List: Top 30 Films of 2011 #15-1
21 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in 2011, 2011 List, List Tags: 2011, 2011 list, A Separation, Abbas Kiarostami, Apocalypse, Asghar Farhadi, Based on a Book, Based on a Novel, Certified Copy, Charlize Theron, Children's Film, Clio Bernard, David Yates, Diablo Cody, Documentary, Drive, England, fairy tale, Film, Franchise, Hanna, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Hugo, I Saw the Devil, Iran, James Marsh, Jason Reitman, Jeff Nichols, Joe Wright, Kim Ji-woon, Kirsten Dunst, Lars von Trier, List, Lynne Ramsay, Martin Scorsese, Melancholia, Michael Shannon, movies, Nicolas Winding Refn, Project Nim, Revenge, South Korea, Spy, Take Shelter, Terrence Malick, The Arbor, The Tree of Life, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Young Adult
Here you are, at long last, the final 15. I realize that the pictures for the 30-16 entry were a bit wonky. Hopefully it will look better for this entry. Again, this is a ‘favorite’ list, not a ‘best’. What were your favorites of the year?
15. A Separation (Farhadi)
Disputes become complicated very quickly, especially when the self-deception of individuals comes into play. Asghar Farhadi, who wrote and directed this masterful work, looks at the complex inner workings of individual desperation and pride. These motivations are presented through characters that are not malicious but are just trying to get by. Furthermore, Farhadi casts no judgment onto the various imperfect players involved, seeming to understand that situations get complicated fast. The truth becomes muddled beyond the comprehension of the law officers, immediate family members and even the two characters directly involved with the incident.
Farhadi presents this as a fact-of-life, combining universality and the specificity of Iranian culture. Every character is complex as the central incident and its aftermath unfolds at the same time as the breakdown of a marriage. There are no easy answers, no saints and no malevolence for malevolence sake. A Separation is heated from start-to-finish and it is impossible not to get caught up in all its sprawling glory as our sympathies shift and hover, grow and lessen. Reveals are slowly doled out with the skill of a deft thriller without getting caught up in any genre trappings. A Separation captures life in all its messiness.
14. Certified Copy (Kiarostami)
A film of halves; entirely based in conversation, simultaneously light and heavy. Certified Copy is about the burgeoning passion of a new love and companion, but also about the disintegration of a romance weighted down by history. It is a mysterious and ambiguous experience and the definition of transfixing. It is less about spending your time trying to decipher the exact nature of the central relationship and more about soaking in its essence, the conversation and the performances. It is about appreciating the ever-shifting but always simultaneous presence of the multiple phases of a dense relationship.
However one chooses to interpret or not interpret Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy, it ensures that it can be experienced in a multitude of contexts, forming its own unique relationship with the viewer that is all their own. While this is something that always occurs with film and is something we often take for granted, Certified Copy seems to exist for this purpose, and what a gift it is.
13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Yates)
It is at this point where the numbers become even more arbitrary than they already are. Honestly, I love this film as much as my number 1. So think of these next 13 films as essentially being equal with each other in my mind.
Deathly Hallows: Part 2 represented the end of an era for me and the countless others that grew up a Harry Potter fan. I grew with this series; the first film came out when I was fourteen. I may not have been a child as the franchise started (it was through the films that I became a fan of the books, not the other way around) but I threw myself whole-heartedly into the books and films, and my adolescence was positively littered with Potter-dom. I still believe it is somewhat taken for granted that we were able to experience a franchise that ran this long and that stayed this arguably consistent in quality. The Potter series means more than words to me, so to find that the final film met my expectations to the utmost was in certain regards more rewarding than anything else I saw this year.
Nothing impressed me more than Snape’s swan song; an appropriate tribute to the character, heartbreakingly played by Alan Rickman. The battles and buildup are as successfully epic as the seven films of buildup have sustained. The entire picture is wall-to-wall dazzling, enhancing Part 1 and striving boldly and confidently forth to its capstone conclusion. While nothing can quite match my first experience of it, it ranks in the top three of the franchise for me. This series will be a part of me the rest of my life and I cherish my ability to revisit it at any time I please.
12. Hugo (Scorsese)
I thought it wise to pair my two favorite ‘children’s’ films together. Even more than Harry Potter (where adults represent a large portion of its legions of fans), Hugo feels made more for adult appreciation than for kids. This is not to say that children will not enjoy it as it does contain more than enough of the magic and intrigue that comes with children’s fantasy. Indeed, it has the unmatchable splendor of its own contained world; a train station in 1920’s Paris. It has a central mystery, a mysterious key, automatons, a colorful cast of inhabitants and the rediscovery of a forgotten legend.
Martin Scorsese makes Hugo a singular film experience for several reasons, entirely making up for any uneven pacing or eventual anti-mystery. The first is the 3D; it will be interesting to see how the film fares without it. It functions almost as a physical argument for the form. It does not have to be a gimmick; when someone with legitimate drive to make use of the form, to mold it to support and enhance the world within, it can be unforgettable.
The second is the sense of wonder it contains which is infectious and addictive. Scorsese makes you want to stay in that station. Amidst the darker plot appendages, there is an exuberance, the uniqueness of fantastical discovery that brings one back to childhood. The third is the heart of Hugo, as it reveals itself to be a tribute to the magic of film through its love for central character George Melies.
There is an understanding of what we all see in film that makes us love it so, that brings about an instantly deep connection with Hugo. This aspect of it is what comes straight from the director’s heart, whose passionate work for film preservation is constant and incredibly important. Hugo left me in a drunken haze of film appreciation and an unparalleled respect for the origins of an art form.
11. The Tree of Life (Malick)
I suppose many think this should be much higher on this list. Love it though I do, there is a connection with certain films that I make that results in thinking of said film as ‘one of mine’. It is a relatable feeling to see something and to form a connection with it that allows it to be hoarded amongst a collection of personal favorites. I have this connection with The Thin Red Line and with Badlands and with large chunks of The Tree of Life. Most of the film, starting with the formation of the universe and leading almost through to the end is a transcendent voyage unlike any other. For some reason though, the Sean Penn bookends and the somewhat problematic portrayal of Jessica Chastain (the character, not the performance; she is wonderful) as an all-too angelic saintly mother struck a wrong chord for me. I also question the film’s depth, mainly because The Tree of Life seems more like a record of the memory and singular experience of childhood and a pondering drift through life’s big questions and origins as opposed to something that is particularly complicated in essence. It’s technical achievement, construction and execution is more complicated and ingenious than words can describe, but the finished product, to me at least, does not feel like it is meant to anything but a gloriously complex (in form) but ultimately abstract expression.
More than anything, I do not want this interpretation of abstraction to be taken as a knock; this is what I love about it. I feel lucky to have experienced something this beautiful, poetic, enchanting and moving. I felt brought back to childhood despite watching an individual depiction of it, and the strange and elemental feelings I experienced while watching is something I will never forget. And its drifting ponderous nature; this is also what I love about The Tree of Life. It considers the big and the small and asks us to glide along with it as it moves in and out of its many facets. Terrence Malick has so much skill that he is able to take us through his thoughts and Jack’s memories with the kind of ambition that results in something new and special. Parts of it feel like a continuation on what Walt Disney was getting at with his ‘Rite of Spring’ segment of Fantasia. Other parts feel like a journey of growing up, of the realization that parents expect things of you and that innocence can no longer be maintained. No film this year or in the past several years has been discussed and delved into more than The Tree of Life. While I feel that the film is more of an experience, something that to a degree defies analyzing, it is justifiably worshipped by many in the kind of passionate way that only Malick can incite.
10. I Saw the Devil (Kim)
Full Review Link: http://cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/review-i-saw-the-devil-2011-kim/
I Saw the Devil is an example of a film I hoard as ‘one of mine’. I perk up when I hear its name, I want to shove it into people’s eyes and praise it to the high heavens. Because I Saw the Devil does something extremely clever with the revenge genre; it sets out to be the end-all be-all, to distill its cliches into an essence of basic emotions, using repetition and pure brutality to really get at what this genre is all about.
What others may see as one-note is actually a very purposeful execution complete with uncomplicated character types and uncomplicated motivations. It uses what may be considered weaknesses in other films and turns them around, using it to an advantage. I Saw the Devil takes revenge as far as it can go, thereby making it automatically relevant. The film excels, because noted South Korean director Kim Ji-woon knows how to tell a story with effectiveness and panache, unlike many others who venture down extremist territory.
The idea that one must become a monster to destroy a monster is familiar. The really wonderful study that takes place in the film are Soo-hyun’s craving to prolong the satisfying feeling revenge gives him, and the idea of revenge as a functioning stopgap between the actual mourning process.
Kim Ji-Woon is a filmmaker who knows how and when to use style. He chooses his moments carefully and infuses them with a trendy sensibility without allowing style to overwhelm his film. His always impeccably choreographed fight scenes are on display, riveting as ever. A confrontation in a greenhouse as well as a rather incredible scene that takes place in a taxi cab are two examples where Kim’s penchant for building up tension and delivering action heavy scenes are on display.
The pacing here is among the most accomplished of 2011. Clocking in at almost two and a half hours, the film flies by, yet it never feels rushed. Kim takes his time letting the story unfold and allowing atmosphere and mood to sink in, without the running time ever imposing itself. It is fully engrossing throughout which is not an easy feat.
