This is a sort of one-last-job heist film that focuses almost as much on relationships as it does on the heists. Though I appreciate the (mostly successful) attempt to situate the film in a place that feels real, I also feel like the film is tugged in two different directions and that doesn’t completely work. …
Tag: 2010
Merchants of Doubt (2010) by Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway
This is a thorough and damning account of the so-called “Tobacco Strategy” and the “improvements” upon it, in which larger corporations fund think tanks and pay real scientists to discredit the work of other scientists which threatens their products.
Rubicon (2010)
This is an entertaining, refreshingly slowed paced spy mystery series that I guess just didn’t capture enough attention to get a second season.
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (2010) by Siddhartha Mukherjee
This is a far-reaching, thorough but page-turning history of cancer. It is a remarkably readable book and I have trouble imagining that I will read another history of cancer, at least for some time, simply because this one was so readable it’s hard to imagine another book about the same subject would be this “easy” …
Freedom (2010) by Jonathan Franzen
Hot take: I enjoyed this more than The Corrections. Note: Very minor spoiler
Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air (2010) by David J.C. MacKay
This is an excellent, detailed analysis of what we need to do to got sustainable. It is currently available online for free and I strongly recommend reading it.
Parks and Recreation (2009)
This is a good-hearted but often hysterical situation comedy that it took me entirely too long to watch. I’m not sure exactly why but I guess I was at least slightly aware that it was a little bit wholesome and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t into wholesome in, like, 2011. Anyway…
RED (2010, Robert Schwentke)
This is an amusing action comedy about former spies coming out of retirement with shades of Grosse Pointe Blank and The Whole Nine Yards. It has an incredible cast and they are clearly having a lot of fun. But it also feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
In the Name of the Family (2010, Shelley Saywell)
This is an episodic and workmanlike documentary about girls killed by their family members, ostensibly because they are not behaving correctly. It feels a little like it was made for TV but that could also just be the budget.
Grace, Milly Lucy… Child Soldiers (2010, Raymonde Provencher)
This is a workmanlike documentary focusing on girl child soldiers in Uganda and Sudan which feels like it was made for television due to its brevity and its budget.
Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010, Alex Gibney)
This is a fascinating documentary about former New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer’s sex scandal and New York State and American political corruption in general. I must admit I didn’t pay much attention to the scandal at the time – I don’t care much about American gubernatorial politics – and assumed he’d done things a …
Dhobi Ghat (2010, Kiran Rao)
This is a pretty good slice of life drama about four people from four different backgrounds in Mumbai. Though it’s a debut, the film feels like the work of someone who’s been in film a while and there is a lot of thought both in the telling and the way it is shot. (Though there …
At Home: A Short History of Private Life (2010) by Bill Bryson
Full disclosure: I am a big fan of Bryson’s writing style and eat-up everything I’ve read by him. So i’m predisposed to like this book. But I must say that this is one of his lesser books and it feels like it’s a book at which a concept was created to fit content that was …
Iron Man 2 (2010, Jon Favreau)
Everyone told me this was the bad Iron Man movies and i think they were right. SPOILERS if there can be.
Operation Paralysis (2010) by The Dillinger Escape Plan
Despite my familiarity with this band – I’ve listened to all of their Puciato albums now that I’ve heard this one, as well as their debut, and I’ve seen them live – I always have the same experience when I listen to one of their (Puciato) records: I like it less than the ones that …
Riley’s Best Films of the 2010s
I am an avid movie watcher. I have seen something like 5,000 movies in my life as well as countless hours of movie-quality TV. But my pace has slowed somewhat in the last decade, as life has gotten in the way. Moreover, because I see so few movies in theatres outside of my annual TIFF …
Rare Exports (2010, Jalmari Helander)
This is a strange, but certainly unique Christmas “horror” film. I use the term horror loosely because there isn’t a lot of horror in it by our standards, it’s more of a Christmas fantasy film. SPOILERS
Certified Copy (2010, Abbas Kiarostami)
This is one of those movies where two people have an intense conversation in a pretty part of Europe. But with a twist. Think of it like a psychotic, mid life Before Sunrise, where the man is British instead of American. Mild Spoilers
War at the Wall Street Journal (2010, Sarah Ellison)
I’m not sure this book is something I would have read were it not for the “Planet Fox” series in the New York Times. But it’s a mostly well-told, compelling story of Robert Murdoch’s purchase of Dow Jones. I’m not sure it does enough to make it an essential read, but if you’re interested in …
Cool It (2010, Ondi Timoner)
Weirdly, this film was recommended to me by a climate change denier. I assume he is now a former climate change denier. I wonder why this film, of all films, convinced him, or whether it’s just been the weather, if you’ll excuse my saying so.
The Tourist (2010, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
This is one of the worst movies ever made? Hardly.
Catfish (2010, Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman)
Yes, I realize I’m getting to Catfish 8 years too late. In the meantime, there’s a show and the term has entered the lexicon. I.e. I know what this is about. So whatever shock I would have experienced seeing it when it first came out is obviously gone. This is unfortunate but hopefully it doesn’t …
Casino Jack (2010, George Hickenlooper)
There are two things you need to know about this movie before you think about watching it: there is a pretty good documentary about this story that exists already and Kevin Spacey is the star.
Casino Jack and the United States of Money (2010, Alex Gibney)
This is an episodic yet frenetic documentary about Jack Abramoff and his lobbying scandal. I can’t say I loved the style of the film, which was a little over-reliant on pop culture cues, but the film takes a serious issue and makes it entertaining, which is something that should be commended.
Carlos (2010, Oliver Assayas)
This is one of those innumerable high end European miniseries that got transformed into a movie in North America, both in its full version and in a shortened version. I watched the full version because I really don’t get why we should be satisfied with cuts that are just a little bit more than a …
Carancho (2010, Pablo Trapero)
Carancho is a crime drama / thriller centered around the problem of car accidents and hit-and-runs and insurance fraud in Argentina. Though there are aspects of the film that are appealing to me, there are also a couple major problems.
Candyman (2010, Costa Botes)
This is a messy, poorly made documentary about a really interesting story and a fascinating person, both of which deserve a competent film to tell their story.
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (2010, Craig McCall)
Cameraman is a fascinating but idiosyncratic look at one of the first technicolor cameramen in film, the first person to be awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar for cinematography.
Buried (2010, Rodrigo Cortes)
Presumably, because you know the title, you know what this movie is about. So I feel like it’s safe to discuss it without warning you. But, anyway, SPOILERS:
Clash of the Titans (2010, Louis Leterrier)
I have only ever seen pieces of the ’80s Clash of the Titans, but my memory of it was that it was actually based on Greek myths. I emphasize this fact because this remake appears to not care about its sources in the slightest, pulling a creature from Norse mythology as its climactic bad guy, …