The MoFo Top 100 of the 2010s Countdown

Certified Copy Have only heard of it here for the first time. So no vote.

Toy Story 3 I've only seen the first two in the franchise, so no vote. Dang it!

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Just watched Certified Copy and I'm blown away. What a fantastic film.

My first Kiarostami film since Close-Up, so certainly a sign I should get to watching his other stuff.

Without wanting to sound patronising to him, it's truly astonishing to me how an Iranian director can write a script in the English language, with a couple of others thrown in for good measure, with such aplomb. From the very first scene where we hear the man introducing the lecture make the joke about James "living upstairs", then moments later hearing James repeat the same joke slightly tweaked about himself, I knew that I was going to enjoy the style of the film.

The script is packed with humour, insight, and wisdom and manages to evoke some of the most familiar human situations, relationships, and emotions in such a short space of time.

I love films that are written confidently and have strength in their convictions when approaching the philosophical. It's easy for a film to come across as pretentious, but I don't think this ever does, mainly due to the contrast offered by the two lead characters. In many ways, I could relate to their conversations and find similarities in their relationship to my own with my girlfriend, and to other people throughout my life. There are so many scenes that stick out in my mind that ring so true of human nature, such as when she exposes the hypocrisy of his writing when he refuses to respect her subjective opinion on a statue.

I guess you could say the film is like a combination of Before Sunrise and Last Year at Marienbad, or a much more subtle Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

To go with the extraordinary screenplay is the camerawork. Wow. On the surface, it might seem simple but there were so many little moments where I was in awe of the decisions Kiarostami makes and how they elevate scenes to another level. Where James is waiting outside as a couple want him to take part in a photo, or when he arrives upstairs at the hotel near the film's end. The way that Kiarostami is able to construct space outside of the frame as we build up pictures of what surrounds our characters is superb. The close-ups and staging of certain scenes (the lights, the shadows) to highlight the naturalistic performances really brings everything together.

This definitely would have made my list and I'm glad that its inclusion here has finally given me the nudge to get back to this director - my brain must not be working today as I forgot he directed Close-Up earlier which I also love. Great stuff.

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Looks like I need to add Certified Copy to my list of films to watch!

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1917 is an impressive movie that definitely engages the viewers with high action. There are some moments of pure awe and others where you point to the screen and yell out "That was a cut there". These one-take movies I feel tend to be spectacle over substance. Tell me WHY this is a one-take film. With Birdman, I get the sense that it is "live" because of the stage. 1917 didn't justify it for me other than, let's see if we can do an action film in 'real-time'. Impressive still, but did not make my list.

Deadpool was a lot of fun. Nowhere near my list though and the Ryan Reynolds-style comedy is, unfortunately...getting a little on my nerves now.

13. Toy Story 3 I hid my face from my wife when we saw this movie together because I didn't want her to see me tearing up at Andy letting go of his childhood toys. An impressive flick that is just as good as the first two. One of if not the perfect ending to a trilogy...the 4th doesn't exist right?

I knew right from the start that I was going to be emotional with this one when Woody does the group toy meeting at the beginning and....there are basically no other toys there. Then we transition to a new villain and a prison break story. The addition of Keaton as Ken is hilarious and I was accepting of their fate in the dumpster fire. A truly special film that "grew-up" with me. I was 8 years old when the first film came out and 23 when this arrived.



25. Cabin in the Woods
13. Toy Story 3


I suspect 11, 16, and 19 on my list will NOT make it. I didn't think they would and I threw them some love anyways.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Just watched Anomalisa and I enjoyed it.

A well-crafted film where the form fits the content and although I don't think Kaufman's outlook on life makes for great cinematic experiences for me personally as it seems to for others, there's a lot to admire here. I feel like it could have been stronger if it was more focussed on the stuff that worked for me, as a study of loneliness and love. The middle section of the film with Lisa is fantastic including a great nightmare sequence but as a whole, I thought it didn't work as a complete piece that had me hooked from start to finish.

That's me up to 15/18 seen.

