The MoFo Top 100 of the 2010s Countdown

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Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Arrival is easily my favorite Villeneuve. Here's what I wrote about it after I watched it many years ago:

Best Villeneuve! It started so unimaginatively standard that I feared it will be yet another boring film of its kind, but it gets interesting and original very quickly! Sure, all the linguistics may be one big bull, but after all, it's been used just to present an idea or prove a point (just like the kangaroo parable from the movie). This is one of these sci-fi flicks that will try to make you question your way of thinking, that is, not ethically, or on any given subject, but the very way you think, or use your brain. The idea of language as well as thinking presented in this film is abstract and that's what makes it so appealing. On the Nature of Daylight never ceases to amaze me how well it goes with almost every scene.
The Irishman is my second-least favorite Scorsese (after The Wolf of Wall Street)
Oh dear.


The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) -




It was only 3 hours, but felt like 7 hour long Satantango, only three times worse. I thought Scorsese can't make a film worse than Goodfellas, but he proved me wrong. A disappointment. Great Di Caprio performance, though.
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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.



Stats: Pit Stop #9





Decade Breakdown
  • 2010 = 11
  • 2011 = 9
  • 2012 = 12
  • 2013 = 7
  • 2014 = 11
  • 2015 = 12
  • 2016 = 8
  • 2017 = 6
  • 2018 = 5
  • 2019 = 9

Although the spread continues to be fairly even, we have 2015 again at the top, just like when things started... only that it is tied with 2012. Also, 2010 and 2014 with 11 standing close by. 2017 also made a nice push in this batch, with 3 entries, after being in the back of the pack for most of the countdown, but not enough.


Repeating Directors
  • Martin Scorsese = 4
  • Denis Villeneuve = 4
  • Gareth Evans = 2
  • Anthony and Joe Russo = 2
  • Taika Waititi = 2
  • Richard Linklater = 2
  • Alejandro González Iñarritu = 2
  • Joel and Ethan Coen = 2
  • Christopher Nolan = 2
  • Robert Eggers = 2
  • Quentin Tarantino = 2
  • Paul Thomas Anderson = 2
  • Don Hertzfeldt = 2

As expected, Scorsese and Villeneuve sit at the top with 4 each, but only Villeneuve has a real chance of getting one more in the countdown, which is Blade Runner 2049. However, after Arrival coming in now, I have my doubts about BR2049 making it. Also, three new entries to the bunch: Tarantino, PTA, and Don Hertzfeldt.


Genre Breakdown
  • Action = 13
  • Romantic comedy = 3
  • Romantic drama = 2
  • Thriller = 12
  • Crime = 6
  • Comedy mystery = 1
  • Science fiction = 9
  • Comedy drama = 11
  • Horror comedy = 2
  • Drama = 17
  • Horror = 4
  • Western = 4
  • Fantasy = 3
  • Documentary = 1
  • Experimental = 1

Dramas have separated from the pack again with four entries in this last batch, while action and thrillers remain in second and third place.


Shoplifters becomes the fourteenth "foreign" film to join the group, while It's Such a Beautiful Day becomes the sixth animated film to make it.
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Another random list factoid... the 17 point gap between The Master and Arrival is only the second biggest in the countdown, after the 19 point gap between It's Such a Beautiful Day and Phantom Thread.



A system of cells interlinked
I think Blade Runner 2049 is a lock for Top 10 at this point. Simply because it is well-liked enough on the site to definitely make the Top 100 of the decade - in other words, no way it misses the entire countdown, so the only option left is that we see it soon ( I doubt it makes Top 5).
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I think Blade Runner 2049 is a lock for Top 10 at this point. Simply because it is well-liked enough on the site to definitely make the Top 100 of the decade - in other words, no way it misses the entire countdown, so the only option left is that we see it soon ( I doubt it makes Top 5).
Fingers crossed!



























that it doesn't make it



Looks like I will have five in the top ten, which of course makes me feel like a populist fraud. All you mofos with lamenting that you only have ten movies on the countdown, I’m jealous of that kind of individuality.
I only have eight. I would've been nine if I hadn't cut Drive at the last minute though.



Of all the Arrival reviews here at MoFo, I rated it the lowest. I'm beginning to feel like the Rex Reed of MoFo

My review:

Arrival (2016)

I love sci fi!...and I bet if I watched Arrival at the theater on the big screen with an impressive sound system, this would've gave me goose bumps, in the same way that Gravity (2013) wowed people in the theaters. But I watched this on my relatively small 46" TV screen without fancy a sound system...and I wasn't impressed. It was the same old first contact story with mysterious aliens visiting Earth, and humans getting nervous and then the military acting like idiot, blunder heads. I was hoping for something more intelligent than this from director Denis Villeneuve.

I mean some of the scenes with an ignorant military was so pot boiler cliche that it made me laugh out loud. I don't for a minute believe the U.S. military or any world power is going to look at an advance alien ship that lands on Earth, freak out and decide to attack them. Yeah, I know it adds drama but it's improvable and been done a zillion times before.

The strong point of the film and it's a very strong point is: The way the aliens look (their design and movement), the way we see them (the camera angle), the way the scenes are set up and most impressively is what we don't see of them. That's important as the mind can generate a much richer image than any CG effect can. The alien encounter scenes are among the best I've ever seen in a sci fi. But that's not enough to make up for a weakly contrived plot.

-



When does the musical countdown start again?

Here's my ballot:

1. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
2. Charlotte's Web
3. The Nightmare Before Christmas



Of all the Arrival reviews here at MoFo, I rated it the lowest. I'm beginning to feel like the Rex Reed of MoFo
Do you mean only tagged reviews? Because I rated it 2.5 but I don't tag my write-ups.



Of all the Arrival reviews here at MoFo, I rated it the lowest. I'm beginning to feel like the Rex Reed of MoFo

My review:

Arrival (2016)

I love sci fi!...and I bet if I watched Arrival at the theater on the big screen with an impressive sound system, this would've gave me goose bumps, in the same way that Gravity (2013) wowed people in the theaters. But I watched this on my relatively small 46" TV screen without fancy a sound system...and I wasn't impressed. It was the same old first contact story with mysterious aliens visiting Earth, and humans getting nervous and then the military acting like idiot, blunder heads. I was hoping for something more intelligent than this from director Denis Villeneuve.

I mean some of the scenes with an ignorant military was so pot boiler cliche that it made me laugh out loud. I don't for a minute believe the U.S. military or any world power is going to look at an advance alien ship that lands on Earth, freak out and decide to attack them. Yeah, I know it adds drama but it's improvable and been done a zillion times before.

The strong point of the film and it's a very strong point is: The way the aliens look (their design and movement), the way we see them (the camera angle), the way the scenes are set up and most impressively is what we don't see of them. That's important as the mind can generate a much richer image than any CG effect can. The alien encounter scenes are among the best I've ever seen in a sci fi. But that's not enough to make up for a weakly contrived plot.

-
That's about what I rated it on Letterboxd.



Although I generally love Villeneuve's work (ftr, he's the most represented director on my list), I didn't particularly care for Arrival when I saw it at the time.
I think I need to give it a revisit.



That's about what I rated it on Letterboxd.
My rating would've been like a
for Arrival if the military sub plot had been left out. It wasn't needed either as there was enough drama without that sub plot. What was you major complaint or concern about Arrival? Or was it just not your thing?