Final 2010 Movie List

Along the lines of my reading list which I posted yesterday, here are the films I saw in 2010. This is primarily based on Netflix ratings so I may be missing some stuff I saw in the theater...

1. Withnail and I
2. Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel
3. Jennifer's Body
4. District 9*
5. Extract
6. The Hurt Locker*
7. Taking Woodstock
8. Volver
9. Whatever Works
10. Zombieland*
11. New York, I Love You
12. Dear Zachary*
13. Girl on a Motorcycle
14. Mitch Hedberg: Mitch All Together
15. (500)Days of Summer
16. Moon*
17. Down By Law*
18. The Squid and The Whale*
19. Neil Young: Heart of Gold
20. Good Hair
21. Paranormal Activity
22. Where The Wild Things Are
23. Broken Embraces
24. The Men Who Stare at Goats
25. Grizzly Man*
26. Black Dynamite
27. Fantastic Mr. Fox*
28. Crazy Heart
29. The Informant
30. Gentleman Broncos
31. The Guatemalen Handshake
32. Shutter Island*
33. My Effortless Brilliance
34. Public Enemies
35. A Serious Man
36. The Road
37. Greenberg*
38. Hot Tub Time Machine
39. Capitalism: A Love Story
40. In The Loop
41. The Room*
42. Youth In Revolt
43. The Vice Guide To Travel
44. Happy Go-Lucky*
45. My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
46. The White Ribbon*
47. Big Fan
48. Beyond The Valley of Dolls
49. Apocalypse Now Redux*
50. Get Him To The Greek
51. Burden of Dreams*
52. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
53. Winter's Bone*
54. Red Cliff
55. City of God*
56. Exit Through The Gift Shop*
57. Stranger Than Paradise*
58. The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg
59. Coffy
60. Knife in the Water
61. Hannah Takes The Stairs
62. My Winnipeg
63. The Girlfriend Experience
64. Following
65. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
66. Stroszek
67. Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior
68. In Cold Blood
69. The Book of Eli
70. Alice in Wonderland
71. Inception*

* - Highly recommended

2009 movie list
2008 movie list
2007 movie list

Final 2010 Reading List

Alas my blog has basically died, but in the interest of keeping my list of what I've read for future reference I thought I'd post it here. Maybe one of the days I'll even get back to some regular posts, but no promises.

I didn't quite hit my 50 book goal this year, but Infinite Jest should really count for about 10 :-)

1. Like a Velvet Glove Cast In Iron - Daniel Clowes
2. Ransom - Jay McInerney
3. Nog - Rudolph Wurlitzer
4. Let The Great World Spin* - Colum McCann
5. Welcome to The Terrordome - Dave Zirin
6. Eating Animals* - Jonathan Safran Foer
7. Juliet, Naked* - Nick Hornby
8. Asterios Polyp - David Mazzucchelli
9. Point Omega - Don DeLillo
10. Electric Literature #2 - Various
11. Boomerang - Barry Hannah
12. Baseball's Greatest Series - Chris Donnelly
13. Infinite Jest* - David Foster Wallace
14. How It Ended - Jay McInerney
15. More of This World or Maybe Another* - Barb Johnson
16. Alternadad - Neal Pollack
17. The Unnamed* - Joshua Ferris
18. Tin House: Spring 2010 - Various
19. Electric Literature #1 - Various
20. New Stories From The South 2009 - Various
21. Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine* - Thom Jones
22. The Bullpen Gospels - Dirk Hayhurst
23. Imperial Bedrooms - Bret Easton Ellis
24. You Are Not a Gadget - Jaron Lanier
25. The Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande
26. Footnotes in Gaza - Joe Sacco
27. The Lonely Polygamist* - Brady Udall
28. True Grit* - Charles Portis
29. Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart
30. Brief Interview With Hideous Men* - David Foster Wallace
31. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 - Bryan Lee O'Malley
32. The Ask - Sam Lipsyte
33. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 2 - Bryan Lee O'Malley
34. The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
35. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 3 - Bryan Lee O'Malley
36. Nemesis - Philip Roth
37. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 4 - Bryan Lee O'Malley
38. Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives* - Brad Watson
39. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5 - Bryan Lee O'Malley
40. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6 - Bryan Lee O'Malley
41. The Dog of the South - Charles Portis

* = highly recommended

My 2009 reading list
My 2008 reading list
My 2007 reading list
My 2006 reading list
My 2005 reading list

Top 10 Albums of 2009

Better late than never, here's my Top 10 list for 2009. Lots of competition this year with many albums I loved not making the cut.

Top 10 Albums of 2009

10.
MF Doom
Born Like This

9.
Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band

8.

