Oscar Time!

Ok ok,I couldn't do a Top 10 movie list until I saw The Artist. Finally saw it today. Best silent movie of the year, bar none.Onward to MY Top 10 of 2011....

10) Hanna- from the pounding Chemical Bros soundtrack, to the sight of a 16 year old girl being a kick ass killer, this movie was really unlike anything I'd seen, It came out last March, so it was #1 on my list for a while. It hangs on for 10th.

9) Meeks Cutoff/My Week With Marilyn-- I know its two movies but it really is a Michelle Williams lovefest. She is phenomenal in both. The end of Meek's Cutoff is mesmerizing. And confusing if you want it to be. Hint-they went with the Indian.

8) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo--yeah I'm a snob so of course I liked the Swedish version better. I really wanted this to be better than it was. But David Fincher, who made Facebook interesting last year, scores again. This one is not for the squeamish, or Catholic.

7) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy---Gary Oldman should probably have about 6 Oscars by now, but this flick about British spies is very cerebral. Slow, methodical and yet fascinating. Kind of like real spies.

6)Midnight in Paris-- Woody Allen is back. This tale of 1920's Paris even survives Owen Wilson's Woody impersonation. Hey, it's original, funny and beautiful to watch.

5)The Tree of Life-- Terence Malik makes like a movie every 10 years. This one was worth the wait. The story of life in a small town in the 1960's it captured youth in the 60's unlike anything I've ever seen. I dont mean youth as in protesting Vietnam or smoking dope or hearing All Along The Watchtower for the umpteenth time in a 60's movie, but being a kid. Pretending to be a ball player, playing war, riding bikes and having a family that loves you in its own way. And it has Jessica Chastain, a real discovery and Brad Pitt, who can act, and I';ve been saying that for 20 years to ridicule.

4)War Horse-- I really wanted this one to kill my emotions. I wanted it to make me weep. It didn't. Though Stephen Spielberg can film scenes so spectacular they make you go WOW, and the scene of the War Horse running through No Mans Land is breathtaking, the movie itself, though very good, wasn;t as good as I wanted it to be.

3)The Descendants--Nobody and I mean nobody, captures real life like Alexander Payne. Nobody. This guy is the only director on earth who can film a story of a dying wife and a fucked up family in Hawaii , and ignore Hawaii. Brilliant.

2) The Artist-- yeah I loved it. I wanted to shrug and say ehhhh....But I loved it. Clever, original, and funny. I guarantee you'll like this one. Give it a chance like I did. Finally.

My favorite movie of 2011 was.......

1) Hugo-- the story of a kid in a Paris train station keeping a clock going, being chased by a Doberman and Sasha Baron Cohen, and helping an old movie director find his mojo again, hey, this sounds like the Artist. Yeah they are similar. But Martin Scorcese makes movies like nobody else. And the 3D actually enhances it for once. I'm handing the prize to Hugo.

Hey I also liked Moneyball, Harry Potter, Win Win, Bridesmaids, The Help, Super 8, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Debt, Contagion, Take Shelter, Ides of March, Terri, Source Code, Cedar Rapids and the Adjustment Bureau.

By the way, I absolutely hated two movies this year unlike any other year. Hangover 2 was the biggest piece of shite I've seen in years. Hey, next time at least come up with a new idea. This movie was a goddamned disgrace and we all fell for it.

And Drive. Drive is an overpraised waste of time. Featuring the deadpan performance of Ryan Gosling, which is what he does every time he's in a movie. I cant believe I actually thought this guy was a up and comer after Half Nelson. Oh, he is an up and comer despite my Bill Paxton like anger at him everytime I see his mug onscreen. At least he's not named "Ryan" in every movie he's in unlike Paxton, so inept he has to be called "Bill" in everything or he'd miss his mark.

Anyway, Go Hugo.