EVERYTHING
Season of the Witch: The best part is that you might think of the Donovan song of the same name.
True Grit: Gets better each time.
The Roommate: Billy Zane as a creep in a horror movie and he doesn't even get killed?
Pat Garret and Billy The Kid / McCabe and Mrs Miller: One of the greatest westerns ever and not one of the greatest westerns ever.
The King's Speech: This should have been PG.
Drive Angry Shot in 3D: Nick Cage says he will drink beer from skulls, does so.
Zodiac / The Dark Knight: Not a bad double feature.
Beastly: NPH as a blind, bitchy tutor, and an Olson twin as witch. What casting!
Win Win: Funny and heart-warming without resorting to schmaltz.
Red Riding Hood: Gary Oldman as a fanatical werewolf hunter is a minor treasure. He brags about killing his wife (in front of his kids, both the murder and the bragging) and he smithed himself ten pure silver fingernails so he would never be without a weapon.
Battle Los Angeles: Ugh.
Paul: Turns out Simon Pegg and Nick Frost need Edgar Wright and not Greg Motolla
Limitless: Total buttfuck craziness. Like a junkie Twilight Zone episode. Once someone drinks blood to get high, I was sold. No wait, I was sold when someone used a little girl (and her ice skates) as a weapon.
Lincoln Lawyer: Much better than I expected. This could have been tweaked to be a pay cable pilot for a promising show.
Rango: Sure was weird looking.
Sucker Punch: My oh my. People were laughing so loud I had trouble hearing the dialogue.
Insidious: Old fashioned spooky. No blood and guts. Minimal jump scares. Atmosphere and showmanship!
Source Code: Good but it's no Moon.
Your Highness: I had forgotten that I saw this. It was terrible.
Hanna: Nice change of pace for an action film.
Amadeus Director's Cut: My friend Matt calls this the best directors cut of all time. I think he may be right.
Bullitt / Freebie and the Bean: Everybody has seen the classic tough guy San Francisco car chase movie with Steve McQueen, but check out F&B for early buddy cop craziness with James Caan and Alan Arkin running wild in 70's SF and crashing like a thousand cars; seriously, the vehicular mayhem in this movie is unthinkable by modern standards.
Scream 4: Boy did this suck.
Thor: Not bad. Valhalla was weird and cool looking and Thor would smash stuff and ask for horses.
Aguirre Wrath of God / The Good The Bad and The Ugly: Aguirre is one of the best feature films ever that's still under 90 minutes (alongside Rashomon) so it pairs well with the even longer than usual director's cut of GBU which restores some Tuco shenanigans in the first act.
Priest 3D: This movie was very short, almost like they were ashamed or something.
Hangover 2: If they're going to do basically the same thing again, they should start pumping these out annually like the Saw franchise.
X-Men First Class: 2 > 1 > this > 3 > Wolverine: Origins (I didn't see it but probably)
Bridesmaids: Funny but way too long and not that funny.
Note: Most films have full reviews from here on.
Green Lantern: They really should have given him a real suit.
Super 8: This movie greatly benefited from me watching it as the second part of a double feature with Green Lantern but I don't know if it holds up under normal viewing conditions.
Bad Teacher: I still remember some of the laughs from this movie (including the opening scene with current Academy Award nominee Nat Faxon) but Timberlake sure was bizarrely unfunny in this.
Midnight in Paris: I'll damn it with faint praise and say it wasn't painful to sit through.
Horrible Bosses: They should let Colin Farrell star in a comedy.
The Tree of Life: This could be my biggest disappointment of the year. After enjoying Malick's other four films perhaps my expectations were too high for this one. So breathtakingly gorgeous that you could probably take any still frame and mount it on your wall, and yet emotionally so diffuse and remote. Here's hoping for a late-in-life productivity boom from Terry. If you're in Austin and you see him say 'Hi' for me.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams: Probably the best 3D movie I've ever seen.
Captain America: I liked it but it could have used more musical numbers.
Cowboys and Aliens: What a piece of shit.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes: I'm glad that after years as a defacto New York franchise POTA moved to San Francisco (kinda).