Telekinesis!
Telekinesis!

7.

David Bazan
Curse Your Branches

6.

William Elliott Whitmore
Animals In The Dark

5.

Say Hi
Oohs and Aahs

4.
The Avett Brothers
I and Love and You

3.
Dan Auerbach
Keep It Hid

2.
Ben Gibbard & Jay Farrar
One Fast Move Or I'm Gone

1.
Neko Case
Middle Cyclone

Just Missed
Scott H. Biram - Something's Wrong/Lost Forever, Cave Singers - Welcome Joy, Wilco - Wilco (The Album), Ben Kweller - Changing Horses, Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend of a Friend, Levon Helm - Electric Dirt, Heartless Bastards - The Mountain, Phosphorescent - To Willie, A.A. Bondy - When The Devil's Loose, Holopaw - Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness., The Thermals - Now We Can See, The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love, Son Volt - American Central Dust

Best Live Album
Tom Petty Live Anthology

Best Reissue
The Beatles albums

Best Box Set
Neil Young Archives

Best Reissue
The Beatles albums

Best Live Shows I Saw This Year
Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings @ No Depression Fest

Neko Case @ The Paramount
Pixies @ The Paramount
Frank Black @ The Triple Door
Cave Singers @ Bumbershoot Hidden Stage
Son Volt @ Woodland Park Zoo

Previously
2008 Year End List
2007 Year End List
2006 Year End List
2005 Year End List
2004 Year End List

Final 2009 Reading List

This year's reading list clocked in at an even 50, just barely extending my 50-book challenge streak to 5 years running!

1. The Mammoth Book of Crime Comics - Various
2. El Borbah - Charles Burns
3. Cold Snap* - Thom Jones
4. Pimp - Iceberg Slim
5. The Best American Non-Required Reading 2008 - Various
6. And the Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks - Kerouac & Burroughs
7. Oblivion* - David Foster Wallace
8. McSweeney's #30 - Various
9. The Outlaw Bible of American Essays - Various
10. The Best American Comics 2008 - Various
11. The Soul of Baseball: A Journal Through Buck O'Neil's America* - Joe Posnanski
12. Welcome to the Monkeyhouse* - Kurt Vonnegut
13. Songbook - Nick Hornby
14. 3 Nights In August - Buzz Bissinger
15. Hot, Flat, and Crowded - Thomas Friedman
16. Cosmopolis* - Don DeLillo
17. Celebration* - Harry Crews
18. High Lonesome* - Barry Hannah
19. Money - Martin Amis
20. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - Wells Tower
21. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
22. Amplified - Various
23. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again* - David Foster Wallace
24. A Jello Horse - Matthew Simmons
25. Requiem For A Paper Bag - Various
26. Odd Man Out - Matt McCarthy
27. Shadow Country* - Peter Matthiessen
28. New Stories From The South 2008* - Various
29. American Flagg v. 1 - Howard Chaykin
30. Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend* - Larry Tye
31. Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 - Jaime Hernandez
32. Misconception - Ryan Boudinot
33. Zeitoun* - Dave Eggers
34. The Interrogative Mood: A Novel?* - Padgett Powell
35. Inherent Vice - Thomas Pynchon
36. Americana - Don DeLillo
37. Crash - J.G. Ballard
38. The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment - A.J. Jacobs
39. The Best American Non-Required Reading 2009 - Various
40. The Humbling* - Philip Roth
41. Dangerous Laughter* - Steven Millhauser
42. Filthy Rich - Brian Azzarello
43. Thirteen Stories - Eudora Welty
44. Nobody Move - Denis Johnson
45. Eating The Dinosaur - Chuck Klosterman
46. The Best American Comics 2009 - Various
47. Checkpoint - Nicholson Baker
48. What's Not To Love - Jonathan Ames
49. Wise Blood* - Flannery O'Connor
50. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest* - Ken Kesey

* = Highly recommended

Previously:
My 2008 reading list
My 2007 reading list
My 2006 reading list
My 2005 reading list

Final 2009 Movie List

With work getting busier and the emergence of Facebook as my primary means of communication, I haven't been posting here lately. Don't know if that'll change in the new year, but at least over the next few days I hope to post my normal year-end wrap ups on music, books and movies. With no further adieu here are the 87 movies I've seen this year (blowing away my old 2007 record):

Best new movie I saw: Away We Go or Inglourious Basterds (relatively weak year)
Best 2008 movie I saw this year: The Wrester (honorable mention to Ballast and Wendy & Lucy)
Best old movie I'd never seen: Coal Miner's Daughter
Best TV Series on DVD: Twin Peaks