I have seen this film twice and it strengthened for me the second time; it is and exhausting roller-coaster that is well worth the ride.
9. Hanna (Wright)
Full Review Link: http://cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/review-hanna-2011-wright/
I will be the first to admit that Hanna is not entirely strong. The father-daughter relationship falters, and Wright’s attempts to create a layered fairy tale do not pan out with quite the success he clearly wants it to. But for a multitude of reasons, Hanna is a stylized dream come true for me.
Joe Wright takes himself completely out of his comfort zone with an entirely new type of project. The resulting visual experimentation from Wright’s involvement is invigorating to the extreme; a feast on the eyes and ears that overcomes the script’s shortcomings. His use of tracking shots, extreme close-ups, extreme long shots, handheld camera work and much more all contribute to Hanna’s singularly high-powered style. He also keeps a lot of the action in camera, making the choreography stand out. Whether creating an engaging hyper-stylistic action set piece or subjectively aligning the audience with Hanna’s experiences, Wright always has motivations for his choices and it is a delight to work through them while watching the film.
Along with Wright and Ronan, the third irreplaceable element of Hanna is the score provided by The Chemical Brothers. As opposed to using music to manipulate the audience into certain emotions, Wright creates several different effects with the sound of hypnotic bass-heavy electronica. The score is first introduced at a very precisely chosen moment. Throughout, the music forms a cohesive relationship with the diegetic sound, with both influencing and informing each other. It is also used to crucially represent and accompany each of the action set-pieces. The music The Chemical Brothers have created here is addictive and is as important anything in Hanna.
When all is said and done, Hanna had me entirely at “I just missed your heart”.
8. Melancholia (von Trier)
Full Review Link: http://cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/review-melancholia-2011-von-trier/
It may seem contradictory to say that Lars von Trier’s end-of-the world opus is the director as his most peaceful and life-affirming; but it is. This isn’t to say that Melancholia is sunshine and rainbows; just look at the title and basic plot synopsis. But this is the Danish auteur reaching out and making a human connection with his audience as much as he likely ever will. It is a meditative exploration of the unexpectedly dichotomous nature (and the ways the two converge) between depression that renders one immobile in life, and having to face that which we will all eventually come to meet; death.
Dunst and von Trier, both having first-hand experience with depression, make painstaking connections with Justine that culminate in an uncompromising understanding and loyalty to her. They are unwilling to cater to standard cause-and-effect rules of characterization or to apologize for the frustration and lack of sympathy she can elicit. For those of us who know what bouts of depression are like, this reveals it in all of its extreme truths and ugliness. Von Trier’s previous film Antichrist was made as he went through a severe depression, and no matter what one thinks of that work, looking at Melancholia in the context of a follow-up to his previous film will make for worthwhile discourse someday. In fact, it seems like an entirely essential context to have going into the film.
Melancholia is one of those films that successfully fulfill their ambitions in dealing with profound and fundamental subject matter on a grand level of intellectually-based intuition. You come away with, yes lots to talk about, but just as importantly, a feeling that a filmmaker has come upon something almost indescribable that gets at how we experience life, death and what it all means (or ultimately doesn’t mean). Synecdoche, New York is one of these films (an example that goes about it in an infinitely complex fashion, whereas Melancholia and The Tree of Life is based in abstraction and how the writers’directors have experienced life.) The Tree of Life is another. Some might call these films pretentious but this is reductive and dismissive. Lars von Trier’s latest film is his most accessible, but is no less thought-provoking. In fact, if there is one film that will temporarily win over his detractors, it would be this one. It takes us through the cathartic process of grieving mankind with a scrutinizing look at depression, death, acceptance and world annihilation with an uncharacteristically humanistic eye.
7. The Arbor (Bernard)
Speaking of Synecdoche, New York, here is a film that gets at truth through conceptual reenactment and fiction. What could have been a disastrous execution (the film consists of interviews lip-synched by actors who address the camera) is just the opposite. The past comes to life, going beyond narrative and documentary films, achieving something that exists in between.
The actors become a vessel for the voices and the people behind them. The actors are literal messengers, and having them address the camera, and in turn the audience, creates an intimate connection between the documentaries subject and those who knew her, and us. We also get to know subject Andrea Dunbar through watching segments of her plays performed by actors in the actual slums of Bradford, West Yorkshire where she grew up and lived.
The Arbor is about as deeply depressing as it gets, and director Clio Bernard keeps the frames uncluttered, letting the format and interview material speak for itself by presenting it in a progressive but simple way.
6. We Need To Talk About Kevin (Ramsay)
Here we go with the word abstract again; I tend to love films presented in such a way. The visual representation of an emotional state and a literal materialization of the fearful apathy of motherhood are what We Need to Talk About Kevin is getting at. I may love this film partly because Lionel Shriver’s novel is one of my absolute favorites, and I was able to see Eva and immediately heap upon her 450 pages of the author’s anything but abstract contextualization. The symbolism may be is in-your-face with splattered reds everywhere (for a start), but it represents a state of being and a constant reminder of the guilt and loss Eva feels that cannot be expunged. Kevin exists as the embodiment of a worst-case scenario, a being whose chief understanding of the world is borne out of his instinctual knowledge of Eva’s motherly indifference.
5. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Alfredson)
When Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ended, I immediately wanted to revisit it, getting the sense that my love and appreciation for it would only grow over time. Above all other films from this past year, I became the most attached to Tinker’s feel and atmosphere above any other. Tomas Alfredson’s second feature (his first being Let the Right One In), is another adaptation. Everything from the cinematography to Alberto Iglesias’ fabulously wistful jazz score is in a lurking state of mourning.
The film mourns for an era fading before the characters eyes with its air of grey repression amidst the period world of Britain’s M-16 intelligence. It boils down the plot density of the novel into its essentials, without ever having narrative clarity as its priority. Reading the novel before seeing the film did allow me a basic understanding of what happens (which was a task in itself as I find myself easily lost within these types of stories), but the film is not about that. With the ensemble cast of the year, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a treasure trove of intrigue.
4. Drive (Refn)
Full Review Link: http://cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/review-drive-2011-refn/
It is an all too uncommon feeling when a film ends and you realize you are not yet ready to leave its world. This is the feeling I had when Drive ended. It is a slick retro ride, filled with homage and influence, operating as a nostalgic demonstration of American genre filmmaking and oozing European sensibilities, complete with existentialist sleaze and minimalist touches. It is a hybrid creature that dabbles in a number of genres that are all in harmony through Nicolas Winding Refn’s infectious appreciation for using cinema to create mood and atmosphere.
It is clear that Refn has been influenced at every turn. But it is not a hollow experience; far from it. Perhaps what impressed me the most about Drive is the smoothness with which Refn blends what is a clear unabashed love for both high and low art. He lets them bleed together in what can be succinctly described as effortless cool. There is a stable assuredness in every shot, every movement and every creative choice made here. One cannot help but want to revisit Drive and explore those choices, the motivations behind them and why they work as well as they do. This is confident filmmaking on display. The mere construction of it is something to behold.
The thankless female characters may be a slight misstep, but it is a minor quibble. With Drive, Refn represents cinema at its most assured, plowing directly into the heart of genre filmmaking.
3. Take Shelter (Nichols)
Full Review Link: http://cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/review-take-shelter-2011-nichols/
Jeff Nichols does not play the ‘is he or isn’t he’ game with his audience; Curtis (Michael Shannon) is succumbing to paranoid schizophrenia. We are invited to simultaneously experience events as the protagonist does, and to see the reality of the situation at the same time. Take Shelter is an astonishing second feature by director Nichols whose first feature Shotgun Stories, plays out as pre-destined Greek tragedy. The interplay between conscious choice and being pulled further and further into something that was, on some level, always going to happen is present in both films. In Take Shelter, poor conscious decisions are made by Curtis, but he is also being helplessly dragged down by family legacies and a general feeling of doom.
Take Shelter affected me quite heavily, mainly because it preyed on my fears and depicted them in ways that service the sad reality of the situation as opposed to the heightened subjective journey. After death, going insane might be my biggest fear. It is the suddenness of certain disorders existence that strikes me. Some of the heavier psychological disorders don’t creep their way into you; they make sudden and grandiose entrances.
Curtis’ psychological descent clearly represents the current state of America, and the film never tries to hide this. Nichols wants you to know what he is really getting at. There are a couple of reasons it works. One is that the film does not feel preachy even in its openness; in fact, its message feels necessary. No matter what your political inclinations are, it is difficult not to feel the growing sense of dread all around us. Nichols takes that familiarized feeling and translates it into a different filmic context. In that sense, Take Shelter is frightening in its resonance. It may manifest itself openly, but Take Shelter works hauntingly well because of Nichols’ precision and ability to have his film make its mark in more ways than one.
2. Project Nim (Marsh)
Full Review Link: http://cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/review-project-nim-2011-marsh-iffboston-2011/
When discussing Project Nim, it becomes tempting to immediately spring into all-out praise mode. James Marsh approaches stories from different angles. 2008’s Man on Wire functions as a heist narrative. Project Nim is a chimpanzee biopic. Herb Terrace’s experiment was amateurish and botched from the start. By default, this allows Marsh to focus all his energies on telling Nim’s heartbreaking story, using archival footage and some very honest and candid interviews by the many people who came in and out of Nim’s life.
