Top Ten of 2005
posted by NicksFlickPicks at 1:16 AM
Sunday, January 22, 2006
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MY PROFILE THE LATEST THE BEST THE FAVORITES THE WOMEN THE REST |
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Hot Off the Presses!
The Desiring-Image: Gilles Deleuze and Contemporary Queer Cinema ($30/pbk). By Nick Davis. Oxford University Press, 2013.
The book that earned me tenure at Northwestern. Offers a new theoretical model of queer film, born from Gilles Deleuze's rarely-integrated notions of cinema and desire. Chapter-length readings of
Dead Ringers,
Naked Lunch, Shortbus, The Watermelon Woman, Brother to Brother, Beau travail, and
Velvet Goldmine, plus other films along the way! Written for a scholarly audience but hopefully interesting to anyone curious about recent cinema, ideas about desire, or LGBT aesthetics and politics. "Important and needed work...Deeply original." —D.N. Rodowick, "Seductive in its intellect and humbling in its prose." —Michele Aaron
Reading the Bromance: Homosocial Relationships in Film and Television ($32/pbk). Ed. Michael DeAngelis. Wayne State University Press, 2014.
Academic pieces that dig into recent portraits in popular media, comic and dramatic, of intimacies between straight(ish) men. Includes the essay
"'I Love You, Hombre': Y tu mamá también as Border-Crossing Bromance" by Nick Davis, as well as chapters on Superbad, Humpday, Jackass, The Wire, and other texts. Written for a mixed audience of scholars, students, and non-campus readers. Forthcoming in June 2014. "Remarkably sophisticated essays." —Janet Staiger, "Essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary models of gender and sexuality." —Harry Benshoff
Fifty Key American Films ($31/pbk). Ed. Sabine Haenni, John White. Routledge, 2009. Includes my essays on
The Wild Party,
The Incredibles, and
Brokeback Mountain. Intended as both a newcomer's guide to the terrain
and a series of short, exploratory essays about such influential works as The Birth of a Nation, His Girl Friday, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song,
Taxi Driver, Blade Runner, Daughters of the Dust, and Se7en.
The Cinema of Todd Haynes: All That Heaven
Allows ($25/pbk). Ed. James Morrison. Wallflower Press, via Columbia University Press, 2007. Includes the essay
"'The Invention of a People': Velvet Goldmine and the Unburying of Queer Desire" by Nick Davis, later expanded and revised in The Desiring-Image.
More, too, on Poison, Safe, Far From Heaven, and Haynes's other films by Alexandra Juhasz, Marcia Landy,
Todd McGowan, James Morrison, Anat Pick, and other scholars. "A collection as intellectually and emotionally
generous as Haynes' films" —Patricia White, Swarthmore College
Film Studies:
The Basics ($23/pbk). By Amy Villarejo. Routledge, 2006, 2013. Award-winning
film scholar and teacher Amy Villarejo finally gives us the quick, smart, reader-friendly guide to film vocabulary that every
teacher, student, and movie enthusiast has been waiting for, as well as a one-stop primer in the past, present, and future of film production, exhibition,
circulation, and theory. Great glossary, wide-ranging examples, and utterly unpretentious prose that remains rigorous in its analysis;
the book commits itself at every turn to the artistry, politics, and accessibility of cinema.
- Picture Noms % Seen:
- 97%
- Dead End
- A
- Friendly Persuasion
- C+
- Gandhi
- C+
- Director Noms % Seen:
- 96%
- The Crowd
- A
- Sabrina
- B–
- I Want to Live!
- C
- Actress Noms % Seen:
- 100%
- A Star Is Born ('54)
- A
- The Country Girl
- B–
- The Letter ('29)
- B
- Actor Noms % Seen:
- 91%
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- A–
- Champion
- B
- The Affairs of Cellini
- C
- Sup Actress Noms % Seen:
- 100%
- Broken Lance
- C+
- The Bachelor Party
- B
- Paper Moon
- B+
- Sup Actor Noms % Seen:
- 91%
- The Day of the Locust
- C
- Juarez
- C+
- The Paper Chase
- D
- Cinematography Noms % Seen:
- 69%
- King Kong ('76)
- C–
- Shanghai Triad
- B
- Earthquake
- D+
- Screenplay Noms % Seen:
- 76%
- The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
- The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer*
- Boomerang!
