My Top Five

Image via WikipediaMy own top five films of the year so far would be slightly different from those of the good doctor, probably in part because I haven't seen a couple of those he mentioned. I have a feeling the silent goat film would be up there if I hadn't missed it.

I shared Mark Kermode's liking of Source Code but it was something of a straightforward job for Mr Jones rather than a film with his authorial stamp on it, like Moon. I am very much looking forward to his future projects though.

I have also reluctantly left out some films which I have seen this year on the big screen but not on their first release: Sunrise, Un Chien Andalou and Meek's Crossing.

Bubbling under my top five were a number of popular favourites this year like The King's Speech and the Potter finale and also Tangled which, despite its 3d version, was a bit of a throwback to a Disney of old. The actual top five at present though, are:

NEDs
True Grit
13 Assassins
Senna
Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Like Mark's list, it includes a couple of documentaries: One of them, Senna, on his own list and the other unashamedly influenced by seeing it at Brixton Ritzy in the presence of Werner Herzog himself (above) and being infected by his own enthusiasm. Senna was one of two on the list which I saw twice, the other, the Coens' Western, was very much looked forward to being a combination of favourite director(s), star and genre and it didn't disappoint.

Perhaps more surprising is the classic Samurai film by Takashi Miike but it is wonderfully cinematic, and anyway this list is subjective and purely based on my enjoyment of the film at the time.

The final entry could have been Anuvahood which was a quirky low budget film I was expecting nothing of, and which seems to be generally disliked, but which I thoroughly enjoyed, however, another film of gang violence and youth culture pipped it: NEDs, written and directed by Peter Mullan, creator of Magdelene Sisters. One of the pleasures of both films was the rich patois spoken by the main characters, in this case Glaswegian.