30 Minutes or Less: Oh yeah, I forgot about this one; Guess that means it could have been better.
Fright Night: This doesn't count as letting Colin Farrell star in a comedy because he isn't really starring and it's definitely not funny.
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: People keep stumbling onto my review of this film after searching Google for 'the pope' and 'fairy treaty' so I guess I wasn't the only one who was intrigued by that part of the movie.
Contagion: Shlock done smart, hurray!
Raiders of the Lost Ark: This film just got a full 4k digital restoration for its 30th anniversary and it looks fan-fucking-tic. The colors pop like technicolor. The jungles are greener than ever, the caves and deserts are browner than ever, and the blood, my word the blood, the blood is red red red. I forgot how great fake blood looked for the first few decades it was allowed in film. It's so goddamn bright!
Warrior: Stick with Rocky.
Drive: I liked it.
Drive: I liked it more.
Moneyball: Baseball and math are surprisingly cinematic.
Drive: I loved it.
In Time: Somebody get JT a coherent vehicle, stat!
Take Shelter: The more I've thought about the cryptic ending, the more I like it.
Immortals: I liked it more than 300 but that might put me in a very slim minority.
Tower Heist: Please let Eddie be funny again.
J Edgar: Missed opportunity.
The Muppets: Hilarious.
Jack and Jill: Fascinatingly awful.
Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol: Diminishing returns.
Hugo: A movie about movies with an orphan who is a metaphor for movies. Movies!
The Descendants: Maybe if it's on TV someday.
The Artist: Yes go watch this.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Put on your thinking cap and let Gary Oldman rock your world.
The Girl With Dragon Tattoo: Just awful.
Previous Years Best
2006: The Departed, The Prestige
2007: Zodiac, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood
2008: The Dark Knight
2009: Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man
2010: Inception, Carlos
WORST
Battle Los Angeles
I have never walked out of a movie, but this was the closest that I've come in recent memory. I was so bored, it was like time was slowing down. Some movies are bad in memorable or interesting ways but some movies are just so bad you can't even remember anything about them. Except how fucking bad they are.
TOP 3
I'm only an amateur film critic so I thought I would limit myself to a top 5 list instead of the obligatory 10. But once I started hacking, I figured I might as well pare it down to 3 if I could. These are the movies I wanted to see again and again, these are the movies that I wanted other people to see again and again. These are instant classics in my humble opinion.
I Saw The Devil
A thriller that actually thrills, this ranks alongside Silence of the Lambs, Seven, or Zodiac in the serial killer genre. Is it a meditation on grief and revenge or is it a horror movie crossed with an action movie or is it...? How can you classify any movie that features a small speeding car on a snowy mountain road as the setting for a 3-way knife fight? Terrifying beautiful and beautifully terrifying. Totally disgusting, yet I couldn't look away, probably because I genuinely didn't know what would happen next.
13 Assassins
Between this and Inglourious Basterds the 'men on a mission' genre might not yet be totally dead. Seven Samurai, Dirty Dozen, and now this lucky baker's dozen of warriors and ne'er-do-wells who band together behind an aging leader to take down a sadistic tyrant. The film is breathless, and the final hour is gleefully unrestrained carnage that will leave any audience clapping.
Drive
Once I saw it, I wanted to see it again. After I saw it again, I wanted to see it again. I might see it again actually, since it's still playing in at least one theater in my neck of the woods. There's just something about this movie that hooks you in. All the weird stylized choices just mesh together perfectly and you get hypnotized by its off kilter logic. This is one people will definitely still be watching and arguing about for decades.
