List: Top 30 Films of 2011 #15-1

21 Jan 2012 2 Comments

by Catherine in 2011, 2011 List, List Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

List: Top 25 Performances in 2011 Film

11 Jan 2012 3 Comments

by Catherine in 2011, 2011 List, List Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’ll list 10-25 alphabetically and then list the top 10 alphabetically. It seems odd to rank performances to such the extreme degree of “I liked this performance better than this and I liked this better than those two”. What do you think were the most memorable performances of the year?

10-25 (in alphabetical order)


Carla Besnainou – Anastasia – The Sleeping Beauty

Catherine Breillat knows how to get some of the most natural, seemingly effortless performances out of children. Here, Besnainou entirely holds this film with her unyielding curiosity and determination. She is quick on her feet, priding herself on her independence. The film dovetails once she leaves the screen and most of the reason I found myself glued during Breillat’s latest was because of this precocious child. Talented as the child is, the director should get most credit for this kind of performance for finding her (not an actress), capturing her on film and being able to assemble together her performance.


Demian Bichir – Carlos Galindo - A Better Life

An earnest and heartbreaking performance of the first degree, Bichir is emotional and gripping as a man who just wants to do well by his son. He lifts the on-the-nose material with his nuanced and extremely involving work.


Asa Butterfield – Hugo Cabret – Hugo

It was more than a little surprising to see several complaints about Butterfield’s work as the title character in Scorsese’s ode to cinema. Additionally, Butterfield is simply not getting the credit he deserves even from those who found him delightful. This did not feel like acting; it felt like I was watching a child who really had spent months living inside of a Parisian train station. I never felt he was playing a character; he was Hugo Cabret. Unlike Besnainou where you get the sense her charisma was caught by the camera, there are no accidents with Butterfield. This is a fully realized performance where the adolescent knows exactly what he is doing and is fully committed to his character and his motivations and emotions.


Dominic Cooper – Latif Yahia/Uday Hussein – The Devil’s Double

The Devil’s Double has only one ‘see it for this card’ and it is Dominic Cooper. Being called upon to play two roles entirely outside anything I have seen him in, he undergoes a complete transformation as both Latif and Uday (not to mention Latif’s impersonations of Uday). The film itself is too obsessed with its own sleaze to rise above it or be compelling, but Cooper is electric having to act out scenes with himself (with Uday being the most depraved son-of-a-bitch to grace the screen all year). Between the dual roles and the extremity of Uday, it could have gone wrong, but Cooper’s capability and commitment enable him to soar.


Kirsten Dunst – Justine – Melancholia

Dunst, having first-hand experience with depression, makes painstaking connections with Justine that culminate in an uncompromising understanding and loyalty to her. She is 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.


Michael Fassbender – Brandon – Shame

Watching Brandon dissolve right in front of us is quite the spectacle. This has been the year of Fassbender and we are all the better for it. He is an explosive force to be reckoned with, completely giving himself over to the camera for observational purposes.


Tom Hardy – Tommy Conlon – Warrior

This is another performance that never felt like acting to me. I could not take my eyes off of Hardy in Warrior; this is entirely due to his ability to fully transcend the hardened character type he is asked to play. It helps that the screenwriters stay refreshingly true to him, and thankfully do not give him any sort of arc that allows his basic emotional trajectory to change. This is who he is, and his more revealing moments of character shading feels real and honest; in no way forced.  He achieves a kind of introspective intensity that is something to behold. Decades of estrangement and past dynamics have been so clearly defined in his head, that his dialogue evokes a perspective of factual simplicity reminiscent of a child.


Woody Harrelson – Dave ‘Date Rape’ Brown – Rampart

Dave Brown is a ticking time bomb in vastly changing times. Harrelson plays him as a brute past his prime in the shifting cityscape. An outcast on all counts, his cruelty covers all possible ground whether he means it or not. He’s like a wild animal trying to feign the practice of civilization.


