The MoFo Top 100 of the 2010s Countdown

I hate Three Billboards, which was a huge disappointment with all the pedigree involved. I don’t really remember why this far removed. After responding to Banshees so well this year I am definitely up for a rewatch at some point.

Silence was my 14. Gorgeous film to look at and fantastic performances. Two of my favorite spiritual films ever made were in this decade, one probably won’t be showing till the top ten. Nothing affirms by beliefs more than watching other believers wrestle with their faith and own brokenness in a terribly broken world. This movie really hits me emotionally. Fantastic ending. Possibly second favorite ending of all time behind There Will Be Blood. Really pleased to see it this high. Thought it may not make it at this point.

__________________
Letterboxd

I should've gotten 3 Billboards. It was my 11. I saw it once years ago when it hit streaming. Mom played it for me and my brothers, and I thought the storytelling was brilliant. I used to consider this better than Fargo.

Old Ballot:
4. Endgame
8. A Separation
11. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
15. Gone Girl
18. Inside Out
22. Black Swan

New Ballot:
4. Endgame
8. A Separation
11. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
15. Gone Girl
16. The Shape of Water
19. Inside Out
23. Midnight in Paris
24. Black Swan

Seen 33/58

Would you stomp on the cross?

__________________
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.

Kind of the whole point of the movie, right? Most Christians would say no, but for how long and under what circumstances. Does that mean anything in the end? It’s a heart position that is important. That’s what make that ending so beautiful.

Three Billboards is very compelling, with a unique chemistry of its heroes.

Haven’t seen Silence

__________________

Yeah, denying to stomp the cross could be even seen as pride (one of the seven deadly sins), i.e. how you're making a martyr out of yourself.

30/58 seen
4/58 on my ballot
John Wick saw it. Not on my ballot. I don’t like modern action movies. I am not interested in the ballet of ridiculous fights that could never happen. They have become fantasies. They have no real grit and they do not move me.

The Act of Killing I have never heard of this movie

Logan I don’t think I saw this. I know I saw one Wolverine movie. Maybe this was it. Whatever? Not on my list.

Midnight in Paris I avoid Woody Allen. He creeps me out.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri I loved this movie. I was definitely on my list. It was my #2. After I had seen it, I told everyone that I had just seen the Oscar winner for best picture of the year. I was wrong. But I was enthusiastic.

Silence I didn’t see this and have no idea what it is about.

We're at 58.

I know I had to look it up. Will edit.

I've seen both #43. Silence and #44. The Three Billboards, alas both left outside my fixed top 60 of the decade. I guess, I can make room for them around #90 in my list.

#43. Silence - I have mixed feelings. It is a good movie and at the same time it presented not very pleasant things about the western world. Somehow, I felt guilty after I saw it. + (63/100)

#44. The Three Billboards - high hopes I've had for this. It turned out that the trailer is the best thing here.
Yes, it turned out that the great idea about the billboards, they've advertised all around, was covered in the first ten minutes of the movie and the filmmakers did nothing to develop it further. Instead, the film went to be an average boring cliché filmed hundreds of times in the history of cinema. + (63/100)

---

__________________
"Population don't imitate art, population imitate bad television." W.A.
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." M.T.

Three Billboards was a bit of a mixed bag for me.

I haven't seen Silence yet, but probably should get to it soon.

And that's the second movie now I forgot to include in my list.
The other being Cabin In The Woods at 88.

3 Billboards is insanely good.
The thing that really hit me hard though is Mildred's speech to the Priest about "joining a gang". I have a similar mentality as Mildred, but toward a different group of people, and Mildred tearing the guy to pieces about faux morality really, really made an impact.

If I'd remembered, it would prob have been around the 10-15 mark in my list.

__________________

I've seen both. Neither made my list.

Three Billboards got off to a strong start as Frances McDormand's prickly character (can you blame her, though) demands answers from a beleaguered sheriff (Woody Harrelson) who has his own issues to deal with. And then there's the cop played by Sam Rockwell who tortured an African American prisoner who plays a key role throughout the film. But the film started to fall flat in the second half as Rockwell's character rises and McDormand's character falls. The whole thing felt a bit too coincidental and contrived. I'd marginally recommend it for its first half and solid performances by all concerned.