ACADEMY AWARDS
Best Motion Picture of the Year
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse
I didn't see The Help because it looked awful; a good ol fashioned family dramedy about racism and shitting? All of America says 'count us in!' Eric says 'count me out.' I didn't see Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close because it looked cloying and exploitative (9/11 kills Tom Hanks? No thanks) and it's only just opening on the West Coast after the East Coast had a chance to not enjoy it. I didn't see War Horse yet but I plan on seeing it soon. As for the rest of them, Moneyball and The Descendants were good but not great and certainly not best. The Tree of Life was an interesting failure. Midnight in Paris is not grotesquely stupid but it is wildly overrated. Hugo or The Artist would sit right with me.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir for A Better Life
George Clooney for The Descendants
Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt for Moneyball
I haven't seen A Better Life but the other nominations pair up nicely; two handsome faces delivering acceptable performances versus two genuine talents delivering iconic performances. Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy, wrote Ben Franklin. Well Gary Oldman never being nominated was proof that God doesn't love us and doesn't want us to be happy, wrote Eric, but thankfully we don't live in that world any longer. They snubbed Ryan Gosling for Drive probably because they wanted him to talk more. Boo! He could have talked even less. A man of few words is...
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis for The Help
Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn
I guess they have to nominate Meryl Streep even if everybody thinks the movie is total shite. I am embarrassed that the only one of these I've seen is Rooney Mara in that awful snowrape picture.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill for Moneyball
Nick Nolte for Warrior
Christopher Plummer for Beginners
Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonah Hill? Biggest wild card nomination since Mark Wahlberg? The supporting categories tend to get the crazy, out-there nominations that might unbalance the loftier categories. It's a shame there's no love for Albert Brooks in Drive though. Or Ben Kingsley in Hugo. Even John Lithgow in Rise of the Planet of the Apes was better than... well Nick Nolte since I haven't seen the other three. And what about Uggie from The Artist?! How long until a film trailer uses the phrase Academy Award Nominee Jonah Hill?
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Bérénice Bejo for The Artist
Jessica Chastain for The Help
Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer for The Help
It is a travesty that Berenice Nejo is nominated in the supporting category and not lead, but maybe it was a strategy to avoid competing with the unstoppable Juggernaut that is Meryl Streep. Jessica Chastain was also great in Take Shelter, and managed to stand out in The Tree of Life as well. Hell, if they threw in The Debt they could have nominated her four times if they wanted to. It's nice to see they're nominating more comedic actors like Melissa McCarthy.
Best Achievement in Directing
Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life
Alexander Payne for The Descendants
Martin Scorsese for Hugo
Woody Allen's nomination is a joke. Speaking of jokes, they were better edited and timed in the trailer for Midnight in Paris than they were in the film itself. Four talented directors with interesting original visions, and then some hack who should have spent decades making mediocre TV instead of spotty, slight, solipsistic cinema: one of these things is not like the other. And it means no room for Nicholas Winding Refn for Drive. Heresy!
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
The Artist: Michel Hazanavicius
Bridesmaids: Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo
Margin Call: J.C. Chandor
Midnight in Paris: Woody Allen
A Separation: Asghar Farhadi
Nominating comedies for best screenplay is something the Academy should do more often. I mean comedies where you laugh, like Bridesmaids, and not comedies like Midnight in Paris, which suffocates potential laughs under stilted timing and egotistical pseudo-intellectualism.
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
The Descendants: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
Hugo: John Logan
The Ides of March: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
Moneyball: Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan
The Dean is now an Oscar nominee. And so is the Milkshake man. And look at John Logan, the only man who didn't need a team. I should see The Ides of March but I would probably give this one to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy just for managing to cram all that story into one movie.
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
A Cat in Paris: Alain Gagnol, Jean-Loup Felicioli
Chico & Rita: Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal
Kung Fu Panda 2: Jennifer Yuh
Puss in Boots: Chris Miller
Rango: Gore Verbinski
I saw Rango. It wasn't bad. Weird looking, not very memorable, but not bad. I have not seen any of the others.
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Bullhead: Michael R. Roskam (Belgium)
Footnote: Joseph Cedar (Israel)
In Darkness: Agnieszka Holland (Poland)
Monsieur Lazhar: Philippe Falardeau (Canada)
A Separation: Asghar Farhadi (Iran)
I've heard nothing but great things about A Separation and thankfully it's playing near me so I should get a chance to see it soon.
