It's hard to come up with a Top Ten list, especially if you have more than 60 movies to chose from, so I though: "What the heck, I find most of them so amazing anyway - great storyline, fantastic cast, awesome directors - why not do a Top Ten list thrice?" That's why this is just Part I.

... and if you want, you may vote for the one movie you look forward to the most this year and the next... [ we'll have the poll ready in a jiffy! ]

More from tMF! We have two articles coming up which  feature today's emerging talents. One is appropriately entitled 'On the Verge', and we're counting down the 30 most promising young actors right this minute. Also, there's a more serious article on how Hollywood seems to prefer casting foreign actors instead of 'home-grown' talent...

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Top Movie List by Jed Medina, featuring tMF's favorites, part I

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Here's the first Top 10:

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Franklyn: (Romance, Fantasy-Thriller), to be released this December, initially in the UK.

In Franklyn, Riley joins Ryan Philippe and Eva Greene in a futuristic thriller that tells "the story of four lost souls in a futuristic London society where there is no separation between Church and State."

Riley plays Milo, a heartbroken 30-something desperately trying to find a way back to the purity of his first love. Initially, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany and John Hurt were set to star; then the producers decided to cast younger actors. Only Eva Green remained as a member of the original cast.

For more about the movie, click these great resources: tMF Film Focus - Franklyn: Splitting Time | Hanway Films | IMDb movie details

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Easy Virtue stars Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ben Barnes. It's a period drama-romance movie set in the so-called 'Roaring Twenties' and is set to be released next year.

"We hope to create a cinematic treat. With a great cast of characters, beautiful costumes, sets, cinematography and music, our aim is to create a totally modern movie, breathing life into a classic genre for a new audience," says Australian director Stephan Elliott, famous for movies such as The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Eye of the Beholder.

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Why this movie made the top 10: I always thought Ben Barnes would be great in a period movie and this feature will prove me right (I think!). I also think Jessica Biel is potentially a very good actress, and after seeing her in The Illusionist, I think she will make good choices from amongst the roles she is offered. The movie is also adapted from a play by Noel Coward, so it's definitely going to include some deliciously witty and wicked dialogue!

For more about the movie, click these great resources: Ealing Studios' film feature | IMDb movie details

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The Portrait of Dorian Gray: Drama, scheduled for a 2009 release.

I thought I remembered a Dorian Gray in Sean Connery's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but his story was not explored nor his identity much revealed and it left me wondering if I'd maybe heard the name somewhere else before. Apparently I did! I found the book in the Classics section at a bookstore - it was written by Oscar Wilde.

Why this movie made the top 10: If you've noticed, this is Ben Barnes' second movie in a list of 10. That says a lot about how we regard this emerging talent from the UK, and maybe that's why Hollywood is looking to the young actor to inject some new blood into the A List. And why not? Says Elisabeth Rappe at Cinematical:

No more does the "next Orlando Bloom" crown descend than Ben Barnes begins racking up the lead roles. Currently onscreen as the titular Prince Caspian, Barnes is set to tackle a literary classic -- the title role in The Portrait of Dorian Gray. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gray is actually in really good hands. It's being helmed by director Oliver Parker, and produced by Barnaby Thompson, the team behind An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. I thought both were splendid, so I'm immediately intrigued.

We couldn't agree more!

For more about the movie, click these great resources: IMDb movie details | Updates from the Hollywood Reporter.

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Heartless (Horror, Drama-Thriller), scheduled for a 2009 release.

Why this movie made the top 10: I think Jim Sturgess is going to be huge! He was fantastic in Across the Universe and the Casino-thriller 21, and even in supporting parts like The Other Boleyn Girl, he managed to rock! Not to mention having Clemence Poesy as his leading lady. It also stars one of the Treadaway brothers, Luke Treadaway, another of the emerging talents from the UK.

Why is Sturgess getting so much buzz? Here's the actor with his own answer to the question:

“British actors come at acting from a slightly different angle,” Sturgess says. “Because a lot of the films are cast out there, they are so used to the angle from which the Americans, and certainly the young guys from LA, are coming at it, that I think it’s interesting for them to find these English actors who maybe approach acting from a different place.” [ read more ]

For more about the movie, click these great resources: Cinematical post on Jim Sturgess playing the lead role in Heartless | IMDb movie details | Awesome Jim Sturgess fansite.

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Hallam Foe (Mr. Foe): Drama Romance, wide release this month, already featured in this year's film fests.

Jamie Bell is one of the most consistent young actors today. But after Billy Elliot, it seemed that the movies he appeared in paled in comparison to this Stephen Dandry flick. But worry no more! He now has another great acting vehicle to propel his career into the stratosphere!

Why this movie made the top 10: Aside from Jamie Bell's amazing and intelligent performance, it showcases the talent of Scottish filmmaker David McKenzie, whose other noted film, Young Adam, received acclaim and was nominated for the BAFTAs. Reports the Times:

Even in the earthiest moments of the film, there’s a sense of magic that reflects the filter of Hallam’s innocence, eccentricity and otherness. Not everything works – a scene in which Hallam and Kate trade slang terms for genitals in some kind of odd courtship ritual is a little forced – but the originality of this unexpectedly upbeat rites-of-passage film is a breath of fresh air.

For more about the movie, click these great resources: tMF Film Focus: Hallam Foe | Official Movie site | IMDb movie details.

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Brideshead Revisited: Period drama, for wide release this October 2008.