Project Nim is structured as a biopic that allows us to be acquainted with Nim as well as understand our incapacity to truly know a wild animal. All of the action is focused around the chimp, but the film says so much more through the story it tells. It is about humanity and our need to control and manipulate everything to be more like us. It is about the incompetence of man. It is about the well-meaning individuals like Joyce Butler, who care so deeply but are powerless in the bigger picture, and those like Bob Ingersol and Dr. James Mahoney, who never give up on making a difference.
Those who see Project Nim will be heartbroken. It works on many different levels, but people will remember first and foremost the story of Nim’s unstable life. James Marsh has told an unforgettable story and Project Nim is a true accomplishment.
1. Young Adult (Reitman)
Young Adult sadly did not connect with audiences based on box-office numbers and divided the people who did take the time to go see it. My number one was not clear this year; over the last few weeks, I have had about five different films in the top slot. So many character types have had countless films of their own, but to tread new ground and focus with someone like Mavis Gary offers something fresh and new; it took me in entirely. The film would not have succeeded if some did not walk away annoyed and frustrated; this only enhances how uncompromising and ugly its honesty can be.
Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody have created something that feels completely organic; effortless and seemingly simple when it is actually incredibly layered and intricate. Cody knows Mavis Gary in-and-out and pulls no punches when presenting her to us. She is delusional and ruthless; a total basket case who lives either in one extreme lazy sweats and reality TV consumption or another extreme of all-day primping as she presents herself to her old town with unrelenting purpose.
Theron fully inhabits Mavis as someone who cannot see past her own perspective or selfishness. She seems genuinely confused by the existence of certain emotions, and seeing her try to fake her way through them when she needs to is truly something else. This is also the first film I have seen to depict Trichotillomania and I have a special appreciation of the film for this reason. It is a compulsive disorder I have lived with since a young age, only with me the eyelashes are victimized and not the hair as with Mavis.
Young Adult turns expectations on its head with its kitchen scene that denies the audience the expected character turnaround, except that Cody dangles the possibility in front of our face first, making it all the more fascinating. Mavis’ relationship with Patton Oswalt’s Matt is one of the more distinctive interactions between two characters I have seen as he brings a self-aware sadness and longing to the proceedings. He is filled with the same emotions as Mavis but one is delusional while the other is not.
Young Adult is a film I felt an instant connection with; I laughed a lot, I cringed a lot, but mostly I admired the delicate craftsmanship at work from the spot-on writing and directing to the perfect acting. It is a blistering piece that is on the one hand an awkward comedy about emotionally stunted growth. On the other, it is a frighteningly candid character study about how sad it is to be so constricted by a superiority complex and perception of the world including where one places oneself within it.
Complete List of Films Seen in 2011: 13 Assassins, 50/50, A Better Life, A Dangerous Method, Albert Nobbs, American Grindhouse, Another Earth, Attack the Block, Beastly, Beginners, Being Elmo, Bellflower, Bill Cunningham, New York, Biutiful, Black Death, Bobby Fischer Against the World, Bridesmaids, Buck, Cameraman: the Life and Work of Jack Cardiff, Captain America: The First Avenger, Carnage, Cars 2, Caterpillar, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Cedar Rapids, Certified Copy, Cold Fish, Cold Weather, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, Contagion,, Cracks, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Dream Home, Drive, Edge of Dreaming, Hanna, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hesher, Hobo with a Shotgun, Horrible Bosses, Hugo, I Saw the Devil, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, In a Better World, In Time, Incendies, Insidious, J. Edgar, Jane Eyre, Kung Fu Panda 2, Last Night, Le Quattro Volte, Love Crime, Margin Call, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Meek’s Cutoff, Melancholia, Midnight in Paris, Mildred Pierce, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Moneyball, My Week with Marilyn, Of Gods and Men, Outrage, Page One: Inside the New York Times, Passion Play, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Poetry, Project Nim, Rampart, Rango, Red Riding Hood, Red State, Redline, Retreat, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Rubber, Scream 4, Senna, Shame, Sleeping Beauty, Source Code, Submarine, Sucker Punch, Super, Super 8, Tabloid, Take Shelter, Terri, The Adventures of Tintin, The Arbor, The Artist, The Debt,The Descendants, The Devil’s Double, The Double Hour, The Future, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Green Hornet, The Help, The Housemaid, The Ides of March, The Last Circus, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Mill and the Cross, The Muppets, The Rite, The Roommate, A Separation, The Skin I Live In, The Sleeping Beauty, The Thing, The Tree of Life, The Trip, The Ward, The Woman, Thor, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, TrollHunter, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Tyrannosaur, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Unknown, War Horse, Warrior, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Weekend, Win Win, Winnie the Pooh, X-Men: First Class, Young Adult, Your Highness, Yves Saint-Laurent: L’Amour Fou
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List: Top 30 Films of 2011 (#30-16)
17 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in 2011, 2011 List, List Tags: 2011 list, action, Alex de la Iglesia, Asif Kapadia, Brad Bird, Bridesmaids, Canada, Comedy, Documentary, England, Film, Incendies, Jane Eyre, Lee Chang-dong, List, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Midnight in Paris, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Moneyball, movies, Olivia Colman, Paddy Considine, Peter Mullan, Poetry, Sean Durkin, Senna, Shame, South Korea, Spain, Sports, Steve McQueen, The Last Circus, The Trip, Tom McCarthy, Tyrannosaur, Warrior, Win Win, Woody Allen
More than halfway through January, I give you my 30 favorite films of the year. The final 15 will be up on Thursday. These are my favorites; not a list of the ‘best’ of the year, although it goes without saying I believe these are all excellent films. The idea of a restricting Top 10 sort of irritates me; I’ve always been someone who likes to broaden the field and point out a variety of different films that stuck out to me. Margaret, Into the Abyss, Love Exposure and The Mysteries of Lisbon are examples of gaping holes in my film viewing for this year. But I did get to a total of 136 films seen from 2011 and I feel like I saw the vast majority of what I had meant to. I’m thrilled with the group of films that stuck out for me this year. The films that just missed out on a spot were Super 8, The Sleeping Beauty, Tabloid, Rango, Kung Fu Panda 2, The Descendants, Love Crime, Weekend, 50/50, 13 Assassins, Meek’s Cutoff and Crazy, Stupid, Love. I’d love to come up with an introduction to this list that covered the year in film but so much has already been written in ways that go far beyond what I would have been capable to coming up with. I took snippets from my reviews for the films I reviewed here at some point this year, with links provided for the full reviews if anyone is interested. Without further ado…30-16!
30. Bridesmaids (Feig)
It looks like Bridesmaids actually has a semblance of chance for a slot in the Best Picture race this year. Whether it happens or not is almost irrelevant; it is the mere chance that surprises. This notion brings with it much backlash. Between that and the constant references to the shitting in the sink scene (which at this point feels like it is the only scene in the film based on how often it gets brought up), it is easy to forget just how funny and surprisingly layered the film really is.
That the film is only ever put into the context of ‘see, women can be funny too’ proves just how sad the state of female-driven comedies is. Wiig and Annie Mumolo did not set out to prove anything here, but everyone acts as if they did. We should be past the point where an ensemble female comedy is a revelation, but based on the constant contextual discussions of Bridesmaids, it is clear we are not. It does not help that it was advertised using the idea of females doing comedy essentially as a gimmick.
After all is said and done though, it is about the flawed Annie (Kristen Wiig) who has reached a point in her life where nothing has worked out the way she planned. Her only stable focal point is her friendship with Lillian (Maya Rudolph). When Lillian’s wedding plans are taken over by Rose Byrne’s wealthy stylish woman who threatens to replace her as best friend (in Annie’s insecure eyes), she fights fire with fire by being petty and selfish, much to the amusement of the audience. But the film is about her realizing how she handles those situations, seeing her come to terms with that and being ready to rebuild her life. Annie’s character struck a chord with me; this along with Wiig’s performance is why I was so impressed with Bridesmaids as a whole. Is it too long? Yes. Does every joke hit its mark? No. Yet this is one of my favorite comedies to come along in a good long while. Really truly good comedies are infrequent these days (case in point; only three comedies are on this list). This is one of the good ones.
29. Moneyball (Miller)
There are going to be several films on this list that really took me by surprise and the first is Moneyball. I had really no interest in seeing this; in fact it took about 3 months and a rerelease for me to drag myself to the theater to see it. Sports films are generally not a genre I gravitate towards. What is so striking about 2011 is that four sports films made my list of favorites this year; an unprecedented number. Moneyball is mostly a behind-the-scenes look at baseball and how one person tries to change the deeply embedded system using unheard of strategies. It is the classic underdog tale, told with soul, drive, and a spirit of infectious perseverance headlined by Brad Pitt’s performance, which highlights Beane’s hasty insistence and inner detachment when he seals himself off from others. We know how the story ends, but the film earns the audience’s reservations as to how triumph could possibly reign supreme. Moneyball lifted me up and left me feeling roused and inspired.
28. The Trip (Winterbottom)
Full Review Link: http://cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/review-the-trip-winterbottom-2011-iffboston2011/
The Trip boasts an unusual combination of dialogue-heavy comedy, of scenic travelogue complete with a focus on high-end food and finally a somber self-reflexive experiment. While these are occasionally at odds with each other, The Trip is hilarious from start-to-finish and ultimately insightful because of the persistent and atypical way it goes about making its point.
