John Otteni

John’s Top Ten Movies of the 2010s

We’ve been writing “Top Ten Movies of the Year” posts on this blog for over a decade. With that in mind, you’d think it would be easy to write a “Top Ten Movies of the 2010s” list. All I have to do is look back at all my past lists and crunch the numbers. I didn’t do that. My reason? I am very bad at calculations.

My other reason is that feelings change. Opinions shift. Different movies mean different things to me as the years go by. Even my favorite films I come to appreciate for different reasons. That being said this list can only reflect how I feel RIGHT NOW. I could change my mind next week. Some of these picks aren’t even consistent with my “Top Ten Movies of 2019” list I did a few weeks ago. That’s what’s great about art. If it’s good it can evolve. Let’s take a look at their current evolutions.

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John’s Top Ten Albums of the 2010s

I don’t like doing “End of the Decade” lists. There’s such a finality to it. How can I claim to have found the ten best albums for me when there’s still so much to discover? The fact that I struggled to find ten albums I could call my favorites just goes to show the journey isn’t over.

That being said I do love these ten albums… for the time being. We’ll see how these selections settle in the next ten years. I like to take my time with albums. Spend several years with them and let ‘em stew. This is why I have no albums from 2019. Not enough time has passed. Which means these tens albums I have picked are special. They have stood the test of time. Now let’s open up the capsule.

P.S. I decided to include YouTube videos instead of pics so you can listen to some of my favorite jams. Enjoy!

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Top Ten Anticipated Movies of 2020

2020 is cooking up something in that lab. We got a new Ghostbusters on the way, a new Top Gun, and a live-action Mulan. We’re not talking about any of those movies but we are talking about other better movies (and in the case of Colin worse). So buckle up into your Ecto-1 and crank up our picks for the Most and Least Anticipated Movies of 2020.

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John’s Top Ten Movies of 2019

2019 was a great year for mainstream cinema. Which means it’s a boring year for lists. Maybe it’s me but I feel like in lesser years cinephiles go more out of their way to unearth those under-appreciated documentaries and hidden art house gems. I’m not talking about Uncut Gems either.

The second more likely scenario is that I was lazy. I found a group of films I liked and I called it a day. The true answer is likely somewhere in-between. That being said I had a lot of fun at the movies in 2019 and will try to make this list my own.

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John’s Top Ten TV Shows of 2019

While writing my list I noticed something. Out of the ten shows I picked for my favorites of 2019, only one is over an hour long. I remember a time when all the GOOD shows were an hour long. Like The Sopranos. It just goes to show how the evolution of the TV and all the ways to consume TV have broken down a lot of conventions. Shows can be as long as they need to be when they don’t need to worry about commercial time.

Which also explains why a majority of my selections are streaming-based. I don’t know if any of this is good or bad for the medium or if we need to cool it on the number of shows available, but as of now, I feel good about it. After all, you don’t have to watch all of it.

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John’s Top Ten Albums of 2019

Welcome to the first post of 2020! So let’s start this year off wrong! I mean right. Shit.

So, a whole top ten? I don’t know. I didn’t listen to much this year. Maybe because I need to fix my car stereo? Yeah, that’s right, I listen to music on the radio. Like a neanderthal. Which means this list is a weird mishmash of mainstream stuff you could (and probably did) hear everywhere and then one or two deep cuts that are the result of me actually trying. But whatever. Go music!

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