)

by
The Kids Are All Right

Now we’re really down to the August dregs in theaters. Here’s your chance to see some better movies from earlier in the year.

Inception, Toy Story 3, The Girl Who Played With Fire, Get Low and The Kids Are All Right are all good and still playing in theaters.   For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

You can also catch up a good movie with my DVD of the week, Sweetgrass, or last week’s Fish Tank.  For the trailers and other DVD choices, see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include A Face in the Crowd, Anatomy of a Murder, The Stunt Man and The Outlaw Josey Wales, all coming up on TCM.

DVD of the Week: Sweetgrass

by

Sweetgrass: This unadorned documentary tells the story of the two (heterosexual) cowboys who drove thousands of sheep on the last sheep drive in Montana’s Beartooth Mountains.  Because it is not dressed up with narration or music, the audience is left with the story, the people, their quest, the sheep and the landscape – and that’s more than enough.

If you’re life is too frenetic, pop this movie on and take a contemplative 101 minute respite.

It’s also available on Netflix streaming.

It’s on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far.

Taking Stock – The Best of 2010 So Far

by

Well, we’re at the halfway point of the movie year – the summer movies are winding down, and the Oscar bait is still ahead of us in the autumn and holidays.  So it’s time to take stock of the year’s movies to date.  I now have ten movies on my list of Best Movies of 2010 – So Far. You can read my comments and watch the trailers on the Best Movies of 2010 – So Far page.

Better yet, you can see Toy Story 3 and Inception in the theater this week.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, A Prophet, The Girl on the Train, Fish Tank, The Ghost Writer and Sweetgrass are all available on DVD right now.  Sweetgrass is also available on Netflix streaming video.

The Secrets of Their Eyes will be available on DVD on September 21. The DVD release of my top film of the year so far, Winter’s Bone, is October 26.

Sweetgrass