2011 Movie Round-Up!!

Happy New Year Everyone!

So yeah, in case you didn't notice, my foolish dreams of posting this end-of-year summation of movie-viewing while still actually in the year in question were, as already stated, foolish.  Laughable, really.  Honestly, at this point, I'm just glad we're only a week and a half into the New Year.

That being said, I continue to nourish obscene delusions of actually being able to write some more before the new semester gets into full swing.  I have so many posts-in-progress in my brain, threatening to be forgotten before they're actually written!  The thought makes me sad.  Also mad. 

I mean really.  I'm seriously so busy I can't write some silly blog posts every now and again?

Behold this post: a bold act of defiance!  A resounding reclamation of some vanishingly tiny corner of my life to which grad school has yet to lay claim!!!

...It's been a long day.

So!  Let's review the whole list of movies I watched this last year, shall we?

1. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (3)
2. I'm Still Here (2)
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (4)
4. The Fighter (4)
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (5)
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (4)
7. Barney's Version (4)
8. The White Ribbon (5)
9. The Wrestler (4)
10. Stavisky... (4)
11. A Single Man (3.5)
12. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (3)
13. Awful Normal (3)
14. The Witches of Gambaga (5)
15. Shorts: The Deliverance of Comfort (5), 

Taharuki (Suspense) (4), and Phyllis (3)
16. The Machinist (3.5)
17. The Other Guys (2)
18. Chop Shop (3)
19. How to Marry a Millionaire (5)
20. Hanna (5)
21. Win Win (2)
22. Bridesmaids (4)
23. Shorts: The Pottery Maker (5) and Cheese (4)
24. Los Muertos (5)
25. Super 8 (2)
26. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (4)
27. Buck (5)
28. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (5!)
29. The Social Network (3.5)
30. The House of Yes (4)
31. Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (4)
32. Persona (5)
33. Waste Land (5!)
34. Green Lantern (2)
35. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (5)
36. The Girl Who Played With Fire (4)
37. The Trip (4)
38. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (3.5)
39. Tabloid (5!)
40. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (5)
41. Cowboys & Aliens (3.5)
42. Tangled (3)
43. Salt (2)
44. Gothika (3)
45. Atonement (4)
46. The Debt (3.5)
47. The Help (3)
48. Drive (1)
49. Last Days (4)
50. Bill Cunningham New York (4.5)
51. Ides of March (2)
52. The U.S. vs. John Lennon (4)
53. Bugsy (4)
54. The Silence (4)
55. In Time (2)
56. Enter the Dragon
57. Muppet Christmas Carol (4)
58. Melancholia (*)
59. Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (3)
60. Young Adult (2)
61. A Dangerous Method (4)

That's right!!  Booyah grad school!  Almost ten movies in excess of my goal!  AGAIN!!!  If I had more energy, I would totally be doing a gloaty little dance right now.

Indeed, with enough energy, it might even be as epic as this one:

Especially the little snapping moves.

Alas.

In retrospect, it appears I either (a) watched way more movies I actually didn't hate this year, or (b) I became much more forgiving with my ratings.  I say that because "Drive" (2011) is the only movie I gave a 1 rating to, and then only after I agonizingly talked myself into it.

So, by default, my least favorite movie of the year would be "Drive".  I feel this designation is fitting, as I'm still pretty pissed about that movie.  In fact, my ire toward it is only further rankled by crappy publications seriously trying to tell me that it was the best movie of the year.

BITCH PLEASE. 

We will now decide what was ACTUALLY the best movie of the year.

The Candidates:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) 

The White Ribbon (2009) 

The Witches of Gambaga (2010)

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

Hanna (2011) 

Los Muertos (2004)

Buck (2011)

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) 

Waste Land (2010)

Persona (1966)

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo** (2009)

Tabloid (2011) 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)

Wow.  Good year! 

Also can I just say that I feel awesome about the fact that I wrote posts about almost all of these films?

A more modest gloaty dance for this occasion:

Movie... time....

So yeah.  Jesus, I really don't know how I'm going to choose.  Umm...

(Insert about 5 minutes of staring at the above list and making uncomfortable, indecisive noises.)

Okay, I'm trying to narrow it down.  My chronologically-ordered top four would be "The White Ribbon" (2007), "Hanna" (2011), "Buck" (2011),  and "Tabloid" (2011).

(I can't believe it, but I'm actually getting a bit of a stomach ache trying to choose between these movies.  I love them so much!  Guys, they're all seriously really good!!)

Okay.  Okay!  I think I've chosen.

For me, the best movie of the year was surprising, complex, thoughtful, subtle, funny, and overall ceaselessly entertaining.  It's the movie I've found myself entreating people to see, over and over, because seriously guys you have to see it it's so good!  Its selection highlights the fact that for me (and apparently other people too), this year in movies was very much the year of the documentary.  Perhaps best of all, selecting this movie captures with it the wonderful experience I had viewing it, in what is now possibly my most favorite museum of all museums ever, with its brilliant and influential director in attendance.

That's right: My favorite movie of the year was Errol Morris's "Tabloid"!!

Wooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Hurray!

Now I should really eat some dinner if I'm going to stick to my commitment to actually get some sleep tonight.

Here's hoping everyone has a better 2012 than 2011.

Thanks, as always, for reading

<3

* = It must be noted that I only actually saw half of "Melancholia" (2011) because the camerawork was so goddamn choppy and wobbly that neither me nor my brother thought we could make it through the entire film without barfing, so we left midway through (sound familiar?).  I'm really pissed about that, because it was otherwise really interesting.  If filmmakers everywhere could all get together on the belief that it's more important that their audience actually be able to watch a whole film without becoming physically ill and not that they of retain the use of really stupid filmmaking techniques, I would personally hug all of them.

** = The Swedish version, by which I mean THE ONLY VERSION WORTH WATCHING. 

Reason #8,346 to NEVER see the American version:
Lisbeth Salander does not fucking SLOUCH.

Reason #1: Noomi fucking Rapace. 
Seriously why are we even having this discussion.

You might surmise that I have some angst over this issue.  Yet another stored-in-brain post-in-progress is a massive rant about the brazen and obnoxious repurposing/theft of several awesome recent Swedish movies.  Maybe it's just my Swedish heritage talking, but this shit makes me insane.

Now seriously.  I should eat something.  TTFN!