2011 Academy Award Predictions

I have a hard time understanding the amount of fascination the public and the media has with the Oscars. Maybe it's just the media actually, because I really don't know how seriously the casual movie fans take the Oscars. Super serious film buffs don't take the Oscars too seriously because they're always a bit more conservative than we'd like, but I don't think many casual filmgoers do either because the Academy's choices are still too obscure and serious for them as well. I could explore this issue in like a 5000 word article probably, but instead I'll just rant a bit about it below.

(Click "Read More" for more on this and my predictions for this year)

Filmcap: The week of Feb 13-20

A busy week made me post this weeks installment late and also watch fewer movies than average. I only watched three on my own, all of them interesting but flawed, and the fourth was a special movie I watched in theaters in Seattle with my family. 

Filmcap: The week of Feb 6-13

This week I watched a couple great foreign movies from the late 50's (Bergman and Kurosawa), what is known as the first ever film noir, a contemporary movie about an infamous African dictator, a fascinating documentary, and an also fascinating TV movie.

Filmcap: The week of Jan 30-Feb 6

This week somehow happened to a pretty good movie watching week with four legitimately great films, one Polish, one British set in Australia, one French in English, and one French and Austrian in French. The two not as great movies were (coincidentally?) both American and both big Academy Awards winners, though admittedly one of which, as you'll see below, was actually pretty good. Read all about it.

Filmcap: The week of Jan 23-30

(Could be a picture taken this week, but it's actually a still from a freakishly relevant movie made 40 years ago)

I watched two Italian films this week, one that features an American actress playing a Russian speaking Italian, and the other features no Italian at all, only French and Arabic. I also watched my third John Ford film thus far, the breakout dwarf movie, and a very unique addition to the growing neo-noir genre. 

My favorite movies of the year 2010

(We made contact with some great movies this year)

The 2010 Oscar nominations were released today and so I guess there's no better day to release my personal favorite movies of 2010. These ten films are in my opinion, the ten movies from the year 2010 that were the absolute best. Some were masterpieces, some were near-masterpieces. All of these films are pieces of art worth watching multiple times and cherishing. They are presented in alphabetical order (because ranking them individually is impossible), followed by a list of movies that were not quite as amazing as the ten, but still most definitely worth your time. For your information, here is my 2009 list.

Filmcap: The week of Jan 16-23

(Sofia Coppola doing her thing)

This week we've got one amazing documentary, two highly acclaimed 2010 movies, and one of the more least talked about Coen Brothers movies (for good reason).

Thoughts on "Twin Peaks"

Twin Peaks (1990-1991): Besides "Arrested Development" another series I watched over the past semester and just recently finished is "Twin Peaks." The best way to describe it would be I guess to say it's a David Lynch soap opera, and all the expectations that go with that. It's written as a show with a central mystery of who killed Laura Palmer, but it's directed and acted with a sense of weirdness and off-the-wall humor and dialogue. The latter is what made this show so great and unique. Creating a mood on television is very rare on television, and only when you get a gifted film director like David Lynch did television finally get a show that combined great writing with a great sense of mood and atmosphere.

Filmcap: The week of Jan 9-16

In this week's second ever installment of Fimcap I write about a movie with an amazing poster, the single best sports movie of all time, two early John Wayne-starring acclaimed westerns, and one of the independent movies that started all independent movies.

Thoughts on Arrested Development

Arrested Development (2003-2006):
I recently finished watching all three seasons of the television comedy series "Arrested Development" for the first time. It's probably most famous for being an incredibly clever show that got critics and certain fans gushing over it but then getting cancelled in its third season despite being, you know, good. Over the last few months I watched the three seasons of the show and I can attest to the fact that it's not one of those movies or shows that's got all this acclaim but is actually just okay. It's an extraordinarily fun show to watch and a very rewarding comedy.