Viggo Mortensen – Sigmund Freud – A Dangerous Method

Unrecognizable with the ever-present cigar and unwavering dignity, Mortensen gets my vote for best in show in Cronenberg’s latest. He is methodical and precise in his words, always needing to balance maintaining the intellectual upper-hand without losing the insight of discourse. He needs discussion more to keep his own ideas going and to reassert his theoretical leanings. But at the same time, Mortensen’s Freud genuinely connects with others through discussion; seeing how he wades through his thoughts towards Jung throughout is something else.


Carey Mulligan – Sissy – Shame

Here is an unhinged and unpredictable performance that ignites the screen. Mulligan elicits unbridled frenzy as Sissy who is much farther along the path to futility than Brandon is, or rather, is farther along the path precisely because she is aware of it. She deserves as much praise as her costar, hurtling off the screen with abandon.


Nick Nolte – Paddy Conlon -Warrior

He is devastating as the haggard father trying to shake his previous actions that all but define him far too late in life. His eyes desperately cling onto his sons for any semblance of forgiveness.


Gary Oldman – George Smiley – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Seeing Oldman in a role like this is a rarity. He is a stoic centerpiece to the crumbling status quo around him. The frequently loud and bombastic actor (not a knock) goes to the opposite extreme here, with a quiet and largely observational iconic character. He is unwavering in his procedures, requests and investigation, speaking only when he has to.


Kseniya Rappaport – Sonya - The Double Hour

The only truly palpable reason to see The Double Hour, despite it being engaging enough to merit a look, is for Kseniya Rappoport’s performance. She makes the film almost single-handedly gripping. She is morose, racked with guilt, has hidden agendas and is appropriately vague in her emotions.


Ludivine Sagnier – Isabelle Guerin – Love Crime

There is a lot more complexity to Sagnier’s performance and character than she has been given credit for in the underrated Love Crime. She is headstrong in her work, extremely intelligent but also inexperienced, insecure, desperate and a bit of a weakling. The harsh unpleasantness and humiliation she is put through by Kristen Scott Thomas becomes too much and she hatches a complex plan to get away with the perfect crime. Watching Sagnier play all the facets of her character (the willingly seduced, the tantrums that come with heartbreak, the stool pigeon, the mastermind and the nervous criminal) is a fabulous display of range all within a layered character study that she more than follows through on.


Kristen Wiig – Annie Walker - Bridesmaids  

A comedic feat in the extreme, Wiig had me howling with laughter with her perfect timing and teased out awkwardness. At the same time, she creates a layered character who has to overcome her own selfishness and failings, starting with salvaging her cherished friendship with Maya Rudolph’s Lillian. One of the best comedic performances in years; she will be on my Oscar dream ballot without a doubt.

10-1 (in alphabetical order)


Carlos Areces – Javier – The Last Circus

The most fearless, reckless, no-holds barred performance of the year, there is nothing else in 2011 film quite like seeing Areces go from the bespectacled sad sack man to the maniacal gun-wielding clown along with an unhealthy detour into primal beast mid-film. Javier allows himself to be carried away by the unlikely fulfillment of love and the result is an unhinged courageous performance that holds immense confidence and skill. You will not forget Javier the Clown.


Juliette Binoche – She – Certified Copy

Can anybody hold the screen like the great Binoche? She is asked to display a wild but subtle range, always just out of reach but never out of intrigue. She moodily shifts in and out of various emotions, never overplaying and often extremely pleasant. Like the film, rich treasures are likely to be discovered from her work each time it is watched.

Olivia Colman – Hannah – Tyrannosaur

In a word, Colman is devastating. She bears all as a woman who has turned to faith to cover up her miserable existence that hinges on a torturous marriage. Her fragile connection with Peter Mullan’s Joseph becomes a welcome escape. It is the only performance this year that was painful for me to watch. She is an incomprehensible victim and she will stick with you indefinitely.


Ryan Gosling – The Driver – Drive

As much as Refn creates something evocative from a directorial point of view, I would argue that Gosling’s anchoring of the material provides an almost equally satisfying and necessary contribution. The Driver may belong to an archetype, but like many of his previous incarnations, Gosling (with the help of Refn and screenwriter Hossein Amini) makes his version singular. His ability to emote layers through silence is not only impressive but transfixing. Gone is the hard masculinity one expects to find with this type of role. Even when taking into account the brutal acts of violence he commits, in large part he is seen as a child.


