IN THEATERSWinter’s BoneOpening with an understated, mood-setting vocal performance of "The Missouri Waltz" as a soundtrack for imagery captured deep, deep within flyover country, Winter's Bone hinges largely on the execution of a simple idea — it's a formula mystery story set in rural Missouri.
IN THEATERSThe HousemaidI don't believe in guilty pleasures, but if I did, Im Sang-soo's The Housemaid would surely be among them. It panders to an audience that craves victims and villains, but it's glossy and lush and full of gorgeously decadent people doing their gorgeously decadent thing. In its way, it's a delight.
IN THEATERSCertified CopyCertified Copy, which opens on a lecture consigning the concept of originality in art to the Academy of the Overrated, is an awesomely playful intellectual romance (or is it a farce?) from the great Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. When I say playful, I mean confounding in the manner of Last Year at Marienbad, which basically dared viewers to say which competing, contradictory story threads represented real events in the film’s world.
IN THEATERSUncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past LivesWatching Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives on the big screen at the New York Film Festival's Alice Tully Hall, it occurred to me almost immediately that waiting to see anything by Weerasethakul on DVD is a terrible idea.
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Top Ten List (by IMDB date: first public screening)
- Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
- Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)
- Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010)
- Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010)
- The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)
- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)
- True Grit (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2010)
- The Housemaid (Im Sang-soo, 2010)
- The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, 2010)
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright, 2010)
2010 U.S. Releases by Grade
- Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010) A-
- Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010) A-
- Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010) A-
- Vincere (Marco Bellocchio, 2009) A-
- True Grit (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2010) B+
- The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010) B+
- Amer (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, 2009) B+
- Buried (Rodrigo Cortés, 2010) B+
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright, 2010) B+
- Dogtooth (Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009) B+
- The Killer Inside Me (Michael Winterbottom, 2010) B+
- Ondine (Neil Jordan, 2009) B+
- Splice (Vincenzo Natali, 2009) B+
- Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) B+
- Jackass 3D (Jeff Tremayne, 2010) B
- The Town (Ben Affleck, 2010) B
- Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, 2010) B
- The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, 2010) B
- District 13: Ultimatum (Patrick Allessandrin, 2009) B
- Wishful Drinking (Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, 2010) B-
- Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe, 2009) B-
- Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz, 2009) B-
- Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) B-
- Green Zone (Paul Greengrass, 2010) B-
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (David Yates, 2010) C+
- Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010) C+
- Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010) C+
- After.Life (Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo , 2009) C+
- Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) C+
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev, 2009) C+
- Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn, 2010) C+
- Survival of the Dead (George Romero, 2009) C+
- Hereafter (Clint Eastwood, 2010) C-
- I Spit on Your Grave (Steven R. Monroe, 2010) D
2010 U.S. Releases by Title
- After.Life (Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo , 2009) C+
- Amer (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, 2009) B+
- Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010) C+
- Buried (Rodrigo Cortés, 2010) B+
- Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010) A-
- District 13: Ultimatum (Patrick Allessandrin, 2009) B
- Dogtooth (Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009) B+
- Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010) C+
- Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe, 2009) B-
- Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010) A-
- Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) B+
- The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, 2010) B
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev, 2009) C+
- Green Zone (Paul Greengrass, 2010) B-
- Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, 2010) B
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (David Yates, 2010) C+
- Hereafter (Clint Eastwood, 2010) C-
- I Spit on Your Grave (Steven R. Monroe, 2010) D
- Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) B-
- Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) C+
- Jackass 3D (Jeff Tremayne, 2010) B
- Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn, 2010) C+
- The Killer Inside Me (Michael Winterbottom, 2010) B+
- Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz, 2009) B-
- Ondine (Neil Jordan, 2009) B+
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright, 2010) B+
- The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010) B+
- Splice (Vincenzo Natali, 2009) B+
- Survival of the Dead (George Romero, 2009) C+
- The Town (Ben Affleck, 2010) B
- True Grit (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2010) B+
- Vincere (Marco Bellocchio, 2009) A-
- Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010) A-
- Wishful Drinking (Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, 2010) B-
