Cinematters: Stars

When I started 24FPS, a little more than four years ago, I put star ratings on my reviews, just like most other film websites do, but I soon retired the stars for a variety of reasons.

I've always graded films on the 5 star scale, no halves, which is the same system used by Empire, Total Film, most newspapers and most of the other mainstream film publications in the UK, including most of the online publications, but for the last three and a half years these grades have been unpublished.  There are a few reasons that I am reintroducing grades, but I'm afraid the main one is rather self-serving.

The site has been online for quite a while now, and I've been writing criticism online for over 13 years.  I've got a relatively small audience, but a loyal one (thanks guys), but I'm always looking for ways to grow the site's profile, and one thing that I've seen happening for more and more friends, and benefiting their sites is that they have been getting quoted on posters, or rather their grades have.  Poster quotes are a double edged sword, but they would almost certainly help the site's profile, and I recognise that the way I write - long sentences, liberal sprinklings of profanity - doesn't exactly lend itself to a snappy line on a poster.  A simple star rating is much easier to excerpt, and is all but impossible to take out of context, it's something I'd be secure in getting quoted on.

This is not to say that I'm chasing quotes, or that I will be anything other than my familiar, cantankerous, hard to please self in the future.  I despise people who nakedly go out to be quoted on posters for every movie they can (does ANYONE honestly believe that, say, The Daily Star's 10/10 for A Good Day To Die Hard is anything but quote chasing?) and I promise you, I'll stop writing rather than become one of them.  BUT, if stars make it easier to promote a little movie I love (let's face it, blockbuster don't need me) and get a little publicity and credit for the site, that's fine.

The reason I initially dropped grades was that I felt they were reductive, and made it easy for people just to look at the grade instead of the whole review, which, given that typically a review takes an hour plus to write while a grade tends to be an almost instant gut reaction - though the writing process can sometimes alter the grade as I think over the film again - disappoints me as a writer.  The argument against this is really twofold: first of all I'll only putting the star graphics at the end of the review, rather than up top as some sites do, and if you're going to scroll down anyway you may as well read the review.  Secondly, I already provide a summary of each review in the last paragraph, so if you are looking to skip most of the review but still get the gist, you have always been able to.  Also, to be frank, I'm secure enough as a writer now to believe that if people are coming here, and especially if they are coming back, as most seem to, they're coming to read, it's not like I'm big on pictures.

I'm sure I'll come up against all the problems of star ratings, but I have tactics for the two big ones.

1: People who comment saying things like "You gave X 5 stars but Y 4 stars, when Y was clearly better.  Why?  Are you a moron or something?"  
There was, is now, and always will be just one answer to this READ THE REVIEW.  The review is the opinion, the review is what matters, the rating is to give you a quick indication of how the film stacks up overall, measured against films broadly like it.  This is 40, for instance, gets 1 star compared to The 40 Year Old Virgin (3 stars), not compared to The Red Shoes (5 stars).

2: Being split between two grades.
I don't use halves, first I think they're a cheat and second if I was going to I'd just grade out of 10 instead.  Grades are wide bands, and there will always be a band of quality in any grade, but if I'm torn between two grades my rule will be this: ALWAYS ROUND DOWN.  I'll never use a grade to convince myself or you that a film is 'better' than I'm sure it is.  If I want to use a half I'll have a much easier time defending a lower grade than a higher one, and this will also mean that when I do use a 5 star grade (which I'm sure will be rare) you can be sure that I mean it.

Now, for the record, here are the grades.

Catastrophic: a terrible film with few or no redeeming features.  To be avoided at all costs.


Poor: a film where the bad outweighs the good, but which has enough going for it to at least make it watchable, or a very bad film with one outstanding element.


Decent: Something of a mixed bag, or a solid but uninspired effort.  A film that has things to recommend, but never quite scales the heights.


Very Good: A film that is absolutely worth seeing and, despite having some problems, has many outstanding features.


Outstanding: A must see, and a great piece of cinema with only very minimal flaws.

The 24FPS Top 100: Resuming

So. A while back I started this countdown of my Top 100 films (see sidebar, which will be fully up to date soon), and the project just sort of drifted away after a while.

There were several reasons for this. First of all I got REALLY busy, and frankly began spreading myself too thin. I was working on up to five websites at a time, recording and editing podcasts, contributing to other people's podcasts, along with establishing relationships with a few people in the industry, and work just began to pile on and pile on. I hit burnout. After the London Film Festival last year (in which I saw 63 films, barely slept, and wrote well over 25,000 words across two websites). I was exhausted and, worse, for the first time ever, what I was doing with the site (and others I was writing on) had begun to feel like a chore for the first time.

