In 2004 I had a different idea for this website – instead of tracking every blasted movie I’ve ever seen, I’d write focused reviews of “obscure” movies, the idea being to develop myself as a film critic without covering all the same titles everyone else was talking about. Later I’d decide I didn’t want to be a film critic or to write for any audience besides myself, and this movie journal was born. To flesh out the old site since I hadn’t written many reviews yet, I made some top-ten lists of my favorite obscure films of recent years (“obscure” mathematically defined as anything with fewer than 3,000 votes on the IMDB). Those lists (from early ’05) follow, unmodified.

–
2004
1. A Very Long Engagement
2. Zebraman
3. Primer
4. Dig!
5. She Hate Me
6. Cash Flow (Argent Liquide)
7. The Fourth World War
8. Move
9. Criminal
10. Dumplings

–
2003
1. The Saddest Music in the World
2. Bright Leaves
3. A Talking picture (Un Filme Falado)
4. Cowards Bend the Knee
5. The Return
6. Doppelganger
7. Rocks (Das Rad)
8. Long Gone
9. Masked & Anonymous
10. The Five Obstructions
Runners-up: Code 46, My Architect, The Singing Detective, Pan With Us

–
2002
1. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary
2. Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
3. Populi
4. Infernal Affairs
5. Demonlover
6. Dark Water
7. Cremaster 3
8. Mt. Head
9. The Trilogy (Lucas Belvaux)
10. Ken Park
Runners-up: Dolls, The Cuckoo, Horns and Halos, The Weather Underground

–
2001
1. Pulse (Kaïro)
2. Winged Migration
3. Ichi the Killer
4. No Such Thing
5. Pootie Tang
6. Autumn Spring
7. The Happiness of the Katakuris
8. Pistol Opera
9. Wet Hot American Summer
10. Human Nature

–
2000
1. The Heart of the World
2. Rejected
3. George Washington
4. The Circle
5. Camera
6. Steal This Movie
7. Time and Tide
8. The Gleaners & I
9. The House of Mirth
10. Trade Off
Runners-Up: Dark Days, Uzumaki