The Pretentious Know it All is alive and well. Rather than doing the usual apology about my long absence and how I fully intend to blog more regularly (which I do), let's discuss the game plan.
Firstly, I have every noble intention of completing my Best of the 2000s series. Expect to see that in the coming weeks, as I am not merely publishing the list (as you can tell if you've been reading it...to the one person out there who reads my blog). It is a painstaking, albeit reward task, not just to do a write-up of one of the films from every grouping of ten on my top 100 list, but deciding which film to cover? Oy vey. These are my favorite films of the decade, each one in its own complicated way very near and dear to my heart and I can't wait to share more.
Secondly, the fourth annual Pretentious Film Awards (Fourth!) are fully under way. The nominees have mostly been selected, though I still have a few films from 2011 left to watch. Full disclosure, my list of films seen in 2011 is slightly thinner than in previous years due to factors I won't bore you with here. I have not seen My Week With Marilyn, The Iron Lady, Carnage, Albert Nobbs, War Horse, J. Edgar or The Ides of March (though I did read the script for The Ides of March last summer). Though each of the previous films may factor into the Oscar race, though to what degree is being hotly contested on all counts, I no huge rush to see them in order for me to cite my personal favorites. As lazy and patently unadventurous as it sounds, nothing I've heard about any of these titles qualifies them as urgent viewing in my book, outside of their supposed awards potential.
Conversely, there are a lot of films from 2011 that I am genuinely sad to have missed in time for this year's Pretentious Film Awards, though I do plan on viewing them as soon as possible. For reasons, both complicated and uncomplicated, I was unable to see (in descending order of personal excitement/enthusiasm) Margaret, A Separation, Pariah, Poetry, Submarine, Attack the Block, Potiche, A Dangerous Method, Pina and Jane Eyre. As one of my resolutions for the new year is to write more, this blog included, I will surely make every effort to watch these films and any and every film I can get my hands on and write about them year round. You will be hearing from me. I can assure you of that.
Thirdly (and lastly) regarding my year end film awards, be prepared for what might be the most off-consensus year I've had yet in terms of the general landscape of film awards. Despite this blog's title, this is a rather dubious claim to fame and not one I was planning in the slightest. Consider 2010, where my top ten list included four of the eventual Best Picture nominees (and my feelings were generally warm about the entire ten). Regarding my list, I must reiterate again (not that film criticism should ever include "defense" of one's taste in the strictest sense of the word) that I am not, nor have I ever feinted left to go right in terms of my cinematic proclivities. For instance, although The Artist, our probably Best Picture winner at this point, does not appear on my top ten list, I have no real objections to its eventual victory in the Oscar race. I will delve more into these thoughts when I review most of the films I saw in 2011 over the next few days. You'll hear me weigh in on the heavily debated politics of The Help. You'll learn why I gave a "D+" to The Descendants, a film so seemingly innocuous that, even if it weren't your cup of tea, one wonders how anyone could ever possibly feel so passionately against it to award it such a low grade. All will be revealed.
So, as I often say, I look forward to sharing more of my thoughts here on this blog, which (though it has been sporadic) I'm happy to have kept up with for the past four years.
Peace, Love and Pretension.
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