I've been struggling to pull out of this funk ever since, and while I've enjoyed making the 24FPS podcast; The Picture Show, I've felt that as a writer I've been in a slump this year in terms of quality as well as quantity, a slump I've only felt begin to turn with my recent Prometheus and Cosmopolis reviews, which are the first I've been proud of for some time.

I've also found myself struggling, for the first time in a long while, to get excited about movies. Last year was no classic, but 2012 has seemed to me to be an absolute desert in terms of quality cinema. I've seen almost 100 films from the year at this point, and while I can make a tentative Top 3 outside of those, and maybe one or two others, the standard has largely been sub mediocre. My favourite filmmakers have been disappointing all year (a bad Cronenberg, a bad Sono and a bad Pawlikowski within months of each other, though Cronenberg has lately redeemed himself) and even among the good things I've seen there still hasn't been that moment of discovery; the unearthing of a gem I want to champion and shout about to anyone who will listen (and many who won't). The Muppets may be bottled happiness, but still, I can't help but feel a little depressed that, at almost the exact midpoint, the best film 2012 has thrown up is a reboot of a long running series dating back to the 70's.

I've found myself drifting away from the movies a bit, and this is distressing, because I've lived and breathed cinema since I was nine, 22 years now, and if I don't love movies then I'm not sure I know who I am anymore.

In short... I NEED to get back to this list. I NEED to rediscover the films that inspire me and fire me up as a film lover and as a writer. I NEED to remind myself what's so special about this artform. I NEED to get back to the many and varied worlds these films take me to, be it the fantasy and romance of Disney's Beauty and the Beast or the nightmarish world of Martyrs.

Because of the long gap the list will be flawed, but I think that's alright. It will still reflect my taste, there are no more than a couple of things I'd shift around between numbers 100 and 52 (I'd probably move Valerie and her Week of Wonders up some), but then, precise ordering is a real challenge, and most placings outside of what I feel is a solid Top 20 could probably shift by one or two in either direction, and how do you compare The Sure Thing and Anatomy of a Murder anyway? I'm looking forward to wrapping up this unfinished business and, with a bit of luck, finding that passion again.

The (In)Complete Jennifer Jason Leigh: Introduction and Film List

You may, just may, have spotted over the years that I'm a bit of a Jennifer Jason Leigh fan. A profile of her was one of the earliest pieces I ever wrote for the site, and I've written several features on her during this blog's lifetime. Well now, over the next God knows how long, I'm going to attempt something pretty insanely ambitious... I'm going to try to watch as many of her films as I can possibly get hold of, and review them all, in chronological order.

A handful of reviews may be re-published (where the original review is recent, detailed, and still reflects my feelings on the film after a re-watch), but the vast majority will be newly written for this series.

The series won't be on any specific timescale, but I'll try to get to it as regularly as possible. I'll focus on Leigh's feature films (though I will cover her early TV work as well). I won't, for example, be tracking down the one episode of the Superman animated series she did a voice in (though I do have the Spawn series on order, it was 1p and I couldn't resist). Before we start, here are a couple of lists, first of the films I either own already, have on order, or otherwise have access to, and second a list of those films I still need to source. If you have any of these, and would be willing to either let me have or let me borrow a copy then please get in touch to sam@24fps.org.uk Anyone who helps me source a film will receive a cool thank you present in the mail, along with my grovelling thanks and credit on the review.

FILMS SOURCED AND AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW
Eyes of a Stranger (1981)
The Killing of Randy Webster (1981)
The Best Little Girl in the World (1981)
The First Time (1982)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
ABC Afterschool Special: Have You Ever Been Ashamed of Your Parents? (1983)
Easy Money (1983)
Girls of the White Orchid [a.k.a: Death Ride to Osaka] (1983)
Grandview USA (1984)
Flesh + Blood (1985)
The Hitcher (1986)
Sister Sister (1987)
Under Cover (1987)
Heart of Midnight (1988)
The Big Picture (1989)
Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)
Miami Blues (1990)
Buried Alive (1990)
Backdraft (1991)
Crooked Hearts (1991)
Rush (1991)
Single White Female (1992)
Short Cuts (1993)
Luck, Trust and Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country (1993)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
Dolores Claiborne (1995)
Georgia (1995)
Kansas City (1996)
Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
Washington Square (1997)
A Thousand Acres (1997)
The Love Letter (1998)
The Gulf War [a.k.a: Thanks of a Grateful Nation] (1998)
eXistenZ (1999)
The King is Alive (2000)
The Anniversary Party (2001)
The Quickie (2001)
Crossed Over (2002)
Hey Arnold! The Movie (2002)
Road to Perdition (2002)
In the Cut (2003)
The Machinist (2004)
Palindromes (2004)
Childstar (2004)
The Jacket (2005)
Rag Tale (2005)
Margot at the Wedding (2007)
Greenberg (2010)

There are a few things missing from that list that I'll have no trouble sourcing, but there are also some things I could really use some help with.

