Whedonesque : Comments on 9073 : UK magazine FilmFocus declare Serenity #1 film of the year

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December 28 2005

UK magazine FilmFocus declare Serenity #1 film of the year in their 25 favourite flicks of 2005. "The little movie that could have and should have."

gossi | Firefly&Serenity | 22:24 CET | 17 comments total | tags: serenity praise

Scrolling through FilmFocus' top 25 reminded me of what a great year it was for film (easily on par with 1999). Hitting the number 1 choice and seeing Serenity/Summer sitting there... now that was fun!

Hjermsted | December 28, 23:01 CET

No other film this year managed to wholeheartedly live up to the weight of simply immense expectation quite like Serenity and then go and set the bar even higher.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I was so scared that my expectations were too high for Serenity and, as a consequence, I'd be disappointed no matter what. Glad to say that Serenity exceeded my expectations!

I want to see Night Watch (#23 on the list) so badly. I have no idea when it'll be out in the states, though. The Descent looks kinda cool as well & I'd never heard of it.

lyrabelacqua | December 28, 23:03 CET

Nice episode guide for Firefly there too :)

Grounded | December 28, 23:03 CET

Their little tidbit on Serenity made me tear up a little. And then made me want to re-watch the movie really badly.

Colors | December 28, 23:18 CET

Yes, the bit about not only meeting but exceeding expectations is spot on...I remember walking out of the May pre-screening in DC...my wife and I could barely even talk for a while, we were so overwhelmed.

Chris inVirginia | December 28, 23:38 CET

Excellent post and a good read.

Madhatter | December 28, 23:57 CET

Very glad to see the BDM did so well. From the episode guide: "If Firefly had run ten seasons, Out of Gas would remain one of its finest hours." These are smart people.

Tycho | December 29, 01:33 CET

Out of Gas is my favorite episode. Everytime I watch it, I cry at the part where you find out that Serenity wasn't the ship the salesman was pitching. More than anything else on Firefly, that is my favorite moment.

lyrabelacqua | December 29, 01:39 CET

Anyone else notice the Firefly-ism in the intro?

But with a one-year remit we put our heads together, took a look back through our archive of reviews for the year, mused on which films were the most fun to write about this year and took onboard the rantings and ravings [shouldn't that be valued opinions? -Ed] of you wonderful and shiny readers to come up with the twenty-five movies that made the most impact with us this year.

[ edited by AnotherFireflyfan on 2005-12-29 01:16 ]

AnotherFireflyfan | December 29, 03:09 CET

For me, it was exceedingly underwhelming. I walked out of the cinema thinking it was a bad decision for Joss to do a romantic comedy and that Kate Beckinsale was dreadfully miscast. Turns out I saw a screening of Serendipity by mistake.

Simon | December 29, 03:22 CET

Can someone link the episode guide I couldn't find it.

Ledfeather | December 29, 03:26 CET

here is the link

took me a while to find it too

[ edited by redfern on 2005-12-29 01:32 ]

redfern | December 29, 03:31 CET

Oh my god... Film Focus named it number 1! This is major! When I was a film student ## years ago, it was one of the bibles of serious film criticism.

demon magnet | December 29, 03:45 CET

Oh, if you click on "Shiny Shots" at the right it'll bring up a photo gallery and the first shot has Joss in a suit with his tie loose & wearing tennis shoes. This is one of those things that makes me love Joss more ;)

lyrabelacqua | December 29, 03:52 CET

...and just to boast (because, you know, it's so manly and great), that photo is taken a few hours before the after show party I went to. It all went downhill from there.

I think FilmFocus have a video interview with Joss somewhere as well.

I always like to think that Joss looks even more uncomfortable in a suit than me. I never thought that was possible.

[ edited by gossi on 2005-12-29 02:02 ]

gossi | December 29, 04:01 CET

This is great!

Plus, I'm glad they included Shane Carruth's stunning Primer. I mean, I can't find anyone else that's ever heard of it, and most of those that have seen it had a knee-jerk reaction to hate it because they didn't understand it.

Not that its inclusion makes me happier than Serenity's; I'm really glad critics got the movie and loved it (almost) as much as we did.

UnpluggedCrazy | December 29, 12:33 CET

Had to watch Primer 3 times and I'm still not sure I completely 'got' it. Very worth a watch though. Amazing what they did on that tiny budget. Slightly creepy that Shane's sister played his wife. ;)

Tycho | December 29, 17:22 CET

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