Pretty much every movie related website on the Internet has come up with some sort of Best of the Decade list over the past month. But while the majority of them focused on straight up “Best of” lists featuring relatively well known films, I figured in the spirit of this website that I would instead focus on the lesser known films that have been made over the past ten years.
But one question I had to figure out was just how should I whittle down films as “Long Tail” films. Plenty of films started out as smaller films that eventually found their audience, while there is certainly a fair share of films that were initially given a wide release. So I decided I would use two different determining factors to help figure out which films would be considered part of the long tail.
The first is the amount of screens the film was released on during its theatrical run here in the US. I decided to go with a relatively small number of screens as the ceiling (100 at the films widest release) and that any film that broke that would simply be dismissed. This number essentially acts as the films initial chance to gain potential viewers. Films eliminated by this include The Proposition (158 screens), City of God (242 screens) and The Triplets of Bellville (463 screens).
Secondly I went off of reviews on IMDb.com. Once again I selected a fairly small number of reviews as the ceiling (no more than 10K). This number reflects the film’s total audience, as the films that are more popular with mainstream audiences, or those that have rabid fan followings, typically break that number quite easily. Film eliminated by this number include such seemingly smaller films like Oldboy (28 screens, 87016 votes), Dead Man’s Shoes (2 screens, 16286 votes) and Let the Right One In (53 screens, 45413 votes).
While still far from a perfect system, this seemed to work pretty well in eliminating a fairly large chunk of lesser known films, making it a far more manageable task for me to select some of my favorites from what remained. One interesting note, this process seemed to favor documentaries as twelve ended up making the list. So while the quality of documentaries has grown throughout the decade, it still seems like the form still has a ways to go to capture the public’s attention.
And without further ado, I give you this decades 30 Best Long Tail Films.
As the latest Twilight fan-fic opens nationwide, it seems only fitting that I finally get around to writing something about a South Korean vampire film I watched a few weeks ago at The Uptown Theatre. Now most people know director Park Chan-wook for his Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) or possibly for his segment from the horror film Three Extremes making him one of the better known foreign language film makers in the US. So when I heard he’d be making a vampire film, I was excited at the possibilities, but I got something I never expected.
Thirst follows the story of a priest who undergoes an experimental treatment, during the course of which a blood transfusion transforms him into a vampire. Soon he discovers that if he doesn’t feed, that his disease will return, thus he must soon abandon his morality in order to survive. But that is scarcely his furthest fall.
You see, our priest has a secret, he’s in love with his friend’s wife. And his hunger isn’t simply for blood, but for other things just as carnal. Thus, our intrepid hero must slowly abandon his faith in order to satiate his growing desires. And that’s when Thirst truly blossoms into a modern masterpiece of film making.
While Thirst is a morality play to be sure, and it is full of horror elements, at its heart it is a romance, though a very twisted and dysfunctional one to be sure. As our priest falls deeper in love with the woman of his desires, he makes a rather foolish step that propels the two of them into an unending struggle for dominance of their lives, their relationship and of their hunger.
Following in the footsteps of last year’s outstanding vampire film Let the Right One In, Thirst creates complex and realistic characters that are thrust into worlds they can scarcely imagine let alone control, try as they might. These are people with faults and flaws, and simply craving the taste of blood won’t change that, but it just might amplify their flaws. Thirst simply isn’t just the best vampire movie of the year, its one of the year’s best movies, period.
While mainstream theaters are being deluged with mediocre films, here in Minneapolis we have a few Independent films being released that look very interesting. First off is Frederico Fellini’sAmarcord, which is getting an exclusive re-release at the Lagoon. And while I’ve heard it is fantastic, the film I am even more interested in viewing is Everlasting Moments, the Swedish film perhaps best known for being submitted for Oscar consideration over Let the Right One In.
DVD releases are a bit drier as the mainstream films are almost universally awful, so the weight of the week falls upon the foreign film releases. Of course the big name release is Slumdog Millionaire, but make sure to keep an eye out for the French thriller Tell No One and the Spanish time travelling genre film TimeCrimes.
I know you are going toWatchmen. No matter how much I beg and plead you won’t listen. Fine, you’ll have to deal with that kind of neurotic decision making on your own time. Unfortunately, every studio seems terrified of releasing anything to compete against Watchmen, leaving only a few tiny Independent releases like The Black Balloon and Cherry Blossoms to compete against it. Both have been well received, but neither involve epic tales of the deconstruction of the American superhero. So there’s that.
On DVD though, there is a wealth of good to great films being released. And considering Let the Right One In is getting released this week, it would normally be easy to select which film to recommend. Yet, the week is so good it has to go up against Synechdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman’s brilliant directorial debut, and another of my favorites of the past year. So pick up both, in any order you choose, but just make sure you pick up both, because they are fantastic. And if you do have a bit of spare pocket change try and rent Role Models. Its far better then I thought it would be, and definitely worth your time.
Anna and I had an interesting conversation about people’s taste in movie earlier this week. You see we have a mutual friend that has rather eclectic taste. She’ll swing from one end of the pendulum to the next with ease, investing time and money in enjoying dreck likeTwilight yet turn right around and revel in Let the Right One In. Oh sure she feels guilty by many of the things she watches (her music and reading taste tends to be just as “diverse”) she lessens that guilt by enjoying plenty of high brow fare.
Now I have taken the position that I don’t care if someone wallows in the occasional awful film, so long as they routinely balance that out with more challenging and inventive fare. I know I find that kind of see-sawing viewing habits is far more stimulating then continually watching all to often pretentious art films for hours on end.
Anna takes a slightly different approach in that there are only two kinds of films she enjoys. This includes the rare guilty pleasure (these typically involve demons or possession or demon possession) and films that she loves unconditionally. In between is a wide range of films that may or may not waste her time but certainly waste her money.
Pretty much every movie related website on the Internet has come up with some sort of Best of the Decade list over the past month. But while the majority of them focused on straight up “Best of” lists featuring relatively well known films, I figured in the spirit of this website that I would instead focus on the lesser known films that have been made over the past ten years.
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