Why this movie made the top 10: I've been dying to see Ben Whishaw in another role after Perfume! I just think this guy is an awesome actor who can be really good in both modern and classical roles. Here's a remark from director Julian Jarrold:

'Ben has exactly the right kind of vulnerability that I was looking for in Sebastian,' says Julian Jarrold, whose decision to cast a haunted-looking, dark-haired actor in a role made famous by an angelically beautiful Anthony Andrews in the 1981 Granada television series, caused some raised eyebrows. 'I'm pretty sure he is described as having dark hair in the novel,' Whishaw says, so quietly you can hardly hear.

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Evelyn Waugh’s novel, set in pre-war England as the privileged aristocratic class begins to decline, is an evocative and poignant tale of forbidden love and the loss of innocence. The story begins in 1925 at Oxford, when Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) is befriended by the louche and flamboyant Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw), son of Lord Marchmain. Charles is quickly seduced by an exciting new world of money, glamour and outrageous behavior.

For more about the movie, click these great resources: Official movie site | tMF Film Focus on Brideshead Revisited | Telegraph article: Ben Whishaw- A Man of Mystery | IMDb movie details.

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The Last Mistress (Une vieille maîtresse): Period drama, released in the USA this May and June.

Why this movie made the top 10:  Aside from the amazing and one-of-a-kind Asia Argento (who was also sooo deliciously wicked in Marie Antonette), the latest flick from controversial filmmaker Catherine Breillat features one of the most charming new actors in France, former male model Fu’ad Ait Aattouto.

We're quoting the cool write-up of this film from the SFIFF:

“I detest anything feminine, except in men, of course,” remarks La Villini (Asia Argento), the ravenous center of Catherine Breillat’s glorious new film based on the controversial novel by 19th century author and dandy Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly. The alluringly vulpine Villini is the Spanish mistress of Parisian roué Ryno de Marigny (striking newcomer Fu’ad Ait Aattouto) and the rude, sensual, commanding counterpart to his foppish, bee-stung beauty. Their ten-year affair is about to come to an end with the now-penniless Ryno’s marriage to the pure and well-placed Hermangarde (Roxane Mesquida)—that is, if he can resist Villini’s savage love. . . Known for her fearlessly candid explorations of female sexuality in such films as Fat Girl and Brief Crossing (SFIFF 2002), Breillat’s triumphant foray into period drama proves a rigorously unsentimental, frankly erotic and very funny work.

For more about the movie, click these great resources: Official Movie site | tMF spotlight on French actor Fu’ad Ait Aattouto | IMDb movie details

Milk: Drama, Bio, scheduled for a December 2008 release.

Why this movie made the top 10:  Sean Penn is a fantastic actor, and also one of today's more prolific directors, plus the movie also stars Emile Hirsch, whom Penn directed in the highly-successful Into the Wild. The all-star cast includes James Franco, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna and Eric Stolz.

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*** Spoilers ahead! ***

Academy Award nominee Gus Van Sant directs Academy Award winner Sean Penn as gay-rights icon Harvey Milk. Mr. Milk (1930-1978) was an activist and politician, and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in America; in 1977, he was voted to the city supervisors board of San Francisco. The following year, both he and the city's mayor, George Moscone, were shot to death by former city supervisor Dan White. Mr. Milk was previously the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary feature, The Times of Harvey Milk (1984); but Milk (2008) is the first non-documentary feature to explore the man's private life and career. Milk was filmed on location in San Francisco.

For more about the movie, click these great resources: IMDb movie details | Updates from the Hollywood Reporter.

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The Good Heart: Drama, scheduled for a 2008 release.

If you've been following the career of actor Paul Dano, then you'll agree that aside from his quirky, yet witty performance in Little Miss Sunshine and the rather annoying yet powerful delivery in There Will Be Blood, his breakthough role was in a little indie movie called L.I.E.

After more than eight years, Dano and his co-star Brian Cox are reunited for The Good Heart. Cox informed the press about the movie at the Sundance fest, and said the new project, directed by Dagur Kári, is "a crazed film about a guy who runs a bar, called Jacques [Cox], in New York. It's a bar where all these deadbeats hang out, like a bar in a Eugene O'Neil play. This young homeless man comes in, and he has these extraordinary powers of healing; he can heal all the guys in the bar. He also heals my character, this guy who has these heart problems. The old man is always in the hospital, nearly dying." After healing the bar owner, Dano's character is taken under his wing so that he may take over the bar when Jacques passes on. Things get complicated when a "Hungarian air-hostess" comes to work in the bar and a triangle forms.

For more about the movie, click these great resources: IMDb movie details | Cinematical post on Paul Dano and the new movie, The Good Heart | Nordisk film update

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Finally, the Vintner's Luck! As if we're about to tell you about this movie for the first time! Scheduled for a 2009 release.

Here's a summary...

and here's what we have to offer so far...

• Of Love, Wine and Angels: Elizabeth Knox, the book and her most popular works;
• A Tale of Two Actors: tMF put the spotlight on the movie's two main characters - Xas the angel and Sobran the French vintner.

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Up Next: Our second Top Ten Movies series.

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Comments (3)

Twilight?

y isn't twilight up there??

AliceCullen , June 24, 2008

Twilight????

Like AliceCullen said..
Where is Twilight????

googlyeyes , June 25, 2008

read the intro and you'll get my drift...

I do hope you've read my intro, it says this is just part 1. Anyway, if you've taken the time to browse the most popular articles, we have written more than 10 extensive, well-researched articles about Twilight, the kind of articles that will not only inform but also entertain.

Not every list will include Twilight, of course. I am particularly looking forward to the showing this December, but there are other great movies coming soon. We're a movie and review site, not specifically dedicated to one movie alone.

jedmed , June 25, 2008

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