John Waters and other list-makers. "Freak out, baby, freak out"
Tuesday, December 3, 2019 at 8:29PM
by Nathaniel R
Climax is #1... according to John Waters
It’s top ten time of year (lots of them after the jump) and the great unofficial kick-off is the always delicious and on-brand John Waters lists for ArtForum. His lists are on brand because some of the films you can totally see why America’s most famous cult director would love them (his #1 fits that bill splendidly “Frenzied dance numbers combined with LSD, mental breakdowns, and childhood trauma turn this nutcase drama into The Red Shoes meets Hallucination Generation. Freak out, baby, freak out!”) and one or two because you’ve never heard of them (obscure indies!) and generally one or two that you weren’t even remotely expecting for its mainstream-appeal reasons.
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Climax (Gaspar Noe)
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Joan or Arc (Bruno Dumont)
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Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)...
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Border (Ali Abassi)
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Amazing Grace
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Hail Satan? (Penny Lane)
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Pain & Glory (Pedro Almodovar)
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The Golden Glove (Fatih Akin)
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The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg)
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Joker (Todd Phillips)
As ever you really want to read his write-ups so you can do that here.The one we hadn’t heard of is The Golden Glove -- strange since we definitely have seen and enjoyed multiple Akin films) about which Waters says...
Even its own American distributor called this film reprehensible, and I agree, yet it’s so appalling, so grotesque, so well made and bravely acted that dare I suggest you give this serial-killer movie a watch? Shame on you, Fatih Akin, for making it. Shame on me for putting it on this Top Ten list. Shame on you if you like it.
List-Mania, More Top Ten of 2019
Time Hustlers, Little Women, Pain and Glory etc…
IndieWire’s 19 best includes Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Nightingale, Us, and Monos with Pedro’s Pain & Glory topping the list.
Sight & Sound goes with a top 50 and since it’s UK based we get some 2018 US releases mixed in like Clint Eastwood’s The Mule. The list includes I Lost My Body, Varda by Agnes, and High Life. The Irishman, Parasite and The Souvenir are the holy trinity up top.
Vulture three lists from their chief critics honor films like Honeyland, Atlantics, The Irishman, Uncut Gems, and Shadow but only two movies made all three lists: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Parasite.
The New Yorker Richard Brody’s 27 best list includes Get Out, Margaret, Holy Motors, and Moonlight
Vanity Fair Richard Lawson’s 10 best including Princess Cyd (!) and Phantom Thread
List-Mania, All Time Style
BBC Polled hundreds of critics recently to come up with the top 100 films directed by women. Unfortunately the list performs complete Nicole Holofcener erasure! And given how much we love her movies, like Lovely & Amazing and Enough Said and Please Give, we ain’t havin’ it! Also slightly annoyed with how 1990s onward focused it is. Where is Yentl (1983) or Girlfriends (1978)? One of the things that is never discussed in the now frequent and valiant efforts at diversifying which critics are polled for various lists (gender and racial diversity is awesome of course) is making sure you are also polling critics of different age-ranges. It’s unfortunate that so many working critics are so exclusively focused on films from their teenage years onward. Since critics are human that way, you have to make sure to poll older critics too if you’re doing an “all time” list. Still, thrilled to see Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993) at #1 where it ought to be and truly great French films like Beau Travail and Cleo from 5 to 7 also in the top ten list.
Reader Comments (9)
Joker? Really, John?!
"Joker" is a very fine piece of movie-making that has unfortunately been overwhelmed by all the hand-wringing media hysteria and people making judgments before even seeing it. Good on you, Mr. Waters!
I am so sick of the Tarantino praise, however.
(The BBC link doesn’t work)
I want to rewatch The Piano, but it would barely make my top five Campion films (I prefer Angel at my Table, Portrait of a Lady, Bright Star, and Holy Smoke some days)
Louise - fixed. sorry about that!
John Water´s anual top 10 list is always fun to watch. Almost never coincide with him and i love that.
I could add to the list of films directed by women:
Te Doy Mis Ojos (Take My Eyes), Iciar Bollaín
Perfume de Violetas (Violet Perfume), Maryse Sistach
Los Insólitos Peces Gato (The Amazing Catfish), Claudia Saint-Luce
Agnus Dei: Cordero de Dios (Agnus Dei. The Lamb of God), Alejandra Sánchez
Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe, (I´m cheating here because is a male/female film directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou)
I know i´m always talk about comedy but, why comedy female directors are practically an inexistent species?
Joker is not good.
Oh god Nathaniel, I think you would HATE The Golden Glove. I think it's unforgettable but it's deeply perverse and cruel and shocked even me. EVEN ME. Everything JW says about it is right on though.
Joker is brilliant!!!