Posts Tagged ‘A Prophet’

Page 8

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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Matthew Lucas
The Dispatch

1 Antichrist
2 Still Walking
3 Munyurangabo
4 Goodbye Solo
5 35 Shots of Rum
6 The White Ribbon
7 Tokyo Sonata
8 Revanche
9 Summer Hours
10 Fantastic Mr. Fox
Link to the List

Scott Tobias
The AV Club

1 35 Shots of Rum
2 Duplicity
3 Humpday
4 Collapse
5 Julia
6 Afterschool
7 Revanche
8 House of the Devil
9 Fantastic Mr. Fox
10 The Hurt Locker
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Steve Warren
Windy City Times

1 Up
2 Inglourious Basterds
3 The Hurt Locker
4 Precious
5 Goodbye Solo
6 Summer Hours
7 Fantastic Mr. Fox
8 A Serious man
9 District 9
10 Every Little Step
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Kim Morgan
Sunset Gun

1 Inglourious Basterds
2 Bad Lieutenant
3 Antichrist
4 Observe and Report
5 A Serious Man
6 The Road
7 Fantastic Mr. Fox
8 Broken Embraces
9 The Hurt Locker
10 Thirst
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Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

1 Up in the Air
2 Departures
3 (500) Days of Summer
4 Inglourious Basterds
5 Avatar
6 Sugar
7 The Hurt Locker
8 Hunger
9 The Road
10 Away We Go
Link to the List

Shlomo Schwartzberg
Bloor Cinema Magazine

1 Inglourious Basterds
2 Summer Hours
3 The Beaches of Agnes
4 The Hurt Locker
5 Two Lovers
6 It’s hard Being Loved by Jerks
7 The Class
8 Genius Within
9 Everlasting Moments
10 In the Loop
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Kevin Laforest
Montreal Film Journal

1 Avatar
2 Where the Wild Things Are
3 Inglourious Basterds
4 (500) Days of Summer
5 The Hurt Locker
6 District 9
7 Fantastic Mr. Fox
8 Watchmen
9 Antichrist
10 A Serious Man
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Billups Allen
Tucson Citizen

1 Gomorrah
2 Red Cliff
3 Drag Me To Hell
4 Tyson
5 The Hangover
6 World’s Greatest Dad
7 A Serious Man
8 The Invention of Lying
9 Antichrist
10 Bad Lieutenant
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Linda Barnard
Toronto Star

1 Up in the Air
2 The Hurt Locker
3 An Education
4 Fantastic Mr. Fox
5 District 9
6 A Single Man
7 Up
8 Inglourious Basterds
9 The Road
10 The Hangover
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John Urbanich
Sun Papers

1 A Serious Man
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Precious
4 Inglourious Basterds
5 (500) Days of Summer
6 The Road
7 Invictus
8 The Messenger
9 Star Trek
10 Anvil! The Story of Anvil

Billups Allen | Linda Barnard | Edward Douglas | Kevin Laforest | Matthew Lucas | Kim Morgan | Shlomo Schwartzberg | Scott Tobias | John Urbanich | Steve Warren

Page 7

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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Bob Strauss
LA Daily News

1 Inglorious Basterds
2 Antichirst
3 Thirst
4 The Secret of the Grain | 35 Shots of Rum
5 The White Ribbon
6 In the Loop
7 The Hurt Locker | The Messenger
8 Visual Acoustics
9 Up in the Air
10 Funny People
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Peter Howell
Toronto Star

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Up in the Air
3 The White Ribbon
4 The Cove
5 An Education
6 The Hangover
7 Coraline
8 Inglourious Basterds
9 Fantastic Mr. Fox
10 A Serious Man
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Todd Gilchrist
Cinematical

1 Hunger
2 A Serious Man
3 Summer Hours
4 Inglourious Basterds
5 Fantastic Mr. Fox
6 Goodbye Solo
7 Star Trek
8 The Cove
9 Somers Town
10 Avatar
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Andrew O’Hehir
Salon

1 Hunger
2 Bronson
3 Il Divo
4 A Serious Man
5 The White Ribbon
6 The Limits of Control
7 Serbis
8 35 Shots of Rum
9 Gomorrah
10 The Headless Woman
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Marc Mohan
The Oregonian

1 Hunger
2 A Serious Man
3 Summer Hours
4 Inglourious Basterds
5 Fantastic Mr. Fox
6 Goodbye Solo
7 Star Trek
8 The Cove
9 Somers Town
10 Avatar
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Mike Russell
The Oregonian

1 In the Loop
2 A Serious Man
3 Star Trek
4 Whip It
5 Drag Me to Hell
6 Moon
7 District 9
8 Bad Lieutenant
9
10
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Stan Hall
The Oregonian

1 Bad Lieutenant
2 Gomorrah
3 Broken Embraces
4 The Beaches of Agnes
5 Still Walking
6 Passing Strange
7 Seraphine
8 Revanche
9 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
10 Silent Light
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Shawn Levy
The Oregonian

1 An Education
2 The Beaches of Agnes
3 Avatar | Star Trek
4 A Serious Man
5 The Damned United
6 Broken Embraces
7 Revanche
8 Fantastic Mr. Fox | Coraline
9 The Lovely Bones
10 Up in the Air
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Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

1 Up in the Air
2 A Serious Man
3 An Education
4 Up
5 (500) Days of Summer
6 Bright Star
7 In the Loop
8 The Messenger
9 Not Quite Hollywood
10 Star Trek
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Chris Hewitt
Pioneer Press

1 Up
2 Chaser
3 Every Little Step
4 The White Ribbon
5 Where the Wild Things Are
6 Orphan
7 The Hurt Locker
8 State of Play
9 Antichrist
10 District 9

Matt Brunson | Todd Gilchrist | Stan Hall | Chris Hewitt | Peter Howell | Shawn Levy | Marc Mohan | Andrew O’Hehir | Mike Russell | Bob Strauss

Page 6

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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Kent Tentschert
Webster-Kirkwood Times

1 (500) Days of Summer
2 Avatar
3 Crazy Heart
4 Inglourious Basterds
5 The Lovely Bones
6 The Messenger
7 Precious
8 The Road
9 Sherlock Holmes
10 Up/Up in the Air
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Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun

1 Bad Lieutenant
2 Crazy Heart
3 An Education
4 The Hurt Locker
5 Inglourious Basterds
6 Knowing
7 Precious
8 A Serious Man
9 Up in the Air
10 The White Ribbon
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Joe Neumaier
New York Daily News

1 Up in the Air
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Where the Wild Things Are
4 Crazy Heart
5 A Serious Man
6 Star Trek
7 Inglourious Basterds
8 Duplicity
9 An Education
10 District 9
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Ann Hornaday
Washington Post

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Up in the Air
3 Precious
4 Sugar
5 The Baader Meinhof Complex
6 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
7 Star Trek
8 District 9
9 Where the Wild Things Are
10 Humpday
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Phoenix Film Critics

1 Avatar
2 District 9
3 (500) Days of Summer
4 The Hurt Locker
5 Inglourious Basterds
6 Precious
7 Sherlock Holmes
8 Star Trek
9 Up
10 Up in the Air
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Greg Ellwood
HitFix

1 Precious
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Inglourious Basterds
4 In the Loop
5 Avatar
6 A Prophet
7 District 9
8 A Single Man
9 Up in the Air
10 Bad Lieutenant
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Brian Johnson
MacLeans

1 Up in the Air
2 Fantastic Mr. Fox
3 An Education
4 The Road
5 Bright Star
6 A Serious Man
7 Inglourious Basterds
8 The Hurt Locker
9 The Cove
10 Avatar
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Tim Lammers
WCVB TV

1 Up
2 Inglourious Basterds
3 Avatar
4 Precious
5 Star Trek
6 Up in the Air
7 District 9
8 Invictus
9 Nine
10 The Hurt Locker
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Stephen Farber
The Hollywood Reporter

1 Up in the Air
2 The Last Station
3 The Hurt Locker
4 Precious
5 The Cove
6 The Princess and the Frog
7 My One and Only
8 Lemon Tree
9 Adam
10 Seraphine
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Frank Scheck
The Hollywood Reporter

1 Up in the Air
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Precious
4 Up
5 Inglourious Basterds
6 A Single Man
7 (500) Days of Summer
8 Invictus
9 The Messenger
10 The Last Station

Roger Ebert | Greg Ellwood | Steven Farber | Ann Hornaday | Brian Johnson | Tim Lammers | Joe Neumaier | Phoenix Film Critics | Frank Scheck | Ken Tentschert

Page 5

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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Ray Bennett
The Hollywood Reporter

1 Up in the Air
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Tulpan
4 Bright Star
5 Moon
6 Summer Hours
7 Up
8 Star Trek
9 Broken Embraces
10 Avatar
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Michael Rechtshaffen
The Hollywood Reporter

1 Up in the Air
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Up
4 An Education
5 Everlasting Moments
6 Coraline
7 The Cove
8 Broken Embraces
9 The Hangover
10 Avatar
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Kirk Honeycutt
The Hollywood Reporter

1 The White Ribbon
2 Up
3 Precious
4 The Hurt Locker
5 District 9
6 Avatar
7 The Cove
8 In the Loop
9 A Serious Man
10 Up in the Air
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Sheri Linden
The Hollywood Reporter

1 The White Ribbon
2 District 9
3 Police, Adjective
4 Summer Hours
5 Bright Star
6 Fantastic Mr. Fox
7 Big Fan
8 Of Time and the City
9 The Cove
10 Up
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Oklahoma
Film Critics

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Up in the Air
3 Inglourious Basterds
4 (500) of Summer
5 Precious
6 A Serious Man
7 Up
8 District 9
9 Fantastic Mr. Fox
10 Avatar
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Sean O’Connell
FilmCritic.com

1 Up
2 (500) Days of Summer
3 Up in the Air
4 This is It
5 District 9
6 A Serious Man
7 Away We Go
8 Harry Potter: Half-Blood Prince
9 Star Trek
10 Big Fan
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Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Up
3 Coraline
4 Up in the Air
5 Where the Wild Things Are
6 Fantastic Mr. Fox
7 A Serious Man
8 Big Fan
9 District 9
10 Everlasting Moments
Link to the List

Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

1 Up in the Air
2 Inglourious Basterds
3 Precious
4 I Love You, Man
5 Food, Inc
6 (500) Days of Summer
7 Fantastic Mr. Fox
8 The Girlfriend Experience
9 The Hurt Locker
10 Adventureland
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Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune

1 Up
2 Where the Wild Things Are
3 Waltz with Bashir
4 Of Time and the City
5 The Hurt Locker
6 A Serious Man
7 In the Loop
8 Sugar
9 Me & Orson Welles
10 A Single Man
Link to the List

Houston Film Critics

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Up in the Air
3 Star Trek
4 Precious
5 Inglourious Basterds
6 Up
7 (500) Days of Summer
8 Avatar
9 Invictus
10 District 9

Ray Bennett | Owen Gleiberman | Kirk Honeycutt | Houston Film Critics | Sheri Linden | Sean O’Connell | Oklahoma Film Critics | Michael Phillips | Michael Rechtshaffen | Lisa Scwharzbaum

Page 4

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

AFI | John Anderson | Jackie Cooper | Dallas Ft. Worth Film Critics | Houston Film Critics | Drew McWeeny | Joe Morgenstern | Stephen Schaefer | Betsy Sharkey | Dana Stevens

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John Anderson
IndieWIRE

1 Fantastic Mr. Fox
2 Precious
3 Food Inc
4 Star Trek
5 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
6 The Hurt Locker
7 The Windmill Movie
8 Bronson
9 Burma VJ
10 The Messenger
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DFW Film Critics

1 Up in the Air
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Precious
4 Up
5 An Education
6 A Serious Man
7 Inglourious Basterds
8 District 9
9 Avatar
10 Fantastic Mr. Fox
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AFI

1 Coraline
2 The Hangover
3 The Hurt Locker
4 The Messenger
5 Precious
6 A Serious Man
7 A Single Man
8 Sugar
9 Up
10 Up in the Air
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Houston Film Critics

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Up in the Air
3 Star Trek
4 Precious
5 Inglourious Basterds
6 Up
7 (500) Days of Summer
8 Avatar
9 Invictus
10 District 9
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Betsy Sharkey
Los Angeles Times

1 Up in the Air
2 Precious
3 The Hurt Locker
4 The Beaches of Agnes
5 Fantastic Mr. Fox
6 An Education
7 District 9
8 Bright Star
9 A Single Man
10 Two Lovers
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Jackie Cooper
WPGA-TV

1 Avatar
2 Nine
3 Brothers
4 The Hurt Locker
5 The Blind Side
6 Inglourious Basterds
7 Invictus
8 Star Trek
9 The Last Station
10 The Damned United
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Dana Stevens
Slate

1 Adventureland
2 The Beaches of Agnes
3 Crazy Heart
4 Drag Me To Hell
5 Fantastic Mr. Fox
6 The Hurt Locker
7 In the Loop
8 Lorna’s Silence
9 The maid
10 Ponyo
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Stephen Schaefer
Boston Herald

1 An Education
2 Inglourious Basterds
3 Up in the Air
4 Two Lovers
5 The Hurt Locker
6 The White Ribbon
7 Precious
8 Brothers
9 The Young Victoria
10 Avatar
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Joe Morgenstern
The Wall Street Journal

1 The Hurt Locker
2 An Education
3 Avatar
4 Crazy Heart
5 District 9
6 Precious
7 Sin Nombre
8 Summer Hours
9 Up in the Air
10 Where the Wild Things Are
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Drew McWeeny
HitFix

1 Enter the Void
2 Where the Wild Things Are
3 Inglourious Basterds
4 Fantastic Mr. Fox
5 A Serious Man
6 District 9
7 World’s Greatest Dad
8 Up in the Air
9 Avatar
10 In the Loop

Page 3

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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Kathleen Murphy
MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Inglourious Basterds
3 A Serious Man
4 Liverpool
5 Bright Star
6 35 Rhums
7 Summer Hours
8 Still Walking
9 Up in the Air
10 Bad Lieutenant
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Mary Pols
MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 The White Ribbon
3 Up in the Air | Adventureland
4 Up | Coraline
5 A Serious Man
6 Beaches of Agnes
7 Where the Wild Things Are
8 The Messenger
9 Fantastic Mr. Fox
10 An Education
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James Rocchi
MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 Fantastic Mr. Fox
3 The White Ribbon
4 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
5 A Serious Man
6 In the Loop
7 Up in the Air
8 The Messenger
9 The Maid
10 The Brothers Bloom
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Glenn Whipp
MSN

1 The Hurt locker
2 Fantastic Mr. Fox
3 Up
4 A Serious Man
5 Where the Wild Things Are
6 Tulpan
7 Bright Star
8 Coraline
9 35 Shots of Rum
10 In the Loop
Link to the List

Peter Debruge
Variety

1 In the Loop
2 The Sun
3 Avatar
4 Summer Hours
5 The Cove
6 Two Lovers
7 Antichrist
8 Ponyo
9 District 9
10 Sugar
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Steve Erickson
Gay City News

1 The Limits of Control
2 Fantastic Mr. Fox
3 The Sun
4 Duplicity
5 Tokyo Sonata
6 Import Export
7 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
8 Police, Adjective
9 Night and Day
10 The Headless Woman
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Susan Gerhard
SF360.org

1 Three Monkeys
2 Tokyo Sonata
3 Tyson
4 Where the Wild Things Are
5 35 Shots of Rum
6 The Maid
7 (500) Days of Summer
8 District 9
9 An Education
10 Funny People
Link to the List

Robert Horton
The Herald

1 A Serious Man
2 You, the Living
3 Inglourious Basterds
4 Up
5 The Hurt Locker
6 Summer Hours
7 35 Shots of Rum
8 Liverpool
9 Sunshine Cleaning
10 Duplicity
Link to the List

J.R. Jones
Chicago Reader

1 Summer Hours
2 The Hurt Locker
3 You, the Living
4 In the Loop
5 The Baader Meinhof Complex
6 The Class
7 Goodbye Solo
8 World’s Greatest Dad
9 Fantastic Mr. Fox
10 The Maid
Link to the List

Eric Kohn
IndieWIRE

1 Sita Sings the Blues
2 Two Lovers
3 The Girlfriend Experience
4 The Hurt Locker
5 Humpday
6 Medicine for Melancholy
7 Adventureland
8 A Serious Man
9 Tony Manero
10 In the Loop

Kathleen Murphy | Mary Pols | James Rocchi | Glenn Whipp | Peter Debruge | Steve Erickson | Susan Gerhard | Robert Horton | JR Jones | Eric Kohn

Page 2

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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Richard T. Jameson
MSN

1 A Serious Man
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Taking Woodstock
4 35 Shots of Rum
5 Bright Star
6 Liverpool
7 Up in the Air
8 Inglourious Basterds | Public Enemies
9 (500) Days of Summer
10 Bad Lieutenant
Link to the List

Don Kaye
MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 A Serious Man
3 District 9
4 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
5 In the Loop
6 An Education
7 Inglourious Basterds
8 Coraline
9 The Road
10 Up in the Air | Watchmen
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Anne Thompson
IndieWire

1 Red Cliff
2 Bright Star
3 A Serious Man
4 A Prophet
5 Up
6 Summer Hours
7 Coraline
8 The Hurt Locker
9 Up in the Air
10 An Education
Link to the List

Shawn Edwards
FOX-TV

1 The Hangover
2 Avatar
3 Nine
4 (500) Days of Summer
5 Precious
6 Where the Wild Things Are
7 Up in the Air
8 District 9
9 Up
10 The Soloist
Link to the List

Anthony Lane
New Yorker

1 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
2 Cloudy…Chance of Meatballs
3 Coraline
4 Fantastic Mr. Fox
5 Gommorrah
6 Star Trek
7 The White Ribbon
8 Up
9 Up in the Air
Link to the List

Richard Corliss
Time Magazine

1 Princess and the Frog
2 Up
3 Fantastic Mr. Fox
4 The Hurt Locker
5 Up in the Air
6 The White Ribbon
7 A Single Man
8 Of Time and the City
9 District 9
10 Thirst
Link to the List

Dave McCoy
MSN

1 The Hurt Locker
2 A Serious Man
3 The White Ribbon
4 Fantastic Mr. Fox | Where the Wild Things Are
5 Bad Lieutenant
6 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
7 In the Loop
8 Still Wallking
9 The Maid
10 Taking Woodstock
Link to the List

Kim Morgan
MSN

1 Inglourious Basterds
2 Bad Lieutenant
3 A Serious Man
4 Antichrist
5 Observe and Report
6 Fantastic Mr. Fox
7 Thirst
8 The Hurt Locker
9 The Road
10 Broken Embraces
Link to the List

Jim Emerson
MSN

1 A Serious Man
2 The Hurt Locker
3 Liverpool
4 35 Shots of Rum
5 Inglourious Basterds
6 The Headless Woman
7 Police, Adjective
8 Summer Hours
9 The White Ribbon
10 Goodbye Solo / The Limits of Control / The Informant! / Watchmen / Fantastic Mr. Fox
Link to the List

Sight & Sound

1 A Prophet
2 The Hurt Locker
2 35 Shots of Rum
4 The White Ribbon
5 Let the Right One In
6 Up
6 White Material
8 Bright Star
8 Antichrist
10 Inglourious Basterds

Anne Thompson | Shawn Edwards | Anthony Lane | Richard Corliss | Sight & Sound | Jim Emerson | Richard T. Jameson | Don Kaye | Dave McCoy | Kim Morgan

Page 1

Thursday, January 21st, 2010
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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
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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

The Top Ten Chart for January 21, 2010

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

225 Critics. 239 Films.

The Top Ten Chart for January 12, 2010

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

225 Critics. 239 Films.

The Top Ten Chart for January 6, 2010

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

132 Critics. 161 Films. 30 New to the List.

The Top Ten Chart for January 2, 2010

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

102 Critics. 151 Films. 30 New to the List.

The Top Ten Chart for December 29, 2009

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

74 Critics . 125 Films. 20 New to the List.

The Top Ten Chart for December 23, 2009

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

54 Critics. 104 Films.

The Top Ten Chart for December 20, 2009

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

Trailer: A Prophet

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

24 Weeks To Go Toronto Scores A Single, But Not Much More

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

That sound you heard coming out of the Toronto International Film Festival this year…

Near silence.

