2010-2014

The Oscars are tonight. As usual, I am way behind on current movies. The only film from 2015 that knocked my socks off was Mad Max: Fury Road. I’ve only seen about 1/3 of the films nominated, and only half of the Best Picture nominees.

I often take this time to look back on recent years, hoping that I’ve caught up a bit. Here is a list of the movies for which I have given at least a 9/10 rating since 2010:

2010: 13 Assassins, Carlos, If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise, Inside Job (Oscar winner for Best Documentary), Winter’s Bone (4 Oscar nominations)

2011: A Separation (10/10, Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language film), The Interrupters, Mysteries of Lisbon (2010?), Nostalgia for the Light (also 2010?)

2012: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

2013: Before Midnight (10/10, one Oscar nomination), The Square (10/10, one Oscar nomination), 12 Years a Slave (won 3 Oscars, including Best Picture), The Act of Killing (2012?, one Oscar nomination), Gravity (won 7 Oscars), The Past

2014: Boyhood (won 3 Oscars, including Best Picture), Olive Kitteridge (won 8 Emmys, including Outstanding Limited Series ... i.e., it’s not really a movie)

During that time, I have seen every Best Picture winner but one (The Artist). Among the critical favorites I have missed from that period: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Melancholia, The Turin Horse, Under the Skin, and Holy Motors. I have only seen one of the top ten box office champs of that period (Marvel’s The Avengers). In short, it’s not unusual that I am behind on this year’s Oscar nominees.