Film Viewings 2010

This year marked a dramatic decrease in the number of movies I screened compared to last year. Convenience of going to the movie theatre played a major role in the amount of films I was willing and able to see on the big screen. There’s something too about going to the movies in New York that makes it more of an “event” than I often want it to be which sounds like a paradox but I find it more difficult to be spontaneous on this front than I am in Seattle. Even though I live in New York, I saw only three films in the theatres there this year.

Between an increased workload, a more regular TV schedule, more required and volunteer theatre viewings, film did take a hit. Because of this however, I think what resulted was a more fine-tuned viewing experience, forcing myself to be more selective when it came to the experience of sitting down, devoting my time to a roughly two hour visual treat that seemed to be split fairly evenly between solo and social viewings.

Finally, this year saw a rise in the critical conversations I had with films as I screened several films as research (e.g. The Merchant of Venice, Drag Me To Hell, House of the Devil), as a result of extended cultural curiosity (e.g. Heavy Metal, Little Shop of Horrors, A Nightmare on Elm Street) and through the Dialogical Film Club (DFC) which I list below.

The trend of fewer movies is likely to continue for awhile with the final semester of classes beginning in a few short weeks, work responsibilities and two big TV “events” I’ve embarked on—that is on top of other regular programming—which include a first watch-through of LOST (begun late December 2010) and the Great Buffy Rewatch hosted by Nikki Stafford and for which I will be guest-blogging several times over the course of 2011.

The list you see here and the “awards” I’ve given a select few stem only from my viewing record this year so I likely have missed many a cinematic gem.

May your 2011 be filled with many forms of pop-culture goodness.

Total Films Watched in 2010: 65

Average Per Week: 1.25

Films Seen in Theatres: 17

Most Frequent Film Companion: Kj with 12 films (7 in theatres, 5 via the DFC.) 41% of the films I saw in theatres were with Kj.

Films Watched Twice:
An Education*
Where the Wild Things Are*
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

*Re-watched not due to a fondness for the film but creative and psychological frustrations that merit re-viewings with a group of insightful minds.

Dialogical Film Club Viewings:
The Nines
Where the Wild Things Are
An Education
The Secret of NIMH*
All Dogs Go to Heaven*

*Screened as part of our DFC Summer Monday series under the title “Facing Childhood Cartoon Trauma–Double Feature”

Animated Features:*
Toy Story 3
The Secret of NIMH
All Dogs Go to Heaven
The Princess and the Frog
Heavy Metal
Ponyo
The Last Unicorn
Tangled

*I was very tempted to include Avatar in this category, because really…

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3

Documentaries:
Walt Disney Treasures: Disneyland USA
The September Issue
Waking Sleeping Beauty

Best Documentary: Waking Sleeping Beauty

Top Films of 2010 (New/In Order of Viewing):
A Single Man
Toy Story 3
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Tangled
Waking Sleeping Beauty (wide release in 2010)

Most Disappointing Films of 2010:
The Last Airbender
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
An Education

Viewings 2010
*denotes theatrical viewing

Avatar*
The Nines
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus*
The Hangover
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Julie & Julia
The Box
The Young Victoria
Where the Wild Things Are
A Single Man*
The Wolfman*
An Education*
Stop-Loss
Walt Disney Treasures: Disneyland USA
Little Shop of Horrors
Where the Wild Things Are
Triangle
The Runaways*
Out of Africa
Pandorum
Drag Me To Hell
House of the Devil
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Dead Alive
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Splice*
Toy Story 3*
Up in the Air
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse*
The Last Airbender*
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice*
Inception*
An Education
Shutter Island
Kick-Ass
All Dogs Go to Heaven
The Secret of NIMH
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World*
9
The Merchant of Venice
The Princess and the Frog
The September Issue
Heavy Metal
Ponyo
Legend (Theatrical Version)
The Last Unicorn
Star Trek (2009)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1*
Waking Sleeping Beauty
Tangled*
The Black Hole
Black Swan*
When in Rome
Sunshine Cleaning
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Bright Star
The Duchess
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Agora
Grumpy Old Men
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole
Easy A
Time Bandits
Tron: Legacy*

Disney Epic Mickey: Interview with Warren Spector

The level of sophistication, creativity and innovation that is being demonstrated with this game prior to its release is really phenomenal. I really hope Disney puts out a "Making of..." book for this title. If there were ever a more compelling reason to get a Wii, I don't know it.

Here's an interview with renowned game designer, Warren Spector who led the Disney Epic Mickey panel at New York Comic Con this past weekend:

Wii Games - E3 2011 - Disney Epic Mickey

Century Top 10

Box Office Mojo, one of, if not the most reputable source of box office statistics, has a chart of the All Time Box Office Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation-although "All Time" sounds like a rather grandiose title considering the modern film has been around less than a hundred years.

It sounds like they've been tracking movie attendance since the "Dawn of Time" or something.