Rooney Mara – Lisbeth Salander – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I’ve thrown around the word transformative several time here so far and I’m going to use is again, because if ever there was one performance of that nature this year, it is this one. Mara is a revelation as the iconic Lisbeth Salander. She plays up the more sensitive aspects of the character, making her a fierce push and pull between hard and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it soft. It is impossible to take your eyes off her and it feels like Mara lived this part through and through while filming. She is incendiary and a force to be reckoned with.


Elisabeth Olsen – Martha – Martha Marcy May Marlene

Olsen carries this film into another realm. In her cult scenes she plays a woman eager to be a part of something, so much so that she discards common sense and allows herself to take part in some truly unsettling activities. Olsen shows layers of conviction, susceptibility and hesitancy through an additional heavy layer of necessary ambiguity. Post-cult Olsen displays societal disconnect beautifully with her bluntness, immaturity and more importantly her train wreck of a mental state. We are inside of her head and yet she remains distant from the audience. We feel her paranoia but cannot break through. It is a performance that has been rightly hailed across the board; simply put, she nails it.


Michael Shannon – Curtis LaForche – Take Shelter

Michael Shannon gets to be front and center in Take Shelter as a man who knows what is happening to him but cannot stop it. His paranoia initiates a series of poor decisions that damage everyone around him. Shannon makes us understand why he makes these decisions, and while we cannot stop him from doing so, we sure as hell wish we could.


Tilda Swinton – Eva – We Need to Talk About Kevin

The incomparable Tilda Swinton transfers the fear of apathetic motherhood to the screen through Lynne Ramsay’s abstract spell of a film. She has a difficult job. Her character is icy and disconnected from familial tendencies. She is a free-spirit, a travelogue writer who entertains the possibility of a happy family life even though in her gut she repels against it. Her fears materialize, projected onto the demonic Kevin. She tries so hard to care, to love, and to cherish but that forced effort just builds and builds onto Kevin until he is a monster. Swinton has to play indifference, forced enthusiasm, a woman barely holding herself together with rightfully increasing paranoia. She is so desperate to hold off the inevitable realization of her suspicions. Finally, our starting point sees her as a woman who has nothing left and is a zombie-like shell forced to go on. As you can imagine, Swinton kills it.


Charlize Theron – Mavis Gary – Young Adult

I’m not sure there is enough praise for me to heap onto Theron and her work in Young Adult. She plays a layered nasty piece of work, and it’s a role that is individualistic in film as Diablo Cody has given her unexplored character territory rich for innovation. As sterling as her line deliveries are, I am most enthralled with her as she listens to others and reacts to the situations around her. She is unhinged in her arrogance and delusions. Her best years are long past her and her clinging onto Buddy is a really wretched last-ditch effort to hold onto the popular glory of her teenage years. Her snarly stare when she turns against you would have any sane person running for the hills. It may just be the film performance of 2011 in my eyes.


Yun Jung-hee – Mi-ja – Poetry

Mi-ja is serenely open to life and what it has to offer in her golden years. She daintily goes about her business, wondering aloud why it is she cannot write poetry. She innocently asks others how they come up with the words to describe what they see. Her mind is slowly slipping away from her. She is becoming flighty and vague. Yun is restrained and full of complexity in Lee Chang-dong’s latest.

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

List: Top 10 Song Usages in 2011 Film

07 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment

by Catherine in 2011, 2011 List, List Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

by Catherine in List, 2011, 2011 List Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

Screening Log: September 15th-September 30th

01 Oct 2011 5 Comments

by Catherine in 2011, Weekly Screening Log Tags: , , , , , , ,


268. Talk to Her (2002, Almodovar): A


269. Drive (2011, Refn): A


270. Word Wars (2004, Chaikin & Petrillo): B-


271. 42 Up (1998, Apted): A


272. Save the Green Planet! (2003, Jang): B


273. Meek’s Cutoff (2011, Reichardt): B+


274. If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (2011, Curry & Cullman): C+


275. Red State (2011, Smith): D+


276. Attack the Block (2011, Cornish): B


277. Kill, Baby…Kill (1966, Bava): B+


278. White Zombie (1932, Halperin): D


279. Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011, Durkin): A-


280. Them (Ils) (2006, Moreau & Palud): B


281. Island of Lost Souls (1932, Kenton): A


282. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978, Kaufman): A

Review: Drive (2011, Refn)

