Sam’s Top 42 Films of the Decade
Just for the sake of my own sanity and desperate need to have these written somewhere, I give you my favourite forty-two films of the past decade. There are at least fifty-six other films I would like to put onto a list, but I think I need to forcefully prevent any more decade-based listmaking as quickly as possible. So beneath is the top ten list, along with a sentence or two on each film and then thirty-two, out-of-list-order, films which I had to include.
Edinburgh Film Festival Line-Up Announced
The line-up for the Edinburgh International Film Festival has been announced with a few reasonably big hitters to join in the fun, including Steven Soderbergh and the world premiere of Shane Meadows’ new film, Le Donk.
The latter, which stars Paddy Considine, with whom Meadows worked on Dead Man’s Shoes, is being heavily anticipated given the reuniting of the two and the brilliance of Meadows’ last two films, This is England and Somers Town.
Soderbergh will come to show The Girlfriend Experience, starring adult film star Sasha Grey, while Sam Mendes will also make an appearance to open the festival with Away We Go.
Mendes’ film comes from a script by Dave Eggers and The Believer-founder Vendela Vida and follows the travails of newly-pregnant couple John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph.
The festival is to be closed by Adam, a romantic drama from Max Meyer following the burgeoning relationship between a man with asberger’s syndrome and a young lady, the latter played by Damages’ Rose Byrne.
Other notables include Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, Duncan Jones’ Moon, Vincent Cassell in Mesrine and Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna in Rudo y Cursi.
The announcements also notes some interesting in-depth interviews to take place, including ones with Darren Aronofsky, Joe Dante and Local Hero-director Bill Forsyth.
Cast Coming for Birdsong Movie
A very strong British cast is being assembled by director Rupert Wyatt, who helmed the outstanding The Escapist, for his adaptation of the beloved Sebastian Faulks novel, Birdsong.
Reports thus far suggest that Michael Fassbender, Paddy Considine and the great Brian Cox have all signed up to star in the film.
Wyatt compared the story to The English Patient in its sweeping, World War-backdropped love story. The novel is very well loved over here so it could well make Wyatt’s career, something which seems deserved following The Escapist.
Alternatives to the EW Twenty-Five Directors
Entertainment Weekly recently posted a list of the top twenty-five active film directors. These lists will forever cause disagreement and controversy but some of the inclusions, and subsequent exclusions, on this list are pretty unforgivable. Even if you don’t find it too irratating, as a film fan and blogger I feel it only necessary to present some arguments both against the inclusion of some and against the exclusion of others while I would also like to take some time to argue for the inclusion of a few that I think may brook argument elsewhere.
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