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 …
Tag: 2010
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, …
Blank City (2010, Celine Danhler)
This documentary film chronicles the rise and fall of No Wave (the movies, not so much the music), New Cinema and the Cinema of Transgression in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to interviews with the filmmakers and stars, it features a number of famous people (some directors and musicians, an …
Borgen (2010)
Borgen is a remarkable, unique Danish television show that may have established it’s own genre. Every other TV show to focus on politics that I have ever seen has added elements of fantasy; normally these shows and movies are “political thrillers” where someone always dies; occasionally they’re comedies. Either way, there is a balance between …
Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010, James Nguyen)
I have seen a lot of bad movies in my life (though fewer recently) so I have pretty high (low?) standards for my “Worst Movies of All Time” list. For me, a film has to be have zero redeeming qualities about it for me to consider it one of the worst films ever made. Most …
Bhutto (2010, Duane Baughman, Johnny O’Hara)
One of the defining characteristics of human beings that is that we are flawed, imperfect creatures. All the “Great Men” of history were actually just human beings; sometimes they did things we might view as great, but they had their problems. There isn’t a single major political leader in history who hasn’t done something awful.
Outrage (2010, Takeshi Kitano)
Is this a comedy?
Mad Men (2007)
I watched Mad Men over an even longer period than most of you, so my memory of the individual episodes is not perfect. I know there were some weaker ones in there, and there even parts of seasons – perhaps even whole seasons – that I didn’t enjoy on the level of the best parts …
On Writing (2000) by Stephen King
I have never read a single Steven King novel or short story – I know, I know – and I don’t write fiction, but this book was recommended highly, and I figured I would give it a try given the struggles I am experiencing with my current project.
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (2010, Andrei Ujica)
This film attempts to paint a portrait of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu simply by assembling and editing together excerpts from something like 1,000 hours of official footage. Because of the way it is assembled – just this footage, no talking heads, no narration, no obvious message – what you make of this movie appears …
Hindemith: The Complete Viola Music 2 (2010) by Lawrence Power
Part 2 of Power’s performances of Hindemith’s viola music focuses on the sonatas for solo viola, of which Hindemith also wrote three. Though these all lack the incredible, complex and difficult piano parts of their cousins, that doesn’t make them any less impressive and, not surprisingly, the viola parts are more complex.
Heaven is Whenever (2010) by The Hold Steady
From the opening notes of “The Sweet Part of the City” it’s pretty clear that this band has finally overcome their Springsteen odour. Sure, Finn is still an extremely Sprinsteenian songwriter, but the rest of the band no longer sounds like a louder E-Street band minus the sax. (I’d blame that on the departed keyboard …
Hangover Square; Citizen Kane (2010) by Bernard Herrmann, performed by BBC Philharmonic conducted by Rumon Gamba, featuring Martin Roscoe and Orla Boylan
This disc collects a suite of pieces from the 1945 film noir Hangover Square, arranged for orchestra, with a piano concerto Herrmann wrote for the film, with what seems to be the complete (or nearly complete) score to Citizen Kane. The music for Hangover Square is pretty classic Hollywood noir, even if the first three …
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010, Michael Apted)
Apted’s surer hand makes this possibly the best entry in the series – it’s obvious from the opening shot that a better director is involved.