Silence was thisclose to making the list proper, but ended up on the outside in with both the main list and the honorable mentions. You know what, scratch that...both are now honorable mentions (with Midnight in Paris being the other)! I found Silence thought provoking and fascinating in its reveal of what life was like in 15th century Japan. Sure, Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson seem like unusual choices for Portuguese priests. And the accents are intermittent. But you won't feel the runtime as you wonder to yourself...do I have what it takes to keep the faith under more than hostile circumstances? If others suffered due to me insisting on my faith, is it more honorable to give in and betray it? One of last year's gems.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Silence (2016)
9. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
10.
11.
12.
13. Logan (2017)
14. It Follows (2015)
15. Ex Machina (2015)
16. Deadpool (2016)
17.
18.
19.
20. Nightcrawler (2014)
21.
22.
23. Hereditary (2018)
24.
25.



So far not a bad list but it's pretty clear the paths that the list is going in,


.Midnight in Paris, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Prisoners, Knives Out, and John Wick were all films I cut to make room for my final list

Silence was my number 4. It's a hauntingly beautiful masterpiece with powerful performances, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is excellent, but it just missed my ballot.

Seen: 55/58

Like several of McDormand's films, this picture was over rated IMO. Here's some commentary from 5 years ago:

Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Evidently "Three Billboards" has become the official "in" movie at this time. And because of the promise from this superb cast, anticipation built as the opening credits concluded. However a mild gnawing suspicion soon formed in the back of my mind when most of the dialogue was littered with "F" words. Hardly a sentence could be delivered without generous portions of the word in every conceivable grammatical usage: noun, adjective, adverb, other. It's as if at the script meetings, a line could not be approved unless it contained a minimum of three "F" usages. Is it that we are tasked with believing that this is common small town speech; or is it that the use of the word must be included in any modern progressive banter? Its prevalence gradually came to be like fingernails scraping on a blackboard. It was doubly annoying after just recently watching I, Tonya, which suffered under the same handicap.

The film has two strong attractions: 1. a heavenly alluring title, and, 2. a cast of heavyweight actors. Unfortunately the movie was basically a clever plot device searching for a believable story to go along with it. Reportedly writer/director Martin McDonagh saw similar billboards regarding a crime somewhere in the southeastern U.S., and decided to write a story using the incidence. But having introduced the billboards, the screenplay soon abandoned the title, the billboards, and their usefulness.



Hitchcock stated to Francois Truffaut that in film, "Whatever is said instead of being shown is lost upon the viewer." In this case we are not shown the crime, and there is minimal description of it. So on good faith alone we are supposed to understand why the McDormand character has turned into a miserable, monomaniacal, wretch, whose sole purpose in life has become to embarrass, then terrorize an entire town-- but without justification.

In order to continue the film's shaky plot, they simply switched the focus of Mildred's rage to a dumb, hackneyed racist (what else?) deputy sheriff. Despite the character's triteness, he at least provided a suitable living breathing foil on which to base most of the rest of the movie.

Credit must be given to the fine performances by McDormand, Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, and the inestimable John Hawkes, along with a first rate supporting cast.

But it was the screen play and dialogue that came up short. Several characters complete 2 or 3 major personality changes. Rockwell's deputy sheriff alone transformed from a moronic bigoted dufus to a sharp caring sleuth in the space of about 45 minute's screen time.

In the process many of the usual trite Hollywood cliches were featured: a mother enraged over her daughter's senseless killing (you go, girl!); the hick racist deputy; the crotch kick; a dwarf explaining

that dwarfs are in fact real people; the new black replacement sheriff (who looked like he stepped off the appellate bench) to can the deputy and institute racial equality; the ogre ex-husband takes up with a younger woman; and the like. One looses count. And perhaps the writers did not know that pancreatic cancer does not cause coughing up blood.

In the end, the newly enlightened pairing of Mildred and the reformed deputy decide to go ahead and hunt to kill a man who they presume must have raped someone at some time. After all the daughter's killer had not yet been found, so someone deserves to die, right? But we're left with the question: will they really do it? Would this ending fit better on some other film?

Evidently this is all acceptable under the "black comedy" distinction. When the writers do not commit to credibility, anything goes. However in this case there was very little comedy, and the black tended more towards gray.

Doc's rating: 6 of 10, based on the acting.

1. Room (97)
2.
3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (44)
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. Jojo Rabbit (89)
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22. Inside Out (59)
23.
24.
25.


Still need to see:


76. Shutter Island
66. Before Midnight (& Sunset)
57: The Hunt
55: Nightcrawler
47: The Act of Killing

Hey, Speling

__________________

Hints:

42.



41.

__________________
IMDb
Letterboxd

42: Locke