I’ve seen a couple of top 10 type lists popping up lately in on-line media. Since I see most of my films on airplanes or Netflix, I’m always hopelessly behind and look to these sorts of things to figure out what to watch next*.
So brag about the good stuff you’ve seen this year, feel free to slag on anything that was awful or over-hyped (I thought Bridesmaids was okay but not great or even all that good, but I’m a guy). You can do 10 if you want, that seems to be a magic number, but if you only liked a couple or liked a lot, go for it.
*Except for on flights, where I’m a captive audience and sometimes see really good stuff and sometimes pretty bad stuff.
That’s having seen about twenty-three 2011 movies. Hope to get to a lot more though (I suspect I’ll like Young Adult, Shame, Tintin, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Melancholia, etc.). Wish I had caught some like 50/50, Take Shelter, Contagion, but DVD will have to do!
I’ve seen more movies in theatres this year than I ever have, including a couple of different film festivals. I’m having a hard time remembering from earlier in the year, but unless I remember something fantastic, this is my list:
By the way, the poster for this one features a blurb from some moronic reviewer: “A RAUCOUS COMEDY!”
This movie is in no way shape or form a “raucous comedy,” so if you go in expecting that you will be surprised and possibly disappointed. It is a low-key (even depressing) film, with some comedic elements.
This was a pretty horrible year for films. I just looked over the list of films released in 2011 and have seen quite a few of them. Most were OK at best.
But so far, I guess I would have to say:
My Week With Marilyn was quite good - sweet story, great job by Michelle Williams and great cinematography and sets.
Drive - I know some hated this but I liked the story and thought it was paced a bit slow in spots but still worth the wait.
Otherwise, not a single film where I would go “wow” and hope wins Best Film.
I still have some to see (not all released here in Vegas yet), and hope to see some good films in the next few weeks.
There are still 2 weeks to go and I have many movies left to see so I’ll do my list later. Everyone already knows what my very favorite movie of the year is anyway.
I’m sorry the year was so bad for you. I’m glad it was a wonderful year for me.
I think many of the titles already given in this thread shows what a strong year it was. Everyone’s lists has multiple movies I think are gems on it. infinitii’s list, judikium’s list, and phreesh’s list make me drool, but everyone who’s posted has mentioned movies I think are great too.
It’s like that every year though, no matter how many great movies are released, and there are ALWAYS dozens and dozens and dozens, someone always says “It was a horrible year for movies.” Cracks me up.
Nice! I’ve only seen 4 of those and liked them all to varying degrees (in order of regard: Melancholia, Certified Copy, Kaboom! and…Sucker Punch, which I thoroughly enjoyed but nowhere near as much as those other three). I wanted to see Bellflower but it only played two midnight shows one weekend. I wanted to see Miral but it played for a week then left. I hadn’t heard of the others on your list but they all sound fantastic and I’ll keep an eye out for them.
Oh no kidding, what a dumb tag line, though the more you see it the more humor is evident. I saw it for the 3rd time last night and it holds up, and does get even funnier, though hardly “raucous.” It’s often funny in an irreverent, I-can’t-believe-he/they-just-said/did-that! way, it’s also as you say very low-key and sometimes depressing (the look on McBride’s face when he realizes what he’s gotten himself into). Brendan Gleeson is always a joy to watch and Sergeant Gerry Boyle is now my favorite character he’s played, alongside his Ken from In Bruges (fitting since the two movies were made by brothers).
Just saw The Descendants, which I would add to my list of top movies. Not sure it is Best Picture material, but it is quite good, and the cinematography alone was almost worth the ticket.
Aside: Hawaii gets featured surprisingly little in American films given its beauty. Guess maybe because it’s expensive to film there?