Films of 2011 Part 1: 100-91
So I've been watching films like a crazy person this year (crazy people watch a lot of films, right?), thanks largely to completely 100% legitimate online streaming services that I can utilise on my lunch breaks. For much of the second half of the year I've been tossing around the idea of doing a countdown of all the films I saw this year because, as anyone who knows me should know, I love ranking things and making lists. It wouldn't do simply to do an alphabetical rundown of all the films I saw, or a top 10 highlights package or anything, I had to rank all of them (125 all up) and from that, construct a top 100.
Now, the way these posts will work is this: I will be counting down in blocks of ten - one post a day - concluding on New Year's Eve with the big unveil. This means of course I will need to do two posts on one day to catch up. Before I begin, I just wanted to run through some housekeeping rules:
1) Each film on this list I saw for the first time this year. So included in this list are films released this year but also any other movie that has never crossed my viewing radar before, for various reasons. There are some very big films on this list that I'd just never caught up with. So apart from 2010 Oscar contenders, and potential upcoming 2011 Oscar contenders, there is also the result of my trying to finish all the IMDb top 250 films I hadn't seen, and a bunch of recommendations from various sources (largely Filmspotting) that I thought I should catch up with.
2) Each film I must have watched all the way through. That should seem pretty self-explanatory, but for example even though it was really obvious where 'Julie and Julia' was going, and the bits I didn't watch I could hear from the bedroom because Bec had the TV up too loud, I'm discounting it.
3) Each film's ranking is based entirely on my own personal preferences. There are many universally revered films that will be low on my list, and plenty of movies regarded generally as crap that get popped up, because I liked them. This also means that expectations may have played some part, and films that disappointed me will be slammed as a result. Even though I think this should go without saying, don't take my opinions as gospel, unless you are also prepared to don a silly cloak and follow me around bowing in constant reverence.
4)Once I have finished counting down to number 1 I will do a supplementary post of all the films that didn't make the cut, and I have to say I was surprised at some quality titles that got knocked off. I think because I was picking and choosing, there just weren't many truly bad films I caught this year.
So without further ado, I shall begin.
An odd place to start, and I think a low ranking that disappoints the Woody Allen fan in me. Watched this as part of my top 250 catchup - even though it hovers around that #250 mark and, at present, is no longer on the list - and all I can say to explain its spot in the doldrums is that it was simply unmemorable. It's about three guys imprisoned in WW1 who subsequently escape... But aside from that, I can't tell you much. By-the-numbers plotting, not a lot of stand-out scenes or impressive imagery. I wasn't bored watching it, but I'm a bit bored trying to come up with interesting things to say about it. Certainly a re-watch could be on the cards; maybe I didn't fully appreciate its subtle craftsmanship.
Okay, how embarrassing, from a French classic to a modern largely kid-focused animation. This was another part of my top 250 catch-up and it ultimately was entertaining enough. If I had to criticise (and I must, I simply must) I would call it predictable, and largely lacking in the sardonic sense of humour that makes animation accessible to a wider adult audience. Plus ultimately, the plot is kind of just Monsters, Inc. without the humour or the imagination. Oh and also, as far as I know Vikings didn't speak English with Scottish accents. That little hiccup aside (in-joke for those who've seen it) (OK, fine, I'll explain it. The main character is called hiccup. And he's little), it was quite good fun.
For some reason I missed the beginning of this franchise when it first came out. Oh, that's right, I was 4. Still, I felt I needed to catch this up particularly after watching (later post spoiler alert) Batman Begins and the Dark Knight for the first time, so I could do a comparison. To be perfectly honest, this one doesn't quite make the grade of Nolan's reimaginings by any stretch of the imagination. Jack Nicholson seems a little too obvious a choice to play the Joker and as a result he seems to be going through the motions here. Plus there's a bit too much comic relief here and it just wasn't as dark as I'd been led to believe. Again, entertaining enough, but Chris Nolan really added something special to this franchise, and to me it's fairly easy to see how this fairly mediocre opening film ended up as Batman & Robin.
