There's a hella engaging essay by David Thomson in the latest issue of Sight & Sound outlining why he believes Citizen Kane should win S&S's next once-a-decade Greatest Film of All Time critics' poll in 2012, where he also explains why he wouldn't be too morose if it didn't win, how a fully restored director's print of The Magnificent Ambersons as Welles intended it would deserve to finally topple Kane from Mount Olympus, and proposing that if Kane does take the gold medal again as it's done every decade since 1962, then maybe it should be retired as the first entry into a cinematic hall of fame in the same way that the Yankees retired the # 5 jersey in honour of Joe DiMaggio in the hope that a more recent picture like Pierrot le fou, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeosie, The Shining, Raging Bull, Taste of Cherry, or There Will Be Blood would enter the top 10 in its place.
All of which, I hasten to add, just about makes up for Toy Story 3 not finding its way into S&S's top 10 of 2010 critics' list (you can read it in full here). Predictably, The Social Network polled the most votes as their movie of the year ahead of Carlos, while Toy Story 3 lingered out in the wilderness at # 13 tied with Aurora, Enter The Void, The Illusionist, and Meek's Cutoff. To which I gotta sky : why are we going to let critics who can't even recognise the best American flick of the year decide whether the time is ripe for Vertigo, The Godfather 1 + 2, La Règle Du Jeu, or Tokyo Story to finally usurp Kane? Letting the general public vote on anything more salient than the fate of Cher Lloyd on the X-Factor (Chloe Mafia got the boot so this 'yatch could do karaoke versions of Turn My Swag On and Nothin' On You on live prime time saturday night tv? Harmony can only be restored to the universe if she performs a rendition of Soulja Boy and Lil B's 30 Thousand, 100 Million in the final and brings out Chloe to do B's verse) should never be an option as the utter mess that is the IMDB top 250 testifies, but can we even entrust the most prestigious worldwide critics to forge the canon for the chil'ren when there were votes for Knight And Day and Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps in amongst their ballots? Shit, dudes could've at least plumped for Piranha 3D as their token Hollywood wild card.
Anyhoo, Toy Story 3 towered over everything else for me this year with the exception of Carlos as it's a picture so moving that even Billy Danze and Paulie Walnuts couldn't help but well-up at the end, and with it we can finally put the "what the best front-to-back trilogy of all time?" debate to rest. Here's one of its myriad of great scenes :
Here's hoping that, much like Kane itself which failed to scrape a spot in S&S's very first Critics top 10 poll in 1952 (it was joint # 11 alongside La Grande Illusion and The Grapes Of Wrath) or Rio Bravo which they deemed unworthy of a review in 1959, the haughty bastards at S&S will catch the vapours and recognise Toy Story 3 as 2010's masterpiece in the not too distant future.
Biz Markie - Vapors
Is "Carlos" in english? I never heard of that before.
ReplyDeleteIt's a mix of subtitles + English dialogue.
ReplyDeleteMake sure you see the full 5 hour tv version rather than the edited one which got a very brief cinema release, though.
"Cher Lloyd on the X-Factor (Chloe Mafia got the boot so this 'yatch could do karaoke versions of Turn My Swag On"???????
ReplyDeletewhat in the fuck.
between the baby gettin abandoned and the purple teddy dude switchin up at the dump toy story almost had me cryin like a lil bitch. this from someone who kept it thug for the duration of both up and wal-e.
but...but...star wars?
ReplyDeletelord of the rings??
naah, just kidding.
Wasn't overly impressed with Toy Story 2, but the first installment was gold, and part 3 is definitely top 2, if not the best flick of 2010.
Boothe, The Evil Dead series is the only other trilogy which comes close foe me since it doesn't have an absolute stinker as # 3.
ReplyDeleteDone, even Chuck Zito couldn't help but well-up at Toy Story 3.
antichrist (might be 2009 actually)
ReplyDeletemother
a prophet
poetry
winter's bone
dogtooth
a serbia film (joking)
inception, even.
yeah, back to the future 3s a good example of that but what about lethal weapon? its been a long while but i remrember the 3rd one bein decent
ReplyDeleteco-sign on toy story 2.
indiana jones is a weird one for me, cos i always thought the third one was underrated whereas the first ones way overrated, that asian kid has to be one of the most annoying characters ever, i did like him in the goonies tho.