Their conversations are thoroughly escapist, with a strong air of competition. They throw themselves into moments, songs, melodies and impressions. They are constantly trying to one-up each other, whether by seeing who does the better Michael Caine impression or by testing how many octaves each can sing in. Steve may say to others on the phone that Rob is a ‘pain in the ass’, but he clearly gets something out of his hesitant friendship with Rob; the irreverence between the two and their conversations. Each knows what to expect from the other. Steve knows he can vent his frustrations by taking jabs at Rob’s career. He knows their friendship is based on nonsensical conversations. This allows a safety net of irreverence to form for Steve.
Underneath all of the improvised hilarity, The Trip is about understanding Steve and Rob’s friendship, where it comes from, how the film is using their repeatedly competitive conversations and what it all means. Some will see it as a film that goes nowhere. This is precisely the point; it is a story about fame and emptiness, which has been addressed in many recent films, but told in an uproarious, refreshing and unconventional way.
27. Win Win (McCarthy)
As I began watching Win Win on a plane destined for Korea (the TV’s reset themselves several times, forcing me to watch this over the course of four hours), at first I was not enjoying it. It felt like the kind of middle-of-the-road indie that tries really hard to garner some chuckles with some predictable music that evokes that delightfully amused small-town sound that so many films have. Once Alex Shaffer’s Kyle entered and got the story rolling, I found myself increasingly involved. By the last half hour I was glued to the screen, only several inches away from the small TV on the backseat. All of the characters feel dimensional by the end, and it sets up a complicated dilemma that has no easy answers. It is sweet and endearing without ever feeling slight. Tom McCarthy’s writing underlines the place that wrestling has in the characters’ lives, so that when it falls to the wayside for a domestically dramatic scenario to settle in, the sport always feels thematically front and center. Not to mention that Alex Shaffer’s real-life wrestling skills which make his sport-centered scenes a treat.
26. Warrior (O’Connor)
Short Review Link: http://cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/short-review-warrior-2011-oconnor/
Sometimes it is the films that surprise us that become the most rewarding film experiences. They make us realize that so many films come with high expectations impossible to meet. What a breath of fresh air it is to go into a film with very low expectations, with no sign of the dreaded hype machine in tow, and to be completely won over to the point where my emotions were running as high as they could.
Steeped in the throes of Greek tragedy, Warrior takes chamber-piece family drama to the arena of MMA. Knowingly playing with clichés and being able to deliver on familiar grounds can be just as difficult to execute properly. It is no small task, but the film is able to deliver. The first hour is a lot of set-up. It is transparent where almost all of these scenes are going, but it conveys them with an unexpectedly quiet meditation. This gives the actors and the circumstances they have to play a refreshing amount of room to breathe. By the end, proportions of such raw physical intensity are reached that you can actually feel the decades of family dynamics being brought into the arena. The result is a well-earned cathartic finale as powerful as anything I have seen this year.
P.S – Make this a double bill with South Korea’s equally impressive 2005 boxing drama Crying Fist; you will not be sorry.
25. Jane Eyre (Fukunaga)
Full Review Link: http://cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/review-jane-eyre-2011-fukunaga/
Jane Eyre succeeds because what it does take on is executed with memorable specificity as well as containing some of the best chemistry between two romantic leads in years. For those who are sick of the kinds of romance films that come put today, whether comedy, drama or fantasy, Jane Eyre provides an opportunity to revisit a classic.
Many period films, especially those depicting the Victorian era, unsurprisingly and understandably tend to have the same look and feel. Fukunaga and cinematographer Adriano Goldman create a very precise atmosphere, making full use of the many conventions of the Gothic romance. The film feels naturally lit throughout, creating an often dark and gloomy look with muted grey and brown tones. The barren landscapes, wind and rain and foreboding manors are just a few conventions employed here with stunning effect. Dario Marianelli’s score fills the soundtrack with emotive violins that express the suppressed passion that Jane and Rochester keep below the surface.
Mia Wasikowska, destined for an exciting lifetime of impressive performances, captures the essence of Jane Eyre. Her dignity, guardedness and centered unwavering morals are all perfectly portrayed. She is understated and powerful, conveying subtle transitions in her face at every turn. It might just be the perfect incarnation of the heroine.
It is a rare thing when the two romantic leads have the chemistry the story demands them to have; these two do. The film is most engaging when the two are onscreen together, not just from of the power their scenes have, but because of the way they portray the evolution of their relationship. Buffini makes sure that different circumstances surround each scene they have together, making every single interaction between the two unique.
The film may heavily dilute several themes from the book in a disappointing way, but Wasikowska infuses her performance with what is missing. Was yet another adaptation necessary? Probably not, but it is hard to imagine anyone complaining about it after seeing Fukunaga and Buffini’s splendid interpretation.
24. The Last Circus (Iglesia)
The most utterly berserk and unbridled film from this year, The Last Circus is a nutzoid accomplishment plagued with political undertones (and in-your-face purpose; hello opening credits) from the Franco regime of the 1970’s. A love triangle between two clowns and an acrobat (who is the definition of the self-destructive male fantasy woman), the film inhabits a heightened predicament where love, suffering, violence and insanity all inhabit the same space and become interchangeable. Most films have a set trajectory, where you have some sense of where it will go, even if you do not know how it will get there. The Last Circus reaches what I assumed would be its climactic scene before the halfway point and I realized I had absolutely no idea where it was headed next. It was an unfamiliar and exhilarating realization and I watched as the film darted off into entirely wacky and surreal territory. The last scene which gives off a feeling of finality, hopelessness and defeat is a singular moment in the film. The Last Circus is unforgettable.
23. Midnight in Paris (Allen)
Had it not been for Rachel McAdams’ increasingly shrill caricature, this would be even higher on my list. Considering how much love I have for this film, and seeing it in the 23 slot, it becomes clear just how necessary I feel it is to move beyond the idea of a Top 10. Indeed, this is one of my favorites from Allen, carrying that same magical air as The Purple Rose of Cairo (my absolute favorite from him). Leaving the theater with a giant gleaming smile on my face, Midnight in Paris wins people over for its literalized and fantastical look at the idea of nostalgia and yearning for a time past. And using 1920’s Paris for that is probably the most idealized time and place there is. Owen Wilson proves to be the perfect Allen avatar, neurosis and rationalizing take precedence with him. To see him this enthralled with all the artistic figures of the past is contagious. The romantic and rational sides of Allen interact here and come to several different conclusions. It’s a vicarious dream come true.
22. Shame (McQueen)
Full Review Link: http://cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/review-shame-2011-mcqueen/
McQueen has the confidence of a veteran; his vision is clear and he presents it with poise. Between this and Hunger, it is obvious that long takes are his strong suit. One more film from him and they will be a fully-fledged trademark. He risks distracting the audience but he does not; his lengthy observations make us more attentive, more aware of the physical space and of body language. They allow us to get a fuller sense of the performances and they enhance the notion of the audience observing Brandon through the glass-plate walls; he is a test subject. McQueen distances us with the sterile environment and cagey glass. He puts us up close when it counts, and when it becomes important to unsettle the audience. Fassbender and Mulligan are astounding.
McQueen uses Brandon as cornerstone representative for addiction with a sibling dynamic ripe for rich exploration. Brandon’s surprisingly conventional, but no less powerful, arc towards disintegration is tinted with more hope than one would expect. Shame is arresting cinema that loyally follows its self-loathing protagonist wherever he may go.
21. Senna (Kapadia)
Full Review Link: http://cinenthusiast.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/review-senna-2011-kapadia/
Senna plays more like a narrative feature than any documentary in recent memory. Gripping from the start and refusing to let go, this immersive story will enthrall the viewer regardless of their ignorance of Formula One racing and/or three time Grand Prix world champion, Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna. Entirely comprised of archival footage, Senna offers a rare privilege of access for a documentary, resulting in a wholly distinct experience. It does not feel like you are watching something that has already happened; instead it largely unfolds as if for the first time.
I was the only one in my theater when I saw Senna, and I was allowed to have an emotional reaction with a freedom rarely afforded within the theater-going experience. By the end, I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness and loss. Interestingly enough, the two documentaries on this list spurred a stronger emotive response than anything else I saw this year.
20. Poetry (Lee)
Lee Chang-dong has a knack for staying a couple of steps away from melodrama with his unadorned camera and plots that never feel like plots. In some ways, he is the opposite of melodrama, but he somehow always gives off a sense of it without it defining or even distracting from his pictures. On the one hand, the film is a gentle tale of an elderly woman creeping up on Alzheimer’s who strives to understand how poetry works, looking everywhere for inspiration in order to write a poem. If this sounds nauseating, do not make the mistake of judging Poetry; it has none of the sentiment or predictability the story suggests.On the other hand, there is the tale of a horrific family crime committed, how Mi-ja copes with it as she deals with the aftermath of forced interaction for all parties involved and their differing motivations.
Lee mixes plot elements in ways that are unfamiliar and new, without ever having it feel like something is conventionally unfolding. His two films made after his time as Korea’s Minister of Culture and Tourism heavily deal with coping, the unforeseen circumstances surrounding tragedy and the various ways people try to coexist with their personal tragedies. It is simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting.
19. Tyrannosaur (Considine)
Actor Paddy Considine’s directorial debut sticks us with some pretty miserable folk. That Peter Mullan’s train-wreck of a protagonist, unable to keep himself contained for a moment, is the one that comes to be Hannah’s (Olivia Colman) only support system says it all. Tyrannosaur works because of the central relationship where mutually affectionate moments are able to burst through the defense mechanisms, secrets and stubbornness of the characters and the relentlessly bleak and violent nature of the film.
