To be frank,
2011 wasn’t my favorite year in film. Oh I saw films I
loved, and certainly saw films I hated, but sitting here
staring at the screen, trying to organize a list of ten
films I really loved, hasn’t been as easy as it was in years
prior. I’m going to chalk this up to a few things:
1. I’m going to put 2011 on record as the first year I
really went at as a "film critic." I plugged in to the vast
network of film screenings in the Bay Area and for an
extended period of time saw everything, everything, I could.
This is quite possibly the biggest of rookie mistakes a film
critic can make as throwing yourself in to every film
(especially when you’re charming editor allows you to write
about anything) will burn you out - quickly. It’s quite
possible that my lackluster reaction to some of the big
pictures of the year was due to my film-loving soul being
dragged across the barnacles of shit film for a concentrated
period. It’s hard to see out of the cynic fog when you’re
using it as a life-saving shield.
2. I just wasn’t that impressed with film this year.
Seriously. It felt like the big pictures of the summer were
mediocre, the nerd-films of the year didn’t sit terribly
well with me, and even the new pictures from the big guns
seemed, well, pretty eh. There were certainly films that
stood out, but they weren’t standing that far out, if you
know what I mean. I’ll say this, Sherlock Holmes: A Game
of Shadows almost made my list this year. And not to say
that the movie isn’t great, but on any other year it
would’ve topped the list of popcorn favs, but never seen
even the bottom rungs of the best of ladder. It was just
that kind of year.
That said, these are the ones that struck me hard enough to
reverberate on through to this Top 10 list. Thanks for a
great year, and as always, thanks for reading.
Noah's Top Films of 2011
10. Moneyball, d. Bennet Miller
I think Bennet Miller’s Capote is a stellar, chilling
film and I’ve been waiting fairly eagerly for a follow-up. I
think Michael Lewis' Moneyball is a great book, if not one
better suited for MLB stat nerds than the general public. I
thought Soderbergh would’ve done something magical with the
strangeness of the book, and when he bailed the project
seemed dead in the water. Even with the addition of Bennet
Miller, I was skeptical. How does one change this book in to
a film? Someone should ask Bennet Miller 'cause he, sigh,
knocked it out of the park. Brad Pitt’s Billy Beane is such
a beautifully sad character, a man obsessed with turning
over the traditions of baseball, but unable to even approach
his own personal life. Miller uses the world of baseball as
a haunting stage to showcase Beane’s rise and fall and rise
again. Pitt does career work here, allowing his star shine
to exist underneath a thick cloud of earned sadness, his
shaggy good looks perfectly fitting a failed baseball star
turned revolutionary owner.
9. The Skin I Live In, d. Pedro Almodovar
I don’t know a lot about Almodovar. I’m a late convert to
his genius and am still trying to find time to catch up with
his earlier beloved films. Regardless, The Skin I Live In is
a brilliant movie. I won’t saying anything about what
happens, just know that it’s horror as only a true cinematic
master can create. Almodovar has always been truly genius at
making even the strangest of character choices seem
enjoyable (the small man who climbs in the vagina in Talk To
Her?) and he puts that to good use here. His reunion with
Antonio Banderas reminds why Banderas was so famous in the
first place, his brilliant plastic surgeon, a seemingly
cold, heartless bastard slowly revealed to be much, much
more.
8. Ides of March, d. George Clooney
I’m a sucker for 70s political thrillers, and George Clooney
has outdone himself in paying homage to them. Based on the
play Farrugat North, Clooney tells a familiar tale of
political corruption amongs the left-wing idealist community
and though it doesn’t address any shocking new issues, it’s
such a solidly told tale that you can forget about it’s
timeliness or originality. That and it’s the best cast film
of the year. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, George
Clooney, Ryan Gosling (with only standout performances this
year), Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Woods - every actor really
pulling out the A-game to make a truly ensemble film shine.
After Leatherheads I was worried that Clooney might not
actually have it in him. Those thoughts have been dispelled.
7. Hanna, d. Joe Wright
Joe Wright’s Atonement is a stellar film based on a solid
book that I thought was completely inadaptable. The man
obviously has talent but to say I was skeptical of his foray
in to action is, well, an understatement. And as always, I
was so very wrong. Hanna is the action movie that every
other action movie should aspire to. Veering sharply from
traditional American blockbusters, Hanna tells the tale of a
little girl trained to be a killer with one simple task -
eliminate a woman she’s never seen. Wright makes a film that
banks heavily on the work of Jean-Luc Godard and the French
New Wave, a beautiful edited, highly symbolic film about a
little girl learning what it’s like to be human. Every shot,
every character, every plot twist is spot on - especially
the anti-climactic final scene. Eric Bana, an actor I worry
about, does sharp work here as the father of Hanna, with
Saoirse Ronan continuing her ascent as the new Dakota
Fanning. No one is as good as Jessica Barden (the little
girl Sophie), a bubbling pit of modern kid-values thrust in
to the strange world of gay killers and violence Hanna
accidentally drags her in to.
