Just caught “Weekend” on Netflix. A few critics I like had been championing it, so I gave it a shot.
I am thisclose to putting it at #1 on my list. It’s that good. I’ve heard it called a gay, British “Before Sunrise”, which is a pretty good comparison.
Yep, Weekend will be in my Top 10, maybe Top 5. I only saw it in the theater once but it’s coming back to Chicago this Friday and I’m going to see it again. The first time I went in knowing nothing and I was on edge, not knowing if at any moment one of them was going to turn into a serial killer or vampire (clearly I see too many genre movies) and was relieved to realize it’s a relationship film. I want to see it again relaxed and smiling. I compared it to “Before Sunrise” on Twitter when chatting with Chris New. He hadn’t seen it but he’d heard the comparisons too.
I would love to see a sequel. They’re people you want to hang out with more, and wish to have as friends.
The Interrupters: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_interrupters_2011/
If A Tree Falls (available on Netflix): http://www.ifatreefallsfilm.com/film.html
Of Gods and Men: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/of_gods_and_men/
That film about the Muppets. Can’t remember it’s name, though.
Zookeeper? The people who greenlit that were a bunch of muppets.
Because it’s there? lol
Another movie I really like was A Better Life, but it made me cry. If anybody else sees & likes it I’d also recommend an old one, El Norte.
Oh, the one I really really didn’t like was Beginners, not Beginnings.
Beginners was my 2nd favorite movie of the year. I love it unreservedy. It has such an open, loving heart, much like the beautiful Away We Go from a few years ago, or the previously-mentioned Weekend.
I do agree with you about A Better Life. Such a good movie.
Maybe I should give it a second chance. I cut it off after 15 minutes because it seemed like a documentary about very boring people.
Sometimes soup without salt takes several spoonsful before one appreciates the other spices.
*Drive
Puss n Boots
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Thor
X-Men: First Class
*
I have not seen a lot of movies this year, though. I am sure I am missing something.
One of the critics from the Hollywood Reporter came out with his list of the best films of the year.
Thanks DMark, there are a couple on the list I’m going to try to see now.
I’ve seen 8 of Feinberg’s 10. Margin Call came and went in a flash, before I had a chance to see it, and Pariah hasn’t opened in Chicago yet. Of the 8 I saw, I wasn’t crazy about Like Crazy, Ides Of March or War Horse (though I would certainly give them all 2nd chances), but I did very much like The Artist, The Skin I Live In, The Whistleblower and Moneyball. I especially like the fact that he has The Whistleblower on his list. I’m probably one of 5 people who paid to see that in the theater during the short time it played, and it’s so good, and so important.
I don’t think it’s technically a 2011 film, but we recently saw Viva Riva! which is a Congolese crime thriller - it was excellent and I would highly recommend it. (It’s streaming on Netflix.)
I can’t quite pick a favourite movie - right now I’d say “The Descendants” but I’ll feel differently tomorrow, or hell, in an hour - but I’ll tell you right now it’s not “Hop,” which might actually have been one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in any year.
It was certainly the worst children’s movie I have ever paid money to see, and that’s saying a lot in a year with the weird “Gnomeo and Juliet” and hopelessly boring “Smurfs,” but “Hop” was fifty thousand times worse.
I think it is technically a 2011 film, at least for the US. I saw an advance screening in June, and it opened in Chicago a few weeks later. This was my fairly useless mini-review: