Filed under: family, festivals, friends, lists, luke and brie, soccer, this is martin bonner
Happy new year everyone! I just finished a big list, but they keep on coming. This one is an annual tradition of mine dating back to 2005, where I list the top 10 events that I was able to take part in or that happened to me in 2009. The goal is to remind myself of the highlights of each year and encourage myself to keep trying to make positive memories and experiences for myself. Can you say “myself” three times in one sentence and not be a total prick? This summer, I’ll have been out of high school for ten years, college for six and even though my career isn’t where I’d like it to be, I’m not doing so bad and I’m enjoying the times I have along the way. That’s what it’s all about. You can revisit past years with these links- 2008. 2007. 2006. 2005.
So, here is my top 10 of 2009.
10. Michael Jackson
Okay, so I don’t mean Michael Jackson dying was a highlight to my year. The man was the very first person I idolized as a kid and I was super bummed to hear that he had passed. But rediscovering how much I enjoy all of his music and his talent in the period after that was a real joy. Going to bars and everyone losing their shit when “Billie Jean” came on (well, more than they usually do). Seeing This is It in the Dome on opening night with a rowdy crowd of fellow fans. His work really did bring people together and it did so again in 2009.
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Filed under: lists
End of the line! These movies are all the shit.
You can start at the beginning with part one here and part two here and part three here and part four here. Otherwise….
20.
4 LUNI, 3 SAPTAMÂNI SI 2 ZILE (2007)
Cristian Mungiu
Head of the new Romanian cinema class and another film that showcases breathtaking economy with the shot selection (something I’m a sucker for). Perfectly scripted and performed and a great example of a film that knows exactly what it wants to be and can be without reaching for an inch too far. Anamaria Marinca got a lot of good ink for her performance in this but for my money, the movie belongs to Vlad Ivanov, who owns the screen every second he’s on it.
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Filed under: lists
Onwards and upwards with my list of the decade’s best films.
You can start at the beginning with part one here and part two here and part three here. Otherwise….
40.
GEORGE WASHINGTON (2000)
David Gordon Green
Poetic, deliberate and spiritual, the story is… not the point. Completely devoid of stereotypes, Green painted a picture of a very different South than Hollywood was doling out and he did it with brazen confidence, mostly non-professional child actors and gorgeous cinematography courtesy of Tim Orr.
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Filed under: lists
Onwards and upwards with my list of the decade’s best films.
You can start at the beginning with part one here and part two here. Otherwise….
60.
A MIGHTY HEART (2007)
Michael Winterbottom
Angelina Jolie gives a ferocious performance in what seems to me to be an unfairly maligned drama. Winterbottom keeps things taut and realistic, without resorting to cheap theatrics to amp the stakes. The overall effect is tense, heartbreaking and chilling.
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Filed under: lists
Hey. I’m counting down the best films of the decade. What are you doing?
You can start at the beginning with part one here. Otherwise….
80.
CONTROL ROOM (2004)
Jehane Noujaim
Any political documentary from the mid-part of the decade is probably worthless. So much junk just infiltrated the market that anything with a thought-out perspective and focused narrative stood out like a sore thumb. Interestingly, the subjects of this film form a parallel, taking a look at the reporters of Al-Jazeera trying to present unbiased reports on the Iraq War.
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Filed under: lists
This was a tough list to compile. When 2000 began, I was a seventeen year old high school senior, working at a movie theater in Virginia Beach, VA and fresh off seeing The Green Mile and thinking it was amazing. The first film I saw in the new decade was Next Friday on January 20, 2000 and according to my planner, I gave it a B-. Throughout the last ten years, I went to film school, became aware of and attended film festivals, made a film of my own, and made friends with a number of successful and non-successful filmmakers. My taste has twisted and turned and would be virtually unrecognizable to my 17 year old self. I wonder if this was the last time a decade will pass with such formative changes in my life taking place.
For the most part, it’s 27 year old Chad who this list represents, although a few films probably slipped through the cracks from previous incarnations. Some of the films I haven’t seen in years and have to trust my initial feelings on and some are recent additions that may sour in time. All of the films mean a great deal to me and are worth checking out if you haven’t seen. So without further ado….
100.
LA PIANISTE (2001)
Michael Haneke
A dynamite, international star-making performance from Isabelle Hupppert makes this romantic tragedy what it is. Taking a decidedly unlikeable character and forming someone unmistakably human, she and Haneke turn in a fascinating and indicting look at sexual repression.
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Filed under: Uncategorized
What’s up blogosphere? It’s been a long time. I have to say that blogging doesn’t hold the appeal it used to and I’m not sure how often I’ll check in with this wordpress jam. Instead, I twitter occasionally and started a Photo a Day project on tumblr so my presence on the internet is still alive and well. I’m breaking my silence to talk about a dude named Jeffrey W. Ruggles. Years back when I started work as the Office P.A. for a reality TV production company called Rocket Science Laboratories, Ruggles was the guy that trained me. He had previously held the position but was now promoted to logger and he spent 15 minutes telling me which coffees needed to be refilled and where to take the trash out to. I quit that job less than two months later and didn’t see Ruggles again until he showed up for the Zero Film Festival screening of Luke and Brie Are on a First Date. We found ourselves to have mutual appreciations for certain types of film and mutual ambitions in that world. He gave me a copy of his film, Bicycle Lane and I was very happy and relieved to find that it was totally great.
Now we are becoming fast friends and even collaborators. Ruggles has come on board as a producer for This is Martin Bonner and we are trying to get pre-production on that sucker moving along. He also celebrated the first Los Angeles screening of Bicycle Lane last week and his birthday a few days later so it’s been a Ruggles-centric month for me so far. Which is totally cool. Have a peek at the pictures below and become a friend to Bicycle Lane on facebook so you can find out if it’ll ever play near you.
Hollywood.
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