Ah, Tarantino. Such a polarising guy. Well, to me at least. I can never really bring myself to truly love anything he brings out, and to me he's really more an entertainer than an artist or anything. With Jackie Brown, most pundits felt he'd dropped the ball, and I'd be inclined to agree. It just lacks a bit of his usual flair and his iconic comedic asides. It's still a stylish crime romp, but no part sticks in the mind like the "Stuck in the Middle with you" or Big Kahuna Burger sequences.
To be perfectly honest, I didn't want to watch this film, even this year with all my free lunch-break time. The concept of a film-length battle sequence in sepia-toned uncanny-valley graphics just made me shudder. In the end, it didn't disappoint, although there were times when I felt it a bit tedious, as there's only so much of this one concept I can watch. You can pretty much just fast-forward through all the bits that aren't Leonidas yelling "THIS IS SPARTA!" and you've seen the highlights. It's a big bag of macho silliness, and it's fun - but little more.
People lump this together with Match Point as examples of how Woody Allen hasn't totally lost the point of late. Now since I loved (LURVED) Match Point, it seemed appropriate that I would love this. I liked it; it's got a classic Allen "it's complicated" love plot and the performances from Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem and particularly Penelope Cruz are top-shelf stuff, but in some ways it left me hollow. I think it's meant to, but I mean in the sense of unfulfilled potential.
Ah, Paul Newman. He makes men's clothes fall off just by looking at them. Which is why this film finds itself quite low on the list. I felt the mood of this film was quite dour and unsatisfying, and I found myself lacking sympathy for most of the protagonists. It's obviously an ambivalent kind of film with Newman's Fast Eddie Felson a bit of an anti-hero, but it dragged quite a lot in the middle and by the time it got to the conclusion, I was expecting a bigger pay-off than I received.
Now to spoil the list a bit, I didn't catch up this year, nor have I ever, with the 1962 Cape Fear original. Yep, that's right, you can stop reading, I knew you were waiting specifically for that. So before I watched this, my sole knowledge of this film was the Cape Feare episode of the Simpsons. While I was at first surprised by the lack of people stepping on rakes in this, I was also quietly amused by the contrivances and far-fetched plot twists. I did, however, read an interesting article on this film called "Re-Evaluating the Hitchcock Formula" in a book called "Film Remakes" that gave me an added appreciation of some of the classic thriller techniques used by Scorsese. In the end, it's a bit of a farce though and is carried almost entirely on the shoulders of a wonderfully creepy De Niro performance.
Okay, well those who know me well will know that my crowning achievement as a copywriter for Harvey Norman was an ad for Miele kitchen appliances with the headline "Thoroughly Modern Miele". That was all I knew about this quite stupefyingly silly comedy-musical before some friends and I sat down to watch it as a kick-off to 2011, on New Year's Day. And my God, what a ridiculous little film it is. From the racist undertones that would make DW Griffith proud to the dialogue, which is so farcical it's hard to tell if the scriptwriters were trolling or just plain stupid. There's no doubt in my mind that this film would have been further down the list if not for the fact that I watched it in such good company, with everybody enjoying the absurdity of the plot and script. I would thoroughly recommend watching this with good friends, and try and appreciate it in those terms, rather than on its own.
So we wrap up the first block of ten with the first film of this year. And what a joy this was. As you know, I love frat-boy comedies, and this is one of the most flatulent and low-brow of the lot, just catnip to me. I've also been lying a lot in the last few sentences. Meditative and haunting as this film tries to be, I found it a bit self-conscious, as though it was trying too hard to be this poetically cathartic explosion. It manages to be unsettling, but I detached myself easily enough because it was so overblown, and while some scenes are masterfully evocative, the film as a whole didn't really speak to me.
So with the first ten done, it just falls for me to say be sure to tune in tomorrow as Miranda finds out who the father of her demon octopus baby really is. Good night, all.
posted by Sean's Beard at 9:28 PM
1 Comments:
No way is 300 better than How to Train Your Dragon!
Also hi, love the list
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