21 Sep 2011 5 Comments

by Catherine in 2011, Film Review Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Originally posted on Criterion Cast: September 21st, 2011

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, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest film (and his first American one). 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 Refn’s infectious appreciation for using cinema to create mood and atmosphere.

Ryan Gosling plays The Driver, part of the class of ‘strong silent type’ who has popped up in many films as varied as The Man with No Name Trilogy, Le Samourai and Taxi Driver, to name a few. Through a newly found connection with neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and a series of unfortunate circumstances, The Driver gets himself caught up in a sticky situation which he ultimately takes control of via the unwavering conviction he displays once he has made the decision to protect.

Since the characters and story of Drive take a backseat to presentation, the film is told with simple efficiency. Drive is working in full-on archetypal territory and it is a clear purposeful choice. As much as Refn creates something evocative from a directorial point of view, I would argue that Gosling’s anchoring of the material provides an almost equally satisfying and necessary contribution. The Driver may belong to an archetype, but like many of his previous incarnations, Gosling (with the help of Refn and screenwriter Hossein Amini) makes his version singular. His ability to emote layers through silence is not only impressive but transfixing. Gone is the hard masculinity one expects to find with this type of role. Even when taking into account the brutal acts of violence he commits, in large part he is seen as a child. This is clear through The Driver’s scenes with Irene’s son Benicio (Kaden Leos). The Driver is referred to as ‘Kid’ by several other characters. In one scene where he and Benicio are talking, another character shouts for ‘Kid’ to come over. Both man and child shuffle over in response.

Through careful observance, we get to know The Driver as he interacts with others. What gets him to lift his head, to verbally respond, intervene or snap at someone? Since Gosling keeps you watching with intent, we in turn care about the answers to these ‘what gets him to’ queries. The audience barely knows him but through his first interactions with Irene, it is easy to tell this is a situation outside of his comfort zone as he responds with passive hesitancy.

The scenes between The Driver and Irene are largely silent. Drive dips into heist territory at its start but primarily begins as a romance in its first third. Their scenes are unspoken and pure. And in a conscious choice to emphasis the silence over dialogue between the two, when they do speak, their communication lacks comparatively.

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.

Topping off this retro vision is Cliff Martinez’s score which is very clearly tipping its hat to 80’s synth Euro-pop, particularly Tangerine Dream with a delicate touch of Kraftwerk. At the point where the opening credits sequence enter with its splayed cursive hot pink font accompanied by Kavinsky’s ‘Nightcall’, it is practically begging for cinephiles to drool all over it with worship; Drive knows how cool it is and it is not afraid to show off. The lyrics of Martinez’s songs are just overt enough, amusingly walking a fine line between kitsch and corny.

Violence is used to great effect both in how much is shown and exactly when Refn and editor Mat Newman decide to show it. It has an unexpected jolt because it brings the mood-setting to a halt. Instead of making the violence part of the film’s identity like so many do (to wildly varying degrees of success), here violence is used to interrupt the film’s sense of self, existing as a combative force.

There are two characters that make Drive rewarding as a piece of storytelling. One is the Driver and the other is Bernie as played by Albert Brooks. Bernie is in many ways The Driver’s opposite; he largely communicates by telling stories; by speaking. What makes Bernie startling is that the film first humanizes him and then shows us what he is capable of. Brooks has been given a juicy part and he really makes the most of it; it is a terrific performance.

If I have one problem with Drive it is that with archetypes come thankless female characters, and as a result, thankless roles for its actresses. Where Gosling and Brooks (and to a lesser degree Ron Perlman, Bryan Cranston and particularly Oscar Issac) make something of their character types, Carey Mulligan and Christina Hendricks are basically pretty chess pieces within the story. Unfortunately archetypes mean traditional and thus archaic parts for women as Mulligan is there to be protected and Hendricks is there to be a conniving moll.

