The MoFo Top 100 of the 2010s Countdown

AKA Popcorn Reviews

01-19-23

mark f

Originally Posted by mark f

Uncut Gems (Josh & Benny Safdie, 2019)

+ 6.5/10

Everything jeweler and serial gambler/adulterer Adam Sandler says is a lie and everyone wants a piece of his ass.

Originally Posted by mark f

Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)

Runaway 13-year-olds Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman party at their private beach, while their families and the authorities earch for them.

Neither film made mark f's ballot.

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Torgo

At Work

01-19-23

I'm an unabashed lover of Uncut Gems and all things Safdie. It was #18 on my list. Like Minio, I prefer Good Time, so hopefully that will appear later. I never thought a movie about a jewelry dealer would make me clench my armrests, break into a cold sweat, etc. as if I were watching Jaws.

Man, did this movie have some brilliant memes. Someone posted this short clip from Pingu to summarize what it's like to watch this movie. Again, not a bad thing if you ask me:

Chypmunk

Registered User

01-19-23

Haven't gotten round to Uncut Gems yet. Moonrise Kingdom was on the long-list but was cut fairly early.

Seen: 50/64 (Own: 30/64)

My ballot:

Faildictions

Citizen Rules

Trouble with a capitial 'T'

01-19-23

Not seen Uncut Gems, though it looks good.

I've seen Moonrise Kingdom...my old review.

Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)

Moonlight Kingdom I liked it as it was different, very, very different. My favorite scenes were when Sam and Suzy escape into the wilderness. I liked the feeling of two ostracized kids at odds with the world around them...making their 'own world' in the wilderness on a remote island. The whole Scouting bit was cleverly done. Those two made an odd pair! Suzy reminded me of Christina Ricci in The Adams Family...And Sam, the overtly smart kid who's disliked by his own Scout troupe due to his lack of social skills, was annoyingly good. It was fun watching those two misfits interacting as they escaped reality. I just wished there was more of that in the film.

Because after their capture, so much stuff happens, with so many different sets, so many different characters, so much stuff, that my mind glazed over and I was no longer in the film.

I loved the brightly pastel-diffusion look of the film. And I loved the cinema style of 'flying' through house walls and quickly panning to each person as they speak. Visually Wes Anderson is a genius. And the man has amazing ideas for stories his very creative and unique. But IMO he needs to stop writing his own films. His weakness seems to be in developing too many characters and in not knowing when to say enough is enough. Towards the end of the film we get every visual trick that he could muster, which I found distracting and it took away from the story telling of the film.

crumbsroom

Registered User

01-19-23

Originally Posted by Wooley

But if you dig deeper in the 70s (and some people are saying the 2000s as well) you get the same thing, on top of the much larger number of obvious films.

Not necessarily, because there is probably lots more movies being made now than in the 70s.

And you're also not taking into account that after fifty years, a lot of leg work has already been done in undercovering the great movies of the 70's. In another 40 years a lot more underseen films from the 2010s will have been discovered and become a part of the general discussion about movies.

But, regardless of all of this, my point wasn't that one decade might have more good movies than another anyways. It was that there isn't any remote shortage of them.

If the concerns are there aren't enough quality films to make a decent top hundred list, then the issue is that audiences aren't willing to do enough work to find them. Because they are out there.

Just last night I watched one that deserves to be on this list. 2013's Coherence. A no-budget science fiction thriller that likely would have never been able to be made in the 70's because it was too expensive to make a film back then.

Great movies are everywhere.

Harry Lime

BANNED FROM VIENNA

01-19-23

Uncut Gems is awesome but it didn't make my list. I may or may not have another Safdies film very, very (and I mean very) high on my list. I don't think it will make it, though. And yes Adam Sandler is excellent here.

I didn't really care for Moonrise Kingdom. With Wes Anderson I like his first three a lot and from there it's all hit and miss. I don't know this one just rubbed me the wrong way.

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rauldc14

2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ

01-19-23

I was starting to lose hope for Moonrise Kingdom. I had it at 11 and it's the Wes Anderson that works for me the most. Love the characters in it.

Uncut Gems is decent, but it never stood a chance of making my ballot.

KeyserCorleone

Registered User

01-19-23

Originally Posted by Torgo

And now the sequel.

Holden Pike

One Ornery Sumbitch

01-19-23

I love Moonrise Kingdom, top tier Wes Anderson for me (and I adore them all), but I only allowed room for one of his flicks this ballot and I went with the one that may well be top fifteen on the collective list. But I am delighted to see this one place so highly without any help from me.

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You can't enter into this lightly...

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Last edited by Holden Pike; 01-19-23 at 12:03 PM.

seanc

Trying Real Hard To Be The Shepherd

01-19-23

This is a fantastic pair that I didn�t vote for but am very happy to see here. Wes Anderson is a director who does no wrong for me. I jive with every sensibility he throws up on the screen, and we definitely see it all.

Uncut Gems is a master class in how you make anxiety fun and entertaining. Love Sandler in it, the way it�s shot, and probably most if all I love that script.

Both of these would be in my next 25 no doubt.

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John-Connor

Registered User

01-19-23

Uncut Gems is my #26. I went with a 1-pointer which backfired because it didn't make 1-pointer and probably won't make the master list either, so wrong bet. Safdie Bros. are great and give me hope for the future of filmmaking.

SEEN 50/64
BALLOT 13/25

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SpelingError

AKA Popcorn Reviews

01-19-23

Uncut Gems is very good, but not quite great for me. Maybe it was the expectations I went into the film with, but I kept hearing about how the film was able to create an unrelenting level of tension throughout its entirety simply by some yelling and a main character who constantly makes his situation worse. When I watched the film though, save for one scene in the middle where Sandler was struggling to get the glass doors inside his shop to open and the final act, I didn't feel this much. Like, sure. There was a bit of action here and there and the loan sharks were certainly closing in on Sandler all throughout the film, but I only occasionally got the sense that Sandler was being overwhelmed (the door scene) and that he was a madman (the final act), and those were the elements which had the most tension. Still though, it's a very good film and when it bites, it bites down hard. As for the Safdies though, I prefer Good Time.

