Films of 2011

[Stephan]

Here's my current top 10:

1. Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn)
2. Hugo (Martin Scorsese)
3. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
4. The Descendants (Alexander Payne)
5. Warrior (Gavin O'Connor)
6. Moneyball (Bennett Miller)
7. The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
8. Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy (Tomas Alfredson)
9. 50/50 (Jonathan Levine)
10. Rango (Gore Verbinsky)

Still to watch: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Once Upon A Time in Anatolia, Shame, Take Shelter, The Tree of Life

Any recommendations that aren't too obvious?

[Gillingham]

01. Jodaeiye Nader az Simin / A Separation (Asghar Fahradi)
02. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
03. Le Gamin au Vélo (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
04. A Torinói ló / The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr)
05. Shame (Steve McQueen)
07. The Ides of March (George Clooney)
08. Tyrannosaur (Paddy Considine)
09. Carnage (Roman Polanski)
10. The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)

[antonius]

1.Melancholia
2.The Tree of Life
3.A Separation
4.Drive
5.The Descendants
6.The Artist
7.Moneyball
8.50/50
9.Rango
10.The Ides of March
11.Margin Call
12.Rundskop (Bullhead)

Still to watch: Girl with the dragon tattoo, Warrior, Piel que habito, Take shelter, Shame, Le havre, Le gamin au vélo, Oslo, 31 August, Tinker tailor, We need to talk about Kevin

[Jirin]

For the purposes of this list, '2011-ness' is judged by American availability.

1. Tree Of Life
2. Uncle Boonmee
3. Midnight In Paris
4. Mysteries of Lisbon
5. Le Quattro Volte
6. Melancholia
7. Meek's Cutoff
8. A Separation
9. Certified Copy
10. Drive
11. The Kid With A Bike
12. Le Havre
13. Of Gods And Men
14. The Guard
15. Another Year
16. The Illusionist
17. Martha Marcy May Marlene
18. The Skin I Live In
19. Even The Rain
20. Beats, Rhymes & Life: A Tribe Called Quest

Films I haven't seen yet, that I anticipate ending up on my 2012 list:
The Turin Horse
Once Upon A Time In Antolia
We Need To Talk About Kevin

[Stephan]

Just saw The Tree of Life. A beautifully shot film about a pretty dull family interspersed with random shots and scenes, including a simplistic and inaccurate story of evolution. Kinda boring. 6.5/10

[Jirin]

The Turin Horse is amazing. Hopefully Tarr decides to reverse his retirement, but if not, a perfect swan song for a great career.

Stephan, it's best to view Tree Of Life more as an emotional stream of consciousness than a conventional narrative. My view of the film is that we're seeing everything from the imaginative perspective of Penn's character. I see that sequence in the same light, it's not trying to show the course of evolution, it's representing Penn's emotional impression of the small size of humanity relative to the entire course of geological history. The film doesn't want you to get involved in the story of the family, the film wants you to react to the scenes emotionally without processing them very much.

[Stephan]

I think you mentioned that on the old boards, and that's sort of how I tried to approach it, but there wasn't much emotional resonance for me. I kept wondering things like "So, how did he die?". I may rewatch it some day when I'm a little more melancholic.

Where would you place The Turin Horse in your list? I doubt I'll love it, but Tarr does fascinate me.

[Jirin]

Top 3.

But, if I recall you didn't like Satantango. It's just as slow as Satantango, just a lot shorter. I think it's a great, emotionally powerful, aesthetically beautiful and philosophical movie, but I wouldn't recommend it to somebody who was bothered by the slowness in Tarr's other films.

[John]

Everyone always bemoans the Hollywood happy ending syndrome but if the alternative is Melancholia, I'll take Hollywood cheese. I don't understand how anybody can sit through a film that makes you feel depressed and empty after watching it. I couldn't find a redeeming quality in that movie...

[Jirin]

I will resist the urge to make a long wordy post in defense of Melancholia, but to sum up my feelings about it:

Have you ever felt enormous pressure to be what everybody else wants you to be, and felt your inability to be that was a problem with yourself? That's the way I was able to connect with Melancholia. The depressed woman tries to conform to the kind of lifestyle everybody else tells her she should want. She fails, despising every bit of it. Then when the end of the world comes, she is vindicated, and takes control. She spends her last moments doing what she was trying to do the rest of the film, playing with her nephew. I can't agree with her position that the end of the world would be a good thing, but I can certainly say that in such a situation, I wouldn't worry so much about other people thinking I'm weird for not wanting to be like them.

[John]

It's not so much that I thought the movie sucked... it's that life can be depressing enough sometimes, I don't need my escape from it to confirm that. I look at year end lists, and it's full of these art trying to emulate real life movies. What's the point? I live life. I know what life is. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it downright sucks. When I escape from it, I don't want to relate to it on a personal level, I want to relate to it because it made me really glad I watched it and took me away from my day for a couple hours.

[Gillingham]

I don't watch movies or listen to music (or enjoy any art for that matter) just to escape life. Art is so much more than that. I'd rather think that I do it to enhance life, to have an impact on my view of life. I don't feel depressed or empty after a so-called 'depressing' but well-made film. To the contrary, I feel (this sounds a bit out there, but I don't know how to put it more jejune) elevated.

[Jirin]

I can certainly identify with that, the reason you watch movies is the reason I watch TV.

I think for me, pulp entertainment works better when you have the chance to form a long term attachment to characters. The world of a movie is closed, the world of an ongoing TV show is open.

So I watch TV for uplifting entertainment and I watch movies to exercise my brain.

[Michel]

The best:
1. جدایی نادر از سیمین [A Separation]
2. Take Shelter
3. Melancholia

Very good:
La guerre est déclarée [Declaration of War]
Polisse [Poliss]
Pina

Good:
Rundskop [Bullhead]
Shame
L'exercice de l'État [The Minister]
Les nouveaux chiens de garde [The New Watchdogs]
Detachment
Source Code
The Green Hornet

The worst: Midnight in Paris

[Stephan]

Intouchables is my new #2 of the year. Although it's a bit one-dimensional at times, it's so fantastically hilarious that that doesn't matter too much.

[Gillingham]

Intouchables is my new #2 of the year. Although it's a bit one-dimensional at times, it's so fantastically hilarious that that doesn't matter too much.

I need to see that one as well. Just like Take Shelter. Both are now on in cinemas here, so I will see them soon, hopefully.

[Stephan]

Yeah, I also had Take Shelter lined up. Watched it this morning and I'm still not sure whether Intouchables or Take Shelter is the better film. I'm gonna have to watch both again before I make that call, but for now I'll place Take Shelter at #3. Fantastic film that had me watching breathlessly. 2011 is turning out to be quite a decent year after all.

[Jirin]

Add Once Upon A Time In Anatolia to my top 3.