The MoFo Top 100 of the 2010s Countdown

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Trivia

Incendies - Although shot in Jordan, the Middle Eastern country in which the film takes place was deliberately left unnamed. Some viewers have noted the word "Palestine" visible on a window in Nawal's school, but the Christian-Muslim conflict would seem to imply the setting is Lebanon, the birthplace of playwright Wajdi Mouawad.
The Lighthouse - Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson stated that they barely spoke a word to each other on set and were too exhausted to hang out together after a day of shooting because filming was so physically demanding due to the miserable weather conditions. While Pattinson stayed at a normal hotel with the rest of the film crew during the shoot, Dafoe lived in a little fisherman's cottage in solitude. On set, on the other hand, Pattinson would tend to eat and stay by himself during filming breaks, while Dafoe stayed with the crew. Both stated that they liked each other very much as soon as they had their first real conversation a few months later.



MoFo Reviewers

Incendies

During the second half of the film the brother has a large part when he starts helping his sister retrace their mother’s past, but for the most part I did not feel like he made much of an impact in the movie at all. The twins start discovering stuff about their mother that they would never have imagined and parts of their childhood that they were much too young to remember. I really think this is an amazing story of what a mother will do for her children as well as the lengths the children will go to too make their mother’s last wishes happen no matter what obstacles come up along the way. There is a bit of violence in the movie and it is the kind that is quite disturbing as most of it happens to very young children, but I am sure a lot of that kind of violence especially in that part of the world happened much too often in real life. This is an amazing movie, a very moving movie, and a twist ending that I did not see coming and it blew my mind, everyone should watch this.
Read the full review here.

The Lighthouse

Simply put - and yes, I know, this phrase gets thrown around a lot - but this is a modern horror classic. Everything I love about movies like this one, whether it's atmosphere, claustrophobia, dark humor, ambiguity, etc. are all here and Eggers does them even better than he did in The Witch, which I also loved. Forget umm...whoever it is who won the Academy Awards for actor and supporting actor in 2019: Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe gave the male performances of that year. It's the kind of movie where it's entirely possible that each sequence is someone's favorite (it's tremendously hard to pick just one, but Dafoe's highly descriptive demands about how clean the floorboards and nails should be still makes me laugh). Oh, and I guarantee that you will never look at a seagull the same way again.
Read the full review here.



Incendies is a strong entry, and easily on my Villeneuve Top 5. It didn't really hit me as much as I was expecting, but it's still a powerful film, nicely acted and neatly directed.

The Lighthouse is one of *those* films that you have to just let yourself get caught up with. Haunting, weird, darkly comical. I saw it twice in two days because I just couldn't get it out of my mind. Both Pattinson and Dafoe are excellent and Eggers' direction is gorgeous. It was one of my last cuts.


So, here's where I'm at, including the chances for the rest of my list...

Seen: 53/72

My ballot:  


Just adjusted most of my chance percentages. Yikes!
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mark f

Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2010)
+
The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers, 2019)
6.5/10

Two lighthouse keepers (Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe) grow more crazed with each passing scene.



I haven't seen Incendies.

I've seen The Lighthouse, and I like it quite a bit. It's the kind of film which, though I'm not sure I fully understand, the mood and the visuals were more than enough to keep me engaged and part of me still felt changed by the time I finished it. It didn't make my ballot, but I'm glad it made it this high on the list.



Incendies was my #2 and is my favourite Villeneuve that I've seen (Enemy and Dune being the big two omissions) which quite possibly surprises me more than most considering my normal proclivity for sci-fi and thrillers. I prefer Eggers' The Lighthouse to his The VVitch but both irk me somewhat in terms of the language/diction employed to one degree or another which means neither will ever be anywhere close to 'favourite' territory for me.

Seen: 57/72 (Own: 36/72)
My ballot:  


Faildictions  



I've seen Incendies twice now. I think it's good, but I also think its ending is a bit too convenient and implausible. It also doesn't move me the way a story like this should.

After its many mentions in this thread, I watched The Lighthouse a little while back. Let's just say that frequent farting, Robert Pattinson masturbating, seagull murder, and mermaid sex is not my kind of thing.

