The 100% Fresh List

From an email meme: supposedly all the films on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% Fresh Rating. (Bolded I've seen)

11:14
12 Angry Men
A Hard Day's Night
A Shot in the Dark
Aliens
All About Eve
All the President's Men
American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
Anatomy of a Murder
Batman: Under the Red Hood
Before Sunrise
Bob Roberts
Boy
Bride of Frankenstein
Broken Blossoms
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Chinatown
Citizen Kane
City Lights
Coal Miner's Daughter
Comfort and Joy
Cool Hand Luke
Das Boot (I've seen parts...)
Days of Wine and Roses
Dr. Strangelove
Fat City
Frankenstein
Gasland
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Ikiru
Jaws
King Kong
La Belle Noiseuse
Last Train Home
Le Samourai
Lenny
Lord of the Flies
M
Mad Max 2 (I think? There are a few of these I feel like I watched with my parents when I was young, but I don't really remember the details clearly...)
Man on Wire
Marwencol (Yay! Marwencol!!)
Mary Poppins
Melvin and Howard
Modern Times
Murder on the Orient Express
My Life as a Dog
North by Northwest
On the Waterfront
Rashōmon (ugh.)
Rear Window
Rebecca (again - think I watched this with my mother... I tend to confuse Rebecca and Jane Eyre though...)
Rio Bravo
Road to Rio
Roger & Me
Rogue
Room at the Top
San Francisco (wow. Seriously?)
Sátántangó
Say Anything...
Scarface: The Shame of the Nation
Seven Faces of Dr. Lao
Seven Samurai
Shadow of a Doubt
Sherlock, Jr.
Shoot to Kill
Singin' in the Rain
Sons of the Desert
Soy Cuba
Stagecoach
Stalker
Suspicion
Sweet Smell of Success
That's Entertainment!
The 400 Blows
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The African Queen
The Band Wagon
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Endless Summer
The Evil Dead (that's fabulous)
The Godfather
The Gold Rush
The Grapes of Wrath
The Heiress
The Hidden Fortress
The Invisible Man
The Kid
The Killer
The King and I
The Last Picture Show
The Lion King
The Maltese Falcon
The Mark of Zorro
The Miracle Worker
The Misfits
The Odd Couple
The Red Balloon
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
The Terminator
The Third Man
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Wrong Trousers (wait - Wallace and Gromit? Really? I guess that makes sense...)
Them!
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Three Colors: Blue
Tokyo Story
Toy Story 1 & 2
War and Peace
Waste Land
Witness for the Prosecution
Woodstock

I like this list. It's an interesting mix of classics, populist, and critically beloved. And it has a great mix of old (Sherlock Jr., etc.) and new (Man on Wire, Marwencol). [Actually - great representation from modern documentaries.]

While I'd only argue for a couple of the ones that I've seen to make any "best 100" type list, it is kind of fun to have a list with both Them! and Woodstock together... or the Adventures of Robin Hood and the Evil Dead.

Plus it has a bunch that have been in the top 25 of my Netflix queue for donkey years (Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, All About Eve, Witness for the Prosecution...) Really have to get around to those....

Ranking the SFIFF films

Excellent:
Another Earth
Stake Land
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Circumstance

Really Good:
Meek's Cutoff
Le Quattro Volte
The Future
Submarine

Good:
Page One; A Year Inside the New York Times
The Trip
The Whistleblower
The Troll Hunter
My Joy

Didn't like:
Nostalgia for the Light

(The 15th film I saw was La Dolce Vita in a restored print, but since it was a special program, it doesn't seem to make sense to review and rank it with the rest. That said, it was beautiful and very, very long. I liked it, but I think I need to see some more Fellini, because I think I'll like some of his other films better. I get the impression that many of his films touch on similar themes, so.)

SFIFF continued

I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up, so these will be quick mini-reviews:

The Whistleblower

Hm. This film is made well. And it is about an important subject (human trafficking in Bosnia after the war). Rachel Weisz continues to be one of my favorite actresses. And it is well directed, so it never becomes preachy or overly melodramatic. In fact, a long stretch of the film plays like a thriller, which works really well and keeps ratcheting up the tension.

All that said, it is about human trafficking. It's a hard subject to watch. I get the sense that it is like Precious. You have to be ready to go into a film knowing that it is very well done, but on a really depressing topic. If you have a day like that, this is well worth a watch.

