The MoFo Top 100 of the 2010s Countdown

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That SNL skit wasn't completely accurate!!!
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Never seen Silver Linings Playbook.

Inception is a neat blockbuster type film but not enough is made about how it totally rips off 'Paprika', and I have to mark it down on that.

No votes.




Welcome to the human race...
No votes. I've seen Silver Linings Playbook once. Trying to compile a list of my least favourite filmmakers is not something I feel like spending too much time and energy on doing, but David O. Russell is usually the first name to come to mind when I do find myself thinking about the concept - with the exception of Three Kings, I've disliked everything I've seen of his and Silver Linings Playbook is no exception with its off-kilter take on the rom-com. I've seen Inception at least two or three times and think it's one of Nolan's better films due to being a novel enough variation on the heist film (though the Paprika comparisons are more than warranted). Still, not something I revisit with any regularity.
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



I had a feeling it would bother you lmao.
I know I'm in the minority, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a terrible, TERRIBLE film. Here is a link to my Letterboxd review, but here is the closing paragraph...

a mediocre script, cringe-inducing lines, an off-putting and awkward direction, and a whole bunch of generic clichés.
Inception, on the other hand, was a pretty cool theater experience. I really dug it back then, but like I said in that podcast I did with @Yoda, it's not a film I've found myself thinking a lot about or wanting to revisit. It was often on cable TV and I just never felt the urge to revisit it, so take from that what you may.

Obviously, it didn't make my list, but I had Silver Linings at Playbook at #3.



Ha! Here's where I'm at, including the chances for the rest of my list...

Seen: 57/76

My ballot:  


Just readjusted those chances, jeez!
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MoFo Reviewers

Silver Linings Playbook

Russell's direction, which also got him an Oscar nomination, is on the money, particularly in his depiction of the the other characters in Pat's orbit. It was so fascinating to watch the reaction of people in Pat's Philadelphia neighborhood to his return...every time the slightest noise comes from the house, all of the neighbors pop out of their windows to see what's going on. There's a great moment where Pat briefly returns to the school where he taught in an effort to get his job back and we see a teacher literally run into the building in terror when she sees him coming. Again, it forces the viewer to wonder what the hell this guy did that prompted this kind of reaction from a former co-worker. We notice throughout that people are either frightened of Pat or walk on eggshells around him and this is done without dialogue for the most part, and that can only be credited to evocative direction.
Read the full review here.

Inception

Anyway, that's about as much griping as I can muster. It's still a really good movie. Music is utilized very well both in terms of pacing and mood, some CG never looked quite right, but there are also practical effects I still wonder how they accomplished, and altogether it delivers an experience that's intellectual stimulating, plays with ideas I love to think about, and rounds the whole thing out with an exciting and emotionally charged ending that makes me so desperately want things to work out in the end, which is the best impression I think you can leave on viewers when it comes to any fictional conflict.
Read the full review here.



I enjoyed Silver Linings Playbook plenty when I saw it, but it's not a film I felt had a lot of staying power. I seem to have that kind of reaction to all David O. Russell films. Always worth watching, almost never worth rewatching.



Ooh, I'm not a big fan of these two films. Both directors seem to me like those whose reach exceeds their grasp. Still, they've acheived these lofty spots without my help!



Trying to compile a list of my least favourite filmmakers is not something I feel like spending too much time and energy on doing, but David O. Russell is usually the first name to come to mind when I do find myself thinking about the concept - with the exception of Three Kings, I've disliked everything I've seen of his and Silver Linings Playbook is no exception with its off-kilter take on the rom-com.
My experience with him is limited to two, maybe three films, but yeah, Three Kings is definitely one I enjoy a lot, maybe even love. But the whiplash from that to Silver Linings Playbook, at least to me, is dizzying.



mark f

Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012)
+
Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
+


I wrote a little about this in the Inception thread, so I'm not going to rehash that here. I think this is another film which is overlong and overly-talky (especially the first part), but I found it entertaining and certainly easy to follow. Sarah and I spent at least two hours talking about the flick afterwards so it's far more thought-provoking to me than The White Ribbon. I still think that Sarah's interpretation of the ending is the best I've heard, and she posted that over in the Inception thread too.



A system of cells interlinked
I remember liking Silver Linings Playbook quite a bit when it first came out, but damned if I can recall much of it now. Never even crossed my mind when compiling my ballot. I guess that means i need to watch it again to see how it holds up.

Inception was on my list at #22

My love for the film has fallen off a bit these days, but I still think it's great, even if just for its crazy ambition in attempting a heist film in someone's head that runs at multiple speeds in time. I like all the players, the phenomenal score, mind-bending effects, and slick production values. I spent a fair amount of time thinking about it after I saw it, ultimately deciding that it is perhaps best left without a definitive solution to its final moments and shots. I still watch it from time to time, and enjoy it every time. If I was compiling my ballot sometime around 2015, Inception would have been much higher, but as I said, it has fallen a bit over the years.

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Seen both, like neither.

Inception is a weird one for me. I loved it when it first came out. Watched it a time or two after that and still loved it. Then I pretty much forgot about it for many years until I rewatched it while preparing for this countdown. I HATED it. Complete 180.

Silver Linings Playbook was boring and the characters sucked. I must've been in a very generous mood when I wrote it up and rated it a 3+.

