My Top Rated Shows Watched in 2009

Sister-in-law Shirley suggested I do a year end piece on my top ten or on academy award style winners. I still have Siskel & Ebert lists that Shirley sent me each year, going back at least to 1992, on which I periodically check off my viewing. A personal list of favorites of an individual, like Siskel or Ebert, is helpful if you are familiar with the tastes of the individual. Lists and winners determined by group voting, like the academy awards, are less specific guides, but I still consult them for leads to movies to investigate.

NPR did a fun piece this morning about the academy best movie category being expanded to ten films. Seems they want to make sure enough blockbusters are being promoted to help sell tickets and also to pump up the ratings for the academy awards TV show.

I don't go to theaters to watch movies. What I watch comes from Netflix and the public library. I like a variety and have lots of historical interest in movies. During 2009, I watched 420 DVDs, in 17 different genres, in 17 different languages other than English, released in years from 1924 to 2009.  I rated them for myself as explained elsewhere in this blog. Below is a list of the dozen top rated ones, rated 3.7 or above. When I compiled the list from my database, I was surprised to see that eight are documentaries and only one of the 12 is from before 2000.

Scottsboro: An American Tragedy. From PBS American Experience in 2000, excellent documentary on this fascinating case from the Jim Crow era.

John Adams. The 2008 HBO miniseries on our second President.

Anne Frank: The Whole Story. From ABC in 2000, this drama tells the story of what happened to Anne after their hiding place was discovered.

Beyond Belief. Documentary from 2006 about two 9/11 widows who travel to Afghanistan to meet with widows there.

What I Want My Words To Do To You. Documentary from 2003 about a writing program for women prisoners who read from their writing and have them performed for other inmates by professional actresses.

Freedom Writers. Drama from 2007 with Hilary Swank as a teacher inspiring at-risk students to keep journals about what violence does to their lives.

War Made Easy. Documentary from 2007 about how in the last 50 years American Presidents have propagandized us into wars.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster.  Documentary from 2008 about the pressure of sports and competition and steroids.

Cats of Mirikatani. Documentary from 2006 about a Japanese artist who was visting America at the time of Pearl Harbor and the bittersweet life he has led since then.

Leila. A drama from Iran in 2000, telling the story of societal pressures on a couple having difficulty conceiving a child.

October Road - Season One.  Drama series from ABC in 2007 about an author returning to his small town roots and confronting old friends upset aboout how he portrayed them.  This is an example of a good one season series that became grossly inferior in its second year.

Frost-Nixon.  The documentary of the original interviews from 1977.

How about letting us know what shows you watched in 2009 that you rated tops?

Christmas Movies

Rake suggested this post. Christmastime lasts about a month and is a time when many people are drawn back to religion and experience a renewal of generous feelings toward others.  The length of the holiday and the emotions evoked make Christmas a part of numerous movies. Some movies center on the theme, either embracing the story of the birth of Jesus, the existence of Santa Claus, or both. Some find a comic holiday angle, or, at least in the case of Santa Claus, satirize it.

I don't have childhood memories of Christmas and movies. I think Mom may have taken us to see "Come to the Stable", when I was 8 or 9, but going to Catholic school, I got enough religion and did not seek it at the movies. Literary classics on the screen seemed like just more school.  The annual Amahl opera on TV bored me senseless, though I never watched more than the first few minutes. By the time animated Christmas fare came along I was too old to be interested.

Scrooge in the Christmas Carol is the classic literary embodiment of a miserably selfish person opened to love by the spirit of Christmas. Many such classics of literature, including stories for children, have been made into Christmas movies. As parents, we watch these with our children, delicately explaining the stories, balancing fact and fantasy.

I love movies about people who hide their hurt inside and then come to realize there are other people who hurt even more, who they decide to reach out to help, and thereby end up helping themselves too. This theme is perfectly at home in a Christmas movie. "It's a Wonderful Life" has become a Christmas staple on TV. Though not a purely Christmas movie, the climactic community generosity perfectly summarizes the message of the entire movie and fully embodies the personal Christmas spirit of giving. Another film where Christmas comes as an appropriately climactic part, though this time in a sad way, is the wonderfully nostalgic "Meet Me in St. Louis", in which Judy Garland introduced the song, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".

