By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

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Link to the List

Phil Villarreal OK! Magazine

1 (500) Days of Summer
2 Inglourious Basterds
3 Precious
4 Crazy Heart
5 A Serious Man
6 Me & Orson Welles
7 Princess & the Frog
8 Were the World Mine
9 Up
10 Up in the Air
Link to the List

Kristopher Tapley In Contention

1 A Serious Man
2 Up in the Air
3 Antichrist
4 The Cove
5 Avatar
6 Precious
7 An Education
8 Mary & Max
9 Bronson
10 The Lovely Bones
Link to the List

Lou Lumenick New York Post

1 Up in the Air
2 Up
3 A Serious Man
4 Inglourious Basterds
5 Avatar
6 Invictus
7 Precious
8 Fantastic Mr. Fox
9 In the Loop
10 Ponyo
Link to the List

Kyle Smith New York Post

1 Inglourious Basterds
2 Up
3 Fantastic Mr. Fox
4 Watchmen
5 Funny People
6 Up in the Air
7 An Education
8 In the Loop
9 Of Time and the City
10 Shall We Kiss?
Link to the List

Stephen Holden New York Times

1 Up in the Air
2 The White Ribbon
3 Still Walking
4 The Messenger
5 35 Shots of Rum
6 The Hurt Locker
7 The Headless Woman
8 An Education
9 Summer Hours
10 Disgrace
Link to the List

Peter Travers Rolling Stone

1 Precious
2 Up in the Air
3 The Hurt Locker
4 An Education
5 Up
6 Where the Wild Things Are
7 A Serious Man
8 District 9
9 (500) Days of Summer
10 The Messenger
Link to the List

David Denby New Yorker

1 The Hurt Locker
2 The White Ribbon
3 The Messenger
4 Funny People
5 Adventureland
6 Up
7 The Last Station
8 Me and Orson Welles
9 Fantastic Mr. Fox
10 Up in the Air
Link to the List

National Board of Review

1 An Education
2 (500) Days of Summer
3 The Hurt Locker
4 Inglourious Basterds
5 Invictus
6 The Messenger
7 A Serious Man
8 Star Trek
9 Up
10 Where the Wild Things Are
Link to the List

Austin Film Critics

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Star Trek
3 Up
4 A Serious Man
5 Up in the Air
6 Avatar
7 Inglourious Basterds
8 District 9
9 Where the Wild Things Are
10 Moon | The Messenger
Link to the List

Sean Axmaker MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 A Serious Man
3 Inglourious Basterds
4 Summer Hours
5 Of Time and the City
6 Police, Adjective
7 Still Walking
8 Liverpool
9 Up in the Air
10 Where the Wild Things Are

Phil Villarreal | Kristopher Tapley | Lou Lumenick | Kyle Smith | Stephen Holden | Peter Travers | David Denby | National Board of Review | Austin Film Critics | Sean Axmaker

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon