By Spence Blazak
HONORABLE MENTIONS
-Most superhero movies are complete and utter shit. Here we have well developed characters who aren't just something out of a comic, enjoyably campy performances, Nazis getting beaten up, and the best propaganda war song since "You're a Grand Ole Flag."
13. War Horse
12. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
11. Moneyball
-Spectacular story and script that is riveting from start to finish, but Brad Pitt shouldn't be a serious consideration for Best Actor here….he just worked out, acted sassy, and gave himself and South Western accent. Heck, I did the same thing when I saw Tim McGraw in concert! WHERES MY OSCAR?!?!?! But really…..very good movie…..
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10. The Artist
-A silent film star must learn to cope in a world that has moved onto talking pictures. The performances from the male and female leads are more than Oscar worthy, and the movie is worth seeing for them alone. Sadly, I feel like overall, it is a little bit empty. I don't feel like they had enough going for it to be a full length movie because several scenes drag and feel like filler. A silent movie is undoubtedly a difficult thing to pull off, and everyone who made it deserves kudos, but I just don't feel that it is the cinematic godsend that the media has made it out to be. It is charming and enjoyable throughout, but its short comings hold it back from a higher spot on the list.
9. The Descendants
-I would have no objections if George Clooney gets the Oscar for his performance here. The test of a great "every man" performance is whether or not you can be convincing as an "every man" even though you won the "Sexiest Man Alive" award for the better part of the 90's. Clooney plays a man dealing with the repercussions of his wife getting into a boat crash and being put into a coma, including finding out that she was having an affair when the accident happened. The problem with the movie is that, as with The Artist, I feel like I was missing something that everyone in the media seemed to see. Was it a good movie? Yeah of course, but it didn't really have a big pay off. By no means should it be considered the best movie of the year, but it should definitely be considered of the year's better ones.
8.. 50/50
-A movie as much filled with hysteria and heartbreak as it is with humor and hope. Melancholy abounds, and the movie is one of the most honest I've ever seen. Joseph Gordon-Levitt outdoes anything else he has ever done in his performance as the young man diagnosed with cancer. The movie is centered on two things: his character going through the 5 stages of grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance) and the power that the humor and support of his best friend, played Seth Rogen, hold.
7. Midnight in Paris
-Director/Writer Woody Allen reminds everyone that not only is he still alive, but that he can still make a damn good movie. A fairy tale for weirdos who took AP English and Art History in high school and who are spending their winter break teaching themselves French (not that…I'm doing that or anything….). Owen Wilson plays a man who found a way to get to 1920's Paris, the place he has always wanted to be. A commentary on whether or not a person can really be "born too late" and the importance that the universal importance of everything, Allen's latest endeavor is masterful cinema.
6. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
-A journalist is hired to help solve a cold case murder from 40 years prior. His eventual assistant is the titular girl with the dragon tattoo, an Aspergers afflicted, brilliant hacker. A thriller that deserves to stand among the best of the genre, Girl remains complex but never confusing enough to lose its viewer. Just about as terrifying and unsettling as a movie can be. In a good way!
5. Tree of Life
-Every year has one: an absurdly pretentious movie about the meaning of life and existence. Yet this one works. The film is sandwiched between sequences of the Big Bang and the Earth being enveloped by an exploding sun at the end of the universe, and depicts a man (Sean Penn) coming to terms with…well, everything. It is the anniversary of his brother's death, and the majority of the film takes place with the camera as his mind's eye. He flashes back to his childhood, where his father (Brad Pitt) rules over him and his brothers with an iron fist, and when something catastrophic happens, the film jumps to 10,000,000 BC where dinosaurs wander around a creek or to a family of jellyfish dancing in the ocean. The film concentrates on images and the balance between living of life by way of grace and one of nature. As well shot as any movie you'll ever see, Terrence Mallick paints a masterpiece from beginning to end. And Brad Pitt gives my favorite performance of the year.
4. Arthur Christmas
-The curse nepotism, the importance of faith, and a supporting cast of characters that are both heroic and villainous make for a Christmas movie that trump all of its predecessors through its trailblazing everything. With each passing year it becomes harder and harder to be original (especially in the realm of a holiday movie), and when something not only is innovative but also as heartwarming as a video of a child in school being surprised by their soldier dad giving them an unexpected visit visit, it is worth taking notice.
3. Win Win
-Paul Giamatti (my pick for the best leading man in Hollywood today) plays a lawyer moonlighting as the coach of the local high school wrestling team. Tight on money, he decides to swindle one of his elderly clients by telling the courts he will be his caretaker, when he has really just hoisted him off onto a retirement home. One day, the man's grandson shows up on the old man's doorstep. Giamatti takes care of the boy, and soon realizes he is one of the best wrestlers in the country. A slice of nirvana captured on film. Humor that is worthy of a guffaw, drama that gingerly stays away from being dubbed "melo-dramatic," and a quick and clever script that is treated masterfully by the talented cast, Win Win is the most underrated movie of the year. Look for it. The cover is yellow and green.
2. Drive
-The bad ass action movie that redefines both action and badass. Ryan Goesling (or as I like to call him, Da Goz) is a stunt driver who also works as a getaway man. Think of the plot as what The Transporter could have been….if it wasn't just a contrived piece of shit. The car chases are the best I've seen in recent memory, and the film sets itself up to have lots of predictable cliches, only to make a hairpin turn and take you into another direction. Also, Da Goz is on screen for the majority of the movie, but only has about 15 lines and yet he still manages to rivet you to the screen. AND he kills a guy in an elevator with his boot. Expect an Oscar nod for Albert Brooks (Marlin from Finding Nemo) as the evil mob boss.
1. Hugo
-One of the best movies I've ever seen. Period. A little orphan boy lives in the walls of a Paris train station after WWI working as the station's clock tuner as well as a petty thief. The first movie in years (and possibly the only one) by Martin Scorcesse that doesn't have the word "fuck" in it, Hugo is a children's movie for kids that have a full beard, are 6' 5'', and wear a size 15 Ugg boot. My cold cold heart was melted right away by the relentless charms that emanates from the screen from start to close. Perfect performances, direction, cinematography, CGI, suspense, mystery, heartbreak, hope, and beauty, Hugo is my hands down pick for the best motion picture of 2011.
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