Christmas episodes usually appear about a week ahead of the holiday on television series.  I just watched a particularly good one called "So-Called Angels", from the 1994 short lived but very good family and teen series, "My So-Called Life".  (Too many intelligently written TV series have never made it beyond one year, or two at the most, which could be the theme for another blog post).

The funniest Christmas movie has to be the TBS marathon subject, "A Christmas Story". I crack up every time I see it and I can remember almost every scene. I'll be watching it again this year.

How about sharing your Christmas movie memories and musings?

What are your earliest movie theater memories?

Tell us about your first trips to the movies.

Is this where we came in?

When my brother and I were young kids and able to get a few coins on a Saturday, we could walk to the neighborhood movie theater. In fact I seem to remember one coin, a quarter, was enough for two tickets. As the youngest, it was my job to solicit the money from our step-dad, a task made easier after his first few Olys of Saturday morning had time to work their mellowing magic. Olympia was the beer of choice, not because it was brewed with artesian water, but because it was cheap. The corner grocer knew it was OK to let two kids with a wagon pack a case home on credit, and in payment of our delivery services, movie money seemed appropriate.

We just walked to the theater, without any idea of what movie was playing or what time it started. When we got there, we looked at the posters in front to get an idea of what was on, and then bought our tickets and went inside, where we had to pass through the heavy curtains protecting the aisle from the lobby lights. Once on the dark side, we had to do that walk of faith, with our hands in front like Frankenstein, hoping there wasn't some obstacle in the aisle or maybe an unexpected drop off, all the while knowing how foolish we looked to those already seated with their eyes adjusted to the dark. Sometimes we had to just stand in the aisle until a bright scene exposed the audience long enough for us to get our bearings and grab an empty seat.

The matinees were usually cowboy movies or adventure serials and it was easy to tell what was going on because the plots were all the same, with the heros fighting the villains and ultimately winning. But since we did not start watching at the beginning, for us the victory usually came in the middle of our viewing and then we had to stay for the next beginning and keep watching until we recognized that "this is where we came in". As we graduated to more distant theaters with musicals and dramas, the plots were a little over our heads, which made it harder to recognize where we came in, particularly in the dramas.

Some screenplays are written a little like our matinee experience. The story begins in the middle and then flashes back and forward until we recognize that we have been given the whole thing.  A scriptwriter on a recent special feature I watched said the only flashbacks that are proper are ones that advance the plot. I don't know if I can explain what he meant, but I agree with him.  Starting briefly in the present and then telling the whole back story straight through is fairly common and works well, as when "Citizen Kane" dies with "Rosebud" on his lips, prefacing the telling of his tale. Too much time shifting is often a screen writer's way of trying to mask a weak story.

How Do You Decide What to Watch?

How about sharing the way you decide what movie is next on your list?

Deciding What Movie to Watch

Is there a difference between watching a movie and seeing a movie? To me, seeing seems deeper, involving a conscious effort to find the message or meaning, while watching is more akin to TV channel surfing. I watch a movie and if there is a message or meaning that I get, then I see.

By nature, I over think, and so it is with deciding what to watch. In the years before computers and film guides, movie critics were the best informed source of advice. I found the recommendations of John Hartl of the Seattle Times a good match for my tastes. Then Siskel & Ebert came to TV, with the tastes of Siskel the better match for me (I still like his guideline, "Do you care about the characters?"). Maltin's film guide was handy and extensive, but the accuracy for me was mixed, probably because of the team approach that had to be used to review so many movies.

I used to subscribe to the magazines Films in Review and Sight and Sound, but by the time the magazines arrived, the films were usually gone from the theaters. Foreign films were only shown at the Ridgemont in Greenwood and sometimes at a couple places in the University District. The University put on a quarterly film series which concentrated on films from one country each quarter. The only movies shown on TV were old Hollywood ones.