1. The Lives of Others*
2. Factory Girl
3. Brazil*
4. Pineapple Express
5. Notorious
6. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
7. Bright Lights, Big City
8. Vicky Cristina Barcelona*
9. The Wrestler*
10. Zack & Miri Make a Porno
11. Forgetting Sarah Marshall*
12. Man on Wire*
13. Choke
14. The Notorious Bettie Page
15. Slam
16. Shotgun Stories*
17. Shakespeare Was A Big George Jones Fan
18. The Watchmen*
19. The Visitor*
20. I Love You Man
21. Synecdoche, New York*
22. Rachel Getting Married
23. Religulous
24. Milk
25. Snow Angels
26. The Gits
27. Factotum
28. Old Joy*
29. Doubt*
30. Observe & Report
31. The Hawk Is Dying
32. Foot Fist Way*
33. Interview
34. Frost/Nixon
35. Reign Over Me
36. All The Real Girls
37. The Spirit
38. Tropic Thunder
39. Wendy & Lucy*
40. Vanishing Point
41. Eastern Promises
42. American Teen
43. Tell No One
44. A Woman Is A Woman
45. The Yes Men Fix The World
46. Summer Breakdown
47. Gotta Dance
48. Zombie
49. Facing Ali
50. Know Your Mushrooms
51. Teeth
52. Art & Copy
53. The Hangover
54. Wild At Heart*
55. Year One
56. Everything Is Illuminated
57. Let The Right One In*
58. The Comedians of Comedy
59. Bruno
60. The Spanish Prisoner
61. Julie & Julia
62. Inglourious Basterds*
63. Gore Gore Girls
64. Fire Walk With Me
65. Junebug*
66. Amores Perros*
67. Tyson*
68. Visioneers
69. Away We Go*
70. Donkey Punch
71. Adventureland
72. Coal Miner's Daughter*
73. Breathless
74. Undertow*
75. Anvil: The Story of Anvil
76. Senator Obama Goes to Africa
77. The Beatles: Help!
78. Precious
79. Humpday*
80. Paper Heart*
81. Sugar*
82. One Fast Move Or I'm Gone*
83. Bourne Identity
84. Cthulhu
85. Man In The Sand
86. Ballast*
87. Repulsion*

Previously:
2008 movie list
2007 movie list

* - Highly recommended

Observe & Report

Film #30 for me in '09 was Observe and Report.

My NetFlix rating: 2.5 stars
Jamie says: Amusing at times, but pretty much the same ol' film with a less likeable main character.
RIYL: Any of the slew of Seth Rogan films from the last couple years

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Doubt

Film #29 for me in '09 was Doubt.

My NetFlix rating: 4.5 stars
Jamie says: Another jewel in the crown of great movies I've seen so far this year. Loved it. How can it only have a 78 on Rotten Tomatoes? For shame.
RIYL: Great acting + a stirring script

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Old Joy

Film #28 for me in '09 was Old Joy.

My NetFlix rating: 4.5 stars
Jamie says: Fantabolous subtle goodness.
RIYL: Bonnie Prince Billy, Oregon, Raymond Carver

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Factotum

If you think I'm behind on my movie blogging, what 'til you see my book blogging. Sigh.

Film #27 for me in '09 was Factotum.

My NetFlix rating: 2.5 stars
Jamie says: Who knew you could make Bukowski boring?
RIYL: Lili Taylor, Matt Dillon

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

The Gits

Film #26 for me in '09 was The Gits.

My NetFlix rating: 3 stars
Jamie says: So-so documentary about an icon of the Seattle music scene.
RIYL: Hype

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Snow Angels

Film #25 for me in '09 was Snow Angels.

My NetFlix rating: 4 stars
Jamie says: Another stunning tragedy from David Gordon Green.
RIYL: Shotgun Stories, George Washington

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Milk

Film #24 for me in '09 was Milk.

My NetFlix rating: 4 stars
Jamie says: Still not convinced that Sean Penn should've beat out Mickey Rourke for the Oscar, but I'm at least more zen with it now.
RIYL: Malcolm X, Into the Wild

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Religulous

Film #23 for me in '09 was Religulous.

My NetFlix rating: 3 stars
Jamie says: At times hilarious, at times annoyingly self righteous. Basically exactly what you'd expect from a Bill Maher film.
RIYL: Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchins

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Rachel Getting Married

Film #22 for me in '09 was Rachel Getting Married.

My NetFlix rating: 4 stars
Jamie says: Dear Anne Hathaway, I am sorry I wrote you off based on The Princess Diaries. I now see the error of my ways.
RIYL: Girl Interrupted, Robyn Hitchcock, Neil Young

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Synecdoche, New York

Film #21 for me in '09 was Synecdoche, New York.

