Sonic Youth’s Top 10 Films of All Time
I noticed this tweet last night from Sonic Youth about their top ten films of all time on the Criterion site and thought to myself “Hey, Sonic Youth is one of my favorite bands, I’m curious to know what their favorite movies are.” So this morning I head over to Criterion to check out the list for hopefully a few new movie selections.
The list is a bit deceiving because it’s billed as the “top 10 films of all time” but it’s actually 12 and they all just a happen to be Criterion Collection films. So it’s actually Sonic Youth’s top ten films available on the Criterion Collection. Of the twelve I had only seen (or even heard of) a whopping one. Funnily enough that one film, Fat Girl which was listed by Kim Gordon included a note from her saying she hadn’t even seen the film but listed it because she liked the director:
I haven’t seen this, but I really liked A Very Young Girl and The Last Mistress, with Asia Argento, which I thought was brilliant and hilarious. —Kim Gordon
WTF!? Anyway… I don’t know where I’m going with this. I was hoping for a little more inviting (and less pretentious) list of films. I mean come on guys, you know that Robocop is part of the Criterion collection right? Right!?? Sigh. Sonic Youth by the way is playing free tonight at Prospect Park. I mat skip that and watch (#6) The Vanishing instead.
- My Pal the Crook
July 31st, 2010 at 10:57 am
Well that’s disappointing, we need to track them down and get the real top ten
July 31st, 2010 at 7:39 pm
what exactly was disappointing about that list? 98% of it was completely legitimate!.
What would your list be? (omgosh on the spot).
August 5th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Wow. If you are going to write about film, at least give the films a chance before judging them as ‘pretentious’ to the point of ‘irrelevance’. Not trying to take anything away from Robocop (1,2 or 3) but this post is so uninformed. I totally get what you are saying about this being a pseudo-credible celebrity endorsement of a seemingly legitimate establishment (Criterion Collection) and that somehow makes it meaningless.
Watch these movies before judging them.
August 5th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Did I judge a single one of these films or claim their irrelevance? No. But that list was a bit pretentious in my opinion. It’s like me listing my 10 favorite albums and deciding I’m only going to pick obscure 80s minimal wave and avante garde composers i know most people have never heard of.
That said I’m not debating any of the films artistic merit or even if SY genuinely think these are great films. Like I said Fat Girl is the only one I’ve seen and actually planned to check out The Vanishing this week. I’m just don’t think that Sonic Youth believe that they’re on such a different intellectual plane that their tastes in film shall never cross with the common man at some point, especially on a list of 12 films. This is the sort of list that stinks of “I’m eliter than though” weather intentional or not.