6. Drive, d. Nicolas Winding Refn
C’mon, this film was amazing! Great soundtrack, great
cool-guy performance by Ryan Gosling, and dedication to tone
and concept by Nicolas Winding Refn we rarely see these days
in Hollywood films. People complained about the violence,
but Winding Refn uses it as a threat, a shock, a reaction.
It’s brutal and scary and unexpected - just the way violence
is. Albert Brooks, all meat and perm, is a great gang boss
with Ron Perlman his violence prone sidekick. Ryan Gosling
has firmly cemented himself in my mind as the actor of his
generation and between this and Ides of March I’ll watch
anything the tinny-voiced stallion puts out.
5. Martha Marcy May Marlene, d. Sean Durkin
Turns out there’s a third Olsen sister who can totally act
and this guy Sean Durkin threw her in to a real subtle film
about cults and how scary they are and John Hawkes plays the
cult leader and Elizabeth Olsen plays a girl who escapes the
physical reality of it but can’t escape the mental clutches.
It’s creepy and beautiful and has one of those endings where
you spend the next few days looking over your shoulder
saying, "What the fuck?" Hawkes has to be one of the great
actors of his time because I’m almost positive if you met
him in person he’d light your cigarette and talk about
literature and be the nicest man alive, but in films like
this he’s a total scary son-of-a-bitch who I wouldn’t let
anywhere near my house. This movie made me breathless.
4: Bill Cunningham: New York, d. Richard Press
I don’t care if you know who renowned fashion photographer
Bill Cunningham is. I don’t care if you don’t like fashion
or photography or hell, even New York. Bill Cunningham: New
York, a portrait of Bill Cunningham the New York Times’
resident on-the-street fashion photog is a both a touching
portrait of a lonely old man who finds solace in his work
and a sad portrait of the New York City that’s getting eaten
away by big budget developers and the homogeneous bent of
modernity. So unexpectedly brilliant.
3. The Artist, d. Michel Hazanavicius
I don’t like silent films - or I haven’t given myself the
opportunity to like silent films. I’d heard good things
about The Artist but really only went because it was being
shown in the Dolby Film Labs, a theater I’d never gone to
and one I assumed would have amazing sound and picture. It
did, and even better The Artist blew me away. Hazanavicius'
ode to silent films is, quite honestly, a love letter to
movies as a whole. The film, almost entirely silent, tells
the story of silent star George Valentin, a famed silent
film actor, who’s washed away by the talkies and has to
depend on the love of a dog and a woman to bring him back in
to the spotlight. It’s traditional in its storytelling but
is so heartfelt and beautifully put together that it scours
a place in to your heart. Hazanavicius manages to make a
truly meta-film about traditional filmmaking.
2. Beginners, d. Mike Mills
I was so entirely sad that I saw this film without anyone.
Mike Mills Beginners is the touching semi-autobiographic
story of his 70 year old father coming out of the closet in
the brief years before he passed. It’s also about
discovering love and realizing that there’s something else
out there. It’s quirky and silly and just borders on the
edge of overly-coy with subtitled dog talk and quick cuts
and monotone voice-overs, but Mills wrangles it all in to a
really touching piece about fathers and sons and how we move
on. Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer are both stellar
but are both thrust in to shadow by the jaw-dropping good
looks of Melanie Laurent.
1. The Guard, d. John Michael McDonagh
The McDonagh family has to be weened on some truly amazing
water, ‘cause these brothers are fucking talent monsters.
Michael McDonagh’s In Bruges was my favorite film in 2008,
and now The Guard is easily my favorite film of the year. It
just seems like the Europeans know how to do action better
(what with Hanna and Drive, reinventing the genre) and
The
Guard does it even better. Brendan Gleeson plays Sergeant
Gerry Boyle, the type of back-woods police officer who
spouts racist comments and generally doesn’t do dick. When a
team of drug trafficking psychopaths start haranguing his
small Irish seaside town, he has to team up with an FBI
agent (Don Cheadle in striking form) to avert them. It’s a
stark, cold movie, punctuated by blasts of black humor and
the most entertaining performance of the year by Brendan
Gleeson. McDonagh crafts a screenplay that tinkers with the
traditional structure of the action film but imbues it with
wit and intelligence and a shocking amount of heart.
Absolutely fantastic film, quite handily the best of the
year.
-
-
Unless
otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any
related pages, including the blog's archives, is licensed by
John Laird under a
Creative Commons License.
