My Picks for the Ten Best Films of 2011

Just in time for the Oscars, here is my very belated list of what I felt the best films of 2011 were.

10. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

I know, I know. I just blew all credibility here. But honestly, even though I saw 147 of last year's movies I actually believe this is deserving of making this list. Despite being a sequel to some truly terrible pictures,Breaking Dawn 1 is a compelling story of marriage, adulthood, love, and more. The movie is suspenseful, funny, scary, and more.

9. The Tree of Life

While it is incredibly confusing and on such an absurdly large scale that it is only possible to comprehend pieces of its messages, this impossible-to-explain drama by Terrence Malick (Badlands, The Thin Red Line) is still great. Its ambition is unparalleled and by the end of it we truly are enthralled by appreciating the beauty of nature that is so often lost on us. If you have the time to invest in this movie I highly recommend that you do for it is excellent. I know I haven’t conveyed much about it, but once you see it you will realize why.

8. Last Night

2011 was a great year for directorial debuts with Margin Call, Cracks, another movie on my top ten list that I will tell you soon, and this. Massy Tadjedin enters Hollywood with a bang by helming this sad thoughtful look at trust centering on a married couple separated for a night where both of them struggle with temptation. The ending to this sticks in your head forever.

7. Win Win

This dramady was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Critic's Choice Awards. Surprisingly, it was snubbed at the same category at the Oscars, but hopefully people still heard about this funny, touching dramady. Paul Giamatti plays a lawyer/high school wrestling coach who takes in a troubled teen after a shady business deal. Entertaining yet emotional, Win Win is a great movie.

6. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Featuring a stellar cast (including Tom Hanks, Viola Davis, Max von Sydow, Thomas Horn, and Sandra Bullock) and excellent editing, ELAIC tells a fantastic story on overcoming grief in the tale of an autistic boy who travels New York looking for the lock that fits the key left to him by his father who died in the 9/11 Tragedy (a sort-of reverse Hugo). This movie packs a huge emotional punch.

5. Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids is a summer comedy that contains tons of laughs, but it is also a poignant story of getting through life's tough spots. Centering around a woman who's best friend is getting married who ends up in a feud with a younger woman who tries to hijack the wedding plans, Bridesmaids is especially meant for girls, but its charming acting, fascinating characters, and Oscar-nominated screenplay makes it a great view for practically everyone.

4. The Eagle

An old-fashined historical epic from Oscar-nominated Director Kevin Macdonald and Writer Jeremy Brock(who both got Oscar nods for their team-up on The Last King of Scotland), The Eagle is an uplifting story of honor and loyalty in the vein of Ben-Hur and Spartacus (the movie, not the TV show). Sadly overlooked in its February release, this movie is nevertheless one of the best period pieces in the past decade. Check it out as soon as possible.

3. POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Morgan Spurlock (SuperSize Me and TV's 30 Days) creates a laugh-out-loud funny and instantly riveting comedic documentary on advertising, especially through product placement in movies and TV. He does so, though, by financing his movie through selling product placement in it. What I found the most entertaining picture of the year is also one of the best, as it very skillfully gets the audience to become aware of how they are constantly bombarded with advertisements at every possible second.

2. The Descendants

While I wish it had a more skilled actor such as Paul Giamatti or Mel Gibson in the title role, The Descendants is still a powerful dramady on preservation and overcoming grief. Attention for its lead actor--George Clooney--has taken away from attention for the movie (to a degree: the thing still got a Best Picture nomination). This is a problem as the movie, from Sideways and About Schmidt's Alexander Payne, is funny and emotional and, by refusing to have any easy answers, ultimately uplifting.

1. Everything Must Go

After being bounced from studio to studio, Dan Rush's scriptorial debut was put on the Blacklist of Unproduced Screenplays, a list of scripts Hollywood execs thought were great despite being unable (for various reasons) to produce themselves. Marc Earlbaum (Headspace) decided to get the thing made and the picture got a huge bump when Will Ferrell joined the cast. Rush took on directing duties, and an amazing movie was created.

