10. Source Code
- Director Duncan Jones returned to theaters with this science fiction thriller about an Afghanistan veteran waking up on a train in Chicago inserted into the last 8 minutes of a man's life. Someone blew up the commuter train and Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) job is to find the person responsible and stop them. The catch is that he only has 8 minutes to do it and when he fails he gets inserted right back into it again to try and piece everything together. The Source Code is a new device designed by a scientist where one can be inserted into a person's life for their final 8 minutes and create an alternate timeline of events. As Colter tries to solve the problem he picks up little tidbits of information and develops an attraction to another passenger on the train. Pieces of information he gathers from one scenario bleed into the next one as he tries to use other time lines to save the current timeline he finds himself in. It is a challenging film to follow in that it expects its viewers to keep up with it and never dumbs down the premise or the explanations for people who may get lost along the way. I'm always going to be a fan of films that respect the audience's intelligence and there are plenty of good characters here and the action manages to be both exhilarating and poetic at the same time.
9. Moneyball
- Based on the popular book in baseball circles, Moneyball chronicles the 2001 season of the Oakland Athletics as general manager Billy Beane tries to change the paradigm of baseball. Many probably saw the trailers and the source material and dismissed the film out of hand. Those people are foolish. This is an excellent story that has overtones of the classic David vs Goliath battle. Here though, David solely focuses on his intellect to try and take down Goliath. If the big teams can out spend everyone it is foolish to try to play the game by their rules on their turf. However, if you can create a new method for selecting guys, and place emphasis on statistics, then you can bring in guys who fit a team concept rather than fitting guys into a team. This is a movie that could have been buried in statistics and boring exposition but the script finds some pretty funny moments and Pitt does a superb job of creating a "hero" who is equal parts too smart for the room and vulnerable to his insecurities.
8. Crazy Stupid Love
- The most refreshing part about this story is that it is written as an adult love story for adults. The characters are not treated stupidly here. They do dumb things but it isn't some plot contrived event, it happens because they are following their heart blindly and not listening to reason. Anyone who has ever felt love can identify with that. Essentially what you have here is a film that focuses on love and then looks at it from multiple genders, ages, and perspectives. You are bound to find someone to connect with here. That alone is an achievement because too often these films paint characters in unflattering light. Here we have a movie littered with sympathetic characters. Even David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon) who has the affair with Emily is painted with a soft brush. He isn't some co-worker prowling over some married woman. She was looking to cheat and needed attention and David happened to be there at the right time for that to happen. Up and down this film there are nothing but great performances. Carrell finds a sweet balance between a man hopeful and desperate to keep together what he has. Moore and Bacon play their parts well. Tomei is all spastic energy and her scenes are some of the funniest in the film. Emma Stone is a fantastic actress and as long as she doesn't shoot herself off the rails she will be one of the best actresses of her generation. The real find here is Gosling though. He finds good spaces for this part and infuses a lecherous man with enough heart and goodwill that you are on his side.
7. Super 8
- My original thought posted on Facebook very simply said that, "Someone should show this movie to Michael Bay and tell him that THAT is how you do an action movie." That was met with mild skepticism but I invite anyone to watch this movie and say they don't like it. It has action, and explosions, and a few good scares but what sells the film is the heart and soul directly in the middle of this. It's an alien movie in the same way E.T. was in that the alien is sort of tangential to the rest of the film. I know this film got lumped as a mix of different Spielberg films (and in some ways it is) but this film has its own ideas and vision. Before everything goes haywire in the town what you have is two young men who are absolutely smitten with a girl that is starring in the film they are making. That could've been bad but Elle Fanning is so completely adorable in her role and you can see why these boys are tripping over themselves for her. The scene with them recording dialogue at the train station is riveting and moving. She is so good there and you, as the viewer, are sort of living through the eyes of the boys there as you sit there mouth agape at her reading. Then things get nuts and because you believe wholeheartedly in why someone would love this girl it draws you into the story. By the end you want the kids to be safe and a part of you wishes you were living in this moment so you could be having these adventures with your friends. This movie will make you want to be 12 again and have that wild-eyed sense of wonder. The end is a bit of a let down but still- it's almost perfect.
6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- With Super 8 in June and this film in August it gave me some great relief to the future of summer blockbusters. This film, much like Super, flashes big action sequences but surrounds it with a completely compelling story making the impact that much more satisfying. The film got slagged a little early on because people were expecting this to be a film where apes destroy everything and run roughshod over the city of San Francisco. This isn't that movie though. This is more about the apes starting to gain a stronger foothold in the world as the human race begins to eliminate their own. They explicitly show in a tag scene during the closing credits how this will happen. The real fun here though comes from Andy Serkis. His acting in the film covers a wide variety of emotions as he plays Caesar as a wide eyed youngster, a rebelling teenager, a person questioning their identity and finally a defiant leader. There is a debate going on about his Oscar chances and I think he really deserves strong consideration. I know it is a computer and everything but it is him infusing the character with emotion and really elevating the story at every single turn. It's a great performance and probably his best work so far.
5. Insidious
- If you ever wonder what would've happened had Alfred Hitchcock made a Gothic horror film- Insidious is the answer. The sound editing is top notch on this film as it creates scares and
tension without resorting to cheap fake jump scares. The strings on the
soundtrack reverberate fear into the viewer and then there are some
absolutely terrifying images throughout including one of the best jump
scares in the past 10 years. What really sets this film apart though is
that director James Wan really wants you to be forever scanning the
screen for what lurks in the corner or on the periphery of the action.
There is one creepy scene that takes place in the middle of the two and
features two "Did I just see that moments?" which work incredibly well.
