I love the contributor lists over at Rupert Pupkin Speaks, and I was more than glad to add another one, this time a year I remember very well (1997), which was just after I had started my own BAM Awards. More news about the 2017 edition will be coming shortly, without further adieu enjoy!
Lee Montgomery in Burnt Offerings one of my favorite older films of 2011. (United Artists)
UPDATE: Due to the strong focus I give to 2012 titles in late November and December, this list of possibilities is virtually complete. It will be whittled down and written up for posting in early January!
This post really serves a few purposes. First it’ll track the possibilities for a year end list. The first edition of it can be found here. Second, I’ll also be posting this list on my Letterboxd account, if you use it you can follow me there my user name is Bernardo Villela just as it is on Twitter.
This year I may include a shorts section but that will remain a secret. here are but the features.
1. Big Red
2. This is England
3. Peeping Tom
4. Make a Wish
5. The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (1973)
6. The Glass Child
7. Rawhead Rex
8. Blood & Roses
9. The Drum
10. The Comedy of Terrors
11. House of Dark Shadows
12. The Fallen Idol
13. Scrooge
14. Indiscretion of an American Housewife
15. Wait Until Dark
16. Wild Boys of the Road
17. The Window
18. Frenzy
19. Thief of Bagdad
20. Mrs. Parkington
21. Bless the Beasts & Children
22. The Masque of the Red Death
23. Visages d’enfants
24. Spectre
25. A Child Called Jesus
26. Christmas Tale
27. Big Business
28. Death and Cremation
29. Goobers! (fka Mystery Monsters)
30. 28 Up
31. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
32. 42 Up
33. The Life and Passion of Jesus (1905)
34. From the Manger to the Cross (1912)
35. Coriolanus
36. No Greater Glory
37. The Manster
38. Only When I Dance
39. The Birds
40. Island of Lost Souls
41. The House of Usher
42. Summer Interlude
43. Tales from the Hood
44. The War of the Buttons (1994)
45. Where the River Runs Black
46. Only When I Dance
47. Lil’ A (Short)
48. The Birds
49. Island of Lost Souls
50. Summer Interlude
51. The House of Usher
52. Brats (1930)
53. Always
54. Jet Boy
55. Emil and the Detectives
56. Student Bodies
57. The Devil and the Statue
58. Gulliver’s Travels Among the Lilliputians and Giants
59. The Kingdom of the Fairies
60. The Eclipse, or The Courtship of the Sun and Moon
61. The Conquest of the Pole
62. Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
63. Ghost Town (1988)
64. Lady in White (1988)
65. The Mummy (1932)
66. Planet of the Vampires
67. O Pagador de Promessas (The Promise Keeper)
68. Salome
69. The Forbidden
70. The Omen III: The Final Conflict
71. Chabelo y Pepito Contra los Monstruos
72. Hellphone
73. Hansel & Gretel
74. Aro Tolbukhin: In the Mind of a Killer
75. House of Long Shadows
76. The Final
77. The Thing from Another World
78. A Shot in the Excitment
79. The Rape of the Vampire
80. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare
81. The White Shadow
I recall once that Roger Ebert tweeted a link and added to it something to the extent of “See this is why I don’t do lists.” I got his point. It was a completist’s one, meaning how can you legitimately make such and such a list claiming it’s ever or all-time when you haven’t, you couldn’t possibly, have seen every qualifying film. Fair enough.
However, it was only recently that I followed this line of thought out further when thinking of my own lists. If I say these are the 10 Best Examples of This I Ever saw, am I disingenuous? No, if I haven’t seen something or disagree, that film, performance or whatever else isn’t on the list. Surely, there are year-end best film lists made by people who saw less than every film released that year. How do those lists differ? They don’t.
Therefore, what I resolved is that if I make a list, barring year-end ones which are time sensitive, that for all intents and purposes it is perpetually a work in progress. Why should it not be? Do I anticipate never hearing another new voice actor (referring to an older not re-posted here list)? I’m preparing a Spielberg ranking, will it not automatically re-shift when Lincoln comes out? I will also no longer be married to round numbers. If something should demand 11 choices, there will be 11. Much in the way my best films of last year lists were assembled, I felt there were 25 films worthy of being cited. Clearly there were still only 10 in the top 10.
The important thing is to do these things in order to express oneself, create discussions and learn. I may be pointed towards a film I have not yet seen or heard of through a list or a post, and why shouldn’t I?
Similarly, I plan to continue to write on the new releases I see but in ways I find enriching, which will not always mean a standard review. I did as such for The Dictator and I think that Brave and Madagascar 3 should be treated in a unique fashion also.
These new precepts I feel will encourage me to re-post more, to write on films more quickly and to avoid procrastinating, and ultimately I believe they will make my content more interesting and dynamic. I hope you do too.
The Movie Rat 