Keeping Up With Ebert

Reading Roger Ebert's Best Films of The Decade and seeing Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" (2009) in the list (in the number 2 spot, to be precise) recalls to my mind a conversation I recently had with my brother. He was asking me why I liked "The Hurt Locker" so much. Going into know-it-all mode, I launched into a tirade about how the movie's plot didn't really seem linear, therefore it was different and I liked things that weren't part of the bandwagon, how the focus was mainly on the character and how everything else was built around his motivations, etc. I ended my little spiel with "did you know that it was directed by a woman?" He was surprised (funny and sad that it still surprises people that women can be as good as men, if not better). But I preferred to think that what induced the reaction was the fact that the movie was really what one might call a "guy movie", but then, again, this is another problematic statement, which can be problematized in a number of ways, but which I will not launch into for fear of further digressing from the topic, which is Roger Ebert's best films of the decade.

Whew.

Okay.

So, anyway, Roger Ebert being who he is, it pleased me to note that I had seen quite a number of the films on his list, a few of which I had written about--or,at least, made some quick post--in this blog. Let's see, so Jason Reitman's "Juno" (2007) was there and so was Spike Jonze's "Adaptation" (2002). The Coen Brothers' "No Country For Old Men" (2007) got a spot. Guillermo Del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006) made it, too.

Hmm? What was that? Oh, yeah, his top movie of the decade was Charlie Kaufman's "Synechdoche, New York" (2008) which inspired this conversation between a geek friend and I.

I should remind myself to come up with my own list. Hmm. Wheels in the mind turning...

Here's to more good films for you and me...
Cheers!