These days, explosions and chases in movies have become indicators of dumb and dumber. But, this year, we’re seeing a welcome rebirth of the smart action film.
Like last year’s Inception, Source Code, The Adjustment Bureau, Drive and even Hannah, brought some originality to the genre. Drive was the most visually interesting, but Source Code combined great production values with a great hook in Ben Ripley’s screenplay: Supersoldier Jake Gyllenhaal can inhabit the brain of a terrorism victim for the same 8 minutes – over and over again. Each time, he has 8 minutes to seek more clues. Can he build the clues into a solution and prevent the terrorist atrocity?
What are 2011’s most overlooked films? The Guard and Take Shelter are on some Top Ten lists, including mine, but they still haven’t gotten the buzz that they deserve. These are two of the very best films of the year and are not to be missed.
Kill the Irishman is a gritty crime drama with a charismatic lead performance by Ray Stevenson.
Terri is something completely new in a teen mifit movie.
As in most films by the master director-writer-editor John Sayles, the historical drama Amigo intertwines the stories of a large ensemble cast while keeping each character recognizable, distinct and textured.
For a guilty pleasure, I will go with TrollHunter, a hilariously deadpan Norwegian take on the horror genre.
1. I haven’t seen Killer Joe, Restless and Tyrannosaur becuase they haven’t been released where I live. And I haven’t seen Oslo August 3, The Kid on the Bike, Paul Williams Still Alive, Natural Selection, Polisse and Little White Lies because – as far as I know – they haven’t yet been released in the US. You can read descriptions and watch trailers of these films as Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
2. Meek’s Cutoff is an unfortunate misfire by the excellent director Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy).
3. Le Quattro Volte is supposed to be a lyrical contemplation on the Circle of Life, but you’ll find yourself checking your watch during the interminable hacking of an aged goatherd. If the geezer had taken Robitussin DM, there would be no story at all.
4. The bewildering, pompous mess that is The Tree of Life . It does contain a fine 90-minute family drama about a boy growing up in 1950s Waco (a superb Hunter McCracken) and the friction with his caring but brutishly domineering father (Brad Pitt). Unfortunately, there is another 60 minutes in the movie.
That additional 60 minutes is a self-important muddle that tries to lift the story to an exploration of life itself – from creation through afterlife. There are beautiful shots of clouds and waterfalls, with unintelligible whisperings from cast members. There are Bible verses, the Big Bang and dinosaurs (yes, dinosaurs). And, in case you don’t get how seriously the movie takes itself, there is an overbearingly pretentious score.
5. The Hangover Part II. I really enjoyed The Hangover, but the sequel was just lame.
6. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is by no means a bad film, but I expected more from the winner of the Palm d’Or.
7. David Gordon Green, director of All the Real Girls, Undertow, Snow Angels and Pineapple Express, showed up this year with The Sitter. Say it ain’t so, Dave.
8. HBO’s take on the financial meltdown, Too Big To Fail, failed in spite of an excellent cast. It wasn’t nearly as good as last year’s great documentary Inside Job or this year’s fictional Margin Call.
9. James Franco co-hosting the Academy Awards. Lay off the weed, Jimmy!
10. After watching the jaw droppingly awful trailer, I was hoping that Nicholas Cage’s Season of the Witch would be deliciously and entertainingly laugh out loud bad. But it was just bad.
One of the most rewarding aspects of watching movies is seeing the emergence of new talent. Here are some pleasant surprises from the past year.
1. Denis Villenueve: Because Incendies is anything but stagey, you can’t tell that this little known French-Canadian director adapted the screenplay from a play. In fact, he created the most gripping film of the year.
2. Jessica Chastain: She’s on everybody’s “breakthrough” list for a damn good reason. First, she delivered a fine performance as an enabling 1950s mom in the most coherent part of The Tree of Life. She followed that with a riveting performance as a 1960s Mossad agent (the younger version of Helen Mirren’s character) in the thriller The Debt. In Take Shelter, she plays a well-grounded housewife who must deal with a mentally disintegrating husband. She won critical praise for the trashy but aspiring housewife in a film I haven’t seen – The Help. She’s a tough cop in The Texas Killing Fields. And then she’s in Ralph Fiennes’ adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.
Six movies in six months – that’s quite a way to start a career. And she’s at the top of her game in all of them, playing soft and tough, brittle and sexy, action and romance.
3. Nicholas Winding Refn: With apologies to Ryan Gosling, Refn is the real star of the vivid and compelling Drive. He has a great eye and a great sense of pacing, and could produce a masterpiece with the right material.
4. Michel Hazanavicius: He came out of nowhere to strike gold with The Artist. Who would think to make a silent film today? Everyone will want to see what he can come up with next.
