The 10 club

I'm a fairly hard marker when it comes to rating a film.
I've never subscribed to the 'stars' model as I believe it's a bit narrow and unless you are going to pin a particular standard to each star it just doesn't work.
So I prefer to score movies out of 10, hence the name of this blog, and to date only four films have reached that standard. Therefore they are members of The 10 Club.
There was a time when I would never hand out a 10 because I didn't think it was possible. So I adjusted how I viewed them, just slightly, and while it is still hard to receive the perfect score it's no longer (what was more or less) impossible.
In the last four years I've handed out a 10 on one occasion each year. It started with The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, while no movie is faultless I had nowhere else to go but 10 after seeing it.
A bit over a year later Whiplash received my second 10 and, as I noted in my review at the time, I would probably gave gone higher if it were possible. Yes, it's just that brilliant.
The weakest of my four 10s is Pixar's Inside Out. I think at the time I was caught up in the sheer excellence of the characters and how much fun the movie is, compared to some of the forgettable sequels and prequels they've been producing of late.
It's still a great film and while I can't backtrack on my rating if I could I'd probably slip it back a point.
The way 2016 is shaping up I'd be surprised if there's another 10 out there after the outstanding Spotlight lived right up to my expectation and then some.
I was so rapt it won Best Picture at the Academy Awards over the boring, overlong The Revenant because it was clearly the best film.
No one style of film lends itself to a 10, though I am partial to a compelling drama.
Looking down my list of 23 films seen (at the cinema) this year it's going to be a fairly disappointing year in the quality stakes. A lot of 7s and 7.5s which aren't bad but so far only eight have made an 8 or better and I've handed out two 4s.