[04] Top 30 Personal Favorite Films [2009 - 2010]

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I know it took a while but finally I can present the next five films in my personal top 30 list and I apologize for taking my time with this, but I confess that I kind of ended up having a hard time making this list. So, without wasting any more time, as I already took long enough to write this one, here are the next five personal favorite films.


Coraline
There is a certain beauty in Coraline, not only because of the incredible usage of stop-motion animation, but the eerie atmosphere it creates. It certainly is a film that stuck with me long after I have seen it for the first time. The opening sequence alone is probably one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen, just these thin spider-like fingers sowing together a doll with those iconic black button eyes just sticks in your memory while you ponder what exactly this means for Coraline. As soon as she enters this other world it is just bizarre seeing people that you’ve already have met with these button eyes is, scary.

Somehow everything about this film can actually be explained with the name of our titular character. Switch two letters to turn Caroline into Coraline and you already know something feels off. The name truly speaks a lot about the movie you watch or should I probably say, the experience? It is a true spectacle and probably makes you ponder how they managed to make the film look the way it does.

So, you might be wondering why is this film on my list? Well, it is a combination of the visuals and storytelling. The story is a simple one, but works extremely well and in combination with the visual design and especially the atmosphere when Coraline enters the other dimension, it makes a leap into the fantastical that changes your perception of the reality you are watching. Did I mention that the main antagonist has probably one of the most bizarre yet incredible transformations one could see?


Inglorious Basterds
Oh, I have to confess this film was my introduction to Quentin Tarantino and one couldn’t deny that he loves film, probably film’s my generation might never get to know like he did. Yet probably works extremely well in this film for me personally, is the fact that it combines three languages in one film. This is something you don’t see very often and as a person who grew up in Austria, it is great to see a film that has German actors speaking German in a situation they really wouldn’t speak English. Then you have actors that speak French, a language I actually learned, or rather tried to learn, for a few years.

Then as an Austrian, you have the additional advantage of having the incredible Christoph Waltz, who truly has proven to be an incredible actor. The opening sequence alone is just an intense moment trying to showcase how much of a villain he is, but ironically you love this guy, or at least love to hate him. If there is any celebrity I would love to meet at one point in my life, it is certainly him. Don’t worry, his performance alone is not the reason this is on my top list, but also probably the strangest performance by Brad Pitt that makes it quite enjoyable to watch every time and a film that breaks cultural barriers.


(500) Days of Summer
I have a rather strange relationship with this film, as similar to Don Jon, it echoed a lot of my own life and taught me a very valuable lesson. Sometimes no matter how perfect things seem, they can change and there can always be more to a situation or even a romance you will never understand at the time when everything seems perfect. More than anything else though, what I love about this film the most is that it truly showcases what real life romance is, a complicated mess of ups and downs. Maybe my own first relationship made this film as important as it is to me as it is now, as it certainly was never an easy thing. Sometimes no matter what you do it felt like a one-sided experience, but you never wanted to let go, because you still kind of believe in all the good things that have happened and even could happen. In the end though, you might be telling yourself a story that never truly was what it once was.

Probably what echoes the most within my mind is the ending, as even Summer can come to an end and Autumn begins. Sometimes things sadly just don’t last as much as we want to. While Don Jon is a look at how romance films and porn have distorted our visions at true relationships and leaves a strong message, this film goes a slight step further and simply shows us how we ourselves create our visions of what romance is to us personally. I am certainly of victim of believing in first true love and maybe ironically I went through this entire film and even Don Jon in addition. This film simply comes on this list, because of a combination of personal experience and even the way the film takes a look at how our personal wishes and beliefs can shape the reality of romance, or maybe destroy it at the same time.


Rare Export
I have a soft spot for films that take a Lovecraft-esque look at something, and Rare Exports is probably one of the most unique one’s I have seen. I mean it not only is a film about a young child growing up and proving himself as a man to not really anyone, but himself, but it is also a Lovecraft version of Santa Clause. Even trying to write this down is so bizarre to me, because no matter how I try to sell this film, it is about taking the original mythology of a creature we have truly westernized and just going back to its routes by creating a more horrific rendition of it. That is what fascinates me the most about this film is just how they showcase this very classic character in our world and showing us that no matter what we make of them, there are sometimes very dark roots behind them.

It’s also not just about the lore it creates, or rather recreates, but also these characters. While there is a father who is trying to take care of his son as best as possible and then the son who is trying to outgrow. Then the symbolism works just as incredible by using classic Christmas decoration in very creative ways. Considering this film came from some shorts with the same title, they truly made an incredible experience with this film.


Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
While Tarantino is a true lover of film, I consider Edgar Wright to be a true lover of film technique. The way he uses the camera or simply how he stages a scene is incredible and I believe that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World only worked because he was the director behind the camera. The way the characters transition from one scene to the next are fantastic, it is the biggest tribute to video games a film could do, and even more it just is a fantastic fast-paced film. Michael Cera is surprisingly perfect as Scott Pilgrim and as a huge fan of the comics. I was rather surprised how perfect the casting was for almost every single character in this film.

I’ll be honest that the film made me want to read the comics and in the end, the comics really made me want to this film, but there is, once again, a very funny story behind it. The film was released in the US in August 13th, 2010 and I was hoping to get to see the film in the UK release date, which was supposed to around 12 days later, but to my surprise not a single cinema where I lived actually showed the film. It was stated that the film would be released at around January, which was already a lot of time to wait for the film and what happened? Well, once again no cinema I lived near was showing the film. So, instead of waiting until the DVD release six months later in June, so my grandmother was nice enough to send me the DVD that was already released in the US, so I could see the film and boy did that journey truly pay off for it to land on this list.

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