Feature - 10 Out of 10 - Which Movies Get a Filmic Forays Top Score?

These go to eleven. Nigel Tufnell - This is Spinal Tap

'So when are you finally going to give your first 10?' a friend recently asked, concerning my reserved attitude to top-scoring on this very blog.

Last year I rated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water as 9/10, while going so far as to present Isle of Dogs, First Man and Roma with a 9.5 apiece. Newly released The Favourite gained that latter score last week. Is begs the question 'Come on, Ed, what do you actually consider deserving of a 10?' closely followed by 'Are there actual criteria by which you're judging, or are you just winging it?' and 'Who the hell are you to pass judgement anyway sitting there typing your crap while proper creatives have devoted maybe years of their lives to producing a complex piece of cinematic art/entertainment only to have some self-appointed critic casually fling a number at it and besides when did you ever make a film, jackass?'

The response to the final one is 'Bit harsh, pal - I'm simply providing a personal viewpoint on something I love - cinema - and my ratings are precisely that, 'personal', so - you know - don't shoot me. And no, I've never made a film, I only wish I had.'

(To be honest I've never been expected to answer the third question or anything like it. That's just me being unnecessarily defensive.)

As for the first two questions, I think there are many films deserving of my 10, including in retrospect - that being a key phrase - several from last year. As for the criteria, they're not scientific, but they go something like this:

1. Level of technical accomplishment, i.e. how well the film is directed, acted, etc (obvs).

2. How I respond to it at the time, i.e. my gut reaction.

3. How well it sticks, i.e. its rewatchability/retrospect factor.


The third one is particularly important in finalising a top score. I'm instinctively reluctant to slap a 10/10 on any film after a first watch - it seems such a big statement and leaves only one direction to go on subsequent viewings. If I've scored 8 or upwards, however, it's perfectly possible that second time around  the movie's merits will impress me even more. Example - I rewatched A Quiet Place over New Year with friends and it struck me how fine this thriller is in multiple regards - tense, beautiful and moving. Maybe deserving of higher than 8.5 and a place in my 2018 Top Ten list. Oh the agonies of the conscientious reviewer... 

Point is, if either First Man or The Favourite for example hold up and reveal even more second time around (as I strongly suspect they will), then I will very gladly stamp them with a big fat 10/10. It won't mean much in the grand scheme, but it'll feel satisfying to me.

With all that in mind, here are six random films out of many possible choices, and the reasons why they get the Filmic Forays Not-Necessarily-Perfect 10. 

1. This is Spinal Tap (1984)

Oh this one is perfection. Rob Reiner's template mockumentary gets funnier on every viewing. The first time you watch this story of a Brit rock-band trying to relive former glories on an ill-fated American tour, you laugh at the obvious stuff - the band's response to their rubbish matt-black album cover, the inappropriate name of Nigel Tufnall's Mozart/Bach-inspired piano piece, the onstage Stonehenge debacle. On subsequent revisitings every throwaway line, every stumble, every bemused reaction shot becomes hilarious. The whole film heightens reality just enough to keep the humour exquisite, while the edit ensures that absolutely nothing is wasted, in what becomes a strangely touching bromance (between idiots). It's a mine of comedy gold that just keeps on delivering.

2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

There's a reason that Shawshank is at the top of imdb.com's Top Rated Movies. It's not necessarily 'the greatest film ever made', but it does hit the spot for a broad demographic of viewers. How good is it? Well I recall wondering, two thirds of the way through my initial watching of the movie, whether something that promised so much could actually deliver a climax to match. It did, twice. Two bravura payoffs - one air-punchingly dramatic, the other profoundly moving, combined to create one of the most satisfying film endings in the history of film endings. And all due to the painstaking craft of every scene that had gone before. This film is a paean to the best kind of hope and a love-letter to friendship. There are scores of people who claim it saved their life, for heaven's sake. Shawshank has earned its top score.
   
3. Magnolia (1999)

Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia is a great example of what I'm going to refer to from now on as an 'Imperfect 10'. It's one of my two favourite film projects of all time (The Lord of the Rings is the other one, thank you for asking) and it's a thing of magnificence, charting as it does the trials of ten disparate Los Angelenos over a single day. This three-hour epic of human emotion grapples with a clutch of big questions in an intense and imaginative way. Thing is, in its ambition one whole subplot gets dropped along the way and with all the drama brewing the opening half hour can become oppressively sweary-shouty, but as a whole this movie gets so much right, draws out such blistering performances and pulls off such jaw-droppingly audacious moments of drama that to give it anything less than the full compliment of points would be - frankly - wrong. (This phenomenon could also be referred to as the Apocalypse Now factor.) 

4. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Ah Shaun. Now here's a film that I'd probably have given a good solid 8/10 on first viewing. But then you watch it again (and again, and again...) and like This is Spinal Tap you begin to relish all the tiny little visual and verbal touches that you missed first time around. How intricately structured the whole thing is, how it sustains humour and menace without compromising either, how it achieves actual emotional depth amid all the comedy-zombie mayhem. Every moment is thoughtful and creative, it's a masterclass in storytelling technique and it rises above pure genre parody to become a wonderful (and uniquely British) creation in its own right. Shaun is one of those films I'll watch if I stumble upon it on TV, even though I own the DVD. 'It's on the telly right now, so what else am I going to do? It's Edgar Wright's masterpiece!'

5. Children of Men (2006)

I include this one partly because it's my favourite Alfonso Cuaron film and a damn fine dystopian thriller, and partly to point out that where film appreciation is concerned, it's horses for courses. I once recommended Children of Men to a friend and his wife as my 2006 film of the year (a slam-dunk - one of those choices I didn't even have to think about) and they both - quote - 'hated it'. Maybe its vision of future Britain was just too bleak, but whatever had impressed me simply didn't work its dark magic for them. I recommend it undeterred, especially if you loved Cuaron's recent Roma. It bears all those same marks of cinematic craft, but used in a more dynamic way, albeit in a world where the entire human race has been rendered infertile and is staring at oblivion's slow approach. A movie of colossal technical ambition with a profound story at its centre - one that's not as hopeless as I've made it sound. But I'll let you decide between my love and my friends' hate. 

6. The Babadook (2014)

I've already explained why I admire this film both here and here, so there's little more to be said. Like Shaun of the Dead this little Australian gem demonstrates shot-by-shot mastery of film-making craft, only this time used to much more serious effect. The Babadook turns limited budget into a virtue, reminding us that vast scale is not a prerequisite for creating great cinema. It's a horror pic, yes, but (again like Shaun) it transcends genre, the sheer ingenuity of the storytelling becoming more apparent every time you return to it. So I'm properly perplexed that director Jennifer Kent's 2018 follow-up film The Nightingale hasn't been given a UK release date yet. Just saying.

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As those choices probably shows, there's no hard and fast technical rule as to why any one film makes it onto my unofficial 'favourites' list. Basically if I love a movie enough to revisit it for the sheer joy of its craft along with whatever emotion it inspires in me, it's earned that ultimate rating, And that's regardless of nitpicks or the possibility that it's aimed stratospherically high without hitting the mark in every regard (I return you again to my 'Imperfect 10' concept). 

You'll forgive me if I hold off on slapping the big One-Zero on any title after a first screening (including those on my Films of 2018 Top List), however much I appreciate it at the time. If a movie is that good, it'll more than withstand multiple viewings. Plus this system gives me an excuse to go back to some thrilling filmic places in the near future. 

Isle of Dogs, First Man, The Favourite, I'm not done with you yet...