Peter Travers Top Ten Preview
We always like to highlight Rolling Stone’s Pete Travers’ top ten lists. For one thing, he only hands out his four star reviews a few times a year. For another thing, his top ten generally reflects, more or less, a good sampling of the Best Pic lineup, particularly this year with ten slots open – he always has the Best Pic winner on his list as well. Let’s take a look back at Travers’ picks going back ten years. By the way, his list is rumored to drop tomorrow.
Last year **Best Picture winner, bold means nominated:
1. Milk
2. Slumdog Millionaire**
3. The Dark Knight
4. Frost/Nixon
5. WALL-E (won animated)
6. Revolutionary Road
7. The Visitor
8. Doubt
9. Rachel Getting Married
10. Man on Wire (won Doc)
2007:
1 No Country for Old Men**
2 Atonement
3 Into the Wild
4 Eastern Promises
5 Sweeney Todd
6 American Gangster
7 There Will Be Blood
8 Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
9 I’m Not There
10 Knocked Up
(tie) Juno
2006:
1 The Departed**
2 Dreamgirls
3 (tie) Letters from Iwo Jima
(tie) Flags of our Fathers
4 Volver
5 Babel
6 United 93
7 The Queen
8 Borat
9 Little Miss Sunshine
10 A Prairie Home Companion
2005:
1 A History of Violence
2 Brokeback Mountain
3 Syriana
4 Good Night, and Good Luck.
5 Munich
6 Capote
7 The Squid and the Whale
8 The Constant Gardener
9 Crash**
10 (tie) King Kong
(tie) Wedding
2004
1 Sideways
2 Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
3 Milliion Dollar Baby**
4 The Aviator
5 The Incredibles
6 Kinsey
7 Closer
8 Finding Neverland
9 Kill Bill: Volume 2
10 Fahrenheit 9/11
2003
1. Mystic River
2. Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King**
3. Lost In Translation
4. Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World
5. Cold Mountain
6. American Splendor
7. Big Fish
8. A Mighty Wind
9. Kill Bill: Vol. 1
10. Angels In America [HBO]
2002
1. Gangs of New York
2. Far From Heaven
3. Adaptation
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
5. Y Tu Mama Tambien
6. Chicago**
7. Talk To Her
8. Road To Perdition
9. About Schmidt
10. 8 Mile
2001 (two lists)
01. The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Peter Jackson)
02. Ali (Michael Mann)
03. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson)
04. Shrek (Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson)
05. Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe)
06. Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann)
07. Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott)
08. A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard)**
09. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg)
10. Ocean’s Eleven (Steven Soderbergh)
List 2
01. Memento (Christopher Nolan)
02. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
03. Waking Life (Richard Linklater)
04. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)
05. Hedwig And The Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell)
06. Sexy Beast (Jonathan Glazer)
07. In The Bedroom (Todd Field)
08. The Man Who Wasn’t There (Joel Coen)
09. Gosford Park (Robert Altman)
10. Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
2000
01a. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
01b. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
02. Gladiator (Ridley Scott)
03. Traffic (Steven Soderbergh)
04. Billy Elliot (Stephen Daldry)
05. Croupier (Mike Hodges)
06. You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonegran)
07. The House of Mirth (Terence Davies)
08. State and Main (David Mamet)
09. Best in Show (Christopher Guest)
10. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky)
1999
01. American Beauty (Sam Mendes)**
02. Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh)
03. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
04. The Insider (Michael Mann)
05. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
06. Three Kings (David O. Russell)
07. Boys Don’t Cry (Kimberly Peirce)
08. The Straight Story (David Lynch)
09. The Winslow Boy (David Mamet)
10. The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan)
I’m going to take a guess that these titles will make the cut:
Where the Wild Things Are
Up
Up in the Air
Avatar
Inglourious Basterds
dlen says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 7:38pm
I always hang out for Travers’ Top 10 list, as I do Ebert’s. And even if Travers is much more Scrooge-like with his 4-star ratings than Ebert, it must be said that his lists are ultimately more mainstream.
Only when the independents have a particularly strong year does he allocate them their own Top 10, as he did in 2001 and I seem to recall he did so in 1998, too.
Going by a recent post on his blog, I suggest that Invictus may also make Travers’ list.
Free says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 7:47pm
I know some here don’t like him, but Travers is hands-down my favorite critic. I agree with him a good percentage of the time, and as Sasha stated, he’s a good place to go to for possible Oscar nominees.
@dlen: I don’t think INVICTUS will make his Top Ten. This was a tweet he posted a few days ago:
“Just saw the next to last 2009 film I need to do a 10 Best list. Despite 2 fireball actors, it’s not making it.”
That could be something else, but I’m pretty sure he was talking about INVICTUS.
Also, Sasha, and anyone else interested, he’s supposedly putting up a LOVELY BONES review tomorrow.
DAVID says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 7:48pm
Up and Wild Things are his only 2 4 star movies, so those are pretty automatic. He raved about some Avatar footage he saw too, so I wouldn’t be shocked if that was there too.
Retlaw Kciuq says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 8:00pm
#2 Free – Couldn’t that just mean Sherlock Holmes?
dlen says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 8:02pm
@Free not on Twitter so will take your word.
Just looking at RS site, Travers may not give out a lot of 4-star reviews but he has a hell of a lot of 3.5′s.
I also note that he has not posted a review of The Blind Side yet had a post on his blog related to the film: why would he not review it? Too embarrassed to say he liked it? Not prepared to piss of his readership by saying he hated it? Publish and be damned, Pete!
Dave says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 8:09pm
I don’t think Basterds is going to make his list because he only gave it three stars. It’s odd though, if you read the review itself he RAVES about it…?
Kad says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 8:12pm
Travers sucks.
Mark Johnson Presents says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 9:09pm
What best picture winner did you not have in your top 10 list in any given year?
Free says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 9:12pm
@ Retlaw: It could, that’s why I added that it could be something else, but I had a feeling it was INVICTUS. That’s one of the only high profile movies I could think of that’s coming out pretty late.
With “Sherlock Holmes,” that seems like more of a 3-person film (Downey, Law and Rachel McAdams) than a 2-person feature.
Free says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 9:13pm
@ Mark Johnson Presents: I bet a LOT of people didn’t have “Crash” (though I did).
Craig says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 9:21pm
Travers is my favorite critic. I don’t base these things on whether I agree with there reviews, I find that stupid, that’s not there job to agree with me. I base it on how well they explain there reason for giving the movie the rating. He covers the points of that I want to know about the movies.
Nadine says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 9:55pm
After seeing the quote he gave it on the official site, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nine is in his Top 10. Been a fan of his since he use to appear on CNN. Now that makes me feel old.
Jun says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 9:56pm
Travers is seeing Avatar tomorrow – if his top ten doesn’t come out then, then it’ll probably be out Friday.
gary says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 10:18pm
hey Free…any word on whether his bones is a yay or a nay?
Jordan says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 10:55pm
@ Jun, he’s posting the list without having seen Avatar. The RS issue comes out on Friday, included w/ his picks for the decade.
Free says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 11:05pm
@gary: no idea. he just tweeted to someone else that he’d put it’s going up on thursday. looks like the film could use some good marks, though. critics seemed to be split.
i actually expect him to include avatar, though. didn’t he say that it was the one to beat after just seeing 10 minutes of it?
John says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 11:15pm
@Mark-I would have skipped at least three Best Picture winners in the last ten years right off the bat for my Top Ten’s (2000, 2004, and 2005). Probably 2001 too.
Chris138 says:
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 11:29pm
I actually think that tweet about the ‘two fireball-leads’ may have been for Sherlock Holmes, referring to Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. I keep seeing Travers’ praises quoted in commercials for Invictus. So it may make his top 10, but we’ll see.
mileshigh says:
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 12:36am
Thanks for posting his lists from years past. I really respect Peter Travers and our lists seem to be similar. My one complaint is that he gives too many movies 3 1/2 stars lately. I mean, really ‘This is It,’ ‘Informant,’ ‘Bruno,’ and ‘Funny People!?!’ BTW, He gave “Inglorious Basterds” three stars, so it wont make his top ten list.
He still hasn’t gone off the deep end like Ebert. Expect to see “Knowing” on Roger’s top ten list.
Chris138 says:
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 1:18am
I actually didn’t think “Knowing” was that bad of a movie. The idea was better than the final outcome, but still, not terrible.
It’s worse that Ebert gave “Watchmen” 4 stars, and will probably be included on his list of the year’s best. He referred to it as “this year’s Dark Knight”.
red_wine says:
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 1:56am
While not a hack, I would say I find Travers extremely inadequate as a critic and with a taste so far mainstream, he might as well be an IMDB reviewer. Last 3 years, 1 foreign language film makes his Top 10. And his entire taste is so mass-oriented, I wonder if he even sees other esoteric titles or anything outside Hollywood studio film-making or a few choice independent productions. I think the only thing that keeps interest going in him is the few no. of perfect scores he hands out, but whats the use of that if his lists turn out be so community-approved looking. He’s 1 of those kinda guys who’ll stack his chips were the money seems to be, if you know what I mean.
Chris Price says:
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 2:52am
Here’s a guess in no particular order:
Up
Where The Wild Things Are
Invictus
Up In The Air
A Serious Man
Avatar
The White Ribbon
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Worst movie of the year will go to Transformers.
tmoves says:
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 3:12am
For Travers, I’m going to go (4 stars, then alphabetical order):
UP
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER
DISTRICT 9
INVICTUS
THE MESSENGER
PRECIOUS
THE ROAD
A SERIOUS MAN
UP IN THE AIR
Alternate: THE HURT LOCKER
Not sure he’s seen it in time, but if he got to it: AVATAR
Wild Cards: THE HANGOVER or THIS IS IT
Jonas says:
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 6:16am
I don’t agree with him that often, but I think that Peter Travers is one of the more entertaining critics and as long as his argumentation is good, then I usually read his reviews and listen to his podcast. The same goes for Roger Ebert, although I agree slightly more with him.
Another one is Brian Orndorf who is very entertaining and I often agree with him.
#22 I can only agree with Transformers, what a waste of time.
Fivus Viener says:
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 8:24am
I can’t believe he fell into the Almost Famous trap in 2000. #1? Funny to see that now. What was so great about Cameron Crowe’s tribute to himself and mediocre rock music?