Review Roundup 2011 – Pt 1
So 2011 is just about over and that means it’s time to slam out a ton of reviews really fast for movies that came out in 2011. Since I’m not done watching them, this is part one. After all of that there will probably be some sort of retrospective with a list or something, because that’s the tradition. So far it’s shaping up to be an average year in movies, like most years, so no complaints here.
- The Descendants – (2011)
Dir- Alexander Payne; Star- George Clooney
Inattentive father Clooney has to deal with his daughters when his wife gets in a boating accident that puts her in a terminal coma. He also has to deal with a large amount of land he’s inherited in pristine Hawaii, which his family wants him to sell for big money. A highly emotional movie that’s also surprisingly funny, which perfectly suits setting a tragedy on the island paradise of Hawaii, which is gorgeously shot here. It’s all very ironic, but the characters, who are all well cast, feel genuine and unabashedly human. It’s their relationships that bizarrely find a common bond for the first time through death that binds the film, which features powerful themes about obligations to the past, present, and future, for the individual and for the family. A unique movie that is powerfully emotional, but with a tropical pace, that is better because of it.
- My Week With Marilyn – (2011)
Dir- Simon Curtis; Star- Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Watson
True story of the making of The Prince and the Showgirl, where classical director Laurence Olivier’s vision clashes with the always tardy Monroe. His assistant (Redmayne) becomes her friend and quickly falls in love with her, seeing her for who she was rather than the image she created for herself, giving a peek into Marilyn the person rather than Marilyn the Most Famous Woman in the World. It’s a character portrait which would only work with the right leading lady, and Michelle Williams captures a fragile Marilyn perfectly, letting us see her for what she really was, a person who loved the spotlight but never really knew how to find her own happiness, as she was always putting on an image. Even so, there’s more to Williams’ portrayal than this, and despite the film’s simplistic nature, it was very entertaining getting this glimpse into an interesting character. I’ve always hated Eddie Redmayne for his frighteningly scary lips, but he’s perfectly cast here, where his naive enthusiasm is greatly important.
- Hugo – (2011)
Dir- Martin Scorsese; Star- Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen
A boy who tends to the clocks in the train station of 1920′s Paris gets entangled with a local mechanical toy shop owner while avoiding the grumpy station agent (played joyously by Baron Cohen). Mechanical toys form a major component to the story and also help to create the vibrant settings that make this vivid world come to life. Plotwise, the first hour or so is rather ordinary, but the screenplay takes an unexpectedly delightful turn towards the history of cinema when we realize who the toy shop owner really is. From then on out it’s simply disarming; Scorsese has created a truly heartwarming movie with topnotch staging and art direction that is beautiful in both form and function. A real triumph.
- Drive – (2011)
Dir- Nicholas Winding Refn; Star- Ryan Gosling, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks
Stunt driver / getaway driver Gosling decides to help out his neighbor who is in debt to the mob but gets in a little too deep. It’s slick and badass, sure, but it tries to be a character study and gives almost no insight into its main character; we don’t learn anything about him or why he does what he does. It tries to make everything seem significant and awe inspiring but it doesn’t have enough substance to earn it. Overly violent and pretentious, like it thinks it’s saying more than it is. Good soundtrack though. For a similar, but vastly superior movie, see 2010′s The American.
- Melancholia – (2011)
Dir- Lars Von Trier; Star- Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland
A big planet named Melancholia is going to collide with earth and kill everyone. Von Trier shows us how one bourgeois family may react to the news. It inspires many big questions and supports them with great dramatic gravity and tension; as the dreadful reality comes closer, should they even bother trying to be happy? A fascinating spin on the end-of-the-world genre, focusing on a family that is detached from the rest of the world yet wealthy enough to sit and watch. It’s a real downer, but it’s also quite interesting and makes you think twice about the character’s motives and decisions (which don’t always make sense) when it’s finished. Von Trier’s grandiosity thankfully doesn’t smother the film, although his love for high speed camera is becoming more and more apparent.
- Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 – (2011)
Dir- Bill Condon; Star- Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
The beginning of the end for the Twilight saga, this one details Bella Swan’s hygiene and poor bone structure, hinging on a key scene where Kristen Stewart brushes her teeth and then throws up in a toilet. There’s also something about vampires and werewolves, but that’s not the part I remember. Nevertheless, I was mildly entertained while watching this, and I’m looking forward to part 2, where Bella Swan gets a root canal and then gets scolded for not flossing.
- The Help – (2011)
Dir- Tate Taylor; Star- Emma Stone, Viola Davis
Independent white woman Stone decides to write a book chronicling the stories of the maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960′s who spent a lot of time raising white children instead of their own, while being discriminated against by their employers. A likable movie that focuses primarily on social issues, but suffers from over-length and a slick, overly commercial production that makes everything feel staged and artificial. I feel like this has been made before, and its issues feel exhausted and played out, resulting in a movie that is entirely watchable (especially if you’re looking for some easy to digest, served-on-a-platter emotional response), but not very compelling.
- Oranges and Sunshine – (2011)
Dir- Jim Loach; Star- Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving
A British social worker discovers a decades old plot by the government to ship orphans to Australia, where she finds many people who are willing to tell their stories. A remarkably boring film that feels in almost every way like a BBC made-for-TV movie.
- 50/50 – (2011)
Dir- Jonathon Levine; Star- Joseph Gordon Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick
Gordon Levitt has cancer and a 50/50 chance of beating it. His best friend Rogen helps him through it and his crappy ex girlfriend, and both learn a lot about living and friendship. While Judd Apatow’s Funny People was essentially the same movie, it never found the perfect balance between comedy and emotion that’s achieved here. Gordon Levitt channels screenwriter Will Reiser’s optimistic attitude very well, preventing it from ever becoming too somber or morose. Seth Rogen is refreshing in a supporting role for once, his annoying characteristics are much harder to notice when he’s on the sideline, which also makes him much funnier.
- The Inbetweeners Movie – (2011)
Dir- Ben Palmer; Star- British People
High-schoolish British response to Superbad has four geeky teens go on vacation in the Mediterranean where they try to pick up women but pretty much don’t. Light hearted and foul mouthed, but lamely crude (these lads are so horny they would hump Oprah Winfrey’s cankles and then high five each other) and not very funny.
- Super 8 – (2011)
Dir- JJ Abrams; Star- Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Elle Fanning
J.J. Abrams pays homage to pretty much every Steven Spielberg movie, borrowing mostly from ET, Close Encounters, and Jurassic Park to create this brightly constructed story of some kids shooting a movie who accidentally discover some government monster conspiracy. Abrams is as kinetic and light bloom-y as ever; its the surprisingly human story arc about one of the kids who lost his mother that makes this sci-fi adventure stand out.
- Limitless – (2011)
Dir- Neil Burger; Star-Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro
Failing writer Cooper takes miracle drug to make him much sharper, but soon finds himself using his new skills to outsmart the people who don’t want anyone to know about the drug. What could have been a lame B-movie is made fresh and exciting by director Burger, who makes all the right choices and executes them well, resulting in an exciting and intriguing thriller, marred only by an ending that doesn’t really cohere with the rest of the movie (although I hear there’s an alternate ending).
