Movies of the 2010s: Completed
The first PopGap has been completed. During January I watched the Top 20 Movies of the 2010s (so far) which I hadn't already seen (sort of), as rated by the users of Flickchart. I've now seen all but 4 of Flickchart's Top 100 from the first half of this decade, and that includes 2 movies from 2014 not yet on video.
This was harder to accomplish than I had expected, having watched 48 horror movies last October. Mostly this was because a majority of the movies on this month's to-do list were over 2 hours long, and I was generally restricted to viewing them sometime after 11 p.m. This made me tired.
Quality-wise, the movies were a mixed bag. I discovered just a couple of new favorites, a few movies that I appreciated highly, some mediocrity, and a handful that lived down to my low expectations and validated my reasons for resisting them in the first place.
Here's how I rank the 20 movies I watched for PopGap this month:
The top half of that list I would highly recommend, and the bottom 5 I'd prefer never to watch again. Only two movies from this month made it onto my overall Top 20 of the decade to-date:
Nightcrawler just missed out, but I have a feeling that's a movie that will climb the list as I let it sink in.
Was I supposed to learn something? I learned that Jessica Chastain is everywhere. I learned that movies about tough guys can easily fake their way onto "Top" lists. I learned that my instincts for avoiding movies are pretty good. I learned to watch more Iranian movies. I learned that the French can make lightweight feel-good pap. I learned to aim for 15 movies next month, not 20.
In the next day or two I'll announce the watchlist for February's PopGap theme: the Top Academy Award Nominated Movies I've Missed, using Flickchart once again. Details coming soon...