This is one of those ‘what do I do with myself now’ films that send one off into the world with a fuzzy haze of hopelessness. Some may not think it is worth it or that it does not justify being this depressing. But I appreciate Considine’s insistence on showing us two complicated people with no easy explanations to their predicaments or personalities. It is the matter-of-factness of it that I admire. Mullan has more rage than all the ‘angry young men’ characters of British cinema combined. He’s like the middle-aged present day result of those guys. Colman is in the most horrifically abusive marriage imaginable and has reached the point where excuses and suffering have seemingly buried escape.
18. Martha Marcy May Marlene (Durkin)
That Martha Marcy May Marlene held my spot at number 1 for a time after I saw it indicates that we have approached an even more intense level of appreciation for the films left on this list. Martha Marcy May Marlene disturbingly displays the susceptible nature of the mind and what mankind is capable of subverting through mutual groupthink. It is a complicated character study about a young woman unable to assimilate herself in any environment, and is left with heaps of traumas, sadly stubborn lingering ideologies and zero sense of self. She is a nearly broken being. Sean Durkin wrote and executed this story with staggering maturity. Some broad supporting characterization and some overstated dialogue only mildly hinder the experience. The complex characterization headlined by Olsen and the tension that instills the audience makes for a fearless film from a debut filmmaker.
17. Incendies (Villeneuve)
It has been many many months since I watched Incendies; almost a year. If I saw it again, it may even garner a higher spot on this list. After Biutiful and In a Better World left me underwhelmed (and with the former, downright annoyed), this is the other foreign language film nominee from last year’s Oscars that left an impact on me (the other is Dogtooth, which was my third favorite film of 2010, only to become my favorite after a rewatch taking over from Black Swan). It seems redundant to say that Incendies is involving, especially since I have been describing a number of films on this list as such. However, where some films involve me so much because I did not expect them to, for its thematic content or for filmmaking aspects more than anything else visceral or otherwise, Incendies involved me on a level of pure storytelling. There is no other film that involved me more this year (although several match it) on a storytelling level.
Remarkably devastating, the film balances political strife with the intensely personal and wraps it up in a disturbing familial central mystery. Several sequences are riveting, led by the wonderful Lubna Azabal. The film never feels small, with all of its war-torn setting, the unstoppable presence of politics and war and the linking of past and present using a flashback structure. Incendies leaves an indelible and powerful mark.
16. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (Bird)
This is the most fun I had at the movies this year; by far the most satisfying action film I have seen since 2006’s Casino Royale. Brad Bird’s live-action debut proves that he has a knack for creating increasingly complicated set-pieces, never losing the high levels of energy, fun and genuine excitement he sets up for himself. There is literally no depth to this film at all and we are all the better for it.
This is what escapist cinema is all about. Seeing Tom Cruise reliably bringing his irreplaceable screen presence to the non-character that is Ethan Hunt is all we need. His penchant for doing as much of his own stunts as he can culminates in the stunning sequence atop the tallest skyscraper in the world; Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. There are no green-screen effects here; the cameras are filming onsite and Cruise really is leaping around and climbing on the outside. It is indescribably thrilling and revitalizing to see an action film pull out all the stops and give us onsite set-pieces that are a much-needed antidote to the typical green-screen action scene. Filmed in IMAX, it feels like we are up there with him; and this is only one scene. Each sequence would be a memorable standout of any other film; Ghost Protocol just gives us one after the other, constantly matching itself. The entire film keeps up this level of entertainment. To put it simply; I did not want this film to end.
Complete List of Films Seen in 2011: 13 Assassins, 50/50, A Better Life, A Dangerous Method, Albert Nobbs, American Grindhouse, Another Earth, Attack the Block, Beastly, Beginners, Being Elmo, Bellflower, Bill Cunningham, New York, Biutiful, Black Death, Bobby Fischer Against the World, Bridesmaids, Buck, Cameraman: the Life and Work of Jack Cardiff, Captain America: The First Avenger, Carnage, Cars 2, Caterpillar, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Cedar Rapids, Certified Copy, Cold Fish, Cold Weather, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, Contagion,, Cracks, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Dream Home, Drive, Edge of Dreaming, Hanna, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hesher, Hobo with a Shotgun, Horrible Bosses, Hugo, I Saw the Devil, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, In a Better World, In Time, Incendies, Insidious, J. Edgar, Jane Eyre, Kung Fu Panda 2, Last Night, Le Quattro Volte, Love Crime, Margin Call, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Meek’s Cutoff, Melancholia, Midnight in Paris, Mildred Pierce, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Moneyball, My Week with Marilyn, Of Gods and Men, Outrage, Page One: Inside the New York Times, Passion Play, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Poetry, Project Nim, Rampart, Rango, Red Riding Hood, Red State, Redline, Retreat, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Rubber, Scream 4, Senna, Shame, Sleeping Beauty, Source Code, Submarine, Sucker Punch, Super, Super 8, Tabloid, Take Shelter, Terri, The Adventures of Tintin, The Arbor, The Artist, The Debt,The Descendants, The Devil’s Double, The Double Hour, The Future, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Green Hornet, The Help, The Housemaid, The Ides of March, The Last Circus, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Mill and the Cross, The Muppets, The Rite, The Roommate, A Separation, The Skin I Live In, The Sleeping Beauty, The Thing, The Tree of Life, The Trip, The Ward, The Woman, Thor, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, TrollHunter, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Tyrannosaur, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Unknown, War Horse, Warrior, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Weekend, Win Win, Winnie the Pooh, X-Men: First Class, Young Adult, Your Highness, Yves Saint-Laurent: L’Amour Fou
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List: The 10 Worst Films of 2011 (that I saw)
10 Jan 2012 14 Comments
in 2011, 2011 List, List Tags: 2011 list, Alex Pettyfer, Amanda Seyfried, Andrew Niccol, Beastly, Catherine Hardwicke, Christian E. Christiansen, Clint Eastwood, Daniel Barnz, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Exorcism, Gary Oldman, In Time, J. Edgar, Justin Timberlake, Kevin Smith, Leighton Meester, List, Megan Fox, Mickey Rourke, Mikael Håfström, Mitch Glazer, Passion Play, Quentin Dupieux, Red Riding Hood, Red State, Revisionist Fairy Tale, Rubber, The Rite, The Roommate, Vanessa Hudgens, Worst, Worst of 2011, Your Highness
I suppose it would be more interesting for me to call out well-received films as my ‘worst’ of the year. Unfortunately my least favorite films of 2011 are, for the most part, releases that were largely or entirely panned. There are a ton of releases that would likely qualify here that I did not get a chance to see (probably for the better). While they won’t make the bottom ten, the films that received some kind of critical/awards attention that I have a fervent dislike for were Biutiful, Cold Weather, Another Earth, My Week with Marilyn and Albert Nobbs. Technically, this is a list of my ten least favorite releases. But let’s face it; nobody is going to search for a ‘least favorite list’ and these are films that I do believe to be bad. My eleven would have been Sucker Punch, a film that in most regards rightfully became a punching bag, but I found it to be just entertaining enough in its awfulness to give it a pass here. But yes, it would have been my eleven. Interestingly enough, half of my choices begin with the letter ‘R’.
10. J. Edgar (Eastwood)
From my review: This is an out-and-out turkey that fails to establish a modicum of interest, with some of the most amateurish filmic devices on display in recent memory. It is a bloated, empty, hollow bullet-point presentation with nothing to offer. It is a total failure to the point where is offends me for existing. Likely too harsh for some, I just could not abide by its inflated self-importance and unashamed bastardization of history. It was at times embarrassing to watch.
9. Red State (Smith)
I still maintain my appreciation that Smith tried to do something outside of his previous oeuvre. But Red State is a misfire on all counts, feeling like a fuzzy manifestation of one of his rants. It comes complete with a ten-minute monologue scene with clear intent to be iconic that instead is dead on arrival. There is no suspense or scares; only broad caricatures and pontificating. It shifts gears in each third, an idea with potential in theory, but the material and execution ensure the landing does not stick. Finally, a last-minute effort in satire falls flat on its face and is unearned. It feels like a first draft that could have gone somewhere had everything about it been reworked from the ground up.
8. In Time (Niccol)
Did you know that our time on this Earth is limited? That time is precious? That time eventually runs out? Well, in case you forgot, In Time is going to spend two hours (that I want back) smacking you in the face with metaphorical mortality. A film that starts out preposterous and only becomes increasingly so; it feels like a CW show playing with sci-fi. That this comes from the mind of Andrew Niccol is a disappointment in the extreme. Justin Timberlake is painfully flat and ineffective as the leading man, Amanda Seyfried is a gorgeous empty shell, while Vincent Kartheiser and Cillian Murphy are schlepped around and asked to take part in this charade in exchange for a likely reasonable check. Poor Olivia Wilde is the only one who manages to make any impact in her early death scene (she plays Timberlake’s mother; seriously). But by the time I cared, she was gone. It was all downhill from there.