Most recent screenings in each race;
multiple nominees appear wherever they scored their most prestigious nod... and yes, that means Actress trumps Actor!
* Denotes a recent reappraisal
| D | |
| B | |
| C+ |
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Chicagoans! This site doesn't even accept advertising, but I'm making an unsolicited exception for the best, freshest, most affordable meal you can enjoy in the Loop, at any time of the day, whether you're on the go or eager to sit. Cuban and Latin American sandwiches, coffees, pastries, salads, shakes, and other treats. Hand-picked, natural, and slow-cooked ingredients. My friendly neighborhood place, a jewel in my life even before the Reader and Time Out figured it out. Visit!
- Party Like It's 1995
- Picked Flick #65: Claudine
- Picked Flick #66: Dream of Light (El Sol del Membr...
- Let da Music Out
- The Hot 100
- Picked Flick #67: Mask
- Sending Flowers to Myself...
- Theater 1, Film 0
- Where I'm Blogging From
- Big Dreams for 2006
Previous Posts
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| 18 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun |
| Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
Watch this space! Chicago has a new, exciting, important, and totally accessible cadre of queer film critics who are joining forces to bring screenings, special events, and good, queer-focused movie chats to our fair city. Read our mission! Stay tuned for events! Cruise the website, and help get this great new group off the ground by enrolling as a friend (it's free!) and by asking how you can help.
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since 5.27.05 |
10 Comments:
I haven't posted mine yet, but though I haven't seen The Beat that my Heart Skipped or Palindromes, we matched 7 for 10.
Quite the awesome list! Too bad "Tropical Malady" and "King Kong" didn't make the cut.
i might be embarrassesd later on but i don't actually know what one of these is (birds in the tree)
Considering the year we've had, I guess I should take it as a blessing that we matched on two whole films, GRIZZLY and PREJUDICE. Almost three, because SQUID/WHALE was close to my top ten. (And I, ashamedly, admit that I haven't yet seen JUNEBUG, PALINDROMES, or WEEPING MEADOW.) So that's not too bad, is it? And I liked BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED, so wow...that's like 7 we might possibly agree on! Now I feel better.
(Not better enough, however, to embrace THE NEW WORLD as more than pretty pictures. As for HOLY GIRL and the Desplechin...well, we have to have something to argue about, don't we?) ;-)
@David: My, but your taste is exquisite! :)
@Javier: King Kong probably would have been in that immediate runner-up category were it not for the second viewing. But I still think it's a mighty good movie—certainly among the best with even a hope of a Best Picture nomination.
@Nat: That tenth picture is from Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow. A disgraced couple return home after long years away and find their family's entire flock of sheep gutted and hanging from a tree.
@Gabriel: I have strong hunches that you wouldn't like Palindromes or The Weeping Meadow at all, though I'm quite hopeful about Junebug. Give it the Southern Boy test and check back in!
Here I thought I did pretty well keeping up on all the must-see films last year, yet I haven't seen seven of the films from your list. Of the three I have seen, one made my top ten list (Grizzly Man) and one nearly made it (P&P).
@Goatdog: Still, you scooped me on your own #1, The Best of Youth, for which I'll be stuck with a DVD viewing. (Still excited, though.)
OK, Nick. I want a long, gorgeously argued New World review, like, pronto. Ravish me. Convert me. I'm seeing it again, in a different cut, on Tuesday morning...
Ah, that "A" for The New World makes me so happy. I'm glad it lived up to your expectations, Nick.
Must see Grizzly Man asap.
Oh, do yourself a favor and skip Casanova; it's a train wreck.
What has happened to me? Although I can recognize many of these movies by name, I haven't seen hardly ANY of them. In fact, I'm not even sure I saw 10 movies in all of 2005 (OK, I'm exaggerating, but I certainly haven't seen anything after August. August.). I'm now using this as my official rental list. Except for Junebug--not going to see that one agan. Can you imagine how much I liked seeing it a week before my due date?
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