No votes.

Seen: 37/72
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 Most Recent Review For Incendies


Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2010)
(Rewatch)

I first watched this movie several years back and was quite moved by its depictions of the cruelty of wartime and of the atrocities committed in the name of religion and retribution, but was a bit put off by its twist ending that felt rather contrived.

I'm not sure what happened today, but I felt very little while rewatching this and the strongest emotion I had was annoyance at the implausibility of its coincidences. I still respect the look of the film and the way that it shows the horrific acts that happen in these situations, so I'll only downgrade its rating a little from my previous one, but this movie is definitely not getting my vote.

My Review for The Lighthouse:


The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers, 2019)

WTF did I just watch?

This movie defies categorization and it defies description. I also don't really know what the hell I actually thought of it. It's repulsive, it's intriguing, it's bizarre, it's confusing, and it's funny. It took me a good long while to get into it and I nearly shut if off a few times (in no small part because of a certain character's flatulence), but once I did get into it I couldn't look away. That said, I wouldn't go so far as to say I enjoyed it. That doesn't seem like quite the right word. I mean, I liked some of the imagery and I thought both Dafoe and Pattinson's performances were impressive, but mostly my experience could be described as horrified fascination.

I'll give it a positive rating because I think that the film accomplishes its goals and I very much respect it, but this is definitely not something I could see ever becoming a favorite (nor do I suspect I'll ever rewatch it) and as such it would not have gotten my vote if I'd seen it sooner.




Since the movie is called The Lighthouse and not Lighthouse, I won't give you the point.

jk
Oh, I naturally assumed they meant this 2014 offering



Finally! My ballot is of use!!! "Yer Fond of me Lobster ain't ye"

My #2. - Incendies (2010).
A remarkable film which I think was my first Villeneuve film, either that or Polytechnique. Incendies is dark, thrilling film-making that I think deserves it's spot here. Will always be my favourite Villeneuve and such is the love I have for this film, I own the out of print boutique Plain archive Blu Ray .:



My #3. - The Lighthouse (2019)
Again just amazing film-making and Robert Eggers best film to date. The research he puts into his work is admirable. From Greek mythology tropes to language used. Grade A Film-making. Plus, two of the best performances in recent memory. Superb film that I'm glad to see quite high on this list. Yay!




A really good pair that are in need of rewatches. Especially anxious to rewatch Lighthouse.

I knew Villenueve was popular, but I guess I didn’t realize he was quite this popular.
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Since the movie is called The Lighthouse and not Lighthouse, I won't give you the point.

jk
I'm hoping for second place this time. I'm kind of kicking myself for not thinking deeper on the Incendies clue.



This is Villeneuve's third film in the countdown after Prisoners and Sicario (tying with the irrelevant Scorsese for the top spot), and Eggers' second film after The Witch.



Both are very good movies that fell short of being contenders for my ballot. At this point, I'm thinking I will only have 6 of mine appear.



A system of cells interlinked
I've not seen The Lighthouse yet, but plan on seeing it soon.

Incendies was on my list at #7.

My wife and I were both blown away by this film. As soon as it ended, my wife turned to me an said "Let's watch that again." This is a rarity for her, and shows how much of an impression it made on her. It was a fairly recent watch, so me putting up this high on my list was perhaps some recency bias, but I wanted to give it as many points as possible. This is some heavy subject matter with some excellent performances all around. Not my favorite Villeneuve, but still top tier stuff.



Oh, I also watched Uncut Gems over the weekend. I think I liked Good Time a tad more, but it was still excellent.
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Big fan of The Lighthouse, obviously. Thanks for sharing my review (and thanks to the mods for approving it even though it's way too short and trivial to be approved)! It's #8 on my list.

Not much else to add that it provides what may be my favorite way to feel in a movie: not sure whether you're supposed be terrified or bust a gut laughing, which it does frequently and oh so well. Also, the analysis section of the movie's Wikipedia page is a good read, but I recommend reading it only if you've watched it. I figured Eggers was at least partly inspired by the Blaine Pascal quote, "all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone" (times two), but he was apparently inspired by other philosophers/psychiatrists.