Ferrel may be known for his comedic roles, but he proves to be just as good (if not better) at drama. This perfectly-toned and emotionally painful story is of a man who, after losing his job and wife on the same day due to his depression and alcoholism, decides to live off his front lawn. Being distributed byRoadside Attractions, the arthouse branch of financially troubled distributor Lionsgate, Everything Must Goreached few people. Still, most of the guys who saw it liked or loved it, probably due to it being the best movie of the year. Please don't miss this.

Honorable Mentions: The Artist; The Beaver; Justin Bieber: Never Say Never; Sucker Punch

My Thoughts on the Oscar Nominees

Here are my thoughts on this year’s Oscar nominees. They are ordered from what I felt was the worst to what I felt was the best. Sorry if this is hard to read--this site is messing up the format.

Moneyball
Generally, I attack the movie and not the filmmaker. However, Aaron Sorkin has built a career out of exploiting other people by writing them into his stories and then making stuff up. He did
it in The Social Network and he does it again in Moneyball. For the most part the movie is inoffensive, but its portrayal of Art Howe—the former coach of the Oakland As—is inexcusable. The movie portrays him as naïve, obnoxious, and always at odds with the story’s hero Billy Beane, a real person who incorporated statistics into baseball as manager of the As. Howe said that the movie has hurt is career on and got its facts wrong, as he was not opposed to Beane’s ideas and was in fact a crucial part in leading the team to victory. The person originally chosen to direct the film was Steven Soderberg, but he left the project after the studio told him he
needed to further fictionalize the story. The new director, Capote’s Bennet Miller, appears to have no qualms about hurting others for his personal gain, which appears to be something you need to be okay with if you work with Sorkin.
Sorkin has now won two Critic’s Choice Awards and looks to be locked for a second Oscar and this is truly despicable. Here is what Art Howe said on the matter: “I’ve spent my whole career trying to build a good reputation and be a good baseball man and someone who people like to play for and all of the above. Then in two hours, people who don’t know me – and Brad Pitt’s a big name, people are going to see his movies – and all these people across the country are going to go in and get this perception of me that’s totally unfair and untruthful. So I’m very upset.”

The Help
Martin Luther King Jr. once said “Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.” The filmmakers behind The Help would do well to heed this warning.
In this simplistic cash-grab of a motion picture, we see the 60s white Southerners not only as racists but as cartoon-villains who go so far as to frame people they dislike purely out of
spite, abuse their children, and institutionalize their own parents for siding with their maids in an argument. Of the two heroes of the story which are white, one is from the North and the other
hates the south so much she is doing everything possible to leave it. The movie revels in self-righteous condemnation of the society that could tolerate such racism, but it goes so far as to attack its adherence to marriage and its support for stay-at-home parents. Not that being celibate or being a working parent is a bad thing—it is just that alternative life-styles shouldn’t be instantly linked to an archaic and intolerant society.
The underlying tone of the film is that solving societal issues is linked to a hatred and vilification of those opposed to one’s viewpoints. This is especially evident when the movie speaks of a Mississippi law banning any arguments to end segregation. That law never existed. Racism was real, but it came from people’s long built-up resentments and fears that did not need to ever be a spoken rule. And they certainly weren’t solved by hatred.
Now I often oppose an artistically-developed film due to moral concerns. However here there is little artistic merit that my moral concerns could blot out. The Help’s oversimplification of racism is equaled by oversimplification of plot. It is not an exaggeration to say there is not one moment in the entire film that is original. Its award attention is astounding considering its unspectacular reviews and lack of any courage to say something new or even skill in restating something old. It only satisfies if one wants to not think deeply, and even then it is rather dull and monotonous.

Midnight in Paris
MILD SPOILER WARNING
Last year, China banned all films containing time-travel, saying they contributed to a message of moral ambiguity and degraded society. I thought this was nuts. Then I saw Midnight in Paris. Now I’ve just been accepted into the Communist Party.
The film is entertaining and unique, but is based on the notion that love and passion—here linked to time-travel—supersede all moral codes. After fighting with his fiancé, the protagonist of this story travels back in time, gets drunk, and makes-out with Pablo Piccasso’s girlfriend (no joke) all to find himself. At the end he finds out his fiancé was having an affair, but he didn’t know that at the time. His reckless and selfish behavior is never punished and is merely a
method of exploring the meaning of life and love and destiny.
You may like the movie. But I think this should be worth considering. Now I’m off to burn the flags of your bourgeoisie society.