FILMS NEEDED
The Young Runaways (1978)
Angel City (1980)
CBS Afternoon Playhouse: I Think I'm Having a Baby (1981)
The Man With the Deadly Lens [a.k.a: Wrong is Right] (1982)
The Men's Club (1986)
Picnic (1986)
Partners in Life (1990)
The Prom (1992)
Inside the Actors Studio (1999)
Searching for Debra Winger (2002)
Easter Sunday [Short] (2005)

So that's the potential list of titles, I'll try to have new reviews of  The Best Little Girl in the World and Fast Times at Ridgemont High posted over the weekend. I hope you enjoy reading the series as much as I imagine I'll enjoy watching and writing it, and if you can help source films, as I said: gratitude and presents.

24FPS Around the Web

I'm sorry I've not written here for a while, but I have been occupied with other writing commitments, so here are some of the things I have recently (or relatively recently) written for other sites.

For Cinemart Online
The Shrine: Blu Ray Review
The Insect Woman: Blu Ray Review
Rolling Thunder: Blu Ray Review

For Front Row Reviews
Special Forces: Blu Ray Review
The Woman in the Fifth: Cinema Review
Casting Call: Rosamund Pike
Casting Call: George Clooney
Whisper of the Heart: Blu Ray Review

For Horror Movies.CA
In the Video Nasties Series
Shogun Assassin
Human Experiments
Flesh For Frankenstein
Absurd

For The New Journalist
Obscene Publications: Video, the press and moral panics. Part 1
Visions of Ecstasy: End of the Last Taboo?
The Woman in Black: Cinema Review

The Bloggies: 1st Annual British Film Bloggers Circle Awards Winners

Well, now we can officially bring down the curtain on Award Season 2012.
...What do you mean there are still more ceremonies to come? Shut up, this is the important one.

The British Film Bloggers Circle is a brand new body bringing together the best film bloggers in the UK (and me, apparently their selection procedures were a bit lax) and this is our launch event, the first Bloggies, so, congratulations to all the films and people that won a (currently to my knowledge completely non-existent) prize.

While I did vote in the awards almost none of my picks were nominated, and almost none of my picks from the nominees won, so here are the results with a little entirely personal commentary (not indicative of or endorsed by any of the other members of BFBC) and, after the winners, my personal nominating ballot.

THE WINNERS
Film: Drive
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Drive was one of the most popularly acclaimed films of 2011, particularly among the online film press, so these awards don't surprise me. Personally though, I was disappointed by Drive when I saw it for a second time, I had really liked it first time round, but on a second look it felt like a largely empty exercise in style over substance to me. Fantastic soundtrack, a few great scenes, but it just didn't hold up.

Actor: Jean Dujardin

Is The Artist quite as good as it's supposed to be? Perhaps not, but it's certainly a great time at the movies and Jean Dujardin is one of the major reasons why. His deft performance captures the acting style of the late silent era when his character is on camera, but gives way to something more subtle when he isn't playing to a gallery (be that a full cinema or his wife). A performance full of detail and nuance, even in its broadest moments.

Actress: Tilda Swinton

Okay, look, like any sane person who loves movies, I adore Tilda Swinton, she's one of the most exciting, most daring and most talented actresses working... BUT, there was probably no critically acclaimed film I enjoyed watching less in 2011 than We Need to Talk About Kevin. Swinton was unquestionably the best thing about it, but even she was far from her hugely impressive best, and frankly I could fill this category twice over with better female performances from the last 12 months. She's not bad - she's likely incapable of being truly bad - but it's a million miles from her best work in a truly irritating film.

Supporting Actor: tie between Ezra Miller and Christian Bale

This is the first category where I really don't get the results. The others, whether I voted for them or not, I can kind of see the arguments, but Ezra Miller's performance was one of the main reasons I so disliked We Need to Talk About Kevin. I hated his nuance free depiction of Kevin, which made the film play - along with Lynne Ramsay's sledgehammer use of symbolism - like a cartoon about a born evil. I preferred Christian Bale's work in The Fighter, but again, it got nowhere near my ballot, and never stuck out as among his best work for me.

