I’ve made a ranked list of the films I saw from the 2007 St. Louis International Film Festival. I suppose it’s just in time to be a warm-up for an end-of-the-year summary of what I liked and didn’t, but that will include more films and no shorts or retrospectives. This list doesn’t necessarily order the films by the numerical scores I’ve been tossing around the last few weeks. I tend to update my opinions with all new hindsight whenever I make a new list. Mild inconsistency is a sign of personal growth.
What’s that you say? You don’t believe in ranking totally unrelated movies against each other! Too bad. Meaningless it may be, but I still enjoy it. Besides, I’ve put in a system of tiers to break the list into useful groups. “Highly Recommended” films were real hits with me and I would revisit them again. “Recommended” means that the films were good, but not spectacular and probably don’t require hunting down by casual viewers. “Not Recommended” films aren’t necessarily bad (though some are), they just don’t live up my own fluctuating cost/time-benefit analyses.
Of course, let me throw out the usual disclaimer that every critic feels obligated to scribble into the fine print (where it can be promptly ignored by every sensible busy person): The in-depth, individual reviews should guide your time and cash, not the cold, unfeeling lists and numbers and letter grades and percentages and aggregates and dog-bone pictographs. That said, you’re now free to go and watch only the films under “highly recommended” and then complain that you didn’t like them because they weren’t wacky romantic comedies about Jessica Alba falling in love with an exploding zamboni.
--Highly Recommended--
1) Juno
2) The Memory Thief
3) Jamie Travis Shorts (Shorts, Retrospective)
4) Persepolis
5) Getting Home
6) Ploy
7) Darius Goes West (Documentary)
--Recommended--
8) Emma’s Bliss
9) American Fork
10) Fine Dead Girls
11) Honeydipper
12) Beauty in Trouble
13) Big Dreams, Little Tokyo
14) The Collector
15) Waiter
--Not Recommended--
16) Rainbow Song
17) Hear and Now (Documentary)
18) Animated Shorts B (Shorts)
19) The Method
20) The Walker
21) Crossroads (Retrospective)
22) Fresh Air
23) The Sacred Family
24) No Regret
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4 comments:
Haha, feel the burden of having to slave underneath a numerical score!
By the why, I would totally watch Jessica Alba fall in love with an exploding zamboni. Providing it really did explode.
For the record:
I rated The Method much higher than you did, and I would put just about every single movie on the "Recommended" list (American Fork! Emma's Bliss!) above stupid PERSEPOLIS. WHICH... MEH.
Also, when can I give you my Lovely By Surprise review, or have I missed the chance?
Mad Dog,
I think Milton once said "I'd rather be a slave in Mathmagic Land than rule in Heaven" or something. But anyway, yes, the zamboni would explode many times as part of a running gag where Alba is evicerated in zany situations.
Katie,
You can give me the Lovely By Surprise review anytime and I will put it up as part of the SLIFF 2007 stuff.
And then the narrator says, "Oh, Zamboni!"
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