Moonrise Kingdom is a really good film with some wonderful animation and a quirky sense of humor. Nothing I've seen from Anderson has crossed over into great/favorite territory for me so far, but he's still a very aesthetically pleasing director to watch and I admire his films an awful lot.

kgaard

Msg

Registered User

01-19-23

I haven't seen Uncut Gems.

Wes Anderson is more miss than hit (basically his first two films and Grand Budapest) for me, and Moonrise Kingdom is one that missed. Fortunately for me there are lots of movies.

Harry Lime

BANNED FROM VIENNA

01-19-23

Seeing people post things like "Uncut Gems is very good but I prefer Good Time" has rekindled my hope that all is not lost.

Holden Pike

One Ornery Sumbitch

01-19-23

For any Moonrise Kingdom fans who don't know, its stars Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward have a cameo together in Jim Jarmusch's Paterson (2016) - a film I voted for that ain't gonna appear here.

Last edited by Holden Pike; 01-19-23 at 12:24 PM.

Miss Vicky

MoFo's Resident Bitch

01-19-23

I like a bit of quirkiness to my movies, usually, and I like movies with broken characters. But Wes Anderson's brand of quirk is just annoying and his characters aren't so much broken as they are incomplete. I've seen seven of his films and have only liked one - and it's not Moonrise Kingdom.

My aversion to Adam Sandler has thusfar prevented me from watching Uncut Gems.

Seen: 35/64
My Ballot:
7. Joker (#60)
11. The Man From Nowhere (#95)
14. Inside Out (#59)
20. Jojo Rabbit (2019) (#89)
25. Kitbull (One Pointer)

Reviews in My 2010s Countdown Preparation Thread

My Review for Moonrise Kingdom:

Originally Posted by Miss Vicky

Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)
Imdb

Date Watched: 9/19/16
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: The 11th MoFo Hall of Fame
Rewatch: No

This is my fifth Wes Anderson film and he has struck out with me every time. I don�t object to quirk. I don�t object to entertainment for the sake of entertainment. But there is just something about Anderson�s brand of filmmaking that fails to resonate with me time and time again.

His movies look good: Lots of bright colors and sharp images. The soundtracks are usually interesting. But his characters ruin it for me every single time. I don�t believe them. Flat out. No. People don�t talk this way. People don�t move this way. They are quirky for the sake of being quirky. Even within the context of Anderson�s bizarro movie worlds, I don�t believe his characters. When I don�t believe characters, I don�t care about them. When I don�t care about the characters, I get bored.

Moonrise Kingdom is no different from the other Wes Anderson films I�ve seen before. I don�t believe Sam. I don�t believe Suzy. I don�t believe the scout master. I don�t believe Suzy�s parents. I don�t believe the cop. And I don�t care about any of them so when the film attempts to strike an emotional chord, it only falls flat.

About the only praise I can give Moonrise Kingdom is that, while I didn�t care about any of its characters, I didn�t truly hate any of them either - though I did hate some of the scenes (lightning strike, anyone?) and found myself saying "F*** you, Wes Anderson" a time or two. Looking back at my rating for Rushmore, the last Anderson film I watched, I see I gave it a

. I must have been feeling really generous that day. I think I disliked this one a little less than I disliked that one, but I�m not feeling particularly generous this time.

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Daniel M

...

01-19-23

Two very good films which would be in my Top 100 for the decade. I would give them both

.

I don't have anything interesting to say really, I like all of Wes Anderson's films but there are a few I prefer over this. Gems was really a really good example of style matching content and comes from one of my favourite years of the decade.

54/64 seen.

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Iroquois

Welcome to the human race...

01-19-23

No votes. I watched Uncut Gems once and dug it - the frantic nature of its protagonist trying to stay half a step ahead of a seemingly endless army of enemies makes the prospect of revisiting it a difficult one, but I recently rewatched Good Time for what has to be at least the third time and now I'm thinking of revisiting it (as an aside, it is ridiculous that this went straight to Netflix in Australia for no good reason - meanwhile, Gunpowder Milkshake went straight to Netflix basically everywhere else in the world but got a theatrical release here so I don't know what was going on there). I've seen Moonrise Kingdom once and liked it well enough, though I wasn't blown away by it - granted, I was on a plane so viewing conditions were not ideal, much less for a Wes Anderson film. I'm sure if I ever get around to doing that full Anderson rewatch I keep talking about my opinion of it should improve.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Little Ash

he/him

01-19-23

But if it had been The Lighthouse & It's Such a Beautiful Day, it would have been an amazing hint.

I had actually forgotten the Rashomon comparison for The Social Network when I made the guess, so if it had been The Social Network and It's Such a Beautiful Day that also would have been an amazing hint for the reveal.

I guess we failed collectively on coordinating our votes.

Uncut Gems - I didn't vote for any Safdies, but I prefer Goodtime. Both are welcomed because I enjoy their intensity and tension. I guess I could comment on its placement, but "compared to what?" The thirties seem like a perfectly cromulent position.

Moonrise Kingdom - I run a bit hot and cold on Wed Anderson, but I also haven't really revisited any, even the ones I liked. I actually can't remember how I felt about this one. I seem to recall being positive on it.

I was aware of the kids showing up in Paterson. I did enjoy Paterson, though I generally like Jim Jarmusch. There is no Wes Anderson or Jim Jarmusch on my ballot. I was pressed for space.

Little Ash