Serious Film Birthday Clip Show

Yes, Serious Film's first post was one year ago today! Pop the champagne! Or don't! Because champagne is expensive and I have yet to make a dime off of this thing!

Never mind that. This is a labor of love. Unpaid, broke-ass, moths-flying-out-of-empty-pockets love. Honestly, I feel like I'm just starting to get the hang of this blogging thing, so thanks to everyone who reads and comments and I hope you keep coming back in Year Two. I'm bursting with new ideas for the site and I'm dying to get past picking through the aftermath of 2010 and dive into the films of 2011.

In the meantime - Clip show! Here is a list of favorites from my year one of this impetuously launched project of mine. Enjoy and spread it around. If there's one thing Serious Film wants for its birthday it's more followers. (Speaking of which, are you following on Twitter?)

The Politics of Hurt Locker - Was The Hurt Locker as politically neutral as it was purported to be?
Replacing Citizen Kane - No offense to the Orson Welles masterpiece, but isn't it time we had a new consensus choice for the best film of all time? I run down the candidates and nominate a replacement.

Mad Men - Season 4 Yearbook- Once in a while I will diverge from the cinema to dive into one of my other obsessions, and Mad Men's brilliant fourth season was certainly that.

The Wonka/Fincher Connection - I make a mind-blowing discovery about the plot of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Cinematic Legal Dream Team - If you were on trial for your life which lawyers from film history would you turn to? I pick the all-star team.
5 Great Overlooked Horror Scenes - Moving beyond the shower scene from Psycho. I call attention to some new iconic moments in the horror genre.

"How About a Little Fire Scarecrow?" - It turns out, no, I wasn't the only person who had never noticed this one disturbing detail in The Wizard of Oz.
8 Vocal Performances Deserving of an Oscar Nomination - Technically vocal performances are eligible for Oscar nominations, but we all know it will never happen. Here are eight candidates who deserved the honor.

Unsung Heroes - One of the highlights of 2010 for me was getting tapped to be a regular contributor to one of my favorite movie sites: Nathaniel Roger's addictively entertaining Film Experience - a must read for any film junkie. My main contribution was this recurring series on great under-appreciated achievements of film history. Some of the filmmakers mentioned even stopped by to comment.
Pulled from the Wreckage: Great Performances in Terrible Films - The most viewed post from year one. A tip of the hat to those actors who struggled valiantly against hopeless material.
Notes from Film School - Undercover reportage from inside the heart of film school experience.
2010 Laugh-O-Meter - A rundown for The Film Experience on 2010: The Year in Comedy. Have you seen Four Lions yet?

Top 10 Films of 2010 - Couldn't have asked for a better year to start a film blog. No shortage of great stuff to write about.
The Anti-Streep - This post from last week in tribute to the incomparable Tilda Swinton quickly became one of the most popular things I've yet written. Apparently a lot of people agree.

Roll film on year two...