Why Year End Top 10 Lists are Usually Terrible
People Have Such Short Memories
I have to admit. I usually like Top 10 film lists at the end of the year. It’s fun to reflect and be nostalgic over the last year and be reminded of what cultural touchstones we all enjoyed. We all have our favorites, and in a way, its fun to see what others thought were also their favorites.
Which is why I really have a bone to pick with many a critics’ choices this year.
Now, being a critic is many peoples’ jobs and they take it seriously. They review, analyze their topic from many angles and compile their thoughts into an essay extolling the virtues of their art. If you are a movie critic, you often have to see hundreds of movies a year, many of them downright awful but you have to sit through them all the same. They’re also not usually looking at the same things we are when we go to the movies, but rather they are deconstructing it one piece at a time; the mise en scene, the score, the direction, the cinematography, the stunt coordination, the costume design, the whole nine yards. All we usually work on digesting is whether or not a good story is being told well.
Which brings me to this year’s lists. Never before can I remember a more greater collection of artistic snobbery and intellectual myopia than just going through many of the films chosen as the year’s best. Granted, this was not exactly a stellar year for cinema and it hasn’t been for some time. Most films released this year were either serialized action films, or feature length advertisements. It’s been that way for several years now as comic books took over the studios and became billion dollar franchise tentpoles. Now that they are scraping the bottom of the comic book character heap, they seem more hollow and derivative. Perhaps with the end of the writers’ strike things will turn around and we’ll see more originality; one could only hope.
So how can you tell this year was particularly awful? By looking at these lists and considering what films actually made their year end lists and why. Just by reading between the lines, you can tell how poor the movies were, and how lame the critics are being:
There are a lot of “Emperors New Clothes” in this year’s picks.
If you remember the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, the Emperor hires a tailor to make for him new attire. The tailor is utterly perplexed as to what to make for the Emperor that he wastes his time dithering and by the time the garments are due he hasn’t made anything. So to cover, he fakes that he has made “invisible clothes” for the Emperor and mocks that he is putting on clothes that aren’t there. The Emperor, so proud at being the only person ever with invisible clothes models them around for his courtiers, who then do nothing but praise at how wonderful the Emperor’s New Clothes are (even though there is nothing there and the Emperor is just plainly walking around naked in all his glory). The story is a shorthand for empty praise and kowtowing to an established person.
And what films fit that description this year? Let’s start with Asteroid City, a film by the critic loved Wes Anderson. Now Wes Anderson films can be hit or miss; sometimes they are fun and engaging, sometimes they are just dry and boring. This one came and went back in June because it was the latter. Critics at the time gave it mediocre reviews, people who saw it thought of it as meh pretty much across the board. So come years end, you’d think it would be forgotten. Nope. Out of nowhere somehow this film ends up on many year end best lists. Why? Oh, just to praise what a genius Wes Anderson is. I’ve seen the film. It isn’t that great. In fact, it was his most boring ever.
Who else? Let’s talk about Martin Scorsese. I love me a good Scorsese film. Doesn’t even have to be a mafia film, although he excels in them. Even his deviations from the cosa nostra set are excellent; just watch Silence, Hugo or the Wolf of Wall Street and you’ll know what I mean. His last film, the Irishman, was a four hour mafia film starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino. You’d think it would be great. It wasn’t. Here’s a typical conversation from it:
Pesci: You know that thing we gotta do?
DeNiro: What thing?
Pesci: You know, that thing we talked about?
DeNiro: Oh yeah, you mean that thing with Jimmy?
Pesci: No, the other thing.
DeNiro: Oh, yeah, yeah yeah. What about it?
And it goes on like this for four hours. Since Scorsese has final cut from the studio, nobody ever tells him his films would be better if they were leaner and edited some. Killers of the Flower Moon has this problem in spades. It would be a much better film cut down by about 45 minutes. But it has other problems too. Scorsese focuses on the white villains in DeNiro and DiCaprio rather than the Osage who are far more interesting. It makes sense, that is where his star power in the film is, but truth be told, neither is very good in this film. You know who was? Lily Gladstone as DiCaprio’s Osage wife. Scorsese should have focused the story from her perspective (like the book) and not from Leo’s. Likewise, the movie ends on a really offbeat novelty show manner, which just seems cobbled together to just say “I’m done.” There’s a great movie here dying to get out but for Scorsese’s choices and some usually reliable actors’ mediocre acting. Critics saw that when the movie first came out and made these same comments and observations. Those same critics have it in the top 5 on many lists and in one egregious one I saw as the top film.
Lastly, we have The Holdovers. I love Alexander Payne films. I think Paul Giamatti is one of the most underrated actors ever. It’s OK. It covers the same ground as every Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti film. There’s nothing new here.
