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Entries in The Future (2)

Sunday
Jan012012

Best of Year Pt 1: I Am Thirty-Two Flavors

I tossed. I turned. I Excel'ed. I Worded. I laughed at myself. I laughed at everyone else and their equally crazy assertions during top ten season. I worried what y'all might think. I worried about how I do think! And then I cast it all aside and just started typing and getting real with myself. You see, in earlier drafts of this Hugo and The Tree of Life, for example, were much higher but you know what? This is not consensus. This is me. Year End "Best" naming rituals are meant to be personal even though they're communal. Gather 'round my fire. There are plenty of places to keep warm, this being just one of them. (If you must skip ahead a few pages The Tree of Life dropped a few notches and Hugo no longer appears at all; I do not miss it all and, thus, made the right call.)

I kept trying to find a cutoff point for my year end "best" that I feel comfortable with and the magic finally happened at 32! The thirty-two highlighted films are my touchstones from this year at the multiplex. They're the only ones I just could not let go of when I tried to gather my memories and glue them awkwardly into this online scrapbook thingie known as The Film Experience. Two of the films even got glued together and I couldn't get them unstuck (Longtime readers will know I don't approve of ties but what the hell: new decade, more flexibility! If you're a purist shove everything else down one notch.)

squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
and I'm beyond your peripheral vision
so you might want to turn your head
cause someday you're going to get hungry
and eat most of the words you just said

The following thirty-two pictures were presented in vaguely ascending order but then the stairs were all rearranged to fit them into categories and for flow so don't read anything into the order...

Planet Ape
The year's cinema was overflowing with adorable dogs (too many to mention) and doomed cats (The Future, Dragon Tattoo) but the animal that seized the heart and truly shook us -- opposable thumbs are so handy! -- was the chimpanzee. The Oscar documentary finalist Project Nim charts the disastrous emotional fall out of a science experiment in the 1970s in which a chimp ("Nim") was raised by agonizingly fallible humans and taught sign language. Rise of the Planet of the Apes charts the disastrous sociological fall out of a science experiment in the right-now in which a chimp ("Cesar") is raised by a agonizingly naive human and granted super intelligence. Nim was a very real living thing and his heartbreaking story makes you want to scream "NOOOooooooo" as forcefully as the imaginary Cesar does at the climax of his own tale. That Cesar feels nearly as real as Nim is thanks to the Marlon Brando of mo-cap acting Andy Serkis, a brilliant visual effects team, and the superb action direction of Rupert Wyatt. (Wyatt's command is so impressive that the pictures fairly obvious flaws don't even register until well after the movie ends. If I were a Hollywood executive I'd be wining and dining him and offering him every franchise job on the calendar until he picked one.)

Favorite Unrewardables
The best thing I saw this year that's not eligible for my annual Film Bitch Awards is The Loneliest Planet (previously reviewed), about an engaged couple exploring a foreign land, which went unreleased. It had me from the stomping alien mundanity of its first image but in the end what really made it work for me was its sense of touch. That's rarer and rarer in our weightless CGI world but the images just felt so tangible: a lovers caress, cold water in your hair, rocky ground under foot; turns out when a movie is that good at touching, it's hard not to feel it. I could reward Clio Barnard's The Arbor, which did get a brief release, but I wouldn't know how. It's ostensibly a memoir doc about the short life of the troubled playwright Andrea Dunbar. But is it a documentary? Barnard's riveting experiment still uses traditional documentary tools like reenactments and talking head interviews but performs them instead, with actors lipsynching. There are so many layers it's suffocating; all the better to pull you under with these lives trapped in hand-me-down poverty and addiction. That probably doesn't sound like an endorsment but The Arbor sure is a fascinating novelty act.

Hip To Be Square
Who knew that we needed a 29th version of dusty Jane Eyre? Turns out we did! Okay okay okay... even if we didn't it was welcome since it was a beautifully rendered stride forward in four cinematic journeys we're on board with: Michael Fassbender seems to take another leap forward every three months, Mia Wasikowska is one of our most promising young actresses and this is her best film performance yet, director Cary Fukunaga and his cinematographer Adriano Goldman, who are two for two (see also Sin Nombre) are not just unusually capable but also unpredictable. We'll jump on their next vehicle whether that means more speeding trains or horse drawn carriages or something else entirely.

Two more unhip choices, abundant foreign pleasures and a few "only you could make this" treasures... After the jump.

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
Dec272011

Curio: 2011's Most Inspirational

Alexa here with a year in review request straight from Nathaniel. Certain types of films seem to inspire visual artists more than others.  And it isn't as simple as gorgeous cinematography or art direction; anything from a note of eccentricity, an atmospheric soundtrack, or a well-held cigarette can create an indie poster storm. (Or anything directed by Wes Anderson.) With that in mind, here are my picks for the five films of 2011 that are most likely to send future artists into fits of creation.  Or, at the very least, the films that I would love to see artists of all stripes take on, so I can continue to write about them next year.

5. The Future 

With a talking cat, time travel, and through-the-roof indie cred, Miranda July's second film is rife with elements that make you want to see the world through a new lens. As always, she comes close to being too cute, but the film's understanding of our collective urge to disconnect from the world, and even stop time, is enough to leave it in our minds for some time.

4. Hugo

With his glorious 3D version of Paris in the '30s, filled with enough gears, springs and levers to fill a steampunk festival, Scorsese manages to celebrate the early days of film without eulogizing. He made a Melies for the 21st Century.

3. The Artist

Similar to Hugo in successfully making something new from a foundation of nostalgia. Its black and white photography, 1.33 aspect ratio and glowing performances take the 20s and make them sharp, clear and fresh.  And hopefully it will get more art students to watch the likes of Man with a Movie CameraThe Passion of Joan of Arc and Sherlock Jr.

2. The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick's films have always been the stuff of still photographer's wet dreams, and this one is no less, with images of the sun, trees, and cosmos that make you want to point your camera to the heavens. And float like Jessica Chastain.

1. Drive

The most singularly cool movie of the year, with style in spades, 80s-infused titles and a soundtrack to drive to.  The eruptions of violence beneath its smooth candy surface made for one terrific ride. And I live in hope that it will make scorpions eclipse owls and birds as a craft favorite.

Honorable Mention: The Muppets

Here's hoping that the return of Kermit, Gonzo and Animal inspire more felting and designing to come. But please, next time, more Miss Piggy.

If you were to pick up a paintbrush or craft box which 2011 films would most inspire you?