There may be some complaints about the last third of the movie but I think that is a little short-sighted and speaks more to how great the first two thirds of the movie is. The writers set an impossibly high bar to cross and instead of trying and failing, they go completely into left field with the explanation as to what is happening and the final images of Patrick Wilson walking through the house to find his son are incredibly creepy. This film finds a way to be scary without being cheap about it.
4. Bridesmaids
- If Judd Apatow, Paul Feig, and Kristen Wiig's goal here was to prove
that women can do raunchy as well as the men- then I guess mission
accomplished. However, that sort of sells the film short even though it
was the running dialogue for critics of the film. This is a film that is
full of heart and while there is craziness surrounding everything that
happens, the very grounded performance by Wiig is what sells this film
and makes it a revelation. Wiig plays the lifelong best friend of Maya
Rudolph's bride and feels like she is being pushed aside by a new
friend, played by Rose Byrne. On top of that, everything in Wiig's life
is falling apart and this whole spectacle is making her feel less and
less like a whole person and more a jigsaw puzzle of goals and
objectives that she has failed to reach so far. There are some
legitimate real sad moments here which run in a weird juxtaposition to
the comedy, but it's those former scenes that really sell the latter
ones. There is a glorious 5 minute scene where Wiig and Byrne deliver
competing speeches at the engagement party- with each one trying to one
up the other. You feel for Wiig's character as she knows Rudolph better
than anyone there but she can't quite eloquently put that into words.
Partly because she's not good at this type of thing, but also partly
because she is downright jealous of her friend and is wrestling with how
that feeling conflicts with happiness for her best friend. On top of
that scene is a great scene on an airplane where Wiig does her best
Lucille Ball impression and effectively garners laughs out of a
situation that is so uncomfortable it makes you squirm just watching it.
The big gross out scene is funny enough, but it doesn't feel germane to
the rest of the story and is slightly out of place. Also, Melissa
McCarthy is a riot as the completely over the top sister in law to be.
3. Hugo
- This film is pure and simply Martin Scorsese's love letter to film. Hugo is a young boy that lives in train station and continues to keep the clocks there moving long after his uncle has passed away. Hugo is enamored with a mechanical man that his dad was trying to make work when he died. In the station, Hugo meets an old shop owner who carries the secret of being a former film director that was loved but gave up his dreams after World War I. Hugo helps him rediscover the magic of those films and gain an appreciation for what he did and furthermore, how his films touched people. This film is a cinematic delight in every sense of the word. It is beautiful, both visually and emotionally, and is geared towards all of us who love films. It reminds us why we love the movies. It is about being enchanted and sucked into a world that- while imaginary- feels all so real. The film functions as a mix of heart, humor, and film history balled into a touching yarn as Scorsese tips his cap to a director from a past era. Also, this film may be some of the best use of 3D ever. The opening scene alone where the camera swoops into the Paris train station rushing past travelers and trains filling the frame with depth characters looks stunning, and the travel from outside the station in works as a framing device as if to say, "This is what film does."
2. Warrior
- This film had every reason to be a melodramatic mess. Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton play brothers that come from an estranged family. When he was 16, Brendan (Edgerton) stayed with his dad and his then girlfriend when the mom and Tommy (Hardy) left. Their mom eventually got sick and passed away and Tommy had to bear the brunt of that pain all by himself. Tommy refuses to forgive Brendan for this and not even being told that Brendan married that girl and Tommy is an uncle heals the open wounds. Their dad is a recovering alcoholic who has turned into a Christian and is sober. Tommy asks his dad to train him for a mixed martial arts tournament but only under the condition that he not try to heal their relationship. Tommy is hiding some scars from being a veteran and is trying to mask the acclaim and shame he has garnered from being a veteran. Meanwhile, Brendan has entered the same tournament as a means to support his wife and their children and pay for their house. The tournament comes and you know that eventually the brothers are going to meet and of course it will be in the finals. However, that does not detract from the emotional pain and toll this film takes on its characters and the viewer. There are complications as the tournament rolls on for both guys and in the end they battle strongly against each other for their own good. As a viewer though you are rooting for the family because both the guys are likable and are doing what they can to provide for themselves and the ones they love. It is an emotional gut punch of a movie time and again. Yes, it is a theme that has been done time and again but the acting, the heart, and the warmth of the film are what sets this over the top. It's criminal this did not find a bigger audience in theaters.
1. Drive
- This was an excellent year for Ryan Gosling and I didn't even get to see Blue Valentine which was apparently excellent as well. Here, Gosling is a stunt driver for movies that doubles as a getaway driver for crimes and a mechanic. The Driver has his rules- never work twice for the same person, works anonymously, and gives them a 5 minute time frame to do their job. His boss wants to have the Driver race stock cars and he takes out a 300,000 dollar loan from mobster Bernie Rose (played brilliantly by Albert Brooks). To that point in the film what you see is a Driver who is emotionally vacant. He is there but he doesn't attach to anyone or anything. He prefers to live his life in shadows. Then we meet his pretty neighbor (Carey Mulligan) and her kid and we see the beginnings of the Driver getting attached to something. However, the husband gets out of jail and gets back into the picture and the Driver agrees to help him with a job to get him and the family out of trouble. As it always is in these films, it isn't quite that easy though as there are a bunch of backstabbing deals here and what it looks like is happening- isn't really happening. The Driver takes it upon himself to exact justice and revenge on those that have done him and the neighbor wrong. This is a high-powered action film but it is so different than what we normally see in theaters. It is a deliberate film where every line, and shot, matters in the long run. This is a film that is an exercise in style and substance but it is so intelligent and driven that it feels authentic all the way through. It's a visceral film that has depth and sometimes that is all you can ask for at the movies.
There it is. That's the list for 2011.
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