Style over substance is worth it when there is substance within the style; and that is what Drive has. It tells a simple story with easily identifiable characters, functioning primarily as an exercise in ‘coolness’. But it creates its own world through a mish-mash of influences, thereby forming its own recognizable identity that becomes addictive. With Drive, Refn represents cinema at its most assured, plowing directly into the heart of genre filmmaking.

List: Top 30 Anticipated Films of Fall 2011

02 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment

by Catherine in 2011, List, To See Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fall Movie Season has arrived again. Hello folks! It has been a while. Between a trip to Korea that I will forever cherish and getting settled into my 2nd semester at Simmons, I have not had time to review or post anything here. While grad school will likely take up most of my time, I will be posting reviews in the upcoming months. This weekend I am seeing Senna, which ranked in my top 5 most anticipated Summer releases. There will be a review up next week.

Fall Movie Season is always jam-packed with hyped prestige releases and this year is no different. There is a lot of releases in the US to look forward to in the upcoming months. From a director’s perspective, new films from Steven Soderbergh, Lars von Trier, Kenneth Lonergan (yes, after more than a few years, Margaret is finally getting released), Martin Scorsese, Alexander Payne, Gus van Sant, Pedro Almodovar, Beat Takeshi, Sion Sono (Love Exposure finally getting official release in the states!!!!!), Tsui Hark, Tomas Alfredson, Roman Polanski, David Fincher, Lucky McKee, Steven Spielberg, Lynne Ramsay, Nicolas Winding Refn, Clint Eastwood and David Cronenberg are expected to make waves. And that’s just a taste. Listed below the Top 30 are the other films this Fall I would like to see. I tend to include films I am indifferent to on this list. Any film that instills a reaction of “yeah I’d see that” can be found there. Thus, there are films I am genuinely excited for in that long alphabetized list (The Descendants) and films I don’t care about but would see (Machine Gun Preacher). The only films not on the list are the ones I really have no active interest in. Films like Bucky Larson, New Year’s Eve, Happy Feet 2 and I Don’t Know How She Does It are the kinds of films not present here.

Which films are you most excited for this Fall? There are a lot to choose from! I will keep this list updated with films that secure distribution dates after this list is posted.


30. Coriolanus


29. Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

28. Restless


27. Love Crime


26. Pariah


25. Albert Nobbs


24. The Artist


23. Outrage

22. The Muppets


21. The Ides of March


20. In Time


19. Margaret


18. The Woman


17. Contagion


16. J. Edgar


15. Carnage


14. Sleeping Beauty


13. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy


12. The Monk


11. A Separation


10. The Skin I Live In


9. Drive


8. A Dangerous Method


7. Tyrannosaur


6. Take Shelter


5. Love Exposure


4. Martha Marcy May Marlene


3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


2. We Need to Talk About Kevin


1. Melancholia

The Rest:

50/50
The Adventures of Tintin
American Teacher
Anonymous
Apollo 18
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu
Being Elmo
The Big Year
Burke and Hare
The Catechism Cataclysm
The Descendants
The Darkest Hour
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Dirty Girl
Dream House
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Factory
Genius on Hold
Hell and Back Again
Hugo
I’m Glad my Mother is Alive
In the Land of Blood and Honey
The Iron Lady
Killer Elite
Like Crazy
Machine Gun Preacher
The Man Nobody Knew
Mission Impossible IV
Moneyball
My Joy
My Week with Marilyn
Paul Goodman Changed My Life
Pearl Jam Twenty
Puncture
Red State
The Rum Diary
Shaolin
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
The Sitter
Straw Dogs
Tanner Hall
Texas Killing Fields
The Three Musketeers
Three (Drei)
The Thing
Thunder Soul
Tomboy
Trespass
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
W.E
Warrior
War Horse
We Bought a Zoo
We Were Here
The Whale
Young Adult

Trailer Round-Up

26 Jul 2011 2 Comments

by Catherine in 2011, Weekly Trailer Round-up Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello folks. It’s been a while. Look for a review of Winnie the Pooh in the coming week. For now, here are some quick trailer assessments.