Seen: 40/78
My Ballot:
7. Joker (#60)
8. Django Unchained (#27)
11. The Man From Nowhere (#95)
14. Inside Out (#59)
20. Jojo Rabbit (#89)
25. Kitbull (One Pointer)

Reviews in My 2010s Countdown Preparation Thread

My Review For Silver Linings Playbook:


Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012)
Imdb

Date Watched: 4/06/16
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: I was bored and it was on Netflix
Rewatch: No


I've heard lots of great things about this movie, but there just wasn't anything there that piqued my interest so it wasn't exactly a priority. While I think Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Deniro have talent, neither has ever been a deciding factor in whether or not I want to watch a film. I'm indifferent to Bradley Cooper. As to David O'Russell? I've watched two of his other films - I Heart Huckabees and American Hustle - and hated them both. Though the casting of Marky Mark in the former and Christian Bale in the latter didn't help the situation for either one.

The cast was kind of a mixed bag for me. Lawrence turned in a solid performance (Oscar worthy, though? I don't know about that). Robert DeNiro was excellent in his more understated role and, ultimately, I found his character as a father struggling to juggle the stress of his own problems and those of his bipolar adult son to be the most likable. The best I can say for Chris Tucker is that he wasn't too annoying and was mostly forgettable as the token black man (telling Bradley Cooper to dance "with soul" and "black it up." Seriously? ). Cooper himself was as bland as the raisin bran he orders for dinner. I felt nothing at all for his character beyond how his actions affected his father and Tiffany. How he managed an Oscar nomination for this is beyond me. But the academy generally sucks anyway.

Ultimately, this little romance about two really f---ed up people who find love (while being surrounded by a bunch of only slightly less f---ed up people) was entertaining enough for a single watch - and was miles better than either of the other two O'Russell films I've subjected myself to - but aside from a couple of performances, I really don't understand the praise that is lavished on it. Oh well.

+
My Review For Inception:


Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
(Rewatch)

When I was compiling my watchlist for this countdown, I threw Inception on there as kind of an afterthought. I'd vaguely remembered really liking it and it had been quite some time since I'd last seen it so I figured I was due for a rewatch.

Well, my watchlist ended up being over 100 movies long and for whatever reason this one kept getting passed up until tonight when I finally decided to give it another go because what the hell, I'm determined to complete my watchlist and one of the things that I did rather vividly recall from this movie was just how good both Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy looked in it.

Well, it's a damn good thing for that bit of eye candy because this time around that was just about the only thing I truly enjoyed and this was a 2.5 hour long chore to get through. I did not give a flying shit about any of these characters or the story, the premise of entering the dreams/subconscious of another person has been done multiple times before - and in ways that were far more effective and memorable for me - and the whole damn thing just felt incredibly slick and cold.

After finally getting to the end, I sat down at my computer and did what I've done for every film I've rewatched for this countdown - search through my old posts to find what I'd said about it when I watched it previously. There wasn't a whole lot to find though - mostly just really short posts in other people's personal favorites lists and random other threads where I had said I liked it but didn't really elaborate - and then I stumbled across a rating from a rewatch in December of 2010 where I gave it a 4.5 out of 5, but didn't actually say anything about it. WHAT THE HELL? I am stunned. I am sitting here racking my brain trying to figure out WTF happened in 2010 to make me love this movie and the only plausible explanation I can come up with is that Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy are really hot and that, in 2010, I had not yet watched Paprika.




Haven't seen Silver Lining.

Not a fan of Inception at all. I watched it twice, and everything fell apart the second time. Nothing worked. It's just a bunch of stuff.



And yeah, I like Inception less now than I did when I first saw it. It's good, it's audacious, it deserves to be remembered. I think he's made a lot of stuff cinephiles would love if it weren't as famous, didn't do as well, as if he's being penalized for managing to make trippier concepts more mainstream. I go the other way, I think it deserves a little extra credit.

Anyway, it doesn't hold up as well as most of his other films, and I think it pulls a punch or two in the final act, and that stops it from being great. But it was a very enjoyable experience and, like it or not, it's kind of a landmark film for the reasons I'm alluding to above.



Another "seen both, voted for neither" for me. I quite liked Silver Linings Playbook but am somewhat surprised to see it land this high. Inception was on my long-list but I tend to waver on exactly how much I enjoy it and it was a reasonably easy cut for me.

Seen: 63/78 (Own: 38/78)
My ballot:  


Faildictions  



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I mean I'm a fan of Silver Linings Playbook at David O Russell in general. But for it to appear here at 24 is absolutely criminal to some of these films that are going to miss out. Hell, with this making it, I feel there's like 40 films that could still end up making this damn thing, because I honestly had no inkling that this thing even had a prayer at this point and then voila!

Inception was on my list at 19. That was pretty much a gimme to make this list.

At this point 101-110 is just as suspenseful as the top 22





For consistency sake Inception should really be moved back one spot as it placed at #24 on both the MoFo Top 100 of the Millennium and the MoFo Top 100 Science Fiction Films.
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Silver Linings Playbook - I just looked at it and have assumed, "not for me." So, haven't seen.


Inception - I was on a Nolan high around when it came out, coming off of The Dark Knight and The Prestige, but then there was something about The Dark Knight Rises and Inception that kind of soured me on him (I think in both cases I had the experience of liking the films in the theater, but the more I thought about them in the subsequent following couple of months, the less I liked them. A lot less). That was the final Nolan film I've seen. I think I have issues with his ideas/portrayals of love strike me as... off. (A romanticized ideal of an abstract person that doesn't evoke the actual interactions with a real person, causing them to lose any type of emotional oomph for me, which is a problem when a film feels like it wants to be centered around the importance of those emotions. But that might just be me.)