These Lists are always full of art-house films nobody watches
On this I am at least sympathetic. Critics do watch a lot of films, many have very little chance of breaking through. Why not throw some love in their direction by giving them some attention? And sure, the attention often gets people in the seats (including me).
The thing is then, that’s not a “10 Best” film, that’s marketing.
December is full of Oscar bait like this, and the studios market these movies entirely based on the critics raves and nominations for these kind of films. They need people in seats from January to April and prestige pictures fill that role. And you can often find some good films to watch this way. More often then not, they’re the kind you’ll watch only once, think its OK, be happy you saw it and then never want to go out of your way to see it again. Think “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri” or “Nomadland.” Yup, films like that.
So what films fit this category? Any Yorgos Lanthimos film pretty much. The Lobster was a critics darling one year, the Favourite in another. This year, his “Poor Things” pretty much falls right in line with that. Can you honestly say you would go out of your way to watch this film if you didn’t hear it was a critics’ darling? Doubtful.
“Zone of Interest” is popping up on many lists, and most have never heard of it and will never see it. It’s so obscure most don’t know a thing about it. If I told you it was about a Nazi living in splendor outside of Auschwitz, would you think I was serious or joking? It might be great. But really, if you remember it a year from now I’ll be shocked.
Yes, Oppenheimer was better than Barbie.
Barbie is a success when it comes to production design. I’m sure Oscar voters would want to give tribute to its script too. Other than that, it’s a fun film if you liked it, or just innocuous if you didn’t (most did). Released the same day as Christopher Nolan’s monumental Oppenheimer, the two are forever paired in history.
Oppenheimer is probably the best movie of the past decade, perhaps of the century so far. Most films, including Barbie, is not even in the same league as it; Barbie’s an artificial movie about a doll, while Oppenheimer is a substantial look at the guy who put together the Atomic Bomb. When you look at a list and see Barbie higher than Oppenheimer, you kind of have to laugh.
Critics have very short attention spans.
Most movies on critics lists usually are released November or later. Occassionally, you get the films released earlier in the year if they made a dent of some kind. What films released pre-September have largely been forgotten by critics? Well, when it comes to animation, Across the Spider-Verse deserves your attention not just for story or amazing animation design, but for that five minute chase sequence of every Spider-Man conceivable. Are You There God, Its Me Margaret was one of the most enjoyable films this year, and I’m a guy saying that.
Air and Blackberry, two films that are essentially product oriented films, were both excellent, covering the creation of Nike Air Jordans and Blackberry devices respectively. If you would have told me the most intriguing film this year was about a shoe I would have laughed.
Lastly, critics never go outside the norm.
It’s almost like they’re afraid they’ll be run out of the “Critics club” or lose their “Critics card” or something if they don’t follow the crowd. If a critic of the New York Times claims that Fallen Leaves or The Boy and his Heron were the two best films of the year, then all these other critics soon add them to their lists.
You know what two films were the most fun for me at a movie theater this year? Cocaine Bear and Godzilla Minus One. Now, nobody is going to mistake these two films for Citizen Kane. Cocaine Bear particularly gives you everything you can expect in the title. You know what? I laughed myself silly at it as did everyone else at the cineplex. Godzilla Minus One has some depth to it, but let’s be honest, ITS A GODZILLA MOVIE. It’s received almost entirely universal praise. You know how many year end lists I expect to see it on: zero.
And in the end, that’s what these lists are meant to be; what movies did you enjoy the MOST this year. They don’t all have to be super-serious costume dramas or biopics. How often is a comedy chosen for best picture? Its a rarity. Perhaps you did like the sugary, superfluous Barbie more than Oppenheimer this year. I can certainly concede some reasons you might. You know what? Kudos for you.
So if you were to ask me what films would be in my “Top 10” this year, I wouldn’t give you a list. I’d say Oppenheimer to me was the best film, but there were a lot of other enjoyable films out there that you can like. One film I’m eager to see is Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction, myself. But if you find something you are interested in, go enjoy it.
PurpleAmerica’s Recommended Stories
I get a kick out of revisiting these lists a year later to see if they hold up. One of the favorite films of 2022? Avatar 2. There were also the universally praised and equally forgotten films Tar, The Fablemans and Banshees of Inisherin. There were the semi-popular films Elvis, Nope, The Batman and All Quiet on the Western Front. There was the blockbuster Top Gun Maverick. And then there was the ultimate Oscar Best Picture winner, Everything Everywhere All at Once.
2021, do you even remember The Power of the Dog or Licorice Pizza? How about Best Picture winner, Coda? Or Nightmare Alley. Did you see the West Side Story remake? Have you watched any of these since? What about The Last Duel or King Richard (since Will Smith hit Chris Rock). For my money, the best movies I saw that year were Pig, The Card Counter and Judas and the Black Messiah, but I haven’t watched any of those since then.
PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject
“If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad.”— Sheryl Crow
Damn, your take on The Irishman was spot on.