There are a ton of movies from 2000 - 2009 that I've missed (consult this list and this list), but I have to put this up eventually.  Picks and rankings are based on nothing deeper than how I feel right now.  Don't be surprised if tomorrow I redo the ranking completely.
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NINE (**1/2) - Dir. Rob Marshall

An adaptation of the Broadway musical “Nine,” which is itself an adaptation of Fellini’s brilliant film “8 ½.”  Fictional filmmaker Guido struggles with writer’s block, pushy producers, a fed-up wife, and a needy mistress.  The biggest difference between the two films is that director Rob Marshall (“Chicago,” “ ( Read more... )

Now that we’re almost halfway through 2008, I thought I should finally get around to posting my favorite movies of 2007. As always, my favorite movies usually deal with questions of religion and death because that seems to be the only way for me to feel that a movie is dealing with something close to the totality of human experience.

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“Clerks II” is an intensely amiable shambles of a movie from cinematic novelty act Kevin Smith (“Chasing Amy,” “Mallrats”).  It knows how to waste time and show people wasting time but it’s a little lost when it comes to its sentimental notecard-sized plot.  But the moment it clicked for me is when the two best friends (Brian O’Halloran and Jeff ( Read more... )

THE NEW WORLD

Where do I begin?  Terrence Malick’s “The New World” is an amazing film:  at times hallucinogenic, muted, oblique, frustrating, sometimes like a thing remembered and not really seen.  Critics enthusiastic about the film have described it as an old parchment manuscript with pages missing, words smudged, or a hole eaten through by a ( Read more... )