I didn't get to see everything I wanted this year. I never seem to. But it was a unique year for movies. Here, for those of you who care, are my top ten of 2011, plus one other that was too awesome and odd to leave out. Feel free to yell at me for leaving your favorite off the list.
1. Win Win
Thomas McCarthy goes 3 for 3 as a writer director with this
story of how there can be victory in failure.
Paul Giamatti was already a leading man in Hollywood when McCarthy cast
him, as opposed to Richard Jenkins and Peter Dinklage, who were seen as supporting
character actors, but he infuses his role with his signature humanity.
Alternately funny and heartbreaking, with great performances from Amy Ryan,
Melanie Lynsky and first-time actor Alex Shaffer.
2. The Muppets
I find it hard to turn of the “critic” part of my
brain. I usually can’t separate my
enjoyment of something from WHY I’m enjoying it. But sitting in that dark theater I was six
years old, a grin plastered on my face from the opening frame to the last. I
don’t know how much nostalgia played a role in my love for the film, but I’m
not interested in separating the two.
3. Submarine
It snuck in under the radar, but this film from debut
co-writer/director Richard Ayoade was one of my favorite surprises of the year.
Craig Roberts (intentionally) channels “Harold & Maude” and “Rushmore” as a
teenager trying to find his place in the world through affectation and
obsessive self-inspection. He lives in
his head and, like a teen, lacks the self-awareness that could get him out of
his own way. Flavors of Wes Anderson, but with a greater connection to the
characters. The 70s style enhances the people on screen, rather than define
them.
4. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The anti-James Bond spy flick. Quiet, meditative and a bit plodding, but
Gary Oldman makes sitting still seem riveting.
No car chases, no gadgets, no sex.
Just people listening and deciding what they believe. The best thing
about this movie is all of the other movies it makes me want to see, like a
movie following Mark Strong as an ex-spy turned school teacher, or one about
the lifelong secretary for British Intelligence who thinks back on World War 2
as the good old days and calling the top members of MI-5 as “My Boys” as she
stares wistfully at old pictures.
5. Warrior
If there is one thing I am a sucker for, it is a well done
underdog sports story, and “Warrior” was very well done. Character driven and emotionally rich, the
film eschews any idea of an external villain.
What needs to be overcome isn’t an opponent but the self. A movie about
obsession that shows both the positive and negative of a singular drive towards
something. Nick Nolte reminds us why he used to better known as an actor than a
mug shot, and Tom Hardy transforms himself into the terse, bulldog fighter that
has nothing left in him but his anger. Thrilling fight scenes and a bittersweet
ending that still manages to feel like the best possible outcome.
6. Moneyball
A sports movie for people who don’t care about sports, “Moneyball”
had the unenviable task of making people looking at statistics seem engrossing,
and it succeeded with flying colors. Brad Pitt continues a near perfect run of
picking interesting movies (Damn you, “The Mexican”) and Jonah Hill is actually
tolerable. A fun look inside an aspect
of the game you rarely see.
7. Carnage
I might not have liked this movie as much as I did had I not
just watched Mike Nichols’ “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe” a few days earlier,
but “Carnage” holds up the mantle of its predecessor quite well. Wickedly funny and well acted (especially by
Christoph Waltz, who nails the tone better than anyone in the cast), the movie
is a great treatise on the artifice of civilization. Passive aggression, barely restrained rage
and utter disdain.
8. Tree of Life
Better writers than me have struggled and failed to explain
the mad genius behind Terrence Malick’s latest, so I won’t pretend to try. All I will say is that I sat through this
movie with my jaw down to my chest.
Astonishing filmmaking and a movie that is really about EVERYTHING. Love, family, god, sex, childhood, adulthood,
nature. The themes of this film could be fodder for another dozen movies.
9. Drive
I went into “Drive” expecting “Vanishing Point” or “Dirty
Larry Crazy Mary,” or some other 70s style car movie. What I got instead was a quiet, understated
film about superficiality more in the style of “American Gigolo.” Ryan Gosling
continues his run of picking fascinating roles and movies. Albert Brooks gives a performance that could
redefine his career as the effectively ruthless Mafioso.
10 .The Artist
For sheer balls, “The Artist” belongs on any top ten
list. Even if you don’t like silent
films, or black and white movies, the idea of trying to make one in 2011 takes
a level of bravado you have to respect. A film for film lovers, with a pastiche
of elements from such classics as “Citizen Kane,” “A Star is Born” and “Singing
in the Rain,” it is a love letter to old Hollywood.
11. Rubber
Just an awesome, weird movie. See it.
0 comments:
Post a Comment