7. Red Riding Hood (Hardwicke)
Two Amanda Seyfried films in a row. This should not be taken as a reflection on my feelings towards her; I like her quite a bit but she often appears in really weak projects. The only think I did like about Red Riding Hood (and it wasn’t Seyfried, who exits unscathed but none the better) was the art direction. It received some criticism for its stagy and artificial feel, but that is exactly what I liked about it. That’s all the praise I can muster for this one. Let us take a second to lament that Catherine Hardwicke directed this, making Twilight look imminently watchable by comparison. There is no effort to create suspense, intrigue or scares; even the central romance which should at least be terrible but reasonably sexy fodder for teens registers a big fat nothing. It tries to capitalize on the Twilight craze via revisionist fairy tale with the same director, love triangle, wolves, unnecessary voiceover, modernized score complete with feedback and Billy Burke’s brooding. It is hell bent on being a pretty film but the efforts are futile. Seeing Gary Oldman ham it up through mannerisms, speech patterns and dialects without material to back him up becomes empty gravitas. It has nothing going for it even as a fairy tale romance haphazardly trying to hitch a ride on a young adult trend.
6. Your Highness (Green)
Your Highness is surreal when looking at David Gordon Green’s career ten years ago, the money that was poured into realizing this script, and the cast that signed on to help bring this film to its monotonous and embarrassing life. The people involved make this product even more disheartening than anything else. Danny McBride and Ben Best must have been two determined ten-year olds when they wrote this because I cannot believe that any grown men sat down and worked this thing out onto a document. Vulgarity for vulgarity’s sake repeated ad nauseum, Your Highness had me shaking my head in shame for most of its runtime. You will wonder where the world is headed when a director as gifted as Green thinks that spending his time making this puerile garbage is somehow worth it.
5. Beastly (Barnz)
Here we have another film trying to haphazardly hitch itself onto the revisionist fairy tale craze; ladies and gentlemen, Beastly! I so deeply wish this had just stayed on the young adult shelf in bookstores. I have no idea who made all the decisions involved here, but the makeup department in particular should be ashamed. Alex Pettyfer (also in In Time) is cartoonish in his characterization and his makeup is impossible to take seriously (monster = tattoos and piercings apparently????). The second film here that makes Twilight look excellent by comparison, it deeply struggles to adapt the tale to the modern day. The editing and music choices are shoddily slapped together and the performances are akin to bad daytime soap acting (outside of Mary-Kate Olsen who I legitimately enjoyed seeing inject her role with relish as if she were in The Craft). The script is bottom of the barrel bad. Every character is written like a smack in the face. Example; in the beginning, Pettyfer is an arrogant asshole who thinks he is better than anyone else because of his looks and popularity. Instead of showing us how he thinks, he literally says at one point that he is better than everyone because of his looks and popularity. This is about as subtle as Beastly gets.
4. Rubber (Dupieux)
This one I expect to get some slack for as it has built up a following. Is it worse than Your Highness, Beastly and others on this list? No, I guess not. Did it manage to provide me with the most insufferable film viewing experience of 2011? Yes, it certainly did. This thing is begging to be loved and worshiped (amongst the 20-30 age groups in particular). Had it been five minutes, Rubber would have been unforgettable. That initial segment that establishes the tire as an animate object is tops. Also, unsurprisingly given the director, it has a great soundtrack. Outside the two aforementioned elements, it is the most self-satisfied nonsense to come around in quite some time, with Dupieux dead set on calling out his own audience for even taking the time to watch his creation. For the record; meta does not automatically equal good. Rubber is more deconstructive than anything else, with each element cancelling out the next until nothing is left. It is supposed to be asking questions about the nature of the viewer and how we, as an audience both individually and collectively, engage in films. All of it is painfully, and I mean painfully full of itself as well as obnoxiously obvious. Rubber needs to get over itself.
3. The Roommate (Christiansen)
I feel kind of bad for Leighton Meester when it comes to The Roommate. Because she really commits to her role and I assert that she doesn’t do a terrible job. What makes her look ridiculous is that it is impossible to break through this barebones derivative of Single White Female. It is actively offensive for feeling like it was written by someone with a middle-school attendee’s understanding of cliques. The cool people are normal here and Meester likes art and draws and takes medication and is broody and clingy and off-putting and this must mean she’s a psychopath!!! It takes the kind of judgmental assertions that a presumptuous adolescent would make and turns it into a slasher-lite version of reality. The film is never interested in taking anything further than a surface level of plot point beats and caricatures. The film is so overpopulated with morons that you want Meester to off everybody. The Roommate may provide a fun bad-movie night with friends but it’s mostly so lifeless that it hurts.
2. The Rite (Hafstrom)
If there was one film that was a drudge to get through in 2011 it was The Rite. I cannot even remember anything about this film to write about. Here is all I recall; it felt like it took the entire day to watch, that it would never end, that the lead actor bland personified and that it contains zero scares. There were other films that are gloriously bad, fascinatingly bad or at least bad enough to keep ones thoughts about how bad it is going for the length of the film. But The Rite has nothing going for it. It is so boring that it overtakes these other films because nothing is worse than being this dreadfully boring.
1. Passion Play (Glazer)
Conversations begin with lines like “Have you ever seen the ocean?” Passion Play is as bad as you have heard. It is a dud to end all duds that luckily contains enough unintentional laugh-out-loud moments to hurdle itself into turkey infamy. It’s bogged down in painful noir clichés, rote sentimentality and blatant awkwardness on all fronts (except Christopher Doyle’s cinematography), including staging, acting, directing and editing. It feels like we are watching an underworked rehearsal of already hopeless material. Mitch Glazer takes his project so seriously it hurts. He is unable to execute simple scenes. Bill Murray and Mickey Rourke are sleepwalking. Megan Fox is not terrible here, but she certainly isn’t good and it is sad that she is the only one onscreen who actually seems determined to give a performance. There are parts of Passion Play that need to be seen to be believed. Hint; flying is involved.
Complete List of Films Seen in 2011: 13 Assassins, 50/50, A Better Life, A Dangerous Method, Albert Nobbs, American Grindhouse, Another Earth, Attack the Block, Beastly, Beginners, Being Elmo, Bellflower, Bill Cunningham, New York, Biutiful, Black Death, Bobby Fischer Against the World, Bridesmaids, Buck, Cameraman: the Life and Work of Jack Cardiff, Captain America: The First Avenger, Carnage, Cars 2, Caterpillar, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Cedar Rapids, Certified Copy, Cold Fish, Cold Weather, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, Contagion,, Cracks, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Dream Home, Drive, Edge of Dreaming, Hanna, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hesher, Hobo with a Shotgun, Horrible Bosses, Hugo, I Saw the Devil, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, In a Better World, In Time, Incendies, Insidious, J. Edgar, Jane Eyre, Kung Fu Panda 2, Last Night, Le Quattro Volte, Love Crime, Margin Call, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Meek’s Cutoff, Melancholia, Midnight in Paris, Mildred Pierce, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Moneyball, My Week with Marilyn, Of Gods and Men, Outrage, Page One: Inside the New York Times, Passion Play, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Poetry, Project Nim, Rampart, Rango, Red Riding Hood, Red State, Redline, Retreat, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Rubber, Scream 4, Senna, Shame, Sleeping Beauty, Source Code, Submarine, Sucker Punch, Super, Super 8, Tabloid, Take Shelter, Terri, The Adventures of Tintin, The Arbor, The Artist, The Debt,The Descendants, The Devil’s Double, The Double Hour, The Future, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Green Hornet, The Help, The Housemaid, The Ides of March, The Last Circus, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Mill and the Cross, The Muppets, The Rite, The Roommate, The Skin I Live In, The Sleeping Beauty, The Thing, The Tree of Life, The Trip, The Ward, The Woman, Thor, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, TrollHunter, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Tyrannosaur, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Unknown, War Horse, Warrior, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Weekend, Win Win, Winnie the Pooh, X-Men: First Class, Young Adult, Your Highness, Yves Saint-Laurent: L’Amour Fou
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List: Top 10 Song Usages in 2011 Film
07 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in 2011, 2011 List, List Tags: Carey Mulligan, List, Song Usage, 2011, 2011 list, Incendies, Insidious, The Tree of Life, Film, Miranda July, The Future, Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Muppets, John Hawkes, Music, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Drive, Melancholia, movies, Warrior, Shame, Young Adult
The criteria is that as long as the song was not composed and/or written specifically for the film, it was eligible.
Honorable Mention: “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” – Tiny Tim – Insidious
Tiny Tim is inherently creepy, but this isn’t a knock; it’s part of what makes him strangely compelling. He is a total oddity. Insidious teases out just how bizarre his rendition of ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’ is by using it as a source of diegetic atmosphere not once but twice. The warbling of the song seamlessly illustrates the strange happenings going on in the house. By the time it is used twice, the film had already jumped the shark for me, but I love the idea of the song existing as a recurring staple of ‘The Further’. Inspired song choices like this are rewarding in so many ways.
Honorable Mention: “The Concept” – Teenage Fanclub – Young Adult (I could not find a picture of from the opening credits, so I used a picture from the scene featuring Nipple Confusion’s cover)
As we listen to ‘The Concept’ at the start of Young Adult, Mavis’ song of choice feels fitting; a trip back to 90’s nostalgia with a tune that clearly meant something to her and former flame Buddy when they were together way back when. Then the tape rewinds and the song starts again. And again. And again. Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody use the opening credits to start immediately peeling back the superficial layers of Mavis Gary. When we hear that obsessive repetition of Teenage Fanclub, we realize something is a little off with our protagonist. The song is used so the audience can start to sense those cracks right away; a hint of what is to come.
