No don't worry. Gothamist doesn't plan to subject you to yet another film Top 10 list. If you want a good ... uhm ... "overview" of this year's Top 10 lists, you might want to check-out The Reeler's Top 10 Top 10 lists. (Nos. 10-6 appeared yesterday. The top five went up this morning.) If you're looking for something more traditional, you should probably look at The Village Voice's Take 7 film critics poll.
Meanwhile, After last week's ridiculous number of new releases, Hollywood now gets to yawn its way into the New Year. There's only one new major release this weekend, but it's one of the more highly anticipated end-of-the-year releases: Woody Allen's Match Point finally arrived yesterday, and the buzz has been overwhelmingly positive. Even the generally self-deprecating Allen says in the new Feb. 2006 issue of Premiere, "I think it turned out to be the best film I've ever made." Whether or not that's true, we can't yet judge for ourselves. If you're still trying to play catch-up with the other 15 odd films that have opened in the past few weeks, though, we can help point you in the right direction. We stand by last week's "Gothamist Picks" of Cache (Hidden) and The New World, although we recognize the latter certainly isn't for everyone. We also heartily endorse Brokeback Mountain, and if you find that you can't even remember all the new releases you should have been seeing, we'd also suggest you make your way to Good Night, and Good Luck, The Squid and the Whale, The Constant Gardener, Paradise Now and Pride & Prejudice. While both are flawed in their own ways and overlong, Peter Jackson's King Kong and Steven Spielberg's Munich are also both worth your time. And although we think there's more than plenty wrong with The Family Stone, a phenomenal cast combined with some nice (albeit cliche) family holiday movie moments makes it a fair choice. Meanwhile, we'd suggest you stay away (far, far away) from the unfortunate adaptation of The Producers as well as the lush but quite dull Memoirs of a Geisha, and the just not-that-funny The Ringer. Ray 2005Walk the Line and Syriana have filmgoers split; we found the tremendous performances the only reason to see either as both films suffer from filmmaking not quite up to their lofty ambitions.
A Gothamist Pick: While the large multiplexes remain full of all the end-of-year new releases, there are still plenty of other options around town as well, and the best of them all takes place on New Year's Day at the IFC Center. All month, the IFC Center has dedicated its "Weekend Classics" series to the work of the late, great German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. This Sunday starting at Noon, for one $20 ticket price, you can watch his most famous collection of films, the "BRD Trilogy", a project Fassbinder completed shortly before his untimely death in 1982 at the young age of 37. The trilogy is an examination of post-war Germany through the stories of three strong and dynamic female characters. The screenings start with 1979'sThe Murder of Maria Braun, followed by Lola (1981) at 2:10 PM and concluding at 4:15 with the remarkable Veronika Voss. Lola also screens tomorrow at Noon, and star Barbara Sukowa will be on hand to introduce. The IFC Center will also screen Veronika Voss at Noon on Saturday and Monday.
MIdnight movies and other repertory screenings around town after the jump:
