More Than One Lesson

In 2010, Sylvester Stallone assembled a collection of big name action stars for The Expendables, what turned out to be a kind of sad attempt to reclaim ’80s glory. 2018 saw the much quieter release of Black Water, a film that trotted Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren onto an unconvincing submarine for one of the most boring action movies I’ve ever seen. Also, as of this moment Harrison Ford nears the beginning of production on a fifth Indiana Jones film and his 78^th birthday. Expectations are not high. So why then does VFW work so well? It’s in part because, unlike The Expendables or Black Water, it doesn’t attempt to protect the vanity of its stars. Their ages are not only acknowledged but essential to the mentalities of the characters.

Jack London’s 1903 novel The Call of the Wild is the story of a dog torn between life as a pampered companion to humans and a life in his natural state as a wild animal. Chris Sanders’ new film adaptation is torn between the sensibilities of an animated kids movie and a dramatic live-action adventure that appeals to adults. This film’s inability to commit to one or the other leads to an ultimately dull movie that falls into that category of “Who is this for exactly?” It’s not a movie that will make you feel upset for having watched it, because you really won’t feel anything at all.

In this episode, Tyler discusses Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part II.

Cinematography
1917 – Roger Deakins

Costume Design
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Arianne Phillips

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In this episode, Tyler discusses Todd Phillips’ Joker and Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down.

It’s that time again. For the fourth year in a row here at More Than One Lesson I’m holding my own movie awards ceremony which involves neither a ceremony nor trophies. But the good news is no celebrities in designer clothing will be made uncomfortable by Ricky Gervais saying something that’s true, so you can stop making that face, Tom Hanks. As always, whether you agree with these or not I hope you enjoy the list and instead of complaining about what you disagree with please just start your own movie awards instead like I did. Unless your name is Bob, too. Then you’re just going to have to live with these.

Top ten lists are difficult. I both love and hate making them. I started this with the idea of making a list of what I felt were the 10 best movies of the 2010s or tenteens or whatever we call the decade that just ended. That was excruciatingly difficult but that wasn’t the problem really. The problem was that it felt impersonal somehow. I asked Tyler if I could do a list of favorites instead which he happily agreed to. It was still hard to make and there’s certainly some overlap here but it made it feel like a personal list that I am much happier with. I came to the realization too that, “Wow! I really love big ensemble casts.” It also means that no one can tell me that I’m wrong because I can say, “It’s not a best list, it’s favorites! Ha!” Of course you can tell me that I’m wrong but whether you agree or not, I hope you enjoy reading it. So here we go.

As a child, Sam Mendes was told the story of a messenger surviving through No Man’s Land during World War I. The story was told to him by his grandfather, Alfred Mendes who was in fact that messenger. In his autobiography, Alfred stated, “The snipers got wind of me and their individual bullets were soon seeking me out, until I came to the comforting conclusion that they were so nonplussed about seeing at seeing a lone man wandering circles in No Man’s Land, as must at times have been the case, that they decided, out of perhaps a secret admiration for my nonchalance, to dispatch their bullets safely out of my way.” Aside from being potentially the most dryly British sentence ever written, it serves as the inspiration for Sam Mendes’ new film, 1917, which presents a far more harrowing view of a trip into No Man’s Land.

For a film to effectively evoke 19^th century gothic, literary horror, it must be unified visually and tonally. The Sonata, the debut feature film by director Andrew Desmond, also manages to evoke the narrative sensibilities and structure as well.

Rose Fisher, a prodigy violinist, successful but unfulfilled, inherits the estate of her late father, who was also a world-renowned musician. Her relation to the legendary composer had been intentionally kept a secret, even from her displaced and curious agent, until his passing prompts a reclusive retreat for her to spend time figuring out what she wants from her future. What she doesn’t know (at least at first) is that her father killed himself rather violently and that he left behind a strange sonata, which would surely ignite the composing world but may also bring about the literal antichrist.

Building a top ten list encompassing an entire decade in film (particularly one as dynamic as the 2010s) is remarkably daunting. My approach to this list abandoned considerations of objective quality, or even of personal favoritism.

I wanted to assess the films that have come to affect me the most, either personally or creatively: the films which have most frequently populated my conversations and arrested my imagination. So, in that spirit, ranked by degree of impact, here are the ten most important films of the decade to me, and why they matter to me…