10. The Rainbow Connection – The Muppets - The Muppets
This year, my list is bookended with pieces of music that can guarantees my tears when I hear them. Going into The Muppets, I hadn’t really thought about the possibility of “The Rainbow Connection” being used. I just assumed it would use the original songs written for the film. When the song started, I immediately realized I was not emotionally prepared for the genius work of Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher; sure enough, within seconds my eyes were welling up. It is and always will be a perfect composition. The Muppets uses it, at first as a duet between Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, and eventually as a rousingly sweet self-tribute with all of the gang.
9. “You and Whose Army?” – Radiohead - Incendies
The first scene that Denis Vellineuve wrote for Incendies was the opening,, with Radiohead’s lingering pull of a song in hopeful tow since day one. It feels not unlike a memorable music video in that it fuses music and imagery in a way that burns itself into the brain. It works because as our introduction to the film, it is allows the singularity of the music video feel because there is no other story or context as of yet. Having the next two hours gives additional meaning to the image, as opposed to having something this individually powerful somewhere in the middle where it would only then distract. It is a hell of a way to start out your film, and thankfully Villenuve’s long-standing wish for Incendies’ initial moments were realized.
8. “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head” – Dean Martin – Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol may have been the most unadulterated fun I had at the movies all year. You know you’re in for a treat when the film starts out with an elaborately staged prison breakout with Dean Martin’s classic actually functioning as diegetic music in the scene! Yes my friends, the song acts as a timer so Ethan Hunt and his breakout crew know where they have to be by the time the song ends. Furthermore, by the time the song starts, all hell has already broken loose with Cruise rushing to bring a fellow inmate with him. We marvel while he makes his way through the chaotic brawl that has imploded within the prison walls as he dodges, punches, drags and runs his way through the halls. It is about as exciting as an action film gets and once it is over you think ‘Surely, this film has already peaked’. And then it has the confidence to rise up to the occasion to create set-piece after set-piece that exhilarates, all of them without the additional help of that legendary crooner Dean Martin.
7. “Nightcall” – Kavinsky – Drive
There were other song uses I could have chosen for Drive, but in all honesty I found myself much more attached to Kavinsky’s “Nightcall” than anything else (College’s ‘A Real Hero’ admittedly kind of grates on me) Being the opening title sequence whore that I am, this combination of the song’s sexy sleaze with hot pink lettering creates one of the most memorable opening credits in my recent cinematic memory.
6. “New York, New York” – Carey Mulligan - Shame
What hasn’t been said about this scene? Carey Mulligan wears her damaged heart on her sleeve here as Sissy in a haunting rendition that single-handedly makes the case for Shame’s ambiguity. What could be more intriguingly revealing than the way Steve McQueen and Abi Morgan use Sinatra’s song, the way Mulligan performs it, and the strategic cuts to Michael Fassbender’s tenderly subtle emotional response that he is so desperate to keep at bay? These are the kinds of scenes that radiate imaginative complexity, that get us thinking, interpreting and wondering.
5. “Prelude: Tristan und Isolde” – Richard Wagner – Melancholia
Melancholia opens with a greatest hits montage of what is to come. It shows us moments we will see, moments that are referred to but will not see, and moments that do not happen but are relevant character representations. They are slow moving paintings and are set to Wagner’s Prelude to :Tristan and Isolde”. From my review of the film; “It gives everything an appropriately pastoral quality and a peripheral imprint of something coming that cannot be pushed back. It is not overly present, but it is a quality in the music that is just enough for the pastoral purity to be ruffled.”
4. “About Today” – The National – Warrior
I’ll be talking a bit about Warrior in the week ahead, as it will pop up on my other year-end lists. Suffice it to say, if one film took me by surprise this year it was this. By the time Warrior reaches its showdown, we have seen each brother fight their way to the finals, interfamily drama has been milked for all its worth and the film has built itself up to epic proportions leading up to this moment. The catharsis that comes as a result is an emotional overflow, both for the characters and me as a viewer. I am still shocked that Warrior got me as passionately riled up as it did, and The National’s “About Today” anchors all of this, functioning as the perfect culmination of the hard worked payoff that Warrior unequivocally earns.
3. “Master of None” – Beach House – The Future
The Future is often frustrating but hit on something every once and a while that struck me in a way approaching profundity. Miranda July’s interpretative dance inside of her character’s childhood shirt was a moment that has stuck with me all year. It is clear this was a long-existing piece of performance art by July. It resonated because it entranced me, bringing me to a rare hypnotized place in my own mind. This is on no small part because of the song, my favorite by Beach House, has the power to lull me into a trance-like state, (driving with the song on is not an option for me). In a film about people emotionally stunted people unable to make the transformation from childhood into responsible adulthood, this scene demonstrates this literally. The way July performs the organic choreography makes it feel like we are looking in on an intimately personal moment, yet it still appears and feels appropriately like a performance.
2. “Marcy’s Song” – John Hawkes – Martha Marcy May Marlene
“Marcy’s Song” is used to show a disturbing dichotomy. First, we hear just how John Hawkes’ Patrick sees Martha (“just a picture hanging on my wall”). Second, it shows how Martha does not grasp this, taking his serenade as a devoted love letter, effectively sealing her commitment to him. The song itself, by Jackson C. Frank, is a stunner; exactly the kind of raw folk I tend to fall hard for. Hawkes supports the deceptive calm of the music with his ruggedly comforting but slightly unsettling vocals. It is the highlight of the film; a scene I want and plan to revisit time and time again.
1. “The Moldau” – Bedrich Smetana – The Tree of Life
I have a long history with “The Moldau”. It is my favorite piece of instrumental music. I first heard it back in 5th grade Music Class. I asked my Music Teacher for a copy of it so I could listen to it on my own time. She gave it to me on a cassette tape. For months I would lie up in my bunk bed while I was supposed to be sleeping, and would play the first three minutes on my tape player over and over right next to my ear as it lulled me to sleep.Years and years pass.
Then last year, Don Hertzfeldt used it in his 2006 masterpiece animated short Everything Will Be OK. My reaction was immediate, like greeting a long lost family member. When The Tree of Life trailer was released, and this song was played, it was like a dream come true. I hoped and hoped leading up to the film’s release that it would be played in the actual film. To my delight it was, and this piece of music about the Czech river is divinely used to depict emerging childhood, the innocence of it when wonders and fanciful merriment are all that matters; when everything is a discovery. It is an overwhelming few minutes of film, with so many memories and exuberance bursting from the screen. I honestly feel like this song has somehow become a part of me over the years, or at the very least has become so important to me that it feels that way. The way Malick has used “The Moldau” goes beyond my wildest expectations with the images further bringing the music to life and vice versa.
Lists: The Top Fives of 2011 Film
05 Jan 2012 6 Comments
in List, 2011, 2011 List Tags: Underrated, List, Film list, 2011, The Housemaid, 2011 list, Hanna, Jane Eyre, Certified Copy, Incendies, In a Better World, The Double Hour, Source Code, Insidious, I Saw the Devil, Choi Min-sik, The Green Hornet, Tom Hollander, Midnight in Paris, Bridesmaids, Terri, Cracks, The Trip, Bobby Fischer Against the World, Senna, The Sleeping Beauty, Kung Fu Panda 2, The Skin I Live In, Take Shelter, Hugo, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Drive, Melancholia, Tyrannosaur, The Ides of March, Albert Brooks, Jessica Chastain, Cold Fish, Warrior, Shame, Black Death, Young Adult, Michael Stuhlbarg, Gary Oldman, Characters, Worst, Endings, Beginnings, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Rooney Mara, Elisabeth Olsen, John Boyega, Ezra Miller, Oscar Isaac, Ludivime Sagnier, Eva Green, Melanie Lynskey, Brie Larson, Corey Stoll, Collette Wolfe, Kathy Baker
Everyone has pretty much already posted their Top Ten’s for the year. I like to go list crazy in summing up the year in film and go beyond the standard 10 ‘best’. I go over this again and again, but it’s all about subjectivity for me and what I considered my favorites. And in going through the year in film, there are a lot of different facets I like to recognize. Everyone comes away with a new batch of films to hold near and dear to their hearts, myself certainly included. This particular post will recognize things like types of performances, characters, beginnings, endings, character dynamics and more. For my attempts at judging technical aspects of film, my eventual Dream Oscar Ballot will cover that particular ground. The two films I will be seeing before posting my final Top 30 of the year (yes, I do Top 30, not 10; I am in no way, shape or form a Top Ten purist) are A Separation and Love Exposure. By the time I see Mysteries of Lisbon, Margaret, Into the Abyss, The Interrupters and others, my lists will be posted.
Like last year, the upcoming posts that will get more time dedicated to them (and will be posted within the next week and a half) are:
Top 10 Worst Films of the Year (which will really be Least Favorite, but nobody will search for a ‘Least Favorite’ list, so I will conveniently name it ‘Worst’.
Top 10 Song Usages
Top 20 Scenes in 2011 Film
Top 20 Performances in 2011 Film
Top 30 Films of 2011
This first post is supposed to be pure harmless superficial fun. I have seen 133 films from 2011. I will list them at the bottom so readers will know what was considered. Beware of spoilers in the Top 5 Romances regarding Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy for those who have not seen it. These preliminary posts will give some hints as to my favorite films of the year, a group that may not be particularly original, but that I am nonetheless proud of and happy with. The year in film has already been picked apart with collective themes of identity, nostalgia and more running deep. There are many who think this was a weak year for film. From an awards standpoint I would agree. But from an overall standpoint, I wholeheartedly disagree.