Those were the only Oscar nominees I didn’t love. After this, all of the movies are deserving of an A or an A+.

Hugo
Martin Scorcese is considered one of the greatest directors of all time. WithHugo he proves this by moving outside of his comfort zone. A love letter to cinema, Hugo is a period children’s
fantasy about a boy living in a Paris train station. Shot in 3D, the cinematography and visuals of
this movie are stunning. The story is touching as well, though it lacks the depth to be truly deserving of an Oscar nomination. Nevertheless, this movie is a treat for all moviegoers.

War Horse
The opening 40 minutes of this movie are some of the most slow, hackneyed, and tedious moments of 2011 cinema. But then the movie does a 180 and becomes a moving, inspiring drama. Chronicling the journey of a horse through World War I Europe, War Horse’s story is a little too perfect to really qualify it for an Oscar, but it is a great testament to the hope in miracles that unite us all. Also of note is the amazing cinematography, which tied The Tree of
Life at the Critic’s Choice Awards and should (but won’t) win that category at the Oscars.

The Artist
The Artist is very gimmicky, being a black-and-white silent film about the Golden Age of Hollywood, tailor-made for critics and the Academy. Nevertheless, it is so well-crafted and so
earnest about it all that it is still a touching and satisfying picture. Telling the story of a silent movie star who loses his fame with the advent of talkies (a la Singing in the Rain), The
Artist uses all the old tricks of the era without making it seem like it is a joke. Jean Dujardin brings extraordinary charisma to the role, and the protagonist’s emotional journey is thoroughly involving. This is a funny, moving, creative, and delightful picture that I highly recommend.

The Tree of Life
While it is incredibly confusing and on such an absurdly large scale that it is only possible to comprehend pieces of its messages, this impossible-to-explain drama by Terrence Mallick (Badlands, The Thin Red Line) is still great. Its ambition is unparalleled and by the end of it we truly are enthralled by appreciating the beauty of nature that is so often lost on us. If you have
the time to invest in this movie I highly recommend that you do for it is excellent. I know I haven’t conveyed much about it, but once you see it you will realize why.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The lowest reviewed nominee, Extremely Loud and Incredible Close was a surprise addition to the Oscar roster and proved that while the most vocal critics might not like it a strong number of silent viewers loved it. Telling the story of a boy searching for the lock that goes with the key left for him by his father who died in the 9/11 tragedy (a storyline similar to Hugo), this movie, like War Horse, starts out poorly. However by the end of this heart-wrenching and riveting drama the audience has been shown an excellent theory on how we all deal with grief. Uplifting and exciting (with excellent performances from Sandra Bullock and The Help star Viola Davis), Extremely Loud is a must see.

The Descendants
While I feel George Clooney was not relatable enough in the starring role and some of the characters were stereotypical, The Descendants is still a moving, realistic tale of overcoming grief and preservation. Directed by Sideways and About Schmidt’s Alexander Payne, the story centers around a man who must head his family after his wife enters a permanent coma. There are no easy solutions, but this tale combines humor and raw emotional power to craft one of the year’s most powerful dramas (it is number two on my Best of 2011 lists). Read my complete review
here.