Toy Story 3 - an amazing, beautiful tear jerker of a movie. Pure perfection on all points, but completely ruined and rendered irrelevant by the cash cow tale Toy Story 4

I realized that I typed Certified Cop instead of Certified Copy above, so I fixed that. Certified Cop sounds like some sort of wacky buddy-cop movie from the 80s, I think! "Detective friends Burt Reynolds and Michael Keaton are thrown into a screwball crisis when Keaton is kidnapped by mad scientist Christopher Lloyd and cloned. They all escape and now Burt must figure out which one is his real partner!" I'd pay to see that!

Hints:

The next two hints should be fairly easy, but I'm not going to edit them into this post until exactly 12:30 AM EST. After that, I'll leave them here for exactly one minute before I remove the pictures from this post. You're obviously welcome to save the images if you happen to see them, but don't post them in this thread.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

12:30 am! That's past my bedtime!

Drink some caffeine then.

Dude, I have an early morning shift. This isn't the kind of hint I wanna play.

Not staying up that late so here's my prediction

82. Before Midnight
81. Moonlight

Definitely giving an edge to Europeans.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

Wait, is one of them Midnight in Paris? And the other Source Code? What if the message itself was the hint for both?

Second Before Midnight

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My First Rectification List Entry:

86. 1917 (2019, Sam Mendes) 88 points

Not only am I thoroughly depressed for not making the time to watch this prior to making my list where it would easily make a mid-pack or slightly higher position, but I would also have truly loved to have seen this on the Big Screen.
Inspired by Sir Sam Mendes' grandfather's experiences in WWI: "The Autobiography of Alfred H. Mendes 1897--1991." with a lovely dedication to his grandfather at the end, this is a mesmerizing, fully engaging story filled with extraordinary moments during World War I where I was utterly captivated. From the serene opening of two soldiers, best friends in the war, asleep beneath a tree in a field to every terse step they took, and the precarious road traveled so beautifully shot, earning an Oscar for Cinematography. And fully deserving, in my opinion.
Much like my first Mendes film Road To Perdition, I am enamored.

Seen:

85. Deadpool (2016, Tim Miller) 88 points was my #15 in the Comedy Countdown but didn't quite make this'un, surprisingly. It's wrong in the most hilarious ways for me.




83. Toy Story 3 (2010, Lee Unkrich) 88 points
I have only watched this once and when it first came out, and I must say I am having difficulty remembering any given scene that stayed with me. Should really revisit.


Movies Seen 9 out of 18 (50%)
1. Upper Fifty
2. Jojo Rabbit (2012) #89
3. Lower Thirty if at all
4. Will be a Surprise
5. Mid Pack
6. Mid Pack
7. Upper Fifty
8. Upper Fifty (hopefully)
9. Unlikely
10. Upper Twenty
11. Mid Pack
12. Probably Not
13. Upper Fifty
14. Upper Fifty
15. The Raid (2011) #100
16. Mid, maybe Upper Fifty
17. Mid Pack
18. Upper Fifty
19. Mid to Upper Pack
20. Lower Fifty
21. Hopefully Places
22. Lower Fifty
23. Mid Pack
24. Mid Pack or Higher
25. A Royal Affair (2012) (One Pointer)


One Pointers Seen 7 out of 35 (20%)


Rectification List
86. 1917 (2019)

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

It's not.

Also, I'm too lazy to think of a clever hint, so this is how I'll make the hint difficult. If you miss the hint, no worries. There will be plenty more opportunities to guess the hints throughout this countdown.

Also, I forgot to share my thoughts on the recent films, so I'll do that now.

Certified Copy made my ballot at #13. Here's what I wrote about it in the Group Watch thread:

I watched Toy Story 3 a few times when I was younger. In spite of it being several years since I've seen the film, I actually remember it decently well. Overall, I enjoyed it quite a bit and remember it being among Pixar's best films. The animation, humor, story, etc. were all very engaging to me and it had a highly emotionally satisfying ending. Had I rewatched it before this countdown, it might've been in contention for my ballot, but since that wasn't the case, it didn't make it. Still though, it's a very good film and I'm happy that it made the countdown anyways. Also, I didn't think of the Blue Velvet comparison before coming up with yesterday's hint, so now I like the film a bit more lmao.

My updated ballot:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13. Certified Copy (#84)
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20. A Separation (#90)
21.
22.
23. Hereditary (#96)
24.
25.