TokeZa's Best of the Year List

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I have been struggling, trying to make a top 100, but it is simply impossible for me to narrow it down and rank the movies correctly. Even a top 10 is really hard. Then i figured i would a foreign film list, but again to hard to narrow it down. The only thing i can say at this point is that The Passion of Joan of Arc is my favorite film of all time.

Then i saw Tyler1 and Brodinskis best of the year list and that sounded like something for me. I love making lists, but it could also be very good for me to get suggestions about movies i have not seen from the respective year. I will post a new list every 1-2 weeks so i will have some time to watch essential films that i have not seen before.

When its feasible i will be doing separate lists for features, shorts and documentaries. I plan on doing a top 10 for most years and do a write-up about what i think off the respective year. Ill start of with 2012 and work my way down. My English is not that good so please bear with me.

Basically there is two perspectives in this for me. One is to show what movies i love, but the purpose is also to get to know some new movies from every year. Kind of like Donnie Darko's self-challenge thread. This is going to take some time but i hope you will enjoy.

As a small bonus here is my all time favorite music track by the Fire Engines.



Off we go!



2012:

1. Holy Motors by Leox Carax


2. Barbara by Christian Petzold


3. Leviathan by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel


4. Amour by Michael Haneke


5. Stemple Pass by James Benning



Nice start. My favourites from 2012 that you've mentioned are Holy Motors, Killing Them Softly and Django Unchained.

I would highly recommend The Master to you, which in my opinion is the best film of 2012.



Im sorry to say i thought was pretty mediocre and boring. It did not captivate me at all......but probably im in the minority in that regard.

3 films from 2012 im looking forward to seeing but havent seen yet is:







Here is a list of movies ive seen from 2011 in alphabetic order, if someone wants to recommend a movie.

50/50
Another Earth
The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye
Battle: Los Angeles
Bonsái
Contagion
Dark Horse
The Deep Blue Sea
Drive
From up on Poppy Hill
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
Hobo with a Shotgun
Human Centipede II (Full Sequence)
Into the Abyss
Last Days Here
Limitless
Melancholia
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Oslo, August 31st
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
A Separation
Side By Side
Source Code
Super 8
Take Shelter
This is Not a Film
The Tree of Life
The Turin Horse
Young Adult



In no particular order, listed as 2011 in imdb:

A Dangerous Method
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Hugo
The Interrupters
Midnight in Paris
Le Havre
Shame
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The Kid with a Bike
5 Broken Cameras
The Day He Arrives
Kill List
Abendland
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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."



I would add some notable animated films from 2011:

Makoto Shinkai's Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below (trailer:
)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica (well, it's a 2011 TV series that was later compiled into a 4 hour long movie and shown in theaters in 2012, so I would qualify it as a 2011 movie, trailer:
), IMO it is the best animation of this millennium.



I think most, if not all, of these have been spoken of positively on the site. The only two I can vouch for are Coriolanus and Attack The Block.


Coriolanus, The Lincoln Lawyer, Attack The Block, The Devil's Double, Bellflower, Miss Bala, Moneyball, We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Ides of March, Margin Call, The Descendants. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Albert Nobbs.
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5-time MoFo Award winner.



2011:

1. The Turin Horse by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky


2. Faust by Aleksandr Sokurov


3. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia by Nuri Bilge Ceylan


4. This is Not a Film by Jafar Panahi


5. A Separation by Asghar Farhadi



Big +rep for including Hobo With a Shotgun in your top ten. I also love Hugo, Drive, and Jiroreams of Sushi.
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Yeah, there's no body mutilation in it



2010:

1. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives by Apichatpong Weerasethakul


2. Aurora by Cristi Puiu


3. Certified Copy by Abbas Kiarostami


4. Mysteries of Lisbon by Raoul Ruiz


5. Tuesday, After Christmas by Radu Muntean



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Cool. Here's my year by year list. You can steal some recs from there if you like.

Cheers.
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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.



I added a section called 2013 so far in the top post and added two bonus movies from 2012... When i have more time and feel up to it ill add a few words about 2010 and 2013... maybe ill throw in a few words about each movie too...



2009:

1. Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino


2. White Material by Claire Denis


3. The Limits of Control by Jim Jarmusch


4. Hadewijch by Bruno Dumont


5. Antichrist by Lars von Trier



I'm curious to know why Aurora is your favourite film of 2010. It's utterly dull just observing a man walk around aimlessly for 3 hours. I do love contemporary contemplative cinema, but that film was just way too pointless for me.

Anyway, fantastic lists Tokeza.



I'm curious to know why Aurora is your favourite film of 2010. It's utterly dull just observing a man walk around aimlessly for 3 hours. I do love contemporary contemplative cinema, but that film was just way too pointless for me.

Anyway, fantastic lists Tokeza.
This is what i wrote in the foreign film thread:

This is my first encounter with Romanian New Wave films and what an experience it was. Brutal realism combined with long takes and a minimalist style makes it one of my biggest experiences in newer cinema. I am not a big reviewer but i can definitely recommend it to people who are interested in the dark side of human relations.

Michael J Anderson from Tativille explains it a lot better than me: "By virtue of one of the year's more comprehensive reinventions of film language, where a series of unmarked events - including a pair of double homicides - unfold within visually occluded beehive spaces, without the aid of narrative exposition, Puiu's essentially experimental Aurora pushes the default realism of the new Romanian cinema into truly novel (minimalist) territory. Puiu's Crime and Punishment has almost unparalleled staying power."



Gangster Rap is Shakespeare for the Future
This is my first encounter with Romanian New Wave films and what an experience it was.
Is it still your only encounter? Because Puiu's other available feature, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is magnificent if you haven't seen it already.
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Mubi



No i have seen some of the other films of the Romanian New Wave.

I really really want to see The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. I just dont think i have the time right now. I just bought a pass for the CPH : DOX festival. So the next weeks itll be documentaries and a few art films curated by Ai Weiwei.