Overrated/Underpraised: HANNA vs ABDUCTION

Nathan Adams of Filmschoolrejects has started a cool new column which pits a film with undeserved love against an unfortunately ignored or ridiculed one. I'm making a similar blog, and by similar I mean the exact same. :)
Before I begin, I must offer a quick disclaimer: If you are looking for something with Hanna’s unique visual style, Abduction is not for you. It is sillier and dumber. However, seeing as the stories are pretty similar and most people are more interested in a fun action flick I am going to compare these two nevertheless (don’t worry, there are no spoilers).
Both movies feature a teenager who has been trained by their parents for combat every day of their life. Suddenly, agents claiming to be government officials show up at the teen’s doorstep and all hell breaks loose. It is actually a pretty simple plot, come to think of it.
In Hanna, the protagonist, Hanna (Saoirse Ronan of Atonement) has spent her entire childhood in the middle of the Arctic hunting deer, learning twenty different languages, and dueling her father Erik (Eric Bana). She doesn’t remember seeing another woman and she doesn’t even know what music is. Hanna decides it is time to start her life mission, and tries to assassinate the evil CIA official Marissa. She fails, and ends up on the run. Marissa (Cate Blanchett), a super-proper woman with bright red lipstick who brushes her teeth until her gums bleed, contracts a bunch of thugs to aid her own agents in killing Hanna. The fight is on.
Hanna is meant to be symbolism for growing up, and it makes sense for her enemy to be the battle-hardened artificial government agent Marissa. What makes for a good story though isn’t always a responsible choice. The effect of the movie is that not only do children growing up have no support, but every US citizen should not trust the government. And by “not trust” I mean “expect them to be corrupt child killers with no morals whatsoever.” This is particular insulting because the director (Joe Wright) is British.
It might seem like I am overthinking it, or that I am naïve to atrocities of the state. I don’t think so. If we start accepting the thinking that our government not only doesn’t have our interests at heart, but is outright lying, our society falls apart. We don’t honestly believe it—if we did there would be a much bigger outcry—but we act like it is the case all the same. If we don’t trust the government and don’t even think it can be changed, we are going to be far less likely to try and make change. A lack of trust also means a general disrespect for the law. If you start thinking not every rule applies to you, things get really screwy.
The fact of the matter is there is a clear cut right and wrong. If we live off the benefits of the government we should be accepting that we are a part of the nation. We must follow the laws because that is the only way to maintain order. It is easy to complain about little things, but the fact of the matter is the US is one of the safest and most prosperous nations in the world. The biggest advocates for a “relative system of right and wrong” are the gangs that break the law in order to keep the streets safe or to use drugs that they thing it is unfair to regulate. They are poison, but lots of wealthier, happier Americans are happy to use the drugs they distribute or disrespect the officials working to put them behind bars.
Hanna is a small part in this attitude, but it is a part. And it shouldn’t be the kind of thing we choose as entertainment.
Abduction isn’t exactly a love letter to the government, but it isn’t a conspiracy theory either. In this movie’s universe, there are corrupt agents, but on the whole we have a system that is meant for good. The young protagonist needs to work for himself and grow up, and he should not blindly trust or rely on anyone, but he isn’t alone. There are friends and allies who understand him and want to help him. The society isn’t evil and there are places he can go to seek help. As someone who is himself “coming of age” this is more realistic and more encouraging. Not to say the movie has deep messages or anything, but what it does offer is far better than your usual action flick.
The film is pretty entertaining too. We don’t have any striking visuals or sophisticated metaphors, but we have a fun, engaging story. This movie was panned by critics as it tanked at the box office, but frankly, it doesn’t deserve that kind of hate. In Abduction, the protagonist, named Nathan (think of how much lamer it would be if they came up with the title in the same way as the producers of Hanna did) has also been trained by his parents for a conflict. On the downside, the parents pretended they were only teaching him to exercise (because kick-boxing with your parents for hours every-day is totally normal). On the bright side, they didn’t make him live in the tundra. And they gave him an Ipod, so he knows all about the whole “music” thing.
Unfortunately, things turn bad when Nathan stumbles on an internet site with a picture of a child who went missing at age three. The image has been updated to show what the experts predict the child would look like, and guess what: It looks just like him. What is more, in the child picture the kid is wearing his shirt, complete with a little stain. Nathan replies to the message and confronts his parents, only to have men walk into the house claiming they are feds. A gunfight breaks out and the whole house blows up. That is only the beginning.
Nathan is a much more engaging and relatable hero than Hanna. We see he has flaws (his temper and impulsiveness) and we see that while he is good at combat he isn’t perfect. While from a marketing perspective it might have been a poor choice to choose Twilight star Taylor Lautner—he brought in girl viewers but scared off guys—he is actually pretty likable. He is struggling just the slightest bit, but it is hard not to find him charming.
The intriguing concept, fast-paced story, engaging fight scenes, and genuine acting (Michael Nyquvist, the male protagonist of the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, plays the villain) make the story an entertaining B-movie flick. Aside from a few times where we must interrupt the plot to see Lautner shirtless, the movie really has nothing wrong with it. It doesn’t aim very high, and not everyone will like it, but it satisfies its target audience and a few more people as well.
If you are looking for a teen-warrior action flick, Abduction is definitely the way to go.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (A)

You knew this day would come some day. They finally made a decent Twilight movie.