Done, I can barely remember Lethal Weapon 3, but that and Indiana Jones forfeited their right to be discussed in the trilogy debate when they released a 4th. It's a franchise then.
ReplyDeleteBozack, Anti Christ was 2009 (though I still haven't seen it), but I agree on A Prophet (best use of Talk Talk in a movie ever) and Winter's Bone. They're both 4.5/5s for me, though, whereas Toy Story 3 and Carlos are the only 5/5s this year, imo.
completely forgot bout lethal weapon 4, its a decade since that one too so i dunno. that 4th indy film stamped on a lot of childhood memories.
ReplyDeleteyeh dog-tooth was cool but inception was a bit up its own arse in my opinion. youv given me a loada stuff to check out there cheers
i know you hate british gangster movies, but 44 inch chest was mint.
ReplyDeleteThe greatest trilogy of all-time is Rick Ross' "Mafia Music" series.
ReplyDeleteIf an animated film is ever gonna win a best picture oscar, this would be the year to do it.
ReplyDeleteglad to see some love for Winter's Bone up in here. Will definitely be on my year end list of favorites.
Brad, I quite liked 44 Inch Chest, actually even I couldn't stand Sexy Boy.
ReplyDeleteBoothe, S&S thankfully recognised the greatness of Winter's Bone as it was ranked their 6th best movie of the year.
HL, best rap trilogy ever would be.. lemme think... Thug Love Story 1, 2, and 3 by G Rap.
Done, agreed about Inception. A relatively fun movie to experience seeing at the cinema, but completely soulless and the suits were far more memorable than any of the characters themselves.
yeh it was all brains no heart. not it was all that clever really. speaking of unlikeable characters, anyone else think breaking bads just the poor mans weeds exept lacking humour and evevryone in its annoying? its such a wasted oppourtunity in my opinion.
ReplyDeletemf, what bout jane? particlarly the third one " titties popped out and there was ass everywhere.... ripped off that mustache grabbed that ass and i fucked her" - thats unfuckwittable.
Part 3 of Jane rules, but I'm not a fan of part 2.
ReplyDeleteOnly seen season 1 of Breaking Bad and about 2 episodes of Weeds in total, so I can't comment.
weeds is a bit of an aqquired taste but its probably in my top three programmes of the last few years. and it hasnt fallen off despite bein in like its seventh season which is impressive for that kinda show
ReplyDeleteShit, not falling off when you're into your 4th season is impressive.
ReplyDeleteLiked what I saw of Weeds but I think it was in the 3rd season when I saw those couple of episodes and if you're gonna watch a show you've gotta stsrt at the beginning.
yeh even the wire had a relatively weak 5th season, all of a sudden they have these one-dimensional villians (like the editor), though i read that had more to do with david simon's bad experience woring in newspapers bleeding into the story which makes sense.
ReplyDeletei recently saw the last episode of sopranos and really dont get the big fuss over the loose ends at the end. i thought it was great and really made up for it kinda falling off the last 2 seasons.the whole last scene with meadow tryna park the car and evrything was class i thought
The Wire never fell off for me, but the first half of the last season of Sopranos was particularly wretched. They pulled it back for the last few episodes, though, and the ending was perfect.
ReplyDeleteyeh they gave the whole aj goin nuts thing way too much time. i know your an oz fan but is the last season worth watching? i gave up on it a few episodes in
ReplyDeleteAah I loved Breaking Bad, got a bit silly at times on some B-movie ish but but it looked amazing...and I would't say it was humourless (Hank, Jesse's "bad boy" stuff, Walt becoming a "capo" etc).
ReplyDeleteThought the last season of The Wire was weak.
Agreed re Inception - now that was humourless..just had some swanky effects and set pieces.
Forgot about Enter The Void for the list as well...
I loved the last season of OZ, personally. The finale is ridiculous, but in a good way.