The most reliable referral source for me now is the Netflix algorithm, based on my own ratings compared with those of other members who rate like me. After watching a movie, I use the Netflix filmographies of the director and actors to find other films of interest. I also look at the reader reviews and sometimes the critics reviews (though Ebert rates so many movies good that I suspect he is influenced by the Netflix desire to keep people renting). I still check out any other recommendations I get from Netflix, family, friends and various media sources, by seeing what the Netflix algorithm predicts for me.

My Netflix queue usually has about 200 movies. If a movie is available from the King County Library (which a little over half are) I get it there, so my Library queue has about 250. I tried to maintain this second queue at Netflix, but found it cumbersome, so now I keep a database with both queues and can sort movies by genre, date, length, language and Netflix prediction. I watch 4 or 5 a week each from Netflix (which is making a smart business move during a down economy by working extra hard to keep the movies coming fast) and the library, with the mix designed to go with my mood and to provide some variety.

Susan is my resident movie watching companion, but she works full time and our tastes differ somewhat. She retires at year end, so may become more involved in movie picking after that.

In November I watched 33 movies, dated 1936 to 2009, all dramas except for 3 comedies, 3 romances, 2 documentaries and 1 sci-fi, all in English except 4 Spanish, 2 German and 1 each Hungarian, Italian and Japanese, predicted by Netflix from 3.4 to 2.8 and rated by me from 3.8 to 2. For my mathematically inclined readers (especially John), the Netflix predictions were accurate on the average to within .1, with only 4 being off by more than .5, and the median being an exact match.

My Movie Ratings

Here are my ratings of almost 1,500  movies (including TV shows, etc) I have watched on DVD in the last few years, and rated for my own purposes. References to seasons or disk numbers are not meaningful unless more than one rating is made for that title. Some of the movies include the year of release. Numbers following some titles are Netflix or other predictions of how I would rate the movie, as of the time of viewing. The Netflix star system is designed to make three of the five stars positive ratings (and thus encourage rentals). My reaction to that tactic was to hold my ratings down to mostly three stars (liked it), with a few four stars (really liked it) and a rare 5 star (loved it).

My rating system is built around the Netflix five star system, but I have added decimals to make it more accurate. It essentially has evolved into a four star system. A 2.7 or lower movie is one I would not recommend. Ratings of 2.8 and 2.9 are marginal.  From 3 to 3.2 are all right for those interested. From 3.3 on up are recommended. About 50 of the older ratings were done before I started using decimals and they are identified as "no decimal" and should be taken with a grain of salt, since a 2.7 and 3.3 movie would both have been rated three stars.

I have rated about 850 other films at Netflix, mainly for the purpose of helping the Netflix predictions of what I will like. I don't have a decimal rating record for them. I could make a list here of those which I top rated, but it might be best for me to first watch them again to see how they stand the test of time and then rate them on the decimal system.

Remember, these ratings are my current opinions of what I want Netflix to recommend to me, based on my most recent viewing of the movie, and also on my mood of that day. In years past I may have rated a movie higher, but recent viewing reduced my opinion. I am not rating based on the historical merit of the movie as of the time it was released. I chose movies to watch that I did not remember seeing which I thought would at least be marginally acceptable (2.8). Of the movies listed through 2009, I rated 84% at 2.8 or above. I think the toning down of my ratings at Netflix has enabled the Netflix prediction algorithm, which is calculated to one decimal, to quite accurately guide my choice of what to watch.

My movie ratings lists are now dated December 31, 2010, and are linked to in the blog side bar, both alphabetically and from high to low rated. The lists may be updated in the future. Some of the movies do not have a year listed, because the year was not included in all my lists I used in compiling this list. In the case of a TV series, sometimes the series is rated as a whole and sometimes the individual disks are rated. Direct any requests for clarification to me, Tom Blake.

What science fiction movies do you like?

What do you look for in a science fiction movie and what are some science fiction movies that you like?