5. Shailene Woodley: Her performance is absolutely essential to the success of The Descendants. It’s not just that she perfectly plays a bratty teenager, but that we can see that some of her brattiness is hormonal and some of it is entirely voluntary and manipulative. Woodley had to convincingly play a character who is at times self-centered and shallow, but who can rally and reach within herself to serve as the family glue and support her dad and little sister.
6. Ben Ripley: The key to Source Code is a breakthrough screenplay by Ben Ripley. In a year with at least some smart action films, Ripley’s is the smartest. He came up with the scifi premise that supersoldier Jake Gyllenhaal can inhabit the brain of a terrorism victim for the same 8 minutes – over and over again. Each time, he has 8 minutes to seek more clues. Can he build the clues into a solution and prevent the terrorist atrocity? Ripley had us on the edge of our seats.
7. Ryan Gosling: He has already established himself as one of our best actors (Half Nelson, All Good Things, Blue Valentine), so why is he on this list? Because this year he has broken out of quirky roles in indies and has carried more mainstream films. He proved that he can play an action star (Drive) and also be the funniest guy in a Steve Carell comedy (Stupid Crazy Love). And he proved that he can carry a George Clooney movie as the male lead holding his own with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti (The Ides of March). He could be looking at a Clooney/Hanks/Nicholson career.
The Winner: 3 Backyards. This unbearably pretentious and self-indulgent wannabe art film presents us with a petty meltdown, Elias Koteas furrowing his brow, a random mystical white poodle and caterpillars. Did I mention the masturbating dog killer? I hated this movie – and it is still pissing me off.
The Worst Trend: People sitting in front of me texting and checking their email, flashing their screens and taking me out of the film.
Note: I don’t have a Worst Ten Movie list because, unlike professional critics, I don’t have to see every movie. I do see 75-100 new movies each year, but I try REALLY, REALLY HARD to avoid the bad movies. So my worst movie going experience is always either 1) on an airline flight when I see a movie that I normally wouldn’t; 2) a hyped art film that disastrously falls on its face and/or really pisses me off (The White Ribbon); or 3) something I find on cable TV while channel surfing (Paul Blart: Mall Cop). But usually, the culprit finds its way aboard a long airline flight. Not this year.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the new film version of the classic John le Carre spy novel. The British have learned that the Soviets have planted a mole – their own double agent – near the very top of British secret intelligence service. Only the old spymaster George Smiley, having been forced out to pasture, is beyond suspicion. Only Smiley has the intellectual brilliance, institutional knowledge and ruthless doggedness needed to ferret out the traitor. Gary Oldman plays George Smiley.
It’s a great tale, and the movie is good. Oldman is joined by an impressive cast, inlcuding Colin Firth Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch and Toby Jones. Tom Hardy and Mark Strong are especially good.
I would be more enthusiastic about this film, but I harken back to the 1979 television miniseries version of the same book, starring Alec Guinness in perhaps his best role. That miniseries had even better performance by Guinness, of course, and Ian Richardson, Sian Phillips and Patrick Stewart. It’s available on DVD, and I recommend that you rent it.
(Note: I’m saving room for some films that I haven’t yet seen, especially Roman Polanski’s Carnage and Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus.)
You can watch the trailers and see my comments on all these films at Best Movies of 2011.
According to Metacritic, all of my picks (except The Adjustment Bureau) were highly rated by prominent critics. I did disdain some art films, most notably The Tree of Life, which made lots of critics’ end-of-year lists. See 2011 in Movies: biggest disappointments, which I’m posting on Tuesday.
(Further Note: Incendies was nominated for the 2010 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but was widely released in the US in 2011. A Separation, which I and most folks won’t be able to see until after January 27, will contend on my 2012 list.)
Mryna Loy in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES - the second best wife ever
Happy Anniversary to The Wife, also known as Lisa The Love of My Life!
Watching The Guard with her was my Most Fun at the Movies in 2011. I also cherished her company at Midnight in Paris, The Social Network, Drive, Margin Call, Page Eight and The Ides of March. And, at home watching TCM this year, I especially enjoyed sharing two of my classic favorite classics with her, In a Lonely Place and Rope.
She’s the biggest fan and supporter of this blog, and I appreciate her and love her. Happy Anniversary, honey!
Michele Williams gives a dazzling performance as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn, a lesser but satisfying film. Here are my comments on some other current films, the sex addiction drama Shame, the Japanese gangster movie Outrage and the Freud-Jung costume drama A Dangerous Method.
It was another year in which foreign cinema was essential (although not as great as years past). Three of the nominees for the 2010 Best Foreign Language Oscar were released in the US this year: Incendies , Dogtooth and the Oscar-winning In a Better World. Incendies earned a very prominent spot on my Best Movies of 2011. Joining Incendies on my Best Movies of 2011 are The Artistfrom France, Poetryfrom Korea, Carancho from Argentina and Potiche from France. That’s five films – down from ten on my list for 2010 and the lowest number of foreign films on my list ever.
