I realize I'm quite late in sharing the AFI's annual top ten list but it was only because it felt redundant. The American Film Institute starting making top ten lists of the year's most "significant" American films in 2000. For the first ten years or so their lists did have some interesting pockets, detours from Oscar buzz if you will. They were willing to include fan favorites and comedies (High Fidelity, Best in Show, The 40 Year Old Virgin) that weren't "prestige" enough for Oscar, surprise hits that weren't in any "best picture" game (Friday Night Lights, Devil Wears Prada) superhero blockbusters (Iron Man, Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight) and low budget indies (Wendy & Lucy, Half Nelson). This year, it's like the jury just looked at Best Picture prediction charts and copied down the titles.
Those plus Star Wars: The Force Awakens which they pushed back their announcement to consider and/or to include depending on how cynical you're feeling. More...
But this complaint is nothing new. The AFI has been that way for awhile. Round about 2010 when their list was identical to Oscar's but for one film (AFI chose The Town which only had a spot because The King's Speech was ineligible being British), it just started being Oscar cheat sheets.
What changed about their process or has the need to predict Oscars affected literally every awards-giving body?
Part of the problem might be that their list purports to honor films which
- Best advance the art of the moving image
- Enhance the rich cultural heritage of America's art form
- Inspire audiences and artists alike
- And/or make a mark on American society
But in order to know what films inspire audiences and artists alike and make a mark on society you really can't be choosing films which haven't yet opened or are just in their first weekend at theaters as the group does each and every year with lists that favor late breaking films... just like Oscar.
Even more confusing is that AFI means to honor specificially American films and yet their rules are so loose about that that something like Mad Max Fury Road with some of the money from the US but all of the creative team from oversees somehow qualifies. Brooklyn, which many people assumed was ineligible being British/Irish also actually qualified so its absence is their only major deviation from Oscar buzz.
can someone explain The Big Short's appeal to me?THE LISTS:
[MOVIES] THE BIG SHORT, BRIDGE OF SPIES, CAROL, INSIDE OUT, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, THE MARTIAN, ROOM, SPOTLIGHT, STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, and STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON.
[TV] THE AMERICANS, BETTER CALL SAUL, BLACK-ISH, EMPIRE, FARGO, GAME OF THRONES, HOMELAND, MASTER OF NONE, MR ROBOT, UNREAL
...and a special award for MAD MEN.
(If the AFI really wants to honor films for their national or cultural significance shouldn't they be looking at films like Creed (already a hit with critics and audiences and part of totally American iconography via the Rocky series). In years past Trainwreck, which was a big talking point and very successful, if not a "great movie" would also have been a likely honoree.)
Their TV list is a touch more lively but it's hard to be "totally" consensus when it comes to TV with 5,000 programs on air. Unless of course you are the Emmys and you just copy and paste your favorites from year to year no matter what actually happens during that year.
In All Fairness...
When it comes to 2015 movies it is kind of a "consensus" year. You don't find much dissent on Spotlight, Carol, Inside Out, Room or Mad Max Fury Road unless you really go looking for it. My own top ten list (coming in a week or so) ...isn't as idiosyncractic as usual either. But this list is still a snoozer. Not one film that feels even remotely left of field. They're all right their on the pitcher's mound they're so central. Look at me using sports metaphors! That means it's time to say goodnight.
GOOD NIGHT.