Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: 100 Films of 2014 (20-11)

Bottom Ten | 90-71 | 70-51 | 50-36 | 35-21

So this is even later getting up here than I intended, considering the Oscars were last night and I've yet to write the post for the Top 10. The truth is that I grossly underestimated how much effort it would be to write even just a couple paragraphs for 100 films. By the time I had finished the first 80 I was writing about, I'm pretty certain my mind was fried like an egg. For my own sanity, I had to back away from the keyboard for a while. In the meantime, the usual things (especially work) got in the way, and it made it difficult to write last week. If I were shooting for timeliness with these posts I would have missed the mark.

But I'm not doing this for the hits (although I'd appreciate it if you click through and read on). I'm doing this because I have some things to say about the films I saw. Well, about 45-50 of them or so. The rest I see as an exercise to figure out how to say "eh, it was OK, I guess" in the form of two paragraphs.

Unlike last year, there aren't any clear favorites in my top 20. I'm pretty confident that my top 10 is my top 10, but there's a pretty good chance any of these could be #11, or even higher, depending upo which one I've seen most recently. We start with a film that should have won more than one Oscar, a film that was literally more than a decade in the making.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: Wild

Because Wild focuses on a long distance hiker, we felt that this would be a good opportunity for a cross-posted review on our hiking blog Red Faces, White Blazes. We liked the film, and (SPOILER ALERT) it will certainly make another appearance when Andrew's favorites of the year. Where? You'll just have to wait and see.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: Snowpiercer

Note: The bulk of this post will be fashioned after one of my favorite scenes from the film. It won't really be a spoiler per se, but it might be too close for comfort for some people. Also, it might make very little sense to you. Therefore, the first paragraph will be a very boring but concise review of the film.

In short, Snowpiercer is one of my favorite experiences at a movie theater ever. The action is taut and exciting, the sharp contrast in colors between the rebelling people from the end of the train and the vibrant colors displayed by those farther up the train is impressive. The story is fairly crisp and fun to follow. Best of all are the performances. Chris Evans, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer, Song Kang-ho, Go Ah-sung, Jamie Bell, and others do a wonderful job in their roles. Tilda Swinton is great as the "Great Engineer" Wilford's chief stooge, and Allison Pill damn near steals the show. See this film, preferably in a theater if you can.

OK NOW ON TO THE "REAL POST". DON'T CONTINUE UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE, OR AREN'T BOTHERED BY KNOWING DETAILS ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN IN A MOVIE.

DVD Case Pantheon: Magnolia

Some of my favorite films are tightly built. They clock in at about 90 minutes, leave absolutely nothing inessential in the story, and yet still find time to have well developed characters. There is usually one main story line featuring a minimum of characters. Urgency and consequences are the name of the game.

The DVD Case Pantheon: 50/50

Truth be told, I was initially disappointed that this was the first movie up in the queue for this feature. It isn't a matter of enjoying it. As it's part of this feature, it is a movie I really like. However, it just wasn't one of the movies I wanted to write about.

Watching again, I remembered exactly why it's in my pantheon. It's often funny, while occasionally painful. The performances from both the main characters and several supporting characters are pretty good. Most of all, it feels pretty real.

I say 'feels' instead of 'is' because I've never directly gone through the situation in this movie. Perhaps people who have gone through similar situations would disagree with the accuracy or tone of the film. I'd imagine the experience of dealing with such a traumatic, painful, and downright awful illness like cancer is a very singular experience, even if there are certainly similar situations they all go through. I would expect there would be some real experience brought to the movie, considering it was loosely based on the life of writer Will Reiser*.

Above all, the part of the movie that feels the most genuine is the main character's mother, played by the great Anjelica Huston. I'm not certain how my mother would react to a situation like that, but it would be pretty close to how she acts. Her character could have been played completely for easy laughs ("haw-haw, mom's be worrying and embarrassing us, amiright"), but she's not. She's a person, with her own fears, needs, and wants, and a big part of Joseph Gordon Levitt's character growth is realizing this.

Another great thing is that Levitt is not treated as a saint because he has a life threatening illness. He gets high with his chemo compatriots (the great Matt Frewer and the even greater Philip Baker Hall), he breaks up with his terrible girlfriend**, and has trouble getting it up when his pal hooks him up with a rebound girl. He doesn't ever come to some tranquil peace with his situation before the climatic surgery, and in fact never gets much beyond the anger stage.

Fortunately, the movie ends on a happy note, as Levitt survives the surgery that saved his life, he gets the girl, and Seth Rogen daub salve into his friends hideous back scar. It's a sweet victory because it feels earned. For that, I'm glad to consider it one of my favorite movies.

Up Next: Burn After Reading, then The Wrong Guy, and then our first challenger Good Night and Good Luck

*Seth Rogen, a friend of Reiser, was basically playing a fictionalized version of himself. Yes, I know he plays himself in everything he's in, but at least he does it very well in this film.
**In the span of about a year, Bryce Dallas Howard played a girlfriend that cheated on a person with cancer in this film and a awful racist queen bee in The Help. To be fair, the girlfriend character she played wasn't exactly played off as evil, just a very flawed young person who was too inexperienced to take the out she was given. At least she didn't eat a poop filled pie in this one.