Rushfield Babylon
Month
Over at BuzzFeed, the entertainment group recorded our highly controversial group consensus of the ten best films of the year, but as is the custom of this blog, I need to deliver my complete ranking before we can all put the sad experience of this year behind us.
Many out there are calling this a great year in film. To which I say, phooey. Or more specifically, there are very few what I would call All Time Great Films this year. There are a lot of very good films. The bottom half of my top ten is pretty crowded and a lot of others could have made it in there. But when I look at my top five from the last few years, almost none of these would be on it. To put it another way, when we do our top tens of the decade in 2019, I wouldn’t be surprised if nothing from this year is on it.
A few notes. There is one film - Margaret - that probably technically came out last year, but barely and I didn’t get to see it until this year, so I’m putting it on this year’s list and you can’t stop me. There are also a number of films I haven’t seen yet that I suspect might make the top rank - Amour, Les Mis, End of Watch, Compliance, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia - to name a few. I’m tempted to put them all on my top anyway. But ethics forbid, sadly.
Some of the results on this list may shock you. You may look at this and think I have lost my mind. But I can assure you, this is, in fact, that exact order that this year’s films are in. If you think I am wrong about any of it, I suggest for your own sake that you hold your tongue for 7 or 8 years until you see how foolish and misguided your harebrained opinions were and save yourself the indignity of having to apologize to me than and admit that I was right and you were wrong.
Also, in each section, they are in alphabetical order, not ranked.
So here they are. Enjoy yourself
THE BEST
Anna Karenina
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Dark Knight Rises
The Impostor
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The Kid With the Bicycle
Lincoln
Margaret
Silver Linings Playbook
This is 40
Zero Dark Thirty
VERY GOOD
Argo, Cabin in the Woods, Django Unchained, For a Good Time Call, The Gray, Headhunters, Killer Joe, Liberal Arts, Magic Mike, The Master, Pitch Perfect, Ted, Queen of Versailles
GOOD
Bachelorette, Bernie, Chronicle, Damsels in Distress, Flight, Haywire, Hello I Must be Going, Life of Pi, Looper, Safety Not Guaranteed, The Sound of My Voice, Your Sister’s Sister
OKAY
Arbitrage, Contraband, Friends with Kids, Hunger Games, Snow White and the Huntsman, Wanderlust
BAD
The Avengers, The Campaign, Dark Shadows, The Dictator, Prometheus, Skyfall
NIGHTMARISH
Moonrise Kingdom, Rock of Ages