Here are the top ten entries with adjusted gross sums:

1. Gone with the Wind (1939) MGM $1,430,476,000
2. Star Wars (1977) Fox $1,261,086,700
3. The Sound of Music (1965) Fox $1,008,300,900
4. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Universal $1,004,328,700
5. The Ten Commandments (1956) Paramount $927,480,000
6. Titanic Paramount $908,688,900 $600,788,188 1997
7. Jaws Universal (1975) $906,798,000
8. Doctor Zhivago MGM (1965) $878,879,000
9. The Exorcist (1973) WB $782,826,200
10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Disney $771,720,000

I feel slightly odd that I have not even seen Doctor Zhivago or The Exorcist, although I have not had an overwhelming desire to see either film. Jaws, I have not seen in ages-have I even seen it all the way through? I am pleased that the original Star Wars still beats Titanic by a fairly wide margin, despite Titanic having a hire unadjusted gross. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs coming to movie theatres must have been quite the cultural event back in the day as it was the first full length animated feature. Prior to 1937, audiences saw news reels and several shorts if they ever did go to the cinema.

It is also interesting to note that in the past decade we haven't seen anything really come close to the Top 10. Titanic was the only film in over twenty years to break into the fold. And before that, the latest entry was for a film that came out in 1982.

I read recently that it may not even be possible for a film to break into this upper echelon anymore, due to the stratification of audiences through different media as well as a completely different movie culture altogether. When Titanic came out, for example, it was the movie for several months, even the year, whereas this summer, for example, saw the release of many major films, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones for starters.

The kind of attention that one movie can garner in the 21st century is hindered by a saturated visual culture landscape.

A Disney Directive

Prior to seeing Wall-E, I read one reviewer’s comments which explained how while he was watching the film he felt as if he knew how it was to see Star Wars or 2001: A Space Odyssey in the movie theatre when they first came out-seeing the Star Destroyer moving endlessly across the screen or the psychedelic effects of the latter film. I see how the writer came to this conclusion. Wall-E is both breathtaking and a breath of fresh air.

The expansive environments presented at the beginning of the film are awe-inspiring yet somber in their depiction of a neglected world. And really, the whole film follows a similar tonality. While humanity may be at the height of its technological advancements, having produced some amazing tools, devices and machines to help maintain a comfortable existence, man has reached a plateau in its psychological-and physical-development. The results are striking.

The fact that the audience does not get a glimpse of an actual human-save for a few fleeting images on the makeshift movie screen at his “residence”-until about half-way through the movie reinforces the audience’s perception that the robots in this film, Eve and Wall-E in particular, are more human than any other character. The overweight, over-stimulated human populace is for the most part comprised of mindless masses. The one human who does rise to the occasion so to speak and seek to overhaul the cyclic nature of the human race at this point, is no more than a figurehead for the deep, meaningful ideology already iterated in, not the words, but the visuals and interactions between Wall-E and his world, Eve’s mission and of course the relationship that blossoms almost quite literally, between Wall-E and Eve. The captain of the ship, default leader of the human population is far from being the film’s protagonist-I could hardly arrive at an accurate guess of his name.


Wall-E's message of being pro-active about our planet's environment is certainly clear, but it is from the subtleties of the characters’ actions that more profound truths can be unearthed. The majority of Wall-E teaches without speaking, Wall-E instructs by example. Wall-E’s daily collection of what one might otherwise deem trash at the least or trinkets at the most is a beautiful representation of the value and joy that can be found in the most simple of items and the smaller gems of life. What do we take away from every day we are given in this life? What do we leave behind? With Eve, the probe sent by the Axiom spacecraft to investigate signs of organic life on Earth, we also see inherently human behavior and psychological evolution take place within her character. “Directive” she states, over and over as she continues to scan her surroundings. She gestures toward the plant logo located on the upper left of her gleaming white torso. Her “directive,” her occupation, is in the place of her heart. When she realizes where her heart truly lies, what she is fighting for, forgoing the orders of her programming, it is a heart-melting moment. The plant symbol dims and she and Wall-E know that doing the right thing, following one’s heart, doesn’t always mean following simple orders. We are part of a bigger picture and catching sight of that is never an easy process.

I just saw Intiman Theatre's incredible performance of Tennessee William’s play, “A Streetcar Named Desire" and in Blanche DuBois’ view of the world, however naïve, she describes "those long afternoons when a piece of eternity drops into our hands and we don't know what to do with it." In writing about Wall-E now, these words strongly resonated in my mind. Our minutes, hours and days are but pieces of something larger, our lives for one, but even our lives are firmly rested within the timeline of humanity. We give and take from this world, but what responsibility do we have when that moment comes when have taken too much, when the harmony we have with Earth has been thrown wholly out of balance? Wall-E depicts humans running from that responsibility, leaving its technological creations to clean up the mess, naively thinking that in time, balance can be restored. 700 years after humans left Earth, its offspring have all but forgotten how to live, much less what Earth was. In fact, when the humans finally do make it back to Earth in Wall-E, it was the only moment I took issue with the film. Does it not also seem naïve to think that with starting with one small budding plant, humans can survive, thrive and live within a symbiotic relationship with Earth? I see the need for a self-contained narrative-and I think it was wonderfully done-however, the resolution for the human race and their now desolate world is far from simple-as is the resolution for our present environmental crisis.

Wall-E is a beautiful, heartfelt film and with it Pixar and the genius present in its team of writers, artists and producers have set new standards in the realm of creative story-telling, visuals and consequential and evocative filmmaking. Wall-E is multi-layered, full of complexity, expertly crafted and moving, characteristics which few other films this year can claim.