Patrick Z. McGavin

Lightsensitive.typepad.com

Patrick Z. McGavin writes frequently on film, culture and sports. His reviews, interviews, essays and film festival dispatches have appeared in Stop Smiling, Chicago Sun-Times, New York Times, LA Weekly, The Nation and other publications. In May he created his own blog, Light Sensitive (www.lightsensitive.typepad.com).

Links: Light Sensitive  | Auteur's Profile


Best of the Decade Critics Survey 2000s »

Best of the Decade »

1) In the Mood for Love

2) The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

3) Platform

4) Regular Lovers

5) A Christmas Tale

6) Time Out

7) Werckmeister Harmonies

8) I'm Not There

9) Summer Hours

10) Yi Yi

Comment

I really struggled with the final two slots, because I love "Colossal Youth," "Inland Empire," 'In Praise of Love" and "The New World." I would have felt fine putting any of those on the list, but that had the most profound impact on me, so much so I remember precisely the first time I saw each one.

Annual Critics Survey 2009 »

Best Film »

1) Summer Hours

2) Police, Adjective

3) Night and Day

4) The Limits of Control

5) The Headless Woman

6) Frontier of Dawn

7) Sugar

8) The Hurt Locker

9) Fantastic Mr. Fox

10) A Serious Man

Best Lead Performance »

1) Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist

2) Abbie Cornish, Bright Star

3) Carey Mulligan, An Education

4) George Clooney, Fantastic Mr. Fox

5) Matt Damon, The Informant!

Best Supporting Performance »

1) Christian McKay, Me and Orson Welles

2) Alice de Lencquesaing, Summer Hours

3) Fairuza Balk, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

4) Clementine Poidatz, Frontier of Dawn

5) Paz de la Huerta, The Limits of Control

Best Director »

1) Olivier Assayas, Summer Hours

Best Documentary »

1) La Danse

Best Screenplay »

1) Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, Sugar

Best First Feature »

1) Antonio Campos, Afterschool

Best Undistributed Film »

1) White Material

2) Ne change rien

3) Like You Know It All

4) Enter the Void

5) Accident

6) Independencia

7) Milk of Sorrow

8) Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno

9) Sweet Rush

Comment

I had about twenty-five to thirty titles I broke down as contenders for my top ten. Five of my films, including my best film, Assayas' "Summer Hours," were 2008 productions; that's not uncommon. There are some films from this year's festival circuit I saw that I would have put on the list had they opened commercially. It echoes my top ten of the decade list in the dominance of French realist art cinema, Asia and the astounding creativity and daring of Romanian cinema. Of my top ten, English is the dominant language in only the Wes Anderson and the Coens' film (even that film has significant passages in Yiddish). English-language cinema dominates the world markets, but certainly not artistically, I'd argue.

Films

A Prophet A (Review)

A Serious Man A-

Adventureland A-

An Education B

Antichrist C

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans B

Beeswax B

Bitch Slap D

Bright Star A-

Brooklyn’s Finest B-

Chloe C

Crazy Heart B-

Daybreakers D

Drag Me to Hell A-

Fantastic Mr. Fox A-

Fish Tank B (Review)

Goodbye Solo B+

Hesher B-

I Love You Philip Morris B-

Inglourious Basterds C

La Danse A

Les Herbes folles A+

Me and Orson Welles A-

Nine D

Nowhere Boy C-

Obselidia C (Review)

Police, Adjective A-

Red Riding: 1974 B+

Red Riding: 1980 A-

Red Riding: 1983 B

Restrepo B

Summer Hours A+

Sympathy for Delicious C

Tetro B+

The Company Men B (Review)

The Girl on the Train B-

The Hurt Locker A-

The Informant B+

The Limits of Control A-

The Lovely Bones C

The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers B

The Road C

The Tillman Story B

The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band) B+

The Yellow Handkerchief C (Review)

Trash Humpers C

Up A-

Vincere A- (Review)

Where the Wild Things Are B-

White Material A

Winter’s Bone A-

happythankyoumoreplease D
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criticWIRE »




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