Close Encounter

For 32 years I went without watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".  One reason for avoiding the movie is the sci-fi genre has only limited appeal to me.  I'm not sure why that is.  I guess I find the realities of science so fascinating and expansive that making up supposedly more fantastic stuff seems a waste of time.  Like many things in life it is a matter of degree.  If the fiction is not too far out, it has more appeal.  I like "Fahrenheit 451", maybe because it is more political science fiction, and it is not that far out.  I liked "E. T.", because, like Fahrenheit, it was also very personal in its relationship with the characters, and because the alien was so appealing and made such a deep cross-cultural connection with Elliot.  "The Day the Earth Stood Still" appealed to me because the alien seemed to be the embodiment of what my Catholic school was teaching me about Jesus, which was ironic since the Church found the movie "morally objectionable in part for all", apparently because the alien was able to resurrect himself.

"Close Encounters" had no viable political message, personal relationships or cross-cultural connections.  All it seemed to have was blockbuster pretense, including excessive length, and state of the art (for then) special effects.  Production values (and budget) were high, but the story written by Spielberg was drivel, the acting was mediocre at best and the direction was hackneyed.  Not having watched the movie when it first came out limits my ability to measure it with the test of time, but the effects are obviously now old hat, the production values are the norm for any Hollywood big budget movie and the acting and direction are still poor.

My favorite line is when Richard Dreyfuss and his female companion have breached the 350 square mile evacuation zone set up by the government, by taking the station wagon off road, careening over embankments and through barricades across open country on dirt roads with no buildings or human being in sight, and then come upon a distant view of the Devil's Tower, and Dreyfuss, contemplating proceeding to the Tower, suddenly turns practical and says, "Let's get some gas and get down there."

What Did You Just Watch?

How about letting us know what movie you most recently watched and what you thought about it?  You can post your comment below.

Movie Memories and Musings

Daughter Anna has been suggesting that I start a movie blog, as a way to indulge my desire to do some writing and my need to talk about the movies I watch.  Since putting "Sense from Seattle" on sabbatical, I have missed writing, but not the intense involvement with politics.  In deciding whether to start another blog, I made a classic pro and con sheet.

On the pro side of the page, I listed a movie blog as a place to practice writing, recall movie related memories, and discuss and dialogue about movies with family and friends.  On the con side, I posted concerns about setting up and formatting such a blog, feeling obligated to it, spending too much time writing, being tempted to go back over too many past movies and how personal to get.

Obviously I have decided to give it a try.  I do like to write and I do like movies, so Anna was an accurate muse.  I am again using Blogger as a host, but chose a new template for a different look and more customizable options.  I hope this blog will see more reader participation that Sense ended up with.  The subject matter here should be much less combative than politics and that is the spirit with which I launch the blog.  Our memories of movies and our musings about them are matters of our personal experiences and tastes, and we should expect there to be individual differences.  I encourage everyone to feel free to recall memories and express opinions here, without criticism from others.  Our praise and our criticism of movies and of those involved in making them may be divergent, but we are each entitled to our own views.

Choosing a blog title first involved labeling the subject.  Are we talking about movies, flicks, videos, films, cinema or what?  I chose "movies" by process of elimination.  Flicks are the flickers of old projector light, no longer applicable and a little to flip (though it works for Netflix).  Video is the picture, but technically ignores audio, the sound (even so-called silent films have music).  Film is both too general (still pictures and slides can also be film) and too narrow (many productions are shot digitally without film).  Cinema is merely foreign sounding, and smacks of discrimination against American movies.

Memories and thoughts will be written about here, and I like alliteration, so Movie Memories and Musings emerged.  I want this blog to be more participatory, so the title eliminates reference to me and my location.  Maybe the title sounds more like the blog of a still fairly young mother rather than that of a progressively aging grandfather, but I expect it to be an accurate description of what gets written on these pages.

Anna will be the first informed of this launch, then my other children and a few other relatives and friends.  Comments on articles can be posted as usual and you can also post as a comment any reviews, memories or musings you like.  I may choose some comments to pull out and make into separate article postings.  I may include a blog index and other features - we'll just see how it goes.

You are invited to follow along and encouraged to participate.  We all like movies and have memories and thoughts to share.