John Carter – B-: The trailer for John Carter does not look up my alley, but it does boast two things that have me more than willing to see it at some point in my life. The first is that this film is coming from director Andrew Stanton of Wall-E and Finding Nemo; his live-action debut. The second is that this cast is incredible, and while many probably have little more than bit parts, it would inevitably be fun to watch all of these people on screen in the same film.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol – B: I don’t feel that I need another Mission Impossible film in my life. However, this advertisement has me more than willing to give this a chance. More than anything else, this has people stoked because it is the live-action debut of Brad Bird, which has me completely fascinated. Also; Josh Holloway. I miss him a lot so seeing him on the big screen will be rewarding.

Hugo – C+: Hugo may not be in the very top of the list in regards to anticipated Fall films, but it is still one I am largely looking forward to. This trailer disappointed. It had corny music, too much reliance on humor and Nanny McPhee font. No thanks. But I think the film itself has potential. I adored the source material and this is certainly a different project for Scorsese. Since the film has so much plot-wise to do with the magic of film (not to give anything away) this material is actually right up the director’s alley in a weird way. Knowing the story, it is very easy to see why he was drawn to directing the film.

This Must be the Place – C: This film seems to think it is a lot different than it is judging from the ad. A dragged up aged-rocker Sean Penn feels like a gimmick to tell a story that feels very familiar and not very interesting. Reactions at Cannes were very mixed (but when aren’t they?), but I cannot muster up excitement for this. I can muster up excitement for David Byrne performing the song from which the title comes from, This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), which he does in the film.

The Dark Knight Rises – B: The Dark Knight Rises teaser was just that; a teaser. Enticing material, but I’m simply not going to be a person obsessing over photos, set pics and footage. I’m quite excited for the film, but the Batman movies are my least favorite stuff from Nolan. Love what he does with the genre, but there are plenty of other things for me to be more excited about. It is a wonderfully structured and calculated tease, and functions very well.

Mysteries of Lisbon - A: Clocking in at 270 minutes, Raoul Ruiz’s latest has critics throwing around that ever-so grand word ‘masterpiece”; judging from the trailer, the claims at the very least deserve examination. This looks sweepingly glorious; I do not doubt being captivated by the period detail and spanning character work. Ruiz looks like he is doing a lot with the camera, but just enough as to not distract. I doubt I will get to see this in theaters, but I would like to watch it as soon as I can. It gets a limited release in early August. Hopefully I will be able to track it down in a theater.

The Iron Lady – C: It is not difficult to inspire me to want to see something on some level. I am somewhat more picky about the films I get extremely excited about. Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher inspires more of a “sure I’ll see that. I’m sure she’ll be spectacular” reaction as opposed to an immediate excitement. This teaser looks like it is trying too hard. It knows people are only hooked because of the idea of Streep as Thatcher, suspending her appearance until the final moment (hence a ‘teaser’). The men are speaking about her defining traits, precisely outlining what we see when we look at the former Prime Minister. In short, the teaser is a tease for a performance, not the film. I wonder if the material will be on the same level as Streep; somehow I am skeptical.

Jack and Jill – F: Anyone who has seen this trailer needs no explanation. It is embarrassing. This easily looks like Sandler’s most humiliating project to date. That this is even a film that is coming out is somehow difficult to wrap my mind around. It shouldn’t be but it is. It feels like a fake Sandler film from Funny People. When there was a fake trailer for the film on the recent South Park finale, I thought it was a joke. I has no idea this was a film being made. Oh Al Pacino. What are you doing?

Arthur Christmas – B-: While I do not like the look of the animation at all, this looks cute and harmless enough.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – B: I still have not seen the first film but I mean to at some point. This looks quite entertaining. Downey Jr. and Law look like they work together very well. Jared Harris as Moriarty and Noomi Rapace are the most exciting elements here. I still cannot stand that incessant use of hyper slow-motion, but I hope the film itself is as consistently entertaining as the trailer is.