Supporting Actress: Berenice Bejo

I would have liked to have found room on my nominating ballot for Bejo, but the sheer amount of great female performances this year left her out in the cold.  Which is not say I have any sort of problem with this winner either as a whole or in this specific category.  Bejo is so warm, so much fun, so expressive and engaging as Peppy Miller that not only do you forget that she's not actually in The Artist all that much, not only do you want more of her, if you're anything like me you find yourself emerging from the cinema wanting to track down Beauty Mark, before remembering that neither it nor Peppy are real.

Best original screenplay: tie between The Artist and Midnight in Paris

Confession time. I haven't seen Midnight in Paris. I know it's supposed to be Allen's best for ages, but people have said that about everything he's made for the past 15 years (except, to be fair, Cassandra's Dream) and the abysmal You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger put me off this one. I'll have to catch it at some point I guess. However, I'm very pleased to see that both the Bloggies and other awards have recognised that a screenplay is more than dialogue, and that The Artist is a beautifully written movie as much as it is a beautifully played one.

Best adapted screenplay: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I don't have a whole lot to say about this award. Tinker Tailor's screenplay struck me much as the film as a whole did; as something incredibly well crafted, for which I had tremendous respect, but by which I was never particularly engaged. That said, I struggled with my screenplay nominations this year, and really couldn't find more than a handful of scripts I thought were outstanding.

Best film not in the English language: The Skin I Live In

The fact that I haven't discovered Pedro Almodovar (which isn't to say I haven't seen plenty of his films) is one of those things that niggles at me and makes me feel like I'm not a proper film critic. I was hoping The Skin I Live In, as his most genre driven film for years, perhaps ever, would redress the balance, but despite Elena Anaya's excellent performance and the film's stunning visuals, I wasn't convinced by it, finding the structure (which left acres of backstory that I had already guessed to take up the whole of the film's second half) a particular problem. That said, it's an Almodovar I may well revisit at some point, because I think I should like it more, but it was a million miles from being the best foreign language film of 2011, I doubt it would even make my Top 10.

Best British film: Submarine

Erm. Bugger. To be honest, I should have included this on my list of nominations but, in a year in which I struggled to find British films to nominate, I just plain forgot Richard Ayoade's sharp, sensitive, bittersweet and very funny debut. It's a shameful oversight on my part. That said I'd still have voted for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, had it been nominated.

Breakthrough: Jessica Chastain

This time last year I had never even heard her name now she seems to me, both in terms of her astonishing ethereal beauty and of her tremendous versatility as an actress, to be the heir apparent to Sissy Spacek. 2011 was Jessica Chastain's year, she cropped up in what seemed like dozens of films and was utterly different in each. I've not seen The Debt yet but in Tree of Life, Take Shelter, Coriolanus, The Help, Texas Killing Fields and Jolene (which I saw despite it not having come out in the UK yet) she was never less than convincing, never the same twice. If there is justice the world will be at her feet in 2012, she's the most impressive and exciting new talent I've seen for some time, and I can't wait to see what she does next.





MY NOMINATING BALLOT
In each category my top choice is listed first.

Best Film
Melancholia
Incendies
Tomboy
Attenberg
Love Like Poison

Best Director
Lars Von Trier: Melancholia
Denis Villeneuve: Incendies
Terence Malick: Tree of Life
Sion Sono: Cold Fish
Celine Sciamma: Tomboy


Best Actor in a Leading Role
Michael Shannon: Take Shelter
Michael Fassbender: Shame
Peyman Moaadi: A Separation
Brad Pitt: Tree of Life
Jean Dujardin: The Artist

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Lubna Azabal: Incendies
Kirsten Dunst: Melancholia
Ariane Labed: Attenberg
Clara Augarde: Love Like Poison
Jessica Chastain: Tree of Life

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
John Hawkes: Martha Marcy May Marlene
Stefano Cassetti: Love Like Poison
Albert Brooks: Drive
Patton Oswalt: Young Adult
Eddie Marsan: Tyrannosaur

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin: Incendies
Jessica Chastain: Take Shelter
Charlotte Gainsbourg: Melancholia
Judy Greer: The Descendants
Malonn Levana: Tomboy

Best Adapted Screenplay
Denis Villeneuve: Incendies
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash: The Descendants

Best Original Screenplay
Celine Sciamma: Tomboy
Katell Quillevere: Love Like Poison
Asghar Farhadi: A Separation

Best Film Not in the English Language
Incendies
Tomboy
Love Like Poison
Attenberg
Cold Fish

Best British Film
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
Kill List

Best Breakthrough Performance by an Director/Actor/Actress/Writer
Jessica Chastain: Take Shelter
Ben Wheatly: Kill List
Elizabeth Olsen: Martha Marcy May Marlene

British Film Bloggers Circle Awards: Nominations

I'm very proud to be one of the first group of bloggers asked to join the (very) newly established British Film Bloggers Circle. Hopefully the circle will be able to point the way to and encourage quality online film journalism from the UK, as well as shining a light on the best of world and UK cinema, and with that in mind, here are the nominations for our first annual awards ('The Bloggies').