ReplyDeleteRe : Inception, I forgot to mention that the incidental music in it was also far better than the movie itself.
i disnt completely hate breaing bad, i mean i watched like 2 seasons of it, i liked the way it was shot and paced it just ended up feeling like they were exploring all the same themes as weeds just no where near as well. plus i found the wife and particularly jesse and his meth-head buddies way too annoying and unconvincing after a while. andy and doug from weeds>>>> jesse and em
ReplyDeletethough i have to say the episode where walt blows up the suppliers apartment was the nuts.
think ill give oz another chance, they should never have offed saiyid tho
Or Adebisi.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, OZ.
ReplyDeleteWas slow marathon-ing it for a bit. Took a break after that exhausting long season, and forgot about it.
My first attempt at Breaking Bad ended rather abruptly. Just seemed like some played out odd couple shit. I've heard nothing but great things about it, so I may revisit it.
The extended section of season 4 really did fuck it up.
ReplyDeleteBack to movies of 2010, anybody seen Monsters yet? Gonna go see it tonight hopefully.
Haven't seen Monsters, but i have Carlos queued up for the weekend.
ReplyDeleteSaw Monsters. Definately worth seeing.
ReplyDeleteDon't be ridiculous. The Mabuse trilogy is the only film trilogy even worth talking about. Even 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse is, in a sneaky way, a masterpiece. And Das Testament has to be one of the top ten or twenty films of all time.
ReplyDeleteAs for which film deserves to win the Sight & Sound poll, Kane's clearly worse than all the candidates, with the exception of The Godfather. Which doesn't belong in the conversation at all. It's merely our generation's Gone With The Wind.
What's so bad about Inception then?
ReplyDeleteJames, Inception is a dumb saturday night blockbuster, and it's disingenuous to pretend that it's a more worthy movie than, say, Resident Evil Afterlife.
ReplyDeleteTray, Totally agree about Das Testament Of Dr Mabuse, but I've still not seen 1000 Eyes.. because it's never been released on dvd or vhs here.
As far as the rest of the last S&S critics top ten goes, there's no way Kane is a lesser movie than 2001 or Singin' In The Rain.
You're wrong, 1000 Eyes has been released in Britain. I have the English DVD, in fact, as it's a lot better than the American. Eureka/Masters of Cinema did a great Mabuse box set a year or so ago.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, Kane isn't worse than 2001/Singin' In The Rain, but it is worse than the ones you mentioned (Tokyo Story, Rules Of The Game).
ReplyDeleteThe other 2 came out seperately on dvd around 5 years ago. Never knew there was a recent boxset. I was gonna say £25 for a trilogy featuring 2 movies I already own is a tad steep, but the extras and booklets make it awfully tempting.
ReplyDeleteNo argument from me on Tokyo Story which is the only flick in the last top ten I'd like to see usurp Kane, but I prefer C.K to La Règle du jeu, if only because the Herrmann scoring and the sets make it much more rewatchable for me.
The booklets look nice but the contents are so-so. However, I think the first 2 films look a lot better in these transfers than whatever older editions you may have. Just might even contain more material in the case of the first Mabuse, too.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Kane.. you know, it's always been pretty trite to me. I don't think I like any film about the moral decay of the super-rich and powerful. Usually because it feels willed and false and phonily Shakespearean (Giant, There Will Be Blood, Godfather II), like there's no way that the antihero would really end up that way if not for the director's trying to remake Kane, but even in Kane where I can at least believe that Kane would end up in such a state, I find the film's moral judgments and condescending pity for the guy rather stupid. All the dreadful speeches Cotten gives about how Kane doesn't really care about the people. Who cares? A Ford or Preminger or Renoir or Hawks or Ophuls could never make a movie like Kane, because they're too smart to think that life's that simple. Ophuls actually made a film along similar lines in Caught, and it's much more subtle and understanding.
I watch C.K as a portrait of Welles himself, but it does mirror the life of a real life Kane-like tycoon such as Howard Hughes, and you just have to chalk up the Cotten speeches to the context of the era with Welles and Mankiewicz trolling Hearst.
ReplyDeleteI can see why that aspect of the movie would chafe against the Trayian philosophy, but I'd much rather have that win ad naseum than let an incoherrent, self-indulgent piece of shit like 2001 creep another place up the top 10.