Arietty – B+: Hayao Miyizaki is credited for the screenplay of this adaptation of The Borrowers, and he personally supervised over the production. So this latest film from Studio Ghibli is high on my anticipation list. While the narration annoyingly tells me everything I am apparently going to feel while watching the film, the footage itself looks about as magical and delightful as one would hope.

Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy – A-: Yet another Fall film I am anxiously awaiting. I think what people are most easily excited about here, besides the outstanding ensemble and it being Tomas Alfredson’s follow-up to Let the Right One In, is that Gary Oldman gets to shine front and center here. Understandably, even people who don’t hold much stock in the Academy Awards are wondering if this will bring the man’s long overdue first Oscar nomination. The prestige of the project, the very respected source material, a killer cast and Alfredson at the helm should be enough to shove Oldman into the race with what will likely be (and many are banking on being) one of the standout performances of the year.

The Tree – C: Even the trailer had trouble keeping my interest. I feel like I know exactly what this would be as a full-length narrative. The Tree has blatant symbolic meaning. So will the tree be cut down or saved? Do I really care? I mean it’s a beautiful tree, but….The tree = dead father dilemma just seems a bit too simple.

Dream House – C+: It seems like In America was ages ago, doesn’t it? Dream House looks like a passable thriller;but completely forgettable and I’d see it mainly for that cast. I’ll probably end up recommending Dream Home instead, which is overall an unsuccessful film, but has such a memorable extreme use of gore as well as an AWESOME Josie Ho and legitimate examination of the competition within Hong Kong housing. The names are so similar, I thought I’d throw a recommendation in there.

In Time – B+: Two words: Andrew Niccol. This trailer is way too long, as it was made for Comic-Con, so in a sense it feels like I have seen the entire film. But I am loving the high-concept, the cast and the filmmaker at the helm. I have been looking forward to this for quite a while. Niccol wrote the fantastic Gattaca as well as The Truman Show, a film I have seen more than almost any. I have yet to see Lord of War, which he also directed, but I trust, and hope, he will also be able to execute his own material well.

Drive – A: This is near the top of my mental Fall Movie Season to-see list. Yet I did not enjoy the book at all, and the one Refn film I have seen, Valhalla Rising, was a film I was unable to make any kind of connection with on any level. Still, this cast (yes, this film is filled with pretty people, but the use of Albert Brooks has me most excited) and the feel of this trailer, as well as the clarity of the director’s talent has so many justifiably anticipating this.

The Amazing Spider-Man – D+: Yikes. This was pretty bad. There is nothing here that could stir up a modicum of interest. Garfield and Stone look like they are sleepwalking from the little we see of them. (500) Days of Summer has not stuck with me well so Marc Webb’s involvement means little to me. I literally just saw this film ten years ago. The existence of reboots makes complete sense and it is ridiculous to argue against them. But there really should be a generation between them; 10 years is just not enough. Plus, I just don’t care about Spider Man. Or Peter Parker. These superhero stories hit so many of the same beats, and unless one really truly is a fan of this genre, it is difficult to get excited for what feels like variations of the same story (to make a sweeping generalization).

Haywire – A-: Two upcoming Soderbergh films and both look great. Soderbergh does with Gina Carano what he did with Sasha Grey and The Girlfriend Experience. In both he essentially built a film around each of them. What Soderbergh and wonderful screenwriter Lem Dobbs (Dark City, The Limey) have done is construct a genre film that will show off what Carano can do. This is the way a lot of Hong Kong action films function; they are built around the actor’s physical abilities. This is not common in the West, so the idea of a female protagonist kicking ass ‘in camera’ is exhilarating. And it looks like the material they have given her is quality as well.

Kill List – A: Anything I have heard about Kill List has been stellar; the film seems to be eliciting strong reactions from all. The trailer does not disappoint. It has an beguiling ambiguity that surely reflects the film atmosphere. I’ve heard its incredibly intense and very shocking, with people strongly urging audiences go in blind. Since this is generally the way I go about things outside of trailer viewing and a general sense of reception, this won’t be a problem, and only further intrigues.

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