Winners will be announced this weekend (before that other, entirely insignificant, ceremony).

I'll post my own full nomination ballot after the results, it looks pretty different to the list below.

Best Film
Drive
Midnight in Paris
Shame
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Artist

Best Director
Tomas Alfredson – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Paddy Considine – Tyrannosaur
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Steve McQueen – Shame
Lynne Ramsay – We Need To Talk About Kevin
Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive

Best Actor
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Michael Fassbender – Shame
Ryan Gosling – Drive
Peter Mullan – Tyrannosaur
Gary Oldman – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Michael Shannon – Take Shelter

Best Actress
Olivia Colman – Tyrannosaur
Kirsten Dunst – Melancholia
Tilda Swinton – We Need to Talk about Kevin
Jeong-Hie Yun – Poetry
Michelle Williams – My Week with Marilyn

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale – The Fighter
Stefano Cassetti – Love Like Poison
Ezra Miller – We Need to Talk about Kevin
Corey Stoll – Midnight in Paris
Nick Nolte – Warrior

Best Supporting Actress
Berenice Bejo – The Artist
Jessica Chastain – Take Shelter
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Melancholia
Carey Mulligan – Drive
Carey Mulligan – Shame

Best Original Screenplay
Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
The Guard (John Michael McDonagh)
Tyrannosaur(Paddy Considine)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Coriolanus (John Logan, screenplay; William Shakespeare, play)
Drive (Hossein Amini, screenplay; James Sallis, book)
The Ides of March (George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon, screenplay; Beau Willimon, play)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan, screenplay; John Le Carre, novel)
True Grit (Joel & Ethan Coen, screenplay; Charles Portis, novel)
The Skin I Live In (Pedro & Augustin Almodovar, screenplay; Thierry Jonquin, novel)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, Rory Kinnear screenplay; Lionel Shriver novel)

Best film not in the English language
Incendies
Poetry
The Skin I Live In
Trollhunter
Tomboy

Best British Film
Shame
Submarine
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tyrannosaur
We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Breakthrough
Richard Ayoade, Submarine (Director, Writer)
Jessica Chastain, The Debt, The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Help, Coriolanus, Texas Killing Fields (Actress)
Tom Cullen, Weekend (Actor)
Andrew Haigh, Weekend (Director)
Tom Hiddleston, Thor, Deep Blue Sea, War Horse, Archipelago, Midnight in Paris (Actor)

2012 on 24FPS... and beyond

2011 was a slightly slower year for 24FPS, as I got used to juggling a lot more writing assignments for a wider variety of places (something I'm hoping to do much more of in 2012).

As of now I'm also writing for HorrorMovies.ca and Front Row Reviews, and in the new year I'm also going to start doing some work for Cinemart Online.

At 24FPS the year will hopefully see lots of new reviews, along with a sprinkling of interviews and other bits and pieces, but that's far from all. I'll have twice weekly feature An Education, in which I'll be watching and reviewing 104 'classic' films I've never seen before. There will be further entries in the VHS Memories series and the occasional return of Cinematters, as well as a weekly round up of mini reviews.

I'll also be bringing you weekly podcast action, in conjunction with my friend and co-host Michael Ewins, with The Picture Show. We'll kick 2012 off with a multi-part review of the year just gone, and then we'll have a weekly film review and discussion show, and maybe even the odd special, all complete with awesome guests (drawn from our critic friends).

In other podcast news... the HorrorMovies.ca podcast has been a long time in the planning, but it IS coming, and I'm going to be involved pretty heavily, I'm also the host for the next instalment of the Movie Exchange Club with Mike Ewins, Supermarcey and Bede Jermyn, and I'm hoping to make reasonably regular return visits to Super Podcast with Marcey and Bede.

On HorrorMovies I'll have my continuing adventures with the Video Nasties feature, and a 52 film Horror Education series. On Front Row Reviews I'll be resuming Casting Call; my feature on actors, and I'll continue to contribute reviews everywhere I write.