3/5 Stars

Page One; A Year Inside the New York Times

This is pretty much a love letter to the Times. It isn't a particularly hard-hitting documentary, and given that it looks at the decline of newspapers in the rise of blogs and huffpo and whatnot, the topic could use something a little more informative. That being said, it is certainly entertaining and fun to watch. I can't imagine the material that must have come out of a year's worth of filming and the fact that it holds as a coherent narrative is seriously impressive.

3.5/5 Stars

Another Earth

This was brilliant. I completely loved it. I don't really know how best to describe it. It's about a woman, Rhoda, who on the eve of being accepted into MIT's astrophysics program, makes a horrible mistake. It is also the same evening that a second Earth is discovered. The film then follows Rhoda as she attempts to atone for what she has done and find a way forward in her life.

It's much more a character drama than a sci-fi label might suggest (Moon notwithstanding). Although the second Earth discovery does prompt a myriad of questions and possibilities. What if there is another me out there? Did they make the same choices? What would their life be like? The two leads, William Mapother and Brit Marling (co-writer, co-producer) give absolutely amazing performances. If anything, I wanted more time with the characters - they were just such complete, interesting portraits.

I can maybe sense that this is going to be this year's Hurt Locker/Winter's Bone (the brilliant small film that comes out in the midst of the blockbuster season). So save me the trouble of droning on and on about how amazing it is, and just go see it. (It comes out July 20th).

5/5 Stars

Circumstance

This was so good. (And, as a side note, it won the audience award at Sundance.) It's about two teenage girls in Iran who fall in love and try to survive adolescence in Iran. Much as I love Persepolis, I think this film gives a much clearer idea of what it would be like to grow up under such heavy restrictions. To have to do everything in secret, underground, to be scared of who to trust not to turn you in to the government - and to have such dire consequences when you most feel the need to rebel and experiment and act out. It's a beautiful love story, a wonderful portrait of a family trying its best to cope under difficult times, and a fully realized vision of Iranian youth culture. It has fantastic character development, it's funny, sexy and heartbreaking. Go see it.

4.5/5 Stars

My Joy

There's a reason I don't often delve into the great Russian authors. Great Russian art is a downer. This is a dark, absurdest series of vignettes that follows a truck driver as he goes down a cursed road. It keeps getting darker and weirder, and it certainly sticks to its convictions. Also - as an interesting side note - it was the only first feature film accepted at Cannes last year.

3/5 Stars

The Trip

An edited down version of a BBC miniseries. It's mostly Rob Brydon doing impressions for almost the entire running time, sometimes with Steve Coogan keeping up. It is intermittently hilarious. It is also filled with food porn. You should make reservations at a really great restaurant for afterward.

3.5/5 Stars

Submarine

Awww.. I'm glad this ended up being my last film. It's adorable. Very much in the Wes Anderson vibe, and it is quite cute. It's a coming of age set in Wales in the 80s and has Noah Taylor and Sally Hawkins, along with Paddy Considine, whom I did not know was in it as all. So - fantastic cast and very charming.

Hmm... that all comes off as precious. And it isn't, really. It's very deadpan. And it doesn't succumb to the cliche of wrapping everything up in a neat little uplifting bow. It's a lovely romance with lots of clever monologues, but the film also touches on heartbreak and depression. It's a pretty ambitious first film and the director carries it all off.

4/5 Stars

I ended up missing the Redemption of General Butt Naked and Incendies, as well as the two shorts programs I had planned on. I'm exhausted. Still, 15 films in 13 days ain't too bad... I do need to catch Incendies on DVD, though...

More coverage:
SFIFF Standouts

Page One trailer

Another Review for Cave of Forgotten Dreams

The Trip trailer

Snapshots of guests at SFIFF

Incendies was a Scorcher

SFIFF doc & shorts awards

Circumstance brings it all at SFIFF

Mick La Salle: Not so much a fan of Meek's Cutoff


On a completely separate tangent, I've been looking forward to Locke and Key like crazy and I'm going to be SO DISAPPOINTED if it doesn't get picked up.


And on a final, final note, Burlesque has been playing in the background as I write this. There are so many things about this movie I don't understand. Are Cher and Kristen Bell supposed to be the same age? Why does Alan Cumming keep photobombing the proceedings? How much did Famous Amos pay for product placement? Why is Cher not given more than two emotions to play? Why can't the make up artists get Christina's eyeliner straight? Does she have a lazy eye? Did they really just start playing Mazzy Star? What decade is this in? Did the guy grow a beard in 24 hours? Does Kristen Bell really never go to rehab? Umm... is Christina Aguilera sampling Marilyn Manson? And could this plot be any more paint by the numbers? This should have been a whole lot campier and Chicago-esque. At least Stanley Tucci seems like he's having fun.