Monday Movies Should Check That Out, Or At Least Feel Guilty for Not Doing So
Bonus entry: It’s time for Top Tens!
Here are my top ten movies (selected from the LA Weekly/Village Voice Film Critics Poll) that I didn’t get to see this year, but really want to.
- Attack the Block
- Certified Copy
- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
- Margaret
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- The Skin I Live In
- Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
- Melancholia
- A Dangerous Method
- Margin Call
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams
I’m also very interested in Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Artist, Film Socialisme, The Interrupters and Another Earth, and there are another dozen or so that I’ve noted from that list but will have to fight it out with the rest of the queue.
Here are my top ten movies from this year: Please, see these. They contain wonderful things.
Here’s my second tier: Goods delivered, plus an emotional connection.
- Bridesmaids, Friends With Benefits, The Muppets, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, 50/50, The Descendants.
Only a churl would point out that there are twelve movies on my top ten. N.B. this is only as regards movies with a 2011 release, kind of a silly pursuit for anyone without the prestige-picture-crammed end-of-the-year schedule of the professional film critic. Just the same, though I didn’t publish a top ten for 2010, looking back at the year, the only 2010 movies I saw in 2011 that would have made such a list were Easy A and Blue Valentine.
What are your top ten? DiY hype in the comments, or argue with mine.
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Melancholia is great, plus it makes a good point of comparison for Tree of Life.
Comment by Adam Kotsko | January 2, 2012
So many movies and I haven’t seen a single one of them. I can’t even remember which ones I did see (not a lot, family is not kind on watching non-Family movies). I guess the Coen brothers didn’t release anything in 2011 (and Almodovar lost his spark a long time ago). I would still like to see Drive though. In general, though, I don’t think the not watching movies in 2011 was not just caused by Family affairs, judging from the lists there really isn’t anything that I would plan for.
Comment by Guido Nius | January 2, 2012
I don’t pay $200 for cable for nothing. I’ll wait. If they don’t show up for free, $4.99 will usually get me anything on foreign film ondemand. The only ones I’m impatient for are the Kiarostomi, “Call me Joe’s” , and Melancholia. Older is better, if you search conscientiously. Period. Although not always great.
12/26/11 – Love Affair – McCarey 1939 7/10 Better than Grant but disappointing after all the hype
12/27/11 – Humanity and Paper Balloons – Yamanaka 1938 10/10 talked about Yamanaka last week
12/29/11 – The Company Men – Wells 2009 5/10 tv-movie level
12/31/11 – Chinese Ghost Story II – Tsui Hark 1990 7/10 good pretty fun fun
1/01/12 – Villon’s Wife (Cherry and Dandelion) – Negishi Kichitaro 2009 8/10
A bunch of media was made to celebrate the 100 birthday of Osamu Dazai, including a low budget Shayo This was definitely prettied up and softened from the original novel and Japan 1946, including masterpiece theatre sepia tone, but was decent set decoration and costumes and the acting was top-notch. It did catch enough of the Japanese school of literally suicidal self-loathing asshole literature to shock and confuse an IMDB reviewer. I want to understand this.
The exciting thing is that I have started the Pimsleur program and the results are amazing me after three lessons. iI heard Japanese in the last movie instead of a jumble, because Pimsleur is teaching me to listen to Japanese. And understood an amazing amount. Maybe the subtitles kept me from listening.
Comment by bob mcmanus | January 2, 2012
Oops I posted in the wrong thread.
Comment by bob mcmanus | January 2, 2012
Jeez, can I come up with ten out of the 300 classics I watched this year? No, I can’t. The big names,:everything you can get. Ozu, Naruse, Yamanaka, Shimizu (30s), Mizoguchi probably least, Kurosawa according to taste. Kobayashi. After that I will go through what amazed me
Night and Fog in Japan – Oshima
Secret Sunshine, Poetry, Peppermint Candy – Lee Chang-dong
Maboroshi No Hakiri – Koreeda
Sleeping Man – Oguri
Eros Plus Massacre – Yoshida (this is hilarious); Akitsu Springs is the classic Japanese romance
Syndromes and a Century – Joe
A City of Sadness- Hou Hsiao-hsien
Pigs and Battleships – Inamura
A Taste of Tea – Ishii
All About Lily Chou-Chou – Iwai
Only Yesterday – Takahata Studio Ghibli
Chungking Express – Wong Kar Wai
Zatoichi – Kitano (for the sound design if nothing else)
These should be easy to find, and are good enough, with universal aappeal.
Samurai Trilog – Yamada Yoji
Comment by bob mcmanus | January 2, 2012
Attack the Block was magnificent.
Comment by ebolden | January 4, 2012