One Sentence Review: The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
This is pure, classic Terry Gilliam with Tom Waits outshining everyone as the devil himself.
Rating: Matinee
Rating System: Full-Price Ticket, Matinee, Wait For DVD, Late-Night Cable Fodder, I’ve Made Better Films With My Ass Camera
Now here’s something to get you in the mood for your New Year’s celebrations: a look back at the last decade in music Web Pen style. Please have a safe and wonderful 2010.
And here is the last of the lists for the year. Since many of the record companies are forbidding embedding video so fans can promote their artists, I’ve just put a link to hear a sample of each album.
20. 
Poe – Haunted (2000) // Watch “Hey Pretty”
19. 
Kelis – Kelis Was Here (2006) // Watch “Lil Star”
18. 
Ben Folds – Rockin’ The Suburbs (2001) // Watch “Rockin’ The Suburbs”
17. 
Aimee Mann – The Forgotten Arm (2005) // Watch “Video”
16. 
Dressy Bessy – Dressy Bessy (2003) // Listen to “New Song (From Me To You)”
15. 
Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (2007) // Watch “Suffer For Fashion”
14. 
Pet Shop Boys – Yes (2009) // Watch “All Over The World”
13. 
Nellie McKay – Get Away From Me (2004) // Watch “The Dog Song”
12. 
Aimee Mann – Lost In Space (2002) // Watch “Pavlov’s Bell”
11. 
Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha (2007) // Watch “Imitosis”
10. 
The Weepies – Say I Am You (2006) // Watch “World Spins Madly On”
09. 
Florence + The Machine – Lungs (2009) // Watch “Drumming Song”
08. 
Rufus Wainwright – Want One (2003) // Watch “Oh What A World”
07. 
Michael Penn – Mr. Hollywood, Jr., 1947 (2005) // Watch “Walter Reed”
06. 
Ed Harcourt – Here Be Monsters (2002) // Watch “She Fell Into My Arms”
05. 
Rufus Wainwright – Poses (2001) // Watch “Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk”
04. 
Aimee Mann – Bachelor No. 2 Or, The Last Remains Of The Dodo (2000) // Watch “Calling It Quits”
03. 
Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters (2004) // Watch “Laura”
02. 
The Presets – Apocalypso (2008) // Watch “Talk Like That”
01. 
Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree (2008) // Watch “A&E”
And the morale is: 2008 was a great year for music.
In keeping with the countdown theme of late, here are my favorite films of the year. Not surprisingly half of them are animated and a couple were pleasant surprises (District 9) and some were of typical high quality (Up). Included with the list are the One-Sentence Reviews just for fun.
10. Watchmen (Even with its slight changes and slow moments, it was still an enjoyable study of the dark side of humanity through the eyes of an alternate timeline.)
9. 9 [I couldn't resist.] (With its extraordinary and atmospheric animation, 9 delivers a somewhat poignant and uncharacteristic bittersweet ending for such a commercial release.)
8. Ponyo (Ponyo is simple and obviously made for young children, but it’s still beautiful to behold.)
7. Coraline (A truly gothic film that creeps out adults, too, in its weird and wonderful place settings and story line.)
6. Zombieland (While missing some of the more subtle humor that made Shaun Of The Dead outstanding, this was still a hilariously entertaining romp of a horror road movie.)
5. Inglourious Basterds (All that hype you heard about Christoph Waltz’s performance as a hilariously sadatic Nazi is best believed in this gloriously entertaining reimagining of WWII-era occupied France.)
4. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Turns out Wes Anderson is as sly as a — you know — by making a quirky, visually original animated film that is much more fun for adults than for kids.)
3. Star Trek (It’s like watching the “Mirror, Mirror” episode of the original series, but instead of the characters being evil, they are all hot and sexy and exciting and new, so come aboard; we’re expecting you.)
2. Up (One of, if not the most, human of the Pixar films that is as uplifting as its title suggests.)
1. District 9 (Currently my favorite film of the year, District 9 shows that a good story and complex characters can elevate a science-fiction action film to great heights.)
Now that the countdown is over and you’ve been so good and patience, here is your present: The 2009 Countdown Mix! Have a wonderful and safe holiday.
Track listing here.