I'll keep you posted on anything else, but I hope you'll enjoy 2012 here at 24FPS, and consider following me to those other sites. It's going to be a busy year... I can't wait to get started.

An Education: Part 1

As I mentioned on the first post in my series on the Alien films, next year 24FPS will be playing host to a new series called An Education.

As a film fan for some 21 years, and a critic of varying degrees of semi-professionalism for the last 12 of those years, I've seen a lot of movies - more, I imagine, than most people will ever see - and yet there are still a lot of acknowledged classics that I have never got around to. In my defence, I've spent a lot of the time I haven't been watching these films watching many, many more obscure titles and expanding my film education in all sorts of weird directions, but there are cornerstones missing from my film education, and I've often heard gasps when I say I haven't seen... any of the films on this list.

So, next year, I'm going to watch 104 films - two a week - that I feel are part of the canon of generally acknowledged 'classics' and review them and comment on whether I think they deserve their classic status. The only rule I've imposed is that the films should have been made before 1990. You'll also notice that there aren't any horror films on this list, which is because I'll be doing a 52 film feature; A Horror Education, addressing the genre canon, over at horrormovies.ca

So. Here's the list, in alphabetical order, and before anyone says anything, trash classics count. Your thoughts on the titles would be welcomed.

8 1/2
The 400 Blows
1900

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
All Quiet on the Western Front ['30]
Arsenic and Old Lace
Au Revoir Les Enfants
The Awful Truth

Babette's Feast
Bande a Part
Battle of Algiers
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Blue Angel
Das Boot
Brazil
Brighton Rock ['47]
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Camille
A Canterbury Tale
Cape Fear ['62]
Cinema Paradiso
Claire's Knee
The Conformist
The Conversation
Le Corbeau
A Cottage on Dartmoor
Cries and Whispers

Les Enfants Du Paradis
Elevator to the Gallows

The French Connection
From Here to Eternity

The General ['26]
Godzilla ['54]
The Gold Rush
Gone With the Wind
Grave of the Fireflies
Greed

Harold and Maude
Heaven's Gate
High Noon

Inherit the Wind
Intolerance
The Italian Job ['69]

The Jazz Singer ['27]
La Jetee
Judex
Jules et Jim

Kes
Killer of Sheep
Kiss of Death ['47]
Knife in the Water

The Last Temptation of Christ
Lawrence of Arabia
The Leopard
Little Caesar

M. Hulot's Holiday
Man With a Movie Camera
Marathon Man
Marketa Lazarova
Mash
Le Mepris
My Neighbour Totoro

Nashville
The Night Porter
Notorious

Out of the Past

Paris, Texas
Performance
The Postman Always Rings Twice ['46]
The Public Enemy

Rashomon
Rebel Without a Cause
La Regle de Jeu
Rififi

The Searchers
The Seven Year Itch
The Seventh Seal
Shaft
Shane
She Done Him Wrong
Silent Running
Singin' in the Rain
Solaris ['72]
Sophie's Choice
Sous le Soleil de Satan
Spartacus
The Sweet Smell of Success

The Taking of Pelham 123 ['74]
Tampopo
Tarzan and His Mate
The Third Man
The Tingler
Tokyo Story
Top Hat
Touch of Evil
A Touch of Zen
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Triumph of the Will

Way Down East
The Wild Bunch
Wild River
The Wind
Wings of Desire

Z

Announcement: NEW PROJECTS

You might have noticed that 24FPS has slowed down a little recently, and I wanted to explain why that is. I have a couple of new projects, the first I'm going to keep under wraps for now, except to say that I've started work on a book. Specifics will be forthcoming, but probably not for some time yet.

My other new project is one I've been wanting to let you all (again, Hi, all three of you) in on for some time. A few weeks ago I began working at HorrorMovies.ca as a critic and feature writer. Most of my genre reviews will run there in the future, hence 24FPS' recent recruitment of horrorspondent Steve Chandler (cheers Steve).

At HorrorMovies I am writing a weekly series that will see me watch and review all 74 of the films that were on the so called 'Video Nasties' list, as well as writing reviews and more besides (watch this space for an exciting upcoming feature). My author page at HorrorMovies is in the process of being built, but until then here is the work I've done over there so far.

VIDEO NASTIES
I Spit on Your Grave ('78)
Gestapo's Last Orgy
Fight For Your Life
Tenebrae

REVIEWS
City of the Living Dead [DVD]
Hobo With a Shotgun
The Devils: Director's Cut
Tony
Red State
Fright Night [3D]

So, check me and the many other excellent writers out at HorrorMovies, and hold your breath (and your wallets, if you don't mind) for more on that book.

