Cannes is worldwide and I was mostly talking about American films. For the most part I find it pretty easy to find the good films coming out of the rest of the world because almost every other cinematically relevant nation has a critical infrastructure that isn't in the hands of multinational corporations (though they may be in the hands of the government). Finding good non-mainstream American films is tougher than finding good non-mainstream Swedish or French films for sure.

Edit: Black Swan actually came to Birmingham! I hope to catch it on Friday.

Black Swan and Blue Valentine are the two must-see films for me right now. I should also see True Grit before the end of the year.

Black Swan got an early release in my area too. As soon as I find time to go, I'm there.

I have this nagging fear that something about Black Swan will make me despise it. There are so many Red Shoes-meets-Repulsion raves that I feel I'm being set up for the fall. But it's in Atlanta so I'll be going this weekend.

I'm sad that Uncle Boonmee won't get any real US release until next year, though that's not unexpected. I'm still not sure whether Meek's Cutoff will see any major expansion by January.

yeah, tho glad another year is being released by the end of the month here.

I called the owner of the Belcourt in Nashville and they'll be getting Meek's Cutoff eventually. I'm a Reichardt fanboy so I'm definitely going opening day. If it expands to Birmingham afterwards, even better.

See most recent update.

Alright so I just a watched a bunch of movies lately so time to update, still need time for everything to sink, but for right now...

1. Black Swan A
2. Catfish A
3. Inception A
4. Shutter Island A-
5. Kick-Ass B+
6. Scott Pilgrim B+
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows B+
8. Toy Story 3 B+
9. Winter's Bone B
10. Piranha B-
11. Jackass 3D B-
12. Get Em to the Greek C+
13. How to Train Your Dragon C+
14. Despicable Me C
15. Dinner For Schmucks C-
16. The Other Guys D+
17. Easy A D

I've still got a few films to see but I honestly don't see any of them making my list highly, and I'm holding off Uncle Boonmee, Poetry, Filme Socialisme and Meek's Cutoff til next year. I pretty much sought on only films I was interested in this year instead of the usual saturation because money was tight, so I liked a bunch of films but only about 7 or 8 religiously. The rest of the top 20 is kind of interchangeable though I did really like all of them. I'll pare these down later, but what I've got so far is

1. Certified Copy
2. Carlos
3. The Social Network
4. Bluebeard
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
6. True Grit
7. The Ghost Writer
8. Winter’s Bone
9. Toy Story 3
10. Inception
11. Black Swan
12. White Material
13. Shutter Island
14. Unstoppable
15. Mother
16. Wah Do Dem
17. Plastic Bag
18. Enter the Void
19. Wild Grass
20. How to Train Your Dragon

I'd also recommend Four Lions, Dogtooth, The American and Harry Potter 7

Now with True Grit and Enter The Void with rearranged and updated scores.

My list:

1. Inception (9.5)
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (9.3)
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (9.3)
4. Toy Story 3 (9.0)
5. True Grit (8.9)
6. The Town (8.6)
7. How to Train Your Dragon(8.6)
8. The Social Network (8.5)
9. 127 Hours (8.2)
10. Easy A (7.9)

1. Certified Copy
2. Carlos
3. The Social Network
4. Bluebeard
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
6. True Grit
7. The Ghost Writer
8. Toy Story 3
9. Our Beloved Month of August
10. Black Swan
11. Shutter Island
12. Inception
13. Winter's Bone
14. White Material
15. Enter the Void
16. Mother
17. Unstoppable
18. Wah Do Dem
19. Wild Grass
20. How to Train Your Dragon.

awesome, i downloaded like the full version of Carlos on Blu Ray the other day (big ass file freal). Hopin to be inspired!

There's still a great number of films I haven't seen but here's what I have so far.

1. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
2. Another Year
3. Carlos
4. White Material
5. Bluebeard
6. Toy Story 3
7.City of Life and Death
8. True Grit
9. Police, Adjective
10. Winter’s Bone

oh to live in LA