Somewhat Manly Nerd » true grit http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog infrequent blogging from some dude Wed, 11 Mar 2026 09:36:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 NeoGAF 2010 Movies of the Year (and Mine) http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog/2011/03/02/neogaf-2010-movies-of-the-year/ http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog/2011/03/02/neogaf-2010-movies-of-the-year/#comments Wed, 02 Mar 2011 08:44:48 +0000 CajoleJuice http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog/?p=3147 Back in the beginning of 2008, I made an official voting thread over at the forum known as GAF for their collective 2007 movies of the year. Informally, it was already NeoGAF, but now it’s totally trademarked and everything. But then around the same time the following year, I was banned. The 2008 thread –and then the 2009 thread for whatever reason — was handled by other forum members. I guess it took Inception for me to reinstate myself.

Here are the 2010 results (complete with movie posters!), which are visible for non-members. For those of you who would rather not click, here’s the top 20 in list form. Think of these as the Nerd Oscars.

1. Inception
2. The Social Network
3. Black Swan
4. Toy Story 3
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
6. True Grit
7. The King’s Speech
8. Kick-Ass
9. How to Train Your Dragon
10. The Town
———————————————————————————————–
11. Exit Through the Gift Shop
12. Shutter Island
13. Winter’s Bone
14. 127 Hours
15. The Ghost Writer
16. The Fighter
17. Dogtooth
18. Animal Kingdom
19. Blue Valentine
20. Enter the Void

There are probably plenty of critics who have top tens that are very similar to the bottom ten above. It was a really good year for film.

My personal list:

1. Blue Valentine
2. The Social Network
3. Inception
4. The Ghost Writer
5. Animal Kingdom
6. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
7. Shutter Island
8. The Town
9. Black Swan
10. Enter the Void

Some really quick random thoughts:

- Blue Valentine just devastated me so much that I couldn’t imagine selecting any other movie as #1, not even Inception.

- I believe I’ve already commented on here on the slickness of The Social Network; this blog post goes into extreme film buff detail about the incredible directing job by David Fincher.

- The Ghost Writer is just a really well-constructed old-school thriller made by a rapist.

- Animal Kingdom is a massively under-the-radar Australian crime film — a slow burner that only gets better as it unravels, concluding in the most satisfying way possible.

- I enjoyed Scott Pilgrim, alright? I appreciate Edgar Wright’s comic and stylistic sensibilities. -

- Shutter Island would have been amazing in black-and-white, but that cinematography made the colorful dream sequences stand out that much more.

- The Town cemented Ben Affleck as a damn good director (what?). Meanwhile, Darren Aronofsky put together a bit of a hot mess in Black Swan — the guy sure has style, though.

- Enter the Void is painfully overlong, but it sticks in your head for even longer, which is why it deserved a spot on the list.

- In case you were wondering, I saw Exit Through the Gift Shop and I didn’t love it. Jackass 3D is above it in the documentary category.

- Movies that I want to see but haven’t yet: True Grit, Toy Story 3, The King’s Speech, Winter’s Bone, 127 Hours, The Fighter.

I’m going to write a bit more about some recently watched movies (including some mentioned here) sometime this week.

]]> http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog/2011/03/02/neogaf-2010-movies-of-the-year/feed/ 3 True Grit and the Disappointment of PG-13 http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog/2010/11/23/true-grit-and-the-disappointment-of-pg-13/ http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog/2010/11/23/true-grit-and-the-disappointment-of-pg-13/#comments Tue, 23 Nov 2010 06:09:05 +0000 CajoleJuice http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog/?p=3100 Over the past few months, I sometimes felt that my excitement for the newest Coen Brothers’ film was just not where it should have been. There was Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin; the trailers seemed great; and it was directed by the COEN BROTHERS. Yet the revealing of seemingly way too much of the plot annoyed me. I wasn’t completely sure I bought Matt Damon in the role, stupidly going by only a few seconds from which to judge. And maybe Jeff Bridges’ character seemed just a bit too over-the-top.
These were all nagging thoughts in my head, ones that I just ignored because it was the Coen Brothers.  I knew deep down there was really no reason to doubt that they had made a totally badass traditional western, especially considering how great No Country for Old Men was. I figured that sort of brutal R-rated violence would translate perfectly to True Grit.
Instead the news comes out that the film is PG-13, and that it was always intended that way. It will be the Coen’s first PG-13 drama. Garbage. Are they getting soft? Do they see the need to create a film for a wider audience? These are the guys that from their first feature, Blood Simple, reveled in violent consequences. These are the guys that filmed Miller’s Crossing and Fargo. Why’d they decide to pussy out with a western? And why’d they have to play up Bridges’ character as a sheriff who shoots first and asks later if I don’t get to see the carnage he inflicts?
I’m not complaining about straight-up violence here, either. It’s also that so much of the Coen’s dark comedic undertones and so many of their disturbing, yet hilarious ideas only worked within that R rating. It’s not that you can’t make a great PG-13 film, but I just don’t see the Coen’s utilizing their full talent within such a framework.

Perhaps I should trust them to know themselves a bit better than I do. It’s not like I’ve even seen all of their films, and they haven’t even made a PG-13 dramatic film to point at and say it didn’t work for them. And I’m still going to see True Grit, I’m just glad I hadn’t had a chance to work myself into a frenzy over it yet.
Now Black Swan on the other hand…
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