Thanks always for reading.

Ad-pologies

As some of you have doubtless spotted by now I have, finally, decided to put a few advertisements on 24FPS. I hope that you find them, as I do, to be unobtrusive enough not to interfere with your browsing experience here.

I have also joined the Amazon Associate programme, and I want to let you know a little about a couple of things you'll start to notice at 24FPS because of this. From now on many posts (including older ones, as I get round to editing them) will have an Amazon purchase link. If you buy the linked product through that link then, though there will be no extra cost to you, a little of the purchase price will go into my pocket.

I've been writing 24FPS for over two years now, and in that time I've written more than 450 regular reviews along with many features and other articles. Overall I've written several novels worth of content for this site, and so far I haven't seen (or asked) any return for it. As writing is now becoming a full time occupation I would ask regular visitors and fans of the site, every now and then, click on an ad and, if you're wanting to buy it anyway, buy a DVD through one of my links. Every little will help, and be much appreciated.

As for my side of the bargain... here it is. You'll still get all the same reviews and articles at 24FPS, and they will always be free and you'll NEVER see a purchase link for a film I wouldn't buy myself. That seems fair to me.

I hope you won't mind these small changes at 24FPS. Thanks for listening, and thanks in advance for your help.

Sam

24FPS on VYou

VYou is a video site that allows users to answer questions submitted by readers with short video messages. I've just started an account, and I'd welcome any questions you guys might have. I'm happy to talk about almost any topic (though I'll quite likely draw the line at the most personal questions) so if you've anything you want to ask me be it about movies, about criticism, about blogging, or about something else, drop me a line and I'll do my best to give you an answer. You can see the answers I've given so far and submit questions below, or you can click HERE to visit my VYou page.

24FPS at MultiMediaMouth

Monday means a new Why Haven't You Seen...? article for MULTIMEDIAMOUTH, and this week I've chosen Swedish exploitation classic Thriller: A Cruel Picture. It's a tremendously cool film, and well worth tracking down. You can check out the article HERE, or see a list of all the articles in the Why Haven't You Seen...? series HERE.

In the last week I also posted a review at MultiMediaMouth, so if you want to know how I have suffered, watching Gulliver's Travels [3D] so that you don't have to, click HERE.

There's plenty of exciting film content on the way at MultiMediaMouth including new Disturbingly Cheap Review, a Shortlist on supporting actors who should be getting lead roles and, hopefully very soon, a couple of new contributors.

24FPS at MultiMediaMouth

This week, with Michel Gondry's THE GREEN HORNET hitting cinemas, fellow MMM contributor Michael Ewins and I have both turned our attention to superhero movies. In this week's Why Haven't You Seen...? I take a look at the criminally underrated 1991 flop ROCKETEER. You can read that article HERE, or you can click HERE to see the WHYS...? archive.

Be sure to check MMM again on Friday for Mike's superhero Shortlist feature.

24FPS at MultiMediaMouth

As you may be aware, I've been Film Editor at WWW.MULTIMEDIAMOUTH.COM for a couple of months now, and I write a series for them recommending obscure films called Why Haven't You Seen...?. The latest WHYS...? is on French serial killer film ROBERTO SUCCO, and you can read it HERE.

You can also see all of the WHYS...? articles to date HERE

24FPS in 2011

24FPS had a great 2010, and if all continues to go to plan then it's only going to get more exciting in 2011. I'll be trying to bring you more reviews than ever before, with two projects running throughout the year. First off I'll be playing catch up; I've got hundreds of films on DVD and VHS that I've never got around to watching, and I'm going to try and watch one of those every day of 2011. Even more exciting, I think, is my other big project for the year, called SILENCE IS GOLDEN? Every week of 2011 I'll be watching and reviewing two silent movies, in an effort to educate myself on early cinema.

I'll also continue (and finish) counting down the 24FPS Top 100, sorry it's taken so long.

In order to keep bringing you coverage of what is new and exciting in cinema I'm hoping to attend a lot of Festivals this year, leading up to the year's centrepiece; LFF. Hopefully I'll have news on at least a couple for you in the coming weeks. With increased Festival presence I'm hoping that I'll also be able to bring you more interviews with actors, directors and other people from the film world.

Outside 24FPS I'm very busy, writing content for and editing the Film section at WWW.MULTIMEDIAMOUTH.COM. Over there you'll likely find a handful of exclusive reviews, alongside my WHY HAVEN'T YOU SEEN...? series on obscure films and a lot of other exclusive content by me and other writers. You should also soon be able to see and hear me there via planned podcast and vodcast series. I hope I'll also continue to be a relatively regular presence with Marcey, Bede and others on SUPERPODCAST.

