Things in movies that made me feel as if my head would explode, in joy or disgust or both, during 2010. Shot of the year: That's part of it, up there. "Sweetgrass" (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Ilisa Barbash) Best opening shot: "Mother"…
This is the subject of endless inquiry for me (can there be only one quality that separates the good from the not-good?), but I can say that -- all other things being A-OK -- it all comes down to directorial…
With the perspective of history, the '90s SNL brats' "The Big Chill," known as "Grown Ups," may well retain its reputation for being the lowest the movies sunk in 2010. Who knows? It's hard to beat with that cast. But…
[This resurrected piece is my contribution to the Steven Spielberg Blogathon co-hosted by Adam Zanzie (Icebox Movies) and Ryan Kelly (Medfly Quarantine). Originally published in the (pre-home-video) December, 1982, issue of The Informer, a monthly publication of the Seattle Film…
"The Social Network," "Carlos," "Winter's Bone"... Is that starting to sound familiar? The results of two more large-scale critics' polls -- indieWIRE and Village Voice/LA Weekly -- have been announced and those seem to be the consensus picks for best…
The LA Times' 24 Frames blog quotes Matt Damon on Steven Soderbergh's plan to retire from directing after three more films: "He wants to paint and he says he's still young enough to have another career," Damon said. "He's kind…
At the end of a piece on the "History of Atmospheric Carbon Changes," and the measurements represented by the Keeling curve, a rather cranky Barry Ritholz posted this, which made me laugh. Not that such a statement would be necessary…
David Bordwell sums up the terrible news from the totalitarian state of Iran about the outrageous sentence given to director Jafar Panahi ("The White Balloon," "The Circle," "Offside," etc.) after he was accused of conspiring to make an "anti-regime" film:…
A quality of the light. The play of a shadow. The movement of a hand, a lip, an eye, a branch, a cloud, a field of grass. The tone of a word, a sigh, a groan. The organic geometry of…
Hundreds of sheep a-grazing, two swans a-schizing, one geek a-coding... The ballots have been submitted, the points (but not the sheep) counted, and the best movies of 2010 have been selected and written about by the contributing critics of MSN…
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