Just came across a mind-blow in a recent L.A. Weekly that I never got around to reading until now. The piece, written by my old nemesis - and I do mean old - and crotchety, was appropriately entitled "BLOG THIS: 2007's BEST: NO ARGUMENT ABOUT THIS LIST."
To her credit, in this article, with a knee-jerk/nod to the existence of "The Everyman" (and his/her incorruptible opinions), Ella Taylor seems to be finally acknowledging us (Critissassins) and the rest of the angry bloggers across the universe who are dedicated to bringing about change in Hollywood's equivalent to the broken down system in Washington D.C.
"Unless you count a slight preponderance of anthropomorphic rats (mercifully fewer than last year's penguins), a wavelet of features that colonized the Iraq war in order to try and pour some juice back into the ailing action picture, or the miserable box-office numbers of dozens of independent films, the only trend worth mentioning in 2007 was the unseemly war of words between print critics and bloggers, the former an endangered species and the latter an emergent group with all the testy insecurity that entails.
To my mind, this battle goes nowhere, not just because sooner or later we'll all be bloggers, but because I can't remember a year of such across-the-board consensus in Top 10 lists on and off the Web - mine included, unranked, arbitrary and subject to change."
If the battle puts the nail in the coffin of the professional film critic and hastens Miss Ella's dead-on (I think) prediction that "sooner or later we'll all be bloggers," then the battle does not, as she mindlessly states it does, go nowhere.
ELLA TAYLOR'S "UNRANKED, ARBITRARY AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE" TOP TEN LIST:
There Will Be Blood. Manufactured Landscapes and The Host.
Away From Her and The Savages.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Lake of Fire.
Ratatouille.
Once.
Persepolis.
Knocked Up.
The Band's Visit.
Killer of Sheep.
First of all, what's with the ties for 2nd, 3rd, 4th place (especially since there is no ranking order? It seems as thought, this is not her Top 10, but her weasely Top 13. Second of all, a "Best Of '07" list that does not include "No Country For Old Men" is not a list to be tossed aside lightly," to paraphrase Dorothy Parker. "It should be thrown with great force."
This list, as promised, does not bear any resemblance to any other list. This, I think, was a decision made by the high cabal of pro-crits who have noticed, as Taylor confesses to have, that their profession is breathing its last. The ultimatum handed down to them? Be perceived as "of the people... vary your picks," as if to say "Act human. Not only is this crucial to our survival, but it may mean our livelihood." Replicants, all of them.
But for Taylor (as well as Nathan Lee and a handful of other Nexus 6 critics) to overlook "No Country For Old Men," its writing, direction, and acting? Simply unforgivable. Throwing into the mix from hell a by-the-numbers big budget Apatow film as well as a slew of obnoxiously heavy-handed, cartoonishly simplistic foreign films does not whitewash the almost-criminal omission of one of the most original films to grace the screen in recent years - including the gory "There Will Be Blood," which I am frankly afraid to see due to Smella's recommendation. From watching the trailers (how I judge most films), it looks more like "There Will Be Overacting." If Daniel Day-Lewis, the heir apparent to Laurence Olivier (who should've stuck to stage work, where all that projection and grandstanding is considered a plus), has done anything different here from what he did in "My Left Foot" or "The Gangs Of New York," I'll eat my derby. Uhh... I guess it's time for an apologetic shout-out to DD-L. Alas, my beef is not with him. I'm sure he did the usual bangers and mash job (and without the use of microphones). My beef is with Ella and Ella alone...
Ella, who ragged on "Sicko" (the luke warm review that inspired this blog - now, she's put it up as one of her also-rans). Ella, who couldn't even bring herself to put "No Country" in her list of runners-up. Ella, who did in fact include into her runners-up list both "The Lookout" (one of the most moronic heist films you will ever see - or not see, if you're lucky) and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry."
Ooops, I just thought of something. What if she didn't see "No Country For Old Men?!?!?"
If she didn't, I'll eat her derby.