It's looking like a busy year. I hope you guys will enjoy it as much as I suspect I will.

Bloggers Top 50 of 2010

Last week I got an email from Saam over at FADED GLAMOUR, asking me to contribute my Top 10 theatrical releases of 2010 for his poll of online critics. You can see the full list HERE at FADED GLAMOUR. Thanks to Saam for asking me to parrticipate.

24FPS is two

Tomorrow 24FPS begins toddling forth into the future, as it reaches its second birthday. I feel a bit like a proud dad; it feels like I've been doing this forever, but also like it has gone by in a flash. Before I get a bit misty eyed and remeniscent, I wanted to say thanks to the people who really make this site work, which is you guys, yes you reading this now.

Thanks, really. When I started this I imagined I would just be one more blogger, essentially using his keyboard to shout at the internet (and perhaps three people, two of them related to him) about movies. But it's grown into a little more than that, okay I'm a small fry by web standards, but the fact that month after month more than 7000 unique visitors are choosing to come to 24FPS seems fucking unimaginably huge to me. You guys are from all over the world; The US, the UK, Australia, but also India, China, Korea, even Iraq has got in on the act. So, whoever and wherever you are; cheers, I'm really pleased that you take time out to read my ramblings.

The site really took off this year, as people began to notice it. In May I found myself browsing in HMV and seeing one of my own quotes staring out from the back of a DVD. That was odd. I've also embraced social media, and through that gained access to this year's London Film Festival (which is still paying dividends and ought to make 2011 very exciting round these parts).

To finish off I thought I'd pick a couple of highlights, the stuff I enjoyed most and am proudest of from the year.

POSITIVE REVIEWS: Le Refuge / Toy Story 3

NEGATIVE REVIEWS: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse / A Nightmare on Elm Street

And just before I go, largely so that this post doen't consist entirely of me blowing my own trumpet, here's something awesome. Enjoy.

December at 24 FPS

After taking a break in November, the themed months will be making a return in December with the first in a two month series called Sinema. I'll be looking at the depiction of controversial subjects and acts, and next month we'll be covering Sinema Part 1: Sex.

Hopefully this will take in all kinds of depictions of sex from all through cinema history; from racy pre-code Hollywood to It Happened One Night's 'walls of Jericho' and from (hopefully) the hardcore musical version of Alice in Wonderland to more recent boundary pushers like Baise Moi and Nine Songs.

There should also be a Cinematters to tie in with the series, and perhaps more besides.

We'll still have all the regular reviews, more Top 100 entries, and the review of the year, taking in 2010's best and worst films, and my awards for the year. And we'll be back in January with Sinema Part 2: Violence.

24FPS expands

Over the last couple of years, thanks to you guys who have been reading my increasingly long and ranty reviews and other assorted ramblings here, I've tried to build 24FPS from a typical little blog - one guy typing in his living room - into something a bit more ambitious, adding content and new ways to interact with the site along the way.

Now there are two new ways you can stay up to date with what I'm writing at 24FPS... and beyond.

First off, 24FPS is now on Facebook. It's a page for the site, not for me, and that's the way it's going to stay, but once I figure out exactly how much I can do with it will hopefully become something of a hub for site news, a feed of updates on my writing, and whatever else I can think to throw up on the wall. Here's the link: 24FPS on Facebook

Even more exciting for me is that I'm branching out. During the London Film Festival I was asked to become Film Editor for MultiMediaMouth. Along with the site's editor I'm working at putting together a team of critics, and I'll be writing regular reviews and features for the site. Don't worry, it won't cut into 24FPS updates, I'll just have to work harder. Anyway, my first MMM review, of DESPICABLE ME was posted last night and you can check it out here.

Thanks, as ever, for reading. I hope you'll stick with me on these new ventures.

Big News

It has been an exciting couple of weeks here at 24FPS. Actually, the last couple of weeks of September are always exciting, as I get to plan my viewing at the London Film Festival. I was already going to be able to bring you expanded coverage of the festival compared to last year, but thanks to both a little luck and a little networking, I'm going to be able to bring you much more coverage than I had hoped.

For the first time, 24FPS has got press access to the London Film Festival. This means that I'll be able to see and review many more films, and hopefully secure some interviews and press conference reports as well. So... keep your eyes peeled for LFF coverage next month. I hope you enjoy it as much as I think I will.