My NetFlix rating: 3.5 stars
Jamie says: Always good when your biggest complaint about a film is that it's too ambitious
RIYL: The Truman Show, Being John Malkovich

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Films #1-20

Here's a quick recap of the 20 films I've seen so far this year.

1. The Lives of Others*
2. Factory Girl
3. Brazil*
4. Pineapple Express
5. Notorious
6. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
7. Bright Lights, Big City
8. Vicky Cristina Barcelona*
9. The Wrestler*
10. Zack & Miri Make a Porno
11. Forgetting Sarah Marshall*
12. Man on Wire*
13. Choke
14. The Notorious Bettie Page
15. Slam
16. Shotgun Stories*
17. Shakespeare Was A Big George Jones Fan
18. The Watchmen*
19. The Visitor*
20. I Love You Man

* - Highly recommended

I Love You Man

Film #20 for me in '09 was I Love You Man.

My NetFlix rating: 3.75 stars
Jamie says: Paul Rudd & Jason Segal are some funny dudes.
RIYL: Role Models. Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

The Visitor

Film #19 for me in '09 was The Visitor.

My NetFlix rating: 4.5 stars
Jamie says: This is going to be a strong contender for best film I see this year.
RIYL: Indie films, Richard Jenkins, Babel

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

The Watchmen

Film #18 for me in '09 was Watchmen.

My NetFlix rating: 3.75 stars
Jamie says: I waited far too long and was far too excited that this was coming out to be a fair judge. I do think that the movie did a reasonable job of adapting the book, but the book is still way better :-)
RIYL: Comics, The Dark Knight

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Shakespeare Was A Big George Jones Fan

Film #17 for me in '09 was Shakespeare Was A Big George Jones Fan.

My NetFlix rating: 3.75 stars
Jamie says: Like watching your Grandparents old home videos...if your Grandparents were June and Johnny Cash.
RIYL: Real country, Cowboy Jack Clement, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Dolly Parton...

Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia

Oblivion

Book #7 on my reading list this year was the short-story collection Oblivion by David Foster Wallace.

Very good throughout and sometimes spectacular. "The Soul Is Not a Smithy", "Oblivion", "Incarnations of Burned Children" and "Good Old Neon" stood out to me as the best of the bunch. The first story is both long and my least favorite, so if you're stymied by that one keep chugging.

Why I Read This One?
After thoroughly enjoying Consider The Lobster, I've resolved to work my way through all of DFW's catalog.

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks

Book #6 on my reading list this year was And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, the so-called 'lost novel' from Jack Kerouac & William S. Burroughs.

The back-story on this one is unfortunately more interesting than the book itself. Kerouac and Burroughs alternate chapters, taking a thinly fictionalized spin on Lucien Carr's stabbing of David Kammerer. A very early work for both authors, the writing is definitely not matured to the styles they would later become known for. I actually found Burroughs chapters to be pretty painful reading, not that Kerouac's were much better. This one is really only for hard-core Beat fans. Gotta dig that title though.

Why I Read This One?
Do you really need to ask?

Excerpt

The Best American Non-Required Reading 2008

Book #5 on my reading list was The Best American Non-Required Reading 2008.

Last year's BANRR was a big hit for me, so I came into this year with pretty high expectations. Unfortunately I didn't find this one nearly as compelling as last year. There are still some winners sprinkled throughout, but the overall quality just isn't what I was hoping for. I guess all those non-required authors had a down year last year. The big winner for me by far was George Saunders' excellent, excellent, excellent "Bill Clinton, Public Citizen". Laura van den Berg's "Where We Must Be" also stood out.

Why I Read This One
I'm a big fan of the series so picking this one up was a no-brainer.

George Saunders interviews Bill Clinton

Pimp

I have fallen woefully behind on my book blogging again. Will attempt to remedy that with some quickfire reviews of what I've been reading.

Book #4 on my reading list this year was Iceberg Slim's Pimp: The Story of My Life. This is not surprisingly the "true" story of Iceberg's life as a pimp. Interesting factoid: did you know that Iceberg Slim has sold more books than any other African-American author except Alex Haley? Look it up.

Why I Read This One
Clearly because I'm big pimpin' spendin' G's. Actually picked this one up because it's often referenced as one of the classics of underground-lit.

Iceberg on Wikipedia

Shotgun Stories

Film #16 for me in '09 was Shotgun Stories.

My NetFlix rating: 4 stars
Jamie says: Shakespearean tragedy meets Faulkner
RIYL: Southern Gothic, Deliverance, George Washington, Lucero

Official Site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia