Ben Spencer

Inspired by Ain’t It Cool News‘ ‘A Movie a Day’ feature, I took on the task of trying to watch 365 movies in 2009.

I created a twitter account and an IMDb list to record my progress, and thanks to the interest from my friends and twitter followers, I succeeded.

Here are the top ten movies out of the 365 I saw this year (bear in mind that these are movies which were new to me and were not necessarily released in 2009).

10. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008)

Original review

A real life ‘rockumentary’ which is highly inspirational and emotional.

Additional comments

I think being a musician myself (I’m a drummer) made this all the more inspirational. The level of commitment these guys show towards their music and each other is at times quite staggering.

9. Once (2006)

Original review

One of my favourites of the year so far with great music, laughter and a very special friendship.

Additional comments

Another film which heavily features music. There are some genuinely touching moments in this film, and the romantic gesture towards the end has to go down as one of cinema’s all-time greatests.

8. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Original review

The hype surrounding this film is completely justified. Absolutely breathtaking.

Additional comments

Every element of this production is top class with the editing being the most impressive aspect. The way the many different moments in time are so perfectly and fluently presented to us is the reason this film is so enjoyable.

7. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Original review

The dialogue is as superb as you’d expect, particularly in scenes with Waltz.

Additional comments

I cannot emphasise enough how terrifying and superb Christopher Waltz’s performance is in this brilliant story. When he is on screen, the tension is almost unbearable.

6. 12 Angry Men (1957)

Original review

I’ve developed a real interest in legal dramas this year and this is one of the best.

Additional comments

This was the only film from IMDB’s top 30 that I hadn’t seen, and being that my interest in legal dramas had grown, it seemed like a good one to include this year. I certainly didn’t regret that decision.

5. Avatar (2009)

Original review

James Cameron’s return to Hollywood is absorbing and technically brilliant, in 3D or not.

Additional comments

Allow me to expand on my ‘3D or not’ comment… Because I have amblyopia in my right eye, I didn’t really experience the full 3D effect. However, Cameron’s return is enough of an immersive, mind blowing experience anyway.

4. Frozen River (2008)

Original review

A brilliant character drama, fully deserving its Oscar nominations. Leo was superb.

Additional comments

Melissa Leo and Misty Upham were my favourite female performers this year (in a leading role and in a supporting role respectively) and the screenplay was equally as absorbing.

3. District 9 (2009)

Original review

This perfectly crafted science fiction film is one of my favourites of the year.

Additional comments

One of my top three favourites as it turns out. As critics have said, this is probably the closest bond between humans and aliens we’ve seen on screen since E.T.. I would also suggest it’s one of the closest bonds between humans and CG creatures we’ve ever seen.

2. Paris, Texas (1984)

Original review

Easy paced and precise, you are sucked into the story of two brothers and their families.

Additional comments

This film is so much more than the words I managed to squeeze into less than 140 characters. It is a deeply affecting drama containing many interesting and complex personalities, individual journies and relationships. The road trip aspect of the movie is particularly impressive – the cinematography, the dialogue, and the many different emotions experienced.

1. The Wrestler (2008)

Original review

An absolute masterpiece which is both heartbreaking and uplifting. Incredible performances.

Additional comments

‘Heartbreaking and uplifting’ says it all really and Darren Aronofsky is fast becoming one of my favourite director’s. This was all about Mickey Rourke though and his performance was my favourite from a male lead this year – he deserved the Oscar.

Every Christmas, I install this wonderful shot from amateur photographer Ron Phillips as my desktop background.

I hope to visit this location during Christmas one year to see this with my own eyes. I wonder if I come bearing gifts, the owner’s will invite me in for mulled wine and mince pies?

You can download this desktop background for yourself in a wide variety of resolutions and ratios at InterfaceLIFT.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The trailer for British gangster film 44 Inch Chest looks interesting, if for no other reason than the cast. John Hurt, Ray Winstone, Ian McShane and Tom Wilkinson star.

(via Ain’t it Cool News)

During my work on the online version of Loughborough University’s research magazine The View, I came across a photographic portrait by recent graduate Ali Lomas.

It’s a stunning piece of work, and I’m obviously not the only one who thinks so – the portrait is to be exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

A quick search in Google led me to more of Ali’s work. Brilliant stuff.

Photograph used with kind permission of Ali herself.

This is the best video game I have played since Grand Theft Auto IV. The graphics, sound and story are superb and the controls are fun and intuitive.

Go out and buy it now, or at least put it on your Christmas list.

Low-Rise is an art project by Peter Cook.

Low-Rise is a precarious assemblage of thousands of free-standing stacks of staples densely tessellated to create a city-like mosaic. Like a city, the staples are subject to the elements, on a micro scale. The slightest breath or vibration and the domino effect kicks in.

(via Webdesigner Depot).

Glen Murphy from Google provides us with an early concept video of Chrome OS. It’s looking interesting, but certainly not elegant at this stage.

My current iPhone home screen now includes Ego, an app which provides a central location to check web statistics.

Along with Piotr Petrus’ Em Calculator for calculating and converting pixels to relative em units, I would also recommend Brian Cray’s PXtoEM.com.

Rather than just outputting one result, PXtoEM.com displays a whole list of em conversions based on the initial body size selected. This makes for an extremely useful reference during the styling of a website.

This won’t replace Piotr’s Em Calculator which allows for more complicated / nested conversions though, and it looks like he’s actually working on a new version.

Product designer Harc Lee has designed a colourless, eco friendly Coca-Cola can which looks very smart.

A convex logo substitutes colorfully sprayed can. Naked can help to reduce air and water pollution occurred in its coloring process. It also reduces energy and effort to separate toxic color paint from aluminum in recycling process. Huge amount of energy and paint required to manufacture colored cans will be saved. Instead of toxic paint, manufacturers process aluminum with a pressing machine that indicates brand identity on surface.

View more images and some of Harc’s other work.

(Via The Dieline).