On to the 1st Annual Cinema Enthusiast Awards! Being a huge fan of The Film Experience’s Film Bitch Awards, I borrowed a few categories from there.
Top 5 Beginnings:
1. Melancholia
2. Incendies
3. Kung Fu Panda 2
4. Contagion
5. Drive (The Driver’s opening speech)
Top 5 Use of Title Card/Opening Credits
1. Drive (Title Card/Opening Credits)
2. Hanna (Title Card only)
3. Insidious (Title Card Only)
4. Outrage (Title Card Only)
5. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (Title Card/Opening Credits)
Honorable Mention: The Adventures of Tintin (Title Card/Opening Credits)
Top 5 Endings:
1. Hanna
2. Melancholia
3. Warrior
3. The Housemaid
4. Take Shelter
Honorable Mention: The Skin I Live In, Moneyball, The Trip, Of Gods and Men
Top 5 Ensembles:
1. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
2. Midnight in Paris
3. Melancholia
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
5. Hugo
Honorable Mention: Margin Call
Top 5 Underrated Films in 2011:
1. The Sleeping Beauty (that other Sleeping Beauty film not directed by Julia Leigh, but by Catherine Breillat)
2. Bobby Fischer Against the World
3. Black Death
4. Terri
5. The Green Hornet
Note: Underrated could mean anything. But seeing what films get attention in the blogosphere, with critics, from a box office standpoint and from a year-end list perspective, these are the films I felt did not get enough attention from at least two of the aforementioned considerations.
Films That Started Strong But….
1. Source Code
2. Insidious
3. The Double Hour
4. Cold Fish
5. Crazy, Stupid, Love (Where the other films are on this for their final thirds, my last choice appears only for that final speech. It did not entirely dampen the experience and is still ranks among the better films I saw this year)
Top 5 Newcomers:
1. Rooney Mara – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2. Jessica Chastain – The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Help, The Debt (the ones I’ve seen her in)
3. Elisabeth Olsen – Martha Marcy May Marlene
4. John Boyega – Attack the Block
5. Ezra Miller – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Honorable Mentions: Oscar Issac (Drive, Sucker Punch), Asa Butterfield (Hugo)
Note: I realize this is not the first year some of these actors have been in significant parts. But I’d call all of these actors newcomers this year relatively speaking.
Top 5 Underrated Performances
1. Ludivine Sagnier – Love Crime
2. Eva Green – Cracks
3. Melanie Lynskey – Win Win
4. John C. Reilly – Terri
5. Brie Larson – Rampart
Top 5 Film 2011 Limited Performances (characters with only a few scenes/a limited role)
1. Oscar Issac as Standard – Drive
2. Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway – Midnight in Paris
3. Michael Stuhlbarg as Rene Tabard – Hugo
4. Collette Wolfe as Sandra – Young Adult
5. Kathy Baker as Sarah – Take Shelter
Top 5 Worst Performances:
1. Lauren Petre as Miss Hindle – The Woman
2. Sean Bridgers as Chris Cleek – The Woman
3. January Jones as Emma Frost– X-Men: First Class
4. Mickey Rourke as Nate Poole– Passion Play
5. Vanessa Hudgens as Linda – Beastly
Top 5 2011 Film Scores:
1. Hanna – The Chemical Brothers
2. Senna – Antonio Pinto
3. The Skin I Live In – Alberto Iglesias
3. Jane Eyre – Dario Marianelli
5. Take Shelter – David Wingo
Honorable Mentions – Contagion, Moneyball, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Attack the Block
Top 5 Film 2011 Characters:
1. Charlize Theron – Mavis Gary – Young Adult
2. Kristen Wiig – Annie Walker – Bridesmaids
3. Philip Seymour Hoffman – Paul Zara – The Ides of March
4. Eva Green – Miss G – Cracks
5. Ryan Gosling – The Driver – Drive
Honorable Mention – Michael Shannon in Take Shelter and Jonah Hill in Moneyball
Top 5 Character Dynamics: (this could be any kind of dynamic between 2 or more characters whether adversarial, based in friendship, etc.)
1. Juliette Binoche and William Shimell – Certified Copy
2. Carey Mulligan and Michael Fassbender – Shame
3. Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman – Tyrannosaur
4. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon – The Trip
5. Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt – Young Adult
Honorable Mentions: Choi Min-sik and Lee Byung-hun – I Saw the Devil, Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph – Bridesmaids, William Jøhnk Juels Nielsen and Markus Rygaard – In a Better World
Top 5 2011 Film Villains:
1. Tom Hollander as Issacs – Hanna
2. Albert Brooks as Bernie Rose – Drive
3. Choi Min-sik as Kyung-chul – I Saw the Devil
4. Gary Oldman as Lord Shen – Kung Fu Panda 2
5. Ezra Miller as Kevin – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Honorable Mention – Ralph Fiennes – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Top 5 Film 2011 Romances:
1. Kristen Wiig and Chris Dowd – Bridesmaids
2. Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender – Jane Eyre
3. Tom Cullen and Chris New –Weekend
4. Ewan McGregor and Melanie Laurent – Beginners (less for the material the two are given and more for the chemistry between McGregor and Laurent which, for my money, was the strongest of perhaps the last few years)
5. Mark Strong and Colin Firth – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Honorable Mention: Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone – Crazy, Stupid, Love
List of 2011 Films Seen: 13 Assassins, 50/50, A Better Life, A Dangerous Method, Albert Nobbs, American Grindhouse, Another Earth, Attack the Block, Beastly, Beginners, Being Elmo, Bellflower, Bill Cunningham, New York, Biutiful, Black Death, Bobby Fischer Against the World, Bridesmaids, Buck, Cameraman: the Life and Work of Jack Cardiff, Captain America: The First Avenger, Carnage, Cars 2, Caterpillar, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Cedar Rapids, Certified Copy, Cold Fish, Cold Weather, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, Contagion,, Cracks, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Dream Home, Drive, Edge of Dreaming, Hanna, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hesher, Hobo with a Shotgun, Horrible Bosses, Hugo, I Saw the Devil, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, In a Better World, In Time, Incendies, Insidious, J. Edgar, Jane Eyre, Kung Fu Panda 2, Last Night, Le Quattro Volte, Love Crime, Margin Call, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Meek’s Cutoff, Melancholia, Midnight in Paris, Mildred Pierce, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Moneyball, My Week with Marilyn, Of Gods and Men, Outrage, Page One: Inside the New York Times, Passion Play, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Poetry, Project Nim, Rampart, Rango, Red Riding Hood, Red State, Redline, Retreat, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Rubber, Scream 4, Senna, Shame, Sleeping Beauty, Source Code, Submarine, Sucker Punch, Super, Super 8, Tabloid, Take Shelter, Terri, The Adventures of Tintin, The Arbor, The Artist, The Debt,The Descendants, The Devil’s Double, The Double Hour, The Future, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Green Hornet, The Help, The Housemaid, The Ides of March, The Last Circus, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Mill and the Cross, The Muppets, The Rite, The Roommate, The Skin I Live In, The Sleeping Beauty, The Thing, The Tree of Life, The Trip, The Ward, The Woman, Thor, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, TrollHunter, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Tyrannosaur, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Unknown, War Horse, Warrior, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Weekend, Win Win, Winnie the Pooh, X-Men: First Class, Young Adult, Your Highness, Yves Saint-Laurent: L’Amour Fou
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Top 20 Films to See Jan-April 2011
17 Feb 2011 1 Comment
in 2011, List, To See Tags: 2011, 2011 list, blog, Certified Copy, Cinema Enthusiast, cinenthusiast, Dream Home, Films to See, Hanna, Heartbeats, Incendies, Jane Eyre, List, Meek's Cutoff, Old Cats, Poetry, Sucker Punch, Uncle Boonmee who can Recall his Past Lives, Your Highness
This is my personal list of the 20 films being released in the US from January through April of 2011 that interest me most. The rest of the films I’m interested in are listed in alphabetical order at the end.
20. Caves of Forgotten Dreams
19. Orgasm, Inc
18. The Woodsmans
17. Cold Weather
16. 13 Assassins
15. Sucker Punch
14. Cracks
13. Old Cats
12. Incendies
11. Your Highness
10. Heartbeats
9. I Saw the Devil
8. Uncle Boonmee who can Recall his Past Lives
7. The Housemaid (seen it)
6. Dream Home
5. Certified Copy
4. Meek’s Cutoff
3. Hanna
2. Jane Eyre
1. Poetry
The rest:
Abel
The Adjustment Bureau
American Grindhouse
Atlas Shrugged: Part 1
Battle: Los Angeles
Black Death
Biutiful
Carancho
Cedar Rapids
Ceremony
Desert Flower
The Double Hour
The Green Hornet
Haywire
In a Better World
Into Eternity
Kaboom
The Last Lions
Miral
The Music Never Stopped
Of Gods and Men
Patiche
Paul
Peep World
Putty Hill
Rango
Red Riding Hood
Red State
The Rite
The Roommate/Beastly in an epic bad movie double feature
Rubber
Scream 4
Seconds Apart
The Sky Turns
Super
Unknown
When We Leave
Win Win
Winter in Wartime