Among my many, many complaints with this series has been that the protagonist--a teenage girl named Bella--is useless, pathetic, and completely reliant on her boyfriends to the point that she would kill herself if they broke up. She does everything her vampire lover--Edward--says, and she never contradicts his creepy behavior like stealing her car's engine spark so she won't see other guys or sneaking into her room at night and watching her sleep. Worse, she obsesses over the guys she likes relentlessly and spent the last three films either trying to bed them or crying that they weren't talking to her.

Well, it has taken four movies, but Bella finally grows up. The beginning of Breaking Dawn 1 sees Bella finally marrying Edward. (One comment on that: If I get married I am not going to notify my parents by mailing them a wedding invitation, especially if I still live with them). The beginning of the movie is a touching and suspenseful look at the nervousness and excitement surrounding such an important life decision; the camera isn't just showing the drama, it is showing the little details of everyone concerned. It is very romantic, but also very real.

After the wedding, Bella and Edward go on a honeymoon to Rio and consummate their relationship while she is still human. The scene is sensual, but it isn't the gratuitous kiddy-porn New Moon and Eclipse were. Also commendable is the decision to all but ignore the sparkling vampire detail, which was interesting in the book but done so terribly in the movies even some Twi-hards apologized. Then we start to see Edward and Bella settle into marital life, and we finally see them squabbling and showing their eccentricities and being human. Then we finally get to the point of the story--Bella is pregnant with a half vampire child. It is sucking the life out of her and could very well be an antichrist. The werewolves (if you were't aware, there are werewolves in this series) want to destroy it and Edward wants Bella to get an abortion. She refuses. It is her baby and she is willing to die for it. Even Edward's threats to kill himself are useless.

Here we finally see a more realistic look at love. At what a marriage should be about, and what sacrifices couples need to make. This is what fantasy should be used to show--real life issues that we can all relate to.

The director is Bill Condon, who got an Oscar for writing (but not directing) Chicago. Oddly, the only credited writer (not counting the fact it is based on a book by The Host author Stephanie Meyers) is Melissa Rosenberg, who has written every Twilight movie. It is interesting to see them hire Condon but not have him edit the script to fit his own vision seeing as he is primarily a writer, but it totally works (he did direct a few films including Dreamgirls). The movie has a unique visual style that still fits with the first three's, and the camera lingers on every detail and entraps the viewers in the story. The team behind Eclipse did a better job with the battle sequences, but the fight scenes in this, while shorter and choppier, are still above average. Cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, who did a bunch of Guillermo Del Toro's films including Pan's Labyrinth, is great, as usual. I completely agree with the Art Director's Guild to nominate this film for their annual award. It might even get an Oscar nod in this category.

Kristin Stewart does her weird mouth-breathing thing, but is still good (she has never been the problem in the series). Taylor Lautner (as Jacob, the werewolf who loves Bella), seems a little over his head in this darker installment--he isn't serious enough. As for Robert Pattinson (who plays Edward), after his decent job in Remember Me I am not yet going to say he is a bad actor, but I will say he is awful in this (as he has been in every Twilight movie). His emotions are depressed, petulant, and comatose. Maybe it is his attempts to hide his British accent. At least the make-up job is better than before. The worst acting, though, comes from a thirty second clip halfway through the end credits featuring the Volturi (vampire royalty), all of whom are so laughably awful it is hard to believe they aren't trying to be bad. They have got to have given the worst performance of the year, and they are in the movie for literally thirty seconds! This atrociousness is balanced out by Billy Burke as Bella's father, who nearly brought me to tears. Some day someone should give him a good role.

In the beginning of this review I called this movie "decent." In fact, loathe as I am to admit it, I think it's really pretty awesome!