Yearly Roundup – An Introduction
Posted by martinteller on July 9, 2012
I mentioned I was going to debut a new feature, here it is! Exciting, huh? Maybe, maybe not, but let’s give it a shot anyway.
I will be going through the history of cinema and showcasing some of my favorite films, year by year. This is hardly an original idea — for some other examples, just look The Movie Review Warehouse or The End of Cinema. But I figured I’d throw my own opinions out there, because what else is the internet good for, right?
I will be going through the years randomly just to mix things up. The criteria for selecting which films belong to which years will be based on Criticker. This is the easiest way for me to compile my lists. I know not all the dates are accurate and some of them are debatable. I don’t care. Let me repeat that. I don’t care. I’ve participated in similar projects on a couple of messageboards and inevitably someone wants to start a debate about how [insert movie] is actually from [insert year]. It doesn’t matter, it’s just an arbitrary way of grouping films. Feel free to argue about which movies I should like more or like less, but please don’t get on my case about proper chronology. It’s all just for fun.
Each entry will have these sections:
The Cream of the Crop – Self-explanatory, eh? The films I most cherish for the year.
Slightly Less Creamy, But Still Tasty – A loose category that basically encompasses those aren’t quite treasured enough for the Cream, but are still really awesome. This is probably like low-90′s/high-80′s on Criticker.
Also Love – Not favorites, but too good to say I merely “liked” them.
Varying Degrees of Like - Wouldn’t say I love these movies, but I’m definitely glad I saw them.
Varying Degrees of Hate - Some movies that really rubbed me the wrong way.
Some Notable Films in the Middle – I’m basically lukewarm on these, I’m mostly including this section to pre-emptively deflect “What about [insert movie]?” type questions.
Uncharted Territory - Some notable and/or popular films I haven’t seen, including films from my personal wishlist.
The first entry will be up soon.
Bondo said
Just as long as we avoid giving any credit to Roger Ebert or Jonathan Rosenbaum, I’m okay with it.
Including a hate category…so much negativity! I prefer to leave my readers with the assumption that if they don’t see the film on the list, I probably hated it.
martinteller said
Or they might also assume you haven’t seen it. Might as well make it clear up front rather than someone needing to ask me if I’ve seen it or what I thought of it.
martinteller said
oh and I get what you’re doing with your “negativity” remark, har de har har
Sean Gilman said
Jeez, you would link to my index of old, crappy posts. . .
martinteller said
I can take it down if you want, or do you have a more recent link I should post?
Sean Gilman said
You can find current lists along with links to better reviews starting here: http://theendofcinema.blogspot.com/2006/07/movies-of-year-big-list-1-1915-1949.html
Those old Movies of the Year posts, in addition to generally being poorly written, are wildly out of date.
martinteller said
Done, good sir!