The Oscar nominations are out, and there are few of the head scratching inclusions and omissions that we frequently see. Of the Best Picture nominations, The Artist, The Descendants, Hugo and Midnight in Paris all made my Best Movies of 2011. Although they didn’t make my Best of the Year list, War Horse and Moneyball are very good movies that I recommend. I haven’t yet seen The Help, which is, by all accounts, a fine film. Although I hated The Tree of Life, it was the biggest art film of the year and much praised by mainstream critics. The one jaw dropper is the critically scorned Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which exploits 9/11 in the pursuit of a three hankie weeper.
My biggest disappointments were the snubbing of Michael Shannon’s performance in Take Shelter and the innovative screenplay by Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman for Young Adult.
The acting categories seem a little light to me this year with the exception of Best Actress, with two performances for the ages by Michele Williams in My Week with Marilyn and Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady.
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.
If any new face has broken through in 2011, it’s the actress Jessica Chastain. First, she delivered a fine performance as an enabling 1950s mom in the most coherent part of The Tree of Life. This week, she followed that with an excellent performance as a 1960s Mossad agent (the younger version of Helen Mirren’s character) in the thriller The Debt. She won critical praise for the trashy but aspiring housewife in a film I haven’t seen – The Help. So we already know that Chastain is versatile enough to play soft and tough, brittle and sexy, action and romance.
Later this fall, she will have three more films in release. In Take Shelter, she plays the wife of the mentally disintegrating Michael Shannon. She’s a tough cop in The Texas Killing Fields. And then she’s in Ralph Fiennes’ adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.
My top choice choice this week is still the Irish dark comedy The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle.
There are three movies now in theaters from my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far, including Woody Allen’s sweet, funny and thoughtful comedy Midnight in Paris. Buck is an extraordinary documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story. You might still be able to find Errol Morris’ documentary Tabloid, the hilarious story of Joyce McKinney, a beauty queen jailed for manacling a Mormon missionary as her sex slave and, decades later, cloning her dog.
A Little Help is a funny Jenna Fischer vehicle about a sad sack mom. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are excellent in the romcom Crazy Stupid Love. The Names of Love is an amusing but forgettable French comedy about a flighty leftwinger who seeks to educate and convert conservatives by sleeping with them.
Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
Despite Rachel Weisz’s performance, The Whistleblower is a misfire – a potentially riveting story clumsily told. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
The best choice in theaters this week is the Irish dark comedy The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle.
There are three movies now in theaters from my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far, including Woody Allen’s sweet, funny and thoughtful comedy Midnight in Paris. Buck is an extraordinary documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story. You might still be able to find Errol Morris’ documentary Tabloid, the hilarious story of Joyce McKinney, a beauty queen jailed for manacling a Mormon missionary as her sex slave and, decades later, cloning her dog.
A Little Help is a funny Jenna Fischer vehicle about a sad sack mom. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are excellent in the romcom Crazy Stupid Love. The Names of Love is an amusing but forgettable French comedy about a flighty leftwinger who seeks to educate and convert conservatives by sleeping with them.
If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread).
Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
Despite Rachel Weisz’s performance, The Whistleblower is a misfire – a potentially riveting story clumsily told. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
What a summer for documentaries! Errol Morris’ documentary Tabloid delivers the hilarious story of Joyce McKinney, a beauty queen jailed for manacling a Mormon missionary as her sex slave. The riveting documentary Project Nim tells the story of a chimp taught human language and the humans who nurture, exploit, abuse and rescue him. Buck is another wonderful documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story.
The sweet, funny and thoughtful comedies Beginners and Midnight in Paris are also on my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.
See the original and heartfelt teen misfit movie Terri if you can still find it. A Little Help is a funny Jenna Fischer vehicle about a sad sack mom. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are excellent in the romcom Crazy Stupid Love.
If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best. The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
I haven’t yet seen the dark Irish comedy The Guard (starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle) or the sexy French comedy The Names of Love, which opens this weekend. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD pick is The Music Never Stopped, with excellent performances by J.K. Simmons and Lou Taylor Pucci and lots of Grateful Dead.
Movies on TV this week include the classic noir The Third Manon TCM.
Watch for the original and heartfelt teen misfit movie Terri – it won’t remain in theaters very long.
Errol Morris’ documentary Tabloid delivers the hilarious story of Joyce McKinney, a beauty queen jailed for manacling a Mormon missionary as her sex slave.
Four movies on my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far are still playing. The best movies are still the sweet, funny and thoughtful comedies Beginners and Midnight in Paris, along with the riveting documentary Project Nim. Buck is a wonderful documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story.
If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. A Little Help is a funny Jenna Fischer vehicle about a sad sack mom. Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best. The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
I haven’t yet seen the stylish noir The Road to Nowhere by cult director Monte Hellman, which opens this weekend. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
Movies on TV this week include two mockable films on TCM: the 60s melodrama The Chase, which has earned a place in my Bad Movie Festival. Juarez contains one of my 10 Least Convincing Mexicans.
The cream of the crop are still the sweet, funny and thoughtful comedies Beginners and Midnight in Paris, along with the riveting documentary Project Nim. Buck is a wonderful documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story. All four are on my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.
If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. The Trip delivers some chuckles. Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes. Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times explores journalism’s evolution in an age of new media, and I recommend it for hard news junkies.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best. The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
I haven’t yet seen Sarah’s Key or Road to Nowhere, which open this weekend, or Tabloid, which opens widely. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
The cream of the crop are still the sweet, funny and thoughtful comedies Beginners and Midnight in Paris, along with the riveting documentary Project Nim. All three are on my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.
Buck is a wonderful documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story. If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. The Trip delivers some chuckles. Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes. Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times explores journalism’s evolution in an age of new media, and I recommend it for hard news junkies.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best. The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor in Beginners
This week, the best choices are still the sweet, funny and thoughtful Beginners and Midnight in Paris. This week’s Project Nim is one of the year’s best documentaries. If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. The Trip delivers some chuckles. Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best. The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
My DVD pick is Another Year. Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake) has brought us another brilliant observation of the human condition, and asks why some people find contentment and others just cannot. Another Year is one of Leigh’s best, and on my list of Best Movies of 2010.
