By In retrospect . . . not the best title for a film award that’s not about pornography, but “Best Mature Film” doesn’t sound quite right and “Most Controversial” isn’t necessarily what the award is about. My goal for this category was to highlight the fact that the movie industry is often terrified of receiving an R rating for fear of dropped sales. Even though several award nominations that boast those bold ratings still rake in loads of cash each year, this is about showing appreciation for the few films that don’t worry about the restriction rating or reviews they get, and instead choose to bravely lead us down a new path.
This award is for us to shine a spotlight on which movie had the most guts without sacrificing skill or style. It has to have mature themes, scenes, characters, and/or plots, and hopefully also change how people look at something when the credits are done drifting off the screen. It’s about rewarding a film for doing something bold and doing it well.
What’s often the case is that the more uncomfortable a topic is, the more the director thinks it’s worth exploring, and that was certainly the case for many films last year. Make your award predictions and then keep reading to see who won!
Despite huge popularity in other Flixist Awards this week, R rated films like Black Swan, Book of Eli, The Expendables, Greenberg, The King’s Speech, Shutter Island, and The Town weren’t bold enough for our editors. Instead, these were the three movies that emotionally moved us, made us squirm, and forced us to re-evaluate some of our beliefs more than anything else in 2010:
- Blue Valentine: 3 votes — Winner!
- Enter the Void: 2 votes
- Dogtooth: 1 vote
I would guess most of us still haven’t seen more than one of the above films, so hopefully this is a motivator for everyone to add all of them to the top of your “must see” lists. If you’re unfamiliar with what each movie is about, we’ve reviewed both Blue Valentine and Enter the Void, and here is the NSFW trailer for Dogtooth.
It’s important to point out that many times these movies don’t necessarily suggest a destination or answer for our drifting thoughts, but instead are pleased just that we’re all thinking about something we’re usually too scared to think or speak about.
What mature 2010 movie made you think about adult topics the most?