Best Achievement in Cinematography
The Artist: Guillaume Schiffman
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Jeff Cronenweth
Hugo: Robert Richardson
The Tree of Life: Emmanuel Lubezki
War Horse: Janusz Kaminski
The Tree of Life might be hard to beat in this category unless people get turned off by all the dinosaurs. I would have found room for Drive in this category for pulling off the miracle of making Los Angeles look occasionally beautiful.
Best Achievement in Editing
The Artist: Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants: Kevin Tent
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter
Hugo: Thelma Schoonmaker
Moneyball: Christopher Tellefsen
It was probably most essential in The Artist but it's hard to say. Another category where I have actually see all the movies. And yet again they snubbed Drive.
Best Achievement in Art Direction
The Artist: Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Hugo: Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo
Midnight in Paris: Anne Seibel, Hélène Dubreuil
War Horse: Rick Carter, Lee Sandales
It might be hard for the Academy to resist giving this award to a B&W movie.
Best Achievement in Costume Design
Anonymous: Lisy Christl
The Artist: Mark Bridges
Hugo: Sandy Powell
Jane Eyre: Michael O'Connor
W.E.: Arianne Phillips
Once again, Drive is snubbed. Who can forget the white satin scropion jacket after they've seen it? And what's up with these 3 movies that didn't get any other nominations? Good luck to them.
Best Achievement in Makeup
Albert Nobbs: Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnson, Matthew W. Mungle
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin
The Iron Lady: Mark Coulier, J. Roy Helland
I missed all of these as well.
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
The Adventures of Tintin: John Williams
The Artist: Ludovic Bource
Hugo: Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Alberto Iglesias
War Horse: John Williams
The Artist had great music (and it had to) but it's funny to see the double Williams nominations, his 46th and 47th if you can believe it; now I just have to see those movies. But more importantly, why the shit wasn't Cliff Martinez nominated for Drive? Hell, his score for Contagion was good enough for a nod. Poor Drive.
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
The Muppets: Bret McKenzie ("Man or Muppet")
Rio: Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, Siedah Garrett ("Real in Rio")
The Muppets has great music and hopefully they'll do something clever with the performance like, I dunno, have some muppets on stage to sing.
Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Bo Persson
Hugo: Tom Fleischman, John Midgley
Moneyball: Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, David Giammarco, Ed Novick
Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Peter J. Devlin
War Horse: Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, Stuart Wilson
Hugo had plenty of train station ambiance noise, so why not?
Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Drive: Lon Bender, Victor Ray Ennis
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Ren Klyce
Hugo: Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty
Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl
War Horse: Richard Hymns, Gary Rydstrom
They couldn't ignore Drive completely.
Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler, John Richardson
Hugo: Robert Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, Alex Henning
Real Steel: Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Danny Gordon Taylor, Swen Gillberg
Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White, Daniel Barrett
Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew E. Butler, John Frazier
Rise of the Planet of the Apes should win since they didn't want to nominate Andy Serkis because he's not really an ape.
Best Feature Documentary
Hell and Back Again: Danfung Dennis, Mike Lerner
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front: Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
Pina: Wim Wenders, Gian-Piero Ringel
Undefeated: Daniel Lindsay, T.J. Martin, Rich Middlemas
I didn't see any of these; I guess they didn't like Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
Best Short Documentary:
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement: Robin Fryday, Gail Dolgin
God Is the Bigger Elvis: Rebecca Cammisa, Julie Anderson
Incident in New Baghdad: James Spione
Saving Face: Daniel Junge, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom: Lucy Walker, Kira Carstensen
Nope, haven't seen any of these.
Best Short Film, Animated
Dimanche: Patrick Doyon
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore: William Joyce, Brandon Oldenburg
La Luna: Enrico Casarosa
A Morning Stroll: Grant Orchard, Sue Goffe
Wild Life: Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby
Nope.
Best Short Film, Live Action
Pentecost: Peter McDonald
Raju: Max Zähle, Stefan Gieren
The Shore: Terry George, Oorlagh George
Time Freak: Andrew Bowler, Gigi Causey
Tuba Atlantic: Hallvar Witzø
Negatory.
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