Feb

My Favourite Films of 2009

2009 was a great year in film. There were enourmously huge blockbusters, quiet indie films, a Tarantino flick, some great comedies, and some amazing animation. Unfortunately, I’m once again catching up before the Oscars air. There were a lot of films that had limited releases that I just didn’t get to see yet, and several of those films are nominated.

This year’s Oscars are also quite interesting. There are ten best picture nominees, though it’s sort of easy to tell which five are the “gimmes” and which would’ve been the top five. That said, it’s going to be one of the most difficult set of predictions that I’ve done yet… Enough Oscar talk, though. Here are some movies I enjoyed in 2009:

My favourite films, in alphatbetical order, are:

(500) Days of Summer
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Avatar
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Star Trek
Up
Up in the Air

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Jan

currently listening to…

Hey Rosetta - “Who Is At My Window Weeping?” | itunes
From their new Red Songs EP. Great dark celtic feel. New album should be amazing.

Matt Morris - “Bloodline” | itunes | youtube
First person on Justin Timberlake’s label. He and JT did a great version of this song on Ellen.

Nikhil Korula Band - “Stay for a While” | itunes
Great acoustic track. Heard it on Greek, of all places. Haha.

OK Go - “This Too Shall Pass (Live Video Version)” | youtube | mp3
The album version is good, but this one is just plain better. They make great, original videos.

Mgmt - Oracular Spectacular | itunes | youtube 1 2 3
Somehow I am only now listening to this record… “Electric Feel,” “Time to Pretend,” “Kids,” and “The Youth” are fantastic. How did I miss this?

John K. Sampson - City Route 85 EP | itunes | mp3
Trio of songs by the Weakerthans front man, about his hometown Winnipeg.

Laura Veirs – “July Flame” | mp3
Great track. A bit of Feist and Amy Millan in there. Some great production as well.

Wintersleep - “Early in the Morning” | itunes
Recorded for Welcome to the Night Sky, but it didn’t make the final cut. It appears on the UK version of the CD, however. Live version is available on iTunes. New album in a few months!

Postdata - Postdata | website
New album from Paul Murphy from Wintersleep, with his brother Michael. A bit Tom Waits, a bit Thom Yorke, a bit Wintersleep…

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Dec

my favourite albums of the decade

Radiohead – Kid A [2000]
The record that really shook things up. OK Computer had set the bar for what alt-rock could be. A lot of people were expecting a continuation of that record, but what they got what something completely different. Kid A was built from the ground up, with keyboards, an Ondes Martenot, strings, and a few bleeps and blops for good measure. Because of Kid A, when Radiohead release records all bets are off – expect the unexpected. The gloriously delicious unexpected.

“Strobe lights and blown speakers, fireworks and hurricanes. I’m not here. This isn’t happening.”

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Jan

My Favourite Films of 2008

Oh boy. My favourite films of the year. I love this time of year, but it’s always difficult to try and make decisions when I’m still watching films from 2008, and catch up on all the ones that I’ve missed.

I will never understand why huge, Oscar-worthy/nominated/winning movies are not released until after the year in question has ended. They play at some festival somewhere and that is enough to be eligible, but then the Golden Globes and the Oscars come around and most of the public hasn’t had a real chance to see them!

I digress… 2008 was full of great films, and here a few of my favourites:

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