The films that came in hot (An Education & Precious) stayed hot, the new film expected to come out hot (Up In The Air & A Serious Man) came out hot, and a total of one title that went in unsure came out with some heat, A Single Man.

Just not that exciting, awardswise.

There were other good movies. But there was not much of a fuse lit. Studios started pushing away from the Gala events at Roy Thompson Hall, often preferring the less tony environs of the Elgin, the newly reopened for movies Winter Garden, and often the college theater energy of Ryerson Hall.

The Road wasn’t killed… but it didn’t come flying out of the week either. Capitalism: A Love Story wasn’t a car wreck… but it was a lot more Sicko than Fahrenheit 9/11.

At $1 million, A Single Man was the biggest sale of the festival… which tells you right away that there were no rush-it-out sure bets like The Wrestler or The Hurt Locker in play at the festival this year.

Creation, Agora, Chloe, Mother & Child, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Micmacs, Love & Other Impossible Pursuits, The Young Victoria, Triage, Harry Brown, The Joneses, The Vintner’s Luck, The Boys Are Back, Leaves of Grass, Life During Wartime, Ondine, and London River are part of the long list of high profile titles looking to break out at TIFF and just not doing so. Cannes hits Broken Embraces, Bright Star, A Prophet, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus did fine… but didn’t have a next step, propelled by Oprah or anyone else.

The non-Best Picture arthouse breakout may turn out to be the Chinese-made City of Life & Death while the most commercial films might be Whip It (large size) and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (small size).

But still… the only potentially significant awards story to emerge from TIFF 2009 was A Single Man.

And the only really bad news for a film that was looking for a push out of TIFF was Bright Star, which opened on 19 screens for a 3-day $9,984 per-screen average and expanded to 130 screens and a $5,168 per-screen. The film is running slightly ahead of Cheri, as an example, on weekend per-screen, though after 10 days, Cheri is running slightly ahead of Bright Star because of weekday numbers. I still expect Bright Star to outperform Cheri, but $5 million seems like the high bar domestically. That is unlikely to be enough to make the Best Picture leap, especially in a season with an unusual number of strong female-driven films (Nine, Precious, An Education, Coco Before Chanel, Julie and Julia, Amelia, It’s Complicated and more).

Outside of Toronto, there have also been casualties of timing. Films from Martin Scorsese, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Lasse Hallstrom, Neil Jordan, and Paul Greengrass all are out of the game because they won’t be released this year.

What is clear is that there is plenty of room to fight for a slot at this point. Of my Top 12 – which is really my entire top group at this point – only three of the films are unseen as of this writing (Nine, Invictus, and Avatar). In addition, there are a couple of completely blind items, like Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol and Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. Traditionally, films like Sherlock Holmes, The Blind Side, and It’s Complicated are commercial films and not Oscar films… but there is always room for a pop.

What finally smashed me in the face up in Toronto was that with 10 Best Picture nominees and only five in each of the acting slots, it could get pretty weird. Nine and Precious are actress fests. Invictus, A Serious Man, A Single Man, and The Hurt Locker are actor parties. But at the same time, you have to assume an Oscar nomination for Daniel Day Lewis in Nine and for Julianne Moore in A Single Man. How many of the 8 star actresses can be nominated for Nine?

If it’s Day-Lewis, Clooney, Firth, Renner, and Damon… what happens to Mortensen, Wahlberg, Sarsgaard, Stuhlbarg, and Maguire?

If it’s Streep, Mulligan, Cotillard, Weisz, and Sidibe… what happens to Tautou, Cruz, Cornish, Swank, and Theron?

Supporting Actor is looking like the softest category with potential in Gyllenhaal, Tucci, Molina, Duvall, and Kind.

Best Supporting Actress is a MONSTER… Just Nine has Dench, Loren, Hudson, Cruz, and Kidman. Add Ronan, Farmiga, Kendrick. Moore, Adams, Portman… and God knows who else?

So here we are… about two months from things really locking in… and while The Ten doesn’t seem to be in for a whole lot of changes, there are some big fights brewing in the other categories. With 10 nominees, all of these films are more likely to be seen by Academy voters.. making it all the more interesting.

– David Poland
September 30, 2009